by Fujino Omori
Aiz’s figure became a blur. All Bell could make out was the trace of her long golden hair.
He was able to respond to her attack only through pure intuition and instinct; during the course of training, his entire body had learned the path of her sword through the air better than he would have liked.
The instant the Hestia Knife made contact with her blade, an absurdly powerful impact overwhelmed him.
“?!”
His right arm was knocked upward with enough force to tear it off, or so it felt. It was a miracle he didn’t lose his grip on the knife.
The blur of gold and silver did not slow. Aiz spun like a whirlwind, her blade flashing as if it were possessed by a supernatural force as it sliced through the walls of the narrow street like butter.
Her next inhumanly fast spinning strike left Bell time neither to respond nor to defend himself.
It’s over. Two blows. That’s all it took.
Bell’s instinct as an adventurer told him that death was near.
“…”
His body did not split in two.
The instant before her blade made contact, Aiz drew her eyebrows together and flicked her wrist aside.
“Oof!!”
The side of Aiz’s sword struck Bell’s ribs and hurled him against the wall directly next to him. As his shoulder crashed into stone, the world swam before his eyes. He felt dizzy and nauseous.
He sunk helplessly to his knees, watching as Aiz’s boots passed calmly before him.
“No…!”
Determined to stop her, he commanded his trembling knees to rise.
He summoned energy to every crevice of his body and stood.
Aiz stopped and looked back at him. Hiding her emotion at the sight of the undefeated will to fight in the boy’s red eyes, she flourished her sword with a cold expression.
“Here I go,” she said.
In the next instant, a whirling sword attack materialized before Bell’s eyes.
“—Huh?!”
The Sword Princess had unleashed a true continuous slashing attack.
As if to return Bell’s similar attack of a few moments earlier, Aiz began to perform her sword dance. He reflexively raised his knife, but he did not have time to intercept her blade. If he managed to block one blow, five more rained down on him. The dual adamantite armor that Welf had forged for him rang out again and again with earsplitting clangs. If she had been hitting him with the edge of her sword rather than the flat, he would have been long dead from the overwhelming onslaught. His field of vision was entirely filled with the silver slant of her sword. As Bell teetered on the edge of consciousness from the pain and force of her blows, something dawned on him.
She was stronger than Phryne and faster than Dix. She was beyond comparison. Those first-tier adventurers who had caused him so much suffering paled in his memory.
I knew it.
I knew it, but—
This girl is stronger than anyone!!
The flashing sword cut under his breastplate with a swoosh of wind, lifting Bell into the air.
A moment later he crashed onto the cobblestones and lay there faceup.
“Ah…oh…”
As the world grew dim around him, Bell saw Aiz lower her eyes and turn her back. The burning pain that gripped his entire body prevented him from even stretching out his hand as it seemed to spin away from him. Again and again he tried to rise, but his body only trembled.
In his blurred gaze, the night sky looked far, far away.
…I feel like I’ve seen this place before…
As his body sunk into the earth after the baptism from his idol, his empty consciousness recalled an irrelevant scene.
Doubt began creeping into his mind about the backstreet, which all along had looked familiar.
When was it? Where was it?
He couldn’t think straight.
“Bell, Bell?!”
Hestia’s voice reverberated into his consciousness just as he was about to sink into the blackness.
He thought of Aiz’s sad expression and Wiene’s tears.
He closed his eyes once, then raised his eyebrows and scratched his fingers across the cobblestones.
Far from Bell, in the north-northwest of the Labyrinth District, a woman lay prone beside a huge broadsword thrust into the ground.
“Damn werewolf…you have no mercy,” Aisha said, hurling her spiteful words at Bete. He was already long gone, leaving her there covered in wounds. Blood was running from a laceration on her lip.
“Owww…” she said, glancing at the chipped broadsword beside her. Despite her frown, she sounded secretly pleased with herself.
“Lady Aisha, Lady Aisha…!”
The tears dampening Aisha’s brown skin were Haruhime’s.
“I’m sorry, I’m sorry!” she sobbed, gripping the hand of the woman Bete had defeated. Haruhime herself was uninjured aside from some scratches from the stone shards Bete had kicked at her. As the girl’s sobs echoed through the alleyway, Aisha scowled in annoyance.
“Stop crying. A few little bruises aren’t going to kill me.”
“But—but…!”
“If you have time to cry, you have time to do something else, don’t you?”
Aisha stroked Haruhime’s long golden hair as the renart wiped the tears from her face.
“You have some place you’re trying to get to, right?”
“…Yes.”
She pulled the blue crystal from the sleeve of her kimono.
Holding the oculus she’d been given in her role of supporter, Haruhime looked down at Aisha.
“Okay, get going, then. I’ll just rest a little and then figure out something to do.”
“Thank you so much…Lady Aisha,” the red-eyed Haruhime said before standing.
As she watched the girl run off, fox tail swaying, Aisha felt the energy drain from her body.
“All I ever do these days is lose…Maybe I should get the Little Rookie to take me on a trip instead of training.”
Aisha’s glossy lips curved into a smile as she closed her eyes and drifted into a long sleep.
“…Bell?”
Wiene stopped and looked over her shoulder.
The sounds of fierce fighting no longer reached her ears, and the worry she’d been feeling all along ballooned now into a raging anxiety. After hesitating for a moment, still gripping the veil, she turned and slowly began walking back down the road she’d come by.
“Bell…Goddess?”
Wiene advanced fearfully through the maze of tangled streets. Pressing her single dragon wing to her body and hugging her thin chest as she edged along the walls, she looked less like a monster than a lost child.
Would those golden eyes be staring at her coldly around the next corner? Would the silver glint of that terrifying sword sever her neck the instant she stepped into a crossroads? She quivered at the imaginary scenes the dusky half-light seemed to whisper into her ear.
Just then, a shadow fell across her from behind.
“—?!”
Startled, she looked over her shoulder. A hand reached out and clamped over her mouth, and another wrapped around her thin waist and pulled her close. Suddenly she was enveloped in warmth, wing and all.
“Wiene, don’t say a word.”
“Ah…Bell!”
As the white-haired boy whispered into her ear, the tension drained from her body and relief took its place.
The next moment, though, she noticed Bell’s appearance. His clothes and armor were torn to pieces and covered in bloodstains. His face could not hide his pain and exhaustion. She was speechless.
“Let’s go,” Bell whispered, pulling her along by the hand.
“B-Bell…” she said, her voice dissolving into tears.
“I’m sorry, Wiene, just try to hold out a little longer.”
As Bell moved forward, he kept a careful watch for any sign of Aiz. He squeezed Wiene’s hand. Then, as he brought the oculus on his gauntlet to his lips, h
e happened to look up.
On one of the walls surrounding the wide intersection paved in sooty black cobblestones was an ariadne drawn in brilliant red lines.
His sense of déjà vu crystalized and tapped on the door of his memories.
Oh, so that’s what it is…
He’d finally figured it out. Of course he felt like he’d seen this place before.
He’d been down this road once. He’d been with Hestia on the day of the Monsterphilia, and the silverback had been chasing them.
A self-mocking smile spread over Bell’s face as he thought of what he was about to do.
“Goddess…are there any hidden passages near here?” he said into the oculus.
“Huh? Uh, um…there are, but none of them lead to where Fels and the Xenos are. They’ll actually take you out of your way,” Hestia said, sounding confused.
“Please tell me how to get there.”
Following her instructions, he eventually arrived at a wide dead-end street. He pushed one of the stone panels on the walls, and the wall opened to reveal the passage. Bell told Wiene to go in first, then passed something to her.
“Bell…? Is this…?”
“Yes. You’ll be able to communicate with the goddess. She’ll take good care of you…”
He squeezed her hand around his only oculus, which he’d detached from his gauntlet.
“Bell, you’re…”
Coming through the oculus, Hestia’s words trailed off into silence.
“Go down this passage. I’m going to stay here for a few minutes,” he told Wiene.
“What…?”
Wiene’s eyes, too, were wide with surprise and worry.
“Wh-what will you do?”
“I want to talk to Aiz about something…She’s definitely going to end up here.”
“…”
“As long as you listen to the goddess, you’ll be completely fine. Don’t worry, I’ll be following right after you…”
There was no way he could follow her.
Without the oculus, Hestia would not be able to direct him. He wouldn’t know where Wiene was. Bell stroked Wiene’s hair, covering his lie with a kind smile.
Hestia listened in silence to their conversation. He was grateful; she’d understood what he wanted to do.
As Wiene looked up at him, dumbfounded, he gently pushed her forward.
“Go ahead.”
She slipped into the passage and disappeared as Bell shut the secret door behind her.
She’d stared back at him with her amber eyes until the very last minute. As the door shut with a heavy thud, Bell leaned his head against it.
This is the second time…
He felt he was a coward. The instant he realized he would be unable to protect Wiene if he couldn’t beat Aiz, he sent her away from him, just like he had done with Hestia.
He was still a pitiful, powerless, weak adventurer.
But that time…
When the silverback had been closing in on them, he’d thought to himself with a tinge of wistful longing that he’d like to see Aiz’s face one more time. How ironic that was in light of his current situation.
Bell laughed. It was funny. No, maybe it was his head that was funny.
A moment later, he heard a scraping sound behind him and slowly turned around.
“Bell…”
Aiz was staring straight at him. She must have seen him help Wiene escape. Her eyes glinted with reproach. Bell tried to form his mouth into a wry smile but failed.
He was guarding the only door to the passage where Wiene had escaped. Aiz didn’t know where it led, so forcing Bell to move aside was her only option. This would buy time for her to get away. And it would also force Aiz to interact with him.
He would not let her ignore him.
“Move.”
“No.”
“What can I do to get you to move?”
“I’m staying here until you listen to me.”
“…”
Aiz looked down and closed her eyes.
After a moment, she flourished her sword resolutely.
Bell’s smile stretched into a tight line. As Aiz walked toward him, he drew his weapons.
It was a dark, dark passage.
“…”
“…Turn right there, Wiene.”
“…”
“…Now go straight ahead.”
“…”
“…”
“…Goddess.”
“…What is it?”
“I don’t like this…”
“…”
“I don’t want to leave him…! Bell is lying to me…!”
“…”
“Bell is trying to save me. I’m happy, but it’s wrong. I don’t want Bell to be hurt; I don’t want him to cry.”
“…”
“I’ve never repaid him for anything!”
“…I won’t stop you.”
“Huh?”
“I understand. I was like you.”
“A goddess… Like me…?”
“Yes. You know how sly Bell is, right? He knows he’s weak, but he’s always trying to show off and do the impossible. He probably wants to escape more than anything else, and I’m sure he knows he can’t beat her, and still…”
“…”
“Even though he doesn’t want to fight his hero and he’s suffering…”
“Why did Bell…?”
“Because he can’t abandon a girl—no, a family member—who’s in trouble.”
“Family…?”
“Yes. It doesn’t matter if you’re human or monster. He loves you like you’re part of his family.”
“…Goddess, I really don’t like this.”
“I know.”
“I want to go to Bell.”
“I know.”
“I want to repay him for his help.”
“Are you prepared to face the consequences? You may be separated from him forever…What I mean is, are you ready to die?”
“Yes. This time—it’s my turn to save Bell.”
“…I understand. Go, then.”
“Thank you, Goddess.”
“Wiene.”
“What?”
“You’ve grown strong.”
A hard blow struck his body.
Several empty glass vials were rolling at his feet. The potions were already gone. He didn’t know how many times he’d been on the verge of being unable to recover. He’d been hit with far too many blows to count. He gagged, but still, he stood his ground and brandished his knife.
“…!”
Even on the verge of yielding to his enemy, even on the verge of collapsing, Bell rose again. He would not move from in front of the door. To the contrary—he dauntlessly attacked her. Aiz gasped softly, but she, too, refused to let up. Her sword swished through the air and landed mercilessly on Bell.
High-speed slantwise strike from his shoulder. He was unable to block it.
Uppercut. He knocked her sword off course from the side.
Mowing strike. He was unable to dodge.
Jab to his knife sheath. He recognized that one.
Spinning kick. Direct impact.
Their blades missed. They met. They missed. They slid over each other. The skills she had taught him, and the tactics he had stolen, were proving more useful than ever before.
As the glint of the dancing blade flashed before his eyes again and again, a thought passed through Bell’s delirious mind.
What am I doing?
Why am I fighting the person I admire the most?
She’s beating me to a pulp.
—Of course, she always beat me to a pulp in training, too.
Smiling at this completely unamusing situation, Bell watched Aiz’s unforgiving sword technique. His attacks couldn’t reach her, and his counterattacks didn’t even leave a scratch. She was deaf to his screams and his thoughts alike.
Did he hate this cold girl? No.
Was he angry with her for refusin
g to listen to him? Not at all.
Her sword presented him with a towering paragon. It forced him to see the wall between reality and ideal. That was how he felt. That was how unforgiving his decision to save Wiene was.
He had to catch up with Aiz.
He had to reach her level.
He had to overtake her.
If he recognized his own weakness, he must push harder. He must rush forward. Faster. Harder.
“—!!”
His back was hot. His back was burning. His back was screaming a mad hope at him.
She was fast. So fast. He’d known that. But her skill was limitless.
That was why he had to catch up with her.
He had to save Wiene.
“—Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!!” he roared.
Aiz’s arms shook from the vehemence of his furious cry. There was no question that the force of his incorrigible will shaved some of the strength from the Sword Princess’s blade. He poured what little energy he had into his two knives, and for the first time, they scared her.
“?!”
She shook off her astonishment and swung her sword through the air, deflecting the red knife. Instantly she aimed a second blow directly at Bell. He flung out his left gauntlet to block it. The Sword Princess’s strike slid across his dual-adamantite armor.
The space between them was filled with showers of sparks and the sounds of blade scraping against blade. He pressed in with all his might, recklessly trying to get close enough for a solid blow.
Their faces were so close they were practically touching—separated by the width of his knife.
Bell swung the Divine Knife upward.
“Aaaaaaaa!!”
The flashing blade traced a purple-blue arc across the sky.
Aiz’s long golden hair flipped upward as she leaped back to evade the blow. She pressed her hand to her chest in shock.
“…!”
Her silver breastplate was scratched. Something sharp had made a scar. A mark that proved Bell’s roar had hit its target.
For a moment, Aiz was speechless.
She stared at the breathless Bell, her eyebrows drawn together in consternation, then once again lunged toward him.
“Huh?!”
Bell instantly pulled his knife back and blocked the blade that slashed down diagonally across his chest. The blades screeched as he gripped his knife with both hands against the incredible weight of her sword. She was once again in a close battle with him.