Episode 29: “There’s Nothing Left in Me”
“Good work today.”
Bianca handed her a glass filled to the brim with beer.
Drinking on the job wasn’t something she felt entirely comfortable with, but there was no way to refuse the villagers’ goodwill.
The villagers had thrown a feast to thank them for saving the village.
Conrad couldn’t eat or drink, but he was clearly having a good time all the same, laughing and horsing around with Max.
Tomorrow morning, they’d leave the village with Conrad.
Returning him to the earth somewhere in the mountains, then heading straight home.
(I’m tired…)
She’d burned through an enormous amount of magic power, and somehow, emotionally, she felt worn down too.
Bianca settled down beside Fiine. Following her gaze, Fiine found Yuria out playing with the village children.
In this short span of time, Yuria had apparently become quite the favorite among them.
“I’ve handled all kinds of commissions since joining the Corps… but this is the first time one’s ever ended leaving me feeling this clean about it.”
“How come?”
“Because the people asking for help were people worth helping.”
Watching the villagers, Bianca smiled and took a sip of her drink.
Among those who ask others for help, plenty believe they’re simply owed it, without ever putting in effort of their own.
Most people who bring requests to the Magic Corps, in particular, probably fell into that category.
We’re just ordinary people, we can’t do anything ourselves.
The ones with real talent, the Magic Corps, are the ones meant to save us. Plenty of people thought that way.
Groups like Schnee Village’s people — thinking ahead, doing what they could themselves, while still knowing when it was right to lean on others — were exceedingly rare.
(…It’s easy enough to hold up an ideal like “I want to help someone.”)
Fiine, too, had once believed that with her whole heart.
She’d wanted to end the suffering of people who lost someone precious to monsters.
She and Yuria had talked about that dream together, seriously, with everything they had.
But reality had turned out to be far uglier than Fiine’s ideals ever were.
“Hey, Fiine.”
“What?”
“You, of all people, really could become a true, genuine hero, you know?”
“…I can’t.”
What a hero needed, surely, wasn’t raw combat strength alone. It was the resolve to go on living as a “hero.”
“There’s nothing left in me for that anymore…”
☆★☆★☆★☆★
Author’s message:
Thank you as always for reading.
I’m happy to announce that this work will be getting a print release from Glast NOVELS (Starts Publishing) on Friday, October 23rd!
Further details will be shared through the news feed and elsewhere going forward.
I’ll continue serializing here as well, so I hope you’ll keep enjoying it!
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