“Look at you, talking down to me. You have no manners. I’ll say that for you.” Faced with my impeccable logic, Miyaji just went and shifted the goalposts.

“You expect to be treated with respect? When everything you have said has been rude and ignorant?” I responded. I really wanted him to stop it with the affected airs when he talked, for a start. His own vapid nature was clearly showing through. At least Ren, Itsuki, and Motoyasu had some personality and their own ideas. They had been easier to talk to than this. I continued. “The holy weapons rank higher than the vassal weapons. That’s just a fact. Glass and the others are on the same level as you, and you didn’t even treat them with respect. This is hardly the best approach for you to take,” I warned him. Once we finally met back up with Kizuna, it was definitely worth stripping this guy of his right to his weapon. If a vassal weapon holder was causing too much trouble, their vassal weapon should choose to abandon them. “You’re the one who thinks you can just do whatever you like,” I quipped. Being a hero wasn’t a free pass, and there were consequences for denouncing the deeds of others.

“Shut up. Enough. I don’t need to hear anything more from you,” Miyaji replied. It didn’t look like he was going to respond well to discussion after all. I hadn’t even really gotten started yet . . . He was just a kid pretending to play the bigshot.

“You said something about acting in all sincerity, right? That’s certainly not what your attitude looks like to me,” I told him. I hoped he saw what I was getting at. I wanted to make clear what was different about him and those he was having trouble with.

The vassal weapon heroes had killed the four holy heroes, so I had been told.

If it had just been one of them, Glass and the others would have identified and pinned them down. The holders of the mirror and book vassal weapons were unknown. But this musical instrument hero, Miyaji, was clearly also under suspicion for having killed the three holy heroes. What Glass had just said made that clear to me.

“What you need to do is share some information with us. If you don’t know what’s going on, then you need to explain why we might suspect you. Tell us what the shikigami has sensed. Explain the reasons for this. Understand? And if you did kill the three holy heroes, and have a reason for that, then you need to share that too,” I told him. A reason like when Ren, Itsuki, and Motoyasu had been cursed. What if the dead heroes had declared war on the world and demanded he join them? Fighting back under those circumstances would be quite understandable.