Slayers - Volume 17 - Chapter 3

3: On the Run, with Glimpses of Pursuers Behind

The sun had begun sinking behind the mountains. About the time the whole world was painted in orange, we were finishing up our early dinner.

“I never knew you were such a skilled fisher, Nissy Lina!” Ran declared with a satisfied smile as she polished off her third of the catch I’d reeled in. We were currently seated on some convenient rocks at the riverside.

“Ahh, it’s actually got nothing to do with skill. I used magic,” I responded.

Using strands of my own hair, an ordinary branch, and a fishing hook I carry around for just such occasions, I’d made an impromptu fishing rod. Onto this I’d cast my “bite-at-every-cast” (proper name pending) spell and gone to town.

The “bite-at-every-cast” spell is a Lina Inverse original I’d made up ages ago by toying around with some magic fundamentals. The key was that it made the fish think the empty hook looked super tasty. I’d initially conceived the spell in hopes that, if cast on a person, they’d be enchanted into finding even the diciest of trail rations delicious when forced to camp outside, although that had never quite worked out. I could trick myself into thinking the food looked good, sure, but fooling my taste buds was a different story.

I’d thus repurposed the spell into a nifty fishing number. That said, the fact that it was actually a recycled failure, plus the fact that it had the power to make river fish extinct if it got out, plus the fact that catching fish too easily paradoxically took the fun out of the endeavor... Yeah, that all made me not want to use it very often. Given our current situation, however—specifically being on the run as wanted fugitives—it was a handy way to get the three of us fed in a speedy fashion.

After Ran, Gourry, and I had escaped from Palbathos, we’d hiked a little ways north up the main road from the city, then entered a forest off the beaten path and headed eastward into uncharted terrain. The kingdom surely had a search party out looking for us right now, and we’d asked Captain Morgan about the land to the north. They were bound to assume we were traveling that way, meaning they’d station soldiers all along the roads and send fast riders ahead to put up wanted posters in every town.

But I’d heard that there was a ravine to the east of the capital with no major roads leading straight to it, so we’d headed thataway. And, lo and behold, while moving through the forest, we’d hit a ravine... not quite sheer, but pretty steep, with a large river running down the middle. There, I took my companions on a short flight to the other side courtesy of a Levitation spell. With that, even if our pursuers were using dogs to track our scent, they’d lose us at the ravine.

Following that, we kept traveling east until the first hues of evening began to show themselves. We then decided to stop for the night at the next river we hit, feast on fresh-caught fish, and sleep under the stars.

“By the way...” We were sitting among the trees by the riverside when I turned to Ran. “First off, sorry to get you mixed up in all this.”

“No prob!”

“That was fast! Do you understand the situation we’re in here, Ran?!”

“Think so, yeah!”

Really, that was way too fast... Does she ever give anything a second thought? I wasn’t sure if it was just her personality or if it was the way she talked that made her come off that way.

“I mean... to put it bluntly, Luzilte is most likely gonna be after you from now on too.”

“Sure will!”

“Uh...” I scratched at the side of my head but decided to drop it for the time being. “Okay then... Now, as for our next step, I’d like to hear how you feel, Ran. Do you want to keep traveling with us for a while or split up?”

“With—” she began to say with a beaming smile and a raise of her left hand, but I stopped her.

“Hangonhangonhangon! Will you please stop answering questions based on pure lizard brain? First, let’s say you come with us. I promise we’d do our best to get you out of this kingdom in one piece, but if our pursuers catch us on the way, they’re definitely gonna assume you’re in cahoots with us. On the other hand, say we go our separate ways. They’re a lot less likely to track you down if you’re on your own since we’re the ones they’re really after. The hitch is that if they do find you and you can’t talk your way out of it, you’ll have to bust out on your own. So, with all that in mind, what will you do?”

“Stick with you!”

Did... she even rrrrreally think about it?

While I looked at her suspiciously, Ran continued, her lackadaisical smile unchanged, “If I go with you, I can always say ‘let’s split up after all’ later, but if we split up now, that’s that.”

“Wait, you actually thought it through?!”

“I hear that a lot!”

“Okay, I guess we’re hanging out a little while longer, then. Once we get out into the next kingdom, our pursuers shouldn’t be able to move as openly, so Gourry and I will do our best to help you until then. But if you do decide you want to split up at any point, just say the word.”

“Thanks! But Nissy Lina...” Ran began with a joking tone and mischievous gaze. “You said you’re going home, but if you can use magic so powerful it gets a kingdom after you, why don’t you just make your own country here?”

“Ahaha. Heck no,” I said, waving a hand dismissively. “I couldn’t do that, and even if I could, it’d just be a huge pain in the butt. It’s my style to brush off trouble that comes my way... then chase down the source of the trouble and make sure it never causes trouble again. I don’t cause commotions because I like it.”

“Uhhh...” For some reason, Gourry, who was sitting opposite Ran, sounded skeptical.

I slooowly turned to face him. “Hmmmmm?”

But the menace I exuded didn’t faze the big lug in the slightest. He simply sighed and replied, “Okay, I get it. You tell yourself you don’t like it. But this is why stuff steps past you out of clear revulsion, you know?”

“Don’t say ‘clear revulsion’!”

“Clear revulsion?” Ran cocked her head, not getting the reference.

“Ah, anyhoo...” I cleared my throat, then said, “We’ll spend the night here and continue east tomorrow. We should eventually hit a village or town, and if there’s a route north from there, we’ll probably take that. But there’s something we need to take care of before we get there.”

“Whazzat?” Ran asked.

I gave her a firm nod and answered, “Disguises.”

Houses lined a north-south road against a mountain backdrop. Behind them were rectangular fields carved into the gentle slopes, and behind those stood rows of well-tended trees. I couldn’t be sure since they weren’t bearing fruit at the moment, but judging from their leaves, they looked like orange trees of some sort.

It was now late morning the day after we fled Palbathos. We’d gotten around to the road that led into town from the north and followed it south to civilization.

“Hello!” I called cheerfully to the villagers farming in the fields.

The locals stared at us. For a minute, they looked suspicious. Which was fair enough, given how we were dressed.

Wanted posters would likely start circulating even this far out in the not-to-distant future. Such posters occasionally had likenesses on them, but they were more often just lists of key features. So, given said features they were likely to list, a simple disguise to make you just different enough would do the trick.

By that logic, I’d removed my cape and pauldrons. I’d then wrapped my pauldrons and other gear up in the cape, which I was carrying over my shoulder with the lining facing out. I’d also more or less swapped outfits with Ran. Gourry had also removed his distinctive armor, which he was carrying in a bundle at the end of Ran’s staff. And for the finishing touch, we’d braided our hair in a loop around our necks. I figured the hairstyle would be so weird that it’d distract anyone from paying too much attention to our faces.

“Ah, hello there,” one of the villagers, an older man nearby, responded to me after a pause.

Here I raised my voice and asked, “Would this be Midalka Village?”

He took a moment before replying, “Come again?”

“I asked if this was Midalka.”

The old man was silent a long time, then said, “No, this’s Moss Village.”

“Eh?” I blurted out. I made a show of pulling a parchment from my breast pocket, going into a huddle with Gourry and Ran, and whispering with them. Obviously, I was only pretending to be lost. “Midalka” was a name I’d made up, and I’d discussed this little act with Ran and Gourry beforehand.

After a play at talking things over, I scratched my head and turned back to the man. “Moss Village, eh? Are you sure?”

“Pretty sure,” he responded skeptically.

I looked back at the (blank) roll of parchment in my hand. “Huh. That’s weird... Where are we, then? Eh...?” I acted confused for quite a while. “So... do you know how to get to Midalka?”

“Never heard of it, I’m afraid.”

“Eh?” Head tilted, I finally pointed south. “Um... Okay, if you don’t mind my asking, what’s the name of the next village down the way?”

“You’ll come to Danalov Village first, then Lanase Village. Past that is Ladamount, and if you go southwest at the crossroads, hit a fork, take that right path, cross a bridge, and meet up with the road, you’ll be on your way to the capital, Palbathos.”

There was no direct route east from Palbathos, so you apparently had to take a long southern detour if you wanted to join up with the main road that headed there.

I hummed and this time pointed to the north road. “And what about thataway?”

“The towns of Analov and Alibaro, and past them, a fairly large city called Lanoma,” he responded helpfully without reserve.

Gourry, Ran, and I huddled up and began discussing again—or pretended to. “All right,” I said, turning back to the old man at last. “I guess we’ll head for, um... Palbathos, was it? Oh, but first, do you have any food and clothing here to spare? Supplies will be more expensive in the capital, no?”

Obviously there was no way in hell we were really heading for Palbathos, but saying that we were meant that if anyone came to town asking about strangers passing through, the villagers would tell ’em we were southbound for the capital. Hopefully that’d get them off the trail. Naturally, we’d leave along the south road to keep up appearances, then take a turn off the beaten path and double back north.

At my request, the man laughed. “I’ve been to the capital before, and everything really is pricey there. So let me show you to a good shop. I can attest that the prices are reasonable—just don’t expect any matching sets.”

“Thanks! You’re a real help!” I bowed low to the man.

And that’s how we scored some provisions for the near future and some even better disguises.

Beams stained black with soot. Tables dark and shiny from use but clearly well cared for and smooth to the touch. Lamps hanging from the ceiling. And a house at about eighty percent capacity.

“Sorry for the wait! I’ve got a hot salad and red duck pate, and tradia black chicken steamed in winter melon cream sauce!”

“Yeaaah!” As the waitress filled the table with dishes, Ran, Gourry, and I let out a chorus of appreciation.

Freshly caught and salt-grilled fish wasn’t so bad, but there was no beating a proper meal. We’d eaten well in Palbathos... but this restaurant’s offerings were almost too lavish. The variety of colors across the plates and the food, the balance of the various vegetables, and the vases with edible flowers on the tables for accent added a luster to the place that was easy to see even by the low lamplight.

“Well, then...”

“Let’s eat!”

Knives and forks flashed as we brought the food to our mouths.

Wow, that’s delicious! Normally, colorful vegetables and garnishes didn’t add to the flavor and impeded the mouthfeel of a meal, so I skipped them... but not so at this place. Even the edible flower petals, which I’d assumed were just there for presentation, added a sweet aroma and a slightly bitter accent when eaten with the food.

Pretty impressive, really... I found myself getting so carried away that when we finally paused to take a breather, the food was all gone. Uh-oh. We forgot to hold our planning meeting! So we ordered some drinks to chase down dinner, and...

“Okay, let’s talk next moves,” I said, taking a sip of something called natall juice that the waitress had just brought me. It had a peach-like flavor and an invigorating aroma, and it was neither too sweet nor had too strong of an aftertaste. But flavor aside... “I figure we’ll just keep heading north for now.”

Earlier that day, after acquiring food and clothing in Moss Village, we’d slipped out south as planned and, from there, headed north through another uncharted forest. Eventually, we’d come to the city of Lanoma that the old man had mentioned. It was about as big as Maricida where we’d stopped before, but this place had bigger buildings. The inn we’d picked out was three stories.

Obviously we’d changed into proper disguises before entering town. We were now dressed in the clothes we’d picked up in Moss, and I had my hair pulled back in twin tresses, while Gourry’s was in a ponytail, and Ran’s was in twin buns. Gourry and I had the full traveler look going on, but Ran, who was already dressed like a girl running away from home... still kinda looked the same. Nevertheless, we’d shaken things up enough to fool any pursuers who didn’t know us on sight.

Now, it was entirely possible that no one was after us after all and I was taking pains for no reason—but that was a risk I was willing to take. It was better than letting our guard down and potentially finding ourselves surrounded. Our disguises would thwart most suspicion, and acting so brazenly, paradoxically, would allow us to blend in better.

And so we’d brazenly arrived in this town, brazenly rented a room at an inn, brazenly asked if there was anywhere good to eat nearby, and brazenly arrived here. Thanks for the recommendation, Mr. Innkeep! What a huge score that turned out to be. Under normal circumstances, I would’ve ordered more and tried to brave the entire menu, but...

“Obviously, we can’t afford to stand out too much,” I said, partly as a reminder to myself.

It would’ve been too sad if I outed us because I got careless with my eating. Getting careless with my magic was out of the question too. But by the same token, as long as I kept my wits about me and changed up my disguise every now and then, we could probably get through this. I still didn’t have any idea how we were gonna get home, but we could make it out of the country without too much hassle. At least, that was my thought.

Ah, how naive I was...

The sky was bright with a full moon and stars as we left the restaurant.

I’d read once in some old record a long time ago that stars looked different in different parts of the world. It didn’t say how, exactly, or if you could discern your location based on that, though. Too bad. If such clues were to be found in the starry sky, that would’ve been very useful to us.

Lanoma’s main road seemed to grow more populous as the sun went down. A great many people were out eating or drinking. There were no streetlamps, but there were shops all around with lanterns hanging out front. Some had five or six, and some had ten or more. It was probably a ploy to make the stores look more inviting to customers, but I was a little concerned about the fire hazard. Some were putting out a lot of black smoke, perhaps fueled by poor quality oil.

Either way, thanks to all the lanterns, we had no trouble finding our footing as we walked along. But at the same time, the brightly lit main avenue made the branching alleyways seem all the darker and more menacing.

Our inn was just a short walk down the main drag from the restaurant we’d hit up for dinner. When we got back, I called to the old man at reception, picked up the keys to our rooms, and...

“Say, mister, we’re heading up for the night. Could I borrow a lamp?”

The old man hesitated a moment, then said, “Ah. Sure.” He took one off the shelf behind him, lit it from the lamp at his desk, and handed it over.

With that in hand, I turned to Ran and Gourry. “Okay, you two, mind coming to my room? We need to talk a bit.”

“Sure thing.”

“Okaaay!”

And so we all went up to the third floor. There were dim lamps illuminating the stairs and halls, but individual guest rooms didn’t have their own lights as a fire prevention measure. The setup was that if you really needed a light, you could borrow one from reception.

I unlocked the door to my room, set the lamp inside, packed up my things, and darted back into the hall. I then watched as Gourry did the same in the room next to mine, and Ran from the one across the way. I silently pointed at Ran’s room, and they nodded in silent agreement. Gourry and I closed our doors and the three of us headed into Ran’s room. After waiting a while for our eyes to adjust to the dark...

“Time to split, huh?” I asked in a whisper. I saw two silhouettes nod in response.

Our pursuers had arrived. All the way from the restaurant back to the inn, I’d sensed something lurking nearby, watching us. That, combined with the old receptionist’s attitude when we got back, told me we were under threat. Gourry and I were used to this stuff, of course, but I was a little surprised by how quickly Ran, who seemed so scatterbrained, had picked up on the situation.

I didn’t know how the pursuers had found us, but I wanted to get away more than I wanted an answer to that question. If they were watching my room from outside the inn, lamplight was now visible through the small crack in my window. I hoped they’d stay focused on that, but...

I chanted a spell under my breath and opened Ran’s window to the night outside. I took her hand and Gourry’s, then whispered, “Levitation.”

We hovered out the window and into the night air. The skies above were aglow with the moon and stars, and the streets below were flooded with light from the various storefronts. We floated over the roof, until...

“?!”

I think all three of us realized it simultaneously. On top of a nearby house, a hooded figure stood as if to block our way. Their robe was dark enough that I couldn’t make out its particular hue in the black of night. They wore their hood low over their eyes, and a mask covering their face below that. I couldn’t discern their age or gender, but it was clear this encounter was no mere coincidence.

It would’ve been hard to react quickly while using Levitation, so I called it off and... the second I did, the robed figure fired a spear of light at me! Thankfully, because I’d just dropped down to the roof instead of hanging in the air, it sailed over my head. Bwoosh! It hit the building behind me—the wall of the inn—shattering it explosively!

Wait, was that an attack spell?! I didn’t think anybody knew those out here... I had a ton of questions about the caster’s identity, but now wasn’t exactly the time for an interview!

While muttering an incantation, I sprinted across the roof toward the robed figure. Gourry ran to my right, picking up speed as he got ahead of me.

“—!”

I heard an unknown male voice drifting on the night breeze—presumably the robed figure chanting some kind of spell. A ball of illumination, like lamplight, appeared before him at about eye level. It then split into five globes headed straight for Gourry!

A wide-area attack against someone running on an uneven surface like a roof was a raw deal. But Gourry dodged each orb as easily as if he were skipping through a field, quickly closing the distance on the caster. He pulled his sword just as he drew near...

But the robed man leaped—no, he flew! He sailed straight up, his speed only increasing as he did, then stopped midair out of sword’s reach.

Using a flight spell right after an attack spell?! That was way too fast for a chant... Or does he have an ally close by who cast it for him?!

The robed figure in the air looked down at Gourry, who’d come to a stop. Then...

“It’s not over yeeet!” Ran took off running! “Everyone knows...” She got right under the robed man. “...that staffs...” She thrust her staff upward with both hands. “...are longer than swords!”

But it didn’t reach.

“Heh,” the man snorted. But just then—Whom!—he was blown straight upward! “Gwuh?!” he shouted as he flew.

I had no idea what Ran had done, but... “Now’s our chance to beat it!” I cried, running along the roof and jumping down at a random point. Gourry and Ran followed suit.

The man in the robe, still hovering above, muttered something...

Another spell chant?! While he’s still controlling his flight spell?

The next instant, five balls of flame appeared around him!

Is this guy serious? We’re in the middle of a city!

Even if he was bluffing, I had to act like he wasn’t—so I fired my spell. “Freeze Arrow!”

The ten arrows of cold I produced flew straight toward the robed man overhead. In response, he launched his fireballs. One of them collided with a frigid bolt, and—Fwooom!—an inferno blossomed across the night sky! A moment later, the other fireballs did the same close to me! Babababwoom! Flames raced over wooden walls and roof.

These weren’t like the Fireballs I knew that exploded on impact; they were more like literal balls of fire. They didn’t have the power to instantly reduce anything they hit to ash, but they sure did a good job setting the wooden houses ablaze! I gotta say, though... if he’d unleashed them to counter my Freeze Arrow, his aim was piss poor.

I took off down a side alley with Gourry and Ran behind me. There was no follow-up attack from the robed man. As I suspected, the brightness of the conflagration he’d started made it impossible for him to track us through the umbra of the backstreets.

And so we continued our escape through the night-cloaked city.

In the end, we made it out without any signs of further pursuit.

Dawn broke over the unfamiliar land the next morning. With the sunrise, birds—at least, what I assumed were birds—started singing. At first I thought they sounded like the ones from back home, but when I listened a bit closer, their songs were different from what I knew. Some of them sounded downright like ominous cackling... What in the world made that noise?

Following the prior night’s hubbub and our subsequent flight, Gourry, Ran, and I had been forced to camp out in the forest. We’d gotten a delicious meal out of our short stay in Lanoma, but we were now out the lodging fee for three rooms for the night (paid in advance). We made do for breakfast once again out of the rations we’d picked up in Moss Village.

The biscuits—at least, what had been sold to us as biscuits—were twice as hard and half as good as what you’d expect when hearing that word. But hey, they were dirt cheap, so I wasn’t going to complain. We could get them down with some boiled water from the river nearby, but it was less like a nice morning meal and more like a nutritional supplement. Not that we had a lot of other options under the circumstances.

“Now...” After finishing breakfast, I let out a sigh before addressing my two companions. “After all that work to disguise ourselves and stay off the beaten path... it’s a mystery how our pursuers found us.”

We’d taken so many precautions, yet we’d been discovered so easily. Until we knew how they’d done it, the same thing was likely to keep happening.

“How they found us, huh?” Gourry made a big show of contemplating the matter, then said, “What do you think, Lina?”

“Right back on me, huh?! Were you just pretending to think, Gourry?”

“Of course not. I asked myself, ‘If I think it over, am I gonna come up with an answer?’ And the answer was ‘no way in heck.’ So I asked you.”

“That’s basically not thinking!”

There, Ran cheerily raised her right hand, still holding her staff protectively in her left. “Ooh! Me, me, me!”

“Go for it, Ran,” I said, calling on her.

“Okay!” She rocketed to her feet in an at-attention posture, and proclaimed, “I suspect me!”

“Huuuuh?!” Gourry and I cried in unison at her unexpected take.

“Why?!” I couldn’t help asking.

“Well, Nissy Lina and Rostir Gourry knew each other in advance. That only leaves me! Pretty likely culprit, huh?” she responded brightly (for some reason).

“Point taken...”

“In addition—”

“There’s more?!”

“—the fact that I’m acknowledging that I seem suspicious might itself be a plan to throw suspicions off me! Oooooh, so cunning!”

“Fair enough,” I said.

At this, she puffed her cheeks out sulkily. “You’re not taking me seriously, Nissy Lina!”

I groaned in exhaustion.

The truth was... Yeah, okay. Ran admitting she was suspicious could have been a plan to divert suspicion. She sounded like a bubblehead at times, but perhaps that belied her intellect. If I’m being honest, though, I didn’t take her for a great mole. If she worked for the Kingdom of Luzilte, that meant she was under orders from someone we’d met prior to encountering her... in other words, Bronco of Maricida City or one of his compatriots. But if that were the case, her magical abilities would’ve made her a shoo-in for their mission to investigate and take out whatever took out the bandits. Plus, even if Ran were the mole, I still had no idea how she was contacting our pursuers. That’s not to say I trusted her unconditionally, however.

I let out a soft sigh. “Well, I’ll keep you a suspect in the back of my mind.”

“’Kay!” Ran nodded in satisfaction. I wasn’t sure what she was so pleased about.

Anyway, putting her aside... In the inner realm where magic techniques were widely studied, it was possible to make a mark on a magic item and track its location from the astral plane. But out here, it was hard to believe anyone had the know-how to do that. On the flip side, however, it was entirely possible they had spells that I knew nothing about. Speaking of...

“That reminds me, Ran. Last night, what was that spell you used to give the robed guy a good whack?” I asked.

She blinked in confusion. “Oh, didn’t I tell you? An elf taught it to me.”

“Huh? I thought that was a spell to extend a jump...” I remembered seeing her use it to leap aboard the bas boat.

“What? Ohhh...” She smiled, seemingly in realization. “It’s the same spell.”

“Is it?” I scowled. They were both wind spells, most likely—one using wind to carry you further and the other to push your opponent away—but to say they were the same thing was a bit of an overstatement.

“Yup, same spell! Lemme cast it right now.” Ran began chanting.

Magic required an incantation of chaos words to call upon the power of preternatural forces... That was apparently the same in both the inner and outer lands, and I detected no dialectical difference between what Ran used and what I knew. Wait... hmm? While she was chanting, she grasped a handful of grass in her right hand, then threw it over her head.

“Wind Breath!” When Ran released the words of power, the grass she’d tossed—rather than getting carried off by the wind or falling back on the ground—began to float lightly around her. “See?”

Ran grabbed my hand unceremoniously and put her arm around my shoulders. I didn’t feel a breeze or anything, but the grass drifting around her changed course as she moved.

“Now watch this...”

Ran released me, then turned toward a faraway tree and thrust out her staff. The tree was definitely too far for her to hit, but in that instant, the grass floating around suddenly rushed out. Flowing over her outstretched staff, it rushed for the trunk of the targeted tree and...

Whoom! The trunk shook audibly in the wind, the impact causing leaves to rustle and fall.

“It makes the wind help me in lots of good ways!”

“Wait, wait. Hang on a minute here,” I quickly interrupted. I’d heard her chaos words. And I understood the magical principles at play here—which made what I was seeing all the more baffling to me. “Help you in a lot of good ways? That spell... You wreathe yourself in the wind, which you can use to accelerate, attack, or defend, depending on the situation?”

“Yeeeup!”

“Hang on, hang on, hang on...” A single spell for offense, defense, or support, all based on the user’s will in the moment? How was that possible?! Normal spells manifested power to a single simple end, or combined two or three simple ends for a more complex effect.

Take Flare Arrow, for example. You conjure fire, and you send it flying. Simple. And combining types of power and commands—like “create a barrier from wind blowing backward to propel us” and “create lift to repel us from the ground”—gets you magic like my high-speed flight spell, Lei Wing. But how many elements would you have to combine to get a spell that “helps in lots of good ways”? It was unthinkable. Including all those detailed instructions would result in one hell of an incantation, if nothing else, but Ran’s hadn’t even been particularly long. What should’ve been the longest part was replaced with a single phrase...

“Ran! There was a part of your chant that went ‘with the guardianship of the Dragon of Sky, of one with and a piece of the True Dragon.’ Does that mean... your spell borrows the power of Airlord?!”

Airlord Valwin was one of the four Dragon Lords which Flare Dragon Ceifeed had split his power into. The inner lands were cut off from Earthlord, Flarelord, and Airlord, so magic that called upon them was foreign to us. But when I stopped to think about it... it would be perfectly at home here in the outer lands!

“Yah!” Ran responded easily.

As a sorcerer, I was dying to know more! “Ran! Teach me that spell!” I implored her fervently, spurred on by pure curiosity.

“Hmm...” With a stern expression, she replied, “’Kay... but the elf who taught it to me said that affinity mattered a ton when it comes to using it... and when you first try it, it’ll be super blurk no matter what.”

“Blurk?” I parroted, not grokking her meaning.

She nodded. “Yeah. When you cast the spell and think ‘I want to run really fast,’ the wind will start pushing you under your feet.”

“Yeah? Yeah?”

“If your feet can’t keep up and you fall, it’ll smoosh you into the ground.”

“What?!”

“So it’s very blurk!”

“That’s more than just ‘blurk’!”

“Maybe, yah. It was super tough for me at first!”

I had to wonder... was this spell actually, in fact, useless? I had some questions for the elf who’d decided to teach it to space-case Ran too. I would’ve loved to meet them. It was impressive Ran had learned to use the spell so well, but I wasn’t really feeling up to giving it a try myself under the circumstances.

“Well, could you teach me the form of the spell, at least? I suspect it’ll be worse than ‘blurk’ for me if I mess up, so I probably won’t use it, but I’d like to study it.”

“Sure thing. Lessee...”

“Oh, um, not right this instant. Once things have calmed down a little. For now, we should probably head out,” I said, but...

“Ooh! Me, me, me!” Ran raised her hand again.

“Yes, Ran?”

“We still haven’t figured out how our pursuers found us!”

“That’s true, but much as I hate to say it... when you give a question all your brainpower and still can’t come up with an answer, it’s probably time to move on. Getting too bogged down trying to figure things out can be ultimately counterproductive.”

It was possible our pursuers had just stumbled upon us through sheer dumb luck, after all. Most of the men who’d been a party to the conquest of the Dark Lord of the North (lame version) had worn helmets, so it’s possible they could recognize me when I didn’t recognize them. Maybe we’d just passed one of those guys in Lanoma City.

“So, which way do we go?” Ran asked.

I mulled a few things over and answered, “We could head east or west for a while... but I think they’ll find us sooner or later even then, so we might as well go straight north. I’d prefer to avoid any big trouble, but I’m willing to brute force things if it gets us out of this kingdom.”

“Resorting to force as usual, huh?” Gourry said with a sigh.

“Oh, come on. All I’m saying is the world isn’t all about brain or brawn, but the balance between brain and brawn. Isn’t that right?” I said, striding up to Gourry and getting in his face.

“Er... Uh... I mean,” Gourry said, flinching in response.

“Striking that balance is another application of brains. If you think something over and realize that brawn is the way to go, you use brawn.”

“Aha. So brute force is the real big-brain maneuver!”

“No, that’s not quite what I said... Whatever. Let’s move out.”

“Right!” Gourry and Ran responded in hearty agreement.

The sky was blue. The clouds were white. The biscuits were tough.

“Tough.”

“Totally tough.”

“It’s kinda scary.”

Me, Gourry, and Ran sat amid the windswept grassland, crunching down on our ultra-tough biscuits. It had been four days since the attack in Lanoma. And, surprising as it was, we’d yet to see signs of pursuers again.

I’d assumed at first that if we kept following the main road north, they’d catch up to us right away. We’d put up a fight—not hard enough to kill anyone, but enough to set them back. Then the guys whose butts we’d kicked would run home and report in, but even if they formed a new band to come after us, it would take them a while to catch up again. In the meantime, we could press straight northward or take a detour. Rinse and repeat until we reached the border.

That was the plan, but so far, we’d been walking scot-free. It was possible we were still being followed and our pursuers were just waiting for us to let our guard down, though. So, with that in mind, we’d leisurely elected to stay at an inn last night... But even then, nothing.

Thus our journey continued until we reached a small village called Renihorn. The town before it had set a precedent for good grub, but it was a little too early to eat when we got there and we couldn’t afford to sightsee until lunchtime. And so we’d decided to keep going until the next village. We’d accordingly hit Renihorn about noon, but it turned out nowhere in town offered a proper meal. With little other option, we’d bought some rations from a little shack of a shop and were now dining on the flavorless meal in the grasslands outside of the village.

“Lina, try some of this jerky too. It’s tough,” Gourry offered.

“You said it. This stuff may not fill the stomach, but it kinda fills the heart.”

“Nissy Lina, I think that’s heartburn.”

And so, we ate in peace and quiet (or maybe quiet rage) until... Gourry stood up without a sound.

“What’s wrong? Finally had enough of how tough this stuff is?” I asked... and then I heard it. Something was coming closer. It was approaching from the south, and I knew that rumbling sound—it was countless hoofbeats pounding the earth!

“This way!” I shouted, leaping to my feet and making a break for the nearby forest.

“We’re running?!” Gourry asked as he ran beside me.

“We’ll meet them out here!” I said back, then turned to Ran, who was of course running with us too. “Ran, you stay hidden and don’t interfere!”

“Aw, but—”

“I’ve gotten you mixed up in enough! I’m not dragging you into more!”

I wasn’t exactly thrilled with Luzilte, but they weren’t some evil kingdom. I didn’t approve of their methods, but they were doing what they deemed necessary in the name of national security. Plus, the knights and soldiers they were sending after us were just guys following orders. Now, I had no problem defending myself if they picked a fight, but Ran here was just along for the ride... It felt wrong to set her busting up more or less innocent heads.

“I’ll just watch then,” she whispered reluctantly before obediently running to the edge of the forest and hiding behind a tree.

Meanwhile, Gourry and I turned to face what was coming. Close to twenty mounted knights appeared from beyond the village. They must have caught sight of us, because the guy in front raised his hand and called, “Halt!”

Aha. I know that voice.

The cavalry stared us down from a good ways off. It would’ve been quite a distance to cover by foot, but a horse could do it in the blink of an eye.

“I’ve found you, outlaws!” The knight at the head of the squad—I didn’t know his name, but he was the commander of the Knights of the Silver Spear—called in our direction.

I see. We’re finally getting the outlaw treatment...

“I hear you caused some trouble in Lanoma City yesterday. You terrified the good-hearted locals, you know! The penalty for terrorizing innocent people is steep!”

“It was your assassin who raised hell in Lanoma!” I shouted back at the angry captain.

“Our assassin? Enough of your lies!”

It sounded like he was the one spouting BS to me, but I had to consider that the assassin may have been under someone else’s orders. Perhaps Commander Silver Spear here really was none the wiser. Either way, I clearly wasn’t talking him down. Which meant I had only one recourse...

I chanted a spell under my breath.

“Such blatant deceit in an attempt to evade the law is a terrible evil! We shall show no mercy! Knights, surround them!”

At his word, the knights began to fan out... but all too late! Before the commander had given the order, I’d finished my spell chant. I knelt down in place, laid my right hand on the ground, and released the words of power! “Vu Vrima!” The earth rumbled and shook. The field where we’d been sitting earlier roiled and swelled until a giant human form burst out.

Vu Vrima beseeched earth spirits called bephemoths to craft a powerful creature known as a golem. They were on the slow side and could only follow simple orders, but they sure were handy in the right situation. And I was willing to bet this was the first time the knights had ever seen a clay giant form from the very earth warping—because they immediately fell into a panic.

“What is this?!”

“A giant?”

“What a hideous creature!”

“This can’t be real!”

The unnerved men whipped their reins around in fright, causing their horses to whinny in confusion. Soon, my golem—looking rather fluffy from the grassland he was made of—was complete!

“Golem!” And then I gave my order! “Dance!”

Creeeeak... Heeding my command, the golem began waving its arms and legs, earth creaking audibly.

I, uh, guess it was technically a dance, but I wasn’t so much upset with the bephemoths’ choreography as I was with myself for making them do that. Anyhoo, to the knights, my creation remained a sight of sheer terror.

“Don’t be daunted! Hold your ranks!” The commander raised his voice in desperation, but his men were in no state to listen.

I took advantage of the chaos, and... “Freeze Arrow!” The dozen frigid bolts I fired landed among the band of already panicking knights. Sorry if I hit any of you nice horsies! Screams rose up, the chaos spread, and I started chanting another spell.

“C-Curse you!” The commander glared at me, but he wasn’t about to charge and leave his men without a leader. Plus, I had Gourry at my side and—

“Lina!”

It all happened in the blink of an eye. Gourry’s cry. A flash of hostility. Gourry leaping toward me, grabbing me with both arms...

Bwooooosh!

...and a crimson flame ripping forth!

Someone had taken advantage of the chaos to launch a fire spell at me from my flank, and Gourry, who’d realized it not a second too late, had saved me. The flames struck the trunk of a tree, scorching its foliage and the grass below. Waves of heat stroked my cheek and tousled my hair, but it wasn’t hot enough to be painful. “Thanks, Gourry!”

He set me down, and I looked in the direction the attack had come from. My eyes fell on a red-robed figure standing among the trees.

Is that... the guy from Lanoma City?! Had he intended to catch me unawares while I was focused on the knights?

“Curse you! You have other allies?!” the commander shouted angrily as he watched.

I mean, that attack was obviously meant for me, right?! Still, even if Commander Doofus had misread the situation, his surprise was a sure indicator that the knights didn’t know the robed guy. Which meant... my first goal was to inspire a little friendly fire!

“Gourry! The robed guy first!”

“Right!”

We took off running for the robed guy in the forest!

“Don’t let them get away!” Perhaps believing we were trying to rendezvous with a comrade, the commander howled and jerked at his horse’s reins. The beast was still too spooked by the dancing golem and the fire, however, and refused to comply. Finally losing his temper, the commander dismounted and ordered for his men to do the same. “Follow me!”

Ahead of me, the red-robed figure. Behind me, the pursuing knights.

In other words, Gourry and I were smack between them! If the robed man fired at us and we dodged, he’d hit his own allies. This would keep him in check and make him think twice about—

He attacked?!

The robed man produced a ball of light, from which five or six rays broke out and streaked toward us! It was what he’d used in Lanoma. I knew it was the same guy! But back then, we were stuck trying to dodge on a rooftop. Now we were on flat ground, even if it was a little pulpy from my golem-summoning. Evading this time would be a cinch!

To that end, Gourry and I leaped to either side... And then I heard the knights scream behind me.

So he doesn’t care about hitting his buddies?!

At that same moment, I sensed a new wave of hostility. I reflexively looked toward the source and spied a second robed figure standing among the trees a little way away. This one already had a dozen spears of light conjured and ready to launch. Had they been planning to hit me as I dodged the obvious attack?!

Robe No. 2 went to fire—Crack!—but before they could, they let out a cry of pain. Ran had come running up from the side and whacked them with her staff. Judging by their voice, Robe No. 2 was a woman. Her spears of light went flying off in a random direction, impaling the ground and trees.

Hey, I told you to stay out of this... But thanks for the save!

Gourry and I made eye contact for a second, tacitly agreeing to change course for the robed woman.

“Elemekia Lance!” I then let fly the spell I’d originally meant for the robed man, whose female counterpart was currently off balance from Ran’s attack. Elemekia Lance dealt spiritual damage, and it was perfectly capable of rendering a normal human opponent unconscious!

Robe No. 2 seemed to realize this, and... “Ngh!” She let out a curse and swept at the spell with her left hand! Ka-zing! The swipe broke up my spell with a loud ring!

What?! For the record, one does not simply bat away an Elemekia Lance! Just trying would knock most people out cold. But the woman seemed slightly shaken at worst. Maybe she had some kind of anti-spell magic item equipped to her arm, or maybe there was something else at play.

Gourry picked up speed at that point and closed the distance on her. “Hey, you!”

She took a fighting stance—and I promise you she was underestimating Gourry. The big lug pressed his charge, leaped in, and plunged the hilt of his sword into her solar plexus! When he did...

“What?!” It was Gourry who leaped back with a shout! I couldn’t see what had happened from where I was standing.

“Lina!” Gourry shouted. “They’re—”

Before he could finish the thought, I could hear thunderous footfalls rushing toward me from behind. I looked over my shoulder and... What?! From where the robed man stood, tearing through the forest toward me was... A wolf?!

Or was it a wolf? It looked like one, but it was the size of a horse! Where had the enormous beast come from?! Even among the trees, we should’ve seen it sooner! At any rate, I was clearly the one it was after. Its hate-filled eyes were locked on me.

“Lina?!” Gourry whipped around, but he wasn’t going to make it in time. And comparing the size of the beast to my skill with a blade, there was no way I could hold it off on my own. In that case...

As the wolf closed in and bared its fangs, rather than run... I slid head-first between its front legs! I heard the sound of its jaws snapping shut above my head. Its four massive paws pounded against the ground as it charged right over me. As I scrambled back to my feet, Gourry ran over, his sword at the ready.

The giant wolf changed direction amidst the trees with great agility. It turned back toward me, and...

“Freeze Arrow!” Gauging my timing, I unleashed my spell! The wolf was too big to dodge it between the trees.

Instead, it howled—and instantly, a shield of pale red light appeared before the beast, shattering my arrows! A defensive spell?! One of the robes had probably cast it... or more likely, it seemed like the wolf’s howl had activated it.

But just then...

“Wh-What is that?!” one of the knights shouted. Upon realizing the golem wasn’t attacking, they’d apparently recovered enough to be startled all over again by the sight of the mammoth wolf.

“Where did it come from?!” another cried, asking exactly what I wanted to know.

“That magician! She must have summoned it with her magic!” yet another said, this one way off base.

Just then, the wolf seemed to... laugh? Without warning, it turned and dashed at the knights.

“It’s coming!”

“Stay strong!”

“Fight back!”

The knights who were still in fighting shape—some on horseback and some on foot—hesitantly tried to form ranks. But before the two sides even made contact...

“Arwoooo!” The wolf howled again. Ten streaks of flaming arrows darted out at the knights. Their screams rose up in chorus. The wolf plunged right into the chaos, bit down on the arm of one knight through his armor, flung him off in a random direction, then charged at another.

“Regenell!” Hearing the robed man’s resounding voice, the wolf stopped in place. “Don’t play games!”

At this recrimination, the great beast called Regenell got some distance from the knights, turned back to me, and...

“You won’t get awaaay!” One of the knights lying nearby sat up with a roar and plunged his sword into the wolf’s side!

“Awoo?!” The wolf yowled as it leaped back. It didn’t look seriously wounded, but the hit did seem to inflict some pain. The beast turned an enraged gaze on the knight, and...

“Hraaagh!” A cyclops sent the knight flying with one sweep of its arm!

“What?!” the knights cried when they saw it.

Which was totally understandable. The giant wolf had transformed into a cyclops in an instant, after all. It was plain as day this was no ordinary wolf or cyclops. This Regenell creature was probably assuming various forms through magic.

While all that was going down, Gourry, Ran, and I were working together to defeat the robed woman. Or, at least, that probably would’ve been the smart call, but instead...

“Blast Ash!”

Whoom! The black something I conjured appeared near the cyclops. It should have devoured the creature with one hit... but the darn thing dodged my spell. It was as if he’d known where and when it would manifest. That wasn’t just a coincidence. He’d readily evaded it!

“Why?” the commander groaned when he witnessed this. He was reeling in pain from the robed man’s attack, but still stood up shakily and said, “Aren’t you... allies?”

“These are the creeps who ambushed us that night in Lanoma. We assumed they were with you,” I replied, my eyes still locked on the robed duo and the cyclops.

“Certainly not... But if they aren’t with you, then you had no reason to interfere with us fighting each other...”

It was true that if the knights and the robed figures were both after us, we only benefited from them duking it out. But...

“It’s obvious from the way they’re acting. ‘Hey, we can slaughter the knights and blame it on the girl.’ And the idea of them getting away with that annoyed me, so I stepped in. That’s all.”

“You... think we’d lose?” The commander was playing tough, but it was clear he and his knights were already in a bad way. Only a few of them had full health at this point.

I decided to just let that one go and just gestured at the cyclops instead. “You’re not exactly outfitted to fight something like that, are you?”

“Is your goal to have us in your debt?”

“Nah.”

“This won’t change our position toward you, Mistress Lina.”

“I know, okay?” I responded so quickly that the commander fell silent.

“Yeah, and I don’t really like sitting back and watching bad people get their way,” Gourry said, standing by my side.

“Um, let’s see. Does this mean...” Ran tapped her right shoulder with her staff, walked over to us, then turned to the robes. “It’s okay for me to interfere with them, right?”

“Yep,” I said with a thumbs-up.

“You were too obvious, Regenell,” the robed man said teasingly to the cyclops. “Your expression’s too easy to read, even as a wolf.”

“Oh, shut up.” The cyclops—or rather Regenell, currently in the form of a cyclops—muttered back at him.

Normally, I would’ve been surprised to see a talking cyclops, but I’d already seen him transform into one from a giant wolf. Talking was kinda small potatoes by comparison.

Apparently annoyed by the still-dancing golem, he walked up to it and smashed it with one arm. “What’s the big deal? It won’t change what we’re doing. Right, Galdorba?”

“Wrong. You have no business playing around until we’ve finished what we came here to do,” said the robed man—Galdorba.

“Tch. Stick in the mud,” Regenell spat.

“So?” I said, turning my eyes to the group. “Exactly who are you people? I hope this isn’t one of those ‘Whoops, made a mistake and got the wrong person, sorry,’ kinds of situations.”

I figured he’d ignore my snark, but...

“A mistake?” Galdorba responded. “No, there is no mistake. I received a prophecy.”

“A prophecy?” I scowled at this.

Where I came from, there were basically two kinds of “prophecies.” The first were legit glimpses of the future received by shrine maidens. These didn’t always reveal useful or relevant information, but they always came true. The second were more like flashes of insight. These were mostly instinct, and they frequently turned out to be inaccurate in practice.

So... which was this dude talking about?

“Yes! A prophecy!” Galdorba declared loudly and proudly. “‘One in which chaos itself has dwelt shall appear from the land sealed by demons—and bring havoc!’”