Wolfgar Has Been Kidnapped
The path leading back to the surface, out of the Monster Front.
We moved quickly, cutting down every monster that barred our way. This return had come far sooner than planned. The rumors about me still hadn't died down, but there was nothing to be done about that. I needed to recover — and more than that, I needed to reunite with Wolfgar, who'd gone up to the surface ahead of us.
If I'd known things would turn out this way, I would have traveled with him. But Seranea's condition had taken a sudden turn, and our paths had split.
"The... the Shadows came?"
"So that's what you call them."
Seranea had gone white as she listened to the explanation. They called them Shadows — the ones who appeared cloaked in darkness. The Shadows who carried out every order the Silent Blood issued. They had come for Seranea again.
"So they found out I came back to Grandheim after all."
Her face darkened. She'd hidden behind Leksan, but there must have been other traces. I was too simple-minded about this kind of thing — I'd taken it far too lightly.
"I was careless. I never should have come back to Grandheim."
Grandheim was her hometown. But the Grandheim of today was no hometown at all. It was a hell where life and death hung in the balance.
"Seranea. Which Silent Blood is hunting you?"
The Silent Blood Seranea belonged to was House Fraise, a marquisate. Not long ago, House Fraise had fallen after losing a struggle over vested interests. Now the other Silent Bloods were circling, looking to finish them off.
"...House Urgaz. The bloodline of Urdra."
She shrank into herself as she said it, as though the name itself were something to fear.
House Urgaz. The Silent Blood of Urdra, of the Thunder School.
"Do you know what started the power struggle?"
Urgaz had wanted to tear Praeon out by the roots. They would keep coming after Seranea — that much was certain. I couldn't just stand against them without knowing the lay of the land.
But Seranea's face was dark as she prepared to answer.
"...I don't really know, to be honest."
A dark, self-mocking smile crossed her lips.
"I suppose this is the price of living comfortably without the slightest interest in the world. I'm a woman who spent her entire life as a hothouse flower — and was perfectly content with it."
"Is that such a bad thing?"
"Well... it's pathetic, isn't it?"
Growing up as a flower in a greenhouse. Sure, some people might say that. What's the point of living that way? Why don't you try harder? Why don't you live your life like it actually matters?
But that was a common mistake made by people who only understood their own lives.
"Being reasonably content with your own life is still a life."
Nobody lives your life for you. A life spent compromising and finding satisfaction within your own circumstances — that's still a life. For someone else to come along, point fingers, and tell you to try harder is just meddling.
I had a friend named Oble. He'd dreamed of being a monster hunter, but he'd been ready to set that dangerous work aside for the sake of his child and walk toward a different life. Would it have been right to ask him why he was giving up on his dream? To tell him to try harder?
No. I couldn't live Oble's life for him. All I could do was offer him a kind word and my support.
"But if you regret the life you've walked so far..."
I looked back at Seranea, who had been watching me in silence.
"Then you start changing it from now on."
Better to try harder now than hide behind the excuse that it's too late. I'd spent more of my life as a cleaner than as a monster hunter. That was why I was working harder now — so I wouldn't have to regret that time.
"...Sometimes you have quite a way with words, Haren."
"When your body's weak, you'd better at least be good with your mouth."
"You were weak too?"
Seranea looked like she couldn't imagine it. What did this girl take me for, some kind of monster?
"I was. For most of my life, actually."
It hadn't even been a few years since I'd become like this. Everything had changed starting with the fateful encounter that gave me Instant Death Magic. My life had been able to change because of that stroke of fortune. But if I'd learned about my Mana Stone Sclerosis that day and given up on everything, I never would have found that fortune in the first place.
"I see. Your words carry weight because they come from someone who has conviction in his own life."
Seranea smiled faintly, as though she'd found a little strength.
"Do you think I can change too?"
So much was already changing around her, whether she knew it or not. Whether she seized that change was up to her.
"Yeah. You will."
Just then, the Monster Front came to an end, and we stepped back into the real world. People were already going about their work, same as always. Everyone living their busy, day-to-day lives.
"Hey, that guy—"
"That's definitely—"
Some of them recognized my face. A week or so was nowhere near enough time for the rumors to die down. I picked up the pace and slipped away before anyone could get involved, then pulled a robe over my head. Plenty of monster hunters wore robes anyway. We wouldn't stand out.
Before long, we reached the monster hunter guild. I pulled the robe even tighter so I wouldn't draw attention. Grandheim's monster hunter guild was as busy as ever. I wove past the crowd and stepped up to the counter.
"I'd like to check on someone who should have returned from the Monster Front."
You had to register both when you entered the Monster Front and when you came back. I'd made sure Wolfgar knew that, so I was certain he would have checked in.
"If you're looking for the hunter Wolfgar, he hasn't returned yet."
Wolfgar hadn't come back.
"What?"
Our routes shouldn't have been that different from his. And yet we hadn't crossed paths with him on the way back. If anything, we should have taken longer — we'd gotten caught up in a fight. Hearing that he still hadn't returned left me rattled.
Maybe he'd gone straight to the inn. That was possible enough, so I took Seranea and hurried over.
The inn we arrived at didn't smell like people. It was the kind of emptiness that said no one had come or gone in a long time. Naturally, there was no sign of Wolfgar either.
"...Seranea. Let's wait at the guild."
In the end, I took her back to the monster hunter guild. I figured we'd wait there for Wolfgar to return.
But the afternoon passed, and night fell. Wolfgar still hadn't come back.
"...Haren."
Seranea called my name carefully, worry in her voice. I lifted my head at the sound.
"Seranea. Where did you say House Urgaz was located?"
"House Urgaz?"
"Yeah. You're going to show me the way."
My eyes gleamed with a blood-red killing intent.
Wolfgar had been kidnapped.
Having concluded that Wolfgar had been kidnapped, I intended to head straight for House Urgaz. They were the ones who'd sent the Shadows after us. Of course they would have known about Wolfgar too. If I'd seen this coming, I never would have left him on his own.
"H-Haren, w-wait a second!"
Seranea had grabbed onto my clothes and was hanging off me as I strode forward. But there was no way her strength could hold me back. She just got dragged along, still clinging to my robe. She was light as a feather.
"I understand how you feeeel! But even so, isn't this far too dangerous?!"
"Weren't you the one looking at me like a mage can get away with anything?"
Seranea's shoulders flinched.
To the Silent Blood, a mage was a being to be revered and served. That was why they always carried both awe and fear toward mages. But that was ultimately the behavior of someone who didn't actually know mages.
Seranea had spent enough time with me to know what kind of person I was. Being a mage didn't make you omnipotent. They had their own hardships, their own troubles. She'd learned that living alongside me — that I was closer to an ordinary person than to some mage. That was why she was worried about me now.
"Don't worry. It's not like I'm going to just smash the place to pieces."
Seranea looked at me with extreme suspicion.
"...And if Wolfgar is being held there?"
I didn't answer that.
"See?!"
"Don't ask me a question that only has one answer."
Now I had nothing to say.
"Ugh... I don't understand why you're so honest about things like this."
I just wasn't the type who enjoyed lying. I was tired of living with everything hidden.
"The Silent Blood can't touch me, so don't worry."
"But you got hurt by the Shadows just recently."
That had happened while I was helping Seranea.
"That wasn't the Shadows."
"Then what about those wounds?"
"You were in danger, so I got hurt helping you."
"You mean you got hurt protecting me from the Shadows?"
Since I hadn't told her about Sernida, the conversation was going in circles.
"...Come to think of it. What exactly happened to me? I remember feeling like I suddenly ran a fever, but everything after that is so hazy."
Seranea brought up something she hadn't bothered to question until now. Time had passed, and the doubts were finally catching up with her.
"You said you got hurt helping me — but you're a mage. Why would you take injuries like that?"
So this was what a checkmate felt like. Looks like I couldn't keep Sernida a secret any longer.
"Oh, for crying out loud, you people are going to drive me insane! Hey, girl — it's because you became a mage!"
Leksan exploded before I could get a word out. As what he'd said sank in, bewilderment spread across Seranea's face.
"A m-mage? Me?"
"Yeah, you. A mage who happens to be the next head of the Fire School crawled inside you and set up house! That woman tried to turn you into a mage, lost control, and this lunatic here went crazy trying to help her — that's why he ended up looking like that!"
Leksan. You've been holding that in this whole time, haven't you.
He huffed and puffed, then let out a satisfied breath.
"What the hell were you agonizing over something like this for days for?"
Thanks to Leksan, I no longer needed to ask Sernida for her opinion.