“Hah?!”
I suddenly jolted awake. Must’ve lost consciousness at some point. I traced back through my memories and realized that they cut off at around the foot of the Aflatta Mountain Range. The last thing I remembered seeing was Vesparta’s walls far off in the distance.
The threads of tension that had been keeping me up must’ve snapped, or else I’d simply hit my stamina limit. There wasn’t much I could’ve done about my body giving out, but I hoped I hadn’t allowed my mental and emotional state to get to me. Relaxing in the presence of danger was simply unacceptable.
“Ugh... My head...”
Fainting, as opposed to sleeping, didn’t really provide much recuperation. Strictly speaking, it helped a little, but I couldn’t really say that I was in an able state. My mind had shut off involuntarily due to my body reaching its limit. Waking up from that meant I’d only recovered enough to maintain a minimum level of consciousness. I’m still in horrible shape.
“Hm? Where am I...?”
I sat up and shook my head slightly. My vision cleared up a little as I took in the scenery. I wasn’t out in the wild—it seemed I was indoors somewhere.
Judging by how I was in bed and there was nobody else around, this had to be some kind of private room. It didn’t seem to be the inn I’d booked, nor did it look like a hospital or something, so it was safe to assume I’d been taken elsewhere.
I wondered if Surena, Pisces, and Pauford were all right. I didn’t even know how much time had elapsed since I’d passed out. I couldn’t even tell if I was still in Vesparta. I’d been in the city before but hadn’t been here to see the sights, so I hadn’t paid attention to the townscape.
“As for my left arm... Yeah, figures.”
I recalled the wound I’d suffered during Id Invicius’s attack. I lowered my eyes to my left arm. It was wrapped up cleanly in bandages, so someone must have tended to it properly. The pain was a little better too.
However, no matter how hard I tried, I still couldn’t move my fingers. Guess there’s no hope for that. Much like I’d told Pisces, maybe I just had to be satisfied that my arm hadn’t been lopped off completely. But as a swordsman, I felt a moment’s hesitation over how useful a dead weight that couldn’t even grip my sword could possibly be.
Even though I couldn’t move it, I wasn’t considering amputating it. Frankly, I was too scared to do that, and I didn’t want to. However, many of the swordplay techniques I’d developed over the long years were now impossible for me to execute, and I would have to retrain my body. I think I’m allowed to feel a bit melancholy about that.
As I continued my detached pondering about my future—almost as if it were someone else’s problem entirely—the door to the room opened.
“Master?! You’re awake!”
“Surena...”
She entered, a bucket in hand—probably some water to clean my body or wash my wound. It was strange to see her taking care of me. I’d always thought of Surena as something of a daughter or a far younger sister. Me taking care of her would be perfectly natural, but I’d never expected things to go the other way around.
Well, she’d introduced me to restaurants and gotten my longsword forged, so she’d taken care of me plenty already. Those were very different from the current situation, though.
“Looks like you’re doing fine...” I said groggily.
“It’s all thanks to you, Master. Pisces is doing well too. Pauford also survived.”
“I see. That’s good...”
Knowing that they were all okay brought me a huge sense of relief that I hadn’t felt since waking up. I was truly glad to hear it. Knowing that Surena and even Pisces and Pauford were alive and well was a heavy weight off my shoulders.
There were two problems left: how to handle the named monster Id Invicius and what to do about my immobile left arm. These were both urgent matters, but the latter was personal, and the former was a priority that involved the safety of the entire region.
“So...where am I?” I asked. “How long have I been out?”
To make a decision, I needed to know all the information we had on hand. My arm hadn’t gotten treatment from a specialist or anything—though I wasn’t entirely sure. Anyway, my disappointment about my arm being beyond all hope could wait until after I knew all the facts.
“We’ve borrowed a room in Vesparta’s guild branch,” Surena explained. “You’ve been asleep for over half a day.”
“Half a day...”
Now that I thought about it, the adventurers who’d guided me to Vesparta—Porta’s party—had told me about there being a guild branch here. They clearly had the funds to support a branch office, so it made sense for them to have rooms to rent out.
It turned out I’d spent half a day unconscious. The sun had been on its way down during our descent from the Aflatta Mountain Range, so I’d apparently slept through the night. It was only at this point that I directed my attention outside. Faint light was pouring in through the small window. It was just after dawn. A warm glow, entirely different from the lighting within the room, cast a white sheen across the floor.
“Did someone treat my arm?” I asked.
“Nothing beyond what Pisces could do... We haven’t been able to find any experts in healing or medicine.”
“Well, figures...”
I shifted my gaze to the morning sun, intentionally avoiding Surena’s eyes. Her guilt over the fate of my arm was palpable. If I had to guess, we’d entered the city just as the sun had finished setting. As the night had dragged on, it’d been impossible to find a doctor or wizard.
I found myself simply accepting things. I believed the price I’d paid to save Surena had been worth it. We were all alive. My condolences went out to their seeker, but it would be preposterous to hope for a better result.
“Anyway, I’m glad you managed to get in contact with the guild,” I said.
“Master... I cannot thank you enough.”
Everything had started because Surena hadn’t returned to the guild and hadn’t sent word to anyone. I was honestly relieved this had been successfully resolved. Even if there was still the future to consider, the case of the missing black rank adventurer was over.
I wasn’t clear on the guild’s rules, but given the situation, I doubted they would punish her. An enemy too strong for a black rank was completely beyond any expectations, and it would be unreasonable to penalize her for missing her return date. The thing was so much stronger than I’d anticipated that I’d complain to them if they did do that to her.
“There really are some outrageous monsters in the world...” I muttered.
“There are...” Surena agreed. “But I’ll definitely bring this one down with my own two hands.”
That would take a huge fighting force. A wiser plan would be to leave it alone and not engage it. That was what I’d implied with my words, but Surena’s will was stronger than expected.
“Why are you so worked up...?” I asked.
Something didn’t seem quite right here. As one of the strongest adventurers around, it made sense to be spurred on by a sense of justice—of course she wanted to put an end to this monster’s rampage. However, there was something more to it than that behind her words.
“That monster...Id Invicius... It was the one that killed my parents.”
“Wha?!”
She wasn’t talking about her adoptive parents—she was referring to her birth parents, who’d raised her during her early childhood. I’d never heard the full story from her, but when young Surena had staggered into Beaden, it’d been clear that something had attacked her. However, she hadn’t been in a state to provide more information.
“So...you saw it...” I said.
“Yes, clearly. After I got a good look at it, I was sure... Even now, I fear it. However, I must overcome that and destroy it.”
“I see...”
Revenge—to the public eye, this wasn’t a praiseworthy motive. However, I personally approved. Living by the blade meant that life and death were constant companions. Surena possessed strength too, so the desire to defeat a sworn enemy who’d killed her loved ones made perfect sense in my book.
Say, for example, someone killed those who were close to me. I, too, would mercilessly go for the throat. The approach might change depending on if they were human or beast, but I couldn’t deny that I would be fueled by revenge. It wasn’t as if I would devolve into a madman hell-bent on vengeance. But if I had to become that person to achieve my desire, then I would—on the assumption that I wouldn’t be causing unnecessary harm to others, of course.
“You’re so strong, Surena...” I told her.
“I’m not... I tried to be, and that ended up causing you so much trouble. I still have a long way to go.”
“No, you are strong. That strength has saved so many people. Now, you’re struggling to use that strength to save yourself. That is true might.”
“Thank you...very much...”
Coming face-to-face with Id Invicius, my fear had won out over my determination—my absolute defeat in my past was still stuck in my mind. Things were different for Surena, though. Her past was far more severe compared to simply getting beaten up by a monster. Despite this, she was putting in the work to settle things with her own hands. What else could you call that but strength? I wasn’t speaking to console her. I truly believed it.
“I...couldn’t even react,” I said. “I’ve also had a past encounter with that thing...and I lost.”
“You did too?! But...”
“Yeah, I’m ashamed to say that I ran away with my tail tucked between my legs.”
I now knew why Surena was so fixated on Id Invicius. So, it was only right for me to share my animosity toward that monster. Not that my words would change anything.
We’d sheltered Surena in our home twenty years ago, and this had happened some time after my encounter with Id Invicius. Maybe this was twisting the facts a little, but had I defeated the monster back then, Surena wouldn’t have lost her parents. The trajectory of her life might’ve ended up being completely different.
But comparing its strength to mine back then, the prospect was ridiculous to even consider. Even as I was now, our fight had ended with me losing feeling in an arm. There was no way I could’ve won back then. Looking at the flow of events objectively, Surena had no reason to criticize my past self.