18 2

Whatever had been filling Jessie moved inside Merry. If nothing had been displaced by it, there would be no balance. No matter how you looked at it, that wouldn’t have made sense.
Basically, whatever was supposed to happen happened, and Merry came back to life.
Was that how Haruhiro had interpreted it at the time? Or rather, was it the only way he could have interpreted it? Had he stopped thinking because any explanation was going to feel forced? He might have.
“That was the start of it...”
Haruhiro looked up. He’d never been so aware of the weight of his own head as he was now. He turned his gaze to the right, where his comrades were.
Ranta shifted his mask aside, frowning at Haruhiro. Kuzaku looked worried, or maybe just bewildered. Yume was putting a supporting hand on Merry’s back as Merry hung her head.
Setora had her arms crossed and her chin up, her silent gaze fixed on Haruhiro.
“The dead don’t come back.”
That was what Setora had said to him that day. Even if Merry started breathing again, it wouldn’t be the sort of revival he was hoping for.
Merry.
I thought it would be all right.
Did I try to believe because I wanted to think it would be?
“The woman who comes back may be a different person from the one who died.”
Setora had been persuasive. She was a necromancer from the Hidden Village, after all. The necromancers had given birth to the golem in their attempts to bring back the dead. They had tried to overcome death through repeated trial and error, but were never able to reach that goal. Using the parts of dead bodies as material, they’d created terrifyingly loyal servants. That was the best they could do.
“I hope she’s not some unknown monster, at least.” She’s not.
When she came back, Merry was still Merry. Not some monster.
Absolutely not.
“She’s not... Right...?”
But that was the start of it.
Merry was unquestionably Merry. But there were some things that were strange.
Jessie Land had been attacked by a pack of vooloos, wolf-like creatures the size of bears. The team had made it through that somehow. The problem was what happened next.
There was a rumbling, like an earthquake, and a hill came at them.
Obviously, that wasn’t what actually happened. It wasn’t really a hill. It was a mass of giant black caterpillar-like creatures.
Was that a natural phenomenon? Was that just the kind of creatures they were? Whatever the case, Haruhiro had never seen or heard of anything like them.
But Merry knew what the mass was.
He felt like she had called it Sekaishu.
Then there was the magic too. Right. Merry had used magic. An Arve Magic spell called Blaze Cliff. But she said it wouldn’t be enough to eliminate the Sekaishu.
It was probably Setora who asked the question. “What is Sekaishu?” “I don’t know,” Merry had answered. It was a word she’d said herself, yet she claimed not to know.
Merry shouldn’t have been able to use Arve Magic, but she had. Blaze Cliff. Strangely, the former hunter Jessie had shown them the same spell. Strangely?
Was it really a coincidence?
Leaving Jessie Land, they’d headed for the sea. It was on the way there that he’d had a chance to talk with Merry alone.
“There must be something wrong with me. I’m making everyone worry. I know that.”
Merry understood something was wrong inside her. That she must have changed. If she was messed up, she said, she wanted him to tell her. She also said she wanted him to stop her.
“—I’m here. And yet I don’t know. It’s not always, but there are times I just don’t know. The wind is strong, and I feel like I’m going to be blown away. Where am I? Someone tell me. I—”
When they came back from Parano, the master of the Forbidden Tower probably gave Haruhiro and the others a drug of some sort to make them lose their memories. Haruhiro had forgotten all this until just now.
For some reason, it was different for Merry. She said she didn’t really know what happened in Parano. Everything else, she remembered. Merry was different from the rest of them.
Haruhiro put a hand on the ground for leverage, and stood up.
The rain was closer to sleet now. It was pretty cold. Feeling a chill, Haruhiro shuddered.
Let’s go home. Not that I know where home is. For now, anywhere that gets us out of the wind and rain will do.
“Merry.”
He called her name, but she didn’t raise her eyes. She was pressing herself against Yume, looking frightened. Who was she afraid of?
What intimidated her? Was she looking to Yume for protection? Yume will defend me. Maybe that’s what she was thinking.
Would Merry really think that? If she was the Merry that Haruhiro knew? Besides, why wasn’t she answering him? Haruhiro had called her name. Would it kill her to say something in response? Or did she have some reason she couldn’t?
“Are you Jessie?”
When Haruhiro asked that, she shuddered, still hanging her head. She made no attempt to look up.
Her shoulders rose and fell as she took a breath. The motion repeated, again and again.
“Merry-chan...?” Yume asked, leaning in to look closer at her face. Still, the woman did not respond.
Her breathing grew faster, shallower, with each breath. Yume tried to rub her back, but she brushed Yume’s hand aside. Then she went further and pushed Yume’s entire body away from her.
“Wha—” Ranta instinctively put himself between Yume and the woman.
“N-No...! No...!”
The woman shook her head, making a mess of her hair.
“Ahhhh!”
Her voice was almost a scream. No, it was a scream.
“Ngahhhh!”
Was she hurting somewhere? Was she in pain? The woman was squirming.
“No...! No, no, no, no, no, no...! I’m...!”
If she was suffering, it was because of Haruhiro. The woman was Merry. She looked just like her, after all. And nobody else. And yet, what had Haruhiro called her?
He’d called her Jessie.
Was he trying to say that she was that mysterious man? She couldn’t be.
“Merry! I’m sorry, Merry!”
That day, when the two of them talked. That night, when she revealed her insecurities to him. Haruhiro had held Merry tight. Merry hadn’t rejected him. What was it she’d said?
“I’ve always wanted you to do this.”
He remembered. That was what Merry had said to him.
That had been Merry. And this woman here now, writhing in front of them, was also Merry. Merry hadn’t been looking for Yume to defend her. Merry realized something was wrong with her, but she couldn’t do anything about it herself, so she’d clung to Yume without meaning to. Basically, the same as that night. Merry trusted Haruhiro and Yume as comrades. That was why Merry had relied on them. And what had he gone and said to her?
Haruhiro tried to rush to Merry’s side. That was when it happened.
Merry’s gaze was wrenched up toward the heavens. It was such a sudden jerking motion that you could almost hear it. Instantly, her eyes rolled into the back of her head. Her mouth fell open and a groan escaped it. This wasn’t something happening of her own will. No, it looked more like some external force was doing it to her. Not that someone had grabbed Merry’s head and pulled it back. There was nothing like that happening.
“Merry...?”
“No.”
That was Merry’s voice. At least that part was the same.
But she was different.
“He’s not here.” Her chin still raised, only Merry’s eyes moved to look down at Haruhiro. “To be more precise, he’s lost the ability to perceive himself. As such, he can no longer come out.”
Jessie? Was the “he” she was talking about Jessie? Haruhiro had brought it up. He’d suggested that while she looked like Merry, she might really be Jessie. Merry had denied it. No, that wasn’t quite right.
She wasn’t Merry.
She no longer had any intention of hiding that she wasn’t. Everything, the way she spoke, the way she stood, the way she moved, it was all different from Merry. Anyone who knew her even a little could tell the difference. That was how big the gap was.
“I think this goes without saying, but...” the woman said, “it’s wrong of you to blame her for this. She is not the one who made the decision.” Her. She.
“Try saying it in a way we can understand...” Ranta had Yume back away, also taking a half-step back himself. “What’re you even talking about?”
She glanced at Ranta. Inclining her head slightly, as if nodding, she directed a distinctive gaze toward him. It wasn’t a gesture Merry would ever have used.
“I am saying she is not responsible for this in the slightest. It was not she herself who roused her from the fate of those who die. Nor was it I who chose her.”
“The fate of...those who die?” Ranta bit his lip. “You’re telling me she bit the big one? Merry...died? But she’s alive... Or am I wrong? You’re not Merry, are you? So, what’s going on is,
there’s...something else inside Merry—you, the one that’s talking to us right now... Is that it...?”
“You should show her compassion.”
This thing that was clearly not Merry spoke of her in the third person, using Merry’s face and voice.
“You should not oppress her, hurt her, or force her into isolation. Because none of this is her fault. As things stand, she still has her memories, her will, the things that make up her personal identity. However, you would do well not to assume those will continue to exist indefinitely regardless of the conditions she is placed in. From what I have observed, the sense of self possessed by creatures of your kind, despite some individual variance, is not particularly stable. In fact, it is incredibly fragile and prone to collapsing.”
“Like I asked!” Ranta shouted at her. “What the hell are you, the one that’s rambling on at us?! Before you go on talking like you’re better than us, give us your damn name!”
“I have no name.”
“Don’t try to dodge the question!”
“No.” Not-Merry shook her head gently. “I have no name. Only a thing I am called.”
“Then tell us what that is!”
“I am that which frees the dying from—” Not-Merry began to say, then seemed to stumble a little, as if feeling faint. She held her head and lowered her eyes. “It seems she wants to come out... She is not yet ready to accept it...”
Before she even finished speaking, Not-Merry began to change. Haruhiro could tell. She let out an audible gulp. Her eyes opened and she stared into space.
“Merry...?”
When he called her name, she looked at Haruhiro, then immediately away. She hunched over, clutching the base of her neck with both hands and taking shallow breaths.
“Merry-chan...” Yume tried to approach her.
“Stay away!” she screamed.
It’s Merry. Haruhiro was sure of it.
“Stay away from me... Please...” Merry’s back.
Merry had died once, and now she had someone inside who wasn’t her. Perhaps multiple someones. Merry was inside Merry too. But the one rejecting Haruhiro and the others wasn’t one of those NotMerrys, it was Merry herself.



5. Paper-Thin Stubbornness
Haruhiro and the group had decided to return to Alterna. When he’d said, “Let’s head back for now,” Merry had nodded. She followed behind them, keeping her distance. That’s good, at least, was something Haruhiro couldn’t bring himself to think. There’s nothing good about this. Not one thing.
They entered Alterna through the north gate. The soldiers were pretty suspicious, but they let the party through.
Neal was waiting for them in front of Tenboro Tower.
“What were you people doing outside?”
Haruhiro told him they were visiting graves.
“Visiting graves, in weather like this?” Neal said, incredulous.
“Because the weather’s like this.”
Haruhiro knew he was bullshitting. He was almost frantic. Obviously, he shouldn’t have been letting himself lose his cool. But even though he knew that, it was hard to stay in control, given the circumstances.
“Commander’s calling for you,” Neal said.
“For whom?” Haruhiro asked in a nonchalant tone.
“You.”
“Just me?”
“Yeah.”
“Do you like being his errand boy?”
“Huh?” Neal’s face flushed red with anger. Haruhiro clapped him on the shoulder.
“Where do I need to go?”
“The great hall,” Neal answered, shaking off Haruhiro’s hand. “You’d better not be looking down on me...”
Haruhiro went into Tenboro Tower without bothering to respond. That wasn’t very mature of me, he thought. Not that acting mature was going to fix any of his problems. What would fix them? Honestly, he couldn’t even imagine.
Haruhiro sent Ranta and the rest back to their room before heading to the great hall on the second floor. Jin Mogis sat pompously on a chair atop a platform. In addition to Mogis, there were five black cloaks in the great hall. One of them was General Thomas Margo, who had been a regular black cloak before his promotion. He wasn’t especially fat, but he had pudgy cheeks, and his hairline formed an M-shape that looked like he shaved it that way. Also, his voice was weirdly high. He wasn’t entirely incompetent, though the jury was still out on how skilled he actually was. The one thing that was certain was his loyalty to Mogis.
“The dwarves of the Kurogane Mountain Range are calling for us to send reinforcements,” Mogis said, not raising his voice. “Their envoy is a human who says he was a resident of Alterna. It seems you’re well acquainted with this Itsukushima fellow.”
“Please, let him out of prison.” Haruhiro almost added “right now,” but managed to stop himself. Maybe his self-control was starting to come back.
Mogis ignored Haruhiro’s comment. “Do you believe the dwarves are trustworthy?”
Haruhiro cocked his head to the side. “I don’t know any of them, so I couldn’t say.”
“You spoke to Itsukushima.”
“Yeah, but only a little.”
“He says that the dwarves of the Kurogane Mountain Range have fielded a new weapon. You’ve heard, yes?”
“Vaguely.”
“I’d like to learn what it really is.”
Mogis tapped the armrest of his chair two, three times with his left index finger. That finger was adorned with a ring. The accessory wasn’t small, but it wasn’t that large either. Its head was made of gold and held a blue stone—a bright whitish blue, with some shapes just under its surface: two petals, floating in the brilliant light-blue gem.
Two.
Haruhiro feigned indifference as he looked away. He slowly exhaled through his nose.
He was sure of it. There were only two petals. Two shimmering petals on the stone. Weird.
There were three before.
At least, I think so. Could I be misremembering?
The last time he’d gotten a proper look at the ring, which they believed was a relic, Haruhiro had still been missing his memories.
Not anymore. They had come back to him just a little while ago. Everything, probably. That had to be why. His mental timeline was a mess. He had to think hard to distinguish reality from things he’d imagined.
That ring’s a relic. That much I’m sure of.
Jin Mogis had used the power of that relic to curb stomp the party. He hadn’t had it when they first met him. This was just an educated guess, but he’d likely gotten it from the master of the Forbidden Tower.
There were three petals in the gemstone...I think.
Now there’s two.
It’s dropped to two.
There’s one less.
What’s going on here? What does it mean?
“Itsukushima won’t talk about the dwarves’ new weapon.” That was why he’d been jailed, Mogis explained. “Would you people be able to get something out of him? I’d like to settle this as peaceably as I can and keep sacrifices to a minimum. I mean that sincerely.”
If Itsukushima wouldn’t talk, he’d be injured, tortured, or possibly even killed. So they should go make him spill his guts. That was likely what Mogis was trying to imply.
“I’ll try talking to him...” It was the only answer Haruhiro could give.
Smiling faintly, Mogis told Haruhiro, “You may go.”
If Haruhiro were to say being dismissed like that didn’t rub him the wrong way, he’d be lying. Does he think he’s a king or something?
There was no choice. Haruhiro explained the situation to his comrades and headed down to the dungeon with Yume. A black cloak guard and Neal the scout were waiting for them by the cell. There to keep an eye on them, no doubt.
When Haruhiro explained why they were there, Itsukushima looked like he felt a little awkward about it.
“Of course it’s about that, huh? I shouldn’t’ve said anything about the dwarves having a new weapon. When I got carried away and let that slip, I could see the light in Jin Mogis’s eyes change. I knew I’d messed up.”
“He must have had all kinds of questions for you. And you didn’t give him anything.”
“Call me a contrarian, but the thought of having to tell him turns my stomach.”
“Nuhhh?” Yume cocked her head to the side. “Master, y’know, your stomach’s real hairy, but it’s always been straight up and down. What’s it look like when it’s turned?”
“N-No, that’s not what that saying means. And you don’t need to mention my hair...”
Itsukushima seemed embarrassed. Haruhiro couldn’t have cared less.
“You haven’t given us any details about this new weapon either, right?” Haruhiro said with a glance at Neal, who was smirking a short distance away. “Do you think you could, please?”
Itsukushima brought his face closer to the bars. Haruhiro did likewise. Yume had hers pressed right against them.
“You know what that piece of shit is trying to do, right?” Itsukushima said in a hushed voice. “He must be planning to negotiate with the iron king. ‘If you want our help, give me your treasure.’ That kind of thing.”
Haruhiro nodded. He didn’t know what the new weapon was, but if it was able to hold back the Southern Expedition, Jin Mogis was going to want it.
“Are they going to be willing to strike a deal?”
“Who knows? Not me.”
From the sound of it, it was possible they might turn over the new weapon, which meant it wasn’t something they only had one of, and it wasn’t immovable either.
“This is just a possibility, but...” Haruhiro let Itsukushima in on something that had just crossed his mind. “Mogis may try to switch to a different negotiating partner.”
“Hmm,” Itsukushima said, thinking. “If he can’t strike a deal with the iron king, he’ll talk to the enemy, you mean? I don’t see how he’d be able to. Not with orcs and the undead...”
“There’s humans too,” Yume interjected. “’Cause they’ve got Forgan with them.”
Itsukushima frowned.
“I see... So I’m bait, then, huh?”
“What are you talkin’ about?” Yume asked, pursing her lips. Itsukushima turned to Yume. His gaze was endlessly gentle when he looked at her.
“Because I’m an envoy of the iron king. If he hands me over to the enemy, that will at least get him to the negotiating table.”
“Yume’s not gonna be lettin’ him do that, though, okay?”
Yume put her fingers through the gaps in the bars. Itsukushima touched them, seeming a little hesitant.
“Don’t worry about me.”
“Not worryin’s not an option. ’Cause you’re Yume’s master, okay?”
“Yeah...”
Had Itsukushima accepted that whatever happened to him was going to happen, and there was nothing he could do about it, so he’d deal with it when the time came? Whether or not that was the case, he clearly couldn’t stomach the idea of caving in to a man like Mogis. Was that making him act stubborn?
“You should have kept quiet about the new weapon, huh?” When Haruhiro said that, Itsukushima frowned.
“I’ll acknowledge that. It was a mistake. This was always going to be too complex a task for someone like me who barely ever interacts with other people.”
“You were praising the iron king before, right?”
“What are you getting at?”
Itsukushima had been given this important job because he had the iron king’s trust. And yet he’d carelessly let word of the new weapon slip, and was on the verge of failing in his task. He’d done the king a great disservice. Was he thinking he couldn’t possibly go back after this? That was why he couldn’t obey Jin Mogis. He wanted to resist, no matter what.
“The way things are going, it looks like the only way we’ll be able to rescue you is to kill or maim those guys over there and then escape from Alterna. It’s going to be pretty hard to get the Volunteer Soldier Corps to take us in after we do that. They’ve got their own reasons for cooperating with the Frontier Army, after all. It’s the same for us. One of our comrades has been taken hostage, so we’re not exactly sticking around here because we want to. We just don’t have a plan for saving her yet.”
Itsukushima broke eye contact.
“Forget about me.”
Yume wasted no time in wrapping her fingers tightly around his.
“That’s not happenin’.”
“Yume...” Itsukushima started to say something. But the words didn’t come out.
“No matter what happens, Yume isn’t going to abandon you,” Haruhiro said as plainly as he could. It was pretty embarrassing, stating the obvious like this. “What Yume decides goes for all of us. If you keep acting stubborn, I think this scenario is going to play out like I just told you.”
“You’re saying I’m being stubborn?”
“I’m not wrong, am I?”
Yume nodded in agreement. “Master can be real bullheaded, y’know?”
“R-Really...?” It seemed Itsukushima couldn’t talk back to Yume. “Okay, maybe you’re right. There’s nothing cool about being stubborn. I messed up. I wanted to play it off somehow, cancel out my failure that way.”
“Wow, Master. It ain’t easy, ownin’ your missed takes like that, y’know?”
“Owning up to my mistakes, you mean...” Even as he corrected her mistake, Itsukushima was looking at Yume with an expression that said, Aww, she’s so cute; she can’t help it. But he moved on, possibly because Haruhiro was there.
“Anyway, I get it,” Itsukushima said, clearing his throat and putting on a serious expression. “I’ll tell you about the new weapon. But it’s not like I’ve used one myself, and I only know roughly how many the dwarves have.”
“For reference, what is the new weapon?” “Guns,” Itsukushima revealed.
“Guns,” Haruhiro parroted back at him.
Yume blinked. “Guhnz?”
“Firearms...” Haruhiro murmured.
Momohina of the K&K Pirate Company, based out of the Free City of Vele, had been carrying one. And the company supposedly had a few more in addition to that.
“I’m not a fan of them, but...” Itsukushima furrowed his brow. “The dwarves of the Ironblood Kingdom can make guns. They must have hundreds.”


 
6. It’s All in How You Say a Thing
Jin Mogis had Itsukushima released at once. He apparently invited the hunter to dinner right after that and even apologized. However, what he didn’t do was bow his head. Itsukushima said dining with the man made him hate the guy even more. Mogis probably didn’t care. The man was shameless.
Mogis decided to send a delegation to the Kurogane Mountain Range while the Frontier Army prepared for the campaign. One of the black cloaks, Bikki Sans, was chosen to lead them as chief delegate in the commander’s place. Itsukushima would be going too, of course. The party was ordered to join them. Oh, and Neal the scout was also going. He’d be serving as Bikki Sans’s second-in-command and also keeping an eye on Haruhiro and the party, no doubt.
Mogis had a horse prepared for each member of the delegation, brought over from the mainland. They weren’t large, but they were well-built, and their faces looked mild-tempered. They actually were obedient, and Haruhiro was told they could be used for both riding and pulling.
“You set out tomorrow. Spend your time as you please until then.”
That was what Mogis said after summoning the members of the delegation to the grand hall. He made it sound like he was a generous liege, doing his subjects a favor.
Itsukushima said he was going to take the wolf-dog he’d brought with him from the Kurogane Mountains around to visit the hunters’ guild building and some other places before meeting back up with them the next morning.
The party decided to spend the night in the volunteer soldier lodging house. It was beyond ruined, but it still had a roof, at least. There were lots of rooms there. If they just got some fuel together, they could keep warm too. They could even use the bath. It’d be a lot more relaxing than staying in Tenboro Tower.

Chapter end