“Mya-mreow!”
The circular crater sloped down to where Mora and Chamo were in its center. Above them, Hans was fighting fiends.
Once he’d finished off all three of them, he returned to the pit. “I basically cleaned up the area, meow.” He’d already killed nearly twenty, but there wasn’t so much as a scratch on him, nor did he seem at all tired.
“Hans, you should go, too, after all. Join up with Adlet and defeat Nashetania,” Mora said to him.
Not long earlier, Rolonia had returned alone. According to her, they now knew for sure Goldof was the enemy, and they had lost sight of Nashetania. Then she’d immediately left again to continue the search.
“The situation is unfavorable,” said Mora. “Adlet’s party alone will have difficulty defeating Nashetania. They need your strength.”
But Hans shook his head. “Meow. If I coulda gone, I woulda gone a long time ago,” he said, and pointed toward the Cut-Finger Forest. “We’re bein’ watched. If Chamo ain’t defended, they’ll come kill her straightaway. Can you fight ’em and keep Chamo alive at the same time, Mora?”
She couldn’t. It would be impossible for her to fight while doling out life force. “…Curse them.” Mora ground her teeth. The wait felt long—and even longer when an ally’s death was nigh. Hans’s expression was grim, too.
Then, in Mora’s arms, Chamo moaned, “…Catboy…Auntie…sorry.”
“Don’t speak, Chamo. You’ll exhaust your energy,” said Mora.
Blood bubbles frothing from her mouth, the girl continued. “Chamo got careless… It was Chamo’s fault… At this rate…Chamo’s gonna be totally useless…”
Hans approached her as tears fell from her eyes. Hands wet with fiends’ blood, he tousled her hair. “Don’t talk big to me. Just shut up and sleep, kid.”
“Chamo…is not a kid.”
“Looks to me like mew’ve still got some kick in ya. Don’t ya get weak, now,” Hans said, smiling so kindly it surprised Mora. “You leave it to us. We’re not gonna let that stupid woman beat us.”
Chamo nodded obediently and closed her eyes. But Mora could tell that Hans was uneasy. Could Adlet and the others really defeat Nashetania on their own?
Adlet, Fremy, and Rolonia had no choice but to comply with Tgurneu’s demand for polite greetings. Adlet gave the fiend a casual bow, which only angered it (“You call that a greeting?”).
Why was this fiend so fixated on greetings? Adlet couldn’t make heads or tails of it.
“…It seems now you’re willing to hear what I have to say,” Tgurneu said, nodding in satisfaction.
Adlet tried to calm his pounding heart. His throat was dry, his blood seethed, and his breathing was labored.
Once, long, long ago, Tgurneu had showed up in his village in just this way. It had exchanged words with the peaceful villagers and was all smiles, as if to befriend them. And then, in one night, it had enthralled the whole village, destroying Adlet’s home.
The image rising in his mind now was especially vivid: the villagers, his family until that day, executing his sister, then capturing and killing the friend who had run away together with him. That day, Adlet’s everything held dear shattered.
“Addy.” Rolonia gently brushed the back of his hand. Her touch helped him regain his composure. Though the creature before them was the enemy of those he loved, now was not the time to fight it. He had to save Chamo, and he had to determine the veracity of Tgurneu’s proposal.
“Are you all right, Adlet?” asked Tgurneu.
“Don’t worry about me. The strongest man in the world is always calm,” Adlet said, smiling. He looked at Fremy beside him. Her eyes were wide with anger, too, but she remained calm. I should take a page from her book, he thought.
“Is that so? Good. More importantly, let’s talk about Nashetania. Unfortunately, I don’t know where she is, either,” Tgurneu said with some displeasure. “Have you figured out anything—even the smallest clue? Do you have leads about her current location?”
“Hold on,” said Adlet. “Don’t get ahead of yourself. Explain what’s going on first. Why are you chasing Nashetania?”
Tgurneu drooped as if to say, What a pain. “Fremy, have you made sure to tell him about myself, Cargikk, and Dozzu?” it said. Fremy nodded. She had told them that the fiends were divided into three factions: Tgurneu’s, Cargikk’s, and Dozzu’s, and the groups were not on good terms with each other. Tgurneu and Cargikk had differing opinions on what the fiends ought to be. Dozzu was known as the traitor to its kind, and the other two wanted it dead.
“As I said before, Nashetania is Dozzu’s pawn,” Tgurneu began. “About two hundred years ago, Dozzu betrayed us. He took his pawns and left the Howling Vilelands, concealing himself among humans. Cargikk and I sent our followers into the human realms to hunt him down while we went on killing the remaining members of Dozzu’s faction in the Howling Vilelands. We believed that we had eliminated them all.”
“…But you thought wrong. Is that what you’re saying?” said Adlet.
“We were naive. They were still operating in places outside of my sphere of influence. He obtained a fake crest through different means from myself and infiltrated the royal palace of Piena to win over Nashetania. Then he gave Nashetania the fake crest and had her infiltrate your group.”
It was too sudden. Adlet couldn’t believe it.
“Meanwhile, I had also acquired a fake crest,” Tgurneu continued. “I gave it to a human pawn and had them infiltrate your group. Quite the coincidence. Dozzu and I had been plotting the exact same strategy, and neither of us knew it.”
Would a fluke like that really happen? Adlet wondered.
“I was astonished to hear of what happened within the Phantasmal Barrier. Because, you see, there was an impostor Brave I knew nothing of who was trying to kill you all of her own accord. I’m ashamed to say it was only after that battle that I realized Dozzu was behind it.” Tgurneu went on. “I had also sent pawns into the Kingdom of Piena, and they had informed me of Nashetania’s weaknesses, her habits, and her nature. I thought she would eventually be chosen as one of the Braves of the Six Flowers, and moreover, I thought if I did well, I might be able to use her like I did Mora. But I didn’t have the slightest clue that she and Dozzu were working together.”
“…I don’t believe you,” said Fremy.
Tgurneu set its white flag on the ground and crossed its arms. “Frankly, I can’t believe it, either. Two fiends plotting the same scheme? Is such a coincidence even possible? Nashetania becoming a fiend’s minion seems like nothing more than a joke to me. But there it is.”
“Do you believe this story, Adlet?” Fremy asked him.
Adlet didn’t reply. He just prompted Tgurneu to continue. This was hard to believe for him, too. But his desire to hear what the fiend had to say won over. “Go on, Tgurneu. We’ll decide afterward whether or not to work with you,” he said.
Tgurneu gave a bored shrug. “To be blunt, you and I are ultimately enemies. Frankly, I don’t want to cooperate.”
“Then we’re in agreement, for once. I feel the same way,” said Adlet.
“But I see Dozzu and Nashetania as far more powerful than your little troop. My priority is to kill him and his cohort, even if it ends up benefiting you, too.”
“What did you say?” Adlet bristled. The fiend’s remarks were humiliating.
“Is it so surprising? You Braves haven’t presented any plausible threat at all to me thus far,” Tgurneu said.
Anger flared in Fremy’s eyes.
It continued. “Dozzu’s reach extends further than I’d imagined. He’s hidden large numbers of followers among both my pawns and Cargikk’s. You’ve been seeing many fiend corpses, haven’t you?”
Adlet nodded. He couldn’t even count how many were in the pit with Chamo.
“While you and I were fighting over that matter with Mora and playing tag in the forest, Dozzu was steadily preparing to act. This morning, he began his operation.
His faction came to attack us all at once. They destroyed nearly all the pawns I had in the Cut-Finger Forest, and there’s no sign reinforcements will arrive. Right now I don’t even know which among my followers belong to Dozzu’s faction.” Sadly, Tgurneu lamented, “I’ve ended up all alone.”
If so, this would be an ideal situation for killing Tgurneu. Adlet even considered taking it out right then. But he suspected that it was all a lie. Tgurneu might well just be pretending to be alone to lure them into a trap.
“So what’s your plan now?” asked Adlet.
What Tgurneu said next was very difficult to believe. “What else? Kill Nashetania and save Chamo.”
“Save Chamo?”
As Adlet’s party responded with confusion, Tgurneu explained. “I do have a reason to propose this—a reason I can’t have Dozzu killing Chamo right now.”
“…Which is?” prompted Adlet.
“Cargikk, Dozzu, and I have a contest to see who can kill the most Braves of the Six Flowers. The first one who kills three of the six wins, and the winner will make the remaining two submit to him, becoming the sole ruler of all fiends.”
“A contest?”
“Two hundred years ago, we made a contract through the Saint of Words. The contract was simple: The first to kill or cripple three of the Six Braves would become the leader of all fiendkind. The remaining two would swear allegiance to the victor in perpetuity. Any who defied those terms would die. Obviously, if Nashetania kills all of you, that would mean points for Dozzu. Furthermore, if Dozzu’s scheme causes a falling-out among your group and results in a death, that would also be a point for him.”
Rolonia moaned. “A game…points…It’s just like…”
Tgurneu’s beak shook, and it sneered. “You’re quick on the uptake, Rolonia. You’re exactly right. This battle is not between you and me. It’s a contest for the seat of leadership between myself, Cargikk, and Dozzu. Your party is nothing more than a pawn in our game.”
“That’s bullshit,” said Adlet. Fremy was trembling in rage, while Rolonia’s eyes widened in shock. Adlet’s humiliation was deepening.
“Is that enough to convince you?” said Tgurneu. “This is the reason I will side with you. To be clear, the situation at present is overwhelmingly in Dozzu’s favor. At this rate, Chamo will die. Dozzu probably also has a plan to kill the rest of you. It seems to me like you have no choice besides joining forces with me.”
“What will we do, Addy? Are we really going to…?” Rolonia trailed off.
“I’ll promise you this,” said Tgurneu. “I will not attack any of you until Dozzu is dead. I’ve also ordered the seventh I sent to you to do everything in their power to save her. I haven’t actually accomplished anything to obstruct you so far, have I?”
“Who are those fiends waiting to kill Chamo?” asked Fremy.
“Those are from Dozzu’s faction. Though until yesterday, they were mine.”
“…Give us a little time to think about it,” said Adlet. He doubted that Tgurneu’s entire story was the truth. But at the same time, he didn’t think it was all fabricated, either. Only a fool would craft a lie that was pure falsehood from beginning to end. Lies were most effective when quietly slipped in among truths. Part of what Tgurneu was saying must have been true. But how much was false, and how much wasn’t? That, Adlet couldn’t determine.
“One thing about this doesn’t make sense, Tgurneu,” Fremy said. “Why did you enter a contract that stipulates the one who can kill three of the Braves becomes the ruler of all fiends? Aren’t you and Cargikk and Dozzu enemies?”
Her question ruffled Tgurneu, just a bit. It looked away from her and said, “…An error of youth, I suppose. I was foolish back then. Never would I have guessed Dozzu would play as dirty as he has.”
“Don’t evade my question.”
“It would be a long story, Fremy. I don’t think you or I have that much time left.”
“…True.” In any other situation, they would have liked to press Tgurneu for detail. But at this point, the fiend was right.
“Come, what will you do? Decide, Adlet.” Tgurneu urged him for a response.
Silently, the boy mulled it over. Was it really true that the traitor Dozzu opposed the other fiends? If not, that would mean that Fremy had lied to them, which was a possibility Adlet refused to even consider. She was an important ally.
There was a chance the fiend they called Dozzu didn’t actually exist. So far, they hadn’t seen Dozzu, not even once. Tgurneu could have produced a fictional enemy and then pretended to be on their side in order to approach them. That option could hold water.
But they had just seen those fiends’ corpses, and they’d also witnessed signs that Nashetania had fought someone besides the Braves. It was pretty clear that their enemies were experiencing some internal conflict, and chances were high that this traitor Dozzu was real. So what about Nashetania? Was it true that she wasn’t Tgurneu’s, but Dozzu’s?
“If you’re slow to decide, Adlet, your chances at victory will escape you,” said Tgurneu.
“Shut up, Tgurneu,” said Fremy. “Do you want to die here and now?”
Adlet considered further. There was a clear contradiction in what Tgurneu had told them: Goldof. Nashetania and Tgurneu’s seventh were on opposite sides, and the fiend commander had said that the seventh was doing everything they could to save Chamo. So then what was Goldof?
After a long silence, Adlet spoke. “I think your idea of working together is not a bad one, Tgurneu.”
“You’re joking, right, Addy?”
“Don’t be stupid!”
Rolonia and Fremy were both shocked. Adlet ignored them and continued. “But you still haven’t told me the most important part. Is Goldof one of yours?”
“Yes, that’s the problem, isn’t it?” Tgurneu stroked its beak. “I only know one thing about him. Goldof is not the seventh I sent you. That is all.”
“…In other words?”
“I don’t know who Goldof really is, either. I used to think that he was one of the real Braves of the Six Flowers. But Goldof was Nashetania’s loyal retainer, so why didn’t she reveal the truth to him? That part is a mystery to me.” Tgurneu paused for a moment. “I can think of three possibilities. The first is that he is a second impostor, sent by Dozzu. If he is, then we don’t know where the remaining Brave is, do we? The second possibility is that he is a real Brave, and Dozzu is controlling him somehow. I believe that’s most likely.”
That’s not it, thought Adlet. When they’d fought, the look in Goldof’s eyes had not been that of a man being controlled. He was fighting of his own will and making his own judgments.
“The third possibility is that he’s a real Brave who betrayed you in order to protect Nashetania,” Tgurneu continued.
“That wouldn’t happen,” said Adlet. No Brave of the Six Flowers would betray the cause. You had to have an unwavering desire to defeat the Evil God, even if it meant your life, in order to be chosen.
“You think it’s impossible? Mora betrayed you once.”
“But she—”
“You should be more suspicious. Our battle has been nothing but the impossible,” said Tgurneu.
Unable to reply, Adlet fell silent.
“In any case,” Tgurneu continued, “it’s safe to consider that Goldof is the one who holds the key to this fight. Who is he, and whose will does he act on?”
“…Goldof said he would protect the princess,” said Fremy.
Tgurneu’s beak shook. Apparently, that was a derisive laugh. “Both you and I have been quite confounded. Hans and Mora are occupied and unable to leave that pit. That imbecile Cargikk is showing no sign of action now, of all times. What on earth does Goldof think he’s protecting Nashetania from?”
“Tgurneu, do you have any clues as to where she’s hiding?” Adlet asked.
The fiend shook its head. “My pawns were watching both her and Goldof. After your fight, Nashetania convened with Goldof, and then Dozz
u.”
“What kind of fiend is Dozzu?” asked Fremy.
“Dozzu has the power to manipulate lightning and shape-shift at will. His current form is rather odd, like a cross between a dog and a squirrel. I haven’t seen him in person for two hundred years, but I’m certain that was him—Dozzu is the only fiend out there that can control lightning.”
“And?”
“They were in a pit about one kilometer east of here. My pawns followed them, but before I knew it, two of them were dead and one had fled. Then a few minutes later, Goldof emerged from the pit alone and headed off farther east. My subordinate peeked inside the pit one more time but told me there was no hint or sign of Nashetania.”
“Do you have any idea how Nashetania is hiding?” asked Adlet.
“It’s hard to say, but…”
Uneasy, Rolonia watched the conversation between Adlet and Tgurneu become more involved. Her eyes accused her ally. Are you seriously going to work with Tgurneu?
“She’s probably not using a fiend’s power,” said the fiend.
“What do you mean?” asked Adlet.
“Four-thousand-odd pawns serve me, and I’ve never seen a fiend with the ability to make a human vanish without a trace. No, I doubt such a fiend could exist. You agree, don’t you, Fremy?”
Fremy didn’t reply, but she didn’t deny it, either.
“So you’re saying she’s using a Saint’s power to hide?” said Adlet. “That couldn’t be. Nashetania is the Saint of Blades. There’s nothing she could do with that power to make herself disappear.”
“And therein lies the problem,” said Tgurneu.
The two fell silent. Wordlessly, Fremy asked Adlet, How long are you going to keep talking? You’re not going to kill it?
“Wait,” Adlet whispered.
“…I’ve heard that four hundred years ago, the King of Piena had Saints make him some special hieroforms,” said Tgurneu. “They were passed down through generations of kings, and it’s said that they were bestowed to vassals recognized for their talent and loyalty. Unfortunately, I’ve not been able to discern who holds which hieroform or what kind of powers they might have. Perhaps one of those has the power to conceal a person, and Goldof or Nashetania is using it.”
Rokka: Braves of the Six Flowers, Vol. 3 Page 8
