Adventure in the Autumn Forest (2)
Just before circling around the boulder in the autumn forest, I stopped in my tracks.
“Ugh…… U-ugh……”
I hadn’t misheard. The sound was clear enough that I could be certain it wasn’t an illusion or hallucination.
It was the whimper of a young girl, trembling with fear from a small, fragile body. Thankfully, it didn’t seem mixed with any pained breathing or muffled screams. …Probably.
I should have taken the gun from the corpse earlier.
Whether the source of that voice was Pirel or not, she wouldn’t be alone. Whoever had “subdued” the girl would be with her.
If there was any silver lining, the fact that they’d only gagged her meant they weren’t some dangerous beast, though it also meant they were intelligent beings.
Which meant they already knew I was right in front of them.
I’d called Pirel’s name several times, made noise checking the corpses, and walked all the way here stepping on fallen leaves.
A fight was bound to break out, so I needed to prepare.
Before drawing Mervin’s sword, I quietly cast Mobia’s Haste to boost my dynamic vision and reflexes.
On my left arm, I deployed Veltara’s Transparent Shield, shaping it to cover my entire forearm like a shield so I could easily touch an opponent with my left hand.
I also had to account for using Time Rewinding against people.
“……Haa.”
It wasn’t silent casting. The enemy had probably already noticed I’d used magic.
Even if they read a few moves ahead, there was nothing I could do about it. I was a mage, so I had to fight with magic.
Still gripping the sword, I slowly circled around the boulder.
“……”
I’d hoped it wouldn’t be this.
“Mmph……? U-ugh!!! Hngh!!!”
There she was.
Pirel, wrists bound tightly behind her back with rope, knees and ankles firmly tied, something stuffed in her throat as she sobbed. Thankfully, aside from the restraints, she didn’t appear to have been further violated. Her clothes were still intact, not torn.
Beside her lay two men dressed like adventurers, bleeding on the ground.
Probably the ones who’d been shot while fighting the fallen inquisitor.
Those fallen men hadn’t walked here on their own. They had comrades.
One lightly dressed man stood looking down at his fallen companions, while another, dressed like a priest from some order, stared at me with an expression that said he’d been expecting this. And finally, a sword as tall as I was came flying toward my left shoulder, as if in greeting.
To my heightened reflexes, the blade moved in slow motion. It wasn’t an attack with transcendent agility like a demon king’s.
I considered blocking with my left arm, but worried it might be a magically enhanced sword, so I raised the blade in my right hand and parried the attack at its base.
With a metallic clang, the swords scraped together.
Time, rewind.
The moment the two blades locked, I reached out with my left hand without hesitation, lightly grasped the greatsword the enemy held, and rewound its time. To the moment I wanted.
“Ugh……!!”
The sword reverted to the moment it had just left the forge, glowing red-hot. As the leather wrapping on the hilt ignited, the enemy couldn’t endure the heat and dropped the blade.
A few leaves that touched the fallen blade on the ground smoldered and burned.
Only now did I face the enemy properly. A warrior in gauntlets and breastplate, wearing a sallet that obscured most of his face.
He didn’t seem to be using magic or any other tricks, but even with a sword in hand, I wasn’t confident my physical skills could overpower an adult man.
Though he’d lost his sword, he hadn’t lost his fighting spirit. The enemy charged, swinging his gauntleted fists to subdue me, blocking my sword strikes with armored parts of his body.
He seemed accustomed to this kind of brawling. Of course—armored swordsmanship often devolved into muddy, grappling fights.
I swung my sword in response, but none of my strikes landed effectively. Only the meaningless clang of steel against armor echoed as time dragged on.
The first plan worked, but I can’t reliably beat someone like this with my strength or swordsmanship. What do I do……?
If only I could rewind just the armor’s time.
While the fight dragged on, Mobia’s Haste wore off.
I paused my attacks for a moment and glanced at Pirel out of the corner of my eye, along with the two men standing beside her.
The men next to Pirel showed no intention of joining the fight to help their comrade. They seemed content to leave everything to the man fighting me.
Why does it have to be the fingertips?
Clang—
Time, rewind.
If only I could rewind something the blade’s tip touched……
A gauntleted punch grazed my chest. That had been close. If he grabbed me with this size difference, I’d be pinned to the ground.
The enemy seemed to have noticed something too—he was wary of my left hand and didn’t rush in recklessly, which was why I’d avoided being caught this time.
Clang.
Time, rewind……
Clang.
Rewind, please……!
I distinctly remembered the university’s swordsmanship instructor saying to treat the tip of the blade as an extension of the hand. If the blade’s tip was like my fingertip, then of course it should rewind……
Clang, clang.
Why won’t it rewind……!!
Having lost my enhanced reflexes, my sword’s trajectory as I swung it weakly and haphazardly was completely read by the enemy. He blocked every slash from the beautiful elven blade using only the sturdy vambraces on his arms.
Snick.
Urgh……
The moment my sword grazed his breastplate, the enemy wedged the blade between his left vambrace and breastplate, trapping it.
Oh no……
Seizing the opportunity, the armored warrior reached out. Even as my sword arm twisted and my center of gravity collapsed, sending me tumbling to the ground, I struggled to keep hold of the hilt and desperately tried to rewind time.
The enemy’s time, connected only through Mervin’s sword, which my hand couldn’t reach.
……!! This is……
I saw it. The moment the vambrace the enemy wore had just been forged. The instant the steel used in it had been molten metal pouring from the furnace.
Rewind right now……!! To that moment!!
And then—
it rewound.
“Aaaaargh!!!”
The warrior who had been about to stomp on my fallen body suddenly screamed and twisted his arm.
Of course he would. Anyone would if one arm was suddenly engulfed in bubbling molten metal, burning in an unreal manner.
I struggled to my feet and looked down coldly at the warrior rolling on the ground, screaming and writhing in agony.
Should I finish him off?
No—I still had to deal with the other two, so handling an already neutralized opponent could wait.
If I’d only rewound the time below his neck instead of the armor’s, there’d have been no need to hesitate……but I didn’t think I could keep traveling with my sanity intact after killing someone I didn’t even know in such a horrific way.
I picked up Mervin’s sword again and turned to the other two.
“I still have plenty of magic left to use today.”
It was a bluff, of course. I’d been holding out on horseback, exhausted, so I hadn’t prepared many spells. But the bluff was necessary. I had to save that child.
“I won’t drag this out. Release the girl…… Urgh……!!”
“Hngh…… Ngh, mmph……”
Pirel’s terrified, rigid form came into view, trembling violently. The man dressed like an adventurer had pressed a sharply honed dagger to her throat.
The man who looked like a priest from some order smiled softly from behind a veil that obscured his face. A smile……or rather, a sneer.
“You fight well for a mage, Sister.”
I kept my guard up and continued the conversation, trying to buy even a little time.
“I don’t know which order you belong to, but I don’t particularly follow any denomination. I’m not a sister.”
“That can’t be right. There’s no one in our order who doesn’t know you……”
The man smiled, his eyes narrowing into slits.
“Sister Kaira.”
The tip of the sword in my hand trembled.
“How……?”
“I recognized you from that innocent, childlike appearance. It’s been years, yet you’re still as small and cute as I heard. You don’t look like an adult woman at all.”
The enemy grinned slyly.
“Anyway, how could I not recognize the face of the great hero who dealt defeat to the Demon King? Especially when you’re the most notorious criminal wanted throughout the Empire.”
“Dealt defeat to the Demon King,” was it? Then these people were……
Only then did I feel the familiar energy. That ominous aura I’d sensed more and more the farther north we went while carrying out missions with the hero’s party.
I finally realized that demonic energy I’d long forgotten was drifting through this forest. It wasn’t as thick or toxic as the Demon King’s, but it was concentrated enough to revive unpleasant memories.
“You people…… Don’t tell me you’re with the Demon King……”
He shook his head.
“We share only the same will as the Demon King. We are merely devout believers who trust in the grace that the ‘gods beyond’ will one day bestow upon this world by descending.”
I see.
I remembered from when I’d been brainwashed. If they were the Demon King’s subordinates, they’d call him something like “Master” instead of the ominous title “Demon King.”
These people might be even more dangerous than those subjugated by the Demon King’s will. They willingly served evil gods.
And to think such ominous heretics were active even this close to the capital.
That imperial investigator lying dead over there had probably been eliminated while pursuing them.
“Were you following us?”
“No. Meeting you was purely coincidental, Sister. We were thinking of doing a bit of missionary work nearby when one of the Emperor’s dogs started making noise by following us.”
There was a strange hint of amusement in his tone.
At that moment, I saw something writhing emerge from beneath his chin. A color like darkness gathered from the night sky after rending space, a writhing mass filled with nothing but empty darkness……
A bundle of tentacles……?
What…… What is that? Did I see wrong……?
While thinking that and blinking, the slithering shadow naturally vanished as if it had never been there. Maybe I was just tired from being on edge while fighting.
“Thanks to that noise, though, we gained a fine collection. This bold and adorable little girl, and you as well.”
So we’re just collection pieces to them.
Someone with such twisted psychology wouldn’t be swayed by persuasion.
“Earlier, you took down Ahta…… Ah, my comrade who’s still writhing over there. Anyway, when you defeated him, we all felt it. That strange sensation of the very laws of the world being distorted.”
The priest spoke leisurely, as if paying no mind to the hostility still burning in my heart.
“I don’t know what magic you’ve developed or what special psychic ability you possess……but it seems different from the principles of this world. It feels similar in nature to the abilities our gods use to twist the laws of the world from the empty space beyond the sky.”
He chuckled briefly, then continued with his nauseating words.
“As expected, Sister Kaira must be something like an apostle sent down to this world by them, wouldn’t you say?”
What nonsense is he spouting?
Even as I thought that, I didn’t respond and instead glared at the man holding the dagger to Pirel.
“So please, lower your sword and cooperate. You don’t want your pretty little sister to die, do you? We’d also hate to lose a specimen.”
Still going on about specimens.
In the end, their strongest card was Pirel.
Then the answer was simple. I just had to stop caring about Pirel.
Whether they stabbed that pitiful girl to death or cut off her head, I could just touch those despicable men, rewind their time, and swing the blade of time to sever their heads from their necks. That would be enough.
I could just revive the dead Pirel. That was all.
Yes, revive her……
I……
A chill ran down my spine.
What was I just thinking?
Using Pirel as bait to kill her, then killing them in exchange for my mother’s life…… Was that what I thought?
It didn’t make sense. There was no way such thoughts……such malice had come from my own mind.
There was no way I’d thought that killing her and then reviving her would be enough.
Right, it must have been Rin…… That cold, calculating slime must have done it.
Rin……? Are you awake?
No answer came.
I wanted to deny it. There was no way I’d come up with such a horrifying idea.
I had to deny it. So…… I absolutely couldn’t act on that impulse.
“Ugh?! Ngh……, urgh…… U-ugh……”
Pirel suddenly let out a crying sound, shaking her tear-streaked face from side to side. The blade had already pierced the girl’s tender skin, droplets of blood falling.
A few more millimeters and it would reach the carotid artery. Once it got there, there’d be no turning back. Pirel would die.
No.
The statement “there’d be no turning back” was wrong. I knew it. I could turn it back……
I mustn’t think that way.
Because Kaira was a good girl.
I couldn’t watch my family die right in front of me again. Even if it was a death I could rewind with my own hands.
So, what I have to do is……
A metallic clang echoed through the autumn forest.
The sound of me releasing my grip and dropping Mervin’s sword.
“……I’ll do anything……”
I spoke in a resigned voice.
“So please, let the child go. Please, don’t hurt my……sister……. I’ll give you whatever you want. I’ll do whatever you tell me to, so please……”
To bury the horrific thought that I could just let Pirel die, kill those men too, and revive only Pirel, I pathetically begged the men holding my precious family hostage.
“Is that so.”
The priest of the evil gods remained composed.
“Then please remove your robe and throw it far away from your body. Mages carry spellbooks crammed into their robes with magic prepared for immediate use, don’t they?”
It was a cunning suggestion, but…… I couldn’t let Pirel get hurt. If she was injured, my own heart would shatter beyond repair. It felt like I’d lose all human emotion and wither away.
I did as instructed, removing my robe and tossing it far away. The books crammed inside it fell with a thud. The cheap brooch Iskil had given me must have hit a pebble on the ground, because I heard a small metallic sound.
“Good. Now please remove the clothes you’re wearing as well.”
“What?!”
“You’re no ordinary person—you’re the great hero. I can’t be certain you don’t have one or two emergency secret weapons hidden in your clothes. Take them off.”
My face burned with anger and shame, but seeing Pirel still crying and trembling, I steeled my resolve.
I couldn’t let that child die.
The moment I believed that dying and then reviving her would be enough, everything that made me who I was would crumble from the very foundation.
“……. All right.”
I untied the leather cord around my waist. I undid the buttons on the upper part of my dress and slipped my arms out of the sleeves. Pulling hard on the fabric clinging to my torso with my arms, the curtain that had been covering my body came off easily.
Only my underwear and a pair of boots remained. The only things protecting my body from the cold autumn wind blowing between the brown fallen leaves and the deep blue sky were those two items.
“Please remove the rest as well.”
I lightly bit my lower lip.
……The goal was probably to humiliate me. I couldn’t waver.
Because Pirel……was watching.
Without responding, I slowly untied the laces of my traveling boots. The cool wind brushing against the tops of my feet, which had been tired from being in the stirrups all day, was almost painfully cold.
When I placed my bare feet on the ground after removing the boots, dry twigs pricked my soles. Crispy fallen leaves stuck to the still-damp sweat on my skin. It stung and felt unpleasant, and before I knew it, I was grimacing and wriggling my feet slightly.
Finally, the single piece of underwear covering my most precious place. …With an unhesitating hand, I picked up that soft white piece of fabric and tossed it onto the robe and dress I’d already removed. My pink, girl-like, tightly closed secret was exposed, with only a faint trace of fine, nearly invisible downy hair.
The wind……is cold…… I wasn’t embarrassed. It wasn’t the first or second time I’d shown this place to a man. But I was furious. To be humiliated like this, naked, in front of precious Pirel and the men holding her hostage.
“……. Is this enough?”
“Good. I’m satisfied. Then……”
The evil priest smiled brightly. It was the happiest smile I’d seen from him yet. Beyond that smile, the writhing darkness I’d glimpsed earlier seemed to materialize and undulate.
“We shall begin the ritual of dedicating these two beautiful sisters here to those who watch over us from beyond.”