233

Chapter 233: Full of Agony (6)

“…There hasn’t been an official count yet.”

Among the many people surrounding me, someone dressed like a mage whom I had never seen before spoke.

The stranger’s gaze was fixed directly on my eyes, and it was so clear and transparent that it left me with a strange sensation.

As though I were meeting that person’s eyes not as the Demon Knight, but as the real me.

“I didn’t ask for an exact number.”

“The answer I can give you is still the same.”

But of course that couldn’t be true.

I lowered my eyelids halfway.

There hasn’t been an official count.

The answer is still the same.

Those two answers I had just heard were weighing heavily on my heart.

I had expected it, but hearing that still made it sink in that I really had gone on a rampage.

“Why didn’t you kill me?”

“Who knows? Because preparations weren’t in place to make the execution certain?”

Make the execution certain?

I thought about what that meant, then roughly interpreted it as meaning they had been too busy cleaning up the situation to properly prepare my execution.

Though I still wondered why they hadn’t simply cut the throat of someone lying unconscious….

Maybe they wanted to set everything up properly before killing me.

Or perhaps my companions….

Perhaps my companions had stopped them.

“How much do you remember?”

In the meantime, the mage who had answered every one of my questions now questioned me in return.

I remained silent for a moment and considered my answer.

“…Up to the moment I fired the signal flare.”

“The signal flare, huh.”

This time, the other person fell silent.

Blue eyes with neither visible whites nor distinct pupils stared quietly down at me.

“You knew this would happen?”

Fortunately, the heavy gaze soon withdrew.

The question left in its place, however, omitted far too much.

What exactly did they expect me to do if they stripped away all the context and simply asked me something like that…?

I narrowed my eyes slightly as I tried to determine how to answer.

You knew this would happen, huh.

Then could I interpret that as asking whether I fought despite knowing I might go berserk?

Probably.

But did that question even matter now?

“If I answer that I knew, will I die?”

I admitted that I became extremely dangerous when Rage triggered.

Even if I could not remember it, the traces left behind were more than enough to judge the level of threat.

But had there really been anything during this incident that should have triggered Rage?

Had anything happened that could provoke me so severely that my rationality would disappear?

“And if I answer that I didn’t know, will I live?”

On the other hand, what had the situation been like at the time?

Was there really enough leeway to hold back someone like me merely because there was a possibility I might go berserk?

Could they have solved everything themselves if I had stayed out of the fight?

“Do not waste time with worthless questions.”

I still did not know what kind of damage the aftermath of Rage had caused.

But I believed what I had done at the time had been the best choice available.

I knew the danger Rage posed, but the incident in the Great Forest had given me confidence that I could control it, and until the moment I collapsed, the thought that Rage might activate had never even crossed my mind.

So in the end, this was an accident.

An accident in which misfortune defeated good intentions.

“Nothing changes now.”

An accident whose damage was too great to simply cover up with the words good intentions, leaving someone with no choice but to take responsibility.

“…So everyone should simply do what they must.”

The moment my thoughts reached that point, all strength suddenly drained from my body.

If I had to compare the sensation to something, it was close to utter enervation.

“I will refuse nothing.”

But no one could blame me for that.

Even if the result had been terrible, I truly had done everything I could.

Truly.

Everything.

* * *

“Is it really all right to leave that thing like that?”

“They’re leaving him like that because it’s fine, I guess. At least he isn’t trying to get out.”

“But… what do you think, Sir Sergei?”

“What? Me? Well… I do think executing him immediately would be the right—”

Meister watched the soldiers chatting in front of the iron bars and crooked their lips.

So today’s guard detail was the gullible, loose-lipped Sergei unit.

Meister’s eyes settled calmly, though something sharp lingered in them.

“Discipline’s a complete mess.”

“Gah!”

“…Grandmaster.”

“Oh, I wasn’t talking about you, Sir Sergei. Not about those soldiers over there either.”

Remembering the time Meister had forged Sergei’s sword brought back a fresh wave of resentment.

Specifically, resentment over how he had interfered with the crafting process at every turn, saying that so-and-so liked this and someone else said that was better.

“Putting that aside… don’t you think the soldiers need to be brought back into line? I understand they’ve suffered over the last few days, but they were still trained to protect the city…. Complaining about why they have to guard a demon, spreading every rumor they hear, and dividing the civilians seems a little much, doesn’t it? There must be a reason things are being done this way.”

With that, Meister grabbed the shoulder of the soldier standing beside Sergei and tightened their grip.

Even a Grandmaster had no right to casually mistreat a knight—the reverse was equally true—so Meister had chosen the more convenient soldier as a substitute.

The soldier, abruptly dragged into the matter, stiffened like a board, but Meister did not particularly care.

Pretending to massage the soldier’s shoulder, Meister pressed harder and harder with their fingers.

Unable to scream, the soldier clenched their mouth shut and desperately sent a look toward their superior asking for help.

“Am I wrong, Sir Knight?”

“…You are correct, Grandmaster. I will look into the matter.”

But Sergei had problems of his own.

Ever since that day, every encounter with Meister had resulted in him being verbally torn apart.

And was it really only verbal?

Whenever he visited the workshop over a weapon-related matter, his work was routinely pushed back in the queue, and he was frequently overcharged.

Meister’s skill was overwhelming and deadlines were always kept without exception, so he had no choice but to grit his teeth and continue commissioning work anyway.

“By the way, why have you come here…?”

“If you had a functioning brain, shouldn’t you already know that…? Surely you don’t think I came here to admire your vacant face, Sir Knight.”

Right.

Of course.

Sergei swallowed his tears as he looked at the Grandmaster naturally insulting his intelligence.

If only he could go back in time, he would never have acted up.

The regret he revisited every single time seized him once again.

“Then you came to see the criminal…?”

“Strange. Was there a criminal here…? I simply came to see my guest.”

“What? Why would your gue—?”

Sergei did not know.

Even if he had not made that mistake back then, his lack of awareness and intelligence would ultimately have earned Meister’s dislike anyway.

“How strange, isn’t it? Everyone carries the same thing called a head on their shoulders, yet somehow the performance gap between people can be this enormous…. If you still don’t understand, forget it. Just move.”

“…But approaching him without permission….”

“Well, well…. I had no idea Sir Sergei cared this deeply about proper procedure. I’ll be sure to remember that whenever I accept one of your commissions in the future.”

“…It isn’t allowed, but I suppose there’s no need to go that far with you, Grandmaster.”

Meister frowned at the knight who had wasted over a minute of their time despite ultimately stepping aside anyway.

Meister was already exhausted after sacrificing sleep for the past week to make supplies, and thanks to him, the irritation had only grown.

How veeeery grateful.

“Musclebrained idiots, I swear.”

Still, it was fortunate that even an idiot like that possessed some flexibility.

Meister thought of Dietrich and Franz, who were perfectly reasonable to speak with but excessively rigid when it came to rules, and felt grateful neither of them was on duty today.

Had they been here, Meister truly would have needed to see the Lord and ask permission.

Tang.

Putting all that aside, after this much noise, the person inside the cell ought to have reacted by now.

Still, there had been nothing.

Meister struck the bars once.

Rustle.

Only then did the person inside turn his head slightly.

Even that lasted only long enough for him to glance at Meister before turning back around.

“Why did you agree?”

But if he was listening, that was enough.

Meister sat down as though leaning against the bars and asked the question.

“Keep doing that and you’ll really die.”

The blunt sentence came sincerely from the frustration bottled up inside.

“You could actually be executed.”

Meister had never experienced this sort of feeling except when research reached a dead end.

With irritation rising, Meister rummaged through their clothes.

They found what they wanted—a cigarette—but could not smoke it.

There was no fire here.

“Refuse.”

A deep sigh escaped.

The frustration doubled.

“You didn’t kill anyone. Well, maybe not absolutely no one… but the number is infinitesimal compared to the number of people you saved.”

Clang.

Meister’s head touched the bars.

“I’m not saying this out of pity. I’m being objective.”

Of course Meister was not optimistic enough to believe that nobody had died after being caught in an attack large enough to erase entire buildings.

Even if people had already evacuated, someone could have fallen behind.

However, Meister did not believe that number could have been large.

All the more so after remembering the distance traveled with that damned green-haired bastard.

For civilians left behind, surviving those relentless demons and the incoming lava would have been nearly impossible.

There was a high chance that even the few remaining people had already been dead.

“But you saved people. More people. Maybe every single person who survived here.”

What, then, had that man done?

Even if it had not been him personally, even if the troublesome thing inside him had done it, that did not erase the fact that the most dangerous demon had been eliminated.

The same was true of the mermen’s nest said to have been established on the coast.

If the adventurer’s testimony that the mermen had been trying to build a nest there was correct, then it too would eventually have become a tremendous threat.

The one who had destroyed it before that could happen was that knight.

The one who killed the turtle that had stopped along the coast.

The one who drove away the demons flying through the sky and tormenting people.

All of it!

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“And it’ll be the same in the future. Your power could help even more people. It may need some adjustment, but still. So why are you already trying to give up?”

None of it had been coincidence, either.

The fact that the Lord and the others had not died at the final moment proved that.

When every testimony and circumstance was gathered together and considered, there was no denying that the people of Bemurchen had survived in such numbers partly because of the Demon Knight’s efforts.

So there was no reason for him to die.

Nor was there any need to kill him merely because he represented a potential threat.

No one who had been saved by him had the right to condemn his danger.

He was allowed to live.

“That’s why—”

“Power that cannot be controlled is worse than having no power at all.”

At least, that was Meister’s opinion.

Someone else disagreed.

“Really? Is it?”

Meister continued.

“We know now just how powerful a Great Demon is. And we know the Hero alone cannot handle every possible situation. Under circumstances like that, is it truly right to casually execute someone capable of facing a Great Demon alone?”

Meister traced their own past and forced the words out through a dry, cracked voice.

『My lord will never listen if we simply beg him to live. He’s already consumed by revenge—by the belief that every demon has to die. He’s already emotional enough as it is, so appealing to his emotions won’t work at all.』

The words the green-haired one had spoken before Meister came here passed through their mind.

『But… maybe it would be different if there were a clear justification and rational reasoning. That’s why I came to you. I… I’m too stupid. I couldn’t think of anything to say.』

They belonged to someone who had desperately wanted to remain here until the end, but had painfully realized there was nothing more he could do and asked Meister to take his place.

“You wouldn’t know this, but the acidic fluid mermen spit corrodes iron and burns people. Meanwhile, the alkali bombs I developed dissolve skin itself. Both are fucking poisons to humans, is what I’m saying.”

Meister remembered those words and squeezed their dry throat.

“But when you mix the two together, they turn into a substance that doesn’t harm anything around it. Just ordinary water. One poison doesn’t meet another poison and become something even worse. They neutralize each other and become safe. Just like you use that dangerous power of yours to crush demons even more dangerous than you.”

Would this work?

Meister did not know.

But it was certainly the only argument available.

“So damn it, if you’re going to die just because your own power is dangerous, then think about controlling it instead. You’re humanity’s… second card.”

It was an argument Meister personally found somewhat disgusting.

One that refused to see a person as a person and instead considered nothing but efficiency and rationality.

Meister raked a hand roughly through their own hair.

『This is a sacrifice for everyone.』

They had never imagined they would personally make an argument so similar in tone to the words they hated most.

It felt awful.

“I flipped a coin twice and got heads both times.”

Whether Meister’s argument had worked or not, the person who had seemed determined to refuse conversation answered once more.

The subdued voice sounded like that of someone profoundly exhausted.

“Do you think that means it will land on heads the next time I flip it too?”

Separately from that, Meister did not particularly like the content of the reply.

Did this man really think Meister was stupid enough to fall for a mistake that obvious?

“Do I look stupid enough to commit the gambler’s fallacy? I know the odds are fifty-fifty too.”

Meister had not suggested refusing execution because of some blind faith in that sort of coincidence.

It was something Meister had spent the past week steadily considering, prompted by a little sympathy and a little empathy, before finally reaching the conclusion that it was possible.

“But this isn’t an independent event like a coin toss. The result of the previous round affects the next one.”

After all, using poison to fight poison was only practically useful when everything aligned favorably.

But were all humans gamblers who pursued nothing but profit?

No.

To persuade them, an appropriate justification was also necessary.

“Especially that wager. Isn’t that enough to count as a variable?”

And Meister had come here to make this proposal because such a justification existed.

Had Meister failed to find one, they would not have blindly told the Demon Knight to live merely out of sympathy.

“I wondered whether the demon might simply have been saying whatever sounded good because it needed time to accumulate power. But since you woke up, that wager was probably real.”

Of course, there was one small problem.

The justification was not yet perfect….

But that could potentially be solved with the Demon Knight’s cooperation.

“Then can’t you use it again next time?”

If the Demon Knight reached the conclusion that the wager itself could be used to control the demon, then from that point onward, everyone else could put their heads together and figure out how.

“…What are you talking about?”

“Unless that was the last wager, or there’s some other restriction on it?”

Until coming here, Meister had been confident.

If they could only figure out how the wager was established and under what conditions it could be arranged, there would be countless ways to exploit it.

But if that wager had been the final one, or if something particular was required to establish one….

That would be troublesome.

Meister frowned at the worst-case scenario they had considered but desperately hoped would not be true.

“Then persuading everyone becomes a little harder….”

In truth, Meister personally believed there was no reason for the Demon Knight to die even if none of these practical benefits or justifications existed.

Of course not.

After owing someone your life, how could you possibly turn around and say, You’re dangerous, so would you mind dying?

There was no way.

But people who had stopped thinking because they were terrified were somewhat different.

It was so frustrating that Meister occasionally felt the urge to smash their skulls open with a hammer….

But they could hardly crack open the heads of ninety percent of the survivors.

Even Meister possessed that much patience.

“Tch. Why do I have to waste my brain trying to persuade idiots who refuse to listen to reason? Isn’t it obvious just by looking at the situation that this is the right thing to do?”

Yes.

That much patience.

Thinking of all the humans who were sacrificing efficiency, productivity, and even morality because of the useless emotion called fear, Meister tightened their hand.

Maybe fists and hammers really were the answer at times like this?

The temptation was mild.

“…Anyway, are you sure the wager isn’t possible?”

Still, Meister had to endure it.

After casting the temptation aside again, they returned to the main subject.

“…I don’t understand what you’re talking about. What do you mean by a wager?”

But the Demon Knight instead responded as though he understood even less than Meister did.

Meister’s brow furrowed.

Something was wrong.

The same cold sense of foreboding Meister felt after adding the wrong reagent during an experiment slowly crawled up their spine.