Chapter 2 — 의문
Part 2, Chapter 33
Doubt
“Kyaaa!”
The Rose Palace.
A detached palace said to house the concubine who’d most recently won the emperor’s favor.
A woman’s scream tore through the air as something shattered with a crash.
“Out! All of you, out!”
It was Diana, the concubine long favored by the emperor.
She was famous for her breathtaking beauty—just as famous as she was for having a temper to match the opposite.
And as if to personally prove the rumors true, she was hurling anything she could grab, driving out the butler and servants around her.
“I said out!”
“I-I’m leaving!”
“Please, just calm—!”
The chief butler tried to stay, coaxing her to settle down, but he too could only last so long before following the others outside.
Huff, huff!
Even after the tantrum, the woman still wasn’t done. She stood before a shattered mirror, breathing harshly.
Red spatters flecked the glass.
Scarlet drops fell from the hand of Concubine Diana reflected in the mirror.
“I’ll kill him…!”
She glared at her own image in the broken mirror and muttered.
“I’ll kill you for sure, Mervinger!”
* * *
“Whew, someone must be talking about me. Why are my ears so itchy?”
The carriage sped once more toward the imperial capital.
Inside, Elric dug at his ear and muttered.
『As if there were only one or two cursing your name. If you lined up everyone who suffered at the hands of the vicious Mervinger, they’d encircle the continent…!』
‘【Shut it.】’
『Mmph-mmph!』
Creak, creeeak!
By now, it happened so often it barely felt like anything more than routine.
And yet the baby dragons clapped and squealed as if it were the funniest thing in the world.
Elric, thinking some dog must be barking somewhere, kept poking at his ear—when Tasha caught his eye.
Ever since the fight with the demons, her expression had not been good.
“I think it’s because of what happened recently.”
“…?”
Hanabi, seated across from Elric, covered her mouth with one hand and whispered.
When Elric tilted his head, Hanabi added gently:
“Since Huilan.”
“…Ah.”
Only then did Elric recall.
Not just now—Tasha had been helpless against the revolutionaries back in Huilan, too.
‘Can’t blame her.’
Tasha had always been called a genius, lifted high by those around her.
Sharp as a whip and a prodigy at magic, she’d even been dubbed one of the Three Divine Stars.
But given the recent battles, it was only natural she’d fall into self-reproach.
Against Jeff and Kaniye, she’d been able to do nothing but take blows.
Hanabi seemed deeply worried for Tasha.
“This is the first time I’ve seen Lady Tasha struggle like this… I don’t know how to help her.”
Hanabi looked ready to cry that very second.
For all the scolding she’d taken from Tasha, she’d been in Tasha’s debt far more.
Hmm… Elric mulled it over, then spoke.
“She’ll be fine.”
“Sir?”
“No need to worry.”
Hanabi blinked, not quite getting it.
“The higher you fly, the harder the fall feels. It hurts.”
That was exactly where Tasha was.
She’d only ever soared without end—and had finally fallen for the first time.
“But does falling a bit mean you’ll never fly again? Hardly. If anything, having fallen once, you can climb higher. Of course.”
Elric smiled, open and easy.
“If you can’t, then sure, you plummet without end. But the Tasha I know isn’t that kind of person. And you know that even better than I do, don’t you, Hanabi?”
“Ah…!”
Hanabi’s face brightened. She understood exactly what he meant.
And more than that—Elric, sitting right there.
He too had been knocked down hard.
Born to a great magic house, yet crippled by Severed Meridian Syndrome, unable to cast even simple spells.
And yet now?
He was flying higher than anyone, for the world to see.
Hanabi finally wiped at the corner of her eye with a finger and let out a sigh of relief.
“Thank you.”
“Think nothing of it.”
Elric laughed as if it were no big deal.
And he truly believed it.
That someday, like the phoenix she commanded, Tasha would take wing and soar.
Wasn’t she the Phoenix Witch?
‘Hm?’
Right then—
KABOOOM!
A deep explosion rocked the carriage.
An ambush.
Elric peered outside at the sudden shift in air.
‘Lilim again?’
Their plan had failed, so he assumed Lilith had sent a pursuit force straight away.
But—
“I think it’s the Inspectorate this time.”
Tasha had already checked outside. Her face set like stone.
Shshshshsh—
Masked assassins in black swept along the forest road.
“Ghost Castle.”
“Ghost Castle? That’s a top-tier assassination order, isn’t it?”
“That’s how they’re known publicly. In truth, they’re a sub-organization of the Inspectorate.”
Thudududud!
They’d even brought along mercenaries dressed up like a bandit gang.
“Wipe them out!”
“Throw the bombs as soon as they’re ready!”
Fwoosh!
Ghost Castle’s killers hurled bombs at the carriage without rhyme or reason.
So many flew in that escape routes vanished.
“That so?”
Elric narrowed his eyes and kicked the carriage door open.
“【Howl.】”
Whoooo—
A blizzard roared from Elric, and the incoming bombs were flung back at their senders.
“Huh?”
But Elric saw it clearly.
The instant the bombs returned, Ghost Castle’s assassins invoked the Inverse Blood Grand Art.
A dark crimson aura surged over their heads.
Crack, crack.
Their skin flushed red, bodies swelling, they caught the bombs bare-handed.
BOOM-BOOM-BOOM!
Explosions blossomed into thick clouds.
Yet the assassins all looked virtually unharmed.
“…That’s odd.”
Elric’s eyes narrowed. As far as he knew, the Inverse Blood Grand Art was a secret art handed down only to deputy-director level and above within the Inspectorate.
And that wasn’t all.
“…Don’t tell me?”
In an instant, Elric’s gaze sharpened.
The dark crimson aura around them was turning pitch-black—ominous to the extreme.
“Well, would you look at that.”
『How familiar.』
With his gag off at last, Mephisto let out a light chuckle.
[Right?]
Recognizing the nature of that energy, Elric’s smile turned cold.
“They’re not even bothering to hide their collusion with the demons anymore, huh?”
It was demonic energy.
『Flaunting demonic energy in front of Mervinger? So many creative ways to die. Unless…』
Mephisto snickered, needling.
『They’re confident they can kill every last witness.』
Elric frowned. He’d have loved to stop the carriage and sweep them all away, but unfortunately, this wasn’t the moment.
‘Tasha and the Neresta mages still haven’t recovered.’
They’d spent too much against Kaniye.
It wasn’t that they couldn’t fight—but they couldn’t charge blindly into a force of unknown size.
Worse, the demonic energy those assassins radiated belonged to Lilith.
They were hosts branded with her sigils.
‘Lilith and the Inspectorate in bed together… that’s not something you just let slide.’
With Lilith’s ability to receive live intel, she’d keep reinforcing the assassins the moment things turned against them.
But if they reached the capital first?
Everything could be solved.
Even Lilith wouldn’t kick up a storm in the imperial capital with so many eyes watching.
‘About thirty minutes.’
The imperial capital loomed, not far off.
If they hurried, they could arrive even sooner.
They just had to weather the attacks until then.
“Pick up the pace.”
“Y-Yes, sir!”
The coachman clenched the reins, face taut with nerves.
Clatter! Clatter!
Whinnny!
The horses screamed and burst into speed.
“After them!”
“Don’t let them get away!”
As Elric’s carriage shot ahead, the assassins shouted.
They lashed their mounts with abandon, chasing hard.
“Hey, looks like they’re planning to take you with us.”
Elric’s gaze drifted naturally to the baggage compartment.
It had popped open from the shock of the blast.
Inside, bound tight, Chens was peering around with wide, alarmed eyes.
Freshly dragged from captivity, he was trying to make sense of the situation.
“…!”
Elric’s lips curled faintly.
* * *
In a way, it was only natural.
As a deputy director of the Inspectorate, Chens knew secrets others did not.
With him captured, the imperial household would find it cleaner to silence him.
And of course Elric had no intention of letting Chens meekly die.
『What are you plotting now? Sparing an enemy?』
[Plotting? Mephi, you think so poorly of me. I’m offering him a chance.]
『A chance?』
[A chance to make up for what he did to me.]
Elric’s smile turned wicked as he spoke.
“Mmph-mmph!”
Chens glared like he wanted to ask what the hell that meant.
“Oh, right. I didn’t undo your mute point.”
Ping—
The moment a weak mana bolt tapped him, Chens spewed out everything he’d been holding back like a burst dam.
“Pwah! What kind of crap is that! As if the imperial household would kill me! I’m the deputy director of the Inspectorate’s Sixth Bureau. They’d rescue me, not throw me away…!”
“Man, you really don’t get it yet. That’s exactly why they’d kill you.”
“…?”
“You’re a deputy director. You know too much. And you were captured. Would you keep you alive?”
“T-That’s…!”
“An unfortunate ‘accident’ on the way? Happens.”
Chens ground his teeth. He’d refused to face it, but as a senior officer of the Inspectorate, he knew better than anyone how they handled things.
And he’d handled things that way himself.
Yet when it was his turn, the unfairness burned.
After everything he’d done for the imperial household, he was to die like this?
“Looks to me like you’ve thought the same. Wouldn’t it be a waste to just die here?”
Chens bit down on his lower lip.
“Not at all. To fall in the line of duty is an honor for a soldier.”
“Is it, though… Is that ‘in the line of duty’?”
Elric tilted his head.
“A line-of-duty death is an unavoidable sacrifice during a mission, isn’t it? You’re just being discarded.”
“…!”
“Why do a favor for the people throwing you away?”
“No… reason… to…!”
Elric’s words were breaking through.
And yet he still clung to the idea that he had to put the Empire first.
“But I’m a soldier. I obey the Empire.”
“Yeah? Then look over there.”
Elric pointed.
A handful of assassins were taking aim at Chens with throwing spears.
“If your resolve is that firm, I’ll do nothing.”
“…”
Swaaash—
The spears flew.
“If you change your mind, say so. If it’s the geas you’re worried about, don’t. I can lift that much easily.”
Elric slung an arm around Chens’s shoulder as he spoke.
“…What do you want.”
At last, Chens all but surrendered.
“If you mean to save me, there must be terms!”
“Now we’re talking.”
Elric’s crooked grin made Chens’s heart pound.
“You don’t even have to join us. Just be a witness.”
“A… witness?”
“Yeah. A witness to the crimes of the imperial household.”
“…!”
The longer he hesitated, the closer the spears came.
And just as the spearheads reached the tip of Chens’s nose—
“Fine! I’ll help! I’ll help, so get those damned things away from me!”
“Bingo. Welcome to Mervinger World.”
Cr-cr-crack!
A pale frost settled thick before Chens, and the spears froze in midair.
“Hah… hah!”
They’d stopped a breath away.
Soaked in cold sweat, Chens panted raggedly.
Only then did Elric smile in satisfaction and pat Chens on the shoulder.
“Smart choice.”
Then he rose and turned to face the assassins.
He’d gotten the answer he wanted. Now it was time to clear away the pests.
The Magician Who Swallowed Talent