Ragnis Lien da Levien
Ragnis Lien da Levien
It didn't matter if she fell.
Ragnis had turned her body toward the voice's owner faster than she could form the thought.
The sunrise and the fierce wind brought tears to her eyes, but she didn't care in the slightest. She would have been crying anyway, even without them.
Back in her immature childhood, when she was still leading a happy life in the territory, there had been a time when, like other young noble ladies, she read countless novels while dreaming of fictional romance.
The fact that a war with the Demon King's Army had broken out had been nothing more than a thrilling topic for nobles her age. The idea of a devastated life and a hopeless future brought on by defeat at the hands of the Demon King's Army simply didn't exist in their minds.
Rather, it felt as though a mythic and heroic age, one rare enough to count on one hand in all of history, had arrived. They had rejoiced, believing they were now living in an era of glory and romance, where countless heroes would be born, knights would rise, and love and honor would be sung.
Looking back, those were immature and laughable childish days, but it was true that she herself had also dreamed of meeting such a knight.
A knight who confessed his love, then hunted a dragon to prove his devotion. A knight who fought for his honor and gifted that glory alongside a single flower. Her heart had fluttered with all sorts of imaginings. A few young ladies had even hired artists to draw small portraits of the knights and princes from their fantasies, and she'd secretly been quite envious of that, wanting one herself.
And that was why she could be certain.
Even if they brought together every single knight she had ever imagined and every knight the other young ladies had imagined, none of them could ever be as cool as the sight of him dropping from the sky like a thunderbolt, piercing the wyvern's head, and cutting down the kidnapper like a flash of light.
"Eldmia!"
In the midst of joy and elation, Ragnis burst into tears.
She had wanted to believe he would save her. Because the situation had been far from something she could confidently say he'd definitely save her from, she had simply wanted to believe. Even though the sight of herself, helpless and forced to do nothing but believe and wait, had felt so disgustingly repulsive it made her sick, she had not been able to abandon that faith.
"This actually worked!"
Eldmia, laughing with a smile brighter than any she'd ever seen from him, was falling. Of course, she was falling too. And the dead wyvern was falling. The kidnapper, who was clearly dead judging by Eldmia's laughter, would naturally be falling as well.
But Eldmia only laughed, as if there was nothing at all to worry about. Even as he fell, he calmly slid his sword into its sheath and tied it fast so it wouldn't come loose, showing more composure than ever, and laughed—hearty and relieved.
So Ragnis laughed with him.
"Let's go home now! Ragnis!"
"Yeah!"
Because she believed in the light that illuminated her, she smiled brightly.
◈
I'd never expected that coming to another world would have me skydiving, something I hadn't even done in my past life, but I couldn't deny it had been a successful experience.
Aside from my whole body creaking from the all-out enhancement I'd used, it had been perfect. Gies matched our speed expertly, caught Ragnis without putting any strain on her, and then brought me safely back onto the rear of his wyvern.
"Never heard the name before. Might even be an alias."
Having thus avoided death by falling, we landed on the ground, lit a campfire, and took a brief rest.
Flying through the night had left us plenty tired. Though honestly, Gies and the wyvern had to be the most exhausted.
But the situation wasn't relaxed enough to allow real sleep, so to fend off drowsiness, we talked. Still, Ragnis couldn't guess at Delt's identity. Before we'd taken to the sky, my plan had been to check his belongings if we managed to luck out and kill Delt, but I'd given up on that now—no way a body and gear dropped from that insane height would be intact. If we ever did find them, I'd probably see fragments of a corpse rather than a corpse itself.
Gies had told me that even the wyvern's carcass would be hard-pressed to remain whole from that altitude.
"On our way here, I spotted a fair-sized village nearby. Let's get something to eat there before we depart. We've still got a long flight ahead of us."
Once we'd finished explaining Gies's circumstances, Ragnis made it clear that she would protect him in her own name. Since she was not yet legally an adult and couldn't make that promise in the Margrave's name, she also promised that after coming of age she would formally guarantee his protection and reward through the proper procedures. That put Gies's worries to rest. I also learned in the process that he was in his mid-twenties, but with my mental age already past thirty, I decided not to make a thing of it.
It'd be awkward as hell to suddenly call him big bro now.
Thanks to that, we were able to maintain a fairly comfortable atmosphere as we moved toward the village.
"Since he's got solid credentials as a wyvern pilot, we won't be turned away at the door."
"You're right. I'm getting help from you again."
"Aren't we already in this together? Calling this help is almost embarrassing."
Since his identity was guaranteed by the kingdom, when we actually entered the village, Gies received looks of admiration instead of wary stares. You really can never predict the ways people end up connected.
As was only natural, the wyvern's meal cost more than the three of ours combined. I was shocked when Gies casually bought an entire pig, but after watching the wyvern devour it all by itself, I had no choice but to accept it. No wonder the upkeep costs were so damn expensive.
While we ate, I listened to the two of them agree that while this wyvern was clearly an asset belonging to someone in the noble faction, since the operation had been conducted in a shady, unrighteous manner from the start, claiming ownership over it would prove difficult. Because of that, Ragnis began organizing her thoughts with the intention of treating Gies and the wyvern as a single package when considering their compensation. The fact that her troubled face now showed a noblewoman's cold, calculated sharpness was both incredibly novel and utterly fascinating to me.
So when we finally flew the long haul back and returned to Itisel, it was just past lunchtime. It would've been better if we'd arrived late and at least avoided prying eyes, but instead, we ended up arriving smack in the middle of the bustling peak hours.
The city must already have been on alert. As soon as the gate guards saw us, they summoned the guard force and gave us a not-quite-arrest escort. We ended up walking all the way to Alisha's inn under a barrage of stares.
"Levi!"
"Auntie!"
Never in my life had I expected to see Alisha crying. This wasn't merely a strained expression—she ran up with tears streaming down her face and hugged Ragnis, making it obvious how worried she'd been. As expected, all her swearing in the world couldn't hide what a soft heart she had.
"Eldi."
Beyond her stood Asilie, quietly watching me. At that one call, all the confidence I'd had moments earlier vanished, and I could only shuffle meekly over to her.
"How'd you know to come here?"
"Jin told me. He came running here on his own two feet without even taking a horse and asked me to help. How could I ignore that?"
"He asked for your help?"
"He said that with the patrol compromised like that, he didn't trust the guard force either, so he asked me to help."
Seriously, what a guy. If I ever got the chance, I wanted to corner him and ask what the hell he'd been before all this.
But talking to Asilie came first. I figured I might as well get the scolding over with, so I decided to come clean.
"I judged things too complacently, and the situation got tangled up, so in the end, I killed a man. Sorry."
"I can't really believe that Eldi judged something complacently."
"Ragnis and I put our heads together about it... but they were reading just one move ahead of us."
If Delt had perfectly grasped even my skills, he would've treated the adventurers purely as discardable pawns and left nothing behind at the camp. If that had happened, Ragnis wouldn't be standing here now. It was purely luck.
Since there was still time before I had to report to the guard force, I gave her a rough summary of events. Asilie hugged me with a faint smile and said,
"Yeah. If you can judge the situation that clearly, I don't think it's something I need to worry about. What matters is that you made the decision with a cool head."
"Thanks, Sis."
"More than that, I'm curious about how Eldi beat an opponent like that? You'd have been at a huge disadvantage since you were flying on a wyvern and can't use magic properly."
"Ah, that."
Asilie wasn't wrong in the slightest. If I'd fought Delt normally, even if his swordsmanship had been abysmal, I'd have been the one falling.
When you get down to it, aura is ultimately just a concept of enhancement. Whether reinforcing your body or the weapon you're holding, simply put, making things sturdier is aura's role. I'd heard legends and rumors about batshit insane guys whose swordsmanship reached the domain of magic, but that wasn't something I myself could replicate.
I mean, seriously, how the hell does a sword swung by a human cut through space? That's gotta be made-up bullshit.
In the end, so long as you couldn't shoot out sword energy like an arrow like in wuxia novels or make your blade fly around on its own with telekinetic swordsmanship, it was a given that you'd get unilaterally pummeled by a mage in aerial combat. So that's why I'd kicked things off with such a hardline opening move.
"Man, yeah. My heart was in my throat the whole time. Gies—that's the wyvern pilot's name—did a huge amount of the work with his flying."
"Oh, really?"
"Yeah. I realized it the moment I jumped off. I was like, 'Oh? At this rate, I can drop right onto the wyvern's crown and drive my sword into it.'"
"......What?"
"I always thought that thing about everything feeling like it's in slow motion when you're in a real pinch was total bullshit, but from the moment I gripped my sword with both hands so I wouldn't miss and brought it down on its crown—maybe a second passed? Two seconds? It honestly felt like an eternity. That guy Delt probably also felt something similar—"
"Wait, Eldi? Jumped off? Aimed for the wyvern's head? From where?"
"Huh? From the wyvern we were riding, obviously."
Wondering what she was suddenly asking about, I stopped describing the scene and looked at Asilie...
Asilie, who'd been looking at me with a faint smile, seemed to stiffen up for a moment, and then her eyes rolled back and she fainted dead away.
"Aaaagh?! Sis?! R-Ragnis! Water! Water!"
"Eld...? Aaaah! Asilie!!"
Ah, fuck, goddammit! I should've kept my mouth shut!