19 11

On either side of the stone steps leading up to the Swan Palace— which seemed to be completely white—stood lines of orc soldiers in orange clothes and silver armor, carrying not just hand axes and longswords, but also spears and shields on top of that. The hair spilling out from under their helms was also red and blue. They probably belonged to the same clan.
How were the two of them supposed to act here? Kuzaku had no clue, so he’d have to do what Setora said. With orcs in front of and behind them, they climbed the stone steps and passed through a grandiose gate at the top—ten meters wide, fifteen tall, and decorated with patterns in gold and ivory. Beyond it lay the inside of the Swan Palace.
The ceiling here was really high. It was an incredibly big, open space, and the hallways stretched out for who knew how far in all directions, to the point that it was hard to take it all in at once. The only windows were high up, and the light that shone in through them reflected off a floor that had been polished until it shined. Some orcs were armed, while others were in civilian clothes, or wearing gaudy kimono-like outfits instead of armor, and carrying no weapons. It was all orcs, no sign of the other races in sight. Just orcs everywhere.
Maybe it was because Kuzaku was human—or perhaps an ex-human at this point—but it caught him by surprise. These orcs, standing tall in their kimonos, their hair dyed in pretty colors and tied back or braided, struck him as pretty stylish.
It wasn’t just men in the castle. There were women too. The women were heavy-set by human standards, but their long necks and small heads made their figures look quite attractive.
Their green skin came across as kind of reptilian, which was always going to seem strange to him, but it matched the vibrant colors they seemed so fond of.
It turned out that the orcs were a more fashion-conscious race than Kuzaku had ever given them credit for. Thanks to that, Kuzaku wasn’t bored for one moment of their long, long walk through the castle. Instead of getting sick of the hike, he found that it actually put him in a good mood. Could he get away with stopping one of the orc ladies as she went by and being all like, Hey, what do you say, how about a dance? Yeah, no. That wasn’t gonna fly. He was a prisoner and all.
Was he, though? This didn’t feel like how you treated prisoners. Maybe he could hit on them? Yeah, why not? Should he?
After a long internal battle, Kuzaku suppressed the impulse.
Wow. That was admirable of me. I wanna praise myself for it.
After walking around a lot, Kuzaku and Setora were led to a room. It wasn’t that big of a room. If you considered the scale of the Swan Palace, it was actually pretty tiny. The ceiling was low too. Only comparatively, though—it was still four meters up—but the ceilings in the hallways had been so high it felt a bit cramped in here by comparison. There was a deep-pile rug on the floor, and orcs in kimonos of silk or something equally fancy were sitting on it. None of them used chairs, instead sitting cross-legged on zabuton cushions. There were seven of them, and they seemed like members of the upper class. Kuzaku didn’t know how to tell an orc’s age, but he didn’t get the sense that any of them were young.
The elite soldiers who had brought Kuzaku and Setora this far unshackled them and left the room.
They stood there for some time, Kuzaku not knowing what to do, and Setora taking in the scene with an air of composure.
“Be seated,” a bony orc who must have been considerably advanced in age instructed them in the human language.
There were a large number of cushions piled up in the corner of the room. Setora went and took two, handing one to Kuzaku.
“Where do you think we should sit?” Kuzaku asked her, but it was the elderly orc who motioned with one hand to indicate they should sit to the left of him.
“Here.”
The seven orcs were seated roughly in a circle. It wasn’t perfectly round, though, and not especially tight. There was plenty of space in between them. Setora sat to the left of the old orc, so Kuzaku plopped his cushion down to the orc’s right and sat there.
“You...” Setora furrowed her brow.
The orcs seemed a little taken aback. Was the old orc confused? He looked back and forth from Setora to Kuzaku repeatedly.
“Huh? Here’s no good? I dunno. I was just thinking if I sat beside Setora-san, it’d be kind of a tight fit, maybe? It’d throw off the symmetry too...”
Someone gracefully entered the room as Kuzaku trailed off. An orc, of course. Wearing an orange robe, a black jacket, and a tricolor overcoat of red, white, and blue. It was a rather showy ensemble, but not tastelessly so. His red and blue hair was neatly set, with not one hair out of place, and the tusks peeking out of the corners of his mouth were a glossy white. He was an impressive specimen of manhood. Beautiful, even. The golden crown on his head was elegant and suited him incredibly well.
“Is that the great king, maybe?”
It was hard to imagine he hadn’t heard Kuzaku’s whisper. But the orc, presumably Dif Gogun, didn’t so much as glance at the exhuman, instead picking up a cushion with both hands and setting it down roughly across from the elderly orc. There was a shiny sword hanging at the great king’s waist. He removed it from his sword belt, laid it on the floor, and sat down, all in one elegant, refined series of motions.
This was unexpected. The guy was the great king of the orcs, so Kuzaku had assumed he would be more rugged, with the toughest face any of them had ever seen, looking absolutely vicious, but also crafty and devious at the same time. The guy was an orc, after all. Prejudice was a terrifying thing. It looked like Kuzaku had let his biases get the better of him.
“You are in the presence of Great King Dif Gogun,” the elderly orc said, placing his hands on his knees and bowing his head. The other orcs did likewise. Kuzaku rushed to imitate them, but Setora remained unmoving, her eyes fixed on the great king. Was that okay? Not paying their respects to him? Well, if Setora wanted to play it that way, he guessed he was fine with it.
The great king said something. In orcish, presumably. The elderly orc raised his head.
“The great king has said that there is no need to stand on ceremony in this room, the tonak. So long as we all act with respect, there will be no need for excessive displays of courtesy.”
“Man, you’re pretty damn fluent, huh? I’d bet you even know bigger words than I do,” Kuzaku said without meaning to, earning him a slight laugh from the great king. More of a snort, really. But he was laughing at what Kuzaku had said, right? The great king must have been able to understand the human language too. Probably a good thing to keep in mind.
That said, talking to the great king with the elderly orc as their interpreter was Setora’s job. Kuzaku would have liked to have said he was there as her bodyguard, but, frankly, she wasn’t in need of protection. If he was like, “I will protect you with every fiber of my being!” Setora would have snorted at him derisively. That, or she would have just ignored him entirely. He was more of an attendant, at best. Uh, not that he was doing anything to look after her. He was just there. Along for the ride. If Setora told him to do something, he had to do it. That made things easy.
Setora explained to Dif Gogun that their lord was the same No-Life King as the old one, that he had no intention of opposing the orcs, and that he was presently creating new undead, which he called rebirthians, in the former Ironblood Kingdom.
Yeah. That was it. Come to think of it, Kuzaku and Setora were also rebirthians, and the No-Life King was their creator and leader. Kuzaku didn’t mind the name. He actually quite liked it. Yes, Setora was the rebirthians’ emissary to Great King Dif Gogun, and Kuzaku was simply a tag-along.
When they explained that the rebirthians had a goal—the defeat of
King Ishi and Archduke Deres Pain in Undead DC—Great King Dif Gogun’s expression changed before the elderly orc had time to translate. Yeah, the great king definitely understood the human language.
The rebirthians wanted to eliminate King Ishi and Deres Pain in order to bring freedom to all the undead. And to that end, they wished to join hands with the orcs. Indeed, they wanted to build a cooperative relationship with the Great King of the Orcs, Dif Gogun, more than any other personage or group in the world. That was why the No-Life King sought a meeting with the great king.
The great king silenced the elderly orc, finally responding for himself.
“I, too, would like to meet him. If your No-Life King is truly the NoLife King. But what proof is there of that?”
It was a deep voice that would seem to echo in your guts if you heard it, though his tone wasn’t threatening in any way. Still, it was super intimidating. “Full of majesty” might have been a good way to describe it.
“Humans. You say you were sent here as messengers of the No-Life
King. How am I to believe that? We know the name of the No-Life King. We know his history. But none of us know the No-Life King himself.”
“Your concerns are reasonable.” Setora was completely calm. So calm, it scared Kuzaku a little. “My lord struggles with his inability to prove who he is. However, if you were to meet him in person, I am certain you would see for yourself that he is indeed the No-Life King.”
“Then he should have come himself, not sent mere envoys.”
“My king would have liked to.”
“You claim he cannot?”
“The sekaishu is after our lord.”
“Sekaishu...”
The great king looked around at the seven orcs. All but one of them shook their heads. The one who didn’t was sitting on his cushion, slack-jawed. Kuzaku didn’t speak their language, so he couldn’t tell what that orc said next, but the others all started talking to the orcs seated next to them, and the room quickly filled with noise.
The elderly orc asked Setora, “Does the sekaishu refer to the calamity brought about by the black ones? We’ve received reports of them from all sectors...”
She nodded. “That is precisely what the sekaishu is. It has crawled up from the bowels of the world, intent on devouring our king. The king’s old body should be hidden in Everest in Undead DC. Five hundred years ago, King Ishi and Deres Pain conspired to seal him away. Unbeknownst to them, however, a part of our king narrowly managed to escape, but it took many long years for him to be restored. The relic that he once carried on his person at all times in order to keep the sekaishu away is with his old body. Now he wishes to reclaim it.”
The information Setora presented them with must have come as a huge shock. Their faces changed color as they showered her with questions. The debate between them rapidly intensified too. The great king listened in silence, but he kept touching his cheeks and stroking his own hair—which was not how he’d act if he were calm about this revelation.
Kuzaku nearly yawned, but managed to hold it in. He wasn’t sleepy, but he’d gotten tired of being here. Why was Setora taking this envoy job so seriously? For Kuzaku’s part, he had only come along for the ride because Setora was going and he’d had nothing to do at the time. Maybe he should have tried thinking for himself more? It wasn’t his forte, but not having any desires of his own wasn’t good.
Something I want to do. What would that be? What do I want to do? If there’s one thing that comes to mind, it’s gotta be meeting Haruhiro again, I guess?
As Kuzaku was thinking, the conversation seemed to sort itself out.
Dif Gogun intended to meet with the No-Life King. However, they had no clear evidence that the person in question was the No-Life King, and he could not leave his domain in order to meet someone when he had no idea who they actually were. It might have been possible for him to invite the one they claimed was the No-Life King to Grozdendahl, but the conditions of such a meeting would need to be worked out. So it wasn’t an “Okay, let’s meet,” but more of a “We will actively consider your proposal.”
While there was no love lost between the orcs who followed the great king and the undead who followed King Ishi or Deres Pain, they were not openly hostile. There were undead in the Southern Expedition, but they belonged to a faction that was separate from those of the two princes. The orcs could work with the No-Life King to defeat those two factions, in principle. Or at the very least, there was room for negotiation on that point.
For their part, the orcs sought information about other worlds. “We are prepared to offer that to you,” was Setora’s response. Kuzaku guessed that meant, “If you make friends with us, we’ll tell you whatever we happen to know.”
Setora asked the great king to have the Southern Expedition stop trying to invade the former Ironblood Kingdom and withdraw. In response to her request, the great king promised he would order an immediate halt to all offensive actions. Was stopping the attacks enough? Didn’t they need to drive the orcs off? Well, this was all part of a bargaining process, so maybe there needed to be some give and take.
Now, as for what they ultimately accomplished, you could say that they had laid the groundwork for a relationship that would allow them to talk things over and decide what was to be done later.
Setora and Kuzaku were going to return to the former Ironblood
Kingdom and report on what had happened in their meeting with Great King Dif Gogun. This, despite the fact that the great king had invited them to dinner. Kuzaku had been pretty disappointed when Setora immediately declined the offer. They boarded the carriagethat-might-not-be-a-carriage and were delivered to the outskirts of Grozdendahl. This was also at Setora’s request. Kuzaku wanted to groan, “We’re gonna make the trip on foot again?” but he held back.
The sun was setting as they walked over the bridge that crossed the Ruko River. Looking out over the river and Lake Gandah behind it to the streets of Grozdendahl, illuminated by lamplight, it all made for an incredibly gorgeous scene. Kuzaku couldn’t restrain himself.
“Look at that, Setora-san! Damn, it’s beautiful! What a sight! Isn’t this the best?!”
“What drivel. Let’s get going.”
“Oh, come on. Can’t you have a little more, I dunno, chill? Take in the scenery a bit...”
“I have plenty of ‘chill.’ The scenery simply doesn’t interest me.”
“Well, take an interest. Why don’t you try and enjoy life a little?”
“Life, huh?”
“Yeah! This is your second life, right? Although, between preGrimgar, post-Grimgar, and now, I might be on my third.”
“It’s not as if I haven’t been enjoying it.”
“Well, you don’t look like you’re enjoying it very much, do you? I guess that’s just how you are, though, huh, Setora-san?”
There was a group of people in dark red cloaks gathered together just across the bridge. Five, maybe six of them, loitering beside the road. They weren’t blocking anyone’s path, but they were the only people in the area who were just standing around other than the orcish soldiers, so there was clearly something weird about them.
“Hey, are those...” Kuzaku said to Setora.
She shook her head slightly. That probably meant “Shut up.”
The people in red cloaks wore their hoods low over their eyes. None of their skin was exposed, and their faces couldn’t be made out. Were they orcs? No, they were too skinny for that. Undead, maybe?
The two of them passed the group, and just a moment later, the group started to move, following them at a short distance.
About a kilometer from the bridge, their pursuers picked up speed.
The oversized katana Kuzaku had been using for a long time was slung over his back, but he also had a sword hanging at his waist that was more his size, which he’d found in the Ironblood Kingdom. A masterpiece of dwarven craftsmanship. That was the sword Kuzaku reached for.
“I can kill them, right?” Kuzaku asked quietly.
“Wait,” Setora answered as she slowed to a stop.
Kuzaku had been planning to draw his sword as he turned, but the people in the dark red cloaks had pulled back their hoods and bowed their heads, so he thought better of it.
They definitely weren’t orcs. But they weren’t undead either. Their hair was pale, not bright, and they had somewhat ashen, bloodless skin. Their slender faces were perfectly proportioned, but inexpressive.
“Elves...?” Kuzaku murmured, his hand still on the hilt of his sword.
They had pointy ears.
“You’re gray elves, then,” Setora said.
One of the six, the leader of the group, nodded. “Indeed. My name is Melderheid. I have been participating in the Southern Expedition under orders from my lord, Zwarzfeld. It has come to my attention that you are envoys of the No-Life King.”
“Ah, I see. One of the vice commanders of the Southern Expedition was a Sir Melderheid. The King of the Broken Valley’s right-hand man, yes?”
“Huh. Sounds like he’s a pretty big deal.” Kuzaku looked around the area. “What’s a big shot like you doing out here, lying in wait for us?”
“I wish to deliver a message.”
It wasn’t just Melderheid. All the gray elves showed so little emotion you would think they were plants or something. His lips barely moved when he spoke. It was impossible to tell what these guys were thinking.
“We, the gray elves of the Broken Valley, were loyal friends of the No-Life King. We have long wished for and looked forward to his return. If the No-Life King has come again, he should know that we did him no harm. It was all a plot by King Ishi and Deres Pain. Please tell the No-Life King that we, the elves of the Broken Valley, remain his friends now, as always.”
“Can I take that as the will of King Zwarzfeld?” Setora asked, and Melderheid nodded without a moment’s hesitation.
“If the No-Life King commanded it, I am certain my liege would cast aside the Broken Valley and rush to his side at once. If the No-Life King says to slay King Ishi and Deres Pain, we will bring all our forces to bear against them. The princes are like the No-Life King’s children.
That is why we have chosen not to oppose them. We have no blades which we would turn on the children of our friends. However, if our friend says they are no children of his, we will show them no mercy.”
“Got it. I will see to it that our king hears.”
“Thank you.”
“I may be visiting the Broken Valley in the not-so-distant future. Give my regards to King Zwarzfeld.”
“I will do so.”
Melderheid produced a transparent square token from his pocket. Was it glass? Or maybe something like crystal? It was rimmed with metal and had a crest-like design carved into it.
“Please, take this. It will serve as proof of your status, in the name of my liege.”
“Thank you.”
Once Setora had accepted the token, Melderheid bowed and stepped back, lowering his hood. The gray elves turned and left. With that, Kuzaku was finally able to take his hand off the hilt of his sword.
“Is this okay? The gray elves are supposed to be the orcs’ allies, right? The great king’s still acting like he hasn’t made up his mind about what to do with us, but those gray elves were pretty welcoming, weren’t they? If a big shot like him goes and makes contact with us here, aren’t the orcs gonna find out about it?”
Setora snorted. “So, it turns out you actually are capable of thinking about the issues at hand, then.”
“You’re always so quick to make fun of me. Yeah, I’m not so good at using my head, but of course I think about things.” “Which is why I just said that you do, yes.”
“Oh, okay. So, you were praising me, then, huh?”
“Not praising you. I was being sarcastic. In other words, I was belittling you.”
“See? You were making fun of me after all. That’s the problem with you, y’know? You’re always like this. Is it fun, treating me like I’m an idiot?”
“What reason would I have to do something that was boring?”
“Hm? What’s that mean?”
Setora started walking without giving him a response, making him hurry to catch up and walk beside her. At least it didn’t look like she was planning to ditch him.
What reason would she have to do something that was boring?
Given the way she’d said it, the answer must’ve been that there was no reason. If she didn’t want to do something, she’d say so. She never did anything she didn’t want to. That was how Setora had always been. No, maybe that wasn’t completely true. It was possible that her old self had made the effort to read the situation she was in and hold back when she needed to.
The two of them went off the road and followed the shore of Lake Gandah. The weather had been good last night, and tonight was no different, with no wind and only a few small waves. This segment of the shore had a lot of pebbles on the ground, which made a soothing sound as they walked across them.
“Hey, Setora-san. Y’know that thing I was talking about before?”
“Before? When?”
“About how we ought to enjoy our second or third lives. Are you enjoying yours?”
“I’m curious about the No-Life King. His history and his past. And the great king of the orcs is an interesting man too.”
“Whaaa? Is he the kind of guy you like?”
“Whether I like him or not is immaterial.”
“Huh. I dunno, I think it’s pretty important. But it’s your life, I guess.”
“To borrow your expression, I am enjoying my ‘second life’ in my own way.”
“Oh, yeah? Me too. Since I’ve gotta live it anyway, I wanna keep having more and more fun. So, I’ve been thinking about what I want to do.”
“You can do as you please.”
“Uh, I agree we should both do what we want, but doesn’t the conversation just end there, in that case? You can just brush off what I’m about to say, but hear me out, would you?”
“I’ll listen, at least.”
“What do you think about killing Haruhiro?”
Kuzaku started to laugh as soon as he said it. He covered his mouth with his hands, trying to suppress the laughter, but it kept spilling out, with Setora giving him the side-eye all the while. His diaphragm wouldn’t stop trembling. He wanted to try saying it again. He wouldn’t be able to calm down until he did.
“I was thinking I might kill Haruhiro.” “Why?” Setora asked, her tone flat.
Kuzaku kept laughing. He laughed so hard that he cried. Oh, crap.
Setora sighed. She was about to get fed up with him. Maybe she already was, but it wasn’t like Kuzaku wanted to laugh. He just couldn’t help himself.
“No, listen, okay? It’s not like that. I don’t hate the guy or anything.
You know I always used to like Haruhiro, right? I mean, I still like him. He’s number one on my list of people I want to meet.”
“Do you want to meet him or kill him? Which is it?”
“Uh, both, I guess? When I think of the look on Haruhiro’s face when we meet again, it gets me all excited. And so, I got to thinking, since I love him so much, what would it be like to kill him with my own two hands? I wanna get a taste of how that would make me feel. Like, emotionally, and stuff. I dunno. I feel like the moment I kill Haruhiro, I’ll be like, ‘Whoaaa.’ More than for anyone else I might kill. I’ve already experienced death once myself, so I was thinking killing someone I love should be the next thing on the list.”
“I see.”
“You get it, Setora-san? The way I’m feeling?”
“I have no desire to kill anyone, personally, but I can understand where you’re coming from.”
“You can understand, huh? That’s so like you, Setora-san.”
“I can’t imagine that you understand me nearly well enough to be talking about what is or isn’t like me.”
“Yeah, guess not. Some things are just too complicated for me.
You’re such an enigma that I could never figure you out, you know? But I’ve been thinking about all sorts of things that are more my speed. Like, it’s not just killing Haruhiro. I’ve even thought about what I’d do after that too.”
Setora stopped and looked at Kuzaku. She blinked. It seemed he had her attention now.
“What is it? Speak up,” she said.
“I was thinking, maybe we could ask the king.”
“Ask what?”
“If he could make Haruhiro like us?”
“Like...us?”
“Yeah. See, I don’t know what’s possible, so we’d have to check with the king first, but I was thinking, ‘What if we kill Haruhiro and make him like us?’”
Kuzaku clamped his hands down on Setora’s shoulders. She just stared back at him without so much as flinching.
“So, what do you think, Setora-san? Wouldn’t that be something else, watching to see how Haruhiro turns out? I mean, he’d be Haruhiro no matter how it goes, and I could never hate Haruhiro. And knowing him, he probably won’t hold the whole killing-him thing against me. Even if he does, I think it’d be pretty interesting to see how that plays out too, y’know? Either way, I can only see it being super fun, so... Yeah...”
He was about to burst out laughing again. He needed to hold it in. If he started to laugh, he wouldn’t be able to speak coherently, and Setora was actually listening to him now.
“When I meet Haruhiro, I wanna kill him. It’s pretty much the only thing I think about. He’s probably still alive. I’ll be pretty bummed out if he’s dead, but my gut is telling me that he’s definitely okay, so I wanna kill him myself. Oh, sorry. I got a bit too worked up talking about it, huh? I just can’t help how passionate this makes me feel. Man, I wanna see Haruhiro. I do. I wanna kill him. I wanna kill Haruhiro. I want Haruhiro to be like us. So, what do you think?” Setora’s eyes slowly narrowed.
“Sure. Why not?” Her lips parted slightly and the corners of her mouth turned up. “That sounds like it could be amusing.”

 
0122A660. Alive
Anywhere from a third to one-half of the walls that once surrounded Alterna had collapsed. There were places where they had simply fallen and others where they had been broken through, becoming paths for the sekaishu. It had gotten so bad that the north gate seemed to only be there to welcome the black monstrosities in rather than to keep them out.
The hill just southeast of Alterna had been turned into a part of the sekaishu along with the Forbidden Tower that stood atop it. Moreover, it was active enough that one could easily notice this fact, even from a distance. The sekaishu forms that morphed, the ones that roiled and formed waves, and the ones that clearly seemed to move with purpose were more dangerous than the ones that appeared to be lifeless. Haruhiro and the gang had decided against going near the hill.
On the northwest wall, there was a two-meter segment that had crumbled and fallen down, which was devoid of sekaishu, as far as they could tell. They entered Alterna there and found themselves on the border between the northern district and West Town.
The western part of the northern district had always had a lot of older wooden buildings, and West Town was densely packed with miserable hovels that bordered on ruins. Both areas were organized with a complicated mess of alleyways that were much too narrow to call streets, and visibility was poor. The group decided to head to the Temple of Lumiaris on the very northwest edge of the northern district. It was a stone building constructed on high ground and was the best vantage point in Alterna outside of Tenboro Tower.
Standing out in front of the temple, they could see the entire city, more or less.
Alterna had been completely infested by the sekaishu. Multiple black rivers now flowed through its streets. From the northern district into the southern district, across the plaza in front of Tenboro Tower and down Flower Street, into Celestial Alley where Sherry’s Tavern had once been, and around the area where the former Volunteer Soldier Corps office and the craftsmen’s town were. It still wasn’t as bad as they had imagined, though. Alterna was deserted. There wasn’t so much as a bird in sight. The sekaishu that had plunged this town into terror and brought about its destruction were, at the very least, no longer active. It was quiet. Silently rotting. Eventually, it would all be weathered away, leaving no trace. It just hadn’t happened yet. Alterna was a city of death.
They took a break in the nave on the third floor, where there was a giant statue of Lumiaris, the God of Light. The idol, which looked androgynous, was just under ten meters tall, so the chamber’s ceiling was awfully high. Chairs and book rests were piled up haphazardly along the wall. Many of them were broken. The stone floor had many cracks and blackened spots too. It was more than enough room for the team. Too much room, actually. Hundreds could have slept on the floor here.
“Seems safe enough to light a fire, yeah?”
“Think so.”
“We’re not outta food yet, but we’re gonna need to secure some soon. Well, I’m sure we’ll be able to find something if we look around a bit.”
Ranta and Yume had laid some furs out on the floor and were sitting on top of them. Ranta subtly rested his head on Yume’s shoulder, and she didn’t try to shrug him away.

Chapter end