Leah’s miniature heist had not gone according to plan this time. She’d thought the trio of travelers would offer easy pickings, but then they caught her trying to nick their things. If only that were where her bad luck had ended.
“Those little legs won’t carry you forever!” a man snarled.
The trio pursued, keeping pace far too well for Leah’s liking as she leapt from rooftop to rooftop. They stomped their feet down and kicked themselves into the air, easily closing any distance she managed to put between them. These were not spellcasters, but they were skilled in mana manipulation—vagabonds who made their living prowling blightlands, hunting and selling their spoils. As such, they specialized in using magic to enhance their physical attributes.
Leah was lithe, but she couldn’t outpace the superhuman.
“Don’t worry, we won’t treatcha too rough!” one of the pursuers cackled.
“Like ’em scraggly, eh?”
“Hey, ain’t no stench can’t be scrubbed out! Sprinkle a little water on the brat!”
I picked the wrong people to mess with! Leah ground her teeth. No choice.
With a swift turn, she changed direction, sprinting toward the mine.
“C’mon, don’t be like that!”
These mountains were rife with precious jewels, but there was one shaft in particular that had been sealed off. Its veins dried up, and the risk of cave-ins was especially high there. The wooden boards blocking the entrance staved off most curious explorers, but Leah was just small enough to squeeze through. It was her only hope.
“Stop, you little pickpocket!”
“Ain’t gonna be no safer in there than out here! After her!”
“You’re not gettin’ away!”
The travelers saw her destination and rushed to cut her off. They could eventually manage to force their way into the shaft, but three grown men barging their way inside might set off a cave-in. If they were going to catch her, they’d have a better shot outside the mine.
But luck remembered Leah just in time.
“I’m gonna make—”
Sweet dreams.
The moment Leah leaped for the opening into the mine shaft, light flashed so brightly it penetrated her mind. The sun seemed to rise inside the dark cave for an instant, and when the moment passed, Leah fell unconscious.
The girl hurled herself into the tunnel with more force than was probably wise. Even from outside, the men heard the crash. Then the earth rumbled.
“Stop!”
They did. Scuffing and sliding through the dirt, they halted their momentum just before the sealed maw of the mountain, just in time for the rocks to start falling—with the girl still inside.
The men gulped.
“What, uh… Whaddya s’pose happened to her?”
“Girl’s dead. Or she will be soon.”
“Wh-what do we do?”
“Nothin’, I guess. Just one orphan, right? They go missin’ all the time. Plus, she had it comin’. She tried to steal from us, boys!”
“Yeah. Yeah, that’s true.”
Satisfactorily justified in their apathy, the men left. Out of sight, out of mind. Except one man chose to speak up.
“Say, did either of you see that snowflake thing flash just before she flew in?”
“Not our problem,” the remaining two spat.
And so the town lived happily ever after, in perfect, peaceful silence, uninterrupted by the defiant cackling of a thieving street urchin.
College student Shirase Reia, twenty, sat aboard an England-bound flight. Not for any grandiose reason. She was an average girl with average taste in otome games, and she just so happened to win a sweepstakes sponsored by one. That was why she was on this plane. No other reason. The notion of traveling abroad was alien to her. If it weren’t for the sweepstakes, she wouldn’t even consider it. She had no talents or passions to speak of. She was an average girl. But maybe, just maybe, with this adventure, she could be a brave average girl.
So maybe she did have a reason to be on this plane.
An especially talkative boy sat next to her. One Hirosaki Shuuichi, age twenty-three. The gardener dreamed of expanding into landscape design. When Reia asked how he planned on achieving that, he didn’t have much to say other than, “We’re about to find out.”
He was a funny boy. He managed to get Reia talking about herself, which was no mean feat.
“And there’s ten of you, you said? Must have been a pretty successful game if the developers are splurging that much.”
“It’s crazy, huh? They’re actually pair tickets, so there could be up to twenty, but, well, I’m going by myself. I’m not sure exactly how many showed up.”
“Hey, lucky me. If you’d used that extra ticket, you and I might not have gotten to talk.” Shuuichi smiled a funny, unkempt sort of smile.
Reia blushed. “O-oh. Yeah, true.”
A twist of fate had placed them together. Shuuichi was her polar opposite. If not for him, Reia would have gone the entire trip not speaking a word.
Reia found herself envying Shuuichi’s extroversion, though she could not help also being thankful for it. She would have easily worked herself halfway to a panic attack sitting in total silence next to a boy like him. He had tan skin, like those pickup artists she’d always been told to avoid, but he was actually very sweet. Not at all the type to disrespect women.
As the flight went on, Reia grew more and more fond of the boy. Shuuichi always had a new question, and he seemed genuinely curious about her interests. That was how she’d gotten to talking about the game sponsoring the trip.
Then came the lore barrage.
Even Shuuichi seemed a bit taken aback, but Reia was too lost in her rant to notice. Eventually, she produced the game itself and pointed to a boy on the cover: Schroden van Rordpier, the fifth love interest of The Silver Saint and the Five Oaths. “This one’s my favorite.”
“Pale, blond, and handsome. Such a shame that I’m so tan.”
“Maybe,” Reia giggled, “but I think you wear it well.”