Published at 26th of August 2019 12:27 pm

Volume 2, Chapter 5: The Blue Town

This chapter is updated by NovelFree.ml

“It’s really strange.”

The tree-shaped rocks were clustered closer together the closer we got to the center of the bowl.

The rocks further out had a lot of grey to them and looked grainy and rough, but the rocks around here were smooth, as if someone had painstakingly polished them.

They changed to a whitish color tinged with just a bit of blue, and, while I thought that they were beautiful on one hand, I also thought that they looked like dinosaur bones on the other.

Louie taught me that the rocks here looked more beautiful because they were more strongly affected by the Saluido.

“These rocks are called , which means “sacred rocks.”

I got off of Eru and ran my fingers against the surface of a Rigudo. It was nice and cool and pleasant to the touch.

This was a land protected by the Saluido, the holy winds.

“But there isn’t any wind right now.”

There was only silence. A vague sense of anxiety steadily pressed down on me and stained my heart gray.

The reason that the wind wasn’t blowing in a town that was supposed to be holy——was it because Silvai, who governed over the wind and atmosphere, had been punished for breaching the commandment of the gods?

We began moving again after Louie urged me on with his gaze.

I felt that this place was permeated with solitude in a different way than the wastelands had been. Maybe holy places always felt lonely. Only time piled up on itself here.

“We can see it now. That is Lavann,”

Louie muttered as he gestured in front of us.

The words, how strange, repeated themselves on my lips.

I’d thought that there would be a sturdy fence or stone wall surrounding the area because Lavann was a town with a temple, but that wasn’t the case.

“They surrounded the town with Rigudos, instead of a fence.”

When I drew closer to check, I found that the outer gates, which had Rigudos stretched across it, had an intricate section to it that looked like a fretwork mural.

The Rigudos were tightly packed together with their branches intertwined and sturdy, lightly-colored blocks had been squeezed in the gaps between the trunks to keep people from being able to pass through.

“It also looks like the Rigudos were planted along a stone fence.”

The blocks of various sizes were a bit uneven where they met and something like an adhesive with pieces of glittering stones stuck inside it was used to keep them together.

The blocks were also made from Rigudo fragments, according to Louie. Apparently, a cement-like adhesive was made by craftsmen who crushed the Rigudos into a fine powder and refined it with some sap with adhesive properties.

Unlike the lower area with blocks piled up on top of each other in succession, the upper area with the branches looked like they had been purposefully left as was.

Hints of blue filtered in between the gaps. The blue that peeked through the many gaps in the comparatively white Rigudos must have been breathtakingly lovely in the sunlight.

“The entrance is over here.”

Louie beckoned me over from a slight distance.

I approached him and looked up at the Rigudo wall again. The entrance to town had been left wide open. Either there used to be some kind of door there, or it had been built this way to begin with. I wonder which it was.

The blue that I saw through the gaps in the branches belonged to the exterior of the buildings inside the wall.

“Hey, Louie, didn’t you say that different types of stores had different colors?”

I put my doubt to words as I urged Eru forward into town.

Louie, who was walking a little ahead of us, turned around and nodded lightly.

“Yes, I did. Towns with temples, however, are an exception to that rule. The entire town strives to protect the feature color of their temple.”

Louie pointed at a building nearby as he explained. He continued,

“please take a closer look. The outer walls of the store are blue, but the signpost is of a different color, no? You can determine what kind of store it is by the color on the signpost.”

Huh, I was pretty impressed. It was pretty amazing that the entire town came together to protect the color of their temple.

It was proof of how much weight religion carried in this world.

“Or rather……they worship so ardently because blessings actually exist?”

I digested Louie’s explanations as desperately as I would have when studying for exams and came to my own conclusions.

On either side of the center road that stretched from the main gates into the center of town were lines of posts that had been planted at regular intervals. In front of the dignified lines of posts were narrow gutters—perhaps there used to be flowers there?

“The outer edges of town……the place we are right now is filled with a good number of stores that would welcome visitors who came from afar. It is the busiest street in town, and there are many stores here.”

“I see. It’s friendlier to keep all the inns and stores in one place where it’s easier to keep track of.”

The town I used to live in also had a lot of human traffic, like how, for example, the area around the train station flourished.

“The inner sections of Lavann are where the residences of the merchants and civilians are, and you’ll find crop fields there as well. And, the general building where the lower ranked priests live and other temple-related facilities are located at the very back of town.”

“And what about the temple itself?”

“The temple should have been built behind all of the facilities. There is a forest behind the temple.”

Louie quickly turned to a strangely long and narrow stone building diagonally in front of us after he answered me.

“What’s that building?”

A part of the oblong, stick-like building’s roof had railing to it. And, for some reason, only a part of the building was blue. All it had was a blue line that ran mid-way through.

“It’s the safety lodge1. The soldiers who defended the town were likely stationed there.”

Was that supposed to be something like the local police stations in Japan?

“How come only a part of it’s blue?”

It was so unclear. I waited for an explanation with my head tilted to the side, but Louie kept his lips closed tight with a perplexed expression on his face.

I tried thinking about it from an unspoken aspect of this mystery.

“I got it; it’s that! “So many countries, so many customs,” right? It’s because they worshiped someone else back at home.”

“……Pardon?”

I was sure that different people believed in different things.

Did Louie not say anything because, as a knight, he was in a similar standing to the soldiers that had been stationed here……in Japanese terms, because he was related to the police force?

I’m sure that the government officials from Lavann were very fervent in their faith because they were from Lavann and all.

But on the other hand, soldiers who had been dispatched from other regions might worship different gods. It would become necessary to show them some consideration.

Maybe they couldn’t paint the entire building blue because of these aforementioned complicated reasons. It was a difficult problem. Entire wars had broken out because of religion even in my world too.

Louie looked at me in bewilderment for a while as I nodded to myself, satisfied by my conclusions. Then, he gestured toward the building and began explaining things to me again, perhaps because he decided not to dwell on it for too long.

“The safety lodges used by the guards was scattered all throughout the town.”

“Huh. I guess office workers have it bad no matter which world they’re in.”

“……Hibiki?”

Louie blinked repeatedly at me as I pretended to know what I was talking about. Eru even snorted as if he was laughing at me.

I turned away from the oblong safety lodge and put together all of the town districts in my head.

The places with a lot of buildings and a lot of human traffic had a lot of branching roads and were spread out in a radial fashion. The part of town with the temple was the starting point, and everything else spread out in front of it like a folding fan toward the outer districts.

“Have you been here before, Louie?”

“Yes, though it was only once when I was a child. The duration of my stay was short as well, so my recollections of my time here are vague. I was younger than even you. I came with my father and……”

Louie, who had been answering smoothly all this time, was suddenly taken aback and broke off his sentence. Then, he timidly looked to me.

I only noticed after his completely unnecessary reaction drew in my attention, as I’d simply been listening to him normally until now.

“Oh, younger than even me, you said? So, just how old were you?”

I wonder how bad the comparison is. It ticks me off that he said it so naturally. He’s gotten my age wrong before, too. Does that mean he was twelve or thirteen?

He couldn’t have possibly meant “younger than you are right now”, right? If he did, then, dang it, Louie!

His eyes wandered when I furrowed my brows and glared a little at him. It looked like he was trying to lie his way out of this.

I watched him in silence. Eventually, Louie turned back to me in resignation.

“……Louie?”

“……I’m sorry.”

Louie had the tendency to dig his own grave from time to time.

I gathered back my feelings and threw another question at him.

“Will there be monsters here?”

Monsters and starved beasts apparently appeared even during the day, so I thought that it would be for the best to prepare ourselves for anything that could happen. Then again, Louie looked a little more relaxed than usual.

“The temple itself is able to provide protection, so Lavann should be safer than other towns as long as the effects of the protection still remain.”

Then, wouldn’t it be safer to stay holed up in a temple……was what I had been about to say before I recalled the biggest problem at hand and the blood drained from my face.

Reims would appear at night even if there were fewer monsters around.

The events at Urs flooded back into my mind and my face tensed up. The tragedy that I could never forget. The black road. The mountain of corpses.

Having apparently noticed my inner thoughts with his heightened sensitivity, Louie called out to me in a gentler voice than usual, as if he was trying to console me.

“I will protect you.”

Oh no, I’ll end up cornering Louie too if I show him how shaken I am.

I sealed away the painful feelings that made me want to cry out screaming deep inside my chest and flashed him a grin. I couldn’t undo the past no matter how much I regretted it and no matter how long I stood here. ——I don’t need a past that can be undone.

“Hey, Louie?”

“Yes?”

“Do I scare you?”

“——I beg your pardon?”

He reacted as if I’d asked him something completely out of the blue.

I was trying to see what he really thought by landing a surprise attack on him, but I didn’t know if it’d worked or not. He only looked surprised by question.

I pretended to be ignorant of the pain in my heart and met his gaze.

“Hmm, never mind. Let’s go on ahead.”

“Please wait a moment.”

“……Yeah?”

“What I’m afraid of is you disappearing.”

I nodded a little at that. A small voice in my heart raised its objection. But I still feel you distancing us with the way you’re talking, it said.

It really bothered me that Louie, who was older than me, was being so polite to me.

“Allow me to say this so that you don’t misunderstand, Hibiki. I……don’t wish to harm you.”

“Harm me?”

The tone of his voice made me uneasy. It sounded like he was claiming that he was drawing a line in between us because there was a chance that Louie would harm me.

“I must strive to discipline myself.”

“Why?”

I stopped walking and studied Louie’s reaction with great care.

Louie and Eru, who was walking diagonally in front of us, also stopped.

“……It is because it is necessary for me to do so.”

He was trying to hide something crucial. I grew irritated knowing this.

“Have I……been taking too big of an attitude with you? Am I being too familiar?”

I took a step back and dropped my gaze to my feet. I continued,

“I want you to tell me if I am.”

His footsteps drew closer. Louie was standing right in front of me.

“You can demand for more.”

I tilted my head to the side, unable to comprehend what he was saying, only to see that Louie had a serious look on his face. He continued,

“I know that I have an insatiable beast lurking within me that is difficult to restrain. This is why I must discipline myself relentlessly without end. But please, I want for you to remain as you are.”

“Louie……?”

“I’ll keep the beast inside until it perishes. I’ll never let it out. I can resist it as long as you stay by my side.”

“……Is that so?”

I still didn’t really understand what he was trying to say……but for now, it looked like he wasn’t going to cast me aside.

Louie smiled a somewhat shadowed smile as if something was troubling him.

***

We intruded on some of the buildings that caught our eye on our way to the temple and gratefully obtained some things that we needed.

Being mindful of the passage of time, Louie quickly looked through the goods we found and sorted out anything that he deemed useful. I didn’t want to repeat the mistake I’d made at Urs, so I helped him obediently without doing anything unnecessary.

Meanwhile, Eru was on the lookout for danger.

I was standing in front of a storage shelf in the next room over holding onto a bottle whose contents had turned a suspicious color as my thoughts wandered elsewhere.

“Is our plan to head straight for the capital really going to be okay?”

Not only had I not been able to do anything at Urs, I’d brought about the absolutely worst outcome possible. It was a sin that could not be forgiven simply over the fact that I’d been lacking in ability.

That being said, was it alright to rely solely on the princes we were planning to save?

“Besides, first we’d have to turn the princes back “human”. But how are we supposed to tell the princes apart from all the other Reims?”

Darkness spread across my heart. Would I make some stupid mistake again?

“Should I talk to Louie about what we’re gonna do from now on?”

I felt that I should, but hesitation weighed heavily on my lips.

The distance between me and Louie hadn’t decreased in the slightest. We were still overly reserved with each other and couldn’t be honest with ourselves.

He said that he didn’t want to harm me.

I, too, didn’t want to cause him any more sorrow.

“Shall we go, Hibiki?”

Louie, who had been in the next room over, stuck his head through the door and called out to me. I nodded and left the room with the spoils I’d salvaged.

My worries didn’t go away even after we left the store.

I climbed onto Eru’s back and sighed while looking at my surroundings.

All I had to do was to safety turn the Reims back “human”.

It was so clear and simple when I put it to words, but my task was so unbelievably difficult to accomplish when I tried to carry it out. There were mountains of problems. I had to figure out which problems to deal with first.

But I didn’t have the ability to make that decision yet.

I thought my head would burst from all the worrying.

“——That is the temple.”

Louie’s voice called me back down to earth.

The road had turned into an elegant path of white stones before I’d realized. It had been properly maintained, unlike the roads that you could see the fields from.

Though they were smaller than the ones near the entrance to town, there were narrow pillars with geometrical designs carved into them on either side of the stone path. The tops of the pillars were carved to look like open lotus petals, and it looked like they used to carry fire inside them.

There was a partition set up around the area with a building that looked like a temple-related facility on the other side of a stone wall.

I was surprised when I saw the inconspicuous temple at the end of the path.

“What a pretty blue.”

It wasn’t a vivid and bright sort of blue, but rather a translucent blue that seemed to have been cut directly out from the ocean itself.

It looked a little like a Romanesque chapel in construction. I saw that there were many thin pipes hanging from the arched doorway like windchimes.

It reminded me of a twinkling bead curtain.

The pipes would probably hit against each other and make a beautifully clear sound in the wind.

“The buildings in Gallè are impressive.”

“Is that so?”

“Yeah. They’re all really large.”

I’d been told that my world and Evelier were two sides of the same coin. Maybe that was why I occasionally saw things that were vaguely similar to my world.

The temple was one of those things. The clothes we wore also reminded me of the florid traditional clothing from ancient China.

As for everything else, it was all a jumble of Japanese, Chinese, and Western styles. The strange balance between the three styles was interesting to me. Modern Japan was also a hodgepodge of foreign cultures, and Evelier felt pretty similar to it.

“I’m glad that what you see of the Kingdom of Gallè are pleasing to you.”

Louie smiled as if in relief.

“Yeah, I like it.”

I smiled back at him and then, suddenly realizing that what Louie had just said sounded like something a bad adult would say, became strangely flustered.

I returned my gaze in front of me in a hurry. One of the double doors had been destroyed, maybe because a beast had slammed into it or something. The temple was so elegant that the broken door made me sad.

“Let’s go in.”

Louie picked up a lamp-like receptacle that had been left next to the front doors. A fire lit inside of it when he twisted something like screw at the bottom of the lamp.

“Is it dark inside the building even during the day?”

“Indeed……though I’m sure there are rooms that do take in some light.”

All of the slatted shutters that I could see from here were shut tight.

I climbed down to the ground. Then, I reached for my sword that was fastened to Eru along with our luggage. Louie took my arm faster than I could grab the hilt.

“You need not to bring it with you.”

“But…”

“There are no Reims at this time of day.

“……But there might be dangerous beasts and stuff around.”

Even if my sword had no effect against normal beasts, it could still cut through monsters.

“You have me.”

Louie wouldn’t allow it. I suddenly felt like I wanted to cry.

“……Okay.”

I nodded slightly even as I didn’t know what to do with my dampening heart. I couldn’t waste precious time here by being selfish. I squeezed all of my words of protest back inside my chest.

The entrance to the temple was large enough that even Eru, as big as he was, could easily fit through.

That was probably one of the reasons why Louie looked at me like he wanted me to get on Eru.

But I at least wanted to walk on my own.

He allowed it, maybe because it would be troublesome if I rebelled too much right now.

Louie entered the temple with the lamp in one hand and with the other on my back as if he was covering me. Small crunches echoed from beneath our feet, probably because we’d stepped on the sand and fragments of the broken door by the entrance.

“Please don’t walk too far from me, Hibiki.”

I couldn’t answer him because I was too busy looking all around me.

But it wasn’t that I hadn’t been listening. In the lieu of an answer, I reached out and grabbed onto the robes near his waist.

I could tell that Louie had fidgeted a bit when I did.

“……Watch your step.”

There were windows up high near the ceiling, but their shutters were shut too and they were covered with dust and cobwebs. There were large candle stands to either side as soon as we came in. They weren’t lit, of course.

An elegant pattern of ivy was etched into the walls and pillars. I would have wanted to capture this magnificent temple in a photo if it had been properly maintained.

I looked forward and proceeded carefully.

We came to a narrow space with a shallow bowl used for holy water. I was startled upon looking at either side of the bowl.

“What happened here?”

There were two stone pedestals on their side of the bowl. But the sculptures that were supposed to be placed on top of them had been smashed into such fine pieces that it was impossible to know what they had originally looked like.

Scattered around the pedestals were fragments of the ruined sculptures.

“This didn’t happen naturally. Some obviously destroyed it on purpose. Why did they need to destroy it so thoroughly?”

“I don’t know. ……Let’s proceed further inside.”

I pried away my eyes from the sculptures at Louie’s urging.

Eru, who was next to me, was also staring at the ruined sculptures.

“Eru?”

Eru cooed sorrowfully when I called to him and snuggled up against my arm. He was acting strange.

“Eru, what’s wrong?”

I was worried about Eru’s gloomy attitude, but I couldn’t dawdle here forever either. I reluctantly began walking when Louie called out to me again.

There was another set of doors in front of us. I peeked past them under the dim light from the lamp. It looked like a chapel on the inside, too.

There were yellowish brown pews inside the nave of the temple and a stone coffin and altar behind them.

The pillars along the aisle in the center were inlaid with something that looked like mother-of-pearl and were very pretty. On the ceiling was a mural of fairy maidens dancing around a spring. It was discolored, but it still looked pleasant to my eyes.

We walked through the center of the pews and around to the back of the altar. Another extravagant coffin was placed there.

The decorations along the walls were gorgeous too, and there was a line of hollows across them at fixed intervals.

“There were sculptures here too?”

There were small stone fragments piled up on the floor as if to prove my point.

Numerous candle holders were placed on the stands on either side of the pillars. There were fragments of something that had been smashed into pieces even on top of those——.

“Louie……, what used to be here?”

I couldn’t keep back my misgivings. This was obviously unnatural. There wasn’t a single sculpture left intact.

There wasn’t a reason to destroy them so thoroughly even if the kingdom had broken out in riots after calamity had struck.

“Was there a structural problem with the sculptures themselves?”

I ran up to a pedestal and tried to search for a reason behind the sculptures’ destruction. Maybe there was some kind of name plate on the pedestal that explained more about them.

“Hibiki——”

I unfortunately didn’t find anything useful. I hid my disappointment and turned back to Louie.

He walked up to me and placed the lamp on top of the empty pedestal.

Louie looked strangely nervous under its light.

“There is something I must tell you.”

I felt something ominous at his formal words. I began to feel uneasy for some reason.

“You told me that you were a member of a god’s —the wind god’s— household.”

There was a grave tone to Louie’s voice.

I couldn’t answer him because I was afraid of what would come next.

“You said that the wind god’s name was Silvai, yes?”

We stared at each other for a brief moment. Then, Eru suddenly pressed his face into my arm. He cried in a heartrending manner when I pat him above the nose.

“Eru? Are you trying to tell me something?”

Louie took one glance at Eru before open his mouth again with resolution on his face.

“However, a god by the name Silvai does not exist in Evelier to begin with.”

“Eh……?”

My head went blank. I couldn’t grasp what Louie had said at first. I stared back at him like I was boring holes into him.

……Silvai doesn’t exist?

“Um……, what do you mean?”

I pressed down on my forehead and tried to calm my restless heart.

Silvai was a god of Evelier —a primordial god to boot.

Is this a problem with Louie’s personal beliefs because he doesn’t acknowledge the existence of the god of wind?

“Wait, is the fact that Silvai was judged in heaven already known here on earth!? Was there an official notice telling people at the temple to treat him like an evil being?”

Doubt grew in my mind even as I said this.

There was no one here in Evelier to receive that notice. Everyone had been turned into Reims.

Louie looked down again and looked somewhat nervous.

“They worship the wind here in this town, right?”

“Yes. People here worship the Saluido.”

I don’t get it. He’d said that the Saluido was the holy wind that blew across the Hidden Earthsea.

“They exalt the wind because they worship the god of wind, don’t they?”

“The Saluido itself their god.”

“Hold on a sec! The Saluido is their god? That shouldn’t be the case, because then Silvai…”

I refused to back down and persisted in clinging to Louie even in my confusion.

He shook his head ever so slightly instead of replying. It was his wordless denial.

I gained some peace of mind as I looked up at his stiff expression.

Louie had been terribly surprised when I first told him about how I had come to this world——when I first told him about Olin and Silvai.

I’d simply thought that his reaction had been to my wild story of having met the gods.

“Was that not the case?”

Louie had never once said Olin or Silvai’s names. As a knight who protected his kingdom, it wouldn’t have been strange for him to talk about Olin, who was both the Founding King and a god of war.

I was suddenly taken aback after thinking this far into it.

“If Silvai doesn’t exist, then what about Olin?”

The kingdom’s name. Louie said that they’d changed the King’s name into a woman’s. Queen Gallè. But it was weird. It was still a far cry from Olin’s name even if it had been feminized.

“Wait, Louie……you said that the Founding King’s name was Queenza Gallend, right?”

I’d simply thought that that had been Olin’s name when he was still human, and I hadn’t really thought too deeply into it either.

Something was strange. Louie had never really asked me any questions about the gods. He’d only told me a little about the royal family in earnest.

Why hadn’t he?

Normally, you’d ask persistently about something like that.

“Louie, what about Olin?”

Louie slowly closed his eyes and quietly looked back at me again after some time had passed. ——This was undoubtedly his way of saying that he didn’t know.

“H, how come? That’s not possible —I came to Evelier after receiving power from Olin and Silvai.”

I gulped.

There was no way that Louie, a resident of this world, wouldn’t know of the gods’ names —especially Olin’s, since he was called the Founding King. And there was no way that he was joking around just to tease me either.

Then, that meant that Olin and Silvai really didn’t exist within the people of Evelier.

“Then……”

Who are Silvai and Olin?

Who did I meet?

I was lost in a daze. I had the sudden terrifying hallucination that the ground was crumbling beneath my feet. If Silvai and Olin didn’t exist, then my reason for being here was shaky as well.

“Are you sure? You really don’t know them?”

I couldn’t help but repeat myself to reconfirm. My reason for being here was about to shatter!

Louie looked back at me with a pained look in his eyes instead of replying.

“That can’t be! Then why am I even here?”

I started to get dizzy.

“Then what happens to my reason for coming here——the reason that I hurt all those Reims!?”

Eru cried out when I grabbed at my chest where my heart was with one hand, assaulted by a fear that I couldn’t put to words.

I looked to Eru in surprise.

“Then what about you, Eru!?”

Did even Eru forget Silvai too?

And Olin, his master?

“Am I the only one who remembers them? ……Or was all of it just my delusion?”

I stroked Eru’s whiskers with a trembling hand and looked deep into his round eyes.

Eru bumped his nose against mine. His round nose was slightly moist.

Eru cooed, blinked, and licked my hand as I was stunned in shock. ——It’s okay. His calm eyes blinked at me over and over again as if to pacify my heart’s anxious storms.

I couldn’t converse with Eru, but I felt like our hearts had connected right now for some reason.

That’s right, it’s okay. Eru knows. He knows that Silvai and Olin weren’t a dream or an illusion.

“Eru!”

I clung to Eru and buried my face in the short fur around the bridge of his nose.

His hard bristles slowly smoothed away my terror.

My crumbling rationale returned as I affirmed Eru’s existence.

It drew out a possible explanation in my mind.

Silvai and Olin had been punished by the silver cage that had appeared out of nowhere because they had broken the covenant of the gods. They had been stripped of their status as gods for a thousand years. In other words, did that mean that they would be forgotten by the people of Evelier for a thousand years?

Olin had told me. That gods were beings that existed because the genuine faith of the people. It was a serious matter that affected their existences. But they would disappear from the people’s memory for a thousand years.

Was that what kind of sin it was?

This was why Louie didn’t remember them. Neither Olin nor Silvai.

——I’m so sorry Silvai, Olin.

The act of granting me power had deprived them of the faith of the people.

This world, already on the brink of destruction, had lost two more gods.

“I didn’t know.”

There were too many things that I didn’t know. ——Too many things that I hadn’t even tried to know.

I clung tightly to Eru. To think that they would be forgotten by everyone for a thousand years.

“It won’t be settled as a simple problem of feeling sad or lonely……”

They would lose their place if a new god was born. That’s what Olin had told me.

I hadn’t even considered that I needed to save the Reims for the additional important reason of preventing that grave situation. I’d simply insisted only on turning Reims back “human” for the sake of it.

Silvai and Olin would remain forgotten for an incomprehensibly long period of one thousand years even after I managed to save the people of the Kingdom of Gallè and peace returned to the world.

What would happen if, for example, the winds called the Saluido became established as the god in people’s hearts?

Silvai and Olin had granted me power without hesitation even know they knew how dangerous it could be. There was no way that they hadn’t realized that they would be in danger of being forgotten forever.

“Hey, Eru, what if…”

What if they hadn’t thought that I would be able to save the people of Evelier from the very start?

But I was so powerless and had nowhere left to go——did they sacrifice themselves because they had taken pity on me?

I, who couldn’t go home to my own world. Even if I had stayed in heaven, Silvai and Olin would stop existing if the other successor candidate succeeded in becoming a new god and spread another religion among the next generation of people.

It was unlikely that I, as powerless as I am, would be able to survive safely if they, my protectors, were exiled. After all, the new god would surely take over heaven too.

Had they broken their hearts for me so that, if they were destined to disappear anyway, they could at least save me, who they had come to be acquainted with, at the very end——?

“Why didn’t I realize this?”

The thoroughly broken sculptures.

They had surely been sculptures of Silvai.

Anything and everything in this world that had to do with either Silvai and Olin had undoubtedly been destroyed.

Eru and I were the only one who remembered them.

——I want to save them!

I thought this from the bottom of my heart.

I want to save them. The kind gods. Everyone.

Please, please, grant me tremendous strength.

I can’t die. If all the memories of Silvai and Olin were erased from Evelier, then I’ll spread them again.

I’ll tell everyone. I’ll carve the names of the forgotten gods into this world by repeating them over and over again.

I’ll make sure that their religion is alive and well even after they’re finally forgiven, when a thousand years have passed. Until the day the people whisper their names and celebrate them whenever the wind blows and whenever they celebrate the anniversary of the kingdom’s founding.

It’s okay. I don’t care if I can’t go back to my original world anymore.

My parents, Uncle Miharu, school, my friends. I’ll cut away everything that’s important to me.

“Eru, I won’t ever forget them. Let’s protect Silvai and Olin. We’ll record their names everywhere.”

Then, I drew my lips closer to Eru’s soft ear and whispered,

“I’m sorry, I’m sorry for stealing Olin away from everyone.”

I was sure that Eru was sadder than I was. After all, no one remembered Olin, his master, anymore.

Eru cried sweetly and pushed his head against my head so hard that I staggered.

I hadn’t thought about Eru, who had come down here with me, at all because I’d been so absorbed in my own worries. Eru too, like me, had nowhere to return.

“I’m sorry for being selfish.”

Eru rubbed his forehead against my chest again and again.

“Hibiki.”

Louie briskly called out to me.

My shoulders jerked a little. I couldn’t turn to look at him.

How had Louie felt about my story all this time? What did he think when he saw me standing next to him uttering the names of gods he didn’t remember?

Had he not only found it strange, but thought that I was touched in the head too?

“It’s not that I have ever doubted you.”

I looked to peek at Louie while stroking Eru’s head.

His eyes looked cornered, as if he was irritated. It looked like he had misunderstood something after seeing how discomposed I’d gotten.

“It’s not that I have ever thought that you were lying.”

He probably meant what he was saying. But……he hadn’t actually believed what I’d said either.

I’d thought before that Louie never cared whether I was lying or not. He was someone who’d even throw away his own life for his iron-clad fidelity.

That was more than enough for me.

“Yeah. I’ve never doubted you either, Louie. It’s really reassuring that you’re here with me.”

I meant to convey my gratitude with my words, but Louie bit down on his lips with his face as stiff as ever as if he wasn’t convinced. I continued,

“let’s talk a lot later, okay? There’s a lot of stuff I want to tell you about apart from stuff about Silvai and Olin.”

To be honest, I actually wanted to tell him everything here and now. The reason I pushed it off for later despite that was because I’d finally begun worrying about how much time had passed.

We had a bit of time left until sunset, but we still had to look for the ritual tools to get us to Jinshan, the capital. We might end up repeating the mistake we made at Urs if we spent too much time talking here.

That was the one thing I wanted to avoid.

“Please wait!”

I was quickly stopped when I made to move on. I was surprised. I’d never thought that Louie, who understood the situation better than I did, would be the one to stall us.

“I don’t doubt you —truly.”

He grabbed me by both shoulders and looked at me in desperation.

“Please believe me.”

I nodded in a hurry, flustered by the gravity in his eyes.

I was of a similar mind as Louie, who didn’t care if I had lied or now. I didn’t mind if he didn’t actually believe me. He was still here with me and supporting me as he always did.

I felt that it would be too greedy to ask for more.

“I’ll swear it to you.”

“Louie?”

I was bewildered by the plea in his voice. I was the one who had been shaken, but it was Louie who sounded like he was being tormented by uneasiness.

“Yeah, I believe you, Louie.”

I couldn’t read Louie’s emotions very well. But, I felt like something would break if I didn’t say that I did.

I took his hand and squeezed it. I grew a little nervous when I realized how cold his fingers were. What was wrong?

“I trust you,”

I declared while looking him straight in the eye, and, while he still looked like he wasn’t fully satisfied, his eyes regained their composure.

“Shall we go?”

I didn’t have any solid basis for it. But I suddenly felt like I shouldn’t let go of Louie’s hand right now.

***

There were doors on either side of the end of the gently arching hallway.

First, we opened the doors to the left and peeked in. We saw a narrow corridor when Louie shined the lamp at it. There were paintings hanging on the righthand side of the corridor and a line of doors to the left.

“It appears that this isn’t it.”

We closed the doors in accordance to Louie’s decision and moved to the right side of the chapel.

We opened the doors like we had previously and peered in. There was a corridor here too, complete with a line of doors on one side of the wall.

“This is it.”

“Huh? I have no idea how you knew that, Louie.”

I couldn’t tell what made it different from the corridor we’d first seen on the left-hand side of the chapel.

Louie gently explained it to me when I turned around in mystification.

“The corridor to our left were most likely lined with the priests’ personal rooms.”

“Then what about here on the right?”

“Ceremonial chambers, and the like. The decorations on the corridor wall are different, no? The walls here are decorated with talismans.”

“You’re right, and all the stuff here on the right kinda look like a witch’s thingamabobs.”

“A witch’s……pardon?”

“Tools.”

We proceeded onwards while repeating a series of word lessons, explanations of the interior of the temple, and Eru’s occasional feedback.

Louie was super reliable. I’d have never have considered that the decorations had been different if I was alone, and I’d have ended up having to check each room individually.

We went all the way down the corridor first and checked out the room at the very end because Louie said that ceremonial chambers were usually at the very back of the temple. He was right on the money.

The ceremonial chamber had been set up in the room at the very back. Once I had taken my fill of the room, I mumbled,

“this is a really impressive hall.”

There were tiles that were translucent like stained glass not only on the back and side walls, but also in the middle of the ceiling. Golden decorations patterned after ivy hung down around it like a chandelier.

Something like a lithograph had been set up at the back. When I inadvertently looked to the floor, I saw that a circle larger than a meter in diameter had been drawn there. What’s it for?

“I don’t see any ritual tools here……”

Four large candle stands had been set up in the four corners of the room, but I didn’t see anything like a shelf to store the ritual tools in. I continued,

“maybe they’re kept in a different facility associated with the temple and not here in the chapel?”

“No,”

Louie replied briskly as he approached the lithograph while holding up the lamp. I was pulled along too, as we were still holding hands.

Eru brought his nose closer to the circle drawn on the floor.

My first impression upon seeing the lithograph up close was that it looked like a stone monument made of graphite. It was just a little shorter than me in height and about forty centimeters thick.

“Hey, Louie, there’s something engraved on this.”

There was a circular geometrical pattern on the upper half of the lithograph.

“It kinda reminds me of a magic circle?”

Engraved on its lower half was a scrawl of otherworldly letters. Below it was a small protrusion with three pieces of what looked like red chalk inserted into it.

…I have a really bad feeling about this for some reason.

“Are those the ritual tools by any chance?”

I pointed at the red chalk-like things and awaited Louie’s response.

Please don’t nod, I prayed desperately in my heart, but Louie heartlessly affirmed that they were.

In my poor imagination, I’d thought that the teleportation device would be like some kind of time machine-esque box. When we jumped into it, we’d instantaneously be teleported to another box at our destination.

“I guess not everything in the world goes as you hope it will……”

Louie reached out for one of the pieces of chalk from beside me as I hung down my head. The chalk abruptly crumbled into pieces and turned to dust the moment he touched it.

“Huh, it just broke?!”

“As I’d thought, I can’t touch it,”

Louie whispered to himself in bewilderment as he stared at the dust in his hand.

My bad premonitions only grew worse.

“I don’t have the divine power that priests have. Most ritual tools cannot be handled by normal civilians, and they wouldn’t have the opportunity to touch them either.”

Which means…

Louie threw a short glance at me.

“M, me?”

“Only select high-ranking priests are permitted to use them in the event of an emergency.”

“But I’m not a priest!”

“There is a circle on the lithograph, yes? You must draw it.”

Louie’s gaze moved to the circle that was carved on the floor.

“Does this circle have to do with anything too?”

“These are ritual tools called a charm needles2, and they were made with a special metal from the blood of an ayakashi insect known as the , which has the power to freely travel through space.”

Louie taught me in depth about the red chalk in all seriousness as I stiffened up. I wasn’t very sure I wanted to touch it anymore. He continued,

“it will greatly reduce the time we’ll need to reach Jinshan if it’s possible for us to translocate there.”

Was this world convenient or inconvenient —it was really hard to tell.

According to what I could gather from Louie’s words, while the ritual tools for translocation were convenient, they were also banned from the general public.

“It would be exceedingly dangerous if the ritual tools for translocation were to be available to the public. Crime rates would likely soar, unfortunately.”

“Oh, I see……, since they’d be able to make as many alibi’s as they wanted.”

“Alib……?”

“Er, proof that they weren’t there at the crime scene when it took place, or something like that.”

But that wasn’t all. If just anyone could translocate as they pleased, then, in an extreme case, it would probably be extremely difficult to arrest the criminal in the event of a murder.

“Even those among the priesthood have lost themselves from time to time. And thus, strict regulations on translocation were put in place.”

Louie’s gaze returned to the lithograph. He continued,

“the pattern on this circle changes every time it is drawn. Mages and sorcerers from an age past came together to create restrictions on the translocation circle, or so it is believed.”

“The pattern of this geometric magic circle changes after you use it once?”

“Yes, so that thoughtless individuals cannot memorize the design.”

“So it’s to prevent people from using it for evil, huh.”

It was certainly true that translocation couldn’t be used for nefarious purposes even if the charm needles were to get stolen if the circle changed every time it was drawn on the floor. But, while I understood that, I was still perplexed.

“Does that mean that all I have to do is memorize the circle on the lithograph and draw it correctly inside the circle on the floor?”

Yes, Louie affirmed.

I inadvertently groaned. It wouldn’t have been too hard to trace the circle on the floor if I had the original in my hands right where I could see it. Or, if the magic circle had been a simpler pattern, I might have been able to memorize it.

“Isn’t this circle’s design pretty complex?”

There was no way that I would be able to memorize the whole thing in one go, and I had the feeling that I would end up having to return to the lithograph many, many times as I labored.

“This…might take a bit of time.”

“……Hibiki.”

I grew frightened by the slight hesitation in Louie’s voice. I wanted to pretend that I couldn’t hear him. He continued,

“You cannot copy it exactly as it is.”

I wanna shut my ears.

“The circle on the lithograph is flipped horizontally.”

“It’s flipped horizontally?”

So, it’s like a mirror image?

“So then, when I actually draw it…”

I groaned again when I caught Louie’s indescribable gaze. Just when I’d thought that the two sides of the circle didn’t really differ……I found that the two halves varied in subtle places.

“What’s with these overly complicated subtle differences?!”

To think that even Eru would look at me with such heartrending eyes.

“Hey, Louie? I get that this is suppose to keep people from using translocation for bad things, but the people who thought of all these restrictions must’ve been some amazing people……”

It looked like priests could use it in the case of an emergency, but wouldn’t it just waste more time if all these troublesome restrictions were placed on it?

I felt like the mages and sorcerers had overdone it. Or maybe translocation had done a lot of harm before the restrictions had been set in place. You’d probably have to be super smart in order to be a high-ranking priest, huh.

Oh, but I…

“Hibiki?”

I felt pathetic as I looked up at Louie.

“I suck as drawing and stuff.”

I really should have taken art class more seriously.

“I should have done more brain puzzles to up my memorization too……”

Eru cooed in sympathy as I mumbled to myself with a distant look in my eyes.

Louie looked at me with a look that told me that he was itching to ask questions.

“By ‘up,’ I mean to make it better. And the puzzles……er, they’re like mysteries that you can solve.”

“Yes, Hibiki.”

I finally broke out a smile upon seeing the expression on his face.

“I won’t be able to become a knight like you, Louie, if I don’t rise up to every challenge. I’ll do my best!”

“You still haven’t given up on that?”

Louie inadvertently smiled a wry smile.

Then, we both went to look at the lithograph. Why are you panicking? I scolded myself on the inside. Completing the circle was nothing compared to what had happened at Urs.

I gingerly reached out for a charm needle.

I’d just learned that only priests could touch them. I couldn’t help but be nervous.

“……I can touch it.”

A sigh escaped me. It hadn’t crumbled the moment I’d taken it into my hands, maybe because the powers that Silvai and Olin had given me were working.

But I was only relieved for a moment. I braced myself. I had to memorize the circle engraved on the lithograph backwards and copy it to the circle on the floor.

“The pattern’s pretty detailed. This might take me at least more than an hour.”

I resented myself for my poor memory. The fact that the image had to be reversed was also going to be a huge obstacle.

“It would have been better if I was able to take your place,”

Louie whispered hesitantly. Maybe he was capable of memorizing the circle accurately and flipping it over in his head and drawing it in one go? I mean, Louie seemed pretty smart.

Then, he lowered his voice, possibly because he took pity on me as I hung down my head, and said,

“it’s not exactly a praiseworthy method of going about it, but if you traced the pattern on something else first……”

I looked up.

“It’s okay to trace it first?”

“It was originally forbidden out of respect for the magic circle. However, after the restrictions were put in place, it was said that it would be too time-consuming to use in the event of an emergency.”

“There were people who argued that?”

“Yes.”

I wanted to shake their hands. And so, I had Louie explain how to cheat around the rules.

The pattern on the circle would change if you drew it with the charm needle even if you only drew it for practice.

But, it apparently didn’t count if it was drawn using any other brush. This cheat was apparently only known to priests and a handful of other people of high social standing.

“It was publicly announced to the people that the circle would change once it was drawn regardless of what it was drawn with.”

“I guess there’s always a shortcut somewhere, huh……”

I only noticed after I was done being impressed. Judging by how he knew about this, did that mean that Louie was pretty important for a knight? I’d have to ask him about it when we had the time.

I stopped Louie before he left to find a brush and a piece of paper.

“I have the latest weapons for this job.”

“I beg your pardon? The latest?”

“All you need is Japanese stationary!”

I dug through my bag triumphantly and pulled out my journal.

But it wasn’t the notebook paper that I’d make use of here.

It was the clear files.

I beamed as Louie opened his eyes wide.

“This is transparent, so I’ll be able to trace the circle perfectly. And if you flip it over, it solves the problem about the circle having to be reversed too!”

I luckily also happened to have a permanent felt tip pen with me too. Seriously, you never know when or where you’ll find something useful. I was glad from the bottom of my heart that I’d always crammed anything and everything in my bag.

I took out the clear file from my journal and opened it up. The circle on the lithograph was obviously large, so I needed two of them.

I admired my goods again as I basked under Louie’s surprised gaze. Who would have thought that I would need the clear files at a time like this? Japanese stuff is amazing.

“Shall I hold it up for you?”

“Yeah, thanks!”

Louie help up the files against the lithograph so they wouldn’t fall down as I began tracing the circle with my ballpoint pen. The weight of Louie’s gaze hurt a little.

It was going well up until that part. The problems came after that. Right as I flipped over the file and was about to draw the pattern onto the circle on the floor, Eru wrapped his tail around my arm as if he was telling me to wait up.

“There is an order in which you must draw the lines. Magic and sorcery have laws that must be honored.”

Eru snorted as if he was agreeing with what Louie had said.

Jeez, magic and sorcery take up way too much time! I’d thought that they’d be more convenient than this.

“Spells like this are commonly used by those of higher ranks. Let’s say that a large catastrophe descended upon a town, for example. Translocation would be used to ensure the safety of any important personnel. It’s also used to transport valuable goods. There are ritual tools for translocation set up and ready at every temple and large town.”

“I see…… So I guess all this isn’t really too hard for priests who are already used to translocating and have already learned the ropes.”

The only reason that I found it inconvenient was because I’d lived my life surrounded by convenient things up until now. Bikes, cars, buses, trains, shinkansen —there were many means by which I could travel. Even without having to trace the pattern like this with a pen, I could’ve just photographed it and copied it that way.

Evelier was not Japan. I had to understand this.

I composed myself and picked up the charm needle. I couldn’t allow myself to lose my temper no matter how much of the hurry I was in.

“I’m sure I can do it if I break it down and take it one line at a time. But how will I know what order to draw them in?”

It was Eru, of all beings, who solved this problem for me. He knew what order the lines had to be drawn in, as expected of Olin’s beast.

“Eru’s way too much smarter than me……”

Louie let out a chuckle as I grumbled.

Eru stuck out his front paw at the floor as if to say, “Start from here.” I did as he wanted me to and ran the charm needle across the floor.

Eru used his tail to stop me whenever I was about to make a mistake. Evidently, you weren’t allowed even one mistake while doing this.

“Eru, you’re so cool. I’m so glad I’m not alone.”

Eru cooed happily.

“It’s pretty awesome how we can all work together like this.”

Louie held up the lamp for me as I carefully drew in the symbols on the floor. I made sure to take my time because I wasn’t very good at drawing.

I eventually began to see what the rules to drawing the circle were. First, were the symbols in the center. Then, after circling around those once, you’d start the next round going in the opposite direction. After that was a group of somewhat eye-catching symbols that were drawn in fixed intervals. Then, there was another symbol that wrapped around again like a pattern——.

A question popped into my mind as I worked. Was this translocation circle magic or was it sorcery?

Maybe it was a bit of both.

——Maybe translocating would’ve been so much easier if I was able to use the powers that Silvai and Olin gave me.

An idle thought wandered into the back of my mind.

At the very least, holding the charm needle was all I could use my powers for right now. What was the driving force behind my powers?

What would Louie have done if I couldn’t even touch the charm needle?

I threw my consciousness in all directions as I confirmed my positioning. My fingers, holding the charm needle, were concentrated solely on drawing the circle, but the inside of my head was one big mess. My entire body was tense because I wasn’t allowed to make any mistakes. There was a bit of sweat forming on my forehead despite the fact that the air was rather cool.

I felt like the symbols and lines I’d drawn with the charm needle were giving off a bit of heat. Gradually, my consciousness went past my many worries and focused solely on the circle.

I was about three-fourths of the way done. It happened just as I relaxed a little, reveling in the fact that I only had a little bit more to do.

I heard a small clink.

All three of us turned to the corridor at once. With a stern look on his face, Louie placed the lamp on the floor and quietly put his hand on his sword.

“Louie. Do you know how long it’s been since we got here?”

He put a finger to his lips to signal me to be quiet without taking his eyes off the corridor when I called out to him and started walking without making a sound.

This time, we heard something clatter like a stone rolling on the floor.

We had left the door wide open.

“Please finish what you were doing. Ensure that you never leave this hall,”

Louie said quietly before walking out the door. I looked back and forth between the circle and the door and gulped.

After a deep breath, the muffled sound of a beast growling reached my ears.

Either a beast or a monster —I didn’t know which— had sensed that we were here and were approaching us.

I was worried for Louie. He had gone out alone without even a source of light.

If I tagged along, I, who barely knew how to hold a sword, would only get in Louie’s way and my actions would probably invite disaster. I had to bear with it no matter how much I wanted to go and help him.

“I have to do what I can.”

Which was to complete the circle. It was wrong to abandon the work that had been assigned to me mid-way through and blindly follow after Louie. I had to finish what I could first before moving on to the next thing.

“Eru, tell me what’s next.”

I pulled out my divine sword from the luggage and tied it to my waist just in case.

It wasn’t that I was preparing myself for Louie’s defeat. But, I knew it would be difficult for him to stall multiple beasts at once. It was possible that a beast could slip past him while he was dealing with another one. I needed to take caution.

“I have to hurry.”

I turned my impatience into concentration as I set about my work again under Eru’s instructions.

I had to complete the circle even a second faster if I wanted to help Louie.

I ran the charm needle across the floor with my undivided attention. My ears picked up the sounds of a beast howling and something breaking.

It’s okay, Louie won’t lose. I can’t let myself lose focus.

My fingers were trembling when I finished drawing the final symbol.

“——Eru, go call Louie back!”

Eru’s running speed was much faster than mine. And, Eru could carry Louie on his back if he was injured.

Eru swiftly ran toward the door as if he understood.

For a second, I didn’t know what to do with the charm needle now that I was done with it before I decided to stash it away in my sash. Hurry and save Louie, Eru. The circle suddenly wavered when I prayed in my state of panic.

“What……?”

I opened my eyes wide and looked down at the circle I’d completed.

The first line I’d drawn along the circle was, as I’d expected, crudely done. Even still, it began to glow faintly almost like it was breathing, maybe because of the charm needle’s power or because the circle itself had power.

“Wait, hold on, don’t teleport yet!”

I pleaded at the circle. I couldn’t have it teleport only me.

“Whoa, whoa!”

Something shocking happened just as I tried to step out of the circle.

The faintly glowing circle had started to rise slowly from the floor.

“I said don’t!”

I panicked. The circle had risen to about where my knee was. It stopped there, for some reason. It wavered like the circle was mad at me rather than feeling like it had listened to my wishes.

In a daze, I stared down at the circle wobbling at my knees like an object in a wave pool. It refused to come up any higher, as if something was preventing it from doing so.

“Did I get something wrong!?”

I began to panic about something else. But, in that case, Eru would have noticed it.

So why did it stop on its way up?

“Hibiki!”

Eru and Louie returned as my mind was in chaos.

The sword that Louie held in one hand was wet with the beasts’ blood. His sharp gaze told me that there were still a few left.

Before I could say I was glad he was safe, Louie closed the door in a hurry and drew closer to check on the circle.

“Recite the incantation for translocation.”

The blood drained from my face.

“……Incantation?”

The wavering circle that had stopped at my knees. Louie’s words slipped into my ears as I looked down at it.

“The words engraved on the lithograph should be the incantation. The spell for translocation won’t work unless it’s been chanted.”

“Is that why the circle stopped moving?”

I looked at Louie, who had come into the circle, as I grew paler. I continued,

“……what does it say?”

Louie opened his eyes wide at my hoarse voice.

——I can’t read the writing of this world.

I needed to have someone read it to me. Louie, who was a resident of this world, should be able to make it out.

“I can’t read the writing. Can you tell me what it says?”

A terrible feeling spread throughout my chest.

Louie looked down at me like he had forgotten how to blink and shook his head ever so slightly.

“I cannot read it.”

We stared at each other. Eru snuggled up against my arm. He continued,

“the incantation is written in words that differ from the common tongue. It’s not something I can read.”

I couldn’t immediately think of anything to say. Then, how do we translocate…?

Why hadn’t Louie told me about the incantation earlier?

I quickly answered my own question. Since I was able to touch the charm needle, he must have thought that, even if I couldn’t read the common tongue in this other world, I would be able to use my powers to decipher the incantation.

There was also the fact that I had displayed mysterious powers in Urs.

More importantly, outside of the details regarding the towns we had visited, he hadn’t known how ignorant I was about magic or sorcery, both of which had something to do with the powers I’d received as a member of the gods’ household, until I’d actually started drawing the circle.

And that’s why he never confirmed this with me. ……After I thought more deeply into this, even aside from the fact that I had absolutely no knowledge about anything, the talk we had regarding the statues was still fresh in our minds.

Earlier, Louie had repeatedly said that he “didn’t doubt me” in an extremely serious manner. He didn’t doubt that I’d met the gods, or that I’d received power from them.

He had been worried that I’d think he was “doubting” me if he asked if I could make out the incantation.

I should have talked things through with Louie properly and closed the gap between us. Louie had noticed that I’d only said that I “believed him” without really meaning it and wasn’t able to say anything after that!

Eru growled from beside me as I was at a loss for words.

Something crashed heavily and audibly against the other side of the doors.

“Are the beasts trying to break the doors down?”

I tore my gaze away from Louie, ran up to the lithograph, and stared at the incantation that was carved onto it.

“I can’t read it……!”

I really don’t understand!

Olin, if you were gonna give me the ability to speak the language, I wish you’d given me the ability to read it too!

I grew exasperated at myself for trying to shift the blame on someone else. The only thing I had done with my own power was tracing the circle. I was always having to borrow someone’s else’s power, wasn’t I?

“What should I do?”

My body trembled subconsciously.

“Hibiki!”

I turned around with a start when I was called. Louie was standing in the middle of the circle. Eru was inside it as well.

The circle, which had risen to a low level, was slowly and weakly falling back down as if time was up.

Taken aback, I quickly turned my gaze to the circle on the lithograph.

As a rule, my bad feelings generally struck home and the circle on the lithograph slowly began to disappear.

“Don’t disappear!”

If the circle was copied with a charm needle, it would be treated as a use even if it had only been drawn for practice. And, it looked like it also counted as a use as long as a certain amount of time passed, even if no translocation ever took place during that time. If it disappeared completely, a new circle would appear on the lithograph in its stead.

“There has to be a way.”

We didn’t have the time to draw another circle. Even if we defeated the beasts outside the doors, a new danger would quickly take its place. ——Nightfall.

We’d ended up wasting a lot of time because it took to long to construct the circle. Wasn’t it sunset soon? The Reims would appear along with the coming of night.

“——I believe you.”

I looked up as the quiet words echoed around me.

“I believe in you.”

Louie looked deeply into me. My heart moved. Had it creaked, or had it trembled?

“Why, why do you…”

…believe in me? You don’t even remember Silvai or Olin, Louie.

Would I have been able to trust Louie if we had switched places? How could he possibly believe in someone who only said and did strange things he couldn’t understand, someone who only held him back?

What is it about me that you believe in?

I’m so powerless, and I always stumble no matter what I do——.

“……Argh, enough already!!”

I accidentally ended up screaming. Louie blinked in surprise.

I was just lamenting and cowering all over again, wasn’t I? I was just going in circles, which was basically the same thing as not doing anything.

“I’m being way too hesitant!”

Who cared if I didn’t know what it was about me that Louie believed in?

I wasn’t confident in myself, but there were still things that I knew were certain. What good would doubting the powers that Silvai and Olin had given me do?

I psyched myself up and ran back to where Louie and Eru were.

I couldn’t read the incantation. But I still had to make the circle work even without it.

I took a deep breath. I stilled my heart and stood up straight.

“Don’t disappear. This is the wind god’s temple, right? So please, carry us through.”

The circle didn’t respond. I knelt on one knee and looked down at the wavering circle as it slowly fell back down.

“The wind god’s power exists inside me. So, if this temple still has divine protection——then pay Silvai your respect!”

Even if Silvai had been forgotten, I still carried a fragment of his power. I wanted this circle, which existed in the temple of the wind god, to respond to it.

“Answer me. If you still seek the god of wind!”

I pressed my forehead down on the circle that had almost fallen back to the floor and vanished. It was like I was prostrating myself.

——Move!

“Believe in the god of wind.”

I said in a whisper as I put the divine stone on my forehead to the warm circle. I felt a faint warmth in the stone. It felt like the stone itself was pouring power into the circle. My forehead grew hotter until it started to hurt.

The beasts broke through the doors of the ceremonial chamber with a loud crash.

The circle moved.

The circle reluctantly began rising up again, as if it had a will of its own.

“Whoa!”

The circle had risen up without an incantation, or to be more precise, with Silvai’s power to make up for what it lacked, and was wobbling horribly. Still, it rose up past my knees, stomach, and chest and was definitely breathing heavily.

With their fangs bared, the beasts ran toward us like they were flying.

The moment I stared blankly at the nearest beast, the circle shined vibrantly and sent out a gust of wind.

“Kyah……!”

My field of vision grew disordered, as if I was in the middle of a storm, when I screamed and space distorted horribly.

I felt like the last thing I heard was Louie calling out for me.

***

“——Huh?”

My vision returned like it had been switched back on.

Midair.

“Ehh!?”

——Midair!?

Horrified, I began struggling with everything I had……and, since I didn’t have a lifeline, my body instantly dropped down to the ground.

A loud crash resounded throughout my body and an impressive wave of pain ran up my waist and back. I suppose I was fortunate that my fall wasn’t bad enough that my life was in any danger.

“Owww!”

I shouted, forgetting what kind of situation I was in, and curled up in pain. It really, really hurt!

“Now’s not the time to be cursing……!”

I got up as I rubbed my back, which hurt from crashing against the floor.

I saw that my divine sword had fallen close by and pulled it closer in a hurry. Gingerly, I looked around at my surroundings.

“……Where are we?”

My timid voice melted into the silence.

I’d never seen this place before. I was in a deadly quiet large hall with a solemn atmosphere to it.

“Did we translocate successfully to the temple at Jinshan?”

Then, a chill ran up my back.

No one was answering me.

“Louie, Eru, where are you guys?”

I was sitting in the middle of the floor hugging my divine sword, and I was the only person here.

I was all alone in a place I had no knowledge of.

Share