Grimgal of Ashes and Illusion - Volume 10 - Chapter 9

9. Why Did You...?

...So, I realized something.

You’re drinking a soda, yeah? Even though you complain your throat hurts, you’re drinking carbonated drinks all the time, aren’t you?

That soda, the one you’re drinking. Give it to me. Even just a sip.

I’m parched.

My throat’s so dry, it’s not funny.

You’re sitting in front of that vending machine, like always, drinking a soda.

Is it night?

It may already be pretty late at night.

It’s dark, after all.

Totally dark.

Everywhere I look... it’s pitch dark, or rather, pitch black.

Except for that one vending machine.

You’re illuminated by the light of the vending machine.

But I can’t see your face. It’s the only thing I can’t see.

Weird. I should know what it looks like. So why?

Who are you...?

I’m asking you. I have been for a while now. Over and over.

Can’t you hear me?

And you, you’re hanging your head? Is that why I can’t see your face?

You’re drinking a soda, like always. On and on, you continue drinking. Nothing but soda.

Thanks to that, there are empty cans rolling around. Tens, hundreds, maybe more.

Here, there, everywhere. They’re more than just rolling around. The countless empty cans, it feels like you and the vending machine are about to be buried in them.

Hey, you. It’s dangerous to be there.

Heeeey. I raise my voice to caution you.

It’s dangerous, okay?

The empty cans. They’re weird. They keep growing in number.

Where are those empty cans pressing in from?

Heeeey.

Heeeey, I said.

Please give me a response.

Why is it? I don’t know, but I can only call out to you from here.

I can’t go there.

You know, don’t you?

Hearing a familiar voice, I turn to look.

There’s someone there.

In the inky black darkness, there’s someone.

I know he’s there. But I can’t see him. He speaks.

That’s not where you belong.

That’s right, someone else says. You can’t go there. Not yet. You can’t come here, either.

What’s with that?

What do you mean?

I have to stay here, then...?

If you want to come, you can.

No. That’s no good.

Yeah. You’re right. It’s too soon.

Yeah. Don’t go there. You shouldn’t come here, either.

You say that, but then I’m all alone.

It’s so dark.

There’s nothing.

Being here all alone, it may not be impossible for me, but I can’t stand it.

Come, you say from in front of the vending machine.

When I look, you’re standing up.

You were looking down, but not anymore. You raise your face, and you’re looking at me.

In one hand you have a soda, and your face is black, as if blotted out.

Liquid pours from the mouth of the can. A black, black, ink-like fluid.

The darkness itself.

Come here, you say. Even though you have nothing resembling lips. I’m lonely. Come.

I’m scared.

Frightened beyond belief, but I’m so sad I can’t take it.

I want to go.

I want to go there.

To your side.

I don’t want to leave you alone.

You can’t go, you say. Hold on. Don’t go.

Why stop me?

I don’t want to leave you alone, and I don’t want to be alone myself. You know that, right?

I mean, this place is...

Where is it?

Oh...

Choco.

Manato.

Moguzo.

They’re not here.

None of them.

That’s right. The vending machine.

It’s not here.

No light.

Darkness.

This overwhelming, complete darkness.

Dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, whe, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, re, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, where, dark, dark, dark, dark, am, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, where, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, dark, am I....?

There was a sound of gulping.

He quickly realized it wasn’t dark.

Indoors. Yes. This wasn’t outdoors. He was beneath a roof. What was more, it was soft. He wasn’t sleeping on the ground, or the floor, but on proper bedding.

When he tried to get up, someone shouted his name. “Haru?!”

“Huh—Merry...?”

Merry. It was definitely Merry.

It seemed Haruhiro was lying in a bed of sorts. Merry was sitting in a chair that had been placed right next to him. Merry stood up with such force that she almost kicked the chair over, then fell on top of him. No, she didn’t fall on top of him. Not precisely. But she came at him with such momentum that it looked like she might, putting her left hand down next to his head to support herself, and using her right hand to touch Haruhiro’s cheek and neck.

Merry’s hair fell over Haruhiro’s face. He could smell her scent.

It was probably night. It was dark in a way, but there was a window, and a little light shone in through it, letting him faintly see Merry’s face. Her eyes, in particular. They didn’t meet his own. Merry touched him here and there, then looked to his eyes, as if confirming whether he was all right.

He wanted to say, I’m okay, but he couldn’t.

Haruhiro couldn’t take his eyes off Merry. This might have been impure of him, but while it didn’t need to be forever, if only for a little longer, he wished she would have kept touching him. If he reached out, he could hug her close. That thought occurred to him. Somehow, he had the feeling Merry wouldn’t reject him. When that stupid idea crossed his mind, he felt hopelessly pathetic.

“I’m fine, Merry,” Haruhiro said with a smile. Was he really managing to smile? He couldn’t tell himself, and he wasn’t confident. It was always this way.

“...I see.” Merry took a breath, then lifted herself up and ended up sitting on the edge of the bed. Merry’s hands moved away from Haruhiro, and her scent grew fainter. To the point he could barely sense it.

He wasn’t sure if he felt disappointed, or relieved. Possibly it was both.

Whatever the case, this was fine. He could just barely stay sane. There had to be an appropriate distance between comrades. Most likely, that was even more true when they trusted each other with their lives.

“...Sorry,” he added.

“Why are you apologizing?” she asked.

“I mean, well... I dunno. Erm, when it comes to what happened to make things turn out like this... I have no idea. But, like, it’s my fault we’re in this situation to begin with, you could say.”

Merry silently shook her head. Haruhiro understood already. It was his fault. He’d made the wrong call. Even so, his comrades wouldn’t unilaterally blame him. He knew that, so how many times was he going to go through this same thing?

There wasn’t time for apologies. There were plenty of things he needed to be asking about. Why couldn’t he say anything?

Merry was keeping quiet.

The silence weighed on him. Mainly on his heart, and his stomach. They ached.

Eventually, Merry sniffled.

Haruhiro was shocked. “...Merry?”

“I’m sorry.” Merry covered her face with her left hand. Pressing on the area around her eyes, she might have been trying to hold back tears.

“No... But that’s—”

“It’s nothing. Just... I was relieved.”

“I... see. If that’s all, well...”

“You idiot.” Merry thumped Haruhiro lightly in the chest, then chuckled. Her right hand tried to pull away, then didn’t. It was left softly on Haruhiro’s chest. “...No. I’m the idiot.”

“Huh?”

“Never mind. I’m probably not saying anything meaningful.”

“You... aren’t?”

“I’m not clever, so there are times when I do that.”

“I don’t think it’s true that you aren’t clever.”

“I’m afraid to be looked down on, so I just hide it.” Merry gripped her right hand a little. “But I’m sure it shows.”

Haruhiro let out an “Uh...” sounding like an idiot. In times like these, he cursed himself for not being able to say something clever and considerate. But what were times like these? What kind of time was this?

“Merry, you’re...”

What was she? Merry was... what?

Haruhiro breathed in, breathed out.

Words, come out, he pleaded. Come out, please.

Please, please... come out.

Come on. I’m begging you. I don’t care what the words are at this point.

“...irreplaceable...” he finished. “For all of us... Yeah. You’ve saved us all. Me... My face was a mess, wasn’t it? The one who fixed it, that was you, right, Merry?”

“Because I’m a priest,” she said.

“You’re needed, Merry. Um... by all of us... absolutely.”

“That’s you, Haru,” she said. “Without you there, we’d be in trouble. All of us.”

“All of us... Yeah.”

“So...”

“So?”

“I’m glad, Haru. That... you’re here. That I was able to meet you.”

“No, I’m the one... who should be saying that...”

“Saying what?” Merry asked.

“Huh?! Ohh... erm... Well, that I’m glad I was able to meet you... Wait—”

What is this? he thought frantically. This conversation?

We’re grateful to have met each other. That isn’t strange at all, in and of itself. It’s a fact, after all. I am grateful, you know? But, somehow, this is different. Huh?

Isn’t it?

Am I reading too much into it? Too much? How?

Huhhhhhh? I don’t know anymore.

“Whuh?” he began to vocalize, but Haruhiro had no idea what he’d been attempting to say. “Whuh. Whuh. Whuh...?”

“Whuh?” Merry repeated, and tilted her head to the side.

“Whuh...”

Oh, crap.

His mind had gone blank. Even though it was dark. Come to think of it, they were inside a building, but there wasn’t a single light.

A building.

A building?

“Whuh...?”

Where was this building? In that village? If so, why? Haruhiro didn’t exactly seem to be bound hand and foot. It seemed the same went for Merry. What had gone on after Haruhiro passed out?

Merry was here. Where was Shihoru? Yume? Kuzaku? Setora, Enba, and Kiichi?

“Whuh...”

That “Whuh.” How many times had he said it now?

Merry burst out laughing a little, then pulled back the hand that she’d left on him. “I’ll give you a brief rundown of what happened.”

“P-Please. Oh, right... Can I get up? Is that okay?”

Merry laughed again, then said, “Go ahead.”

When he got up, he felt a little dizzy, but nothing else seemed that out of the ordinary. Considering his face had been smashed in before he passed out, well, it was an improvement.

No, more than that, judging from the way Merry was acting, all of their comrades were fine. Merry explained to Haruhiro the series of events by which the man who called himself Jessie had taken him captive, forced their comrades to submit, and then brought them to Jessie Land.

Then, even though they had expected to be imprisoned as a group, that wasn’t how it had gone. Merry had been ordered to attend to Haruhiro, while the rest of their comrades were given orders to go off and do other things elsewhere.

Shihoru had gone off with Jessie to see what things were like. Setora, Enba, and Kiichi were apparently being confined in something resembling a jail. Yume and Kuzaku seemed to have been assigned jobs, too. Shihoru was being forced to accompany Jessie, and she was asking him for various facts about Jessie Land.

“You mean he’s revealing the actual state of things to Shihoru?” Haruhiro asked.

“Yes. According to her, that’s right. He might be hiding something, though.”

“You never know...” he murmured.

“For a start, that man took a solid hit from your Backstab, but he was fine.”

“He looks like he couldn’t be anything other than a human, but he’s not,” Haruhiro said. “Gumows, was it? The babies orcs forced humans to have?”

“I haven’t heard about them in much detail,” Merry said. “But, basically, in the war where the Alliance of Kings defeated humanity, the orcs...”

“Erm, yeah... I, uh, feel kind of bad for those people. Oh, I guess they’re not people. No, but they have human blood, so... Yeah, compared to full-blooded orcs, they should be closer to us.”

“The ones guarding this building are green-coated gumows,” Merry said. “This is a gumow village, though, so that’s to be expected. They’re fairly kind. Oh, right.”

Merry got up from the bed. There was a table-like piece of furniture by the wall. Merry came back carrying something that had been on top of it.

“Food and water. The gumows brought this, too. I tried eating some. I don’t think they’ve put anything dodgy in it.”

“Oh...” Haruhiro’s stomach suddenly began to rumble, and his mouth watered.

“Wait.” Merry sat down on the edge of the bed again. “The food is wrapped. I’ll open it now. Have this first.”

Haruhiro brought the leather water bottle he was given to his lips and drank. It was warm, and slightly sour. Not an unpleasant sourness, like it had gone bad. It was easy to drink. He couldn’t help but gulp it down.

Merry said, “Here,” and offered him something flat. Obviously, he was meant to accept it with his hands, but spurred on by his appetite, Haruhiro stretched his neck up to bite the thing Merry was holding.

It looked like he’d surprised her, because Merry let out a little scream. “Eek!”

Before he could apologize, there was a feeling like an electric shock in his brain.

“Damn, that’s good!” he exclaimed.

“I-I know, right? This stuff is delicious.”

“It’s bringing me back to life.”

“Even though you were alive all along.”

“Well, yes, but, you know...”

“There’s more still.”

“Oh, sure.”

“Here.”

He opened his mouth, and the rest of that flat dumpling-like thing went in. He hesitated a little, but he didn’t know when he’d next get the chance to eat, and he wanted to eat it, so Haruhiro chewed and swallowed.

It really was delicious. And he got the feeling that wasn’t just because he’d been hungry.

First of all, the chewy texture was good. It had a faint savory flavor to it, too. Nice.

Also, there was something inside it. The ground meat and savory vegetables combined for a salty-sweet flavor. It was that sort of filling. This was delicious, too. It tasted like civilization. He hadn’t eaten anything decent in a while, after all. But even without that, it was probably delicious. A taste he’d never tire of.

If he were to say more, the flavor left him with a feeling of nostalgia. Like soul food. The soul food of what, though? He didn’t know, but it was amazing.

“Want another?” Merry asked.

He couldn’t possibly refuse. Even if it weren’t Merry doing the offering, he’d have wanted a second. By all means. Two, three, he’d eat all she had.

“Please.”

“Say ah.”

“Okay. Ah...”

Hm?

With his mouth wide, Haruhiro looked into Merry’s eyes.

Their lines of sight collided.

“Ah...!” Merry looked away. “I-I’m sorry. I was just sort of going with the flow. Th-There was no... deeper meaning to it...”

“S-Sure.” Haruhiro cast his eyes downward, rubbing his shoulder more than necessary. “I-I know that.”

“Go ahead,” she fumbled.

He hesitantly bit into the flat dumpling-like thing she extended to him. So good. He could feel it seeping into him. The taste was gentle. It would go with anything. He felt like if these people were eating this stuff every day, he could get along with them, even if they were another race.

Naturally, that was just how he felt. He wouldn’t actually factor the taste of this food into his decision. It was hard to come away with a bad impression, though. He’d already eaten a second, after all.

“Let’s leave it at that... okay?” he said. “If I suddenly eat as much as I want, it might give my body a shock, after all.”

Merry laughed. “That’s so like you, Haru.”

“Huh, really? How so?”

“The way you calmly try to control yourself. I’m always thinking how I need to learn from your example.”

“I’m nothing that special... you know? No, really.”

“The way you’re humble about it, too.”

“Hmm...” Haruhiro scratched his body all over.

He wasn’t good at taking compliments. It wasn’t that he wasn’t happy, just that they made him embarrassed, and he didn’t want to get a big head.

I mean, obviously, right? I’d be over the moon to have Merry compliment me so much. That’s why I want her to stop. I don’t want to get too happy. When good things happen, I get worried. There are good times, and bad. For every upward slope, there’s a downhill one coming. We live in a web of weal and woe, they say.

“Merry,” he said.

“Yes?”

“I feel like...”

This building’s window was in a sort of high position, its wooden shutter was open, and there were wooden poles supporting it. It was quiet outside.

Until it wasn’t.

To, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to...

That was the noise he heard.

No way, he thought. In his heart, he didn’t want to believe it, but Haruhiro’s body reacted quickly.

He jumped up to stand on the bed, and tried to look out the window. No good, huh. It was dark, and he couldn’t see. But he could still hear that distinctive to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to sound echoing in the distance.

“It’s drumming... A redback guorella’s.”

“No way...” Merry was speechless.

He could understand. Haruhiro felt exactly the same way.

Guorellas were strangely tenacious. Haruhiro had killed the male redback leader of their troop. Despite that, they still kept chasing them. It seemed this was an exceptional troop, and they had multiple redbacks. The party had managed to shake them somehow by risking their lives and diving off a cliff. That was how it was supposed to be.

It wasn’t just the drumming. He heard other noises, too. Screams. He didn’t know what they were saying. Was it in the Gumowan language? There were lights going back and forth. Torches, apparently.

The door opened, and the room lit up.

“Merry! Haruhiro-kun?!”

It was Shihoru. Behind Shihoru, who had called their names from the door, was a blond-haired man carrying a torch. Jessie.

“You’re awake, huh. Perfect. It looks like I’m going to be asking you for help,” Jessie said plainly.

He spoke like he wasn’t tense at all. His expression was calm, too.

Haruhiro armed himself with his stiletto, and his knife with the hand guard, along with his cloak and other equipment that had been laid out in a corner of the room, then left the building together with Merry. He was a little unsteady on his feet, but if he kept moving, he’d be fine. It was a good thing he’d gotten something to eat.

The village was surprisingly calm. The villagers weren’t panicking and rushing out of their houses and running off to who-knows-where, or anything like that.

“I’ve ordered them not to leave their houses,” Jessie explained as they walked. “It looks like they’re listening for now. By the way, the gumows wearing green coats like mine are different. I call them the Ranger Squad. They’re like my hands and legs, you could say. They’re as good as the volunteer soldiers in Alterna.”

The building Haruhiro and Merry had been in was apparently at the outer edge of the village. There weren’t buildings around them for long. This road was already in the fields. There were a number of flames in the distance. They didn’t look big, but they apparently had watchtowers.

“How many are there?” Haruhiro asked. “Um... of those rangers, I mean.”

“Twenty-four,” Jessie answered.

Jessie led the way, Haruhiro was behind him, and Shihoru and Merry stood side by side, bringing up the rear.

To, to, to, to, to, to... To, to, to, to, to, to... To, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to...

The sound of the drumming never stopped. From here, and from there, too.

“Any damage?” Haruhiro asked.

“No—” Jessie began before shaking his head. “I’m not sure. Not yet.”

Was this their fault?

Haruhiro and the others had brought the guorellas to Jessie Land. That might be true, but Jessie was also responsible. Jessie could have driven Haruhiro and the others off, or killed them all. It wasn’t clear why, but he hadn’t done that. This was the result. So, it could be said that he’d brought this on himself.

Jessie went out into a narrow path. There was a small shack up ahead.

In front of the shack, someone shouted, “Ahhh!” loudly, and swung a torch around. “It’s Haru-kun! Shihoruuu! Merry-chan, too!”

“Yume!” Haruhiro cried.

In addition to Yume, there was another green-coated gumow ranger at the shack.

Jessie said, “This is Tuoki,” and then introduced Haruhiro and the others, to which the purple-faced ranger nodded.

“Oh, hello... I’m Haruhiro.”

“Tuokin here’s a real capable guy, y’know!” Yume slapped Tuoki on the back, causing him to cough.

“Yume, you’re friends with him?” Haruhiro asked, startled.

“Just kinda. Yume just met him, y’know? Maybe Yume and Tuokin’re becomin’ friends, though. Right, Tuokin?”

“A-Ah...”

“He sounds like he might be a bit troubled by it...” Shihoru said.

Yume cried, “Meowhuh?!” Her eyes went wide, and she spun around to take a good look at Tuoki’s face. “Tuokin, is Yume troublin’ you? Is it too early to call her your friend?”

“...Wah.”

“Yume...” Merry shook her head. “He probably doesn’t understand you.”

“Nuoh, so that’s it!” Yume poked Jessie in the ribs. “Jessie, if that’s how it is, interpret what Yume’s sayin’ for a bit!”

“Yeah... No, we don’t have time for that...” Jessie said.

“Fwah! That’s right! Haru-kun, we’re in a real clam here!”

“Jam, you mean. It’s jam, not clam...”

Well, honestly, this was just Yume being Yume, so maybe it was fine as it was. He really didn’t have time to be correcting her.

The shack seemed to be a storehouse or rest house of some sort, but there was a ladder on the outside of the building, and a simple watchtower incorporated into the roof. Jessie told Tuoki and Haruhiro to accompany him and then climbed up to the watchtower.

It was narrow up there. There, four people would fit at most. It was only a little higher than the second floor, but there were no obstacles, so they could see for a long distance.

Excluding the tower where they now were, there were a total of eight other towers with fires of some sort lit. Were they positioned with one in the north, south, east, and west, and then one in each of the northeast, southeast, northwest, and southwest?

“That way’s north,” Jessie pointed and explained.

Like Haruhiro had thought, the towers were placed at the cardinal and intercardinal directions.

To, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to... To, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to... To, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to...

Listening carefully, there was guorella drumming coming from three directions. The north, the west, and the southwest.

“This is an exceptional situation,” Jessie said with a shrug. “In a guorella troop, only the redback drums. To be accurate, it’s not that it never happens, but if a male other than the redback does it, it’s seen as a challenge to the redback. Normally the females and young males of the troop side with the redback, and the male who started drumming is pulverized.”

“I’ve heard the same,” Haruhiro nodded.

“From that woman from the village?” Jessie asked.

“You mean Setora, right? Yes, that’s correct. We were in Darunggar, another world different from Grimgar, and—”

“I’ve already heard the gist of that story from Shihoru. Fire Dragon Mountain, huh? Sounds interesting. You met Unjo in Darunggar, I hear?”

“Is he... someone you knew?”

“No. Don’t know him. For my part, that is.”

“...Huh?”

“Jessie!” Tuoki shouted. He was looking to the northeast.

Looking in that direction, one of the watchtowers’ fires went out.

“Oh, man.” Jessie snorted. “The drumming was a diversion? Amazing.”

He was right, it was amazing. The guorellas had used drumming to show their existence, saying, We’re here, and we’re going to attack you now. To intimidate. Then, while doing that, they had snuck around and attacked from a different direction.

“Uh, I’m not sure this is the time to be impressed,” Haruhiro put in.

“Fair enough. Tuoki.”

Jessie gave Tuoki some sort of order. Tuoki nodded, then hurried down the ladder. He’d probably go to intercept the guorellas coming in from the northeast.

The remaining seven fires were intact. The drumming continued.

“That can’t have been their main target... right?” Haruhiro said.

Jessie nodded. “Haruhiro. If it were you were them, what task would you have the vanguard do?”

“Instead of using a light attack to keep us in check, I might go in as deep as I could. That’s right, the young ones... If I were the guorellas, I’d send the young males, full of vigor, to charge in, I think.”

“I agree. It looks like we’ll get along.”

“I’m not so sure about that...”

“Can’t you just say we’ll get along for now?”

“You don’t have to threaten me. I’ll do what I can. We may not have meant to, but we did kind of lead the guorellas here, after all.”

“This is a really clever troop,” Jessie said. “They knew you would eventually head for a human village, so they let you go free. You’ve killed a redback. That drumming. There are probably several redbacks. There must be a big boss leading a number of troops.”

“Where’s Kuzaku?” Haruhiro asked.

“The big guy? I think he’ll be here soon. I told them to bring him around.”

“Setora and Enba?”

“I don’t trust people from the village, personally.”

“We can use them,” Haruhiro said. “Kiichi, too.”

“That’s the nyaa, huh? I’ll consider it.”

“The villagers who aren’t rangers... can they not fight?”

“I’ve never taught them to. They’re such good-natured creatures. The rangers are the only ones carrying weapons. They have a knife or something like that in every house, I guess. Farming implements, too.”

“What is this place?” Haruhiro asked.

“Jessie Land,” Jessie responded with a satisfied smile that seemed nothing if not out of place. “The main field in the game I’m playing.”

“Game...?”

Once, Manato had let that word slip. He’d said this was like a game. However, though the word was the same, it felt a little different when Jessie said it. No, not a little, completely.

“You seem detached somehow, Haruhiro.”

“...Do I look that way?”

“You do. No matter what life we lead, in the end it’s like a game. You understand that, right?”

“You and I may not get along.”

“No,” Jessie said. “You only think that because you don’t know anything yet. If you learn, you’ll see quite clearly what I mean.”

“No matter what I learn, that won’t change. It’s not a game. We aren’t playing around.”

Haruhiro didn’t glare at Jessie. His emotions were running high. He seemed to be angry. However, even if he loudly argued his case, he couldn’t prove he was right, and he didn’t really want to prove Jessie wrong or persuade him.

Still, even if there was no meaning to it, he felt the need to say it.

Haruhiro took a deep breath.

“If we die, it’s all over, and we lose everything. We may think we’re small and meaningless. It can be a hassle, and it can be painful, and we may get sick of it. But even I think, every once in a while, that I’m glad to be alive. It means we can laugh and cry, after all.”

“That’s why life is important, you’re saying?”

“It’s not about if it’s valuable or not. I don’t know what life’s worth. Either way, for as long as I’m able to think, I don’t want to let go of what I have. I have no choice but to cling on to it. When I started doing that, I eventually found myself surrounded by so many things that it wasn’t so easy to throw it all away anymore.”

“The fact is, if you just go ahead and throw them away, you’ll find it’s surprisingly easy, though.”

“Is that how it is?” Haruhiro said. “Well, I’m sure you don’t want to lose this village, either.”

“If the villagers of my Jessie Land, which I worked so hard to build up, were to get wiped out by guorellas here, I might get a little sad, I guess.”

“We’ll do everything we can to prevent that from happening. We’d better have everyone prepare to fight a defensive battle.”

“Let’s do that.” Jessie raised his left eyebrow. “It’s not game over just yet.”

Not long after that, Kuzaku was brought to the shack by a female ranger. The fire at the north tower went out after that.

This shack was about two hundred meters from the village. The north tower was around a kilometer away.

“Haruhiro, you go.” Jessie apparently didn’t intend to move from this shack for now.

When Haruhiro nodded, Jessie gave an order to the female ranger who had brought Kuzaku. Most likely, he was telling her to go with them and watch them, or something like that.

When he descended the ladder, Kuzaku shouted, “‘Hey!” and extended his fist, so Haruhiro lightly knocked his fist against it.

“It sure is easier having you around, Haruhiro,” Kuzaku said. “I mean, without you around I feel so uneasy. It’s tough, man.”

“You’re creeping me out a little,” Haruhiro said.

“Huh?! That’s how you respond?!”

“Nah, I’m kidding. Oh, but maybe I’m not...”

“Harsh, man. But I’m kind of happy, I guess.”

“Huh? Why?”

“I mean, you’re being a bit meaner to me than before. Isn’t that good?”

“You’re a total M,” Shihoru muttered.

“Am not!” Kuzaku immediately denied it, then cocked his head to the side. “Ohh. But I’m not an S, either. That’s not quite me. I may not be a total M, but if we’re talking S and M, well, maybe I’m a bit of an M...?”

“Yume’s an L, huh. Or maybe an F?”

“F...?” Merry frowned, and seemed to be seriously thinking about it.

Up on top of the shack, in the tower, Jessie was laughing wryly.

“Wolla!” The female ranger slapped Kuzaku in the ass.

“Oh, yes, ma’am!” Kuzaku pushed Haruhiro’s back. “Haruhiro, let’s go! Yanni-san’s a good person, but she’s scary when she’s mad!”

The woman with the cream-colored face whose name was apparently Yanni shouted, “Waouf!” Yeah, she was one scary gumow.

“Okay, let’s go,” Haruhiro said. “If we carry torches, we’re bound to be targeted, so I’m counting on you, Kuzaku. Take the lead. Yume, you stay at the very back. Watch Merry and Shihoru. This may be a long battle, so hold back for now, Shihoru. I’ll be behind Kuzaku.”

“’Kay!”

“Mrrowr!”

“Okay!”

“...Right!”

When they set out, Yanni quickly passed Haruhiro to walk alongside Kuzaku. Unlike Kuzaku, the party’s heavily armed tank, Yanni wasn’t wearing armor or a helmet. Wasn’t the front of the line dangerous? Sure, she was probably assigned to watch them, but she could do that from behind. But even if he said that, it seemed likely she’d snap at him. Well, even before that, she wouldn’t understand his words.

Haruhiro had intended to cut across the fields, but Yanni went down the road, and if Kuzaku moved away from her, she shouted “Wolla!”

It was hard walking in the fields, and Yanni probably knew the terrain of Jessie Land. Haruhiro decided to leave choosing their route to her.

To, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to... To, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to... To, to, to, to, to, to, to, to...

The drumming was now coming from the east, the west, and the southeast. If he recalled, it had originally been coming from the north, the west, and the southwest.

Eventually, they heard the “Uho, uho, uho, uho, uho, uho!” hooting of the guorellas. They probably had noticed Haruhiro and the others.

“Stop! They’re coming, Kuzaku!” Haruhiro called.

“Okay!”

Yanni shouted, “Seinea!” and snatched the torch from Kuzaku’s hand. Kuzaku immediately drew his large katana. Those two seemed oddly in sync.

Haruhiro readied his stiletto, too. He took a breath, then loosened his shoulders and hips.

“Ho! Ho! Ho! Ho! Ho! Ho! Ho! Ho! Ho!”

“Right, left, and ahead!” Yume shouted, firing an arrow to the right.

Did she hit? Did she miss? It wasn’t clear.

Shihoru cried, “Dark!” and summoned the elemental.

“O Light, may Lumiaris’s divine protection be upon you. Protection!” When Merry chanted her spell, a shining hexagram appeared on their left wrists.

This isn’t it, Haruhiro sensed. It wasn’t that he had a firm basis for it. But it probably wasn’t a redback. They’d been attacked many times before, so he could tell. It was a young male.

“Shihoru, to the left!” he called.

“Right!”

“It’s here,” Haruhiro muttered.

First, the front. It was a guorella. A young male, like he’d expected.

When Male A leapt at him, Kuzaku shouted “Ragh!” and pushed it back with his shield. Kuzaku wasn’t going to lose in a contest of strength when he had a firm grip on his shield. Not to a guorella that wasn’t a redback.

Next, the right.

“Meow!” Yume loosed another arrow before immediately discarding her bow and drawing her katana. She took two slashes at Male B which was charging in, and quickly circled around to the side of it.

“Chai, chai, chai!”

She slammed her katana into it.

Yume’s slashes were deflected by its shell-like skin, so Male B hadn’t taken any damage. However, because she never stopped moving and attacking, Male B was overwhelmed. Eventually, Male B would probably recover, but Merry would assist Yume if need be. No, before it came to that, he’d finish this.

There was a Male C coming diagonally from the front left, trampling the barley-like plants as it raced in. Though it was male, it was smaller than a redback, and instead of standing upright it was knuckle-walking, so it didn’t look that big.

That said, if Haruhiro took a tackle from it head-on, he wouldn’t get off unscathed, and he might even die if he was unlucky. He wasn’t tough like Kuzaku. He had no intention of fighting it straight-up.

That was why Haruhiro ran to the left.

Male C roared, chasing closely after Haruhiro.

“Go!” Shihoru loosed Dark.

Shuvwooooooooong. Dark flew with an otherworldly sound, and Male C couldn’t avoid him.

It was a hit.

Male C shrieked and convulsed. Haruhiro had been waiting for this. It was what he’d been aiming for.

Haruhiro jumped on Male C, wrapping his left arm around its neck. The hairy horns that grew densely in the area from the back of its head to its back stabbed into him painfully, but there was no helping that. He ignored them, stabbing the stiletto he was holding backhanded into Male C’s right eye.

Deep. Deep. As deep as it would go.

He pulled it out, changed the angle slightly, and stabbed again. Pulled out, and stabbed again. Once he repeated that eight times, Male C slumped over and stopped moving at all.

Haruhiro moved away from Male C, glancing quickly at Male A and Male B. Kuzaku was hitting Male A with his large katana, knocking it back, and Yanni was kicking it and beating it with the torch, so they were fighting it on more than equal footing. Well, facing a guorella, it was still hard to deal a fatal blow, but those two weren’t going to fall apart right away.

Yume was a bit further away. Bouncing around, she was moving furiously, trying to keep Male B away from Shihoru and Merry.

Merry gripped her head staff, seeming to be trying to decide what was best. Should she go to support Yume, or stay close to Shihoru?

Shihoru looked in Haruhiro’s direction. Her eyes were asking whether she should send Dark out again.

Haruhiro shook his head. Stealth, he told himself. Sink.

He imagined himself sinking into the depths of the earth.

He’d gotten into a good mindset.

Haruhiro lowered his head and moved forward.

Yume was moving right, left, and backwards like always. “Geh! Nyah! Hnghyah! Nyoh!” She was swinging her katana around.

Yume’s moves hadn’t dulled, and she didn’t seem tired. However, it looked like Male B had gotten used to her. Instead of Yume toying with Male B, it looked like Male B was chasing her around. Male B might catch her any moment now.

Of course, I won’t let that happen— was something Haruhiro tried to avoid thinking. He just had to keep doing what needed to be done. He was detached, somehow.

There might have been some truth to that. He thought there had to be.

Emotions had a large effect on one’s perception and manual control. Haruhiro knew that to be true. His emotions could call forth an explosive burst of power sometimes, but in many cases, it was the opposite. His shaken feelings would work negatively, causing him to make mistakes and blunders.

“Yikes!” Yume cried.

Male B swiped Yume’s katana aside with its arm. It almost went flying, but Yume tried to dig her heels in. Because of that, she stopped moving. For a moment, Yume panicked. Male B wasted no time, closing in on Yume and wrapping both its arms around her.

Haruhiro latched onto its back, wrapping his left arm around its neck. The hairy horns stabbed into him. He didn’t feel any real pain.

Oh, they’re stabbing into me, was his only reaction. He could complain about how it hurt later.

He stabbed his stiletto into its right eye. The same method as before. In and out. In and out. In and out. In and out. In and out. In and out. In and out.

“Mrrowr...!” Yume pushed Male B away with both her legs. That made Male B roll over, and Haruhiro was going to end up underneath it.

He jumped away to prevent that, raising his shoulders, letting out his breath, and relaxing as he pulled back. At the same time, he cocked his head to the side.

His eyes must look awfully tired right about now. He wasn’t particularly tired, though.

“H-Haru-kun, thanks!”

“Nah...” Haruhiro said, waving to her vaguely, but then Yume’s eyes went wide.

“Y-You’re bleedin’! It’s drippin’ all over the place!”

“I’m fine.”

He’d planned for the hairy horns stabbing into him, and there weren’t any particularly bad wounds. It did hurt, though. His chest and arms were gradually starting to feel the pain, but it wouldn’t hinder him in combat, and he figured he could tolerate it. He just needed to have Merry heal him up later.

“Yume, go back to where Merry and Shihoru are. There may be new enemies that come in.”

“S-Sure! What about you, Haru-kun?”

“It seems like it’s fastest for me to kill the guorellas.”

Breathe in, breathe out.

Sink. Stealth.

Had he gotten the knack of it, or something like that? He was able to slide into it more easily than before.

Improving was a strange thing, not quite like climbing up a slope. Rather than slow incremental gains, it seemed to come in steps. He would work on something day by day, coming up with various tricks, but wouldn’t seem to change much. Then, after that continued for a while, at some point, he’d rapidly go up a step. He’d suddenly be able to do the thing he’d been frustrated with all this time that he couldn’t.

Had he gone up a step? Even if that was what it was, he couldn’t let it go to his head, and he had to stay cautious.

Kuzaku used Block to take Male A’s attack, occasionally using Bash and Thrust to counterattack. Yanni was using Kuzaku as a meat shield while she focused on disrupting Male A.

They didn’t look hastily thrown together. The more Haruhiro watched, the more they seemed like a good pair. But they lacked the ability to land the decisive blow.

Knowing Kuzaku’s strength, it wouldn’t be impossible for Kuzaku penetrate a guorella’s shell-like skin with his large katana, but he would have to get in a thrust with some serious momentum, or swing as hard as he could to do it. In order to pull that off, he’d first have to keep the guorella from moving. If that was too difficult, he’d need to at least throw it off balance.

Kuzaku’s fighting style was a reliable one. He drew in as many enemies as he could, made them attack him, rebounded all their efforts, and protected his comrades. He was putting everything he had into his role as a tank.

That was not, in itself, a bad thing, of course. In fact, it was praiseworthy. He’d done well to grow this much.

I wish I could give him my unreserved praise, but... Haruhiro thought. Honestly, it’s not enough.

If he were to dare say it, Moguzo had performed his role as a tank while also having enough power to decide the outcome of battles. Moguzo had been a warrior, and Kuzaku was a defensive paladin.

Still, despite that difference, Kuzaku had a height, long arms, and uncommonly great strength that outstripped Moguzo’s. He should have been able to do more. While his defense was almost completely solid now, that should have been giving life to his attacks. Knowing his personality, Kuzaku must have wanted to contribute more to the party. In addition to that desire, Kuzaku had the ability.

Kuzaku was focused on one thing to the point of being single-minded. That was a strength. However, once he set down a path, he charged forward like an enraged boar, not looking to see what was to either side of him.

Haruhiro was the leader, so he had to take him by the reins, pointing Kuzaku this way or that. If Kuzaku began to stagnate, it was Haruhiro’s fault. It seemed presumptuous to say this, but wasn’t it Haruhiro’s duty to develop Kuzaku into a paladin who was more than just a tank? Even so, it wouldn’t be good for Kuzaku to overextend himself, and things were fine as is for now.

I’ll finish it.

Haruhiro wasn’t being over-enthusiastic. He felt it was natural, and a given he would do it.

Haruhiro moved through the field to circle around behind Male A.

It wasn’t just Male A; everyone, his comrades included, had stopped paying attention to Haruhiro. That was why Male A didn’t turn..

Weruu, ruu, ruuuu, ruu, ruu, weruuuuuu!

There was a sound they hadn’t heard before. Probably not that far away.

The sound didn’t come from tens of meters away; it was at least a hundred, or somewhere around that far. Judging by the timing, the instant Male A heard it, it made an abrupt turn—and its eyes met with Haruhiro’s.

Haruhiro couldn’t help but be flustered by this. There was no way he could have predicted it.

But, well, that was life for you. Things like this happened. If he avoided being killed in one blow, he wasn’t alone, he had comrades, they’d get through this.

Haruhiro lowered his hips and readied himself. All right, bring it, he thought.

However, Male A didn’t head for Haruhiro. It passed by Haruhiro’s side, though not right beside him, knuckle-walking at full speed to get to a fairly distant spot.

In this case, it isn’t a knuckle-walking, it’s knuckle-running, huh? Well, it’s too much trouble to distinguish them, so walking is fine, Haruhiro thought, despite himself.

He hadn’t even been considered a threat. Male A had retreated without even a glance at Haruhiro. Probably that noise had been a guorella’s cry, a signal to retreat.

“It... ran away?” Kuzaku said, his shoulders heaving with each breath. “You think that’s it?”

Yanni slowly moved and she held the torch in, looking around restlessly.

Weruu, ruu, ruuuu, ruu, ruu, weruuuuuu!

That voice again.

Haruhiro thought for a little, then had Merry heal them, and decided to head for the north watchtower. Of course, he wouldn’t let his guard down, but they probably wouldn’t encounter any enemies.

This wasn’t him being complacent. There was a flow to these things. The guorellas had retreated. They probably wouldn’t attack again immediately.

Though it was called a tower, it was only high enough he could still jump up on to it, and it had no roof, making it more like a simple platform. The northern watchtower had collapsed, and the supporting legs and basket that held its watch fire had been destroyed, too, being left to lie on the ground nearby.

There was a single ranger collapsed face down next to the smoldering firewood that hadn’t been fully extinguished. Merry rushed over, trying to get the ranger up, but she stopped mid-effort, her shoulders slumping.

Yanni turned over the ranger in her place. The ranger had no face. He’d been suddenly attacked by the guorellas, and had his face bitten off. Obviously, the ranger was dead.

They heard that same Weruu, ruu, ruuuu! call five times, and then it stopped. Then they started to hear or not hear drumming from all over.

Were they going to go back to Jessie, or stay here? It was a hard call, but Yanni wasn’t moving away from the ranger’s dead body. Haruhiro felt uneasy leaving just her, and if he wanted them to come back, Jessie would probably send a messenger.

He and the others decided to stay at the remains of the north tower and wait to see what the enemy did. But he was sure they wouldn’t move.

He didn’t think for a moment that this was the end, but they would probably just intimidate them with drumming for the night, and wouldn’t attack. For some reason, Haruhiro was almost certain of this.

As he predicted, the drumming stopped when the sky began to brighten, and ultimately the guorellas only launched that one assault that night.

Not long after sunup, Jessie wandered over himself. Stroking his beard, he asked Haruhiro, “What do you think?”

“They’ll be back, I’d guess.”

It would have been nice if that weren’t the case, but he had to give that answer. He had no concrete proof, though, so he wasn’t sure he should say definitively. In a way, it was his intuition. However, in his mind, Haruhiro imagined a single guorella with three or four redbacks at its command, leading a large troop of over fifty.

A redback among redbacks. It boasted an unusually large body, and it was strong, but more than that, it was quick-witted and crafty. It was enjoying the hunt. It had followed Haruhiro and the party as they did their best to run, and it was overjoyed to find a new hunting ground in Jessie Land. It had decided to have its underlings take a rest, as if they were making themselves wait for it.

That scene might all be Haruhiro’s imagination, but that was a good thing. If they saw that the enemy was more frightening and had greater numbers than they’d expected, the guorellas would run off. Haruhiro was almost praying that was how it was.

“Denko,” Jessie said with a glance to the ranger’s remains. “Him included, we lost three rangers. That leaves twenty-one rangers, me, and you guys.”

“Won’t you let Setora go free?” Haruhiro said. “She’d be an asset in battle.”

“I just can’t see someone from the village fighting for Jessie Land.”

“That doesn’t just go for Setora. We’re the same.”

“Why didn’t you people run away? If you had killed or restrained Yanni, you could have done it.”

“Honestly, it never crossed my mind, but that would have meant leaving Setora behind, right? I’m not sure I could do that. Also, our Kuzaku seemed to be getting along with Yanni-san.”

“Uh, listen,” Kuzaku interrupted. “Let me just put this out there, but me and Yanni-san aren’t in that sort of a relationship.”

“...I didn’t think you were, man.”

“I mean, Yanni-san might not look it, but she can be cute, you know? I guess it’s rude to say she doesn’t look it.”

Yanni seemed to have picked up on the conversation. “Ahh?!” She kicked Kuzaku in the hip.

“Yowch! Hey, cut out the violence, Yanni-san! That’s not cute!”

Shihoru smiled wryly. “You two really seem close.”

“Basically, it means he has good communication abilities, unlike me...” Merry was mumbling to himself.

“Yume’s made friends with Tuokin, too.” Yume puffed up one of her cheeks. “Jessie, Tuokin’s not hurt, is he? He okay?”

“Tuoki is unharmed,” Jessie said with a shrug. “He’s the leader of the rangers. He may be small, but he’s clever.”

“Fwoo,” Yume said, looking impressed. “Yume knew Tuokin was good at his job. He can get stuff done when he tries.”

“Incidentally, the ranger I trust most next to Tuoki is Yanni,” Jessie went on.

“She’s strong, after all,” Kuzaku said.

“Nara!” Yanni immediately shouted and kicked him in the butt. Kuzaku was wearing armor, but it looked pretty painful.

“Oh, also, get the residents to...” Haruhiro started to say, then glanced to the south. It wasn’t that he heard something... he thought. However, he could only say something bothered him.

“That was careless of me.” Jessie turned and headed back. “Yanni! Afta ewa!”

Yanni looked to Denko’s body, showing a little hesitation. Still, she immediately replied, “Yai!” and took off running.

“Haruhiro-kun?!” Shihoru shouted.

Haruhiro called out, “Let’s go!” to his comrades, and followed after Jessie and Yanni.

Jessie seemed calm, but Yanni was panicked. She occasionally tried to pick up the pace, only to be told off by Jessie.

“Yanni-san...” Kuzaku seemed awfully worried about Yanni. “Hey, Haruhiro, you don’t think...?!”

Before Haruhiro could reply, Probably, Yume said “Gworellons?!” Something which might make no sense, but he felt like it made sense. “Yume stopped hearin’ their voices, so she was feelin’ all relaxed!”

“...That may have been the trap,” Shihoru said.

She was probably right.

“Setora!” Merry called out.

It wasn’t that Haruhiro hadn’t been thinking about Setora and her group. But it was a little surprising. It wasn’t just Merry; none of his comrades’ relationships with Setora could be called good.

“Haru! If Setora’s in the jail, she can’t run away! We have to hurry and save her!”

“Uh, yeah.”

“I’m sure Setora is waiting for you to come for her!”

“Y-You’re probably right...”

What was this? Haruhiro pressed his hand against his chest. This unpleasant feeling. Merry wasn’t saying anything wrong. Despite that—was he irritated? But why would Haruhiro get irritated? No, he felt like he wasn’t exactly irritated. Though, if you asked him what this feeling was, he couldn’t tell you.

Kuzaku raised his voice, for some reason. “Does Setora even matter?!”

“Obviously she matters!” Merry immediately countered.

“Okay, saying she doesn’t matter may be a bit much, but still! Is she that high a priority? I mean, she’s not even one of us, you know?!”

“She’s saved our lives over and over! Besides, Setora loves Haruhiro!” Merry shot back.

“That’s her problem, isn’t it?! Haruhiro’s just being forced to play her boyfriend, or lover, or whatever it was, because he had no other choice! Not that it makes a difference which he is!”

“So, you’re saying to just abandon her?!”

“I’m not saying that! Just...”

“Just what?!”

“Oh, fine, whatever! I don’t want to fight with you! I mean, I don’t even get why you’d be so supportive of her!”

“Neither do I!”

If the argument had gone on any longer, Haruhiro might have stepped in to stop it. Or maybe not. He might not have been able to say anything, after all. He wondered which it would have been. He didn’t know.

Whatever the case, it was good that they’d settled it. It made his stomach hurt. Why would Kuzaku and Merry argue about Setora? He could understand Kuzaku’s position, but while he wasn’t Kuzaku, it was incomprehensible to Haruhiro why Merry would side with Setora.

Maybe Merry really thinks I should get together with Setora? I don’t need her deciding that for me, though...

Well, not that I intend to abandon Setora.

He could hear what he thought were screams. It was maybe another three hundred meters to the village. What was going on there? Was something happening? They couldn’t see it yet, but this was not good. It looked bad.

Haruhiro suddenly realized something was wrong. Or rather, it finally hit home that something had been wrong with him. When he had woken up, alone with Merry, he had felt kind of elated. When the guorellas had appeared, he could have been more tense.

He’d been calm. Too calm, maybe. He wasn’t the type to get engrossed in things to begin with, but still there may have been a small, ever so slight, distortion between him and reality.

Gumows weren’t all that different from humans. Even if he thought that, Haruhiro had probably only seen the remains of the ranger who fell at the north tower as an object. Had he sympathized, even a little, with Yanni, who had lost one of her own? Barely. No, not at all. It didn’t feel real, somehow. Like he was in a game.

Even though this isn’t a game.

In the distance, Haruhiro saw a guorella break through a door and charge into a house. That large guorella knuckle-walking from house to house was probably a redback. Just how many guorellas had gotten into the village?

“Haruhiro!” Jessie threw something to him. “Get that Shuro woman out here!”

The key to the jail. It was the key to the jail.

“Right,” Haruhiro said and took it. “Where is she?!”

“Shihoru should know! Yanni, wolla!”

“Yai!”

Jessie took Yanni with him, and it looked like he planned to act separately from Haruhiro and the others from here on.

“I’ll lead!” Shihoru tried to move up.

“No!” Haruhiro stopped her. “Kuzaku, you take the front! Shihoru, stay behind me and tell us the way!”

“’Kay!” Kuzaku called.

“...Right!”

“Yume, watch the area around us! Merry, cover Shihoru and Yume!”

“Meow!”

“Sure, leave it to me!” Merry called.

“Haruhiro-kun, over there!” Shihoru pointed ahead and to the right.

Haruhiro hesitated. They’d be in the village soon.

There were the screams and shouts of the gumows, and the roars of the guorellas. There were a number of gumows collapsed in the road. All of them bloodied. Their arms and legs were torn off, and their faces had been bitten. There were even gumows who’d had their heads crushed.

Most of them weren’t moving. They probably weren’t breathing. It wasn’t just adults; there were children, too. Why weren’t they in their houses? This was no good. Had they thought the crisis was over when the sun came up? Jessie shouldn’t have told them it was okay to go out yet.

No—Just as he thought that, a number of gumows raced out of one of the houses. Then a guorella followed. The guorella had gone into that house, so they’d been left with no choice but to run. Was that it? But even if they ran...

Ohh. This was awful.

The smallest gumow, probably the equivalent of a five or six-year-old human child, was caught by the guorella. It was a young male. The young male pushed down the gumow child, then bit through the child’s head. It crushed it with its teeth, not eating it, just spitting it out. Then, twisting off one arm, it munched on that.

The mother gumow let out a scream and tried to charge the guorella, but the father gumow caught her and pinned her arms behind her.

What was going to happen to that family? He didn’t know.

Haruhiro and the others had to circle around to the right of the village and find the jail where Setora was held captive. They couldn’t save that family, and they didn’t have time to watch them meet their end. Haruhiro wasn’t sure if he felt bad about that or not.

But if he did, he should have saved them without hesitation. Or rather, wouldn’t he have tried? In the end, gumows weren’t human. They were ugly, and besides, while he couldn’t say this had nothing to do with him, it was a crisis. He couldn’t sympathize with each and every one of them.

At the same time as he thought that, he also thought he was wrong. He felt pity for them. But what could he do? There was nothing.

“Over there!” Shihoru pointed.

The door to the building Shihoru pointed at was broken, and there were even two guorellas on the roof. They were small, clearly different from the males. Those two were females.

Kuzaku was intimidated, his voice shrill. “Th-This isn’t funny!”

“Draw them to you!” Haruhiro tapped Kuzaku on the arm. “I’m going to look inside!”

“This is crazy, Haruhiro! I can’t imagine she’s all right!”

“Whatever, just do it! We don’t know until we check!” Haruhiro took a breath and relaxed. “Everyone, support Kuzaku! I’m the only one who needs to go inside for now! If I need you, I’ll yell!”

“No, even if you yell...!” Kuzaku banged on his shield with the hand he used to hold his large katana. “Damn it! Hey, come at me, you female guorellas! I’ll mess you up! Not that way, though! Just saying!”

It looked like the two females were interested in Kuzaku. Taking advantage of that opening—

Sink. Stealth.

There were apparently no windows on this building. He’d have to go in through that door.

Yume loosed an arrow at the females, and Shihoru launched Dark.

Haruhiro slipped into the building through the entrance.

There were three rooms on the left and right side of a corridor separated by bars. The one tackling the bars of the front right-hand room was Enba. The nyaa was letting out high-pitched cries.

“Goooohhh! Gaaahhhh! Oooohhhh!” A guorella was letting out incredible hoots as it violently shook the bars on the rear right-hand room. Setora had to be in there.

The bars seemed to be a mix of iron and wood, but one of the guorellas looked like it was going to tear them down at any moment. Unfortunately, that guorella’s hair was red. It was a redback.

Don’t hesitate. Haruhiro drew his stiletto and held it backhanded. The redback hadn’t noticed him. He’d go in like this.

When he tried to walk forward, the redback looked in his direction, its hands still on the bars.

Haruhiro gulped. His whole body stiffened. His heart raced, and he felt a sharp throbbing.

It was bizarre, but the redback narrowed its eyes, bared its fang-like teeth... and smiled. That was what it looked like.

Now that he’d been detected, he couldn’t take it down. There was zero chance. Haruhiro knew that. If he didn’t run, he’d be killed.

In that moment, he didn’t think one bit about Setora. In the end, that was probably for the best.

Haruhiro immediately pulled an about-face. In was the same moment that the redback took off at a run, or maybe Haruhiro was a little faster.

The moment he was out the door, Haruhiro jumped sideways to the right. He felt something like an explosion right behind him. The redback had burst out, apparently.

“Gah?!” Kuzaku shouted.

Had Kuzaku been sent flying by the redback?

Haruhiro rolled, got up, and looked up to the roof. The female guorellas still hadn’t come down. Yume wasn’t that far away.

“Yume, here’s the key! Get Setora!” Haruhiro yelled.

“Meowger!” Yume caught the key Haruhiro threw to her, and headed for the entrance to the building.

“Whoa...”

That was Kuzaku. What?

The redback.

The redback was swinging Kuzaku around. By his leg. The redback had grabbed Kuzaku’s leg, and was whipping him around in circles.

“Kuza—!”

“Zaaaaaaaaahhhhhhh!” The redback threw Kuzaku.

Hey.

Come on.

How can you do that?

Kuzaku was flying. He traced a gentle parabola, then collided with a house not ten, but twenty, meters away.

“Merry!” Haruhiro shouted, then tried to charge the redback.

Then what? he demanded to himself. What’ll I do? Is this an enemy I can face straight-out?

Breathe in.

Breathe out.

Good. Now relax.

Loosen up my knees. My elbows. My wrists, and ankles. Loosen up all my joints. Lean forward just a little. This is good.

He licked his lips.

Merry was running over to Kuzaku now.

Shihoru was hiding behind a nearby building.

Yume was already inside the jail.

The two females were up on the roof, the same as ever.

The redback scrunched up its face covered in shell-like skin, and it smiled again.

That almost dragged Haruhiro into smiling a little, too. Of course, it wasn’t because it was funny. That wasn’t it.

That jerk. Is he making fun of me?

“What’s your problem, bud?” Haruhiro snarled.

“Ohh.” The redback narrowed its mouth and vocalized. It was totally teasing him.

Even so, he didn’t have to get angry. Haruhiro took another breath.

It was going to be too much to take down the females, let alone the redback, but he had to buy time somehow. There were very few things Haruhiro could do, but well, he’d do what he could. He’d give it one hundred percent of that.

The redback turned its back on him.

“...Huh?” Haruhiro said.

Immediately, he thought, Don’t be disappointed. The moment he relaxed, it might take a shot at him.

His worries were in vain.

The redback turned its tail on him and ran off, and the two females went off somewhere else, too.

“I have no idea what just happened...”

Whatever it was, it had saved him. That was what was important now. He had to change gears.

Shihoru came out of hiding and rushed over. “Just now...” was all she said.

Setora, Enba, Kiichi, and Yume came out of the building. Setora hung her head, and seemed to be sulking. That was how it looked, but it wasn’t.

“Haru,” she said, “thanks... You, too, Yume.”

“Oh...” Haruhiro said awkwardly. “Th-Think nothing of it.”

“Nyeh!” Yume closed one eye, and gave her a thumbs-up.

They all hurried over to where Kuzaku and Merry were. Kuzaku was injured with just a few broken bones, bruises, and a gash, so Merry didn’t even have to use Sacrament. She was able to heal him with just Cure.

“Man, there are times when I marvel at how sturdy I am,” Kuzaku said.

“That’s not a bad thing.” Merry glared at him slightly. “But don’t get overconfident.”

“’Kay. Sorry for all the trouble. I apologize.”

“You don’t have to do that. It’s my job.”

“And?” Setora seemed to be back to her usual self. “Are we getting out of here?”

Haruhiro traded glances with Shihoru.

Taking advantage of the chaos, and escaping from Jessie Land. It wouldn’t be impossible. That was the feeling he got. It might even be what they ought to do. If they only considered what was beneficial for them, or their own safety, that was probably the best thing to do.

Shihoru lowered her eyes first. She couldn’t possibly decide. That must have been what Shihoru was thinking. She probably felt bad for not being able to voice an opinion.

It was fine. Shihoru was trying to lessen Haruhiro’s burden. That was enough. It really was helping.

Why did they need a leader? To make a decision in any situation. That was what a leader did, and that was Haruhiro’s role.

He might get it wrong. He might regret his choices. But even so, if they hit a fork in the road, left or right, he had to pick.

“We need to chase off the guorellas.” Haruhiro lightly adjusted his grip on his stiletto, taking a shallow breath. He looked out of the corner of his eye to the right. “Either way, if we don’t get rid of them, we can run, but we can’t get away.”

“Well, yeah.” Kuzaku let out a little laugh inside his helmet, then he added, “Yeah!” It was clearly a shout to psyche himself up.

“Let’s keep alert as we go.” Merry readied her head staff, covering Shihoru who was behind her, and made the sign of the hexagram. “O Light, may Lumiaris’s divine protection be upon you. Protection.”

Shihoru glanced to the hexagram that appeared on her wrist, then nodded. “One by one... and be sure about it!”

“For now...” Yume nocked an arrow, then loosed it. “Start over there!”

The arrow Yume let loose hit a young male guorella about fifty meters away that was feasting on a gumow, and bounced off.

“Enba, help them.” Setora held Kiichi in her arms, and gave orders to the golem. “There’s no choice. We’re all in the same boat here.”

The young male charged straight towards them in a mad rage.

One by one, and be sure about it. It was a simple thing, but Shihoru was right. Guorellas certainly made for frightening enemies, but not alone. The method where Kuzaku, Yume, and Enba drew its attention, then Haruhiro closed in with Stealth to deliver the killing blow, would even work on a redback. That was why they avoided facing two or more whenever they could avoid it.

If they were forced to fight multiple guorellas, they would use Shihoru’s Dark to stop one from moving, then Haruhiro would quickly snuff it. In that time, Kuzaku and the others would hold out, and from there, they’d continue to reduce the enemy’s number one by one. If there were fifty of them, or a hundred, it was all the same.

The guorellas had made a fatal mistake. The location. They’d attacked the village. They might have thought it was an ideal hunting ground. But for the party, they could use the buildings to split them up. The guorellas were drunk on killing, and intent on feeding, which made it all the easier.

Even now, one after another, the gumows were being killed. Before Haruhiro and the party’s eyes, a number of gumows lost their lives. Who knew how many victims there were at this point.

We’ll make them pay. They’re dead. We’re going to kill them.

Haruhiro did his best not to think like that. He couldn’t let his heart be stirred up like that. For now, they would just reduce the guorella numbers one at a time. That was the one thing to focus on.

He couldn’t eliminate mistakes. However, he could reduce the number he made. No, but...

This is nearly perfect, isn’t it?

He noticed that, aside from his own injury from the guorellas’ hairy horns, no one was needing Merry’s help. Even for Kuzaku, the party tank, the addition of Enba gave him some room to work with, and he wasn’t taking the kind of wounds he’d need to get healed with light magic.

Haruhiro killed fourteen males, and three females. It seemed Jessie was leading a group of capable rangers to take down guorellas one by one, too, and they passed each other a number of times.

There were no villagers walking around outside now. The surviving residents all had to be indoors.

The guorellas were now starting to run away when they saw Haruhiro and his group.

They hadn’t taken down a single redback. In fact, they weren’t even seeing them. That stood out to him as weird.

“...Found it,” Haruhiro said. “There’s one.”

It was standing practically upright in the middle of an intersection, looking their way.

When its eyes met Haruhiro’s, that guorella opened its mouth wide and stuck out its tongue, vocalizing something like, “Wuehh.”

He knew immediately. It was that redback.

“I’ll kill it! Kuzaku, go!”

“’Kay!”

When Kuzaku ran forward with his armor clanking, the redback leisurely entered the building to their left. It was brazenly acting like it owned the place.

Kuzaku glanced back, but he kept going after it.

Why didn’t I stop him? Haruhiro thought. That’s right. I have to stop him. Something’s wrong. We have to be careful of that one.

“Kuzaku, sto—”

It was too late. Kuzaku rolled out as if he’d been blasted out the door. Without missing a beat, a guorella sprang on him.

It was a guorella. But what was with that guorella? It was big, but its hairy horns... They were long, but they had a lot of volume, too. It was like a lion’s mane. They were red.

No, more than red. Deep red.

It was a redback.

No. Compared to the redbacks they’d seen so far, it was half again as big, and had twice as many hairy horns. It was clear this was no ordinary redback.

Was it that? The redback among redbacks? Was that it?

“Dark!” Shihoru called Dark and immediately set him loose. “Go!”

The big redback jumped up, squashed Kuzaku, and tried to devour him.

Dark flew in with an otherworldly shuvwoooong sound, striking the big redback right in the flank.

“Guhh...” The big redback groaned for a moment, its entire body shaking, and it stopped. For just a moment.

“Haaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhh!” The big redback swung both its arms up, and brought them down as hard as it could.

Kuzaku wasn’t just taking a pounding. He was trying to defend himself with his shield. But could he fully defend himself?

Bang, bang, bang, bang. Had the big redback mistaken Kuzaku’s shield for some sort of percussion instrument? Haruhiro had to assume it had. It was hitting the shield with both hands. Pounding it like crazy.

If Kuzaku was taking that many blows, even through his shield, it had to be tough. It would be hard even if they weren’t sequential. Haruhiro couldn’t have taken even one of them.

“Kuza... Kuzaku!” Haruhiro shouted, and tried to leap on the big redback.

Thwock... He was knocked back with one arm. The shock hit him so hard that he thought his body had been torn apart. What incredible power.

Haruhiro was spread-eagled.

“...Ohhhh,” he moaned. It hurt, or rather he felt like every nerve in his body had come apart, and it was impossible to move.

I don’t have time to be saying that, though. Get up. Get on my feet. Hurry and get up, then calm down. It’s no good. I have to cool my head, and do this right. It’d be fair to say that’s my only weapon here.

“Haru-kun!” Yume helped him to his feet.

Merry was rushing over to him.

Kuzaku. What about Kuzaku?

“Ugaaaahhh, gooooohhh!” and “Oh-booooohhhh, duaaaaaahhhh!” the Big Redback roared.

“Hungh! Gahh! Hyagh!” Kuzaku screamed.

Kuzaku was in trouble. It had him at its mercy.

What is with that thing? It’s way too crazy. Screw you! I never heard about this! It’s no good. I have to calm down. Like I could. Move. My body won’t move. Why? Am I scared? Yeah, I’m scared. Of course I’m scared. I recognize that. I accept it, okay. But even if I’m scared—I’m still alive. There are things I can do. What? What am I saying I can do?

“O Light, may Lumiaris’s divine protection be upon you. Cure!” Merry healed Kuzaku’s wounds for him. It wasn’t clear exactly what injuries he had, though.

Think.

Enba came and didn’t grapple with the big redback, or even perform a flying kick on it, but ran up to the top of the big redback’s massive body. He could do things like that?

Enba successfully ascended the big redback. He clung to its body. Enba was one-armed, but he had two legs. However, if he was going to hold on tightly like that, naturally the hairy horns would stab into him.

Haruhiro had been able to handle a little of that himself, but he couldn’t have gone that far. It didn’t seem like golems felt pain, though, so maybe Enba was fine.

It seemed like this was troublesome for the big redback, too. It interrupted its assault on Kuzaku and raised both its arms. It tried to shake Enba off.

Haruhiro looked to Setora. She was holding Kiichi tight with an incredible look on her face.

His eyes met Shihoru’s. Shihoru nodded.

“Dark!”

“Yume, save Kuzaku!” Haruhiro ordered. “Merry, get ready to heal!”

“Meow!”

“Okay!”

They could do this, and they were going to. They’d probably only have one chance. They couldn’t miss their timing.

The big redback finally caught Enba.

“Enba!” Setora shouted.

Its grip was shockingly powerful. It happened in an instant. Meat, bone, and armor flew everywhere. It looked like Enba had been torn to shreds.

Having witnessed that sight, it might have been cruel, but Haruhiro was able to confirm for himself, Good. I’m calm.

“Go!” Shihoru launched Dark.

This wasn’t the ordinary Dark. It was a small, small Dark that had been polished and polished, to the greatest extent he could be. The smallest Dark at full power.

If this doesn’t work, nothing will, Haruhiro told himself. It’s our full power right now. Go, go, go, go!

The big redback hadn’t noticed the minimum size, full power Dark. He hit the guorella.

Shwoop! He was absorbed into the big redback’s neck.

“Come on!” Haruhiro gave the order.

Run. Run. Run!

“Hah...” The big redback breathed in. “Koh!” It made a strange vocalization. “Ah!” It arched back, and writhed in pain. “Na-goaaahh!” It stumbled, moving away from Kuzaku.

Haruhiro jumped in to get to Kuzaku’s side. Kuzaku was slumped under his shield.

Is he alive? Please, be alive.

Haruhiro thrust his hands beneath both of Kuzaku’s armpits and pulled on him. Yume was helping, too.

“Merry!” He needn’t have called. Merry had come, too.

“O Light, may Lumiaris’s divine protection be upon you! Sacrament!”

Light, flow out, shine on Kuzaku, heal his wounds, I’m counting on you—

Haruhiro snapped back to his senses. He turned around.

Shihoru. She was alone. Shihoru was. They’d left Shihoru alone.

Having used the minimum size, full power Dark, she was pretty spent. She might not even be able to move properly. But they’d still left her alone. Even though there was another one. Had he forgotten? What a blunder. A total blunder.

The smiling redback. When had it come out of the building? Haruhiro wanted to shout, Behind you! and warn her. But it didn’t look like he’d make it. After all, it was already right next to Shihoru, closing in from behind her. That was why, honestly, he gave up, thinking it was hopeless.

“Marc em Parc!” a voice shouted.

That was why... why, this one time... he couldn’t have been more grateful. He was so grateful, he could have sworn loyalty to the man for life.

Jessie. He’d come at just the right time.

Jessie slammed his Magic Missile into the side of the smiling redback’s face, and made it back off.

“Ho?!” The smiling redback stumbled, and tried to look in Jessie’s direction.

“Marc em Parc!” Another ball of light swerved around to impact the back of the smiling redback’s head this time.

Yume jumped in, and pulled Shihoru by the hand. Shihoru stumbled along, somehow managing to follow Yume.

Jessie fired off a series of Magic Missiles that targeted the smiling redback. Finally, the smiling redback fled into an alleyway.

“Shihoru’s my favorite, you know,” Jessie called. “I wouldn’t want her getting killed!”

Jessie gave the rangers following him, which included Tuoki, Yanni, and more, an order in an unusually sharp tone for him. It looked like he planned to send them after the laughing redback. But the party needed to do something about this one, too.

“Phew... Gah...!” Kuzaku jumped up.

Do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do! The big redback was striking its chest with both hands. Its drumming made the bottoms of their stomachs shake.

But—it was huge! When it stood up, it was damn huge! It made Kuzaku with his shield and large katana look like a child.

“Marc em Parc!” Jessie tried to slam a Magic Missile into it, but the big redback swung its arm and erased it.

Shihoru was retreating, with Yume pulling her along. She wasn’t going to be rejoining the battle line in a hurry. They were going to kill that thing with just Haruhiro, Kuzaku, Merry, and Jessie? No, there were others, too.

“Eeeeeeeeahhhhhhh!” Setora let out a battle cry and charged the big redback. She wasn’t holding Kiichi. She was holding a really, really long pole, maybe a piece of construction material, in both hands. Had the big redback not been paying attention to Setora at all?

Setora easily got in close, and slammed the tip of that pole into its throat. “Deeeeeeyahhh!”

Naturally, it was just an ordinary pole that she had picked up from some collapsed house nearby. The big redback only shook a little, the pole broke, and Setora flipped over. Why had Setora done something like that?

“How dare you do that to Enba!” she screamed.

Oh, so that was it.

Haruhiro thought she was being stupid. But he couldn’t blame Setora. Besides, it gave him a hint.

“Attack!” Haruhiro ordered Kuzaku. “You can’t fully defend, so attack with everything you have, Kuzaku! You have strength the rest of us don’t!”

“Aye aye!” Kuzaku tossed his shield, and drew a hexagram with his large katana. “O Light, may Lumiaris’s divine protection be upon you! Saber!” In a flash, he took his large katana which was wreathed in light in both his hands, and Kuzaku attacked the big redback.

No, I know I said to attack, but that’s way too straightforward, thought Haruhiro. Couldn’t you have come up with a little more of a trick?

But there might have been no need for petty tricks, after all. Kuzaku charged the big redback, bent his whole body back as far as he could, and then swung the large katana. The big redback neither retreated nor tried to dodge.

Had it been caught by surprise? Or was it confident its shell-like skin would protect it? It had made a big mistake.

“Wow!” Jessie shouted.

Seriously? Whoa. Kuzaku, man, just how much sheer idiot strength do you have? Haruhiro had clearly been underestimating him. He’d never thought the guy was this strong.

“Zweeeeeeeeeaaaaaaaaaaeeeeeeeeeh!”

Kuzaku’s large katana sliced through the big redback’s shell-like skin, biting into its left shoulder. By biting in, that meant it sunk in deeply, and stayed there. The large katana went from the big redback’s left shoulder to the middle of its torso, maybe a little lower, diagonally, all in one go.

“Ohh-ah... Uhhh... Goh...”

It seemed the big redback didn’t understand what had happened to its body. It may have been the same for Kuzaku, who was soaked all over by the big redback’s blood. The blood didn’t so much flow as erupt out of its body.

“Huh? Whuh? B-Blood?!” Kuzaku yelped.

Haruhiro sighed.

The big redback. The redback among redbacks. This terrifying, exceptional guorella troop’s leader. Honestly... Yeah. I didn’t think it was possible. I thought maybe we couldn’t beat it. Kuzaku. It was Kuzaku, huh. Kuzaku did it. I’d been thinking I wanted him to polish his attack, but to think he had this much untapped potential. This is a happy miscalculation. No, the big redback hasn’t expired yet. Kuzaku’s large katana probably reached its heart. Even so, it hasn’t gone down yet. Though it looks like it’s about to keel over, it’s standing. I think that’s just a matter of time, though. That wound could have killed it instantly. Soon, the guorella troop will lose the big guorella. Their leader. When that happens...

Something fell from the sky. Haruhiro reflexively jumped back and avoided it.

The thing that hit the ground was wearing a green coat. It was a gumow ranger. The gumow’s arms, legs, and neck bent in strange directions. He found it hard to tell the gumows faces apart, but he recognized the purple skin.

Haruhiro turned around and looked up, casting his gaze in the direction the ranger had flown in from. Up on the roof of a building not far away, it was there. The moment it narrowed its eyes and grinned, he realized he had misunderstood. The big redback wasn’t the troop’s leader.

“...It’s you, huh.”

“Fooo, fooo, fooo,” it began whistling.

It was making fun of them again—

No.

No.

Haruhiro shouted, “Enemies!” That was all he could manage.

From on top of that roof, from here, from there, from the alley across from them, from ahead, from behind, the guorellas appeared all at once.

It was a signal. That voice. Come out, was what it probably meant.

From somewhere, they heard a voice shout, “Tiarg! Jessie!” It was probably Yanni. Yanni was still alive. She was telling Jessie something. It had to be about this.

Guorellas were smart. But they were still just beasts, so they could whittle their numbers down one at a time. That was what Haruhiro had thought.

The fact was, that was how it had been, and when they’d taken down the big redback, he had been seventy to eighty percent sure they’d won.

And yet, at some point, they’d been surrounded.

The guorellas pressed in from all directions.

“Everyone!” Haruhiro ordered. “Stick together, don’t split up! Yume, Shihoru! Over here!”

“Oh, crap, Haruhiro! My shield...!” Kuzaku called.

“Forget it! Swing your sword!”

“Shihoruuu, you okay?” Yume cried. “Come with Yume!”

“Yeah, I’m fine!”

“Setora, get up!” Merry called. “Come on, you have Kiichi, don’t you?! And Haru, too!”

“Silence, priest! I don’t need you telling me what to do!”

“Haruhiro! Use the jail!” Jessie shouted. “If you’re in there...!”

“What about you, Jessie-san?!” he yelled back.

“I’ll look for Yanni and the others! Go!”

Kuzaku was swinging his large katana around like crazy. Haruhiro somehow managed to join up with Shihoru, Yume, Merry, and Setora, then headed for the jail. But could they make it?

“Kuzaku, this way!” he called.

“Yeah, I know!”

Sure, he knew, but if Kuzaku stopped swinging his large katana for even a moment, he’d be taken down in no time.

On this end, Yume and Merry were doing their part, of course, but even Shihoru was using her staff, and Setora was using that pole she picked up somewhere to threaten the guorellas, and they were just barely hanging on.

That’s why it’s up to me, Haruhiro told himself. I have to do it. I will. Me. In this situation, surrounded by enemies? Yes. Do it. Sink. Stealth.

When he was pushed into a corner, he could actually do it.

Silent... was not what it was, but none of the noise bothered him. Because there was no need to hear them, no doubt.

Haruhiro moved away from his comrades alone, walking through the guorellas.

He could see the line. Hazily shining. He didn’t move so much as followed it. It was already decided that Haruhiro would move along that line. Direction, angle, speed, he didn’t have to think about any of it.

His angle of vision suddenly rose up. Like he was looking down on an angle. Himself, his comrades, the guorellas, Jessie, Yanni and the rest, he knew all of their positions, maybe not like the back of his hand, but close enough to it.

First up, this one. The young male Merry just whacked with her head staff. I’ll wrap my left arm around its neck, and stab my stiletto through its right eye.

Next, this one. The one Kuzaku scared into retreating with his large katana. A young male, of course. I’ll kill it, too.

Then this one that’s trying to attack Shihoru. Its hairy horns are a bit red. It dies, too.

With that, a narrow path opened.

Haruhiro shouted, “Run to the jail!” to his comrades, and then immediately sunk in again.

Stealth. I have to remove the obstacles, those who get in my comrades’ way. It’s possible. For me. Only I can do it.

Don’t think I have special powers. I don’t. It’s only because it’s now. In this moment, I am performing the role I was given. That’s all. If I get full of myself, I’ll get tripped up. I’ve had countless failures like that. That’s why I know.

They were almost to the jail where Setora had been held.

Kuzaku, the rear guard, shouted, “Go in first! I’ll go in last!” still swinging around his large katana. His stamina and guts were commendable.

Shihoru, Setora, Merry, and then Yume all raced into the jail. Kuzaku was getting bogged down at the entrance.

I could help, thought Haruhiro. The male, the one that was stubbornly pressing in then pulling back, attacking Kuzaku. That’s a redback. If I down him, Kuzaku will have it easier. No problem. I can deal with it. See.

Haruhiro was already behind it. He grappled with it, wrapped his left arm around its neck, and repeatedly stabbed his stiletto into its right eye. The usual.

It’s fine. Go. He didn’t even have to say it before Kuzaku rushed into the jail.

Haruhiro followed.

He was struck by dizziness. He was running out of strength. He couldn’t keep standing. Walking was beyond him...

But he still continued down the corridor, and knelt in front of Merry. He got down on all-fours. What was Kuzaku doing?

“Oorah! Rahh!” It looked like he was keeping the guorellas that were trying to get in to the jail in check with his large katana. Not good. Merry and the others were saying something.

Oh, right. Blood, huh. Each time he’d killed a guorella, he’d been injured by their hairy horns, and lost blood.

“Merry, magic... heal... sorry,” he said fragmentarily. He felt like he was going to pass out. He couldn’t let that happen.

Merry used light magic for him. Cure, huh.

He felt a little better. Or so he thought. At the very least, he could stand. It was a little hard to breathe, though.

“Damn!” Kuzaku shouted. “It’s hard to use my katana! It’s so cramped, I can only thrust in here!”

“What now?” someone shouted.

...Shihoru, huh. Kuzaku. Is it bad? Who was it who told us to go to the jail? Jessie, huh. That guy. But in a more open place, we could do more. Is now the time to think about that? It isn’t, right? We need to act.

“...That one,” he murmured.

Right. We have to kill it. It’s the leader. We take it down. If we don’t, this’ll never end.

“I’ll do it...” he mumbled. “One attack, with all my strength. I’m... going outside. I’ll find it... and I’ll do it. I’ll end this... Me.”

“Sure, but...!” Yume argued back.

“I’ll do it!” he shouted and shut her up. “There’s no choice. The way this is going, we’ll be wiped out. Everyone will die. I’ll do it. Listen, we all counterattack as one. In that time, I’ll go outside. One, two...!”

“Zuooooahhh!” Kuzaku tackled several guorellas and knocked them back. He kicked down the guorella in front of him, and swung his large katana. Kuzaku was probably wringing out the last of his strength. His large katana severed a guorella’s head.

Seeing the guorellas get scared, Yume cried, “Mrrrowr!” and went after Kuzaku.

Shihoru fired off Dark. Setora threw something. Haruhiro tried to sink himself.

Stealth...

He couldn’t get into it properly. What? Weird.

Slipping through the gap between Yume and Kuzaku, a male guorella came into the jail. He had to stop it. To fight. The guorella was coming his way. Why did he have no strength in the hand gripping his stiletto? The enemy was right there.

“No!” Merry moved up, slamming it in the head with her head staff. He thought he saw her immediately pull her staff back, trying to make a second strike.

She didn’t make it.

The guorella caught her head staff with both hands, and pulled her towards itself.

Shihoru cried, “Merry!” and Setora shouted, “Let go!”

That’s right, Merry. You have to let go.

Together with her head staff, Merry fell towards that guorella.

That was when, finally, Haruhiro managed to move again.

“Ohh...” He groaned, and there was a shattering, crunching sound.

Merry had done as Setora said, and let her head staff go. But the guorella had no interest in her head staff, and grabbed something else, or hugged it, rather. Merry.

“Eek!” Shihoru let out a frail scream.

In that same posture, the guorella chomped down on the area between the tip of Merry’s shoulder and the nape of her neck.

Immediately after that, Haruhiro grappled the guorella. He was practically clinging to it as he jabbed his stiletto into it right eye.

Merry’s eyes went wide, and he could see it.

I have to hurry. Hurry. Hurry. Have to hurry and kill it. Or it’ll be too late. Too late? For what...?

When the guorella died, Merry fell to the floor with it. It was hard moving the guorella off her. The strength—He didn’t have the strength. Not in his arms, his legs, anywhere.

While doing something...

“How is she?!” Setora asked.

Haruhiro didn’t answer.

Merry’s eyes were half-closed, and she was quivering. She coughed, and blood came out.

“Magic!” Haruhiro called out to her. “Merry, use magic. You have to heal. Hurry. Merry.”

Merry tried to raise her right hand. It seemed like she couldn’t move it. Was it an injury? Her bones? Were they broken? Where? How?

Haruhiro laid down his stiletto, lifting up her right hand with both of his own. Merry groaned, and shook her head.

Did it hurt? Badly? What could he do?

Magic. The sign of the hexagram. For that, she needed her hand. The incantation. Was it no good if all she did was the chant? If she couldn’t move her hand, could she not use light magic? What the hell? How did that work?

“Merry? Merry?!” he cried. “Wha... Wh-What should I...?”

Something. Merry was trying to say something. Haruhiro brought his ear to Merry’s lips.

“Merry? What? Merry, what are you saying?!”

“Ha.”

“Yeah. What?”

“...Haru.”

“Huh?”

“I...”

“Yeah.”

“Haru... you’re the one... I...”

“The one you what? What is it, Merry...?”

Merry inhaled sharply.

Was Merry trying to breathe? Or to say something? Haruhiro moved his face away a little, and looked at her face.

Why was it? Why did she have a smile on her face? Wasn’t she suffering? Didn’t it hurt? Wasn’t she scared?

Why are you smiling?

Merry.