“What are you going to tell the Black Knight?”
“Can't you see what's going on? Nobody would notice if someone died to a stray blade. Just make up something plausible.”
“Hmm….”
“If it comes down to it, I'll kill him myself.”
One of them drew his sword.
I had nothing to say.
Not a single word came to mind.
There was nowhere to run.
I was a cripple, and the man holding the sword looked agile.
There was no way for me to survive.
If they at least had some reason for wanting to kill me, I might've been able to find a way out.
But what reason was there behind taking their anger out on someone?
Am I going to die?
Just like this?
After escaping death so many times, I'm going to die here like this…?
No.
“Wait.”
I spoke.
The method wasn't much different from before.
A deep voice.
A firm tone.
Because my attitude was so confident, the approaching man flinched.
I hurriedly organized my thoughts.
Right.
Even if you enter a tiger's den, you can survive as long as you keep your wits about you.
I'd been cursing whoever said that earlier, but now it was the only method I had left.
If I organized my thoughts, I'd find a way out.
Right.
Good.
A way to survive in my current situation?
There was no rule saying one couldn't exist.
There had to be exactly one way!
In that instant, my father's words flashed through my mind.
What do these people want to see?
They're angry.
And angry people need to vent their anger.
Like a child wanting to slam his bedroom door after his mother scolds him.
In other words!
What they want is—
My death.
……Father.
Is this really right?
“What the hell? This bastard.”
My mind went blank.
Until now, I'd gotten lucky and thought of something whenever a crisis struck, but at the end of the day, I was nothing more than an ordinary guard.
This time, nothing came to mind.
Damn it!
That bastard!
The bastard who said you could survive a tiger's den if you just kept your wits about you!
You fucking bastard!
“‘Wait,’ my ass. You want to die?”
The man raised his sword and charged.
I recoiled in alarm, but my back struck the wall.
Uh.
Fuck.
No.
“You're not dying cleanly, you crippled bastard.”
He swung his arm wide.
The tip of the sword reached my abdomen.
‘No!’
I shut my eyes in terror.
CRACKLE―!
That was when it happened.
The instant the blade touched my clothes, light flashed and knocked it away.
Ah.
The magical circuit woven into the coat-shaped rain cloak had activated!
But even though the blade had been deflected, an enormous impact slammed into my stomach.
“Urgh….”
The pain came rushing in the moment I registered it.
“Wh-What the hell, bastard!”
At the same time, the startled organization member started wildly swinging his sword.
The blade raked across my cheek.
SLASH!
I vividly felt the heavy metal split my skin and strike bone.
It felt like something heated in a fire had been pressed against my cheek.
“You startled me, bastard. Is that coat a magic tool?”
“What? A magic tool?”
“Must be worth some money.”
Deflecting one attack hadn't helped at all.
And apparently, it couldn't protect any part of me the clothes didn't cover.
“We can just cut his neck.”
“Got it.”
Alarm bells screamed inside my head.
I'm going to die.
I'm going to die.
I'm going to die――
That was when someone shouted from farther away.
“Hey, hey! Hey! Stop that!”
“What is it, Deputy Commander?”
Even through pain intense enough to make me lose my mind, that exchange stabbed sharply into my ears.
“His clothes! The emblem on his clothes! You idiots!”
“Pardon?”
“It's the Spider Society!”
The voices quieted.
The organization members hurriedly pulled open my clothes.
Inside was the same black engraved emblem.
A spider.
“…….”
“…….”
The bastards exchanged glances.
Then they took a close look at my face.
Several of them froze solid.
The noisy atmosphere instantly sank into silence.
I didn't know what those looks between them meant.
Nor did I know why they were studying my face.
But one thing was certain.
It was the expression that appeared on the face of the man who'd stabbed me.
Eyebrows bent into the shape of 八.
Widening eyes.
A mouth slowly falling open.
A chest swelling as it rose.
His face held the sort of emotion a person might feel after making the greatest mistake of his life.
Fear.
“…….”
Why are they acting like that?
I didn't really know, but apparently this ‘Spider Society’ was some serious organization.
Meanwhile, perhaps because of the blood loss, I started feeling faint.
I staggered.
That seemed to trigger something.
One of the organization members screamed as though having a fit.
“Hey! Hey, get the priest! Bring the priest over here!! Now―!!”
***
Blood poured out like crazy.
Around the time I started wondering whether it was all right to lose this much, my consciousness began to fade.
“――.”
“――?”
People moved back and forth.
They shouted things about me.
I could feel them pushing and pulling my body around.
Save me.
Suddenly, I remembered a day more than ten years ago.
Days when I'd talked with my father at home.
‘Samael! Daddy's home! Where's my little boy? Hah hah!’
My father was a very bad man.
But setting aside his reputation with everyone else, he was a remarkably cheerful and lighthearted man.
He was handsome and smooth-talking, so there were always plenty of people around him.
That was why he rarely came home.
But whenever he did come home, he always taught me strange things.
‘Samael. I shall teach you how to seduce women. Heh heh.’
‘Samael. I shall teach you how to seduce men too. Ho ho.’
‘Samael. I shall teach you how to seduce animals! Hah hah.’
Every day, he lectured me on how to toy with people.
Looking back now, I wonder if those were really things one should say to a child…….
Once, he'd also told me this.
‘Samael. Stealing a person's heart is difficult. But borrowing it for a moment is very simple. People only try to see what they want to see.’
Back then, I'd asked him this.
‘What do you do after borrowing someone's heart for a moment?’
‘What else? Strip them clean! Borrowing someone's heart is no ordinary opportunity, you know? Because you gained it so easily, it could leave you at any moment. Obviously, while you've got the chance, you have to strip them all the way down to the bottom of their soul so you won't have regrets lat…….’
‘…….’
‘Hmm? Samael? Where are you going, Sa-Samael…?’
Even at that age, I'd understood that he wasn't sane.
Even after growing older and reaching the present, I'd ignored my father's teachings.
After all, he had ultimately climbed onto an execution platform and been beheaded in front of all the people across the continent he'd seduced.
By the time my unconscious thoughts reached that point, I opened my eyes in a treatment room.
‘Where is this….’
It didn't feel like a hospital.
More like some group's infirmary.
At least my punctured thigh had been perfectly wrapped in bandages.
I moved it slightly.
It didn't hurt.
‘How much time passed?’
My Mana was completely full.
At least 7 hours, or perhaps longer, had passed.
Then someone approached the door.
I made a reflexive judgment.
I needed to hide my face.
So I pulled the hood of the rain cloak over my head.
“You're awake.”
The door opened, and a man entered.
With the hood covering most of my eyes, I raised my glasses and looked at his face.
Black full plate armor.
It was the Black Knight.
“I hear you were wearing clothing belonging to the Spider Society.”
“…I was.”
After a moment's thought, I answered informally.
I figured that was how some important figure would speak.
But apparently it sounded a little awkward.
The Black Knight frowned.
“Absurd. A bastard who sold noodles claiming to be Spider Society.”
“…….”
“You. Do you even know what the Spider Society is?”
I thought for a moment.
I was a guard, and I knew about countless organizations.
Better than most people knew them, even.
But I'd never heard of the Spider Society.
Which meant it was a secretive organization.
“I see no reason to tell you.”
“I wonder. Right now, you can spout whatever nonsense you please. Will you still say the same after seeing this?”
CLATTER!
He dropped a grotesque object onto the floor.
It was a collar covered in hideous spikes.
The spikes looked corroded and filthy with blood.
The peculiar thing was that they didn't point outward like the spikes on a dog's collar.
They pointed inward.
Toward the neck of whoever wore it.
“An A-Grade Magic Tool. Its name is the 「Collar of Truth」. Just as the name suggests, it fucks up the neck of anyone who lies.”
I knew it too.
It was a famous lie detector in the Empire.
“What are you trying to do?”
“You dared claim the name of the Spider Society without even knowing how much weight that name carries.”
He was right.
I didn't know what the Spider Society was.
“However, the coat you're wearing is genuine. We checked it, and it truly appears to be a Spider Society coat. A curious matter. So from now on, I intend to speak with you and learn the truth.”
Damn it.
I'd considered the possibility that they might know about the Spider Society….
I swallowed dryly.
The Spider Society.
What the hell was it that made them act like this?
That was when it happened.
“We brought him.”
“Good.”
The door opened, and one of the gangsters from the Bloodstorm Bandit Gang entered, covered in blood.
“Wh-Why are you doing this…. I told you I'd surrender….”
The bandit trembled violently.
At a gesture from the Black Knight, an organization member put the magic tool around the gangster's neck.
CLICK!
The moment it touched his throat, the magic tool fastened itself automatically.
“Wh-What is this…?”
“Hold still!”
A knee slammed into the side of the man trying to resist.
“Ghk!”
The gangster groaned in pain.
“Now! You know the hideout of those Black Tiger Mercenary Corps bastards, the ones I'd gladly chew to pieces. Correct?”
“I-I already told you I don't know…!”
“Really? Then why don't you know? We already know you went collecting protection money on Odin Street together with the Black Tigers.”
“That was…!”
“So you lied. Huh?”
Then the magic tool activated.
CLACK―! CLACK-CLACK―!
With each sound, the mechanisms inside the collar began tightening.
“Ghk!”
“I'll ask again. Where is it?!”
“I-I don't know!”
One question.
One answer.
When the device judged that answer to be a lie, the magic tool tightened.
“If you're confident, say you don't know one more time. Where is it? Where's the Black Tiger bastards' hideout?!”
“…….”
The gangster seemed to decide on silence.
But the magic tool didn't wait.
CLICK! CLACK! RRRRATTLE―!
“Ghk! H-Haah!”
The spikes aimed at the man's neck dug deeper and deeper.
Before long, they began piercing his skin.
“Aaagh! Aaaagh!! Ghhhuuugh…!!”
“Tell the truth! Tell the truth and it'll stop! Huh?!”
“A-All right…! I'll talk…! I'll talk…!!”
At last, when the man began speaking, the magic tool stopped.
His neck was covered in blood.
A little later, and the spikes would've pierced straight through it.
After they left, only the Black Knight and I remained again.
It had been a show put on for my benefit.
Even knowing that, I couldn't stop my heart from trembling.
“Put it on.”
The Black Knight threw the magic tool at my feet.
CLANG!
“……Is this how you people do things?”
“I will not permit questions in return. If you dared impersonate the Spider Society while knowing absolutely nothing about it, do not expect to die peacefully today.”
“Why don't we simply talk instead?”
“PUT IT ON―!!”
The Black Knight growled.
Slowly, I fastened the collar around my neck.
Cold metal touched my skin.
The sensation of droplets of blood running down my neck sent chills through me.
CLICK―!
It was obvious what he would ask with the lie detector now.
He'd ask whether I was truly a member of the Spider Society.
If I confessed the truth, they'd discover I was a guard and kill me.
If I lied, the collar would kill me.
“Answer me. Are you a member of the Spider Society, or are you not?”
And just as I'd expected, the question came.
“…….”
I let out a trembling breath.