EXTRA:
Must Be a Miracle
GUILD MASTER ULIGA’S PERSPECTIVE
I WAS SEATED at a table hidden from the tavern entrance, drinking alone. My succession of stressful days was slowly winding down, and the people of Hataka were ready to move on with their lives despite the huge scars left in their hearts.
Many of Hataka’s villagers deeply loved the church, and that very same church had betrayed them in the worst way possible.
“If only I’d steered my people away from the church sooner…” I sighed to myself.
“That’s impossible and you know it,” came an unexpected answer… Well, it wasn’t exactly unexpected—I’d sensed his aura approaching.
“Are you sure you’re okay being at a tavern? Won’t Eche have your hide if she finds out?”
I looked at Appas as he sat beside me. Though he was returning to his former physique slowly but surely, he’d lost a great amount of time. It would take him months before he could hope to return to the physical shape he used to be in.
“Don’t worry about me. As long as I keep up Eche’s diet and exercise regimen, I can have a little drink every couple of weeks.”
That startled me. I hadn’t realized he’d regained that much of his health. He didn’t look… Well, he still looked like an invalid.
“I’m happy for you,” I said.
“Thanks. So?” After Appas ordered his drink, he clasped his hands together and stared at me. I looked down into my cup, avoiding his gaze.
“So what?”
“What is it you’re regretting?”
So he’d noticed. Well, we did go back quite a way.
“Lots of things. But…I’m okay now.” I gulped my drink. I had started drinking a lot more alcohol recently, yet I never got drunk.
“Nothing good comes of emptying a bottle of booze every night. You’ll just feel empty, too.”
“Ha ha!”
He really doesn’t mince words… I get it, I really do. I can’t help but play what-if, though. What if I had done my job better? We could have avoided so many casualties that way.
“If only I hadn’t become their puppet…”
I was brainwashed by a summoning circle, so it wasn’t my fault—but those words would not give me redemption. I was Hataka’s guild master, and yet I drove so many of my comrades to…
“True. Your brainwashing led to many good adventurers dying.”
“I know.”
“But that same brainwashing also saved many adventurers’ lives.”
“…What?!”
What the hell was he saying? My brainwashing saved lives? How was that possible? If only I’d been more vigilant, fewer people would have gotten hurt—that’s all there was to it.
“Uliga, do you remember what year Father Salify came to Hataka?”
Father Salify…one of the criminal masterminds who had carved a summoning circle on his body.
“Yeah, he… Wait, huh?”
The summoning circle’s brainwashing had erased a lot of my memories. I desperately wanted to remember them, but I had the feeling most of them were gone forever.
“Huh, I don’t remember.”
I couldn’t remember anything about Father Salify, although I’d recently remembered that Bishop Gupinus came to Hataka five years ago.
“It was ten years ago.”
“Huh?! Ten years?” I looked at Appas, who met my gaze and smiled.
“That’s right. His name was on the books ten years ago, meaning that’s when he came here. Now here’s a question: When do you think we fell under the summoning circle’s influence?”
Huh? When did it start?
“We thought it all started about two years ago. But the more you consider everything, the clearer it gets that it started even earlier. Probably more than ten years ago.”
More than ten years… That long ago? That’s right, just being near Father Salify made people susceptible to the summoning circle’s effects.
“Uliga, they used Hataka as a lab. Father Salify probably ran all sorts of experiments. I suspect your sense of vigilance was weakened by his summoning circle.”
But that’s not… Is that possible?
“I don’t know.” I poured myself another drink. “But…”
“Gupinus was going to murder us—that was his endgame.”
What?!
“Why?”
“Why else? The sooner you and I were dead, the sooner he could have his way with Hataka.”
“But wouldn’t it have been easier for him to manipulate the adventurers if I was around?” As the guild master, I had the dedicated support of all the adventurers.
“Normally, yes. But once he found out his summoning circle had already taken effect, he wouldn’t have needed you there anymore.”
Appas was right. They’d had to brainwash me over and over. It would have been less of a hassle for them to plant someone loyal to them in the first place.
“So answer me this, Uliga: Why did they decide to brainwash you? Remember what you told me? You were chasing after Vice-Captain Twill, and I think that wasn’t part of their plan. They weren’t ready to kill you yet, so they brainwashed you to make you forget what you saw instead.”
Was that true? Come to think of it, why was I near the church that day in the first place?
“That day, I think I was… That’s right. A few days before they brainwashed me, I spotted Salify lurking around the plaza where the adventurers were sleeping.”
I couldn’t remember it before, but now I did. I’d seen Father Salify prowling the plaza.
“He was wandering around the plaza for a whole hour. I thought it was strange, so I went to investigate. And then… Huh? Oh yeah, I think I went to talk about that with somebody. Who was it? Was it you, Appas?”
I looked at Appas, but he shook his head back at me. If it wasn’t him, then who was it? I didn’t have many people I could confide in about the church, and I would only consult people I trusted, so who was it?
Damn it—I’m still missing bits of my memory. I spotted Salify in the plaza, and then…then somebody approached me. No, wait, I sensed someone staring at me first. The aura I sensed then was…
“It was the former guild master—Chemanta.”
“Hm?!”
“When I saw Father Salify prowling the plaza at night, I smelled a rat, so I was going to go talk it over with you, Appas. But Chemanta came up to me before I could, and I wound up confiding in him instead.”
At the time, I had no idea he was with the enemy, so I trusted him. Why wouldn’t I? Chemanta had supported Hataka for years as its guild master. He’d even investigated the church with me once before, so I blindly assumed he was safe.
Wow, is this for real? Would I have trusted him if it all happened today? Argh, Uliga, it was a completely different game back then—you couldn’t judge things the same way as you can now. You know he’s a traitor at this point, so of course you wouldn’t feel the same way as you did back then.
“So it was him,” the captain sneered.
“That’s right. When I confided in him, he said, ‘I’ll look into it, Uliga—I can move about more freely than you. You stay put.’ I appreciated the offer, so I said yes.”
Wait a minute… Something’s off. If Chemanta said he would look into it, what was I doing near the church? Was I just passing by?
“That day, Twill was… Oh, that’s right! I saw her and Chemanta together. I remember thinking there was something off about him. That’s right, it was Chemanta I was tailing that day.”
But why would I do that if I trusted him so much?
“You were tailing Chemanta?” Appas stared at me.
“Yeah, he was the one I was following. I lost him along the way, though. And while I was looking for him, I happened to see Twill walk into the church.”
If only I’d been more vigilant then… For that matter, why did I enter a church so brazenly? Was it the summoning circle’s influence…?
“It had to be the summoning circle,” Appas said, “I guess the only reason you could notice something off about Chemanta was because the summoning circle wasn’t finished yet. Either that, or your instincts as guild master kicked in. Don’t know which, though.”
Is that true? Was I really under the summoning circle’s influence already? Argh… It was so long ago now, it’s all guesswork at this point.
“By the way, why did you say many adventurers were saved because I was brainwashed?” Nothing he’d said so far had explained that.
“Just think, what if you had died and the church brought in a plant to be the guild master? Neither Zinal’s party nor Nalgath’s would have realized that anything was off about the new guild master. In other words, the conspiracy might not have been revealed until much, much later.”
“But Druid and Ivy noticed they were brainwashed. Weren’t they the ones who broke the spell on Zinal and his men?” I’d heard from Druid that they started by liberating Zinal’s team and followed with Nalgath’s party.
“Fair point. But the next person they freed was you. What would have happened if you were a plant from the church?”
“It would have been dicey, but you and I both know Zinal. He would have noticed something was wrong, looked up this new guild master, and found out they were the enemy. Then they would have saved you next, Appas.”
It would have taken a little extra time, but it all would have ended the same way.
“Let me make this clear: The only reason I managed to do what I did was because you were fiercely doing all that fieldwork for me. If I’d had to face it all alone, I don’t think I would have made it.”
Was that true?
“I trust you, Uliga. That’s why I could put all my energy into freeing adventurers and watchmen from the spell.”
“Oh… I see… You know, if they wanted to murder us, why do you think they were so half-assed about it?” It would have made sense for them to just kill us once their scheme was in motion.
“You were useful—they could control you however they wanted when you were brainwashed. They may have failed to kill me, but I was as good as dead. I don’t blame them for thinking it wasn’t worth the trouble to finish the job. They basically had the entire village under their control by then anyway.”
If Druid and Ivy hadn’t come to this village…everyone would have died, Zinal’s party included.
“I’m shocked we’re still alive.”
“Yeah, the more I look into this case, the more I’m convinced it’s a miracle we survived.”
Appas’s words brought a smile to my face. He’s right. A miracle did happen here, but it wasn’t our survival.
“It’s those two coming to Hataka—they’re the miracle.”
“Ha ha! True, they are the biggest miracle of all.”
And they said they’d come back to Hataka someday… Well, I don’t have time to dwell in the past. I need to keep Hataka thriving so it will be ready for them to visit anytime.
“I think I’m going to have the best night’s sleep I’ve had in a long while tonight.”
“Glad to hear it. Just don’t drink too much.”
“Yeah…”
I’ll be okay. I never want to lose myself in a drink again.
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