TBAGM Vol. 3 Chapter 2 Part 2

Where was this place?

My consciousness was hazy, and I could not tell whether this was a dream or reality.

It felt as though I had fallen into some deep place.

“Oh, you were awake? Hold on a second… I’ll turn on the light now.”

I had heard this voice before.

It was probably the man who attacked me earlier. No, more than that, I might have heard it somewhere long before.

The man made a click and switched on the light.

“Gh…”

In an instant, the room went from being wrapped in pitch-black darkness to flooded with bright light.

The sudden brightness stung my eyes as though they were burning.

Then, little by little, the pain faded, color returned to my vision, and I finally understood the situation I was in.

“What the hell… was this?”

I was lying face down, my arms and legs shackled with chains, completely unable to move.

“Don’t try to force them off, okay? Those chains might explode.”

The man said that while leaning down to peer into my face.

I knew this man.

There had not been a single day I had forgotten him.

“You couldn’t possibly be…!?”

“So you figured out who I was? It’s been eight years, after all. I was worried you might’ve forgotten.”

The bright, high tone coming from a man who looked to be in his thirties threw my senses out of joint.

“Why were you still alive…”

This was the man who killed my sister, Lishia, eight years ago.

.

[Name]	Noir (31)
[Title]	Unknown
[Stats]	Vitality E/E  Magic D/D  Ambition S/S Leadership A/A  Intelligence S/S
[Skill]	???
[Inherent Trait]	Modification
[Profession]	Changer
[Attribute]	Operation S/S  Storage S/S  Synthesis A/A
[Hidden Skill]	Modification S/S

.

His name appeared to be Noir, at least according to what my eyes showed me, though it could have been an alias.

A Changer was a profession mainly concerned with improving weapons and magitools, and breeding better varieties of crops and food.

But when it came to this man, he specialized in a different kind of “modification.”

The fact that his skill field showed as unknown was unsettling too. I had a feeling neither my 【Appraisal】 nor my 【Insight】 would be enough to uncover his true nature.

“What was wrong? Was it really that strange that you couldn’t see just a tiny little part of my stats?”

Noir said it as if he were mocking me.

“Of course it was. I’m the one who put that 【Appraisal】 on you. So? How did that woman’s skill feel to use?”

“――――――――!!”

A scream that never became a sound tore out of me.

I wanted to kill him right now. That thought consumed every last one of my emotions.

If I killed Noir, everything would be fulfilled. If I could just avenge her, then everything would be fulfilled.

But I was restrained, so I could not even properly rise to my feet.

“Don’t get so mad. I’m your benefactor, aren’t I?”

“How the hell are you my benefactor!? I’ll never forgive you!”

“Whoa. Scary, scary.”

I roared at the criminal grinning like an idiot.

“Don’t screw with me! What you did is something that should never, ever be forgiven!”

“Well, you know how it is. A little youthful indiscretion.”

Noir answered that while laughing out loud.

“D-Don’t screw with meeeeeeeeeee!”

The emotions inside me exploded.

This man was already a criminal who had slaughtered dozens of people.

Because of him, my entire life had been thrown into ruin. And it was not just me. Kyros had suffered the same fate.

“No, I’m not joking. You became nourishment for my goal. You should be happy about that, shouldn’t you?”

“…………”

Noir was probably trying to say that murder was acceptable if it served his goal.

That should never have been allowed. It should never have been forgivable.

“Why was a man like you allowed to go on living so shamelessly!?”

Kyros and I had definitely captured him. We turned him over to the kingdom’s military police. After that, he should have been thrown into the underground prison, the most heavily guarded place in the entire Fereia Kingdom.

He was a man who had toyed with dozens of lives. I had been certain there was no way he would escape the death penalty.

And yet here he was, still alive.

“It was surprisingly easy to break out.”

“Huh?”

I had no idea what Noir was talking about.

The underground prison had the highest level of security in all of Fereia Kingdom. There were not even any windows, and the walls were made of obsidian, which absolutely could not be broken. There was no way anyone could escape. And yet he said it was easy? How?

Even if he bribed the guards, he would still have to get past layer after layer of security. Besides, the underground prison’s guards swore absolute loyalty to the kingdom and were bound by contracts rooted in magic. Bribery should have been impossible.

Even though he had to know what I was wondering, Noir only gave a faint smile and did not answer.

“…Tell me.”

“Hm?”

“What is your goal!? Why do you kill people under the pretense of skill transfer!?”

I had never understood Noir’s objective.

If killing people was his goal, then there was no reason for him to go through the trouble of calling it skill transfer. He could have simply killed them.

“…Well, you’re going to die here anyway, so I guess it’s fine if I explain.”

Noir sat down in a nearby chair.

“Long, long ago, one day God told me this: if I transferred skills a hundred times, any wish I had would be granted. But a skill is like part of a person’s heart. Once it’s removed, the mind collapses. In other words, they die.”

“Huh?”

“And here’s where it got annoying. The ability I have, the one that lets me transfer skills from one person to another, came with conditions. The person giving up the skill had to accept the act from the bottom of their heart, including their own death. In other words, I couldn’t just snatch a skill off some random person on the street and hand it over to any random fool.”

With a furrowed brow, Noir explained it as though it were all a huge nuisance.

“So in order to carry out skill transfers, I built a church and started working as a priest. Well, there are more people than you’d think who want to devote their lives to others, with all that repentance and compassion nonsense.”

“…So you’re saying you’ve been slaughtering people all this time for the sake of your own selfish desires?”

“How did you get that from what I said? Your sister wanted the skill transfer too, remember? All I’ve done is charity work. As a messenger of God, no less.”

Noir spoke proudly, as though he had done absolutely nothing wrong.

I could not understand a single thing he was saying. We were speaking the same language, and yet I understood none of his reasoning.

“Well, after all that, I carried out more than a hundred skill transfers. But God never appeared before me. My wish was never granted. Did God lie to me? No, that couldn’t be it. If so, the only possible conclusion is that one of my skill transfers failed somewhere.”

Noir kept going, his words coming faster and faster.

“The only candidates I can think of are you two. Normally, a skill should be transferred from one person to one person, but that woman had something like that… well, whatever. Anyway, because of that woman’s wish, I split it between you and your brother. Something abnormal probably happened there. That’s why I came to kill you two over and… no, to take the skills back.”

As if asking whether I understood now, Noir rose from the chair.

There was no way I could accept that.

“Don’t screw with meeeeeee! How long are you going to keep making fools of people until you’re satis—”

“You’re noisy. Composite Magic【Silent Rain】.”

On top of the chains already restraining me, Noir bound me with yet another set of chains.

“――ッ!?”

Apparently it was a composite spell made from 【Eraser】 and binding magic. No matter how hard I tried to scream, no sound came out.

“Why? You could at least be a little grateful.”

Noir was not trying to provoke me. He was sincerely wondering that from the bottom of his heart.

Kill him kill him kill him kill him kill him kill him kill him kill him—

I was furious at my own powerless self for having no way out of this.

What kind of advisor was I?

What did it mean to carry on Lishia’s will?

All while I knew nothing, the man who killed Lishia had gone on living freely like this.

I was powerless. I was ignorant. I was trash. I was…

“Excuse me. Please sleep for a little while.”

“Ugh!?”

A shock ran through my neck.

My attention had been scattered just now. But if someone had aimed enough hostility at me to qualify as killing intent, I should have noticed.

Which meant that blow had come without hostility…

And then my consciousness began to fade.

†

The one who knocked Lloyd unconscious laid him down a short distance away.

Having his fun ruined, Noir asked in undisguised irritation,

“Who are you, and why are you here… and how did you even make it this far?”

“If things continued as they were, Lord Lloyd’s sense of self would have collapsed, so I administered emergency treatment. As for how I found this place, I followed the traces of magic power.”

To sense the lingering traces of magic power, one needed either a skill or highly sharpened senses forged through years of training.

Noir’s eyes widened as he appraised the woman.

But almost immediately, he noticed something wrong and stared in shock.

“What!? Why can’t I see you… Who are you?”

“I am merely a maid. Ah, I had always wanted to say that at least once. It’s the sort of line that feels traumatic to me.”

The woman in maid attire gave a wry smile.

But there was no way Noir would take those words at face value.

As if rejecting them as nonsense, he replied,

“Just a maid? There’s no way. The fact that you’re already interfering with my 【Appraisal】 tells me you’re incredibly strong.”

“This is not my power. It is Elder Sister’s power.”

For Noir, who had always seen through everything with 【Appraisal】, an unidentified enemy was a first.

As though answering his question, she removed the robe draped over her shoulders.

Then she politely took the hem of her skirt and bowed her head.

“I am Wraith, one who dwells in the shadow of light. Any shadow that stands as an obstacle to my master, Lord Lloyd, I shall eliminate without fail.”

—

About two hours earlier.

It was after Lloyd left the guild of Veiled Moonrise, intending to head for the slums.

“Elder Sister, I know this is rather late to bring up, but isn’t it dangerous for a guildmaster who isn’t a combat type to walk alone at night?”

Rei, the maid assigned to the guild, asked her senior Serina while clearing away the dishes.

Originally, Rei had belonged to Incarnation of the Sun under the name Wraith, and had been a spy keeping watch on Lloyd in order to report on him to Kyros. Serina exposed her, beat her to a pulp, and now had her working under her.

As proof of her submission, she called Serina “Elder Sister.”

Lloyd, who knew nothing of the circumstances, had simply been told it was a sort of seniority relationship.

Not that Serina entirely disliked the intoxicating feeling of being called “Elder Sister.”

“Dangerous at night? You mean for Lord Lloyd? I don’t think there’s any need to worry about him.”

The others from Veiled Moonrise had already headed into the dungeon, so only the two of them remained at the guild.

Serina, who was always so polite and seemed the very model of good manners, was sprawled lazily across the sofa.

Unlike Rei, Serina did not seem to think this was any serious matter.

“Mmm…”

Even so, Rei’s opinion apparently had not changed, and she fixed Serina with an earnest stare.

Defeated by her persistence, Serina reluctantly nodded.

“Haaah… If you’re that worried about it, then you may go serve as Lord Lloyd’s bodyguard.”

“R-Really!?”

“I’ll handle today’s work myself. Well, I’ll actually have my doubles do it with 【Heat Haze】.”

The moment Serina gave her permission, Rei’s face brightened at once.

Seeing that, Serina let out a wry chuckle.

“Before I knew it, Rei had completely fallen for Lord Lloyd.”

“Wha!? T-That’s not true! I-It’s just…”

“It’s just?”

Serina found the change in Rei’s feelings rather endearing.

At first, Rei had been infatuated with Kyros and completely rejected Lloyd, but now she was worried about him like this.

Rei’s face turned red.

“He isn’t arrogant like Kyros, and he has the kindness to offer a hand to anyone. I love that about Lord Lloyd as a person.”

“See? Then you do like him.”

“I-I-It’s not like that! Lord Lloyd already has Lady Ellis, and… still, I’ve made up my mind.”

Rei’s way of thinking had changed through interacting with Lloyd, and through Serina’s guidance.

Lloyd probably had not noticed.

But here too, there was someone who had found her way onto the right path because of him.

With a smile on her face, she spoke as though making a solemn vow in her heart.

“I want Lord Lloyd to keep shining for our sake as well. That is why I will remain forever as the shadow of the light, Lloyd.”

Hiding her flushed expression, Rei hurriedly made her preparations and went after Lloyd.

Left alone in the guild, Serina wore a knowing grin and muttered under her breath,

“That’s what people call a confession, you know~”

She had spent her life in the dark underbelly of Incarnation of the Sun, and had nearly lost her human heart.

No one would ever think the person she was now had once been an assassin.

Watching how much she had grown, Serina felt happy as her teacher, yet also a little jealous.

“I wanted to return to that side too…”

—