Chapter 254 : Chapter 254
Chapter 254 - Sapling (3)
Ellen would not have endured it.
Harein's intent aside, this was not something she could bear.
The Norbu man endured.
His word that he would accommodate Harein as much as possible had been no empty promise.
Though born a ruler, Parus had ceded the initiative to Harein. Because Harein knew the Otherworld better.
The right person for the situation.
Parus was a flexible ruler. He understood well that position shifted according to circumstance.
"Is there, by chance, an Origin related to water? I'm thirsty."
Still, the secretary weighed on him.
It wasn't an unaskable question.
It was why she had built up Parus's standing earlier through one of the Earthquake mages.
"There is."
Galuer Berrick answered without looking back.
Parus's fist twitched. Not because water hadn't been offered.
'Water.'
That would be the secretary's Origin.
Harein thought no further. Shura came first. The secretary was Parus's share. The standing for him had already been built.
If Harein gave the word, Parus could move freely. Galuer Berrick was watching Harein's cues.
But Parus didn't look as if he meant to.
He walked alongside Harein, clenching and unclenching his fist.
'Not the moment to be rough, then.'
Trust in the secretary would be the ground.
Fights rather well. Parus had said so of his secretary. Meanwhile Shura was a girl just shy of twelve.
The Wise Norbu had perhaps decided to trust the secretary and prioritize Shura.
'Capable.'
Knows how to compromise.
But doesn't compromise on everything. The decision held a lion's spirit. A Norbu of deep loyalty.
If Bahav Enverque had been a little less mad, would he be like this?
Harein sensed Usefulness in that Norbu man. The desert. She'd never factored it in, but he would be of help. Anything was better than nothing.
Galuer Berrick's gait was unwavering. He might slow, but he never stopped. The Sapling. He was no different from the king of this research facility. Nowhere here was out of his reach.
'The one in charge.'
Dihake had said Galuer Berrick was the one in charge.
So—one man.
The only high-Rank mage residing in the Sapling was Galuer Berrick. One 5th Rank.
'Am I the one? Cassion would be the proper match.'
Manifestation had to be answered with Manifestation.
Harein was more than confident, yet simultaneously lacking.
The Sun was an Origin that couldn't distinguish friend from foe.
It had been so in her past life, and with Embers consumed, even more so now.
There was too much here that must not be burned.
"Ngghhh."
Groans came.
As Galuer Berrick had described it, they were now on the 3rd floor.
Where test subjects ate and slept, where handlers saw to their accommodation, where research was conducted.
The research took place inside the rooms where the test subjects lived.
Rooms in name only—in truth, prisons. Stoutly grown trees served as iron bars.
"Guk!"
The groans flowed from beyond those bars.
Not one, but many. Rooms lined both sides of the corridor in dense rows, each holding two or three. One handler to a room.
It seemed true that test subjects were precious.
The test subjects clothed in white, mages who had been captured, were scattered thinly through the rooms.
But the claim of seeing to their accommodation was a lie.
The test subjects appeared to be granted only minimal survival. From the Sapling's perspective, that was accommodation.
"We soften the exterior and stimulate the Origin. The more it's handled, the easier it becomes to turn skin and innards inside out."
The handler's magic was flogging the mage.
Another branch had burrowed into the chest, stimulating the heart from within.
Groans and screams resounded without pause.
And with each, sparks crackled.
"Master, may I hold your hand?"
"Madman."
She barely held it in.
Thanks to Parus.
That Wise man was quick on the uptake as well.
"Stop."
"Pardon?"
"Halt the research for a moment. My ears ache."
Galuer Berrick turned around.
"I can bear it no longer."
Harein knit her brow.
"So halt it."
Overreach, if one called it so.
Because the Sapling was an order issued by the Tower Master of Earthquakes.
"Before I turn everything to ash."
But Harein didn't care.
Ostentation and excess were essential virtues of the Red Tower.
***
That the flogging stopped didn't mean the wounds already made would heal.
The screams ceased, but the groans remained.
"Silence!"
Galuer Berrick bellowed in the middle of the corridor.
The groans jutted up sharply, then subsided.
"You're the loudest one."
Harein narrowed her eyes and fiddled with her earhole.
"My apologies."
Galuer Berrick bowed his head sheepishly.
"How many floors are there?"
"Up to the 5th."
Currently they were on the 3rd.
"Let us go down."
"Pardon? But there's still......"
"Did you not say you would show me the eyes? They don't appear to be here."
The corridor hadn't yet ended, but Harein shook her head. No shadow was to be seen.
Jis was a Star.
If he had reached the same floor, he would have reacted, no matter what form Harad took.
"Ah! My apologies. The Sun was most anticipating to observe the research. And I, unaware, had meant to show it last of all!"
The policy of saving the best for last.
Galuer Berrick said something repulsive and laughed.
"The fire and the eyes are on the 5th floor. The same room, in fact. They came in together, would you believe."
"Met at the Market, then."
"Pardon? No. Apparently they were captured together from the start. They entered the Market holding hands tightly. Said to be father and daughter."
Kubel was in Akuldag with Ellen, though.
'Someone's playing father? A fire, at that?'
This too was unexpected.
"What sort of fire was he?"
"That...... I do not know in detail, either."
Galuer Berrick scratched at the branches on his scalp.
'So he purchased him because he was fire, then.'
Fire was precious.
They couldn't resist researching it.
"We haven't laid a hand on him. Because he is fire."
Galuer Berrick spoke while reading her expression.
As he said, the mage playing father was a fire. And Harein was the Sun.
Having tried to research fire before the King of Fire—that was something difficult to put into words.
"We had no intention of laying a hand, either. When the selected mages are shipped to the Otherworld, we meant to send him along. Truly."
Galuer Berrick chose giving up over speaking the unspeakable.
To Harein, it was all one; still, she nodded along as though pleased. The Sun was supposed to like fire.
"Where did you catch the fire and the eyes?"
"Our Tower of Earthquakes mages caught them in Serzila."
"How cold. Handing them over to the Market instead of to the Sapling, even when they're of the same Tower."
"Ha. A common enough affair. Those unrelated to the Sapling often come through that way. Pocket money, you might say."
Galuer Berrick spoke as though addressing children.
Because his Origin-warped appearance was so striking, it masked that Galuer Berrick was closer to elderly.
"They had gone to investigate a tunnel newly opened in Serzila, when some child apparently spotted them as mages. The child's Origin was eyes."
"How fortunate."
"Correct! Unfortunate as well, of course. Three went; two died. The child must have been precious—an escort accompanied her."
Three?
Harein's eyes twitched.
Duke had said there were four kidnappers.
'Of whom, he killed two.'
Two ought to have remained.
Yet only one remained.
And Shura, and a mage whose Origin was fire.
Suddenly the corridor tilted.
The same method by which they had been descending all along.
Though they walked the same corridor, when Galuer Berrick declared they were going down, the corridor tilted toward the underground.
Harein recalled the Key's passage.
The method of descending underground was akin to a lesser version of that passage. Lacking the ability to create a virtual space, real space was warped instead.
The incline was steeper than any before.
It meant they were going from the 3rd floor straight to the 5th.
"The 5th floor is where we store the most valuable test subjects."
The Sapling went up to the 5th floor.
Origins more valuable than that were sent to the Otherworld.
That was why Galuer Berrick's face had flushed.
To him, the 5th floor's subjects were the finest of raw materials.
"Regrettably, at the moment there are only three. Ah—come to think of it, the Origin related to water is also on the 5th floor. A coincidence."
Galuer Berrick spoke, sparing a glance at Parus.
Shura and fire. And the secretary were on the 5th floor.
"My slave's luck is good."
"Pardon? Yes, it is. Because he said he was thirsty. The Sun seems to cherish that slave."
The corridor leveled out.
Harein sensed at once that they'd arrived on the 5th floor.
There were four wooden prisons. Of those, two were visible from where they stood. In the left one, a woman with a knit brow was caged.
'Her eyes are poor.'
As she'd heard, a striking beauty with red hair.
Parus's secretary, without question.
"Is that the water?"
"Correct."
At Harein's gesture, Galuer Berrick nodded. The secretary gripped the wooden bars and glared at them. Harein tipped her chin.
"Parus, go drink."
"My thanks, master."
Parus strode forward.
"Hand it over. Water."
The acting was excellent.
On Parus's part, and the secretary's.
"Hand it over, or die."
Parus looked down and extended his hand; the secretary glared back as if to kill him, then realized water. Parus caught the water falling into his palm and drank.
That was all.
Parus returned to Harein's side.
"Drank it all, master. Now I'll follow you diligently."
It appeared he still had no intention of turning rough.
Confirming the secretary's survival was enough, apparently.
Parus was placing Shura first.
Whether from knowing gratitude, or from wanting to make a good impression on the woman called Harein, didn't matter.
"The fire and the eyes are this way."
Shura was there.
Even without Galuer Berrick's words, Harein was already certain.
She could sense Jis.
A shadow clung flat to a branch, pretending to be bark. And so it was meeting Harein's eye. Here, it said.
As expected.
A Star. Jis sensed the Sun, not the outward form. He had already realized Harein was Harad.
And Jis wasn't the only one who saw the inside.
Harein took a step. To the left. Beyond the wooden bars, brown hair came into view.
What had been lush every day was now dry. How long since she'd been kidnapped? To Shura, it would have felt endless. Her green eyes had no vitality.
Their eyes met.
In Shura's eyes, Harein was visible.
And Harad was visible too.
Harad, nodding at the question Shura threw out in her heart.
"...... I'm sorry."
Vitality returned to Shura's eyes.
Before long, they grew damp.
"It's all right."
Harein smiled gently.
Galuer Berrick tilted his head.
Parus stared at Harein blankly.
"But......"
"Truly. Kubel feels the same way."
"Really?"
"Yes. You didn't do something bad; something bad happened."
Harein's hand grasped the wooden bars.
Fwoom! Flames that began at her hand reduced the bars to ash. Shura threw herself into her arms.
"Is this happening because of me?"
Shura asked, choking up.
She seemed to be pointing at Harein.
"...... Let's talk about that when we're back."
Harein didn't want to talk about it.
"A-are you, acquainted......?"
Galuer Berrick asked, trembling.
His face had gone pale.
A face that had also settled on something.
Harein recalled Dihake. Her death had been glorious. Because she was another.
And now, Galuer Berrick stood in Dihake's position.
His gaze moved between Harein and Shura.
His hesitation was short. A bastard obsessed with research. Dead, there could be no research. The branches on his scalp swelled in size. The white fruits set in his eyes burst outward and grew.
'Manifestation.'
That, Harein watched quietly.
Because the Sun couldn't distinguish friend from foe. Shura was in her arms.
And also...... because it was permitted.
Harein lifted the Shura she held once and set her on her forearm.
That was the signal.
"Shura."
Someone called out.
Abruptly the world blinked black for an instant. Light had been erased. A mere moment—but to a very small Point, more than enough time.
"Gkhhh......"
A sword thrust out through Galuer Berrick's neck.
Beyond it, Cassion wore a strange expression.
Because his gaze had met Harein's.
"No way."
"......"
"No way, is it you?"
Shura clung, weeping.
Jis, who should have been nearby, watched on.
It seemed Cassion had caught on.
'Clever at the worst times, bastard.'
The Cassion before her was apparently in mage mode.
"No way, really, really—is this your taste? You had such a filthy taste?"
"......"
Harein wanted Ellen to hear those words.
And wanted to get out of this spot.
"How on earth did you do it?"
Speak, or hide.
Speaking was fine; hiding was fine. Harein was in such a moment.
Because the one holding the sword, the one who had pierced Galuer Berrick's neck, was Cassion.
...... Meaning Cassion must not be.
The bastard should have severed the neck.
Not pierced and stood there blank.
"H-how dare!"
Galuer Berrick forced a sound out through the throat pierced and tangled with sword. Harein's pupils dyed pitch-black.
Simple Projection. The swiftest and strongest, the best magic available in her current state. Fire generated in midair swallowed Galuer Berrick's face.
Another flame flashed beside her.
Parus's hand, imbued with Aura, seized Galuer Berrick's neck.
Though the hand was large, Galuer Berrick's neck would not fit in a single palm. Because it had already swollen.
Harein's fire was consumed, but to no effect.
Because Galuer Berrick had grown vast. The head was burned, but it became a mere scratch.
The Upside-down Tree.
An enormous baobab tree Manifested into reality.
"Ah."
Only then did Cassion grasp his blunder.
"...... Dumb bastard."
Harein covered Shura's ears and clicked her tongue.