But the warm support of her friend did nothing but irritate her now.
“Aiz, please. I want to be alone. I’ve…become something I didn’t want to become.”
“Tione…if there’s anything at all I can do—”
—let me know.
Or, at least, that’s what she would undoubtedly have said before Tione interrupted her.
“You have secrets, too, right? Things you don’t wanna tell us?”
“!”
“So don’t you think that’s a little unfair? Saying nothing about yourself but expecting everyone else to bare everything to you?!” Tione snapped, thrusting Aiz’s goodwill right back at her.
Aiz’s gaze fell.
“I’m sorry…”
The near-whisper seemed to echo in the corridor.
But it was Tione who was truly sorry at what had just transpired. Quickly, as though running away from the other girl, she hurried on ahead.
“What’s wrong with me…?” She cursed at herself, filled with self-loathing as she made her way not back to the common room but to an empty private room, yanking open the door and stepping inside. She let herself collapse onto the bed.
All of a sudden, she was overcome by an intense feeling of fatigue.
“Why…why did they have to be here…?” she moaned, hands clenched around the bedsheets.
As her eyelids grew as heavy as lead, her dreams called her to sleep.
Ever since she could open her eyes, Tione had been a part of that country.
The forsaken island of Telskyura.
A nation of female warriors, Amazons, whose ceaseless rituals of bloodshed had been continuing since their goddess had come into power. The first two things she could remember were a searing heat on her back and the sound of someone crying—she didn’t know if it was herself or someone else.
Falna. Since the moment they were born, Tione and the other girls of Telskyura had been christened as children of their goddess.
It was said that the Amazons of Telskyura knew how to kill a goblin before they even knew how to speak. What with their latent abilities unlocked by the Falna, along with their first baptism—being placed in front of a goblin child and forced to fend for themselves—by the time they could take their first steps, they were every bit a warrior. In fact, for as long as Tione could remember, her hand had been gripping a sword.
She didn’t know what the warmth of a mother’s hand felt like.
She wouldn’t know her parents if she saw them. She wouldn’t be able to pick out their voices.
She had no semblance of family save one—the girl she’d recognized instantly as her other half the moment they saw each other. And she was sure it had been the same for Tiona, too.
“They told me you’re the big sister and I’m the little sister!”
“Hmph.”
The word sisters had been nothing more than a word to the young twins, but it would grow to become a powerful bond.
To be respected in Telskyura, one had to be a true warrior.
Strength was everything in this holy land of the Amazons. It was truth. Those with strength were lauded, given status and prestige. Contrastingly, the weak, who were defeated in combat and denied even the honor of a noble death, were forced to serve their country and superiors as part of the labor force. Bloodshed was a means of attaining true warriorhood, a staircase, a time-honored national custom. Telskyura was an embodiment of Amazonian instinct in every way.
Enter the goddess Kali, who was every bit as fond of combat as the Amazons.
Her blessing further developed the Amazons’ abilities, making their battles all the more violent. The warriors revered this bringer of strength as their one and only god, and the perpetual fighting and bloodshed flourished.
Did Tione feel remorse for the endless days she’d been forced to fight? No.
Truthfully, she’d had no real problem with it.
Had she been unable to fight off the monsters coming at her, she’d have been killed. This was simply basic instinct. Above all, she was an Amazon—it was in her nature. Fighting gave her a natural high that got her blood pumping.
No, it wasn’t the days and nights she spent in combat, experiencing all that power, that filled her with such enmity. In fact, that was all she’d known back then. Defeat the monsters in the arena, then return to her large stone room with naught but the necessities of life—her days had consisted of nothing but this back-and-forth path. Her entire world had consisted of the zealous cries of her brethren and the cold, cold stones of the battlefield.
It was when she’d first had to face off against her own sisters that her days of fighting had begun to lose their appeal.
By the time the monsters in the arena had turned into her fellow Amazons, it had already been too late for Tione. Her peers, similar in age and height, had fought harder than the monsters she was so used to, and though it had been difficult at first, soon, she was picking them off as quickly as the monsters that had come before.
“Ahhh…”
The first time she’d heard one of her sisters’ dying cries, it had sounded so weak.
Though the same blood spilled from their veins as the monsters she’d slain, it seemed somehow even more vivid.
As she’d watched the life fade from the eyes of the girl beneath the mask she had to wear, Tione had felt her heart stir. It had been a strange feeling she couldn’t quite describe. Upon returning to her room of stone, she’d found her sister, Tiona, normally uncontainable in her excitement, simply staring off into space with the blood of her brethren staining her skin. That night, Tione had washed herself again and again and again in the icy cold water.
The number of girls she’d had to fight only grew from that day forth.
She cut them down with her weapons, bludgeoned them with her fists, wrung their necks using the skills she’d acquired. She’d practically been born on the battlefield, and she knew nothing of right from wrong. And yet, the stirring in her heart refused to be assuaged. She couldn’t understand why—why was this any different from the monsters she’d once slaughtered so easily? She could still feel the give of their skin beneath her fingers, the crunch of their bones against her fist. Even long after the battle was over, she could still hear their screams, those agonizing wails that escaped their lips mere moments before death.
The cheers from the women in the audience would go on and on and on when she won. They’d revered her, the devourer of the weak. This is right, their voices had said, as her goddess Kali sat on high, looking down at her with a smile on her face.
Maybe she’d just grown weary and learned to ignore the stirring in her heart, dulling it with apathy. Still, she began to yearn for the days when she’d had to fight nothing but monsters.
And yet, even in the darkest of times, light finds a way.
It had come in the form of another Amazon who was almost like a sister, generous and caring. Tione, Tiona, and the other girls, too, had all been quite fond of her. Every time Tione would return to their room after another battle, she’d been there to greet her with a warm smile. She’d been strong, too, the strongest of them all, always there waiting before anyone else.
Perhaps Tione even thought of her like a mother. Her hands had tended to her wounds, rough yet gentle. They’d all gathered around her, craving the warmth of another’s touch as they’d slept side by side on the floor. That room, that cold stone room, more like a prison than anything else, was the only “home” Tione had ever known.
The rites had a law that prohibited combat between Amazons of the same room—a law that the girls had begun to discover the longer they fought.
This law had been a breath of relief to Tione. She wouldn’t have to fight the girl who’d long taken care of her, nor the girls whose faces she knew so well, nor her own sister, Tiona. That place, the home she’d created, would never change.
That’s what she’d believed.
And then her fifth birthday had arrived, and she’d been summoned to
the arena, the same as any other day…
“…”
Tione opened her eyes.
It felt like she hadn’t slept a wink thanks to the flashback that had served as her dream. It was the same way she’d felt upon waking for the last two days.
As she sat up and wiped the sweaty bangs from her eyes, she noticed someone else sleeping in the bed right next to hers.
Tiona.
Though Tione hadn’t returned to their shared room, Tiona had still found her and spent the night here next to her.
Tione was silent as she watched her sister sleep.
She’d always been like this, wanting to be by Tione’s side whenever something happened. She wouldn’t say anything, simply gravitating toward her, as though seeking out her other half.
Just like she’d done back then.
Before they’d joined Loki Familia.
When it had been just the two of them.
Giving her sister one last look, she quietly slipped out of the room.
“…”
Tiona’s eyelids flicked open the moment the door closed.
The next morning, Aiz and the others split up into groups before heading out into the city.
They needed to gather as much information as they could on the sudden appearance of the violas in the lake.
“A giant, man-eating flower? No idea. Weird stuff’s always coming up out of the lake and ocean around here.”
“If we’re countin’ hits to the hull, these ships are takin’ constant beatings from monsters and whatnot. That’s how we shipbuilders make a profit!”
“Haven’t had many casualties wound here lately. Mewen’s been pwetty peeshful.”
“Whenever beasties crop up, we just leave ’em to Njörðr Familia. Those fishermen are a lot stronger than your average adventurer. If things really got out of control, well, we’d simply contact the Guild and they’d send us help from Orario.”
Aiz, Lefiya, and the rest of the recon group went from person to person—a young human man managing an open-air shop, an elven ship captain (rare as they were), a tanned catgirl wandering around selling ice-cold juice, and a dwarven bar owner currently in his apprenticeship—asking for any info they could offer on violas or other monsters in the lake.
“It would seem no one knows anything about the violas.”
“Yeah, yesterday’s sighting must have been the first…”
Lefiya and Aiz looked out across the bustling crowd of the city’s main street from their vantage point in front of a small alleyway. They and the rest of their group were taking a much-needed respite from the sun’s rays.
“I guess that means…” Aiz continued with a murmur, “the lake and the sea are both safe…”
“It would seem that way…If those giant things really were appearing frequently, they’d be causing quite a lot of damage.”
If the violas were tough enough to give even first-tier adventurers a run for their money, frequent spawnings would be a cause for panic. From what they’d heard from the laymen of the area, however, the lake and its surrounding sea had been perfectly calm as of late.
Which meant they’d reached something of an impasse.
“Certainly there’s no way the violas are being killed before they’re able to cause any damage…right? Then what could possibly be going on?”
As Lefiya racked her brain next to her, Aiz simply stared off into the busy street.
“The drainage channel seems…in order.”
Aki and Leene were on their way back to Meren after checking out the river nearby that acted as Lolog Lake’s drain receptacle. The Guild had long been banging their heads against the wall at the raider fish and other monsters that used the river as a way to gain access to Orario’s sewer system, turning it into a cesspool for breeding. In fact, only a short while ago, Loki and Bete had even discovered a viola in the old sewers. Rather than using it as a way to travel from the lake to the city, it seemed more likely that the flower had been using the sewers as a way to return to the lake. Which was why Aki and the others were checking up on it now.
“The mythril grate seems firmly in place…”
“I’d heard they were going to fix it ever since those monsters did a number on it, but I didn’t know it was finished already.”
Drainage water gushed out in great, heavy deluges from behind the silver barricade at the hole to the main sewage pipe. They were a short ways to the northwest of Orario, having descended the gently sloping hill that led to the entrance of the city’s sewers.
True to Leene’s words, the drainage pipe, with its view of the city walls and their accompanying guard post, had been effectively sealed off thanks to the mythril grating covering its opening. Not only would it be able to hold back large monsters like the violas, it looked as though it would have no problem keeping out mid- and small-scale monsters like the raider fish, too. And it showed no signs of breakage.
The girls watched as the clean, purified water, free from its preprocessed stink, poured into the pool below.
“Then there’s no way those flowers could have reached the lake from here…unless it made the trek quite some time ago.” Aki followed this up with a grumble as she brought a hand to her slender chin in thought.
“Nasty-looking flower creatures, huh…? Come to think of it, we were pretty shocked by those things yesterday,” Njörðr mused in response to Loki’s question, a large sack hoisted up on his shoulder.
She was in Nóatún, Njörðr Familia’s home.
As Aiz and the rest of her followers went about on their investigative missions, Loki was off collecting information herself. Currently she was interrogating Njörðr, her old friend, in his home’s storehouse connected to the lake-facing port.
“You’re the main man around here, ain’t ya? You haven’t heard about any, you know, suspicious goings-on recently, have ya?”
“I’m afraid I’m only the ‘main man’ when it comes to matters of the fishing variety. I don’t dip my fingers into any other pots and have no delusions of becoming the next Poseidon,” he pointed out with a wry smile as he hefted his sack—“Alley-oop!”—into a corner of the storehouse. “I’m constantly up to my ears in fish. No room for talk of these ‘suspicious goings-on’ of yours.”
“Oh, gimme a break!” Loki shot back from behind him, seated cross-legged on a nearby crate.
“You’ll have to forgive me. I must admit I was quite surprised when I heard of your true intentions in coming to Meren…” he explained with a sigh as he rubbed the back of his neck.
Loki stared at his back in silence.
“Things have been peaceful here in Meren for many years now…at least, until what happened yesterday. Ask anyone around here and they’ll tell you the same.”
The violas’ attack on Kali Familia’s boat the day prior had been the first thing to rile up the port in quite some time. Though Tiona and Tione might have been the ones who forced the giant flowers to the water’s surface, the fact still remained that the violas had been there in the first place. To think they’d simply have stayed there on the lake floor, minding their own business and not attacking anyone was unreasonable…right? It seemed much more probable that some creature tamer had set them loose there—or, at least, that’s what Loki thought.
“That reminds me, you still on bad terms with the Guild?”
“Hmm? Ah…same old, same old, yes. Even though we aren’t adventurers, they still constantly try to bring us over to their side, and every time we refuse, they tax the hell out of our shipments of fish,” Njörðr explained none too enthusiastically.
This same practice had been going on since, or perhaps even before, Loki and the others had first come to Orario through Meren’s harbor.
“Not much we can do, unfortunately, given that Orario’s not only right next door but our biggest business partner to boot. They say it’s the general consensus from their side, but I know it’s a lie—more like a petty revenge tactic. I could see through it from the very beginning
. Makes me jealous of Demeter Familia and the preferential treatment they get despite their different affiliation.”
“We’ve had troubles of our own, too.”
The “Guild” Njörðr spoke of that was making life miserable for him here in the lower world wasn’t the main Guild Headquarters in Orario.
There was another Guild here in Meren.
“Have you already gone to the Guild Branch Office?” Njörðr suddenly asked, returning to the business at hand.
“Yep,” Loki responded. “Riveria’s actually there right now.”
The stone lobby of the Guild Branch Office was considerably smaller than that of the main headquarters in Orario.
While it was a decent-size building in and of itself, the giant pantheon that was the lobby of the headquarters, bustling with activity day and night, was simply too big to make a proper comparison. Most of the relatively few uniformed attendants who worked there did so not at the front counter but, instead, performing routine office work such as filing port entry permits and checklists of commercial goods.
It was just one of the sub-branches the main Guild in Orario had established outside the city. While the roles of each branch varied depending on their location, this building in Meren acted as the gateway to the sea, directing all matters relating to the port and managing the import and export of goods—magic-stone commodities, for instance—for the city.
This atmosphere, so different from that of the main headquarters, currently surrounded Riveria as she stood alone before the front desk.
“Giant man-eating flowers…? Hmm…can’t say I know ’em!”
Riveria returned her attention to the man in front of her.
The attendant at the front desk was a long, oval-faced human man. Tall and skinny, he was almost what you could call lanky, and the features below his perfectly coiffed dark hair were expressing some impatience.
Rubart was his name.
The head of the branch and the one in charge.
“You’re quite sure?”
“You think I’d lie? We haven’t heard anything about this kind of new species, not even from the main headquarters in Orario,” Rubart retorted, clearly annoyed at having to respond to the same question three times.
Is It Wrong to Try to Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon? On the Side: Sword Oratoria, Vol. 6 Page 8