You Must Not Forget
After we received the blessing at the Temple of Courage, a full day and a half had already slipped by since we'd started walking through the desert.
"It's so cold… I want a warm hot spring…"
"Whining over a little chill like this."
"Ren. If you're going to say that, maybe put out the fire on your wings first?"
We sat huddled close to the campfire we'd built beside the oasis we'd found during the day, facing the desert's true terror — a cold so absolute that the scorching heat of daylight seemed almost unimaginable.
"Here, at least cover yourself with this, Ren."
"…Thanks."
"Honestly, both Master and Ren are complete idiots."
"Lucy, at least I dressed properly."
Lucy pulled the blanket she'd draped over my crouched legs closer with her fire-wreathed wings and sniffled.
"It's filthy cold. Seriously."
"If only you'd been this honest last night."
Listening to Huey and Lucy complain, I briefly recalled what had happened the night before.
"…Yeah."
I decided to erase from my mind the pathetic sight of Huey and me putting on a tough front, insisting we weren't cold at all.
Fwoosh.
The flames on my wings flared larger under the sudden rush of embarrassment.
"That aside, this fire is seriously useful."
"Agreed."
Listening to Huey and Lucy trade remarks about the fire clinging to my wings on either side of me, I pulled my legs — cold as chilled metal — tighter against my body and spoke.
"We should arrive sometime tomorrow, right?"
At that murmur, Huey pulled from his coat the compass Frederica had given us, saying it would point toward our destination and give a rough sense of the distance.
"Judging by the compass's reaction… probably?"
"Come to think of it, Ren, have you ever been to a Mystic Realm?"
"A few times."
Looking at Lucy, who tilted her head as if this would be her first, I began talking about the most memorable of the Mystic Realms I'd visited.
"The most troublesome one was, without a doubt, Nirvana Island."
An island about a week's voyage out into the sea east of the continent. A Mystic Realm where light and darkness were reversed.
"Every object was concealed in the light and revealed only in the dark."
"Does that even make sense?"
"I can't even picture it…"
I smirked at Huey's disbelieving question.
"That's exactly why they're called Mystic Realms — common sense doesn't apply."
The place Huey had lived was technically classified as a Mystic Realm too, but that was a somewhat different case, so he probably couldn't really grasp it.
"The first ones to die in a Mystic Realm are the ones who can't abandon common sense. Keep that in mind."
It varied by degree, of course — but a Mystic Realm was a place where even a Transcendent could die in an instant if they failed to adapt.
After spending time chatting about this and that with Huey and Lucy, I was standing night watch as usual when—
Twitch.
"…Ugh."
A dull ache suddenly bloomed in my stomach. I hadn't understood it before, but I knew now.
This was the omen of that damned phenomenon.
"Damn it."
By now, whatever it was would already be growing larger inside me. Last time, caught off guard in every possible way, I'd even wondered if just going through with the birth might not be so bad.
But now that the moment was approaching, my head was filled with nothing but the thought that I didn't want this.
"…I'm a man."
At some point, I'd started accepting words like "cute" and "young lady" under the excuse that fretting over them only exhausted me — and that version of myself terrified me.
I couldn't understand the me who had been quietly taking those words as compliments.
"Get a grip, Reni. You're a man. You're human."
I even muttered my real name — a name I'd never once claimed for myself, thinking it sounded too girlish — and made a vow.
"You must not forget. Ren of Esras. That's who I am."
Again and again.
Again and again.
"Don't forget. Don't forget who you've been until now."
Because if I didn't do at least this much, I felt that someday even I would forget myself.
That I would end up accepting that I was just a girl with wings.
Grit.
Clenching my teeth hard, I kept repeating it.
"I will take it back. Without fail."
Yes.
I would take it back no matter what.
My original body. My two arms.
The sword of mine that still wasn't complete.
Beneath the scorching sunlight pouring from a blue sky, standing before the endless fissure that stretched out before us—
"…You look exhausted. Are you okay?"
"I told you not to overdo it."
Huey and Luciella asked Ren, whose face looked a little tired.
"My thoughts ran a bit long. One night is fine — you don't need to worry."
"You really startled us this morning."
"Well, if you say you're fine, I won't press the matter."
Huey and Luciella sighed, apparently recalling how Ren — who'd taken the first watch — had stayed awake straight through until morning without waking them.
"Anyway, this is the place the compass was pointing to."
Huey looked at the compass whose arrow had lost its power and vanished, then tucked it back into his coat.
"Given the circumstances, our target is likely down below."
Luciella clicked her tongue at the tents and other gear strewn about the area — evidence of how urgently the Vista survey team that had come here earlier had fled.
"It's filthy huge."
Looking at the massive fissure that split the ground from where they stood, Ren shook her head, thinking a rock or two the size of a mountain could easily have come flying out of something this big.
"Anyway, how do we get down?"
"I suppose Ren will have to do some of the heavy lifting."
"I'm fine with that, but let's think of other options just in case."
Huey and Luciella nodded at Ren's advice that even if she could fly, it was wise to prepare for situations where she couldn't.
"Alright, let's split up and see if there's anything useful around."
At Huey's words, the three of them scattered to search the area.
"There's a lot of rope left over here. Leave it to a national outfit to abandon this much gear."
"That stake over there. Looks like the survey team used it when they went down."
Before long, Luciella returned with a thick bundle of rope, and Huey pointed to one side, saying he'd found a stake that appeared to have been used for descending the cliff.
"I found something good myself."
And Ren came back carrying an armful of objects of unclear purpose.
"What's that?"
"Isn't that just trash?"
"You'll see."
Saying they were the sort of thing normally only used by large national units, Ren laid out small white discs with green orbs set in their centers on the ground.
"Huey. Split just one of these in half."
"How?"
"Like this."
Ren brought a wing to the edge of the disc Huey was holding and explained that you just needed to separate the two discs stuck together.
"You really never change, Master."
"Ahem. I figure it's only natural for a man."
"I'm so proud."
Luciella took a full step back from Huey, her face full of contempt as he stared unabashedly down the defenseless cleavage of Ren, who had bent slightly at the waist.
"The captain was the same way. Is it really that great?"
And looking at the two of them with a puzzled expression, Ren started kneading her own chest with her wings.
"I don't get it."
"Tsk. Never mind. Just continue what you were saying."
In the end, Luciella redirected the conversation with a thoroughly uncomfortable, sour look at Ren's chest.
"Alright. Hurry up and split that."
"Like this, right?"
"Yeah."
Huey then separated the disc into two as Ren instructed.
"Stick one of them somewhere with the convex side roughly facing up."
Watching Huey, Ren started rummaging through the nearby tents.
"One's stuck. What about the rest?"
"Hold on. Ah, this'll work."
While Huey affixed one disc to the ground, Ren pulled a small wooden board from the wreckage of a nearby tent.
"Stick it on this."
"Okay."
The moment Huey attached the remaining disc to the wooden board—
"Oh. What a fascinating device."
"Right?"
"Whoa. So things like this exist."
The green orbs set in the centers of the discs began to glow, connecting the two discs.
"You'll probably see these if you ever join a large-scale exploration commissioned by the Adventurers' Guild."
Shaking the wooden board linked by a stream of green light this way and that, Ren added that they were made for climbing high ground or replacing broken bridges and the like.
"Anyway, let's grab a few more of these and go."
After packing a sufficient number of discs into the prepared bag, Ren and Huey approached the firmly driven stake and began tying the rope to it.
"Why am I always the one stuck with the heavy lifting?"
While Ren and Huey tied the rope to the stake, the two of them quietly turned their faces away from Luciella, who was grunting as she hauled the thick rope bundle.
"Haa. Fine, throwing it now."
Luciella sighed at the two of them and tossed the rope down the cliff.
"I'll go down first and take a look. When I shake the rope, climb down."
"Got it."
"Be careful."
After glancing once at the fallen rope, Ren spread her wings and leapt down the cliff.
A short while later—
"It seems pretty deep."
"Indeed… Ah, looks like she's arrived."
Just as Huey and Luciella were expressing puzzlement at the rope that still hadn't moved despite quite some time passing, the rope that had been swaying slightly began to move vigorously.
"Alright, I'll go first."
"Yes. I'll follow right after."
Wrapping prepared cloth around their hands, Huey and Luciella carefully slid down the rope.
After descending for a long while, the two finally reached something that could be called ground and spotted Ren surveying the surroundings nearby. They approached.
"Oh, you're here?"
"That was one hell of a climb down. Seriously."
"It's incredibly deep."
And Ren opened her mouth with a hollow-looking smile directed at the two of them.
"Looks like we're going to have a rough time of it."
"What?"
"Suddenly, what do you mean…"
"Take a look around."
Huey and Luciella quietly surveyed their surroundings at Ren's abrupt words — and then were struck with shock.
"What on earth is this… Does this even make sense?"
Looking left: sand was falling upward toward a landmass floating high in the sky, as if heaven and earth had been inverted.
"…Ren said so last night, didn't she? They're called Mystic Realms because common sense doesn't apply."
Looking right: all manner of objects were floating in midair.
"You understand now why the survey team was wiped out in an instant, right?"
Looking straight ahead: the air seemed crushed, making everything ahead look hazy — and dozens of landmasses, each exhibiting a different phenomenon, floated in the void like stepping stones.
Gazing at the alien steel passages visible at the far end, Ren spoke once more.
"Alright. From here on out, let's abandon common sense."
If you failed to adapt, a single step forward was a cliff leading to death.
Truly a Mystic Realm.