From Now On (1)
*
“Hey, Raniel.”
“Yeah?”
“What do you think qualifies someone to be called a hero?”
“Where’s this random question coming from?”
“I just suddenly thought of it.”
Kyle said while fiddling with the hilt of the Holy Sword.
“In fairy tales, the term ‘hero’ is used often. Hero. Those who are praised by the world. Ultimately, the destination that the protagonists of fairy tales reach or have already reached.”
“It does come up quite a lot.”
Click,
Kyle pushed the hilt of the sword with his thumb. The blade revealed outside the sheath was platinum-colored. A color symbolizing starlight and heroes—platinum.
“That hero, you know.”
Kyle said while looking at the platinum blade.
The young man who dreamed of being a hero posed a question.
“I wondered, how can one become that?”
“Out of the blue?”
“Yep, just popped into my head.”
“That’s pretty random.”
“So?”
“What about it?”
“What do you think, Raniel?”
“Well…”
Raniel stroked her chin.
“It seems like you and I are already being called heroes of the battlefield… but the hero you’re talking about would be the one depicted in fairy tales, right?”
Kyle nodded.
Raniel continued stroking her chin.
“Then, isn’t it all just that?”
Raniel chuckled.
“Those guys living in an ideal world.”
Talking about ideals is easy.
Putting ideals into words is easy.
Because it’s easy, it can easily become trivial. There are those who carry the weight of that ideal as a serious matter.
“Those who push forward no matter how messed up the situation is. Those who set ridiculous goals and take on challenges.”
Raniel stretched her arm.
She pointed at the horizon with her outstretched fingers.
“When everyone mocks that it’s impossible.”
The far-off end of the horizon, wherever it may be.
Pointing at that end, Raniel said.
“Those who manage to achieve it against all odds. Wouldn’t you call those people heroes?”
“Is that so?”
“That’s how it is.”
Kyle let out a small laugh.
“That sounds like a hell of a challenge then.”
“Exactly, that’s what makes them heroes, you fool.”
Becoming a hero is no easy task!
Muttering this, Raniel sipped her coffee. Kyle looked at the horizon that Raniel had just pointed to. The sun was setting beyond the horizon.
A sunset horizon.
Is there an end to that horizon?
If there is, can he reach it?
Thinking these thoughts, Kyle exhaled softly. Then he slowly stood up from his seat. Raniel brushed off her robe and stood as well.
Night had come.
It was time to face the forces of evil approaching from beyond the endless horizon. Kyle drew the Holy Sword. Raniel pulled her gloves on snugly.
“Well then…”
Raniel lightly patted Kyle’s shoulder and started walking ahead. As always, she positioned herself a step ahead of him.
“Let’s try to hold out well today.”
Kyle watched her figure from behind.
Heading toward the horizon, which has no discernible end. In that figure, Kyle saw the heroes he had seen in old fairy tales.
…Though he didn’t know where the end of the horizon was.
He felt he could follow that back figure.
Thinking this, Kyle smiled.
“Alright.”
The Holy Sword gleamed with a platinum light.
2.
Two days had passed since the guest from the future had visited.
Raniel van Trias looked in the mirror and tidied her hair. Between her flowing ash-colored locks, her blue eyes reflected in the mirror. The blue eyes reflected in the mirror were no longer merely blue.
Within the blue, platinum starlight shimmered.
Raniel closed her eyes and opened them again.
She exhaled briefly and draped her robe over her shoulders. After shaking off the creases from her robe, she stepped back from the mirror.
“…”
Turning her head sideways revealed a necklace on the table. Found in her hometown turned to ashes.
“I will capture the Demon Lord.”
“That’s my vow. I will never forget the vow I made in front of my ashes-turned hometown.”
That promise.
She thought he had forgotten it, but remembering that he had indeed kept the promise, Raniel grasped the necklace tightly. She shoved the necklace deep into the inside pocket of her robe.
Then she stepped outside.
When she opened the door and went out, there was Rosel. Rosel stood up and adjusted the hem of the clothes Raniel hadn’t finished fixing, then pulled out something from his own possession.
It was a badge.
The badge symbolizing the Ashen Tower, and one that Rosel had previously given to Raniel. The badge, taken by the Succubus Queen and returned to its rightful owner, was now pinned onto her robe by Rosel.
“Raniel.”
Then, he spoke the same words as before.
“Stand tall, and lift your head.”
Rosel smiled.
“You’re my proud disciple.”
With that, Raniel couldn’t help but smile. As she exhaled long, she bowed her head deeply in front of Rosel. Her ash-colored hair fell forward.
“Master.”
“Yeah.”
“I’ll be back.”
Rosel lightly tapped the top of Raniel’s head.
“Okay. Come back safe.”
Raniel walked forward.
She reached for the shoe rack. What she picked up wasn’t a well-polished dress shoe. Instead, it was a military boot full of stubborn stains that wouldn’t come off no matter how much it was cleaned.
Clang,
The iron-bottomed military boot made a loud sound as it hit the floor. As she shoved her shrunken foot into the boot, Raniel turned to look back.
“Raniel.”
Because Rosel was calling her.
Rosel’s expression, of course, was not the usual one. How could a parent sending off their child to battle have the same expression as usual?
Nevertheless, he tried to maintain a semblance of normality.
Rosel stood with his hands clasped behind his back and smiled at Raniel.
“I’ll be here. Anytime.”
So,
“Come back. For sure.”
“…Yes, Master.”
Raniel nodded.
Wearing the military boots, she opened the mansion door and stepped outside. The warm spring sunshine had passed. The scorching summer heat had dispersed. The autumn leaves had crumbled away.
Winter had come.
With the chilly wind, snow was falling.
Stepping forward while crushing the freshly fallen snow, Raniel stepped forward once more. Then she went squeak, and closed the mansion door. No longer could she see her master’s figure.
Footprints were left on the white snow.
Towards a place she had never stepped before, Raniel moved forward. As she walked, she thought it had been a long rest. A time so long that she could look back at her life many times over.
A life that had felt like hell.
A life that she had expected would end as hell.
Yet she had been given a second chance. The approach of death had receded. Her broken body was perfectly healed. More distanced from death than ever before, Raniel moved forward.
“I have debts to repay.”
Once, Kyle had said that.
That she owed him a debt, and that she had to repay it. Raniel remembered those words.
“Crazy guy.”
Muttering that, she couldn’t help but laugh.
That guy had truly repaid her debt. Ah, he had gifted her a second life so perfectly that there was nothing more to ask for.
“Quitting, huh? It seems he just turned me into a hero. Is he a real lunatic?”
Quitting the hero party.
She had said those words and left, but he had made her a hero without giving her a chance to quit. Laughing at this absurd situation, Raniel swept her hair up.
“Seriously…”
This, and that, doing as he pleased.
In a place untouched by anyone’s gaze.
There, Kyle Toven achieved great feats. He became the hero he had always wished to be. The world did not yet know of the great feats he had accomplished. Likewise, they were unaware that Kyle had become a calamity.
So now was the time.
Now was the opportunity.
While Kyle had not yet committed sins, before he was ever known as a calamity, she had to make her move.
Steps.
Looking at the footprints left in the snow, she moved forward.
Stepping forward again, Raniel lifted her head. The horizon was not visible. She moved forward, despite not being able to see the unseen.
Behind the scenes, Kyle was achieving his great feats.
Then, she too had to do likewise.
From a place where no one could see, she would accomplish the feat of turning a calamity back into a human. This time, she would grab him by the collar and slam him to the ground.
Steps,
It was the moment Raniel stood before the carriage she had prepared.
A light footstep was heard from the side. The soft sound of footsteps made Raniel turn her head.
“Come with me.”
Remia the Archery Master.
“Raniel van Trias.”
Slowly, for the first time, she called Raniel’s name as she bowed her head slowly.
“I don’t mind being used like a slave. Feel free to discard me. But take me with you.”
She said.
“I want to do something too.”
“You might die, you know?”
“Even so, I don’t care.”
Remia lifted her head.
Looking into Remia’s eyes, Raniel sighed and gestured towards the carriage. Thus, the carriage carrying them both began to move.
Towards the battlefield.
To the Phantom Territory located beyond the battlefield.
3.
Cardi van Armiel was looking at an old photograph.
He gazed at a photo of his former comrades, all of whom had changed, and Cardi smiled bitterly. Yet that smile was no longer like the old days. It did not carry the mocking tone related to his current situation.
He had seen possibilities.
He realized that the time he spent was not meaningless.
Cardi could now look at the photo with a heart that felt a little lighter. After staring at the photograph for a while, Cardi exhaled softly.
“Phew…”
Everything began to change.
Stagnant time flowed.
Cardi recalled the young elf who had visited him last night. Remia the Archery Master. Her first impression was indeed the worst. However, the Remia he saw last night was slightly different from what he remembered.
…Some change due to loss exists.
Even if she cannot be forgiven for the sins she committed, there is no need to prevent her from changing. She had struggled and, after much thought, chose to move forward instead of returning to the World Tree and forgetting everything.
She had changed.
Not only she.
The broken Raniel had risen again.
Now she moved forward once more, no longer standing still. At the end of a long rest, Raniel became a sage once again.
Raniel van Trias.
Hoping that the future of the child who resembled herself and was her junior would be filled with happiness, Cardi made a silent wish. Cardi, who originally did not wish for such things from the stars. Cardi, who denied the existence of a god who would answer the winds. Cardi, who called herself a mage because she did not pray.
Yet Cardi wished.
And there it was.
【···. ······.】
Flash.
Cardi opened his eyes suddenly, which he had kept closed.
He stood up, opened the shop’s door, and stepped outside. Snow was drifting in the narrow alley.
Falling snowflakes.
Cardi reached out, grabbing at the air.
When he opened his hand, there was something unmelted amid the melting droplets of snow.
Ash powder.
Seeing the ash powder, Cardi couldn’t help but smile. Looking up at the sky, there was a strange energy mixed with the wind. Feeling that energy, Cardi murmured.
“…It seems they’ve gone, after all.”
Blowing the ash powder into the wind, Cardi leaned against the wall. The ash rising into the sky on the wind. The goddess of ashes, who had once answered him. To the goddess who responded to his long-standing wishes, Cardi prayed.
Whether it would reach or not, he couldn’t be sure.
“Thank you.”
So,
“Leave the next part to me.”
From the future 13 years ahead to the past 13 years ago.
The intentions were conveyed through time.
Now it was time to move forward.
Next, and again next.
*
