“Is that why you wanted to quit being an idol, maybe?”
“I don’t know, but...”
She still wasn’t sure, huh? Even if she did want to quit being an idol because she couldn’t sing the kind of music she wanted to, what did that have to do with her being pushed off a roof? I guess it was possible those two things were unrelated.
“Mio, did you get too tired to sing?” Corona asked when we reached a pause in our conversation.
The eager look in her eyes made it pretty clear she still wanted to hear more.
“Oh, no... I’m fine. I’ll sing another one.”
But just as she began to sing...
Bang!
The door to the cottage was violently thrown open. We all turned around to see Tsumiki and Lea at the entrance. Tsumiki was panting, and Lea looked tense.
“Rekka, we’ve got trouble.”
As luck would have it, we were about to face a whole new set of problems.
▽
“What happened?” I asked.
“Well...”
Before she answered, Lea came in and promptly closed the door like she was trying to keep out some kind of uninvited guest. Next, she went over to shut and lock the windows we’d opened to let some air in. She then took a peek outside, grimaced, and beckoned me over.
“What’s going—”
I didn’t finish my sentence. Looking out the window, I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. I blinked several times... and when what I was seeing didn’t change, I closed my eyes to calm myself. I’d seen lots of unsettling things before, but this probably took the cake. I slowly opened my eyes again to face the reality in front of me. There was only one way I knew how to describe what I was seeing.
“...A zombie movie?”
“In a fantasy setting, no less,” Tsumiki added.
A fantasy zombie movie? I wasn’t sure if that made it more or less scary than a normal zombie movie, but that was what we were up against.
“Rrrgh...”
“Hrrrgh...”
“Gaaah... Gaaah...”
Crazed zombies—what looked like people and small animals with wings, or what you might call fairies in a video game—were surrounding the cottage. One of the cat fairies was even scratching at the walls. It was a pretty surreal scene. As I watched the scary (cute?) cat in utter shock, there came a pounding at the door.
Crap. Whether it was really cute or not, this wasn’t the time to get distracted.
“What the heck happened?” I turned to Tsumiki and Lea and asked.
“I don’t know. We were doing the washing, and they just attacked us.”
“We weren’t that far from the cottage when it happened. They started to show up soon after we heard that song.”
Were they—I’m just going to start calling them zombie fairies—somewhere in this valley from the start? Had Mio’s singing drawn them here?
“Ah!”
Mio caught a glimpse of the zombie fairies outside the cottage and crouched to the ground, clutching her head.
“Are you okay?”
“My head... hurts.”
The sight of it all was pretty unpleasant. Maybe she was feeling sick.
Krrrsh!
My thoughts were interrupted by a loud crashing sound, followed by what sounded like shattering glass. One of the zombie fairies had apparently smashed in the window.
“Rrrgh...”
“Rekka!”
Mio grabbed on to my leg in a panic. Corona, however, just raised an eyebrow and snorted.
“Sylphs, huh?”
“You know them, Corona?”
“I know what they used to be, yeah. They’re wind fairies. Not very rare in this world.”
“So, are they the ones who lived here?”
I guess we found our first villagers...
“Were they always like this?”
“Nope. They’re usually the cheerful sort. Not monsters... like this.”
In other words, something had recently happened here in this valley. And the first village I chanced upon in another world happened to be infested with zombie fairies. Just my luck.
“Well, either way, we’ve gotta get out of here,” Corona said as she stood up from the bed.
“Are you feeling okay?”
“Hmph. I was just a little out of it ’cause I spent centuries sleeping in the same pose. But trust me. I’m fully awake now.”
Despite what she was saying, it didn’t sound like she 100 percent believed it herself. Yet even so, her steps were steady, and she moved with confidence. I figured she was probably okay, and more importantly, she was probably right. It was high time to think about getting out of here.
We could probably fight our way out, but I wanted to avoid fighting enemies I didn’t really understand. We’d need another way out of the cottage, but the zombie fairies had us totally surrounded. Whether we went through the door or busted down a wall, we’d be instantly attacked. Which meant...
“We’ll have to head out the roof.”
“Yeah.” Lea nodded, as if she’d had the exact same thought.
It seemed like the sylphs could only fly a few meters above the ground, so hypothetically, if we left by the roof, they wouldn’t be able to get to us. That said... I really didn’t want to have to cling to Lea again if I could help it. Fortunately, however, Corona was awake this time. We decided we’d have Lea transform so we could all ride on her back.
“Stand back a little,” she said as she walked to the middle of the room.
The cottage wasn’t that big, but there was room enough for her to transform and us all to clamber aboard.
“Mio, hang on tight.”
Mio looked nervous as she clung to Lea’s white, snakelike body even tighter than she clung to my waist.
“Okay... We’re ready, Lea!”
Lea lifted her head up and looked towards the roof on my signal. When she did, several bowling ball sized orbs of water appeared. She then used her magic to make them explode, blowing off the roof to the cottage. Lea flew upward, moving in a steady spiral so that no one would fall off from the acceleration.
“Rrrgh...”
“Hrrrgh...”
The zombie fairies reached up like they thought they could grab us, but we were far out of their reach. Their bodies seemed to get smaller and smaller as we flew away.
“Rrragh...”
Before long, we couldn’t even hear their moaning anymore. Everyone seemed relieved we’d escaped the immediate danger.
“Whew... What the heck was that about?”
“Who knows?” Corona said disinterestedly.
She was a resident of this world, so I was a little surprised she didn’t seem to care. I started to wonder about it, but I quickly had something else on my mind when a bigger problem came along.
“Gyaaagh!”
I could hear Lea scream as her white, snakelike body wound through the air. I don’t know why I did it, but I turned around... just in time to see something biting down on Leviathan’s tail. Was it a zombie fairy? No, it was too big for that.
“Tch! There are sylpheeds here, too?!” Corona spat.
Sylpheeds? Were those different than sylphs? I didn’t have time to ask.
“Gyah!”
Whatever they were, there were lots of them. Three of them were already biting into Lea’s torso.
“Gyaaagh!”
“Lea!”
Several of the girls called out to her at the same time I did. We were all concerned. Lea was refusing to try and shake off the sylpheeds, probably for fear that we’d fall off, too. And we were too busy clinging to her to help.
“Grrr!”
Lea used her water magic to shoot them down one after another, but they kept coming back. Since they were wind spirits, they were fast and didn’t have any trouble catching back up to her. And what was worse...
“It’s no good! They’re acting like they haven’t been damaged at all! They’re just like zombies!”
&nb
sp; What made zombie movies scary was that zombie hordes always came back, no matter what you did to them. And that was exactly the situation we had on our hands.
“Lea, let’s land. We won’t make it out of the valley like this!”
“...!”
Lea must have been too occupied to even respond, but she began to drop altitude rapidly. Of course, the sylpheeds followed, but Lea used a massive water shield that blocked their path and allowed us to land safely. Once we hit the ground, Lea was spit out of the white snake’s mouth.
“Gwah! Gah!”
“Huh...?”
If she was spit out instead of transforming back, did that mean that she’d separated the core of her body from the energy she’d stored up? But why would she do that?
“When they bit me... I felt something... enter my body,” she said between coughs. “To be safe... I isolated that part of me, but I lost a lot of energy in the process.”
“It’s fine. I think you did the right thing.”
There was one other thing that made zombie movies scary. The infections. Once somebody was bitten by a zombie, they became one, too, going berserk and attacking on sight. I didn’t know if movie logic applied here, but I figured it was best to be cautious.
For some reason, the sylpheeds didn’t come down to attack us in the forest. At the speeds they flew, maybe it was just too difficult for them to travel through the dense tree cover. But even though we’d just escaped one problem, we immediately had another to deal with.
“Sir Rekka!” I heard Harissa call to me in a panic.
We were free of the sylpheeds, but the zombie fairies had followed us.
“Run! Lea, can you stand?!”
“I’m all right...”
Lea got to her feet and nodded. Fortunately, or perhaps unfortunately, some of the zombie fairies seemed more interested in her dragon body than us. They swarmed to it and bit into the unmoving flesh.
“Sir Rekka, should I use my magic to make us all invisible?”
“Yeah, do it!”
“Ealim Nekram!”
Harissa quickly chanted her spell, and we all became invisible. However...
“What?! They can still see us?!”
The rest of the zombie fairies came straight for us anyway. Since we were in the forest, maybe they were following our footprints in the dirt. Or maybe the sounds of snapping twigs under our feet as we ran along. Either way, there was no point in staying invisible with them chasing us. I had Harissa end the spell.
We ran as fast as we could through the forest. There was no point trying to fly—the sylpheeds would just get us that way. But staying on the ground came with its own problems. We were at the bottom of the valley, so it looked like all we needed to do was climb upward to escape. That was what I thought, but the zombie fairies appeared at every turn no matter where we went. We scaled the hill but then were chased back down, and it wasn’t long before we ended up totally lost. Maybe “stranded” was more accurate.
“Hahh... Hahh...”
Trying to get out of the valley was like climbing up a mountain. There was no way anyone—not even someone with proper training—could keep it up forever. We were all starting to reach our limits, but the zombie fairies kept coming and showed no mercy.
“There’s more!” Lea yelled.
We all took the cue and started running again. Mio had long since run out of steam, so Lea was carrying her, but the rest of us were on our own. Corona had so much energy that it was hard to believe she’d been sick, but even she was starting to run out of breath. And then...
“Kyah!”
“Tsumiki!”
Tsumiki tripped on a branch and rolled down the slope two or three meters.
“Aah!”
I quickly ran over to help her up.
“Are you okay?”
“Y-Yeah. I don’t feel anything sprained or broken.”
Fortunately it seemed she wasn’t hurt, but...
“Rrrgh...”
It cost us just enough time for the zombie fairies to catch up.
“Rekka!”
Lea turned back, but there wasn’t time. She had her hands full with Mio. I put my hand on the hilt of the Hero’s Sword, which I’d wrapped in cloth to carry. The zombie fairies were slow and small, but I still wasn’t sure my amateur swordsmanship would be any match for them. There were easily seven or eight of them, and only one of me. Should I just try and buy time for Lea to put down Mio? I only had a split second to decide. But then... they walked right past us?
For some reason, the zombie fairies that had been chasing us so doggedly now completely ignored me and Tsumiki. I had no idea why, but I was glad all the same. We quickly got moving and caught up with the others. We ran past the slow-moving zombies as we did, but they didn’t even try and attack us. Were they only interested in certain kinds of people? Whatever it was, we knew they’d attack Lea, so we still needed to make an escape. But at this rate, we’d all be completely exhausted before I could come up with a plan. Visions of a horrible fate flashed through my mind, and as I tried to drive them away...
“This way!”
I suddenly heard someone call out to us. I looked around and saw a disembodied head sitting on the ground.
“Hurry! Before the sylphs see us! Get in here!”
Turns out it was a girl sticking her head out of a hole in the ground. But after calling out to us, she quickly ducked back down like she was telling us to hurry and follow her.
“Guys!”
I turned to the others, but they’d already gotten the hint. We all jumped as fast as we could into the hole.
▽
The hole in the ground was surprisingly big. It was about the size of my living room. It was deeper than I thought, too. I was worried about hitting my head, but it was enough of a drop that I tumbled and landed square on my butt when I jumped in. Once everyone else was inside, the girl who’d beckoned us in covered up the entrance and camouflaged it.
“...”
She held her ear against the sealed entrance for a moment before finally letting out a sigh of relief.
“It’s okay. They’re gone now.”
The rest of us breathed a sigh of relief, too. It seemed the danger had passed.
“Thanks. You really saved us.”
“It’s fine. You helped me, too, I think.”
“We did?”
She smiled when she saw the confusion on my face.
“I was out looking for food when they found me, but it seems like you drew their attention away long enough for me to escape.”
“I see. So we both helped each other out, huh?”
It made more sense once she explained it.
“I’m Lyun. Who are you?”
“Rekka Namidare.”
“Nami... dare? That’s a very long name. It’s too long to remember, so I’ll just call you Nammy.”
“Wh—”
Why did it have to be such a girly nickname? Tsumiki immediately burst out laughing, and Lea looked like she was seriously considering adopting it, too. Please don’t... I tried my best to subtly object to my new name, but it sounded like names as long as four syllables weren’t really a thing in this world.
“So, you came from a place called ‘Earth,’ Nammy?”
And so despite my best efforts, I got stuck being called “Nammy” anyway. At least she was able to learn Tsumiki, Lea, Mio, and Corona’s names just fine. But when Harissa introduced herself...
“Um, I’m Harissa Hope. I’m a sorcerer from Aburaamu...”
“Aburaamu?”
The name seemed to mean something to her.
“Do you know where that is, Lyun?”
She didn’t answer, but rather just stared at Harissa for a while before turning away.
“...”
Wh-What was that about? The mood suddenly seemed to turn awkward... I tried to think of something else to talk about, but as I looked at Lyun, I realized there was a strange floating circle just above her head
.
“Hey, Lyun, what’s that thing on your head?”
“Huh? What?”
Lyun didn’t seem to know what I was talking about.
“That’s what sylpheeds use to feel the wind, young man,” Corona said from beside me.
Wait. If Lyun was a sylpheed...
“Are you a survivor from the valley?” Corona asked before I could.
“Don’t make it sound like everyone’s dead...” Lyun said with a frown. “This is the valley of Windsong. Sylpheeds and sylphs alike live here. But two days ago, people started coming down with the Ghostdemon sickness.”
“Ghostdemon sickness?”
“That’s right.”
Ghostdemon? That didn’t sound like a good name. Just as I was about to ask for more details, Lyun’s tummy started to growl.
“Oh...!”
She put her hands over it, embarrassed. Her cheeks were a little red. Come to think of it, she said she’d gone out to get food or something. Was she hungry?
“Hang on a second.”
I took a light meal out of my pack and offered it to her.
“What’s this?”
“Food. Take it if you’re hungry.”
“Hmm...?”
She unwrapped the package, took a nibble... then grimaced and spit it out.
“What is this?! There’s no mana in it at all!”
“Mana?”
That wasn’t a word I was familiar with.
“Mana is similar to magical energy in the world you come from.”
So, they were basically the same thing, huh? Apparently in the spirit world, mana was constantly generated from a place called the mana spring. The mana spring filled all the land with mana. That mana was what made the trees and flowers grow. And when the spirits and fairies ate the mana-laden fruit those plants grew, they took the mana into their bodies, too.
“Spirits have two bodies, a material one and an astral one. The material body is what you humans would call the physical body, whereas the astral body is the mind, or the soul. The astral body requires a lot of mana to sustain, so a lack of it is fatal to them.”
“Hmm...”
Human sorcerers like Harissa used magical power for spells, but they didn’t need it to live. Mana was like an external battery for powering magic. Running out of it wouldn’t hurt her other than meaning she couldn’t cast spells for a while. But since spirits needed it to maintain their astral bodies, their souls would perish without it.
I Saved Too Many Girls and Caused the Apocalypse: Volume 7 Page 10