by Hiro Ainana
“
We were invited in through the door.
“Master! The larva has disappeared, I report.”
“
Part of the shutters around the dark room opened, illuminating one section like a spotlight.
There was Rei, floating in the middle of a red magic circle.
“
What is she, a PC? I wanted to joke, but I decided it wasn’t quite the right time.
“<…I don’t want to…forget.>”
“
From the sound of things, Lalakie’s technology was pretty amazing.
“
“
Layers of gear-shaped magic circles appeared around Rei, and a light similar to the scan from before continued for a half hour or so.
“
“
Rei spoke in the same tone she usually used in her trance state.
She still looked like a little girl, but she seemed more composed than usual.
Her name in my AR display changed to Reiaane Tuuwa Lalakie, and her once-grayed-out skills and level turned white.
“Satou, I remember now. I am—”
Rei’s words were interrupted by a particularly large quake.
“Aaaaah!”
Lulu’s scream was the loudest, but even I was a little perturbed by a magnitude five–class earthquake.
Rationally, I knew I would be fine at my level even if the ceiling and floor caved in, but some things are still scary no matter what.
“
After making an announcement that was sort of reminiscent of a password change notification e-mail, the central control core fell silent.
“M-master, something’s wrong! This doesn’t feel like an earthquake!”
Arisa was right. This felt more like an intensified version of the shaking in a large ship’s engine room than an earthquake.
I couldn’t tell what was happening from here, so I used Return to teleport us to the seal slate I’d placed in the large viewing area in Lalakie.
“Master, look at the ceiling.”
“Is the ocean…moving?”
I looked up.
“Skyyy?”
“The sun is bright, sir.”
“Lalakie is surfacing? B-but…that would mean that Father has released the Sea Lord after Mother sacrificed her life to seal it…”
Rei’s eyes widened in horror.
So it was true. Lalakie was rising to the ocean’s surface.
Hmm? Surfacing?
But if this much mass suddenly rises to the surface—
“Satou.”
“Master!”
Following Mia’s and Nana’s gazes, I saw a gear-like magic circle growing and a person appearing through it.
Sure enough, it was Yuuneia.
“
Yuuneia was wearing an old-fashioned shrine maiden–style outfit, shooting Rei a challenging smile.
The outfit was similar to the formal shrine maiden clothes I’d seen in the Tenion Temple in the old capital but with less humble saintliness and more flashiness.
“
“
Unconcerned with Rei’s strange state, Yuuneia quickly nodded.
“
For some reason, Rei was giving Yuuneia a sad look.
Sad or even pitying.
“Satou… I’m…going with her.”
Without answering Yuuneia, Rei turned to me and spoke in the Shigan language.
“I will bring an end to Father’s delusions…prevent the world from falling into chaos…and protect the gravestone of those sad lost lives of Lalakie.”
“Is that what you want?”
“Yes… If everything is to be saved, then I must go.”
Rei gave a faint smile, the expression of a martyr.
“Larva! I will go with you, I declare!”
The rest of the group all clamored forward in agreement.
“Nana… Thank you for all you’ve done. The rest of you, too… Thank you for being kind to me when even I did not know who I was.”
Rei shook her head, refusing to let Nana and the others come along.
“
Yuuneia took Rei’s hand.
“Rei, wait! If you want to save everything, shouldn’t that include yourself?!”
Rei gave no answer to my final question beyond an unhappy smile, and then she disappeared into the Spirit World.
Then the dots that represented the two of them reappeared on the top floor of the Queen’s Tower—along with that of the Skeleton King.
“
A moment after we heard the central control core’s voice, we were returned to the beach of the central island where we’d had the campfire.
But now the bay was little more than a puddle. The island had become a part of the top of the ridge around Lalakie’s urban area.
It seemed that this place was actually the western end of the city of Lalakie.
On the other side of the mountain, I could see the glowing dome of Heavenslight Protection.
“Master!”
Arisa’s light punch hit me in the stomach.
“That’s when you’re supposed to embrace Rei and stop her from leaving!”
“Mm. Duh.”
“Master…”
The indignant iron-wall pair and the expressionless Nana surrounded me.
But I knew that, of course.
“I didn’t go with her because there was something else I had to do first.”
“What could possibly be more important than saving Rei?!”
“Tidal waves.”
If I didn’t do something, the enormous tidal waves created by Lalakie’s rise would strike all the nations on the coast.
And a tidal wave moves faster than most people realize.
“I’ll take care of it quickly and then go save Rei, so all of you board the ship and get away from Lalakie.”
As I spoke, I produced the flying ship from Storage, then the core parts of the figurehead golem from the large Fairy Pack Lulu was carrying, setting it up on the helm.
Since golems were considered living things once they’d been activated, they couldn’t be put in Storage.
“Mrrr. We’ll save her.”
“Master, I wish to join the larva’s rescue party, I request.”
Mia and Nana puffed furiously, insisting they would go save Rei.
“Let’s gooo?”
“Pochi wants to help, too, sir.”
“Master, I, too, request your permission.”
“I want to help her, too.”
The beastfolk girls and Lulu felt the same way.
Arisa was giving the rest of them a thumbs-up, so it was probably safe to guess how she felt.
“Arisa, the ship’s defenses are perfect, but try to avoid battle if you can.”
“I know that, duuuh! We’ll just buy some time for you!”
“All I need is ninety seconds. I’ll be back after that.”
“Okey-dokey!”
I tr
ansferred control of the ship to Arisa and taught her a few command words.
These were the key to activating the armament and propellers I’d added during our long journey.
“Wh-when did you make all this?”
Arisa stared at me in disbelief, but I grinned in response.
“Oh, you know. Just in case, I figured.”
With that, I took off from the deck.
Opening the map, I looked at the ring-shaped tidal waves and decided to start with the outermost areas.
Taking a shortcut with the seal stones I’d placed around the islands like stepping stones, I arrived just outside the ring of tidal waves.
On the horizon, I could see the enormous waves coming closer.
Instead of using “Skyrunning,” I chose “Flashrunning” to charge toward them.
Right now, I had to prioritize saving time over my clothes or a little burn damage.
I had to get back before Arisa and the others did anything crazy.
Floating Island Lalakie
Rei here. During the good times, it might be hard to realize what an important treasure time can be. The memories of those happy days still warm my heart.
When I was young, I thought Lalakie was the happiest place in the world.
I was showered with love from my kind father, my admirable mother, and my gentle aunt, who looked exactly like her, and my every need was served by the homunculus servants and the magic machines. In those days, I wanted for nothing.
The town looked so peaceful when I watched from the Queen’s Tower, and on the day of the yearly parade, everyone was all smiles from morning till night.
Art and music constantly filled my days with all the color I could dream of.
It was hard to say when a shadow began to fall over those peaceful times.
“…This kingdom is corrupt. Your extravagant feasts and luxurious clothes are paid for by the misery and exploitation of the humans who live on the ground.”
The person who told me this was a violet-haired boy who I found collapsed in the Lalakie natural park.
He wore a tattered flight uniform over his stick-thin frame, but an intense fire still burned in his eyes.
The boy was gravely wounded, but I sheltered him and tended to his injuries, wanting to hear more about the world outside Lalakie of which he spoke.
“Kurou, do you want to destroy Lalakie?”
“No. I only want to free humanity from the tyranny of the gods.”
“Tyranny? No, it’s divine protection. Isn’t it?”
“It’s tyranny, Reiaane. We’re just sheep on a farm owned by the gods, nothing more. And you Lalakie people are the shepherds—no, maybe you’re specially bred sheep made to taste better—”
Unable to bear Kurou’s contempt for the gods, I slapped him in the face.
But he simply smiled at me with a soft expression in his eyes, like he was looking at a naive child, and murmured as if to himself:
“Reiaane, I want to give everyone…a world where they can live their own lives freely.”
That was the last time I ever got to speak with him.
The next day, the shack where I’d been hiding him was destroyed; all that remained was its foundations and the broken fragments of magic machines and battle golems.
I think it was the following year that it happened…
The year when the Dogheaded Demon Lord raised an army against Lalakie in the far reaches of the continent and began Lalakie’s final battle.
In the midst of the chaos, the kingdoms of the ground became estranged from Lalakie at the demon lord’s bidding as well, and the smiles of the Lalakie people faded as they found themselves at the center of the war.
But the long days of battle eventually reached an end.
Thanks to the grace of the gods, the Dogheaded Demon Lord and most of his kin were sealed away. My mother and her sister weakened the final one, the Sea Lord, and my father and I used Lalakie itself to seal the Sea Lord at the bottom of the ocean.
When my father took me to escape from Lalakie, I remember crying as I called out for my mother and aunt.
But the heretics caught the floating ship on which my father and I fled, and I was separated from my father and brought to an underwater shrine to serve as part of an evil magic device.
I didn’t know what happened after that, for my memories were interrupted there…
The next things I remember are Nana’s embrace and Satou’s kind smile.
I held the happy memories of Satou, Nana, and the others close to my heart as I followed the girl called Yuuneia down a long corridor.
And in the area at the end of the corridor, I was reunited with my father.
“At last you have returned, Reiaane. Have you gotten smaller?”
My father had become a skeleton.
The girl next to me waited like an eager puppy for Father to speak to her, but he gave her no words of praise or even thanks.
This was the observation deck of the Queen’s Tower at the center of the floating island Lalakie.
There was no ceiling or supports, just a view of all of Lalakie.
“You look quite a bit different yourself, Father.”
The last time I’d seen Father, he was a normal half-ghost man.
Out of the corner of my eye, I saw a tentacle rising up at the edge of Lalakie like an enormous tree.
“Why have you broken the seal on the Sea Lord?”
Father and I had sealed the Sea Lord ourselves, carrying out Mother’s final wish.
“Why, you ask?”
And yet, Father now flew into a fury at my words.
“Have you forgotten the words of your mother, my beloved wife, the final queen of Lalakie?! ‘Return Lalakie to the skies’—that was her final wish!”
…No, you’re wrong.
“Mother had no time to say such a thing. When she failed to control the Sea Lord, her soul was shattered.”
“What is this nonsense…?”
The Sea Lord could not be controlled by our fragile hands.
“Is it not you who has forgotten? Mother wrote in her final will and testament that if she failed, she wished for us to use Lalakie itself to seal the Sea Lord.”
Father had been the first one to read her will, not me.
“Ridiculous! She said to ‘return Lalakie to the skies.’ I am sure of it—”
“Father, who has convinced you of such a lie?”
It must have been the same individual who turned Father into a horrible undead monster.
A demon lord, most likely, or a greater hell demon.
From the corner of my eye, I saw Yuuneia gaping in disbelief.
“F-Father, who was the person who came to you before in a yellow cloak? The one who said ‘indeed’ after every sentence!”
“Silence! This is no time for an artificial puppet to interfere!”
Yuuneia, the homunculus girl, leaped toward Father, so I held her back with an embrace.
Since she had no one else to love her, I resolved that I should do so.
For what little time I had left to live, at least.
“Who was that person, Father? Was it even a person?”
“How dare you speak of my ally in such a way! The yellow-clad mage made Lalakie even stronger and even controlled the giant monster fish Tobkezerra before my very eyes!”
Tobkezerra? The demon of the skies that controls the northern seas?
It would be impossible for anyone to defeat the giant monster fish that not even the sky dragons could touch, never mind control it.
“Surely that was an illusion?”
“It was not, difficult as it may be to believe.”
But if that was true, then couldn’t this person defeat the Sea Lord for us?
When I asked this, however, Father looked at me like he was a child whose lie had been discovered and who flew into a rage as if to cover it.
“That would be indebting myself to my ally! Allies must always be on equal footing!”
> Father brushed his cape out imperiously.
Immediately thereafter, a thunderous boom and a terrible quaking rocked the platform.
“Aah!”
The girl cried out in surprise, and I held her close.
“Sister, look!”
The glowing Heavenslight Protection dome above us was being struck by eight enormous tentacles.
A gigantic eye emerged at the edge of the floating island. A compound eye, like that of an insect.
“…The Sea Lord.”
The eye was filled with unmistakable hatred.
Its rage and resentment must have swirled around and multiplied while it was trapped at the bottom of the sea for nearly an eternity.
“Excellent. In this rage, it will surely swallow any poisonous bait we offer it.”
By poisonous bait, Father no doubt meant the girl called Yuuneia and me.
His own eyes were full of madness as he laughed down at the Sea Lord.
“We shall engrave the rune of domination in Yuuneia and the rune of operation in Reiaane.”
The girl turned pale at Father’s horrible declaration, but she nodded and shed her shrine maiden clothing for the magic circle engraving.
“I shall be the bait to catch the Sea Lord, and my sister shall be the linchpin to command it—that is the only way, isn’t it, Father?”
She nodded again, as if trying to convince herself, watching my father with a tremulous gaze.
But Father didn’t even spare her a glance.
“Father, no.”
“What’s this?”
“Yuuneia cannot capture the Sea Lord. I will go.”
“N-no, I can do it! I am your younger sister, after all.”
The girl looked desperate.
But it wouldn’t work. What Father was trying to do now was the same thing that my mother and my aunt Yuuneia tried and failed to do long ago.
A slight improvement in the runes would make no difference against this opponent.
Besides, the person serving as bait to be swallowed by the Sea Lord faced certain death. I couldn’t allow this poor girl to take that role.
“If we do it the same way as before, it will not work. Please trust me.”
“Sister…”
Attempting to control the Sea Lord would never work, no matter what.
Gear-shaped magic circles appeared at the feet of both the homunculus girl and myself.
“Very well. Go on, then.”
