“The hole’s pretty big now.”
A few hours after I started digging with Amyu, the hole had widened significantly. The traces of the knight’s meteorites from the previous day had all but disappeared as our excavation progressed. Mounds of earth were piled along the edge.
I was stronger than most people thanks to my qigong, but even still, the two of us wouldn’t have made nearly as much progress without Amyu’s endless stamina.
“I think we’ll be able to fit them all!” Amyu said, satisfied.
“Just barely,” I said with a slightly sullen look. “But it’s not anywhere near deep enough. For a proper burial, it needs to be three—no, four times deeper.”
“Th-That’s not happening!” Amyu collapsed onto her back, placing her hand over her forehead and looking up at the sky. “Digging holes isn’t to be taken lightly.”
“That’s because it’s a grave for a couple thousand people. Frankly, it’s incredible we managed all this with just two people,” I said with a smile. “I’ll handle the rest.”
“Huh?”
“Just making it deeper won’t be too hard now that we have the hole. Is something wrong?”
Still on her back, Amyu looked at me with an indescribable, awkward expression. “There you go again, finishing stuff I start on my own. I’m sure you could’ve easily dug this hole by yourself the entire time, couldn’t you?”
“Digging a hole from scratch is actually pretty hard, even for me,” I answered with a slight smile. “You have to come up with a bunch of tricks. It’s only easy now because we did so much by hand.”
“Don’t try to make me feel better.”
“I’m serious.”
Amyu let out an exaggerated sigh. “I really can’t do anything on my own, can I? I should’ve known I’m not strong enough to handle everything.”
“You’re sounding pretty down in the dumps now. You were so full of energy back in the capital.”
“After the emperor said all that stuff to me, I just felt like I had to do my best for this country. Turning him down never even crossed my mind. Honestly, I might’ve still come here even if I’d been alone.”
Looking back, the emperor had certainly been a skilled conversationalist. I had been extremely cautious, and even then, I had still gotten lost in his words without even realizing it. On top of that, the emperor had been speaking directly to Amyu for most of it. Combined with the mood in the audience chamber, it was no wonder she had gotten swept away.
“Well, nothing to be done about it now.” I extended a hand to Amyu, who was still on the ground. “Let’s just focus on the future. Get out of the way. I’m gonna do something pretty massive.”
“Yeah, yeah.” Just as Amyu took my hand and stood up—
“Whoa, what’s this?” A boy’s voice echoed through the air. The holy knight Ren was looking down at our hole, clearly distraught. “What sort of nonsense are you foolish humans up to?”
“It’s not nonsense,” Amyu said, glaring at the elf. “We’re just burying these people. Is that a problem?”
“I beg your pardon? Burying them?” Ren said as though genuinely shocked, shaking his head. “While I knew humans were foolish, I didn’t expect it to be this bad.” He shot a scornful look at Amyu. “I can’t allow this.”
“Excuse me?” Amyu snapped back indignantly. “And why do I have to take that from you?”
“Anyone else would tell you the same. Do you have any idea how many issues burying this many corpses—corpses that used to be undead, mind you—could cause?”
“Like what?”
“Contamination of the land, outbreak of disease—it’s even possible that the necromancer left something hidden in the bodies. Burying them as they are is far too dangerous.”
“I can deal with all of that,” I interjected. “Contamination and disease aren’t an issue if you bury them deep enough. Even if something is hidden in the bodies, I can erase it.”
“Why put forth all that effort? Would burning them not be faster?” Ren asked with a half smile. “Of all you foolish humans, I had thought you were one of the more sensible ones, Seika Lamprogue.”
“Mind your own business. Why do you get to tell us what to do with these people?” Amyu demanded.
“Can you take responsibility?” Ren asked, his smile gone.
“Huh?” Confusion appeared on Amyu’s face.
“I’m asking if you’re prepared to take responsibility for your actions should burying these people cause problems,” Ren continued, fully serious. “What if they’re exposed by a flood, or dug up by wild animals, and disease breaks out as a result? Or if some of the necromancer’s magic couldn’t be erased and remained? What would you do then?”
“Th-That’s why we’re making sure that won’t happen!”
“I’m not asking about what countermeasures you’re taking in advance. I want to know how you will respond if something does happen. You’ll be leaving in a few days, so what happens to this city afterward is no concern of yours. However, there are foolish humans who do have to continue living here. If your selfish actions cause this city’s residents harm, how will you make things right?”
Amyu couldn’t answer. Of course she couldn’t. She couldn’t take responsibility for all these people—she had said so herself only moments ago.
“The princess would take responsibility,” said Ren. “With her skill and resources, the princess can take responsibility for the decisions she makes. That is what sets her apart from you lot. As the one entrusted by her to oversee this place, it’s my duty to use my judgment and do everything in my power to prevent such a situation from arising. Do you understand the difference in our positions now, Hero Amyu? I don’t know if burial is some sort of tradition in this country, but the world isn’t so lenient that you can act on your own because of foolish human sentimentality.”
Ren drew his magic stone shortsword from its scabbard, then looked down at the mass of corpses. “Besides,” he said, a faint smirk crossing his face as he raised the rainbow-colored sword straight up. A large flow of energy formed around the sword, and flames shot into the sky. What appeared to be a colossal blade of fire erupted from its tip. “Being reduced to ash is a fitting end for foolish humans who allowed themselves to die pathetically and be used as puppets.”
He swung the blade of fire at the corpses.
“Don’t you dare!”
Just before they were incinerated, the tip of Amyu’s spellblade parried the elf’s sword, redirecting it toward the sky. There had been a considerable amount of distance between them, yet the Hero had cleared it in an instant.
“Ah ha ha!” Erasing the flames, Ren leaped back in retreat with a delighted smile on his face. “You want to fight, Hero? Very well,” he said, raising his magic stone sword, “I was just thinking I could use some exercise.” Ren thrust his blade into the ground, and large rocks emerged from the earth, launching the Hero into the air.
“Hey, what are you—”
“Master Seika.” Just as I was about to intervene, Yuki whispered into my ear, stopping me in my tracks. “Let’s just watch.”
“Huh?”
“That girl started this. She should handle it herself.”
After a moment of hesitation, I stuffed my hitogata back into my pocket. “I’ll watch until her substitution is broken. Then I’m stopping them.”
Amyu landed in a roll, and countless icicles the size of an arm came flying at her. Swatting them away, she darted to safety behind the upturned earth as they bore down on her like a storm.
“What’s your problem?!”
“Is this all the Hero’s power amounts to?!” The elf raised his sword into the air once more, this time creating a mass of rocks in the sky. “The War Princess was far stronger!”
Driven out of cover by the raining stones, Amyu rolled away from the mound of earth. She deflected the following assault of wind magic with her spellblade, which was clad in a pale light. It wasn’t as powerful as a high-level barrier spell, but it seemed to be capable of nullifying magic. However...
“Agh!”
It was nowhere near enough to withstand Ren’s onslaught. By the time she took a third hit, her poise had completely crumbled.
“How do you intend to protect humanity like that?!” Ren launched more wind magic.
Amyu let her collapsing stance carry her downward, dodging the attacks by dropping flat to the ground.
“I don’t know!” Instantly standing back up, Amyu unleashed fire and wind magic at Ren. He didn’t even attempt to dodge, and his figure disappeared in the flames. Amyu continued firing off spells, over and over. “You expect me to protect this huge country all by myself?! I’m not the protagonist of some fairy tale! Don’t push that role onto me!”
The magic came to a stop. Amyu’s shoulders were heaving with exhaustion.
Ren sighed. “It’s like you’re a child.” He stood in the exact same spot, completely unharmed. A faint light softly flickered around him. It resembled the barrier the War Princess had used, but judging from the flow of power, it was far more refined.
“Your swordplay and martial arts skills are decent enough, I suppose, but your magic is nowhere near adequate. Not that it would ever reach me, regardless of how clever you were with it.”
Though human magic and elven elemental magic were different, I could tell just by watching the flow of power that, at least in terms of magical prowess, Ren was stronger than the female knight. Even now, he was likely still holding back. He might have been the most skilled mage I had met in this world.