SIDE:
The Captain and the Guild Master, Part 2
VILLAGE WATCH CAPTAIN APPAS’S PERSPECTIVE
“IS IT OKAY FOR ME to know about this?” Uliga gave me a wary look. Was it okay for him to know? I wasn’t sure, but we were already right in the thick of a big summoning circle plot orchestrated by the church.
“Don’t you think that ship has sailed?”
Uliga clutched his head and groaned. I wasn’t surprised—this was the same guy who always suspected what I was up to and had become an expert in avoiding getting involved. Not sure how to put it…
“Sorry for your loss?”
“Thanks. I’m beyond pissed off.”
Hey, watch your mouth. Technically, I’m your senior. Well…title-wise, we’re equals, though.
“The connection between the royal family and the church goes way back—for centuries, as far as I know. Search high and low and you won’t find out how their connection got started, but the royal family has been trying to take power away from the church while the church has been trying to take everything away from the royal family. We thought it was just your typical power struggle for a while, but turns out it goes deeper than that.”
“And they just whisk us up into their big conspiracy,” Uliga sighed. “Well, if it’s not a power struggle, then what is it? And what do summoning circles have to do with it?”
Ooh, so he’s all in? I looked at Uliga…and when I saw the anguished look on his face, I couldn’t help but grin.
“Stop smiling. Pisses me off.”
Well, I can’t help it! I’m just excited to finally have somebody I can confide in.
“I don’t know how many years ago this happened, but the church bastards tried to use a summoning circle to brainwash the king’s little brother into murdering him. The catch is, this story has a lot of holes in it. I couldn’t do enough research to find out if it’s true or not. And the higher-ups made me drop the case halfway. The fact that they made me quit makes me think it’s at least partially true.”
That was sure a sticky situation! I’d really been terrified they’d disappear me if I stuck my nose where they didn’t want it.
“So the church brought summoning circles back into play?”
I shook my head. “We don’t know anything about that. Considering the experiments they were doing on Hataka, it’s possible. But then, the royal family is also heavily involved with summoning circles.”
“They are?”
“Yeah. Long ago, I found a summoning circle under the castle. It was quite old, to boot. It was so big I could hardly see the entire thing, and I remember it used some very complex glyphs. I might’ve learned something about that summoning circle if I could’ve looked at it just a little longer, but somebody almost caught me and I had to hightail it out of there.”
“You ran away?”
“Yep, and I almost didn’t make it.” If I had been just ten seconds slower, they would’ve found and disposed of me. “I tried casually strolling down there again, but they’d amped up security and it felt risky, so I gave up. The thing is—there is a summoning circle under the castle, so the royal family must have a connection with the things.”
I wished I could have seen it just once more. It looked old, but it was very beautiful.
“Appas…I’m surprised you’re even still alive.”
“Ha ha ha ha! I’m just lucky. When I was younger, I couldn’t resist the urge to play detective.”
As I laughed, I heard the loudest sigh of my life blow in my ear. “So? What do we do now?”
“If it were just a summoning circle, that would be one thing. But now that the church is involved, the crown will give out royal orders.”
“Ah… What a pain in the ass.”
Exactly. Once the crown issued royal orders, that made everything more difficult. Our current king was sharp as a razor, so Uliga and I had to coordinate very carefully what we would tell him.
“Think we’ll be able to keep our little friends a secret?”
“Oh, don’t worry about them. If a cursed contract is broken, whoever told the secret, whoever heard the secret, and whoever commanded it are all cursed. Unless our king is a fool, he would never go out of his way to be cursed.”
Cursed contracts are terrifyingly powerful things.
“Why do you think Zinal and his men used that kind of contract anyway?”
That question was nagging at my mind as well. It was already odd that they happened to be carrying so many sheets with them in the first place, but I was very curious as to why they had used cursed contracts without hesitation. I’d heard that they were in Hataka to celebrate Zinal’s son being promoted to elite adventurer—but was that even true? Something didn’t add up.
“Thinking about Zinal?” Uliga asked as he took a sip of tea.
I nodded. “Nothing came up when you ran his name, right?”
“Nothing suspicious, no,” Uliga gave me the same answer as he did before.
“Yes, I guess nothing would.”
“Appas, why did you believe my answer so easily? You usually have your doubts, even when I look something up for you.”
“Aghhh…”
“What? Just say it.”
“It’s just… Ivy said, ‘Zinal and his men are safe.’ Ha ha ha! I just kinda believed her for some reason.”
I mean, how couldn’t I, when she looked me so earnestly in the eye and said it? Uliga seemed satisfied with my answer, however.
“What is Ivy’s deal, anyway? I feel like there’s a power behind her words.”
“Well, one thing’s for sure: She’s not just a cute little girl. Not only is she mature beyond her years, she has sharp judgment, too. Sometimes she looks her age, but there’s something…off about her. The thing is, I don’t think she’s an enemy.”
It was a strange sensation. Something felt very off about her. Ordinarily, I’d be suspicious of a person like that—even if they saved my life. But not an ounce of suspicion surfaced when I thought of Ivy.
“One thing I do know, though, is I don’t want the royal family or those church freaks to know about her. I’d rather die.”
Ivy had no idea just what incredible powers she possessed. She had some extremely rare and valuable slimes in her service, and she had the help of an adandara—a monster legendary even among elite-level creatures. She had a keen sense of judgment and knew when she needed to be on guard, and yet, for some reason, she hadn’t noticed that she herself was incredibly powerful. The mystery of it all tormented me, but if I asked her about it, she wouldn’t understand what I was talking about. From the look of Druid, he must have issued her all sorts of warnings over their time together. And she understood these warnings on a linguistic level, but she didn’t grasp the true meaning behind them. It was the sort of thing that she simply couldn’t understand until she noticed it for herself.
“It’s bizarre that she shows people all her cards so easily,” Uliga said.
I smiled cynically. The way she spoke so openly about her slimes and her adandara made us more uncomfortable than her.
“Well, I don’t think telling her will convince her of anything, but I’ll try to give her some advice next time I see her.”
“And I imagine she’ll act like she understands.”
Of course she will. She always acts like she gets what we’re saying, but that’s all it is—an act.
“Wait—what were we talking about before?” I asked.
“Hm? Oh… Oh, right, we were wondering if we could trust Zinal.”
Ah, yes. That’s what it was.
“Maybe we should have another talk with Zinal, just in case?”
Uliga was right. We needed to know what they were really doing in Hataka, whether it was actually to see his son or not.
“Appas, how much do you think we should tell Ivy and Druid? I think they’re at my house right now.”
“Good question…”
In my heart of hearts, I didn’t want to get them any more involved than they already were, but that was wrong of me. There was a church in every town and every village. We could advise Ivy and Druid to stay away from the church…but they’d demand an explanation. So we should just tell them the whole story…which was actually impossible. There was still so much even I didn’t know.
“Uliga, tell them everything you can. I’ll talk to someone on the royal side and get some info from them.”
“Will you be okay?”
“I’ll manage. I want to tell Druid and Ivy everything before they leave this village.”
Okay, how should I get the information out? Maybe I’ll casually drop some questions to the people I was looking into summoning circles with. Then I’ll ask the people who make a living off their work under the table…
“Don’t do anything too dangerous,” Uliga said flatly.
“Er… A little danger should be okay. I can adjust as I go.”
I used to get cocky and put myself in danger, but now that I had years of experience behind me, I’d learned how to judge from a person’s face just when I needed to back off. Now would be a great time to make use of that skill.
“Appas…you look like you’re enjoying this. That’s the same smile you had the day you became captain of the watch.”
“Really?”
“Yeah. You make that smile when you’re scheming something wicked.”
It wasn’t exactly wicked. I was just gonna hint at some skeletons in their closet and poke the facts I needed out of them. Looking back on the stuff you did as a youth is really cringey when you’re older. Mwa ha ha.
“Captain, you’re scaring me!”
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