“If you wish to live as a weak member of the masses, then suit yourself,” Ren said condescendingly as he toyed with his sword. “But if you do, you should know your place.” The holy knight pointed his sword at Amyu, energy swirling around him.
A sparkling ray of light burst from his shortsword. Moving almost on instinct, Amyu ducked low, barely avoiding it. A few strands of her red hair moved too slowly and were scattered by the beam.
Ren swung his sword, and Amyu jumped back to avoid the horizontal slash of light. The ground took the hit instead, a red-hot line melted into its surface. Moving like an acrobat, Amyu dodged the horizontal and vertical blades of light being hurled at her in quick succession. Though she hadn’t been hit, she was entirely on the defensive and hadn’t been able to close the distance.
“What the heck is this magic?!”
“A technique utilizing light elementals, foolish human.” Ren continued swinging his sword, a faint smile on his face. “Fear not, I’ll put you back together if you lose a limb. Of course, the same can’t be said if you lose your head.”
I moved to grab the hitogata in my pocket, then stopped. Her substitution still hadn’t broken. She had made her own decision.
“Argh!” Amyu released a flurry of stone projectiles. They vanished the moment they struck Ren’s barrier, but for a moment, they served as a shield from the blades of light. Using the rocks she had fired as cover, she dashed straight at Ren.
A sweeping beam of light skimmed across the ground, and she jumped over it at the last second. Gripping her sword tightly, she unleashed a sharp thrust.
It was a breathtaking sequence of events. No ordinary person could have moved like that in the face of deadly, unfamiliar magic. She had undeniable talent as a warrior. It was a blow that seemed certain to end the fight—but it never reached the young holy knight.
The instant her thrust pierced through the space where Ren had been, his figure vanished along with the flow of power.
“Naturally, I can teleport as well.” The voice came from behind Amyu. The holy knight had his sword pointed at her, energy surging around it. “It’s your loss.”
A shimmering ray of light shot at Amyu.
However, she had already turned around, and a splashing wall of water shot up in front of her a moment later.
Ren’s eyes went wide. It was the low-level water spell, Aqua Wall. With a faint sizzle, the ray of light passed through the water, striking Amyu directly. But it didn’t pierce her—it was as though the spell was just ordinary light.
Breaking through the wall of water, Amyu stepped forward. Then, with a flash, she deflected Ren’s sword, slipping past his side.
“Wha—?! Damn it!” Despite the heavy blow, Ren held on to his sword. He quickly turned to face Amyu in a panic, but a moment later, his rainbow-colored blade shattered with a fragile, crystalline sound. “A-Ahh!” Looking at his broken sword, Ren cried out like it was the end of the world. “H-H-How could you?!”
“Would you shut up already?!” Amyu shouted, pointing her spellblade at Ren. “I get it! I’ll take responsibility! If something happens here, just call me! I’ll even do manual labor or whatever!” She glared at Ren, frustration all over her face. Yet there was something about her tone that sounded as if a weight had been lifted off her shoulders.
Ren, on the other hand, sniffled as he picked up the shattered fragments of the magic stone blade. “D-Do you have any idea how valuable this is?!”
“I don’t care! You started this fight!” Amyu strode right up to the young elf and smacked him on the head. Ren looked like he was about to cry.
“Amyu...”
“Oh, Seika. What’s up? I feel like it’s been ages since I won a fight! I’m finally living up to the title of Hero, huh?” Amyu turned to face me with a smile as I approached, dumbfounded. Her expression was bright and cheerful. She seemed to be in an excellent mood after all that.
“Why did you use Aqua Wall?”
“Huh? Oh, that. Uh, well, he said that magic used light elementals, right? It looked like light too, so I figured it had to just be normal light,” Amyu said, seemingly unsure how to explain herself. “Water gets darker the deeper it goes, and if there are droplets or bubbles, it’s hard to see through them. That means light isn’t reaching through. So I just thought maybe water could block it.”
Amyu looked down at her clothes, her expression turning faintly regretful. “Looks like I still got a little burned, though. If I’d used an earth wall, I probably could’ve blocked it completely, but then I would’ve had to circle around to close the distance, so I think I made the right call.”
“So you didn’t know the theory behind that spell or how to defend against it?”
“Of course not.” Amyu glanced away for a moment before continuing. “It’s just... You use spells that don’t make any sense, but you’re always thinking when you do, right? So I figured I should use my head a little too.”
“I see.”
Strong, wise, and brave. Even if being the Hero wasn’t about birth, but rather about having the qualities society believed the Hero should possess, I couldn’t help but feel she exemplified them all.
“Anyway.” Amyu glared at Ren, who was kneeling on the ground. “I won, so we’re gonna bury these people. Got that, shorty?!”
“What is wrong with you people...” Ren said unhappily. “Please don’t cause any headaches for the princess.”
“We won’t,” I answered for Amyu. “I’ll make sure whatever you fear doesn’t come to pass. I’ll explain everything to her too. I’m sure she’ll understand.”
“What a foolish human... Even after I told you to stop...” Ren mumbled, discontent, still on his knees.
“You also went and ruined the hole we worked so hard to dig,” Amyu said angrily. “How about you take some responsibility and dig it back up?”
“What?! Why should I?! I can’t anyway, now that my precious sword is broken...”
“You have hands, don’t you? I’ll even be nice and let you borrow my shovel.”
“Y-You expect me to dig by hand?! I’ll die!”
Despite Ren’s protests, Amyu seemed intent on actually making him dig. The aftermath of the battle had made such a mess that one person couldn’t possibly clean everything up without magic, so it was probably just spite.
In the end, I’ll figure something out for the graves.
“It all worked out, didn’t it?” Yuki whispered into my ear. “Moments like these are necessary.”
“Yeah. You were right.”
Amyu had learned something. That never would’ve happened if I’d continued doing everything for her.
“C’mon! Show a little backbone!” Amyu shouted.
I turned around and saw Ren thrusting a shovel into the ground, his expression miserable. She really was making him dig.
“By the way,” Amyu said, turning her head to me, “why did you leave town so early to come here? I know it’s a bit late to ask after I roped you into helping me dig, but did you have something you wanted to do?”
“I was going to investigate the corpses.” It had completely slipped my mind. Granted, I hadn’t expected to find much anyway. “I was hoping there might be a clue that could lead us to the enemy.”
“Oh yeah, you’ve been doing that in all the other cities too. I’ll help.”
“Huh? You?”
“That said, all I can really do is take off anything that might identify them.”
“Right...”
Until now, we had only collected unburned objects to take as mementos, but since we were burying them, Amyu’s suggestion was the proper way to do things. The two of us walked over to where the bodies were laid out. As I wondered where to begin, Amyu suddenly raised her voice.
“Huh?” She stopped in front of a corpse.
I looked over and didn’t see anything out of the ordinary about the body she was staring at. It was the sort we’d seen countless times already—a poorly equipped, middle-aged man with only a shabby sword by his side. Yet Amyu wasn’t moving.
“Is something wrong?” I asked, walking over to her.
“I feel like I’ve seen this guy before,” she said, still looking down at the body.
“What do you mean?” Her response caught me off guard. “Was he someone you knew?”
“I don’t think so... I just feel like I’ve seen him somewhere. What about you? Do you recognize him?”
“Huh?” Though I was doubtful, I took another look at the man’s face. We were on the western side of the empire, far from the Lamprogue family’s land, Lodonea, or Rakana. There was no way he would be someone I recognized. Yet the moment I saw his face, I was struck by a feeling of familiarity. I had seen him before, but the memory was so faint I couldn’t place where it was or who he had been.
“Ah! W-Wait... But...” Amyu cried out as though she had realized something, only to immediately grow confused.
“What is it? Did you remember something?”
“Y-Yeah.” Amyu nodded hesitantly. “Doesn’t he look like that guy? The father we pulled out of the rubble when we rescued that girl. He was dead, but...”
My eyes shot open. She was right. He did look the same.
“I guess he couldn’t have been turned into an undead. This person’s clothes are completely different. We didn’t have time to bury the people in that city, so you cremated them all, right? Could this guy be his brother? A twin, maybe? That’d be really sad,” Amyu muttered, her voice subdued.
“It can’t be...” I mumbled to myself, lost in thought. “That would mean...”