After they brought the wyvern’s head back to Motchumochi Village, everyone, including Kenneth’s parents, thanked them. A grand feast was held that night, and wyvern meat was on the menu.
The next morning, Ryo and Abel left, and the villagers saw them off with a final profuse wave of gratitude.
“Abel, this isn’t the way to Acray, is it?”
“Nope. I wanna check something out.”
They weren’t going in the direction of Lune either.
“Is it about that sweet scent you mentioned yesterday?”
“Yeah. I can’t stop thinking about it.”
“Do you have an idea of what it might be?”
“Maybe. Something that wyverns like— Well, technically, it makes them go crazy.”
“A scent that drives wyverns wild...” Ryo muttered, a picture of a cat feasting on catnip popping into his head. Of course, wyverns were a little bigger and a little more intimidating than cats. “A scent like that would definitely attract wyverns! We must eradicate the source. Where does it come from, though?”
“Don’t worry, it isn’t naturally occurring. You have to extract the essence of a banabana flower and burn it to produce that scent.”
Ryo breathed a sigh of relief. “Oh, that’s good, then.”
But the fact that it didn’t occur naturally meant...
“Someone put it there intentionally?” Ryo said.
“Chances are good.”
“But...”
“Yeah, wyverns are the only ones drawn to the scent.”
“In other words, this was orchestrated.”
Both Abel and Ryo frowned, naturally troubled by this new development.
“I very much doubt it was someone from Motchumochi Village.”
“Same. Refining banabana is a pretty obscure process. Plus, banabana flowers don’t even grow around here. They bloom in the north—in a very specific part of the Central Provinces, in fact.”
“Where?”
“The northern parts of the Empire.”
“Darn it, the Empire again!” Ryo said, unable to conceal his indignation.
Abel didn’t quite understand what Ryo meant by “again,” but he didn’t dwell on it. By this point, he wrote it off as part of Ryo’s well-known hatred for Debuhi—or maybe Ryo had just wanted to say “again” for dramatic effect. In any case, he didn’t need to waste time analyzing it.
“I think the world would be more peaceful if we just destroyed the Empire,” Ryo said.
However, Abel couldn’t ignore those words. “Stop that,” he replied. “Don’t even go there. Besides, destroying something for the sake of peace is...well, a contradiction, isn’t it?”
“I don’t need your pseudo-philosophical nonsense, Abel! The Empire’s schemes are always endangering the people of our benevolent Kingdom. We can no longer turn a blind eye!”
“Yeah, but we still don’t even know for sure that the scent comes from banabana essence...”
“Fine. If you’re wrong, though, we’ll have no choice but to make amends with the Empire by offering them your head on a platter.”
“Not happening—and also, that makes no sense.”
“Why do you even know so much about that flower? Could it be...” Ryo gasped. “You were a wyvern rider in another life, and you used that very scent to wreak havoc in small countries?!”
“Delusional much? Anyway, it was another life, in a sense. I learned about all kinds of things, including the banabana flower, when I was living in the royal palace.”
“Sheesh, there you go again with the prince backstory.” Ryo shook his head in exasperation.
“‘Backstory,’ he says...” Abel sighed. “It’s my life, you know...”
It wasn’t like Ryo refused to believe that Abel was the second prince... He’d actually accepted it—he just didn’t want to admit it out loud.
“Besides, you saw the mountain of homework my brother gave me, didn’t you, Ryo?”
On the way to Twilightland, Abel had been buried under a pile of assignments given to him by his older brother, Crown Prince Caindish. They’d shared a carriage, so Ryo had watched him work on it.
“Wait, I’ve got it. You bribed someone like Copilas, the print shop owner, to fabricate everything, didn’t you? A classic trick.” Ryo nodded to himself.
“Why would I do that?!” Abel shot back.
Ryo shook his head. “Look, I do believe that you’re the second prince, but only because Phelps said so.”
“So you’ll take his word but not mine, huh?”
“Obviously. Think about it: Anyone’s more likely to believe a nobleman like him over an adventurer—or at least someone who looks like an adventurer—like you!”
Phelps A. Heinlein was the eldest son of Marquess Heinlein and ruled over territory that included Acray. A strikingly handsome aristocrat, he was very popular with women. He was also a B-rank adventurer based in Lune and led the forty-member party White Brigade.
“However, I will acknowledge that you’re superior to him in some domains, Abel.”
“Oh, yeah? Such as?”
“I-I can’t think of anything right this second, but give me time. I’m sure something will come to me.”
“So that’s how you see me, huh?” Abel let out a deliberately long, theatrical sigh.
Just then, an idea occurred to Ryo, and he clapped his hands.
“Got one!”
“Do tell.”
“You always buy me food!”
Abel stared. “That’s it?”
“Treating people to meals is a valuable character trait!”
“You have a point... So if I stopped...”
“Your worth to society would vanish entirely!”
“Food... That’s the sum total of my existence, huh? O great and powerful food, I am but your humble servant.” Abel shook his head.
“I knew you’d see reason.” For some reason, Ryo beamed at him.
They were clearly not on the same page. Perhaps the real challenge in understanding other people lies in how differently they see the world...
They continued to chat until they arrived at the spot where they’d defeated the wyvern.
“Yeah, the sweet scent is still here,” Abel said.
“Hmm, now that you mention it, I can sort of smell it... I’ve been thinking about this for a while, but Abel, you have very keen senses, don’t you?”
“Do I?” Abel replied casually, sniffing the air as he searched for the source of the scent. People rarely notice if their senses are sharper than others.
“You do. Even when I’m surrounded by enemies, I can’t sense their presence.”
“Well, you’ve got magic for that, so you don’t really need to, right?”
“That’s not the point. I want to be able to say, ‘I sense something!’ That would be so cool. Don’t you understand? It’s ‘mono no aware.’”
“Which means?”
Abel pushed through the grass and stopped.
“This is it.”
“Let me see.”
Ryo peered over his shoulder. A shattered plate lay on the ground.
“It’s broken. Perhaps a crazed wyvern was responsible...”
“Probably. Whoever set this up dripped the refined liquid onto the plate and lit it. The scent spreads easily. It clings to the surrounding fauna, and the wind carries it pretty far.”
“You said the wyverns’ den is far from here, right?”
“Yeah. One of these wouldn’t have been enough.”
“They must’ve lined up a bunch to lure the wyvern here...”
The setup was far too elaborate for a prank. Ryo approached the broken plate and, remembering his science lessons, used his hand to waft the scent toward his nose.
“This close, even I can smell it. You’re right, it is sweet...”
From his memories of Earth, it reminded him of vanilla, but thicker, stickier.
“Active Sonar.”
Ryo’s spell allowed him to use water vapor in the air to analyze his target. Once it finished, he nodded.
“Abel, I might be able to track the scent back to its source.”
“Seriously?!” Abel’s eyes widened. Then, he muttered, “My senses may be sharp, but they’re no match for your magic...”
Together, they followed the trail of the sweet scent.