Chapter 72: Gone with the Wind (2)

First, Rine and I visited the temple.

─The temple, what brings you…?

To Mistral's question?

─I want to see the ‘holy relic’ stored in the temple in person.

When I answered honestly, Mistral showed a puzzled reaction but eventually willingly allowed our entry.

He said it wasn't a difficult matter at all for the heroes and allies who had protected the city.

However, Mistral himself was still busy with Miki's training, so the one who guided us was the priest who also served as his secretary.

“This way.”

That young priest, the only one who had remained in the room when I first went to meet him.

The reason Rine and I had come down to this basement to find the holy relic was, of course, because it was the trigger to find the lost ‘Fragment of Memory’.

“It is the bow that Lord Dairus is said to have used himself in the Age of the Gods.”

The priest pointed to the bow stored in the center of the room, as if boasting of a precious treasure (and it was indeed a precious treasure).

However, just like the 「Trident of Stareon」, the 「Bow of Dairus」 also looked more like an antique than a treasure based on its appearance.

Of course, it felt a little cleaner than the trident, which had been sleeping in a place completely untouched by human hands, but the fact that it was an old relic remained unchanged.

Well, it was an item used over a thousand years ago, so it couldn't be helped.

According to legend… or rather, history, Dairus, as the god of wind, flew on the winds he freely controlled and shot that bow.

The sight of several layers of magical barriers surrounding the holy relic to prevent unauthorized access looked just like a safe.

I approached the barrier and cautiously placed my hand on it.

At that moment.

“──!”

Just like before, a ‘forgotten memory’ was injected into my head, as if drilling it with an awl.

Suddenly, you recall a forgotten memory.

That memory was about what happened before I── the ‘Malevolent Star’── first opened my eyes.

That is, before being put on the slave traders' wagon and sold.

In that memory, ‘I’ was lying on something like an altar, just as I was in the Demon King's Castle.

However, this time, no ritual was being performed.

So there was no Demon King looking down at ‘me’ from a high throne, nor were there any of the unidentified robed figures surrounding the altar.

However.

─Finally.

I have you in my hands.

A devil with a familiar face was looking down at ‘me’.

─Do you know how long I have waited for this day?

That devil caressed ‘my’ face, as if handling a doll.

It was a familiar touch.

It had to be.

Because that person was.

Luce.

The 7th Corps Commander of the Demon King's army.

Luce carefully placed a mask on ‘me’ as my eyes slowly closed and I drifted off to sleep.

─Now, you will become a star.

As the mask covered my face, darkness fell over ‘my’ vision.

─Let's meet again.

──My star.

Along with a final farewell.

There, my ‘memory’ also came to an end.

Perhaps, this was before you woke up in the slave trader's wagon?

Where was that place, and why were you there?

As the ‘memory’ that had been replayed in my head like a video ended, the ‘voice’ began to express questions on my behalf.

Why was Corps Commander Luce there with you?

And, what was the meaning of his words?

To ultimately arrive at this ‘conclusion’.

One thing is for certain.

To find the answer to this question, you must go to the Demon King's Castle.

“Yeah, I'm going, I'm going.”

At the ‘voice’s’ pressure, which was close to nagging, I let out a hollow laugh and answered.

“…Sir? Are you alright?”

“Yes. I'm fine.”

Then, I waved my hand to the priest who had approached me after seeing me suddenly clutch my head and suffer, telling him I was fine.

“It was just a light headache.”

Actually, it wasn't light.

Anyway.

With this, I had succeeded in finding and filling the ‘second Fragment of Memory’.

Now it was Rine's turn.

Sure enough, Rine, who would have normally approached me immediately to check on me, was staring at something as if possessed.

What had captured Rine's attention was the holy relic── to be precise, the inscription on the stone pedestal where the bow was placed.

Written in Ancient Elvish.

Rine, who couldn't take her eyes off the inscription for a while.

“…!”

Just as I had done a moment ago, frowned and let out a short groan.

“Are you okay?”

At my question, Rine slowly nodded her head.

“You remembered something again, right?”

“…I felt a sense of déjà vu.”

“Because you saw Ancient Elvish?”

This time, she shook her head from side to side, then stretched out her finger and pointed to the stone pedestal.

“…I have seen those words before.”

Of course, she had.

Because when that inscription was being written, she must have been there together.

“Then can you perhaps interpret it?”

“…….”

However, Rine, who probably couldn't remember that fact yet, quietly shook her head again.

Well, this was enough for now.

--

Fragments of Memory remaining until the next awakening (2/12)

--

Because someday, she will reach the truth.

* * *

“Ah, Mr. Yubin… Sister Rine….”

Having achieved the goal of finding the ‘Fragment of Memory’, what awaited Rine and me after we left the temple were Miki and Mistral, who had just finished their training.

Normally, Miki would have run over, waving his arms energetically, but now he was so exhausted that he could only walk.

But even as his legs trembled, the way he somehow rushed towards us really looked like a puppy.

Perhaps that's why Mistral, the culprit (?) who had made Miki like that, was following behind with a smile.

He must have crammed in every technique he could teach.

“How was your visit?”

“It was satisfactory.”

“Few people know about that bow… you must be very interested in history.”

“A bard and a mage, aren't we?”

Pointing to myself and Rine in order, I then shrugged my shoulders nonchalantly.

“We have a strong sense of curiosity.”

At that, Mistral nodded his head and showed a reaction as if it were understandable.

“Huh? Didn't Sister Ibi and Sister Lily go with you?”

“The two of them had something else to do.”

Ibi, saying she wasn't particularly interested in the gods' belongings (since she couldn't steal them anyway), went to have a drink in the afternoon.

And Lily, who seemed to feel a little burdened by repeatedly entering the temple of another god, I told her it was okay not to come today, and she expressed her gratitude and headed to the library alone.

She said she had something to look up.

When I first came to meet Mistral, it was important to see him in person, so I just came in, but this time, the only purpose was to fill my and Rine's ‘Fragments of Memory’.

Indeed, there was a setting that among the gods, there were some who disliked or were jealous of their own believers── especially the clerics who ‘communicated’ directly with them── loitering in the temple of another god.

Like… tampering (?) or something.

Of course, Sistina, whom Lily served, was not such a petty god, but there was no need to stir up trouble unnecessarily.

“Well, shall we join them soon?”

Now that our business at the temple was done, it was time to go ‘visit’ Ethesia in prison.

* * *

“Ha.”

As soon as she saw us beyond the iron bars, Ethesia twisted her lips and let out a hollow laugh.

“Have you come to mock the loser?”

Then, as if she didn't care what kind of scheme we were plotting, she crossed her arms and turned her head back to look at the wall.

“I have no intention of playing along with you anymore, clown.”

Ethesia, who was like that, looked quite well for someone who had miraculously survived not long ago.

Well, the 「Healing」 she had received was indeed a kind of miracle.

Perhaps that's why, even though her usually neat hair was somewhat disheveled and her clean military uniform had been replaced by shabby prison clothes, I could still feel the same aura from Ethesia as I did when she was the Great General.

“If you're not here to finally kill me, go and tell them to hurry up and prepare for the trial.”

“If we put you on trial, will you tell everything there?”

“Who knows.”

“Your relationship with Luce? The contract you made with that devil?”

Ethesia let out a small smile.

“Whatever it is, I have nothing to say to you.”

“Is that so?”

I leaned my shoulder against the iron bars and raised the corners of my lips in a grin.

“I know the ways of devils well.”

Then, as if we were having a private conversation, I continued in a whisper.

“He kept whispering in your ear, didn't he? That he's a moderate and wants a proper balance, but that humans now are all too weak to stop the Demon King.”

“…….”

“So if a strong leader like you doesn't make a decision, all humans will be f*cked. He kept sweet-talking you, right? No?”

At that, Ethesia suddenly turned her head again and began to look at me beyond the iron bars.

It was a look that said, how the hell do you know that.

Then.

“Can't you tell just by looking?”

She finally opened her mouth.

“To keep a traitor alive. You should have buried me in a grave long ago instead of locking me up in a prison like this.”

“But thanks to that, you're alive, aren't you? You even received treatment.”

“They're just not doing what's necessary because they don't want to get their own hands dirty.”

Cowards.

Ethesia added with a sneer.

“This is an era that needs someone who does what is truly necessary, not what is right.”

“Oh, so you were preparing to break out of prison? To continue doing what's necessary?”

“If I really do get out of here, it will be the price for not doing what was necessary in time.”

I tried to subtly sound her out, but Ethesia, as expected, didn't fall for it.

However.

“You're going to use a bomb, right?”

“……What?”

This, she couldn't help but react to.

“If things went wrong and you got trapped here, you were going to blow it up with the gunpowder barrels you hid in advance, weren't you?”

I continued in an even more contemptuous tone, as if I knew everything even without her saying anything.

“So if chaos breaks out in the city, your subordinates who were on the holy land side on the day of the coup will come to rescue you in the confusion. Right?”

“What…”

At that, Ethesia let out a hollow laugh as if she were dumbfounded and said.

“…As expected of a bard. You have quite a talent for making up stories.”

Although she tried not to show it.

“Think about it for a moment.”

She couldn't hide the agitation that was revealed in her eyes── to be precise, in her dilated pupils.

“How would a mere bard know everything that devil has been saying to you?”

Therefore, I.

“Yeah, that's right.”

Once again, raised the corners of my lips in a grin.

“That devil sold you out.”

“…!”

“Of course I know because he told me. How else would I know?”

──Bang!

Suddenly, Ethesia, who had been sitting quietly, shot up from her seat and grabbed the iron bars with both hands as if to strike them.

I could see my companions behind me flinching in surprise at that sudden action.

But I was still leaning leisurely against the iron bars, and Ethesia was growling at me, glaring at me with the same eyes as when we had fought not long ago.

“What are you trying to do? …F*ck, what do you want from me?”

To Ethesia, who had finally lost her temper and started to show her emotions again.

“Are you just going to keep getting screwed over like this by that devil who used you from beginning to end?”

I said with a nonchalant smile.

“──Don't you want revenge?”