Predetermined Destiny

It was afternoon. An aristocratically dressed young man wearing a wide- brimmed hat to the side arrived in front of the fortress, with the guard on watch giving him a uniform bow.

"Master Hidow. We've been expecting you!"

"Thank you for making it all the way out here to the frontier, Twentieth Minister."

"No need for formalities. The stiff greetings grate on my nerves."

He dismissed them with a wave of his palm. Hidow the Clamp was nearly the same age as either of the gatekeepers' sons, but his position among the Twenty-Nine Officials of Aureatia meant that, despite his age, he was at the top of the country's government.

The home of this giant fortress, Mage City, was the closest satellite city to Taren's New Principality of Lithia and served as the frontline castle for Aureatia from which to observe the movements of newly independent Lithia.

"Have our guests arrived?"

"Yes. They arrived this morning."

"I'm running late, then, huh? Ah well, those Visitors don't really care much for manners, do they?"

"Hard to say. I've heard they each have their own sense of things."

Climbing the stairs and opening the first door he came to, he saw two minia were already seated inside.

More accurately, one sat properly in a chair. The other was seated on the floor, his legs crossed.

"Sorry for being late when I'm the one who summoned you here.

Twentieth Minister Hidow the Clamp." "U-um…"

The young girl sitting in the chair quickly jumped to her feet and gave a deep bow. Her body was rigid with nerves.

She appeared badly wounded. One of her eyes was hidden behind a bandage.

"My name is Yuno the Distant Talon. In Nagan…um, in the ruined Nagan City, I was a scholar-in-training. Thank you very much for generously taking the time to speak—"

"It's fine, it's fine, save your introductions. A new Visitor in the world isn't something Aureatia can afford to ignore. Thank you for letting us know."

"Please… I—I don't need any gratitude." "Now then."

After making the young girl take her seat again, Hidow turned a wary eye toward the man sitting cross-legged on the floor.

—Visitors. Foreign deviants cast out from their world, easily capable of toppling all the knowledge, laws, and preexisting concepts of this world. Close to half of the self-proclaimed Demon Kings throughout history had been Visitors.

Conversely, they also brought benefits. For instance, they popularized muskets and introduced the concept of snipers and skirmishing troops. They brought the engineering techniques to turn this world's radzio crystals into communication devices. Another example was the minia races' unified measurement system, based on the "metric system" they had borrowed from the Visitors.

"So that's the Willow-Sword, eh?"

"C'mon… You gotta add that stuff on? I'm Soujirou."

"Not a bad second name, if you ask me. The little lady over there give you that, too?"

The young civil servant's mouth broke into a smile, turning his chair backward before sitting. He took a seat close to Soujirou on the floor, looking down over him.

Soujirou's reptilian eyes rolled up to look at the minister.

"Our enemy is the former Twenty-Third General Taren the Punished. She's put together a wyvern army and collected mercs and magic items from every corner of the whole damn world. Before Aureatia and the New Principality go to war—and before each city's civilians get caught up in the conflict—I want things settled quickly. And I want you two to do it."

Naturally, there was a reason the largest nation of the minia races was delaying their enemy's trade and trying to get a handle on their internal affairs.

They wanted to delay open hostilities and to convince their enemy they'd fall if it came to outright conflict. Aureatia's strategy was to pretend they were avoiding any preemptive strikes to retain their moral high ground, while actually using assassination to make the first move.

"What, so you mean this game to choose a Hero ain't starting yet?" "That's more than half a year away. Aureatia's the largest nation in our

world. Naturally, participation in such a grand event will require an equal amount of prestige. Understand what I'm getting at?"

There were an endless number of people who were confident in their strength and had declared themselves as candidates for the Imperial Competition.

This Soujirou here was another of these Hero candidates. Just like Kuze the Passing Disaster.

"This'll be the test to see if you've got skill worthy enough for candidacy

—the preliminaries, if you will. If you're able to make big moves against the New Principality, then one of the Twenty-Nine Officials will sponsor you. That, I can guarantee."

"Doesn't make a difference to me as long as I get some fun fights out of it. Who they got?"

"Safe to assume you can kill them, then?"

Seated next to Soujirou, Yuno looked extremely on edge and furiously whispered something.

"S-Soujirou, Hidow is a really, really important person! You need to be more polite, okay?"

"Huh? Then whaddaya want me to say?"

"Ummm…let's see… Allow me to express my deepest gratitude for concerning yourself with a wandering Visitor like me, or…just don't be so rude…"

"Okay," Soujirou lazily replied, his mouth hanging open. Pointing at Yuno with his thumb, he again addressed Hidow.

"Can we keep going and pretend I said all that?"

"I heard all of that, you know. You two would've been in a lot of trouble with anyone else."

Hidow chuckled. Since acquiring his position among the Twenty-Nine Officials, there were fewer and fewer people with whom he could openly converse like any other young man his age.

However, Soujirou's status as a Visitor, guaranteeing his abilities, was the only thing allowing such impudence. Hidow the Clamp had bestowed charity on Kuze the Passing Disaster on a whim, but he wasn't especially tolerant of rebellious individuals, either. Though lionized as a genius by the citizens, he was aware as one of the Twenty-Nine that there was a fundamental line he couldn't cross.

"Yuno. I also know this fight has some importance to you, too, actually.

Have you been up front about that with Soujirou?" "Yes. Um…"

Yuno glanced to Soujirou beside her. "Hmm? What?"

"You…didn't forget, did you…?"

"Yeah. I ain't that smart, see. I been leaving mosta the negotiating and guiding to you, right?"

"…Hey, you sure this guy's okay?"

"Yes. I promise he's very skilled… Very, very skilled…"

Seated next to the yawning Soujirou on the floor, Yuno spoke as if she was mainly trying to convince herself. The hellish sight of Nagan's ruination had been neither illusion nor a bad dream. Nevertheless, looking at Soujirou's moronic nature, she couldn't help but feel like his horrifying and ghoulish swordsmanship had actually been a lie.

"Um, Master Hidow. This self-proclaimed Demon King Taren… Is the information that one of her subordinates was there that day at the Great Labyrinth true?"

"It is. You have the right to know the truth."

Hidow's smile disappeared, and for the first time, he looked Yuno straight in the eyes.

"His name is Dakai the Magpie. The innermost part of the Great Labyrinth housed a valuable magic item…the Cold Star that served as that monstrosity's power source. Dakai traversed the labyrinth all on his own and stole it."

"…That's the same day I killed that giant dungeon thing, huh? So someone else was there."

"We don't know exactly why the Dungeon Golem started moving…but it's possible this Dakai man…activated it when he set foot in the labyrinth's innermost chamber. That's what you're saying, then?"

"This is purely my own speculation."

Yuno lowered her eyes. She continued seeking targets for her vengeance, much like she had with Soujirou.

She didn't want that day's tragedy to be written off as a simple disaster. Her desire to pin the responsibility on someone was intense. It was a twisted sort of hope. Even a young girl like Yuno knew it.

But if I gave up my search, what am I supposed to do?

—Was she supposed to accept that nothing could've been done—that it wasn't someone else's fault but her own for being too weak to stop the tragedy—and continue down life's proper path, having come to terms with the tragedy?

"Master Hidow. How exactly…"

Yuno was a powerless young girl, on the outside of Aureatia's strategic operations. Nevertheless, she had a question.

"…did you come to find out this information? Is this reliable enough to be considered factual…?"

"Oh, I wouldn't press that point any further if I were you. Understand?" "…Okay."

She imagined, for example, that there was a collaborator on the other side. Whether or not assassination would bring about the most ideal situation or if Taren had a body double or powerful next-in-line—the answers to such questions were things Aureatia needed to look into ahead of time.

This was what making an enemy of the world's largest nation-state entailed.

"Is my word not enough for you?"

"No. I… Please forgive my misgivings."

What did Soujirou think about this? She didn't give him a second thought.

Having lost everything meant she was free.

If this Dakai man was the rightful recipient of Yuno's and Lucelles's hatred, then she felt it necessary to ask him about it directly.

"I'll go, too."

"Why not? Let's go for it."

Hidow earnestly listened to the words of the commoner girl, far removed from his station.