East Ruins (8)
“N-Noah!”
I scooped Noah up from where she lay crumpled on the ground. She was still breathing, thank the gods, but blood poured freely from her nose and mouth.
I poured Divine Power into her at once, weaving a healing spell. Even so, her body kept spilling blood without pause.
Again. Again. Again.
I forced Divine Power into her without rest. Yet Noah’s condition showed no sign of improving.
“Noah… Noah! Shin Noah!”
“Young lady. Calm down for a moment. More gnolls will come swarming if you keep this up.”
“How am I supposed to calm down right now—”
“She’s not dead. Her life isn’t even in danger. She’s just asleep, so settle down.”
“She’s pouring out blood like this… and you’re saying she’s fine?”
“I guarantee it.”
“Th-then… why is Noah like this…?”
The one-eyed man who had been laughing so flippantly until now wore a thoroughly serious expression as he looked at me and Noah.
“Hmm… first things first. Fewer eyes watching would be better, wouldn’t it?”
He turned, drawing his sword.
“My lords. I’ve got a private conversation to have. Would you mind stepping elsewhere?”
The knights’ murmuring reached my ears.
“Or I could send you off myself. How about it… shall I send you on your way?”
The man walked slowly toward the knights.
“I’ll count to five. Just five. But I’m an uneducated adventurer, just like you said, so I’m not great with numbers. I don’t even know how I’m supposed to count them. Still, I’ll try the way I was taught. Five.”
Thud— thud—
“One.”
He raised his sword.
“…We will withdraw.”
The highest-ranking knight ground his teeth as he answered.
“Kwahahaha! We understand each other perfectly! Must be because you were raised so well, eh? Then hurry along. I’m uneducated, so I’ve got no patience.”
The moment he finished speaking, the knights scrambled to leave the area.
“Whew, much cleaner. Shall we continue our talk, then? Young lady… hmm, since Noah is sleeping, I’ll call you Priestess. Priestess, do you know how Noah sees what’s in front of her?”
“…Yes.”
“Then this will go faster. This happened because of the Qi Sensing Noah uses.”
“What do you mean…?”
“Noah sensed the pack of gnolls charging in before either I or the baldy noticed. You knew that, right?”
“That… she did.”
“Even though the distance was considerable.”
“Huh…?”
Earlier Noah had said she could only grasp roughly thirty meters. The gnolls had been well beyond thirty meters no matter how you looked at it.
Then…
“Mmm… I’m not sure how to explain this so you’ll get it, Priestess… Simply put, Noah forcibly expanded the range of her Qi Sensing. This is the side effect.”
He pointed at Noah’s blood as he continued.
“I know someone who isn’t blind, but still uses Qi Sensing to see his surroundings.”
“Yes…”
“When he traveled with us, he played detector. And every time he did, he whined endlessly about how exhausted he was.”
“But what does that have to do with—”
“Then one day, the magic beast we were supposed to subjugate was nowhere to be found. So we told him, ‘Use that fancy detector of yours and find the damn thing.’ We kept needling him until he got fed up and forced his Qi Sensing wider, swearing he’d find it no matter what.”
The one-eyed man gave a dry little smile as he looked at Noah.
“It took five seconds. Five seconds to locate a magic beast two hundred meters away. Then he collapsed just like Noah is now, pouring out blood. But that place was a wide open plain. No living things, no buildings—nothing. Just ordinary grassland. You understand what I’m saying?”
I looked around. The ruins filled my vision—countless structures and buildings packed tightly together.
The exact opposite of a plain.
“The amount of information Qi Sensing takes in… is different?”
“Exactly. Glad you caught on so quick. The volume of information flooding into the skull was on a completely different level. You might think that guy was just weak, but he was Platinum rank at the time—same as me.”
“What…?”
I lifted my head and looked at the man in front of me. He looked somehow shabby, like any ordinary middle-aged man you’d see around town… Platinum…?
“Heh, I know I don’t look the part, so you might not believe me, but still. That fellow was pretty impressive in his own right. And even he swore he’d never do something as insane as forcibly expanding Qi Sensing again, not even if he died and came back. And me—I can sense a little Qi myself, just a bit… and this is what happens.”
He closed his eyes and ground his teeth. Blood began to trickle from his nose.
“Khngh—! See that just now? How it comes out like that? Even using the tiniest amount makes my skull feel like it’s splitting open. But Noah uses it like she’s eating a meal. Oof, that hurts…”
He spat out the blood that had run from his nose and mouth and kept talking.
“On top of that, after pulling a stunt that crazy, she kept fighting. Of course it was partly because of a mistake Heinzel and I—the baldy—made, but can you cut us some slack on that? There were circumstances we couldn’t avoid.”
Circumstances they couldn’t avoid… probably the knights from Erden. And the reason they had no choice but to fight them was likely… the commission.
The commission accepted in Alrba. The client was probably Hermila. The content… escorting Noah, perhaps.
In the end… if you traced it all the way up, I was the cause.
Noah ending up like this was all… because of me.
“And the most important thing is that over there.”
The direction he pointed showed a completely collapsed barrier wall.
“What you’re saying sounds like Noah is the one who brought that wall down…”
The man nodded.
“Hmm. You know there are only ten Masters in the world, right?”
“Why are you suddenly—”
“Do you know?”
“…I do.”
Master. The realm every knight and adventurer dreamed of reaching. I had never seen one myself, but I had heard the rumors well enough.
When Masters clashed, a single exchange could cleave a mountain, and the next could overturn the sea.
Of course… I didn’t believe a word of it. If people like that existed, the magic beasts would have been wiped out long ago.
“In over forty years of life, I’ve only seen a Master once. And wouldn’t you know it—he swung his sword once, and a castle wall came down. It was a fallen kingdom’s wall, sure, but still.”
Hearing his words, I looked again at the ruined barrier.
“So… how exactly did Noah bring that down?”
“That I don’t know either. But she swung just once. Just once, and the wall collapsed. Exactly like that Master back then.”
“That’s… impossible. Does that mean Noah is a Master?”
“Hmm, I don’t think so… but she’ll probably reach Master before long.”
I looked down at Noah nestled in my arms. A frame clearly smaller than most people’s. A light weight. Arms far too slender to be swinging a greatsword.
With a body like this… she had endured pain that even a Platinum adventurer could barely withstand, and somehow forced herself to keep fighting all the way through.
To protect me.
No. That wasn’t it. I wasn’t arrogant enough to believe she had gone this far just to protect someone like me. Who was I, after all?
Noah didn’t even know I was a shrine maiden. We hadn’t known each other long at all.
Which made it even harder to understand. Why she pushed herself this desperately. What she wanted so badly that she lived this hard.
I, who knew nothing. I, who could understand nothing, felt stifled and helpless.
“She forcibly expanded her Qi Sensing and took in a massive flood of information, pulled the stunt of bringing down a barrier wall, and then swung a weapon that can barely even be called a greatsword anymore to kill at least a hundred gnolls. That little kid.”
I held the collapsed Noah even tighter.
“Why… why go this far…”
“Probably an obsession. Something painful in her past created it. I’ve got one myself… and so does that baldy. Everyone’s got at least one. Noah’s just seems especially severe.”
I had half expected it after watching her kill magic beasts. The way her expression, speech, and entire presence transformed so completely that you could believe she was a different person.
Maybe… that was Noah’s true self.
My head was a mess. My stomach churned, and tears felt ready to burst out at any second.
The more I learned of Noah’s hidden side, the more I felt my choice had been wrong. I was so ashamed of myself for throwing off a heavy duty and running away.
The sight of Noah sleeping peacefully in my arms only tormented me further.
“I… understand for now. The situation is over, so I need to lay Noah down somewhere comfortable.”
“I’ll carry her—”
“No. I’ll do it. Just… please stick to the escort duty you were commissioned for.”
“…Heh. Sharp as a tack… All right. But escorting a priestess against the knights who came to fetch her… pretty ironic, don’t you think?”
“That… I’ll explain later. Noah comes first.”
The man nodded readily and took the lead.
“I’ll show you a good spot. Perfect for resting.”
The place we had been before wasn’t bad, but I didn’t refuse him and followed. Anywhere Noah could rest even a little more comfortably was fine with me.
“Ah, by the way, Priestess—you don’t know my name, do you? Noah knew it.”
After walking for some time, the man turned to look at me.
Noah had known this man’s name?
“No… I don’t.”
“Ahem. Then allow me to introduce myself properly to the Priestess. Since it’s a greeting, I should use polite speech, right? Heh heh.”
He sheathed his sword, placed his right hand over his chest, and gave a small bow. Then he spoke in a thoroughly solemn voice.
“I am Luci, a Platinum adventurer. Among adventurers they call me ‘One-Eyed Luci,’ but… well. Call me Luci if you like, or just Uncle… I look forward to working with you.”
“One-Eyed Lu… ci?”
“Ah, I’m not fond of that nickname, so maybe just Uncle would be better? Priestess…”
“Ah, yes… I understand.”
“Mm. Shall we get moving again?”
Luci set off once more.
The survivor of Habron that Noah had spoken of was walking right in front of me, perfectly fine. And Noah had known this man.
I looked down at Noah cradled in my arms.
I had hidden from Noah that I was a shrine maiden… but it seemed Noah was hiding something from me as well.
We weren’t that close yet…
Still.
I wanted to get even a little closer…
Once she woke up, I would need to have a deep conversation with her.
My story.
Noah’s story.
Everything, all of it.