Cartia (6)
“So you’re saying... you’re Lady Cartia Frey?”
“That’s what I said. How many times do I have to tell you?”
“That’s impossible...”
“From the start, someone like me losing her memories of the war and turning into a virgin ghost was already impossible, so what’s the big deal?”
“That’s... a fair point.”
Rubia, who had been clinging to me like a beloved doll, let out a soft hum of thought.
“But the Cartia Frey I read about in the books was a man... and the Cartia standing here now, no matter how you look at her...”
“Back then, if a woman said she wielded a sword, the world just ignored her. So I had no choice but to cross-dress. My tits were tiny as hell anyway, so it wasn’t even inconvenient.”
Cartia smirked and gave her own chest a rough squeeze. Each time she did, soft, billowing smoke puffed out with a psh-psh.
“Mmm... I see.”
Rubia chewed on her words for a moment, carefully choosing them, then asked Cartia with the utmost caution.
“But... why did you make that t-terrible sound...? It really was like some kind of evil spirit...”
“Ah, that?”
Cartia snickered and drifted right up to Rubia with a sudden whoosh.
“You said you weren’t scared of ghosts at all, so I thought I’d mess with you a little. Pfft... but you went full crying-and-screaming meltdown, didn’t you? The little brat over there was the real surprise, though. Swinging her sword at me and everything... tch. My ass still hurts.”
“Eep— I-I’m so... so sorry.”
“Hmm... somehow, your personality is very different from what the world believes.”
“Ah, shit. You too with that line? I don’t know how my story got written down, but I’m not some holy, refined person like you all think. I was a complete bastard and a hard-headed idiot. I was a mercenary, after all.”
“Pardon? A mercenary? Not a knight?”
“Yeah. I looked into all sorts of ways to feed my little siblings, and word was mercenary work paid pretty damn well. So I became one. After that, if they paid me, I hunted magic beasts. If they paid more, I killed demonkin. If they promised to found me a whole kingdom, I even took down a dragon... eh, it’s all in the past, so what’s the point of talking about it. Anyway, this is who I am. I’d love to get a look at the ugly mug of whatever bastard wrote that book.”
“Uh... well... I see.”
“Right. I wasn’t some righteous, sacred human—I was a human just like you. So don’t go getting any weird fantasies. If I’d just had enough money, I’d have seduced some handsome guy and spent every day fucking him. That aside...”
Cartia’s face turned toward me.
“What the hell even are you?”
“Y-yes...?”
“You’re blind, aren’t you?”
“Eep... th-that’s right.”
Cartia tilted her head at me for a long while, then frowned and spoke again.
“Qi Sensing?”
“Th-that’s correct.”
“Fucking hell... you don’t even look fifteen, and you’re already sensing qi? Is everyone like that these days? I could barely feel it myself when I was eighteen.”
Cartia floated up and drifted over beside me, casually comparing our heights.
“Fifteen...?! I-I’m twenty, you know? I-I’m an adult...!”
“Twenty? Ha, you look a good forty centimeters shorter than me. Didn’t get enough to eat as a kid?”
“...N-no.”
“Then a dwarf?”
“Pfft—!”
“R-Rubia, you too...! Hngh... I’m not a dwarf either!”
“Yeah, guess you’re not a dwarf.”
Cartia nodded quietly and drifted back to her spot.
“Dwarves, even the women, are covered in thick hair. You’ve got nothing below the eyebrows.”
“Wh... wh-wh... what... what did you just say...?”
My face twisted at the same moment Rubia’s expression hardened sharply.
“Lady Cartia, how did you know that?”
“...W-what are you talking about, Rubia...? That’s not the important part right now...?”
“Whoa, shit. I just threw that out there on a hunch. So you really don’t have any. Nice—no need to shave.”
“Sh-shaving, what are you—! Th-that’s enough... stop it. R-Rubia, you went too far too... why would you say something like that there... uugh...”
“Ahem... sorry. I just wondered if she could see us completely naked...”
Cartia giggled and flopped onto the empty air as if it were a bed.
“But the more I think about it, the weirder it gets. Noah, was it?”
“Y-yes...”
“Constantly using Qi Sensing at a level that would melt a normal person’s brain, strength that doesn’t match your size, that greatsword... and the ability to actually hurt me directly... huh? Hmm?”
Cartia cut herself off mid-sentence, looking back and forth between me and Rubia while stroking her chin.
“Ahh... so that’s how it is.”
What is?
What’s “how it is”?
Why are you understanding it all by yourself?!
“This is... pretty... hmm. So that’s why that bastard back then... sss... this is a problem.”
No... what’s with that tone.
Why are you being so frustrating!
And why is Rubia nodding like she already knew?!
What... what is this.
Are you two leaving me out?
“R-Rubia... do you understand what she’s talking about...? C-can’t you tell me too...?”
“Ah, it’s nothing much. She’ll just say something like ‘You’re not ready to know yet’ or ‘You’ll learn in due time’ and refuse to explain anything anyway.”
“Y-yes...?”
“Ahahaha! Spot on. Exactly right. You’ll learn in due time. It’s too early now. Hmm, but the priestess here at least tried hard to figure it out, huh?”
“To a sickening degree. I don’t even get angry about it anymore.”
Rubia let out a hollow breath and bowed at the waist.
“Then allow me to introduce myself properly. I am Rubia, known as the priestess of the current generation. It is an honor to meet the previous Savior.”
“Mm, yeah yeah. That was a pretty dignified greeting for someone who was just crying and screaming a second ago.”
“Eep... th-that was...”
“Hahahaha! I did deliberately scare you, though... well. Yeah. Sorry about that. Alright then...”
Looking satisfied, Cartia nodded and turned her gaze on me.
“Eh... uh...”
I hesitated for a second, then hurriedly bowed as well.
“H-hello. I’m, uh... Adventurer Noah... um... i-it’s an honor.”
“Pfft... khhh... ahem, ahem. Yeah. It’s cringey as hell, but... I should greet you properly too.”
Cartia, who had been floating around in a permanently cocky posture, descended to the floor and brought both hands together in front of her chest.
Every trace of her playful expression vanished, replaced by something solemn and grave.
“I am the one you know as the warrior and hero who represented the Chaos Era.”
It wasn’t a prayer gesture.
Nor was it a simple clasp of the hands.
It was the way one grips a sword with both hands—
“The first Savior.”
In that instant, an indescribable power began to gather in her hands.
The strange energies that had been spread across all of Cartia pulsed in response.
The landscape painted by my Qi Sensing twisted and churned in chaos.
Carpeng’s Fragment curled in on itself and held its breath.
The magic power that had been sleeping deep inside me stirred and rose.
A sharp force that could tear the sky itself came crashing down.
A heavy force that could shatter the earth surged upward.
Something that could slash through space and trample time—
An unknown energy.
All of it poured into her hands and took the shape of a greatsword.
“I am Cartia Frey. Good to meet you, descendants.”
The sword that had formed in her grip was crude.
No ornamentation at all—a blade forged with nothing but combat in mind.
But the power it held... was anything but ordinary.
Sorry, Hepais...
My own greatsword, forged from Carpeng’s materials, could be treated like scrap metal next to this.
“The sword Lady Cartia is holding right now... it’s the legendary blade passed down in the stories.”
“Ah, yeah. That’s how you all would know it.”
“I heard it was hidden away, but this is... how should I put it.”
While Rubia carefully chose her words, Cartia chuckled first and spoke.
“It’s not hidden. It’s spread across all of Cartia. Some crazy bastard went and spread that dogshit rumor. Right?”
“Mmm... that does seem to be the case.”
Cartia swung the sword this way and that, as if reuniting with an old friend, then looked at me with a small smile.
“What, you want it?”
“Y-yes...? No... uh...”
I did want it, but more than that—
It felt familiar.
I was certain I had never seen this sword before.
Not in the game, not in reality, not even in a dream.
And yet it felt familiar.
Why...?
“Wanna try swinging it once?”
“I-is that really okay...?”
“Yeah, no problem. If you can even hold it.”
Cartia snickered as she slowly approached us.
“You both felt it roughly, right? What this sword is made of.”
“Everything I’ve been sensing... it was all Lady Cartia’s magic power... wasn’t it.”
“Magic power? Hmm... well, I guess you could feel it that way. But this isn’t anything as simple as magic power.”
Cartia came right up in front of us and drove the greatsword straight into the ground.
At the same moment, the energy blanketing the entire region of Cartia began to churn violently.
“And it’s not the divine power you use either. It’s my Rank. The Rank of one who transcended humanity and shattered the laws themselves.”
“Rank...?”
“Well... I could explain it to you. But you’re going to the Sanctuary of Memory anyway, right? Go through the trials there, clear them without too much trouble, and you’ll gradually come to understand.”
Sanctuary of Memory?
Trials?
...What on earth is she talking about...?
“R-Rubia... what’s the Sanctuary of Memory, and what are these trials...?”
The only trials I knew of were the ones in Erden that granted Unique Abilities...
“Ah... well, this is going to take a while, so I’ll explain it to you separately later. Sorry I couldn’t tell you ahead of time, Noah.”
“Mmm... okay...”
“Anyway, that’s the deal. So you two, whose Rank doesn’t match mine, can’t hold this thing.”
Cartia stepped back a little and looked at me.
“Still, give it a try once. Stuff like this, you never really know until you experience it with your own body.”
“U-umm... a-alright.”
I steadied my breathing and walked toward the sword.
Closer.
The nearer I drew, the more the magic power inside me began to thrash.
It twisted on its own, seeped out, and poured forth.
When I finally stood before the blade, I reached out my hand.
The magic power that had spilled free of its own will wrapped around my fingers.
The power that had been writhing deep within me finally burst free and spread across the whole of Cartia.
An unknown energy.
The very foundation of my existence.
It coiled around my entire body.
It melted into the earth.
It resounded through the sky.
Following where the magic power led.
Following what instinct demanded.
Following the voice ringing inside my head.
I took hold of the sword.
“What the fuck.”