I wonder where Elias and Leo went.
Aki wandered Port City’s main thoroughfare wearing nothing more than the casual red dress and short leather boots Mina had prepared for her.
After hearing what happened between her and Elias, Leo told her to wait in his room while he confronted Elias, but she grew impatient and snuck over to check on them. Neither Elias nor Leo was inside.
Surprised to find Elias’s room empty, Aki rushed downstairs and found the rest of their party gathered in the dining room’s lounge area. Everyone took her panicked news calmly, and their group concluded “Aki should look for the boys in town first before we all go out searching.”
When she asked why, they avoided the question and strongly asserted she look for the boys alone, so here she was roaming the city in search of them.
They really should have helped! I can’t use magic to find people or to send messages like Johann and Leo can. I’m clearly a lot less likely to find them on my own.
Stuck in an absurd situation, Aki hopelessly scanned her surroundings.
Her feet carried her near the city’s main gate, and she could see the stone walls and the open arabesque iron gate at the end of the road that continued straight ahead.
Oh, that’s the gate we passed through when we initially arrived at Port City.
It filled Aki with nostalgia as she remembered the day she traveled through the main Field with Elias, Leo, and Johann for the first time. At the time, she was just enthusiastic about the journey to come. But after everything she learned about this world and herself during the last Quest, her excitement had been replaced by apprehension.
Our next destination is finally going to be… Aki shifted her gaze from the iron gate to the vast blue sky. Once she located Elias and Leo and regrouped with the others, their next destination was the Dark Lord’s Castle.
I’m going to see the Dark Lord again at last.
When she thought about it, it was that first encounter with the Dark Lord in her apartment that led her to this world to take her kidnapped sister back from him. Until recently, she always believed that meeting the Dark Lord again would mark the end of her journey.
But after reuniting with Nako along the way and learning the Dark Lord might not be the true enemy, after all, she had lost sight of what the real end goal was now.
Meeting the Dark Lord isn’t an endpoint, but a turning point leading to new challenges. I have a feeling it will guide us to uncovering the secrets of the Hero, the Dark Lord, their Right-hands, the Goddesses, and this world’s very foundation.
One of Elias’s last comments suddenly invaded her thoughts: “I plan to go to the Dark Lord’s Castle alone.” Aki looked up at the gate with a start.
Elias can’t possibly have left without us, right?
He was capable of anything. With the charged mirror, he could just ask for help from a Royal Court Mage to send him on a one-way trip to the Dark Lord’s Castle.
Was he already on his way there? Was he really the type to leave everyone—to leave Aki—without a word?
Aki tried to convince herself that he wasn’t, but she anxiously stared at the gate. I have no guarantee that Elias wouldn’t leave without us. He’s done nothing to make me think otherwise.
Her heart dropped to the pit of her stomach as she thought of his empty room and the last words he said to her.
Has he already gone somewhere out of reach this time? I don’t want that…
His tranquil smile and the warmth of his big hand holding hers came to mind.
I love Elias. I love him so much, I can’t suppress these feelings. I’d be so lonely if he’s gone, I wouldn’t know what to do with myself.
Aki always believed they would be together as long as she was in this world because they were bound as Hero and the Hero’s Right-hand. But now that she might lose him for good, she realized her arrogance. If she didn’t grab hold of his hand, he was going to move on, leaving behind that sad smile as the final reminder of what they once had. Elias was going to take all the burdens on himself and disappear.
If I don’t want that to happen, I need to grab his hand and never let him go.
“Please still be somewhere in this city, Elias…!”
Aki sprinted toward the gate, driven by emotion. She hoped she could run into him near the main city exit if he did intend to leave. Something told her she could stop him, even if she was a little late at saying what needed to be said.
As she ran, Aki suddenly heard screaming and shouting in the distance.
What’s going on?
Shuddering, she slowed her pace as she neared the gate where the commotion grew several times louder. A giant, squirming black blob charged toward her—it was a crowd of people madly running away, their hair flying in every direction. The ground shook with their escape, and a cloud of dust kicked up around the area.
People fled past either side of Aki, not caring she was standing there confused. They seemed to be fleeing from the gate.
“E-Excuse me!” Aki called out, hoping to ask someone what had happened, but no one heard her as they raced by screaming.
Growing impatient, she reached out to grab hold of someone, but their shoulders banged into her as the wave of people grew more erratic and she barely kept herself from being swept away with them.