Arc 24: Teibeon (6)

Sanders saw it clearly. The moment he shouted “Fire,” projectiles far too enormous to call arrows impaled the monsters with gruesome force.

Monsters from the Outside were on another level. Even the weakest had skin that ordinary soldiers struggled to cut. That was why the archers’ volleys did little more than slow their advance, barely reducing their numbers.

But what were those? Too large to be arrows and far too ornate to be ballista bolts, the weapons pierced the monsters and vanished.

Sanders looked toward their point of origin. He saw a young man preparing another volley after skewering the monsters in a single strike.

He had thought the boy was just a greenhorn. A clueless child who had come here to die. He had expected to see the corpse of a boy who had yet to reach adulthood.

Yet at this moment, that boy stood prouder and more self-possessed than anyone here.

He also looked terribly sleepy.

Meanwhile, Selena stood beside him, struggling desperately not to let her feelings show.

'This is nothing like what I was told...'

The information was completely wrong. She had been told that Frondier was laziness, incompetence, and an inferiority complex rolled into one.

The Ten Thousand Capes’ intelligence had never been wrong. As far as Selena knew, today was a first. The information was utterly useless.

'Back in the guest room, I thought I might just be imagining it.'

Selena remembered the killing intent Frondier had displayed in the guest room. Of course, that alone had frightened her. Not a lot. Just a little.

But the real source of her fear had been Fireworks.

When Fireworks had been witnessed at Constel, the Ten Thousand Capes had raised the possibility that Frondier was responsible. But it was only a suggestion; no one actually believed it.

Yet Frondier had mentioned Fireworks in the guest room. He had shown her an arrow right before her eyes.

'What incompetence? What inferiority complex?'

At the very least, those words were a world away from the Frondier she was watching now.

Still...

'... He does look sleepy. Yes.'

She could see some basis for the laziness, at least.

* * *

I could wipe out all the monsters attacking right now. I had Fireworks, after all.

Since their goal was to prevent repairs to the wall, the Outside monsters were still attacking in small numbers. That made killing them all even easier, but...

“Die! Die, you sons of bitches!”

“You goddamn f***ing vermin!”

I chose not to.

Below the wall, the prisoners near the gate were already in a battlefield of flying blood and flesh. The gate was currently open. With the wall in such poor condition, the decision had been made to open it and funnel the monsters through instead. That was only possible because this attacking force was small.

My current goal was to level up Weaving itself. To do that, I needed either to weave new, high-grade weapons or perform lots of simultaneous creations. Fireworks was not particularly efficient for that.

And above all, most of the prisoners here were on death row. The people dying were people who were going to die anyway.

I briefly studied the prisoners’ faces, wondering with some concern whether witnessing so many casualties from now on would change how I felt.

'... I can’t tell.'

I really couldn’t. People were dying before my eyes. I could hear their screams. I couldn’t even tell whether they stirred something in me, or whether I was shocked and desperately pretending otherwise.

But I discovered something entirely unrelated to my original intention.

Among the prisoners, who should have had nothing to do with me, was one familiar face.

'... Grobel.'

There was Grobel, the mercenary hired by Serf of Indus, the organization seeking to eliminate discrimination.

Since Grobel had been the apparent leader during the cabin incident, he had taken the blame for nearly everything. This was the result.

“Hah! Hah! Haaah...!”

Grobel was fighting like a madman. In his right hand was a scimitar about as long as his arm. It was a deeply curved blade, in the shape commonly called a half-moon.

Quite some time had passed since the cabin incident, and he was still alive. In Teibeon, that alone was impressive.

GRRRR!

Just then, something enormous entered through the main gate in the wall. Twice the height of a grown man, with green skin and strange lower tusks jutting out of its mouth.

It was a troll.

“Kill them! Cut down everything in front of you!”

The prisoners charged, shouting what might have been orders or words meant to spur themselves on.

Grobel was no exception. He moved to close in on the troll’s right leg. Naturally, he failed to see the troll’s club rising above him.

“... Tch.”

I clicked my tongue, wove Gram, and launched it. A huge chunk of my mana drained away, but this could take down a troll in one strike.

Gram spun through the air, slicing through the troll’s neck. It buried itself deep in the gate before vanishing.

The troll abruptly collapsed. Bewildered, Grobel checked its severed neck, then looked from side to side.

As he scanned his surroundings, Grobel suddenly looked up. His gaze found me.

I couldn’t make out his expression from this distance, but he clearly recognized me.

* * *

Once all the Outside monsters had been dealt with, the remaining knights took stock of the dead. In front of the main gate, they struggled to find human bodies buried beneath the assorted monsters, kicking carcasses aside as they searched.

Most of the dead were prisoners. The survivors were herded back into prison under the soldiers’ and knights’ supervision.

Grobel had managed to survive, too, and was among the procession being led back inside. All the prisoners looked barely alive, but his eyes alone remained clear.

Perhaps that resolve was what had kept him alive this long.

“Well, you did have something up your sleeve.”

A knight approached me. He was the man who had bet I would die today.

“You look happy. You must have lost your bet.”

“Yeah. Lost my money. Still...”

The man glanced around, taking in the knights examining the bodies, overseeing the prisoners, and checking their weapons.

“Nobody actually died.”

“...”

That was right. Nobody had died. Among the knights, at least.

For now, I supposed I was winning our wager.

“There are guys in the order I’ve grown fond of. I’ll just think of it as paying a little to see them again tomorrow.”

The knight walked off, chuckling. His laugh and his manner of speaking were as crude as ever, but...

I called after him.

“... Sorry, what’s your name?”

“Huh?”

Without stopping or even looking back, the knight answered as he walked away.

“Hector Dutoit. A name that’ll go down in history across the continent.”

Hector... Hector, huh.

I searched my memory, wondering whether I knew that name. Then it came to me.

Hector the White Lion.

'... Lidwe’s son.'

Hector had introduced himself as Dutoit, but he was undoubtedly Lidwe von Urpa’s son. He would succeed Lidwe after his retirement and defend Teibeon.

For the way he roared in the face of vast hordes of monsters, he would be called Hector the White Lion.

Just as he said, his name truly would go down in history across the continent.

* * *

I headed to the prison.

“A visit?”

The officer repeated the word as though he had heard something strange.

“Yes. Is that not allowed?”

“No, that’s not it. We’ve simply never had a knight come to visit anyone before.”

Apparently, the prison staff already had me down as a knight. Was it because I had taken part in the battle?

“Who are you looking for?”

“A man named Grobel.”

“What is your relationship?”

I smiled.

“He’s something of a sworn enemy.”

“Haha, I see. This way.”

The officer readily showed me in.

I had told the truth, so this wasn’t my responsibility.

I sat down on one side of a glass partition. Soon, the door on the other side opened and Grobel entered.

His face twisted into a scowl the moment he saw me. He trudged over, dropped into the chair, and picked up the receiver.

[“What is it, young master?”]

So he remembered me. I smiled.

“You’re still alive.”

I hadn’t meant to taunt him, but Grobel glared at me.

[“Think I’m gonna croak? I’ve got a little brother. I ain’t dying in a dump like this.”]

Right. He did.

He had a younger brother named Rockbel. Rockbel had stabbed me with a knife, but he had been cleared after it came to light that Serf had been controlling him.

By the time that dispute was settled, however, Grobel had already been sent to Teibeon.

[“They dragged me straight here after I got caught, so I don’t know what happened to my brother.”]

“He probably went to an orphanage.”

From what I had heard, Grobel and Rockbel had no parents. Grobel was the only person raising his younger brother. With him imprisoned, an orphanage was the natural next step for Rockbel.

[“Can’t trust that.”]

I tilted my head at the words he spat through gritted teeth.

“Children are treated fairly well at Constel. Besides, Rockbel was innocent. There shouldn’t be any problems.”

[“That ain’t it. That bastard Gregory’s the problem.”]

Gregory.

The name sounded familiar, and then I remembered. He handled reconnaissance and spying for Indus. He had a talent for controlling animals and passed all sorts of information to Indus through their eyes and ears.

“How do you know Gregory?”

Grobel was merely a mercenary Serf had hired. He shouldn’t have known Gregory, an actual Indus member.

[“Serf introduced Gregory when he hired our mercenary band. Showed us what he could do and said he’d help us escape if things went south. Well, now I know it was all bullshit.”]

Grobel clicked his tongue.

I asked another question.

“But why Gregory? Back then, he only acted through a crow while he stayed somewhere safe, didn’t he? Isn’t he working for Indus again?”

Grobel answered my question with one of his own.

[“You don’t know? Gregory went to Serf’s place without knowing he was dead and got spotted. Well, the crow he was controlling got spotted. They’re looking for him, but they haven’t caught him yet.”]

They hadn’t caught him.

I narrowed my eyes at that.

[“Then he’s on the run. Indus is good at cutting people loose, so they won’t take him back.”]

Serf and Gregory had been the only Indus members involved in the cabin incident. Serf was dead, and Gregory was on the run. Indus wouldn’t leave Gregory alone when he knew the truth about them, so he was probably fleeing both the police and Indus.

[“That’s right. He’s gotta still be in the central region, at least.”]

Since Gregory could gather information about his surroundings, he also knew where he could stay out of sight. He must have used animals to help him evade other people’s eyes.

“So you think Gregory might approach Rockbel?”

[“Yeah. The money Serf paid me for the job is just sitting there now, ain’t it? I’m the only one who knows where it is. But Gregory wouldn’t know that. If he runs short on cash, he might remember the money I got and go looking for my brother.”]

“Never liked that son of a bitch from the start. Not since he started running his mouth through a crow from somewhere in the back...” Grobel kept talking eagerly, even though I hadn’t asked.

He was more talkative than I had expected. I was largely responsible for his being sent to Teibeon, yet he was far less hostile toward me than I had imagined.

Or was he so preoccupied with his brother that he had no room to think about anything else?

Hmm. I thought for a moment.

Grobel clearly seemed very worried about his brother. That could give me something useful to bargain with.

However, the visitation room’s phones recorded every conversation, so I couldn’t say anything reckless. But Grobel was a man of the underworld. Surely there was a suitable way to communicate.

I looked at Grobel using Analysis.

[Grobel]

- Former leader of the mercenary band “Regid.” Hired by Indus member Serf Daniel, but currently serving time in prison following his capture.

- Deeply cherishes his younger brother, Rockbel.

- Learned sign language and lip-reading to communicate confidentially with Indus members.

Just as I thought.

I shifted my head slightly, hiding my face from the guard behind Grobel. The movement was natural enough, but staying like this would draw suspicion. I needed to be quick.

“Grobel, want to make a deal?”

I moved only my lips, making no sound.

Grobel’s eyes flew wide open.

“I’ll protect your brother. In return, help me get past the wall.”