Chapter 338: Snowball (2)
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 338: Snowball (2)
Two years and six months. Since I was in the past for about half a year, it was safe to say that time had passed at roughly a five-to-one ratio. The problem was that this ratio didn't seem to be consistent.
"Amelia, did you arrive before me?" I asked, even though I was already half-sure that was the case, and she answered without missing a beat.
"Yes, it was a long wait. The magical device you're holding now is one I left behind to immediately send a signal to me when you returned. Well... I didn't know at the time that it would take more than two years for the signal to come."
No wonder there was a beep when I woke up. That was the sound of the device turning on.
"Anyway, I'll explain everything you want to know later, so hurry up and run for now." Amelia seemed to want to stop chitchatting and focus solely on getting out of here, but I couldn't abide by that so easily. I just couldn't understand it.
"Wait, if Erwen is the one chasing us, why do we have to run?"
"I don't know about you, but that woman will definitely try to kill me. If we fight in this city, where my oath is active, I will inevitably lose."
I get that you'll lose, but...
"Why on earth would she kill you?"
"Because she thinks I have something to do with your death."
"Ah..." At those words, a few more puzzle pieces slotted into place in my head. Nevertheless, I couldn't make sense of Amelia's actions. "But I can just talk to her and persuade her—"
"Persuasion won't be easy."
"...What?"
At my obvious confusion, Amelia stopped walking. Then she looked at me, her expression deadly serious. "Yandel, that woman isn't the elf you used to know." Her face looked like the face of someone remembering some kind of monster. Amelia seemed convinced that even I couldn't control Erwen.
"Just what happened while I was gone...?"
"A lot of things happened. There is no time to explain at length." Amelia firmly cut my muttering off at the pass and continued, "I doubt that woman still has the desire to do so anyway, but there's only one thing in this situation that matters."
"W-What's that...?"
"That woman can't protect you."
It had been a really long time since I'd felt like this. No matter how much time we spent talking through this, it felt like my brain was making sense of none of it.
"...Protect? Me? From who?" I asked in a daze.
Amelia's reply was once again curt. "From everything in this world." What on earth did that mean? Just as I was about to ask a new question, Amelia called my name and stopped me in my tracks. "Bjorn Yandel. This is what happened two years ago." Like a doctor giving her patient a terminal diagnosis, she said in a firm yet grim tone: "The palace announced you were an evil spirit."
...What now?
***
It was a lazy afternoon in an office with warm sunlight streaming through the windows. However, the interior of the office was far from peaceful.
"...That is all." After reaching the end of his regular report, Alex Halo, assistant to the vice captain of the Third Magic Troops, kept his chin stiffly raised as he studied his superior's face.
She was reading the document with a frown. "Hmm..." Once finished, his superior raised her head and gazed at him with that usual tired look in her eyes. At the sight, he quietly breathed a sigh of relief. He knew from past experience that that meant that, at least this time, he'd managed to pass muster. "That was well written. The contents of the report were good as well. The part about movement in Noark was especially interesting. Although it is just an assumption, it was still clever. It was at least better than the trash you've brought me thus far."
Was that an insult or a compliment? Alex couldn't tell, but his next line was the same either way. "Thank—"
"Is that what you thought I'd say?"
Oh, damn.
Gulp.
Her sudden change of tone made him swallow. His superior's eyes were no longer riddled with fatigue. Or rather, they still looked fatigued, but they weren't sleepy. They were the eyes of a predator that was staring at an herbivore right before chewing it up. If he kept quiet here, he'd really be screwed.
"If you tell me what needs to be corrected, I will correct it."
"First, your writing style is an issue. Especially this part. I'm sure I pointed it out last time, but you made the same mistake. Don't you know this gets sent to Commander Pevrosk upon getting my approval?"
"...I will correct it."
"No, the contents themselves are the main problem in the first place. People from Noark might be living in the labyrinth? Why don't you become an author instead? I don't think you'll sell, though."
"I will correct it."
"Are you a parrot? How are you going to correct it? That's what you should be telling me."
Whew, it's finally over.
"...I will rewrite it."
"Okay, then." Her eyes finally shifted to another document and Alex turned around, struggling to hold the pieces of his shattered soul together. Then he closed the door carefully so as not to disturb his superior, who was already concentrating on a different task.
Creak.
He could see his superior through the gradually narrowing gap in the door. There was something about her tired yet hardworking air that captured people's attention. Perhaps that was why, although the soldiers in the corps feared her, they didn't hate her for some reason.
If she was just a little kinder, she would be much more popular...
She was the Golden Wizard, the vice captain of the Third Magic Troops, though she was more famously known by the name Little Devil to her soldiers.
She definitely is good-looking—
"What are you doing? Aren't you leaving?"
"E-Excuse me. Nia Rafdonia!" The startled man saluted and hurriedly slammed the door he had been carefully closing shut.
"Ha... when will he stop being useless?"
Staring at the closed door for a moment, the Golden Wizard Arua Raven sighed. Of course, it didn't take long for her attention to shift. Moving her pen again, she tackled the pile of tasks on her desk one by one.
"That's all for today." After a while, Raven stretched her stiff muscles and glanced out the window. The world beyond the glass was already dark as the sun had set.
Since I finished all the important tasks today, I can come in early tomorrow to finish the rest...
Raven was unfastening her uniform button by button when she paused, laughed ruefully, and buttoned them all up again. She was going to wear these clothes to work again tomorrow—was there a point in changing? Just putting her officer's coat on top, she tidied up her desk and finally checked the calendar.
It was December 2nd, New World 156. She still felt strange every time she looked at the calendar. It was about time things improved, but she still had moments like these where she suddenly froze and her heart sank. Because she had experienced loss, the short time she spent adventuring with him and his comrades seemed painfully joyful and brilliant by comparison. But those days would never come back.
Was that an insult or a compliment? Alex couldn't tell, but his next line was the same either way. "Thank—"
"Is that what you thought I'd say?"
Oh, damn.
Gulp.
Her sudden change of tone made him swallow. His superior's eyes were no longer riddled with fatigue. Or rather, they still looked fatigued, but they weren't sleepy. They were the eyes of a predator that was staring at an herbivore right before chewing it up. If he kept quiet here, he'd really be screwed.
"If you tell me what needs to be corrected, I will correct it."
"First, your writing style is an issue. Especially this part. I'm sure I pointed it out last time, but you made the same mistake. Don't you know this gets sent to Commander Pevrosk upon getting my approval?"
"...I will correct it."
"No, the contents themselves are the main problem in the first place. People from Noark might be living in the labyrinth? Why don't you become an author instead? I don't think you'll sell, though."
"I will correct it."
"Are you a parrot? How are you going to correct it? That's what you should be telling me."
Whew, it's finally over.
"...I will rewrite it."
"Okay, then." Her eyes finally shifted to another document and Alex turned around, struggling to hold the pieces of his shattered soul together. Then he closed the door carefully so as not to disturb his superior, who was already concentrating on a different task.
Creak.
He could see his superior through the gradually narrowing gap in the door. There was something about her tired yet hardworking air that captured people's attention. Perhaps that was why, although the soldiers in the corps feared her, they didn't hate her for some reason.
If she was just a little kinder, she would be much more popular...
She was the Golden Wizard, the vice captain of the Third Magic Troops, though she was more famously known by the name Little Devil to her soldiers.
She definitely is good-looking—
"What are you doing? Aren't you leaving?"
"E-Excuse me. Nia Rafdonia!" The startled man saluted and hurriedly slammed the door he had been carefully closing shut.
"Ha... when will he stop being useless?"
Staring at the closed door for a moment, the Golden Wizard Arua Raven sighed. Of course, it didn't take long for her attention to shift. Moving her pen again, she tackled the pile of tasks on her desk one by one.
"That's all for today." After a while, Raven stretched her stiff muscles and glanced out the window. The world beyond the glass was already dark as the sun had set.
Since I finished all the important tasks today, I can come in early tomorrow to finish the rest...
Raven was unfastening her uniform button by button when she paused, laughed ruefully, and buttoned them all up again. She was going to wear these clothes to work again tomorrow—was there a point in changing? Just putting her officer's coat on top, she tidied up her desk and finally checked the calendar.
It was December 2nd, New World 156. She still felt strange every time she looked at the calendar. It was about time things improved, but she still had moments like these where she suddenly froze and her heart sank. Because she had experienced loss, the short time she spent adventuring with him and his comrades seemed painfully joyful and brilliant by comparison. But those days would never come back.
It's already been more than two years...
Even a few days wouldn't be enough time to explain all the things that had happened in the last two and a half years in detail. But if she had to summarize it, regardless, it had been a very long time, long enough to tear apart friendships she'd desperately tried to maintain, and long enough for a rank-six wizard from Altemion School to join the Royal Military and climb the ranks to vice captain of a corps.
Rattle.
Raven walked over to the window and opened it wide. A chilly winter breeze quietly blew in.
Shaaaaaa!
She recalled the last time she saw each of her comrades: the barbarian warrior woman Ainar Fenelin, the normally-not-reliable-but-trustworthy-when-it-mattered Abman, and even Missha.
It's been more than half a year since I saw them last...
The comrade she had met with most recently was Abman, but even that was over half a year ago, and their conversation wasn't as comfortable as before. They ran into each other by chance on the sixth floor and talked about what they were up to before awkwardly parting. Well, she did see Erwen two months ago, but she couldn't exactly call her a comrade anymore. They only made eye contact and didn't even say hello.
Still, it seems Mr. Abman and Miss Ainar are doing well...
Thinking of her old comrades, she quietly closed her eyes. Then she suddenly remembered the sorest spot.
"Miss Missha..."
She wondered where and how she was living now. Raven held out her hand to the open window. As she caught some falling snowflakes on her palm, she remembered the last conversation she'd had with Missha.
"Therrre's something I have to tell you..."
It had been about two years and four months ago now, the end of that summer.
***
Intuition, what adventurers jokingly called their sixth sense, was surprisingly useful in day-to-day life. Although there was no clear data or basis, ducking because of an ominous feeling and having a claw pass right over your head a moment later was a common occurrence in this industry.
Thump!
But this wasn't an innate sense. The more experience you had, and the higher your intelligence, the more likely your intuition was to be correct. Intuition was a product of hundreds of thousands of scraps of information accumulated like grains of sand in the subconscious. The difficult part was explaining to others how you reached the conclusion you had. The reasoning clearly dwelled in the unconscious mind.
"Something to tell me...?" At the time, Raven had ignored the ominous feeling she was getting and responded with a question. She didn't know anything for sure yet, after all. It was common for intuition to simply end up being an error in judgment. No, you could argue it was much rarer for it to actually correspond to a genuine threat.
"Yeah... I have something to inforrrm... I mean, inform you..."
"Um, your speech..."
"Ah, that...? I'm going to try changing it. I can't talk like this forrrever..."
"Ah... really? You've thought this through. Th-that's good? I'll cheer for you."
On the surface, Missha's change was a positive thing. Raven knew a bit about Missha's situation. Apparently, she had damaged her tongue in the past, and though the scar had healed over time, she'd ended up talking like that as a result of a psychological issue. Yes, she should have been happy for her.
Thump!
But why was her heart beating faster? It was making her more anxious. "...So, what did you have to say to me?"
"Well, actually..." Missha trailed off and averted her eyes before seemingly making up her mind and forcing the words out. "I want to leave the team."
It was a retirement announcement. Raven did not bother asking for the reason. This wasn't much of a surprise to begin with. "I see..."
To be honest, she figured this would happen. No matter who joined their clan, no one could fill the void left by that barbarian. Labyrinth exploration was suspended indefinitely anyway, and it was only natural that the team would eventually disband.
"Okay. If you think that's for the best, there's nothing I can say to that." She didn't really care about the team disbanding. What mattered was their friendship. Just because they weren't going to enter the labyrinth together anymore, that didn't mean their friendship had to end there. "So, what do you plan to do from now on?"
"I'm going to return to my family."
"Ah, if you're planning to take a break without a specific plan in mind, I agree that that's—"
"And then I'm going to enter the labyrrrinth. No... enter the labyrinth."
"...Sorry?" Raven couldn't wrap her head around that. She said she was going to leave the team, but still enter the labyrinth? The back of her mind began to prickle with an inexplicable sense of betrayal, and she bombarded Missha with questions. "The labyrinth? With who? Did you already find a new team?"
But Missha did not answer them. She just changed the subject, with a slightly sad tinge to her tone. "Before that, that's not all I have to say..."
At those words, Raven felt the ominous feeling she had barely managed to subdue intensify again. Was that why? Her volume, which had risen as she got worked up, evened out to normal levels. "...Go ahead." Perhaps because her head had cooled, her voice also came out sounding somewhat cold.
Missha kept avoiding her eyes and ended up fixing her gaze on the floor. When she spoke, her voice was incredibly quiet. "Just so you know, soon... There are going to be rumors that Bjorn is an evil spirit..."
"...Sorry?"
"Ah! I-It's just a rumor! D-Don't believe what anyone says! I-I just wanted to tell you that..."
Just what on earth is Miss Missha talking about? Has she lost her mind as a result of Mr. Yandel's death?
While Raven was starting to wonder if they were having a rational conversation right now, on the other hand, another thought began to gain traction in her mind. This was her intuition, that sixth sense that had a way of reaching the truth before rational thought could. "So you're saying you're going to spread those rumors. Although I don't know why you would do that."
Instead of answering, Missha shuffled backward.
"Which is why you came to tell me in advance. Because you wouldn't want us to remember Mr. Yandel as an evil spirit." Raven took a step forward. "But you know what I think?" She had already figured out the source of this ominous feeling that had been gnawing at her since earlier. "You said there are going to be rumors that Mr. Yandel is an evil spirit... but it won't just be a rumor, will it?" she demanded, grabbing Missha by the wrist.
This was an uncharacteristic oversight on her part, as there was no way a wizard could stop a martial-type adventurer with force.
"...Ugh!" Missha shook off her hand and ran away, and the next day, rumors that Bjorn Yandel had been an evil spirit spread throughout the city.
"Where on earth did she disappear to...?"
That had been the last she'd seen of Missha.
It's already been more than two years...
Even a few days wouldn't be enough time to explain all the things that had happened in the last two and a half years in detail. But if she had to summarize it, regardless, it had been a very long time, long enough to tear apart friendships she'd desperately tried to maintain, and long enough for a rank-six wizard from Altemion School to join the Royal Military and climb the ranks to vice captain of a corps.
Rattle.
Raven walked over to the window and opened it wide. A chilly winter breeze quietly blew in.
Shaaaaaa!
She recalled the last time she saw each of her comrades: the barbarian warrior woman Ainar Fenelin, the normally-not-reliable-but-trustworthy-when-it-mattered Abman, and even Missha.
It's been more than half a year since I saw them last...
The comrade she had met with most recently was Abman, but even that was over half a year ago, and their conversation wasn't as comfortable as before. They ran into each other by chance on the sixth floor and talked about what they were up to before awkwardly parting. Well, she did see Erwen two months ago, but she couldn't exactly call her a comrade anymore. They only made eye contact and didn't even say hello.
Still, it seems Mr. Abman and Miss Ainar are doing well...
Thinking of her old comrades, she quietly closed her eyes. Then she suddenly remembered the sorest spot.
"Miss Missha..."
She wondered where and how she was living now. Raven held out her hand to the open window. As she caught some falling snowflakes on her palm, she remembered the last conversation she'd had with Missha.
"Therrre's something I have to tell you..."
It had been about two years and four months ago now, the end of that summer.
***
Intuition, what adventurers jokingly called their sixth sense, was surprisingly useful in day-to-day life. Although there was no clear data or basis, ducking because of an ominous feeling and having a claw pass right over your head a moment later was a common occurrence in this industry.
Thump!
But this wasn't an innate sense. The more experience you had, and the higher your intelligence, the more likely your intuition was to be correct. Intuition was a product of hundreds of thousands of scraps of information accumulated like grains of sand in the subconscious. The difficult part was explaining to others how you reached the conclusion you had. The reasoning clearly dwelled in the unconscious mind.
"Something to tell me...?" At the time, Raven had ignored the ominous feeling she was getting and responded with a question. She didn't know anything for sure yet, after all. It was common for intuition to simply end up being an error in judgment. No, you could argue it was much rarer for it to actually correspond to a genuine threat.
"Yeah... I have something to inforrrm... I mean, inform you..."
"Um, your speech..."
"Ah, that...? I'm going to try changing it. I can't talk like this forrrever..."
"Ah... really? You've thought this through. Th-that's good? I'll cheer for you."
On the surface, Missha's change was a positive thing. Raven knew a bit about Missha's situation. Apparently, she had damaged her tongue in the past, and though the scar had healed over time, she'd ended up talking like that as a result of a psychological issue. Yes, she should have been happy for her.
Thump!
But why was her heart beating faster? It was making her more anxious. "...So, what did you have to say to me?"
"Well, actually..." Missha trailed off and averted her eyes before seemingly making up her mind and forcing the words out. "I want to leave the team."
It was a retirement announcement. Raven did not bother asking for the reason. This wasn't much of a surprise to begin with. "I see..."
To be honest, she figured this would happen. No matter who joined their clan, no one could fill the void left by that barbarian. Labyrinth exploration was suspended indefinitely anyway, and it was only natural that the team would eventually disband.
"Okay. If you think that's for the best, there's nothing I can say to that." She didn't really care about the team disbanding. What mattered was their friendship. Just because they weren't going to enter the labyrinth together anymore, that didn't mean their friendship had to end there. "So, what do you plan to do from now on?"
"I'm going to return to my family."
"Ah, if you're planning to take a break without a specific plan in mind, I agree that that's—"
"And then I'm going to enter the labyrrrinth. No... enter the labyrinth."
"...Sorry?" Raven couldn't wrap her head around that. She said she was going to leave the team, but still enter the labyrinth? The back of her mind began to prickle with an inexplicable sense of betrayal, and she bombarded Missha with questions. "The labyrinth? With who? Did you already find a new team?"
But Missha did not answer them. She just changed the subject, with a slightly sad tinge to her tone. "Before that, that's not all I have to say..."
At those words, Raven felt the ominous feeling she had barely managed to subdue intensify again. Was that why? Her volume, which had risen as she got worked up, evened out to normal levels. "...Go ahead." Perhaps because her head had cooled, her voice also came out sounding somewhat cold.
Missha kept avoiding her eyes and ended up fixing her gaze on the floor. When she spoke, her voice was incredibly quiet. "Just so you know, soon... There are going to be rumors that Bjorn is an evil spirit..."
"...Sorry?"
"Ah! I-It's just a rumor! D-Don't believe what anyone says! I-I just wanted to tell you that..."
Just what on earth is Miss Missha talking about? Has she lost her mind as a result of Mr. Yandel's death?
While Raven was starting to wonder if they were having a rational conversation right now, on the other hand, another thought began to gain traction in her mind. This was her intuition, that sixth sense that had a way of reaching the truth before rational thought could. "So you're saying you're going to spread those rumors. Although I don't know why you would do that."
Instead of answering, Missha shuffled backward.
"Which is why you came to tell me in advance. Because you wouldn't want us to remember Mr. Yandel as an evil spirit." Raven took a step forward. "But you know what I think?" She had already figured out the source of this ominous feeling that had been gnawing at her since earlier. "You said there are going to be rumors that Mr. Yandel is an evil spirit... but it won't just be a rumor, will it?" she demanded, grabbing Missha by the wrist.
This was an uncharacteristic oversight on her part, as there was no way a wizard could stop a martial-type adventurer with force.
"...Ugh!" Missha shook off her hand and ran away, and the next day, rumors that Bjorn Yandel had been an evil spirit spread throughout the city.
"Where on earth did she disappear to...?"
That had been the last she'd seen of Missha.