[698] The Place of Reunion (7)
Eliza's body trembled as things refused to go her way.
"You—how dare you…"
Even she couldn't name the emotion.
The world doesn't teach you how angry you're supposed to be when faced with the death of a child whose face you never even saw.
Still, twenty years of living as a criminal was plenty of reason to want Shirone dead.
"I'm sorry. If there's anything I can do to make amends, I'll do it."
Orcamp's eyebrow twitched when the man who had a one-in-three chance of becoming a star said the word "compensation."
But Eliza had already lost her reason.
"Die. That's the only way you can make amends."
"That won't do. It's true the prince died in my stead, but it wasn't my will."
"Walker! What are you doing! That's the prince's murderer! Kill him!"
When Walker didn't move, Orcamp stepped forward.
"How about this, then? There's something worse than death. Send him to the underground prison."
It was a jail mostly for political prisoners, a place where bizarre tortures were carried out.
"If he even refuses that, we'll have no choice but to use rougher methods."
Shirone met Orcamp's gaze and nodded.
"Understood."
As Shirone and his group followed Walker toward the door, Eliza hurled curses after them.
"We'll torture you horribly! I'll never forgive you!"
Walker shut the door as if to block the queen's voice, then walked the corridor for a while with a sullen air.
'Has Kazra become this powerless?'
No—the change was Shirone.
"Isn't that a bit cruel?"
"What do you mean?"
At Shirone's cold reply, Walker realized there was nothing he could demand.
"His Highness is a skilled politician, but he's still human. He might…take a while."
It was a timid revenge, but Shirone showed no change in expression.
"Doesn't matter."
On the third basement level the stench hit them before they opened the door.
Cells lined the dim corridor and moans leaked from within.
"One year in here and you don't even need to torture them. They go mad. All that's left is a ruined body."
Walker had chosen a relatively tidy wooden cell. He opened it and Shirone, Rian, and Kido filed in.
"Then… I hope you can get out again."
Kido only spoke after Walker left.
"Shirone, what's your plan?"
"Sorry. It won't take long."
"I know. To jump to Kashan you need the approval of Kazra's king. But Orcamp must have made a deal. There was no need to make you suffer in the underground prison."
"It's not just to go to Kashan. As I told Rian, if we don't do it now we won't be able to shake it off."
A hoarse laugh came from the opposite cell.
"Heh heh, so you came after all. I knew you would."
A lunatic clung to the bars, grinning. His face was skeletal, his hair thin, his front teeth all gone.
In that grotesque, barely human visage, Shirone felt a jolt of recognition.
"Jion?"
Jion—Teraje's son and Uorin's brother—was imprisoned in the underground jail.
"You were here?"
"Yeah. My sister—no, that monster put me here. Uorin sent you too, didn't she?"
Shirone had learned Uorin's true nature through Miro and Gaold during the Heaven Project, but his only in-person memory was the fresh-faced scene from the paternity commotion.
"You really locked up your own brother?"
"Puahahaha! Brother? Ridiculous. All bullshit! That witch treats humans like livestock—use them when needed, then discard them without mercy when she doesn't! Expect nothing. You were abandoned by the witch too, so you'll live a miserable life like me. Ihi hi! Ihi hi hi hi!"
Jion's rolled-back eyes showed he was utterly mad.
"I'll watch you suffer! Right next to you!"
"Shut your noisy mouth!"
When a voice called from deep within the darkness, Jion flinched and fell on his backside.
"Uaaah…"
Everyone recognized from the reaction who had driven Jion insane.
The torturer was flabby, his pupils fixed at unnatural positions. Patches of scalp showed the skull, and a coin-sized hole revealed gray matter.
"His brain is literally contaminated."
Kido said it casually, but Jion foamed and trembled in reflexive terror.
"Hehehe, so my sweetie finally came to find me? I'll shut that noisy throat for you."
The torturer undid his belt, stepped into the cell, grabbed Jion by the hair, and dragged him into the dark shadows.
"No! Stop! No!"
The terrible screams abruptly cut off, and after a long while the torturer emerged again.
"Heh heh— that'll be a while… huh?"
He licked his lips and approached when he saw newcomers in the opposite cell.
"Oho? What have we here?"
Shirone met the man's leering gaze with disgust.
"Heh heh, this place—once you come in, you never leave, you know?"
The torturer unlocked the door and stepped through.
"How much pleasure you give me will determine how severe the torture will be. So…"
He took an iron tong from his trousers and held it out to Shirone.
"Let's pull some teeth."
As the torturer's hand landed on Shirone's shoulder, Rian sprang up and struck the man in the face with a punch.
Bones cracked and the torturer flew, crashing into Jion's cell bars.
Without looking at the torturer, Shirone said, "Thanks, Rian."
"It's what I do."
Rian sat back down and added, "I'll protect you."
Kido's expression darkened at the stubbornness of both Shirone, who refused to use his hands, and Rian, who insisted on protecting him.
'Both are maddeningly persistent.'
By night Rian's snoring echoed through the underground prison.
"Seriously insensitive."
Kido clicked his tongue at the sight of Rian sleeping soundly in a place even goblins would avoid.
"Shirone, why don't you stop pretending and make peace?"
Shirone smiled.
"We haven't fought. Rian wouldn't think that either."
"Still, disagreements aren't good. I'm not taking sides, but there are lines even Rian won't cross."
"I know. That's why I do things my way, too."
"Hmm?"
"If Rian were the type to yield to me, I couldn't judge coldly. I'd be too concerned."
"Is that so?"
"Even if Rian weren't here, I'd have acted the same as earlier. But…"
Shirone stuck his tongue out.
"Because Rian is by my side, I'm safe."
Shirone and Rian weren't using each other.
"Humans really have it rough, don't they?"
Kido draped his arm over the open cell bars.
"It's kind of interesting—how complicated they are."
Rian scratched his belly and turned over.
"Ah, I'm hungry…"
"Hahaha."
As appetite began to overcome sleep, Rian suddenly opened his eyes.
"What? Already here?"
Shirone had felt it too.
They heard a door open and Walker approached carrying a torch.
He paid no mind to the knocked-out torturer or the wide-open door.
"Come out. His Highness summons you."
"They've come. Let's go."
Rian strapped on his greatsword and stood.
"After sleeping all that time, and now pretending you waited…"
After about ten minutes in the panic room, Orcamp sat across from Shirone with a box.
"Was it bearable?"
"Thanks for your consideration. I'm surprised it came sooner than I expected."
After all, wasn't he the enemy of Orcamp's child?
"If you're going to give up anyway, give up decisively—my iron rule. And I can't give you what you want."
"What do I want?"
"To go to Kashan, I suppose."
In practical terms there was no other reason to stop in Kazra.
"But the jump is impossible. Nominally you're under Kashan's rule, but it seems they're deeply hostile toward you."
"I see."
It was possible.
"Instead, take this."
Orcamp pushed the box forward.
"Uorin—no, Teraje left this before she left Kazra. She told me to give it to you."
Shirone only scanned the box with his eyes.
'The Mitochondrial Eve. There's some intent behind this.'
He took the box and looked up.
"And the queen?"
"Not well. But she'll forget. It's not a memory that makes her happy. That's the kind of woman she is."
Orcamp spoke frankly.
"Honestly, I'm not even sure there really was a son. Still, a woman who carried a child must feel something different in her heart. I thought you should understand."
Having finished, Orcamp stood.
"Leave Kazra however you like. And if you meet Teraje…"
"I'll request they lift the restrictions."
Orcamp nodded and left the panic room. Kido and Rian leaned toward the box.
"What is it? What did she leave? An object, maybe?"
Armand had gotten something from Uorin too.
"Well… I don't want more debts…"
They opened the lid to find a small iron box with a familiar pattern engraved on its surface.
"Hena."
In the language of angels, it could hold a unique law.
"It's sealed. Can the Immortal Function open it?"
Rian remembered when Shirone in Heaven had unsealed Tess's drone; the Immortal Function came to mind.
"Yes. But it feels a bit flimsy."
When they activated the Immortal Function, Hena glowed red and came to life.
"As expected…"
Hena's law had a security circuit.
"It's a one-to-one correspondence. Absolutely unbreakable."
If someone had written the number 7653, only the person involved would know what it meant.
"But the Ultima system could do it."
Shirone, about to enter a code, suddenly looked up.
"Huh? Ultima?"
"Why? She definitely left it to you."
"Uorin gave it before she left Kazra. At the time I hadn't realized the directive."
"Hm. Now that you mention it…"
"So she entrusted this to the Great Purifier. In other words, it didn't exist in the second reset."
"That's unsettling. Can we trust it? The prisoners call her a witch."
"Let's break the seal and see."
Shirone entered the code and Hena's iron shell peeled away, revealing the contents.
A familiar device lay within.
"Meta-gate. Why this?"
"Could be related to Ra Enemi—like, 'go to Heaven and look for it'?"
"Or it's not new. It might already have certain coordinates stored."
Kido slapped the table.
"Kashan!"
"Maybe, but…"
They'd been called a witch, a monster.
"It could be a truly horrible place."
The three of them stared at the Meta-gate like at a grotesque thing until Rian made up his mind.
"Let's go. We have no choice but to see."
They activated the device in the open space. The box opened and a massive black sphere warped space-time.
"Heaven or hell. Hell or heaven."
Hearing Kido's ominous chant, Shirone pushed his body into the blackness.
His vision dimmed, then the torchlit gloom of the panic room vanished and a blinding daylight seized his retinas.
'Where is this?'
Through half-lidded eyes he saw an endless marble floor and dozens of windows pouring in sunlight.
Beneath the windows stood a silver-haired girl, beautiful even from behind, hands clasped behind her.
'I don't know, Kido. Heaven or hell?'
That was Shirone's honest impression upon arrival.
"Huh? Who are you?"
The girl sensed them, turned, and upon seeing Shirone opened her eyes wide and smiled.
"Oh my?"
It was Teraje Uorin, Empress of Kashan.
(End of Volume 28)