Ishura - Volume 9 - Chapter 8.1

Chapter 8 - Sixth Borough of Aureatia's Norhern Outer Ward

An Outer Ward, situated in the Aureatian borderland, was lined with shops and inns.

The townscape seemed to melt between the thickly forested mountain and canal. While in the era of the Central Kingdom the district had gathered many tourists visiting its plentiful hot springs, it had lost its former prosperity, and more than a few inns were now nothing but empty buildings.

At the foot of the mountain, there were a few inns that had fallen to ruin that even the residents of the region weren’t fully aware of.

It was in one example of these ruins…

“So, basically… Ta-daaaah! This is Uhak the Silent!”

“Wh-whaaat…?”

Kia the World Word was at a loss for words. Tu the Magic, having run off claiming she was going to rescue the people caught up in the Kadan Third District labyrinth, had returned with a massive, mysterious ogre in tow.

“Are you crazy…? Why’d you bring someone like him back…? Tu, you might not know otherwise, but he’s totally just an ogre.”

“Well, yeah, sure, Uhak’s an ogre! But he made a promise with me and protected me! Also, Ku—er…um…an older guy I know? He said he was harmless, so it’s okay!”

“That’s basically a total stranger!”

For the past two big months, Kia the World Word and Tu the Magic had been traveling together due to their shared circumstances.

Their encounter had only happened by chance, but they were both being hounded by Aureatia. They were both former hero candidates, and they both wanted to meet with Queen Sephite. Tu was moved by the coincidence and immediately grew attached to Kia, and while Kia had been annoyed by it all, she just couldn’t bring herself to be mean to Tu.

When Kia learned Tu had gone off alone to the hyphal labyrinth, she had been very anxious, but apparently the Aureatia army was so intent on capturing Tu they didn’t even attempt to fight her at all.

Although Tu’s explanation had been basically pointless, from what Kia struggled to interpret from it all, it sounded like Uhak was meant to be used as the Aureatia army’s trump card, but actually cooperated with Tu, and as a result, they successfully arrived at the Northern Outer Ward without worrying about anyone tailing them.

Is Aureatia just stupid…? What did they even expect to accomplish with some ogre who’s just got size and nothing else…?

It didn’t seem like a strike from the ogre would even leave a scratch on Tu.

Kia came to understand it immediately after they began to travel together, but Tu the Magic’s physical abilities and tenacity were abnormal.

It had been Tu herself who first told Kia she was a hero candidate like Kia.

Under the pretext of preserving the fairness of the royal games, the pictures or likenesses of the hero candidates weren’t officially circulated by the Aureatian government, with the only ones on the market being unauthorized versions from the merchant guilds. As such, when excluding the most famous participants like Rosclay, Mele, and Lucnoca, very often children like Kia or citizens without a vested interested in all the candidates did not to have an accurate grasp of all the names and faces of the candidates.

“And those clothes you’re in! Did you strip down again?! You look like an Aureatian soldier in that getup, honestly…”

“I-I couldn’t help it! Just being inside that labyrinth made them all tattered and stuff… I didn’t get them caught somewhere and tear them off like I always do…”

“‘Like I always do’? See, you admit it!”

Kia resignedly decided to make a change of clothes for Tu.

That said, all it involved was saying a single word in the air.

“Weave.”

From nothing, fibers were sewn together, and a set of clothes in Tu’s exact size was created on the spot.

“Thanks, Kia!”

“Listen, using my Word Arts for this sort of nonsense is not… Hey, Uhak! Look the other way! Do you really need me to tell you that?!”

“Ah-hah-hah, it’s fine, Kia, he’s an ogre…”

“Don’t toss your old clothes on the floor! How many times do I have tell you?!”

Kia was mostly a child herself, but Tu the Magic was even more of a childish handful.

When she had been living by herself, Kia had solved everything with her Word Arts and hadn’t dealt with any hardships whatsoever. However, since she started living with Tu, she now had to look out for not just her own well-being but Tu’s as well. Tu was like a big and tall younger sister.

Would they really be able to get through to Sephite like this?

“Hey, Kia! I was thinking that Iznock Royal High School’s really gotta be the best way to meet with Sephite…”

“Well, I already tried that myself and know it’s not going to work. Sephite is talking time off from school until the Sixways Exhibition’s over and might not ever go back, honestly. Once they decide a Hero, she’s gonna get busy with her Queen job and not have time to play with friends, right? Not like I know or anything. She’s got plenty of personal tutors at the palace, so she can study there just fine…”

“Oh wow, you already tried that? How’d you get in?”

“I mean, I just made myself invisible.”

Masking her figure and sounds to flee the wanted search for her, Kia had used the same method to infiltrate Iznock Royal High School. She wasn’t guaranteed to conveniently be in a spot where someone was openly discussing the Queen, so it had been a very inefficient investigation and had taken her quite a long time.

She slept and lived at the school for about a full small month.

“That’s amazing… You can do that sorta stuff, too? Then, why don’t use that to get into the royal palace, too?”

“Mhm… I mean, I’m thinking about it…”

Kia nodded ambiguously.

Directly marching into the royal palace—she had resolved to do that exact thing many times but could never go through it.

Kia was a wanted criminal to Aureatia. If she was going to talk with Sephite, there was a chance Sephite might not hear her out if she didn’t go through proper procedure to meet with her.

However, now she had a different fear.

It’s probably too late to start worrying about this stuff.

The flames of Alus’s attack hadn’t been the end of it. Ultimately, war had broken out in the Aureatian streets.

At the time, Kia acted without giving a second thought to what would happen after. Witnessing so much death and fear in front of her, she felt that she had to get Queen Sephite to stop the fighting immediately. She wanted to make her promise they’d stop not just the ongoing war, but any battles down the line from happening, too.

Kia the World Word may have already been seen as an enemy of Aureatia for raiding the royal palace grounds. In which case, wouldn’t it all end up the same even if she suddenly appeared in front of Queen Sephite and made her hear Kia out? Since, ultimately, that had been what she was trying to do when she headed to the royal palace.

“Kia? If you don’t wanna, you don’t have to force yourself.”

“I never said I didn’t, okay…”

“We’ll figure out the best way to go about it, no need to hurry. We could even wait until the whole Sixways Exhibition is over.”

“…Yeah.”

“Sorry for saying a bunch of dumb stuff about meeting Sephite. Eh-heh-heh, I’m just not too smart and let some weird stuff slip out… Don’t let it bug you.”

“…Of course not, like I’d ever let something you said bug me anyway. How about you go take a bath?”

While she didn’t want to admit it, traveling and chatting with Tu like this served as some measure of comfort for Kia. When she was all on her own living in hiding, she felt like she would eventually go crazy without having anyone to talk to.

I need to meet with Sephite.

There were other reasons why she was being spurred on by her impatience.

While the Sixways Exhibition was ongoing, Aureatia wasn’t likely to invade Eta Sylvan Province. Still, Elea the Red Tag was surely suffering while Kia hesitated.

I need to set Elea free. I can’t let her feel the same stuff I’ve been through.

Elea was likely being held captive somewhere in Aureatia. That was what Kia believed.

She still remained totally separated from Elea after the fourth match.

Back then, Elea hadn’t run away, but actually let Kia escape. Kia was immature and confused and hadn’t been able to fully realize Elea’s act of self-sacrifice.

This time, I need to be the one to save Elea.

Elea was different from Kia. Kia would someday be able to return to her homeland in Eta. However, for Elea, Aureatia itself was her home. Simply releasing her through force would mean that her one and only home, and the position she had desperately fought so hard to build for herself, would get stolen from her. She would be hounded as a criminal, and Elea would have solitude forced on her.

Kia needed to find a way to exonerate Elea.

The best method to do so was convincing Sephite, the highest authority in Aureatia, but in order to make sure Sephite understood the truth to Kia’s claims, she had to use improper means to actually meet with Sephite, and…

My head’s going in circles…and I can’t figure out what I’m supposed to do at all…! If only I was clever like Elea, I wouldn’t be so stuck like this. I wouldn’t need to have these scary thoughts…and work so hard to stop myself from doing anything!

Never finding the answer wasn’t what terrified Kia.

She was terrified that she eventually might solve a problem she could’ve found the answer to, forcefully,

If she truly wished for it, she could do it.

She simply had to systematically subordinate all the important people in charge of Aureatia, reconstruct their way of thinking, and make them listen to any demand Kia made of them. Simply make them forget all about Eta, erase the wrongs levied against Elea and Kia, and then return everything back to how it was, as if nothing ever happened.

Kia found it terrifying. As of this moment, she was still able to think of it that way, too.

If she was still all alone, would this fear have grown unbearable as well?

“Whoa, Uhak, you can cook?! Wooow, I wanna see!”

Tu’s voice echoed from farther down the wooden corridor.

Kia finally stood herself up and noticed that the coat Tu left lying on the ground had been neatly folded up.

Had Uhak seriously done something like that for her while Kia and Tu were talking?

What a weird ogre…

Puzzling as she left the room, Kia headed toward the kitchen.

As she advanced down the hallway, the smell of simmered potatoes and butter grew stronger.

At some point or another, Uhak had put a pot on the stove.

The firewood-lit fire showed signs of having been started by hand. Kia was surprised he’d waste time on something so onerous.