Chapter 16: [ARC 1] Chapter 13 - The Key to the Future

Walnut’s home was located third ring. They took a lift down. The thing shook far worse than the lift they had taken down earlier, screeching like a tortured witch. It stuttered midway, and she caught the rail. She gazed upon the rings as they went down. The highest ring had the least amount of houses, but they were bigger. Each lower ring had smaller homes but more buildings crammed together like crooked teeth.

“I would have assumed as a man part of the council, you would be at the top ring,” she said to Walnut.

The Bandit King stroked his beard, unlike her or her companions, he did not lose his balance and stood in the center of the lift.

“You think wrong. Each ring has it’s own council members. Used to have only council members from the top ring.” A vicious smile cracked upon his face, and he pointed at the ring closest to the sunroot. “Want to guess what happened when a bunch of criminals decide they don’t like that shit anymore?”

Yoru was impressed by that. “You killed all of them?”

He grimaced.

“No. A compromise was met. Valmon made sure that it was struck.”

“Ahhh.” She chuckled shaking her head. “For a moment, I thought that place didn’t have a King, but it looks like you do. Valmon, the mysterious Warden. How does it feel for a man known as the Bandit King to kneel?”

Walnut looked like he had just swallowed a frog. “You don’t know anything.” His voice tight with rage. “That man…thing…is a monster. A compromise was made, and a compromise was struck. As long as its followed than nothing will happen.”

“But you don’t mind if we go ahead and kill him, right?”

The Bandit King gave her a blank stare at her. “Can you stop the sun from rising to the east? There is nothing more absolute than that monster.”

The lift came to a grinding halt. Yoru almost slipped off the rail, and wrapped her arms around it like a lifeline. Her eyes stared down at the abyss, a maw of darkness. She felt a thrum of power pulsating deep down there, calling to her. Aria snapped her out of it when she started to giggle like a child caught by her father tickling her.

Walnut rushed past them as the rusty door swung open and stopped.

“Come on then, let’s get to my house.”

They passed a few unsavory looking humans on the way to his home. Walnut stopped to greet them. Shaking their hands, stroking his beard as they told him some of their troubles. He promised to bring it up in their next meeting.

“What’s going on here?” She whispered to Kenichi.

“I’ve read stories about government systems like this. He mentioned that each Ring has a representative. The people in each ring probably vote on it.”

Walnut came back a moment later, apologizing to them, and then they continued their walk.

His home was a few houses away from the lift. The buildings on this floor were almost touching each other. It was the tallest building by a story, between two other homes with two stories. He unlocked the door and motioned for them to come in.

Walnut led them past the kitchen. She noticed some nice pots and pans there, cleaned and shining The home itself didn’t feel like the den of a Bandit King. It was clean, pretty immaculately. There was one thing out place. Her nose crinkled at the smell of a plate that had no doubt laid there since this morning, now getting a funky smell.

The giant picked up the plate and placed it on a sitting chair in the corner. That was all Yoru needed to see to know that this man had never cleaned after himself.

“Do you want some whiskey?” The giant asked them.

“Didn’t we just have some?”

“You can never have too much.”

“Is there anything else you have?” Kenichi asked. “Like tea?”

“Errrr.” He went to the kitchen and popped his head out again a moment later. “Looks like tea. And some coffee. Which one do you want?”

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“Coffee,” she said.

He frowned at that. “I don’t know how to make it.”

“Then don’t offer it.” Her eyebrow twitched. “Tea.”

Walnut looked at Kenichi.

“I would love some tea as well.” He nodded to Walnut.

There was a lot of clattering and noises for what shouldn’t be too hard to brew. Yoru gave Kenichi an uneasy look, but the monk kept his calm, placing his hand on his knees and waited patiently. At some point, Aria had taken the couch, falling asleep on it like a tired dog.

The Bandit King came out with two mugs. One was made a metal tin usually used for coffee. The other was clearly a mug made for ale. He handed it out. She expected it to be piping hot, but the mug was cold. She looked down at the brown looking tea, there were lots of leaves in there.

She put the mug down, intending not to drink it. Kenichi, being polite, took a sip, but couldn’t hide his grimace.

“That bad huh?” The Bandit King sat down on the floor beside them, taking a swig from a flask that he produced from somewhere on his body. He lowered the flask from his lips, licking it. “I’m not too great at doing anything cooking related. My roommate does all of that.”

“You can’t boil water?” She asked, clearly not impressed.

“No, and why would I? My roommate is the best cook down here.” He took another swig, his face was getting red. “He’s such a good cook.”

“Boiling isn’t a high mark though.”

“Oh, he can do more than boil.” He pointed at her. “He…well, you’ll have to wait and see. I can’t cook nothing. Before him, I’d go down to the tavern and eat there.”

“Uh-huh.”

She didn’t believe him. She was sure he was the type of person that would eat twigs and say it was delicious. Despite her mocking, he kept on insisting.

“You’ll see. The most delicious food down here. Maybe even up there.”

“Was there a famous cook that got thrown down here?” She was generally curious and looked over to Walnut.

Walnut hiccuped, holding up his flask. His mouth opened like a fish, nothing came out.

The monk gave it a thought. “There was the Butcher of Winterpass, but he was executed on the spot.”

“The Butcher of Winterpass is down here.” Walnut snickered.

“No. That can’t be true. I read a newspaper saying he was executed.”

“That’s what they said, but he was sent down here. I met him when he was being processed. Didn’t much like it here so he left on his own.” Walnut rubbed his beard. “Said he’d kill the Warden. Of course that didn’t happen. Just think about that for a moment.”

“We’re not butchers or amateurs.” Kenichi laid his hands on his lap. “We’re trained. Yoru is one of the skilled priestesses ever to grace the Order and I am quite lucky to know her.” He turned her with a smile.

“Yeah. That’s right,” she muttered.

She closed her eyes, guilt eating her from the inside. He was too honest. He didn’t need to come, and yet he did when she asked him to. He was more enthused when she dangled Aria in front of him.

It was true that there was a possibility, but that’s all it was. A possibility.

She may have brought them to their deaths.

“Yoru? Yoru?”

She snapped out of it, the two were looking at her, expectantly.

“I’m sorry what?”

“He was saying that his roommate is a wonderful chef.”

“Yeah! He can cook anything!” Walnut rose his flask in cheer.

Yoru shook her head. “Weren’t you guys talking about the Warden?”

“We did. Now we are done,” Kenichi said in his usual matter of fact voice. “Nothing will deter us from moving forward. We already lost one of us, we must continue to press forward.”

That’s right. She didn’t think much of it, but the mercenary was dead. She didn’t much care for him. In fact, she had hoped he would die, after all, he too had a share in Elm’s death. It was only by Walnut’s persistence that she didn’t stick her blade in him when they hired him.

“You mentioned that your roommate will act as our guide?” She asked.

“Yeah! Now that you mention him, he is pretty late tonight.” He rubbed his beard. His face a crimson red, especially his nose. “I hope somebody didn’t try to kill him again.”

An unpleasant feeling burrowed in heart.

“Now that’s an odd thing to say. Is your roommate that infamous?” She asked.

“You could say that.” A knowing smile crossed his lips. “I’d say he’s one of the most infamous criminals down here. Or at least he looks like one.”

That feeling buried even deeper into the pits of her stomach.

“What’s his name?”

“Kagami,” he answered almost immediately.

She closed her eyes, feeling a bubbling dread overtake. Even in death he has the final laugh. What was she supposed to do now? Tell him she killed his roommate?

“Is there anyone else that could take us there?” She was feeling a migraine.

“Do you know him?” His tone seemed surprised. “You know he looks like the Prince that got hung.”

That’s because he is.

“He’s had a lot of people try to kill him because of it.”

“. . .” She opened her eyes. “What do you mean by that? Are you saying that many people tried to kill him?”

“Almost every day. Poor lad. Though he always tells me it’s training.”

She had killed him off the spur of the moment, but it didn’t make sense. If he had been attacked, why had he tried to help her? He-

Yoru shook her head. It didn’t matter what his actions were. The man was dead. She killed him, lopped off his head, and kicked his corpse down into the crevice. And she was glad she was the one to stick the sword through him. He deserved it. Even if he was trying to change, none of it was going to bring back Elm.

Aria sat up. Her eyes gave a blue glow. She had seen a future. She turned to Yoru. Yoru, in haste, crossed the room and crouched down to meet her gaze. She could see that this was a rare moment of lucidity from Aria.

“Aria. What did you see?” She took the woman’s hand.

Her eyes were still glowing. “Yoru,” she said when she met her eyes. “The man that you killed. He is coming back. Work with him. He is the key.”

Then, she fell forward in Yoru’s chest in deep sleep.

A cold wave ran down her spine.

“He’s alive?” She whispered in horror.

As if he had waited for this moment, the front door opened. The prince’s voice, that sickening voice, scratched the drums of her ear.

“I’m home.”