Chapter 163: There’s a reason
After a series of twists and turns, the contract went well, and Zetto and Yuri returned to the Academy.
“Benoglias…”
I’d never heard of her before.
…She’s a bit vulgar, but I have to admit, she’s powerful.
What bothered me more was…Zetto.
For perhaps the first time, I saw him manipulate his spectral sword.
“Reverse grip… I don’t see that often.”
Perhaps he was simply influenced by his teacher, Sierra.
I’ll never know, but it made me think of someone I’ve missed for a long time.
It was a memory from a long time ago, far away from now.
As uncertain as the other memories were, his end was still vivid in my mind.
Even now, when I close my eyes…
‘…Go home now.’
I hear his low, gravelly voice.
The long-haired man, staring at me with cold eyes, had horns on his head.
He was a demon but not an ordinary demon, of course and his horns, sprouting from odd places, proved it.
With my body covered in bite marks, I held him at bay.
‘My lord, we can’t go on like this…’
‘Yes. I see the end.’
There was futility in his eyes as he watched his enemies charge, kicking up dust in the distance.
Failure.
Failure to finish.
…I couldn’t cut it off.
A million emotions must have flashed through his mind.
‘I will stand by your side until the end.’
I stayed on my knees, fists pounding the ground, head bowed, even when he told me to back off.
‘What can you, a mere dragon, do?’
‘Lord…!’
‘Go back. Survive. Lust for life. From now on, the most precious thing you have is your life, and if you live it…’
He smiled.
‘…we may meet again.’
With that, he pushed me away.
I stood back up and tried to walk towards him, but…
‘Alzracrot, this is my last command to you. Survive, you must.’
He commanded, reciting my true name and I could no longer reach him.
Then he raised his hand to the incoming army, and the entire area around us was plunged into ‘shadow’.
He left me alone and walked slowly forward.
‘Too bad, too bad.’
He gripped his sword in a reverse grip and greeted them.
‘After saints, now demons…What a joke of fate. Funny, this is getting old.’
There was no fear in his voice.
‘Henrys, will you not grant me rest now?’
The demon looked up to the heavens and sought Henrys, and that day he found rest.
The memories in my mind gradually faded.
“…”
Feeling a little dizzy, I gulped down the drink on the table.
“You look alike.”
Manipulating spirits and holding a sword in reverse grip.
‘Well, the lord wasn’t blind, but…’
I wondered if the overlapping features of Zetto and the Lord were just a coincidence.
Since then, I have survived.
I have served no one since then.
I followed my master’s last orders and survived to the bitter end.
The power of fate is terrifying.
In that sense…
“…she was a madwoman.”
I gave away my true name so easily.
It was a choice that didn’t make me feel proud as a dragon at all.
‘What the hell does it matter to me if Yuri takes Zetto?’
‘Well… It’s romantic, isn’t it, mating with a blind man? It’s almost as exciting as public copulation.’
I shook my head vigorously.
I could still hear Benno’s bullshit ringing in my ears.
My ears felt unclean.
“Hmm, maybe we should invite a band to play sometime, so the people can hear it in peace…Maybe around the time of the pilgrimage performance by the anonymous donor.”
After all, it wasn’t easy being an ordinary village chief.
***
The dragon’s power was great and Yuri pillar of fire was huge and formidable.
…For some reason, its shape was quite odd.
The whole thing was almost ruined by a lucky goblin, but I thought I did a good job.
Still, I couldn’t help but feel awkward.
On the way back to the academy, Yuri’s face was bright red and she didn’t bother to look at me.
All she wanted to do was argue with the Orb.
‘Benoglias.’
The name of the Red Dragon that seemed to have been sealed away by the hero party.
I don’t know about Yuri, but I had a hero in my house who could have been responsible for that.
I made it back to the dorm safely in the middle of the night, and Rei was sprawled out on the bed with her doll, sleeping soundly, so I went up to the roof for a moment to talk to Geppeti.
“You mean the data from this world?”
“…Right, like information that’s not readily available, like…her real name?”
I picked up the Sheddie at my feet.
“Kerung.”
He licks my face.
This encounter with Deidros has raised a question.
The Blindfold That is Beyond Reason is a “crown” and has many functions.
I wondered if one of those functions might be the reason I had discovered the true names of Deidros and Sheddie.
My hypothesis that it had something to do with the word “Beyond” that was somewhat undermined.
“…”
Geppeti looks at me impassively as I wipe my face free of Sheddie saliva.
Then her lips part.
“…As far as I know, there is no such function. If the ‘crown’ contained all the data of this world, it would have to know the names and information of everyone it encountered. The crown is all about adaptation, and it’s hard to imagine that a spirit’s true nature has anything to do with adaptation.”
“Hmm…”
Then why did I know her true name?
I stared at Sheddie in my hand, which had grown even plumper, but I couldn’t figure out why.
“This is hard.”
So far, my powers had only helped me recognize people and objects I already knew about without looking at them.
That didn’t mean I knew the real names of Deidros and Sheddie.
I already knew Deidros, but I didn’t know his real name and Sheddie was new to me at the time.
“An error?”
“Errors… Before we get to that, I think we need to figure out whether a transcendent being like God is capable of making errors or not.”
“There’s no way to know that. …Come to think of it, didn’t Geppeti make an error?”
“Me?”
Geppeti cocked her head at my question.
“You said you could learn emotions, but didn’t Geppeti warn me that emotions lead to unnecessary errors? What about you, did you make any errors?”
“Well, it’s just that…”
Geppeti hesitates and wonders if she should be ashamed, since errors are ‘flaws’ for machines.
I don’t know when she learned to be ashamed of anything.
“Feel free to say it. For humans, it’s not even an error, it’s part of the natural progression.”
“I’m not human.”
“I think you’re human enough Geppeti. I mean, you’re hiding a blade in your arm, but…this world is a fantasy, after all, so what’s impossible?”
“So far…I haven’t made any errors.”
“Really? Should I say thank goodness…Anyway, how are you getting on with learning emotions?”
“I’m learning quite a few emotions. Most recently, I’ve been learning fear.”
…Fear.
I think I know where she learned it.
‘What was his name…? Kundral…?’
Surely the demon being analyzed by Geppeti had displayed enough fear for her to learn.
“Anyway…I think so. You can become human, and in fact, you already look human right now.”
“…Yeah.”
Geppeti replied in a small, shaky voice.
“So you can act like a little sister whenever you want, even when we’re alone. That is, if you’re comfortable with it.”
“I don’t know about comfortable, but I hope I’m not bothering Lord Zetto…”
“I don’t mind, I don’t know why, but I feel like I’ve outgrown caring for people, and right now I feel like I’m being too stiff and distant.”
“…I see.”
“I don’t think that’s a very sisterly response.”
“Hmm.”
“…Okay, big brother.”
At my urging, Geppeti finally nodded her head and said, in a rather cautious voice.
“You’re starting to sound like a little sister.”
I stroked Geppeti’s head.
“…”
Geppeti stood still, feeling my touch and then she smiled, a small smile.
The smile was so natural that I immediately realized it wasn’t an act.
I wonder if she’s feeling something like comfort.
‘I really need to teach her some more proper positive emotions instead of things like fear…’
I chided myself, returning her smile with a bitter one.
***
Rei woke up before I left for school at the Academy, just as the sun was streaming through the windows.
I asked Rei, who was still in her pajamas, wiping away drool from her disheveled hair before leaving the room.
When had she ever sealed a Red Dragon?
I was simply curious.
What kind of dragon was Benno?
Maybe someday, when she told Yuri about her troubles, it would give me a clue to solve the riddle.
“Hah…? A red dragon?”
Rei frowned at my question, as if she didn’t know what it meant.
“They said it was sealed by the Hero Party in the past, do you not remember?”
“Hmm…”
Rei’s old memories came flooding back as soon as she woke up.
She kept muttering “Red Dragon…” and scratching her head, but then she remembered something.
“Uh…”
She trailed off.
“Did you remember?”
“No, I don’t remember anything at all.”
“Hmm?”
That was strange.
Surely Benno, the Red Dragon’s Orb, was obtained from the Labyrinth of the Sage… If there was anyone who could seal a dragon, the only one I could think of was the Hero Party.
“…No matter how much I think about it, I don’t remember sealing the dragon. No, no…I don’t know how to seal them in the first place.”
“Is that so?”
“Yes. Hubert would know.”
“You mean the Sage, right?”
“Yes, the sage… No, call him the Archmage.”
“Archmage…?”
“Sigh…”
Rei stifled a chuckle at my rambling but I don’t think it’s particularly funny.
[That’s bizarre, by the way, I wonder if she was sealed by someone other than the hero party?]
Sierra, who has been wondering about Benno, has a word to say about that, too.
It certainly didn’t seem like Deidros was wrong.
“……”
With that, Rei, who had been stifling a giggle, suddenly goes quiet.
“…Wait, did you say Red Dragon?”
“Yep. Red Dragon.”
“I’ve never sealed it, but I’ve seen a red dragon…”
“What kind of dragon was it?”
“Well… I don’t even know what kind of dragon since it was already dead. It was lying in a weird position, like… like this… like this…”
“……”
Rei stops talking and lays down on the bed, demonstrating a rather awkward position.
“Ah, well… I guess this won’t explain it to my brother very well.”
“Well, it explains enough. I have a feeling, so why don’t you just stop that posture…”
I held up a hand to stop Rei and Geppeti, who had been watching, sighed.
After scratching her cheeks in frustration, Rei pushed herself to her feet.
“By the way, I remember now. I’m pretty sure Hubert picked up something weird back then…”
“…Something strange?”
I ask, interrupting Ray’s reminiscence.
“Oh, it was… It was a sphere. An orb or something.”
“…An orb.”
[For some reason, I think that dragon is Benno…]
I nodded faintly, confirming Sierra’s words.
‘Benno…?’
The fact that she was dead in such a bizarre position was making less and less sense.
“So what happened to the dragon?”
“It was eaten.”
“What?”
“I know it’s weird, but we were at war, and people were starving to death, and I couldn’t resist some nutritious dragon meat.”
“…”
“It was the first and last time I had dragon meat, and it was actually quite good, though most of it was given away to people, so I only got to eat the tail…”
“I see…”
To summarize the situation, Benno’s soul had somehow been transferred to the orb…The Sage, or rather, the Archmage, had only picked it up…
[Hmmm…was Deidros lying…?]
Sierra questioned with her eyebrows raised and even I found it hard to believe that Deidros had lied.
If he was lying, he must have had a good reason so I could only cautiously speculate.