Gideon, City of Duels, Central Arena
“...Heh heh.”
“What? Why are you laughing? It’s creepy.”
The intense duel at the Central Arena had just ended, and F, seated in the Death Period box seat, let out a chuckle that made Marie look all weirded out.
“Oh, I just felt that I’d witnessed some excellent fighting.” Using his own eye and Zodiac both, F was able to gather inspiration from two battles at once. Both were exhilarating fights and hardly everyday occurrences.
However...
“The fighting today was friendly, fun, and generally splendid...” F said of the battles at the two arenas. “But not more than that.”
“What are you talking about?” Marie asked.
“Are you saying you don’t agree? If it doesn’t involve something that can be lost forever—tians, for example—then no matter how intense the battle, it’s never more than a game, is it?”
Figaro vs Albert. Ray’s party vs G.
While both battles had been truly something to behold, neither of them carried the weight of something that might be truly lost.
“Tragedies happen only when there is something that cannot be undone,” F said. With mere games, an observer might find the tension somewhat lacking—but Dendro was both a game and a world, so it could offer a kind of heightened spectacle that could not be experienced anywhere else. And yet, F felt that there hadn’t been much of that special tension in the battles he’d just witnessed.
It was as if they’d received perfect scores, but nothing more.
“Perhaps if only Masters are involved, their conflicts can never be deeper than simple fun,” F concluded.
“You know you almost ruined a relationship, right?” During the Love-Duel Festival, F had nearly broken up a pair of Masters, and Marie couldn’t help but point that out.
“Oh my. How harsh. But in hindsight, I really only helped bring them closer together, didn’t I?”
“You’ve got a lot of nerve, saying that... Should I split your head open?” Marie clicked her tongue as she loaded Arc-en-Ciel with La Gravelle.
“Heh...”
Despite what F said, he had gained something from the incident at the Eighth Arena. He was sure that the Ray he knew wouldn’t have been able to fight as well as he did today. F could tell that in the short amount of time that had passed since their last meeting, the young man had experienced some tremendous growth.
Learning of this change in his research subject was certainly a good thing, but...
“Then again, neither you nor I will get what we want from mere games, will we?”
Marie said nothing in response. She couldn’t deny that the two of them were cut from similar cloth.
“I want to read more of your work, so please pick it back up as quickly as you can...Nagisa Ichimiya,” F said, flashing a mischievous smile before standing up.
Marie frowned—that had hit where it hurt—but just as F was about to leave...
“Yeah, yeah. You keep up with your own writing too...Seigen Kato.”
...she addressed him. Not by his avatar name, nor by his real name, but by his pen name.
It was the name of a certain author who’d participated in a publisher get-together from some time ago.
Marie was obviously trying to tell him that she’d realized his true identity.
“...Of course.” Grinning wryly at the unexpected counterattack, F walked away.
✦ ✦ ✦
Paladin, Ray Starling
Once that thing at the Eighth Arena was taken care of, I headed to the Central Arena to see how that had panned out—only for Shu to tell me to come right to the conference room. There, I found Shu, Figaro, Hannya, Azurite, Azurite’s bodyguards...and Figaro’s opponent in the final duel: King of Termination, Albert Schwartzkaiser.
Apparently we’d all been gathered for questioning.
KoT’s intentions were still completely unclear. It just didn’t make sense for a well-known Caldinan Superior to suddenly join Altar and instantly be allowed to participate in The Tournaments.
The questioning had been postponed until after the event to preserve fairness, but it was now time to hear what Albert had to say.
The Superiors who were already in the city were present, as well. Shu had dragged me in here too, but that seemed to be at Azurite’s request.
That made sense, though—I was the leader of their clan as well as her friend.
Honestly, I wasn’t sure if it was a good idea for Azurite to be here at all, given we didn’t know what KoT’s intentions were, but she insisted on interrogating him herself. That was just how she was—in fact, that was exactly how we’d met at Quartierlatin in the first place—but if KoT was planning to assassinate her, this gave him a golden opportunity.
Though, we accounted for that possibility too.
In addition to the three Superiors that were visibly present, Fuso and Tsukikage were also hiding in the shadows, just in case. If something happened, she’d use Faint Light to cut Albert’s AGI and they both would get involved.
With such preparations in place, Azurite began the questioning.
“Now, let us begin.”
Silence.
“What is your reason for participating in The Tournaments... For joining Altar?” Azurite went straight for the big one. With Truth Discernment in place, KoT couldn’t lie...
“Can I have an answer?”
...but that meant nothing when faced with someone who wouldn’t say anything at all.
With a face that was almost robotic in how emotionless it was, KoT remained completely silent.
That made me realize that even in his duels, he hadn’t said anything besides skill declarations and a short phrase at the end of his matches.
“Are you Contract-bound to not say certain things?” Azurite asked. I’d forgotten to consider Contracts, and yeah, that would certainly explain why KoT wasn’t speaking. If he was Contract-bound to keep secrets, he’d have no choice but to remain silent.
Would breaking the Contract actually kill him, though? I wondered. Wouldn’t he just gain Contract resistance or something?
However, as that thought was running through my head, KoT shook his head in response.
It was a gesture that clearly meant “no.”
He and Azurite looked at each other in silence, but then the latter broke it.
“Did you come to Altar by the president’s order?”
A nod—almost certainly a “yes.”
“Why did she send you here?”
KoT tilted his head—probably the gesture meant “unknown.”
“Oh...” I said. Now I understood—
KoT didn’t speak, responding only with three gestures that meant “yes,” “no,” or “unknown.”
Azurite’s first question couldn’t be answered by any of those, and that was why he’d shown no reaction to it. But why was he doing this, anyway?
“Are your answers limited by some sort of skill or Contract?”
He shook his head.
“You cannot speak?”
He shook his head.
“Are you just doing this because you want to?”
He nodded... Wait, nodded?!
“I see.” Azurite placed a hand on her temple as though suddenly exhausted and slowly reached for Altar—the sword by her side.
“Whoa whoa whoa! Don’t try to cut him down for that! Calm down!” I interjected.
“Oh. Sorry. For a moment, I felt like Caldina’s president was using him to mock me...”
Well, I get she’s the one who sent him here, but still...!
This felt like it was getting nowhere. We could ask just yes-or-no questions, but there was no telling how long it would take for us to get anything useful out of him.
“Oh,” said Shu. “Looks like the help I called fur is here.”
“The help?” The moment he said that, there was a knock on the door. It was followed by the voice of a knight from the outside.
“Rook, a member of Death Period, has arrived.”
“Rook?”
Azurite gave permission, and he entered the room. His face and gear were a bit dirty, so I guessed he’d been doing a little training even though there was a big dueling competition going on.
“I’m sorry for the wait.”
“It’s cool. Anyway, we could use some interpretation.” With those words, Shu moved a bit away from KoT’s side, giving his position to Rook.
“Interpretation,” though? How do you interpret someone who doesn’t even talk?
“Fur now, continue the questionin’ as you were.”
“Very well,” Azurite said as she resumed her interrogation.
Nodding, head shaking, tilting, silence... The questioning continued, still awkward and mostly uninformative, for nearly ten minutes until...
“I think I understand now,” Rook said. “Please ask something other than yes-or-no questions.”
Azurite gave a slightly puzzled expression before posing her first question again.
“What is your reason for joining Altar?”
“‘I have concluded that if I want to gather information and test myself in various environments, staying in one place is suboptimal. The four years I spent in Caldina were more than enough, and I am now considering a stay of similar length here in Altar. The president also directed me to participate in The Tournaments, which made this transfer all the more convenient. I intend to assist the kingdom in hunting dangerous monsters and pursuing wanted Masters as I have in Caldina. I hope we have a productive relationship.’ That’s his answer.”
Rook’s sudden speech made everyone except Shu look shocked.
He seemed to be directly reciting KoT’s words.
Rook was almost like a mind reader sometimes and often knew what was going on in our heads, but it looked like the past ten minutes of questioning were enough for him to figure out Albert too.