No Matter What, I Won't Let Go
In a typical mage novel, this would be the climax. In a play, the grand finale. The protagonist, having endured tragedy and harsh trials, takes a step forward in growth. Then, after a long separation, they share a tearful reunion with their family, and the story comes to a close.
Well, Veronica still had plenty of unresolved conflicts in her life, so a sequel would probably start up again soon enough.
Not that I had any reason to stick around for it.
There was nothing more pathetic than a side character who overstayed their welcome after their role was done.
So, leaving the touching reunion scene behind, I was planning to slip away quietly as the story's temporary ally.
"Aren't you that girl's familiar?"
The potbellied elf had sidled up next to me and struck up a casual conversation.
"Nope."
Familiar? Please. It was just a fleeting connection, nothing more.
"...I see."
Saria frowned slightly at my response, pondered for a moment, then spoke again.
"In that case, how shall I repay the favor of you saving me?"
"?"
"If you're not the human princess's familiar, repaying her won't settle the debt."
"Doesn't matter to me?"
Well, Veronica did still need that Awakening Herb from the elves, so I figured a little after-service like that was fine. That's why I'd told her to just help Veronica out.
"That's not enough."
But this stubborn elf insisted it wouldn't balance the scales and dug in her heels.
An elf's repayment, huh. Well, without me, Saria might've ended up as that pervert Bern's slave.
If she was this eager to pay me back, no reason to turn it down.
Hmm... but nothing was coming to mind right now.
"Uh, later?"
"...Understood."
Even after thinking it over, nothing good popped up, so I put it off.
Still, Saria seemed pretty high up in the elf hierarchy. Might come in handy later.
With that in mind,
"Sariada."
"Saria, bada? Is that Elenika? What does it mean?"
"Kingdom tongue, no. Fairy tongue."
"?"
As I opened the Dimension Corridor to make my exit from the stage, my eyes caught Veronica sobbing in her family's arms.
My original plan was to vanish silently once our interests aligned no more—a hard-boiled fairy's farewell.
But,
"One thing, to Veronica, Diana words, pass on?"
"What?"
"'Take care.' Pronunciation, same. Pass it on. Okay."
"Is that... fairy tongue?"
"No. This, Kingdom tongue."
Still, a quick goodbye before leaving couldn't hurt, right?
Just as Diana had been curious about Veronica's magic, Veronica was equally fascinated by the advanced spells Diana wielded.
"Lady Diana, how exactly do you cast such high-dimensional magic?"
"Dunno?"
Though even Diana herself, the caster, didn't fully understand dimensional magic. For an ordinary mage like her, it was the kind of thing that might take a lifetime just to grasp—if she ever could.
"So, you can only create one entrance at a time?"
"Anytime, anywhere... but the exit's still kinda limited to that forest."
"Le...vel...? Ah, so this spell is still in its early development phase, right?"
During the five days living with Diana in the Fairy Realm, Veronica hadn't just been idle.
Pretending to teach magic lessons, she'd gauged how much Diana actually knew. Then, under the guise of setting traps against intruders, she'd embedded tracking formulas all over the place.
She'd also studied Diana's eating habits and daily patterns. And when Diana slept, she'd sneak out to investigate the rift in the forest behind the realm.
Though the tracking formulas disguised as traps lost their effect once outside the Fairy Realm.
And the ones she'd painstakingly placed on Diana's beloved forks.
There were just so many forks, and Veronica's time was limited, so they only worked within a few dozen meters—but barely.
Thanks to those efforts, I can track Lady Diana now.
That time hadn't been wasted.
Veronica recalled Diana's words.
Entering the Fairy Realm from outside was possible anytime, anywhere. But there was only one exit from the realm to the outside.
In other words, that place—that one spot—would always remain.
Days, months, years. If she kept waiting there.
Then surely, they'd meet again.
"Haa, haa—."
Veronica ran through the forest.
Her body was covered in bruises and scrapes from repeated falls. She kept wiping her tears with her sleeve, but they wouldn't stop.
Yet,
"Hee hee... hehe..."
In the darkness, chasing hope, Veronica's face was filled with joy.
She ran through the dark forest. And kept running.
"Veronica!"
"Child! Stop for a moment!"
"Why are you blocking us?!"
"......"
From afar came the voices of her uncle and the knights pursuing her. In a situation where she should've been caught long ago, the reason she could still press forward was...
...Saria's helping me.
Was it guilt over the despair she'd inflicted on Veronica before?
Or had she realized Veronica's words would decide the elves' village's fate?
Or maybe...
Veronica didn't know why Saria was helping her, but...
...Whatever. I can ask after I meet Lady Diana.
With a smile across her face, Veronica didn't care about the elves' complicated circumstances as she ran desperately.
How far had she run?
"Huff, huff..."
Perhaps even farther than that night she'd fled after the guards' deaths. Before Veronica, who had given her all, appeared a faint, tiny...
"Yeah, that should do it. Retrieval complete."
To Veronica, it was a brilliant green light.
That light, ignoring the desperately arriving Veronica,
"Sleep—"
muttered words in fairy tongue she couldn't understand, then indifferently vanished into the rift.
Amid hope and despair crossing paths, Veronica, reaching desperately for the light's trace, widened her eyes.
It's... disappearing?
Bit by bit. The rift itself was being erased.
The sharp-minded Veronica pieced together the puzzle.
Diana had surely left already, yet she'd appeared here once more.
Unlike before, when it had simply closed after they exited, now it shone brilliantly as it vanished.
Veronica recalled Diana proudly puffing out her chest that morning.
Veronica hadn't noticed Diana's change.
Perhaps what Diana had wanted her to notice was that she'd achieved a magical feat beyond Veronica's reach.
The growth of her still-early-stage dimensional magic. The possibility of shifting entrance coordinates.
A trial.
According to the tomes Veronica had read, fairies often imposed difficult trials on humans they favored.
Those who passed received immense rewards.
But if the human fell short of expectations, the fairy lost interest and left without mercy.
Diana had given Veronica a trial. And Veronica had failed.
Thus, their journey ended here.
Just like that. All over.
.
.
.
.
You think I'd let it end like this?
Grit—.
After a week of trials that had forged her growth, Veronica wouldn't bend to this setback.
With bloodshot eyes, she memorized the vanishing rift's structure, piece by piece.
A delicate, complex array of mana unfolded before her—intricate, yet beautifully precise.
With her current skill, Veronica couldn't reproduce the rift, let alone craft a single strand of its mana.
Fairy magic lay beyond her reach.
It did now. And likely forever. That was the gap.
But.
If that rift wasn't some impossible miracle without foundation.
If it was real magic, bound by this world's laws.
Then with enough time and effort, even an ordinary mage like Veronica could grasp its principles.
So.
She etched the spell's manifestation into her eyes. The mana's structure. The mana distribution.
Desperately. Not missing a single strand more. She halted all other calculations to remember the fading clues.
Drip—.
Her overheated brain screamed in pain, thick blood flowing from her nose, but Veronica never stopped analyzing the path to the Fairy Realm.
No matter how much time it took. No matter the effort. She would.
.
.
.
.
No matter what happens. I absolutely won't let you go.
Lady Diana.