Ch.130130. Never Stepped on a Worm, Yet the Snake Writhes (3)

Feathery clouds flowed like a river in the sky the day after the rain. The sun, drawing closer at the boundary between spring and summer, heated the ground, but people felt a strange coolness. Livestock trembled at the smell carried by winds from unknown origins. Dogs curled their tails and hid, and roosters didn’t crow even when morning came.

As Daphne anxiously gazed out the window, a half-submerged voice reached her ears. Third night without sleep. Dark shadows formed under Nella’s sunken eyes. The stack of papers Nella held was evidence of her all-nighters. Papers covered with complex calculations and magic circles trembled palely, just like Nella’s face.

“The problem is that if there’s even the slightest error, everything becomes completely worthless.”

Several papers fluttered to the ground, but Nella didn’t acknowledge them. Though she knew she’d have to pick them up later, she seemed determined to ignore them for now.

“So we need to deploy an impossibly large-scale magic with impossibly precise calculations. We only have one chance, and the mana supply is dangerously limited.”

Nella irritably set down the stack of documents and picked up her coffee cup. Looking at her reflection in the pitch-black surface, she grimaced intensely.

“We don’t even have a chance to practice. Just preparing to activate the magic takes over three days. Meanwhile…”

Nella gulped down her coffee. The bitter taste slid down her tongue and esophagus. Like an addict, she let out a long, satisfied sigh before continuing.

“And the monsters are annoyingly prowling around. What’s going on? I don’t remember having to fight both a calamity and monsters at the same time. We used to only focus on one thing.”

“I know. It seems like this time they’re really determined to exterminate humanity.”

Unlike Nella’s complaint-filled words, Daphne seemed indifferent. Nella now understood that this was her way of deliberately hiding her true feelings.

“Shouldn’t we start looking for Ilroy soon? If we wait until the last moment, we might face unmanageable damage. We don’t know when monsters might attack, and we don’t have perfect countermeasures for the comet either.”

Nella tried hard to convince Daphne, asking her to understand at least that much. As always, Daphne shook her head, rejecting Nella’s proposal.

“No. Nothing urgent has happened yet. We should wait until the end.”

“That was your answer last time too.”

“Good. It will be my answer from now on too. If you remember that, there’s no need to ask anymore.”

As she spoke, Daphne stared out the window. Under the pouring sunlight, there were fewer people on the streets than usual. The guards patrolling had stiff gaits.

“…I was wondering why there aren’t many people—it’s because there are no adventurers.”

Nella muttered, standing beside Daphne and gazing out the window. Daphne nodded as if entranced by those words. Entry to and exit from the royal capital had begun to be strictly controlled except in extremely rare cases. Adventurers, realizing that monster movements were becoming strange, grudgingly accepted this despite their dissatisfaction.

Those whose confidence turned to recklessness left the castle walls and never returned. Their bodies couldn’t even be recovered. The search parties might have been endangered trying to find them. The deaths of adventurers who violated regulations remained unconfirmed, classified as permanently missing persons on search lists that might never be executed.

“…I heard all entry and exit is prohibited except for the regular transport once a week? The adventurers must be strongly opposed to this. It’s like their jobs suddenly disappeared.”

They live day to day. A small minority might protest, but the principle remained the same. Adventurers who worried about tomorrow’s meals fiercely opposed the royal decision. Some rolled into back alleys, while many others openly broke the law and were taken to underground prisons by guards.

“Even though they’ve recruited many adventurers as escorts for the regular transport, they only let out those who meet the qualifications. The remaining adventurers are just left behind. Well, I heard they’re hiring adventurers for temporary defense forces. There are no qualifications for that, but I wonder how many will participate right away.”

“It’s worrying. In many ways.”

A shout came from an alley. It was a sound that had become frequent lately. Nella briefly rolled her eyes toward the direction of the sound, then returned them to normal. It was probably someone caught stealing something, or two sensitive adventurers getting into a fight.

“There’s a lot of smuggling too. These days, there are people who run into the streets of the royal capital shouting about the end of the world. They’re really excited since even the hero is gone.”

Of course, those who proclaimed the end of the world would disappear like vapor the next day. Rumors abounded that people dressed in black would suddenly appear from somewhere and take them away.

“I never thought I’d see inquisitors at work because of this. Who knew there were so many apocalypse worshippers hiding in the royal capital.”

Wait, so the evil god worshippers and apocalypse worshippers being arrested one after another were drawn out by the approaching calamity and the hero’s absence. Surely, Ilroy couldn’t have disappeared with that intention. Nella scratched away the goosebumps rising on her arm and shook her head.

“George and Marianne haven’t returned here for days.”

“They must be focusing all their efforts on strengthening defenses.”

An awkward silence followed. Having finished their small talk, the two naturally picked up their papers. The sound of writing new formulas over existing ones was the only noise filling the space.

“So what happens after we isolate the comet with that large barrier? Well, as long as the barrier is maintained, the comet won’t suddenly fly out and collide with the earth, but it would take at least ten 3rd-circle mages dying every day to supply that much magic power.”

Nella spread out all her fingers. Of course, maintaining magic requires much less power than activating it, but for a super-large barrier, even the maintenance cost isn’t negligible.

“Couldn’t we destroy the comet after isolating it?”

“Hah! Well, we could pulverize it. But if we could do that, we wouldn’t need a barrier in the first place. We could just shoot down the approaching comet.”

Nella let out a hearty laugh, and Daphne sighed as if she had expected this response.

“Laura… someone with magic power equivalent to a tower master would have to stick to the barrier and pour mana all day. If the supply is cut off even for a moment, the world goes boom. It’s over. Unless that happens, there’s no way to resolve this even if we isolate the comet.”

Well, essentially becoming a slave to the barrier, but that would be better than the world ending. Nella thought this as she shrugged her shoulders.

“That could be a method.”

And, surprisingly, Daphne answered in a serious voice. Nella frowned and turned her head toward Daphne. Daphne’s purple eyes were burning with determination. A most ominous declaration of will. Nella carefully observed Daphne’s face, then put down her pen.

“Hey, you’re not thinking…”

Crash!

At that moment, the laboratory door burst open with a sudden roar. Both women turned their heads simultaneously, and at the doorway stood a soldier drenched in sweat, gasping for breath.

“There’s big trouble. I think both of you need to come to the wall.”

Daphne and Nella exchanged glances briefly, and the two mages rose from their seats without hesitation.

==

Occasionally, imagination led me to scenes both terrible and unfamiliar. With nothing visible but the sky and ground papered white like an isolation ward, my imagination became increasingly concrete. Ruined castle grounds and cities appeared on the empty land, and human corpses and monster carcasses left stains on the debris like spilled paint. I imagined holding a cold, lifeless hand. Senseless fingers crumbled in my palm.

“…”

The delusion spread but wouldn’t fade. I let the scenery remain there. When it first flickered before my eyes, I thought I should return. Familiar arms and faces glimpsed among the debris kept grabbing my shoulders, stopping me. Their voices begged me to come back. Each time, I resisted the temptation to escape from this mental world.

“I believe in you.”

So, I had to believe. That they could endure well without me. That they wouldn’t make the same mistake as during the fog incident. That they weren’t calling me because they truly didn’t need me.

“And I will live up to your trust.”

Rather than trying to erase those visions, I needed to use them as motivation to swing my sword one more time. My body was staggering pathetically. Through the burst and torn flesh of my palms, I felt the sensation of the sword. A burning pain came as the leather chafed. I didn’t reject the physical pain. Amid the burden and pain, thoughts and insights that weren’t delusions became sharper.

Whoosh.

I swung the sword. The mirage dispersed momentarily, then gathered again. The sword swinging remained at a constant speed and rhythm. Each slash contained a different thought. One proper slash after thorough thinking was far better than ten thousand mindless ones. Ten thousand sword strikes without thought weren’t ten thousand strikes but merely ten thousand arm exercises.

Habit.

As I swung the sword, I began to examine and reestablish the habits ingrained in “Ilroy’s” body one by one. The power in the stepping foot not properly set, the timing of opening and closing the shoulders. The communication and unity between body and sword. Whether I was properly releasing tension from my wrist when gripping the sword. Whether the body’s potential and flexibility were open. And yet, whether the sword followed an unchanging trajectory when striking down.

“…Again.”

I adjusted. It wasn’t easy to rebuild the body from the very beginning. I changed my posture according to what I believed was right. I swung the sword until the subtly changed posture became familiar to my body. Correction, and correction again. So that the body wouldn’t be an obstacle when wielding the sword for a single purpose. So that only the movement of the sword would be purely felt in a single slash. I swung the sword.

“That’s enough now.”

When I felt my body had reached its limit, I thrust the sword into the ground. My shoulder joint was probably dislocated. That became the signal for the mental space to heal my physical body. Even as the burden disappeared, my thinking didn’t stop. What, how exactly could I cut a star?

“…?”

Then, my gaze suddenly fell on the sword thrust into the ground. After staring at the sword for a while, I pulled it out as if entranced and aimed it at the empty air again.

“…I see. Even that was part of the process.”

I laughed dejectedly. Somehow, everything I had been doing seemed foolish. I recalled the sensation I felt from the Holy Sword. Something extremely pure, extremely simple, yet truly chilling. I brought my hand to the blade. The tip of my finger met the edge and was cut. Blood flowed down the blade, and looking at the bright red drops, I muttered:

“Whether cutting a scarecrow or cutting a star, it’s the same thing.”

I gripped the sword. My blood-soaked hand grasped the hilt and pulled it up. The weight of the sword in my right hand wasn’t felt. And, for the first time in a very long while, I turned around.

There stood a scarecrow, waiting for me.