Chapter 144: Connection (5)
TL/ED – Miso
[Go.]
“…Linmel.”
The moment Decay set off, Karos’s expression turned slightly serious as she pushed Linmel away.
“Huh?”
“Could you return to the lodgings for a moment?”
“The lodgings? Why?”
“Something’s come up.”
Leaving the bewildered Linmel behind, Karos disappeared down an alleyway.
It seemed Decay had sent some kind of signal only she could understand. Linmel tilted her head in confusion but ran toward the lodgings via a shortcut, and now it was my turn to move.
“Hup.”
With a light leap, I cut across several blocks through the alleyways and stepped into her path.
Lush golden hair, golden eyes. Her features showed how much she’d grown.
Just a bit more time and she would surely capture the hearts of countless men. Linmel glared sharply at me, this stranger who had suddenly appeared to block her way.
“Who the hell are you?”
I considered revealing my identity, then shook my head.
Linmel wasn’t exactly known for keeping secrets. It would be better to frame it as something I’d heard from someone named Jern…
That was as far as I got.
“Move.”
The instant her hand gripped the hilt for a low draw, she vanished completely from my Deep Sea.
“…!”
I could still see her with my eyes. But I’d known since first witnessing knights in action just how narrow the world visible to the eye truly was.
Especially my vision. With senses no better than an ordinary person’s, I couldn’t even graze the hem of a knight’s cloak.
She can already use Sense Nullification? That was something only genuine knights like Brimdal could pull off. I frowned and leaped backward.
In hindsight, it was a poor decision.
“What a weird guy.”
“…”
Linmel had clearly thrust at empty air.
But when I came to my senses, that empty air was less than a centimeter from my throat.
As I stood in silent shock at movement that could only be described as teleportation, she furrowed her brow and tilted her head.
“You sensed my movements, so you must know about knights, but you think jumping backward is going to save you? Are you stupid?”
“…Hah.”
Being called stupid by Linmel. My pride took a serious blow.
Even so, as long as my throat wasn’t pierced, I wasn’t at any disadvantage.
No, knights in general simply couldn’t exert their full power against the Fallen. Without a word, I seized her blade with Water Pressure.
“Huh?”
Linmel looked flustered as she tried to pull her sword free from where it hung fixed in midair.
It was impossible. As far as I knew, my ability had grown stronger alongside my increased Burden, so even Linmel couldn’t…
-Bang!
Linmel wouldn’t have seen it, but a massive bubble erupted as the Water Pressure broke apart.
It wasn’t like she’d gone all out, but pure brute strength alone had broken through.
…What the hell is this girl?
“You—”
While I was still refusing to comprehend, Linmel’s expression twisted as she examined her sword.
“So that’s it. You’re a wizard.”
Her presence shifted along with her words.
Where before she’d intended to subdue me and move on, now everything from her stance to her Combat Stance made it clear she saw me as a true enemy.
I felt as if the sky was falling. That lunatic Karos had turned my Linmel into a killing machine.
I vowed to interrogate her about this later, but Linmel charged again as if to remind me that I didn’t have time for such concerns.
This rush was different from before. Taking her earlier advice to heart, I called forth a star this time.
What I created was a spear of wind.
-Boom! A small explosion erupted in the alley, and I used the recoil to launch myself high into the air.
I spun several times and landed on the upper part of a wall only to find Linmel, not having fallen behind at all, lightly swinging her sword overhead.
“What!”
When did she get here?
I immediately rolled backward, shoved her hard with a Current, and landed.
A chilling sensation ran down my spine. Hastily, I constricted about 6 square meter around myself with Water Pressure from all directions. Linmel’s sword stopped a hand’s breadth from my waist, her expression twisted.
My waist. I had nearly been saddled with the Burden of spending my life in a wheelchair.
It lasted only an instant. As I stepped back to retreat, she broke free in the same moment and closed five of my steps with a single one of her own.
Watching her expression as she refused to give an inch, I understood.
Right now, Linmel was trying not to let me get beyond a certain range.
She’s learned well.
The thought came unbidden, pride swelling despite the circumstances.
Fighting a wizard from a distance was foolish. Never surrender advantageous range. She must have learned that from Karos.
Linmel seemed to sense something else, though.
“Wind Thunder…”
“Ah.”
Seeing the high-level magic I’d just used, she must have overestimated the number of stars I possessed.
She had good reason to flee, but watching her simply accept the situation and bring her sword up from below, it was clear she’d faced plenty of high-level wizards before.
Given how unlikely it was for high-level wizards to be among bandit groups, she must have sparred against them.
It seemed Sharmia had provided considerable support. By now I was curious just how much she’d grown, so I deliberately gathered swirling wind above my palm and showed it to her.
“Come at me.”
“…”
Linmel glared at the wind gathered in my hand.
There was nothing I could actually create with it. But to Linmel, who believed I was a high-level wizard, it would appear differently.
Charging a wizard who was preparing unknown magic wasn’t a wise choice for a knight.
I wanted to see how Linmel would handle this situation.
“Fine.”
Linmel simply took a step forward.
Two steps.
Three steps.
“?”
She was just walking slowly toward me with her sword raised.
As if she thought I wouldn’t notice.
It was utterly absurd. I could have struck at any moment.
Still the same old Linmel at her core, it seemed. While I was debating whether to be relieved or exasperated—
-Tap.
“I’m here. Now what?”
The sword touched my throat.
The sharp blade pressed against skin, and a droplet of blood ran down the steel.
“…Huh?”
My complete defeat.
At the same time, it was a defeat I couldn’t begin to understand. The question spilled out on its own.
…Why?
Why hadn’t I done anything until the blade reached my throat?
As I frowned, failing to process what had happened, Linmel pressed the sword harder against my neck with a triumphant air and explained.
“You have some way of observing me, don’t you?”
“…”
“No point hiding it! I already figured it out. First, I felt a strange gaze when I entered here, and during our fight you kept reacting when I struck at your blind spots from behind! But then, seeing how you reacted to my movements at the start, your reaction speed didn’t seem that fast.”
“So?”
“So that’s why you couldn’t move.”
Linmel grinned with a confident expression.
“Ahem. Information can be poison too! I don’t know what magic you can use. But you learned about me from that fight just now, right? If you fired that magic at me, you’d definitely take a fatal wound in the opening. You knew that, so you were watching me, looking for a chance to escape.”
“…”
“But I don’t have any openings. That’s what my master said.”
It was true.
Even at this very moment, I couldn’t find a single gap in Linmel’s guard.
When I thought about it, it made sense. She’d sensed my Current Sense through instinct alone from the moment she entered the alley.
I’d been searching for an opening to retreat and got caught in the gap instead.
By now, my shock had transformed into admiration.
She came up with all that on the spot?
…Brimdal had said Linmel’s talent was like gold, hadn’t he?
I should have realized something the moment that thickheaded dwarven knight opened his mouth.
Comparing her talent to mere gold seemed like a gross understatement.
I felt ashamed for ever thinking she was stupid. It was only that her environment hadn’t supported her. In truth, Linmel had always been remarkably clever.
“But…”
Sniff sniff.
Having secured her victory, Linmel suddenly tilted her head and drew closer to me.
Her sword still aimed at my throat.
“You— why can’t I hit you properly? Your body seems smaller than it looks.”
“…What?”
“And something about you… feels familiar.”
After staring at me for a moment, Linmel suddenly snatched off my mask.
I had no time to stop her. My true appearance was revealed, and her golden eyes met mine.
After a moment’s consideration, I waved.
“Hi.”
“…Finally seeing you.”
Linmel flashed a grin, then shoved me down and planted her foot on my chest.
Of course, I’d expected that revealing my identity wouldn’t make Linmel immediately say, “Jern? I missed you!” or anything like that.
But I hadn’t anticipated those eyes filled with hostility. As I tilted my head in confusion, Linmel glared at me intensely and spat out the words.
“You’re a Fallen, aren’t you?”
“I am, but…”
“I knew it! My master said Fallen use sorcery that’s different from magic, that they deceive the senses and pull off impossible things.”
Linmel pressed the sword harder against my throat.
“You transformed into the person I want to see most to trick me!”
“…”
After a moment’s thought, I said something I knew for certain.
“Remember when we were playing on the hill behind our orphanage and you broke your leg, so I set a tree on fire?”
“…You can steal memories too?!”
Hmm.
I take back what I said about her being clever.
***
It took quite a while to convince her that I really was Jern.
Quite a while in context, about five minutes or so.
“J-Jern? Really, truly, really you???”
“Yeah. I mean, I even told you how many teeth I lost.”
The frightening part was that she had been the one to ask.
Why did Linmel remember how many of my baby teeth had fallen out? As I frowned, she embraced me with glistening eyes.
“Where have you been all this time…!!”
“Ack, well. I got a request from the Princess…”
“The Princess gave you a request? Really? Oh, right! Your wound!”
Startled, Linmel met my gaze again, then pulled bandages from her pocket and began wrapping them around my neck.
“I’m sorry, it must have hurt so much. I didn’t know it was you, so I just…”
The tightness of the wrapping showed how much she worried about me, and my heart warmed.
The problem was that the area in question was my neck. If I hadn’t had the Gold Crown embedded in my body, I probably would have suffocated to death.
Since I did have it, it didn’t matter. But if she squeezed any tighter, I might not suffocate but I’d definitely lose circulation, so I struggled to push her off and quickly changed the subject.
“I’m fine. What about you? Why are you traveling with Karos?”
“Mmm, I wanted to get stronger, so I joined the Wax Wings Knights.”
“That’s dangerous… is what I want to say, but I can’t really argue.”
I stroked Linmel’s head with a proud expression.
“You’ve gotten so strong.”
“Ehehe… Actually, I’m paying for my crimes right now.”
“…What?”
“The thing is, when I heard you’d been thrown in prison, I grabbed a sword in my hand and went to rescue you.”
What the—
So that was what had happened. As I stood there in shock, Linmel dropped an even bigger bombshell.
“I ran into my master there and fought her and got caught… but when I said I’d keep coming every day until they released you, she explained the situation.”
“What situation?”
“That you weren’t actually imprisoned, that something came up so you only pretended to be in prison before leaving, and that if I worked with her for a while, she’d help me find you and let us meet.”
“…”
“So I’ve been diligently going on missions with her. I never thought I’d actually run into you in a place like this!”
…The backstory painted itself.
It seemed the Princess’s side couldn’t just leave Linmel, my acquaintance, wandering into danger alone searching for me while Crimson Circle was out there, and since her talent was exceptional, they had compromised by having her travel and train under Karos.
From my perspective, it was a fairly reasonable response. I wore a complicated expression as I continued stroking her head, then realized there was still something I needed to do.
“Linmel, this isn’t the best time to bring it up, but could you keep it secret that you saw me?”
“Hm? Why?”
“It’s necessary for the mission I’m on. Please.”
“Got it!”
“And…”
This next request was harder to voice, but—
“Could you maybe not hold a sword for a few months and pretend to be injured? Just in case, you absolutely can’t pick up a sword.”
“Why’s that?”
“…I’m sorry. I know how terrible this must sound to you, living as a knight…”
I bowed my head deeply.
I knew how difficult a request this was, so even with time running short, I needed to explain properly.
But Linmel nodded as if it were nothing.
“No, it’s fine.”
“It’s… fine?”
“Yeah. I mean, it’s no big deal. Why would that be a problem?”
…This wasn’t the time for such thoughts, but—
I felt like I’d glimpsed a fragment of how difficult things must be for her master, Karos.