"I hate you, but work with me anyway. Let's drag out whatever's hiding behind all this — for the justice I hold now."
It was not the move Nanoda had expected from Lois.
"Sorry. I can't work with a war fanatic like you. I have no intention of dragging Gaderia into the quarrel between the Southern Lands and Minus."
Nanoda's refusal was flat and final.
"You don't have to worry about that. What I am now is just a wandering traveler…" Lois's face turned angry then, and hollow with it. "I was betrayed. By Minus. By my own men. By my justice."
Justice is always betrayed.
"Justice? Feed it to the dogs! All we want is to live! The King betrayed the country and vanished! The hero we revered most, Lord Wilhelm, is dead! And now Ohaly has betrayed us too, branding us terrorists without a word of argument, hanging warrants on every one of us still breathing! What does 'carrying out Ohaly's justice' even mean? Are you a child? Still dreaming that one day you'll serve the Anhardi Royal Family again? We were thrown away! Thrown away!"
"Sorry. I only followed Lord Wilhelm because he was strong, and Lord Wilhelm is gone now… But! We have Lord Minus now. A Great Mage like that will surely lead us to victory over the Southern Lands and build a new kingdom. And when that day comes…"
"It's all the King's fault! Oh, and Lord Wilhelm's too! His botched command is the only reason we ended up like this! No — I won't take orders from you again. You're still Lord Wilhelm's disciple, after all. And that so-called justice of yours makes me sick!"
"Everything we're doing now is justice. Who do you think you are? A hero? Then why couldn't you bring anyone happiness? Ah — sorry. But saying it out loud really does feel better… ahaha… The Ohaly Kingdom will never take us back. Sorry."
Justice is always impossible to understand.
"Humans really are interesting, aren't they?"
To fight for the prosperity of Ohaly — that was justice. Sweep away every obstacle, and carry out justice.
"Did I do something wrong? Isn't this justice? Minus, tell me — why? I never once stepped off the road of justice, so why has everyone abandoned me?"
The long-eared elf sat up in the crown of a tree, legs swinging in time with the leaping sparks.
"Mm. I don't know. Maybe they just thought it looked fun too."
In that instant Lois understood: just as he could not fathom the things Minus did, Minus could never fully fathom him.
"Insects throw themselves at fire, and we Mages chase magic, chase power. The way soldiers follow a general. Lois, none of this is your fault. I don't understand what justice is. I was simply getting a little tired of things staying the way they were."
"Enough. Goodbye, Minus. I'm going back."
Fireflies pricked the dark. A few insects circled the burning corpse, until the flames, fanned high by the wind, swallowed them whole.
Justice is always unbearably heavy.
"Protect His Majesty the King!"
"Take that traitor down! By imperial command!"
"Grab him! War criminal! Hand him to the coalition of the Central Lands nations and next year's reparations get cut!"
"Don't let him run! If you can't take him alive, a corpse will do!"
"He's one former court Mage! Why can't we catch him?!"
"I've found his blood trail! Get over here, support!"
Footsteps everywhere, spear tips honed to needles, blades flashing, armor clattering in frantic haste. Quite the lively affair.
When he had knelt in obeisance, a hidden blade had burst his left eye. The chain welts still ringing his wrists and ankles throbbed, and his stomach heaved like a churning sea. He could no longer tell what was sliding down from the socket. Tears? Blood?
The Anhardi Royal Family, and every noble in Ohaly, wanted him dead.
The executor of justice had become the one it was executed upon.
So was he no longer justice? No — what was justice, in the end?
All those times he had carried it out. What had any of it meant?
Should the sentence fall on the King who betrayed them, on the enemies still undefeated, or on those who stood in the road?
Lost in the fog of it, he came to a city he had never seen.
The free city of Gaderia. The city where, rumor said, the Demon Race and Humans lived side by side.
And there, by chance, the enemy who had killed his master.
That one carried something heavy too. Only in the moment they met did he see it — they all seemed to be the same sort of creature.
Still, justice should never be handed over to hatred.
"Who'd have guessed you'd break away because Minus's leadership didn't sit right with you, and then get hunted by your own kingdom. A rough road, truly. You look heavy with sin — any interest in joining our Church of the New God? Confess devoutly to our true god, and perhaps your crimes will be washed clean and you can live all over again."
"I refuse. My justice does not permit me to worship a god. I believe in justice alone!"
"You really are a strange one."
Schwenk tipped back a mouthful of ale and smacked his lips.
"Hey, hey — why are you in Gaderia too? You said you came to share intelligence, so why do you keep trying to rope people into your religion?" Nanoda said, cutting into her hamburg steak.
"And you — sitting down to a meal with the man who's your enemy. You've got nerve."
"We're partners now, after all. The Church took part in that war as well, didn't it? Do you have any leads on the devil?"
For some reason, Nanoda kept getting the feeling she had wandered straight into the main plotline.
As for the Gaderia case, it had been shelved for the time being. Nothing of the sort had happened since.
"No. Nothing whatsoever. I only entered the war to spread the Church's name. Winning was honestly an accident."
It was a fairly disappointing answer.
Nanoda had no intention of pointing out that Schwenk had sent his own subordinates to die on purpose. She simply thought the man grew slyer the older he got. Professing faith in the New God while keeping the Goddess tucked in his pocket.
"All of it was likely the god's will. Such an improbable victory — that one must have been blessing us from the shadows."
"You were never this devout before."
"Naturally. After all these years I've come to my senses. The New God truly exists, and as time passes He is steadily reviving. At first there was only part of the opening passage of the Scripture. Now He can hand down oracles to us!"
"Don't tell me an oracle is why you came looking for me."
"Precisely."
At that, Schwenk turned all secretive. He ducked his head and motioned for Nanoda to lean in.
Only once the two of them were close did he lower his voice. "Before long, a Skyvein Dragon will come looking for you, Acting Bishop."
"…?"
Nanoda blinked. This news… wasn't the lag on it a little high?
"It's true. If you don't believe me, look."
With that, Schwenk opened the Scripture. Across it ran three lines of slightly crooked gold lettering that only Nanoda could see.
[Skyvein Dragon… seeks… Gaderia]
"How long ago did you receive this oracle?" Nanoda asked, a little stirred despite herself. This really did carry a faint whiff of prophecy.
"One night about half a month back. I set out the same night I received it."
"Strange."
Nanoda had indeed run into a myth-class Skyvein Dragon. The trouble was that it had happened a year ago. Was this oracle running a full year behind?
Surely it couldn't be that last year's Skyvein Dragon was female, and this year a male one was on its way?
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