Tgurneu believed that, in all things, one must take the time to prepare thoroughly before carrying out the task. So Tgurneu began first by creating the environment where the seventh would be raised.
What caught its eye was a great trader who lived in Gwenvaella, Atreau Spiker. He did scientific research, with a wealth of capital backing him, and used the results in his business. He’d inherited some assets at the age of twenty, and in ten years, he’d multiplied that sum dozens of times over.
Using its subordinates, Tgurneu slaughtered Atreau’s whole family to make him loathe fiends. Subsequently, Atreau made up his mind to dedicate the rest of his life and fortune to revenge.
The method Atreau chose to accomplish this was the development of weapons that could kill fiends effectively. It was exactly the sort of idea an excellent scholar and rationalist like him would devise. This, too, was per Tgurneu’s expectations.
Next, Tgurneu taught Atreau that fiends lurked in hiding throughout human society. It made him paranoid and convinced him the fiends were trying to steal his research. And so, just as Tgurneu had predicted, Atreau decided to isolate himself in the wilderness to carry out his research on killing fiends alone.
Atreau spared no expense, drawing upon his great fortune to gather information about fiends from all over the world. He received shipments of fiend corpses and studied fiends that Tgurneu had sent into the human realms, as well as those of Dozzu’s comrades that had had the misfortune to die.
And so, Atreau came up with weapons for fighting fiends and then polished the technology without ever knowing it was all part of Tgurneu’s design.
Originally, Atreau planned to be a Brave of the Six Flowers himself. There would be no point if he didn’t exact his revenge with his own two hands. But the Evil God didn’t awaken, and Atreau grew old before the day of the great battle ever dawned. Eventually, he came to consider choosing a successor. He gathered young hopefuls from all over and gave them his secret tools, teaching them everything about his craft.
Before taking on these young apprentices, he would investigate them thoroughly. He had paid spies to look into their backgrounds. With the help of the Saint of Words, he made sure they weren’t thieves come to steal his handiwork before he made them apprentices.
Of course, none of the young people Atreau had made his apprentices were any of Tgurneu’s. They were all fine people with sincere aspirations of becoming Braves of the Six Flowers and risking their lives to protect the world. There was no need for Tgurneu to play the odds and send Atreau a lackey. All Tgurneu had to do was take an apprentice Atreau had raised and put him under its control later.
Tgurneu sent its agents onto the mountain where Atreau lived and had them carefully watch what happened there. Then, Tgurneu considered which of the apprentices Atreau had raised was best suited to make the seventh.
Once, Tgurneu had been asked why it had spent so much effort on this. Specialist number two, as well as the three-winged fiend Tgurneu had used as its body, both knew all about Tgurneu’s plans, and both found the choice baffling.
There was no need to go to the trouble of raising a powerful individual to protect the Black Barrenbloom, they had said. Any number of talented warriors or Saints with great powers would present themselves later on. So Tgurneu should just choose someone suitable from among those and put them in its thrall with its power over love.
They didn’t understand. The cultivation of Atreau Spiker had been in preparation for the inevitable day of the final battle. Tgurneu had needed fifty years to play the winning move that would bring about its victory.
That plan, orchestrated over the course of fifty years, was finally about to come to fruition—by means of Adlet Mayer, the strongest man in the world, whom Tgurneu had chosen.
✦ ✦ ✦
Tgurneu reminisced about a rare circumstance forty years ago, when a fiend had second-guessed it—the three-winged fiend, whose body Tgurneu had appropriated.
“Why Adlet Mäyer?” the three-winged fiend had demanded. It was unusual for it to oppose Tgurneu so firmly. It even claimed that if Tgurneu could not provide a convincing explanation, it would refuse to serve as its body.
The three-winged fiend had wondered: Why not Chamo Rosso? Why not Goldof Auora? Why choose Adlet as the seventh, when he didn’t even compare in talent or ability? Adlet was even the weakest among the apprentices Atreau had accepted. Even if Atreau was necessary for the plan, Tgurneu could simply have pulled some strings within the temple or the Kingdom of Piena to maneuver either Chamo or Goldof into becoming his apprentice.
With a sigh, Tgurneu had replied, “You don’t get it. I believe Adlet is far greater than either of them. I know he has something neither Goldof nor Chamo have. I know he can make the plan I’ve envisioned a reality. No matter what anyone says, I will choose Adlet. He’s the one I’ve been waiting for.”
In its mind, Tgurneu crowed to the now-deceased three-winged fiend: I was right .
✦ ✦ ✦
About thirty minutes before the mark appeared on Fremy’s chest, Tgurneu had ordered the wolf-fiend to win her over, to tell her that all the fiends actually thought of her as one of them.
Of course, Tgurneu didn’t love her, not even in the slightest, though she was far from unique in that regard. And the fiends had never accepted Fremy. She was nothing more than a half-breed after all.
Fremy would understand that, too. Hating Tgurneu and loving Adlet as she did, she would never agree to surrender. Tgurneu had an ulterior motive in mind when giving the order.
On the southern edge of the ruins, Tgurneu spent some time just waiting. There was no need for impatience.
Voices could faintly be heard from far away. One aerial fiend’s call reached Tgurneu’s ears. “Listen, Fremy. I was—under örders. To hürt you.” It seemed it was trying to win Fremy over, just as it had been told.
“Oh, it sounds like we’re in full swing,” said Tgurneu. “Ah-ha-ha! What insincere nonsense is this?”
“So I did—” The aerial fiend’s voice was cut off.
“Oh, it was shot down. What a fool.” Tgurneu smiled. After that, Tgurneu gave the wolf-fiend instructions to deliver to the seventh via the fliers. It wasn’t long before it was done.
A few more minutes of waiting, and Tgurneu muttered, “…I suppose it’s about the right time.” It released its host from its control and removed its fig-shaped form from the fiend’s stomach. It opened its mouth—meaning a big crack opened in the fig—revealing lips and teeth. Tgurneu stuck its tongue out all the way, and a single purplish-red flower petal appeared on the tip.