Part 4 — The Creeping Shadow

39

What made him wake up was his difficulty breathing.

There was an incredible amount of pressure on him, as if he’d been buried under an avalanche of grain. As Kai came to his senses, he couldn’t help but be amazed that he’d managed to sleep in this situation.

Kai struggled to free himself in the darkness and was able to crawl out like a frog emerging from the ground in spring. He emerged to find himself in a forest lit by the first rays of the morning sun.

The objects that had been in his way were the bodies of orgs. The sight of countless corpses lying there in the refreshing light of the morning sun was unsettling, despite it being a scene that Kai had created himself.

Kai belatedly cast his eyes over his surroundings and was relieved to find that he was no longer surrounded by enemies.

I survived...

The morning was so peaceful that the fight for his life that happened just a short while earlier felt like it must have been a dream.

My body feels light.

His body felt so light that it was as if he had been reborn. The pain that had lingered in his chest was very faint now. His body was filled with energy to such excess that he felt he might accidentally spring into the air if he climbed to his feet too quickly.

His senses had been sharpened further, and they naturally absorbed information about his surroundings.

The sensation of grass touching his skin.

The smell of grass, dirt, and the morning dew.

The choking stench of flesh and blood.

And then there was the smell of sweat from a living creature concealed somewhere nearby.

“...”

Kai leaped across the ground out from the shadow of the corpses and readied himself to face the creature that he knew was hiding near him.

He looked toward the source of the smell and quickly spotted a nearby uzelle girl who was sitting in the grass and hugging her knees. She didn’t look as though she was trying to hide. She was sound asleep with her head resting on top of her knees.

Kai considered killing her before she could wake up, but while he was still hesitating the girl opened her eyes. When she saw Kai standing over her, her eyes widened slightly and then she hastily sat up straight and showed Kai a smile. Her actions seemed to say, I’m not an enemy.

Times like this made Kai think that girls had an unfair advantage. They could often just smile and trick others into believing that they weren’t the slightest bit hostile.

“***...” She started to say something and then stopped herself.

Kai understood nothing of the uzelle tongue, so he continued to regard her coldly while considering how he might strike the vital areas of this opponent with the most efficiency. The girl sensed that she was in danger and hastily began to speak using a crude attempt at the human tongue.

It appeared as though every species of demi-human learned the human tongue.

“Not enemy. Me friend.”

The girl rose to her knees as Kai looked at her with suspicion.

Demi-humans walked on two legs, and uzelles were no exception. Although they were covered in thick fur, their faces were pleasant and looked very human. Her cute, round pupils, which tended to make her eyes completely black, contained a hint of fear as she looked at Kai.

The horns protruding out from her chestnut-colored hair like small branches made it clear that she was an uzelle.

“How can you speak the human tongue?” Kai asked while worrying that humans might be the only species so stupid that they couldn’t speak other languages.

The uzelle girl looked at him in surprise. “I daughter of village chief. Have to speak.”

Put simply, they’d sometimes have to negotiate with other species to plead for their lives, and if the leader of the herd couldn’t make themselves understood, this might prove fatal. It meant that tribe leaders needed to diligently study the languages of other species.

It made sense. The ones who spoke the human tongue were guardian bearers and their direct descendants. It reminded Kai that Aruwe was the granddaughter of Porek, who himself was a tribe leader.

Kai reasoned that members of the baron’s household, House Moloch, must have been able to speak the languages of other species, despite being human. It would be an embarrassment for humanity if they couldn’t.

“Okay then.”

Kai let his guard down somewhat now that he’d accepted that his opponent was a girl with very little combat potential.

Then, when he felt sure that his opponent didn’t pose a threat, he soon began to lose interest in her completely. If he was never going to see her again, then it didn’t matter whether she knew about him being a guardian bearer.

Kai had been looking around at his surroundings while thinking things over.

He decided that he should search for missing equipment before going back. In a poor village like Lag, even the equipment used by basic foot soldiers was hard to come by.

When Kai suddenly lost interest in the girl and walked off to search the surroundings, her initial reaction was confusion, but this soon turned to annoyance.

“Talk not finished!” She began yelling at Kai.

“Ah, found it.”

Kai paid no attention to the girl’s anger as he continued his search for missing equipment. It must have been his lucky day because all of his hunches turned out to be right, and he managed to recover all of his equipment without much trouble.

With that first problem out of the way, Kai continued to ignore the uzelle girl completely as he located the body of the armored soldier and put his hands together in prayer.

Before he could leave, he considered it basic courtesy to say a quick prayer for the opponent who he’d fought to the death.

First, he prayed that the armored soldier’s soul would easily find its way back to the cycle of Samsara, then once his basic prayer was finished, he proceeded to search the body for items of value without any sense of shame.

He ignored the armor because it was too bulky, but he took the hand coverings and the lace-up boots with iron fittings that had caused him so much trouble. While removing the hand coverings he found several rings on its fat fingers, so he kept those too. A small pouch was hanging from its waist, which turned out to be full of gold nuggets as big as the end of his thumb. Needless to say, he kept those also.

The armored soldier was now a half-naked org. Kai had no pity for the defeated.

Whatever you’ve got, it’s mine to use.

Kai started to think about getting back to the others.

From the pile of org corpses, he extracted as many godstones as he could carry. There was no way to carry them all back, and he wasn’t greedy enough to try.

Without a single look back, Kai began to walk away, but the uzelle girl had finally realized that she was about to be left behind.

“W-Wait!”

Kai’s face contorted with genuine annoyance when he realized that the uzelle girl was running after him with tears in her eyes, and it made him quicken his pace. He was already going to draw enough attention to himself when he got back to the village and everyone learned that he’d somehow escaped unharmed after an org guardian bearer, the armored soldier, had attacked them.

He couldn’t imagine what would happen if he brought an uzelle survivor back with him. It was more than likely that the villagers hated all demi-humans, so no matter how much she wanted to go with him, it was out of the question.

He knew that she was a survivor from the ruined uzelle settlement. What he didn’t understand was why this survivor was following him.

“I will do... devotion... you.”

“...”

“Let me, devotion!”

“...”

“Don’t ignore. Please.”

The uzelle girl’s legs were incredibly powerful.

Kai had run ahead thinking there was no way she could keep up with a guardian bearer, but in no time at all, she was caught up and running alongside him. It was enough to shock him.

Her supple legs appeared to be specialized to provide power, and she was easily able to keep pace with Kai even when he began running more seriously.

It had taken Kai a full toki to travel along the route that he had taken together with the search party, but getting back to the camp would take no time at all because he could make use of the power his guardian gave him.

Once he’d crossed the lagarto marshlands, he gradually slowed his pace and erased his kumadori from his face so that the other soldiers wouldn’t realize that he was a guardian bearer. Then he turned to the uzelle girl who was still following him. When he saw that there was also a kumadori on her cute and innocent face, he readied himself for what he had to do.

If she was a guardian bearer, he had no choice.

Kai leaped at the girl without hesitation. It surprised her somewhat, but she was able to jump back and dodge the attack using her innate agility.

“W-Wait!”

The girl was determined to follow him, and she couldn’t be argued with. It meant there was no longer any need for talk.

Kai had gotten a little hungry, and he decided that he wanted the godstone that contained the guardian within her. The girl shrieked in dismay as Kai brandished his short spear with his stomach rumbling.

“I want, serve, you. Please, let me.”

“Stop following me.”

“Your herd, I join.”

“No way.”

“I become concubine. Belong to you.”

“...”

“Please...”

The tip of the short spear was against the girl’s throat.

The girl was trembling and looking at Kai with tearful eyes now that she realized her life was in his hands.

If Kai hadn’t had experience with women, he might not have understood what her request meant. Although her body was similar to a human’s, the offer was coming from a demi-human who wasn’t exactly the same. It was unlikely that they’d be able to produce children together.

Kai spoke his mind frankly. “I can’t even imagine that.”

He’d never heard of any human keeping demi-human species and treating them that way. Though it was possible that such perversions were common between some species of demi-human.

“I, herd, join.” The girl managed to smile awkwardly despite her crying.

The look in her upturned eyes was clearly intended to appeal to him as a member of the opposite sex. The girl must have been fairly confident in her own good looks.

But it didn’t work. The only reaction it got out of Kai was a clear look of irritation.

The girl was left feeling so frustrated that she wanted to stomp her feet on the ground.

40

Although she’d sworn devotion to him, there was still no way that he could take her back to Lag.

This uzelle girl, Nirun, had thought that Kai was obviously the leader of a herd because he was a guardian bearer. She’d jumped to the conclusion that he must have a high enough social status to be what humans would generally call a baron. In reality, Kai would be nothing more than a lowly foot soldier once he returned to the village. As soon as they got back there, Kai wouldn’t be able to protect her, and he’d struggle to convince the people of the village to accept an uzelle girl despite their strong prejudices against demi-humans.

That was why he’d had to stop and argue with her just before he reached the place where the expedition party had set up camp. The argument ended when he compromised by giving her permission to live by the valley for a while, similar to the koror.

Just moments ago, he’d intended to kill her and consume the godstone containing her guardian. His sudden change of heart surprised him.

The moment Nirun had sworn devotion to him, he’d felt heat within his godstone and then for some reason he’d felt warm feelings towards the girl as if she was a member of his extended family. He easily guessed that this meant the god of the valley had already accepted Nirun’s land god.

The uzelle settlement where Nirun was born was named Najikaji and its land god was named Nazelkazeel.

When Kai told Nirun where to find the valley, she nodded as if she’d understood very easily. She must have also received guidance from the god within her. With both the macaques and the orgs scattered, Nirun said she’d take the opportunity to search for survivors from her village before she headed to the valley. Kai trusted Nirun with some of his belongings, which were mostly inherited from the armored soldier, along with the godstones he’d collected. He told her to give them to a koror named Porek.

When it came time for them to separate, she suddenly hugged him.

“What are you doing?”

“Put scent on you.”

He wondered why she was rubbing her head into his clothes around his chest, but apparently it was a unique way in which uzelles showed their affection.

With no sign of grief over her lost hometown, she waved goodbye to Kai and disappeared into the forest, which was lit by the rays of the morning sun.

After watching her leave, Kai put his nose to the part of his clothing that she’d rubbed her head against and tried smelling it. He found it had a sort of sweet smell and was covered in many hairs that could be mistaken for hairs of a deer if the season was right. He brushed the hair from his clothes with some irritation.

Time to get going.

After a brief attempt at fixing his appearance, he began walking toward the camp.

He already knew from the scent carried on the wind that the priest and the surviving soldiers from Lag were still there.

Thanks to Kai drawing away the armored soldier, the other two soldiers had safely made it back to camp before him. He thought about how he’d answer their questions. He couldn’t tell them he’d defeated the armored soldier, so he’d instead tell them that he’d run in the opposite direction and was late back because he’d gotten lost.

The party should have been worried that the powerful org guardian bearer might be pursuing them and should have been on the move. It never occurred to Kai that their decision to wait for him in the same place was suspicious.

The smell of breakfast cooking had driven away all of his concerns and made him quicken his pace.

**

The expedition party arrived back in the village during the evening of the same day.

Although they’d lost one of the squads that served as escorts, they had encountered no demi-humans on the way back, so Kai and the others were able to reach the gates of the village without incident.

The villagers that came to greet them had clearly noticed that they were fewer in number than when they’d set out, but none of them mentioned it. They simply said, “We’re glad you made it back,” and thanked them for their efforts.

Finally, the priest gathered together all members of the expedition party at the entrance to the castle and thanked them for risking their lives to assist his survey. Before they parted he performed a chant for each of them to ward off demi-human curses. With that, the expedition party disbanded right there. However, as the tired soldiers were heading back to the barracks to rest, the priest called Kai back.

“Could I have a moment of your time, Kai?” he asked, leaving Kai a little surprised.

The priest took hold of the hood that covered his face and lowered it so he could look Kai right in the eyes.

“There is something I wish to discuss with you. We can talk in my chambers.”

“Truthseeker...?”

“I won’t take up too much of your time. There is a small matter I need to confirm.”

Kai’s irritation must have shown on his face. With a wry smile, the priest added, “I can offer you some valuable sweet candy.”

The priest had come from Maas in the country’s center, so it was definitely possible that he’d brought preserved candy or bean paste with him. It was an irresistible lure for boys like Kai, who were raised in the borderlands.

When they stepped into the castle where the guest rooms were, Kai realized that something wasn’t right with the people he saw inside. Even as Kai and the priest, who had just returned from an expedition, walked by, everyone remained focused on their work as if something had made them angry.

While the barracks were filled with men, it was women who did all the work in the castle. Then the sight of Kai’s face caused one of the young women to react.

“Kai!”

It was obvious that Kai was with the priest and had business to attend to, but this didn’t seem to concern the girl who called out to him.

He recognized her as one of the girls he’d seen in the storeroom where he’d spent the night with Elsa before leaving the village. She took his hand and was about to lead him somewhere, but then she noticed he was with the priest and she quickly drew her hand away.

“Kai and I have matters to discuss. Is there some problem?”

The priest was polite enough to ask, but he was clearly someone demanding the same level of respect as the baron and the inspector, if not more. He wasn’t someone who could be spoken to carelessly.

The girl became flustered, but the urgency of the circumstances that had driven her in the first place won out. She firmed her resolve before nodding and stated her business with Kai.

“The girl... Elsa is in a bad way.”

Kai felt his heart skip a beat.

Something must have happened while he was gone from the village for a few days.

Kai wanted to go straight to her, but he couldn’t just walk away from the priest. He glanced in the priest’s direction.

“It sounds as though there’s a problem indeed.”

The priest was considerate enough to grasp the seriousness of the situation. “Well, if that’s the case...” He gave Kai permission to go to Elsa.

“Thank you, Truthseeker.”

“Not at all. Our discussion can wait. If it turns out that you could use my assistance, do not hesitate to say so. I am, after all, somewhat indebted to you, Kai.”

The priest bowed his head, and the girl likewise bowed hers.

Then, with the girl pushing him on the head, he hurried over to where Elsa was waiting.

At that time, Kai didn’t realize that the priest remained standing in the same spot, watching Kai the whole time as he walked away.

The place the girl led him to was the dormitory used by servant girls who worked in the castle.

The dormitory was in a fenced-off area to the castle’s rear where men weren’t ordinarily allowed to enter.

As the girl guided Kai in, none of the women objected to his presence. It was as if everyone there understood the situation. Some even told him, “Hurry to her.”

Unlike the barracks where the men spent their time, the women’s dormitory had a rich smell in the air and the atmosphere was overwhelming to Kai as he entered. Part of the interior of the dormitory was an area where members of the women’s council lived in rooms of their own, while everyone else would huddle together in a single room where they lived together.

The place Kai was led was deeper inside than either of those. It was a room with beds where the sick and injured who needed care stayed. There were four beds in the room, and a group of people were gathered around the bed deepest into the room. That was the only bed occupied at that time.

Kai’s ominous feelings about everything were continuing to grow.

Once she’d led him to their destination, the girl leading him couldn’t resist any longer, and she explained the situation in a trembling voice.

“We all thought she’d be all right... We kept telling him, she’s not a ‘pure girl.’”

Kai gritted his teeth and tried to contain the rage growing within him as the girl began to cry.

There in the bed before them, they found Elsa, whose body was wrapped with bandages that covered painful-looking injuries. She lay staring at the ceiling as if her soul had left her body. Her eyes moved just slightly to look in Kai’s direction as he approached.

For a moment her eyes went wide, and then tears ran down her face as she began to cry.

The imploring look in her eyes intensified for just a moment and then she turned her head away from him and faced the wall.

In consideration of Elsa’s feelings, one of the visiting girls there caught Kai’s eye and began slowly explaining the details of the situation to him.

In short, the inspector had been upset about something, and it was Elsa who’d been punished for it.

“The women’s council had Jose give him a refusal again and again. But he just wouldn’t listen. He kept saying we were lying. He got so angry and said we must think he’s blind.”

Whatever blessings the toad’s guardian had placed on him must have made him awfully confident in his ability to assess women. He’d forcefully dragged Elsa into his room so he could examine her himself.

The rage from the inspector that followed was so awful that it made even the baron turn pale. In his anger, he’d pulled out his dagger and slashed Elsa wildly as she’d cowered in fear. In the short time it took for the baron to get between them, two other women who’d been present had already been killed.

He’d taken a liking to Elsa, and some lingering affection for her must have stopped him from taking her life, but he’d showed his affection by tormenting her until she screamed, and the poor girl was left in a dreadful state once the ordeal was over.

The inspector then said he was outraged at Lag for trying to make a fool of him. He’d threatened to send false findings from his inspection to the royal capital, which might cause all ties to House Moloch to be broken completely. As a result, all members of the baron’s household were left desperately trying to appease him.

This is bullshit.

Kai was left completely lost for words.

What filled him then was nothing but a feeling of pure rage.

As Kai looked at Elsa, who was still trembling and facing away from him, he couldn’t stop the words “That fucking toad” from escaping his lips.

41

They all told him not to even think about it.

But he didn’t understand what they were trying to tell him.

Two precious members of their own had been killed, and then there was Elsa, the bedridden girl who lay before him with her body covered in deep cuts. Why were they telling him to let the man responsible get away with it?

An official from the capital? A noble from the center? None of that meant anything here. Lag wasn’t the capital. They were in the middle of nowhere, far beyond the reach of the king’s authority. There was no need to hesitate.

“Anywhere that shows disrespect to the king falls to ruin.”

“We’ll be cursed. We’ll be left to rot and ruin.”

The girls around him were talking complete nonsense.

Even after the inspector had treated girls from the village so cruelly, the baron had somehow remained subservient and accepting of the violent behavior while showing no signs of anger.

Just as Kai was about to lose himself to his rage, he heard a voice that hit him like cold water.

“What is it that makes our king the king?” the voice said. “It is the fact that our country is His Majesty himself. The blessings of a king god that form the foundation of our country are received through the body of His Majesty.”

The face that peered into the room from the entrance door was that of the priest.

“The nation of humans... It took its current form in the distant past, many thousands of years ago. In the beginning, the first king Yashadara ascended to the level of a king god, and the twelve god generals beneath him became arch gods, thus creating the foundation. So goes the tale of our nation’s founding. Make no mistake, the land of humans is not merely ruled over by the king; the country itself would not even exist were there no king.”

Kai had allowed himself to be led into the priest’s chambers.

The priest had then lectured him as if trying to dispel Kai’s short-lived rage.

At first, Kai was only half listening because he expected the priest was going to ask another series of difficult questions, but he soon realized that the priest was actually telling him things that every guardian bearer should know.

“Until the first king and his god generals formed the foundation, the land of humans was ravaged by demonic gods, and evil spirits ruled the world. This is no mere fairy tale; this is the well-documented truth of the distant past, which we know of from the ancient writings left behind.”

“...”

“Of course, no one alive today, myself included, has seen such a world with their own eyes. But I’m sure even you have heard of such things. Villages with no residents wither, and the god of the land loses its status. The rulers of Lag, House Moloch, had two villages of their own that they had to desert. I hear that the spirits of the land gods possessed by the family were weakened considerably as a result.”

The priest was basing his arguments on simple truths that Kai was already aware of. He knew that the land god of Eda village had declined in divinity after the people had left the village. This was why Lady White had to try so hard to take care of the gravesite.

The priest leaned forward and looked into Kai’s eyes, which were gradually widening.

“When the land god loses its power, the land rapidly loses its vitality. The quality of crops enters a continual decline. This is something that all guardian bearers should already know, but there are many examples of the reverse happening in this world. When this land’s baron, Lord Vezin, zealously trains his body, he is more than likely attempting to improve crop yields for the village.”

Kai felt a sense of vertigo, as if he was being drawn into the priest’s eyes and the strong light that dwelt within them.

“The reason that Lord Vezin and others show such respect to visitors despite the problems they cause is that these visitors have the faith of His Majesty the King behind them. As long as Lag is on land belonging to Lord Vezin, it is entirely within the territory of the Unified Kingdom and is His Majesty the King’s land. Consequently, if he invites the displeasure of His Majesty the King, this may have an adverse effect on the land itself. When the women of the village speak of a curse on the land, this is what they refer to.”

“But... he can’t get away with this.”

“The young girl...”

“I don’t get it, but... she’s mine. I think...”

“Oh. So that’s how it is.”

The priest sighed softly and then appeared to be deep in thought, but his gestures looked somewhat theatrical to Kai. He couldn’t tell whether the priest was his friend. Or whether he was an enemy.

Kai felt there was something strange about someone who could obtain a sigil without needing blessings of a land god. The word sigil itself was misleading. His kumadori wasn’t a symbol representing any god dwelling within him; it merely represented the formidable strength that he’d gained as a human.

Kai couldn’t imagine how many godstones he must have consumed or how intense his training must have been. The strength held by guardian bearers was so far beyond that of ordinary people.

“If you must insist on punishing this individual, then please allow me to advise you first,” the priest said while looking into Kai’s eyes.

Although the priest was maintaining his composure, there was a look of excitement in his eyes as if he was just now saying something that he’d been wanting to say the entire time. Kai wasn’t sure whether it was the god of the valley’s influence or whether it was some experience from his past life that allowed him to realize this.

“Kai, I am aware that you have become a guardian bearer through some means or other. You needn’t hide this from me. I have seen it. It was made visible to me by the art of one hundred eyes.”

The priest didn’t even flinch at the killing intent that Kai began to give off subconsciously.

Killing the priest right there and then might have been the smart option. Whatever mysterious martial arts the priest might have mastered, he could still be crushed thanks to the blessings provided by the god of the valley.

The priest must have guessed Kai’s thoughts from the look in his eyes and the slight movements of his body.

“Please do not be rash,” the priest said while moving back just slightly.

He held up his hands to show that he had no intention of fighting Kai.

“I will tell no one of this. I have heard that there are many settlements in the borderlands that were laid to waste by demi-humans. If you have chanced upon one of their abandoned land gods and just happened to obtain its blessings, then perhaps this was meant to be. You are now eligible to become a lord in this country.”

“...”

“There are procedures of course, but if you so wish, you will become a noble, and the land of the land god that blesses you will become your domain. There is an ancient law that says nobles bearing guardians within our kingdom have the right to contest one another in order to gain status. It is a forgotten rule, considered barbaric these days, but it remains written in the laws of the kingdom. If you are not concerned about your land becoming cursed, then there is no issue whatsoever with such a contest. In addition, if the party challenged has a high level of divinity, they may not refuse the fight.”

As he spoke, the priest slapped his knees and gazed at Kai with a look of exhilaration. It may have been that the priest himself also felt hatred towards the selfish and arrogant nobles from the center.

Or perhaps that was part of his act.

A sense of calmness grew inside Kai.

The priest seemed to think that Kai was controlled by his rage.

“If you’d like to leave the proceedings to me, I will gladly act on your behalf. The process is not particularly troublesome. All I need is a written pledge signed in blood, and then Maas can handle proceedings with the royal household. Naturally, I can write the text of the pledge myself.”

“I’m not interested,” Kai said bluntly.

It wasn’t a rational decision; it came from his gut feeling.

“Do you not wish to take your revenge?”

“I’m just a villager. None of this matters to me.”

“...”

Kai still hadn’t said anything to acknowledge that he was a guardian bearer, but the priest continued talking anyway.

“Do you not believe what I’m saying, Kai? What if I told you that I had witnessed your struggle against that massive org soldier? Would you believe me then?”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“Very well. I see how it is.”

Kai was speaking without giving his words much thought.

The priest must have then jumped to his own conclusion and decided that Kai was a better negotiator than his appearances would suggest.

“I suppose you’d like for us to pretend that none of this ever happened.”

“...”

“I do not understand why it is you wish to hide your power. Is there some circumstance? Very well. I shall pry no further. I would rather you did not look at me as though you intended to kill me. I understand. I swear upon the gods that no word of this will ever escape my lips. This is a secret between you and me.”

The clear killing intent that Kai was showing was enough to make the priest change his attitude and make the promise.

It was common knowledge that such an oath made by a priest could be trusted. No matter how remote the region, traveling priests would always honor their promises. When a priest promised to deliver something to someone, they would do everything within their power to deliver it for as long as they lived. It was said that priests pledged to live their lives free from lies.

Kill him. The god of the valley’s voice was clear in Kai’s mind.

A good number of people knew that Kai and the priest were alone together in this room. If Kai killed the priest now, he’d have to leave the village afterward.

He knew that the day would come when he had no choice but to leave, but he didn’t want that day to be today. He couldn’t leave Elsa while she was in such a terrible state.

“It seems I will eventually be killed unless I do something, so please allow me to earn your favor.”

When the priest felt sure that Kai wasn’t going to attack him recklessly, he sat down in his chair looking calmer and let out a small sigh.

“The gods of demi-humans that roam the kingdom come to the land of humans to kill their guardian bearers. It is not uncommon.”

It was difficult to tell whether the priest was serious or speaking in jest. He sounded like a fraudster.

It was clear that he was trying to force Kai into his debt.

“If you appear to be a demi-human, rather than a human, I expect no problems would arise so long as no one saw through it.”

Kai took action immediately.

42

Kill him.

The god of the valley was awfully lively.

It wasn’t clear why his god was so irritated.

Kill him now.

It was as if his god was very fond of killing. Or perhaps it just saw that as the most efficient way to deal with problems.

His god’s murderous intent wasn’t directed towards the toad that Kai was planning to kill. It was directed at the priest.

Kai wondered why his god would want the priest dead, but his god gave no reason and Kai was left to guess.

He knows that I’m a guardian bearer...

In that regard, his thoughts were aligned with those of the god of the valley.

It presented a crisis. He’d gone to great lengths so that no one would learn he was a guardian bearer and his lifestyle in the village would be maintained. He’d wanted to scream at the priest and ask how he’d found out.

At that moment, Kai was running towards the valley. His goal was to acquire the gear he needed to disguise himself as a demi-human. To be more precise, he intended to seek help from Porek.

He dashed across the great plains of the borderlands like the wind. It had already gone well past evening, and the darkness of the night surrounded him. It was a cloudy night and the stars couldn’t be seen. The small amount of starlight that did make its way between the clouds was a valuable source of light that allowed him to use his enhanced vision as a guardian bearer. The brighter the light of a shining star, the quicker it would flow. Those closest to the main flow of Ispi Rio flowed the fastest and shone the brightest.

How could the priest have known about Kai’s fight against the armored soldier? Not only did he claim to know about it, he said he’d seen it with his own eyes.

One hundred eyes... After his bout with Lord Olha, the priest had mentioned this secret art that allowed him to see things from long distances away.

Kai realized that there was a danger that even now the priest could be watching his movements with the art of one hundred eyes.

Kill him now.

He was finally close to understanding the god of the valley’s desire to kill.

The way things were, the priest would soon learn the location of the valley.

Kai tried to imagine it.

If one hundred eyes literally meant that the priest possessed one hundred eyes, those eyes might be following Kai’s movements at that very moment. It was known to everyone with good eyesight in the borderlands that no matter how well one could see, their range of vision would never exceed a distance of several yulds. This was explained by the fact that far-off objects appeared smaller and the way that many obstacles and the shape of the land itself would obscure objects from view.

The idea of the world being round wasn’t known to the people of this world. A strange image of the Earth momentarily came into Kai’s mind and then vanished. He couldn’t quite understand the way that the spherical shape of the land made it impossible to see beyond a certain distance.

As Kai ran, he looked ahead and behind and to his left and right searching for some sort of presence. He wished he could see in the same way as Porek. If one hundred eyes was created using the same principles as Kai’s magic, then it was likely that it used spiritual energy, which the priest then perceived as light.

At times, the blessings provided by the god within could change according to the wishes of the host, as they had for the armored soldier during their fight. The change that took place inside Kai must have been based on the same principles, because his vision changed dramatically right then.

He saw the world of auras that Porek had described, and it overlapped with the world of light.

Kai felt that it would be difficult to use magic to surprise anyone with this power. Perhaps it was predictable that the armored soldier would laugh at Kai’s secret trick.

Magic was neither peerless nor all-powerful.

“Found you.”

Kai had spotted it.

Somewhere above Kai and to his right there was a ball of light that followed him.

He couldn’t guess how anyone could create such a thing using magic. Kai’s magic had never gone beyond the level of imitating natural phenomena, but one hundred eyes wasn’t so basic.

“An eyeball...”

The power that allowed the priest to see far-off objects in detail was an actual eyeball that flew out to the location.

The action of seeing was essentially the absorption of light from the place onto the retina, so to see a place as if one was there, the practitioner would need an eyeball in that location. The only visual sensory organ that humans had was the eye, after all.

However, this eyeball was fashioned from magic.

He reasoned that it saw images of the world of auras, which Kai himself was seeing at that moment.

When he looked closely, he could see a narrow beam of light trailing behind it like a thread. The term that came to his mind when he saw this was “optic nerve.” That was the name for the nervous tissue that connected the eye to the brain.

Kai had been heading for the village of Banya, but now he turned and headed into the nearby forest.

As an experiment, he made his way through some dense trees, veering to the left and right for no apparent reason, and all the while he was watching the movements of the eyeball.

As he’d expected, the thread trailing behind it became caught. It appeared that the thread couldn’t pass through the trees. The trees of the forest had their own auras, albeit weak ones, so it wasn’t possible to ignore them or to see through them.

The eyeball suddenly began to rise into the air. It rose until it was high enough to have a bird’s-eye view of the forest, and then it began to follow after Kai. When Kai had been with the search party, he must have been watched from above in the same way.

Kai knew what to do.

He ran through the forest at full speed.

The leaves and branches of the trees were spread out overhead, so Kai knew he’d be difficult to see from above. It was nighttime, and as he found and plunged into particularly dark spaces, he knew that those areas would be blind spots that couldn’t be seen from above.

For someone with the toughened skin of a guardian bearer, recklessly charging through the forest was highly effective. The eyeball was caught off-guard and left behind as Kai continued to run through the trees. A quarter of a toki after he’d lost the eyeball, Kai finally changed direction and headed towards the valley as he’d originally intended.

Kill him now.

It was clear that the priest could not be trusted.

When Kai arrived in the valley, he decided he’d check in on Aruwe before visiting the koror settlement that had been set up at the valley’s edge. When he placed his hand on Aruwe’s head, she clung to him saying, “There’s female scent on you.” He had to peel her away from himself before he could leave. The koror girl could be a real handful.

Porek must have sensed Kai’s arrival because he came out of his home immediately, allowing Kai to get straight to business.

He wanted gear that would make him look like a member of another species. When Porek heard this request, he nodded without asking for further details and then disappeared into his home. When he reappeared he was holding koror clothing.

“This clothing was once worn by the greatest warrior of our tribe. It belonged to a member of our kind who was remarkably tall for a koror, so it should be appropriate for someone of your height, God of the Valley.”

“Isn’t this something precious to you?”

“Not at all. The wearer has died and has been buried. Please, think nothing of it.”

“Okay then.”

That was good enough for Kai. He allowed Porek to dress him in the clothing.

The koror clothing was similar to human clothing and could be tied at the front using a cord, but it was too well-made to be a human item. The dye coloring the garment formed geometric patterns designed by their ancestors.

It was obviously a valuable item of clothing, even to the koror, and it was made using a generous amount of fur. The thick fur that lined the collar and other places made it look very warm.

“Though we have small stature, the koror are otherwise no different from humans. If you are to put on this mask, all who see you will suppose you are a koror guardian bearer.”

Kai nodded with satisfaction as he examined the clothes he was wearing. He’d never worn anything so elegant in all of his life.

“What will be your objective?”

“There’s a guardian bearer I need to kill.”

“If you would like assistance...”

“I’m good.”

“Very well. That is a shame. I had hoped I might share in the rewards.”

Kai liked it when Porek spoke so frankly.

Kai then remembered that the uzelle would be arriving in the valley, so he asked Porek to welcome her. Porek was somewhat surprised, but he agreed respectfully. Kai was glad that everything had been taken care of so quickly.

As Kai began to run, the members of the tribe gathered around him and waved to him to see him off. It left Kai with a warm feeling in his heart that made him smile just slightly.

When all of this is over, this is where I’ll bring Elsa. Here, to the valley.

He felt sure that the place would make her happy.

43

Somewhere, somebody was crying.

Those muffled waves of sadness had spread out through the castle, and conversations had become rare, creating an unbearable atmosphere of melancholy.

Those crying were the roommates of Sele and Shiina, who had both been killed. The reality of their sudden deaths had probably sunk in for most.

Jose felt as though she had the same lack of a sense of realism.

I’m so weak...

Jose looked at her own small hands.

Her skin had been sensitive to the sunlight ever since she was born, and it had little color. She repeatedly clenched and unclenched her fists as if it might make her feel like she was still alive.

I really am powerless.

As much as it embarrassed her to be called Lady White by the villagers, she could speak her mind during disputes while still allowing others to feel comfortable calling her by that title. And when the villagers found it difficult to ask for something from her father, she was often willing to make the request herself. Thus, she created the impression that she’d grown into a dependable lady. But in her own mind, she was always worried that she might not actually have the strength that those around her had come to expect from her.

Recently, she understood all too well that she was a small girl who was completely powerless.

“My Lady, you should be resting at this hour.”

“Who has been chosen for today?”

“Sally. He had the least complaints about her, so....”

“Tell her to take every precaution. If she feels as though her life is in danger, her first priority should be to save herself. Tell her to run to Adelia or myself.”

“Very well, My Lady.”

Tensions were unbearably high among members of the women’s council.

Giving oneself to someone so unpleasant for the sake of the people of the village was a task given to several young women who’d recently lost their husbands. It was to be expected that those women were feeling unusually anxious.

Not long ago, two other women in the same circumstances had lost their lives simply because they had the misfortune of being close by when trouble started.

There was no longer anyone willing to spend the night with that particular guest. Until that point, those chosen by the women’s council and called upon by the ladies of House Moloch to act in the interests of the village had fulfilled their duties with no more than a few tears. Pregnancy was such a great fear for everyone that they’d asked for excessive amounts of the herbal medicines that could prevent it, and this had depleted the supplies of medicinal plants.

Their guest and his entourage had prolonged their stay far beyond what was expected, and this was causing problems. This was because the priest he’d brought with him had yet to complete a separate survey, but the inspector had deliberately tried to upset the women by whispering to them at night that they were lengthening their stay for the sake of displeasing them.

He was a loathsome man. The overall situation, and the need to continue meeting this man’s demands, had become difficult to accept.

The scene that played out half a toki ago was still surprisingly fresh in Jose’s mind, and the memory made her shiver. She hugged her own body tightly in an attempt to stop herself from shaking.

“Don’t play the gentle daughter when all we’re talking about is one or two of your village’s girls.”

She’d asked for an end to the cruelty, and told him that she absolutely could not allow his request for a new “pure girl” to be answered. Her father had tried to stop her, but she’d gone to speak with the inspector directly when her father wasn’t watching. The small man, who was supposedly there as an inspector, had leered at her body, which wasn’t fully developed, and had spoken to her mockingly.

“I wonder, does Lord Vezin know of this?”

“This was my decision alone.”

“Then I shall pretend I did not hear you. You are accusing me of demanding women to share my bed. Do you really think that’s an appropriate attitude to have toward a messenger of the king?”

“But... How can you deny making such requests?!”

Custom demanded that the village offer up women to their guest without them needing to ask. This was standard practice when entertaining an important guest in a poor village that had nothing else they could offer.

This small man, however, had repeatedly made his own demands, and must have even pressed her father to ensure that the “pure girl named Elsa” was sent to his chambers. It was possible that he’d made his request euphemistically in the pompous manner of a noble rather than saying the words outright. But regardless of how he’d flaunted his high social status, coercion was coercion.

And then came the tragedy when he’d learned that Elsa was not what he’d call a “pure girl.”

Even after spilling so much blood, he still didn’t give up his hunt for women. In fact, he seemed to delight in their displeasure, and his demands became more frequent and exacting.

Men had it easy. They’d simply say, “Well, we can’t refuse our guest’s demands.” But it was the women fulfilling those demands who found it hardest to bear.

The women’s council was in an uproar. The loudest complaints came from the youngest members who were his most likely targets. It had been enough to drive the ladies of House Moloch away from the council, starting with Jose’s mother.

As a member of the baron’s household, Jose took responsibility by standing up for the other women and negotiating with their guest directly. However, the negotiations could hardly be called negotiations at all because he held so much power over her.

If he says he won’t leave the village until he gets a “pure girl,” perhaps I could give him my body and put an end to it.

Jose was alone in the room.

When she imagined losing her precious purity to that loathsome man she barely considered human, she had to hug herself to endure the trembling it caused. She understood Elsa’s feelings all too well. It was out of the question.

We need help and I don’t care where it comes from. Somebody, please, do something.

Once the first tear had slowly run down her cheek and fallen to the floor, she was troubled by more tears that began to flow from her eyes, one after the other.

She continued to cry like that for some time.

For a while, it felt as though the castle had fallen silent.

“We’re under attack!”

Then there was shouting and the sound of alarm bells ringing.

Heavy footsteps could be heard moving through the corridor outside the room.

Jose sprang up from her chair and ran to the window. Bonfires lit by the soldiers were burning across the village’s defensive walls.

Jose strained her eyes. She was a guardian bearer with enhanced vision, so she could clearly see the world that lay beyond the walls within a sea of darkness.

What she saw there was an all-too-familiar enemy. It was a macaque night raid.

**

Macaque night raids. They weren’t uncommon in regions near Lag.

Although the village was fairly large, there were three divine spirits of land gods hidden within Lag, and the macaques would never give up on their attempts to claim them.

They kept a close watch over the village and made sure that several of their soldiers were positioned in the forest near the village at all times. The numbers of those soldiers had been rising steadily. The movements of large numbers of macaques that Truthseeker had mentioned to Olha was a clear sign that they intended to attack and lay waste to Lag.

The macaque army that attacked that night was over 100 soldiers strong.

But the village was surrounded by sturdy stone walls, and an army of that size couldn’t take a fortified village like Lag. It would have made more sense for the macaques to wait until they’d amassed an army several times the size it was now.

This was an unexpected event that no one could have foreseen.

We need to fake a demi-human night raid.

A boy who appeared to be a koror had realized that macaques were gathering in the forest and had found their group. He’d then been merciless in using them for his own ends, demanding that they attack the village with the difficult condition that not a single villager be killed.

They should be enough to keep the village busy. Then there’ll be an opening.

The koror-like boy, who was Kai in disguise of course, had approached the group from the rear. When he found their leader in a simple grass bed together with a female-looking macaque, he began the negotiations with a powerful blow from his fist.

When the naked(?) female macaque saw Kai standing there with the leader held by the scruff of the neck, she screamed and ran off. The leader tried to resist, but Kai pushed his face down into the dirt and kicked his exposed red behind.

The leader was a guardian bearer of course, but little Kai was far stronger. The macaque leader could do nothing more than scream into the dirt as Kai pressed his face to the ground.

It was possible that this macaque spoke the human tongue.

After spending time with Porek and Aruwe, Kai had learned to imitate koror conversation with a few broken sentences. He began by talking like a koror before suddenly switching to speaking in the human tongue.

It gave the impression that he thought the macaque was more likely to know the human tongue than the language of the weak and persecuted koror.

As expected, the macaque leader felt his life was at stake as he began struggling to speak the human tongue.

With that, Kai released him.

“***.”

When the leader realized his assailant was a koror, he was suddenly enraged. Kumadori began to appear on his red face. Now Kai had a chance to see what level of kumadori could be expected from a macaque entrusted with an army on the frontline. The lines were less intricate than even those of the org leader who’d visited the valley.

Kai introduced himself to this fellow guardian bearer by allowing his own kumadori to show. The mask hiding his face was a thing carved from wood that covered him from the eyes down, leaving his forehead completely exposed.

The moment the macaque leader saw Kai’s kumadori, he realized there was a large difference in the level of divinity between them and looked as if he was about to run away.

Naturally, Kai didn’t give him a chance to run. The moment he began to turn around, he grabbed him by the arm and kicked the back of his knees. The leader soon lost his balance and was forced into a sitting position where he was left looking up at the unnerving sight of Kai’s mask.

“In the village. Need to kill someone. You’ll help.”

“W-What...”

“Listen. You’ll help.”

“...”

“Attack the village in some way or other.”

“Keep it up for a while and then retreat. While that’s going on, I’ll sneak inside and kill my target.”

That was the extent of Kai’s demand. He wasn’t asking for them to throw their lives away.

“If you won’t help, I’ll chase you down and kill you.”

“I understand...”

And that was how there came to be an unexpected macaque night raid on the village that very night.

44

The macaques were out in force.

Using their powerful, long arms to brandish stone axes was their specialty, but that wasn’t all they could do. Their ape-like arms, which were far longer than a human’s, made it difficult to deal with the rocks that they threw from great distances.

Macaques weren’t completely stupid. Although they knew that they were protected from any half-hearted attacks by tough fur that resembled metal wire, they didn’t expose themselves to unnecessary risk when fighting.

From their point of view, the attack on Lag was similar to a castle siege. Therefore, they approached the village under the cover of night and began attacking by throwing rocks to knock the soldiers off their defensive walls.

As Kai watched their offensive from behind, he learned a few things about Lag’s weak points.

Ah... They use the ridges of the wheat fields for cover.

The fields had been made close to Lag because they were so important for supporting life in the village.

The rainy season was relatively long in the borderlands, and there were many ridges and deep pits between the fields to improve drainage. The macaques would approach the village and immediately jump into the pits. From there, they could lie low while throwing rocks that they’d brought with them.

Kai didn’t want any of the villagers to die, so he felt the need to act quickly when he saw soldiers trying to dodge rocks thrown with lethal force by the macaques.

As per Kai’s request, the macaques focused their attack on the front village gate. Naturally, the defensive efforts from the village were also focused on that region, so most of the soldiers guarding the rear wall were gradually being drawn there. Kai watched their movements closely as he moved around to an area where few soldiers were posted.

Kai’s plan to infiltrate the place was based on his knowledge as a villager.

Kai had often used the rear of the village in his nighttime visits to the valley, and he knew where there was a small blind spot for the lookouts. It was a shadowy place where trees with medicinal properties were cultivated within the walls. There were few eyes on the herb garden to the rear of the castle at night, and a shure tree that had been growing near the walls for several decades hid his movements from the soldiers on lookout as he scaled the wall.

Kai carefully monitored the movement of soldiers atop the wall, and the momentary gaps in their perimeter did not escape his notice. With his incredible ability to jump, Kai leaped over the seven- or eight-yule-high wall in a single bound. Several soldiers turned to look when they felt a slight breeze, but Kai was already gone from sight.

He knew the interior of the village well, so he was able to move around while going from shadow to shadow, where he wouldn’t be seen. The closer he got to the castle, the more eyes there were, so Kai used the physical abilities that his guardian had given to him to follow a course that would be impossible for any ordinary human.

Let’s go via the roof.

He reached the castle roof easily using a few small footholds. The shape of the roof was already familiar to him, and he could guess where he’d find his destination.

Not including the area beneath the roof, the castle had three floors in total, and the second of these floors included the room where he’d find the disgusting toad. It was in a spot above the front entrance that provided good views. The roof above the front entrance doubled as a terrace for important guests.

When Kai got close and looked down on the terrace, he could see several soldiers positioned there. He remembered now that this position was used as a watchtower when the castle needed to be defended.

After some thought, Kai decided he’d avoid the front where the fighting was happening, and instead, he’d enter from a side window some distance away. The entire third floor was used by the baron’s family. Kai searched and found a window conveniently left open.

If there’s anyone inside, I’ll knock them unconscious...

With that decision made, he gripped the edge of the roof and entered through the window feet first like an acrobat. Immediately, he found someone inside looking at him with fearful eyes.

He would have hit the person without a second thought, but he hesitated when he recognized who it was standing there staring at him.

“W-Who...”

Kai forcefully pinned the girl against the wall while covering her mouth to silence her before she could ask who he was. Her white hair against his nose had a faint scent of flowers, and the smell felt oddly out of place.

It was Lady White, one of the baron’s daughters.

Kai soon lost his willingness to hit her and knock her out. He wasn’t sure what to do, but he couldn’t release her or she’d call for help.

“W-Who are...”

“Shut up.”

He increased the pressure with the arm that was holding her in place, and covered her mouth once again.

He repositioned himself so that his mouth was close to Lady White’s ear. He could tell that his threatening attitude was making her tremble.

“I’ve no business with you.”

“...”

“I’m only here for him... I’m going to kill the fat toad staying in this village.”

For a moment, her body trembled with shock, but then Lady White seemed to relax. She stopped holding her breath and began to breathe normally.

It might have just been because Kai was treating her more gently, or it may also have been the power of her guardian moving within her while she was forcefully restrained. It seemed as though she had trouble moving, but Lady White was able to look right at him, and the sight of the unusual mask he wore made her shudder just slightly.

“Stay quiet. Make a sound and I’ll kill you.”

Kai was nervous and wasn’t quite sure what he was saying. It was an empty threat, but when he saw that it had scared Lady White, that was enough to unnerve him too.

Stay calm. Stay calm.

Kai used the same techniques that he’d used in the past when he was about to lose himself on the battlefield. He took breaths while reminding himself of his objectives.

He had to kill the toad.

He had to avoid killing any villagers.

He couldn’t let his identity be revealed.

He needed to be seen by as few people as possible and then he needed to escape quickly once he was finished.

That was all.

He hadn’t expected to be spotted by Lady White, but fortunately, she hadn’t recognized him. Although they were inside the castle, sources of light weren’t used wastefully, so it was dark within the room. Kai had also made some basic efforts to change his appearance, such as letting down his hair. He decided he’d continue with his task without giving Lady White time to regain her composure.

Fortunately, Lady White was also a guardian bearer. He could handle her fairly roughly and it wouldn’t kill her. With that in mind, Kai felt he had no other choice.

“You’ll kill him...?” Lady White said softly.

She gazed at Kai with an exhausted look in her eyes, but she somehow managed a faint smile.

“Let me help.”

Her fingers had been gripping Kai’s shoulder tightly in an attempt to resist, and her fingernails were digging into his skin.

If Kai hadn’t been a guardian bearer, she might have even torn the skin from his shoulder. That was how intense the emotion visible in Lady White’s ruby-red pupils had become.

“Kill him.”

Her body trembled as she spoke words that Kai would never have expected her to say.

Lady White led the way.

As a result, Kai had no trouble making his way to the toad’s room.

The laughter he heard coming from the room sounded wholly inappropriate given that there was a battle raging just outside. He must have been enjoying his view of the killing, as if it was all far beneath him, while he drank wine.

Lady White gritted her teeth for a moment and then nodded before knocking at the door to the room.

Then she was very casually told to enter and a young girl somewhat lightly dressed emerged from the room to guide her inside.

“We’re done here,” Lady White said softly. The words were probably for Kai, who had instinctively hidden himself.

Lady White left with the young girl as Kai quietly slipped into the room, which had now fallen silent.

Inside he found the toad, the inspector from the capital, who was gazing out of his wide-open window with his robes coming loose. His hand shone with light reflected by a drop of the village’s precious wine, which he must have poured for himself.

Severo Gandal.

An inspector sent by Royal appointment. A noble from the center whose house held great power.

His level of divinity was cinquesta.

Everything Kai knew about this man he’d learned from rumors spread by the soldiers. As a cinquesta, he outranked the baron, but he was turned away and his back appeared defenseless.

The fat on his body suggested that he was a stranger to training, as did his drooping skin.

And even as Kai approached, filled with murderous intent, the toad didn’t seem to notice. He merely continued to watch and laugh as the killing played out in the world below him.

“Kill him,” Lady White had requested.

“Kill him outside the village.”

She wanted no one to think that the villagers had killed him to settle a grudge.

She wanted the village to have some excuse when they faced inquiries from the capital.

Kai had never planned to cause trouble for the village.

Kai could see that the glass doors extending along the length of the terrace were open. The opening was wide enough for a person to pass through quite easily. Beyond the door, he saw the backs of the soldiers he’d spotted from the roof.

Kai’s hand moved out silently and then gripped the inspector tightly by his neck.

The inspector stopped breathing with a start.

For someone with Kai’s level of strength, the weight of this small man was nothing. With his other hand, he gripped the sash around the inspector’s waist and then he used his full strength to throw out the disgusting sack of flesh in one toss.

“Hah?!” An echoing cry of surprise was all that remained of the inspector. In an instant, he’d been thrown from the room and launched high into the air.

45

After throwing the inspector outside, Kai had turned and run from the guest room without a moment’s hesitation. It had only taken a short amount of time, and no one had noticed Kai was there.

A man dressed in koror clothing was rushing through the long corridor of the second floor of the castle with fearsome speed. It was then that he heard a commotion coming from the guest area, but the events caught the soldiers by such surprise that they were slow to take action. Slow enough that Kai had time to disappear completely.

After making an easy escape from the building, Kai took the shortest path through the shadows before jumping over the defensive walls and hurrying to secure his prey.

That toad might be weaker than I thought...

Weak or not, his opponent was a guardian bearer on the level of sigil cinquesta. Kai knew that his rough treatment wouldn’t have caused him any harm, but he was genuinely worried that the toad might be killed by the macaques, even though Kai himself had been the one to throw him outside.

The guardian bearer leading the macaques was nothing special, but he could become more of a problem if he was allowed to grow stronger by consuming the godstone of the toad.

Once he was outside the village, Kai must have been mistaken for an enemy, because several arrows flew by him. As Kai rushed by below the defensive walls, the soldiers of the village began to focus their attacks on him. Arrows rained down on him incessantly, and Kai had to use his hands to deflect them, much to his irritation.

He couldn’t have been visible in the darkness, but the soldiers knew that something incredibly dangerous was there from the way he effortlessly brushed away their arrows. They must have thought he was a guardian bearer operating alone and searching for a hole in their defenses. The soldiers were yelling to one another and urging caution. Kai recognized one of the voices and chanced a glance toward the owner. As expected, he saw the faces of his squad members. It hurt to see his own friends aiming their arrows at him.

Kai held his breath and then quickened his pace. He bounded over the position of the macaques and slipped away into the darkness behind them. Once he was out of sight of the soldiers, he felt relieved.

“****!”

“**, ***!”

The macaques also looked somewhat confused when Kai leaped over their heads. They pointed towards Kai, who was brushing the dirt from his clothes, and appeared to be loudly asking one another why the koror was there.

Most of the macaques seemed to have no idea that it was this false koror who had forced them to start this battle.

As order began to break down, the leader let out a sharp howl to suppress the disorder. He looked at Kai and said, “Finish your business quick.” There was a sense of urgency in his voice. The macaques must have feared that this battle would not go well for them.

All right. I’ll get this done quickly.

Kai strained his eyes and began scanning the area. When he found what he was looking for, he dashed straight toward it. The prey that he’d thrown outside appeared to be unharmed.

In the darkness of the night, beyond the drooping ears of millet waiting to be harvested, he could just see the head of a small man climbing to his feet. He’d been sitting in a high seat where he was free from danger, before suddenly being thrown down onto the bloodstained battlefield. Kai could tell from his confused attitude just how much shock it had caused him.

Corrupt as he was, the man was a guardian bearer and his body would have to suffer extreme damage before showing any signs of injury.

The small man was staring blankly toward Lag and appeared afraid of the macaques as he watched the night warfare under the light of the fires burning on the walls. When he saw Kai disguised as a koror leap out from the middle of the turmoil, his knees gave way and he fell to the ground.

“W-Wait!” he cried, with his palms raised in front of him. But there was no need for a demi-human to react to words spoken in the human tongue.

His toady face had been as repulsive to the women of the village as any poisonous beast. When Kai imagined that same face twisted into an expression of delight as he slashed at Elsa, Kai’s heart filled with murderous desire.

He tightened his fist, and with the power of his leap behind it, he drove it straight into the toad’s face.

There was a feeling like a hard object breaking, and then Severo’s body tumbled backward. Severo flattened precious heads of millet as he fell, and Kai was annoyed to see further damage being caused by this man.

The first punch had left Kai feeling slightly calmer. He tried to breathe steadily as he slowly walked towards Severo. Kai began to feel that something wasn’t right about the pathetic way Severo lay twitching and holding his face.

Is this guy really a guardian bearer...?

Blood trickled from between the fingers of the hand that he held to his face. The punch had carried enough force to kill an ordinary person, but it was an artless strike guided by rage, and any guardian bearer should have easily withstood it. Kai stood ready, expecting that, within a moment or two, Severo’s guardian would heal him, and he’d climb to his feet.

However, the small man still appeared to be in too much pain to rise.

In his irritation, Kai kicked Severo with the tip of his foot so that he could see Severo’s face. Severo was no longer bleeding, nor was there any sign of injury.

So he had healed after all.

“S-S-Stop...”

Severo displayed pure fear of Kai’s violent behavior.

Although the bleeding had stopped, his face was now wet with an impressive flow of tears and mucus.

“D-Do you even know w-who I am?”

“You’re some noble from the capital, right?” Kai responded indifferently.

Kai aimed a kick at Severo’s legs, which were spread apart in a way that caused his penis to be unpleasantly exposed from under his robe. The sight of this man half naked was something no one would have wanted to see, which perhaps went some way to explaining his short temper.

When Severo heard Kai speak the human tongue, he seemed to realize what was happening. The fear that had been visible in his eyes was replaced by a look of rage in an instant.

“Y-You’re from that damned village.”

“...”

His disguise had been seen through easily, but Kai wasn’t too concerned. Being recognized by a man who was about to die didn’t cause a problem.

When Kai didn’t respond, an inept smile appeared on Severo’s face as if he’d just seen through Kai’s plans. His speech became arrogant, as though he was ridiculing Kai for thinking he could disguise himself as a non-human and get away with whatever task he’d been given.

“D-Did you really think you could lay your hands on an inspector appointed by the king and get away with it? Y-You think I’ll stand for this? Well, I’ve decided I won’t take any more!”

“...”

“It’s going to be hard for me to overlook this! This is going to cause quite a stir when I make my report to His Royal Highness...”

“You still think you’re getting out of this alive?”

Kai sighed as if genuinely surprised, and the crimson color that came to Severo’s face was easy to see.

He’d been shaking like a child who’d seen a ghost the entire time. He must have really believed that being a noble from the center made it possible for him to assert absolute authority when dealing with any other human.

If this man was genuinely a cinquesta, if he genuinely had the blessings of an incredibly powerful land god like the rumors said, then perhaps that was enough to ensure his superiority over the three guardian bearers of lower status in the village, the baron included.

It was clear from Kai’s height that he wasn’t the baron, Moloch Vezin. Perhaps Severo thought it was Lord Olha who was hiding beneath the koror disguise.

By Kai’s estimate, when someone’s sigil level increased by one, their base strength would increase by roughly 50 percent. But a quattro had to be several times stronger than a doi.

If a doi is worth 1, multiplying that by 1.5 twice is about... 2.25.

That actually felt about right. Using the same logic, the difference in strength between a tres and a cinquesta would be a difference of just a little more than double. For someone who was so much stronger, only a few basic techniques would be needed to overpower an opponent.

Severo wiped away the mucus that was still flowing unchecked from his nose.

“You think you can take on a cinquesta? I-It’s not too late. Stop now and I might just overlook this.”

Severo produced a dagger that he must’ve kept concealed for self-defense. It was impressive that he’d kept it hidden despite how disarranged his clothes had become, but it didn’t change much.

The dagger that Severo drew while slowly climbing to his feet was well decorated with precious metals and inlaid gemstones. As he stared at Kai’s mask, his kumadori finally began to show. Kai studied his sigil carefully and was so surprised that he could hardly have believed his eyes.

“You call that a cinquesta sigil?”

“...”

Severo had nothing to say in response.

Even the most generous description of the sigil that appeared on the small man’s face wouldn’t include the word “intricate.” Since he’d fought with multiple guardian bearers already, that much was obvious to Kai at a glance.

Is that a doi? I guess you could call it a tres... maybe...

“That’s a cinquesta?”

“Y-Yes. And you’d be wise to fear it... The sigil cinquesta of House Gandal is...”

“Yeah, sure.”

“...”

Beads of sweat began to form on Severo’s forehead when he saw how calm Kai was.

Then he swung his dagger as if trying to slash at Kai’s eyes and stop him from further inspecting his sigil. It was a desperate attack from a guardian bearer, so as infantile as it was, it had the potential to do some serious damage. When used against an ordinary opponent that is.

Kai remained relaxed and waited until the blade was just about to reach his eyes before effortlessly catching hold of the tip, much to Severo’s surprise. His fingertips were more than strong enough for him to take the dagger away.

Then he looked at the small man who called himself a cinquesta with a piercing gaze.

“Well then, why don’t you show me what you’re capable of?”

Kai’s own sigil then appeared.

Severo began to tremble in fear the moment he saw the unusual shape of the sigil that appeared on Kai’s forehead.

46

“It can’t be...”

Severo’s trembling jaw dropped.

The eyes of the small man, which had only looked down on the people of the borderlands up to now, were wide with surprise.

“A glyph sigil!”

Severo’s fear began to color his face.

He took a step back without thinking, and his foot became caught in the grass, causing him to clumsily fall back and land on his rear. He must have realized that this disadvantageous position would make it hard for him to move, because the fallen pig quickly rose to all fours in an attempt to stand up and then began to crawl away.

His ass was dirty and fully exposed.

Glyph? What was he saying just now?

Knowledge was the one thing Kai lacked, so the words appealed to him like water to a man dying of thirst.

The priest had taught him a little, and Kai had come to realize how ignorant he was. His heart was swayed by an irresistible impulse that was common to all living creatures: curiosity.

He suspected that he’d just learned something important about his own sigil. There was an eye-like symbol in the center of Kai’s forehead that represented the uniqueness of the god of the valley. He’d wondered what it meant ever since seeing it reflected in the lake in the valley. It had reminded him of the cyclops species from the south that he knew from fairy tales.

For just a moment, his curiosity won out.

Kai taunted Severo with words intended to draw out more information.

“Does my glyph scare you?”

He kicked the rear of the small man as he desperately tried to scramble away, causing him to roll over and face Kai. Then Kai moved his face closer as if showing off his sigil.

Severo’s bloodshot eyes couldn’t have been any wider as he gazed into the sigil on Kai’s approaching forehead. Even with his death so close, Severo couldn’t suppress his curiosity in the face of something he found so terrifying. Such was the nature of the knowledgeable race of humans.

“What does my glyph mean to you? Let’s hear it.”

“Hah... Haha. A human glyph bearer here in the borderlands... But there are none outside of the royal capital.”

“Am I not here right now?”

“...”

Despite his fear, he couldn’t take his eyes off Kai’s sigil.

Severo’s breathing was becoming shallower and more rapid.

“Sounds like you’ve seen more of these in the capital. What does my glyph mean to you? Tell me.”

“Glyphs only appear for the most powerful of gods. No urchin from the borderlands could ever...”

“It’s special?”

“Y-Yes...”

“Really?”

“But you... you must have...”

Severo’s whole body was trembling.

Some realization must have hit him. He began calling for the priest as if he couldn’t control himself. Then he tried to run once again. Kai put his foot to Severo’s back and pushed him against the ground so he could continue the interrogation.

It was then Kai realized that he could feel some presence.

His intuition was correct. He’d felt something from the direction of the village, and when he looked in that direction, he saw a man dressed in familiar black robes standing together with the soldiers atop the walls.

He was no more than a tiny speck in Kai’s vision, but Kai was certain that the man was looking right at him. He knew that the priest had just seen the sigil on his forehead and the glyph of the god of the valley.

Kill him!

The god of the valley was screaming.

His god was desperate to see the priest killed.

Kai felt as though he now understood the reason behind that clear desire for his death.

That priest’s dangerous.

The priest couldn’t be trusted.

There was no reason for him to have so much interest in Kai if he was no more than a villager.

The priest had been looking straight at Kai and nothing else.

Even though a high-ranking noble from the center was about to be killed, the priest showed no intention of coming to his aid. He was watching calmly, as if even Kai’s method of killing the noble was something he wanted to see clearly.

“H-Help me!”

Severo pleaded for help, and Kai kept him in the corner of his vision while he was thinking.

When Severo saw that Kai’s attention was now focused elsewhere, he began increasing the gap between himself and Kai by slowly inching backwards. He must have intended to break into an obvious run once there was enough distance between them. Kai was empty-handed and didn’t look as though he had enough power to take a guardian bearer’s life with a single hit.

Severo had stolen a glance toward Lag and saw that the macaques were retreating, so Kai knew that the small man would be trying to judge the distance between himself and the safe zone provided by the village.

While still distracted by the priest, Kai mercilessly crushed Severo’s hopes. He strode over to close the distance while still looking in the other direction.

The priest said he saw everything when I was fighting against the armored soldier.

If he’d seen that much, Kai no longer had anything to hide from him. But there was still the possibility that he hadn’t really seen anything.

Kai’s greatest concern at that moment was that the priest might see his magic. Just having an opponent know that he could use magic would put him at a significant disadvantage. In this case, his opponent already had far more knowledge and experience with magic, so he wanted to avoid revealing the nature of his own attacks.

“H-Have you even thought about what’s going to happen if you kill me?”

“Not really.”

“If I don’t return to the palace alive, there are sure to be harsh repercussions for your village! House Moloch will take the blame. They will be given traitor’s deaths!”

“...”

“They will be executed. The godstones will be ripped from their bodies while they still live...”

“Is that really true?”

“The executioner will tear their guardians away... What do you mean?”

“You lied about your guardian, so why should I believe anything you say?”

“Guh...”

He’d lied about his level of divinity.

Kai got the feeling that there was no real reason to take notice of any of his threats. This inspector who had claimed to be a cinquesta sigil was in fact several ranks lower.

It meant it was possible that even the highest-ranking individual in the country, the king, hadn’t inherited the full power of the previous king before him. The threat from the demi-humans that surrounded the borderlands may have been another consequence of the kingdom itself losing its power. It was said that human armies from the center had ceased to cull the other species that surrounded them, and despite the constant threats that the borderlands had faced for the past few years, no armies from the center had been dispatched to their aid.

From Kai’s point of view, this place they referred to as the center was a place he’d never seen in his life, and for all he knew, it might not even exist.

“I assure you, I speak the truth.”

“I’ve heard enough.”

Kai drew the knife that hung at his waist.

Although he was wearing a disguise, he was still carrying the same familiar piece of equipment as always.

As he absentmindedly attempted to drive the knife into Severo, Kai was hit by an attack he was not expecting.

“Flames take you!”

Severo’s palm stretched out before Kai created a burst of red flames that filled his vision. Somewhat instinctively, Kai raised his arm to shield his eyes and recoiled.

There were practitioners of magic in the center. Lady White herself had told him so.

For a man like Severo who spent no time training in martial arts, it would make sense to learn magic as a means of self-defense. Kai had been fully at fault for not seeing it coming.

By the time Kai had taken a few breaths, the flames had died down. The heat hadn’t been particularly intense, and Kai knew that he hadn’t been burned, but Severo was nowhere to be seen. The temperature had been remarkably low, and the flames hadn’t even burned his clothes, suggesting that they were merely for show.

Kill him!

Kai began to run.

He soon spotted fleeing Severo’s back. He was intent on fleeing towards the village and wasn’t paying attention to anything around him, causing him to dash straight into a wave of retreating macaques.

The macaques slowed him down enough that Kai could grab Severo from behind. With his arm around Severo’s neck, he tightened his grip. This method of breaking the opponent’s neck was one of the last hand-to-hand combat techniques that Kai had learned, and it came easily to him. Without much effort or any need to apply his body weight, the strength that his guardian gave him allowed him to twist Severo’s cervical vertebrae until they broke apart.

Severo Gandal, the inspector who had terrorized the inhabitants of the borderlands, had never expected to be the one crushed so easily.

If he’d made some attempt to train his muscles, they might have acted like armor, and he might have been able to resist against Kai’s strength. But the man had not taken care of his own body.

Kai then concealed himself among the retreating macaques and withdrew with the corpse of Severo trailing behind him.

The death of the inspector called for a secretive burial.

47

The priest had left the toad to his fate.

He left it to Kai to kill him and then carefully watched how the events played out.

Kai had shown little respect to Severo Gandal’s body as he dragged it over a long distance, and what was once the inspector had lost part of one of its legs at some point. With the guardian gone, his robust body was reduced to plain old meat. His hair was a mess, and there was nothing left of the noble-looking facial features he was born with.

Kai looked down on the body of the man with no particular sense of emotion and considered his next move.

He needed to do something with the body. He looked for a secluded area where he could take the godstone. But the eyeball was following him persistently, and running a short distance wasn’t enough to shake it off.

Kai had no choice but to ignore it when he spotted a group of macaques who had also run into the same forest. Although he hadn’t called to him, the macaque leader was with them.

“You’ve done enough. Thanks.”

Kai had no intention of working alongside macaques any further. The leader breathed a sigh of relief and then looked at the body that Kai was dragging.

“This is human who steals our guardian?” he asked.

“Stole your guardian?”

“We capture human village. But our god still stolen.”

Kai had a moment of realization.

From the macaques’ point of view, they became the rightful owners of the land gods of Elg and Eda when they took those villages from House Moloch. It was logical. Lord Olha and Lady White’s guardians were not rightfully theirs in some sense.

The land gods of House Moloch’s two villages had been carried out of their villages. He didn’t know how they’d been able to hold on to the guardians alone, but several years after the villages had been lost, both guardians had been inherited down the same family line.

Everyone said that the baron was raising Olha to be a suitable successor, but Kai had come to realize certain things now that he knew more about this world’s rule set, which was normally only known to the privileged classes.

When a guardian bearer dies, the divine spirit of the god goes back to the gravesite. They might have taken the land gods away from the villages, but after a few years they wouldn’t be able keep hold of them without preparing new hosts to hold the divine spirits... Maybe those two just happened to be the only hosts available.

As Kai collected together memories from his past life, his thoughts were becoming deeper than they had in the past. If Olha was the baron’s true successor, then he should have inherited the guardian from the village of Lag. He would never be able to gain a second guardian, nor could he replace his current guardian with a new one.

With this considered, the dissatisfaction that Olha sometimes displayed towards the baron was understandable.

“It’s different. It’s a god from a different land,” Kai told them bluntly in an attempt to brush off the greedy look the macaque leader was giving him.

The macaque leader looked suspicious, so Kai explained to him that the inspector was dead and that if he’d carried the spirit of their god, that spirit would soon be returning to its rightful gravesite.

The leader’s eyes lit up in understanding, and he dispatched two of his subordinates to Elg and Eda.

“Koror soldier. You very strong.”

Before leaving, the leader lifted his large stone axe to his chest in a salute to Kai.

To the macaques, Kai was someone who’d easily slipped into the village that the macaques had long been targeting, and had easily captured a guardian bearer inside. They displayed great admiration for him.

Kai watched them as they left and then he too began to act.

He concealed himself in the shadow of a large balen cedar and extracted the godstone from the body of the small man. The size wasn’t remarkable and it was only as big as his clenched fist, but it felt heavy in his hand. He looked at the slightly blackened bone as it glistened in the light of the stars and made sure that it didn’t arouse his appetite.

He had no desire to eat the godstone of a member of his own species.

As long as he still lived by that same rule, Kai felt that he was still very much a human.

Now the question was what to do with it. Kai studied the godstone in his hand.

Some time had passed since he’d killed the man. The god inside had probably returned to its rightful gravesite, so now no one could devour it to claim his guardian. But still, Severo had leveled up many times as a living creature, and his godstone had great potential.

When Kai thought about who to give those blessings to, many faces came to his mind. Porek, Aruwe, and the other koror. He ruled out the deer girl, so if he was going to give it to someone it would probably be Aruwe.

If she could level up, it would make her body stronger. Much like the priest, it was possible for people to obtain a kumadori without needing a guardian. Leveling up to reach the level of a guardian bearer was a long process, and it was unclear whether the marrow from this man who was a guardian bearer from the center would be particularly effective. But even without gaining the blessings of the land god, it could be possible for her to gain a similar level of physical strength.

I should let Elsa eat it. The thought came to Kai quite suddenly.

If he gave it to Elsa, it might cause the deep wounds that covered her body to be healed. He decided that the taboo of eating one’s own kind wouldn’t matter as long as she didn’t know.

With his decision made, Kai began to act once more. The eye was still stubbornly following him, so he couldn’t go to the valley.

Kai could almost feel the frustration from the priest at the other side of the eyeball when he began returning to the village instead.

He folded the koror clothing and left it hidden behind a tree before putting his ordinary village clothing back on. Even then, he had to move while hidden in the crop fields so that he could approach the village without being seen.

When he reached the field containing the millet that the toad had flattened, he found there were already a large number of people outside of the village’s defensive walls. He could see them recovering the bodies of more than a few fallen macaques. There was a lot of damage to the fields, but they’d managed to obtain several godstones, so they must have felt as though it was a fair trade.

Kai didn’t simply try to blend in with them. He’d seen his own squad fighting bravely atop the defensive walls, so he knew that many people would be wondering why Kai wasn’t there as squad leader.

He made his decision quickly and then moved to a particular location.

One of the guest rooms on the second floor of the castle, hidden out of sight to the rear, was the room of the priest. It was this room he sneaked into. Kai had first disappeared when he’d entered the room of the priest. He expected that appearing again from this same place wouldn’t create too much suspicion.

There was no one inside the guest room. He’d seen the priest atop the walls, so that didn’t surprise him. Kai was just about to resume his role as a villager within the castle.

Then the priest appeared from the corridor outside.

“I see you have achieved your objective magnificently.”

“...”

The eyeball had been following him the entire time, and the priest must have followed Kai’s every move. When he saw Kai enter his room, he must have hurried there to greet him.

As the priest straightened his robe, he studied Kai and saw that there was clear hostility visible on his face. He shrugged his shoulders as if to say, “Well, this is quite the dilemma.”

“I promise you, I will never speak of this to anyone.”

“...”

“Perhaps you might also entrust the stone to me, and I will provide it to the monastery as a donation.”

He’d already seen through everything Kai had done. There was nothing to be done about it now.

But Kai couldn’t allow this to continue happening. If the priest continued to monitor him, he wouldn’t be able to visit the valley regularly. That was something that Kai couldn’t accept.

It went against his very nature as a guardian bearer.

“Don’t follow me with that eyeball.”

Kai’s desire to kill was clearly increasing.

If it came to it, he knew that he could repeat the same process he had just been through. He now had experience in killing a guardian bearer without spilling blood.

The priest must have guessed what Kai was thinking. He finally sighed and said, “So you saw it?” He didn’t sound overly upset.

“There have been others before you who have felt its presence, but I have never known anyone to see the technique itself.”

“Did you hear me? Never use that technique around me ever again.”

“Your eyesight must be one of the powers given to you by your glyph sigil. Yours must be a truly outstanding deity.”

“...”

The priest clearly knew many things.

Kai suppressed the curiosity that burned inside him as he moved towards the priest as a warning. At the same time, the priest moved back.

The priest knew that Kai must have had some trick up his sleeve to defeat the armored soldier whose divinity had been so high. The knowledge must have made him wary.

“I shall ask you once more. Have you no desire to be a noble of the Unified Kingdom? It would allow you to use your power freely, and you might become like the baron of your village and live a life of luxury.”

“Not happening.”

There were already two demi-humans who’d sworn their devotion to the god of the valley. If he dealt with humans, he’d be told to kill them, and Kai couldn’t accept that. It meant that the offer was out of the question.

And then there was the fact the god of the valley was unlikely to accept being subservient to another god. The god of the valley’s pride was as high as the heavens.

“I shall leave this village tomorrow.”

The priest explained that the art of one hundred eyes only allowed him to see over a distance of several yulds, and if he left the village he would be returning to the monastery of Maas in the center, so there would be a distance of 1,000 yulds acting as a barrier between him and Kai.

The priest was clearly trying to win Kai’s favor, and Kai didn’t lose the desire to kill him, but what he said next made Kai hesitant.

“In the morning, the village will learn of the inspector’s disappearance. Please do not forget that the only one who can explain why you were not there to defend the village last night is myself.”

Kai gritted his teeth.

He was right. Kai had a clear motive to commit the crime. When the inspector had disappeared, Kai had been mysteriously missing, and everything had happened right after he’d learned that the inspector had injured Elsa, whose relationship with Kai was publicly known.

Kai was an obvious suspect.

“Please allow me to dispel any suspicion that might fall on you. I am the only one who can convince the inspector’s entourage and the head of House Moloch. It seems reasonable that I should do you this great favor, and in exchange you might spare me my life.”

Kill him now!

The god of the valley was still screaming.

But given the reality of the situation, Kai’s hands were tied.

“I suspect ours will be a long acquaintance, Kai.”

The priest chuckled, and Kai tutted in response.

48

The inspector hadn’t returned.

It was a cause for concern for the soldiers. The trouble started when the members of the inspector’s entourage, who’d been there to ensure his safety, learned he was missing. They could hardly believe that he’d disappeared, and the situation terrified them.

His half-finished jug of wine had been poured out in the room along with the cup, and his bedding was left in a messy state, so it was clear to everyone that the inspector had been there a short while earlier. The strange event had occurred while the inspector was alone in his room, around the time that the woman accompanying him for the night had finished her duties and left the room.

The terrace of that guest room had been occupied by several archers who were defending the castle that night. According to a confusing testimony from the archers, the inspector had suddenly leaped out of the room and flown through the air. Although they had no evidence to support this testimony, it was well known that the inspector was a cinquesta with a powerful guardian, so he was indeed capable of leaping out of his room if he so wished.

The inspector had gone insane.

As the leader of Lag, Moloch Vezin swiftly came to the conclusion before giving the inspector’s entourage space to interject, and then he started a major search effort. But after a night of fruitless effort, the whereabouts of Inspector Severo Gandal remained a complete mystery.

There were concerns that the reason for the sudden retreat of the macaques during their night raid might have been that they’d killed the inspector and were satisfied with this result of their attack. This unpleasant suggestion was confirmed correct when Truthseeker Nada, who was still present in the village at the time, used a technique known as one hundred eyes to find the corpse of the inspector, which appeared to have been carried off by the macaques at night and unceremoniously discarded deep in the forest beyond human reach.

As for why he had leaped out of the village amid the chaos still wearing his night robe, and what the inspector had intended to accomplish, those questions remained unanswered. However, it seemed unlikely that an intruder could have entered the castle while it was so carefully defended, so his strange behavior could only have been the result of his own will.

Some supposed that the inspector may have underestimated the capabilities of the macaques, and while somewhat drunk, he may have suddenly decided to head out and kill some of them for sport. A tragic incident must have followed when the brutes had swept him off his feet.

There were eyewitness reports confirming that several guardian bearers had been part of the macaque force, so they supposed that the inspector was unfortunate enough to have been killed by one of them. This was how the strange death of Inspector Severo Gandal was explained.

“Was anyone seen acting suspiciously in the castle?”

There was one testimony by a woman working in the castle that did not fit with the explanation, but the figure she described was not dressed like a macaque. The clothing she described sounded very much like koror clothing, and the koror were only ever seen in the western regions of the borderlands, so this account was not taken seriously and was not included in the written report. This was largely because Jose had been nearby in the corridor at that time, and she said with confidence that she had not seen any signs of an intruder.

Thus, the investigation into the disappearance of the inspector reached its conclusion, and the inspector’s entourage began to feel calmer. It was only then that they realized that the inspector who had given them their authority was now gone.

While the inspector, as head of the party, had flaunted the authority given to him by the king, those who accompanied him had thought it only natural for them to follow suit and do the same. Most of them had behaved like inspectors themselves, so now they were targeted by cold, piercing stares from the villagers that they found difficult to bear.

The priest was understanding. “I suppose we had best head back to the capital,” he said before hastily leaving Lag together with the rest of the party.

Needless to say, the smiles on the faces of the villagers as they watched their guests leave would have been unimaginable just a short while earlier.

**

“They might be gone, but the servings didn’t get much better.”

“As long as the soup’s not a guest’s watered-down leftovers, it’s an improvement.”

The baron had been busy entertaining the guests lately, and his face had become an unfamiliar sight, but now he was seated with the rest of his house in the dining hall. Lord Olha was also sat beside him, and it made Kai feel as though life had returned to normal in his village.

In his bowl there was a dumpling made from boiled and kneaded millet along with some thin, salty soup that included hard pieces of meat. Most likely, the millet that the toad had flattened during their fight had been quickly harvested by the villagers. If that explained the origin of the dumplings, then the meat in his soup... was something he’d be better off not thinking about. Meat must have been found outside the village like a gift from the heavens. At times like this, things they wouldn’t normally eat were used without hesitation, even by women who were normally insistent that certain things should never ever be eaten.

“Kai, you know we risked our lives for this meat, right?”

“Uh... yeah.”

“If you want to thank us, maybe you’ll tell us a thing or two later.”

“Damn right. He’s gotten a head start over us.”

One dumpling was stolen by the soldier to his left and another by the soldier to his right. His pubescent squadmates were just further frustrated when Kai still didn’t argue with them.

“While we were up on the walls firing arrows at an enemy guardian bearer, you were comfortably sitting on the floor in the priest’s room, right? I think these dumplings belong in the stomachs of people who actually worked for them.”

“Did you say her name was Elsa? Hope you take good care of her.”

“...”

The reason given for Kai’s absence when the macaques attacked the village was that he’d been called to the priest’s room to be given a lecture.

The priest had explained that he felt the need to intervene because Kai had seen how terribly his girl had been treated and then lost his temper. The women who’d been there to see Kai’s reaction for themselves had nodded knowingly and confirmed this. It was already accepted fact among all the villagers.

Of course, this also meant that the relationship between Kai and Elsa became known to everyone at the same time. As a result, many of the men were united in their anger and were wishing Kai dead. Meanwhile the women had excessively sympathized with him and were being strangely kind.

His squadmates continued to taunt him even while chewing on his stolen dumplings. Even Manso was grinning as he watched the whole thing.

“Lady White’s looking this way.”

“What if she’s looking at me?”

“Yeah, in your dreams.”

Another squad of men the next table over were talking like idiots.

Kai looked away because the conversation was bothering him, and for no particular reason, he looked in Lady White’s direction. For a moment, their eyes met.

She’s looking at me...?

When Lady White realized Kai was looking back at her, she appeared flustered for just a moment, but then she seemed to become angry and began staring right back at him.

When she stared at him directly, Kai’s immediate concerns were about what had happened when he’d infiltrated the castle. He soon jumped to the conclusion that Lady White must have recognized him despite the mask he was wearing.

He felt a cold sweat break out across his entire body. He looked away from Lady White for a few moments and then when he looked back, she was no longer staring at him. She was just casually eating her millet dumplings.

It was possibly just a coincidence, so Kai wanted to believe he was worrying about nothing. Then when he looked down at his bowl, he found there was nothing solid left in it. He sighed when he realized his squadmates had gotten carried away.

His state of mind was making it difficult to enjoy the taste anyway. He drank down the remaining soup in one go and then stood up. He hadn’t tasted it at all.

“What’s up, Kai?”

“I’ll be back in a little while.”

His squadmates grinned and waved to him as he hurried out of the dining hall by himself. Kai’s carefree squadmates watched him leave enviously as if they thought that his minor errand could only be one thing.

Kai headed to the women’s dormitory while holding his stomach, which was groaning in dissatisfaction because of his meager dinner.

Under special circumstances, Kai had once been able to enter the area despite it being off-limits to men. Since then, he’d been turned away no matter how much he pleaded.

Today was no different. He was stubbornly told that he couldn’t go inside.

Kai was concealing the toad’s godstone and wanted to give it to Elsa as soon as possible, but so far he hadn’t been able to because he couldn’t get inside.

He could, of course, have forced his way in during the dead of night using his guardian’s power. However...

“I’m sorry. I really am. Elsa says she doesn’t want to see you.”

When Kai heard that, it crushed his spirit.

According to the women watching over Elsa, her wounds were badly infected and her face had also swollen up. She’d insisted that Kai was never to see her in that state.

Despite being a guardian bearer and despite the experience he’d earned, Kai was still a growing boy of just 13 years. Being told that she’d refused to see him left him feeling quite depressed.

He was about to head back, looking dejected once again, but that day he was caught by Lady White who just happened to be passing by.

“Do you have a moment?”

As he’d feared, she was scowling at him.

Kai braced himself for the inevitable and expected to be asked some difficult questions, but what followed was more like an older sister scolding her badly behaved younger brother.

“I always thought you were still a child, so I can’t believe you’re already doing that sort of thing. I know she’s older than you, and it might have been her idea, but these matters aren’t as simple as you think. Do you really think you can be responsible?” Lady White didn’t hold back.

Lady White left Kai with his head tilted to the side in confusion. She’d spoken to various people in the women’s council and knew that Elsa had refused to see Kai. “Wait here a moment,” she said before entering into the dormitory. A little while later, she said, “Come with me,” and urged Kai to enter. She’d convinced Elsa to accept a meeting.

The women who’d been barring his path shrugged their shoulders in resignation. Lady White’s capacity for meddling was known throughout the village.

So she doesn’t know it was me?

Now Kai was left wondering why she’d been glaring at him during dinner.

They were soon inside the room where Elsa was staying. Kai saw her lying on the bed facing the wall so that her back was to him. The other women in the room looked at him silently, and the looks they gave him seemed to say, “Be careful what you say to her.”

“Please... don’t look at me...” Elsa sounded weak as she made the request.

Once Lady White started meddling, no one could say no to her. It had been Lady White who had constantly stood up to the heartless, fat toad. Whenever something happened, she was the one who would mediate the dispute. Even Elsa couldn’t turn down a direct request from Lady White.

But that didn’t change the fact that Elsa didn’t want to be seen. Her blood-soaked back was still a sign of her refusal to talk to Kai.

At that point, there were too many people watching for Kai to be able to give Elsa any treatment. He asked if they could be left alone together, but unsurprisingly, that wasn’t allowed. They worried that if Kai’s emotions got the better of him, he might force Elsa to show him her wounds.

Damn... I just want to help her...

If he fed her the toad’s godstone or attempted his healing magic, it would probably alleviate Elsa’s suffering to some extent. But he wasn’t going to get the opportunity.

As Lady White watched over the two of them from the corner of the room, she was listening to a detailed description of Elsa’s condition. The gloomy look on her white face made it obvious that Elsa’s outlook was bleak.

Is she really that bad...?

Through the gaps in the bandages, he could see that there was a slight yellow color to her skin. And the wounds were still bleeding, even though it had been several days since she’d been injured.

In a village in the borderlands lacking any real medical expertise, deep wounds were often fatal.

Kai had no words. His body shook with rage, and there was nowhere to direct his anger.

He decided he would do it that night.

49

The inspector’s party had prolonged their stay much longer than anyone had expected. Now that the villagers were free from the constant tension caused by entertaining their guests, they were able to sleep soundly for the first time in a long while.

While everyone besides an unlucky few who’d drawn short straws were sleeping in their beds, Kai quietly slipped out amid the silence and stealthily carried out his task.

His senses had become incredibly sharp. No matter how dark the shadows, he could easily spot anyone who might be lurking there. It made it easy for Kai to avoid being seen, and he made his way into the women’s dormitory without any trouble.

The dormitory was unexpectedly quiet as he made his way in, and he was able to reach the room where Elsa was staying. Costly torches were only burning in the corridor, so it was pitch black within the rooms. Although Elsa was in a critical state, her life wasn’t in immediate danger, so there was no one at her bedside.

With no one else present, the sour and bloody smell that hung in the room was more obvious. If the odor had built up in the room, it would have been enough to make anyone wince, but the small amount of incense burning in the room was disguising the scent. Kai couldn’t help but admire the women for being sensitive enough to take care of the smell.

Elsa was also lying there quietly in her bed, but Kai could hear her moving, as if she was unable to sleep comfortably.

Kai quickly crept over to her and moved his lips close to her ear.

“Elsa...”

“...!”

As he expected, Elsa wasn’t sleeping and she reacted to his voice.

She looked as though she’d react by screaming, so Kai put his hand over her mouth to stop her.

“Keep quiet. I won’t stay long.”

“Kai...?”

“I’m sorry. I really need to talk to you, Elsa.”

“...”

He could tell Elsa had become more relaxed.

There was no light at all in the room, making it difficult to see a hand in front of one’s face, which must have been enough to lessen her anxiety. Until then, she’d strongly refused him, but now in the shadows, they felt something like a spiritual connection that bound them together.

She raised her hand slowly while touching Kai as if searching for something, and Kai then took her hand in his. Their fingers entwined and they squeezed their hands together tightly.

“I think... there’s no hope for me.”

“I’ll do something.”

“I don’t want to die.”

“I’ll save you.”

He wanted to touch her face, but it was covered in deep wounds, so he held himself back.

Elsa’s hand trembled as she sobbed softly.

“It was me who killed the toad.”

“...!”

Kai could feel Elsa shiver when he made his confession.

Then he felt her grip on his hand tighten.

“I thought you must have.”

“Elsa.”

“Don’t push yourself too far.”

Despite his flaws, the inspector was a high-ranking guardian bearer while Kai was just an ordinary village soldier. And yet, Elsa had no trouble believing that Kai had killed him.

It may have been the wholehearted confidence that a woman in love felt towards the man she’d chosen. Kai took the godstone that he had brought with him and placed it in Elsa’s hand. “Do you know what this is?” he asked her.

“I don’t know.”

She smiled strangely as she touched the godstone. From touch alone, it couldn’t have felt much different from an ordinary rock.

Kai explained it to her slowly, trying not to cause her too much surprise.

“If you eat this, it’ll probably heal you.”

“...?”

“It’s the toad’s godstone.”

“...!”

“If you eat his marrow, it should make you stronger all of a sudden.”

He hadn’t intended to tell her.

But more so, he wanted to give her a life filled with hope. This was a special stone, it was the stone of a guardian bearer capable of causing a miracle, so it was worth eating despite the taboo. Before he knew it, he had told her everything.

Then Kai told her of how he had seen soldiers gradually gain strength by eating the godstones of enemies killed on the battlefield. He told her that eating godstones was what had made Basco, the leader of the soldiers, become so strong. He also explained about the priest who had been there until recently and how the strength he had obtained was on the same level as Lord Olha’s blessings. It was generally thought that the women of the village didn’t understand these ideas.

Elsa gripped the godstone she’d been given as if she couldn’t believe it was real.

“A guardian bearer with wounds like yours would heal in no time at all. If you eat that marrow, then maybe you’ll heal quickly too.”

“...”

“Despite everything he was, he was still human. I know it might seem disgusting...”

“I’ll eat it.”

“All right.”

Elsa had made her decision quickly.

In this situation, there was no reason for hesitation.

Kai created a small invisible sword at his fingertip and carefully cut away the top, like peeling the skin from a piece of fruit.

Then he took a small wooden spoon from beside her bed, which must have been kept there for her to use, and he scooped out a small piece of the marrow. He lifted the spoon to her lips, and then after a moment of hesitation she opened her mouth.

“Uhh...” Elsa spat it back out immediately.

That seemed to trigger a reaction from her stomach, and she vomited spectacularly. She vomited repeatedly and kept saying, “I can’t. It’s horrible.”

The marrow of the godstone normally tasted delicious, but Kai couldn’t help but sympathize with her. When he thought about how it was a part of the toad’s body, the amber marrow that would normally have made his mouth water just made him feel disgust.

Kai was ready to give up despite his disappointment, but Elsa grabbed his clothing and pulled him towards her.

“I don’t like it... but I can eat it.”

When a person’s life is at stake, many things become possible to endure. If she’d given up then, a slow death would be the only thing that awaited her. She’d decided to fight.

She took the marrow into her mouth and it made her gag repeatedly, but eventually she was able to swallow it. Although she had eaten only a single spoonful, Elsa realized that her body had undergone a dramatic change.

Then she clutched at her chest and appeared to be in agony. She gritted her teeth and tried not to cry out, probably out of concern for her friends who were sleeping in the same building. She endured her suffering in the bed silently while grinding her teeth.

Then, while Kai was watching, her raised upper body sank down into the bed. It was obvious to see that she’d passed out.

“Elsa?” Kai called her name, but she didn’t react.

Kai saw that she was breathing healthily once again, and that her chest was rising and falling slowly. He breathed a sigh of relief knowing that his experiment had been successful.

When Kai had received the blessings of the god of the valley, he’d also made a dramatic recovery from a critical situation. The toad’s godstone that he’d given to Elsa had been extracted days ago, so the god inside must have already left. It would be just a little better in quality than a godstone obtained from demi-human soldiers on the battlefield. Given that this was the extent of the godstone, he didn’t expect the wounds covering her body to heal immediately after she’d eaten it.

But still, he hoped that the bleeding would stop to some extent.

Kai stroked Elsa’s hair while taking care not to touch her wounds, and he said her name several times.

“Is someone there?!”

Suddenly, there was a voice from outside the room and a figure entered.

He’d tried to be careful, but his voice must have been too loud for a dormitory where everyone was sleeping.

“Oh, it’s just you talking in your sleep, Elsa.”

The woman who entered used her hand to check for Elsa’s breath and made sure she was sleeping soundly. She breathed a sigh of relief. “I’m just glad you’re getting some sleep finally,” she said while adjusting Elsa’s sheets.

By that time, Kai had already slipped by her and left the room. The woman had no idea that an intruder had been there as she continued to talk to the sleeping Elsa.

It was possible that Elsa would be somewhat recovered by morning. Kai wished he could be there to see the surprise on the faces of the women taking care of her.

He wished he could have stayed by her side until morning. He wished he could have been there to see everyone’s surprise. The thought was painful to him.

Kai grasped the godstone in his hand tightly in an attempt to suppress his growing excitement.

The next morning...

To an extent, Kai had gotten what he wished for.

Once the sun had risen, there was a commotion around the women’s dormitory, and the rumors spread through the village quickly.

The bedridden girl who’d been cut by the inspector had survived.

Not only that, the cuts that covered her body had mostly closed, so much so that the women who changed her bandages cried with joy and called it a miracle.

Her injuries had been serious enough that no one had expected her to live more than a few days, but she’d undergone a dramatic recovery in a single night. Miracle was the only word that anyone could think of to describe it.

The rumors reached Kai while he was eating his breakfast in the dining hall. He smiled to himself, thinking all had gone according to plan. But then he began to doubt his ears as he listened to the rumors more closely.

“She’s all healed, but for some reason she won’t wake up.”

The wounds that had threatened her life had completely healed, but Elsa had not woken up when morning came.

The girl had fallen into a coma.

50

Kai had expected her to pass out after consuming a powerful godstone. He’d expected it because he’d been through the same experience himself.

But in the end, Elsa didn’t wake up again.

“Elsa was moved to the monastery...”

When Adelia, one of the leaders of the women’s council, called for him and broke the news in such a simple fashion, it took Kai some time to understand what he was being told.

When Kai’s eyes glazed over in confusion, Adelia told him, “Look at me when I’m talking to you.” She told him once again the village had decided to give up on the girl named Elsa.

Those who lost the ability to move due to illness or injury and those who couldn’t contribute to the village through work were cast off when it was determined that they were unlikely to recover. In a poor village, they didn’t have the resources to keep looking after people who couldn’t work for their food.

Soldiers with no relatives who came back from battle with major injuries and weren’t expected to make a full recovery were often transferred to the empty monastery of the village. They’d be made to die as part of a clearing ceremony, which was referred to as allowing them to pass on.

They were left alone to await death in the form of natural starvation. It was the sort of cruelty that only intelligent species were capable of.

The reasoning had applied to Elsa who was still comatose. It was as simple as that.

Kai objected to this conclusion of course, but then he was asked whether he could take care of bedridden Elsa for his entire life, and how he’d feed her when she wouldn’t swallow wheat gruel. They explained that no one could extend her life.

The concept of an intravenous drip was unknown in this world. If someone continued to breathe despite losing consciousness, their chances of survival were already low, and in many cases, they were as good as dead.

Kai could picture the medical equipment he’d need if he was to provide nutrition to her directly, but he couldn’t even guess how to make such equipment. A short while later, bedridden Elsa was transferred to the monastery where no one prevented Kai from seeing her, so he began to spend much of his time at her side.

Kai knew that Elsa’s unconsciousness was caused by her leveling up, so he waited, expecting her to eventually wake up.

Time passed without mercy while Elsa remained comatose and gradually became emaciated.

When three days had passed, the villagers were ready to accept Elsa’s death and had stopped visiting her in the monastery. Kai didn’t eat anything either, but his blessings must have slowed his weight loss to a crawl while he wasn’t eating.

On the night of the third day since Elsa’s transfer to the monastery, Elsa and Kai both vanished from the village. Several people saw a young boy walking away from the village with the body of the girl on his shoulders, but nobody felt willing to stand in his way. Elsa looked lifeless as he carried her, and it was assumed that Kai had gone to bury her somewhere.

The guards on watch felt pity, and told him, “Just don’t get yourself killed.” Kai’s last words before leaving were, “I won’t be gone long.”

Nights in the borderlands were dangerous. In the darkness with no light but starlight, demi-humans with superior vision were eager to assert their dominance. But the villagers knew of his grief and could not stop him.

They watched as the boy mourning his lost lover disappeared into the darkness of the night.

Kai ran.

He felt as though the warmth was already fading from the girl he held in his arms, and so he ran with all his power.

The full power of a guardian bearer was a thing to be feared. As Kai gained speed the scenery behind him disappeared into the distance. He formed holes in the ground with every bound. He moved with the speed of someone tearing through the air itself, and every step he took seemed to carry him across an endless distance. He was almost flying.

I’m taking you to the valley.

Kai had said this to Elsa many times as she slept.

He still dreamed of showing the beautiful valley to the person he loved. He thought that maybe the sweet juice of crushed maca might find its way down Elsa’s throat while she slept.

I’ll wake you up, no matter what.

She’d ended up in this state after he’d made her eat the inspector’s godstone. If there was something he didn’t know, some knowledge that he lacked despite being a guardian bearer, he could ask someone who knew more than he did. That was his plan.

The koror elder, Porek, had lived for hundreds of years.

It was possible he knew something that would help.

He needed to pass close to Banya Village on his way to the valley, but he had no time to concern himself with the inhabitants’ cries of, “There it is again!” and “It’s the monster!” He passed right by the village, entered the forest, crossed over the territory of the lagarto, and took the shortest route into the valley.

For the first time in a long while, Kai saw the valley before him.

Kill him!

Kai suddenly heard a roar from the god inside him.

Recently, his god had been behaving like this a lot, and Kai didn’t know who it was asking him to kill. He suspected his god had gone mad, and he’d stopped listening to it.

Behind him he heard lagarto voices one after another as if his sudden intrusion had surprised them. The threatening noises they made from their throats were louder than he’d expected, and he worried that he might have upset them, but he still hurried forward without stopping.

“Old man!”

Kai ignored the lure of the beautiful valley and leaped into the koror settlement at the valley’s edge. It was late and the night was already dark, but koror faces appeared from their tent-shaped homes one after another when they heard Kai’s voice.

Porek looked alarmed as he hurried over to Kai who was standing in the center of their settlement.

“Is there something wrong?” Porek asked him.

Kai lowered down Elsa from his shoulders and placed her on the ground. Without preface, he explained that he’d fed her a godstone, causing her to pass out, and that she hadn’t woken up since then.

Kill him!

The distracting voice in his head was becoming an annoyance.

His irritation must have shown on his face because Porek looked fearful. Without asking for further details, Porek gave a list of possibilities.

It could be that the development of her body was so intense that it made her pass out.

It could be that she’d eaten a poisonous godstone that had caused damage to her mind.

Kai asked what he meant by poison, and Porek explained that godstones could be poisonous if the owner was a creature too different from oneself, or if the owner itself had already been poisoned.

Then Porek offered a final possibility.

“There is also the poison that comes from eating one’s own kind.”

Kai’s eyes widened as he stared at Porek. And then tears began to form in the corners of his eyes. Now he knew the cause.

Porek appeared to understand the situation from the way Kai was trembling. He explained how same-species succession occurred within his tribe.

“I do not know if this applies to humans, but if there is some circumstance that prevents us from waiting for the divine spirit to return to its gravesite, succession may occur by breaking the taboo on eating one’s own kind. In such cases, the method of removing the poison...”

“Tell me what to do!”

“Enough time is allowed after eating for the divine spirit to take root, and then all the marrow eaten is vomited out. Then there are herbs that can be boiled to create an antidote...”

“She had to... vomit soon after...”

Kai howled like a wild beast. He began to scratch madly at his own face with his fingernails, and the koror around him rushed over to stop him from causing such terrible harm to himself.

Kill him!

The god of the valley once again yelled the same out-of-place command.

Kai couldn’t suppress the emotion that welled up inside him. The inapt demand from his god seemed to spur him on.

He wanted to tear apart the koror, who were worried about him and trying to stop him. He knew it was mad, but he could not stop thinking about it.

He took one glance at Elsa who he’d left lying by his feet. Blood that had been sent flying from his fingertips had landed on her cheek. He felt he could not bear to be there any longer.

“Master,” Porek yelled after him.

Kai threw himself down to the bottom of the valley.

He didn’t think about what he was doing. He just wanted to be alone in the valley where he could vent the emotions that filled his heart.

Kai knocked down trees as he raged at the bottom of the valley.

Kill him!

The god of the valley was also going wild for some reason. Then, as if he’d planned it from the start, he arrived at the gravesite in the center of the valley and looked at the holiday home he’d once enjoyed building.

As he approached it, Kai decided he’d destroy the whole thing. He’d find Aruwe inside, throw her outside, and then he’d tear it apart until it was unrecognizable.

He stepped into the cabin and then he saw her.

The koror girl was on the floor and covered in blood. Aruwe moved when she felt Kai’s presence, and blood spilled from her mouth.

What? What’s going on? How can it all be happening?

Kai’s mind went blank. He slowly began to approach the girl who lay in a pool of her own blood, and then...

He felt intense heat around his chest, and his breathing stopped.

“Finally, you have let your guard down.”

A narrow blade had pierced straight through his chest.

As Kai was about to fall to the floor, something gripped his neck from behind.

“Finally, I have achieved my objective.”

The truthseeker.

It was the priest who had visited the borderlands to carry out a survey. The priest who should already have returned home.

Kai looked at him and tried to cry out.

The only thing that came from his mouth was a large volume of blood.

51

“I was uncertain whether it could work on someone with your level of divinity. A priest with the rank of daisōjō gave the instrument to me for this purpose, and it does indeed appear effective.”

Truthseeker Nada’s breathing was unsteady as he made sure that Kai’s life was in his hands.

Then his breathing slowly turned into cynical laughter.

“The sight of your favorite koror girl in a pool of her own blood seems to have caused you quite the shock. When emotions take hold with enough intensity, the protection offered by a god can sometimes be weakened. This is the art of the god killer, taught to the practitioners of Ryakusha-ryu.”

The tip of the blade that protruded from his chest was hard and shining, but it wasn’t an ordinary iron or bronze weapon. It was some sort of sharpened horn or bone with a milk-white tip stained by Kai’s blood.

The blood that spilled from his body ran along the blade before dripping to the floor.

It must have been a weapon developed by the monastery to kill guardian bearers.

“When I saw the clothes you wore to disguise yourself, I surmised that the location must be somewhere in the west where you might trade with the koror, though it never occurred to me that you might be building your own nation with the foul creatures. I see now why you turned down my offer to make you an honored noble.”

He rocked the strange white blade back and forth so that the wound widened.

The feeling of pain was eclipsed by a sensation of intense heat that extended to the very top of Kai’s head. He knew that Nada was taking care to destroy his heart.

It was an obvious precaution to anyone who knew just how quickly a guardian bearer could recover.

“It was just as the high priests of Maas had feared. They were right to prioritize this matter.”

“Urh... Agh...”

“New guardian bearers often struggle with the curse of the land. If you hadn’t borne it so well, you’d have given yourself away sooner. Despite being from a poor village where you received no education, you display a surprising level of wisdom at times. Did you know I lay hidden in the fields, waiting for you to become careless, constantly waiting for the day when you would visit the gravesite? It would seem that the death of your lover was what made you finally forget yourself.”

He knew from the pain in the wound across his back that something was forcing its way into his body. He felt the feeling of fingers moving and knew that the thing inside him was Nada’s own hand. Then the hand gripped something within Kai and tore it free with a sharp pull.

Something precious had been taken from him, leaving him feeling a sense of loss and humiliation. For a moment, he saw the world in double as if his mind was torn in two, but one of those views soon faded as it was torn away from him. The god of the valley’s voice was rapidly becoming distant.

Kai’s eyes couldn’t quite focus as he looked at the white lump in Nada’s hand.

“This is the most efficient means of taking the life of a guardian bearer.”

“...”

“This is your godstone. The precious rock that gave you a glyph sigil. It is a rare sight indeed.”

After holding it up for Kai to see, Nada turned to look into empty space, his eyes shining with some insane light, and then he smiled as if he’d just now been freed from all of his sorrows. This madness was the exact opposite of his ordinarily rational self.

“It is not enough to be born into a prestigious family, and nor is it enough to train until you cough up blood. You cannot inherit the deity of your family line unless you are the chosen successor. Can you imagine it, Kai? The capital is awash with people willing to risk their very lives for a vacant god.”

Nada had to stop himself from laughing before his lecture could continue. He looked triumphantly at Kai, who was now on the verge of death, and he spoke holy words that were used to bless the dead.

“For the son of a great house who does not receive a god, knocking at the doors of the monastery becomes their last chance to reclaim their dignity. I was once in that same situation, and if the sōjō had not taken me in, I do not know what would have become of me...”

Nada appeared proud and victorious. He looked down on Kai as if he was nothing more than a pebble by the roadside, and then he walked away.

All the energy was gone from Kai, and his death seemed certain.

Kai had forbidden others to enter the valley, so there were only three people there: Kai, Nada, and Aruwe who was in a critical state. Nada merely had to wait by the gravesite for Kai to die and then he’d be the next to become the god of the valley’s host and receive its blessings.

Nada had sat down crossed-legged facing the gravesite, and he was chanting holy scripture. He looked like a devout and virtuous priest swearing his devotion to the gods.

It appeared that he intended to wait in meditation until Kai had died and the blessings of the god of the valley had been placed on his body.

As Kai’s vision began to fade, he kept sight of the man who’d come and taken everything away from him. It wasn’t exactly by choice; he couldn’t move his neck to look away.

He’s the new master of the valley...?

Kai would die, Aruwe would die, and the man would also kill the koror settled on the edge of the valley because he detested demi-humans. They’d sworn their devotion to a stupid child, and in the end, it would be a corrupt human priest, rather than the orgs, who would come for them.

Kai remembered the uzelle girl. She was lucky. If she was smart, the priest would never find her, and she could live on.

Kai let his entire body relax as he accepted his fate. It felt as though this was his punishment for killing someone precious to him. Elsa would soon die. He didn’t care if he also died right here. Human lives were cheap in the borderlands. If he had thought some good would come of continuing to live, he’d have struggled a little more, but a happy future felt unrealistic.

His stomach felt completely empty, perhaps due to the blood loss.

Then he remembered that he’d insisted on staying by Elsa’s side without eating anything for the past three days.

I’m really going to die without ever eating an onigiri...

The black lump that he pictured in his mind included glossy grains at its edges that looked like steamed wheat. If it was something that tasted good, then he wished he could have let Elsa try it.

Kai.

Someone was calling his name.

He was so tired that he couldn’t so much as move his fingers, but suddenly his body felt light somehow, and he was able to look in the direction of the voice without much difficulty.

The world had already lost all sense of form and was covered in a deep, impenetrable darkness. Through the darkness, so dark that he couldn’t see his own hands before his eyes, there was a faint voice.

Just when Kai had given up searching for it in the darkness, he heard his name called once more.

Kai... For some reason he felt sure that this lonely-sounding voice belonged to Elsa.

The distant and anxious voice continued to call to him. Kai had to protect her. His consciousness returned, throwing him back into reality where he was losing control over the body he should have been using to protect her.

He heard a voice sobbing.

He knew he had to get moving.

He had to live.

Kai’s consciousness had come back miraculously.

He was still lying on his side, but he found that he wasn’t completely unable to move anymore.

Somewhat instinctively, he collected up the remains of his spiritual energy from his entire body and focused all of it on the hole that had been created through his body. A moment earlier, he’d been a guardian bearer, and the leftover blessings were enough to half-close the hole.

Despite being on the verge of death, he’d gathered up more spiritual energy than he expected. His godstone had already been taken away from him, but he could still scrape together the dregs that remained from the abundant spiritual energy that had filled him when he was a guardian bearer a short while ago.

Nada hadn’t yet realized just how tenacious a human Kai was. Kai’s strength had increased dramatically when he obtained the blessings of the god of the valley, but the large amounts of high-quality marrow that he’d consumed since then had also affected his body and made him much more robust.

Get moving.

He’d managed to close the fatal hole in his heart, and it was beating once again.

He felt the heat returning to his body.

This new experience made Kai realize something.

I can live, even without a godstone...

That round bone wasn’t particularly important for preserving life. Although he felt a great sense of loss, as though his soul had been torn from his body, he knew he didn’t need it for his body to continue functioning. A loud voice inside his head assured him that it was merely an organ made necessary by the ruleset of this fantasy world.

The godstone may have been a spiritual organ that gave form to the wishes of its owner. Kai decided that if there was ever a next time, he’d also be sure to cut off every opponent’s head even after their godstone was taken away.

Nada had already lost all interest in Kai. He was concentrating wholly on praying to the gravesite. It looked as though he was desperately trying to prove to the god of the valley that his faith was genuine.

In the cabin, Kai lifted himself up without making a sound. He then dragged himself over to Aruwe, who looked as though she was dying. She’d been a victim of the same attack, and she had a similar hole piercing through her chest.

Kai used his healing magic to treat the wound. As the remains of his spiritual energy were used up, he felt his heart begin to beat unsteadily, but somehow, he managed to seal up the opening in Aruwe’s chest. Fortunately, her heart was undamaged, so it was only the blood loss that threatened her life.

Heal...

He mustered up the last of his spiritual energy and used it to force out the blood in her airway that was preventing her from breathing.

Aruwe still didn’t begin to breathe normally.

Wake up.

Kai scolded her in his mind and slapped her face.

Aruwe moved with a start.

Then her small chest began to rise and fall. Once Kai was sure she’d continue breathing, he slowly climbed to his feet.

The small amount of spiritual energy Kai had remaining hadn’t been enough to fully heal Aruwe, or himself. He’d merely closed up the fatal wounds to their organs, leaving large openings in the skin. It was a strange feeling to have an air current enter through his back and leave through his chest.

Kai was standing, but in a terrible, half-dead state. He knew he wouldn’t last long in this condition. His body was abnormally robust, but a full death was still not far off.

He had one task to complete before that happened and he wasn’t thinking about what came after.

He was going to kill the priest.

Kill him!

Kai felt he could still hear the voice of the god of the valley.

52

He’d more or less used up what spiritual energy had been left in his body to heal Aruwe. He was sure now that even if he was turned upside down and shaken, nothing more would come out.

The only weapon he had was the cutting knife that he carried with him.

He’d lost a lot of blood, and the feeling of exhaustion was overwhelming, but the other guardian bearers he’d consumed must have been like a fuel to him. He still had full control of his limbs, and with some effort, he could still move.

He was able to walk without losing his balance. Somehow, he’d have to kill him while in this state.

Kai rested his trembling body against the wall of the cabin so he wouldn’t collapse to the ground while thinking.

Kill...

His god’s voice kept cutting out, but it was still reaching him.

I get it, My God.

Although he could move with effort, something didn’t feel quite right, and he couldn’t shake off the sense of confusion. It must have been the effect of having his godstone missing.

Though many organs were vital for supporting human life, when organs like the liver and pancreas were lost there was a short delay before this caused an impact on the organism. The loss of an important organ wasn’t always immediately fatal.

Kai was finding it hard to think. It was as if there was a thick fog around him that prevented him from seeing everything before him at once. Even his ability to use magic was fading as the methods he’d learned through experience began to fade from his memory.

Now... Kill...

Be patient, My God.

Although he gripped the knife firmly, he felt the need to support it further with his empty hand to stop himself from dropping it. It felt ridiculous to need two hands to hold such a small weapon.

His reserves of spiritual energy had dried up, so he couldn’t use magic. Magic was always the basis of Kai’s tricks, and without it, his chance of victory was close to zero.

Back when he’d first tried using magic, he hadn’t been a guardian bearer; his godstone had been the poor-quality godstone of an ordinary soldier. No matter how long he waited, his spiritual energy wasn’t recovering at all. It confirmed his original belief that spiritual energy was supplied from the godstone.

He closed his eyes for a short while and continued to think.

He had to think of some way to win.

He needed some means of fatally wounding a priest whose martial arts were so advanced that not even Lord Olha could defeat him. To his frustration, he seemed unable to collect his thoughts, so he tried breaking the problem down and looking at it more simply. It was unlike him to take such a logical approach to problem solving, but the approach allowed him to prune away all of his unnecessary thoughts.

Ultimately, Kai concluded that there was only one way for him to overcome the priest using force. But to grasp this single thread of hope that would give him the slim chance of victory, he needed something.

His thoughts became unusually intelligent, as if they were no longer the thoughts of an uncultured child of the borderlands. With his life in crisis, something from his past life began to influence him more powerfully, and it was determined to cause a change in this young boy.

Then something clicked in his mind.

He had no time to hesitate.

Kai took a deep breath and then set to work on a plan that could allow him to achieve his objective.

Kai quietly crept out of the cabin.

The grass beneath his feet made a slight sound as he stepped out, causing him to freeze for just a moment.

Then he began to move once again.

There he is.

Nada didn’t seem to notice Kai approaching as he sat in place, focused on chanting holy verses and tracing sacred symbols in the air with his fingers.

If Kai still had the blessings of the god of the valley, he might have seen the priest’s aura rising from his body like a bright flame as he offered up his prayers. But Kai’s eyes could no longer see anything so strange.

Although Nada was absorbed in saying his prayers to the god of the valley’s gravesite, he still noticed Kai’s silent approach. He suddenly stopped praying when Kai got very close.

Nada looked at Kai from within the hood of his priestly attire. He then crossed his chest as if apologizing to the god for the interruption to the ceremony, and then he uncrossed his legs and stood up. Kai knew that the eyes that were almost completely hidden beneath the hood were watching him closely.

“How is it that you still live?”

Kai had no answer to Nada’s sudden question.

He merely stared back at him.

As he slowly closed the gap between them, he held the knife out in front of him as if he was a girl who’d never held a weapon.

Nada was trying to find an answer to his own question as he looked at the fresh hole that was still visible in Kai’s chest. He slowly lowered the covering over his mouth, and his expression seemed to be asking why the wound hadn’t been fatal.

Kai couldn’t help it. The look of confusion on Nada’s face was so amusing that it made him laugh.

Nada raised his eyebrows.

“The wound was fatal... Your godstone has been extracted. You are merely the shell of a guardian bearer with the guardian removed. Your recovery should have been impossible.”

Then Nada’s eyes opened wide as if he’d realized what was happening.

With Nada clearly unnerved, Kai once again let out a strange, high-pitched laugh.

For some strange reason his hands had stopped shaking. He felt as though his fear of Nada faded every time he laughed.

And then he took the opportunity to lunge at him.

He knew that if his first attempt failed, he’d be unable to stop Nada killing him completely. He put everything he had into it, right from the start.

Even with his guardian gone, he felt as though he’d still be a match for Lag’s top-ranking soldier, Basco. Without blessings, he could tell just how much his inherent physical strength, the power within his own flesh, had increased.

The truthseeker had gained a doi sigil and had shown that Lord Olha could be surpassed by his martial arts. With Kai wounded and missing his godstone, his movements must have been easy for the truthseeker to follow. He aimed a bare-handed chop at Kai’s wrist that would have knocked the knife from Kai’s hand, leaving him unarmed.

But holding his wrist out where it was easy to strike had been part of Kai’s plan from the start. He pretended to dodge while actually using one leg to attack Nada’s feet. Nada saw it coming and jumped back easily at the last moment, and then he instinctively tried to kick away Kai’s outstretched leg as it was in midair.

Anyone who studied martial arts knew that this sort of exchange was common, so Kai had known to dodge it from the start, and he was able to dodge the attack just in time.

Then Kai began using circle footwork. This was the most reliable technique for anyone from Lag who’d been taught Zula-ryu, the martial art of the borderlands.

“Kai.” Nada called his name.

Having someone who’d just tried to kill him call his name in such a friendly manner gave him chills.

Kai followed even his opponent’s slightest movements using his knife and focused on holding him back.

“How are you healing?”

At times, Nada was struggling to take his eyes off the wound in Kai’s chest.

It was as though it held some fixation for him.

Nada’s power was equivalent to a guardian bearer’s, so in a one-on-one battle, he would normally have been able to take down a promising soldier from the village using a single attack. But Nada was so wary of Kai that he didn’t even attempt to do so.

Kai had begun to laugh so much that he was out of breath, as if he’d lost his mind. He began to cough, still without catching his breath.

“Answer me.”

“Take a look and see.”

“Without the blessings that protected you, you should not have been able to heal from such a heavy wound in such a short time. I have taken your stone away from you.”

“Even now, I’m still healing, little by little.”

Kai laughed a disturbing laugh. He was acting as though, even now, his wounds were being healed by the regenerative power shared by all guardian bearers. Then Kai kicked up the dirt at his feet.

It wasn’t a particularly advanced trick, but Nada was so excessively wary that it caused him to move back. He was fearful, as if his opponent was a guardian bearer with abilities far beyond his own.

“Well, your recovery does not seem to be complete. I must deal the final blow before it’s too late.”

The priest took out the same instrument from his robe.

It was a white weapon that looked like it was carved from bone, and close inspection revealed that it wasn’t a blade at all. The part that resembled a blade was actually more like a white pipe that had been cut diagonally, and the interior of the weapon was hollow.

The weapon must have been made to remove an amount of flesh corresponding to the breadth of the pipe. The handle looked like part of a tool that a priest would use to strike a standing bell in a place of worship.

Kai aimed for the instrument. A weapon designed to kill guardian bearers was a serious threat. It had almost killed him once, so it was the obvious target.

Through some unusual sequence of movements, Nada lured Kai toward himself, and while the instrument held Kai’s attention, he used his other hand to reach for the hole in Kai’s chest from a position out of Kai’s line of sight.

Nada’s fingers, which were hardened through his training, found their way into Kai’s body once again. He tore through several blood vessels that had just barely knitted themselves back together, and he grabbed hold of his target. Kai’s knife never did strike Nada’s left arm that held the instrument. Instead, it cut through no more than his black sleeve.

The thing Nada tore from the hole in Kai’s chest, the thing that should never have been there, was a second godstone.

“T-This is...!”

For a truthseeker like Nada, a glimpse of that godstone through the wound in Kai’s chest must have inspired an irresistible feeling of greed.

It was indeed a real godstone.

But this godstone had already been cut open. It was an old godstone, consumed long before.

While Nada was making sense of what had happened, Kai rolled across the floor clutching the object that had spilled from Nada’s cut sleeve.

Recovering this object had been Kai’s intention the entire time.

Wherever it might have been hidden, he would never have overlooked it.

Kill him now!

Yes, I hear you, My God.

He gripped the missing part of himself and plunged it back into the hole in his chest.

The tide of the fight had changed.

53

Kill him!

The god of the valley’s voice was suddenly loud and clear in his mind, as if he’d just tuned in to the right frequency.

A moment ago his body had felt like an empty shell, but now he felt the warmth come back to him. The life-threatening injury caused when a large amount of flesh was gorged from his chest created an intense feeling of pain extending to the top of his head, which should have been there the whole time.

It hurts! It hurts hurts hurts!

If his life hadn’t been in danger at that moment, the pain would have been unbearable and he’d have been writhing in agony.

Heal!

Kai never took his eyes off Nada as he held his breath and tried to endure the waves of pain.

A few moments later his heart began to beat powerfully. After another moment the blood was still spurting from the wound, and he hurriedly pressed his hand against it.

Heal!

Heal!

His supply of spiritual energy had recovered dramatically, and his healing magic could now work with vague mental images that came to his mind. He still had no time to think about the small things. The power of his magic spread out from the wound like ripples, and the rapid healing of his flesh caused the sensation to come back as something like an itch. He used these sensations to guide the healing process in his missing blood vessels, damaged nerves, and shredded muscle tissue.

Once he’d formed more precise images in his mind, Kai’s healing magic rapidly became more efficient, and he directed it into his wounds once again.

The strange sight of Kai’s wound repairing itself at such speed made the truthseeker cry out.

“Impossible!”

Kai wasn’t surprised to hear that the speed of his healing looked impossible to Nada.

The armored soldier’s ability to regenerate had been outstanding, but it had taken some time for each wound it was given to begin healing, and it couldn’t heal injuries greater than cuts and broken bones, such as the loss of an arm.

Kai had lost a lot of flesh from the wound in his chest. A cylindrical chunk had been scooped out of his body using the oddly shaped tool for killing guardian bearers.

When Nada saw that hole in Kai’s flesh seal itself back up in no time at all, he leapt forward, exhaling sharply in a manner learned through his martial arts training. But he didn’t leap at Kai. He was headed for the edge of the valley.

The martial arts training that Nada received from Maas had given him such skill that he’d defeated Lord Olha, who was a tres sigil, despite Nada himself being a mere doi sigil.

However, when faced with Kai at full power, he began to run without hesitation. Kai’s power was so great that ordinary martial arts couldn’t suppress him, and Nada knew his defeat was inevitable.

When a guardian bearer began to run all out, they couldn’t be easily caught, even by another guardian bearer. Failing to bring down an enemy guardian bearer as they fled the battlefield was an everyday occurrence.

Kill him!

The god of the valley was enraged.

Kai was still distracted by the need to heal the wound in his chest, and Nada’s back was becoming smaller in his vision while Kai gave chase.

Nada’s lack of indecision was impressive. His speed as he ran across the ground must have been a benefit of his training. He had some strange way of using his feet that allowed him to accelerate without making holes in the ground. This running technique must have been another of the secret arts taught by Maas.

The hole in Kai’s chest was almost closed, and his heartbeat had become regular.

Kai didn’t want to overlook the eyeball. His eyes saw into the world of auras as he stared at Nada’s back. As expected, the eyeball was left hovering above Kai’s head so that the priest could keep track of Kai’s movements while his back was turned.

The eyeball was too high to be within reach, so for the meantime he ignored it and focused on accelerating. The moment he was in the eye’s blind spot, he used his fearsome jumping power to leap into the air.

Destroy it!

With that thought in mind, Kai created an accumulation of magic at his fingertips.

Based on an understanding of natural principles, he could create his invisible sword that could cut through molecular bonds by interfering with the basic components that gave rise to solid objects. He wondered if there was some principle he could use to destroy something produced by magic that wasn’t visible to the naked eye.

Even his invisible sword couldn’t cut through something that wasn’t made of matter. He expected that if he tried using the sword, it would just pass straight through the eyeball. Kai had learned that the eyeball existed to serve a particular function for its user, but had no form in reality.

Spyware.

With the brain as hardware, the eyeball was like a software-based pseudo life-form created by programming.

Kai gripped the eyeball tightly using a hand coated with spiritual energy and then released a torrent of spiritual energy into the eyeball while imagining a flash of lightning.

“Guuuh!”

Nada was now clinging to the cliff edge of the valley, but the pain had caused his body to curl up. It was as if the eyeball had been directly connected to his own eyes somehow.

Kai watched Nada closely as he moved toward him. He was eager to punish him for being foolish enough to trespass in the valley, and he couldn’t let him escape.

When Nada realized that Kai was moving closer, he started to scramble desperately up the cliff with his one hand clutching his eye. He moved quickly, thinking he could still escape, but then a figure appeared blocking his path. It was old Porek, who’d come fully armed.

“I heard your voice, My Master.”

A single swing of his narrow sword placed the tip against Nada’s nose, preventing him from climbing out of the valley.

Nada looked up at the koror elder and knew that he was at a clear disadvantage, but he must have decided that the bigger threat was Kai approaching from behind. He tried to force his way through the threat in front of him.

But the old koror had lived for over a hundred years and had made many tough decisions in the time spent protecting his tribe as their guardian bearer. He knew what to do without needing to think.

Without moving so much as an eyebrow, he used his sword to pierce Nada’s hand that had gripped the valley’s edge.

While Nada was about to fall and was still in shock, Porek followed up with a merciless kick.

Nada fell helplessly back down to the bottom of the valley. When he tried to rise, he found Kai standing over him.

“Would you have me leave the matter in your hands, My Master?”

“Yeah, this makes things easy for me.”

“If you have need of my sword...”

“No, I can handle him. I’ve got some bad news, though. Aruwe’s badly injured.”

“And this man...”

“He must have attacked her while I was away. I’ve made sure her life isn’t in danger. I still need to punish him.”

“Then I shall leave matters to you.”

Their eyes met, and for a moment, Kai saw an expression of rage as the old man learned of his granddaughter’s injuries. It all left Kai feeling apologetic.

Porek truly was doing what he could to protect the valley.

After directing an unsympathetic glance at the shaved head of Nada, whose hood had now slipped off, Porek bowed his head deeply and then moved away from the edge of the valley.

Now Kai had to decide how to kill the man in front of him.

“The koror have demonstrated deep devotion to you, haven’t they?”

Nada looked straight at Kai while nursing his pierced hand.

Even for guardian bearers, their capacity to heal varied with their level of divinity. His left eye looked so bloodshot that it was probably bleeding.

“If you wish to kill me, then you may do so however you please. I have already made an attempt on your life, so I will not beg for my own.”

Even without the encouragement, Kai was ready to kill him.

But he still might use the weapon for killing guardian bearers, so Kai kept his wits about him.

“If I had not been willing to walk a path made from the bodies of those I defeated, I would never have ascended high enough to obtain a doi sigil alone and without a guardian. But now it is my turn to become sustenance for another.”

“...”

“It truly is a shame, Kai. If you had simply accepted the invitation I offered to you, it would never have come to this.”

Kai braced himself as Nada drew the weapon for killing guardian bearers once again, but Nada merely placed it at his feet to show that he had no more will to fight.

Nada swept back the skirt of his robe and leisurely sat down on the ground in the manner of a priest about to begin a sermon. Then he sat up straight and looked at Kai.

“Few people out here in the borderlands are aware, but the very structure of the kingdom is unstable. We need to replace weakening arch gods now or territory will recede to such an extent that the effects will be felt across the nation. Maas has concluded that the new god found here in the borderlands must be made part of the fabric of the kingdom at once. It could destroy the social hierarchy of the kingdom, but it is feared that the kingdom itself may not survive for much longer if we do not act. The help of the god you carry inside you, the great god that dwells in this land, is demanded by the threat to the peace of a million humans. The south of the kingdom is being attacked by legions of foul creatures and is in an irreparable state of disorder.”

The long-winded speech made Kai frown.

But it felt wrong to deny a man his last words after he’d accepted his own death.

“When you rejected my invitation, you left me with no choice but to steal your guardian. I could see at a glance that yours is a fearsome god. But even so, I had to take the god of the valley back with me to the center. I was wracked with doubt when I thought that I would be making my own body host to the god of the valley after all I had done. I wondered whether I could truly be host to a god so great that it offers a glyph sigil. I tried through prayer to rid myself of doubt, but to no avail. I was so foolish. When I realized that I had failed, I tried to flee, leaving my pride and my reputation behind. If I had been able to escape, no good would have come of it, but I am an incorrigible fool. So much so that I astound even myself.”

With that, Nada kneeled on the ground and bowed his head as if offering it to Kai.

In the pose of a criminal awaiting his execution, he still continued speaking.

“Will you not reconsider my offer? Kai, you are human, are you not? I believe you were born a citizen of Lag and a subject of House Moloch. Will you not reconsider? I bow before you and I beg of you: offer your power to the nation of humanity.”

The priest had wagered his life on this final argument.

Kill him!

Kai’s god was shouting.

The god of the valley couldn’t afford to show understanding or compassion.

Now that the priest could see his end approaching, he appeared to be offering himself up as he pleaded on behalf of the nation, and on behalf of humanity. Kai believed he was sincere, but Kai’s resolve wasn’t weakened in the slightest.

“Is that everything you have to say?” There wasn’t a hint of emotion in Kai’s voice.

The center of the Unified Kingdom that ruled over humanity was rotten to its core. He’d known this all too well after his encounter with the toad.

The guardian bearers that served as the royals and high-ranking nobles in the center had indulged so much in worldly pleasures that they’d forgotten how to train. They’d allowed themselves to decline so far that their government was falling apart. Kai understood that as a newfound god with great power, it would be his job to prop up the entire system. They’d place their burdens on the shoulders of an ignorant boy from the borderlands.

He believed that the center of the nation was a cesspool of corruption.

His answer was blunt: “I refuse.”

The man remained prostrated. Kai could not allow him to leave the valley alive, and so he killed him.

54

“Chi, chi, chi.” The man made soft sounds as he used bait to lure in the honk at his feet.

He was a small man, and his large shins were exposed completely when he lifted up his long skirt. His completely black garb and hood made it clear that he was a bona fide priest of high standing, rather than some untrustworthy wanderer.

The bird pecked at the scattered pieces of dried meat as it came to a stop in the priest’s arms. A piece of oil paper had been wrapped around its small leg.

The priest went through the familiar motions of removing the paper and carefully opening it using his fingernails. He stared at the words written on it with great interest.

“What does it say?”

“Give me a moment...”

At the priest’s side was another man dressed in similar attire.

He was a priest of fairly high rank. He sat on a wayside rock drinking water from a flask made from a sheep’s bladder.

“Yes, I thought so,” spat the short priest.

“The little shami’s croaked.”

“Croaked...?”

After reading the scrap of paper, the short priest passed it over to the taller priest, who was waiting with narrowed eyes.

His voice was so loud that the honk spread its wings in alarm. The short priest tried to soothe the bird, and he crouched down facing his partner.

The tall priest stared intently at the scrap of paper while chanting some scripture to vent the frustration that grew inside of him.

The priest they referred to as the little shami had still been young. They’d found him when he was still a child, and they’d recognized his talent. Even when he grew into a capable adult, those around him still thought of him as the little shami.

Now that fellow scholar was dead at a young age.

The young priest who trained his body and mind while seldom resting had finally fallen in a faraway land and returned to the soil. The truthseekers dispatched to survey the vast borderlands in the northern part of the kingdom were all interconnected using the hidden arts of Maas, and others nearby would soon learn if anything unexpected happened to one of their own.

The priest had still been young and his legs had been strong, so it was unlikely that he had died due to some unfortunate accident or illness. If he had been far from the declining human territories and had been overcome in the regions where cruel demi-humans ruled supreme, that would be a different matter entirely. But he had been operating nearby, and these two priests saw it as an ominous sign. As the power of the monarchy declined, the people of the borderlands were increasingly acting under their own autonomy. The priests had seen this development with their own eyes.

The lower-ranking lords of the borderlands were conspiring against the authority of the center, and outsiders who questioned this despicable behavior were likely to be killed to ensure their silence. The priests knew this from experience.

“What happens once can happen twice.”

“These are dark times.”

As the taller of the two priests drank water from the flask, blood dripped from the mouth of the human corpse lying at his feet. Even with a doi sigil, the power of a guardian bearer could not be underestimated. The priests had used their refined martial arts to work together and bring him down.

Anyone who looked closely would have seen traces of a fading kumadori on the face of each priest. Truthseekers dispatched to each region from the monastery were also chosen for their skills in battle.

“Even so, we had a dangerous task ourselves. When I heard we were to kill a guardian bearer in the borderlands, I did not expect they might hold their own against the two of us.”

“They called on old men because of the danger.”

“Although his territory is wasteland, he was a skilled fighter.”

There had been low-ranking lords secretly holding onto a wild god beyond the control of the center.

The village controlled by the lord changed its attitude quickly when the people learned the intentions of the visiting truthseeker. When the truthseeker doubted their sincerity, he pretended to depart while awaiting reinforcements, then they had set upon the lord’s household all at once.

When conflict arose, it was Count Balta, who held great influence in the borderlands, who would nip it in the bud in the name of the king. The truthseekers’ survey was an important affair that related to the future of the Unified Kingdom. It had been made clear to the count that any attempt to get in their way was an act of rebellion against the monarchy.

The back of the sitting taller priest was resting against a gravestone. It was dug out from a mound of dirt and belonged to a wild god, a new land god that had not been under the control of Maas.

The lord had lacked enough people to start a new village around it, and so it had been buried. His failure to report this to the center had been a clear violation of the noble’s code as defined by national law.

To prevent this crime from being reported, the lord disrespecting the crown by concealing the gravesite had planned to murder the truthseeker dispatched by Maas. The plan had backfired, and now he lay dead. The priests had acted in self-defense, and the incident left them with no feelings of guilt.

His village would likely fall into chaos after the sudden loss of its ruler, but the priests were in the middle of an important mission, so they had no time to concern themselves with such things.

“The village was named Lag... It is suspicious.”

“Indeed.”

“We must recover his remains so that we might give him a proper burial. This region is suspicious also, but I doubt there is much to gain from a wild god such as this one. It was worth checking, but now that we see this is not the god, we must move swiftly to the next.”

“Yes, indeed.”

He tied the scrap of paper once again and released the honk to the skies.

The two priests stood up and rested on their staffs.

“Remind me what the little shami’s name was.”

“I believe it was Nada.”

“Good. I can carve his tablet while we walk.”

“In death he is a gon-no-sōzu, I believe. I suspect you have forgotten his rank. Be sure not to mistake his posthumous title.”

“Gon-no-sōzu? You jest. He is a shami.”

“Do not blame me if you need to redo your carving.”

The honk had taken to the skies on a wind blowing from the northwest.

The priests watched it fly as they discussed where they should go next.

The narrow road extended endlessly through the short grass of the plain.

The black fabric on their backs rippled in the wind as they walked across the borderlands.