Chapter 38

Chapter 38 : Ice Blue (2)

“A request?”

“Yes. I need paint.”

“Paint?”

“It’s blue paint—more precisely, Ice Blue. It’s a color processed from a gemstone that can only be obtained in the Domain of the Sky…….”

Ice Blue?

A familiar shade came to mind. I’d heard that blue dye was troublesome enough to make, but if it came from the Domain of the Sky, then the issue wasn’t merely the difficulty of production anymore. It meant the region itself was different.

And this world was not the sort of Original Work that was so simple. Which meant that color might not be just an ordinary blue either.

“Has something happened?”

“Yes. I’ve heard that lately the Domain of the Sky has been strictly controlling the entry of merchants.”

“Controlling it?”

“Yes. They’re apparently turning away even ordinary sightseers…….”

That was because of the nonaggression negotiations.

A hollow laugh nearly escaped me.

Since the system’s threats hadn’t worked, now it was openly scheming against me by sending this request at such perfect timing.

“They say the cut-off of all outside goods has become a real headache. So…… I absolutely need that paint for my next subject. Can you do it?”

The paint itself wasn’t really the problem. The real issue was something else entirely.

“How am I supposed to go to the Domain of the Sky? Please give me a different request instead.”

It was my final struggle.

A silent struggle aimed at the system that insisted there would be no seat for me at that negotiation table.

But that expectation collapsed without offering even the slightest scrap of hope.

“Hm? Haven’t you heard?”

“Heard what?”

“You’re the one involved, so how could you not…… ah. I suppose you could.”

Selly stared at my disbelieving face, then nodded to herself.

“It’s all over the rumor mill.”

“…….”

I had a bad feeling about this.

And before I could even think of covering Selly’s mouth, a rumor far chillier than the one about Riwin the ill-tempered Underfolk finished taking shape.

“They say you’re part of the delegation going to the Domain of the Sky this time.”

What?

I blinked blankly, unable to properly process the meaning of that sentence.

Who was going where, and for what?

Ding!

[It delights in how beautifully things have worked out. ╰(*°▽°*)╯]

---

If I had to point to the source of all this, there was really only one culprit.

More than anger, it was sheer absurdity that came first, to the point that I couldn’t even snort.

Who was going where?

After feeding the fragment to the little bird, I had almost stopped going to the ruler’s castle altogether. Since it was a Phantasmal Species rather than an ordinary bird, that place was precisely where I might run into people who recognized it for what it was.

It wasn’t that I was intimidated.

It was simply bothersome the way they flinched and went the long way around whenever we met, or openly showed disgust and hurled insults, or resorted to physical threats.

Since Pan’s orders meant they couldn’t really do anything to me directly, it almost felt as though they were making an effort to be more irritating on purpose.

And my personality wasn’t so wretched that I could keep living on scraps of other people’s good graces, so I had been staying in the office for several days straight.

But while I was away, it seemed something had gone ahead without me.

That was why the Original Work had been showing the negotiation scenes so incessantly.

I slammed open the door to Pan’s office.

It looked as though he had dealt with nearly all the mountain of documents that had once been piled there, because today he was stretched out lazily on the sofa taking a nap. I drew a deep breath.

“Hey.”

“…….”

“Hey, wake up.”

“…….”

“You ought to wake up before I set the tree on fire. That would be better for your own health.”

I kicked the sofa Pan was lying on with the tip of my foot as I woke him.

It wasn’t as though he was truly napping anyway. Pretending to sleep with his eyes closed was nothing more than temporary avoidance because he had a guilty conscience.

I crossed my arms and kicked the sofa once more.

Pan finally opened his eyes, frowning, and looked up at me.

“What. Why. What now.”

“You shouldn’t be lying down when you hear this.”

“It won’t make you cute even if you’re angry.”

“Stop talking nonsense.”

Pan narrowed his eyes, raked his already disordered hair into an even greater mess, and slowly sat up.

Only then did I sit down on the sofa opposite him and wait until he was properly upright and looked clearheaded.

Pan took the half-full glass of water from the corner, drank it, then furrowed his brow and said,

“I wonder why you’re angry.”

“Why do I have a schedule I know nothing about?”

“Ah…… so you heard.”

“Ah?”

“Ahem. If the master goes, then naturally Slave No. 1 has to follow.”

“I told you to stop talking nonsense.”

“I’m serious.”

“Hey.”

My expression hardened, and I rolled my eyes over the red aura surging around Pan. If it came down to it, I really was considering setting something on fire, so I was calculating the routes it might take.

Pan’s complexion visibly shifted into alarm, and he waved a hand through my field of vision.

“Don’t set anything on fire. You’ll get hurt.”

“So what if I do?”

“Hah…… I’d forgotten just how foul-tempered you…….”

“If you’ve got complaints, say them to my face.”

Pan laughed awkwardly and rose to his feet.

He found one particular document among the few spread out over the desk and tossed it onto the table in front of me.

“Read it.”

It was a report.

A report titled Measures Regarding the Negotiation Proposal for the Nonaggression Pact, something that by anyone’s standards looked dangerously close to a classified document.

“Why should I read this?”

“It’s not as though you’d run to Karon and report it to him.”

That, of course, was true. I wouldn’t have done it even if I were paid.

Still, it felt as though reading it would mean pushing away my last line of defense with my own hands.

Like touching something distasteful, I set one finger on the first page and slowly pushed the document away.

“Talk first.”

“You looked interested the last time. Was I mistaken?”

He meant when I’d asked about the Black Forest. I had glanced at the documents then without thinking. I hadn’t realized he would notice even tiny movements like that one.

It felt as though everything in the world was desperate to drag me there.

As though the whole universe were saying, Its energy will guide you there!

It was infuriating.

“We’re planning to conclude a nonaggression pact with the Underfolk this time. Of course, I don’t agree with it.”

“Ariti……”

“What?”

“What.”

I met Pan’s narrowed eyes with brazen innocence.

The one most actively advocating for the nonaggression pact was Ariti, the Ruler of the Spring.

That’s right. The female lead of the Original Work.

She wanted peace. She didn’t want the unstable state in which war might break out at any moment. The long truce supported that determination, and everything had been moving in a positive direction.

That is, if the former lord Sek had truly been alive.

Karon intended to use that pact as a pretext to create a reason for war.

That was also the reason the system kept tossing me around and had now finally pushed me toward the Domain of the Sky.

The starting point of everything.

This was right before that incident broke out.

“The negotiations will take place in the Domain of the Sky. For both sides, it’s the least objectionable location.”

“Really?”

“Ah, of course. You wouldn’t know. You’ll understand when you see it yourself.”

I had heard it.

No, I had read it.

While randomly dragging in one Original Work scene after another, there had been one line describing it.

“That enormous mass covered half the sky and blocked out the sun and the moon.”

So the Domain of the Sky really was in the sky. The only question was where, exactly, and in what form.

I brushed back the hair that had fallen loose and unfolded the documents I’d pushed away.

The contents themselves weren’t much, but they were more than enough to let me infer what must have happened in the gaps between the scenes I’d glimpsed in the Original Work.

I let out a hollow laugh and cursed the silent system thoroughly.

Because all it meant, in the end, was that I was still nothing more than a Minor Role being played around with in its palm.

The back of my neck throbbed, and once again I felt myself slipping into some strange state between resignation and enlightenment.

If it wanted to shove me forward, then I’d be shoved.

I had to go anyway.

If the negotiations weren’t resolved properly, war would be unavoidable.

And if war broke out, someone as insignificant as me might well be struck down by any stray blade.

Even aside from that…….

The image of the four little brats crossed my mind, and I shook my head.

For a moment, I wondered whether I ought simply to hide Ariti and erase any chance of her making contact with Karon at all, but curiosity rose in me as well.

Why did those two have to walk toward such a ruined future?

What exactly was going to happen at those negotiations?

Maybe once I raised my rank and gathered more Points, I should try again.

I thought of the splendid roulette wheel of gacha, then set the documents down. There were only a few pages’ worth of information, and I could remember that much roughly.

“All right, I’ll go. What am I supposed to do?”

And besides all that, there was one more reason I had to go.

---

After the still-fuming Iwon left,

Pan sat in silence for a while, listening to the retreating footsteps, then at last drew a deep breath as though releasing one he’d been holding back the whole time.

The documents Iwon had looked over were still pristine, without so much as a fingerprint on them, which confirmed that he could still remember everything at a glance just as well as he used to.

‘So then why did such a good head end up in this state?’

Frowning, Pan tossed the papers carelessly onto the desk and turned to yank open the curtains beside the window.

On the narrow sill sat the ball-jointed doll modeled after the Ruler of the Sky, legs crossed and arms folded, calmly waiting.

“Etel, do we really have to go this far?”

The doll, which had been sitting motionless as though unfocused, rolled its eyes once and fixed its gaze straight on Pan.

“It looks suspicious. Anyone can see that.”

“It is suspicious. Anyone can see that. The same goes for you.”

“What exactly is?”

Borrowing the body of a doll no larger than a forearm, Etel leapt down from the windowsill and sat quite naturally on the soft sofa.

It was the sort of ease that suggested he’d been staying here for quite some time.

Pan shook his head, handed the doll the glass of liquor he’d set aside, and said,

“Does that fool know you’re spying on him by crawling into that idiotic doll body?”

“It’s not spying. It’s surveillance. I still haven’t acknowledged him.”

“That’s not really the kind of thing you get to decide or not decide.”

“…….”

Etel fell silent, downed the clear, strong liquor in one swallow, then let out a mocking laugh.

“Acknowledged…… yes. If he were unquestionably Sek, then there would’ve been nothing to acknowledge in the first place.”

“You don’t trust my eyes?”

“Even your assistant knows your eyes are useless.”

At Etel’s harsh and merciless evaluation, Pan’s brows drooped low.

“That’s a rather wounding thing to say.”

“Then acknowledge that, you idiot Chezer.”

That’s exactly why Ariti doesn’t even glance your way.

At that added comment, Pan dropped the playful attitude, sprawled into the sofa, crossed one leg over the other, and tipped his head back.

The only person who could have reined in Ariti’s drive was Retu, but after what had happened last time, Retu had declared that enough had been done and gone into seclusion.

Retu was the sort who believed even breathing counted as work, and things had apparently gone so far that people were whispering she might soon name a successor simply because everything had become too bothersome.

Which left only the Ruler of the Sky sitting before him now, and he too had become increasingly violent ever since that incident, throwing himself recklessly into things.

“I get knocked about from this side and that side. At this rate I ought to just give up too.”

“Stop saying things you don’t mean.”

“When are you leaving? Just go already.”

“You can solve that by smashing the doll.”

“As if I could break that…… no, forget it.”

Pan waved one hand dismissively and ignored the tiny doll-shaped Etel. If left alone long enough, he’d eventually get drunk and cut the connection on his own and disappear anyway.

Ever since that incident, it seemed he couldn’t maintain it for very long either.

“Is the treatment going well?”

“That concern is unnecessary.”

“Yes, yes. Of course it is. Hah…… you’re not planning anything, are you?”

“Anything?”

“I agreed because you said you wanted him brought there…… but I wanted to make sure you understand that bringing Iwon all the way to the negotiation hall is out of the question.”

Etel’s head shook in a few small motions. Then he put the entire glass in his mouth and bit down on it, letting out a hollow laugh.

“I know. Something that simple, at least.”

Pan shrugged, even as a darker thought continued in the back of his mind—that perhaps Etel meant to drag Iwon off somewhere, imprison him, half-kill him, and make a puppet of him.

‘That bastard still needs to suffer a little more.’