After the Black Iron Freight Corps departed, Sunlight’s Canopy was dim and silent.
The veil of darkness had descended unnoticed, and pale moonlight shone through the skylight that imitated the sacred tree. The rain seemed to have stopped.
Sieg heard a door open on the second floor and hurried up the stairs.
“Did you wake up, Mariela……?”
Inhaling dream incense through a pipe gave one good dreams, but breathing the smoke directly would induce a short nap. Its effect had worn off. Mariela had gotten out of bed, standing in the corridor looking vacantly at Sieg.
“Sieg, where is Lynx…?”
“Captain Dick and the others took him home.”
“Ah…” With her ghostly complexion, Mariela stood still and gazed at Sieg for a short while, then slowly shuffled toward the stairs to the rooftop.
“The rain stopped.” Mariela feebly headed up, and Sieg followed her with a blanket.
The spring wind howled.
Up in the stratosphere, the stronger winds were scattering the heavy rainclouds. A while ago, moonlight had poured into Sunlight’s Canopy, but at the moment, it was hidden.
On the dark rooftop, Sieg started to worry that the night might steal Mariela away, so he approached her.
“Mariela, nights are still chilly,” he said, placing the blanket in his hands around her. In the dark, he couldn’t clearly see her face looking up at him, but he could sense her pain. It tore at his heart.
“Sieg, it’s…” Mariela opened her mouth.
It was best to listen. To allow her to let it all out. Even though he knew this, Sieg found himself wanting to stop the words that Mariela was about to say. Because he knew she was going to say something that would hurt herself terribly.
“It’s my fault.”
“No it’s not. Not at all.”
Lynx’s death couldn’t possibly have been her fault. Hadn’t Mariela herself almost been killed?
“It’s because I said I wanted to go herb gathering even though I can’t even take care of myself,” she started.
“No. You had two B-Rank people with you. It was more than enough for the twenty-third stratum. And we made it back with no problems last time. No one could have expected this surge of monsters.”
Sieg said all he could to stop her from blaming herself.
“It’s still my fault. I didn’t give him potions. I had them, but I wasn’t able to use them right away.”
“We’re the ones who didn’t ask for them. Mariela, you had nothing to do with our error in judgment.”
Even from an objective standpoint, Mariela did nothing wrong. Sieg and Lynx were the escorts, and Mariela was the client. The fault lay with them, the ones who had put her in danger, and she was the victim.
But Mariela looked down and quietly shook her head. “No, you’re wrong, Sieg. I… I…”
She raised her head and looked at Sieg. Her eyes were brimming with tears.
“I…dreamed of a quiet city life, and that’s why…”
Tears spilling over, Mariela continued. Lynx’s death had left her with a profound sense of loss—just like the day of the Stampede when she’d lost everything.
“When the Stampede happened, I…escaped alone. I couldn’t save anyone from the monsters, so nobody helped me. Well, that’s not totally accurate. They all let me escape because they knew I couldn’t help even if I stayed behind in the Citadel City. I…escaped alone. I only saved myself……”
It had been spring then, too.
She’d spent winter in the Fell Forest all alone, where the cold was nearly enough to freeze her heart, too. And just when spring had arrived, the Stampede had taken everything from her.
When she had woken up after her sleep of suspended animation, two hundred years had passed, and nothing was left. Many, many people must have died in the Stampede.
Her new acquaintances, the people and her relationships in the Citadel City, and even the little house in the Fell Forest her master had left her had all been swept away by the flow of time.
She’d thought winter was finally over, but it had just welcomed another autumn, and another winter was on the way again…
But Mariela hadn’t been alone.
Lynx had made sure of that.
Ever since they’d met by chance in the Fell Forest, he’d always been nearby. Even after she had arrived in the Labyrinth City, he showed her around the Yagu Drawbridge Pavilion and around the City. He introduced her to his acquaintances and told trivial stories that made her smile.
And everyone—oh, everyone in the City was so kind. She was a stranger, and they had welcomed her. The regular customers came to Sunlight’s Canopy almost every day. She was happy when people came to buy medicine, but she was ecstatic when they told her, “I came to see you.”
Even the chemists who were once malicious toward her treated Mariela as a colleague. They taught her valuable information, assuring her they were only repaying a debt. But in all honesty, Mariela felt she was the one who owed them.
She made friends: Carol, Elmera, Amber, Sherry, Emily. She loved every single one of them, from the women to the children who she all thought of as her siblings. Mariela had never known how fun it would be to talk and make food with other girls.
And then there was Sieg.
He was always at her side. He was always concerned about her.
Being together with him was almost too comfortable. In fact, when he went to the Ahriman Springs, she was astonished at how used to it she’d become.
“Every day has been so full of fun and joy, I just never thought about it. I knew, and I looked the other way. I thought they’d manage somehow. Just like the injured adventurers who helped work on Sunlight’s Canopy. I knew there were people out there having a hard time without potions, but I never came forward…”
She’d realized what the alchemists had done, as they survived the Stampede two hundred years ago in the coffins in the Aguinas family’s basement.
She knew they’d risked their lives to keep making potions, yet she hadn’t given up her way of life in Sunlight’s Canopy.
“Even if I sell potions to the Labyrinth Suppression Forces, they won’t reach the masses. I have magical power left over every day after making a hundred high-grade potions, and there are so many people in the Labyrinth City who need them, and I should have been spending all that time in Sunlight’s Canopy making more, but I…!”
Only she had survived the Stampede with no consequences, and even in the Labyrinth City, she was the only one of them enjoying her life.
“Back in the Labyrinth, that man told me it was my fault. I bet he realized I’m an alchemist. He knew I only think about myself, that I didn’t reach out to the people I should have been helping.”
She must have thought this was her punishment. Lynx had taken the retribution meant for her.
“That’s why…Lynx…d…died… It has to be my fault,” she finished her monologue, stricken with guilt.
Sieg reflexively hugged her tight. “No. You’re wrong. You’re wrong! It’s not your fault, Mariela. You did nothing wrong. You saved me, right?! And those adventurers! You healed their injuries so they could return to the Labyrinth. Your medicine has helped heaps of people! Don’t believe that guy. You don’t have to listen to people who just want to blame their own weakness and misfortunes on others. Mariela. We… Lynx…didn’t save you because you’re an alchemist. Lynx saved you because you’re you. As for me, even without potions, even if you never healed me, I would still serve you for as long as I lived. You healed far more than my physical wounds. So, Mariela. Please don’t say that. Don’t blame yourself. Don’t let Lynx’s feelings be for nothing. I… We……”
Sieg couldn’t tell her what he would have said next.
Because Lynx had said he would confess his love to Mariela when he reached A Rank. And now that day would never come.
“Sieg…” Mariela continued to weep, and Siegmund continued to hold her tight. “Sieg, I…”
Mariela formed the words as if she’d made up her mind.
“I…want to destroy the Labyrinth.”
“Destroy the Labyrinth,” Lynx had said to them at the very end.
If that was his wish, she wanted to make it come true. The labyrinth was what remained of the Stampede two hundred years ago. It took away the Kingdom of Endalsia, the Citadel City, and the place where Mariela belonged, and now it had taken Lynx, too.
“I’m going to make potions so we can do it. I can’t fight, but I can reveal myself to the Labyrinth Suppression Forces and make potions. I don’t want to lose anyone else.”
Even if it meant she could never return to Sunlight’s Canopy again, if she could just give all she had to annihilate the Labyrinth…
Her determination had become something like a solemn vow in her heart.
Nevertheless, despite her firm resolve, Mariela couldn’t be alone. She was terrified of going all by herself into that dark, grave-like place—it was too similar to when she activated the Magic Circle of Suspended Animation under the fear of impending death.
“Please, Sieg. Don’t…don’t leave me all alone…,” she begged in a strained voice.
Her entreaty gently bound Sieg to her.
“Of course, Mariela. I’m yours. All I have is yours…”
It wasn’t a slave Order. She hadn’t put the slightest bit of magical power into it. She’d only ever given him a single Order. “Don’t tell anyone I’m an alchemist.” That was it.
Mariela had saved both Sieg’s life and his soul and expected nothing in return. She was content with the familial affection that she received in her quiet life, and she sincerely wished for Sieg to be free.
Oh, how he longed for her. How he wanted her to yearn for him.
But Sieg had no say in whatever Mariela desired.
Even if she came to him only for some temporary respite from a deep wound, he wouldn’t mind as long as he could feel her warmth in his arms like this.
Mariela shook feebly with sobs, and Siegmund held her close.
Was the moon peeking out from between the clouds waning or waxing?
The wind swept the clouds together, and the last beam of moonlight was lost behind them.
Their night quietly wore on in darkness.