Ochita Kuroi Yuusha no Densetsu

Chapter 3: The Searcher

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He was a very well-dressed man . He wore a chic suit with a crimson tie and held a suitcase, and his blonde hair was well-kept . He had sleepy blue eyes that appeared to be a little low on motivation . He should’ve been in his mid-thirties or so, but he looked younger - it was hard to see him as any older than his mid-twenties .

He didn’t look nearly rough enough to be someone that all of Roland’s military was after, and to top it all off, he’d showed himself at midday . Midday in the slums . He didn’t hide his face at all, and he looked like someone who might’ve aimlessly wandered over by accident, aside from that n.o.ble suit he wore .

This man was wanted by the police, and here he was without a carriage, without guards, wandering around aimlessly in the slums . He was so lax that he seemed to be easy pickings for thieves or ruffians as he approached, nothing but smiles .

“Hey, over there,” his coworker Emirua said .

Miller nodded . “I saw . ”

“That’s, uh, the guy we’re searching for…”

They’d released a police sketch by then - it’d been a while, after all . “Yeah,” Miller said and nodded again .

“He’s coming this way,” Emirua said, unsure of what to do .

Miller smiled . Who would have thought that his prey would come to him . He could have never predicted this . “Emirua . ”

“Yeah?”

“We’re gonna make it big . ”

His coworker smiled, too . “R-right—”

His words stopped there . Because he took some kind of attack and vanished completely .

“……”

Miller stared, eyes widened in horror . He looked around to see if there were other enemies, too, but there weren’t . But that was obvious . Because no one in these slums could pull a fast one on him anymore . He was just too used to dealing with the horrible things that happened in the slums nowadays . But this… 

“…What in the world is happening?”

“Hey . You’re Rahel Miller, right?” The suspect asked .  

He was Lieral Lieutolu, a former duke and the genius behind much of Roland’s current magic .

Miller gazed at the genius’ sleepy face .

“……”

Could he defeat him? He tried to calculate his changes with a stare .

Lieral continued to approach him, relaxed as could be . “Huh, is Miller the one I just killed then? That’d be pretty bad…”

“I’m Miller . ”

“Oh, really? That’s good . Elluah Emirua is the one I wanted to kill . But really, you need to choose better coworkers~ he’s been going through the girls here and systematically a.s.saulting them, you know?”

Miller couldn’t answer .

To be honest, he’d known about that for some time . But that didn’t mean that he could just kill him now . Because doing so would make him stand out . If he’d killed Emirua, then nothing else in this rotten country would ever change .

It was rotten from the core . Just pruning the branches wouldn’t help . It had to be uprooted completely or nothing would change .

But that was whatever right now .

“So our magnificent runaway has decided to come into broad daylight to dispose of a demonic rapist, has he?”

Lieral shrugged . “No way . I came to see you . ”

“Me?”

“Yeah . I thought I’d come and see what that idiot who’s forgotten his place and decided to change this country looked like,” he said, his sleepy face managing a smile .

Miller glared . “Well…”

He spoke to distract the other man from seeing his fist clench up . Then he smacked it right into Lieral’s cheek . It connected easily . “Guah!”

Miller didn’t stop there . He moved both hands to strangle Lieral’s throat, then kicked his knees out under him to wrestle him to the ground .

“Sto…”

Of course Miller didn’t stop . Because he knew that he wouldn’t be able to match Lieral if he could cast magic . So he had to keep moving .

He’d decided how he’d act in this scenario some time ago: if he were even in the position to capture Lieral, he’d kill him without hesitation .

Lieral was most likely the most talented mage in all of Roland . So he’d kill him without letting him use magic .

The military’s bounty notice said to capture him dead or alive . So there was no point in letting him live .

“Die,” Miller said as he strangled Lieral while slamming his head against the ground .

He heard his skull crack .

“……”

He thought it was over .

“You have to get rid of men who a.s.sault girls . ”

That… was Lieral’s voice . It was coming from behind him .

Miller looked down at the face of the man he’d just killed . It was changing, melting, the skin globbing off with the consistency of honey… and underneath Lieral’s melted skin… was Emirua’s face .

“s.h.i.t,” Miller said . He sprung up and stepped away, then turned around to where he’d heard Lieral’s voice, tensing himself for battle to the point where he was shivering .

He cursed his own shock . He cursed himself for his foolishness in believing that he could defeat Roland’s strongest mage .

He’d been too eager to catch him, and now he was getting his just desserts .

“…I’m an idiot,” Miller mumbled . And then he focused on what was behind him: a perfectly relaxed, sleepy man .

Miller was so scared that his mind was flooding him with the impulse to escape, and yet Lieral was just standing there like he was ready to lay down for an afternoon nap .

“…An illusion?”

“Yeah . ”  

“But I didn’t see you use any magic,” Miller said .

“Are you sure you aren’t just dull?”

“Haha, that may be… but I won’t look down on you anymore . ”

“Heheh, probably not . You seem pretty promising . But not so much that you can fight me . ”

Miller nodded easily . “It’d be impossible for me alone . ”

“Hm? You aren’t alone?”

Miller smiled . “Hey . Lightning Flash,” he ordered .

His subordinates from the slums appeared to surround Lieral . There were about twenty of them, and they all began to draw a magic circle at the same time . Miller did the same . The plan was to use thunder magic . Counting Miller, they’d shoot twenty-one of the same spell . No one should be able to dodge that, no matter how much of a monster they may be .

“…You were wrong to come into my territory,” Miller said . “Sorry, but I’m gonna need you to die . ”

His spell was soon finished . Everyone began to speak the words to it at once .

“I wish for thunder—”

Lieral didn’t react other than to look around, a little bothered by how many magic circles had been drawn around him .  

And then Lieral Lieutolu opened his mouth and spoke slowly .

“Death of Lightning Flash . ”

A magic circle like any other spell from Roland appeared before him without warning… but the speed at which it appeared was unlike what one saw with Roland’s spells .

Lieral hadn’t drawn that magic circle . And yet he activated a spell .

Ridiculous . Miller wanted to shout that it was ridiculous . But before he could a ma.s.sive ball of sparks appeared in the center of Lieral’s magic circle, then burst and scattered through his surroundings in long, thin bolts .

One such bolt headed straight for Miller . It rammed right into his magic circle and made his spell disappear . The same happened to each of his subordinates’ spells .

Lieral had destroyed them all with that one spell . He spoke calmly, sleepily . “I’ll say it again, but you’re alone, right? You’re just one person . Let me confirm that . If you’re not alone and there’s really a crowd around me, then I’ll have to kill everyone here . Are you okay with that?”

“……”

Miller raised three fingers . It was their signal to wait on standby . His subordinates erased their presence on cue .

Lieral nodded, satisfied . “So what’ll you do now? Do you want to keep fighting a little longer?”

Miller shook his head . “It’s my loss . ”

“You’re strong . ”

“Hah… Says who?”

 Lieral laughed, then pressed a finger to his mouth . “You heard it straight from me . ”

Miller looked at his mouth . It opened, and small, dark things like bugs came pouring out . But when he looked carefully he could tell that they weren’t bugs . They were letters . He didn’t know which country’s alphabet they were, but they poured out, and then soon disappeared .  

“…What did you do?” Miller asked .

Lieral shrugged . “You told them to standby, didn’t you? So you let them be killed by words . ”
 

“Wha—”

“It’s not surprising . It’s because of your lapse in judgement . You ignored me even though I said that I wanted to talk to you alone . So of course this happened, right?”

“Stop . I’ll have them withdr—”

“It’s too late . ”

“……”

Miller wanted to sprint towards Lieral . He readied himself to fly at someone he couldn’t win against, fully intent on attacking him . It took everything in him to overcome his fear to prepare his body .

Their deaths weren’t necessary sacrifices . He’d just been told that they were dying because of his own mistake . It was entirely his fault . So he couldn’t make a second mistake here .

He couldn’t feel nothing when it came to his friends’ deaths . So he glared at Miller .

“……”

But he didn’t do anything .

He gritted his teeth, but he didn’t move his limbs .

Lieral smiled again . “Good boy . You resisted the temptation . ”

“……”

“Don’t worry . I was lying about killing all of your allies . I’ll just make them sleep . ”

Lieral snapped his fingers .

“……”

Something incredible happened . Everyone around them fell down at once . Not just Miller’s subordinates, either . Everyone in the slums .

“Alrighty, they’re asleep~”

Lieral said it like it was a simple matter . But it wasn’t . He hadn’t drawn a magic circle, and he hadn’t spoken an incantation . All he did was snap his fingers and everyone in a wide area fell over asleep .

He was powerful enough to rule the world . Far, far too powerful .

None of the spells he used were normal . Not a single one of them . He just spoke and magic happened . He didn’t need to do anything else .

“…Are you human?” Miller asked .

“Nope,” Lieral said easily, but somewhat sadly .

“Then what are you?”

“I didn’t come here to explain that . ”

“Then what…”

…did he need from Miller?

That’s what he meant to ask . But Lieral’s briefcase opened with a click of its lock coming undone .

Papers packed with those same letters that Miller couldn’t read came pouring out . Then the papers started moving on their own like they were dancing, or perhaps composing something .  

Dozens of sheets of paper flew up, then met and stuck together in a ball . Then the ball molded itself into a human head, and then flopped down onto the ground where it rolled for a moment .

“……”

Miller watched the head .

Blood was dripping from its neck like it was freshly severed, its eyes wide with fear and mouth open in a silent scream .

It was such a realistic, perfect, life-like replication of Lieral’s head that it made him want to throw up .

“…What are you planning?” Miller asked .  

Lieral smiled . “You already know, don’t you?”

“…Hm . Take this head and tell the military that I’ve killed you, right?”

Lieral nodded . “I think that’s what you want too? Your ambitions will be much closer to where you can reach if you do . ”

“My ambitions?”

“Yeah . ”

“Just who—”

“I have no interest in a boring conversation about your revolution and how you want it to be a secret,” Lieral said . “If you don’t want it, then I can bring it to some other place . But I brought it here to you because you’re promising and seem like you’ll live for a good while yet . Whether you take it or not is up to you . ”

Goodness .

“……”

He knew everything and didn’t care .

“……”

And Miller… was interested . He stared at the head by Lieral’s feet . His plan would advance at an amazing rate if he just took it .

“……”

But that was sticking something horribly monstrous in the middle of his plan . Something that Miller hadn’t considered and didn’t know anything about .

What was the trade-off?

Miller looked to Lieral and spoke . “You’re saying that you’re giving this head to me . But what are you getting out of this? Don’t tell me it’s just to get your pursuers off your back . With power like yours…”

Lieral was easily strong enough to level the whole country . What were a few bounty hunters on his trail?

Lieral flicked the hand holding the suitcase to close it . The lock clicked shut on its own . “It’s okay if you want to live normally . I don’t want anything in exchange . No, maybe it’s better if I say that I get something in return on that path you’re following . ”

With that, Lieral turned to leave . But not without a final comment .

“That’s why I brought it here for you . I think it’d be nice if you’d use it for a promotion . ”

“But I haven’t done anything—”

“And yet I can still benefit . Perhaps I should say that it’s inevitable? Sorry, but we can’t have this conversation if you don’t take it . It’s unfortunate, but people who know about that stuff…”

“Can’t be left alive?”

“Yeah . ”

“You’re a pretty free speaker then . ”

“Sorry . But the problem is that you’re so much weaker than me . ”

“Yeah, that’s true . ”
 

“Haha . But you’ll get stronger in the meantime, so don’t sweat the details too much . ”

“Stronger than you?” Miller asked .

“Not unless you plan on giving up your humanity… and that’s not something I recommend . It’s fine if you don’t worry too much about the darkness of this good-for-nothing country and just continue to walk in daylight . People like that are necessary too, after all . But people like me…”

Lieral looked up at the sky as his voice trailed off . The sun was shining brilliantly from its midday peak . But Lieral wasn’t looking at the sun . Miller could feel that he was staring at something dark up there .

“…Hey, Miller . Have you ever thought about if anything is up there or not?”

Miller looked up, too . The sky was bright enough to narrow his pupils significantly . But he couldn’t see anything past the sky . “What are you…”

Miller looked back to Lieral . But he was gone .

Miller clicked his tongue quietly . He’d just been played like a fool .

The body of his coworker and Lieral’s freshly severed head both lay before him .

“s.h.i.t… what’s with this,” Miller muttered . He felt like everything that just happened had been a daydream . But seeing those there meant it wasn’t all some illusion, although it felt like was .

He was a mage so strong that he’d stopped being human, and Miller was his powerless plaything .  

Even now, the bright light of the sun was shining on that rotten head . The head had been nothing but paper moments ago, but it didn’t look like it at all .

He picked the head up . It was heavy like a head ought to be… but that too was just a fabrication .

“Geez . Isn’t this going a bit overboard with the magic tricks?” Miller mumbled .

Illusion or not, he’d failed to consider any of this . The made-up head and the monster that’d appeared before him . He didn’t understand what that monster wanted to accomplish, either .

What he did know was that Lieral was a monster who could single handedly destroy the whole country . The goal that Miller was working so hard for could be accomplished by that monster in seconds .

But Lieral said he had no interest in that .

It was almost like Miller, who was working so hard for it was just… 

“A clown…”

He smiled bitterly .

But the encounter had made him more knowledgeable .  

There was something weird about this country . He’d vaguely realized that before, too, but now it was obvious . Something about this country was absolutely, undeniably eerie .

It was strange that a country so rotten and impoverished had continued on for so long .

Other countries had revolutionaries when they were on the brink of destruction and turned the country on its head . The fact that that didn’t happen in Roland was strange .

No, the revolutionaries here were Miller and his father . That’s what he’d thought .

His father had been very powerful . He’d been smart, too, and blessed with good allies . And yet he died so easily .

“……”

If even his father couldn’t change this country, then it was likely… that there was just something different about its structure compared to other countries . That’s what Miller thought now .

He recalled something Lieral had said: “It’s fine if you don’t worry too much about the darkness of this good-for-nothing country and just continue to walk in daylight . People like that are necessary too, after all . ”

Those words rolled around in Miller’s head as he considered them .

“The darkness… of this good-for-nothing country,” Miller whispered . He looked back up at the sky . It was so bright that it was hard to keep his eyes open . But he forced them to widen despite the bright light, as if he’d be able to see the darkness Roland had fallen into like that . As if he’d be able to see past the sky like that .

And then .

“……”