246

Chapter 246 — Even in a Life Like This (9)

“That can’t be true.”

“Why?”

“If all of it was an act… then that……”

Deathbringer was the first to argue against Berserk’s question.

Perhaps there was so much he wanted to say that finding the words became difficult.

His speech broke off and resumed several times.

“Forget everything else. If it was all an act, what did he stand to gain by acting like that? Can there really be some greater scheme worth defeating a corrupted dragon, saving an entire region that nearly fell to a demon’s plot, and killing both a corrupted Biryuho and one Great Demon?”

If no one had intervened, the corrupted dragon would have rotted the sea.

The people throughout the surrounding region would have died as a result.

Jacrati was the same.

If they had simply stood by, it would have become an island belonging to demons.

The same went for Biryuho, and for Moby Dick, which they had ended up entangled with while pursuing Biryuho.

Without Sir Demon Knight, neither the corrupted beast nor one of the Great Demons would have died.

And it was obvious that those creatures surviving would have brought the demons more benefit than their deaths ever could.

And yet Sir Demon Knight had personally resolved every single one of those incidents.

For what?

“Maybe I’m just stupid, but I can’t see anything worth sacrificing all of that to gain.”

The Temple’s trust?

If Sir Demon Knight could have gotten that, would he be receiving this kind of treatment now?

The Hero’s trust?

He had gained the Hero’s trust, but what exactly was he supposed to use that for?

To betray her later?

When he already possessed enough power to kill her?

The residents’ trust?

If he had been aiming for public support, his personality alone made the idea hopeless.

Forget winning people over with a few words.

His personality was more suited to earning hostility than affection.

How was someone like that supposed to gain popular support?

“If Sir Demon Knight and Satan really are on the same side, then what? Is Satan some kind of idiot for standing by and watching all of that happen?”

“He may not be on Satan’s side. Did that thing itself not testify that it was an existence with no need to obey Satan’s orders?”

“You believe a demon’s words?”

“I do not believe them. But neither do I reject them unconditionally.”

Berserk took her hand from the ground and straightened her back.

Haaah.

Someone’s breathing echoed inside the tent.

“Someone who handles information should know this well, shouldn’t you? A story made from ninety-nine truths and one lie is far more convincing than a story made from a hundred lies.”

“…Are you saying you believe that was the truth?”

“I believe it could be true. If we assume it is, then does that not also explain why the Demon Knight’s actions failed to align with the demons’ interests?”

Before Deathbringer could focus on the sound of breathing, Berserk swept the tent with a cool golden gaze.

“Furthermore, if it is true that the Demon Knight lost his memories, how did that happen? A man who did not forget even the moment his family died does not seem likely to throw away his own memories over some ordinary event.”

She truly appeared to suspect the Demon Knight.

Berserk.

Of all people, Berserk was doubting the Demon Knight.

The unexpected distrust from someone Deathbringer had never imagined would show it left him feeling as though he could not breathe.

“I was hoping not to interfere if possible.”

Fortunately, a new combatant entered the ring in Deathbringer’s place.

The red-framed glasses were lifted between long fingers and wiped against a piece of clothing.

“Isn’t this usually the point where you try thinking in the opposite direction?”

“What one wants to believe and what one should believe are separate things.”

“Thinking only about what you want to believe is stupid, sure. But refusing to consider another possibility because you don’t want to think about it sounds like idiocy too, doesn’t it?”

Then Meister tossed out the words casually.

“The Demon Knight really has lost his memories. And a fairly broad range of them, at that.”

It was precisely the confirmation Deathbringer had wanted so desperately.

“You said you wouldn’t tell me.”

“The situation changed. Earlier, I had no intention of getting any more involved in this matter… but now I want to know more. If that’s the case, I should cooperate with you.”

Deathbringer looked somewhat dumbfounded, but Meister did not care.

The expectation of being understood by other people had been discarded long ago.

“And the cause of the memory loss I’m considering is the demon itself.”

Meister began explaining the hypothesis.

Someone bit a lip at the realization that Meister knew more than those who had spent such a long time beside the Demon Knight.

Someone else slowly closed their eyes.

But what mattered was that their feelings did not end there.

Before the life of a man who had burned away everything for revenge, they felt a misery impossible to put into words.

“You asked something earlier, didn’t you? That the demon inside the Demon Knight might have goals different from Satan’s, so there was no reason not to suspect the Demon Knight himself of being a demon?”

“The phrasing was different, but in summary, yes.”

Meanwhile, Meister continued.

Berserk acknowledged it.

“First, I agree with the first part too. The demon inside the Demon Knight… ah, saying that every time is annoying, so let’s call it Wrath. Whether that Wrath wants to survive or has some other objective, it looked almost certain to me that its goals do not match Satan’s.”

At the very least, it was obvious that Wrath was not Satan’s loyal subordinate.

Whether because of the wager with the Demon Knight or for some other reason, Wrath had shown that it placed itself above loyalty to Satan—was that not obvious simply from the fact that it fought other Great Demons?

“But I doubt the Demon Knight and Wrath have matching goals either. If their intentions had been aligned from the beginning……”

“You want to use the fact that he would have killed all of us long ago as your evidence? But what if there is some other reason for that?”

“That’s a possibility we can anticipate too.”

Perhaps the demon was in a situation where it could not draw out its full power…

or perhaps it did not normally possess that level of strength at all, and only became that powerful at certain moments, once particular conditions had been met……

In that case, it was possible the demon had been pretending to be the Demon Knight in order to avoid human hostility.

That hypothesis could exist as well.

“But you don’t think that possibility is particularly high either, do you?”

Deathbringer’s earlier point that there was nothing to gain was one reason.

The fact that it would be far too great a gamble was another.

After all, volunteering to be executed in order to avoid being hunted as a demon was an absurdly extreme gamble.

“And even if you bring in some other explanation, it’s the same. That explanation will need yet another set of circumstances behind it.”

Fine.

Suppose they somehow explained even that gamble by invoking some maxim about seeking death to find life and seeking life only to find death.

Then how would they explain the demon’s inability to bring out its full power?

Whatever excuse they brought in, they would eventually be forced to confront this problem.

The problem that there was something preventing the demon from acting as demons ordinarily did.

“So yes. The Demon Knight is a restraint on Wrath. That much is certain. In the worst-case scenario, I suppose he might not be some pitiful soul caught up with a demon, but rather a clone the demon deliberately refuses to control in order to make the act more convincing… but if that were the case, there’s no way Grandfather wouldn’t have noticed.”

“Are you kidding me? A clone?”

“Unless your grandfather noticed and chose to let it go?”

Deathbringer was just about to flare up at the fact that the Demon Knight had nearly been labeled a demon’s clone.

Berserk asked the question in the same calm tone as before.

She did not seem to care that the person before her was the grandchild of the man now being questioned.

Knowing Meister’s temper, the Archmage and Deathbringer tensed for no reason.

“If the demon went wild, everyone there could have died. Is there truly no possibility that your grandfather knew the danger and let it go anyway?”

“I wouldn’t say there’s no possibility.”

But making their concern unnecessary, Meister acknowledged it coolly.

Almost as though the possibility had already been considered personally.

“What are you looking at?”

“…I thought you would get angry.”

“Why would I get angry at a reasonable question? If a situation is suspicious, questioning it is something a person is supposed to do.”

“I-Is that so?”

After all, the musclehead’s question—that Grandfather might have chosen to become a necessary evil in order to keep everyone alive—was internally consistent and fairly plausible.

There were arguments against it, but the doubt itself was perfectly valid even to Meister.

So it was understandable.

There was nothing to be angry about.

“The reason I hate what the Temple is doing right now is because the behavior it shows while ‘investigating’ and the garbage it brings out as ‘evidence’ are stupid beyond belief.”

“I see…….”

What sort of suspicion was the Temple pushing now, by contrast?

That Meister’s grandfather had always been a heretic, and that was why Blue Coral had released the demon this time.

Did that make any sense?

If Blue Coral had truly been a heretic, the present disaster would never have unfolded like this!

In the end, this suspicion existed because mindless idiots had simply shouted the first thing that came into their heads.

It would have been stranger not to be angry.

“Do those Temple bastards seriously not understand how horrific and idiotic anti-intellectual trials are? They pull this shit every—”

“Enough, enough. I understand what makes you angry. Then is Berserk’s suspicion correct?”

“Archmage, shouldn’t you already know? There’s no way it is.”

Deeply contemplating why so many people in the world were complete morons, Meister waved a hand.

“If Grandfather let the Demon Knight go in exchange for him not killing anyone, then Grandfather wouldn’t be protecting the Demon Knight now.”

“…Protecting him?”

“What else do you call the excuse about targeting the wrong thing?”

Blue Coral could have claimed there had been no choice because the Demon Knight had threatened him.

Instead of waiting for the sleep spell to wear off, for the guards to awaken, and for them to report the escape, Blue Coral could have fired a spell into the air as a signal the instant the Demon Knight left.

No.

With Blue Coral’s mind, there probably had not even been a need to use a sleep spell.

It should have been possible to pretend to stop the escape while actually allowing it.

The situation could have ended through an unspoken transaction between only the two of them, without attracting anyone’s suspicion.

And yet Blue Coral had helped the Demon Knight while knowingly risking suspicion.

From Meister’s perspective, that was evidence in its own right.

Evidence of an innocence Blue Coral had chosen to protect even at personal cost.

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“That ultimately amounts to staking everything on someone else’s judgment.”

“How unpleasant. Referring to the judgment of someone capable of seeing the essence of things as ‘handing your judgment over to someone else’ is rather excessive, isn’t it? By that logic, the profession of appraiser should not exist anywhere in the world.”

Berserk’s minor objection was crushed again by one venomous sentence from Meister.

Her eyes narrowed.

“That’s enough.”

“……?”

“Have you heard enough?”

“I’ll ask the rest myself.”

“Wait, Sir Fighter!”

Then—

someone rose behind Berserk.

Naturally, Deathbringer, who had trusted Berserk and therefore failed to watch the man properly, sprang upright in alarm.

“You said you’d watch and tell us if he was waking up!”

“I said I would watch. I never said I would tell you.”

Deathbringer’s trust had been betrayed.

Rustle.

Meanwhile, Daniel pushed aside the white cloth that had fallen from his face when he sat up.

Apparently Berserk had kept a hand over his mouth for some time after he regained consciousness so he could not shout.

A faint handprint remained around his mouth.

Yet he did not find it unpleasant.

Because she had stopped him from moving, he had been able to listen to everything without anyone realizing he was awake.

And because he had heard that conversation, Daniel……

“Do you know how much of his memory the Demon Knight lost?”

He……

“Are you asking me?”

“Yes.”

“Why should I answer that?”

“You will need to.”

“Is that a threat?”

“I wonder.”

Daniel pressed down on the corners of his eyes as they threatened to heat up.

All the thoughts that had passed through his mind during the silence forced upon him tapped one after another at his consciousness.

Most of them were things he did not want to acknowledge.

“I lost my parents to a demon that wielded black flames. And because of this incident, I learned that the Demon Knight carries the black-flamed demon within him.”

And yet there were also things he wanted to believe.

“Tell me. I believe I have the right to know.”

Things like wanting to believe in the person Schutz—his young cousin—believed in.

“Did he kill my parents and then pretend before me that he knew nothing?”

Or wanting to hear an answer saying that he had not been deceived.

“Or did he genuinely say he did not know because he truly didn’t?”

Even though he knew the answer could not offer even the slightest comfort.

“…I don’t know that. It’s not like the man told me every detail of his life.”

“…….”

“But… I do think there’s a high chance he genuinely didn’t know.”

And yet……

“I see.”

And yet that one possibility allowed Daniel to endure.

That was enough.

“So that’s how it was.”

Daniel murmured emptily.

The resentment that had lost its destination became a thick hollowness pressing down on his shoulders.

He wanted to cry.

Or scream.

Or—

or……

“In the end, only that man knows the truth.”

“Well. I suppose so.”

But one thing was certain.

Daniel now had a reason to meet that man.

“I’ll keep quiet.”

“……?”

“You want me not to tell the Order about this, don’t you? I’m saying I’ll do that.”

“…We would certainly be grateful, but may I ask why?”

“Why…….”

Daniel considered what would happen if he reported this conversation.

Two Great Sages, one master craftsman, and two people without any particular formal status but who could hardly be ordinary considering they were companions of the Representative.

With that many people entangled, perhaps they would not be executed, but there would certainly be considerable trouble.

The Representative had not personally participated in this conversation, but even that person would probably suffer some difficulties.

Every companion traveling alongside the Representative would effectively have been accused of colluding with a demon.

“I do not want to believe that trusting someone is itself wrong.”

But had these people truly colluded with a demon?

Perhaps Great Sage Blue Coral was another matter, but these people merely wanted to discover why that man had fled.

Daniel replayed their conversation.

They simply wanted to believe.

Just as he himself now wanted to hold on to hope in that man until the very end.

“So… regardless of what the Demon Knight’s true nature ultimately proves to be, I will not report this matter.”

There would, however, have to be a condition.

Daniel forced the last of his voice through his parched throat.

“In exchange, allow me to come with you. I must see with my own eyes what becomes of this faith.”

* * *

[…Wait.]

And somewhere across the land, where an enormous serpent slithered soundlessly—

[Why is that here?]

[What……?]

Someone walking alone through the rain lifted their head.