บท 24: Choice (2)
I eventually opened my eyes slowly to check whether my slash earlier was on target or not. After confirming that it was accurate, I turned around to look at commander Mavuto.
He still had a calm face that showed no emotion whatsoever, in spite of the scene that had just occurred in front of him. I expected him to do something, but he just stood there quietly observing.
"You're not going to say anything?"
"I won't find faults in the choices you make. It was your decision, after all."
"You have no concerns?"
"My only concern is whether or not you can live with those choices."
"I think I'll manage."
This man was the commander of an army, a seasoned veteran of war who had taken away countless human lives. One would expect him to be indifferent or merciless towards human, yet commander Mavuto felt somewhat like a protective father to me, even though I had only known him for two weeks up to this point.
I walked outside of the cell and handed back the large sword to the commander, which he promptly grabbed hold of and put back in its sheath.
"Why?"
A faint voice came out of the small prison cell. When I glanced behind me, the young knight was still sitting on the ground even though I had already cleanly sliced through the copper chain attached to his leg shackle.
"There are already enough people who hate me in this world, and I don't want to make enemies out of more."
"I can't be your enemy if I was dead."
"That's true, but if I killed you, then by Kitrod law I would have become an outlaw, which means the entire population would turn against me."
Between making enemies out of one person and out of most of the world, this seemed like the better choice to me. Besides, this was the only choice that wouldn't hurt my conscience.
"Except we're not in Kitrod right now, and what you're saying makes no sense."
"How can you be so nonchalant in this situation?"
Does this guy really want me to end his life or something? Why can't he just leave my conscience alone? I only wanted to say some ridiculous excuse to get away from this scenario, and possibly make myself look high and mighty…
"Well, you're probably branded as a public enemy in Kitrod already, anyways. It's not that hard to link the disappearance of an eccentric alchemist who sells scrolls for fire magic with the Demon King army's recent pyromania."
Before the knight could make me feel worse about myself, I turned back to look at the commander.
"I hope you'll forgive me for this, commander Mavuto."
"Forgive you for what? I'm not blaming you for anything."
"You're not even mad at my decision?"
"He was your prisoner, so what you chose to do to him does not concern me."
"You're surprisingly lenient."
"My leniency depends on whether or not you plan on rebelling later on."
"I don't have plans for that."
"You have nothing to worry about, then."
I felt somewhat relieved that the commander had nothing against me for sparing the prisoner's life.
"…Although, how do you plan on explaining this to other people who aren't as lenient?"
"Well…"
That was a good question. How exactly do I plan on explaining this?
"Um… Oh, I know!"
"Yes?"
"You said I should treat him like a spoil of war, right?"
"That's correct."
"Hey! I'm a person, not an object!"
Ignoring the knight who voiced his objection just now, I continued talking.
"Then I'll just tell other people that he's now my slave."
"That should work."
I turned back around to face the captive knight and pointed my finger at him.
"And since you're my slave now, I have an order for you."
"I'd rather die, thanks."
"…"
He seemed to be unfazed by my statement, and was still keeping his listless look from before.
"Can't you at least be grateful I spared your life?"
"Like I said, I'd rather die while maintaining my honor as a knight than become a lowly slave."
Now I'm just worried that I might get killed by this knight instead.
"Anyhow, you will accompany the commander to the recently occupied territory on the other side of the border."
"I refuse."
"Afterwards, you will return to your hometown once the night comes and tell everyone about how the Demon King army should be feared for taking down a dragon. Of course you'll have to take a beating before leaving, so people won't suspect much."
"…"
"Finally, you will retire from the army, and you will welcome me like a friend if I ever come visit you."
I smiled at the knight, while the man gave a deep sigh and finally decided to stand up.
"At this point, I'm starting to wonder if you're a moron or lunatic, or both."
I ignored the knight's comment, then turned back around to face commander Mavuto.
"Will you help me make sure he obeys that command?"
"Certainly."
While I have to admit that this is one of the dumbest ideas I could come up with, it was probably the best choice for my mental health.
Keeping this person around would put my own life in danger. Even if I made sure he was unarmed, it was still most likely possible for him to beat me to death, since he clearly has much more strength than me. Given how he had essentially given up on life earlier, it was highly probable that he would have no qualms about killing me just to get in trouble and be executed.
"Oh, I almost forgot to ask, what is your name and hometown?"
"…Ankis, from Gadubi town."
If I remember correctly, then Gadubi was a small town about 50 kilometers south of the border. It held some strategic importance because the town had a higher elevation than its surroundings. Since it was relatively close to the Demon King's territory, it might actually be possible for me to come to that place one day.
"Well I hope to see you in Gadubi town some day, Ankis."
I walked away while saying that, so the knight would not have a chance to make a snarky remark.
* * * * *
There was no work that needed my help in Border Town, so the commander granted me permission to leave early even though I was originally supposed to be here until the end of this day. There was a supply carriage that came from Ladita town the night before, and was on its way back in the early morning, just a couple hours after the incident in the prison, so I hitched a ride on it after receiving the citizenship card from the officers involved. It was a thin wooden card with my personal details and some authoritative stamp etched on it.
I reached the town at around eleven o'clock, and decided to go to the nearest inn to have an early lunch since I hadn't eaten since the night before. There were only two other locals in the dining hall since it was still quite early for lunch, so I decided to treat those two to some beer in exchange for telling me more about the town. Amber was supposedly coming to pick me up at ten o'clock the next morning in front of the town landmark, so I wanted to learn as much as possible about this place during the 23 hours I was about to spend here.
Ladita had very fertile soil, so this town's main focus was agriculture. Almost all of the town's 15000 or so population were minotaurs and cyclopes, whose high physical strength allowed them to work tirelessly on large fields to provide grains for the entire southern province and the army at the border. There was so much agricultural work going on that during harvest season, one could easily get lost in the middle of the fields if not for the abundant tall mills in this town. Each mill had a unique colored marking on it, so with a little bit of familiarity, one could make use of the mills in sight to navigate around.
Most of the town's land was flat, but there was one particularly tall hill on the outskirts of town where an unnecessarily large mill was built. It was inefficient to cart crops up a 200 meter slope just for grinding, especially when there were over a hundred of other mills built on the town's flat land, so this large mill was only used as a land marker for those unfamiliar with the area that was trying to locate Ladita town but ended up getting lost in the crop fields instead. This was probably where Amber was supposed to pick me up tomorrow.
There were no unique plant species in this area since all of the land surrounding the town had already been converted into crop fields, which as a result removed all wildlife and naturally occurring vegetation, so there was no chance of me finding new alchemy materials to experiment with.
My other interest was whether or not I could learn new magic here, but it seemed unlikely since most of the population was unable to use any, just like in Sachiru town. Of the very few who could, the magic they knew was limited to very basic earth-type spells that helped boost crop yield, which would have been of no use for me. The town at least had a public library, so I asked for the directions there.
* * * * *
I was prepared for another shock like when I visited the Sachiru public library, but the one in this town actually looked normal. It was a plain white building with one single floor, measuring about 40 meters wide and deep. The interior looked like a very well-lit concert hall, with bookshelves lined up where the performance stage would normally be located. The only thing that bothered me was the fact that all seats were facing the same direction, and there were no reading desks…
Were all the library buildings in this territory originally other buildings that got repurposed?
The librarian's desk was right next to the door, so I came over to the fairy working there to talk.
"Good morning. Do you have books about magic in this library?"
"Oh, welcome. Um… We have quite a number of books on magic. What kind of magic books are you looking for?"
"Could you list the kind of books that are available?"
"We have books on earth, plant, and light basic magic. You could learn about how to make the earth even more fertile, or how to create artificial sunlight, or even how to enchant plants to make them become able to get rid of pests by themselves."
…All of these books were geared towards agricultural use.
"Are there any other magic books?"
"We have one on something we coined as chaos magic, too."
That's interesting. I've never heard about this term before.
"What exactly is chaos magic?"
"Well… It was some strange magic created by a lunatic a few decades ago. The spells he created were a hodgepodge of several different elements, making it impossible to attribute it to a single type. Not only that, it caused quite a bit of havoc to occur, so the people who saw that decided to call it chaos magic."
Now I'm curious to know what kind of crazy person would record a lunatic's chaotic spells in a book.
"Why do you even have a book on that, then?"
"As it turns out, the spells he invoked could actually be made useful when used in a lesser degree. For example, a weakened tornado spell could create gusts that help pollinate plants, or a weakened version of a spell that created deafening loud noises could be used to chase away rodents."
"…All of those spells are used for agricultural purposes, aren't they?"
"Yes."
"Do you have any books about magic that isn't used for farming?"
I probably should have just asked that from the beginning. At least I know lunatics were still useful to some extent in this territory.
The fairy repeatedly tapped her chin and went into deep thought.
"Let me see… Oh, I think we have one book! I can show you where it is, if you want."
"That would be great."
As we made our way to the bookshelves, I couldn't help but notice the completely empty rows of seats in the library. I reckon the fairy had nothing better to do here.
She brought me to a bookshelf near the deepest corner of the building. All of the books on the shelf had plain, dark colored covers. Why were there so many books without any names or titles written on the spines, anyways? Did the authors or publishers not know how to advertise books?
"Well… It's somewhere on this shelf. Look for the thinnest book you can find."
I started having some doubts as soon as she finished her sentence.
"Oh, I found it."
She pulled out a thin booklet wedged between the clutter of books. Somehow, there was a bit of dust gathered on it, so she blew on it while my doubt increased after seeing the somewhat familiar cover color.
"Here you go. The book is called 'Devils can inflict curses, and so can you!'"
"Th-thank you…"
"The title is a bit corny, but there are a couple of useful spells written inside."
Useful to whom?
I did my best to keep a straight face while taking the booklet from her. I didn't want to bury it back under the mess of books right away, since the librarian looked so happy to be of help.
"I have another question. Could you tell me which shelf contains books about the ocean?"
"Two shelves down, that way."
"Thank you."
I went in the direction of where the fairy pointed, while she grabbed another book off of a nearby shelf and drifted towards the library's front entrance.
"I'm more interested in the skies than the ocean, so I'll be reading this at my desk. Let me know if you need help with anything else!"
"I will. Thank you."
I quickly stuffed the useless booklet back in its original place while she was looking away.
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