Arc 33: The Crow

I inspected the desk against the wall by Selena’s window. Hmm. No problems at all.

“... The ancient language?” Selena asked from behind me.

“Yes. This was something I would have to do eventually.”

“What do you mean, something you would have to do?”

“You need to report to the Ten Thousand Capes.”

Selena gazed at me for a moment, then her eyes widened.

“... Are you telling me to make up sentences and report those?”

“You can do that later. For now, I’ll teach you the basics, and you can pass them on to the Ten Thousand Capes exactly as I teach them.”

“Oh, you want me to teach them? To the Ten Thousand Capes?”

“Yes. They’ll need to see the real thing to believe it.”

I really did intend to teach the Ten Thousand Capes a ‘little’ of the ancient language through Selena. That would earn her their trust and convince them that my ability to decipher the ancient language was worth having.

“Tell the Ten Thousand Capes the truth. That I’ve decided to teach you.”

“F-for what reason?”

“Anything will do. Say I’ve come to trust your ability as a bodyguard, or that I’m hopelessly caught in your seductive charms. Any excuse is fine. That’s the outcome they want anyway. Pick something suitable and tell them. They’ll be pleased.”

“...”

Selena’s expression turned awkward, as though she wasn’t sure how to answer. Well, both were results she’d been trying to achieve, and here I was telling her to report them as lies.

“... Um, Master Frondier. There’s something I’d like to ask.”

“What is it?”

“Do you not find me reliable as a bodyguard? Leaving aside the useless attempts at seduction.”

Leaving aside the useless attempts.

It wasn’t very polite, but I liked the phrasing.

I pulled up both corners of my mouth.

“I do. Very much so. That’s why I keep you as my bodyguard.”

“... When you smile, it’s more convincing if your eyes smile too.”

“I see.”

I dropped the smile.

But I hadn’t been lying. I had a high opinion of Selena’s combat abilities. Ever since she’d joined me, my trust in her had allowed me to take on some rather reckless tasks.

“And you called your attempts useless, but that isn’t what I think.”

“... Pardon?”

“But rather than those unconvincing expressions and poses...”

I looked at Selena. As I spoke my next words, something unmistakably showed on my face.

“I prefer you as you are now.”

Selena looked a little dazed at that. Then she raised one corner of her mouth slightly. It felt somewhat forced.

“... You were testing what I just told you, weren’t you? You’re a quick learner.”

“Enough small talk. Let’s begin. Sit at the desk.”

“We’re starting today?”

“Of course. Enough time has passed already. If you go much longer without giving the Ten Thousand Capes any meaningful results, they’ll grow suspicious of you.”

Selena hesitated over her words again, then walked over and sat at the desk. I took the blank notebook lying on it and opened it in front of her.

“I’ll write down some words. Watch carefully.”

“Words... Aren’t you going to teach me the letters first?”

“That’s impossible.”

Selena tilted her head, but showing her would be quicker than explaining. I picked up a pen and channeled mana into it, applying what I’d learned from mastering aura. Only now that I could do this was I finally able to teach her.

I wrote two words that were identical in shape.

“How do these two words look?”

“... They look the same.”

Indeed. To the eye, the two words were completely identical.

“Selena, you can use aura, can’t you?”

“... Yes.”

“Gather energy in your fingertip and touch the writing.”

Following my instructions, Selena touched the word on the left. She immediately jerked her finger back in surprise.

“... I can hear a sound.”

“Now touch the word on the right.”

This time, Selena touched the word on the right.

“... I can hear a sound from this one too.”

“What about those two sounds? Do they sound the same?”

Selena shook her head.

“No. They were completely different.”

“Yes. That is a feature of the ancient language.”

The ancient language was the language of ancient mages. Fittingly, it possessed magical properties. Pronunciation was contained within its written characters. As a result, even characters that looked completely identical could have different meanings.

“This is why the ancient language has remained undeciphered despite surviving in written records.”

“... Because the ‘voice’ contained in the letters disappears.”

I nodded. With their sounds lost, the characters were only half complete. Of course no one could decipher them.

Only Frondier de Roach had been able to intuitively piece together their meaning from the characters alone. He had also discerned that differences in sound were what gave identical characters completely different meanings. Once he had fully mastered this, he could decipher the ancient language without even using aura.

Of course, without aura, he couldn’t put a voice into his own writing, but he could read what had already been written.

It had taken remarkable talent and effort, even if revenge against Elodie wasn’t a particularly constructive outlet for them.

“That’s why you can’t learn the letters first. You need to learn the formulas for combining them before that.”

“Formulas...”

“Even though you put sounds into them, you can’t attach just any sound. The ancient language overlays images with multiple meanings within the words themselves. You can only choose sounds from among those images.”

So, to learn the ancient language, one first had to be able to separate the strokes of characters drawn in two or three overlapping layers.

“Look here. These appear to be separate characters, but a long straight line connects them. An independent straight line like this indicates something laid over the top. And...”

“Um, Master Frondier.”

Selena interrupted my lesson. How insolent.

But the look she gave me was utterly serious.

“Are you truly all right with this?”

“With what?”

“Are you truly all right with teaching me this?”

Selena looked at me as though she had steeled herself for something momentous. Whatever expression she wore, though, my answer had been decided long ago.

“If you really intend to betray me, you’d be better off not asking questions like that.”

Indus and the Ten Thousand Capes were both enormous forces opposed to the Empire. But if Indus was the Empire’s dark underside, the Ten Thousand Capes was its karmic fire. Such a fire would not go out until the karma that fueled it was gone.

But Selena would become the banner that directed the endlessly burning flames of the Ten Thousand Capes.

I would make sure of it.

* * *

Three days later, on my way to Constel, I encountered a crow.

“...”

CAAW!

The crow was perched on a wall in a residential neighborhood, preening its wings as though it had no interest in me.

... Right. Surely not. Crows were everywhere.

I started walking again.

About five steps.

[“You still need to sharpen your eye a little.”]

At those words, I stopped, retraced my steps, and looked at the crow. It had dropped its shameless act and was staring straight at me.

“Gregory.”

[“Yes, it’s me.”]

“I thought you were holed up in prison.”

[“Of course I am. Filthy, safe, and filthy safe. But they can’t stop my ability. It isn’t magic. It’s a bloodline ability.”]

Prisoners in Etius wore restraints that prevented them from using either magic or aura. But bloodline abilities could get past those restrictions?

[“Bloodline abilities usually aren’t lethal, though. That’s why the Empire simply keeps quiet and lets it slide. Either that, or magic engineering hasn’t reached that point yet.”]

“So, what does a prisoner want with me?”

I felt embarrassed having such a serious conversation with a crow. I wished he would hurry up and get to the point.

[“No need to be so wary. I’m here to help.”]

“Help, you say.”

[“Whatever you may think, you saved my life. Crows repay kindness. Well? Doesn’t that inspire trust?”]

The crow flapped its wings as though showing off.

... What did that have to do with anything?

[“I came to give you information. It’s important.”]

“What is it?”

The crow turned its head left and right once, seemingly checking that no one was nearby. Apparently, this really was important.

[“There’s a rumor circulating at Constel that I didn’t spread.”]

“...!”

I see.

That really wasn’t something I could ignore.

“... You mean someone else took advantage of the timing to spread another rumor?”

[“Yes. Someone’s trying to profit from the confusion. Or they want revenge. Either way, they’re dangerous.”]

I hadn’t thought of it at the time, too overwhelmed by all the students chasing me. But when that many rumors of uncertain truth were circulating, there were bound to be people slipping new ones in among them.

“But does spreading a rumor alone make someone dangerous? I’d imagine most people are just fooling around.”

[“Of course most of them are. But think about it. To distract Indus, I went as far as infiltrating the Imperial Palace and controlling knights to draw outside attention elsewhere. Yet Kraken still found me. Why do you think that was?”]

“Why? Wasn’t it because Kraken had exceptional detection abilities?”

[“Indus is certainly excellent at tracking people down, but if their detection abilities were that extraordinary, I’d have been caught long ago.”]

“What are you getting at?”

At my question, the crow turned its eyes toward me. There was something chilling about those unreadable avian eyes.

[“There’s an Indus member among Constel’s students. They’re the one who passed information about me to Kraken.”]

“... And they’re also the one spreading the rumor?”

[“If I’m right.”]

My thoughts tangled. It had only been three days since I fought Kraken. The prospect of getting dragged into another incident already made my eyes sting as though I hadn’t slept.

“... All right. I’ll look into it.”

[“Good.”]

Feeling utterly drained, I trudged away.

Then the crow landed on my left shoulder.

“... What are you doing?”

[“Let me come along.”]

“You’re weighing down my shoulder. Get off. Do your own investigating.”

[“An ordinary crow can’t just get onto Constel’s grounds. An animal tamed by a Constel student would be able to investigate more freely.”]

“... So you’re going to pretend to be a crow I tamed?”

[“I’m not the one pretending. You are. Pretend you tamed this crow. Then the students and teachers won’t have much to say about it.”]

My vision really did go dark, and I covered my eyes with a hand.

In Etius, crows symbolized ill fortune, just as they did in Korea. They were also a symbol of witches.