Silver Bullet (3)
“Do you have a plan?”
Raul asked, turning away from Princess Elenoa as she fastened the front of her loosened clothes.
“I intend to meet Lord Arbato.”
“Arbato?”
“Arbato Daber Fatal. He is the lord of the impregnable fortress of Fatal.”
Raul nodded at the princess’s answer.
“Ah. Salvatore Fatal’s son.”
“...You’re rather unusual, aren’t you? To know a lord from an era before I was even born.”
“I’m older than I look.”
“So what you’re saying is that the legendary adventurer Silver Bullet wasn’t actually just a human after all?”
It was a question Raul couldn’t quite deny, so he only gave her a faint smile.
Princess Elenoa continued before he could answer.
“The Fatal family has long been the head of a neutral faction that never formed ties with any royal house.”
“In a time when traitors are crawling all over the place, that makes him one of the few people we can still trust.”
“Exactly.”
She brushed her jet-black hair back behind her ear and let out a smile that was close to hollow.
“If even Lord Arbato had joined hands with those dangerous men...”
The worst-case scenario slipped from her smiling lips with a chilling ease.
Yet Princess Elenoa could not bring herself to answer the thought she had voiced.
She only kept rubbing her arms, trying to chase away the cold that would not leave.
Then Raul spoke.
“I have someone I’d like to introduce to Your Highness.”
“...Introduce?”
Even with her eyes dry and exhausted, she answered him promptly enough.
Raul felt a tiny thread of hope still remained, and went on.
“A ‘Holy Crusader Corps’ of about a dozen people that’s been sweeping across the western region recently.”
“...Of Motala?”
“Yes.”
When Raul nodded, life returned to the princess’s eyes.
“C-could you tell me more?”
Her voice rose all at once.
Raul gave a faint laugh at the reaction he had expected.
“Of course.”
He rose from his seat and walked over to her.
Her arms and legs, little more than skin stretched over bone, were already screaming in protest despite the steel of her will.
“But first, why don’t we do something about the cold?”
And that wasn’t all.
Cold sweat was beading on Elenoa’s forehead.
Cold sweat in this weather.
So even a person’s health really couldn’t be solved by willpower alone.
Raul took hold of the princess’s icy arm and called his guardian.
“Horus.”
At once, a pure white light gathered within the Stigma, and Horus poked his head out from it.
Nyaa—
“Horus, could you stay with her for a moment?”
The fluffy white ball of fur obediently settled onto the princess’s lap without complaint.
“How is it? A little warmer now—”
“Oh, my! Oh, my, my!”
But then, from the mouth that had just moments ago been issuing a deep, commanding tone, a high, girlish squeal suddenly burst out.
Raul looked up and saw Princess Elenoa clamping both hands over her mouth, staring at Horus with eyes that looked ready to melt and spill over.
“Your Highness?”
“A-ah... Ahem! C-cough! I-I’m sorry. But what in the world is this little one?”
“My, um, familiar. Strictly speaking, he’s closer to a spirit of light.”
“R-really adorable, no, that’s not it. Really clever and intelligent, this little one is.”
Well, even in a fantasy world, the appeal of a soft little creature that looked like a ball of wool didn’t seem to change much.
“If you’d like, you may pet him.”
“R-really?”
Before long, the princess wore the expression of someone preparing for a final battle as she reached down and stroked Horus, who was lying on her lap.
Grrrr.
“Hya!”
When Horus let out a satisfied little kitten sound, the princess covered her forehead and face with both hands and screamed silently.
Still, he hadn’t expected her to like him that much.
“...Ah.”
Only after a moment did she recover her composure, glancing at Raul with red cheeks.
Who was this woman?
Where had that charismatic princess from a moment ago gone?
Mimir’s Minor Divinity resonates with Halo.
The blessing tier within the Rosary of Health and Wisdom has risen.
Raul wore the rosary he had managed to obtain from Elenoa far more easily than he had expected, and discovered something remarkable.
He had only put it on, and yet he could immediately feel breathing become easier and his mind grow clearer.
A divine charm this small has that much power?
As he mulled over that and a few other questions, the answer came in the form of an unexpected message.
So it rises the blessing tier just because I’m wearing it?
Halo.
In other words, simply because Raul had put it on?
“Wow.”
He had no idea there could be such synergy between an object imbued with divinity and the Halo. He really hadn’t.
Honestly, he should at least have seen a proper holy relic before now.
After all, ninety percent of the sacred relics existing in Exeria were monopolized by the three major sects rooted in the eastern continent.
And so, within Raul’s mind, a new goal was born alongside the relics of the Sun King and the relics of the Saint of the Beginning.
Objects imbued with divinity.
Even if each individual item was small and insignificant, if he gathered enough of them, they might prove useful later.
“Raul?”
“My lord. Are you ready?”
Then Walter and the princess, who had introduced themselves the previous night, called to him in turn.
“Almost.”
Raul quickly cleared away the remains of the campfire and placed a hand on the magical item blocking the cave entrance.
As he withdrew the power within it—the divinity—the magical item scattered on the wind like ordinary sand.
Hooooooosh—
The blizzard was still howling like some savage beast.
Still, since the princess insisted they should head for Fatal immediately, the party set out once more.
The wind coming down from the lower slopes of Tetra Mountain was so cold it seemed to bite at the flesh and ache in the bones, but to be frank, Raul agreed with the princess’s judgment.
If they delayed any longer, they might not meet the lord before spring came.
Fatal was a city where war broke out every winter.
“A-are w-we r-really g-going n-now?!”
Walter, who led the way, drove back the storm of snow with flames and shouted that question over his shoulder.
Raul looked ahead, but the princess was too busy stroking Horus on her shoulder to notice.
So he answered in her place.
“Fatal is a city that comes under attack from the Frost Steel Orcs every winter.”
“S-so, if we h-help in a war, we c-can’t m-meet the l-lord?!”
Raul went on explaining to Walter, who was now dripping snot from his nose.
Fatal was what one would call a border city.
A fortress-like city that separated the frozen orc lands of the snowfields from the territory of mankind.
The Frost Steel Orcs attacked Fatal every year, waiting for Exeria’s winter.
By nature, they did not feel cold, so they targeted winter, when humans became comparatively weaker.
A blizzard that made it impossible to see a single step ahead.
The chill that dulled the human senses.
As everyone could see, Exeria’s winter was truly brutal.
“B-but! J-just because t-there’s a war doesn’t mean we c-can’t s-see the l-lord...”
“The lord of Fatal has always been a knight. When war breaks out, he stands at the very front, and he stays on the battlefield until the day he dies—for the sake of the Kingdom of Therion, not for the king, nor for the crown prince.”
Once war began, Fatal’s lord never left the front line.
Which meant that until the day the orcs withdrew and spring came, meeting him would be impossible unless they stood together on the battlefield.
“I-I see...”
Only then did Walter, his face turned pale blue, nod as if he finally understood.
But the flames rising from the tip of his staff were already fading, contrary to the words of agreement on his lips.
Raul called to his guardian, who was wagging its tail atop the princess’s shoulder.
“Horus.”
Of course, no conversation was necessary.
Nyaaah—
Horus let out a thin, drawn-out cry, and at the same moment rune letters floated above Raul, Elenoa, and Walter’s heads.
“W-we’re s-saved...”
With the warm light now blocking even the biting wind, Walter, who had been dying a blue death from the cold, let out a long sigh of relief.
Raul gave his shoulder a light pat.
“Recover your mana as quickly as you can. You’re a genius mage, so you already know this, but rune magic doesn’t last long precisely because its casting time is so short.”
“Ah... right. Right. B-but how much farther is it to Fatal?”
Raul looked at Walter’s eyes, which seemed to be clinging to the last shred of hope, thought for a moment, and then said,
“Not far.”
“R-really?! Then exactly how much—”
“Walter, it would be better if you didn’t hear the answer.”
At that moment, the princess cut in.
Walter protested with his eyes, but Raul privately agreed with her completely.
In reality, the party did not arrive in Fatal until the evening of the following day, after forcing their way through the blizzard.
“...I’ll allow entry for now, but the moment you secure an inn, you’re to go straight to the Adventurer’s Guild and have your identity badge reissued, understand?”
The bearded guard repeated his warning over and over to Raul, who had Walter slung over his back, his face drained blue and his body having finally given out.
“Understood.”
“I’m only cutting you this much slack because you’re the famous Silver Bullet, all right? Next time, it’ll be two full days of questioning with no exceptions.”
“Yes. I’ll remember that.”
Raul answered the guard, whose eyes were still stained with suspicion, with a faint smile.
With a creak, the pulley finally turned with a rusty groan, and the massive gate—large enough to rival a fortress entrance—opened with a heavy thud.
“Then I’ll see you later.”
Raul and Princess Elenoa quickly left the checkpoint at Fatal and entered the city.
Once they crossed the bridge linking the checkpoint and the city, separated by a wide moat, the princess spoke in wonder.
“To think we passed through Fatal’s checkpoint in less than an hour...”
When her deep navy eyes found Raul’s, he shifted Walter more securely over his back and said,
“We came here with desperation enough to cut through a blizzard, plus a wounded man who looks like he’s in bad shape. And frankly, at a time when war is practically at the doorstep, there’s no reason to unnecessarily isolate a famous adventurer inside the city.”
“...Remarkable wisdom.”
“It’s just a cheap trick.”
In truth, just as he had said, Walter’s magical exhaustion had been exactly what Raul had intended.
Fatal was famous for its strict inspections, precisely because it fought a war every year.
Could they really have crossed such a gate while dragging along two people whose identities could not be exposed through any normal route?
That was the idea Raul had come up with.
“I’m sorry for Walter.”
“...Well, he’s been saying all along that if he could help Your Highness at all, he’d do anything.”
In the first place, if Raul and Walter had not alternated suppressing the blizzard, there was no way they would have made it here in thirty-five hours.
“For now, get a decent inn, rest, and leave the real work for tomorrow.”
Saying that, Raul handed the princess a silver coin.
“I’d very much like to say I’m fine, but... honestly, even I’ve reached my limit. My legs are trembling.”
“A thirty-five-hour march across the snowfield would exhaust even a sturdy knight. If anything, Your Highness is the impressive one.”
“Nonsense. It’s thanks to the mysterious fur you lent me, and that clever familiar of yours. And by the way, don’t you ever get tired? You look exactly the same as you did the moment we set out from the cave.”
At the princess’s words, spoken in astonishment with half-lidded eyes, Raul gave a faint smile.
“It seems the talisman you gave me works extremely well.”
“How modest of you... Still, I paid the price, so I’ll gratefully accept your kindness. Thank you.”
After taking Walter, whose mind was beginning to drift in and out, from Raul, the princess headed straight for an inn not far from the west gate.
When Raul had told her about the Holy Crusader Corps, she had looked genuinely delighted for a brief moment.
But only for a moment.
When Raul added that he couldn’t honestly guarantee when they would arrive, she fell into deep thought with a much more serious expression.
In that case, I’ll do my best as far as I can. Please leave the warriors of Motala to me after that.
And so the conclusion they reached was to act separately for a while.
It was, frankly, an opinion Raul had no reason to oppose.
Whether he dragged the princess and Walter along with him or not, he still had to go see the locksmith.
Hmph.
With a long sigh, Raul soon headed for Fatal’s central street.
He stood for a moment in the street and gazed north.
There, facing one another across the sky, were high, dizzying cliffs whose middles were so tall even the clouds caught on them.
And at the heart of those cliffs stood the Fatal outpost, more famous as the Bulwark of the Snowfield, proudly displaying its magnificent form.
Raul fell silent for a moment as he looked at the fortress.
The lords of Fatal had fought for generations not for the king, nor for the court, but for the Kingdom of Therion and its people.
And yet Therion had ultimately collapsed from within.
Once Fatal learned the truth, what kind of reaction would it show?
Standing at the very threshold of this age of ruin, where everything was withering and crumbling away, what decision would it make?
For some reason, Raul found himself wondering.
Fatal was a city that Raul knew very well.
If Coyard, on the western edge of the Kingdom of Therion, was a village you “absolutely had to stop by,” then Fatal was a city you “had to visit no matter what” as long as you were a profession rooted in the western region.
Thanks to that, there was no hesitation in Raul’s stride.
Without delay, he checked the sign and walked into a tavern.
Its infamous name was Money In, Money Out.
This tavern was famous in Fatal, where countless adventurers and mercenaries came and went every year, for allowing fights inside the establishment.
When drunken customers started brawling, the patrons got entertainment, and the owner, true to the tavern’s name, opened a betting pool and took his cut as commission.
As one would expect from a place famous for such feral reasons, a great deal of information changed hands here.
That was exactly what Raul was after.
He set down three silver coins in front of the owner behind the bar.
“Is there something you’re looking for?”
“A bottle of White Louis, forty-two years old. And I’m looking for a locksmith named Dirk.”
Dirk.
The elf who was the Gale’s Friend and an expert at deciphering codes was, unusually enough, famous for never bothering to hide his identity.
After all, no one could touch him while he was the Gale’s Friend, and with such versatile skill to boot, there was no reason to ostracize him in a city where war broke out every year.
Thanks to that, finding Dirk was not difficult.
Clink, clink, clink.
The burly owner opened a bottle and poured the liquor, then slid a glass filled to the brim with unnerving precision across the bar to Raul.
“Unfortunately, Dirk is currently at the Bulwark of the Snowfield.”
“...That Dirk joined the war?”
“More precisely, he was summoned by the lord. Apparently some strange crystal-shaped ‘ciphertext’ was discovered between certain merchants and the Frost Steel Orcs.”
The moment Raul heard that, he immediately thought of Exceed.
“Those bastards...”
Without a doubt, a similar object to the crystal Raul had ended up with had fallen into the hands of Fatal’s lord as well.
If they were going to use encoded documents, they could at least have exchanged them more discreetly. Why make a scene and drag Dirk into it?
At this rate, it looked like Raul might end up waiting until spring instead of the princess.
Should I just declare that I’m joining the war too and head to the fortress? Or should I move with the princess and visit the fortress with her?
His thoughts tangled in an instant, and Raul let out a long sigh before taking a sip of the liquor in front of him.
“Hoo.”
As expected, it was an aroma that calmed the mind.
Then someone sat down beside him.
Since the person had appeared without the slightest hint of footsteps, Raul turned at once, and—
“Hello.”
The woman beside him was looking at him with a seductive smile and a captivating crescent of the eyes.
For a moment, Raul froze in place as if time itself had stopped.
Long straight hair that fell to her waist.
Snow-white locks like the blossoms of a snowfield.
And eyes that shimmered with dazzling gold...
“Long time no see, Raul.”
She was Celia, the one and only partner of Silver Bullet, and a true crusader of Motala.