Chapter 202

Crack! Everyone reflexively straightened at the high-pitched sound of Yuric’s whip striking the floor. “Edgan! Down!” “Ook!” Mariela and Sieg were simply surprised at the sudden reverberating whip sound, but the effect on the monkey and the raptor was immediate. Edgan straightened up at the cracking of the lash, and when he was told “down,” he sat next to Koo. “Animal tamer skills really do work…” “Edgan, you…” Mariela was astonished. And Sieg rubbed his eyes in disbelief. Where had his irritation from a moment ago gone? He seemed to have thought the monkey thing was just a facade. “Edgan, drink.” “Ook…” Yuric placed a potion in front of Edgan, who had grown obedient due to her animal tamer skill. Edgan timidly lifted the concoction, then sniffed it and held it up to the light as though he wondered what it was. “I said drink!” “Ook!” “Sir, yes, sir!” No back talk was tolerated in Yuric’s boot camp. If you showed even the slightest hesitation, her cutting whip would come flying. Well, since Yuric was a girl, maybe it should be “Yes, ma’am.” Edgan wasn’t speaking a human language, so who can say what the particulars of his reply were? After giving a relatively good response for a monkey, Edgan drained the potion in one gulp, immediately fell backward with a thud while still in the drinking pose, and stopped moving. “I knew a potion of Mariela’s would work well.” “Yuric, what kind of potion was that?” “A fast-actin’ sleep one. I had Mariela make it in case ya wouldn’t move from the tower, Franz.” “Wha…?” Yuric answered Franz’s question without showing the least bit of shame. Depending on the circumstances, Franz could have wound up being dragged along unconscious after being fed a potion. Yuric’s calm answer made Franz a bit at a loss for words. “Mariela, return Edgan’s memories right now. I can’t take this anymore.” “Yeah. We have to do our best for him.” “It’s still a rough idea, but…,” Mariela began. She seemed to have some sort of plan in mind. After hearing the outline of the strategy, Donnino, Grandel, and Franz hurriedly headed out to gather the needed materials so as not to anger Yuric further. “I’ll keep watch here to make sure Edgan doesn’t go wild.” Yuric’s words gave Mariela peace of mind, and she lay down next to Edgan. When she did, Sieg wedged his way between them with a sullen expression and lay down, too. “Sieg?” “………You shouldn’t be alone with him.” Sieg wore an expression as though he’d just bitten down on a bug as he gave his short objection, looking neither at Mariela nor at Edgan, but at the ceiling. Although it was to restore Edgan’s memories, the idea of letting Edgan and Mariela sleep next to each other was detestable. Obvious jealousy. “Hee-hee. Then you, too, Sieg. Here, a sleeping potion. One sip is enough.” Mariela, who felt a little awkward seeing Sieg like this, took a sip of the potion, placed the warm salamander on her stomach, and closed her eyes as a laugh slipped out of her. At the sight of the three lying parallel with Sieg in the middle, Yuric scratched her head and wondered how it had come to this. Edgan, who was sound asleep, scratched his rump now and then as he drooled. 05 Unconsciousness came immediately. The smiling face of a woman with soft-looking reddish-brown hair told Mariela this was a memory from Edgan’s past. How gently and warmly this person smiled. Mariela’s master, too, had given her tender smiles when she was little, but this seemed to her far more pleasant, and full of never-ending love. Eliade. To Edgan, the woman with reddish-brown hair and eyes was the kindest and most beautiful creature in the world. His mother, and the first person he ever killed… Edgan wasn’t even ten years old at the time. He went to search for his mother, who had gone into the shallow strata of the Labyrinth and hadn’t come home by dinnertime. He’d heard by chance that a man-eating plant monster had appeared in a higher stratum where it was ordinarily safe for his mother, who couldn’t fight, to go gathering. The woman often went to harvest nuts and edible mushrooms in those strata so the growing Edgan could eat his fill, regardless of the flavor. Edgan rushed to her usual gathering spot, where potato-like plants could be collected, and there he found his mother in full bloom. At the time, Edgan didn’t know what kind of monster it was, but it was a man-eating plant that ate its prey alive and sucked its blood to make its flowers blossom. The body was standing upright, held in place by vampiric roots extending from its feet into the ground and by branches growing inside it. The skin, having been drained of blood, was so pale it was as though it had never known the touch of the sun, and the large, bright red flowers that broke through the woman’s flesh here and there beautifully highlighted Edgan’s mother, as if she was wearing a gorgeous dress. Edgan remembered how beautiful it looked to his very young self. And he could never forget the screams that felt like they were tearing him to pieces. “IT HURTS IT HURTS IT HURTS IT HURTS IT HURTS IT HUUUUUURTS!!!” His mother was still alive, tormented by the pain of being eaten from the inside and the agony of blooming flowers breaking through her skin. Crack. With a sound like joints disconnecting, his mother’s back lengthened. The piercing screams no longer formed human words. Edgan learned many years later that this plant grew from components it secreted when it sensed pain. At the time, Edgan didn’t know why his mother was still alive in this horrid state, but he could understand that she was beyond saving and that this pain wouldn’t stop until the little remaining life she had came to an end. That’s why. Because he loved his mother. Edgan picked up the hatchet his mother had brought for gathering and swung it at her. The young Edgan was short. Even if he’d leaped, he had neither the leg strength nor the arm strength to cut off her head in one stroke. Horrid screams carved themselves into Edgan’s mind, as did the sensation of swinging the hatchet over and over again as he cried and shrieked. “Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!!!” “Eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee…!!!” The pair’s screams blended together into a gruesome chorus that Edgan could still hear to this day. But Edgan could also never forget the smiling face of his mother as she uttered her last words: “Thank you.” Eliade. To Edgan, the woman with reddish-brown hair and eyes was the most beautiful and kind creature in the world. Hollis. Edgan’s enchanting, cheerful, adorable first love had blond hair and light brown skin. He’d met her in the Labyrinth Suppression Forces, and due to her caring and frank personality, she and the newly enlisted Edgan soon grew close. Hollis was senior to Edgan and stronger than him. She teased, “You’re hopeless,” when Edgan couldn’t handle his dual swords well, and she laughed happily when he got worked up over the needling. Hollis had developed warrior-like arm and shoulder muscles, and her favorite civilian outfit was a rather lovely dress. She was a very sweet person who’d hung her head and said, “It doesn’t suit me, though.” When Edgan had grinned and replied, “It looks good on you,” Hollis’s ears turned bright red, and she grew bashful. Every time they fought in the Labyrinth, she’d earn a new scar, and gradually, her many wounds began to peek through the sleeves and hem of her dress, yet to Edgan, Hollis’s loveliness remained unchanged. Hollis’s delighted look every time Edgan whispered how cute she was and her attempts to conceal her bashfulness weren’t flattery, and they showed her sweetness more and more. As long as she was herself, Hollis’s loveliness would never change to Edgan. Yes, even when her legs decayed, and her skin gradually began to turn bluish-black from her feet to her head due to poison from the Labyrinth. Potions had run dry in the Labyrinth City. They were something supplied to the army’s elite, not to the reserve forces. The toxin was so volatile that standard medicine was ineffective, and there wasn’t enough time to take Hollis to the imperial capital to receive treatment. “Send me off before…my face changes color. While that dress still looks good on me…as you’ve told me so many times it does.” Edgan wanted to grant Hollis’s wish, to save her from the poison that ate into her mind and body, yet his hand shook, and he couldn’t steady his aim. “You’re…still hopeless with dual swords…” Hollis endured pain so intense that even breathing was difficult as she flashed Edgan her usual smile. Unfortunately, Edgan was unable to return the expression. “I’m glad I can die…the way I was when you told me I was cute…” After leaving these words with him, Hollis, smiling, passed on. Her last wish granted, Edgan dressed her in her favorite outfit and told her, “You’re so cute. It looks good on you.” The setting sun dyed Hollis’s light brown face red, making her look like she was smiling bashfully. Hollis. Blond hair and light brown skin. She was cheerful and adorable right to the end. Milmette, Margarita, Doris, Alma. They all had their circumstances, yet they all believed in a better future. Elda, Irene, Johanna, Camila. They all had their merits, and were very adorable. Clarissa, Lise, Sophie, Rosa. They all smiled at him, yet no one stayed by his side. Therese, Wilma, Clarina, Natasha. Edgan asked them for love. He wanted them to beam when they saw him. His mother, burned into his eyelids, smiled only when they did. Her excruciating screams paused. Laugh, heal me, love me— My equally kind, equally beloved femme fatales— It should have been so peaceful. “Eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee…!!” Yet they didn’t stop the ear-piercing screams of the blooming flowers… 06 What horrible memories… As she slowly sat back up, Mariela wondered if Edgan would be better off forgetting such things. Suddenly, Sieg embraced Edgan and began crying his eyes out. “Edgaaan! Edgan, you were in so much paaaaaaain!!!” “Whoa, Sieg. I…don’t swing that way…” “Your words came back, too! I’m so glad! I’m so glaaad!!!” “Y-yeah…” Sieg’s time as a slave hadn’t dulled the emotional sensitivity his upbringing had instilled in him. He was a hectic man with various preoccupations who devoted himself to Mariela, the girl who had saved his life and who he felt was a goddess and his destiny. Regardless of whether it was because he was occupied with Mariela or not, Sieg was typically silent. This led many to believe he was a levelheaded sort of man, but that wasn’t the case. Even if Mariela was quiet and engrossed in something, her actions were comical and gave her a funny image. So Sieg simply appeared to be a relatively calm, cool, and collected man by comparison because he was always with her. To tell the truth, Sieg was more introspective and more sensitive than Mariela, perhaps only because of his Spirit Eye. Conversely, Mariela was less sympathetic. She recognized the memories she’d seen up to this point—Yuric’s and Franz’s, the ones about past calamities that seemed to be the fire spirit’s, and all the others—as the playbacks of people’s pasts. Although she grieved at how heartbreaking the tragic ones were, she didn’t get too attached. But then, as a high-ranking alchemist, Mariela perceived existence not just through senses like vision and hearing, but also through the state of Drops of Life, so it might have been difficult for her to feel moved by images alone. Unlike Mariela, who could classify the memories of the past as “things that happened in someone else’s history,” Sieg seemed to have empathized completely. He’d been crying for a while now, enough to cause a great flood. Even the salamander, who should have been with Mariela, might have been drawn in by Sieg. It had climbed up on Edgan’s shoulder and licked his cheek as though to comfort him. “Siiieg, would you calm down a bit?” “But, but, Edgan. If something like that happened to Mariela, I surely wouldn’t be able to bear it…” Apparently, Sieg had substituted Mariela for all the women in Edgan’s memories who’d suffered unnatural deaths. Despite not being real, to Sieg it seemed that Mariela had suffered endless terrible fates. One would think that Sieg would have envisioned himself gallantly coming to Mariela’s rescue before things got that bad. “Well…it’s good ya get along. Edgan, this means you’re a human again?” asked Yuric as she turned to look at the three. She’d remained awake to keep watch. Then she nodded slightly and cracked her whip to confirm whether he was back to his old self. “Edgan, and Sieg, that’s enough!” At Yuric’s shout, Sieg came to his senses, hurriedly straightened himself, and moved to Mariela’s side, but Edgan stood stiffly at attention, so maybe just a tiny bit of his monkey side remained. In any case, the group finally had enough fighting power to execute Mariela’s plan. Sieg and Edgan. The two A-Rankers had assembled. There was no need to delay the gathering of the more dangerous materials any longer with these two around. “Thank goodness. With this, I’m sure we’ll manage somehow!” Mariela had the notable characteristic of being able to obtain anything if she asked these two for it. “Umm, Mariela? What’re you planning to make us do?” Edgan, who had been rounded up for miserable material gathering in the past, asked in fear. “It’s not a snowy mountain this time, so it’s fine! First, I need wood.” Mariela smiled innocently, while Yuric grinned wickedly. So it not being cold automatically made things okay? Sieg and Edgan didn’t really understand Mariela’s criteria, but there was no way the two would do something as terrifying as destroying the two girls’ smiles. “Leave it to us, Mariela! We can get anything.” “Hey, Sieg, you’re promising too much…” “Edgan, wouldn’t it have been nice if you’d said even a single word to me before you accepted Mariela’s request? I think so.” Sieg had been in tears over Edgan’s circumstances, but apparently he still held a grudge about Edgan accepting Mariela’s running-away-from-home appeal without even briefly consulting him. “Come to think of it, I was mad at Sieg,” Mariela muttered, as though Sieg’s careless remark had made her remember. “After we’ve gotten out of here, let’s have a proper talk, okay, Sieg?” “Okay…” Mariela, too, apparently wouldn’t just forgive Sieg as things stood, even though he came all the way here to rescue her. “Pfff, tee-hee. Sieg, you’re dead meeeat.” “Shut up! Edgan, we’re going!” Although Sieg was frightened of Mariela’s smile, he seized Edgan and departed for the southeast tower. Thus, the pair’s harsh hunting began. 07 “Whoa, they’re huge! Whoa, gross!” As the steellike vines whooshed around, Edgan found footholds left and right, even on the walls, and dodged attacks as he waited for an opening, while Sieg ruthlessly sniped giant hairy caterpillars in silence. The pair were in the entrance hall at the center of the first and second floors on the south side. That’s right, the room with the tree monster, the Necklace. Just as there were many types of plants, there were many types of monsters. Some were even capable of speech. The Necklace wasn’t, but it was a nasty monster that freely manipulated parasitic vines like feelers, caught its prey with them like a whip, and decorated itself with them in truly poor taste. These tendrils were tough as steel and wrapped around the trunk in place of armor to thwart attacks. As further proof of its poor fashion sense, the mass of hairy caterpillars the Necklace kept in its branches grew to between three and six feet long as soon as it shook them out and then attacked their prey. The insects themselves weren’t especially strong, but because they sent poisonous fibers flying with a viscerally unacceptable visual effect, a lightweight short-range attacker like Edgan wanted to keep away from them as much as possible. “Mr. Donnino said the Necklace’s wood is very solid and extremely flexible, so it would be perfect.” Mariela had seen off Sieg and Edgan after conveying this snippet of Donnino’s extensive knowledge of timber. The Necklace was too large to walk, but it could move its appendages. It was undoubtedly sturdy, and flexible as well. Its wood was indeed a high-class item, but the tradeoff was that it was a difficult creature to subjugate. It had melee attacks with its whiplike vines and long-range attacks with its mass of hairy caterpillars. How in the world could one take on such an opponent? Lightning or fire would end the battle pretty quickly but would render the wood useless. “Gah, Sieg, be a little more careful! The juice! The juice is flying at meee!!!” “I can’t do anything about that! It’s a trait of these insecticide potions!” The insecticide potions called bug bombs that Mariela had given the two men as a countermeasure against the hairy caterpillars were made by mixing originally low-grade items with special-grade materials to boost their effects. In other words, they were Mariela’s specially adapted concoctions, whose increased potency alone made them special-grade equivalent. “The Fell Forest had a lot of bugs, so I came up with many different insecticide potions to protect my medicinal herb garden. This is the first time I’ve increased the power to special-grade, but it should totally be effective!” Just as Mariela had said, the bug bombs were indeed impressive. Boom, boom, boom-boom! Using arrows dipped in the mixture, Sieg made every last one of the hairy caterpillars explode. It was a tragedy. Every time one of the insects burst open, yellow body fluids splattered all about. Since defeating a giant hairy caterpillar in a single blow required some amount of power from the Spirit Eye, this potion that made arrows poisonous was very helpful in curbing Sieg’s magical power consumption. Even so, the bug bombs were better banned or kept a secret. If they fell into the hands of a brat, the kid would probably immensely enjoy making insects explode. When Mariela lived in the Fell Forest cottage, she didn’t have the leisure to play around with making bugs burst open, but the stench of dead insects scattered around the area had the convenient side effect of keeping others out of their away. Where on earth was the Necklace keeping that many hairy caterpillars? Did they grow at ultra-high speeds after hatching? The tree monster sicced the hairy caterpillars on Sieg and Edgan one after another, and Sieg’s envenomed arrows caused them to pop. Even Edgan, dodging attacks from the Necklace and the hairy caterpillars, couldn’t read the trajectory of Sieg’s arrows, despite them both being A-Rankers. He got heavily drenched in insect body fluids. Wherever he jumped, goosh! And again, wherever he landed, splat! “This gunk stinks! It smells like buuugs! Siiieg, are you listening?! You couldn’t possibly be doing this on purpose, right?!” After confirming that Edgan, who was angrily ooking from a distance, was filthy, Sieg nodded as if to say “hmm” and signaled to him. “…Would now be a good time? All right, Edgan, I’ll cover you. Bring down the Necklace!” “Wha?!” Sparing no time, Sieg turned his arrows on the Necklace, loosing many in quick succession. The projectiles struck the monster’s numerous vines with fearsome accuracy and pinned them back. “Now, Edgan! The Necklace is wide open!” For an instant, the Necklace, with all its vines pulled up and away by arrows, was completely defenseless. “Nice one, Sieg! But the bugs… Huh?!” Shockingly, the hairy caterpillar monsters seemed to be avoiding Edgan and advancing on Sieg, who stood at a distance with his bow at the ready. “So that’s it! They hate the smell of the bug juice…” “Hurry, Edgan! While I lure the hairy caterpillars!” “!!! Got it, Sieg!!!” “I’ll draw them away, so you deliver the final blow” sounded a little like a plot point in a story of friendship. It also seemed like a line that monkey-Edgan would be pleased to hear. This noble-path-like development completely revved up Edgan, and he began to attack the Necklace with full force. “My left arm is a pedestal for gales, my right arm a pedestal for adamantine. Abide in me! Dual Sword Elements!!!” Edgan tempered his dual swords with the earth element and increased their momentum with the wind element. Then he began to strike at the Necklace’s trunk. The sharpness of Edgan’s weapons cleaved through the steellike vines, and their momentum whittled down the large tree as surely as any ax. If the monster had been an animal, the blow would have torn its flesh to pieces and even severed its bones; however, it couldn’t possibly sever a thick thing like the Necklace that easily. “Not good enough?!” Any other creature would have weakened after being struck so powerfully, but the Necklace had no sense of pain, and to make matters worse, the only emotion it did have was anger. The tree monster lifted its hideously warped eyes, which resembled cracks in the bark, and screwed up its ugly mouth, then unwrapped all the vines that had been coiled around its trunk and bent backward to strike Edgan at range with its full power. “Damn!” The vines Sieg had pinned back were free and moving to strike Edgan. Even if he avoided those initial hits, the second group of tendrils that had been wrapped around the trunk wouldn’t miss him. Despite the vines that spread like a net to block his retreat, Edgan searched for a way to recover from the hopeless development. He stood ready for the Necklace’s next attack, knowing that if he couldn’t escape, all he could do was take the monster down first. All the Necklace’s tendrils were being used offensively, and its trunk was unguarded. What would happen sooner: Edgan slicing through the Necklace’s trunk, or the Necklace’s vines knocking down Edgan and smashing all of his bones into tiny pieces? Thunk. In that life-and-death moment, a dull, powerful sound that originated neither from Edgan’s swords nor from the Necklace’s verdant lashes echoed through the chamber. Instantly, the great monster became nothing but a mere tree. A single spirit arrow had ended the perilous struggle between Edgan and the Necklace. “…Wha? Huh?” Dumbfounded by the abrupt end to the battle, Edgan gazed at the now-motionless Necklace, which had an arrow shaft blooming from the base of a branch above its eyes on the top part of the trunk. Gravity pulled down the vines that had been poised to kill, and they became entangled in foliage. Siegmund had been waiting for the instant the Necklace unraveled all the tendrils protecting its trunk. For a split second, the Necklace had bent back its trunk and exposed its weak point, the base of a branch where its magical gem was located. Normally, that vital area was concealed behind vines and foliage. Every type of monster had a magical gem. These stones, which were compact, portable, and could be sold at a high price, were not only essential spoils of battle—they were also the source of a monster’s power and its weak point. The Necklace’s magical gem had been shot through, and its life as a monster had ended in a single blow. It was now just a tree. The location of a monster’s magical gem varied from one individual to the next, and although the approximate area for a given species was known, you wouldn’t know the exact spot without dismantling the creature’s corpse. Typically, smashing a magical gem halved the hunting profits, so using it as a one-shot kill was a rarely considered option save for exceptional situations where other materials were prioritized, as was currently the case. Sieg’s Spirit Eye enabled him to locate the magical gem and shoot the weak point, which had only been left defenseless for an instant. “Hey, Siiieg? Was this how you planned it all along?” “Gh, Edgan, there are still hairy caterpillars left! Help me out!” Although Sieg had the leeway to relentlessly pierce the approaching hairy caterpillars at a distance and even magnificently sidestep the bug juice that came flying at him, he didn’t answer Edgan’s question. He pretended to be in a tough spot against the large army of monsters, but his acting was a bit too shoddy. “Hey, enough about finishing them off. Maybe, just maybe, you were squishing those bugs just to throw their nasty gunk on me? Hmmm? Siiieg?” “Uh-oh, this is bad! Poisonous fibers!” Sieg exclaimed, wholly monotone. By the way, the venomous barbs flying at Sieg never reached him because the wind created with one swing of his bow was enough to turn them away. To conserve magical power, Sieg only used his Spirit Eye a little bit, but it was enough to make the fight a relatively leisurely one for him. “Why, you! I’m gonna cover you in bug juice so you’ll get dumped!!! Wind Edge!!!” “Don’t say something like that and jinx it!!! It’s your fault for taking Mariela out in the first place!!! Wind Wall!!!” Complain, complain, complain; wah, wah, wah. The men’s stupid quarrel, harsher than their battle with the Necklace, continued until the entire mass of hairy caterpillars had been squashed, and they were both covered in insect guts. Although Sieg and Edgan had defeated the Necklace, Mariela and Yuric told them they stank when they returned covered in bug juice. Until Mariela made a deodorizing potion, the pair weren’t allowed in the room and were made to stand in the hallway. 08 “This’s better lumber than I thought it would be! And the vines seem usable enough. Sorry, but could you lend me a hand, Grandel and Franz? Yuric, there should be a workshop ahead where we can process these. Use the raptor to transport them there. Edgan and Sieg, you can rest for a bit.” Delighted at the quality of the Necklace’s wood, Donnino set about assigning tasks to everyone. Edgan and Sieg, released from their job at last, groaned in reply and happily sank to the floor. Apparently, cutting down and processing the Necklace had been exhausting. “Since we don’t have an ax, there’s no way around it,” Donnino had said, and so Sieg and Edgan had used their mythril longsword and dual swords, respectively, to break the wood down per Donnino’s instructions. Since the weapons weren’t meant for such work, it was terribly tiring. Swords made to cut up monsters, and especially animals, weren’t suited for chopping trees. Thin, sharp blades could easily be chipped and blunted by solid, thick wood. That’s why Sieg and Edgan applied magical power to their blades to strengthen them before splitting the timber, but apparently, both the unfamiliar motions of cutting and processing wood and the use of magical power over a long period of time were quite tiring, and the pair didn’t seem to have any energy left to bicker. “Sieg, Edgan, I’m going to leave your meals here, so eat and then rest a little.” Mariela recommended the pair have some food, then quietly left the room. There was still something she needed to confirm. “It’s been a long time since I slept here.” The place Mariela had chosen in the hopes of having a dream was the room that was a re-creation of the cottage in the Fell Forest where she’d lived with her master two hundred years ago. Mariela had come previously to make potions, so she knew where it was, and she’d also confirmed the route’s safety. The Fell Forest cottage was tiny; all it had was a bedroom and a chamber that served as a workshop, kitchen, and living room. “I think I slept in the same bed as my master when she first took me in.” How long was it before they slept separately? Mariela’s master had given reasons like “It’s too hot” and “You want your own room, right?” but had she really needed to go as far as partitioning such a cramped space with a small dresser for them to sleep apart? “Raaawr.” The salamander wriggled around as if to say it wasn’t sleepy yet, and Mariela hugged it tight and whispered, “You can’t escape,” before crawling into her master’s familiar bed. 09 The city burned. The people burned. The world was filled with lamentations. Fire spirits who had newly come into being didn’t possess the humans’ knowledge of good and evil; they merely gathered where there was fuel, crowded together, became hellfire, and engulfed the entire city. The fire spirit became aware for the first time that the blood of the people put to the sword was as red as fire. Voices of people crying and shouting, shrieks of those frantically trying to escape, cries of many begging for help. Despite being of the same species as those suffering, some humans ignored or otherwise took delight in these terrible sounds, transforming them into wails of death. There was fighting with blades, sounds of heavy boots, and elated shouts. People were killing people. Humans were burning a human city. The tragic sight was one that human history might remember for many generations, but to the many spirits who gazed at this terrible spectacle, it was like watching a storm as they thought, So this is the kind of creature humans are. While many lives were being lost, the death toll didn’t reach that of an earthquake or a volcanic eruption. To the spirits, it seemed hardly any different from an ant’s nest being attacked by a different kind of ant. Except for a lone fire spirit… —No, no. You mustn’t die this way. Anger, sorrow, so many dark emotions are flowing in one after another…!!!— The road had already become a black river. The dark emotions humans called corruption or curses passed through the woods they called the Fell Forest and streamed toward that lake. A small amount would have been fine. The corruption was melting into the water and spreading throughout the entire Fell Forest. And it came to rest inside the trees and the animals of the woods. More than half of the creatures living in the Fell Forest had turned into monsters. The beings known as monsters had wild temperaments and strong bodies, but excepting those features, they weren’t any different from any other animal that was born, ate, was eaten, reproduced, aged, and died. Despite the desecration dwelling within them that consumed their minds and bodies, they purified it throughout their lifetimes until, at last, they returned to the ley line. The balance between the human city and the Fell Forest had been passably maintained until the attack on the former. The corruption generated by the humans had been purified by fire as much as possible, but beyond that, the Fell Forest itself functioned well as a purging mechanism. Unfortunately, no matter what, there was no way to completely staunch the flow of corruption from a calamity as terrible as an enormous settlement being attacked and razed to the ground. —This is bad. This amount is unacceptable. If this much desecration streams into it, that lake, that spirit will…— In the eyes of many spirits, the foolish act of war, in which people fought and killed, resembled animals preying on one another, albeit on a large scale. However, no other creatures besides humans raised their voices in resentment like this. No other animals cursed the enemies trying to take everything from them with feelings of anger, resentment, grief, and sorrow and spread corruption. —No!— An ebon, sootlike substance rose up everywhere, from burnt corpses to collapsed houses. —No, I don’t want to let it through!— Ghosts, unaware of their deaths, roamed through the city and groaned in miserable agony, cursing all around them. —I don’t want to let it pollute that lake spirit any more than this…!!!— Spirits were simply there. They merely dwelled in the blowing wind and burning fire, flowed with the water, and nurtured life along with the soil. By all rights, neither happiness nor unhappiness, nor even knowledge of good and evil, existed within such things. Spirits existed regardless of whether the current of abundant rivers watered the earth and lights illuminated cities brimming with life, or drought caused the land to dry up, ponds to vanish, forests to catch fire, and many lives to be lost. They accepted everything as it was, and it was that nature that should have rendered them incapable of a strong desire for anything. If a spirit truly wished something, if it sacrificed something for that aspiration, it was likely no longer just a spirit, the embodiment of a phenomenon. If it gained a “self,” it could never again simply dwell in the city lights or return to being a mere flame that swayed and was snuffed. That fire had a wish and wanted desperately to see it realized. After existing for so long, that fire spirit now held the power necessary to grant her own request, albeit through only a single method. —I won’t let it through. I’ll burn it all to nothing.— Because she, a fire, possessed no other way to do so. The spirit would furiously burn the city to the ground. The people, the houses, the food, the treasures. The flame decided she would turn the humans to cinders. Enemies and allies, the living and the dead. The force of the rampaging blaze, the tempest-like fury, engulfed everything belonging to the humans, from prayers to curses, like a muddy stream and scorched it until it was merely ashes. —Burn it, burn it, burn everything. I won’t let even a fragment of a curse or a sliver of corruption reach that lake…!!!— The flame even enveloped many fire spirits, burning brighter and spreading farther. Black smoke and soot blew upward. Fiery pillars sprouted so that not even ash and cinder could escape, dyeing the clouds crimson. Whether the terrible sounds were those of humans screaming or the city collapsing, no one could be certain. However, even a conflagration of this scale couldn’t stop the air currents or change a river’s course. The shadowy corruption that slipped through gaps in the purifying hands of the blaze, the people’s feelings of grief, sadness, resentment, and anger at this tragedy, with no place to go, streamed toward that lake as water flowed from a high place to a low one. —I won’t let it get away. I won’t let it through. No, no, this can’t be happening!— The inferno that engulfed the city and razed it to nothing stretched itself all the way to the forest, chasing after the cascade of desecration. The flame had a wish. She wanted nothing more than for the lake spirit to know no further pollution or suffering. She was aware that she’d assigned value to something. The fire spirit had judged the negative emotions humans produced to be filthy and evil. Thoughts about what was superior and inferior had entered her mind. She’d had ideas about determining good and evil. The lake spirit was precious, and the fire spirit didn’t concern herself with the lives of the people who had polluted it. Hers was a self-righteous desire to help the lake spirit, even if that meant sacrificing others to the flames. —I’m coming for you.— The fire spirit understood that she wished to see the lake spirit. She understood the nature of her own feelings in sparing no effort to muster her power for the lake spirit’s sake. That was why she torched houses, shops, roads, and the city. The forest smoldered, insects crumbled, animals burned, and people died. She consumed infants, the elderly, men, women, the living, the dead, everyone, and sent them back to the ley line. And at last, the fire spirit reached the lake in the Fell Forest. Incinerating everything indiscriminately was simply part of the phenomenon known as fire. —To burn and cleanse the corruption. So no more of it will come here. So it won’t corrupt you any further…!!!— On the bank of the pitch-black pool, the fire spirit screamed as she seared the corruption that coiled around in bits and pieces. —Is that truly what you plan to do…?— Like a black lagoon inverting and rising, the lake spirit floated up from the surface of the water and asked the fire spirit this question with the calmness of the night. Their dark hue made it clear to the fire spirit that she’d been too late. Helping that beautiful creature was beyond her power. —If the corruption flows into me, then so be it. Is it not the way of we spirits to accept things as they are and simply exist?— The lake spirit’s form was dyed so ebon from the desecration they had taken in that it took the fire spirit’s breath away, yet the lake spirit neither resented nor hated the humans who had twisted them so. Monsters attacked people simply because the corruption within them that detested humans compelled them to do so. Sparks crackled and spilled from the fire spirit’s eyes in place of tears at how much the lake spirit had changed. Their black eyes motionlessly gazed at her and smiled just a little. —Your feelings toward me are warm. Your unsettled heart rampaging in anger, sorrow, and suffering is the very embodiment of flame. But have you not realized? Thinking of another and mustering strength for their sake is the way of a human heart.— At this, the fire spirit gasped and then put words together as though she were squeezing them out of herself. —If I have a human heart, then you’re the one who gave it to me…— Crackling embers streamed from the fire spirit’s eyes, and something powerful clawed at her heart. Though buried beneath so much dark corruption that the lake spirit’s life seemed a flickering thing beneath it, the sight seemed both like a light forever illuminating the shadow of night and a short-lived flower that bloomed and fell. The lake spirit thought it beautiful. They moved toward the fire spirit as though they were gliding across the water’s surface and stretched their arms toward the fierce, fickle, flickering flame. —Come.— The lake spirit beckoned to the ebon desecration that coiled around the fire spirit even as her body incinerated the ominous substance. —No! You mustn’t take any more…— —I do not mind. It seems that I, too, desire to take in your corruption.— The two spirits stretched their arms toward each other so naturally that it wasn’t clear who did so first, and their palms pressed against one another. Even before their fingertips touched, the lake spirit’s digits fizzled to steam and rose into the air, while the fire spirit’s own began to wane. No matter how long they existed, no matter how much power a spirit possessed, water and fire never made contact. As long as water was water and fire was fire, the spirits were bound to their nature. —Even so, I want to purify your corruption. How do I do it…?— —That is a wish that surpasses what a spirit is capable of.— The lake spirit laughed that it was impossible, and instead of responding, the fire spirit asked for something else. —Hey, would you tell me your name? Even if you’re corrupted, you remain noble. If I know what to call you, no matter where we are or what we become, our hearts will be connected. And I want you to remember my name and my feelings.— Then the fire spirit introduced herself to the lake spirit. —I… My name is Freyja, spirit of flames.— —That is an excellent moniker worthy of your fierceness. Then I, too, will give my name. It is…— The name the lake spirit gave evoked their crystal-clear waters of days past. Freyja yearned to return the lake spirit to the way they used to be back when she’d first met them. 10 “I figured as much…,” Mariela muttered after waking in the bed in the cottage of the gloomy Fell Forest. This place, where memories of Mariela’s master dwelled, tore at the girl’s heart all the more. Drop, drip-drip. Tears spilled from Mariela’s eyes and began to leave spots on the sheets. “I was fine with the other visions, but…” Considering its distance from the Fell Forest, that ancient city had probably been in the place that was now called the imperial capital. Mariela had never been to the imperial capital, but she had a vague understanding that the war she’d witnessed had occurred more than a few hundred years ago. If so, just how long had her master been alive? When she thought about that, Mariela grew so sad that her chest tightened, and large tears spilled from her eyes as she continued to hold the salamander tight. Mariela recalled the day her master left the Labyrinth City. “I can’t stand all the melancholy.” Freyja had said those words with a laugh, but how many people had she left behind—who now only existed in her recollections of them? Undoubtedly, Freyja had taken on countless pupils, raised them, and said farewell when they’d died. It had all been for the sake of just one, solitary spirit whom she’d offered her heart to… “Awr.” As Mariela quietly sobbed, the salamander licked away her tears to comfort her.