No sooner had her name left her lips, than the guards’ expressions froze. They both started to move and exclaimed at once, “Kanata Aldezia? The Kanata Aldezia?! The pride of the Lulualas Academy for Girls?! The girl they say is the second coming of the First Saint?!”
“Oh! I’ve heard of her!” said the older guard. “She’s a famous swordsman! For the past three years in a row she’s come in first in the Royal Capital’s fencing tournament, against the best sword fighters in the country! I had no idea she was so young!”
“I can’t believe we’d run into someone like Kanata Aldezia!” exclaimed the younger with excitement. Kanata, on the other hand, was on edge. She wanted to find a magic beast as soon as she could. Her fluff cravings had soared past their limits.
The older guard took the younger guard aside. “So, the girl turned out to be some kind of big deal, huh?”
“We probably don’t need to take her back to the city,” said the younger guard. “She’s gotta be stronger than us anyway.”
“Even so, we can’t just send her merrily on her way. No matter how strong she may be, she’s still a fifteen-year-old girl! And she’s walking around unarmed, in her school uniform and nice shoes, like she’s going shopping!”
“I guess we have to convince her somehow...”
“Now, young lady,” the older guard said, “I understand that you’re a formidable opponent. But could I ask you to return to the city, just temporarily? You should equip yourself properly and find a companion or two before you go out adventuring. So why don’t we—” He turned back to Kanata. “Hey, wait! Where did she go?!”
“Sir!” The younger guard pointed ahead. “Look! She got away!”
Indeed, Kanata had moved on while the guards had been discussing what to do. It didn’t seem like she and the guards were coming to an accord, and so, she reasoned, any further conversation would be meaningless. The fluff was more important. She had no use for guards who didn’t even have the good grace to be fluffy.
“Waaaaaiiiit!” shouted the guards as they began to chase after her again. Just then, something cried out from deep in the forest.
“Gugeeeeeeey!”
An ominous, piercing, discordant shriek rang out. The men covered their ears. They realized at once what that cry was. They had spent too long protecting the city to mistake it.
“A magic beast! No—was that?”
“Miss! Come here! It’s dangerous up ah—oh dear gods, why are you speeding up?!”
“Because there’s fluff up ahead!” Kanata cried.
Her head was too full of fluff for her to even think about stopping. The guards had never stood a chance.
Kanata’s sixth sense was telling her that the shrieking voice would lead her to the fluff. And if the fluff was there, Kanata must go. She had qualified to become an Oracle, you may recall—a credit to the precognitive powers she was currently exhibiting. The trees here were thick; they made a tight woven ceiling of branches that covered the gaps between them. Kanata took to the treetops, jumping from branch to branch, moving like the wind, until, in very little time, she reached her destination.
“Gugeeeeeeey!”
“Gargargar!”
Two enormous magic beasts spread their black wings and took to the sky. They had sharp beaks, like a crow’s, and a wingspan that cast a shadow great enough for five adults to sleep comfortably within it. At first glance, it looked like the two birds flying back and forth at high speeds might be fighting each other, but on closer inspection, they were targeting a figure cowering on the ground. It looked like a piece of tattered cloth or some other kind of rubbish, but that was not the case.
The cowering figure was a black ball of fur about the size of a kitten. Yes, that’s right, a ball of fur. Looking at its tiny shaking body, it was impossible to tell whether it had legs somewhere in there or not. Its only distinguishing feature was a pair of pointy, catlike ears that stuck out of its fluff. Its fur looked like it was ordinarily pitch-black and soft, but after so many attacks it had become filthy with blood and dirt.
“Gugeeeeeeeey!”
The giant birds kept attacking, swooping down to rake at the creature with their talons, then taking to the sky once more. Each time they attacked, the creature would roll around on the ground, but it couldn’t escape. It trembled in fear.
“Gugeygeygeygeygeygey!” the birds shrieked.
Their shrieks sounded almost like laughter. It was clear that these birds wanted to torment the furball to death.
Kanata moved to dash off and rescue the creature, but suddenly her path was blocked by the guards, who had finally caught up to her. They were slower than her, even after abandoning their helmets and spears.
The older guard huffed and puffed. “How are you so fast?! I was running all out! I’m actually impressed with myself for keeping up...”
“W-Wait!” the younger guard shouted. “Don’t get close to those magic beasts!”
Despite being on the brink of collapse, the guards moved to block Kanata.
“Please, miss, listen to us!” said the older guard.
“The kingdom has put out a bounty on those beasts! You’d need a team of skilled knights or adventurers to take one down! No matter how strong you are, it’s simply impossible to take on a monster like that unarmed!”
The two guards were genuinely concerned for Kanata’s safety. For now, the birds were focused on the furball, but there was no telling if they would notice the humans and decide to attack.
“It’s good that it wasn’t a human who was attacked. We should get away while the magic beasts are killing each other,” the guards called to Kanata.
However, Kanata showed no signs of moving. She was staring fixedly at the poor injured furball.
“You want to save the little one?” one of the guards asked. “Give it up. A magic beast won’t show gratitude toward a human.”
“It’s a fight between magic beasts,” said the other. “It’s not our place as humans to interfere. We should leave and let nature take its course.”
The guard was about to place his hand on Kanata’s shoulder, when suddenly Kanata seemed to return to herself.
“Sir guard,” she said, “I’ve actually given some thought to the matter of what to do if I should witness magic beasts fighting.”
The guard was probably correct. It wasn’t a human’s place to interfere with a fight between magic beasts that had nothing to do with them.