Sanctuary
He was dreaming.
Not the Spirit World he had grown used to now, but a maze with no exit.
Back in those days, the alleys of Hilton Village had been Lawrence and his friends’ playground.
There was slowpoke Titu, always trailing behind.
Skinny John, nimble and fast, always leading the charge.
Clueless Baril, who hated seeing anyone get hurt.
And hulking Haman, full of enthusiasm but too clumsy to keep up.
At the head of them all stood the leader, smiling.
The alleyways went on forever.
No matter how far they ran through those filthy backstreets, the end never came into view.
Every time they slipped around a cramped corner, it felt as if a new world might be waiting there, and his heart always fluttered with excitement.
We were the little troublemakers of Hilton Village.
Always hungry, always dragging some incident or other in our wake.
“Why do we have to do this?”
“Because we need to survive. Otherwise we’ll all be caught sooner or later.”
The target was a traveling peddler visiting the village.
What they took was the bare minimum needed to survive—food. They never stole money directly.
Stealing money was trouble enough, but once you reached for a man’s coin purse, the villagers’ eyes changed too.
Looking back on it now, the leader must have understood exactly where the line was that they couldn’t cross.
Things didn’t always go smoothly.
Especially for slowpoke Titu and hulking Haman, who weren’t made for running down a target themselves.
But that was all right.
Because they had the leader.
“Everyone has things they’re good at, and things they aren’t.”
“But we’re no help at all.”
“Why wouldn’t you be? Titu, you’ve got good eyes, so watch for anyone coming while we’re causing trouble. Haman, you’re big, so if the peddler comes after us, you push the cart.”
The division of labor was settled in no time at all.
At first they made plenty of mistakes, but after syncing up again and again, the children learned quickly.
“So where are we going?”
“Come with me. I found a decent place.”
The building the leader had found was the home Baril had always wanted.
“A house!”
A place that could keep out wind and rain.
A small space where adults weren’t allowed in—that was our haven.
“What’s that, leader?”
“It’s a drawing of our home. We ought to have at least one thing like this.”
“You mean like the one nobles use? That’s cool.”
We laughed at the picture drawn on the ragged strip of cloth.
“There’s a rumor going around town that a rich peddler’s coming.”
“Think he’ll have lots of meat?”
“You’re thinking about meat again, Lawrence?”
“What? Meat’s good. If I eat enough, I can skip a meal or two and still be fine.”
“You really are... No, never mind. That was my fault.”
Lawrence tilted his head.
Maybe John simply couldn’t understand because he got full so quickly after eating only a little.
“No. The risk is too high. If he’s really affiliated with a guild, he might report us and come after us to the ends of the earth.”
“Really? If that’s what you say, leader, then I guess we can’t help it.”
“All right. Then let’s target a different peddler.”
Nobody argued with the leader’s word.
It was always the leader who chose the target and laid out the plan.
If even he found something troubling, that meant it was truly dangerous.
“Lawrence.”
“Huh? What is it, leader?”
The leader called him aside.
“Could you look into something for me? The peddlers that are supposedly coming this time.”
“No problem. What do you want me to find out?”
“Just whatever you can. You know Edrick’s inn, right? Peddlers come there all the time, so you should be able to hear what’s really going on.”
“Edrick’s inn, huh? Got it. I’ll check it out as best I can.”
It wasn’t a difficult request.
More than that, it was a place Lawrence had once owed a great deal to.
“Be careful. If it looks dangerous, run. No matter what, got it?”
“Why are you so worried? I’m not as slow as Haman.”
“I heard that, Lawrence! You’re the one who eats like a monster!”
“Yeah. I do eat a lot. Still, I’m faster than you, right?”
“You...!”
Haman sprang to his feet.
Seeing him charge, Lawrence bolted.
“If you catch me, I’m dead!”
“Like I could catch you!”
Watching the two of them race out of the house, the others burst into laughter.
Small, ordinary days.
Faded memories that would never return.
Lawrence kept all of their laughter tucked safely away inside his heart.
No matter how hard things became, he mustn’t forget.
As long as he remembered, then his friends had not truly been forgotten either.
But why had he suddenly dreamed of them?
...He didn’t know.
His tears wouldn’t stop.
He had simply been dazzled by the smiles of friends he’d not seen in so long.
When he came to, the boy was hiccuping through his sobs.
His hazy head felt heavy.
The pounding headache still hadn’t gone away.
His body felt limp, as if he’d come down with a fever sometime during the night, and every muscle was screaming in protest.
He didn’t want to move.
He wanted to fall back asleep.
He wanted to see his long-missed friends a little longer.
Loneliness pressed down on him.
Lawrence had nowhere to lean, no one to rest on—he was alone.
If he closed his eyes now, maybe he could continue the dream.
He didn’t want to be by himself.
He wanted to stay with everyone just a little longer.
But his returning consciousness rejected sleep.
Something was wrong.
Even though he’d barely managed to open his eyes, he couldn’t see anything.
He was in the dark.
Cast alone into darkness so deep he couldn’t make out even the hand in front of his face.
This wasn’t a dream.
This was reality.
The drowsy fog in his mind vanished in an instant.
Where am I?
Had he returned to the lodging last night?
He searched his memory.
He distinctly remembered leaving Spider Forest.
The pain in his body had been at its worst.
A black scab had formed on the ear that Quarrel had grazed.
He had used too much magic; the headache and the pain in his chest had nearly reached their limit.
It seemed he must have collapsed before making it out of the forest.
He simply hadn’t realized it.
Thanks to the relentless pursuit, the boy’s mind and body had been driven right to the edge of a cliff.
By then, his eyes had adjusted to the dark.
The world widened around him.
Familiar giant trees gradually came into view one after another.
He had suspected as much, dimly.
He still hadn’t escaped the forest.
Still, he’d kept walking until he lost consciousness, so the exit should appear soon enough.
Lawrence got to his feet and started walking again.
It wasn’t as if he felt no pain, but at this level, he could endure it and keep going.
In fact, the fever was almost a blessing.
His head had gone so far off the rails that the pain felt strangely distant.
And yet no matter how far he walked, no path appeared.
Instead, the forest itself began to change with sickening clarity.
The giant trees grew ever more ghostly and oppressive.
Across the ground where their roots touched, white spiderwebs steadily spread.
Even when he changed direction the moment he spotted them, the scenery ahead never seemed to change.
He must have gotten lost.
That was a problem. From the surroundings, it was obvious this was Forest Spider territory.
Not the outskirts, either—the deep interior.
Spider silk draped thicker and thicker between the trees.
Hissss.
The strange sound coming from above was not his imagination.
But however anxious he felt, he couldn’t bring himself to look up.
It was better not to see.
His instinct, almost certain, kept warning him of that.
How long had he walked on, forgetting hunger and thirst alike?
All at once, a massive wall blocked his way.
When he looked up, he found a building standing there—something utterly out of place in the forest.
“......”
The neglected structure was in complete ruin.
Roots and tree trunks were so entangled around it that it almost looked less like a building than part of the forest itself.
His first thought was simple confusion.
Why was something like this in Spider Forest?
And deep in the woods, where no human foot should ever tread?
He had a bad feeling about it.
There was always a reason a building had been abandoned.
More importantly, if this was Forest Spider territory...
It wasn’t hard to guess what might be inside.
He should turn back.
Now that he knew he was in the forest’s depths, if he returned the way he’d come he should be able to find a way out.
Just as Lawrence made up his mind and was about to turn away, something caught his eye in the corner of his vision.
At first he thought he’d seen wrong.
It was something that had no business being in Spider Forest, a place no human should have reached.
But when he crouched and picked it up, laughter escaped him.
No—that wasn’t all.
Because a single tear, still not dry, slipped down his face.
And because of that, his laughter wouldn’t stop.
He was just so happy to see it.
It felt as if all of this hardship had been for the sake of this one meeting.
So you’re here at last?
It was almost as if he could hear a gruff voice speaking.
An herbal cigarette, covered in spider silk and slime.
From the cigarillo that looked as if it would crumble in his hand, he could feel an impossible warmth.
Above the structure where the cigarette had fallen, the crossed holy symbol of the Holy Cross Order was visible.
The symbol of the Holy Cross Order.
This structure wasn’t abandoned after all.
The sanctuary at the end of the pilgrimage route, the one Lenard had spoken of.
The Holy Cross Order’s sanctuary stood before Lawrence’s eyes.
“No matter how you look at it, you shouldn’t just toss an herbal cigarette into a sanctuary, Lenard.”
The words slipped out before he could stop them.
He had no idea whether this had truly been left behind by that cynical pilgrim.
Still, there was a saying in the Order’s teachings.
If coincidences keep piling up, then they’re a miracle arranged by the Goddess.
At last, the long, long stream of tears came to an end.
He wasn’t lonely anymore.
Lawrence wasn’t alone.
His friends were no longer here, but on the path the boy had walked, new ties were already beginning to bloom.
After pouring out the bruise that had settled in his heart,
his fever-racked mind felt clear at last.
There was no hesitation.
Lawrence picked up the withered herbal cigarette and stepped into the sanctuary.
* * *
The sanctuary lay sunk in darkness.
Now and then, faint light spilled through gaps in the collapsed ceiling.
The corridor revealed in those patches of light was packed with dust and cobwebs.
Every step kicked up a cloud of powdery debris.
He had no idea how long it had been abandoned.
Ten years? Twenty?
Perhaps even more time had passed.
The state of the interior was so dire that such thoughts came naturally.
The overall layout was similar to Saint Charmant Monastery.
Rooms lined both sides of the long corridor, and through the worn doors one could glimpse spaces that had more or less collapsed in on themselves.
Inside, the things crawling about were those many-legged insects he’d seen before.
The sanctuary, once deserted by people, had become an insect nest.
In a way, that was a relief.
If insects had taken the sanctuary, that meant the Forest Spiders hadn’t made it this far.
At the very least, the sanctuary was safe.
...Then again, with the size of those monsters, it made sense.
It would be stranger if a structure built to human scale fit a monster perfectly.
There was no need to inspect the rooms by force.
He didn’t know whether the spaces inside were large or small, but even if something remained there, it would be far from intact.
He hadn’t come here to examine that sort of thing.
For now, he would simply follow the trail of the miracle the Goddess had granted him.
As if leading him onward, more abandoned herbal cigarettes lined the corridor.
Following that guide in his heart, he kept going until he finally reached the end.
A vast white door.
He had to crane his neck high just to see the top of it.
The door, tangled with roots and spider silk, was half-ruined just like the rooms he’d passed.
The herbal cigarettes stopped there, in front of the door.
Through the crack in the door, a pale radiance leaked out.
It seemed almost like an oracle from the Goddess inviting a visitor inside.
He knew full well how absurd that sounded.
Miracles are miracles precisely because they do not happen.
It was surely only sunlight escaping through the gap in the door.
And yet... wouldn’t it be all right to believe in a miracle just once?
Lawrence, too, was a believer in Goddess Belche.
After a moment’s hesitation, the boy moved toward the broken gap.
At any rate, having come this far, turning back was no longer an option.
Lawrence pushed himself through the crack in the door.
“......”
He stared in awe, momentarily forgetting where he was.
Beyond the door lay a space like a chapel.
Broken pews and a platform.
Half the ceiling had been torn away, and a wildly overgrown giant tree had invaded deep into the chapel.
The second floor, crushed under the tree’s weight, had sunk into the first, and everything beneath it had collapsed from one end to the other.
If Saint Charmant Monastery were abandoned for decades, or centuries, perhaps this was what it would look like.
But the wonder didn’t last long.
Something whose nature he couldn’t identify was hanging from the half-remaining ceiling.
What replaced the chandelier was a Forest Spider so enormous he couldn’t even estimate its size.
He hurriedly hid behind a pew.
Had it noticed him?
Carefully, he peeked out.
The giant Forest Spider, leaning against the tree trunk that had entered the chapel, didn’t move at all.
No—he wasn’t even sure it was alive.
Below it stretched layer upon layer of webbing, and the webs were packed with unfortunate prey that looked as if it had been caught there.
Were the Forest Spiders bringing their prey here?
That thought quickly turned to certainty.
A Forest Spider had climbed in along the giant tree and flung fresh prey onto the webs before leaving.
But the huge spider didn’t move.
Even when prey trapped in the web struggled, it showed no interest.
At last, once the exhausted prey went still, Lawrence carefully slipped out from behind the pew.
This was his chance.
The pale glow that had seeped through the crack in the door was coming from the front of the chapel.
More precisely, it was coming from behind the goddess statue whose head had been destroyed.
He wasn’t sure whether it was light from the shattered stained glass.
He only felt as if something unknown were calling to him from there.
He crept across the chapel on all fours.
He had to be as silent as possible.
The Forest Spider above must not notice the boy crawling along the floor.
Rustle.
He heard something from overhead.
Lawrence flattened himself against the floor like a dead frog.
If it had woken, he needed to look like another bit of prey fallen from the web.
His judgment had not been wrong.
Through slit eyes, he could see the giant Forest Spider moving.
It tugged on the web and drew its prey forward.
“Aaaagh!”
A pitiful scream rang out.
Whether it had still been alive or not, the fresh prey was reduced to the spider’s meal.
The thing was finished off and dropped into the chapel.
Even from that height, the sound was not especially loud.
What was revealed among the webs had become a shriveled corpse, as if all the blood had been sucked out of it.
“......”
At that horrifying sight, he barely managed to swallow down a sound.
It took him some time before he found the strength to crawl again.
Don’t rush.
He mustn’t rush.
He repeated it to himself over and over.
Again and again the image of the prey he’d just seen surfaced in his mind.
As long as he wasn’t noticed, everything would be fine.
The spider wouldn’t realize.
He muttered the words to himself countless times.
If he heard a sound, he would play dead.
If anything seemed to move overhead, he stopped his feet.
One second felt like one minute.
One minute felt like an hour.
And then the boy arrived at a place that felt impossibly far away.
A hand covered in dust touched the old platform.
He hurried around to the back of the ruined goddess statue.
Lawrence had been right.
The faint radiance wasn’t coming from the shattered stained glass.
It came from inside the goddess statue.
From within the headless statue, an unknown glow was spilling out.
He raised his hand a little.
For some reason, he could feel warmth.
What in the world was this?
Some kind of magic?
It was a phenomenon Lawrence had never seen in his life.
No—that wasn’t right. Since this was a sanctuary, shouldn’t he call it a miracle?
Drawn by the light, he slowly looked inside the statue.
It wasn’t blinding.
It did sparkle, but it didn’t seem dangerous.
Since he could feel warmth, wasn’t it fire?
Wouldn’t it be dangerous to touch it, then?
His confused thoughts kept spinning.
And then, in the end, curiosity overcame them all.
Just as Lawrence steadied himself and reached out—
something from within the statue seized him.
“Huh...?”
He didn’t even have time to react.
Lawrence was snatched by an irresistible force and dragged into the goddess statue.