Chapter 39
The Flower That Bears a Sword - Chapter 39
Translation: godsn
She gazed into his eyes. Purple and yellow irises held each other for a long moment without moving. Then the strength drained from Eki's hands pressing down on the sword.
Eki withdrew her hands from the blade and sat back. Baraha sat up, rubbing his neck where beads of cold sweat clung to his palm.
"I'll trust you, Senior."
She spoke, then added in a thin voice,
"Sorry about your neck."
"What, this is just a mosquito bite. Smaller than the wound on my back even."
"Ah... Now that you mention it, is that injury alright?"
"I did first aid. It's fine."
Baraha stood up as if it were nothing. Rubbing the back of his neck, he said,
"Let me say it again—you can rest assured I won't tell anyone your secret. I'll keep silent even before my lord."
"...Thank you, Senior."
Eki rose from where she'd been sitting. She picked up Baraha's fallen sword and scabbard from the floor and handed them to him. He took the sword and sheathed it at his waist.
"Truth is, I have more questions, but we can talk later. What now? With no more monsters, do we just wait until the node opens?"
"There's something I want to test."
"Huh?"
"Let's return to the starting point first."
Eki turned and walked ahead. Baraha followed behind her steps. Watching the back of this girl who stood a head shorter than him, he wore a wry smile. To think he'd ended up being protected by the junior he meant to protect—even getting threatened with death in the process.
Yet he didn't feel bad about it. No, rather, as he watched her walking ahead, his chest trembled. A pleasant tremor.
Though not perfectly put together as usual, with her disheveled and messy appearance, he found it hard to look away. Her round nape was cute, her slender neck mesmerizing, and the legs revealed beneath the shortened dress... He didn't know—every inch of her seemed beautiful.
Honestly, when she'd pinned him down with the sword earlier, he'd been more nervous about something other than her murderous intent. Covering his mouth with his hand, Baraha thought:
'Looks like I'm... thoroughly smitten.'
The exact moments he'd fallen for her were clear. In fact, there hadn't been just one moment. His stomach fluttered as the corners of his mouth lifted beneath his palm.
When a desert man finds a woman he desires, he charges forth. Moreover, since they first devise perfect plans for conquest before charging, their love often succeeded. Baraha immediately began pondering how to win her over.
'Now that we share a secret, we'll grow closer. Since she likely entered the node to save me, she must have some basic goodwill. In many ways, this is a good start.'
Completely unaware of Baraha's thoughts behind her, Eki focused on what the magic sword was saying:
[I think I have some idea why the node suddenly appeared. Actually, I saw nodes often with my previous owner too. Didn't he also turn back time with Kairos Giosa like you? Might be related.]
"You mean Rakia-giosa follows distortions caused by Kairos Giosa?"
[Could be. Anyway, you're the main agent of change. Since you're the one who reversed time. The more things change, the more nodes appear, right?]
"What was it like with your previous owner?"
[He kept trying to change this and that about the future, then at some point started saying we shouldn't recklessly alter what's fixed and lived quietly. Thinking back now, it was probably because of the nodes. The more he changed things, the more nodes kept appearing nearby.]
"...Damn it."
[Hey, I don't know for sure either. I'm just saying that's how it seems.]
"I heard you loud and clear."
She gritted her teeth as she replied. Eki and Baraha, each lost in their own thoughts, finally reached the starting point. With neither monsters nor shadow soldiers remaining, their path had been as light as a leisurely stroll.
"Eki, what are you planning to do here?"
"I'm going to try stabbing the starting point again."
"You killed all the monsters, so it shouldn't be dangerous... but will that actually work?"
"The monsters inside the node are ultimately just a type of spatial anomaly created by the node's interior. They're not real monsters. When I stabbed the starting point earlier, all the monsters converged in one place, so I think this really must be the node's weak point. Plus, since this space was created by Rakia-giosa, if I stab it with Valdergiosa, something might—ah!"
Eki, who had been rattling off her explanation, suddenly made a startled expression. She frantically patted down her face and clothes before urgently looking around for something. Baraha asked in confusion:
"What's wrong?"
"J-just give me a second."
After confirming that her own tent had burned down, Eki's face took on the expression of someone whose world had just collapsed. She desperately cried out to Baraha:
"Senior! Do you have a mirror in your tent?"
"...What?"
"A mirror, a mirror! I can't go out looking like this!"
Yurien might be outside—she absolutely couldn't appear before him in this battle-tattered state. This feeling was too similar to when she wielded the magic sword.
Baraha's dumbfounded expression soon twisted as if he was holding back laughter. Covering his mouth with his hand, he pointed toward his tent. His fingertips were trembling.
"A mirror, y-yes, cough, there should be one. Open the box, pfft, right next to the cot. Ahem."
Suppressed laughter leaked between his words. Eki shot him a sharp glare before dashing toward his tent. Opening the box beside the cot as instructed, she found a mirror placed right on top. Taking a deep breath, she peered into it.
[......Hey, doesn't this bring back memories?]
Splattered blood and fluids, stains. Messy hair. Even her clothes were ruined. Though her hair and eye colors were different now, her current state was enough to vividly recall the days when she'd been swayed by the magic sword. A distant feeling washed over her.
Baraha, who had followed her, lifted the tent flap and asked:
"Do you need water? If you want to wash up, I know a tent that has water canteens. Not sure if they're intact though."
Eki's face brightened as she nodded vigorously.
"Yes, yes! I desperately need to! Thank you! Um, Senior, could I also... borrow some clothes?"
"My clothes would be way too big on you."
Baraha replied awkwardly while looking her up and down. Then his face suddenly turned bright red—he'd just imagined her drowning in his oversized clothes. He quickly turned his head to hide his flushed face.
"Senior?"
"...Let's borrow clothes from Dame Teresa's tent. It's right nearby. Given the circumstances, she'll understand."
"Oh, that would work. Thank you, Senior."
"I should wash up and change too."
"Yes, oh right—about what happened inside the node, we should probably get our stories straight."
Baraha, who had been examining his own clothes ruined by red fluid, looked up at her words. After a moment's thought, she continued:
"It'll be hard to hide everything... Let's tell most of it truthfully, but say the monsters that appeared were only at ghoul level."
"Ghoul level?"
Without realizing it, Baraha's gaze drifted toward the direction where mountains of monster corpses lay scattered. Eki gave an awkward smile.
"That way it'll be believable. Let's say the two of us handled the monsters and held out until the node disappeared."
"...Alright, let's do it your way. Hiding that you're a Giosa Owner would be better this way. By the way, didn't you say Ian came in with us? Given how quiet he's been, I guess the bastard got killed by monsters? If that piece of shit crawled out alive, I wouldn't have let him off easy."
Baraha bared his teeth like a beast as he laughed. Echinacea naturally averted her gaze and replied.
"Well, it was all so chaotic that I..."
"Whatever, we'll find out once we get out of the Node. Let's go. I'll guide you to the location."
"Alright."
Baraha quickly lost interest and strode ahead. They headed toward the barracks where the water tanks were stored. Fortunately, the tanks remained intact and undamaged. Each took one and went their separate ways. Echinacea entered Teresa's barracks as Baraha had instructed.
"Forgive me, Dame Teresa. I'll borrow some things."
She murmured softly as she rummaged through the barracks. Teresa, like Alice, preferred simple attire and was taller than Echinacea, but since she was still a woman, there were plenty of items worth borrowing.
The first thing she found was clothing. Feeling guilty about digging too deep, she took the white blouse, leather pants, leather jacket, and leather gloves that were on top. There were also leather shoes, but they were too big to fit. She'd have to roughly clean her ruined ankle boots and wear those instead.
The pants were too long, but she could tighten them with a belt and roll up the cuffs. At least she didn't have to borrow underwear—that was a relief. Most of all, she was delighted to find cosmetics. There was only lipstick, charcoal eyeliner, and some cover cream to even out her skin tone, but that was more than enough. Honestly, she hadn't expected to find any of these, so she was tearfully grateful.
Echinacea showered behind the barracks using water from the tank, changed clothes, and combed her hair. After applying makeup, she didn't look as glamorous as usual, but she was neat and presentable.
She checked Teresa's mirror repeatedly, scrutinizing whether any trace of the Demon of the Magic Sword remained or if she looked unmistakably like 'Echinacea Roaz,' the young countess who merely wore pants. Anxiety welled up inside her, but there was nothing more she could do.
"Eki, you done?"
"Ah, yes! Sorry to keep you waiting."
Baraha's voice called from a distance. Echinacea stepped out of the barracks, drying her damp hair with a towel. The wet strands clung to her freshly cleaned, pale skin. Baraha flinched slightly and averted his gaze.
"Your hair's still wet. You could've taken your time."
"No, staying here too long isn't a good idea. The Starting Point might not hold as we assumed. Let's just go."
They headed back toward the clearing where the Starting Point was. When Baraha moved to raise the flagpole like before, Echinacea stopped him.
"You don't have to hold it up for me."
She removed the leather glove from her right hand, tucked it into her pocket, and drew Valdergiosa. Baraha flinched and took a half-step back at the sight of the Magic Sword.
[Look at his face. Do I look like some kind of plague carrier? Tch, tch.]
That's actually a pretty mild reaction, all things considered.
Gripping the sword, Echinacea stomped on the ground. The pooled red liquid splashed upward from the impact, but in an instant, she had already leaped higher than the rising droplets. A fissure in the air came into view from her elevated position. Midair, she slashed through it with a long stroke of the Magic Sword. The moment she cut, the entire space seemed to freeze.
She deliberately landed atop a barracks as she descended, not wanting to dirty Teresa's clothes. After retrieving the sword and slipping her glove back on, she looked up at the sky. A long crack radiated from the Starting Point, with smaller fissures branching out around it.