Chapter 1: In Vengeance's Wake

Chapter 1:
In Vengeance’s Wake

 

POV: AMELIA ROSEQUARTZ

 

AKIRA RETURNED TO THE HOTEL just as the morning sun was beginning its ascent. I was sitting in my chair in the living room, watching as the sky changed from black to navy before brightening through the entire spectrum of blues. I was sitting there, basking in the shimmering rays as they crept up my face, when suddenly, I gasped as a black silhouette leapt into the room via an open window. I hadn’t been able to sleep a wink that night, but when the wave of relief washed over me upon seeing he’d made it home safely, I suddenly felt very drowsy indeed. Crow had long since retired to his bedchambers, but an elderly man like him would probably be awake again before long.

“Akira…!!!”

I ran over to him but stopped short when my nose picked up the heavy stench of blood. I grimaced. Though it was not immediately obvious, his black cloak was stained red with blood—I could tell it was not Akira’s, nor was it an amount that could have come from a single victim.

“Sorry,” was his first word to me.

Though…I wasn’t sure what exactly he was apologizing for. For pretending not to hear me when I begged him not to go? Or for the simple act of slaughtering more people? My emotions ran wild, and soon, I could feel tears running down my cheeks.

“Why…? How could you just…?”

As I stuttered through my sobs, Akira ruffled my hair a bit more roughly than usual and then began to explain what happened in a disaffected tone. Apparently, he’d had to kill a fellow assassin—one who’d also been hired to assassinate Gram—before he even made it to his target. He’d apparently felt nothing after doing this—no rush of emotions, no guilt, nor any regret. Akira had his back to the sunlit window, so his face was hidden in shadow: but I could imagine his pained expression.

“Anyway,” said Akira, “the fact of the matter is, it was high time I stopped being a sorry excuse for an assassin and lived up to my title. Maybe if I’d done that from the start, Commander Saran wouldn’t have had to die like he did.”

He was referring to the time when he uncovered the king of Retice’s evil plot shortly after being summoned to this world but didn’t have the stomach to take him out. But in this world, just because one was an assassin didn’t mean they were obligated to assassinate people—in fact, few did. While one’s class was assigned at birth and there was nothing anyone could do to change it, that didn’t make it an absolute mandate. There were plenty who, like the Ur guildmaster Lingga, were assassins on paper but pursued entirely different lines of work. A majority simply ended up working as adventurers. Yet Akira had apparently decided he was going to be a true assassin.

“No, Akira! What happened to the commander wasn’t your fault…!”

“Maybe not, but I had the opportunity to kill the king back then, and the only reason I didn’t was because I got cold feet. It was my cowardice that got Saran killed.”

I shuddered. I had hoped avenging Saran Mithray would finally give Akira the closure he needed to move on, yet the look on his face was far more haggard and distressed than it had been when I sent him into forced sleep. And this time, I didn’t think it was the sort of thing any amount of rest could resolve.

More than anything, I wanted to keep Akira’s hands clean, though I realized it was just my own selfishness talking. The reality was that Akira was in a lot of pain right now, and I needed to find some way to help him through it. Hastily wiping away my tears with my sleeve, I lifted my head and looked at Akira, who still stood against a backdrop of morning light.

“…Perhaps, but if it hadn’t been for that, you and I might never have met,” I said. “Why, I could have just been stuck inside of that slime until it sapped every last bit of mana from my body. Then I never would have been able to make up with Kilika, among other things. I know it’s easy to get caught up wondering about what-if scenarios, Akira, but at the end of the day…all we can do is live in the present.”

All we can do is live in the present.

I had to admit, even I was a little surprised by the words myself. To think that someone like me, who’d once tried so hard to erase her past self and the things she’d done, would ever reach a point where she could try to help someone else avoid making the same mistake, was surprising.

“I won’t tell you not to have any regrets, or to try not to think about it too hard,” I continued, “but please, don’t let it consume your entire identity. More than anything, we need to keep our eyes focused on the road ahead. Don’t you agree?”

In the dim, morning light, Akira gently wiped away the tears from my damp cheeks. His hands were shockingly cold, as if he had washed them before he’d returned.

“…I don’t have a fraction of your life experience, Amelia, nor will I ever. Human lives just aren’t long enough for that. So, it’s not that easy for me to just change who I am overnight… But I’ll tell you this: I’m terrified of the part of me that can kill a man and think nothing of it. I’m also terrified of the part of me that thinks everything would be better if I’d just murdered the royal family when I had the chance.”

I could tell Akira was being completely honest. And it sounded like, as much as he regretted not killing the king of Retice, he also felt profoundly terrified of himself for wishing he had. He was still just a teenage boy, so I could only imagine how unstable his heart and mind were. It hurt to see him trying so desperately to pour his heart out to me. Akira, who had lived his entire short life in a world at peace, and me, who’d lived longer than he could even fathom and had seen many a hellish tragedy in her time. There were so many things between the two of us we couldn’t hope for the other to understand, but I still wanted nothing more than for us to be together.

I took a step forward and reached out my hand. “I’m sorry, Akira. I don’t know what it is you’re afraid of exactly, but I can assure you that you have nothing to fear. At least for as long as Night and I are around,” I said, reaching up and pulling his head down to my chest as I sat down on the couch. I ran my fingers through his raven-black hair. He simply let it happen. I whispered softly in his ear, trying my best to give off a tone of motherly affection: “No matter what happens, I’ll never stop wanting to be with you, Akira. And I know that Night feels the same. Don’t you?”

“…I want to stay with you guys too. No matter what might become of me, I want you to know that will never change,” he replied in a hoarse voice, his shoulders trembling ever so slightly beneath his bloodstained cloak. Then he lifted his head and wrapped his arms around me. “Thanks, Amelia. I’m still gonna need some time to get back on my feet after this, but you’ve definitely cheered me up a little bit.”

“I’m just happy to be of help. Now, why don’t you go and take a shower?” I asked, patting him on the back and pushing him in the direction of the bathroom. He turned and looked back at me with swollen, red eyes and nodded. And while I was sure he wouldn’t appreciate being thought of this way, I couldn’t help but marvel at how cute he was when he did what I said.

 

POV: LIA LAGOON

 

IF SOMEONE WERE TO ASK ME to make a list of the most unlikely events in the world, Uncle Gram getting murdered would have ranked pretty high on that list.

My uncle was a villain, no two ways about it. He abused his position in the royal family to commit a number of heinous atrocities, and in recent years, his villainy had apparently transcended the boundaries of our nation and made victims of the other races as well. I only said “apparently” because I did not receive the information firsthand, as my uncle did a good job covering his tracks and my adoptive father seems to be complicit. It felt like I was trapped in an inescapable situation; for as long as the king allowed my uncle to commit atrocities unpunished, his crimes would no doubt continue.

I could only assume this was also the reason His Majesty had seen fit to dismantle the public order committee that once existed to prevent such corruption. He was all too happy to let other people take the fall for my uncle’s crimes—and line his pockets all the while. As a lowly adopted child, I was in no position to confront him about any of it, and I didn’t think there was anyone left in this country who could have put a stop to their machinations. My adoptive father, being the king, was heavily guarded at all times and my uncle, even more so. The idea of someone breaking through such defenses and successfully assassinating either of them seemed like a most fanciful dream.

“…I’m sorry, could you say that one more time?”

“Y-yes, milady. It seems your uncle, the royal prince, has been murdered by an unknown assailant.”

When I had noticed a commotion stirring in the castle that morning, I asked my most well-informed lady-in-waiting to look into it, and she discovered that my uncle had been killed.

My most unlikely scenario had come to pass.

“…Who could have done such a thing?”

The only reason I’d been adopted into the royal family was for my rare class: that of Guardian. While traditional barriers could only protect a predetermined point in space, guardians could cast barriers around specific individuals that would move with them, and I was able to sustain the barriers for an almost infinite amount of time, barring any unforeseen circumstances. The royal family had wanted to take advantage of my powers, so my uncle was protected by one of my barriers at all times. In order to kill him, one would need to first break through my barrier—something I could usually immediately sense.

I had sensed no such thing, and when I focused, I found that the Spirit Barrier I had cast on my uncle was still intact.

“And what of his subordinates?” I asked.

“According to my sources, they were all found deceased with stab wounds to their vital organs. It’s suspected they were killed by someone other than the prince’s murderer, but a skilled assassin, nonetheless.”

No kidding, I thought to myself. My uncle’s bodyguards were mute but extremely powerful. It would have taken quite the deft hand to kill any of them with a single stab. But more than anything, I was most puzzled by the fact that my uncle’s barrier remained intact. My uncle’s assassin was skilled enough to have somehow bypassed my barrier and kill him in spite of it—there were scant few people capable of such a feat.

“…No! It can’t be!”

“Lady Lia?!”

An assassination technique that could slip through even a powerful barrier… I knew one person who possessed such superhuman abilities. A man who had recently been asked by my adoptive father to assassinate my uncle, no less. A boy from another world who looked to be about the same age as me. The one who I had personally watched send hordes of monsters to their graves in the depths of the labyrinth—the strongest assassin in the entire world, whose physical strength rivaled that of even the demons. And with whom Lord Crow was—

As soon as the realization hit me, I took off running. My attendant called after me, but I paid her no mind and kept sprinting down the corridor. I didn’t know what exactly was making me so anxious and impatient, but I knew I needed to see Lord Crow as soon as possible. I could feel in my heart that some sort of permanent change had occurred overnight, and it scared me.

 

POV: ODA AKIRA

 

WHEN I AWOKE, the sun was just about to reach its peak overhead. And while I would have certainly said that Uruk, the City of Water, had thus far lived up to its reputation as one of this world’s most beautiful and relaxing tourist destinations, the furious screaming that woke me was decidedly neither beautiful nor relaxing.

Ever since my time alone down in the Great Labyrinth of Kantinen, I had learned to control my sleep patterns so I could never be taken by surprise. Yet the reassuring words Amelia had whispered in my ear when I returned at dawn had soothed my heart to such an extent that I fell into an uncharacteristically deep sleep after I’d showered. I hadn’t felt so refreshed since the time I fainted from mana exhaustion, or perhaps, since the time Amelia used her magic to put me to sleep.

Hard to believe a few words could have the same effect as her powerful magic.

As I slowly climbed out of bed, I let out a long, hearty yawn. I stretched out my limbs and was surprised to find I was feeling fit as a fiddle. I looked outside and saw the sun’s high position—apparently I had slept until almost noon.

Meanwhile, the angry voices in the next room were still going at it. The walls were pretty well soundproofed in this hotel, so I couldn’t make out every word, but from what I could gather, Lia had come to the room demanding to see someone and Amelia was being uncharacteristically vehement in her objection. I could hear Crow’s voice in the mix as well, so I assumed Lia wasn’t here to see him, which meant she probably wanted to talk to me. I was struck by the sudden recollection that the beastman I had killed last night was technically a member of the royal family, so Lia would have probably heard the news sooner than most. I felt a chill run down my spine.

“What’s going on out here?” I asked, opening the door to the bedroom. The conversation halted immediately, and Amelia dashed over to me.

“Are you sure you don’t need more rest, Akira?”

“I’m fine. Haven’t felt this well rested in a good while, actually.”

As I watched a wave of relief wash over Amelia’s face, I felt terrible for having worried her so much, but before I could say anything else, Lia marched right up to me. She seemed uncharacteristically riled up.

“Lord Akira, I apologize for intruding on you without warning. There’s just something I’d like to verify with you,” she began.

Yeah, no doubt this is about Gram.

“Am I correct to assume it was you who assassinated my uncle, Guildmaster Gram?”

I could tell immediately she wasn’t even considering the possibility it had been someone other than me. She was asking this not as a question but as confirmation. And since it was pointless to lie, I simply nodded in response. “That’s right. I was the one who killed him…but don’t get the wrong idea. I didn’t do it because your old man asked me to. Feel free to tell him I don’t need any reward.”

I assassinated Gram for Crow and Crow alone—there was no ambiguity in my mind. My statement seemed to confuse Lia, however, as she tilted her head to the side. Presumably, Crow hadn’t told her the full story. I shot him a look, as if to ask his permission. There must have been a reason he hadn’t told her, perhaps out of concern for her well-being. To my surprise, Crow nodded back, giving his approval, so I took a deep breath and prepared to answer Lia’s unspoken question.

“It was Crow who asked me to assassinate Gram, long before your father did, so it took priority. Though that’s not to say I didn’t have my own reasons for wanting the man dead.”

Lia only seemed more confused. Slowly, she turned to face Crow, as if begging for an explanation. Thankfully, he obliged.

“That ‘fellow countryman’ who killed my sister? That was Gram,” Crow announced in a relaxed voice I had never heard from him before.

Apparently, this was all Lia needed to put the pieces together, and her expression turned grim. “Then…that ‘innocent kid’ you mentioned yesterday…that was Lord Akira? And the ‘dirty work’ you roped him into…that was killing my Uncle Gram?!”

Lia had managed to stay relatively calm up until now, and she was really putting the screws to Crow. Crow, for his part, didn’t look too bothered, but I could tell this wasn’t his ideal scenario.

“…Fine, so now you’ve had your revenge, even if you had to get someone else to do it for you. So now what are you gonna do with your life, wise guy?!” Lia pressed, the heartbreak palpable in her voice.

Off to the side, I saw Amelia grimace. Lia was like something of a second sister to her, so it didn’t surprise me that she was highly sympathetic to her pain.

“…For now, I have to hold up my end of the bargain with Akira. Once that’s done… Well, I honestly don’t know what I’ll do with myself,” Crow replied. His motivation in life up until now had been to exact revenge on his sister’s murderer: to kill Gram. Now that that was done, what was there left for him to do? I had a few ideas, though…none of them were particularly pleasant.

“Did you know all along that things were going to end up like this, Lord Akira?” Lia asked, her head hung low.

I shook my head. I had my own beef with Gram over Commander Saran’s murder, and while I certainly didn’t usually see myself as judge, jury, and executioner, I had made my own judgment that Gram was the sort of villain who didn’t deserve to live. Not to imply I had the right to decide who lived and who died, but I knew that the loved ones of Gram’s victims wouldn’t be able to move on until he was dead and buried. So, despite my misgivings, I made the tough call to follow through with Crow’s request, not out of any sense of obligation but through my own judgment.

After staring at the ground for a good while, Lia quickly raised her head as though she’d made up her mind about something. “Lord Akira…no, Lord Crow—I’ve decided I’m coming with you as well!” she declared.

“Whoa, whoa, whoa! Do you have any idea what you’re signing up for?!” Crow shot back in an unusual display of anger. I wasn’t sure I’d ever seen him so agitated before. Hell, I didn’t think I’d ever heard him raise his voice.

“Of course I do! You all are about to set off for the demon continent, correct?” Lia asked, looking to me for confirmation. I nodded, and Crow gave me a dirty look that I tried my best to ignore. No doubt he simply didn’t want to put his sweet little Lia in danger. “Then I’m sure there’ll come a time when my barriers will come in handy, right?! You have to take me with you!”

I could only assume Lia was using her barriers as an excuse, but it wasn’t long before even Crow had to nod in approval under the fierce determination in her eyes. Amelia broke into a huge grin, and I couldn’t help but wonder what was going through her mind.

“Okay, we’re heading out!”

After Crow explained to Lia that we had no further business in Uruk now that Gram was dead, she made a quick trip back to the palace to gather her things and meet us at the edge of the city. When we got there, we found her waiting for us, accompanied by more luggage than any one person could ever need. She probably tried to beat us because she suspected Crow would try to leave without her.

“Don’t think you’re the only one who knows his way around town, Lord Crow! I’ve lived here long enough to know a good shortcut or two, and I—”

“Why are you here?” Crow interrupted Lia’s cutesy braggadocio in a cold, monotone voice, almost too quiet to hear. You could have cut the tension in the air with a knife. The utter lack of malice in his voice almost made it more intimidating.

“When I said I was coming along with you earlier, you gave your approval. You didn’t tell me where exactly we were meeting up, though, so I had to make a wild guess and beat you to the punch. But that’s okay. There’s no home left for me here anymore.”

Lia seemed awfully proud of herself, but if she was really so good at predicting Crow’s actions, why did it seem like she couldn’t tell he was so clearly pissed off? Or maybe she did know and was agitating him on purpose. Though I had to wonder what she meant by there being no home for her in Uruk anymore. I had a hard time imagining the greedy king ever letting someone with powers like hers go so easily.

“I dunno what you think the demon continent’s gonna be like, but I can promise you it’s at least a few hundred times more dangerous than the pleasure cruise you’re envisioning,” Crow snarled. “It sure as hell ain’t no place for a pampered royal like you!”

“Don’t worry about me! I’ll be fine!” Lia replied with an energetic nod. “I’m not as weak as you think I am! And I’ve already cut all ties with the royal family. I’m just Lia now, not Lia Lagoon.”

“…So I see.”

How the hell did she cut ties with the royal family that fast? I wondered, but Amelia quickly took the words right out of my mouth.

“I have a hard time believing the royal family would give up its precious adopted daughter so easily. How’d you pull that off?” she asked.

“It was simple, really. They only cared about my barriers, not me. I just had to promise to keep my barriers cast over the palace and the king after leaving the royal family. Though I only made that promise to the current king, so all bets are off if he has to step down for any unforeseen reason.” Lia smirked like a child who’d just played a cruel prank and gotten away with it. I was a little taken aback; she seemed much more animated now than she had been during her time in the royal family. I could only assume we were finally seeing her true self.

“A wise choice. Now that Gram’s been assassinated, there’s no doubt gonna be plenty of scandalous information that comes to light, which won’t reflect kindly on the royal family. Gram did an awful lot to help conceal the corrupt ways of the royal family and the upper nobility in exchange for them turning a blind eye to his crimes.”

Figures. I’d had nothing but bad experiences with royal families in this world, with maybe the only exception being the elven royal family. Still, Victor and the other castle guards seemed like good people, even if they were a little too hotheaded for their own good.

Crow whirled around and started walking, his back to Lia. “More than anything,” Crow began, “the people are quickly gonna find out that the king was complicit in Gram’s human trafficking and slavery, and we all know how beastfolk feel about those two things. I leaked the information about it myself. Won’t be long before the citizens try to storm the castle, I’m guessing.”

…Wait a minute. And your plan was to just leave Lia there to suffer through all of that?

Lia seemed to come to the same conclusion, as I noticed her shoulders were trembling as she hung her head. But knowing Crow, surely he’d had some strategic arrangement in place to make sure Lia was safe. He loved to act cold and unfeeling, but when it came to her, he was a real softie at heart.

“…Now, c’mon, we’d better hit the road,” Crow said.

“Oh, no you don’t!” Lia growled, her mouth curling into a frown. “You can’t just drop a plot bomb like that and not explain yourself! Get back here, Lord Crow!”

 

POV: SATOU TSUKASA

 

IT ALL started a few days ago.

After leaving the city of Uruk ahead of the others and making our way toward the rendezvous point at the tip of the beastfolk domain closest to the demon continent, Gilles, myself, and the other heroes found ourselves in a dire spot of trouble.

“…Ugh, I’m so huuuuuuuungryyy…”

“Can it, Ueno! You’re just gonna make the rest of us even hungrier!”

That’s right: we were all out of food.

Our party had been moving from town to town thus far, so as long as we had money, we were never too far from our next meal. And even if we didn’t, most guild branches had plenty of monster-slaying quests available, so it was easy enough to make the money to stave off starvation. But now, we were making our way through a dense forest, with no towns up ahead—and the monsters we were encountering were only growing stronger. It took a lot of stamina to weave through the trees with such poor footing, so we had expended our food supply in no time flat.

We needed to solve our impending hunger crisis ASAP.

“Well, I certainly wasn’t expecting there to be so few animals out here,” I said with a sigh as I scanned the area. According to Gilles, the people from the nearby villages called this the “Forest of Demise,” and it was deeply feared because, supposedly, any who dared to enter it would be attacked by terrifying beasts…and never return. To be fair, the powerful monsters we’d seen did lend some credence to the stories. Certainly, an average person would be better off staying away from the forest rather than testing their luck.

Physically, my stats had come a long way since we first arrived in this world, and my senses were more acute too. I was able to tell the difference between a simple animal and a monster by scent alone, though right now, I could tell that there were neither animals nor monsters within a twenty-meter radius of our position. Nor were there any birds flying through the sky in this neck of the woods.

Apparently, the monsters that lay in wait up ahead were just that fearsome. And it was our job to take them out before Akira and the others got here… Though I was pretty sure he and Amelia could handle anything this forest might throw at them with their eyes closed.

As I pictured this in my head, I couldn’t help but snicker. It was hard to believe how completely my opinion of Akira had changed since being summoned to Morrigan. It probably had a lot to do with what had happened during our first trip down into the labyrinth, and when he was forced to flee the castle. How was I not supposed to respect him after all of that?

“Hey! Whatcha laughin’ for, Tsukasa? This ain’t no joke! We’re all gonna starve to death at this rate!”

I apologized to Ueno, who was angrily glaring at me, and started trying to think of a solution to our predicament. We knew there was a river with clear, drinkable water nearby. All we needed was a source of food, preferably something we could preserve or that wouldn’t spoil as we carried it along with us.

“Okay, let’s all spread out in different directions, gather up anything that looks edible, and then meet back here. We don’t want anyone to get into any trouble without backup, though, so let’s go in groups of two or three. Leave marks on the trees so you can find your way back, and don’t wander off on your own under any circumstances.”

The groups we ultimately decided upon were me, Ueno, and Tsuda; Asahina, Waki, and Hosoyama; and lastly, Gilles and Nanase. Each group headed off in different directions from the clearing we’d chosen as base camp. As long as we kept track of which way we’d gone, we’d be able to make our way back. I looked at Gilles to make sure he was okay with this plan, and while he did look a bit conflicted, he ultimately gave his approval.

“Okay, once the sun reaches its highest point in the sky, let’s all agree to start heading back here. Now, off you go, everyone!”

To be honest, I didn’t think it was a very good idea to be splitting up in dangerous territory, even in groups of two or three, but at least we weren’t going to be going very far. And with myself, Asahina, and Gilles spread across each of the three teams, we should be able to handle any monsters we might encounter.

Everything should be just fine.

 

Looking back on it, I think there must have been something wrong with my head. Otherwise, I couldn’t guess why I would have ever thought it was a good idea to split up and head into completely unknown territory.

 

POV: ASAHINA KYOUSUKE

 

HAVING BEEN ASSIGNED BY SATOU to a team with Waki and Hosoyama, I immediately began surveying the vicinity for possible foodstuffs. The trees were so tall, you couldn’t see the tops of them, and their trunks were all so massive it would take more than the three of us to link arms around even the smallest. I wondered how old the trees were and marveled at how many wars and dynasties they must have lived through.

These were the thoughts that ran through my mind as I made my way silently through the trees, cutting marks into each trunk as we went to indicate the way back. Waki had instructed his tamed animal companions to search the surrounding area for food while Hosoyama was searching through the various grasses on the ground in the hopes of finding something edible. My intended role was, I presumed, to serve as their guard. I stood at the ready, prepared to counter any threats that might ambush us.

However, I had to wonder if there was some ill will behind the team assignments. While neither Waki nor Hosoyama was a social butterfly by any means, I was fairly certain I’d never seen them exchange a single word with one another. I could only assume Satou had, for whatever reason, put us into groups with people he knew would have a harder time getting along.

“Oh, hey! You find something up there, little fella?” Waki asked one of his tamed animals as it clambered down a tree with some fruit in its mouth. As he gave it some scritches and held it in his arms, it was clear the animal had taken quite the liking to Waki—especially compared to how it had only growled at him at first. For more and more animals to grow attached to him so easily meant he’d raised his level as an animal trainer significantly. Apparently, the oafish boy had been putting in quite a bit of work on his own time.

“Hey, Hosoyama! Take a look at these. You think they’re cherries?” Waki called, holding out the fruits of his pet’s labor. They were indeed shaped like cherries, though the bulbs on the end of each stem were closer to the size of peaches.

Hosoyama, our resident healer, was highly attuned to whether things contained poison or not. If her analysis said that they were edible, then chances were, they were safe to eat. “Cherries? I dunno. Let’s have a taste.”

“H-hey!”

But before Waki could protest, she’d already popped one into her mouth as though it was nothing, despite the worry painted clearly on both of our faces. I let out a relieved sigh upon seeing that she did not immediately keel over dead.

“What the heck were you thinking?! That could’ve been poisonous, y’know!” Waki cried, hoarsely.

I had to agree it seemed more than a little careless on Hosoyama’s part, but she simply grinned from ear to ear. “Aw, it’s fine. Healers have a skill that negates any hazardous substances we might ingest into our bodies, silly. Though…I only learned about it a little while ago, tee hee.”

In other words, poison would have no effect on her. This knowledge made me a lot more hopeful about our chances of surviving our current predicament. Once we reconvened with the others, she could serve as the poison tester for any foods the other groups might bring back.

“Sorry for not telling you guys sooner. I wasn’t sure how well the skill would work because I hadn’t had a chance to try it out yet,” she went on with a smile.

A chill ran down my spine. This girl has nerves of steel!

“Anyway, I’m happy to taste test any and all foods you guys might find. Oh, and these ‘cherries’ of yours taste more like peaches, and they’re super delicious! The skin’s a little bitter, though, so I might recommend peelin’ ’em first.”

“Got it! Thanks for your services, Hosoyama!”

 

In the end, thanks to Hosoyama’s poison-testing abilities, our group was able to gather a wide variety of different tree fruits. With all this fruit, our entire group would be able to eat pretty decently.

“Looks like the sun’s about to reach the top of the sky. Let’s head back!”

We’d moved in a fairly straight line, so all we really had to do was turn around and walk back. Feeling rather pleased with ourselves, we followed the marks I’d left on the trees and hurried back to the rendezvous point.

“What the…?” said Waki, who had taken point. Eventually, we reached the last of the marks I’d left on the trees. But the small clearing we’d set as our rendezvous point was nowhere to be seen.

 

POV: NANASE RINTAROU

 

I THINK THE FIRST PERSON to notice something fishy was going on wasn’t Gilles, Tsukasa, or Kyousuke: it was me. I didn’t know it then, but I later learned that, at a certain point in their development, wind mages acquire the subconscious ability to “read the wind,” as it was commonly referred to. Similar to a hunch or premonition, this innate skill allowed a person to intuitively sense when they were approaching a potentially dangerous situation.

“Something seems quite off about this forest, don’t you think?” I asked Gilles.

I’d had a funny feeling since we’d entered the woods and noticed none of the others seemed to suspect anything was off. It was so disconcerting for me that I couldn’t shrug it off as mere paranoia, so I wanted Gilles’s opinion on the matter. Thankfully, I’d been placed in a group alone with him, but I was evidently too late in bringing it up.

“Nanase, on your guard. I’m sensing hostiles, though they’re still a ways off. We’re being surrounded,” he warned me in a low voice after scanning the vicinity for food.

The thought of being surrounded by enemies in unfamiliar territory made my entire body seize up. Being a wind mage, I’d always supported the group from the rear, no matter how much I’d wished I could have fought on the front line. I’d never had to face an attack head-on. It had mostly been up to Tsukasa and Kyousuke to hold the line. We hadn’t faced any monsters strong enough to break through a hero and a samurai, so I had never been in such danger before. I was unsure how to handle an enemy charging straight for my throat.

“Eep!!!”

When I felt a hand touch my shoulder, I nearly jumped out of my boots, thinking an ambush was already upon me. But it was only Gilles, though the expression on his face was far grimmer than I was used to. He squeezed my shoulder tightly.

“Be calm. Unless you want to die here, you need to focus on your own survival right now and be prepared to do whatever it takes to stay alive,” he ordered before stepping in front of me, drawing his blade, and bracing for imminent combat. From that vantage point, his frame seemed a lot bigger, his shoulders a lot broader than ever before. “Now, listen to me so we can survive! I'll get us through this!”

His words snapped me out of my anxiety, and I clenched my fists. This was not the disaffected, formal tone of the Gilles I thought I knew—this was the voice of a man who felt more than a little frantic, and it hit me like a ton of bricks. I wasn’t strong enough to survive on my own like Akira could, and I didn’t have Tsukasa’s charisma to make everyone else band together either. Unlike Kyousuke, I also had no specialties; and I couldn’t cook nor was I the life of the party. I couldn’t even reassure others when they were feeling down.

I didn’t have any unique skills to speak of.

But I still wanted to survive. I wasn’t ready to die… I wanted to make it back home, just like the rest of my classmates. I wanted to wake up and get scolded by my parents for sleeping in. I wanted to rush all the way to school, screw around with my friends, study hard, eat lunch, and live out my boring ordinary life the same way I always had. But in order to do that, I had to fight. Maybe the threat of being attacked had shocked me back into a state of alertness, because my frozen hands were brimming with warmth again.

I’d finally found the resolve I needed to fight and survive in this world—something Akira had probably done the very first day we arrived here. I would no longer simply go along with what others decided. I was going to live by my own will.

“Yes, sir!!!” I cried. “I’ll do whatever it takes not to die! So please, sir, tell me what you need me to do! What do I have to do to make it out of this alive?” I raised my head, gripping my staff tightly, and looked Gilles directly in the eye.

His eyes widened at my sudden shift in countenance, and he smiled broadly. “Now that’s more like it. You need to…”

Gilles whispered instructions in my ear, and I nodded. It wasn’t something I’d ever attempted before, but one of the wind mage rules of thumb was that when it came to casting spells, sometimes powerful emotions could be converted directly into tangible strength. Now that I’d found an internal source of determination and will, I was sure I could pull it off.

 

“Are you ready?”

“Yep, I’m all set!”

I was fully braced to repel the enemy. It felt like it took an awful long time to set up, but, somehow, they still hadn’t reached us. I had to wonder if Gilles’s enemy-sensing abilities were a bit too sensitive. Granted, that was probably necessary for someone who had been the vice commander of an entire nation’s knights, but in my estimation, his effective sensing range was nearly twice that of our hero, Tsukasa, and five times that of Kyousuke. Maybe it was a trait unique to the knight class.

I couldn’t help but smile and shake my head at this thought—now that I’d found my resolve, I realized just how little we knew about this world and how many things I’d never questioned. After about a minute, though it felt more like an hour, the enemy drew near enough to see. The tawny brown and green monsters filled my field of vision, then tightened their encirclement one step at a time.

“Are those trees?!” I gasped.

“Technically, they’re tree monsters known as treants. Generally, they’re quite docile, camouflaging themselves as normal trees most of the time…except when they feel threatened or when mating season rolls around,” Gilles explained.

Apparently, we’d stumbled into the area at the height of mating season, Gilles told me as he watched the treants slowly make their way into the traps we’d set. I was a little surprised to learn monsters had mating seasons just like other animals and was beginning to wonder whether the distinction between monster and animal was much more arbitrary than I’d originally thought.

The “traps” we’d devised were little more than simple pitfalls—I’d used my wind magic to dig a number of holes around myself and Gilles, each about as deep as an adult male is tall. We hadn’t had time to cover the holes with leaves, or fill them with snakes, so they were less pitfalls and more just plain old pits. Something with human-level intelligence would have noticed them right away and walked around or jumped over them, but the treants were walking right into them; they weren’t the smartest of monsters. Knowledge truly was power, and I was beginning to regret never setting foot in the Retice Castle archives.

“Treants may not be the most intelligent of creatures, but they’re no fools either,” Gilles warned. “Stay on your guard. I’ll keep watching your back, but I need you to remain vigilant. Do you remember the support spells I taught you?”

I nodded.

“Good. Then it’s time to put them to the test. Having traveled with your party for some time now, you seem to have a more watchful eye than the rest. I’ll be counting on you to look out for me.”

I nodded at Gilles’s words of encouragement, then held up my staff and said: “I give unto thee the power to slay dragons and to smite even the mightiest of foes! Until my mana is spent, let mine strength be thine… Wind Enchantment: Haste!”

W~ green light.

I took a deep breath, then gathered my mana to begin casting again. “I give unto thee the fortitude to withstand all manner of attacks. Until my mana is spent, let my strength be thine… Wind Enchantment: Barricade!”

After successfully casting two buffs simultaneously, I felt the strength begin to drain from my body. Gilles, once both spells had taken effect, turned and gave me a pat on the head. “Well done. Now you just take it easy and leave the rest to me.”

His calm and collected voice helped soothe my mind even as the monsters rapidly closed in on us, but the fatigue from keeping multiple spells active at once was too great. Gilles’s voice moved farther and farther away, until, finally, I lost consciousness.

 

POV: TSUDA TOMOYA

 

I’D ALWAYS BEEN A WEAKLING—more so mentally than physically. Perhaps the best way to describe me was as a “nervous wreck.” There was nothing that terrified me more than having to interact with other humans, and there was nothing I hated more than myself. Every day, I tried my best to act as masculine as I could, but I’d long since grown accustomed to people mistaking me for a girl when meeting me for the first time. I wasn’t happy about it, but it was what it was.

But there was someone I aspired to be—almost to the point of obsession (which was seen as a little weird, since we were both guys). He was one of my fellow classmates and the star member of our kendo team—Asahina Kyousuke. The first time I laid eyes on him was back in junior high when the various school clubs tried to pull in new recruits. Being the way I was, I found it impossible to say no, so despite having zero experience in kendo, I ended up on the team. I’d hated being such a nervous wreck even then, and I wanted to find a way to fix myself if I could. I thought that by forcing myself to participate in sports or martial arts, I might be able to find the self-confidence to “grow out of it,” though you can probably guess how well that went.

Luckily for me, the junior high kendo team wasn’t exactly a force to be reckoned with. The only person with even a modicum of experience was one of the girls who’d done some kendo in elementary school, which meant a shrimp like me was able to keep pace with the lessons and drills. Because there weren’t many people on the team, by the fall of my first year, I was entered into my first official meet.

As vice-captain of my school’s team, my first bout was against a first-year boy who’d spent the morning wiping the floor with all of our third years during the singles round. It was my first real duel, and the cheering that echoed throughout the gymnasium had me quaking in my boots; I kept my eyes closed for most of the match.It wasn’t until one of the upperclassmen tried to cheer me up after the fact that I learned my opponent had won—that boy was Asahina.

It should have come as no surprise that a boy with several tournaments under his belt would make short work of an absolute beginner like me, but he managed to land two clean hits and disqualify me in less than ten seconds. The match was over in a flash. Next thing I knew, I was bowing to my opponent before leaving the ring and taking my place at the side of my teammate (who had also quickly lost his own match). Unable to score a single point, our school suffered a crushing defeat and was eliminated from the competition.

We didn’t even have time to lament our loss before the next match was scheduled to begin, so we hurriedly gathered our gear, and as we were about to make our exit, one of the alternates on Asahina’s team walked up to us and scoffed.

“Was that supposed to be some kinda joke? Maybe you guys would be better off entering in the elementary school tournament!”

That was the first time in my entire life I got angry enough to see red. Even the upperclassman beside me was ashamed. But I didn’t say a word. I was utterly incensed, but my nervous personality pumped the brakes, and in the end, I wasn’t even able to attempt a half-hearted comeback. Feeling powerless, I hung my head in shame.

But then a retort came from a very unexpected source.

“Or perhaps you should go fight against elementary schoolers, given your maturity level. I believe there’s a children’s dojo just down the street. I’d be more than happy to file your club resignation paperwork for you.”

My jaw dropped, as did the jaws of my upperclassmen and the alternate who’d insulted us. The boy who’d spoken simply looked at his alternate, straight-faced, as though he’d said exactly what needed to be said. For me, it would have taken an awful lot of courage to speak my mind like that, especially when it was likely to upset the other person. I didn’t know if it was any easier for other people, and Asahina probably thought nothing of the exchange, but it showed me just how cool he was.

From that point on, Asahina became my idol. Despite going to a completely different school, I’d still watch him from afar during tournaments. People liked to say there were two possible responses when someone else possessed something they lacked: jealousy or admiration. I decidedly fell into the latter camp. I wanted to be able to speak my mind confidently like Asahina, wanted to be a real man like he was. I knew it was presumptuous to think I could ever be as strong, but I just couldn’t help wanting to be just like Asahina.

Granted, the simple act of aspiring to be like him never helped fix any of my shortcomings, and before I knew it, we were at the same high school on the same kendo team. As Asahina had won nationals before, I assumed he would be scouted by a school with a more prestigious kendo team, so when I discovered he was going to the same school as me, I was surprised. I later heard through the grapevine that he had turned down every offer he received because they were all too far from home. I was so grateful to my junior high school homeroom teacher for recommending this high school to me. I couldn’t understand a word of his math lectures, but when it came to picking out high schools, he was second to none!

I continued looking up to Asahina. Well, maybe not to his ability to step on conversational land mines by prodding at sore subjects whenever he spoke to anyone, though I still envied how easily he spoke to people. However, ever since we arrived in Morrigan, I felt like the gap between me and him was only growing wider. The way I trembled in fear whenever a battle was afoot meant I often ended up back with the rear guard, even though I was a knight. Worse, I hadn’t faced a monster head-on since that first trip into the Great Labyrinth of Kantinen.

I hadn’t exactly been making an effort to contribute either. I went on and on about how badly I wanted to fix my weakest aspects, but I hadn’t made a lick of progress since junior high. In fact, I’d gotten lazy since we arrived in this world and was happy to let Satou and Asahina do all the heavy lifting.

Which was why our current predicament posed such a dilemma for me.

“No, Satou! Hold still, gosh darnit! Yer just gonna reopen yer wounds!”

I was the only one of our group still standing. Satou had been knocked unconscious but was still trying to get back up and defend us despite his injuries. Ueno was trying her hardest to keep him on the ground—she’d suffered a pretty gnarly leg injury herself, so we couldn’t run away. The shield I’d been carrying had been smashed to pieces only minutes before. The monsters were closing in, and we were sitting ducks.

Thinking back, Satou had been acting strangely today. His rationale for having us split into teams made sense to me, but it still felt like an odd decision coming from a worrywart like him who wouldn’t even have us cross the street without looking both ways a dozen times. Maybe his behavior had something to do with how horribly things had gone during our first trip into the labyrinth, because now he tried to only fight monsters when we had a clear advantage, and he was always exceedingly concerned about negative status effects like curses.

He’d always struck me as a bit unapproachable back at school, but here, he was always thinking of everyone else first and foremost and did everything he could for the party. I hadn’t exchanged more than a few words with him, and even I could tell that much, so I found it hard to believe he would ever tell us to split up in such dangerous territory.

My mind floated back to the curse placed upon him in the labyrinth. Ueno had claimed the curse was broken, but as her class level had still been quite low, it was possible it hadn’t been completely dispelled and she couldn’t tell. Either that, or Satou had been afflicted by a new curse, but we hadn’t encountered any shady individuals recently, so the former seemed more likely.

Regardless, we were caught between a rock and a hard place. The tree monsters I had no hope of slaying were closing in, my shield had been destroyed, and the sword in my hand was trembling. I couldn’t even step back because my injured comrades were on the ground behind me. The last thing I wanted was to die while still being a pathetic loser who hated himself. I needed to figure out some way to turn this situation around, even though we were at a clear disadvantage, based on our numbers and abilities.

Think, Tomoya, think. What would Asahina do? He was like the ideal protagonist of any adventure novel, so surely he’d keep his cool and just do what needed to be done. Which meant I just needed to fortify myself and do whatever I could.

“H-hey, Ueno!!!” I yelled, my voice shaking with fear.

“Y-yeah, what’s up?!” she called back, clearly startled. I couldn’t blame her for being surprised as I rarely ever addressed her directly. Still, she didn’t have to sound so surprised; I wasn’t a total loser. But the fact that I still had the capacity to think about trivial things helped me calm down a bit.

“Sorry, but I don’t think I have what it takes to handle these guys all by myself,” I said. “At this rate, the three of us are gonna die here.”

I heard them both gulp. They knew there was no way we could run, so the best I could hope to do was hold them off for a bit.

“Fortunately, it seems they’ve decided we’ll be easy targets, so I think they’re taking their sweet time to torment us. Which means we still have some time.”

“How the heck is that fortunate?! Wait… You ain’t about to suggest that we just leave Tsukasa and hightail it outta here, are ya?”

I couldn’t help but laugh at the notion. Abandoning Satou would probably be the worst possible move. If he died, we’d all be in deep trouble. “Of course not! But I don’t have the strength to defeat them, which means if any of us are gonna take them down, it’ll have to be Satou.”

He had managed to remain standing to try to protect us down in the labyrinth for a good long while, even after suffering grievous wounds. And now he was even trying to pick himself up despite fighting off unconsciousness. I felt awful for trying to put him to work in his current condition, but I pulled a glass bottle out from my bag and tossed it over to Ueno regardless.

“W-wait, is this?!” She gulped, cradling the phial in her hands.

Surely Ueno recognized the healing potions they’d provided us all with as we were heading to the labyrinth. Most of my classmates had used their allotment of five up during that same trip, as we had no idea the potions were far outside the average adventurer’s price range. I had a feeling this was probably the last one in our possession. We knew how effective they were, and I had every confidence the potion would be able to heal Satou’s wounds.

“I’d like you to use Disenchant on him as well, just for good measure. You’ve noticed how strangely he’s been acting today too, haven’t you?” I asked. The more I thought about his decision to divide us up, the more it seemed like the sort of blunder Satou would have never made had he been in his right mind.

“A-all right,” she said and presumably nodded (she was behind me, so I couldn’t see her face). “O baleful curse, return from whence thou came! Disenchant!”

The fact that Ueno’s incantation was significantly more succinct compared to how long-winded it was back in the Great Labyrinth of Kantinen was a testament to her growth. When magic users raised their class and skill levels, their incantations shortened, until eventually they gained the ability to cast spells without having to recite anything at all. And while casters like Nanase and Hosoyama had widely versatile spells that could be used for virtually any request, disenchanting magic had decidedly fewer applications and thus was much more difficult to level up.

“Okay, Tsuda! I’ve disenchanted him!” she yelled.

“Great. I’ll buy us some time until he’s had a chance to fully recover. Keep an eye on him for me,” I said before dashing off with sword in hand.

Despite my experience with kendo, my Swordsmanship skill level wasn’t particularly high. If anything, my time on the kendo team had taught me some bad habits that were unnecessary for general sword use—habits that had taken a long time to rectify through training. I was still doing practice swings every day to try to remember what they’d taught us back at the castle, but I wasn’t sure if it was helping much.

As one of the tree monsters lashed out at me with its whip-like branches, I dodged to the side and swung my sword. My attack landed, but it wasn’t successful in severing the branch, merely scratching the bark. Until now, I’d essentially given up on my attacks being of any use against our enemies. But I could feel myself starting to become a different me.

“Hang in there, Tsuda! Tsukasa’s almost healed!”

“Got it!”

I dodged and weaved through the branches as they came at me from the left and right. But my reflexes simply weren’t good enough to dodge every attack, so several of their lashes hit their mark.

“Grrragh!!!” I grunted after being slapped away like a bug by the most recent attack. I could feel my consciousness beginning to fade as a sharp pain coursed through my back.

“There ya go, Tsuda! He’s all fixed up!”

Ueno’s words gave me the strength to pick myself back up. I looked over, and there by her side was Satou, who had only moments ago been too gravely injured to even stand.

“Ueno, Tsuda, sorry for conking out on you like that. Just leave the rest to me,” he said with a guilty frown before drawing his sword.

I let out an amused laugh. “Don’t worry about it! If anything, I feel bad for asking you to take care of these guys right after you were just healed. But yeah, I’ll leave the rest to you,” I said as I dragged my aching body back to Ueno. When I passed by Satou, he gave me a confident nod, which came as such a relief that I lost my grip on consciousness and was quickly enveloped by the darkness.