A Sudden Yet Inevitable Meeting
His eyes stung. It was the fault of a landscape so intensely blue it burned to look at it. The cold air brushing his skin was freezing, yet carried a strange warmth. Most of all, the sensation against the back of his head felt different. Instead of hard dirt, something soft cradled his skull. A lap pillow, maybe?
When he opened his eyes, Dohesi’s face appeared upside down. She was trying to hide her expression, but she couldn’t conceal the redness around her eyes.
“...Since when did you learn how to do something like this?”
“I don’t know.”
“No, there’s no way you don’t know...”
“I’m not telling you. Because you tricked me, Noriel. If I hadn’t come, you really would’ve died, wouldn’t you?”
“That’s... the situation just spiraled that way...”
“Shut your mouth.”
“Yes, ma’am.”
If he kept babbling, it wouldn’t end with words. He deliberately looked away from the chilly atmosphere. Turning his head, his vision was suddenly filled with a vast scene.
The colossal body of Gluttony, once so massive, was now helplessly crumbling within raging flames. Its core had been completely obliterated by the Yongdeung explosion. The once-turbulent sea of darkness had become nothing but dark crimson ash, crumbling into emptiness.
It still didn’t feel real that he and Dohesi had accomplished something this enormous.
“Noriel.”
“...What?”
“Do you still want to see the world?”
“......Yeah. I think so.”
There was no point in hiding it anymore. The small but desperate wish he had harbored every time he looked beyond the horizon.
“I knew it. No matter how much you try to hide it, I can always tell.”
“...Was it that obvious?”
“Just like Uncle Jack said, do what you want to do. But in return—”
Dohesi took a short breath before continuing.
“Next time, you have to take me with you.”
Was she referring to what she’d said before?
“...Got it.”
“If you break that promise again, I’ll really tie you up hand and foot.”
“...I’d better never forget that.”
The relief of knowing everything was over. Or perhaps it was the release from that terrible heat. Extreme exhaustion suddenly crashed over his entire body. His burning eyelids slowly sank, dragging what remained of his consciousness down with them.
“...Sorry. I’m going to sleep for a bit.”
“Yeah. Sleep well.”
He felt her hand brush across his forehead.
“And... thank you.”
What did she mean? Without ever understanding the meaning behind those words, he fell into a deep sleep in her arms.
“Ugh...!”
Asera pushed herself up from the ground with great effort. Was it the aftermath of the explosion? Her whole body, which had been thrown around by the shock, throbbed painfully.
“What happened...?”
Only then did her vision gradually return.
“—!”
For a moment, she thought she had fallen into hell. Black, oily debris covered everything, devoured by dark crimson flames. The one difference was that the monster that had been crushing them was nowhere to be seen. Only the sight of its obsidian body crumbling and vanishing into the flames filled her view.
“...! Lien!!”
Asera frantically looked around.
“Ah...!”
Fortunately, she spotted Lien collapsed not far away. The other girl lay limply, still unconscious.
“Lien, Lien! Are you okay?!”
“Mmm...”
Suppressing her anxiety, Asera first checked Lien’s condition. Thankfully, there were no noticeable serious injuries. However, because of the accumulated fatigue from the continuous battles, she showed no signs of waking up immediately.
“Thank goodness...”
Asera moved Lien to a safer spot and carefully laid her down. Then she turned her gaze back toward the battlefield where thick smoke was still rising. There was still something she needed to confirm.
“That person...”
She didn’t even know his identity, yet he had stirred strange emotions in her chest. The one who had slain that catastrophic creature was surely that man. Whether he was alive or dead remained unclear. But she had to find even the smallest trace of him.
How long had she been walking? Pushing through the swirling ash, she caught sight of a faint blue light in the distance.
“What is that...?”
It was like a single garden. In the midst of a world set ablaze, a tiny, quiet sanctuary that embraced only two people. As if ignoring the surrounding crimson flames and sea of destruction, a calm chill flowed only in that place. It was as if that space alone had been carved out from this world. Was there such magic?
Asera turned her eyes toward the owner of that sight. The first thing she saw was an unfamiliar silhouette—a girl with brown bobbed hair that reached her shoulders. The girl was kneeling politely, carefully holding someone in her arms. The face of the person being held was hidden by the girl’s back. However, the clothing visible through the gap gave her a strong sense of déjà vu.
“The person whose eyes met mine...”
That blue trajectory drawn in the air had belonged to this girl. Had she rescued the man? The situation roughly made sense.
“...I’m glad.”
The tension left Asera’s shoulders as relief washed over her. She couldn’t pinpoint exactly why her heart felt so at ease. Was it because she was relieved that the man whose name she didn’t even know was alive? For now, she decided to set her questions aside. Confirmation came first.
Asera swallowed dryly and called out to them with a trembling voice.
“E-excuse me...!”
Her shout was cut off. A heavy vibration suddenly came from behind her.
Rumble—
When she turned her head toward the rough wind, her vision filled with a troop of soldiers charging forward, kicking up clouds of dust. The banners fluttering in the wind represented the Allied Nations. Had news of this unprecedented event finally reached them? It was a scale of forces rarely seen in this era called the Age of Peace.
Though the situation had already ended.
“!! The knight from the guild is over there!”
“Ah, we’re too late! It looks like the battle is already over!”
The lead riders spotted her and galloped over roughly.
“Knight! Her Majesty the Queen has sent reinforcements! Are you unharmed?!”
The soldiers jumped noisily from their horses and surrounded Asera. Perhaps their excessive enthusiasm was the problem. The layers of soldiers blocked her view completely.
“W-wait, there’s a civilian over there...!”
When Asera urgently reached out and shouted, the confused soldiers finally parted left and right. But—
What should have been there was gone.
“...Huh?”
The girl, the blue garden—everything had vanished. As if she had seen an illusion, only blue mist lingered above the scorched empty ground.
“Ah.”
An orange-tinted sky seeped into his eyes. The sunset sky was unusually quiet today. Maybe because the day had been exceptionally long. In his dazed state, all he could manage was to barely organize his thoughts.
To put it simply, the ‘Wiblame Incident’ seemed to have been officially concluded as having been safely resolved thanks to the desperate struggle of two knights and the villagers’ frantic cooperation.
When I opened my eyes, I was inside a temporary treatment center set up by the military unit. It seemed the reinforcements had arrived right after I lost consciousness. I heard that Asera and Lien, who had been at the scene, had been moved elsewhere and were receiving treatment.
Dohesi... was nowhere to be seen. I clearly remembered falling asleep in her arms, but when I woke up, she was gone. Had she left to get her own treatment? When I asked the soldiers, they didn’t seem to know anything.
“Hey there, Noriel. Are you feeling alright?”
“Ah, Elder. You’re safe. Are you uninjured?”
“Of course, of course. I’m sprightlier than you.”
It was the sturdy old soldier who had firmly gripped my shoulder and given me instructions earlier.
“It was a stroke of luck to encounter the military unit while evacuating. We’ve mostly taken care of the injured. However... we couldn’t prevent some from losing their lives.”
A shadow fell over the elder’s face.
“......”
The image of Uncle Jack’s final moments flashed through my mind as well. Right after waking up, I had gone straight to where the casualties were gathered, but all I saw was Uncle covered with a white cloth. That was why I had been staring blankly at the setting sun for so long.
“By the way, that monster that attacked the village. From what I hear, it was far more terrible than we thought.”
The elder began recounting what he had heard from the soldiers. Wiblame had already been reported to the upper echelons of the Allied Nations. At first, it had merely been a cluster of Blames with no particular activity, so its threat level hadn’t seemed very high. After all, this was before it had even been named ‘Wiblame.’ It might be quite some time before it became known as a calamity entity.
The problem was that it had suddenly begun to act, ‘devouring’ everything in the Great Forest, and had eventually reached this village.
“Blames gathering together to form one giant creature? It’s the first time I’ve heard of such a phenomenon in my life.”
“...It was probably a failure in population control.”
Originally, Gluttony was a being that appeared in the very late stages of the original story, and even then, it had been caused by an explosive increase in the Blame population. However, for some reason this time, it had been born absurdly early and had already begun to grow. If it was a miracle, then it was a miracle. If it had charged into the village in its adult form, the entire place—including the village itself—would have been swallowed into darkness.
“...Hmm.”
There was one thing that bothered me. The creature hadn’t directly devoured the village. Why had it acted that way? Since it was a being without intelligence, its movements made no sense.
“......”
There was one ominous hypothesis that had crossed my mind. But it was a prediction that absolutely, under no circumstances, must come true.
The Creation Society. The only ones who could interfere with calamity entities were those bastards—
“Now that I think about it, Noriel, that massive explosion. Did you cause it?”
“Pardon? What do you mean?”
“You charged at it alone carrying a Yongdeung. People are saying it was your achievement.”
“Ah, um, that’s...”
This was bad. The situation was different from when I moved under the assumption that the protagonist was absent. With Asera clearly present now, my presence growing larger would be a poor move that interfered with the original story’s progression.
“T-that’s not it. I simply handed the Yongdeung over to the knight.”
“Hmm? Is that true?”
“Ugh, don’t even mention it. I was just loitering in front of that thing and ended up fainting, you know?”
“...Well, no matter how extraordinary you are, that monster would be unfamiliar to you. Just surviving is fortunate enough.”
The elder patted my back with a hearty laugh.
This should be enough. I was a character who didn’t exist in the original story. For now, raising Asera’s presence and the protagonist’s fame should take priority.
“Oh, right. It seems those knights at the village entrance are about to leave soon.”
It was about Asera.
“...Already? It’ll be dark soon.”
“There’s no proper medical facility in the village. They want to head up to the capital quickly.”
...Ah. She’s leaving.
Asera. The character I had created myself. It would be a lie to say I didn’t want to acknowledge her. However, I was a human who didn’t exist in the original work. Was it really the right thing to let her know of my existence?
My head knew the clear answer. Even so.
At the news that she was leaving, a corner of my heart ached sharply.
“...Noriel? Where are you going?”
“Huh?”
The elder’s voice came from behind. Only then did I come to my senses. At some point, I had started walking.
“......”
I was surprised at myself. This was the first time I had ever felt this impatient.
“...I-I thought I’d at least greet the knight. Since we both survived, that much should be fine, right...?”
“That’s true. Go on, and tell them the village sends its regards as well.”
“Haha... Yes, understood.”
Wait, what did he just ask me to do? I hadn’t even been paying proper attention. My steps were already hurrying toward the entrance.
‘It seems those knights at the village entrance are about to leave soon.’
My legs moved faster. My breathing grew rough. Anxiety that they might have already departed flooded over me. Why was my heart so restless? Even if I did meet her, I had no plan for how to explain myself.
Um, hello. My name is Noriel. Actually, I created you. Want to call me Dad?
Hey, fuck! What kind of insane nonsense is that? Wouldn’t she just look at me with contempt, thinking my head had gone rotten?
When such ridiculous imaginations surfaced, my feet hesitated slightly.
“Haa, haa.”
Even so. Just once more. The desire to see that face for even one more second could not be hidden.
—
The sprint didn’t last long. When I came to my senses, I had already reached the village entrance.
“...The knight, sir...”
“Later, the village...!”
“...? Even though he’s young.”
At the village entrance in the distance, I saw people gathered. Among the villagers expressing their gratitude, I also caught sight of the face I had been thinking about so much. It was Asera.
The first thing I felt was relief. Was it because she hadn’t left yet? If I could just slip through that crowd, I would be able to meet Asera right in front of me.
“...?”
Wait, my legs wouldn’t move. I had run like crazy, but now that Asera was right before my eyes, my feet froze. Was it because I hadn’t decided what to say?
‘Hello? Thank you for saving me?’
Should I use formal speech? Or speak casually to seem friendly?
The tips of my fingers trembled faintly. If I told her my name... would she recognize it? Would she think I was a creep? Wait, didn’t she run toward me earlier? No, that was probably just to protect the villagers.
My heart, pounding uncontrollably, proved my anxiety.
“...Ah, damn. This isn’t going to work.”
From my parched lips came surrender.
I instinctively knew. If I stood in front of her in this state, I would clearly ramble like a drunk person. But of course that would happen.
Arcana Saga was a game with particularly high freedom when creating characters. Thanks to that, I had poured my affection into crafting my ideal, pressing in every detail. Appearance, personality, speech patterns, what she liked, what she disliked—everything. And that character was standing right there.
The urge to run over and embrace her was overwhelming. If only there hadn’t been this endless hesitation.
“Asera—!”
I saw Lien approaching Asera, who stood at the entrance, and joining her. She was wrapped in many bandages, suggesting she was injured, but she seemed capable of moving. The villagers poured enthusiastic gratitude on Lien as well.
I quietly took in that scene. The expressions of the people looking at her. They were looks of respect and awe. Or rather, the attitude one shows toward a brilliant hero.
“......”
Asera was carving out her own journey. The gazes people sent her proved it. That’s right. She would follow the original story’s ending, draw her own path, and complete her own sword. Because she was the protagonist of this world.
“...Let’s go back.”
I shook off my lingering feelings. It was thanks to the sense of relief in my heart. I turned my back on the entrance and headed the other way. Even without me interfering, Asera would steadily build her own path. I had no abilities to begin with. I would only be a hindrance to her journey.
Let’s be satisfied with quietly taking in the changing world as a simple villager, just as I was born to do. And occasionally, when I hear tales of Asera’s heroic deeds, I can smile contentedly while drinking with them as snacks. Yeah, that sounded good. That would be enough.
My steps grew lighter. This must be the right answer. I should start planning for the future again, building it up from the beginning—
—Grab.
?
My wrist was caught. Someone had grabbed it from behind. Confused, I reflexively turned my head. The person who had business with me—
“Um, excuse me.”
—was Asera.
“Don’t we... know each other?”
“......”
Her voice. It struck both my ears and my heart at the same time. My thoughts froze, and my breath caught. Like someone who had truly gone mad.