The Western Edge
Celion and the others welcomed me back with unrestrained joy. Every one of them insisted they had been certain I was dead after taking that colossal bird’s breath head-on.
“Where have you been all this time? Are you hurt?”
Instead of answering Celion’s question, I simply looked up at the night sky. Clouds drifted swiftly overhead and vanished into the distance. I knew at once they were no ordinary clouds—they were Laben, the great whale swimming through the heavens.
“Well…”
The moment my voice trailed off, the sky began to brighten. Beyond the vast snow-capped peaks the sun was rising. Sunlight poured down and raced across the world, painting everything in color as if the land itself were being dyed anew.
I smiled without a word. Even if I tried to explain everything I had seen and lived through these past few hours, who would believe me? The only proof I carried was the small short bow slung across my back.
“I went on an adventure.”
“An adventure…? Well, you’re not injured, are you?”
“Of course not.”
“Hmm… Still, we should give you a proper look-over once we’re back.”
Celion gathered me and the rest of the party and started leading us toward base camp. The soft crunch of snow breaking underfoot scattered pleasantly into the air.
When we reached the interior of base camp, I found myself face-to-face with the very bird that had loosed its ice breath at me. Of course, it was long dead now, every part of its body carefully dismantled.
The carcass had been sorted into feathers, meat, bones, and talons, each stored separately. One wing bone was missing—clearly they had never recovered the wing I had severed.
Celion immediately set about examining me, checking for any wound I might not have noticed and making certain I had not contracted some strange illness.
“Hmm… How are you completely unharmed?”
“That horse of hers protected her, right? The one that can fly?”
Celion tilted her head, staring at my unscathed body as if it defied all reason. The others around us wore the same puzzled expressions.
They began trading theories about how I could possibly have survived. My refusal to give a clear answer seemed to leave them thoroughly frustrated.
“That’s right. Nightmare protected me.”
“See? I told you so.”
“The more I look at that beast, the more I want one of my own…”
At my explanation the group finally nodded, their doubts settling.
With that mystery resolved they looked ready to fire off more questions, but I was exhausted. I offered Celion an awkward smile.
“Celion.”
“Hm?”
“I’m… a little tired.”
“Ah, sorry. Want to sleep first?”
Celion personally prepared a place for me to rest. It was only thick hides and blankets layered over the cold cave floor, yet under the circumstances no finer bed could have existed.
“If you feel anything strange at all, tell me right away, okay?”
“I will.”
After a deep rest on the bed Celion had made, I woke to find the sun hanging high overhead. Few party members remained; Celion had clearly taken the rest out on another survey.
“Where did Celion go?”
“Said she was going to look around a bit.”
I asked the remaining members just in case, and received exactly the answer I expected. Rising, I borrowed a nearby bow and someone else’s quiver, then stepped outside.
I had never trained in archery, but I could hardly let a gift go to waste. In front of the base camp I set the quiver upright in a convenient spot and drew the bow.
It was light yet sturdy, and the string felt strong and springy. I possessed no expert knowledge of bows, yet I could tell at once that this one had been crafted to fit me perfectly.
A clean wind swept across the snow, lifting white waves into the air. I brushed the strands of hair from my face, nocked an arrow, and drew the string.
A true archer would have laughed at the sight. My stance was whatever felt natural, and my fingers gripped the string any way they pleased.
Still, this was the best I could manage for now.
I poured every ounce of my strengthened body into the draw, yet the sturdy limbs of the bow remained unmoved.
On impulse I focused mana and reinforced my body. The instant the mana stirred, my flesh answered—and the Emblem of the Great Warrior blazed into clear view.
As concentrated mana raised red scales across the back of my hand, I aimed at a distant tree and released the string.
Twang—!
The tension vanished; the taut string snapped forward and hurled the arrow with a harsh gust of wind.
It was the shot of someone who had never loosed an arrow in her life. Naturally the shaft traced an unsteady path and veered far from the tree I had marked.
Yet midway through its flight the arrow’s trajectory bent in a strange curve and buried itself dead-center in the trunk.
“Ha…”
A plume of white breath escaped my open mouth. I lowered my gaze to the bow in my hands.
I knew skilled archers could send arrows along arcing paths, but I possessed no such technique.
Curious, I loosed another shaft. This time I used pure physical strength alone, so the arrow flew more slowly—yet the same result followed.
By any normal measure it should never have hit. The arrow had streaked away on a sharp diagonal.
Then, abruptly, it changed course—as though it had met a powerful wind.
Wind?
On a sudden impulse I nocked three arrows at once and drew. They were a little large for my small palm, but with raw strength I managed to loose all three.
Whoosh—!
The three arrows flew wild—one skyward, one to the right, one dropping mid-flight.
Yet every one of them ended the same way. Their paths curved sharply and found the target tree, embedding themselves deep in the wood.
I tightened my grip on the bow. This was no ordinary gift after all.
It seemed I had been given a true treasure.
Life on the frozen snowfields lasted roughly a month. We encountered countless monsters and recorded the remains of those that had perished sealed inside vast ice.
Time flowed swiftly. We endured the occasional mana storms and the biting blizzards that followed.
And so we arrived at a place that could truly be called the edge of the world.
“Hah…”
“We’ve reached the end of the world…”
Celion’s voice and those of the party members drifted hollowly into the wind. A bracing gale swept the surrounding snow toward that final edge. Just as I had seen in the savage lands of Greenfall, an endless sky stretched out before us.
It was as though someone had declared that the world ended here. The cleanly sheared face of the snow-covered cliff met the white clouds so perfectly that one could almost believe a path continued beyond.
Of course no path existed. Anyone who stepped forward out of curiosity would plummet into the boundless sky below.
I wondered what lay beneath, yet for now there was no way to know.
[■■■-!]
In that instant a familiar cry rolled out from beyond the clouds. The sound that blanketed the entire region announced the arrival of a colossal living being.
As Celion and the others tensed, a gigantic tail surged up from the distant clouds.
It was as broad as a mountain. When it swept toward the clouds it drove them aside with a violent storm.
Whoooosh—!
Wind rose from the edge of the world. The gale stirred by the great whale Laben sculpted the white clouds into towering waves.
Those waves rolled forward on the wind and swallowed everyone who stood gazing at the world’s end.
“This is…”
“Incredible…”
Several party members gasped in awe and reached toward the clouds that had washed over them. Despite their soft appearance, the clouds slipped uselessly between their fingers.
Watching them, I took out a small notebook and jotted a brief record.
The time to return to the original continent was drawing near. Not every region of this land had been charted, yet if we missed this window we would have to wait another half-year.
They say meetings among adventurers are spontaneous, and partings light.
Celion and many of the others expressed regret at my choice, yet none tried to hold me back. Instead they pressed gifts upon me for the journey.
“You’re staying longer, Celion?”
“I plan to remain another year or two.”
“I hope we meet again safely.”
I led Nightmare aboard the ship. For every person departing, new arrivals were stepping onto the island.
Together with Nightmare I looked back at the pioneer outpost. Fresh recruits moved in crisp order under their team leaders, and sturdy wooden crates were being loaded onto the ship without pause.
Everyone who saw Nightmare for the first time stared in wonder. Its bulk far exceeded that of an ordinary horse, and the glittering crystal that adorned it prompted more than one person to ask whether it was a monster.
I could have explained the full story, but I chose not to. They would not have believed me anyway. I simply said I had fashioned armor for my horse from the crystals found on this land.
Countless minerals and monster materials harvested from the island were stowed aboard, followed by the scholars and adventurers returning to the main continent.
When every preparation was complete the sails unfurled and the ship began to move.
It cut swiftly across the blue sea. With each passing moment Monster Island dwindled, shrinking to a faint speck before vanishing entirely.
Even after the island had disappeared completely, I kept staring in that direction for a long while.