The crow said that and died. Those were words breathed out just before the flame of life went out.
A joke uttered right before death—no, a curse, nearly—yet the voice was brimming with leisure. Far too much for a voice on the verge of death.
'It’s not this bird babbling. Someone else’s voice is coming out of the bird’s beak.'
Caron realized the crow was not tamed.
Someone was controlling the bird. It flew in the master’s stead, thrust itself into the sword, and even relayed a voice with its mouth. An ability unheard of on the continent of Agoris.
But there was no time to think now.
Tap-tap!
Colin, barely back on his feet, dashed for the door again.
Caron flipped his grip on his sword in an instant.
'If a crow blocks the front, I’ll skewer it together with you, Colin.'
Vwoom!
Caron’s aura seethed and condensed on the blade in a heartbeat. A note like wind brushing by. The ground pulsed once as if it had a heart,
Swiish!
A blade shot at Colin’s back. Air belatedly followed and formed a gale.
An attack that a mere one or two birds could never stop. Even if they leapt in front, they would lose form and be shredded, tumbling about in pieces along with Colin.
However, Caron did not yet know.
The crow was not a tamed creature, but something controlled by someone. In other words, it possessed human intelligence as is.
What that meant.
TANG!
“!”
Caron’s sword was deflected and flew aside.
It wasn’t Colin who parried it, nor a crow stepping in front.
Caron was a Paladin. An attack imbued with his aura meant a sure kill for almost any human.
Yet that sword was cut clean in midair and had its tip driven into the ground.
'This force...!'
Realizing something at the sight, Caron lifted his head.
The door stood open.
A crow sat atop the doorknob.
[I heard your little chat earlier—you seemed very reluctant to send him into this room.]
Another crow—already utterly tiresome.
[What’s happening here?]
The crow cocked its head in a very bird-like way.
[Bird-brained as I am, I don’t really know.]
“This trifling interference!”
Caron shouted.
Just then, a voice came from the crack of the open door.
“Caron.”
A woman’s voice. Yet the person inside had not revealed herself.
It was originally the parlor where Caron received important, secret guests.
As would be expected, the space behind that door, shrouded in darkness, exuded a gloomy, chilling air.
“‘Nine’ judges that Colin and this bird are comrades, and acknowledges that Colin opened the door by his own will.”
“......!”
Caron’s face twisted.
“Impossible! The treaty’s condition was that a member set foot inside the room!”
While Caron shouted, Colin slipped out of sight into the room. Only the crow still sat on the handle. But Caron could no longer rashly follow.
Instead, Caron yelled,
“Even if Colin is one of the Nine, unconditional protection violates the treaty, does it not!”
The woman’s voice replied again,
“How strange, Caron. To hear you invoke our treaty.”
“!”
“Our treaty exists to protect us. Such conditions exist to confirm the will to protect. In the current situation, it is obvious that Colin has appealed to us for protection.”
Caron clenched his fist. He had let Colin go right before his eyes. His rage had nowhere to go and made blood seep between his fingers.
“Caron, to try to take one of the Nine by wordplay—Paladin scruples are difficult to understand.”
“......Hand over Colin. Otherwise you will face the entirety of the Paladins. Even you will not withstand all of us.”
“Of course, were we Nine to wage an all-out war with the Paladins, we would not win.”
Though she stated her own defeat, the woman’s voice was elegant.
“However, we act as the treaty dictates. Even if we all die and every Paladin remains unscathed—”
And then, a killing intent flowed that was vicious enough to be alluring.
“You will die. Paladin Caron.”
“......Tch.”
Caron let out a breath and reached out his hand.
Creeeeak, the sword driven into the ground squealed oddly and twisted its body. Soon it slipped free of where it was stuck and returned to his hand.
“The Paladins will not forget today’s decision by the Nine. You’ll regret this before long.”
“Regret.”
The woman’s voice seemed tinged with a smile.
“The thing one did yesterday, and will do again tomorrow, no doubt.”
“......Hmph.”
Caron turned his back and left. He did not forget to cast one last sidelong glance at the crow.
A brief hush laid down after he left. The one to lift that cloth of silence first was the woman’s voice again.
“Now then.”
She spoke to the crow perched on the doorknob—Gregory.
“Will you be coming in? Sir Colin’s benefactor?”
The door was still open. Neither Colin nor the woman—whose identity was still unknown—had closed it.
A reception plainly welcoming Gregory, who was unmistakably a crow.
However, the crow spoke with a bird’s face,
[I don’t know what this ‘Nine’ is, or what treaty that man was talking about.]
“Oh my, is that so.”
[So I’ll warn you. If there are secrets hidden in that room, it would not be wise to show them to me.]
As the woman had said, Gregory was the benefactor who had saved Colin’s life.
Thus he could have used that pretext to look around at leisure at the things hidden in this room. It was already as good as the woman’s permission.
But that was only because she did not know Gregory’s present circumstance.
'Right now I’m caught in Malia’s shared senses, you see.'
Gregory was currently under Malia’s surveillance. Dispelling the sense-share wasn’t that hard, but of course, doing so would alert Malia. Far too troublesome for Gregory, who had taken hold of Frondier’s line.
'I don’t know the details, but there’s something dangerous in there. This woman speaks kindly while trying to expose my identity. Like finding the owner of the mana packed into the crow, or backtracing me to make an attack.'
He had only just recently had his identity exposed to Malia as it was. If he went in there and something similar were done to him, he would not be able to bear it.
Moreover, if it were a backtrace, even Malia would be in danger.
To harm Malia, Frondier’s mother, through a moment’s carelessness? Who knew what Frondier would do.
“In that case, I can’t admit you.”
The woman spoke as if disappointed. Gregory felt it in her voice—she was his kind. The kind who lied so much they themselves got confused about what was sincere.
Another voice sounded then.
“Hey, I don’t know who you are, but.”
It was Colin.
“You said earlier you came to help Frondier, right?”
[Yeah. Ended up saving you instead, though.]
Naturally, Gregory had crossed over to this continent to find Frondier.
Daytime words belong to birds; nighttime words to rats.
Receiving most of the information concerning Frondier, Gregory learned that Frondier had become fairly famous in that short time at a place called Atlas. Well, if a man of Frondier’s caliber moved in earnest, fame would be instant.
Gregory had chased Frondier not by scent or sensation, but through information. So he knew the broad strokes.
But it still wasn’t more than what Frondier knew. Time had been short.
“Frondier headed for Caron’s residence. I’ll give you the location—go there.”
[Caron is that man from just now. The enemy is completely ahead of the situation.]
Since Caron was here, if Frondier went to Caron’s residence now he obviously wouldn’t meet Caron.
Given the current state of things, there was no way this timing was coincidence.
Even without knowing why, Caron had the current situation with Frondier in the palm of his hand.
“There’s no time. It’s highly likely he’s already under attack. Even a little faster—”
Rarely, Colin’s voice held a faint hint of haste. Of course, it was so ◈ Nоvеlіgһт ◈ (Continue reading) faint Gregory, who was seeing Colin for the first time, wouldn’t notice it.
[Got it.]
“Sorry to throw you out, but it’s urgent. Go on.”
[I said I got it.]
So answered, the crow still didn’t move.
Colin felt a flicker of puzzlement at that, then realized.
[I’m on my way right now.]
***
While Pielot’s body was being dragged by the arrow, his vision flickered with pain intense enough to make him faint.
For a long stretch, he had no idea whether he was flying through the air or being slammed into the ground; his body, pierced by the arrow, was mercilessly dragged off somewhere. In that time the wound spread deeper, and his eyes, driven to the edge by pain, flushed a bloody red.
Whoooosh—!
Thud, thuuud!
Shaaahhhh!
And after how long had he been tormented by pain?
From midair, where it felt like he could be pulled without limit, he crashed down violently onto a ridge. Like a stone tossed toward water’s edge, his body bounced several times, then trailed a long line as it scraped across the ground.
“Kh, nngh, hah, huff!”
Pielot pushed his trembling body upright.
A body run through by an arrow, blood still flowing, a body roughly yanked by the string fixed in the arrow. Pain and exhaustion made his sight flicker.
But this was enemy territory. If he fell, he might never rise again.
“No way, what’s this.”
A leisurely voice came from above his head.
“Your boss isn’t chasing. Not after you.”
Pielot raised his eyes toward the direction of the voice.
'......Easy to read.'
A solidly built man. A bow in one hand, the other clenched in a fist. No—he was probably gripping a string.
And wings on his back. He revealed himself as a demon without the slightest reserve.
“You work under a truly heartless boss, huh?”
“......Heartless?”
“Yeah. His subordinate gets dragged to the jaws of death half-dead, and he doesn’t come himself, doesn’t even send anyone.”
The man shook his head with exaggerated gestures, as if in pity.
Then he smirked.
“You got abandoned, didn’t you?”
“.......”
Pielot did not answer. Instead, he gripped the arrow with his hand.
There was a string tied to this arrow. If he left it as is, he’d only end up like a fish caught on a hook like before.
“Ah, wait. You’d better not pull that out.”
The man spoke then.
“My arrows are special. If you pull them, the wound gets much bigger. And I slathered the whole shaft with poison, so if you fiddle carelessly, that poison will go straight to your innards and—”
Fwip!
Pielot pulled the arrow out without even listening to the rest.
“......Oh my.”
The man uttered an exclamation that didn’t suit him. Soon his eyes curved.
“You’re a fun one, huh? For your age, you’re awfully used to pain. Did you train for that or something?”
“Well, something like that.”
Pielot pushed himself up on his shaking legs.
“Our boss likes to work people to the bone.”
