The Girls' Heart-Pounding Journey (1)
I hid in the alley, waiting anxiously. Rin’s whispers had grown a little quieter, perhaps because she had used up so much of her body driving away the flies.
I was fidgeting, legs crossed and feet tapping restlessly, when several flies circled back inside my ear and transformed into sticky mucus.
‘How did it go?’
‘…It’s Elvira.’
Elvira—the popular prostitute who had led the other women in ostracizing me.
Could she be involved in something?
‘Elvira saw the wanted poster and recognized Mother’s face. Arto looks completely flustered and doesn’t know what to do.’
‘Ah……’
Of course. It was only a matter of time before this happened. Prostitution was, after all, a job that involved dealing with people; there was no way to stay hidden forever while doing it. Still, since I had already found Mother and returned her memories, it was better that it happened now rather than later.
‘Should I kill her? I could gather all the rat-shaped split bodies, melt them alive, and devour her. If I shapeshift into her, no one will even notice she’s gone.’
‘N-no…. I still don’t like that kind of gruesome murder……’
I didn’t think Elvira deserved such a punishment. To anyone looking, I was the villain here. Even if Elvira hadn’t particularly hated me, the outcome would have been the same—someone would eventually report me and turn me into a fugitive.
‘This is actually an opportunity. We can leave the brothel without arguing with Arto, just by packing our things.’
‘What about getting past the guards?’
‘You’ll help me.’
I moved through the narrow alley, checking both the front and back entrances of Arto’s brothel. Soldiers guarded both doors, but the back door was slightly farther from my position. There were also fewer passersby on that side.
I quietly repeated to myself the words I had once told my companions.
A mage’s job is to solve problems and riddles that seem impossible to unravel.
‘Rin, if you gather your split bodies and make yourself bigger, you can use magic too, right? You’ve received all my magical knowledge, and you’re a magical creature that moves with mana.’
‘Yes. But then I’ll end up sitting on Mother’s head like a hat again, just like last time.’
‘That’s fine. It’s not like anyone else will see. Call the rat split bodies over. Enough so I can cast four or five spells.’
‘Understood.’
In mere minutes, Rin’s split bodies—scattered around in the forms of pigeons or flies—gathered and swelled to the size of a hat.
‘…Just how many split bodies did you leave behind?’
‘Don’t worry. I’ve never eaten a person before. …Not a person, anyway.’
I tried to ignore the unsettling remark and gave Rin her instructions.
Then, instead of a proper incantation and formula, I cast Enholt’s Veil with a drastically reduced range.
“Hoo……”
Thanks to the refracted light, I could hide my body in the narrow alley right beneath Arto’s brothel.
‘Rin, how is it?’
‘It’s fine.’
I asked Rin to send one fly split body inside to check if anyone was in the room I used to stay in.
Fortunately, there were no soldiers inside—perhaps they thought blocking both doors was enough.
‘I wonder what they think mages are. Even a beginner spell makes scaling walls and opening windows easy.’
‘You’re right. Now’s the time to use the spell you requested, Mother.’
‘Okay.’
At Rin’s words, I kicked off my sandals, sat down, and pressed both hands and feet against the brothel’s outer wall like a frog. Soon, a sticky sensation—as if the wall would never let go no matter how hard I pushed—transmitted through my limbs.
‘It’s done. I’ve cast Menelon’s Honey on Mother’s hands and feet. Since it’s not the main body but the mana circulation capacity that’s lacking, I can’t use it when coming down. Will that be all right?’
‘Thank you. Once is enough.’
I immediately began climbing the wall. Because I had to maintain Enholt’s Veil at its limit with constant focus, I had no choice but to leave the magic to Rin.
Without much effort, I reached the window of my second-floor room. I opened the wooden shutter outside, gripped the wooden bars, and rewound the time of the bars alone.
The bars, freed from time, cleanly severed and fell away from the wall. I carefully lowered them to the floor without making a sound, then slipped inside.
The rough wooden flooring touched the soles of my feet. Moving as quietly as possible, I opened a drawer, took out the pocket watch first, and slipped it into my skirt pocket.
‘…Next spell.’
‘Understood. I’ll use Yorlick’s Silence. The range is Mother and anything in contact with Mother, correct?’
After the soft tentacles gestured a few times, the world was enveloped in silence.
Though already-cast spells wouldn’t be canceled just because it became quiet, I couldn’t use any other spells that required incantation while the silence lasted. I had to finish quickly.
I quietly opened the wardrobe, hurriedly pulled out my backpack, donned my robe, and laced up my boots. The tips and wages I had received so far were neatly inside the backpack, so that was fine.
The shawl and camisole…
I didn’t leave them behind. I hurriedly stuffed them into the backpack.
My feet were a little dirty from climbing the wall and walking on the floor, but I had no time to worry about it. A bit of dust could be washed away later with Menelon’s Ice Sheet.
Yorlick’s Silence didn’t last long. After tying the laces properly, I headed back toward the empty window frame.
Now, if I just jumped down before the silence ended……
And then the door burst open.
“Eh……?”
In reality, no sound escaped because Yorlick’s Silence was still active, but I mouthed the words anyway.
“Uh……”
The soldier who opened the door also let out a dazed exclamation.
The room was small, and at this distance, the Enholt’s Veil I had been desperately maintaining was useless.
“A witch! It’s the witch Kaira! Everyone, request backup! Request backup!!”
“Tch.”
I dropped the now-unnecessary Enholt’s Veil and leaped out the window.
With a heavy backpack stuffed with books, portable rations, and silver coins, jumping from the second floor unscathed was impossible—especially since I didn’t even know a proper landing technique. I hit the ground and broke my shin.
“Ugh, uuu……!! U-ugh…, ah, it hurts……. Uuu……”
The loud thud and the scream that escaped me told me Yorlick’s Silence had ended.
Beyond the broken cross-section of my leg, I could see the white shinbone soaked in blood protruding.
The memory of that moment in the basement flashed through my mind, and the pain was so intense I nearly panicked, but if I lost consciousness here, it would be over. I gathered all my strength and rewound time.
‘Rewind……!!’
Just three seconds. The broken leg returned to normal, leaving only a faint phantom pain.
I had worried that having Rin embedded in my head might affect my brain, but it seemed there were no side effects caused by her.
I immediately cast Mobia’s Haste and dashed to escape the alley at accelerated speed, but I was a little too late. Several soldiers appeared right in front of me.
‘They’re innocent people. I can’t hurt them……’
To avoid trampling them, I used the momentum I had built up to leap high and cast Menelon’s Ice Sheet beneath their feet.
“Ugh!?”
“W-what is this…?”
While leaping over the suddenly unbalanced soldiers, I asked Rin for help.
‘It’s your turn to cast the veil now. I can’t use it anymore.’
‘Understood.’
The tentacles on my head fluttered as if mimicking a hand gesture, and once again Enholt’s Veil wrapped around the two of us like a thin membrane.
‘I’ll run straight to the eastern wall like this.’
‘But the city gate is too narrow to hide with the veil. What will you do, Mother?’
‘I have an idea.’
Rin asked skeptically.
‘Is it a reliable method?’
‘……It’s a gamble.’
That was all I said before I ran eastward along the main road.
‘This is…… I look more like a thief than a mage.’
I said self-deprecatingly to Rin.
‘A magic thief, then. Is that what they call a hybrid class? There were stories like that on Earth too. O Light God, please permit this righteous thief today—’
Apparently confirming she was indeed an intelligent being, Rin returned a lowbrow joke of her own.
‘…Stop it.’
Passersby we passed too closely might have seen me running in my robe, but they would quickly disappear from view, so I wasn’t too worried.
‘It’s a shame I couldn’t even say goodbye to Alber or Arto. Well, it can’t be helped.’
Rin turned out to be a better ally than expected.
A mage who could fill two slots with magic, use them two at a time, and rewind time to use them again when they ran out—like having twice the head and limbs.
‘…Um, Mother. I’m not just a useful tool. I’m your daughter!’
‘Ah, got it…, I won’t think like that.’
‘Still… I’m glad I can be a daughter who helps Mother. Hehe.’
Alternating Mobia’s Haste with Rin up to the limit of what we could use today, we finally arrived before the eastern wall.
Word of me must have reached the gate, because it was closed. If only guards had been there, we might have found a way through, but now that it had come to this……
I headed into a narrow alley shrouded in the wall’s shadow. There were no passersby—at least not within the blind spot of the refracted light.
‘It’s just a wall……’
‘Yeah. It’s a wall.’
‘If we use Menelon’s Honey to climb, the guards will spot us. Even if we rewind time to cut the wall, we won’t be able to push away such a heavy chunk of wall.’
‘Just keep maintaining the veil.’
Ignoring Rin’s words, I opened my spellbook and manifested a spell.
‘Asien’s Dancing Staff.’
It was a simple spell that let me manipulate lightweight, rod-shaped objects like telekinesis…… I cast it on the piece of charcoal I always carried.
One upward flick, one downward sweep—the charcoal moved violently, leaving lines on the wall. So that I could conceptualize those lines, so that I could clearly recognize that “this section of the wall is an independent compartment separate from the rest of the wall.”
‘You’re going to rewind just this part for a few seconds to cut it? With Mother’s power, you could probably cut it…… But if it’s thick enough for a body to pass through, that’s still hundreds of tons of stone, isn’t it?’
‘I am going to rewind this, but……’
“Hoo.”
I placed my right hand on the wall and gripped the pocket watch I had kept in my skirt pocket with my left. I stared intently at the charcoal marks clearly carved into the wall.
The ticking of the precious watch—whose winding I had never forgotten—resounded softly through my left hand.
This sound gave me strength. It gave me courage. And it would give me the breakthrough to overcome this moment.
The minute movements of the ticking watch. And the sand pouring from the hourglass.
Sand……
Yes, sand.
Now that I could see that moment, I could do it.
‘Rewind.’
And so, it rewound.
The sandstone bricks that made up the wall returned to the time when they were still sand outside the water.
Probably tens of millions of years ago.
The thin section of wall marked with charcoal turned into loose, dry sand and collapsed outward on both sides with a rustling sound, unable to support its own weight.
‘Hik……’
Rin, watching from above my head, seemed quite shocked by the solution beyond her imagination.
‘Something like this…… is possible?’
‘Yeah. It is possible……’
I answered my daughter’s astonished question while struggling through the sand like a mole.
Even if the guards on the wall hadn’t noticed yet, the fact that part of the wall had turned to sand and collapsed was an impossible anomaly.
Before the soldiers gathered after seeing this, and before Enholt’s Veil hiding my sand-covered appearance disappeared, I had to cross the wall quickly.
There was no moat outside the Imperial Capital’s walls. Rather than a fortress for defense in wartime, it was a wall whose main purpose was to divide districts and control entry and exit, possessing only minimal defensive functions.
After pushing through the sand, I ran straight out from under the wall and headed toward Opia’s house. To the place where Mother was.
Opia and Pirel were already waiting in front of Opia’s house, along with a horse.
To avoid arousing Opia’s suspicion, Rin—who had been occupying the top of my head like a hat—split apart again as soon as we were some distance from the wall.
The split bodies said they would convey what had happened to the main body and share the memories, then transformed into swarms of insects and scattered swiftly.
“Ah, you’re here, Kaira?”
Opia greeted me with a welcoming expression, her face showing she didn’t know what had happened.
“I’ve been waiting, Kaira.”
Pirel held the reins with her small hands. It was probably the horse she had prepared to sell to me.
“…I got out of the brothel, but another prostitute found out who I was.”
I briefly told them about the desperate escape I had just pulled off.
“……. You turned the wall into sand?”
“Yeah. I rewound time. Probably tens of millions of years.”
…Knowledge about sedimentary rock probably wasn’t common sense in this world yet.
Both Opia and Pirel stood with their mouths agape, expressions of utter disbelief…… but they both knew I had nothing to gain by lying.
“So they’ll know I escaped outside the walls. Court inquisitors will soon be going around investigating, focusing on people living outside the walls.”
Pirel looked at me and spoke.
“Then we have to leave right now.”
“Yeah……. I’m sorry I couldn’t give you time to prepare, Mothe— I mean, Pirel.”
“It’s fine. If there’s anything I regret……”
Pirel glanced slightly at Opia.
“It’s just that the master isn’t here, so I couldn’t say goodbye. I wrote a letter just in case and left it with Miss Opia, so even if it’s a shame, I can leave like this.”
Opia’s expression looked lonely. She was sending off both the child she had treated like a younger sister and her university friend forever; her heart must have felt empty.
While watching Opia’s expression, I cautiously spoke.
“Um…, for the horse’s price, how much should I……”
Opia shook her head slightly.
“That horse is a gift for Pirel, who has worked until now. It’s an older mare, so it’s not a particularly good horse, but it’s well-trained and not vicious. If Pirel says she found her family, Father will understand too.”
“Thank you, Opia.”
After saying that, I stepped into the stirrup and mounted the saddle.
“…But. I don’t know how to ride a horse.”
Someone tapped my boots and smiled brightly. It was Pirel.
“I know how.”
Pirel also stepped into the stirrup, climbed onto the horse’s back behind me, and took the reins.
“Stay healthy, Miss Opia.”
Opia forced a bright smile for us.
“Yeah……. I’m sorry for treating you like a younger sister without knowing you were Kaira’s mother, Pirel.”
“Huhu. I should be the one thanking you for remaining friends with our foolish daughter who did such a thing, Miss Opia.”
Opia spoke as if trying to cut the farewell short, with a slightly hurried air.
“Well then, this is goodbye. Hurry and go before someone finds you. I’ll… be fine.”
…Even though she wasn’t fine.
Understanding our friend’s feelings, we nodded at the same time. Along with Pirel’s voice as she rode in front holding the reins, the two of us—mother and daughter—
…Actually, including Rin, the three of us—grandmother, mother, and daughter—left the Imperial Capital together like that. With our backs to the sun setting beyond the distant walls.
It was our first journey together with Mother.