Chapter 55: Three Wings of the Windmill (2)

“To put it bluntly, one of the windmill's wings is broken.”

To be precise, it's rotten.

Khamsin immediately added.

“I saw the citizens protesting.”

I said, feigning innocence.

“They were saying the priests are corrupt.”

“You saw correctly.”

Khamsin snapped his fingers and pointed them at me.

At that, Ibi let out a dry laugh as if she was dumbfounded.

“Wait, so… you're saying the wind really stopped blowing because the priests didn't pray?”

Her expression seemed to say, ‘you don't really believe that, do you?’.

It was then.

“Councilor Khamsin?”

Knock, knock, knock.

As if they had heard everything from outside, the door was knocked at a very opportune moment.

Then, the person who entered the room with Khamsin's permission was a half-elf woman dressed in a similar uniform to the young man who had brought us here.

“Did I interrupt something?”

In other words, a soldier.

“Not at all. Of course not.”

Khamsin immediately approached her and gave a light kiss on the back of her hand, just as he had done to me.

“My door is always open to you, Ethesia.”

“Well, from a position of having to be responsible for the security of this council, that's not a policy I would recommend.”

“Haha. Of course, I don't just open it for anyone.”

“Hmm, is that really so?”

Looking at her, who had crossed her arms and glanced at me with an all-knowing look, it was clear that this wasn't the first or second time they had had this kind of banter.

“You know what kind of man I am.”

“A playboy?”

It was like watching a professional wrestling match with a well-rehearsed chemistry.

“──Allow me to introduce you, everyone.”

After a suitable amount of back-and-forth, Khamsin introduced her with an attitude as if he were showing off his treasured possession.

“This beautiful lady here is, just like me, in charge of one of the three wings of the windmill, Grand General Ethesia.”

“Nice to meet you. I’m Ethesia.”

Then, Ethesia's appearance as she gave a polite greeting was more like a noble lady you would meet at a social gathering than a soldier.

“So you are the ones we were looking for?”

“Yes. They are the allies of Stout.”

“Aqua is one thing, but it wouldn't have been easy to get the recognition of the picky Sir Marin.”

Amazing.

Ethesia added with a small laugh.

“Thanks to us saving Stout from a crisis.”

“That’s good to hear. We're in quite a crisis ourselves.”

“To us, the people of Daian, the wind is not just a simple natural phenomenon. It was so in the past when we followed the God of Wind to build a city here, and it is even more so now.”

Because it's ‘energy’.

Literally, the ‘driving force of life’.

“For now, we are somehow managing by supplying reserve mana, but…”

Khamsin trailed off, glanced at Ethesia, and then shook his head.

“No matter how much we regulate the supply, at this rate, it's only a matter of time before it runs out.”

At those words, Ethesia let out a small sigh.

“I heard about what happened in the square from my subordinate.”

“It was tense. If I hadn't intervened, several people might have gotten hurt.”

In fact, it wasn't a matter of 'might have'; they definitely would have.

“…Yes. As you've seen for yourselves, the citizens' complaints are growing day by day.”

Ethesia, who said this, paused for a moment as if she were hesitant to say more, and then opened her mouth again in a cautious tone.

“That's why we believe that… a riot may break out soon.”

At that, I heard Miki whisper, “What’s a riot?” to Ibi, who was whispering next to him, and Miki's voice whispering back, “A rebellion.”

“And just then, you appeared before us.”

Like fate.

Khamsin said this and turned to me with a grin.

“As for why the wind suddenly stopped blowing, nothing has been proven yet… but there are a few suspected causes.”

“Let me guess. You want us to investigate one of them, right?”

“You catch on quick. Don't you think we're starting to get along, Ms. Yubin?”

“Councilor Khamsin… are you trying to scare away our guests?”

Ethesia, who had intervened to pull away Khamsin, who had started to make a pass at me again, said.

At that, Khamsin, with a ‘what did I do?’ expression, raised his arms in a playful gesture, and Ethesia, with her arms crossed, let out a dry laugh and shook her head as if he were hopeless.

Perhaps some would interpret that as Ethesia being subtly jealous.

“Of course, we will reward you generously.”

“Don't tell me you want us to do a background check on the priests? Do you want us to check when and where they pray one by one?”

Whether it was because Ibi had interpreted it that way, her voice, when she said this, was mixed with an antsy irritation.

“Haha. That's not it.”

Khamsin waved his hand lightly and continued.

“We do see the corruption of the priests as one of the causes, but what we would like to ask of you is a more ‘direct cause’.”

“As for the corruption of the clergy, we are investigating that separately on our side.”

“You could say we are waiting for the right time to use it as important evidence.”

“…….”

At that moment, I could see Lily's expression darken slightly.

“Then what is this direct cause?”

At my question, Khamsin and Ethesia looked at each other for a moment, and then, as if on cue, they gave a small nod.

“In the ‘Wind Canyon’, located to the northwest of the city, there is a shrine built to serve Lord Dairus.”

Then they turned back to us and continued.

“There, lies the source of the wind that blows in Daian── what we usually call the ‘core’, the 「Blessing of the Wind God」.”

“Just as there is a core in this council, and in the ‘Holy Land’ located to the southeast.”

“Those three cores are the source of the constant wind in the Daian area.”

In short, a kind of ‘wind vein’ was formed in the Daian area, and those 「Blessings of the Wind God」 were (as they were called) the cores that maintained that vein.

“Therefore, the ‘Three Wings of the Windmill’ are each in charge of one of those three cores.”

“The core of the council is under my charge, and the core of the Holy Land is under General Ethesia's.”

“The core of the shrine is under Grand Priest Mistral's.”

“If even one of these three cores is not intact, the wind that blows in Daian will inevitably become incomplete.”

“Like now.”

“Exactly.”

“But the core of this council, and the core of the Holy Land that I manage, have both been found to have no abnormalities.”

“Then all that's left is the core of that shrine.”

“But the Grand Priest and the other priests insist that the core of the shrine they are protecting also has no abnormalities.”

So, these two were saying that that was a lie.

“No, then can't you just go and see for yourselves if it's broken or not? What's the problem?”

“Well… the problem is that it's not that simple.”

To Ibi, who asked as if she didn't understand, Khamsin replied with a bitter smile.

“Ever since Daian was first established, to prevent the balance of the windmill from being broken, unnecessary interference with each other has been forbidden.”

You could think of it as a kind of separation of powers.

So you couldn't just one day say, ‘I don't like you!’ and try to take down your opponent.

“Without proper evidence, we can't just search the area they control just because it's suspicious.”

To go in and say, ‘I don't trust you, so I'll force my way in and see for myself,’ is practically the same as starting a fight.

“Because that would be shaking the very foundation of Daian, the ‘windmill’… the balance that the three wings symbolize.”

It's an act that could well be a trigger for a civil war.

“That's why officially… I, my subordinates, and Councilor Khamsin cannot set foot in that shrine without a ‘just cause’.”

Right, officially.

Because they have to go through the proper procedures, the rules.

But not us.

The complicated procedures and rules they had to follow did not apply to us.

In other words.

“You want us to find that just cause for you.”

Because we were ‘outsiders’ who had just arrived in this city today, who did not belong to any of the three wings, and who did not represent any power.

“By… ‘secretly’ entering the shrine?”

In other words, if things went wrong, we were a tail that could be easily cut off, with them claiming they had nothing to do with it.

Sure enough, Khamsin and Ethesia quietly gave a grin.

“Yes. That's right.”

Then they nodded their heads and readily admitted it.

“We would like you to enter the shrine on our behalf and ascertain the state of the core.”

“And if things go wrong, we'll take all the blame?”

That was the same as the question Ibi had casually thrown.

“If, by any chance, things go wrong… yes. We would have to thoroughly deny any relationship with you.”

“But that won't happen.”

Ethesia asserted with a gentle smile as if to reassure us.

“Because we will thoroughly support you from our side so that such a thing doesn't happen.”

Though Ibi let out a dry laugh as if she didn't believe it.

“Besides, you are the allies of Stout, aren't you?”

Khamsin also said in a very confident tone.

“I've met Aqua a few times. Sir Marin too. If you've received their recognition, then we also trust you.”

As if they had not considered the possibility of things going wrong from the beginning.

“Both your skills and your character.”

Well, both sides had a basis for their confidence.

“──You are lucky.”

Because I would succeed in this request one way or another.

“Saving a town in crisis just happens to be our party's hobby.”

That's why, to show that confidence, I raised one corner of my mouth.

“We’ll take the job.”

--

Main Quest

「Carrying You」

Infiltrate the shrine in Wind Canyon.

--

“Of course! Then──”

“But, before that, I need to get one thing first.”

“──Pardon?”

* * *

I need ‘wings’.

As soon as he heard these words, Khamsin's face lit up and he said, almost shouting.

─ Then leave it to me!

Then Khamsin, who immediately led us to his ‘workshop’, had a happier face than at any other time since we had met him.

His engineer's blood must have been boiling after a long time.

After becoming a councilor, he had almost no chance to hold a hammer like this, but in the end, his essence was that of an engineer.

“However, to make the 「Aerial Maneuvering Gear」, one special material is needed. As for the other materials, I can somehow──”

“You mean the feathers? We've already got them.”

“──! I-Is that so? Wow, you’re fast.”

I grinned and handed over the sack I had received from Rine.

“「Windbird Feathers」 for the wings…”

“No.”

“…Pardon?”

“They’re 「Windlion Feathers」.”

“──!”

As soon as he heard my words, Khamsin opened the sack wide.

After confirming that there were indeed 「Windlion Feathers」 inside, he stared at us for a while with a dazed look.

“……It seems that entrusting this request to you was indeed the right answer.”

Of course.

It was the right answer.