Chapter 64: A Star's Flight (1)

“…My eyes were blind.”

Khamsin let his hand slide from the iron bars, and his head drooped just as limply.

“To think that a technician, of all people, would forget how dangerous it is for a wing to be unbalanced……”

Ignoring his lamenting mutters, I opened the iron bars.

“…Perhaps I was never qualified to be a wing from the beginning.”

Then, I grabbed Khamsin by the collar and pulled him towards me.

“From the moment I became a wing, Daian's windmill was already broken──”

──Slap!

And smacked him across the cheek.

I could see my companions were surprised by my sudden action.

“……?”

But the most surprised one was, of course, Khamsin, who was holding his struck cheek and looking at me with a dumbfounded expression.

“Then fix it.”

I looked Khamsin in the eye and said firmly.

“You're a genius technician, aren't you? You can't fix one broken windmill?”

“F-Fix it…”

“Besides, aren't you the councilman who was supported by the citizens?”

Sorry, but I've seen you regret this scene so many times.

“Yeah, that's right. You made a mistake. A really stupid mistake.”

We don't have time to waste watching a grown man whine right now.

“But if you keep dawdling here just because you made one mistake, who's going to protect the citizens who sent you to the council, believing you would protect them?”

“……!”

“Everyone makes mistakes.”

At that moment, the light began to return to Khamsin's once-blurry eyes.

“What's important is how you make up for it.”

--

[Persuasion]

Success

--

At my [Persuasion], Khamsin, who seemed to have finally snapped out of it, nodded his head vigorously.

“…Yes! You are right!”

Then, Khamsin, who had just been slapped, grabbed my hand with both of his, and had returned to his usual confident self.

“You are an angel sent to me by Lady Daian…!”

“Ah, you're back to your usual self a little too much.”

When I snatched my hand back from him trying to make a move already, Khamsin smiled, rubbing the red handprint left on his cheek.

“Thank you. That was a blow I really needed right now.”

“I'm glad.”

Actually, it was an unnecessary blow.

Originally, after rescuing Khamsin, I was supposed to just [Persuade] him out of his despair with words.

But I just… I don't know, I've always wanted to hit him here.

Now that I've hit him, I feel a little sorry.

“Um… if you don't mind, could you hit me, just one more time, later…?”

“…?”

Should I have used my fist?

“Let's stop the coup first.”

Well, whether Khamsin had awakened to a strange taste because of me or not was not my concern now, or later.

“There's something I need you to do, Mr. Khamsin.”

“Just say the word.”

“First, show us the way to the ‘Tower’ in the square.”

“The Tower?”

The ‘Tower’ that stood tall in the center of Daian's square was an important facility that supplied magic to the entire city.

Therefore, the lore was that several underground passages were prepared so that they could head there whenever a problem arose.

Even in a situation like now, where all the paths on the surface were completely blocked.

“The wind will start blowing in the city again soon.”

I didn't hear the conversation that Khamsin and Ethesia had in this prison ‘directly’, but the general content was probably as I remembered.

So Ethesia was right about this one thing.

Everything would be over by tonight.

“When that time comes, I'd like you to light the fire.”

On my spectacular stage, that is.

* * *

Ever since the wind stopped blowing, ironically, Daian Square had never had a peaceful day.

And today, when the supply of reserve magic power was completely cut off, the citizens, who could finally bear it no longer, all rushed out and began to express their discontent.

It had become the day with the largest crowd ever gathered since the square was built.

“Why the hell isn't the wind blowing!”

“Nothing's working properly, how are we supposed to live!?”

Each of their words was quickly becoming ten, a hundred, a thousand.

“It's all your fault!”

“Why is no one taking responsibility when this mess is happening!?”

“C-Citizens! Please calm down!”

“Calm down?! Do we look like we can calm down!”

“Are you in on it too!”

Even the city guards who had come to quell the chaos were instead being swallowed up by it and becoming part of the chaos.

“A priest! There are priests here!”

“Bring the Grand Priest here right now!”

However, unlike before, when they would be at a loss when surrounded by citizens and criticized, today the priests were strangely calm.

“…….”

They were just silently taking the citizens' protests with their whole bodies.

“Do something! About it!”

Literally, with their whole bodies.

Even when they were being grabbed by the collar and shaken, they just stood there and let it happen.

“Are you f*cking ignoring us now…!?”

But that seemed to have angered them even more.

Although there were people around them telling them to calm down, most followed his lead and tried to grab the other priests by the collar.

Even as they were being grabbed by the collar and thrown around, the priests showed no resistance and remained silent.

“Responsibility──”

Until a sword was drawn with a shwing!

“──Huh?”

Suddenly, a citizen, whose face had instantly turned pale at the sight of the blade thrust at him, said with a voice trembling in fear.

“What is this, what are you──”

──Splash!

Red blood splattered.

“Great General.”

Upon entering the room, the soldier first saluted respectfully before continuing.

“A report has just come in from the square.”

At these words, Ethesia, who had been looking out the window with her hands behind her back, slowly turned to face the soldier.

“They have succeeded in provoking the citizens.”

“What about the agents?”

“They have not yet retreated and remain on the scene.”

“Keep an eye on them.”

Then she stepped away from the window and sat down at her desk.

“If they succeed in escaping…”

“Eliminate them.”

She ordered in a firm tone.

“If they are killed on the scene, make sure to collect the bodies.”

As if telling him not to ask the obvious.

“Understood.”

“What about the shrine? Has anyone been in contact yet?”

“No. ……Great General, could our information have been leaked to the priests?”

“Now?”

Ethesia let out a small snort.

“We've had our agents planted for years, and today they suddenly found out all their identities and wiped them out?”

It was ridiculous.

Ethesia dismissed her subordinate's question.

The Mistral she had observed for decades was by no means a schemer who could notice such a plot, let alone hide it from her.

If so, it would mean there was a traitor on their side, but that too was impossible.

The agents assigned there were all loyalists whom Ethesia had personally selected, who would choose death over talking.

Therefore, if the operation had truly been exposed.

‘…The adventurers, is it.’

There must have been an external intervention.

Having come to this conclusion, Ethesia lightly tapped her fingers on the desk.

‘Aqua, Marin… it seems you've chosen some capable people.’

But, it didn't matter.

The first plan was deliberately designed on a small scale to handle the matter quietly without escalating it.

It was a small fire that would only burn down one shrine, so that small-scale party would have been able to stop it.

But the second plan, prepared for that failure, was a wildfire that would burn down the entire city.

So no matter how strong they were, a mere few people could not stop a wildfire.

“Deploy the troops.”

And the wind to spread that wildfire.

“We're going to the council.”

Had already started to blow.

“As you command!”

The soldier saluted again with a booming reply and left the room.

Thus left alone again, Ethesia slid the finger that had been tapping the desk and soon picked up the speech in front of her.

With her other hand, she reached for the ‘Dandelion’ pinned to her collar.

* * *

Like the seeds of a ‘Dandelion’.

『Due to the corruption of the priests, the city's functions have ceased, and the ensuing riot is growing uncontrollably.』

"But the citizens in the square showed no signs of stopping."

“Those bastards attacked us!”

“The temple! Let's go to the temple and drag the priests out!”

Enraged citizens were tangled up, throwing punches or whatever they could get their hands on, and trying to snatch the shields of the soldiers who were blocking them.

“Get out of the way! You f*cking military dogs!”

“Let's take to the streets! Let's take to the streets!”

As the atmosphere gradually overheated, even the guards, who had initially taken a passive stance, just trying to stop them, began to respond more and more actively.

“C-Citizens! Please calm──”

“Calm my ass! Hey, you guys! Are you just going to take this!?”

In other words.

“Hey! Grab a club!”

They had drawn their weapons.

Violence spread like wildfire, uncontrollably.

Shouts of anger and screams of pain erupted from everywhere.

A dark night, in a city where all the lights were out.

Only the half-split moon and the flickering torches here and there illuminated the riot taking place in the square.

Whoosh──

Suddenly, a small wind rose.

『──My dear citizens of Daian. This is the Great General, Ethesia.』

Along with it, Ethesia's voice began to spread throughout the city on the wind.

Zero signs of stopping.

The weak, artificially created wind was not enough to spread Ethesia's voice sufficiently.

Though she probably hoped for that.

『Therefore, I judge the current situation to be equivalent to a state of war, and to protect this city, I will once again draw my sword.』

At that moment.

Whoosh!

A strong wind swept over the square.

At that, the citizens finally began to stop their movements one by one and looked in the direction the wind had come from.

─ Th-The wind…!

A murmur arose.

At the same time, the strong wind instantly amplified Ethesia's voice, which had been heard faintly until now.

『As one of the three wings of the windmill, from this moment on, I declare a state of emergency throughout Daian──』

『──Hmm hmmm hmmm hmm hmm』

Along with my humming, which instantly drowned out her voice.

The wind that had begun to blow in the square was not an artificial wind, but a natural one.

It meant that Mistral, who had gone to the southeast holy land, had succeeded in purifying the ‘core’.

In other words, a southeast wind was blowing.

Now it was time to light the fire, big time.

『Du duruduru du yeah』

At my [Performance] venue.

──Click! Click! Click!

The lights in the square, restored as the wind blew, began to turn on one by one.

Fwoosh──!

At the same time as the lights of this ‘Tower’ where I was standing, lit up from the bottom to the top in an instant.

At the top of the tower, which had begun to shine so brightly.

Plink──

I first lightly plucked a string.

For a moment, everyone in the square──citizens and soldiers alike──stopped fighting all at once and looked up to find the source of the beautiful sound that had spread like a ‘Dandelion’.

And, they saw the most beautiful bard in the world.

At that, I looked down at them and raised one hand high into the sky.

─ I-It's a person!

─ There's a person at the top!

A person?

Sorry, but you're mistaken.

『──Everyone! Hold me!』

I am the ‘Malevolent Star’.

A ‘Shooting Star’ that has descended from the heavens.

『To the end of the galaxy!』

A super-dimensional ‘Superstar’.