Rokujouma no Shinryakusha!? - Volume 10 - Chapter 3

The Lost Tribe

After parting with Koutarou, the girl walked along a mountain path for a while before stopping again. She then silently waited without doing anything.

“Nana-chan!”

After some time passed, someone approached her. It was a woman with long hair in her late twenties, and she made quite an impression carrying a large bow in hand. She called out to the girl—Nana—who had been waiting for her.

“Kanae-san, it was a bust,” the girl replied.

Nana called the woman approaching her Kanae. Kanae was Nana’s ally, and they’d been working together for quite some time.

“Hmm, I see...”

Based on the fact that Nana had returned without fighting, Kanae could have guessed as much, but her shoulders still slumped a little. It was a disappointing outcome for her. Kanae was a gentle soul, so she didn’t like fighting. But in order to fulfill her wish, she knew she would eventually have to draw her bow. She had her own reasons for wanting a fight.

“Since there was a reaction for summoning, necromancy, and mind manipulation, I was sure this would be it... but it turned out to be almost the opposite.”

“The opposite? But if he used all that magic, he still must be our enemy, right? Didn’t he use necromancy to possess that girl?”

Summoning, necromancy, and mind manipulation was a powerful combination of magic that could summon the spirits of the dead and control them. It was a method that evil magicians, especially necromancers, liked to use. They often used the dead for their own gain.

“It looked that way at first, but that wasn’t the case. He was using the sword’s power to summon the girl’s dead mother so that they could meet in her dreams.”

With the power of the sword, the man in question had summoned the mother’s soul in a temporarily stable form, and then connected her directly to the girl’s mind. Though he had used the same combination of spells that evil necromancers would, the end result was completely different from what Nana had expected.

Nana had approached the mysterious man to investigate what he’d done. Though she could confirm what types of magic he’d used from afar, she couldn’t tell how they were being used until she got closer.

“You’re saying he’s a good necromancer?”

“Yes. It’s an extremely rare case. This is my first time seeing one myself...”

As the girl said that, she glanced back up the mountain path. She normally had a stern look on her face, but her eyes betrayed a certain gentleness in that moment.

Nana had never seen a necromancer use magic like that for good before. If he’d only wanted to speak with the dead, divination magic would have been much more effective. Going through the trouble to actually summon a soul and invade someone’s dreams was just a waste of mana. But at the same time, going to all that trouble had made his good intentions quite clear.

He didn’t just let the two of them talk. He actually allowed them to meet and touch one another. It would technically be a kind of temporary possession, but... to think anyone would use necromancy in such a way...

In the organization that Nana was a part of, any personal use of magic was forbidden. That rule was established to prevent those who could use magic from using it unfairly for their own gain. It was much the same reason firearms were kept under strict control in most modern nations. As part of her job, Nana had fought against many people who used magic for selfish means. But what she’d just witnessed was indeed the opposite of that.

“If only the world was full of magicians like that, our job would be a lot easier...”

It was like a flower blooming on a bloodied battlefield. Nana felt that if that flower were to spread its seeds, the future would become much brighter.

“But Nana-chan, don’t we need to report this?”

Regardless of reason, it didn’t change the fact that this man had indeed used magic for personal reasons. Nana had an obligation to report it to her organization and formally eliminate him. At least, in theory.

“There’s no need for that.”

“Are you sure?”

“Yes. Fortunately, he used magic of a different style than ours. And since there wasn’t any real abuse of power, it’s not our jurisdiction.”

Multiple styles of magic existed. Magic had been discovered in more than one time and place in the universe, so different societies had different ways of accessing and using it.

Nana’s duty was to keep people from benefitting from the private use of magic, but more specifically, she was officially only concerned with the type of magic that had come from her country. She also had an obligation to protect people from abuses of magic, regardless of style. But a situation like this where a different style of magic had been used and there was no apparent abuse of power was a bit of a gray area. No one had actually been hurt either, so Nana didn’t think it was necessary to file an official report.

“Hmm, that’s wonderful, Nana-chan.”

“What?”

“You look happy.”

When Kanae pointed that out, Nana touched her own face.

Maybe I am. Really, I wish for a world where magic and people can peacefully coexist like that...

Nana wouldn’t forget what she had witnessed today. It was an experience that would without a doubt inform the way she thought of and fought for magic in the future.

“I think I am happy. But I can’t get carried away. Our investigation is back at square one now, after all,” Nana said as she erased her smile and pulled her usual self back together.

She was currently trying to resolve an incident involving magic that had occurred nearby. She was happy to have met the mysterious magician with the young girl, but it left her without a lead on her investigation. If she didn’t get to the bottom of things quickly, it might even have a negative effect on the magician she’d just met. Nana didn’t want that, so she was especially motivated to try to get to the bottom of things.

“I hope my little girl and Soutarou-san are all right...”

As Nana’s serious expression returned, Kanae gave an uneasy glance towards the city at the base of the mountain. Somewhere off in the distance was a large estate with her husband and daughter inside. Her worried look was aimed at the two of them.

Kanae’s husband and daughter were actually victims in the case that Nana was investigating. More precisely, her daughter was the victim, and her husband was now using his own body to keep her alive. That was why Kanae was working with Nana to solve the case.

Kanae’s husband, Soutarou, was the heir to an old shrine. Kanae had taken archery lessons there shrine, and that was how they’d met. They fell in love and eventually got married. Their daughter had inherited her father’s lineage and was born with extraordinary spiritual energy.

With the dawn of modern science, even the oldest shrines had long forgotten the methods to control spiritual energy. So even though Kanae’s daughter had it in abundance, she was still a normal girl otherwise. But to those who would abuse magic, people with large amounts of spiritual energy were quite useful. They could be used as catalysts for spells or even sacrifices to evil demons.

Kanae’s daughter had been kidnapped by one such evil magician and used in a magical ritual. Fortunately Nana had swooped in to save her, but she was rapidly being drained of her spiritual energy even now as a result of the ritual. Her life was in danger as it was, so Nana had used magic to connect the girl with her father. Since Kanae’s husband had a lot of spiritual energy himself, he could use it to protect his daughter for the time being. It was only a temporary fix, but it bought them some time. So Nana had teamed up with Kanae, and the two of them were in the midst of tracking down the culprit. Their goal was to defeat the evil magician and put a stop to the effects of the ritual, saving both Kanae’s daughter and husband.

“Let’s hurry. Kanae-san, put away your bow. We’re moving out.”

“Okay. Where to next?”

“To the river up ahead. It’s faint, but the natural magic there is distorted.”

“Then let’s go back to the car. It’ll be faster that way.”

“Agreed.”

The pair nodded at each other and vanished into the darkness.

While Nana and Kanae’s hunt for the evil magician continued, the magician had appeared somewhere neither of them would expect. The evil magician was now in a country far beneath the surface of the earth.

“Certainly, the crest on that plate, though slightly distorted, is the same as the one recorded in this old codex. They wouldn’t share such a similarity by chance.”

“To be accurate, it’s more likely the crest in the codex is what’s been distorted. This stone plate was created at the same time as that book, and stone keeps much better than paper and ink.”

“So the accuracy of our codex has deteriorated with time as it was handed down over the generations... That certainly seems plausible.”

The evil magician Nana and Kanae were looking for was a woman in her late teens or early twenties. She wore an indigo outfit and carried a large staff with her. She was currently speaking to two men dressed in what resembled traditional Japanese clothing. Their outfits were made of exquisite fabric and thread, indicating that they were of a rather high status.

“The lost seventh tribe... To think they actually exist, and that they prosper even now...”

“I have to say the surprise is mutual. To think I’d find a clue to the homelands of legend in a place like this...”

The three of them were talking while comparing a stone plate and codex. The woman had brought the plate, while the men had brought the codex. She had come at their invitation so that they could talk about these artifacts.

They were currently in the mansion of Shijima Tayuma, one of the two men standing with the woman. The Shijima family mansion had the design of an old Japanese house, but it was beautifully maintained and indicated Tayuma’s high social status. He was also attended by a man from a family that had served the Shijimas for generations. This man, the one with Tayuma now, was the one who had found the woman in indigo and brought her to him.

The Shijima family mansion was located inside a gigantic cave far underneath Harukaze City. But it wasn’t the only building there. Making use of the vast space, an entire city had been constructed in the cave. Its population was well over ten thousand people, but that was quite small considering the scale of the city. It had been several times that in the past, but the People of the Earth were now in a state of decline.

Since ancient times, the People of the Earth had had technology far more advanced than that of the surface, and they were very proud of their civilization and their achievements. However, as the surface modernized, the technological gap between the two cultures shrunk more and more. In the latter half of the twentieth century, the two were almost indistinguishable. While the people on the surface didn’t have anything that compared to spiritual energy devices, when it came to general life and everyday conveniences, their technology was about on par with that of the People of the Earth.

And with that hurdle cleared, the greatest divide between the two civilizations was a matter of lifestyle rather than technology. The underground dwellers were quite proud of their society, but it was lacking in culture compared to the surface. They had been handing down the same stories, clothes, and entertainment for generations, whereas Japan had blossomed into a vibrant landscape of over a hundred million people. The People of the Earth couldn’t help but be enamored with it once they were exposed to art and music from the surface, which was quickly followed by entertainment like books, movies, and even food. The final blow was perhaps the surface developing broadcast technology.

Once the surface began broadcasting TV programs, everyone underground wanted a TV too. And thanks to that, surface culture became much more accessible to the People of the Earth. As a result, the people became even more fascinated with it, and underground dwellers began leaving for the surface at an explosive rate. In just a few decades, the population of the People of the Earth actually living underground was reduced by more than half.

But on top of that, there was another contributing factor in the People of the Earth’s decline. That was the exhaustion of resources. The People of the Earth had historically dug into their surroundings to get what they needed to survive, but when their population increased in the twentieth century, so did the demand for resources. They had now exhausted what was available nearby, and they were forced to tunnel farther and farther away to get the resources they needed. It made things work for the time being, but those resources would one day dry up too. It was only inevitable.

The future underground was as dark as the tunnels they had to dig. Meanwhile, the future on the surface seemed as bright as the sun. And that was inherently the problem.

It was clear that the People of the Earth would sooner or later meet their demise. People’s response to that was divided. In the grand scheme of things, it could be said that the People of the Earth all wanted the same thing: to move to the surface. What they disagreed on was how to go about doing that. One side wanted to make the move discreetly and peacefully, while the other side wanted to invade the surface using military force to reclaim their former lands.

The faction that favored a nonviolent approach was led by the current chieftain of the People of the Earth, Kurano Daiha. The surface’s prosperity and the underground’s rapid decline was obvious, and they didn’t want to just sit around and wait for the end. Rather, they want to slowly but steadily make the move to the surface. Without the surface dwellers catching on, they would work to expand their territory and eventually establish a city for the People of the Earth. That was the ultimate goal of the conservative faction. They wanted to migrate to the surface while maintaining a good relationship with the surface dwellers.

That was in direct conflict with the views of the radical faction, led in part by Shijima Tayuma, head of the Shijima family. They called for a military invasion of the surface. To them, the People of the Earth were only living underground because they had been chased there by the surface dwellers long ago. They felt they had an ancestral claim to land on the surface, and taking what was rightfully theirs back by force would only be fair.

Of course, it would normally be hard for a civilization of only ten thousand to put up a fight against the surface, which would naturally have forces that far outnumbered theirs. However, the People of the Earth had a massive advantage when it came to technology. Weapons relying on spiritual energy overwhelmingly outperformed anything the surface had access to. As long as the People of the Earth could come up with a way to mass-produce their spiritual energy weapons, that would be their ace in the hole. And that was the radical faction’s goal. Unable to put their history and pride behind them, they wanted to invade while their weaponry was still superior.

“She holds the power spoken of in our legends. And since she is knowledgeable about the surface, she should be perfect to deal with Kurano’s daughter.”

“I see... Yes, the forgotten tribe and their mystic arts... We won’t have to worry about being suspected, and we won’t have to ask for help from any surface dwellers either... Heh heh, I like it.”

Tayuma was a very prideful man. Because of that, he simply couldn’t stand the conservative faction’s idea of kowtowing to the surface dwellers. And in order to prevent their ideas from gaining any more traction, he was always looking for ways to reduce the conservative faction’s influence. As such, his ears immediately perked up when he received word that the Kurano family’s daughter had gone up to the surface.

If the chief’s daughter was murdered by surface dwellers, the People of the Earth would surely never forgive them. If that happened, the radical faction would have an easier time rallying public opinion to their side. And to that end, Tayuma was plotting to assassinate the chief’s daughter. However, Tayuma couldn’t do it himself since the laws of the underground people prevented him from going to the surface. Even if he made the proper arrangements for such a trip, the timing would make it suspicious. That meant that he would have to hire someone to do it for him, but the idea of asking a surface dweller for help burned his pride. That was where the lost tribe talked about in the legends of the People of the Earth came into play.

According to their lore, the People of the Earth were originally castaways who had come from a distant land. Chased from their homeland, they had ended up in ancient Japan. However, on the long journey there, the seventh tribe had been separated from the rest. Now often known as the lost tribe, they were said to have had mysterious powers. And now someone claiming to be from the lost seventh tribe had appeared before Tayuma. It was the woman in indigo. As an ancient ally, Tayuma felt no shame in asking her for help. And since most believed that the seventh tribe was only a legend, no one would ever think to suspect that one of them was the culprit. In other words, this woman was a godsend to Tayuma.

“I have an interest in the new techniques that my comrades of the past have developed. Let us combine our powers for the profit and prosperity of our tribes.”

“For the tribe’s prosperity, you say? Ha, I like you already! Warrior of the lost tribe, what is your name?”

“It’s Maya. In your style... my name as a warrior would be Dark Navy.”

The woman named Maya introduced herself as Dark Navy and gave Tayuma a friendly smile. Contrary to her smile, however, there was scorn in her eyes.

What a prideful and simple man. All you have to do is stroke his ego. Well, that’s all the better for me, but I don’t want to be dragged down with him if he falls. It might be better to pull out once I’ve completed my objective...

Maya’s real goal was obtaining the information and technology that the People of the Earth held. She might be able to learn something from their ancient codex that would give her and her allies an advantage in their battle. And since Maya was a magician that specialized in mind manipulation, she was extremely interested in the spiritual energy technology the People of the Earth had developed. For example, she would love to get her hands on something like a capacitor that could temporarily store a spirit’s power. That would be the first step to turning magic into a practical weapon.

However, she knew the People of the Earth weren’t just going to hand over their codex or their prized technology. Those were carefully guarded secrets that were only shared with specific, high-ranking people.

That was why Maya had set her eyes on Tayuma. He was a genuine People of the Earth supremacist, and he was easy to control. By catering to his pride, she could easily get him to hand over what she wanted. The problem was that she knew Tayuma’s position was uncertain. He really only had power as part of a volatile faction. That was why Maya didn’t want to have any long-term associations with him; she didn’t want to be on the hook when he finally went down.

“So, who do I need to kill?”

With a serious expression, Maya urged Tayuma to get to the heart of the matter. Regardless of her true intentions, she had to establish a good relationship with him for the time being. To that end, she put on a friendly face and offered to make herself useful.

“This girl. She is the Kurano family’s only child, and she’s gone up to the surface for personal reasons all by her little self. There’s no one protecting her, so she should be easy to kill.”

Tayuma picked up a photo from his desk and handed it to Maya. It was of a young girl with black hair. She was the daughter of Kurano Daiha, who was both the leader of the conservative faction and the chieftain of the People of the Earth.

“The daughter of the conservative faction’s leader, you say? Is the goal in killing this cute little girl to sour feelings regarding the surface among the tribes siding with the conservative faction?”

“Indeed, indigo warrior. That’s correct.”

“If the goal is to break down the conservative faction, it would be best if it didn’t look like an accident, no? Do you have any requests for how the deed is done?”

“I’ll leave that to you. It seems you understand the subtleties of the situation, so just do it in whatever fashion is easiest for you.”

Hearing Maya’s answer, Tayuma’s lips curled into a twisted grin. She clearly understood the true nature of the plan, and Tayuma had no doubt that she would succeed. It was an ugly thing to be happy about, and Tayuma’s sick smile reflected that.

There were several potential methods to reduce the conservative faction’s influence, but the death of one of their own at the hands of the surface dwellers would produce the fastest results. It would be even more compelling if the victim were a young girl. That’s why Tayuma didn’t want the chief’s daughter to meet her end in an accident. He wanted to make it clear it was a murder.

The ideal scenario would have been if the government on the surface had, knowing she was from underground, tortured and killed her in an attempt to extract information from her. Setting that up would be extremely difficult, but as long as something along those lines happened, it would surely be enough to shake up the conservative faction. With the support they had now, it seemed their idea of peacefully building a base on the surface would soon become a reality. But the heinous murder of the chief’s daughter would undoubtedly cause a great deal of their supporters to reconsider the relationship they wanted with the surface. Her assassination would be Tayuma’s key to turning the tables on the conservatives.

“Very well. I’ll handle it as I see fit.”

Maya began thinking about how to deal with her target.

Hmm... Maybe I should use this girl as a ritual sacrifice as well. As long as I make it look like it was done by the police or the Self-Defense Forces... And if that’s too hard, maybe I’ll pin it on some cult?

Maya herself wasn’t too fond of the act of murder. If she had to kill someone, she at least wanted to make the most of their death. So she came up with the idea of using her target as a catalyst for magic, or in other words, a sacrifice. In short, this girl would meet the same fate as Kanae’s daughter.

Kanae’s daughter was still alive because Nana had saved her before the ritual was complete. Normally, however, a sacrifice’s life force would be drained as the ritual progressed. It would ultimately kill them, but it would leave no trace of injury or harm. Maya would then just need to make it look like a murder, and she could pin it on someone from the government or even a local cult. Either one would be enough to make the People of the Earth wary.

Once she’d come up with a plan, Maya was satisfied and moved on to the next topic.

“And will you accept my demands?”

Really, she was asking about her reward.

“Of course. I will prepare what you have asked for. Take a spiritual energy capacitator with you as a down payment. I will prepare a transcript of the codex, so come collect it when the job is finished. I will present you with the other spiritual energy equipment at that time as well.”

What Maya wanted as compensation for her help in Tayuma’s scheme was a sample of spiritual energy technology and a copy of the People of the Earth’s ancient codex. Since Tayuma supported a military invasion, he was influential in spiritual energy weapon research development. He was also capable of acquiring surplus parts through illegal channels. He even had similar access to the codex. And since Maya was from the lost tribe, their ancient allies, he had no problem offering her either one.

“That’s good. In that case, I’ll get to work right away.”

“Please do. I will await good news from you.”

And so both parties reached an agreement. Their end goals were completely different, and each of them felt like they were really just using the other. Despite that, both of them walked away from their arrangement with the same dark smile on their face.