A Night When the Moon Dances - 3
Plop.
Jae watched the droplet fall into the beaker below — a procession of brightly colored potions dripping down onto the green liquid, one after another. There was nothing so special about an alchemist's day. Not that the one brewing them had any real devotion to alchemy; potions like these simply sold well, and selling well meant money.
"Yaaawn... I'm so sleepy I could die."
Today of all days, sleep had flatly refused to come, and she'd ended up still out of bed at this hour of dawn. The problem was all the racket — Full Moon Festival this and Full Moon Festival that. Just moments ago, a bursting firework had startled her into knocking over a beaker. One beaker meant several potions' worth of supplies. The thought of gold squandered for nothing drew a scowl from her.
Her unusually petite frame didn't make moving about any easier, either. To any stranger's eye, she probably looked all of twelve years old. After giving her hair — tied back in a loose bundle — one last smoothing, Jae hopped down from her chair and picked up a shard of glass from the floor. And here she'd thought she'd swept them all up earlier. One left, had there.
The moon showed through the open window, and Jae rubbed her eyes and let out a sigh. It was time to sleep. Come tomorrow, she would leave this city behind and head for the South. Her days as a fugitive would soon be over, too. And yet, even as her heart settled, an inexplicable unease stirred in some corner of it. What could possibly happen on this, her very last day?
I'll think about it when I wake up. If they'd found me, I'd be dead already.
If the pursuers hunting her had learned where she was, she'd have been slaughtered long before now. Her still breathing meant they hadn't. Above all, with this many people packed into the city, any suspicious character would be picked up by the patrols before they got far.
Pop. As the festival lights went out one by one, the place where Jae lived sank into darkness with them. And so the silence came — a darkness with no sound in it at all, nothing but the soft ebb of sleeping breath. Lying in her bed, Jae soon surrendered herself to the sleep rolling over her.
The once-bright lights had faded, and in the small hours the stars began, little by little, to show themselves again. The moon hid behind the clouds, leaving only a murky glow spread across the streets like fog. ...And within it, a shadow began to move.
Shaking off Adele had been almost embarrassingly easy. With everyone still bathed in the afterglow of the fireworks, I had simply said there was somewhere I needed to stop and slipped away before anyone could object. On the way I'd acquired a weapon, and now — remembering where Jae lived — I was headed in that very direction.
I gave the sword in my hand an experimental swing, and a heavy weight rolled up my arm. As expected, this body wasn't used to holding a blade. Perhaps because in this life I'd never once picked one up. Natural enough for a body that had never touched a sword — but it hardly mattered. There had been a time I'd stopped an ambush with my bare hands. It had come closer to mutual ruin than a clean victory, granted, but experience carved that deep would serve me well against these attackers. I could probably manage them unarmed even now. Not that I cared to gamble on it.
She should still be alive.
The hour of Jae's assault was always the same: after the fireworks ended, once the crowds had fully scattered and the last of the lights were going out. A few street lamps still lingered — by my count, somewhere around one in the morning. With a handful of drunks visible here and there, the margin I'd been given was ample.
And so, walking through the alley, I found myself thinking — of all things — about the woman I'd left standing alone: Adele. I had been dead set on avoiding the North this time around, but it seemed a visit was in order after all. I would go and warn her about the treason charge. That alone should settle the debt I carried toward her, clean and neat. That said — she had been a woman strikingly unlike the one I knew. When we'd shared a road before, she had been the Grand Duke of the North incarnate: glacial, and capable of real cruelty when it suited her. In this life, she was... little more than a walking whirlwind. She'll be hurt if I just leave, she'd said — and she'd looked as if she truly meant it, so I hadn't been able to bring myself to refuse.
I had a fair idea of how she saw me. Puzzlement, most likely — at how thoroughly my conduct strayed from the rumors. But that was all. What she'd called interest in me had surely grown from nothing more than that curiosity. I hadn't expected to be entangled with her once, let alone twice — and I certainly hadn't imagined she would come south herself after I'd skipped the North last time. Still, this was the sort of thing a single visit could end. Humor her with a little pleasant talk, and her interest in me would die out on its own. Our connection ended here.
Becoming deeply entangled with a woman fated to lose her head to a fabricated charge of treason was never good sense. I had to keep my own death at bay until I could throttle the life out of the Crown Prince, after all.
By the time I surfaced from my brooding, I noticed the lights around me dying off one by one. Once the last of them vanished, the city would sink back into darkness — and that would be my moment to move. So I concealed myself, where no one could notice that I was here. The place Jae lived was the building directly above my head. Ordinary, as an alchemist's dwelling went; but inside, I'd wager, it was crammed with instruments that were anything but. Her usual trade was selling potions and herbs out of a little general store. The truth, however, was that she was the finest information broker this Empire had to offer.
No — perhaps woman was putting it generously. Mana twisted from the moment of her birth had left her with the frame of a small child, nothing more. Which was precisely why she couldn't stand against the coming assault; her talents lay entirely outside the battlefield. Everything I had uncovered and gathered about the Crown Prince's dealings, I had owed to Jae's help. Infiltration by way of Phantom... an ability difficult to wrap one's head around even with an explanation — but that she mattered in every single loop was beyond dispute.
I thought again how lucky it was that I'd learned this and that in my past lives. Being able to fight with a blade in hand, being able to think calmly in the teeth of an ambush — all of it thanks to the loops before this one, no? To anyone watching, I would look like nothing but a reckless young man; what dwelt inside was an old serpent that had lived for hundreds of years. Most actions could be predicted, and when it came to things I knew, I did not err. Which was why I could be certain this time as well: alchemist Jae would live — and this time, at last, these hands would cut off the Crown Prince's breath for good.
I closed my eyes, and the faint mana within me began to resonate with my surroundings, boring into the darkness and drawing out gossamer threads that wrapped themselves around everything nearby. An application of mana that claimed the space like a spider's web while mapping every movement within it. The mana in my body was nothing vast, but where application was concerned, I could wield it better than anyone alive. Such is what the years do — even without my willing it, time had a way of refining techniques like these all on its own. Even a presence that never touched the threads would register. A brief sweep of the surroundings picked out only a handful of travelers, still drunk and raising a ruckus. The attackers would be among them. As it had been in the past, my gaze stayed fixed on those people, unblinking. ...Until, all too soon, that focus shattered.
A presence that should never have existed at this hour had made itself known. Cold mana came flowing down my threads, and my body flinched at its touch — fierce and wild, as though furious at something.
Why on earth is this woman here?
Adele Egret. I could not begin to fathom why that woman's presence was registering at all. Around her stirred the presences of several others as well, scattering and regrouping again and again — as though searching for someone. Sensing something off, I spread the threads wider, and Adele's mana flared in sharp response.
She's spotted me.
She must have realized someone was probing the area with mana. But she didn't know that mana was mine. Should I withdraw? I turned the question over and over, then shook my head and accepted the situation. At this point, extracting even myself alone would be difficult. And I couldn't move rashly besides — the moment of Jae's assault was nearly upon us. So I stood quietly where I was and waited, and from beyond, Adele came walking toward me. Catching sight of my face, she started slightly; then her brows drew together and she began to glower.
"...So this is where you were. I was wondering where you'd run off to, leaving me behind. Why in the world are you in a place like this?"
"I told you earlier, didn't I? That I had pressing business."
"I didn't know 'pressing business' meant lurking around places like this. Robert, don't tell me you've picked up a hobby of snooping around other people's homes?"
"It's a misunderstanding."
Shring. Her blade cleared its sheath, and her eyes went cold. That I'd lied to her, and that she'd been played for a fool — neither sat well with her, I imagined. But she was not a woman who drew steel over so little. My read might be premature, but of one thing I was certain: I, as a person, intrigued her. She hadn't unsheathed her sword out of simple anger... but to demand an explanation for why I was here — that, I suspected, was closer to the truth. Adele Egret was a simple creature at heart. She did as she pleased, went where her heart pulled her. But that animal instinct of hers lay beyond prediction, and by now she must have grasped that something was in this place. For the first time, someone other than me would learn of this affair. I had meant to tell no one if I could help it. Still — if it was Adele... she could be trusted. She wouldn't remember it, but had we not once been comrades-in-arms?
"Someone is going to die here tonight."
Her arm froze mid-motion. Blade still leveled at me, eyes narrowed to slits, Adele asked:
"A person?"
"Yes. Left unchecked, by tomorrow it will be an accident the whole district is talking about."
"So you came to stop it. I see... understood."
After a moment's thought she gave a single nod and lowered her sword. So unexpected a reaction that it was I who ended up thrown off balance. How did you know? Who's dying? I had braced myself for questions of that sort. But the relieved sigh on her face made it look as though the questioning were over. So I stared at her blankly, and Adele let out a short laugh, sliding her sword home as she spoke.
"I don't know why you're making that face. Moved that I didn't kill you?"
"You're not going to ask me anything?"
"Why would I have to ask?"
As though it were the most obvious thing in the world, she answered without a second thought and pressed on. The man beside her only laughed in quiet defeat, as if he'd seen it coming. I knew who he was, too: the bespectacled strategist at Adele's side — certainly the man called Lotos.
"Everyone has their secrets. Judging by how you wouldn't say it outright, it's likely something of that sort. I've no intention of ferreting out every last detail. If it's work that demands leaving a woman like me all on her own... it must be something terribly grand. Young Lord Taylor."
The tone hovered near an interrogation, but one thing seemed certain: she wasn't taking it very seriously. Had I wound myself tight for nothing? The moment I breathed a sigh of relief, Lotos beside her turned a teasing look on Adele.
"Didn't you simply come looking because you were worried? We don't even know who this Robert fellow is, and the moment he vanished it was 'find him, find him!' in such a state— oh, dear me. In any case, I'm glad we found him."
"Quiet. Unless you'd like to die early."
At Adele's bark, Lotos clamped his mouth shut and clutched at his own throat. Not one thing had changed. Then again, I had watched this exact scene play out dozens of times by now — Lotos forgetting his place and nearly dying for it, Adele baring her blade in the uproar. A laugh nearly escaped me at the familiar sight, but I forced my expression into order and looked at Adele. Lotos's remark, it seemed, had needled her more than she let on. She flicked a glance at me, slipped her gaze aside, and added:
"...I wasn't worried. You simply vanished, so I looked for you."
"Is that so."
"You'd do well not to listen to a word this good-for-nothing beside me says. Nothing he offers is of any use whatsoever. Bear that in mind when you come to the North later, too."
I realized she was merely trying to smooth over her own embarrassment. Still, I nodded as though I'd taken the lesson to heart, and Adele studied me in silence a moment before turning her head away. At this rate, it was safe to assume that dodging a trip to the North was no longer in the cards. I nodded — and Adele swept her gaze around our surroundings and spoke. It struck me then: only a single light remained nearby. Which meant the assault on Jae was about to begin.
"By the way — stopping a person's death. Is that something you can manage on your own? If you'd allow it, we could help. We've done plenty of that sort of work."
"I'm grateful for the offer, but this is something I must resolve myself. Though if there's anything I need..."
My eyes fell on Adele's sword. Far finer than the one I carried — a blade that would not snap no matter how it was swung. If I accepted her help, her very presence might tangle the affair. But surely one borrowed item could do no harm.
"Might I borrow the sword you're carrying?"
"A sword...? I don't mind, but you've never so much as held one, have you?"
"I did say that."
Adele hesitated a beat, then pressed the sword into my hand, speaking as though puzzled. True enough — when we'd met before, I had said I had no interest in swords. The me of this loop had barely ever gripped one, let alone swung it.
"And yet I never said I couldn't handle one, did I?"
Crackle. A thing I could never have done with that old, worn blade. Mana surging up from my heart poured down my arm and into the steel, and as a blue flare rose out of the darkness, Adele stared at the sight, transfixed. To me, of course, it was nothing at all. Light cleaving through shadow — for a me who had lived that loop, it had been as natural as breathing. There had been a time when I lived by the sword and by nothing else. And so the one hundred and first me, too, could hardly help but know the sword — I had swung it, after all, until I was thoroughly sick of it.
Sword Saint — that was the epithet once pinned on me, in one loop or another.