Chapter Two Hundred and Ninety-Nine: The Goddess’s Stairway
“Master Julius, the anti-monster defensive line is over in that direction—”
“I have something to attend to. Wait a while.”
“Yes, sir!”
Watched by puzzled knights who had no idea what was happening, Karen and Julius moved in a single direction. Julius carried Karen in his arms and headed where she pointed.
“Karen, what exactly are you sensing?”
“Magical power, I think.”
“Magical power?”
“I’m not entirely sure, but… there’s something over there that I can’t stop thinking about. I think the monsters are heading toward it.”
Julius looked at the swirling currents of magical power churning in Karen’s eyes as she lay in his arms, and narrowed his own.
“I see. The black dragon may have used its own life to raise your step on the Stairway—so that you would be able to find something.”
“You mean a monster decided how I ascend the step?”
“That is how I sometimes feel about it. Though I wouldn’t say so in front of a priest.”
Karen frowned at something ominous in that, and Julius smiled to reassure her.
“The idea that a monster might be interfering with the goddess’s designs is something priests simply cannot accept. To them, monsters are nothing more than beasts used as instruments of divine trial. They also take poorly to the notion that some monsters possess enough intelligence for meaningful conversation, even though it is simply a fact.”
Karen pressed her lips tightly together. She had no intention of making enemies of the temples, so it seemed wise not to mention her negotiations with the pegasus or the black dragon outside trusted company.
“The Bloodline Blessing—some say it carries even the hatred of the monsters that were defeated—and yet it is still framed as nothing but a divine blessing.”
Julius gave a self-deprecating smile.
“If this dreadful power that runs through the bloodline were not steeped in monsters’ hatred, what else could it be?”
“I don’t think monsters hate the people who defeated them, though?”
Karen hadn’t noticed Julius’s twisted smile and said it plainly, as one might state a simple fact.
“Monsters seem to want to die for some reason. Not just to die, either—they seem to want to die properly. It’s strange, isn’t it? But when I think of it as just how monsters are, it makes a kind of sense. They don’t feel like they hate people. They don’t seem to enjoy killing. And yet they attack even when they’re not hungry… I think they attack people because they want to die, because they want to be defeated. That’s what dying properly means to them.”
A smile had spread across Karen’s face as she talked. Different from wild beasts, different from hungry predators—they were frightening creatures who attacked people for some other reason entirely. Deepening her understanding of such creatures fascinated her endlessly.
Julius looked down at her animated expression and asked:
“If monsters feel no hatred, then why would a powerful monster leave behind a blessing that persists for generations?”
“Maybe it’s their way of saying—thank you for finishing me off?”
Karen said it with eyes that shone with gratitude, as though she had stepped inside the mind of a monster herself. Julius let out a soft laugh.
“If you say so, then I’m sure that’s true.”
“Oh—I was being rather offhand about it, so please don’t take it too seriously.”
Until now, Julius had been certain that someone harbored hatred toward him. That was why he had believed himself to be suffering—and that escaping that suffering required relentless, desperate effort without the slightest lapse. But if Karen said so, then no one hated Julius at all. Whether or not it was true, Julius had decided to believe it—and in the shelter of his arms, Karen flustered for a moment before looking somewhat repentant.
“I’m a B-rank alchemist now, so I really should try not to say offhand things so often… oh.”
The moment Karen gave a small cry of realization, Julius stopped walking.
“Is it somewhere around here, Karen?”
“Yes.”
Driven by curiosity, Karen wanted to get down from Julius’s arms. He lowered her slowly, as though reluctant to let go.
A number of tents stood in a row. These were tents left behind when people had fled at the news that a Great Collapse might be coming. A few people had trickled back and returned to some of them. One or two had guards posted outside. Karen walked toward one of those tents.
An Ehlertt knight stood watch before the one Karen approached.
“Master Julius—and Lady Karen. What brings you here?”
“Please let us in.”
“But this place is—”
“It is on behalf of the Ehlertt Earldom. Let her through.”
The knight who had moved to block Karen’s entry gave Julius a puzzled look, but stepped aside. Karen went in, and Julius followed—and immediately frowned.
“…A morgue, is it? Are you all right, Karen?”
“I’m fine. It’s cold enough that nothing has started to rot at least…”
She answered in a somewhat absent tone and drifted forward into the tent. The bodies of the commoners who had died during the hunting festival lay in a row. Karen stopped in front of one of them and crouched down, studying it intently.
Probably a commoner merchant of some kind. The clothing was prosperous-looking—but on closer inspection, the hands were rough in a way that didn’t match the outfit at all. After a moment, Karen rummaged through the pouch at the corpse’s waist.
From the pouch she withdrew a red medallion and a white egg, small enough to fit in her palm. Aside from the faint glow it gave off, it looked almost exactly like a chicken’s egg from her previous life.
“That medallion—is it a scarletite alloy? May I see it?”
Karen nodded and handed the red medallion to Julius.
“—A hammer and a sword. The crest of House Court, the viscount’s family.”
“House Court?”
“The family crest of the man who commanded the third unit that dove into the dungeon with you.”
“Sir Alban’s unit?—Ah, I see. It’s evidence planted to frame him.”
Now that she thought about it, he had mentioned being targeted with false accusations more than once. Karen understood, and promptly lost all interest in the medallion.
Every bit of her attention had turned to the egg.
The Translator’s Note
As there is no plural form in Japanese, it is sometimes difficult to translate certain parts. It became clear from this chapter that there were several commoners who had died, not just one.
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