The City of Sacrifices

Author: Iwashi-zukushi
Raw: https://ncode.syosetu.com/n3388fm/3/
Translator: Lilia v4
Editor: Yuriko AYA

“Still… you’re quite different from what we had imagined, you demonfolk.
The Demon King, too, I suspect, is nothing like what we think—going by this.”

Once the round of introductions had finished, I spoke to Gerda.
She looked a little tired, but very happy, and she answered with the same pleasant smile as before.

“I suppose so. I can only imagine what you have been thinking… but I am almost certainly different from that.
Well. One could also say that is why you are sent here…”

Her expression clouded, suddenly.
She let out a heavy sigh.

“And that is precisely why it is so unjust that you are sent here.”

We would learn what she meant by that—spoken as if she were deeply troubled—soon enough.

 

When greetings were done and we had sorted our belongings and taken them up again, we set out for the Demon King’s castle with Gerda in the lead.
We filed through a town of neatly ordered brick houses, already visible from the harbor where we had been put ashore.
To my surprise, the buildings had almost the same atmosphere as a human town.
The brick structures were a familiar size as well. I saw nothing extremely large.
I had been looking around restlessly when something occurred to me.

“…Huh?”
“Hm? What is it, Asha?”

I had let out a puzzled sound, and Gerda looked back.
I pointed, hesitantly, in a certain direction.

“Ah, no, um… I had been feeling eyes on us from all over, and I was wondering… are those people watching from over there… human?”
“Ah. Yes. This area is a human residential district. I imagine they are curious about you, in any number of senses, now that you have been brought here.”

Gerda said it as if it were nothing, and I—we—were too stunned to speak.

“W-we weren’t eaten!?”

The girl right behind me raised her voice. Chris, I was fairly sure, was the name she had given.
A stir went through the others as well, surprise and suspicion alike.
To be honest, I had already begun to think that might be the case.
Otherwise Gerda’s words and manner would not have added up.

“You said you would protect us, Gerda, so I had thought at least we wouldn’t die, but there are humans living in buildings this fine…”
“Not ‘there are humans,’ either. Nearly every human who comes here lives in buildings like these, in this district.”
“Eh. In these buildings?
…They’re a far finer make than the house I used to live in.”

Chris’s voice had gone past surprise into something like dismay.
I agreed completely, so I nodded along.
Most of the girls who had been brought here reacted the same way.

Looking troubled, Gerda stopped walking.
She turned to face us.

“All right. Let me explain a little.”

With that, she looked around at us, half-encircling her as we were.
Still with that troubled face. …It was a little cute.

“First of all: we do not eat humans as food.
It is true that such monsters exist, but the monsters on this island are, as a rule, of a nature that eats other animals and plants.
Think about it. This was originally a land with no humans on it, was it not?
We were already living without eating them. Why would we go out of our way to travel so far and try to eat humans who come armed with metal?”

If I had heard that reasoning before I knew Gerda’s character, I think it would have slid right off me.
But knowing her as I now did, I could not help but think she was entirely right.
The trouble was, the great majority of humans did not think so.

“In other words, it is a baseless assumption on the human side.”
“Ah. Honestly, I have no choice but to say so.
Of course I understand that we possess far greater power than humans, and that you would fear us for it.
But when we have no will to invade, and we have even given notice that we have no need of sacrifices, and still…”
“Please wait. You sent a notice like that!?
We’ve never heard anything of the sort…”

I started despite myself at Gerda’s words.
Behind me, a murmur rose: “Did you know?” “I certainly didn’t!”

“So it is as I thought… It seems the human rulers have various designs of their own.
Ah—forgive me. This must be a painful, unjust thing to hear. I am sorry.”

At Gerda’s account, a few of the girls’ faces clouded.
But most of them looked more like, ah. Of course.
By the time we had been sent here, most of us had already been betrayed, to one degree or another, by our fellow humans.
To be shown that side of humanity again at this late hour was, frankly, nothing new.
Perhaps that reaction surprised her; Gerda’s expression turned worried.

“How to put it… you are not shaken.”
“Well, um, a lot happened before we got here… probably for the others too.”

I answered with a smile. Or I meant to.
Hearing it, Gerda looked as if she might cry.
I had not wanted to put that look on her face…
But I could imagine that, to this earnest, kindhearted half-dragon knight, it was something hard to hear.
From our exchange so far, she already understood well enough how we had been treated, and that she felt sympathy for it.

“And so the humans who are sent here are allowed to live here.
Of course they would be curious about you in any number of senses, so they are watching like that.”
“I see…”

I understood Gerda’s explanation.
It also sounded like exactly the sort of thing royalty and nobility would do.
I could not accept it, but I felt something close to resignation, and all I could do was nod.
The other girls, likewise, could not find anything to say.

For a while, there was silence.
Then Gerda’s face took on a look of sudden resolve, and she regarded us again.

“I have many thoughts about your circumstances. I simply cannot put them well into words.
But I want you to let me say this much.
I will not betray you.
I am only a single knight, and there is only so much I can do… but I swear I will protect you, as far as I am able.”

She said it cleanly, with a look of firm decision.
…Ah, so she would go and say a thing like that, I thought privately.
In a heart this worn down, those words landed rather hard.

“…Thank you. I, too, want to answer you as far as I am able, Gerda.”

I answered, taking care not to let my voice shake.
The other girls seemed too overcome to get the words out properly.
I was close enough myself that if I let my guard down I would start crying.

Perhaps here.
Here, where this person said she would protect us.
Perhaps there would be a place for me as well.
I found myself thinking that.