Still, I drank the offered glass in two gulps. The wine was indeed old; there was a sour tinge to the flavor that once, a long time ago, must have been exquisite.
Eris watched me, satisfied. “A man who can hold his drink. Very impressive. Would you like some more?”
I shook my head. I wasn’t here to indulge.
“Impatient, aren’t you?” said Eris. “Well, no matter. I wanted to make contact with you in Seifort just after your Gluttony awakened, but a good opportunity never showed itself. And then, while I was waiting for my chance, you rushed off after Roxy Hart and left the kingdom behind.”
“So, you watched me back at the capital, too?”
“Of course! Oh, something I forgot to mention—I’m the bearer of Lust, a Skill of Mortal Sin. I’m also a guardian of the Kingdom of Seifort. I know all about you, Fate. I know all about your blade Greed too. I considered taking him from the flea market into my custody, but I knew that eventually he’d find his way to you. So I simply let things unfold.”
I heard Greed grumbling disapproval through my Telepathy. He didn’t like hearing that Eris had played him like a hapless pawn.
“You and Greed are acquaintances, then?” I asked.
“I wouldn’t go so far as to say that, no. I’m second generation. I haven’t acquainted myself with many of the first. Speaking of, that girl you came to Babylon with, the Wrathful one. She’s first generation. We don’t really get along.” Eris smiled, leaning forward. “It seems she’s not fond of the difference between our bust sizes.”
That didn’t seem right. I suspected Eris’s personality was the issue. Myne hated people who were overly friendly, pushy, or too forward. However, the subject that most piqued my curiosity was this talk of first and second generations.
Eris approached me as I puzzled over what she meant, stepping so close that her chest almost touched me. With that small gesture, without even the slightest effort, she disrupted my thoughts, dizzying them with sensual impressions and feelings. They didn’t feel like my thoughts, though. It was as if her proximity acted as a kind of charm in itself. I clenched my jaw and fought to concentrate.
“Oh, I’m sorry,” said Eris. “That feeling’s an effect of Lust. The power to charm simply seeps out of me. I can’t always control it. Men and women, old and young—it doesn’t matter. When my charm gets you, you can’t help but love me. It’s similar to the way your Gluttony leaves you eternally hungry.”
Eris smiled. She didn’t seem particularly bothered by the effect she had on me. Gluttony, for all its strengths, threatened to consume my very sense of self unless I kept it fed with the souls of my enemies. Yet Eris stood here and spoke so casually about her Lust. Her skill didn’t seem to carry the same risk as mine. Or so she wished to have me think.
I glowered as she stood there, vibrant and beaming. I didn’t like feeling manipulated, and I couldn’t shake the feeling that she wasn’t being entirely honest with me.
“Now, now, there’s no need to look like that. This isn’t particularly easy for me, either. Ah, where were we? Oh, yes, speaking of Myne, that reminds me. The two of you defeated the chimera Haniel yesterday, right? Thank you. Of the seven chimera varieties, Haniel’s one of the most annoying. You did me a real favor.”
“Seven types of chimera?” I repeated. One had been bad enough.
“Yes. They’re biological weapons, mechangels originally built to protect ancient Galia. There are seven types in total. Haniel was a barrier chimera. They’re not easy to get close to once they reach their evolved state. Not even a holy knight would be able to take care of one very easily, not these days. They just aren’t strong enough.”
“I don’t really want to know,” I said cautiously, still trying to catch up with her barrage of information, “but are you saying there are at least six other chimeras still alive in Galia? Each with their own name and set of abilities?”
That would mean six more people had been fused into those immortal monsters as well. I wanted to believe I was just hearing things, but Eris chuckled wryly and poured more wine into my empty glass with a little nod.
“Yes. Nothing for you to get too excited about, though. Most of the chimeras remain quietly shut down in the Galian capital. What’s intriguing about Haniel is the simple fact that, well, someone had to move it out of the capital, you know?”
Myne and I had found Haniel’s cocoon in an old graveyard at the center of a long-abandoned village. I’d thought that cemetery was the chimera’s resting place, but now Eris claimed somebody had intentionally placed it there. This admittedly intrigued me. Still, I didn’t want to get too distracted by someone else’s problems. I couldn’t lose sight of why I was in Babylon—for Lady Roxy. I took the glass and poured the wine down my parched throat.
“In any case,” said Eris, “let’s leave that story where it is for now, shall we? I don’t really want to stick my neck into the affairs of the first generation, so let’s get to the heart of the matter.”
“What do you mean by that?”
I’d thought this whole conversation was going to be about the chimeras. What problem could Eris possibly have that exceeded the threat of an enemy as terrifying as Haniel?
“It’s about Roxy, now that she’s here in the Galian region,” Eris said. My spine stiffened at the mention of Lady Roxy’s name, but Eris continued casually. “You see, Roxy Hart must die.”
“What?!” I snarled with a sudden rush of anger. The glass in my hand shattered, the last few red drops spattering against the floor.
Eris went on, cool and composed even under my enraged glare. “This is a matter of great importance. Not just for the kingdom, but for its very future. Roxy’s death is sure to lead in a most prosperous direction.”
“That’s ridiculous! What are you talking about?! What does her death have to do with the kingdom’s ‘direction’?! She’s the only holy knight with the people’s best interests at heart! She’s why—that’s why I…”
I grabbed hold of Eris’s sleeve. Even then, she didn’t show a hint of anger, instead going on calmly as though she had not just proposed the importance of an assassination.
“The phenomenon of monstrous ‘hate,’” Eris continued. “You know of it, yes?”
“Of course I do. We rouse monstrous aggression with our own. It dissipates on a daily basis. What does that have to do with Lady Roxy?!”
“Mm…half your statement’s correct, but the other half isn’t. Hate doesn’t completely dissipate; it accumulates over many long years. During that time, very particular monsters with unique names are born of it. You know these monsters as crowned beasts. That kobold you fought at the Hart Estate? A prime example.”
This was true. Hadn’t Greed confirmed the origin of that monster himself? The crowned kobold had been a result of hate built up over generations of the Hart family defending themselves from waves of invading kobolds. It haunted me somewhat to realize Eris knew I’d killed the beast. She had followed me much more closely than I imagined. Was she watching me at all times? And if so, how? I hadn’t noticed at all. Hers was a power I could not yet fathom.
I released my hold on Eris’s sleeve. Her expression did not falter.
“I’m glad you’ve decided to calm down a little,” she said. “That expression isn’t as cute on you. Now, where was I? Oh, yes. The phenomenon of hate is also present in humans. For example, hate grows from the oppressed, who suffer poverty, discrimination, and tyranny under the rule of the holy knights. To that boiling brew, imagine adding the death of Roxy Hart, the last descendant of the only holy knight family the public truly adores. Say her death came in a particularly gruesome fashion—for example, at the hands of those other, despised, underhanded holy knights. Well, then the hate of the oppressed would find a pure direction in which to flow.”
“What are you saying?” My mind reeled.
“Think of Roxy’s death as a catalyst. The explosion of hate from her demise would result in the birth of humans with an extraordinary
new power, one created directly from all who hate. These humans would be special. Their skills would surpass those of the holy knights, and so they would grow up to become the new bastion of the kingdom. Marvelous, don’t you think?”
I could barely speak through my gritted teeth. “I’d hardly call Lady Roxy dying marvelous!”
I couldn’t even begin to believe the scope of Eris’s plan, her cruelty. The very idea of using Lady Roxy to artificially force the creation of such power, as though humans were monsters to manipulate—it was like human lives, especially Lady Roxy’s, meant nothing at all to her.
Still, Eris was unmoved.
“I suppose, in a way, you’re right,” she said. “If you only look at the immediate results, losing Roxy Hart is indeed a slight setback. But try to take a longer point of view, Fate. Everything changes when you look five hundred or five thousand years into the future. Consider our situation as bearers of Skills of Mortal Sin. I realize your power only just awakened, and I’m sorry if my words seem harsh. I just want to avoid you losing yourself to your youthful emotions and fighting the Divine Dragon.”
Abruptly, I stood from my chair. I was no longer interested in whatever else Eris had to say. As I put my hand on the door of the saloon to leave, I heard her call out behind me.
“I’ve said my piece, Fate. I only wanted you to know what’s been set in motion. Now, the rest is up to you. I promise you this: I will not get in your way. I don’t intend to be any more than a bystander. So don’t hold your new knowledge against me, all right? I hope you’ll visit the saloon again, as a customer. I assure you, you’ll get more than your money’s worth.”
Despite the callous disregard for Lady Roxy’s life with which Eris had just spoken, my heart twinged to hear the loneliness lingering in her voice. I suspected then that, like Myne, Eris’s life was tethered to a force I neither knew nor understood.
Perhaps I was the only one of us who could be called truly free.
Chapter 5:
The Return of Corpse the Adventurer
I LEFT THE SALOON, slipped my skull mask back on, and took a deep breath. The crowd of customers waiting for the saloon to open had grown as Eris and I talked. As long as she worked there, the run-down saloon would always be a hit. People had no choice but to be attracted to her.
At least I’d learned Lust was a skill that had the power to attract people, though I suspected that wasn’t all Eris’s skill was capable of. At first blush, Gluttony only seemed to make me unendingly hungry, but the dark truth of the skill—the reason it was a Mortal Sin—was the power it granted me through devouring souls. Lust had to be similar. Regardless of how Eris hid it, there was another, more sinister, side to its power.
Another mystery was that Eris didn’t seem to carry a Weapon of Mortal Sin, or at least, not one I’d seen. Though I couldn’t say for certain, it seemed likely that she also wielded one, just as Myne and I did.
“Hey, Greed,” I said.
“What?”
“Which Weapon of Mortal Sin does Eris wield?”
“Beats me. She wasn’t lying when she said we hardly know each other. She wasn’t carrying a weapon the last time I saw her, either.”
“Is it possible that she doesn’t have one?”
Greed laughed. “No.”
If Greed didn’t know Eris’s weapon, I didn’t have any other way to find out. However, as long as Eris held to her promise to remain an impartial observer, she wasn’t a direct threat to either Lady Roxy or me. I didn’t need to know what powers she was hiding. Not yet.
I still had plenty of time before lunch, so I decided to finally get cracking on monster hunting. The process was no different here than it was in Seifort. First you felled monsters, then you gave proof of their defeat at the designated trading post. The proof for orcs was the same as for goblins—a set of ears. For gargoyles, it was horns. The trading post clearly defined the necessary parts to trade for bounties, so if you proffered any other random bits, you’d leave empty-handed. I’d looked up the details a day earlier, and a list was posted at the inn.
The safest bet was to start with Galia’s most common monster, the orc. I’d fought orcs before, so I knew their tactics and could handle them on my own. A single squadron consisted of about two hundred orcs. That was a lot of ears and would make for a tidy sum, with which I could finally buy new clothes.
With my mind made up, I finished exploring the Merchant Sector. As my last stop, I bought two sizable burlap sacks and headed for Babylon’s gates. “Time to put in a hard day’s work.”
“You said it,” said Greed. “Get cracking on making money so that you can buy me a high-quality, custom-forged scabbard already!”
“Don’t get any extravagant ideas, Greed.”
“What are you nattering on about? Do you not respect my struggles? My hardships? Everything I do for you?”
“Like what?” I asked, pushing down a laugh.
“Who operates the auto-targeting system for your black bow? And who is the sole reason you can load and fire those elemental-magic-charged arrows everyone’s so impressed by?”
Admittedly, those were very helpful feats. I couldn’t fault the sword there. He may have had a penchant for running his metaphorical mouth, but he always did his job.
“Guess I don’t have a choice then, do I? We’ll get you that scabbard. But in return, I expect your full support, Greed!”
Greed laughed. “Expect nothing less of the mighty black sword Greed!”
I couldn’t describe him as anything but confident. Arrogant, even. Still, it was possible I had something to learn from his cocky attitude. Here in Babylon, I lived the life of an adventurer. I didn’t need to get bombastic or pompous, but I did need to project a certain level of confidence. Hunting solo had a way of drawing attention, and not necessarily the good kind. Groups who took umbrage with my loner tendencies were sure to sprout in my wake like weeds. If I kept acting timid, they’d target me, dragging me into an endless string of unnecessary quarrels.
There was no better time to practice than now. As I headed for Babylon’s main gate, I straightened my back and tried to project an aura of confidence.
The main street bustled with people coming and going that morning, just as it had the night before. Clusters of adventurers set off on new hunts, and merchant caravans delivered supplies. At first, I was surprised to see so many distinct groups of adventurers loitering around the main gate, but I quickly realized I was looking at the same practice I had grown familiar with in Seifort. Adventurers gathered here to find members for their hunting parties. None of that mattered to me, so I continued.
However, as I passed the groups milling about the walls, a voice called out to me. I turned to see a man in his thirties, decked out in sturdy armor.
“You there, in the skull mask!” he said. “You look like you know your way around a sword. Won’t you join us? Our usual front-liner is injured, and we’re in a bit of a bind.”
“Sorry, but I hunt alone. I don’t do parties.”
The man’s eyes bugged from their sockets, and he quickly stepped back to put some distance between us. I thought he’d treat me like an idiot, the way adventurers treated me in Seifort and Lanchester, but no. This man was terrified.
“My humble apologies, sir. If you hunt solo, does that mean you’re a, er, former holy knight?”
Ah, I get it, I thought. This adventurer assumed I was one of the banished. Then again, killing the holy knight Hado Vlerick had given me the Holy Sword Technique skill, so in a way, I was indeed a holy knight.
I didn’t see any problem with playing along.
“Yeah,” I said. “Something like that.”
The man yelped. “I’m so sorry, sir. I mean, it’s just—with the way you’re dressed—I thought that, uh… Please excuse my ignorance!”
Again, the man wasn’t completely wrong. In my burnt light armor, I really didn’t look like much of a knight. What’s more, the holy knights were a proud lot. Even if they were
divested of their position somehow, I expected that they insisted on showy, high-quality equipment, not the black light armor I chose for my nighttime fighting.
I took another look at the adventurers gathered by the gate. Three former holy knights stood among them. An intimidating air emanated from them, separating them from the other adventurers, and unique ambition filled their piercing eyes.
“Those knights are probably trying to raise their status while the Seifort army is in disarray thanks to the Divine Dragon,” said Greed. “Your former master just arrived yesterday, and it will be a while before her forces fully mobilize.”
“So, before Lady Roxy arrived, these ex-knights protected the city?”
“Quite. Now that the army is here, they’ll look for another path to fame and fortune by helping out with the monster hunting.”
Babylon really was a nexus where people from different walks of life met and intertwined. I’d met all sorts thus far, and they all interested me to a degree. Of course, my foremost concern remained Lady Roxy’s situation, but I was also curious about Myne’s investigation into the depths of Galia.
I carried this swirl of half-formed concerns in my heart as I ventured out through the gates of Babylon for the first time.
I adjusted the burlap sacks slung over my shoulder and headed directly south, to the border between Galia and the kingdom’s territory. In my current field of vision, the horizon was clear. It seemed no monsters had crossed the border since I’d returned.
So, I crossed into Galia to look for them myself.
“The stench of blood reeks here. I just can’t get used to it,” I muttered.
“You will, in time,” said Greed ominously.
The air of the Galian region had a unique slaughterhouse acridity. It seemed to kill the taste of any food I ate. I took a piece of jerky from my bag and chewed off a chunk to test that theory. The old meat stunk like I was chewing on a raw carcass. The act soon made me queasy. I stowed the rest of the jerky in my bag. I’d eat later.
Berserk of Gluttony Vol. 3 Page 3