* * *
''Explain.''
''Apis----.''
''Explain, now.''
''----''
When you toss wet kindling into a campfire, the flames leap and crackle and give off a foul smell. It was as if I were watching the flames from up close.
The dark side of fire, the one that threatened to invade your lungs, invade your entire body, and soon blacken your flesh if you breathed in carelessly.
The spicy emotions she occasionally unleashed were eerily similar to the antics of such flames.
''Heh, heh!''
One of the guests lolling at my feet spilled an unbitten grain.
But there wasn't a single person, at least not in this room, who was qualified to reprimand him for his behavior.
The man lay face down on the floor, his head clutched in his hands. His arms, bleeding profusely, were wrapped tightly in his clothes, and his body was slumped over. Some had spilled the contents of their mouths onto the floor.
It was no small feat.
This was probably the first time they had ever encountered such vicious killing, which felt like cold needles plunging into their spines.
Even I, who have become somewhat accustomed to it, shuddered at the sight of it. Pity them.
I was tempted to add a word of praise for their bravery in not fainting.
''Apis. I can only vaguely imagine what Apis must have thought of my current attire, but I swear I didn't do anything to mislead him. I'll explain everything to you when they're done with their treatment.''
''No, no. Explain it to me now.''
With each curl of Apis's small lips, the walls cracked, the floor shuddered, and the air vibrated.
His tone was sterile, devoid of the slightest trace of humanity. That murderous ritual, which seemed to fill the void of emotion with powerful magic, meant that Apis was warming up for another round.
I'd gotten my ass kicked once for saying he sounded like he was talking in a bathhouse.
I remembered.
''Apis. Just calm down a bit and----.''
''Calm down? After seeing the state you're in, you expect me to calm down?''
As if to speak for her frenzied emotions, the ferocious Magi Sumin Apis's red hair stood on end.
''Obviously, you were forced to do it, and I don't care what the circumstances were. All you have to do is tell me the names and characteristics of the bastards who paid you to do it. I'll burn them to a crisp without leaving a scrap of flesh or soul behind.''
Suddenly, I had a vision.
Something similar to this had happened only once before.
It was back when the party was still growing and just starting to make a name for itself.
A poor elfin girl had been found dead in a musty beast cage, a chilled carcass, while Apis and I were fulfilling a commission to slaughter a group of slave hunters who had accepted the job for a small fee.
It didn't take long to realize that she was one of Apis's own, born and raised in the same place as him.
Even if her face had been disfigured by blood and bruises to the point of being unrecognizable, it was impossible for her compatriots not to recognize the unique coloring of the magic that the elves always wore on their bodies, a sort of fingerprint to humans.
It was something that Apis, and no one else, had told me on the spot, in his own words.
The story of how she was banished from her home village decades ago for the ridiculous reason that her hair was a different color was one of her rants and raves that she would bring up whenever the drinks were flowing.
As such, everyone in the party, including myself, can claim to have never heard her speak fondly of her home village, let alone her fellow countrymen.
A bunch of idiots who labeled anything different from them as wrong and ostracized them. A collection of reclusive hermits. A bunch of principled lunatics.
I remember this much because I listened with one ear and watched with the other whenever Apis spoke of her homeland, and I don't need to tell you how much gossip there was.
In fact, Apis's first words upon finding her were somewhat uncharacteristic for a man who had just come face-to-face with a compatriot he hadn't seen in decades.
"It looks good.
But that day I saw clearly.
Apis was chewing on her lower lip while I was in the middle of making her grave and saying a prayer. His clenched fists were shaking.
She'd always believed that a single arrow was the most efficient way to kill a target, but today, using the lame excuse that she wasn't feeling well, she'd put dozens of arrows into the bodies of two slave hunters.
It was my duty to restrain her from such a heinous act of inflicting undue suffering on living beings, even if they deserved to die.
I can still vaguely recall that I was unmotivated to work that day, and pretended not to see the whole spectacle.
Well, it was one of the few times I got to see the rare sight of a human being turned into a hedgehog in real time.
I suppose I felt a little resentful that I hadn't been able to come up with a single excuse for the hedgehog's curses as he screamed at me for aiding and abetting the harsh torture he was inflicting on him, calling me an unworthy priest.
I'm not sure.
But I do remember vividly that the hedgehog was shot in the forehead with an arrow as soon as he said those words and died.
I wished him well. I dozed off a bit along the way.
Yeah. It must have been around that time.
It was only gradually that Apis realized that he was a gentle enough man to be genuinely saddened and angered by the death of someone lesser than himself.
But for this moment, his gentleness was giving way to an unhealthy anger.
''Apis----. I mean, it's a misunderstanding----.''
''Ha! Yeah, you're getting away with it! Didn't I once tell you that if you go around covering your ass like that, you're bound to get stabbed in the back by the very people you've opened your arms to!''
Of course I remember that, and I feel the weight of those words.
In my previous life, I had heard stories of unfortunate people who had tried to help someone in trouble and ended up getting stoned.
When I experienced it myself, I felt like I was about to lose my temper.
''Help me, help me, help me, Mr. Nanchang, we did something wrong!''
''That's right! Wu, we were just doing what the boss told us to do!''
''I'm sorry, please forgive us just once, Big Brother Nanchang!''
While my mind was racing, the men hanging from my crotch were greatly diminishing my already starving desire to help.
I couldn't muster up the courage to speak to the embodiment of destruction opposite me, though I pitied their desperate pleas for life as they clung to me, their only ally.
If I heard the sound of a male spear at my feet one more time, I would kill them. I decided to focus my attention on the opponent in front of me.
''There are some people here whose lives are in danger without proper action, so please give me time to heal them first. The explanation will come afterward.''
''What's so important about those buggers, they just tried to kill you?''
''They tried to kill me. They didn't kill me.''
If they really deserved to die, I wouldn't have gone this far.
Being treated like a whore was a bit of a blood pressure booster, but at the end of the day, they were just trying to get back at their coworker for being treated like a whore by some city bully.
What it means to be looked down upon in the world of the underworld is something you only need to read a few of the books with fists clenched on the covers in your childhood comic shop to realize.
''You----. Are you ordering me to----?''
''I'm asking you to, but you never know. If any of them suffer casualties, I may not be able to answer any questions Apis asks me in the future.''
''Ew, you----!''
I wonder if it's because I've been frying for months with the incomprehensible saintess.
Someone who makes sense. Someone who has sense. Furthermore, convincing someone with a minimal amount of discernment had become a non-issue.
Apis was prone to feverish thoughts. He was not emotional enough to make basic judgment calls.
What if, instead of Apis, it had been you who was here now?
---We wouldn't have to imagine such a horrible future.
Cancer, yes.
''Whoa----. Ten minutes----. No, five minutes----.''
''Thank you, Apis.''
Soon after I successfully convinced Apis, I gathered them together to make sure their prayers didn't leak out and was preparing to take them to jail.
I felt a little uncomfortable with their envious stares as they looked up to me like I was some kind of mafia boss, but I decided not to pay attention to it.
Oh, and while they were still praying, Apis did say three or four words to them in a nonchalant tone.
''There, you.''
''What? Me, me!?''
''Take off your shirt and put it on this guy.''
''Ah, ah, ah, ah, okay! Got it!''
I decided to ignore the fact that the man's pants were soaked with an unidentifiable liquid as he covered my shirt with his trembling hands while I was praying.
* * *