Chapter 92
People, Run 2
Translator : PolterGlast
--Socius, look for a
man named Seirou, who's always wearing a straw hat, in the Merchant Guild.
El's explanation was
just that. That's why Socius figured she had given up looking herself and asked
him. However, this man named Seirou was apparently more famous than El thought,
and he was found easily.
(But I can't exactly
tell him the ground is going to fall...)
Socius had heard the
whole story from El.
Saying that they
couldn't go outside the city, but he didn't want to cause panic.
If either the Lord of
the Main Tower, who couldn't leave his room to adjust the water sphere
membrane, or the Vice-Tower Master, who had gone to the Hail Land soldiers,
were here, things might have been different. The number of soldiers wasn't that
large, and Kasei was currently without a leader. In such a situation, he
couldn't sow new seeds of chaos.
Therefore, Socius
couldn't tell Seirou all the details.
But when the man named
Seirou, whom he found, heard El's name, he slapped his knee as if saying,
"Here it come!"
『You're Socius, right? Got it. So, what do you need me
to do?』
Socius didn't know
much about the man named Seirou. But he had apparently given El and the others
a ride in his carriage when they came to Soleil. And when the sand scorpions
attacked, El had helped him. And now, he was offering his help again.
Encounters were cyclical.
He felt something
strange. People met, parted, and yet were still connected somewhere. He felt
something warm in the depths of his chest. 『--Thank you!』 He vigorously grasped Seirou's rough hand, thanked him, and then, as
expected, shrank back in fear a few hours later.
The people from the
guild who gathered around Seirou were, for some reason, mostly muscular.
Socius, who was rather slender, felt like he would just be buried and
disappear. No, this wasn't the time to give up.
Socius and the others'
goal was to prevent the residents from leaving the city. It wasn't anything
difficult. The residents had been informed that the Lord of the Main Tower was
currently transforming the water sphere membrane. A day, no, several hours had
already passed, so they just had to wait half a day. Night turned into morning.
Everything would work out. Socius and the other merchants were scattered
throughout the city. They were pretending to be ordinary citizens so they could
immediately deal with any riots that broke out.
Just in case, he had
the megaphone—a magic tool El had named—hanging at his waist. You never knew
what might happen. Of course, nothing was bound to happen. If they transformed
the water sphere membrane and made the defenses perfect, the Hail Land soldiers
would surely give up, and the wall of wind was buying them time until the
transformation was complete. The wind seemed much weaker than it had been half
a day ago, but it was still serving its role in separating the Hail Land
soldiers and Kasei.
He raised his voice to
calm down the rioting students who had come from Hail Land. He told them to
cool their heads, ran to the gatekeeper, and if he wasn't in time, the muscles
of the Merchant Guild would explode into action. Everything was fine, no
problem. It would all work out. That's what he thought.
"It's not Hail
Land that's attacking us, it's demons!"
It was a rumor that no
one knew who had started after the wall of wind appeared. At first, it should
have been something to laugh off, but before he knew it, Socius frowned as he
realized it had become accepted as the truth. And then he understood. People
from various countries had come to live in Kasei. Among them were people from
Hail Land. So, it was more convenient to think of the enemy as demons rather
than fellow humans.
Someone's wishful
thinking was turning into a firm belief. Long ago, Socius had played a game
with El using black and white pieces. If you used pieces of the same color to
surround a piece of a different color, the surrounding piece would change to
your color. If you surrounded a black piece with white ones, all of them would
turn black.
The way they changed,
reminded him of the board that would change in the hands of a small child.
--Demons are cunning
creatures.
"That's
wrong."
--Can we really just
stay like this? Shouldn't we be of help to the Lord of the Main Tower, even
just a little?
"That's
wrong."
--Even while we're doing
this, the demons might be plotting their next move.
"That's
wrong."
--We must fight.
"That's wrong, I
tell you!!"
"Fight!" one
person shouted. "Fight, fight! Take up arms! Outside Kasei!"
The voices shouting,
"Stop it!" didn't reach anywhere. (M-megaphone...) He had it for
times like this. He reached for his waist and adjusted the magic power. The
commotion was loud. Nothing would be heard in this chaos. His arm trembled. He
couldn't do anything. He remembered his hometown. That time when he was so
frustrated, so incredibly frustrated. "--Hey, kid." A rough palm
slapped Socius's shoulder. It was Seirou.
"You wanna go
somewhere high up?"
He didn't know how he
replied to that question. He probably nodded, trembling. Then, behind Seirou,
who grinned broadly, a thick arm stretched out. It was one of those people he
thought were too muscular. "Wh-what!?" They grabbed Socius's legs.
And then, several people gathered. "Ugyah!?" He went flying. He spun
around in the air and landed on the roof of a stall. Since it was made of
cloth, he bounced, and then gasped. He desperately stretched out his arm and
clung to the edge of the next window. He wasn't El from that time, but he
wouldn't fall. He gritted his teeth. He climbed higher and higher, and by the
time he thought he had reached the top, it was already quite high.
"S-stop
itttttt!!"
He tried to stand up,
but it was too high, so he couldn't. So he clung to the roof of the building
and shouted at the top of his lungs. His throat burned with pain.
"No," he panicked. The megaphone. He had it for this. No one could
hear just his voice. "Stop it, I tell you!!!!" At the amplified sound
from the megaphone, a few people finally turned around.
"Don't go outside!
You can't go out! The Lord of the Main Tower said so, didn't he!!!?"
At Socius's voice,
some people nodded as if remembering. But they were swept away in an instant.
Dust and dirt rose every time the people raged. (If only El's slimes were
here...!!) During the sand scorpion incident, they were there to spread the
sound. This was Socius's limit. If dust and sand rose, the original ability of
this magic tool to transmit sound would be halved.
(This is...)
He remembered that
time three years ago. That time when Socius was so frustrated, so incredibly
frustrated.
(Isn't this the same
as that time...!!)
El had come.
He had told the
village people that. El had come with a man he didn't know and defeated the
demon.
The demon's corpse had
long since disappeared, but there were signs of something rampaging. So, he
thought they would believe him.
But no one believed
him. After El had left, he suddenly realized and first woke up his sleeping
parents. El had returned. She had saved them. He told them. But the first thing
they said was to grab young Socius's shoulders and tell him not to tell anyone.
It was a painful grip. Their voices were serious and heavy, and he couldn't
understand.
So, he told many
people. El had saved them, even though she had become a demon, she hadn't
forgotten them. El was still El. He shouted many times. But no one listened to
Socius's words.
Little by little,
people disappeared from around him. He stood alone. It was terrifying. Not that
people were disappearing. Even though they were speaking the same language, no
one understood Socius's words. Scared, he heard that Soleil was seeking
immigrants from other leaves, and he jumped at the chance to escape.
Soleil was a strange
city. It was strange that the sun always shone so brightly, and a thin film of
water always swayed above their heads. Strange tools and knowledge, students
wearing jet-black robes. He thought he would probably spend the rest of his
life in this country. To stay in Soleil, he had to achieve excellent grades at
the Magic Tower. He took classes more seriously than others and adjusted magic
tools he didn't even know how to use to revive them.
One day, he found a
strange magic tool in the warehouse.
It was covered in
dust, ignored by everyone, and looked lonely, so he cleaned it. Examining its
structure to figure out its purpose, he realized it seemed to be a tool for
amplifying sound. He obtained permission and spent his nights, sacrificing
sleep, to adjust the tool. His friends looked at Socius with strange eyes.
『What are you going to do making something like that
usable?』
『It's useful. Amplifying sound, there are all sorts of
uses for that.』
『The Lord of the Main Tower and the Vice-Tower Master
already have the same thing...』
『That's something only the two of them can use. This
will be something everyone can use. Even people who aren't good at handling
magic tools, anyone.』
No one understood
Socius's words.
The sun fell and sank.
The wick of the lamp became completely short, he added more, counting many
nights and days.
One day, it was
finished. When he realized that it couldn't be used well if there was dust or
dirt, he was shocked. He thought that his own power was just like this after
all, but since he had revived a new magic tool, when he had to report it to the
Vice-Tower Master, Veda looked at Socius with surprise.
『This is a wonderful thing.』
It was just one word,
but.
He was very happy.
"Listen to me,
someone, please listen...!!"
He realized someone
was sobbing, and it was him. Tears spilled out pathetically, making his voice
completely strange, and even his fingertips were trembling.
He wanted to tell
someone. El, a demon, had saved them. He had thought that if he just raised his
voice louder, those who were pretending not to hear Socius's words would be
able to hear him. He was just purely naive.
If he could tell more
people. Then, maybe even just one person would turn around.
"H-huh, guh,
ugh..."
Feeling so pathetic,
he huddled on the roof. Round wet marks appeared one after another. He had been
trying to act like an adult so El wouldn't notice, but he never changed and was
completely useless. The fist he clenched was trembling.
"I, in the end,
nothing..."
"Shut up,
nyaa."
Surprised, he looked
around.
A voice like a young
child's was right there, but all he saw was a cat yawning. It looked gray, but
the part of its belly he could see was strangely pure white and fluffy.
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