The Hero King, Reincarnate to Master the Art of War (LN) - Volume 11 - Chapter 5.1

Chapter V: Inglis, Age 16—Far-Off Highland (10)

After the Rangers returned from Alcard, Inglis reentered the Greyfrier sarcophagus, with company this time. The memories of the space were reflected in front of them. A pair of the cylindrical devices which created hieral menaces stood side by side; inside them were Sistia and Yua. And before them stood the young man who had broken into the sarcophagus from outside.

“Wow, it really is Yua!” Ripple raised her voice in surprise.

“A look-alike?” Yua crooked her head, her expression still listless.

“No, I suspect that person is actually you,” Inglis said. Yua’s usual lackadaisical attitude was grating on her now.

“Do you remember anything like this, Yua?” Rafinha asked.

“Hmm... Nope.” Yua softly shook her head. Morris, now a tiny magicite beast perched atop her head, shook his own along with her.

“I—I see.”

“But...”

“Yes?”

“I’ve met this lady.” Yua pointed to Sistia. “She helped make Beanpole tiny.”

“So, at the battle of Ahlemin...” Inglis began.

At the battle with the birdlike Prismer that had taken place in Ahlemin, Morris had been turned into a magicite beast. She had heard that he seemed to be connected to the Steelblood Front, and that the prism powder he had been carrying reacted to the Prismer at the start of the fight, turning him into a magicite beast. Sistia had lent her aid during the battle. Still, Inglis thought Yua and Sistia must have met before then.

“Yeah. She seemed like she looked up to me,” Yua said.

“H-Huh? Sistia said something like that?”

“No... She just seemed kind of like she was trying to flatter me.”

“Flatter you?”

“Yeah. With how she talked.”

“Politely, with a lot of respect?”

“Yeah, like that.” Yua nodded insistently.

Inglis fell silent for a moment. Everything she’d observed of Sistia portrayed her as an exceptionally proud woman. She seemed to have absolute loyalty to the black-masked leader of the Steelblood Front, but Inglis couldn’t picture her bowing and scraping for anyone without a very good reason. “So...she thinks of you as an old acquaintance that she has a lot of respect for, then.”

“I didn’t really get it, but I guess so, yeah. Anyway, that has to just be a look-alike.” Yua was pushing her theory hard.

“No, I can’t see her as anyone but you. If anything, it seems more likely that you lost your prior memories due to this device that makes hieral menaces.”

Inglis had evidence to back her own theory: Charlotte, who she’d met in Illuminas, clearly resembled Liselotte, and even had her mother’s name, but didn’t appear to remember anything. A loss of memories might have been a side effect of the process of becoming a hieral menace. On the other hand, Eris, Ripple, and Arles all remembered parts of their lives from before becoming hieral menaces, so perhaps amnesia didn’t always occur.

“Ah, she fell!” Principal Miriela gasped, watching the scene unfold within the Greyfrier sarcophagus.

“I see a rainbow glow from below! Is that a Prismer?!” Ambassador Theodore raised his voice in shock.

He had joined Inglis, Rafinha, Yua, Ripple, and Principal Miriela inside the sarcophagus with the intention that he would check on Eris and Imperial Princess Meltina of Venefic before deciding whether to immediately destroy the devices and rescue them. Yua was not the main topic, but Inglis was curious about her as well, so she had invited her along.

“Judging by the circumstances, that young man may be the leader of the Steelblood Front. We may be witnessing the moment where he and Sistia met,” Inglis said. Him rescuing Sistia from Illuminas and her repaying that debt with absolute loyalty made sense.

“Perhaps.” Miriela nodded to Inglis.

Inglis didn’t wish for Yua to fall under suspicion of being one of their informants, so Inglis felt the need to speak up. “At the very least, we can establish that Yua herself is uninvolved with the Steelblood Front. After all, their paths just diverged.”

“Yes, that makes sense.” Theodore nodded in agreement.

“I don’t really think acting as their informant while using her time at school is something she could do,” Ripple said.

“Theodore, how was this accident—this incident—addressed in Illuminas?” Miriela asked.

“Each Greyfrier sarcophagus seems pretty important to Highland,” Inglis added, also eager to hear how they’d lost Sistia and Yua.

At a loss, Theodore shook his head. “Matters related to the Greyfrier sarcophagus were kept strictly between Academician Wilkin and my father—that is, the machinator. It’s the first I’ve heard of it as well.”

“It’s possible that even though Yua knew nothing, Morris kept her under close observation because he was a Steelblood Front member,” Miriela suggested.

“That is a possibility,” Inglis said. “I’d really wanted to add Yua as a hieral menace to my team, but if she doesn’t remember anything, I suppose that’s impossible...”

“Yua, can you think of—” Ripple turned to the girl, only to find that she wasn’t there. She had crept around in front of the man they thought was the black-masked leader of the Steelblood Front, and was staring at his face.

“Ooh, he’s pretty good-looking,” Yua said.

“Wow, you’re right! ♪” Rafinha had as well.

“But I still think your brother’s hotter, Little Demon.”

“Huh?” Rafinha asked. “Rafael?”

“Yeah. Huncules.”

“Ha ha ha... If I’m a demigod’s little sister, that makes me a demigod too! Yay!”

“And eventually, my little sister.” Yua clapped Rafinha on the shoulder.

“Whaaat?! B-But Rafael has to marry Chris! Right, Chris?”

“I have no intentions of getting married! Anyway, Rani, Yua, could you stop and listen?”

“Really, Chris, you should come see this.”

“It’s a sight for sore eyes, Boobies.”

Yua and Rafinha both waved Inglis over.

“Sheesh...” The conversation was going nowhere, so she decided to play along. Now that she thought of it, when she had been here alone, she hadn’t bothered to look at the face of the man she thought was the Steelblood Front’s leader. It wouldn’t hurt to do that now. Inglis circled around where the man was standing and nonchalantly looked at his face.

“Wh—?!” She felt her eyes spring open. “Wh-What the hell’s going on?! How?!” It was enough to make her forget her normal self, even her normal voice.

She knew that face well because it was her own. Not Inglis Eucus, but her previous incarnation, King Inglis.

King Inglis, but young again. It was absolutely not a case of mistaken identity. She was certain of it; that was a young King Inglis. She supposed it made sense that the black-masked man, if he had her body, was a divine knight. But she had absolutely no idea how he would completely resemble a younger version of her previous incarnation. Was this the work of Goddess Alistia, whose presence she could not feel in the current world?

“Chris? What’s up?” Rafinha reacted in surprise to Inglis’s obvious agitation.

“Huh? Well, uh, umm...” Inglis was so unsettled that she couldn’t even play it off easily.

“Wait, is he your type?”

“Huh? Er... Yeah, I guess? I’m definitely interested in him.” Inglis tried to be as vague in response as possible. Let the others keep talking.

“You are?! For real?! And you’re admitting it?!” Rafinha was flabbergasted. She covered Inglis’s eyes from behind. “Don’t look! You need to save yourself for Rafael!”

“I said I’m not getting married!”

Rafinha looked back at the scene. “Oh, Yua, Sistia, and that guy disappeared.”

“It’s because they were memories of this space...”

“There’s little Boobies,” Yua said.

The memories of the space were reflecting a recent image—of Inglis training within the Greyfrier sarcophagus. As time passed, she grew. It had felt like a long time to her, and now as everyone watched it back, it was clear that she had grown back up to her original age of sixteen.

As she did, her clothes clung tighter and tighter to her. Her sleeves shortened and her hemline rose, but most affected was her chest. As her breasts grew out again, the fabric over them tightened, then—

Rrrrip!

The shirt burst completely.

“Oh, it’s Boobies’s boobies.”

Yua’s description was not incorrect; Inglis’s chest was on full display.

“Stop it! Don’t look!” She stood in front of the vision of herself, blocking everyone else’s sight.

Watching her and the others, Miriela sighed. “We seem to have drifted off topic here.”

“Ha ha ha, you’re not wrong,” Theodore agreed. “It’s gotten quite lively.”

Inglis cleared her throat. “Ahem! In any case, since Yua doesn’t seem to remember anything about this, I’d like to talk to the leader of the Steelblood Front and Sistia.”

The last time they met was on the battlefield at Ahlemin, during the fight with the rime-bound Prismer. With their foe a Prismer, they had joined forces against a shared enemy, but Inglis wasn’t sure they could meet on friendly terms this time.

“Yes,” Theodore agreed. “Even beyond that, the refugees from Illuminas will be living in Karelia. We want them to live in peace, so it wouldn’t do for them to be attacked by the Steelblood Front as Cyrene was.”

He was right. Myce and the other Highlander refugees from Illuminas would be remaining on the surface. Illuminas itself remained immobile in the center of Lake Bolt after its crash landing, and it was only natural that those who had cast their lot with it to want to remain there.

With the machinator, the core of the island, still silent, his son and presumed successor, Ambassador Theodore, would act in his stead. This was a second reason for them to stay on the surface. As Illuminas rebuilt, and relied on Karelia for food and other supplies, it would in turn pay that debt back in Artifact and Flygear technology. It was a win-win situation.

Inglis wondered whether the two cultures coexisting on the surface would become a noteworthy precedent for others to follow, rather than one being above and the other below. Theodore, along with Myce and the other people of Illuminas, had already been exceptionally accommodating among Highlanders, seeking favorable relations with surface countries. If they could not be coexisted with, how could other Highland factions? Instead, it was better to create a successful example for the other Highlanders by showing Myce and the others living peacefully on the surface—and for that, Theodore knew, interference from an anti-Highland organization like the Steelblood Front could not be allowed.

“Perhaps we negotiate with the Steelbloods?” Inglis suggested.

“If possible. They joined forces with us recently, at the battle with the Prismer. I believe they may be willing to listen. Though I do, personally, have my reservations,” Theodore said.

That made sense. His little sister, Cyrene, had been turned into a magicite beast by the Steelblood Front, and of course that still weighed on him.

“I think that’s a good idea! I’m in full agreement! That’s how we let Myce and everyone have a happy life in Karelia!” Rafinha smiled encouragingly at Theodore.

“Why, thank you, Rafinha! You saying so reassures me that I’ve made the correct choice.” Theodore returned a pleased smile.

“Ah, er...! I don’t, I mean... I just want to show Myce my hometown, and I want this to be a world where we can have fun together without worrying.”

“That’s a wonderful idea. I’d love to join in as well. I believe it would be a chance to broaden my horizons.”

“Of course...!”

Inglis nimbly inserted herself between Rafinha and Theodore. “But even if we’d prefer to negotiate, we have no idea where the Steelblood Front’s headquarters is, nor do we know of their situation.” She couldn’t let her guard down, couldn’t let Theodore and Rafinha grow closer than necessary. Just as Rafinha insisted that Inglis should marry Rafael, Inglis insisted that Rafinha was too young for romance. Far too young.

“Whoa?! Hey, what are you doing, Chris? I can’t see!”

“Don’t worry about it. And there’s nothing for you to see anyway.”

Theodore nodded in agreement with Inglis’s statement about the Steelblood Front. “Well, that’s certainly true... We may have to wait for our opportunity.”

“Until recently, the knightly orders and the knights’ academy were full of informants, but they were all turned into magicite beasts at the battle of Ahlemin...” Miriela noted, her brow furrowed.

The prism powder carried by Steelblood Front members had reacted violently, and Morris and the others scattered around the battlefield at Ahlemin had been transformed into magicite beasts almost immediately.

“It’s ironic. The Prismer flushed out the infiltrators, even eliminated them for us, but...” Ripple’s read on the situation was correct.

“It’s possible that there will be new infiltration attempts, but if we try to find them ourselves and make them cough up the location of their headquarters, that would probably just harden their hostility,” Inglis said.

Plus, they were an anti-Highland organization. Overlooking Myce and the other Highlanders would go against their core goals. Even if the black-masked man would agree, his subordinates might not. What exactly would develop from that situation would depend on the moves of its players, but it would quite possibly lead Inglis and friends toward moves to suppress the Steelblood Front.

“Yes, that’s right. Even though our goal is to negotiate peacefully, that wouldn’t be helpful,” Theodore said.

“So to sum it up, our best move might simply be to come down hard on any attempts of theirs to target the Highlanders of Illuminas,” Inglis suggested.

“That’s certainly not my preferred method, but...” Theodore began.

“Well, I’d prefer that they simply stay quiet...” Miriela said.

Both of them frowned worriedly.

“In any case, I’ll do my utmost to guard the Highlanders of Illuminas,” Inglis said.

“Excellent, thank you,” Theodore said.

“Well... After all, I would like to meet the leader of the Steelblood Front again.”

Rafinha gave Inglis a stare in response to that answer.

“Wh-What, Rani?”

“You just want to meet him because you think he’s your type, don’t you?! Not allowed!”

“No, wait, it’s not like that!”

“So it’s because you want to fight him again?”

“Y-Yeah! Of course!”

“Well, I guess if it’s just for that, it’s okay...”

Honestly, even that was only a half-truth, Inglis thought. He was, of course, one of the strongest people she knew. He was remarkable; she wanted the opportunity to spar with him anytime, all the time. But if he really did have the body of young King Inglis, there was so much she wanted to ask him. The fighting could come after the questions.

“Let’s go farther in. Eris and Princess Meltina are there,” she said.

As they advanced farther into the Greyfrier sarcophagus, they encountered a line of the devices—the ones that they had seen Yua and Sistia in earlier.

“Oh, these are the real ones.” Yua patted one of them.

“But it’s empty.” Rafinha patted another.

There were many—dozens, it seemed—but most were empty. Not all, though.

“There’s something in this one,” Yua said.

“Which one...? Eeeeeek! I-It’s a skeleton?!” Rafinha shrieked in shock.

“I guess if things hadn’t gone well with me, I’d have ended up like that.” A conflicted expression washed over Ripple’s face as she looked inside.

“These days, we can determine the success rates of hieral menace candidates ahead of time so that we can avoid dangerous cases. However, in the past this was done in a rather more haphazard manner,” Theodore said. “This was one of Chief Academician Wilkin’s achievements.”

“So...he wasn’t all bad,” Rafinha said. “He was worried about Wilma, and knowing the risks in advance means fewer people would lose their lives.”

“His face looking like Evel’s colored your view of him,” Inglis noted.

“I guess so... I need to think about that a bit.” Rafinha sighed.

“But that doesn’t mean he wasn’t bad at all. He let in adversaries to destroy Illuminas, and Theodore’s father, the machinator, fell silent.”

“Oh, right, that’s right! I’m sorry, I didn’t...” Rafinha hung her head at Theodore.

“No, it’s all right. Your sensibilities are as pure as they are correct—if you feel that way, that’s fine.” Theodore was genial to a fault.

“No, I just, uh... I’m still such a little kid, just saying whatever comes to mind.”

This was a disturbing atmosphere indeed for Inglis, who then stood in front of Theodore, blocking the pair’s sight of each other. Clearing her throat, she changed the topic. “In any case, shall we remove the skeletons from here and give them a proper burial? I didn’t have time to do so when I was here recently. I believe that would make both Ripple and Eris feel better.”

“Yes, of course. An excellent idea,” Theodore responded with a nod.

“Inglis! Thanks.” Ripple smiled happily, her ears and tail twitching in joy.

“With everything you, Eris, and Miss Arles have done for me, it’s the least I can do.”

As they spoke, a section of the devices containing people came into view. One held Eris; the other, Imperial Princess Meltina of Venefic.

“Eris! Thank goodness, you’re still okay!” Ripple rushed to the device containing Eris. Inside, she floated unconscious, her eyes closed, in some kind of liquid.

“And this must be Princess Meltina from Venefic,” Miriela said, looking at the neighboring device.

“I was at a loss for what to do, so... Please,” Inglis prompted Theodore. She had occasionally checked in on Eris and Meltina during her years of training in the Greyfrier sarcophagus. She’d never noticed anything unusual, so she had left them as they were. Her plan was to have Theodore assess the situation, while she watched and learned about Highland technology.

“Yes, understood.” Theodore nodded and reached his hand toward a control panel attached to one of the devices.