231

Chapter 231: Full of Agony (4)

Kkwaak.

Archmage slightly furrowed her brow at the cry of the turtle Berserk had left in her care.

“Is it crying because it’s hungry…?”

It had been crying nonstop for a while now, but she had no idea what it meant. After all, Archmage had never once raised an animal except for those used in experiments.

In other words, she possessed no knowledge whatsoever of what an animal’s cries might mean. All the more so when it came to a turtle, which was hardly ever used in experiments.

Kkwek.

Meanwhile, the turtle slowly crawled along, trying to escape the ward. It was heading in the direction Berserk had left after offering to lend a hand when complaints of manpower shortages began pouring in from all sides.

“Where do you think you’re going?”

Kkuek.

Its intentions were admirable, but she could not let it go.

She picked up the turtle and placed it back on her lap. She had little choice. It could be stepped on and killed by the people rushing around everywhere, or, with one wrong turn, it might be treated as food and wind up in a cooking pot.

“If you don’t want to become turtle soup, stay still.”

Indeed, with all manner of problems already piling up, the food shortage had now become serious enough that people were even contemplating slaughtering those expensive warhorses for meat—of course, they probably would not actually do it. The horses were more valuable as transportation.

But in circumstances like these, there was no way a young turtle would be exempt from being treated as food. It was far more likely to end up in a pot before a warhorse ever did.

They had to be careful.

Kkwek….

Whether by coincidence or because the turtle had genuinely understood what she said, it made no further attempts to escape her lap after that.

It merely continued crying without end.

“Archmage, please eat.”

“Ah, thank you.”

At last, a moment came when she could catch her breath. No matter how urgent the situation was, the healers were human too, and mealtimes were something they absolutely had to be given.

“So there was still something left to cook with.”

“Half the city is still standing, after all.”

The person distributing the food shrugged.

What came out of the person’s mouth was merely another way of saying that they had requisitioned supplies from houses whose owners were absent.

Well, with half the city having vanished and every resident evacuated in an unprecedented disaster, there probably was not anyone who would get angry that their home had been raided without permission.

“But even this won’t last us much longer….”

There was a limit to how many supplies they could gather from the houses that remained. The distance between the city and the refuge was one problem, and not every household kept food stockpiled.

On top of that, moving supplies required manpower.

Considering that most of the problems currently plaguing them were already suffering from a shortage of labor, it was an utterly hopeless situation.

“It can’t be helped.”

But not even a mage had the ability to conjure nonexistent manpower out of thin air.

Archmage lamented that fact as she brought a spoonful of soup to her mouth.

Had that young man guarding the Demon Knight received anything to eat?

…Would the Demon Knight ever be able to travel with them again?

Thoughts she had been too busy to entertain before now came along with the meal.

『I failed to repay their faith in me, so make sure the execution is certain.』

The hand scooping up her soup gradually slowed.

Her insides felt hollow, while her chest felt as though a boulder had settled upon it. Something seemed to be blocking her throat.

Kkuek.

“What is that?”

In the meantime, the turtle flailing about on her lap caught the runner’s attention.

Only then did she emerge from her thoughts.

“…Ah, a turtle. Someone asked me to watch it for a while.”

“An animal, in a situation like this….”

That thing alone looks like it could feed another person.

The runner’s eyes said exactly that, but Archmage deliberately looked away.

Regardless of whether she shared the same opinion, Berserk had entrusted this turtle to her. She had no right to treat someone else’s property however she pleased.

Kkuik.

Still, if it kept crying because it was hungry, she ought to try feeding it something.

Archmage wondered what turtles could eat, then fished a chunk of vegetable out of her soup.

The thoroughly cooked carrot was soft and mushy, but perhaps that would make it easier for such a young turtle to eat.

Probably?

Kkwek.

But the turtle sharply turned its head aside in refusal.

It did the same with every other vegetable from the soup and even with bread.

Archmage wondered whether she would have to catch it a fish as she put the rejected food into her own mouth.

Kkwehk.

The turtle’s cries were gradually becoming no different from the endless chirping of crickets.

* * *

“The reinforcements have arrived!”

And so, after spending an entire week struggling through one problem after another with barely a moment to spare, support from another city finally arrived.

“At last.”

“Ah, finally, medicine….”

“Hah… does this mean we can finally rest…?”

Anyone who had been on the verge of death had already died over the past week, yet patients still overflowed everywhere.

Naturally, the healers and priests who had spent an entire week working themselves to the bone received the news as though salvation itself had arrived.

Archmage felt much the same.

There was only so far a sense of responsibility to save lives could carry anyone. These people were human, too, and it was about time they were allowed some rest.

“I’ll go take a look at the size of the relief force.”

“Yes.”

Her Mana had been completely depleted in the meantime, leaving her unable to perform any more treatment.

She decided to use the opportunity to at least assess the scale of the arriving relief force.

The amount of replacement personnel and medicine mattered, of course, but she also needed to know how much of everything else they had brought before they could formulate any sort of plan.

The turtle she was still caring for in Berserk’s stead—Berserk had been busy being sent out for rescues, hunting, and gathering supplies—let out a kkwaak from inside her clothes.

“Please help us move the supplies!”

“C-clothes! Where should we put the clothes?”

“Food! Tell us where to put the food!”

Yet while heading toward the relief force, she discovered that supplies were already being distributed.

Ordinarily, the first priority should have been reporting the amount and types of goods brought in to the Lord. Apparently, however, the state of Bemurchen’s citizens looked so terrible to the newcomers that the person in charge merely clicked their tongue and gestured for the supplies to be distributed immediately.

People from the Temple, adventurers, and ordinary people—though they were surely affiliated with merchant companies or some other organization at the very least; surely they would not have brought completely unaffiliated civilians here—were all searching for the relief stations while carrying what appeared to be medicine.

Even at a glance, there was a considerable quantity of supplies and a considerable number of people.

Archmage felt a little relieved.

Read only on MUGEX

“Stop! Stop! The food will be distributed properly, so do not rush forward! Stay where you are!”

However… as the supplies began moving in every direction, some desperate civilians came charging over with wild eyes.

The soldiers tried to restrain them, but they did not calm down easily.

“My child is starving!”

“You people ate enough to survive, but we didn’t!”

“Aren’t the soldiers just going to eat everything again!?”

It was not as though Archmage could not understand how they felt.

It was true that the Lord had prioritized food distribution toward those capable of working—in other words, valuable personnel such as soldiers.

Of course, with limited resources and too many mouths to feed, differentiated distribution had probably been unavoidable from the Lord’s perspective….

But that did nothing to soothe the hearts of people who had been forced to go hungry for an entire week.

It was also easier to blindly resent the situation as “the upper classes are monopolizing everything” than to understand it as “given our circumstances, we have to go hungry.”

“More supplies are still coming in! So please calm—!”

“And how do we know when that’ll be!? Give us some too!”

“I don’t want to starve anymore—”

“Move, soldier.”

“Wait, Sir….”

“Back away if you don’t want to die! Anyone who resists will be executed!”

“……!!”

And soldiers and knights found it just as easy to resent as to understand.

Yes, they had been prioritized in the food distribution, but it was not as though they had been eating their fill either.

More than that, they had frequently worked off far more than what little food they had eaten to protect the civilians, often postponing even sleep.

It was the perfect situation for tempers to fray.

Enough, for example, that they could hear the starving civilians’ complaints and think, You’re complaining even though we kept you safe?

“I’ll say it again. Back away!”

In the end, led by a knight who had finally run out of patience, the soldiers drew their weapons.

Archmage did not know whether the Lord had authorized something like that, but it certainly succeeded in making the civilians falter and step back.

The disturbance gradually began to die down.

“…Fucking nobles.”

“If the nobles and the Temple hadn’t killed Biryuho-nim in the first place….”

But had it really died down?

Something did not cease to exist merely because it was no longer visible.

The muttering of the dispersing crowd made that perfectly clear.

The people’s dissatisfaction had piled up as high as it could go.

That remained true even though Bemurchen frequently fought wars against the mermen, making the citizens generally close to the military.

Now that the very places where they had built their lives had been swept away, there were simply too few people left with the composure to show consideration for one another.

“I heard the Lord is protecting a demon….”

“What? Is that really true?”

“What if the nobles and the Temple really have fallen under the demons’ influence…?”

I heard rumors had been spreading lately, but this is too much.

Archmage overheard the people whispering and immediately frowned.

What made it worse was that those words were not complete lies, but exaggerations built upon a small amount of truth.

Distorted truth was even more dangerous than a convincing lie.

After all, there were far too many fools in the world who would take a partial admission as a confession to everything.

“I just hope nothing serious happens….”

Now that the relief force had arrived, she believed they could avoid the worst….

But one never knew what might happen.

At the very least, the issue of the Demon Knight still remained.

Things had simply quieted down because he had not awakened for over a week. It was not as though everyone had forgotten him.

The Temple most certainly had not.

It was about time she began thinking seriously about it.

“Yes. As long as nothing serious….”

But even if she thought about it, could she truly make a decision?

“……”

When the Demon Knight first went berserk, she had supported keeping him alive because she believed he might be able to control the demon.

But this incident had made her realize something.

That thing—that demon—was far too dangerous to simply watch and wait on the mere possibility that it could be controlled.

Damn it, it was so powerful that even leaving it alive merely to exploit its strength was impossible.

“…Young people, honestly.”

And yet, at the same time, the person carrying that demon within himself had tried to save people until the bitter end, succeeded in doing so, and still said, “I’m sorry.”

Was it truly right to abandon someone like that?

And was it really right to tell the Hero, who respected the Demon Knight, that they needed to prepare to kill him?

These young people had already sacrificed this much.

Was it truly right to demand even more sacrifice from them?

“They’re working this old woman too hard.”

In the end, she was right back where she had started.

She could not choose.

“They really are working me too hard….”

She simply could not bring herself to do such a thing.

Neigh.

“Archmage, what is this?”

Just as sorrow began slowly staining her like ink spreading across paper, someone stopped nearby with a horse.

It was Berserk, carrying a great deal of hunted game.

“…The relief force is here.”

“Ah.”

Apparently Berserk had already heard about the expected reinforcements from her and asked no further questions.

Instead, she patted the Demon Knight’s horse, which had been returned by a citizen a few days ago.

Judging by Frederick’s lack of anger, the two seemed to have become rather close over the last few days.

“Call me if anything happens. I’ll be at the distribution center for about an hour.”

“All right. Ah, what will you do with the turtle?”

“Hmm… I’ll take it with me.”

“Will you?”

Just as Berserk had grown close to Frederick, Archmage had also grown rather attached to the little turtle….

Still, there was no reason to object when its owner wanted it back.

She obediently handed the turtle over.

The turtle, which had begun chirping the moment Berserk appeared, flailed its limbs happily in greeting.

Yet the empty spot it left behind felt just a little lonely.

As soon as Berserk left, Archmage fiddled with the pocket where the turtle had been as the sadness began creeping back over her.

“What are you doing there?”

“…Blue Coral.”

“You look exhausted.”

“Could I possibly be more exhausted than you?”

Fortunately, there was still plenty of work everywhere.

Archmage pulled herself out of her gloom and looked toward the new speaker.

Blue Coral was still being carried on a guard’s back, apparently having yet to be deemed fit to move independently.

The guard, whom she had seen from time to time over the past week—being used as a messenger—gave her a small bow.

“Why are you here?”

“I was wondering whether they brought any catalysts.”

Archmage raised a hand slightly to return the guard’s greeting while asking Blue Coral why they had come.

As expected, Blue Coral was hovering around the incoming supplies to see whether there was anything useful to be had.

“And you?”

“I came to find out how large the relief force is. At least there’s enough for us to breathe again for the moment.”

Still, had those people really brought catalysts?

They would have brought at least enough materials for communication magic, since they needed to remain in contact with other cities, but whether they had brought anything beyond that was questionable.

Blue Coral seemed to know that as well and did not step forward to ask.

Most likely, Blue Coral planned to wait until the Lord received a report and then ask afterward.

“Putting that aside, there seem to be a lot of merchant companies here.”

“Who knows? Perhaps they came to make donations. Merchants are usually the ones with the most supplies, after all.”

“Hah. Donations? Since when are merchants the type to do such things?”

“Merchants may pursue profit, but they’re still people. Surely not every single one of them would put money first even in the face of a disaster like this.”

This friend really has hated people for a very long time.

Archmage scratched her head as she looked at Blue Coral, whose expectations of humanity were low enough to be downright scathing.

Perhaps getting so thoroughly stabbed in the back by Gridana had made it even worse.

Then again, there was hardly anyone who had not been shocked by their betrayal.

Still.

“Well… some of them may also view this as an investment in the future. Opportunities to put you in their debt don’t come along often.”

“It isn’t that some of them think that way. That’ll be most of them.”

“Right…. Honestly, you’re probably right. But even that sort of hypocrisy is better than nothing, isn’t it?”

Even so, she had the impression that Blue Coral was showing far more disgust than usual toward the uglier side of humanity today.

Archmage looked curiously at Blue Coral’s sullen brows.

“What’s wrong? Weren’t you the one always saying you should never expect anything from humans?”

“After what happened this time, I was thinking I might start doing business only with people who at least seem somewhat clean. But apparently that idea was hopeless too… Hmm?”

So it was because of Gridana after all.

Archmage nodded in understanding and followed Blue Coral’s suddenly widened eyes.

Nothing particularly remarkable stood out.

At most… the merchant company she had once entrusted Akata to was also participating in this procession?

Given how quickly they had arrived and the fact that Akata was nowhere to be seen, it was probably a different branch.

“What is it?”

“…Apparently there really is at least one exception in the world.”

“……?”

“I thought everyone in the merchant world was filthy at their core.”

Archmage blinked at Blue Coral’s words, then decided to accept them without thinking too deeply.

She had no idea what exactly Blue Coral meant, but perhaps they had spotted one person whose nature was actually good.

“Good luck with your dealings.”

If her guess was right, then it was something worth congratulating.

She wished Blue Coral luck without giving it much more thought, and Blue Coral accepted the sentiment without complaint.

“Archmage! Great Sage!!”

Perhaps there would even have been a reply, had someone not shouted for them in desperation.

“He’s awake! He woke up!”

“……!”

Deathbringer, his face deathly pale, was searching for them from across the way.