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〈 Chapter 354: Now Moving Forward (2) 〉

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The carriage rumbled along.

Inside the rattling carriage, Raniel simply gazed out the window, not even sparing a glance or a simple question towards Remia. The interior of the carriage was as quiet as a mouse, with not a word exchanged between them.

Rumble, the sound of the carriage swaying came sporadically.

Raniel had only spoken once when Remia had requested to accompany her. She might die, but after that one line, Raniel had remained silent.

…Of course.

Raniel van Trias found Remia’s presence uncomfortable. She felt no sympathy for Remia, who was grieving the loss of Kyle, and had no interest in the changes within her that only began after that loss.

Perhaps she was intentionally trying to avoid showing any interest.

For now, she was too busy with her own matters.

Raniel had countless thoughts swirling in her mind—how to deal with Kyle, who had transformed into a calamity; how strong he had become; and what she could do with her current body. With so much to consider, she had no room for other thoughts.

Rumble.

Even as the carriage shook, Raniel did not budge. She was simply staring out the window at some distant place.

“······.”

Remia glanced at the silent Raniel out of the corner of her eye. She looked very different from what she used to remember. Even back when she was a man, Raniel had been striking, but now she was in a league of her own.

‘…I didn’t get a proper look at you in the North.’

Seeing her up close, it was undeniable…

Humans often say that a beautiful woman “looks like an elf.” For Remia, an elf, it was a ridiculous expression, but as for the girl in front of her, she felt mere words couldn’t convey it.

Her bluish-green eyes reflected in the window.

Her glossy, ashen hair.

Remia, staring at her as if entranced, suddenly noticed the platinum particles flickering in Raniel’s eyes. She recognized that light.

The platinum starlight.

That was the starlight Kyle possessed.

The starlight Kyle once held. Now it belonged to Raniel. The altered Kyle. The revelations from her great ancestors. Piecing it all together, Remia exhaled a sigh and muttered.

“…So, Kyle was trying to save you, huh?”

At that moment, Raniel’s shoulders jerked slightly. She slowly turned her head from the window.

“What did you say?”

“Kyle wouldn’t have turned into that if he wasn’t trying to save you, right? That seems to be the case from what I see.”

Remia sighed again.

“Thinking back, it was odd. You should’ve been in a situation where dying wasn’t strange at all that day… yet after Kyle left the barracks, you regained your health almost immediately.”

“…What?”

Raniel narrowed her eyes.

What on earth was that supposed to mean?

This was information she was unaware of.

“What do you mean by that?”

“That day when you first faced the Demon Lord. When you returned to the barracks, you were in such a state that you couldn’t last through the night. Don’t you know better than anyone else?”

Remia stated calmly.

Raniel furrowed her brow. It was true that she had been bedridden for a while due to the side effects of having traded half of her lifespan in one go.

…But to think it was a life-threatening situation?

“That’s…”

Raniel hesitated.

Reflecting on it now, indeed, something seemed off. Sorcerers who traded their lifespans for stars often ended up with flaws. They couldn’t endure the massive power, which harmed their souls.

Kelharlem had become a Braver.

Many sorcerers ended up worse than Kelharlem.

But what about herself, who had sacrificed about half her lifespan in one go during the fight with the Demon Lord? Her soul was indeed worn, but… that was all. Now, she had perfectly recovered from that.

Stars, starlight, trade.

And Kyle’s contract.

Raniel’s eyes narrowed. As if realizing something, her gaze trembled significantly.

“That night.”

Even amidst all this, Remia continued, “That night, Kyle went out of the barracks alone. He looked up at the sky and murmured something.”

Remia tapped her ears lightly.

“I have good hearing.”

“…What did he say?”

“I don’t remember exactly. Just something about making a contract, I think. And then you started to noticeably get better right after that.”

Raniel grimaced.

Ah, the momentary gasp of realization.

What came to mind was the conversation they had had recently in the North. When Raniel urged Kyle to cancel the contract immediately, he had said, “I took something first.”

He had already taken something.

So, he couldn’t break the contract.

The contract Kyle made had evidently been one to save her from the beginning. Considering what he must have taken as a prepayment now wasn’t particularly difficult. With a firm bite of her lip, Raniel thought.

‘…Was it from that moment onward?’

Was that when it all began?

Raniel’s expression twisted. With trembling hands, she brushed her face.

“Phew…”

For now, for now, she needed to set aside all those emotions. She felt that the things she needed to say to that guy had grown heavier and more numerous, and Raniel slowly steadied her breath.

“…I wasn’t really trying to blame you.”

As she composed herself, Remia muttered in an unusually weak voice.

“Kyle and Sara risked their lives to achieve something, and ultimately, that saved you. I have no intention of blaming you for this fact. After all…”

Remia scoffed.

It wasn’t a scoff directed at Raniel. It was a self-directed scoff. Remia said in a self-deprecating manner, “What right do I have to blame anyone?”

“……..”

“You were dying, and while Kyle and Sara put their lives on the line, do you know what I was doing?”

Remia clutched her ears tightly.

“I was just fooling around in the North. Naturally, I thought Kyle would return soon, and I was thinking about what to do when he did.”

“…You.”

“I assumed tomorrow would come as expected. I thought life would return to normal. Just like always. I thought it was so natural, but…”

The expected future did not come.

“And this is the result.”

Everything suddenly came to an end.

In the wake of that conclusion, Remia could no longer turn away. The instant she faced those things she had been avoiding, what she felt was an overwhelming sense of shame.

“…How embarrassing.”

Remia murmured.

“How frustrating. How humiliating. I really hate the fact that even in this moment, I want to run away.”

Remia, who was normally so self-confident, grasped her long elven ears tightly as if she wanted to rip them off.

“You should fix what you’ve realized was wrong.”

Her thoughts turned to what the Great Ancestor had told her last night.

“Do something. Move with purpose. You might think it’s all too late now, but still, take action. An elf’s life is excessively long.”

An elf’s life is long.

Though long, the fleeting moments engraved by humans would torment her forever. So, if she was to finish it, she should do it right.

“Do your best now.”

“Do what you can.”

Cardi said.

The ancient Grand Magus stated.

“If you’ve come to realize your shame, take action.”

So spoke to her distant descendants.

Pondering those words, Remia raised her head. She turned to look at Raniel.

“And that’s why I followed you.”

The wisest human she knew.

The one who shone brighter than anyone else.

Believing that she could “use” this person, Remia continued speaking.

“If I follow you, I might be able to do something. You’re smarter than me. You have a good head on your shoulders and know how to do more than I do, right?”

Remia was voicing something she had never done in her life.

An arrogant elf, who never acknowledged others, lowered herself as she bent her head in front of Raniel.

“You might think I’m useless, but please, let me do something. It might be too late, but… let me do something.”

“Sorry, but…”

Raniel cut off Remia’s words.

As if uninterested, she propped her chin up with her hand and lifted her arm. Then she pointed her finger at Remia. More precisely, at the quiver that Remia was holding.

“Useless? Nah, that quiver alone is already useful enough. Just shoot your arrows and you’ll be more than enough.”

Raniel pointed at the moonlight arrows.

She let out a dry laugh.

“You wouldn’t be alive right now if you were useless. Do you think I’m just tolerating all your nonsense?”

“…Because of the moonlight arrows?”

“You catch on quick.”

Remia let out a hollow laugh.

It sounded just like she had been consoled.

“Don’t you hate me?”

“Yeah, I fucking hate you. Ear-rat.”

Raniel chuckled.

“Did you know I hated you?”

“I was terrible to you, after all. Typically, that would make you dislike me, too.”

“Wow, did you actually know this? If you were thinking of apologizing, drop it. I won’t accept it anyway.”

“Then why…”

“Despite hating you, I still acknowledge your abilities.”

So that’s why she had tolerated that nonsense.

She could trust her abilities alone.

Finding herself saying such things was annoying, and Raniel roughly swept her hair back. It was an old habit that had lingered since before her transformation.

So many things had changed, yet that habit remained the same, making Remia chuckle in disbelief. As her laughter subsided, Remia asked,

“…So, what do you plan to use me for?”

Regarding her purpose.

To that question, Raniel answered briefly.

“To carve a path.”

“Carve a path?”

“I intended to tell you when we arrived… but it seems we’re already here.”

With a glance out the window, Raniel flicked her fingers.

The control circuit of the carriage (???) appeared before Raniel’s hand. She grabbed it tightly, and the carriage made a screech and abruptly stopped.

Rumble, thud!

The carriage shook violently and halted with a puff of smoke. Ignoring Remia’s astonishment, Raniel kicked the carriage door open with her foot.

Thud.

Stepping out of the carriage first, Raniel gestured with her fingers.

“What are you doing? Get out.”

“…Aren’t we riding in the carriage?”

“To where? By carriage?”

Raniel scoffed as she pointed outside.

With a hesitant expression, Remia stepped out of the carriage and gasped the moment she saw the view. Her eyes widened in disbelief as she murmured.

“We didn’t have this last time…?”

In just a few days, the scenery had transformed.

It definitely looked different from the terrain she’d passed through just a few days prior. The severely distorted landscape. And the stench of beasts wafting from deep within the warped forest.

“…There are beasts here?”

“Of course, we can’t travel by carriage now, can we?”

“This place originally didn’t have beasts, right? There weren’t any near where the Demon Lord appeared.”

“Originally, yes.”

Raniel shrugged her shoulders casually.

“You seem in a hurry as well. I’ll explain on the way, so just come out. We need to walk.”

“…How far?”

“To the Eastern Zero Front.”

Though Remia had wandered the battlefield for a long time, she had never heard of this front. The Zero Front? They typically wouldn’t number them like that.

Where on earth was that?

Before she could ask, Raniel was already moving ahead. Remia readied her bowstring and followed her steps, walking towards the bizarre scenery of the distorted forest and changed landscape.

2.

The Goddess of Ashes from thirteen years in the future.

Raniel recalled her words.

“Kyle, who has become a calamity, will be surrounded by beasts. Until Kyle is completed, the beasts will try to protect him. Really, an extraordinary number will gather.”

The Master of the Demon Lord—the vessel for the Demon Lord—had been chosen in Kyle. The shadow was transforming Kyle into a puppet that obeyed his will… but it was said there would be some time before that happened.

And, the beasts were the ones buying that time.

She had told her that an immense number of beasts would block the path leading to Kyle. As if, just like that, trying to protect their master.

“Of course, I don’t know the details either.”

“At that time, I wasn’t in a situation to grasp such things, so I only understood later.”

“And after it’s completed?”

“Even after it’s completed, he still brings the beasts along, but at that point, it was at a time where the number of beasts wasn’t much of a hindrance… Huh? Why are you looking at me like that? Are you bragging? No, it really was like that…”

…There might have been some unnecessary information, but—

Anyway, countless beasts would gather around Kyle. The Goddess of Ashes had spoken those words, and after gathering information in the last two days, Raniel confirmed that her prophecy was indeed true.

“Yes, it is indeed the case, senior.”

“The reports of abnormal movements of the beasts have been coming up quite a bit. And, a special front has also formed.”

The information passed via Cardi about the front was indeed as she had said.

The beasts were gathering at the Eastern Front.

They completely blocked the path leading to the ruins of the Kingdom of Selef, and as the beasts gathered, the corruption of the land progressed rapidly. The woods twisted, and the ground cracked and heaved uncontrollably.

It was as if no one was permitted to approach.

“This is what you’re looking at.”

As they crossed through the distorted forest, Raniel lightly dusted off her hands. With a splash, the beast’s murky blood sprayed onto the rotten ground.

“What lies beyond this forest is the front formed to detect the strange movements of the beasts.”

The Eastern Zero Front.

A special front established to identify the monstrous phenomena.

To reach Kyle, who would be at the center of the ruins of the Kingdom of Selef, they had to cross through the Zero Front. Naturally, cooperation from the person in charge of this front was necessary, so Raniel had already contacted them in advance.

“Now, we’re going to meet that person in charge.”

Crack, snap!

With a stride, Raniel shattered the twisted tree obstructing the path and took another step forward. A few more steps later, they broke free from the woods.

“Looks like you’re making quite the entrance.”

At the edge of the distorted forest.

At the entrance of the Eastern Zero Front.

A figure awaited to greet them.

“Nice to see you.”

The figure sitting on a rock waved at Raniel. Dark sunken eyes. Dull gray hair. At first glance, he looked like a soldier who had seen too much blood… yet his attire indicated his position.

An outfit embellished with white and platinum threads.

The Armor of Heroes, permitted only to Heroes.

“Long time no see. This is the first time since Galahal, isn’t it?”

Hero, Destel.

The Hero known as Scoundrel (???).

The one in charge of the special front let out a brief sigh.

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