Chapter 353
Chapter 353
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 353
Chapter Title: Now, Forward (1)
-----------------------------------------------------------------
"Hey, Raniel."
"Yeah."
"If there's such a thing as what it takes to be called a hero, what do you think that is?"
"What's with the random question?"
"Just popped into my head."
Kyle spoke while fiddling with the hilt of his holy sword.
"Fairy tales often mention heroes. Heroes. Those praised by the world. The destination the protagonist reaches in the end, or has already reached."
"They do, yeah."
Click.
Kyle pushed the hilt of his holy sword with his thumb. The blade that emerged from the sheath was platinum in color. Platinum, the hue symbolizing starlight and the hero.
"That hero business."
Kyle gazed at the platinum blade as he continued.
The young man who had once dreamed of becoming a hero posed his question.
"I started wondering how one becomes one."
"Out of nowhere?"
"Yeah, out of nowhere."
"That's so random."
"So?"
"So what."
"What do you think, Raniel?"
"Well..."
Raniel stroked her chin.
"You and I are already being called war heroes or something like that... but the hero you're talking about is the kind from fairy tales, right?"
Kyle nodded.
Raniel stroked her chin again and spoke.
"Then isn't it all down to that in the end?"
Raniel let out a smirk.
"Guys who live by ideals."
Talking about ideals is easy.
Putting ideals into words is easy.
That's why they can feel trivial. Yet there are those who carry them heavily, without end.
"Guys who push forward no matter how fucked the situation. Guys who set impossible goals and challenge them anyway."
Raniel stretched out her arm.
She pointed at the horizon with spread fingers.
"When everyone mocks it as impossible."
The end of the horizon, who knew where it lay.
Pointing there, Raniel said,
"The ones who achieve it no matter what. That's who we call heroes, right?"
"Is that it?"
"That's it."
Kyle let out a smirk of his own.
"That's a damn tough condition."
"That's why they're heroes, you idiot."
Becoming a hero was never supposed to be easy.
Muttering that, Raniel sipped her overly bitter coffee. Kyle looked at the horizon Raniel had just pointed to. The sun was setting beyond it.
A horizon dyed in sunset.
Did that horizon have an end?
If it did, could he reach it?
With those thoughts, Kyle let out a short breath. Then he slowly stood. Raniel brushed off her robe and rose as well.
Night had fallen.
It was time to face the demon army approaching from beyond the endless horizon. Kyle drew his holy sword. Raniel tugged her gloves tight.
"Well then..."
Raniel patted Kyle's shoulder a couple times as she stepped forward. As always, Raniel took her position one step ahead of Kyle.
"Let's hold the line today, too."
Kyle watched her back.
His friend's figure advancing toward the horizon of unknown end. In that silhouette, Kyle saw the heroes from the old tales.
...He didn't know where the horizon's end lay.
But he could follow that back in front of him.
With that thought, Kyle smiled.
"Yeah."
The holy sword gleamed platinum.
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇ 2.
Two days after the guest from the future departed.
Raniel van Trias tidied her hair in front of the mirror. Her ash-gray locks cascaded down, framing blue eyes reflected in the glass. Those blue eyes in the mirror were no longer purely blue.
Platinum starlight twinkled within the blue.
Raniel closed her eyes, then opened them.
She let out a short breath and draped her robe over her shoulders. After brushing away the wrinkles, she stepped back from the mirror.
"......"
Turning her head sideways revealed a necklace on the table. Something she'd found in the ashes of her ruined hometown.
I will slay the Demon King.
That's my vow. A vow made before the ashes of my hometown—one I'll never forget.
That promise.
She'd thought he'd forgotten it, but in the end, he'd kept it. Recalling that, Raniel clutched the necklace. She tucked it deep into an inner pocket of her robe.
Then she stepped toward the outside.
Opening the door, she found Rosel waiting. Rosel stood, straightened the hem of her robe she'd missed, and pulled something from his bosom.
It was an emblem.
The emblem of the Ashen Mage Tower—the one Rosel had once pinned on her. Stolen by the Succubus Queen, it had returned to its rightful owner. Rosel now affixed it to Raniel's robe.
"Raniel."
And he spoke the same words as always.
"Chin up, shoulders back."
Rosel smiled.
"You're my proud disciple."
Raniel's lips twitched, and she couldn't help but smile. She let out a long breath and bowed deeply before Rosel. Ash-gray hair fell forward.
"Master."
"Yes."
"I'll be back."
Rosel lightly tapped her crown.
"Good. Come back safe."
Raniel stepped forward.
She reached for the shoe rack. What she pulled out wasn't polished dress shoes. They were combat boots covered in indelible stains, no matter how much she cleaned them.
Clang.
The iron-plated soles clashed loudly against the floor. As she slipped her smaller foot into the boot, Raniel turned back.
"Raniel."
Rosel was calling her.
Of course, Rosel's expression wasn't his usual one. How could a parent sending their child to war wear a normal face?
Even so, as normally as he could.
Rosel clasped his hands behind his back and smiled at her.
"I'll be right here. Anytime."
So.
"Come back. You must."
"...Yes, Master."
Raniel nodded.
With boots on, she opened the mansion's door and stepped out. The warm spring sun was gone. The scorching summer earth had scattered. The falling leaves of autumn had crumbled.
Winter had arrived.
Snow fell with the chill wind.
Raniel stepped forward through the piled snow. Then, with a creak, she closed the mansion door. Her master's figure was gone from sight.
Her footprint marked the pristine snowfield.
Toward uncharted ground, Raniel advanced. As she walked, she thought. It had been a long rest. So long it was enough to review her entire life.
A hellish life.
A life she'd expected to end in hell.
But a second chance had been granted. Looming death had receded. Her broken body was perfectly restored. Now farther from death than ever, Raniel moved forward.
I have a debt to repay.
Kyle had said that once.
That she owed him a debt, and she had to repay it. Raniel remembered those words.
"Crazy bastard."
Remembering, she muttered.
Raniel smirked. The guy had really repaid it. Perfectly, beyond measure, gifting her a second life.
"I said I'm quitting the Hero Party, and now he's turning me into a damn hero. What a lunatic."
Quit the Hero Party.
That's what she'd said when she left, but now he had her pinned so she couldn't even quit—making her a hero. Laughing at the absurdity, Raniel swept back her hair.
"Seriously..."
Acting on his own, every step of the way.
In a place beyond anyone's gaze.
There, Kyle Toven had achieved greatness on his own. He'd become the hero he'd always yearned to be. The world didn't yet know his feat. Nor that at its end, Kyle had become a calamity.
So now was the perfect time.
This was the only chance.
Before Kyle committed his crimes. Before he made a name as a calamity. This was when she had to act.
Crunch.
Gazing at the snow bearing her footprints, she stepped forward.
Again forward. Raising her head, Raniel advanced toward the invisible horizon.
Behind the stage, Kyle had achieved his feat.
Then she must do the same.
In a place beyond anyone's gaze, she too would achieve the feat of turning a calamity back into a human. This time, she'd grab him by the collar and slam him to the ground.
Crunch.
The moment she reached the prepared carriage.
Footsteps approached from the side. Light footsteps. Raniel turned toward the sound.
"Take me with you."
Divine Archer, Remia.
"Raniel van Trias."
For the first time, she called Raniel by name, slowly, very slowly bowing her head.
"Use me like a slave. Treat me like a beast of burden. Just take me with you."
She said.
"I've found something I want to do, too."
"You might die."
"Doesn't matter."
Remia raised her head.
Raniel sighed at those eyes and nodded toward the carriage. The carriage carrying them both began to move.
Toward the battlefield.
Toward the demonic realm beyond the battlefield (??.).
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇ 3.
Cardi van Armiel gazed at an old photograph.
Looking at the photo of comrades who had all changed, Cardi smiled bitterly. But that smile was no longer like before. It held no self-mockery at his current plight.
Because he'd seen possibility.
Because he'd realized the time he'd spent wasn't meaningless.
Cardi could now look at the photo with a slightly lighter heart. After staring for a while, he let out a short breath.
"Hoo..."
Everything was beginning to change.
Stagnant time was flowing again.
Cardi recalled the young elf who had visited him last night. Divine Archer, Remia. Her first impression had indeed been the worst. But the Remia he'd seen last night was a bit different from what he remembered.
...Some change by losing something.
Even if her sins weren't forgiven, there was no need to block that change. She had agonized, and in the end, chosen. Instead of forgetting everything and returning to the World Tree, she'd chosen to move forward.
She had changed.
And she wasn't the only one.
Raniel, who had been broken, had risen again.
Now she walked forward once more. She wouldn't stop again. At the end of that long rest, Raniel had become a sage anew.
Raniel van Trias.
Cardi prayed that the future his successor—who resembled him—would reach would be happy. Cardi, who never wished upon stars. Cardi, who denied gods who answered prayers on the wind. Cardi, who called himself a mage because he didn't pray.
Even so, Cardi prayed.
And in that moment.
[...... ......]
Flash.
Cardi opened his closed eyes.
He stood, opened the shop door, and stepped out. Snow fluttered in the narrow alley.
Snow swirling.
Cardi reached out and grasped the air.
Opening his hand, amid melting snow turning to droplets, something unmelting remained.
Ashes.
Seeing the ash, Cardi unwittingly smiled. Looking up, unfamiliar energy drifted on the wind. Feeling it, Cardi muttered.
"...Looks like she's gone."
He let the ash scatter on the wind and leaned against the wall. Ashes riding the wind skyward. To the goddess of ashes who had answered him. Toward the goddess who responded to his long prayer, Cardi prayed.
Whether it reached or not, he didn't know.
"Thank you."
So.
"Leave the rest to me."
From the future thirteen years hence, to the past thirteen years prior.
Intent crossed time.
Now it was time to move forward.
Next, and next again.
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇