)—(\IV/)|—(
By the time Motoyasu opened his eyes again, the sun was already setting. His body felt rejuvenated, but at the same time, he knew he couldn't make any hasty movements. His arms and legs still felt rather sore, enough for him to know that he wouldn't be able to run quickly for a straight minute or two, but short bursts every now and then might have been doable.
He stood back up and after checking for any nearby monsters that could have pounced him, he started making his way over to the capital. The knights on duty didn't pay much attention to him as he made his way down the streets, trying to remember where the inn was. There hadn't been any GPS function on his spear, but he entertained himself at the fact that he might find one some day in the future. Perhaps if he absorbed anything that was related, like a map, he would get something akin to it.
Thankfully, it didn't take much time to find his way back to the inn.
He didn't see any of the girls in the lobby, so they were likely in their rooms. He didn't want to disturb any of them, but he wanted to check if they had eaten yet. Going off to a restaurant to finish off the day would have been nice.
He came to knock on Myne's door to receive no response.
Surprised that they weren't back yet, he tried knocking on Elena's door, expecting the same result.
"Who's there?"
However, Elena had called from within, causing Motoyasu to flinch.
"Oh, it's just me," he replied. It took a few moments for the door to open up and for Motoyasu to see Elena pop her head out. "Hopefully, that spa day of yours was great!"
"It was certainly… interesting…" Elena averted her gaze for a split second. It hadn't been anything that caused Motoyasu to notice anything strange though. "Did you knock on my door just to find out how my day was?"
"I was actually wondering if you and the other girls have eaten yet." Motoyasu quickly pointed over to Myne's room with his eyes. "Hopefully, you ate together since I can't ask Myne or Lesty. They weren't in their rooms."
"Yeah, we already went to eat after the spa treatment, but thanks for asking. As for Myne and Lesty, I don't have a clue," she sighed, as if it was an annoyance to be asked that. "I don't keep constant tabs on them, but they probably went out for some errands or something along those lines."
"Oh, I see. If that's the case, then sorry about bothering you," Motoyasu said, scratching the back of his neck. "Is Rino there with them?"
There was a sudden pause from Elena, but Motoyasu only asked because he hadn't seen or heard Rino coming from inside of the room. She closed her eyes, as if deliberating on the words she should say before exhaling, acting as if she wanted to get it over with already.
"Rino's not with us anymore."
"... What?" Motoyasu raised his eyebrows while tilting his head. "Did she get another room or something?"
"It's nothing much to misunderstand here. Rino left the party."
She started closing the door after dropping a bombshell onto Motoyasu, but he managed to stick his toe in between to stop it. He didn't mean to do it on purpose; his body just reacted.
"W-Wait! I feel like I need a proper explanation here!" Motoyasu shouted. His mind started racing with panic. "Why would Rino leave the party!? Was she unhappy with something!? Why didn't she talk to me about it then!? I made sure that everyone in the party was happy though! Then why did she leave!?"
Through the narrow opening, Elena gave some respect by not trying to force the door to squish Motoyasu's toes. However, her expression seemed distant and her voice disinterested.
"You're asking the wrong person here. I was informed by Myne and Lesty about this news before we headed out to the spa. If you want to know the reason, you should ask them instead of me and besides…"
Hearing Elena's calm response had somehow eased Motoyasu in his common sense, realizing he rudely used his foot as a doorstop. He pulled it out, but Elena kept it opened briefly to finish her thought.
"I don't think it was for any of the reasons you just mentioned. Rino seemed happy to be by your side, Sir Motoyasu. Don't always think that it's your fault."
With that acknowledgement, she closed the door to a click, leaving Motoyasu without another person to talk to. He held out his hand, as if he wanted Elena to stay with him, but he managed to catch himself before his arms could extend. From his judgement of Elena's mood, it seemed like she didn't want to be bothered right now and he had to give that alone time to herself.
Very rarely has he ever eaten by himself.
From the point when he was summoned, he was always with someone else during his meals. Even back at home, he would eat alongside one of his friends at the very least. There wasn't some invisible force stopping him from doing so by himself, but he found that it was awkward.
His stomach was rumbling though, so he had to bite the bullet and take himself to a random restaurant or tavern. He was almost considering simply stopping at one of the food stalls that he'd seen around town that acted similarly to fast food places. It was a cheaper option to buy there as well.
However, there were footsteps coming down from the hall that pulled his attention away.
He was glad to see that it was Lesty. She briefly looked away, as if she wanted to pretend that Motoyasu wasn't there, but knowing that their eyes already made contact, she put on a casual smile and approached him with her usual attitude.
"Oh, Sir Motoyasu! You're back so soon?"
"It's uhm… almost evening," Motoyasu wryly chuckled. "Not to say anything egotistical, but I would have been a bit worried for the Spear Hero if he hadn't returned in the afternoon."
"Huh? Well, yeah. Normally, I would," Lesty answered, laying a finger on her cheek. "But one of the knights came by and told us that you were helping him out with something. It's that one with a lot of swords on him, but the name slips my tongue."
Zellus must have come by to inform them of an excuse as to why Motoyasu wasn't waking up from his sudden slumber. As he thought about thanking him later, he started to actually wonder how Zellus even knew where they were staying. Granted, it was pretty much a dice roll, but he didn't seem like the type of person to just blindly check all of the possible inns.
Wait, was he the type to do that? To be fair, he couldn't get a grasp on the guy other than the fact that he was a good person to be around for the mood. Though, that would have been the case if Motoyasu never fought him before. Now, he was back to not being able to hold a mental idea of the man.
"Helping out, huh? I guess he could call it that," Motoyasu mulled over. "I still haven't finished with that help yet, so I'll be heading out during the night."
"Are you sure you should be doing that?"
"It'll be fine, I promise."
Besides, Motoyasu wanted to turn the conversation into his current priority.
"Anyways, I just finished talking with Elena." His subtle grin cracked and showed a rather somber frown underneath. "Apparently, Rino won't be in our party anymore? She said that you and Myne would know more about those details."
"Oh. That." Lesty hummed a bit, delaying a proper response. When she started to speak, it was as if she had been selecting each word carefully and concisely. "W-Well, Rino received a letter delivered by the guild that… her mother had fallen ill. She was worried enough that she had to leave immediately, but she sends you her regards and hopes that she'll be able to meet up with us again once the situation has gotten better."
"I-Is that so…?" Motoyasu sighed, but there was some type of relief. "Thank goodness…" His body relaxed, dropping the tenseness from his knees and layering him down to an instinctive crouch. "If she had told me, I would have escorted her over to her hometown, but it can't be helped if she had to pass a message."
"Don't concern yourself about it too much, Sir Motoyasu." Lesty walked over and comforted him with a shoulder pat. "She was rather… resilient about leaving, but she ultimately decided that this was for the best."
"Yeah, it was."
Motoyasu couldn't stop his heavy heart from feeling this quiet sorrow, despite the answer being served to him on a silver platter. He knew it was fine to accept things at face-value, but ever since that incident, he always wanted to be sure.
"And what about Myne?" he turned to her. "I don't see her with you."
"Oh, she's back at the castle. The father called her back and I went with her to make sure everything was alright, but after I wasn't needed anymore, I just came back here for the night." As Motoyasu found energy in his legs to stand back up, Lesty walked over to her room. "I'm still a bit surprised that Myne was the princess of Melromarc."
"Were you? When I told everyone, you seemed to be the least surprised out of all of them."
"Well, just because I didn't show it, it doesn't mean that I didn't feel it," she answered with a playful tone. "Girls might be a bit difficult for you to understand."
Lesty glanced over, hearing nothing except silence coming from the Spear Hero. It looked as if he became a bit distant from her response.
"Sir Motoyasu?"
"Y-Yeah, sorry!" Motoyasu, as if it was a flick of a switch, suddenly turned back on and acted aloofly. "I dozed off a bit there! Forgive me for that one!"
"Weird place to doze off." Unlocking the door, she took a step in, nodding over to Motoyasu with a playful smile. "You should probably not do that in public. You never know who might be bad or good around these parts, even if it's the capital."
"Of course. I'll take that advice to heart."
After saying their good nights to each other, Motoyasu decided to head out.
With light still hovering in the horizon with the cool air setting in, he walked down the streets, weighing his options. It wasn't as if he had no money left, but without a native person, he didn't know which meals were worth trying. He would have considered hitting up a bar, but tonight's meeting dissuaded him from touching even an ounce of alcohol.
He would have liked to cook for the group for once, but the occasion hadn't come up yet. He learnt his excellent skills under Naofumi's tutelage (overshadowed by the master's own innate ability), but he mainly cooked for himself, seeing that Ren and Itsuki were deeply enjoying Naofumi's style more. And given these circumstances, he would have to relearn how to use his tools since he was more comfortable with their own kitchen on top of the twenty-four hour job of a hero.
After wandering a bit, he decided to cut through some back alleys, much to Elena's offhand comment back at their arrival. The food stalls were just on the other side of the area according to what a local resident said. There was the small issue that he was pretty much walking into a red light distinct equivalent, but he didn't have much of a problem with that.
Frankly, he wasn't that surprised that this world contained prostitution.
Motoyasu could practically smell the pleasure looming in the air, but amazingly, there hadn't been many sex workers outside the buildings. He knew they would try and allure him in with their sweet voices, but that was part of their jobs. Not making eye contact or staring at them alongside a quick pace would help them to know that regardless of what they did, he wasn't interested and they could set their targets on the unsuspecting.
"A-Ah… N-No, I…"
There were moans of both genders coming from the buildings, but Motoyasu managed to pick up on a specific girl's voice. He felt like he imagined it after being so concerned about it recently, but it was a ridiculous notion to follow through.
According to Lesty, Rino already went back home.
Thus, there's absolutely zero chance that she suddenly gave up accompanying him and started to work as a sex worker here. Even if her voice had been similar, that's all it should have been.
For that moment, his heart did skip a beat. He didn't see Rino as the type of girl to do such a thing in the first place, but his eyes rose up from the lowered angle towards the building that the voice came from. Hearing just that tone made him sigh. He'd only wish to see her once more before she left in order to say his proper goodbyes.
It was merely for a short time, but she was still important to him.
"P-Please… S-Stop it…"
Taking a deep breath, Motoyasu continued onwards to the next street over.
He knew that some people had their fetishes and he wasn't going to judge them. The girls were paid sometimes to act out with different attitudes and if the clients were going too far, it would have taken one simple scream for the business bodyguards to stop it at once.
Though, he hadn't seen one of them out in the alleyway and only assumed they existed.
Eventually reaching a food stall, he found something that certainly looked like a burger, but it definitely didn't taste like one. The meat was strange. Biting into it caused him to immediately search for a new option.
"Blegh. I guess that's bad luck for me, huh?"
He couldn't help it, but to take another bite strangely enough.
)—(\IV| Chapter 1-24 |IV/)|—(
)\( Sin of Loyalty )/(
There weren't any clocks in his room, but he could imagine the constant ticking of a grandfather clock, moving its hands slowly as it went into midnight. He didn't realize that their meeting would have been deep into the night, but he was still awake thanks to a drink he found during his meal searching.
It was surprisingly odd, but it was almost refreshing, acting a bit like coffee. The taste wasn't too bad compared to his initial sip, settling down to simply waking him up if he ever dared to doze off. It was called a Scholar's Brew or something along those lines. He started to wonder if any of his friends had drank it up, thinking it was coffee.
He could imagine Naofumi or Itsuki spitting it out, but he was more certain that Ren would be wary of the mysterious drink. Though, the image of Ren immediately sipping it without a second thought, only to realize his mistake was a funny thought.
Waiting about, he had been sitting at the table, but he stood up from his seat and walked over to the small balcony's doors. He was planning to get a few stretches in front of an open-aired door before Zellus could arrive, but as he allowed the night's wind to rush through, a figure had leapt over the railing and gave him a fright.
"Grah!?"
Screaming out, Motoyasu fell backwards, landing on his butt, as he instinctively scooted away. His grip on his spear tightened, just in case, but it took the same amount of time to realize that it hadn't been an enemy.
"Z-Zellus!? You scared me!"
The knight looked over, grinning with his white teeth showing off as if he had done it on purpose. "Well, I'm here to pick you up, you know! Sorry about being late and all. I had to get some errands out of the way." He held up a filled paper bag that was in his hand. "I'm playing delivery boy for someone, so I hope you didn't mind the delay."
"O-Oh, shouldn't you finish that up first?"
"Nah, it's fine," he shrugged before extending his empty hand to the Spear Hero. "Now, get your ass off the ground. Ren isn't going to be going anywhere anytime soon, but that doesn't mean you get to waste time."
Motoyasu wanted to retort that, but he held himself back against it, grabbing onto the assistance Zellus had given out. He quickly thanked the knight for helping him up, hoping that his scream wasn't loud enough to wake up Lesty or Elena in the adjacent rooms.
Luckily for him, no one went to check on him, so he guessed that he was in the clear.
"Alright, let's head out."
Zellus immediately turned to the balcony.
"Wait, we're going through there?"
"Uh, yes? Is there a problem?"
"This is the fourth floor! I'm not jumping down from—wait, how did you even get up here!?"
Zellus had a stupified blinking expression.
"... I jumped? It's a pretty neat skill to have when you have to scale heights quickly."
Frankly, Motoyasu didn't have an idea of what he had expected, but he managed to somehow convince Zellus that he himself was not down to fall out of the window. He scaled down from the actual stairs and met the knight in front of the inn.
)—(\IV/)|—(
Zellus guided Motoyasu down a dark alleyway, one that was made more creepier due to the dusk of the night. The only light that existed for them was the reflection of the lunar moon above, but even that merely allowed Motoyasu to see Zellus' figure in the darkness. However, he couldn't even remember the way they came from after every turn looked the same as the last.
When the knight started to talk about what they were going to do, Motoyasu recalled that Zellus had briefly mentioned something about it before during their first day being summoned. To think back to that point felt so long ago, despite it not even being a full month yet, not to mention that they haven't fought in a wave.
He was informed about the secret passageways that were made for the royal family to escape if ever the castle was being under attacked. However, secret passageways needed to have an exit and where there was an exit, there had been an entrance likewise. They were tucked into the more obscure places and they couldn't even be accessed if one doesn't know where to look, but being a high knight, Zellus already knew the ins-and-outs of the castle layout.
At this point, he was more worried about tripping over random bumps or cracks on the ground, but that didn't really stop him from wondering about other things.
He didn't even know what he wanted to say to Ren the moment that they met, so he felt like this time was better used to figure out his feelings and try to see how he can uncover the truth from his friend's side. There didn't seem to be any other help to take steps into helping Ren out.
"Hey, Motoyasu? I have a quick question for you."
Zellus broke Motoyasu out of his looming thoughts, but the knight didn't bother to stop when talking.
"Y-Yeah?"
"Say that you have a spear that is unstoppable. Everywhere you point it, you would manage to break through regardless of difficulty. It sounds like a great weapon to have, wouldn't it?"
Motoyasu did think that a weapon like that would be too good to be true to unlock for himself. It would have been an instant win for every single fight that he would be involved in and he wouldn't have needed to think much about it, but he kept silent, thinking that there was much more to it other than a dreamt cheating form.
"Now say that the Shield Hero stands in your way."
"Huh!? Why would Naofumi fight against me!? Only in a million years or in some parallel universe!" After his instinctive response, Naofumi's trial flooded back into his memory. "O-Oh, maybe… Maybe he would have some bones to pick with me, but hopefully not…"
The knight shook his head. "It's a hypothetical. Think of this Shield Hero as another man that you don't know, but that's only the finer details here. The important thing is that this Shield Hero is a man that embodies the attribute of a hero, right down to his core attribute, and that's reflected in this hypothetical unbreakable shield."
Zellus then stopped, causing Motoyasu to stay still in his place and yet, he still refused to even glance back at the hero.
"Say that you want to defeat this Shield Hero. Do you think it's possible?"
The question had seemed like one of the oldest physics questions to date, centering around what happens when an unstoppable force meets an unmovable object. It wasn't hard to imagine that the object would still not move, due to the infinite and then some energy that was needed to push that object along, but he wasn't much of a physicist. He rambled whatever he remembered from his high school classes.
However, the context of the object and the force was important.
"Well, wouldn't the Shield Hero win that fight?" he answered, following his train of logic. "A shield's meant for protecting and a spear for attacking, so in that case, wouldn't the shield be the only one to be successfully doing its job correctly? I can hardly think of a possible victory for me if I'm the one ending up in a stalemate."
"Sigh. You really do have much to learn."
Motoyasu could have sworn he heard his voice as Zellus continued to move on.
"D-Did you say something, Zellus?"
"Nothing. Must have been the wind."
Zellus was deadly silent for the rest of the way. Motoyasu wondered if he answered the question wrong; hell, he didn't even realize that there was a correct answer in the first place. It felt one of those 'open-ended' essay questions that was actually supposed to armlock the writer into a certain perspective.
It didn't take much longer, rather it didn't feel long, for them to come to what he thought was a dead end.
"Did we take the wrong turn somewhere?"
"That's what the royal family wants you to think." Zellus started to walk up towards the wall and felt the surface, knocking a few times to hear some type of hollow sound. "As you might expect, it's heavily guarded by barrier magic. I can't be damned to know the intrinsic details, but this is certainly the place."
He threw a single glance over his shoulder. "Stand back a bit."
Motoyasu took a few steps away as did Zellus, but he had been pulling out his broadsword with a golden sheen to it while placing down the paper bag. He slid his finger along its blade as if he was checking its condition before he aimed it at the wall.
With one quick slash, his sword collided with the brick and suddenly, a faint glowing light had shattered like it was glass to reveal that there was actually a door behind the fake wall.
Motoyasu's mouth was hanging.
"What just happened?"
"It's a type of illusion barrier, combined with a bit of slight persuasion. Regardless of what type of tricks it uses, it's just another type of wall at the end of the day. A fancy one." He sheathed the golden-sheened sword back to his hip, recovered the bag and walked to the door, pulling out some keys on a ring that were oddly still needed for the building. "It just needs a small love tap for it to disappear, but don't worry. These types of things come back after a short time, so no need to replace it or anything."
The door had led to a downwards staircase that looked deep at a glance, but it hadn't been too bad. They arrived at what seemed like a bunker of some type, prepared with all types of equipment that knights would have on hand in order to protect their escorting members.
On the other side of the room, there was yet again another door that Zellus went to unlock that led them even further down a long hallway. The surfaces were a bit dusty, as if it wasn't used in a long time, but the tiles suggested that it was made with extreme diligence and care.
After a while, they came to another dead end which had Zellus pat his hand against the adjacent wall. Like in a spy movie, one of the tiles had sunk into the wall and the dead end started to slide itself out of the way. He thought it would have dropped them off to one of the upper hallways, but he supposed that they never climbed up any stairs for that vertical direction.
Instead, he was met with a storage room that had been filled with armour and weapons. It was rather dark and compared to the tunnel, it had more of a basement vibe to it.
They emerged out from a wall that a bookcase was attached to and once Motoyasu fully entered the area, the wall closed back in on itself, bringing the shelf with it to its normal position.
Taking out one more key, he unlocked it and it brought them out an equally dreary hallway, only that it was illuminated by some torches on the wall. Motoyasu dipped his head out to check if there were any patrolling knights, but Zellus had been much more casual about it, strolling into the hall like he owned the place.
"M-Maybe we should be a little bit more careful? I don't want to be caught in a place where I'm not supposed to be." Zellus kept walking, forcing Motoyasu to trail behind him. The knight really didn't care about what concerns the hero had. "H-Hey, wait up!"
"This isn't some secret operation, Motoyasu," Zellus shrugged. "I'm literally just bringing you to Ren here."
"If you think it's alright, then…" Motoyasu scratched the back of his neck, a bit nervous at the bold approach they were taking. "I'm guessing that you already know all the patrol paths that the knights down here take."
"Nah. I couldn't care any less about patrol pathing, much less patrols in general." There was even a whimsical shrug added on for its flair. "I was just thinking about heading right to the guy. Nothing tricky about it. Besides, due to what happened in the capital, we kept the Sword Hero in one of the deeper prison cells, usually guarded by knights every hour."
"Is that so?"
Motoyasu was happy that Zellus felt so confident in this approach and was willing to trust everything to him, simply based on that casual tone. However, he ended up frowning, hearing that Ren was being treated like a infamous criminal.
Soon, they came to another part of the prison after passing by multiple cells that had people in them, though he wasn't paying much attention. The entrance to the new section had been guarded by two men, just as Zellus told Motoyasu, but instead of a stern or surprised reaction, the knights were quite amicable towards them.
"Oh, Zellus. What's up?"
"Nothing much. I just need to get through here."
"You need to meet up with one of the inmates here?"
"You know it."
"Got permission for it?"
"Nah, it's on a whim."
There was a brief silence. Motoyasu surely thought that the guard would have dismissed him away, but much to his surprise...
"Alright. Just don't make too much of a commotion as usual. That's all I'm asking."
"Thanks."
"No problem, Zellus."
The guard unlocked the door for Zellus and Motoyasu to enter, shocking the hero as to how easy it had been. He would have assumed that there was some type of resistance into letting him in there, but it was clearly tipped in the other direction. He started to wonder how much influence Zellus really had, until one of the other guards opened up his mouth.
"W-Wait, we're just going to let him in? Seriously? Even if he's a high knight, the orders were to not let anyone without permission through. These are the highest levelled criminals here!"
"Uh, yeah. Trust me, rookie. It's much easier for everyone if you let this guy do what he wants. When I say that, I mean it. Besides, if there's any problems to arise, he's the type to clean up after himself."
Zellus did a little, playful wave to the rookie as he looked stunned between the two higher-ranked knights.
"Won't we get in trouble?"
"Captain Lothringen will understand. He always understands when it comes to Zellus."
"I-I see…"
From one end of respect to another side of hilarity, it was rather amusing to see that his guess had been off track by a significant margin, but if it got the same results, he couldn't be judging Zellus on the tactic.
However, the rookie knight had looked over towards Motoyasu's direction, finally acknowledging him. He even pointed him out to his senior.
"Okay, but… what about him?"
"That guy's with me," Zellus said, pointing back with a thumb.
"If he's with Zellus, it'll be fine. If anything, I kinda feel bad for the guy since it feels like he's being dragged along in this little mischief."
"... You know, I really didn't expect there to be exceptions of our knight duties to this."
"You pick these things up quickly, rookie." The guard slapped the assigned rookie quite hard on his back. "Don't let it overwhelm you too much; it's fine to take one step at a time."
"Y-Yes, sir."
Frankly, Motoyasu was a bit surprised that they didn't outright mention that he was the Spear Hero, but perhaps there were some knights that didn't manage to see his face during his appearance here. The gem on his spear was currently tucked away from view, so it was rather difficult to know if he was the hero from a single glance.
After easily passing the guards, they stepped into the deepest part of the prisons which held a completely different atmosphere to the area before it. It was incredible how much bloodlust and misery he could feel, just from the intensity of the air alone and he hadn't even looked into the cells yet.
Though, the cells were constructed differently here. Instead of a simple iron bar that was layered between walkers and prisoners, it had been an iron door with a small hole for looking inside. It only made for the unbreathable aura to be all that more impressive, yet scary.
They were going deeper than that until Zellus stopped in front of an isolated cell to the side.
"This is it. Ren's just in here."
Motoyasu's heart clenched as well as his hand, holding up to his chest.
"You wanna back out? Once you come to talk to him," Zellus said, having some type of unreadable smirk on his face, "there's no turning back."
"Even though I'm not, I still want to see him."
Zellus, without another word, pulled out his keys for the last time and unlocked the cell's front door, granting Motoyasu a brief moment of hesitation. However, it wasn't enough to push him down, only resulting in him gulping the restlessness down to his heart.
In the room, there was another set of iron bars and behind it, Ren had his arm hanging up by shackles as his body was motionlessly slumped against the wall. His holy sword was still in the sheath behind him, but his outfit looked like it had been through hell and back. He couldn't even see Ren's face correctly, both from the lack of lighting and the bangs that covered his eyes.
Motoyasu's feet moved by themselves, unable to wait for his mind to think about it.
He ran up to the bars and with a loud clunk, he held onto them with a terrible concern stricken upon him. His breaths were rather faint, but it made up for the hard pounding of his heart.
"R-Ren…?"
There was no response, but Motoyasu wondered if Ren was mad at him. Sliding himself off the iron bars, he took a seat on the uneven ground in front of the cell. His vision swayed down to the floor, suddenly feeling some shame in bringing himself to the friend.
Zellus had walked in and closed the door behind them, but held himself to the back wall to give some semblance of privacy to them. He made sure to keep a visual on both Spear Hero and Sword Hero, just in case.
Motoyasu took a deep breath before he let the words flow out.
"Ren, I… I was told that you really did attack the Church on whatever day it happened. I know you aren't the type of person to randomly do it, but there must have been another way. I have a feeling that the reason you attacked the Church was because of Naofumi's trial. You found out that the Church was trying to pull the strings, right?"
There wasn't even movement from the Sword Hero, but Motoyasu continued.
"I met up with Aldrecht after the trial and he told me that he had suspicions as well. He told me that as long as we don't involve ourselves too deeply into this, he'll figure something out. We didn't have to do much, but you still took your own actions. You risked your status as a hero, just to help out Naofumi."
Motoyasu closed his eyes, but he didn't really know the words that came out.
"Was I wrong to trust Aldrecht on that? Should I… have done something else like you?"
There was something bitter about asking the question aloud, but it was something that he desperately wanted to know, yet at the same time, he didn't. He couldn't grasp why this was the case if he asked out loud, but his body winced alongside tightened hands.
Ren remained silent and still.
So did Motoyasu after his concern, but then broke the umbral atmosphere after a short moment.
"I want… I want to help you out, Ren. I'm going against Aldrecht's wishes for me to not contact you until this whole Church of Three Heroes fiasco has ended, but it hurts me to see a good friend of mine like this. It was the same when I saw Naofumi in cuffs in the throne room. It's weird that people can praise me for being their hero when I can't even help out my friends.
"You might be mad that I couldn't pick a side, but I know that Myne wouldn't be someone to randomly accuse Naofumi, much less a hero, like that. I believed Naofumi, but I chose to believe in Myne as well. I know that there's another side that we couldn't see due to the contradictions, but that's what I believed happened. There's something that we don't know yet, but Aldrecht does know about it already. That's why I believed him, because there wasn't really another choice."
His back leaned forwards, bending his spine with a slight curve.
"I don't know, Ren. I don't know what I should do! I just wanted my friends to be happy! That's all! Why does it have to be so hard!?"
If everyone had been happy, no one would get hurt with any type of physical injuries or emotional pain. That's the type of atmosphere that Motoyasu wanted in his life, ever since he understood its concept and even more so after gaining his past trauma.
That's why he wanted to believe people; he didn't want those close to him to be affected by any types of despair that would have driven them into certain mentalities. He didn't want his friends and allies to be fighting against each other when they should have been having fun.
Perhaps that was the problem, but Motoyasu refused to acknowledge it.
He knew there had to be a way to do it and that's why he kept trying, but being brought into a different world brought upon a whole new level of stress, all crashing down on his shoulders.
"Please, tell me. What should I do?"
Motoyasu didn't dare to look at Ren anymore. His head had graviated downwards, refusing to rise, but it was likely for the best. His trail of thought started to become clouded.
"You're someone that's so strong-willed, Ren. I like that about you and it's what I think about when it comes to tough decisions like this. You refuse to give up and you're so clear on your decisions, while I'm always finding it difficult to keep moving forwards, so you would know what you should do if you were in my situation right now."
His voice had been choking up, but he hadn't heard Ren's voice utter a sound yet.
Perhaps he was annoyed that Motoyasu couldn't think for himself here.
"I was… thinking that we can get Aldrecht's help again here to find a way to bail you out, but I don't know how much progress he made on Naofumi's case so far. Aldrecht, from what Zellus told me, isn't trying to help you out of this, so I'm going to try my best to convince Aldrecht to lend you a hand.
"Is that the right course of action here?"
As the question flew out, Motoyasu immediately shook his head.
"No, it's not." His shoulders dropped down. "There's no promise that I'll be able to get Aldrecht to help out and then what? For being a hero, I can't really do much for my friends."
Even if he wanted to make investigations, he wouldn't know where to start. He could ask Aldrecht for information, but it was more likely that Aldrecht wouldn't part with it if he ever found out what the intentions were. Besides, he wasn't even the type to be snooping his nose around the Church; he would get discovered before he could count to ten.
Ren, regardless of what he said, remained quiet, causing Motoyasu to look back up.
"H-Hey, at least say something…"
He would have appreciated some acknowledgement, even if it was angered yelling, but not saying anything to him had been unnerving and probably much more painful for Motoyasu to experience.
"... Oh, right. I forgot to mention a small detail," Zellus' voice rose up against the mood, unflinching in his words. "He's unconscious. Has been for a few days."
"W-Wha-!? Huh!?" Motoyasu flicked his head back and forth between Zellus and Ren, before diving his flustered face into his hands. "You could have at least told me beforehand!"
"If I didn't, you wouldn't be able to think about what you're trying to do here."
His rosen emotions suddenly transitioned after hearing the truth spill out from the knight. He was right, after all. He didn't know why he wanted to see Ren, only for the reason to make sure that he was fine, but other than that, there must have been another pulling factor. Seeing his friend before him enabled his ability to finally pour his heart out and form it into legible words.
"Also, I forgot," the knight cheekily added in.
"E-Erhm… Thanks, Zellus. I guess it's the thought that counts," he wryly chuckled. "Maybe next time, you'll be able to bring me here while Ren's awake?"
A single clack echoed in the hallway as the iron door opened up so suddenly, surprising Motoyasu, yet not Zellus. He stood still as Motoyasu gasped at the man that walked in with his cane.
"You won't be doing such a thing, Spear Hero."
"A-Aldrecht!?" He took a step back out of both surprise and fear. He stumbled on himself, waving his hands around frantically. "W-What are you doing here? I-I mean…! I can explain!"
There were two knights stationed outside in the hallway as Motoyasu tried to come up with an excuse as to why they were here, but none of them seemed reasonable enough to allow him to be here. If anything, the best thing to say was to tell Aldrecht the truth. Aldrecht, however, glanced over to Zellus, who didn't even bother to look back and made a tired sigh.
"You're not in trouble, Spear Hero. So you discovered that the Sword Hero was arrested?"
Motoyasu nodded. "I wanted to know the full story. I'm not going to let another case of Naofumi's trial happen again."
"Despite my warning to not meet with him, even if it was in the depths of a prison?"
"Yeah. I'm sorry, Aldrecht."
Aldrecht bit his tongue, as if he wanted to say more, but he shook his head to himself and turned around. "I suppose it is unhealthy to friends away from each other forcefully. If anything, I should be glad that your meeting was in a rather secured location. However, I wish to talk to you about this incident. I expect Zellus had already informed you of what he knows."
The knight nodded just within Aldrecht's field of vision.
"Good. Then I'll continue the rest. Please follow me, Spear Hero." Aldrecht took his steps out of the cell and had the other knights clear the way for them. "We'll find a better place to discuss. Besides, you won't be able to find the answers you seek from your friend yet."
"I guess this is where we part ways, Motoyasu," Zellus said.
"You're not coming?"
"This is between you and the old guy. Not sure if I want to be third-wheeling here."
"Yes, I'll have a conversation with Zellus another time," Aldrecht said, looking over his shoulder. It was as if there was quite the disapprovement aiding his voice. "For now, I'll be giving you my full attention and I expect the same from you. As you're here, I want to ask you a few things of my own."
Motoyasu didn't know what to think of this, but it seemed to be much easier to come with him rather than make a commotion over it. With that, he'll be able to make an attempt at persuasion for Ren's sake, but this would also be a good moment to get updated on how far he was in Naofumi's case.
Silently nodding, Motoyasu started to leave with Aldrecht.
"I'll lock up behind you," Zellus said, twirling his keys. "Don't you worry about it."
Without another word, the Spear Hero and the king's retainer left the area, alongside the knights that had been on nearby patrol. Zellus stepped out after them and took his time to lock up Ren's prison, but kept his eyes off to the corner to see when everyone had left the hallway.
He then unlocked it again and stepped back into the room.
He then unlocked the immediate cell door and stepped into Ren's proximity with a smirk.
Dropping the paper bag of food at his feet, he took out another key out of the assortment and looked onwards to the right shackle, disattaching it from Ren's wrist. He sat back down, almost imitating Motoyasu's previous position, only to remove what was inside the paper bag.
It had been a meal.
To be specific, it was the new menu item at the tavern that he offered to Lothringen, taken as a to-go platter. With a sauce spilled across the pre-cutted meat, layered on top of mashed potatoes and other assorted colourful vegetables, it was one of the more expensive dishes on the menu and certainly not the late-night dinner that belonged to a prisoner.
However, it wasn't for Zellus to indulge on. He already had his share before meeting with Motoyasu.
"Ignoring your friends when they express concern to you is a bad thing, wouldn't you say?"
Placing the spoon onto the take-out container, Ren's free arm started to move towards the food. He was certainly awake, but as the knight focused his sights on the imprisoned Sword Hero, all he could see were dark swirls in his eyes. The only thing that prevented him from cracking was the single beacon of light remaining in the center.
"Naofumi's an idiot… Motoyasu's a dumbass…"
His mumbling voice, so quiet that Zellus had a hard time hearing it, had been rather disjointed by his actions. His body recognized the food laid out before him and started to eat it up the spoon carefully, but his mind couldn't recognize who had been the one to give it to him. He would have likely refused if he was still in the right state of mind.
"Why… Why did this even happen…?"
Ren Amaki hadn't been unconscious, so Zellus had lied to Motoyasu.
Ren Amaki was unconscious, so Zellus was telling the truth to him.
Zellus never expected this to be the result of their fight. He thought that Ren would be able to recover normally after being knocked out, but even as his body moved naturally, he never really woke up from his slumber. He thought that having him meet Motoyasu would have snapped him right back to sanity, but there really was only one person that could help him out.
"It...suki… Stay far… away… Stay… sa…fe…"
It was a shame that the Church already caught the Bow Hero in their little trap.
And so, Zellus stayed until Ren was finished eating, humming a tune as he thought about what he was going to do next. Everything was starting to come together for him, but he just needed to make sure that he could play around the other variables in this situation.
)—(\IV/)|—(
Motoyasu never took the time to look up into the stars before.
He always considered them as part of the background, nothing really worth focusing on, but as their lights shined above him, he couldn't say anymore that they weren't interesting. He knew that the two younger roommates were once avid stargazers from Itsuki's own mouth, but ever since they've moved in, they've slowly parted ways from the hobby.
They do, however, have the habit of looking up into the skies every now and then. After Itsuki shyly admitted to that, he had noticed it a few times with them. Indeed, there was something calming about it and he started to understand the appeal of looking up at the dark skies while the stars scattered about like sprinkles on a blank cake.
"It's quite the beautiful night, is it not? I sometimes stay past midnight in order to complete a few experiments and research papers, but never have I ever stepped out to see the wonders that the castle staff have been tending to, in order for the others to enjoy their stroll through the garden. This, as well, is another type of research that must be cultivated through knowledge and hypothesis."
Aldrecht's question echoed throughout as they stood within the center of the area. The flowers of all assortments stood as the spectators, brightening the area almost as if they were using their own type of magic. Even if this was another world, Motoyasu could recognize some of the familiar shapes and subtle scents. He wanted to say that they were even one of the same if he hadn't been told about the context.
Though, he had to laugh a bit at the similarity. Perhaps Ren and Itsuki would have had some problems figuring the plants from each other, so he shouldn't be saying anything about the stars.
Still, it was breathtaking, having the combination of stars and flowers in unity to create a peaceful resolution.
"I heard that a stroll helps with stress." Aldrecht stopped in the middle, nearby the fountain and sat down on the bench. He remained to hold his cane, standing vertically from the ground. "Is this true? Have you calmed down and rested your nerves, Spear Hero?"
"Yeah, a stroll really does help." Pressing his hand on his chest, he could feel his heart returning back to normal unlike the heavy pounding it was experiencing previously. "Even though my thoughts aren't entirely there yet, it feels a bit right to take it easy, especially with a soothing atmosphere like this."
"You'll have to express your gratitude towards the king for that. He was the one to tell about such an interesting mental exercise."
"I guess he's not called the Wise Sage King for nothing," Motoyasu jested. "Random pieces of wisdom must really be part of his strong suit!"
With Motoysu's dry laughter being brushed away in the quiet breeze, Aldrecht gestured to Motoyasu to take a seat next to him. Accepting the offer, he walked over and plunged himself down, being careful to keep some respectful distance between them.
His amusement then slowly cracked, showing his true feelings on his shoulders.
"... Aldrecht. If it's not rude of me to start off, then could you tell me the progress you made in clearing Naofumi's name?"
There was a terribly long pause, before a heavy sigh.
"I must truly apologize, Spear Hero. Even when I gave you my word, I have been having quite difficulty in making any significant progress. The Church is tight and it's not as if I could have some waltz in to get the information we need."
Motoyasu's heart was about to sink until Aldrecht continued his thoughts.
"However, someone did indeed waltz in outside of my influence. In that case, I do believe that the Sword Hero has some pieces of the puzzle that are of utmost importance in clearing the Shield Hero's name. Have you been told what the details of his crimes were?
"He… attacked the library of the Church of Three Heroes."
"And is that all of what you've been told?"
"That's all Zellus told me, added with the fact that you aren't helping him out."
Aldrecht scrunched his eyebrows at what Motoyasu just said.
"I don't know where Zellus got that idea, but I am indeed trying to assist the Sword Hero as well. In fact, I'm rather grateful that Zellus had helped handle the situation because we have the Sword Hero safely 'protected', if you will, from any more influence from the Church."
"What does that have to do with Ren having the final pieces?"
"I expected that the Sword Hero had uncovered evidence there, thus the Church acted hastily against him. The reports said that the library was set ablaze and from what we know of the Sword Hero, he doesn't have the capability to use fire magic." Aldrecht stroked his white beard, as if he needed the moment to articulate his thoughts. "I believe that was an inside job, caused by the people of the Church themselves when they discovered the Sword Hero snooping around. I did refrain from telling anyone so far, due to my need of confirming it with the Sword Hero."
"So when Ren wakes up from his unconsciousness and tells you about the evidence…"
Aldrecht nodded. "At that point, I'll be able to work together with the king and convince him to put off the Sword Hero's trial. I can only foresee a short delay, due to the public disturbance that the Sword Hero did end up making, but that would be enough time for me to send operatives deeper into the problem."
He was glad that there was some type of light at the end of this tunnel. If Ren truly did have the information needed to free Naofumi from the stained shackles that was his reputation, they could tie all of this up in a little red bow tie and he'll be able to express his condolences and apologies to Naofumi himself.
Though he was concerned about how the crime was done in the first place, truth be told, he concluded that someone was trying to steal Naofumi's identity in order to assault Myne. In a world of magic and fantasy, illusion magic must have existed.
Without it, there were one contradiction. If Naofumi was innocent, Myne was lying. If Myne was telling the truth, Naofumi was guilty. If this had been their world, there is no possible way for Naofumi to be innocent while Myne had been telling the truth. It was as simple as that, but Motoyasu hated that.
Was the truth something he hadn't considered yet?
"However, I must share something I've uncovered lately, Spear Hero. It's something that makes me doubt that all of this might be in vain."
"In vain!?" Motoyasu was flabbergasted, standing up with a tantrum. "How could it ever be in vain!? I want to help out my friends here! And if you said that I can't keep in contact with them, then you'll have to finish this up as quickly as you can!"
"Do you know if they are truly your friends?"
Motoyasu blinked silently. A turmoil of confused emotions kicked up in his stomach.
"Do you know that these are the exact same people that we once lived with?"
"Y-Yeah…" Motoyasu shook his head to get himself back firmly on the ground. "I-I mean, why wouldn't they be? We all went through the same thing when we were being called to Melromarc and there were memories that we shared at the banquet. I think. I was… uhm, drunk, so it's a bit foggy for me."
"I should first tell you about your summoning ritual beforehand as context."
As Motoyasu sat himself back down, Aldrecht started to discuss those details with him. There were a lot of technical jargon that Motoyasu wasn't aware of, but he managed to understand the general idea due to the terminology he learned from Emerald Online. However, he still didn't understand what relation this had to do with anything until Aldrecht tied it back to his original proposition.
The summoning ritual had an error to it that was inexplicable to even the highly-regarded scholar, but due to his recent discoveries, he could offer an hypothesis that only one of the heroes was actually summoned properly. It would explain the three lingering sources of energy and how the prophecy was blatantly ignored when requesting those from different worlds.
This was likely, but it came with severe implications.
"Your friends may not be in the correct state of mind, if that was the case."
"R-Really?" Motoyasu remembered their first day here, but he couldn't see any inconsistencies. "T-They seemed normal…"
"Perhaps it was an act," Aldrecht answered. "I came across a book supplied by Zellus that talked about the possibilities of false heroes. It seemed quite old, though I wasn't informed as to where he got it from. However, I was needing to trust it when our options were limited, especially coming from a good source."
Flinching at the term of 'false heroes', Motoyasu didn't like the sound of it, but he knew he had to press on with what Aldrecht had to say. "And what was inside?"
"It tells of the possibility of false heroes and it stems from the conditions of the heroes that were summoned. For instance, if a hero is summoned somehow with two weapons, breaking the prophecy of four possible people, that hero must be dealt with accordingly as allowing him to exist will result in a fallen kingdom. Apparently, it happened in the far past already, but was never recorded in any of the historian documents due to how terrible it had been."
Motoyasu was astounded that such a thing could happen, but that brought up a logical question. The weapons were supposed to cancel experience gain when they were close by with each other, right? that was the entire reason why he couldn't go on an adventure with his closest friends, so he didn't exactly understand how a hero who was stuck with two of the four holy weapons was supposed to get strong enough to burn down an entire country.
Perhaps there was some type of exception here? Or perhaps a rule of exception?
"From then on, a hero with two holy weapons, though not known to the public, is considered evil and fake." Aldrecht's grip on his cane tightened a bit as he leaned forwards from his tensed shoulders. "There were other cases where the prophecy had been violated and it all resulted in the heroes committing bad deeds to the place that summoned them. I fear that this is what happened here."
"W-Wait, then…" Motoyasu pounded his chest and glared at the old man. "Wouldn't I be included in that!? I think I can tell if I was going to do evil deeds or not and I can say for certain that I wouldn't do any of that!"
"That is true, but once again, the summoning ritual acted as if one hero was summoned. Now I understand that one hero was indeed summoned. If you all came from the same world, the prophecy was not violated in one of the four cases. Hypothetically, say that the Shield Hero and the Sword Hero have committed their crimes. That leaves the Bow Hero and the Spear Hero as our true hero, deeming the rest as false."
"But Itsuki wouldn't do stuff like evil! He loves seeing justice unfold!"
"You say that, but I've also received a report earlier that the Bow Hero had attacked a former comrade of mine to the Siltvelt War. There was reportedly nothing that could have invoked the attack, but it left his manor in shambles."
Motoyasu stared at Aldrecht in disbelief.
"It… suki did? Wh… What…?"
"I am still trying to figure out the reasoning and I called Sir Lothringen to keep this matter a secret for now, but it will only be due time that news of the Bow Hero's rampage will spread to the public ears." Aldrecht turned, meeting with Motoyasu's frozen expression. "However, if he was indeed a false hero, he does not need a reason to spread chaos. That leaves you as our true hero."
"W-Wait, I'm still trying to process this!" Motoyasu screamed, grabbing his head. He wanted to scream even louder in anguish, but his lungs wouldn't allow for it. "So if what you're saying is correct, something messed up and it altered the mentality of my friends to allow them to commit crimes? Is that what you're saying!?"
"Unfortunately, that does seem to be the case."
"That's crazy! That's definitely crazy!" Motoyasu ran up from his seat and grabbed Aldrecht by his shoulders, shaking the man almost violently, but he didn;t say anything about it. Aldrecht knew, simply by looking into his eyes, that the Spear Hero wasn't thinking straight from the revelation. "That can't be real! Whoever said that this was real has to be insane!"
"And that's why I need to check with the Sword Hero," Aldrecht calmly said. His stern voice managed to switch Motoyasu back to reasonably normal as he realized what he was doing in his confusion. Motoyasu backed off in a daze, stumbling around as if he was going to fall over, but he never did. "I need to be certain that this is the case by checking up on him. He is not able to respond at the moment, so we must wait a few days to a week for him to properly recover. At that point, we can properly uncover the truth."
Motoyasu couldn't hear much of it. His face was being buried in his hands, trying to wrap his head around the mere notion that his friends would commit crimes intentionally. It doesn't seem possible, even if some changes through the summoning process had messed their heads up a little.
"... I-I want you to promise me something else, Aldrecht."
"Anything within my capabilities."
Motoyasu threw his hands down and stared at the ground. He didn't even want to look at Aldrecht, but perhaps it was because he didn't want Aldrecht to see the scared expression on his face. Though, it might have been clear with his trembling body.
"When Ren wakes up, I want you to bring me to him like how Zellus did for me."
The flashes of his long-ago memory of the two girls flickered before his eyes.
"If they're hiding their true emotions, I want to hear it. I want to see for myself that the error in the summoning ritual really did mess them up in a noticeable way."
As Motoyasu's heart ached by simply saying those words, he didn't realize his own hypocrisy of the truth. He wanted them to reveal themselves for him to understand while remaining to hide his own burdens for no one else to see. He saw it as a natural thing to do, as he didn't want others to share the same weight on his shoulders by telling them his sorrows, but it was still hypocrisy in the bitter end.
Somewhere, Motoyasu knew it. He just didn't want to see it.
Aldrecht had paused, thinking about the promise and its possible consequences, but he nodded afterwards.
"You have my word, Spear Hero. I will have someone come get you when the Sword Hero awakens, but you must remain stationed around the capital until then."
It was a good thing that Zellus wanted to train him, giving him the excuse to spend time here.
"If there's nothing else to talk about, I would… kinda appreciate sleeping in a guest room tonight." Motoyasu wryly smiled at the old man, scratching the back of his head in a casual manner. "It's really late out and I'm a bit tired, both physically and mentally."
Aldrecht smiled back. "I can understand that, Spear Hero. Please inform one of the castle staff here and they'll gladly show you to a room. You can say that you've been in a long discussion with me and they would understand."
Motoyasu nodded. "Thanks, Aldrecht."
As the Spear Hero left, shrouded in his own thoughts, Aldrecht remained to stay underneath the stars, basking in the natural beauty once more. He wondered about the information himself and he wasn't entirely sure it was the right thing to do, informing the Spear Hero of such a thing. However, that belief in his friends reminded him of the king.
He wondered if it was a good idea to leave out the fact that the Shield Hero had been helping out the Sword Hero's escape, only to be able to escape by himself. He assured himself that it wouldn't do much to the situation and only stirred up more emotions within the young man.
Sleep would only benefit him and frankly, he himself was growing tired.
After spending a few more minutes in silence, he went ahead to return to his personal quarters.
)—(\IV/)|—(
Lesty had been fast asleep in her room, but she heard a sudden knocking noise at her window. She thought it had been the wind at first, but it certainly wasn't when something crashed through it, shattering the glass in its entirety. She immediately stiffed and awakened, grabbing her weapon in case it was an intruder, but she was half-surprised to see who it had been.
Confusion turned into annoyance, then transitioned into exasperation. Her grip on her weapon loosened a bit, seeing the familiar knight who stretched out his arms after the blatant break-and-enter.
"You could have knocked on the door," she sighed, laying her weapon back on the side. "Any louder than you would probably waken up the people in the adjacent rooms."
"Don't worry, no one's in there. The Spear Hero would have been on the left and the room on the right is currently not in use. And besides, breaking down windows is pretty fun to give people heart attacks!" He winked at the girl. "As a knight, you should have been fully prepared to attack."
"You never change, Zellus. In fact, you quite literally haven't." Lesty walked over to the bed and sat down comfortably, remembering when he was first announced as a knight to the kingdom. "You look the same as you were when I was younger. Maybe you could share your secrets with a girl like me?"
"It's not a secret that you could ever use. Trust me, it's more bothersome than you might think," he wryly smiled.
Zellus approached another seat in the room and made himself up home, kicking his feet onto the nearby table and crossing his arms. He was careful not to knock anything down, adjusting his swords so that he could take the posture. After brushing his bang out of his face, his attention returned to Lesty.
"So? How is the entire situation with the Spear Hero going on your side?"
"Huh?" Her eyebrows furrowed. "I make my reports to Lord Aldrecht, you know. I haven't been slacking off with them for you to personally ask me. If you really wanted to know, you should have requested them from the royal spymaster or even Captain Lothringen."
The entire time that Lesty had been with Motoyasu, she had been writing up her observations as the king had informed her and sending it back to the capital. She hasn't taken up such a job before with such diligence required, but it hasn't been problematic so far. It was merely a few sentences describing their situation and the current mindset or plans of the Spear Hero every few days.
She was sure that someone like Batka would have been sending pages about the Sword Hero every time, but she was much more direct in her writing; it was something she knew that would be appreciated if any unneeded details were left out.
Regardless, Zellus waved his hand to push her argument aside.
"No, no. Not that. I'm talking about the things that the princess told you not to write."
"W-What…?"
"I had to confirm the mentality of the Spear Hero myself today and judging from how he acted, it's obvious that you were slacking off on your job."
Lesty's body flinched and pulled back instinctively. "I-I'm not sure what you're referring to."
"Look, I want to check up with you on something."
"I don't think that's—"
"Here's my problem." From his crossed arms, he pulled out an arm, pointing a single raised finger towards her, interrupting any attempt to stop the rundown. "How did the Spear Hero learn about the Sword Hero's arrest?"
"I sent it in the report, did I not? There were rumors flying about the village and it would be almost impossible to isolate Sir Motoyasu away from the public, especially when he's doing a job for them."
"The village with a famine," Zellus nodded, reeling his arm back. "Yes, I've read about that, but despite no one saying anything about, I certainly have to ask. Your report also stated that it took a few days to arrive there and you left a day or two before the Sword Hero was arrested. According to what information and tips I managed to uncover, there weren't any confirmed trips that went from the capital to that famined village in the days inbetween. I mean, why would there be any? Merchants and adventurers aren't the type to go where money or products are little far inbetween."
Zellus made a hearty laugh as Lesty winced in the cross-examination.
"And besides, it's a damn famine! No one is going to waste their time, talking about rumors from the capital! They're too worried about getting food in the stomachs of them and their children! The castle could blow up and they wouldn't even give a damn!"
He swung his feet off the table and slammed his arm on the surface. His outspoken tone relayed back to an unsettling calmness.
"I'll ask again. How did the Spear Hero learn about the Sword Hero's arrest? You were ordered to keep the Spear Hero away from the capital and by correlation, that meant he could not hear about that matter."
Lesty stayed silent, biting his tongue while looking away.
"You failed in your job, but I needed to know if that was on purpose."
She said nothing, but that reaction already answered him what he wanted to know.
"So it was the princess herself." She winced in the deduction, gazing back at Zellus as if she wanted to ask how he knew that. However, he answered before she could say a word. "If it was you, you would have said it by now. If it had been the other party members, you would have ratted them out by now. The only person that remains is the princess, your close friend."
"And what if she was the one to tell him? She only expressed concern, thinking that Sir Motoyasu should have the right to know. Besides, she wasn't issued with any orders herself, so she wouldn't have…"
However, as Lesty talked onwards, her head started to connect pieces together by themselves. A certain question arose from the ashes.
"And that's my point. She wasn't informed of the orders, so she couldn't have known about the arrest so soon. Unless she overheard your conversation with the Shadow, but even then, they would have detected her presence. In that case, it's clearly not that. Where did she hear about the arrest then?"
Lesty pondered at it for a moment, realizing that there had been instances where she could have quietly made contact with a third party. She would often prefer to head off by herself sometimes and she was directly ordered to stay with the others to watch them rather than to go with the princess herself.
However, Zellus didn't have the real question.
The concern had been who had been the one to inform her.
"Do you know, Lesty?"
"I-I don't know," she shook her head. "Even if I did, the princess would most likely dissuade me from reporting it."
"It's fine. I believe you."
Zellus leaned forwards in his set and pressed his arms on the table.
"I was trying to figure if the princess was working with the Church of Three Heroes since the entire situation smelt badly. I think it was an intentional action to bring the Spear Hero back to the capital, but I can't figure out what they want from him. They haven't made contact yet; that alone is raising some question marks."
"I do believe that the princess has connections with the Church, even with the head nun there," Lesty revealed. "However, I don't think that in itself means anything, Zellus. What would being allied with the Church do for this?"
"You don't need to know about that," Zellus smirked. Aldrecht said that he wanted to limit the amount of people that knew about the Church's plan to go against the royal family, but he intended to do just that for him, whether it was better or worse off. "I'm only piecing together the hidden report where others may not have, but I think this is good enough for me. Whoever she's allied with, I can cross off one team from that list. The most important one, mind I add."
"What are you even talking about?"
"In addition, I now understand how involved you are, being the princess' friend and all. And I'll have to admit, it seems like you're relatively clean. Sorry for any doubt."
"You're not making any sense. What do you mean by that?"
Zellus jumped out of his seat and walked over to the shattered window. He swept all of the broken glass into one pile in the corner with his foot, ignoring Lesty's desire of clarification. It was painfully obvious that she wasn't going to get an answer out of the knight anytime soon.
That extravagant knight already got what he wanted.
He wanted to see the intentions of this undercover knight and where her alignments were, mainly due to the fact that he and the Spear Hero received an unexpected visitor during their trip to the Sword Hero. He kept the information vague about what he was planning with Motoyasu, but it seemed like he was discovered to a certain degree.
Regardless, he didn't think that Lesty would have suddenly reported his movements to the king, much less Aldrecht himself. In that case, he already had an idea which little bird had flown to his office and informed him of his untold plans.
A certain, ambitious red bird, if he had to say.
"Oh, and uh… I'll pay for this," Zellus said, pointing down at the broken glass and window. "Don't worry about the charges. I'll talk with the innkeeper and arrange a payment."
"... I was hoping you were thinking about that already."
He properly opened the window this time, so that his jump back out wouldn't be met with broken shards that managed to hang on for dear life, but as his hands placed themselves onto the windowside, he paused when a breeze brushed his hair.
"Actually, there's… one more thing I've been wondering."
He didn't turn his head, but the buried curiosity was suddenly dug up. He thought something got lost in translation, but seeing that he was the one that selected the knights for Aldrecht, he might as well bring it up. Gripping tighter on the ledge, he spoke quite sternly.
"Why were you the one to be chosen to accompany the heroes?"
"Huh? The king called me in for it, as well as Batka and Kojeel. Since the princess wanted to come with one of the heroes, I had to accompany her as well alongside the task of reporting. It was a slight blunder when she spontaneously wanted to switch to the Shield Hero while I was specifically ordered to watch the Spear Hero."
"Hmm. Is that so?"
Zellus, without another thought, jumped out the window, leaving the girl behind to exhale deeply. It was like the air just lightened when he left, but if she didn't know how Zellus acted, she would have been quite the sheltered and aloof knight.
As she glanced out the window, it looked as if there were a few more hours until the sun rose up into the horizon. She didn't know what was happening, but all she hoped was that it wasn't going to be heavy on her involvement. She already had her hands full, after all.
And little did she know, so did Zellus.
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Author's Notes :
The Motoyasu Chapters was intended to only be a single chapter, but then it extended itself into three. As if the inworld month hadn't been long enough to readers. Have I mentioned how the Riyute Village Wave yet? Yeah, that's a great reminder!
*sigh*
Sometimes, this is painful.
I'm aware it's moving so slow, but I don't have the ability to lessen the pace without killing the tension. I tried it once already. It did not work, not meeting my own expectations.
Anyways, I should mention that there are many pieces to this narrative, but as it is in reality, there are lies sprinkled far inbetween to prevent all sides from seeing the real truth, from what the characters have told others or even what their somewhat limited narration has informed readers.
Having multiple perspectives does not mean you get the full story. There may be contradictions, but there is only one truth. These chapters were intended to help concrete that idea, even if it was much more than intended.
Going from Ren to Naofumi to Itsuki and then Motoyasu.
Next time, we start up the Naofumi/Itsuki Chapters and see what they're up to in Riyute Village.
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SKIT 044 : Familiar Tune
[Zellus] : (*humming*)
[Motoyasu] : "Hey, wait. That song…!"
[Zellus] : "Oh? You already heard this song?"
[Motoyasu] : "Well, not here. It reminds me of a song that played during the opening sequence of a certain television show back in my world. The name is slipping off my tongue, but I know it was a popular one!"
[Motoyasu] : "Ah, but I… guess you don't know what a television is…"
[Zellus] : "No, it's alright. I can probably guess based on your context. Though, I only remember the tune of it. It's been so long since I actually heard the words that they kinda faded away in obscurity."
[Motoyasu] : "Oh, is it not a popular song here?"
[Zellus] : "You can say that. To be honest, I'd be surprised if anyone in this country knew about the song. The song's been passed down quite a number of times in isolation and you're talking to the most recent person that has the song in their pocket of this world."
[Motoyasu] : "Ah, so it's a family thing? A tradition of some kind?"
[Zellus] : "I have no parents. Not anymore. They were killed before my eyes when I was young."
[Motoyasu] : "... I-I'm sorry, I didn't mean to bring it up."
[Zellus] : "Nah, it doesn't bother me, but don't let that distract you from the fact that you know about the song! Mind telling me the words? I was wondering what they were again!"
[Motoyasu] : "I… uh… never paid that much attention to be able to know them."
[Zellus] : "And I'm back to being disappointed."
[Motoyasu] : "Wait, 'back to'!?"
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SKIT 045 : Target
[Zellus] : "There has to be a reason as to why Myne was informed about the arrest, but the most likely candidate that was her source was the Church of Three Heroes. For some reason, they wanted to bring the Spear Hero back, the lone hero that remained to be unconvicted for some crime. Even the Bow Hero got messed over with that incident at some noble's manor, if what my sources are saying is correct."
[Zellus] : "But why would they call upon the Spear Hero? I can't think of a reason for them to have him here, especially during this time. In fact, it's like they're trying to round out the cast here. Was it because he showed the slightest belief for the Shield Hero? It couldn't be. They would be treating him like the Sword Hero and the Bow Hero on the day of the trial, but they can't afford to lose their last hero to the capital."
[Zellus] : "I don't think he showed any connection to the Shield Hero at the trial, since I was told Aldrecht was informed about their origins after the trial."
[Zellus] : "Then are they just extrapolating? If so, that would be quite a dumb move and Aldrecht could easily call them out using the problem with the summoning ritual where three out of the four sources of energy still remained."
[Zellus] : "The castle was secured, aside from the princess' words, but I don't think she could ever…"
[Zellus] : "Wait. How the hell did the princess know that the Spear Hero would have acted like that for the Sword Hero? A guessed correlation with the Shield Hero?"
[Zellus] : "Or did the Spear Hero himself tell her at some point even though he was told not to spread that information? But that can't be right, he doesn't seem like the type to spill secrets out easily. Especially his own."
[Zellus] : "But maybe if they had met at some point between the twenty-four hours of receiving their party members and the Shield Hero's arrest in the morning…"
[Zellus] : "Ah, I… see…"
[Zellus] : "Heh. Heh heh heh. HA HA HA!"
[Zellus] : "How interesting! How very interesting! This has become quite an interesting situation!"
[Zellus] : "I'm going to definitely enjoy watching this unfold!"
)—(\IV/)|—(