Lucia Approaches the First Cristallo Sacro

After the incident, I was made to ride in the carriage with Miss Maria and the crown prince. Being that it was for very important people, it was incredibly comfortable. The seats were covered in beautiful fabric woven with complicated flower patterns, and there were many fluffy cushions, but that didn’t seem to be enough for Miss Maria.

“Carriages hurt your bottom, don’t they?” Miss Maria asked.

As I slowly glanced around, I replied, “This carriage is actually quite nice. Wagons have harder seats, and shake more.”

“Really!?” Miss Maria pouted. “Even forgetting the cushions, this carriage shakes way more than I’m used to in a car.”

That reminded me, Sir Celes had once said that the Sacred Maiden had never ridden in a carriage before. I wondered if this “car” thing was what they used for transportation instead? Whatever the case, her world must be amazing to have something less shaky than even this carriage!

“What is a ‘car’?” I asked.

“Hmm, how do I explain it... It’s made of metal, and it’s like a horseless carriage, kinda... It’s hard to describe now that I think about it. The tires are made out of rubber instead of wood, so they vibrate much less.”

“Eh, they can move without a horse? With magic?”

“My world doesn’t have magic!” Miss Maria quickly shot back. “They run using engines. I’m not sure how they work, but they’re faster than carriages, and they have air conditioning.”

“Interesting, isn’t it?” His Highness chimed in. “It seems they’re handy enough that the Academy wanted to start development of them after hearing about them from Maria.”

Her explanation included a lot of words from her world, so I couldn’t quite imagine what a car must look like, but it does seem like it would be quite handy. I wonder if our world would become like hers if the Academy succeeded? That would be wonderful! As we chatted, the carriage suddenly stopped. With the way it stopped violently, the atmosphere in the carriage suddenly became tense. We could hear the cries of the horses, and someone speaking roughly. What could have happened?

Before we could look out the window, Commander Agliardi knocked hard on the door and said, “Monsters! There are many of them, so please stay inside the carriage.”

Miss Maria’s face froze as soon as she heard the word monsters. I must have been making the exact same face; anyone would be afraid of monsters...

“It’s alright. I’m with you,” I said to Miss Maria as I reached for her hand.

“Yeah... Protect me, Lucia.”

We both clutched each other tightly for protection. You could tell how nervous she was from her cold fingers. Of course, my fingers were cold, too.

As we strained our ears to hear, His Highness, who was looking through the window, spoke to me, “Lucia, you said that your magic calms monsters. I want to see it. Can you go out and show me your ability in action?”

“Ed!” Miss Maria snapped. “Why does Lucia need to fight!?”

“We don’t know much about her magic. It won’t be any help to us if we don’t test it. It doesn’t look like the drugs from Amarith had any lasting effects, and she looks fine now. If she can go, I want her to go and show me.”

Miss Maria got up and grabbed the prince by his collar. “But Lucia isn’t a knight or a soldier!”

“Father told me to test her skills, so I’d like to see it,” His Highness coolly replied. “They said that it rendered a horde of ogres powerless. This carriage is currently surrounded by monsters. Eric can’t use any strong or large-scale spells while we’re in the forest; his affinity is for fire magic, after all. It will take time for Fernando and the others to cut them all down as well. If they take too long, other monsters in the forest might come for the corpses.”

“That’s...”

“Or will you defeat them with your light magic? That would end this quickly. But it looks like you can’t, can you?” His Highness probed further. “We sent the soldiers back, so we have to deal with them ourselves. Maybe we should have brought more of the Academy mages with us. They might not have intimidated you as much.”

Miss Maria, who was astonished to hear the truth, slowly lost her grip. As His Highness held her hand to comfort her, his emerald eyes focused on me. I swallowed hard. This wasn’t a situation where I could say no. To be honest, I was really scared, but not as scared as I was when I first faced monsters at Arldat Castle. After all, I’m not alone now. The strongest warriors in the kingdom are here... And more importantly, Sir Celes is with me! That truth alone gave me strength. I’m afraid, but it will be fine. I need to do my best. I promised Miss Maria that I’d protect her! And I need to work hard to thank her for protecting me in Amarith!

Having pumped myself up, I made a fist and stood up straight. “Alright.”

“Lucia!”

“It’s alright. I’ll protect you. Sir Celes and Sir Gaius are outside too. I’ll be alright!” I said, attempting to reassure her. “Miss Maria, please stay inside with His Highness. I’ve practiced with Sir Gaius on my way here.”

“It’s dangerous! Stay here!” she pleaded.

“Miss Maria. Please let me keep my promise. It’s not dangerous at all. Please excuse me!”

Leaving Miss Maria to His Highness, I opened the carriage door. Outside, I could see the deep forest — and quite a few monsters surrounding the carriage from behind the tree line. I couldn’t help but gulp at the sight of them. I had seen the horse-sized Phaian boars a few times before on my journey here, but the rest were a first. Both the flat-tailed, huge-teethed Afanc and the scaled blue horse-like Each-uisge were water monsters, so we must be near the water.

“Lucia! It’s dangerous, get back in the carriage!” Sir Celes yelled, having noticed I’d come out.

The instant I saw the sword in his right hand covered in blood, I got goosebumps. I couldn’t get used to it, no matter how many times I saw it.

“Fire Arrow! Thunderbolt!” Eric cast spells while gripping the crystal on his chest. “Geez! Maybe it’s since we’re near the Cristallo Sacro, but there’s no end to them! Can I burn the forest down? It’d be faster to use area magic to take ’em out!”

It looked like he couldn’t use larger spells for fear of causing a large fire. It must have been difficult to fight like that.

Commander Agliardi responded to Eric’s proposal, “You can if you can put it back out!”

“I’m not good with water magic!” Eric shook his head. “You okay with me flooding this entire place!?”

“You’re useless, kid!” Sir Gaius snorted at Eric’s reply, and Lord Reynard, raising his eyebrows, reproached, “Brother!”

“The bear is babbling! You’re gonna make me wanna use area magic if you talk to me like that! It’s not my thing, so the potency might drop a bit, but... Vought!” The moment Eric cast his spell, a large pillar of air smashed the monsters with a boom, knocking down many trees along the way. Looking at the various sized splinters and the splashes of blue all around, Eric called out in a satisfied tone, “Hey, aren’t I strong?”

“Hey genius, you just blocked the road!” Sir Gaius shouted at the triumphant boy. It was true. The large fallen trees were now blocking the road. Just as the prince had said, Eric’s magic wasn’t suited for this kind of place.

“Gah, they’re still coming!”

“It must be because we’re nearly at the Cristallo Sacro. Celestino, behind you,” Commander Agliardi warned.

“I know!” Sir Celes flashed the sword in his right hand and beheaded the Each-uisge that had been approaching him.

Sir Celes... He’s so skilled. Just what you would expect from the Dragonslayer — but it was too scary to watch. At a glance, Each-uisge looked like horses, but... It still had a severed head. As I just stood there and watched, I realized, I needed to help everyone! I couldn’t just look on in shock.

Gearing myself up, I stepped down from the carriage. Then, I faced another horde of monsters and cast. “Soap!”

If I was afraid of being attacked, all I needed to do was calm them down before they could! As soon as my cast went off, I felt as if something left my body as a mass of soap bubbles appeared. The bubbles surrounded the monsters, shining like rainbows before popping. I watched and prayed. Please, work...!

My prayers were answered, because my soap magic cleansed the monsters’ wills to fight. Despite wanting to kill us all a second ago, the Afanc, Each-uisge, and Phaians just glanced at us if we were stones on the road before walking away.