STM 93

“Are you alright?”

Solongo asked in a whisper from beside me. She’d asked in the carriage earlier too. I turned to Solongo and asked back.

“Do I not look alright?”

“No.”

She shook her head. I really was alright. Not showing emotion on my face, not putting strength in my hands. No different from usual. But to Solongo, that appearance seemed more precarious.

“That’s why I’m more worried.”

“I’m fine. I won’t rush in recklessly.”

Even if I wanted to rush in now, I couldn’t. The temple representative had just stepped forward to reveal that Ma Hoiga was Salvation. The strange thing was that the representative was none other than the extremely nervous Ariona.

“I don’t understand why High Priest Cheki didn’t come out.”

Right? Her beloved disciple is speaking with trembling hands like that.

The conference room had four massive tables positioned like a round table around the center of a room as wide as a plaza.

Each seemed to be a seat for the four divine beast families, and Borhumi also occupied one seat.

My status didn’t even come close to those tables, so I was sitting at the end of the room, in front of a wall barely visible behind a pillar.

Even from my corner seat, Ariona’s nervousness was obvious at a glance.

“She might not have been able to come out.”

Solongo nodded.

“Yes, Hoiga’s expression definitely looks like something’s up. When he was walking toward the conference room, he wasn’t this anxious.”

His expression was certainly dark. Just moments ago, he’d been biting his lower lip so hard it looked like it would bleed, to the point where a family member beside him had to stop him.

The funny thing was that Hoiga and the Ma family sat behind Montaine. This is like a spoiler.

Perhaps that’s why the Montaine side all had relaxed expressions. Right, it’s good for me if you hold Hoiga tight.

“He’s looking at Lord Lu again.”

While I was concentrating on Hoiga, Solongo whispered beside me. I could tell who the subject of her “again” was without hearing the name.

I turned my gaze from Hoiga to the side. To the person sitting alone at a large table that could seat ten people. It was Tairok.

While the other three divine beast families had at least three, and as many as six people occupying seats, he alone was by himself. Yet he stood out the most. Even when he was leaning back in his chair like a delinquent, seemingly uninterested in the whole affair.

Well, even if he stripped naked and danced there, it wasn’t my concern. But as Solongo said, he was looking at me. Continuously, several times since I first entered this room and sat down.

Why is he doing that?

I have too many complaints. Hoiga keeps glancing at him already, and if you look at me, I’m exposed to the traitor.

So I overtly gave him a displeased look, but it had no effect. Rather, he seemed to find it funny.

Ugh, those eyes again. Does he want to enjoy tormenting me in this situation? When Ariona is introducing Salvation’s existence.

“A-as everyone knows, my master has worked hard to protect Salvation from danger. But now that danger has come to Tubain, we need Salvation more than ever.”

Ariona’s gaze turned to Hoiga. Then, receiving his family’s silent encouragement, Hoiga stood up. Just looking at the family’s gaze toward Hoiga, you could tell how much they loved him.

But perhaps that love had become poison. He was standing there forcibly with such a pained, downcast look.

At least he didn’t look excited or pleased to be introduced as Salvation. Like someone who had no choice but to accept the situation.

Of course, I didn’t feel any sympathy. To my eyes, it just looked like whining about happiness. Rather, I got angrier at that appearance.

Without realizing it, I clenched my fist again. Beside me, Solongo misunderstood my anger as something else and comforted me.

“I’m certain he’s a fake. There’s a high possibility Montaine staged him as Salvation.”

“I know.”

To put the Grand Duke Montaine on the imperial throne, there’s no justification as certain as Salvation’s support. I clicked my tongue inwardly, while beside me Solongo had a different worry.

“What are they going to do if the real Salvation appears?“

I threw an incredulous look at Solongo for a moment. As if Salvation from a fairy tale would really appear. That’s why they dared to pull off this scam. But I paused when I saw Solongo’s gaze meeting mine.

Why is she looking at me so seriously?

“What?”

When I asked quietly, she shook her head “It’s nothing” and looked forward again. I followed her and turned my gaze back as well.

Tap, tap.

The sound of Hoiga’s footsteps walking toward the center echoed loudly inside. He kept his gaze lowered to the floor the entire time, but when he finally stopped, he glanced at Tairok once. His eyes were wistful, like the protagonist of a tragic love that couldn’t be fulfilled.

What nonsense.

I barely managed to not mock him. Someone else shouted loudly in my stead.

“Ma Hoiga, are you really Salvation?”

Someone from the Borhumi side asked incredulously. It was actually a natural question to have.

No matter how great the prophetic ability, how could they be certain he was Salvation based on that alone? Was he hiding some important point?

There were many more strange things since no one from the other three divine beast families raised any objections. Going even further, Duke Kilu took issue with the Borhumi representative’s tone.

“Show proper respect befitting Salvation. Even if the Borhumi family has completely lost their divine beast and isn’t in their right mind, shouldn’t you maintain courtesy?”

The expressions of the Borhumi people turned ugly. However, Borhumi’s situation must have been quite bad, as they couldn’t show great anger. However, the middle-aged man who appeared to be the representative asked with dissatisfaction.

“How can we believe you’re Salvation when you dare spout nonsense about Borhumi’s divine beast? If you saw a future where Borhumi’s divine beast perished, you naturally should have informed us!”

“The future I saw was six months away. I didn’t know the future would be moved up like this.”

When Hoiga apologized, Duke Kilu added as if he were a spokesperson.

“No, it’s not Salvation’s fault. Who could have known Grand Duke Borhumi would dance in a dark mage’s hands and worsen the situation this quickly?”

When he brought up the dark mage, no one on the Borhumi side could open their mouths. News of the terrible slaughter at Crystal Lake had already spread across the entire continent.

Borhumi’s incompetence in not noticing even when so many people died was also on people’s lips.

But the real problem was the rumor about Borhumi’s divine beast. The Borhumi representative seemed to have come here to take issue with this point.

“How can Salvation be certain that Borhumi’s divine beast has perished?”

“Because it’s in the records.”

“Records? No one can decode ancient documents containing information about divine beasts.”

The representative’s words were something I’d also read while learning Tubain’s history.

Due to the war with dark mages who followed the power of demons long ago, information about divine beasts was written in codes that only a very few could know.

Not only were the codes different for each family, but often the codes weren’t unified even within families.

Thanks to that, most documents couldn’t be decoded. So everyone couldn’t help but be surprised by Hoiga’s following words.

“No. I can do it.”

At the words revealing confidence, astonished exclamations erupted from several places. I barely managed not to laugh, contrary to them.

Of course you can, with the help of nanobots. My eyes glared at Hoiga, contrary to my lips twisting to smile.

Damn bastard, how many people worked hard and sacrificed to send nanobots from our world where resources are precious.

No matter if it was a suicide mission, that was their own choice. They only accepted volunteers in the first place. But right now, the traitor was spouting nonsense as if it were solely his own achievement.

“What I wanted to tell you all today is about these records. After learning of the ominous future, I began decoding documents about divine beasts to find the cause and solution. And I learned the cause.“