Owari no Seraph – Kyuuketsuki Mikaela no Monogatari v2c3 part1

In Regards to Your Justice

Crowley gazed at the scenery outside the small window from inside the rocking carriage.

The village that housed the chaser workshop was two days away from the town. The downpour continued all the while the carriage rolled along the road. The trip had taken longer because on unpaved stretches of the road the wheels stuck in the mud every now and then, but finally…

“We’re almost there,” Crowley murmured.

He knew that the village must have been near by just how well maintained the road became. It meant the village saw a decent amount of traffic, with many people coming and going.

The rain had stopped at the dawn break. The thick clouds cleared, and strong light began to shine on the world.

Shifting his gaze from the window to the interior of the carriage, Crowley called, “Ferid-kun.”

“…”

“Oh really. Your voice sounds very sleepy though.”

Ferid cracked an eye open moodily to glance at Crowley. “Are you not drunk yourself?”

“What a monster,” Ferid smiled faintly, then pointed at the brightly illuminated window. “Mind shutting the window? I hate the sun, you see.”

“Ewww,” Ferid grimaced in displeasure.

Crowley looked out the window again; the village was in sight now and getting closer. They were almost there.

“In any case, wake up. End of journey.”

“Yeees~? Are we there?”

“We got beaten to the punch, I take it?” a response came from the depths of the carriage.

“That is what I would do myself if I were in the killer’s place. The moment I realized that evidence had been left, I would make a move to hide my tracks.”

Taking out the silver needle from his breast pocket, Ferid twirled it between his fingers. Despite the situation, he still looked ready to fall asleep any moment.

“Hey, wake up already. Our only lead has just vanished.”

“No, it’s not!”

“Enough of your chitchat, Ferid-kun, you, too, gotta take a look outs–”

“But if we drag our feet, the killer will escape.”

“How do you know?”

Looking down at Crowley with a tired face, Ferid answered his question, “Because the village is too quiet. As far as I know, the workshop here consists of more 40 craftsmen. But where are all the sounds then?”

Indeed, it was too quiet around. The only sounds Crowley could hear were whistling of the wind, rustling of leaves on trees and buzzing of insects.

“…All of them were killed…?” Crowley ventured, and Ferid only shrugged his shoulders with a look that said “what else could it be”.

“About 3 hours ago, sir,” the driver answered.

“That is, late at night yesterday’s night?” Crowley verified.

“Mm?”

“Maybe so.”

“If it were not for me, you would not even come to this village in the first place though.”

Well, he had a point.

“Besides,” Ferid continued, “I would not want the friend I finally made to get killed.”

“What would you do then? What if they are someone you cannot win against? Would you still want to run into them, consequences be damned? Are you fine with being killed yourself, then?”

“I have no intention to assist you in suicide. If you want to die, there are many easier ways, without resorting to such an elaborate setup. You could drink yourself dead on wine, for instance.”

But Ferid didn’t let him speak, pointing to the dead bodies instead. “…I believe you are more knowledgeable about matters of the sword than I am. The cuts on the victims. Were they all inflicted by the same person, in your opinion?”

That prompted Crowley to take a closer look at the wounds left on the 4 bodies and compare them for the first time. And when he did, he discovered that the wounds weren’t quite the same. They may have had the possibility of there being several culprits on their hands then. Moreover, it meant the killers had been armed and were skilled swordsmen.

But that should have been fairly obvious even without thinking long and hard. After all, the culprits attacked a village of 40 people and killed all of them. It was not a crime a lone person could commit. Which, in turn, meant…

“…It’s not the monster from the war then.”

That monster could kill everyone perfectly on his own. And he wouldn’t use a sword for it.

Observing Crowley, Ferid smiled. “Oh? I seem to recall that you were sure it was only your hallucination?”

“Maybe they do exist,” Ferid remarked cheerfully.

Looking at him, Crowley said, “Ferid-kun.”

“Just how far are you able to foresee things?”

But as expected, Ferid didn’t give him an answer, just continuing to grin.

“You were late on purpose, right? Making sure that I wouldn’t run into the group of the armed murderers.”

“I want proper answers. In truth, you already know who the killers are, don’t you?”

“Are you telling the truth?”

“Wha?! Who was it?!” Crowley shouted, demanding to know.

But at that Ferid turned his back to him, shifting his gaze to the still and silent village ahead. “But then again, you cannot arrest anyone on assumptions and insight alone. Having proof is a must. That is why we came here. Well then, if you do not want to wait until dusk, can we go investigate the village already? As I said, I personally hate sunlight. I’m a night dweller, you see.”

“Fufufu.” Ferid started walking, chuckling all the while.

Following him Crowley asked, “Look, tell me the killer’s name at least.”

“I have neither energy nor desire to entertain your jokes under these circumstances.”

The chasers’ village made a truly terrifying sight. Every house had corpses of chasers, their wives and their boy apprentices dangling upside down.

“…This is horrible.”

Choosing a house, Crowley came closer. On the porch, a dead body of a child was hanged by the legs. There was a cut left by a sword on the child’s back, and prick wounds from something like a needle on his neck. Taking down the boy’s body, Crowley laid it down to the ground. It appeared that all the boy’s blood had been extracted. Just like with the prostitutes a few days prior. Crowley didn’t know what for, but the killers really stole blood.

It reeked of some sort of curse magic. Like a ritual that witches or devil worshipers would hold. However, doing it this flashy was pretty much a suicidal act. It was like the culprits were declaring war on church. Carrying out a massacre like this ensured that the Knights Templar and the Inquisition would be coming after them in no time.

“No, that’s probably their objective to begin with…”

After all, they went as far as killing Gilbert who was a candidate for becoming the next Master of the Knights Templar Order. Still, what for? Who would benefit from making all the Templars their enemy?

“Ferid-kun. I want to hear what you have to say on the matter,” Crowley called and turned around.

There was no Ferid in sight, however: he vanished without a trace and Crowley didn’t notice when.

“Huh? Ferid-kun?”

But no response came.

“Ferid-kun, where are you?”

Crowley surveyed the village, but all he saw was dead bodies. It looked like the culprits really killed all the chasers, down to the last one.

“Later, I’ll need to call the Templars here, too…” Crowley murmured heading towards the plazafound at the center of the village.

“Ferid-kun! Where are you!” he called loudly once again as he walked.

His call was finally answered. “I’m here~”

It came from a building on the northwest side of the village.

Crowley turned to look in that direction. He wasn’t surprised to find the dead bodies of a man and a woman hanging from the wall of the building.

Ferid stuck his head out from the house and beckoned Crowley. “Here, here.”

Crowley’s eyes landed on the road that led to the house Ferid was currently in. Although all the possible leads were irretrievably destroyed by the rain earlier, when he saw the road, he understood why Ferid chose that particular building to investigate first.

Upon a closer look, it turned out that numerous footprints leading in the direction of that house could be found there. But you had to look very closely to notice. All indicated that that particular building was somehow important.

Studying the barely visible footprints on the road with his eyes, Crowley murmured to himself, “How do you find something like this at the first sight? He really is a frightening man.”

With that, he headed to where Ferid was. On the way, he noticed that the footprints didn’t go all the way to the house Ferid had taken a fancy to, but went on past it and towards a building farther ahead.

“Huh?” Crowley tilted his head to the side in puzzlement. Then, coming into the house where Ferid was, he asked, “Ferid-kun. The footprints seem to be leading to the house a little farther down the road.”

To his surprise, he didn’t found Ferid inside. Crowley checked the front room, the kitchen, still nothing. The house had no workroom, so Crowley went to check the bedroom, and that’s where he finally found Ferid.

The blinds were shut, plunging the room into pitch dark. And on the bed, Ferid lay. Arms folded on his chest and eyes closed, he looked happy.

“Oh come on, Ferid-kun.”

“It’s way too early to be so tired.”

“I’m amazed you feel like sleeping in a place with corpses lying all around.”

“You, too, noticed the footprints, I take it?”

“It means that the master of this house did not try to run away,” Ferid replied. “But why did he not? Do you think there can be found even one person who would obediently wait to be killed and not try to escape when the residents of his village are being slaughtered one after another around him?”

“Can I do it after I have gotten my beauty sleep?”

“Ehh…” Ferid opened his eyes, clearly displeased, and tapped the ring-shaped accessory on his hand. And then… “What do you know, the ring fixed itself,” he muttered.

“Nothing. Just talking to myself.”

With this, he abruptly sat up, suddenly full of energy. Opening the blinds of the bedroom, he exclaimed, “O Lord! Shine more light on me. Thank you for giving us the sun.”

“We were talking about why you chose this house.”

“I thought you were awake now?” Crowley commented, and Ferid only laughed, rolling on the bed, then throwing himself crossways on it. After that, he leaned down and peeked under it.

“Oka~y, by not running away and letting themselves get killed, the master of this house and his wife made it so that their ch–” Ferid started his explanation, but just then—

“Uwaaaaaaaah!” a boy of about 6 jumped out from under the bed with a knife in hand.

“Owhooa!” Ferid recoiled as if in surprise. The boy, though, still tried to thrust his knife into Ferid’s chest, and Ferid cried out, “Crowley-kun!”

That sent Crowley into action the same instance, and he stepped on the boy’s hand with force.

“Agh!” The knife fell out of the boy’s grip. “D-Damn! Dammit!“

Crowley held down the violently struggling child.

"D-Don’t kill me?!” The boy’s face took on a haunted look of despair.

It appeared that he had been hiding here the whole time. According to Ferid, the culprits slaughtered the village’s residents not less than 6 hours ago, so this child must have been here all this time. He was probably paralyzed with dread and couldn’t move, thinking he would be killed if he came out or having been told by his parents to not come out no matter what.

The boy’s face was all soggy with tears. His bottom half was wet as well. He must have soiled himself under that bed.

Taking in all of that about the boy, Crowley called out to Ferid, “Ferid-kun. I have something to ask of you.”

“Can you deal with the dead bodies outside this house?”

Crowley referred to the dead bodies of this child’s parents, of course. At the moment, they were atrociously dangling upside down from the wall, with all of their blood drawn out, but there was no need to show that to the boy.

“My clothes would get all dirty if I did, so no,” Ferid refused Crowley’s request.

Crowley, exasperated, refocused his gaze on that strange partner of his. “Can you look after the child for a while then?”

“Eh? Are you, now?”

“Okay, oka~y.”

Once Crowley made sure Ferid was going to keep quiet, he looked into the boy’s eyes once again. They were completely drowned with fear.

Looking straight into those eyes, Crowley said with assertion, “You have survived.”

“Listen to me, okay? You can relax now. No need to struggle anymore. Do you understand what I’m saying?”

At this, Crowley finally felt the boy calm down a little.

The child stared at Crowley and asked, voice shaking, “Wh-Where is Dad and Mom…?”

“…Th-They died?”

Crowley nodded, and tears instantly welled up in the boy’s eyes. Crowley held him in his arms. The boy was a strong one. He sobbed quietly, but didn’t weep. That was why he survived. Because he was able to stay under the bed for hours on end without producing any sound.

However, it didn’t look like he would be able to tell them what happened any time soon. To improve his mental condition enough for him to talk, they would first need to wash off the blood and excreta from his body, have him change clothes and feed him. None of that was possible to do here.

“Ferid-kun.”

“What else needs to be investigated here?”

Crowley tossed a look at Ferid. “…Could it be that there was no need to come here in the first place?”

“The fact that you’re not doing any decent investigating.”

“I’m not. Although I do not necessarily say out loud obvious things that anyone can figure out if they just use their head.”

Which meant, he did keep away certain things. To begin with, Ferid seemed to have an idea about what exactly the killer’s goals were. And he said earlier that he came all the way here to obtain some hard evidence that would be enough to arrest the killer.

“How about you tell me the killer’s name already if you know it? And also, the reason why we came here,” Crowley asked.

“Well, I was under the impression that we’re here to find Haeberle’s list of clients.”

At that, Ferid snorted, as if to mock Crowley, and shrugged his shoulders. “And we needed to come all the way here just for that, in your opinion?”

"Ferid-kun.”

That came out a little angrily, and Ferid shrugged his shoulders again, then expressed in a strangely declamatory manner, “It is such immense work making a silver needle like this. I’m willing to bet that it is extremely high-priced. Making just one would be enough to feed a chaser for a whole year, I imagine.”

So he stubbornly persisted in wanting to make Crowley arrive to the necessary conclusions on his own. Good gracious, what a troublesome guy.

Crowley stared at the needle in Ferid’s fingers. That was the fangs that killed those prostitutes. Something that your ordinary chaser could never hope to produce. There also could be no doubt that making such a needle would take quite a long time. The work was minute, yet the needle was stout and durable. It didn’t break or get damaged even after piercing into human necks numerous times. Just making a prototype would take considerable time, for sure.

It was as Ferid said: having it made would be quite a costly endeavor. And it also required a high status. Skillful chasers’ time was valuable. If so much of it was to be occupied by one job, they would have to refuse job requests from their other high profile clients. Adding to that the fact that no person of high station among those Crowley knew would lower themselves to visiting this slightly dirty workshop located so far away from the town in person led him to the conclusion that…

“There was someone in the town who acted as the client’s proxy, managing the order,” Crowley said, and Ferid nodded, grinning broadly.

“And you were able to get your hands on the client list in the town.”

“You’ve already contacted that proxy person and learned the name of the client who placed the order for this nee–”

Grinning Ferid didn’t let him finish. “Nald Vine, a noble.”

Damn, this guy really did know the name of the killer then.

Ferid went on, “And you know that name.”

Yes, Crowley did know it. The second son of the noted Vine noble family and one of high ranking Templar Knights. Him and Crowley participated in the Crusade together. They fought on different battlefields, but Nald Vine also made it home alive.

Only, Crowley heard that he started acting oddly after coming back home. He turned melancholic and became prone to incoherent delirious mumbling. Soon after, he stopped coming to the Order and church.

But Crowley was the same. Ever since he had returned from that war, he stopped going to church, so he didn’t know any details about how exactly Nald Vine distanced himself from the Knights Templar. Then again, quite a few knights became like that. That Crusade was just too disastrous, and there was no lack in those who chose to distance themselves from their Orders after it.

“Then, was it Nald Vine who killed Gilbert Chartres?”

“…Wha, that’s…”

“…That’s just ravings of a madman.”

“…Besides, that had to be a hallucination.”

Ferid shrugged to that. “Certainly not. I would not take a friend for a fool.”

“I’m not deceiving you.”

“So are you saying there was a need to come here?”

“Ferid-kun,” Crowley repeated sharply, and Ferid raised both arms in surrender.

“…”

“…”

“I understand,” the boy said.

Crowley stroked his head gently. The boy then left the house.

Once he did, Ferid laughed flippantly, gazing at Crowley, “You’re so kind.”

“The pagans you killed also had children, I bet.”

“So, what were we talking about, again?”

“Men that have no love to give are disliked, you know.”

“Hahaha.” Ferid laughed, but did start talking.

“Well, first, about that high ranking Templar, Nald Vine.”

“It seems that soon after he had returned from the war, he was disowned by his family. He really lost his mind, drinking the blood of pigs, of chickens; then killing servants and drinking their blood, muttering all the while that it would grant him immortality.”

“Sooner or later, the family would become targets of the Inquisition if they kept a man like him around. I’m not sure though if becoming immortal through blood drinking is black magic or some kind of curse…”

“That is right. And that is why they abandoned Nald Vine. Giving him a certain amount of money, they disowned him, excluding him from the Vine family. His mansion was pretty much abandoned. But the Inquisition still made no move, because he himself did not get in touch with anyone.”

“Wha, you investigated to that extent?”

“Now, wait a second. Does that mean that if you had just told me about the culprit on that day, Gilbert could’ve been saved?” Crowley demanded to know.

If that was how it was… If that was how things were, he would—

But just then Ferid’s face twisted into an exasperated grimace as he said, “Why don’t you start using your head, Crowley-kun?”

“No way.”

“Out of question. Nald Vine was a spoiled rich heir. He didn’t know what hard work even was. There is no way he would be able to kill Gilbert. Not to mention, he is a former Templar. He would surely stand out if he ever showed his face at the HQ.”

Crowley frowned. “Since when did you know the truth?”

“Answer.”

“Why didn’t you tell me at the time?!”

“Give me the names of the ringleaders!”

With this, Crowley extended his hand towards Ferid. Grabbing him by the lapels, he slammed the silver-haired man against the wall with great force. But Ferid, completely unruffled, only continued to grin like a fool.

“No, I will not. If I did, it would only play into their hands. They do not necessarily have to pin the crime on Nald Vine. After all, there is another knight who shows signs of having gone insane. Setting you up as Gilbert’s murderer is wh—”

“And what will you do then? To start with, do you think you have the right to be angry? If only you had not distanced yourself from the Knights Templar, you would not have needed to ask me who the ringleaders were. You would have known yourself who was Gilbert’s rival for the position of the next Master.”

“But you have no way of knowing. Because you are not a Templar Knight anymore. You introduced yourself as someone with the Knights Templar when you saved the child earlier, haha, do not make me laugh. You have already run away from your comrades and from God, wrong?”

“Gilbert-kun was involved in politics and faced a crisis. He needed the hero to return to overcome it. But that hero lost God and refused to come back no matter what.”

“Roy Rouland who visited you on the day of Gilbert-kun’s funerals is in the same situation. Gilbert’s faction has lost its leader. It is collapsing. Moreover, that leader was killed by his fellow knights. There are very few comrades the members can trust now. After all, the enemy is very careful, and the type of people who would stop at nothing, even at killing their political opponent and pinning the blame on the innocent. But still, if the hero had returned at that point…”

“You prevented me from going to the funerals, taking me to this far away place a good distance away from the town instead, huh…”

Finally Crowley understood what Ferid’s goal was. He pulled Crowley away from the center of the political strife. So that Crowley wouldn’t get killed.

Ferid grinned, “Aren’t I being considerate of my friend? It is about time you started calling me your best friend, even.”

Indeed, he may have saved Crowley’s life. However…

“I didn’t ask you to.”

“…”

“Yeees?”

“Hahaha.”

“It is not, I suppose. Losing God is always a tragedy.” Ferid’s countenance took on a tinge of sadness, if only a barely noticeable one.

Watching it, Crowley couldn’t help asking, “Did you lose God, too?”

“We’re not that far apart in age though?”

“Say, Ferid-kun.”

“Is Roy going to be killed?” Crowley asked.

Even though he knew the answer. But he couldn’t help asking anyway. That was because he was weak, no doubt.

Ferid replied immediately and easily, “Yes, unfortunately.”

“You could, had you returned when Gilbert-kun asked you.”

But that was a thing of the distant past now, something hopeless that could never be undone. After all, Gilbert was already dead.

Staring at the floor, Crowley sighed and said in what sounded like a sob, “…Is that so.”

With that, Ferid was considerate enough to fall silent for a while.

Chapter end