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The town of Friedland was located on the frontier.
At least, the frontier from the perspective of the capital, the place considered by many to be the center of the world. It was also on the frontier from the simple perspective of the density of the transportation network and the flow of goods that resulted therefrom.
The area where Friedland was located was essentially a giant wasteland pockmarked with human settlements, connected by the merest of country roads.
Even those roads had been made back when the king’s army was attempting to civilize the area. Now the responsibility of caring for them fell to the various districts and merchants’ associations, and upkeep was sporadic at best.
The roads, which were made of stone or brick near the capital, turned to dirt in this part of the country. After a rain they were muddy, making life difficult for the merchants and travelers who were their primary users. In some places, fields of tall grass came right up to the roadside, while in others the path ran along sheer cliffsides.
The poor condition of the roads made accidents more likely, yet the attempt to guard against trouble meant taking no shortcuts. As a result, many were the times travelers would be forced to camp out far from any human habitation. Lawless bandits were a concern, as were wild animals, xenobeasts, and demigods. One literally took one’s life in one’s hands to travel these country roads. Merchants would go heavily armored, or at the very least accompanied by mercenary bodyguards, and everyone avoided moving at night.
But now, a lone traveler could be seen on the road to Friedland.
Strikingly, it appeared to be a girl in her early teens. She had long, platinum-colored hair, but her irises were purple as a precious stone.
Her body was as elegant as it was possible to be. It was hard to tell at a glance where she had come from, but it was clear enough that she was not accustomed to travel. The air about her suggested that she didn’t even have much experience of leaving home—truly a sheltered girl. Above all, her clothes were not those of a traveler. She wore a long dress, almost blindingly white, as well as woven sandals. She didn’t even appear to have a bag, let alone a weapon—she looked like she was just going for a walk through town.
Clearly, she wasn’t in her right mind. The very fact that she had managed to get this far safely bespoke an almost miraculous luck. But how long would her luck last?
The girl stopped walking suddenly, a puzzled look on her face. At the same time, the grass by the roadside rustled.
Igi. Gi. Gigigigi. Gigi. Gi.
A strange voice came from the bushes. Something was hiding nearby, and it was getting closer. That much was clear. The girl, however, showed no sign of concern; rather, she blinked as if in confusion and looked toward the sound.
Gigigigi!
Now the sound from the grass was unmistakable, and a bizarre creature launched itself out of the weeds.
It was an animal, huge and ugly. Its body was covered in fur and, surprisingly, it walked on two legs. But its legs were short and its arms were long; it walked hunched forward in a way that suggested moving on all fours might have been more efficient.
Perhaps it was a variety of monkey. Or had been. It was animalistic, yet not an animal. It was weirdly human, and yet not human. Its face was close to a human face. It was unsettling, as though someone had stuck a human head on an animal’s body. It was bizarre, and it reeked. A hideous creature trapped somewhere between human and animal.
“Brrrrn...”
What’s more, it spoke. Emotion, something more than animal but less than human, was evident in its eyes. It craved something, something that went beyond the basic instinctual need for food or sex.
“Brr—Brrrains!” Its head nodded vehemently up and down. “Brains, Brains, Brains... Gray Matter... Give It To... Me...!”
“Brains? Gray matter?” the girl repeated with a stumped look.
A full-grown adult could not have helped but be terrified by the misshapen creature, but there was no change in the girl’s demeanor. She was no more bothered than if she had seen an odd-looking cat or dog during a walk through town. Nor did she seem surprised that the animal could talk.
“Brains... You Give Me... Brains, And I... I Let You Go...”
“Well, I’m just not sure it works that way,” the girl said earnestly. “I don’t think I can give you my brains.”
“Brains... Delicious. Suck Brains, Slurp Brains, Chew Brains... Head... Get Smart... Slurp Delicious, Delicious Brains!”
They seemed to be talking past each other.
Perhaps that was only natural. The thing that had appeared in front of the girl was not intelligent enough to hold a proper conversation. That was precisely why it wanted human brains: so it could get smarter.
A demigod. That’s what creatures like this were called. A type of living creature who, for any number of reasons, had surpassed its normal lifespan and become something greatly spiritually advanced. They were somewhat more intelligent than mere beasts, yes, but it was nothing approaching human intelligence. Thus, in order to become smarter, they sought to consume the brains of intelligent creatures and continue to raise their spiritual status.
Their physical capacities greatly outstripped those of humans. A young woman, walking along in sandals, had little hope of escape.
It was unlikely that all these calculations entered into the demigod’s approach, though.
“...Hrn?”
The girl took a nonchalant step. Not back. Forward.
One step. Two, three.
The girl got so close to the demigod they could have touched. The fact that the creature didn’t react was perhaps because even this monster was at least smart enough to realize how strange the girl’s actions were.
Suddenly, the girl had weapons in her hands. Where had they come from? They were shimmering, double-edged rapiers. An extremely simple creation—nothing more than a blade, a grip, and a hilt between them. There were no unnecessary flourishes; the only thing resembling a decoration was the rose worked into the crescent-shaped guard that ran from the bottom of the sword to the hilt to protect the girl’s fingers. That part, and that alone, was as red as if it had been drenched in blood.
She had one of these rapiers in each hand. It was impossible to say where she had pulled them from. She had certainly not been carrying a weapon as she walked along. She hadn’t even had a bag with her. It was as if she had produced the swords from thin air.
She thrust. The movement looked so natural, it was almost as if she were simply handing the sword to the demigod. She didn’t appear to have put strength into it, and indeed, the tip pierced the demigod only superficially. Nothing close to a fatal blow.
Surely it hadn’t even reached the demigod’s muscles. Maybe it had pierced the skin, but then again, maybe it had stopped at the layer of fur. The demigod’s fur was, after all, stronger than crude leather armor.
Obviously, the next thing to happen was that the creature would strike back with its claws. It would rend the girl into pieces.
Or should have.
“Hrr... rrrr... HRRRRRRAHHHHHH!!” The demigod fell backward, howling. No. Screaming. At the same time, something began to spew out of the rapier where it had been stopped. “ERRRAGGHHH!! GRRRRAHHH!!”
The girl didn’t move. The sword hadn’t moved either, from where it had stopped after administering that tiny pinprick. Yet somehow, the tip of the sword was now peeking out of the demigod’s back.
What was more, an instant later, rapier blades suddenly emerged from all over the demigod’s body.
“HRRRA...GGHH...”
The monster slumped over.
It only made sense that if someone had been pierced by a host of blades from inside their own body, they would die. That, at least, is what a human would expect. But the demigod continued to collapse.
Demigods weren’t made up from a single animal. In many cases, they attracted and covered themselves in creatures called familiars, the group forming a larger body that acted as a single living thing. Hence, killing the “core” animal released the bonds that held the familiars together. Then again, it was also possible that strength may well up from within one of the familiars and a new core may appear. Completely exterminating a demigod was difficult for that reason.
The girl, however, unflinchingly set about the business of cleaning up the familiars.
“Krah?!”
One familiar found itself pinned to the ground. The girl had tossed the sword from her left hand down into it. The other familiars seemed to see this as an excellent opportunity to escape, and scattered. The girl had only one blade left. Perhaps the familiars assumed that even if the girl gave chase, she could kill at most only one more of them.
How wrong they were.
Thock, thock, thock, thock, thock. One by one the familiars found themselves immobilized. It was a hideously easy slaughter.
The girl pierced one familiar after another with rapiers that came from they knew not where, looking as happy as if she were twirling in the rain under an umbrella. Closer inspection, however, revealed that these creatures had not simply been impaled. Each animal had holes all over its body. Just like the original demigod, they had been stabbed to death from the inside.
But... how?
What in the world had happened to them?
Where did so many swords—more than thirty of them—come from?
“Is that all of you?” the girl asked as she finished off the last creature. She looked as innocent as a small bird.
✦ ✦ ✦
“I’m very sorry. I guess I’m the one who got something here.”
What could she possibly mean by that?
Suddenly, the wind came up. It wasn’t very strong, just enough to elicit a susurrus from the trees, yet all at once the impaled familiars dissipated, turned into dust that was carried off by the breeze. Nothing remained of them.
The girl set off walking again, relaxed. She left behind her more than thirty rapiers, standing like gravestones.