Chapter 2 — 감찰국
Part 2, Chapter 40
The Inspectorate
Black collapsed, and silence seeped over the hearing room.
Only for a moment.
“Let’s go.”
Chromehel was the first to move.
He flashed Elric an unreadable smile, then left the chamber with the Golden Lion and the imperial princess-consort Shiro.
“Y-Your Highness!”
“Please wait!”
The reporters inside swarmed after them in a rush.
The brief commotion passed, and silence returned. This time, Elric turned his head.
Toward the Hexagram.
“Ahem!”
They coughed into their fists and dodged Elric’s eyes.
Even with him staring openly, they strained not to meet his gaze.
The Neresta House, a giant that—unusual for mages—prides itself on the most political, hard-fisted kind of clout.
The warlike Kuno House, warriors who wield flame.
The Adenauer School, champions of mixed farming and mercantilism who, on their own, rank among the empire’s five great trading houses.
The Pappen line, devotees of death who rarely show themselves to the outside world.
And though called a “school,” the Hanover Party—really a banner under which mages of every stripe banded together for freedom.
Whatever their images, they once led the magical world alongside Mervinger, even while standing opposed to him.
Awkwardness was inevitable.
Mephisto, who didn’t know the history, wondered why the much-whispered-of Hexagram was acting like this.
『Weren’t those humans supposed to be rather full of themselves? Yet they’re the ones avoiding your eyes.』
[They can’t help it. Every last one of them carries a guilty conscience toward my house.]
『A guilty conscience?』
[They fattened themselves by selling us out. That’s pretty much the story.]
It was when Mervinger died and House Mervinger began its descent.
Behind the vassals peeling away from Mervinger stood the Mage Tower.
They not only egged on the wavering, they worked every angle to pull them into their own camp.
Mervinger’s thousand-year sorcerous legacy ran so deep even the Tower couldn’t simply touch it.
They must have wanted even a shard of it.
In effect, they stood by and let Mervinger fall.
Mephisto clicked his tongue at Elric’s explanation.
『Absurd. On our side Mervinger was insufferable, true, but to humans he was a hero, wasn’t he?』
[The war had ended, so they figured the time was right. That’s the world for you.]
『Not the world—the human race. That’s just how your kind are built.』
Perhaps because of that past,
every one of the Hexagram wore a strained look.
“Am I making you that uncomfortable?”
Flinch.
They shuddered at his words.
A few turned away with another pointless cough.
“From the looks on your faces, you almost seem disappointed I didn’t die.”
Even at the added sneer, none of them met Elric’s eyes.
All but one.
That was when someone spoke up.
“Your insolence knows no bounds.”
“…?”
Everyone, Elric included, turned their gaze that way.
It was the sage called Lepent, one of the Hexagram.
He had taken the vacant seat as a new member after the head of the Pappen line died in the Eastern Rebellion.
A younger brother of the previous Lord, if rumor was right.
Which was why he had never looked kindly on Mervinger, who had taken in the Nameless—the one who killed that former Lord.
“Even if your star has shot up of late, every one of us here is still your senior. No matter how fond Lord Neresta is of you, is this how you behave?”
The other Hexagram shot him looks to let it go, but Lepent paid them no mind.
Gai merely watched the two with interest.
“Do not delude yourself, Mervinger. However great your forebear was, you yourself are nothing more than a fledgling who has only just now managed to reach the seat.”
By “the seat,” Lepent meant the right to sit opposite them.
By rights, he was a green junior who wouldn’t even share a table.
“Ah, is that so?”
Elric answered blandly, hands clasped behind his back, and walked toward Lepent.
With the tiers of the council seats rising between them, Elric tipped his chin up and asked,
“And you are?”
“W-what?”
His face was genuinely blank, as if he had no idea.
Embarrassment flushed Lepent’s cheeks.
Only for a moment.
Bang!
He slapped the desk and sprang to his feet.
His face had turned beet red.
“Are you trying to make a fool of me? Or are you truly that arrogant about everything under heaven?”
“Ah, now I remember. The seat was left empty when the previous Pappen Lord died, and you wedged yourself in there… but something doesn’t add up.”
Elric cocked his head and curled one corner of his mouth.
“Lepent, Lepent… Try as I might, I can’t think of any achievements that stand alongside the other members here. How did you become one of the Hexagram? A payoff? Or a patron?”
“How dare you run that mouth!”
In truth, he wasn’t wrong.
Thoom!
Lepent’s face went so red it looked about to burst.
Unlike the other members who had made their names in the Great Demon War, he had no fame to speak of.
His skill with magic was also the lowest among them.
“You wet-behind-the-ears brat—there’s nothing you won’t say! When your elders offer counsel, you nod and listen. Don’t you dare bring up things that never—”
“So what were you doing at my age?”
“…What?”
“Did you hunt demons, or root out the ones hiding in the Empire? Did you pass the magus examination fastest? I doubt you hatched a dragon everyone said was extinct.”
“…”
Elric’s words came without a pause.
Lepent had nothing to throw back and only worked his lips.
“If you want to wave age around, bring something with it worthy of respect.”
“Why, you—!”
Power was about to spill from Lepent’s body.
Fwoosh.
“That’s enough.”
The instant Gai let a low word drop, the aura of death vanished as if it had been a lie.
Lepent dropped back into his seat with a deep scowl. He had reined his power in, but the fists clenched tight said his anger hadn’t cooled.
Gai looked back and spoke.
“I know well there’s a lot of history between the Tower and Mervinger. But House Mervinger and House Neresta are allies. I’d like us to keep things as unruffled as possible.”
Gai narrowed his eyes and swept them over the other members.
He didn’t need to finish the thought; they all knew what he meant.
He wouldn’t sit by and watch further commotion.
A clear warning.
They had looked a bit troubled; now, one by one, their expressions eased and they began to smile awkwardly.
“You’re right. The past is the past.”
“We’ve no reason to pick a fight with House Mervinger, a sun on the rise if ever there was one.”
“And you?”
“…”
When he singled him out, Lepent’s face twitched.
But he forced the corners of his mouth up and said,
“I—I had no such intention. I apologize.”
Lepent bowed his head as well.
Only then did Gai nod and turn back to Elric.
“For my sake, let this one go, would you?”
“Well, if you put it that way, Lord Gai, what can I do? Broad-minded as I am, I’ll let it slide.”
“Thank you.”
“…”
“…”
“…”
The Hexagram were left uniformly dumbfounded.
His manner—as if he were the one doing them a favor—was galling.
More disorienting still was Gai, nodding in thanks.
They couldn’t help but feel how different his attitude toward them was from his attitude toward Elric.
And they understood.
Where Gai was placing more of his weight: on them, or on Mervinger.
Knowing the Neresta way was ruthlessly pragmatic, this wasn’t something they could dismiss lightly.
“More to the point, what now? Things went just the way you said up to here.”
Perhaps wanting to shift the mood, Gai changed the subject.
“From here, there’ll be unrest.”
“Unrest… Certainly.”
From Chromehel’s behavior, it was plain.
The Inspectorate had been cast off by the Imperial House.
From here on, in order to prove it had nothing to do with the demons, the Imperial House would do everything it could to strip the Inspectorate bare.
“The Lion Ducal House won’t sit on its hands, either.”
If only for the Golden Lion’s honor, the Lion Ducal House wouldn’t walk the same road as the Inspectorate.
They also had to save face for the Imperial House that had made his daughter an imperial princess-consort.
“But this touches one of the four pillars that support the Empire. They won’t sit by and let the Mage Tower take that place.”
Gai nodded his agreement.
The Mage Tower.
The Lion Ducal House.
The Inspectorate.
The New Church Alliance.
These four great powers had maintained a delicate balance. The Tower and the Lion Ducal House opposed each other in the light; the Inspectorate worked in the dark; the New Church Alliance tended the people’s faith.
Now the force that held the shadows was disappearing.
Naturally, countless clashes would erupt under the surface to fill the vacuum.
Given how things were unfolding, it would be easy for the Tower to seize the initiative, but the problem was that the Lion Ducal House would not sit idly by and watch.
More than that.
Among the gossips, a notion had begun to creep in: perhaps it was time to speak of five great powers, not four.
Mervinger.
As an old magus house, they enjoyed overwhelming popular support, and they were one of the few ducal houses as well.
That alone would be impressive, but now they had two Lions and the vast strength of the barbarian tribes coiled around a broad swath of the East.
Add to that the young talents heading east, chasing Elric’s storming renown in the capital.
If you looked at raw strength alone, they were still a touch short, but more than capable of standing shoulder to shoulder.
With Mervinger aligned with the Tower, the balance of power could only tip their way.
If, on top of holding the moral high ground, they tried to monopolize the Inspectorate’s domain… the situation would spiral out of control.
The Lion Ducal House’s footing—and the Imperial House’s very existence—could be imperiled.
The Imperial House had sought to draw in the Lion Ducal House and put the Inspectorate to the fore to establish absolute imperial authority. Now the fire had landed on their own feet.
“So the Imperial House will, even if it throws the Inspectorate on the altar, surely move to pressure the Tower from every direction. And try to raise up another loyal hound in its place. Which is why we have to keep our heads clear. Especially—”
Elric fixed his eyes on the Hexagram, Lepent most of all, and went on.
“They may try to sow discord to split us from within.”
“…Ahem!”
At the words internal split, Lepent let out a pointless cough.
“All the more reason for us to close ranks, and not sway no matter what carrots and sticks they wave from over there.”
And…
“If we rip out the demonic faction rooted in the Imperial House, the victory will be ours.”
“…!”
“…!”
“…!”
Because mages often shut themselves in to study, many of them were out of their depth in politics and society.
If not for Gai, the Tower would already be getting lashed this way and that by the Imperial House.
A “political victory” was as distant as a star to the Tower.
But the thought that this could change now—this was heady stuff.
『Hah! You really think that’s going to go smoothly? Just looking at that one’s eyes, he seemed ready to pull something right now. And humans come with backstabbing preinstalled, you know.』
At Mephisto’s derisive snort, Elric also smiled faintly.
[Well, I said all that, but I don’t actually believe it’ll go smoothly.]
『…Huh? What?』
[I’ve watched people turn their backs when there’s profit to be had more times than I can count. I’ll bet my right hand there are at least two of them right now wondering how to line their pockets in this mess.]
He could almost see again the vassals who had coldly abandoned them.
All the time they had shared, tossed aside. Leaving only to look after their own gain.
[So I trust not in human selfishness, but in the fidelity of one person.]
『If it’s that man, it’ll be possible.』
Mephisto read Elric’s thought and nodded.
Their eyes turned the same way.
Gai Neresta.
Not only had he dragged the unimpressive Neresta name up to the summit, he had become the head of the Mage Tower.
If it was him, he could marshal every mage in the Tower, the Hexagram included.
And that would all become strength for Elric.
If so—
‘Driving out Lilith won’t be any trouble.’
Elric believed it, firmly.
The Mage Who Devoured Talent