Chapter 304: Proof (9)
Even after the outrage of seeing a masterpiece ground away before its creator’s very eyes, the Meister somehow regained their composure. That absolutely did not mean they were any less angry.
It was simply that the sight that followed aroused curiosity even greater than their rage.
“That….”
The Meister watched a torrent of energy that no human could ever hope to imitate form around the Demon Knight’s body. The current was fierce enough to see even without their glasses.
Crunch, crack.
Within that current, the Demon Knight’s body slowly began to change. His arms and legs, buried beneath the earth and crushed, began to melt like water and blaze like fire.
Ssssh. The parts of his body that had dissolved into liquid Demonic Energy annihilated the obstacles around them, then gathered back together in their original places. It looked little different from rebuilding a broken clay doll.
The blood and flesh stuck to the ground were kneaded by Demonic Energy and recovered their original forms. In other words, the leg the Meister had believed would never be usable again was restored perfectly.
Nor was that all. New flesh swelled up and regenerated the scratches and torn wounds as well. The blood shed in the process disappeared, while his tattered clothes were engulfed in flames and recreated in a new form.
“That’s cheating.”
Soon, the Demon Knight had completely returned to his usual state. The Meister’s assessment after watching the entire process could be summed up in two words.
“…I won’t deny it.”
Though the assessment was brief, the Demon Knight expressed a measure of agreement. It was also his way of voicing his disapproval of a Great Demon—not even some low-ranking demon—possessing this absurd degree of regenerative power. If every Great Demon had abilities like this, humanity would be in tremendous trouble.
“So why do you have that sword?”
“…I only learned I had it just now.”
“Is there anything you actually know?”
“Who knows….”
Has he still not recovered his memories? While the Meister wondered, the Demon Knight rose and briskly dusted off his clothes.
“Why are you here?”
It was slightly amusing that, setting everything else aside, this was the first thing he asked. Though it was understandable that he would be curious.
“Because I started traveling with the Hero?”
“You did…?”
“I thought traveling with her would be the fastest way to meet you again.”
“…Me?”
The Meister shrugged and pointed to the objects attached all over the Demon Knight’s clothes. Had he consciously regenerated them, or had he done it without knowing? Either way, it was impressive that the accessories had remained fastened to his clothes.
“Once I’ve accepted payment, I have to deliver the commission.”
“…What are these?”
“Equipment that filters Divine Power. You can leave off one or two, but wear all of them if you can. The effect applies separately to each part of the body.”
While they were at it, the Meister handed him the item shaped like an earring as well. A dangling earring or hoop would neither suit him nor be something he wanted to wear, so the Meister had made it as small as possible, in the form of a stud.
Though seeing the ear cuff he already wore on the rim of his ear made the Meister think that style might have been fine after all.
“More importantly, when I didn’t hear any reports of sightings, I thought you’d been sticking to remote mountain villages. But it looks like you were traveling in disguise instead?”
“……?”
At the questioning look in his eyes, the Meister tapped the corner of their own mouth. On the Demon Knight, it was the place where the scar had originally been. It seemed he had concealed it with a magic item for now.
“Ah.”
The Demon Knight’s hand moved to his ear cuff. Click. The instant he removed it, the scar appeared beside his mouth.
“I didn’t know you were capable of disguising yourself.”
“…….”
It was surprising, but also easy enough to understand. His distinctive features were far too unusual. With him on the run, hiding them must have been his only option.
“Enough of that. If you don’t know why you had my weapons, then at least tell me why you destroyed them. Did you absolutely have to do that in front of their creator?”
Whatever else happened, the Meister at least wanted to hear why the swords had to be destroyed before their very eyes. With unyielding persistence, the Meister dragged the conversation back to the earlier subject. The Demon Knight moved his lips with an ambiguous expression.
“The weapons vanished because they were offered as sacrifices for my recovery….”
“So it seems human sacrifices aren’t the only ones that work.”
“As long as the offering possesses value.”
“Hmm.”
“…And the reason I had them was probably the demon. If it secretly set them aside to use as a hidden card in Bemurchen, then naturally I wouldn’t have known.”
Fortunately, this time the answer was reasonably convincing. The Meister’s eyes narrowed.
“But you still haven’t recovered the memories you lost?”
“…No. I’ve recovered some of them.”
“Then did you escape prison to find the rest?”
“…Yes.”
The silence before his first answer had lasted one second, while the silence before his second had been closer to three. At that point, it had not been a pause to choose his words. It had come from his struggle to decide whether to say it at all.
“Did you find what you wanted?”
“Yes.”
“Then you’ll be leaving again now?”
But the Meister understood those feelings well enough. They thought of the Demon Knight’s situation and what he would face.
The Hero had ultimately been unable to harm the Demon Knight, but the Temple would be different. This man must have known that as well, which was why he had waited until after sending the Hero away before restoring his body.
“…I….”
“I don’t care. I can just say you suddenly came back to life and ran away.”
Some might be suspicious, but that suspicion would not tighten a noose around the Meister’s neck. There was not a single shred of evidence.
“But before you leave, answer this.”
Before letting the Demon Knight go, however, the Meister raised the decisive question that had led them to join this party. They had to hear the answer, even if it killed them.
“Why did Grandpa help you?”
“……?”
“Why did Mr. Blue Coral say he had no choice but to release you—that he had no right to stop you?”
“…He said that?”
The Demon Knight squeezed his eyes shut several times, then finally let his eyelids fall closed. A span of time neither long nor short tickled past them and left.
“Why?”
“You may be someone I can tell….”
Then, the instant the Demon Knight opened his mismatched eyes, the Meister waited for the answer.
“I am not the soul that originally lived in this body.”
“…What?”
Even if that answer was wholly unexpected.
Clatter. The multipurpose knife fell to the ground.
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I ignored the demon, who had the nerve to complain that I had locked her away again as soon as she replenished my Mana. I had already expected her to have a hidden card, but the fact that she truly had concealed one made me realize all over again that this bastard should never be given an opportunity.
“What the…?”
Besides, I had just made something of a bombshell confession. I calmly regarded the Meister’s contorted expression.
For the record, brief though my statement had been, I had made the decision only after deep deliberation.
“The original owner of this body tried to stop the demon, but lacked the strength to do so alone and decided to borrow another person’s power. As a result, I entered this body.”
The reason was simple: if I wanted to reassure the Inquisitor that she did not need to kill me, I also had to give her sufficient grounds to believe it. And as grounds, ‘Circumstances led to this, so it is safe now’ was far more persuasive than, ‘I can suddenly control the demon.’
The fact that I had heard most of the truth and would soon be able to hear the rest also contributed to my confession. In the past, I had not dared invent an explanation, because I would have been in trouble if a truth contradicting it came to light. But that was no longer the case, was it?
“So… something like a summoning ritual was performed on you? On your soul?”
“…You understand quickly.”
Of course, it would probably be fine even if I left without persuading the Inquisitor. If I secluded myself in some remote mountain village, surviving the next nine years would not be entirely impossible.
But I did not want that. Whatever the next nine years held, I wanted to properly mend the relationship between the girl and me before I left.
It would have been one thing if I had never known. Now that I did, I could not leave after wounding a child who was already hurt yet again.
“Oh, it wasn’t anything major. Long ago, there was a study that asked whether the tide of a war might improve if the greatest veteran warriors in history were summoned into new bodies and deployed in battle. Ah, you know the ‘heroes’ I mean aren’t the Hero recognized by the Temple, right? I’m talking about historical champions.”
But the story I heard amid that determination was truly absurd.
Summoning historical heroes and making them fight? That was exactly like that game. The one that turned King Arthur into a woman.
“…That sounds disrespectful to the dead.”
“They’ll cut open the bodies of living people. Do you think they’d balk at abducting one dead person’s soul?”
“So, did it succeed?”
“Do you think it did?”
The fact that it had failed was something of a relief. It might have been unfortunate for present-day humanity, but asking people to keep working even after death was going too far.
“But if you were summoned that way, then why are your memories…?”
“…It was the demon’s doing. During the process of summoning me into this body, it scattered most of the memories I possessed. Not only that, it also mixed in the original owner’s memories….”
In any case, I quickly gave the Meister the excuse I had prepared in response to the question. Whatever else happened, I could never confess to the whole staying-in-character thing. I absolutely refused to die of shame.
「……?」
…Wait. Now that I think about it, he’s here. The demon must know about it too.
I staggered as I looked at the miniature boy attached to my forearm—he had come out earlier to explain the weapon sacrifice. F-f-f-fuck.
「U-um…? A-are you hurt somewhere?」
“What is it? Did something go wrong?”
“…No.”
Clenching my teeth, I covered the face that was on the verge of bursting into flames. He saw everything I did at the beginning. I even acted like a demon in Jacrati, and these two saw all of it?
I suddenly wanted to die. Of course I did, when I had learned that this little kid had watched that entire ridiculous performance. Forget crawling into a mouse hole; I wanted to bury my nose in a plate and die.
「I-is the demon doing something? I’m sorry. I should have kept a closer watch….」
I should have just died earlier. I feel truly sorry toward the Inquisitor, but I should have simply died!! I squeezed my eyes shut against the mortifying and deplorable reality. I felt like crying. Not as a joke, but genuinely.
「I’ll go inside and keep watch for now. I’m really sorry….」
And Faust blaming himself first made it hurt even more. That’s not the problem. That’s not the problem….
“Are you sure something didn’t go wrong?”
“…I’m f-fine.”
I’m not fine. I want to die.
Even after Faust disappeared, I repeatedly scrubbed both hands over my face as an even harsher wave of mortification struck me. Somehow, this seemed more painful than when I learned the truth behind the contract. Probably because the other matter had been someone else’s fault, which meant I could resent them, while this one was my fault, so I could not even do that.
“Fine, whatever. So what effect did mixing the memories have?”
“…Because of it, I lived for a time shackled to only those memories I possessed.”
Fortunately, the Meister did not pursue the truth all the way. The returning conversation topic offered me some small measure of salvation. My shame still had not subsided, but this was at least one grain of sand better.
“And in Bemurchen, you realized they weren’t your memories?”
“The Tower Master Blue Coral played a large part. I had felt something was amiss even before then, but without Blue Coral, it would have taken me longer to notice.”
At least the excuse itself was coming together rather well, even in the middle of all this. No, in truth, it was the truth itself, so there was no reason it would not.
Honestly, what I was saying now was not all that different from the truth.
Indeed, it was true that in the beginning I had not known I had been summoned into this body. It was also true that I possessed the original owner’s memories—even if they were merely settings provided by the game company—and that I had spent the past year clinging to those settings.
There was as much distance between the two as there was between acting voluntarily and being forced, since it was not that those were the only memories I had and thus I clung to them, but that I had those memories and tried clinging to them.
It was an excuse based on fact, merely with a slight distortion.
Therefore, in this respect, I could hold my head high. I genuinely could.
[You cover your tracks well.]
Fuck, no. I want to die.
“Be silent before I kill you, demon….”
“……?”
I raised the hand I had finally lowered and hid my face again. This was truly humiliating….
“Is the demon speaking to you?”
“…Yes.”
“Any possibility it could lead to a problem, like going berserk?”
“None. Absolutely none.”
“Looks like you can control it now.”
“Yes. Then that’s good enough.”
Ah. When embarrassment broke through its upper limit, did one instead become detached? I answered bitterly, my mind approaching enlightenment.
At least it was a great relief that the person in front of me was the Meister.
“More importantly, when you realized there was something strange about your memories, why didn’t you tell the people around you? Even if the others wouldn’t, surely your party would have believed you.”
As I said earlier, the Meister did not cling to matters I refused to discuss. Having them sharply stab at weak points could be somewhat troublesome, but it also made it easy to change the subject.
“…I believed that telling them might earn me some sympathy, but would not spare me from execution. In the worst case, I thought it might be regarded as a demon’s deception.”
“True. It pisses you off when someone says all that crap about feeling sorry for you when they aren’t going to help. But it seems you don’t think that now?”
“You are a coolheaded and rational person. I believed you would objectively judge whether my words were valid and realistic. Without empirical evidence, perfect trust would be impossible, but I believed you would at least give me the opportunity to prove them.”
And when the Meister pointed out weak points, it was not necessarily bad, considering that those very points allowed me to improve the quality of my explanation. By answering, I built a still more solid defense.
“That’s right.”
Looking somehow pleased, the Meister nodded.