by Kiri Komori
I first met my ex-wife in a dining hall in De Marl.
She was working there when she approached me saying she fell in love with me at first sight. That was the first time I’d ever been confessed to, and we quickly got married.
Looking back at it now, I married her without thinking things through. I was young and got married in the heat of the moment. She was pretty and quite popular in the area, so the idea of landing a woman like her left me on Cloud Nine.
After a successful campaign, I’d return to a celebration at the castle. She always liked those kinds of parties. I fought for my life, and having returned safely, I wanted to celebrate my victory. I loved those parties too, and I was glad to see her gleefully join me for these occasions.
But she wouldn’t dance or drink with me at all. She’d instead go to Rondered, the slightly younger, then vice-captain of the Crimson Knights. I’d go over to her and comment on it, but she’d simply insist that “This is a party” and stay where she was. And I thought she had a point. That this was a place of celebration. That putting my jealousy on display during a time of joy would be shameful and go against what chivalry stood for.
That was what I kept telling myself.
“I’m pretty sure Ronde hates me.”
“Lico, isn’t it time you put the bottle away? We’ve got work tomorrow.”
“What? Is Lico getting plastered again? Do it in the Ebony Knights’ barracks, would ya? You’re in the Azure Knights’ barracks right now, ya know?”
“…Now listen here, Dir! Ronde already made plans for his last leave without me again! I knew it… He only married me because Dad made him! Nnnngh!”
The large woman lying prostrate on the table weeping was Licorice Avide. She cried bitterly, refusing to let go of the bottle and scattering booze and tears all over Dir’s work desk. She was a bothersome guest—that much was certain—but she only acted this way because she truly loved Rondered. We couldn’t help but feel for her.
You had to wonder what Rondered’s issue was, given how smitten she was with him. I mean, sure, she was a large woman… Her height, shoulders, and back were nearly larger than mine. But that also meant her breasts and behind were nice and plump.
And then there was the matter of how she blew half her face off in an alchemy experiment…but the left side of her face was fine. She was a beauty, all in all…albeit, a very large-bodied one.
And she came from a good family too. House Avide had served De Marl since the country’s founding. Honestly, she was so impressive I felt like it only made sense to ignore her large physique and burned face.
“She’s a sweet maiden at heart.”
“She sure is.”
This was Dir’s conclusion after joining her drinking bout.
♣♣♣
SO when my real daughter showed up and informed me her mother was cheating on me, my mind flashed back to those times.
Oh, how could this be, Gods of De Marl? Kelt remarried with Rondered? True, she was the exact opposite of Licorice. She was a petite, cute, fine woman. The kind of girl one felt inclined to protect.
…But it makes sense. They spent so much time together during those parties…
I couldn’t immediately believe what happened. Licorice’s heartbroken expression came to mind. For whatever reason, Rondered never seemed to like me. I didn’t want to think that his marrying Kelt was a way of shoving it in my face, but…I couldn’t imagine him showing Nakona any love, seeing as she was my daughter.
Nakona ran away from Rondered’s house because she didn’t like it there, and I wanted to respect that. That was my way of atoning for never giving her any attention when I was a knight. I wanted to give her the care she deserved going forward to make up for it. And I had Tina too, so I would need to keep a good eye on both of them.
But no sooner had I come to that decision did the two of them disappear.
“Tinaaaaaa! Nakonaaaaaaa! Where are you?!”
“They’re little girls. I can’t imagine they got too far…”
“Tch…”
The day after Nakona showed up, Tina successfully transmuted a supreme antidote. And after that, Nakona disappeared. And while I was up the mountain looking for her, Tina disappeared too.
What in the world is going on…?! It couldn’t be… The monsters going around these parts didn’t get them, did they…?
“Tina! Nakona! Answer me! Please!” I shouted as loud as my throat would let me, but they weren’t in sight.
Aaah… Gods of De Marl… Keep those girls safe… Why? Why now? I finally decided I would keep my family safe! No… Please… Gods of De Marl, if I lose those girls, I’ll…I’ll have nothing left! They’re all I have to live for!
Hearing that Kelt chose that man didn’t fill me with the kind of anger I’d have felt when I was younger. And that was because I had the girls… They were the most important thing to me now.
“Ngh!”
The sun was beginning to set. Dusk hour. At this point, I was prepared to look for them even if it ran the risk of running into a monster. But just as that thought crossed my mind, three figures approached the inn.
Aaah… Ah!
“Tina! Nakona!”
“Daddy!”
“Dad!”
I hugged Nakona, who jumped into my chest, and hurried over to Tina, who ran after her.
Aaah… They’re warm… They’re alive!
“Tina! You’re back too! Thank goodness…!”
“…Yes, I’m back…”
They’re fine… They’re alive… Thank goodness…
I was so worried it almost made me sick to my stomach. I was so happy to see them safe and sound…
“I’m sorry I made you worry.”
“You better be, because you have no idea how worried I was… Dammit! I thought I was going to go crazy! It felt like the end of the world…! I’m so glad you two are safe! Aah, Gods of De Marl… You have my thanks…!”
I was shaking nonstop and the tears wouldn’t cease. I hadn’t shown this much emotion since I became a knight. Perhaps I really was getting on in years.
But none of that mattered… The girls were fine… They were alive and that filled me with more joy than I could express. I really was relieved. I thanked the Gods of De Marl from the bottom of my heart and soul…and swore to myself that I would never let these two out of my sight again.
These girls were more precious than my own life. And they were back… Words couldn’t express how grateful I was.
“Tinaris! There you areee!”
“I’m so glad you’re so safe!”
“Yes, thank goodness…! Wait… Huuuuuh?!”
“Ah…!”
One of Giyaga’s merchants, a woman called Merilia, let out a high-pitched scream. Everyone looked in the direction she was staring and let out a startled gasp. Everyone except me, Tina, and Nakona were shocked by the knight in blue armor standing before us.
Ooh…
“You’re… Is that you, Lico…?!”
“It’s been a while, Marcus.”
I let go of Nakona and Tina and rose to my feet. The knight standing before me was dressed in distinctly unfeminine armor. With her back to the sunset, she took off her helmet and revealed her face. Her bluish-violet hair wavered in the wind.
“Aah…!”
“Eeeek…!”
The girls let out quiet screams… It made sense. I was the only one here who’d seen her face before. The forelocks of her hair grew long only on the right side, covering half of her face. And beneath them was her burned, mangled face. Licorice Avide.
It’s been so long, old friend!
“Oooh, Licorice! It really has been a while! You said you’d go get us some booze and never came back. I was sure you died or something!”
“Yeah, well… There were some problems with my divorce papers, see… A lot happened…”
“Ah… Oh, I see… So that’s what happened… I guess we both got the short end of the stick with that one, hu
h…? Ahaha…”
“We sure did…”
“Ahaha… Haha…”
Yeah… The joy of reuniting with an old friend made me forget. Me and her, we both… Well…
“…Do you know this person, Marcus?” Giyaga asked me.
“Sure do! You probably know the name. One of De Marl’s state alchemists. Captain of the Ebony Knights, an order focused on using alchemy for offensive purposes, Licorice Avide. One of my old colleagues.”
“Wh-What….?”
“A state alchemist…?!”
“Name’s Licorice,” Lico introduced herself, her left eye closed. “Licorice Avide.”
She was one of De Marl’s state alchemists, so her name was well-known. She was a much more famous knight than I ever was. I didn’t expect to meet her in a place like mine.
“Huuuuuh?!”
“Wait, did you just say Licorice? You’re a woman?!”
“Huh? What? What?!”
♣♣♣
I poured some liquor into her cup. As promised, we shared a drink like the old days. We clinked our cups together and they chimed pleasantly. I had nothing refined like wine to offer, but Mount Rofola had melberry fruit, which could be refined into fruit ale. After taking a sip, Lico’s eyes softened. Like I thought they would.
“You like it?” I asked.
“Mm, it’s got a mild flavor to it. I’ll always have a soft spot for De Marl’s wine, but…it doesn’t feel like this’ll make me sick in the morning either.”
“You always were a bad drunk.”
She’d always complain when she was inebriated.
“…Where are your men?” I asked. “You wouldn’t go hunting monsters on your own.”
I didn’t like beating around the bush, so I cut straight to the heart of the matter. Lico wouldn’t have gone fighting a monster alone. Monsters required a much more cautious fighting style than dealing with humans. You mustn’t kill a monster, since it would scatter Kathra into the air around it and turn any living being in the area into another one.
To that end, you had to push monsters back without killing them. Even Lico, as skilled a knight as she may be, wouldn’t be strong enough to defeat a monster all on her own.
“…They all died,” she said, frowning bitterly.
“…I see,” I sighed.
Those who fight on the battlefield are prepared to face death. That applied all the more to those who led soldiers into battle. And Lico lacked that resolve. She wasn’t so much a commander as she was a natural-born researcher. She wasn’t suited for this.
“I was prepared to die… But your daughters saved me. I…I got to walk away alive.”
“The Gods of De Marl decided you still have things to do on this mortal plane. Receive their blessing thankfully, I say.”
“And what would they have me do?”
“I wouldn’t know. But alchemists like you are hard to come by. They must want you to achieve something with your alchemy… But if you ask me, you ought to apologize to the families of your dead subordinates.”
“…Yeah. They were one reason I survived this, no doubt about it. As a knight of De Marl, I should honor their deaths.”
“So… There’s something I’d like to ask…”
“About the monster, right?”
When it came to dealing with monsters, the only option was to drive them away. But that didn’t make the monster docile; it would keep rampaging, essentially becoming someone else’s problem. Those things’ instincts drove them to attack anything alive, and they always found their way to populated places.
So no matter how much one drove them off…
“It was a serpent monster. It apparently isn’t native to these lands. It probably came here from the west… Research suggests that it might be one of the Ouroboros.”
“Yeah, that’s what I thought… How was it compared to other confirmed cases?”
“I dunno. But it was surprisingly big. The number of suppression missions has gone up compared to the last decade too. What the mages are saying about the Air’s purity degrading might be true.”
“Tsk…”
Some years ago…after Edesa Kura declared it would eradicate the demi-humans, the number of monster sightings seemed to have grown. Research was underway on the deadly poison Edesa Kura was forcing the people of the lands it conquered to develop… But even back when I was a knight, the research seemed to point to the theory that this was Camilla—the Primal Evil—rendered into material form.
Just what are those maniacs trying to do…? I wondered as I poured another glass of liquor and gulped it down.
“So the number of monster sightings growing means things are getting worse…”
“Sad to say, but it’s likely… Still, as hard as chasing them away might be, it’s a knight’s duty to do it.”
“True.”
“…But honestly, it’s becoming too much for De Marl’s knights. We’ve been asking knights from other countries to pitch in, but even with their assistance, we’re getting more subjugation requests than we have knights to send out… Edesa Kura’s also upped the volume of its steel and iron imports. It looks like they’re preparing for war while we have our hands full with the monsters.”
“They want to start another war…?”
“I don’t know what’s pushing that country so far… Does the god Kura really want to see demi-human blood spilled that badly? Or is that just pretense, and they just want more land? We don’t know what they’re really after.”
“Yeah. Never could read that country’s intentions…”
Did they seriously believe that human superiority garbage? Were they really doing all these terrible things just to prove that asinine point? It couldn’t be anything that stupid…
“…I just hope the legendary saint the demi-humans worship ends up being real,” Lico said.
“Mm?”
“Haven’t you heard of it? The Saint Akari-Berz.”
“Oh, well, yeah, I’ve heard of it.”
To protect the demi-human lands, De Marl formed an alliance with the elven and dwarven countries. To them, this Saint was akin to a god. The demi-humans that fought alongside me on my expeditions would often pray to the Saint for safety in combat.
Saint Akari-Berz.
It was an odd story. The Saint the demi-humans worshipped was apparently a human, just like us. She could wipe out monsters without killing them, using the power of the primal star, Stella. That power sublimated and purified all monsters, reverting them back to the creatures they once were.
…Having that kind of power would be a huge help for us too.
“But it’s just a legend, right?”
“I mean, the elves and dwarves live much longer than we do and they worship this Saint. Not that I believe absolutely everything. I’m still a scientist, after all.”
“I see.”
So, this was just her complaining. In a different way than usual, maybe… But complaining was one of Lico’s skills.
She wasn’t exactly a combat fanatic, but when she got in the mood, she liked to fight… Or rather, she liked trying out her alchemical weapons. But even with her odd tendencies, Lico was struggling with all these subjugation requests.
“Can’t you hire adventurers to help?”
“Not many adventurers are organized enough to pull off the strategies we use to fight monsters. And their fees build up fast.”
“Yeah…you’re right… And if Edesa Kura’s about to launch another war, you can’t be too occupied with just the monsters. Wish we could just send all the monsters over to their territory…”
“Mm. Not a bad idea. I’ll consider it when I go back to De Marl.”
Huh? Isn’t that really bad from an ethical standpoint?
I said it as a bit of black humor, but…maybe Lico was already drunk?
“Either way, at this rate, we might have no choice but to ask the demi-humans for help.”
“…And the demi-humans aren’t good at holding bac
k…” I muttered.
“No, they’re not…” Lico frowned.
That meant the monsters would grow in number. And that alone was a threat. But still, how did the monsters grow numerous enough to become too much for De Marl’s knights to handle in just a few years?
No, no… I shouldn’t think about it. Habits from when I was a knight die hard…
“Well, that’s enough heavy stuff. Let’s talk about something fun. How’re Gildias and Dirbleu doing?”
“…Dir contracted a disease called Speck Fever in the demi-human continent. He’s currently resting in Fei Lu.”
“…Huh?!”
That’s the first I heard of that! I have to go visit him. Dirbleu’s an irreplaceable comrade!
♣♣♣
“WHAT? Your superior from your time in the knights did?!”
“Yeah. I’ll go ask Giyaga if he has some medium or high-grade antipyretics.”
The next morning, I made the girls breakfast and left the house. Giyaga was going back to De Marl tomorrow… Fei Lu was a large country with good doctors and skilled apothecaries, but…
If he’s a three days’ ride away, I’d like to go and meet him…
To that end, I went to Giyaga’s cottage, hoping he had some antipyretic I could take along…
“I’m sorry, but I only have low-grade antipyretic,” Giyaga apologized.
“I guess you wouldn’t have something like that just lying around…”
And that led me to ask Tina for help.
“Tina, I need to ask you something. Can you make antipyretic? I’d need a high-grade one or at least medium-grade…”
“I can make a medium-grade one! But I don’t have the ingredients for a high-grade one…”
“What do you need for it?”
“Low-grade ones just need Lilith flowers and water, but medium-grade would require Alfis flowers and dry powdered Yujin grass. A high-grade one requires fever mushrooms and fermented moss.”
I’ve never heard of any of these things. But I’m all the more impressed with Tina for memorizing the ingredients…
She really is a little genius.
“So what are you short on?”
“I don’t have fever mushrooms or fermented moss. Alfis flowers and Yujin grass grow in Rofola, so I could pick some if I go to the mountain.”