Ishura - Volume 5 - Chapter 1

Chapter 1: Reconciliation

Two small months before the Sixways Exhibition was set to begin.

Hidden within a dense forest on the outskirts of Aureatia was an old mansion standing on the banks of a clear freshwater stream. A lone carriage was parked outside the front gate.

An elderly gentleman, dressed from head to toe in black, alighted from the carriage and knocked three times on the mansion door.

An old leprechaun woman came out to meet him and respectfully bowed to the guest.

“My, my, if it isn’t Master Miluzi. Thank you for making the long trip out here.”

The elderly man raised his cap up to his breast and returned the bow with a friendly smile.

He was Miluzi the Coffin Edict—a Craft Arts caster who had once fought against Kiyazuna the Axle, and creator of the mighty and unrivaled golems Reshipt and Nemerhelga.

“Not at all, Miss Frey. I should be the one thanking you. Were it not for your support, my past deeds would have made it impossible for me to enter Aureatia.”

“For us, it was no problem at all. My lady is waiting for you, so please come in.”

Every nook and cranny of the manor’s interior was illuminated, enough to make one forget it was the dead of the night. However, there were thick, black curtains covering the windows, ensuring that none of the light escaped into the darkness.

Before long, Miluzi and Frey arrived at the hall for receiving guests. Waiting there to greet Miluzi was the young and beautiful owner of the manor.

“Do come in, Master Miluzi. My name is Linaris. I shall be the one to host you today in my father’s stead.”

Linaris tilted her head slightly and flashed a charming smile.

Though she was draped in a lovely dress that also seemed to glow, the bare skin of her shoulders and back seemed to shine even more radiantly.

She was the only daughter of Rehart the Obsidian and the final leader of Obsidian Eyes.

“How very courteous of you—thank you. I never would have dreamed that Master Rehart of all people would have such a beautiful daughter… Should I be calling you Obsidian now, young lady?”

“No.”

A strained smile came across her face; she looked at the chair in the back of the hall.

The figure was slumped deep in his chair and remained perfectly still. He likely wasn’t even breathing.

“There is only one Obsidian. That name belongs to my father.”

“Indeed, you may have the right of it.”

Miluzi was one of those people who knew very well the deeds of Rehart the Obsidian before his death. The heartless leader of Obsidian Eyes, always skulking in the dark underbelly of the world, Rehart was far more ruthless to his allies than he was to his enemies.

While he did possess powers of vampirism, allowing him to control the minds and actions of those he had given his blood, many seemed to bend to his will purely out of fear. Was the same true of Linaris as well?

Miluzi sat down at the large dining table, opposite the young lady.

Wild-duck meat dressed with black honey. A salad of root vegetables and cheese. A translucent, amber-colored beef-bone broth.

“Master Miluzi, let us make a toast. To our friendship.”

“Yes, and to our meeting today.”

The two gently clinked their glasses together.

Savoring the fragrance of the high-quality red wine, they took a sip.

“…Obsidian Eyes. Ahhh, they’re all such distant memories now. Yet at the time, I felt like I wouldn’t be able to forget any of it even if I tried. Until I heard your messenger say that name…it felt as if I had been in a long sleep, with my memories of that bygone era as my only comfort.”

Miluzi the Coffin Edict was a self-proclaimed demon king. In the past he’d led his own country, and prior to the age of the True Demon King, he had fought a fierce war over resources with Kuta Silver City before its transformation into the Land of the End.

During that war, Obsidian Eyes had been an enemy, delivering a terrible blow to his nation.

“Back then, I was still but a young girl myself. Nevertheless, I’ve heard that the technological wonders you produced were like those sung about in the poems of legend.”

“It is truly an honor to hear that. Miss Linaris, do you…or rather—does Obsidian Eyes not hold a grudge against me?”

“Not at all. Is there anything more wonderful than two people who once crossed blades getting the opportunity to meet again and reconciling in friendship? We knew of each other’s strength even more than we know our allies’. Why, nothing would make me happier than if we could join forces together right now.”

“…In that case, to celebrate our reunion, shall I regale you with stories from back then?”

“Oh yes, by all means.”

Underneath the chandelier, the elderly demon king softly told the tale.

“Much like you were once a child…in the beginning, I, too, was nothing but a mere home tutor, employed by a noble family on the frontier. While I am sure it comes as no surprise at all, I was teaching Craft Arts, you see. However, I wasn’t a very skilled teacher.”

“Tee-hee… You are quite the comedian, Master Miluzi. I find that very hard to believe.”

“I, myself, am embarrassed to admit it, but I was still young. Whenever I would teach, I would think—why can’t I get them to understand such basic fundamentals? These frustrations would claw at me constantly. In order to provide better instruction, I had those nobles teach me their noble script. In their estate, they had old academic records that their ancestors had left behind. The contents of the records were completely unknown to anyone.”

It was not uncommon for records elucidating the natural sciences, through experiments, observation, or calculations, to be kept in a noble family’s home. And in many cases, an aristocratic family’s unique writing script had been constructed specifically to leave them behind. The nobles of antiquity once secured their control by bestowing—and monopolizing—the power of knowledge.

“They had these records at hand for so long, and yet no one read them?” asked Linaris.

“That’s right. It seemed that none among their generation had opened the books even once. Even though they’d hired a home tutor, mind you. Quite the peculiar story, isn’t it? However, these records were extremely detailed…and day after day, I learned. I would revise some of the older sections that turned out to be incorrect, and when they detailed an experiment, I would try to replicate it on my own.”

There were large disparities in these records, depending on their pedigree, and some of them were complete nonsense. In this way, Miluzi was fortunate that these were the books that served as his first teacher.

“…It was then that a realization struck me. I was, in truth, not cut out to be a teacher. I was much more suited to teach myself Craft Arts on my own. Although I had been hired as a home tutor, I felt I was in the aristocrat’s mansion not to teach, but to learn.”

“I have heard it said that all teachers learn for themselves through their instruction. It must have been the same for you, Master Miluzi.”

“I was just being selfish… Still, thanks to this, I was called the best Craft Arts user in the city—and soon, the best in the nation. It was around that time that I met a man named Barnard the Essence as well. He was a visitor…and troubled that he couldn’t reproduce the machinery from the Beyond, where he grew up. You must have heard talk of that as well, Miss Linaris. What they refer to as the ‘steam engine.’”

“…Yes, I have ridden in a locomotive once before. It’s a wonderful invention.”

“In order to mass-produce cylinders that didn’t leak any steam, I used Craft Arts to set up processing machinery that possessed even greater precision. My invention was well-received, and many people congregated to us. I gathered comrades together with Barnard, increased our workforce, and aimed to increase production even further using golems…”

“……”

Linaris stopped talking and simply stared at the elderly man’s face.

She had likely heard what came next.

“…Before long, we became a country. I thought to incite a manufacturing revolution in this world, independent of any of the kingdoms, using this new machinery. However, such excessive power couldn’t remain unconcerned with the wars and politics among nations. To the One True King…I was a threat.”

Miluzi was a demonic monarch. Someone with too much power, who didn’t align himself with the One True King.

Self-proclaimed demon kings didn’t all necessarily become one on purpose.

“The factory I had painstakingly designed…and the town I’d built for its employees were burned to the ground. My friend Barnard was poisoned, and when I made golems to bolster my own defenses, the enemy struck me down with even greater might. It felt like I was always tormented by a lack of resources and manpower.”

“…Master Miluzi.”

“Yes, I understand, young lady. I also know that even though you and your organization were behind it, you were simply acting on orders from said country, nothing more. However, after my nation fell, I lived on in order to find a new purpose for my existence. If I had died before coming up with an answer, it would have felt like I had failed Barnard.”

It was also fair to say that Miluzi lived so he could settle things with the many enemies who’d stymied him in the past.

This included Kiyazuna the Axle, who’d been trampling over the world with Craft Arts that surpassed Miluzi’s; as well as his mortal enemy in Obsidian Eyes, who had menaced his country.

Finally…the surviving family of the One True King, who scorned him as a demon king—the Queen of Aureatia.

Across from him, Linaris cast her long eyelashes down as she spoke.

“…Master Miluzi. Please, I implore you not to speak any further.”

“Miss Linaris. I truly thank you from the bottom of my heart for inviting me here. You told me that you bear no grudge toward me, yes?”

Miluzi took the cane he had left propped up.

“I, however, do bear a grudge. It’s time for you all to die.”

A shock wave shattered the window.

A figure resembling a bird’s skeleton violently flew into the hall while aiming the sights on its right arm at Linaris.

“Reshipt Modified.”

It was a golem.

“Reshipt io halese. Nearug samart. Wbunt—” (From Reshipt to Halesept’s eyes. Fissured pupils. Pillar of—)

“Get your hands…”

Long before the Thermal Arts incantation could resolve, a colossal figure attacked with razor-sharp claws.

The golem was knocked out of the air and crashed into the floorboards.

The intruder was a massive lycan. Obsidian Eyes. Harutoru the Light Grip.

“…off my lady. Lowly scum.”

There were deep gouges in the wall and ceiling from the entrance to the wall—which had been used as a foothold to create more marks, up to the ceiling. The traces of his movement meant that Harutoru, in the span of single second, had gotten above Reshipt’s head during its high-speed flight, all without making a sound.

“My daughter, and Obsidian’s daughter. Who will surpass the other?”

Suddenly, there came an explosion of compressed air.

The golem cut off the part of its own arm that Harutoru had pinned down and flew outside the lycan’s range.

Miluzi still had his sights fixed on the young woman.

“I think there is still more for me to show you… Now then, Reshipt Modified.”

“Kweey, kweey, kweey.”

A bizarre cry echoed from the golem’s head, which resembled an empty bird’s skull.

Then six blades extended up from what served as its rib cage.

“My lady. Please stay there and don’t move.”

“…I understand.”

Harutoru stood in front of Linaris on top of the dining table. He seemed to understand that the blades were a type of projectile weapon. This presented the possibility that with his almost armorlike body hair, he could withstand the six-projectile burst.

“Kweey, kweey.”

Reshipt Modified aimed its sights on Linaris, and then—

—the moment before the blades fired, a chakram flying in from the golem’s flank stopped the initial movement. It was a weapon shaped like a spiral hook.

Without paying any heed to the interference, Reshipt Modified’s attack fired off in rapid succession. Then it halted.

Fired. Stopped. Stopped. Stopped. Stopped.

In the span of a single breath, the six blades, which were supposed to be fired off in a volley, were all jammed the moment before launch. With each attack, a chakram had tangled itself in Reshipt’s blades.

“How dare you try something so foolish…against our lady…?”

At some point, the lights in the hallways had been extinguished. A curious and mysterious voice was heard from within the darkness.

“Be ashamed of your idiocy. I am Wieze the Variation. Seventh-formation rear guard.”

Three more circles emerged from the darkness. Reshipt Modified knocked them out of the air with its landing gear. The spiral hooks entangled in the golem’s joints and, through their rotational speed, severed its legs. Knocked off its center of gravity, its body faltered in midair.

“Reshipt Modified! Turn around fast—”

It was then that an explosive sound tore through the air.

A lightning-fast flash streaked from top to bottom, and Reshipt Modified was bisected lengthwise.

“Oh my, what do we have here?”

The tiny old woman floated down between each half of Reshipt Modified and landed. She was the matron of the house, Frey the Waking.

With a cordial smile adorning her face, she spun her cleaving cane behind her waist.

“It seems my whole arm has gone numb. That is quite a hard daughter you have there.”

“……”

Still seated at the dining table, Miluzi closed his eyes.

Obsidian Eyes—the damnable adversary that had slaughtered his citizens and burned his country to ash. He recalled that the members from that day long ago had been the same sort of horrible demons he was faced with now.

“It seems I’ve been defeated once again.”

“…How unfortunate, Master Miluzi.”

Linaris also remained seated, quietly staring across the table from him.

The battle between them had been decided without either of them moving a single centimeter.

Miluzi might have been able to brandish the gun concealed within his cane, but it was likely that this, too, would have been entirely meaningless from the start. Linaris quietly spoke to Miluzi.

“In these moments, I always… I always hope that if I haven’t truly been forsaken, then perhaps someday, regardless of any benefits, reason, or sense of justice…a friend may appear who will accept us all.”

“I feel for you. However…I’m sure such a thing will never happen. Not for you, nor for myself.”

In the distant past, Miluzi had been a mere home tutor. Not any sort of demon king.

However, he became an enemy. Not to anyone in particular, but to a great number of people—a vague and nebulous enemy. As he spired further, meeting the animosity he faced with the animosity of his own, Miluzi the Coffin Edict had, at some point, become the enemy he was thought to be.

Now he had become someone who was capable of wearing the face of a mild-mannered gentleman as he tried to kill another.

“Will you kill me?”

“No.”

“Then will you make me an ally?”

“No.”

“…What, then?”

“Master Miluzi. Regarding the reason I invited you here today…”

He wasn’t going to be killed or become their ally. When one was dealing with Obsidian Eyes, such treatment could only mean one thing.

Miluzi was unable to move. It was almost as if the power of Linaris’s eyes on him had frozen him in place.

Meeting face-to-face spelled immediate defeat—could anyone in the world even imagine such a vampire?

“…I would like to ask you about Master Mestelexil.”

As long as something held secrets, Obsidian Eyes would peer into it all…

…with those golden irises, beautiful enough to make one forget everything else.