The evening winds of December dried the sweat on my face.
I sat cross-legged on top of a towering mountain of rock and was half in a daze. The powerful winds that brought along the snow-laden clouds from the northwest made my cloak whip around me, but I didn’t bother closing the front buttons.
I was all alone looking up at the night sky, the moon hidden.
“Haah…”
My breath was warm. Until just then, I’d been using magic continuously, and honestly, I was pretty much running on empty. I was assaulted by such strong fatigue, even moving a single finger seemed like a monumental task I couldn’t bother with.
But despite how lousy I felt, my mood was great.
If I could move, I would’ve raised my fists in the air and hollered out of joy. I felt a sense of accomplishment…or maybe it was relief. Even as I was surrounded by the cold, dry, lonely night, my heart was filled with something warm. Right then, I didn’t feel any sense of impatience, irritation, or envy toward anyone at all.
The only thing occupying my mind—wholly, deeply—was that I’d made it.
That was right. I’d made it for the summons festival within a day. I’d managed. Finally…I’d been able to move Pandora’s giant corpse how I wanted to, to a certain extent.
I suddenly laughed into the night air at myself. “Ya nitwit…it’s still not gonna be that easy…”
It wasn’t like understanding the Linebolt spell from Torrenoxion was enough. I had to keep him balanced after I got him to stand up. And when he walked, I needed to understand where to flex and the order of operations to make it work.
Then I needed cooperation from Cyril’s flying summons to act as Pandora’s eyes.
There were tons of things to do, and whenever we took a step forward, new issues would arise. Since we’d once fully convinced ourselves that me being able to use Linebolt would be enough to be prepped, we’d genuinely started to panic.
I barely remembered the past week.
I’d been busy with one thing after another trying to prepare for mobilizing Pandora’s corpse.
Though we’d been careful to hide Pandora’s existence at first, we ended up needing even the time we lost on our commute to the deserted wildlands, so instead, we started to go to some mountains near Raddermark at night for our practices.
And I’ve been asking the boss to let me take a break from work…
Because of that, my already light coin purse had grown even lighter and was so empty, I didn’t know how I’d feed myself the next day. I don’t know what I would’ve done if we hadn’t made it.
The wind continued to gust.
I stayed where I was, sitting at the top of that mountain.
I’d told Cyril and Myfila to head back to the dorms already, and now I had no idea what time it was because the moon was hidden, but I was sure it had to be late into the night.
I didn’t need them to keep me company while I was staring into nothing and letting the night winds buffet me. I’d wait until I’d recovered enough magic to summon my giant grasshopper to go home.
“Uh…”
In the darkness, I searched for the small leather-bound book in my inner pocket—my Summoner Incantations—and pulled it out.
I could hardly see anything, but when I opened it, I just traced the parchment with my index finger.
I started to recite the Legendary Beast of the Last Realm Pandora’s summon incantation without imbuing the words with magic.
“Arise, O beast that thwarts despair… Over darkened sea, your wings claim the air. An ending world entrusts a prayer to the beast from its fate to spare as the ice of morn echoes the grief to bear.”
I didn’t fully get what it meant, but the more I heard it, the sweeter it sounded.
“Cry not for the morrows through loss ye acquire. Rejoice for the flower that blooms from the fire.”
The verses, which didn’t seem fitting for a beast that had killed the gods, fascinated me.
“The lonesome beast offers a hymn come night…to the plunging stars upon their plight…… Anon, a far journey awaits thee, one of deep mercy, to alight with the prayer-granting beast when thee unite…”
I looked down and went into thought.
Had my Pandora…the one I’d summoned with such a selfless incantation…really caused a war that ended the age of gods? Was it really true?
“What a lovely verse.”
Right then, I heard a beautiful voice from overhead.
I didn’t turn to look. I was surprised by the familiar voice, but not flustered.
Eventually, I looked up.
“Is that the verse to call your Counterpart?”
In the sky, I saw that platinum hair dancing along, and Sasha. Her archangel glowed faintly as she stood on the angel’s palm looking down at me.
She only wore a nightgown and a fur coat over top. It seemed like she’d rushed out of the dorms. I caught glimpses of her beautiful legs as the strong wind gusted at her.
“Hey, Sasha.”
She replied to me, “Good evening, Feil Fonaf.”
“Nice night out,” I said.
“Is it? The moon isn’t out, and it seems likely to snow to me.”
“I just got to see a beautiful princess and an archangel up close. That’s a lot better than any ol’ moon to me.”
“Um…were you just coming on to me?”
“What are you talkin’ about?”
“Well, that aside—are you all right? You look quite haggard.”
“That was ’cause I was training like a dyin’ man until now.”
“Here in the mountains and all alone?”
“Wasn’t alone. Tomorrow’s the summons festival, so I had Cyril and Myfila go home ahead of me. I’m just here staring into nothin’ because I wanna. Once I’ve recovered enough magic, I’ll get right home.”
I glanced over to find the archangel’s giant face, big as ten adult men, the silver mask hiding her eyes, and her scant armor. I tilted my head to the side, trying to catch a glimpse beneath the mask, but in that moment, the archangel gently pulled her chin away. Didn’t seem like she was going to let me get a peek that easily. In the thick of darkness, the angel’s white skin emitted a soft light. Like the light of a hazy moon.
“How ’bout you, Sasha? Can’t imagine you came out for a nighttime stroll in that outfit just to see what your rival’s doin’, did ya?”
The archangel’s light had probably illuminated the “mountain” I was sitting on. Then again, it was currently covered in dirt, hiding the smooth surface and strange bluish-blackishness of it.
“Some townspeople convened in the Academy…,” she finally answered.
“What?”
We were in the dark night, where even the moon and stars were hidden from view. Unless someone was already suspicious, no one would have noticed that I wasn’t actually sitting on a hill of dirt. Even Sasha hadn’t noticed yet—that I was sitting on top of Pandora’s head.
“They were panicking about strange sounds coming from the mountains. They said they’d heard the sounds for the last few days, but today was the worst thus far. They were so frightened, they could hardly sleep, and they asked the Academy to look into it.”
“Oh, geez… Sorry about that…” Now that Sasha had told me, I could only apologize to her frankly.