1 Three days passed. Yuui entered the wand shop to find only Ottou, the shop manager. He was taking logs out of the stacks one by one and tapping them with a wooden mallet to check how they sounded. Apparently, it was to see how they were drying. He cast spells on them with a variety of wands, both to check their functionality and to produce new materials at the same time. Ottou didn’t react to the sound of the door opening and instead continued working, completely absorbed in his task. “I’m back…,” said Yuui quietly as she placed a basket down. Inside were several oddly thick bones—the spine of a magic beast she’d been asked to purchase. Apparently, a merchant would swing by every few days and take Morna’s order. When it came to wandmaking materials, she was such a good customer that the merchant would personally travel all the way to her shop to deliver the goods despite the fact that the trip ate into their profits. That was what led to the mountain of corpses in the corner of the room. They could carve up the carcasses whenever they needed something, and each part had its own use. But this was a special instance of core repair. Morna needed specific parts from magical beasts she didn’t often use. Yuui had offered to purchase them directly, since it was faster that way. She’d spent the last three days schlepping back and forth between the city and the shop. Ix had told her he couldn’t make a client help, but she was free to assist him of her own volition. Since Leirest was a city full of cultures from various places, she thought it might be fun to have a look around. As someone from the east, though, she thought a casual sightseeing trip was off the table. The materials they asked her to buy were a bit icky, but she far preferred people being grossed out at her for walking around with magic beast bones over them staring at her with curiosity or scorn. No one had approached her and told her to take down her hood, at the very least. Just as she was about to go tell Ix and Morna she’d returned, a muffled boom echoed from the back room. “…They seem busy. Perhaps I’ll wait a little while,” she said to herself. Taking a breath, Yuui sat down on a chair in the store. Explosions were an everyday occurrence in this shop. All she could do was ignore them. Once, she’d gone into Morna’s room because she’d been worried something bad had happened, but that had turned out terribly. She could hear wings flapping on the roof overhead. There hadn’t been any signs of a customer showing up. Yuui hadn’t seen a single one since she’d come here. Ix had told her Morna only got clients who were aware of her skill, but at this point, Yuui was starting to wonder if even that was true. Suddenly, she looked up to find Ottou staring at her from the center of the shop. “Yuui Laika,” he said. “Yes, hello, Ottou.” “Your questions?” “Hmm? Oh, about that…” The more she spent time with him, the more she realized Ottou never bothered with unnecessary details; he just got straight to the point. In this case, he was reminding her that she’d spent the past few days asking him a variety of questions and was now inquiring if she had anything else she wished to mention today. “Oh, that’s right,” said Yuui as she clasped her hands in front of her chest. “Ix said he couldn’t use magic before. Is that true?” “It is.” “But…I’ve never heard of a person not being able to use magic. Every single human has magic in them. There’s a question about the amount and quality, of course, but anyone should be able to hold a wand and cast a spell.” “There are some instances of loss of magical ability as a symptom of sonim.” “Huh?” Ottou spoke smoothly as he continued. “The majority of pregnant women who contract sonim die. Even if the mother survives, their child will be stillborn. There have been some very rare cases, however, where the pregnancy still goes through. Children who survive a sonim birth lack magic and are unable to cast spells. One such instance was recorded in the kingdom.” “And that was…Ix?” “No. It was the child of a noble who died later on. Ix’s parents are unknown, so we can’t say for sure whether they were infected with sonim.” It made sense that there wouldn’t be records of the lives and deaths of common folk, who would have never had a chance to use magic anyway. “I see… Thank you, Ottou.” Yuui nodded. Ottou shut his mouth and returned to work. After pulling a carcass from the mountain of magic beast corpses, he went to the back garden. He was probably going to skin and treat it. So it really was true that Ix couldn’t cast spells. Yuui sighed. He hadn’t used test magic, and it had seemed as if he hadn’t sensed the mana that Morna had used. No way could there be someone like that. Or so Yuui had thought… She wondered if he would be able to hack it as a wandmaker after all. Even though it wasn’t her problem, it still made her anxious. Ix wouldn’t be able to adjust the wands he made himself. That was like a chef with no tongue. Just then, there was a particularly loud explosion. “Aah!” Yuui cowered and looked around. Dust fell from the ceiling as the building trembled from the shock wave. A few logs tumbled. The only objects that withstood the blast with a minimal amount of shaking were the wands and staffs, which were affixed to the shelves. Eventually, silence returned to the room like a recoil. The moment all was still, she heard the door open, and Ix poked his head in. He was scowling. Dark bags hung beneath his eyes; he probably hadn’t slept much in the past three days. The clothes he was wearing were somewhat dirty. He sat down on the shop floor and gave a dry cough. “A-are you all right?” asked Yuui automatically. “Huh? …Oh, Yuui,” he said, rubbing his eyes before finally noticing her. “I bought the things you asked for,” she said. “Things?” “Um, the bones…,” she reminded him, lifting the basket for him to see. “Oh, that…,” he said faintly, perhaps from lack of sleep. “You will use them, won’t you?” “No, don’t need to. It didn’t work.” “Hmm? What didn’t work?” “I’m out of ideas,” snapped Ix. “If the results of that last experiment had been good, I would have used them, but they weren’t. So I don’t need them anymore.” “In other words—” “We give up. We can’t repair that core. Unfortunately.” It took Yuui a while to process his emotionless words. Is he saying that…the wand is unfixable? she thought. Ix saw her fighting for words and added, “Well, it’s not like we got nothing out of the experiments. We did manage to come extremely close to your core’s properties by synthesizing shinee aletts with agnasite, among other things. It’s really interesting, from a wand craft perspective. I might call it a ‘compound core.’ I bet it’d spread like crazy among craftsmen if we wrote a book. Morna wouldn’t be up to it, though…” “I don’t care about that,” Yuui told him. “No? I thought it was a pretty amazing idea.” Yuui cleared her throat and coughed. Wands were everything to those two. She couldn’t keep up with every little detail of their obsessions. “You got close to the properties…but that’s not good enough?” asked Yuui. “No. The compound outputs far less power than the original core. That’s dragon hearts for you. They’re literally in an entirely different league compared with the other core types.” “So you are saying you cannot make a perfect re-creation.” “There’s one other problem, too.” “What’s that?” she said with a sigh. “This compound core technique has never been attempted before. There’s no guarantee it would work.” “…Um, you were making light of it before, but you did say that if you failed and broke a wand, you would pay with your life, yes?” “The technique should go well, in theory.” “…Right.” “Sorry I’m not good enough,” said Ix weakly before letting out a big yawn. They knew the core material was from a dragon, a creature of legend, so finding a replacement was bound to be taxing. But Ix’s casual attitude toward the situation left Yuui feeling torn between getting angry with him and trying to comfort him. “Right, what do you want to do?” asked Ix. “What can we do?” “Swap the core with the compound core, though that only re-creates the properties of the original. Then sell off the dragon heart. A thing like that belongs in a national treasure vault, so it’d probably net you a fortune. If it fails… Well, there’s no way I could make the same thing, but I’d make you the best wand I possibly could before I kicked the bucket.” “…Do you want to lose your life?” “No.” Ix’s expression was serious as he shook his head. “It’s not like I make wands in order to die.” In order to die… Yuui fell silent, his face the same as that of someone else’s in her mind for just a moment. “……” “What’s wrong?” he asked. “N-nothing,” she stammered, quickly ridding her face of any emotion. “Anyway, I’d be in big trouble if you failed. I absolutely need that wand—” “Hold on,” interrupted Ix meaningfully, spreading his arms and stopping her. He yawned again. Yuui noticed his cheeks were sunken and his features were gaunt. Perhaps he’d been so excited to examine the dragon heart that he hadn’t been getting enough to eat. “We do have one other option,” he said, holding up a finger. “Huh…? Which is?” “We find a dragon heart.” “…Dragons no longer exist.” “We don’t need a living one. We just need a heart. Actually, that’s not even true. We just have to find something with the same material.” “The same material? That’s a strange way of putting it.” “I just corrected what I said before to be more accurate. We’ve been calling it dragon heart, but we don’t actually know for certain that’s what it really is.” “Um, I thought Mr. Munzil said it was?” “All Master told us was its name—‘dragon heart’—its characteristics, and its properties so we could tell it apart from other substances. That’s it. We have no proof your core is actually a real dragon’s heart. Master said he was looking at some dragon bones at a castle when he was young and that was the only thing this material resembled, so he named it ‘dragon heart.’ How much of that is true, I’m not so sure. We’re going with this nomenclature but only because we don’t have a better idea. It’s possible it’s just a rare gemstone with powerful properties. In fact, a number of things about this substance resemble stone.” “And what do you think, personally?” “Well,” Ix said with a shrug, “I guess it’s probably got some connection to dragons… That’s about it.” “Huh?” Yuui blinked, not expecting that answer. “And what proof do you have of that?” “Master might not have been completely on the mark, but, you know, he wasn’t the type to outright lie. Even if we don’t go all the way and say it’s a heart.” As much as I talk poorly about the guy, I trust him, thought Ix, though he didn’t vocalize it. “Regardless of what you say about its connection to dragons, I cannot help feeling it’s pointless because they are extinct,” argued Yuui. “But you can’t say it’s impossible. That’s what I reckon anyway,” countered Ix, placing a hand on the wall as he stood. “Besides, I think a few people have got to know about what this stuff is.” “Everyone has heard legends of dragons…” “Exactly. They appear in stories from every single country. But then if you ask someone if they think dragons actually existed, they’ll say no. A legend’s just a legend. There might be some people who think they probably did exist, but there’s almost certainly no one who’s certain. Of course not—nobody can guarantee what happened thousands of years ago. But we’re different.” “Because we have the real thing…” “Yep. Setting aside our doubts about its authenticity, there’s probably no one in the world who’s seriously looking for this material. Which is why we can have hope. We know for sure this substance exists, so that’s half the job done right there.” “But even if we do find it, we can’t be certain if we’ll be able to buy it or convince someone to give it to us. Would it really be that easy to get a hold of?” “Well, that is true. Morna and I don’t have that kind of money. How about you, Yuui?” “No.” She shrugged. “Even if we do find it, we don’t know if we can get our hands on it. We also don’t know how long it would take to acquire. Hell, we don’t even have a single clue on where to start looking. It’s possible we could spend a decade on this and it would still end in failure.” “It is quite uncertain, yes.” “So what do you want to do?” Ix asked. He looked at Yuui while rubbing his hands together as if saying, “I’ve laid out all the options—now it’s up to the buyer to make the call.” Yuui thought for a few moments, but she didn’t have to wrestle with the issue for very long. “…Let’s impose a deadline, then,” she proposed. “Okay?” “I don’t have that much time. I cannot be without my wand forever. Therefore, we shall look for the dragon material first. If we reach the deadline, we will give up and settle for the compound core. It should at least have the power of a normal wand with that, right?” “Yes. But a high-end wand. And if that’s the case, I can prepare you a replacement for you to use in the meantime, which would let us search thoroughly. This wand is powerful, but I doubt you’d have anything soon that’d make you need—” “No, I need that wand.” “You’ve got something that pressing? I don’t know if you’re planning on going to war or what.” “O-of course it’s not something as absurd as that. Um…well, it is the single memento my father left me. It feels wrong to treat it like some decoration collecting dust while I use another wand.” “…All right, I understand.” Ix nodded, his expression unchanging. He turned on his heel and headed for the back room. Yuui went with him. Looking up at him, she asked, “You really wanted to find the dragon material, didn’t you?” “The customer’s wishes take priority. That’s the craftsman’s code,” replied Ix firmly, most likely feeling some disappointment. He seemed to mean what he said, though. Yuui frowned slightly. She saw Ottou in the back garden, a deboning knife in his small hand. Sliced-off portions of carcass lined the surrounding area. The butchering was going well. The door to the back room was still open. Yuui took one step in and grimaced. “What happened here…?” Morna’s room was in an even worse condition. Obviously, it had been messy before, but it at least had a kind of logic to it. At minimum the magic beast parts had been with the other parts, and the tools had been with the other tools. But now, Yuui couldn’t even fathom how to describe it. Morna’s dwelling seemed like the place furthest from order in the entire world. Lacking the energy to be any more careful, she decided to give in. As Yuui resigned herself, Ix spoke with Morna about their next steps. “…And so I want information. You don’t have any connections, do you, Morna?” he asked. “Mm, no,” Morna said, before clapping her sickly pale hands in realization. “Oh, that’s right. I-Ixie, h-how about you go to the library?” “Library? That’s the place with lots of books, right?” asked Ix, confused. “Y-yep, that’s it.” “Uh-huh…I might find a book about dragons.” “Y-yeah!” “Well, actually…,” said Yuui, cocking her head while Morna and Ix were getting excited. It seemed they didn’t know much about libraries. Yuui had heard they were becoming popular in the kingdom. Lately, influential cities throughout the regions were building one after the other. Merely having one in town was a status symbol. However, the kingdom’s book collections couldn’t match the quality of the libraries it had built to house them. Apparently, many of the volumes in their large collections had holes, and the librarians pushed you to see a lot of dubious magic tomes and scraps of paper. Those were the nasty rumors going around, at least. The only quality texts in the kingdom’s holdings were Marayist scriptures. Marayism was the religion widely followed in the west. At present, the kingdom was a theocracy, and its sovereign also acted as the head of the Maray Church. When theocracy was established about a hundred years back, it swept away the indigenous religions of the region. The scattered Maray scriptures from that time ended up being housed in libraries. As a side note, while the kingdom seemed to have thought that this would increase the number of devout believers, a new order of followers had been rebelling against the state church, accusing it of acting against scripture. This was causing chaos in the kingdom. Anyway, Yuui hadn’t heard good things about the libraries, so she wasn’t getting her hopes up. “Ah, oh, but…,” Morna said, suddenly biting her finger. “I heard only certain people can go in there…” “You need a library pass,” interjected Yuui. The two whipped around, and she looked away in discomfort. “You know a lot about it?” asked Ix. “You can apply for a pass with the head librarian, which they will issue after a screening. The head librarian position is normally filled with a retired noble, so you would be hard-pressed to say it’s truly open to the general public,” explained Yuui. Ix and Morna stared at each other, an uncomfortable silence settling in the room. “…We’ll think of another way,” Ix said with a sigh. “Y-y-yeah.” Morna clasped her hands and nodded. “Oh… Wh-wh-what if we ask Big Sis? B-by letter?” “…Her? Are you serious?” asked Ix. “Mm… Oh, that’s right. There’s a c-customer who placed an order wh-who knows a lot about that stuff.” “Hmm? When are they coming?” “Soon, p-probably. Definitely.” Ix shook his head without a word, then turned to Yuui. “Oh yeah, there’s something I need to ask you.” “What is it?” replied Yuui. “You said you’re putting a deadline on this. When would that be, specifically? It might affect how we search.” “I would like this done by the end of the summer.” “Summer this year?” “Yes.” “That’s soon…” Ix frowned. “So we’ve got to do as targeted a search as soon as we can. It’s a gamble. Is there a reason you’re in that much of a hurry?” “Yes…,” she started, but he looked as if he was going to question her more, so she changed the subject. “Um, about the library you were discussing earlier, would you like to accompany me there?” “You have a pass?” asked Ix. “Even without a pass, there is a system that allows you to use public libraries. So long as you meet certain conditions.” “Conditions?” “Such as being a student of the Royal Academy.” “Huh?” An expression showed on Ix’s face that she’d never seen before. It was a vacant, dumbfounded look that reminded Yuui of a stupefied-looking bird that lived around her homeland. “Meaning,” said Ix, opening a hand and glancing meaningfully at her, “you’re a student?” “I am,” replied Yuui, nodding as she forced her smile to stay on her face. “And ‘by the end of the summer’ means…” “I would like you to manage something during the Academy’s break, Ix. I won’t be able to take magic courses without my wand.” “Break?” Ix looked up and was quiet for a while. Then he opened his mouth slightly and ventured, “You sure a temporary replacement won’t do?” “What happened to that craftsman’s code of yours?” 2 There were pages upon pages of yellowed paper covered in black writing. To be honest, the sight made Ix uncomfortable. Books were strange objects, and a library filled with them was beyond his comprehension. Why did those in power admire these places so much? He couldn’t figure it out. Or perhaps they admired them because they didn’t understand them, either… He turned the page and sighed. He’d had high hopes for the history books, but they mostly just listed previous kings’ accomplishments. There was nothing in there about dragons. Ix’s master had taught him to read. He’d told him, “I’ll teach you a bit,” then locked Ix in the storage room until he’d memorized all the characters. It seemed the man wasn’t versed in any actual teaching methods. Munzil would shut him in there whenever he could, and Ix would study through his tears. “I brought more… Oof.” Yuui had returned, with so many books in her arms that he couldn’t see her small frame. She set them down with a thud next to the mountain of tomes already there. The piles surrounding Ix were stacked high enough to reach his waist. He closed the volume he’d finished reading and placed it in another stack. “I’ve finished these ones. Take them back,” he said. “…All right,” she replied. Slumping her shoulders, she picked up that stack. He watched her forlorn figure move away. Ix picked up another book and swept away a silverfish crawling on it. He didn’t think this title looked promising, either. Yuui’s position had allowed them to enter the library, but thus far it had gone like this, so they hadn’t accomplished much of anything. First of all, the newer books didn’t mention dragons at all. Yuui and Ix then turned their focus to things like fairy tales and legends, but even when the beasts were mentioned, the tomes they featured in didn’t provide the information Ix wanted, like specific locations, names, and years. Of course, that was how it should be. Dragons were legendary magic beasts, the last of which had expired long ago. Why would detailed accounts of them still remain? He’d been foolish for hoping to find information in a fairy tale. “…Hmm?” The character for dragon suddenly flew past his eyes. But he lost hope after reading the surrounding text. “Magic can enact anything one could imagine”—This hypothesis was disproved with the below argument. The volume of mana within a creature is limited by its body. Even among races such as the elves, who have specialized internal structures, there is an upper limit to the mana they can possess. It is impossible to have unlimited magic. Once this conclusion was reached, the magic research field split into two primary fields. These were standard magicology, which investigates ways to economize a person’s mana, and special magicology, or the so-called “dragon magic,” which presupposes an unlimited supply of mana. It was an introduction to magic, which, for some reason, had the word dragon in its explanation. That was all. “What the hell.” Ix tapped the author’s name, Shigan Aym, with his finger. Even though this was a library, that didn’t mean they had an endless number of books. It seemed he’d already moved on to tomes that weren’t closely related to dragons. It had already been quite some time since they’d started coming to the library. The research they were doing might have been foolhardy, but he was itching to get a move on. “No luck today, either?” came a voice. “Huh?” Ix looked up to see himself reflected back in a pair of gleaming eyes. It was an elderly woman, or so she appeared. On closer inspection, she looked old, but he wasn’t entirely convinced that was the case. Her croaking voice, small body, and long white hair were all telltale signs of a senior citizen. Even her back was hunched with age. But those eyes that gazed at him… Those golden saucers were alive with light and sparkled with youth, as though they were the eyes of a five-year-old. “You’ve been here every day. It appears you are searching quite diligently for something. Mm, there are rarely people here who read so enthusiastically,” she told him. While Ix sat there, taken aback, the woman continued on in her crisp manner of speaking. “I do wish you would read a little more thoroughly, though. You skim so carelessly that I feel bad for the books.” Ix watched for a break in her speech so he could ask who she was, and her eyes shone again. “Oh, you would like to know who I am? I am the head librarian. Aren’t libraries just wonderful?” “…Yeah,” he managed, staring hard at her. There was always a middle-aged man at the entrance, so Ix had assumed he was the one in charge. He’d thought that someone who’d lost their place as head of the family to another relative had taken up the position in this city, rather than a retired noble. But he wasn’t so sure about the lady in front of him. Her clothes were—well, they were what you would expect of a noble, but she didn’t give off a “retired” vibe. Instead, she seemed like a matriarch, someone who was the real power behind her house, owing to her influence over the family head. “Long ago, I never could have imagined such incredible amounts of information being gathered anywhere except in someone’s head. However…,” she noted, her words flowing like a river, “…it seems you hate tomes.” Her tone didn’t seem to demand explanation, as though she was simply stating a fact. And she was correct. Ix remained silent. “Well, I wouldn’t know if you love them or hate them,” she continued, “but it really is quite unfortunate. I have no interest in what you are searching for or why, but you are clearly hunting for information instead of books. Which is why you won’t find what you seek.” “I don’t understand…” “Mm, I think it would be faster for you to look for something different or to bring someone along who can investigate in a different way.” With their one-sided conversation over, she tottered quickly away on restless feet until she disappeared among the stacks. Ix sighed. As he thought about how difficult a conversation partner she was, Yuui approached from the bookshelves on the opposite side. Her arms were filled with new volumes. “Um, what was that about? Who was that…?” she asked. “The head librarian, apparently.” “Huh, really?” “That’s what she says.” Ix shrugged, brow furrowed. “More importantly, were you hiding?” “O-of course I would hide. I didn’t know she was the head librarian, and… Well, you’re the one who made me carry everything. Have you found anything on dragons?” “Nope.” “So are those ones a wash?” “Apparently so, because we’re looking for information.” “…What is that supposed to mean?” asked Yuui, befuddled. In the end, they wound up with nothing that day as well and went back home. They were both exhausted—Ix from all the reading he wasn’t accustomed to and Yuui from all the books she was hauling around. It was only just past noon. Typically, they would keep at it until evening, but they had to leave early to help clean the shop. Neither had the money to rent a place to stay, so they were both staying at Morna’s. There were no beds, so they spent their nights sleeping on piles of rubbish like their host. It was getting steadily cleaner, though, thanks to Yuui’s work. Ix suddenly stopped while they were walking back. “What is it?” she asked, turning around because she’d passed him. “I remembered something I need to do.” “But we were going to help clean the shop…” “It won’t take that long. I just need to go check something.” “Really? All right, I’ll go on ahead of you.” “Be careful.” “You too, Ix.” Yuui headed toward the old part of town, and Ix turned back the way they’d come. He returned to the high-end area of the city, where the library was. Pedestrians thronged the streets, since it was noon, but eventually, the crowd slowly thinned. In their place, Ix began passing people in expensive clothing. In this case, expensive meant unnecessarily decorative. Ix wasn’t used to clothing of this kind because he had grown up in a quiet mountain village. And sure, he sometimes added accessories to wands and staffs per customer request, but never anything that completely ignored practicality as much as those garments did. Despite how different wands and clothes were, Ix still found himself so interested in what these people were wearing that he couldn’t help but gawk. His first destination was the Wandmakers’ Guild. The Wandmakers’ Guild was an organization that brought together everyone involved in the sale of wands and staffs, beginning with wandmakers. You needed their approval for gathering the wood or the core materials to craft wands or for operating a shop that sold them. It was rare for an organization to regulate a field encompassing only a single product on such a large scale, but that was testament to their high price and level of market penetration. Currently, however, the Adventurers’ Guild was the largest of these groups. As he’d mentioned to Morna earlier, Ix needed to register as a member of the Wandmakers’ Guild. If they wouldn’t accept him on the grounds of “cracking down on inferior wands,” then he would be able to neither make nor sell the products in the field he’d been trained in. Although he’d momentarily forgotten because he was so focused on the dragon heart, Ix needed to become a craftsman soon, both to make a living from wandmaking and to fulfill Yuui’s request. Until now, he’d been registered as an apprentice at Munzil’s shop. But the Guild immediately rejected Ix’s application. He hadn’t known that you needed to already own a building that would serve as your shop in order to become a craftsman. On top of that, a new rule had been introduced recently that stated each store could generally have only a single craftsman. Large suppliers would need special permission to employ multiple artisans. Apparently, this stipulation had been put in place to bring down the production of inferior products, which could happen when a shop employed lots of “craftsmen” with barely any skill to speak of. The Guild worker carefully went over everything with Ix, and then Ix left in low spirits. “A shop…” He didn’t have enough money to own a shop. All his master had left him was enough cash to cover living expenses for a few months. He couldn’t think of anything he could do to save up other than make wands, though. One option was to work at a wand shop as an apprentice. Otherwise, he could get hired at one of the large wand shops that had permission, then get registered as a craftsman. He sighed. It was like his master had said. He was only half a craftsman if he couldn’t get registered. It seemed it would be a while before he could stand on his own two feet. Shoulders slumped, Ix headed for a district some ways off from the center of town to an area that had rows of shops aimed at the middle class. The good thing about the place was that it was full of energy. The bad thing was that it was squalid. Though Ix had been nervous, since he didn’t know the exact location of the district, he quickly found what he was looking for as he walked down the wide street. All it took for him to reach his destination was following a trail of weapon stores and a group of people who seemed ready for combat. This was the first time he’d set foot in the Adventurers’ Guild. The building was fairly large, but it was packed to the gills with adventurers regardless. Everywhere he looked, he saw leather armor, steel armor, swords, spears, bows, and the occasional wand or staff. The place was as busy as it gets. Taking care not to bump into anyone to avoid being bashed to a pulp, Ix moved farther into the building. There, he saw numerous flyers affixed to a wooden board, each imprinted with a simplistic rendering of a magic beast, a price, and a location. These are the request forms? he pondered. He put some distance between him and the worked-up adventurers before peering at the requests in front of them. They all looked recent. Since they would do him no good, he decided to go elsewhere. Toward the innermost wall of the building was the reception area, where male and female workers were assisting individual adventurers. A long queue had formed in front of each of the employees. Ix watched them for a bit; there seemed to be quite a few adventurers here to report the completion of a request, so he wondered if they had to ask for a time slot beforehand. Additionally, it seemed that each member of the Guild’s staff handled only a single type of job. Resigning himself to the fact that this errand was going to take an unexpectedly long time, he joined the back of one of the lines. Almost immediately, an adventurer joined the queue behind him. Ix really stood out with his normal clothes and average build. The line was long, but the worker dealt with each issue quickly, so it moved surprisingly fast. Something caught his ear when there were only a few people left in front of him. “What the hell is this about?” “What I mean is—” Some sort of argument was coming from the direction of the receptionist. The room suddenly quieted. All the adventurers turned to look that way. At the front of Ix’s line stood two male adventurers, their arms crossed as they berated a female receptionist. Both were heavyset, with thick swords strapped to their waists. “You got a problem with this?” shouted one of the men. “These are the goods for the request, ain’t they?” yelled the other, slamming his fist on the desk. Meanwhile, the woman they were arguing with remained dispassionate; not even her brows twitched. She stared at them coldly. Though she looked young, she clearly had guts to spare. Finally, in an even tone, she responded, “That’s all well and good, but enedo aren’t known to form packs. We still have questions about how you gathered this many teeth in a single expedition.” “Then how do ya explain them? I don’t care if you’ve got questions or not—it don’t change the fact that the teeth are here.” “And all I’ve asked is that you wait. We are considering how to proceed.” “Yeah, but we’ve got plans after this. How you gonna make up for that?” “I also told you that you need not wait. I will issue you a proof of confirmation so that it won’t be inconvenient for you to return at a later date.” “That is inconvenient for us. Living day-to-day’s the biggest upside to being an adventurer!” “The Guild isn’t concerned with how you live your life.” “What’dya say?” As sparks flew between the adventurers and the receptionist, Ix noticed an old bag sitting between them on the desk. It was so big that it would take both arms to carry. White objects were peeking out of its open top. According to their conversation, those were enedo teeth. Ix regarded them with confusion. Enedo were large meat-eating magic beasts that were red in color and had fairly violent dispositions. They were famous for their large, curved teeth, which people liked to use as decorations. Those, however… Eh, whatever, thought Ix with a shrug. The argument dragged on forever without a single indication that it would end soon. Annoyed, the surrounding adventurers started making a fuss, shouting for them to drop it already. The Guild radiated with hostility. Just as Ix thought his errand was turning into a pain so it might be best to give up for the day, the adventurer behind him in the line suddenly started chatting him up. 3 “What do you think?” asked the adventurer. “What?” Puzzled, Ix turned around and saw a man smiling placidly. The first thing Ix noticed was how young he was. There was some boyishness remaining in his face, and he was shorter than Ix. Upon closer inspection, he had a muscular build but also still seemed to be growing, so he wasn’t an adult yet. Despite his youth, the sword at his hip was held in a high-end sheath. “Oh, apologies for talking to you out of the blue,” he said with a bow, then repeated himself. “So what do you think about those two?” “What do you mean by that?” Ix asked in return. “You’re not an adventurer, are you?” The young man looked Ix over. “Normal clothes, no weapon, and you don’t seem to have much muscle. Have you come to put in a request?” “Mm, something along those lines.” “I thought so. My name’s Tomah. I’m in a party with some friends, but today is my turn to line up for reception. They didn’t join me, since it’s so busy. Ah, my friends are over there.” He pointed to a female elf and a male vukodrak talking by the wall. Both of them looked about as young as Tomah. The people near them shot the pair an occasional glare, while the other adventurers kept their distance. Ix raised an eyebrow at the unusual combination. Elves had characteristically long ears, and vukodraks looked like humanoid wolves. Both races hailed from lands the kingdom had invaded long before it had taken over Lukutta. Although quite some time had passed since those territories had been subsumed into the kingdom, there weren’t too many elves or vukodraks to speak of. They tended to draw inconsiderate stares, and some citizens looked down on them or treated them horribly. While Ix did feel some slight curiosity about the group, he wasn’t the type to actively pry into their affairs. He wasn’t sure how Tomah took his silence, but the boy did shut his mouth with an “Ummm.” “Oh, how about you give me your request?” Tomah joked. “What are you talking about?” “The Guild’s commission fee’s pretty high, isn’t it? The requester covers the commission, which I think is a forty percent increase. But it’s so convenient to use the Guild that most people have to. Still, there’s nothing better than working directly with adventurers. Don’t you think?” “……” Tomah held up his hands as Ix stayed silent. “Ah, no, sorry about that. I’m just kidding, of course.” “If you’re looking to kill time, do it elsewhere.” “No, no, that’s not it…,” Tomah replied, expression turning serious before he pointed toward reception with his chin. “What do you think? Can you really hunt multiple enedo in one go like that?” “Why are you asking me?” “It’s surprising how much more normal people know about magic beasts than us. I guess it’s because they live beside them.” “And what would you do if you knew the answer?” “Well, if there is some herd of enedo, then I’d make a lot off them,” said Tomah, his gaze very eager. “You want money?” “Well, yeah… I’ve got a friend who had some things happen and needs some money… Anyway, do you have any info about enedo?” “I’m not aware of any herds.” “Right… It’s just, your reaction made it seem like you knew something about them. Are you an acquaintance of those adventurers, by any chance?” Ix sighed, sick of how annoying this was getting. “You don’t get it.” “Sorry, I guess I jumped to conclusions…” Tomah sighed, his shoulders slumping. “That’s not what I meant.” Ix lowered his voice. “I’m saying those aren’t teeth they gathered.” “Huh?” Tomah’s expression hardened. “What do you mean?” “The cross section is suspicious through and through. Enedo teeth are hard, so normally you gather them by breaking them off with a metal hammer. You can also force them out with a sharp enough blade, but even then, the cross section would still be rough. They tend to break vertically, you see.” Enedo teeth weren’t used as a core material, but they were sometimes used for decorations on a wand or staff, which was what Ix was remembering. It was a difficult material to work with. “But those ones falling out of the bag there, their cross section is way too smooth,” continued Ix. “Aren’t the ones sold at stores like that, though?” countered Tomah. “Sometimes they turn out like that if the shop polishes them to make them look good, but that’s for when they go on sale. That’s probably what made the receptionist feel like something was off.” Ix shook his head gently. “So what are those teeth, then?” “Beats me. They probably bought them from somewhere. I can’t tell if they paid for them or stole them, but it’s got nothing to do with me. I don’t want to get involved in that mess…” Ix suddenly realized everything had gone quiet. He looked up. The adventurers nearby were all silently staring at him. As he gazed back, his expression filled with dread. Before he realized it, he and Tomah had become the center of attention for everyone at the Guild. Obviously, the receptionist and the two adventurers focused in on him, too. “…Uh, just kidding,” said Ix, shutting his mouth and turning his eyes away from their stares. But no one let it slide. “Excuse me.” Of course the receptionist would speak to him. “Could you please tell me more—?” “D-don’t go spewing crap like that, asshole!” The two adventurers started shouting and drowning out the receptionist’s voice. Drawing themselves up taller, they sidled over to Ix. But as they did, a figure stepped in front of him, blocking their path. “If you’ve got something to say, then say it from there! Or are you planning to lay your hands on a non-adventurer?!” It was Tomah, roaring at the two. His shout was somewhat awkward but still loud enough to make you unconsciously shrink from him. The pair of adventurers flinched. As they did, the other adventurers started raising their own voices in support of Tomah. Shouts of “Take it to the Guild,” “Stop whining just ’cause you got made,” “Send ’em over to me,” and so on filled the hall. Realizing they were outnumbered, the men backed off. “Shut up! We get it—we’ll set ourselves right!” one shouted. They grabbed the bag full of teeth and left the Guild. Afterward, Ix skipped to the front of the line and was led to a room in the back of the building. No one really complained about that, which was a relief. It wasn’t a very large room. What it lacked in space, it made up for with high-end chairs. When Ix sat down, he felt himself sink slowly into the cushion. He was so unused to this level of comfort that he feared it would make him tense up. “Thank you very much,” said the receptionist from earlier as she sat across from him. She lowered her head and told him her name was Miisha. “I’m sure you would’ve noticed once you examined them up close. And things could have gotten ugly if Tomah hadn’t been there,” said Ix. “Who’s that?” “The adventurer who defended me.” “Oh, of course. I’ll make sure to express our thanks to him as well afterward,” she said, folding her hands in her lap. “There are the issues with the delegation, and we are short-staffed as well… Normally, we would have more knowledgeable employees handling reception duties.” “Delegation?” Ix repeated. That reminded him—the guard at the gate had also said something about Yuui being an early messenger for a delegation. “What is that?” “Envoys from the east. Are you not aware of them? The ambassador passed through this town on the way to the capital. I heard it caused quite the uproar.” “I wouldn’t know… I only just arrived in town.” “Regardless of their true relationship with the kingdom, we are allied countries on paper. The Guild assisted by providing guards… We’ve also been giving them information regarding magic beasts in the area, so we’ve been overwhelmed…” Ix nodded. He easily imagined that this group was a delegation in name only and was actually just a display of the people from a colonized country. He could easily guess what Yuui had been afraid of. “Now then,” continued Miisha, “did you have a request you would like to place today? I’ll expedite your offer in addition to providing a small monetary reward as thanks for earlier.” “It’s not a request. I want to see something.” “Go on.” “I want to check the unfulfilled requests.” “…What do you mean by that?” asked Miisha, puzzled. “The solicitation forms out front are all recent ones, right?” “Indeed. Our policy is to only display flyers less than a year old. We do store older ones…” “Can I see them? You just need to show me to the storage room. I’ll pay.” “I don’t think it should be a problem, but may I ask why?” “Why…?” “Yes. There hasn’t been anyone who’s wanted to see them before.” “……” “Oh, no, I apologize. It was simply my personal curiosity. May I take a moment to go confirm with my superiors that that would be all right?” “…Yeah.” Miisha left the room. Why am I…? Ix hadn’t been silent in response to her inquiry because he couldn’t explain why. The answer was simple: He’d wondered if anyone had requested dragon parts in the past. Obviously, he didn’t think those would have been fulfilled, which was why they might have been cleared out and filed away with the unfinished jobs. However, if the client was serious about their inquiry, they would have done research into dragons. And in that case, they might have attached some sort of explanation to their form, which could include details like region names or physical descriptions. If he read those, he might find a clue. In reality, the reason he hadn’t answered Miisha’s question was because he’d interpreted her words in a different way: Why was he expending all this effort? A wandmaker’s job was making or repairing magical catalysts. It wasn’t searching for the materials. That was best left to adventurers or merchants. There wasn’t another craftsman who would do what he was doing now. And all things considered, he wasn’t even a craftsman. He was nothing more than a novice, a half-baked artisan. That’s exactly why I’m doing it, thought Ix, grimacing in self-loathing. Since he lacked the talent his fellow apprentices had shown, he would have to compensate by doing things outside his normal duties, like searching for wand parts. That was all he could handle as a mediocre novice. Perhaps that was why he’d accepted Yuui’s request? Did it all come down to the juvenile train of thought that if he completed a job meant for a craftsman, then he could think of himself as one? Miisha returned after a short while. “I have received permission. There will be no issue with you going through them. No fee required,” she told him. “All right. Where to?” “Actually, allow me to show you the way.” As Ix followed along, he mused about how this drop-in errand had turned into quite the long task. Their trip to the archives took them out of the Adventurers’ Guild for a moment because the unfulfilled requests were apparently housed in another structure. After a brief walk, they came upon a short stone edifice. It was surrounded by other buildings, and there wasn’t a person in sight. Only one of the other structures was open, and it appeared people were in the process of moving luggage in and out. Miisha put a key in a large padlock on the door to the archives, then pushed it open. “…This?” “Feel free to look as much as you like.” She says feel free, but… The inside looked exactly as you would picture a typical storage room. It was filled with all sorts of rubbish—stones, broken furniture, even rusted equipment. A musty odor wafted through the open door. Against the wall stood a row of wooden shelves. They almost touched the ceiling, so a ladder had been attached. The shelves were jammed with more paper than he could have ever imagined. Ix thought they didn’t have to store them quite so seriously. “I’m heading back to the Guild. Please lock the door when you finish and stop by reception before you leave,” said Miisha. “Uh, sure,” agreed Ix vaguely. As Miisha returned to the entrance, her footsteps echoed throughout the archives. Just before she left for good, she poked her head back in and said, “Of course, it’s no imposition if you want to come here some other time to investigate as well.” “Right…” “Now then, I’ll leave you to it.” With that, she was gone. The door was still slightly ajar. After gawking in awe for a moment, Ix finally pulled himself together and began investigating the request forms. He skimmed through them in rough groups of ten-year intervals. The solicitations had gone unfulfilled for a variety of reasons, from magic beasts being too dangerous, to the location of the assignment being too far away, to the reward being too paltry. Though he’d already half given up by the time he started glancing through the files, he readily found requests for dragon materials. Just a bit of searching brought out request after request for dragon bones, dragon hearts, dragon eyes, dragon remains, and finally, even information on the creatures. Of course, the fact that all these flyers were here meant they hadn’t been completed. To Ix’s surprise, a significant number of these requests were from distinguished thinkers. The majority of the forms contained no locations or drawings of the creature, only a reward amount. And the closer to the present you got, the fewer of these solicitations there were. It appeared that belief in dragons continued to wane as the years went by. With that, Ix decided to limit himself to looking into requests from a while ago. The Guild didn’t operate on the same scale back then as it did today, so there weren’t that many unfulfilled requests. On the other hand, the flyers they did have from that time were harder to read, either because bugs had eaten and degraded them or because they were written in old-style grammar. At a certain point, Ix started to see jobs in the form of words carved into wooden boards in addition to the yellowed papers. Both types were difficult to interpret, so it took some time for him to decipher each one. Out of all these forms, there was one that caught his eye. The reason why was simple—it was starkly different from the paper and wooden requests it had been sandwiched between. The request was literally of a different color. Black. He touched it gently. It was significantly heavier than paper or wood, and the characters on it were white. It was a thin sheet of stone engraved with the request. The smooth curves of the characters implied they had been carved out with magic. “…What’s this about?” Ix had no idea why someone would use slate for the request form, since they were typically meant to be used and discarded. And they’d used magic on top of that. That detail implied the requester was likely of noble stock, which Ix found hard to believe. While aristocrats might use the Adventurers’ Guild in modern times, it had been nothing more than a small-scale odd-job guild back in the day. It hadn’t been the kind of place a noble would have occasion to interact with enough to put in a request. Everything about this was peculiar. Hesitant before the strange slate, Ix dropped his eyes to the words written on it. “A dragon…in Mount Agnas?” he murmured quietly. Research Dragon Mount Agnas—that was what was written on the request form in preposition-less old grammar. Ix had heard of Mount Agnas. It was a volcano east of Leirest, the city he was in, an active one that spewed black smoke into the sky even now. It wasn’t that tall, but it marked the beginning of a large mountain range that stretched to the northeast. The volcano contained special veins where one could mine agnasite, a stone that shared the mountain’s name. A town named Agnasruze sat in the shadow of Mount Agnas. Despite its low population, the town was blessed with wealth. Ix was well acquainted with agnasite, since it was frequently used as a core material in wandmaking. Unlike normal gemstone cores, a small amount of the mineral was capable of outputting a massive amount of power. Just recently, he’d employed it in the process of synthesizing the compound core. You couldn’t see Mount Agnas from this city, since it was hidden behind other hills, but on a clear day, you could trace a faint outline of the mountain ridge in the sky from the mountain that Munzil’s shop had been on. But… …was there really a dragon on Mount Agnas…? Ix had never heard a rumor like that before. That wasn’t to say it was impossible, though. According to the legend, dragons rarely showed themselves to humans, and it was completely unknown where they dwelled outside of those rare instances. It would make sense for them to stay deep in the mountains, where people didn’t often tread. Ix hunted through the request forms near that one, but there were no others about Mount Agnas or dragons. With that, he looked to see if the request had included the client’s name, but it wasn’t there for some reason. The reward was meager as well; it was miraculous it had even been accepted in the first place. Nevertheless, the strange request form still caught his curiosity, not only because of its material but also because something about it made him nostalgic. He had no clue why it did, though… Maybe I should go to Mount Agnas, he thought, before immediately telling himself to calm down. Even if he went, it wasn’t as if he had any other clues to go off. All he’d found here was a suspicious flyer from God knows who. There was a chance it’d been put up as some sort of joke. How would he explain to Yuui that he just kind of wanted to go and check it out? A shadow suddenly passed over the request form he held. Looking up, he realized the light streaming into the storage room had disappeared at some point. The sky had darkened. It was now around evening time, with night soon to come. “…Oh.” Ix finally remembered his promise to assist Morna. He wrestled with it for a few seconds, but no particular solution came to him. They’d probably finished cleaning the shop long ago. He would be too late if he went now. Well, if he was going to be late, then so be it. At least this way, he wouldn’t have to bother trying to think up excuses or solutions. Tidying up the scattered request forms, Ix left the storage room, then locked it as he’d been told. If he didn’t book it, the Guild would probably close. As he dashed down the path, he suddenly heard a voice. “Hey.” Two men appeared in front of him. “…What’s this about?” asked Ix. “Don’t give me that bullshit!” shouted one of them. “We’re here to give some payback for before. You understand?” “Payback?” asked Ix, confused. It was dark, so he couldn’t make out their faces very well. “If you’re gonna pick a fight with an adventurer, you gotta be ready for some violence, yeah?” growled the man. “I wasn’t picking a fight, and I’m not ready for that,” replied Ix flatly. “Do you want money?” “Huh? We told you we’d take it out on you!” “No you didn’t.” “You quibblin’ the details with me?” “I’m not.” Ix stalled for time, keeping up the conversation as he remembered who these two men were. They were the pair with the enedo teeth. He regretted giving in to Tomah and saying what he did back then. Turns out that he had ended up getting dragged into something annoying. …Should I run? No, he thought, rejecting the idea. They were carrying heavy-looking swords, and unfortunately, they were too close. Even if he turned and bolted in the opposite direction, it’d all be over once they grabbed his collar. Obviously, fighting was out of the question. There was no way he’d win, considering numbers and strength differences. After considering it for a few seconds, Ix let out a heavy sigh. “All right.” “Huh?” “I won’t resist. Just get your revenge,” he relented, spreading his arms. The two adventurers were momentarily taken aback but then looked at each other and grinned. “The hell’s with this guy?” said one. “His noggin’s gotta be…,” said the other, striking his head with an open palm. “Eh, don’t mind if I do accept the offer, though.” The second one’s shoulders shook with laughter as he drew his sword. Ix opened one of his hands. “Ah, I forgot to mention—things’ll be tough if I die. Just make sure not to kill me,” he entreated. “Huh? What the hell you doing?” “I’m begging for my life,” said Ix. “…Shit. You don’t know the value of a life, do you…?” spat the man, shaking his head as if disappointed. “Do you understand what I’m saying?” asked Ix. “Oh, I get that. What I don’t get is your half-assed attempt at begging for your life.” “Right. That’s unfortunate, then.” “Guess it’s an unfortunate day for both of us.” Ix looked up the road. There were no signs of passersby. He couldn’t expect help even if he shouted. Just give up, he thought. No question—he would lose in an all-out brawl. And it was his fault for not being cautious enough even though he knew the risks. If he really did kick the bucket, you could say he was just reaping what he sowed. “Hey, you really going to kill him?” asked the man not holding a sword, anxious. “If you don’t hurry—” “It don’t matter. I don’t hate him that much. It’s just, you know…,” answered the other, raising his sword aloft, “…I dunno if he’s the kind of weakling piece of shit who’ll die even if I do hold back.” Ix saw the broad flat of the blade coming at him. 4 Yuui wiped the sweat from her brow and let out a breath. “Huff…” Her morning had been nothing but schlepping books around, and her afternoon had been nothing but moving beast corpses. At this rate, she wouldn’t be able to raise her arms anymore. She gazed around the room. Ottou was cheerfully carrying some carcasses, smiling. He always looked like that, so Yuui couldn’t tell if he had more energy than usual or not. Morna, on the other hand, was very easy to read. “Huff, huff, huff…” “A-are you okay, Morna?” asked Yuui. “I’m…o…kay…,” she answered, rolling out some logs before unsteadily moving them elsewhere. Her bangs were plastered to her forehead, making her look even more disquieting than she already was. Though Morna was the oldest, followed by Yuui, and then finally Ottou, their physical capabilities were completely reversed. If only Ix were here, mused Yuui. She didn’t expect much from him physically, either, but they could have gotten more done with four people than with three. “His errand must have wound up taking longer…,” murmured Yuui. Though Ix and Morna holing up for their research had resulted in the compound core, it had also led to an absurdly messy room. Additionally, just as Morna was about to return to crafting afterward, she predictably found herself unable to find the tools and materials she needed. Since she would inevitably need to organize things first, Yuui had offered to help. Yuui wasn’t connected to the shop, but she had a good conscience, so she’d felt some responsibility. By dividing the room into a magic beast section, a log section, and a tool section, they managed to get it back to its original condition. It didn’t change the fact that it was cluttered beyond belief, but they didn’t have the energy to keep going. When they finished with a quick once-over clean, Ottou left the store, humming as he went. It was time for him to head home, since it was evening. Needless to say, he didn’t bother with a good-bye. He never did pointless things like that. Apparently, Morna, too, thought that was how it was supposed to be, because she didn’t even thank him for his help. To be fair, though, that was probably due to being so tired that she lacked the energy to get the words out. As if to prove this, Morna collapsed after the organizing was finished. After a while, she managed to crawl her way to Yuui’s feet and addressed her in a dead-sounding voice. “Th-th-th-thank…you.” “Of course. It was my wand that caused all this mess,” replied Yuui. “Y-you helped so much… N-now I can return to wand crafting.” “Yes, please make some good ones.” “R-right now…,” muttered Morna, looking down at herself, “…I can’t move my arms.” “A-ah…” There was a pause in the awkward conversation. After staring closely at each other for a while, Morna’s face suddenly twisted into a grimace. “W-w-w-w-w.” She gasped while looking down. “W-weird, aren’t I? I… I’m n-no good at talking or m-moving…” “That’s not…,” Yuui started to say, before shaking her head. “That is true, isn’t it?” “…Yeah.” “You and Ix are unlike anyone I’ve ever met. You really are some strange people…rude as it may be to say…” “N-n-no, it’s the truth.” “Are all of Munzil’s apprentices like you two?” asked Yuui. At this, Morna brightened up and nodded. “Y-yeah. We’re all weird.” “But why…?” “B-because our master was bizarre…” Morna fiddled with her hair. “A normal person wouldn’t apprentice under someone that way… Besides, a normal person could find somewhere else to work, so they probably wouldn’t need to become an apprentice.” Yuui noticed that Morna was speaking naturally now, but she didn’t interrupt. “People like me can’t live in most places…but in Master’s shop, as long as you made wands, no one would get mad at you. He was crazy, but I knew from the beginning he’d be like that, so I had nothing to fear. You know, when I talk to people, I don’t understand half of what I’m saying,” she admitted quietly. “But yeah, I think the rest are like that, too.” “I wonder if…that’s why,” mused Yuui. “H-huh? Why what?” “Ix.” Yuui sighed. “We’ve been going to the library every day, so a question suddenly struck me. Why did he accept my request?” “Ummm, well—” “I know—it’s the contract, right? But the person who wrote it is dead. There’s no one to punish Ix if he breaks it. And to enforce complete compliance even after his death… Was Munzil really that terrifying a person?” “…No. Actually, I think it just comes down to Ixie, maybe. He listened to everything Master said… All the other apprentices knew when to ignore him or couldn’t always understand him.” “Hmm, that does not sound great…” “So yeah, it’s not obvious…why he accepted the request, is it?” “Even you don’t know why…” “A-actually, I don’t think Ixie does, either.” “Huh?” Yuui wanted to interrogate her more, but Morna had already stood, as though she meant to end the conversation. “Talking makes me antsy,” she said, sitting down at her work desk. After doing the usual ritual, she immediately started crafting. She slid into work so naturally, it was as if she’d been doing it all day. It was as though her trade was a continuous thread inside her, one that never truly stopped. It would have been wrong to interrupt her, so Yuui left the room as quietly as she could. The shop was pitch-black. She lit the remaining stub of a candle. Ix still hadn’t returned. She felt a slight chill on her skin. Why did he…? She thought about him again. Yuui could tell he wasn’t motivated solely out of curiosity. Of course, fathers and teachers weren’t exactly the same… But both of them were following the orders of a dead person… So why did they keep it up? And would they even be able to? She… Would he tell her if she asked him directly? I wonder if he’ll come back soon… Yuui laid her hands on the table and rested her chin on them as she stared at the dancing flame. Fatigue frothed up from within her body, rising in the direction of her head. The bubbles gathered, became a mass, and slowly invaded her skull. “…Ah.” Yuui woke to the sound of a knock on the door. Wiping the drool off her hands with her sleeves, Yuui tried to take stock of her surroundings even as her mind refused to get going. The candle had gone out. Only a bit of light shone in through the window. How long was I asleep…? Moving to the window on shaky legs, she looked out to check the position of the moon. It was as if a hole had opened up in the night sky, obscured by fast-moving clouds. It’s still the middle of the night, she thought. Her eyes hadn’t adjusted to the darkness yet. Eventually, she noticed a rapping at the door. It had been there the entire time, but she hadn’t processed it. For a second, she thought it might be Ix, but then she shook her head. If it were him, he’d be shouting. Regardless, Yuui put on her coat. Stretching her hands out in front of her to feel for furniture, she edged toward the door. After clearing her throat, Yuui spoke. “Who’s there?” “…Yuui?” “Ix?!” “Yeah.” His voice was nearly a groan. She threw open the door to find him standing there, his black-and-blue swollen face dimly illuminated in the moonlight. “Sorry I’m late,” he mumbled. “Wh-what happened to you?!” Ix began to collapse just as Yuui led him into the shop. She propped him up and sat him down gently in a chair. He raised an arm and pointed to the doorway. “…Thank them.” “What?” She looked in that direction. Yuui could make out three figures standing a short distance away from the store. They were tinted blue from the moon’s light and casting vague shadows on the ground. “They carried me here…and treated me,” Ix informed her in a rasping voice. “I was attacked on the street.” “Oh no…” She didn’t know the details, but he’d told her enough to know these people had saved him. It was so dark that she couldn’t see their faces. She strained her eyes to look at them. The area suddenly brightened, putting their faces and environs into clear relief. But it still took a few seconds for her to process what she was seeing. The three stood there staring in disbelief. Two young men and a young woman, all around her age. “Yuui…,” murmured Tomah. “What are you doing here…?” But Yuui couldn’t get any words out. It was as though something had caught in her throat. Her mind went completely blank; she couldn’t even remember how to breathe. “Yuui?” The low voice she heard from beside her finally brought her back to her senses. Trying to get her raging thoughts in order, she gazed at Ix. He looked back at her quietly. “It’s nothing,” she answered at last, working hard to maintain an even tone. She returned to the entrance and examined the three people before her. “Y-Yuui…,” gasped the other young man. His large doglike ears stood straight up, but she held her hand out to stop him from saying anything more. “Tomah, Dann, Rozalia, I thank you for saving him,” she said. “Th-that’s not important right now…,” stammered the same man, Dann. “We were worried! You disappeared all of a sudden… But you’re all right, thank goodness…” “I have nothing to do with you three anymore,” said Yuui. “It’s late, so let’s discuss this some other time. I can express my gratitude then.”
Chapter 6
58 min read