266

Chapter 266 — If It Exists (4)

After barely managing to reach the city of Manhapelt, the first thing I did was catch my breath.

Walking along the main road with my disguise skill deactivated, only to run straight into the extermination force dispatched to kill the demon—not me, but the one that had supposedly appeared along that route—had genuinely scared the life out of me…….

Thank god I had activated the disguise skill before they saw me.

Otherwise, I might have had another wanted notice slapped on me immediately.

The fact that they had mistaken my Demonic Energy for that of the demon they had already been tracking had been equally fortunate.

It really had been one hell of a lucky break.

“Still, I made it here, so I guess it’s fine…….”

Feeling the unfamiliar yet increasingly familiar weight of the glasses, I pushed them back into place.

Rustle.

My hair—the wig—tied half up, along with my cloak, swayed in the wind.

“Ugh.”

But that wind was not entirely pleasant.

If my hairline was exposed, I would be in serious trouble.

I hurriedly pressed down my bangs and the area near the crown of my head.

Between the gloves I could not remove and my scalp, I could feel several securing pins.

“Next!”

In the meantime, the person directly ahead of me entered the checkpoint.

As expected of a city bordering demonic territory, a priest stood beside the guards.

If the guards inspected people’s identities and whether they appeared safe, the priest’s role was to screen them for corruption.

“I sense no impurity.”

“Good. Next!”

Perhaps because incidents had occurred in several other cities, the priest searched people’s belongings extremely carefully and did not hesitate to expose anyone suspicious to Divine Power.

I swallowed reflexively.

“Next!”

But getting too frightened here would only make me look even more suspicious.

I stepped forward while tightly gripping the straps of my bag with both hands.

To distinguish myself from the Demon Knight, who practiced walking confidently wherever he went, I deliberately hunched my waist and shoulders a little.

Not to an unnatural degree.

Just enough to look like an ordinary person with poor posture.

“…You’re quite tall.”

“I do get told that.”

Fortunately, the guard assigned to me seemed friendly.

So I narrowed my eyes in as pleasant a smile as I could manage.

Knowing that my height and build were extremely unusual among Middles made me all the more desperate to sell the act.

“Where did you come from?”

“I’m traveling from Shuburken.”

“Reason for visiting?”

“I heard there was a knight academy here…….”

Separate from everything else, answering these little questions always reminded me of immigration control at an airport…….

Drawing on the skills I had honed while passing through several cities, I answered each question as sincerely as possible.

There were moments when the questioning—stricter than in other cities—made my heart jump, but overall the inspection went fairly smoothly.

I was honestly grateful this was not a world where everyone’s identity was properly registered.

Sometimes the security was so lax that I wondered whether it was really okay, but still.

“Your hand.”

At that moment, someone who had been standing in a corner of the checkpoint merely watching everyone approached.

Full plate armor.

A sword.

And enough authority that a single word made the guards move with noticeably more discipline.

Probably a knight.

“Remove your glove and show me your hand.”

But why had a knight of all people decided to pay attention to me?

I swallowed the urge to cry and slowly removed my glove.

Skin whitened by the disguise skill appeared beneath it.

“You have the hands of someone who has wielded a sword. For a very long time, at that.”

But making my skin pale did not erase the calluses embedded in my hands.

Between my index finger and thumb.

Across my fingers.

My palm.

The distinctive calluses and scars carved across my hands gave the slightest glimpse of my…

No.

The Demon Knight’s life.

Parts I had failed to hide.

Or perhaps parts that simply could not be hidden.

My eyes met the knight’s.

“Anything else you wish to say?”

“…I believe I have already given you every answer I can.”

But I could not buckle here.

I quietly removed my glasses with my right hand and wiped the dust from them.

Even this counted as contact with my hand—with my skin—so my eyes remained green.

I was certain because the knight’s blue eyes reflected mine and glimmered turquoise.

“Are you certain you came merely because you wished to see the academy?”

“Hmm… I believe there may be some misunderstanding.”

Seriously, why was this person so suspicious of me?

What was strange about someone who looked like he had spent years living by the sword wanting to visit a knight academy?

…Ah.

Was simply hiding the fact that I had combat experience suspicious in itself?

“Just because I used to wield a sword for a long time…….”

Then all I had to do was destroy the basis of that suspicion.

With that thought, I put my glasses back on.

Mana circulated through my body several times.

Then it flowed backward.

“I cannot exactly swing one now, cough.”

Ah.

Long live Mana backflow!

I let blood trickle from my mouth and smiled as pitifully as I could.

The knight, who had begun cautiously moving a hand toward the sword hilt after sensing me move Mana, froze in confusion.

The soldier behind him did the same.

So did the priest who had just finished inspecting and dismissing another person.

“Wh-what is that?”

“I don’t know exactly myself. All I know is that whenever I manipulate Mana, my insides start turning over.”

“N-no, if you know that, then why would you…….”

Because showing you directly is more effective, obviously.

I wiped the blood running down my mouth with my sleeve and subtly adjusted my expression.

A face carrying resignation over something forever beyond reach.

A face with a faint, bitter smile born from that resignation.

“It causes problems even when I don’t use Mana.”

Naturally, I made absolutely sure there was no moisture in my voice.

Someone who had given up long ago and could speak calmly about it would probably sound far more heartbreaking than someone still desperately clinging to the issue.

“It causes problems even when you do not use Mana……?”

“I don’t really understand it either… but a passing mage told me that as long as Mana remained inside my body, it would keep steadily breaking my body down. They said it was a problem with my constitution, so there was no way to cure it.”

Good.

Judging by the knight’s eyes, that had worked fairly well.

I gave a faint smile to drive in the final nail.

“But… even when you know something is impossible, you still find yourself wanting to at least see it with your own eyes.”

There.

A young man whose constitution had denied not only the possibility of becoming a knight but even all the effort he had already put in.

And despite that, unable to relinquish his lingering attachment, he had set out on a journey simply to see what he could never have.

Could anyone continue suspecting me in the face of this tragic backstory?!

“You…….”

I politely refused the priest approaching to heal me—You still have to work here for a long time. How could you carelessly use your strength on me? I’m all right—and looked at the knight again.

The knight’s eyes had actually become a little moist, apparently overwhelmed by empathy at the part where I had said I could not give up and had come merely to see it.

What an extraordinarily sentimental knight.

“Stay strong.”

“You look so young too. What a shame…….”

Still, I had succeeded in dispelling their suspicions and getting through.

Wasn’t that all that mattered?

Under the pitying gazes of everyone around me, I left the checkpoint.

Now all I needed was a room at an inn.

Then it would finally be time to begin the investigation.

Read only on MUGEX

* * *

So in the end, he wanted me to pretend to cooperate with the Hero while looking out for the Demon Knight.

Meister summarized the request his grandfather had communicated in the most roundabout way possible.

Considering what the commissioned item was, and who needed to receive it, there was not even room for misunderstanding.

This was clearly an instruction to help the Demon Knight.

“Seriously…….”

A choice better for your own life?

Seeing the world you never got to see?

Those were some very convenient justifications.

They were probably just excuses the old man had come up with so he could send Meister on this errand.

“…….”

…Excuses containing an extremely high concentration of truth and sincerity, granted.

“Haah.”

Meister crouched down, searching for a cigarette that did not exist.

Only belatedly had he realized that the thought he had just entertained was no different from a child’s sulking.

No.

Truthfully, he had not even realized it.

He had known from the start and had deliberately, stubbornly indulged in the resentful thought anyway.

“I’m not some damn kid…….”

He was not a little child getting jealous of a younger sibling.

What the hell was this?

He rubbed his palm against cheeks threatening to heat up and pouted.

But honestly, hadn’t Grandfather been the one at fault first?

If he had simply changed the order of what he said, wouldn’t it have sounded like he cared more about Meister than the Demon Knight?

A brief flash of embarrassment passed through Meister’s naturally shameless temperament and somehow transformed into irritation toward his grandfather.

“What the hell did that bastard even do…….”

At the same time, questions about the Demon Knight surfaced once again.

Just what was that bastard’s true identity for his grandfather to care this much?

Giving a Divine Power filter to someone carrying a demon inside him—a demon that had even shown the possibility of becoming uncontrollable—ultimately meant accepting a comparable degree of risk.

Just how valuable did someone have to be before a person decided a risk like that was worth taking?

“What is he, some kind of god or something…….”

He thought it every time, but he truly could not understand.

A subtle irritation settled across Meister’s face.

“Meister!”

Still, even that irritation would probably be less stressful than whatever he would suffer by staying here.

Like his grandfather had said, Meister had never felt much attachment to this city.

“Meister, there you are! The acting lord is currently requesting your assistance with…….”

“Ah, about that.”

“Yes?”

“Please tell them I can’t help.”

“Excuse me?”

And so Meister smiled brightly.

“Wh-why……?”

“I’ve done enough already, so I’m just going to leave the city. My workshop’s completely ruined anyway.”

His grandfather’s help had played a small role in that decision.

Well.

A small role that was actually rather large.

Either way, he was free now.

* * *

“It’s huge…….”

The moment I laid eyes on Chechebator Knight Academy, I was a little surprised.

I had expected something no bigger than a middle or high school building, but it was larger than I had imagined.

No.

Maybe it only looked larger because the walls and buildings had been constructed right up against each other.

Normally you would have a wall, then a training field, then the buildings, in that order.

Here, they were not showing even a glimpse of any training grounds.

“Cheap, cheap! Hey, young man, want one too?”

“Ah, one with pickled vegetables, please.”

After looking over the enormous academy built directly into the castle—which, depending on how you looked at it, resembled military barracks more than a school—I bought a snack from a stall standing outside it.

It was bread hollowed out and filled with fruit and pickled vegetables.

Crunch.

Oh, that’s pretty sour.

At the sharp taste from my first bite, my eyes instinctively squeezed shut.

The fact that I no longer had to force myself to endure reactions like that brought me a small bit of happiness.

The sweetness that followed the sourness delighted my tongue and made that happiness a little greater.

Hehe.

Tasty.

“You sure eat well, young man.”

“It’s really good.”

“Of course! You go out of business around here if your food tastes bad.”

“Really?”

I’d think it would be hard to go out of business when so many people came to look at the knight academy.

Reading the look in my eyes, the stall owner waved a hand.

“We sell more to soldiers and Sir Knights than to passing visitors.”

“Ah…….”

Right.

This was right in front of the academy.

If the food tasted bad, their core customers obviously would not come.

“The building is enormous.”

After quickly finishing one piece of bread, I bought another and casually started a conversation.

Perhaps because this was an awkward hour for customers, the stall owner seemed perfectly happy to chat.

“There’s a soldier training center in there too.”

“Ahh.”

“So, young man, interested in joining?”

“…I wouldn’t say I have no interest.”

“Thought so. But recruitment’s already finished for now… so you’ll have to wait a while.”

“Will a position open up if I wait?”

“Depends on how many demons come charging in.”

Demons?

I considered why that suddenly introduced word would matter.

If people died, positions would inevitably open.

The realization came half a beat later.

“…I see.”

“Still, spots for soldiers open fairly often… so if you’re thinking about settling down, give it a try. Doesn’t matter where you came from or what you used to do. This city grants citizenship to anyone who keeps out of trouble and survives at least five years as a soldier.”

How should I put this?

As expected of a city directly bordering demonic territory.

The fact that people died in large numbers was written directly into its institutions and even the way its people spoke.

“If you want to become a knight instead of a soldier, then you don’t really have to wait… but that costs quite a bit of money.”

In the meantime, the owner kept talking.

Glance.

The man’s eyes flicked toward my ear and immediately moved away.

“Well. Doesn’t look like you’d be short on money…….”

“……?”

“If you are short on money and really can’t manage it, try looking for Sir Walter. He sometimes supports young people who have talent but can’t afford to attend the academy. Of course, he seems to have standards of his own, so he doesn’t accept everyone…….”

“There’s someone that admirable here?”

“He’s an admirable man. Though… someone like me can’t really understand how he makes a hobby out of that sort of thing.”

Separate from everything else, was it really acceptable for him to personally sponsor students like that when the knight academy existed?

I wondered for a moment, then let it go.

If he could do it, then presumably it was allowed.

“Unfortunately, that would be difficult for me for personal reasons……. But may I ask how long you’ve been doing business here?”

“About twenty years, I think?”

“Twenty years. That’s quite a history.”

“I wouldn’t call it history.”

“Still. You must practically be one of the old hands who knows everything around here.”

“Ahem. Well… I suppose I am.”

I lightly scraped the outside of the bread in my hand with my thumbnail and quietly asked another question.

Perhaps because I had buttered him up beforehand, the stall owner now looked pleased enough to answer just about anything I asked.

“Then, if you’ve been here for twenty years… you must know quite a lot about things that have happened in this city.”

“I know what there is to know.”

Then I should seize the opportunity immediately.

Searching through the opening cinematic that had already grown hazy in my memory, I opened my mouth.

“Then… have you ever heard of an incident where an entire family with three knights among them died or disappeared overnight?”

Without my realizing it, my voice turned cold as the words left my mouth.