∗ ∗ ∗
“Ha. You really are nothing but a wench. Count Lomigos has lost his nerve...” The man laughed repeatedly, grabbing her collar and lifting her such that her tiptoes grazed the ground.
A long breath like a sigh came out of Lacey’s mouth.
“Hm? Yee— Aaah— WAAAAAAH!”
Lacey had uttered in a mere instant an incantation overlapped so many times that most people wouldn’t be able to make it out. Just as the man raised his eyebrow dubiously, the hand with which he was holding her burst into flames.
The sudden fire, which had been caused by neither spark nor any obvious means of combustion, caused the man to abruptly let go of Lacey. The furious flames on his arms quickly died down, but there were scorch marks on his iron gauntlets which shouldn’t have been able to burn.
“Yeek...” The man let out an inarticulate cry and sank to his knees. Lacey coldly looked down at him. However, that wasn’t the end of it.
Lacey solemnly regained her footing and gently stuck her staff into the ground.
A moment later, the ground split.
Cracks radiated out from where Lacey was standing. They briefly stopped growing, but then an instant later, dirt and rocks explosively went flying, and searing flames spurted out of the crevices. Fire blazed and scattered sparks all around her, but Lacey’s expression remained serene, the hem of her clothes fluttering.
A wave of commotion spread among the soldiers.
“Leave this village.”
This was a warning. She pointed her staff fixedly at the soldiers—and at the count who called himself Lomigos.
Lacey had made up her mind that if they fled, she wouldn’t do anything more, but...
“Have at her, soldiers! A mage is defenseless while casting! Forward!” Lomigos ordered, spittle flying from his mouth. Although they were shaken up, the soldiers got their horses that had been spooked by the flames under control and attempted to follow orders. Nobody wanted their weary murmurs of “I wish I had a choice about this” to be overheard.
“I already finished casting, you know.” The majority of Lacey’s magic didn’t even need to be chanted.
All of the fire wound itself around Lacey’s staff. The tornado of heat grew larger and coiled itself around like it was a dragon. When Lacey exhaled, the shock waves blew away her hat and the fire dragon opened its jaw, swallowing the noble and his soldiers and their screams as well. Then, at the very same time, the dragon dispersed like the wind.
“This is my final warning. Leave this village.”
It had all been just an illusion. But it wouldn’t be that way next time. Lacey was ready to take whatever risks were necessary to protect the others.
Though she hadn’t inflicted any pain, she had instilled fear. A good number of soldiers slid off their horses onto the ground and just looked at Lacey in a daze.
Silence echoed.
“Yeek...” What broke it was the sound of fear twitching in someone’s throat. “Aaah, waaah, eek... You monster...!”
It was a shriek from the man sunken down at Lacey’s feet, the only one who had avoided the fire dragon.
She was used to both overhearing this and having it said directly to her face. The man screamed loudly and rattled in fear, dragging his rear against the dirt as he drew farther back. “W-Waaah!”
Lacey had thought that the troops were preparing themselves to face her, but taking their cue from the man, the rest of the soldiers quickly turned around, jumped on their horses, and sped away.
Lomigos watched this slack-jawed for a while, but then speedily tumbled after them. “W-Wait! Don’t leave me! WAAAIT!”
“What, really?” What a disappointment that had been. Even low-level demonkin would’ve made for a better fight. “Oh. That’s right, I have to put everything back the way it was.”
While the flames that had swallowed the soldiers had been an illusion, everything else had been real. Lacey repaired the cracked earth in the blink of an eye and lowered the barrier she had placed around the villagers just in case.
“I’m sorry for startling you all,” she said with a drained laugh. Then she noticed how they were acting.
Everyone was looking at Lacey with an eerily silent gaze—including Allen, who she had stood up for.
“That’s the Dawn Witch!”
Lacey hadn’t denied what Lomigos had said. That was basically the same as confirming it.
“Ah...” Maybe if I say I’m not, I can still change their minds. Feeling their attention on her, Lacey’s expression stiffened. She anxiously bit her lip as she thought.
When she had first come to this village, she hadn’t feared what anyone might say about her. Even if they learned that she was the famous Dawn Witch and became scared of her, only watching her from a distance, it wouldn’t have concerned her. She probably wouldn’t have cared any which way.
But in time, she realized that this was a terribly immature attitude. As she got closer to them, the more scared she was of them finding out. She was afraid of them abandoning her. It made her want to cry out at them, “Don’t go away!” In the end, she was no better than a small child projecting her own feelings onto them. That was why she wanted to deny what had been said about her. She wasn’t the Dawn Witch—it had all just been some misunderstanding on the noble’s part.
“I—”
“It’s not true.” You can say it. It’ll be fine. You’re just an ordinary mage who can use a little bit of magic. So it’s not true.
It isn’t.
Don’t be afraid.
“I’m sorry...” She meant to say “It’s not true,” but in a stupor, she mumbled this instead. It was like the words had slipped out on their own. She had apologized with an absent-minded look. Immediately, Lacey’s face contorted and she gripped her staff tightly. Then...
“I’m sorry!”
She apologized nonetheless.
She just felt so guilty. The people of Plume Village had been kind to Lacey, but she had chosen not to tell them the truth, essentially lying to them and deceiving them.
Nobody said a word.
Lacey kept her head bowed amid the silence. She wasn’t sure how much time passed. To her, it felt like a very, very long time. But in reality, it wasn’t very long at all.
Someone stretched a hand toward the hat which had blown off and fallen to the ground when Lacey used her magic. It was Allen.
“What are you sorry for?” he said like it was no big deal. But actually, the boy was desperately feigning calm. Allen gulped down the trembling in his throat and lifted his face, ready this time. “Big sis Lacey, we figured out that you were the Dawn Witch ages ago.”
“Huh?”
“Of course we noticed. I mean, you’re Lady Dana’s friend and you’re named Lacey. It would be a real stretch if we couldn’t put two and two together. But since you didn’t say anything, we reckoned that you had some reason for it, so we kept quiet.”
Allen handed her the hat, and Lacey took it.
“You’re already part of this village, big sis Lacey. We all talked it over and decided we wouldn’t pry.”
Lacey blinked.
Her expression made Allen burst out laughing. Then he faced her with a broad grin. “That’s the first time I’ve seen you so mad. I was a little scared. But when I realized that you were getting mad for us, I was happy more than anything.”
The villagers nodded in firm agreement with Allen.
“Ah...” Lacey hugged her hat tightly against her chest. “Wah...” Sobs issued from her throat. “Wuhhhhhh...”
Huge tears dripped from her eyes. She crumpled her hat as she held it against her, but her expression was even more crumpled. Tricia wearily stroked Lacey’s small back and the twins spun around them.
She couldn’t put what she was feeling into words. She sniffled and eventually crouched down. Above her, she could hear lots of voices.
“Of course we knew.”
“You didn’t hide it very well.”
“C’mon, I said it’d be okay.”
“Lacey, you dom’t have to cry so much.”
They were all so warm. Lacey couldn’t stop the tears of relief from flowing.
“Anyway, did you see that noble running away? You could practically see his curly tail!” someone shouted, and the people around guffawed. With the ice now broken, everyone let out cheerful voices and laughed together.
“Way to go, Dawn Witch! No wonder you beat the Demon King! That noble’s no biggie!”
“How about you get Miss Lacey to give you a butt-kicking too? Maybe that’ll get you to behave better.”
“Gimme a break!”
Who could have expected a day like this to come? Lacey’s only purpose in life had been to hone her magic. But now she was here, amid the crowd. She kept wondering if it was just a dream. She wiped her tears and stood up. Lacey tried to laugh along with everyone, but her face just looked like she was smiling and crying at the same time.
“Hey, I just remembered. Do you think that brown-haired lad who comes around to Miss Lacey’s place knows who she is?” Kargo tilted his head, musing aloud the question that had just popped into his head.
Another villager heard this and responded, “His hair isn’t brown, it’s black.”
“No,” Allen shook his head, “Big bro is blond, right?”
They’d had this conversation before. They were all referring to Wayne. While they made it sound like there were multiple Waynes, that wasn’t the case, of course.