Episode 42: “Together With Yuria”
“You really are strong, you know.”
On the walk home from school, Yuria murmured it thoughtfully, gazing up at the sunset.
“Not really. I’ve just been training since I was little, so I pick things up faster than everyone else, that’s all.”
“Excessive modesty just comes off as sarcastic, you know.”
Saying it with obvious exasperation, Yuria’s expression suddenly turned a little tense.
“…Yuria?”
“I keep thinking — that with you, maybe I could actually make my dream come true.”
“…The dream about ending children’s parents being killed by monsters and sent to orphanages, right?”
That was what she’d told her back at the restaurant.
That’s right, Yuria nodded, full of energy.
“But it’s not just that. There’s more to my dream than that.”
“More?”
“Yes! A world where everyone can live in peace, as equals. Noble or commoner, able to use magic or not — none of that mattering at all. My dream is to build a world where everyone is respected.”
“Everyone…”
“To do that, first we have to build a peaceful world without monsters. As long as monsters exist, it’s only natural that power ends up in the hands of whoever’s willing to risk their life fighting them.”
The world Yuria described was far too idealistic.
If monsters vanished from the world entirely, humans would surely only end up fighting each other more instead. History alone proved as much.
Even without physical conflict, some other hierarchy of values would simply rise up to take its place.
There was already a gap between noble and commoner as it stood, even now.
(What Yuria wants is going to be incredibly, incredibly difficult to actually make real.)
But that probably wasn’t a reason for Yuria to give up on the dream at all.
“I, um, I…”
She’d never once held some grand wish like saving someone, or changing the world.
Even if Fiine joined the Magic Corps and defeated some enormous monster, her own past wouldn’t change.
Her dead parents wouldn’t come back to life. The memory of watching them die right in front of her wouldn’t disappear either.
(—But maybe… maybe I could save children who end up in the same situation I did.)
That wasn’t all, either.
Just as Burkhardt had saved Fiine.
Fiine, too, could save someone else.
Was it all right to call a hope like that a “dream”?
“…M-maybe, I don’t know, but… maybe my dream is to make sure no child ever has to go through what I went through.”
The instant she said it out loud, her body felt strangely lighter.
Her chest filled with a restless, fidgety feeling — like she wanted to run, or shout out loud.
“What a wonderful dream!!”
Beaming with a full, radiant smile, Yuria threw herself at Fiine with enough force to nearly knock her over.
“Whoa—…!”
Fiine let out a small yelp as she staggered, and Yuria burst out laughing at the sound of it.
“Hey, Fiine. The two of us — we can definitely keep working hard together, forever!”
“…You think so?”
“Not ‘you think so’ — I know so! Let’s work hard together!”
For Fiine, “working hard” at something had always felt like enduring something difficult.
Running until her body hit its limit. Casting magic until her power ran completely dry.
But the way Yuria said the words “work hard” carried a wonderful ring to them, unlike anything Fiine had known before.
“…Okay. I want to work hard. With — with you, Yuria.”
The moment she said it, it felt, somehow, as though Fiine herself had begun to shine, just a little.