Zaryusu who was beside him drooped his shoulders tiredly. Crusch remembered Zaryusu talking about his travels too.
When Zaryusu became a traveler, he was motivated by his determination, resolve and sense of duty to his tribe. Zenberu who was a traveler must had similar thoughts… But that wasn’t apparent from the way he was behaving.
Crusch placed her hand gently on Zaryusu’s shoulder to console him, conveying to him the message that he is he, you are you.
To the bystander, Crusch’s action must seemed like that of a lover. When she became aware of that, Crusch’s tail started to panic. Zaryusu’s tail was also thrashing intensely.
The two of them looked at each other’s eyes and smiled shyly.
Zenberu pretended to not see all that and continued saying happily:
“I thought that there must be powerful guys in that mountain since it is so big, learned a lot from the dwarf I met in my travels and got that war scythe. I didn’t want it at first, but since he said that was a momento of our meeting, I had no choice but to accept it.”
“… So that happened, that’s great.”
Crusch answered coldly.
“Yeah, thanks.”
— Sarcasm didn’t work.
With the nice atmosphere ruined, Crusch picked up a cup and drank it all. She felt her throat heating up, a warmth spreading from the wine in her stomach to her entire body. Zaryusu did the same.
At this moment, the sound of a soft query came. The feeling was totally different than before, making it hard to discern who was asking immediately.
“So, do you think we can win?”
Zaryusu answered softly.
“… I don’t know.”
“Yeah, I guessed as much, there are no guarantees in war. If someone assured victory without knowing the strength of the adversaries, I want to beat him up and ask him not to bullshit.”
Crusch didn’t say anything more to Zenberu who was laughing softly.
“But… our enemy is careless, this might affect our chance of winning.”
Crusch explained to the baffled Zenberu in Zaryusu’s stead.
“Do you remember what that monster said?”
“Sorry, I was napping then.”
“… Someone must have heard it right?”
“Hmmp, I forgot because it is a hassle. Anyway, the important is they attack us, we hit them back, right?”
This guy is hopeless— Crusch gave up explaining with such a face while Zaryusu explained with a wry smile.
“… They said, ‘Resist stubbornly, mortals’.”
A dangerous expression appeared on Zenberu’s face, his features scowled into a sneer.
“How maddening, looking down on us from the very beginning.”
Zenberu roared angrily.
It hinted strongly of wrath and displeasure.
“That’s right, they are looking down on us. To be that confident… means they have the forces to overwhelm us easily… But we will crush the arrogance of our foes. We will unite the five tribes and show them the largest force we could assemble. We will strike them down head on, and tell them we are not defenceless weaklings.”
“Hmmp, not bad, that’s a simple way of putting it. I like that.”
As the two male lizardmen was discussing passionately on how to fight, Crusch poured cold water onto their plans.
“It won’t do us any good to wound their pride too much. We just need to show them our worth, correct? If they knew we are of use, they might refrain from wiping us out.”
“Hey hey, you want us to bow our heads to those annoying people?”
“Zaryusu… I understand the danger in evacuating, but I think keeping our lives is more important than losing our freedom.”
Crusch said her piece softly.
The other two didn’t rebuke her thoughts or mock her about this.
No one wants to be dominated, but being enslaved has more future than losing their lives. If they have a future, there will be endless possibilities.
For example, if they taught the fish farming technique to everyone, they might be able to abandon their current homes and run away.
If one was to give up on this possibility and order everyone to die, he has no right to be a leader.
“Listen to this.”
After hearing what Zaryusu said softly, the three of them perk up their ears and listened to the laughter from the banquet being carried here by the wind.
“We might not be able to have fun like this after being dominated.”
“Maybe we could, right?”
“Really? I don’t think so. I don’t think an existence that is amused by our death would be so charitable. If they had any mercy at all, they wouldn’t attempt to wipe us out with such a playful attitude.”
Crusch nodded in agreement.
Even so—
“What I want to say is… please don’t die.”
“— I won’t, not before I hear your answer to that question.”
“—!”
Crusch and Zaryusu gazed into each other eyes under the cool night sky.
And made an oath.
— Completely ignoring the disgruntled Zenberu.
Interlude
The conference room behind him should have started discussing a different topic.
But his work in that conference room was finished, so he had left.
Just his work of making reports was done though, he still had his job as the first seat of the Black Scripture, which is the captain, to complete. It included reviving dead members, choosing temporary staff to fill the gap, training and experiments. As the Six Scriptures were a secret organization, he also had to live another life as a spy in the Theocracy.
And for his private life, he still needed to attend matchmaking sessions— under the premise of a polygamous marriage. There were only three awakened ‘God-kin’ in Slane Theocracy, so the higher ups had subtly requested him to ramp up his reproduction rate.
Such menial things kept piling up, depriving him of all his free time.
“I was hoping that they would give me some time to relax today.”
After being liberated from the highest level conference in Slane Theocracy — the Archbishop conference, he stretched his shoulders lightly — and his eyes were drawn away by a clicking sound.
He knew who was making that sound before looking at that person. Only a very small number of people in the Slane Theocracy were allowed to enter this place so it was easy to identify that person at once from those who were absent during the conference.
As he had expected, a young girl was leaning against the wall.
She had a head of unique hair, with different colors on either side. One side was silvery white that lit up your eyes, while the other was so black that it seemed to devour everything. Her eyes were also different colors.
Beside the girl was a War Scythe that looked like a pole arm.
She appeared to be less than fifteen years old, but her actual age was way beyond that. Ever since he became the captain of the Black Scripture— the first seat, her looks had not changed.
He moved his gaze towards her ears hidden by her hair— but he restrained himself.
The girl didn’t like others to look at her ears.
The shiny lips of the girl became a crescent as if she was reading his mind.
She was an interracial child born from almost impossible odds, the strongest special seat within the Black Scripture, ‘Certain Death’. Her job was to protect the sanctuary where the five holy equipment were laid.
The sound came from a toy in the girl’s hands called Rubik's Cube, made popular by the Six Holy Gods. While she was producing the clicking sounds, the girl said:.
“It’s quite easy to get one side, but it’s really hard to get two, right?”