305

Chapter 305: Proof (10)

“Still, just as you said, the lack of empirical evidence is definitely a problem. I’m the sort of person who doesn’t particularly care whether you truly came to control the demon or the demon is merely acting out two personalities, so I can let it pass. But the Temple certainly won’t.”

The Meister’s satisfied expression did not last long. Their face turned solemn as they offered me a perfectly reasonable objection.

“Or perhaps the Hero who’s sobbing that she simply can’t kill you will persuade the Temple?”

“Who knows….”

But that objection was something I had already considered. I could make all the verbal excuses I wanted, but producing tangible evidence was impossible. A contract was not something that could be seen from the outside.

“If there’s no evidence yet, we can set that aside. Why didn’t the original owner tell you the truth after you lost your memories? If he had spoken, you wouldn’t have needed to wander around searching for it.”

While I remained silent because I could not think of a good solution, the Meister brought up another question. I caught a glimpse of their desire to satisfy every last bit of curiosity before the Inquisitor and the others returned.

“…The demon’s scheme had also left him unable to contact me. He said that every time he tried to tell me something, it instead became harmful to me, so he had no choice but to remain silent.”

“Wow, that’s fucked.”

The Meister offered a simple and elegant response to every explanation I gave.

“It is.”

I did not deny it. Pitying Faust was one thing. The fact that the entire course of events had been fucked was another.

Damn it, if that kid had explained things before bringing me here, I wouldn’t have accumulated this kind of shameful history….

“Ah, right. Then was the sole reason Grandpa said he had no right because you were a summoned soul…?”

“Why are you making that face?”

“No, it’s not that it doesn’t make sense… It just feels like something is missing. Grandpa isn’t the kind of person who would back off simply because you were a summoned soul—in other words, the soul of a third party.”

…There was a slight distortion in my account, but there were no circumstances besides that. The only other things Blue Coral knew were that my soul came from another world and that I had been dragged here out of nowhere. Wasn’t that all? Or had Blue Coral noticed something else?

“Nothing further occurs to me.”

I tried to gauge Blue Coral’s thoughts, but gave up when I could not begin to understand them. In any case, it was not particularly important. Judging by the fact that Blue Coral had told even their grandchild only that they had ‘no right to detain him,’ they seemed to be keeping my secret as promised.

“All right.”

At my response, the Meister took a step back as well. They seemed to have realized, at least, that there was nothing more to interrogate me about.

Silence briefly filled the space between my disillusioned self and the Meister as they considered their next question.

“…So what are you going to do now? Now that you know you’re a summoned soul, are you going to undo the summoning?”

“I’ve already found a way to undo it.”

“It must be difficult?”

As always, the Meister read several facts from a single remark and skipped over multiple sentences. From the word ‘found,’ they inferred that I could not undo it immediately and asked about the difficulty.

“Or does undoing it cause a problem with the demon?”

“No. If I undo the summoning properly… the demon will cease to be a problem.”

Now that I had bound it through the contract, I doubted the demon would become a problem under most circumstances. I might die of shame over my ruined dignity before that happened, but the demon itself would have difficulty causing trouble as it had until now.

So the demon was not the problem. At least, it was not the only problem.

“…I merely wish to apologize for the trouble I caused people while my memories were incomplete.”

How I would spend the next nine years, and everything else, were problems.

“…Is that really something you need to apologize for?”

“A wrong does not cease to be wrong simply because it was not intentional. Once you learn that something is wrong, you should correct it at once—or, if it cannot be corrected, you should at least show the will to address the consequences. That is the only reason I wish to apologize.”

If I could be absolved of the atrocious behavior caused by my persona simply because I had not truly intended it, then the same logic would have to apply to Faust. The child had simply been foolish and made the wrong contract. He had not deliberately tried to ruin my life either.

But who could declare to Faust, ‘It was not your choice, so it was not a sin’?

My deciding to give the child a chance and the child being found innocent were separate matters. Just as intent and a victim could exist separately.

In other words, even if something was not intended, one had to apologize if it created a victim. Therefore, I would apologize as well. Rules should not change according to whether a sin was deep or shallow.

“You make life exhausting for yourself. Well, do what you want.”

[…You fucking pushover. Seriously?]

I thought this was not making life exhausting, but simply living as one ought to live. At the Meister’s lukewarm reaction and the demon’s words ringing through my head, I slowly blinked.

“Which is why I want to ask for your help.”

“What?”

“You said it yourself a moment ago. If we have no evidence with which to persuade the Temple, there will be a problem.”

“…You want me to help find evidence?”

“Yes.”

For the record, this was also why I had confessed to the Meister first. Damn it, I needed tangible evidence to abandon the persona, but finding it alone was too difficult.

“You’re certain you’re properly controlling the demon, right?”

[You lunatic, are you really planning to rejoin the Hero—]

「Shut up. I’m sorry. I’ll find some way to keep her quiet.」

[Let go of me, you damned brat—!!]

“…Yes.”

At the Meister’s question, I stared into the distance for a moment. My head was noisy as hell.

“And there’ll be no visual way to confirm that you’re controlling it.”

[Don’t you dare think about going back to the city—!]

「Be quiet!」

[Don’t pull my hair, you damned child!]

“…If the fact that you and I are conversing without issue can be used as evidence, or if they can look inside my head, then perhaps we could salvage something.”

Meanwhile, at my little joke, the Meister gave me a look that said, As if that would be enough. A shrug came as an added bonus.

“We can exclude switching places like you did earlier. Some idiot will inevitably claim it’s a deception. Proving that three souls reside inside one body is technically impossible. They’ll try to reject Grandpa’s testimony because there are indications he protected you… In that case, what about proving your identity before you were summoned?”

“That will be difficult.”

“Will it? Well, they likely wouldn’t believe that either. Personal records are easy to forge.”

Forging had nothing to do with it. It was difficult because I simply came from another world… At the Meister’s words, I only shifted my eyes slightly.

“Ah, now that I think about it, you said everything—including the demon—would be fine if you undid the summoning normally. What is the method?”

“…Either I die, or I endure nine years without falling into corruption.”

“Leave out the former if the Temple asks. They’ll try to kill you without question.”

“All right.”

“And the latter… nine years without corruption. That condition is rather vague. What constitutes corruption?”

Who knows. Now that I thought about it, I had never properly heard that either.

I raised a hand to ask the Meister to wait, then closed my eyes and concentrated.

‘Can you hear me? If you can, explain the condition for corruption.’

They had said that if I thought something forcefully enough, it would be conveyed to them even if I did not mutter it aloud. I wondered whether it would work.

「Ah, one moment. The condition for corruption is….」

Fortunately, it seemed to have reached him. Faust, who had been tussling with the demon, focused on me.

「For you to say, while in your right mind or with the utmost sincerity, ‘I wish this entire world would be destroyed.’」

‘…A trick like paraphrasing it won’t work, will it?’

「No….」

Right. It took one to know one. A bastard who had made such effective use of loopholes could hardly have overlooked that. I furrowed my brow with a trace of irritation and, despite it, relief.

As if the day would ever come when I said something like that. As a bonus, I muttered the kind of sentence that would have been called a flag if this were a story.

“It seems the condition for corruption is for me to say, with sincerity, ‘I wish this entire world would be destroyed.’”

But there was no helping it. What could possibly make me say such a thing? Even when my leg had been destroyed, I had never directed my resentment at the world.

“What if you say it while leaving out one letter?”

“Regrettably, no.”

This Meister bastard came up with the same trick I did. Right. People all thought alike.

“In any case, the condition is to last nine years without saying that. If so….”

“Did something occur to you?”

“Hey, how about this instead?”

Read only on MUGEX

In any event, the Meister seemed to have found a solution within that condition and briefly explained it.

“…What do you think?”

“…There are some elements that violate my human rights, but it seems sound.”

It was exactly as stated: there were elements that violated my human rights, but it was better than I had expected. I nodded to express my approval.

Even on the way back to the city wall, the Inquisitor cried until her cheeks seemed ready to burst.

“She’s going to be carried away for dehydration at this rate.”

She did not stop even when Deathbringer recoiled in disgust. Having suppressed her emotions for so long, she poured them out in torrents. Her eyes, swollen until they had narrowed to tiny slits, drew on every drop of moisture in her body as though even that were not enough.

“Th-they’ve returned!”

Seeing the people atop the wall welcome her, the Inquisitor burst into tears all over again. She could not help it, because she knew their expectations were directed at the ‘Hero.’ She had ended up betraying those expectations.

“H-Hero, why…?”

“I—I. Iiiii….”

One of the priests who had been treating the soldiers ran over in alarm, but the Inquisitor could not easily continue. Sniff. No matter how often she sucked it back, mucus kept coming, passing her lips and gathering on her chin.

The priest floundered in confusion, then offered her the edge of their robe.

“If you failed to catch the demon, it is all ri—”

“Waaaaaah!”

If she were crying because the demon had escaped, then at least she would have been able to face these people. She was crying because that was not the reason. At the priest’s remark, she broke down yet again.

“Turns out she wasn’t a goody-two-shoes, just a crybaby.”

Beside her, Deathbringer shook his head while tending to the horses.

“Enough of that. We need mages capable of healing magic immediately.”

“Why are you seeking them…?”

“Because we need them, obviously! Where are they? We have to bring as many as possible.”

Even if he said they were going to treat the Demon Knight, no one would volunteer. Before that, they had to finish everything before that old geezer Daniel arrived. Taking both facts into account, Deathbringer made his request as though barking an order.

The command personnel who had been running over to assess the situation adopted ambiguous expressions.

“Many people here are also in urgent need of a mage’s healing. All the more so because most of the priests have gone to purify the plague. Unless you properly explain the reason, it will be difficult to grant the request, even if it comes from the Hero.”

“Ah, seriously, why are you making this so frustrat—”

“I-I will. I will purify—hic—every—sob—thing.”

But only when it came to treating those who did not harbor Demonic Energy—or merely performing purification—there was someone here capable of ending the manpower shortage.

“I’ll perform the purification—hic—so….”

In exchange for volunteering to fill the gap, the Inquisitor asked them to dispatch the personnel her absence would free. It was not an entirely impossible request.

If the Inquisitor used all her strength, she could treat a third of the wounded soldiers in the city. Simple purification went without saying. If she placed the treatment of individuals second, even purifying the entire city was not impossible for her.

“Then first, we must report this to our superiors….”

But although the people here belonged to the commanding ranks, they were not the ones at the very top. Faced with a request they lacked the authority to decide, they asked for time. Deathbringer’s face reddened.

“We don’t have time for—!”

“What is happening?”

Fortunately, before Deathbringer could explode, someone with the authority to decide arrived. More precisely, he approached with a limp while leaning on another person for support.

It was the Young Lord who had lent them the horses.

“You are….”

Perhaps because they had met in person when Deathbringer requested the horses, the Young Lord recognized him immediately. Maybe because of the final words Deathbringer had left—『We are going to bring back the man who was clinging to the Great Demon’s body』—the Young Lord’s gaze repeatedly swept beside and behind him.

“And he? Where is he? Did you bring him back?”

“Not yet. We did find him, but his injuries are so severe that we need someone who can treat him.”

“His injuries…?”

“A priest won’t do. We need a mage capable of healing magic.”

At Deathbringer’s explanation, the Young Lord opened his mouth, face deathly pale.

“Then send someone at—”

“Young Lord.”

But the moment the person supporting him called to him quietly, the Young Lord closed his mouth again before granting permission. It was the reflexive response of someone who had been criticized all his life.

“You must not decide emotionally.”

“But, Knight Topaz.”

“Are you judging rationally right now?”

“Th-that….”

Though the nitpicking was infuriating, it was not something a knight had no grounds to say. Regardless of whom they were helping, drawing away the city’s manpower was a matter that required careful consideration.

Even so, the Young Lord trembled conspicuously before that rebuke. The knight had used neither an aggressive tone nor a gaze meant to humiliate him, yet still he trembled.

His furrowed brow and contorted eyes quivered pitifully, as though they might shatter at any moment.

“The goody—no, the Hero will fill the mages’ places.”

But to Deathbringer, the Young Lord’s condition was not especially important. The permission he could give mattered far more.

“So don’t worry about the shortage of personnel and—”

“What does that mean?”

And so he pressed on as though urging the man to hurry, only for a new fighter to enter the ring. One missing arm and the Temple’s emblem, stained but still unmistakable. This was no ordinary priest, at the very least.

“Whom do you intend to dispatch the mages to save?”

Hic. Though she had steeled herself, the Inquisitor choked on a breath at the question the Order finally thrust before her.