Ch. 281

Before Ash could even notice something was off about me, we both looked up the mountain path at the same time.

Something suspicious was coming.

Drag, drag, drag.

Rovenin, who had gone on ahead, was coming down the narrow mountain path, dragging a large bear. Even from a distance, the bear was clearly dead.

“No way he got that in such a short time….”

My voice finally came back. Dammit, this always happens whenever I try to talk about my past life. I cleared my throat lightly—now perfectly fine.

“Young Master…? I’m pretty sure I told you not to kill it….”

Five minutes ago, at that.

“It attacked first.”

“Which ear did my words go into…?”

“My ears, I suppose.”

I could tell without even reading his mind that Rovenin must have played a huge part in helping Ash cultivate his patience.

If it were me, I would’ve used my power to frame that bastard and have him executed long ago.

Ash is just too nice.

The bear seemed to have been killed with a single stab between the eyes, since there were no other visible wounds.

Just like that, what was probably the strongest creature in this area had become the perfect specimen to be sold for its fur.

“I sensed a presence, so I went to check, and it had a cub.”

“……So?”

“I spared the cub.”

That was the exact expression of a parent whose child had gone astray.

How dare Rovenin make Ash sad! I’m the only one who gets to torment Ash! Both mentally and physically!

“Hey! Is this the time to be looking for praise!”

“What’s the problem? I dealt with it quickly, so isn’t that good enough?”

“Are you really asking because you don’t… you are. Are you even human! Killing it when it had a cub! Even I wouldn’t do something like that!”

[Really?]

I ignored Rai’s question, who was pretending to be my conscience.

“How is a cub supposed to survive in the wild without its mother!”

“I see. Should I have killed the cub as well?”

“……Can you even function in daily life? If it has a cub, you usually don’t kill it, right? That’s common sense!”

“When I’m being attacked, what does it matter whether it’s a mother or not.”

“This is so frustrating… It attacked you, a dangerous-looking guy, because it had a cub! Don’t you think? Think!”

I, too, have a history of killing an animal with a cub. But that was a mistake, and I picked up the cubs, named them Papipopu, and even found someone to raise them.

So I’m better than Rovenin.

If you want to know why Ash is so worried about my sense of morality, one look at the guy in front of me makes it clear.

He’s had to see this kind of guy every day!

“Why should I have to care about a bear cub?”

“Because you’re a beast’s cub, you little shit.”

“……Was that an insult.”

“You can’t tell by hearing it?”

Don’t realize it so late.

Well, for a guy who doesn’t hesitate to kill people, a mother bear with her cub must be nothing.

And me, openly insulting him.

“Young Master, put away your sword.”

“This woman first….”

“Stop with the childish talk! I’ve already given you over a hundred reasons why you must not harm her! Geenie, you stop too. If the Young Master was someone who understood such things, my life wouldn’t be this hard.”

Ash’s efforts to save the bear had come to nothing, and I, worried I might be treated as being on the same level as Rovenin, hurriedly added.

“Ash! I’m emphasizing this, but I’m different from that bastard, okay? Huh? There’s a big difference between fifty steps and a hundred. It’s twice the difference!”

“Stop. Let’s just stop. It’s all my fault. I shouldn’t have brought you two….”

“I’m telling you, we’re different!”

“Young Master? Take the bear’s carcass and give it to the villagers. If we leave it here, the smell of meat will attract other predators.”

Rovenin blinked once to show he understood, then headed off on his own again.

For that bastard, even a nod counted as a proper answer.

I watched him haul the carcass away and grumbled under my breath.

“I know you two are close, but isn’t that guy being too rude to you? You’re an imperial prince, and a candidate for crown prince at that!”

[I don’t think that’s something for you to say, Master.]

[When I do it, it’s romance!]

I don’t accept rebuttals.

“He’s not like that in the palace. He maintains a minimum of courtesy in front of others. It’s probably because it’s just us here….”

“Hmph, still! If you collected all the acts of lèse-majesté that guy has committed, you could probably have him executed, you know? Just from what I’ve seen….”

“Geenie? I think… the Young Master… seems to consider you trustworthy.”

What’s this all of a sudden?

When I looked at him with a cocked eyebrow, Ash wore a complicated smile. Judging by his mouth, it was clearly relief, but his eyes weren’t smiling.

“That’s a real relief.”

“……He trusts me? In what way?”

“Just like before, he left just the two of us alone again, didn’t he?”

Is that how it works?

I had no memory of ever showing a trustworthy side.

Participating in a Black Market auction, buying a slave, threatening that slave with freedom as leverage, commissioning a mass murder… Rovenin was even among the targets of the hit.

Ah! Was it because I didn’t split the cruise ship in half and sink it?

That was certainly mature of me, even if I do say so myself.

“Wait, then… does that mean he likes me or… something….”

“There’s no way.”

“I almost got goosebumps.”

“It seems he’s judged that you’re not someone who would bring harm to me.”

“Hmm, a beast’s instinct?”

“……He’s the eldest son of a ducal family. Even if he looks like that….”

Come to think of it, he has been growling at me less lately. The number of times he’s drawn his sword has also decreased… Ash’s hidden efforts were probably behind it.

I liked that Ash would just smile at me whenever I stared at him, even if he didn’t know why.

I’m curious what those hundred reasons he supposedly drilled into Rovenin about not harming me were.

“Geenie? Let’s head down now.”

“What about the bear cubs?”

“We have no choice but to leave them to the course of nature. Besides, it will be safer for them if we disappear.”

“That’s true… But Ash?”

“What is it?”

“Bear meat, is it good…? What’s it like, is it edible?”

I’ve never had it, so I can be curious, can’t I?

Meat was the food I loved most in this world.

Partly because there wasn’t much else that was tasty.

“……Geenie.”

“No, what’s pitiful is pitiful, but it’s already been caught! The villagers are going to butcher it, right? The meat is innocent, isn’t it?”

[Will there ever be a day when Ash isn’t pitiful?]

Rovenin was the one who killed the bear, so why are you looking at me like that?

When you look at the one you love, do it with a little more affection!

—

We decided to split into two groups.

Ash and I would return to the capital, while Rovenin would go with Zekarda to find the slave trader’s headquarters.

Zekarda guaranteed it wouldn’t take very long.

Before parting with Zekarda, I made one thing clear.

“You’re not going to run, are you?”

“A foolish question. We know honor. It is only natural to keep a promise.”

“Did you just call me foolish?”

“I will do as I said and take you to the village. Only humans lie so easily.”

“……I was just going to tell you to watch your life if you plan on running. I read the manual, and it said that if you’re separated from the person with the master’s ring for more than three days, poison is released from the suppression tool.”

I said it in a very nonchalant tone.

As expected, Zekarda’s expression crumbled, as if he had no idea.

“Is that… true?”

“A foolish question! It’s true. Humans are wicked. Of course there’s a device prepared in case a slave runs away.”

“I will swear to the gods, so how about you release me now….”

“Denied.”

What does swearing to the gods have to do with me?

I acknowledged the existence of gods, but believing in them was a separate issue.

“Human, you don’t trust me?”

“Do you trust me?”

“No.”

Zekarda gave up faster than he had brought it up.

And even though he looked rather pitiful, that wasn’t enough to sway my conscience.

After all, I was a body that had been thoroughly trained by Ash’s conscience attacks.

“Anyway, it means you have to finish this and come back within three days. Think you can do it? If things don’t go well, you’d better come to me. If you want to live out your natural lifespan.”

“I feel like a hunting dog.”

The suppression tool around his neck did make it seem that way.

I didn’t bother denying it, and after motioning for Zekarda to bring his ear closer, I whispered affectionately.

“There’s a way to be freed quickly, you know?”

“You mean that?”

“When you’re alone with that guy… look for an opportunity… you know?”

Zekarda and I looked in the same direction. At the end of our gaze was Rovenin, getting lectured about something again by Ash.

“I will try. But it won’t be easy.”

“Of course. It would hurt my pride if it were easy. I’d like to go myself, but… I have other things to do. It’s a pain, too. If I go, Ash will go too. Then nothing will get done, right? It’s better to go separately.”

I was, so to speak, the bait.

Bait to prevent Ash from following Zekarda and interfering with the killing of the slave traders.

“Things to do?”

“I went to the Black Market to buy a certain mirror. I have to try using it.”

“You mean the Veiled Mirror.”

“Huh? How do you know?”

“How could I not? The humans have been making such a fuss about selling it. I don’t know what you want to see through it, but… ancient artifacts always exact a price for their use. You’d better be careful.”

Coming from a Dark Elf, of all races, the warning sounded quite eerie.

Very little was known about the Dark Elves, but there was one famous story about them.

“They say your clan’s prophecies are very harsh… is that true? That they’ve never been wrong, and they always make unhappy prophecies, so all the races feared them. ‘The prophecies of the Dark Elves were bloodcurdling.’ In human books, you guys are described as being very gruesome.”

“The god we serve is the god of prophecy and the god of truth. It is said there is nothing that cannot be seen by his eyes. There is no one who does not fear the unavoidable truth.”

Cloud of Clairvoyance. A god not served by humans.

That god’s other name was the ‘God of Neutrality.’

Because he was based on equality, he had aspects that didn’t fit with this era, and that god was classified as not being a holy god, so by human standards… he was considered an evil god.

Supposedly because the main god had referred to Cloud as ‘one who does not follow me.’

“……If he’s so powerful, shouldn’t he have prophesied your and Daria’s fate? If he had warned you, you would have been careful.”

“Prophecy is the future, and the future is fate. Is there anyone who lives knowing their fate? It is the way of things to live without knowing. That is the will of the god, and we merely follow.”

“I get what you’re saying, but… you’re famous as a clan of prophets because you do make prophecies, right?”

“Your term, ‘clan of prophets,’ is incorrect. In any given era, only one person can hear the voice of the god—only one among us who is born as a ‘prophet.’ Not just anyone can hear it. And prophecies are given strictly only when necessary.”

Listening to him, I started to think that I might know more about Dark Elves than any other human alive.

And suddenly, I became interested.

Because I might be able to meet in person the greatest prophet acknowledged by history, one so starkly honest as to inspire fear.