In the Sixways Exhibition, the desperate fights to the death didn't only unfold between the hero candidates standing on the battlefield. Negotiating the terms and conditions, and beginning with a battlefield and match date that would guide said candidates to victory, was a serious matter handled by the candidates' sponsors, holding sway over their political careers.
The Coordinating Room—meeting premises used to host such negotiations— had been newly constructed to coincide with the opening of the Sixways Exhibition. The Coordinating Room was protected by strict security, and sponsors were able to hold one-on-one negotiations with guaranteed safety. Inside the facility, there were several other rooms in addition to the main meeting room, including a nap room, all constructed with the estimation that a single period of negotiations could potentially take up more than a day's time.
The day before the Sixth Match. Brilliant balloons were coloring the sky, and the sound of fireworks had continued unabated since noon.
"Now then, Kaete. I don't really think there's any reason to alter the match conditions at this point in the game. The citizens are looking forward to tomorrow's fight. In which case, it's our duty to make sure their expectations are met without incident."
"…Expectations? Hmph. What should I care about the expectations of the ignorant rabble?"
The two people facing each other in the Coordinating Room were the sponsors involved in Sixth Match. Aureatia's Fourth Minister and Mestelexil the Box of Desperate Knowledge's sponsor, Kaete the Round Table. Aureatia's Thirteenth Minister and Zeljirga the Abyss Web's sponsor, Enu the Distant Mirror.
Kaete folded his legs with a pompous flair, while conversely, Enu looked just as expressionless as usual.
"They're no different from a pack of soulless wild beasts. They fear, flee, and, in the depths of their hearts, crave a new tragedy. That foolish nonsense is nothing but a way to vent a fear that's taken on a new shape."
To Kaete the Round Table, it appeared like not one person understood the true nature behind it all—or, perhaps, tried not to see it. Even after the True Demon King was dead, many fools longed for their own destruction.
The New Principality of Lithia was burned to ash. Both Aureatia and Lithia themselves should have been able to adopt some other means to solving the situation.
Gruesome massacres were occurring out on the frontier, like what had happened at Alimo Row. People who persisted in their oppression of the Order appeared from among the citizenry, and the Old Kingdoms' loyalists' lust for war led them to take advantage of the Particle Storm.
In the fourth match, in full view of the public, the man who was supposed to be a symbol of hope—Rosclay the Absolute—was reduced to a pitiful state. It was the Aureatia public itself that had hoped for such a sight.
This world continued to go mad.
"By exposing the states of these hero candidates killing each other to the public, we're substituting where they're focusing their urge for slaughter. Ultimately, the goal of this Sixways Exhibition is to add more fuel onto the flames of violence."
"As a method of public control, that may indeed be quite an intriguing discussion. You're striking right to the essence, in a certain sense."
Enu merely nodded slightly. Kaete couldn't read any emotion from his wide, owlish eyes.
"…And what's the topic of our negotiations, exactly?" asked Enu. "The venue for the sixth match has been changed."
"…What?"
"I'll say it again, in case you didn't hear me. The sixth match is going to take place not in the castle garden theater, but in the old town plaza, like for the first match."
Kaete told him, as if it was a completely settled matter.
Even after receiving Kaete's entirely too one-sided notice, Enu showed no signs of agitation. He remained dispassionate and cold as he replied:
"We reached a consensus regarding the arena in talks two big months ago. Talks between you and myself. This has already been accepted by the council, and even should either one of us have a desire to change it, it should be impossible to overrule that. Or perhaps this is some new attempt at a joke, Kaete?"
"The real joke is that bold-faced performance of yours. Did you really think
you could finish your little survey of the castle garden theater without me finding out?"
"Hmm? Find out or not, that is nothing but an urban surveying plan that I previously submitted to the assembly, progressing as scheduled. It's part of my official duties within the Twenty-Nine Officials, so if anything, it would be a bigger problem if you didn't know about it."
"A piss-poor front, I'd say."
Enu's urban surveying plan had been thrust through hastily, using a transport stoppage that occurred in Gimeena City as an excuse. His claim was that he needed to perform surveys and studies as part of an effort to streamline the traffic in the vicinity of the castle garden theater, seeing as it was going to be the biggest nucleus of traffic as the Sixways Exhibition continued.
"Fair enough—it was approved, wasn't it? Then why don't I cut down some of the time and effort that 'work' of yours will take? The castle garden theater… Right this moment, your men are surveying it. Am I right?"
There was an intense tremor.
While the sound was small and far in the distance, even the walls of the Coordinating Room swayed with a deep and low quake.
"..."
"Now, I'll ask you again. What were your men doing?"
There were no windows in the Coordinating Room. However, at that moment, there was a thin black cloud trailing up to the sky in the direction of the castle garden theater.
Inferring from the scale of the explosion, the conclusion would probably be that at least a full storeroom of firepower must have been ignited. It was an amount of explosives that absolutely couldn't be smuggled in by one or two intruders, and Kaete's camp wouldn't be brought up as part of the criminal investigation—
Composition C-4.
—so long as they based their thought on this world's level of technology.
It was a highly effective plastic explosive from the Beyond, able to be detonated remotely.
"…Kaete. Do you know what you've done?"
"You're wrong there. What you've done. Assuming that right now, there was some sort of accident in the area around the castle garden theater…and the busy team performing the survey work was not only unable to find anything out of the ordinary, but moreover, unable to provide a single piece of evidence to who the
culprit was, then I'm sure you realize who'll be the first one suspected." One day was left before the beginning of the sixth match.
Enu's survey was suspicious, but there wasn't any time to grasp what sort of foul play he was devising.
However, if there was someone whose position appeared dubious in the eyes of many, the solution was simply to then make the suspected foul play a reality.
"The investigation into the explosion will take three days, at least. Renovating the castle garden theater's security based on the investigation, two days. Let's test that duty you spoke about to the test. Go ahead—try holding the match without incident."
"..."
Changing the date the day before the match. Common sense dictated such a reckless act would be impossible.
However, Kaete the Round Table was a despot. He had been capable of going through with a rather reckless plan of his own, knowing full well that there was the chance that innocent civilians would get caught in the explosion. If anything, some number of victims made it all the better for him.
The masses were nothing more than beasts being led by fear in the form of the Sixways Exhibition. In which case, if a different fear was thrust straight out in front of them, they were sure to want a venue change for the match themselves.
"Now then. As of just a moment ago, we need to adjust the conditions of the match. We're going to delay the sixth match and change the venue to the old town plaza. If you have an alternative solution, go ahead and give it, Enu the Distant Mirror."
"…It appears I don't have any choice. Naturally, I will have them investigate this bombing. I'm sure it won't take them long to prove who ordered it."
"Hmph. Suppose I'll hope for the same."
Kaete the Round Table was a despot, but because the ignorant masses were as they were, he was thoroughly aware of what sort of actions they'd take.
Even if they tried to obey the previously agreed-upon rules and made the match take place in the garden theater, with the fear of another explosion, they wouldn't be able to overcome the citizens' protest. Holding a match in the castle garden theater now was an unrealizable and reckless move. No matter what Enu the Distant Mirror may have been scheming to do to the venue, this one move had changed everything.
Then as long as he fought through direct combat, where all intrigue held no
meaning…Mestelexil the Box of Desperate Knowledge was an unrivaled hero candidate, in the truest meaning of the word.
If there was one point of concern left for Kaete, though…
"Enu. Let me ask you something," Kaete said, stopping right before he was to leave the room. "You went and put down Obsidian Eyes, right? Did you really get inoculated with the antiserum?"
"Of course. You and I should've both gotten the serum around the same time."
"…"
He was right. There wasn't any room for doubt there. Even if Zeljirga was secretly maintaining her connection to Obsidian Eyes, it would have been inconceivable for her sponsor, Enu, to be manipulated, too.
"…Enu. Why then…are you taking on the Sixways Exhibition?"
"There needs to be another method aside from fear to control the people," Enu replied matter-of-factly in a flat tone.
"If that's your thinking, well, I strongly feel that way, too. While we may become enemies, on that point alone, I sympathize with you."
Kaete didn't turn around to look back at Enu, but there was a terribly eerie sound to his words.
Just where did this man's goals lie…?
"I couldn't care less. You'll be knocked out of the tournament in this fight anyway," said Kaete.
Finished with his meeting in the Coordinating Room, Kaete met up with Haizesta on his way out.
Though they were both among the Twenty-Nine Officials, the sight of Kaete wearing a picture-perfect bureaucrat outfit while walking alongside Haizesta and his dingy unshaven face must have made for a terribly abnormal combination.
"The explosion was a success."
Haizesta the Gathering Spot's role had been to remotely detonate the high explosive, which had been placed inside a food storehouse near the castle garden theater, while observing the flow of the crowds from a high vantage point.
"For injuries, there are only three or so people with light wounds. Just enough to leave behind some wounded, but not enough to kill… Nyeh-heh- heheh. One of 'em was a woman aged like a fine wine, too… Maybe I'll send
her some flowers while she's in the hospital. Nheheh…" "No nonsense. I'll cut your head off."
"It's a joke. I know plenty well that it'd be real bad to leave any evidence behind for this little op… Still, you sure we shouldn't have used those drones? And here I finally got used to controlling the buggers…"
"The superiority of those reconnaissance drones lies in the display that transmits images instantly. We need to generate power and charge them every time they're activated, and someone always has to be there controlling it. If we're looking for a machine we can utilize at will, then the golems Kiyazuna the Axle makes are far superior."
"Well now. That's really something."
Tricking the eyes of Enu's soldiers who were in the area while they were conducting their survey, then setting up the explosion mechanism had been extremely simple. Using one of Kiyazuna's mini flying golems, they slipped through the surveillance network from midair, cutting off the high explosive and dropping it below.
In the future, this sort of bombing tactic could make it possible to bring down an enemy army without a single personnel loss.
"Anyway, just relax, okay? I didn't give any room for Enu to come up with some excuse, trust me. It exploded in a way that ensured the citizens witnessed it all, not just that guy's subordinates, too. Nyeh-heh-heheh. Gonna take up a whole bunch of his time and energy just to clear his name…"
"Hopefully."
Kaete didn't want to defeat and degrade Enu, but he didn't want to stop it from happening, either.
To prepare for the day when he'd be going up against Rosclay's camp, he simply wanted to dispose of any unpleasant obstacles he could, even if only temporarily.
"What about your job, then, huh?" queried Haizesta.
"I got Enu's word. I had anticipated the chance he'd come after me, as the sponsor, myself, but… Hmph. Looks like a letdown in that regard."
Kaete took out the tiny machine he had hidden in his clothes. It wasn't a weapon from the Beyond. It was a small golem that Kiyazuna had created with specialized sensory abilities. If anyone besides Kaete and Enu had broken into the facility, it would have detected them with its sonar mechanism, and it would've prepared to make the next move as necessary.
"Was there even a reason to be scared anyway? Like there's any assassins out
there who could sneak into the Coordinating Room," said Haizesta.
"Stupid oaf. The fact that Aureatia soldiers have strictly tightened up the security and blocked anyone uninvolved from getting in…means that for someone with the skills to fool Aureatia soldiers, they could set up an attack completely unopposed. Assuming Enu is indeed allied with Obsidian Eyes, that place would give him his best chance. Even something so basic's too much for you to understand?"
The Coordinating Room was supposed to be a safe zone, built for negotiations. As long as the Sixways Exhibition was involved, however, there wasn't a true safe zone anywhere. That was the major premise behind this battle. "…But even then, these enemies of ours never attacked… Well then. I mean,
at that point, maybe it'd be fine to say Zeljirga's clean… If anyone's scheming anything, it's on Enu's end."
"Except there's no way of knowing what's in that guy's head. The man's always been eerie."
For starters, Kaete thought, why had Enu, who was supposed to be the head of the urban planning section, volunteered his name to subjugate the remnants of Obsidian Eyes? Around the time Aureatia was established and they began reorganizing the districts, he had worked together with the medical division as part of his metropolitan epidemic prevention plan. That connection, somewhere along the line, led him to being in charge of stamping out vampires.
Enu, too, possessed a highly trained field-operation squad, despite being a civilian official himself. Almost as if he had been aiming to stamp out Obsidian Eyes long before the start of the Sixways Exhibition—
"…Ha."
Kaete laughed at himself derisively.
What, because he's a creepy man? What about it?
In the end, Haizesta's opinion on the subject was the more correct one. There wasn't any need to read deeper into things and be afraid.
Even if they had held their match in the castle garden theater as scheduled, Mestelexil should have naturally claimed victory. There were no means that Enu could have at his disposal to surpass Mestelexil's immortality.
At the very least, Kiyazuna and Haizesta had been asserting as much the whole time. Kaete may have been meaninglessly fighting against an invisible enemy and just exhausting himself in the process.
But there's still a remote chance. Always.
Rosclay had avoided going up against Zeljirga. If, by any chance, Aureatia's
strongest man also had a hunch that there was something peculiar about her, it was indeed the insignificant opponent in the very first round whom he had to be the most proactive against. Kaete couldn't help feeling like that was what his instincts were whispering to him.
…If, by any chance, there's someone unknown to me making their moves…