“Parry how?”
“…Just parry.”
The rigorous training sessions became more than mere pain and suffering. In fact they became almost…fun.
At the same time, the young Amazon who’d been taught to know nothing besides combat found herself dreaming of other, bigger things.
—She wanted to know how the story ended.
With every day that passed, her desire became stronger.
Then, one day.
Upon completing another rite, Kali happened to ask her if there was anything she wanted.
Tiona responded immediately.
“I want to know the end to this story.”
Her wish was granted, and a complete, undamaged book was sent for.
Tiona may have been an idiot at times, but she wasn’t stupid. And the pliable mind of a child was a powerful thing. Her interest sparked a flame inside her head, and soon, with Kali’s help, she was reading Koine with ease. She could still remember the looks Bache gave her—dejected, almost. In the cheerless world of the arena, she had discovered another type of excitement, one different from fighting, and Tiona found herself instantly enamored.
From then on, every time Tiona won a fight, she would ask for another book to add to her collection as a reward. It became a sort of bait, but also drew favor from Kali. And so, Tiona devoured more and more and more stories. She carted them back to her stone room, lost in their pages, rolling around in her bed as she pored over them late into the night by candlelight. With every day that passed, her collection grew larger, until Tione finally kicked the giant mountain over in a huff. This, of course, led to one of their habitual fights, and Tiona retaliated with her fists as tears welled up in her eyes.
The pieces of the story—the fragments of the epic—were changing her.
First and foremost, they acted as a catalyst for her idiocy and carefree optimism.
She began to laugh more.
Her laughter was childlike, imbued with bottomless joy.
She couldn’t even imagine how she must have looked in her sister’s eyes. It was probably just one more reason for Tione to be mad at her. After all, while Tione was slowly descending into her own personal hell, Tiona’s eyes were sparkling before the pages of books as she laughed and smiled like the village idiot.
Though raised under the same harsh conditions, the two sisters had diverged into light and dark—and all because of some story written on a little scrap of paper.
It was an abnormal thing for a happy-go-lucky soul to last long in this world of fighting and bloodshed. “Crazed warrior” indeed—before anyone had even realized it, the young girl was already taking full advantage of her title of “Berserker.” So much so that the other Amazons came to wonder if this emotionally stunted girl wasn’t touched in the head, far as that was from the truth.
Anytime anyone spoke to her, she laughed. In fact, she was always laughing.
She’d been saved by the power of the epic.
“…”
Aiz stared at the silent Amazon.
Tiona was completely motionless, watching the young girl disappear down the alley with her copy of the epic. Finally, she opened her mouth.
“You know, Aiz…”
“…Hmm?”
“You don’t think I’m…weird, do you? Laughing all the time?” she asked, bringing her hands up to lightly touch the sides of her cheeks.
Aiz was quiet for a moment.
Then she shook her head.
“It’s thanks to you that…I’m able to have as much fun as I do now.”
The words may have been few.
But they were enough to convey her message.
Tiona turned around with a smile, her cheeks flushed.
“Thanks, Aiz.”
And yet, despite her gratitude, something about her seemed off.
Rather than leap upon Aiz with her arms outstretched, she simply took off, continuing down the alley as though nothing had happened.
“…”
Aiz watched her friend walk away before finally falling into step behind her.
Around the same time that Aiz and Tiona were heading toward the Murdock estate, Lefiya and her small team were conducting a diligent investigation of their own.
If the Guild really is involved in this whole affair with the violas…we could be in for a mountain of trouble! Well, the same would be true for Njörðr Familia, I suppose…
The Guild here may have just been a branch, but it was still an administrative authority. If it was colluding with the remnants of the Evils, it’d be more than a problem—it’d be a catastrophe! Lefiya hadn’t been able to shake the feeling of dread in her stomach since Loki had announced them as one of their three targets that morning.
Despite her inner turmoil, she did her best to keep a straight face—Riveria and her beloved Aiz would do their best to get to the root of things—focusing, instead, on her current task of information gathering.
“…Hey, Miss?”
“?”
Lefiya turned around, only to find herself face-to-face with a young girl with light cocoa skin. Her immediate reaction was to brace herself—Kali Familia?!—but almost instantly, she relaxed her guard.
Having received the gods’ blessing herself, she knew not to let herself be lured into a sense of safety no matter how young or how small her enemy was, but the girl in front of her now didn’t have the aura of a familia member. She didn’t carry herself like someone with a Status on her back. There was no way she could have had anything to do with the adventurer or warrior professions.
Also there was the fact that the girl in front of her was decidedly human—not Amazonian. Height-wise, she came up to only about Lefiya’s abdomen, and from the lightweight clothes on her back, one could immediately recognize her as a resident of Meren.
Her shoulder-length black hair gave a tiny tremble as her dark tea-colored eyes gazed up in Lefiya’s direction.
“Are you an adventurer?…From Orario?”
“I am, yes. Is something the matter?”
No doubt, Loki Familia’s presence in the port town the last few days had made them a topic of conversation among the populace. As Lefiya bent over, the girl seemed to gather up her courage before leaning forward to whisper in Lefiya’s ear.
“I—I keep hearing this scary scream. In the place I like to play.”
“Scary scream…?”
“Yeah! It…it sounds just like those looooooong monsters that came outta the lake…”
“!”
Lefiya’s senses snapped into focus. “Long monsters” could only mean—the violas.
“I’m not supposed to tell any grown-ups. But…but I’m scared…”
“Where is it you heard the scary scream?”
“From…from over there…” she responded, finger pointing down the alley behind her.
“Rakuta! Elfie!” Lefiya called out, head snapping upward. The rest of her group, currently scattered about the area conducting their investigations, quickly gathered around her.
“You really think she…heard a monster?”
“It doesn’t seem to me like she’s lying…”
“It’s not like we have anything else to go on. Let’s see what we can find out.”
Lefiya listened to the Level-3 hume bunny and her human mage roommate back in Twilight Manor, then came to a decision. She glanced down the little back alleyway, quite a ways away from the main road, before returning her attention to the young girl.
“Do you think you could show us the way?”
The girl nodded.
“My name is Lefiya. What’s yours?”
“Chandie.”
And thus, the girl named Chandie began leading the group down the alley.
The tangled mix of throughways and byways behind the city proper was quite different from the main road, and Lefiya could imagine it would be all too easy to get lost if one wasn’t familiar with its twists and turns. Nevertheless, their young guide seemed well at home
as she led the group along, navigating the narrow streets with ease.
“…?”
As Lefiya followed immediately behind the girl, her long, slender ears suddenly twitched, almost as if they’d picked up on a slight, faint tremor.
Someone’s…watching us?
No one else seemed to have noticed. And, in fact, had Lefiya not participated in various adventures with Aiz and the other first-tiers, Lefiya wouldn’t have, either.
Uncertain as to whether she should say something, Lefiya found that the girl responded first—almost as if picking up on her hesitation.
“Those Amazons are here…aren’t they?” she asked without even turning around.
What?
She asked, or at least she’d been about to ask, when.
From directly overhead, the mysterious presence landed behind her without a sound.
“”
She didn’t even have a chance to turn around.
With terrifying speed, the figure came at her with a dagger, slicing into the back of her neck with pinpoint accuracy.
“Lefiya?!”
The world around her shook, and a dizzying sense of vertigo overtook her. Knees crumpling, she slumped to the ground.
Rakuta’s and Elfie’s dissonant screams swirled around her as the sudden intense sounds of fighting pounded in her ears. The cobblestones in front of her spun and warped as she fought the urge to vomit, what was happening, what was happening—
Chandie’s voice cut through the confusion above her.
“—There are those among the gods capable of suppressing their divine will.”
Though the voice itself was still childlike, her manner of speaking was dignified, like someone much older.
Lefiya’s azure eyes widened with a surprised start, even as her vision clouded.
“Zeus and Odin and the other great kings of the gods are not the only ones. They disguise themselves as children, blending in among the populace unnoticed…reveling in their own versions of merriment in the lower world.”
With what little strength she had left, Lefiya raised her head, just in time to see the young girl remove her wig. From beneath her black hair cascaded a waterfall of crimson locks. And from within her clothes, she retrieved a demon-like mask adorned with two long fangs.
Lefiya gazed up into the two open holes of the mask, where the goddess’s eyes, the same bloodred color as her hair, stared back down at her.
“You learn something new every day, child of Loki.”
All too quickly, the tables had turned.
The girl had become the goddess, radiating an almighty authority, while Lefiya had become the child, unenlightened and ignorant.
Even as her consciousness began to fail her, she felt shame wash over her, and she cursed her ineptitude.
“I hope you don’t mind if I borrow that body of yours for a while. I won’t do anything…too uncouth with it.”
The sounds of fighting behind her had stopped. A sandy-haired warrior, Bache, stepped forward to stand beside Kali, completely unharmed. That was the last thing Lefiya remembered before she completely blacked out.
“Argana…!” Tione screamed.
The woman in question simply smiled, her lips curled upward in snakelike amusement.
They’d been on their way to the Guild Branch Office when the Amazonian warrior had appeared in front of them, and she clearly had no intention of letting them pass.
“Didn’t you have enough already…?!” Tione growled, fists clenched and liable to jump forward at a moment’s notice.
“Tione, fall back! Calm yourself!”
Riveria shouted the warning, stopping the enraged Amazon in her tracks. Her weapon was being worked on like Aiz’s and Tiona’s, so the magic user’s only equipment for offense was a substitute staff. Still, she stepped forward, unafraid to face the Amazon in the road, even as the rest of her group shrank back in fear.
“If there is something you want, then speak. Otherwise, you will step aside.”
“…”
Argana simply stared at the unflappable high elf.
Eyes narrowing, she tore her gaze somewhat reluctantly from the dauntless high elf to lock eyes with the Amazon behind her, still staring daggers in her direction.
“Rhada fa arhlo. Nahaak jhi deena, noy phæ garaahdo sol die Hyrute.”
“”
The words brought time to a screeching halt.
Riveria’s brows furrowed as the rest of the group looked around in confusion, none of them able to understand the words, but Tione snapped.
“And just what is that supposed to mean, huh?! Tell me!!” she shouted, unable to keep herself under control any longer.
Argana just kept smiling.
At any second, it seemed Tione would lose her cool completely, when suddenly…
“Lady Riveria!”
The shout came from the opposite direction.
Everyone turned around to see an out-of-breath elf running toward them.
“What is it?” Riveria inquired, a sense of foreboding washing over her.
“R-Rakuta and the others…Lefiya…They’re…!” the elf tried to explain, looking very much as though she’d just seen a ghost.
The color drained from their faces. Startled, Tione whirled back around, only to find that in that tenth of an instant, the sandy-haired Amazon in front of them had disappeared.
“…!!”
Tione’s eyes dropped immediately to the ground, where a certain something had been left in Argana’s place.
Snatching it up, she hurried after Riveria and the others, her body still shaking.
“…Whoa, what?”
Loki deadpanned at the sight in front of her—her followers, covered in cuts and bruises with blood staining their clothes.
“Sorry, Loki…They were too much for us.” Rakuta apologized, her voice hoarse.
Loki had practically sprinted from Njörðr Familia’s home the second she’d heard the news, arriving at the port’s entrance only to find her followers looking very much worse for wear.
None of them had escaped serious injuries. And the wounds were clearly from combat—almost as if fists hard as steel had bludgeoned them a hundred times over. They’d used bits of cloth to staunch the bleeding, but those were already stained a dark red.
Rakuta was the only one who was still conscious.
“Rod! Could you lend me a hand? Quickly!”
“Roger that! C’mon, you good-for-nothings! Get your asses in gear!”
Njörðr called his captain, who was quick to respond. Rod shouted to his men, spurring the temporarily stunned fishermen of Njörðr Familia into a flurry of action.
“Who did this?” Loki asked, her voice low.
“…Kali Familia…They just…suddenly attacked…”
No doubt they’d thought this group would be easy prey given its lack of first- and even second-tier adventurers. And from Rakuta’s tearful account of the events, it seemed Bache alone had been responsible for taking them down.
“They…they took Lefiya…!”
It was humiliating.
They had made a completely unexpected attack in broad daylight, rubbing dirt in their faces and making a complete fool of the normally peerless Loki Familia.
But it was the damage they’d done to her precious followers that really made Loki’s blood boil.
“That damn midget…Pickin’ a fight with me, is she?!”
Loki’s normal indifference had all but disappeared, and a fiery hot flush of unadulterated rage had taken its place. As the rest of the familia began gathering around the scene after hearing the news, even those who’d been with Loki the longest—Aki and Alicia, to name a few—found themselves fearfully hesitant in the face of this new side to their goddess.
“Hey, hey, let’s not start a war right in the middle of the city, shall we…?” Njörðr grimaced wearily. He knew all too well how dangerous Loki could be when she got this look on her face.
But his words fell on
deaf ears. Despite the fury boiling within her, her eyes were as cold as ice. As she watched her followers being attended to, something caught her gaze, and her scarlet eyes narrowed.
The familia emblem had been torn off one of her followers’ clothes.
Tearing off the emblem…Is she declaring war here? But no, when they ran off with Lefiya, they would have…Ah. So that’s what’s goin’ on.
Loki scowled upon realizing just what it was her opponent was thinking—the atrocious, detestable plan Kali was currently concocting.
She raised her gaze toward her followers gathered around her.
“Get Tiona and Tione back here. We can’t let them out of our sight,” she ordered, though in the back of her mind, she feared she might already be too late.
“Is somethin’ happening?”
Around the time Loki was giving her order to find Tiona and Tione…
Tiona and Aiz were already on their way back from their infiltration mission at the Murdock estate. As soon as they heard that members of Loki Familia had been attacked, they took off, practically running full tilt the rest of the way to the pier.
“!!”
First Aiz, then Tiona shot past the trade pier, about to continue on to the fishing quarter, when…
“—Tiona. Over here.”
“Huh? Tione?!”
Tione appeared from out of nowhere, grabbing Tiona’s wrist and yanking her away.
She didn’t stop until the two of them were separated from Aiz and in a dark alleyway a short distance away, where Tiona finally shook off her sister’s grip.
“What the hell are you doin’, Tione?! Didn’t you hear? Somethin’ happened! We need to be out there seein’ if we can—!”
But Tione didn’t let her finish.
“Rhada fa arhlo. Nahaak jhi deena, noy phæ garaahdo sol die Hyrute.”
We’ve taken a hostage. If you want her back, you and your sister will come to the shipyard tonight—alone.
“!”
“That’s what Argana said to me earlier. Rakuta and the others were attacked and…Lefiya was taken hostage,” she explained.
Tiona’s eyes widened.
“Those…those bastards! Using the rest of our familia to lure us in…!” Tione hissed. She was having trouble holding back the tumult of emotions, both a relentless rage to rival her goddess’s and a sense of responsibility for involving her companions.
Is It Wrong to Try to Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon? On the Side: Sword Oratoria, Vol. 6 Page 14