She hit me in the buttocks every time she sped up the stairway.
Up and down we went, and I desperately clung to Wallachia. My head swung left to right every time she made a quick turn on a staircase landing, and my stomach juices gurgled up to my throat.
With unmatched driving skills, Wallachia did wheelies and maneuvered the Ninja ZX-10R, finally smashing through the door to an office on the twelfth floor.
“Wallachia, go!”
“Aha!”
Her eyes glowed amber as she plunged into the Fair Lady faction’s followers, leaving scorching tire tracks on the floor—and lay down the motorbike.
“Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahh!”
The machine dropped to an inch from the floor.
In a sliding motion, the red bike’s tires spun at high speed and knocked down the followers.
I was already airborne, and I readied my small sword backhanded—Tsukiori took a position to intercept—and we cut off the sword hilt a follower was swinging at her from behind.
“Hey.”
Surrounded by a mob of enemies, I was back-to-back with Tsukiori, who looked stunned.
“I’ve come to take care of your lovely back.”
Since my voice was coming out of Wallachia’s throat, I was fully relaxed and let myself go with my lies.
“Stand your ground, hero. Just worry about what’s in front of you, and I’ll take care of your backside.”
Sakura Tsukiori widened her eyes—and hugged me hard.
“Hiiro. Welcome back… Oh, God, you…you…,” she whispered in a muffled voice. “You always show up at the perfect time to steal a person’s heart.”
“Hiiro!!”
Squealing in delight, my master, Astemir, embraced me. I was buried in her soft body before I had time to resist.
“You stupid apprentice! Idiot! Fool! Jerk! Where’s your homecoming gift?! Huh? Why haven’t you been responding to me on chat?! You moron! Dimwit!! There was no way that my beloved disciple would die!!”
She cried hard while continuing to clutch me in her arms.
“My gift!”
Leave it to a four-hundred-and-twenty-year-old infant to see a homecoming gift as more important than an emotional reunion!
I removed the throat microphone and speaker and turned to Tsukiori and my master.
“You knew it was me in seconds… How could you tell…?”
“Rei told us on chat that you were the one in the White Yuri Mask.”
“Oh…!”
Hearing the simple answer, all emotions escaped me as I started considering the truth of the universe.
“Um, excuse me. During Hiiro’s absence, I learned about stamps. Do you know about them? I figured out how to use them. I taught myself all about them. Do you want me to show them to you over dinner or something? Since I’m your master, I can even send you a stamp on chat.”
She sounded so annoying, I felt like stamping a footprint on her face!
Tsukiori and my master suddenly changed. They were acting like totally different individuals.
The sect followers, who had been stunned by our appearance, finally overcame their confusion and began swinging their weapons in the air, and—flash—my master mowed them down in an instant.
“I want to eat sushi. Sushi. Japanese sushi that comes rotating in front of you. Or the kind that sits perched on tiny bullet train plates.”
“Hiiro!” came Alsuhariya’s voice.
I turned around and saw a shiny aluminum bicycle waiting for me.
Heine straddled her two-wheeler, raised two fingers by her forehead, and rang a bell.
“……” Turrrr!
“Our two-wheeled cab has arrived, and we’re pulling out! This time, let’s admit that our data has been mistaken! Next time, we’ll go with plan H!”
“Stop changing the plan over and over without my knowledge and making me fail every time!!”
With Alsuhariya pushing me to hurry up, I ran over to the bicycle.
“Sorry, Master! We have an important mission to accomplish! We’ll have that sushi next time!”
“Huh?! My fresh desire to eat sushi will be gone then, and we’ll be reported to the Department of Health!”
“He’s saying the fresh feelings of the princess are more important.”
Ignoring my master and Tsukiori saying whatever the heck they wanted, I straddled the back of the bicycle.
“……” Turrrr.
The bicycle slowly made its way to the elevator.
“I’ve had enough of this…! I quit…!”
I cried as I slammed the White Yuri Mask to the ground.
“D-don’t cry. You just renewed your resolve to go on our important mission and shook off the temptation of sushi a minute ago.”
“I had to say something, or I’d be a pervert, suddenly showing up in a cosplay outfit after going missing for two weeks! I had to say something so this whole thing would make sense!!”
“If you wanted to be less liked, you could have stuck it out in your perverted cosplay mask.”
“They start liking me more! I know that from what’s been happening before! For some reason, they like me even more! Keep your mouth shut if you can’t tell that!”
I was immersed in despair beside the bicycle, now parked on the street, when someone patted me on the head.
I looked up and saw Heine smiling gently at me.
“Don’t cry, you small fry.”
“Did you have a heart attack or something on your way here?”
“Hop on.”
Astride her bicycle, Heine gave me a characteristic dirty look and pushed me to get on.
She looked like she might get violent if I said no, so I got on.
The wheels made a ratcheting sound, and the bicycle accelerated as we went downhill.
I closed my eyes, feeling the cool, comforting breeze with all my being, and listened to the spokes cutting the wind. I smiled at the feeling that we were accelerating, as if foreshadowing a wonderful future.
“So where are we going?”
“We’re going to Alfheim.”
“Start roaring, o rubber soles on my sneakers!!”
I used both feet to bring the bike to a halt, and a disgruntled Heine glared at me.
“Don’t get in my way, you pest.”
“I will get in your way, annoyer. Listen carefully, Heine. We are not going to Alfheim. We can use the head of a war criminal demon as a replacement for that broken bell. It’ll be fun writing our wishes on a plaque, just like at the Tanabata Festival!”
“Only an evil god would grant a bloody wish like that. Listen to what I have to say before you offer my head on the altar—that basket there that cost thirty-three bucks,” Alsuhariya said, shrugging her shoulders from the bicycle basket.
“I’m not going to be fooled by anything you say. I’m taking a spin on this with Heine, then heading home. Lapis probably knows what I’m doing, anyway, and I’m smart enough to know better than to go to her place, which is why I’m going home.”
“I heard that Lapis Clouet la Lumet is getting married tonight.”
“…What?”
I raised both feet off the ground, and Heine started pedaling cheerfully.
“Isn’t that obvious? She’s a princess of the la Lumet royal family. It would be strange if she didn’t have a suitable fiancé. She even declared that she’d never come back to Japan after returning from her studies in the present world, so why wouldn’t her family think she’s ready to become the queen?”
“Who’s she marrying? O-of course, it’s a girl, right?”
“No, it’s a guy.”
My facial muscles twitched, and the smile on my face disappeared instantly.
Alsuhariya was right. Lapis did have a fiancé in the original story.
She decides to give her all to her beloved hero while she’s on The Lapis Route and then breaks off the engagement in public. The love they had nurtured transcended status, race, and pressure, kicking the predetermined route out of their way, and I cried buckets, seeing her beauty as she smiled confidently.
There was no doubt in my mind that she had a fiancé.
But the game hadn’t indicated whether her fiancé was male or female.
“You may find this surprising, but elves aren’t unified among themselves. There are thirteen clans in Alfheim, and the strongest are chosen out of twelve, excluding the la Clouets, as shadow archers. That’s how they maintain a balance between the different clans when determining the royal guards, too, and the la Clouets are no exception.”
“Are you going to continue to stretch out your talking points like that until the sun goes down? Get to the point.”
Chuckling, Alsuhariya tapped her fingers on the edge of the basket to get a rhythm going.
“It’s simple. The Lumet family has been taking in males for generations. They balance the power among the clans by having a woman at the top of the family marry a man at the bottom. It’s their custom, and they don’t even discuss whether it’s rational. It’s what you would call a bad custom.”
That was certainly possible.
Several events were canceled in ESCO, one of which involved Lapis being taken away during her wedding.
When you think of it as an event to flatter the protagonist, it’s very nice that a guy is designated as a fiancé for Lapis, and the absolute evil (the guy) is disposed of to save her.
“…Does Lapis love him?”
“Of course she doesn’t. He’s just a weight she bears that the bigwigs have chosen frantically for her. She’s probably in a state of premarital purification now, where they’ve taken away her magic device, and it’ll be impossible to contact her at this point. So anyway,” Alsuhariya said, spreading her arms out wide merrily. “I’m done talking. Now it’s your turn to decide.”
Instead of responding, I whispered, “Heine, pedal as fast as you can.”
“Copy that.”
Smoke rose as the tires scraped against asphalt, and the bicycle accelerated at full speed.
I put my hands on her shoulders and leaned on one side at every turn to help her navigate the curves smoothly. We went through the dimensional door, and the night sky opened up.
The full moon was glowing in the sky.
It hung in the night sky, projecting a fake light that looked like it was made of paper. The deceptive moonlight radiated through the dimensional door and disappeared the moment we had switched over from the present world to the Otherworld.
Below the white moon was a golden castle.
The leaves and branches of the World Tree, reminiscent of a divine servant of God that covered the heavens and the earth, were spread out, as if trying to catch the moon. At its foot were spiral spires that acted as gate soldiers, extending their tips, as if to repel intruders from entering Alfheim.