by Fujino Omori
Well, maybe not with the feet I have right now…
The second that thought crosses my mind, I yell into the oculus.
“To Haruhime!”
“Huh?”
“Please tell me where Haruhime is!!”
I start running even before the goddess has answered me.
Realizing what I plan to do, she gasps, and then—as if she’s made a decision—relays the information on the magic map.
I forget all about clandestine actions and rush headlong down the street. My body heat is building up inside my veil, but I don’t even have time to wipe away the sweat. Forsaking my role as a decoy, I leap and run across the uneven rooftops.
Faster, faster! Hurry!!
The goddess’s voice guides me as I cross the southern section of the Labyrinth District from east to west.
“Haruhime!”
“Eeek!! Oh—Master Bell?!”
Haruhime has been running as fast as she can through the back alleys as the goddess guides her. I catch up with her and grab her hand, forgetting to take off my veil. As I pull her into an abandoned old house, she guesses my identity, and her surprise gives way to tears.
“Master Bell! Lady Wiene, Lady Wiene has…!”
Her trembling hand grips my clothes. I try to support her as she collapses, and we both sink to our knees. As the tears spill from her green eyes onto her kimono, I take her hand again and squeeze it.
“Haruhime—”
She looks up at me, and I ask her to do what would be impossible on my own.
“—please help me.”
We will save Wiene together.
Surprised by the urgency in my eyes, Haruhime dries her tears and nods. My right hand grasps her left, and her right hand takes my left.
The beautiful renart begins to chant a song of illusion.
—Grow.
Her voice is clear and pure as crystal.
She closes her eyes and continues to sing in her sonorous voice.
That power and that vessel. Breadth of wealth and breadth of wishes. Until the bell tolls, bring forth glory and illusion.
As the spell builds, a golden light begins to glow in the dim room, illuminating my tense face.
“—Grow.”
From this point on, I—no, we—will be in great danger.
Perhaps because Haruhime, too, realizes this, her hands shake despite her smooth, flowing singing voice.
“Confine divine offerings within this body. This golden light bestowed from above. Into the hammer and into the ground, may it bestow good fortune upon you.”
Her hands cling to mine as they rest on my knees, revealing her fear for Wiene.
I answer with a squeeze. Trembling under her kimono, she forcefully utters the final line.
“—Grow.”
Haruhime opens her eyes and looks into mine. She says the name of the spell.
“Uchide no Kozuchi.”
The room is filled with a brilliant light. At the same time, a swirl of sparkles surrounds my body.
She has given me a level boost, raising me one level with the strongest of sorcery. The thrill of reaching Level 4 buzzes through my whole body, and I let out a cry of joy.
I pull the veil around me again, stand up—and lift Haruhime off her feet.
“Huh?!”
There’s no way one level boost will be enough. I still need Haruhime’s help, and I have no intention of leaving her behind. I’m sure she knew that, but her cheeks flush pink all the same—maybe because she wasn’t expecting me to sling her under my arm like this.
I feel bad, but there’s no other choice. She’ll just have to endure it. I check to make sure both Haruhime and my sparkling body are completely covered by the veil, then bring my mouth to the fox ears at my chest.
“Please hold the veil down.”
She nods. Since both my hands are holding on to her, she reaches her arms around my neck and grabs on to the Reverse Veil for me. Through the fabric, the objects of the outside world appear transparent. I peer around and steel myself for what is to come.
“—We’re off.”
A single bead of sweat trickles down my cheek, and I take off running.
“Ack?!”
Haruhime gulps back a shocked yelp at my extreme Level 4 speed.
I fly through the wide-open door of the old house, leap down the street with stone-crushing strides, and soar into the night sky.
Below me sprawls the Labyrinth District. There are the blinking magic-stone lamps of Loki Familia’s encampment. There’s the western sector cloaked in black mist. And there’s the northwestern part, where Wiene has been left all alone.
I take one last glance, then let gravity pull me down to the rooftop of a building—and start running again at full speed.
“?!”
“What’s that?!”
Despite our invisibility, people are bound to notice us passing by. We’re unbelievably fast, and we’re stirring up a wind that makes a ferocious roar, and my feet are pounding across rooftops and walls. The adventurers in the area look up as they sense me speeding past above their heads.
But it doesn’t matter. All I can do is ignore it. I don’t have time for anything else.
I have to get to Wiene as fast as I possibly can!
“—!!”
Haruhime grips my neck tight as I run even faster, desperately trying to hold down the veil as the wind pulls it up.
Leaping like an actual rabbit across the uneven roofs, I rush through the streets, sometimes even scaling lofty towers in a single breath.
“Yes, keep going straight ahead just like that!”
The sound of the wind rushing past me almost drowns out the goddess’s voice, but I manage to follow her instructions and blast through town via the shortest route.
The risk of Loki Familia detecting us is extremely high. First-tier members of their familia will definitely be able to sense my movements.
But my only option is to continue.
As I run with a speed unthinkable without Haruhime’s level boost, I feel like an all-powerful god. But there’s no time to get drunk on the glorious sensation of her beautiful sparks of light. I just run as fast as I can.
“—Pardon me, Master Bell! Despite my current strange position, I am deeply happy!!” the shivering renart says, as if she can’t help herself.
“I feel like I’ve heard those words before!” I shout in response, without thinking.
“What? Those are my lines, Haruhime! I’m going to come take your place!!” the goddess says for some reason, and things get a bit chaotic for a moment.
Even as the three of us shout at one another, I continue to tear through the night air.
With all my energy focused on becoming the wind itself, I blow across the Labyrinth District from southwest to northwest.
Wiene was advancing through the alleyways.
“Huff, puff…”
Her ragged breath was a sign of just how worn out she had become. She had no sense of where she was. She walked forlornly through the backstreets, her new wing hidden and her hand against the walls, confused by the darkness.
Her pursuers seemed to have disappeared, but she could not calm her terror of the phantom adventurers who her fear drew from thin air. More than anything, an overwhelming loneliness tormented her.
“……”
She desperately tried to keep her lips from uttering that one name.
She didn’t want to worry him. If she cried, he would start worrying about her again. She wanted to reassure him. That was why she was trying so hard to control her feelings.
But the dim Labyrinth District eroded her determination. At last, the pitiful fear that shook her reedy body got the better of her, and she sought the shadow of the past, that irreplaceable warmth.
“Bell…”
She whispered his name so faintly it seemed to melt into the darkness.
And something happened.
“—Wiene!!”
He answered her
prayer.
“!”
“Lady Wiene!!”
As the vouivre looked up in shock, Bell and Haruhime threw off their veil and materialized from nowhere, floating down from the dark-blue sky.
Tears overflowed from Wiene’s amber eyes, and in the next instant she was running toward them. She flew into the arms of the boy and girl who had landed in front of her.
“Bell! Haruhime!”
Their outstretched arms encircled her.
“Oh, Lady Wiene, Lady Wiene!”
“Wiene, it’s so good to see you…!”
“I’m sorry, so sorry, Bell and Haruhime…! Thank you, I love you…!”
All three could hardly form a sentence for all their tears. They simply held one another in a warm embrace. Wiene buried her face in Haruhime’s chest, and Bell wrapped himself around both of them—Wiene’s new wing and all.
“You came looking for me…?”
“The goddess told us where you were!”
“So you’re okay, Wiene? I’m so glad you haven’t been hurt!”
Bell smiled at Wiene’s upturned, tear-covered face.
“…Thank you, Goddess!” she said.
They heard sniffling from the sparkling blue oculus on Bell’s gauntlet, and Wiene’s expression blossomed into a smile.
After they had hugged for a few minutes, Bell stepped back from Wiene and Haruhime.
“Come on, there’s no time to waste. We have to meet up with Lido and the others somehow.”
“Right!”
Wiene and Haruhime nodded, and they set out.
By now, more than five minutes had passed since Bell met up with Haruhime. He wanted to find a place to renew the level boost. They were currently in the north-northwest of the Labyrinth District. He knew full well that heading south to meet up with the Xenos while dodging Loki Familia along the way would be next to impossible. In the worst-case scenario, he would have to serve as a decoy. Still, he brought the oculus to his lips.
“Goddess, please tell us the w—”
Bell’s sixth sense suddenly set internal alarm bells clanging.
“Uh-oh!!”
“Huh?”
It was practically a miracle that he was able to pull Wiene and Haruhime close and throw the Reverse Veil over all three of them. The instant he had retreated into the darkness of an alleyway—thwack! A pair of silver metal boots crashed onto the ground.
The figure wearing them had a coat of wind-ruffled gray fur and an intimidating blue tattoo on one side of his face.
Bell, Haruhime, and Wiene all gasped at the young werewolf who had descended from the sky.
It’s Bete…!
As Bell had feared, they’d been detected.
Bete Loga had sensed Bell and Haruhime’s reckless trip through town. Defying Finn’s orders, the first-tier adventurer had left Loki Familia’s encampment to pursue them. Bell was horrified by the werewolf’s incredible speed, which nullified all chance of his getting another level boost from Haruhime.
“…”
Bete stood in the open area at the end of the alleyway where Bell, Haruhime, and Wiene were hiding. As he slowly scanned his surroundings, all three held their breath and followed his eyes. The thunderous pounding of their hearts blended together so loudly that they feared he might hear them. On the other side of the oculus, Hestia blanched and tried to keep completely silent.
A drop of Bell’s sweat dripped onto Wiene’s hair.
“—Come out!”
Accurately and mercilessly, Bete had scanned the many alleys branching off the plaza and determined the one where Bell and the others were hiding.
They froze beneath his gaze, which pierced them despite their invisibility. The minute it had taken him to find them had felt like an eternity, and now their hopes crumbled like sand.
Wiene’s shoulders shook as Bete pointed his feet in their direction. Bell squeezed them and prepared to do the only thing he could: walk out to Bete. He would act as a decoy while Haruhime and Wiene escaped.
But Haruhime’s next move prevented him from doing that.
Haruhime…?
Wiene looked up when she felt someone stroking a lock of her hair, and she saw the renart smiling down at her. Haruhime gently extracted herself from the dragon girl’s embrace and sent a fleeting smile at the dumbfounded Bell.
His outstretched arm met air as Haruhime pushed aside the veil and stepped into the darkness.
“Huh?”
“…”
As the astonished Bell and Wiene watched, she stood facing Bete directly, illuminated by the starry sky.
Her fox’s tail quivered as the werewolf eyed her dubiously. But she hid it behind her back and returned his stare resolutely.
“You can’t be here alone. Come out, all of you!”
“I am alone.”
“Let’s stop the jo—”
“—I am alone!!” she shouted.
Wiene jumped—she’d never heard Haruhime speak so loudly.
Her gracefully arched eyebrows and determined green eyes showed no sign of yielding to the boy’s dangerous glare. She pressed her hands to her voluptuous chest and shouted at the young werewolf again.
“Please move!”
Bell understood that she was speaking not to Bete but to him. The weak young girl he had rescued from such depraved surroundings was nowhere to be seen. Standing guard with her back to them, she was like a Shinto maiden bravely confronting calamity, a sister protecting her dragon-girl sibling, a mother.
She howled. The girl who had always needed rescuing cried out now to save the ones she loved. Bell was amazed.
“Now!!”
Haruhime’s yell, along with the sight of her resolute back, urged Bell forward.
He couldn’t let her determination go to waste.
He shook off his distress and pulled his hand back from Wiene’s shoulder. Gritting his teeth with determination, Bell tugged the dragon girl along as she glanced tearfully back, then took off running in the opposite direction from Bete and Haruhime.
“…You won’t even fight, so stop lording it over me!” the werewolf growled.
Bete could sense the two invisible forms beyond Haruhime disappearing into the distance. He pawed the ground, his foot scraping over the cobblestones. As he did, fragments of broken stone shot like bullets toward Haruhime, tearing into her cheeks and kimono. She threw her arm in front of her face and stumbled but caught herself before she fell. Still, she did not move aside.
“Tch. Get out of my way,” Bete said.
“I will not.”
“I’ll crush you.”
“I will not move!”
As Bete strode toward her, she threw both arms out. He narrowed his eyes at the renart, who still refused to budge, and kicked the ground. He moved with such incredible speed that she could not even track him with her eyes. In an instant, the werewolf’s shadow was at her feet. As she stood frozen, Bete raised his left hand as if to brush away a trivial speck of dust. He was about to bring it down on her when—
“—!!”
His hand stopped in midair. He was looking at Haruhime’s steadfast green eyes below her golden bangs.
“…”
His gaze was fixed on Haruhime, silently taking in this girl who refused to look away even on the verge of a direct blow.
Quiet fell over the pair. In the distance, the two animal people could hear the faint sound of battle cries. The odd scene continued until Bete broke the silence.
“—You small-fry!”
A brutal smile played over the werewolf’s lips.
“You’re totally helpless—but you’ve still made up your mind, eh?”
“?!”
The werewolf’s thirst for blood was out of control. Haruhime’s animal-person instincts trembled before the overwhelming presence of this starving wolf. He was about to devour her on the principal that the strong must consume the weak.
Still, she did not retreat.
She looked back at him a
s a humiliating trembling finally overtook her, her arms still thrown out.
“Got a little carried away, didn’t you?”
Instead of his lowered fist, his left metal boot came crashing down on the ground.
His foot struck the stone with a splintering sound and a shockwave that launched Haruhime backward. She doubled over in pain and groaned as her back was slammed against the wall at the entrance to the alley.
Bete’s smile contrasted with his harsh words. It was half mocking condescension toward the “small-fry” and half enjoyment.
He had accepted Haruhime as an enemy. He recognized that she was not just another nonentity hardly worth sneering at but an opponent he was meeting on the battlefield.
He smiled because he recognized the renart’s determination.
“Don’t stand there all pleased with yourself like a little minx! You’re all show!”
“!!”
Haruhime, who had been suffering under Bete’s stream of abuse, raised her face. She glared as hard as she could at the werewolf smiling wickedly down at her and thrust both hands out in front of her chest as if she was presenting an offering.
“—Grow.”
She began to chant.
“That power and that vessel. Breadth of wealth and breadth of wishes. Until the bell tolls, bring forth glory and illusion.”
It was the only magic Haruhime knew, and it had no use as a weapon. She was well aware that it could not harm the mighty adventurer standing before her, but still, she chanted.
“—Grow.”
She needed an interval of around ten minutes between level boosts. By the time her strange exchange with Bete was over, almost ten minutes had elapsed, and as she began to chant, the magic drew forth her powers even more.
“Confine divine offerings within this body. This golden light bestowed from above. Into the hammer and into the ground, may it bestow good fortune upon you.”
Bete remained facing her at a slight distance, waiting silently until she finished chanting. Did he wait out of pride? No. He waited because he respected the girl’s determination—this weak girl’s roar toward the strong.
