by Akira Kareno
The gremian looked at him like he was nuts.
“Everyone on the research team is aware of the risks involved in gaining the surface’s wisdom. And as you may already know, they have two of our Winged Guard anti-Beast protective weapons with them. It’s for times like these we let those guys at the Alliance look big, so they’ve got to play their part, you know.”
“……”
The air froze.
A bird fell from the sky outside the window.
A cat napping in the shade of a tree gave a yelp and ran off.
The soldiers working hard at their jobs in the same building as them all suddenly felt a dreadful, agonizing chill for no reason. Some fell from their chairs, some gave out cries, and some immediately went on guard.
“Mm, the muscles in your face seem to be tense. Is something the matter?”
The gremian looked at him blankly, not appearing to notice the odd events happening around them.
“Oh, it’s nothing. It is perhaps just as you say, wise First Officer.”
“Okay. It’s hard to read you featureless’s expressions. Oh, by the way, I’ve got just the reading material for you. You may be a second officer just for decoration, but you’ll probably understand how important this study is when you see this.”
He tossed a file in Willem’s direction.
It was a simple document; ten-odd report-looking pages were tied together with string. The title, scribbled across the front with messy handwriting, read, Ground Level K96—MAL Ruins Second Study Report.
I don’t care about what they’re picking out from the ground after all this time, Willem thought, but the file did pique his interest. He knew they were putting a good amount of money and people into these land studies. What was it the Alliance and the Guard were looking for with all that effort?
“May I look inside?”
“You can’t take it out of this room, though.”
Willem took the file in his hand and opened it.
The first few pages had data on their coordinates and ship routes. He didn’t understand any of this technical stuff, so he skipped it.
Next was a map of the entire ruins, sketched in relief as accompaniment for the excavation.
Apparently, five hundred years ago, that used to be the location of a town with about three thousand emnetwiht residents. The main road was paved with large cobblestones and was lined with cheaply built group housing. There was a large structure to the northeast that might have been something like a city hall. Presumably, there was a forest surrounding the town at the time, and there was a total of four rivers of all sizes both within the town and outside it, two of which seemed to have been redrawn as man-made canals.
“……”
Damn, most of this is pretty close, he thought absently to himself.
There were indeed about three thousand people living in that town, and the roads were paved with cheap-looking cobble, and there was once a pretty large forest surrounding it. The number of rivers was a little off, though; if they were also counting man-made canals, then they were missing two rivers.
The form of the town shown on the map looked exactly like a town that was once in Imperial territory called Gomag—Willem’s hometown.
He looked for a facility on the map just outside of town. It was a shabby wooden building that was already pretty worn down five hundred years ago. He couldn’t find it. Maybe their study hadn’t reached that far yet, or maybe there was simply no trace of it left.
“That’s not the interesting part, is it? Go to the next page, the next page.”
The first officer urged him on, so he turned the page.
There was a simple list of discovered artifacts and talismans, pictures and documents.
It felt like the center of his brain had turned to lead. His vision swam over the letters that comprised the list, but what was written on the page didn’t reach his brain.
“That document was created by the report sent in from the messenger ship that arrived just the other day. So that means all the prizes written there are still waiting to be collected on the surface now.”
But how much does that really matter? Willem thought.
If you want a picture painted by an emnetwiht, I’ll draw you all the pictures you want. So just hand over that pen and paper. You want pottery? I’ll make you some pots. You want some books? I’ll write you the greatest timeless masterpiece there ever was.
Then—
“Dug weapon…Lapidemsibilus…?”
His eyes were drawn to a phrase near the middle of the list.
“Yes, there was apparently an inscription on the hilt. It seems to be quite a high-ranking weapon. With this, Regule Aire’s protection has grown a level sturdier!”
He shouldn’t listen to how delighted the first officer sounded.
Lapidemsibilus, the blade of stalwart defense of life.
It was the Carillon that one of Willem’s old companions, Navrutri, used. But why did they find it there, of all places?
He should have been off to battle with the Visitors, just like the rest of them were. The Tihuana District, which was acting like a battlefield at the time, and the town of Gomag were so far away, on practically opposite sides of the country.
No, that aside, more importantly…
“I see… Lapidem, huh! That’s one way to do it!”
The world before him suddenly shone brighter.
“Urm, hmm?”
He grabbed the gremian’s arm and nodded his head up and down excitedly.
“This is a fantastic military achievement, courageous First Officer! The research team has certainly accomplished a great triumph! All of Regule Aire must welcome the heroes and their accomplishments!”
“Y-yes, of course. I am pleased to see you understand all this.” Overwhelmed, the gremian nodded several times. “And, you see, I’m also thinking that we may have to add further protection to the Plantaginesta, which we’re sending to go get them. So I want a dug weapon with a compatible spirit to go along.”
He pondered.
It sounded like an obvious request.
At the present, there was no forecast for any future attacks by Timere. The forecasts were reliable, and the larger the scale of the attack, the earlier it could be predicted—in short, there wouldn’t be any large-scale battles in the few days to come, at least. So the risk was low in the faerie soldiers leaving Regule Aire at the moment. Of course the Alliance would ask for the faerie’s protection, and of course the Winged Guard would accept their request; it was hard to say that it was very reasonable for this decorative second officer to raise a fuss about it here.
Based on all that, he thought some more.
“…May I make a request, oh generous First Officer?”
“Hmm?” The gremian tilted his head.
“Do ya think you can add another seat to that ship?”
He took his leave from the room, walked down the halls to exit the base, and rushed along the tranquil and rural roads to get to Island No. 49’s second city.
The closer an island’s number was to No. 1, the closer to the center of Regule Aire it floated. And in almost the same manner, that applied to how accessible it was and how many people lived there. The larger cities were mostly concentrated on islands numbered forty and below, and islands numbered seventy and above were mostly untouched, left in their natural state.
Island No. 49. It wasn’t a pretty number.
And here, just like the number it represented, was a city that sat somewhere in the middle—not very big but not small enough.
“Oh, there you are!”
She sat under a dark-green umbrella in an open-air café that faced the plaza.
Before her was an empty glass of juice and a partially eaten cream cake.
Chtholly was sitting there clearly bored when she saw him cutting across the plaza to approach her, and she gave him a big wave.
“Sheesh, you’re so late! I was getting tired of waiting!”
“
Sorry ’bout that. Lots of stuff happened. Ready to go?”
“Wait, let me eat this first.”
Before she even finished speaking, she made the cake sitting on the plate vanish in an instant.
It was a technique that made Willem, who was, by the way, a seasoned veteran, watch in bewilderment.
“Mmm.”
And indeed, Chtholly’s mouth slacked sloppily.
Chtholly never ate sweets at the dining hall in the faerie warehouse. Her reasoning being that she never wanted to show her unbecoming expression to the little ones. That made sense now. He felt the explanation was pretty persuasive.
“Sorry about that. Now, let’s go shopping.”
She stood, took the hat that occupied the seat next to her, and placed it on her head.
This neighborhood wasn’t particularly discriminatory toward featureless. There really wasn’t much point in going out of the way to hide her head. He’d explained that to her before they left the warehouse, but she insisted, “It’s fine. It doesn’t really matter, does it?”
“What order should we do things?” she asked. “I think we should visit the bookstore last. Everyone made so many requests for me to pick up, so there would be a lot to carry. I don’t think it’d be so nice to lug such a heavy load around.”
“…You look pretty pumped about it, though.”
“Really? You must be imagining things.” She started to walk off before she even finished speaking. “It’s not often we get to walk around outside, just the two of us. I probably look excited because of that. By not often— Actually, I think this is our first time doing this, right?”
“Of course not.” Willem sighed. “The first time we met, we ran around all over the place. Don’t tell me you forgot about that, too?”
“Oh… Right. Ah-ha-ha!” Her expression was guilty, and she tried to brush it off with a smile. “Well, come now, let’s not mind the little things. We’ll have to stop and go home before the sun sets if we don’t hurry.”
“Was that a little thing?”
She glared at him with a terrifying expression.
It was a regular town.
Trade didn’t particularly thrive here. Very few tourists came to sightsee. The population was neither too big nor too small. It wasn’t an especially safe or dangerous place. It had no specific stand-out characteristics, a place that could only be described with the adjective regular. That kind of town.
And so the town was made with nothing but the pursuit of the residents’ comfort in mind. The small roads were paved with brick. Small staircases were buried between the gaps of buildings. Boggard children ran about in delight, waving their short sticks.
Willem ended up carrying way more bags than he’d prepared himself for.
They found a nice-looking park, so they decided to take a break.
“Hey.”
They sat together on a bench, leaning on the backrest.
“Hmm?”
“You really okay with this? You know you’re allowed to do what you want outside of the island now, right? You don’t have to just follow me and go shopping; you can do literally whatever—”
“Okay, enough, no acting like you need me to spell everything out for you even when you know why!” She poked him hard. “It doesn’t matter if it’s on the island or outside. I just wanted to stay together with you.”
Oh, right. He thought she would say something like that.
“I mean, there are some places I want to visit, some things I want to see. But that doesn’t quite mesh well with the place that I want to be, so there’s not much I can do about it. Right?”
Ugh. He couldn’t take this anymore.
This pure girl, who grew up knowing nothing about male creatures, just happened to meet a man in a somewhat dramatic fashion. The feelings a girl would have in a situation like this were strong, simple, and terribly cruel.
“What on earth is it that’s so good about me?”
“Not telling.”
She smiled impishly.
There was a short, comfortable moment of silence.
A small thought bubbled inside him, a feeling of wanting to stay this way forever.
“They told me they were gonna put a faerie soldier on the ship to the surface,” he murmured quietly.
“Mm.”
“It would still be too much for Tiat, so we took her out of the options. We stressed over which of the other two we should send, but we decided on Nephren.”
“Mm.”
“And while I was at it, I negotiated directly with the guy and made him put in space for me.”
“…Mm?”
Chtholly’s head spun around to look at him.
“Why, though?”
“Unlike the thing at Island No. 15, it doesn’t sound like they’re putting up some kind of barrier that you can’t enter or leave or whatever. You can go if you want to. The first reason why is because I’m not gonna stay waiting for someone to come home again.” He folded his fingers as he counted his reasons. “There was the name of a sword I just couldn’t ignore on the list of treasures they found on land. If it’s the real thing, then I want to get it as soon as possible. That’s the second reason.”
“A sword?”
He ignored her question and gazed up at the sky.
“You’ve been pushing yourself pretty hard recently.”
“…What are you talking about?”
“Don’t play dumb now. I can sort of tell by the way you’ve been acting recently. You’ve lost some of your memories, haven’t you? Or are you still in the middle of losing them now?”
A waffle cart stopped on the road beside the park and opened for business. The sweet aroma wafted and filled the air around it. A child walking along the road began to beg for change from their parents beside them. The parents dealt with it coolly at first, but their attitudes changed slowly as the sweet scent tickled their noses. “It’s just before dinner. You shouldn’t make a habit of spending all your money on sweets. Oh well, I suppose it can be a treat just for today. Excuse me, can we have a hazelnut cream and berry medley waffle, please?”
“How can you tell?”
“I just told you; I can sort of tell by watching you.”
There was something off about Chtholly’s behavior. It weighed on his mind, so he watched her. That was how he first took notice of some things. Some things he would never have noticed had he not watched her.
“I see. You were worried about me.”
“You thought I wasn’t?”
“No, of course not.”
She looked happy but troubled.
“—Let me just say this now, but don’t get too excited about what I’m about to tell you. It’s really not much more than something that might be possible.” He gave his disclaimer. “But it’s the sword they found on the surface, the one I told you about. Its talent manifests as one that keeps its user’s body and mind in the best condition possible. At least, five hundred years ago, I saw with my own eyes as it canceled out attacks that make you act unhinged emotionally and destroy your memory. If we had that, it might solve your memory problem thing.”
She blinked.
“You…speak so calmly of reckless acts, don’t you?”
“The trick to making recklessness into a reality is to put it into words.”
“I’m not sure if that’s something you should be proud of.” She chuckled.
They could hear the guy at the waffle stand yelling loud and clear, “Thanks a bunch!”
“Okay, I won’t get too excited about it, then. But I can trust that you won’t give up on me, right?”
“Yeah, sure.”
“How long will it take, then?”
“I dunno. Probably ten days, or maybe a little longer than that.”
Chtholly stopped in her tracks.
“…I’m going, too,” she murmured.
“Huh?”
“I just said, I’m going, too. I’m not gonna stay waiting for someone to come home again, eith
er.”
“What?”
“It’s fine. I still remember who Nopht and Rhan are. I wasn’t too close with them, but I don’t think they’d say anything weird if I saw them.”
“No, no, wait. They definitely won’t allow that. It’s not like they can add more seats to the airship’s capacity, and it’s not like they’d wanna take along someone without any skills as a touri—”
He watched as Chtholly’s expression turned demonic.
He realized he’d made a slip of the tongue.
Willem recoiled slightly, overwhelmed.
“Are you going to finish that sentence with the word tourist?”
“—Nope. That’s not what I meant. You know, it’s dangerous on the surface, and it’s not really a place you can just waltz onto, and, uh…”
He realized that he was now ready to put his foot in his mouth.
“Oh? Does it look like I’m going to be waltzing anywhere?”
Chtholly spoke slowly, her calm voice cutting deep.
“No, wait, you know. Let’s cool off a bit and chat about it.”
“I am furious. I am definitely going, too!”
“Wait, wait, but they aren’t gonna let you go anyway!”
If he had to give a conclusion, it was that they would let her go after all.
After they went back the way they had come and talked to the first officer, he easily gave her permission to come along. He added Chtholly’s name at the bottom of the passenger list and handed her a simple form of identification.
“—Don’t tell me you’re mad at me?” Chtholly asked hesitantly on the way back home. “You look really grumpy.”
“Of course I do.” He gave a deep sigh. “You know why you got permission so easily, right?”
“Because…the second officer introduced me?”
“That’s just a prerequisite. That’s not enough to let a regular civilian without any proof of skill or without a background check go along on such an important mission.”
Most of the islands of Regule Aire didn’t have anything like a census registration system. That was because in places like these, where many different races and individual values mingled together, there was a limit to how the residents could be managed by documents. According to the law on most islands, citizenship was purchased from the city in the form of tax. Although it was convenient for leading a daily life, it wasn’t compulsory. For instance, like Willem’s neighborhood on Island No. 28, there were some areas where most of the residents didn’t have citizenship—and consequently, it was a dangerous place.
