Seeds of Farewell (3)

Rattle, rattle.

In the awkward silence, only the indifferent clatter of the carriage wheels filled the air.

The usual boisterous crowd was gone from the cabin. Only three of us remained — myself, and the two who had stayed. After the farewells just a short while ago, Clara and Caesius were all that was left at my side.

When the moment of parting actually came, Erinn had been the one who couldn't bring herself to leave first, so I was the one who turned and walked away.

Not that it had been easy on our end either. Clara had been quiet for some time already, her face openly showing her grief. Caesius looked like she was dying to ask how things had ended up this way, but the atmosphere made it impossible.

"…"

And I wasn't exactly in high spirits myself. We'd parted on good terms, sure — but these had still been the people closest to me since I'd arrived in this world.

I'd been wondering where to go next when I spotted a cargo wagon, paid the fare without thinking, and climbed aboard. When I asked where it was headed, the answer was the Shah Zar Kingdom.

Considering we'd just cleaned out the shadow organization Tin Tara in Mahendra, that lawless city of Shah Zar, not long ago, I briefly wondered whether going there was wise. On the other hand, what interest could they possibly have in a mere porter?

Even if the royal court knew about the purge, they'd assume the main fighters of the Hero's Party had handled it.

"…Clara."

"……Y-yes?"

Clara, still sunk in her sorrow, answered awkwardly and lifted her head. I still didn't fully understand why she'd followed me when she so clearly hadn't wanted to part — but pressing her on it wasn't something I should be doing right now.

"Do you know much about the Shah Zar Kingdom?"

"…It used to be a country with a powerful monarchy."

"'Used to be'… so not anymore?"

"…The current king's prime has passed, and his authority has been divided among his children."

A situation I'd heard plenty of times before. A classic fixture of world history — and Korean history, for that matter.

"Did the king grow weak somehow?"

"…They say he fell ill. But ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠his power was so absolute that he hasn't lost it completely."

Better than having the entire royal authority handed over to the children, at least. If things started going to hell, the king could still step in and stop it.

"Still, the country's going to be restless."

"…Yeah."

Clara nodded and fell quiet again. Seeing her so dejected, I honestly couldn't help but feel for her.

"Clara, once we get to Shah Zar, want to grab something good to eat?"

"…Huh?"

"We got some money, remember?"

Before we parted, Erinn had handed us a portion of the funds she'd entrusted to Ophelia — our share, mine and Clara's.

We couldn't carry all of it around, so we'd had to leave the bulk with Ophelia separately. Fortunately, she'd more or less grasped the situation and readily agreed to hold our money as well.

We hadn't left everything with her, though. We were carrying some of it now. Unlike the Hero's Party, which had its own operating budget, we no longer had any way of earning income.

The idea was to spend some of that money on a good meal and start the day on a better note. Clara seemed to catch my intent; she gave a small nod.

"…Okay."

A faint smile touched her lips, as if her mood had eased just a little.

Talking really was the right call. If I went quiet too, the atmosphere would only sink further. So that the rattle of the carriage wouldn't be the only sound, I kept the conversation going.

"So… what do we do now?"

"Didn't you have something in mind?"

I tilted my head at Caesius's question.

"Not really?"

"So you had no plan at all."

That one stung a little. I answered almost defensively.

"I was thinking about going on an adventure, at least…"

Caesius nodded at that.

"True. It would be a waste to sit on abilities like yours and do nothing."

If we did take up adventuring, Caesius would take the front line, Clara the middle, and I'd cover the rear.

Except I still barely know how to do anything.

I pulled the Crystal of Aether from my pocket. Caesius eyed it with interest and immediately asked,

"What's that?"

"Something I got from the Obelisk."

"It's shiny. I rather want it."

"It's mine."

As if.

"I mean, what does it do?"

"This?"

The Crystal of Aether.

It permanently increased a set amount of magic power — similar in effect to the Ancient God's gemstone I'd consumed in the Lizard Lord's dungeon.

Compared to the Ancient God's gemstone, it didn't grant any traits — but it raised the Magic stat twice as much.

"Not bad. Your ability's performance scales heavily with your magic reserves, after all…"

"I'm not eating it right away."

I had no intention of using it immediately.

"Why not?"

"I'll train my magic on my own for now and save this for when I hit a wall."

That judgment came from the fact that the Crystal of Aether had no usage conditions. Whether your Magic stat was zero or a thousand, it still added two hundred — that was the real value of the item.

The Ancient God's gemstone had worked the same way, but back then I'd had no magic at all, so I'd had no choice but to consume it just to gain any.

Things were different now. I already had magic of my own.

Caesius seemed to understand and gave a slight nod.

"That is more efficient, yes. But Albrecht."

She looked at me.

"Don't you need someone to help with your magic training?"

She had a point. Letisia had filled that role before — and she wasn't here now.

But it was fine.

"That's your job."

"…What?"

I had a dragon who could fairly be called ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠a magic specialist, after all.

"That's an order."

"……"

"I'm kidding. Don't do it if you don't want to. I'll just find someone else."

The order had been a joke. I had no intention of forcing her.

Dragon or not, Caesius was still a young one. Finding another teacher might actually be better.

I backed off so readily that she looked at me with mild surprise. After a moment, she scratched her head lightly.

"…I may not teach as well as you'd hope."

"Is that what you were worried about?"

I laughed, caught off guard by the answer. I never would have guessed a dragon fretted over something like that.

"And I won't be able to teach you magic. As I've said before, a dragon's magic is…"

"Ah, that's fine."

"Fine?"

"Yeah. I wasn't planning on becoming a proper mage anyway."

Now that I'd left the party, there was no need to insist on the orthodox path of a mage.

If anything, given the nature of my magic, becoming a mage seemed less ideal than something else. I had the power to counter mages — so the best way to make use of that advantage was…

"I was thinking of learning a weapon. That seems like the better route."

Mages typically used magic as their weapon, so strip that away and there wasn't much exceptional about them. They might outclass ordinary people, but compared to those with combat classes, they were clearly weaker in strength, stamina, and agility.

Letisia had the lowest stamina among the party members, and her Agility was the second-lowest after Freya's.

And Letisia wasn't even a pure mage — she was a spirit mage, which meant her stamina and agility were already higher than a typical mage's. That made it pretty obvious how ordinary mages would stack up.

"A weapon, you say. What kind?"

"No idea. But since we're headed to Shah Zar anyway, I figured I'd look around there."

The Shah Zar Kingdom. Its capital, Parvata, was home to a famous martial arts academy.

In Dungeon in Evil, that place had been used to train newly acquired characters and bring them into the party. As a result, it had instructors for every kind of weapon, and you could learn weapon-related magic from them separately.

There's got to be at least one weapon that suits me.

And if nothing fit, I'd find another way. Learn throwing weapons from Clara, maybe… there were options if I looked for them.

Thinking about it only made the regret sharper. If I'd still been with the party, I wouldn't have needed to worry about any of this — just doing my job well would have been enough.

"…Looks like a long, hard road ahead."

Even putting it kindly, the atmosphere in Erinn's party after Albrecht and Clara's departure could not be called good.

Ser-Aria wore a look of persistent dissatisfaction, while Letisia and Freya each sat sunk in their own separate gloom.

And even Erinn, the party leader, was in no better state. Parting from them had left her with far too much to think about.

From the moment she'd spoken with Albrecht that day, she had tried to resolve, deep down, that Allen was finished — at least in this life.

She'd even told herself that his absence would let her focus on defeating the Demon King. But it wasn't that simple.

It wasn't only that she couldn't forget Allen. Something else weighed just as heavily. The question of whether sending Albrecht and Clara away like that had been the right choice kept tormenting her.

Even so, she couldn't call them back. She couldn't hold on to them.

A complete stranger, wearing the face and body she knew so well, behaving in an entirely different ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠way. The dissonance of that fact was more than one person could bear.

No — there was another element still.

During the battle with Barkan, fighting alongside Albrecht rather than Allen, Erinn had felt a sense of satisfaction — and the self-loathing that followed was directed at herself.

In that "other person" who had taken Allen's body, she had found the very things she had always hoped for from Allen. She couldn't deny what she had felt, and the admission left her reeling.

Was it… never about Allen at all? Would anyone have been enough?

He had Allen's face and body, nothing more — a completely different person.

Erinn shook her head. No matter how she turned it over, that wasn't it. When she'd saved that idiot from the brink of death, it hadn't been like that.

She had done it because he was more precious to her than anyone.

So what was this feeling, then?

She wrestled with it alone, but no answer came. All that emerged from her was a long, heavy sigh.

"Haa…"

Ser-Aria, already dissatisfied with the current state of things, looked at Erinn. In all their time together, Ser-Aria had only been truly unhappy with Erinn's decisions twice.

This time — and the previous time, when Erinn had insisted on keeping Allen with them to the end.

Ser-Aria wasn't Erinn, so both times the discontent had been more than justified.

But both times she had understood Erinn's heart well enough not to scold her for it. Even now, she confined her dissatisfaction to the expression on her face and left it at that.

"…"

…Though sitting there sulking like a child wasn't going to help either. With that thought, Ser-Aria spoke up.

"…Erinn, we need to set our next plans too. We collect the reward Behend Kingdom promised us, and then where do we go?"

"……"

Erinn was silent for a moment. But only a moment — she answered almost at once.

"We go back to the Dern Empire. The party roster has changed, so we need to report that as well."

Ser-Aria nodded at the answer, then looked toward Letisia and Freya.

"You two should also…"

The more dejected they were, the harder it ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠became for Erinn as party leader. Thinking of that, Ser-Aria had been about to tell them to just forget it already — and then she stopped short.

…

The words simply wouldn't come out of her mouth.

Ser-Aria was a pure-blooded elf. More than that, she was a High Elf — a higher species even among elves.

Elves lived far longer than humans, and High Elves lived longer still… which meant they had to grow accustomed to forgetting. If they didn't learn to let go, the grief of everyone they'd already lost would drown their entire lives.

That was part of why she'd been relatively unmoved compared to the others. Partings like this were easy enough to forget.

So Ser-Aria had considered herself fine. But finding her own words stuck in her throat like this…

She didn't finish what she'd started to say. Instead, she put the mouth of her bottle to her lips.

Somehow, she had the feeling this particular farewell was going to linger a little longer than most.