The two of them sped along over rock hills and the depressions between them. They could still hear Fremy’s gunshots.
“Fremy!” Adlet called. Standing at the top of a rock hill, he finally caught sight of her. She was in a narrow valley, at the center of a circle of fiends. Goldof didn’t seem to be anywhere nearby. “We’re joining in!”
There were about fifteen enemies. Surrounded, Fremy was dodging this way and that as she squared off against the fiends. Close-quarters combat was her greatest weakness.
“Fremy! Watch out!” he shouted.
She had lost her balance. Adlet readied his sword, holding it tight, and aimed. He twisted the hilt to launch the blade, the recoil knocking him backward. The sword impaled a fiend’s face, and Fremy took advantage of the opening it created to slip out of the ring and approach Adlet and Rolonia.
“I’llkillyouDIEI’llkillKILLyouifyoutouchFremyI’llkillyoushowmeyourGUTSyourottenfiends!” Rolonia wailed as she swung her whip around. The fiends were advancing toward her and Adlet. The two of them gave up on chasing Goldof and fought the coming enemies instead.
Fifteen minutes later, the enemy corpses lay at their feet. Of course, Nashetania was nowhere around, and neither was Goldof. Moments earlier, they had seen a flash of light in the direction the princess had gone and heard a noise like thunder. Now, both the sound and light were gone.
“There you are. So this is where you landed,” Adlet said, picking up the blade. Compressing the spring in his sword hilt, he clicked it back into place.
“…You saved me there. That was close,” Fremy said, and she breathed a heavy sigh.
“What happened with Goldof?” asked Rolonia. “He ran off in this direction.”
“He passed by me earlier, running after Nashetania. I would have liked to kill him, but the fiends were blocking my way, and I couldn’t get around. And there was also a tiny fiend following Nashetania.”
“A tiny fiend? I wonder what that was.”
“I don’t know. It was nothing I’ve ever seen before.”
“Really? Well, I’m glad you’re safe, Fremy.” Rolonia breathed a sigh of relief.
Fremy gave Adlet a reproachful look. “You let both Nashetania and Goldof get away,” she said, arms crossed. “Unfortunately, Adlet, every one of your ideas has been a failure.”
“…Yeah.” He looked down.
He had insisted that Goldof had merely been deceived by Nashetania, and so they had followed him to the lava zone. As a result, they’d played right into Nashetania’s hands, and Chamo was on the brink of death. Then, just moments ago when they had encountered Goldof, Adlet had hesitated to kill him. If been ready to kill the knight from the start, maybe things wouldn’t have ended up this way.
“I blew it. Goldof is not on our side.” Adlet remembered what they had discussed three days before, at the Bud of Eternity. Fremy and Mora had told him that they suspected Goldof. He should have taken that more seriously. His naive beliefs about keeping faith in his allies were the root cause of this whole mess.
“There’s no point in stressing over it now,” said Fremy. “I never believed your decisions would be perfect in the first place.”
Cutting as ever, thought Adlet.
“B-but…it’s still possible that Goldof has been tricked,” said Rolonia.
“What do you mean?” asked Fremy.
“He told us that our enemy isn’t the princess, but you, right?”
When Fremy heard that, her eyebrows twitched. “You’re saying that I’m the enemy?”
“That’s not what I mean!” Rolonia insisted.
Adlet understood what she was trying to say, so he supplemented for her. “In other words, someone’s tricked Goldof. He’s being made to believe that you’re the enemy, Fremy, and he thinks that he has to kill you in order to save Chamo, and that’s why he came to try to stop us. That’s what you’re saying, right, Rolonia?”
Rolonia nodded vigorously.
But Adlet shook his head. “No way.” He rubbed his stomach. “He was fighting me like he didn’t care if I died. I could tell.”
“If Goldof believes that I’m the enemy, then why did he run right by me?” Fremy added.
“…W-well, um…” Rolonia couldn’t think of what to say.
“Anyway, we need to hurry.” Fremy cut off the conversation. “It’s already been almost an hour since Nashetania activated the blade gem. There’s just a little over two hours left, and Tgurneu could come to the lava zone with its whole army at any moment.”
She was right—they had no time. If Tgurneu attacked them at that very instant, it was over. They would have no options but to try to move Chamo, even if it was hopeless, and run for it.
“Now that Nashetania has Goldof protecting her, she’ll be harder to defeat,” Fremy continued. “But still, the three of us should be able to do it. First, we have to find where Nashetania ran off to. Once we’ve done that, then we can talk.”
Adlet and Rolonia nodded, and they began running over the rock hills.
“We are at a disadvantage,” Fremy said. “But identifying the seventh is a major victory for us. Now if we can just save Chamo, our victory will be in sight.”
Rolonia nodded. “You’re right—we know who the seventh is now.”
But Adlet didn’t reply.
“What’s wrong, Adlet?” asked Fremy.
He wasn’t fully convinced. A number of questions rose in his mind. If Goldof was the seventh, he could have done it another way. For example, back in the Phantasmal Barrier, he could have killed Mora or Fremy or something and then pinned the deed on Adlet. So why hadn’t he?
And there was another question: Why hadn’t Nashetania shown up during their fight in the Ravine of Spitten Blood? If the enemy had carried out their scheme for Mora and the blade gem trap at the same time, then the Braves would have been unable to manage it all. Why was the enemy executing only one plot at a time? Why hadn’t Goldof done anything so far, and why was he making his move now?
And not only that—there was another more important problem. What was Tgurneu up to? It should know by this point that the Six Braves were in the lava zone. So why hadn’t it come to attack? Something was fishy. Behind the scenes, something was happening, and he couldn’t even get a clue as to what was really going on.
“Rolonia,” said Fremy, “you go tell Mora and Hans what’s going on. Though I don’t think it’s likely, Goldof and Nashetania might attack them.”
“Yes, understood,” said Rolonia.
“We’re going to keep chasing down Nashetania. If you find her, set this off. We’ll come to you immediately,” Fremy said, handing her a signal flare. Rolonia nodded and ran back toward Chamo.
“Snap out of it, Adlet. You’re the leader, aren’t you? Give the orders,” said Fremy.
“O-oh…yeah. Sorry. I was thinking.”
“I see. Let’s go.”
Adlet followed her. His mind was still on Goldof. The young knight’s expression of shock when they had all found out that Nashetania was the seventh. His cast of despair as they’d progressed through the Howling Vilelands. That odd look on his face when he’d said he was going to go save Nashetania. Could someone really fake those things?
Adlet didn’t know. He didn’t understand Goldof. He was either an extraordinarily skilled actor or something else entirely.
In the rocky geothermal wasteland, there was no trail to track a person by. Adlet and Fremy decided to head for the spot where they’d seen that flash of light moments ago. Moving in a clockwise motion with Chamo at the center, they proceeded for about ninety degrees. Walking along, they searched carefully for Nashetania, overlooking no ditch or tiny pit or rock hill’s shadow. It took time, but they didn’t have much choice.
“I’m almost certain that Nashetania can’t move farther than a kilometer away from Chamo. The circle’s not terribly big. We’re bound to find her,” said Fremy.
They climbed a slightly more elevated rock hill to find a circular pit a
bout twenty meters across. Smoke wafted from its center. “What’s that?” Adlet said, approaching the smoke. There, in the middle, were the corpses of two fiends. Both had turned to ash. One was a snake, and the other seemed to be a human type. When he touched one of them with his hand, it was hot enough to make him yelp. They must have been fried only a few minutes ago. There were no signs the finds had been drenched in oil and set alight or showered with flames. This was probably from a lightning strike.
“What is this?” Fremy murmured. Upon closer inspection, the area around the fiends was scorched, too. They also found a few holes in the ground.
“…Nashetania was here,” muttered Adlet. When she summoned blades from the earth, her attacks made pits shaped like this. “She fought someone here. There was also a fiend that can use lightning attacks—though I couldn’t say if it was her friend or foe.”
“I wonder who she fought. Was this the work of Cargikk’s faction, too?” Fremy tilted her head. Now that she mentioned it, they still hadn’t solved the mystery behind the pile of bodies in that pit where Chamo was.
“If it fought with Nashetania, then does that mean it’s on our side?” wondered Adlet. “No, that can’t be. There’s no way we’d have any allies in the Howling Vilelands.”
“Let’s think about it later. Finding Nashetania is our top priority.”
The two of them left the bodies and continued their search. They had about two hours left.
When they emerged from the pit, they found Rolonia running across the rocky hills. She noticed them and came near.
“How are Chamo and the others?” asked Adlet.
“They’re safe,” Rolonia replied. “But…a bunch of fiends from the forest are lurking nearby. It doesn’t look like they’re going to attack. They seem to be keeping a close watch.”
That was weird. Why was Nashetania attacking in half measures like that?
“You didn’t fight?” asked Fremy.
“Hans said, ‘Don’t worry about us; just go look for Nashetania.’ He and Lady Mora were both…pretty anxious.” Rolonia looked despondent. “But I do have one piece of good news. It sounds like Lady Mora can extend the time Chamo can hold on by just a little bit.”
“How much?” asked Adlet.
“…About half an hour.”
It was good news, but Adlet couldn’t bring himself to feel glad. Chamo was still in danger. Besides, if Tgurneu brought its full forces to bear, that extra time would be meaningless. “Let’s hurry. That’s the only thing we can do right now,” he said.
Maybe there was something going on in another place, and maybe there were factors they couldn’t see, but they didn’t have the time to ruminate on it. They would find Nashetania and kill her. They couldn’t afford to focus on anything else.
Half an hour later, Adlet was crossing the lava zone by himself. He climbed a rock hill and scanned the area nearby, keeping his body low, and then he moved to another hill and searched again. He concentrated so as not to overlook a single shadow and listened intently for any sign of another being. Cautiously, slowly, he proceeded clockwise.
Fremy and Rolonia were not with him. Fremy was circling around counterclockwise, while Rolonia was searching closer to Chamo. They would surely be able to find Nashetania, no matter which way she had run.
Splitting up like this was dangerous, but considering the circumstances, they had no other choice. The plan was that if any of them found Nashetania or Goldof, they would immediately set off their signal flare to call the others. But Adlet had received no contact from the other two.
“!” Adlet heard a sound behind him and dashed toward it. But all he found at the bottom of the ditch were some steam and a tiny puddle of hot water. Realizing that the noise was only the discharge of a geyser, he clicked his tongue quietly.
Afterwards, he discovered two fiends. They were heading for the pit where Chamo lay. Adlet thought about killing them, but he changed his mind. Fighting the enemy was Hans and Mora’s job. He ignored them and continued the hunt for Nashetania.
“Adlet!” A voice called to him from just ahead, and there was Fremy.
He didn’t even have to ask, Did you find Nashetania? They’d already determined to call each other with a blast if they were successful. He approached Fremy and saw her expression was bitter. “You didn’t just miss her, did you?” he asked.
“Hardly. Were you really not able to find her?”
As they spoke, Rolonia came running up to them, too. Seeing their faces, she immediately caught on that they had failed. They couldn’t have overlooked Nashetania, not in this situation. They had searched every possible place she could have hidden.
It didn’t take long to figure out why they couldn’t find Goldof, though. This meant he had run outside the gem’s area of effect. But Nashetania had to be within the area they had searched.
“Why can’t we find her?” said Fremy. “It’s just a one-kilometer radius.”
“This makes me think she’s got to be hiding somewhere, but…was there anywhere she could’ve hidden?” Adlet asked, recalling the area’s topography. There was no such place.
“Maybe…Lady Mora’s analysis was wrong?” said Rolonia.
“Impossible,” said Fremy. “Mora is an incredibly talented Saint. I doubt she would ever misidentify the potency of a hieroform.”
“But…maybe there’s some way Nashetania could confuse her?” Rolonia suggested.
“If so, Mora would know it. Besides, Nashetania has only been a Saint for three years. I highly doubt she could use such a high-level technique.”
As the other two discussed, Adlet happened to catch sight of something strange. There was a fiend standing on top of a rock hill just a little ways away, waving an object in its right hand.
“…A white flag?” he murmured.
The fiend had a crow’s head and a yeti’s body. An old rag was wrapped around its waist, and it held a club. The bludgeon was wrapped with a piece of white cloth, and its owner was waving its impromptu white flag around as it slowly approached the trio.
“An enemy.” Fremy drew her gun and aimed at the yeti-fiend. The yeti-fiend flailed the white flag around, raising its hands to plead, Don’t shoot!
Rolonia cut in front of Fremy and said, “Please wait, Fremy. That’s a white flag.”
“What’s that?”
She doesn’t know what that is? Adlet thought, a little shocked. Fremy was ignorant about the strangest things from time to time. “It’s a sign on the battlefield that says you don’t want to fight. You didn’t know that?”
“Humans use such strange devices.”
While they were talking, the yeti-fiend approached the bottom of the small rock hill where the three of them stood. About ten meters away, it stopped. The three of them kept their hands on their weapons, watching it.
“Hello,” the yeti-fiend said. It was not a voice they recognized, but its inflection was familiar. The pronunciation was smooth and refined, unlike the somewhat strange pronunciation typical of regular fiends. “Thank you for not shooting. Privately, I was quite nervous when Fremy drew her gun.”
“…Who are you?” asked Adlet.
The yeti-fiend shrugged. “I think if you see this, you might know,” it said, and reached under its waistcloth. From within, it pulled out a large fig.
“!” Adlet and Fremy both moved at once. He aimed for the fiend’s hand with a poison needle, while she shot the fig. The bullet pulverized it in a spray of fruity fragments.
“Unfortunately for you, this is just a fig. My main body’s location is a secret.”
“…Tgurneu,” Adlet called the yeti-fiend’s name. No—the name of the one controlling it.
“It looks like you folks have figured out what I really am, after all,” it replied. “That’s quite the accomplishment. What gave me away? Fremy was with me for eighteen years, and she never realized.”
“What do you want?”
Fremy loaded the next bullet and aimed for Tgurneu’s head. Her
finger was already on the trigger, and she appeared ready to shoot the fiend dead.
“Wait, wait, wait, Fremy. I’m not here to fight. I want to talk.”
“I don’t,” she retorted.
“Wait! Adlet, please stop Fremy,” Tgurneu said.
Adlet didn’t. Just like his ally, he was looking for the chance to kill Tgurneu. He had no reason to let the fiend live.
“I have a proposal, Adlet,” it said.
Rolonia, too, was readying her whip, inching closer to Tgurneu. The commander had both arms up as it retreated backward, truly a pathetic sight.
But they all froze at its next words. “Why don’t we work together to defeat Nashetania?”
“…What?” Adlet asked without thinking.
Seemingly surprised, Tgurneu said, “Huh? You haven’t figured it out? I thought with a little effort, you’d be able to put it together. Nashetania and I are not on the same side.”
“What do you mean?” Fremy demanded.
When Tgurneu saw her lower her gun, its beak trembled. It was hard to tell, but it seemed the fiend was laughing. “Nashetania is not my assassin. Dozzu is the one behind her—the disgraceful traitor to fiends. She is both yours and my enemy.”
“…No way,” Adlet muttered. He couldn’t manage any other reaction.
“By the way, you three. What happened to your greetings?” Tgurneu said, beak shuddering in laughter.
Chapter 3
The Braves Stray from the Course
“…Blah…bleaaaagh!”
Chamo vomited blood again. One hand on her back, Mora sent her power streaming into her. The energy of the mountain was a force of healing, capable of restoring Chamo’s vitality. But that couldn’t suppress the blade gem itself.
About an hour and a half had passed since Nashetania had first activated it. In the pit, with fiends’ corpses scattered around them, Mora waited impatiently for Adlet and the others to return with good news. The youngest Brave was withering before her eyes, her face pale and her eyes hollow. She clung to Mora like a trembling infant. All the older Saint could do was embrace the young girl and keep pouring life into her.
Rokka: Braves of the Six Flowers, Vol. 3 Page 7
