237

Chapter 237: Full of Agony (10) — End of Part One

Deathbringer sat curled up inside the tent, utterly at a loss.

The Inquisitor lying before him still had not awakened. He had no idea how long she intended to sleep.

“Please wake up soon….”

He knew that was hardly something he should say to someone who had suffered nearly as much as the Demon Knight.

Even so, Deathbringer could not bring himself to wish that the Inquisitor would wake any later.

After all, right now, the Inquisitor was the only person capable of meaningfully changing the situation.

“The two Great Sages can’t keep holding them back much longer….”

As though the Demon Knight waking up had not been enough, the moment he declared that he would accept whatever conclusion they reached, the clash of opinions had grown fierce.

And naturally, the side with the upper hand was the one arguing that the execution should be carried out.

That was all the more true because, despite the two Great Sages defending the Demon Knight, neither had been able to present any proper evidence or justification.

Even the Lord was beginning to lean toward the argument that if the Demon Knight himself had woken up and accepted it, then surely that should be enough.

“Damn it….”

But did they really think it was fine just because there was no justification to stop it and the condemned himself was willing to accept death?

To begin with, could a decision made after being driven into circumstances like these truly be called his own decision?

It was true that the Demon Knight was dangerous.

But everyone had survived precisely because of that dangerous power.

“At this point I’m even hoping that damned jerk succeeds….”

Would he feel crushed if Meister, someone the Demon Knight had barely even met, succeeded in persuading him?

Perhaps.

But Deathbringer did not care anymore.

As long as the Demon Knight did not die like this, as long as he did not have to meet such a miserable end….

Deathbringer would be fine even if it proved that he himself held not the slightest bit of value to the Demon Knight.

He would be fine with that….

Rustle.

At that moment, someone entered.

It was Berserk, carrying Archmage on her back.

Perhaps because she had spent days running everywhere without proper rest, the air surrounding her felt particularly heavy.

It held the coldness and weight of the predawn hours.

“You’re back… Why’s the Mage with you?”

“I found her unconscious from overwork. The healers in charge looked tired as well, so I simply brought her to you.”

Deathbringer fell silent for a moment at Berserk’s explanation.

There was absolutely nothing he could bring himself to say.

“Pass her over.”

With Berserk’s help, he laid Archmage down beside the Inquisitor.

The body was light for someone of her size, and that only weighed more heavily upon Deathbringer.

The fur made it less noticeable, but she seemed to have lost even more weight than before.

“The turtle?”

“…Sleeping over there.”

“I see.”

With the not-at-all-small Inquisitor and Archmage lying side by side, half the tent was already occupied.

Once Deathbringer and Berserk sat down on one side, it was even worse.

There was no space left inside the tent.

Naturally, the two crouched figures ended up stretching their legs out so that they crossed over one another.

“…What’s going to happen to us now?”

“Who knows. I imagine the only thing that will change is whether or not the Demon Knight remains with us.”

Who knows?

Wasn’t that the most important issue of all?

Deathbringer lifted his head at Berserk’s answer.

For a moment, he wondered whether Berserk simply had no thoughts at all regarding the Demon Knight’s fate.

“…Lady Fighter, are you really fine with Sir Demon Knight dying?”

The moment he asked, Berserk raised her head.

Her gloomy eyes answered far more than words could.

“I know he is not someone who deserves to die that way.”

That quiet sentence summarized everything.

Deathbringer lowered his head again.

Despair shredded the heart inside his chest to tatters.

“Mmm.”

Yet just as they were about to sink into that melancholy, someone’s groan changed the entire situation.

The two, who had been preparing to close their eyes and chew over the silence, snapped their heads around.

* * *

The Inquisitor instinctively understood as she looked upon the pitch-black world.

This place.

This place was God’s….

“God.”

She recalled the moment she had received the oracle before beginning her journey as the Hero.

It had been like this then as well.

Everything around her had been black, and within the pitch darkness, the only thing she could see was herself.

And God—

God had only left her with one-sided commands.

“This lowly servant dares to ask.”

Had she done nothing but obey those one-sided words back then?

Had she never dared to harbor even a single question because everything she had been taught was divided so cleanly into black and white that there was nothing to reconsider?

Because she had been a frog at the bottom of a well who believed what she had been taught was the whole world?

Because obedience was easier than doubt, and submission easier than distrust?

“Why was it me?”

But she was different now.

Before God could say anything, she resolved to dispel the questions she had carried all this time.

It was the courage of someone who had learned that asking questions was not the same as disrespecting another.

That harboring doubts did not mean refusing to worship.

That the world was not divided into simple black and white.

“Why was it him?”

It was the prayer of a mortal who had realized that there were too many things she wished to save and that her strength was far too lacking.

“Why did Bemurchen….”

Now she needed an answer from an omniscient, omnipotent God.

Why had someone as inadequate as her been chosen as the Hero?

Why did that devoted man have to suffer?

Why had the people of this city been left to die without God’s protection?

Why?

Why…?

“God, please… answer me….”

[────]

“……?”

[──go─]

At that moment, something echoed through her mind.

No.

It was not a voice.

If anything, it was closer to letters leaking into her through her ears.

Or perhaps something even more fundamental—

[North── go─]

Sparkle.

Had it been like this last time too?

Just as the Inquisitor tried to search her memories, she saw something else.

A single light appeared within a world that had contained nothing but darkness.

Perhaps it had fallen.

Or perhaps it had come into existence.

Perhaps something that had always been hidden had only now become visible.

Perhaps something that had always been there had finally opened its eyes.

[Go north.]

Thousands.

Tens of thousands.

Perhaps a number beyond counting.

Eyes looked down upon her.

Above her head.

Before her.

At her feet.

From every darkness surrounding her.

[There── seek your answer.]

The world.

Nature.

The unknown.

That which humanity must forever stand in awe of was looking at her.

[…And── the one who has lost the way──.]

The darkness shattered.

The world brightened.

Read only on MUGEX

* * *

“Gasp!”

The Inquisitor reflexively opened her eyes.

The mustiness unique to unventilated air invaded her nose and mouth.

Perhaps for the patient’s sake, a faint warmth lingered in the air.

“Priss!”

“You’re awake.”

The warmth entered her lungs gently, but it did not immediately restore her mind to perfect clarity.

The Inquisitor took several more breaths as her eyes rolled around the room.

A small oil lamp hung on one side of the tent, illuminating the faces around her.

Deathbringer and Berserk, both standing unharmed.

Archmage, fast asleep off to one side.

Those three.

Once she confirmed all their faces, the worry she had not even realized she carried loosened slightly.

Now, if she could only confirm the Demon Knight’s safety, almost all her concerns would disappear.

Her expression unconsciously brightening, the Inquisitor opened her mouth.

“All three of you… are alive.”

But the voice that emerged was hoarse.

It sounded strangely similar to that of an elderly woman, leaving her with an unfamiliar feeling.

The Inquisitor sat up and brought a hand to her throat.

“Are you feeling all right?”

“Not bad, ahem. I do feel a little stiff.”

Her body did feel somewhat rigid, as though she had not moved for a long time.

But that would likely resolve itself after moving around a few times, so it was hardly a problem.

“More importantly, what is the situation?”

More important than her physical condition was whatever had changed while she was asleep.

How had she survived?

What had happened to the city?

Where was the Demon Knight?

Filled with questions, she hurriedly pressed the two for answers.

For the record, she set aside the oracle she had heard in her dream for the moment.

There would be no problem conveying that later.

“Judging by the fact that all three of you are unharmed, things cannot be entirely terrible—”

“…About that.”

Contrary to what she expected, the faces of the two people she was questioning gradually hardened.

It was very different from the reaction she had hoped for.

“…Is it very bad?”

“…That depends on how you look at it.”

I see.

So it is that sort of situation.

But she could not remain ignorant while drowning in anxiety.

The Inquisitor straightened her posture and waited for the explanation.

Soon, Deathbringer’s calm voice filled the tent.

“…So the reinforcements arrived, and we’ve finally gained some breathing room. Is that the situation?”

“If I had to summarize it, yes.”

“Hah.”

Surprisingly, the answer she had taken the time to obtain was better than she had imagined.

They had avoided the future where everyone was massacred, and the threatening demons—Greed and that unidentified turtle—had both been eliminated.

Considering that, in the worst case, every single person might have died, this outcome was nearly the best they could have hoped for.

It truly was good news.

“And the person who contributed more than anyone to saving the city is currently locked up while everyone discusses executing him?”

Except for one thing.

The treatment of a single person.

“Take me to him.”

“…You’re going?”

“Of course I’m going. Why wouldn’t I?”

She would not deny that sacrificing a few for the many could be efficient.

And if a single person’s existence caused everyone else fear, she could understand situations where some degree of restraint might be placed upon that person.

But understanding why it happened was separate from whether it was truly right.

Did unavoidable circumstances somehow grant it legitimacy?

“Killing a person over a mere possibility is no different from saying we should kill every healthy adult because they may someday become a criminal. In other words, it is sophistry. The sophistry of people who simply do not wish to be harmed.”

The Demon Knight, meanwhile, had already spent every ounce of strength he possessed saving the city.

That remained true even if the demon’s power had been used in the process.

He had managed, somehow, to control the demon.

And from the moment no one suffered harm from him, there was not a single reason for him to be treated this way!

“I have absolutely no intention of indulging that sort of sophistry! Understood? I will make certain that he is repaid for his devotion!”

Thus, the Inquisitor declared the Demon Knight should survive as though it were the most obvious truth in the world.

A truth she did not need to doubt for even a moment.

“What if he himself wishes to die?”

That was when Berserk, who had remained quiet, added a single sentence.

“It is true that the opinions of others have strongly influenced the Demon Knight’s present circumstances. But even if every one of those opinions were removed, do you truly think the Demon Knight would wish to live?”

“……!”

“What if, regardless of everyone else’s opinions, he chooses death himself? What will you do then?”

“That, that….”

The Fighter, whose atmosphere had changed greatly from before, rested a hand indifferently atop her own knee.

Her listless face called back to a conversation they had once shared.

“Did I not tell you before? Fate will not wait for you.”

The forearm resting atop her raised knee hung limp like that of a corpse.

“…I told you before. I’ll persuade him. Somehow, no matter what!”

“I see…. So that is still your choice.”

But Berserk was not dead.

The eyes connected to that limp arm narrowed.

It was the movement of someone who had watched the world for so long that she had learned to foresee certain things.

“Do as you please.”

Yet seeing something clearly did not mean everyone chose to act.

Berserk was no exception.

“To struggle beneath fate is the right of every human.”

Rather than interfere with the Inquisitor using her prediction as justification, Berserk chose, as always, to remain an observer.

The tarnished gold of her eyes dimmed beneath closing lids.

“…Let’s go.”

Yet all of it felt as though Berserk were foreseeing her failure, leaving the Inquisitor strangely uneasy.

It was the peculiar anxiety every human possessed.

“Right.”

But surely nothing could have happened in the few hours between her falling asleep and waking?

Deathbringer would never have watched the Demon Knight only halfheartedly all this time.

And since it was night, he had probably merely returned to their lodging for a short while.

Surely nothing could have happened in that brief interval.

“Ah, before seeing the Demon Knight, let us stop by the ward first. Or is the place where the Demon Knight is being kept closer?”

“No, the ward’s closer.”

“Then there first.”

The Inquisitor made the decision freely according to her common sense.

Ding-ding-ding-ding.

Less than ten minutes later, she realized that judgment had been wrong.

“The knight is gone!!”

Someone shouted amid bells ringing from every direction.

“The Demon Knight is gone!!”

Berserk had been right.

Fate had not waited for her.

* * *

[Good grief. How’d the city end up in a state like this?]

[I’m hungry.]

[C’mon now, we’re almost there alrea—huh? Ain’t those the knight’s companions?]

[I’m hungryyyy.]

[Ah, I told you to wait just a little, didn’t I? But where’d the knight himself run off to?]

And vegetation began sprouting from the ruined land.