CHAPTER 6

The Calamity of War

01

“This weapon isn’t in my area of expertise, but I think it’s usable enough.”

Using the Necklace’s lumber, Donnino had made a ballista, a large-scale bow that was supposed to be useful in castle sieges. He’d spent all night making it, but because Sieg, Edgan, Franz, and Grandel had been fighting in the courtyard with many fire bottles in hand, dawn had arrived earlier than usual.

If they continued to battle here like this, they might be able to eventually purify all the corruption, but keeping this up seemed unreasonable.

“Still, I think this is the best way,” Mariela said. Her strategy lacked a clincher, but everyone else had accepted it readily enough. Although none of the others had an alternate plan, the fact that Mariela seemed to have discovered something before proposing her tactic was probably a significant factor in why they went along with it.

They mounted the ballista Donnino made at the top of the southeast tower, where Mariela had first awoken, to obtain the materials they needed when they used it. When Mariela peeked out through the large windows, she saw a massive fish leisurely swimming through the clear water, shimmering in the sunshine. The creature seemed to be enjoying itself.

“What a strange sight. This looks like fresh water, but isn’t that a saltwater fish?”

Sieg’s comment was sensible, but not very imaginative.

Next to them, Grandel and Donnino commented on passing sea creatures as though they were already ingredients, saying this one was delicious when roasted or that one was exquisite in a sauce of melted innards. They had no sentimentality, either.

“Siiieg, you gotta think fuzzier. This is an awesome world where a tiny snake can become a lamia with big hooters. The salty taste is probably unavoidable, but overlooking that is easy, since it’s a fish and a monster. Better yet, I wonder if there are any cute mermaids?”

Apparently, Edgan thought this world was “awesome.” The only half-human creature he’d seen so far was the one lamia, and as for mermaids, it was questionable whether they were monsters or demi-humans.

“People don’t say ‘hooters’ anymore, you know?”

“Edgan’s an old man. Gross.”

The two girls, both possessed of flat-chested beauty, gave sly remarks.

“Well, this is a world where a human can revert to a monkey…” Sieg, who somewhat agreed with fuzzy Edgan’s fuzzy opinion, said something uncalled-for as he set an arrow, or rather, a harpoon, into the ballista and began to make adjustments.

“Isn’t that fish a little close?” Mariela wondered aloud.

“I’m lurin’ it this way, so it’s fine. Oh! Edgan, there’s a mermaid over there!” Had Yuric planned her answer, or had it been spontaneous?

“Seriously?! Where, wheeere—? Gah! Isn’t that a bit too clichéd? Glug, glug.”

“Rar!”

Whether Edgan understood it was a gag and merely humored it, or he couldn’t resist looking for a mermaid at the mention of one even if it was a lie, he rushed over to the window and peeked out in the direction Yuric had indicated. In that instant, Koo shoved him into the water with a splash.

Perhaps it seemed fun to the raptor, as Koo even stuck his tail out the window and began provoking monster fish by fluttering the appendage and splashing around as he trilled. Edgan struggled to escape as he spun around and around in the churning water.

He certainly made for lively bait.

The struggling Edgan must have looked tasty, because several monster fish made a big splash as they charged at him with incredible momentum.

“All right, Sieg. It’s your turn.”

“Got it.”

Sieg faced the charging creatures and took aim with the ballista.

Donnino was responsible for maintaining the armored carriages in the Black Iron Freight Corps. Since the wagons were equipped with bow guns, he had a rough understanding of a ballista’s structure, as well. The ballista, which had been made from whittled wood from the Necklace for its body and vines for its bowstring, seemed complete at a glance.

The ballista, a stationary, large-scale weapon, typically made use of minute mechanisms that enabled adjustments to the height and angle of the fixed pedestal and allowed one to pull the bowstring. Donnino, not being a weapon craftsman, couldn’t make something so complex in only a day, so he’d planned for Sieg’s physical strength as an A-Ranker and his Spirit Eye to make up for the lack of that kind of fine control.

“It’s quite a strange thing. But with this kind of power…,” Sieg muttered. The harpoon he fired passed within inches of Edgan, who had finally been released from the water currents and had his hands on the window frame in an attempt to get back into the tower. Far from simply piercing the approaching fish from mouth to tail, the harpoon speared them through and kept on going.

“That Spirit Eye thing really is slapdash,” uttered Donnino, shocked at seeing the aquatic monsters turn into minced meat with a single shot.

Even the slipshod ballista would always hit the bull’s-eye with the Spirit Eye’s divine protection behind it—even underwater. It was as though the ocean changed its current so as not to dampen the harpoon’s momentum and even corrected the projectile’s course.

“Now, now. We’ll still be able to claim our catch, so it all turned out well enough.” Grandel soothed poor Donnino, who was thinking he’d made that ballista in vain.

“Pant, pant, I thought I was gonna drown… Sieg, do you usually shoot so close to your friends?!”

“You’re quite the handsome fellow now that you’re dripping wet, Edgan!”

As expected, Edgan was huffy, and Sieg praised him and flashed a thumbs-up with a smile on his face. “Hooters” was stale, but so was this. Their matching old-fashionedness was one more reason they got along.

“…That’s enough, you two. It’s coming. Hide your magical power.”

Edgan and Sieg had been about to start goofing around as they often did, but at a word from Franz, who was looking up through the window, they snapped to attention.

Many of the giant fish were gathering, lured by the others that had been torn to shreds by the test fire a moment ago and now resembled ground meat. Bait-gan had just been the opening performance. These newly attracted fish were the real lures.

They were quite a distance from the tower, but the sight of countless carnivorous creatures, far larger than normal ones at several yards each, swarming around the chum and keeping each other in check as they devoured it, was quite an impressive spectacle. However, a shadow that eclipsed them all was swiftly approaching from somewhere deep in the distance of the endless ocean.

“It’s huuuge. Can we seriously bring it down?” Edgan’s remark wasn’t without merit.

A whale the size of a sailing vessel was drawing near. Upon close inspection, one realized that it was very different from whales detailed in reference books. What made it stand out was undoubtedly its giant mouth. It resembled a deep-sea fish’s maw that was a third the size of its entire body. Compared to normal whales, which filtered seawater and ingested tiny creatures, this monster, a Gladere, survived by absorbing magical power in the sea. The amount required to maintain its large build was tremendous, so it could only inhabit areas of the ocean with dense magical power, and it didn’t attack ordinary fish that had no magic.

If it weren’t for that, the whale monster would have hunted every fish in the world to extinction.

No sooner did the Gladere indent its stomach and contract its entire body than it suddenly dived down all at once at a bizarre speed.

It was surprisingly nimble for a creature so large. And its enormous mouth swallowed all the fish monsters feeding on the bait faster than they could scatter and escape.

The Gladere’s biggest boons were its mouth, which could eat and tear up anything, and its mobility.

A special subcutaneous layer of fat and the Gladere’s magical power enabled radical density changes that allowed the creature to swim swiftly. When it rose toward the surface, the whale monster expanded to attain buoyancy, and when it dived down, it became as dense and heavy as lead, moving at formidable speed.

By the time you noticed its rapid approach from overhead or the ocean floor, it was already too late. No sea life existed that could escape a Gladere.

Moreover, although a Gladere was a monster that subsisted solely on magical power, it could swallow plants, and even wood.

A significant number of large, goggly fish shifted around.

The Gladere had found its next prey.

It opened its big mouth wide and charged toward the tower. Sieg and the others may have been the first ones to see its massive snapping maw, which could shred anything.

“Gaaah, gross!” Edgan screamed reflexively.

Within that deep-sea-fishlike mouth were several more mouths. More precisely, the Gladere had multiple sets of teeth. If you compared it to a human’s, what the Gladere had parted were its lips. And there were many more sets along the throat, as well. Moreover, the rough rows seemed to have multiple joints, and each tooth was clenched separately.

The Gladere charged forward to crunch up both the tower and the group alike, and a single arrow shining in rainbow colors grazed its mouth.

It was a spirit arrow charged with plenty of magical power via the Spirit Eye. Sieg had preserved his magical power during the fight with the Necklace for this express purpose.

The power of spirits was a little different from average magical power, but that evidently made it irresistible food to the Gladere. The moment when the creature shifted its mouth in the direction of the arrow to catch it…

With a fsh, the ballista’s giant harpoon pierced the titanic whale’s largest jaw joint.

Roooooar.

The Gladere’s scream traveled through the water and shook the tower.

“Eek!”

“Mariela! Are you all right?!”

“She’s fine. Let’s get outta here. Sieg, keep your eyes on the monster and take it down, would ya?”

Despite the fact that they were in combat, Sieg had spun around in response to Mariela’s unusually adorable shriek. It was shameful how transparent he was in wanting to show her his good side and score points with her.

Yuric, who had grown close to Mariela while Sieg took his sweet time getting here, put Mariela on Koo and began evacuating to a safe lower floor. Yuric, noticing Sieg’s gaze, gave a broad, meaningful grin.

“Hey, Mariela, hold on tight.”

“Okay!”

Mariela remained unaware of both Sieg’s gaze and Yuric’s ulterior motive. She wrapped her arms around the waist of the girl she’d become great friends with and hugged her close so she wouldn’t be thrown off.

“Grr…”

Yuric laughed at Sieg’s grumble.

Sieg only barely managed to keep himself from uttering something like “You little brat…,” but his expression was that of a villain no matter how you looked at it.

He had reverted entirely to the scumbag he’d been before he became a slave. A Siegbag.

Two girls clinging to each other on a raptor was a charming sight, but Sieg hadn’t realized Yuric was female. From his point of view, it looked like Mariela had been stolen after he’d dared to take his eyes off of her for a moment. Yuric’s less curvy body played a huge part in fooling Sieg.

Incidentally, there was no way Edgan would ignore the fact that jealousy was showing on Sieg’s face, and he sauntered around the other man with an extremely happy expression—retribution for earlier.

“Hey, hey, Sieg, buddy. Attractive men are the ones who work hard behind the scenes, you know.”

“Shut up, Edgan. You’re one to talk.”

“Stop messing around, both of you. Here it comes!”

The instant Franz reined in the pair, a loud boom that shook the tower pierced the air. The Gladere, which had been hit by the harpoon, hurled itself into the tower. Surprisingly, all that came of it was that thundering sound. Even with the whale ramming the structure, it remained firm.

“Hoh-hoh, leave it to my Shield.”

From armored carriages to umbrellas, earth walls to tower edifices, if it was a solid body he could touch, Grandel could make it into a shield. He chuckled with a placid expression.

“Donnino, pull the rope now!”

“Right!”

Donnino and Franz showed off their strong arms by pulling the tether attached to the harpoon and dragging the Gladere toward them so it couldn’t escape.

“Welp, guess that’s our cue, Sieg.”

“…I’ll end this right now!!!”

Edgan reluctantly grabbed a harpoon, and Sieg, who glared with eyes full of murderous intent, loaded the ballista.

The Gladere was called a “demon of the sea,” a title that evoked a tough fight. However, Sieg shot the thing through, nailing joints and weak points. In the blink of an eye, the whale monster was a lifeless pincushion.

“Sieg’s merciless…”

“Mariela! It’s overrrrrrr!”

As soon as he defeated the monster, Sieg disregarded both Edgan and his prey and ran down to the lower floor, where Mariela and Yuric were waiting.

Whenever Sieg finally learned that Yuric was a girl, he would undoubtedly have a comical expression.

02

“Let’s go.”

Everyone gathered at the entrance hall nodded at Mariela’s declaration.

It wouldn’t be long until the sun set, and the water that obstructed the group’s path would disappear. Was the water that imprisoned them in this world hindering them, or was it protecting them from the black monsters?

That, too, would become clear after they crossed the courtyard beyond this point and finally reached the temple in the center.

To do this, the group needed to defeat the creatures that had taken the form of the ravages of war—the ones the petrified lamia was keeping in check.

When they opened this door, it would begin.

The final battle…

When the Labyrinth Suppression Forces’ elite soldiers had captured the Labyrinth’s lowest strata, they had come prepared with enough equipment to challenge a stratum boss several times over. In contrast, the party here sported only a few people who could fight. Admittedly, perhaps it was a bit too early to judge on numbers alone. Leonhardt’s troops may have been many, but potions had greatly bolstered their strength.

Siegmund, wielder of the Spirit Eye and critical figure in the Labyrinth subjugation, was here. So was Edgan, who, despite being unable to join the Labyrinth Suppression Forces because of personal reasons, had grown as an A-Ranker and was a User of All who could utilize two elements simultaneously.

What’s more, not only did this little band have Franz, who had transformed into a demi-dragon and was now more powerful as a result, but Yuric, Donnino, and Grandel. If the group assessed their opponents and exhaustively prepared, the likes of the black monsters were nothing for them to fear.

Mariela looked around at her reassuring allies, all of whom wore determined expressions: Sieg, Edgan, Franz, Donnino, Grandel, Yuric—and a barrel.

A barrel, another barrel, and another, bottles, a barrel, another barrel, bottles, more bottles, and more bottles.

“…We gathered a lot more than I thought.”

“The more we have, the better.”

That’s right. This was the beginning of the end, and preparation was essential. Nonetheless, the quantities of casks and alcohol bottles were so massive they couldn’t all fit on the raptor, and everyone had been made to carry one or two. It gave the whole thing the air of a large delivery more than a climactic engagement.

Donnino had used the remaining wood from the Necklace to make a narrow, two-wheeled carrier akin to a wagon, which Koo now pulled, and a large number of barrels had been loaded on it. The sides had walls to keep the cargo from falling, and it could defend against attacks with Grandel on board, making it an exceptional product. However, Yuric, who operated the cart piled with cargo, was the spitting image of a delivery boy no matter how you looked at it.

“It’s got better maneuverability than I thought. If we just gave it the imperial capital’s latest wheel bearings and plate springs and processed the tires, it seems like it could be quite fast.” Although they were on the brink of a fierce battle, Donnino seemed extremely pleased with his craft. He talked at length about the friction and speed of wooden slide bearings. After they returned home safely, maybe he’d start a “Black Iron Express Delivery” service.

In any case, Mariela and the others had a large number of barrels and an equally sizable amount of bottles.

The liquid filling them had been collected from the Gladere.

The processing hadn’t required much time because Mariela had made full use of her excess magical power to mince, boil, and separate the thick hide and skull interior all in one go in a Transmutation Vessel. Sieg and Edgan had exerted considerable effort keeping the fish monsters away from the Gladere’s corpse while Franz had butchered it, however. Moving the many casks of the refined product had been hard work, too.

With the Necklace’s defeat, it had become possible to travel through the buildings from the west tower to the east one. Still, Mariela couldn’t help but gape at how many barrels and bottles had been strewn about, mostly in the southeast tower. Had her master really drunk all of their contents?

Or could it be that Freyja had planned this…?

No, I gotta focus.

Mariela lightly shook her head to drive away her idle thoughts as she walked toward the door that led to the courtyard.

There was a dampness that seemed to fill even their lungs with water, and then there came a darkness that covered the world. The dreams felt like an abstract of this world to Mariela.

“Let’s get started.”

“Ya should be careful, too, Mariela. Let’s go, Koo!”

“Rar!”

The raptor began to run, towing the wagon holding Franz and Yuric. The rest of the group took that as the signal to charge through the entrance.

“Right, take these, Sieg!”

“Okay, Donnino, bring them! Now, Edgan, get these to the other end!”

“Right! Leave it to me.”

Donnino picked up the barrels and bottles that had been placed in the entrance hall and handed them off to Sieg. After accepting them, Sieg took in the situation, indicated to Edgan where to carry them, and handed them to him. After that, Edgan shouldered the containers with a “Hup, ho!” and took them where they needed to go.

Grandel, who couldn’t carry anything heavier than an umbrella, was in charge of holding the door, and Mariela, possessed of even less fighting power, was responsible for cheering on Sieg at his side, one of the safest places to be.

Sieg used his bow to repel the inky memory stealers that seemed to ooze in from time to time. The haphazard way he pierced multiple monsters with single shots to look cool to Mariela, who was next to him, may have been overdoing it just a little.

“Phew, pant. Heeey, Sieg, wanna switch for a bit?”

The difference in the amount of exercise the two were getting—Sieg shooting a bow and Edgan running around the vast courtyard carrying barrels while avoiding black monsters—was excessive.

“You don’t have any ranged attacks, right? Here, take this to the other side.”

“You can do it, Edgan!”

“Leave it to me, Mariela!”

“I’d expect no less from you!” Sieg praised as he handed a barrel to his friend. Just what aspect of Edgan did he expect no less of? Was Sieg merely praising Edgan because he was useful in this moment? Edgan only realized as much after Yuric and the others had finished loading casks on the north side and returned after emptying the remaining contents to connect the spots where the barrels had been placed.

“Mr. Grandel, here, this is a cure potion that removes petrification. One for curse removal, too, just in case. After that, please use a high-grade cure potion on her.”

“You have my gratitude. Saving the serpent who did as much for us seems only fair.”

Mariela gave Grandel a potion to remove the lamia’s petrification.

The snake monster had grown next to Grandel in this courtyard and had even fought alongside him. Her reason for coiling around and holding back the ebon raiders may have only been destiny or some manner of instinct, but Mariela and Grandel believed the lamia had also sought to help Grandel. She’d spent several days with him, after all.

The shadowy warriors had begun to struggle after noticing the presence of Mariela and the other humans. Many cracks were appearing in the petrified lamia’s body, and they occasionally spread with creaking sounds and minute vibrations.

“You did very well.”

As everyone stood ready to battle the ebon raiders after completing their preparations, Grandel expressed his gratitude to the lamia while sprinkling the high-grade cure potion over her. Immediately, blood began to circulate through the lamia’s skin and change its color from cold stone to that of living flesh. The chips and fissures that had developed during the creature’s time as a statue changed to lacerations, which then started bleeding as the petrification dissolved.

When Grandel applied a high-grade cure potion to heal those wounds, her skin became smooth on the spot, and the lamia took a breath—“Shaa…”—as light returned to her eyes and she gazed at Grandel.

So we didn’t need a curse-removal potion after all…

The lamia’s petrification was gone. The bound ebon raiders were probably rushing out even now. Amid such a tense situation, Mariela realized that a curse-removal potion hadn’t been necessary.

There were two types of petrification: one where someone’s condition was merely altered, and another where a curse turned them to stone. In the case of the former, it only took a high-grade cure potion to heal. However, lifting petrification inflicted by a curse required either a curse-removal potion or a similar ceremony.

Back when a basilisk had cursed Leonhardt, he’d nearly died because neither was available to him. Fortunately, Mariela’s potion had saved him. In the Labyrinth City, which was the monsters’ territory at the time, performing a ritual to excise the affliction wasn’t possible, because such ceremonies required the spirits’ power.

Except for one instance where Freyja burned and purified Robert’s curse, rendering him unable to move, in a back alley of the Labyrinth City. Mariela already had the answer as to why her master had been able to do that.

I feel like the spirit of this place wouldn’t just leave someone petrified.

That lake spirit didn’t seem like they would ignore the maladies of others. Above all, it felt very unlikely that the monsters here would use curses at all.

When Mariela and the others had found their way to the marshland in the Fell Forest that connected to this world, the powerful-looking monster on the opposite shore had disappeared into the forest without attacking Mariela or the others. The creatures here would probably never contaminate that marsh, this world of water, or the lake spirit.

You could say the proof of such was the lamia silencing herself as soon as she noticed the spirit power dwelling within Sieg’s nocked arrow. She uncoiled herself from around the ebon raiders and glided as she retreated to a spot somewhat close to Grandel but more than far enough away from the shadowy warriors.

In a flash, Sieg fired a spirit arrow, and roars echoed throughout the courtyard.

Were the ebon raiders pleased with having found an enemy to fight, or were they screaming in pain and anger from the spirit arrow boring large holes into their torsos?

Either way, the shadowy things spread out like they were crumbling, and then they sprouted thornlike legs and spears and changed into the shapes of infantry or cavalry as they swayed and shook.

It’s just like that nightmare…

The animals and spirits who’d witnessed that war may have considered that ancient conflict no different than this. There was no doubt the people who survived that battle had nightmares like this for the rest of their lives.

Perhaps the ebon raiders had been storing power while the lamia had held them, because they somehow swelled to the size of an army corps in an instant as they absorbed the inky memory stealers that cropped up here and there.

Even the spirit arrow Sieg fired hardly did any damage to them, perhaps because they were water entities, the predominant element in this place. All the wounds the projectile inflicted were engulfed, and no trace of them remained.

The human shapes that arose from the shadowy things were like a stampede overrunning a city, the speed of their proliferation was like some unknown monster, and the way they spread so much they couldn’t be escaped from was like a surging curse.

To make matters worse, viscous memory thieves closed in on Mariela and the others from the collapsed north side of the ramparts like an avalanche.

How could they stop something like this? Was there any way to turn such an overwhelming tide and purify the raiders?

“Now! Launch the fire!”

“Yup!”

At Sieg’s signal, Edgan charged his dual swords with flame, and Sieg nocked a burning arrow. Yuric, Franz, Donnino, Grandel, and even Mariela hurled fire magic of various sizes at the trails of liquid they had drawn to connect the barrels and bottles they’d placed.

Mariela was the only one to use lifestyle magic to make a flame. Even throwing a lit stick would have been more efficient, but let’s not dwell on that. She was giving it her best effort and didn’t notice her own uselessness, and the other members weren’t depending on the likes of Mariela’s fire magic in the first place. Her participation mattered more than her tangible contribution.

The scattered paths of liquid ignited at the touch of flame, and the blaze spread toward the barrels.

Whale oil.

It had been extracted from the Gladere. Oil collected from whales was the most suitable kind for lamps. Before magical tool technology, lanterns lit without a supply of magical power were the norm, and whale oil, which could be acquired in large quantities compared with other fuel, was distributed far and wide in urban areas with large populations.

The ebon raiders flinched for an instant at the bright light that flared up like a torch, but they wavered in a crooked way, as though they were grinning, and immediately trampled the blaze as they began advancing on Mariela’s group.

It was as if they were saying torches and lights that illuminated cities were nothing compared to the fierceness of the conflagration that would reduce such structures to nothing. The shadowy warriors stepped into the fire that dyed the surroundings red with no hesitation. And despite changing their course to get around the flames, the inky monsters didn’t stop, either.

If it were mere whale oil, the blaze undoubtedly would have been snuffed.

However, this wasn’t mere whale oil. Mariela and the others didn’t spend the whole night whaling and refining for such a humdrum substance. The Gladere’s oil was a special, rare type that burned for a long time at smaller quantities than the oil of normal whales. What’s more, it stayed ignited for an even longer time at a low temperature if lit with a small amount of magical power, and for a short time at an extremely high temperature if set aflame with a large amount.

And when it came to fire…

Mariela forcefully seized the salamander, who had been, up until that moment, wrapped around her shoulders just like a scarf, and threw it at the barrels that had burst into flames.

“Raaawr?!”

The spirit must not have expected this turn of events, as both its eyes and its mouth opened wide as if to say, “Huh? Wait, here?!”

Facing the now airborne lizard, Mariela shouted with all her might, imbuing the cry with all her magical power. Any less wouldn’t have reached Mariela’s master, who was up ahead, through the Nexus that connected Mariela to the ley line.

“Come forth! Spirit of flames, Freyja!!!”

In that instant, a flame pillar enormous enough to blow away both the ebon raiders and the inky memory stealers erupted from the courtyard.

Addled from the loss of all her magical power, Mariela, who had escaped the flames as though a barrier protected her, saw the figure of her master, Freyja, standing within the blaze and heard her voice.

03

“Fire!”

“Master, stop saying that as your first line.”

In an instant, Freyja had burned both the shadowy soldiers and the viscous monsters to nothing with incredible firepower. Unfortunately, her entry line was so stupid that it could have reduced the minds of Mariela and the others to cinders.

“Maaan, that was amaaazing! I should have known the firepower from that Gladere’s high-class oil would be something else! And your reserves of magical power, Mariela. Aw man, suuuch strength! I never would’ve thought of that.”

“Aah geez, Master. Morning’ll be here soon, and the water, too, so we’re going to the temple right now!”

Freyja’s barrier protected Mariela and the others, so they didn’t feel the heat, but everything beyond was like a scene from hell.

What the heck is with this shield? A long time ago, my master said flames felt warm even without touching them directly because heat is transmitted by “conduction” and “radiation.” This barrier is transparent, but I wonder if it cuts off things like radiation, too. Come to think of it, Transmutation Vessels don’t make my hands get hot or cold even if I increase or decrease their temperatures. Could this be a type of Transmutation Vessel, too? No, that can’t be…

Outside, Mariela and the others could hear cries that sounded something like “guuuh…” or “gaaah…,” and the ebon raiders twisted their bodies as they burned in the blaze, but Mariela’s thoughts had completely wandered off.

I wonder why my master is wearing clothes…

Mariela had been convinced the salamander was her master, but the possibility of Freyja appearing stark naked hadn’t even occurred to her until the small lizard had instantaneously turned into a manifestation of her master clad in fluttering clothes.

The fact that Mariela had violently thrown Freyja proved that pupils truly were a product of their teachers.

Of course, even if she had appeared stark naked, this is Freyja we’re talking about, so she probably would have given the same grandiose speech, and Mariela would have hastily made her put on clothes.

As Mariela was imagining Sieg pretending to hide his face as he peeked between his fingers with his Spirit Eye and Erotigan staring without even trying to disguise it, her master interrupted her lengthy train of thought.

“Mariela, when did you notice? I thought for sure I’d fool you if I took the form of your spirit friend.”

“I thought something was off ever since the salamander showed up without me calling it. When we first got here, it showed up seemingly all on its own. It also remained incarnated for way too long, no matter how I tried to justify it. But the point when I knew for sure was…that dream.”

“Oopsiiie. You tried to summon it, huh? This place is the domain of the lake spirit, so ordinary fire spirits won’t come here. You have to call them with an offering, or conjure a special one like me, the great Freyja. By the way, the real salamander went home, so there’s no need to worry. Aah, I should’ve disappeared once or twice to really sell it. I mean, you were hardly surprised at all, huh?”

“It’s because you’re you. This isn’t nearly as shocking as when I found out you couldn’t make potions any better than mid-grade despite being my master.”

Freyja talked Mariela’s head off as if she was happy to use her mouth again after finally returning to human form, and Mariela pulled her along as she rushed for the water temple in the center of the courtyard.

“Ah, wait, wait. Those things’ll come back if you don’t properly burn them. We gotta torch them good before that one regains sanity and the place fills with water. Come, many many flames, come, many many flames… Oh right, they’re already here. Hup. Summon Fire Blast! Fire!”

“What’s with that half-baked chant…?”

With Mariela still perplexed, Freyja once again struck the shadowy soldiers with maximum hellfire, and the ebon figures that had been squirming in the large blaze were wholly burned away and turned into dust.

During the famine and the plague, Master burned every last one of the black monsters. Maybe the tower rooms with lit torches were safe because…

Mariela thought back on all the salamander’s unnatural behavior ever since arriving in this strange place. Meanwhile, the ebon raiders, which had previously seemed an unstoppable force, were swallowed up in flame and reduced to ash.

“Hey, we gotta go right now; the water’s coming.”

Despite Mariela urging her to hurry up before, it was now Freyja, finished with her work, who turned to Sieg and the others and beckoned them to shake a leg.

The other members, including Sieg, hadn’t anticipated this turn of events at all. They’d witnessed Freyja’s appearance with mouths agape. At the fiery woman’s instructions, however, they all regained their senses.

“Huh? Whaaa—?! Freyja?! Uh, but she was that salamander until just now…”

“Calm down, Edgan. This is normal.”

“Huh? A lizard…in clothes… The thing that…licked…my cheek…”

“Don’t think too hard about it. Let’s go.”

They needed to get going, but Edgan had been overwhelmed by confusion. Actually, you could say he was possessed of a very clear head at that moment. Despite the approaching danger, he managed to think about a lizard wearing clothes.

“So my master was originally a fire spirit. Even now, she somewhat resembles one, I guess,” Mariela explained to the flummoxed Edgan. The man had been totally thrown for a loop. Freyja had been a lizard, totally not Edgan’s type at all. But then she’d transformed into a beautiful woman, the perfect fit for him.

“Ummm, errr, uhhh. Ah, Edgan. That’s right.” As was quickly becoming tradition, Freyja seemed to have forgotten poor Edgan. Her golden eyes glittered as she searched the Akashic records for it, then she replied as if she’d recalled the man’s name herself.

Sieg looked at Freyja first with his Spirit Eye, then covered it and used his normal one, over and over. Although he possessed the Spirit Eye, even he hadn’t suspected Freyja’s true nature. However, his time living with her had helped him develop a considerable tolerance to Freyja’s antics. This left him with enough composure to lead Edgan as he followed after Mariela and the others.

As for Yuric and the rest, they didn’t seem to understand the situation at all. Donnino removed his spectacles, wiped them off, and looked at Freyja again. Grandel was content with not understanding, and he simply turned toward the lamia and said good-bye to her. She responded with a menacing “Shaaa.”

“Hoh-hoh, that’s quite frigid of you. So are you the hot and cold type, then?” Grandel asked with a chuckle, although the lamia had never once shown a “hot” side. Well, perhaps she was doing so now, since she remained close to Grandel and neither attacked nor fled.

“Ra-rar! Rar!”

“H-hey, Koo, no jumping!”

Perhaps Koo the raptor thought he could also turn into a human, because he started jumping around on the spot, jostling the cart hitched to him. Yuric and Franz, who almost tumbled off, had to restrain him.

“Look ou—”

Sieg’s excessively large rucksack, which had been placed in the raptor’s wagon, also went flying, and Sieg caught it in a fluster right before it hit the ground.

Despite the red-hot hellfire still blazing outside the barrier, everyone was involved in their own personal chaos.

“Now then, it’s time to give the solution to this riddle.”

The one who put an end to the discord with a brief comment was the woman who’d started it in the first place, Freyja.

“Now, where should I start…? Heh-heh, you don’t need to make that face. I won’t dodge questions.”

Freyja laughed at the rather exasperated Mariela, who stared wide-eyed at her master like she wouldn’t look away even for a moment.

“Mariela, your eyes will dry out if you keep them open like that…,” Sieg remarked. Mariela was staring at her master so much it caused him to worry.

In protest, Mariela muttered, “But…,” as she looked down just a little.

Her master said, “Hey,” and offered Mariela her hand with an expression like she was soothing an upset child. Mariela took Freyja’s hand and at last blinked several times.

Freyja always came running when Mariela needed help, but she never spoke about herself. Not only that—she’d abruptly left for parts unknown. If Mariela took her eyes off Freyja again, she felt like the woman might really disappear for good this time. That was why Mariela stared as hard as she did. After Freyja’s favorite pupil had followed her all the way here, however, she seemed inclined to explain things at last. Freyja tugged on Mariela’s hand as she led the whole group straight toward the temple in the center of the courtyard.

04

“A long time ago, before humans created what you call countries, this place wasn’t the Fell Forest, but a regular, plentiful wood.”

The temple door, so gigantic you had to look up to see its peak, opened without a sound just from Freyja holding her hand out.

A sixteen-foot-wide hallway extended left and right past the entrance, and just beyond the doorway was a garden decorated with streams and flowering plants. Mariela surveyed the area and saw blue sky peeking out from overhead. When she wondered if they were outside and gave it another look, she noticed the faint outline of a domed ceiling at a height that was several stories tall. The azure above seemed to be a painting on the top of the atrium.

This temple had a symmetrical structure, and there were exits at both ends of the hallway the group now stood in. A splendid door was also visible on the opposite side of the garden, likely the heart of the temple.

The corridor’s ceiling was about as high as that of a chamber or assembly hall, but as far as Mariela could tell from looking at the atrium’s garden, there seemed to be an upper floor. All the many pillars supporting the high roof had been cut from huge rocks that sported natural bands of lateral color. This gradation resembled geological strata, and to Mariela, it seemed like the memory of the earth that stretched far below the Fell Forest.

A roughly waist-high wall separated the hallway everyone was in from the indoor garden, and it looked like they could reach the door to the heart of the temple in the shortest amount of time by climbing over the barricade and crossing the garden. However, Mariela hesitated even to stretch her arm toward the picturesque landscape, let alone set foot inside it.

What a truly peaceful place.

This world of water in itself wasn’t noisy, but even so, one undoubtedly felt the presence of monsters. Although this garden was a beautiful place where copious flowers bloomed, not a single leaf nor petal stirred, and Mariela could sense neither the chirping of birds nor the beating wings of butterflies.

This place lacked the smell of earth, the scent of greenery, and the sound of running water, so it seemed like an elaborate model or a pop-up picture book.

“This way,” Freyja called to Mariela and the others, who beheld the incredible vista, and she began walking briskly down the corridor.

“Way back when, the marshland you guys found was a clear, beautiful lake. Its sublime elegance far surpassed this garden. When you saw it from far away, the water’s surface reflected the surrounding woods like a mirror, and up close, it was so glassy you could see to the bottom. The sight of light shining on that lake was so divine that any flame would cower at its radiance.”

Sieg, Yuric, and the others looked incredulous, unable to imagine the fantastical sight that Freyja described from the gloomy marshland they’d visited earlier, but Mariela had seen it within her master’s dreams.

“A lake spirit who ruled over this ley line, the one of the Fell Forest, resided there. This was a very long time before the ley line of the Labyrinth City and its surroundings was ruled by Endalsia. You probably know that the Fell Forest and the land around the Labyrinth City share the same ley line. Yet doesn’t it strike you as odd that you can understand the language of the spirits in the Labyrinth City but not in the Fell Forest?”

Freyja’s scarf fluttered as she strolled along, and the decorations on it rustled quietly. The accessory’s golden color added a new hue to the bright garden they saw from the dim hallway and breathed life into the still world for just an instant.

Without stopping or waiting for an answer, Freyja continued.

“That’s because even with the same ley line, the warden can differ from place to place. It’s a common thing. Managing a vast range is tough for spirits—they’re noncommittal beings to begin with. Back then, the lake spirit here had already gone completely to the monsters’ side, and the humans’ patron, Endalsia, took over managing things.”

The information in Freyja’s speech was so significant it would have put a complete end to the long-standing dispute between scholars in the imperial capital if they heard it. However, it was less impactful for those present, and they followed after Freyja one by one while surveying their surroundings with curiosity, as though they were on a sightseeing tour.

“Now that you mention it, when I was little, I thought it was strange that I could make potions in both the Fell Forest and the Kingdom of Endalsia even though the forest was the monsters’ domain and the kingdom was the humans’…” Mariela, an alchemist, managed to follow Freyja’s exposition.

“Ahh, Mariela, I think you did say something like that once. But you trusted me when I said it was because we were near the Kingdom of Endalsia. Thank goodness you were such an accepting child!”

Mariela had slightly mixed feelings in response to her laughing master, and she wasn’t sure if she was being praised or mocked for having been so simpleminded. Wanting to get back to the original topic, she urged Freyja to continue. “And then?”

“This is a closed lake, so it isn’t connected to any rivers. Well, it’s more accurate to say the pool rests above a spot where underground water wells up. The river near the sandpit goes underground, right? This place is far downstream of that. That water vein bumps into a rock, causing part of it to gather in one spot. That sand filters the water, leaving it very clear. The underground stream is abundant. Spirits live in it, too. That’s why this lake, which receives blessings from the forest, has never dried up. But since humans long ago didn’t know how water veins flowed, people in those days saw this as a very mystical place that would purify anything.”

Mariela recalled her first dream. In that vision, the people, still inexperienced, had relied on the small fire spirit to reach the lake so they could purify the famine.

“That’s why they came here to exorcise the corruption, right?”

Freyja nodded at Mariela’s question.

“Every time there was starvation, disease, or any other calamity, the humans passed through the forest to get to this lake and purify the corruption. It was thus that they survived.”

After Freyja placed her hands on the door at the end of the hallway, she glanced back at the garden. Mariela also looked behind her and realized the beautiful landscape had transformed.

It wasn’t a case of the seasons changing. Because the place that had been a beautiful garden had transformed into a deep, gloomy, yet magnificent forest reminiscent of Freyja’s story just now.

“Now, in here.”

Beyond the door Freyja ushered everyone through was a huge library packed with books that reached the ceiling on the left and right walls. Overflowing shelves of incongruous sizes were lined up even in the center of the spacious hallway, and heaps of tomes and discarded volumes were also stacked on the floor.

“This is magnificent!”

Grandel, who had some appreciation for literature, opened his eyes wide at the incredible collection as he tugged at his mustache. Meanwhile, Edgan, who would fall asleep in three seconds if he opened a book that wasn’t erotic, gave a big yawn at the smell of paper and ink blanketing the place, despite the fact that he wasn’t reading anything.

Sieg surveyed at the interior of the room and then turned toward Mariela with a slightly dubious expression. Perhaps the girl had realized something, because she returned his glance with a slight nod.

“None of the humans in the imperial capital remember this lake anymore, but frequent visits to this place to purify corruption eventually formed a kind of path—the road the desecration streamed through. That’s why the corruption generated in the vicinity of the imperial capital now flows here of its own accord even without anyone doing anything.”

Freyja continued to talk as they passed through many rooms. They went through doors; they climbed up and down stairs. Every chamber was a library crammed with a massive quantity of books, and although Mariela was aware there were a lot, the letters were blurry or appeared to be volumes she was unfamiliar with no matter which one she examined. Try though she did, Mariela couldn’t tell what kind of books they were.

“This lake was for sure more beautiful than any other, but it wasn’t a miraculous place that could heal and purify. Yet corruption streamed in and accumulated more and more, and the pool became a mass of desecration. This forest, the creatures within it, and this land that harbored the lake all bore the corruption and became the Fell Forest.”

“Then what of the lake spirit?!”

It was Franz who broke the astonished silence with his impatient question. He’d been feeling restless ever since he’d entered the temple.

“The spirit is fine. It wasn’t a problem at all—neither to the spirit nor to the monsters. Whether there was corruption or not. You understand that, don’t you?”

If it rains, the earth will be wet, and if it dries up, life will come to an end. Spirits simply accepted things as they were.

If there was corruption, they would simply take it in and slowly send it back to the ley line.

If the desecration became too much, monsters would be generated in large numbers and attack human settlements, but this wasn’t so different from a plague or a famine.

“Even if they were engulfed by corrupted thoughts and lost their sanity, both the monsters and the spirits of the forest simply accepted it, just like an elderly person accepts their own death. From the perspective of the lake spirit, there was no problem.”

Freyja halted and slowly turned to look back at Franz.

“Franz, your worries and resentment come from the human sense of values. Do you get what I’m saying? Spirits are like that by nature.”

At the question, Franz bit his lip. Even if he understood in his head, he couldn’t accept it. Freyja continued as though she sympathized with those feelings.

“But, you know, there was someone who hated that. ‘I want to return you to when you were pure, clean, and corruption-free. I want you to be your true self and to exist with you.’ There was someone who wished for such things.”

Freyja spread both her hands.

She shone red as though illuminated by flames, and the others realized their surroundings had grown so dim, they couldn’t see. Some of the nearby books remained faintly visible, but it was impossible to tell how large a place they were in now. Everyone had a feeling like they were in an endlessly vast chamber, even though they should have known otherwise.

“Now, Mariela, my pupil who reached this deep place in the Fell Forest. This is as far as I can guide you. This is the heart, the real situation. The truth is here, but to those who don’t even understand what they don’t know, it’s like looking at a book in the darkness. They won’t glean anything.”

Freyja’s hair began to billow, despite the lack of wind. It was reminiscent of burning fire.

“Now, tell me the answer. Where is this place? What is this world? Take everything you’ve learned and present the key to the exit.”

Their surroundings were already pitch-dark, and Mariela couldn’t see anyone, not even Sieg. All that remained was Freyja. The woman’s eyes seemed to blaze in the darkness. Coupled with her slender pupils, they gave Freyja the countenance of an unfamiliar entity.

“It’s pointless to try and scare me.” Mariela, however, responded to her master as she usually did. “This place isn’t our territory or anything. It’s Akashic records, right?”

As though to show that Mariela’s answer was correct, the lamps in the black room lit up one after another, and the rest of the group, as well as the surrounding chamber, became visible again.

“Mariela?! This place?”

The first one to react to Mariela’s response was Sieg, who had been dubiously surveying their surroundings since the moment he’d entered. To his Spirit Eye, the strange library had looked like far more than a mere collection of books.

“Probably, Sieg. I don’t know how, and I can’t be sure what sort of condition the lake spirit is in now, but if we’re in the Akashic records, then the memories of the true heart of the spirit should be here. The recollections of the lake spirit, Lyro Paja, who rules over the Fell Forest’s ley line.”

The instant Mariela spoke that name, a gust of wind blew through the room.

She’d presented the key, and the door opened.

05

Book pages were ruffled and flipped, and many were torn out altogether.

It was like a sudden breeze had blown through trees and carried their leaves away.

Mariela and the others reflexively closed their eyes at the unexpected strong gale, and when they opened them again, they found themselves not in a library as they had been before, but a dense forest.

They were all familiar with the twisted trunks that writhed in pain and the gloomy leaves of the timber in the Fell Forest, but the trees here stretched straight up, seeking light, and those who beheld this place’s verdant colors felt as though their hearts were being cleansed. Surely the Fell Forest had looked as marvelous as this before the corruption had altered it.

Stretching out before Mariela and the rest of the group was a placid, mystical lake.

Not a single ripple could be seen on the water’s surface, as though the sudden breeze just now had been a lie. It reflected the surrounding greenery and made it seem like the forest continued below their feet.

The scene was far more normal and natural than the world of water or the Fell Forest, but it curiously felt more wondrous to Mariela and the others.

“There’s no doubting it. This is the place I sought…”

“Franz!”

Yuric clung to Franz’s arm as he began walking feebly toward the lake. Yuric’s touch returned Franz to his senses, and he muttered, “Sorry, Yuric. I’m okay.” However, he couldn’t take his eyes from the lake. In particular, he was transfixed by the figure standing at its center.

“Lyro Paja. Long time no see,” Freyja said to the figure standing still on the water’s surface. It was the lake spirit, Lyro Paja. Freyja sounded both joyful and sad.

Freyja had her back to Mariela and the others, and only Lyro Paja could see her expression. Still, the sight of Freyja stretching out her arms on the bank of the lake tied Mariela’s heart in knots.

—O flame, is it true you used the time that seemed so long to you for my sake?—

The spirit’s voice was calm.

Like a waterfall threading its way down through rocks, their hair flowed and spread down toward the lake’s surface and became one with the water, further enhancing their neutral features, which looked neither male nor female.

Perhaps because of the corruption, the being’s hair was dyed a deep color like black or navy blue. It resembled a stream at night rather than the transparent hue Mariela had seen in her first dream. Mariela felt the hair made Lyro Paja seem somewhat like a living creature with body heat rather than like an uninteresting object resembling clear water.

Lyro Paja’s eyes, which evoked a deep abyss Mariela felt like she was about to fall into, shifted from Freyja to Mariela, then Sieg, Franz, Edgan, and the others in turn.

—Did you purify my corruption along with these children of humanity? You’ve always been fond of people.—

“Yeah. My pupil and her buddies. You feel it, right? They’re all very good boys and girls.”

It was Freyja and Lyro Paja’s first meeting in many years. The pair were in their own little world on the lakeshore.

It was a scene resembling fine glasswork that seemed like it could be broken simply by approaching it.

Unsurprisingly, the tone-deaf Edgan butted in even though the tension was so thick, you could cut it with a knife.

“Umm, is that gorgeous person there Freyja’s girlfriend or something?”

For Erotigan, the most important pieces of information seemed to be Lyro Paja’s gender and relationship with Freyja.

“Learn to read the room, Edgan.”

“Ya really are the worst.”

“Sometimes, in life, you must learn not to get involved.”

As Sieg intervened in a fluster, Yuric shot Edgan an icy gaze, and Grandel delivered the coup de grâce. Freyja turned in Edgan’s direction.

“By nature, spirits have no gender.”

Her broad grin exemplified the master Mariela knew so well, and for some reason, this came as a relief to the young alchemist. Evidently, even Edgan’s monkey attributes had their uses.

“It’s not my intention to interrupt your reunion, but I would like an explanation, if possible. Even if you say this place is the Akashic records, that’s not something those unfamiliar with the subject matter can follow.”

Taking it as a blessing that the mood had changed, Franz continued the conversation. Every word was filled with respect for the lake spirit, Lyro Paja. Yuric looked up at Franz anxiously as she held his hand.

“That’s easier said than done. Mm, Mariela, you explain it.”

It was possible that Freyja wasn’t aware of what Franz and the others didn’t know. To her, both this place and the world where people lived were equally normal, and apparently, she couldn’t guess the misgivings Franz and the others who had gotten mixed up with this place had.

Mariela, whom Freyja had delegated the response to, placed her forefinger on her chin and went “mmm” as she considered briefly before beginning her explanation on the Akashic records.

“Umm, the Akashic records is like a place where every piece of the world’s information is recorded? It’s said appraisal skills access this place.”

“Information? Then are our bodies here not real?”

Franz let fly a pointed question at Mariela’s incoherent detailing, and just as Mariela floundered to reply, Freyja cut in.

“This place isn’t the Akashic records themselves, but rather a space with all kinds of information related to Lyro Paja over there that I anchored to the present world with my superior magic. You can think of it as one of the spaces between the material world and the spirit one. Your bodies are the real deal, and although its speed is different, time does flow here. I’m sleeping under the Magic Circle of Suspended Animation, so my body doesn’t age. It’s just my soul that’s here.”

Freyja’s supplementary explanation was one that would help you understand further, until you thought about it carefully and then didn’t comprehend at all. However, when she said, “Look, worlds are continuous even if they seem to be separate,” those who had cocked their heads in befuddlement now nodded in understanding.

“Then what about the towers we woke up in? Things I was familiar with were scattered all about that place. It’s not a big deal, but I can’t say givin’ forms to people’s memories is the best hobby,” Donnino remarked, offering his honest opinion.

When he joined up with Mariela and the others, Donnino had declined to have his memories peeped at, but he may have realized something when he investigated the tower he woke up in.

“Donnino, you’re rather shy despite your appearance. Heh-heh, no need to glare at me like that. I wasn’t expecting visitors, so the most reliable way to enable you all to be here was to send you to the memory towers. The Akashic records contain all information, but y’know, that doesn’t mean beings like humans can comprehend it all. If dozens of people were speaking in foreign languages all at once, you wouldn’t be able to understand them, right? It would sound no different than simple noise. If you get used to noise, it doesn’t bother you. If your name is called, you can hear it even in the middle of such a cacophony. I connected you guys with things you’re familiar with so you could remain here.”

The towers, which equaled the number of humans present, functioned as anchors to this realm for Mariela and the others.

“Guuulp, gulp.”

Koo, incapable of understanding speech, was doing as he pleased, drinking water from the lake. Seeing this, Freyja laughed and admitted, “Your memories weren’t enough to make a tower from, so you gave me the most trouble.”

“Do the black monsters steal memories because they’re influenced by the nature of the Akashic records storing information…?” Sieg asked knowingly.

“The memories from the ones I defeated were released on the spot, and you’ll get the memories you recovered back through dreams. I’ve got the ones that haven’t returned to you yet, too, so don’t worry,” Freyja replied.

Was the reason they couldn’t recover any memory stones when the salamander defeated black monsters because the recollections were immediately set free? And did Mariela see everyone’s memories in her dreams only because her master in salamander form was with her? When they had no memory stones, she’d had visions of her master’s past. Mariela had thought this to be because she was connected to the ley line, and thus her master, through her Nexus. After realizing how it worked, Mariela had seized the salamander and slept with it in her arms.

“Ya can just leave Edgan’s memories the way they are.”

“Hey, Yuric, losing my dazzling memories of love would be a loss for mankind!”

“Are you fine with Lady Frey seeing those memories, too?”

“Ha! Sieg, you’re smart! …Whoa, I just can’t decide.”

To Mariela, who’d glimpsed Edgan’s tragic past, Yuric’s icy words weren’t as funny as they usually were. Edgan had remained unflapped and had whispered to Sieg, however, so perhaps Edgan’s history held more than sad memories. Maybe it contained many inconsequential Edgan-esque ones, too.

At the conversation between Edgan and the others, Freyja and Lyro Paja looked at each other and smiled. They seemed to be enjoying Edgan Theater.

“Then, maybe, were the alchemist workshops on the first and second floors Libraries?”

Freyja nodded in response to Mariela’s question.

“The Libraries are also part of the Akashic records. The world is overflowing with all kinds of knowledge, and you can get your hands on whatever you want to know to a certain extent, but there’s no way to learn everything. If you’re not aware there’s a continent on the other side of the ocean, you’d never expect there’s another kind of people who live there, or that they possess a different language and culture, right? What is way, way high up in the sky, and what kind of creatures live in the deep chasms of the sea? Human knowledge comprises only a tiny bit of the world, and they aren’t even aware of how little it is. Libraries contain information restricted to matters of alchemy from that greater sea of knowledge, and they can be accessed through alchemy skills.”

Mariela nodded in understanding at her master’s explanation.

“In other words, the first and second floors of the outer wall were strongly influenced by the Libraries and old memories of the Fell Forest, while our memories strongly influenced the towers. And that’s why there were memories of famine and plague on the first and second floors…? Master, after you defeated the calamity monsters, you diligently burned them. And morning coming and the world filling with water after we defeated lots of those inky monsters was because the corruption decreased and Lyro Paja was returning to their true self, right?”

Freyja’s mouth gaped at Mariela’s deduction.

“…Look at how smart you’ve gotten, Mariela!!!”

Freyja’s rude remark came out of her like she was squeezing it out. Even worse, everyone, even Sieg, nodded in agreement.

“You’re so rude,” Mariela replied, but the edges of her mouth turned up in the shape of a smile, revealing that she was quite pleased. “Hee-hee. I knew you didn’t live all that time just to defeat the Labyrinth and help the Labyrinth City, Master. I don’t know if you just happened to help the City because you had the chance or if it was a part of your plan, though. You know, for a long while, I was bothered by what you said when you left. You told me we’d meet again during my lifetime. Oh yeah, the alchemists in the Library. So that’s why…?”

Mariela’s words made her master awkwardly avert her gaze.

“It’s fine. What you really planned was to come right before I died, right? If so, I don’t have a problem with that. But, you know, you’re so distant. I wanted to talk to you, and I wanted you to tell me about many more things. I don’t want to hear you say we’ll only see each other one more time. Don’t you want to spend a bunch of time with me?”

“Yeah. I’m sorry, Mariela.”

Mariela saw that Sieg and the others were confused, and she laughed.

“See, in the deepest part of the Labyrinth, you gave me all your alchemy experience, right, Master? Likewise, all your former pupils gave you theirs before they died. And I will, too.”

“How did you…?”

There was only one answer.

“It was all to save the lake spirit, right, Master?” Mariela inquired. She wore a smile that suggested she didn’t harbor the slightest bit of blame toward Freyja, who would someday take away her alchemy experience. Rather, Mariela seemed to accept the world as it was, like spirits did.

06

Once, the fire spirit who possessed a human heart had desperately sought a way to free the lake spirit.

However, beings who simply existed in the world and had no physical body didn’t have the power to intervene in the world themselves and couldn’t cause change. Even if that fire spirit stirred up an inferno and incinerated everything, she couldn’t purify the lake spirit steeped in corruption, nor staunch the flow of desecration that still streamed into the being.

That’s why she incarnated by feeding on the many humans who had been destroyed in her own blaze, and thus she gained a finite life in this world as a being who wasn’t a spirit.

After acquiring a corporeal form, Freyja could no longer exist with flames, but she was able to borrow the power of the spirits in exchange for offerings. Above all, she harbored her own will in her heart, acted of her own accord, and had the power to change the world. She wasn’t a vague, never-ending being that came into existence and disappeared like a spirit. Freyja had form, a beginning and an end, a life and a death. She had watched things for a long time as a spirit, and she took in stride even the deluge of information known as the Akashic records, something a human wouldn’t have been able to achieve at all. Piece by piece, Freyja was able to learn the process needed to make her wish come true.

It was incidental and splintered, like pieces of a poem engraved on leaves that sometimes lightly fluttered down before one’s eyes, but Freyja had followed the bread crumbs up to this point.

Perhaps because she had started her existence as a spirit, her body aged far slower than those of humans, but even Freyja’s life had a limit. That’s why she separated from her body with a Magic Circle of Suspended Animation when she didn’t need to be in the world of humans and worked hard to purify the corruption in this realm of the lake spirit.

Only when she understood her next step did she awaken and intervene with the physical world.

For example, taking in and raising Mariela as her pupil during the Kingdom of Endalsia’s final years and waking up once again in the present world to guide Mariela and the others to the deepest part of the Labyrinth were likely necessary steps in the process of saving Lyro Paja.

“The Elixir is the ultimate secret medicine that can be made by removing the corruption from the core of a labyrinth. And I thought if I achieved that, I would discover how to purify this ley line, too, but…”

Freyja smiled sadly. The information she was able to acquire from the Akashic records wasn’t complete, and it wasn’t as though she could predict everything. It was like reading a story about saving Lyro Paja. She could only turn the pages one by one and put into practice what was written on them. Freyja didn’t know the details of the tale, and she couldn’t even turn to the next chapter on her own.

“I’d rather my alchemy experience was put to use before I die, and even now, I want to help as much as I can, but…I’m sorry. I made the Elixir by sending home the corruption in the ley line’s core, but its destination was the ley line, so…” Mariela’s words were hesitant.

It had merely been a case of transferring the corruption, not purifying it.

“No, that was enough. Thanks to you and the others coming and completely burning away those black monsters, most of the accumulated corruption has been cleansed. Right now, I’m able to manifest because you summoned me, but y’know, normally I’m in my soul form, and my body is in suspended animation, so I can only use power gained from the ley line through my Nexus. The power of a physical body really is something. The best I could do while incorporeal was to keep the corruption from increasing. No way could I have eased Lyro’s burden this much like that. I was able to speak with Lyro again after a long time, too. Since the corruption gets in the way at night and the water gets in the way during the day, I was never able to get far on my own,” Freyja said.

—I would also like to extend my gratitude for this brief rendezvous, pupil of Freyja.—

Did Lyro Paja really bear no grudge against humans despite it being their fault that the spirit had been tainted with corruption and had even lost their sanity?

People hate people. Just as Lyro welcomed this concept that Mariela had seen in her dream, Lyro Paja accepted the human, Mariela, as Freyja’s pupil.

“But won’t new corruption keep flowing in?”

The spirit Freyja had fought so long to save resided in a mass of desecration. Thanks to Mariela’s group defeating the memory stealers, a considerable amount of corruption had been purified, but as long as the spirit existed with that lake, they would be polluted again, and this place would probably sink into the darkness of night many times again.

In this realm, connected to information about Lyro Paja recorded in the Akashic records, no matter how many times the lake spirit lost their true character, they could regain it as long as the desecration was exorcised.

Thus, Freyja had lived for a long, long time to someday acquire a way to purify all the corruption and its source and save Lyro Paja.

“It seems this era wasn’t the one where I’d find a way to free Lyro. Surely I’ll find it someday, though. I’m sure of it. Don’t make that face, Mariela. I’ve lived a long time, and that will continue. I might get to meet your children, grandchildren, or even their descendants. It’s a lot of fun to have connections with people and watch the world change.”

As long as Lyro Paja was a lake spirit bound to this ley line, they couldn’t be saved.

At the very least, a way to do so didn’t exist right now.

Burdened by this knowledge though she was, Freyja flashed her usual smile.

Although it was a grin Mariela was intimately familiar with, her heart ached, and she couldn’t bear to gaze at Freyja’s expression for long. She couldn’t count how many ways her master had helped her, yet Mariela now found herself incapable of giving Freyja something in return. Even though Mariela had made the Elixir and was the most extraordinary alchemist, it still wasn’t of any help. When Mariela thought about that, it quickly became too much to bear, and she hung her head and clenched her hands.

“…Now, it’s about time for you to go home. Could I ask that Peeping Tom spirit over there to guide you all on your way? Come out, Illuminaria. I’ll burn you, y’know? …What? You have no power to manifest? Sieg, share a bit of your magical power.”

Freyja’s gaze shifted to the baggage Sieg carried on his back.

Immediately, everyone else turned to look at the large jar Sieg took out of his rucksack.

“Wha, Slaken?! How did he get so huge? And what’s with that branch?!”

“Umm, Mariela. I missed my chance to explain before, but this is what happened…”

What occupied more than half of Sieg’s rucksack was a jar containing the slime, which had swelled to about a hundred times its original size. Although it used to be an adorable Slime-in-a-Vial that could fit within two palms, it was so big now it required a barrel or a bathtub.

It was the second coming of the giant slime. A soft-bodied creature of this size honestly didn’t seem cute at all.

And although the nucleus didn’t seem to be injured, a sacred tree branch with two leaves was stuck into the top of it and shook back and forth.

As Sieg sent magical power from his Spirit Eye into the branch, he began his explanation, which smacked very slightly of an excuse, to the astonished Mariela.

“Mariela, both Slaken and Illuminaria are familiar with your magical power, right? So if you put in a branch of Illuminaria’s like this…”

—It can move under my control!—

“Slaken spoke?! No, wait, that voice is…Illuminaria?!”

After receiving Mariela’s magical power, a thumb-sized Illuminaria stood at the tip of the branch lodged in Slaken.

“Illuminaria guided me here.”

—Because there are so many sacred trees in the Fell Forest! I figured out Mariela’s location through the network they form. Amazing, right?—

“Um, so. I thought you might get mad at me, but there was something I wanted to get from the bottom of a lake in the Labyrinth… I consulted with Illuminaria, and she got it for me like this, but when she returned, Slaken’s body was…”

—It was the first time it had been outside in forever, so it got excited. It went a liiittle wild and overate. Since it’s got kraken in it, this creature can do quite a lot underwater.—

Shake, shake, shake.

The sacred tree branch stuck in Slaken shook proudly.

—Hey, don’t shake. Stop it!—

Since Illuminaria was angry, it seemed to be Slaken who was shaking the twig. With Illuminaria’s branch stuck in Slaken, could it be possible for them to strive for a mutual understanding?

“What?!”

The devastatingly serious atmosphere had relaxed for just a moment.

Mariela’s voice, lower and unhappier than anyone had heard it before, echoed in the area.

The strength of the anger dwelling in that tone caused not only Sieg, but Illuminaria to seize up, and even Slaken stopped moving its branch.

“Sieg, Illuminaria, aren’t you being selfish? You took Slaken without telling anyone? And to the Labyrinth? It ate too much, and there were monsters there, right? You took it to such a dangerous place! Besides, Slaken has a Magic Circle of Subordination carved into its nucleus, so it’ll die if I don’t give it magical power! You know that, right?!”

Mariela was furious.

Sieg briefly glanced toward Mariela to offer an excuse, but when he saw her eyebrows curved upward in rage, he quickly shrank back.

For some reason, even Freyja, who was behind Mariela and shouldn’t have been able to see her expression, straightened up and temporarily paused the conversation she’d been having.

Was the mild-mannered Mariela always this frightening?

Sieg had been born with the Spirit Eye and thus had been treated like a pampered prince during his upbringing, so not even his father had ever been this cross with him.

He’d suffered greatly under his master during his time as a debt laborer, but that was a different perspective. In this moment, Mariela might’ve been more terrifying than the wyvern that had taken Sieg’s Spirit Eye.

“Are you gonna say something?!”

“Ah, I’m sorry!”

—I’m sorry!—

Shake, shake.

The two people(?) and one creature, no, one branch, all apologized in response to Mariela’s rebuke.

“You’re gonna get a major talking-to later… Slaken, have some magical power. You’re hungry, aren’t you? I’ll make sure these two go without dinner and Drops of Life-infused water for a little while. Ahhh, what should I do? You’ve gotten so big. I can’t keep you in Sunlight’s Canopy like this…”

Ignoring Sieg and Illuminaria, bowed at a right angle and frozen in apologetic postures at the words go without dinner, Mariela gave magical power to Slaken through the giant jar. Illuminaria and Sieg could siphon from the ley line or go out to eat, respectively, so they were capable of feeding themselves, but the meals they got from Mariela were that much more delicious.

Since Slaken madly shook the sacred tree branch lodged in him in joy, he probably was hungry after all. On a closer look, some Mariela memorabilia that Sieg had been carefully saving had accumulated undissolved at the bottom of the jar. Slaken had probably been receiving magical power from Mariela’s discarded items and potions. Still, it couldn’t have been all too much. Even though Slaken had eaten Sieg’s Mariela memorabilia, this was karma for his mistakes, so Mariela ignored both them and him.

—Mariela. The nucleus stayed small because it didn’t have enough magical power, so it should return to normal if you chop up the body.—

“‘Chop up’? Will it be okay if we do something like that, Illuminaria?”

—Yeah. If you give it enough magical power, it won’t die!—

Illuminaria, wanting to help Mariela and avoid the going without dinner punishment, hastily offered a solution.

“Really? Thank goodness.”

Mariela had been furious for a moment, but Slaken was safe, and apparently, it could be returned to what it once was.

After hearing that, Mariela felt a little relieved, and she finally noticed the gazes of those around her and remembered her surroundings.

“I’m sorry, Master. I completely got lost in my own thing…”

“Naaah, you really impressed me, Mariela! I should expect no less from my pupil!”

—The flame had told me the children of humanity were fascinating, but this was undoubtedly an enjoyable time.—

The comments from the pair of spirits who turned toward Mariela when she apologized were like words of parting, and Mariela suddenly became aware of her own powerlessness.

As long as Lyro Paja is a spirit bound to this ley line, they can’t be saved…

Illuminaria, who was relieved that Mariela’s anger had been diverted, remained on the edge of the alchemist’s peripheral vision. Although she was a sacred tree spirit who couldn’t move from the place she was planted, she could remotely control a human pet at will and travel away from the tree.

If I don’t give her a good scolding, she’s liable to go out of her own accord again. Even my master used to be a fire spirit and always strolled around as she pleased. Selfish, irresponsible, incarnation and possession; her existence itself is careless. I wonder if that’s what it is to be a spirit… Wait, huh?

Mariela looked at Slaken and Illuminaria, then Freyja and Lyro Paja.

“Lyro Paja, you live in this lake, but since you’re a lake spirit, that means you’re a water spirit, right?”

—Yes.—

At Lyro Paja’s response, Mariela asked the question she had hit upon.

“Lyro Paja, is it possible for you to stop being a spirit?”

Asking something similar to a human would be absurd, but Mariela’s master was person-like, and she was capable of something similar. Even Illuminaria, who was young by spirit standards, had come to a place like this despite being a sacred tree spirit. She’d used a branch as an intermediary to possess a slime.

What’s more, Sieg’s ancestor Endalsia, the queen of the forest spirits, had eventually become the warden of the ley line as a spirit, but she’d also produced a child with a human hunter. Surely, she had to have been something similar to a human during her time with her beloved.

“You know, spirits are pretty careless. I mean, their existence, the way they are.”

—A careless…existence…—

As one might’ve expected, Lyro Paja was speechless at Mariela’s frank words.

It was just by happenstance that the spirits around Mariela were oddballs. Not all of them were so eccentric after all.

“Well, you’re close with Master. I wonder why you couldn’t incarnate and move from this lake…?”

The corruption in the imperial capital streamed into this pool because a path for it had unknowingly been carved.

As long as Lyro Paja was a lake spirit bound to this ley line, they couldn’t be saved.

But if Lyro Paja could leave this lake…

“!!! So that’s how we do it!” Wondering why she hadn’t thought of Mariela’s solution herself, Freyja clapped her hands.

—I oversee this ley line, however…— Lyro Paja’s response was more respectable. Apparently, not all spirits were that careless.

“The Labyrinth City doesn’t currently have a warden, you know? And my master seems like she was an incredible spirit, but did she oversee the imperial capital’s ley line?”

“Nope. I was incredible, but managing a ley line is a bother, so I’ve never done it. The imperial capital seemed like it’d be just as annoying because it’s packed with humans, and I wouldn’t be able to stabilize it.”

Freyja’s answer was just about what Mariela predicted. She had a feeling there was some information mixed in that she shouldn’t hear, but she let that pass and thought, I knew it. My master would never do something that seemed so difficult.

“Hey, there seem to be a lot of places without a warden nowadays.”

—Mm, however…—

Lyro Paja had never considered giving up overseeing the ley line, and they didn’t seem to be following Mariela’s proposal.

“What would happen if you stopped being the ley line’s warden? Everyone in the forest has taken on their share of the corruption, right?”

—The corruption flowing into the lake would coil up and most likely no longer diffuse evenly. Many monsters would arise from the pool of desecration, and a stampede may occur.—

“A stampede happened two hundred years ago even though you were here, didn’t it?”

—Monsters will overflow if the corruption ever becomes too much, as well. Endalsia’s actions led to a series of events that caused the negativity to grow too great to hold back.—

“So you’re saying if there’s no warden, the corruption will accumulate and cause frequent stampedes of a much smaller scale?”

—Indeed.—

After listening to the conversation between Lyro Paja and Mariela, Sieg whispered to Edgan:

“If that’s the case, I think the imperial capital and the Labyrinth City could both cope fine… What do you think, Edgan?”

“Mm? Well, it might be fine, no? Ever since the Labyrinth City became the humans’ territory, Haage’s lamented that we can’t have the Orc Festival anymore. It might actually be a good thing…”

Lyro Paja showed concern toward the humans, but the subject of the spirit’s fear was nothing more than an omen of a new festival for the present Labyrinth City. The people of the city had become a bit too robust.

Lyro Paja had an expression implying they couldn’t comprehend the humans who, recalling the Orc Festival, exclaimed, “I hope tasty monsters come!” with delighted looks on their faces.

Confused, Lyro Paja murmured, —Festival?—

Freyja happily declared, “Booze!”

“Then, if we can manage the corruption, the spirits of this forest can take on the oversight of the ley line, right? That’s how it is in the Labyrinth City. Illuminaria, there are a lot of sacred trees in the Fell Forest, right? You said you used them to find me. In that case, there must be tons of spirits like you, right?”

—Yeah. None of them are as powerful as Queen Endalsia, but in terms of sheer numbers, the place is full of them, and they grow along the ley line. All the forest children are easygoing, though. Their roots are connected to a spot deep in the ley line, so they can communicate even if they leave, and if there’s no warden, they’d likely work hard to manage the ley line to keep themselves from withering.—

After hearing Illuminaria’s response, Mariela turned to gaze at Lyro Paja. Her eyes made her look like she wanted to say something very badly.

A look could speak as well as mouths, and Mariela seemed to be conveying harsh remarks that she couldn’t put into words. Something like “Taking on a responsibility so large all by yourself was never possible,” or “It seems like things’ll be fine even without you,” or “How about learning from my master’s example and living carelessly?”

“Lyro, come with me!”

Freyja’s method of coercion was far less complicated. She splashed into the lake and opened her arms in Lyro Paja’s direction.

—Frey… I…—

Freyja faced Lyro Paja straight on.

Lyro Paja looked down at the lake, then at the forest beyond, as though avoiding Freyja’s gaze.

Although Mariela and the others couldn’t see them, there were probably beasts and monsters in the forest, so many that the Fell Forest practically overflowed with them.

—I share the corruption with this forest and the monsters, and I cannot abandon them like Endalsia did.—

“So then just live in the forest. It’s all right. I’ll be fine in the woods. But how about you quit carrying this burden alone?”

Lyro Paja’s choice differed from that of Endalsia, that spirit who once fell in love with a human hunter, decided to live with people, and isolated herself from the monsters. Lyro Paja had existed with corruption alongside the monsters of the Fell Forest for many years. As such, they couldn’t give up everything for a single person, Freyja, who had spent so much time among humans.

Freyja, understanding as much, accepted Lyro Paja’s choice as a matter of course.

“I wonder why I never noticed. And here I’ve become so close to humans, got a ton of knowledge from the Akashic records, and was even called the Calamity Sage. Maybe I’m still a spirit at my core.”

The flame neither faltered nor hesitated anymore.

“Lyro, I wanted to do something about you shouldering the corruption all by yourself, but I didn’t think of your ruling over the ley line on your own as the problem. If a fire happened in the forest, the trees there would burn. It’s a lot like that. I was convinced that things were static. Surely, the spirits living in this forest think the same way. You oversee the ley line, take the majority of the corruption that streams in, and purify the entire wood. Since it’s been that way for such a long, long time, I thought it ever would be. You’ve always thought that way, too, even at the cost of your true character…”

Faster than Freyja could say “I’m sorry,” Lyro Paja touched their right hand to Freyja’s cheek.

—It seems the one who has lost their real self isn’t me, but you.—

When Freyja laid her own hand over Lyro Paja’s, ripples spread from where her fingers made contact. Even though Freyja had taken human shape, Lyro Paja’s body was entirely water, and perhaps it felt like liquid as well.

Freyja’s fingertips moved as though she were caressing the surface of a pond, and she formed words that sounded like sighs.

“Aah, I wish I could touch you, Lyro… More properly, that is. You don’t have to become a human. You can live with the trees and the monsters in the Fell Forest forever. Everyone can do their part for the corruption and the ley line. It’ll be all right. Monsters are really strong creatures, and the trees aren’t weak saplings. It’s already a magnificent forest. It will surely persist, even without you shouldering everything by yourself.”

Freyja’s golden eyes reflected Lyro Paja.

Her smiling face shone like her glittering golden eyes. It was reminiscent of the lit lamp the humans who feared the darkness held up a very, very long time ago, and it made Lyro Paja recall the day they first met—when Freyja was a tiny fire spirit.

Although she used to be such a small glow, now she sent light all the way to the deep, dark bottom of the water.

Mariela and the others gazed at Lyro Paja from behind Freyja. They resembled the humans who had crossed the forest many times to reach this lake, but they were far stronger, and they possessed the power to survive.

—……I suppose you’re right. Perhaps they no longer need help.—

And thus, the lake spirit Lyro Paja decided to close the book on the current state of themself and the world.

07

“Are you really sure this kind of material is okay?”

—So much so that I consider it excessive for a temporary body.—

Mariela was a bit perplexed after Lyro Paja told her the substance to be used for their incarnation.

“Hey, when I decided I couldn’t stay as a spirit if I wanted to help Lyro, I was born from ashes, you know? My body came together with a rumble-rumble-rumble feeling, so unsurprisingly, I was in a rush. I remember thinking I wanted to wear fluttery clothes and be pampered. As you can see, I wound up with a pretty nice form!”

—Apparently, when Queen Endalsia thought “I love you, I love you, I love you” toward the hunter, she’d become a human before she even knew what had happened. Well, we dwell in sacred trees, so in a way, sacred tree spirits start out incarnated.—

Freyja and Illuminaria gave rough accounts of their incarnation experiences as the former struck a swaying pose that was more octopus-like than sexy. They should have been very precious stories, but both were so disappointing, it was hard to choose which one was worse.

In particular, what was with this “nice form” of Freyja’s? The pencil-shaped Mariela felt excessively irritated because her master was a beautiful woman with such a curvy body.

Mariela had thought Freyja to be a careless human, but she’d actually been irresponsible since the day she was born. The details of what led to her incarnation should have been quite serious, but Freyja kept to vagueness about her own desires, only saying things like “fluttery clothes” and “being pampered.”

“Spirits really are reckless after all…”

Mariela threw a cold gaze at the strange creature she called her master as she turned toward Lyro Paja to prepare for their incarnation.

“Let’s see, we should confirm the plan. First, I’ll make a core and transfer some of Lyro Paja’s existence and magical power into it. As long as Lyro Paja can adapt to the core, the body will be very accommodating, and then I’ll chop off Slaken’s oversized, sticky body and use that.”

—Yes, that’s right.—

“Lyro’s a diligent being and finicky about incarnation specifications, too.”

Freyja teased them as being choosy, but the material they’d settled upon was horrible. In the midst of what had shifted all at once into the usual, carefree atmosphere, Mariela was the only one who was diligently going over everything.

Lyro Paja had come from the center of the lake to the waterside, where Mariela and the others were. In front of the spirit, Franz fidgeted over and over again while Donnino and Grandel held him back. Yuric, who was restless with worrying over Franz, had seemingly gone soft in her animal taming skills, as she was desperately trying to bring back Koo, who’d begun happily chasing after small fish in the lake.

As for Sieg, the one who should have been the most reliable…

“Congratulations, Lady Frey. Lyro, I am Siegmund, a companion of Mariela’s.”

With a full business smile, he presented himself as an agreeable youth in the hope of scoring points with the being who might become Mariela’s adoptive parent’s spouse.

“Ummm, Lyro, are you Freyja’s honey? Her hubby? Or, would the two of you hubba-hubba with me?!” Next to Sieg, Edgan was making his usual sort of fuss. He was using a lot of H words. Since spirits had no gender, Erotigan would have no issue if Lyro became a woman when they incarnated. In fact, Edgan endorsed it. The strange cry of “Become a woman, become a woman” in Mariela’s ear was getting obnoxious.

So tiring and tedious.

It was just like the atmosphere at a school in the Labyrinth City right before one of Mariela’s lessons began.

Smack! Mariela clapped her hands, then turned to her out-of-control companions and declared, “Attention, everyone! We’re going to begin making the core now,” just like when she began one of her classes.

“Let’s see, Lyro Paja has been immersed in corruption for a long time, so wouldn’t the spirit adapt better to their new form if I added just a tiny bit of the source of human sin when I make the core? I’m going to take just a little bit of everyone’s memories.”

“Source of sin…? By memories, do you mean the memory stones?” asked Franz, who had listened to Mariela’s explanation the most earnestly. It might have been because of the instinct that compelled him to be useful to the water spirit.

—Indeed. The memories of your blood are particularly troublesome. If that quality is passed on to your descendants, it may cause trouble for me. There is Greed in those feelings.—

“I see… All right. I am grateful for your benevolence.”

If Franz offered the memories of his blood, he would lose his longing impulses regarding the water spirit—the emotion that had sprung up from within Franz and roused him so. Although the feeling was extremely troublesome, it was also an important part of Franz. But after looking first at the water spirit, whom his blood sought, then at Yuric, who stood next to him with a worried look, Franz resolved himself to offer his memories.

“It’s all right, Yuric. My future is mine to make. You’ll be there to help me with it from time to time, too, won’t you?”

“Of course, Franz!”

After happily nodding at Franz’s decision, Yuric turned a gaze of gratitude and just a little anger toward Lyro Paja, who was taking away Franz’s memories.

“What should I offer?”

—Don’t be so angry, handler of beasts. I shall take a little of the Wrath overflowing from your small body. No matter how much you hate them, the children of humanity must live among one another. It would be better if you loved humans a little more.—

As though to interrupt Lyro Paja to keep the spirit from saying “And not just the man next to you,” Yuric replied in a fluster, “Okay!”

“Then, what shall we surrender to you?” Grandel inquired.

“Could you do it without needless lecturing?” Donnino added.

—Envy and Sloth.—

Lyro Paja requested Envy from the mild-mannered gentleman Grandel and Sloth from the diligent Donnino, who maintained the Black Iron Freight Corps’s armored carriages.

They hadn’t identified Donnino’s tower, but expensive-looking bottles of alcohol and perfume containing colored water and cheap aromas, respectively, as well as worn-out silverware and clothing, had been in Grandel’s tower. Yuric had commented, “Show-off” upon beholding it all.

Mariela wore some incomprehensible expression as she looked at Grandel, which caused just a bit of discomfort to show on his face.

“My family has been a distinguished one of shield knights for generations. Throughout the years, we had all inherited superior shield skills. However, ever since my great-grandfather’s time, the children born to my family have always been frail. No matter how excellent one’s skills are, you cannot do as much as you’d like with a body like this. It took me a very long time to realize that things such as bloodlines, honor, and prestige were foolish.”

In his usual fashion, Grandel chuckled as he tugged at his handlebar mustache.

“That’s like me. Have you ever heard of a ‘Jack of all trades, master of none’? I can’t go beyond what ordinary people can do and become top-notch at something. Aah, it’s a crushing feeling, Sloth. But I understood. I couldn’t perfect anything for the life of me.” Donnino scratched at his head before continuing, “If somethin’ like that is fine with you, by all means, take it.”

Catching a glimpse of the trauma of an older, more experienced person was somehow unsettling.

The one who destroyed the suddenly heavy atmosphere was, as expected, Edgan.

“I’ll give you my overflowing love!”

—Yes, I shall receive Lust from you.—

“Huh?! Lust?!”

“That makes sense,” Mariela replied in agreement.

“He’s the worst,” Yuric judged, harsh as ever.

“That’s great, Edgan! Someone finally accepted your affections!” As if to say it didn’t matter what happened afterward as long as the situation at hand was settled, Sieg gave the sort of equivocal coaxing he often did when Edgan was around. It hardly seemed like the remarks of a true friend. Perhaps some of Sieg’s bad habits from his younger days had inconveniently surfaced for a fleeting moment.

And to Sieg, Lyro Paja said…

—Sieg, was it? I shall receive Pride from you.—

“Ha-ha-ha—pr—ha-ha-ha—ide! Ha-ha-ha! Sieg, he said you’re arrogant. You’re so important! The great Sieg! How’s that treat you?”

“Shut up, Erotigan.”

Sieg cast his eyes downward and bit his lip at Edgan’s roars of laughter. Even Mariela said to Sieg, “It wasn’t nice to take Slaken out on your own,” leaving the poor man at a loss for words.

“I’m the last one. What should I give you?” Mariela inquired.

—Gluttony.—

“Bwah?!”

As the last one of the group, Mariela gave her memory of her irresistible “snack meals”—Gluttony—and all seven human sin sources were assembled. Lyro Paja easily removed the memory stones from Mariela and the others by touching their foreheads. The spirit’s cool fingertips felt like drops of water trickling down their brows. Like a bead of liquid, each memory rolled down its respective person’s forehead and fell into its owner’s hands as a stone.

“Because this place is the Akashic records, taking memories in and out is simple. Even though Lyro said they were receiving your memories, that doesn’t mean they’ll be entirely gone, like what happened with the black monsters. They’ll still remain as information. The change should be negligible in your daily life.”

Just like Freyja explained it, Mariela didn’t forget the fact that she’d greedily indulged in snacks while Sieg and the others were absent, even after her memories of Gluttony were drawn out of her. However, the particulars of the sweets she’d scarfed down became vague, and Mariela had trouble recalling their taste. It was as though the recollection of that time had become somewhat ambiguous and changed into someone else’s, leaving Mariela to guess at how she felt back then.

Even after Mariela safely returned home, she would probably want to eat sweets, but maybe in the future, she wouldn’t devour pastries like she was filling the holes in her heart.

Mariela had a somewhat ominous feeling.

Everyone probably had similar sentiments. They all gazed keenly at their memory stones.

“Say, Master. These are bad human memories, right? If I use things like that to make the core, will Lyro Paja be okay? You said Lyro Paja will stay in the Fell Forest, but won’t they despise us humans? And Lyro Paja also said it would be a ‘temporary body.’ In other words, they won’t last long with this core, right?” Mariela asked Freyja, with the Gluttony memory in her hand.

Lyro Paja had suffered for a long time because of human corruption. Wanting the spirit to be fond of humans was presumptuous, but if possible, Mariela didn’t want Lyro Paja to hate them. And the spirit’s expression, temporary body, made Mariela feel uneasy.

“The memories from all of you will be fine. These are recollections of wrongdoing, but y’know, they’re not entirely corrupt. They also contain joy, sorrow, and feelings of consideration for others. Those memories hold the good and bad points of humanity, so the temporary body will still last a long time. I’m positive it’ll do the trick.”

Freyja answered Mariela’s concerns with a grin. She was full of confidence.

I can’t help feeling unsure…

Previously, Mariela would have taken her master’s words at face value and believed that pure smile. However, the Mariela who had created the Elixir in the deepest part of the Labyrinth and had become the ultimate alchemist would not be deceived.

“Master, you said ‘Mariela will be able to make the Elixir’ similarly, but if you remember, I was just short on experience. What would’ve happened if I hadn’t had the ley-line shard Lynx gave me…?”

“Well, that, uh, was part of the final miracle…”

“You don’t know, do you? What I mean is, it’s better to do things properly so you’ll be fine even without a miracle. Lyro Paja is finally going to incarnate, but what would you do if they became an enemy of the humans? Lyro Paja is close to monsters, while you’re similar to humans, right? Do you want a huge battle to happen between you?! If so, that would cause a new crisis in the Labyrinth City, wouldn’t it?! We can’t take that chance!”

“Guh… I’m lost for words.”

“And yet you said that aloud. Really, Master!”

Somehow, Mariela was talking down to Freyja. Her attack power exceeded what had been her greatest offensive skill up to that point, the “No Dinner for You!” maneuver.

With this, the pampered child Sieg would probably have to prepare himself to be dominated by Mariela for the rest of his life. He didn’t realize it himself, but he’d already become a perfect doormat.

—There is truth to your pupil’s words. It would probably be best to add some sort of goodness to the core.—

Mariela nodded at the prudent Lyro Paja’s words and thought briefly about what would be suitable.

“Something good… Something good…” Mariela looked around the area.

Freyja and Illuminaria, filled with confidence in their own merits, were looking over at Mariela as they chuckled among themselves. For better or worse, humans had been too much of a bad influence on those two, and they were quite likely to have taken on bad habits. Even by this point, they’d both amassed the quirks of various overly eccentric characters. The final piece probably needed to be something purer.

At first, the plan had been to create a core by adding memories of wrongdoing from Mariela and the others to a ley-line shard the size of a fist that had formed at the bottom of this lake. Mariela could feel a strong force from the ley-line shard, though not as much as from the Core of the Labyrinth, as well as the presence of water.

A ley-line shard was a lump of energy, an object that disappeared once it was used up.

Even the memories of Mariela and the others that would be added to it took the shape of stones in this world, but they were formless by nature. After Lyro Paja incarnated, the spirit would probably take in energy through meals, but was it really okay to have a core made of things that were unreliable as physical substances?

As if that wasn’t enough, Mariela had a hunch the properties of a ley line with the presence of water and those of the group’s memories differed. Could there be something with a more reliable existence that could adapt to both liquid and Mariela’s group and also possessed powerful innate goodness…?

I feel like…there’s gotta be something…

Mariela’s waist pouch rustled as she rummaged through it.

What rolled out from the bottom of the satchel she always wore was a pale, transparent, wondrous stone that emitted light like the moon’s.

“I wonder if we could use this?”

“Is that a mermaid’s tear, Mariela?! That’s such a high-grade item!”

—Moreover, it is filled with feelings of gratitude. A rare object, indeed.—

Freyja and Lyro Paja were astonished at the marvelous stone Mariela had produced.

The tears mermaids shed changed into stones. That legend was true, and very few of these scarce, valuable jewels were circulated in the world. The only way to obtain one was to either find it washed up on a beach by chance or to harvest it from a captured mermaid. In the latter case, it was easy to imagine what the apprehended mermaid went through. For that reason, mermaids’ existence had become half legend, and when a certain quantity of mermaid’s tears appeared on the market, it was whispered that the creatures were real.

Mariela had met one such mermaid before.

That was around the time when the Labyrinth Suppression Forces had just subjugated the Sea-Floating Pillar. Mariela and the Black Iron Freight Corps were invited to the beach cavern on the Labyrinth’s fifty-fourth stratum.

Mariela had gone into the sea while Sieg and Lynx, tired from their fun, were asleep. What awaited her at the place she floated to as though invited was an injured mermaid who couldn’t return home.

After Mariela had healed the mermaid’s wounds with a potion, the creature returned to the sea, but afterward, Mariela had discovered a single mermaid’s tear in her pouch.

It was a token of thanks.

Mermaids weren’t monsters, but people in a different form. Because they were hunted for their tears, Mariela felt sorry for them, and thus never told Sieg about her encounter with one mermaid. However, this seemed as good a time as any to make use of the tear.

“Then it’s an item that’s inherently good, compatible with the water spirit Lyro, and filled with gratitude.”

—I have no objection to using it as a core, but it has high worth to humans, too, does it not?—

If it was suitable for Lyro Paja…

“There’s no reason for me to keep it.” Mariela blew on the mermaid’s tear and wiped it with a hand towel. Since she’d left it in her pouch, there was dust and dirt on it. The jewel was undoubtedly worth a small fortune. Was it really all right for this girl to be treating it so mundanely?

Mariela’s efforts somehow made the little object shine like a pearl again in no time. Everyone was in agreement, and the tear was chosen as the core’s final piece.

08

“Well then, first, the mermaid’s tear and the ley-line shard…”

Just by bringing the extra-large ley-line shard Lyro Paja gave Mariela near the small mermaid’s tear, the latter sucked up the former. Items belonging to the same water element seemed to be extremely compatible. The mermaid’s tear, no bigger than the tip of one’s finger, swelled to the size of a plum after absorbing the ley-line core, and it changed from the color of the moon to a blue reminiscent of a deep body of water. Most likely, no one would have been able to guess from its soft appearance—like liquid wrapped in a transparent membrane—that it had once been a mermaid’s tear.

Next was adding the memories from Mariela and the other humans. Although not as compatible as the ley-line shard and the mermaid’s tear had been, Mariela could sense that the memory of Greed from Franz’s blood was strongly drawn to the powerful presence of water.

While everyone was quietly gazing at the blue core in Mariela’s hand, Mariela brought the Greed recollection close to it.

“The first one’ll be the hardest, but y’know, if the memory is drawn to it this much, the rest’ll probably go smoothly.” Just as Freyja said, when the powerful desire for the water spirit Franz had inherited from his forebears touched the blue core possessing the heart of water, it instantly dissolved and mixed into it.

“Next, Wrath.”

The memory of Yuric, who preferred beasts over humans, wasn’t bad in terms of compatibility. She relaxed around Franz more than anyone else, and because his memory had blended in first, hers was able to mix in smoothly as well.

“This’s going better than I thought. Now that we’ve made it this far, the rest should be simple,” Freyja declared. She was right. The memory stones of Envy, Sloth, Lust, and Pride melted as if they were following the connections between the people. With the final addition of Mariela’s Gluttony memory, Lyro Paja’s new core was complete.

—Ahh, it has turned out well. Now I will surely be able to get along with humans. I am grateful.—

After accepting the completed core, Lyro Paja swallowed it. Immediately, the spirit’s current form began to break down. The transformation started from Lyro Paja’s head, as though matching the core’s path from mouth to stomach, and the spirit returned to the water.

“Lyro…”

The core fell onto the lakeshore where Lyro Paja had just stood. Freyja picked it up and gently placed it on top of the portion of Slaken’s sticky body that had been cut off earlier.

The shaking of the viscous material, centered on the core, was like the surface of a pond quivering, and the core began to sink into it. After it reached the very center, both the body and the core rose up like a geyser, changing shape before everyone’s eyes. The mass took the form of Lyro Paja, who had just been standing on the lake not a few moments earlier.

“Lyro! Ahh, you finally incarnated!”

Lyro Paja accepted Freyja’s embrace.

The spirit was no longer in an indefinite frame that looked like it would melt away.

“Ahh, Frey. I feel so impaired by how limited this physical body is, yet I can move freely in it.”

Freyja was the first person Lyro Paja touched and held close, and Mariela was overjoyed.

It was a touching sight. So much so that it seemed like Mariela might get teary-eyed.

How could the mystical sight of an incarnation and the fact that a fire spirit and water spirit could at last hold each other after so long not be moving?

Mariela’s eyes reflected the beautiful pool deep in the forest and the two human figures holding each other tight amid that scenery.

If this wasn’t beautiful, nothing was.

If it hadn’t been for the background noise of the perverted monkey thoughtlessly chanting, “Become a woman, become a woman,” there’s no doubt it would have been truly perfect.

“Edgan handed over his Lust memory, but he seems exactly the same…”

“I’m not gonna lose my identity after something like that!” Edgan paid no heed to the icy looks he was getting from Mariela and the others. Perhaps one should have expected as much from a man who’d overcome many cold places like the stratum of ice and snow and the Ahriman Springs in winter.

“It seems your memory was rejected. ‘That much isn’t needed.’ Edgan, what do you think about going to search for an identity somewhere else?” Sieg’s comment was rather direct. He refused to say something equivocal like “That’s our Edgan! People who don’t doubt themselves are popular!” as he usually did.

Although Sieg still relied on others to attain his goals, his arrogance had evidently quieted down, and he’d become somewhat of a gentleman.

“Well? Well? Lyro Paja properly turned into a woman, right?! Lyro Paja!!!”

“H-hey, Edgan, read the room a little!”

Completely ignoring Sieg’s attempt to hold him back, Edgan went to confirm Lyro Paja’s gender, and what awaited him was…

Lyro Paja gazed at Edgan, who was fixated on sex, with extreme curiosity and gave a rather bland reply. “Slimes are agender. I am neither one.”

How exactly was one to behave in this situation? Edgan’s pondering was easy to see through. Sieg clapped him on the shoulder and shook his head.

“Lay off this unsightly behavior, Edgan.”

“Guh!”

Siegmund had scored a critical hit. That much was due course for a bow user. His shot had been ruthlessly trained on Edgan’s weak spot.

However, Edgan also had considerable defensive power, and he moved to counterattack.

“What about you, Sieg? Well? You’re a grown man who removed the obstacles in your way, yet making that final leap still seems too much for you, huh? You’re a master of ranged combat, right? Why not take the castle in one shot? I mean, why did you take Slaken out? Are you still ignoring what’s important?”

“Agh. You say that, but there are too many people around in Sunlight’s Canopy! How can I close the emotional gap when there’s never a chance?!”

“Create your own opportunity!”

Dual wielders were quite troublesome. At the sudden ferocious rush, Sieg showered Edgan with shots.

It was a violent exchange of verbal blows, but the pair also seemed like close friends to onlookers.

Sieg and Edgan look like they’re having fun.

As Mariela gently squeezed the soft Slaken, who had reverted to the size of her palm, she turned her gaze back to Lyro Paja and Freyja. She saw the incarnated former-spirit duo flirting as they sought physical contact. Nearby, even the usually reserved Yuric was conversing with Franz with more intimacy than usual.

“Franz, are you okay?”

“Sorry for worrying you.”

The old man duo with no partners, Grandel and Donnino, were completely prepared to return home and had begun to search the area for something to take back with them from this mysterious world.

“…Wanna go home soon, Slaken?”

Mariela suggested heading back not to Sieg, but to Slaken.

Curiously, Mariela felt exhausted. She had initially run away from home because Sieg had thrown Slaken away. Of course, taking Slaken out on his own was probably enough of a reason to get angry, but since the creature was unharmed, Mariela wasn’t mad enough not to go back to Sunlight’s Canopy. In addition, finding her master was a better than expected level of achievement, worthy of a gold star if Mariela were a student.

“Next time we have a fight, Sieg, you can be the one who leaves!”

Mariela, whose self-confidence had increased after a real sense of personal growth, clenched her small fist.

She didn’t look mighty at all, but her will undeniably was.

Freyja was in her own little world with the newly incarnated Lyro Paja, and Mariela felt very uncomfortable with how many people were present. It seemed that in the future, at least for a while, it would be better to drive out Sieg than for Mariela to run back to her master when she and Sieg fought.

After returning Slaken to its jar, Mariela said, “Illuminaria, please show us the way home,” and fastened the bag with the giant jar inside to Koo’s back.

“Wait, Mariela. At least let me explain. I don’t want things to end like this,” Sieg pleaded as he ran over. There was a little earnestness in his expression.

Mariela was already quickly preparing to make the return trip on her own. She could easily see through Sieg’s outward facade, but this time she sensed he had made up his mind about something. Apparently, he’d talked with Edgan and come to a decision.

“What, Sieg? Even if you apologize, you’re still going without dinner, you know?”

Despite Sieg’s appeal, Mariela kept him in check by implying she didn’t want to forgive him for taking Slaken out. She’d only recently realized that Sieg behaved like a spoiled child if he was pampered. When push came to shove, she needed to be strict with him.

Although Sieg groaned at Mariela’s cold treatment, he didn’t falter. Instead, he got down on one knee in front of Mariela and dug through his pocket for something. “I had Slaken search for this blue stone at the bottom of the lake in the Labyrinth. I… I hope you’ll accept it,” he admitted. Sieg was offering Mariela a ring with a blue jewel the same color as his left eye.

“Sieg’s finally doing it…!!!” While no one said this aloud, it was obvious that everyone was thinking as much.

With this, the former-spirit duo and Yuric and Franz, who were all busy flirting, couldn’t help but stop and watch with intense interest. Admittedly, Sieg’s proposal came without any lead-up, but since the other party was Mariela, something like this might’ve been perfect.

Mariela was an alchemist who really did rank practicality above aesthetics and food above romance. Faced with this ring, however, the girl looked taken aback. She’d expressly lost her memory of her excessive appetite. It sure would have been nice if her interest in love had been awakened in exchange.

“What…? Um, Sieg, thank you? It’s a super pretty ring… But it’s not my birthday, so what’s it for?”

“?!!”

Mariela stared at the trinket in her hand with confusion, and Sieg was struck silent at the reaction.

And Freyja stole up from behind unnoticed.

“Didn’t you know, Sieg? The custom of giving a ring only started about a hundred years ago.”

“!!!”

At Freyja’s words, which she delivered with a huge smile, the crestfallen Sieg fell onto his hands and knees.

A hundred years ago… Mariela went into suspended animation two hundred years ago, so does she not know the significance of this gesture…?

“This is what happens when you think you can just wing it and expect it’ll turn out fine, Master Siiieg!” The way Edgan made fun of Sieg while looking extremely delighted was detestable.

“Well then, shall we head for home?”

“Yeah.”

“This whole adventure’s been a real hoot, know what I mean?”

Before Sieg could explain the importance of the ring, Mariela gave the order to withdraw, and everyone began to prepare for the trip back to the Labyrinth City.

Sieg’s do-or-die event had turned into a mere present-giving ceremony.

“When we get back… When we get back, I’ll do it properly this time, so…”

Ignoring Sieg, who was grumbling quietly to himself, everyone else started walking.

“Sieg, you’re gonna get left behind! Hurry up, this way!”

Mariela waved to him with an impatient expression.

Although Mariela surely didn’t know its significance, the ring the color of Sieg’s eye had wound up on the fourth finger of her left hand before he realized it.