The Night Before the Competition - 3

The Aureatia cityscape was the ground. The upper floors of buildings were connected with wood or iron footpaths, and the scenery of the old town in particular had a chaotic crisscross of stories going every which way.

So Toroa got through everything all right... For now anyway.

There was someone lingering on the edge of an iron footpath jutting out into the air. A leprechaun wearing a dark-brown coat.

The old town he gazed down on also had more than half its area hidden underneath the network of crossing pathways, but his azure eyes could clearly see all the way down to the movements of the grains of sand on the ground—

everything, all at once.

"…I don't believe it; are you actually worried about Toroa the Awful?" Catching the voice from behind him, he glanced over his shoulder. Of course,

even if it didn't, he could perfectly perceive the approaching person's body shape, their gait, all the way down to their heartbeat. Such was world Kuuro the Cautious saw.

Cresting the stairs was an elf woman with bandages covering both her eyes.

Her name was Lena the Obscured. "Interesting. That's a pretty good laugh."

From the presence of her concealed weapon and her demeanor as she approached, he already knew she wasn't hostile. Therefore, Kuuro replied with nothing but a simple question.

"What do you want?"

The two were not unfamiliar with one another. Previously, Kuuro and Lena had both been agents of the land's largest spy guild, Obsidian Eyes. After Kuuro deserted, Rehart the Obsidian, leader of the guild in the final days of the Demon King era, passed away, and it was said the organization, too, collapsed.

"Oh, come now, like you need to ask. Do you feel like coming back again?" "…Back to Obsidian Eyes, is it? The rumor that the leader's dead, then, is a

lie?"

Kuuro glanced at Lena. The movement of her fingertips. The change in her heartbeat. Perspiration. The pupils hidden beneath the bandages.

"So it isn't a lie, then. Who's Obsidian, now…? Lady Linaris? Got it. That's much better."

"…Kuuro… Cut that out. To be honest, it's creepy." "We're old friends. No need to hold back, and all."

It was known by the name Clairvoyance. Super sight. Super hearing. A sixth sense. Synesthesia. With any and all superpowered senses combined together in one, he could even find the answer to his questions from the minutely perceived reactions of a living creature, without waiting for them to say a word.

"…It's just as you said. Obsidian Eyes is still alive. In order to continue on the will of leadership she inherited, our lady is earnestly maintaining the organization. Right now, we need your power. The power of the strongest man in Obsidian Eyes."

"Well, you must really be in trouble, then." Kuuro smiled cynically.

"If we weren't, I wouldn't be asking questions that I already know the answer

to."

His past of bloodying his hands as part of Obsidian Eyes was a difficult one for Kuuro to forget. He had taken a gruesome roundabout path to discover for himself that piling up corpses wasn't his true desire at all.

"Even still, as a former comrade of ours for a period of time, you need to see your obligations through. Right? Going forward, Obsidian Eyes…will be making strategic moves here in Aureatia. The one who'll know our movements from the very start is you, Kuuro."

"…And you're worried that when the time comes I'll leak that information to another organization, is that it?"

With both hands still in his pockets, the leprechaun gazed at the sky, closer to it now than from the ground.

"Don't worry. What would doing something like that get me? It'd be worth little more than pocket change. I don't plan on joining up with you all again, but I don't intend on taking Aureatia's side, either. No matter which side I'd end up taking, I'd just get forced to take on worthless work."

"You defected from Toghie City. As collateral for that, you must be under obligation to collaborate with Aureatia."

"I paid that back during the Particle Storm incident. You think Aureatia wants to keep eyes that can see all their troop placements, and the location of all the Twenty-Nine Officials, always on hand? The reason they lured me away was simply a precaution against the Old Kingdoms' side using my gifts… They're even thinking that they'd like me gone once I'm finished here—and fast."

He felt the wound in his side. While it was almost completely healed, it had come from being pierced right as the Particle Storm was defeated.

"Actually. To be more precise, I think there are some people actively trying to get rid of me."

The ones who fired on him weren't Aureatia, but Obsidian Eyes. The moment the Particle Storm was defeated, they did so to eliminate any "eyes" that would observe what happened afterward. They had even planned their operation to ensure Kuuro would point his suspicions at Aureatia in the event they proved unable to kill Obsidian Eyes' strongest man.

Of course, Kuuro couldn't possibly gain the full picture of their network of schemes—however.

"I was shot by an Aureatia soldier."

"That's a laugh. I heard you were wounded during your mission to observe the Particle Storm. So you got done in by those Aureatia bastards once they

didn't have any need for Clairvoyance anymore."

"Seems so. From their mannerisms and the weapons they carried, it had to have been an Aureatia soldier. It took all I had to avoid being killed on the spot, but…I still got a look at their face."

No matter how far away they aimed at him, even from a blind spot, he could see them. Conversely, he hadn't been able to see them up until the moment they shot at him. At that time, Kuuro's senses had only perceived one person, Kuuro himself.

"That day, I looked at all the faces of the soldiers who went in and out of the camp. The one who shot me was someone I never saw in camp. Maybe I should think of it as another faction trying to use the observation mission to put an end to me. If they viewed my Clairvoyance as a threat, then why would they even expect their assassination attempt to succeed?

"…It very nearly was successful, wasn't it? You're not able to see as much of your surroundings as you're used to."

"Want to see for yourself if that's true? Zizma the Miasma… He said the same thing. That my Clairvoyance had declined. Zizma, part of the same Obsidian Eyes as you lot. Let me ask you, Lena. The ones who tried to assassinate me… It was actually you all, wasn't it?"

His blue eyes looked squarely at Lena. Her heartbeat. Reflexes. Breathing.

However, all he did was ask. No matter how well versed one was in techniques to deceive their own mind, be they a member of Obsidian Eyes or not, he could unmask everything. That was the power of his Clairvoyance.

"..."

Lena's faint smile could only be seen in the subtle move of her lips.

"I don't know, do I?"

Kuuro understood the meaning behind her words. Her reaction neither confirmed nor denied anything.

"…Right. Lady Linaris wouldn't send someone who knows the details of the operation to me on purpose. Besides, even if my guess was off the mark… You also can't say for sure that, since you weren't privy to the knowledge, the operation hadn't actually been carried out, either. As long as this is Obsidian Eyes we're talking about."

"Your senses haven't dulled at all, huh, Kuuro the Cautious. It's very hard for me to believe you've been away from active duty for so long… I really do want you to come back to us, after all. During these past few years, we've lost too many of our comrades."

"…Even still, it's impossible for me to go back. I can't become a corpse anymore."

Kuuro put his index finger up against the back of his neck.

"When they brought me here, they injected me with a blood serum. Since I was formerly with Obsidian Eyes, me being a corpse was Aureatia's biggest concern. You figured that from the start, didn't you?"

"That doesn't matter. Even if you're not a corpse…Obsidian Eyes needs you… Actually. It's better if you're not a corpse. I'm sure our lady would say the same."

"So she really is different from Rehart, then."

He lowered his eyes, mumbling with an almost peaceful glow.

When Kuuro was part of the organization, the young miss was still young. Just what was she like now? There was part of him that wished he had seen her grow up.

"…Bye, then. Give the lady my regards." "Kuuro."

Lena called out to Kuuro as he turned his back to leave. "Do you still plan on remaining in Aureatia?" "…Don't worry. I won't be here for long. I just—"

Footpaths of wood and iron. There wasn't anyone who knew that, in a corner of the tangled old town, there was an unbelievably powerful individual, a cut above the rest. A shura unaffiliated with anyone or any power, whose name wasn't even included among the Sixways Exhibition's roster of hero candidates.

"—have this theater I've gotten real fond of."

A forest, thick enough to block out the sun. Inside a room in a mansion, there was someone listening to Kuuro the Cautious's conversation.

It was voice communication from a one-way radzio Lena had hidden on her. If the receiver had allowed for two-way communication, even without saying a word, Kuuro's Clairvoyance would've have seen through everything just from the sounds of breathing or bodies shifting through the receiver.

…Master Kuuro.

Turning the receiver down on the table, the aristocratic young woman cast

her eyelashes down. Her skin was white, even among the darkness, highlighting her beautiful features like the moon in the night sky.

Her name was Linaris the Obsidian. The young vampire girl who led the remnants of the land's largest spy guild, Obsidian Eyes.

Lingering next to her was an elderly leprechaun woman. "Failing to dispose of Kuuro was a big blunder, milady."

The housekeeping governess tasked with looking after Linaris, Frey the Waking, was a veteran from the very first days the guild was established.

She was also the one who had proposed taking advantage of the Particle Storm to assassinate Kuuro. The ones who actually shot him were none other than the field troops under the command of the Thirteenth Minister Enu—one of the Twenty-Nine Officials under the control of Obsidian Eyes.

Kuuro's clairvoyance was waning, and now he could only see a single point that he concentrated on. The plan, formulated off Frey's correct estimation of his abilities, was upset by Kuuro recovering the strength of his heydays, and by the presence of Toroa the Awful there with him.

"If he truly has undergone blood serum treatment, then I believe it will be difficult to control him even with your power, milady… It would seem he has recovered the Clairvoyance powers of his prime. If he simply thought to do so, he could see through all of our movements."

An airborne-infecting vampire, capable of placing any living creature under her control simply by getting close to them. As long as the truth about her wasn't revealed to anyone, Linaris's superpower was invincible. From another perspective, Kuuro the Cautious, able to see through any secret, was this power's natural enemy.

With both hands tightly gripped together in her lap, Linaris mumbled. "Master Kuuro said…that he wouldn't try to interfere with us."

"That is a lie. He went along with Aureatia's operation, and I believe we should consider the fact that he still remains in Aureatia—suggesting that the Aureatia side still has something on him. Milady, your desire not to doubt an old friend…a comrade. I understand it very well. However, Kuuro is no longer part of Obsidian Eyes."

"..."

Kuuro was likely still a champion in Linaris's eyes, having never once stepped outside the organization herself. Much like there were some who still believed the First Party to be the strongest there ever was—and like how many citizens thought similarly of Rosclay the Absolute.

"Do not worry, milady. I will take responsibility and kill Kuuro. I cannot expose you to danger, no matter how small that possibility may be. I suspect, given Kuuro's character…it is not a thing, or information, that Aureatia is using to keep Kuuro in their clutches, but likely a person instead. In which case, I promise to sniff them out and bring them under our control."

"No."

Linaris stood up. The look she sent Frey's way was tinged with something different from criticism or reproach.

"Please, don't do that… For our sake."

Her eyes looked slightly scared, yet with firm conviction.

"Master Kuuro will not try to oppose us of his own volition. I feel simply learning this… Learning that he believes in us…means that Lena's negotiations with him were fruitful."

"We failed to kill him once before. There's nothing worse we could've done to sour his relationship with our organization."

"…Miss Frey. Have you ever seen Master Kuuro when he's angry?" "When he's…angry?"

She recalled Kuuro's face. His expression was always gloomy and sour.

Every look a scowl.

However, he was a man who was always indifferent, handling every job he was asked to handle. He never showed a glimpse of truly strong emotions, nor did he expose any deep-seated pain.

"Now that you mention it… I watched him for quite a long time, yet never once have I seen him angry."

"I myself have. Kuuro's anger doesn't come out when someone's trying to kill him. Given my dealings with Master Kuuro… I am convinced. The ones truly in danger...the ones who have gripped a blade barehanded…are the people holding something over his head—Aureatia."

"..."

As long as his eyes were waning, Aureatia had plenty of opportunities to make use of Kuuro at will. However, now that he had regained his eyes' full power…even that wasn't absolutely true.

"Miss Frey. We believe he has regained his Clairvoyance. Aureatia, at least, doesn't know that fact. I am sure they still believe they can maintain a tight grip on him."

"And eventually Aureatia will find him beyond their control—and self- destruct."

"…That's right."

Frey made no move to tread any further into Linaris's inner thoughts. She simply deliberated over what the girl was holding in her heart.

…Her reasoning that she should avoid decisive hostility toward Kuuro does indeed have some truth to it. Nevertheless… Milady is still unable to erase her fear of losing a comrade, after all.

Linaris's machinations, adhering to a thorough callousness toward their enemies and those who betrayed her trust, also invited danger from being unable to cut down those who were not.

To bring another era of warring chaos to the land. An age for Obsidian Eyes to live in. Thus, she needs to guide everyone there… She needs to ensure we all survive specifically to see this warring chaos. Milady's carried that contradiction within her this whole time… In which case, I cannot let her shoulder this responsibility.

Obsidian Eyes. An organization pulling scheming strings from the shadows, plotting the era's retrograde. Their core was concealed under many layers of secrets.

However, Kuuro the Cautious knew that said core was just one single girl.

…When the time comes…Kuuro will die by my hands.

The small room was tiny enough to faintly make out its features from the light of the lone candle.

It resembled a confessional room—and in fact seemed to have been one before being remodeled—with two chairs facing each other and a round table in the middle. It was all the furnishings the room had.

"…Regarding the Sixways Exhibition matter. The assembly appears intent on holding the matches as true duels."

"Really, now… That'll be rough."

The elderly priest sitting across from Kuze was named Maqure the Sky's Lake Surface. Putting aside his continued relationship with a man like Kuze, he was an intelligent and benevolent leader, deserving of respect and love.

"I wonder why they're going with a true duel in this day and age. It's a barbaric and outdated rule at this point, used for stuff like…a duel among

aristocrats or fighting over the monarchy back in ancient times."

"…That's probably all the more reason, I'd wager. To the people, the appearance of the Hero is a huge event on par with the True King's return in the green times. All the more reason to model it after something from that age, and it makes sense as a way to introduce the Hero's power in the people's presence, too."

"They must be out of their minds… Do they plan on making this Hero they've picked out from all these gathered champions turn around and murder them all?"

"I don't want to admit it, but… The citizenry probably want that, too. A large-scale true duel royal tournament like this hasn't been seen, nor will be seen, for several hundred years. It was an era of powerlessness before… The hearts of the people are starved for strength. The heart that desires champion bloodshed and the heart that desires to see the Hero claim victory over it all. They're both still the same heart."

Weapons, skill, Word Arts. The fights would substitute none of them, where nothing would be held back, where each combatant would put everything on the line in the match. Everything, including their life.

That was the agreement inherent in a true duel. There had indeed been time in this world were such a rite was necessary. However.

"…Hold on, now. What's going to happen if the Hero dies during one these matches? Their big debut would be flushed straight down the drain."

"You think they'll die? You think that the True Hero, the one who killed the True Demon King, would die?"

"Other people out there might assume that, but I…I don't feel the same way, honestly. Living people died. Everyone dies eventually."

"In that case, there's another way to think of things."

The elderly priest knew perfectly well that there wasn't anyone else who could hear them but lowered his voice anyway.

"The assembly hasn't found the Hero at all. They're not planning for the Hero to win out over anyone, but they are planning on making whoever ends up winning into the Hero."

"Nah, that couldn't be."

Kuze laughed it off, but he didn't have any grounds for his denial. Nor did he think that his agile mind could pull even with Maqure.

"Well, if that's the case, maybe I've got a chance of winning out in the end, huh?"

"…There's still time to call it off and withdraw your recommendation from the Order."

Kuze understood that this old priest was concerned about Kuze's safety.

Failure could result in death. It was clear from the start as well that, should he win and advance farther, he'd get even more tangled in the schemes and plots at play.

…However, assuming the Hero would be born out of this event, it was already clear to see how things would play out.

The New Principality of Lithia. The Old Kingdoms' loyalists. The Free City of Okafu… Right now, Aureatia was dismantling the organizations that posed a threat to the existing authority. The Order was next. Assistance from Aureatia was openly on the decline, and the populace's continued discontent aimed toward the Order clearly wasn't solely the result of disbelief in the Word-Maker.

The Hero—a true idol and ally of the people, in place of the Word-Maker who failed to rescue society from the threat of the True Demon King.

The fact that the Order was allowed to nominate candidates for the games might have simply been to show the Hero defeating the symbol of the Order for all the masses to see.

"I… I'm serious. I don't have any plans on losing. You know for yourself, Father. I have Nastique with me."

"Think about it carefully. Could you say the same thing when up against Rosclay the Absolute? Or if what Aureatia says is true, and the True Hero does actually exist?"

"Bweh-heh-heh... Fair enough, those guys are unmatched champions.

Definitely not anyone I could beat, that's for sure." Kuze laughed flippantly.

He needed to act like that, at least on the surface, or he wouldn't be able to continue on as the Order's cleaner.

Nor would he be able to remain peerless and invincible.

"But here's the question; are all of them peerless champions even while they're eating—or while they're sleeping? And their friends and family, they must be peerless champions, too, right? What about their family while sleeping? Their friends?"

It was Kuze alone who could sense Nastique's presence. The white angel of death had the authority to expunge any sort of being before her.

And most likely, Kuze was the only one for whom such a fighting method was possible.

"Besides… There's a chance that I've got a young disciple out there."

His angel didn't save anyone besides himself. Though he was unexpectedly given a chance to save Cunodey while making his rounds, Kuze had been unable to save his former teacher.

The massacre of Alimo Row was said have been caused by a monster from The Land of The End—however, Kuze knew the truth behind the incident.

In his notes, he had written the name that carried out that slaughter. Uhak the Silent.

Someone Kuze had yet to see—and another butcher of the Order like himself. "…I get the feeling I'll have a chance to see him in the Sixways Exhibition." "…Kuze."

"I don't even want to think about it… Just how many kids will be left out in the cold should the Order fall? If someone's gotta do it, then it's me, right? I'm invincible, after all."

The old priest hung his head for a few moments, giving up on the words he went to cast at Kuze.

Then finally, he spoke, as if forcing the words from his lips. "....... Kuze. Please... It's all up to you."

To stop them from losing any more of what meager salvation they had left. To prevent the start of a new age.

"Kill the Hero for us."

There were many forces that had begun making their moves in anticipation of the imperial competition. However, theirs was the most powerless and waning organization among them all.

As they were more than likely to be washed away in the colossal current of the new age on the horizon…they needed to make some move of their own. In order to keep their compatriots alive in the world ahead.

The Order was trying to put its final plan into action.