by Fujino Omori
“They do indeed. When the battle took place here, I watched from the top of a building. I saw someone wearing a black robe. I’m not sure if it was a monster or a person…but it seemed to be some kind of tamer,” Gareth responded to Finn’s question. This answer satisfied Tione.
Suddenly, Tiona spoke up as if she had just remembered something.
“Speaking of which, are you sure we don’t need to search the sewers? The other adventurers have caught sight of the monsters down there a few times, you know.”
“That would divide our forces. If our defenses here in Orario are too thin and the monsters break through, it will all be over. They’ve probably been letting people see them intentionally over the past few days with precisely that goal in mind.”
The wise prum leading Loki Familia had correctly analyzed Fels’s plans. For the monsters, his power of intuition was a nightmare.
“More than anything, we must be wary of the black minotaur…Even if he has been wounded, we cannot let our guard down,” he continued. This was his deepest concern.
At the mention of the beast, the mood in the room grew tense. Bete and Tione raised their eyebrows, and even Aiz stiffened.
“Well, if you hadn’t lost your temper, Tione, we could have brought it down real quick,” Tiona grumbled to her sister, who had gone into a frenzy during the battle, completely undermining any attempt to work together.
“What?!” Tione barked.
“Its techniques are nothing to write home about. If we can just get close enough, we’ll have no problem fighting it. But…it is far and away more powerful than any monster we’ve crushed in the past.”
Bete ignored the bickering sisters and spoke with irritation.
He judged the minotaur’s strategies and techniques as underdeveloped but admitted that its wild latent power far exceeded theirs.
The monster hadn’t cared one bit about their counterattacks; indeed, the more desperately they fought, the more overwhelming its response had been.
“You’re right. Its ability to withstand our offensive was incredible. No matter how hard Tione and the others struck it, it showed no sign of being hurt. Only that direct hit from Aiz’s wind finally did something,” Riveria said calmly.
“If we assume it’s one of those black-rhino subspecies, then its skin will be tough, to start with. And if it’s been enhanced, well then, it’s extraordinarily dangerous. I think we should consider it a floor boss, not just an ordinary monster. But if we handle it right, as Tione says, we can take it down,” Gareth added in an equally calm and objective tone.
Finn nodded his agreement.
“But…”
Aiz had finally spoken up.
“That monster…It’s going to get even stronger.”
Every member of Loki Familia’s leadership clamped their mouth shut. Her words expressed what all the first-tier adventurers had intuitively sensed: The black monster was still in the midst of its development.
The other adventurers gulped audibly.
“We’ll kill that black minotaur if it’s the only thing we do. If it’s still developing, then it’s quite dangerous. Sooner or later it will become a menace,” Finn announced to the group before licking the pad of his right thumb.
“Considering the route the enemy took, from the eighteenth floor to the surface, there’s no question that they have a key. We will defend to the death all entrances to Knossos that we have discovered,” he commanded, looking up.
“Familia members will be stationed throughout Daedalus Street. This is how we lay our trap.”
“…That’s probably what Braver and his familia are thinking right about now.”
In the torch-lit Chamber of Prayers beneath Guild Headquarters, Hermes was addressing Ouranos, who sat on the dais in the underground altar.
“So if they make the standard moves, they won’t be able to outfox Braver. He’s just a little too smart. If it were a question of experience, then the original Sage would win…But unfortunately, they’ve fought different types of battles,” he said.
“Fels is a civilian official, in a manner of speaking. The truth is, on the battlefield, the Sage is a poor match for a military leader like Braver,” Ouranos replied.
Hermes pulled the chair next to him over to the altar, sat down, and began whittling a chunk of wood. In a manner of minutes, the skillful god had carved two chess pieces: a prum with a spear in his hand and a robed mage. He placed them on a chessboard that sat on a pedestal. He had taken the liberty of bringing the board with him from his room at home.
As he talked with Ouranos, he carved one chess piece after the next.
“The Guild has collected the remains of the golems, but Braver probably realized they weren’t monsters,” Ouranos said.
“When Braver develops his strategy, he will take into consideration the fact that the mage is assisting the Xenos. Braver’s intuition is so good it even gives us deities the chills.”
Next to the prum, Hermes set a fencer holding a sword, a fairy brandishing a long wand, and berserkers raising scimitars and huge knives. Around the mage, he placed a lizardman and a gargoyle.
Finally, the human and monster encampments on the chessboard were complete. As if looking down on their children from the heavens, Hermes and Ouranos gazed at the opposing forces and unerringly assessed the situation.
“The sage has a number of magic items that go beyond what Braver will be expecting…If there’s a way out for the Xenos, that’s it.”
“And if there’s one unpredictable element…it’s probably Freya, wouldn’t you say?”
After thinking for a moment, Hermes ceremoniously carved a long-haired woman and set her off to the side of the board.
“However…”
As the elderly god gazed at him, Hermes suddenly narrowed his yellow-orange eyes.
“In the end, the one who really matters is him,” he said, beginning to carve a final piece.
“We’ve discussed many things, but in the end, it all rests on the boy.”
In a corner of the sewer tunnel where even the darkness of night did not penetrate, the jet-black robes of a fallen sage rustled.
“If anything is going to provoke Irregulars, it’s him. Do not let down your guard, and do not overlook him. That adventurer will leap far beyond our expectations. He’s done it in the past, and he’ll do it again.”
In the momentarily hushed Labyrinth District, the brave prum narrowed his blue eyes.
“Everyone is looking at you. So dance—cheerfully, humorously, just like they’re all expecting. I’ll be there for you.”
As sparks flew from the pine torches on the ancient altar, the god set down the carved rabbit in the center of the chessboard.
—Yes, he held the key.
In different places but at the same moment, the fool, the hero, and the god raised their voices in unison.
“““Bell Cranell.”””
CHAPTER 3
THE NIGHT BEFORE BATTLE
Behind the breaking clouds, a hazy moon shone faintly.
The rain had lifted, but the sky remained overcast. The city was as dark as the bottom of the sea. Normally the streets sparkled like a spilled jewelry box, but tonight fewer than usual magic-stone lamps had been lit, and the usual lively hustle and bustle was nowhere to be found.
The silver-haired goddess looked down on this quiet Orario from Babel, the huge limestone tower that stood in the center of the city. She was standing in front of the enormous sheet-glass window on its top floor.
“Lady Freya. May I ask you a question?”
“What is it, Ottar?” she said, responding to the voice coming from behind her.
“What are your views on the information that God Hermes presented to us?”
“About the Xenos? Well, it does match up with what Alfrik and the others told us. I am inclined to think we can trust it.”
Two days earlier, Hermes had visited the tower and told Freya everything he knew about the recent incidents. He’d
talked about the Xenos and Knossos and said that Bell would be in great distress if they did not save the monsters.
She had been startled, but that was all.
The beautiful goddess’s concern, as always, lay solely with the boy. Compared to him, the fate of the Xenos and the opinions of Ouranos mattered little to her. She had said nothing since learning the full story from Hermes.
She had simply been observing the situation from her perch at Orario’s highest point, so much so that other forces in the city were starting to find it ominous.
“Hermes had his own reasons for telling me everything, of course…”
After sounding out Freya, the god had looked her straight in the face and made a request.
“Lady Freya, I am anxious for Bell. I have a few plans myself, of course, but I’d like to ask your assistance.”
“Have you forgotten what you did to me during the dispute with Ishtar?” she had replied, with a smile so beautiful it could win the hearts of a thousand men.
Hermes had frowned and thrown up his hands in surrender, perhaps because he had not expected much to start with.
“Well, in any case, I hope you will find some way to watch over him.”
Is this something that can be left to Hermes? Freya wondered.
Bell was the one point where her interests overlapped with Hermes’s. That was why he had come to sound her out. Even if he slipped up, he would not allow things to develop in a direction that Freya found displeasing. And if that was the case, she felt she might as well leave things be. But at the same time, she was the only one who should be toying with the boy, and recently she hadn’t been able to pay him much attention. Probably what she was feeling now was jealousy toward the god…No, that couldn’t be!
Her expression unchanged, Freya twined a lock of hair around her hand.
“What do you plan to do about Bell Cranell?” Ottar asked again, guessing at what was troubling her. “The townspeople have turned against him, and his strength seems to be fading. If things continue like this…”
“Considering it’s that boy, he’ll rise up,” Freya said, interrupting her boaz servant in a tone of complete confidence.
Just then, she happened to glance down at the city streets far below—and she caught sight of a figure illuminated by a clear ray of sun. Freya smiled like a young girl who had been pining for something.
You see? It’s come. I’ve been waiting.
The time had come to end her period of quiet watching. Freya closed her silver eyes.
Xenos, the intelligent monsters; the boy who threw himself into the fight even if he was hurt; the sparkle of life that smoldered somewhere even now; and—.
Emerging from the fountain of her reflections, Freya swept her gaze over the city and parted her glistening lips.
“Ottar, I would like to tell you something.”
“Yes?”
“I am going to act now. However, what I am about to ask you to do may all be in vain…I cannot foresee how events will unfold.”
“Be that as it may, I will carry out your divine will.”
“Thank you,” she said, smiling at him in the reflection of the glass. Then the beautiful goddess relayed her orders.
“Please communicate to Aren and the others what I am about to tell you.”
Late at night on the day we renew our commitment to saving Wiene and the Xenos, we quietly begin to act.
You are being watched from every corner of the city. Never forget that, Fels warned us. We engrave those words in our hearts and, following the instructions in the letter, head out into the dark city streets.
Lilly and I leave home and head northwest. Instantly, numerous “watchers” follow us. I can feel them observing us, but I make an effort to pretend I notice nothing as we head to Northwest Main Street, the so-called Adventurers Way.
The main boulevard is lined with shops with their shutters pulled closed. We turn down an alleyway and enter several of the more questionable shops that are open for business as usual despite the circumstances, where we purchase various potions and other items. Pretending to check our gear, we stop in front of a certain shop. It’s at the end of an abandoned alleyway and down a flight of stairs, below street level. I can just make out the words on the sign that hangs on the beat-up old door: THE WITCH’S HIDEOUT.
Fels’s letter instructed us to come here.
The shop is underground, where the eyes of the watchers cannot penetrate. Pushing open the creaking door, I see an ancient human with a hook nose sitting behind the counter.
“…And what have we here? I thought I did not know this face, but hee-hee, it is the Little Rookie who has been causing a stir of late. You are neither a sorcerer nor a mage…What could an adventurer like you want in this shop?” she says.
From robes to pointed hat, she perfectly fits my image of a witch. I remember the words in Fels’s letter.
There will be a shopkeeper named Lenoa at your destination. Say this password to her.
I do as instructed.
“Does Altina’s cat dream of eternal life?”
It works right away. The witch, who looks like she has more than a few quirks, opens her eyes wide and fixes them on Lilly and me as we wait nervously.
“…An errand for the Honorable Fels, is it?”
The Honorable Fels…?
We have no idea what to say in response, because Fels has not told us how the two are connected. She shakes her head slightly.
“No, no, I’ll stop my prying. The truth is you’ve come here with those words, and there’s nothing more to it. Come.”
Lilly and I follow the old woman as she retreats into the back of the shop. We pass jars containing snakes and scorpions, strange pots bubbling with bloodred liquid, and sickles and chains hanging from the ceiling. Finally, we arrive at a giant bookcase.
The witch runs her wrinkled finger along the white spine of a book, and I hear a click. One of the shelves seems to stick out, but then it slides horizontally—revealing a storeroom hidden behind it.
“Th-this is…”
“What the letter mentioned!…And these are all the magic items…”
Pairs of twin crystals, a silvery-white cup made from a unicorn’s horn, a treasure chest filled with precious stones of every color, a leaf-decorated music box crafted from elven tree wood…The cavernous room is overflowing with magic items I have never seen before, each carefully constructed by the Sage. Lilly and I are struck dumb by the hidden storeroom, which brings to mind a treasure house—no, more like a secret magician’s room of the sort I read about in childhood fairy tales.
The first request Fels made in the letter was that we visit this hidden storeroom, entrusted to a guard for use under extraordinary circumstances, and retrieve several magic items.
“The Honorable Fels only has time for those twisted gods and goddesses. That immortal being has no love for those who wither and die. In all the generations that my family has watched over this storeroom…you are the first to have come bringing words from the Honorable One,” the shopkeeper whispers slowly from behind us.
She speaks to us as if we are nobles worthy of the greatest esteem and affection. Her words are suffused with compassion. Then she retreats, leaving us alone in the storeroom.
“Take whatever you wish…I hope you will be able to help the Honorable One in some way,” she says on her way out, without turning around.
Lilly and I nod at her back.
Time is short. We search through the storeroom, hastily stuffing our backpacks with magic items.
“Mikoto, are you sure we’re not being tailed?”
“Do not fear, Lady Hestia. Most of them seem to have followed Sir Bell and Lady Lilly.”
Hestia and Mikoto had waited for a while after Bell and Lilly left home, then snuck out as well. They planned to carry out another of Fels’s requests while the bulk of surveillance was focused on Bell. Evading the few people shadowing them with a stealth that would put ninjas to shame, they arrived at a
dim street with a sign reading FOURTH STREET. Hestia had seen it before.
“I’m sure I was brought somewhere nearby…and the letter said it was around here, too…Oh!”
As Mikoto peered cautiously around, Hestia found what she had been looking for: a certain wall near an alleyway. She manipulated the pattern carved into it as the letter had instructed and then pushed. Without a sound, an opening leading underground appeared.
“Okay, Mikoto, I’ll be back!”
“All right, I’ll be waiting for you.”
No sooner had Hestia slipped through the hole than the stone wall closed behind her. She recognized both the stone passageway before her and the chill air floating through it.
“I never thought I’d be back here,” she mumbled.
Holding a magic-stone lantern in her hand, she proceeded down the man-made passageway as if the mage had kidnapped her and was pulling her along. At the end of the corridor, she again followed the instructions in the letter, unenthusiastically chanting the words “Open sesame.” As the wall slid open, she saw a large altar on the other side.
“…Oh, Hestia, is it?”
“Hello, Ouranos. I hope you don’t mind that I took the secret passageway.”
She was standing in the Chamber of Prayers beneath Guild Headquarters as per Fels’s instructions.
“Oh, has someone been here?” she asked, noticing the displaced chair and chessboard.
“…Yes. Hermes,” Ouranos replied.
She was puzzled but, wanting to finish her errand quickly, said nothing more as she approached him.
“I have a message from Fels. The mage says to speed up the evacuation of civilians from Daedalus Street. You’re probably already doing that, but apparently the battle is going to begin very soon.”
“I understand…”
“In addition, you’re to give us the map of Daedalus Street that Fels drew up before…along with all the information you currently have about Knossos.”
Ouranos closed his eyes. Then he slowly opened them and pulled out an old volume. It was Daedalus’s Notebook, which Hermes had given him.
“…”
