1

After their journey in the stagecoach, they hitched a ride in a merchant’s wagon. Two days later, Yuui and Ix finally set foot in Agnasruze. Their shoulders and backs ached on account of their forced-march style of travel and the poor sleeping conditions in the station. There had been better accommodation options available, but they were saving their money. Regardless, it had otherwise been a smooth journey devoid of magic beast encounters.

Ix stretched up his arms and bent his body, resulting in pops and creaks. The sky overhead was a pale gray.

“Ack…,” hacked Yuui, inhaling the dust cloud the wagon kicked up around her as it left.

“You look exhausted,” Ix noted.

“That was exhausting even for me.”

“Well, that’s what wagons’ll do to a person.”

“We have both suffered. And you had to deal with that bag…,” she said, picking up her own luggage, which had been dropped from the cargo storage of the wagon.

Ix had brought an unusually oversize bag for someone traveling. It was so massive, they’d had to pay extra fare.

“It was a mistake to let Morna pack for me,” Ix muttered, dragging his burden along. “Guess that’s what I should’ve expected from a shut-in who hasn’t gone anywhere once in her life…”

“What ultimately ended up in there?”

“Most of it is daily necessities I could have bought when we got here. It’s ridiculous… The rest is stuff I can’t figure out why she would pack, like mending oil. I bet she just put stuff from her room in here on a whim.”

“You might be on to something.”

They’d rushed to catch a stagecoach, so they’d not had time to check the contents beforehand. On the other hand, Yuui had originally been dressed for travel anyway and had packed light.

But something else was weighing Yuui down besides fatigue—gloominess.

“Wow, what an enormous mountain!”

“You think? It doesn’t seem that big to me.”

“Oh, you probably can’t see, Dann. It’s hazy, but I can just make out taller mountains in the range that continues behind that one.”

“Didn’t we cover that in class?”

“Did we?”

The source of her distress was the passengers disembarking from the wagon behind theirs.

Tomah, Dann, and Rozalia, of course.

Ix looked at Yuui’s profile, wondering if she might collapse again. She pressed her hands to her temples, perhaps from a headache, but she seemed to be hanging in there.

Yuui had been in a bad way ever since running into the three of them the first night of the journey. She’d returned to their room muttering, “This is a dream; it has to be a dream…,” before collapsing on the floor. Ix went out to see what had happened, only to reunite with the three adventurers, looks of embarrassment on their faces.

As they told it, they’d seen Ix and Yuui rushing to catch the stagecoach. That had made them think Yuui was reneging on her promise to them, so they ran after the two and jumped on a stagecoach without even looking where it was going. That was how they’d ended up in the same station as Yuui and Ix the first night.

After Ix had explained the series of events to Yuui, she’d seemed to understand. Her heart hadn’t, though, because she’d done nothing but sigh the entire way to Agnasruze.

Ultimately, using Ix as a go-between, the three adventurers swore they wouldn’t try to interact with Yuui until they returned to Leirest. Yuui seemed to be trying to ignore them to the best of her abilities.

She urged Ix to get away quickly, and the two started walking down a wide street.

“Huh, what an interesting town,” murmured Ix.

“How so?”

“It’s monochrome. Or maybe Leirest is just too diverse in comparison…”

It was only a vague impression, but he sensed Agnasruze was the exact opposite of Leirest.

The buildings were large, but there weren’t many people out on the street. Still, the place had a decent amount of activity, about as much as you would expect from a mining town. For some reason, though, it also had a tranquil atmosphere. It was as if you were looking at everything through a translucent sheet of ash-colored paper. There was of course the smoke from the volcano floating through the air, but there had to be more to it.

Suddenly, they heard a loud voice from behind them and turned to see the three friends having some sort of argument in front of a stall. Yuui’s brow furrowed as she spun back around and asked, “What should we do first? Find somewhere to stay? Also, are any of your fellow apprentices in this town?”

“It’d be good if they were,” replied Ix seriously. “For now, all we can do is search for Ega Fulmen or the Fulmen family. The cover of that ledger had the words festival supply on it, so he must’ve been connected with some sort of festival. We’ll ask the people of the town about local celebrations or if they know anything about ‘dragon procurement’… And if we can figure out the connection between Mount Agnas and dragons, we’ll have something to celebrate. Things’ll be a lot faster if someone happens to have a dragon heart.”

“Sounds like our hands will be full… How shall we search? It does not appear this town has a library.”

“I’ve got one idea: a place where we can learn about a few of those in one go.”

“Oh, where is that?”

“Dunno, have to ask someone who lives here.”

“And if they don’t know?”

“Then I’m out of ideas.”

“Sounds like it could be hit or miss… Though I suppose I knew that already.”

“And if we have time after that, I want to look at Mount Agnas.”

“Can’t you see it just over there?” asked Yuui, pointing to the black shadow that towered just outside the town.

The mountain had a dignified presence that seemed to bear down from the other side of the houses. Its sharp curves were outlined by the rugged crags and trees standing on steep inclines.

“That’s not what I mean. I want to actually go check it out,” clarified Ix.

“You want to go into the mines? I’ve heard you’re not allowed to enter any that are currently in use and that magic beasts come out of the ones that have been abandoned. That sounds dangerous.”

“Shouldn’t be a problem if I hire some adventurers as guards.”

“Do you have that kind of money?”

“I do now,” Ix said with a nod. “Depending on the cost, though, I might have to use the money meant for the return trip and wand repairs.”

“Oh my…”

“There’s got to be some way… Ah.”

A boy suddenly rushed around a corner and crashed into Ix, who managed to totter upright on his feet. The boy, however, fell to the ground. His patchy clothing was dirtied with sand, and blood dripped from his knees. Ix quickly checked his inside pocket, but nothing had been stolen.

“You all right?” Ix said as he loomed over the boy, who stared back silently.

“I-Ix! You’re scaring him!”

Yuui bent over to look the boy in the eye, though her hood still hid her face.

“Are you all right?” she asked warmly. “I’m sorry—my friend wasn’t paying attention.”

“…I’m fine,” he replied coldly.

“Can you stand? If you like, we’ll walk you… Huh?”

As the boy went to stand, they saw a small red sparkle in his hand.

Yuui and Ix held their breath as they stared intently at what he clutched.

“Th-this is mine!” shouted the boy, noticing where they were looking and squeezing his fist tight.

“Where’d you get that?” asked Ix sternly. “Tell me.”

“I found it!”

“Found it whe—?”

As Ix tried to interrogate the boy further, other kids’ shouts echoed from around the corner the boy had popped out of.

“Hey, Henri! Don’t run! You a man or what?”

“He ain’t got a dad, so he ain’t a man!”

The boy leaped to his feet when he heard their cries.

Then he compressed himself and hid by the corner.

Just as the other children appeared around the bend, he pushed off the ground with both his feet and landed a flying kick on the lead boy.

“Agh!”

“Take that!”

The lead boy fell backward into the kids behind him, dragging them all to the ground with him.

The impact also sent the boy who’d landed the blow tumbling down, but he was the first to get back to his feet. Turning to Ix, he muttered, “…Sorry I ran into you.”

Before Ix could say anything, the boy dashed down the street like a rabbit. His form grew smaller and smaller before he disappeared around a fork in the road.

“I hope you die, you piece of shit!”

“We’ll kill you, Henri!”

“Don’t get full of yourself!”

A few seconds later, the other children picked themselves up and tore down the same street, hurling insults.

After they, too, disappeared, Yuui couldn’t help but turn to Ix.

“That…looked like it, didn’t it?” she asked.

“It was a beautiful red stone.” Ix sighed. “But you can get shards of gemstones like that anywhere.”

“Yes, I thought so, too. But…”

“Let’s just think of it as a good omen.”

“…Yes.”

For a while, the two of them stared in the direction the boy had disappeared.

2

They set out to stock up on food and information. Ix went into a random store on the side of the road, with Yuui following behind. As she did, the store owner quickly called out to her.

“Ah, you there, please don’t touch that.”

“Hmm?”

Something had been placed up against the wall by the entrance, and Yuui had nearly brushed her back against it. She quickly pulled away.

“Please be careful,” chided the store owner. “Those are important.”

“O-of course. I’m sorry.” She bowed.

While Ix chatted up the store owner, Yuui took the chance to turn and see what was so special, but there was only some old wood placed there. Three long sticks, to be exact. They looked sturdy but were blackened. She had no idea what they were for.

Losing interest, she looked around at the store decor, only to realize something suddenly.

“…Not a decoration in sight,” she said.

“What did you say?” asked Ix, coming back with a hard-looking bread roll in each hand. He handed one to her.

“Now I know why this town feels so different from Leirest,” noted Yuui as she accepted the roll. “This store’s interior is the same as these buildings. Almost none of them has any ornamentation.”

“Hmm? Well, now that you mention it…”

Typically, mid-range or high-end stores would sport extravagant ornamentation to show off their class and to prove that the establishment was profitable. Though you could call technically anything they put up “decor,” the art they hung ran the gamut from wall carvings to paintings. There were all sorts of decoration types.

But for some reason, ornamented shops were the minority in Agnasruze. Instead, most of the buildings had barren facades. That was what made the city feel so quiet.

“It’s because this town is New Order,” came a voice.

“What?”

Ix and Yuui looked in the direction they’d heard it to find that the man running the shop was speaking to them.

“Have you not heard of it?” he asked, looking confused.

“I am aware that it is a denomination of Marayism…,” said Yuui.

“Ah, what a knowledgeable girl,” said the man.

“Young woman,” corrected Yuui, though her hood was pulled far down, so you couldn’t blame him for making an assumption based on only her voice.

“Ah, my apologies.” He bowed his head slightly and put a smile on his face. “We New Order followers abide the scriptures more strictly and carry out our daily lives closer to God.”

“What’s that got to do with leaving shops undecorated?” asked Ix.

Yuui had of course learned about Marayism in the Academy, but the New Order wasn’t recognized as a legitimate denomination by the state church, so she wasn’t too familiar with it. Apparently, Ix wasn’t, either.

“God commands us to devote ourselves to our occupation. For farmers, that’s farming; for miners, it’s mining; and for people like me, it is God’s will that I run this shop. What that means is the fruit of our labor belongs to God.”

“Fruit of your labor?” asked Ix.

“Farmed goods, ores and minerals, and, in my case, money.”

“Your earnings belong to the divine?”

“Precisely. God only temporarily places the money I obtain into my possession. I can’t waste that on luxuries and unnecessary things like decorations. We believers are meant to live pure and modest lives.”

“Pure and modest… So you only spend significant money on festivals, then?” asked Ix.

“Festivals…?” The man’s eyebrows crinkled. “A festival is the height of squandering.”

“Huh?”

“We should loathe festivals above all else. Waste, luxury, and, most of all, debauchery… They bring nothing but evil, not an ounce of good. A festival would serve only to amuse the poor, and there is nothing gained from that. Since celebrations don’t fulfill the occupations we’ve been granted, they go against God’s will—”

“W-wait,” interrupted Ix, holding up a hand. “There are festivals in Marayism. Like the Feast of Meat and Heaven’s Worship…”

“Those are festivals of the Old Order,” retorted the man with a snort. “But where in the scriptures does it say to hold them? They’re a symbol of continual corruption—that’s what they are. I don’t know how it is where you hail from, but there are no events like that in Agnasruze.”

“Has it always been like that?”

“Yes, at least as long as I’ve been alive.”

“I see…” Ix stroked his chin. “By the way, we’re looking for someone.”

“Oh?”

“Have you heard the name Fulmen before?”

“Hmm…? No.” The man looked as though he didn’t understand.

Ix grumbled, then fell silent. He seemed even more annoyed than usual. Couldn’t he have at least held that back until they’d left the store? Now the store owner was eyeing them suspiciously.

“Um…?”

“O-oh, thank you for speaking with us,” said Yuui, hurriedly moving in front of Ix. “I apologize for him—he’s a little strange.”

“No, it’s no problem.”

“Let’s go, Ix.” She pushed his back and urged him to leave the store. But just as they were about to, she remembered something she’d been wondering about.

“Oh, regarding these…,” she said, pointing to the wood near the entrance. “What are they used for?”

“Ah…those. What they’re used for, you say…?” Surprisingly, the store owner looked dumbfounded. “They’re not used for anything.”

“Huh? But you said they were important?”

“Well, they’ve been in the house as long as I can remember. My grandmother would get in a nasty mood and yell at me if I messed with them, so I just sort of placed them there… I honestly don’t even know why myself.”

“Huh…” Yuui was puzzled.

“Well, they’re neither luxury nor decoration, so I thought it would be fine.”

“I can tell that much by looking at them…”

They left the shop and walked down the narrow road. There was no sign of Tomah and the other two. Yuui wondered if they would just go back to Leirest.

“They don’t have festivals…?” muttered Ix. “I didn’t know there was something like that in Marayism.”

“And if that’s the case, what exactly is the Festival Supply Accounts? Was there a festival a long time ago that the shop owner just isn’t aware of?”

“Probably. But…” Ix sank into thought.

If what the shop owner said was true, then they had already failed to locate the festival. On top of that, it cast doubt on whether the Festival Supply Accounts ledger had actually been written in this town. Maybe taking Ottou at his word had been a mistake…

Yuui decided to try changing the subject and said, “Some of the New Order’s way of thinking sort of matches you.”

“You think?”

“Yeah. The work is your life, and you don’t care about earnings. Isn’t that how a craftsman thinks?”

“Well, it’s not like I want to be super rich…,” Ix replied flatly. “But by their logic, the wands I make would belong to God. I don’t want any of that. Wands belong to people.”

“Hmm…”

Yuui remembered the boy from earlier, Henri.

The stone he’d been carrying was still on her mind.

Suddenly, she murmured, “Why did the dragons go away?”

“What are you talking about all of a sudden?”

“Oh…nothing.” Yuui herself was surprised to have voiced the question, but she kept thinking aloud. “According to the legends, dragons were creatures with infinite magic and incredible physical strength.”

“You mean dragon magic?”

“Yes. Apparently, they could materialize anything you could imagine. Compared with dragons, humans are just dust. But despite all that, I somehow always thought they died out because humans spread over so much of the world… Still, just why did they go extinct when they had unlimited magic?”

“It’s strange, yeah… But they’re just legends. A lot of weird stuff happens in them.”

“Does the kingdom have any stories that explain their extinction?”

“Don’t get so hung up on this.”

“I know we cannot completely trust our leads, but we are seriously searching for dragons, yes? We might be able to figure something out if we think it all through.”

“Huh… Well, I don’t think there were any that mentioned a reason for their disappearance. All I know is their numbers dwindled. Aren’t the legends everywhere like that?”

That was the same as what Yuui had heard. Besides, dragons were just something from a story, so didn’t a certain level of inconsistency make sense?

Wait—something just occurred to her.

If legends didn’t require consistency, then couldn’t they explain the dragons’ extinction however they wanted? By that same token, however, if all the legends in the world consistently stated dragons had gone extinct for unknown reasons, wasn’t that proof in and of itself that they had really existed?

Well, it was just an idea. Instead, Yuui asked, “What do you think the reason was, Ix?”

“What do I think?” he murmured, then was silent for a couple of seconds. “Infinite magic and incredible strength don’t come out of nowhere,” he posited, speaking slowly. “When using a large amount of power, you have to burn a lot of fuel. I don’t know where they got that in the first place, but maybe their source wasn’t enough anymore.”

“Then couldn’t they just not use their power?”

“Hmmmm.” It was only a theoretical discussion, but Ix thought it through seriously. With a severe look on his face, he replied, “It was probably a physical issue. The legends say dragons were the size of small mountains. Even if they didn’t use their powers, simply maintaining their forms would require a tremendous amount of energy.”

“Ah, I see.”

Convinced, Yuui clapped her fist into her other hand. The small impact sent fine crumbs scattering from her bread roll.

Just then, a strong gust of wind blew in front of them.

Yuui braced herself, holding her hood in place.

The falling bread crumbs were swept up by the wind before they hit the ground, then appeared to vanish into thin air.

The gale settled.

“Yuui, you okay?” asked Ix with a cough from the dust he’d inhaled.

“…What if they were small?” asked Yuui automatically.

“Hmm?”

“What if dragons were not massive like the legends say but were actually tiny? Infinitesimally small creatures, like a grain of dust.”

“So small they wouldn’t need energy to maintain themselves?”

“Yes. And what if they are not extinct at all but are still alive?”

“That’s impossible.” Ix shook his head. “Then how did the people who passed down the old stories know dragons existed in the first place? Why’d they lie and say they were huge?”

“No, not like that. They were big a long time ago.”

“What do you mean?”

“They knew they couldn’t maintain their massive bodies, so they slowly shrunk themselves. They got smaller and smaller, until you could no longer see them.”

“I feel like that theory relies too much on random assumptions…”

“But I have evidence.”

“What evidence?”

“The core of my wand,” asserted Yuui, and Ix looked at her questioningly. “This is what I think: The material used for the core of my wand isn’t a piece of a dragon’s heart—it’s an entire dragon heart. With a heart this size, the whole body would only be about the size of a lizard. Long ago, they were as big as a small mountain. By the time Munzil obtained the core and made the wand, they were like lizards. And now, they are no bigger than a particle of dust… They’ve been getting smaller and smaller over time. If that’s true, then they didn’t go extinct. Instead, we can say they changed shape and are still living.”

“That’s… But…”

Yuui returned to her senses the moment she saw Ix’s bewildered expression.

“Ah, s-sorry, it was just an idea… First of all, if that was what happened, there would be some record of it,” she said.

“No, it was interesting as a thought experiment,” he replied, nodding. “Dragons still being alive. I’d never seriously considered it. If that were true, then dragons getting so small it made it seem like they’d vanished would be a reasonable theory.”

“Can you think of any other possible explanations?”

“None that are realistic.”

“…Ah, like they’re invisible?”

“That was one thought.”

“You have another?”

“Well, if the exact opposite— Oh,” gasped Ix, coming to a halt as he started to speak. “This is it.”

“What?”

Yuui stopped, having walked a few steps beyond him. That reminded her—she still hadn’t asked where they were going. She’d just sort of trusted Ix to guide her…

“An inn?” she inquired.

“No. I asked where this place was at the shop earlier. A place where we can learn everything in one go.”

Ix pointed to a large, plain edifice that looked like a storage building. There was a small graveyard next to it, but it looked as if it hadn’t been used recently.

“A church…?”

“Supposedly.” Ix seemed perplexed. “Pretty plain for a church.”

3

There were few people in the church.

The interior was large and open, since people gathered there for congregation, and it exuded stillness. Several well-to-do-looking worshippers were gathered near the entrance, engaged in some amusing discussion.

Like the city streets they’d seen so far, the entire church building seemed to reject decoration entirely. It was absent stained glass, paintings, carvings, or other artwork. The far wall was decorated with a wooden Marayist symbol and an old staff. Ix only got a glance from a distance, but the staff appeared to be of high quality.

It was normal for a church to have a staff. Munzil’s shop had occasionally received requests like that. Not only were these simple decorations great for showing off, but the clergy also employed them for casting spells in service of the church followers. Magic skill was a must for becoming a member of the cloth.

The head of this church, referred to as a sage in the New Order sect, was a man who left a strong impression, what with his magnificent beard and flat, broad facial features. He introduced himself shortly as Ost Yuub as he approached Yuui and Ix calmly, his expression somewhere between blank and smiling.

“Hmm…Ega Fulmen?” Ost replied with confusion when they immediately began questioning him.

“Yeah. Or even just the Fulmen family name. You ever hear it?” asked Ix, his arms crossed.

“I haven’t, unfortunately.”

“It’s someone who lived in this town,” said Yuui.

“I am the sage who was assigned here. I would know who they are if they have accepted their purification since I’ve been here or if they are devout believers. But if this is about someone who lived here long ago, well, I only wish I could be of more assistance…”

“That’s why we said we’ll look ourselves.”

“I do wish wholeheartedly I could cooperate,” Ost said with a shake of his head, “but the purification records are significant items passed down through the church.”

“We get that. We’re just asking to see them.”

“Yes, however…”

The earnest sage just wasn’t letting up.

The reason Ix came to the church was to search for Ega Fulmen, of course.

When trying to locate someone, you had to ask the people passing through the area about them. That was probably a surefire way to do it, but they didn’t have that kind of time. That was why Ix had hit upon the brilliant idea of investigating the church’s purification records, which contained the names of all the people in the congregation who had undergone the ceremony, along with the date it had taken place. Depending on the individual, it might even have a date of death and a list of relatives.

Ega Fulmen had once possessed the Festival Supply Accounts ledger. In other words, he was someone of a certain standing, and there was a high probability he would be somehow connected to the church. If that was the case, he would have a prominent place within the purification records. At least that was what Ix had surmised. Considering there was no longer any festival and Ost didn’t recognize the name, however, his assumption was starting to look less than promising…

As Ix continued interrogating the sage, the churchgoers by the entrance seemed to sense a quarrel on the horizon and vacated the premises. Ost must have come to the end of his rope, because he eventually put up his hands and relented. “Fine, fine.”

“You’ll show us?” asked Ix.

“Well, you do seem utterly insistent. Do you have anything with which you can confirm your identity?”

“Identity…”

“Yes, I do, sort of,” interjected Yuui as she rummaged through her inside pocket. “I am a student of the Royal Academy. That must be an acceptable standing…yes?”

“Ah, a student. Yes, of course.” Ost rubbed his hands together. “And then, you are—?”

“A wandmaking apprentice.”

“An apprentice?” His brow creased. “Then do you have a guild card or the like?”

“No, only craftsmen can carry those.”

“Then unfortunately, I will only be able to show the lady here…”

“Excuse me, I understand that we’re asking something very difficult here, but is there really nothing you can do to allow him to accompany me?” asked Yuui. “Ummm, for example, could I vouch for his identity? He might officially only be an apprentice, but in reality, he is an excellent wandmaker…”

“No matter how excellent he may be, I still need some identification… By the way, under which craftsman did you study?” asked Ost.

“Munzil Alreff.”

“What?”

“W-well, Master Alreff has passed away, so Ix is currently working at the shop of one of Master Alreff’s other apprentices…,” added Yuui.

Strictly speaking, Ix wasn’t working at Morna’s shop, either, but he didn’t refute her. Right now, getting access to the purification records was their top priority.

“An apprentice of Master Alreff…?” asked Ost with a quick glance toward the staff at the back of the church.

“I understand how you might be skeptical, but—,” started Yuui.

“It’s that staff,” interrupted Ix.

“What?” Yuui and Ost both said at the same time.

Ix trotted nonchalantly farther into the church toward the staff. Then he stopped a few paces away and stared at it from up close, without touching it. As he’d suspected when he’d first entered, it was indeed a masterpiece. And it had clearly been well maintained over its many years of service.

“Excuse me, what are you doing…?” inquired Ost in befuddlement from behind Ix.

“This is one of Munzil’s staffs,” Ix informed him.

“Huh?”

“…Ah, it’s sturdily made,” continued Ix, his eyes never leaving it. “Was the junction point sped up to hold down the flexion rate? Master would do that.”

“Um, excuse me?”

There was a tap on Ix’s shoulder. He turned around to see Ost standing there, glaring at him suspiciously.

“Am I wrong?” asked Ix.

“Are you incorrect…? No, this is indeed an early piece of Master Alreff’s, which he gave to this church. But just because you guessed right doesn’t mean I can trust you. That’s information you can learn by asking any well-informed member of the church.”

“What are you talking about?” Ix narrowed one of his eyes. “That wasn’t a guess or anything—that’s something any wandmaker would be able to tell at a glance. I’m not trying to convince you I’m really an apprentice of Munzil.”

“Then what are you trying to do?” asked Ost indignantly.

“I just want to convince you I’m an amateur wandmaker you can trust for a bit.”

“Hmm…and?”

“This staff hasn’t been used lately.”

“Hmm? Yes, that’s true.”

“Its day-to-day maintenance has been perfectly carried out. But…you could only call it bad luck. Not even Master could have predicted this would happen.”

“I do wish you would get to the point soon.”

“The point…” Ix couldn’t help sighing. He was loath to do this, but he convinced himself this, too, was necessary, so he stuck his hand in his bag. “Ah, for the love of…”

He produced a tiny vial. The yellow liquid inside sloshed about.

“What is that?” asked Yuui.

“Kesga mending oil,” replied Ix, causing Ost to cry out hysterically the moment he heard its name.

“What did you say?! Ah, why do you have that?”

“Because I know a lady who’s a bit…” Ix trailed off, shaking his head in exasperation. “Is this enough to buy a small amount of your trust, Ost?”

“Y-yes… Of course, you clearly appear to be a wandmaking apprentice…”

The clergyman took the vial and nodded many times.

Since the purification records were in the basement storage, Ost led the two of them into the church and down the stairs. The moment they descended to the narrow passageway, the stench of rotting flesh assaulted their nostrils. It seemed a portion of the ossuary was designated for storage, which explained the stench of death. The smell of mold and mouse droppings filled the stagnant air as well.

It was gloomy belowground, so dark that they wouldn’t be able to see anything without a lamp. Ost, however, proceeded ahead as if used to the place, until he came to shelves fixed to the wall.

“This is it,” he announced, taking large books and stacks of paper from the shelves and spreading them out on the table in front. “From here on are the purification records.”

“And that includes all the old records?” asked Ix.

“Hmm? Yes, it does. This town has many devout followers. Naturally, that calls for a great deal of documents.”

“Uh-huh.”

“You may look through these at your leisure, as long as you don’t take them out of the basement. It’s not exactly a thank-you for the mending oil…but you have helped me quite a bit,” said Ost.

“Thank you.” Yuui bowed.

Ix and Yuui exchanged glances and nodded. They quickly went to work.

Faint writing clogged the old documents. The characters were incredibly small, and there were many places that had been written in a hurried scribble. It was a struggle just to read in the dim room. Ix swept away a silverfish and grimaced.

Having the same idea, Yuui said, “And I thought we’d escaped from reading, but here we are again.”

“If only there were a magic spell to solve all this,” mumbled Ix, holding his head in his hands. “We’re doing something no one’s ever done, so the slow-and-steady route is our only way forward. We won’t know if we could have taken a shorter one until we’ve finished everything.”

They heard someone calling for Ost from upstairs. It echoed a few times through the basement. He gave a short “If you’ll excuse me,” then ascended the steps.

The clergy wasn’t just for managing the church. They also gave advice to members of the congregation and acted as mediators. Ost was probably juggling a few things at once.

Yuui stared intently at Ix.

“Don’t stop. We don’t have time,” he hissed, holding up a ledger. “Let’s divide them.”

“Okay… By the way, what was that? The vial?”

“Oh, the kesga mending oil?” he replied as his hands worked. “Kesga is the name of the wood used to make that staff. You don’t see it often, though.”

“I know the name of the wood. But why did you have that…mending oil? Actually, I do not know what it is to begin with… And he was so grateful for it.” Yuui skimmed the ledgers in the bobbing light of the lamp as she divided them up.

“It’s the kind of thing you would be grateful for,” explained Ix. “Staffs—or really any implement, staff or wand, that you channel magic through tens of thousands of times—inevitably start to flex and become unstable past a certain point. Though a small amount of warping only minutely affects wands, that isn’t the case with staffs. If you can’t keep the magic stable, the barrier collapses.”

“That’s not something you hear about often.”

“Most staffs that have been used that much are just stored as pieces of art now. That’s why you mostly hear about it at churches… Anyway, you use mending oil to fix the flexion when the staff warps too much. When you coat the wood with it, it becomes malleable for a short period, at which point you can make the necessary adjustments. But some woods require a specialized mending oil. Putting the wrong salve on them can break them in an instant.”

“And because it’s specialized, not much is made. Hence his gratitude,” finished Yuui.

“Well, kesga mending oil in particular is actually a special case… One of the side effects of the Lukutta war was that the majority of the forests used in the production were burned. It’s not being produced anymore. There’s still some out there in storage, but the price keeps skyrocketing on the aftermarket. You can’t really get your hands on it now.”

“Right.” Yuui’s expression didn’t waver. “Wait. Why did you have that with you? Something as precious as that?”

“…It wasn’t me,” answered Ix bitterly. “Morna did it.”

“Morna…did what?”

“She put it in my bag when she packed for me. There was just a vial of kesga mending oil, right there.”

“…A coincidence?”

“Well…she’d probably heard before that there was a staff our master made, a staff made of kesga, in this town’s church. She might have guessed they’d need mending oil based on when it had been made and its location… I didn’t tell her we were going there, but maybe she thought it would be useful and just chucked it in.”

“Sh-she can predict stuff like that?” asked Yuui, blinking rapidly.

“No way… Or so I’d like to think,” replied Ix, looking down. “But seeing as she just did, maybe she does have it in her.”

“…Well, that is all well and good, but I wish she would have told us before we left.”

“And this is why she’s bad at follow-through,” snarled Ix, his voice unusually angry. “She probably didn’t say anything because she was worried about feeling uncomfortable if her ‘grand prediction’ turned out wrong or something. Seriously, she’s got so much talent but goes around acting like that…”

Just then, a crashing sound cut off their conversation.

They listened closely but heard no other noise. Something must have fallen over upstairs.

They both sighed.

The two of them had just finished separating the notebooks from the rest of the stacks, forming two piles on the desk in front of them.

Ix crossed his arms. “What’s the sorting criteria?”

“Time period,” said Yuui quietly. “All the notebooks from more than about a hundred years ago seem newly made. I can’t tell if they’re…fake.”

All this time, they hadn’t been researching the names in the books but rather had been looking at the texts themselves.

The purification records from a long time ago should, of course, be old objects. But mixed in among the notebooks they’d fished out were documents that had clearly been made recently. Although they looked old at first glance, upon further inspection, there was obviously a difference in the state of the paper and the level of pest damage. Yuui and Ix had hunted through the volumes in the library back in Leirest, tomes both old and new. One glance at these notebooks made them feel as though something was off, and one touch told them they were spot-on. Thus, they decided to check that out before they began looking for Ega Fulmen’s name. Once Ost had left, they’d started dividing the notebooks for that purpose.

Ix shrugged at Yuui’s observation. “I asked him if the old documents were kept as they were. Either he lied, or he actually believes it… Of course, it could be the truth if they were just rewritten to recover ones lost in a fire or because they’d become too bug-eaten. Which means—”

“But there is no record to support that,” countered Yuui, looking pensive. “What if this church wasn’t established that long ago?”

“It’s possible, but they wouldn’t need to make fake records if that was the case.”

“Well…it would have been the Old Order before, right? Perhaps when the New Order took over, they disposed of all the records from their rivals. Then they made these to cover it up.”

“Would they really go to all that effort for no reason? They could just pick up where the Old Order left off.”

“Hmm, then maybe it wasn’t them, but—”

“Wait.” Ix held up a hand to hush her.

The sound of footsteps descending the staircase echoed through the chamber.

They quickly broke down the two piles and lined them up as they were, then flipped a couple open to a random page to appear as if they’d been reading the whole time.

“Anyway, something’s strange,” whispered Ix. “I want to look into the ledger, but we should investigate this, too.”

“I agree.”

In their rush to act normally, they’d kicked up a cloud of dust. They sneezed simultaneously.

4

A few days had passed since then, but their research progress was slow.

At the behest of Ost, Yuui and Ix were staying at a congregation member’s home. It felt like nothing more than getting a roof over their heads, but they were thankful for it all the same, since the town appeared to lack an inn. That house became their base from which they investigated the purification records or went out into the streets to talk to the town residents.

But they hadn’t found any significant leads.

No matter how much they read the purification records, they just weren’t finding the Fulmen family name. They asked the people of the town, but of course there was no one around who remembered something that happened a hundred years ago.

“Huh…” The lady running the shop whom Yuui was talking with tilted her head in contemplation. “A hundred years ago, that would’ve been around when my granny was born. But Granny’s mind wasn’t all there, and she’s passed now, so you couldn’t speak with her even if you wanted to.”

“I see…,” said Yuui glumly, hanging her head.

“Oh, and you mentioned it before, but I’ve never heard anything about this town being Old Order back in the day. My family only moved here during my granny’s time, which would be…uh, about seventy years ago now, but apparently, it’s always been New Order.”

Yuui had expected that response. She’d spoken to other townsfolk who knew more about the history of the town, but they all believed it had always been New Order. Obviously, the New Order had been established after the Old Order, so they must have meant ever since then. That had been over a hundred years ago.

She tried asking about festivals, dragons, and Mount Agnas, but she didn’t get any information. All she got was “We don’t hold festivals,” “I don’t know anything about dragons,” and “A friend of mine is a miner; they just discovered a new mineral vein.”

“It’s not that big a deal, though,” noted the shop owner. “They mine until they run into a wall. Then they search for a new vein. And if they find one, they dig until they hit a wall. Mining is just doing that forever and ever.”

As Yuui left the store, she saw Ix coming back. They’d divided up the work, and he’d been asking around at a nearby store. “How’d it go?” he asked with a glance.

“Uh, well, this one wasn’t really…”

“Ha-ha-ha, sorry I didn’t know anything,” admitted the shop owner, crossing her arms and looking amused.

“Th-thank you anyway,” said Yuui.

“…This store doesn’t have them,” murmured Ix as his eyes swept the store.

“Whatcha talking about?” asked the owner.

“Sticks. The bundle of three.”

Ix was referring to the mysterious sticks that had been placed by the entrance of the shop they’d visited before, a bundle of three long, thin branches with blackened tops. While asking around town, they’d learned there were other homes and stores that had them. Not in this one, though.

“Oh, those.” The shop owner shook her head. “Only old shops and families have those. Recent transplants like mine don’t have them.”

“So it’s proof you’re from an old family?”

“No, no, nothing like that. I think they just set them out because they’ve had them around forever. They’re not useful for anything, and I’ve heard a lot of families are throwing them away lately because they just get in the way.”

In addition to the purification records, these decorations also struck them as a strange element of the town, but they were just sticks. Look hard enough in any village, and you were bound to uncover some sort of meaningless custom or culture.

“Ah, we’ll be going now. Thank you for speaking with me,” said Yuui with a bow.

“Nah, thank you. At least this town’s got peace and quiet going for it. We don’t really get visitors. It was fun,” replied the woman, beaming.

They left and walked for a while, passing through a tidy neighborhood.

Though the shop owner had told them there was peace and quiet, that was strictly reserved for the upper-class areas, the neighborhoods of rich store owners and farmers. Leave this area, and you’d come face-to-face with the slums of the lower classes, which thronged with the poor and the homeless.

They walked through those neglected streets in deep contemplation.

This town was divided into two. It had taken Yuui only two days here to realize that.

Almost all the upper-class citizens were devout believers of the New Order. They found God within work, meaning they were prejudiced against the poor who didn’t work or, in other words, people who couldn’t work. They seemed to believe that those people weren’t fulfilling God’s will. They acted almost as if they couldn’t see the poor.

On the other hand, you had the lower class. While they had taken their purification rites, few among them were ardent believers. This was another sore spot for the upper class, which amplified their frustration with the poor.

The two classes were separated and rarely interacted. On account of this split, there wasn’t much conflict between them. It was peaceful, in a sense. The bullying they’d witnessed on their first day was the extent of it.

That was the kind of town Agnasruze was.

Yuui and Ix were investigating this region of town as well. They’d speculated that Ega Fulmen had perhaps been a member of the lower class who hadn’t been purified, who would therefore not appear in the purification records. The only way they could prove their hypothesis, though, was to go around interrogating each and every person in the neighborhood. Neither thought this haphazard investigation would bear fruit.

In the end, they came up with nothing, just as they’d suspected. Yuui sat on the ground and sighed. When she looked beside her, she saw Ix scowling in frustration.

The pair was in a sort of small open square where two large roads crossed. Crowds of people passed by before them. The area bustled with people putting on performances or running stalls. Many of them were homeless people with no other profession.

“What’s that…?” murmured Yuui.

“What’s up?” Ix raised his head.

“It’s just, that…” She pointed to what she was looking at.

The center of the square was mounded slightly.

No, it was a hill of brown sand. The strange thing was, despite all those people passing through, everyone made sure to avoid it. Like a boulder in a river, the mound formed a gaping, unnatural hole in the tide of people.

Yuui and Ix had passed through this square many times, but they’d never stopped to actually look at it. The townsfolk moved so naturally around the sand, it wouldn’t have caught your eye unless you stopped to examine it.

“What’s that?” asked Ix, wrinkling his brow.

“I don’t know…”

“I’m gonna ask.”

“Huh?”

Before Yuui could say anything, Ix had already taken off.

He found a man sitting near the edge of the square and struck up a conversation with him. Next to the man sat a gaudily colored instrument. He appeared to be a street performer.

“I’m taking a break,” he said gruffly.

“That over there…” Ix pointed to the center of the square as if he hadn’t even heard the performer. “What’s that mound of sand? Why isn’t anyone walking on it?”

“……”

The performer glared at Ix.

Yuui finally came over, since it looked as though things could take a turn for the worse.

“Ah, I-I’m so sorry! He’s such an inconsiderate jerk. Please don’t let him get to you…”

The man looked at Yuui in puzzlement as she rambled on. He seemed somewhat surprised to hear a girl’s voice.

Ix blinked in confusion as Yuui glared at him.

“Ix, why are you always so rude?” she asked.

“I thought he meant he had time, since he was on break…”

“That wasn’t what he meant…”

There was a short snicker.

The two looked in the direction of the noise to find the performer letting out a dry chuckle.

“All right, all right. Just don’t argue like that in front of me.”

“Oh, I’m sorry for the trou—,” started Yuui.

“Don’t worry about it. What was it you wanted?” He stood up and looked around the square. “Oh…the Fulmeninia?”

“Fulmeninia?” murmured Ix.

“Have you heard of it?” asked Yuui.

“Nope, never.” Ix shook his head. “But it sounds like Kingdom Classical. In Standard, it would mean something like ‘eye of the mountain.’”

Yuui nodded.

“Oh, so that’s what it means,” the performer said, his eyes going wide.

“Hmm? U-uh, why are you impressed by that?” asked Yuui without thinking. “Did you call it that without knowing what it means?”

“Guess so… It’s not just me—I doubt anyone is aware of its meaning.” The man stroked his chin. “Besides, I don’t really even know what that is.”

“You don’t? How about what it’s used for?” asked Ix.

“Uh, well, to be honest, I can’t think of anything it would be good for.”

“Then why isn’t anyone walking on it?”

“No clue.”

“But you know the name?”

“Yep. Well, I don’t know if it’s a name per se; everyone just sort of calls it that, you know.”

“Just sort of calls it that…,” muttered Yuui in amazement. “Then there are no laws that forbid you from stepping on it?”

“Nope. Just sort of what everyone does…”

They followed up with a few more questions after that but didn’t receive any noteworthy information from the performer. Yuui wondered if it really was just some vague rule.

Ix stood there lost in contemplation, hand over his mouth. Then he asked, “Right, so if, for example, the two of us went and stepped on it, what would happen?”

“What?” The man looked as if he honestly couldn’t understand the words that had just come out of Ix’s mouth. “Why would you do something like that? That isn’t allowed.”

“We can’t?”

“N-no. Only an outsider like you could even consider doing that.”

“All right. If I told you I’ll pay you to walk on it, what would you do?”

“There’s no way I’d do it,” the man said with an annoyed snort.

“What if I asked someone else?”

“You’re not going to find anyone who’d agree to do it, not in this town.”

“Uh-huh.” Ix nodded as though he’d accepted the explanation. “I’ve learned a lot.”

With that, he ambled off, so Yuui bowed and thanked the performer.

“Sorry to bother you out of the blue…”

“What, you’re not going to watch me perform?” the man asked, arching a brow.

“Uh, I thought you were on break?”

5

As they walked down a crowded street, Ix asked, “What do you think?”

“About what?” Yuui replied.

“Fulmeninia, Fulmen.” Ix stayed facing forward as he spoke. “They’re similar.”

“Yes, I suppose so. In a children’s wordplay sort of way.”

“Fulmeninia, which no one will touch despite not knowing why. Three sticks, which are held in similarly high regard. Fake purification records from way back when. Then there’s the Festival Supply Accounts book, which shouldn’t exist, and Ega Fulmen, who wrote it.” After repeating these observations aloud, Ix asked, “So, Yuui, what do you think?”

“Please do not push it onto me just because you have no confidence in your own theory.” Yuui sighed. “Not too long ago, you were chastising Morna for the same behavior.”

“Fine, I’ll tell you what I think, then.” Ix frowned. “Guess I’ll start with the conclusion… The evidence is flimsy, but I think there was an indigenous religion in this town a long time ago.”

Yuui had also gathered as much.

Ix glanced quickly at Yuui’s face, then continued.

“The state church was established about a hundred years ago. When that happened, clergy members were sent all over the kingdom. But since the New Order wasn’t really recognized at the time, church members with those alternate views got mixed in among the missionaries. The Old Order strengthened, the New Order spread, and the church wiped out the local religions of towns that had previously exhibited no Marayist beliefs.”

Ix posited that this town, Agnasruze, had met a similar fate.

“The mound of sand and the sticks are probably remnants of that old religion, though I can’t determine whether they’re tools used in festivals or idols to worship,” he continued. “Even if you lose native beliefs, people’s ingrained customs don’t really change. The people here had acts of worship or taboos like ‘You can’t touch that’ or ‘You have to treat this with care,’ and they didn’t start breaking those rules just because someone told them ‘Oh, by the way, you don’t have to follow those edicts starting today.’ Even with the advent of new generations, children grew up imitating their parents. They just kept on doing it this entire time.”

“Traditions that continued even when they forgot their ideological roots?” Yuui smiled. “You may be bending some of the evidence to fit your theory, but I will give the rest a listen.”

“That religion had a special festival, which Ega Fulmen was somehow connected to. But when the New Order sages came to town, the festival got erased along with the beliefs that birthed it. The Festival Supply Accounts book we found was most likely picked up then.”

“Then why are the purification records faked?”

“To completely erase evidence of the old religion. After sixty or seventy years, the population of the city has been almost completely replaced, so there’s no one left who can remember a time before the New Order. Now, the only thing that can speak truth to that past are records. That’s why we were looking into them. From another angle, you could argue that the person who controls documentation dictates history. This town has been Marayist for a long time—that’s how they want it to seem, at least. Normally, they wouldn’t be so thorough about controlling that narrative.”

“Was that religion popular, then?”

“Maybe it was the opposite.” Ix put a hand to his chin. “For example, if the sages held all the power, then the citizens back then might have resented them. So they could have erased all traces of those beliefs to avoid angering them.”

After a moment, he added, “If we believe the notes in that ledger—”

“Then that religion had something to do with dragons,” finished Yuui.

The two exchanged glances.

Yuui wondered about Ix’s theory.

She couldn’t find any specific flaws with it. It seemed to have a certain amount of consistency… Well, no, she should calm down before jumping to conclusions. Sure, it was logical. But there wasn’t enough evidence to make it convincing. They had so few clues to go on, and if you put your mind to it, you could make any random daydream match those few clues, free of any inconsistencies.

What Ix had proposed was speculation at best. It would be dangerous to convince themselves it was true.

With that clear distinction in mind, Yuui asked, “If your theory is correct, then what we’re looking for was lost long ago. What would we do then?”

“Uh, well…” Ix trailed off. Perhaps he hadn’t expected that question, because he couldn’t come up with a response. “Right, well, we could go around asking the older residents…”

“Do we have that kind of time?”

“Well…”

How many old people were in this place anyway?

Discouraged, they stared glumly at each other.

The shadows of the square lengthened in the slanted rays of light.

“…Let’s stop looking for today,” Ix said with a shrug.

“Yes,” agreed Yuui.

“You go on ahead. I’ve got somewhere I need to be.”

“Hmm? All right.”

They parted ways. Yuui set out toward their lodging but stopped after a moment.

This was how it had played out last time…when Ix had been attacked.

While this may have mostly been an excuse, Yuui essentially came on this trip to protect him. She didn’t know what kind of errand he had to take care of, but this was Ix after all. The possibility of him getting dragged into another risky situation was absolutely on the table.

She turned on her heel.

Since she hurried back to where they were, she managed to just catch sight of Ix’s profile as he disappeared around a corner. She rushed around the same bend, only to immediately conceal herself.

Ix wasn’t alone.

Someone was walking alongside him.

…Tomah?

They were chatting about something.

Why were those two together…?

Yuui was baffled but remained in the shadows to trail them.

Eventually, they arrived at a quiet street and stopped. Yuui stuck close to a corner and discreetly observed their faces. They seemed very serious.

“Thanks for meeting with me,” said Ix.

“Well, since you were the one who asked…,” started Tomah.

Although they were far from the main road, the sound of their conversation nevertheless traveled away from them. Yuui focused and strained her ears.

“I’ll cut to the chase,” said Ix. “I want you three to help me, as adventurers.”

“With what?”

“I want to venture into the Mount Agnas mines.”

“I’ve heard normal people aren’t allowed there.”

“I’m not talking about going into one that’s currently active. Instead, I want to go into one of the abandoned shafts. Word is that magic beasts prowl around there, so I want protection.”

“Can’t you put in a request with the Guild for this?”

“For starters, I don’t have that kind of time. There’s no Guild in this town, and I’m not in a position to sit around twiddling my thumbs to contact another city, especially since I don’t know if there’d be anyone who would accept. Speaking of adventurers, you lot are already in town, ready to move at any time. You’re convenient.”

“So it comes down to ‘convenience.’ Any other reasons?”

“Saving money,” Ix replied immediately. “There’re magic beasts nesting in there, and all the ore has already been gathered. That kind of request has nothing in it for adventurers. No one would accept unless I offered a high reward.”

“Which is why you circumvented the Guild and asked me directly?”

“Yep. You asked me before, didn’t you? About direct requests.”

“Yeah, I did say that, didn’t I?”

“I don’t have much left over after paying for lodging, but I can scrape some coin together as thanks.”

“No, money isn’t the problem…”

“I know I’m hitting below the belt asking like this,” started Ix, not looking apologetic in the slightest, “but let me remind you, Tomah, that you were absolutely one of the reasons I got assaulted in Leirest. You said it yourself. Now I’m turning that misfortune into opportunity.”

“…You sure are blunt.” Tomah sighed with an uncomfortable smile. “If you’re bringing that up, I don’t have a leg to stand on.”

“What do you think? You came all this way to Agnasruze. Why don’t you help me out?”

“Hmm… Perhaps, but let me confirm something first.” Tomah turned to the side for a moment. Yuui ducked her head back so he wouldn’t see her. “Is this…to fix Yuui’s wand?”

“Yeah. We’ve hit a lot of dead ends, and I can’t think of anything else.”

“All right. If that’s the case, we don’t need any compensation. We’ll accept the request for free.”

“I won’t complain about that… But you sure? Don’t you have to check with the other two?”

“Once they hear it’s for Yuui, they won’t be against it. Besides, I’ve got a pathetic ulterior motive: Maybe if she hears that I helped fix her wand, she’ll soften her attitude toward me.”

“Yuui said she doesn’t want anything to do with you anymore.”

“Yeah, well, things ended on a sour note… But I believe if we get the chance to talk, we can come to understand each other.”

Understand…each other?

The moment she heard those words, a wave of weakness hit Yuui.

She lost her footing and wavered until she came to a squat.

“Yuui?!” she heard Ix shout. “Why are you here? No, wait, are you okay?!”

Tomah followed up with a surprised shout, and they immediately ran over to her.

Yuui placed a hand on the wall and stood sluggishly.

“I’m…sorry…for eavesdropping on your conversation…,” she panted.

“Yuui, you’re—”

“No, I’m fine. I was just surprised to see Tomah here…”

“Oh, I’m sorry…,” mumbled Tomah, his expression clouding over as he apologized. “I’m sure you don’t want to see the face of your family’s enemy.”

“Family’s enemy?” murmured Ix. “Would that make you collapse on the spot?”

“Well, I—,” started Yuui.

“Hold on, Yuui, I wasn’t actually asking. Right now, you need to rest,” Ix said.

Yuui looked at his concerned face and squeezed the breath from her lungs.

“Tomah and I, we…,” she gasped.

“Yuui, don’t talk! Take deep breaths.”

“No, I want to…explain… I…”

Lungs emptying of air, bile rose in her throat as she forced herself to speak. Then she bent forward and somehow managed to hold it all back. But at this point, she’d wasted so much of Ix’s time for her own selfish ends. With how far things had come, it would be dishonest not to tell him now.

“I’ll… I’ll explain,” interjected Tomah, looking down with a severe expression. “It was the Lukutta war. My father commanded the invading army. His tactics resulted in the death of her entire family. Yuui has every right to be angry. Of course she wouldn’t want to have anything to do with me…”

The boy’s faltering voice grew distant.

Yuui sucked in air with all her might.

So he was still sticking to that story after all.

They’d talked so much, and yet, he still misunderstood…

“I apologize for worrying you,” said Yuui, somehow managing to wrestle control of her emotions. “Ix, you are going to investigate the mines?”

“Y-yeah.”

“Then we should split our work… I will continue our research here. Please do be careful.”

“Wait, Yuui—”

“I apologize for inconveniencing you with my personal issues. However, I request that you leave me alone.”

As Tomah entered her field of vision, her words cut off.

“That’s what I…”

With the rest of her statement caught in her throat and unlikely to work itself free anytime soon, she left them behind.

She simply walked alone, seeing nothing, hearing nothing.

Yuui feared that if she stopped moving, she wouldn’t be able to start again.

After navigating haphazardly through the streets, she suddenly found herself lying in bed.

Memories she’d pushed far down in her mind burst loose and overtook her.

…Memories of nothing but screams and breaking.

Her mother, her brother, both gone.

They’d disappeared somewhere.

Only she had been saved.

Because her father had been there…

Her father had pulled her by the hand and led her to a secret cupboard no one knew about. There was only enough space for one. He told her to not come out, to not make a sound, no matter what happened.

And Yuui took the wand.

She didn’t understand why her father had handed it to her.

So she asked.

Would he fight?

…He would, but there were other wands.

Would he die?

…He had no desire to die whatsoever.

Then why did he give her the wand?

…To which he answered, “Because you, Yuui Laika, are the person most suited to wield it. Until I return, hold on to it and live.”

She thought he was lying.

Her father had meant to die, meant to leave her alone.

There was no other reason he would leave behind the wand that had become his symbol, the most powerful of its kind.

Yuui could vividly recall her father’s face in the brief moment before he closed the door.

Those eyes, which reflected only his coming death.

…Or not?

In the expanse of her thoughts, something flickered.

…Had he really intended to die?

Or had he…not?

She knew that same face.

That’s right… It was that one.

That expression…

The one Ix had shown her when he’d handled the wand…

As if finally remembering how to breathe, Yuui sucked in tiny sips of air.

Her body trembled; her diaphragm spasmed.

Her eyes throbbed.

She had been crying.

6

The magic beasts in the mine had a peculiar appearance.

They resembled caterpillars that’d been given arms and legs, then made bigger. Although they were larger than a normal caterpillar, you could still cup one in both your hands. A group of about ten of them crawled across the walls and ceiling toward them to strike. They were surprisingly strong, and it took only a few of them to immobilize you. Still, they were lacking in the speed department. Easy pickings for an adventurer with a weapon. And though they flooded from the mines, no one had ever named them.

“…Hah!”

Dann swung his right leg, rending the underbelly of one of the beasts and sending it crashing into the wall. It didn’t move again. He’d been felling most of the monsters that had appeared here.

Every once in a while, one or two of them would get past Dann, but they would quickly collapse beneath Tomah’s sword. The adventurers marched on effortlessly, leaving a mound of corpses in their wake. Rozalia brought up the rear, never once letting her guard down as she scanned the area, though right now it didn’t seem she’d have much opportunity to act.

Just as Ix had asked the night before, the three adventurers were acting as his bodyguards while he investigated the interior of Mount Agnas. Obviously, he didn’t expect to find a dragon heart here, but there were some things you couldn’t understand without seeing them for yourself.

The mine continued evenly for a while, then branched off into multiple paths. After producing a large map, Tomah pointed down one of them. Dann nodded wordlessly and forged ahead as Tomah used his short sword to scratch a sign into the wall.

The group operated in almost total silence and guided Ix in a practiced manner. This held true when enemies appeared too; the three worked so well together that you would think they had eyes in the backs of their heads. Despite their youthful facades, they bore the hearts of seasoned warriors.

After walking for a while, Dann spoke up for the first time.

“Phew, there’s loads. Is it always like this?”

“No, I heard they barely come out in the active mines,” replied Tomah. He’d gathered this information before setting out. “Once the mine is abandoned and people stop going in and out, the magic beasts start to nest like this. The townspeople just leave them be, though, since the creatures don’t come out of the abandoned ones.”

“Hmm…” Dann rolled his shoulder. “What do they live on? Don’t see any food or water in this kinda place.”

“The miners say they eat the holes.”

“Holes?”

“Dann, you’re speaking too loudly,” snapped Rozalia.

“Yeah, sure, sure.” Dann shrugged, waving his hand. “Now, what’s this about holes?”

Tomah prefaced that these were just rumors, before explaining, “This mountain has had lots of minerals mined from it over the years. Once the villagers suck one vein dry, they find another. It just keeps repeating like that. Despite that, the mountain isn’t full of holes. Apparently, there are no cave-ins, either.” He pointed to the ceiling. “They say that happens because the magic beasts eat the holes and seal them up. And it’s true that holes dug into the mountain quickly get dammed. The shaft we’re in now has only been abandoned very recently.”

“Ha, that’s ridiculous. How can you get full from eating holes?” Dann shook his head and looked at Ix. “Ix, wasn’t it? Whatcha looking for? You’ve been pretty quiet, but it’s to fix Yuui’s wand, right?”

The wandmaker’s apprentice shrugged instead of answering.

“Keeping it a secret?” Dann said with a snort. “Fine, I wasn’t gonna ask too much anyway.”

“…It’s warm,” murmured Ix.

“Huh?”

“The wall.”

Ix kept his hand on the left side of the wall. Though it appeared to be nothing more than cold stone, it gave off a slight warmth.

“That’s…’cause it’s a volcano. They’re warm, right?” ventured Dann uncertainly.

“Really?” asked Ix.

“Well, no, I don’t really know…”

“No, I’m curious. Did you learn about them in the Academy?”

Dann’s eyes flicked back and forth as Ix stared at him.

“I-I’m gonna go scout ahead!” yelped Dann, before hurrying forward. The light of his torch grew faint.

“Has Yuui said anything?” asked Tomah.

“No,” said Ix. “She said to leave her alone.”

Since they were walking single file, all Ix could see was Tomah’s back. Tomah started talking bit by bit as they walked.

“Yuui came to the Academy over a year ago. It wasn’t by choice. The kingdom forced her here from Lukutta.” Tomah’s voice was quiet, but it reverberated well in the mine, so Ix could hear it clearly. “She’s the daughter of a tribe that is part of Lukutta’s extended royal family. The kingdom called it study abroad, but that’s just a diplomatic way of saying they took her hostage. They swore she’d be free physically, but she can’t leave the kingdom of her own volition, and she can’t own assets. She wasn’t allowed to buy clothes. Naturally, the students at the Academy treated her terribly… That’s why I invited her to join us.”

“Join you? As adventurers?”

“Yeah. As you can see, we have a vukodrak member and an elven member. Might not be an appropriate way of putting it, but those three groups are in similar positions. I thought she might get along with them.”

Both the vukodrak and elves were people whose lands the kingdom had invaded in times past. Though their former nations had been subjugated much longer ago than Lukutta had, there was no doubt that the citizens of the kingdom looked down on all three populations.

With that, Tomah continued his explanation.

“The Academy allows its students to become adventurers, but the compensation they receive from their activities doesn’t belong to them—the Academy vault has rights to it. Then students are granted funds from the Academy. In kingdom law, that money isn’t considered personal assets. So it’s sort of a loophole, which allowed Yuui to spend her money the way she wanted.”

“I see.”

“I was surprised when she accepted our invitation right away. I asked her if she would find it unpleasant to get close to kingdom citizens, and she told me, ‘I don’t bring international disputes into personal relationships.’ From then on, we were thick as thieves.”

“That’s the kind of person she is,” added Rozalia from behind Ix. “She sees things more clearly than you could imagine. Sometimes she judges things so logically, it’s scary.”

“Logically?”

Ix glanced over his shoulder at her face. Her eyes wavered in the light from the torch.

“It’s dangerous to look backward,” she chided, and Ix turned around in compliance.

Tomah started explaining again.

“For a while, things went by without any problems. Yuui’s smart and quick-thinking. She’s good at magic, and she actually ended up saving us more often than not. And our adventuring let her make money she could use as she pleased, which made her happy. But…”

Tomah let out a sigh.

“It all started with the delegation.”

Ix had heard about that somewhere. He racked his brain for it. Yes, that must be it. “The delegation from the eastern peoples?”

“Yeah, that’s it. They came from the east to the capital; we even saw them a few times at the Academy. That’s when the topic of the Lukutta war came up… In hindsight, it was insensitive of me to talk about it in front of her. I think I’d gotten too used to how logical she was… No, that’s just an excuse. Ix, do you know the strategy the kingdom employed in the war?”

“You mean, burning down every village and town they found and killing all its citizens…?” Ix had heard about it while in his master’s shop.

“Y-yeah, you’re well informed…,” Tomah said nervously. “It was the only option. The Lukutta weren’t accepting surrender, so the kingdom needed to make a decisive blow. Sure, it may have been possible to avoid killing everyone and slowly advance the war front, but that country is mostly forests. If the kingdom didn’t thoroughly crush them, Lukutta could have attacked them from behind.”

Tomah shook his head twice, three times.

“It was my father who proposed that strategy.”

“And that’s how Yuui’s family died,” Ix said in realization.

“Yes. They burned her village to the ground. Her mother and brother were killed in the attack, and apparently, her father traded his life for hers… It’s heartbreaking.”

“That’s as horrifying as it gets,” echoed Ix bluntly.

“Right after I brought that up, Yuui suddenly insisted she couldn’t be around me… No, on second thought, it wasn’t actually sudden. There’s no one in the world who’d want to be friends with the son of the man who murdered your family. It’s only natural,” mumbled Tomah in self-deprecation.

“The elves were invaded generations ago,” noted Rozalia. “So I’d never say that I can empathize…but I can imagine how she’s feeling. Dann…he’s not the kind to think about things too much, but he’s worried about her.”

“Well, you can tell that much just by looking,” said Ix.

“So yeah. Her wand broke after that,” said Tomah, back on topic. “We offered to pay for its repair, but she refused our offer. Then she disappeared when the Academy went on break, which—”

“Is when she came to me,” Ix finished for him.

Tomah nodded slightly.

Only the sound of footsteps broke the silence.

Other than a short rest partway through, the group continued without issue farther into the mine. Tomah’s map was highly accurate, so they didn’t get lost.

Ix stopped several times to carefully examine the walls and floor.

The shaft went ever downward; as they advanced, the walls radiated more and more heat. Agnasite was scattered over the floor here and there, though all of it was too small to be of any use. They were most likely remnants of the mining that had once taken place here.

Ix gazed up at the ceiling, and Rozalia asked, “What have you been staring at for a while now?”

“There’s no water.”

“Hmm?”

“There are fissures in the ceiling and walls, but it doesn’t look like water is leaking from any of them.”

Instead of water, fine sand-like grains of agnasite streamed out from the cracks.

“Is that strange?” inquired Rozalia.

“No, I wouldn’t go so far as to call it strange…”

Ix just had an inkling that this phenomenon was slightly different from what he’d heard about caves and mines or even volcanoes. He couldn’t think of any connections to dragons, though…

Just as they were considering going back, they came up to a dead end in the shaft.

“This is one of those walls,” deduced Tomah with his arms crossed. “It’s just like they said. Apparently, it’s one huge sheet of rock that runs laterally through the mountain… If they run into this wall, that’s the end of that vein. Then they search for another one.”

Ix touched the stone as he listened to Tomah’s explanation.

It was fairly hot. Not enough to burn you but definitely odd.

“…Dann, what is it?” asked Rozalia suddenly.

Peering over, Ix saw Dann inspecting the black wall just as Ix had done. But unlike Ix, Dann had pressed his entire body up against it.

“There’s, like…a strange sound up ahead,” said Dann.

“Sound? Isn’t that just the wind blowing through the mines?” asked Tomah.

“No, it doesn’t sound like it. It’s a deep resonance, like a roar… Kind of like a river or a waterfall. And it smells just a little bit.”

“Is it the stink of magic beasts?”

“No, not that. It’s a heavy odor, but magic beasts smell worse. I have no idea what the heck it is. But I feel like I’ve sniffed it before…”

“Hmm, maybe it just looks like a dead end, but there’s another mine continuing on the other side?” mused Ix.

Closing his eyes, he focused on what he could smell and hear, but he couldn’t sense anything. Of course, he was no match for a vukodrak’s senses.

Though he’d been pressed against the side of the tunnel for a while, Dann quickly started tapping it lightly.

“Hey, let’s break it down,” he suggested.

“Huh?” Tomah’s eyes widened.

“We ain’t gonna get anywhere just thinking. Break it down, and we can figure it out in one go.”

“I guess that’s true… Hmm,” grumbled Tomah. “But how would we even break it? Is that even possible?”

“Well, if I go at it—”

“You can’t be certain of anything. We have no idea how thick it is,” interrupted Rozalia flatly. “But yes, it may be possible to disrupt it. I might be able to pierce through if I shoot it multiple times.”

“…He was asking me,” whined Dann, his ears drooping.

“Ix, what should we do?” asked Tomah, implying they’d think about that after checking with their requester.

“Hmm? Oh, well…”

Huh…?

A thought suddenly flitted through Ix’s mind.

Agnasite from the walls and ceiling of the mine and this strange stone…

He felt a strong pounding through the wall.

“…No, it’s impossible,” gasped Ix, covering his mouth as he shook his head to and fro.

“What’s wrong?” asked Rozalia.

“It’s nothing…” Ix looked up. “Let’s give up on tearing it down for now.”

“Whoa, whoa, whoa, you made us come all the way here, and now you’re chickening out?” Dann raised both hands. “I don’t know what you’re looking for, but there’s clearly something here. You just gonna ignore it?”

“That’s not what I’m saying. I want to get more information and some equipment before we make an attempt.”

“But Yuui’s wand repair—”

“I’m the requester,” interrupted Ix with a frown. “Adventurers have a responsibility to do as their client tells them. Am I wrong? We have no idea what’s on the other side of there. For all we know, lava starts pouring in as soon as we break it.”

“That’s rich, calling yourself a client when you didn’t even go through the Guild.”

“Keep it together, Dann,” urged Tomah, stepping between the two. “What Ix says, goes. We should follow his lead.”

“…Fine.”

The four returned the way they came, leaving easy-to-understand symbols along the way so they wouldn’t forget the route.

Ix marched in silence until Rozalia’s voice came from behind, close to his ear.

“What did you realize back there?” she asked.

“What do you mean?”

“Don’t play dumb. You had an incredible expression on your face.”

“Just an idle thought. Not the kind of thing you talk about.”

“Hmm, if you say so.”

“Well, we’ll know for sure if we see it. The next time we come.”

“Next time will cost you money!” shouted Dann from the front. Apparently, he’d heard every word of their conversation.

“…Do you have money?” asked Rozalia.

Ix shrugged and kept his mouth shut.

7

“You seem worse for wear.”

Yuui looked up to see Ost emerge from the gloom.

She brushed some dust off her hand. It was true that she looked ill. Being alone in the dim basement as she worked on checking the purification records was depressing work. That wasn’t the only reason, though.

Ost approached her quietly, checking the flame of the candle. Then he murmured, “Seems it will last a bit longer.”

“I appreciate your concern,” Yuui replied very matter-of-factly.

“Where is your companion today? The apprentice.”

“Ah, he had some business to attend to…”

The conversation finished there, but Ost didn’t leave. Instead, he stood rooted to the spot, watching Yuui read through the purification records.

After a few fruitless pages, Yuui looked up.

“Ost…”

“Yes?”

“How long has it been since you came to Agnasruze?”

“Ah, well, this year will be seventeen years. I was in a different congregation before that.”

“Seventeen years… That’s quite a while.”

“Oh, not at all… There are some who spend their whole lives in one church. I still have a ways to go.”

“How has it been since you’ve become the sage here?”

“It’s a wonderful place. Peaceful and pleasant to live in.”

“From what I’ve seen,” ventured Yuui, glancing briefly into his eyes, “the rich and the poor stand at odds.”

“Ah…that.” The clergyman sighed. “Yes, you are correct. This sort of division often occurs in New Order towns. But according to our tenets, all people are equal, regardless of whether they are wealthy or poor. I have explained this time and time again, but it seems the people don’t quite understand… It’s shameful—proof of my lack of skill as a sage.”

His unexpected answer caught Yuui off guard.

“But this town has its merits,” countered Ost, smiling and spreading his arms. “While it’s true that this opposition exists, it never escalates into arguments or fights. Our population is made up of peaceful individuals, children and adults alike.”

“Children, too?” Yuui asked, settling on a slightly malicious question. “The other day, some kids were bullying a boy…”

“Ah, that would be Henri.” To her surprise, Ost responded immediately.

“You know him?”

“Only by name. He hasn’t accepted his purification.”

“…Is that the reason he’s tormented?”

“I honestly don’t know.” Ost sighed, shaking his head sadly. “There are others who haven’t been purified, but none of them are treated so horribly. Children will tease one another over the slightest thing, of course, but as to why him specifically…”

“Henri…”

Yuui fell silent.

She snapped the notebook closed and shot up.

“My apologies, I’ll be leaving now,” she announced.

“Oh? Ah, of course. Please come back again anytime.”

“Thank you very much.”

With that, she left the church and began investigating nearby.

While this place wasn’t quite large enough to call a city, it wasn’t a hamlet, either. Her only recourse was to search on foot.

Yuui headed toward bustling areas where children were likely to gather. That hunch alone wasn’t enough to go off, however; morning gave way to afternoon as she searched.

Still, she continued to ask around as she wandered, until eventually she heard what sounded like the shouts of children and rushed in that direction.

Yuui came upon an alleyway with no foot traffic to speak of. Several kids had formed a circle and trapped Henri in the middle.

One or two of the children stood in front of him and tried to shove branches into his mouth. Each time they did, he would thrash violently, attempting to wriggle free. While the sticks didn’t go into his mouth, they would stab his cheek instead and leave gouge marks, which made the other kids break out into hoots and hollers.

Yuui slipped her hand in her pocket as she moved closer.

“Excuse me,” she called, and all the children whipped around simultaneously. “I have business with that boy. Is now a good time?”

They looked at one another, utterly confused, and started murmuring.

“Huh?”

“Who’s that?”

“Some chick?”

“Please let him go,” she demanded calmly.

Their murmuring eventually stopped, and all eyes gathered onto a single boy. He seemed to be the strongest of them. Realizing they were staring at him, he took a step toward Yuui.

“What’s your business? Are you saying we can’t be here?” he asked.

“I am. I’d like to speak with him privately.”

“Hmm… I guess we could leave, but it’s none of your business where we go next. We could just be nearby.”

Yuui sighed.

“Huh? You got a problem?” the boy said with a smirk.

“Um, I’m sorry.” Yuui shook her head. “I really should negotiate calmly, but it looks like that will be a pain, so I’ll just use this.”

“Use what—?”

Yuui brought out her wand and gently flicked it. A small orb of light appeared at its tip.

A shudder ran through the children.

“I-is that magic?”

“Uh, what do we do?”

They whispered to one another.

In reality, that orb of light had no effect other than illuminating the surrounding area. Yuui had been uncertain about using it, but the kids weren’t used to magic, so it seemed plenty to scare them.

As soon as one of the boys turned tail, the rest of the kids scattered like baby rabbits.

Yuui watched them leave as disappointment welled up within her.

…It’s gotten so weak.

This didn’t even count as using magic. If the wand had been in perfect condition, it could have birthed an orb of light so bright it would blind you, so big it could swallow two or three houses.

Well, she could cry about it later. Instead, she walked over to Henri.

“Are you all right?” Yuui asked.

“Ah…thanks,” Henri said with a groan, then looked away. “You want something from me…?”

“Yes, I do. I just have a little question.”

An idea had struck her when she’d been talking to Ost.

If Ix’s guess was right, if there really was some religion that had been wiped from this town in the past, then how would the priest of the old religion have been treated?

She didn’t even have to mull it over. They would have been horribly oppressed, and those attitudes would be encouraged. If you didn’t destroy the root of the old faith, a new one couldn’t become established. In all likelihood, the priest would have been put to death, and their family wouldn’t come out much better.

How long would those feelings have persisted? Would they disappear in a generation or two? Or would they cling to people for longer?

Would they remain like the town’s baseless reverence for objects?

Persist like their nonsensical taboos?

Why was there a boy who kept getting bullied in this peaceful town? Ost, a relative newcomer, didn’t know why. Which meant…

Though Yuui had been doing nothing more than desperately trying to fit pieces of this puzzle together, she nevertheless came to meet the boy to confirm her suspicions.

She cleared her throat, then asked, “Have you heard of a man named Ega Fulmen?”

“Ega? Never heard of him,” Henri quickly replied with a shake of his head.

“Ah, really…?”

Of course, she thought.

Yuui must’ve been having a mental breakdown, grasping at straws like this, getting so worked up on a whim. As if something so simple would be true.

But just then, Henri continued.

“But I do know a Fulmen.”

“Huh?” Yuui blinked. “Wh-who?”

“My grandma.”

“What?”

“It’s my grandma’s name. Sheela Fulmen.”

8

“Dann, we really should stop,” urged Tomah as he stared idly at the shadows cast on the wall.

“But even if the wand gets fixed, we just did some bodyguard stuff. Yuui won’t think we had anything to do with it.”

“I’m not disagreeing with that, but our primary reason for helping fix her wand isn’t to make her feel grateful toward us.” Tomah sighed, exasperated. “And I don’t know how I feel about not saying anything to Ix…”

“We decided by majority vote, Tomah. Stop complaining already.”

“Might’ve been a majority vote, but that’s just two to one.”

“In other words, we have twice as many people.”

Dann, Tomah, and Rozalia had returned to the mine shaft. They’d followed the symbols they’d left the day before and had made quick progress. The magic beasts were swarming again after only a day, but the group could move faster than last time, since they didn’t have to protect someone else.

“You’re being a worrywart, like always,” grumbled Dann as he looked back. “All we’re gonna do is open a tiny hole and peek in. We’ve got our equipment, and we’ll split if it looks dangerous. Just like we always do. It’d actually be weird to bring the client with us.”

“I guess…”

“Look, we’re there already.”

The three dropped their bags in front of the black stone.

Then they produced various pieces of equipment, like a sturdy rope and pitons to secure it.

To prepare for the possibility of water bursting out of the hole, they tied the rope around themselves. They had also brought a staff to cast a barrier spell in the event a dangerous magic beast reared its head. On the off chance lava spurted from the hole, they had all memorized the map of the mine so they could escape. They had considered these possibilities and many more—which had resulted in their excessive pile of gear. This was all due to Tomah insisting that they would proceed with caution.

“Right, looks good to me,” announced Tomah with a nod after they spent time preparing. “Rozalia, if you don’t mind. Just go bit by bit.”

“I know.”

Rozalia waved her wand, and a burst of purple light ran through the air.

It filled the dark tunnel with a brilliant flash.

Once the light faded, they could see a hole punched into the rock. Though it seemed pretty deep, it hadn’t yet penetrated to the other side.

“Looks like we’ll need a few more shots,” murmured Rozalia.

“R-Rozalia, be more careful,” stammered Tomah.

“Too slow. Hey, put more power into the next one,” egged on Dann.

“Sigh…”

After processing the contradictory orders, Rozalia let loose another light pulse at almost exactly the same strength.

That, too, failed to pierce through. She hit it two more times, three.

Immediately after the fifth shot…

The moment the light faded.

The ground suddenly rocked.

“Whoa!”

Dann couldn’t help crying out as he stumbled. He would probably have fallen were it not for the rope.

The earth heaved and rumbled, tossing him about.

As he lay on the ground in an attempt to keep himself still, he looked over at the other two. Both of them were gritting their teeth and enduring the tremors.

“What is this, an eruption?!” shouted Dann.

“I don’t know! But we can’t stay here! We have to leave!” Tomah shouted back.

Dann replied in agreement as he looked forward.

There was a hole in the stone.

The last hit had pierced through.

It was dark on the other side. He couldn’t tell what was there…but that was only for a moment.

Something gushed out from the hole, and his field of vision was swallowed by darkness.

Before he realized it, he could no longer feel the floor.

“Huh?”

He looked toward the rope and the piton, but the piton had rushed off along with the floor.

Dann felt a strange floating sensation.

The next moment, he sensed that he was plummeting rapidly.

No, not falling—being sucked in.

“No way!”

He flailed his arms and legs, but there was nothing to grip on to.

He rolled himself into a ball and protected his head with his arms.

Then came an impact so hard, it knocked the breath out of him.

And then he was sinking into fluid.

He spread his arms and legs and raised his head above the surface.

It was so dark, he couldn’t see a thing.

He was already being swept away by the violent flow.

Desperate, he stretched his arms out and felt something hard. He didn’t know if it was stone or something else, but he grabbed on.

“Tomah! Rozalia!” he shouted, but the roar drowned out his voice.

He clutched the hard surface with all the strength he could muster, but his fingers soon grew numb.

“Shit!”

Was a river flowing on the other side of the stone?

A river?

For some reason, at the moment, he managed to collect himself and noticed something strange about this river.

It didn’t feel or smell like any water he knew.

So what was it, then?

What was the thing most like this?

It was hot enough that it almost seemed to boil.

When he opened his mouth, the taste…

“Ah…?”

But he didn’t understand the conclusion he’d come to.

He did everything he could to spit out the liquid that flowed into his mouth.

“Someone! I can’t breathe!”

His fingers reached their limits, and the rushing river devoured him once again.