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“A paladin...” Merry mumbled. Kuzaku’s jaw hung open.
“...A warrior? Seriously?”
“Th-That’s all in the past now. The past.” Hiyo blushed. What was she embarrassed about? “These days, I’m just an incredible beauty, as you can see. But I had a time in my life where I was those things. I hated it. Hiyo being a paladin, a thief, and a warrior? It’s not funny...”
Hiyo had probably been through a lot, but Haruhiro didn’t care. Any curiosity he might have had was being impeded by his visceral hatred of her.
“So you made this map twenty years ago, right?”
When Haruhiro asked, a terrible look crossed Hiyo’s face.
“Hiyo never said one word about making it, though?”
“...Well, it’s not like it matters.”
“Also, if you don’t call me Hiyo from here on out, you’re guaranteed to regret it.”
“Got it... Hiyo.”
“What is it, Haru-kun?”
Haruhiro closed his eyes. He took a deep breath. He was still frustrated, but it helped him calm down a little. That wasn’t anything to get so mad about. He realized as much when he thought about it with a clear head, but he was still pissed.
Hiyo was a genius when it came to harassing people. Haruhiro was being really careful, but even so, he was having a hard time dealing with her.
“...Is it the experience that comes with age?” he mumbled to himself, and Hiyo glared at him.
“Did you just say somethiiiing?”
“Who knows. I don’t think I did. Did you hear something? Maybe you imagined it?”
“Hmph!” Hiyo looked to the side.
At a glance, Hiyo looked like a girl in her mid to late teens. But only at a glance. If you looked at her build, her clothing, and her hairstyle, you might think she was only that old. On closer inspection, it was clear she was older. He remembered what Barbara-sensei had said about her. The woman who likes to act younger than she is. There was no way she was in her teens. She looked like she was in her twenties. And mid, not early. Maybe even late. If you were looking in the right places, she could have been even older than that.
It might have been appropriate to say that she was “of indeterminate age.” The shape of her face, the way she applied makeup, her outfit, her build, her intonation, her choice of words, her gestures, none of it fit together. None of them felt like they were part of this person named Hiyo. It wasn’t natural. She was working pretty hard to be this way, wasn’t she? Playing the role of a person named Hiyo. If so, then why?
Haruhiro didn’t know. But wasn’t he obligated to learn more about Hiyo, even if he didn’t personally want to?
Hiyo was no friend of theirs. Frankly, it was fair to call her an enemy.
Without thorough knowledge of his opponent, he couldn’t put himself at an advantage. Yes. This was a battle. But what kind of battle? Haruhiro wasn’t even sure of that.
He couldn’t leave things as they were. If he didn’t seriously, earnestly, put everything he had into this, Hiyo, the Master of the Forbidden Tower, and General Jin Mogis would use him up, then throw him away.
“If the map is twenty years old, we shouldn’t rely on it. I guess we should start with me, Kiichi, Neal, and Hiyo entering the New City, and confirming the locations of Ohdongo and Ahsvasin, while verifying how much the current situation differs from what’s on the map. Hopefully even one of those bases still exists. Let’s check that, too.”
“Looks like we’ll have to wait here for now...” Kuzaku furrowed his brow in consternation. He looked super disappointed.
“Aren’t there any holes we could slip through?” Neal asked Hiyo.
“Doubt it. The security around the New City wasn’t nearly so tight back then...” Hiyo muttered to herself, then suddenly panicked. “HH-Hiyo wouldn’t know anything about that, though! Not about twenty years ago! No way, okay! I j-j-just heard rumors! Rumors!”
“Huh?!” Kuzaku covered his mouth with his hands. “Wait, the great party that made this map twenty years ago, it was yours?! How old are you anyway?!”
“...Could you be any slower on the uptake?”
Setora made no attempt to hide the contempt in the look she gave Kuzaku. Merry’s eyes were equally cold.
“I don’t know that you should be asking her age...”
“No, but seriously, isn’t it a mystery? Huh? Is it just me? No way...?” Hiyo suddenly stabbed the knife down on the map.
“You want to know thaaaat bad?” She was smiling.
But it didn’t reach her eyes. The corners of her mouth were turned up, maybe even a little too far, but it still didn’t look one bit like she was smiling.
“I’ll tell you. I’m sixteen. Beauties never age. Hiyo is forever sixteen. Understooood?”
Kuzaku nodded slightly.
“...Yes.”
Scary.


 
9. The Dead Ends of Heaven and the Valley
It was late into the night, but the walls of the New City were the same as ever. Light leaked from the watchtowers, and torches flickered as they moved back and forth along the top of the fortification.
Haruhiro was hiding in the shadow of a ruin that was not even ten meters away from the wall. After considering many options, this was the best one he could find.
The reason for that was simple and obvious: The distance between the watchtowers was wide here. Eyeballing it, it looked to be around sixty meters. The others were generally thirty to forty meters apart, so the difference was noticeable.
Unlike just after sunset, the goblin patrols were starting to get lax in their work. He’d confirmed that. There were still two goblins to a patrol, but once one patrol passed by, he could easily count to two hundred before the next group.
He had Kuzaku strip out of his armor, taking care not to make any noise. His large katana would be left with Setora.
Merry gently placed her hand on Haruhiro’s shoulder. It was too dark to make out the expression on her face.
“Be careful,” she said.
Haruhiro nodded in response.
He’d thought of any number of ways this could go wrong. Ways to avoid them. Ways to deal with it if he couldn’t avoid them. Whenever he started thinking, he couldn’t stop. Obviously, he was feeling tense. And uneasy. He couldn’t possibly not.
No matter how much he thought, there was no end to it. His misgivings would never completely vanish. Honestly, he figured that was just how things were. It was impossible for everything to go according to plan. In fact, most things went badly. It all balanced on a razor’s edge, so it was natural he’d feel uneasy. Stability and peace of mind were far beyond his reach. The ground under his feet was always shifting. All he could do was try to keep his balance, and stay on his feet.
Whew, he exhaled.
Kiichi, who had been lying at Setora’s feet, walked over to him. He stood up on his hind legs, and put his forepaw on Haruhiro’s thigh.
“Nya,” he meowed quietly. That presumably meant something like, It’s good to be working with you. The feeling was more than mutual. Kiichi was way more trustworthy than Hiyo or Neal.
“We’ll do this just like we planned. Kiichi and I cross the wall first. Then Hiyo and Neal, in that order.”
“Okie-dokie.”
“Sure.”
“If there’s a problem, I’ll let you know, so stop immediately and pull out. You don’t need to worry about me. I’ll figure something out on my own. Okay, let’s get started.”
Wait for a goblin patrol to reach our entry point. I’m good at waiting. If it was all I had to do, I could do it forever. But things aren’t going to be that easy.
The patrol’s passed the entry point. How long until the next one? Less than two hundred seconds? I’d say it’ll be about a hundred and eighty. Should we wait for the next one? No, that’s enough time.
The previous patrol is still near the entry point.
We wait eighty seconds, then execute the plan. Cross the wall in twenty. That leaves eighty seconds to spare. Let’s do it.
After counting to sixty, Haruhiro started to think, The last patrol’s a good distance away now. Maybe we’re good to go?
I’m being impatient, he realized. I need to settle down.
Sixty-seven, sixty-eight.
Sixty-nine.
Seventy.
Seventy-one. Seventy-two. Seventy-three.
Seventy-four.
Haruhiro raised his right hand. Five seconds to go.
He bent his fingers one by one.
Four.
Three.
Two.
One.
He moved quickly. Kiichi and Kuzaku followed in silence. Hiyo and Neal came, too.
They reached the wall.
Kuzaku put both hands on it.
Kiichi scampered up Kuzaku’s body and was on top of the wall in no time. Next it was Haruhiro’s turn.
Kuzaku turned toward him and crouched a little, putting his hands together a little above his knee. His palms were facing down, not up.
Haruhiro put his foot on Kuzaku’s hands. He grabbed on to Kuzaku’s shoulders.
“Ngh...!”
Kuzaku stretched his whole body as he pushed Haruhiro upward. The sheer dumb strength he possessed was incredible. Kuzaku raised his hands above his own head in one quick motion. He was probably standing on his tiptoes, too. Kuzaku was close to 190 centimeters tall, so it was like Haruhiro was standing on two-meter stilts. The wall was less than four meters high. It would be a simple matter for him to clamber over it now.
Kiichi was waiting on top of the wall. Below, Hiyo was having Kuzaku help her climb. Haruhiro reached down and held out his hand to her. She grabbed his arm, and he quickly pulled her up.
“Thanks,” Hiyo whispered in his ear. Haruhiro ignored her.
Next it was Neal’s turn. Kuzaku pushed Neal up. He was helping Neal climb up onto the wall, just like he had Haruhiro and Hiyo.
Kuzaku waved. Haruhiro gave him a sign that meant, Get going. Kuzaku moved away from the wall.
The next patrol isn’t coming yet. We’re fine. We have time.
Kiichi jumped down from the wall first. He landed almost without a sound. It was maybe a three-meter fall here. Not as tall as on the Old City side.
Neal followed. It wasn’t as easy for him as Kiichi. He grabbed the upper edge of the wall, hung down from it, and then dropped.
“Ngh...!”
It wasn’t just that grunt. He made a lot of noise, too. But what about the patrol? Did they notice?
“That old man...” Hiyo muttered, then climbed down the wall. She executed her landing better than Neal.
What about the patrol? We’re good.
Haruhiro dropped down the other side of the wall, too. He pressed the bottom of his foot against the wall a number of times, without kicking, to kill his momentum. On landing, he loosened his body as much as he could and rolled across the ground. Then he got right back up, and kept moving.
He had heard as much as he could about the New City from Hiyo. The spot where they had landed — in other words, what Haruhiro was moving across right now — seemed like the ground, but it was not. It was a roof over a road. The roads of the New City were generally covered tunnels, and they had ceilings.
However, there were a ton of holes in them for the purpose of ventilation, and to let in light. Some were small, and others were large. They came in all sorts of shapes, too. The group used one of them to get down to the actual road.
“...It’s a tight fit,” Neal muttered. “My back’s gonna ache later...”
It was true, the road was roughly a meter and a half across, with the ceiling only about that high, too. Even Hiyo, who was shorter than Haruhiro and Neal, had to duck her head.
“If you keep complaining, I will kill you, you know?” Hiyo was making an awfully direct threat. She must have been feeling the pressure. “If you flap your gums like that again, you’re dead, okay? Oh, and if you get separated from us, you won’t be making it home alive, either. Hiyo won’t have to kill you, you’ll just die. Anyway, you do what Hiyo tells you. If you don’t, I’ll kill you.”
“...Got it.”
“Let’s go.” Haruhiro urged the other two, then continued down the tunnel.
He didn’t sense the goblins. They were a race that woke in the morning, and slept at night, just like humans. He’d learned that much in Alterna. Most of the goblins were probably in bed, dreaming.
Some of the tunnels were wider, and had high ceilings. These had lighting fixtures here and there, made of ceramic, or something similar. But in those tunnels, there were always groups of gobs chatting along the side of the road, making it nearly impossible to pass.
That meant they were forced into tunnels they had to duck their heads in. He wasn’t going to complain like Neal, but Haruhiro’s back was starting to hurt, too. It also didn’t help that the tunnels were incredibly twisty, and played havoc with his sense of direction. But they didn’t just twist around, they were a complex maze. With all the T-junctions and crossroads, he didn’t even know what was going on anymore. Every so often, a gob would walk along. Should I kill it? Haruhiro wondered. But if he did, what would he do with the body? There was no way to hide it, so he’d have to leave it there. When morning came, and the other gobs found it, there would be an uproar. Ultimately, whenever a gob approached, they had to turn back and wait for it to pass them by.
I can’t see where we’re going. I feel like this is breaking me.
But at the same time, I probably won’t break, he thought.
He didn’t have his memories, so it was hard to have any real sense of this, but Haruhiro had apparently crossed this emotional tightrope many times before. If he was still looking at himself objectively and thinking things like, I can’t see where we’re going. I feel like this is breaking me, then he was still fine.
Now, if instead of not being able to see where he was going, he could only see a very limited distance in front of him, and lost sight of the situation he was in and his own mental state, that would be a sign he was in serious trouble.
Maybe he had developed the habit of examining himself objectively in order to avoid that ever happening.
The way that Neal repeatedly shook his head, as if to say, I’ve had enough, and let out silent sighs was probably his way of letting off steam and trying to get through this. Meanwhile Hiyo, who had volunteered herself to be their guide, stayed focused on her work, trying not to think about unnecessary things. Though they were all different, each of them had their own method for managing their stress.
According to Hiyo, twenty years ago a bunch of buildings that looked like mud dumplings had been plopped down at random, with tunnels dug between them. There were just two of the wide tunnels with high ceilings that served as main streets. Both started at Ahsvasin, and one of the two led to Ohdongo, the Deepest Valley. This was all recorded on the map.
Twenty years had completely changed the city. There were wide streets all over, and a lot of solid buildings much too well made to be mocked as mud dumplings, as Hiyo had before.
The only thing they were able to confirm before the sun came up was the location of Ahsvasin. No matter what hole they used to get up onto the ceiling of the roads, they could almost always see its splendor.
You could say it looked like a five-armed colossus. There were countless holes in the structure, and light poured out of them, so they could vaguely make out its shape. According to Hiyo, twenty years ago Ahsvasin was two-thirds its current height, and only had two of those arms, so they must have built more onto it.
Ahsvasin was supposed to be in roughly the center of the New City, so they could more or less guess where Ohdongo was. However, reaching it through the complex tunnels was going to be difficult. How about walking over the ceilings? The sun might rise before they made it there.
Not seeing any other option, the group decided to leave the New City temporarily. Inside the walls, there were stairs leading up to the walkway everywhere. These weren’t guarded, so they just needed to watch out for patrols. Getting into the New City was hard, but leaving was easy.
When they got back to the ruin, the way Kuzaku greeted Haruhiro, wagging his tail, was insufferable. Uh, obviously Kuzaku didn’t have an actual tail, like Kiichi did, but he was just that exuberant. Haruhiro really wished he’d tone it down a bit. Though, if he was mean about it, Kuzaku would just get depressed. That was a little painful in its own way. But only a little.
“It doesn’t seem realistic to try and lie low inside the New City as we keep exploring it.”
What Neal said was probably right. For now, at least, they’d have to commute into the New City from this ruin in the Old City. Hiyo seemed less than satisfied with that.
“Let’s just hope the goblins in the New City don’t make a move while we’re taking our time.”
The goblins prized hi’irogane. If that was true, they might attack and try to take back the arms and equipment that Viceroy Bogg and his minions had been carrying.
They waited for night, and then Haruhiro, Hiyo, Neal, and Kiichi infiltrated the New City once more. Their goal was to find the route from the Highest Heaven, Ahsvasin, to the Deepest Valley, Ohdongo.
Because the tunnels were so labyrinthine, they moved around over the roofs of the tunnel roads. But those roofs were full of holes. They had to be careful not to trip or fall through them. There were sometimes passages over the tunnel roads to directly connect buildings to each other. Those sorts of passages tended to be in use at all hours, so they couldn’t let their guards down. Obviously, there were goblins living in the buildings that jutted out above the tunnel roads, so if they raised their voices carelessly, they might be overheard. They might be spotted by a goblin who happened to be looking out a window, too.
They found out that the area near Ahsvasin, which was where the Mogado was supposed to live, had an awful lot of large buildings. Ahsvasin was completely surrounded by them. It didn’t seem possible to approach it over the tunnel roofs.
At least one of the wide main streets with the high ceilings seemed to go through to Ahsvasin. However, the main street seemed to be a thriving business district. It was brightly lit, and full of rowdy goblins at all hours. It would be difficult to take the main street to Ahsvasin. No, more like impossible.
That was as far as their second day of exploration took them. On the third day, they headed for Ohdongo. They didn’t think the location had changed in the last twenty years, so they just had to travel over the roofs of the tunnel roads.
Haruhiro had gotten used to exploring the New City. That was exactly why he had to remain careful, and warn himself not to get complacent. He didn’t have to explain that to the others. Hiyo, Neal, and even Kiichi already knew.
They managed to reach Ohdongo even more easily than he’d expected.
Or the area outside of it, to be more precise.
It stood in stark contrast to Ahsvasin. The area around it might not have been empty, but it was close.
The Deepest Valley.
This was less a valley, and more of a vertical shaft. There was a roughly circular plaza, probably two hundred meters across, but it had a hole at its center with a diameter of about a hundred and fifty meters.
The tunnel roads all stopped at the plaza, and there were countless watch fires lit around the edge of the hole. The goblins walking around the plaza carried spears and shields, and they had what looked like crossbows strapped to their backs. These were undoubtedly guards. They spotted one goblin with a red spear, wearing a red helmet, too. If it was carrying hi’irogane equipment, it was possible that this was the goblin in charge of security.
The group descended from the tunnel road roofs, got as close to the plaza as they could manage, and tried to climb up on top of a building that would give them a full view of Ohdongo. Was it possible to race across the plaza and into the hole? And if they did, what then?
There were seventy to eighty guard gobs lurking around the plaza.
Could they get through without being noticed by them? If it were just Haruhiro and Kiichi, then maybe, just maybe. But Hiyo and Neal made things more difficult.
Ohdongo wasn’t just a hole in the ground. There was a spiral staircase around the inside of it. How far did the stairs go? What were things like down at the bottom? He couldn’t tell. But those were probably guard gobs carrying torches, or whatever they were, as they went up and down the stairs.
Even if they made it across the plaza to Ohdongo, there was no way to avoid the guard gobs on the stairs. They’d have to race down to the bottom, eliminating the guards as they went, and try to find an ugoth.
That would be one hell of a gamble.
And the odds were not in their favor.
The group turned back. They had to leave the New City before dawn broke.
As they were walking over the roofs of the tunnel roads, Neal muttered, “Well, this is a first.”
There didn’t seem to be any way forward. There was nothing they could do. Even if they kept at it as long as they could, it didn’t feel like they would ever come up with an idea.
If this were a card game, they had been dealt an unwinnable hand, one with no potential in it at all, and just couldn’t figure out what to do about it.
There were two options.
Lose, or fold.
But for a variety of reasons, they couldn’t choose either.
“There’s still something we can do.”
That was all Hiyo said before crossing the wall.
Is she just being a sore loser? Haruhiro thought at the time.
But, actually, he might have been happier if that was all it had been.



10. The Two Kings
This is a story from long, long ago.
There’s a certain “myth.”
Yes, this is purely a myth...
It may contain some truths, or the seeds of them, but it can’t be exactly what happened.
Think of it as a story that people wanted to believe in, or at least believed in up until a certain point.
Long, long, long ago, there was a land named Arabankia.
In terms of what Arabankia was, it’s been said to be an island floating in a vast lake; a continent sunk beneath a great flood; a place far to the west, beyond the red sea; or perhaps a green paradise, spreading out on the other side of the frozen lands of the north.
There are many stories, you see. Nobody has any way of knowing what’s right.
Setting that all aside, the legend that there was once a land named Arabankia has been told in Grimgar since ancient times.
Arabankia was a temperate land, never too cold, or too hot. The verdant forests were filled with birds and beasts, and the wind sang across vast plains that stretched out endlessly. Grimgar was laid to waste in the terrifying battle of the gods, but Arabankia alone was always peaceful.
One day, a certain family moved to Arabankia.
The father was named George, and he had three sons: Theodore, Ishmahr, and Nahnanka. He had a number of daughters, too, but their names are long forgotten, washed away in the flow of time. Their mother apparently died soon after the family arrived in Arabankia. When they buried her in the soil of that land, a great tree arose before their eyes; flowers bloomed on it, and eventually turned into fruit. They also say that this tree collapsed to become the Kuaron Mountains, but that’s another story, and not that important right now, so let’s not get into it.
George and the three brothers worked together in the land of Arabankia and lived in harmony. Well, actually, the climate was temperate, the occasional rain showers felt warm on the skin, there were endless beasts to hunt, all the fruit in the world to pick, limitless clean water in the streams, and even springs of alcohol if they went looking, so they didn’t have a single trouble.
Arabankia was so idyllic it seemed like a lie, or a joke.
The family spent most of their time fooling around.
However, at some point the youngest son, Nahnanka, realized a mysterious thing.
“We’ve lived here for quite a long time, but how long has it actually been? None of you seem to have aged in the slightest. Is that possible?”
“Now that you mention it, you could be right.” The second son, Ishmahr, was carefree. “But, even if that’s true, well, what’s the harm? It means we can live in peace and quiet forever.”
However, the eldest son, Theodore, was of a different opinion.
“I wonder about that. Perhaps we’re living in a dream. We think we all reached Arabankia, tragically lost our mother, and buried her together, but is it true? Isn’t all of this just a dream?”
“Mother’s tree is right there, isn’t it?” Ishmahr pointed to the great tree. “This isn’t a dream. You say the strangest things.”
“What did you say?!”
Theodore got angry. He and Ishmahr quarreled like this occasionally. “Wait, wait, children. You mustn’t fight,” their father, George, chided them in a dignified tone of voice. “I don’t think this is a dream, like Theodore was saying, but it is odd that none of us have aged. Because you’re such good sons, always fetching food for me, I do nothing but eat and sleep, then eat and sleep again, and yet I haven’t gained any weight. That’s strange, too, now that I bring it up.”
“I’m going to go on a little trip and see what things are like outside,” the youngest son, Nahnanka, said. Nobody stopped him, and so Nahnanka left on his journey immediately.
The family continued their carefree life in Arabankia, but no matter how much time passed, Nahnanka did not return. The oldest brother, Theodore, grew worried.
“I think I’ll go search for Nahnanka.”
“No, you stay here, Brother. I’ll go for you.”
This was how Ishmahr came to leave Arabankia, too.
With two of his sons gone, and no sign of their return, their father, George, could wait no longer. But, oh, get this. This is one of those parts that makes you realize this story is a myth, but after all the time the father had spent doing nothing but eat and sleep in Arabankia, he could no longer move away. It was as if he had put down roots.
Like their dead mother, George turned into a great tree.
In one theory, they say that the father gorged himself while fretting over the safety of his boys, and was buried by Theodore after he died of food poisoning.
Whatever the case, the eldest, Theodore, was left with no choice but to go in search of his little brothers.
Well, he had little sisters who were even younger, and there are some fascinating and incestuous stories about the things he did with them, but it would take too long to get into that, so let’s not.
Theodore was quite partial to his life in paradise, so in order to quell his lingering affection for the place, he repeatedly told himself not to look back. He must have had some sense that he’d never return. He was right.
He walked for some time before thinking, It should be fine now. When he turned to look back, there was a milky white haze hanging in the air, and he couldn’t see anything. And, hey, wasn’t that haze rushing towards him? Dunno what’s up with that, but Theodore was in serious danger.
Run, run, Theodore. This is no time to dawdle. Run like the wind. Go. Keep moving forward.
Theodore raced for days and days. Okay, sure, that seems like it would kill him, but he’s a character in a myth, so he could pull this kind of thing off. When he reached the edge of a lake, he decided to stop and rest.
That lake, surrounded by the Rinstorm, Dioze, and Kurogane Mountains, was so incredibly beautiful that it stole Theodore’s heart.
You might think, “Hey, what about his brothers?” But this is a myth. Poking fun at this stuff would just be rude.
“High mountains, like the walls of a house. A lake more wonderful than any I knew in paradise. How could I not build a kingdom here? I will have to recruit workers. Let those who would live in my kingdom gather to me. I will become king, and name this country Arabakia.”
Hey, it’s not cool to say things like, “Oh, come on. That came out of nowhere,” either. You’re free to think it, but keep your mouth shut. A man by the lakeside shouts, “I’m gonna be king, and I’ll let you be my peasants, so gather here.” It’s pretty surreal to imagine it, but for whatever reason, people responded to his call. They came from the north, west, and east, bowing before Theodore one after another, and pledging their allegiance. It is said that Theodore would bless each of their foreheads with his kiss, and pompously declare, “I recognize you as one of my people.” This makes no sense to you? Yeah, that figures. But that’s the myth, so live with it.
The myth of what, you ask? It’s the origin myth of our Kingdom of Arabakia.
Theodore George, the one we call George I, created the Kingdom of Arabakia six hundred and sixty years ago now.
That’s how the story is told.
Now, get this.
There are actually two George Is.
Huh?
Say what?
Yeah, you would think that, wouldn’t you?
This gets just a wee bit complicated, so let’s try to sum it up succinctly.
The truth is, the one who founded the Kingdom of Arabakia was not, in fact, Theodore George. It is possible that a man named Theodore existed, but he wasn’t the first to name himself the King of Arabakia.
That story about the Kingdom of Arabakia being founded six hundred and sixty years ago is nonsense, too. Or there’s no record of it, at least.

Chapter end