novelraw Chapter 203 : Chapter 203
Chapter 203 : Chapter 203
Chapter 203: Household Matters (3)
Food is an effective tool.
The better the taste, the more it swallows tension along with every bite.
"This is good."
"……That isn't something you eat. It's a garnish."
Harad was a man with no particular affinity for fine dining.
"Is it? I was told it was edible."
"Who told you that?"
"I've been deceived. There's someone like that around."
Harad gave a small click of his tongue.
Arika ordered drinks.
Alcohol was an even more effective tool.
The more one was given, the looser the tongue became.
"Do you drink? I'll be having some."
"Ah. I'm fine. I don't drink."
"……"
Harad did not drink.
"This is southern Empire style."
"That's right."
Harad said it while stirring a thick, finely-ground soup.
Arika nodded. It was her favorite restaurant.
"Come to think of it, you were fond of southern food."
"How would you know that?"
"Ellen told me."
Arika swallowed a dry laugh.
She preferred Empire food to Northern food.
It was a preference she had developed while working on the continent — something she had never told Ellen, nor been caught at.
There was no point in saying it; it would only cause unnecessary trouble.
Harad lied as naturally as breathing.
And yet the answer was correct. Only the source was false.
'Harad knows a great deal. Far more than you or I would expect.'
Arika recalled Elaine's words.
Indeed.
Whatever the source, Harad knew a great many things.
'Suspiciously so.'
Come to think of it, it had been that way from the very beginning.
That mage had an abundance of secrets. Enough to render meaningless all the information the Intelligence Bureau had compiled on Iagar.
"Aren't you eating?"
"I am eating."
And so she was.
She was eating. She simply could not enjoy the taste.
Arika pressed a hand to her forehead without thinking.
Beneath her palm, her concealed gaze found Ellen past Harad's shoulder.
Ellen was in the kitchen.
She had her face just barely peeking out through the serving hatch, watching them.
That meant she was on familiar terms with the owner of this restaurant.
Ellen had no strangers in the entire territory.
In the past, Arika had thought it was how she surveyed the unvarnished face of the territory in that guise.
Now that the veil over her eyes had lifted somewhat, she thought differently.
There was likely that intention too — but more than that, it seemed she simply wanted to roam freely.
The freeloader Ellen urged her on with her eyes.
Intense as that gaze was, Arika had not sensed Ellen's presence. Neither had Harad, right in front of her.
At some point, it seemed Ellen had also grown adept at concealment.
'She's no thief.'
And yet the next Grand Duke.
"If there's something you'd like to say, please say it."
At that moment, Harad spoke.
"Pardon?"
"Didn't you call me here because there's something you want to say?"
"Not at all."
"Then never mind."
"……"
Harad smiled his irritating smile and stirred his soup.
He had said it was good, but he did not look as though he particularly meant it.
"Recently, are you satisfied?"
Arika asked broadly.
She was trying to conceal the direction of her intent.
"I'd say so. With the mages, and with the knights as well."
The Liberation Faction was settling in well.
The knights were receptive to the newly introduced magical examinations.
"What do you think of Serzila?"
"A remarkable land. And a land I'm grateful for."
Arika noticed that Harad was thinking of the mages.
"If I had my way, I'd want to settle here for the rest of my life."
Past Harad's shoulder, Ellen — with only her head peeking out — gave a satisfied nod.
"What do you think of the Grand Heir?"
"A remarkable future Grand Duke. One who could grow even more remarkable."
It was a textbook, predictable answer.
The Ellen who was watching liked it regardless.
"What do you think of Ellen?"
"I think well of her."
Harad answered smoothly.
"I also think she is more than I deserve."
In the distance, Ellen's face turned red.
This was no time for that. Arika exhaled.
"Is this not the answer you were hoping for?"
"Pardon?"
"If there's an answer you must hear, say so, and I'll give it to you."
Harad said something cryptic.
"What do you mean by that?"
"Wasn't it the Grand Heir who sent you?"
It was then that Arika realized.
"Ask me anything. I'll answer honestly."
Harad had the air of someone who would truly say everything.
At the same time, it was a dead end. If she asked here, it would be tantamount to revealing that Ellen was Elaine.
'If even a single thing went wrong.'
Arika could not probe Harad.
Not because she was second and he was first.
The setting was wrong.
She should not have had a conversation with him. She should have abducted him and subjected him to Interrogation.
If only Elaine hadn't said not to hurt him.
'Has he truly been found out?'
It was possible, and it was also possible he had not.
Arika decided to assume the former. One must always prepare for the worst.
"What do you think of a person who lies?"
If he had been found out.
Had Harad been disappointed?
That was the point Elaine had been worried about.
Arika had to find out at least that much.
"A person who lies, you say. Are they good at it?"
"Exceptionally so."
"Then I would respect them. Lying is a skill."
Harad's capacity for acknowledgment was broad, as befitting a mage.
"Even if they deceived even you?"
"Is this person on our side?"
"Yes."
"Then I would be impressed. To think they deceived even me — something like that."
Past the serving hatch, Ellen's eyes lit up.
Then Harad spoke again.
"That said, if it were someone close to me, I think I'd be hurt."
"……"
"I might be wounded by it."
Ellen's gaze drooped.
"By the way, over there——"
Harad pointed at something.
Arika almost flinched, but stopped herself. Harad was not pointing at Ellen but at a table set diagonally across from them.
"Did you come together?"
"Pardon?"
Arika tilted her head.
At the table Harad had indicated sat a middle-aged man, alone. Arika did not recognize him.
"Apparently not. Never mind, then."
"……?"
***
'I'm being suspected.'
Had Harad noticed that Ellen was Elaine?
Arika was suspicious of him.
More precisely, Ellen had noticed and told Arika to probe him.
It was a reasonable suspicion, if one thought about it.
In truth, if anything, it had taken longer than expected.
'Now, of all times.'
Harad let out a dry laugh.
It would not have been strange if he had realized it when they were in Manoa's village.
If he had been even a little sharper, he would have noticed sooner — when they had spoken of the secret.
Because it was Elaine who was supposed to be dreaming, and yet the one who had been at his side all along was Ellen.
'How will this go.'
Would she try to conceal it, or reveal it?
As far as Harad was concerned, either was fine.
If the former, he would go along with it. If the latter, nothing truly changed.
He would simply pretend to be sufficiently surprised, and that would be the end of it.
'A spy is easier to stimulate than a Grand Heir.'
That had been the reason for meeting Ellen.
Now, that reasoning had lost its meaning. He had grown quite close to Ellen. Whatever form she took when they met, she would be conscious of him and lend him her ear.
'As long as Aratus doesn't find out, it'll be fine.'
The Grand Duke was the reason Ellen had begun cross-dressing in the first place.
He would not welcome more people knowing that secret.
'Or maybe not? Perhaps it doesn't matter, in my case.'
The Grand Duke wanted Harad to spend time with Ellen.
Perhaps sharing the secret was also within his anticipated range.
'Well. I'll see when it comes to it.'
Harad thought of the middle-aged man he had seen in the restaurant.
He didn't know who it was, but the face was not unfamiliar.
'I must have seen him in my previous life.'
He would be from the Intelligence Bureau.
He could not memorize all their faces the way he could the knights.
They were clever people.
Through Arika's questions, they would have grasped the point at issue.
A response would come soon.
The tunnel had been completed.
Harad was not traveling through it himself but observing the passing scenery of the tunnel as it glided by — thanks to Jis.
"Isn't it tiring?"
"It's easier than traveling alone."
It was the nature of a star.
When Harad or Fireball was nearby, Jis found it easier to manifest his magic.
And right now, both were within his Shadow.
The tunnel that connected to the village was the longest of any tunnel Harad had passed through.
Ordinarily, it would take a full two days of crawling through it.
'This is comfortable. And fast.'
With Jis, half a day was sufficient.
And that was the result of deliberately moving slowly.
In the boundary zone, it was necessary to conserve magical power. One had to be prepared for any eventuality.
"This part's the same as any other."
Unlike the original tunnels, the exit had a door fitted to it. It was not Rick's handiwork. It appeared to have been separately installed by the architect Mokolin.
Just as the tunnel was complete, so was the village.
Setting aside the arrangement encircling the Embers, it resembled the village as it had been before Kandenkel had destroyed it.
"One can hardly crawl out like a worm."
A voice came from behind him. It was Manoa.
"Were you waiting for me?"
"I felt the Shadow and came."
The village was situated on the inside of the Dream that Manoa had manifested.
'Not a wall — a spherical shape, then.'
Manoa's Dream spread through the sky and beneath the ground as well.
The tunnel had been included within the domain of the Dream as well.
"That door is Mokolin's consideration, so please leave it. Hardly becoming for the king of a village to be seen crawling up like a worm."
"King."
Harad gave a small laugh.
The king of the village. It was an awkward expression in every sense.
"Crawling up like a worm is accurate enough."
"A swan moves its legs furiously beneath the water."
As long as it wasn't seen.
Manoa was being image-conscious, as was her old-fashioned way.
"You use the Shadow anyway."
"That's true too."
Going forward, he would be rid of the worm's lot.
"How are the Embers?"
"Still holding well."
"Still?"
Instead of answering, Manoa pointed to the Embers at the center of the village.
They were Embers the size of a house.
"Truly."
So they were the same as when he had seen them a month ago.
Compared to the original Embers, Harad's Embers were modest. Embers of that size were necessary just to approximate the original's heat.
And that heat would not last long.
There was a need to scatter fire periodically. Harad had estimated the interval at as little as one month, at most two.
And yet his estimate had been wrong.
The Embers looked as though they would last for at least two more months.
In other words, the same impression as when he had first seen them.
'My calculation was off?'
And it's my own fire I scattered.
Harad narrowed his eyes.
"Did you adjust your Manifestation?"
Harad suspected Manoa.
The duration he had calculated had already accounted for Manoa's Manifestation.
"I am Manifesting the same as before."
She had not lifted the Manifestation even once.
"Truly?"
"What would I gain from deceiving you?"
"That's fair."
Harad nodded slowly.
It was not a variable — the calculation itself had simply been wrong.
'Does this mean there's more capacity now?'
For someone, it was a pleasing miscalculation.
Harad felt displeasure. For a mage, it was an unforgivable mistake. When it came to one's own magic, there must be no margin of error.
'It's as intended.'
The magical power felt from the Embers was unchanged.
'That's right.'
As little as one month, at most two.
The intuition of Harad the mage still returned the same answer. It was clearly wrong.
'The magical power is as calculated, but the result is not.'
The Embers lasted longer than expected.
It meant the input was the same, but the output had changed.
'Could it be because I absorbed the Embers?'
Something had changed from his previous life.
That was the source of the discrepancy.
"Indeed."
"Have you understood it?"
"Perhaps. Would you turn around for a moment?"
Manoa tilted her head but turned away regardless.
Harad stripped down without ceremony. The steel ring he removed from his little finger, he left on top of the clothing he tossed aside.
Tempering could be done twice.
Once at the start, and once at the 5th Rank.
"Ah. And please make it so this place cannot be seen through the Dream. Also, as cold as possible, if you would."
The Dream, which had taken shape as a space, stirred and shifted form.
Seeing that, Harad immediately manifested the Sun.
Sun was the word for it, but in truth it was a spell — one that wrung out every drop of magical power he possessed and shaped it into the form of the Sun as he imagined it in his Mindscape.
A Sun larger than the Inner Fortress of Serzila rose into the sky. It bore down on Harad.
'Starting with the muscles.'
Muscles, bones, then organs — they had to be melted down and cooled, in that order.
That was how one grew stronger.
It was a familiar vagueness he had already experienced in his previous life.
"Ah."
But within that familiar vagueness, Harad felt something strange.
And he felt death.
The Sun that had risen into the sky — that brutish spell — condensed to a point and vanished. Blood wept from Harad's wide-open eyes like tears. It was the rebound of having forcibly dispelled the magic.
"Harad?"
The Shadow rippled.
SQUEAK! From within it, Fireball cried out in alarm.
"I'm fine."
Harad pressed two fingers firmly against his eyelids.
His skin was unbearably fragile.
His entire body had gone limp. It had not merely been his muscles melting — everything had nearly melted.
'I almost died.'
From my own fire.
Harad found it difficult to believe.
'The fire has grown stronger.'
Beyond calculation.
***
How dare they, in Serzila.
In the very heart of it — the Inner Fortress, no less.
"They actually dug a tunnel."
Riding on the Grand Heir's coattails, knowing no shame, insufferably arrogant — so the man had been called.
"Insane mage."
And that description fit perfectly.
A man in a mask ground his teeth.
Behind him, two others in the same masks watched his every cue.
"That…… Investigator Ferrard, we must capture him alive."
"I know."
The man waved a hand as if the reminder were tiresome.
Harad must not be touched.
He didn't know how the man had managed to ingratiate himself with the Inner Fortress, but a man who had been a Hostage had become a bodyguard to a collateral branch member.
And His Excellency the Grand Duke himself had taken to showing he held him dear.
But the man had crossed the Intelligence Bureau Director.
That was why the order had come down to Ferrard — to bring him in quietly.
"We wait here until he comes back."
Ferrard took his position in front of the tunnel.
"What do we do when he comes?"
"Rush him with intent to kill."
"What? But……"
"He won't die. He's a 5th Rank mage. On the contrary, it'll take that level of force to capture him alive."
Ferrard gave a sharp, thin smile.
"Capture alive is a broad term."
The Director would have known as much when she gave the order.