Eldrisa's Choice
"Hello? Would you mind opening the door?"
The stranger beyond the living room window spoke with his hands clasped behind his back.
He was a man of solid, compact build. A black mask covered his face and a white robe draped his body, yet the broad set of his shoulders and the hard muscle of his chest showed through all the same.
His voice, however, was high-pitched, and his manner of speaking so feminine that the whole effect left a peculiarly unpleasant impression.
"Beek?"
The Party Bears tilted their heads.
They had registered the man's presence, but no hostile aura was coming off him, which left them puzzled.
Yena asked,
"Who are you?"
"I've come to pick up Yena."
Yena let out a hollow laugh.
"You're being awfully open about the kidnapping… That's our balcony. Get out."
It was also the spot her mother liked to stand. Having a stranger show up there left her thoroughly displeased.
The man planted a hand on his knee and leaned forward.
"I'm not a dangerous person, you know."
"I don't care. Keep hanging around and I'm calling the cops."
"But weren't you taught to ask for help when you're in danger?"
"What danger?"
"It's about to get dangerous. Right here."
The man fluttered his robe and glanced at his wristwatch. The ticking of the second hand seemed to grow louder and louder — and then light flashed several times beyond his shoulder.
Yena's eyes went wide.
"Huh…?"
KRAAAAAANG!!!
The ground shuddered and the windows rattled as if they would shatter. Furniture throughout the apartment toppled and crashed, and the Party Bears threw themselves over Yena in a single motion.
Outside the window, scarlet flames roared upward through a curtain of gray smoke.
"Whoa…! Fireworks!"
"…?"
Gas stations, mana power plants, police stations — explosions of unknown origin had gone off at critical facilities all across the area.
Screams began to rise from the streets outside. Moments later, an emergency announcement crackled through the apartment complex.
Residents of Hyesung Aquaville…
Yena didn't wait to hear the rest. She switched on her smartphone. Disaster alerts were pouring in one after another.
But the contents had nothing to do with accidents or terrorism.
[Gate Management Bureau]
Multiple Gate Breaks currently occurring across the Incheon–Seoul region.
Please review the national safety guidelines for securing your safety.
"Gate Breaks?"
The stranger spread both palms in front of his face.
"Surprise~."
Yena didn't so much as glance at him. She stood there thinking for a moment, then shot to her feet and shouted,
"We have to help!"
The stranger looked baffled.
"Help what? From now on you're coming with me. What's with this reaction, anyway?"
"Let's go, Dori Patrol Squad! We're the ones who protect this neighborhood!"
As Yena stood up, the Party Bears looked at one another.
{Go?}
{Let's go. Little human's order.}
{What about that one?}
{The white one? Dunno.}
"What are you waiting for, Doris! Let's go!!"
Yena touched her necklace, and with a bang! a puff of white smoke rose as her outfit transformed. With the clothes Pecia-unnie had given her, she was sure she could be of use.
The stranger flinched slightly, then spoke in a tone of genuine admiration.
"Whoa~ A Replica? So the Queen really is protecting this one."
He rubbed his hands together as if he'd just landed a prize catch.
At that moment, a green speck no bigger than a thumbnail punched through the living room window and flew straight at his face.
Sook—.
He tried to snatch it with his forefinger and thumb, but it slipped free and buried itself in his forehead. He plucked it out with his right hand.
"Huh? What's this?"
It looked like a plant seed shaped like a morning star. It had clearly been a smooth bead a moment ago, yet now it bristled with thorns.
When the stranger's gaze found the culprit… Eldrisa, who had been sipping her tea the entire time, offered a faint smile.
"Yena hasn't changed a bit."
"And who's your friend? I never heard anything about a pretty little thing like you hanging around."
Eldrisa ignored him entirely. She stretched out a leg and blocked Yena's path. With her card rank raised, she was now as large as Pecia herself.
"Halt, you fool."
"Huh?"
"I can feel your desire to protect your mother. But it is misguided. You cannot be of any help — and you know that yourself."
"…"
The bluntness of it was almost random, yet Yena stopped dead as if the words had sealed her mouth shut. It was as though Eldrisa had read her mind completely and laid her innermost thoughts bare.
Her cherry-red lips worked soundlessly, searching for something to say.
"…Reflect."
"Party Bears."
The Party Bears fixed their attention on Eldrisa. Her pupils shrank to pinpricks, and she spoke in a voice gone cold.
{There are limits even to stupidity. Remember clearly who your master is — and what order you were given.}
{She's right!}
At once the Party Bears surrounded Yena so she couldn't move. The order they had received from Pecia was, without question, to protect her.
With the atmosphere flipped in an instant, Yena stuck out her lower lip.
"…"
Like this, she couldn't go outside to help her mother.
Why, though? Her gaze drifted, unbidden, to the family photograph. A face she would never see again was there.
A melancholy shadow settled over Yena's expression.
Eldrisa snorted and straddled her broom.
"Emotional appeals won't work on me. This is my chance to claim a royal straight, so if anything happens to you…"
"…?"
"…In short. I'll go find Kang Jiye myself."
Yena was so floored she exhaled a short, disbelieving breath.
"I already heard all of that, you know? Spit out the black tea I gave you, you bad unnie!"
Eldrisa looked down at Yena for a long moment, then turned her head without a word.
The unidentified man was still watching them, hands clasped behind his back.
"Are you done talking?"
He raised his forefinger. He was still holding the morning star.
"You shouldn't throw dangerous things, you know."
"How arrogant. To keep holding onto that."
"Come on, tell those teddy bears to join in too. I'll just clear them all out and take her."
The moment the man showed hostile intent, the Party Bears drew their steel needles in a rush.
But the man only tilted his head and strolled leisurely back and forth along the balcony.
Even if they charged, the Party Bears were only around C-class. And the woman who had stepped forward was barely E-class at best. A force worth nothing more than a snort of laughter.
Ambush!
In the instant the woman blinked, he hurled the morning star. At the same time, his other hand summoned a whip.
Puh-puck!
"Kh…!?"
But he suddenly dropped the whip he'd been drawing and clenched his right hand. He was a combatant of the Order who didn't even react to ordinary wounds — yet this was a pain he had never felt before.
The morning star had detonated, driving thorns deep into his palm by the handful.
No blood flowed from the pierced hand. Instead, dozens of threadlike worms writhed beneath the skin, feeding on the stranger's blood and growing larger by the second.
The thorns had been carrying some kind of eggs.
In a panic, the stranger wreathed his hand in flame. The thread-worms exploded all at once, and the skin of his hand tore open.
Pwaak!
Clutching his shredded right hand, he ground his teeth.
"You crazy bitch — how dare you pull a cheap trick like…"
Eldrisa replied without interest.
"I warned you, didn't I. You were arrogant."
Still astride her broom, Eldrisa shot toward the stranger. The agility far exceeded anything he'd expected, and for a moment his pupils blew wide. Then the corner of his mouth curled up.
He flicked his left arm once, and the whip on the floor rose and lashed of its own accord.
It came down on Eldrisa's head just as she was about to smash through the window, splitting her form clean in two.
Puh-uh-uhk!
But instead of blood and flesh bursting from beneath the skin, two great masses of thorned vines revealed themselves. They writhed like dozens of snakes knotted together.
The stranger tore off even his mask in shock — only to have to flee in a blind scramble as the vines fired thorns like a porcupine.
Pishuk!
"Kh!"
Wiping the wound on his cheek, the stranger plummeted toward the base of the apartment as the vines gave chase. They bored into the outer wall, sprang free, and launched more thorns. He cracked his whip and batted them aside.
When the vines finally reached the ground and tore up even the playground in their charge… the stranger, white with terror, pulled blue cubes from his belt and hurled them.
Kwa-rung!
Blue plasma erupted and burned the vines away.
But then the left cheek the thorns had grazed began to throb, and noodle-like plant stems punched up through the skin.
"Kr, kraaaaaagh!! What the hell did this crazy bitch do to me!!"
He ripped at the writhing stems, but every one he tore free simply grew back. The roots were boring deeper, piercing bone.
Then a chilling voice spoke from right behind him.
"Endure it as best you can."
A hand patted his back as if offering encouragement.
The stranger spun around in a panic, but Eldrisa was nowhere to be seen. The humiliation of being taken from behind turned his face a furious, bursting red.
"Ha… Fine. Negotiations, whatever — I'll kill every last one of you. Starting with that little brat."
He lifted his head and glared up at the sixth floor. But the instant he moved to take a step, a ripping agony flared in his back and raced through his entire body in a heartbeat.
"Hhk, uwaaaaaaagh!!"
It was similar to the wound on his cheek, yet on an entirely different scale. Plant stems tore through his organs and muscles like rags and burst out through every orifice. Seconds later they split his whole body open and grew skyward like a tree.
Puhak!
"I told you to endure it."
Eldrisa dropped from somewhere above, laid a hand on the tree, and the entire thing was sucked up into her sleeve.
She flexed her fingers open and closed for a moment, and a sly smile spread across her lips.
"It truly has been a long time. If I had my way…"
She glanced briefly at the civilians in the apartment complex.
Terrified experimental materials, swarming everywhere. In her eyes the building looked like a beehive overflowing with honey.
But the moment her gaze touched the sixth floor, the expression vanished. She looked around for no particular reason and cleared her throat.
"…I wasn't thinking anything, Your Majesty."
High in the sky, the witch gripped her hat and gazed down over the city.
Her eyes flicked rapidly back and forth — and then locked onto a scene where a group of robed strangers was fighting a woman.
A morning star slid slowly from the witch's mouth.
"I'm being a good girl and helping the humans."