Chapter 49

The darkness recedes, and light returns to my vision.

A humid, warm air embraces me. Sunlight pierces through the leaves, touching my skin, and the faint sounds of sputtering, like scorched twigs or pollen popping, carry on the breeze.

Before me, Trian perched on a jagged rock, catching his breath.

He hadn’t shown it within the dungeon, but this expedition, it seemed, had taken its toll on him too.

“…Rex?”

“He’s coming.”

As if on cue, a scarred orc arm emerged from the inky blackness of the cave mouth.

Rex hauled his massive frame out, limb by limb, before stepping onto the brittle branches outside.

In his hand, he held the artifact I had gifted him.

‘The Horn of the Calling.’

A top-tier artifact, vying for the top spot in every Barbarian’s must-have gear list.

Unlike the ‘Red Crystal’ artifact with its rather understated effects, this one possessed the power to shift the tide of battle with a single blast.

A common jest among the community was that a Barbarian’s growth was defined by before and after acquiring this horn, such was the notorious reputation this overpowered Barbarian accessory held.

Clatter.

…Rex appeared, having filled the top-tier artifact, capable of turning the battlefield around with one blow, to the brim with gold.

Rex’s first use of his artifact was as a moneybag!

“Even in the middle of all this, you wanted to grab treasure? Rex, I had no idea you were so greedy.”

Trian sighed, watching Rex vertically hold the massive horn, crammed with gold coins.

“…No, the General ordered it.”

Rex’s creaking prosthetic hand was pressed against the horn’s narrow opening, preventing the gold from spilling out.

With both hands occupied, Rex attempted to explain himself. But with him cradling the gold so preciously, anything he said came off as the ramblings of an orc consumed by greed, oblivious to his own impending demise.

Rex looked at me with eyes that pleaded his innocence.

“Hmm…”

I only made up that horn-blowing bit to feed him something, and here he is, still oblivious.

Well, aren’t good-hearted souls often a little short on wit?

“Rex. Everyone loves gold. So, you needn’t feel ashamed. The courage you displayed in the dungeon deserves a golden reward, of course… I only wish for you to hold your head high.”

And teasing the kind ones is always the most amusing, isn’t it?

“Eh?! No, General!”

Rex’s eyes filled with fluster. He’d kept his cool facing down demons and giant spiders, yet a couple of jokes had him rattled; it was rather refreshing.

“When do we head back?”

Lir, seizing my robes with a smile on my face from teasing Rex, cut in.

Her eyes were fixed on a point in space, like someone who’d lost their bearings, and it sent a chill down my spine.

“We’ll head back soon.”

What is up with her? Why are her eyes like that all of a sudden?

“Well… yes. We ought to tend to Rex’s wounds quickly…”

“Quickly. I need a pen and paper.”

I’d assumed Lir was worried about Rex’s injury and the poison. But her sudden talk of pens and paper left me speechless.

…Did she truly get struck by lightning?

*Beeeeep-*

I couldn’t for the life of me think of what to say, and dazedly stared at Lir, a ringing in my ears began to spread in my head.

Unable to bear the ache, I reached a hand to my temple, but at that moment, darkness clouded my vision, and my legs began to wobble.

Ah, right. Five minutes.

The last thing I remembered was my body succumbing to gravity, crashing straight into the ground.

* * *

“…Ah.”

The sun had already set. Before me stretched the ceiling of a military wagon, familiar to the point of boredom. In my ears echoed the persistent sounds of the dwarf soldiers at work.

“Hey! We’re short on lumber here! When are you sending it, huh?”

“Ai shh, by the Blue Anvil! Are you not placing the rebar straight? If the finish is crooked, you’ll take responsibility for demolishing it and rebuilding it, got it?!”

The dwarves were frantically finishing the roofs and walls of the almost-completed armory and barracks. Turning my gaze away from their clamor, I saw Squad Leader Black Hammer Bellua perched on the wagon’s entrance.

“Awake, are we?”

Bellua, silhouetted by the moonlight, looked down at me with his characteristic hearty grin.

Lir always greets me when I wake up after losing consciousness… this is a new experience.

“…How far along is the work? Any particular problems?”

“Well… in the middle of it all, a couple times the demon b*stards sent reconnaissance variants. But it was just reconnaissance, nothing special happened. They must’ve seen that a high-ranking mage like Alter-nim was here and didn’t dare to rush in so easily, I wager.”

“Where is Rex?”

“His wound was quite deep. I did some simple first aid, but to receive proper treatment, he needed to see a skilled cleric in the capital, so I had him returned there first.”

It’s a shame to part like this without saying goodbye… well, we’ll meet again someday.

If it comes to it, I can return to the capital and invite him to the castle directly. It’d be nice to share a cup of tea together.

“Don’t worry too much, he’s a sturdy one. The wound is deep, but he’ll be fine.”

“I know Rex is sturdy. By the way, where are Trian and Lir? I was supposed to see Dajin tomorrow….”

*Bang!*

A sudden flash pierced the starlight that adorned the pitch-black sky. A deafening roar that tore through the air shook the wagon, and the dwarves, having dropped the nails they were holding from the sudden impact, muttered curses under their breath.

“……”

“……”

For a moment, the black hammer and I stared at each other in silence.

“……Could that possibly be?”

“Yes, well. Ever since returning, she suddenly grabbed paper and pen, bolted off somewhere, and has been experimenting with something ever since.”

If you’re going to train, at least do it further away. What’s with this thunder rolling every time she casts a spell? Isn’t that just a nuisance to the workers?

Is this how it feels when your clumsy daughter causes trouble in public?

I sighed with embarrassment and quietly apologized to Belua.

“……She’s not usually like this, I’m sorry.”

“Haha! Is it anything new for mages to do eccentric things? On the contrary! This is more like a mage, and it’s nice to see!”

The black hammer laughed heartily and stepped down from the carriage.

“Still, it’s almost bedtime! Training is good, but wouldn’t it be best to bring her back soon…?”

“……Me?”

I asked Belua with a truly bothered expression. Asking a patient who just woke up from a coma to suddenly fetch a precious child… isn’t that going too far?

“Lady Lyre would be expecting that.”

Belua momentarily gave me a look of slight exasperation before lowering his voice and speaking so.

Ah.

Indeed, with Lyre’s personality, she might be a bit uncomfortable if a stranger came to pick her up.

“Unexpectedly, you have a delicate side to you?”

“Even though I look like this, am I not the mistress of a household? If you ever have any worries about your relationship with Lady Lyre… feel free to confide in me. I will help you with all my heart.”

“A wife of the household,” that’s a new one.

And what Belua being married has to do with Leere’s personality, I have no idea.

What sort of trouble could possibly arise between Leere and me?

…Did this dwarf drink something? More than half of what he’s saying sounds like nonsense.

“Yes… well.”

Even so, I couldn’t exactly rebuke someone offering to help. So I forced a smile, threw off the blanket, and stood up.

The moment my feet touched the floor, my calves screamed in protest, and my body wobbled.

I took a moment to breathe deeply, the pain echoing in every joint, and then looked back at Belua.

“…What is Alter doing?”

“He just went to retire for the night. He stood guard for nearly fifty hours without sleeping, waiting for Vin to return, so don’t even think about foisting this onto Alter.”

“No, but seriously, I can’t walk…”

“Suffering is part of the process. Did you think winning someone’s heart would be easy!”

Just what is this dwarf going on about since a while ago?

“Haa… Yes, well… understood.”

Propelled by Belua’s insistence, I dragged my wobbly legs, like a newborn fawn, on a perilous journey.

*Boom!*

*Boom!*

Enormous bolts of lightning struck, even though the distance was hardly a hundred meters, painting the black sky with shades of blue, white, and violet in quick succession.

“…aaargh, enough!”

Leere’s anguished scream cut through the thunder.

I dragged my leaden body towards the source of the scream, moving with a slow, deliberate weight.

Soon, I saw Lir amidst the fallen trees.

The surrounding wood had been struck repeatedly by lightning, reduced to a fine ash that swirled in the air. Lir’s snow-white face was a mess of ash and sweat.

The skin between the fingers clutching her staff was raw and bleeding, but she seemed not to notice.

“……”

Where the moonlight touched, quills and scattered parchment lay discarded, ink undoubtedly refilled countless times.

“Defective. Defective? No, more like…”

Lir snatched up a sheet, scribbling something furiously, only to cross it out with a harsh strike of the pen, then rewrite something beneath it over and over.

She seemed so completely absorbed, she didn’t even register my approach.

Watching her pick up and drop the parchment again and again, I felt a strange, inexplicable kinship.

‘…I used to do that, too, when something felt just out of reach.’

It was like watching a ghost of myself when inspiration was swirling just beyond my grasp.

I used to abandon my MIDI keyboard, screaming in my one-room apartment, throwing tissues everywhere until the landlord warned me countless times…

That feeling, I knew it better than anyone. The maddening sensation of being so close to something monumental, just a little further. An unbearable itch you can’t quite locate to scratch.

I was a musician in my past life, or some form of artist writing sheet music…

…well, strictly speaking, I only ever aspired to be.

Anyway, that kind of frustration is not something anyone else can fix.

Under the moonlight, I quietly observed Lir, lost in her creative frenzy, a state of ecstatic mania.

I felt bad for Velua, who’d wanted me to bring Lir in for bedtime. But I couldn’t possibly interrupt this moment of inspired torment.

Because no one could know just how valuable this moment might become to Lir’s future.

…And besides, witnessing such a different side of Lir, who was usually so reserved, proved quite… entertaining, to say the least.