Four years ago, Tgurneu had spoken with its confidant, the three-winged fiend. It was then that it had decided to make Adlet the seventh. But the three-winged fiend just hadn’t been able to accept that decision, stubbornly pressing Tgurneu to explain its reasoning.
“Fine. I’ll explain it to you. It’s because Adlet has no talents at all.”
The three-winged fiend seemed to doubt its ears.
“And he’s aware of it. It’s painfully clear to him that he lacks aptitude for anything. But he still doesn’t give up. That’s the reason I chose him.”
The three-winged fiend was completely perplexed.
“Before aspiring to a grand goal, all humans think to themselves I’m sure I can do this . That’s why they do it at all. But such a human can’t overcome the impossible.
“The one who can is someone who takes up a challenge even knowing that it cannot be done. They may have no aptitudes, no chances of winning, but they still can’t give up the challenge. Only one with such determination can make the impossible possible.”
“You mean to säy Adlet is such a përson?”
Tgurneu nodded. “He won’t give up. Even knowing it’s a goal that is beyond him, he will keep trying. There is no other human like that. I believe the determination he possesses surpasses any talent or aptitude.
“That is why I have chosen Adlet Mayer.”
✦ ✦ ✦
“Fremy!” Adlet yelled. The tentacle around him twisted and tore off. His arm freed, the binding on his legs loosened.
He wasn’t thinking about how Tgurneu was controlling him anymore. He didn’t even care if his feelings were fake. Right now, in this moment, he loved Fremy.
He crawled for the fiend’s mouth, but its tentacles tried to drag him back. His bones ground uncomfortably, and his hair was tearing out as he pulled his upper body out of the fiend’s stomach. “I swear I’ll make you happy!”
Adlet crushed the hippo-fiend’s eye with his fist, and it screamed and writhed. He slid out of its mouth and rolled onto the ground. The scene that greeted him was unchanged from before he’d been swallowed.
But Adlet saw that Tgurneu was stunned—and that Hans was yelling something. He couldn’t hear what he was saying.
A fiend set on him from behind, trying to capture him again, but Adlet rolled forward to evade it. When he shook out the mucus the tentacles had poured into his ears, his hearing began to return.
“…Failed…em…ed.”
Adlet hadn’t realized Mora was yelling with her mountain echo. He couldn’t quite hear what she was saying.
“…re…saved, meow !”
Adlet focused on listening. He couldn’t understand Hans, either, but eventually, his hearing returned to normal.
“Adlet! Flee! Fremy has been released, but the plan has failed!”
Even now that Adlet could hear Mora, he couldn’t believe his ears. Overcome with surprise, he forgot everything.
Just then, Hans darted up to him to block an attack coming at him from behind. Adlet asked, “Has Fremy been saved?”
“Ya heard? It sounds like she meownaged somethin’ herself.”
“Then…” Adlet’s eyes turned to Tgurneu farther away, who looked ready to fight. “Fremy isn’t gonna die anymore? We can kill Tgurneu?”
Hans gave a definite nod. Adlet’s shoulders started shaking. He couldn’t hold back the laughter welling within him. “Looks like it wasn’t impossible this time.”
The eastern sky was beginning to turn pale. Dawn was close.
Adlet had a feeling. Either he or Tgurneu would see the coming sunset—but only one of them.