I Found the Legacy (2)
I Found the Legacy (2)
Splash!
As I broke the surface of the water, I saw the monsters collapsed outside the reservoir and her slumped on the ground.
She looked utterly exhausted.
Perhaps she heard the splash. Still gasping for breath, she turned around, her eyes wide with surprise.
"My goodness! You're alive?"
Why on earth would I be dead!
The monsters lying on the ground were one, two, three. Three in total.
They were indeed the monsters we had faced earlier.
Seeing all three down, I could tell they were a number she could handle on her own.
Still, she seemed to have had a very hard time.
As expected, taking on three at once couldn't have been easy.
I took a deep breath, filling my lungs with air. Thanks to mana, I'd been able to hold out for a long time, but holding my breath was still incredibly difficult.
She struggled to her feet and approached me as I swam out of the water, gripping the strangely light shield with both hands.
A moment later, my feet touched the bottom, and I leaned on the shield as I stood.
I felt a little dizzy, but fortunately, nothing seemed wrong. I didn't seem to have decompression sickness or anything. As expected, mana was the best.
As soon as I stood up, she rushed over and began frantically feeling me all over.
"Are you okay? You were underwater for an incredibly long time! I'm so sorry. No matter how much I searched, I couldn't find you, so I ended up coming out of the water first. If I had known you'd be this safe, I would have searched longer. I'm so, so sorry!"
She poured out her apologies while checking me over.
Even as she apologized, she stared at me with a look that seemed almost on the verge of tears.
It was a side of her I'd never seen before.
The fact that I, whom she'd thought was dead, had returned alive seemed to have touched something deep inside her.
"I'm fine. More importantly, what's with these monsters?"
"Ah, they suddenly appeared as soon as I got out of the water. They look like 'Red Mice,' but since three of them lunged at once, they were hard to deal with because of their speed. And..."
After asking, I casually examined the shield I'd brought out.
Even now, it didn't look like a large shield. It was small enough for even a young kid like me to carry around. For an adult man, it would barely cover his chest.
Despite having been underwater for so long, the shield wasn't rusted at all. A soaring bird was engraved on its front.
'Huh, it's quite heavy now.'
Was it because I'd come out of the water? Or because I hadn't channeled mana into it?
I gently channeled some mana into the shield.
Woong.
The shield vibrated slightly, then became incredibly light. It had felt heavy simply because there had been no mana in it.
A shield that grew lighter when you channeled mana into it. Did something like that even make scientific sense? Well, mana itself didn't make any sense anyway.
With those thoughts in mind, I examined the shield.
'Now that I've put mana into it, the crest seems to have blurred a bit...'
"Where did your sword go, and why are you holding a shield?"
"Ah, the sword was too heavy, so I left it at the bottom of the reservoir."
"But you brought that shield instead?"
She looked at me, puzzled. It was only natural for her to find it strange that I'd left the sword behind because it was too heavy, yet brought something else back.
"Why that shield... Wait a minute!"
But her expression quickly changed.
She hurried over and pressed her face close to the shield.
As she examined the crest on its surface and checked the material, her mouth gradually fell open.
"You found this at the bottom of the reservoir? C-Can I try using it for a moment?"
Seeing how restless she was, I briefly considered playing a prank on her, but decided to just hand the shield over.
"Here."
It was a shield found in the reservoir, where the items from the treasure warehouse had spilled, and its crest was identical to the one engraved on her sword.
I could tell from the moment I'd channeled mana into the shield underwater.
This was the very item she'd been searching for.
When I handed it over without hesitation, she accepted it with the utmost care.
She slipped the shield onto her other arm.
When I held it, the shield had covered quite a bit of my body, but on her arm, it looked rather small.
It looked to be about the size of the shield Captain-whatever had carried in my past life.
She held the shield in one arm and her sword in the other hand.
'Was she a shield-wielding swordfighter?'
The sight of her holding both the shield and the sword suited her far better than when she held only the sword.
She took her stance and focused her mind.
Hum.
I could feel mana bursting forth from her body.
The sword began to hum, and the crest on the blade cast a bright light.
At the same time, the crest on the shield glowed softly, too.
Against the backdrop of the lantern's light on the ground, it looked as if two birds with widespread wings were soaring into the night sky.
Hum. Woong.
The resonance of the sword and shield grew louder, and the tip of the sword began to shimmer.
The same phenomenon appeared around the shield, too.
A shimmering effect, as if an invisible wall had formed around it.
As expected, the shield was a pair with the sword.
It had found its rightful owner.
When I'd channeled mana into it, only the front of the crest had shimmered slightly. But when proper mana flowed into it, it revealed its true form.
She stared at the shimmering shield, deeply moved.
She looked like someone who had found the very object she'd dreamed of her entire life.
If I left her alone, she looked like she'd stare at the shield all day.
I felt bad, but given the situation—and even if only out of sheer envy—I couldn't just leave her be.
"Excuse me? Hello?"
"...Huh?"
Only after I called out to her several times did she finally snap out of it.
I pointed at the shimmering shield.
"Is this the item you were looking for?"
"Mhm. Yes, it is."
At my question, she suddenly looked startled and hid the arm wearing the shield behind her back.
Not that she could actually hide it like that...
It seemed her scattered wits hadn't fully returned yet.
"That's great. If that shield is what you were looking for, then according to our contract, the shield is yours, Mercenary."
When I said that, her expression brightened, only to turn apologetic and awkward again.
"You're the one who went into the water and found the shield, and you're the one who brought it back. For me to just take it..."
Whether she was naive, a pushover, or simply an incredibly righteous person, she was always consistent.
"It seems we fell down here because the monsters dug tunnels in all directions."
I pointed at the corpses of the dead monsters and the holes they'd dug into the walls.
At my words, she nodded.
"Then this shield..."
"Because of the tunnels dug by the monsters, the treasure warehouse must have collapsed as well, spilling its contents into this reservoir."
I looked toward the reservoir.
"While I was placing the sword at the bottom, I luckily discovered the shield. The problem is the sword I left down there; I'm not sure how to retrieve it..."
At my words, she took off the shield and handed it to me, along with the sword she'd sheathed.
"So the sword is at the bottom of the reservoir, and other items from the treasure warehouse should be there too?"
"Pardon? Ah, I stabbed the sword into the bottom, but I didn't see any other items besides some junk."
"Well, even if there aren't any other items, we still have to get the sword back..."
She quickly stripped off her armor, then took off her outer clothes and shoes as well.
After that, clad only in her underwear, she put on her belt and hung the lantern from it.
Then she walked into the reservoir and said,
"Just wait a moment. I'll bring it back."
Splash!
"Ah... Wait..."
Before I could even say anything, she dived into the water.
It was an absurdly quick display of initiative.
In this ridiculous situation, I gathered up her clothes, which were scattered all over the place.
Then, holding her shield and sword, I stood in front of the pile of clothes and kept watch on our surroundings.
The probability of monsters appearing before she returned wasn't high, but it was better to be prepared.
Though it was a highly rational thought, I couldn't help but sigh as I held the sword and shield.
No matter how I justified it, I was just a young boy standing guard over the clothes of a woman who had gone into the water.
While I waited, I tried channeling mana into the shield and the sword.
Unfortunately, channeling mana didn't produce the same phenomenon as before.
Although the weapon and shield accepted the mana well, there was no shimmer at the tip of the blade or around the shield. Only the crests shimmered slightly.
Time passed like that.
"One, two, three... two hundred, two hundred and one."
I waited for her, counting once every second. Just as I began to worry that she was taking too long, a sound reached my ears.
It came not from the direction of the reservoir, but from the cave on the opposite side.
Grrrrr.
"Of course, nothing ever comes easy."
Along with the growls, monsters appeared.
One, two, three. Four.
Four in total.
It was an impossible number for me to handle, and even for her, who had barely beaten three monsters, it wouldn't be an easy fight.
"Should I consider myself lucky that there are no red ones?"
I tried to think positively, but it was nothing more than empty consolation.
The monsters cautiously approached, eyeing the corpses lying on the ground.
As I watched them approach, my neck, which had been torn open just moments ago, seemed to ache all over again.
Just how many times had I died here already?
Perhaps dying so many times in such a short span was taking a toll on me mentally.
I didn't know where my limit was, but I felt like I might actually lose my mind if this kept up.
"Hey, hey, I'd really appreciate it if you came out just a bit faster."
The moment I muttered that, the monsters' movements quickened.
They were moving so fast that I would lose track of them if I didn't focus completely.
I hurriedly raised the shield, and—
At that exact moment, the sound of water splashing upward echoed from behind me.
Whoosh!
At the same time, a greatsword shot forward from behind, cutting through the air.
The sword flew right past my face and embedded itself in the body of the monster rushing at me from the front.
Squeeeal!
The monster lunging at me from the front rolled onto the ground after being struck by the sword, but the others didn't stop. They rushed toward me.
Just as the monsters were about to pounce on me, her voice rang in my ears.
"Sorry, I was late because I was looking for the items."
As she spoke, her hand grabbed mine, the one holding the shield.
Mana flowed in from the hand gripping mine.
Mana slightly different from my own passed through my hand and flowed into the shield.
Hum!
The shimmer that erupted around the shield enveloped my body.
At the same time, the monsters descended upon her and me.
Crash!
An explosive sound rang out, and—
Skreeee!
The monsters that collided with the shimmering barrier screamed and were flung in all directions.
"Thanks for guarding them. I'll take the sword and shield."
She took the sword and shield from my hands.
Then, clad only in her underwear, she dashed toward the monsters that had been flung away.
As I watched her running figure from behind, I heard a monster growl at my feet.
Grrrr.
The monster that had fallen with my sword embedded in it was trying to stand.
I gripped the hilt of the sword embedded in the monster and dragged it down with all my might.
Slash!
Blood sprayed as the monster's upper body split open.
I pulled the greatsword out from amidst the gushing blood.
The sword was perfectly fine.
Then, leaning on my sword, I watched the Firebird Hunter fight in her underwear.
The lace on her underwear fluttered as her sword and shield swept through the air in all directions.
Space shimmered, and the monsters' bodies were sliced apart and shattered.
The woman who had been gasping for breath against just three monsters was now utterly obliterating an even greater number of them.