Ishura - Volume 7 - Chapter 4

Chapter 4- Secret Treatment Room

He didn’t want to open his eyes.

It wouldn’t make a difference either way.

Kuuro the Cautious had clearly perceived the surrounding scenery even with his eyes closed.

However, he no longer possessed the willpower to lift his eyelids.

More than the fact he had lingered on the verge of death from his burns, Kuuro felt helpless by the betrayal committed by Obsidian Eyes, and he ended up exposing his precious friends Cuneigh, Toroa, and Mizial to danger.

A carpet-bomb of cluster munitions was what drove Kuuro to the brink of death. Most likely, they had manipulated Mestelexil to blow up the whole clinic with him to take every possible precaution before they enacted their operation during the eighth match.

Kuuro truly hadn’t the faintest intention of opposing Obsidian Eyes.

Nevertheless, Obsidian Eyes had gone this far merely to take every possible precaution.

As not to reveal anything to Kuuro, who could become their natural enemy.

He was already fed up with it all.

If I don’t wake up, I won’t have to see anything.

He was lying in a fairly luxurious hospital bed.

His whole body, up to his face, was almost entirely covered in bandages. The unique smell of Life Arts–induced regeneration, and the feeling of thickly applied ointment. The heat and pain from the severe burns.

The was a window close by and a small table that held a pitcher of water. There were two doors—one to the hallway and one to the neighboring room.

In the back of the room sat a huge desk, and a woman was there writing a log. She appeared to be in her early thirties, but she was likely a bit older than that. Her long hair was a vaguely greenish-gray color, and she was approximately as tall as an adult man. The fact that she was using script to record a log meant she wasn’t a nurse, but a doctor; she likely was someone in a position of nobility or close to it. From the extent of her vocal cords’ development, Kuuro could see the characteristics of a Life Arts user.

Even with his eyes shut tight, the Clairvoyance he possessed from birth perceived all this information.

Looking over at Kuuro’s bed, the woman spoke.

“Regained consciousness, have we, Kuuro?”

“……”

“Hee-hee. See, you secrete a different amount of saliva when you’re sleeping versus when you’re awake. Your throat moves to swallow, as well.”

As she spoke, the woman approached the bed.

“Though I’m sure Obsidian Eyes must have some techniques to conceal these physiological reactions too, don’t they?”

“…Where am I?” Kuuro asked, with his eyes still closed.

At the very least, he knew this couldn’t be the same clinic where Toroa had been hospitalized. That had been annihilated in Mestelexil’s bombing attack.

After Kuuro had let Toroa and the others escape, he had dived into a well, slipping through a gap in the fire scattered by the incendiary bombs and narrowly escaping with his life.

But at the very least, he understood that without quickly receiving the latest cutting-edge medical treatment—including skin grafting—along with top-caliber Life Arts, there was a high probability he would have still ended up dead.

“I can’t tell you where.”

“What’s your name…?”

When he opened his eyes, the woman, wearing a serene smile, matched his gaze.

As he was all wrapped up in bandages, Kuuro looked like some sort of monster.

“I’m Viga the Clamor.”

“…Viga. You’re the woman…providing Word Arts support to Rosclay.”

Ownopellal the Bone Watcher, tasked with generating straight swords through Craft Arts.

Ekirehjy the Blood Fountain, tasked with bodily enhancements through Life Arts.

Antel the Alignment, tasked with aiding Rosclay’s movements with Force Arts.

Finally, Viga the Clamor, tasked with generating electric currents with Thermal Arts.

For the hero candidates, the Word Arts backup Rosclay received was now basically an open secret.

“I—koff.”

When Kuuro tried to speak in longer phrases, his throat seared with pain.

With a cough, he accepted the water Viga offered him and took a swig.

“…I was…recovered by…Rosclay’s camp?”

“Hmm, who’s to say?”

“Or not…it sounds like.”

Kuuro’s Clairvoyance made any attempt at lying utterly pointless.

He could determine if someone was telling the truth or lying just by observing their responses to his questioning.

In other words, Viga was providing support to Rosclay while also acting with motives that differed from his camp.

“…Just tell me yourself if possible. Koff, it’s meaningless to try keeping it a secret…”

“Do you know the name ‘Iriolde the Atypical Tome’?”

Kuuro nodded slightly. A monster from the Central Kingdom era who wielded secretive influence among Aureatia’s upper class. When Rehart the Obsidian was still alive, Obsidian Eyes had been commissioned by Iriolde several times.

…That’s how it had been in Toghie City when I was there, too. Despite having a name like Gilnes the Ruined Castle, the fact that they were able to establish a single town as a base of operations as easily as they did could have only been because they had a massive supporter backing them… Iriolde the Atypical Tome’s just about the only one capable of such a feat while being in opposition to Aureatia.

“I guess you could say…we’re all people who have received support from Master Iriolde. He’s the one who arranged for your treatment, you know.”

While he was attending to Toroa, Kuuro had tried to learn all the information he could regarding Aureatia’s current state of affairs, but after the start of the Sixways Exhibition, Iriolde hadn’t appeared to make any conspicuous moves of his own.

Perhaps it hadn’t been necessary… Or perhaps he had already begun to make his move.

“So basically…you’re double-crossing Rosclay…”

“Hmm, I wonder… Am I double-crossing him? Only time will tell, I suppose!”

“So…what do you plan…on making me do…by helping me recover…?”

“Let me give you some news before I get to my request. Toroa the Awful is dead.”

“……!”

Kuuro tried to stand up, but the intense pain that rushed across his skin stopped him.

“…He died?! Koff, that can’t be!”

Kuuro had risked his life to ensure Toroa escaped— No. Even if Kuuro hadn’t taken such action himself, even when he faced off against opponents like Mestelexil or the Particle Storm, it was impossible to believe that the ultimate enchanted swordsman could be killed.

“It must’ve been the day after we brought you here, I think. Toroa traveled to the Mali Wastes and picked a fight with Alus the Star Runner underground who was unconscious in a fissure. We have testimony from Psianop who was at the Wastes when it all went down, so I’m pretty sure the information’s good.

“H-has anyone…found the body?”

“Nope. But after he fought Toroa, Alus the Star Runner attacked Aureatia and caused a huge amount of damage to the city. It was concluded that Toroa had been annihilated without leaving a body behind. After all, between Ground Runner and Hillensingen the Luminous Blade… Alus had a buncha magic tools like that.”

“You’re lying…”

Kuuro firmly shut his eyelids. He stretched out the skin on his face, and the pain from his burns was agonizing, but he still wanted to close his eyes. Even if, with Kuuro’s Clairvoyance, it was a meaningless gesture.

“All of this was reported as the results of Aureatia’s official investigation into the matter. You can tell if I’m lying or not just by looking at me, can’t you?”

“…”

Why did he do something like that?

Kuuro’s belief in Toroa’s strength was why he had entrusted Mizial and Cuneigh to him in the first place. Despite understanding that—despite learning what peaceful happiness felt like—did that just mean revenge against Alus the Star Runner was simply that much of a tremendous force inside Toroa the Awful?

If the dwarf had been standing in front of him, Kuuro would have wanted to interrogate him about it all. However, his Clairvoyance, capable of seeing even into the future, still couldn’t read the heart of someone who wasn’t there—much less someone who had died.

“Well, then.”

Viga lightly brought her hands together, her smile ever present on her face.

“Now that you understand all of that, I’ll go ahead and pass on Master Iriolde’s request, okay? With the opening of the Sixways Exhibition…as I’m sure you’re already aware, Master Rosclay’s reformation faction has committed many dishonest acts, beginning first with purging any antagonistic elements. As such, our camp now needs someone to protect us.”

“You plan…on turning me…into a killer again?”

“Yup! We’ll be giving you plenty of compensation for it, of course. Also, given our organizational power…we can also promise to keep Mizial and Cuneigh out of Master Rosclay’s clutches, too.”

“…You fiend.”

This had been this woman’s intent behind telling Kuuro of Toroa’s death from the start.

After Toroa’s death, Iriolde’s camp had encircled Cuneigh and Mizial before any other of the factions could. Which likely meant they could dispose of them at any time.

“I mean, you’re so strong, it’d be such a waste otherwise, right?” Viga said, looking truly mystified with one hand against her cheek. “If you don’t want to…you could just kill me right now and leave Aureatia, you know. Mizial’s got nothing to do with you at all, for one, and… I mean, you could make however many little Cuneighs you wanted if you felt like it.”

“…Make?”

Kuuro felt an intense, nondescript sickening feeling. He had determined who she was with, but who exactly was Viga herself?

From the very beginning, this woman had been telling him nothing but the truth.

“Oh, actually, you didn’t know, did you?”

Antel the Alignment. Ownopellal the Bone Watcher. Ekirehjy the Blood Fountain.

The other three people providing Word Arts support to Rosclay had clear and fixed positions in society.

Antel the Alignment was Aureatia’s Twenty-Eighth Minister. He was known as a faithful bureaucrat.

Ownopellal the Bone Watcher was a celebrated instructor at Iznock Royal High School.

Ekirehjy the Blood Fountain was the chief medical adviser to the royal family, having risen from being appointed a civilian worker for the army.

Which then only left this woman, Viga the Clamor.

While clearly specializing in Life Arts, she focused solely on providing Thermal Art support. It meant that she was in a position that required her to conceal her true aptitude.

“I was the one who made little Cuneigh.”

“…”

It was impossible for a homunculus like Cuneigh to come about naturally.

Without someone possessing a tremendous amount of power creating her themselves.

“A self-proclaimed…demon king…!”

“Want me to make a second one, just for you, Kuuro?”

Viga the Clamor smiled. Perhaps it was the only expression she could make.