Now, all that remained was to lay low while picking off the six Braves, one by one. That promised to be a very easy job.
The first target—Adlet Mayer. He would be the first to die.
Chapter 3
A Trap and a Rout
An hour had passed since the seven Braves had first gathered in the temple, and Adlet was running through the forest. If his mental map was accurate, then the edge of the Phantasmal Barrier was close by.
“So what’s this Phantasmal Barrier thing? I’ll be laughin’ if we can get meowt of this thing, all easy-like.” Hans, whom Adlet had only just met, was running alongside him. Adlet eyed the other man suspiciously. Not that Adlet was in any position to talk, but Hans seemed like a pretty fishy guy.
As they ran, Adlet marked trees they passed. After a while, they found trees ahead of them bearing the marks they had just left. Without even realizing, they had gotten turned around.
“The barrier really is up,” said Adlet.
“Just like we thought,” replied Hans.
The two of them made one more attempt to escape the fog, but the results were the same. They tried drawing a line at their feet as they walked or throwing a string in front of them and then tracing its path, but they still couldn’t get out. There was one thing they did manage to figure out, however. They only lost their sense of direction when they attempted to exit the barrier. As long as they stayed inside the field, they would not get lost.
“So we have no choice but to deactivate the barrier, after all.” Adlet sighed.
The group had agreed to focus on dealing with the barrier for the time being. That problem was more urgent than figuring out which of them was the impostor. Adlet and Hans were testing the barrier’s boundaries while the remaining five searched the temple for a way to take it down.
“I’m gonna go back to the temple,” announced Hans. Adlet nodded, and they set off again. “Hey,” said Hans as they ran. “So are you the fella who went and barged into the Tournament Before the Divine in Piena?”
“Yeah. You knew about that?”
“Everyone’s talkin’ ameowt it. Adlet, the cowardly warrior. Is it true ya took old man Batoal’s granddaughter hostage?”
“Where’d that come from?” Adlet hadn’t taken any hostages. They had no reason to be calling him “the cowardly warrior” in the first place. “By the way, Hans, I’ve never heard your name before. What have you been doing, and where?” he asked. Aside from Hans, the seven people gathered together here were all famous. Nashetania was a well-known personage, of course, and Mora and Chamo, too, and Goldof. Fremy was famous, too, in a way, as the Brave-killer. This Hans guy was the only total unknown.
“Well, tellin’ ya would only cause me problems,” said Hans.
“What do you mean?”
Hans only smirked in reply.
When Adlet and Hans returned to the temple, the other five awaited them inside. Nashetania, Mora, and Chamo were all gathered around the altar. A little ways away were Goldof and Fremy. Fremy was bound by the wrists. Goldof gripped her chains as he guarded her, observing her every move. Mora carried her pack and gun. Fremy was utterly at their mercy.
Of course Fremy was the first to fall under suspicion. Chamo had insisted that they kill her right away. After discussing it among all six of them, they’d decided that, for the time being, they should keep her restrained. In chains, Fremy gazed at the altar vacantly. There was something resigned about her expression.
“So how’d it go, Mora?” asked Hans. Apparently, Mora was the most knowledgeable among them when it came to the hieroglyphs, the language of Saints, and barriers that amplified Saints’ power.
“Well, we have figured out matters, to a certain extent. But before I speak about that, I suggest we introduce ourselves. I still have not matched names to faces.”
“Meow, you’ve got a bad memory,” Hans chided, laughing.
“As you all introduce yourselves, give us a brief personal history and explain how you came to arrive here,” Mora continued.
“Why?” Hans inquired.
“The information may prove useful in exposing the impostor…the seventh,” she explained.
They all gathered around the altar. Goldof shoved Fremy’s shoulders, pushing her into the circle.
“Now then, who will begin?” asked Mora. At some point, she had assumed the role of their leader, and everyone else had accepted it quite naturally. She was a woman endowed with composure and dignity.
“I’ll do it. My name’s Adlet Mayer, and I’m the strongest man in the world.” Adlet started off the introductions, giving them an abridged history of himself and talking about how he had met Nashetania and then Fremy, and then the sequence of events leading up to his arrival at the temple. Of course, he repeated many times over that he was the strongest man in the world.
Once his story was done, Mora was the first to respond. “Er…Adlet, was it? What a strange man to have been chosen.” She shrugged.
“Yer the strongest man in the world? Meow-ha-ha-ha! What an idiot. What a complete moron.” Hans laughed raucously.
Adlet ignored him. “I was the closest when the barrier was activated. Should I talk about that, too?”
“No, you may tell us about that in detail later,” said Mora. “Who’s next?”
Beside Adlet, Nashetania raised her hand.
“Meow, I wanna hear some details from this bunny girl,” said Hans. “And preferably alone…”
“Hans, is that your name?” Goldof cut in. “Know your place. This is the crown princess of the royal family of Piena. Under normal circumstances, you would never be permitted to speak to someone of her stature.”
“Meow? She’s a bunny girl and a princess, too? That just
