SML Ch 94

Chapter 94

13. In Search of the Secret Weapon in the Cave

“To the esteemed Sir Theophros. This is Reynald.

I cannot guess how grave the incident entangling you, sister, may be, but matters here cannot be left unattended either. The Fae King who once fused with Prince Arun in the past may set foot in this land to avenge himself upon me and to steal the prince’s power.

Please respond with haste.”

The moment Reynald returned to his office, he sent a letter to Theophros via a magical courier-sphere. Though known as an impulsive and self-willed mage who heeded royal commands not at all, at present there was no one more reliable.

It would be much faster for him to cease his digressions and reach the fief than to dispatch troops from the capital. And of course, the kingdom’s greatest archmage would be more helpful than any middling contingent.

While waiting for Theophros’s reply, Reynald strove to recall the sigil seen in the fae Theater as precisely as possible and sketched it onto paper. He had definitely seen the emblem engraved upon the armor of the knights there, somewhere before.

“It must be the crest of some noble house. I’m poor at memorizing such things, but I’m certain I’ve seen it.”

Reynald, born a commoner, had always struggled to memorize noble heraldry. In youth, with a low station, he had been mocked by all for being an orphan who couldn’t even wear a proper device on his cuirass. Noble knights could recognize each other’s origins by the crests on their armor; thus, with no knowledge of such matters, Reynald had been naturally excluded.

One day, when he voiced his bitterness about this to the king, the king said, “I’ll solve the problem soon,” then abruptly thrust Reynald into the post of Royal Knight-Commander. By that office’s privilege, he bore the royal arms upon his armor, but that hadn’t been what he’d meant to ask for.

Even after becoming Knight-Commander and achieving numerous feats, Reynald remained unable to memorize noble crests. A different problem arose than in his days as a low-ranking knight: when he failed to identify an opponent’s house at once, the other party would feel slighted, thinking their family was deemed trivial. What was he supposed to do about that?

“I was never suited to life in the capital. That command was ill-fitting too, as though I’d stolen someone else’s seat by force…”

Thinking on heraldry dredged up unpleasant memories. Better to ask Alex later and forget it for now, Reynald decided, setting down his pen and starting on the sandwiches he’d brought from the kitchen.

Yet before he could finish eating, the surface of the once-quiet courier-sphere began to glow with a pale white light. At first Reynald expected a reply, but soon realized it was something else.

Unlike a normal letter’s arrival, the sphere’s light swelled, overflowing until it filled the entire room. Reynald understood what this portended.

He rose at once and set the sphere in the middle of the parlor sofa. By the time he had taken the seat opposite, in the place where the sphere had been sat an old, familiar-faced mage.

It was a projection spell using the courier-sphere as a conduit. The old mage glanced around his surroundings, eyes widening as if surprised.

“You’ve grown perceptive, Reynald. I expected you’d try to converse with me while I was perched on your desk.”

“I saw a silver-elf mage use projection magic recently. Fortunately it came to mind quickly.”

“A silver elf, out in a country backwater? Well, on second thought, it’s exactly the sort of place one might live without meeting people… Anyway, it’s been a while. Retirement’s said to be less than delightful—are you living well?”

Theophros—or rather, his projection—gave a thin chuckle, lounging into the sofa. Contrary to his unhurried, imperious manner, his sky-blue hair and dark-brown robe were spattered with blood and viscous green fluid. Evidently he had been fighting moments ago.

“You must have guessed from my letter—things aren’t good. But are you in any state to be talking, Lady Theo?”

“Oh, I’m fine. Did you think I’d cast a projection and leave messy interference lying around? What a thing to worry about.”

“With blood on you from head to toe, how could I not worry? What in the world are you doing?”

“Dissecting little ones alive.”

“What did you just say? Dissecting babies?”

Reynald nearly sprang to his feet, but the old mage flicked his staff to rap Reynald’s shoulder. The projection was not as refined as Solden’s, and the blow was not felt physically, yet Reynald felt a strange shock, his head clearing and his emotions settling.

“Listen to people to the end, you great naked thunderer. Some depraved mage carried out strange experiments on children in a country village, then fled. To be precise, they’re between ten and fifteen—not infants.”

“—!”

“The victims, driven mad, killed their families; by day they huddle as ordinary children, and by night they turn into failed draconians and run amok. I’m dissecting the victims to identify the cause. What, did you think I’d taken up human experimentation in my twilight years?”

Unable to deny it, Reynald only shrugged. But the explanation made clear why Theophros was engrossed in the case.

Children killing their families and transforming into draconians by night—Reynald, who had fought countless monsters and magical beings for decades, had never heard of such a thing. If a mage’s experiment had made them chimeras, they should remain transformed; why switch back and forth? Theophros continued.

“For now I’m excising the grafted parts during dissection. It seems the mage implanted specific monster cells into the children. Their on-and-off change into draconians is due to that.”

“Specific monster? What kind?”

“That I’ll only know after further inquiry. Given they become draconian, likely something related to dragons.”

“Dragons…”

“Ah, the dragonslayer reacts on cue. I have no sense yet of which monster exactly. It bears a magical force nearly approaching a true dragon’s; and yet watching it, it’s not a dragon. And besides you, I can’t imagine another with the gall to slay a real dragon and extract its cells… Unless it was you?”

“Enough of the worthless jests. You can’t be serious.”

“Oh please, would I be serious? The implants were done a year ago. In any case, the traces of the transplant magic are not of a sort commonly seen in the Carbonel Kingdom. The prevailing hypothesis is that a foreign mage infiltrated our realm, committed the crime, and fled; I intend to mobilize other court mages for further investigation.”

It seemed that mage had his own troublesome affair. Hearing that children had suffered so harshly, Reynald’s heart soured, and he fervently wished Theophros would quickly identify the cause and resolve it.

Still, Theophros had used a projection to contact him likely for other business. After a pause, Reynald decided to go to the point.

“You must have time to speak with me if you’re using projection, Lady Theo.”

“Well, you were spouting such bizarre claims. What was it again? The Fae King seeks revenge? Not some mere king of monsters, but the king of the fae?”

“As you know, the current Fae King, having fused with a human at birth, differs from ordinary fae. If he manages to arouse the fae’s curiosity, invading the human realm would not be difficult.”

Though Reynald offered this promptly, Theophros tilted his head, skeptical.

“If that were possible, would that so-called Fae King have lazed about in his own realm for the past fifteen years? Listen to me, Reynald. The loyalty those pretty bug-like things bear their king is not the human sort. They may pretend to obey to avoid death, but to set foot on a battlefield for their king—that they will not.”

“That was indeed the impression. The fae who relayed that to me didn’t seem particularly motivated.”

“Knowing that, what’s there to fret over? Without extraordinary curiosity, they won’t invade the human world en masse. I know well enough you’ve doted on Prince Arun…”

“No, this goes beyond that. There is something in this fief capable of provoking that extraordinary curiosity. This fief is strange. Once every hundred years, something beneath the fief draws human and monster alike from all over. For now it’s confined to the fief, but I’ve received information that if left alone, it may extend beyond and affect the entire kingdom…”

Even as he explained, Reynald worried he sounded like a madman. He had seen countless times comrades endangered by those undone by monsters’ psychic assaults. Even without mind attacks, humans often fell for monsters’ schemes and led their fellows straight to lairs.

Perhaps he was doing something similar now. Harboring that suspicion, Reynald nonetheless recounted to Theophros in as much detail as possible all he had experienced.

Theophros, staff in hand and arms folded, listened in silence. His red eyes shone with a curiosity as blatant as any fae’s, yet his expression held a composure and coldness no fae could match.

“Reynald, come here a moment.”

No sooner had Reynald finished than Theophros spoke thus and set the staff aside. Puzzled, Reynald rose and sat beside him.

“Good. Lower your head.”

To accommodate the short old mage, Reynald bent as much as he could. Theophros took his head in both hands and stared hard into his eyes. And then—

“Now I see I misjudged. I’d thought this business merely an extension of the usual whining you and the king used to put on.”

At those muttered words, Reynald felt a strange sensation.

The mage who usually cared for nothing but himself wore, for once, an expression that seemed almost like pity for Reynald.