Winter
Winter
After finishing my talk with the investigator and sitting in front of the stove for the first time in a while, the first thing I checked was my fingers.
To be precise, I was examining not only the white ring that had been on my index finger but also the black ring that had spontaneously appeared on my middle finger. Naturally, no matter how long I stared at it, I had no way of knowing what it was, so I had to enlist the help of the source of my knowledge, Asilie.
"Esmue gave it to me, so I figured it was a pretty pricey item, but... this is probably way too expensive."
When I mentioned the curse I'd been unable to speak of yesterday, a wave of dizziness hit me, afraid I might collapse again, but Asilie's reaction was surprisingly matter-of-fact. She said that the very moment I received the ring, I never needed to worry about curses anyway.
"It was an artifact that blocks and records curses at the same time. Here, do you see this part?"
Too afraid to mess with it in case taking it off or touching it was dangerous, I'd just kept it on. It was only when Asilie fearlessly plucked the black ring from my finger and pointed to a spot that I realized the black ring was made of densely packed lettering.
"Letters, right?"
"Right. Unlike magic, curse formulas are intuitive. They're nothing but pristine, natural elements accumulated bit by bit, with no admixture. Take this ring to a specialist mage and they'll be able to break down the formula."
That was what made backtracing so ridiculously easy. Asilie explained that the ring had been developed for precisely that purpose—tracking perpetrators—and was used only by a handful of high-ranking nobles.
"It creates something like this out of thin air...?"
"To be precise, it's something the curse-blocking ring originally possessed. Even I don't know the composition."
As I marveled anew at how profound the world of magic and magical tools could be, Asilie handed me back the black ring and continued.
"High-ranking nobles is an understatement—it's an item practically reserved for royalty. It's about as cost-effective as a curse."
Royalty sounded grandiose, but she said in countries with fierce succession disputes, royals wore them constantly, each of them wary of assassination plots. Expensive, yes, but not exactly rare?
"Still, it's absolutely not something a commoner or adventurer would wear around. An artifact meant for retaliation and backtracing—anyone who recognized it would've mistaken you for royalty from somewhere, Eldi."
"I do have that aristocratic air."
"Talking nonsense again."
Asilie gave a short laugh and smacked my shoulder. I chuckled along and looked at the white ring, which was definitely duller than I remembered. Maybe one more block left? With no usage counter, there was no way to tell.
"Seems like it fades every time it blocks a curse. Considering it blocked a curse from what was essentially an Archdemon and still looks like that, the curse-blocker's pretty sturdy. I've occasionally made preparations for curses too, but usually only in talisman form, so this is kind of fascinating."
Something like a voodoo doll taking the curse in my place? I figured I'd ask for a detailed explanation when I sent a thank-you letter later. Anyway, once the current mess was resolved, Siegfried would return to the Empire too, so I could ask then.
In any case, it was now certain that the ring held no issues, so I decided to enjoy my rare moment of rest.
"Eldi. Let's make a snowman. Snowman."
...After playing with Asilie first.
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Maybe because she was from the north, Asilie genuinely loved snow. It was strange how she'd laze about like a hibernating bear whenever winter approached, then get excited the moment she saw snow. But since she hadn't visited her homeland in a very long time, I suspected she was nursing a touch of homesickness.
By now, Asilie dismissed the memory of almost being sold as a slave as nothing, so I took this chance to broach the subject of her hometown, something I'd been too cautious to ask about.
"Speaking of which, big sis, what's your hometown like?"
"Eum... snowy, and a pretty rough place where elf hunters come by often."
While rolling snowballs excitedly alongside a bouncing Laika, Asilie dredged up memories, and the phrase that left her mouth was rather grim. One of her hometown's defining traits was frequent run-ins with elf hunters? As my expression involuntarily twisted, Asilie gave a wry smile and explained.
"Ridiculous, but it's true. Surrounded by snow year-round, nothing special about it, yet those bastards kept showing up often enough to make you sick."
"...I've wondered for a while—do elf hunters chase elves inside the forest itself, rather than luring them outside?"
"Both. That's right, Eldi, an elf hunter is someone who can fight on par with an elf even inside the forest. They're a bit too strong to dismiss as mere slave traders."
Fighting a seasoned elf head-on was already impressive; doing it inside the forest where the elf received spirit aid was something else entirely. If I'd heard that without context, I'd have thought it was a novel method of suicide.
"Remember the restraints from when we first met? Slave traders use a surprising variety of tools besides those. The elf hunters' own skill is dangerous enough, but those tools are especially nasty. We lose something just by having to fight them, while they'll come at us with fire in their eyes because capturing even one elf is enough for them to recoup their costs."
"That kind of magical tool is also filthy expensive, and they'd still go through that shit?"
"Seems so. When I fell into a slaver's hands... I think the elf hunters got about forty trade gold coins in return?"
Now Asilie spoke of it as if it were truly nothing, but to me, it was anything but trivial. At first I'd wondered what kind of crazed bastards would risk their lives for money like that, but for forty trade gold coins, there were plenty who'd do it and then some.
In this world, a commoner living an ordinary life often never even touched a single gold coin in their lifetime. Of course, that didn't mean I intended to understand or condone the actions of those shitheads.
"Do you miss your hometown, big sis?"
I asked as I lifted the snowman's head we'd just finished rolling. Asilie's eyes went round, and for some reason, she rolled her eyes and began to mull it over.
"Now that you mention it... maybe because time flew by so hectically while I've been with you, Eldi?"
She smiled faintly and came closer, placing the head on the snowman's body I'd diligently rolled. Asilie naturally leaned her back against my chest and settled into my arms, gazing at the snowman.
"In the old days, my tribe was everything. I was young back then, and arrogant. Even after my arrogance brought disaster upon me, all I could think about was somehow returning home... Now I just think, 'Someday, when I have time, I should go back and let them know I'm safe.' When I was first captured, my mind was bursting with thoughts of escape and revenge, you know."
Her standard for 'young' was clearly elven, but I kept my mouth shut. More than that, the idea of Asilie not only arrogant but also burning with vengeance... I tried my hardest to imagine it, but it wasn't easy to picture.
"Is it far?"
"Well, it's on the opposite side of the Empire. Using a gate would make it quick, but as pure distance goes, it's from one end to the other."
"So we met across that great distance."
"Hehe, right. Isn't it amazing? That the slave traders happened to be attacked there, and that those bandits just happened to scavenge their way toward your village... Could it be fate?"
"I don't believe in anything like fate."
To be honest, the most amazing thing by far was my reincarnation, so I could only think of it as a curious, improbable coincidence. And if it really were fate, that would mean this world was a board rigged by a god—and that would make that son of a bitch the true mastermind who razed our village to the ground.
The road to becoming Eldmia, Slayer of the Demon King's Army, was long and arduous; I couldn't even fathom how much more distant the path to becoming Eldmia the Deicide was.
So when I answered with a face that said it gave me a headache, Asilie looked up at me and smiled again.
"Still, someone as far removed from the word 'fated' as you is rare, Eldi."
"Exactly. I'm chaos incarnate, spawning variables wherever I go."
"If you know that, can't you show a little restraint?"
"No... that feels a bit unfair."
How could I show restraint when the world was out to screw me over? Just as I was about to voice my self-serving excuse in the middle of our casual chatter, Laika, who'd been wriggling to squeeze between our feet the whole time, suddenly perked up and spoke.
[Owner! Someone's coming!]
"...Not just a passerby, but coming here? How do you know?"
[Name! They're saying the owner's name while coming!]
Since the matter with Krumelia hadn't been officially announced, my name couldn't be on people's lips. The acquaintances who knew my home were almost all nobles for whom making an appointment before moving had become a habit, so no one would visit out of the blue like this.
Siegfried? Right now he'd be too busy cursing me while sweating through official appearances alongside Eselua. Laika never spouted nonsense, so I fixed my gaze on the entrance for several dozen seconds.
"Is this it?"
"Yes, yes, it is. But showing up so suddenly like this..."
A completely unexpected combination of people appeared.
"Zikmel?"
Beside Zikmel, who wore an awkward, sheepish smile and hesitated, stood Mongsun, whom I hadn't seen in ages, wrapped in a thick robe. Unlike the fidgeting Zikmel, Mongsun naturally lowered her hood and bowed in greeting.
"It's been a long time, Ega. I'm Yen Tie."
Ah, right, that was her name.