The Kiss
Stepping out of the portal, Maru was greeted by the vast night sea.
The surroundings glowed with a hazy, pre-dawn light, and a beach of white sand stretched out endlessly before him.
The wind brushing against his face was cold.
Beside him, the hem of Luciela's robe whipped violently in the breeze, tracing the contours of her voluptuous figure in sharp relief.
"This is the place?"
"Yes."
"Where's the monster?"
"Over there, My Lord."
Luciela gestured politely with an open palm.
Maru turned his gaze in that direction. At first glance, he'd mistaken it for a mountain silhouetted against the night—but looking closer, it was an enormous monster standing roughly ten meters tall.
Its head looked as though a whole octopus had been rammed into its neck, and its torso bore limbs shaped like a human's. Its hands were massive crab-like pincers, its feet were webbed, and its skin gleamed a slick, mackerel-blue.
Maru stared up at the monster, his mouth falling open.
"...You want me to catch that?"
"If it's you, My Lord, it will be possible."
"This is no time for jokes. That thing's too big. Way too big."
"The bigger it is, the sweeter the reward."
"Don't suck on your fingers while having weird fantasies."
Maru looked up at the monster again.
It seemed to be digging through the surrounding mountains with its pincers, searching for something.
"That monster's name is Gnirr. Once a year it comes ashore to find a vein of ore sleeping deep in the mountains, and it devours the insects living nearby. Gnirr's Essence enhances demonic mana, so it fetches an outrageous price on the market. But it only appears once every twenty years or so—finding it is hard enough, and catching it is harder still."
"Sounds like you got lucky, then?"
"Chasing that creature, I had to offer up countless men to the sirens of the sea."
"Wow... damn."
"And not just human ones."
As Luciela smiled, the monster called Gnirr turned to look their way.
Apparently curious about Maru and Luciela, it withdrew the long tentacle it had bored into a hole in the mountainside and thrust it toward the two of them.
It seemed to be feeling them out with the tentacle, trying to determine what kind of creatures they were.
But Maru swiftly drew his sword and brought it down on the tentacle in a single stroke.
"Krrrooooooh!"
The tentacle recoiled like a startled earthworm, and the monster let out a hideous shriek.
"The credits have rolled. Now one of us has to die."
Maru flung his broken blade onto the sand and clasped his hands together.
"Come forth, monster."
Three days had passed since he left.
"He didn't come today either..."
Audrite glanced around the empty room, then stepped back outside, heaving a sigh as she closed the door behind her.
"I hope nothing's happened to him..."
Watching her from a distance—her face clouded with worry as she sighed over and over—was someone in particular.
Lucy.
The mutt's been holed up in his room for three days. What is he even doing?
Three days ago, Maru had abruptly ceased all activity outside his quarters. According to her digging, no one had seen him leave the palace grounds.
Which meant he had to be shut up in his room.
And in the middle of all this—whether by some absurd coincidence—every time Lucy came to snoop around Maru's room, she kept running into the Princess.
From how often the Princess flitted in and out of his room, he clearly was in there.
Each visit, she'd typically stay ten-odd minutes before emerging.
"Is she in some kind of special relationship with him? What does the Princess even see in that mutt? Has she lost her mind?"
Tilting her head in puzzlement, Lucy moved along, heading back toward her own room.
On the way, she ran into Kiera in the corridor.
"After consulting with Duke Toledo, we've decided to depart in four days. Get anything you need ahead of time, and have your packing done."
"Already? Ah... and I haven't managed to do anything yet. Tsk."
Lucy felt an odd pang of impatience. Once she set her mind on something, she couldn't rest until she saw it through.
She'd wanted to plant a surveillance spell in Maru's room quickly so she could peek at him for the entire journey.
"Yoris wants to return to his homeland. So he's left the party."
"I heard. From Yoris himself. Oh, by the way, Kiera."
"Hmm?"
"Back when the Hero's Power vanished—I've come up with a hypothesis. What if it's deeply connected to Maru? Like, if you're both forgetting each other, the power drains away, but if you each think of the other, it comes back?"
"So if I think of Maru, and Maru thinks of me, the power returns...?"
"That's hypothesis one. Hypothesis two is that if you're far apart from each other, the Hero's Power disappears. That one is, well, distance-based..."
"Pfft."
Kiera burst into loud laughter.
"Ahahaha!"
She patted Lucy on the shoulder as she walked past, then turned back around, her face suddenly serious.
"Did Maru pay you to say that? I'm in the middle of a battle of nerves with him right now. Don't spout nonsense. My power was granted by the heavens, same as any other Hero."
"Every other Hero has the hair color they were born with. Doesn't it strike you as strange that only yours changed?"
"That's because my power is exceptionally special, even among Heroes. Lucy, you lack faith. You ought to hold the Hero at your side in higher esteem. And when we find a priest to replace Yoris, we might as well recruit a new mage while we're at it."
With that parting shot, she walked off.
Left behind, Lucy's face twisted into a deep scowl.
"Look who's running her mouth, that bitch..."
Soon enough, though, she was stroking her chin, lost in other thoughts.
"My hypothesis doesn't hold water...? Yeah, I suppose it doesn't. Tch."
With no hard evidence, she lightly conceded that it was a baseless, fantastical theory.
For now.
"Beggin' your pardon, Princess, could ye sign here?"
"Of course. Let's see—cargo number GT78931... silk, I see."
"Heh heh, it's the finest grade, brought in special for the royal family. Top-shelf goods, milady."
"Thank you."
Audrite had traded her dress for work clothes and was spending a hectic afternoon down at the unloading yard.
"Here you are."
"Much obliged."
At the yard's entrance, carts laden with cargo were lined up in an unbroken row while laborers bustled back and forth.
Wine and silk, spices, rare perfumes, whale oil, salt, cod, herring and more.
Supplies for the royal palace were arriving in full force.
"Fish goes to warehouse two, over there!"
"Yes, ma'am!"
"Ugh, it reeks."
Audrite pinched her nose and looked elsewhere.
A cart carrying luxury furs from the northern provinces was rolling in.
"Furs! Furs! Furs over there! All furs to warehouse five!"
"Yes! Thank you!"
"You could leave this sort of work to your servants, you know."
Baroness Osmond approached carrying a tray of tea.
"Must the Princess herself do it?"
"I've been so scatterbrained these past few days—I figured I ought to work up a sweat."
"If that's the case, a genteel exercise would serve just as well. Why trouble yourself with servants' labor..."
As the Baroness's nagging continued, Audrite lifted her teacup, savored the aroma, took a sip, and put on a look of feigned surprise.
"Oh! It's delicious!"
"Don't change the subject. Drink it slowly."
While the two of them chatted, Audrite happened to catch sight of blacksmiths loading shattered armor onto a cart.
The armor looked familiar, and her eyes drifted over on their own. She drew closer and asked,
"What's that?"
"Good day, Princess! It's come in for repairs—we're taking it to the forge."
"Whose is it?"
"It belonged to the Guardian of the Royal Banner. Tsk tsk... however it came to this state, it's cracked, crushed, and pierced clean through. We'll have to melt it down and reforge it."
At those words, the Princess's eyes went wide.
"The—the Guardian? Has Sir Maru returned?"
"I didn't see him myself, but I hear he was carried off to Trianon Palace."
"What do you mean, carried off? He's hurt?"
"They say he'd lost consciousness. Whether he suffered grave injuries, I couldn't say."
"Good heavens!"
Audrite immediately raced off toward Trianon Palace.
Trianon Palace was a detached royal residence where skilled physicians and servants of the divine were stationed to tend to the royal family's patients.
Please don't let him be badly hurt!
With anxious heart, Audrite sprinted from the unloading yard, cutting straight across the sprawling green gardens.
She'd been running for perhaps twenty minutes.
At last she reached the sickroom. When she flung open the door, she found Maru lying unconscious on the bed, stripped of his upper garments—and beside him, a priestess with her hands pressed to his chest, channeling sacred energy into him.
"How is Sir Maru's condition? Is it serious?"
"There seem to be no external wounds, but he complained of pain as though his chest were being torn apart, so I'm working to ease it."
"Why would his chest hurt?"
"He said that after the difficult task he'd completed, his chest ached as if it would split open... that's all I've been told."
"So he was conscious at the time?"
"It would appear so."
"Oh, the poor thing... how much he must have suffered."
A short while later, the priestess finished her treatment and left the room.
Audrite instantly took Maru's hand and gazed at him anxiously.
"Stay strong."
"...Ah, this is nice. It's lovely, having you hold my hand so often, Princess."
"!?"
Maru slowly opened his eyes and smiled gently up at her.
Overjoyed, Audrite clasped his hand tightly in both of hers.
"Are you all right now?"
"Actually, I've been fine for a while now. About ten minutes."
"You were awake and pretended not to be?"
"I did. I wanted you to worry over me a little more. I was listening to you talk with the priestess—quite entertaining, actually. You were fretting over me so earnestly that she took us for lovers?"
Exasperated, Audrite smacked the hand she'd been holding.
"Let them think whatever they like! Is teasing me all you ever think about? You're a truly terrible person! If you were awake, you should have said so instead of lying there watching! You break your promises whenever it suits you! You make me worry, and worry, and worry! You're mischievous and mean and insufferable—and there you sit, laughing, while I'm worried sick!"
Maru only smiled serenely at the huffing Princess.
"You're beautiful even when you're angry."
"I told you that slimy sweet talk doesn't work on me! Where does it hurt? I'll hit it for you!"
"Ahh! Not the chest! Stop! Stop it!"
"You wretch! Die! Die!"
As Audrite kept pounding his chest with both fists, Maru, determined to put a stop to it, pulled her into a fierce embrace.
Somehow their bodies ended up pressed flush together—Maru lying on the bed, Audrite sprawled on top of him, their faces so close they could only look up and down at one another.
"......"
"......"
For a moment, the two simply stared at each other, silence settling over the room.
"Thank you for worrying about me."
"It's too late for that. You tease me half to death and then say thank you?"
"Forgive... my rudeness."
The instant the words left his mouth, Maru took her cheeks in his hands and pressed his lips to her defenseless mouth.
"Mmph!"
Audrite's eyes flew wide open and she squirmed—but soon she went still.
Softly closing her eyes, she yielded to his kiss.
Click.
The door to Maru's room slid silently open.
Lucy slipped inside, wedging her hips through first.
"So the mutt's been hospitalized, huh? This is the perfect chance. I can't let it slip by."
She smirked wickedly as she surveyed the curtained room.
Despite the midday hour, it was rather dim and quiet.
"Sorry, mutt, but teasing you is just too much fun. Ahh, that unforgettable addictiveness. Nowhere in the world could I find an idiot as perfect as you."
Lucy pulled a sticky, greenish substance from her pocket.
As she clutched it in her hand and approached the mirror, changes began to ripple through the room, one by one, without her noticing.
The ceiling and walls behind her were being silently consumed by grotesque mounds of flesh, tentacles sprouting from them.
And the door—somewhere along the way—had vanished.