Chapter 3: Girl, Gets Eaten
Chapter 3: Girl, Gets Eaten
NICHIKA couldn’t hide her trepidation over reuniting with the last person she wanted to see again. Trembling as she took a step back, the question “H-How?” slipped out.
“Did I know?” Lambert slowly closed the space between them with a smile.
Retreating from him, Nichika cycled through all the ways Lady Angelica appeared different from her. She should’ve looked like a completely different person from who he met in Lolo Village. Her dark-brown hair had been dyed red, her clothing style changed, and her cheeks were powdered with makeup.
Her lower back collided with a desk, knocking her into the seat where she froze in place. Lambert’s yellow eyes reminded her of a snake’s. Chuckling, the serpentine man placed a hand on the desk and leaned down.
“That’s a good question,” he answered in a teasing voice. “I was too far away at the time to get a good look at ya. And I honestly couldn’t make out your face.” He scooped up a lock of her hair with his free hand and planted a kiss on it. “The smell of your magic gave you away,” he sneered.
Sharply sucking in a breath, Nichika’s hands started shaking. Though her brain screamed to run away, her body didn’t listen. Was she under some kind of spell?
Paying her fear no attention, Lambert went on with a grin, “You see, I’ve always been able to sniff out the subtle difference in people’s magic. It’s a specialty of mine.”
He treated her with the friendliness of someone chatting to an old friend and yet her heart thrashed against her ribcage like a drumbeat warning her of danger. Instinctual fear unexplainable by words washed over her.
Did he realize it? He reached over in yet another casual display of touch. “Y’know, you’ve got an amusing smell. Sweet enough to melt a man and…tantalize his taste buds.”
The hand he placed on her neck was colder than ice. Nichika finally came back to her senses when he brought her a little closer to him. Magically breaking free of his hold on her, she pushed him away with all her strength.
“Get…away!”
“Whoopsie wooh.” Lambert drew back without a fight. He gave her a little space and threw his hands innocently into the air. “Don’t be mad. I’m joking. Jo-king.”
“……”
Flaying him with an unforgiving glare, Nichika stood with the desk as a blockade between them. She had left the magic orb that connected her to the fire spirits in her room, but she was prepared to take him on here and now if it came to it.
Catching on to her battle-readiness, the young man hung up his teasing grin. “Whoa, down girl. Don’t go into battle mode on my account. I’m not so arrogant to go at it with the Priestess under the divine protection of the spirits.”
“What are you after? Planning to snitch to the school?” she asked sharply.
Hands folded behind his head, Lambert drolly shot down her accusation. “I’d never tattle.”
“Why not?”
“I’ll lose my entertainment if you get kicked out so soon. I’ll probably tell the truth if my bosses ask, but till then I’ll be a happy spectator. Good with that?”
“Th-Thanks?”
He chuckled at her misplaced gratitude before breaking out the wicked grin of a naughty boy. “Then again, I might tattle if you fail to amuse me.”
“HUH?!”
He may not be antagonistic at the moment, but he wasn’t one to let her guard down around. Wary, Nichika slowly inched her way from the room.
“Ooh, right,” Lambert’s well-timed utterance stopped her. “Say, Nichika, aren’t you forgetting somethin’?”
“Forgetting something? Like what?”
Am I forgetting something I shouldn’t be?
Lambert’s single remark plunged Nichika’s mind into a thick fog.
“Haven’t you forgotten something important? Or are you just pretending to have forgotten? That’s how it looks to me at least.”
The rest of what he said sounded like it came down through a foghorn. Nichika’s lips moved automatically, answering in a voice that was not her own yet sounded just like her.
“I haven’t forgotten anything.”
What the heck is this? Who is speaking for me? The calm part of her vacantly questioned.
“……”
Silence fell. First to throw in the towel, Lambert shrugged.
“Well, whatever. Let’s just leave it at that.”
Released from whatever magic held her mind at bay, Nichika blinked several times, bowed, and ran from the room. Left alone, Lambert made a lollipop appear with magic and began chomping it into tiny pieces.
“That’s some amazingly powerful memory suppressing magic right there.”
Lambert had sniffed out a very nasty smelling spell enveloping her that in no way belonged to the girl herself.
Who cast it on her and what for? Are they hidin’ some inconvenient truth?
The first person to pop into his head was the man in black who was always with her. Wasn’t he about the only person in her life capable of exercising such powerful and dark magic?
“Things have just gotten a whole lot more interesting.” He spat out the lollipop stick and smiled like a boy looking forward to his new toy. “I wanna taste test that girl.”
***
AROUND the same time Nichika came face to face with a dangerous acquaintance, Oswald was in the height of breaking and entering. Thrusting his face through a sticky spider web, he clicked his tongue and wiped the tendrils off.
This the spot?
Crawling on his hands and knees, he moved aside a board, filling the attic with the heavy stench of beasts. He stifled a cough and swung into the room with catlike precision. In the dark he felt his way to the desk in front of some bookshelves, placed his hand on the exact drawer he was searching for, and uttered the magic password. There was a click as the drawer unlocked and obediently slid open.
Grateful for the information Wolfie obtained during his infiltration the prior night, Oswald unashamedly fished through the Five Eldra Steorra member’s desk. Quickly finding the documents he sought, he ran his eyes over the text there, his eyesight assisted by a magic item.
This is it. The items of concern to be addressed during the next Witch’s Council meeting.
Without a minute to waste, he confirmed their agenda which was a long list of things that were greatly inconveniencing to him:
1. The proper way to restrain and detain witches without an official license
2. Revoking technology and knowledge from those who aren’t under the Council’s guidance
3. Requiring witches to seek approval from the Council before creating any dangerous items or compounds
4. Any items with a rating of A or higher are to be immediately handed over to the Council and impounded until—
“Tch!”
Picking up on the heavy footsteps outside, Oswald quickly put the desk back in order and hid behind the bookshelf. As an extra precaution he activated an Elusive Ball and slowed his breathing. The bickering voices he heard passing by the room likely belonged to the Five Eldra Steorra living in this building.
Oswald stood to make his getaway before the room’s owner returned.
“The magic items you create are still too amazing.”
Oswald spun toward the rich, profound voice behind him. His eyes rounded at the person he found there. An older woman with her head held high and a refined air about her stood there unsmiling. The woman he recognized—or more like, the woman he had, at a time, met with every single day, continued her evaluation of him in the same stern voice that plagued his memories.
“Your creations are too excellent. Hence why you rely on them too much and fail to notice the presence sneaking up on you. I believe I gave you ample warning about considering your surroundings before activating your items.”
Grindieda, Elminage Academy for Gifted Witches and Wizards’ headmaster, completed the magic circle she was secretly erecting with a wave of her hand. It was a cordon circle from which one couldn’t escape without the express permission of the caster.
Knowing her spell on the spot, Oswald let out a resigned sigh and removed the magic distorting his appearance. In a matter of seconds, the gentle brunette butler reverted back to the raven-haired, frigid witch.
“I see you still always manage to find a reason not to give me full marks, Master.”
“I’m pleased to reunite with my worthless apprentice. Come along to the headmaster’s office. We can catch up there.”
Several minutes later, the door clicked open and the owner returned. By then, no one was around, and only a pinch of magic lingered.
***
UNAWARE of her master’s capture, Nichika returned to the penthouse after class that evening to a wolf restlessly pacing the room. His ears flicked upright and he ran over and jumped on the girl wailing.
“Awoooo! Nichikaaaa! Welcome baaaack!”
“Hey there. What’s wrong?”
Wolfie let out a distressed howl then gave her the unbelievable news. “Maaaster has…Master has vanished!”
“H-How?”
Wolfie tearfully explained that Oswald had snuck into the Five Eldra Steorra’s mansion earlier that day to further his investigation. He ordered Wolfie to keep watch outside, but time flowed on endlessly without any signs of him returning. As the wolf paced back and forth debating what to do, the man with an unhealthy love of dogs came back, reigniting Wolfie’s trauma from the other day and he scampered away.
Oswald didn’t return at the time he set? Nichika’s thoughts arrived at the worst possible conclusion. She clapped her hands around Wolfie’s fluffy cheeks and shouted, “Doesn’t that mean he got caught?!”
“Awooooo! What do we dooooooooo?!”
Nichika was about to ask more questions when she noticed a sudden change. Pebbles of red light rolled from her hair and melted into thin air.
“Oh no!”
The magic disguising her wore off with a loud POP. Her flashy red hair reverted back to its original subdued color. Oswald had activated the magic item clipped into her hair, and its effects continued to be in use by constantly burning a minuscule amount of his magic. Something must have happened to him if he couldn’t even maintain that low-scale spell.
Wolfie seemed to draw the same conclusion as his fur stood on end and he let out a long howl. “Awoo! Something’s happened to Master!”
“Let’s go look for him, Wolfie!”
Nichika snatched the magic orb from its hiding place under her pillow and flew from the room with the wolf. Someone called her to a stop just as she made it to the bottom of the dorms and was about to pass through the entrance hall.
“Ohh? Why are ya in such a hurry?”
“Mister…Lambert!”
Dyed orange in the evening sunlight, he flicked his hand in an amused wave. He was being stared down by the girl and her pet wolf, but tossed them a friendly grin and fussed, “Aw, shucks. Don’t treat me like a stranger. Call me by name.”
“Uhh, who are you, mister?”
“Me? A champion of justice.” Lambert messed with Wolfie who was meeting him for the first time.
“You’re a hero?!”
Nichika held her head in one hand at her friend whose eyes twinkled. “Sorry, I’m in a rush! I’ll deal with you later!” she shouted, her boots squeaking on the hardwood floor as she broke into a run past him.
“Could it be you’re searchin’ for good ol’ Oswald?” he casually remarked.
She skidded to a halt just past him and looked over her shoulder at his mildly startled expression. She took three steps toward him and growled, “You know where he is?!”
“Uh-huh. I sensed someone usin’ teleportation magic somewhere on campus a short while ago. That was him, probably.”
“Please! Tell me where the user teleported!”
Surprise flashed across his face when the girl grabbed him by the collar, but it was immediately replaced by a deadly grin. “You might be the first person to ever outright ask me for what they wanted.”
Bargaining and haggling dictated most of the exchanges in this world. Ashamed of having forgotten that rule yet again, Nichika released his shirt.
“I-I’m sorry.”
“No worries. My heart did a little flip. Oh, but I think I’d like a reward in return.”
“If it’s something I can give—” she said, her fists clenched and head tilted back to face him.
Something brushed Nichika’s lips. Unsure of what just happened, she merely stared at his face only an inch or two from hers.
“……”
Lambert licked his lips which curled into a satisfied smile. “Thanks for the taste.”
***
THAT was just payment. That was just payment. That was just payment. That was just payment, Nichika repeated in her head like a litany as she ran. Why do the people of this world kiss without permission? Do kisses have no feelings attached here?
Unconcerned with the great state of dismay he put her in, Lambert showed the way, explaining things as it pleased him. “Students can’t teleport because there’s a barrier covering the entire campus. Only professors or higher are allowed, but from the bitter taste in the air, I’d say that spell was cast by the headmaster.”
He spun around and skillfully ran backward, a big grin spreading across his face. “Speaking of taste, your magic tasted delish. Can I have another bite?”
“Quit your yapping and focus on getting me there faster!” Nichika demanded, her cheeks crimson. Lambert cackled at her.
“I didn’t know you were a friend of Master’s, Mister. You a student here?” Wolfie asked out of curiosity as he frolicked alongside Lambert.
“Moi? I’m more a grad student. I currently work at the magic lab assisting the Prof.”
“Prof?”
“Yup. Lolo Village’s lil’ Makina’s old man. Professor Logical.”
Nervous tension shot through Nichika, staying her legs. Right, this guy used a magic item to control Sumire into throwing herself off a cliff.
Suddenly stopping and eyeing him with a dark expression told Lambert more than he needed to know about what she was thinking.
“What’s wrong?” he asked in a friendly voice that went along perfectly with his always approachable expression. “Lemme guess: you’re worried I’m gonna lead you straight into the wicked arms of my Prof?”
Laughing, he waved his hand in front of his face and denied the question he put out there. “Nu-uh. Not happening. Relax. I’m the type of guy who follows through with a job after I’ve been paid. I really am gonna bring you straight to where upperclassman Oswald is.”
“……”
His assurances did nothing to alleviate her wariness of him.
“The whole ordeal with the maid in Lolo Village wasn’t my doin’,” he added for good measure. “I didn’t have much choice since it was Prof’s orders. Gotta work for the money received, y’know?”
“That doesn’t give you the right…”
Lambert, who’d only been laughing and smiling the whole time, suddenly turned serious. His tone dramatically shifted to a deadly calm as he stated the conviction he lived by.
“Anyone who deals with magic must keep a promise once made. Even the most trivial verbal agreement becomes a contract to us.”
He’s saying the same thing as Oswald. After an internal struggle, Nichika finally conceded.
“Fine. I’ll trust you to lead the way.”
Lambert grinned and resumed his backward run. Sneaking a peek at the girl running beside him, he snickered on the inside.
She’s as innocent and trusting as a child. They say sincerity is a virtue, but put another way, it just makes the person more convenient. He purposefully didn’t warn her about it. After all, her trustfulness might make things “more convenient” for him later. Not that I know when that’ll be.
***
FROM there they ascended one staircase, went down another, climbed another, and descended again. Nichika had forgotten the way they had come by this point, and her stamina had subsided faster than her willpower as she ran more out of desperation than actual energy. Stopping, she placed a hand on the brick wall in the dimly illuminated passage and caught her breath.
“Haah…haah,” she panted. “How much farther…are you gonna take me?”
Beads of sweat rolled off her onto the cold floor. It didn’t matter how much stamina and endurance she had gained since arriving in this world, she still had the strength of a girl from modern Japan. She couldn’t compete against a wild wolf and an even wilder young man.
Worried, Wolfie rubbed against her leg and nosed the miniature broom hanging from her belt. “How about you fly the rest of the way?” he suggested.
“If I could do that…I wouldn’t be…running…” she wheezed.
One wrong move with the broom and it’d rampage on her, eating up more energy than running with the wolves. Lambert walked back to her without a single sheen of sweat on his face.
“It’s just a hop and a skip away. The headmaster’s office is up there,” he encouraged in an annoyingly energized voice.
“Up there? That’s it?”
Several dozen stairs awaited her where he pointed.
“Want me to give you a piggyback ride the rest of the way?” her guide offered with his hands folded behind his head.
“No need! I came this far…!”
Willing herself to stand, Nichika glared at the last obstacle. She was going to make it the rest of the way on her own whatever it took.
“Come to me!”
She removed the miniature broom from her belt and chucked it in front of her. Boom! With a puff of white smoke, it turned into a full-size broom. She mounted her flying companion sidesaddle and commanded it.
“Let’s go!”
The wolf and young man easily ran up the stairs after her as she rapidly ascended. It suddenly dawned upon her as she focused on her destination that the method Charlotte taught her for stopping involved coming to a slow stop by creating wind resistance around her. But that applied to the outdoors, and she was currently inside a narrow brick passageway.
How do I stop?
“WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHH!”
“Nichika?!”
Accelerating to an unstoppable speed, Nichika burst through the door to the sound of her own screams. She somersaulted several times on the floor before she knew what hit her.
“Ooww.”
Finally tumbling to a stop after banging every part of her body, she sat up rubbing her lower back. An exasperated voice rained down from directly above her head.
“…What in the world are you doing?”
She craned her neck at the sound of the voice she had been searching for. Her master, now dressed as himself rather than a butler, stared down at her with his arms folded at his chest. Before he could say another word, she hopped to her feet and inspected his tall body clad in all black.
“Oswald! You okay? Hurt anywhere? Did they torture you?!”
“Torture? What goes through that small brain of yours?”
He wasn’t bleeding and nothing was bent in the wrong direction. Relieved to find him intact, Nichika placed a hand on her chest and smiled.
“What a relief!”
“How did you even get all the way her—” Oswald doubted her ability to get there on her own, but the moment he locked eyes with Lambert in the doorway he scowled. “Geh.”
Not the least bit bothered by his upperclassman’s disgust, Lambert smirked. “Hiya, pal. Awww, shucks, don’t look so darn happy to see me.”
“Maaaster! I’ve been looking all over for youuuu!”
Nichika swept her gaze over her surroundings as she grabbed her broom off the floor. The round room towered over the castle gardens, and she could make out the dimly lit townscape and the dark forest that extended beyond it through the windows. The room itself had a somber interior. There was nothing particularly strange about it, except for one magical object spinning around.
“This is the headmaster’s office?”
Where is the headmaster? Before she could locate the room’s owner, a hand reached out and pulled her into an unwanted hug from behind.
“NICHIKAAAA, baby! My precious angel! How have you been?!” trilled an excited voice next to her ear.
“GAAAAAAAAAH!” She jerked her neck back to find a brilliant smile floating in a ball of blinding, gold light. Startled, she cried out the name belonging to that familiar voice. “Ini?!”
The mysterious man who had entrusted her with the magic orb and the mission to travel the world collecting the power of the Four Great Spirits hadn’t changed one bit since their first encounter. Nor had his inappropriate sexual advances.
“Mm, mm! Nothing’s changed about you! Hm? Did you grow a little here?”
SQUEEZE!
“Ick…!” Nichika brought down the full might of her fist on the devilish man who suddenly squeezed her breasts. “Don’t touch me, pervert!”
“AUGH!”
Her powerful right straight punch landed a direct hit on his cheek, sending the golden man soaring into the back corner of the room.
This is what you get for testing me, Nichika thought with her shoulders rising and dropping with heavy breathing.
“Can you get any more disruptive?” a new voice boomed through the headmaster’s office. “Where do you think you are?”
Nichika turned toward the owner of that strict, commanding voice. An older woman was standing in the broken doorway. When did she get there? Intelligence gleamed in her rose-brown eyes, and white streaks peppered her mousy brown hair pulled into a tight bun.
“Grindieda.”
“Master.”
“Headmaster.”
Ini, Oswald, and Lambert addressed her at once, revealing the woman’s name and identity without Nichika having to inquire. The woman who seemed to embody calmness in demeanor and pose was Elminage’s headmaster and, apparently, Oswald’s master.
Deigning not to look at the men who spoke her name, Grindieda flipped her black witch’s robe behind her and stood before the sole girl in the room. She addressed her without smiling. “You must be Miss Nichika.”
“Erm, yes. Nice to meet you!” Panicking, she dropped into an awkward curtsy. Something about the headmaster made her feel like she was before a queen and needed to act as such. She glanced up under her lashes at the intimidating woman and received a question she couldn’t easily answer in return.
“It appears Angelica Rubens rejected her enrollment into the academy.”
“—!”
This is bad. Real bad! What excuse can I make now? Sweat dampening her palms, Nichika maundered her excuse.
“Well, you see…it’s like this…and that…”
“I’ll allow it to pass for now. Raise your head, child.”
Nichika timidly looked up to where the other woman stared down at her without a single readable expression upon her wrinkled face. After a long while, she exhaled a cumbersome breath and closed her eyes.
“I see. So you are the Spirit Priestess…”
“How do you know that?”
Did she hear it from Ini?
Before Grindieda could answer, Ini stepped forward, his golden wings spreading obnoxiously wide as if he had been waiting for this opportunity to steal the spotlight.
“Looks like it’s time for me to step up. I wish I could’ve explained everything to my precious Nichika during our fated meeting on top of the Whale’s deck, but various circumstances prevented me until now.”
Ini snapped his fingers and cushioned chairs burst into existence with a tiny boom behind each person in the room. He threw his arms out wide with theatrical pomp and took charge of the scene with a flourish.
“Take a seat, ladies and gentlemen! For now is the time to unveil the details behind this time’s Spirit Priestess Project!”
***
IT was undeniably stirring in the darkness. Amid the thick and viscous nebulous black of night, It felt joy.
Soon that person will come. Soon they will feed me that delicious substance, It thought.
Before long a small person cloaked under a white hood slid into the darkness. They were carrying a heavy tin bucket.
It roared with delight upon their arrival. The visitor apathetically listened to the guttural sound that would’ve scared the soul out of an ordinary person. They casually apologized for being late and flipped over the bucket, dumping out the contents.
“Sorry for the wait. Eat to your heart’s content.”
A thick, sticky dark-purple gel-like substance oozed out of the gray container.
It jumped with joy. The visitor spoke in gentle tones as they watched over It.
“Ahaha. Grow up big and strong for me soon. And once you do…”
Only the disturbing noise of chewing, crunching, and splattering filled the dark.
***
“IT’S my job to revive Goddess Yuna?!” Nichika leapt from her seat. The chair fell over and clattered against the floor. Too ruffled to notice, she organized the information Ini provided aloud. “Uh, hold on. I’m not sure I get this. Isn’t Yuna a mythological being? You know, just a legendary character that went down in ancient history as possibly a god?”
As Nichika scraped together the bits and pieces of information available to her, Lambert tossed in his two cents from the seat next to her. “Righto. And now there’s a rumor floating ’round ’bout her having died several months ago.”
“Mana has been actin’ up and not functioning properly since. I heard you can’t use magic at all in some areas. They say that’s why monsters have been rampaging lately,” Wolfie continued after him, lying on the floor across from her, his ears pricked upright.
Ini cast down his gaze and woefully replied, “I truly do feel bad about the issues we’ve caused on that front. As a representative of the Celestial Realm, I offer you our deepest apologies.”
Celestial Realm. The sudden mention of a phrase right out of a fantasy novel rendered Nichika speechless. Did that mean another realm existed in the skies above Arcanshiel?
Exasperated with his apprentice who fell silent, her eyes having rounded into perfect circles, Oswald prodded her from where he sat to her left.
“Why the dumb look this time?” he sighed.
“Master, what’s the Celestial Realm?!”
“……”
She turned toward her master with all the vigor of a lioness pouncing on her prey. He eyed her like she was some kind of rare exhibit on display at a mystery shack. Fuming at his reaction, she sought an answer from him.
“Oh gosh! You’re giving me THAT look again! Yeah, yeah. I get it. I’m OH SO ignorant when it comes to the ways of your world. But you know what? They say: to ask may be a moment’s shame, but not to ask and to remain ignorant is an everlasting shame!”
Nichika was proud of herself for having her first good comeback in a while. Oswald blinked several times before answering her without his usual snark—though his answer seriously lacked in the useful department.
“The Celestial Realm is what it sounds like it is: the world where the celestial beings live above the skies… Or so they say.”
“Why do you sound so uncertain?” she asked, thinking that was rare for the man who often lauded his extensive knowledge over her.
He crossed his arms at his chest. “The Celestial Realm is as much a fairy tale to us as the legend of Spirit Priestess Yuna is. No one has breached the realm before, and its residents rarely see it fit to show themselves according to the records, but…” he slid his judgmental gaze over to Ini and snorted, “then you get some worldly, perverted celestials like this one who ruin your whole image of the heavenly host.”
Ini returned his remark with a snicker and retorted, “Why, I was wondering what all the buzzing in my ear was, but I see it was just my empress’s manservant prattling. Your dismal face is still such a bore.”
“And you’re still parading around like an idiot ruining the moment. Have you found any of your missing screws yet?”
“Ahem! Save it for later!” Nichika shouted, stepping between them before the conversation derailed completely. “Is it true that Ini is some sorta god?!”
The golden pervert cracked a goofy, self-satisfied grin. “We call ourselves celestials, so we’re probably on par with gods to those who look up to us from the surface.”
Ew, I wouldn’t want a sexual harasser for a god. Nichika kept that thought to herself. She didn’t say anything out loud, giving way for Ini to launch into a story of his own.
“I used to serve Yuna as her attendant…”
In those days, the world revolved around the continent of Arcanshiel and had only two big countries, rather than the dozens of independent nations that made up the land today.
Those two countries absorbed even the smallest settlements scattered around the continent, eventually splitting the world into two main factions. The conflict between the White Kingdom based in the north and the Red Kingdom governing the south was plain for all to see.
Unsurprisingly, the two countries moved to conquer the other. They commanded the spirits to massacre and used their crafty witch’s items to kill millions of innocents. Some sorrowful spirits sealed their power and disappeared for good.
“It’s just like the story I read…” Nichika observed as she recalled the picture book she found in Cherry Blossom Kingdom.
“That much is covered in the books of this realm,” Ini confirmed. “But this next part has only been passed down in the Celestial Realm and can’t be found in any book.”
The celestials, who usually hid their existence, saw the gravity of the situation for what it was and finally got off their lazy butts to take action. After all, with their deep connection to the spirit realm, they determined the long, drawn-out war to be nothing more than a blight on the world at large.
Thus, they prepared a lone girl to enact their plans, believing offering up a heroine would prove more effective in touching human hearts on the surface below.
“And that was Lady Yuna?” Wolfie interrupted for the first time.
“It’d definitely be a lot easier for the masses to get behind an adorable girl coming down from the heavens on God’s mission to punish evil than a buncha butch men.”
Like Jeanne d’Arc? Nichika thought after Lambert’s remark but kept it to herself because she didn’t think anyone present would get the reference.
Ini went on with the story.
The Celestial Realm’s plan was a huge success. In particular, the settlements that were forced to surrender and be absorbed into the two nations gave Yuna their full support. Yuna traversed the continent recovering the spirits forced into doing evil and sheltered them in the magic orb. Eventually, the small rebel armies popping up in each region grew bigger, and the war finally came to an end by defeating the kings of both countries. White and Red kingdom were dismantled, and the people dispersed to start the several dozen nations that made up the continent today.
After listening through Ini’s history lesson, Nichika confirmed the historical ending she had garnered from reading. “Yuna became the Spirit King after that, right?”
“The correct term is Spirit Goddess. The person in that role doesn’t order the spirits around, but rather acts as their representative,” Grindieda explained as if teaching a lecture on the topic.
Ini closed his eyes beside her as he recalled the distant past. “Exactly. She was truly radiant during those days. War Maiden has never suited another more than she.”
“…Uh, you saw her? In person?” Nichika asked, hung up on the nostalgic way he spoke of Yuna.
“Of course! For I had accompanied her on her journey to punish evildoers!” Ini proclaimed as if it were a given.
“Didn’t that happen hundreds of years ago? Just how old are you?”
The man who looked no older than mid-twenties put his hands on his hips and leaned back. “I stopped counting once I hit the third digit. I’m forever twenty-six!”
“Sorry for calling you an old man when you’re actually a fossil.”
Ini shot a wicked look at Oswald, “Ha! You can only dream of a body this youthful when you get to be my age!” before resuming his storytelling in the same vein as before. “How far along was I? Oh, right, once Yuna became goddess the surface world stabilized for several hundred years. But then…” He cast down his gaze and his tone dropped several decibels. His always glittering expression clouded over for the first time. “A certain incident happened in the celestial realm a while back causing Yuna’s soul to separate from her body.”
“What…?”
“Allow me to take a slight deviation from the story to touch upon the three elements that compose a person. Do you know what the third element is that connects the soul to the body?”
Ini’s sudden change in topic clicked right away with Nichika who looked toward the young man slouching in his chair. “Isn’t that what you taught about in class today, Lambert?”
“Hey! Don’t rat me out, Nichika!” He slid from the chair under the headmaster’s hawkish gaze.
“I hope for your sake that you didn’t teach Professor Logical’s class for him again—”
“Ah! Uh! I’m not what we’re talking ’bout, ma’am! Anyways, the answer is the heart vessel, God Ini!”
“That it is.”
Grindieda looked like she wanted to interrogate him some more, but, fortunately for Lambert, the mic passed back to Ini. With a nod, a hologram-like image displayed between his open palms. An enchantingly beautiful golden chalice flickered there, drawing a dreamy sigh from Nichika.
“Beautiful…”
The palm-sized chalice was embedded with shining red, blue, green, and yellow stones in each of the cardinal directions. It appeared to be an invaluable relic that was too marvelous to ever name a price for.
But then the bewitching chalice shattered in a million fragments without warning. Glittering light spilled out from the scattered shards.
Confirming the look of shock on Nichika’s face, Ini sorrowfully nodded. “As you can see, Yuna’s soul departed her body after her heart vessel was destroyed. “
“Did she disappear for good then?” she asked, careful not to offend him.
He slowly shook his head. “No. It’s hard to imagine a soul as powerful as hers would so easily revert to the cycle of life. I believe she is wandering somewhere, unable to find the body she should return to.”
Ini raised his right hand, displaying a different image of a simple vessel that was similar in size and shape to the golden chalice, but pure white and without any decoration. Spinning it round and round in his palms, he confided his plans in her.
“I have already prepared a new heart vessel. The problem I face is how to draw Yuna’s soul inside it…”
“And that’s where I come in?” Nichika asked, almost positive that was the case.
Smiling, Ini pointed to the magic orb dangling from her belt. “Exactly. Yuna’s soul was always with the Four Great Spirits. I just know if she can sense them together—”
“That her soul will surely come to be with them,” Nichika finished. Squeezing the orb in her right hand, she felt reinvigorated about her role. “Okay, I’ll do what I can! We have to return Lady Yuna back to her body as soon as possible. Right, Oswald?”
She looked to her left, but her master’s face was a nebulous void. Anxiety surging within her, her hand curled around the orb and her lips trembled.
Why did her bad premonitions always have one-hundred percent accuracy? She sucked in a breath to speak before he could say what she didn’t want to hear, but he quietly spoke first.
“Nichika. I’m not going. This is where we part ways.”
He avoided looking at her saucer-wide eyes. Instead, Headmaster Grindieda took a step forward, blocking Nichika’s view of her master.
“I was actually discussing that matter with this child before you came. Miss Nichika, you are about to embark on a journey to save the world’s goddess. Do you honestly believe such a wicked man is worthy of standing beside the world’s savior?”
“I…he…”
No one could blame Nichika for stumbling over her answer. Thinking back on their time together, they were hunted down by the Witch’s Council at the first village they visited because of him, he had tried his hardest to brainwash an innocent Whale, and she had nearly died in Cherry Blossom Kingdom from a magic bullet of his making.
Headmaster Grindieda didn’t wait for her response before delivering her own conclusion. “I do not believe so. Oswald’s notoriety is growing in the underworld. What will the world say if such a heinous man is traveling with the Spirit Priestess?”
The desire to refute her sparked to life within Nichika. Sure, Oswald was a genius at starting arguments and creating enemies wherever he went. But she knew he was more than that. But before she could decide on her defense of him, the headmaster made the decision for her.
“I don’t know how he wheedled his way into your good graces, but I can say with confidence that he did so to use your reputation and power.”
“He did not! I coerced him into taking me on as his apprentice long before either of us knew I was the Spirit Priestess!” Nichika protested.
“Then don’t you believe that is all the more reason to end your relationship here?” the headmaster’s heartless voice drowned hers out. “Your personal feelings matter not. This is all for Goddess Yuna and her reputation. You should understand as much. Unless you are a small child who wishes to throw a tantrum?”
“……”
Nichika sunk her teeth into her bottom lip. Frustration pulsed through her veins. Her mind was thrown into turmoil by his sudden farewell and couldn’t process anything anymore. Hanging her head, she dug her nails into the sides of her skirt.
A very harrowing realization dawned upon her as she scoured her mind for a reason for them to stay together: the only thing keeping them together was their vague master-apprentice relationship. And even that was something she had one-sidedly pushed on him that was little more than a verbal agreement.
Last night suddenly entered her thoughts. Would something have changed if she had accepted the touch he offered then? Would their relationship have turned into one she could proudly announce to the people in this room?
The gentle weight of a hand rested on her aching head. Surprised, she looked up at the unusually gentle eyes of the man she called master. His brows were drawn together in a troubled expression that was marked by a small smile. Ironically, it was his kindest expression to date.
“Nichika, you’re confused. You’re merely placing your baseless faith in the first person you met after being dropped into this world. You’re no different from a duckling that grows attached to the first thing it sees.”
The remonstrating edge to his voice stunned her. What in the world is he saying? Her brain refused to parse the information passing through her ears. The words she couldn’t swallow relentlessly tore at her heart.
“You can make it just fine without me,” he mercilessly pointed out in the gentlest of voices to his apprentice who could only shake her head and gnaw at her lip. “No doubt you had the talent to make lots of people like you from the very start. You never needed me.”
Why did this man only ever choose these moments to show kindness? Why couldn’t he just downright reject her? Didn’t he know his kindness was even crueler than cruelty?
Nichika couldn’t take it. Large droplets spilled over and trailed a path down her cheek onto the floor. Oswald’s face contorted painfully at the sight of her tears and he removed his hand and took a step back.
“Our relationship as master and apprentice ends here.”
His quiet delivery of that announcement caused her shoulders to jump. Don’t say it. I don’t want to hear the rest. Her secret wishes were dashed as he declared the end of their relationship.
“You are no longer my apprentice.”