A Little Trust (3)

Creeeak.

The door swung open.

A sinister aura spilled out like a wave of cold air.

"Ugh."

The Valkyrie took a step back.

"What is it?"

"There's a bad energy behind this door."

Her expression was grim.

"The mana concentration is far too high. There's definitely an incredibly powerful monster living back there. There's no guarantee we'd win a fight."

I could understand why she was hesitating. The mana density was unnaturally elevated.

"Can't we just take another route around?"

"What, you want to detour?"

I traced back over the path we'd already walked.

"That won't work."

We'd already explored several branches, and every one of them had been a dead end. The only way to find a new path was through this door. There was no other option.

When I showed the Valkyrie the map I'd been sketching as we came, her face darkened even further.

And then—

A woman's voice drifted from beyond the door.

"There's only one passage leading to the exit, you know."

"If you really can't believe me, go look around and come back. You'll ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠end up right here again either way."

Her tone was deeply, dangerously alluring.

"Mmm, but I'm not exactly the patient type."

It was the kind of voice that could ensnare a person whole.

"You there — the black-haired girl with the golden eyes. You're truly beautiful. It's been so long since living people visited this island, and now the exact beauty I wanted has been delivered right to my door. Ah, how often does a day this joyful come around?"

The Valkyrie flinched hard, her shoulders trembling. Watching from beside her, the fear was plain on her face. Fair enough. To me, those words came through as refined speech — but to her, they would have sounded like nothing more than an unidentifiable whisper.

"And you, handsome one. Come along together, nicely."

"……"

"Don't test my patience."

The moment those words fell, water erupted from every corner of the cave floor.

Shaaaa!

Monsters began revealing themselves one by one. Walkers, Crawlers, Spitters, and more. Some were familiar types, but a few new varieties mixed in among them.

"Ah, my lady. For the lady, we m-must offer l-l-living humans."

A few of the monsters began speaking in Whieon.

"Oh, our beautiful Lady Leslie. Poor daughter of Margrave Parence. You were never meant to be in a place like this — how did you come to be bound by such a curse?"

"We must free the pitiful lady."

"Ooooh."

"Push these humans inside and offer them to her……"

The Valkyrie and I immediately dropped into combat stance.

"Tch."

There were quite a few of them. Even the familiar ones looked slightly different in color and form. Take the Walkers, for instance. The ones we'd hunted before had looked like sea bream — these ones resembled marlin.

Wow. Thanks for the tip, David.

Though that's just because you have no taste. A good catch from clean water, eaten raw, has a texture that puts blue marlin to shame.

"Got any combat tips instead of life tips?"

I pulled a magic stone from my left pocket and called to the Valkyrie.

"Get ready to fight."

I flashed her a hand signal, and she nodded.

I shielded her with the Umbrella Stone while supporting her attacks. In moments, the Valkyrie had turned the jellyfish-like monsters into cold appetizers.

The path was narrow and winding, making it hard to deploy magic properly. Guarding each other, we fell back through the doorway into the open space beyond.

And then, in the next instant—

"Stop."

A heavy thud.

The door slammed shut.

At the same moment, the ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠monsters surging in from every direction froze in place.

"Welcome to the nest of myself and my household."

At that songlike voice, both our heads turned.

From the darkness, a woman emerged. She possessed a pure white naked form that suited the pale cave perfectly — except for her face, which held an unnaturally vivid flush of color. It was as if only her face belonged to someone else entirely.

But the important part wasn't those fine details.

From head to waist, she was human. Below that, she was nothing short of a fish. Where legs should have been, there was only scale and a single fin.

"……A mermaid?"

A mermaid. I'd thought they were creatures that existed only in imagination. To think they were actually a branch of monster long believed extinct.

"Children, gather round. We have guests to receive."

Click. Click. Click.

The monsters that appeared behind her moved in perfect unison. They formed two columns, then split left and right in single file.

"She's controlling the monsters?"

"Looks like she's the boss of this place."

I studied the monsters carefully. The mermaid was commanding them through Whieon.

She smiled gently and spoke.

"Well then. Before we get to business, first a little preparation……"

"Who are you?"

"……Huh?"

When I cut her off, the mermaid looked genuinely startled.

"You — the man. Can you understand what I'm saying?"

"Yes. I can."

"You speak the Mantra tongue? Are you a mage?"

"If you mean Whieon, then yes. I am a mage of the Hazkail Magic Kingdom."

The mermaid tilted her head.

"A mage? Hazkail? Hmm, something like a wizard, I suppose. Well, time has passed — the terminology would have shifted a little."

She giggled.

"So, child. What's your name?"

"When asking someone else's name, one ought to introduce oneself first."

"How rude. You and I are not of the same station."

"Station?"

"I am the distinguished daughter of Margrave Parence. Even in this wretched form, that remains true. Our house's banner — our nation's banner — still stands firm, does it not?"

"You were originally human?"

"Answer the question I asked."

I gestured for the Valkyrie — who was floating awkwardly off to the side, unable to follow any of this — to wait a moment, then continued.

"House Philopon? Never heard of it."

"Not Philopon — Parence! You don't know Parence? House Parence of the Silis Kingdom! A vast noble house equivalent to a marquisate! Or is a lowborn like you simply too ignorant to know?"

The Silis Kingdom.

I'd heard of it in passing during secondary-school world history. A nation that had clung to the eastern edge of the Holy Kingdom before collapsing centuries ago, as I recalled.

"That country no longer exists."

"No longer… exists?"

The mermaid's pupils contracted.

"And as for counts and marquises — the class system has long since vanished from most nations."

"What on earth are you talking about? It can't have been more than a few decades at most!"

She clutched her head.

"Th-that's impossible. My house is gone? The place I was supposed to take revenge on has vanished without a trace?"

Her expression shifted by the second. But then she let out a low chuckle and smoothed her crumpled face back into place. A chill radiated from her.

"No…… however it disappeared, that's fine. I never wanted to see their faces again anyway. They all pointed fingers at me, saying I had no talent for anything. Saying that if I was ugly, I should at least be able to sing. As if they'd ever given me anything."

She kept muttering to herself.

"I wanted to be good at something too. I wanted to excel at anything, so I could earn His favor. But He never so much as glanced at me — His own fiancée — while he frolicked with some lowly commoner wench……!"

Her voice cracked with resentment as she lamented.

"Just because I made a contract with a demon, they exiled me to this wretched island. Don't you think that's unfair?"

"You contracted with a demon?"

"Yes. And what of it? Did I do something wrong?"

Crazy bitch.

I'd made my judgment. This monster was one of two things: either a monster that delusionally believed itself human, or a person who had become something else through a demonic contract.

"That old hag told ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠me — if I offered the bone ash of a hundred young men and women upon the altar, I would be reborn as the most beautiful being in this world. And I would be able to leave this damned island!"

The mermaid — no, the monster — cried out.

"I've waited so long after offering ninety-eight. With just the two of you, I can leave this miserable place. At ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠last, I can break free of these chains!"

In the next instant, the monster shot toward us with the speed of a striking cobra.

"No choice, then. So if we take down that one who looks like the ringleader, we can get out of this cave, right?"

"Yeah. Drop her and everything else falls into place."

The Valkyrie and I prepared to respond at once. She raised her spear into position, and I began circulating the mana imbued in the Chamcheongseok.

But expecting a physical attack had been a miscalculation.

The monster hummed a tune. Sound waves laden with pressure slammed through my skull.

"What the—"

I closed my eyes and opened them again, and the scenery had changed.

I was standing on a warship.

"Senior!"

A voice from behind me.

"Congratulations on your promotion to Captain."

"Second Lieutenant?"

I couldn't believe my eyes. Approaching from behind was Second Lieutenant David Kanich — a fellow graduate of Laron Academy's Magic Stone Department, and one of the friends I'd valued most in the Eighth Fleet.

"You… you should be dead."

"What are you talking about, Senior? Did you have a nightmare?"

David said,

"Battalion Commander Kalon is looking for you. He says he needs your expertise for the White Scale Stone normalization work."

Battalion Commander Kalon is alive? Impossible. That man had clearly died at the hands of the Black Cat……

But there was no need to ask, no need to panic.

My hand was already rifling through the inside of my uniform pocket.

Nothing.

Not a magic stone — not even a pebble.

"Heh."

I understood. I knew exactly what was happening.

"Sloppy. You couldn't even render this part properly."

"Senior?"

"Casting magic without a stone isn't exactly my specialty, but……"

"Senior — no, Captain? Are you unwell?"

"Sorry, David."

"Sir?"

"Looks like I'm going to have to kill you a second time."

Snap. I flicked my fingers.

The moment I spoke the Whieon, time began to race forward.

Battalion Commander Kalon died, and I was promoted to Major, inheriting his post. David and I boarded a warship to support the fighting. The fleet set sail. Fog hung thick. Rain poured down just as it had that day.

Before long, the Holy Kingdom's elite dragon-rider unit — the White Lotus Battalion — appeared. Among them was the Black Cat herself, Rachel Brokenheart, goggles on and holy lance in hand.

— Senior! Senior Erihi! Help me! Aaaargh!

Separated from me, David fought the dragon knights with everything he had — but in the end, he was struck down by a shot from Rachel.

My teeth ground together.

There was nothing I could do here. This was an illusion. Under ordinary circumstances I could see, hear, and touch — but at the truly critical moments, the whole thing was rigged so that I could only stand and watch, helpless.

What followed was identical. My body moved on its own. I threw two of Rachel's comrades to the whales as feed, knocked her into the sea as well, and escaped aboard a lifeboat.

The nightmare ended there.

"Tch."

A tingling ran through my head. Hostile mana was trying to gnaw at my cerebral cortex. I regulated the mana within my body and set about normalizing its flow.

That was why I was still able to keep my wits about me.

At my words, the milky fog scattered in all directions. With nothing left for the illusion to show, the magic should have dissolved. I started thinking about how I was going to thrash that mermaid once I returned to reality.

But—

"……?"

The illusion didn't end.

I blinked again and found myself in a small village nestled in a coastal basin. An ordinary fishing village, by the look of it — a place I'd never been in my life.

And the situation looked anything but ordinary.

Crimson flames roared from every house. Screams of people rang out from all directions.

The mana concentration in the air was alarmingly high. I had no trouble recognizing that these fires were no natural occurrence — they were an artificial inferno shaped by flame magic.

"Help me! Is anyone there? Mom and Dad are still inside!"

I turned around. The two-story house directly behind me was blazing. And in front of it stood a young girl with black hair and golden eyes, her face blackened with soot.

The girl who had been screaming at the top of her lungs burst into tears, then — her strength spent — collapsed to the ground.

"Anyone, please, help… me… hic……"