A Divine Relic? I'll Get You Another One
A divine relic? Fine, I'll get you another one.
Heavenly thunder crashed down upon the earth once more. The blinding flash painted everything around it white, searing my eyes with its brilliance — yet the hostile strike never came anywhere near Terre.
"That was close," I muttered, shaking off the current that came crawling up my hand. I had countered it by wreathing myself in mana, but the block had been hasty — far from a perfect defense. At this level, she's dead serious about beating someone into the ground.
"Noona, that's enough."
Someone had to step in here, no matter who was in the wrong. If this spiraled into something bigger, there'd be no cleaning it up.
"If an instructor strikes a student, it's a punishable offense. Screw up badly enough and you lose your post entirely."
"...Step aside, then, if you'd rather not be hurt."
Crackle!
Lightning burst from every inch of her lightning-wreathed body. Merely standing near her made my skin sting. The yellow-tinged bolts swallowed her shadow and blazed with radiant light, and the majesty she radiated was that of a god descended upon the earth.
It resembled Solar War Body — the secret art that draped my entire anatomy in mana to elevate my body by leaps and bounds. Compared to Solis's technique, hailed as a secret art, hers fell a touch short in polish, but it was by no means something to scoff at.
And yet none of that even registered, because the spear in her hand was threatening enough to blot it all out.
So she took it back after all.
Wrathful Heavenly Thunder. The divine relic that had originally belonged to Yupi — lent to Terre as a temporary measure — had now assumed its true form. Lightning energy rose from the highly conductive steel shaft like steam off heated metal, forging itself into the spearhead. A magnetic field wrapped around her like a protective barrier, warning off anyone foolish enough to approach. It wouldn't be an exaggeration to say that, as she stood now, she could hold her own against the Celestial Clan itself.
Forget everything else — she could beat Vital with room to spare.
I'd better brace for the worst.
Enraged as she was, Yupi might ignore me at any moment and lunge straight at Terre. I drew mana up from my heart so I could respond to any surprise attack, then waited, watching her reaction for my next move.
"..."
Yupi only stared back at me, making no particular movement. Her bloodshot eyes rolled without a single blink, cold as a freezing blizzard in the depths of winter. I could feel it on my skin — the fury seething beneath the violent, runaway surge of her mana.
But she did not surrender herself entirely to that rage. Cool, calculating reason still held its seat behind those ruthless eyes.
"Hoo."
That signature deep breath of hers — the rhythmic, perfectly steady exhale — backed up my read of the situation.
Scary. She's genuinely scary.
Which only made me more nervous. She's actually planning to grab a person and beat them within an inch of their life, isn't she?
Granted, Terre was her precious little sister, so she'd surely hold back enough to leave no lasting damage or trauma — but phrased another way, that meant she intended to pummel her right up to that line.
Terre, what on earth did you do to make Yupi this furious?
They say a good person's anger is the scariest kind. Terre had arrived at the academy around the same time I did — how had things escalated into a brawl like this in that span? Maybe I should find a quiet moment later and interrogate her.
"Cease this at once."
And just in time, the closing pitcher took the mound. Palad, the academy's headmaster, walked up and barred Yupi's path. Wearing the skin of an aged old man and striking a pose with it, he boomed out in the dignified, stern voice only a man his age could command:
"I will see to the rest myself. All of you, disperse — now!"
At his word, the students scrambled away. The noisy crowd that had packed itself together dissolved in an instant, leaving only me and the parties responsible for this whole mess.
"I'll carry Terre to the infirmary."
"Can I trust you with her?"
"You know there's no one better suited for the job than me, don't you?"
"I'll leave her in your hands, then."
The moment Palad gave his blessing, I scooped up the injured Terre. She was still groaning softly in pain, but her expression had softened — she'd passed out. Probably relieved at the sight of the headmaster arriving, and let go of the consciousness she'd been clinging to.
"Ah, and one more thing."
I paused mid-step as I turned to carry her off.
"I'll take full responsibility for treating her, Noona."
I asked Yupi, in so many words, whether it was all right for me to accompany Terre instead of her. More than just the mediator who'd broken up the fight — as her lover, I wanted to say the right thing so she wouldn't feel slighted.
"...Do as you like."
Yupi paid my words little mind. Holding onto her frigid composure to the very end, she fell in behind Palad as he departed.
Dishonest to the last, isn't she.
But I'd seen it — right up until her gaze turned away, she never once let her eyes stray from Terre. I hadn't even needed to ask. That doting sister of hers had never cared one way or the other whether I butted in or not. From beginning to end, Terre's safety was all that filled her eyes.
A quiet sound of waves washed over the shore. I let myself sink into the peaceful melody, the kind that settles the heart.
"Wow, what a pretty conch shell!"
She had always walked the beaches of her family's territory. Collecting shells from the sand and crafting them into ornaments was her hobby as an artisan, so that day too, she wandered in search of beautiful shells.
"Hehe, all done!"
Bore a hole with the awl clutched in her arms, weave the threads together — and a lovely necklace was complete. The moment word came that Yupi was coming to visit, she had scrambled about gathering materials to make it. She ran toward the family mansion, intending to deliver it to her sister that very instant, picturing the smiling face that would greet her warmly.
"Big... sis?"
But what awaited her was the interior of a building drenched in blood and strewn with corpses. Standing atop the body of the family head — her father — was a knight painted head to toe in red.
Her legs gave out beneath her, and she crumpled to the ground. Her mind churned with a thousand tangled emotions, ground together like a mixture in a blender.
"What... what is this...?"
Terre swallowed her moan. It was a horrific sight. Nanny Anna, who had always taken her mischievous antics and wrapped her up in both arms anyway. Butler Pedler, who had treated her with the utmost respect despite her young age. Even knight Marcus, who had stood guard day and night to keep her safe. Every last one of them — dead.
Killed by none other than her own sister. By the hand of the woman they called the hero of humanity.
"Why...? Why did you kill them all?"
It was hardly more than a murmur to herself — she never truly expected an answer. And yet Yupi, sweeping a blood-soaked hand back through her hair, gave her one.
"Because I didn't like them."
That day, Terre understood. She could no longer stand beside her sister. Beside this monster.
"Ugh...!"
"You awake?"
Having lost consciousness, Terre rose, rubbing her face with her hands. Truly befitting a descendant who'd inherited the Citrine blood — her recovery rate was remarkable. I'd expected her to be bedridden for at least three days.
"You're... Solis?"
"That's me. Rescued you after Noona worked you over pretty badly."
"Right... "
Terre seemed to recall being beaten down by Yupi, making a show of gritting her teeth in frustration. Whether her pride had taken a heavy blow or not, moisture had gathered at the corners of her eyes before she knew it.
"Damn it... "
She swallowed her tears quickly, but perhaps a faucet, once opened, was hard to shut again — the tears kept seeping out between her fingers as she covered her face. I said nothing and simply waited until she'd steadied herself. It didn't take long before she'd pulled herself together.
"Where am I?"
"Infirmary. Brought you here since you were hurt."
At those words, Terre checked over her own body. Where there should have been the smell of burning squid, there was only the fresh scent of lavender. Where soot and grime should have been, smooth, well-tended skin. Barely a few hours had passed since Yupi had pummeled her, yet she was every bit as pristine as she'd been before the fight.
"B-b-but then why am I naked?! Hey!!!"
"It was the best option for a swift recovery. I'd appreciate your understanding."
"No, I— that is—!"
Speechless, Terre glared at me with a face flushed scarlet. Healing her wounds required restoring the damaged areas, and clearing away the charred scraps of her clothes had been the correct call. Rationally speaking, she had no grounds whatsoever to blame me.
But as a woman, there was no changing the fact that baring her naked body before a man she barely knew was mortifying and humiliating, and she clenched her teeth over it.
Better keep the relic in my chest hidden, I suppose.
Truthfully, I'd used that utterly broken cheat item called the First Heartbeat, so there had been no need to undress her at all. I'd deliberately left her in that state out of my own selfish appetite. And the fact that I'd given every last inch of her a very detailed inspection while she lay unconscious — that was a truth better buried deep, deep in my chest.
"Anyway, if you're ready, get up. We're heading to the headmaster's office."
Right now, Palad would be giving Yupi an earful about taking private revenge on an academy student. I intended to bring Terre along and hear both sides directly — to find out what on earth they'd fought about.
"...No."
"Hm? What was that?"
"I said no! I'm not going!"
But Terre burrowed under her blanket, refusing to face her sister.
"Tell her to deal with it herself. It's got nothing to do with me anymore!"
"Isn't this a good situation for you, though? A golden opportunity to stick it to the Yupi you wanted to beat so badly."
Undermining Yupi's authority and seating herself as head of the family. Whatever the process had looked like, Terre's goal stood on the very brink of realization — and yet here she was, not standing up to face it, but trembling like something hiding in a mousehole.
"So what am I supposed to do?! The relic's already been taken from me!"
Ah.
Only when I heard what came next did the full picture click into place. Why had Terre been able to compete with Yupi for the position of family head at all? Because a divine relic had chosen her. Inferior to her sister in every other respect, but that single fact had placed them on equal footing. That was how symbolically weighty the Wrathful Heavenly Thunder was to House Citrine. And now it had a new master. Put plainly, it had simply returned to where it belonged — but for Terre, the blow must have been devastating.
"...Just leave me alone from now on."
The girl who had always squared her shoulders with confidence, no matter the moment, was now so deflated she wouldn't even consider coming out from under the blanket.
Troublesome. This is troublesome.
"So you lost one relic. Why so gloomy about it?"
"Don't talk like it's someone else's problem. If you were in my position, you'd be acting exactly the same."
'Well, I've got two relics, so losing one wouldn't really bother me—'
The cheap shot nearly burst out of me, and I barely clamped a hand over my joking mouth in time. Instead, I cleared my throat, composed myself, and moved on to my next line — a bit of encouragement to fan the dying embers of her spirit.
"Yeah? Then shall we go get you one right now?"
"Fine, whatever... wait. What did you just say?"
"I said let's go find a divine relic to replace the Wrathful Heavenly Thunder."
As it happened, an item tailor-made for Terre lay hidden deep within a dungeon. A place even the Celestial Clan had never managed to pinpoint. The undersea temple — Atlantis. The dungeon where Endless Waves slumbered.
The place Terre was destined to reach one day — that was where I set our next destination.