Unruly Summon Chapter 42: Judgement (Patreon)

I opened my eyes to a rather familiar ceiling. "I thought I'd been banished from the castle?" I commented rhetorically, recognising my old room.

"Master! You're awake!" shouted a voice I recognised with even greater alacrity than the ceiling. "You've been sleeping all day!"

"I... think I did a bit too much."

"You blew up our house!"

"... Sorry."

Mary giggled while I struggled to sit up and look at her. "I don't really know what's going on, but it seems like you saved lots of people," she said. "What's one house in comparison?"

She was back in her maid uniform—the lower quality one, rather than the castle's uniform—but had added a black fabric choker to her outfit. Thankfully, a quick surreptitious check revealed no mana interactions from it whatsoever. "I'm surprised to see you still around," I commented. "Didn't you want to live with your parents?"

"Of course!" she agreed. "But if I did that, who would look after you? How many times have you knocked yourself out in the past week? I can't fight like Christine, I'm not as intelligent or talented as Wendy, and I'm not even a particularly good healer, but I'm every bit as important as them all. Without me, you'd have nothing to eat, no clothes to wear, and no-one to carry you back to bed each time you knock yourself unconscious. You'd be utterly helpless!"

"... I don't think I'd go quite that far," I grumbled.

Mary grinned shamelessly. "Thank you for everything," she said, curtsying. "I promise you I've thought about it properly, and staying with you is what I want to do, so no arguing or trying to kick me out."

"I'm not going to argue. I want you to stay; it would just be selfish to expect it of you. But if you're back in your right mind, do you think you can finally stop calling me 'master'?"

"Nope!"

"Oh well. I tried. Anyway, what's going on? Why am I in the castle?"

"Because you blew up our house!"

I gave that the consideration it was due, and didn't see any way I could argue.

"How are Wendy, Christine and the others?"

"Uh..." answered Mary, which was not a good response.

"I saw Wendy breathing! And Minoru was snoring!"

"Yes. Wendy and Minoru are fine. So are Dad and Tony. I've seen them all."

"Christine, Jane and Johanna?"

Mary didn't answer.

"What happened to them?!"

"Like I said, I don't really know what's going on," answered Mary. "It would be better for you to ask Wendy. She's being debriefed right now. And now that you're up, I need to prepare you for your audience with King George."

With a sense of foreboding, I glanced over at the seat on which Mary always piled my clothes. My fears were confirmed when I saw the cravat sitting on top. Of all the things to survive our collapsing house, why did it have to be that?

"I thought he didn't want anything to do with me?" I grumbled, but without much hope.

"Stop whining and get your nightclothes off. Speaking of which, who do you think got them on? You were in your armour when you knocked yourself out this time."

"You are completely and utterly shameless, aren't you?"

"You have only yourself to blame. You're the one that insisted on getting my original personality back."

"Nah, you've always behaved like that, even before I freed you."

"Maybe, but back then there was more chance of me listening to you when you told me off," she smirked. "Now you're stuck with me."

"The scary thing is, I think I could get used to this," I sighed as I let her dress me. "Wow, do people really wear this sort of thing? Deliberately?"

"You look dashing!" pouted Mary.

"I look... I don't know what I look like. I don't have any words for this. Best I can do is 'Victorian', but I have no idea how that will translate."

"Old fashioned?" asked Mary, tilting her head.

"Close enough, I guess."

"How can it be old fashioned? This is the cutting edge of fashion!"

Our banter was interrupted by a knock at the door, which was quickly opened by Mary.

"How is..." started a male voice from outside. "Oh, he's awake and dressed. Good. Then his majesty shall see him immediately. Please follow me."

"Take care," requested Mary, making a last-minute adjustment to the cravat. "See if you can go an entire hour without knocking yourself unconscious."

"I'm not that bad," I complained, stepping out of the room. The visitor was a tall knight, face hidden by a helm.

"So, you're the summoned hero. I believe this is our first time meeting."

"I wouldn't know..." I commented. "That armour makes it hard to tell you apart."

"On the contrary; those who rely only on faces for recognition will find themselves fooled by even simple enchantments and illusions. You can tell by the emblems on the breastplate, helm or shield who I claim to be. Voice, build and mannerisms are all things you learn to pay lots of attention to, too."

Well, that was nice, but he still hadn't introduced himself... Instead, he simply led me back to the throne room in silence.

Once again, King George sat on the central throne, the slightly smaller throne to his side left empty.

"And so, despite my hopes, we meet again," sighed the king. "One must wonder why you are still here, though. Our kingdom is saved. Why haven't the gods sent you home already?"

I found it hard to judge the king's mood. Whether it was resignation or anger, the best I could do was be certain that he wasn't happy to see me. After our last meeting, I'd given serious thought to disposing of this king and taking over myself, and I had the feeling his mood here would only strengthen that desire. Alas, I still wasn't strong enough. Sure, Pereo would let me 'win', but if I relied on that, there wouldn't be anyone left to rule. It would completely defeat the point of getting rid of him.

Perhaps it was time for a name drop? It wouldn't make him any less unhappy, but it would very likely make him less inclined to take his frustration out on me.

"Anypha said the gods didn't play favourites, and I needed to save the continent, not just you lot," I answered.

"You... have spoken to our gods?" he asked, suddenly nervous.

"Only Anypha, and only briefly," I answered, happy at the response to invoking her name. "Obviously, I can't say exactly what was discussed."

"No matter," he said, with a shake of his head. "That's not what you are here to discuss. Rather, I called you here to give an accounting of your crimes."

"What the hell? I saved your damn asses from a horde of monsters, and you want to accuse me of crimes?"

"That there are mitigating circumstances is why you are here, and not in a public square with a noose around your neck," he snapped back.

"Fine. What crimes?"

"The assault on Odimere and its subsequent invasion. The theft of Vena's Grace. Destruction of property valued at thousands of mithril coins. The murders of Bishop Johanna, Priestess Jane and Lady Christine Standler."

"Christine is dead?!" I yelled, latching onto that last point.

"Why does that surprise you? You carried her corpse from the site of her death all the way to Odimere. You can hardly claim ignorance."

"But... But I brought them back. I entered Odimere and used Vena's Grace to resurrect them!"

King George stared intently, unblinking. "... You're telling the truth" he admitted, relaxing slightly. "You're legitimately surprised. Then that fills in the last part of the puzzle. I think we all know why those three were not saved, and perhaps even why the first casting of Miraculum did nothing to purge miasma from the kingdom."

"No we don't!" I argued. "Or at least, I don't. Christine could have been too badly injured by monsters for the spell to work, but why those two priestesses?"

"Christine did not receive any fatal wounds from the monsters. Yes, had the fight continued, she'd have been in danger of bleeding out, but in the end, that wasn't what killed her. Would it help if I informed you that Jane was the one to throw Minoru from the carriage, at Johanna's urging?"

"... Yes," I admitted. "Not that I had any idea who did that until you said."

Then the reason Christine was dead was nothing to do with the monsters, but because I still blamed her for Mary. She'd been doing her best against the horde, fighting desperately to save every last life she could despite knowing full well she'd die in the process, but apparently, somewhere inside myself that was still outweighed by her taking part in an assassination plot that hadn't even worked.

Did she really deserve that fate?

Or, of course, there was the horrible alternative. I'd been unconscious the entire time, and had no idea what had happened between casting the spell and waking up. Certainly enough time had passed for all these people to return from their evacuation, find me, and move me to the castle. Perhaps I had brought back Christine, but someone else decided it would be more convenient if she was dead. Hopefully not; I couldn't think of any sort of end such a move would achieve, beyond making me feel guilty. If it was a move by the king, Minoru would have made a far better strategic target.

"What am I to do with you?" sighed the king. "You have fulfilled the role for which you were summoned, but in a manner that cost me my family, and you have not returned to your world. You defeated a miasmic flood, but we believe that you were the one to cause it in the first place. You have no respect for our laws, willing to trample over a city and do untold damage simply to save a single life."

Once again, the king showed that he simply had different priorities to me. I had some regrets, but valuing lives over property damage was not one of them. Nor was the manner in which I'd 'saved' the kingdom. Speaking of which...

"Did Maius Miraculum purify miasma?"

"Yes. Everything within a hundred-mile radius. Congratulations; you took a substantial bite out of the corrupted lands and pushed the border far from Odimere. And I suppose, in the end, that leads me to my decision. Hero Thomas Smith, I hereby banish you from the kingdom of Ricousian, from now into perpetuity. Your very existence here invites instability. The gods desire you to save the continent? Then go and save it, and stay far away from us. You may take Wendy and Mary with you, if only because I fear you tearing apart my kingdom in your wrath should anything happen to them here. Please also take... that. I cannot bear to look at it."

"You people summoned me, deliberately, and then lied to me constantly, trying to steer me into doing your bidding. I save you all anyway, and now you have the gall to complain that I saved you in the wrong way?" I complained, ignoring the final 'gift' because I had no idea what he was talking about. "I suppose it doesn't matter. That single cast of Maius Miraculum has probably solved your immediate food crisis, and you have a priestess who's learnt the spell and can hopefully pass it on, so I guess I don't have anything left to do here. May I leave?"

"No. First, take that. Get it in here!"

A door at the back of the throne room opened and a very familiar young lady walked in, tailed by a knight. She was dressed in rags and the hair she considered so precious had been reduced to a buzz-cut—probably to mask the damage I'd done to it—but her features were unchanged. Her face was instantly recognisable, despite the out-of-place expression it was wearing. Her previous sharp gaze was nowhere to be seen, replaced by an utterly blank expression. Her eyes were empty and focused on nothing, and she walked in complete silence, not giving so much as a glance to anyone in the room.

The cause of her condition was obvious enough. The former princess had a metal collar around her neck, and subvocally casting Maius Omnia Visus confirmed it was active.

King George didn't even look at her, completely ignoring the poor girl.