Chapter 95
Craine slowly entered the room.
There were no signs of anyone else inside.
The mana flickered around, but it wasn’t human.
“Everyone went outside. I heard they stopped by the church. Didn’t you see them?”
Vargan smoothly read his gaze and responded, which only irritated Craine more.
Once he started to see things negatively, everything seemed off.
“Looks like quite a few familiars are out.”
Nearby, the monsters presumed to be Vargan’s familiars were staring at him intently. Those that showed no interest were either shedding fur or sound asleep.
“Aren’t you supposed to interact with your familiars regularly? No one would know better than you… oh, wait. Maybe not.”
Vargan chuckled softly and held back his words.
Craine observed that smile with dark eyes.
This was also rather unpleasant.
“…I thought you were an honest person.”
“Is there a reason you think so?”
Craine’s eyes twitched for a moment as old memories surfaced, but he pressed them down with his hand and suppressed it.
This revealed a vulnerability he preferred to keep hidden.
“You outright rejected my mentee proposal without a second thought. Normally, one would either dance around it or at least show some remorse. You boldly threw around Helion’s name and insulted me.”
“It’s unfortunate you feel that way. I had no intention of insulting you, Lord Craine.”
Vargan replied sincerely.
There was no deceit in his statement, and it came through clearly.
“I chose to recommend Lord Helion because it seemed like a better choice. Otherwise, I wouldn’t have rejected your mentee proposal. I was quite interested in your familiar magic too.”
“In that case, you’re not honest; you’re just rude.”
Craine frowned at his attitude, which treated him as a mere comparison to Helion, as if highlighting the differences in product performance.
The difference was particularly palpable to him.
Vargan wore a naive expression, completely oblivious to Craine’s displeasure.
…Well, whatever.
He hadn’t come here to blame Vargan for not choosing him as a mentor.
As he inspected the surroundings again and checked the state of the familiars, Craine determined that they were not given any specific orders.
He was quite knowledgeable in familiar magic.
It was unlikely, but had Vargan known Craine would come and arranged these creatures to intimidate him, he would have caught on through their reactions.
He picked up a whip from the cluttered monster items and examined it.
It looked entirely new, as if it had never been used.
“Familiars are really great, aren’t they?”
Having mostly sorted out his emotions, he calmly continued. The tense expression on his face when he first entered had relaxed considerably.
“People are a hassle. To use them, you have to build relationships, and maintaining those requires a lot of time and effort.”
As he let the coiled whip hang limply, it dangled like a long tail on the ground. A gentle flick cut through the air with the whip’s sudden snap.
“On the other hand, the relationship with familiars is very simple. You reward them for obedience and punish them for disobedience. As long as you can handle this balance, training most familiars is essentially done.”
“If you give a command and they don’t listen, there will be a punishment. If you can handle just these two adjustments, the education of most familiars will be practically finished.”
“That’s not entirely unreasonable.”
“Sounds like you’re not fully in agreement.”
Bargan stroked his chin and stared at the ceiling, looking contemplative.
It was definitely a staged action, yet strangely felt natural when he did it.
Once he finished his thoughts, he said, “Well, this is related to the theories of emotion and education, so I can’t just dismiss it carelessly. However… it doesn’t seem like you’re here to discuss that…”
“I’ve come to verify the truth on behalf of the Church.”
“The truth… hmm, I suppose I should hear you out.”
If the conversation continued, it might have warranted one of them to take a seat, but neither felt that kind of atmosphere.
A slight tension lingered like the early morning mist.
Bargan showed signs of listening intently.
“I hear you struck a ‘contract’ with Frikkanrisk?”
“Yes, the process itself was no different from contracting with an ordinary familiar. The difference lies in it being a contract with equal terms for both parties, not one skewed in my favor.”
“Equal terms? Huh, ha ha—!”
Suddenly, Craine, who had been suppressing the urge to laugh, shot back, “That’s a lie! You’re spouting nonsense!”
His face turned red with rage.
It was almost reminiscent of Jekyll and Hyde.
Taken aback by the sudden shift, Bargan soon found enjoyment in the reaction as he asked, his voice slightly lifted with excitement, “A lie, you say?”
“You claim you made a contract under equal terms with a divine beast?! That’s utter nonsense!”
What he claimed was as follows: the Twelve Divine Beasts do not enter into contracts with equal terms, or terms that favor the other party.
One of the main reasons being the unspoken rule that they cannot interfere with humans, instinctively causing a rejection of the idea.
“If what you say is true, does that mean those eyes of yours see the thoughts of others like a picture? You must see right through me now?”
When one contracts with a divine beast, they can share some of their power. The more favorable the conditions are for the human, the more power they receive.
“The eyes of Frikkanrisk can peek into both monsters and humans! So, what exactly am I thinking right now? What emotions am I feeling? What am I imagining? Go ahead and answer me!”
Craine was furious.
Contract with favorable terms with a divine beast?
If that was possible, he would have done it long ago.
Perhaps he wouldn’t have even tried to include Frikkanrisk in a chimera.
Even her husband, Aintern, had not entered into a contract yet, and this nonsense…!
Right now, Bargan was not just humiliating him but delighting in it, mocking him! There’s no way he could speak such nonsensical words otherwise!
“This is troublesome.”
Bargan twirled his fingers on his chin, letting out a soft ‘hmm…’.
Then he asked, “Is it okay to speak this out loud?”
“Sure, go ahead and rattle off. I’m all ears!”
Bargan smiled broadly.
He jested, “First off, you’re quite angry. Very much so.”
——thud.
At those words, Craine felt something snap in his highly agitated brain.
He unleashed the stress accumulated over the past days into magic. A grotesque-looking familiar emerged from the round summoning circle.
“Better not joke around.”
It was a chimera.
It had the face of a lion, legs of a horse, wings of a wyvern, a serpent for a tail, and its skin was as tough as armor.
Bargan raised a hand, stopping him as if to say, “I only said ‘first.’ We’re not done yet; you’re in a hurry.”
So now, I will give you the answer you want.
Bargan calmly surveyed him as he said this.
“I see a fierce mother white tiger, next to her is a man who seems like her master and a cub.”
Next to the white tiger, there’s a man who looks like its master and a cub.
“What?”
Craine disregards the weight on his brow and continues.
“A hunter from somewhere has killed the man and taken the cub. He cleverly used the moment while the mother tiger was asleep.”
Craine’s pupils widening, but he tries not to react as he listens to Vargan spin his tale.
Only after hearing everything does it seem like he can judge properly.
“The greedy hunter wasn’t satisfied with the cub’s skin, so he now aims for the mother’s. He hunts her with the friend hunter he assisted before.”
Vargan approaches the standing Craine, snatches the whip from his hand, and turns the handle upside down.
The blunt end now resembles a microphone.
“The hunter lost his friend in that hunt, but he managed to get the mother tiger’s skin he so desired. It’s a happy fairy tale where he can safely spend the cold winter thanks to that skin.”
Vargan grins, raising one corner of his mouth, bringing the whip’s handle close to his mouth like a microphone.
As if he awaits some appreciation for his performance.
“What do you think? Pretty similar, right?”
“……”
“This should be enough proof.”
Instead of responding, Craine grits his teeth and grabs Vargan by the collar, pushing him hard against the wall.
His hands tremble, but his eyes are sharp, intent on killing his opponent.
This isn’t some insight into his current thoughts…!
“What nonsense are you babbling right now?”
His trembling voice shook even the words coming out.
“That’s not what I want to hear⎯⎯!”
He pushes harder.
He tightens his grip on Vargan’s collar.
Vargan’s glare, full of tension, could burst veins around his eyes.
But upon closer inspection, it seemed like a defense mechanism to hide his own anxious psyche.
“What are you so afraid of?”
Vargan’s words were like poisoned darts.
“Are you terrified of the hunter’s treachery and cruelty in the story I told? Do you feel a surge of strong emotions for the dead tigers and their master?”
Those poisonous words were even more potent than the paralysis poison Craine used to kill Aintern, and it acted instantly, not after hours.
“Or perhaps… are you afraid that your own vile and cunning sins have been exposed?”
If that’s the case, it means you’re not a villain or evildoer, just a discarded character masquerading as one.
At those words from Vargan.
“I can’t understand a single word you’re saying! Right now, …I can’t grasp any of your nonsense!”
He stubbornly denies it.
Vargan interprets it more simply as requested.
“The tiger is Frikkanrisk. Its master is Aintern. The cub is their child. Don’t you get it yet?”
Vargan psychologically pressed him down.
How surprised he must have been to hear a secret no one should know, except for Ami, in a place like this.
Perhaps that was why.
“No….”
Craine releases his grip on Vargan and steps back. He grabs his head. His eyes bulge as if they might pop out.
“No, no, no⎯!”
Such a noisy and unpleasant voice.
He turns into a madman, shrieking.
“It’s not me! It’s not me⎯⎯!”
That pathetic excuse was almost a scream.
His demeanor shifts, reminiscent of a reed swaying in the wind.
The unsightly figure now becomes pitiful.
“The voice… it was the voice… the voice made me do it…!”
“What a pathetic excuse.”
“It was the voice that reminded me of Frikkanrisk, the voice that commanded me to kill Aintern, the voice that told me to kidnap the child… it was all the voice… the voice I heard from within my body….”
Hearing his desperate sobs, Vargan’s demeanor turns cold.
No longer viewing him as human.
“…You’ve lost your mind, Craine.”
Craine, struggling to catch his breath, shows a shaky facade with his teeth chattering.
Busy Craine was showing a shaky and unstable demeanor, like someone suffering from drug or alcohol addiction.
He was pleading with extreme anxiety.
“Insanity? I lost my mind a long time ago. Ever since I started hearing voices, my body hasn’t been mine! So… so… it wasn’t me!… I didn’t want to kill anyone… really, please believe me….”
He desperately tried to grab Vargan with his trembling hands.
Vargan didn’t refuse.
With a contemplative expression, he eliminated the coldness from his voice.
“Are you saying that another personality inside you gave you commands?”
“It’s… different… that’s not me. It’s a separate entity… it’s real. It’s true….”
“Really?”
Vargan replied.
He seemed refreshed, as if he had washed away the horrible acts he had shown before.
“Alright then. I’ll start believing you.”
With a benevolent expression, Vargan reassured him.
It was clear that he had changed his attitude rather abruptly, but Craine desperately wanted to grasp even a shred of hope.
“Believe… you really believe me?”
“Yes, I see sincerity in you.”
Vargan asked in a gentle tone.
Cautious of a potential outburst.
His current expression clearly borrowed a technique from Saint Diphelia.
“Help me to believe in you even more. Only sincere answers can save you.”
“W-what… what do you mean…?”
“Who moved according to the voice you heard inside you?”
Craine hesitated.
He was trying to determine whether it was right or wrong to say this here. But he was currently.
“That… I… it was me, it’s true but….”
He couldn’t make a sound judgment.
This was partly due to the curse that Vargan was gradually laying on him, but his extreme anxiety played the biggest role.
He was already too broken.
“Really?”
Vargan smiled slyly.
Then, he plucked out the eyes of the monster dolls scattered around and made them float in the air.
Facing the spheres, he declared.
Craine felt like he had run out of options.
“Criminal Craine admits his crimes!”
It was the image magic he used to provoke everyone during the Class Battle. With its evolved form before him, Vargan revealed.
“Driven solely by my filthy desires, I attempted to kill Frikkanrisk, one of the Twelve Divine Beasts! The crime of murdering her husband, the hero Aintern, my companion! The crime of abducting their innocent child, which led to the current situation!”
There were several others, but there was no need to spill the information about Ami here.
Vargan sneered at the dazed criminal Craine.
“…No way.”
Only then did Craine understand the sequence of events.
Everything that had happened here was being broadcasted via image magic, and Craine had essentially confessed to his crimes.
And the place of broadcasting was likely.
Where the most people had gathered in Dortmund at that moment.
“Square…!”
“And also, though I didn’t mention it thoroughly, you will be charged with the crime of destroying six villages.”
Craine hurriedly moved his body, releasing mana.
The familiar Chimera reacted to his mana, swelling like a balloon as it charged toward Vargan. Craine did the same.
“You bastard—!”
Seeing this, Vargan simply scoffed lightly.
His declarations were not finished.
“Your position as a hero is revoked, and you are sentenced to death.”
“Thud…!”
As if the buildings might collapse, holes were smashed open, and heroes rushed in, overwhelming Craine and Chimera.
It all happened in an instant.
They were a well-prepared veteran group with extensive experience, as furious as Craine himself.
They were the Helion team.
And part of Dortmund, they were also the hero team of Yannick, Craine’s companion.
Vargan, protected by them, quietly savored the smoothly progressing mid-story conclusion.
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