Chapter 270 : Chapter 270
Chapter 270: Countryman (2)
"Barious of the Gentle Breeze, you said."
"Pardon? Who did?"
"Peneon of the Tower of Storms, 4th Rank, Northeaster."
Harad pointed at the chained Peneon.
"Gentle Breeze...... ah, that one's probably on the continent somewhere. Not someone worth Lord Harad's memorizing."
Not a name made up on the spot, but a different mage sold out.
"I didn't know he'd fake his Rank and Origin too. I thought that was a matter of pride."
There had been mages who withheld their Origin, but none who had lied about it. Eiga had been the first.
Peneon was the second.
"Tower of Storms does that sometimes. Loose lips."
"And you?"
"I'm a man of principle."
Meaning he'd fed his pride to the dogs.
That he'd done anything and everything to find the Sun.
"Eiga Akker!"
Peneon shouted again.
His face was flushing red and blue. The feeling was evidently poor.
"Speaking short, are we? I'm a noble, you know."
Eiga Akker.
Eiga was a noble of the Otherworld who had earned the surname Akker.
Because his Origin of Volcano was precious, and because he had reached the 5th Rank.
"Akker! You think having taken a surname truly makes you precious?"
Harad did not know the Otherworld's hierarchy in detail.
But Peneon clearly resented the surname Akker.
"Funny, coming from someone who never even made noble."
"Silence. Even so, I am worth more than the likes of you."
"And I happen to enjoy scorching mages who talk like that."
Ptoo. Eiga spat.
Not saliva but magic. Lava, at that. Hisss! A hole the size of the spit was bored through Peneon's cheek.
"Ngghhh!"
Peneon suppressed a groan and glared at Eiga.
The rift between them ran deep, apparently.
"Inferiority complex."
Eiga summed it up with a smile.
Indeed. Peneon looked it. What he seemed to hate was that Eiga had earned nobility by his own merit.
"Quite lowborn, I take it."
The Otherworld is no place for just any baby.
Eiga had said so about Seran. The Otherworld was better off replaced by the continent.
"Shamefully so."
"Genuinely ashamed?"
"No."
Eiga, who had been grinning, went straight-faced.
"Birth is a trifle. I was a Hostage myself. Played slave too."
To a mage, status was meaningless.
Classified as demons before status even entered the picture.
"As expected of Lord Harad."
Eiga grinned again.
This seemed to be the right answer.
Harad turned his gaze to Peneon.
"Save the personal grudge for later. After our business is done."
"Business?"
Peneon's eyes narrowed.
"I said: answer what's asked, and I'll let you live. That still holds. Though now it's the last chance."
"......"
"I'm being considerate. We have options."
Harad indicated the closed door and Eiga.
Meaning: torture via knights, or scorching via lava.
"I feel a kinship."
Harad kindled fire in his palm.
Since consuming Embers, every magic of Harad's evoked the Sun.
"An enormous fire!"
But Peneon cried not "the Sun" but "an enormous fire."
A bias born of the Moon's prophecy.
The Sun belongs to a woman. Thanks to that line, most mages could not conceive of the Sun residing in a man.
"Right. We've infiltrated Serzila. Built quite the trust, too. That's why we're with the bugs."
"First I've heard of it."
"Must we spell it out? We're the Tower of the Sun."
"...... So you were Dreamers after all."
Peneon clicked his tongue.
A resigned air, for some reason. He could roughly guess how the Otherworld regarded Dreamers.
'Not all are famous, then.'
Peneon himself aside, Eiga was recognized by many mages.
But that seemed to be because Eiga was exceptional, not because of Dreamers in general.
Peneon perceived Harad as a Dreamer.
Harad indicated Elaine.
"Do you know who this person is?"
"No."
Peneon shook his head.
"You don't need to know. Just someone from the Inner Fortress."
Elaine twitched.
Peneon nodded indifferently. Through the hole in his cheek, a tongue licking the wound was visible.
'Doesn't know Elaine. The next Grand Duke.'
Not for lack of intelligence.
The Otherworld was active on the continent too.
'No interest? No need to care?'
Recalling the past life, it was the correct assessment.
To the Otherworld, the North was no match.
'No reason to pay attention either. Elaine can barely even enter the Boundary.'
Was that not how Hunt Days had come about?
Serzila was called the Wall, but in practice it was closer to an ornamental wall.
From the Otherworld's perspective, a Serzila that could not even roam the Boundary freely posed no threat.
Peneon himself had been caught only because he had dismissed the knights.
Floating in the sky, thinking he would never be spotted.
"Why were you poking around the Wall?"
"......"
"Work with us. We need to stay infiltrated, and I'd rather not kill you. We're both from Paradise."
For that, he would have to hand interrogation results to Serzila.
Harad spoke soothingly.
Beside him, Eiga nodded along.
Anyone could see Harad was the superior.
"I didn't know there was a Dreamer above Eiga."
Peneon glanced at Eiga and muttered.
"Tower of the Sun."
Madman.
Peneon said it as though spitting. Then he gave Harad a heavy nod.
"I was trying to cross the Wall."
"Why?"
"Orders came to infiltrate Serzila as a mercenary."
Having agreed to cooperate, Peneon grew somewhat courteous.
'Looks down on birth but can't look down on ability.'
Meaning Eiga was more formidable in the Otherworld than expected.
Peneon perceived Harad as the superior of such an Eiga.
"The Wall is suspicious. That talk is going around."
Harad's eyes lit.
"Suspicious how?"
"That's what the orders were for. But dammit, I think I see now. Why did you teach the bugs magic?"
You're why I got caught.
Peneon's eyes accused Harad.
"Had to, to build trust."
"Don't tell me you revealed you're a mage? And Serzila allowed it?"
Peneon's face was steeped in disbelief.
Thus Otherworld and Serzila were an irreconcilable pair.
"The Wall is suspicious, you say."
What was suspicious?
Where had they sensed it? Harad scratched his neck. Peneon's face crumpled.
"I asked first."
"I'm not in a position to answer."
"What?"
"This person is actually Serzila's Grand Heir."
Harad pointed to Elaine.
"And this fellow is a traitor of Paradise."
Then to Eiga.
Peneon's expression warped grotesquely. The hole in his cheek made it more ghastly still. Both features contorted savagely.
"Eiga Akker!"
Peneon snarled.
Harad the Dreamer's betrayal seemed less offensive than Eiga's.
"This is why factory-born......"
The offense became smoke.
Lava sprayed at some point had already begun melting Peneon from the head down.
Meaning Eiga had killed Peneon.
Though Harad had not yet passed judgment.
"Judgment!"
"A bit late for that."
"...... My apologies."
Eiga bit his lip.
A face uncharacteristically marked by error.
'Factory.'
That seemed to be Eiga's reverse scale.
***
'The Wall is suspicious.'
Such talk was circulating in the Otherworld.
Learning that was a harvest, to be sure.
But lacking, if one called it lacking.
"I'm sorry!"
"It's fine."
Still, Eiga was an Otherworld mage who could fill that gap.
'Identified Peneon in a single glance.'
Eiga's knowledge of the Otherworld was substantial.
He likely knew more than Peneon ever had. If Harad asked, Eiga would answer anything.
"What is this place?"
"The outpost where knights take the magic examination."
"May I look around?"
Harad nodded.
Eiga headed straight for the examination hall.
'Doesn't even care. I branded him a traitor right in front of a witness.'
Because the witness, Peneon, was dead?
No. Eiga genuinely seemed not to care.
'How far can I trust him.'
That answer, Harad had not yet reached.
But how far can I use him.
That answer existed.
'All of it.'
Every last bit of usefulness, until it ran dry.
That was what Harad had decided.
Gather the people you want, and the people who want you. Ellen had said so, but what Eiga wanted was not Harad but the Sun.
So he too had to be ready to draw a line.
Eiga could become a guest at the wedding, or he could become an enemy.
"Good work."
It was as he relayed Peneon's death to Toremot and stepped out.
"I'm off."
"You're not staying?"
"It's not as if you're going right now."
"I'll be done quickly."
He had meant to tour the examination hall while he was here. It would not take long. But Elaine shook her head.
"I'm a busy person."
Going where.
"Ah, right. I'll send Ellen instead. She's free."
"......"
Elaine left without waiting for an answer.
Already far away.
And getting faster. Before he knew it, Elaine was running.
'Must not have stashed a change of clothes nearby.'
She had planned to stay as Elaine all day.
But Peneon's quick death had ended things early.
Ellen might owe Eiga some gratitude.
'The frequency keeps dropping. It was already low.'
Time spent as Grand Heir was shrinking steadily.
A change brought about by the regression, no, by Harad.
'I should tell her to keep it up at least a little...... but I've got no grounds.'
Harad was the one who had taught her to live as she pleased.
He could not very well turn around now and say, in a roundabout way, to work harder as Grand Heir.
The next Grand Duke would be her, after all.
Public or private, Harad was in no position to impose Elaine upon Ellen.
In the end, what mattered was Ellen's heart.
Harad entered the outpost.
"I'm giving today's patrol-bound knights their problems. If they pass, a circle; if they fail, an X."
Grex, whose dream was to be a hunter, was explaining the magic examination to Eiga.
"Circle knights can go on patrol as scheduled. X knights are excluded from today's patrol. Shortfalls are filled by pulling off-duty knights through exams."
Play it right and you could go on back-to-back patrols.
The knights could not help but go mad.
"How many problems?"
"Two, at the moment."
Originally one, but recently a second had been added.
The knights could now solve two problems at once.
Thus: they could do it if they tried. Harad felt a pang of sentiment. Not exactly pride, but.
"Is pass-or-fail decided on the spot?"
"Yes."
"And the reward and punishment are just patrol and cancellation?"
"Yes, that's all."
"Who designed it this way?"
"Ah......"
Grex answered with his eyes, mouth agape.
Harad was standing behind Eiga.
"Ah, Lord Harad designed it? No wonder it's so kind!"
Kind.
Bluntly put, it meant far too easy.
An accurate critique.
What was called a magic examination was closer to a children's test. If Duke participated, he would instantly dethrone Gullen.
"I figured they couldn't solve it otherwise."
"I figured as much! But if improvement is the goal, you should add problems even if they can't solve them."
Eiga spoke like a devoted teacher.
"A small number of problems doesn't kindle academic zeal. The differentiation is too shallow."
"You mean rankings have to be clearly separated."
More problems, mixed difficulty.
"Yes! And the rewards or punishments need strengthening. Better to strengthen rewards. Taking away what one has makes people angry, but giving what they didn't have makes them glad."
Strengthen the rewards.
Something had to be added on top of patrol.
"Rewards must be scarce. If everyone can get one, it's not a reward."
"Who has to receive it for it to be a reward?"
"Only first place. Or at most, a tiered few."
"Then what should the reward be?"
Patrol was already given.
"A patrol where one can go all out?"
A familiar voice came from behind.
Ellen, who had changed clothes somewhere along the way back from the Inner Fortress. She waited with a composed air for Harad to turn around.
"Something Deputy Commander Derrick of the 1st Knights once said."
Knights did not fear death.
But they feared dying without having displayed their full ability.
The Boundary was a place where full ability could not be displayed.
Not because of Magical Beasts and mages, but because of the Boundary's peculiar environment.
The Boundary was land where Aura drained just by standing still.
"Right. That's why the knights like you. The knights, I mean."
Harad was an exception.
His magical power did not drain even standing in the Boundary.
And not just Harad; those around him received the same effect. The reason knights wanted to bring Harad along on patrols.
"Me, or the Fireball. That would be the perfect reward."
With fire present, knights could go all out even in the harsh Boundary.
"If Gullen takes first, I or the Fireball accompany the patrol squad. And only Gullen gets the fire."
Gullen could go all out.
The other knights could not. Despite being on patrol, they would be dying of envy at Gullen.
And all that envy would feed back into academic zeal.
"Wouldn't Eiga work too?"
Other Dreamers like Eiga might also serve as rewards.
'If they exist.'
Harad's eyes gleamed.
Eiga and Ellen were the targets of that gaze.
"Genius, both of you."
From that day.
The outpost's circles and Xs vanished.
And a signboard was added.
-First place receives Harad or the Fireball.
A signboard declaring that only first place could bask in the fire.
"Ooh."
Gullen, looking up at the sign, was pleased.
***
"What's a Fireball?"
Eiga asked on the way down.
"Ah. Come to think of it, I never told you."
"Pardon?"
The Fireball lived in the basement of Harad's Annex.
Come to think of it, he had never taken Eiga to his Annex.
Harad promptly led Eiga underground.
-Beep-beep!
The Fireball, spotting Harad, flew over excitedly.
It rubbed its entire body against Harad's face.
"...... Divine!"
Eiga was so overjoyed he nearly seized.
"Divine Beast!"