“Mm... Well, looks like it should be fine.”
The day after Lucy healed my arm, I woke up just as before—greeted by the beautiful morning sunrise. I was now standing at one of the gates leading out of Vesparta. Thanks to Surena’s help, I’d managed to get most of the feeling back into my left arm within a day. That said, my mind wasn’t quite able to keep up with the fact that an injured limb had fully healed in that short of a time. Would I really be able to make full use of it?
I knew it was healed. I didn’t have any problems moving around. However, it was hard to accept the reality that the state of my body had taken a complete one-eighty. Definitely not a sensation I want to grow accustomed to...
In theory, working with Lucy meant I could always return to the battlefield within minutes as long as I didn’t die on the spot. Her mana wasn’t infinite, so there would be an eventual limit. Still, her abilities were superhuman—it was terrifying to imagine myself growing used to overdoing it in combat and then having to rely on her magic to mend my broken body.
I stroked the sheath of my beloved red sword, having nothing better to do for the moment. Suddenly, I spotted Surena running over to me from the direction of the town.
“Sorry to keep you waiting, Master.”
“It’s all right. I just got here a little too early.”
She was as tough as ever. From what I’d heard, she’d carried my unconscious body all the way to Vesparta and had gallantly attended to me the entire time. She’d even accompanied me during training to help me regain my senses. She’d gotten some rest last night, but I doubted even half a day of sleep would be enough to fully recover.
However, judging by her tone and expression, she wasn’t fatigued at all. A person who wasn’t genuinely tough would never be able to pull that off. Stamina and toughness were almost the same thing, but there were minute differences. I could only decipher those differences using my personal intuition, though—I couldn’t really explain it in words.
“Anyway...is she really coming?” I muttered.
“I’m sure she will,” Surena replied. “She brought it up herself, so I doubt she’ll go back on her word.”
“Here’s hoping...”
Surena and I weren’t heading out immediately. From what we’d heard the other day, Lucy was intent on coming along. My primary concern was whether she would be able to wake up this early in the morning, but Surena had a point. Lucy wasn’t going to go back on her word...probably. At any rate, Lucy had been the one to say we should do this today.
“Weather’s nice...” I observed. “Looks like we won’t have to worry about rain or fog.”
“Yes, a small blessing when we’re facing off against that thing.”
“No doubt about it.”
The skies above Vesparta were clear yet again. That was a good thing. This close to the mountains, the weather could be rather fickle. However, perhaps due to the season or simple coincidence, we’d had a stretch of continuous clear skies.
The sky’s temperament was an important part of challenging the mountains. My mom could’ve given us an accurate forecast, but she wasn’t here for us to rely on. Regardless, the day we’d chosen had ended up being clear and perfect for hunting.
I’d given a lot of thought to how we could defeat Id Invicius. Honestly, I didn’t really have any good ideas. If it had possessed obvious weaknesses, someone would’ve defeated it long ago. After all, humanity had no reason to leave a monster with such a ridiculous ability at large. The reality, however, was that it’d had free rein to do whatever it wanted for at least twenty years. This proved that nobody had found a way of dealing with it.
I doubted I could come up with an immediate solution to fighting such a monster. At the very least, it was impossible with what knowledge I possessed. However, we had someone here who shattered all common sense—Lucy Diamond.
Id Invicius’s invisibility had to be some form of magic. It would be absolutely outrageous for it to be a natural trait of the species that didn’t require any mana whatsoever. So, to break this deadlock, an expert in magic was indispensable—and there was nobody better suited to the task than Lucy.
“Oh yeah, Nidus mentioned getting a search party together to look for you...” I said. “What’s going to happen to that?”
“I can’t help but feel responsible...” Surena responded. “It’s possible that information from both sides might miss each other, and the party will still get deployed.”
“I see...”
From the looks of it, Pisces and Pauford had been in Surena’s party from the start—they hadn’t been part of a group sent to look for her. Thus, if information about her survival wasn’t relayed properly, we could end up bumping into other adventurers as we went to battle the monster. Even though they wouldn’t send amateurs on a search for a black rank, most reinforcements would be meaningless in a battle of me, Surena, and Lucy versus Id Invicius. Numbers wouldn’t help us against an opponent like this—the casualties would just multiply.
Perhaps, if a search party had already gone into the mountains, they’d fallen prey to Id Invicius. Its peculiar lack of presence made it extremely dangerous to approach when you didn’t know about it beforehand. We had to keep this in mind when we went into the mountains ourselves. While the formation of a search party or rescue party was something to be thankful for, it wasn’t really helpful at this point.
Our goal was to kill Id Invicius—or at least render it harmless. And if there’s a possibility that a search party of adventurers is out there, well, our foray into the mountains is going to be quite difficult.
As that thought crossed my mind, Liberis’s undisputed ultimate weapon showed up.
“Heeey, did I keep you waiting?”
“Lucy... It’s rare to see you up and about so early,” I quipped to the new arrival.
“Ha ha ha! It’s not so bad every now and then. Only every now and then, though.”
I was glad to see that she wasn’t as tired as yesterday. It would be problematic if she complained about being sleepy in the middle of our march, or even in battle.
Lucy took a quick look around, then sighed. “Hrm...? She’s still not here?”
“Uh... Who?”
Surena, Lucy, and I were currently gathered in front of the gate. Lucy seemed to be implying that we were waiting for another person. Well, it would be pretty strange for Lucy to have come all the way out here on her own. Maybe she had a wizard accompanying her as a guard or watcher or something. But if that was the case, they should’ve been with Lucy this whole time. Even though this mystery was going to be clarified soon, I couldn’t help but let my thoughts wander.
“Looks like this is the right place. Good morning, Master.”
“Huh...? Allucia?”
“Yes, Allucia Citrus,” the newcomer confirmed.
“Citrus?! Why are you here?!”