In the World of Midgar 98 — The Beast Country Draupnir (13)

꒰ঌ The Beast Country Draupnir 13

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While he was being cornered, Hakuyuki thought back to what had happened before he'd come to this country.

The grimmfolk were being made to dance. Hakuyuki had always thought that. He knew that they were a people of mana who would just spawn from somewhere and oppose humanity for no real reason. Hakuyuki also knew that if they ever stopped antagonizing humanity, they would turn into mana and die. It was as if they were a magic spell that could not fulfill its purpose.

I know I'm a puppet. I'm nothing more than a puppet given the role of attacking humans from birth… Even if I have a sense of self, I'm still just a human-shaped tool with no free will.

But why? For what purpose? Just who is making poor puppets like us?

While walking through the dim castle, Hakuyuki pondered his own raison d'être. Even if I won, what would happen then? If we disappear, if we don't antagonize humans, then destroying humanity would be putting the cart before the horse. All that'll happen is that we'll self-destruct. Is the creator telling us to hurry up and disappear once our roles are over?

How insane…

"Haku!"

"Oh, it's you, Ruko."

A blond girl stopped Hakuyuki. As she came running over, Hakuyuki turned to look at her with a puzzled expression. "Ruko… What's going on with your skin and eyes?"

"Huh?"

The racial characteristics of grimmfolk were deathly pale white skin and black sclera with crimson slit pupils. Ruko was no exception; she should have had those characteristics. But right now, Ruko was standing in front of Hakuyuki with normal white skin and human-like eyes. Hakuyuki had only asked that question out of idle curiosity, but Ruko clearly started to panic before answering as if she were clearly trying to come up with an excuse.

"A-ah, no, uh… This is… infiltration! Yes, an infiltration mission. I won't be able to enter a human town if I don't look like a human, right?"

"There shouldn't be any point in staying in such a disguise here, though…"

"Ah… Uh… B-by being like this all the time, I can get used to it so I don't mess up in the field!"

That's a lie… Hakuyuki internally criticized her rash excuse.

When infiltrating a human town, grimmfolk had to disguise themselves. Hakuyuki understood that. Mercury did it too. In fact, Vernal was basically the only idiot who would be caught dead anywhere near a human town without a disguise. That was no reason to be in human disguise all the time, though, especially because they'd be liable to be mistaken for a human and be attacked by other grimmfolk.

Well, there was basically no one rude enough to attack a girl from the Seven Grimms of Purgatory, and even if there were, Hakuyuki would kill them himself. By Hakuyuki's reckoning, Ruko was doing this for another reason. It was probably because she was so conscious of Ruto, who didn't look like a normal grimmfolk person. In an attempt to get even a little closer to him, she'd changed her appearance to match. Hakuyuki forced down the jealousy that welled up inside him before similarly forcing his usually still facial muscles to stretch into a smile.

"It looks good on you. I don't really like humans, but that skin color doesn't look bad when it's you."

"R-really? I-I'm happy."

"By the way, what did you need? You didn't just come to show me how you looked, right?" Hakuyuki asked even while internally thinking, it would be nice if you did, though.

His question prompted the girl to go, "Ah," like she'd just remembered something before moving on to explain the reason why she'd called out to Hakuyuki. "That's right. Ruto's called for a gathering of the Seven Grimms of Purgatory. Emerald is already heading to the meeting room."

"Prince Ruto did? Understood… I will be there immediately."

"Good. I'll be waiting for you there."

Hakuyuki breathed out a small sigh as he watched Ruko run off ahead.

What a mess. I kind of don't like this. Her eyes don't look at me at all. She's always thinking of someone else. Should I call him a love rival? No… This is a little different. I never had a chance, so he wouldn't really be a rival.

Well, I know I just got what was coming to me, though. I'm blunt and generally not good with words. I'm gloomy, too, and I never really say what's on my mind. There's no way I'd ever be able to get my affection across to the person I like. If I could be as obvious as Ruko is, she'd probably notice, but that'd be impossible for me. I always reflexively play it cool and hide what I'm feeling.

"Just go explode. Ruto, that is." Hakuyuki muttered in a whisper before heading to the meeting room.

When he opened the door, the first thing he laid eyes on was the seven-sided table symbolizing the seven elements of Midgar. The Moon and Earth seats were already occupied. Fire, Wood, Metal, and Sun were all empty, but that couldn't be helped. Vernal and Mercury were dead, while Orange had turned traitor. The woman who held the Sun seat — Kyoka, the one who should have been leading them — was suspected of having been brainwashed by Orange and was excluded from the meeting.

Hakuyuki took his place at the Water seat before looking towards their leader, Ruto, who wasn't sitting in any of the places.

"It's really empty, isn't it?" The woman in the Earth seat, Emerald the grimm of Earth, said with her chin resting in her hands.

The Seven Grimms of Purgatory weren't a friendly bunch at all. They were more like a disorderly group of people who would strike at any opening given. But having four out of the seven members missing like this would give anyone pause.

Maybe if we cooperated instead of just glaring at each other from across this table this could have been prevented? No, probably not… Thinking back, Hakuyuki remembered that a certain bomb (Orange) had been right there, making sure everyone had been glaring at each other.

"You're all here." Ruto's gaze swept over the table, confirming everyone's presence, though there were only three people to confirm. "I believe some of you already know, but Orange was a traitor. No, rather than a traitor, I should say that she was never one of us. We have been manipulated by her all this time, resulting in unnecessary losses."

Until just recently — a scant few weeks, even — the grimmfolk had held absolute superiority in their war against humans. The Seven Grimms of Purgatory were certainly fearsome, but it was only while they had members of the Twelve Zodiac's Guardians on their side — Tayuya and Anko and Fiona — that they had nothing to fear from anybody or anything other than Rozelia Ruby.

But thinking back on it, that had probably been a trap set by Orange. While they'd been relaxed and overconfident in their superiority, Vernal and Mercury had been erased. As a further blow, they'd lost Tayuya, Fiona, and Anko. Before they'd noticed, their positions had completely flipped, and the grimmfolk had been backed into a position where it was doubtful if they could even win against the forces of humanity, let alone Lucifen and her lot. At this point, there was no time to be glaring at each other.

Ruto explained all this to the three remaining Grimms of Purgatory, and they listened with serious expressions.

"We cannot afford any more losses. So from now on, you all are to observe Lucifen and her party, but make sure to never make contact with them under any circumstances."

Normally, this would be the time to hole up in the castle and see what happened. The humans might once again make enemies of Lucifen, and they might destroy each other. Even if they didn't, Ruby and Sienna would certainly clash with Lucifen, at least. The grimmfolk were driven by circumstances that wouldn't allow them to do that, though. They were a flawed species that would disappear if they didn't assault humanity… Even if they wanted to cease hostilities, they couldn't. The only thing they could do was avoid Lucifen, Ruby, and Sienna to the best of their abilities and attack other targets.

"I'd do that even if you didn't tell me to. There's no way I'd want to fight a monster like her. Anyway, looks like it'll just be some boring routine work, like crushing small villages, for a while."

"Emerald… Attacking non-combatants so much is…"

"You're as stuffy as always, Ruko. You know that we're the ones who have to do this, otherwise we'll die? I'm amazed how you can be an assassin like this. Actually, wait a second. What's up with your eyes and skin?"

"Huh? Uh, this is…"

Ruto cleared his throat to stop Emerald and Ruko's frivolous conversation before resuming the meeting. Although basically the only thing they did that day was come up with some countermeasures for Lucifen and her group, only things like trying to predict where Lucifen currently was or estimating just how much power she held. The reason they didn't know her precise location was because all the monsters and grimmfolk they'd sent out for reconnaissance had been sniped and eliminated. It was most likely the work of Penny of the Libra constellation.

By switching perspectives and focusing on where their reconnaissance was still alive, it would be possible to largely tell what area she was in and what direction she was heading. However, that would entail a large number of sacrifices. And because of Penny's huge range and Lucifen's hyper-fast traveling speeds, the number of sacrifices they'd have to make just wasn't worth the information they would get, especially since it wouldn't be very accurate anyway.

It was only an estimate, but it was thought that Lucifen and Co. could move around one hundred kilometers in an hour. On top of that, her flight speed was swift enough that she could fly halfway around Midgar in minutes, judging from the speed at which Lucifen herself had once moved from near Gjallarhorn to Laevateinn. Actually, given her fight with the Grimm King, her maximum burst-speed could actually be several times or even tens of times faster… If she were able to keep up that speed for long distances or times, she could even make a lap around Midgar in a single second. What a monster. For short distances, her speed must have seemed like teleportation.

At any rate, even if they could figure out where she was currently, such information would likely already be useless by the time Ruto was informed. After all, Lucifen could lap around the world several times before the familiar used for scouting would even be able to make it back, so the information it would have would be less than reliable, to say the least.

With the meeting over, Hakuyuki made a beeline for the throne room, where the Grimm King most likely was.

Fighting while avoiding Lucifen? That's fine with me, but it doesn't do anything about the fundamental problem. Even if we grimmfolk manage to win this war, we'll still just disappear. The only way to change this is to change our very existence… In other words, we need to change the rules that the Goddess wrote.

If we don't, the grimmfolk have no future.

"Your Majesty. Please excuse me."

Hakuyuki stepped into the throne room and bowed before his king.

It seemed that the Grimm King had fought some huge battle somewhere recently, and he was busy recovering. Still, his wounds weren't exactly severe, and he was leisurely reposed upon his throne as if he weren't wounded at all.

He narrowed his eyes in amusement at Hakuyuki's visit. "Hakuyuki, I see. What do you need?"

"Your Majesty… I beg of you to lend me your power."

"Hmm… I will listen."

"Thank you! I am aware of how rude I am being when I ask you this. But I beg of you to use your 'Key to the Heavens,' officially titled the 'GM Key,' once for us grimmfolk."

The Key to the Heavens was an item that only appeared in legends, something only a representative of the Goddess was allowed to hold. It was a divine tool that could bend the rules and providence of the world itself. In the past, the Goddess had given it to the first humans, Uzumaru and Uzuhime, and it was passed down from generation to generation within their clan. Then, the Goddess spread the knowledge to all races across the world that even touching the key when one wasn't her representative was the gravest of sins. Aiming for the key was nothing but a declaration of war on the Goddess herself.

Thus, throughout history, no villain, monster, or even grimmfolk dared to lay a hand on Uzumaru and Uzuhime's clan. No matter how foolish they were, they couldn't defy the Goddess. They didn't want to. One thousand years ago, someone appeared who picked a fight with the established order, and that person was Ouzelia Lucifen. She boldly trespassed into the clan's sanctuary and brought the chieftess, Mito, out along with the key.

After that, the key was left with the Gemini guardians, the Twins of the Twelve Zodiac's Guardians, to safekeep on the ship Argo. Gemini guardians exerted the greatest combat power among all of Lucifen's subordinates, and the key was thought to be safe in their hands even now.

Hakuyuki had a suspicion that the key was no longer on Argo at all. The Grimm King had gone on an expedition right after his battle with Lucifen. There were very few opponents he would bother bringing as large a force against as he'd done. One was the Fauna Queen Sienna and her army. The other was the Rose Princess Rozelia Ruby and her city of Mjolnir. The last was Ouzelia Lucifen and the Twelve Zodiac's Guardians under her.

All of them were alive and well, with no traces that they'd fought the Grimm King. Well, Lucifen had, but her battle had happened before the expedition. There was only one other candidate. It could only have been Argo, with their large force of heroic spirits. This meant that the key was now in the Grimm King's hands. At least, that was what Hakuyuki had deduced.

"So you know that I have it…"

"Please excuse me… I took the liberty of doing some research."

"Hmm… Then I will listen to you. What would you have me use the key for?"

The Grimm King was in high spirits. He was amused by Hakuyuki. I need to get to the point while he's in this mood. Hakuyuki swallowed his saliva and answered while trying to keep his nervousness from showing on his face.

"Please make us grimmfolk… No, you can just do it for one person. Please save Ruko from our fate. The only one who can do so is the one with the key, and that is you."

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