Chapter 258 : Chapter 258
Chapter 258: Oddball
A stroll, quite literally.
Apart from walking, there was nothing in particular to do.
Even when she felt a furtive gaze upon her, even when someone who met her eye looked away, even when she spotted someone who was plainly a Laash survivor—no difference.
Harein kept up the pretense of not noticing and walked about.
There was no particular need to flaunt. Her existence itself was flaunting—this, Harein already knew well. Because she had been through too much.
'Chilling.'
What was frightening was that not even a shred of dissonance rose in her. I am a woman. Ellen's necklace seemed to lay that very suggestion upon her.
For Ellen, it would be the reverse.
That must be why Elaine had been so unshakably bold.
Any fool wearing this necklace became a genius performer.
Abruptly, a woman who had met her eye shuddered all over. Plainly a Laash survivor. Harein smiled brightly at her.
That woman would now convey Harein's existence to some place or person related to the Otherworld, other than Laash. That the King of Prophecy had appeared.
Or she might return to the Otherworld herself and deliver it to the Tower directly. Not only that woman—every mage who had survived Laash would do the same.
There would be more survivors than expected.
Galuer Berrick. Because the bastard's baobab had tried to shield Laash. A splendid mage and a splendid Origin.
Why had he tried to shield rather than attack?
Because a screw or two were loose in his head, surely. Because he was of the Otherworld.
A meaningless question. What mattered was that there would be more survivors than expected.
Harein hoped the survivors had lived, and that they had safely conveyed the news to their respective Towers.
Namely, that the Moon would fail.
'The Moon will try to block it.'
The Moon would try to dispose of the survivors.
To conceal the Sun's existence.
If the Sun were known to the Otherworld.
Harein wanted to see that reaction. The more confused the Otherworld, the more her side stood to gain.
'A 6th Rank dead.'
The Tower Master of Earthquakes.
A 6th Rank she had not seen in her past life. She didn't know the reason, but he had likely died.
This life, Harein had intervened and he had died.
The timing would be earlier than the past life. A reward of regression, if one could call it that. She had added a variable. The variable: the Otherworld's confusion.
'If Harein is known, the Moon will be in a bind.'
The Moon would add to the confusion.
As with the killing of the Tower Master of Earthquakes just now.
'The more I run wild, the more trouble for the Moon.'
Of course she had to bear the danger as its cost, but still. So long as the Moon was hiding Harad, Harad held the key.
The Moon was a variable the Harad of now could not yet gauge. So while she could screw the Moon over, she had to screw her over as much as possible.
Cracks are made only by shaking.
Someday, Grand Duke Aratus would need a crack to wedge into. Give the Grand Duke a crack, and he would love her to death.
Before she realized it, the sun had set.
A chill descended. A terrible diurnal swing, yet a welcome hour for Harein. Still hotter than a Northern high noon, of course.
There were more Laash survivors than expected.
It was information Harein had gathered after circling Akuldag's streets three times—enduring every foul gaze and proposition.
An expected yield, yet lacking if lacking.
'A fire that fled.'
That fire-mage had been with Shura.
All the way from Serzila, even.
The bastard had been captured together with Shura, held her hand tightly, and played the father. Caged in the same cell at the Sapling.
Meaning he had deliberately approached Shura.
'Yet he fled. When I came.'
Jis had said so.
The moment Harein reached the same floor, the fire fled. That, Harein could not understand.
'Fled because he sensed the Sun. Why?'
Should not happen.
If fire was truly his Origin, instead of fleeing he should have knelt and wept. Because the one at that place was Harein, not Harad.
'Not me. He fled from the King of Prophecy.'
So Harein had guessed the reason lay in the place and the people.
Aten, the Extinguished Torch, had been a cautious bastard.
He valued Harad's safety. That was why he'd chosen the Sanctuary of Fire as the meeting place.
The Sapling had many people, and the place was crude.
So he had fled, she had supposed. Every fire was a peculiar breed, after all.
'He's not coming out.'
She'd thought he might emerge if she was alone.
Her guess was wrong. The bastard had no intention of coming. Harein let out a small laugh and turned back to the inn.
Even before opening the door, what she heard was the sound of stifled weeping.
One was as booming as from a cave; the other was soft and steady. The difference between Kubel's and Shura's nostrils.
"...... What on earth have you been doing out there?"
When she opened the door and went in, Ellen threw a strange question.
Harein glared at Cassion.
"I only told her what I saw and heard."
Cassion was unrepentant.
"Why a male slave......"
Ellen wore the face of one who could scarcely believe it.
Harein had a headache.
***
Invitations came in grades.
There were those that could open doors anywhere, and those that could only open specific doors.
The latter's doors had served as both Laash's entrance and exit.
Harein and Cassion had not known this.
Ellen and Kubel had somehow figured it out.
Not only that—Ellen had even found one.
Obtained an invitation, and even located the door.
"I was about to go in."
Meaning: had the time been a little later, Ellen would gladly have become Cassion.
"Alone. In case we missed each other in transit."
Harein or Cassion might return with Shura. For that case, she had meant to have Kubel on standby at the inn.
Sorry to Kubel, but a fine call.
"More to the point...... it really isn't, is it?"
Suddenly Ellen's eyes narrowed.
"It isn't."
Harein spoke comfortably.
No more need to mimic Grand Duke Elaine.
"Really?"
"It isn't, I said."
As Ellen had recounted her time, Harein had finished recounting everything too. The male slave Parus had been an ally in the same straits.
"Would you have thrown him away?"
"I'd have done as you did. But I'm a woman."
"I was a woman too."
Harein gestured at her body with both hands.
She was a woman now, as well. At that, Ellen's eyes narrowed further. That wasn't what she meant.
"I mean, at the time making him a slave was the most natural course. I like women."
"You're sure?"
"Isn't it already sure?"
Harein pointed at Ellen's face.
Her lips, precisely. Ellen's face reddened.
"I'll believe you."
"You should."
"But it feels strange hearing it in that form."
"......"
The reaction was becoming wearisome.
"Novel, though. I think it'd be fine with me."
What wore on her more was not feeling any dissonance hearing such things. The necklace was a horrid Magical Item.
"Not fine with me."
"You can't take it off now."
Ellen stopped Harein, who was about to remove the necklace.
"You said you had to go out in that form."
Unfortunately, a fair point.
To take it off, at the very least she had to leave Akuldag.
Because it was in Akuldag that Harein had appeared.
The less connection Harad had to Harein, the better.
"Gulp."
A strange sound.
She looked to the side: Kubel, with a strange face, was holding back renewed tears.
"...... Thank you."
"We're not the kind to be that sort of we."
Harein said, smiling.
Ellen and Cassion joined in.
"That's right."
"Lift your head, Kubel. Only natural."
Shura was a child.
Even if she weren't, Ellen and Cassion would have answered the same. Kubel and Shura were of Serzila.
"I will surely repay this."
Kubel said, wiping tears.
He didn't say "I did nothing" or "I have no face." Kubel wagered the future. Not something one would have seen in the Kubel of old.
"You're splendid already. But you're bound to become still more splendid. At least 5th Rank."
Harein smiled brightly.
The past life's Kubel—that 5th Rank Crocodile—would return someday. As a Crocodile for Serzila.
"I'll meet that mark as soon as I can."
Once, Kubel had answered that he would surely meet it someday.
"Surely" had become "as soon as I can."
This affair had added urgency to Kubel.
"Gulp."
The strange sound came again.
This time it was Shura.
Shura was clamping both hands over her mouth.
Not the posture of holding back tears. The opposite. Shura was holding in her laughter at Harein.
"If you want to laugh, it's all right to laugh."
The tension had finally broken for her.
Harein smiled wryly as she spoke. Shura nestled into Harein's arms.
"Oppa is softer."
Shura compared.
The object of comparison was plainly Ellen. Ellen's brow twitched.
"Because I'm not a knight."
Her Tempered body was special, but Harein didn't show it on the surface.
The necklace's doing, no doubt.
"But I like oppa better. With unni."
"So do I."
Harein had wanted to hear those words.
Shura was the only one who had found Harad inside Harein.
"I'm done laughing."
Shura slipped out of Harein's embrace.
One might have thought she'd go hug Cassion or Ellen next—but no. Shura stood alone in the middle of the room and gripped her trousers tight with both hands.
"Now I'll be scolded."
It seemed Shura felt a heavy responsibility for this whole affair.
"Shura."
Ellen held her from behind.
"Why would you be scolded."
"But......"
"You didn't do anything bad. Something bad happened."
Shura's eyes went round.
"Did you rehearse with oppa?"
"Hm?"
"Harad-oppa said the same thing."
Shura tipped her head up and met Ellen's eyes.
"Papa and Mama looked alike, too. Married people come to look alike, I heard."
"......"
A child's blunt expression dismantled one's Innate Strength. Shura slipped out of Ellen's weakened grip.
"I'll repay it too. With Papa."
"......"
Shura was a mature child.
But not so strong a child as that.
Looking back, when she was first found at the Sapling, the first word Shura had spoken was "I'm sorry."
Not "I was scared."
"Someone put you at ease, then."
Harein's eyes lit up.
"Yes! The doctor mister!"
"Doctor?"
The one who had been with Shura was a fire-mage.
Shura called that mage "doctor."
"Yes. He was a mage who had been caught before me."
The kidnappers had been three.
Duke had said four. Meaning: the doctor had been mistaken for a kidnapper too.
'So on the continent, he passed himself off as a doctor.'
"Doctor" seemed to be the fire-mage's cover identity.
"But he said he wasn't actually caught."
"Then?"
"He said he pretended to be caught. Said there was something he had to check on."
Harein furrowed her brow.
"He said he got caught along with me because I'd been caught."
Her eyes narrowed further.
Pretending to be caught, and when Shura got caught, shifted to being actually caught. Even played her father.
He had openly treated Shura specially.
Suspiciously so.
"Was he an enemy?"
Of Serzila.
Shura was now capable of such a question.
"...... Yes."
Shura answered after gauging the mood.
The fire-mage was Serzila's enemy.
Yet he had helped Shura.
"But he helped you, Shura."
"He said he helps me because I'm a child."
Because she's a child.
A Northern creed.
Taking it at face value would be laughable.
A suspicious scent came off the bastard.
"I am curious, though."
"Yes."
Ellen nodded.
So did Cassion.
"Good thing we didn't kill him. Just in case."
Ellen struck the right-hand wall with her fist.
The wall collapsed in an instant. Amid the falling fragments and dust, a human figure was revealed.
His presence was faint yet intense.
The fire-mage who had fled the Sapling, without doubt.
"Hk!"
The fire-mage sucked in his breath.
A comical gasp.
"Flee, and you die."
Cassion said.
"Two 5th Ranks. One evolved insect...... One Aura."
The fire-mage muttered, then cried.
"Then I'd better not flee!"
A Dreamer.
Harein caught the scent of a peculiar breed.