I'd Rather Not Make Her Go Through It Twice

"I'd rather not make her go through this twice."

"Let's sort things ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠out first."

Time remaining: thirty minutes.

Gio had prepared a ritual to stop the Kraken at the behest of a certain 'sorcerer' from the East, but as the Kraken changed, the ritual had lost most of its meaning.

The sorcerer possessed a special power called the 'Watch,' which seemed to be the ability to halt the flow of time within a specific space.

"...Of course, saying it like that makes it sound impressive, but it really isn't all that special."

The ability to manipulate the flow of time in a given space. In other words, it creates what you might call a 'time gap'—a far more common power than most people realize. Back when I trained with the spear, I honed my skills in places where time flowed at a crawl. Almost every mental realm worth its salt has large and small time gaps scattered through it, so the sorcerer probably had something similar.

"What matters are these gems."

Gems imbued with heavenly power that repels Territorialization—the single most important items in this dungeon. If everything had gone according to plan, these and the ritual alone would have been enough to hold back the Kraken's domain.

But something had gone wrong, and Gio had been forced to make a choice.

"That's what we're about to find out."

Nothing was written in the note's contents, and he'd left nothing else behind—nothing except a single dilemma: everyone's lives, or my own.

Still, there was one thing I could roughly guess. At the very edge of the note, scrawled in a hurried hand, was a fragment of a sentence:

A wish of some kind.

The crystals central to the ritual were never retrieved, and he wasn't at home either—yet he'd gone so far as to prepare all of this in advance. Which meant...

The choice might have been his own life.

There was a good chance he'd built all of this hoping that someone—anyone—would complete the ritual in his stead after he fled. He couldn't ask just anybody, so he'd probably wanted to pass it on to someone capable of grasping the Watch's power.

Why the sentence had been scrawled so hastily, and why part of the note was torn, remained a mystery, though.

Was someone chasing him? Or did he simply run out of time?

Tick.

I shook my head, hung the watch back on the wall, and gathered up the gems.

"No. We'll leave it be for today."

Just as the sorcerer had said, the ritual could no longer be counted on for any real effect. Of course, I couldn't trust this sorcerer person a hundred percent, but one thing was certain—something connected to the Kraken was coming.

Which was exactly why, rather than blindly installing the ritual, I needed to see how young Lily reacted first.

She must have some role to play in all of this too.

Creeeak...

"The fact that she sensed the existence of a Calamity means there's some kind of connection, right? And with a save in hand, there's no need to rush."

The timing was a little awkward, too.

I returned to the house.

"...?"

Rustle.

My eyes fluttered open, and I pushed back the blanket draped over me as I climbed out of bed. Outside the window, dusk was slowly settling in.

I'd definitely been tired—no, come to think of it, I hadn't been all that tired—but at some point I'd just drifted off to sleep.

"Yaaawn... what time is it?"

Instinctively, I checked the clock.

So I'd slept for almost two and a half hours? For how worn out I'd been, that didn't seem like all that much sleep.

Still groggy, I shuffled over to the desk and flopped down into the chair. Sleep still clung to me; everything felt a little hazy.

Maybe I should go wash my face and come back. Yeah. A quick face wash, then back to it. That dream had left me feeling uneasy anyway—one splash of cold water and it'd all wash away—

Still, that dream was pretty strange, wasn't it?

"...Hmm. It really was."

I moved to push back my chair and stand, then sat right back down.

The dream had been completely bizarre. I'd suddenly climbed out the window, wandered around the village, then in an instant my body sped up and I circled the entire village in one breath. After that, out of nowhere, I'd gone to the harbor and received a strange gem from an uncle. Then I went to some house and looked at a watch...

"...What came after that?"

It was clearly strange stuff, but I couldn't remember. Mom and Dad always said dreams fade with time, but barely two minutes had passed since I woke up. And the part I couldn't recall properly wasn't the beginning, either—it was the very end, right before I woke up.

I grabbed my head. It was such a weird dream!

"Ugh... come on, Lily, remember."

The watch, the watch, the watch...

"Oh! It was a wall clock!"

It looked almost exactly like the clock we had at home.

I jumped up and clattered down the stairs. Mom stared at me in surprise, but this was more important right now.

"Lily? What's gotten into you?"

"Oh. It's the same."

It was exactly the same. Maybe a little less worn, but it was definitely this kind of clock.

"Mom!"

"Yes?"

"Can I take a look at this?"

"The clock? Of course, dear."

With an expression that couldn't have found me more adorable, Mom lifted the wall clock off its hook and handed it to me. The feel of it in my hands was oddly familiar. Was that because the dream had been so vivid?

"Thank you!"

"What's got you so interested in the clock all of a ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠sudden?"

"Oh, this clock showed up in my dream, so I guess it really does look just like this one."

"Ah, how interesting. Look at it all you like."

I clattered back up the stairs to my room on the second floor.

Definitely, with this clock in hand—

"Um... what did ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠I do, again?"

Didn't I do something like—this, and that?

I waved the clock around in the air. From a distance it must have looked tremendously silly, but I gave it my all anyway.

Nothing in particular changed.

"Hmmmm... what is it."

What on earth did I do with the watch?

The back panel was a little loos—

Huh? The back panel?

My head tilted at the thought that had cut off mid-stream, and I examined the back of the clock. Looking closely, wooden hooks were fastened at both ends of the round wooden panel.

Oh! This is what I opened, wasn't it?

I slid out the wooden hooks and opened the panel. Inside, wooden gears meshed together, turning tick by tick.

Tick. Tock.

As I watched the gears mesh and turn, making their little sounds...

"......"

Something was coming back to me. A memory. Strange enough that calling it reality felt odd, yet far too vivid to be a dream.

It was someone's letter.

"...The sea?"

The sea. A monster. Jewels. And a magic circle.

Four words surfaced in my mind—and with them, the dark underside of the sea, steeped in a malice that twelve years of young Lily's life had never once glimpsed...

Click.

I closed the wooden panel.

"Wh-what was that."

Something was wrong. Something was very wrong.

I set the clock down, but the tick-tock still rang in my ears.

Wash my face. I'll go wash my face.

It's just because the dream was so vivid. Once I've splashed some water on my face, I'll forget all about it. Dreams are supposed to fade like that. One face wash and...!

'...'

I washed my face.

Night fell, and young Lily drifted off to sleep.

She'd come back to herself while washing her face, and after that she'd eaten dinner, read a book, played with friends her age, and gone to bed at ten o'clock.

The current time was 11:55.

'I' was watching over young Lily from above, like a ghost.

Because I'd skipped ahead from the face-washing onward, the time I'd actually witnessed amounted to barely twenty minutes.

And I hadn't stopped young Lily's face-washing—that is to say, her escape from reality.

For someone who needed to clear this dungeon using young Lily, it was obviously something I should have stopped. And yet I'd let her wash her face, and helped her forget the dream.

"Heroes aren't made in an instant."

The moments when I hold ownership of this body are few and far between. In the end, all I can really offer is a guide's hand, and the actual work has to be done by young Lily herself.

"It's far too much for a twelve-year-old Lily to accept."

It wasn't simply because I pitied her or felt sorry for her. Of course, I can't claim to be free of such feelings, seeing as she is me—but the truth is that this whole affair, tangled up with the Kraken as it is, is simply too heavy for a twelve-year-old to bear.

Careless handling, and she might well burst into tears, give up on everything, and run. At the very least, she needs to be allowed to take it slowly, absorbing these events one by one, until she can judge the situation with her own eyes.

"And more than anything else."

I stroked young Lily's hair with a soul's touch.

Though no physical contact had been made, young Lily giggled softly, as if she could feel the warmth of the hand anyway.

"...I'd rather not make her go through this twice."

"Mmm..."

I wished she could slip past all of this knowing nothing at all—but the situation wouldn't allow it. What set this time apart from back then, though, was that 'I' was here.

As long as I'm here, Lily will not fail twice.

Absolutely not.

I checked the clock.

In one minute, Day 1 would be over.

Since she'd found the note, it was possible to pass Day 1—but she hadn't done anything else in particular, so it could still end in failure all the same. What was certain was that once Day 2 arrived, something would begin to change, whether beyond the village or within it. That much, at least, was sure.

Click.

"......"

"......"

A silent room. Lily still lay fast asleep, and beyond the ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠window the night was unbearably dark.

"...We made it."

Day 1 had been cleared.

Day 2.

00:01