Fifteen seconds, huh? Was that all? Oh, well, I was just asking out of curiosity. I had no intention of taking up Alsuhariya’s offer or to fight to the death with Chris Esse Eisbert.
I was lost in thought when I caught sight of my master, glancing this way with her eyes narrowed.
“The two of you…are bathing together…? Is that the kind of relationship you’re in…?”
“Hey, it’s your fault!!” (Splash! Splash!)
“Ow! That’s hot!! What a violent apprentice I have!! Is your skill with that water pistol thanks to the training I’ve provided for you?! My powerful leadership has produced results yet again!”
My master retreated after my water attack, and Rei quickly got to her feet.
“No! Don’t stand up! I can see everything—oh, die, bastard!!”
The moment the color of her skin brushed the edge of my vision, I slammed two fingers into my eyeballs.
“Aaahh…! Oh… S-sorry…”
Apparently, Rei didn’t see my eye-popping scene. I heard the rustling sound of her putting on her clothes, followed by footsteps, and it seemed she went running after my master to explain.
“Good. No yuri girl had been defiled.”
“D-don’t suddenly try to blind yourself. Thank God I got to you in the nick of time… But that was some force, and you really would have lost your eyesight if I wasn’t here.”
I got out of the bath after I could see again.
At that moment, the steam that had been clinging to me formed a line along my skin, and I looked at the sheath of my Masamune Kuki—and noticed something.
“The mystery of the fog.”
I grinned.
“I’ve figured it out.”
It was late the second night.
I’d been fighting from morning till night and stood half dead.
The three holy archers who had been my fighting partners were also panting, and they had removed the masks that were in the way, since it was dark.
It was fine to figure out the mystery of the fog, but meaningless if I didn’t master the sense of controlling it.
From head to toe, every part of my body was shaking with a fever.
One more time.
One more time, and I’d get it.
My whole body was more sensitive, and I took a stance that had become ingrained in my body.
The clouds that had been hiding the moon drifted away, and the moonlight illuminated the space between me and the holy archers—and I made my move.
I inhaled the fog into my lungs, then extended it as a line to my limbs, pushing the flow of powerful magic power into my line of magic and reinforcing it over and over so it wouldn’t burst.
From the tip of one finger…to another…then another…and another!!
“Ngh…! Argh…!!”
From my index finger to my middle finger, Alsuhariya’s magic power flowed. The magic line I’d constructed with everything I had helped control it, and the amount of magic energy I needed was supplied.
At that moment, I suddenly felt relaxed.
The world was illuminated, mingled with pleasure and pain. It was as if I had never felt the pain I had endured until then.
Then my eyes opened.
Half-open, they saw a route in the darkness.
I saw thousands of routes displayed before me, and I chose the red one.
“Hiiro…” My master got on her feet and muttered.
Two red lights emerged dimly, as if denying the darkness, perhaps to guide the lost.
As I stepped forward, my upper body tipped over as two rays of light swayed above.
A holy archer shouted:
“Duck!!”
But it was too late.
I waved my left hand, and the fog that had been brushed aside flew through the air—and began generating. Friction sounded in the air, and a magic barrier was formed to block the girls’ escape route.
Very gently, I pulled the tips of my fingers together.
And shot.
I saw the red route before me, where I applied my magic power.
Shoot—blink— My master’s foot kicked my arm upward, and—thud!
I had full control over my invisible arrow as it stretched up to the bottom of the moon that dominated the sky—and then it became visible.
A water arrow formed and then burst in a tremendously loud explosion, tilting the leaning torii gate further, uprooting the large trees, and pushing the holy archers, who were taking defensive positions, down to the ground.
Then it rained.
As I stood soaked to the skin, my master came to me, her wet bangs hanging down her face. She smiled at me and said, “Congratulations.”
Then I fell unconscious.
It was noon the next day when I came to.
I saw a tent over my head, heard the whisper of a cool breeze, and felt my feverish body.
Sunlight had crept in through the entrance, which swayed in the breeze, flickering at my feet. A pleasant warmth and softness enveloped me, and a savory aroma drifted in from somewhere and tickled my nostrils.
It appeared that I had been carried into this tent after losing consciousness.
“…Isn’t this a violation of basic human rights?”
My master was asleep, holding me in her arms, and Rei was sleeping, clutching me from behind.
I pushed my master away, moved Rei’s hands off my body, and stepped outside the tent.
“……”
The holy archers were sitting around a bonfire, roasting marshmallows on wooden sticks.
The three masks were moving suspiciously in the dim light.
Not moving an inch, the elves watched the white blobs melt with a sizzling sound.
“……”
“Can you stop using marshmallows as your sacred offerings while I sleep?”
“……”
“Please don’t look at me all at once… I-it’s scary…”
A dark-brown tengu pulled out a folding chair for me and prompted me to take a seat.
Her powerful presence made it hard to refuse, and I joined the group, putting on a female demon mask I was handed, and watched the marshmallows roast.
That was when my master came out of the tent, yawning, as if she had been waiting for this moment.
“Oh boy, I had a good sleep—”
“……”
“Are those marshmallows? Or possibly stomachs?”
Rei woke up a few minutes later, and the same process was repeated.
We ate the mystery hot pot everyone pitched in to make, and my master ate a marshmallow and looked like she was about to throw up when she asked me, “So you’ve figured out the identity of the fog, have you?”
I smiled and extended a magic line from my fingertip.