“It’s my way of thanking you. I’m really grateful for you helping me,” she said.
There was no point in refusing such a generous offer, so we decided to take her up on it.
“I think you’d be best off at an inn run by sylpheeds,” she said.
“Yeah, probably.”
A fire spirit inn would be really hot, and an earth spirit inn would probably be dirty. From what we’d seen in Windsong Valley, the sylpheeds liked to make cottages, and that kind of taste suited all of us just fine. We rented three rooms on the second floor of an inn run by a sylpheed couple, and gathered to eat supper on the first floor.
“They don’t use any seasonings, do they? It’s a very natural taste,” Tsumiki said as she bit into a fruit that looked and tasted like white fish.
She seemed especially interested in the food here, just like she’d been when we went to outer space. If only her cooking ability was commensurate with her enthusiasm for food...
“I prefer stuff with a little more flavor to it,” Lea said.
“Yeah, you like stuff with strong flavors. Oh, right. I’ll borrow the kitchen and make something for you later.”
“That would be great.”
Lea smiled at Tsumiki’s plan. It might not have been right for Lea, but I liked the simple flavor of the dishes. The other girls mostly seemed to agree. I didn’t get to hear what Corona thought, though. She was still keeping to herself.
“...”
Once we got to the inn, she’d gone into her room and hadn’t come out since. According to Harissa, her bunkmate, she’d said she was tired and had gone to sleep almost immediately.
I took it upon myself to stop by after dinner.
“Hey, are you sure you don’t want to eat anything?” I asked from the door.
All I got in response was a quiet, “Yes.”
She didn’t sound like she’d been asleep. But it didn’t seem right to force her to come out and join us, so I let her be.
“All right, I guess it’s time to head to the palace.”
“Yes,” said Lyun.
“Everyone else, stay here and get some rest.”
With that, Lyun and I left the inn.
▽
The “palace” wasn’t, strictly speaking, a building. It was really the inside of a massive, 500- or 600-meter tall tree called the World Tree. It had everything you could possibly need to govern a country on the inside. So, even if it wasn’t a real building, it was certainly a real castle. It certainly seemed as functional as Aburaamu’s castle.
Lyun told one of the water spirits who worked there what she needed, and they told her to wait for a while before leaving for another room. Without much choice or anything else to do, the two of us just sat in some kind of waiting room.
“...”
“...”
Time always passes slowly when you’re waiting for something. It must’ve been especially hard for Lyun. Her homeland was in terrible peril right now. If it were me, I might’ve just shaken the water spirit when they told me to wait. When I told Lyun that...
“Things are really bad, yes. That’s why I can’t afford to mess this up.”
“Honestly, I didn’t think you’d be so clear-headed right now.”
“That’s a little rude, don’t you think?”
“Oh, um... Sorry.”
Maybe it was her dress, the color of fresh green leaves, or maybe it was that she was a fairy, a creature of fantasy, but Lyun struck me as rather young. But when we first met in the valley, she wasn’t panicking at all. And even what happened after that... I wasn’t really sure how to describe it, but she seemed to be carrying a very serious weight. It was probably just her desire to save the valley, but...
“I apologize for the wait. Please come this way.”
The water spirit from before finally returned, and it guided the two of us to a staircase further into the palace. The staircase led up several floors before passing through what looked like some kind of government office. When we reached the end of it, we were led to a meeting room. There, we were finally able to meet with what appeared to be a very important spirit. However...
“I’m sorry, but we can’t send a medical team to your valley immediately.”
It wasn’t the news we wanted to hear.
▽
By the time we got back to the inn, it was already late at night.
“What? Why won’t they help?” Harissa asked when I told her what had happened. She was looking a little pale.
“Apparently it’s not just Windsong Valley where the mana spring has dried up.”
Getting right down to it, that was the heart of the problem. The mana spring, the source of the mana that formed the souls of the spirits and fairies of this world, was drying up all over the country.
Huge amounts of mana would be needed to cure the Ghostdemon sickness plague. The infected parts of a spirit’s astral body would need to be purged, then healed with new mana. And that was for each person affected. But even healthy spirits needed the mana-filled fruit of the land to live. The government couldn’t take away limited food resources from people to try and heal the sick.
In a sense, you could say that the spirit world was in the middle of a great famine. An infection that created zombies. A famine. It was pretty common in zombie movies for the survivors to struggle to find food in an apocalyptic world, but this was on a totally different level.
There was a moment of silence in the room as everyone thought about the sheer scale of the problem.
“...I have an idea. Could you use dark matter to cure the fairies and spirits who are sick?” Tsumiki asked, unable to bear the silence any longer. “You know, the food I cook makes Lea really powerful, right? It may not be good for humans to eat, but maybe spirits could...”
“Even if that were true, they need to purge the mana that’s been infected from their astral bodies. But once someone’s been completely overtaken by Ghostdemon sickness, they can’t do that themselves anymore. What they told me was that you need a doctor with special skills to perform surgery at that point.”
So, not only was there a shortage of mana, there was also a shortage of doctors.
“Maybe you could’ve restored their mana with dark matter before the disease took over, but...”
“I see...”
This time, nobody said anything.
“I’ll go tell Corona, I guess,” I said, and then headed to the room she’d locked herself in. “Corona, can I come in?”
“...Fine.”
A cold voice answered from the other side of the door. I opened it hesitantly. Corona was sitting on the bed with her arms wrapped around her knees. She looked at me when I came in.
“Do you need something?”
“Well, um... I went to the palace.”
I told her what I’d just told the others.
“I see... So? What are you going to do?”
“What am I going to do?”
“You wanted to go to Aburaamu and then back to your ‘Earth,’ right?”
“That’s true, but...”
We’d spent three days in this world. That meant that back home, it was just about to become July 24th. I was curious as to what Satsuki’s group was up to, but they were probably worried about me too since I hadn’t come home. I knew I should get back as soon as possible, but...
“I can’t just leave Lyun here... I’d like to find some solution for this.”
“...Why?”
“Huh?”
At some point, Corona had turned towards me, and she was staring deep into my eyes.
“Why are you so intent on trying to help others? That Mio girl’s got problems of her own, right? And you’ve also got other things to do back in your home world. So why are you so willing to get involved in the problems of this world and these people you barely even know? It’s insane.”
“Oh... Yeah, I guess I never had a chance to tell you.”
On our way to Windsong Valley, Corona had essent
ially been in a coma, and she’d been so standoffish on the way to the capital that we hadn’t had a chance to talk much. She didn’t know about the bloodline of the Namidare yet. It was a long story, no matter how short I tried to make it, so I asked permission to sit down on her bed before I told her all about who I was.
“You’ve got a pretty tough destiny, huh?”
“Not as bad as it was. Now I’ve got friends I can count on. And you were a hero in Aburaamu, weren’t you? So you’re not really in a position to talk.”
“I don’t know... I didn’t exactly volunteer to try and save the world,” she whispered before falling silent.
She was looking at the Hero’s Sword, which was leaning up against the wall in a corner of the room.
“But you managed to seal the Demon King and save Aburaamu, right?”
“Yeah, I guess. At first, I really didn’t want to. The person who summoned me, her name was Pastel... She was just this awful person. I told her to send me home over and over, and she just refused. When I didn’t want to do something, she’d hit me with her staff or kick me. She dragged me all across the land, and before I knew it, I’d saved the world.”
“I-I see...”
Wow. Being the original hero sounded rough. But when Corona talked about Pastel, she...
“Sheesh. Just remembering her ticks me off.”
She had a tiny smile on her face, like she’d kind of enjoyed it. She must not have really hated this Pastel person. Or maybe she’d decided to slay the Demon King for Pastel’s sake, just like I’d done with Harissa. There was not a doubt in my mind that Corona was the real deal when it came to being a hero. But that also made me curious.
“Corona.”
“What?”
“Why were you... Why were you sealed inside the Ruler’s Dungeon?”
It had been on my mind since we first met Corona. Why had she been sealed down there like someone never wanted her to come out again?
“I told you about my bloodline, right?”
“...”
“If there’s some secret you’re keeping—something that’s keeping your story from being over—can you please tell me about it? I’m sure it’s something I’m supposed to help you with...”
If Corona still had a problem, I wanted to help. Sane or not, it was what I’d decided to do, and I was going to follow through on that.
“I...” Corona started to say something for a moment, but then choked it back and shook her head. “I don’t have any secrets.”
“Corona...”
“I was sealed in the Ruler’s Dungeon of my own free will. But...” She cut herself off and smiled bitterly. “The loneliness I felt down there in that cold, dark place all alone... It was beyond what I imagined. All I could do was sleep. I lost count of how many times I would dream of the past and awake to disappointment. Perhaps it’s fully my fault for getting myself into that situation... but I’m deeply grateful that you got me out.”
“...”
“You truly saved me, young man.”
I didn’t even know what to say to that, so I decided to draw our talk to an end there.
“Okay... I’m heading back to my room. I need to think about what comes next.”
“All right.”
Clatter...
When I got up, I thought I heard something strange outside. When I went to check, however, there was nobody there. It was strange, but I had plenty of other things on my mind and went to my room anyway. I laid down on the bed and tried to think, but I must’ve been more tired than I thought. I started to doze off immediately...
▽
“...Huh?!”
Crap... I must’ve fallen asleep. I was planning on getting some rest, but I was still annoyed with myself for conking out at a time like this. The room was pitch black. Where was the light again?
“R, what time is it?”
“About 5:00 AM, I think.”
I was the only one in the room, so I could talk to R freely without having to worry. If it was morning, did that mean it was July 24th already?
“I wonder if everybody’s awake.”
The girls had split up into two other rooms: Harissa, Lea, and Corona in one, and Tsumiki, Lyun, and Mio in another. I wanted to check on them, but I wasn’t sure if it was okay to visit a girl’s room at this hour. Just as I was thinking about what to do, the door to my room burst violently open and several spirits came flooding in.
“What?!”
“Stay quiet!” one of them yelled, and then pushed me to the floor before I could respond.
“Who are you people?”
I was yelling, but they just yelled back louder.
“Silence, servant of the Demon King!”
Needless to say, I had no idea what they were talking about.
“Huh? What...?”
All I could do was lie there in shock.
▽
We were taken by the spirit soldiers to a cage made from vines and wood, and from there, we were carted off to the palace. It looked like it would be simple to tear through the woven vine bars, but they were enhanced with some kind of magic. It wasn’t going to be easy to escape.
All our belongings were confiscated, and we were given what the spirits called mana handcuffs. They were shackles that drained all the energy from our bodies, leaving us with just enough strength to move our eyes and mouths. When I looked around, I realized Lyun and Mio weren’t with us.
“Where are they...?” I whispered to Tsumiki, who’d been in the room with them.
“I don’t know...”
She was apparently just as clueless as I was. Maybe they’d stepped out to go to the bathroom and escaped...? I didn’t know, but I assumed it was better to stay focused on our situation for the time being.
All the soldiers around us were on edge, and it looked like they were ready to kill us at any time. I hadn’t done anything that would make them mad, as far as I knew. I racked my brain trying to figure out what these spirits could have meant by calling me a servant of the Demon King.
“Funnily enough, we actually defeated the Demon King... Two of us have, no less.”
I thought I’d try and lighten the mood a little bit, but Corona said nothing. Maybe this wasn’t the time for jokes...
“What’s going to happen to us?”
“They’ll probably let us go once they realize there’s been a misunderstanding... But I don’t know why this happened in the first place.”
And we didn’t know where Lyun and Mio were, either. Even if we did manage to bust our way out, it would be hard to find them in the capital. We would essentially be abandoning their stories.
My biggest priority now was finding out what was happening. When we got to the World Tree palace, the cage we were in was magically lifted to the top. There was nothing in sight but a door that led further in and a staircase that led up. There were more soldiers present, though, as well as an older man who was dressed quite different from the others.
“Sire, we’ve brought them here.”
“Good work,” the man said as he motioned for the soldiers to step back.
Wait, if the soldiers were calling him “sire,” then...
“Are you the Spirit King?”
“That’s right.”
The man nodded. His dignified bearing suggested both great age and authority. He was looking at the lot of us with strange eyes that were four colors: red, blue, yellow, and green. I couldn’t tell exactly which one of us it was, but he seemed to have fixated on someone in particular.
“Are you the Demon King and his servants?”
“No,” I said.
“....”
The Spirit King didn’t seem particularly perturbed by my denial.
“There’s no sense in trying to fool me,” he said.
“I’m sorry, but what...? I don’t know who this Demon King you’re talking about is, but have you ever seen him?”
The Demon King I knew was a giant dragon. I thought it was pretty obvious ju
st looking at us that none of us had anyone like that in our family tree. Well, maybe Lea’s Leviathan form was pretty spot-on, but of course she wasn’t the Demon King.
“True... There are many stories of the Demon King who once invaded the spirit world, but there are so many different stories about him that it’s impossible to know what he truly looks like.”
“Then you’re mistaken about this whole thing. I don’t know why you’re doing this, but it’s got nothing to do with us.”
“No, that’s impossible.” Now it was his turn to tell me I was wrong. “There may be no reliable accounts of what the Demon King looks like, but there are two things we know for sure.”
With that, he beckoned to the soldiers to bring something forward.
“This is one of them.”
It was the Hero’s Sword, now unwrapped. They must have taken it from our room at the inn.
“But what does the sword prove?”
The Spirit King responded by summoning a small ball of fire with one hand and flinging it at the sword in his other. Of course, the fireball was split in two by the blade and disappeared.
“A sword that cuts through magic. This is the Demon King’s sword, the Demon Blade that once terrified our world.”
“...Huh?”
I knew that the sword could cut through magic, or really anything that used mana. But... “Demon Blade”?
“Wait a second! That’s called the Hero’s Sword...”
“Nonsense. This fearsome weapon nullifies even our strongest magic, and tears mercilessly through our astral bodies! There is no defending from it! You would suggest this is a hero’s weapon? Impossible!”
We were just talking past each other... What in the world was going on? Desperate, I looked to R.
“There’re two possibilities. One is that the Demon King who once attacked this world had a weapon identical to the Hero’s Sword. The other is much simpler...”
As usual, R assessed the situation in a completely deadpan fashion.
“The ‘Hero’s Sword’ and the ‘Demon Blade’ are just two names for the same thing. And...” In a flat voice, she said, “In that case, it’s likely that the hero and the Demon King are the same person.”
I Saved Too Many Girls and Caused the Apocalypse: Volume 7 Page 13