Lord of Disease (JP-GL) 299

299: A Midnight Pigeon Post

It wasn’t unusual for a ghost pigeon to arrive in the middle of the night. It was a convenient means of communication, precisely because it could be used at any time.

But it was unusual for Harken, who was on night watch, to deliver it.

He had the authority to open letters that arrived during his watch. He would examine the contents and usually pass them on the next day.

Usually.

Liz and I were woken up in our room. I was vaguely aware of a knock, and of Liz waking up.

“My apologies for the late hour, my master, Liz-dono. …This is an urgent matter.”

Harken’s heavy tone chased away my sleepiness. Liz got out of bed in her nightgown and, after slipping on her slippers, went to the door. I did the same and followed her.

Harken was there. He, who was usually so cheerful, for an undead, was now grim and silent.

“Harken?”

“My master, Liz-dono. …Please, listen calmly.”

“…Yes. Tell us.”

“Yes. Could you summarize it?”

“The humans have invaded Fort Litalside. The first wave has been repelled—but the Commander of the Dark Knights has gone missing in action…”

“Huh?” Liz squeezed my hand. So tightly, it hurt.

She, who was usually so quick to process information and to explain it to me, was frozen. And in that frozen state, she met my eyes, as I, too, was at a loss for words.

There was only one Commander of the Dark Knights in this world. Bringit Finis. My best friend, and her sister.

There had been signs of an invasion. There had been reports. And now, it had become a reality, in the worst possible way.

Tears welled up in her eyes, and a single tear traced a path down her cheek and fell to the carpet. With a strangely bewildered expression, Liz wiped it away with her free hand and stared at it.

“…Huh?”

All I could do was not pull my hand away.

The Human Alliance Against Demons, probably a force centered around Rank Kingdom, given the location, had invaded Fort Litalside.

They had attacked the city walls from a distance with a new type of catapult.

Bridget had decided to destroy them with a night raid. She had led the army herself and had destroyed them all.

—And in return, most of the attack force had not returned, and even Bridget, the commander, had gone missing.

Liz and I were in bed. A meeting to discuss our response would be held tomorrow. We should rest, as much as we could. But my mind was racing, and I couldn’t sleep.

Liz was curled up, her face buried in my thin chest, her breathing even.

The sight of my loved one, with tear tracks still on her face, was heartbreaking. She had been crying in my arms just a moment ago. Her thin shoulders had trembled, and she had been silent. We had both been at a loss for words, as if any words would have been a lie, a hollow comfort.

But it wasn’t certain that Bridget was dead.

Misinformation was common on the battlefield. Missing in action after a chaotic battle. And after she had given the order for them to act independently. Even after she had chosen to destroy the catapults, the primary objective, in the face of a twenty-to-one numerical disadvantage… and had succeeded, and had ‘retreated’ by breaking through the enemy’s center.

Her body hadn’t been found, and there were no witnesses to her death, so there was no proof that she was dead. But on a battlefield where offensive magic that could burn you to the bone was flying, the meaning of ‘missing in action’ was not light.

And even if she was alive, beyond Fort Litalside was enemy territory. Even if she had survived, there was no guarantee that she was still safe.

I had made the humans serious. I had pushed them to a decisive battle, with all their forces.

That, His Majesty knew.

To end the war of attrition. But we couldn’t attack. So, we had to make them choose a full-scale offensive.

…But.

Couldn’t I have done it more efficiently? If I had, would this have happened? I couldn’t help but think.

I would have been dead, if it weren’t for Bridget. She, who was at war with humans, had saved me, a human. That choice had made me take the name of the Lord of Disease. We had clashed over our beliefs, and she had even pointed her sword at me.

She had said, referring to my—the Sixth Army’s—tactics of assassinating non-combatants and inciting the populace.

(—That is not the way of a knight!)

Strong words. The words of a person who, despite being outnumbered, despite having something to protect, had tried to be a knight.

I couldn’t forgive it. A future where such proud people were trampled by humans. I couldn’t forgive it.

I had decided to destroy the humans, with any and all means at my disposal, with all the dirty tricks from the history of Earth that I knew. We had the same thing to protect. But I understood her words. Because ethically, she was right.

If only there were rules on the battlefield. If only there were a well-behaved war. If only there were a treaty that guaranteed you wouldn’t be killed if you lost.

But there was no such thing, in reality.

This was a war of extermination between different races.

A war that someone, a human, had started, over four hundred years ago. And a war that His Majesty had continued to fight, after he had founded the nation of Listrea.

There was no room for compromise.

If the humans had truly wished for peace, if they had truly intended to remain non-interfering, then this country might have chosen to maintain the wall forever.

But the humans had tried to cross the wall. They had repeatedly attacked a land that was far harsher than their own, a land with no real profit to be gained.

And my arrival in this world had been a part of that. The humans probably didn’t know the true identity of the Lord of Disease. Even if they knew I was human, they would never dream that I was the human they had summoned from another world, as a mere fuel tank.

(She’s a precious little sister, don’t make her cry.)

This was the first time I had seen Liz cry.

And the one who had told me not to make her cry…!

Anger and sadness simmered in my stomach. My heart was filled with a blackness, and my head was hot, and I couldn’t stop the black impulse. There was no reason to stop it.

If only I had had the power.

Not the cunning to wage a cowardly war, but the power to prevent a sad war.

If only I had been conveniently given a super-strong power when I had come to this world… a power to force them to talk, to let bygones be bygones, to create a multiracial nation that included humans.

But the future I wished for this country—a peaceful, multiracial nation, free from external threats—was, unfortunately, a future without humans.

Because humans were afraid of what was different. Because they would resort to the wrong means, like seeking resources in another world. Because too much blood had already been shed.

I could only envision a future where one of us was destroyed.

And in that, the choice of who to side with had been easy. I couldn’t think of the humans from another world as my own kind. A race that had summoned me as a mere fuel tank. I knew that wasn’t all there was to them. I knew that most of them were capable of being kind to their own kind. But I had decided to trust the people who had been kind to me, someone who was different.

Like a mirror, I would do as had been done to me. I would kill the race that had tried to use and kill me, and I would ensure the survival of the country that had trusted and saved me.

That was all.

No wonder war never ended.

I wanted Bridget to be alive. I hadn’t given up hope. It wasn’t certain that she was dead.

But this feeling was enough. To make me feel this way was enough.

If my precious person was killed. I would absolutely not just cry and do nothing. I would not say something enlightened. I would not break the chain of revenge.

—No, to be precise, I might say that. Because I had no intention of letting the chain of revenge continue. I would sever the root of it all.

I was the Lord of Disease.

Species: Human.

Objective: Human extinction.

I would eradicate that race from this earth.