First Kiss (6)
"You have to give it back."
Ariel hung her rosary around Lowen's neck.
"Yes. I will return it without fail."
Lowen hung his own rosary around Ariel's neck in turn.
The briefing was over. All that remained was execution.
Lowen as the bait, Ariel as the net. If the plan worked, they could finish off that brutally fast, monstrously strong creature in a single stroke.
They would sweat for it, of course.
"Saintess, if any other danger arises, abandon the plan and flee to the village."
"No. We have to defeat it."
—Krrrng! Kwaang!
Even as they spoke, trees were collapsing and boulders splitting apart.
"We should start soon."
Any further delay and the forest would be reduced to rubble.
"Let's begin."
"Yes."
Ariel tapped the rosary hanging at Lowen's throat with a fingertip. Divine power sank into the gem, and the jewel flared with a brilliant, radiant light.
—Kuaoooo!!
Reacting to the pure divine energy, the monster bellowed.
Lowen tore off his glasses and stepped forward.
"Over here, you pig bastard!"
He glanced at Ariel, gave a short nod, and sprinted away from her in the opposite direction.
—Kuaaaaaao!!
The enraged monster sensed the high-purity divine power spreading and receding, and immediately gave chase.
—Kung! Kung! Kung!
The ground-shaking tremors weakened. The footfalls grew distant. Before long, the monster's form vanished into the far trees.
"I have to hurry too...!"
Ariel, who had been crouched behind a tree, scooped up the glasses Lowen had discarded and began running along the streams that wound through the forest, just as planned.
At the end of that path lay the Giant's Spring.
Given Ariel's slow legs, he would have to buy as much time as possible.
—Kung! Kung! Kung! Kung!
Even the footfalls hammering at the back of his skull told him the monster was thoroughly furious. Getting caught meant death.
Not that he had any intention of dying easily in its hands.
"Enhance."
Lowen kindled his magic power and cast. He was no mage, but he could manage basic physical and sensory enhancement. He had learned them because missions sometimes required it.
He reinforced his senses first. The headwind striking his skin grew colder; every bead of sweat sliding down his back became sharply distinct. His pupils contracted and dilated in rapid succession, generating heat. His field of vision widened and his eyesight sharpened. He could see everything — from the individual sway of every leaf to the spring faintly visible through the undergrowth.
While heat still burned behind his eyes, Lowen applied physical enhancement. It was not a dramatic transformation. A modest increase in strength, a bump in reflexes and stamina — that was all. But even that helped. It filled the gaps in his ability just enough, let him push a little harder. Simply slowing the rate at which his stamina hit its limit was already a gain.
And more than anything, physical enhancement scaled with the caster's base condition. A scrawny wooden chopstick using it became a sturdy wooden chopstick; a sturdy wooden chopstick became an iron one. So when a man who had thoroughly trained his body used it, the effect needed no further explanation.
Lowen lowered his stance and sprinted. The scenery blurred past at high speed. Trees rushed at him from the opposite direction at proportional velocity, and he slipped past them with fluid ease. He could have gone faster, but he kept just enough distance.
If the goal had been escape, he would have fled at full speed. But the goal was the monster's elimination. Dragging the creature all the way to the net — that was a bait's job.
—Kuaoooooo!!
The monster hurled its club. The spinning mass of wood shattered tree trunks as it came.
"Incoming."
Without looking back, Lowen read the swirling shift in the air, twisted his body, and fell into a backward roll.
—Buung! Buung!
The black club screamed past his face. The moment his back hit the ground, he rolled through and came up running. A fallen tree blocked his path. He bent his knees as low as they would go, leaned his upper body back, and slid beneath the trunk, clearing the obstacle.
Enemy behind, obstacles ahead. Everything was happening in a frantic blur — and yet Lowen was almost at ease. Earlier, Ariel's presence had constrained his movements. Now both hands and both feet were free. And chase scenes like this? He had been through plenty. Even in the Spiderweb Marsh, said to be the most tangled forest of all. Back then he had been the pursuer rather than the pursued, but still. A forest of this caliber was nothing.
—Splash!
His foot sank into the spring. He yanked it free and kicked off a rock.
"Ugh...!"
Moss made his leg slip. His ankle twisted. A mistake like that — had living at the cathedral made him soft? The ankle throbbed, but not beyond what he could endure. He had once run with an arrow through his thigh. An injury like this was nothing.
He was about to push forward again with a light heart when—
"!"
Lowen threw himself flat to the ground, dodging another flying club. Truly irritating. The spinning trajectory, the stupid thickness and size of the thing. He had been dodging well so far, but the knowledge that a mere graze meant a fatal wound was the most aggravating part of all.
He tried to rise and felt another rush of air. Something else was coming — from above this time. Before he could even identify it, Lowen rolled hard to the side.
—Kwaang! Srrrng.
A chain. A long iron chain, swung down like a sword.
"That wasn't just decoration?"
With the chain added, the evasion patterns grew far more demanding. Club throws had been simple; the chain was not. He knew the boar-monster possessed high intelligence, but its attacks twisted and changed the way a human fighter's would. Or perhaps they were more beastlike still — the way it simply flailed the chain wildly toward its target, discarding all finer thought.
—Whoom!
Lowen ducked a chain that skimmed past his temple. He said it lightly, but what the monster was swinging was a ship's mooring chain. Getting hit by that would do unspeakable things to bone.
—Chiriring! Ching!
The dodged chain wrapped several trees ahead in a single coil. And then—
—Kugugung! Kwang!
The trees bound by the chain were ripped free all at once and came crashing toward Lowen like a wave.
"Tch."
Dodging sideways was out. Dropping flat would get him swept under.
"At least it's not an actual wave."
Lowen used the oncoming trees like a staircase, planting his feet on each in turn and vaulting up over them.
"?!"
The moment he left the ground, something came flying at high speed — a scatter of stones flung like buckshot. The monster had anticipated his feet leaving the earth and thrown a handful of rocks. The creature was smarter than he had given it credit for.
Can't dodge this one.
Lowen covered his head with his arms and curled in on himself.
"Ghk! Ugh!"
The stones slammed into his side. Worse luck still — one struck the side of his head where his hands had failed to cover. His vision flashed white. His skull rang, and a violent headache crashed over him in waves. Judging purely by the pain, it was worse than when his bones had been shattered to pieces.
—Puhk! Kung! Kuung!
Lowen hit the mossy ground, tumbled several times, and drove his head into the spring.
"Da... damn it..."
He forced himself up. His side felt caved in and his head ached as if it had been cracked open, but he had to run.
—Drip. Drip.
Blood soaked his hair and ran along his jawline, dripping to the ground. Lowen picked up a stone and hurled it at the monster.
—Ting!
It struck the creature's tusk dead-on. Against a human face, the force would have shattered a nose or broken teeth. Against that hard tusk, it did not even leave a scratch.
"Don't quit halfway."
Lowen wiped the blood from his eyes as if shaking it off.
"Let's run until one of us dies."
"Haa... ha... hahk..."
She ran. She tripped on roots. She slipped on wet moss. And every time, Ariel got up and ran again. She followed the water upstream. She was exhaling faster than she could draw breath. Her chest clenched as if her lungs were collapsing, but she forced it down.
"I-I can't... I can't be late...!"
Faster. Faster. She drove herself on. This was the task Lowen had entrusted to her with his life on the line. She knew he had once been a Saintess's escort knight, but facing a monster alone was impossible. Even fleeing would be a razor's edge. In the worst case, he might already have become the creature's meal.
"No...!"
She banished the dark thoughts that had begun to crawl up through her mind. Lowen was leading it well. Lowen was alive. Lowen was strong.
Yes. Lowen was strong.
Lowen did not know. That every night he groaned through nightmares. That no matter how viciously they tormented him, he always endured them in the end. That the next morning he would greet her with that gentle smile. Only Ariel, praying on the other side of the wall, knew.
What kind of pain must it be? What kind of loneliness? What kind of emptiness? Lowen, who lived with nightmares in his arms. Ariel did not know what those nightmares truly were, but she knew one thing: even carrying that suffering, he always smiled.
Even if that smile is a lie.
When a child was sad, he soothed them with a smile. When the village women drew him into their chatter, he played along with a cheerful grin. And when Ariel caused nothing but trouble, he always comforted her with a smile. He did not blindly revere her simply because she was the Saintess — he pointed out her mistakes clearly and taught her when needed. The ability to smile in any situation: that was true strength.
"Ah—!"
Crossing a mossy rock, Ariel misstepped and fell. Her once-clean habit was filthy now. Blood from her knee was seeping into the fabric.
"Hic..."
She bit down on the pain and stood. This kind of hurt was nothing compared to what Lowen was enduring right now. He was playing bait for her sake. Catching the monster made it necessary, but within that choice was also the intent to keep Ariel safe.
Even if it means sacrificing himself for me...
Suddenly she remembered that reckless night. The night she had walked into a cave without a second thought and found herself in danger. She had fainted midway and remembered nothing, but Lowen had told her a wandering knight had come to her aid. She had believed him then. Now she understood. That wandering knight had been Lowen. He had faced the mercenaries alone to protect her.
The Saintess's escort knight. Lowen.
"Ha... hahk..."
Her heart beat even faster. Running made that natural enough. But the harder it pounded, the more a restless, impulsive longing churned inside her. She wanted to see Lowen. She wanted to hold him right this instant. The feeling surged up without warning.
Sunset light was pouring into the forest.
"Hahk... hhk... I-I... I'm here..."
Before the thoroughly battered Ariel, a lake spread open. A blue-green lake with the sunset floating on its surface. This was the Giant's Spring — the place that would become the net to catch the monster.
"B-Bishop Lowen...!"
He was not here yet. Relief lasted only a moment before a deep thud echoed through the trees and birds scattered into the sky. He was coming.
"I have to get ready!"
Ariel dropped to her knees at the water's edge and plunged both hands into the lake.
—Kung! Kuung! Kwaang! Kugugung!
The tremors were drawing closer.
—Kuoohhhh!!!
A roar thick with rage. Moments later the monster burst into view, and right in front of it, Lowen was still running — holding a distance so razor-thin it looked as though he might be seized at any second, luring the creature with hairbreadth precision.
"Uwaaaaah—!"
The instant he saw the lake, Lowen kicked off the ground and dove in. The monster, mid-swing right behind him, plunged in after.
Their bodies were dragged downward. The gravity crystal at the lakebed was pulling them in hard and fast. Lowen looked at the monster. It seemed panicked, thrashing as it tried to swim back up. But it had already burned through most of its stamina, and against the crystal's pull the effort was useless. Left like this, the creature would drown for certain.
So would Lowen.
The moment Lowen and the monster hit the water, Ariel gathered divine power into both hands and released it all at once. A door opened, and holy energy poured out in a flood. That divine power painted the blue-green lake gold—
—and then—
—Puhhhhhhng!!!
—blew the lake apart.
A column of water erupted skyward like a volcanic blast. Lowen, still submerged, was carried up on the water-pillar into the high air. He could see the entire forest. The woods, dyed in summer sunset, held a quiet beauty.
Even in a situation like this, what a leisurely observation.
He gave a wry smile and looked at the monster.
—Kuooh! Kuaaaah!
Bathed in holy water, the creature burned, white smoke rising from its body. Before long it crumbled into a handful of ash and dissolved into the sunset.
"Ha... success."
The next problem arrived immediately. Catching the monster was fine, but he had not thought past that. Lowen was currently falling from a considerable height. This was going to kill him.
Just as a fatal plunge to the earth seemed inevitable—
—something soft, like a cushion of cotton, slowed his descent.
"Hm?"
Looking down, he saw Ariel in prayer. Using a large-scale protection spell — the Vessel of Protection — she had caught both the falling Lowen and the lake water that would otherwise have flooded the forest. The enormous vessel of divine power settled gently onto the ground, returned the water to the lake, and melted away like mist.
And Lowen—
"Bishop Lowen!"
—with the vessel vanishing just before impact, fell straight onto Ariel's head. She threw her arms wide to catch him.
"Waaah!"
She failed, of course. Unable to hold him, she toppled over. Ariel sprawled on the ground, Lowen collapsed on top of her.
"Haa... ha... Saintess."
Blood still running from his head, thoroughly wrecked, Lowen caught his ragged breath and smiled.
"It exploded again, didn't it?"
Swallowing a surge of joy, Ariel grinned back.
"Yes! It exploded again. Hehe."
Close enough that their breath touched. Ariel looking up at Lowen's smiling face.
"Uh...?"
In an instant Lowen's face filled her vision. She saw his eyes, the bridge of his nose, and finally his lips. Cracked, with blood still seeping from them. They looked rough to the touch. Not the kind of lips one would call full or pretty — and yet her gaze kept returning to them.
A tiny spark kindled in her chest and, in a heartbeat, flared into a full flame. She wanted to kiss him. The impulse whispered in her ear, and from that moment on she left everything to instinct.
"Bishop Lowen..."
Ariel slipped her arms around the back of his neck and, as if drawn, pressed her lips to his.
"Chup."
Time stopped. The world went quiet. Only the wild thudding of her heart filled her ears in a deafening rush.
It was love.