Ishura - Volume 9 - Chapter 6

Chapter 6 - Aureatia Internal Affairs Ministry Eastern Office

“Sheesh, how long am I supposed to wait here…?”

A fair bit of time had gone by since Kuze the Passing Disaster had sat down in the waiting room chair.

The office staff moving to and fro looked busier than Kuze had ever seen, and no one even said a word to him, let alone had shown any sign of taking him to a reception room.

“…I haven’t been forgotten about in here, have I? Is this really how a hero candidate gets treated…?”

He could understand that with the military’s rebellion and the death of Second General Rosclay coming one after another, it wasn’t strange to see this place in so much chaos. Even still, Kuze felt he was visiting about a pretty important matter of his own.

He felt awkward about stopping these staffers who looked far busier than him, so he simply sighed.

“Guess I’ll head out…”

“Oh, Mr. Kuze the Passing Disaster, I assume.”

A young office lady jogged over to him.

She must have been in the middle of carrying something somewhere, holding a small parcel at her side.

“Please head to the reception room. Do you know where it is?”

“What? Don’t you usually show someone to the room in this situation?”

“My apologies, but I have a more urgent matter I must attend to.”

“I mean, that’s fine, I guess… Let’s see… Up the stairs and to the left? The third room down?”

Watching the staff member depart with the same jogging steps, Kuze stood up, feeling wearied and fed up. He was dressed in the same long black vestments as usual, but given that he clearly couldn’t bring the massive greatshield he usually carried into a place like this, there was a chance that no one had even realized he was a hero candidate.

Ah, whatever…that’s more convenient for me, anyway.

At the very least, when he had provided support for Rosclay during the tenth match, the impression he gave as an ambitionless man who was doomed for mediocrity had served him well. Kuze had only revealed himself in front of the citizenry for a brief moment during the fifth match before it immediately ended in a win by default, so there were probably a lot of them who didn’t remember him.

Though, at this rate, there were equally inconvenient aspects as well.

When he opened the door into the old, austere reception room, a man nearing his twilight years was sitting on the sofa, waiting for him.

While his face was a bit crooked asymmetrically, his demeanor gave an impression of health and confidence.

“Sorry for the awful reception, Kuze the Passing Disaster.”

“Oh yeah… I’m sorry, but have we ever met before?”

“Right, right, guess introductions come first. Grasse the Foundation Map. Aureatia’s First Minister.”

“A-ah-haaah… The First Minister himself…”

A pained fake smile came over Kuze’s face as he gripped Grasse’s outstretched hand.

Kuze hadn’t imagined one of the Twenty-Nine Officials, especially the First Minister of all people, would meet with him directly. He had come here with the expectation some random mid-level management type would hear him out and pass on his suggestion.

“For now, why don’t you sit down. That’s some perfect posture you got there, Kuze! I get the same impression looking at some of my subordinates, but a lot of you Order folks were really brought up well, huh?”

“Oh, no…I wouldn’t say that. Thank you, though.”

“Well then. You said you have something to say regarding your match?”

“Yes, and I realize this might be a bit impertinent of me, but…”

Kuze couldn’t let himself get caught in Grasse’s rhythm.

Sitting down on the opposite sofa, he brought up his main point.

“Would it be possible to save the eleventh match for later?”

“Hmmm.” Grasse leaned forward, looking intrigued. “Kuze, in the fifth match, you won by default, right? If you’re not withdrawing, I’m assuming that means you’re still willing to fight, but…are you not feeling well? Injured?”

“That’s not it. The opposite actually, not having my opponent in tip-top shape isn’t ideal either, given the purpose of the Sixways Exhibition, wouldn’t you say?”

Although the circumstances behind it were unjust and bizarre, the tenth match still went on as scheduled, and Soujirou the Willow-Sword had won. Though it may not have been an officially recognized match, given how many people had witnessed the events, Aureatia was likely forced to treat it as such.

If the Sixways Exhibition continued on as scheduled, the next match would be the eleventh, and Kuze the Passing Disaster was scheduled to fight in it. His opponent was the winner of the sixth match, Zeljirga the Abyss Web.

“Everyone’s saying that no one knows the whereabouts of Zeljirga or her sponsor, right? Having a guy like me win by default twice, it’s not a great look, is it…? These days, the Order’s treated pretty harshly as it is, and it’ll be the match right after Rosclay’s desperate battle to the death, right?”

“I see. That ain’t a great sequence of events for the one doing the fighting now, is it?”

“If Zeljirga has already requested to forfeit her match, then it is what it is, but…if not, then I’d at least like you to search for her and get her confirmation first. Would it be too difficult to hold the twelfth match first, and use that time to search for Zeljirga?”

“I get where you’re coming from. Thing is, I mean, these matches are true duels and all. Win or lose, it’s a massive amount of pressure. It’s real easy to believe she just ran away without notice.”

Naturally, Kuze’s request wasn’t out of consideration of his broader societal reputation.

Among the hero candidates, Kuze was the only one who would be greatly inconvenienced if his second-round match didn’t actually happen.

Starting from the second round, it was decided that Queen Sephite would spectate the matches. Kuze needed the Queen in the arena, where he would be able to get her in his sights and kill her.

It was all to wipe away the Order’s sins. During the age of the True Demon King, all of the unjust crimes that the Order took the blame for would be shouldered by the Order’s leadership, starting with Kuze. Together with the proof that the heads of the Order had forged in secret, the Queen’s assassination would become the definitive event to demonstrate their evil deeds.

It was highly likely that by the third round, it would already be too late. Should Shalk the Sound Slicer advance, Nastique’s automatic counterattack would settle the match faster than Kuze could think, and he wouldn’t be given the momentary reprieve he needed to get the Queen in his sights. If Uhak the Silent advanced, Nastique wouldn’t even function at all, making not only the Queen’s assassination impossible, but also any hope of advancing to the finals.

Kuze had planned on the match schedule being adjusted by Rosclay after they secretly joined forces, but he had perished in the tenth match, and no one else knew the truth about their collaboration.

Rosclay kept our promise… No one’s gonna imagine for a second that the Queen’ll be assassinated.

“For starters, though, the agreement we all had was that we wouldn’t listen to any requests from the hero candidates themselves, see… I need to hear about this through your sponsor. You understand that’s how this works, right?”

While he made a show of scratching his head, Grasse’s eyes examined Kuze closely.

This aging man was ever vigilant, showing clearly why he had survived through the political strife in Aureatia.

“Bweh-heh-heh… Of course I do. And I assume you understand the situation yourself, too.”

Kuze’s sponsor, Nophtok the Crepuscule Bell, had suffered a mental breakdown with no hopes of recovery.

He was being confided in the Free City of Okafu, basically as a hostage with his life in limbo. It was impossible for Aureatia’s side to use the rules around lacking a sponsor to make Kuze withdraw from the tournament.

On top of that, Aureatia’s side had their own circumstances behind why they were unable to take Nophtok back by force—the man was also the mastermind who’d ordered the attack on the Order orphanage.

Politically, Kuze was close to the weakest position of all, but he currently had a blade proving their foul play pointed straight at Aureatia’s throat.

“…All that said, though, we’d be just as put out if the match falls through. Between spectators being barred from the ninth match and the wild, ad hoc tenth match…if the eleventh match then also fell through, even the audience is bound to think something’s fishy. I’m guessing the others have already started making their own moves, too.”

“Would you be able to put in a word for me, then, Minister?”

“So long as the winds’re blowing in a good direction. Then, I’ll at least go along for the ride.”

Grasse’s smile was an asymmetrical one, twisting up one side of his mouth.

“Maybe by some stroke of luck, they’ll find you a good opponent to go up against.”

The wanted criminal Kaete the Round Table had returned.

Not only returned, but had come to Jelky the Swift Ink’s sickroom to apologize himself.

Down on all fours on the floor, his head seemed to droop as he bowed it.

“A-as you can see…I am very, very sorry for what I did!”

“…”

Jelky’s cold gaze looked down on Kaete like he was some rare, peculiar creature.

Seeing the same Kaete known to be a wicked tyrant apologizing in a nominally commendable manner extended past comedy and almost seemed like some sick nightmare.

“I-It is true… I gathered weapons…and planned to rebel against the Aureatia Assembly…! But th-that was all out of loyalty to Her Majesty and also to protect Aureatia! From the hero candidates threatening it! I-I’ll admit that…I didn’t have the courage to turn myself in, until now…b-but, hnggh!”

“If you’re forcing yourself to talk here, I don’t mind if you stop.”

“…N-no please, let me say this…! When I learned the rebels’ havoc even involved an attack on the palace… That’s when I truly realized! Th-that we should go beyond factions and principles, and p-p-p-pool our strength together…!”

“That so?”

Jelky continued his aristocrat-script translation on the table next to his bed.

While nothing Kaete claimed was worth a single iota of his full attention, the fact that the man known to be one of the proudest among the Twenty-Nine Officials was acting like he didn’t care about appearances at all was an unexpected development for Jelky.

What reason could be pushing him to do this to secure his return? Not only bowing his head to me, but to hand over a trump card like Mestelexil, too…

Despite how unsightly Kaete looked, Jelky knew very well he was not someone to be underestimated.

While in the Aureatia Assembly, Kaete had managed to prepare a tremendous fighting force all on his own. The outflow of golems and weaponry from the Beyond following Kaete’s downfall was having an unfathomable effect, both big and small, on the war situation.

“In any case, given what you’re claiming here, I know it will be useless to probe your motives any further. Normally, apprehending you as a criminal would be the suitable response, much less reinstated, but given that you have reclaimed control over Mestelexil and gained information on the Old Kingdoms’ Loyalists and Obsidian Eyes, I can allow some room for consideration.”

“…That’s right. That lot…they’re a threat to all of Aureatia. I’ve directly witnessed the faces and abilities of the Old Kingdoms’ Loyalist leadership, and Obsidian Eyes’ agents alike. We should be able to come up with effective countermea—”

“If you’re speaking of threats to Aureatia…”

Jelky cut Kaete off from continuing further.

“What of Kiyazuna the Axle? If you and Mestelexil are together, why isn’t she with you?”

“Gra—Kiyazuna…”

Kaete’s words caught in his throat, with his demeanor different from how it had been up until now.

Silence.

“…She’s dead. During the fight to get Mestelexil back, she was fatally wounded and couldn’t be saved. I no longer have any comrades who share my ambition.”

“…”

“The truth is…I don’t even care about getting my seat back. I just really wanted to realize Grams’s ambitions for her… Mestelexil is all-powerful. I want to see that with my own eyes! If I’m pardoned, then Mestelexil might just be able to make a return as a hero candidate, too!”

It was an unrealistic and all-too-convenient desire.

Normally, Jelky never would have entertained this sort of whining.

The end result is, everything went as the Gray-Haired Child said. In order to fight this situation, with threats still clamoring around us, we will definitely need hero candidates that’re under our control. More than anything else…we can’t let Mestelexil and his inexhaustible production of Beyond weaponry pass into the hands of another power from here on out.

Mestelexil the Box of Desperate Knowledge also had all the grounds for returning to the Sixways Exhibition playing field lined up.

If Kaete was returned to his Fourth Minister seat, Aureatia’s side would work to clear him of one of his crimes at least—the charge of foul play during the sixth match.

The charges of foul play would instead be levied on the currently missing Zeljirga. During the sixth match, Obsidian Eyes had committed plenty acts of dishonesty themselves. The suspicions of Mestelexil’s corpsification and the interference from the outsider parent unit making Zeljirga’s opponent drop out would wipe away her victory, and they would make it so Mestelexil was the one who advanced from the sixth match.

When it came to the most serious crime of treason, given the current situation, with Aureatia preparing to accept Iriolde’s camp’s own capitulation, it wouldn’t be out of the question to mix his treason as one part among the greater whole and gradually let it fade away.

Right now, we can shape how things play out from here… Kaete must know that, too. He’s brutal, but still a very capable man.

He turned himself in because he pinpointed that this situation was his perfect, and only, chance.

Together with Hidow the Clamp, he might have been a necessary talent to have on the now Rosclay-less Aureatia Assembly.

“I understand your case. I’ll take a vote from the Twenty-Nine Officials currently available and decide on how to deal with you. Until then, wait in jail.”

“In jail?! Me?! Ridiculous!”

“Of course, in jail. You’re still a criminal.”

It was a spacious, semicircular underground passage.

There were no lights, only the ruins of an underground channel, abandoned long ago.

In one single area of the tuff-covered wall surface, there was a gap that was impossible to distinguish without straining the eyes.

This hidden room, created by cutting out the wall, wasn’t even known to the Old Kingdoms’ Loyalists who originally used these canal ruins as their base of operations. It was created afterward, processed with advanced Craft Arts that defied imagination.

Inside, it was furnished with a bed that was at total odds with the underground canal surroundings.

Both water and gas pipes were pulled into the room from somewhere, perhaps elongated and twisted from the critical infrastructure already present in the walls, and the interior of the room, away from the eyes of any others, was set up to fully support daily life.

A camouflaged door in the wall opened, and something rolled inside.

A miniature golem, with three thin limbs sprouting from its round body like an insect.

“M-M-Mama!”

The indigo golem shouted, flicking its single eye.

“You’re all right?! Were you lonely at all?! Kaete, did a great, job!”

Strictly speaking, this was not Mestelexil’s actual body. It was a remote-controlled drone unit.

Although his actual body was under Aureatia’s strict management and control, for Mestelexil, who had always possessed two lives at once, which body was his actual body had never been an especially big problem.

“Hah… That you, Mestelexil?”

An old woman was lying down on the bed.

“Mama! Mama!”

Mestelexil’s mini-unit raced around in circles on the floor like an overly excited puppy.

Kaete continued into the room after Mestelexil.

“…You there, too, Kaete?”

“I am. Everything went swimmingly. My release is still conditional, but I’ll be let go eventually. Not only that, right now, Aureatia’s side of things believe that you’re dead, Grams.”

Kiyazuna the Axle had suffered a fatal wound while trying to regain her control over Mestelexil. That itself wasn’t a lie. If she had been abandoned, her serious wounds would’ve killed her in short order.

However, Mestelexil’s excellent Craft Arts weren’t his only forte. Just as Kiyazuna was able to enact Word Arts on Mestelexil’s structural construction, Mestelexil was able to give Kiyazuna Life Art treatments, being more closely familiar with Kiyazuna than anyone else.

Of course, Mestelexil was in a horribly confused fluster immediately after regaining his sense, and if Kaete hadn’t scolded him harshly and ordered him around, even the emergency triage may have been too late.

Kiyazuna the Axle’s right arm was still lost.

While Mestelexil’s Life Arts may have been able to regenerate her arm, too, there was no question that restoring a lost limb to Kiyazuna’s already aged body would dramatically shorten her remaining lifespan. The only ones who could handle such Life Arts treatments in old age were extreme exceptions, like Neft the Nirvana.

Grams… From here on until she’s dead, she’ll only have one arm.

The old woman who had been overflowing with the spark and savagery of a teenager, just by having one of her arms torn off, was left so thoroughly exhausted that she couldn’t even lift herself up from bed.

She was just a minia, too. The natural laws of age caused even the unbending axle to bend.

“I-it is, okay!” The small orb jumped. “I, I won’t let, you die, Mama!”

Mestelexil was desperately trying to help save Kiyazuna.

It also seemed like this atrocious weapon of destruction, in this sole regard, was acting out of regret and guilt.

When Mestelexil created this treatment room, Kaete had actually needed to curb Mestelexil’s chaotic conduct in treating her.

Mestelexil attempted to use various doses of medicine, or mechanical joints, but many among them would have clearly killed someone in the process. Mestelexil knew countless methods of taking life but knew almost none of the means to save one.

Once I can get back my real power in Aureatia, I can easily draw in a doctor or two who can keep strict secrecy… You just have to hold out till then, Grams.

He couldn’t let Aureatia try to finish off Kiyazuna in her weakened state. If they could endure just a bit longer, victory was theirs. They had even managed to take back Mestelexil themselves.

“I had Mestelexil investigate, and the feeling I got was that I’m highly likely to be reinstated. I’ll prop Mestelexil up as a hero candidate once more, win out in the end, and grab all the power and authority now that Rosclay’s gone…! Hmph… Those Aureatian imbeciles believe I’ve tossed aside my ambitions and don’t doubt me at all.”

“They’re definitely gonna see through that…”

Kaete himself was confident in his brilliant acting performance, but even assuming that he wasn’t able to appeal to their emotions, the factors for them to be accepted once more were already set up on Aureatia’s side of things.

Since the Beyond weaponry seized from Kaete’s camp had been widely used in the grand coup, Aureatia now needed to put together their strategy and tactics from here on out under the assumption such weapons would be used against them. To Aureatia, with Rosclay defeated and lacking management ability, the highly capable Kaete and his knowledge of Beyond weaponry was bound to be a talent they were itching to get their hands on.

Mestelexil was as a piece of antihero candidate fighting power. The request to be reinstated with Hidow the Clamp already served as precedent. He had turned himself in precisely because the situation left him with many excuses that were beneficial to the other party.

“What a disappointment. I didn’t even need to use this, either.”

Kaete took out three thin vials from inside his coat.

A drug that was worth its weight in gold—especially in Aureatia’s current state of affairs.

“Huh?! B-but it was, so hard to, make!”

“It won’t go to waste. When this antiserum becomes vital to them all, we’ll be able to browbeat them into paying a high price for it.”

It was the sole means to protect against a vampire’s viral pathogen, that could only be produced from the bone marrow of a dhampir. Mestelexil’s Life Arts, capable of creating life itself, were capable of analyzing the extremely rare medicine and mass-producing it.

Even after surrendering to Aureatia, and forcing himself to plead with power, Kaete’s group still had the advantage.

This present was only possible because he hadn’t given up, even after all the conclusions had been made.

“As if I’d throw away my ambitions. Me? Kaete the Round Table…? Like hell I’m giving up!”

The bedridden Kiyazuna answered Kaete’s declaration with a wicked smile of her own.