✰✰✰
“Sorry to keep you waiting, Ellie,” I said, appearing on top of her Red Dragon after using my SSR Teleportation card.
“Oh, don’t be,” she said. “In fact, I should thank you for going out of your way to come here for my sake.”
I activated a gacha card to get a better look at the target myself. “So that’s the fake C that’s causing all this trouble, huh?”
The palace was long since destroyed by the time I’d gotten there, but the Master was still rampaging around the wreckage like a rabid animal. The guy was shirtless, and he had long hair that fell all the way down his back and looked cursed like it was made out of concentrated malice. Tears streamed from his eyes, and he continued to smash up debris while his body practically glowed with anger, sorrow, and bitterness. The initial report I’d received had said this guy looked like he was in pain, and seeing him for myself, I had to agree with that assessment. He looked every bit as anguished as I had been after witnessing my brother kill himself right in front of me, and he displayed the same mindless rage that had boiled my blood as I took out my fury on Doc. All this Master was doing was breaking things, and acting purely on emotion.
If I’d completely and irretrievably given in to my own rage, would I have ended up like this? I wondered absentmindedly.
At least by the looks of things, this guy wasn’t the C the Demonkin Nation Masters were obsessed with. Anyone could see that was the case from this sad, miserable display.
I canceled my card and turned to Ellie. “So any updates since the last report you sent me?”
“Why, certainly, Blessed Lord,” she said. “As you already know, a demon who appeared to be Prince Voros managed to escape from the wreckage alive. He has since absconded from the capital on horseback, together with some soldiers, and he is currently heading west, presumably to a fiefdom far from here. Honestly, I never thought the leader of a nation would just abandon his people in such a manner. I have directed a few of my dragons to watch the movements of Prince Voros from a distance, but I believe our first priority is to do something about this so-called fake C. What are your thoughts on it, Your Blessedness?”
“As long as we’re keeping tabs on him, we can let Voros roam free for now,” I agreed. “Still, are you sure there’s no chance this is just a case of mistaken identity?”
When Ellie had first told me via Telepathy that Voros was fleeing the capital, I was so stunned by the news, I wasn’t immediately able to respond. I mean, what kind of leader of a nation would leave his people to fend for themselves against a disaster, especially when it was one that he himself caused? The sheer lack of accountability made my head hurt. But on a more positive note, this meant Voros hadn’t been killed in the palace explosion, so we could still capture this valuable source of intel. And since he was running away from the capital and into the hinterlands, it would make it even easier for us to capture him without too much in the way of collateral damage. Every cloud and all that. Although this particular silver lining was remarkably thin, I had to admit.
“Anyway, continue watching Voros, and give his location to Suzu,” I told Ellie. “There’s no one better at hunting down prey than an actual hunter. We’ll pair Suzu up with Nazuna, just in case those Dragonute Empire Masters decide to interfere again. Nazuna should be able to beat them back if they do show up.”
“As you command, Blessed Lord,” Ellie replied with an elegant bow, and it was clear from her readiness to carry out the order without any qualms that even she thought Suzu and Nazuna could handle the manhunt for Voros by themselves. After all, Nazuna’s combat prowess spoke for itself, and Suzu was able to shoot mana bullets containing whatever property she deemed appropriate to the situation. In other words, Suzu didn’t automatically kill her targets with her shots, since she could just as easily stun them. If we were talking about a target with a high power level, there was a chance they could resist some of the effects, but Voros was nowhere near that kind of range.
“I’m sending Aoyuki in to fight this fake C, so I’ll need you to turn around and head home with your dragons,” I told Ellie. “Once you’re back, I want you to patch up and reinforce the underground arena you built for me to battle Gira. I plan to have another battle in that arena, but I left it just sitting out there with that slapdash fix job I did with a bunch of cards.”
“If you were the one to repair the arena, Blessed Lord, I would think it is already perfectly mended,” Ellie replied. “But I will humbly assist you with that task, if you insist. However, I’m still surprised Aoyuki of all people volunteered to take on this mission. Stranger things have happened, but not many.”
“She must have her reasons.” I closed my eyes as I recalled the conversation I’d had with Aoyuki in my office.
“B-Blessed Lord Light, did I...” Ellie must have thought she had said something rude, because her voice was unusually shaky.
“Oh, don’t worry, it’s nothing,” I said. “Anyway, I’m counting on you.”
“O-Of course, Your Blessedness,” Ellie said with another bow. I activated a second Teleportation card and whisked myself back to the Abyss. It was during that moment that I recalled my talk with Aoyuki in detail.
✦ ✦ ✦
✰✰✰
“Master, I beseech you to give the order to me.”
Totally out of the blue, Aoyuki stepped forward and signed up to take on the Level 9999 Master that was going berserk in the Demonkin Nation’s capital. And I wasn’t the only one who was shocked at hearing these words, for Mei and Nazuna looked just as taken aback. Aoyuki ignored the collective gasps and calmly laid out her case for why she was the best-equipped fighter to take on this fake C.
For one thing, not only was our target Level 9999, but there was too much we didn’t know about him. Because she was the ultimate monster tamer, she could attack the fake C with a bunch of monsters from her collection to feel him out and identify the best approach to properly engage him. However, Aoyuki stressed that she wanted to fight the fake C alone with her monsters, because having any of the other warriors like Mei in the mix would just introduce potential problems with things like coordinating attacks.
Her basic overarching reason was that we were dealing with an unknown Level 9999 opponent. Aoyuki pledged to play it safe, but also wanted to be the only Level 9999 from the Abyss to face the risk. Depending on the outcome of a battle with this fake C, there was a possibility that a whole bunch of people could get killed, but using Aoyuki’s plan of attack, she would be the only one from my inner circle to perish if things went south.
She spoke at length and went well beyond her earlier points, to the point where Nazuna’s brain pretty much short-circuited midway through, and the Vampire Knight stood with her mouth gaping open and a faraway look on her face. But Aoyuki paid her no attention.
“And that is all,” Aoyuki said finally. “For those reasons, I beseech you to give me the order.”
I didn’t answer immediately. She was right that having her monsters engage with the fake C came with a ton of advantages, but I had a feeling Aoyuki wasn’t proposing this simply on the strength of its own merits.
She must feel partly responsible for Els’s death, I thought. If I were to guess, Aoyuki was still kicking herself over how her fight with Els had gone down, her reasoning being that if she had been more successful, Els wouldn’t even have had the opportunity to kill himself in front of me. She felt she’d had a chance to save me from that grief, but she’d blown it. This mission to stop the fake C was her way of making up for what she felt was her failure.
And I don’t even blame her for what happened to my brother, I thought. But if I say that to her and make her stand down, she’ll just hang on to that guilt until it erupts into something more dangerous. Given the alternative, I figured it was a safer bet to let her tackle this assignment. Besides, I couldn’t deny that Aoyuki had made a good case for why she was the best candidate for the job.
After making up my mind, I looked Aoyuki straight in the eye. “Okay, you got it. I’ll let you handle the fake C alone.”
“Thank you,” Aoyuki said, kneeling. “I vow to live up to your expectations, master.”