Rest (3)
“Dying… you say?”
“Yeah. If someone weaker than her managed it… you might think it’s easy. But it’s different.”
Charlotte tapped the desk a few times, choosing her words carefully before she spoke again.
“You could say the intensity of the trial changes depending on who’s taking it.”
“Isn’t that… the same for Erden’s trials?”
“It feels different from those… mmm. I’ve never taken Erden’s trial myself, of course, but from what I’ve heard here and there… if that one’s about facing your own trauma, then this one—”
Charlotte never finished the sentence.
The door burst open with a bang—
“Hmm!”
—and a tiny little girl walked straight into the office.
“…A greatsword?”
The first things that caught the eye were the black hair, just like Noah’s… and those red eyes.
And then… a build similar to Noah’s, with a greatsword hanging at her waist.
What set her apart from Noah was probably her face.
Her eyes were sharp, her hair cut short enough that it barely brushed her shoulders.
And… those pointed, protruding fangs stood out immediately.
Her clothes were the same as any ordinary adventurer’s.
No… they looked even more worn out than that.
“Well met! You must be Charlotte, yes?”
“Who the hell… are you?”
“And the one over there… Rubia, I see!”
“…Who… are you?”
She paid our questions no mind at all, casually shutting the door behind her and walking right in.
With every short-legged, toddling step, the greatsword dragged across the floor with a long skrrrk, the sound instantly reminding me of Noah.
“Then the one sprawled out here must be… hmm…”
The little girl peered quietly at Noah’s face, then propped her chin on one hand and tilted her head.
“Hey… brat. Who are you, I asked? No—how did you even know about this hideout and get in here? I hid this place with an artifact.”
“Heh-heh! This body knows all things!”
“What kind of… idiot are you?”
“Hark! What manner of speech is that toward this body!”
The little girl, who had been smiling pleasantly, suddenly scowled at Charlotte’s cutting insult.
“This is bullshit… Look, kid. I’m the princess of this country… and you’re talking like you’re above me?”
“Hmph. Is that not only natural?”
“What…? Fine then… what’s your name?”
At Charlotte’s question the little girl folded her arms with great pride, lifted her chin, and—wearing an expression that made me want to give her a good knuckle to the head—spoke her name in a tone that clashed absurdly with her appearance.
“Hear it and be astonished! This body’s name… is Sirin!”
Sirin?
I’d heard that somewhere before…
“Master… Sirin?”
Charlotte’s trembling voice brought the memory flooding back.
Ah.
The name Lebuije had mentioned—the one who had just become the tenth Master—was Sirin.
So this little girl was…
“Heh-heh-heh! That is how the world calls this body, yes!”
The moment Sirin nodded, Charlotte’s flames flared to life.
I too sharpened my divine power as finely as I could and wrapped my arms around Noah.
“Eh… why do you regard this body with hostility…?”
“…Right after we took down Kalt… another Master shows up? Your purpose is fucking obvious.”
“This body has no interest in such trifling matters, however…”
Sirin’s eyes, which had cooled somewhat, swept over Charlotte and me before settling on Noah.
The arms holding Noah began to shake violently.
My back was already soaked with cold sweat, and my breathing had turned ragged.
The terror of facing Kalt… was rising again.
Even so.
Even if my body were smashed to pieces, as long as it was for Noah…
“…Don’t even think about touching her.”
“Hmm… First, it would be nice if you put those terrifying things away… but words alone will not persuade you, will they?”
Sirin’s hand closed around empty air.
In that instant—
“Huh?”
—Charlotte’s flames snuffed out.
“…What the…”
The divine power that had been wrapping Noah and me scattered in every direction as well.
“Hmm, that feels much better. Now then, let us converse at our leisure.”
Having done something so absurd, Sirin strolled over to the sofa as if nothing had happened, plopped down, and—
“Hnnngh—! So this is what they call coffee!”
—inhaled the aroma and gave a full-body shiver of delight.
“J-just now… what the hell… happened? What did you do?”
“You two were being so frightening, this body had no choice but to use a little power. Sit down first.”
Leaving the casually smiling Sirin behind me, I tried again and again to draw up my divine power.
But it would not gather at all.
Inside my body I could still control it, yet the moment I tried to bring it outside, it simply dispersed.
“Ch-Charlotte. Are you…?”
“Yeah… I can’t use my Unique Ability either… No—my mana itself… won’t move.”
“Aiii! How long do you intend to stand there chattering!”
Sirin, who had been sitting on the sofa kicking her legs back and forth, scrunched up her face and shouted.
Charlotte and I exchanged glances, then had no choice but to take our seats.
“Hmph! Now you finally look ready for a proper conversation!”
“…So why did you come here?”
“To speak with you, of course.”
“About what?”
“Hmm, to be honest… this body had business with that Noah lying there… but she seems to be sleeping quite deeply.”
Sirin’s red eyes turned toward Noah.
Up close… her pupils were long and slit, and an eerie aura rippled within them.
“What… business did you have with Noah…?”
“You’re holding her as if she’s something precious. Heh-heh-heh.”
Sirin grinned at me with open amusement, then looked back at Noah.
“It wasn’t anything important. Just… after a long time… no, perhaps not so long. Anyway, this body came to see her face… but it’s a pity.”
After a long time…?
The same hair color as Noah.
The same weapon—a greatsword.
And that expression, as if recalling the past…
The master Noah had spoken of for so long…?
“…Are you… Noah’s master?”
“Hm? This body, that one’s? Pwahahahaha! Master? With the causal threads all tangled, who knows how it will turn out… but this time, perhaps it will be so! Heh-heh-haha!”
At my words Sirin found something so hilarious that she flopped onto her back and laughed until she was shrieking.
Causal threads?
And what did she mean by “this time, perhaps it will be so”?
“What… on earth do you mean by that…?”
Come to think of it, when Lebuije first mentioned Sirin’s name, Noah hadn’t reacted at all.
So she wasn’t her master?
Then what did “after a long time” and that expression mean…?
“Hnnngh… ahh… Thanks to you, this body has had a good long laugh for the first time in ages. Truly… thank you.”
Sirin wiped the tears that had leaked from her eyes and beamed.
“There is a mountain of things this body wishes to tell you, but a contract cannot be broken… so please endure a little longer.”
“Hey… Rubia. I have no idea what this brat is even saying… Do you get it? So is she Noah’s master or not?”
“I… have no idea either…”
“Hark! This body is no brat!”
“Then what? A grandma?”
“Hmm, by your standards… that would be correct.”
Sirin propped her chin on her hand again, tilted her head, then smiled once more and continued.
“That aside, seeing you all still in one piece after such a great ordeal puts this body at ease. You seem to have taken the elixir this body gave you properly as well. Good.”
“…Elixir?”
“Mm! The elixir this body gave to the one-eyed fellow! You were there at the same place, were you not?”
Right now.
What Sirin was saying…
was hard to understand.
No—hard to accept.
“If you mean the one-eyed man… you’re talking about Luci—”
“Ahh! Luci! That’s right, that one’s name was Luci. Sadly he died… but he finished everything he set out to do, so it was not in vain.”
“What… on earth… d-do you…”
“What, brat… no. Sirin, you knew Luci?”
“Of course this body knows him very well. When he was wandering, how much did this body help him! Even pressed an elixir into his hand. Heh-heh… but this body never expected him to use it like this.”
Sirin smiled with open satisfaction again and took a sip of coffee.
At that exact moment—
the door slammed open, and Yuria’s twisted face appeared.
“You… what are you…”
“Hmm? Oh! You’ve woken as we—”
A crack rang out as tree roots burst up through the floor, cutting Sirin’s words short.
Roots as vicious as the ones she had used against Kalt shot toward Sirin—
but Sirin simply waved a hand, unconcerned.
“…What the hell…”
Just like that, Yuria’s Unique Ability crumbled into dust and vanished.
“Tsk-tsk… Youngsters these days have no respect for their elders at all… Truly the end of days, the end of days…”
And then.
That dust gathered on the floor and restored the broken boards to perfect condition.
“H-holy… What the fuck… did I just see?”
Charlotte dropped the mana herb she had been chewing.
I was so startled I nearly let go of Noah.
“Heh-heh… Curious, are you?”
“Curious doesn’t even begin to cover it… What the hell are you?”
“This body already told you! This body is Sirin!”
“I got the name… No, hey… Yuria. You calm down too for now. Doesn’t look like she plans to attack us…”
Yuria, who had been staring blankly at the floor, slowly nodded at Charlotte’s words.
“Heh-heh… Yuria, now that you’ve seen as well, it is about time this body rose.”
Yuria’s head tilted.
Charlotte’s and mine could only tilt the same way.
“No, brat… hah, Lady Sirin. What the hell are you? How did you find this place, what are you, why did you give Luci an elixir, and why do you talk like you know us… What the fuck is any of that… Hah, just answer one goddamn—”
“This body understands your frustration. You will come to know everything in due time. So do not be so hasty.”
Sirin swept her gaze over us with a leisurely smile.
“Still… since you treated this body to coffee, one thing shall be told.”
Then her eyes returned to Noah once more.
“Soon, ‘snow’ will fall. Be careful when it does.”
Her voice had grown utterly quiet.
“Especially you, Yuria the Challenger… you must be even more careful.”