“Do you have confidence in him or not?”
“I have confidence in him. But he’s a little too young. He’s still only sixteen.”
“That’s young, all right. Not like we can talk, though,” said Adlet. He was eighteen, and he had heard that Nashetania was the same age. They were rather young to be shouldering the fate of the world.
“But Goldof is strong. He’s just a little unreliable in certain ways,” she said.
“Well, I hope he’s as good as you say. So he hasn’t got any leads. Any other news?”
“Yes. The Saint of Sun, Leura, disappeared a month ago.”
“Leura? The Saint of Sun?” Adlet paused. That was another familiar name. That Saint was a living legend reported to wield the power of the Spirit of Sun. About forty years ago, during a war, she had displayed the full extent of her power. She had burned down a besieged castle by shining down rays of heat from the sky. Adlet had heard that she’d conquered over ten fortresses, all on her own. Once she was older, she’d taken over the role of the elder who governed the Saints, but by now, she should have retired from that job, too. “She’s famous, but she’s too old to be fighting, isn’t she?”
“Yes, she’s over eighty,” replied Nashetania. “No matter how powerful she might be, I don’t think she’s in any state to be joining the battlefield.”
“That’s weird, though. There should be others the killer would go after instead. Like me, or you, or Goldof. There’s even the Saint of Swamps, Chamo. There’re tons of powerful people out there.”
“I think it’s odd, too…” Nashetania furrowed her brows. Sitting here talking wouldn’t change anything.
“Well, whatever,” said Adlet. “Let’s get some sleep. We’ll find out about this Brave-killer sooner or later.”
“Sooner or later?”
“We’ll end up fighting them. No doubt about it.”
“Do you think the killer is a fiend? Or could it actually be a human?”
“I don’t know.”
Nashetania lay down on her bedding. Adlet closed his eyes, holding his knees to his chest. In that position, he could rest his mind and body while still staying alert. The evening went by without event, and so did the next day, and the next. The fact that nothing was happening only made Adlet more uneasy.
The two of them continued their hurried journey for ten days. They swapped their horses out for fresh mounts multiple times, sleeping less than three hours a day as they progressed. At a normal pace, the trip would have taken nearly thirty days. They ended their long travels as they finally crossed the border into the Land of Iron Mountains, Gwenvaella, beyond which the Howling Vilelands lay. The road twisted through the ravine between steep mountains, and the whole area was covered in deep forests.
Gradually, they started hearing more and more rumors about the Evil God. The closer they got to the Howling Vilelands, the grimmer the expressions of the people they encountered became. Once they reached the Land of Iron Mountains, here and there they began seeing families packing up their things to flee.
“Let’s hurry,” said Nashetania. Her excitement had ebbed now that they were nearing their goal. She may have been innocent, but she wasn’t stupid.
“Watch out. Fiends will probably start attacking us soon,” Adlet warned her.
“How do you know?”
“The enemy plans to strike before we can all get together. That’s what they did with the previous generation of Braves.”
“You sure know a lot about this.”
“My master pounded into my head everything there is to know about fiends,” he explained. “The different types, the environments they live in, their weaknesses, and behavior you can expect to see from them.”
“I’ll be counting on you, then.”
After that, Adlet and Nashetania continued down the road, and Nashetania spoke less and less. Finally, she stopped talking completely.
Unable to take it anymore, Adlet broke the silence. “Nashetania.”
She didn’t respond. Nashetania was clutching the reins of her horse, a brooding expression on her face.
“Nashetania!”
“Y-yes?!”
“Are you feeling anxious?” he asked.
The Brave’s knuckles were white from her grip on her reins. She released them to rub the sweat off on her thighs. It was evident that she’d lost her composure.
“Calm down,” he said. “The fight hasn’t even started.”
“Y-you’re right. I wonder why I’m so anxious.”
This bothered Adlet. “Have you ever been in a real fight before? Have you ever experienced a serious battle, where people are trying to kill each other?”
“I…” She trailed off.
Guess not , thought Adlet. There was no helping that. She may not have been a model princess, but she was a princess nonetheless.
“Am I really that powerful, Adlet? What if all this time, everyone has been going easy on me?” Nashetania fretted, looking at her palms as they dripped sweat.
“Calm down. Don’t think about that.”
“We haven’t even encountered any fiends yet… I have to calm down…” The way Nashetania was trembling, it was as if her earlier enthusiasm had never existed. Or no, perhaps her cheer thus far had been an attempt to stifle her anxiety. But Nashetania was no coward. Everyone felt nervous before their first real battle. That was always the case, regardless of strength.
“Nashetania,” he said. “Smile.”
“Huh?”
“Smile. Start with that.”
Nashetania stared at her hands, saying, “I can’t, Adlet. My hands won’t stop shaking. I can’t smile.” As she spoke, she lifted her head to face her companion. Adlet pressed up his nose with a finger while smooshing both his cheeks. Hnerk. Nashetania snorted, then covered her mouth, averting her eyes.
“So you can laugh. Have you calmed down?” Adlet asked.
Nashetania considered her palms again and then touched her neck, checking her pulse. “I feel a lot better. Thank you.”
Seeing Nashetania’s expression, Adlet nodded. She would be okay. While she was still innocent and inexperienced, she was a fine warrior at heart. “That was the first thing my master taught me. To smile.”
“You had a good teacher.”
Adlet shrugged as if to say, I dunno about that.
Now from that point onward, they headed directly for the entrance to the Howling Vilelands. Their primary goal was to unite with the others, but Adlet figured there would be other trials ahead of them first.
It was then that a man carrying a child and a woman with an injured leg came running toward them from farther down the road.
“What’s wrong?!” Nashetania dismounted and approached the trio.
The woman clung to Nashetania and began to cry. “We tried to run away! We tried to run, before the…before the fiends came!”
“Please, calm down!” said Nashetania.
The woman began wailing, unable to continue. Nashetania looked at the man.
“The people of our village were planning to escape to the capital together with the soldiers,” he explained. “But on the way, we were attacked by fiends, and we…left behind…our friends…and our youngest…”
As Nashetania listened to the man’s story, her hands began trembling faintly again. Adlet put a hand on her shoulder and spoke to her quietly. “Stay calm. With your power, you don’t have to be afraid of anything.” After reassuring her, he hurried his horse, setting out at a gallop. “Nashetania! Follow me!”
“C-coming!”
As Adlet held his horse’s reins, he considered the situation. This was just as he had expected. The fiends were aiming to eliminate each of the Braves individually. That was why they were burning villages and attacking people in this area—to lure out the six Braves. Last time, falling for that tactic had cost one of the Braves their life. If victory were their singular focus, then the correct choice would be to ignore this and move on. But in Adlet’s mind, that
“correct choice” was a load of bull. Why were they going to fight the Evil God? To protect the defenseless.
“There they are!” shouted Adlet.
Ten fiends were attacking a cluster of wagons. The monsters were about ten meters long and shaped like leeches. A single horn and a few tentacles grew from their head segments, and on the end of each tentacle was a very humanlike eyeball.
While fiends were all of the same species, sharing a common ancestor, they varied infinitely in form. Some, like these, resembled leeches. Others looked like gigantic insects, still others looked like birds and beasts, and some even looked human and could speak. The only thing they shared in common was that they all had a horn somewhere on their heads. That was it.
About a dozen soldiers and farmers with their families were under attack. Many were wounded, and a number had already succumbed. Adlet leaped from his horse and rushed the hoard of fiends. “I’ll slow them down! You finish them off, Nashetania!” he yelled as she ran behind him. In a flash, Adlet whipped an iron bottle from one of his pouches, removed the cap, and poured the contents into his mouth.
“…!” A few of the fiends spotted Adlet. They raised their heads and spat liquid at him.
Adlet dodged it with a forward roll. As he regained his feet again, he struck the flint in his front teeth. The iron bottle contained a specially mixed, concentrated alcohol. Flames spewed from his mouth into the fiends’ faces. The heat was low enough that most could escape unscathed by batting the flames away, but these fiends writhed in pain. It was just as he had guessed: This breed was vulnerable to heat.
Most of Adlet’s secret tools were not powerful in and of themselves. Their true value lay in their versatility, allowing him to take advantage of the fiends’ weaknesses in a variety of circumstances.
“I knew you were good!” exclaimed Nashetania as she employed the power of the Spirit of Blades. Blades sprouted from the ground to quickly decapitate three of the creatures.
The remaining seven paid them no mind as they continued attacking the farmers. Adlet immediately withdrew his next tool—this one a small flute. He put it to his lips and blew.
“…?”
No noise. But the fiends that had been assaulting the villagers turned all at once toward Adlet. This flute emitted special sound waves that attracted fiends.
Adlet calmly dodged the charging monsters, and Nashetania did not let that opportunity go to waste. She stabbed another five to death, and Adlet dispatched the two remaining with his sword. Now that it was over, the battle had actually elapsed very quickly. Killing all ten fiends had taken less than a minute.
“Phew.” Adlet wasn’t tired, but he had broken a sweat. Though this wasn’t his first time, real combat still made him anxious. Nashetania was panting. Adlet put a hand on her shoulder and said, “That was perfect. I wouldn’t have known it was your first fight.”
“I was able to fight more calmly than I had imagined. If this is how it’s going to be, I think I can be useful.”
“I’ll be counting on you.”
Nashetania smiled.
After that, the two of them assisted in treating the farmers’ wounds. The villagers piled the bodies of their fellows into the carts. It was difficult, seeing these deaths, especially those of parents who left children alone in the world.
“Is everyone here? Was anyone too late getting away?” Adlet asked as he treated one of the villagers.
They all looked down as if struggling to respond, exchanging looks with one another.
“What’s wrong?” he prompted.
“Well…” The villagers seemed hesitant to speak.
Adlet quickly picked up on what was going on. “Someone got left behind, huh.”
“Th-there was a traveling girl all alone in the village,” one of the villagers said, and Adlet immediately mounted his horse.
He was about to hit his horse’s flank when Nashetania, looking panicked, asked him, “Adlet, where are you going?”
“They said a girl’s still there. I’m gonna go get her.”
As he tried to slap his horse, Nashetania grabbed his wrist. “Wait, please. Do you plan to go alone?”
“Yeah. You handle things here.” He snapped the reins to signal his mount to move, but this time, Nashetania grabbed its tail. “Why are you stopping me?” he demanded.
“It’s too late, Adlet. You won’t make it in time.”
“…”
“There are only two of us. We cannot save everyone.”
He was a little taken aback. Nashetania’s attitude struck him as surprisingly cold. “You’re right,” he said.
“It’s a shame, but we should give up on that girl and move on.” Nashetania looked down sadly. She likely wanted to help out as much as he did, but she was right to prioritize defeating the Evil God.
“Defeating the Evil God, saving people… It’s hard to manage both,” said Adlet.
“This is difficult for me, too. But right now, let’s think first about joining the other Braves.” The princess, having secured her partner’s agreement, released his horse’s tail.
The instant she did, Adlet whipped the reins. The horse whinnied and broke into a gallop. “Sorry, but I’m going. ’Cause I’m the strongest man in the world!”
“Just what is that supposed to mean?!” she yelled after him.
I’ll defeat the Evil God, and I’ll save people, too. Being able to pull off both is what makes me the strongest man in the world , Adlet silently answered to himself.
After about half an hour of galloping, the fence that encircled the village came into view. The streets were quiet. Adlet saw no one, be it human, fiend, or animal. The village was completely desolate. Maybe the fiends had yet to come, maybe they had already finished the job and left, or maybe it was a trap.
Adlet dismounted, drew his sword, and proceeded with caution. There was something strange lying by the entrance to the village—the corpse of a fiend that resembled a giant snake. It was big—a far more powerful specimen than the fiends he and Nashetania had killed. Adlet approached the corpse to get a better look. Some extraordinary power had smashed its head in. Closer investigation revealed an iron ball about two centimeters in diameter buried inside the wound.
“A slingshot? No. It couldn’t be…a gun?” Adlet tilted his head.
The gun was a weapon that had been developed about thirty years earlier—a miniaturized version of a cannon. While these devices were gradually becoming more common, they couldn’t really be called powerful. At most, they could enable a person with no armor to bring down a boar. Adlet had never heard of any gun capable of killing a fiend.
The Brave entered the village. The bodies of fiends were strewn everywhere. Every last one had been brought down by a single shot to either the heart or the head. That was when Adlet finally realized that the female traveler who had been forsaken in the village…hadn’t been forsaken at all. She’d stayed behind to battle the fiends here. And a lone warrior on a journey at a time like this, with the Evil God freshly awakened from its slumber, could have only one purpose. Adlet searched for the girl in houses and the center square, finally approaching a charcoal maker’s hut near the fringes of the town.
“Oh.” He spotted someone. Raising his hand, Adlet was about to call out, but he stopped midmotion, his voice catching somewhere in his throat. The moment he saw the girl, he froze.
She was alone, walking toward the delapidated hut. She was probably about seventeen or eighteen. Her hair was white, and she wore a cloak with a frayed hem. In her arms, she cradled a puppy, affectionately stroking its neck as she walked. Adlet realized at a glance that this was the girl who had defeated the fiends, thanks to the gun peeking out from underneath a gap in her cloak. But Adlet didn’t care about that. The girl was carrying a puppy. The mundane sight left Adlet completely unable to move.
“There you are,” she said.
A lone dog was chained to a post in front of the hut. It was probably the mother of the one in the girl’s ar
ms. She lowered the puppy at her breast to the ground. It leaped toward the other dog, wagging its tail and frolicking about.
The girl pulled a knife from beneath her cloak, severing the mother’s collar and freeing her. “Fiends only attack humans. You can be at ease and live here.”
The two dogs romped about the girl’s knees and then ran off to disappear into the forest. Adlet stood stock-still as he watched the scene.
The girl was striking. Her face looked rather young. Her right eye was covered with a patch, and her left was a clear blue, heavy lidded, and cold. Her leather cloak obscured the leather clothes underneath that clung tightly to her body. A black cloth wound around her head.
This girl was powerful—Adlet could tell that with a glance. She moved with precision, her bearing reminiscent of a honed blade. It told him she was a near-flawless warrior. Just approaching her would be enough to make him feel as if his heart might stop.
But the way she’d petted that puppy confused him. Her hands had cradled the dog, comforting it. They were kind hands. It was as if she’d been teaching it what affection was. The girl stared in silence at the forest into which the two dogs had disappeared. To Adlet, the light in her eyes, her expression, seemed terribly ephemeral. She looked like a flower on the verge of wilting, a star about to sink at any moment. Like something fragile. Adlet didn’t get her. She was cold but also warm. Terrifyingly strong yet simultaneously frail. This contradictory first impression was confusing.
“Who’s there?” The girl turned toward Adlet.
His heart jumped. His mind went blank, and he had no idea what to say. He could hear his pulse pounding in his ears. It wasn’t that he was shocked by her beauty. He wasn’t moved by emotion and probably wasn’t in love. He just didn’t know what to do. All he could manage was panic. “Do you like dogs?” Adlet finally squeezed out the wrong thing to say.
Her mouth agape, the girl stared at Adlet in astonishment. “I like dogs. I hate people, though.”
“…Oh. I like both.”
“Who are you?” the girl demanded as she pulled her gun from beneath her cloak, pointing it between Adlet’s eyes. He felt absolutely no sense of danger. “Have you come to kill me, too?” On the back of her left hand was the Crest of the Six Flowers. Adlet gazed vacantly at the girl’s face and her crest. “You don’t care if I shoot?” she inquired.
Rokka: Braves of the Six Flowers, Vol. 1 Page 4