Volume 4

Chapter 4: Outside the Realm of Human

Miller looked to Luke . “Are you familiar with Duke Lieral Lieutolu?”

“I’ve heard the name, but… you’re saying that he’s the one who fired magic without a magic circle?”

Miller nodded . “He easily turned the tables on twenty soldiers attacking him at once . He’d used Lightning Flash then without a magic circle or an incantation . He just said the name of the spell and it took care of all twenty-one of our magic circles . ”

Luke’s eyes widened . “That’s impossible . ”

Miller nodded again . “Yeah . It’s impossible . But you saw it too, right?”

“Yes . We’ve found ourselves in a bit of a pinch, haven’t we… is he human?”

“He himself said that he’s not . ”

“Uwah, so he’s not human . Then what is he?”

Miller obviously didn’t know the answer to that . All he knew was that Lieral Lieutolu had a different air about him .

He was a man whose name went down in history as a genius in the field of magic research . But was it really possible for him to have that much power through magic research alone?

It gave him the same feeling as whatever lurked on Eris land . It had made two hundred elites disappear without sound nor a fuss . The Eris family was just supposed to use swords, but was that really the case?

“……”

No, even if that was all done with a sword, it was still far past what a human could do . It was the work of someone who had surpa.s.sed their humanity .

Luke Stokkart and Claugh Klom were far more able than the average human, but even then, it was on a scale entirely different from these things . Luke and Claugh were decidedly human .

“…Roland’s… darkness,” Miller whispered, repeating the words Lieral had said that day .

Luke looked confused . “Darkness?”

Miller didn’t answer . He didn’t know how to answer . Because there was no reason for Luke to know about the darkness permeating their country and the monsters who ran rampant within it .

Even so, he smiled . It clashed somewhat with his frown lines . “So that incomprehensible thing has finally decided to appear before me again,” he whispered .

He’d waited eleven years for this .

He was somewhere that his father had never reached now, in a place he’d never touched .

“I’m different . ”

He’d take a step into that darkness that no one else knew about .

“Luke . ”

“What is it?”

“Start working on reforming this country . Soon…” 

“…Huh? But—”

“Our first b.u.mp in the road is here . Someone else has been laying groundwork too . So we’ll take their road . The gears of this story are about to start moving…”

Miller stood .

“…So how about our gears move with them?”

Miller looked to the eldest Eris daughter, who sat restrained in the corner .

“I’ll start by torturing this woman for information on the Eris family,” Miller said . “You’ll—”

“Go help Sir Sion?”

“Yeah . It seems like he’s already involved with the other plan . We can use him . ”

“But he might already be dead,” Luke said .

“Save him . ”

“Whaaa . Don’t be ridiculous . You’re telling me that even though you already know how strong Lieral Lieutolu is?” Luke asked .

“Yeah . ”

“I might die fighting a monster like that, you know?”

“Do something so you don’t die,” Miller said .  

“Wooow, you’re horrible,” Luke said, but turned to go fight that monster without hesitation .

Miller watched his subordinate’s relaxed, smiling face as he left . “You’re plenty enough of a monster yourself to make it work,” he said .

Luke didn’t look too happy with that . He scrunched up his face . “You make it sound like it’s someone else’s problem . ”

“Haha . Don’t die . ”

“I wonder if I will . Well, I’ll try not to . ”

With that, Luke left .

Miller looked back to the corner of the room, to that inhumanly beautiful girl .

Inhuman . Not looking human . Absolutely not human .

Those words overflowed from this strange country .

“…Show me this inhuman plan of yours, will you?”

Pa.s.sing through the deep, deep darkness… meant pa.s.sing through countless pointless dreams .

“……”

He slowly regained consciousness . When he did he heard a man’s voice from far away .

 “…You’re plenty enough of a monster yourself…”  

You make it sound like it’s someone else’s problem .

Don’t die .

I wonder if I will . Well, I’ll try not to .

She didn’t know what they were talking about . But she didn’t really care either .

What she did care about was… 

“……”

She opened her eyes a bit . She had golden-blonde hair and clear blue eyes that no emotion pa.s.sed through .

She had an emotionless but handsome face, much like a doll’s .

Ferris Eris’ eyes moved across the room to a.s.sess the situation she’d found herself in .

She was in a small room . One other person was present . One enemy .

There had originally been two, but one left .

The only other things here were a desk and file cabinet .

There was also a barred window above her . Her arms were tied up to it with chains .

She’d better deal with the chains . She wiggled her wrists, cracking her joints to try to give them enough leeway to slip out… 

“……”

But she was unsuccessful .

Someone had intentionally tied the chains in a way that she couldn’t escape them by dislocating her wrists . So she decided to change her approach .

She focused her power in her fingertips, waving them two, three times . Then she straightened her hands out… 

“……”

“…Show me this inhuman plan of yours, will you?” Her enemy asked and looked at her .

Ferris looked up at him . He didn’t look like he was in a very good mood .

“……”

She didn’t say anything .

“…You’re awake,” he said . “I’m Captain Rahel Miller . You’re Ferris Eris, right?”

She didn’t say anything .

She just didn’t care enough to .

She didn’t have any interest at all in other people . So she went back to trying to escape .

“It’s impossible to get out of those,” Miller said . “Not even if you dislocate your wrists . Can you please talk to m—”

Ferris dislocated her wrists again, then twisted them around as she strengthened her hands again, then sliced them against what was binding her . It cut through with ease .

Now there was nothing left to hold her down . She shook the chains off, then put her wrists back in place and stood .

“…Oh, I guess I’m the fool here,” Miller said .  

Ferris didn’t respond . She looked around, searching for an exit . If there were a sword here he should slice through the bars on the window and leave through there, but it didn’t look like this room’s owner was a swordsman . So she should just leave through the door .

She didn’t know who the man was, but he’d chained her up . So he was probably an enemy .

“…An enemy, is it . ” Ferris turned to face the man for the first time . “Who are you? Why did you bind me? What happened to Sion?” She asked .

Then she tried to think about her situation again .

She’d been fighting with a guy called Claugh earlier, but her memory stopped halfway through that encounter . Someone had probably knocked her out, brought her here, and chained her up .

“…So I lost,” she whispered . “My brother will hit me again for this . ”

She said it emotionlessly .

“Ah, we’d like to know a bit about your brother… mind telling us?” Miller asked .

“Why do you want me to tell you about that?”

“I’ll torture you if you won’t talk . ”

“Haha . ”

“Is that really so funny that you need to laugh?”

“It is funny . Do you really think you can do anything to me?”

The man shrugged . “Who knows . I mean, you could face off against Claugh, so yeah, I probably can’t do much of anything . ”

“By Claugh, you mean the redhead?”

“Yeah . ”

“Then I’m stronger . ”

“Yeah . ”

“Then… then it’s impossible for you to do anything to me,” Ferris said and nodded to herself . “Then don’t get in my way . You’re an eyesore . ”

“An eyesore . ”

“Yeah . ”

“Then I won’t get in your way,” he said and opened the door with ease .

Ferris nodded and walked towards it .

“Let’s try another line of questioning then,” he said from her side . “I’ll kill your precious friends if you don’t answer my questions . ”

“Friends? Who? I have no friends . ”

“Sion . Sion Astal . He’s your friend, right?”

“Mm? He is?”

“Am I wrong? I a.s.sumed you were since you went out of your way to protect him . ”

Her expression became troubled . But the man in front of her probably couldn’t tell . Expressions weren’t her strong point .

“He’s just a dango delivery boy,” Ferris said . “There are many others out there to take his place if he dies . ” Then she began to walk again .

“You’re pretty cold . Like ice . ”

Ferris ignored him . She headed into the hallway .

“I’m really going to kill Sion, you know . ”

“……”

“His head comes off when I make the signal . I think it’s best if you just do as I say . ”

Ferris turned around and smiled . “If that’s what you want to do, then fine . But you can’t kill Sion . ”

Miller smiled . “I can . ”

“You can’t . Because Sion’s been possessed by my brother . So…”

Her words faded, and her expression took a sad hue .

She’d meant to say that he’s already gone through the worst of it and no one could lay a hand on him anymore, but she stopped .

“……”

Then she began to walk again .

The man didn’t follow .

The soldiers guarding the building stared at her for her beauty, but no one attacked .

Then she heard a voice from behind .

“…So Sion Astal’s been possessed by the swordsman clan, has he? That’s more than enough to go off of . It’s what I’d meant to ask you about . ”