Even if I’d shattered half the world — as long as Gerard was unharmed, I figured it didn’t matter. All the more so if Casioth hadn’t been swept up in it.
But precarious, he said.
The problem was that unlike Casioth, whose location had been narrowed down, Ranok didn’t even know how to reach Gerard right now.
Going to the Demon King’s Castle was pointless — even with his magi, he was in a human body, so he’d obviously get thrown out. He’d be lucky not to get killed on the spot.
On top of that, if he stormed off to deal with that side, the odds of missing Casioth entirely were high.
No matter how he looked at it, meeting a man who’d become the Empire’s Hero without the standing of a prince wasn’t going to be easy.
Neither option was simple — but at least as a hostage, even if that’s what he was, he was still royalty of a sovereign nation, which meant he could get an audience with Casioth. So the plan had been to meet Casioth first, since he seemed the more precarious of the two.
And then he’d heard something like this, and couldn’t help but waver.
He felt disgusted with himself for it.
The fact that he was placing Casioth and Gerard on a scale and trying to weigh them against each other — it revolted him.
That even now, he was coldly trying to find the faster and more efficient approach — he was sick of himself for it.
“……Ha.”
Ranok slumped back against the seat. His frail human body was already quite worn down from the relentless journey. The mental exhaustion on top of it made his head ache beyond words.
He closed his eyes and muttered.
“Don’t ask too much of my people. Just do it yourselves.”
— ……After abandoning them, what do you mean ‘my people.’
Abandoned. In that moment, those were the last words Ranok wanted to hear.
“I didn’t abandon them.”
— You did.
At the flat, unwavering voice, Ranok’s eyes snapped open. The Faerie had dropped its earlier breezy manner and was watching him with an accusing gaze.
— You abandoned them.
Ranok’s eyes turned cold, but the Faerie held firm.
— In the worst way possible.
For a while, the inside of the carriage filled with an uncomfortable silence.
“……Huu.”
But Ranok’s anger quickly lost its direction. The man had never had any great passion for life to begin with — he couldn’t sustain intense emotion, and it cooled off fast.
His eyes had briefly flared with what looked like rage, but he returned to his characteristically indifferent expression and slowly closed them again.
The Faerie quickly picked up on Ranok’s state. It clicked its tongue.
— Was it truly alright to entrust the fate of the world to someone like this. Oh, Goddess……
“You’re the one who told me to slay a dragon and handed me nothing but a fork to do it, and yet you have so much to say.”
The Faerie shot him a sideways glare, but Ranok had plenty to say on this point as well.
When he’d asked what exactly he was supposed to do, they’d said it’s your responsibility, figure it out yourself — so what exactly did they want from him?
— It can’t be helped, can it? The Goddess’s plan falling apart and the Corruption worsening — that’s largely your doing.
Corruption breeds new Corruption, and what remains at the end of Corruption is nothing but rot. The land, the air, living creatures — everything. A catastrophe that sweeps all things away. That was Corruption.
Just as the Faerie had said moments ago, if even a Faerie — a pure being — could be corrupted, then over ten years, the situation had apparently done nothing but deteriorate.
And Corruption is the negation of the divine.
— Corruption originally starts from evil. Sorrow, malice, filth and ugliness. Everything impure — that’s where Corruption begins.
“Then why is it my fault?”
— What have you been listening to this whole time?
The Faerie explained with genuine exasperation.
— You’re the one who ruined the Goddess’s plan. Because of you, the Hero was unable to do what needed to be done, and Corruption spread at a rapid pace — and the Demon King destroyed half the world, drawing every last dark and negative thing unto himself! In the end, the Corruption grew ever larger and deeper, and now it’s overflowing beyond the point of containment.
“……”
— What’s been broken can’t be perfectly restored, but your role is to calm them down, manage the situation, and stop the Corruption from spreading. And ultimately, to bring about the elimination of Corruption.
“Eliminate the Corruption?”
— Ultimately, yes.
The Faerie didn’t seem to know a clear method for eliminating the Corruption either.
— But the Goddess, who knows all things, has said that if you simply return to them, that problem too will be resolved.
The will of a god is inherently vague. Following what a god commands does not mean a problem is resolved perfectly. But through doing so, it ends up being resolved in the end, as a result.
In other words, if Ranok returned to the two of them…… as a result, the Corruption would be resolved. Perhaps that was why the Faerie had been calling him “the Savior” all along. Not because it wanted to call him that of its own accord — it had emphasized more than once that the Goddess herself called Ranok the Savior.
Of course, the Faerie’s words — just trust the Goddess — were utterly stifling to Ranok, a man who preferred everything to be clear-cut, this thing here and that thing there. The Faerie’s meaning left no room for anything definite.
And to begin with, if Ranok was the one who’d broken free of the Goddess’s carefully laid orbit — gone so far beyond it that he’d thrown everything into chaos — then even now, possessing this body, the odds of him quietly flowing along within that orbit were slim, weren’t they.
Well, unlike when he’d been a member of the Demon Clan and an existence beyond the standard, he was now nothing more than a lowly human — so perhaps he’d be neatly contained this time.
Ranok, who had no energy left to argue with the Faerie over this, closed his tired eyes.
“……So — for now, trust in the Goddess and act in accordance with her will?”
— Yes. Creatures like you and I have no right to presume to judge the will of a god.
The Faerie sighed.
— It means the world has become so broken that She — who loves the harmony and peace of the world — had no choice but to defy the flow and resurrect one who had died. And it also means that they need you that much — that you are indispensable to them.
“……”
— So I’m asking you. Do your best.
Ranok could not bring himself to respond. Not knowing even what he should do right now, he couldn’t bring a promise like I’ll do my best to his lips. The true weight of what the Faerie’s words held — he had yet to truly feel it.
After that, the two of them rode toward the capital in silence.
Now and then, the sound of Zak whimpering outside and muttering things like please, someone help me could be heard, but no one paid him any mind.
How many hours had they been riding.
When the white walls of Serebatus, capital of the Serion Empire, came into view — only then did Ranok feel it, just a little.
That he had returned from death, and had once again become part of the world where Casioth and Gerard lived.
He still felt not the slightest bit of reality about having ruined the world because of himself.
Casioth is in there.
At that simple fact, his heart leapt — foolishly, like a child — for the first time in a very long while.
It was only natural, but just because Ranok had entered the capital didn’t mean he could see Casioth immediately.
It was plain to anyone that he was a hostage — so obvious that no one could even object if someone had called him our little hostage to his face — but officially, Milano Mortiel was there under the pretense of a study abroad to learn the politics of the Empire.
Naturally, as the prince of a neighboring country, he was treated on the surface as a state guest, and the first place he was to visit was the Imperial Palace.
The moment Ranok entered the capital Serebatus, he had Zak go out and buy him a change of clothes. He couldn’t very well make his entrance looking like someone who’d barely leapt from a burning carriage.
True to having earned his place as a top attendant on wits alone, Zak grumbled but brought back a perfectly suitable set of clothes — and Ranok put them on and headed straight to the Imperial Palace.
“Welcome, Prince Mortiel.”
Dreian Serion — first Imperial Prince and Crown Prince of the Empire — greeted Ranok with a smile.
It was the first meeting between two people of the same royal blood, both firstborn sons of their respective royal houses — and yet their circumstances could not have been more different.
No matter how decent a set of clothes Zak had managed to find, Milano Mortiel’s appearance was that of a man who’d suffered a setback.
Being an outright hostage while keeping up the pretense of something else was a sufficiently pitiful situation — he ought to count himself lucky just not to be addressed as young Mortiel or Mortiel lad.
If he truly had been Milano Mortiel, this first meeting would have been quite humiliating.
He might even have harbored envy and resentment toward the Crown Prince on his own. If he was the petty, narrow-hearted man rumored to be — perhaps he would have.
Of course, to Ranok, it all felt like someone else’s story, one that had nothing to do with him. And it really was someone else’s story.
“It’s a pleasure, Crown Prince Dreian.”
Ranok took the offered hand of the Crown Prince and shook it smoothly.
Thinking that even with all this time passed, the customs probably haven’t changed much — given how rigidly old-fashioned and stiff noble culture tends to be.
The Faerie, which had been circling above Ranok’s head, spotted the Crown Prince and immediately lit up, flying over toward him with a delighted sound.
— Oh, this Crown Prince is quite handsome!
……What kind of Faerie did the Goddess send me.
His concentration nearly broke thanks to the thoroughly worldly Faerie buzzing around like a mosquito and commenting on the Crown Prince’s looks — but Ranok barely held himself together and focused on the meeting with the Crown Prince.
One trivial topic after another followed. Knowing full well that noble discourse meant the real subject wouldn’t come up until much later, Ranok endured all of it patiently.
“Have you decided on a place to stay?”
And at last, the Crown Prince asked whether there was somewhere in particular he’d like to be housed.
