A Dream of Her Battle
I dreamed.
It was a dream of combat — though I was not the one moving.
This fight, these motions, were memories that did not belong to me. I could only watch. I had no other choice.
Her way of fighting was nothing like mine.
I fought with the rigid commands and combos born of a game. She, by contrast, carried techniques perfected through relentless training and real battle. The smooth, free-flowing chains of her strikes were movements I had never seen in any game.
Showing me this… is she trying to teach me?
Is she telling me to break free of the game's framework?
I thought this dream might be the process of the two of us becoming one. The Berserk state had acted as a kind of trigger, stirring awake the memories that had been sleeping inside her.
I resented her for entrusting everything to me and vanishing. This was how she had loaded the burden onto my shoulders.
To save the future's time, I have to kill the pinnacle of this world?
It was far too grand a task for a vessel like me.
But I would not turn away.
I was a hunter, after all.
I woke.
The fog in my head had cleared with sleep, and my body felt refreshed. I sat up slowly. The blanket slid from my shoulders with a soft rustle.
I had no memory of covering myself. Had my new roommate done it?
"…Did you sleep well?"
The fragrant scent of coffee hung in the air.
I lifted my head and looked at my roommate. She sat at the table, sipping from her cup.
I rose from the bed and nodded. Rubbing my eyes, I glanced out the window.
The sun had long since set. I must have slept without any sense of time.
Then it struck me — I still didn't know her name.
"What's your name?"
"…Fiore."
Fiore.
She was still addressing me in that stiff, formal register.
"Just talk casual."
"I'm more comfortable like this."
A line drawn clean between us.
I shrugged and sat down across from her. I had no intention of pushing. It was fine if she preferred the distance.
I looked her over once.
Pale skin, blonde hair tied back, blue eyes like looking out over the sea. Even seeing her again, she was a striking beauty.
What was I supposed to talk about? I'd gotten up and sat at the desk because lying in bed any longer felt awkward, but now I had nothing to do. With no conversation ready for Fiore, the silence was unbearable.
There was no one to blame. This was simply the price of two strangers sharing a room.
Getting close to someone was always hard work. Frustrated, I sat there turning it over, then finally opened my mouth.
"Have you eaten?"
If anything was going to break the ice, food was the way.
"I already took care of it here."
"Ah… okay."
I turned my head, a little embarrassed.
I hadn't eaten anything since morning and was starving. I'd hoped we might eat together and warm up a little — but of course, nothing ever went the way I planned.
I stood and started gathering my clothes.
"…Why the clothes all of a sudden?"
"Going out to eat."
"I made something over there."
Fiore pointed toward the kitchen. True to her word, an assortment of dishes was laid out.
A meaty stew. A salad of finely chopped cabbage, garlic, and onion, with crushed nuts mixed in. And cheese. Just enough for a proper meal.
"…Thanks."
"I made it so you'd have something when you woke."
I scooped up a spoonful of stew and tasted it. Rich with meat, clean and good. The salad was nutty and fragrant, and the cheese alongside it was excellent. Nothing too heavy for a meal right after waking.
"It's good."
"I'm glad it suits your taste."
Had Fiore made this for me?
I was genuinely moved. Showing kindness to someone you'd just met couldn't have been easy.
Contrary to my worries, Fiore seemed like a good person. That was a relief.
The soft clink of dishes filled the room for a while.
Fiore said nothing while I ate. She simply sat with her coffee and a book, taking her ease. Scrapes and nicks marked the hand holding the book — proof that she, too, was a hunter.
Hunting was not a profession that left the body intact. Wounds accumulated one by one with every monster taken down; among hunters, scars were a kind of honor, a badge of service.
Still, it felt almost a shame to see blemishes on someone who looked as if she should be flawless.
Fiore stayed right where she was until I finished eating and washed every last dish.
I thought that would be the end of any conversation between us.
"Alice."
It was Fiore who broke the silence, unexpectedly.
She closed her book and looked at me. Under her gaze, I was still awkwardly stacking the cleaned dishes.
"What commission did you take today?"
"Ekriki subjugation."
"…I see. And what is your rank, if I may ask?"
"Rank?"
Instead of answering, I pulled out my card.
Name:Alice
Rank:20
[Kakari] [Pienos] [Kuchiorak] [Poloari] [Kometras] [Galori] [Ekriki]
From Kometras onward, hunting solo had sent my rank climbing fast. Even that number was split with Pina, who tagged along on commissions to help me — though she took only a small share, and I claimed most of it.
Pay I could share. Rank points, I could not. I wanted to climb as fast as possible.
Fiore looked over my card once and nodded. I took it back, finished putting away the cleaned spoon and fork, and sat down across from her again.
"You've clearly been taking monsters above your rank."
"…Yeah, I guess."
"Isn't the Ekriki rather troublesome?"
"For the blast powder, you just need Waterburst Fruit."
"…You know more than I expected."
"Information's essential for a hunt."
Fiore's expression turned unreadable.
I propped my elbows on the table and rested my chin in my hands.
"What about your rank, Fiore?"
"Me? Ah — I'm just, well, mid-tier, more or less. Haha…"
Hmm. Roughly Noah's level, then.
Fiore managed an awkward little smile, the corners of her mouth lifting.
"What kind of commission brought you to Antico?"
"I don't have one… yet. But something will come up."
"Yeah?"
Just another wandering hunter, drifting from place to place.
Fiore's answer was vague, but it didn't particularly bother me. What did was the pity of her arriving now, when the Sea of Trees had grown so brutally hot of late.
I wanted out of the Sea of Trees myself — but I figured I'd be stuck here until I took down the high-class monster that lived in it.
The lazy master of the Sea of Trees, a beast that even the brawling Luga-lac and the violent Ekriki had to yield to: the Sacred Forest Beast, Alberoelva.
Meeting that thing was still a distant prospect — but someday, alongside an Anomaly, our paths would cross.
"Antico's hot, so… yeah. Make sure you bring Cooling Powder."
"I will."
"…And, uh. Let's eat out tomorrow morning."
"Eat out?"
"I know a good place."
My treat, I added.
A small repayment for the meal Fiore had prepared today. And, well — I wanted to get closer over something delicious.
"Very well. I'll look forward to it."
Fiore stared at me blankly for a moment, then nodded again.
Look forward to it… What if she doesn't like the food?
Somehow I felt like a dog wagging its tail at every person it met.
I didn't actually warm up to just anyone. They all had to pass a strict internal screening process first.
Fiore was… well, she was pretty, and she'd cooked for me.
She couldn't be a bad person.
Late at night.
At an hour when everyone else was asleep, Fiore — still awake — sat watching Alice's closed eyes.
She was a terrible liar by nature, so it was a relief that Alice hadn't suspected a thing.
Today, Fiore had told a lie she hadn't planned on.
Asked about the title of Master — the pinnacle among hunters — she had mumbled something about being merely mid-tier.
It was still too early to reveal herself. The choice had been made so she could learn more about Alice first.
A hunter who'd only just started, climbing to Rank 20 in a single month — and taking down two mid-grade monsters along the way.
Those called New Lights were never ordinary, but none had ever shown such stark brilliance in the hunt.
Fiore thought back to herself around Rank 20.
Back then, she had spent months repeating low-grade monster hunts just to grow comfortable with the work. The thought of facing a mid-grade had left her tense and oddly excited…
None of that showed in Alice.
Honestly, Fiore had been waiting for her to talk about the Ekriki hunt. Once Alice woke, she'd planned to draw closer through conversation.
But the flow Fiore had hoped for never came.
Alice had simply eaten in silence. Truly not a word.
Was she naturally quiet, or simply uninterested in other people?
…Judging by the small smile when she'd offered to buy breakfast, it wasn't a total lack of interest.
When no conversation seemed forthcoming, Fiore had been the one to gently open the subject. Only then had they talked a little — and even that held nothing special. No excited war stories, no boasts.
A hunter might be expected to show off a little, but Alice seemed to dislike that sort of thing. Her aversion to the title of New Light fit the same pattern.
She seemed like someone without a shred of greed. Starting from that desireless expression, everything about her made her look like a person who had stepped outside the ordinary world.
Which, in turn, cast doubt on the theory that she was an illegal poacher.
Most poachers moved for wealth and vanity. Alice showed no signs of luxury, and living in a hunter dormitory hardly suggested deep pockets. Poachers rarely stepped into the open like this, either.
What troubled Fiore most were the scars settled across Alice's body.
…Has something terrible happened to her?
She was sleeping quietly now, but Fiore remembered the cold sweat and the soft groans from earlier in the day. Perhaps something dark lay in her past — Fiore could only guess.
Once we're a little closer, I'll try tagging along on her next commission.
Fiore closed her eyes, turning over her plans for what came next.
For three nights running, she had thought of nothing but escaping Antico.
Tonight, that thought had quietly vanished.
Now, thoughts of Alice filled everything, pushing all else aside.