Chapter 211: East, Ishay (6)
As the banquet drew to a close, I followed King Shui to the storeroom where he kept his collection of law books.
“It’s a shame you don’t drink.”
Shui was staggering along, hobbling against the wall.
It had been a long time since he’d had a drink, and he looked like that.
“Haha, alcohol doesn’t go well with me, I black out pretty quickly.”
“Isn’t it better then? The whole point of drinking is to pass out.”
“I have a lot of work to do so I can’t lose my mind.”
“In your case, perhaps.”
I remember the last time I passed out after drinking.
Coincidentally or not, Aizel was there both times, and having experienced it on previous occasions, she knew I had a weakness for alcohol.
What did she think she was going to do with a drunk me then?
I can’t imagine anything good.
“This is the royal library. It’s mostly for my use, but there are some for you, too…”
There were dozens of warriors stationed around the library to prevent anyone from entering or leaving.
The two samurai standing in front of the door bowed when they saw Shui, and then opened the door.
Once the door was open, the warehouse in front of them was filled with all sorts of unusual items.
Among them were all sorts of katana, from armor to ordinary-looking tools.
“You’re strong enough to not need them, but I’m not. I’ve been hindered by my small stature and weak muscles since I was a child, so I never set foot in the Celestial Academy. Instead, I became interested in…”
“The law.”
“Aside from that, I was more interested in learning and knowledge. As the king’s brother, I should be able to do more than support my brother.”
“You weren’t particularly interested in power?”
“Power? You don’t know how the Ishay royal family came to be.”
At my question, Shui smirks and shakes his head.
“On the surface, it’s a kingdom of many tribes, but in reality, they don’t get along very well. Blood was said to have stained the land when the kingdom was founded.”
“You mean there are still factions at odds with the royal family?”
“Yes. My brother and I were threatened in our youth, and it was only through his strength and my cunning that we survived until now. The same goes for Kimei.”
“What I don’t understand is that Princess Kimei…”
“Isn’t she the heir?”
“I’m not familiar with the laws of Ishay.”
“The Royal Family was formerly the Deer God Tribe, and the Deer God Tribe has long been a matriarchal tribe. It came to this when my mother, the first queen, gave birth to nothing but sons. It’s one of the downsides of a matriarchal society that requires an heir. A queen can’t sow seeds like a king.”
Chuckling at the mention of his mother, Shui continued.
“Ever since my brother ascended the throne, there has been a growing backlash from those who disliked the royal family, and as the second son, I was less threatened than he was, so I didn’t have time to care about power. Rather, I was relieved that my brother was able to have Kimei… a daughter…”
“It must have lit a fire in their eyes to assassinate Princess Kimei.”
“It did, but now he’s wiped them all out and there’s only a small remnant.”
So this is the story of the Ishay royal family.
I hadn’t gotten a chance to hear these details in the game, so now I understood Kimei’s reaction to meeting me for the first time.
In other words, I hadn’t just saved the princess of a kingdom, but the woman who would later become queen.
‘I’m making progress.’
Only one question remained unanswered…
“What the hell is a ‘sacrifice’ anyway?”
…that was it.
At this point, Shui mentions it and asks me.
“Did the goblin say that?”
“Yeah, I can’t help it, I’ve been talking to him quite a bit, and while he used to just mumble about when she’s going to die, a few days ago he started jumping up and down with glee about being able to sacrifice Kimei.”
That’s what the demon that I caught off guard and slit his throat had said.
It was the first I’d heard of the sacrifice, the plan, the whole thing.
I didn’t remember any of it, so it must have been the aftermath of the future being altered.
“I’m still investigating.”
I might have to ask Keraph about this later.
“Investigating… Are you working with something similar to the dark ghosts?”
“Demons…”
A group that specialized in dealing with demons and youkai in the East.
Countries in the West have created specific knightly organizations to deal with demons hiding in human lands, but unlike the West, the East is so far away from demonic lands that there are no state-run organizations dealing with demons.
However, the East is not devoid of demons, hence the existence of the dark ghosts.
I don’t know much about them since they don’t appear in the game, but maybe I’ll run into them on this trip.
“It’s similar, since I’m a member of the Knights of the Holy Lady.”
“I see.”
Nodding, Shui finally picks up where he left off, glancing around the warehouse at the law books.
“There you are,” he says, “I guess I stuck it in the corner because I had no use for it.”
“Hmm…”
Shui picked up a log that doesn’t look like much from the outside.
“Ah, well… I’ll have to explain to you. This is a scroll I bought when I was in the Fire Nation. Hwagoku is famous for its ninja, who specialize in an unusual martial art called ninjutsu, and this is one of their scrolls, which can serve a similar function to ninjutsu.”
Shui carries the log in a heap and places it in my arms.
“Is this… wood?”
It’s a law treasure called reversal orb. It’s not the log that’s the important, but the beads inside. From what I’ve heard, it’s a training tool used by young ninjas to learn a form of jutsu called bunshin jutsu.”
“Does it… allow you to switch places between your body and the log?”
I was familiar with ninjas swapping bodies with logs.
“Exactly. Actually, if it contained marbles, I thought it could be something other than a log, but the ninja who handed it to me insisted it had to be a log…”
I wondered if they even cared about antiquity.
They were thorough ninjas in a strange way.
“Other than that, what else can you do to change your body?”
“The reversal orb is actually a bodhisattva made up of two beads. One is in a log, and the other is… well, it’s……”
Shui looked around the log for the other orb, but couldn’t find it.
“Oh no… I must have given them to Kimei and never got them back.”
“Then this scroll belongs to Princess Kimei…”
“No, it doesn’t. Kimei won’t need it anymore.”
Shui denied, shaking his head at my trembling reaction.
“More than that, do you really need to look at the law? Are you facing any threats to your life? Even if you are, it’s still better to take the weapon…”
‘Threats.’
I don’t know if I should say I am threatened or not.
“Haha, this is enough for me. I don’t need any armor, I’ve fallen in love with this sword.”
I reached out and patted the Sierra on my waist, followed by Shui’s “Hoh… while admiring Sierra’s form.
[I’m a little embarrassed to hear that out of the blue, disciple…]
Sierra blushes at my sudden confession of love.
“I don’t need to see the blade to know it’s a great sword.”
Those who don’t know that Sierra is a Spectral Sword might think she’s a prized sword, just like Shui’s reaction now.
In reality, I didn’t really need it.
After all, the sword I had was a sword that couldn’t be bought with money, and I didn’t feel like I was lacking in power right now.
“Well, that’s good. Go get the rest of the orbs and talk to Kimei, and maybe she can teach you how to use the reverse orb.”
“Okay.”
“The log…”
Shui trailed off as he looked at me holding the log.
“I’ll pick it up right now.”
I took out the subspace pouch in my hand and put the log in it, and Shui’s eyes widened.
Subspace pockets must be rare everywhere.
Soon, after examining my subspace pouch, Shui summoned a samurai from outside and ordered him to escort me to the outbuilding where Princess Kimei resides.
I already knew the location of her outbuilding, but I didn’t think it was necessary to use Sheddie power to show up unannounced.
Later, I would meet up with Kimei to retrieve the other orb.
“…Here’s the reversal orb.”
The small bead Kimei placed in my hand was engraved with Eastern characters.
The way it contained mana and the feeling of mana was different from the eastern scripts.
“My, what if you smell it…!”
Kimei interrupted me as I was observing the reversal orb.
“It smells like Princess Kimei.”
“No, that can’t be…”
“How do you use it?”
“I understand that when you want to change your position, you can chew on the beads…”
“That means…”
“……”
At the sound of my voice, Kimei’s face flushes as she explains to me, and she ducks her head.
I realize that this bead has been in her mouth before.
“It’s okay, I wiped it with a clean cloth…There shouldn’t be a problem…”
“If you didn’t clean it, it would be more valuable.”
“Ugh, benefactor…! That’s awful…!”
Kimei shouted at the top of her lungs, and then Sierra’s honey balm struck me squarely in the back of the head.
I laughed as I stroked my aching scalp.
“Ahaha…Do you think it’ll break or anything?”
“No, they’re not that hard, just a little bite and they’ll reposition themselves.”
“It’s not a one-time thing, but it might be an issue if you want to use it again.”
“But I know the beads have a tendency to stick together, so I can track their location, but right now… I guess it’s not really responding, huh?”
Kimei looks at the bead in my palm and shakes her head.
I’ll have to test it to be sure, but it doesn’t seem to have any effect when it’s in a subspace pocket.
‘I’d better put it somewhere safe.’
I don’t think having the bead in my mouth beforehand is a one-size-fits-all solution, so it might be worthwhile to include a feature in the prosthesis that allows me to keep the bead in your mouth and activate it at any time.
I don’t know if that’s possible, but I’m sure Geppeti will figure it out.
For now, I think it’s better to have it in my mouth when I think it might be dangerous.
‘Well, it’s best if I never have to use it, but…’
Judging from the state of the relationship chart in the status window, it was hard not to see that happening.