The Riesefalke Egg

The Riesefalke Egg

The Riesefalke Egg

Eckhart briskly tied the bag from Ferdinand onto his waist, the feystones inside audibly knocking against each other. “Rozemyne, Damuel—prepare to move the moment Lord Ferdinand captures the eiderot,” he said in a low voice.

We both nodded. I tightened my grip on Lessy’s steering wheel as I watched Ferdinand withdraw his schtappe and aim it at the eiderot, but the instant he did, the feybeast opened its mouth wide and belched fire.

“Eep?!” I shrieked, shutting my eyes tight and reflexively raising a hand to protect my face. The fire spewing from its mouth didn’t reach very far, its range ultimately being about as short as that of a street fire performer, but it certainly succeeded at making it appear threatening.

“ Geteilt .”

A split second later, I heard a loud metallic clang accompanied by a throaty choke from the eiderot. I hesitantly lowered my arm and opened my eyes to see that it had been knocked back several meters, now hurriedly attempting to regain its footing.

It had apparently intended to tackle Ferdinand while blowing out more fire, but he had produced Schutzaria’s shield faster than it could charge him. He then turned the shield inside out to capture the eiderot as it attempted to tackle him a second time. This was exactly the same method I had used to imprison the goltze last year during the Night of Schutzaria, but Ferdinand was evidently much better at controlling his mana than I was, as the shield was steadily shrinking in size.

“Go!” he ordered.

We immediately raced past Ferdinand as he maintained the shield, the eiderot rampaging inside as we sprinted toward the innermost spring.

“Ferdinand, there’s another one coming!” I cried, turning my head a little upon spotting another eiderot reflected in my rear-view mirror.

“That will not be an issue,” came his reassuring reply. And with that, I knew he would be fine without us.

We passed through a narrow passageway and into a slightly more open area that looked entirely different from all the caves we had traversed. In a world dyed orange by the eye drops, only the spring before us faintly shone a pale blue color. White steam rose from its surface, distorting my vision a little and making everything seem even more fantastical.

I could tell from the bubbling sound that the hot water was rising from deep underground, and the complex patterns wavering on its surface were a sure sign that the spring originated from various sources. As I peered down at the shimmering water, I could just barely see the faint outline of some eggs. It was hard to tell since their outlines came in and out of sight, but there seemed to be about ten bunched up in total.

“Those are the riesefalke eggs,” Eckhart said while pointing into the water. “You must gather one yourself so as to avoid mana contamination, the same as the other ingredients. I imagine that you understand this by now.”

“I do,” I replied with a nod. “But am I going to have to dive into the spring? It looks really hot.”

I couldn’t give any exact figures since I didn’t have a thermometer, but the heat coming off the water was enough for me to know it was much hotter than the baths I usually took.

“Not as it is now, of course,” Eckhart said bemusedly, removing his gauntlets and tossing them to Damuel before putting on some leather gloves for blocking mana. He then reached into the pouch Ferdinand had thrown to him and took out a bag-shaped net tied shut, inside of which were many feystones—likely the empty ones Ferdinand had spoken of previously. At first glance, they looked a lot like those oranges you’d see bunched together in mesh bags at grocery stores.

Eckhart wrapped the string dangling from the top of the net around his wrist, then pulled out a feystone slightly larger than a fist from within and tossed it toward the eggs. I heard a thunk, at which point he started walking into the spring with the bag of feystones still tied to his wrist.

“Eckhart?”

“The feystones are absorbing the heat. You should be able to enter now. Come, Rozemyne.”

I experimentally dipped my fingers into the spring at Eckhart’s encouragement. Lo and behold, it was now about as warm as an extra-hot bath.

Wowee! Feystones sure are something else.

“The spring’s temperature will only remain lowered while the feystones are absorbing the mana. Once they are filled, the temperature will rise again.”

I stood in place, hesitant to enter while still wearing my clothes, which prompted Eckhart to heft me up and climb in himself. The water got up to my head in no time, and as I couldn’t feel the ground beneath me, I started clinging to Eckhart.

I have to say... aahh... the heat actually feels pretty good.

The temperature was perfect, but my floating clothes were getting in the way of me letting out a satisfied sigh. A part of me wanted to strip naked to do this, but my social status wouldn’t exactly allow that. Plus, the heat rising again once the feystones were full of mana meant that I probably couldn’t stay inside the spring for very long anyway.

What a shame...

We waded close to where the eggs were, the water now reaching Eckhart’s shoulders.

“Rozemyne, I will duck down and pull you underwater. Grab the egg the moment you can.”

“Okay.”

“Take a deep breath, and...”

A second later, Eckhart crouched, bringing me all the way down to his feet. I was completely engulfed in the hot water. It was whitish and a bit cloudy, forming a hard-to-see-through haze, but I was still able to reach out and grab the egg closest to me. It felt about as big as I assumed an ostrich egg would be, meaning I needed to use both hands to hold it.

On inspection, the egg seemed to be marble-colored and definitely didn’t look like something I would want to eat. Not that they were food anyway.

Okay! Gathering complete.

I turned around and nodded at Eckhart, who tensed his hands beneath my arms and started pulling me back to the surface. That was when I spotted something approaching us underwater. It seemed to be following me up.

When my head was above the water and I could breathe again, I saw a small monkey timidly swimming over, looking at us with wide, docile eyes.

A baby monkey...?

Just as I was starting to think it was cute, however, its eyes flashed and its arms shot toward the riesefalke egg in my hands.

“Rozemyne!” Eckhart yelled, pulling me up just in time for the monkey’s paws to miss. “That is known as a bataffe. This time, do whatever you can to stop the egg from being stolen! It is hardly a strong feybeast, but we cannot kill it here,” he repeated, scooping me up under his left arm while using his right to push aside the water as he strode back toward the edge of the spring. “Bataffes travel in groups. If you see one, assume there are thirty nearby!”

Wouldn’t that make them like my archnemeses from my Urano days, the nuclear-resistant bugs of evil and horror?

Eckhart’s warning made my disgust toward bataffes explode, and at the same time, I remembered how the ruelle fruit filled with my mana had been stolen in the past.

I’m not giving this up... It’s my very own hot spring egg!

I tightly hugged the egg to my chest while glaring at the bataffe. Its face twisted with anger at having failed to snatch it from me, and it started swimming toward Eckhart and me while gnashing its teeth. Not a shred of its former cuteness remained.

“Scree! Scree!” it shrieked, trying to sound as intimidating as possible as it violently clawed at the water to reach us. The fact that it wasn’t giving up just made me more and more frustrated.

“This one’s mine !”

The bataffe let out another hostile screech and reached out its arms yet again, but this time it wasn’t aiming for the egg—it was trying to attack me. I protectively hugged the egg and allowed my anger to flare, hitting the feybeast with my mana and Crushing it. Perhaps it hadn’t anticipated the surprise attack—or a mana attack at all, for that matter—as its eyes shot wide open in response. I could tell from its frozen expression that my victory was assured.

Eheheh! Surprised, huh? Well, I’m something of a fighter myself. And don’t you forget it!

I smugly looked down at the bataffe, only to see that it was now floating on its back and frothing at the mouth.

Oh no... Did I go too far?!

I anxiously scanned our surroundings and saw a group of enraged bataffes, baring their teeth as they leaped into the hot spring from an entrance opposite the hole we had come in through. An even closer look revealed there were also multiple shadows under the water racing this way.

“Eckhart! There’s a swarm of bataffes coming!”

“I expected as much.”

“Lord Eckhart, the riesefalke has returned!” Damuel shouted, pointing up from where he was keeping watch. I followed his finger to see a fairly large, predatory-looking bird rapidly descending from a hole high up in the chasm. It had legs that were unusually thick for a bird its size, dagger-like claws, and sharp eyes that were locked onto its prey—us.

The riesefalke diving at us seemed far more deadly than the eiderots Ferdinand was holding back or the bataffes rushing our way. And since I had its egg in my hands, it had identified me as an enemy. I swallowed hard as it lunged straight toward me.