Gelin Village Aftermath
Late morning.
Sunlight spilled across Bel's face. Her eyelids fluttered, and she stirred slowly awake, pushing herself upright.
Her hair was a tangled mess, and deep dark circles were carved under her eyes.
"......!!!"
Something seemed to hit her all at once. Bel flopped back onto the bed and thrashed, kicking the blankets in frantic bursts and pounding the pillow with both fists.
"I'm insane I'm insane I'm insane I'm out of my mind..."
She had remembered yesterday.
Yesterday, she had said goodbye to the mage Haren.
It could have been a romantic farewell — the kind you only hear about in stories. Beautiful. Tear-jerking...
But reality...
Her face had gone scarlet. She had stammered. Her body had locked up stiff and moved in the weirdest ways imaginable.
And then... what? Heeung? I've completely lost it...
"Kyaaaaaaaah!!!"
Bel's meltdown stretched on for more than ten minutes...
Considering she had only managed to fall asleep last night after doing the exact same thing, yesterday's farewell had become her absolute worst black mark in history.
And yet, whenever she remembered Haren's smile...
"Heeung..."
It made her feel so good. A face that made her happy just by looking at it...
Bel finally stopped thrashing, climbed out of bed, and tidied her hair and clothes. Then a new worry struck her.
Would Mani spend the rest of her life teasing her over yesterday?
"Ugh... how is Mani going to mock me over this..."
The road ahead looked pitch-black.
I stepped out of my room and found Father already seated at the table.
"Bel, you're up?"
"Morning, Dad. Has Mom already left for work?"
"Hm? No — she said she'd earned some time off after everything she's been through. She's training at the grounds right now."
Father handled inventory for the goods the village supplied to the nobles, so he took care of the household chores whenever Mother came home late.
"I made stew — go on and eat. I've got to head out to work myself. It's about time to pay taxes to the nobles."
"You're leaving already?"
"Ah, well... after that monster incident, the work's piled up something fierce."
"Sounds rough..."
"My wife worked herself half to death last time, so now it's my turn! All right, I'm off~"
"Have a good day, then."
"You too. Oh — and stay inside the village!"
"Yes, Dad."
After seeing Father off, I finished breakfast and cleaned the house. With nothing left to do, I figured I might as well go find my friends.
Bel stepped outside and was walking down the road when she spotted her girl friends gossiping beneath a big roadside tree. But...
Mani's not there?
Mani was nowhere among them. That was strange — Mani was basically the ringleader of their little group. Her absence was more unusual than her presence.
Then it happened. The girls under the tree spotted Bel, charged over in a pack, and swarmed her, voices rising all at once.
"Be!!! El!!! Bel!!!"
"Who was that guy yesterday!! Huh? Who was he!?!?!"
"How did you even meet him?! Huh?! Bel!!"
Surrounded and under heavy fire, Bel flailed.
"Wha—?! Eeek?!"
She was being tossed around like a baby penguin trapped in a huddle of Adélie penguins.
When the barrage finally eased for a moment, Bel told them everything that had happened so far...
"Oh my gosh, that's so romantic..."
"Fate!! Monsters... rescue!!"
"I'm so jealous... I wish someone would pat my head like that..."
Listening to Bel's story, the girls let their imaginations run wild and chattered on.
"Ahaha... by the way, where's Mani?"
Bel asked, still trying to settle that earlier question.
"Ah... Mani?"
"We saw her before you got here. Her face was bright red and she was running laps around the whole village."
The friends laughed as they described Mani's spectacle.
Mani? Seriously — that Mani?
Bel was stunned.
Mani, who was brasher and tougher than most boys, having a girlish soft side...
"Oh, here she comes."
"Mani~ Over here, over here."
The girls waved the moment they spotted her — but the instant Mani's eyes landed on Bel, something seemed to hit her, and she looked like she was in physical pain.
"W-w-waaaaaaaaah—"
Mani spun around and sprinted off the other way at full speed.
"Ah. There she goes again."
"Hehehehe, looks like the flowers are blooming for Mani too."
"I... I want a head pat too..."
Watching Mani's beet-red face, Bel and the others burst out laughing.
After chatting with her friends and parting ways, Bel headed for the training grounds where her mother practiced.
There was a look of quiet resolve on her face.
"Mom? Where are you?"
Bel peered around the training grounds.
"Hm? What's my daughter doing here?"
"Ah... Mom, the thing is..."
"Oh my, oh my... Bel, so that time has come for you too?"
"Huh?"
Bel's mother smiled as she spoke.
"I'm talking about that hunter story. Ah... I was the same. The moment I saw your father, I picked up a weapon."
"Eeek! Th-that's not what this is!"
"Hehe. Your face is bright red, you know."
"Urgh..."
While Bel's mother was thoroughly enjoying teasing her daughter, Mani's voice suddenly rang out across the training grounds.
"Auntie~ Auntie~ Are you here?"
"Hm? That voice..."
"Isn't that your little friend's voice? Oh my, oh my..."
Mani spotted the two of them almost immediately.
"Ah! Aunt— wait, huh? Bel?"
"Mani? What are you doing here?"
"That's what I want to ask you."
Then Bel's mother smiled and cut in.
"Well now... I'll just run down to the market for a bit. You two have a nice chat, all right?"
"Huh? Auntie?"
"Uh... Mom?!"
And just like that, only the two girls were left at the training grounds.
A short while later, Bel and Mani sat on a bench talking things over.
"So... Mani, you came to train under my mom too?"
"Yeah, that's right..."
"But... don't you have your own mom? Why come to mine?"
"Ah! Okay, so here's what happened..."
"Huh? She said you're too weak, so go ask my mom?"
"Exactly... She said your aunt is ridiculously strong and has tons of connections, so I absolutely had to come this way."
Bel deflated a little at how ruthlessly practical Mani's mother had been...
"Urgh... I-I see."
"But Bel, why did you come to your aunt— I mean, your mom?"
"Hm? Me?"
Bel told Mani everything — from that incident all the way through everything she had experienced since.
"Mani... aren't you curious? About the stories from outside the village."
"Yeah. Super curious, honestly."
Bel ticked them off on her fingers — all the different tales she had heard at church.
"Demons, mages, knights, monsters, emperors, gods..."
"They really did sound like stories from another world."
"Right? But that other world was right next door the whole time. Hup!"
Bel stood up from the bench, looked at Mani, and smiled brightly.
"I want to experience what's out there."
"Heeh... what's that thing called again — a lizard in a well?"
"It's a frog..."
"Yeah, that! Me too. Same as you."
Mani rose as well and met Bel's eyes.
"After living through something like that, I figured I can't just stay like this forever!"
Mani stepped away from the bench and stretched a hand toward the sky.
"We're gonna walk the world on our own two legs!!"
"Mani? You too?"
"Hehe. Yep."
The two girls looked at each other.
"Bel? If you ever go on a journey... want to come with me?"
"Oh!! So I get to be Mani's first companion!"
The two girls squealed and shouted — and from a corner of the training grounds where she had been hiding, Bel's mother finally stepped into view.
"Well now. That's a fine dream."
"Huh? Auntie?"
"Mom? When did you get back?"
"An adventure out into the world... Truly... a fine dream."
"Hehehe."
Both girls laughed at that — and watching them, Bel's mother suddenly felt the urge to tease them just a little.
"But you're not both just trying to chase after that hunter, are you?"
Mani and Bel nearly jumped out of their skins at the sudden romantic accusation.
"No way!! I'm going out into the world and #@₩#@₩ק¥!?!_&"
"I'm not either!!! Mom!!! Me and Mani are going to @#₩#€$¥"
Listening to the two red-faced girls scramble through desperate, rambling excuses, Bel's mother laughed in pure delight.
"All right, all right. I understand."
"Hah... hah... hah..."
"Heeek... Mom... heeek... I'm telling you it's not like that."
"Hehehe."
Still smiling, Bel's mother fetched a sandbag from the corner of the training grounds.
"Here~ Take this, Bel~"
"Mom, why did you bring that?"
"Huh? That's a sandbag, isn't it? Auntie, why would you..."
And then...
The gentle, smiling face of Bel's mother twisted into something downright demonic.
"Bel? Mani?"
That ice-cold voice calling their names.
"Y... yes..."
Was it the sudden pressure of her presence?
Bel and Mani both shrank back.
Bel's mother tossed the human-sized sandbag lightly with one hand and spoke to Mani and Bel.
"Adventure. Travel. Those are wonderful things... but they're also dangerous.... Bel. Mani. You're fourteen right now, yes?"
"Y... yes!!"
"A perfect age."
Next she hauled out iron rods from the training-grounds storeroom, along with piece after piece of equipment.
"I... am going to... make you strong."
It was a tragic turn of events for the two girls, but Bel's mother looked like she had made up her mind about something.
"First, you will train under me for three years."
Thud!!! Thud!!! Thud!!! Thud!!!
Heavy chunks of metal came tumbling out of the storeroom, kicking up clouds of dirt.
"Once you've grown to the standard I set, I'll send you with a large merchant caravan to the Swordsmanship Guild in the city of Derimin."
Had the two girls already glimpsed their futures?
Cold sweat broke out all over their bodies.
"Then, after three years of training at the Swordsmanship Guild, you'll come back to me for your examination."
Bel's mother flung a pair of filthy garments that had been lying on the training-grounds floor down in front of Mani and Bel.
"Put those on."
In front of the two girls lay long cotton pants and long-sleeved shirts caked in dust.
"M-Mom?" "A... A... Aun... tie?"
"Quiet!!!"
"Hiiiek!!!!!"
Somehow, a wooden training sword had appeared in Bel's mother's hand.
"From this moment on, I am neither mother nor aunt — I am your instructor!!!"
Bel and Mani's faces went pale, but the instructor's shouting had already begun, indifferent to their terror.
"Put them on right now!!!"
"Hiiiek!! Yes!!!"
Crack.
Under the instructor's grip, fine cracks spiderwebbed across the wooden sword.
"I will!! Absolutely!! Make sure you step out into the world at twenty!!"
Just what kind of person had Bel's mother been before?
Only the adults would know the answer to that.
The two girls' long, grueling struggle was only just beginning.