The government administration of Aureatia’s Twenty-Nine Officials was formed to succeed the Central Kingdom’s Twenty-Nine Officers. While the ranking of first to twenty-ninth was a holdover from that era, since it was a wartime regime that included military officers tasked with frontline resistance against the True Demon King, there had been intense personnel changes from the moment it was first brought together. There was almost never a time when all twenty-nine seats remained filled at once. The twenty-ninth rank in particular had been vacant for a very long time. That said, this was not due to some kind of special aversion toward the lowest-ranked number. It was simply a coincidence that the other seats would get filled first. However, as a result of the major restructuring following the attempted coup, at long last, this twenty-ninth seat was filled. Aureatia’s Twenty-Ninth Official, Hiroto the Paradox. The Gray-Haired Child. A deviant politician arriving from the Beyond, recommended by Jelky the Swift Ink as the man to fill the hole left by Rosclay the Absolute’s death in the tenth match. Everyone else on the Twenty-Nine Officials knew full well that this personnel change brought danger, but it was just as true that they would need the sort of monstrous abilities the Gray-Haired Child possessed to govern Aureatia in its current state without any chaos. Although allocating a ministry or bureau for him to oversee had been put on hold, directly following his appointment, Ninth General Yaniegiz resigned from his post and went missing, so currently, Hiroto was given authority over the Police Agency. Maintaining public peace in Aureatia was very far removed from Aureatia’s core operations, the Sixways Exhibition first and foremost, while also something that wanted to be resolved, even if it required a pushy bit of personnel management. Currently, Hiroto was taking charge of an investigation into the mysterious deaths occurring around the Old Town. From just listening to the reports, there were numerous inexplicable and mysterious aspects to the case, so Hiroto was visiting the scene of the crime in person, with Morio the Sentinel with him as a bodyguard. “…Mr. Morio Ariyama. Do you believe this to be the work of a beast?” It was a woman’s corpse, seemingly torn apart by something sharp. The glimpses of white that peeked out in places from the body, reduced to a lump of red flesh, were exposed parts of her skeleton. There was a tremendous amount of blood loss, and given the visible bloodstains suggesting the victim struggled and wriggled about, it appeared the body wasn’t destroyed postmortem but instead eaten alive. It was a shopping district in broad daylight, where no beast would ever normally appear. “There are signs that a piece of flesh was bitten off. But judging by the shape of the bite marks, it didn’t come from any type of beast, at the very least.” Morio didn’t seem especially repulsed as he checked the wounds on the body. “These were made by a person’s teeth. But their jaw was way too small to belong to a grown man. It’s either a child’s or a woman’s, I’d guess.” “Any chance it came from a goblin?” They were a diminutive monstrous race, about the size of a minian child, that did eat minia. The goblins Hiroto had brought into Aureatia had their desire for minian meat suppressed through substitute foods, but that still wasn’t an absolute guarantee. “If it was, it’d be obvious from the jump. Goblins have well-developed canines that resemble a carnivorous animal’s more than a minia’s. At any rate, it was a minian who did her in.” “If it was a vampire born from a minia, then their skeleton would be completely minian in nature, yes? While this story is from quite a long time ago, I had a companion who would kill like this.” Hearing this, a look of exasperation came over Morio. “You didn’t just have goblins with you, but vampires, too? You’re pretty much one of the monstrous races yourself.” “What’s important isn’t a person’s race, but whether it’s possible to befriend them as an individual… Vampires are classified as one of the monstrous races, but vampires themselves don’t necessarily develop a preference for minian meat and blood.” “So then you can’t say for certain that the culprit here’s a vampire, either.” “The vampire I was acquainted with liked to eat minian meet for a different reason entirely.” “……” Hiroto’s hypothesis of a vampire killer wasn’t some joke. If the wounds carved into the body did come from a child’s teeth, they would then need to prove how this child possessed enough strength to bite off a living person’s flesh. “There is definitely something unusual about this.” Morio was absolutely right. Not only that, but the true abnormality didn’t lie in the criminal’s profile. “Why didn’t anyone report this stuff to anybody, if even nonspecialists like us can figure this out just from investigating the scene. This crime happened out in broad daylight, yet the first person to report it was someone who doesn’t even live in this district. The city guard didn’t even notice that there was a crime at all. Can’t be something ridiculous like the whole town’s in on the murder or something.” The first person to discover the scene was a traveler from a different ward of Aureatia. More than half a day, by the lowest estimate, had passed between the time of the crime and when it was discovered. “Can you loan me several Okafu mercenaries? This job is going to require many hands and involve a lot of legwork. On my own, the best I can do is help any eyewitnesses open up to us.” “Be great to give the men some work to do, but you got your goblin subordinates, right? If you aren’t looking to fight a war, then those guys’ll do a much better job. Well learned, too.” “If this was a normal murder, I would have preferred to do so, but the corpse here was bitten apart. If I show a goblin to someone while there’s that preconception at play, they’re bound to associate the two whether on purpose or not.” “Figures you’d say something like that. Suppose impressions are a politician’s weapon.” That’s not true. There’s one other person who uses impressions as a weapon. A corpse that seems totally random and unrelated to anything, meant to instill fear in those who see it. Obsidian Eyes, at the time known as the invisible army, had manufactured unexplained deaths within many different organizations, and used the death and fear fomented by associating them with Okafu to manipulate Aureatia’s impression of the Free City. Zigita Zogi read the threat of the invisible army in its early stages and made the Okafu army pull out of Aureatia while sharing information with them, but Hiroto now understood that the impression of this threat without form was the seed of antipathy between Aureatia and Okafu that remained. A criminal suspected of being a vampire. An abnormally extensive degree of witness perception control. A method of killing that at first glance looks meaningless and instills fear… Is Linaris the Obsidian up to something? It was highly unlikely. Hiroto the Paradox knew where exactly Linaris the Obsidian was. As a bargaining chip, she had been handed over to Enu the Distant Mirror and Viga the Clamor. It was no concern of Hiroto’s what they used her for, but it was hard to believe she had immediately made a comeback. Hiroto hadn’t killed Linaris due to a pledge he had made to a constituent, Yuno the Distant Talon. He had imposed abandoning revenge against Obsidian Eyes, Linaris included, on himself. Thus, if this was Obsidian Eyes’s handiwork, given the limitations he had, they could potentially be one of the greatest threats. The method itself is similar…but something is still different about it. Obsidian Eyes’s victims, including those corpsified, were more or less distributed indiscriminately, but the portion of victims from the weakest class of society was significantly smaller. Since Obsidian Eyes was formed of outcasts of society, it is uncharacteristic for them to make a show of killing someone in the Old Town. While Hiroto pondered, Morio trimmed a brand-new cigar and lit it up. “I got in touch with the men just now. As soon as they arrive, I’m heading over to the ruins of the National Defense Research Institute. I don’t really want to take my eyes off of you, but…” “I understand. Looking into Mr. Yukiharu Shijima?” Yukiharu the Twilight Diver had disappeared without a trace in the middle of his investigation into the National Defense Research Institute, and the most likely possibility was that he had used the chaos of the coup to head to the Tim Great Canal’s warehouses, where the Institute had been hidden. All those same warehouses had been destroyed in an accident that seemed to have been the result of a cargo explosion. At the very least, that’s how Aureatia was treating it internally. “Nothing nastier than a dead journalist. Just ’cause he’s dead doesn’t mean all the information and evidence he gathered magically disappeared with him.” “But would Mr. Yukiharu Shijima truly die so easily?” “If he’s still alive, I’d like to rescue him, but…he’s dead, all right. My gut’s never wrong.” There were pieces of information in what Yukiharu had gathered that could have proved fatal for this world. The most dangerous of all being the identity of the True Demon King. If the world were to find out the Demon King was a visitor, the people would begin a rampage born from a new fear. Just like they had done against the New Demon King Army, they would try to eliminate everything related to the True Demon King. The visitors living in this world. The Order built on the belief in the Wordmaker, who drew said visitors to their world. Civilization itself, predicated on knowledge from the beyond, may not have been spared, either. Morio the Sentinel was one of the people who understood the threats the earliest. Using the mercenaries of Okafu, he thoroughly eradicated anyone who stepped foot in the Land of the End and used the rumors of the Demon King’s Bastard that terrified everyone to create a situation where no one even tried to get close to the region. “…Out of my duty to you, I never disposed of Yukiharu the Twilight Diver while he was still alive. That said, I’m going to dispose of the dead man’s data how I see fit.” “Hah. In that case, why did you come out to help with the investigation?” “Can’t believe the guy who’s casually stuck his nose into some mysterious incident is telling me that. If you don’t get yourself a proper bodyguard, no one’ll be surprised if you end up dead.” Morio smiled with exasperation. “Since the only people still alive with the knowledge of the True Demon King’s identity are you and me.” The Old Town in Aureatia was the collective name of the section of the city that was left out of city planning projects following the changeover from the Central Kingdom to Aureatia. While there were still some districts that had the same amount of activity as before, other sections had been transformed into what were, in essence, slums. Sagasa Old Town, where Rouki the Small Digger lived, was a quintessential example. Even still, no one wanted to believe that their life was unfortunate. Rouki tried to live with a smile always on his face, while putting on a callous front. He didn’t get involved in any difficult topics, and even when a customer would yell at him, he’d brush it off with a smile. That was life. Life was filled with unconscious anxiety. Poor, precarious, and with no future prospects. His mother, having abandoned her faith in the Order, said something to him just once when she got terribly drunk one day. Mom and Dad betrayed the Wordmaker. So it’s only natural the angels would punish us. Rouki thought it was just superstition. Even now, he didn’t believe it. However, there were times when these words would surface in his mind. When he was hit by a ruffian and got his earnings for the day stolen. When he heard the deranged screams of the old man next door. When he heard another smuggler his age had been hung up in their own house. When nobles’ children would happily walk hand in hand with their parents. When he would think about the futures of his young sisters, Retta and Nabi. Retta was dead. Retta’s insides, cut open on top of the dinner table, had a lot of what looked like muscle and sinew frayed and mixed up with her skin and fat—completely different from the meat he saw properly prepared in a butcher shop. Retta had always been cheerful, even after their parents died—joking around with Rouki and causing trouble for Nabi with him—and he would never see her again. Rouki’s life changed after Retta died. The group of hoodlums who hung around the canal no longer pushed Rouki around. The adults from the criminal organizations stopped coming to him with dangerous jobs he couldn’t refuse. He had never been able to relax and feel comfortable outside the house, no matter where he went, but now he was able to completely forget about all his worries, just like the children living in the center of Aureatia. Rouki couldn’t understand complicated topics of conversation. He didn’t know why he had gotten this way. He did know, though, that the change was thanks to someone. “Morning, Big Brother Rouki. Are you hungry?” “Morning.” Leaving his bedroom, Rouki was greeted with Roto’s smile. Beautiful black hair draped down to her knees, and she had bloodred eyes. Her clothes, like a bunch of tattered rags sewn together, had been patched up by the townspeople. “Oh, morning, Roto…” “So last night, Nabi and I slept together.” Roto the Cross was not a member of Rouki’s family. However, despite how many times he warned her, she still came and went as she pleased, so he was no longer surprised when she appeared out of the blue. He knew that she meant no harm. “Lately, we’ve been able to get by a whole lot better than before. Day before yesterday, old man Delger shared more veggies with us than we could even eat… I always thought he was a nasty new-rich guy, but he isn’t all bad.” “Mwee-hee-hee, that’s nice.” It looked like his young sister Nabi had already finished her breakfast for the morning. Roto might have been the one who prepared it, too. When they first let her use their kitchen, Roto had only been able to make awful dishes that were nothing more than a bunch of raw ingredients roughly kneaded together, but she had improved surprisingly fast after some other house started to teach her how to cook. “Nabi, your cold all better now?” “Mm-hmm. Roto took care of me. Can I play outside today? I promised everyone I’d meet up with them.” “Be careful out there. Anything happens, you run away and talk to one of the people in town, okay?” Rouki put a hand on Nabi’s small head. Up until a little while ago, he never would have allowed Nabi to go outside alone. Most of the residents in their town, not only Rouki, had dirtied their hands with crime. It would have been one thing if the city guards kept an eye on this area, but Rouki knew for certain that letting a child, not even ten years old, go out without any means of protecting herself would end with her getting wrapped up in something awful. Ever since Roto came to town, he realized that this anxiety of his had all been a big mistake. Just as Rouki didn’t wish to harm anyone else, he was sure the other residents, even those treated as criminals, couldn’t have wished the same, either. “C’mon, Big Brother Rouki. You eat up, too,” Roto said in a spoiled voice, putting her cheek on the table. “Yeah, I suppose I will…” He sat at the table. Breakfast was a grilled dish of kneaded ground meat. Retta’s bloodstains were still left on the table, and Rouki felt a bit sad looking at them. Retta was killed by Roto. For no reason. Roto said that she loved her too much and accidentally killed her. That day, Rouki had seen Retta’s remains strewn across the table. He had also seen Roto, who had killed her. He had imagined what it would be like to lose his young sisters several times before. Ever since his parents had died…he had thought that losing one of his young sisters—who he supported in his parent’s stead, even if it meant doing dirty jobs—would leave him with a more intense anguish, like his body was torn apart. The kind of pain that would be etched in his heart for the rest of his life. However, he wasn’t tormented by rage or hatred. He was just sad. Rouki would never be able to see Retta again, but now he had Roto instead. She stood by everyone in this town, as if to fill the hole left by the precious people they had all lost, cuddling up and loving them. “…That old man next door.” “Hmm?” Roto looked almost like a young wife as she happily gazed at Rouki while he ate. “I probably should go check up on him. I’d feel bad if he’s covered in vomit again…” He didn’t know the man’s name. The man no longer had the sanity left to introduce himself. The rumors said his madness came after a brush with the New Demon King Army, and that after being abandoned by his family, he had ultimately drifted into Old Town. He practically lived like a wild beast, with filth and muck strewn about his home. Previously, Rouki hadn’t wanted to get involved with him at all. Though he understood that the old man suffered horribly, he was scared his sisters would get hurt and had honestly wished the old man would just hurry up and die. “I’ll head over in the afternoon. It’ll work out perfectly, since I can bring over some of these vegetables I got.” “Uh-huh. Can I come with you, too, Big Brother Rouki?” Rouki needed to clean up the kitchen after Roto’s cooking that morning. Roto had this adultlike atmosphere to her in a lot of ways that made it hard to believe she was still a young girl, but her complete indifference to cleaning up after herself was perfectly in line with her appearance. Rouki finished several of the household chores that had piled up before heading to the old man’s home. When he arrived, the old man was still lying in his bed late into the day, moaning and groaning. Rouki had just picked a replacement quilt from the trash heap, but it was now torn apart, the cotton sticking out. There were several stains in places, likely from incontinence. Rouki was sure the old man would never regain his sanity. That said, the man had gotten much quieter and more docile than before. “Th-the Demon King…the Demon King’s… Stay away, everyone, keep away…” “I love you, mister.” Roto crawled into his bed and gently hugged him. She genuinely loved this old man, alone and abandoned by his own family. “The Demon King isn’t around anymore. Your wife’s not around, but you have me instead… Okay? Don’t worry. I’ll always be watching over you…” “A-ahhh…” “…I’ll leave some food here for you, mister. Even got some canned stuff, too. Call for me anytime something comes up.” Rouki first began to take care of this old man when he learned that Roto had been coming and going from his house. He had genuinely felt that she looked beautiful, comforting the old man even while surrounded by squalor. Rouki was sure that Roto acted the same for every house she visited, not just with Rouki or the old man. That was why he decided to join her in looking after the crazed old man. A good deed. While the world at large would describe it as such, he did it unintentionally. Rouki wasn’t a bad person. At the same time, he hadn’t believed he had the conscience to perform good deeds for others. However, as he cared for the old man, the heart that had been so hardened felt like it was instead growing contented and satisfied. What exactly was the difference between looking after this old man and loving and caring for his young sisters? Didn’t all living creatures possess hearts and souls born to feel true happiness from benevolence and goodwill? “What’s your name, mister?” “I don’t—I don’t remember…” “I’m Roto the Cross. Roto. Make sure you don’t forget that, okay?” There was no point in telling him her name. No matter how many times she did, the old man would forget it. Still, seeing Roto smile gently as she hugged him close, Roto looked truly happy. She’s like an angel. One day, she appeared out of nowhere. She took Retta’s life. Then she brought happiness to everyone. If that was what salvation was supposed to look like, then… Mom. The Wordmaker might not’ve hated us after all. In this town, no one competed with one another. There were none who brandished their power or authority to harm the weak. Incidents of robbery, or violence against others, stopped completely. For the first time in his life, this town seemed like paradise. The Okafu mercenaries visited Rouki’s house later that night. They brought up the name of another resident of Sagasa Old Town, Eamy, and said they were going around investigating their mysterious death the prior morning on the main road. “Oh, you’re here about Eamy? Really too bad what happened. They were real nice and friendly, too.” “We’re pursuing someone we suspect killed Eamy. A girl around ten or so years old bit them to death in the street. Long black hair, red eyes, and with a big ribbon in her hair. She was almost naked at the time of the crime, but apparently she’ll change her clothes occasionally. That ring any bells, lad?” “Ah… You mean Roto the Cross. Yeah, Roto’s definitely the one who killed Eamy, no doubt about it. She stops by my house from time to time, too.” When they heard his testimony, the mercenaries all looked around at each other, seemingly bewildered. “This is number six, man.” “Not another one…” The mercenary who first spoke pushed down on his hat with a scowl. “…Lemme ask you something, lad. Is everyone in this town letting this girl casually go in and out of their houses despite knowing full well she’s behind all these killings? If someone’s threatening you, tell us. Okafu will help you.” “Ah-ha, I don’t need any help. What’s so weird about that? Aren’t you glad to know for sure that Roto’s the one who killed them?” “We were tasked with this investigation by the Twenty-Ninth Minister and authorized to act on behalf of the city guard. We’re gonna have to take in anyone covering for the killer or giving bogus testimony. You fine with that, lad?” “Yup, I haven’t lied about anything.” The old Rouki would have cowered in fear every time a strong adult threatened him like this, and he’d immediately say whatever came to mind in an attempt to appease them. But as long as he didn’t feel any guilt or obligation in his heart, even a young child like Rouki was able to remain on equal footing in the face of these brawny armed men. “…Listen, how are you not scared? Just look at how she kills people.” If anything, the soldiers felt small instead. “Ah-ha-ha, Roto’s not scary. Being scared of something like that is hard to bear, right?” Rouki thought they were vapid words, the kind the priests of the Order said—but now he understood that they were correct. “Where is Roto right now?” “Behind you.” A single red eye floated in the darkness of the night. For a few moments now, Roto had been watching the mercenaries with a cheery smile. “Um, misters?” “—!!” “It’s here! This is Roto the—” “—can I eat you?” At that moment, the mercenaries had likely tried to resort to violence. Short swords and pistols. They were the types who could kill someone faster than Rouki could clap his hands. Yet the mercenaries reacted to Roto’s arrival, and then… They didn’t do a thing. Her thin, tender arms were tangled around the torso of the soldier standing the closest to Roto. “…I love you. I love you…,” Roto murmured with seductive gasps. Standing on tiptoe and stretching up as tall as she could, she gave him several pecking kisses. “Mwee-hee-hee… Guess what…? I’m Roto the Cross. I gave myself that name…” “…………Ah, uh… Is that right?” After stopping any shift to violence, the mercenary had looked dumbfounded, as if all his thoughts ground to a halt, before finally he murmured back to her as if sincerely accepting what Roto said. Roto’s tiny fingers patted the mercenary’s stomach. Then… “So you’re hungry? It is what it is, then.” She pried open the mercenary’s gut all at once. The blood spatter gushed like a fountain all the way inside, and a tremendous amount of organs and viscera spilled out into the entryway of Rouki’s house, but he didn’t mind. Even if it got dirty, even if it got everywhere, it wasn’t a big deal at all. Just like with Retta, he would clean it up later. “I love you…I love you…” She lapped up and devoured this soldier she had just met while he was still alive. Roto the Cross loved people. The other mercenaries simply watched as it happened. That was what all who encountered Roto the Cross wanted to do. The truth was that no one out there wanted to fear or hate. Since it was painful and agonizing to hold hostility and malice in one’s heart.
Chapter 240
22 min read