CHAPTER 302: THE TENGU CODE

 

—Deepest Within Tengu Valley—

The valley floor, hemmed in by sheer cliffs on both sides, narrowed the deeper one went.

And yet, at the very end alone, it opened wide as though some enormous maw had split apart.

There, towering rock spires rose in a circular ring, stabbing toward the heavens, while at their base the wind was forever swirling.

The updrafts carved away at the stone face, exposing reddish-brown ore veins and black bedrock.

The sky was visible—but if one tried to leap into it, the turbulence would simply smash them back down.

It was a landform where only those who could seize the wind survived.

—And also a place where only those who obeyed the code were allowed to live.

At the center of that open ground, a young tengu knelt alone.

He had been allowed no weapons, and his forehead was pressed against the earth.

「I-I’m… sorry.」

Just like his hands and feet planted on the ground, the voice that left him trembled violently.

Seated at the far end of the great space was the one who ruled over all—

Tenkei, the Great Tengu and chief of the tengu clan, silently looked down upon him before finally speaking after several beats of silence.

「Answer me.」

A voice colder than the wind echoed through the valley.

「You were given an order, were you not?」

「…Y-yes.」

「Your order was to maintain the valley barrier. …By whose permission did you alter the placement of the barrier stones?」

For a moment, the young tengu choked on his words.

「…The airflow had become unstable. At that rate, the lower levels would have—」

「That is not an answer.」

Tenkei slowly rose to his feet.

「You moved the barrier stones by your own judgment, did you not?」

「…!」

「Does the code say anywhere, ‘Think for yourself’?」

Several seconds of silence.

In that span, the young tengu realized that hiding anything or making excuses was meaningless.

「…It does not.」

「Then you have the duty to accept judgment.」

It happened the very next instant.

「Wait!」

A voice cut in between them.

The one-winged tengu—Magarasu—darted between the two, his single wing flaring out.

「In the end, no damage was done! If anything—」

「The heretic will keep his mouth shut!」

It was a fierce rebuke. And yet Tenkei did not so much as glance at Magarasu.

「The code does not judge ‘results.’ It judges only whether one obeyed or not.」

「That’s not judgment. It’s just—」

「Will you keep going?」

For the first time, Tenkei turned his eyes toward Magarasu.

「…Do you wish to lose your remaining wing as well?」

At those words, the surrounding tengu all sucked in a breath.

—Once before,

Magarasu had opposed Tenkei, the clan chief, challenged him, and lost.

Before the eyes of all, one of his wings had been torn away, and the sky had been taken from him.

And even after suffering that, this time too Magarasu clenched his fists and refused to back down.

For the sake of his own convictions.

And for the sake of the tengu clan’s future.

「…Even so—」

Before he could finish, Tenkei let out a small breath and cut him off.

「Foolish.」

The next moment—

A mass of wind came crashing down from above.

The young tengu’s body was hurled into the air and slammed into the rock wall, a dull impact resounding all around.

His wing had bent in a direction it never should have.

They would not take his life.

But they would take the sky from him.

That was the law of this valley.

「A heretic has no right to fly. Wings exist for those who obey.」

Magarasu had known this would happen, and yet he had been able to do nothing.

That fact gouged at his chest.

Grinding his teeth, his remaining wing trembling with the weight of his own helplessness, he began to lower his head.

—And then.

「…I see.」

A voice wholly out of place fell into the valley.

Tenkei, Magarasu, every tengu there turned toward it.

At the edge of a rock shelf—

three figures stood amidst the raging wind.

At the center of them, hair stirring in the gale as he slowly swept his gaze across the entire clearing, Aun spoke in a tone of utter disgust.

「What a seriously puke-worthy piece of logic.」

The tengu broke into an immediate uproar.

Kinu had already moved to treat the young tengu whose wing had been broken, and Yurai was right beside her.

「You’re a race free enough to fly through the sky, and you’re telling your own people to throw away independent thought? That kind of crap is boring as hell.」

He said it while staring straight at Tenkei.

To the tengu clan, it was a ridiculous thing to say.

But to Magarasu, branded a heretic, it was so refreshingly direct that it felt like the very speech he himself had wanted to shout louder than anyone.

「Who are you? …No matter. No intruder leaves this place alive.」

「So you’re Tenkei, huh?」

The corner of Aun’s mouth curled upward as he spoke quietly.

「Then I’ll smash that little code of yours to pieces.」