Chapter 267 : Chapter 267
Chapter 267: Butterfly (1)
"I need land."
Grand Duke Aratus murmured.
It might have been a growl.
"Yes."
Harad nodded.
The Village of Embers was being drawn in his mind.
Fire would be born.
Jacks, Metel, Seran were only the start. He had to prepare for the fires yet to come. If he had no intention of leaving Serzila, without fail.
He needed land where magic going off on its own would not be strange. Land where mages like Jacks and Metel's baby would not matter. Land, moreover, that would not catch the eye of the Church and Empire.
Anton was a splendid Manager.
He would be so on new land as well. His ears overheard much. Information was guaranteed.
Safety, likewise.
Eiga alone was a 5th Rank mage who could hold his own against a hundred.
If Eiga was not trustworthy enough, the Fireball could reside there.
That faithful Divine Beast would stand guard over Harad's land.
Of course, not trusting Eiga was itself laughable. It was Eiga who had found Seran. Having come this far, trust was owed. At least regarding this matter.
"To a Hostage."
"I'm a ward, if I may."
"......"
Grand Duke Aratus could not rebut.
Not because Harad's point had struck home, but because Ellen was glaring.
"He's not a Hostage."
Ellen disliked the word "Hostage."
The Elaine of the past life had teased him with it to no end.
"Denied."
"Big uncle."
Ellen wheedled.
The Grand Duke wore a stung expression, yet shook her head firmly. She truly could not permit it.
"This is the North."
This harsh land belonged to Serzila alone.
Not even a scrap of it had ever passed to an outsider.
"Is it because of the fire that was born?"
"You knew."
Beneath the Sun, fire is born.
Grand Duke Aratus appeared to have known that fact. Come to think of it, the Grand Duke had been the one to send Eiga to the Jacks-Metel household.
"In that case."
"You should have told me."
"And what would change?"
"I could have formed a plan."
More thinking time.
And more time meant more alternatives.
"Who would."
The Grand Duke's residence shook then.
The Grand Duke's Aura lashed out wildly.
Even Ellen's eyes flaring wide did not deter the Grand Duke.
"Serzila's land. Not yours."
This is the North.
Serzila's alone.
Thinking and forming plans was Serzila's business. The Grand Duke was warning Harad that he was overstepping.
"I'm probably smarter."
Given enough time, Harad had confidence he would arrive at a better alternative.
"Serzila's matter."
But the Grand Duke crushed it with the name.
Serzila and Grand Duke Aratus held a position that permitted that.
"Codger."
Ellen muttered loudly and pointedly enough to be heard. Harad nodded along. The Grand Duke flinched, yet did not reverse the decision.
"Earn your merits. Bring the Moon down. That is the sum of your task."
Two, no, three.
The Grand Duke was taking in both Ellen and Harad at a glance. Earn merits, bring the Moon down, and associate with Ellen.
The rest, Serzila would handle.
Seran too, and the fire-mages yet to be born.
In other words, Serzila would bear the responsibility.
'A proper codger, then.'
Harad was freshly impressed by the Grand Duke before him. The looks only seemed that way; she was a lawful ruler of the North.
Inside the Grand Duke's head was the North.
It was just that the Moon's weight overshadowed it.
'The original tyrant.'
Grand Heir Elaine was called the next tyrant.
Because Grand Duke Aratus was known as the greater one.
A tyrant is called a tyrant because she monopolizes everything.
Merit, blame, and responsibility.
"What agreeable eyes."
"This time I'm genuinely impressed."
"This time?"
"Ah."
Harad clamped his mouth shut.
No shock came. Ellen was right beside him. She whispered.
"Is this a good thing?"
"Certainly. She isn't the Grand Duke for nothing. She must have had it all thought through."
Harad answered loudly.
Transparent flattery, yet the Grand Duke did not seem to mind. No father disliked being praised before a daughter.
"The Grand Duke has probably considered Laash as well."
"Laash? The Tower of Earthquakes's?"
"Exactly. If it can be seized, no place is safer. A street that only mages can enter."
Mathematicians inserted unknowns into equations for easier explanation. Laash. The vast tree sheltering that street was a magic that gave substance to the unknown called the 6th Rank.
An unknown so far beyond even the reverted Harad's comprehension. The Tower Master of Earthquakes was dead, but the magic he had given substance to remained intact. As though it were a part of the world.
"Too valuable to leave untouched."
"Won't the Otherworld think the same?"
"Indeed. A race against time. The Grand Duke is probably already deploying the Intelligence Bureau. Toward Laash."
At the Boundary was the Village of Embers.
On the continent, there was Laash.
That was the alternative Harad had arrived at after thinking all the way to the Inner Fortress.
The great tree was a virtual space.
Presently situated in Akuldag, but there would surely be a way to relocate it to Serzila's inner side.
If not, it hardly mattered.
A space that could not be entered without magic, with limited entrances. Just station proper gatekeepers.
"Laash will become the land of the North's mages. The Grand Duke will use me to make it so."
Not the North, not the Boundary.
Much less connected to the Moon.
Grand Duke Aratus would have had no reason to take interest in Laash.
"......"
But now that could no longer be said.
"Is that true, big uncle?"
Ellen's eyes were gleaming.
"...... It is."
And so the Grand Duke had no choice but to answer thus.
"Then I'll be off to earn my merits."
Business was done.
Harad fled the residence for now.
"Is it really all right to do this?"
Ellen spoke once they were out past the Inner Fortress.
"It's a matter involving a child. The Grand Duke will let it slide as charm."
There was no way to receive land.
The reverted Harad knew that well. The North belonged to Serzila.
Then he had to aim for different land.
If it could be seized, Laash was more attractive than anywhere.
"Your charm?"
"Should I have used yours?"
"No. I like your charm. Want to try it?"
"...... I'll pass."
***
How could Laash be seized?
Harad offloaded that problem to the Intelligence Bureau.
'Intelligence Bureau Director Benus will be thrilled.'
It was not urgent, so it could be delegated.
Seran, the baby, was the first case. More would follow, but there was time enough.
"Kyah!"
Thanks to the necklace the baby wore.
A thin necklace adorned with a black pebble smaller than a baby's fingernail. Grand Duke Aratus had chipped a piece from the Deep Sea's Magical Item.
If one compared the Deep Sea's Magical Item to a ball of cotton, a very small tuft had been plucked from the large one.
Large or small, cotton is cotton.
That tiny fragment still devoured fire.
The problem of future fires was solved.
Each time a fire was born, Grand Duke Aratus would chip off a fragment from the Deep Sea's Magical Item.
Those fragments would devour the born mages' fire.
The Grand Duke's brutish yet simple idea had bought time.
Until Laash could be seized.
'An idea only someone with power can have.'
Impossible for anyone short of the Grand Duke.
The Deep Sea's Magical Item was a 6th Rank artifact.
'And she plucked from it as lightly as pulling cotton.'
Meaning Grand Duke Aratus was herself plainly in the 6th Rank class. No wonder the Moon was wary. As with the Moon, the Grand Duke too was a monster.
The Deep Sea's Magical Item was something Eiga had stolen, but only Grand Duke Aratus possessed the strength to chip off fragments.
'Serzila bears the responsibility.'
The Grand Duke had kept that promise.
So Harad must keep his in turn.
'Earn your merits. Bring the Moon down. Associate with Ellen.'
What the Grand Duke wanted.
Harad thought about it as he left Jacks and Metel's house. Everything but the second was going well. Better than expected......
Whump!
His vision spun without warning. He had been facing forward; now he was facing backward. Now the sky...... no, he had just crumpled to the ground.
Not his vision. His body was the problem.
'Sleepy.'
And indeed, what was crashing over him was a wave of drowsiness.
Not a natural phenomenon.
Not Seran either. The age for sudden napping had passed long ago. For drowsiness this overwhelming, there should have been warning signs.
Thud! His body struck the ground.
That phenomenon, Harad understood and did not understand.
'...... Dream.'
Ellen had fallen asleep from time to time.
'Why me.'
The Stone of Regression had acted.
On Harad.
***
Peneon.
Had succeeded in his infiltration.
He had safely crossed Paradise's Boundary and the first wall to enter Serzila's Boundary.
One wall remained.
The second wall. From Serzila's perspective the first wall; cross that, and it was Serzila.
It meant entering the continent.
Normally he would have stopped here, but today was different. The Tower of Storms had issued new orders.
Peneon was to infiltrate Serzila.
Not as Peneon of the Tower of Storms, 4th Rank, but as Peneon the wandering mercenary.
'The wall is suspicious.'
The grounds for the new orders.
Peneon thought them pointless.
Suspicious or not, to wind the wall was no more than something that could be crossed at will.
Wind was free by nature. Boundary or continent, there was no place the wind could not go.
The point was the sky.
Lines fine as rain-streaks were strung across the world. That itself was a vast wind. Peneon's body shot skyward.
The view widened by the moment. Peneon looked down upon the ground. Serzila's knights were moving like insects.
Their movements, their paths, were obvious.
Hidebound creatures that trod only set paths. Those things, less than ants, walked only the roads they had always walked.
Always the same view.
They could not imagine beyond it. They had neither the idea nor the leisure to look up at the sky.
"Ignorant bastards."
Peneon cackled from the sky.
The wind blocked his laughter from falling to the ground. And it blew toward the wall. Peneon's body was carried toward the wall too.
It was then that the insects on the ground halted.
The wind carried a voice from the surface up to the sky.
"The wind reversed direction, didn't it?"
One of the insects, a knight, said.
"It does that often here."
"I was told this area is unrelated to wind."
Impressively sharp intuition for an insect.
This area is unrelated to wind.
The reason the wind had often changed direction was because Peneon had been active here that often.
"Who said?"
"Harad did."
"Then it has changed."
The halted knights stripped off their gauntlets and sucked their fingers.
Raised the wet fingers and felt the wind.
"I can't tell."
"It's blowing diagonally. From below to above. Toward the wall. Artificial."
"Is it?"
"Doesn't it look like magic?"
"How so?"
"That's what I was taught. By Harad."
Who is Harad.
Peneon thought. The knight who had put Harad's name in his mouth suddenly flung his gauntlet.
The gauntlet flew upward at a diagonal, toward the wall, then suddenly dropped. It had exited the range of the magic Peneon had realized.
"Two winds in the same area. Meaning one is magic."
"Gullen! True to the 1st Knights' top magic scorer."
Gullen.
The knight so called suddenly whipped his head up.
...... Their eyes met.
He had been caught.
Not once, ever, had he been caught.
"Tower of Storms!"
The insect shouted.
Peneon sensed it then.
The balance had broken.
The insects had gotten smarter.
Because of someone called Harad.
'What does that one even do.'
Peneon could not think further.
Fwrrrr!
Some axe was ripping through the air toward him.