Mirror Therapy
Mirror Therapy
-Kwarreung!
Lightning struck incessantly.
The white-haired girl had been staring up at the sky, but as the rain intensified, she stepped into the cave. The musty smell instantly put her in a foul mood.
"Why do I have to go through this...."
This area wasn't her jurisdiction to begin with. The magic beast responsible for managing and supervising this region was Jormungand.
But her constant laziness and uncooperative attitude toward the Demon King's army had forced her, the girl, to come down to a backwater like this.
And that wasn't the only problem. Aether was currently staying in the area.
"If it weren't for my sister, I wouldn't have come down here at all."
The white-haired, golden-eyed girl let out a sigh and started a campfire with dry straw and branches that hadn't gotten wet.
At the very least, she had to wait here without moving until 2 AM, when the cave leading to Jormungand opened.
"I'm bored."
A meaningless mutter echoed through the cave.
That was when the girl, unable to bear the boredom, was nodding off.
She opened her eyes at the sound of someone walking through the pitch-dark cave entrance. Every step made a squelching sound, as if they'd been caught in the downpour.
The girl turned her head and frowned.
An unexpected figure entered her sight.
"What. We meet again?"
The second daughter of House Saliere, Rote Saliere.
Her shoulder-length crimson bob, unlike yesterday, was thoroughly soaked. Likewise, her drenched dress shirt was so transparent her skin was nearly visible through it.
"You're...."
Rote, who had appeared looking like a drowned rat, immediately recoiled in horror, backstepping rapidly.
To Rote, the girl before her was a ferocious predator incarnate. Witnessing her subdue two Calamity-class Magic Beasts without the slightest effort had inspired not respect, but sheer terror.
The predator now tapped the ground with her hand, beckoning her over.
"You'll catch a cold. Why don't you come over here and warm yourself by the fire?"
The tone was gentle. It was a manner of speaking and inflection that mimicked Aether, which made it feel all the more alien to Rote.
Two nights ago, after subduing the two Fenrirs, this girl had threatened her, telling her to leave the forest immediately. Yet today, she was reacting by inviting her over first. She was an utterly unpredictable being.
The unknown soon became terror. Rote could not read any pattern in the white-haired girl's behavior.
After hesitating for a moment, Rote took a deep breath and sat down beside the girl, drawing her legs up.
"Don't sit just like that. Unless you want to die of hypothermia, you'd better take off your top and dry your upper body first."
"You want me to undress...?"
"I mean it."
For a young lady of a noble house to strip anywhere was behavior unbecoming of the era. But what could anyone do about it? If she didn't want to die, she had to undress and dry her body well from the inside.
The hesitating Rote drew another breath and unbuttoned her shirt. The white-haired girl glanced back and clicked her tongue.
This was the sort of person the Empire exalted as a genius.
"If you act like that after you graduate and go out to the frontlines, people will call you a clueless officer. You get that?"
"A clueless officer...."
"So I'm telling you to move more briskly."
While Rote wrung out the cotton, the girl gathered dry straw and twigs and tossed them into the embers. She, too, took out a Mana Cigarette and used its ember to revive the dying flames.
The Gold-Eye Tribe. The unfortunate race that couldn't use magic without smoking a Mana Cigarette.
This inconvenience would end in a few years. Once the one who had usurped the Lightning Spirit King's throne succeeded in being resurrected, all members of the Gold-Eye Tribe would be able to freely wield the Magic Arts.
"Hoo."
After inhaling the smoke deep into her lungs, the girl traced a sigil in the air with her index finger. It was the preparatory posture for an incantation.
The Word Magic was not long.
[Eightfold Way — Third Form]
"Tesla."
The dying flames began to burn with a slow, steady heat. Rote, who had finished shaking the remaining moisture from her shirt, stared wide-eyed at the girl's incantation.
"That magic. That's the one Aether uses."
"How many times do I have to tell you? Aether is the name of my twin sister!"
The Unique Magic Art called 'Element Operation', which was the foundation of the Eightfold Way, wasn't something just anyone could use.
Currently, the only people who possessed it were the girl and her sister, Aether.
"The Eightfold Way is a concept my sister conceived of, so there's nothing particularly strange about me using it."
Their height and voice, their face and physique. And even the Supreme Unique Magic they used.
Everything was identical except for the color of her hair. At this point, insisting they weren't blood relatives seemed more forced than acknowledging the truth.
"So you really are Aether's sister."
"Glad you're finally making sense."
"What's your name?"
"No need for you to know that much."
She was just small fry she'd only see for a day or two anyway. The girl was not kind enough to reveal the distinguished name of the Great Machines of the Nine Heavens' 2nd Seat to a mere minnow.
"......."
There was nothing more to say. The two girls stared blankly into the flames for a while as the fire greedily consumed the straw.
Fortunately, the downpour proved to be just a passing shower, so the uncomfortable cohabitation didn't last long.
"Thanks for letting me use the fire."
Rote bowed her head with an awkward smile.
"Let's meet again."
It would have been nice if she'd at least made eye contact while saying such a thing.
Saying something like that in front of the monster who had instantly subdued the Fenrir that had been targeting her neck was a form of courage in itself. A girl who had fought in many campaigns for the Demon King's sake could tell that much.
"Hmm."
The girl hummed noncommittally as she watched Rote wrap herself in her dried shirt and dash outside.
"She must have developed quite a bit of PTSD."
When an Extinction-class being unleashed its full killing intent, some people fainted on the spot. Even without that, having a powerful magic beast try to take your life was shocking enough to warrant hospitalization in a mental ward.
She was a scatterbrain.
Still....
"She's got guts."
That child was the first person who had ever asked to see her again.
Biting on another Mana Cigarette, the girl ascended the darkness-shrouded Pitchblende Mountain.
Even for a member of the Gold-Eye Tribe with superior physical abilities, the distance to Falling Dragon Peak was considerable.
A bitter taste gradually filled her mouth. The girl unfurled the scroll she had received from Rosemary and implemented a spell.
[High-rank Unique Magic Art — Radiation Defense]
For a member of the Gold-Eye Tribe whose blood was flowing with mercury sulfide instead of actual blood, exposure to the radiation at the summit of Pitchblende Mountain wasn't a problem in itself.
But if every human she met felt nauseous from the residual radiation clinging to her body, she was the only one who'd suffer for it.
Everyone who approached her felt sick because of the exposure?
In times like these, that was the perfect way to be mistaken for a magic beast.
"Better than being discovered."
Even if it was a bit of a hassle, it was better to cast such a spell than to invite unnecessary suspicion.
Climbing the mountain with a mind empty of thought, she reached the summit before she knew it. Breathing roughly, the girl moved her feet to a spot with fantastically shaped rocks, then squeezed through a gap in them.
The process of meeting Jormungand was a succession of climbing and walking.
And the process of conversing with her was a succession of suffering.
"Is it the White Night."
A nonchalant tone, as if asking what she was doing there.
She didn't like it.
"Hey, you're the First Seat, so why aren't you doing your job properly?"
According to the original plan, the girl should have been in the elven country of Kaurelia now, investigating ways to burn the World Tree, not here.
Fine. Let's say it was understandable that Aether had come here and Rosemary had asked her to monitor the outskirts.
The void created by this one's idle negligence was utterly unforgivable.
"How long are you going to keep postponing the plan to mobilize the beastmen and strike Saliere Territory?"
"That would be difficult for my compatriots. Why must I issue such an oracle?"
"Ah, come on, First Seat. If you're the First Seat, act like one and observe some dignity."
-Bang!
It was over in a flash. Jormungand slammed the steel tail sprouting from her back onto the ground, and answered with a growl.
"Impudent. Wagging your tongue at an Ancient Dragon."
"Don't the Dragon Tribe place great importance on contracts? If you made a contract with the Demon King, then listen to what we ask of you too."
"How many times must I repeat it? I have said that I am satisfied if I can only protect my comrades and destroy the spirits...."
Today's guest was tiresome to Jormungand.
The similar-looking child who had come two days ago had been easier to talk to, which she had appreciated.
"Then you'd do well to fulfill the treaty."
"A treaty in which my compatriots are wounded is no different from a false treaty."
The conversation ran parallel. Unable to help it, the girl decided to shift the topic slightly.
"Fine, forget that. At least get this Nuclear Reactor operating properly. Resurrecting the Demon King requires massive amounts of energy, not just the Lodestones."
"I am making steady progress with that."
"What I'm saying is, do it faster...!"
"It seems you lack the proper manner of speech for dealing with dragons. I've thought it over, and the quality of your conversation is far inferior to that of the previous guest."
Even with the phrase 'previous guest,' there was no way to know who had come and when.
The Dragon Tribe fundamentally had a different concept of time than other races. With lifespans as long as theirs, they treated a single day like a week.
And this place was a cave completely engulfed in darkness. Without a clock, one couldn't even tell how much of a day had passed.
"How scatterbrained."
It was identical to the thought the white-haired girl had had while looking at Rote.
Just as that was the girl's perspective on Rote, in the eyes of Jormungand, who had lived for over a thousand years, the girl herself was nothing more than a greenhorn.
"Enough. I'll say no more."
Even if it hadn't been her, persuading the First Seat would likely have been impossible.
With the Demon King absent, no position existed higher than hers. You had to be at least the 2nd Seat to spout casual speech at her and survive. Of course, that was also because the dragon was being magnanimous.
"Just complete the Nuclear Reactor properly."
"I'll manage it to the best of my ability."
She turned her back on Jormungand, who was smiling wryly and waving her hand. The girl descended the slope and returned to the cave.
"This won't do."
She had no choice but to revise the plan.