I Found Lucy
Before the rise of the greatest empire in human history—past, present, and future alike—this world had been terribly unstable and chaotic.
The reason was simple. It was an age in which the life of countless people could be overturned by the power of a single individual.
Those chosen by god, or by the world itself, were called Chosen.
The Chosen were beings powerful enough to shake the very foundations of the world, and each of them bore a special title of their own—Hero, Demon King, Dragon King, Four Kings, Progenitor, Asura, Divine Spirit, Holy Spirit, Immortal, and the like.
The Chosen were formidable beyond measure.
With a single gesture, they could bring down mountains, and they were overwhelming monsters capable of erasing tens of thousands of lives as casually as brushing dust from a sleeve.
Every trace they left upon the world had become history, and even now, thousands of years later, those deeds were still taught at the Imperial Royal Academy. No one in the world could possibly be ignorant of how extraordinary they had been.
And yet, all Chosen were sentient beings.
That meant they could be selfish, or selfless; they were creatures astonishingly close to human beings.
Humans were creatures of contradiction.
To some, humans could appear cruel.
They were beings who could destroy what others cherished and endlessly feed their own greed without limit.
But to others, humans could appear kind.
They were beings who could set aside their selfishness and extend mercy to someone else.
A contradictory beast painted in black and white.
That was what a human was.
The Chosen were no different.
Only, unlike ordinary humans, they possessed the power to affect countless lives—and yet, for all that, they were moved by things as trivial as any human’s moods. So naturally, the world could not help but remain unstable.
Think about it. Was it really so impossible to imagine a country boy, in a good mood, happily watching ants march by one day—only to be scolded by his mother the next, growing so angry that he poured water into the anthill and drowned them all? It was hardly an impossible story.
For them, the world was nothing more than a small village, and mortals like us were no more than ants.
In the past, people lived with their lives hanging on the simple whims of the mighty.
If the empire’s great emperor had not been born, we would have lived the same kind of life ourselves.
Though the Emperor was a Chosen, he was different from all the others.
He understood the immense power he possessed, and he saw us not as ants, but as precious beings equal to himself.
"No situation in which countless lives are lost to the judgment and power of individuals must ever be allowed to happen."
The great Emperor, born in a human body, awakened as a Chosen at the age of twenty and raised his sword against the other Chosen on our behalf. Every beast and every person born on this land was moved to tears by his resolve, and they followed his will, offering even their lives to him.
The war between the Chosen, the Emperor, and humanity began.
The Emperor, all living things, and the eight Chosen clashed with weapons drawn. The heavens and the earth trembled; the sea and mountains crumbled.
Countless people died, and blood from the shattered earth flowed into the cracks, but in the end, before that river of blood, the Emperor and his people raised their swords high and rejoiced in victory.
All of the Chosen, save the Emperor, were either killed or sealed away.
Then the Emperor declared proudly before the people:
"From this day forth, there shall be no Chosen in this land except myself. That includes any Chosen who may be born in the future as well. I swear it before all of you: I shall become the eternal emperor who protects you."
In that moment, an endless empire was born.
With the great Emperor, our empire would flourish forever.
— From An Eulogy to the Emperor by Thirty-Two Scholars of the Empire
"Cough... H-hew, hew."
"Don’t move. I’m healing you. Please bear with the pain, all of you. Try not to make any sound either. The monster is still nearby."
"Ugh, wh-why...?"
Lucy sat in front of a massive tree, her clothes dirty and her hair a mess.
She was healing people—mages from the Seven Magic Towers.
The mages of the Seven Magic Towers all wore emblems identifying the tower they belonged to—red, orange, yellow, green, and so on—and Lucy let out a quiet sigh when she saw them.
There was only one reason their colors varied so much.
They had come after her.
“I know you’re here for me. I left the cottage on purpose because I sensed you all coming. So don’t bother denying it.”
Lucy had learned much about them from the voice.
Including the fact that they had received orders from above and had spent a long time tracking her after she fled the empire.
They were hunters from the Magic Towers, sent to pursue and capture seal targets.
In other words, they were Lucy’s enemies.
"Th-then why are you healing us...?"
Lucy covered the speaking mage’s mouth with her palm.
Then she said quietly, “Because lives are precious. Well, the monsters trying to hunt us are something of an exception, but...”
Life was precious.
Except for monsters, which were the very embodiment of negation, absolute evil was rare in this world.
That was Lucy’s belief.
To the blind girl who gathered so much information through the voice, they were nothing more than people following orders.
Even if they had come as assassins intent on taking her life, Lucy did not want to let them die.
Humans did not always wear a negative face toward everyone they met.
Even a person who had done vile things to you could be infinitely kind to someone else. That was what humans were.
They simply took on whatever attitude the situation required.
Of course, the threshold between selfishness and selflessness varied from person to person.
But the soft-hearted blind girl’s selflessness was on another level entirely.
She was so generous that she could show mercy to the very attackers who had come for her.
“Of course, that doesn’t mean I’ve forgiven you yet. But...”
Many people said that no one had a story free of circumstances.
Because of that, there were plenty of people who acted as though other people’s reasons were none of their concern. But Lucy believed that was exactly when conversation mattered even more.
She held no grudge against them.
And they, in turn, held no grudge against her.
“There are so many better ways to settle things than killing each other. For now, let’s get out of this crisis and talk properly.”
Then surely there had to be a way for them to face one another without red-faced hostility.
That was how Lucy lived her life.
Of course, all of this only mattered after we managed to escape the monster’s grasp somehow.
At present, Lucy and the mages were in a place far from the cottage.
The barrier she had cast spread invisibly around the area.
Inside that barrier, time flowed more slowly than it did outside, and their forms could not be seen. Lucy was using magic to heal the mages while waiting for the monster to tire itself out and leave.
How on earth did things end up like this?
Lucy let out a small sigh.
Two days earlier, she had realized that someone was watching her at the cottage.
In order not to drag Satania and Soho into the mess, she had slipped out of the cottage late at night and quietly changed locations, only for the mages to finally reveal themselves then.
“Lucy, seal target. Effective immediately, you are under restraint.”
The mages claimed to be hunters of the Seven Magic Towers and ordered her to come with them, threatening to kill her if she refused.
Lucy had tried to talk to them, but they drew their staffs and prepared to cast magic.
Just as she was wondering what to do, a deafening roar tore through the air and a monster burst into the scene.
This monster was nothing like a friend. It was a vicious, terrifying existence.
The creature that appeared without warning inflicted mortal wounds on the mages in an instant, and Lucy, after only a brief moment of shock, cast her barrier to protect them.
That was the whole story.
Still, I’m relieved no one died...
Three hours had passed since then.
Inside the barrier, one hour was equal to an entire day outside.
In the blink of an eye, three days had gone by. Lucy wore a troubled expression.
Satania and Soho, and the others, must be terribly worried...
"Huff..."
Were they all eating properly?
Even while the chain bound to her heart tightened with painful force, the girl thought of them.
The cottage in the past had been quiet and still.
It had improved after Soho started coming and going a year ago, but Soho was a spiritual beast who often spent time with the beastmen, so Lucy still had plenty of time alone.
It would have been a lie to say she had never felt lonely.
She had never really been alone from the start, not after meeting her friend.
Remembering the cottage, now noisy and full of life, Lucy smiled faintly.
She vowed to return quickly to the side of those precious to her.
"Hey... you look terrible."
"I’m okay... I’m used to pain."
Cold sweat ran down Lucy’s back.
She kept smiling, but her face had gone pale.
The chain tightening around her heart was both proof that she was a seal target, and a shackle, and a ticking bomb.
Whenever Lucy used magic she was not supposed to use and forced herself to sustain it, the chain only paid her back with horrifying pain. And even knowing that, she was still desperately enduring it for the sake of the mages.
It was superhuman willpower.
She shone so beautifully, like a star, that even the mages who had once tried to arrest this kind girl were being given a healthy dose of guilt.
The monster was still roaming nearby.
Lucy finished the emergency treatment and focused on maintaining the barrier.
It really isn’t like an ordinary monster. It knows for certain that we’re here. I wish it would give up and leave before I do...
One hour.
Two hours.
Three hours.
Under a sky where the moon and sun seemed to cross paths as the colors around them changed endlessly, Lucy endured.
She endured.
And endured again.
And then—
"A-aaagh..."
The moment excruciating pain, enough to rob her of her sanity, swept over her entire body, Lucy could no longer maintain the barrier.
It shattered like a pane of glass.
Her whole body burned hot, and even breathing felt difficult.
Lucy’s fingertips trembled.
Even superhuman willpower had its limit in the end.
No... no...
Lucy’s arms flailed wildly.
It was a desperate struggle. And yet fate was merciless.
The monster was drawing closer.
The voice that had been guiding her by direction no longer reached her.
Before long, as the sounds disappeared from the darkened world, Lucy felt as though she had been severed from everything in it. So lonely, so isolated that she wanted to burst into tears at any moment, she had no choice but to swallow that feeling and endure it.
Even as she lost consciousness, Lucy kept flailing her arms.
Like someone drowning.
Tap—
Her pleading hand touched something hard.
The instant it did, the pain began to subside.
Lucy stopped moving her arm.
Then she reached out her palm.
Tap—
She could feel the rough texture of scales.
It was a familiar warmth that had always brought her comfort.
The pain that had tormented her disappeared somewhere along the way, and her heart also grew still.
"Are you okay?"
Only then did a voice begin to reach her again.
It was a relief.
Lucy slowly nodded, smiling with a face that was still a complete mess.