Chapter One Hundred and Eighty-Nine: Opening of Political Strife
“The pegasus—!”
Waltride screamed.
The falling pegasus dispersed from her wing tips, becoming like particles of light.
A compulsive force worked to make all who witnessed it “understand” that she was paying the price for using tremendous power in a place she shouldn’t have been.
“Ukyu! Kyukyu! Kyuu!”
The pegasus child flailed about, wanting to go toward its mother, who was disappearing as particles of light. But its wings for flying through the sky were small like decorations, and its hooves were round without a fragment of sharpness. It couldn’t even escape from Waltride’s arms, which weren’t holding it with much force. This pegasus child had no power whatsoever to rush to its mother’s side.
“Kyuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu!”
“I’m sorry. But I cannot let you go too…!”
Before she could fall into the raging flames, the pegasus turned into particles of light and vanished into the dungeon.
Hugging the pegasus child that shed tears profusely, Waltride cried along with it.
Karen suddenly looked up at the sky.
“The purification seems to have succeeded.”
Particles of light were rising toward the sky.
They seemed to belong to the pegasus and also to other separate beings. Karen was almost certain of it.
Despite still being within the blank zone, though distant from the settlement, Karen’s magical power began to recover naturally.
The black powder scattered around the settlement—powder from the black eggs—that burned fiercely like ignited oil, was losing its power to steal magical power.
Once this land was no longer a blank zone, it wouldn’t take long for the people outside to reach this place.
Karen gently stroked the pegasus child that was crying kyuu, kyuu.
“Lady Waltride, what should we do with this child?”
“We’ll take it with us. We cannot leave it behind.”
“Then there’s no choice but to make it a familiar.”
Monsters don’t cross boundaries, but if made into a familiar, they could be taken along. Through a contract, a magical circuit was formed between monster and human, freeing the monster from the dungeon’s shackles.
“Karen, please form a familiar contract with the pegasus child.”
“That’s too much for me.”
“Indeed, your magical power is for making potions. You may not have any to spare to give this child…”
Karen hadn’t meant it in that sense, but Waltride looked down at the pegasus child with an understanding expression.
“If we could take it with us, I would present it to Father, but to take it into human territory, a contract is required. Perhaps Brother Boromias should—”
“UKYUU!”
The pegasus child clung to Waltride’s chest and shook its head.
“Wh-what’s wrong?”
“Ukyu! Ukyukyu! Kyuu!”
Shaking its head over and over, the pegasus child clung to Waltride. It clearly understood all their words and was protesting against them. Waltride must have understood too, as she looked at Karen with a confused expression.
“This child… wants to form a contract with me?”
“It seems so, Lady Waltride.”
Waltride hesitantly met the gaze of the pegasus child in her arms.
“But is it fine with me? I’m a weak human who doesn’t have the power to fight. No, I have power—but my heart is weak, and I cannot handle that power. And I have no intention of changing such a self.”
“Ukyukyu!”
“I have a fine older brother, and younger brothers and sisters too. I have Father and Mother. There are also fine adventurers and alchemists in this world. You would surely regret choosing me instead of them—”
“Kyuu!”
The pegasus child hugged Waltride tightly.
Perhaps it had successfully imprinted since Waltride was there when it hatched, or perhaps this clever monster child had heard Waltride’s voice even before hatching and come to like Waltride, who encouraged it while giving it magical power. Waltride’s eyes moistened, and she nodded.
“Then your name is Weiss. If you like this name, please respond, Weiss.”
“Kyuu!”
The human called the name, the monster answered, and magical power flowed both ways, linking them through a magical circuit.
After a brief instant in which the air grew taut with a sharp ping, Waltride let out a long breath.
“The familiar contract is complete.”
“I’m Lady Waltride’s friend too, so nice to meet you from now on, Weiss.”
“Kyuuu!”
Once the blank zone without magical power disappeared, the existence of the settlement burning fiercely and belching black smoke was instantly exposed to broad daylight, and people came rushing in.
Karen’s group was soon found, and Weiss’s existence was also discovered.
“—What is the meaning of this, Waltride?”
Boromias’ eyes, looking down at Waltride holding Weiss, weren’t the eyes of someone looking at a sister who had safely returned from a predicament. They were the eyes looking at a political enemy. The younger sister, who should have been insignificant, had returned holding a pegasus child, one of the symbols of the Earthfill Kingdom, so his eyes would naturally be like that.
Karen realized this, but Waltride wore a bewildered expression.
“Um, what do you mean by ‘meaning’?”
“What is that?”
At the narrowed question from her older brother Boromias, Waltride seemed to understand and beamed.
“It’s a pegasus child that became my familiar. Like me, it was kidnapped by villains and held captive in that settlement.”
“—A familiar.”
Boromias stared at the pegasus in Waltride’s arms with devouring eyes.
Even Waltride, who abnormally feared monsters, had longed for pegasi. Boromias, who led the knights as a knight like their royal ancestor Sibylla, would naturally have a strong longing to make a pegasus his familiar. The emotion in his eyes looked strong enough to be called thirst.
Surely, over the pegasus and the throne, Waltride would be drawn into political strife. For Waltride, who wished to meet her father the king’s expectations and be acknowledged, this would be a dramatic leap forward.
Understanding this, Karen had declined the contract with the pegasus child. But Waltride herself seemed completely absent-minded and didn’t appear to understand the situation she was in.
Afterward, when Karen returned the sword she had borrowed, Boromias still seemed absentminded, but as she began reporting what had happened, his expression gradually grew grim.
From Karen and Waltride’s report, Boromias and his companions seemed almost certain that this was a sign of an impending dungeon collapse.
But that might not be the case—just as she tried to say so, Karen realized she could not speak. The goddess’s restriction was in place, and she couldn’t explain.
Karen was unable to tell Boromias’ group—who worried that the dungeon was nearing collapse because of the elder treant and pegasus crossing their boundaries—that the pegasus herself had stated the dungeon was not collapsing. Related to that, Karen was also completely unable to share the hypothesis that perhaps it was the elder treant and the pegasus that were broken, not the dungeon.
Therefore, Karen couldn’t stop the prince from rushing about trying to prevent a dungeon collapse that hadn’t actually occurred.
Unlike when the goddess’s restriction had been placed before, this time she wasn’t granted an increase in tier. Perhaps there had been too many hints from the pegasus, so she wasn’t considered to have understood something on her own, or perhaps there was something else she hadn’t understood yet.
No comments:
Post a Comment