Ch.62How to Overcome Trauma (1)

A full day had passed since we set sail.

“Urgh.”

The Valkyrie, unable to endure her seasickness, was retching. Since the Holy Woman and Riyo were rowing, I patted her back.

“Hey, are you okay?”

“Don’t… talk to me…”

There was nothing I could do to help. It’s not like we could find motion sickness medicine out here.

“Awoooo!”

Riyo suddenly let out a howl.

“Mage, Major!”

“What?”

“There’s an island! I can see an island!”

“Where?”

“Over there!”

I narrowed my eyes. It was true. It might be a reef, but land is land. If we could at least set foot on it, I could let the Valkyrie rest.

We rowed hard to increase our speed. Fortunately, it wasn’t a reef but a new island. We had finally escaped that other island.

But something was strange about this island.

“What is that?”

“It looks like it’s on fire.”

Fires were rising from various parts of the island.

“Is it because it’s dry?”

“Wait, I don’t think these are just wildfires.”

I carefully observed the rising flames.

“There’s no smoke rising. And the flames have a bluish color.”

The flames burned steadily, neither too weak nor too strong, staying in place. Blue sparks scattered like flower petals. Even as we approached, there was no burning smell.

This wasn’t normal.

It’s my first time seeing this, how fascinating. What could it be? Curiosity—that was the extent of our reaction.

Except for one person.

“W-what is that.”

The Valkyrie, who had been suffering from seasickness, raised her head. Her already pale face turned even whiter.

Her voice trembled, her breathing becoming increasingly rapid.

“N-no. Absolutely not.”

The Valkyrie raised her voice as if having a seizure.

“We absolutely cannot go there! We can’t go! There’s fire everywhere! I said we can’t go! No! No! Nooo!”

“Major? Major! Get a hold of yourself!”

“No, I said no, hic.”

This was her most intense reaction yet. The Holy Woman and the fox sisters looked quite bewildered. I had mentioned that the Valkyrie had trauma related to burning fires, but they probably didn’t realize it was this severe.

I was a bit surprised too. But since I knew her past well, I could understand. For the Valkyrie, the scenery of this island must be overlapping with her memories of that day.

“N-no, let’s just go back, q-quickly…”

“Okay, okay. Let’s go back.”

I patted the Valkyrie’s back while checking our water and food supplies.

We have enough food to last until we return. Water might be slightly insufficient, but we could purify seawater with zeolite, so we should manage somehow.

It’s a shame to turn back after coming this far, but it’s better than taking risks. This island definitely looks dangerous. Even if we come back, we’d need better preparation.

[“Flow.”]

I took out the Origin Stone and infused it with magical power.

This stone would resonate with the beacon left on the island and show us the route back to camp. Come on, light the way.

[‘Huh?’]

[‘What?’]

“Eh?”

The Origin Stone pointed to our current coordinates.

In such cases, it’s usually one of two things: either trying to reset the location, or there’s no set location.

Thinking it might be an error, I tried again. Same result. The Origin Stone couldn’t indicate a direction.

It was clearly the latter. There was no set location. And that could be interpreted to mean there was no device to receive the signal.

“Tsk.”

“What’s wrong?”

“The signal isn’t connecting.”

“What?”

“It seems the beacon has been destroyed.”

Everyone’s expression turned serious. Especially the Valkyrie. She looked like she had lost her country. I continued calmly.

“If it’s broken, it’s probably due to monsters or natural disasters. I hid it in the safest place I could find, but I didn’t expect things to turn out like this in just one day.”

“So what do we do now? Can’t we go back? To the original island?”

“We can, but unlike our journey here, it would be an extremely difficult trip.”

We’d have to navigate by instinct. That’s truly insane for ocean travel.

Especially since lifeboats are highly affected by wind and rain. Even if we properly understood the location of each island, we might end up somewhere unintended due to storms.

“If we encounter a storm, we might drift at sea for days. In the worst case, most of our food could rot, and we might have to starve.”

If it comes to that, our survival chances drop dramatically.

Well, we’ve spent a lot of time getting to this island.

It was time to make a choice.

Enter the island, or retreat and regroup.

“…”

“…”

The Holy Woman and Riyo looked at each other. The Holy Woman spoke first.

“Can’t we just quickly take down the leader and leave?”

“That’s a valid point. But we don’t know what kind of monster lives on this island. We need to gather information first and then assess the situation.”

“I suppose so. Still, I think moving forward is better than going back. That’s my opinion.”

I asked the fox sisters the same question. They shared the Holy Woman’s thoughts.

“Mage, what about you?”

“I feel the same.”

The mana needle points to this island. We can’t escape without defeating the leader here anyway.

Three of us are in agreement.

If the remaining one agrees, it would be unanimous.

The Holy Woman took the trembling Valkyrie’s hand.

“Major, get up. That’s probably just a wildfire. One shower of rain and it’ll all go out, right? So please bear with it a little and let’s go down.”

“I’m sorry, Colonel. I’m too scared. I can barely open my eyes.”

“The mana needle is pointing to this island. Your friends you’ve been looking for might be here.”

“…Daisy and Olivia?”

“Yes. Would you turn away if those friends were here?”

Whether the Holy Woman’s persuasion was effective, the Valkyrie raised her head. Her gaze properly turned toward the island. Her golden pupils shook as if there was an earthquake.

Trauma is a mental illness. Telling someone with trauma to overcome it with willpower is like telling someone without legs to run. If that were possible, they’d be superhuman.

“H-huh, I’ll… t-try…”

Is Rachel Brokenheart someone who could be called superhuman?

Well, in my eyes, she was a fragile girl. She’s strong and has quicker judgment than anyone as a soldier, but she’s still a girl with unhealed wounds.

“I’ll go down. I’ll try. If I can’t overcome it this time, forever…”

The Valkyrie squeezed her eyes shut.

“…I can’t live like this forever.”

“Don’t push yourself too hard.”

Thanks to the Holy Woman’s kindness, there wasn’t much conflict. If it had been just me and the fox sisters, persuasion might have been much more difficult.

“Let’s split into two teams.”

I asked the Holy Woman and Riyo as I helped them onto the shore.

“Please set up camp here and wait. The Valkyrie and I will go around the island to survey the coastline.”

“Alright. How long will it take?”

“We’ll be back before sunset at the latest.”

I started rowing. The figures of the Holy Woman and Riyo gradually receded. The Valkyrie also gripped the oar on the opposite side and matched my pace. Her eyes were unfocused due to seasickness.

“…”

“…”

We were silent for a while.

Without saying it, I know. One of the purposes of exploring this island was to find the Valkyrie’s comrades. Yes, I need to find the enemies I killed.

Let’s assume they’ve turned to stone like David or Kalon. What would they think seeing the person who killed them together with their friend? They would undoubtedly urge the Valkyrie to kill me.

Then what would the Valkyrie do? Would all the goodwill we’ve built become useless? Would this delicate relationship start to crack?

“Sigh.”

“Sigh.”

The Valkyrie let out a heavy sigh. Her complexion wasn’t good. Perhaps I should have let her set foot on land, even briefly.

“Can you give me that stone?”

“This?”

I received the stone tablet and let mana flow.

I copied the outline of the island exactly. I drew in what terrain and structures existed in each part of the outline.

This is a very important task. We need to find where the leader might be.

The island consisted of three main structures.

A sandy beach where the flames were relatively less intense and seemed safer.

A field with a fair distribution of flames and lots of dry grass.

And the coastal cliff, which looked most dangerous and had many flames.

Concentrating, I could feel a dense flow of mana from the direction of the cliff. The leader must be there.

Climbing the cliff from this side would be close to suicide, so it would be better to go around through the beach and field to enter.

By the time the edge of the sun hung on the horizon, we returned to the beach.

“How was it?”

“I roughly figured out where the leader lives. It would be best to see how tonight goes and then decide what to do. How far have you gotten with the camp?”

“Actually, we haven’t done much. Flames kept sprouting up and then going out all over the place. I’ve never seen such a crazy island.”

“Does this mean we all have to sleep in the lifeboat?”

“I’m worried that might be the case.”

“Let’s eat first. Let’s quickly finish the meat before it spoils.”

Riyo poked a nearby fire with a resin-coated stick and brought it over. We placed the meat on the makeshift bonfire and grilled it directly.

I said, wiping off my sweat:

“The first day seems to be the hardest on any island.”

“But it’s not the worst, right? We have water to drink, meat to eat, and companions to talk to. Having you here seems to be the biggest advantage. Isn’t this abundant for a deserted island?”

“That’s true. Ah, it’s done.”

The meat, with its gamey smell barely removed by vegetables, isn’t objectively tasty. None of us have cooking knowledge, so it’s quite tough.

Still, for a deserted island, this is an incredible feast. We can only eat with gratitude.

I gave portions to the Holy Woman and Riyo, then turned around. The Valkyrie hadn’t stepped out of the lifeboat at all.

“Food, here. Bring it to me.”

“Don’t be like that, come out. It seems safe up to here.”

The Valkyrie’s expression turned sullen. She seemed to be in agony. I couldn’t force her out. We were already awkward, and I didn’t want our relationship to completely sour.

“Huff, huff.”

The Valkyrie took a deep breath and extended her sleek legs. Slowly, like a cat entering water for the first time, she took a step. She was so cautious that I involuntarily gulped.

The Valkyrie started walking like a child who had just learned to walk. The sand is a bit hot, but she should be fine since she’s wearing shoes.

“…”

Just as I thought that, I felt a strange mana from beneath her feet. It was hot in nature and intense in strength.

My gaze fixed downward. The sand was wriggling.

A monster?

Just as that thought crossed my mind, I lunged forward. A bug-like monster covered in rocks emerged from the ground, spewing blue flames as it pounced on the Valkyrie.