Chapter 6 — He May Not Be a Bad Person, but He Seems Kind of Annoying

"The reason I can't acknowledge your strength is because it would be like trampling over all of my own hard work. Being stuck here making all kinds of excuses for myself is something my pride cannot allow!"

"Wow. He doesn't seem like a bad person, but he is kind of annoying," Tomochika muttered.

The three of them were walking side by side through the streets of the capital. Tomochika was in the middle, pulling her large suitcase behind her. Yogiri was on her right while David was to her left. The guard was rambling about something or another while Tomochika made the bare minimum of effort to show that she was listening. Yogiri must not have cared either way, since he was flat out ignoring the entire conversation.

"Did you say something?" asked David.

"No, just do your best with your training," Tomochika replied vaguely, staring determinedly forward.

The city streets ahead of her had a tasteful, historied look to them. There were many stone buildings, but they didn't seem to have the same magic as the city walls. High Wizard Eglacia had been active around a thousand years ago, so that was when the city had first been built. Considering buildings were generally worn away and replaced over time, it was hard to believe that any of the original structures had survived.

In front of them stood the largest building in the city: the royal palace. That was where they were headed and where they expected to find their classmates, who had been granted an audience with the king for that very day.

The palace was in the middle of the capital, its majestic form visible from anywhere within the city walls, so at first glance, it didn't seem like they would need a guide to get there. But perhaps there hadn't been much in the way of city planning, as the labyrinthine layout of the streets made a guide quite necessary.

"I've been wondering for a while, but aren't there an awful lot of people with weapons around here?" Tomochika asked. It was hard for her to believe all the people around them were ordinary civilians, given how many of them wore armor and had swords, spears, and bows strapped to their bodies. There were far too many of them to be city guards, and they were all equipped differently anyway.

"Those are Explorers, warriors who seek to challenge the Underworld. That's why the capital was built in the first place, after all."

"Excuse me?" Tomochika was thrown off by his reply. The word "underworld" seemed so out of place it had caught her off guard.

"What do you mean, 'Underworld'?" Yogiri asked, seeing that Tomochika was too surprised to ask the question herself.

"The Underworld is the territory of the Dark God, which exists below the capital. To put it simply, the Dark God is sealed beneath the city, so its spawn regularly show up down there. Those who patrol the area and dispatch the evil creatures they find are called Explorers."

"Wait, the Dark God in the canyon wasn't the only one left?! Exactly how many of these things are there?!"

Yogiri had recently killed the Dark God that the Swordmaster watched over, and it had never occurred to either of them that there might still be others around.

"In the canyon? I'm not sure about that, but as Knights of the Divine King, you would know more than me." As if his suspicions had been rekindled, David narrowed his eyes at them.

"We know that we're supposed to fight the Dark God's spawn, but we don't know much about where they are or how many of them exist," Yogiri responded naturally. Remaining completely unfazed in such situations was one of his greatest strengths.

"Even the Knights are in the dark, are they? Well, the Dark Gods are an internal threat, so aside from those whose job it is to deal with them, there are relatively few who know they exist. I suppose a city like this, where the Dark God's presence is common knowledge, is an outlier."

"So, it's just a straight line from here, right? Thanks for guiding us, but we should be fine the rest of the way," Yogiri said, changing the subject. He felt that if the conversation proceeded any further, they'd only make the vice-captain more suspicious.

"Very well. I suppose there is little reason for me to accompany you straight to the door," the guard answered, turning and leaving without complaint.

"Don't you think that was a little cold after he guided us this far?" Tomochika asked.

"If he was still around, it would be hard to talk about this."

"About what?"

"Come on, you know we're going to meet up with our class, right?" Yogiri said with a trace of exasperation.

"Oh, right. They'll probably ask us how we got away from the dragon and made it this far on our own. We'll have to think of an explanation."

"There's that too, but the first question is whether you're even going to forgive them."

"Oh!" The moment Yogiri reminded her, Tomochika felt herself begin to burn with anger towards her classmates.

◇ ◇ ◇

Settled within a luxury hotel that had a clear view of the castle, the duo sat across from each other in one of the building's meeting rooms. It would be a pain to carry their luggage around with them everywhere, and they had some things to discuss before reuniting with their class anyway.

"If we're planning to kill them all, then there's no point in making up an excuse about the dragon, is there?" Yogiri asked as soon as they sat down.

"Wow, starting off awfully dark, aren't we? What are you, a total sociopath?" Tomochika was taken aback by the harshness of Yogiri's suggestion. She had thought he would generally only kill those who posed a direct threat, but maybe that wasn't the case.

"They left us alone in a place where we were guaranteed to die. I think we have the right to take revenge. They tried to have us killed, so no one could complain if we do the same, could they?"

The class had done what they'd deemed necessary to ensure the majority of them survived. It was hardly an acceptable excuse to Tomochika, but she and Yogiri had made it just fine in the end, and it didn't feel like they had suffered too much along the way. Tomochika wasn't angry enough to want such an extreme form of revenge.

"Well, as long as you decide beforehand, it's fine," Yogiri said. "Uncertainty would be a problem. If you haven't made up your mind by the time we see them, we won't be able to act one way or another."

"What about you? You're not mad at them?"

"I don't really care. I was never close with any of them, so it doesn't feel like a betrayal to me. Even if they hadn't decided based on who had the Gift and who didn't, I feel like I would have been one of the sacrifices either way."

"Well...yeah, I guess day-to-day relationships are pretty important," Tomochika murmured. "So, if we're not killing them, we need an explanation for how we got here, right?"

"Right. First, about our powers. We can't use the rings to pretend that we're able to do something we can't really do."

I have made considerable progress in analyzing those rings, Mokomoko interjected. I believe I should be able to modify the settings for your disguise.

"Well, you already have a special power, so I feel like you'll be able to manage."

"If I tell them I can kill anything I want to, I doubt they'll believe me. And it would almost be a bigger problem if they did. Maybe I can pretend my power is a lot more limited." For example, he could say that his class was "Insect Hunter," and his ability allowed him to kill any insects. That would be suitably unthreatening, and if they asked him to prove it, he could kill whatever bugs were nearby.

"So, what about me? The only special ability I have is this annoying guardian spirit that follows me around."

You really have no respect for your ancestors at all, do you?!

"How about something like the ability to control spirits?" Yogiri suggested. It wasn't technically a lie.

I could attack other spirits and exorcise them, Mokomoko offered, but it would be awfully challenging to show that to others.

"Yeah, it doesn't help if they can't see you."

In that case, I have an excellent idea! It will take some time to prepare, but consider the problem solved!

"What? We don't have that kind of time right now," Tomochika replied. The audience with the king might have already started. They couldn't casually wait around for the spirit's solution.

I may appear to be taking this lightly, but I am actually performing multiple complex calculations in the background. It will only take a short while longer!

"At worst, you could say you're a swordsman with a strange fighting style," Yogiri suggested, voicing the first option that came to mind.

"That's basically the same as saying I don't have any powers at all."

In the end, despite how uneasy it made her, she decided to put her faith in Mokomoko.