FROM there they ascended one staircase, went down another, climbed another, and descended again. Nichika had forgotten the way they had come by this point, and her stamina had subsided faster than her willpower as she ran more out of desperation than actual energy. Stopping, she placed a hand on the brick wall in the dimly illuminated passage and caught her breath.
“Haah…haah,” she panted. “How much farther…are you gonna take me?”
Beads of sweat rolled off her onto the cold floor. It didn’t matter how much stamina and endurance she had gained since arriving in this world, she still had the strength of a girl from modern Japan. She couldn’t compete against a wild wolf and an even wilder young man.
Worried, Wolfie rubbed against her leg and nosed the miniature broom hanging from her belt. “How about you fly the rest of the way?” he suggested.
“If I could do that…I wouldn’t be…running…” she wheezed.
One wrong move with the broom and it’d rampage on her, eating up more energy than running with the wolves. Lambert walked back to her without a single sheen of sweat on his face.
“It’s just a hop and a skip away. The headmaster’s office is up there,” he encouraged in an annoyingly energized voice.
“Up there? That’s it?”
Several dozen stairs awaited her where he pointed.
“Want me to give you a piggyback ride the rest of the way?” her guide offered with his hands folded behind his head.
“No need! I came this far…!”
Willing herself to stand, Nichika glared at the last obstacle. She was going to make it the rest of the way on her own whatever it took.
“Come to me!”
She removed the miniature broom from her belt and chucked it in front of her. Boom! With a puff of white smoke, it turned into a full-size broom. She mounted her flying companion sidesaddle and commanded it.
“Let’s go!”
The wolf and young man easily ran up the stairs after her as she rapidly ascended. It suddenly dawned upon her as she focused on her destination that the method Charlotte taught her for stopping involved coming to a slow stop by creating wind resistance around her. But that applied to the outdoors, and she was currently inside a narrow brick passageway.
How do I stop?
“WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHH!”
“Nichika?!”
Accelerating to an unstoppable speed, Nichika burst through the door to the sound of her own screams. She somersaulted several times on the floor before she knew what hit her.
“Ooww.”
Finally tumbling to a stop after banging every part of her body, she sat up rubbing her lower back. An exasperated voice rained down from directly above her head.
“…What in the world are you doing?”
She craned her neck at the sound of the voice she had been searching for. Her master, now dressed as himself rather than a butler, stared down at her with his arms folded at his chest. Before he could say another word, she hopped to her feet and inspected his tall body clad in all black.
“Oswald! You okay? Hurt anywhere? Did they torture you?!”
“Torture? What goes through that small brain of yours?”
He wasn’t bleeding and nothing was bent in the wrong direction. Relieved to find him intact, Nichika placed a hand on her chest and smiled.
“What a relief!”
“How did you even get all the way her—” Oswald doubted her ability to get there on her own, but the moment he locked eyes with Lambert in the doorway he scowled. “Geh.”
Not the least bit bothered by his upperclassman’s disgust, Lambert smirked. “Hiya, pal. Awww, shucks, don’t look so darn happy to see me.”
“Maaaster! I’ve been looking all over for youuuu!”
Nichika swept her gaze over her surroundings as she grabbed her broom off the floor. The round room towered over the castle gardens, and she could make out the dimly lit townscape and the dark forest that extended beyond it through the windows. The room itself had a somber interior. There was nothing particularly strange about it, except for one magical object spinning around.
“This is the headmaster’s office?”
Where is the headmaster? Before she could locate the room’s owner, a hand reached out and pulled her into an unwanted hug from behind.
“NICHIKAAAA, baby! My precious angel! How have you been?!” trilled an excited voice next to her ear.
“GAAAAAAAAAH!” She jerked her neck back to find a brilliant smile floating in a ball of blinding, gold light. Startled, she cried out the name belonging to that familiar voice. “Ini?!”
The mysterious man who had entrusted her with the magic orb and the mission to travel the world collecting the power of the Four Great Spirits hadn’t changed one bit since their first encounter. Nor had his inappropriate sexual advances.
“Mm, mm! Nothing’s changed about you! Hm? Did you grow a little here?”
SQUEEZE!
“Ick…!” Nichika brought down the full might of her fist on the devilish man who suddenly squeezed her breasts. “Don’t touch me, pervert!”
“AUGH!”
Her powerful right straight punch landed a direct hit on his cheek, sending the golden man soaring into the back corner of the room.
This is what you get for testing me, Nichika thought with her shoulders rising and dropping with heavy breathing.
“Can you get any more disruptive?” a new voice boomed through the headmaster’s office. “Where do you think you are?”
Nichika turned toward the owner of that strict, commanding voice. An older woman was standing in the broken doorway. When did she get there? Intelligence gleamed in her rose-brown eyes, and white streaks peppered her mousy brown hair pulled into a tight bun.
“Grindieda.”
“Master.”
“Headmaster.”
Ini, Oswald, and Lambert addressed her at once, revealing the woman’s name and identity without Nichika having to inquire. The woman who seemed to embody calmness in demeanor and pose was Elminage’s headmaster and, apparently, Oswald’s master.
Deigning not to look at the men who spoke her name, Grindieda flipped her black witch’s robe behind her and stood before the sole girl in the room. She addressed her without smiling. “You must be Miss Nichika.”
“Erm, yes. Nice to meet you!” Panicking, she dropped into an awkward curtsy. Something about the headmaster made her feel like she was before a queen and needed to act as such. She glanced up under her lashes at the intimidating woman and received a question she couldn’t easily answer in return.
“It appears Angelica Rubens rejected her enrollment into the academy.”
“—!”
This is bad. Real bad! What excuse can I make now? Sweat dampening her palms, Nichika maundered her excuse.
“Well, you see…it’s like this…and that…”
“I’ll allow it to pass for now. Raise your head, child.”
Nichika timidly looked up to where the other woman stared down at her without a single readable expression upon her wrinkled face. After a long while, she exhaled a cumbersome breath and closed her eyes.
“I see. So you are the Spirit Priestess…”
“How do you know that?”
Did she hear it from Ini?
Before Grindieda could answer, Ini stepped forward, his golden wings spreading obnoxiously wide as if he had been waiting for this opportunity to steal the spotlight.
“Looks like it’s time for me to step up. I wish I could’ve explained everything to my precious Nichika during our fated meeting on top of the Whale’s deck, but various circumstances prevented me until now.”
Ini snapped his fingers and cushioned chairs burst into existence with a tiny boom behind each person in the room. He threw his arms out wide with theatrical pomp and took charge of the scene with a flourish.
“Take a seat, ladies and gentlemen! For now is the time to unveil the details behind this time’s Spirit Priestess Project!”
✦ ✦ ✦
IT was undeniably stirring in the darkness. Amid the thick and viscous nebulous black of night, It felt joy.
Soon that person will come. Soon they will feed me that delicious substance, It thought.
Before long a small person cloaked under a white hood slid into the darkness. They were carrying a heavy tin bucket.
It roared with delight upon their arrival. The visitor apathetically listened to the guttural sound that would’ve scared the soul out of an ordinary person. They casually apologized for being late and flipped over the bucket, dumping out the contents.
“Sorry for the wait. Eat to your heart’s content.”
A thick, sticky dark-purple gel-like substance oozed out of the gray container.
It jumped with joy. The visitor spoke in gentle tones as they watched over It.
“Ahaha. Grow up big and strong for me soon. And once you do…”
Only the disturbing noise of chewing, crunching, and splattering filled the dark.