45. Each Other
Sugar wiped one eye roughly with her sleeve, and the boy wiped the other side for her.
“Stop crying already. This isn’t the time for that.”
“Ugh… I still want to apologize. There are so many things I want to say.”
“… I want to say so many things too.”
When their eyes met, it felt like the world was exploding above their heads.
Looking back, the disciples were chasing after them. Claude’s puppets. They had lost their selves and only moved according to his commands. They were loyal servants and dolls who would execute any order without fail, even if it meant their bodies exploding.
“Run first…!”
The boy grabbed her hand, and Sugar followed him.
Flames erupted along the mountain path where the children were running, and the shouts of the heretics filled the air, making it ominous. In the distance, the sun was setting slowly. The scene where the sunset and flames merged was so beautiful it was terrifying.
“… Sorry. I made you suffer.”
Even while running and panting, Sugar poured out the words she wanted to say. It felt like she had to say them now. Accidents always came without warning, and once she regained her senses, she might not be able to say those words before everything ended. She wanted to convey the words in her heart right away.
“You taught me magic at your best, yet… in the end, it became like this.”
“… What are you saying?”
Then the boy retorted.
“You just escaped from that den of theirs, right?”
“Ugh…”
“At that time, you would have used everything you could, every bit of your ability.”
“That’s… true.”
“Then it’s fine… It was already on the verge of its limit from the beginning…”
“… Tommy?”
The boy’s breathing had been rough for a while now. It wasn’t just because he was running hard; it seemed like there was another reason.
“Ah…! It’s because you caught a cold, making it hard to breathe…”
“It’s not that…”
A cold would clear up after a night’s sleep. This wasn’t that kind of issue.
“Then…”
Before Sugar could finish, a massive wall of earth appeared in front of them. Surprised, she stopped and turned around, but the boy had already been holding the book and chanting the incantation.
“Cutting.”
The earth wall was sliced cleanly horizontally in an instant.
“Don’t look back… Run…”
While they paused for a moment, they evaded the disciples who had quickly caught up. Jumping over the lowered earth wall, the boy opened the book and began murmuring something.
A long incantation. The magic written in the grimoire was characterized by long chant times.
It seemed like he was trying to cast something. Sensing this, Sugar raised her staff and chanted a protective spell on herself and the boy. This would buy them a little time.
“…… Become a piercing blade–”
While dodging the pouring magic and running, the boy took the incantation into his mouth.
A sentence-form incantation different from ordinary magic. Once completed, light would emanate from the book, and a massive magic circle would appear behind the boy, filling the passage.
With his palm facing the magic circle, hundreds of power blades appeared and flew towards the pursuers like a barrage.
The sounds of screams and tearing flesh. The sounds of magic barriers bouncing off. The dissonant sounds made by trees bending and air vibrating kept coming into her ears.
Sugar looked at the boy with a pained expression. It was because she felt sorry for making him do such harsh things. It was because his visibly exhausted appearance was pitiful.
“You’re using too much mana…”
Huff, pant, even while panting, he muttered ‘It’s okay’. His breathing was rougher than before. It had nothing to do with a cold.
Mana depletion.
She recalled the explosive sounds that had been faintly heard since the altar. The culprit was none other than this friend. He must have been searching everywhere while searching the entire mountain. Even with the grimoire, it was difficult for an immature child’s body. Rather, the grimoire was the problem.
The difference in height between adults and children was clear, and so was the total amount of mana. However, the amount of mana the grimoire consumed was so much that even an adult would struggle. It was no wonder blood was coming out from this friend’s mouth.
“Let’s hide somewhere first, Tommy. Rest a bit…”
“No… They’ll catch us soon. Even if I can’t hide my mana, you can’t hide yours…”
In this unstable state, even the boy couldn’t properly hide his mana.
While she bit her lip in frustration and helplessness, the other party opened his mouth softly.
“And… my name. It’s not that.”
“…”
“I was hiding it. My real name. I’m telling you this chance. I was planning not to tell anyone…”
Sugar gently squeezed the hand she was holding. As if telling him to speak. But she didn’t urge him.
Feeling that warmth. Feeling the faint flow of the other’s mana through the hand. The boy opened his mouth.
“Ryly.”
“… Yeah.”
“Ryly. My real name. I’m not Tommy.”
The name from her memories became real. It became real, and it existed in front of Sugar.
The boy holding the grimoire in one hand and Sugar’s hand in the other was Ryly.
It was the name of a precious childhood friend that no one could replace.
“… Ryly.”
Sugar, as if trying to recall the name she already knew, spat it out in a watery voice.
Hearing that, Ryly tightened his grip on the hand they were holding.
“Just once more…”
“Ryly…”
“Again…”
“Ryly.”
A voice that lightly touched her ear.
Only then did Ryly, whose face was cold, smile weakly. Because memories from the past came to mind. Because the day this girl had made him call her name despite her embarrassment.
It didn’t feel bad to listen to. A tickling feeling in a corner of her chest.
She understood why he did that. Even in the midst of mana overuse that seemed like her body would tear apart, he simply smiled purely happily.
The wind blew.
The mountain air was bitterly cold and ominous, but the scent from the girl’s hair mixed in.
The scent she desperately sought and missed. Just the touch at the tip of her nose made her feel at ease.
“From now on… you can call me that.”
As he exhaled as if his breath was about to run out, Sugar held his hand even tighter. With resolve, as if she would never let go.
From there, the flow of mana began to move.
“… What are you doing? Even if you use it, it’s not enough…”
“You can use it much more usefully than me.”
Ignoring Ryly’s retort, she poured it in again and again. Sugar’s pure mana was transferred through the hand and seeped into Ryly’s body.
It was only temporary comfort. Just as a dehydration patient doesn’t recover immediately by drinking water urgently, mana depletion also requires professional treatment in a comfortable place.
Still, it was better than nothing. As pure as it was, it would seep better into the body.
Holding the hand with that in mind.
“… Feeling better?”
“…”
Even though the breathing was still rough, it didn’t feel like it was about to stop like before.
“Ryly.”
“…”
“Ryly.”
“… Why.”
“Let’s definitely run away. Run somewhere… and let’s definitely go to Stille together.”
“You idiot… I came here with that in mind anyway. I made you suffer for nothing…”
Before the other’s words ended, Sugar hugged Ryly tightly. Because the appearance of pretending to be fine was too pitiful.
“It’s not the time for this…”
While facing the pouting face, she brushed the boy’s forehead that was sweaty and disheveled.
Ah. Seeing it like this, clearly.
He resembled that ‘Ryly’. His young appearance. Once she realized, it showed.
But this child was not that ‘Ryly’.
She herself was not that ‘Sugar’.
The two had already strayed from the original story’s flow early on.
Each other casting magic on each other.
Each other reaching out a hand to each other.
“Ah…”
Sugar suppressed the surging emotions and stood on tiptoe slightly.
With blessings. With gratitude. Hoping that I would be a good family for you. When she kissed the other’s forehead, a wet sound was made.
Then, looking at Ryly, he had his eyes closed and was trembling slightly.
“Why… why do I have to do this in the middle of all this…”
His clenched teeth were red. The redness was different from the redness from pain.
Sugar smiled softly as usual, holding Ryly’s hand and leading him.
She walked slowly, then increased speed, and soon ran at full speed with each other’s mana.
Faintly, the sound of crow caws could be heard. But she wasn’t afraid of any of them.
[Girl. It’s not too late yet. Stop now.]
When she prepared, a crow flew over her head with a ‘puff’ sound.
“You’re commanding me?”
[It would be better if there were no wounds. Why are you doing such pointless things?]
Without answering, Sugar tore off the last accessory stuck to her clothes and shot it at the crow blocking the way.
It hit perfectly.
The pursuing entity that had chased after them this time spoke to Ryly.
“It seems you removed the guards. The precious book in your hand—”
Before finishing the sentence, Ryly spat out the incantation for the spell. He wanted to uproot the cult and eliminate it root and branch. He was frustrated that he couldn’t do it right now. If they kept lingering, it would only fuel his anger.
“… I understand.”
Another pursuing crow said. That crow flew behind the two of them and let out a loud caw.
Songs were heard from all around. The melody was similar to the one heard during the baptism ceremony.
“… Damn it.”
As if noticing something, Ryly bit his lip.
“Why… what kind of magic is that?”
He knew what they were doing.
Choral chant.
He had seen it a few times in games.
It was a fairly difficult technique where they changed the main melody to a song and sang together to cast powerful magic. If the harmony of the two was even slightly off, the magic would fail. It was something only those with professional training could do, but the current performers were moving according to Claude’s will after losing their selves, so it would be much easier.
“Perhaps… this magic is…”
As Ryly looked up at the sky, Sugar followed suit.
Squinting, she saw a transparent film-like bubble. Seeing that it was covering this area made her feel a bad premonition.
“… Is it some kind of barrier?”
Ryly nodded silently. His face was furrowed, as if he was about to curse.
“How do we break it?”
“After analyzing the barrier, use a dispel magic or break it with tremendous force.”
“It’s not easy either way…”
“–That’s right. Neither method is easy.”
She turned around in surprise.
Then, too familiar a sound was heard.
Tap, tap–
A dull sound of tapping the floor with a staff.
The apostle of the cult. A woman in black clothes. An unpredictable pursuer.
Sugar and Ryly, swallowing their saliva, adjusted their weapons.