by Funa
“He and I are friends. Now and then he carries me around in that carriage, and I heal his wounds whenever he gets hurt. If my friend wants to eat things that are within his territory, what business is it of mine?”
“…………”
All four of the girls were stunned, their mouths agape, not able to manage another word.
“Furthermore, I have asked him never to harm anyone who doesn’t harm him, particularly not any women or children. If someone were to ask him, please don’t harm any creatures except wolves in the forest who attack people, and people who attack you, and even when you are attacked, try your best not to kill or seriously injure anyone, especially women and children, then what’s the crime in that? On the contrary, if that is a criminal act, then what would you call a virtuous one?”
“Uh…”
This was suspicious.
This was clearly suspicious, and the things he said were nothing more than trickery.
Even though this was what they were all thinking, if they couldn’t disprove what the man was saying, then they had no right to apprehend him as a criminal.
On the contrary, apprehending him without proof would make them the criminals.
What to do?
Reina, Mavis, and Mile thought hard, but then Pauline chimed in. “Well then, why don’t we just hand the wyvern over to the guild!”
“Wha…?! But I just told you that Lobreth is my friend…”
“And?”
By daring to call the creature “the wyvern” and not “Lobreth,” Pauline had emphasized that to them, “Lobreth” was nothing more than some monster.
“Our job was to ‘Capture and hand over the wild wyvern that attacked the village and stole their livestock, wounded tons of soldiers and hunters, and just so happens to have a human acquaintance,’ yes? What would you have to do with any of that? Would you walk up to a guard who’s about to arrest a murderer and say, ‘That person is my friend, so you can’t apprehend and punish him?’ He doesn’t belong to you or anything, does he?”
“Gnh…”
Pauline was still Pauline, after all. If the man wanted to say that he took no responsibility for the wyvern, then he should be treated accordingly. Yet he had taken the trouble to show himself, so this probably bothered him.
And then Pauline landed the coup de grâce.
“It would be awfully hard to transport this thing alive. It might break free along the way and hurt someone… How about this? We give up on turning it in alive and just kill it now? Even if there would be a bonus for bringing it in alive, I’d rather lose the ten gold than run the risk of it escaping during transport. Why not just take the surefire thirty gold and the job completion mark, along with the rank-promotion points?”
This man was middle-aged, and so had probably been a mage for many years, with the knowledge and ability to match. However, considering the way he was speaking and behaving, his interpersonal skills were lacking. Overwhelmingly so. Indeed, it was quite fair to ask whether he was Mile’s father.
Perhaps, in his years of research and practice, he had lived a life of almost no human contact.
Realizing Pauline’s plan was to rile the man up, Mavis and Reina joined in with that assumption in mind.
“You know, you’re right. Losing everything just for the sake of trying to get a bonus is probably pretty stupid of us.”
“That’s true. Let’s do it, then!”
“Wha…?!”
“Huh? But we don’t need to do that…”
Naturally, Mile was on the man’s side.
“Hm… I can tell that you aren’t like those others. You possess a kind heart. Plus, you have that silver hair, and those looks—so adorable, but a bit forlorn, as though you’ve lost something along the way, and that humble, moderately-sized bosom…”
“Sh-shut up!”
The man’s demeanor suddenly changed, and though he seemed to be praising her, his comments were incredibly rude. Mile was, understandably, indignant.
“All right, I’ll take you. I’ll gladly use that body of yours as a vessel for the mind of my beloved Elsie!”
“What the heck are you talking abouuut?! And, why would I be happy about thaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaat?!?!” Mile screamed.
Reina, Mavis, and Pauline all stood agape at the speed with which this conversation had escalated.
And Lobreth, sensing that the discussion had somehow turned away from him, appeared relieved.
“It was three years ago…”
The man began to tell some sort of tale.
The Crimson Vow were surprised at first, but as they considered it, they supposed that getting an explanation from the man was a welcome turn of events. They had plenty of time, so they decided to sit and listen closely. Even if it took a little while, nothing about the situation was going to change.
“Three years ago, my dearest Elsie passed away… In order to try and resurrect her, I removed the part of her body that holds her mind, and I froze it. Unfortunately, my storage magic only holds ten kilograms, so I couldn’t store her entire body…”
Apparently, this man had been putting into practice the excuse that Mile gave as to how she could keep the rock lizard for such a long time with storage magic: namely, by “insulating the exterior and applying ice magic at regular intervals.”
Even if he could only hold a small amount, the fact that this man could use storage magic at all put him in a league above your average mage—and the fact that he had come up with such an idea on his own meant that he was exceptionally talented.
“After that, I just needed to get my hands on a young and healthy body, but transporting one back to my abode deep in the mountains would be troublesome, so…”
Suddenly, this tale was growing unsettling.
“Anyway, to ensure that I had a means of travel and transportation, I thought that I might employ a wyvern.”
Ah, so that’s why we’re talking about this…
Finally the dots had been connected.
“I painstakingly sought out a wyvern’s dwelling, waited until brooding season, and then infiltrated a nest, settling in the shell of an egg that had already hatched and covering myself. When the mother returned, I pretended I was a chick, hatching from the egg. Wyverns, not known for their intelligence, are impressionable enough to think that anything that hatched from their own egg must be their young.”
Whoa whoa whoa whoa whoa whoa whoa whoa whoa!!!
The four girls interjected internally.
“And then, as I ran for dear life…”
“You just left out the most interesting paaaaaaart!” they all screamed at once.
The man hung his head and muttered, “I don’t want to remember that part…”
“O-of course.”
They understood.
“As I cowered there, covered in blood, a demon appeared…”
“D-demon?”
Mavis sounded shocked.
Demons dwelled mainly in the northernmost reaches of their continent, cut off from human-inhabited realms by the wide mountain range that ran between the two regions.
It was not that these mountains were entirely impassable, but it was extremely difficult to try and cross them in a wagon. No one ever attempted it unless they had an extremely compelling reason to do so.
Plus, demons and humanoids—in other words, humans, elves, and dwarves—rarely got along.
In fact, even though they were called “demons,” they had no interest in worshipping the devil or trying to overthrow mankind. They were merely a slightly different species. As a race, they also possessed far greater magic than humans. That was the real difference.
Over time, their name had actually been shortened from its original form, “decidedly magical persons,” to “demagicians,” to merely “demons.”
There was not a huge distinction between them and humans, so fundamentally, it would not be a stretch for all four races—humans, elves, dwarves, and demons as well—to be considered humanoid. So the
re could only be one reason why demons should be put in a separate category:
Jealousy.
That was all there was to it.
They had greater magic than humans, better constitutions than elves, and were more skilled than dwarves.
The differences were subtle. It was an incredibly nuanced talent that they possessed.
As far as humans were concerned, elves were beautiful and had strong magic, but they were frail and delicate. This was permissible.
Dwarves were sturdy, and skilled craftsmen, but their magic was weak, and they were short and stumpy. This was permissible as well.
However, demons were not markedly inferior to humans in any way, and in fact exceeded them ever so subtly by most measures. This was unforgivable.
Elves and dwarves felt the same way.
They hadn’t done anything to deserve it, but something about the demons drove the other races mad… This happened often.
Even so, it seemed that at some point in the past, they had all lived together. But now, no one could say when the division occurred that resulted in the demons moving away. No one in the present day knew what had happened, or the reason for it, but it was clear that the negative feelings were mutual.
However, while it did seem that they had clashed in the past, there was no specific conflict to speak of in the present. Now and then, you might even see a demon merchant or researcher stop by a humanoid settlement.
Furthermore, as there were few differences between demons and humans, if they hid themselves behind a hat or hood and made sure that no one noticed their narrow, elongated pupils, it was not so difficult for demons to simply blend in.
Incidentally, though beastpeople were rather weak at magic, for some reason, they were closer to demons than to humanoids. Therefore, beastpeople rarely showed up in human settlements, either. Not that they didn’t ever appear.
While Mavis, as a noble, and Mile, as a noble-slash-bookworm, had some knowledge of these circumstances, Reina and Pauline, both commoners, knew nothing about them at all. At best, they thought that demons were evil people who could use strong magic, and that beastpeople were the demons’ violent pawns.
Clearly, this was the reason that Mavis was surprised that a demon might have appeared in this area.
Why would they show themselves in a place like this…?
“He patched my wounds and shared his food and water with me. He asked me how I got so injured, and when I answered, he let out a big laugh, and said, ‘All right, let me handle this.’ Several days later, he brought me this.”
The man pointed at Lobreth.
“Huh??”
This story was incredibly bizarre.
No matter how much they questioned this plot-hole-filled tale, though, the facts of the man’s explanation did not change.
They knew that something had happened. They just could not fathom what the demon’s aim could be.
However, they decided to leave that alone for now and focus on the matter at hand: the old man and Lobreth.
“Lobreth was much smaller at that time. However, he was naturally intelligent, and quite accustomed to people, or at least, to the demon. Once the demon turned him over to me, he embraced me as well. I fed him, and taught him many things, and once he grew old enough, he left the nest. And of course, by ‘nest,’ I mean the nest that I built near my house. The demon had used Lobreth like a horse to ride, or livestock, but I couldn’t bring myself to do that. So Lobreth is simply my friend. That is how I think of him.”
“What a nice story… not!!! Weren’t you just intending to scoop out my skull and replace my brains?!” Mile raged.
“Your brains? What are you talking about?”
The man looked perplexed. “I thought I explained this! I need to exchange your mind with Elsie’s!”
“Oh, right. A heart transplant, then. I guess that wouldn’t really have anything to do with something like the brain, an organ that doesn’t do anything but produce snot, would it?”
“Huh?” Mile said.
Beside her, Reina, Mavis, and Pauline all nodded, as though this were a completely natural conclusion.
“Whaaaaaaaat?!”
Apparently, people in this world thought along the same lines as the inhabitants of ancient Egypt. Even though none of the books that Mile had read up until that point had said anything along those lines…
Though, thought Mile, back in the Kingdom of Brandel, where I was born, I got the impression that the theory was that your mind is in your head…
At one point, Marcela even said to me, “Miss Adele, just what goes on in that head of yours?!”
But, now that I think about it, even in Japanese we have a separate word for the heart as an organ, which means that in ancient times, even Japanese people probably thought that your heart—as in your mind—was in your actual heart…
And I guess it’s true that when you think inappropriate thoughts, it’s your heart that’s fluttering, not your brain…
In any case, it seemed that Mile’s brains were safe. That was, as long as her transplanted heart could pump enough blood to it.
“So what do you think? Will you do this for me? It’s not such a horrible idea, is it?”
“It’s absolutely horrible!!! Worse than horrible—it’s unthinkable! Who would possibly agree to that?!?!”
They had no idea what the old man was even saying anymore.
Mile had thought herself completely reasonable, but apparently, in the old man’s view, this was not the case.
The man would not let up.
“I’m begging you! I want to live with my precious Elsie once more! I want to hear that adorable little bark of hers again…”
“She’s a doooooooooooooog?!?!” Mile’s scream rang out.
“Why would you put a dog’s heart into me—a human?! If she’s a dog, shouldn’t you put her heart in a dog’s body?!”
“Huh? Well, I mean, that was certainly my intention up until just a little while ago, but somehow, you’re just the spitting image of her… Plus, a young girl’s body is clearly much more interesting, for a number of reasons…”
“Whether or not it’s interesting is not the issue here! Plus, how do you expect a dog’s mind to function in a human body?! What happens when it wants to go to the bathroom?!”
The man stopped and stared at her, apparently pondering something.
“Are you imagining iiiiiiiiiiiiiiit?!?!”
Her breath ragged from screaming with so much rage, Mile got the feeling that she finally understood exactly how Reina always felt.
“Anyway, I absolutely refuse! If the heart was frozen normally, then its cells would have broken down on freezing. No matter how much healing magic you used on an orc steak, it wouldn’t bring it back to life, would it? Even if you could successfully transplant something with healing magic, that magic doesn’t have any effect on the dead. That’s because the basis of healing magic… is…”
Even if she were to simply tell him that this heart transfer was impossible, Mile realized, he wouldn’t believe her. Therefore, she abandoned her explanation mid-thought.
“Sh-shut up! Don’t act like you know everything! You couldn’t possibly understand the way I feel! To me, Elsie is—Elsie is…”
“To me, she’s just some complete stranger’s pet dog!”
“Guh… Y-you… Fine, Lobreth, do it!”
With a screech, Lobreth stood up and spread his wings. The cord binding his legs, wings, and mouth had been completely undone.
“H-how…?” Mile asked, surprised.
The man explained with a sneer.
“Did you really think I was just talking your ear off for no reason? Bwahaha! While I was talking, I was using part of my mind for silent casting, blasting those ropes with miniscule but powerful fire magic in places you all couldn’t see! That’s how I burned through Lobreth’s bonds! You stupid little girls know nothing about battle—you have a thing or two to learn!”
Carbon nanotubes were still
carbon, after all. They were not particularly flammable, but that meant nothing more than saying it was difficult to ignite coal with a single match. If the thin cords were exposed to high-powered flames, they would burn like anything else. Just as even diamond might burn.
Because he was at such a close range, Lobreth did not use his Breath, but instead launched a direct attack.
However, perhaps because his opponents were women, and he had been told to take it easy on them, he attacked not by biting or clawing at them, but by flapping his wings. He was a sporting fellow.
But then, Lobreth saw Reina and Pauline brandishing their staves and beginning to chant spells, and Mavis wielding her sword. Remembering the magical attack he had desperately dodged earlier, and the pain in his tail, he began beating his wings frantically, whipping up a powerful whirlwind.
And then, whipped by the winds, Reina, Pauline, and Mile’s skirts began to rise.
“Eeeeeeeek!!”
Reina and Pauline stopped their incantations and hurriedly pushed their skirts back down.
Unconcerned by her own fluttering skirt, Mile muttered,
“There it is, his ‘Kamikaze Technique’…”
Mile had been pondering this since she had first seen Lobreth use his “Stomach Flute Technique.” If he could use the “Stomach Flute Technique,” then surely he could use the “Kamikaze Technique” as well.
“Don’t just stand there talking nonsense and nodding to yourself! Hurry up and attack hiiim!!!”
Brought back to the present by Reina’s scream of rage, Mile quickly drew her sword.
However, Lobreth had been trying his best to never kill anyone so far, and he never attacked anyone except those who hurt him first.
That extended even into this moment. He was still holding back.
Mile was hesitant to launch a fatal attack on an opponent like that.
Yet just as she had that thought, a biting attack came her way. It did not seem like Lobreth intended to kill, but merely to clamp down and toss her away.
As she tried to field the rapidly descending bite attack with her sword, suddenly, Lobreth’s tail came whipping around from the side.
A side attack was bad. The only force she had to steady her was the friction of her own weight pressing her feet into the ground, so it would be easy to send her flying.