The Guide in the Fog
Even if Jincheon could outrun anyone alive, the fog still blanketed everything in sight. Hunting down a ruins entrance whose location no one even knew was, no matter how he turned it over in his mind, next to impossible.
Kahim, at least, could have searched using the anomalous wavelength points Gronel had marked after betraying the resistance. But with both of them dead, that data was gone. The only option left was to find it the hard way — with their own bodies.
"There are two ways to do this."
"Well, that's a relief. Two whole options."
"The best plan is to call a guide and have them lead us."
"Excuse me?"
"The fallback is to temporarily blow away the entire fog and search that way."
"…"
Calsira's face twisted with the particular headache of someone who couldn't decide which objection to raise first. Both methods had fatal problems, and with only one mouth and a mind desperate to list every single flaw, the result was a kind of paralyzed overload. Watching her, Heliane felt something she never had before — sympathy.
"Haaaaah… Fine. Let's start with the best plan. You said you'd call a guide?"
"I've got a friend who knows this place well."
"There's someone else who knows the central zone that well? Kahim never found anyone like that."
"Of course he didn't. My friend lives here."
"I'm sorry — what?"
They had started talking to clear up their questions. Instead, the questions only multiplied.
"What kind of nonsense is that? Someone lives in the central zone?"
Heliane, who had been listening in silence, finally couldn't hold it in and cut in with a sharp edge in her voice.
Ssssshhhh—
Just as the two women started pressing him, a thick bank of fog suddenly began to roll in from somewhere.
"Sometimes the fog comes early, sometimes late. Looks like we got lucky."
Jincheon sounded almost amused. Calsira, on the other hand, felt a prickle of unease as the fog thickened and edged closer to his side.
Before long, everything beyond the campfire's reach had vanished. It was already night, so this was no exaggeration — beyond the firelight, there was literally nothing to see.
Kyauuu—
"Eek!?"
A beast's cry drifted out of the dark. The sound alone was enough to make Calsira feel the creature's presence, and with it came the terror that something might leap from the blackness at any second.
"Sh-should we… put out the fire…?"
Whump!
"Kyah!?"
In that moment, Jincheon snaked one arm around Calsira's waist — that soft, unmistakably feminine curve — and pulled her against him.
"Don't be scared. Stay still."
"Y-yes…"
Held against his chest, she caught the wild scent of him and the heat of his body, and somehow the fear began to settle. Her heart, though, started hammering for an entirely different reason — thump-thump-thump — as she became acutely aware of that thick arm and that burning body pressing her close. Heat flushed through her.
"It should be up by now. Time to call it."
Jincheon said something she couldn't make sense of, then started working his mouth in a strange, silent rhythm.
"?"
"?"
Calsira and Heliane both stared, completely lost as to what he was doing.
Tsuuuuu…
After a short wait, a peculiar sound answered from far off in the fog.
"There's the reply. It'll be here soon."
"Who is it? No — what kind of person even is this?"
In the brief window she had, Calsira tried to learn anything she could about this so-called "friend."
"Knowing ahead of time ruins the fun. Just know it's a good kid. You don't need to be afraid."
"…"
She was terrified. Completely, utterly terrified. The moment the words "good kid" left Jincheon's mouth, her whole body started trembling and cold sweat ran down her back. In the short time she'd known him, she had already learned — with her body — that his standards and common sense were nothing like anyone else's.
Some time later, Heliane's senses — wound tight with tension — picked something up.
A chill ran through her.
Something's here…!
She couldn't tell where, but something was watching them.
"It's here."
"Where?"
"That way."
"It's night and the fog's so thick we can't see a thing."
"Tch. No choice, then. We should at least introduce ourselves properly."
Snap!
Jincheon pressed his middle finger and thumb together and flicked. The fog around him blasted outward, and the murky darkness cleared into ordinary night.
Calsira and Heliane were startled enough by a finger-flick clearing the fog — but what truly shocked them was still waiting.
Jincheon kindled a flame in his palm and walked in the direction he'd indicated. Heliane, who couldn't leave his side, and Calsira, who decided she absolutely shouldn't, followed close behind.
A few steps later, the light of his makeshift torch revealed the thing standing in front of them.
"…What… is that?"
A red sphere roughly the size of a human torso. Luminous, glittering in the firelight — it looked for all the world like a beautiful jewel.
Flash!
Then the jewel moved, and its focus locked onto Calsira.
"Kyah!"
She recoiled from the sudden motion of the red gem, stepped on a rock, lost her balance, and sat down hard. Jincheon ignored her reaction and kept walking forward — and the head of an enormous spider came into view.
Crimson eyes. A head blanketed in pure white fur. A mouth bristling with countless razor fangs.
"Hhk… hhhk…"
The sight of that massive head drained the color from Calsira's face. She could barely breathe.
"Th-the… White… Scream…"
She had seen the recovered black box footage. She knew exactly what this was — the ruler of the forest that had toyed with, ravaged, and slaughtered ten mechas. The White Scream.
"…!"
Heliane said nothing, but her entire body had gone rigid. From the moment those red eyes fixed on them, both women understood: in front of this thing, they were nothing but prey.
And then they witnessed something they could not believe.
"I'm not food. Stop looking at me like that."
"Zrrrrr~~"
"And I'm not emergency rations either!"
"Tsuu…"
A spider and a human, talking to each other.
Once Jincheon forced the White Scream to drop its predator's killing intent, Calsira and Heliane could finally draw a proper breath.
"J-J-Jincheon… sir… Is this… really the White Scream…?"
"It is."
That was all. A mountain of explanations she needed to hear, and he ended it with two words. Calsira found herself seriously wondering whether she was the one who was abnormal.
"Hey. You know that giant metal mass that only shows up on foggy days around here?"
"Tsuruk—"
"You know about it?"
Ignoring everyone else's reactions, Jincheon kept talking with the White Scream — then his face twisted into pure disbelief.
"Then why the hell didn't you tell me?"
"Tsuruk? Zurruk—"
"Ah~ Because I never asked? Hahaha."
He laughed with a completely dead voice, then grabbed the White Scream's head and started forcing it down.
Kuuuugrrrk—!
The enormous head sank into the earth as if diving underground.
"Right. I never asked. I'm the bastard who deserves to die. I was the idiot. That it?"
"Tsuruk!? Tsuruk! Tsururut!"
"But listen. I distinctly remember telling you that if you ever found something special, you were supposed to let me know."
"Zurrrrut~!"
"It was always there when you were out, so you didn't think it was special?"
"Tsurut! Tsuruk!"
No matter how clever it was, it was still an animal. Getting angry at an animal for failing to meet the standards of a sentient being was pure human arrogance — and Jincheon had no intention of committing that particular sin. He released the force driving its head into the ground.
"Take us there."
"Tsurut? Tsurururr~"
"Just guide us there and then go do your own thing."
"Tsururr~"
"Haaah. Fine. I'll grab a few on the way, and you can eat them on the way back."
"Zurrrrr~~"
Having struck some kind of bargain with the White Scream, Jincheon turned to the two women staring blankly at him.
"It'll guide us. Climb on."
"What? Wh-where?"
"On its head. It's hungry and touchy right now, so quit arguing and get over here."
Calsira stared for a moment, no longer sure if this was a dream or reality. What dragged her back to the real world was Heliane's strangled cry.
Thwip!
"Kyaaaah!"
Jincheon had yanked the rope taut. Heliane had no choice but to be hauled along. He looped it around her waist and started climbing the protruding section of the spider's head toward the top.
"If you're not coming, stay there."
"Ngh…!"
The sight of Jincheon about to leave her behind made Calsira bite down hard on her lip.
You used my body however you pleased, and now you're just going to throw me away?!
She barely managed to swallow the scream rising in her throat. She had already given up her body to survive — dying abandoned here would be the most hollow, stupid death imaginable. Up close, the White Scream was even more terrifying, and she flinched — but she averted her eyes from those staring orbs, grabbed fistfuls of white fur, and climbed.
"There. Now that's a face worth looking at. Nothing more boring than a face frozen in fear."
Only once she was at his side did Calsira understand why he'd spoken as if he meant to leave her. He had been forcing her to overcome the terror on her own.
"Couldn't you have used a slightly kinder method?"
"Fear you overcome by leaning on someone else isn't really overcome. Only when you do it through your own will can you truly say you've conquered it."
A man who was foul-tempered and a complete lecher — and yet, every so often, he showed the face of a sage. Calsira genuinely wondered what kind of life a person had to live to become such a contradictory creature.
"Everyone's on. Let's go."
"Zurrr~"
He tapped the spider's head with his palm in a signal, and the White Scream surged forward.
Whoooosh—
The speed sent a hard wind scouring over their bodies. And in that rush, Calsira and Heliane realized something terrifying.
There's no vibration?
I can't hear any sound.
A body this massive was moving at something like car speed — and yet there was no vibration, no noise at all. Come to think of it, even earlier, when the White Scream had drawn close, neither of them had sensed a thing.
A creature with this kind of stealth only appeared on days when the white fog rolled in. Both women felt it in their bones: hunting the White Scream head-on was impossible without bringing an entire army.
Jincheon, meanwhile, occasionally pointed his fingers this way and that as they traveled.
"What are you doing?"
"I made a promise with this one."
And that was all the explanation he offered. Calsira closed her mouth, figuring she wouldn't understand even if he told her, and simply waited for them to reach the ruins.
Moving through fog meant no sense of direction and no scenery to look at, so she stared blankly at a single point and let the time pass.
After a while, the White Scream stopped.
"Tsururrr~~~"
"It says we've arrived. Let's check first."
Snap!
Jincheon lit a flame and flicked his fingers again. The fog around him vanished, and the landscape came into view.
"Ah! That—!"
Directly ahead of them stood the enormous gate they had seen in the black box footage.
"Good work. Lower yourself so we can get down."
The White Scream obeyed and flattened its body. Once everyone was on the ground, Jincheon spoke to it again.
"I kept my promise."
"Tsururr~"
Having guided Jincheon's party to the ruins entrance, the White Scream turned back the way it had come. When it headed in the directions Jincheon had pointed, it found prey lying dead with holes punched clean through their heads.
Thwack!
It speared one carcass through the torso with a single leg and hurried off to collect the rest before anything else could steal them.