Report
Lucia believed that the poor condition that came from overworking her body created openings precisely when it mattered most.
So grinding herself down without rest the way Shiron did was not merely impossible—it was a method she simply did not prefer.
Training was fine. But the rest periods in between mattered just as much. The habit of always leaving room for the unexpected, already carved into her like instinct, remained unchanged even after her body had been replaced.
The girls, having thoroughly heated themselves up, gathered in the pavilion by the training-ground well to ease their tension and chat.
There was nothing particularly special to talk about.
Setting aside her previous life, Lucia had lived a dull existence digging potatoes in the fields, and Siriel was still a nine-year-old without any real experiences to speak of.
"So to sum it up, there's a giant ship floating in the sky? And it's made of steel?"
Yet every so often their conversations produced these little shocks. Facts Siriel knew, Lucia did not. The subtle gap could be dismissed as natural given the difference in eras, but the gulf was so wide that suspicion was hard to avoid.
"Yeah, I rode one for the first time this trip. But you know what? It's huuuge, and ridiculously fast too. From the capital to around here only took two days. Grandpa says it's probably faster than a train."
"I can hardly believe it. I heard that train thing is already twice as fast as a running horse."
Lucia soothed her racing heart and felt a quiet wave of relief. Thank goodness a kind child like Siriel had told her first. Someone mean-spirited would have taken one look at her reaction and mocked her for being a country bumpkin.
Siriel, amused by Lucia's entertaining responses, kept going.
"Then Lucia, you've never even ridden a train? You said you were born and raised in the Helrn region. That's a pretty long way from here."
"...Well... When we came this far, Father just threw me over his shoulder like a sack of luggage and ran."
Lucia answered with a bitter smile.
A sudden lump rose in her throat.
There were ships that flew through the sky and iron masses that raced across the land, yet Glenn had ignored all of them and sprinted until she was sick with motion. It was a bit much for a daughter to say, but her father Glenn was a crude, uncultured man who looked nothing like one.
"Why would he do that? There are carriages, aren't there? It must have been uncomfortable."
"He might just be a secret miser. Why bother riding something when running is faster, right?"
"Weird."
Siriel covered her mouth and laughed at the joke, and Lucia snorted at her little friend's pure reaction.
"Mm."
Siriel finished speaking and put a straw between her lips. The straw, of course, was Encia's special service for the girl who specialized exclusively in cute behavior.
The bright, tart acidity of the lemonade revived her languid body; Siriel smacked her lips and gave a little shiver of pleasure.
"It would be nice if Lucia could ride the airship with us too."
"...Yeah."
"The succession ceremony's over, so we'll have to say goodbye soon, won't we?"
"......"
"I wish today would never end."
Her cousin hung her head and fidgeted with her fingers; the sight looked somehow lonely.
Like a puppy abandoned by the roadside. Looking at her, Lucia felt a heavy weight settle in her stomach.
As if she had sensed the feeling, Siriel straightened her back and swept the shadow from her face.
"Sorry. I went and said something that killed the mood."
Siriel tried to keep the smile on her face as she looked at Lucia. She wanted every memory with her first-ever friend to be a good one. But there was no chance Lucia would miss how forced it looked. That awkward smile made Lucia's chest ache.
As if I wouldn't feel sad too.
Lucia lowered her head and let out a long breath.
It had been barely three days since she met Siriel, yet that had apparently been enough for something like friendship to take root. Everything Siriel had shown her had more than earned Lucia's affection.
And so she discovered, to her own surprise, that she was already dreading the parting that had been scheduled from the start.
She's a really good kid.
Young as she was, Siriel had plenty of solid qualities.
She never threw around the weight of being a noble daughter, and she never spoke carelessly to the servants. Even when she received her lemonade she never forgot to say thank you; that small habit left Lucia quietly moved.
Is this the first friend I've made in this life...?
Before coming here there had been a few children of roughly the same age, but they were little beasts more faithful to instinct than reason. Lucia had naturally stayed on the outside. Having the same physical age but a completely different mental age built a high wall in any relationship.
Siriel, though, was different. Why?
The reason surfaced at once.
Their hearts connected. They liked the same things.
Being together simply felt good.
In the face of that soft, refreshing feeling, the walls crumbled easily.
Sometimes the selfish thought even crossed her mind that age was nothing more than a trivial detail.
Looking at Siriel's shadowed face made her chest tickle and ache at the same time. Perhaps that was why.
"Siriel."
Lucia took Siriel's hand in both of hers. The hand that had been outside for so long was a little rough—not very childlike at all.
"Uh... yeah?"
"Someday I'll definitely come visit you in the capital!"
"......"
"Don't forget me until then. Promise."
"Lucia...!"
The two girls flung their arms around each other and exchanged a promise with no fixed date.
It was a little later that Lucia received Hugo's summons.
"This is great! From now on we're going to live in the same house!"
"......Yeah. I'm... really happy."
Siriel beamed from ear to ear, but Lucia's face burned scarlet. The realization that she had done something embarrassing arrived only after the fact.
Why had she done that? Even Lucia herself had no idea. She only knew, with perfect clarity, that what she felt right now was pure mortification.
Bang—
Bang— Bang—
That night,
Lucia slept under a rough straw mat instead of a blanket.
Macal Mountains.
A vast belt dividing the Demon Realm from everything else.
Vicious demonic energy that sank into the skin, demonic beasts that never stopped coming—this place was closer to the Demon Realm than to the human world.
Berta had never set foot in the Demon Realm, yet she judged that even compared to that place this mountain range would make for a fair contest.
Lately she had been running into far too many demonic beasts she had never seen before.
She was only retracing the path from the castle to the lake, yet the number of beasts attacking her was completely different from the trip out.
Thud—
"Huff... kuh-hack."
The beast whose throat she had just cut was one of them.
A type she had never seen. It was not listed in any of the manuals or bestiaries she had been given as a rookie, and even its way of moving was so confusing that it scrambled her judgment.
Damn it. It has legs—why the hell is it rolling?
Berta spat blood and massaged her badly swollen wrist.
If only her body had been in proper condition, she would never have had this much trouble...
Crack—
Monster of an old man.
Berta's molars screamed in protest.
The old man—Yohan—had beaten her just hard enough that she could still walk on her own two feet. She had half-expected he might leave an injured patient alone, but the bastard had actually done it. Even the Special Forces never went that far. Looking back now, the Special Forces had actually been a place with a surprising amount of humanity.
Focus.
Even while she caught her breath, her legs never stopped moving.
She could not stand still. She could not show pain.
As the bestiaries said, demonic beasts were always hungry; the moment they decided something was prey, they charged without hesitation.
Plop—
Something dropped from above. Another beast she had never seen. It looked like a bat—if a bat had been designed by someone with a deep personal hatred of bats. Bats were already grotesque; adding the word "grotesque" on top of that made her reluctant even to describe how hideous it was.
Whoosh——
Berta wrapped her sword in Aura. Blue energy rippled and took the form of a brilliant flame.
She wiped every stray thought clean. How would this one attack? The only thing filling her head was how to kill the thing in front of her. She had no idea how it would move or what trick it might use to catch her off-guard; all she could do was raise every sense in her body to the absolute limit.
Crack!
Its snout split open, revealing row upon row of dense teeth.
Clang!
The Aura-coated blade was bitten. Even at maximum output, the inside of its mouth remained unmarked. Her main weapon had been sealed.
But the opponent's only means of attack was that single sturdy maw. Berta, on the other hand, still had plenty of options.
Bam!
A kick loaded with internal energy slammed into its belly; the spot that received the shock simply burst open.
"......Hah."
Only after several more desperate fights did Berta finally make it back. The scenery that greeted her after the struggle was a solitary castle.
Moving without rest had gotten her this far.
Perhaps it was the relief that the ordeal was finally over.
Berta's eyes began to grow moist.
The hot tears of pride for having survived a brutal wilderness with nothing but a single sword were not the kind she felt ashamed to show anyone.
But those tear ducts dried up in an instant.
Because of a certain young master who had come out to meet the tattered wreck that was Berta.
"Where the hell have you been, coming back only now."
"...Well."
It was mountain after mountain. Faced with an opponent even more troublesome than demonic beasts, Berta bit her lip. Then completely unexpected words left Shiron's mouth.
"Do you have any idea how worried I was?"
"...What?"
A dazed sound slipped from Berta's lips.
For a second she thought she had misheard. Kind words coming from that young master's mouth?
"R-Really?"
"What would I gain by lying to you?"
Those words were the signal. Berta ran at him like a dog. The hardships of the entire day made her nose sting. Overcome with emotion, she flung her arms around Shiron.
"Teacher. I... I almost really died."
"Yeah. You had quite a hard time of it. But listen."
"......Yes?"
Berta hugged his small body and cried, yet Shiron made no move to wipe her tears. What he held out instead of a handkerchief was paper and a pen.
"What... is this?"
"You have work to do. Did you forget about writing the report?"
"......"
"What are you standing there for? My arm's going to fall off."
"Um. Could I rest just a little? Right now I feel like I'm about to collapse..."
"Then write while you rest. You can do that, right?"
"......Yes. I can do it."
"Good. Let's do well."
Berta's head nodded of its own accord. Talking back right now seemed like a very bad idea.