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idola
Chapter 2: The Moment the Light Descends
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Ryner glared at the beauty before him. She’d bolted two hours ago when they were being chased by mage soldiers. It’d been the middle of the night then, but now the sun was rising up in the sky.
Ferris had told him to meet her at ‘the usual place,’ so he’d tried Wynnit Dango. But she wasn’t there.
“What do you mean she’s not here?” Ryner grumbled to himself. So he tried Fago Dango on the outskirts of town next. By then it was early enough for the woman who owned the shop to be out, so he asked her if she’d seen Ferris.
“Ahh, Ferris said that she was starting her morning dango tour, then headed off towards Purple Sweets and Dango.”
So the ‘usual place’ was the whole damn dango tour!?
It was five in the morning by the time he got to Purple Sweets and Dango, and the older man who owned the shop was already preparing for the day. When he saw Ryner, he wordlessly handed him a single piece of paper with something written on it.
Fuahahaha! A brainless fool like you is incapable of finding a genius beauty such as myself! It’s frustrating, isn’t it? You’re frustrated, aren’t you? Heh-heh-heh. If you’re frustrated, then just try to find me!
“What do you mean, ‘try!?’” Ryner yelled.
“You sure have it rough,” the dango man said.
Ryner felt like he was going to cry. He wanted to say, ‘yes, I really do have it rough,’ but he was too weak to find the words.
This wasn’t the time to fuck around, but here Ferris was, making a game out of it when they were being chased by the military and had to get out of Roland quick.
He had to find her. He looked around, trying to picture where all the dango shops were. Which way would a dango madman go? Would she have taken a left or a right?
The closest dango shop was to the right, but recently she said that a dango from a shop to the left of here really hit the spot, didn’t she? Ugh, why did he have to think about something this stupid!? Ryner was getting more and more fed up with it by the second.
“Well, it can’t be helped,” the dango shop’s owner said. “It’s a man’s job to do his best for a pretty lady, and damn if she isn’t pretty.”
Ryner answered without turning back to face the owner. “What, she’s pretty so she can do whatever she wants!? I want to scream that every time it comes up.”
“But no matter how I look at it, her personality’s incredible too?” The owner said.
Ryner scowled. “Is it now?”
“Yes. Recently there was a carriage going by here far too fast while there was a puppy on the road, and just when my heart sank with the realization that it’d be hit, Ferris flung into the street and saved it despite all the scrapes and mud she got out of it.”
“Hmm.”
“And what’s more is the puppy was unharmed. She protected it with her body and life.”
“Huh. Well, I guess she is the type to do that sort of thing…”
“She’s already saved more than two hundred puppies just like tha—”
Ryner turned back to the man behind the counter. “You think I’d believe that!?”
The dango shop’s owner was flustered.
“……”
And Ferris was there, writing something down fervently.
“……”
Ferris handed the paper to the owner as soon as she was done writing, then hid under the counter.
The owner looked down at the paper and began to read off of it. “I-I’m not lying! She really has saved two hundred puppies. And if you think that’s not enough, then she’s also saved two hundred kittens! N-no, actually, she’s saved over a thousand animals!”
Ryner was speechless.
Ferris held her hand up with another note. The owner took it and began to read. “And babies! Little babies who just learned to crawl wandered away from home…”
Ryner wanted to ask whose babies they were and where they came from, but he refrained. It was pointless.
But the old man’s… no, Ferris’ idiocy continued.
“They climb the mountains outside town somehow. No, active volcanos. They climb up active volcanos. See, babies don’t know anything yet, so they do these dangerous things without realizing it.”
That part wasn’t the problem…
“Fifteen thousand babies all lost their way at once and found themselves at the peak of the volcano, then fell in!!” The owner shouted vigorously.
Ryner so wanted to yell, ‘that’s so fucking stupid’ or ‘why fifteen thousand’ but all he could do was sit there and picture it. Fifteen thousand babies actually crawling into the mouth of an active volcano at full speed. “Woow… uhh, that’s actually pretty impressive.”
Ferris held another paper up. The owner read it. “I-isn’t it! It was a real calamity!”
“…Yeah, I bet.”
“And then! Just then our very own Lady Ferris Eris, sweeter than cotton candy, saved the babies, no, the world itself!”
Ryner was left speechless after that transcendental​ tale.
“……”
He decided that he’d better nod like he meant it. Just in case.
The owner smiled with an expression of absolute understanding on his face. He’d tired himself out from the performance, but he still managed a smile for their man-to-man moment of deep understanding.
With that out of the way, Ryner walked behind the counter. Ferris was crouched under there, seriously writing even more to hand off.
And what’s more is that she saved 65,400 koalas who got stuck in trees. Isn’t she amazing!? (Say the ‘amazing’ part with feeling.)
Well, at least they finally met back up at ‘the usual place.’ One of them, anyway.
“…Umm,” Ryner said.
Ferris jumped, her expression filled with a worried surprise - had he found her!? Then she whipped around to look at him. She looked like she was going to say something, then didn’t, then looked like she’d say something else, then didn’t again. She finally settled on, “W-what a coincidence, Ryner. I just arrived here myself.”
“…Hmmm.”
“W-was the owner telling stories about me?” Ferris asked.
“…Yeah, he told me some stories alright…”
“H, how were they? You thought that I’m unexpectedly… unexpectedly… er, what did you think of them?” Ferris asked with a face that just begged for commentary on her work.
There was no possible way to answer that but that it was unexpectedly stupid, but he didn’t even have to say that to watch his own murder happen behind his eyes, so he opted to not say it. “Umm… well, you know. I got that you’re a really kindhearted person from it. Uh, like, unexpectedly so.” He had to force himself to finish that sentence.
Ferris’ face lit up. Like, stupidly so. She was way too happy about it.
“……”
But… compared to other people, her face was still really expressionless, so it probably just looked blank to anyone else. But Ryner had been with her for a while now. He was used to her subtle expressions. Right now, she was clearly happy as could be.
He still wanted to complain. He wanted to say that they shouldn’t be wasting their time with this shit. But he didn’t, in the end. She was just too happy about it. So he ended up thinking, well, whatever. It was fine.
After all, she never made this kind of expression back when they first met. She was perfectly expressionless back then, and her voice was super monotone, too. She used to be like a doll. Probably because of how she’d been raised… Her older brother Lucile was a monster. No, it wasn’t just that. Her family as a whole was abnormal.
Ferrisreally used to be just like a doll whose only purpose was to fight. And she was strong. Strong enough that any normal person would think of her as a monster. But what did a girl as young and thin as her have to sacrifice to reach that point?
In Ferris’ case, it was her emotions, her expressions, and her smile.
That kind of story was common all across Roland, though. Ryner had been in a similar situation. That was just the kind of place the old Roland was. Ryner had seen countless people go mad from the cruel training and human experiments they’d been subjected to.
They had two choices after going through that.
They could either die before they went mad, or live knowing that they might lose it someday.
Ferris had lived. Her price for her life had been her expressions.
“……”
But here she was now, a someone who should have lost her emotions entirely, looking happy.
It honestly made him really happy to see. He felt that she had stood on the line between having emotions and going mad.
It was like how Ryner had given up on everything. Ferris distanced herself from everything by caging her emotions up.
But right now, with the faint movement of her lips, she managed something like a smile. She was a violent woman who never said anything but how she loved dango, and she lacked even the smallest ounce of common sense.
She’d been emotionless once. But he could see that her expressions became a little more pronounced by the day.
So she spent her days with Ryner. So she spent them with Sion. So the three of them spent their time together, smiling like idiots.
Ryner felt that it was all thanks to Sion. He felt that Sion had saved Ferris.
Sion had been the one to introduce them, after all. He was the one who brought Ryner, who had always lived inside the darkness, to Ferris.
“……”
Ryner would never say any of this out loud, but he felt like he was dreaming since meeting Sion, and since meeting Ferris. Everything was just too fun. How could it be anything but a good dream?
Every day, Sion had set an unbelievable amount of work in front of him. Every day, Ferris did whatever she wanted and got in the way. Ryner spent the whole time yelling at them to shut up, but the truth was that he’d been enjoying it.
If he weighed the amount of times those two caused him problems against how much they’d helped him, the times they’d saved him would come out far on top. Those were his true feelings.
“……”
On that rainy day… when Sion said that he was going to kill Ryner.
Ryner’s instant response had been to give up. Everything was such a pain. Everything was too hard.
And if he was going to be killed… then shouldn’t it be by his buddy Sion, his savior? That was his gut reaction.
There was no value in Ryner’s life, after all. He’d finally gotten to have a good dream, so why not throw in the towel while he was ahead?
Everything always ended the same anyway. Just as he found someone that he held dear, his monstrous hand would fall short of reaching them. So he gave up.
But just as he gave up, the tired old routine changed.
He pictured Ferris. She was emotionless, violent, selfish, and generally incomprehensible. She faced him, a dirty, worthless monster, like she was on the verge of tears as she smiled sadly.
“Idiot… I’d get lonely if you died.”
Those words had hit Ryner like a punch to the gut. They made the walls he’d so carefully built up for so long crumble down in a split-second.
He couldn’t just die. He couldn’t just give up.
In that moment, he realized how stupid he’d been. He realized how stupid he was to be staring into Sion’s sad face and thinking that it was okay to let him kill him, even though Sion had done so much to help him! Even though they both did so much to help him.
They did so much for him. So what had he been doing? Why did he brush off the hands that reached out to help him? That must have hurt them. But he still did it, choosing to hurt others instead of letting himself be hurt. Saying that it was so that he didn’t hurt others was just an excuse.
“……”
Ryner looked to Ferris, who was still standing happily. A little emotion had made its way onto her face. It was small, but surely others would see it too as her emotions began to bloom.
She wasn’t like before. She was changing, little by little. And it wasn’t just her. Ryner, Sion, everyone was changing, little by little. It was because they were together. Because they could smile and laugh like idiots together.
That’s why he thought that Ferris would smile soon, too. She’d laugh as long as they continued to spend time like this together. Maybe it was presumptuous to assume, but he really felt that she’d smile with all her strength someday soon. He’d like to see that day. He’d like to see her face wrinkle up because she smiled and laughed for the first time. He wanted to be right by her side when it happened.
“……”
And he’d like to show it to Sion. Sion, who was all alone, being destroyed by his own self-sacrificial nature. He’d show him Ferris’ smile and her tears.
…No, not just Ferris’. He had to show Sion the full force of how he and Ferris had supported Ryner when he’d given up on everything to drown in his own hopelessness.
If Sion died… if Sion and Ferris died.
Ryner had to convey his feelings to them. He had to show them that he’d go mad with grief if they weren’t here anymore.
Ryner looked to Ferris. It wasn’t too long ago that she’d cried. It had been the first time that Ryner had seen her cry, so it was really moving.
It happened when Ferris broke him out of prison.
Ferris, who was always so emotionless, cried because of Sion and Ryner. She was uneasy because Sion changed for the worse. She felt that she’d lost Ryner until she finally found him, and when she did, she cried tears of relief… That was how much the two of them meant to her. That was the kind of impact they had on Ferris, who used to be as emotionless as a doll.
Did Sion realize that?
Did Sion really think that it was best to throw Ryner and Ferris to the curb where they’d stay out of his problems when he meant so much to them?
If he really, truly thought that, then…
“…I’ll prove it to him,” Ryner said to himself.
The situation was pretty shitty as a whole. Not only had Sion suddenly cut contact with them, if the mage soldiers were to be believed, he also gave orders to capture Ryner dead or alive. A second wave of soldiers was likely coming for him on that order now.
A mountain of things he had to do had already gathered around Ryner. No matter how upset Ferris was by everything, they didn’t have the time to fuck around like this.
Ryner looked back to Ferris. She was stuffing her cheeks with red bean dango from the display case. “Oh, delicious!”
The owner’s face shone at the praise. “Ah, those are my newest creation, Ferris. See, they’ve got honey mixed in. They’re honey red bean dango!”
“H-honey red bean!? A, amazing! You are a true dango pioneer!!”
“Riiight?”
“This is amazing! A honey typhoon will soon rip through the city!”
“Heheheh. I'm doing my best to pay back my debts. Going from a home dango shop to a free standing dango specialty store isn’t cheap!”
…Actually, Ferris would probably be okay even with Ryner or Sion. All she really needed was dango. “Hey, Ferris. Aren’t you recovering from Sion cutting contact a little too fast?” Ryner asked.
Ferris tilted her head, confused. “Mm? Recovering? What are you talking about? I have never been anything but calm.”
“Really now?”
“Yes.”
“Yeaah? But you cried back in—”
Just then, the same thing as always happened! Ferris whipped her sword out faster than the naked eye could see and slammed the blunt side into Ryner’s head!
“Gyaaaaaaaagh!!” Ryner yelled as he was sent flying. When he hit the ground, he hit it rolling. It took a while for him to stop. “Gahuh.” He raised his head to look at Ferris with tears in his eyes.
“So who were you talking about, again?” Ferris asked.
“…Well, umm, you…”
Ferris raised her sword again. “Hm?”
“…N-nothing, ma’am,” Ryner said, his voice shaking.
But really, her reaction just now was proof that she was worried about Sion in her own way… probably… actually, he wasn’t all that confident that she was…
She looked down at him. “By the way, Ryner, why did you fly all of a sudden? You’ve gotten all bruised and dirty. Did you hallucinate that a puppy was about to be run over and jump out to save it? Be careful with suspicious drugs.”
“…Yeah, I’ll be careful,” Ryner said. Because he was at the point where he was just trying to avoid getting hit again.
They really didn’t have the time for this. Ryner sighed softly, then stood up. He patted the dirt off his clothes, but it didn’t help much. He sighed again. “It’s about time to have a real conversation about what’s going on, don’t you think?”
Ferris nodded. “Mm. But before that, there’s something we need to talk about, Ryner.”
“What?”
“It’s about the most heinous occurrence in Roland… are you familiar with it?”
“The most heinous? Like, worse than what’s going on in Nelpha?”
“There’s no comparison.”
“No comparison… so what is it?” Ryner asked.
Ferris went quiet for a moment. She inhaled sharply, as if to help maintain her calm. “Right now, here inside the Roland Empire, Purple Sweets and Dango’s owner has just created honey red bean dango, which will become one of the world’s most popular dango varie—”
“I couldn’t care leessss!!” Ryner yelled with all the feeling he could muster.
“W-w-w-what do you mean, you couldn’t care less!?” Ferris asked, shocked. “Purple’s owner has slaved away for years to make this excellent new type of dango!”
“Th, that’s right!” The owner said. “I had to go into massive debt to build this dango shop! If this doesn’t sell well, m-my family will leave me, you asshole!”
“…Umm, yeah… It’d suck if your family left you… So, um, what’s your plan?” Ryner asked. He was losing ground to stand on at an alarming rate.
Ferris looked pleased, like she was glad that Ryner finally understood. “First, try this honey red bean dango. You’ll understand how wonderful it is then. You’ll immediately start planning inside your soul room on how you might spread this dango to the far reaches of the world.”
“No, um, I think there are other plans I’m a little more worried about—”
“Now, now, just try it.”
“B, but I’m a wanted man. Lounging around here’s pretty dangero… w, whoa! What the hell? This is amazingly delicious!”
“Right! Look, old man!” Ferris said. “It’s popular with this stupid man, too!”
“Yes!” The owner said and did a little victory pose. “I’ll be able to pay off my debts!”
The owner and Ferris shared a proud laugh.
Ryner stared at them in a bit of a daze. It was kind of… kind of peaceful. So much so that Ryner was beginning to feel like an idiot for being stressed. Even if he did laze around in his soul room a little, he got the feeling that everything would turn out fine.
But as soon as he did!
“……Ah.”
A light suddenly flashed on the other side of the street. Ryner’s eyes widened. The light split into several strips, each of which came flying towards him.
Ryner knew what it was - magic. Offensive magic that utilized powerful spears of light to harm the opponent. It was the strongest single-person spell in Roland: Abstract Phosphorescence.
He counted the spears - one, two, three, four… There were twelve in total.
“Ferris!” Ryner said. But Ferris was already helping the dango shop owner up to the second floor of his shop. Ryner followed after them. The magic changed its trajectory to follow him. The powerful light barrelled through Purple Dango. It smashed through the counter, then a pillar supporting the second floor, then opened a hole in the wall.
“M, my shop… my deeebbbtsss!!” The owner screamed, his voice thick with despair. But Ryner didn’t have the time to comfort him.
Abstract Phosphorescence was a pretty difficult spell to master. The regular old soldiers who’d attacked them last time probably hadn’t known it, so the fact that these guys did meant that they were a step up. And judging by the amount of Abstract Phosphorescence spears they’d shot, there were at least twelve of them.
Ryner grimaced. “Ugh, what a pain… This is why I wanted to hurry up and decide what we were gonna do and do it ASAP. What should we do, Ferris?” Ryner asked, moving only his eyes to glance at Ferris. He kept the bulk of his attention on the direction where the Abstract Phosphorescence had come from.
Ferris had made her way to the roof. Her left hand on the owner’s back and her right hand on her sword. Since the first floor had collapsed from magic, the roof unfortunately wasn’t that much of a vantage point anymore. She glared in the direction of their attackers. “We have to run. I’m not confident that this old man will remain unharmed if we fight.”
Ryner nodded. He felt the same. He and Ferris were unlikely to lose even if they fought. In fact, they’d probably be able to beat their enemies without taking a hit. The two of them were strong enough for that. But they weren’t strong enough to ensure that no injury came to the other side. Some of them might even die. And these were Roland’s soldiers that they were fighting.
That meant that Ryner might have to kill his own countrymen.
“…Ugh, this is a real pain,” Ryner mumbled. Then he jumped back to stand by Ferris. “So we’re gonna run then?”
Ferris nodded. “Mm. We’ll have a strategy meeting while we run.”
“Oh, you’re finally gonna get serious about that?” Ryner asked.
“I’ve always been serious about it?”
“……Haah.”
“Wh, why did you just sigh!?” Ferris asked.
“I was just thinking about how fun it is spending time with you.”
“You b-bastard, you’re making fun of m—”
“I’m not, I’m not! Point your sword at our enemies, not me!” Ryner half-yelled, then sighed again. He looked over to where the enemies had fired their magic from. They hadn’t shown themselves yet, but he could sense their presence in the shadow of a building on the other side of the street. They were waiting for Ryner and Ferris to make the first move.
Ryner wasn’t sure how many there were. All he knew was that it’d be harder to fight them without the cover of darkness on his side. So what should they do?
“Normally I’d say it’s best to fight back a little before running, but I’m worried about the old man getting wrapped up in it…”
Ryner looked back over to the old man, who was hopelessly whispering about his debts.
Ferris nodded. “We can’t let the dango shop get involved.”
“Um, I mean, I don’t want anybody to get involved if they don’t have to… So which way are we going? Right?”
“Left.”
“Left? Okay. Can you get my back while I cast something? I won’t be able to keep up with you without magic acceleration. It’ll take like three seconds to cast.”
“Alright.”
“I’m gonna start it.”
“Alright,” Ryner said. He raised his hands to draw letters in the open air. They were fundamentally different from the magic circles Roland’s soldiers were using to fight; the spell he was using was one he’d stolen from the former Kingdom of Estabul’s Magical Knights using his Alpha Stigma.
He began to cast it, but seeing the movement, the enemies attacked with daggers from the right. Ryner couldn’t dodge it. But he didn’t have to. Ferris easily struck it away with her sword.
Fireballs came flying over from the left next, but Ferris swung her sword into those, too, destroying them before they could do any more damage to the dango shop.
“Amazing,” Ryner said.
“Hurry and cast it.”
“Alright, alright,” Ryner said. Then he saw a spear of light from behind Ferris - Abstract Phosphorescence. Even Ferris wouldn’t be able to do, so Ryner decided to take care of it.
Except.
“Mm.” Ferris slashed it away with ease.
“……”
Ryner almost laughed. It was the first time he’d ever seen someone cut through Abstract Phosphorescence before. She always managed to surprise him with her swordsmanship. Come to think of it though, she’d even cut through thunder before…
Ryner was suddenly filled with unease strong enough to stop his hands in the air. “Huh?”
The second he thought of her cutting through lightning, sharp pain ran through his head. He couldn’t recall where or why she’d done that.
He felt like the lightning had come from the sky. Was it made with magic or natural? He couldn’t remember at all. At the very least, he knew that Roland didn’t have a spell like that…
“…Augh, owww,” Ryner groaned as his head was attacked by another round of stabbing pain. “Th, the hell is this?”
It was weird. The second he thought of the lightning, his head started hurting like crazy. But he couldn’t remember anything about it.
Lightning… lightning magic…
“Guah!”
Pain. It hurt so badly that he felt like he was going to throw up.
“Wh, what the hell!?” He forced his thoughts to a stop. The pain stopped with them.
Something weird was happening. It was like there was a force block in his mind before that memory, and when he tried to pass it, it hurt.
What was happening to him right now? Or was it something he only just now noticed that’d been done earlier, like when he’d been thrown in jail?
“…Is it brainwashing or something…?”
But if so, what kind? What memory had they erased from him to make his head hurt like this at the thought of lightning? He tried to think it through, but—
“Hey!” Ferris yelled and slammed her sword into his head.
“Guaaahh!” Now the pain was one hundred times worse. He pressed a hand to it. “What are you doing!?”
“And I could ask you what you’re doing!” Ferris said, pained. “Any more and we’ll… augh.”
Ferris cut through another light spear, then another. Dozens of spears were shooting at her, one after another, and it was taking everything in her to cut them all down in time.
“Oh, sorry,” Ryner said.
“If you have time… to apologize… then cast your spell!”
Ryner looked at the complete letters in the air. “Oh, sorry about that too. It’s just about done already.”
“I’ll kill you,” Ferris said.
“Please don’t.”
“Then cast it!”
“Okay, okay.” Ryner recited the words. “I dedicate the words of our contract - give birth to the beast of malice sleeping within the earth!”
Ryner’s movements accelerated the moment the spell was complete. He experimentally raised an arm to prove it. The spell pushed his muscles to the limit, allowing him to move many times faster than he could without it.
“Alright, let’s go,” Ryner said. “Which way were we going again?”
“Right.”
“You’re kiddinggg. You said left before, didn’t you?”
“Don’t ask if you remembered!”
“Then which way are we actually gonna go?”
Ferris looked around, taking note of their enemy’s positions. “Let’s go backwards.”
Ryner nodded. “Let’s go.”
“Mm.”
“I can keep them in check with magic, so you should go first,” Ryner said.
“Got it.”
“Alrighty,” Ryner said to himself. “Let’s do this.” He raised his hands to the air to draw magic circles, one after another, his hands too fast to see. He completed five in a single moment.
He looked to his opponents. Even now, they were casting Abstract Phosphorescence. It was a spell best used to overwhelm the enemy with power, and that was certainly what they were doing.
But Ryner smirked. “You guys aren’t doing it right. I wish for a rainbow of annihilation - Abstract Phosphorescence!”
Three spears of light burst from Ryner’s magic circles at the same time, all aiming for the same place. They met in the middle and merged into one. The soldiers that they were aiming for moved out of the way, so the spears fell in the center of their ranks. They tore into the ground with an explosion on impact, straight through the stone pavement and into the dirt.
Smoke and debris filled the air. The debris probably annoyed some of them, but the debris wasn’t his goal. The smoke was. It was thick enough to completely obscure his enemies’ view.
Of course it must’ve occurred to his enemies to charge towards Ryner - he’d just fired his spells, and it’d take time for him to get the next group ready. He’d be vulnerable.
Except he wasn’t. Because he still had two left. Ryner grinned.
“I wish for a rainbow of annihilation - Abstract Phosphorescence!”
Another light flew in the direction of his enemies. He had them fly a little high - not so high that they wouldn’t notice, but not so low that it might surprise headshot them.
“Whoa!”
The soldiers wouldn’t be able to move now. They couldn’t see and there was Abstract Phosphorescence flying around their heads. They’d stay right where they were.
“See ya~!” Ryner said. He jumped away quickly, then made a sharp turn back. “I wish for a rainbow of annihilation - Abstract Phosphorescence!”
The final spear shot towards his enemies. That should convince his enemies that he was still on the dango shop’s roof. They’d be stuck in place for about thirty seconds from now, which was plenty of time to escape.
Ryner looked away from his enemies and towards the alley that Ferris had disappeared into. “The hell were you doing in this alley?”
When he got there, he saw the dango owner collapsed. “Ah, right.” He nodded in approval. Their pursers would think he was dead and ignore him entirely.
Ferris looked at Ryner with doubt in her eyes. “What happened earlier? You weren’t casting your magic and put the dango man’s life in danger. You just stared at the sky with an idiotic look on your face… Though you always look like that…”
“You can leave that last part out…”
“But you were staring at the sky,” Ferris insisted. “What were you looking at?”
Ryner held his head in his hand. “Something was bothering me…”
“What?”
“Lightning… augh, no, forget it. How’s the old man?”
“Mm. Unconscious, but otherwise fine.”
“Did you knock him out so he wouldn’t throw a fit?”
Ferris shook her head.
“Oh, so he fainted from fear.”
Ferris shook her head again. “He screamed about his debts, then suddenly fainted.”
“Wow,” Ryner said. His heart hurt just a little hearing that. Well, maybe more than a little.
But Ferris spoke as easily as ever. “We should hurry and go.”
“Uwaah, you’re strong. Your heart doesn’t hurt for him?”
“What are you talking about?” Ferris asked, confused.
“I guess it’s fine if you have no idea what I meant.”
“Then let’s go. This situation isn’t the best, so we ought to take it seriously.”
Oh, now she was agreeing with him? “I’ve been saying that since the beginning,” Ryner said.
“Did you? What a shame. Because I hardly care to listen to what you have to say!” Ferris said. suddenly loud and confident. Over-confident, even.
“…Just listen a little then,” Ryner said.
“I don’t want to.”
“Umm… okay. I guess I always knew that’s the kind of person you are,” Ryner said, tired. Ryner turned back. Their enemies weren’t coming after them yet, so they probably hadn’t noticed that they were there. But they’d find them soon if they just stood here. So he looked back to Ferris and spoke even though she never listened to him. “Mm. Okay, let’s plan while we run.”
“Mm.”
They began to run. First they ran past the commercial district, then turned through three alleys. Then they jumped up onto the roof of a shop, then jumped from shop to shop to get away. No human could catch them at the speed they were jumping through the city, but they didn’t slow or stop.
Ryner turned to Ferris as he ran. “So I really think it’s best if I get a good look at the situation in this country myself.”
Ferris shoved four pieces of honey red bean dango in her mouth. “Fhgoghfgh.”
“You’re eating it now!?”
She swallowed her mouthful of dango. “Of course. Eating it is my top priority!”
“Seriously?”
“Mm. That’s why I couldn’t cover you very well - I was too busy with the dango. You should fear for your life if you zone out when you’re supposed to be casting magic again.”
“That’s scary as hell!! And isn’t it your job to cover me either way!”
“You’re the one who was at fault. You were just zoning out.”
“I think it’s your fault for paying more attention to the dango,” Ryner said.
In the end, both of them were at fault.
“Well, anyway,” Ryner said. “I do think that we’re gonna have to leave the country. We’re being chased and there’s something weird about Roland right now. I think we’re gonna have to get a good look at things from the outside.”
“M-my throat’s parched… I need tea—”
“Huh? Oh, shut it. We don’t have any.”
“Ah, augh… and, and a field of flowers—”
“What!?”
“Oh, I’m cured.”
“Die!” Ryner said.
“Mm. I was on the verge of death,” Ferris said. “That was dangerous.”
“Can we get back to the point now.”
“Mm. I’m listening. We were talking about how indispensable dango and tea are, correct?”
“No, we weren’t!! I’m really not in the mood to try communicating with you!” Ryner yelled.
“Jokes aside, we’re leaving the country?” Ferris asked.
“Oh, so you were listening?”
“Heheh. I’m very serious, unlike you.”
“Hmm. That’s super amazing of you…”
Ferris nodded, satisfied. “That’s right. I’m amazing! So what will we do after leaving the country? How will we fix things?”
“……”
Ryner thought of the rainy night’s battlefield, where Sion asked him to die.
Sion transformed on that day. He said that he wanted to devour Ryner. Apparently if he ate the Solver of All Formulas, he’d be able to become truth.
But what did that mean?
Ryner had gathered that the Solver of All Formulas was something inside of his Alpha Stigma that separated it from other Alpha Stigmas.
Ryner closed his right eye, then touched it through his eyelid. Would Sion gain something from eating these eyes of his?
Would he gain ‘truth?’ Would he become a god?
Ryner couldn’t understand what the words he’d heard meant with the information he had now.
But after Sion transformed, he looked…
Ryner thought of how Sion had been. His skin had shone with gold. Below the surface of his skin, there had been something dark and ugly racing through him like liquid despair.
It was unnatural… and filled with intricate seals, curses, magic, light, darkness, everything that existed and didn’t exist in the world seemed to run through his veins.
It almost seemed to be a curse on the world itself.
Something disturbing was inside of Sion. And then there was the darkness. A black darker than darkness itself had buried the world and changed the scenery. Then there were the countless black swords…
“Ah…”
Right. Ryner had casted some magic when the black swords appeared. Sion raised his hand, the swords appeared, and they absorbed his spell. It was like the magic he’d fired had never existed… so what happened to it…?
“…Ow!”
Ryner pressed a hand to his head and groaned as another wave of pain rushed through him. But he smiled.
Right. That was right. It had been thunder magic…
“…Gagh.”
The pain was getting in the way, but he forced himself to keep thinking.
“…I used… thunder magic… on Sion…”
And then it disappeared. The magic disappeared as if it had never existed in the world in the first place. He had a feeling that that could happen to anything in the world. Everything in the world.
How far could that power go? Was it used to manipulate his memory? Was that all it was used for?
Ryner looked to Ferris. She was looking back, a surprisingly worried look on her face.
“Really, what’s wrong? You were staring at the sky again. Do you have a headache?”
Ryner smiled to show her that everything was okay. “Nah, everything’s fine. More importantly, there’s something I wanted to ask you.”
“What?”
“See, I…”
“Mm.”
“What kind of magic do I normally use, again?”
“…Magic?” Ferris repeated.
“Yeah. The magic I normally use. You know the one?”
Ferris crossed her arms and tilted her head as she continued to run. “Hm. I wonder. What was it…? Umm? I’m not well-versed in magic.”
“But you see me use it all the time, right?” Ryner asked.
“Mm.”
“I barely ever use the one I just used, you know, Abstract Phosphorescence? ‘Cause it’s too strong. It’s really easy to accidentally kill people with it.”
“True, you don’t use it much.”
“I don’t use Leveling Rain much either. ‘Cause it floods everything and it’s a pain.”
Ferris nodded.
“I don’t use Crimson or Blazing Sun either. ‘Cause burns suck.”
Ferris nodded again.
“So what is it then? What spell do I normally use?”
“…Uuh? Strange. I forgot. What was…?”
That was all he needed to know.
So it had been erased. Not just the single time he casted it then. The spell itself had been erased from his mind, from Ferris’, from everyone’s. From the whole world. It didn’t exist anymore.
But that was.
“That’s power on the level of a god…”
“God?” Ferris asked.
Ryner didn’t answer.
That was too strange of a power. Modern magic theory wouldn’t be able to explain it. It was too far above magic. Even the Heroic Relics that Ryner had been trying to collect paled in comparison to that power.
Take that power, then. That power far stronger than Heroic Relics.
Sion had said that he’d become Truth if he devoured Ryner. He’d become even stronger then, right?
Ryner smiled bitterly.
“……”
Sion sure had gotten himself into a mess. What a pain.
Heroic Relics were already so strong that the wielder hardly ever lost. But there was something even stronger than that, even more of a pain than that, even stranger than that.
And Sion thought that he was going to carry it all himself.
It wasn’t like Ryner didn’t have any clues to help solve this mystery. He had all sorts of keywords to go off of. He just didn’t have the mind to connect them until now. He didn’t really want to connect them all until now.
The Creator of All Formulas. The Solver of All Formulas.
Alpha and Omega.
The door. The key.
The red monster inside of his dream.
And Sion… no, the monster inside of Sion that even Ryner’s Alpha Stigma couldn’t understand said that he wanted to devour Ryner and become Truth or God or something.
He had all sorts of leads, and they were finally starting to lead him somewhere - out of the country. So he had to go. He had to look at Roland from the outside. From Imperial Nelpha, from the Runa Empire, from Cassla. Maybe if he tried one of the three great countries of the Central Continent he’d be able to see something new. Even Gastark would be able to show him Roland from a new angle.
The Gastark Empire was a country in the far north that fought dirty with Heroic Relics. They might know what was up with Sion best of all. He’d killed his allies so Ryner didn’t exactly have good memories associated with him, but that Lir guy who killed Lafra and Pueka most certainly knew something. After all, when he left, he’d said…
“Well, do your best to avoid being betrayed then, you crazy monster.”
Do your best to avoid being betrayed.
Had he predicted that this would happen? Had Lir known that Sion would betray Ryner?
“……”
Lir definitely knew something. Gastark definitely knew something.
It was impossible for Ryner, an Alpha Stigma bearer, to walk up and act all buddy-buddy with people who hunted Cursed Eyes, so getting their information would be tricky. But he’d definitely learn something if he left Roland, right?
There probably wasn’t anything left to investigate in Roland anyway. Ryner had researched his own Alpha Stigma inside this country for many years without finding much out at all. But the second he’d left the country, new info hit him like an avalanche. Wasn’t it possible that the key to solving Sion’s problems was outside the country, too?
He had to leave the country for Sion’s sake. He had to leave the country to learn about himself.
“Ferris.”
“Mm?”
“We really should leave the country.”
“You’ve already said that dozens of times,” she said. “Why? Are you going senile?”
Ryner smiled bitterly. “No, look, I just keep thinking of reasons why we have to go, so I keep saying it. That’s all.”
Ferris shot him a worried look.
“Really,” Ryner promised. “I’m not going crazy or anything.”
Ferris patted his head a few times. “Did someone mess with your head when I wasn’t looking?”
Yeah, kinda. But Ryner shook his head. “No, nothing like that.”
“Did someone hit your head too hard?”
“Wouldn’t it be your fault if that was the problem? Since you’re always hitting me with your sword and all?”
Ferris looked like she had an epiphany. “So that’s what did it!”
“Maybe.”
“That’s fine then.”
“No, it’s not!”
“It is,” Ferris insisted. “At least I know it was because someone hit you good.”
Ryner so wanted to say that it wasn’t good to be sent flying so hard that he spun midair before slamming into something, but he knew that’d lead into a pointless conversation, so he forced himself to swallow it and get back to the point. “Anyway. Let’s leave the country.”
Ferris nodded. “I don’t mind.”
“But I want to check things out here in Roland first… Like, I want to see how the war with Nelpha’s going… I need to get a good feel for what direction the country’s going.”
“Mm. How long do you think that’ll take?” Ferris asked.
“Hmm, like a day, maybe? We could capture a knight and have them tell us the situation, and we can ask as many townspeople as we want about it. That should be all it takes. Then I think the easiest way to see what Sion’s doing right now will be to head on over to Nelpha and check out the battlefield.”
Ferris stopped in place. “So you want to go to Nelpha?”
She looked north, to where Imperial Nelpha lie. Roland was the southernmost continent in all of Menoris, so north was the only direction that’d lead out.
Ryner stopped too and followed her gaze. “Well, Runa would probably be fine too, but… They’re still allied with Roland, so we could still be followed there. Nelpha’s the easier option.”
Although the concept of being allies with Roland now was pretty questionable, honestly, seeing as how Roland had just invaded their allies Nelpha without a second thought.
Ryner turned back. Nobody was following them now. He let his acceleration magic fade, and felt his muscles relax. They felt awfully tired after all the strain the magic had been putting on them. He yawned, then looked back to Ferris. “It’s about time we left the roofs for the streets, yeah?”
“Mm. There’s a good dango shop around here.”
“Dango again?” Ryner asked.
“I run on dango power alone.”
“…Well, if that’s what makes you happy. Let’s walk and talk.”
“Mm.”
They descended the roofs, then began to walk along the streets. “So,” Ryner said. “I think we better take Arua with when we leave the country.”
Arua was a boy with the Alpha Stigma who they’d rescued from abuse in Runa. They brought his childhood friend Kuku too, and the two kids were currently living in an annex on Ferris’ family’s property.
Ferris’ expression clouded over. “Would we really be able to cross the border with Arua and Kuku? We’re being chased, and they’ll only get stronger as time goes on. Will we really be able to make it out while protecting the children…?”
“Mmm, I think it’d be pretty hard too, but… but we’re the ones who brought them here, you know? I don’t think we should just abandon them here. And Sion’s a nice guy, so he might look after them even if it was a pain.”
But they didn’t know how far Sion was willing to go for this. Would he take them hostage? Even if he didn’t want to kill them, he might still jail them while Ryner and Ferris were away, right? That’d be bad. So they had to take them with. Even though it’d be hard to get them out safely.
“What should we do?” Ryner wondered.
Ferris looked at him, suddenly triumphant. Like she was going to start giggling. And then she did. “Heheh~!”
“I can tell that you thought of something just by looking at you, so you can leave the cheeky giggles out,” Ryner said.
“Hehehe~he!”
“Ugh, okay, fine, fine. Tell me what you’re thinking. Do you have a plan?” Ryner asked. But he kept his expectations low.
Ferris nodded. “What do you think of this?”
“Hm?”
“Mm. What if we have Iris take them out of the country?”
Iris was Ferris’ little sister. She was like ten, and just as much of a pain in the ass as Ferris herself was. Put them together and they both became doubly annoying. But Iris was strong. Not as strong as Ferris, since she was just a kid, but she was stronger than the average soldier.
“Arua has also matured since coming to Roland, since he wants to protect Kuku,” Ferris continued. “They should be able to leave the country easily if they work together. They’ll at least have it easier than we will, since we’ll have an army chasing us. Even if they were to get captured, the worst that’d happen would be that they’d be brought to Sion alive. It wouldn’t be too dangerous. What do you think?”
“Th, that’s… the first time you’ve seriously helped today,” Ryner said.
“Are you surprised?”
“Yeah. I am.”
“Then look more surprised.”
“Huh? You’re seriously gonna ask for it like that? You make it sound like something you can order off a menu.”
“When I say something sharp, I want to hear a, ‘whooaaaaa, holy shit Ferris, you’re a genius!’ from you as you roll around on the ground—”
“Why am I rolling!? Okay, I’m tired of making comebacks for that stuff, so can we get back to the point? I’m kind of tired of having these pointless conversations, since someone has had way too much fun with them since I got out of jail.”
Ferris tilted her head in confusion. “Someone? Who might that be?”
“Why don’t you try asking yourself that?” Ryner asked. “Try looking inside your chest for the answer.”
Ferris turned bright red. “Wh, what lecherous eyes you have. What are you wanting from my chest!?”
Ryner held a hand up to stop her since she’d fallen into her usual act already. “I’m serious about not going along with this. Forgive me, okay?”
Ferris’ expression abruptly returned to normal. “How boring!”
“Can you bear with the boredom at least until we make it out of the country? You can do whatever you want once we’re out.”
“Whatever I want?”
“You really just want to do whatever, huh?” Ryner asked.
“Mm. I haven’t really spoken to anyone the past two weeks… I was so bored,” Ferris said. “We have to hurry up and leave the country so that I can do whatever I want!”
Ryner smiled wryly at her pout. So that was it, huh? She must’ve been lonely. “So you haven’t seen Sion in two weeks either…?”
Ferris nodded. “I tried many times, but was always driven away. There were dozens of gross liquid monsters guarding the castle… I couldn’t even get close to him.”
Gross liquid monsters. They were like the monsters that Sion had used to attack Ryner on that rainy day, weren’t they? Monsters made from the use of crazy human experiments. They were powerful soldiers created on a mountain of hundreds… no, thousands of sacrifices. They were cruel experiments started in the old Roland. Sion had outlawed them when he became king because he couldn’t forgive the idea of them.
Yet Sion had continued them in secret. He continued them under the surface all while flaunting a kind smile. Ryner hadn’t known how much Sion had suffered below the surface of that smile. He had to have been suffering. Sion was someone who couldn’t accept people’s deaths easily. Ryner knew that best of all.
Sion suffered in a deep well of anguish and hopelessness. His expression on that rainy night appeared in Ryner’s mind. It was the expression of someone who tried to take care of everything himself, no matter how heavy the responsibility was. Right now, that very same Sion was protected by dozens of eerie soldiers inside of Roland Castle.
“……”
Ryner looked from Ferris to the castle that towered over the city. The scenery might not have changed, but the country had. It had already changed into something completely different. They were invading Imperial Nelpha even though they were supposed to be allies. According to Ferris, they were even killing soldiers who’d surrendered, women, and children.
It was just. It wasn’t something that Sion would do. But it was still the truth behind Roland. It was still the truth behind Sion. It was the truth of what Sion had gotten wrapped up in himself, without Ryner or Ferris noticing.
Sion said he’d kill Ryner. He continued human experimentation. He invaded another country. His body housed some unknown monster. Things were happening in this country that Ryner never would have imagined.
Ryner had to investigate what exactly was happening first…
“Ah.” Ryner turned to Ferris. “I just realized something bad.”
She met his eyes. “What?”
“We’re leaving the country, right?”
“Mm.”
“And we’ll have to pack and buy stuff for it, right?”
“Right.”
“But the inn I was staying at would have cleaned my room out when I suddenly left, right? And Sion was paying me, but he probably wasn’t paying the inn while I was gone, so all my stuff’s probably gone, right?”
Ferris looked at him like he was an idiot. “Even if it were still there, I’m sure that an ambush is, too. You’re wanted, remember?”
“Oh, right. So what should I do? I won’t have a change of clothes.”
“You’ll be fine there,” Ferris said without a care in the world. “You’re a pervert, after all. You’d be able to wander the world stark naked worry-free—”
“That’s too much. Also, I just realized something even worse. I left all my money in my room, so I don’t have anything to buy new clothes with.”
Ferris bopped her hand on her palm like she just realized something.
“Did you think of a way for me to fix this pinch?” Ryner asked.
Ferris looked at him meanly. “You’re poooorrr!!”
“…Thought it’d be something like that… Did you just want to try saying it?”
Ferris nodded heartily. “Yelling it felt great.”
“That’s good to hear,” Ryner said, then sighed. “So what should I do about money?”
“I won’t lend you any, you know,” Ferris said.
“Wait, you have some?”
“No.”
“Seriously? You did everything recently without having any money to your name?”
Ferris shook her head. “No. I thought I might need lots of money to find you, so I stuffed my wallet full.”
Ryner felt like he’d just gotten a glimpse of how hard she’d worked in the two weeks they’d been apart. It was enough to make him a bit uncomfortable, but he tried to shrug it off. “So where’s your wallet?”
“I don’t have it,” Ferris said.
“Did you leave it at home?”
Ferris shook her head. “No, I had it just a bit ago.”
“So what happened to it?”
“I left it somewhere.”
“Where?”
“In the dango shop owner’s pocket…”
Ryner thought of the old man, who’d been screaming about his debts. “Oh, well… I guess that’s for the best.”
Ferris nodded. “Mm. It’s probably enough for him to build a new dango shop or two.”
“What? Weren’t you carrying a little too much around then?” Ryner asked.
“Mm. It was everything I had.”
“Wow, you really had a lot… but I guess you’re a noble, so of course you would.”
Still, the fact that she’d gathered all his money just to search for him…
“……”
It didn’t make him feel good. He looked at her with a vague sort of smile.
She met his eyes, then spoke. “Well, the majority of it was loans in your name, so…”
“Why the hell did you take out money in my name!?” Ryner yelled.
Ferris was shocked to hear him complain. “Because it was money meant to look for you with?”
“Well, that’s true, but… I mean, in the first place—”
“I also had to give money in support of the Dango Association—”
“Whoa, whoa, wait! How’d you even justify that!? You went too far!”
“Then there’s also the three high-class meals I need daily. As you can see, my money goes to good use!”
“What part of that is gooooood!” Ryner yelled. “Why would you even do that!?”
“Why are you so upset about that?” Ferris asked. “I always borrow money in your name. It’s already far past what you could ever pay back. So we should just borrow whatever we need!”
“I really don’t think you should be saying that so confidently. How petty do you even have to be to make me go into debt for no reason?”
“Mm. Very petty!” Ferris said without hesitation. She looked like she was having a lot of fun being a brat about it.
“…Umm, well… okay,” Ryner said. “I guess… I guess it might be okay?”
“It’s fine,” Ferris said confidently and nodded.
“Okay… I guess it’s fine,” Ryner said. He really didn’t think it was a good idea, but at the same time, he was getting to the ‘well, whatever’ stage of their argument. Even if one or two or three or four or one hundred or one thousand debt collectors chased him, they’d still be easier to deal with than Roland’s army.
Besides, he had logistics to consider… so he got back to thinking.
They needed to prepare to leave the country, and to prepare, they needed money for supplies.
“Hey, Ferris.”
“Mm?”
“Earlier you said that you gave all your money to the old man, right?”
“I did say that.”
“Did you really give him everything?” Ryner asked.
“Everything.”
“You don’t have any money at home?”
Ferris thought for a moment. “I wouldn’t say that… but.”
Ryner nodded. “You think there’s an ambush waiting for you there?”
“Mm. I’d expect there to be one.”
“Yeah, that’s true… So we’re gonna be forced out without any cash, huh? I never would’ve thought that I’d be left penniless in Roland under Sion’s rule in my wildest dreams.” Ryner crossed his arms, troubled. “What should we do? I’m gonna need a change of clothes, right? I can’t just wear these when we leave. They’ve got Roland’s coat-of-arms on them.”
He glanced at Ferris’ armor. It had Roland’s coat-of-arms on the chestpiece. She was in the same boat. Ferris followed his gaze. “Mm. You’re right. It could get us in trouble…”
“…Yeah, Roland doesn’t have the best image abroad right now.”
“So we need new clothes and armor,” Ferris said.
“Yeah.”
“Which means that we need money.”
“Mm. Money. What should we do?” Ryner asked.
Ferris abruptly stopped in her tracks.
Ryner turned back to look at her. “What’s up?”
She didn’t answer. Instead she looked around until her eyes settled on an unopened shop. “How about that?”
“Huh? What about it?” Ryner asked, then followed her gaze to a clothing store. It was a pretty big one, with both men’s and women’s clothes.
It clicked. Ferris was suggesting that they rob the store.
They could break down the dore, steal some clothes, and even steal some money.
It was one of the worst things people could do.
Ryner could say that to Ferris and tell her that it was bad, but instead…
“Ahh, we used to do that all the time abroad,” Ryner said.
Ferris nodded. “Mm. We robbed banks, nobles’ manors… Robbers steal from the poor, but those of us who steal from the rich are chivalrous thieves!”
“Wow, this is seriously nostalgic,” Ryner said. “We sure stole a lot, huh? And remember when we robbed those for-profit churches in Runa?”
“We really did them in.”
They recalled fond memories of thievery for a moment.
“We’ll be real fugitive criminals if we rob this store, huh?” Ryner asked.
“Mm. But we’re going to be treated like criminals whether we do it or not.”
“Debt collectors are gonna be after me too…”
“Mm. And the consequences from your long nights of attacking women.”
“That part never happened,” Ryner said. “Well, whatever. So are we gonna rob this place?”
Ferris shook her head. “That’d make us everyday robbers. Chivalrous thieves such as ourselves ought to be robbing nobles!”
“Huh? Really? Then why’re you getting such a good look at that store?”
Ferris pointed her finger at something on the other side of the store’s glass display case. It was a matching top and bottom set with a slight midriff. It looked really easy to move in, was vibrantly colored, and was both cool and cute. It was a nice outfit all around. A slip of paper said that the store also sold matching boots and a belt.
“You want it?” Ryner asked.
Ferris nodded.
“So you want to steal money from some nobles and then come back and buy it?”
Another nod.
“Think you can travel in that?” Ryner asked. Ferris was pretty tall, so the bottoms might end up a little short on her.
“It won’t be a problem,” Ferris said.
“It won’t bother you?”
“Mm. I would still want it even if it were difficult to move in. Because I like the dango pattern on the waist.”
“Huh? It’s dango patterned?” Ryner asked. He took a look at the waist section of the clothes. It looked like it was supposed to be a group of three polka-dots rather than dango. “So that’s why you want it?”
“Obviously.”
“It really wasn’t obvious,” Ryner said. “That’s not the logic people normally use.”
“Mm? Is it bad, then?”
“Uh, umm, well, I think these clothes are pretty cute, so I guess I wouldn’t call it a bad thing.”
“Then I’ll wear it and become one with the Dango God in both mind and body!”
“Good for you~”
“Mm!”
Ferris nodded in satisfaction. Ryner smiled, then pointed to some clothes further back. “I want those, then.”
He was pointing at an outfit that was probably by the same designer as what Ferris wanted. It was just as well-designed and easy to move in, and had the same dango-like mark on it, though it was less apparent than on Ferris’. It was probably the designer’s logo.
“Ohh, so the day that you’ve become a dango believer has finally come!”
“Then you go and get some cash from the nobility and buy us some clothes from this designer,” Ryner said.
“Mm. We’re splitting up, then?”
“Yeah. I’ll gather information on the state of this country so we can decide on if we head for Nelpha or Runa,” Ryner said. “I’ll take care of that side of planning, so can you get us what we need for travel and tell Iris what to do?”
Ferris nodded. “When should we meet back up?”
Ryner thought for a moment. It wouldn’t take too long for him to gather the information he needed, and they could gather more info as they headed out of the country. Plus the soldiers following them would only get stronger from here on out. They couldn’t loaf around in Roland.
“In a day, like we decided before. We don’t have the time to smell the roses,” Ryner said. “Let’s meet up again at eight in the morning tomorrow.”
“Got it. I’ll see you at the usual—”
“Whoa, no,” Ryner said, flustered. “I have no idea what you mean when you say ‘the usual place.’ Do you have any idea how much of a pain it was to find you this morning?”
“Hm. Then where do you want to meet?”
Ryner thought for a moment. “Asolude Dango and Tea?”
“Ooh, Asolude! I’m addicted to their green tea dango. Not bad, Ryner!”
“Thanks,” Ryner said. But he hadn’t chosen them for their tea dango. The store was right next to the northern road out of Reylude, so it’d be a convenient place to leave from.
The north road split into two - northwest led to Imperial Nelpha, and northeast led to the Runa Empire. Both led out of Roland. Despite the northwest side leading into Nelpha, it was a thin road with lots of turns, so he doubted that the Roland army would use it for their invasion.
Tomorrow morning, they’d meet at Asolude Dango and Tea.
Tomorrow afternoon, they’d be in another country.
“……”
It was for Sion’s sake. It was for this mad country’s sake.
He’d go to all this effort for them.
“Alright, Ferris,” Ryner said with his usual listless tone. “Let’s do this.”
“Mm.”
“…We’ll save him. We’ll save that idiot Sion together.”
Ferris looked a little surprised for a moment. But then a faint smile appeared on her face. “Mm!”
---
Idola
Date: 2020-12-24 01:54 am (UTC)