When I got back, Leen was just coming out of her room, rubbing her eyes drowsily.
I readied myself, wondering if I should just get things over with, but my paranoia that this wasn’t the right “situation” that Leen wanted stopped me in my tracks.
“I’m hungry. Let’s get some food,” Leen said, deciding what was to come.
We headed to the Ram’s Hoof—Sharney’s workplace. Leen had said she’d seen some items on the menu the other day that she wanted to try. It was still a bit early for lunch, but I’d gone without breakfast so I agreed.
“I’m jealous, though. I really wish I could’ve gone to the wedding!” Leen said.
“Yeah, why didn’t they just get married at Esma Church?” I said.
It seemed like a waste of time and energy to head to Esartella (the church this time) two days in a row. Not only that, I’d only spoken with Sharney once, so there was no real point for us to come since we weren’t friends.
“Huh, I didn’t realize you were interested in weddings like a normal person,” I said.
“Of course I am! You get to wear a beautiful dress and have everyone fawn over you unconditionally!”
At that moment, I wondered if my apology and gift would even work on someone who thought like this.
“Did Tiesel tell you anything about the wedding? Like who the groom is or what design Sharney went with for her dress?”
“I ain’t that interested in someone’s sister, but... Oh yeah, he showed me the tiara he made for her.”
I remembered that luxurious tiara he’d shown me after sharing his heavy family story. It had completely slipped my mind. This was Tiesel’s own private life and had nothing to do with the quest so I had forgotten to mention.
“Wow, what was it like?”
Leen asked me, so I thought I might as well reply and tell her without much care what I’d seen.
“It was made of silver. It was pretty fancy and had dozens of Carbuncle Stones made by his black carbuncle over it. I dunno if it’d be worth much here, but I bet you could sell it and get enough money to build a huge house, huh?”
It was a symbol of Tiesel’s former noble family, so I doubted he would sell it.
“Hakura,” Leen said after some silence.
“Yeah?”
“What did you just say?”
Leen had stopped walking. Something was off. She looked deathly serious. Was she worried? Panicked? A trail of sweat coursed down her cheek. It was the sort of expression one gave when you’d made an unfixable mistake.
“Well, I, uh, Tiesel made Sharney a tiara and...”
“Tell me! You said that the tiara was decorated with Carbuncle Stones, right? Lots of them?!”
“Y-Yeah! It was modeled after his old family heirloom and... Hey, Leen?!”
Leen had turned around and started running. I dashed after her as passersby yelped in surprise and leaped out of our way.
“H-Hey, where are you going? What about lunch?!”
“Now’s not the time for that! We need to hurry!”
Not the time for lunch? She wasn’t just acting off—this must have been an emergency.
“You don’t have to stop running, but tell me what’s going on!” I said.
“Ugh, were you listening yesterday?!”
“Yeah, but you said so much that I can’t sift through it all!”
“Like I explained, Carbuncle Stones are a vital source of mana for monsters!”
“Yeah, and... Oh... Oh no!”
Esartella Church was located in a beautiful spot atop a cliff that overlooked Esartella Gorge... I felt the blood drain from my face. I finally got what Leen was hinting at.
When Leen finally stopped, we were in front of the exclusive carriage service for adventurers.
“This is an emergency! We’ll pay as much as you need, so please give us a ride in your fastest carriage to Esartella Church!” Leen pleaded.
The staff acted quickly and indicated a carriage for us to get into. Leen grabbed my hand and dragged me inside.
“As fast as you can! Please!”
“You got it! Today’s that wedding, right? Overslept, huh?”
The driver made small talk as the carriage departed. Leen and I rattled around in the back as if we were nothing more than simple cargo. There wasn’t anything we could do until we arrived except pray that we made it in time.
☆
The peals of the old bell reverberated out into the open sky, celebrating the union of the bride and groom.
From the nearest pew, Tiesel Kreyon was watching his darling sister as she held a colorful bouquet in her arms, wearing a pure white dress with a sparkling tiara atop her head that glittered sunlight. The groom was a bashful and pleasant-looking man. If Tiesel was being honest with himself, he had many thoughts on the man who was to steal his sister away from him, but seeing them smiling together, holding each other’s hand while everyone congratulated them, this jealousy seemed to fade away to be replaced by a warm gratitude.
Ever since the Kreyon family had fallen, their lives had been nothing but struggle. Sharney was a noble woman who shouldn’t have had to work as a waitress in a restaurant. All the same, she never once complained. She always smiled to the point that Tiesel felt bad for making his sister worry about him with all the danger he got into as an adventurer.
So the fact that she found her life partner at the place where she worked seemed like fate. It was almost as if the goddess herself had blessed her. Now all that Tiesel wanted was for his sister to be happy. Although, seeing her now, he realized that wasn’t quite right. In this moment, she was the happiest she had ever been, so Tiesel instead wished for her happiness to last forever. He wanted to support their happy lives—with this thought in mind, he let the tears flow and put more energy into his applause.
“Thank you, everyone!” Sharney said, tears glinting in her own eyes. “And to my big brother, Tiesel... Thank you! I’m so happy right now, and this happiness will last for the rest of my life!”
At this point, his vision was almost completely blurred. He wished he could engrave this image in his mind and capture it forever. He sniffed to clear his nose, wiped a few tears away, then clapped even louder.
“Congratu—”
However, before Tiesel could wish his sister happiness, a fierce wind ripped through the room. From the back of the church, the side that faced the gorge, it appeared.
Alongside an earsplitting screech came a monster with an eagle’s head, a lion’s body, fierce talons, and wings: a gryphon. This wasn’t any regular gryphon either. It was the master of the hazardous zone known as Esartella Gorge. Two times larger than your average gryphon, it bore scars all over its body, speaking to the fierce battles it had been through.
Such a specimen was rare, so the guild had detailed this particular gryphon thusly: A living calamity that brings fierce winds in its wake, a great gryphon known as the Scarred.