Earlier Than Expected
Before I knew it, the luggage was all packed, and I found myself running alongside the others as they hurried off somewhere beyond the cave. Unlike the rest of them, each weighed down by a pack on their back, the Queen I carried was light as a feather — nothing on me but a single sword at my waist. A rather strange feeling, this.
Hmm. It was true that carrying her while running made her bounce up and down something terrible. I shifted the Queen's posture and cradled her in both arms instead, and somehow it felt a good deal steadier.
With the skip technique engaged, the blizzard and their movements blurred several times faster around us.
Where we were headed was a place called the Sanctuary. Now, a monster wave, by common definition, means monsters swarming in numbers no ordinary force can hope to withstand.
Even in such desperate straits, one cannot ignore the limits of the body — rest must be taken whenever a gap presents itself. These people knew that as well as anyone.
Clara in particular looked to be in poor shape. If we hadn't let her sleep yesterday, things might have turned far worse indeed.
The skip released, and Jake came to a halt, turning to Clara with a word of caution.
"Short break here. We can't rest long."
"Haah, haah... Yes, I'm fine."
For all that she answered so, her condition did not look good at all.
She was doing her utmost to steady her breathing — but if my fears proved true, Clara's strength might not hold out until we reached the Sanctuary.
"I'm all right now."
Thankfully, my worry proved mere idle fear. A faint light rose from her body, and I could feel vigor flowing back into her limbs.
"What a remarkably versatile power."
"Yes! Well, technically it's divine power. It's a miracle granted by God, so it can be used in all sorts of ways."
I failed to see what a gift from God had to do with versatility, but her faith was clearly devout.
"By the way, Seojju, why don't you leave footprints? And we're running together, but I'm the only one getting exhausted..."
"Why no footprints, you ask... Perhaps you have heard of a thing called the Lightness Art?"
"The Lightness Art...? I don't think I have."
"The Lightness Art is a technique that lightens the body. For instance, it allows one to tread upon grass, to walk upon water, or — as now — to cross snow without leaving a single print."
That was not, of course, the true purpose of the art, but explaining it this way would be easiest to understand.
"You can do that...? Even knights who've reached mastery struggle with things like that..."
"Of course it is possible. Should the occasion ever arise, I shall show you walking upon the very sky."
"Pfft, that's straight out of a fairy tale. I'm way past the age of believing that stuff."
In my eyes she remained very much a child, but... well, she need not believe it. If one day she witnessed it with her own eyes, she would have to believe it whether she wished to or not.
"Does it wear on you badly?"
"... Yes. Honestly, my stamina just doesn't hold up. I heard I was frail even as a child — I don't really remember, but... it's just... everyone keeps adjusting things for my sake, and it weighs on me."
"You feel like a burden. That is what you mean."
Clara, rare for her, answered with silence.
Rare, indeed — in truth, it was a sight I had never once seen from her.
"Then let this one help you."
"Eh?! If you're thinking of carrying me, or holding me, or anything like that — absolutely not!"
I wished to say I did no such thing, but Clara's gaze was fixed upon the woman tucked against my chest, so I simply shook my head in denial.
"I shall teach you the trick of walking. You are a priestess, so you may find it easier than most."
For this art was tied less to internal energy or martial prowess than it was to faith itself.
"Really? I've never heard of that..."
Even so, Clara could not quite bring herself to believe it.
"Naturally you haven't. Observe. Have you ever seen garments such as these?"
"Um... no?"
"Then have you ever heard the name of this manner of dress?"
"No... no, I haven't!"
She crumbled in an instant. Her thinking was, after all, rather simple. And besides, not a word I'd said was untrue.
Somehow I felt like a serpent luring away a small child...
"First, lighten your heart."
"Lighten my heart..."
Mind and body are bound deeply together. Lighten the heart, and the body, too, shall grow light.
"Feel it with every step you take — the flow, and the grain of it."
"...?"
"Become one with your surroundings, and lift yourself upward."
"Yes...?"
Believe completely? That one, and that one too — somewhere between them, the chat had turned distinctly unsettling. No — downright unpleasant. Were they treating this one as some charlatan cultist...
"I don't get it at all!"
"If it proves too difficult, then watch this one and imitate him. As it happens, the rest is drawing to a close."
"Um, yes! I'll try."
Though I sensed a flicker of well, no harm in trying mixed in there.
"Give it your best."
We ran long, weaving the skip technique through our pace. By their reckoning, perhaps half a day had passed. Around the time the deep blizzard began to hint at the coming of night, Clara still had not managed the Lightness Art.
"Phew! But I think I've gotten a little better!"
"That, I believe, is called a placebo."
"Hm?"
"It is nothing."
"Oh... okay."
Even should she squint at me all she liked, I had no intention of elaborating.
"Well. You are improving, little by little."
The problem was that this child mistook running for flying. She believed herself soaring, when in truth she was merely leaping in place. What, I wondered, was to be done about that.
"The essence is simple. Remember this: think of yourself as light."
"Think of myself as light..."
Clara flailed her arms and legs this way and that, and something about it looked as though she were on the verge of grasping something. One could only hope it led to true enlightenment. Please — let her not turn out like that one.
"Now then, Jake. How far shall we make it today?"
I approached Jake, who stood gauging the distance through the driving snow, and received a hopeful answer.
"We'll probably make the Sanctuary by tonight. It'll be dark, but we should be fine."
"A mercy."
We would arrive before matters turned truly dire.
"We were supposed to camp around here tonight, actually. I don't know what you taught Clara, but... thank you. Honestly, even Clara herself seemed to feel bad about slowing us down... It was getting to me a little."
"What need is there for thanks? The sword this one carries now is the very one that child Clara gave him. It is only right."
Without that sword, it would have been an enormous ordeal indeed. However freely I drew upon my qi, the very physics of this world ran differently — and there were limits to the game-defying techniques I could employ before the system noticed.
"When I heard you'd carved through that whole horde of spiders solo and decked the Queen flat, I wondered how strong you could possibly be. But from the way you run alone, none of us could keep up... You're something else. By the way — that sword, it was Clara's?"
"It was. We found it with a letter."
"Oh... Honestly? It wasn't a very good sword."
"Clara treasures it, and I'm sorry to her for saying so — but it was, quite literally, a spare."
And that spare sword had proven an enormous help to me. Truly, one never knows how fortune will turn. And judging by the not-so-subtle hints, he wanted the Lightness Art taught to him as well — but just now, I could hardly teach it while that child over there was enjoying herself so thoroughly.
"A little something special — she's earned the right to feel it."
As for the monster wave — so long as this one stood, there would be no meaningless sacrifice.
"Fair enough. Still, is it okay if I ask Clara about it later?"
"Would it not be simpler to ask the original owner herself?"
"That's a yes, right?"
No answer was necessary.
Permission secured, Johanna bounded off toward Clara, running up to her and nodding her head over and over.
"What in the world is she doing..."
"No idea. What even is that..."
Truly, why must she flap about in midair like that?
"By the way, is it really all right to teach her so easily?"
"When this one has already declared he will teach, who is there to deny it?"
"You really are something..."
Well then — just who is this one? And yet...
Kuguguung... A rumbling climbed up through the soles of my feet.
"Hm. Does the earth not tremble?"
"The earth is trembling? I can't feel anything."
No — a distinct vibration was unmistakably there. Too shallow to be an earthquake; it was a rumbling along the surface. And the direction the tremor rolled in from was the very direction we now traveled. That left only one possibility.
"Jake. This one must go ahead."
"What? Why all of a sudden?"
Jake stared at me, bewildered — he had evidently felt nothing yet.
"The monster wave is likely already upon us. You all, make haste and follow."
"What?"
There was no time to convince them. The Queen... yes, I had best bring her along.
"Pardon me, then."
"How is he that fast..."
"How much were you babying us before, seriously?!"
"Ah — now's not the time for this! Hurry up and pack!"
"Y-yes. Wait, do we even need to go?"
"Just pack your stuff."