Chapter 4:
Secret Incident
“GR…AHHH! I lost!”
A girl ran through the wide-open wilderness, trying desperately to get away from Jeepupp. Her red twin tails swayed as she ran. Her body was covered in wounds, and the impact of her every footfall caused her more pain. But the girl, injured as she was, kept running. She didn’t have a goal. There wasn’t any place she was going to. She was simply running.
Running to escape her own crushing weakness.
The girl’s name was Ashley Arisietta. She was a genius magician, the youngest person ever to achieve S-Rank at the tender age of thirteen. You might think a girl like that had natural talent, but it wasn’t true in this case. In order to make the most of one’s talents, one must put in
the appropriate level of effort to match. Day after day, the girl had been giving it her all. Results had followed.
But this time was different. She’d met a huge wall, a wall so thick and so strong that she feared it was impossible to break through.
“I lost!”
Even though she was completely out of breath, Ashley gritted her teeth. This was a loss that she couldn’t explain away…it was a total defeat. As Ashley continued to run, the forest came into view in front of her. The dense, overgrown trees almost looked like evil tentacles, denying entry to any adventurer.
The dense, blackish-green of the trees was so eerie that it left every passerby with an ominous sense of foreboding. Adventurers called it the Demon Forest. It was a dangerous area that adventurers below A-Rank were forbidden to enter.
“That’s it! I’m going to completely annihilate the monsters there!”
Thus Ashley had decided. The fact that her body was still covered in wounds and the fact that she had almost completely exhausted her magical energy in a duel no longer concerned her. She couldn’t stay like this. She couldn’t stay defeated. Because she was a prodigy. Because she had to be a prodigy. The obsessive thoughts clouded her mind, narrowed Ashley’s field of vision, made reason impossible.
“Hello. Nice to see you again.”
The voice rang like a bell; it echoed pleasantly in Ashley’s ears. When she turned, she saw the partner of the man she’d just fought, the man called Yuri. And this was Filia, wasn’t it? The elf wasn’t out of breath at all, so she’d probably used wind magic to give chase.
Ashley glared at the beautiful silver-haired elf before her. “What, did you come to laugh at me?” The coldness of her words surprised even herself, though they came from her heart. “I just charged in, and I lost in a completely humiliating way. Funny, isn’t it?” She sniffed. “There’s no excuse for a loss like that.”
The girl held back the waves of tears as best as she could despite her burning shame. But Filia just stood completely still, showing no signs that she was going to laugh at all.
“What’s the matter?” Ashly barked. “Laugh!”
Filia’s silver eyes shone even more mysteriously at night, after the setting of the sun. The shine in her eyes disappeared once, for only a moment, before lighting up once more. Ashley realized a moment later that Filia had just blinked.
“No,” said Filia. “I genuinely thought that you were amazing. I could never, ever possibly challenge Yuri.”
So…fine. Maybe the elf standing in front of her hadn’t come to laugh at her, or to ridicule her. It was even more humiliating to be pitied by her enemy’s ally.
“Are you making fun of me? What’s the point of a fight if you lose? I have to win! I have to win, or there’s no…” Ashley’s voice was shaking. Was it out of anger or shame? Not even Ashley was certain.
“Believe that if you will, but I can’t just leave you alone like this,” said Filia. “You’re going into the Demon Forest with such wounds, and…surely you understand that if you die, then there’s nothing left. Don’t you?”
That was a sound argument. It really was. Ashley could tell that Filia wasn’t just showing her pity but was truly concerned for her well-being. That didn’t mean she could just back down now. She had to be a prodigy.
“Wh-why would I…why would I need to hear that from you?! I’m an S-Rank! Are you an S-Rank?!” shouted Ashley, her voice rising and falling, cracking and breaking as her emotions raged.
Sure, Ashley was lashing out. She knew that, even if she was angry with herself for it. But the thoughts swirling around inside her were so dark that she just couldn’t stop them anymore.
“No, I’m an A—”
“Then keep your mouth shut!”
Even with her eyes all red, Ashley could tell that Filia’s shoulders twitched. She had probably gone too far with that…no, she was sure of it. But the thirteen-year-old girl simply didn’t have the words to apologize.
“It’s my life,” said Ashley. “And I can judge for myself what’s dangerous for me.”
The elf standing in front of her had already chipped away at her willpower to enter the Demon Forest. After she goes home, Ashley thought to herself, I’ll go home too.
Even so, after everything Ashley had said, she was certain that the elf had seen through her too.
“I see…well, I am a lower rank than you, Ashley. I suppose my words might not be convincing.” But this elf, this Filia, didn’t stop. She kept trying to convince Ashley not to enter the forest. “I don’t imagine that going up in rank comes that easily,” Filia mumbled, her thoughts coming out in a whisper. “Um, Ashley?”
Their eyes met. Filia’s silver eyes seemed to look straight through Ashley, freezing her on the spot. “Wh-what is it?” Ashley asked.
“Will you join me? Help me think of a way that I can convince you not to do this.”
“Huh?!” Ashley stared. What is she talking about? She wants me to figure out a way for her to convince me?
“Please! I can’t do it alone!”
“O-okay…?” Ashley had no idea how things had come to this, but now she had to help think of a way to…stop herself from going into the forest. Even though, in truth, she no longer had any intention of doing so.
Both Filia and Ashley stood there before the Demon Forest, absorbed in their thoughts. However, they weren’t coming up with any good ideas. Ashley couldn’t even think straight anyway; she was too distracted with idle thoughts. One such thought: Why am I doing this in the first place?!
“Ah!” Filia shouted suddenly.
Ashley had hung her head, lost in thought, trying to concentrate. But she looked up at that, thinking that Filia had come with something clever. When their eyes met, Ashley saw that Filia had an entirely smug look on her face.
“I understand. All I have to do is beat Yuri,” she announced.
Filia had offered yet another completely astounding answer. Deep down, Ashley had to admit that it was a little impressive. However, she soon realized that there was one big problem with Filia’s idea.
“He’ll go easy on you, won’t he? I mean, you’re his partner, right? It’s not like anyone would really hit their partner with everything they’ve got.” Yeah, nobody with any sense would really go all out on their partner.
To be honest, Ashley’s assessment was an extremely reasonable one. However, they weren’t talking about a normal person.
“Does he really look like the kind of guy who would go easy on someone?” asked Filia.
“I…guess he doesn’t, no.” That said it all, Ashley decided. That muscle monster she’d just fought absolutely wouldn’t take it easy on someone just because they were his ally. “But what’s in this for you?”
“Ah, um…” Filia, who’d been speaking so eloquently, suddenly started stammering.
Hmm… What was she scheming? Even though Ashley was the youngest person to have ever held S-Rank, she was still S-Rank. Sensing something was amiss, her brain kicked into high gear. She steeled herself to jump into battle at even a moment’s notice as she studied Filia.
After squirming and struggling to come up with answers, a look dawned on Filia’s face like she’d made up her mind. Her peach-colored lips parted.
“I want you to be my f-friend,” said Filia. “Would that…be okay?”
The words that passed through Filia’s lips were not at all what Ashley had expected. She was caught completely off guard. Her mind stopped racing. She gave up on trying to come with a reply and fell silent.
The silence hung in the air. As time passed, Filia turned her face lower and lower. “I suppose not…” she said, in a tone of voice that could only be described as disappointed.
But Ashley’s brain kicked into gear again. “I…I was just a little surprised is all. You talk like a kid, you know that?”
Filia’s face suddenly lit up, like a flower in full bloom. “You think so? According to a fortune-teller, I can carry myself with grace on the outside, but I’m still a child at heart.”
“That sounds about right,” said Ashley. “Though you don’t seem particularly graceful on the outside either.”
“Hey, that’s mean!” protested Filia, pouting. But even though she was pouting, she was pretty enough to pull it off.
Ashley was the younger of the two, but she realized she found Filia incredibly adorable.
Friends, huh? Ashley had gotten along well enough with everyone in her village, but it had been a small village, unfortunately. There had been no children there her own age, and she’d never had anyone that she could call a real friend before.
She had never even thought about wanting a friend until now, but…maybe it wouldn’t be so bad.
“Oh, Ashley, are you smiling?” Filia peered at Ashley’s face as she was lost in thought. Ashley hurriedly tried to hide her face with both her hands, but it was too late: Filia had already seen Ashley’s broad smile. “You’re really cute when you smile.”
“Y-you mind your own business!” Ashley tried to shoo Filia away, waving her off, but she couldn’t wave away her own smile.
At this, Ashley finally told Filia that she no longer had any intention of going into the forest, but to her surprise, Filia stubbornly refused to give up on her offer to fight Yuri. “I’ve already fought him once before, after all.”
From there, the two parted ways. Filia decided that in one week, she’d fight Yuri in the same place where Ashley had fought him earlier that day.
Ashley, now alone, looked up at the night sky. After talking with Filia, she had realized something: She’d been tied down by the word “prodigy.” But now a man named Yuri had defeated her, and an elf named Filia was concerned about her.
Ashley was, in the end, a thirteen-year-old child. In that instant, she felt like a long, heavy chain, which had until then been wrapped around her body, fall away at long last.
“I see,” she murmured, gazing up at the stars shining far away. “Maybe I don’t have to be perfect.” Ashley’s words faded into the chilly air.