Grimgal of Ashes and Illusion - Volume 18 - Chapter 5

5. Paper-Thin Stubbornness

Haruhiro and the group had decided to return to Alterna. When he’d said, “Let’s head back for now,” Merry had nodded. She followed behind them, keeping her distance. That’s good, at least, was something Haruhiro couldn’t bring himself to think. There’s nothing good about this. Not one thing.

They entered Alterna through the north gate. The soldiers were pretty suspicious, but they let the party through.

Neal was waiting for them in front of Tenboro Tower.

“What were you people doing outside?”

Haruhiro told him they were visiting graves.

“Visiting graves, in weather like this?” Neal said, incredulous.

“Because the weather’s like this.”

Haruhiro knew he was bullshitting. He was almost frantic. Obviously, he shouldn’t have been letting himself lose his cool. But even though he knew that, it was hard to stay in control, given the circumstances.

“Commander’s calling for you,” Neal said.

“For whom?” Haruhiro asked in a nonchalant tone.

“You.”

“Just me?”

“Yeah.”

“Do you like being his errand boy?”

“Huh?” Neal’s face flushed red with anger. Haruhiro clapped him on the shoulder.

“Where do I need to go?”

“The great hall,” Neal answered, shaking off Haruhiro’s hand. “You’d better not be looking down on me...”

Haruhiro went into Tenboro Tower without bothering to respond. That wasn’t very mature of me, he thought. Not that acting mature was going to fix any of his problems. What would fix them? Honestly, he couldn’t even imagine.

Haruhiro sent Ranta and the rest back to their room before heading to the great hall on the second floor. Jin Mogis sat pompously on a chair atop a platform. In addition to Mogis, there were five black cloaks in the great hall. One of them was General Thomas Margo, who had been a regular black cloak before his promotion. He wasn’t especially fat, but he had pudgy cheeks, and his hairline formed an M-shape that looked like he shaved it that way. Also, his voice was weirdly high. He wasn’t entirely incompetent, though the jury was still out on how skilled he actually was. The one thing that was certain was his loyalty to Mogis.

“The dwarves of the Kurogane Mountain Range are calling for us to send reinforcements,” Mogis said, not raising his voice. “Their envoy is a human who says he was a resident of Alterna. It seems you’re well acquainted with this Itsukushima fellow.”

“Please, let him out of prison.” Haruhiro almost added “right now,” but managed to stop himself. Maybe his self-control was starting to come back.

Mogis ignored Haruhiro’s comment. “Do you believe the dwarves are trustworthy?”

Haruhiro cocked his head to the side. “I don’t know any of them, so I couldn’t say.”

“You spoke to Itsukushima.”

“Yeah, but only a little.”

“He says that the dwarves of the Kurogane Mountain Range have fielded a new weapon. You’ve heard, yes?”

“Vaguely.”

“I’d like to learn what it really is.”

Mogis tapped the armrest of his chair two, three times with his left index finger. That finger was adorned with a ring. The accessory wasn’t small, but it wasn’t that large either. Its head was made of gold and held a blue stone—a bright whitish blue, with some shapes just under its surface: two petals, floating in the brilliant light-blue gem.

Two.

Haruhiro feigned indifference as he looked away. He slowly exhaled through his nose.

He was sure of it. There were only two petals. Two shimmering petals on the stone. Weird.

There were three before.

At least, I think so. Could I be misremembering?

The last time he’d gotten a proper look at the ring, which they believed was a relic, Haruhiro had still been missing his memories. Not anymore. They had come back to him just a little while ago. Everything, probably. That had to be why. His mental timeline was a mess. He had to think hard to distinguish reality from things he’d imagined.

That ring’s a relic. That much I’m sure of.

Jin Mogis had used the power of that relic to curb stomp the party. He hadn’t had it when they first met him. This was just an educated guess, but he’d likely gotten it from the master of the Forbidden Tower.

There were three petals in the gemstone...I think.

Now there’s two.

It’s dropped to two.

There’s one less.

What’s going on here? What does it mean?

“Itsukushima won’t talk about the dwarves’ new weapon.” That was why he’d been jailed, Mogis explained. “Would you people be able to get something out of him? I’d like to settle this as peaceably as I can and keep sacrifices to a minimum. I mean that sincerely.”

If Itsukushima wouldn’t talk, he’d be injured, tortured, or possibly even killed. So they should go make him spill his guts. That was likely what Mogis was trying to imply.

“I’ll try talking to him...” It was the only answer Haruhiro could give.

Smiling faintly, Mogis told Haruhiro, “You may go.”

If Haruhiro were to say being dismissed like that didn’t rub him the wrong way, he’d be lying. Does he think he’s a king or something?

There was no choice. Haruhiro explained the situation to his comrades and headed down to the dungeon with Yume. A black cloak guard and Neal the scout were waiting for them by the cell. There to keep an eye on them, no doubt.

When Haruhiro explained why they were there, Itsukushima looked like he felt a little awkward about it.

“Of course it’s about that, huh? I shouldn’t’ve said anything about the dwarves having a new weapon. When I got carried away and let that slip, I could see the light in Jin Mogis’s eyes change. I knew I’d messed up.”

“He must have had all kinds of questions for you. And you didn’t give him anything.”

“Call me a contrarian, but the thought of having to tell him turns my stomach.”

“Nuhhh?” Yume cocked her head to the side. “Master, y’know, your stomach’s real hairy, but it’s always been straight up and down. What’s it look like when it’s turned?”

“N-No, that’s not what that saying means. And you don’t need to mention my hair...”

Itsukushima seemed embarrassed. Haruhiro couldn’t have cared less.

“You haven’t given us any details about this new weapon either, right?” Haruhiro said with a glance at Neal, who was smirking a short distance away. “Do you think you could, please?”

Itsukushima brought his face closer to the bars. Haruhiro did likewise. Yume had hers pressed right against them.

“You know what that piece of shit is trying to do, right?” Itsukushima said in a hushed voice. “He must be planning to negotiate with the iron king. ‘If you want our help, give me your treasure.’ That kind of thing.”

Haruhiro nodded. He didn’t know what the new weapon was, but if it was able to hold back the Southern Expedition, Jin Mogis was going to want it.

“Are they going to be willing to strike a deal?”

“Who knows? Not me.”

From the sound of it, it was possible they might turn over the new weapon, which meant it wasn’t something they only had one of, and it wasn’t immovable either.

“This is just a possibility, but...” Haruhiro let Itsukushima in on something that had just crossed his mind. “Mogis may try to switch to a different negotiating partner.”

“Hmm,” Itsukushima said, thinking. “If he can’t strike a deal with the iron king, he’ll talk to the enemy, you mean? I don’t see how he’d be able to. Not with orcs and the undead...”

“There’s humans too,” Yume interjected. “’Cause they’ve got Forgan with them.”

Itsukushima frowned.

“I see... So I’m bait, then, huh?”

“What are you talkin’ about?” Yume asked, pursing her lips. Itsukushima turned to Yume. His gaze was endlessly gentle when he looked at her.

“Because I’m an envoy of the iron king. If he hands me over to the enemy, that will at least get him to the negotiating table.”

“Yume’s not gonna be lettin’ him do that, though, okay?”

Yume put her fingers through the gaps in the bars. Itsukushima touched them, seeming a little hesitant.

“Don’t worry about me.”

“Not worryin’s not an option. ’Cause you’re Yume’s master, okay?”

“Yeah...”

Had Itsukushima accepted that whatever happened to him was going to happen, and there was nothing he could do about it, so he’d deal with it when the time came? Whether or not that was the case, he clearly couldn’t stomach the idea of caving in to a man like Mogis. Was that making him act stubborn?

“You should have kept quiet about the new weapon, huh?”

When Haruhiro said that, Itsukushima frowned.

“I’ll acknowledge that. It was a mistake. This was always going to be too complex a task for someone like me who barely ever interacts with other people.”

“You were praising the iron king before, right?”

“What are you getting at?”

Itsukushima had been given this important job because he had the iron king’s trust. And yet he’d carelessly let word of the new weapon slip, and was on the verge of failing in his task. He’d done the king a great disservice. Was he thinking he couldn’t possibly go back after this? That was why he couldn’t obey Jin Mogis. He wanted to resist, no matter what.

“The way things are going, it looks like the only way we’ll be able to rescue you is to kill or maim those guys over there and then escape from Alterna. It’s going to be pretty hard to get the Volunteer Soldier Corps to take us in after we do that. They’ve got their own reasons for cooperating with the Frontier Army, after all. It’s the same for us. One of our comrades has been taken hostage, so we’re not exactly sticking around here because we want to. We just don’t have a plan for saving her yet.”

Itsukushima broke eye contact.

“Forget about me.”

Yume wasted no time in wrapping her fingers tightly around his.

“That’s not happenin’.”

“Yume...” Itsukushima started to say something. But the words didn’t come out.

“No matter what happens, Yume isn’t going to abandon you,” Haruhiro said as plainly as he could. It was pretty embarrassing, stating the obvious like this. “What Yume decides goes for all of us. If you keep acting stubborn, I think this scenario is going to play out like I just told you.”

“You’re saying I’m being stubborn?”

“I’m not wrong, am I?”

Yume nodded in agreement. “Master can be real bullheaded, y’know?”

“R-Really...?” It seemed Itsukushima couldn’t talk back to Yume. “Okay, maybe you’re right. There’s nothing cool about being stubborn. I messed up. I wanted to play it off somehow, cancel out my failure that way.”

“Wow, Master. It ain’t easy, ownin’ your missed takes like that, y’know?”

“Owning up to my mistakes, you mean...” Even as he corrected her mistake, Itsukushima was looking at Yume with an expression that said, Aww, she’s so cute; she can’t help it. But he moved on, possibly because Haruhiro was there.

“Anyway, I get it,” Itsukushima said, clearing his throat and putting on a serious expression. “I’ll tell you about the new weapon. But it’s not like I’ve used one myself, and I only know roughly how many the dwarves have.”

“For reference, what is the new weapon?”

“Guns,” Itsukushima revealed.

“Guns,” Haruhiro parroted back at him.

Yume blinked. “Guhnz?”

“Firearms...” Haruhiro murmured.

Momohina of the K&K Pirate Company, based out of the Free City of Vele, had been carrying one. And the company supposedly had a few more in addition to that.

“I’m not a fan of them, but...” Itsukushima furrowed his brow. “The dwarves of the Ironblood Kingdom can make guns. They must have hundreds.”