The Girls and the Wooden Cube
A girl with golden hair and green eyes left the village with her friend, heading for the church to study.
That girl was Bel, daughter of the village watch captain.
Today her eyes felt especially clear, her body brimming with energy. Had she simply slept that deeply the night before?
She couldn't say.
On the way to the church, a brown-haired girl called out to her.
"Bel! Where should we hang out after lessons today?"
"Hmm… nothing really jumps out at me."
"Then how about we go pick berries in the woods nearby?"
"That's a great idea. I could take some home and ask Dad to bake a pie."
"Yes! Heeheehee."
The brown-haired girl's name was Mani.
She was Bel's best friend and childhood companion, always so lively that everyone around her adored her.
"Oh—right! Bel… have you noticed the way the commoners look at us whenever we leave the village lately?"
Mani shuddered as she spoke.
"Ugh… they keep raking their eyes up and down my body. It's disgusting."
Bel sighed in agreement.
"Yeah… same here. What can we do? We just have to put up with it."
"Hmph! Why should we?"
"We ought to crush one of them as an example so they stop staring! They're weaklings anyway."
"That's exactly why we have to endure it. The church taught us we're the ones who ought to show them mercy."
"Heh heh! Our Bel is just too good, isn't she? You've got to come on strong with this sort of thing."
"Fine, fine. I get it."
Chatting away like that, Bel and Mani soon arrived at the church.
Near the entrance, a middle-aged man in priest's robes was sweeping fallen leaves. He was Senior Priest Martin, the man who taught the village boys and girls their letters.
"Good morning, Father!"
"Ah, Miss Bel and Miss Mani. Another fine day to you both."
Wondering what they would learn, Bel asked about the day's lesson.
"How far will we go today?"
"Hmm… about thirty or forty new words, plus a bit of new grammar…"
Martin ticked the points off on his fingers as he laid out the plan.
"And to finish, a review of the grammar we covered a week ago."
"Ehh… that much…?"
"Miss Mani, writing only becomes natural if you keep at it without pause."
Martin smiled at Mani's theatrical despair.
"Besides, you're free citizens. You'll have plenty of need for letters, like it or not. Heh heh heh."
"Yes, sir…"
"Still, you keep up with the lessons just fine. At your level you're practically an honor student."
"Heh heh—am I? Well, of course I am."
Seeing her friend droop, Bel offered a little teasing comfort, and Mani bounced right back to life.
Watching the two girls banter so warmly, Martin looked up at the sky with quiet satisfaction.
"You've arrived early. Wait in the study room, if you would. The other pupils should be here soon."
"Yes, Father~"
Bel and Mani took their leave of Martin and went into the study room.
"Perfect, perfect~ Coming early means plenty of seats left. Bel! Let's sit over there."
"Sounds good!"
Mani and Bel made a beeline for the far back corner and staked their claim. No matter the age, the urge to bury oneself in the rearmost corner seat was surely a student's natural instinct.
The two girls chattered until class began, and one by one the other boys and girls filed in.
"Hi! Bel, Mani! You got here early today."
"Ugh… there goes my sweet spot…"
"Heh heh. Front row for you."
Into the bright, bustling study room strode Senior Priest Martin, and the lesson began.
The words are sticking unusually well today.
Bel's mind was turning over with crisp clarity. Martin was an excellent teacher, of course—but she had memorized every new word and scrap of grammar from the lesson after writing them down only a few times.
She was quietly congratulating herself on her own brilliance when—
Scritch…
A strange sound came from behind her.
Scritch… scritch… scritch…
A very soft noise at her back.
What is that?
On any ordinary day she never would have heard it, but today every one of Bel's senses felt sharper than usual. On top of that, she could clearly sense a presence—right behind her.
And yet… she was already sitting in the rearmost seat. There should have been no one behind her at all.
Unable to ignore the eerie feeling, Bel finally turned around. All she saw was a large storage cabinet.
Is the sound coming from inside the cabinet?
Her suspicion was mounting when, all at once, both the noise and the presence vanished. The cabinet sat in perfect silence, as if nothing had ever been there.
Huh… was it just my imagination?
Bel decided she was simply oversensitive today and returned her attention to the lesson.
"That will be all for today's class."
"I'll give each of you one extra sheet. Be sure to review it before you sleep."
"Yes, Father!"
Martin drew out a stack of papers and handed them around. The children tidied their seats, collected their sheets, and began filing out of the study room one by one.
"Bel~ Come on, let's go!"
"Just a second."
"Hmm? Why are you looking at that cabinet?"
"Well, the thing is…"
Bel explained what she had just experienced. Mani eyed the cabinet with bright curiosity.
"Ooooh~ Is that so?"
Mani walked slowly over to the cabinet and flung the doors wide open.
Bang!!!!
"Come out!!! …Huh?"
The inside of the cabinet was completely empty.
"There's nothing here."
"Eh? You're right."
"Hee hee… maybe it was a ghost?"
Mani poked Bel with a finger, snickering.
"A ghost was peeping at our pretty Bel from inside the cabinet the whole time!!"
"Ugh… stop teasing me… I was just being jumpy, I guess… Wait. What's that down there?"
Bel picked up a tiny wooden cube no larger than a fingertip from the bottom of the cabinet. A strange pattern was carved into its surface.
"Well, well… this is a proper mystery. What do you suppose it is?"
"Hmm… I don't know either. Should we show it to the priests?"
"Good idea! But—what's that noise?"
Suddenly the corridor filled with the sound of running feet.
Bang!!!
The door was wrenched open and several figures rushed inside. They were priests—yet each carried a mass of iron, and their faces were terrifyingly grim.
"Eh? Fathers?"
"What? Students? What are you doing in here?"
When Mani asked in surprise, Senior Priest Martin—standing at the front—stared at them with an expression of pure disbelief.
The people in the study room collected countless hooks.
A short while earlier.
Senior Priest Martin stood at the church entrance, seeing the students off.
"Goodbye, Father!"
"Take care today!"
The children's bright faces never failed to bring a warm smile to Martin's own.
"Go carefully, all of you."
Those children would one day be the future of the village. Martin always hoped only good things would come their way.
In that instant—
A powerful, alien energy welled up from deep inside the church.
"!!!"
It was mana—an aura any servant of the gods would recognize at once.
Ma…na? Why is such a strong surge of mana rising from inside the church?
Martin hurried back inside. Perhaps because of that same violent surge, the other priests were milling about in confusion—until one of them spotted him and came running.
"Senior Priest!"
Martin gathered them with a sharp command.
"Arm yourselves at once and assemble where the mana is rising! Quickly!"
The priests snatched up their favored weapons and sought the source of the power.
Mana this dense could mean a lesser demon has crossed into the world—or that monsters have been born.
The priests would never tolerate such blasphemous things roaming free inside a holy church.
So, iron maces gleaming in their hands, they tracked the source to the study room and threw the door open with force.
What they found waiting for them, however, was not a vicious demon or a restless ghost—only a pair of adorable little girls.
"So… you found this inside the cabinet, you say?"
"Yes…"
Martin had invited the two girls into the church office to hear their story. He had even poured them warm herbal tea to soothe their fright—yet the girls still flinched at the gulf between the ferocious face Martin had worn moments before and the kindly smile he now offered.
Fortunately, that same warm smile steadily melted their fear away.
When Martin seemed to recognize something about the cube, Bel's curiosity got the better of her.
"This is…"
"Do you know what it is?"
"This wooden cube was crafted by a mage."
"A mage?"
Mage… it was a word they had never heard before. Question marks practically floated above Bel and Mani's heads, so Martin explained why the priests had stormed the study room in the first place.
"I can feel the power of mana from this cube… The surge we sensed earlier came from it."
"Mana? Isn't that the power of demons?"
"Mani's right. Father told me it's a dangerous force and I must never go near it."
"Correct. It is the power of demons. Only… its nature is a little different."
Seeing the girls' bright, eager eyes, Martin decided a fuller explanation was in order.
He rose, took three small pieces of firewood from beside the office hearth, and set them before the girls.
"Most demons, having been forsaken by the gods, hate all living things and seek to attack them."
"'Most'… so there are demons with other natures as well?"
"There are. Demons are extremely dangerous beings, but even among them there are kinds."
When Bel pressed the point, Martin took a sip of herbal tea and continued.
"There are demons who, though abandoned by the gods, simply do not care."
"Demons with nerves of steel, then."
"Pfft… that sounds exactly like something Mani would say."
"Eh…? Me?"
"Hahaha. In any case, those demons are not hostile toward this world. Some even offer aid; others remain utterly indifferent."
One by one, Martin covered and uncovered the three pieces of wood as he spoke.
Demons of Hatred.
Demons of Interest.
Demons of Apathy.
Three kinds of demons.
"Among them, a Demon of Interest once took a human as a disciple and taught that person the power called magic. That was the beginning of the mages."
"Ooooh…"
"They can command mysterious forces much as demons do."
Martin waved his hands through the air for emphasis.
"They can wield flame, call down lightning, even bring rain."
Bel and Mani let their imaginations run for a moment—pictures of themselves admired by all for mighty magic. It would be incredible.
"Mages have spread a great deal of good influence that still reaches us today."
Martin's gaze drifted to the portrait of the Empire's emperor hanging on the office wall.
"The most famous example is the Mind-Body Method—a technique that lets an ordinary human body slay monsters—which they created and passed on."
Martin clenched a fist over his heart and thumped it twice.
"His Majesty Ares Terim Pandeus—first emperor of the Pandeus Empire and the first knight—was the very first to receive it."
The founding tale of the Empire…
A boy named Ares met a mage, became the first to inherit the Mind-Body Method, and set out on a knight's journey to purge unholy beings. Along that road he gathered many capable companions, and in the end he overthrew the great demons and raised a nation.
"By the first emperor's command, the Mind-Body Method was sown throughout the world under the condition of many Pacts of Life."
"Yes! I've heard that!"
"It always sounded like a fairy tale to me."
"Thanks to it, humans were able to defend domains of their own."
A pact never to turn against the Empire.
A pact to purge any being that threatened mankind.
A pact to keep every promise sworn.
A pact always to act with courtesy and for the sake of others.
A pact that those who were discourteous and sacrificed others for themselves alone might be slain without guilt…
And more besides. Those vows had become the very foundation of knighthood as it stood today.
"Come to think of it, Father once told me about a knight who grew weak because he broke the code of chivalry."
"A famous tale. Fallen knights… truly blasphemous souls."
After the long explanation, Martin took another sip of tea.
"To this day, under the first emperor's influence, the Empire treats mages with the same honor as nobles."
"Ooooh… nobles…"
"I see…"
"Hahaha… and the mages themselves, I'm told, find that treatment burdensome and excessive."
Martin turned the wooden cube over in his hands as he spoke.
"This cube is one of the objects those mages create. The surest way to know is by the feel of its mana."
"The feel?"
"Hmm… try holding the cube against your chest."
Martin handed it to the girls. Bel and Mani took turns pressing it to their hearts; a gentle warmth spread through them.
"It feels warm and cozy."
"It does! But I can't feel anything with just my hands."
"Hahaha. The strongest wellspring of life force in our bodies is the heart—that's why you have to hold it to your chest."
The two girls listened as if they were hearing tales from another world, eyes wide with wonder.
"Conversely, if you press an object filled with the mana of a Hatred Demon to your heart, you feel the exact opposite—bone-deep cold—and even looking at it fills you with revulsion."
At Martin's grim expression the girls flinched.
"If you ever see such a thing, do not touch it. Leave it where it lies."
Then a new question occurred to Mani.
"Um… Father, you mentioned life force. Does that mean commoners can't feel this?"
"Correct. Their life force is far too weak to sense mana. They cannot feel the power of the gods either… a true pity."
Martin rose once more and fetched two books.
"You may take the wooden cube with you. It shouldn't cause any trouble. And take these as well."
The title of each book was Demons and the World.
"These volumes contain a great many stories about demons. Read them through, then return them, if you would."
"Thank you, Father!"
"A real book! I'll read it carefully and bring it back clean!"
Mani and Bel lit up at the unexpected gifts, and Martin smiled with them.
"Haha. Then it's time we parted. Go carefully on your way home."
"Yes! Goodbye, Father!"
A little later, on the road home.
"Bel! Weren't those stories amazing?"
"Yeah! Really amazing."
"Come to think of it—why was that thing inside the cabinet in the first place?"
"Beats me. Maybe someone botched a spell?"
"Hee~ You think so?"
Mani pressed the wooden cube into Bel's hands.
"Here! You should keep it, Bel."
"Huh? Me?"
"We only found it because of you. It's only right you have it. Hearing the demon stories was enough for me~"
"Heehee. Thanks."
"What for~ I'm the one who should be thanking you! It's getting dark, so let's save the woods for next time."
"Okay!"
The two girls skipped home, laughing all the way.
It was fortunate they never realized that a certain presence had been stalking them from the very beginning to the very end.