I could see why Itsuki thought this was all a bit fishy. Hadn’t the people of this country thought the same? Still, he’d managed to pull out a weapon that normally you needed to be selected to use, so they had probably passed it off as just being a good result.

“These sources on this story could be in error,” Ethnobalt stated, playing it carefully. “We cannot state for a fact that this happened.”

“Still, do you think the guy can be reasoned with?” I asked. At my question, both Ethnobalt and L’Arc tilted their heads. After snatching Kizuna away from her original captives, he was now playing dumb about it. If he could be negotiated with, he wouldn’t be hiding the fact he had her. If we were going to have a discussion with him, we could do it after we got Kizuna back.

We could also have Kizuna use her arbitration power to determine whether he was worthy as a vassal weapon holder. If he had been selected justly, then the vassal weapon should remain with him. If it departed . . . then something else was going on here—an increased likelihood of him being a vanguard of the waves, for sure. So after the genius, now we had someone from another world who had been caught up in a summoning? I really hoped he was someone we could talk to.

“Where is this Mr. Hidemasa to be found, anyway?” I asked. I hoped he was like Kyo, off doing something or other in the hinterlands or elsewhere in his territories. Maybe he was out fighting monsters and wouldn’t be back for a while. That would be nice. Still, it seemed unlikely he would capture Kizuna and then just waltz off somewhere else.

“We have witnesses who place him in the castle today,” Ethnobalt responded. It looked like maybe we’d got unlucky with our timing. I really want to take care of things without bumping into the guy.

“Something else . . . Ah, no, it’s nothing. Never mind. It’s impossible, after all,” Itsuki said.

“Now you have to tell me,” I responded.

“When we were searching a tavern back there, I thought I heard some familiar voices mixed in among the patrons,” he said.

“Familiar voices?” I prompted. Itsuki looked over at Rishia for a moment.

“Fehhh . . .” She just made her usual useless sound—so she probably hadn’t seen anything.

“Who did you hear?” I asked again.

“It sounded like Mald,” he finally replied. Who? I’d heard that name somewhere before . . . Had to be a friend of Itsuki’s and someone he was close to . . . from the way he said the name. Maybe it was that one guy he’d had under his command . . . Armor, right? Maybe “Mald” had been his real name.