Chapter 272 : Chapter 272
Chapter 272: Recruitment (1)
-BEEEEEP!
The Fireball whipped its beak away.
'After we even went on patrol together?'
The thought lasted only a moment.
Harad realized the Fireball was still sulking. When they'd first reunited, it had been so glad it forgot to sulk.
"Properly offended."
Hard to put in words, but such was the tone.
A bond shared only by the Sun and the Sun's Divine Beast.
"I've been busy."
It hadn't been that long since they'd seen each other.
To the Fireball, apparently it had.
-BEEEEEP!
During the resolution of Shura's kidnapping, they hadn't met. Meanwhile the Fireball had been aiding the 5th Knights' patrols.
"Sorry."
-Beep!
"I missed you too."
At that, the Fireball charged as though it had never turned away. What it had wanted to hear wasn't an apology but the feeling.
Harad stroked it and laughed dryly. In Ellen's words, this creature too was one of Harad's people.
'A beast, though.'
Cute instead.
Harad, the creature's master, was now a full-fledged 5th Rank capable of proper Manifestation, yet the Fireball still resembled a sparrow.
'Actually, it's grown.'
Tugging at the feather-like flames made it puff up.
It only looked small on the surface.
Thus the Fireball was proportional to Harad.
The stronger Harad grew, the larger the beast and fire called Fireball became. It was a fully grown adult.
'A three-legged crow.'
When scattering Embers at the Boundary's village, the Fireball had taken the form of a three-legged crow.
Proof that Harad had taken the King's Embers and the Fireball had matured alongside him.
But after scattering the new Embers, the Fireball had shrunk again. Because scattering Embers meant a great expenditure.
Recovery from that was long finished, of course.
Yet the Fireball stubbornly maintained its small form rather than becoming the three-legged crow.
"Fireball. Come here."
-Beep!
Because Ellen found the sparrow-like form cuter.
"But it's fully grown, so why does it still go beep-beep?"
"......"
"At the village back then, it was definitely caw."
But everyday Ellen lacked the tact for that.
"Are you still hurting?"
-Bee......
The Fireball's flame drooped.
***
'Shura was kidnapped because of the tunnel, in essence.'
The Tower of Earthquakes mages' goal had been the tunnel.
Duke and Shura had been caught while secretly following such mages.
Without the tunnel, it wouldn't have happened.
Or even with one, if the management had been more systematic.
Recurrence had to be prevented at all costs.
'Seran.'
Because fire was now being born in Serzila.
'From the Otherworld's perspective, it's no different from a goose that lays golden eggs.'
They'd coveted Shura's Origin; how much more so precious fire?
Seran and the fires yet to come were babies.
Mages drawn by tunnel rumors had to be completely shut out.
"You said you'd let yourself be captured by Earthquake mages."
"Yes!"
"They didn't recognize your face?"
"Ah. I looked like this at the time."
Eiga ran his hand down his face.
It warped hideously. Burns resembling ground scoured by lava.
"I'm somewhat famous."
Any Otherworld native would roughly recognize Eiga.
"If I make the tunnel yours. What happens?"
"Probably the Otherworld won't cause trouble. The formidable mages are all in the Otherworld, not on the continent."
Meaning any mage Eiga couldn't handle was in the Otherworld.
"By trouble, you mean kidnapping?"
"Yes. Including Seran and the babies yet to come."
Harad grinned along with Eiga.
The Volcano-mage had become an inspiration to Harad.
"Couldn't the Red Tower intervene?"
"Ah. They wouldn't. The old timers there don't much like me. They'd loathe even being associated."
That settled it.
Eiga was a famous troublemaker even in the Otherworld.
If the Otherworld found it troublesome, Harad found it welcome.
"Then come along."
No reason not to use him, as ever.
Two tunnels were in operation.
Both connected to Harad's Annex, to the Inner Fortress.
Meaning the tunnel could be breached.
Because Grand Duke Aratus was there.
'So it won't be breached.'
Even if Eiga were an enemy, he'd give up tunnel ambitions.
He had seen the monster called Grand Duke Aratus in person.
The Grand Duke secured the tunnel and the Village of Embers simply by existing.
"Come to think of it, this is your first time. What do you think of the Liberation Tower?"
"I respect the faction called the Liberation group. They're humble."
Eiga had broad experience, in the Otherworld and on the continent both.
Among that experience, the Liberation Tower's Liberation Faction seemed included.
"Good timing. The person I'm going to meet now is a Liberation Faction mage."
"More mages than expected!"
Kubel, Shura, Cassion. He'd started with three. Eiga seemed to be saying so.
Harad grinned along.
By that logic, Eiga's Origin had been Volcanic Ash.
"And the Rebellion Faction?"
"Impressive. Operating on the continent isn't easy."
Fair enough.
The Rebellion Faction opposed Empire and Church.
Of course, "oppose" was the polite word; in truth they hid.
But that alone was an act of great courage.
Far greater than expected.
If the past life held, the Liberation Tower would openly raise a banner against the continent before long.
"Honestly."
"Laughable, right?"
Eiga smirked.
Laughable.
Whether it was the Otherworld's view or Eiga's own, he looked down on the Rebellion Faction.
'Admittedly, they'd look cute.'
In practice the Rebellion Faction was wagging its tail trying to impress the Otherworld.
"But if Lord Harad wishes it, I shall acknowledge them."
Harad, the Sun, was the standard.
If ordered, Eiga would genuinely respect even the Rebellion Faction. As he had shaken his head, ceasing to call Serzila an enemy, at Harad's word.
"No need. The Rebellion Faction is Serzila's enemy."
"Execution?"
Eiga's eyes gleamed.
"Largely, yes. Let's say the tunnel is a joint venture. If only you show up, we'd lose all our customers."
Postponement and execution.
To manage Eiga, Harad had to hand down judgment on every matter.
At least for now.
Nudge.
Ellen, walking beside him, lightly elbowed him.
Seemed to say: tone it down. Worry about the rest later and just do as you please.
'Easy to say.'
Doing as you please was harder than it sounded.
'Is it easy for Ellen because she doesn't have one?'
***
The tunnel had changed hands and reopened.
Originally the Liberation Tower's property, sealed by Serzila, now reclaimed by someone.
Did that make sense.
A question of little significance. The danger, likewise. Asylum had been closer to an illusion from the start.
With the Sea Route exposed to the Church, for mages Serzila's tunnel would be emerging as a new hope.
The tunnel-reopening rumor had started from the northern port city of Lohit.
Then, under the Intelligence Bureau's guidance, it had spread across the continent.
'By now, every mage who ought to know will know.'
Easy enough.
Few barkers were as skilled as the Intelligence Bureau.
'And yet nobody comes.'
Asylum clients aside, no Otherworld mage had come. That bothered Harad.
'The Sea Route should be blocked.'
The Church had caught the scent of the western sea.
Otherworld mages who'd survived Laash needed a new route.
The tunnel, currently the talk of the town, should be irresistible.
'Did the Moon intervene?'
Among Laash's survivors, some would have seen only Harein, some only the Sun.
Aggregated, the accounts would form the King of Prophecy.
For the Moon, who had no intention of honoring the prophecy, the survivors' mouths had to be silenced.
'Does she have means to silence them on the continent, not just the Boundary or Otherworld?'
Perhaps the Moon's reach was greater than he'd thought.
'She commanded the Tower Master of Meteoric Iron like a limb.'
Harad took Eiga to see Anton. And from the flustered Anton who came to greet them, he heard something strange.
"Someone you know?"
"Yes. It was unmistakably a voice I know. I just can't place it."
Anton said, touching his chin.
Anton was the tunnel's guide.
Because his Origin was an ear. Wide-open ears could hear much.
If someone in the domain murmured Anton's name, it was an asylum-seeking mage's call for the guide.
"A rare asylum client finally visits, and it's a voice you know."
"Y-yes."
"Liberation Tower, then. Rebellion Faction."
"That seems likely."
Anton was Liberation Faction.
If the caller was also Liberation Faction, it would be a voice in his memory.
"They might know me too."
"Then you two shouldn't meet."
Officially, Anton was dead.
Every mage of the Ekampote branch, precisely.
If someone recognized him, complications would follow.
Especially if the Liberation Tower was involved, Anton and the other mages had to stay hidden.
Otherwise, who knew what harm might come.
The Liberation Faction would understand, but to the Rebellion Faction it was plain defection. And the Rebellion Faction was a violent bunch.
"Shouldn't you avoid them too, Lord Harad?"
Anton said.
Harad's face was known to the Liberation Faction as well.
"Shall I go?"
"You're even worse."
Ellen was a Serzila collateral.
If she served as guide, it would be advertising the tunnel's link to Serzila.
"I'll do it!"
Eiga, now the tunnel's co-proprietor, raised his hand high.
"You and I go together."
"Why are you going?"
Ellen spoke up.
"Because I'm the enemy."
If Anton was a defector, Harad was the enemy.
The one who'd wrecked the tunnel and soured relations with the Ivory Tower.
"Prod them clumsily and they'll go back into hiding. But if I show up, they won't. High chance they'll fly into a rage. Maybe that's why they came."
For Harad, it was a welcome prospect.
The Rebellion Faction had to be uprooted entirely. That would ease the future.
"The tunnel's owner being me -- once the Rebellion Faction learns that, they'll probably react like this."
This bastard sold us out and swallowed the tunnel.
"They know you're Serzila's man."
"They'll come to believe I'm deceiving Serzila. Because Serzila would never open a tunnel."
Prejudice was a fearsome thing.
Serzila was the wall that blocked the Otherworld.
"Actually, it works in our favor. I'd been uneasy about it."
The Liberation Tower knew that Serzila employed a mage named Harad.
Unlikely the continent would listen, but the possibility of it becoming a variable someday certainly existed.
"Turns out it wasn't Serzila using me, but me deceiving Serzila all along."
A mage who'd tricked Serzila into granting the tunnel.
To the Rebellion Faction, Harad would be updated to such a figure.
It would erase entirely the possibility that Serzila could be embarrassed.
"You're going alone?"
"I have to. Can't call Jis."
He couldn't go with Ellen.
Had Jis been available, he'd have tucked her in the shadow, but for the time being Jis had resolved to stay glued to Shura's side.
After the kidnapping, that was unavoidable.
It was Harad and Ellen's wish too.
"Isn't that too flimsy?"
Ellen abruptly pointed out, at the mention of going without her.
"How so?"
"Serzila being fooled by one mage? Who'd believe that."
They would, actually.
Harad swallowed those words.
"Better say you seduced someone from Serzila. That's the only way it makes sense. Otherwise, how does a tunnel Serzila sealed reopen?"
True.
A valid point. Precisely the weak spot Harad had planned to hand-wave through if challenged.
"I fell head over heels for you. So I do whatever you ask. The tunnel opened because of that."
Love makes people foolish.
Anton wore a peculiar expression, glancing between Ellen and Harad. Eiga was watching while eating something. A snack Duke had left behind.
"You're good at that sort of thing."
"At what?"
Ellen twirled a strand of hair around her finger.
"...... Aroshu."
"Ah."
Meaning: pretend to be a couple.
Or something close to one.
"Did you want to be attached? You should have said."
"If I say it. Will you listen?"
"......"
At some point, Ellen had gotten good at that sort of thing.