She Professed Herself The Pupil Of The Wiseman (LN) - Volume 9 - Chapter 3

Chapter 3

DESPITE THE COMMOTION caused by the Spirit King’s appearance, the declaration of victory over Chimera Clausen concluded without incident. Soon afterward, they received an invitation from Sentopoli’s prime minister to join him for a feast.

At the prime minister’s official residence, a Viking-style banquet had begun. All of Sentopoli’s most important officials were in attendance.

These were all outward-facing officials—people who believed Sentopoli’s founders to be benevolent people. They had worked as their representatives in good faith, hoping to genuinely better the country. These officials knew Chimera Clausen was evil and condemned the organization as such. This banquet was partially those who led the country taking responsibility for what had occurred in their territory…and partially a way for the remaining Sentopoli officials to confirm the truth about those who had controlled them from the shadows.

Given the prominence and reputation of some of the involved adventurers, the populace willingly accepted that Chimera Clausen had been defeated. However, when it came to the government, hard evidence would be required; some famous names were not enough.

This lunch banquet was held with all these concerns in mind, and the adventurers were not ignorant of these facts. There was only one person totally detached from it all, going from table to table to sample the many lavish foods and enjoy the feast to her heart’s content.

Mira.

She left all the after-battle management and nation-building to Isuzu, walked right past august personages such as the prime minister, Alioth, and Jack Grave, and stalked her true prey: roast beef.

“Mm! Delicious!”

As expected of a prime minister’s table, all the food was top-class. Mira planned to enjoy the luxury by sampling every single one. Unfortunately, she was soon interrupted.

“Good job, Gramps,” Kagura said, carrying a plate with a veritable mountain of food on it. “I was watching from below. Crazy that you can summon the Spirit King.”

Mira turned and glared at her unhappily. “Please. You could have given me a little warning.” She recalled her panic when she was ambushed by the unexpected introduction.

“If I did, you’d’ve just found a way to escape.” Kagura shrugged her shoulders and grinned in exasperation.

Mira thought to herself. Would she have boarded the spirit airship if she was told they would create a giant screen above Sentopoli and introduce every single person on board to the masses? After a long pause, Mira realized Kagura was right. “Maybe…” she simply murmured. “Still, it was only a performance to persuade the city, right? There was no reason to introduce some unknown player like myself.”

The grand declaration of victory was meant to incite the hidden remnants of Chimera Clausen into action, and Isuzu already had what they needed to make it believable. What was the point in blowing Mira’s cover?

She’d simply been used to round out the introductions of the many famous adventurers present. What point had that served, Mira asked. That’s when Kagura dropped a bombshell: apparently, it had been a request from Solomon.

Since Mira was to take over Danblf’s position as a Wise Man, this would be a necessary step to burnish her name.

“He asked me through the branch office in Lunatic Lake. You have no idea how nervous the branch manager was.” Despite everything, Kagura was still a Wise Man. She’d readily accepted Solomon’s request; it was for the future of her country. Kagura would never have done it just because she thought it sounded fun.

Or so she claimed.

“Another of his schemes, hrmm… Well, I suppose I’m happy as long as I get to advertise summoning.”

By putting a summoner on the same stage as those famous adventurers, they had probably boosted the reputation of Mira’s school of magic. She felt better once she decided to look at it that way, and reached over to the table to pop a vivid, gleaming slice of sashimi into her mouth.

“Anyway…Spirit King, huh? That was awesome! That’s basically him giving his word that we really did beat Chimera.”

“Ah, right. Frankly, I was surprised too.” Mira cast a sidelong glance at the overly excited Kagura and transferred more sashimi onto her plate. It was too good to pass up.

“That really made them panic. Thanks to him, we’ve already snared a few Chimera. The operation’s even more of a success than expected!” Kagura said with a big smile. Then her blatant interest broke through. “So like, is that new summoning magic?”

“That was not summoning. He dropped in on his own. Goodness, I wish he’d said something ahead of time.” Mira was probably the most surprised out of anyone.

“Mmm, okay. Well, it’s still pretty awesome. That’s Gramps for ya…” Kagura murmured in apparent elation while filling her plate with roast beef and throwing some extra sashimi on top for good measure.

Mira frowned in disgust at the growing pile of meat, then had to laugh. Kagura never changed.

***

After the feast ended, Mira and Kagura left discussion of the finer details—long-term problems caused by Chimera, plans for the future, and so on—to Alioth and the others. The two of them instead went to visit the Sentopoli branch of the Isuzu Alliance. They had come to get information from the Chimera Clausen elites they had locked up in an underground jail beneath an unassuming home in an unassuming neighborhood.

Branch manager Matti joined them as a witness. The Chimera member Isaac, the man Jamal, and the three freshly captured top elites Mira had fought all glared at Matti as they cowered in the corner. But when Isaac and Jamal spotted Mira and Kagura, their demeanor changed, as if to say to their comrades, Oh, you guys are done for! They sidled closer, hoping to deflect any punishment onto their former leaders.

“You’re in trouble, too, you fools.” Mira slapped them both upside the head and looked over at the three elites again. Chimera Clausen had five top elites in all, but one of them was the girl possessed by the Oni Princess, who was now resting in the spirit airship. The oni curse had taken root deep within her before Kagura could exorcise it— she wouldn’t be waking up any time soon. For now, at least, her true identity remained unknown.

The other absent top elite was confirmed dead. It seemed the Skyfolk man had successfully carried out his revenge.

Fortunately, or perhaps unfortunately for them, the three other elites who had fought Mira’s party were imprisoned here and awaiting interrogation. Despite their previous bravado, the three cringed as one when they spotted Mira and Kagura.

Gregorius, the one who’d personally fought Mira, straightened himself up like a warrior and said, “If you’re gonna do it, just get it over with.”

The heavily armored man Cyril had fought was now stripped of his armor. Despite their first impressions of him, beneath his armor, he was surprisingly slender, though reasonably muscular as well. He put up a brave front—“N-no matter what you do to me, I will not speak!”—but those were meaningless words; his hands and feet were trembling.

It took Mira and Kagura a while to remember the last one; they’d almost forgotten his existence entirely. The weakest of Chimera’s top elites, who’d been toppled in an instant, looked at them with terror clear on his face. “I’ll tell you anything you want to know! Just don’t kill me!”

Both Wise Men felt something was off. It was true that they were about to do a forceful interrogation using Kagura’s magic. But while the idea of a spell that made you confess to everything was fearsome, it wouldn’t actually hurt them. The villains would only be sharing what they knew; it wasn’t a situation in which they had to beg for their lives. Or did they really fear Mira and Kagura’s strength so much that they expected to die here? The Wise Men found themselves perplexed.

Mira looked over and noticed Isaac and Jamal, who’d shrunk back into the corner. Their lips were pressed tight in a straight line, but their cheeks were relaxed. Their shoulders trembled, too, like they were holding back laughter. She stooped down in front of them and grabbed them by their hair, hissing, “You two look like you’re having an awful lot of fun. Care to share with the class?”

Mira’s threatening tone filled them with an indescribable fear, but they managed to squeeze out an answer.

“We just told them what to expect!”

“R-right! We told them about the interrogation they’re gonna go through!”

They refused to make eye contact. The interrogation they’re gonna go through…that would be the confession forced by Kagura’s magic. However, her magic only hypnotized them and made them speak; there wasn’t any pain involved. Knowing that ought to make them less fearful, but the three top elites looked upon Kagura with genuine horror.

“Well, their reactions seem rather odd to me. Is that really all you said?” Mira asked once more.

“Well… Then they got mad at us for leaking info. So we told ’em this interrogation would make anyone spill the beans.”

“We told them the truth! No matter how strong you are, you can’t defy Miss Uzume’s questioning. And even if you could, she’d slice your stomach open and then keep you alive to suffer until your last breath…”

Isaac and Jamal spilled the beans without any need for Kagura’s magic. It seemed their bosses had abused them quite a bit before Mira and Kagura’s arrival, so the two had decided a little payback was in order.

Mira sighed in irritation. “You’re acting like kids!” She whacked them in the head again and turned to the top elites. Isaac and Jamal looked ready to cry, but at the same time, there was still a hint of mirth on their faces.

Kagura grinned ever so slightly and murmured, “I see. But I sort of like that idea…”

Suddenly, a deathly chill filled the underground room. Kagura was overflowing with malice—her threat was no joke. Despite how calm she looked, a lust for revenge was boiling in her.

“Now, now. No need to resort to murder. We’ve decided to entrust them to this world’s legal system, haven’t we? For now, let’s just do what we must. Right?” Mira said. She pulled Kagura into a hug, patting her back as she tried to soothe her.

The deathly aura gradually calmed, and the room returned to normal. The three top elites were as white as sheets, though they looked relieved to be saved. Isaac and Jamal, meanwhile, shuddered as they realized they’d gotten lucky.

“You’re right. Sorry, Gramps,” Kagura said quietly and smiled. It was a strained smile, but time would heal this. Kagura would be just fine.

“’S okay,” Mira answered as she gazed at that stiff smile.

A brief time later, Kagura used her magic to make the information flow from the captives like water. Matti collected the testimony in a set of documents as they coughed up everything. She was quite focused on her work—perhaps because she’d gotten a glimpse of that unknowable side of Kagura.

***

The information received from the three elites was, as one might expect, vast in depth and breadth.

Unlike Isaac and Jamal’s interrogation, this one was carried out in a fully hypnotized state due to the three’s fanatical loyalty to Chimera. They were unwaveringly devoted to the head of the organization: the Oni Princess. Actually, Chimera Clausen was a lot like a cult.

Their sacred aim was to bring the power of spirits back into human hands. The blessings of nature that nourished humanity were managed by spirits, which meant, in their doctrine, that humans were allowed to live by the kindness of spirits. If the beings forsook humanity and limited their blessings, humans would be helpless and face certain death.

Could humanity go on entrusting their lives to spirits? Could they not find a way to be the masters of their own destiny?

Humans were frail creatures. They could not achieve glory when they were subservient to others. As such, they needed to drive off these spirits who would master them. It was a necessary act for the sake of humanity’s future. This idea was fundamental to the three elites.

Needless to say, it was an extremely selfish ideology. The idea that humanity should come first probably sounded sweet to some, but it was horribly conceited at heart.

It was then that Isaac chimed in. “What the hell are they talking about?” He claimed he’d never heard anything about these fanatical beliefs. To him, Chimera Clausen was just an organization that exploited spirits to gain money and power.

Jamal agreed with Isaac’s assessment.

After more probing, Kagura and Mira arrived at a conclusion: this doctrine was deeply tied to the Archeological Research Group that Gregorius and the heavily armored man had once been a part of. In fact, it was why the Archeological Research Group had been formed in the first place. On the surface, the group was meant to excavate and investigate the ruins in the western wastes. But that was only a half-truth.

The real goal of the Archeological Research Group was to unearth the legendary City of Angels and obtain the power it contained. Those who had given the order had not shared their true reasons with those below, but the ARG was told that it was related to the death of this world.

Years into their investigation, they reached the War-Torn Burial Ground and met the Oni Princess. There, their group was persuaded to believe that they were unfairly beholden to spirits. Before they knew it, the death of humanity was equal in their eyes to the death of the world. They were tasked by the Oni Princess with annihilating these spirits who held the power of life and death. Fanaticism blossomed.

“What on earth…” Mira grinned humorlessly at the ridiculousness of it all. Kagura was so fed up she couldn’t utter a word. Frankly, the top executives had been brainwashed by the Oni Princess.

All one had to do was look at recorded history and their modern relationship—it was clear that spirits would never forsake humanity. But from Chimera’s perspective, all that was only proof that humanity had been brainwashed by spirits.

Even Isaac and Jamal were speechless. They had committed grave crimes, yes, but their crimes were the result of yielding to greed. They knew what they had done was wrong. But Gregorius and his peers had committed their crimes from a horrifically distorted sense of justice.

After further questioning, they learned that other members of the Archeological Research Group had refuted the claims of the Oni Princess. They knew spirits would never be so evil.

“We purged them,” Gregorius said in the hypnotic trance. He spoke with the assurance of one whose actions were righteous. 

Publicly, the Archeological Research Group was declared to have gone missing. There had been traces of a struggle, but no corpses had been found. The truth was far more horrifying. When asked what had happened to those who were “purged,” Gregorius explained: they had been offered on an altar beyond a hidden door in the War-Torn Burial Ground.