Arc 9: Menosorpo (7)

“Frondier’s in danger!”

At the Richae estate, those were the first words out of Saibel’s mouth when she met Elodie.

“Huh? What?”

Naturally, Elodie had no idea what she meant. It was all far too sudden.

For starters, Elodie had barely ever spoken to Saibel. They had only exchanged greetings when they happened to cross paths. Both were so famous that they knew each other’s names, and little else.

Yet here was someone she had never had a conversation with, visiting her house and bringing up Frondier’s name, of all things.

“What are you talking about?”

“W-well...”

Pressed by Elodie, Saibel gave her a brief account of everything that had happened.

“Hmm.”

After hearing the whole story, Elodie touched her lips thoughtfully. In the meantime, explaining things seemed to have calmed Saibel down a little.

“Of course, I don’t know if Frondier’s in danger right this second. Choosing him as a target doesn’t necessarily mean they’ll hurt him immediately. But just in case...”

“No.” Elodie shook her head. “He probably is in danger right now. Frondier, I mean.”

“What?!”

“If Indus really has chosen Frondier as a target, they won’t pass up a chance to get him alone.”

“How would they know he’s alone right now?”

“One of them tames animals. He must have been caught in their surveillance net.”

Elodie had known for some time that she was being watched.

Even she hadn’t noticed at first. The presence was so faint that she couldn’t detect it by sensing Mana. But when it went on not just for a day or two, but for weeks and months, she inevitably felt the eyes on her before she sensed any Mana.

‘I didn’t want to kill the animals, and they weren’t doing anything else, so I left them alone.’

And now they were causing this trouble.

Elodie’s eyes darkened.

“Th-then what do we do? Where could Frondier have gone?”

“That’s the problem.”

She didn’t know what Saibel had expected when she came here, but Elodie herself had trouble guessing where Frondier might have gone.

Even at the most generous assessment, they could no longer be called close.

It might have been different in the old days.

‘... The old days.’

That thought brought a place to mind: the Roach family’s cabin, the separate little house where they had played together as children.

But would Frondier really have gone there? He hadn’t so much as looked at the place in years.

Memories of the past surfaced. Of her own childish self, chattering away at Frondier, calling, [“Fron! Frooon!”]—

“Ah.”

Suddenly, her mood soured. Even saving Frondier no longer felt particularly appealing.

Just die, Frondier.

“Wh-what’s wrong?”

“Nothing. Shall we go take a look?”

“You think you know where he is?”

“More or less.”

Saibel’s face lit up at Elodie’s answer. Elodie watched her for a moment.

Was the prospect of finding Frondier really making Saibel this happy?

... Did she have feelings for Frondier, or had Frondier... No, surely not.

Saibel was simply too kind.

“Okay, how do we get there? Are we taking a car?”

Saibel fidgeted, her impatience plain to see.

Elodie put an arm around her waist.

“No.”

“Huh?”

“This is faster.”

And then—

“Huh? Waaaaah!”

They took flight.

Saibel screamed as she watched the ground fall away from her in an instant.

“Wh-what is this?! Flight magic?! ‘Wings’?”

“No, a liiittle higher-level than that.”

“Waaaaah!”

Holding Saibel, Elodie flew toward the cabin.

It was a memorable first flight for Saibel.

And her impression?

‘S-so heavy...!’

The wind and gravity made her body feel heavy. After all, she wasn’t flying under her own power.

For a first flight, it wasn’t a comfortable one.

* * *

“And that’s how we got here. Ta-da! Pretty impressive, right?”

Saibel looked proud, even flashing a V sign as she spoke.

I answered, “... Yeah. Really impressive. Thank you.”

What else could I say? She had run all over the place out of concern for me, without even knowing for certain whether I was in danger. I could only be grateful.

But my answer left Saibel looking dazed again.

“H-huh? Oh, well, it wasn’t anything special...”

Her voice seemed to shrink away.

What did she mean, nothing special? She had just bragged about it herself, asking if it was impressive.

“Who’s the boy?” Elodie asked, looking at the child on my back.

“The younger brother of one of them.”

“Why is he here?”

“He’s my hostage, and theirs too.”

“Huh?”

Both tilted their heads, apparently unable to understand me.

With a wry smile, I explained, “They made him pretend to cry to lure me out. But when he came toward me, one of them shot an arrow at him.”

“What? At his own comrade’s little brother?”

“Yeah. Well, not a comrade. They seem to be hired mercenaries.”

As I answered Saibel’s question, Elodie’s eyes instantly turned cold.

“... Can I shoot an arrow too?”

“No.”

“Why? They shot one.”

“If you shoot, they’ll all die. Don’t act like it’s just one arrow.”

An arrow fired by Elodie meant the Storm Arrow of Rudra, one of her five gods.

If she fired that thing, it wouldn’t just kill people. It would change the terrain here.

Enough that someone visiting the area for the first time with a map would say, “Fuck, this map is bullshit.”

“Then we’re safe now, right?” Saibel asked worriedly.

I shrugged. “Well, Elodie’s here.”

“What? Are you planning to leave me to clean up everything?”

“There’s no need. Their goal was to frame me as a murderer and ruin me. That only works if I’m the only one here. With you around, Elodie, they’re the ones at a disadvantage. Constel’s teachers might not believe me, but they’ll believe you.”

The way Serf kept using this kid made it clear he intended to frame me for murder.

By now, he was probably trying to make it look as though I had kidnapped the boy.

If I had been here alone, it would have been easy, once he let people know that a “good organization” like Indus had taken a dim view of me.

‘Maybe that was what Serf intended by tipping Saibel off. If people hear that Indus has targeted me, they’ll naturally assume there’s something wrong with me.’

But Elodie had an even better reputation than Saibel, and more importantly, enough strength to beat the whole lot of them even if they attacked together.

“The problem is him. We need to wake him up first.”

I lowered the boy from my back. Elodie held a hand in front of his face. A brief glow of Mana shone, and his eyes slowly opened.

He looked around blankly.

“... Ah.”

He seemed to grasp the situation once he saw my face. Now he was looking fearfully at Saibel and Elodie.

“Don’t worry. They’re with me.”

... I wasn’t sure whether that would reassure him, but fortunately, it seemed to.

I asked, “Come to think of it, I don’t know your name. What is it?”

“... Rockbel.”

“You’re Grobel’s little brother, right?”

The boy gave a small nod. He was trembling. Confusion and fear were probably still churning inside him.

“Can’t we just send him back to them? You said one of them is his brother.”

“If we send him back like this, he’ll become a hostage again.”

“... Surely not. Would his brother let that happen?”

Of course, Grobel wouldn’t stand idly by and watch it happen.

... But knowing Serf, he would probably...

“Then let’s get moving for now. Isn’t avoiding them our best option?” Saibel suggested.

But I shook my head. Elodie was probably thinking the same thing.

“Too late.”

As though he had timed it to my words, that sickeningly friendly voice sounded again.

“I’ve been looking for you for quite some time.”

Serf had a tamer spying for him. Running away was pointless anyway.

I could hear Serf, but I couldn’t see him. He was hiding deeper in the woods.

The presences and footsteps around us had multiplied before I knew it. They seemed to be surrounding us under cover.

“Don’t move. Frondier, Saibel,” Elodie said quietly.

With her Mana sensing, she should have at least a rough idea of their positions. Judging by her tension, it was safe to assume they had finished encircling us.

“Serf Daniel! Give up!” Elodie shouted. “You know this is pointless now! You can’t frame Frondier! I’ll be his witness!”

Nicely put, Elodie.

Granted, it was what I had told her a moment ago. Anyway.

“Yeees. That plan seems to have fallen through. I didn’t expect Miss Saibel to go this far.”

Serf was still speaking from his hiding place in the woods. He really didn’t want to show himself, did he?

“So I intend to kill all of you here.”

“... What?”

Elodie asked again, as though she couldn’t believe her ears.

Yes. That was the kind of man he was.

Indus’s goal was to increase the influence of commoners. Beneath that lay the more dangerous word “revolution,” but on the surface, Indus was still on the side of justice. Even for them, revolution was premature.

But Serf Daniel’s personal objective was different.

‘The noble-hater. Serf Daniel.’

Later in the game Etius, Serf would be branded a notorious criminal. He had joined Indus in the first place to give himself a convenient justification for killing nobles.

Then he gradually built up a record of achievements within Indus and joined the revolution when it eventually broke out.

Serf rarely stepped into the spotlight. His style was to appoint a fake leader for everyone else to see while he worked in the shadows.

‘The problem is, that’s all just background knowledge.’

I had never fought Serf while playing Etius. The revolution ultimately failed, and investigators arrested him and sent him to the Teibeon Wall. I had heard that Lidwe Urpa, the head of the family there, had a hard time with him.

I knew neither his abilities nor his techniques.

‘But even so, can Serf really beat Elodie?’

I couldn’t see his face, but his voice was perfectly calm. As though he were certain of victory, even with Elodie here.

How?

There were truly only a handful of people who could beat her.

“Rockbel.”

Serf suddenly called Rockbel’s name. The boy, who had been cowering beside me, abruptly went rigid.

“Stab Frondier.”

SHUNK!

“...!”

Understanding what had happened came later.

First came pain so intense I nearly lost consciousness.

My side...?

Had I been... stabbed—

As I fell, I saw the alarm in Saibel’s and Elodie’s eyes.

And in contrast, Rockbel stood there holding a dagger, his eyes utterly unfocused.

* * *

My consciousness sank.

Within that sinking consciousness, I struggled desperately to wake up.

You fucking idiot.

You’re passing out over one stab wound?

Get up!

Get up, damn it!

An enormous bubble of unconsciousness surged over me, and I barely clung to a single thread of awareness.

Then all kinds of memories from the past came flooding in.

‘I hate Elodie.’

‘Why does she stay beside me and make me suffer?’

‘Why are you always smiling in front of me?’

‘Why are you always kind to me?’

‘Yes, I know. It’s because you have Divine Power.’

‘You’re overflowing with Divine Power and talent, so of course you can’t fucking help laughing at someone like me!!’

Were these Frondier’s memories?

His hatred, inferiority, and disgust churned through my insides.

Right. Because I was Frondier.

As though a hole that had been forcibly plugged had burst open, his memories poured out like mud.

‘Die, Elodie.’

‘Lose everything, despair, and die.’

‘This is how I really feel.’

‘These are my honest words, without a single lie.’

Frondier’s memories grew clearer. A scene played before my eyes like a strip of film.

Frondier was meeting someone at the cabin. The figure wore a billowing robe, making even their gender impossible to discern.

They whispered something to Frondier, and he deciphered the ancient language as though possessed.

Fragments of that decipherment entered my mind as though being injected into it.

At last, looking at a spell scroll he had finished deciphering, Frondier trembled with ecstasy.

‘With this, Elodie’s Divine Power...!’

I felt even his joy and ecstasy.

As though I, rather than Frondier, hated Elodie.

As though I wanted to strip away her Divine Power.

As though I were truly delighted by that plan.

... But.

“Shut... up...!”

Of course.

In the end, I was not Frondier.

Because I wasn’t Frondier, guilt had always lingered in a corner of my heart. I had stolen his life.

Lazy or incompetent or whatever else he might have been, it was entirely his own life.

However that life might have ended, it would have held its own value for him.

But if Frondier intended to kill someone, if he intended to plunge an innocent person into misery, then I no longer had any reason to hold back either.

Frondier had deciphered the ancient language to strip Elodie of her Divine Power.

But that crap didn’t matter to me.

He might have studied hard out of hatred for Elodie alone, but I would use it however I pleased.

‘I’ll put those memories of deciphering the ancient language to use.’

Because this was how “Frondier de Roach” would live from now on.

Because I would struggle with all my strength in a world destined for destruction.

Give up, Frondier.

You’re the lowest kind of villain.

I reviewed Frondier’s memories again and again, endlessly, packing all his knowledge into my head.

It wasn’t like learning something new. I absorbed the knowledge swiftly, as though recalling memories I had briefly forgotten.

I recalled what Daud had said not long ago.

[“In that case, this magic circle may be written in the ancient language.”]