That's Too Mean...
That's Too Mean...
Becky was dreaming.
A blue sky.
Objects on the ground looked like mere toys from this dizzying height, a height where one could leap and play using the clouds as stepping stones. The world was a canvas dyed in ultramarine.
"Mmm...."
The girl was seated side by side with Plan, using a cloud as a chair. Resting her head gently against his shoulder, she forgot all the worries and anxieties she usually carried.
That was when she was savoring the peace.
Whiiiing—
A small sound intruded upon her peace.
The cool sensation tickling her ear was strangely vivid.
"Hmm...."
Whiiiiiiing—
Soon the sound grew a little louder. At some point, Becky abruptly realized that her hair was whipping wildly.
"...?"
The sensations gradually became clearer. The wind was fierce, as if caught in a typhoon, strong enough to keep her eyes from opening.
And then she heard Trixie's voice.
"What are you doing?"
"Huh?"
"Cast some magic. Unless you want to die."
With those words, she heard a fwoosh—right beside her as flames flared. It was around then that Becky finally managed to force her eyes open.
"Magic...? Why magic all of a sudden...."
Why did she have to cast magic? That question was soon answered.
"...."
The sky. Nothing but sky.
An impossibly high altitude where she couldn't even guess the distance. Becky's body was plummeting vertically through the open air.
"Eh, eeek? Eeeeeek!"
Becky screamed in horror and put in all the strength her body had. She intended to at least regain her balance somehow.
If she fell like this, she would die. She would absolutely not survive.
"S-save me! I'm falling! I'm telling you, I'll die for sure if I keep falling like this! Gyaaaaah!"
The girl flailed her arms frantically. At some point her hand caught Trixie's slender calf, and Trixie scowled.
"Wh-what are you doing? Why are you clinging to me?"
"Just save me! We're both representatives! Gah!"
"Save yourself. Get off!"
Closing her eyes comfortably inside that warm passenger cabin. That was Becky's last memory.
But when she came to her senses, she found herself plummeting from the sky. What on earth had happened was something that defied comprehension, at least by Becky's common sense.
"Aaaaagh!"
But there was no time to get lost in other thoughts. The distance to the ground was shrinking at a terrifying pace even amidst all this chaos.
"You. Do not, under any circumstances, look up."
"Trixie! Save me too...."
BAM!
Trixie's footprint stamped itself across Becky's face as she instinctively glanced upward. With tears welling in her eyes, Becky lowered her head again.
'That hurts so fucking much!'
Why did she have to stomp so hard? It's not like I care one bit about your teddy bear underwear....
Whiiiiing—!
The ground was now truly close. Objects that had been mere dots were magnifying massively in real time.
"Aaaaah! I don't wanna dieeee!"
Becky drew formulas in her head.
When her calculations hit a wall, she approached them while muttering aloud, scribbling corrections onto her palm for the wrong parts, struggling with every last ounce of effort she could muster.
"Please, please, pleeease!"
Becky saw the ground before her eyes. So that spot would not become her grave, Becky squeezed out her final strength and cast magic with all her might.
"Uuuuugh!"
What finally formed was a gigantic ice slide.
Becky rode the ramp, curved up at the end like a smile, and launched into the air once more. She formed another slide and sprang up again, lower this time.... She repeated the process in a frantic daze.
And finally.
Crash-thud-slam!
Becky's body tumbled across the ground several times. Fortunately, she didn't feel much pain.
'I made it!'
The method was quite noisy and she ended up completely covered in dirt and dust, but surviving was enough. Her breathing was perfectly fine and her body moved without any problem.
"This thing's tougher than I thought."
Becky tapped the conical hat on her head with her index finger. Come to think of it, this thing had stuck to her head without falling off ever since the fall began.
Dusting off the dirt with her palm, Becky slowly surveyed her surroundings.
"...Was there an explosion?"
She was standing at the severed end of a railway track.
Looking around, the head of the train was completely smashed. To make matters worse, the entire track had been broken off.
Becky quietly imagined it. If she had failed to land properly and fallen down that cliff whose depth was impossible to gauge....
"Urgh...."
Unconsciously, she covered her mouth with one hand. Just looking down made her dizzy; imagining what would have happened if she fell was far too terrifying.
"...!"
And then, she was shocked again.
"Wh-what is that?"
The train was extending vertically straight up toward the sky.
The head was stuck to the ground, but the tail was pointed upward as if someone had pulled it taut — an eerie shape. An artistic realm that seemed to escape the gravity binding her, stretching endlessly into the heavens.
A mage capable of such a feat.
Becky could think of only one.
"Plan...."
At the same time, she realized he was not beside her. The girl raised her voice and called his name.
"Plan—!"
But not only Plan was nowhere to be seen. Trixie and Louis were the same.
"Plan! Trixie! Louis—!"
No answer came back.
Anxiety crept in. Had they left Becky all alone?
She couldn't bring herself to think that. First, they weren't that sort of people, and second, in this situation with both the track and the train broken, there would be nowhere for them to go anyway.
If so, perhaps, just maybe....
"Am I the only one who survived...?"
Guilt and shock crashed over her like a wave. Unable to overcome it, Becky's shoulders trembled.
She had thought she was just beginning to get a little closer to the other representatives. And beyond that, Becky had never once imagined academy life without Plan.
"Plan, everyone...."
But then.
"Gah!"
Thwock—a pebble smacked the back of Becky's head. Reflexively, her head whipped in that direction.
All three of the other representatives were there.
"...Guuuuys!"
Becky cried out, tears brimming in her eyes.
"You were all alive!"
But her feeling of joyous relief did not last long.
"Becky, are you still not fully awake?"
"What is she doing over there?"
"Ahaha.... Becky, are you okay? You're completely covered in dirt."
"...."
The tender feeling in her heart cooled instantly.
With tears still welling in her eyes, Becky trudged over.
"That's so mean...."
◈
We gathered roughly around the head of the destroyed train.
Louis was the first to break the silence.
"Euhm.... So you're saying you deliberately caused an explosion? To stop us from arriving in Berkel?"
"I did not cause it, but I saw no need to avoid or block it either. It was a necessary part of the process."
I rolled my eyes and peered down into the cliff shrouded in darkness. Before long, I sensed the energy of countless 'ghosts.'
Just as I had investigated beforehand.
Becky gulped and asked.
"So what do we do from now on? Walk all the way to Berkel... it's not something like that, right?"
I shook my head. I had absolutely no intention of making them go through meaningless and fruitless hardship.
But I did ask them this.
"You've never killed a person before, have you?"
The moment I said that, something began crawling up from below the cliff face. Those things began to steadily fill the track.
"...!"
The representatives' eyes went wide.
"Wh-what is that. A person...?"
"Are those really people? They crawled up a cliff with their bare hands."
Those things were ghosts.
The Ghosts of Mist Cliff were vastly different from the 'semi-transparent, floating wisps' commonly spoken of in the world.
These things possessed human-shaped physical bodies. Not a clumsy imitation, but essentially identical.
They slowly began to encircle us. Before long, we were in a position akin to a solitary island adrift in a vast ocean.
The ghosts smiled. Wearing expressions as if greeting an old friend, they gradually closed the distance.
"They are only ghosts, so just dispose of them. It will also count toward the score for the subjugation festival."
I murmured quietly. It was not a difficult command to understand, so the representatives nodded too.
But one second. Two seconds. Three seconds.... Even as the ghosts continued to approach, not a single person cast any magic.
"Huh...."
Trixie extended one arm with a cold expression.
After taking a few deep breaths, she ultimately withdrew her hand.
"...They're complete children."
Trixie muttered quietly.
What made the representatives hesitate was the ghosts' appearance. Just looking at the girl ghost right in front of them was enough.
A tiny stature that barely reached waist height, huge deer-like eyes, hands so small it seemed she wouldn't even be able to hold a fork properly, let alone swing a weapon.
"Why are you hesitating?"
"...."
I urged the three of them.
Even with that outward appearance, they had to be killed. Without any hesitation at all. Easily.
The reason for Berkel's notorious reputation is simple.
In a place where the majority of demon beasts are created by the Maine, 'humanoid' demon beasts swarm in droves.
Since they carry a human origin, I fully understood why one would hesitate to dispatch something in human form.
However.
That hesitation is not helpful for winning, nor is it beneficial for the representatives to protect themselves going forward.
I do not wish for them to become murderers who do not flinch at killing, but I simply do not want to see them swallow their fear or waver regardless of the opponent's appearance.
"Big sis, big sis...."
The girl toddled toward Trixie.
And the next moment.
The girl's face twisted grotesquely. Her mouth, torn open into four segments, gaped wide to swallow all three representatives at once.
Squelch—!
I flicked my finger. At the same moment, a needle-shaped bolt of mana pierced through the girl's forehead.
"Eu...?"
The ghost reverted to its original girl form as if nothing had happened, then collapsed, wearing an expression pitiful enough to tug at anyone's heart.
Shock rippled across the representatives' faces.
"Pathetic. Things that make you hesitate like this are going to appear countless times in the future."
I clicked my tongue.
"The price of hesitation is your life. Do you not know that?"
I continued speaking toward the frozen group.
"Of course, you are free to hesitate. If your lives mean nothing to you, if that's all your resolve amounts to.... I will not stop you."
"...."
The representatives' expressions grew noticeably more resolute.
"I will give you one more chance. Dispose of them."
The command was the same as before. But this time, the representatives' responses were different. All three began to draw up as much mana as they could.
—!
With the girl ghost's death acting as a flare, the ghosts swarmed us all at once.
But the representatives no longer hesitated.
Having realized the cost of hesitation, even if they were tense, their magic was cast without a single error.
Ka-BOOOM—!
With a single explosion, a crowd of ghosts was blasted right off the cliff.
I quietly raised my head and looked above.
From the tail car, something was glinting. The reporters' crystal orbs were capturing our images.
"Record it properly."
I would show them remarkable growth right before their eyes.
◈
[I have currently arrived at Berkel. Shortly, this place will heat up as the stage for the subjugation festival—]
Inside the commander's office of the No. 1 Guild, 'Mystic Gorge.'
In a space far too vast for a single person to use, Guild Master Elysis was examining the printed text of the record scrolls.
"Hmmm...."
Thanks to the crystal orbs the reporters carried, not only the text but the 'scene itself' was now visible. Even without sound, it was more than enough to watch and immerse herself.
She looked over the roughly eight record scrolls she had attached to the wall one after another.
[Record Scroll No. 3]
—The Knight of Embers has made an appearance! How many times will they swing their sword this year, I wonder....
[Record Scroll No. 5]
—The most likely candidate for the championship is, after all....
—Isn't it Cheonchuk?
—Yes. There have been many surprises this year, but even so, Cheonchuk is Cheonchuk.
Subjugation festival, subjugation festival, subjugation festival.
After the main event started, anything that could be called 'mass media' was completely taken over by the subjugation festival.
"They'd better do well."
Of course, Elysis's interest in the subjugation festival stemmed from more than just simple amusement.
One of those reasons, naturally, was 'Cheonchuk.'
The cadet knight order that held a close relationship with Mystic Gorge. Elysis hoped they would use the subjugation festival as the stage for a grander performance.
She was lost in those thoughts when—
"Guild Master!"
A guild member barged open the door to the commander's office without any preamble. Under normal circumstances she would have scolded him harshly, but his expression looked so urgently desperate that she decided to hear his report first.
"What is it?"
"Th-that is. Well...!"
Only after taking several deep breaths was he able to spit out something that could be called words.
"Train number 4 bound for Berkel was caught in a massive explosion. It was said to be violent enough that the entire rail line was severed!"
"Explosion.... Don't tell me."
Something immediately clicked in Elysis's mind.
"If it's Train number 4.... Ghosts again?"
"Yes. It's Mist Cliff. A mass emergence of ghosts has also been confirmed."
"Ahhh...."
Elysis let out a deep sigh first. What the hell was with these ghosts? They just never stopped coming no matter how many were caught.
"Uhm, and also, Guild Master...."
Tension was clearly written all over the member's face. As if what he was about to say now was the real point.
"The Magic Department representatives were on board Train number 4."
"...Hmm?"
Elysis's eyes flew open wide.
Train number 4 was not for ordinary passengers in the first place. From the start, it was meant for those filled with the purpose of encountering demon beasts — mercenaries willing to set foot into harsh lands.
In that brief span, she brooded over the reason why Plan would have boarded Train number 4.
"There's no way that guy didn't know."
Far-reaching, meticulous plans, certainty.... The Plan that Elysis had observed was a mage full of such things. She could not imagine he had fallen into danger for a trivial reason like a 'lack of information.'
"...So, could he have done it on purpose?"
Dealing with the Ghosts of Mist Cliff was unusually troublesome.
First of all, their human appearance. While exterminating them in large quantities, even Elysis sometimes felt her spirit growing exhausted.
And second, the terrain. Anyone who wanted to live would never willingly engage in battle on a sheer cliffside.
This was exactly why the representatives deliberately chose safe routes. Vanquishing ghosts just for the points added to the subjugation score carried far too great a risk to take on.
"Get ready. Depart immediately."
Well, whichever it was, she could just see for herself.
Plan was also one of the cadets Elysis had her eye on. Her movements as she packed protective orbs grew quicker.
But right then.
"Guild Master!"
One more member came looking for the commander's office. On top of that, he looked even more frantic than the one who had arrived before him.
Elysis waved her hand dismissively.
"I heard everything already. Prepare to deploy."
"No, that's not it!"
"What do you mean 'not it'? Prepare to deploy."
Even as Elysis's expression crumpled, the member simply shook his head vehemently.
"I-I mean, there's no need to deploy!"
"...?"
Elysis's movements as she got ready came to an abrupt halt.
She asked the member back.
"What do you mean?"
"The situation.... It's already been concluded, they say!"
Concluded.
At those two syllables, the Guild Master's expression turned serious.
"Concluded, you say? Don't tell me they all got wiped out by the ghosts in that short time?"
The member answered with a baffled look on his face.
"I mean.... the ghost subjugation is over."