Chapter 12
ONE DAY…
“Okay, I got the Holy Knight.”
“I don’t know about him…”
“Okay then! Time for judgment by Rimeydal the Creator.”
Having finished our morning work, my friends and I were playing a game in my private quarters in the main tower.
On the table between me and Sedam was a wooden board and small game pieces. It was a classic game in this world called War Board, similar to shogi or chess.
I silently renewed my vow to get my friends to play an RPG someday.
It was my turn.
I used my upside-down Priest to touch Sedam’s piece. Much like in shogi, the pieces lay flat on the board. Without a second of delay, Clara (our referee) checked the types of each piece and made a judgment.
“Margilus loses.” Clara solemnly announced her judgment and removed my Priest from the board.
“Ugh… Dammit. You tricked me.”
“Margilus? That’s unsportsmanlike.”
“Rimeydal preserve!”
I accepted her advice and uttered a phrase that was more or less equivalent to “god help me.”
I’d made a bad judgment call. If I lost with the Priest, that meant Sedam’s piece was either a General or Hero. Either way, I was in hot water, and his pieces were getting closer to my Holy City.
“Do you think I would lose so easily to a man who just learned War Board yesterday?” Sedam raised an eyebrow at me. That was his smug expression, and I’d seen it a lot lately.
“It’s not over yet.”
Sedam certainly was an intellectual, but considering we were just about equal in the game, he must not be that good. The evidence of that was in Clara’s sighs of resignation.
“As always, it’s painful to watch your War Board tactics.”
“Ha ha ha!” Mora laughed brightly. “Both Sedam and Mister Geo seem to be having fun, so what’s wrong with that?”
There was no way I could let myself lose in front of Mora, who’d busied herself with preparing sil tea.
“Now it’s my turn…that’s a Spy, right? I should get rid of it now.”
“Sedam wins…”
“Heh heh.”
Reyha clenched her fists. “My lord, you can still make a comeback!”
He spotted my trump card lurking near the enemy line. Reyha was desperately cheering me on from behind. I could see sweat on her brow. She was even more into the game than I was.
I held my staff to my cheek and pondered my next move, when…
“Lord Margilus! I have a report!”
The third dark elf sister, Gilma, burst into the room.
“What is it?”
“It’s…the warrior clan. The same detachment who came to the castle before… A man named Canberils is heading this way!”
“Huh?!”
The relaxed atmosphere suddenly grew ice-cold.
It was the warlord, Canberils. He was the one who suspected me of being an Epicenter and had held an inquisition. He’d left the castle to consult the clan’s Council of Elders for a verdict, and now he had returned.
✦ ✦ ✦
“It’s been a while, wizard.”
A bitter voice resounded in the great hall of the main tower.
It was Warlord Canberils. As usual, he was dressed all in crimson with flashy accessories. He removed his devilish mask to show me his true face.
He had a painful expression, but there was no reaction from my Detect Enemy spell.
“Yes, I’m glad to find us both alive.” I nodded gracefully from my throne in the great hall. To my left and right stood Clara and Sedam, with Ild one step below them and Reyha waiting behind me.
The warrior clan stood in a position where I looked down on them. Beside Canberils were two guards, someone who covered their entire body with a hooded robe, and Lade. He was also a member of the warrior clan, but unlike his superior officer, his mouth was tight, and he looked irritated.
“The warchief and others you left behind really helped us out. Please accept my thanks.”
“I’m glad. We received those reports as well. Especially your work in Filsand. You did a lot of work there.”
He could only be talking about when I’d taken down the daemonic legion and daemonists. I’m sure he’d heard all about it from Lade, including that the daemonists knew my name from some sort of existence called the King of Daemons. That was the part that matched with the oracle’s prophecy. It was an explosion of suspicion.
“It was all thanks to the cooperation of your warchief and our allies. Now then…” Even though I was acting cool, I was actually feeling quite uneasy. I sensed nervous tension from Clara and the others as well. “Shall we get straight to business, warlord? You suspected me of being a daemon or an Epicenter…what was the result of the continued inquisition?”
“Our suspicions were indeed as you say.” Canberils dropped to one knee. The other warriors followed suit. “The conclusion of the warrior clan’s Council of Elders is that the probability of you being a daemon or a daemonist…is extremely low.”
When Canberils paused for a second while declaring the result, both Sedam and Clara let out sighs of relief. I felt the same way as them, but that didn’t mean our talks were over.
“So that means…what? I have not been completely cleared of these allegations?”
“Right. But we will not be looking into you any further. There is actually a separate issue.”
“You mean the oracle’s prophecy?”
“Precisely. In the five-hundred-year history of the warrior clan, the oracle’s prophecies have always proved true. And yet, now this strange circumstance has arisen. The issue is bigger than just whether she is right or wrong. If the daemonists have also been given your name in a prophecy…” Canberils’s stern expression hardened even more. He looked almost agonized. “The Council of Elders wants to find the cause of this phenomenon by any means necessary.”
“That makes sense…”
If it turned out the prophecies of the oracle the clan had followed for five hundred years were no longer reliable—or worse, of daemonic origin—the morale of the warrior clan would collapse.
“Right now, it is you, Lord Wizard, who sits at the center of this phenomenon. Therefore, I humbly ask: Will you help us?”
“Hmmm…”
I had been thinking about it since the commotion at Filsand.
In the end, it seemed the interpretation of the term Epicenter had been the issue. In other words, maybe the term epicenter meant “a place that connects this world with another world.” If that was the case, then it would suggest that an Epicenter that transforms into a daemon nest like Diane’s mother, and my own Magic Gate—which connects to the power of chaos—were different expressions of similar powers.
“After causing us so much trouble, now you want us to cooperate? That’s a pretty selfish way to handle things,” Clara answered Canberils in a cold voice. She probably took my thinking for hesitation. But I had come to understand this atmosphere well now. She was just playing the role of bad cop.
“Yes, I understand that. We also must practice proper etiquette.” Canberils tried to continue matter-of-factly. “As such—”
The person concealed beneath robe and hood suddenly stood up. They stopped Canberils from standing with one hand.
They walked quietly toward me, lowered the hood, and removed their concealing robe.
“It is my pleasure to meet you for the first time, wizard.”
The speaker had a cool, soothing voice. Her long, black hair swayed as she bowed respectfully.
“I am the repository of our clan’s knowledge, the summation of all that was given to me by our mediums and leaders.”
She stood up and looked at me with big, green eyes.
She was a beautiful young woman with a slender body. The combination of her many-pleated red skirt and front-closing white jacket reminded me of a Japanese shrine maiden.
And that wasn’t all that was remarkable about her.
“Are you an elf? A true elf?” Sedam asked, stunned. Indeed, this “repository of knowledge” boasted pointy ears. Reyha was a dark elf, and I knew a bit about elves in this world, but I never thought I’d see one here.
“You are correct. This body was born of Rimeydal. However, I am of the second generation.”
“Just as I thought…” Sedam murmured.
Clara looked reverent. “So, they do exist…”
Judging from the attitudes of Sedam and Clara, true elves must have been much more uncommon than ordinary elves. Ild also looked fascinated, and Reyha was stiff as a stone.
I was awfully interested, myself.
“I’m surprised that an oracle would come on her own. We are grateful, but…are you the same oracle who received the prophecy?”
Sedam and the others were uncharacteristically flustered, so I took the role of speaking calmly.
“Please, call me a mystic,” the elf said, with a graceful smile.
Her appearance was that of a young woman, but the she spoke with the composure of someone much older. Given that she was an elf, I felt quite certain she was even older than she seemed.
“To answer your question…yes. I deeply apologize for the great inconvenience our shallow lapse has visited upon you.”
The oracle planted both knees upon the floor and bowed deeply, her hands on the ground in front of her. Behind her, Canberils, the two guards, and Lade did the same. I couldn’t get over her beauty. The whole spectacle of apology made me feel guilty. It was also shocking to see the huge clan members behind her behaving in such a way.
“Please stand, mystic. Everyone else, too. Honestly, I’d prefer an explanation over apologies, right now.”
“Your priorities are absolutely correct.” She spoke in a matter-of-fact manner, but there was something musical in her tone. Was it force of habit, as a TTRPG player, that made me want to trust everything a beautiful elf said?
I resolved to pay close attention.