My Status as an Assassin Obviously Exceeds the Hero's

"The prophecy made by the first divine child. Among the more than ten prophecies, there was one about the disaster that would occur in this country. It happened ten years ago, and since it has already been rebuilt, I'll spare you the details—but many lives were lost. People, animals, demonic beasts, all kinds of lives died."

Tsutsumi Kaminari raised her palm flat, with the hand facing upward. I had the strange illusion that life was spilling from that hand like water.

I don't know what kind of calamity it was, but there certainly doesn't seem to be any shadow of it left in the Yamato Country now. I haven't been to many places yet, but everywhere I've seen has felt lively and bustling.

"Suzu was probably the best 'star reader' among all the divine children throughout history, excluding the first one. That's why she must have foreseen the damage to her relatives and the common people ahead of time. Suzu, trying to stop the prophecy so no one would find out, was struck by Divine Judgement lightning one day before the disaster. After that, she remained in a coma for ten years and died without ever waking up. That must have been the day the god descended upon you. In the end, everything Suzu did was for nothing. She died in vain."

"...So even the other three great families didn't know about that. That Tsutsumi Kaminari resisted the prophecy of the first divine child, or even that she was in a coma."

So that was why there had been a slight discrepancy with what Amelia had heard from Amaryllis inside the airship.

I wasn't there, but Amaryllis, when explaining the prophecy of the kaminari family to Amelia, seems to have thought that the kaminari family kept silent and acted in secret in order to make the prophecy of their ancestor, the first divine child, come true exactly as written. It was true they kept silent, but perhaps she didn't know that, even if they couldn't do anything about it, there had still been those who resisted.

When Tsutsumi called her daughter's efforts "for nothing," I frowned a little.

The woman in the twelve-layered kimono who welcomed Kagami in the dream I saw through Kagami Kaminari was probably Tsutsumi Kaminari. Maybe that's why I can't help feeling like this is my own problem.

"Yeah. More than that, even Miki doesn't know about it. As the head of the kaminari family, I told her that her mother died on the day the lightning struck. Since I was no longer a divine child myself, I couldn't possibly take the position of head again."

"That's...!"

I blurted out a little louder than I meant to.

Wasn't that far too cruel?

The fact that we haven't seen any sign of her here means her father is probably gone too, or already dead. I don't know Miki Kaminari's exact age, but ten years ago she must have still been younger than I am now. And yet she was told her mother was dead, when in fact she might have still been alive, and was forced to stand as the head of the family.

What's more, she was born unable to inherit the occupation that her family had passed down for generations. The backlash must have been fierce. I've heard that Miki Kaminari is an only child, so unlike me and Yui, she had no one to share her pain with.

If I put myself in her place, that would be unbelievably painful. I'm sure I couldn't bear it.

"But Akira, that's just how it is for those born into royal or family lines of authority."

Amelia chided me in a calm voice.

"The lives of the common people and ours are not of equal value, and even if authority is granted to us, there are times when our lives become worth less than theirs. And yet we are the ones who must stand above others. Because that is how we were born. Especially the High Elves and the kaminari family, since they oversee rituals related to the god Aitel, their blood is meant to be revered, and it must never be allowed to die out, no matter what happens. When I think of it that way, I believe Tsutsumi Kaminari's choice was selfish and foolish."

Even though the Demon Clan was involved and there were circumstances that might lessen her blame, the fact that Kirika harmed Amelia, the next princess, and was left untouched is probably for the same reason Amelia just described.