by CHIROLU
It was a day like any other. Knowing just how precious such a thing was, Latina was now enjoying her days full of even more bliss than before. Dale felt the same when looking at her in their attic room in the Ocelot, letting her hair down now that all the work for the day was over and combing it while using her favorite pomade. He caught ever so slight, fleeting glimpses of her broken horns, which were normally hidden, as she moved it about. Latina’s hair reflected the pale light feeling the room, giving off an incredibly gentle platinum shine.
Dale then remembered someone whose hair gave off a shine of the same color.
“Hey, Latina.”
“What is it?”
“You and Chrysos are definitely twins, right?”
“That’s right. Why are you asking, all of the sudden?”
Chrysos and Latina resembled one another so greatly that it would be impossible for anyone who saw them to doubt they were related by blood. When Latina was staying in Vassilios, the same was true of Chrysos’s subordinates, her chamberlain and demons, who didn’t need to be introduced to infer who she was.
“I mean, your eye color is different and all... so it was just bugging me.”
Normally, identical twins wouldn’t be born with different eye colors. However, they looked far too similar to be fraternal twins.
“It’s because only Chrysos was born with a mana trait... My gray eyes are different from both our parents, but I was told they probably came from Mov’s side of the family.”
“I see...”
Having met Latina’s mother, Mov, in person, Dale was satisfied with that answer, but Latina didn’t notice that. After a moment of trepidation, that fact left Dale a bit relieved. He had told Latina’s sister, Chrysos, that he’d been present for their mother’s death, but he still hadn’t told Latina directly. They had decided not to hide things from one another, but the matter of Mov’s death still weighed heavily on Dale’s heart.
I know I should tell her properly, but...
It was no easy task to tell the girl he loved that he was the one to kill her mother.
Latina’s mother, Mov, had mana traits, brilliant colors that didn’t appear naturally in a race that showed themselves in those with strong mana. Her long purple hair was brilliant enough to steal away one’s gaze, but her eye color was also a mana trait. Just like Chrysos, they were a beautiful gold.
“You said that your hair color was the same as your father’s, right, Latina?”
“Yeah, Rag’s was the same color. Rag’s horns, too... they were also pitch black. The shape of mine was the same as Mov’s, though. Devils inherit their parents’ horn shapes and colors separately.”
“I see.”
Latina gently touched the place where she had lost her horn and broke out in a gentle smile.
“I broke off something I had inherited from my parents... so I do regret it a little. But I can only afford to have such thoughts because I’m so happy now.”
“Latina...”
“It made Chrysos really sad, too... We had a matching set of horns, but I lost both of mine...”
“If I had paid a little more attention back then, things would have turned out differently...”
“It’s not your fault, Dale!” Latina hurriedly blurted out. Dale gently stroked the place where her horn would be, as if comforting a child, but even so, Latina closed her eyes contentedly.
“There’s nothing to be done of it now, so... there’s no point in saying if only this or that at this point, right?”
“Yeah.”
“Latina.”
Latina tilted her head in confusion at him calling out her name, only for Dale to throw out a question he had been wanting to ask for quite some time.
“Your parents... what sort of people were they?”
“...We heard before that devil mothers are the ones to raise their children, but Chrysos and I were raised by Rag... Mov was always busy, after all.”
She possessed an extremely uncommonly powerful divine protection granted by Banafsaj, earning her the title of “Lady Oracle.”
“I think that Rag was a teacher. He shouldn’t have received any divine protection from Asfar, but I could tell just from looking that there were a lot of people who respected him...”
It was precisely because he lacked any special power that he was able to teach and admonish a great many people, granting him the honorary title of “guru.”
“The lifestyle I knew in Vassilios was so incredibly restrictive. I was only allowed to stay in the depths of the temple, spending time with my parents and Chrysos, after all...”
Those days were spent hidden away deep within that temple, as if they were living within a miniature garden, but there were surely happy times amongst them.
This was a story taking place before our tale.
†
Devils didn’t have family names the way that humans did. They didn’t have a custom of marriage to start with, and their society had a matriarchal basis, so their family structures differed completely from those of the other races. Instead, they used the name of their mother and were called “So-and-so’s child.”
Even when they shared a mother, it was rare for siblings to also share a father, and it wasn’t at all rare enough for the difference in ages between them to be more akin to what one would expect between a parent and child when it came to humans.
The fact that while their time as children and the elderly was the same as humans, their time as adults was many times longer, surely had an effect on that. As was always the case with the long-lived races, their birth rates were low, but in exchange they had a very long time in which they could reproduce. In fact, that time was so very long that they tended to put a very different emphasis on age difference than other races.
Furthermore, the First Demon Lord and his retainers, or in other words the temple of Banafsaj, had maintained the government’s structure without any changes for over a hundred years, making society quite static for the people living there.
That was the sort of country that Vassilios was.
Vassilios had a town of the same name at its center, with small scale villages and the like scattered about. It existed in a harsh environment, a land where it was most certainly not easy to live. But the devils were a hardy race, and they didn’t need much food to survive, so they were able to live even in such a place. It also helped quite a bit that all of its citizens could use magic, and so Water magic was most certainly not rare in the least. Even if it didn’t rain, they didn’t need to worry about thirst.
The great temple in the only town in the nation, where the king’s throne lay, was the greatest even amongst the temples of Banafsaj from which Vassilios was governed.
The sunlight reflecting off of the stone-paved path provided it a white hue. It was originally created to prevent the arid wind from stirring up dust, but it also served to reinforce the sense of purity the town had. There wasn’t even a single speck of dirt on the path because it was periodically washed clean with Water magic. As a public service, magic was cast to lower the temperature of the entire town midday, when the weather was at its hottest.
Even so, there were few who walked about town at such an hour.
“Guru.”
One young man amongst those passersby stopped and turned to look towards the source of that voice. His uncommon platinum hair swayed. His black horns were on the small side for a man, without a hint of manliness or ferocity about them. It was as if his gentle personality was reflected in his appearance.
“Ah, Aspida. It’s been a while, hasn’t it?”
“Indeed it has.”
The owner of the voice, the young man called Aspida, was clad in high quality priest’s garb, signifying that he served as one of the officials who ruled over the town. And yet, he respectfully bowed his head to the other man, who was wearing extremely ordinary commoner’s clothing.
No age difference could be seen between the two men, in terms of appearance. However, it was impossible to
tell the age difference between devils, their heads crested with horns, just by looking.
“It really has been ages. Has it been... 20 years now already, since you were my student?”
“Yes. I’m glad to find you doing well, Guru.”
“There are things that I wouldn’t call all that well, though, as always.”
There wasn’t a hint of overbearingness to the man being called “Guru,” with his calm smile and gentle green eyes, and the slender contours of his body. However, the man named Aspida’s respect towards him never faltered.
“Is your work at the temple going smoothly?”
“About that... there’s something I wanted to discuss with you, Guru.”
From the frown on his pupil’s face, the Guru, Smaragdi, sensed that this wasn’t the sort of conversation to be had on a street corner.
“Well then, shall we discuss this in my house? It seemed you were heading there before, right?”
“Is that alright?”
“I’m not busy enough for something like that to be a problem,” Smaragdi said with a laugh, then started walking, leading the way for Aspida.
As they moved away from the main landmark of the town, the great temple of Banafsaj, their surroundings took on a much rougher feel. The modest houses built of sun-dried bricks had been exposed to such sunlight that they had become a shade of white that made it look as though they had been bleached. One such dwelling amongst them belonged to Smaragdi.
The inside had been furnished only to the bare minimum degree necessary, making it look almost dreary. However, that was an incredibly ordinary way for men in this country to live.
In the parched climate of this land, just getting out of the sun and into a place where the wind passed through was enough to bring the effective temperature down significantly. Having taken a seat in the chair offered to him, Aspida felt a cool breeze pass through and breathed a sigh of relief. Smaragdi then placed a cup down in front of him and filled it with water from a pitcher. It was still cold, so Aspida inferred that it hadn’t been drawn from one of the water stations about town.
“So... what did you want to talk about?”
“Are you aware that there’s a priestess in the shrine now who is called the ‘Lady Oracle’?”
Smaragdi tilted his head a bit in response to Aspida’s question.
“She’s still supposed to be very young, isn’t she? I’ve heard the rumors about town that she has an exceptionally rare level of divine protection, but... is something the matter with her?”
“To be honest, Guru, I was wondering if you would be willing to act as her teacher...”
Smaragdi only looked all the more puzzled with those words. In addition to being places of religion, the temples of Banafsaj in Vassilios also served as an administrative body. The priests who served in the foremost amongst them, the great temple, served as top officials of the government, so there should be countless people there who were exceptionally capable. Smaragdi couldn’t see a need to call on someone like himself who lived out in town.
“I know, it’s no surprise for you to find it odd,” Aspida said, seemingly having expected Smaragdi’s confusion. He continued on to explain, “The one in charge of teaching magic to young priestesses in the temple is Ms. Gnósi, but... currently, the Lady Oracle is terrified of members of the same sex.”
Smaragdi’s eyebrow raised a bit. It would be one thing if it was towards members of the opposite sex, but there must have been some sort of reason behind a sudden fear of the same sex developing. He couldn’t think of any such reason immediately, though.
“However, the male instructors, they all look a bit... rough. We couldn’t really entrust the now frightful young Lady Oracle to them.”
“Couldn’t you handle it?”
Aspida had a masculine appearance, but he didn’t look especially intimidating. But in response to Smaragdi’s question, he silently shook his head back and forth.
“Ever since the Lady Oracle started refusing Ms. Gnósi, those of us who studied magic have been tasked with teaching her, but to be honest, it’s too much for us.” It was just a bit, but some earnest surprise showed on Smaragdi’s face upon hearing that reply. He was well aware of the capabilities of his pupil, and he had thought that Aspida should have been more than enough to serve as a teacher.
Magic studies worked a bit differently from other fields of learning.
Even in Vassilios, the majority of all teachers were priests of Asfar, the same as in other countries. That wasn’t because it was impossible to do the job without being one, but because those with Asfar’s divine protection devoted themselves to their studies, and in turn had a strong trend of idolizing the path of teaching others.
Smaragdi didn’t have divine protection from Asfar. The “magical studies” that he made his livelihood teaching didn’t include just the basis for using magic, but also the techniques to manipulate mana, and the ways to increase precision and control. In a way, his profession could be referred to as a “professional trainer” for magic.
In devil society, magic was closely linked to day-to-day life. Those born with strong mana needed the technique to control it, while those who only had weak mana sought to gain fine, delicate methods for raising their efficiency. And so, they wished to learn the related high-level techniques.
“And so... I thought that your personality and skills would be more than enough, and a gentle person such as yourself wouldn’t frighten the Lady Oracle... and so I want to suggest you to my superiors, for their approval. Won’t you consider it?”
“...What happened, Aspida?” Smaragdi asked in a sufficiently forceful tone to make Aspida sit back up straight. If he was nothing but a soft, overly kind instructor, he never would have earned enough respect to be called “Guru.” No matter how gentle he may have been by nature, Smaragdi also possessed a firm, unshakable core. Aspida was also well aware of that fact.
“If the Lady Oracle, who has been hidden away in the depths of the temple, was trying to keep her distance from members of the opposite sex, that would be one thing. But it’s clearly something strange, for her to only deal with men, and for those around her to acknowledge that.”
With Smaragdi readdressing his concern, Aspida no longer tried to conceal the truth more than was necessary. For his request to be accepted, he needed to report on the matter.
He showed a bit of hesitation in doing so, but in a low voice, Aspida spoke the reason. “The Lady Oracle... the other day, she was attacked by the Second Demon Lord.”
Smaragdi gave a faint gulp. He was well acquainted with the story of that gleeful murderer killing the First Demon Lord who had previously ruled the nation.
“The Lady Oracle was unharmed, but... a young child the same age as her was murdered right before her eyes...”
“That’s...”
Someone she knew had been killed right in front of her. That alone would be more than enough to scar her. He didn’t even need to think about how much of a burden it had been on her mind for that young girl to be confronted with that being, who was like terror incarnate.
As an instructor, Smaragdi had come into contact with a great many children up until now, and so, just thinking of her caused his heart to ache.
“Apparently, the Second Demon Lord looks like a young girl.”
“Then...”
“I’d have to imagine that she instinctively recalls the Second Demon Lord. The Lady Oracle won’t say anything herself, but... that just makes it all the more pitiful.”
Aspida’s words caused a feeling of sympathy for that girl he had never even met to wash over Smaragdi. He earnestly wanted to do something for the sake of that child.
“That’s... truly heartbreaking, isn’t it?”
“Will you think about it?”
“Still, no matter how much you may recommend me, won’t it be difficult for an outsider like myself to be allowed into the depths of the temple?”
Taking Smaragdi’s words as acceptance, a look o
f relief crossed Aspida’s face.
“You needn’t worry about that. I’ll come for you again in the future, so I’ll be counting on you when that time comes,” Aspida said and then took his leave. After seeing him off, Smaragdi picked up the cup and drank the water in it, which had now grown warm. Aspida may have spoken lightly, but Smaragdi still thought it would be difficult to carry out. Even so, he couldn’t help but become curious as to just how much talent that girl they called the Lady Oracle, who they treated with such respect, must possess.
And so, when Aspida really did visit at a later date and they passed into the depths of the great temple together, Smaragdi genuinely was quite surprised. He had been invited into a part of the temple that clearly differed from the parts the townsfolk were allowed to visit. The temple was built with several structures within it and was divided into several layered sections. As they progressed deeper inside the security grew stricter, and the temple began to develop a sense of detachment from the transient world at large.
Eventually, Smaragdi lost count of even the number of corners they had turned and how many rooms they had passed through. Around that point, they arrived at a room that somehow exuded a sense of emptiness, despite the sparsity of furnishings common to Vassilios.
In that otherwise monochromatically white room, a single fragment of color stood in stark contrast with its surroundings. It was a young woman, still of an age where she should be called just a girl. She had an innocent, childish look about her, but her golden eyes had a distinct look of resignation to them, as if they’d seen all of the despair and hopelessness of the world. It somehow managed to overpower her otherwise youthful appearance.
Her long hair was a brilliant purple, lacking even a trace of dirt or blemish.
There was no need to explain. Just from seeing that beautiful purple, the color of Banafsaj, it was obvious even at a glance that this was the Lady Oracle, so deeply beloved by that god.
She looked at Smaragdi, her expression not shifting in the least. Her coldly shining golden gaze pierced through Smaragdi, without showing any signs of being shaken by this unknown visitor or even speculating as to his identity.
