Against the plain white background of his mind, Eugeo saw one thing sparkling fiercely—a verse from the very start of the Taboo Index. Book One, Chapter Three, Verse Eleven: “Thou shalt not cross the End Mountains that encircle the Human Empire.”
“We can’t…We can’t go…any farther,” Eugeo struggled to say through numb lips. He held out his hands, trying to motion Kirito and Alice back.
Just then, there was a heavy, sharp sound from above. Eugeo flinched and looked up at the red sky.
Against the bloodred color, he saw something white and something black, locked in a fierce grapple. They were like tiny grains, so they must have been flying extremely high—but they were clearly far larger than a human. The two objects dashed back and forth, closing in on each other and then breaking apart, the clashing of metal sounding each time they crossed each other.
“They’re dragon knights,” Kirito muttered.
As he said, the two combatants were huge flying dragons, with long necks and tails and triangular wings. Barely visible on their backs were knights with swords and shields. The knight on the white dragon wore white armor, while the one on the black dragon was clad in all black. Even their swords matched their color—the white knight’s shining bright, while the black knight’s trailed a dark miasma.
With each collision of their swords came a blast like thunder and a shower of sparks.
“I suppose the white one…is one of the Church’s Integrity Knights,” Alice murmured.
“Yeah, I bet you’re right,” Kirito added. “And the black one must be a dragon knight for the forces of darkness…He seems to be about as tough as the Integrity Knight…”
“No way…” Eugeo murmured, shaking his head. “The Integrity Knights are the strongest people in existence. They’d never fail to beat a dark knight.”
“I don’t know. From what I can tell, their sword skill is about even. Neither one is breaking down the other’s defense,” Kirito noted. Just then, as if hearing what they were saying, the white knight pulled back on the dragon’s reins to open up the distance between them. The black dragon swept forward, trying to close the gap.
But before the distance closed between them, the white dragon pulled into a sharp turn and lowered its head, appearing to tense and summon its strength. Its neck shot forward and its jaws opened wide. A line of brilliant white fire shot from between its fangs, covering the black dragon knight.
An explosion drowned out the sound of the howling wind in Eugeo’s ears. The black knight writhed in pain and lurched to the side in midair. The Integrity Knight took the opportunity to switch out his sword for a giant bronze-colored bow and loose a similarly long arrow.
It flew through the air with a faint trail of fire behind it and landed smack in the middle of the black knight’s chest.
“Ah…!” Alice let out a little shriek.
The black dragon, the film of its wings mostly burned away, began to plummet. The knight tumbled from the dragon’s back, spraying blood as he fell directly toward the cave where the children stood.
First came the black sword, sticking blade-first into the gravel nearby. Next was the knight, landing barely ten mels away from the trio. Lastly, the black dragon struck the rocky mountain a considerable distance away, shrieking one last time before it fell silent.
The three children watched in silence as the black knight struggled painfully to sit up. They could see the deep hole torn into the shining breastplate. The knight’s head, covered with a heavy helmet that hid the wearer’s features, turned to face them.
A trembling hand stretched out, pleading for help. Then an eruption of blood spilled from the throat of the helmet, and the knight collapsed to the ground with a clatter. Red liquid continued to pool beneath the still body, spreading along the black gravel.
“Ah…ah…” Alice continued to gasp at Eugeo’s side. She stumbled forward, as if compelled, out of the mouth of the cave.
Eugeo couldn’t even react. On his other side, Kirito hissed, “No!!” Alice twitched and tried to stop, but her foot stumbled and she toppled forward. Both Eugeo and Kirito reached out on instinct, trying to grab Alice’s dress.
Their fingers just missed and touched only empty air.
Alice tumbled to the cave floor, her blond hair flying, and grunted.
She just fell over. That was all. It wouldn’t have affected her life more than one or two points, if they checked her window. But that wasn’t the problem. When she fell forward, the fingers of her right hand landed about twenty cens over the very clear boundary line between the bluish gray of the cavern rock and the cinder-black ground. Her white palm brushed the black gravel. The surface of the Dark Territory.
“Alice!” the two boys cried together, reaching down to grab their friend’s body. It was the kind of thing that she would scold them for under normal circumstances, but they were too desperate to drag her back into the cave to think about consequences.
When they lifted her back up, her eyes were still fixed on the fallen knight. Eventually they fell to her hand. The puffy palm had a number of little pebbles and grains of sand stuck in it. They were as black as a brand.
“…I…I…” she stammered. Eugeo reached out both hands to hers in a trance. He rubbed away all the grit and desperately tried to reassure her.
“D-don’t worry, Alice. You didn’t actually leave the cave. You just brushed it with your hand. That’s not a taboo, right? Right, Kirito?”
He looked up at his partner, pleading. But Kirito wasn’t looking at either Eugeo or Alice. He was down on one knee, focusing hard on their surroundings.
“Wh-what is it, Kirito?”
“…Don’t you feel it, Eugeo? Someone…something…”
Eugeo frowned and looked around as well, but there wasn’t even a bug in the cave with them, much less another person. All he saw was the black knight ten mels away, presumably dead. The victorious Integrity Knight was nowhere to be seen in the sky.
“It’s just your imagination. Come on, let’s…”
Take Alice back down the other path of the cave, Eugeo was going to say, but Kirito grabbed his shoulder. Eugeo grimaced and followed his partner’s gaze, then froze solid with terror.
There was something near the ceiling of the cave.
A purple circle, rippling like the surface of water. On the other side of the fifty-cen-wide circle was the vague image of a human face. The face was simplistic, so much so that it was impossible to say if it was male or female, young or old. The skin was pale, without a single hair on the entire head. The wide-open eyes contained no visible emotion. But Eugeo knew instinctively that it was not looking at him or Kirito but at the stunned Alice between them.
The face’s mouth opened and spoke odd, unintelligible words through the purple portal.
“Singular Unit Detected. Tracing ID…”
The marble-like eyes blinked, followed by that strange voice again.
“Coordinates Fixed. Report Complete.”
The purple window abruptly vanished. Eugeo belatedly realized that the thing’s words resembled the mantra of sacred arts, and he looked first at Kirito and Alice, then at his own body. Nothing had changed.
But the incident was much too bizarre to ignore. Eugeo shared a look with his partner, then they helped Alice up and cradled their trembling friend as they proceeded back into the cave. The group began to run in the direction from which they’d come.
Eugeo couldn’t exactly remember how they’d made their way back to Rulid.
When they got back to the lake where the dragon’s bones slept, they crossed right through it to the exit on the other side. They ran back through the long cave in a fraction of the time it had taken them originally, tripping and sliding on the wet rock many times, and by the time they leaped out into the light again, the afternoon sun was still pouring down from above.
Yet Eugeo’s unease could not be forgotten. The thought of that eerie white face poking out of the purple window behind them spurred him onward wi
thout rest.
The birds chirped peacefully in the forest branches and the schools of little fish darted here and there in the brook beside them, but the trio marched on in resolute silence. They crossed the hill that was supposed to be the northern pass, then the twin ponds, and finally reached the north end of Rulid Bridge.
When they at last reached the foot of the ancient tree where they’d met in the morning, relief was palpable. They looked at one another and managed weak, nervous smiles.
“Here, Alice, look,” Kirito said, holding out the heavy basket. It was full of the summer ice that was the goal of their little adventure—and Eugeo suddenly realized that he’d forgotten all about it.
He tried to hide his sheepishness by advising, “You should put that in the basement as soon as you get back. Then it might last until tomorrow.”
“…Okay, I will.” She nodded obediently, taking the basket and looking at the two boys. At last, her confident smile returned. “Look forward to tomorrow’s lunch. I’m going to make sure you get a proper reward for all your hard work.”
Neither of the boys was cruel enough to point out that it was Sadina who would be treating them to a good meal. They shared a look, then nodded.
“…What was that pause for?” she asked suspiciously.
They patted her shoulders from either side and chimed, “Nothing! Let’s go home!”
They walked back to the center of town under the true sunset now. Kirito headed for the church where he lived, and Alice went to the village elder’s house. Eugeo arrived at his home on the west side of the village just seconds before the bell rang six.
All throughout dinner, Eugeo was silent. He was certain that his older siblings had never had such an adventure—not even his parents or grandparents—but for some reason, he didn’t feel like boasting about the events of his day.
He didn’t know how he would describe that land of darkness he had seen; nor the battle between the Integrity Knight and the foe on the black dragon; nor, most of all, the bizarre face that had appeared from nowhere. In fact, he felt afraid of how his family would react when they heard the story.
That night, Eugeo went to bed early, hoping to forget everything he had seen at the end of his adventure. If he couldn’t, the awe and respect he felt for the Axiom Church and Integrity Knights might turn into something else altogether.
4
Solus sank and rose, and the usual schedule of life returned.
Normally, Eugeo would return to his work on the morning after a rest day with a gloomy outlook, but today, he was more relieved than anything. He’d had enough adventures for now—chopping at the tree was just fine, thank you very much. He headed out the south gate of town and met up with Kirito at the barley field next to the forest.
Eugeo spotted a tinge of relief in his partner’s features, as well as recognition of the same in himself. They shared bashful grins for a moment.
They retrieved the Dragonbone Ax from the shack a short ways down the forest path, then continued on for a few minutes to reach the Gigas Cedar. The sight of the slit carved into the massive trunk would normally remind them of the unchanging nature of their lives ahead, but today that was a reassurance.
“Okay, the one who gets the least number of good hits has to buy the siral water again.”
“Really? Aren’t you tired of always having to pay, Kirito?” Eugeo teased, continuing their ritual as he lifted the ax. The first blow struck loud and true, a good sign for the day ahead.
All morning they delivered stout blows to the tree with uncanny accuracy. Neither one wanted to admit that the reason for his unusual concentration was a desperate attempt to keep the visions of yesterday out of his head.
When they had finished nine sets each of fifty consecutive swings, Eugeo’s stomach rumbled. He looked up to the sky, wiping the sweat from his brow, and saw that Solus was nearly to its apex. One more set of swings, and Alice would come by with their lunch. Only this time, they’d be able to take their time eating the pie and drinking ice-cold milk. The thought brought a twinge of pain to his empty stomach.
“Whoops…”
If he thought too hard about food, his aim would slip. Eugeo rubbed his sweaty palms with his towel and took careful grip of the ax handle.
The sunlight abruptly dimmed.
Great, not a passing shower, Eugeo thought, looking up.
Through the expanse of the Gigas Cedar’s branches, he could see blue sky, and at a significantly low elevation, a fast-moving black shadow. His heart wrenched up into his throat.
“A dragon?!” he yelled out. “Hey, Kirito! That was—!”
“Yeah, the Integrity Knight from yesterday!” his partner cried, frozen with fear.
Before their eyes, the platinum-clad knight on the dragon brushed over the branches of the tree and vanished in the direction of Rulid.
What is he doing here? Eugeo wondered amid complete silence. Even the birds and insects seemed to be holding their breath.
Integrity Knights were the guardians of order who purged the enemies of the Axiom Church. Given that there were no rebellious groups threatening the four cardinal empires that made up the realms of man, the only enemies for the Integrity Knights to battle were the forces of darkness. So all the tales said they always fought beyond the End Mountains, a sight Eugeo had witnessed for himself the day before.
That was the first time he’d ever seen a real Integrity Knight. One had never actually come to the village in his life. So why now…?
“You don’t think…Alice…?” Kirito murmured.
Suddenly, the sound of that eerie voice from yesterday filled Eugeo’s mind again. The strange arts spoken by the person with the bizarre features sitting behind the purple window. His spine went as cold as if someone were dripping freezing water down it.
“You’re kidding…They wouldn’t…Not for just that…” he gasped, looking to Kirito for reassurance, but the other boy was staring grimly in the direction of the knight. After a few moments, he looked back into Eugeo’s eyes and said, “Let’s go!”
He grabbed the ax from Eugeo’s hand and raced northward.
“H-hey!”
Something bad was going to happen. Eugeo could feel the dread seeping into his skin as he took off after his partner.
They made their way down the familiar path around tree roots and rocks until they joined the main road into town through the farm fields. There was no sign of the dragon flying overhead. Kirito slowed slightly and called out through the green shoots to a farmer who was staring agape at the sky.
“Mr. Ridack! Which way did the dragon rider go?!”
The farmer turned toward them with a start, as though waking from a dream. He blinked several times, then answered at last, “Oh…oh, yes…It went and landed in the center of the village, I think…”
“Thanks!!” they shouted briefly, and resumed their sprint.
Here and there on the road and in the fields, villagers were grouped together to stare. No doubt even the elderly in the village had never seen a real Integrity Knight before. They all just stared in the direction of the village, uncertain of what to do. Eugeo and Kirito continued running through their midst.
They sprinted through the south gate, paced the short lane of shops, then ran over the little stone bridge, and finally came within view of it. The boys stopped still, the breath catching in their throats.
The long, curving neck and tail of the dragon occupied the northern half of the square outside the church.
Its massive wings were folded on either side, nearly hiding the church building from view. The beast’s gray scales and occasional piece of armor reflected the light of Solus, making it look like an ice sculpture. Its bloodred eyes stared down impassively at the village square.
And standing before the dragon was the platinum-clad knight, shining even brighter.
He was taller than anyone in the village. Every inch of the knight was covered in thick plate that shone like a mirror and fine silver chain to cov
er the joints. The helmet, fashioned to look like a dragon’s head, sprouted one decorative horn at the forehead and two backward from either side of the skull, with a heavy faceplate hiding the knight’s face.
At the knight’s left side hung a longsword with a silver handle. On his back, an enormous brown bow a good mel and a half in length. It was undoubtedly the very same Integrity Knight they had seen kill the black dragon rider from the mouth of the cave yesterday.
The knight stared silently through the cross-shaped slit in the faceplate toward the south end of the square, where a few dozen villagers had their heads hanging toward the ground. When he saw a girl carrying a picnic basket toward the back, Eugeo felt his shoulders ease with relief. It was Alice, wearing her usual blue and white apron dress, watching the Integrity Knight through the crowd of adults.
Eugeo nudged Kirito with his elbow, and they crouched down as they snuck up right behind Alice and softly called her name. Their friend spun around, her blond hair waving, about to say something to them in alarm. Kirito put a finger to his lips to silence her. “Quiet, Alice. You should get away from here at once,” he whispered.
“Huh…? Why?” she whispered back. Apparently she had no inkling of the danger she was in. For his part, Eugeo hadn’t realized it until Kirito had brought it up, either.
“Well…I think Integrity Knight is…” Eugeo started to explain, and then paused. A few soft murmurs from the villagers filled the silence. He looked over and saw a thin, tall man striding from the town hall toward the square.
“Oh…Father,” Alice mumbled.
It was the elder of Rulid, Gasfut Zuberg. His slender frame was covered in a simple leather tunic, and his black hair and whiskers were neatly trimmed. Despite having inherited the Calling of village elder only four years ago, the sharpness of his gaze earned him the respect of all the inhabitants of Rulid.
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