Grimm’s expression rapidly returns to normal as I show her the cartridge. “…Lady Belial? The name’s familiar…” “She’s one of Kisaragi’s Supreme Leaders. She’s my boss and one of the most important people in the company.” Grimm sits down formally, bowing deeply to Belial. “Our Commander’s in your debt, Lady Belial. I am his subordinate and fiancée, Grimm Grimoire. We may be inexperienced, but we hope that you will continue to provide us with your guidance.” “Stop telling everyone you see that we’re engaged. You’re going to end up regretting it.” I can’t help but interject, prompting a wide-eyed stare from Grimm. “What do you mean I’ll regret it?! You can’t get out of it now!” “I’m just trying to tell you that if you go around telling people you’re engaged, there won’t be any guys coming your way.” I pick up the basket and hand it over to Grimm as she seems lost in contemplation. Belial, who seems to have recovered from her nausea, turns to us and speaks. “I see your weird charms are still working. What’s with this fiancée stuff?” “I just promised I’d marry her if we were both single in ten years. Though, I have every intention of getting married to someone else before that.” “What a terrible thing to say in front of your fiancée.” Belial gazes intently at Grimm, who hugs the basket and mutters to herself. “Hey, Grimm, was it? Why are you barefoot?” “It’s a religious thing. If I wear shoes or socks, terrible things happen,” Grimm says with a smile, answering a common question thrown her way upon making a new acquaintance. “…Six, let’s put some socks on her.” “We can’t, Lady Belial. If I’m right, that’ll just kill her.” But Belial’s eyes are shimmering with curiosity. “That’s ridiculous, no one dies because they put on socks. And besides, I’m a Supreme Leader in an evil organization. Telling me that someone doesn’t want to do something makes me want to do it even more.” “No, no, this one dies all the time. The moment I let her out of my sight, she always gets killed by the most idiotic and useless thing.” Even as I say this, Belial takes out her portable teleporter and a memo pad. Seems she’s serious about this. If I don’t do something, Grimm’s going to croak. “…Hey, Commander, she’s not serious, is she? I brought you breakfast because I wanted to feed you. I’m a great catch, aren’t I? Whyever would you want to let such a wonderful fiancée die in your presence?” “Listen, Grimm, when I give the signal, run as fast as you can. Belial’s the sort who doesn’t listen once she gets an idea into her head. I’ll throw myself in front of her to distract her. If you avoid her long enough, she’ll forget what she was trying to do.” As though sensing the seriousness of my tone, Grimm pales as she slowly backs away. However, instead of running, she softly sets the basket she’s been hugging to her chest onto the floor. “Commander, I put more work into today’s sandwiches than usual. I’m pretty confident in them. They use high-grade Chirping Mole meat. When this battle’s finished, let’s have them together in the courtyard.” “Don’t use meat I’ve never heard of. I’ll decide whether to eat it or not after seeing what the original animal looks like… But that’s completely beside the point. You need to run! We couldn’t even beat her with a small army!” Grimm lightly presses her index finger to her lips and smiles sweetly. “I’m not just a pretty face to be protected, you know. I’m not the type of rational, calculating woman who can abandon her fiancé when he’s about to put his life on the line for the girl he loves. Heh, if I could do that, I would’ve married some rich and handsome man a long time ago…” “I’m not trying to put my life on the line. Also, calling yourself the girl I love is a bit of an exaggeration.” Grimm ignores my comment and produces a large number of rings from her pocket. “These are all the fruits of love that I gathered from patrolling the nighttime streets! The affection of these men and women will now—” “Hraagh!” Grimm is so caught up in the moment that she has no time to react as Belial cuts right through her speech and tackles her from below. Damn, no wonder she’s considered Kisaragi’s best. Even I could barely react. “Welp, it’s too late now that Lady Belial’s caught you. Oh well, I’ll go gather some offerings to put on the altar.” “Don’t give up so quickly! I thought you were going to protect me, Commander!” Grimm wails as Belial pins her to the ground. Alas, the most I can do when facing a Supreme Leader is buy some time… “That’s why I told you to run, dammit… Excuse me, Lady Belial, she’s still one of my subordinates. I can’t have her dying…” “Here we go!” It’s not that Belial can’t read the room, it’s that she doesn’t want to bother doing so. And after completely ignoring Grimm’s and my exchange, she forces a pair of socks onto Grimm’s feet. 3 After placing Grimm’s body on the altar, we make our way to the gathering point where we find three expendable Combat Agents, Heine, and our guide, Little Bashin. The girl looks happy that we’re going to save her village, holding her ax over her head in a cheerful gesture. “What now, Lady Belial? Grimm isn’t going to revive for a while.” “I have no idea what you’re talking about with this revival stuff. Remember? The enhancement surgery wiped out part of my memory.” Why would surgery that happened years ago wipe out her short-term memory, exactly? Oh well, I guess she’s just trying to pretend that the little dustup with Grimm never happened. Having set those recent unpleasant memories aside, Belial turns to the group and raises her voice. “All right, we’re all here! Agents, roll call!” “Six!” “Fifteen!” “Seventeen!” “Twenty-nine!” “…!” “Um…what am I supposed to…?” After we each yell out our own numbers, Belial comes and gives each of us a light smack. “I didn’t tell you to call out your names! Whatever! So four agents and two locals, right? So counting me, that’s seven total. All right, the mission continues even if we suffer light wounds, but we’ll scrap it if we lose someone.” “You could at least say something motivational, like, ‘We’ll finish this without losing anyone!’ We do have feelings, Lady Belial.” Sigh. Lilith, Alice, they’re all the same, treating us Combat Agents like we’re expendable. That’s why Kisaragi has a reputation for ruthlessness. Belial blinks as she looks over in our direction. “Don’t be stupid. You’ve got me on your side, so there’s no way any of you are going to die. I’ll make sure to protect you all. If we’re gonna lose anyone at all, I’ll make sure it’s me.” “You know, you should really warn us before you say something like that. You made my heart skip a beat.” Yeah, despite the fact that she can be unreasonable and overbearing, sometimes she can cut through your defenses and hit you right in the feels. As my colleagues look down a little shyly, Heine, whose cheeks are faintly flushed, whispers to me. “Hey, Six, is it just me or is Lady Belial one of the good bosses?” I don’t know if she’s one of the good ones or not, but I do know that she’s simply a good person at heart. It’s been several hours since Little Bashin started leading us through the woods. From deep in the brush, we hear drumming of some sort—signals, it seems—from the Bashin tribe. “…!” When she hears them, Little Bashin glances up sharply and begins to gesture rapidly. It seems she’s trying to tell us something, but we can’t tell what she’s trying to say. Given the fact that she’s blocking the direction the sound is coming from and crossing her arms in a big X, is she trying to tell us not to go that way? “If you have something to tell us, speak up!” “…?!” Our unreasonable boss has no qualms about yelling at the tribal child. It’s not that she can’t talk, it’s just that her grasp of the common tongue isn’t the strongest. Little Bashin shakes her head intently to try to communicate this to Belial, but… “Try telling me what’s going on in front of us. I get that you’re so shy, you have to wear a mask, but now’s not the time to be bashful, is it?” Um, pretty sure she doesn’t wear a mask just because she’s shy. Little Bashin spends a few moments lost in thought before pressing her mask to Belial’s ear. “—. —!” “See? You can talk when you need to.” Belial approvingly pats Little Bashin on the head. “To explain… ‘The village ahead is under attack by a large group of giant monsters and dragons, and the situation is grim. The adults have set fire to the village in the hopes of taking the monsters down with them, while the children are to find shelter with Kisaragi.’” Belial continues to speak coolly, not even bothering to face us. “And this little one’s saying, ‘We can’t involve you further in our fight; let’s turn back.’” She then glances down at Little Bashin, who accepts the patting without complaint. “You all know what we need to do. Don’t let me down, dammit.” When Little Bashin turns her head up to look at Belial in the face, the Supreme Leader smiles reassuringly and, without a second’s thought about the side effects, injects herself with a nitro cartridge. “Let’s go, you apes! Chaaarge!” ““““Yahooo!”””” “RAAAAAAAAAAAAA!” “W-wait, don’t leave me!” Her eyes bloodshot from the nitro cartridge, Belial charges forward with a band of bloodthirsty Combat Agents in tow— “Lady Belial leapt in and incinerated the forest and the monsters.” “Why can’t you write a better report?” Alice presses for details as I write up my report. “Eleven twenty, arrived at the Bashin village under attack. Eleven twenty-one hours, Lady Belial unleashed a jump kick on the lesser dragon leading the monsters, defeating it instantly. Afterwards, Lady Belial incinerated the dragons and monsters who were attacking the village along with the village itself.” “Why would you let her do that?” Don’t ask me. “I didn’t even have time to try to stop her. The moment we ran into the enemy, a dragon—you know, a creature that’s supposed to be immune to fire—gets blasted away by a kick and bursts into flames. I think we just need to feel lucky that there weren’t any casualties.” Alice crosses her arms in thought as she digests my explanation. “…And? Where is Lady Belial herself?” Alice asks as she notices Belial herself is absent. “Well, she felt bad for accidentally burning down the Bashin village, but she said she could balance the scales by burning down the other one, too. Then she ran off in the direction of the Hiiragi village.” “Go get her. NOW,” Alice says with a serious expression. “To be honest, I don’t think we’ll make it in time. Apparently, the Hiiragi village isn’t too far from the Bashin village.” Right on cue, the plastic sheeting covering the broken windows flutters as a giant pillar of fire erupts from the forest. “…I was hoping we could get the technology or whatever they were using to control the monsters.” “I’m pretty sure it’s gone up in smoke by now.” Still, this means the enemy tribe is gone, making our invasion all that much easier. “Six, what was the point of Fritz from the Hiiragi Agency of Order looking so confident when they told us that the Hiiragi tribe was tougher than they looked and that they wished us luck in our retribution? I mean, the dragon was wiped out pretty much instantly, and the Hiiragi tribe went down almost as an afterthought.” “Either way, everything worked out in the end. Although the Bashin village burned down, the adults who were planning to go out in a blaze of glory wound up surviving. When Lady Belial gets back, we should thank her with a feast.” There’s actually a reason I’ve come back on my own. Belial said that she wanted to eat some local delicacies when she got back to the hideout. I don’t know why that thought occurred to her just then, but I figured I’d get back early and surprise her with a roast orc’s head. “…Yeah, true. The moment a Kisaragi Supreme Leader showed up, I knew peace wouldn’t be an option. Given that the problem was taken care of so quickly, I guess it’s better than when Lady Lilith was here. Since it was quite an ask to get HQ to send us Lady Belial in the first place, I’m just glad we can send her back after only two days. Let’s try to at least make her feel appreciated tonight and send her back to Earth in a good mood.” “Lady Belial’s pretty easy to please. Just point her in the direction of a powerful enemy. However…” As I’m about to finish my sentence, one of my colleagues reports in via radio. “This is Combat Agent Fifteen. Burning the village went according to plan, but Lady Belial started chasing the fleeing monsters and Hiiragi tribesmen. We’re going to lose sight of her…” “…When she finds an enemy, she charges in without thinking, ends up getting separated from the others, and usually gets lost.” “After her!” shouts Alice, in a rare moment of panic. 4 As the sun sets, several of my colleagues return with Hiiragi tribesmen prisoners in tow. Since Belial is nowhere in sight, it’s safe to assume that no one was able to keep up with her. “…This is a problem. They let us borrow Lady Belial from HQ on the condition we send her back the moment they need her. I won’t have any way of making it up to them if something happens to her.” Alice, having barged into my room, flops onto my bed, pattering her feet like the child she appears to be. She lets out a soft sigh. We’ve sent out search parties, but so far, we haven’t heard anything from them. It’d be easier to track Belial if she’d just request food and water from Earth, but unfortunately, she’s got quite a bit of survivalist training, too, so she’s able to function for a long time without fueling up. Although, with all that said, Belial’s from a rich family. Maybe she’ll want to avoid having to camp out and order a prefab cottage and supplies to be teleported to her once it gets dark. “Lady Belial will eventually just come back without a care in the world. It’s all because this planet’s a backwater without cellphone service. Let’s have Lady Lilith create a smartphone that can be used without cell towers.” “…Well, I suppose Kisaragi’s most powerful leader isn’t going to struggle against any mere monsters. We’ll continue with the search parties, but let’s hope Lady Belial contacts us herself. If HQ asks for her, we’ll just have to find some way to hold them off.” As though timing it perfectly with the end of Alice’s grousing… A desperate scream echoes from our rarely used underground dungeon… “Hiss! Hiss!” In the dimly lit dungeon, a fired-up Little Bashin bangs on the bars with her hand ax. The target of her intense hostility is a woman cowering at the far end of the cell. “You can’t do that, Little Bashin. She’s a valuable prisoner. We want their technology, so we can’t have you going around executing them willy-nilly.” Little Bashin, who’s been trying to break down the bars to the cell with her ax, looks up at me when I intervene and slumps her shoulders. Even though the scene should make me think there’s a crazed ax murderer trying to assault a poor woman in a dimly lit dungeon, I can’t help but feel a pang of sympathy for the girl. Alice turns to Little Bashin and offers reassuringly: “I know you want to get revenge on your longtime enemy, which I’m happy to let you have, but it’ll have to wait until I’m done with the interrogation.” “Wait, don’t be offering up lives like that! Isn’t this woman the head of the Hiiragi tribe?” When Belial assaulted the village, most of the Hiiragi tribesmen escaped, but our forces managed to capture a handful of them. So the plan became that we needed to have some answers about all the mysteries that surrounded these weird tribesfolk, and it progressed into interrogations, but… “Our long-term objective is to move all of humanity from Earth to this planet. While there’s plenty of undeveloped land at the moment, this place will eventually be full of people from Earth. It wouldn’t be such a bad idea to cull the herd a little beforehand…” “C’mon, that’s way too heartless, even for an android! …Hold on a second. I thought I was sent to this planet to look for work opportunities for Combat Agents for when Kisaragi finished conquering Earth. Do we really need to bring everyone over from Earth?” To my question, Alice responds with a simple smile. “Well, yeah, we can’t let you Combat Agents get thrown out into the street with nowhere to go. Kisaragi’s a corporation that prides itself on taking care of its own.” …… “Wait, what’s going on with Earth anyway? Is there something wrong with it? The heroes blowing up my apartment isn’t the only reason my requests for leave keep getting denied, is it?!” “Come on, it’s time to get down to interrogating. Rejoice, Six—the chieftain is a woman. You love this sort of thing, don’t you?” “Well, yeah, I don’t mind it, but answer my questions, dammit!” Just then: “The minds of savages are filled with such base thoughts.” The Hiiragi chief locked up in the cell murmurs almost to herself. Having been stripped of her mask when she was taken prisoner, the woman looks over at us with defiant eyes. They have a faintly feline insolence and ferocity to them, and her gaze makes it all too clear that she views us as inferior. I’m told the chief fought as part of the rearguard during Belial’s assault, buying time for the rest of her people to escape. “Are you calling us savages? Hmph. Well, never mind that. I didn’t realize you could speak properly. I was planning to make Viper interpret, but this saves a lot of time.” “The Hiiragi tribe is far superior to you all. As such, we are capable of speaking your simple, barbarian tongue.” Yes, we can understand her, but she kind of sounds like she’s going through one of those translation websites or something. “…By the way, the member of the Bashin tribe over there also speaks your barbarian tongue on a daily basis. The markings on her body aren’t even permanent and can be removed by rubbing on them. She’s simply pretending to be of a primitive tribal culture.” “?!” Little Bashin shakes her head furiously, rejecting the chief’s words. “—! —!!” “Okay, I get it, it’s fine. You don’t need to let us wipe at your tattoos to prove they’re real. I believe you!” I try to calm Little Bashin as she pushes a cloth toward me, as though trying to get me to attempt to wipe the tattoos away. As she watches our exchange, the chief suddenly breaks out laughing. “Heh-heh-heh! A jest! I’m only kidding. The Bashin tribe are known for being quite serious. Bah-ha-ha-ha!” “Hsss! Hrrr…!” Little Bashin resumes bashing on the bars with her ax, prompting the chief to back up just a smidgen before she waves her hands tauntingly at the girl. “It will take a great deal of time to break the bars with that ax! Keep going! Keep going! Bah-ha-ha-ha-ha! This taunting is retribution for your continued resistance and interference in our activities! And it appears to have caused the Bashin individual quite a bit of distress!” “RAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!” As Little Bashin angrily smacks the bars with her ax, Alice quietly hands her the key. “We’ve got a few more prisoners we can question. So you can do what you want to this one.” “Hrrrrmph! Hiss!” “Bashin girl, cool your head! My apologies for the taunts! However, our peoples have long been hostile to one another! Try to understand our feelings on the matter!” The chief sobs apologetically to Little Bashin as she takes the key and tries to unlock the cell. “…Listen up. I’m sure you’ve realized this by now, but unless you give serious answers to my questions, I’m going to sic her on you, got it?” “Understood.” The chief’s face twitches nervously as Little Bashin waves the key to underline the fact that she’s the one in control. “Then why don’t we get the fun started? Heh-heh, Lady Chieftain, you do understand what happens to women who get captured by an evil organization, don’t you?” “Come to think of it, we do owe them payback for attacking us with solar rays and interfering with our construction. Let’s get her to fess up about how they managed that little bit of terrorism.” The chief pales as Alice and I let out malicious chuckles, prompting an eager round of applause from Little Bashin. Given that they commonly bash people’s heads in, the Bashins appear to have no real aversion to this sort of violence. “I’m Alice Kisaragi, the de facto leader of this joint, and this is Combat Agent Six.” “A pleasure to meet you. I am the chief of the Hiiragi clan, Miyabi Hiiragi Archylicia…” As the chief introduces herself, I whisper into Alice’s ear: “Alice, her name’s way too long. There’s no way I can remember that.” “You’re right. It’s a hassle to even bother learning it. From here on out, you’re just Savage A.” “…I am now Savage A. I acknowledge this designation. Alice Kisaragi, what do you wish to learn from Savage A?” There’s a bunch of things we’d like to know, but… Savage A sits on the ground, holding on to the bars of the cell as she looks quizzically at Alice, prompting the android to squat down and stare directly at the captive. “First things first, tell me about the solar ray attacks. Given that there aren’t any satellites in orbit, where are you firing those things from?” “We send the coordinates to the floating fortress in the sky and request support fire from them.” …Floating fortress. “Oh, that’s right. When we were parachuting down from the upper atmosphere, there was no sign of that castle, yet the thing appeared out of nowhere while we weren’t looking. Where the hell did that thing sprout from?” “The castle did not sprout; it was always there. That fortress is the main headquarters of the Hiiragi Agency of Order. It’s usually protected by an optical shield keeping it hidden from savage eyes. That is why you were unable to see it.” Alice and I exchange glances at Savage A’s words. “<Hey, Alice, she just said something about an optical shield. They seriously have technology that’s on par with ours, don’t they?>” “<The fact that she understands what a solar ray is must be proof that something is off. Some elements of their technology are actually ahead of Earth’s.>” As we exchange whispers in Japanese, Savage A just chuckles confidently. “The Hiiragi Agency of Order is truly remarkable. I have no doubts that their might will overwhelm you. That being said, things will go more smoothly for you if you treat a Hiiragi affiliate like myself with respect.” Seems like our exchange has given her the confidence to take the conversational offensive. “Hey, there was another thing I wanted to ask. That officer, Adelie. She has a giant cat as a pet, right? Does that mean you guys are the ones who created the Sand King and the Forest King?” “That is correct. The Hiiragi Agency of Order created the Sand King. But you are also incorrect. The lizard-type mechanical life-form guardian was created by a faction hostile to the Hiiragi Agency of Order. Most of the organic monsters were created by Hiiragi, while the mechanical monsters were created by the enemy.” Savage A is evidently enjoying showing off Hiiragi’s technology and continues to lecture us with a confident smirk on the differences between the monsters. “Hey, this is getting even more complicated. So the giant monsters that are living creatures are Hiiragi products, and the mechanical ones are made by an enemy faction? But where’s the enemy group lurking around?” “Remember that underground facility that the lizard robot known as the Forest King was protecting? I’m betting that was the enemy faction’s base or research facility…” Little Bashin, unable to follow our conversation, begins theatrically sharpening her hand ax. “Soon you will be met with divine judgment. That is because Hiiragi has embedded a royal family with an anti–Demon Lord gene marker. Indeed, the so-called Chosen One gene will soon become active and wipe out the Demon Lord and the demons. Once that is complete, the next target will be—” “The Chosen One’s missing in action and the Demon Lord’s switched employers.” “?!” …The only sound in the dungeon is the steady scraping of Little Bashin’s ax against her grindstone. Alice then continues as though nothing happened. “When you all kept attacking our Hideout City every time we completed it, what were you trying to accomplish? Do you have a claim to the forest or something?” “Our role is to destroy buildings created by savages that have forgotten their station and gotten too uppity. The destruction of such buildings is a signal to the Hiiragi Agency of Order to come down from their floating fortress and begin managing the affairs of the savages.” It seems this subject triggered something in Savage A, and she stands up, raises her arms and begins to preach. “Once, humanity prospered upon this world. They used advanced technology to sustain advanced ways of living, and all enjoyed the fruits of civilization. But humanity outgrew its environment! It was then beset by all sorts of problems: food, living space, declining marriage rates…” “Don’t turn this into some sermon. Keep it as short and simple as you can. Look at them. They’re so bored, they’ve just started doing their own thing.” I sit down next to Little Bashin and begin working on my knife. Savage A gazes over at us longingly, as though she wishes we’d listen. “…A long time ago there was amazing technology that made the population grow. That caused problems like food shortages, global warming, lack of land, environmental pollution, and all of those problems combined resulted in a war. As a result, some really awful weapons were used, making most of the land uninhabitable.” …Huh. “<Hey, Alice. Doesn’t this planet’s past sound a bit like Earth’s present?>” “<Yeah, Earth’s got some serious problems because of overpopulation. Even if Kisaragi hadn’t started its conquest, the countries of the world would’ve ended up at each other’s throats soon enough anyway. Guess civilizations pretty much burn out the same way, no matter what world they’re on.>” That’s depressing. This is supposed to be a strange new world, and instead we’re getting the distressing realities of our old world in a different form. “The enemy faction created genetically modified seeds to restore the wasted land. They’re the ones who planted the great woods, and the guardians who protected it. Then they went underground to wait.” “…? I mean, restoring the land is good and all. But the woods have taken over most of the planet at this point, no? That’d be fine if it was just a normal forest, but as far as we can tell, it’s an incredibly hostile environment.” “It was a mistake. They went too far with their genetic engineering efforts and were unable to stop the spread of the woods.” Hey. “Hiiragi created the Sand King in their own effort to restore the lands and to stop the spread of the forests before retreating to the skies. “…? The Sand King was created to restore the land? That thing was doing the opposite! It was turning perfectly good land into desert.” Well, I mean, sure, it was facing off against the Forest King, I guess. “Another mistake. The research division heard that moles helped make land more fertile and arable and just decided that if normal moles could do that, then a giant one would do an even better job.” “You and this ‘enemy’ have several screws loose. This is the sort of stuff evil organizations are supposed to do.” Alice turns to quiz Savage A, as she seems unfazed by my criticism. “All right, we get your history. But what’s the deal with destroying anything ‘beyond the civilization’s station’? Adelie was insistent that they were on the side of justice and righteousness.” “The great people of Hiiragi once said that the wars and pollution were a product of savages obtaining technology that was beyond their ability to use responsibly. Thus, the great people of Hiiragi came to the conclusion that it was best to leave savages as primitive as possible.” “Hey, Alice, these bastards are evil! They’re obscurantist elites!” Put simply, obscurantism is the act of restricting the available knowledge to the people, steadily eroding their level of education to ensure that the masses are too ignorant to question the political status quo. It’s such a dangerous piece of governing policy that Kisaragi rejected it after a series of heated debates on the subject. Evidently offended at being called evil, Savage A grabs the bars and shouts insults in our direction. “You savages reproduce like rats if left to your own devices! Then you consume all the resources! The ignorant masses need to be managed by the elites in order to prevent the world from being destroyed!” “Shut up, you moron! If I ever get married, I’ll breed every day of the week! You think it’s your business to manage people like that?! I’ll singlehandedly solve the crisis of declining birth rates!” “You savages are as crude and uncouth as expected! Idiots like you will be the first to be purged once Hiiragi takes over the world!” This bitch… “Try it, I dare you! You don’t seem to understand your predicament. Evil organizations have no reservations about putting prisoners in compromising situations!” “Actually, we do have rules against that.” I give Alice the side-eye at her comment, then unlock the cell door and enter. Savage A’s imagination does the hard part for me, and she starts backing away, holding her hands in front of herself to ward me off. “I take back what I said earlier… You’re a very handsome savage. I will now grace you with a dance of apology.” “What the hell is a dance of apology? Are you messing with me?! Heh-heh, it’s too late to grovel. Now, what shall I do with you?” I let out a creepy little chuckle and approach slowly, when Alice interjects. “Hold it, Six. I want to see this dance of apology. It actually reminds of the whole ‘dancing before the solar ray fires’ thing. Why do you do that? Are you using the dance to communicate the attack coordinates?” Oh, that’s right. The Hiiragi tribe did always dance before an attack. Maybe Alice is right, and the dance is a means of communicating a target to the fortress… “That dance is a dance of victory and taunting, to tell the target that they are about to be destroyed.” “RAAAAAAAAAAA!” Little Bashin, who had somehow snuck into the cell, pounces upon Savage A after hearing her ridiculous response. 5 It’s been two days since Belial went missing. The Bashins who lost their village to the fire have started forcing their Hiiragi captives to build a new settlement near Hideout City. Savage A, who was at serious risk of having her head bashed in, gave a groveling dance of apology to Little Bashin, and is now working for her as an underling. I see Savage A hauling around construction materials under the watchful eye and hand ax of Little Bashin, but so far, there aren’t any problems of note. Since these two tribes seem to have a long, complicated history, it’s probably better to just let them handle it. The problem that’s left for us to solve is to figure out how to find Belial and get her to come home. As Alice and I chew over this problem, a messenger arrives from a country called Grand Doble. I’ve never heard of the place, so I’m caught a bit flat-footed even as I head to the conference room to hear what the messenger has to say. The messenger from Grand Doble bows his head the moment he enters the room. “Our country has no intention of making an enemy of Kisaragi. We are prepared to begin diplomatic relations with your company. Ours is a nation rich in high-quality ores, and we can provide them to you at extremely low cost.” “…I see. Our main exports are water crystals and manufactured goods. We don’t need you to sell us your ores at too low a cost. So long as it’s a little cheaper than the market rate, we’re happy to trade.” Despite the fact that this is our first meeting, the messenger is almost excessively respectful. Alice, unfazed by this attitude, deals with him calmly. The fact that she doesn’t ask for details before launching into terms is very in character for Alice, but the small concessions she’s making tip me off that she’s aware something happened to Grand Doble to make them approach us so meekly. Even I can see what’s driving this. It’s gotta be Belial-related. “T-truly?! Thank you, thank you so very much! I’ve brought some rare and valuable ores as a gift, so please accept them as a sign of friendship! His Majesty has been extremely anxious about the outcome of our negotiations, so I will be leaving immediately, if you will forgive my haste! It will be a pleasure doing business with you!” “…Yep, thanks. Get home safe.” Alice lightly bobs her head as the beaming messenger bows deeply and leaves the room. Once the messenger is out of sight, Alice murmurs softly to herself. “…Guess that’s all thanks to Lady Belial.” “Are you sure you’re grateful? You look a little troubled. Are you perhaps regretting calling her here? Even just a little bit?” At my prodding, Alice smiles. “I’m glad to have you as a partner. You can share my concerns. Since you’ve known her for so long, do you mind if I ask you about her?” “Go on.” Alice grabs my arm and asks me with a small smile on her lips: “Having left in pursuit of the monsters, how many countries do you think Lady Belial will terrorize along the way? Just for reference, Grand Doble, the country we just entered into a friendly trade relationship with, was on the list of potential enemy states. You don’t need me to tell you why, do you? …What is it, partner? Don’t be like that! I’m not letting you run away under these circumstances!” “Lemme go, partner! This is all due to your whole secrecy schtick! If you’d kept me clued in, we could’ve avoided all of this from the start!”
Chapter 91
30 min read