Chapter 46

Chapter 46 : Nonaggression Pact (3)

The beginning of everything was the provocation suffered by a member of the sky.

The wing altercation caused by the Underfolk aide.

Gasping for breath, I reminded myself of what I had to do.

Find Etel. Find the place.

I swallowed the stray thoughts that rose in my head with ease.

I could not stop the provocation itself.

The system had openly handed over the Original Work, but there had been no part that gave the exact timing. On top of that, even the cause of the provocation had been vague, so there was no known reason why the wing was being torn off.

It might have been a provocation meant to create an argument.

It meant the negotiation table was already in progress.

I shook the crow-tit awake where it was sleeping quietly in my pocket.

The crow-tit fluttered up, settled on my shoulder, rubbed the nape of my neck with its beak, and soon came fully awake.

“I am sorry for waking you up, but check whether Etel is in the ruler’s castle.”

Its eyes, which had been half-lidded enough to look almost sanpaku, widened, then quickly began turning red.

In an instant, a powerful pulse expanded through the surroundings.

A faint wind brushed my bangs.

The crow-tit became a tiny dot in the blink of an eye and flew toward the ruler’s castle.

Before I could fall behind, I ran after the crow-tit toward the ruler’s castle.

Pan, who had come to me in the morning and told me about the art supply shop. Pering’s suspicious attitude. The ominous rumor from the art supply shop owner.

“It was yesterday, or maybe the day before. One of the delegation’s Underfolk tried to tear off a fairy’s wing, if you can believe it.”

Fairy wings. A trait of the Spring.

Since Ariti had been with Etel at the rulers’ meeting, it was probably the aide who had come with her.

The reason Pering was going to the Underfolk delegation’s lodging today was in the same vein.

An aide of the Spring had been threatened by an Underfolk envoy.

There was evidence, there were witnesses, and there was a culprit and a victim.

It was an incident that could become a favorable card in the negotiations.

The problem was that the very Underfolk who had gone through that was walking around the streets again.

The fact that Karon was letting it happen meant tacit approval, or perhaps it might even have been planned.

The result of that incident flowed according to Karon’s will.

He would swallow Ariti into his hands exactly as he wanted.

If that happened, it would become uncontrollable.

An enraged Pan would break the treaty, and Karon, who had been waiting for that, would rise up using it as a pretext.

Sek, the mediator between both factions, had vanished, and a battlefield of blood, where instinct came before reason, would overturn every region.

That was an event that had no place in my plan for a peaceful future.

Etel was not in the ruler’s castle.

It was fortunate I had sent the crow-tit ahead. Before I reached the area near the ruler’s castle, the crow-tit guided me to a hill road that climbed behind the castle.

A low hill overlooking the city center.

Etel stood beside a large old tree where pure white snow blossoms had bloomed, holding a drawn sword.

After running up the hill, I drew in a deep breath and gestured at Etel.

Of course, before that, the crow-tit that had climbed the hill first had settled precariously on the tip of Etel’s sword and drawn her attention.

“Riwin, you look half-dead.”

“Hah, hoo, why here, haah. Wait, just—”

I waved a hand, bent over, and soothed my throat, which had frozen from the cold air.

“Is there something urgent?”

I swallowed once at Etel’s question, then straightened my upper body.

“Where is the Ruler of the Spring right now?”

“Reda? Why are you curious about that?”

Seeing the suspicion in Etel’s eyes, I realized my mistake. I had asked about the wrong person.

I ruffled my hair, where sweat and ice particles clung, caught the crow-tit flying around me, and put it into my pocket.

The cold air cleared my head.

It might have already happened.

“I need the location of the two aides in the Underfolk delegation.”

“……Has something happened?”

“It is about to. I heard the rulers have the ability to examine their own domains. Can you not do that, Ruler of the Sky? I am in a bit of a hurry.”

Etel put away her drawn sword and nodded.

It was an affirmation that said she would set her doubts aside for the moment, so I should explain in detail.

“Do you know that an incident happened recently, where one of the Underfolk laid a hand on a member of the Spring?”

“I know. I was told appropriate measures were taken.”

“No. That was testing the waters.”

Meeting Etel’s questioning gaze, I parted my lips.

I wondered again and again whether I could say this, and whether I would be suspected.

But was there any need to groan over it alone when this was something that could reach a quick conclusion without a long-winded explanation? If we were any later, there would be no undoing it.

In the end, those thoughts made me squeeze my eyes shut.

“Karon.”

“What about him?”

“What he is after is Ariti Reda, the Ruler of the Spring.”

“What?”

“She is the purpose of these negotiations.”

Etel stiffened, then seemed to think for a moment, but did not ask why.

If what I said was true, then she must have realized the severity of the situation.

Etel chose prevention.

After quietly steadying her breath, an ominous energy swirled around her.

The snow blossoms that had bloomed at the tips of the old tree fell away, and the snow piled on the untouched hill was swept up with them.

A sudden snowstorm, carried by a fierce wind, blocked my vision, and the eeriness brought by that brief pure white landscape scraped against my nerves.

Her Frame was unlocking.

When the energy that had been whirling around us suddenly settled and the view that had been hidden cleared, I had to swallow my breath.

Behind Etel unfolded two enormous pairs of wings, so large they could not even be compared to Hwipone’s.

Those wings looked as though a blizzard had been gathered and woven together, and every time they beat, snowflakes reflected in the sunlight scattered and made the surroundings glitter.

“The authority granted to a ruler extends only to watching over the members of their own domain. Explain exactly what I should look for.”

Neither Ariti nor the Underfolk were members of the sky. In that case—

“There should be a member of the sky being accosted by an Underfolk.”

“I will look.”

Etel closed her eyes and beat her wings. The snow blossoms that bloomed in response flew into the air and fell as snow over the city below.

It was not about whether she was using an ability or not. There was a strange quality to the sight itself that drew the eye.

Etel’s eyes, which had been fully closed, half-opened.

Light gathered in her blue irises, and for a moment, I thought her gaze resembled Blue Etel’s, the one I had seen above.

But the thought quickly slipped away because it had already vanished from Etel’s eyes once they opened fully.

“I found them.”

“Where?”

“There are two. Tell me exactly which one.”

“Both? Not just one?”

“Yes. Both.”

A two-pronged operation?

The Original Work had not described in detail which one was the person who met Ariti. Naturally, there was no way for me to distinguish people I had never seen in reality.

“That…… I cannot say for certain which one it is.”

“Then we go to both.”

“You are going?”

“Is that not obvious? A member of the sky is going to be harmed.”

From a position where the city center was clearly visible, Etel pointed roughly with a finger.

“I have wings, so I will go to the farther one. You go to the nearer one.”

“Good. Do not forget that if something is happening, you must secure evidence.”

“Mm…….”

“I am saying you must not kill them.”

“Understood.”

Leaving Etel behind as she muttered softly that it was a shame, I hurried down the hill.

All while desperately praying that no one would die to a stray blade today.

Fortunately, it was a place I could reach quickly if I ran hard.

---

I thought I had hurried, but it already seemed too late.

I wondered if Etel might have been able to stop it if she had flown this way instead.

I hurriedly pushed through the murmuring crowd.

The short scream stabbing my eardrums and the urgent murmurs made my heart leap wildly.

There were too many witnesses.

Too many.

Unless the intention was to deliberately blow the incident up.

After finally pushing my way through the crowd and reaching the very front, I confirmed the scene and witnessed an even more concerning situation.

An Underfolk with blazing red eyes had just seized the Frame of a member of the sky and yanked out a wing, clutching it in his hand.

Across from him, Ariti’s expression was plainly visible, her eyes wide with horror.

I blocked Ariti as she rushed in without stopping.

“Riwin?!”

“Wait. Just a moment. I will handle this.”

Fortunately, Pan was nowhere to be seen.

Even in the Original Work, Pan had only appeared and caused the accident after a quarrel had gone on for some time.

I calmed Ariti, checked the member of the sky whose wing was half torn and bleeding, and approached the Underfolk.

Truthfully, it was not as though I had no vague expectations of the Underfolk.

The disillusionment that came from the first Underfolk I had seen since falling into this world being trash like that gnawed and picked at my brain.

In the words of the Original Work, they had been mad, but they had not been trash.

“Let go.”

I glared at the Underfolk, who was still clutching one wing, and tucked my chin in.

The lines of text I had read beyond this situation came back to me and soured my mood on their own.

“Things that are not birds pretending to be birds. I wonder if they would taste good if I caught them and boiled them?”

“Oh my, if it is not the Ruler of the Spring. I merely saw some delicious-looking bird meat…….”

The Underfolk turned to look at me, tilted his head, and sneered.

“What are you?”

“If you are a delegation, should you not act like a delegation? Do you not know that if you do the things you do at home outside, you disgrace the head of your house?”

At my provocation, the bastard, now looking vicious, threw aside the Surface Folk wing he had been clutching.

“Ah, since you are a dog bastard, maybe you do not understand how your master feels?”

I made sure to draw his aggro and signaled to Ariti with my eyes toward the Surface Folk collapsed on the floor.

Only after confirming that she was slipping out of his sight and moving did I take another step forward. It was better to block everything in his field of vision except me.

“You bastard—!”

“You are not exactly a little bastard, are you? Ah, I suppose the Underfolk have a lot of bastards.”

His chest swelled greatly.

I had no experience with Underfolk Frames. The only thing I had experienced firsthand was my own, so I could not predict how his would come out.

I moved closer to the Underfolk while checking the crowd gathered around us.

Underfolk Frames affected their surroundings. I had to stop any wide-area Skill.

The moment I thought the bastard’s eyes had bulged even more, the crow-tit inside my pocket twitched and shot outside.

I could not see it, but I noticed.

So you are a mental type.

The bastard’s energy, which I had failed to stop in time, affected the Surface Folk in the front row. Before that, it affected the member of the sky held in Ariti’s arms.

It was nothing grand.

One by one, more people lost their will and collapsed to the ground, and fear spread through the surroundings. It was the terror that came from the simple act of people sinking to the floor happening as a group.

The power of the Underfolk, based on the Power of Phantasm, was it?

I recalled something I had once seen in the Record Archive and shrugged.

What a shame. I do not seem to be affected by the Power of Phantasm.

“Are you done? Is that it?”

“Y-you, why are you fine?”

Perhaps flustered that his power did not work on me, the bastard dragged over a nearby person who had lost their will and lost control of their body, then threatened them with a knife.

Watching him, my head cooled a little.

Why was it that people here did not value lives?

“Um…… it seems you really should not deal with them through words.”

This time, I agreed with Pan.

“Ariti. You should not deal with things like that through words.”

Even exchanging words with him was a waste.

Perhaps flustered that I was not under his control, the bastard’s eyes reddened even more. It was the preparatory stage of unlocking his Frame more strongly.

In a hurry, I instinctively tried to unlock my Frame to defend against his power.

Ding!

[Abnormal Route detected.]

[Approach through a Normal Route.]

[!WARNING!]

[Temporarily sealing Frame.]

[That is why you should have known when to stop running wild ಠ﹏ಠ]

I would have, if the system had not stopped me.

Beyond absurdity, a hot clot of blood came pouring from my throat.