““Let us protect you!!!””
✦ ✦ ✦
The mirror shattered.
The old Lefiya, the false Lefiya disappeared, and when she was forced to confront the reality of her contradictions, Lefiya was pummeled by her students’ raw emotions.
Her deep blue eyes wavered.
The stubbornly bound resolve and determination came undone.
A warm light rose from around her wrist.
The magic circle around her left wrist—the elf ring was waiting.
Borrowing Filvis’s and Riveria’s voices, it questioned her.
“What will you choose?”
“I…”
Her mind was blank as her lips uttered the final answer.
As countless emotions swirled inside her battered and wounded body…
“GRAAAAAAAAAAAGH!”
“Gh!”
“Kyah?!”
A hellhound leaped out, dodging through Miliria’s and Cole’s attacks as Lefiya and Nano stood there. Lefiya pushed Nano aside, cutting through it with a single slash.
There was no time. The monsters—the Dungeon—would not wait for her to anguish and agonize over an answer. It was time to make a choice.
Surrounded by fearsome monsters, while the students observed with twisted faces, in a soft voice as if absorbed within herself, she gathered the fragments of the song she chose.
And she shouted:
“Gather, breath of the earth. My name is Alf!”
This was her answer.
“Veil Breath!”
A jade light bloomed.
What came forth was neither a lightning to scorch the very stars nor a shield to shatter an enemy’s attacks.
The light that enveloped her comrades was defensive magic that came from Lefiya’s master, who had always guided her and shown her the way forward.
Stunned, Nano, Luke, Miliria, and Cole were imbued with a blessing of green light.
They had been clad in a magic shroud that healed their bodies while protecting them from both physical and magical attacks. The 7th Squad looked at the adventurer who had cast the spell in amazement.
As time seemed to compress and slow down, Lefiya finally uttered the words.
✦ ✦ ✦
“Please protect me.”
✦ ✦ ✦
That was her answer to the dumbfounded students.
“I am a mage, so if you protect me—no, since all of you said you would protect me—I will save you!”
Those were the words they had been waiting for.
With tears in their eyes, and their faces a mess, they all smiled.
““““Got it!””””
Their four voices answered in unison as they roused themselves.
Their bodies were pushing past all limits as they overflowed with emotion. They picked up their fallen weapons, clenched them, and borrowed the strength of the blessed light protecting them.
At that moment, their hearts were one.
“Circle formation! Hold out for three—no, just one minute!”
Standing in the middle of a sea of monsters, Lefiya made her request.
The battle on the twenty-fourth floor flickered through her mind. During that desperate last stand surrounded by countless carnivorous flowers, Lefiya had also asked for three minutes.
But it was different now.
Filled with determination, she vowed to close in with the city’s most powerful mage.
“Milly! Cole! Hold back the minotaurs on the left and right! Nano, start casting, but save it for the end!”
Gathering his strength, Luke dashed forward with an iron resolve.
Shouting instructions, he pulled away from Goliath for a moment, jumping back into formation. Miliria and Cole answered with a shout while charging into the enemies on either flank. Meeting Lefiya’s deep blue eyes, Luke rampaged through the monsters threatening her from in front.
Combining the destructive strength of an attacker with his newfound defensive techniques he’d been learning as the party’s bulwark, he put on a more rousing performance than anyone in the squad.
“I beseech the name of Wishe!”
Lefiya began to chant, putting Tear Pain back in its sheath and taking out the rod she had kept on her hip the whole time.
Holding it like a one-handed sword, she linked it with the wand she had shifted to her right hand.
They snapped together, combining into a magic staff taller than she was, much like Riveria’s Magna Alfs.
This was the twin staff Fairy Dust, Lefiya’s new weapon.
The wand, made from Filvis’s Protector’s White Torch, and the rod, made from the remnants of Lefiya’s Forest Teardrop, were the first weapons made in Orario with a dedicated linking function.
“Ancestors of the forest, proud brethren. Answer my call and descend upon the plains. Connecting bonds, the pledge of paradise. Turn the wheel and dance!”
It was a custom weapon made utilizing even the knowledge she had gained as a student, allowing her to unleash her true strength not as a magic swordswoman but as a dedicated mage.
By linking her weapons together, the magic jewels in the wand and rod synchronized, bringing forth a roiling, explosive magic power.
“Come, ring of fairies. Please—Give me strength!”
Taking a wide-legged stance, she held the staff parallel to the ground in both hands with a chant that seemed to hang in the air.
An enormous amber magic circle appeared, illuminating her guardians’ faces with dazzling light.
“Elf Ring!”
As she completed the summon burst and prepared to throw her knockout blow, Lefiya recalled a certain moment.
✦ ✦ ✦
“Aaa… aaa…ggggg…!”
The seventeenth floor in her past. When she was too powerless, unable even to struggle.
As the giant prepared to slaughter them all, what had saved the students was a vivid, golden gleam.
“Huh…?”
The giant’s hand that was looming, about to squash her, was severed with a slash, and the heads of the monsters trying to eat Bardain and the other students were suddenly rolling.
Slumped on the ground, Lefiya met her golden idol as Goliath recoiled and screamed in pain.
“…Are you okay?”
A girl who was hardly any different from her.
She had beautiful blond hair and gold eyes. That was the famed Sword Princess Aiz Wallenstein.
“Whoa, this is a huge mess!”
“School District kids? We’ve got to help them!”
Aiz was on her way back from deeper in the Dungeon with Tiona and Tione and just happened to run into the students when they were on the verge of being completely wiped out.
But Lefiya’s eyes, and even her mind, were stolen away by Aiz’s beauty, and her overwhelming strength.
“…Are you a mage?”
“Eh…ah, y-yes! I am!…But I wasn’t…any help…at all…”
Lefiya answered with quivering shoulders, immediately looking down.
She could only cower, unable to help anyone. The magic she had cast had not even done anything.
Overwhelmed by a debilitating sense of powerlessness, her heart was cracking beyond all repair,
“Use your magic.”
Looking up with wide eyes, she saw Aiz looking closely at her.
“If you don’t, you won’t be able to stand up again… That’s bad. I think.”
Aiz was speaking her instinctive thoughts directly, without clear explanation.
They were irrelevant, yet they shook Lefiya’s heart, which was crumbling under the strain of utter despair.
“I-I’m weak…a coward! I can’t even cast my magic alone…!”
“But there are people you have to help, right?”
Terrified of her weakness, Lefiya tried to resist, but Aiz just cocked her head, quickly countering. Following her gaze, Lefiya saw Bardain groaning as Tiona held his severed arm to the wound. There was also Alisa and Nassen, who were being protected by Tione, sporting her long, flowing hair. And all of the other students collapsed around her.
The three adventurers could not cover everyone by themselves.
“We protect you from monsters. You save us from monsters. That’s what Riveria taught me.”
With those final words, Aiz became like the wind.
She was gallant. Heroic. Overwhelming.
She was so incredible that it made Lefiya wonder how a person could become so beautiful and strong. Her long, blond hair traced a glittering path, and her silver sword cut a miraculous and lethal arc, lighting the flare of hope on a battlefield that should have been hopeless.
She was facing the terrifying giant all alone and holding her own.
She was driving back the monster, like a scene from a story.
It was the valiant figure of one worthy to be a hero.
Lefiya almost couldn’t believe that Aiz was overwhelming Goliath all by herself.
The light of yearning set her heart racing—just like Leon had said it would.
Feeling like she finally knew what she should do, Lefiya stood up.
“Proud warriors, marksmen of the forest…!”
It was a spell she had just learned. A song that encapsulated everything Lefiya was at the time.
In that moment, Lefiya admired them.
Of course, that included the powerful and hearty Amazon sisters. But above all, she looked up to the blond-haired, golden-eyed swordswoman who was more heroic than anyone.
In that moment, her desire to become something turned into the seed of a wish to be like them.
That was the origin of the Lefiya Viridis who admired and looked up to adventurers—to Aiz, Tiona, and Tione.
“Fusillade Fallarica!”
Lefiya’s arrows pierced the monsters, saving Alisa and the others.
The fiery missiles arced over a wide area, lighting Aiz’s face clearly as she defeated the giant.
“Wooow! It’s like Riveria’s magic!”
“Looks like you’ve got a knack for this. If you’re interested, why not join our familia? I’ll recommend you to the captain.”
While the massive sparks danced through the air, Lefiya slumped to the ground as Tiona and Tione smiled.
“…You did it. It was incredible.”
And as Lefiya’s eyes watered and she sobbed, Aiz beamed at her…