What’s this? We thought it was a chance meeting, but you actually knew ahead of time? Well, that just spoiled your emotional reunion, now didn’t it?
“What do you mean?” The man with the ax apparently had the same questions I had, and he pushed the conversation forward.
Ashley’s father said, “I heard about it from another adventurer buddy, that there was a young adventurer hanging around near this city.”
According to the stories, that young adventurer had golden-blond hair and a big bow strapped to her back, and she was traveling around searching for goddesses.
Her father had thought that maybe they could convince another girl searching for goddesses to collaborate with them—and had immediately tried to get her to join their gang. Then he saw it was Ashley.
He’d probably been convinced about who she was as soon as he saw her.
He had known his own daughter had become an adventurer.
“I was happy, and even more than that, I was surprised—because she was carrying a goddess tear.”
The mage narrowed her eyes as she said, “Come to think of it, didn’t she say you’d always had that? It’s the first I’ve heard of it.”
Ashley’s father waved his hand and denied it.
“No, the goddess tear isn’t mine. It’s my father’s.”
“Your father?”
“He’s already retired, but he used to be an adventurer—the very man who discovered the ecology of the goddesses. The goddess tear is something a mage helped my pops create.”
The grandfather who was so prejudiced against adventurers did, you say?
At that point, I suddenly realized something.
“Ah, by any chance, was Ashley’s grandfather prejudiced against adventurers because he was fed up with people trying to use the goddess tear to make money, or some situation like that?”
There I was, heedlessly cutting in to the conversation.
They all turned around, surprised, and pulled out their weapons. Since I was a sudden, unexpected visitor, I suppose it was a natural reaction.
“……You’re the witch who was with Ashley, right? Where on earth did you—?” Ashley’s father asked, relaxing his guard.
I pointed at the door, which was standing wide open.
How can you ask where I came from? I came through the door.
“…You have a key?”
“Sure, well, with magic, it’s…a piece of cake.”
“……” Ashley’s father responded to my casual answer with a big sigh. “That’s trespassing.”
“Now, now. Aren’t I one of the people who helped you catch those goddesses? Even if they are just baby chicks.”
I asked him to overlook my intrusion.
“……” He answered the flippant energy of my reply with a sour face. “So what do you need?”
“Oh, I just forgot something.”
“What?”
I pointed to the cages in the back of the room. There sat the pitiful goddess chicks and one of the gemstones that made them believe their mother was nearby.
How can you ask what? I mean both of those things.
“…What do you mean?”
Not a very clever father, is he?
“Your daughter is going through a rebellious phase at the moment.”
“Huh?”
Immediately after he let out that idiotic noise—
Whizz!
—an arrow passed right between us, cutting through the string on Ashley’s father’s bow.
“…Huh?”
He once again let out an idiotic noise, then the four of them turned to look out through the open door I had come through earlier, as if following the trajectory of the shot.
“—I’m sorry.”
By the time everyone’s eyes had gathered on her, she had already loosed a second arrow. This time, it sent the ax flying out of the man’s hands.
With that second shot, they all seemed to grasp her clear hostility.
“—Ashley! What do you think you’re doing?!”
Her father shouted, tossed his now useless bow aside, and drew his sword. He must have finally comprehended our intentions.
We were ready for this. We knew there was no other way this could end besides a battle.
The swordsman and the other man who was now missing his ax joined Ashley’s father, and they all attacked her together.
Ashley hadn’t even been able to shoot down a fawn before, but in that moment, she demonstrated incredible skill and precision. One by one, she calmly used her arrows to send their weapons flying as they ran toward her.
When the axman tried to grab her with his bare hands, she pulled away and dodged his attack, then used her momentum and the bow itself to deliver a hard blow to him.
Apparently, she’s going to have no trouble on her own.
Why don’t I go ahead and quickly retrieve the goddess chicks and the gemstone?
Taking advantage of the confusion, I snuck toward the cage—or, rather, I started to, when suddenly my gaze landed on something nearby. The various treasures the group of adventurers had collected during their ongoing adventures were sitting there casually. Weapons, wands, jewels, and all sorts of other things, every treasure you could imagine, were all just lying around.
Just like you’d expect from veteran adventurers.
“My, my…” I picked up one of the weapons. “So you’re already stockpiling items of value, huh…? Good idea…”
“Elaina?! What’re you doing?!”
Ashley’s voice came from near the door. Though it was subtle, in her gentle comment, I couldn’t help but sense that she was telling me to hurry the hell up.
Then, a beat later—
“Hey! You go stop that witch!” came Ashley’s father’s shouting voice.
When I turned around, I saw the mage very reluctantly trotting in my direction. Behind her, Ashley’s father was lying on the ground. It looked like his daughter had given him a proper thrashing with her bow.
I had been trying to take advantage of the confusion to steal the cages.
But I guess I’ve been spotted.
What a bother.
“Um, it’s going to put us in a tough spot if you take those chicks from us, so…”
The mage hesitantly pointed her wand at me as she asked me to surrender.
What’s this?
“Ah, that wand. By any chance, might it be the same wand that Niche used in The Adventures of Niche?”
“Huh, you know that book?”
“Do you like it?”
“Heh-heh-heh-heh. I actually became an adventurer because I aspired to be like the witch Niche!”
“Well, well, well!”
This is quite a fan we have here.
“But you’re kind of in my way a little bit, so allow me to confiscate your wand.”
With a spell, I sent her wand flying.
“Ahh! My wand!”
By the way, the wand that made an appearance in The Adventures of Niche was a vintage model made a long time ago. As a fellow fan, I could not overlook it if it was to get damaged.
To that end, even as I sent the wand flying, I hit it with another spell midair and adjusted things so that it drifted slowly and gently to the ground.
“Ah, so kind…”
The two of us watched the wand’s slow descent.
…This is no time to just be standing around, now is it?
I took the goddess tear away from the cages.
Once their mother—or the thing they thought was their mother—was taken away from them, the chicks started thrashing around so violently that it was hard to believe they’d been so still before. I untied all the ropes that bound them so that they could at least move freely within their cages.
All the cages rattled around loudly.
“Elaina.”
There was a voice from behind me.
I turned around again to look and saw the three men facedown on the ground and, in front of them, Ashley standing ready with her bow.
The arrow was aimed right at me.
Or rather, right at the goddess tear.
“Throw it.”
I didn’t think Ashley meant that she wanted me to toss it over to her.
As long as the goddess tear existed, the chicks would always mistakenly think their mother was by their side. As long as it existed, there would people who would try to use it in the same way.
“Are you sure?”
“Of course.”
Something like this shouldn’t exist. I want to destroy the goddess tear.
I assumed that was what she wanted to do.
I flung the goddess tear into the air.
“Ashley! Do you understand what that is?!”
From the floor, her father raised his voice to almost a scream.
“I know!” She nodded.
She fired her arrow.
“It’s just an ordinary stone, right?”
Then the goddess tear shattered.