Chapter 464: Fragment (3)

The guild house basement.

Once, this had been the very cellar where the king of Colony had betrayed everyone and become a puppet of Divine blood.

The cellar where everyone had joined forces and struggled somehow to wrest Colony back from Divine blood—

"..."

"..."

"..."

"..."

Now, nothing filled it except awkward silence.

A tremendously embarrassing, flustering kind of silence.

"..."

Alon looked at Karsemm and Lime.

Karsemm kept darting his eyes around, not knowing where to look, while Lime stared only at the floor as if it might suddenly cave in.

'Yes. And actually, even when you aren’t here, Brother, I often come and go to this place at night.'

Looking at the scene before him, Karsemm’s words came back to Alon once again.

Now that he had been confronted with a truth he had absolutely not wanted to know,

Alon found himself thinking about the situation.

'...No, but does it really have to be this awkward?'

...

Hm...

...It did seem like this really was an awkward situation.

In the end, after all, Alon and Penia had seen it.

...A scene that was a little difficult to describe(?), at that.

Still, Alon felt a little wronged.

The truth was, the moment Penia opened the door, Alon had immediately meant to leave the room after offering a brief apology.

'W-wait a moment! I’ll explain...!'

But the one who had stopped them was none other than Karsemm.

Alon had no idea what exactly he meant to explain, but in the end, because of that desperate cry, neither Alon nor Penia had been able to flee.

And so, stuck in this awkward four-way face-off, Alon, feeling somewhat aggrieved, finally—

"Ahem—"

—cleared his throat.

At that, Karsemm and Lime both flinched.

In the end, it was Alon who calmly spoke first.

"...We intruded."

At the slight bow of his head, Lime and Karsemm both looked startled.

But there was nothing strange about Alon’s apology.

Thinking about it, it was stranger that the two of them were acting as if they had been caught doing something they should not have been doing.

To begin with, Alon was in no position to comment on whatever kind of relationship the two of them might have.

More than that, in a sense, the side that ought to apologize was Alon and Penia.

After all, they were the ones who had burst in on a secret rendezvous.

"...No, rather, we’re the ones who should apologize for showing you something like this. In the sacred guild office..."

As if too ashamed to show his face, Karsemm bowed his head.

Only then did Alon realize why the two of them had been so fidgety.

'...Right. This was the guild building.'

At the moment, Alon’s group was staying in the guild building, but as far as Alon knew, the only one who actually lived here was Seollang.

Anyway, just as he was nodding—

"...Hm?"

Alon paused.

Because a new question had occurred to him.

Why were they doing this(?) in the guild office in the first place?

'...Don’t both of them have quieter, safer places?'

Lime, Seollang’s secretary, had a home too.

And naturally, Karsemm had a home as well.

A very enormous one, in fact: the imperial palace.

But instead of at home, they were doing this in the guild office?

Then—

"...Ahem, well, I understand. I do understand, um... tastes do vary, after all."

It seemed Penia had reached a conclusion similar to Alon’s, because she belatedly cleared her throat and said that.

At once, Karsemm cried out,

"N-no, there are circumstances behind all this!"

"Cir...cumstances?"

"Ah... certainly, that kind of—"

"No, not that...!"

Apparently unwilling to let the misunderstanding grow any further, Karsemm hurriedly began explaining himself.

"...So, if this relationship became known now, it could get politically complicated, and since there’s a secret passage connecting the imperial palace all the way here, you’ve been meeting like this because you could meet in secret?"

"That’s correct..."

At the honest explanation that followed, Alon nodded.

Certainly, for Karsemm, who had become the king of Colony, the card called "marriage" was not one he could afford to lay down lightly right now.

Alon looked at Karsemm.

It struck him as reasonable enough.

But perhaps something occurred to Karsemm under that gaze, because with a resolute face, he squeezed Lime’s hand and said,

"But someday, I absolutely intend to announce it properly and take her as my queen."

"..."

"She is someone I absolutely need."

"...Karsemm..."

At Karsemm’s sudden confession attack, Lime flushed red.

"...Ah."

Of course, Penia, standing nearby, instantly switched to an expression that plainly said, How ridiculous—

And with the mood making it feel as though, if the two of them had been alone, an even fiercer extra round than before would have broken out right then, Alon finally rose from his seat.

"We will keep this matter to ourselves, so please don’t worry too much."

"Thank you!"

With those words, Alon and Penia quietly left the basement.

A sigh slipped out on its own.

"...Now I know a truth I really did not want to know."

"Seriously. I’m sorry."

"All of a sudden?"

At Alon’s reaction, Penia scratched her head.

"Well... like you said, if I hadn’t opened the door, this situation wouldn’t have happened."

"Well, it couldn’t be helped. Up until then, we were misunderstanding what it was."

"Honestly, if I’d thought about it just a little more, I probably would’ve realized it was connected to the palace..."

Penia said that, sounding a little sheepish, then added,

"But it suddenly made me curious about something. Once two people are in love, do words like that all start sounding romantic?"

"...Words like that?"

"Yes. You know— 'She is someone I absolutely need.' Stuff like that."

She did not say it outright, but Penia clicked her tongue as if to say, The second I heard that, I got goosebumps.

Alon thought about it quietly.

"Hm—"

"That’s what you think too, right, Alon?"

"It does sound a little embarrassing to me too... but I think things like that depend on who says them."

"On who says them?"

"Yes. From our perspective right now, that’s how it might sound, but if it were spoken by someone you loved, it would feel different."

"Hm— as for me, even if it came from {N•o•v•e•l•i•g•h•t} someone I really liked, I think I’d still cringe—"

Stop-!

"? Penia?"

Penia, who had been walking, suddenly came to a dead halt, and Alon looked at her in puzzlement.

But—

without answering, she lowered her head, then said,

"Alon. I’m going to step outside for a bit."

"At this hour?"

"Yes. There’s a spell I suddenly want to test, and I can’t do it inside."

"...Well, alright."

He did think, At this hour?, but Alon soon nodded and continued on alone.

Because of that, he did not see it.

The ear peeking slightly out through her blue hair—

dyed red.

####

The day after Alon caught a glimpse of a truth he had not wanted to know.

"Alon, I’m told Divine blood has come looking for you."

"Come looking for me?"

"Yes."

"...Here?"

"Well, I’m startled too, but... yes. That’s what I was told."

Evan came bearing the news that Divine blood had arrived.

"..."

The moment he heard that, Alon instinctively scattered his magic and searched the surroundings.

But he could not feel even the slightest presence of Divine blood, and as he stood there puzzled, Evan asked,

"What should we do?"

"I’ll go now. But where is it?"

"I heard it’s waiting for you, Alon, in an underground cavern the information guild prepared in advance."

"I’m coming too!"

As if she had been waiting for that, Seollang shouted out.

Accepting her company, Alon rose to his feet at once.

After getting into the carriage and leaving Colony behind, Alon’s group came to a stop before a small cavern not long after.

"I greet the great one."

The moment Alon stepped down from the carriage, the masked man with reverse eyes immediately bowed.

Giving a slight nod, Alon asked,

"Is the Divine blood inside?"

"Yes."

Soon, led by the guide, the group made their way deeper into the cavern.

Once they had gone in a fair distance—

"...So, you’ve come."

A thin voice rang out.

A woman was seated in the middle of the vast cavern.

"...A person?"

Alon muttered without thinking.

But he noticed right away.

That the being sitting far off in a chair utterly unsuited to this cavern was not a person.

'There’s no vitality.'

There was no sense of vitality from her at all, and her face was terribly pale.

And the moment he recognized that fact—

"Strictly speaking, it’s a puppet I’m controlling."

The woman—no, the puppet—opened its mouth.

"Well— you probably wouldn’t care even if it were my true body. But humans, by nature, feel more familiarity toward forms similar to themselves than to forms that are different, don’t they? So I tried making one."

Saying, 'Though I didn’t make it very well,' the woman shrugged.

Clearly, there was no vitality in it, and yet the body’s movements felt almost as though life truly inhabited it.

Feeling the strangeness of it, Alon approached.

When he finally reached the woman, she rose from her seat.

"First, let me introduce myself."

"..."

"I am the Sculptor. Honestly, if it were up to me, I’d greet you in my true body, but as you know, my body stands out in all sorts of ways, and it’s also difficult to move around."

At that easygoing display—You can let it slide this much, can’t you?—Alon found himself feeling something new.

As far as he knew, there had never been any Divine blood that showed this much friendliness toward a human.

So he felt curious, but only for a moment, before Alon quickly responded.

"Then let me introduce my—"

"Ah, that won’t be necessary. I already know you well enough."

"You know me?"

"Yes. Among Divine blood—well, there probably are some who don’t know, but anyway, you’re famous."

"The Star Eater," the Sculptor added.

"No, actually, at this point, I wonder whether there’s anyone who doesn’t know."

The corners of her lips lifted.

"...I’m that famous?"

He could not understand it.

But at Alon’s question, the Sculptor nodded as though it were only natural.

"Of course. At a time like this, who wouldn’t know the leader of Star Root?"

She let out a laugh.

"?"

Alon looked baffled.

"?"

At the sight, even the Sculptor—who had been smiling until just now—turned puzzled as well.

"?"

"?"

"?"

"?"

Question marks passed back and forth between them.

Alon turned his gaze to the right and looked at Evan.

"??"

Evan, too, was wearing an expression full of confusion.

This time, Alon looked at Penia and Seollang.

"???"

"?"

They likewise had countless question marks floating over their heads.

And then, when Alon turned his gaze back to the Sculptor—

"...I am not the leader of Star Root."

"....What?"

That was what he said.

"No... I’m not?"

"You’re not."

"Really...?"

"Really."

"...You’re not the leader of Star Root—the one who violently beats Divine blood into submission and absorbs them by the group?"

"What is that trashy behavior supposed to be?"

"...Huh?"

Faced with this utterly unexpected fact, with the thought What is this?, the Sculptor’s mind plunged into massive confusion.