Sowing Discord #4
“Wasn’t it obvious at a glance that I came in secret? How could you tell Adele about that? I wanted to be the one to break it to her…”
“Yes… I’m sorry.”
“Still, thank you. You kept Adele from getting upset. But… after this, I finally understand why she always complains that you’re a man who lacks any sense of tact.”
“.....”
My lips trembled as I let out a sigh. I focused on piloting the fighter. Silvia shot me a sidelong glare.
“Are you mad?”
“No… My ears hurt. You’ve been repeating the same story for two straight hours.”
“That’s how disappointed I was. Are we there yet?”
“Yes. We’ve arrived.”
“It’s raining? The sky’s pitch black, too.”
Just as she said, a torrential downpour was hammering the Grand Canyon. The vast, elongated gorge was visibly swelling with rushing water. Perfect conditions. The heavens really were on my side.
“Yeah. The rainfall is heavy. Looks like a flood is coming.”
“I thought the Grand Canyon was supposed to be dry…”
“It gets two proper deluges a year, once in summer and once during the change of seasons in winter. Rain at this time is a bit unusual, but on an Earth where abnormal weather is the norm, it’s not exactly unbelievable.”
“I see… Still, it has a completely different charm from when I first came here. It’s beautiful… I just hope it doesn’t cause any harm to people.”
Silvia was completely entranced by the majestic sight of nature. As I nodded in agreement with her admiration, I spoke in an utterly businesslike tone.
“There’s a lot of lightning. No wonder there was a rockslide. We’ll need to repair it and set up proper countermeasures…”
“How did you say it broke again?”
“Lightning struck the cliff right above the scanner. A pretty large boulder came crashing down.”
“What a coincidence. Should we call it lucky that it didn’t get a direct hit?”
Coincidence? Absolutely not. I had it deliberately sabotaged.
It would have been better if lightning had struck it. There are lightning rods near the scanner, after all. Well then, let’s take a look at the damage.
I adjusted the fighter’s engines to vertical thrust and set it to hover, then zoomed the camera in on the scanner. The device was completely crushed on one side. It was also half-submerged in the swollen water. The portal a short distance away was in the same state. The protective walls around it had collapsed from the falling rocks, letting water flood in and ruin everything. It was so perfectly executed that anyone would be convinced it was the result of a natural disaster. As expected of Marcela.
Silvia, who had been watching the monitor with me, muttered worriedly.
“It looks really bad…”
“It is. It’s serious. We’ll need to recover both the scanner and the portal.”
“Should I go down and get them myself? Do we have any rope?”
“You’re from a planet with advanced science, so why are you trying to solve this the dangerous, manual way?”
Silvia’s hands clenched into fists.
“Hey… do you realize how incredibly annoying your tone is right now? Can you come down from that high horse?”
“Watch closely. This fighter has various functions…”
The moment I started bragging, it happened.
Boom!Bang!
Hundreds of black tentacles burst from the raging, flooded sections of the gorge and surged toward the fighter all at once. They punched clean through the ultra-durable hull and aimed straight for our heads. It happened in the blink of an eye. With a human body, I couldn’t react at all. I felt an overwhelming force yank me sideways and a dull, heavy pain explode near my right temple—then I lost consciousness.
Rumble—!
The thunder was so massive it felt like my brain was being shaken apart. My eyes snapped open and I bolted upright.
“Huk!”
A fierce pain shot through my right arm, forcing me to grit my teeth.
“Ugh…!”
A simple wooden splint had been tied to my right arm. It hurt like hell. Near my shoulder was a palm-sized scrape, like something had chafed against it. It wasn’t from the tentacles. This was from the safety harness. I let out a long breath, face twisted in pain, and looked around. We were inside a cave that looked like it might have once housed a black bear or a cougar. A campfire burned beside me. Outside it was dark, and the heavy rain was still pouring down.
Having roughly grasped the situation, I groaned and scooted backward until I could lean against the cave wall. Not long after, Silvia entered, soaked to the bone. I raised my left hand in greeting.
“Hello. Lovely night, isn’t it?”
At my playful tone, Silvia made a dumbfounded face before letting out a small snort.
“You look okay. That’s a relief.”
She wrung the water from her light red hair as she walked over. Her wet jeans and black t-shirt clung to her body, revealing every curve. The sight was so unbearably sexy that even through the pain, I felt a twitch below my waist. She sat beside me and briefly examined the splinted arm.
“Your arm’s fine too. It set well.”
“Sorry…? It set well?”
“Here’s what happened…”
She explained that the moment the tentacles destroyed the fighter, she had used her Aether to yank me sideways right before one would have pierced my forehead. My arm had gotten caught in the safety harness and dislocated. Then a tentacle slammed into my head and knocked me out. Silvia had cut the harness with a dagger, escaped the crashing fighter, found this cave while dodging attacks, reset my arm while I was unconscious, and then went back out to slaughter the tentacle monsters.
After explaining everything, she let out a long sigh.
“That part was fine… but when I killed the parent, its offspring poured out. The canyon outside is completely covered in them now.”
“Covered? What do you mean?”
“I’ll support you. See for yourself.”
She draped my left arm over her shoulder and helped me up. I desperately wanted to grope those perky breasts pressed so tightly against her wet shirt, but I held back. The opportunity would come. When we reached the cave entrance, I opened my mouth wide in feigned shock.
“Th-that’s…”
Tentacle monsters the size of fully grown Siberian tigers were scattered across the lightning-ravaged Grand Canyon. Some were massive, easily fifteen meters tall. In the air, several moth-like creatures with wingspans close to thirty meters hovered like omens of the apocalypse. The sight was spectacular.
I feel fantastic.
“Just how many are there…? At a glance, it looks like over a thousand. You’re saying they all came from the body of the one you killed?”
“That’s right. And that’s only the ones we can see. The entire Grand Canyon is probably infested.”
“Ha… This is truly hopeless… What about the fighter? Don’t tell me it’s completely destroyed?”
“It is. When I went back after leaving you here, there were only fragments left. And even those fragments had been eaten by the monsters.”
“So they ate it…? Our phones, comms equipment—everything was in there…”
“Same for me. Looks like we’ll have to wait for the Doctor or the World Coalition to find us.”
I shook my head with a skeptical expression.
“How much time has passed?”
“About five hours.”
“Five hours with no contact? Something must have gone wrong. They clearly have no idea what’s happening here.”
“Let’s just wait. They’ll figure it out eventually.”
They won’t. Not for a while.
“Can’t you just carry me out? You’re fast, aren’t you?”
“I don’t have much Aether left.”
“How much?”
“Ten percent.”
I put on a look of genuine confusion.
“Why only that much? After the fight with the cone-belt creature, you definitely had…”
“Yeah… about a third was left. But those tentacles were huge, and the aerial support from those moth things was a real pain. It took a long time. I’m weak against those giant types.”
And you’re weak against sheer numbers, too. I figured out all your weaknesses when you fought Orbas. That’s why I prepared these monsters just for you. In short, you’ve fallen into a trap.
“We should conserve what you have left since we don’t know what might happen.”
“I suppose so.”
After moving me back inside, Silvia raised both hands near the campfire. I stretched one leg out and sat down.
“What if those things attack this place?”
“It’s been five hours and nothing’s happened. This spot must be safe. They don’t seem interested in this area at all. So let’s just wait quietly.”
“You’re awfully calm about this… Here, put this on.”
I groaned as I stripped off my flight suit and tossed it toward the fire. Silvia caught it with surprising grace.
“What’s this for?”
“Your clothes are soaked. Change before you catch hypothermia.”
“It smells musty.”
“Smells…? Your lips are turning blue and you’re still complaining… Just put it on, will you?”
I spoke grumpily and lay down facing the wall so she could change without feeling watched. Soon I heard the wet slap of clothes hitting the ground. She must have been colder than she let on.
“I’m done.”
“Good.”
“…. Hey.”
“What?”
“Did you get sulky because I said it smelled? It only smells like dirt, you know.”
“Who’s sulky… That’s exactly your problem, Silvia. You make assumptions and jump to conclusions. It’s also a problem that you mindlessly slaughtered all those monsters without your Device.”
At that, Silvia flared up.
“You little— You’ve got plenty of problems yourself, you know?”
“Like what?”
“First, you’ve got a big mouth. You ran straight to Adele and tattled on me…”
“There you go again… What’s wrong with being honest with your lover? And if we’re pointing fingers, you’ve got a pretty big mouth yourself, don’t you?”
Tap! Something small struck my back. I turned my head and saw a thin twig lying beside me. I let out a dry laugh and sat up.
“You throw things when you can’t think of a comeback… That’s just sad.”
“Then I’ll throw a rock. One the size of your head.”
“I’m not scared at all.”
Silvia picked up the twig again and hurled it. I tried to catch it with my right hand out of habit, but the splint limited my range of motion. The twig hit me square in the forehead. I gave a helpless smile.
“This is unfair. I could have caught it.”
Silvia giggled and teased me.
“Then why were you acting so cocky?”
“I don’t know. Because I felt like it? Oh, Silvia.”
“What?”
“Calling you mindless earlier was a slip of the tongue. I’m sorry.”
“I know. Don’t worry about it.”
Your personality really is refreshingly straightforward. I like that.
“And thank you for saving my life. I mean it.”
At my sincere gratitude, Silvia fell silent for a moment. She stared into my eyes, then gave a small nod.
“I’m grateful too.”
“For what?”
“For considering my feelings.”
She was thanking me for smoothing things over with Adele. She must really care about her. But too bad… I plan to earn your favor tonight. On the battlefield, soldiers only have their comrades to rely on. Let’s go through some hardship together and build that bond, shall we?
“It was nothing… I’m always careful about these things.”
“The same guy who just called me mindless? Want to get hit again?”
“Why are you so violent…”
I grumbled and leaned my head against the wall, turning my gaze toward the entrance where rain still fell steadily. Silvia asked carefully.
“What’s wrong? Are you worried the monsters will attack?”
“No. You said it’s safe, so it must be. I just wanted to listen to the rain. It calms me down.”
“Really…?”
“What about you? Do you like the rain?”
“I don’t feel anything in particular.”
“How bleak… Then take this chance to really listen. The sound of the droplets is quite charming.”
Silvia quietly tilted her head and listened. Her eyes slowly widened.
“It really is. It feels peaceful… I like the sound of the rushing water, too.”
“Right? If only those monsters outside weren’t there, it would be perfect—”
“Be quiet. I’m trying to listen to the rain.”
She cut me off and focused. We had found common ground. Excellent. I could almost dance with joy. Hiding my glee, I continued gazing out of the cave with her.