Chapter 45 - What Is Going On? (1)

Five days later.

News that the Baba Yagas Kalman and Mariam had tried to kill Seollang spread across Coloni in an instant. With testimony from Riyan Akyullus, the Red Magic Tower master's daughter, and the mercenaries who had survived the attack, the story spread like wildfire.

Outraged that two Baba Yagas had cowardly joined forces to eliminate another, the public pulled down Kalman and Mariam's statues in eastern Coloni with ropes and smashed them. The guilds belonging to their factions likewise splintered overnight, and within mere days, all traces of Mariam and Kalman had vanished from Coloni.

Seollang was the one who filled the void they left. Having returned after defeating Mariam and Kalman despite their cowardly ambush, she now enjoyed tremendous public support. As the testimony of the tower master's daughter and the mercenaries was gradually confirmed, her popularity soared without limit—enough for everyone to hail her as the foremost Baba Yaga, ahead of the one whose tenure had been second only to Kalman's.

Count Pallatio, who was said to have played a major role in helping Seollang eliminate the two Baba Yagas, was also attracting enormous interest.

And at present, he was...

"..."

Back in Kahara, the city of the forgotten god, examining something at its easternmost end, which he had failed to reach last time: the writing on the eastern stone tablet that the being had mentioned.

"Hmm."

After absently reading all the writing on the tablet for what could have been a long time or a short one, Alon suddenly had a question.

'... Come to think of it, how am I reading this?'

The language. The writing on the tablet was not in the continent's common tongue, but consisted of words he had never seen before. Yet he could decipher it naturally, as though he had always been able to read those sentences.

Alon wore a curious expression for a moment, then decided to stop by the central tower before leaving and ask about it. Turning to walk away, he recalled what he had read on the tablet.

'... Outer Gods and gods.'

The eastern tablet the unidentified being had recommended, saying it would give him at least a rough idea of what was happening, contained an account of Outer Gods and gods. There were, however, several curious points that differed from what he had learned while playing Psychedelia.

'... Why are Outer Gods and gods written the other way around?'

Psychedelia distinguished between Outer Gods and gods. Outer Gods were, quite literally, gods that had not originally existed on this continent: gods born of people's faith or gods from other worlds. Gods, meanwhile, referred to those who had existed since the beginning, before anything else existed on the continent. As far as Alon knew, the Five Great Sins were called gods rather than Outer Gods in Psychedelia, while the God of Strange Powers and Untamed Spirits, whom he had recently met in the north, was called an Outer God.

Yet contrary to everything he knew, this tablet described the Outer Gods as gods and the Five Great Sins as Outer Gods. Of course, it did not directly name the Five Great Sins or the Outer Gods. The gods' names were rendered metaphorically, as "one who values honor," "one who seeks forgotten death," or "one who peered too deeply into the mysteries of magic."

But having played Psychedelia over and over, Alon knew whom all those metaphorical descriptions referred to. He also knew that expressions such as "the many-handed one" and "one steeped in greed and envy" were metaphors for the Five Great Sins.

"Hmm..."

After thinking for a while, Alon decided to carefully set the information aside in a corner of his mind. Apart from Outer Gods being described as gods and vice versa, there was no overlap between what he already knew and the information on the tablet. After all, Psychedelia primarily told the story of the future, not the past.

'It would be nice if I could ask about this too.'

Organizing the tablet's contents in his mind, Alon headed for the central tower.

####

In the end, Alon did not meet the being again. The door that had unmistakably been at the center of the tower when he first visited the city had vanished as though it had never existed. He considered breaking his way through and climbing up, but doubted that would let him meet it, so he eventually went back outside.

"Mentor!"

The moment he emerged, he found Seollang greeting him with boundless enthusiasm. She had looked bored while he was gone, but broke into a beaming smile as soon as he appeared.

Alon climbed into the carriage with her.

"Will you marry me?"

"..."

... He looked rather dazed by Seollang's nineteenth proposal in roughly five days.

He faced Seollang, who had already planted both hands on his knees. Unlike before, the distance between them grew smaller with each passing day. Of course, it would be more accurate to say that Seollang was closing the distance all on her own while Alon stayed still.

"Well?"

Her ears perked up as she tilted her head slightly. Watching the tail swaying behind her face, Alon sighed softly. At first, it had felt like a cute daughter declaring, "I'm going to marry Daddy!" and had even warmed his heart. Now, though, it was becoming awkward.

"... As I told you before, I think of you as family."

His nineteenth answer.

"But we're not actually family!"

... Likewise, her nineteenth objection.

"So if we get married, that solves everything!"

"Solves what?"

"We'll be real family!"

Looking at her face, which all but proclaimed, I'm a genius! Alon realized this conversation was beginning to feel like looping dialogue in a game.

"... Do you know exactly what getting married means?"

He asked in an attempt to move a conversation that had reached the same conclusion nineteen times a little further along.

"Of course I do! I know I can make you happy, Mentor!"

"..."

But her answer made him realize that continuing would only leave them going around in circles.

"Seollang, marriage is important. Think about it a little more seriously."

"I am serious!"

"... Try being a little more serious."

With that, he fell silent.

He had no intention whatsoever of marrying anyone at this point. Besides, though he had not raised her himself, Seollang felt like an affectionate daughter to him.

'... In a few years, she'll stop saying things like that soon enough.'

Some time later, by the time Seollang's cheeks—puffed out in a slight sulk after her repeated requests had been rejected—returned to normal, they arrived in Coloni. Alon immediately prepared to leave. He would have preferred to depart a little later, but crossing the desert was much safer with one of the merchant caravans that left at fixed intervals.

And so:

"I'll see you again next time."

"All right! You have to give me an answer then!"

"... Yes."

Leaving that empty promise behind, Alon departed Coloni.

####

Seollang watched Alon leave with the distant caravan for a long time, returning to the guild only once his carriage was almost out of sight.

"..."

The guild remained the same, even with Ralga and the kin who had betrayed her gone. The kin she had gathered were furious at Ralga's betrayal, and many sincerely worried about Seollang after the shock she had suffered. The organization was as it had always been, steadily becoming what she considered ideal. Ordinarily, that should have been quite satisfying.

... Ordinarily.

"Whew..."

Seollang let out a soft sigh. A blank expression had replaced the smile that always rested on her lips. This incident had taught her one thing: no matter how hard she tried again, she could never recover the happiness she had known as a child.

"I hate this..."

Having lost interest, Seollang murmured into the empty room. Her voice sounded ordinary, yet held a faint gloom.

The happiness she had believed she could find by creating a "family," a belief she had held unshakably until now, had proved to be a mirage. That realization left her with a sense of loss. She had truly thought that gathering her clan and returning to the way things used to be would make her happy. Yet even amid that loss, a smile slowly began to curl her lips, all because of one person.

"..."

Alon.

At that moment, Seollang recalled how he had trusted her and prepared his magic without moving a single step, even though Kalman's attack could have killed him in an instant—and how, when Ralga ambushed her, Alon had risked his life without hesitation to save her.

... How the Great Moon had shown her, through actions rather than words, the ideal family she had imagined.

Back and forth, her tail swayed contentedly. In roughly a week with the Great Moon, she had seen a path toward "happiness" that she had never found among the kin she had spent two years gathering. A path toward the happiness she sought.

Of course, he was not family, but that did not matter. If he was not family yet, all she had to do was make him family.

"I want to get married..."

Repeating the words she had already said so many times, Seollang smiled happily. Her heart pounded with anticipation of the happiness she would regain once the Great Moon became her family.

Unfortunately, even Seollang understood that she could not achieve that immediately. For now, she still had the task of forming a personal guard to protect the Great Moon and act on his behalf.

"..."

In truth, she had not originally given that task much thought. She had assumed that the more kin she gathered, the more the task bestowed by the Great Moon would take care of itself. But not anymore. Now, the Great Moon was not merely her mentor, but someone she could not live without.

And so Seollang silently vowed:

'I have to build it. A personal guard that can protect Mentor from danger at any time, in any situation.'

Her golden eyes shone brightly.

####

The night they left Coloni.

"Come to think of it, did you look into it?"

"You mean the people in Seollang's guild? I checked them all. Apparently, aside from Ralga and the ones dealt with this time, none had shown any particularly suspicious activity."

Alon nodded as he listened to Evan's report. After returning from the ruins, he had ordered an investigation through the Information Guild to find out whether anyone else within Seollang's guild was plotting something suspicious, as Ralga had. Naturally, it would be a problem if Seollang suffered another emotional wound.

'It wouldn't be good if trouble cropped up for no reason.'

She had weathered this first incident, but he could not be sure she would be all right if it happened again. He intended to eliminate anything that might provoke her in advance wherever possible.

"That's a relief, then."

"Since I still had the money you gave me, I used it to ask them to keep us briefed if any unforeseen situation arose."

"Good work."

Answering Evan, Alon leaned back against the carriage with a sigh, finally feeling that his business in Coloni was more or less finished.

It felt as though his work was done, but unfortunately, it was not all over.

'... Eliminate one more Outer God and come back... That was it.'

Besides that, the new knowledge he had acquired was still drifting through his mind, starting with the reversed designations of Outer Gods and gods, and the stature that the unidentified being had spoken of so much. Above all:

'... The Natural Order.'

Recalling that fragment of this world's hidden truth, something he had never once seen or heard of even while playing Psychedelia, Alon thought:

'Is it about time I went there?'

He was continuing that train of thought, remembering the destination he should have visited long ago, where countless phrases were written, when...

["I..."]

At the regular meeting that everyone in Coloni—no, every member of Blue Moon, including those in Coloni—was required to attend, the peaceful atmosphere that had prevailed until now...

["I'm going to marry the Great Moon!!"]

["Huh...?"]

["..."]

["..."]

["..."]

...had given way to a raging storm.

A rather fierce one.