Chapter Two: The Authentic and the Inauthentic
“Tomorrow I was supposed to have my qualification exam for an advanced composite spirit staff,” Lucia muttered from the seat in front of me.
The respect that came with being a high-level hunter allowed our carriage to pass inspections and get out on the road quickly. Only a few hours had elapsed since I had met with the Abyssal Inferno, and I didn’t think even she would expect me to act this quickly.
Outside, I could hear the thunderous stomping of Ansem running alongside the carriage. He was good at reducing the sound of his footfalls, but there was only so much you could do when you were that heavy. With him at our side, most monsters would steer clear of us. Even supposedly fearless phantoms would run at the sight of us.
I finally let myself relax a bit. It felt like every recent trip I had taken had flown by so quickly. Eva’s coordination skills weren’t to be underestimated. It seemed like things worked out whenever I asked her to do something.
But was it really okay for us to just take the imperial princess with us? She had only come to the clan house to talk. Sure, I had already talked to the emperor about further training, but we hadn’t settled on a date.
The imperial princess and her two companions had been oddly willing to endure running alongside the carriage. It seemed the emperor had been telling the truth when he said that Murina had become more enthusiastic about training.
“Why were you arranging things like that right before the tournament?” I asked.
“You’re! The one! Who suddenly brought up the tournament! Augh!”
Maybe because it was just the two of us in the carriage, she acted without her usual restraint.
“And I’ve also missed the lecture I was supposed to attend in exchange for being allowed to participate. Oh, what’s my mentor going to say? You really need to give me more advance notice! Like now, you just suddenly said we’re—”
“Yeah, uh-huh.”
“For heaven’s sake, listen to me!”
Hmm. So my brushing-off methods don’t work? I knew you wouldn’t be that easy.
“Everyone has plans!” she continued. “Luke was supposed to kill a dragon tomorrow to pay for his entry ticket. Siddy and Liz also...”
Wait. Should he really be here then?
Luke and the other members of his school were regularly asked to exterminate dangerous creatures. The reason he got away with cutting so many people was that he had cut slightly more monsters than humans. If he had such an important commitment, he could’ve just met up with us later. That’s what Eva and the other clan members planned to do.
“You guys give me too much priority,” I told her. “I’ll be fine as long as you’re with me.”
“For heaven’s sake!”
Don’t gripe. I need you. Someone has to charge my Relics.
“Likewise, I was forced to shove off, I mean entrust a scheduled experiment to Talia,” Sitri said from the driver’s seat. She was there because she had lost at rock paper scissors. “Though I suppose that’s fine. My work there isn’t the center of my focus right now. I’d hate it if my current project were to be interrupted, but I suppose I can continue it in Kreat.”
It sounded like everyone was busy. They sure had their priorities mixed up. They should’ve been aware that my invitation was a spur-of-the-moment thing. So why had they been so willing to accept it? But I wasn’t going to apologize, because I didn’t think they wanted that. It was gratitude they were hoping for.
“Come to think of it, where’s Eliza?” I asked.
“Mmm. Liz said she spotted her earlier today.”
Eliza went where she pleased. At least it sounded like she was doing fine.
I yawned and enjoyed the tranquility. I was in the clear until I returned to the imperial capital after the Supreme Warrior Festival. Maybe I would just stay in another town until everything subsided. But then something occurred to me.
They might follow me. They would, wouldn’t they? Arnold did it. Why wouldn’t Gark and the Abyssal Inferno try the same thing?
I had been assuming I’d be safe once I got away from the imperial capital. Not only that, I had forgotten to make sure Eva kept her lips sealed. This was bad. And to make matters worse, I didn’t like what I was hearing outside.
“Run faster!” Liz shouted. “Don’t drag your feet, princess!”
“While we’re at it, why not do some combat training?” Luke said with a roar.
The imperial princess didn’t even cry out.
After a few hours of travel, right when I was starting to get used to the clamor outside, a familiar repugnant smell was carried in by the breeze. Lucia closed her book and stuck her head out the window.
I looked outside and saw it immediately. Far off in the direction we were heading, a town was burning. Pillars of black smoke rose from the ground.
“A jab! Give me a jab!” I heard Luke yelling.
“What nice scenery,” I muttered.
“I gave up on a chance to fight a dragon to be here!”
You didn’t give it up, you’re shirking it!
“More than a dragon! Give something better than a dragon! C’mon! Give me a dragon that can use a sword!”
“C’mon, princess! It’s time for a real battle!”
Liz sounded awfully happy to have a new plaything.
It’s over. Please forgive me, god.
The footfalls began to fade. It seemed they were going on ahead. Without saying anything, Lucia grabbed her staff and exited the carriage. Very reliable, my little sister.
“So why’s this place burning?” I wondered aloud.
“You’re just always picking places that are on fire,” she grumbled.
Preposterous.
“For now, let’s start with putting that out,” Lucia said as the bracelets on her wrists began to glow. Clouds gathered in the sky, and rain soon pounded against the land. The tempest, however, avoided her.
“These are incredible,” she said, looking at her bracelets with astonishment. “With Hydrogod’s Grace, maybe I have a shot at victory?”
I looked out at the town gates and saw the fire had been taken care of. Lucia had evidently improved. She returned to the carriage and put on our party’s symbol, the smiling skull mask. Sitri poked her head and I saw that she had also put on her mask at some point.
“Krai, we’re entering the town. Your mask.”
“Mmm. Right.”
They might have been used to wearing their masks regularly, but I wasn’t, so it had slipped my mind. I didn’t like being blinded, but if someone saw my face, the results could be even more troublesome.
Looking back on it, making our symbol something that hid our faces had been a great decision. It would’ve been downright brilliant if I hadn’t forgotten about the eyeholes. With a sigh, I fished around in my luggage. My eyes flew open. I had forgotten my mask.
Well, this is no good. I’m only our party’s leader.
For some reason, all I had was the mask that had been dropped by the phantom in Peregrine Lodge. Without any other options, I put it on.
“How’s it look?” I asked Lucia.
“Why are you wearing that mask? It’s incredibly odd!”
“But it looks nicer than the other mask.”
“Aren’t you the one who designed it?!”
She was quite right about that.
“Can you see out of that?” she asked.
“Of course not. There are no eyeholes.”
Lucia let out a deep sigh. However, I had a special solution prepared. I removed my mask and searched through my Relics. I found what I was looking for—a pendant. It was designed like an eye and attached to a silver chain. This was Third Vision, the latest in my collection. With this, I could see even if both my eyes were closed! Now I no longer needed to hold Sitri or Lucia’s hand while walking with a mask on! (It had cost one hundred and fifty million gild.)
I put the pendant around my neck, then the mask over my face. Despite my eyes being blocked off, I could somehow still see. It was a strange sensation, but it was better than not being able to see at all. I hope nobody thinks I was incapable of improvement.
I turned around towards Lucia and saw her quickly retract her outstretched hand.
While filling out the paperwork to enter the town, Sitri also managed to gather some information.
“After asking around, it appears people were the cause,” she informed me.
“People, huh?”
Maybe this was the influence of all my recent bad experiences, but I thought that was a lot better than phantoms or dragons.
“They said some bandits had hidden themselves among a group of travelers, then simultaneously sprang into action. Apparently, it was a coordinated operation, and had been carried out by a fair number of people. But it seems their plans weren’t entirely thought through.”
I couldn’t tell how Sitri felt about it, but this town was a lot bigger than that hot spring town we had been to. If these guys had been able to carry an attack, maybe they were bigger than the bandit squad that had attacked Suls. I just hoped the rest of my friends would come back soon. Except I had no idea where they had gone off to.
“With so many treasure hunters around, they were certain to fail,” Sitri continued. “If they had enough people to set the town afire, surely they could’ve put them to better use. What a waste.”
“The way they set those fires suggests that harming people wasn’t the main purpose,” Lucia added.
“Indeed. It seemed to be an organized effort, but their methods were so unrefined.”
“Yeah, uh-huh,” I chimed in.
Those two seemed quite used to exchanging opinions like this.
Rain was still falling, but Lucia’s magic prevented us from getting wet. While keeping a low profile, I kept an eye out for my friends. Then I heard a loud crash from the street ahead of us. I shivered. Sitri stopped.
“Scram, rats!” a voice boomed like thunder. “No coward’s gonna stop Hanneman the Iron Arm!”
Goodness.
With an earsplitting rumble, the ground shook. The paved stones broke apart and flipped over. At the center of it was a man about sixty percent of Ansem’s size. He grasped a metal pole about two meters long and thicker than my arm. “Pillar” would probably be a more appropriate word to describe it. He was swinging it around like a stick, but it had to be too heavy for me to even lift it.
The large man was immediately surrounded by guards and hunters, but he blew them away with a single swing.
Ah. That must be one of the bandits.
“Iron Arm,” Sitri repeated. “That must be self-proclaimed, nobody has that title.”
“Like how Luke used to call himself the Testament Blade,” Lucia said.
“I believe he still calls himself that.”
I wondered what the self-proclaimed Iron Arm’s problem was as he stopped a few meters in front of us and began demolishing a building with his pillar. It seemed like he had been running from something, but now he had come to a stop for no apparent reason.
He hadn’t seen us, but it was only a matter of time before we would be spotted. And experience had taught me that nothing good would come from that. It was only natural. Who wouldn’t attack people in suspicious masks like ours? The smiling skull design had invited a number of assailants over the years. Who even came up with that creepy design?
“C’mon, c’mon, c’mon! Face me, you pip-squeaks! Nobody can stand up to Hanneman!”
So is it fair to blame the town guards for mistaking this guy for a traveler? And why’s he announcing his name while going on a rampage?
Good grief. If Lucia and Sitri hadn’t been with me, I would’ve just run away.
The guards decided that taking the Iron Arm head-on was a bad idea, so they began to slowly encircle him. Why were they so obvious about it? Why did Luke still call himself the Testament Blade? As these thoughts crossed my mind, a blinding light enveloped the man. With his pillar still in his hands, the Iron Arm flew through the air and landed not far from where we were hiding.
The guards’ expressions were still. Lucia stepped out in front of me. I heard light footsteps amid the rain and turned in their direction. I saw a tall young man with a black mantle and an awe-inspiring staff. Unaffected by the rain, he stood with the calm bearing of a monarch. I couldn’t help but gasp.
But what stood out the most was on his face.
“That mask...”
It was a skull mask. It looked like the ones used by Grieving Souls, but its tasteful design lent it a far different impression. Not to mention it actually had eyeholes. Honestly, I was pretty jealous when I saw it.
The man hit the ground with the bottom of his staff, and announced in a voice that carried even through the rain, “Is that all you’ve got, Iron Arm? I doubt you can still hear me, but I’ll say it anyway. My name is Krahi Andrihee! The Thousandfold Theurgics and leader of Bereaving Souls!”
Everyone was stunned. He had the might to strike down that large man with a single blow. He had unshakable charisma born of his regal demeanor. The guards began to whisper to each other.
“Is that really him? The lead Soul that all those rumors are about?”
“They say he’s the strongest man in the imperial capital and that he almost never leaves the shadows.”
“What’s he doing here? Is that really him?!”
“They say the Protean something or other appeared earlier as well.”
I held my breath, unable to stop myself from being swept up in their fervor.
“That’s the real Thousandfold Theurgics?!” I cried before I could stop myself. “That’s a sweet mask!”
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