Simple homes of cloth and tree branches had cropped up on the banks of the great lake. This free district was a new one, far inland from Zero’s city on the waves.
“Hrnn─’twould be quite the disaster were it to rain upon this place.” Los stood on tiptoe as she surveyed the free district, which in truth might better have been described as a hamlet. “This might be easier were there someone here willing to take on the mantle of leadership.”
Standing by her side, Saybil likewise took in their surroundings.
Roughly half the free districts that had sprung up across the New World had been built with support from the Forbidden Landers, but the later ones derived entirely from the free will of their residents. Consequently, support had yet to reach them, and they were suffering a serious lack of both materials and know-how. The majority of these had started with the news that “building these free districts seems to be all the rage nowadays,” attracting sundry folk who desired their freedom as well─but with no clear leader, they were now finding themselves at a loss as to how to go on.
Lily had been using her friends to seek out such floundering free districts, and Saybil and Los had taken on the task of visiting them to provide support. That said, it wasn’t exactly an arduous journey. Using the towers that had been converted to the free district cause, they were able to travel around the New World in a trice, and since they created new witch’s paths wherever they went, the process only got easier and easier.
The free district by the lake where Los and Saybil now found themselves would ordinarily have been a ten-day ride by wizard carriage from Zero’s city, but it had taken them only half a day, if that. Los had taught herself to drive all manner of wizard carriages in a snap, so even the significant distance from the witch’s path to the lake had presented no particular obstacle.
“I’m off to have a teensy chat with the residents─thou needst simply do as thou always dost, Sayb.”
“Ah, right.”
There was a reason why Los and Saybil had been paired up for this task. With her antlers, Hort would have been attacked on sight if she showed her face in a free district, while Kudo and Mercenary were beastservants by New World standards, meaning the Nurabehn would be wary of them as loyal servants of the Exinov.
On the other hand, these people who for the first time in their lives had created a community of their own, and so were naturally feeling somewhat protective of it, would react poorly to a perfectly ordinary human being showing up and claiming to be a messenger from the Forbidden Land.
In that respect, Los struck the perfect balance. She appeared to be a harmless young girl and so provoked no wariness, yet the massive staff she carried made it absolutely clear that she was someone out of the ordinary. Her skill at oratory, her beauty, and her eccentricity drew the gazes and interest of the residents, and once she had engaged them in conversation and convinced them, Saybil came in to provide the proof─by creating a witch’s path to Zero’s original free district on the ocean.
The creation of a witch’s path usually required a pair of corresponding symbols be carved at the two locations. Saybil got around this by bringing with him a stone tablet that already bore Zero’s symbol, which he then buried in the ground and infused with mana to create the witch’s path. Once that was done, the rest was easy. Zero simply appeared from the other side and created a city that suited the terrain. Just as she had made a city of ice upon the ocean’s surface, here a tree-top city woven from the surrounding forest rose up on the lakeshore before their very eyes.
No one could doubt them now.
“As ludicrous as ever,” Los remarked, mouth agape, tapping her staff against her shoulder as she gazed up at Zero’s tree-top city.
Zero shrugged. “I could not engage in such grand folly without the young man’s endless supply of mana.”
“What, dost bait me, now? Surely thou knowest most witches would be incapable of such a feat however much mana they had at their disposal.”
“Well, actually…” Zero frowned. “I know little of witches.”
“Haanh?”
“Though I have lived for a hundred years, most of that was spent hidden away in a hole in the ground. I did travel for two years, but…well, I encountered essentially no ancient witches during that time. After my journey’s end, I lived once again in isolation as a village witch.” Zero gave a troubled smile. “I’m sure the itinerant Dawn Witch will find this difficult to understand, but I am far more ignorant and unworldly than you might believe.”
“I-Is…that so…”
“Though I am of course aware that I possess genius beyond comparison.”
“Rrrgh what art thou playing at! Were we not having what the young ones call a heart-to-heart for a brief moment there?!” Stamping her feet at Zero’s flippancy, Los turned back to the work of art that was the forest city. The people of this new free district, for their part, appeared more stunned than pleased.
“From what little I heard, these people seem to be without a leader─we would, I think, do well to offer them one.”
“Ah, about that.” Saybil raised his hand. “The priest said we’ve got a young man who he thinks is about ready to start running a district.”
“Ah yes, young Gil.” Los’s face lit up.
“You know him?”
“But of course. He is one of those students the priest and I trained to play merchant and spread word of the free district.”
“…One of your students,” Saybil muttered. There was something about Los having pupils other than himself and his friends that perturbed Saybil’s masculine instincts. Being in love with Los, however, he also wanted to be free of that label of student, so he felt he should probably keep the first part to himself. None of these subtleties made it as far as Saybil’s expressionless face, of course.
“Rejoice! So shall it be. I have a great love for the maturing of youth! Considering the scale of this district, I expect Jiji will make the perfect second-in-command!”
“I’ll let the priest know,” said Zero, disappearing into the hollow of the tree where the witch’s path now stood.
Los looked at Saybil. “I will manage here on my own. You go, too, young Sayb, and begin preparations for our next expedition.”
“Ah, right.”
Our next expedition.
The words made Saybil’s heart feel lighter all of a sudden. He had enjoyed their short trips around the New World together, and there was a real satisfaction in helping people. This marked the tenth free district to which they had opened a witch’s path, and Zero created something completely different each time, so he also looked forward to seeing what she would build. It was fun, pure and simple. So fun, in fact, that Saybil had almost forgotten they were at war. But by visiting the free districts and giving them their support, he and his companions were unquestionably rewriting the balance of power in the New World.
And naturally, the Exinov weren’t too happy about it.
It was just a few days later that a report came in from Lily’s friends: one of the free districts had been completely wiped out.
“A hamlet that had declared itself a free district was targeted by an Exinov attack, and every one of its residents slaughtered. The report suggests they were captured and converted to mana.”
It was the priest who had received Lily’s report, and who now stood in the meeting room of the town hall calmly delivering the news.
Wiped out─such phrases made it all seem so simple. The death of people they had no connection to, whose faces they had never seen. But Saybil had visited similar settlements with Los, had witnessed the people there simply striving to be free.
“…Then we…didn’t make it in time, did we…” Saybil mumbled.
The priest heaved a deep sigh. “Don’t let it trouble you…or so I would like to say, but…you are correct. Our activities inspired them to pluck up their courage, and they were annihilated by the Exinov before our support could reach them. We misread the situation. We should have seen this coming, should have realized the Exinov were so foolish as to see our proclamation as a mere bluff. We warned them they would lose their mana if they attacked the free districts…”
“Then we must demonstrate to them that ’twas no idle threat.” Los looked over at Saybil, and he nodded. It was simple. All he had to do was to take every last drop of mana from their land.