307

Chapter 307: Tell Them (1)

I raced forward with the Meister seated behind me. Calling it a motorcycle was generous—it was an imitation with no fuel tank, engine, or muffler—but that did not matter. At the very least, it looked convincing, and it actually moved.

[…Haah.]

「W-wow….」

For the record, there was no special principle behind how this engine-less imitation moved. Just as a bicycle advanced when you pushed the pedals, I was simply turning its wheels directly with Demonic Energy.

I had expected it, but it consumed a truly filthy amount of Mana.

“What is it, what is it? What is this?!”

Yet even this simple and brutish method tremendously excited the engineer inside the Meister. There was no helping it after seeing an object like this in an age when horses were the finest means of transportation.

Sitting behind me, the Meister grabbed my clothes and shook me from side to side.

“Is this also the demon’s power?!”

“…It is an object from my homeland.”

“Is your homeland filled with nothing but lunatics who can control Mana like you?”

“Of course not.”

Mana and Demonic Energy did not even exist there in the first place. Worried that saying so might hurt the Meister, I swallowed the words and furrowed my brow, trying to remember the principles of an engine.

“Ordinarily… it contains a device called an engine. The engine receives fuel from a fuel tank and causes a series of small explosions inside….”

“It causes explosions?”

“…The force of those explosions turns gears. The rotating gears are connected to the wheels, making the wheels turn.”

Was that how it worked? I had only ever used machines, never shown any interest in their principles, so how would I know? I had hardly ever been interested in punk-themed settings either. They were difficult to draw.

“I do not know the details.”

When I flatly refused to explain any further, the Meister let out a thoughtful groan.

“It takes fuel and causes an explosion… The fuel won’t explode by itself, so there must be an ignition mechanism… No, before that, it would need to be made from a material capable of withstanding the explosions….”

Everything that followed was information I had not provided. Feeling an inexplicable chill, I worked even harder at turning the wheels. The body of the Behemoth I had killed came into view on the left, and on the right, the overturned ground and city wall began to appear precariously in the distance.

“Later, you’re going to tell me everything about the objects from your homeland.”

…I’m scared. I regretted showing the Meister the motorcycle. It had certainly been the best choice, since with a horse I would have needed to adjust every movement of its legs. Even so, frightening was frightening.

“If the Temple gives me the opportunity, I shall try.”

Squelch.

Using a massive hill as a ramp, I remained airborne for dozens of meters, then timed our landing and transformed Ratel’s wheels into a thin liquid. It was the next-best option, since I could not change the material into something elastic like rubber.

The wheels landed with a splat, regained their proper form, and smoothly rose again. I had given them a degree of viscosity; though they could not fully absorb the shock from the uneven ground, at least the ride did not rattle like a noisy empty cart.

“If an object like this became widespread, it would revolutionize transportation.”

“Not as much as the battery you were making.”

“…….”

If I remembered correctly, even motorcycles on Earth used batteries in their construction. The battery therefore won by default.

Without listening to the Meister’s response, I nodded to myself.

“Th—that.”

Jolt.

“That’s obvious.”

We happened to run over a large rock that was too awkward to avoid and too much for even the gelatinous wheels to absorb, and the motorcycle shook violently. The Meister’s words broke off and then resumed in time with the jolt.

“Ah, could you examine an item for me?”

Around then, I remembered something I could ask. I had temporarily forgotten the matter of my chest protector amid the revelation of the truth, the threat of dying from shame, and the discussion of my future.

“What?”

Using the inventory, I deftly passed over the protector still fitted to my chest.

“What is this?”

“A piece of equipment enchanted with explosion magic.”

“…But it’s a chest protector?”

“I had it made so I could kill myself before going berserk. In any case, I tried to use it recently, but it did not explode. Was the magic engraved properly?”

At my question, the Meister remained silent for a while. I could not tell whether they were examining the spell on the armor or had simply been rendered speechless by my explanation.

“…It isn’t an explosion. There’s protection magic on it. The circuit is so cleverly engraved that it would be easy to mistake it for something else.”

“…I see.”

Still, the Meister ultimately appraised it. It proved that the problem had not been me saying the keyword incorrectly.

“Do you want to change it?”

“I don’t know. Not yet. There is no longer any need.”

But why had White Wind deceived me? She had seemed to want me dead without any personal animosity.

“Still, I will have to question her about it.”

I sighed softly over White Wind’s utterly incomprehensible actions. It was true that her engraving a different spell had given me another chance, yet I felt strangely unsettled. Part of me was disappointed, and part of me felt uneasy. Something like that….

“…We’re almost there.”

In any event, not long afterward, we reached the Behemoth’s corpse, our intended destination. It was not especially far from the city wall, so there should be no problem walking the rest of the way.

“Go.”

“All right.”

For the record, we had agreed in advance that only the Meister would return to the city.

Leaving the Behemoth’s corpse unattended made me uneasy, and if I went toward the city, those inside might perceive it as a threat. Moreover, from this distance, even if they decided to treat me as an enemy, I could withdraw without being caught.

It was a choice made for convenience in several respects.

[Why don’t you leave even now? With the Demonic Energy you have left, you should be able to shake off the Hero with plenty to spare even if she follows you….]

Though when I thought of the collapsed wall and the soldiers sprawled out like remnants of a defeated army, I had to wonder whether they had enough strength left to pick a fight with me at all.

“Organize everything you remember about your homeland while you wait.”

More than anything, watching the Meister made me feel certain that, if only to satisfy their curiosity, they would find some way to persuade the Temple. Somehow, that was reassuring.

“…Give me the signal.”

“Yeah.”

Still, no one knew what might happen in this world. Repeating the signal we had decided upon for the worst-case scenario, I stopped the motorcycle an appropriate distance from the Behemoth’s corpse.

The Meister’s gradually receding back contrasted with the growing commotion at the wall as they approached it.

Rustle.

But there was little I could do about that. I turned my back on the wall and leaned against the motorcycle. Were Mr. Richa and the—what was he called—the Young Lord still alive?

With nothing else to do, my gaze swept discreetly across the top of the wall even as I drove away the insects.

「Ah….」

But Faust found him before I did. I heard a stifled gasp, and a beat later, I saw the dark blue hair. Splattered with blood, dust, and everything imaginable, the dark blue honestly looked closer to black.

“…He’s alive.”

But he was alive. That was what mattered. He had not died. Though he was standing only with someone else supporting him, he still remained upon this earth as a living person rather than a corpse.

And he was looking this way.

“…….”

Suddenly, I felt as though he was studying me. I could not even make out his face properly, yet strangely, I could feel his gaze with perfect clarity.

「…Ah.」

And that sensation must have been even stronger for Faust.

The sound of him swallowing his sobs echoed repeatedly through my head. It was the sound people often made when they covered their mouths and tried to suppress even the breath escaping them.

[How noisy….]

‘He’s less noisy than you, so shut up.’

How long had it taken that child to learn to cry without making a sound?

Even as I tried to calculate it, I did not rashly console the boy. I could not begin to estimate the magnitude of the emotions he was feeling now.

In practical terms, I did not have the room for it either.

No matter how positively I tried to look at things, the situation was still what it was.

Deciding, as the victim, to accept the perpetrator. Running here and there trying to save people in the middle of it all. The enormous emotions of the Inquisitor who had intruded amid those circumstances. The bomb I had forced down after endless stray thoughts, only for it to fizzle in an anticlimax….

I was doing my best to take everything lightly, lightly, but I was nearing my limit. Keeping silent to give the boy enough distance to cry in peace was the sole best thing I could manage.

[What’s wrong? Are you beginning to regret it?]

But the demon lightly prodded that weak point. She truly was an expert at finding a person’s vulnerability. Though the fact that she gouged at it for her own benefit rather than offering comfort made her irredeemable trash.

‘Why? Do you want me to regret it?’

[So you do regret it.]

Had she been fishing for a reaction? It was a meaningless attempt.

Honestly, as long as I was human, it was impossible not to feel that way at all. Calling it foreign volunteer work did not make nine years a short period of time.

[At the same time, you truly regret that the bomb did not go off.]

Of course, even if I turned back time, I would not choose differently. Feeling regret did not make the best choice cease to be the best choice.

But… did I really need to spell every last detail out? I turned my gaze from the grinning demon. Her laughter grew higher.

[Ah, Gretchen. You truly are…]

‘Enough. What was that business with regenerating the clothes earlier?’

I did not want to listen to that laughter for long. With an indifferent expression, I cut her off.

[I don’t know what you mean.]

‘When my body regenerated earlier, my clothes came back too. What was that?’

Smack. An insect clinging to my neck burst beneath my palm.

[Ah, that. Think about how this body is currently composed mostly of Demonic Energy, and the answer should be obvious.]

‘…The clothes are also part of the body?’

[Yes.]

My mind stopped for a moment.

‘…Seriously?’

Being told that my clothes were my body made me feel strange. With my mouth filled by that unpleasant sensation, I fingered the hem of my clothes.

‘This is really part of the body too?’

It truly felt rather wrong.

[…What bizarre thought are you entertaining? As an analogy, those clothes are no different from the shell a conch or clam carries. If you compared them to a human body part, they would be like hair or fingernails and toenails.]

‘No, even so….’

Calling them the shell of a conch or clam did make it slightly better… Hmm. I did not know. I let go of the fabric.

‘But why not wear real clothes?’

[Do you think clothes with that design—clothes even enchanted with restoration and automatic cleaning magic—actually exist?]

‘Ah.’

So it was simply for convenience. I nodded before I knew it, persuaded.

‘Right, then how did you match the design?’

[I used the game you were about to play as a reference.]

But with the following words, the weight of the answer changed somewhat.

Read only on MUGEX

‘…How did you know about that game?’

I brought out a question I had forgotten for a while, yet had carried ever since realizing that this world was reality.

‘And why does this world resemble that game?’

I had truly wanted to ask.

[First, I knew about the game because I read part of your memories. Second, even I do not know why that game and this world resemble each other.]

But the answer I received was not particularly clear. That was especially true of the answer to the second question. My hand tightened.

‘Set aside the part about reading my memories for now. Why is your second answer so useless?’

[If I don’t know something, should I not say I don’t know? Would you rather I claim I do? More importantly, surely you yourself once said, ‘If a coincidence can be explained, is it still a coincidence?’]

‘So you’re saying the resemblance between Legend of Heroes and this world truly is a coincidence?’

[Yes.]

To have my own past words returned to me—was this revenge for earlier? I repeatedly clenched and opened my hand as even that thought occurred. It was not that I had failed to understand her words, but I still found them difficult to accept.

[You look utterly incapable of accepting it. Yes, that’s understandable. It is suspicious for a coincidence.]

‘If you understand, then give me something convincing.’

[Why should I? You take only what you want from me and refuse to move according to my wishes.]

‘You bastard who pawned your conscience for scrap. Fine. If you don’t want to tell me, forget it. I’m the idiot for asking you.’

Even so, I did not want the answer badly enough to cling desperately to that bastard. The same went for the traces of my homeland she openly displayed as though begging me to ask about them.

I readily gave up on hearing the answer, and a short while later, the demon spoke.

[You truly irritate me, and I loathe you. Yet even so, I hold you dear. I can at least tell you what I suspect.]

‘I thought you didn’t want to tell me?’

[I told you just now. I will tell you because I hold you dear.]

‘Did you eat something strange when I wasn’t looking…?’

I tried to identify the intent behind the attitude that had reversed in such a short span of time. Well, strictly speaking, she had answered me faithfully every time I asked something, so it was difficult to say her attitude had truly reversed….

[So, do you not want to hear it? My dear Gretchen.]

Still, I did not think it was kindness without a reason. As far as I knew, people of her type did not give up or reform after a single defeat. Just as she had struggled alone earlier when she mistakenly believed she had been cornered at the very end.

[Should I truly say nothing?]

I looked at the demon smiling faintly, at the durumagi and modern suit she wore. I recalled the game knowledge she had casually mentioned, and the moment when, while everyone else said something was fucked, she alone had used a different expression for it.

‘If you’re that confident, entertain me. Let’s see how well you can run your mouth.’

Was it not truly cunning? Instead of openly emphasizing that she came from the same place, she subtly let me know and tried to plant a sense of familiarity.

Even if she came from the same homeland, I had no intention of forgiving her.

[Oh dear. Unfortunately, I am not confident I can meet your standards. As I said before, what I am about to tell you is only my speculation. I do not know whether it is the true answer.]

‘Don’t worry. I’ll filter whatever comes off your tongue myself.’

[Oh, then that’s a relief.]

In any case, I thought there were two main reasons she was behaving like this now.

[Then shall I first explain the circumstances under which you were summoned? But Gretchen, understand this much. We did not personally choose the one to summon. We merely presented the conditions each of us desired.]

First, perhaps she was compelled to cooperate even when she did not want to, and thus had decided to build an image of cooperation at least.

[The one who selected the candidate matching those conditions was the ancient magic. What is also called the ancient rule, the supreme law, judged you to be the most suitable.]

Second, perhaps she intended to mix lies into the appearance of cooperation and stab me in the back at a critical moment.

‘So the fact that I was chosen wasn’t your fault?’

[We were not the ones who selected you.]

‘Fine, let’s say that’s true. What were the conditions that led to my selection?’

[The boy requested someone who would not be defeated by evil, while I wished for someone who placed their homeland above this place. The boy sought someone who would triumph over demons, while I desired a capable person who could survive here. Of course, I overlooked the fact that a capable person who can survive and a capable person who wants to live are separate things, which resulted in the summoning of someone like you…]

Of course, this could simply be my prejudice, so I was not certain. But what did it matter? It was easier never to hope at all than to place my hopes in something and be betrayed.

Keeping that firmly in mind, I asked another question.

‘Judging by those conditions alone, there doesn’t seem to be any reason it had to be me.’

[Well. Is that truly so? Gretchen, what do you think is the greatest advantage one can possess for survival?]

‘Combat power?’

[Not an incorrect answer, but there should be something more certain than that.]

‘…Information?’

[Yes. Information. Information is the greatest power of all. In that respect, the resemblance between the game you know and this world is no great mystery. There are more dimensions than can be counted, and one dimension might exist in a form resembling the prose or games of some other world. What truly matters is that by playing a work resembling this world, you obtained something that could serve as information.]

‘…Fuck. So I ended up like this because I played Legend of Heroes.’

[As I said earlier, this is only my speculation.]

‘Right. Of course it is….’

But even knowing the information might be laced with poison could not prevent the sudden wave of disillusionment.

After all, who could have known that liking one game would fuck me over this badly? Of course, that might not have been the real cause. Even so.

‘This is so fucking awful….’

The game company and the game itself seemed to have done nothing wrong, but even so, I did not think I could continue loving Legend of Heroes.

Silently, I bade farewell to my memories.

“If there are no longer any injuries to treat, then there is no need to dispatch personnel.”

Meanwhile, as someone bade farewell to his memories, the Meister atop the wall heard those words from the bishop.

The Meister had explained that once they replenished his Mana, he somehow restored his own body, and that he had not come to the wall because he was worried someone might steal that fat demon’s corpse. As an added bonus, the relieved expressions of the Inquisitor and Deathbringer had each distorted in their own way upon hearing it.

“See here, Bishop. Even so…!”

“Then we will continue with treatment and purification.”

But even those distorted expressions froze at the words that followed.

“We have already wasted a great deal of time.”

“Bishop…?”

The bishop added nothing whatsoever regarding how the Demon Knight should be treated. It was as though the bishop were tolerating his existence.

“Do you mean…?”

“Representative, I do not know him, and because I do not know him, I was wary. But if you go so far as to speak for him, then it should be all right.”

“…….”

“But Representative, remember this: it is precisely because you would relinquish the title of Hero to save an innocent person that you are called the Hero.”

Of course, the bishop making this choice now did not guarantee that the Temple would react the same way later.

Perhaps even the bishop was merely changing the subject because the present crisis was urgent and would reverse course later.

“Then we shall attend to our own work, Young Lord.”

But for the moment, his existence had been tolerated. The Inquisitor had not been condemned for saving him. That delighted her.

“I-I will go save people as well…!”

The young woman followed the bishop toward the ward with tears gathering in her eyes.

“Whenever things work out this smoothly, something always happens….”

“…What is with that ominous remark? Though I agree.”

“Seeing the bishop accept it so readily, maybe that bastard Daniel is planning to raise hell.”

“Ah, don’t you know words can become reality? Watch what you say.”

Though the incarnations of distrust left behind still wore grim expressions even under these circumstances.