Ch.58Report on the Downfall of Humility (6)

Arianne’s body went limp. She collapsed into the chair as if melting. Yet her eyes and face remained rigidly frozen, her lips twisting upward.

“How dare you mock someone’s death… No, before that. By what authority do you arrest me? Me? How dare you? Do you know who I am?”

Arianne’s breathing grew ragged. Heat seemed to rise from deep within her body, causing her to pant with her mouth open. Her already thin, pale skin flushed red.

But Kain continued looking down at Arianne, showing his right palm spread wide.

“You may not know me, but I know you. Hero of the Empire. Samaritan. Liar. Criminal. And one more thing.”

With each title, he folded one finger starting with his thumb. Only his pinky remained extended.

“Everyone knows you’re Lady Arianne of Humility. Everyone knows you’re a Samaritan. I called you a liar because of this grass smell. Asas grass is a poisonous herb that causes hallucinations.

The hallucinations are more like a stimulant effect than a calming one. Yet Shajar al-Durr prescribed this medicine for her daughter who couldn’t sleep? A herb that wakes you up rather than putting you to sleep?”

“Interesting. But even if my mother prescribed the wrong medicine, that doesn’t make me a murderer, does it?”

Despite her casual words, Arianne kept leaning backward and turning her head, as if desperately trying to catch the scent of the burning grass.

“You said it yourself. When you heard your mother had come back to life, you said, ‘No, that’s impossible.’ People don’t usually say that. They’re surprised and happy and ask if it’s true, but you were certain of your mother’s death. Even if we accept ‘that’s impossible,’ why shouldn’t your mother come back to life?”

“So. Because of that one reaction, you’re going to accuse me of murder? Don’t be ridiculous. There’s no evidence and no witnesses. You can’t prove anything.”

“Proof is difficult,” Kain readily admitted. Then he raised his pinky finger.

“But I can keep you away from that grass. At least detention should be possible.”

“You…!”

Unable to contain herself, Arianne jumped up and grabbed Kain’s neck. But there was no strength in her hands. Kain folded his pinky finger.

“This is your final identity. An addict. You act like a madwoman when the drug wears off, then regain your senses when you smell the grass. If that’s not an addict, what is it?”

“You don’t understand. You don’t know!” Arianne shook Kain’s body violently, but it looked as futile as a butterfly trying to shake a tree.

“You… you don’t know what I see every night. You don’t know what landscape I live with. You probably never tried to know. Just like you turned a blind eye after dumping my mother and my people here!”

Maria’s hand twitched. She seemed ready to pull a knife from her sleeve if necessary. Lily also placed her hand on her sword hilt while scanning the surroundings. No suspicious movements were visible.

After a moment of silence, Kain looked into Arianne’s hazy eyes. They were as foggy and scattered as a moon halo, unfocused.

“No. I came here to know. I don’t know what life you’ve lived, what you see every night, why a hero of the Empire became addicted to drugs. But I do know something. Your old comrades are falling one by one.”

With a thud, Arianne dropped her arms. She seemed so shocked that focus returned to her eyes. Her face turned not just pale but almost bluish.

“Arius of Temperance became one with his ship while enjoying pleasures on a luxury vessel off the eastern coast. William, the Knight of Chastity, indulged in lewd and depraved acts until his bones were broken, his tongue torn out, and then he was crushed into a monster and flew away to the northeastern wasteland.

You know whose land the northeastern wasteland was. You’ve set foot there yourself. Five of the seven remain, and the Empire and the Pope want to protect and guard the rest. So if you want to live, you’d better listen to me. Otherwise, a knight with a scabbard will appear from the shadows.”

Arianne collapsed to the floor. She twisted her body violently, pounding her chest and gasping for breath. Quick, shrill sounds spread through the room.

Kain straddled Arianne. With his left hand, he held her neck, and with his right, he covered her mouth. Arianne couldn’t even moan. Tears welled up in her eyes as her body convulsed as if breaking apart.

“What are you doing!” Maria, unable to contain herself any longer, tried to pull Kain away. Lily grabbed her arm.

“It’s hyperventilation! She needs to hold her breath! Otherwise, it will get more dangerous!”

Arianne’s body gradually calmed down. She still twitched spasmodically here and there, but she no longer twisted her entire body as before.

Tears flowed endlessly, but her hands rhythmically tapped Kain’s arm. Kain slowly removed his hand. Her breathing had stabilized.

“Move.”

Kain stood up. Arianne tried to rise but staggered and fell back to the floor. Even that seemed to leave her breathless, as she supported herself with one arm.

“Knight of… the Scabbard?”

“Yes. I saw him.” Kain knelt on one knee, trying to meet Arianne’s eyes.

“I don’t know exactly how it works. But I clearly saw it overlay the body of an apprentice knight who had suffered misfortune. After using that body, it rode a beast made of gathered human corpses and flew to the wasteland.”

“Heh… hehehehe…”

Arianne burst into laughter like someone who had let go of all restraint. She sobbed, then laughed again.

“The Demon King… we killed the Demon King with our own hands. We killed him, dismembered him, and buried him in the ground. There is no Knight of the Scabbard. Such a thing doesn’t exist. It can’t possibly exist.”

Between sobs, Arianne spat out a brief confession. It sounded less like stating facts and more like a desperate plea to be believed.

“You. What… are you? Are you from the Order? Or the Knights?”

“I’m an Imperial civil servant. I can’t tell you my department or name.”

“Then, you must have seen it too. What do you see in the shadows? What is your fear? If you really saw it, you could tell me.”

Kain leaned forward. He whispered just loud enough for Arianne to hear.

“My fiancée whom I killed with my own hands.”

“Hehehe…” Arianne tilted her head back and pointed at Kain.

“A murderer… you’re a murderer… The dead woman, your dead love, sticks to your retina and won’t disappear, right?”

A soft scream was heard from Lily. Kain didn’t look back. He bit his lip slightly and answered.

“Yes.”

“And the people behind you? Those women too?”

Kain decided not to answer. He needed to protect Maria and Lily. There was no need to tell unnecessary stories.

“I have no obligation to tell. Isn’t it enough about me? So tell me. What happened? Why did you kill your mother? What predicament are you in? If there’s anything I can help with, I’ll gladly do so. Whatever you want, I’ll try my best.

But for that, I need to know what you saw, heard, and thought. Did you perhaps contact the others afterward? Did you exchange letters with William of Chastity?”

“Don’t even mention that filthy bastard’s name!”

Arianne’s body heated up with rage.

“That constantly aroused bastard. Every night he needed a different woman to satisfy himself. Arius of Temperance? That bastard was always excessive. Everything was excessive! Food, clothes, behavior!

Contact? Yes. Yes, he did. Somehow he knew and sent me a letter. I tore it to pieces as soon as I saw it! That bastard, that bastard deserved to die! After finding a different woman every day, he always went to that poor, pretty child…!”

Arianne covered her mouth.

“Who are you talking about?”

Kain grabbed Arianne’s silk clothes. He twisted the fabric at her neck and chest as if squeezing them.

“Tell me. Who are you talking about? Who is it?”

Arianne whimpered with her eyes closed. She turned her head and lamented.

“…Just… just a servant child… A porter who took care of various equipment, just an innocent servant child from the countryside… Though an adult, so innocent as to be no different from a child.

A nameless woman who wasn’t even one of the Seven Heroes. One of those many children who participated in the Great Crusade with passion alone. Just one of those ordinary children… though she eventually died.”

Kain released his grip. Lying on the floor, Arianne looked up at Kain.

She seemed to be both angry at the humiliation and laughing helplessly, like someone futilely turning a doorknob in front of a locked door.

Arianne sobbed and whispered.

“…Tonight.”

“What?”

“Come to my room tonight. Only you. I can’t… I can’t say it in words. I’m not in my right mind. Yes… even I can’t trust my own words and thoughts anymore. So, all I can do is… show you…”

“That’s difficult. Those women…”

“No.” Arianne shook her head.

“Not those women. They need to withstand the grass smell. You seem to handle it relatively well, so I’m asking only you to come. If you really want to protect those women, keep them away from this grass. Send them somewhere with clean air. This grass… it would have been better if it never existed in this world…”

The Lady of Humility let out a long, deep sigh. Her eyes were full of fatigue. The noise of people murmuring outside grew louder.

“Now. Please go. I want to rest.”

Arianne’s hand weakly hit the floor. Kain stood up. He turned to Maria, who was restraining her anger, and Lily, who looked perplexed.

* * * * *

The western area of Emmaus had good accommodation facilities. However, private rooms were hard to find.

Large caravans customarily rented entire establishments to avoid confusion, so there was no reason to create private rooms. Unable to leave the city outskirts, the caravans reluctantly extended their accommodation contracts.

Because of this, Kain’s group looked for a villa within the city center.

Fortunately, Emmaus had many villas. They were owned by high-ranking officials of the Empire or western pagans who purchased them under the names of Imperial citizens. Kain chose a particularly quiet, and therefore seemingly very expensive, mansion among them.

It was an old, stately mansion with a large garden. It seemed easy to avoid surveillance from the central fortress here.

Perhaps because it was so expensive, there were only employees and butlers, but they served Kain’s group politely and warmly. They didn’t make much fuss about one man and two women renting a four-person room.

As soon as the door closed, Maria’s palm flew to Kain’s cheek.

Slap!

“Are you crazy?”

Instead of answering, Kain offered his other cheek. Maria swung her hand without hesitation.

“Stop it!”

Lily rushed over to stop Maria and pushed Kain back. But Maria was still fuming.

“Lily. I can’t let this go. I just can’t let this go. Hey. Do you know you almost ruined everything? At the very least, shouldn’t you have told me if you had something like that in mind? If you charge ahead alone, what does that make us?”

“You asked what my priority was, and I said it was the mission. I also said my job was gathering information.”

“That doesn’t mean you can just bulldoze ahead like this!” Maria lunged at Kain as if to knock him down. Thanks to Lily’s straining efforts, Maria couldn’t advance further.

“It doesn’t mean you can make the people beside you look like fools, or that you can put everything on the line with uncertain evidence! If that woman had flatly denied it there. If she had insisted to the end that you were talking nonsense, we would have been finished right there!”

Kain silently looked down at the ground. Maria stepped back. Not because her anger had subsided, but because Lily was blocking her so aggressively.

“Say something too! Do you think this is right? Pushing ahead with just suspicion, that’s not conviction! It’s madness!”

“…Honestly, I was taken aback too. But I don’t think he did it without reason. There must have been, must have been a reason. So.”

Lily looked toward Kain.

“I wish you would tell us. Both Maria and I want to understand. Why did you do that? Why did you act so hastily? Was it so urgent that you couldn’t even give us a moment to discuss it?”

“…The people. I did it because of the people.” Kain raised his head. Deep fatigue filled his eyes.

“Twenty thousand Samaritans live in the eastern district alone. One of their springs has been closed. No one knows how well the remaining one will function.

If people keep piling up in the city like this, either the western or eastern side will cross the boundary to find water. And when they cross, incidents will surely happen.

On top of that, they were burning Asas grass all over the eastern district. And the one who brought in that grass was probably Shajar al-Durr.”

Maria was appalled. What Kain was saying was impossible to accept.

“Do… do you even know what you’re babbling about?”

“Assuming the worst flow of events, that’s how it is. The daughter is not in her right mind. Shajar al-Durr died with a happy face. The drug is spreading among the Samaritans, and the water supply is decreasing.

The mayor openly discriminates between the west and east, and the central city is monitoring everyone. Don’t you understand, Maria? What happens when you trap a bunch of rats in a jar and leave them?”

“This place has been like a warehouse stacked with kindling for a very long time. If a fire breaks out here once, the southwestern Empire will be completely distorted.”

Maria recalled her own words to Kain. That this place is different from Masada. That something incomparably bigger might happen here. Kain sat on the edge of the luxurious bed.

“Arianne told me to come to her room tonight.”

“What?”

Lily’s breathless voice. Maria’s sharp question.

“So. Are you going? Abandoning us?”

“I’ll go into the room alone, but that doesn’t mean I’m abandoning you. If you could come with me…”

Before Maria could lunge at him, Lily showed her palm. Before complaining, she moved closer to Kain.

“Could we talk for a moment? Just a moment. Just a very brief moment.”