Chapter Two, Episode Ten

A voice somewhere nearby. Close, and yet somehow reaching me from very far away.

“…ion. …wake up…”

Noisy. It isn’t time yet.

“……Sion.”

The voice drawing closer. A little longer.

“——You need to wake up.”

“I’ll kiss you.”

The words dropped sweetly into my ear and spread through my whole body, and I shot upright.

“…Wh — what are you… saying…”

Eyes that had snapped fully open found her watching me steadily. She said it again.

“I said, wake up or I’ll kiss you.”

And then Selene drew her slender thumb softly across my lips. Then she brought that same finger to her own mouth. Watching her, I pressed my hand to my lips before I could think. My lips, dry from sleep, prickled strangely.

Last night she had been so much more honest — sweet, even. Was that something I dreamed, exhausted as I was?

“I — that makes absolutely no sense at all. Are you stupid or something…”

I pulled the pillow to my chest and put distance between us.

“You’re up, so that’s fine. Kiaran and the others will be here soon. Get ready.”

She said it brusquely and turned to open the curtains, looking out at the morning.

Was she teasing me, or not? Every day I understand Selene a little less than the day before.

What was last night — clinging to me the way she did? It hadn’t looked like teasing, and I couldn’t think of any reason she would do something like that deliberately.

I shouldn’t be thinking about this first thing in the morning. No matter how much I think about it, I doubt I’ll understand anything.

I slapped my own cheeks hard to reset, and got out of bed.

While Selene who had returned to her usual expression sat reading, I changed my clothes. Before long, a vigorous knock sounded at the door.

“Morning, witch ladies!! Man, yesterday was something — you two alive?!”

Kiaran began talking the moment the door opened. I gave a wry smile and showed the two of them in.

“…Did you sleep all right?”

Uno’s eyes weren’t quite focused, hazy as always — and yet the look she turned up toward me held unmistakable concern.

“Yes. More than enough.”

“…Good.”

She gave me a thumbs up, then drifted into the room and sank into the sofa.

I looked around the small room and let out a breath.

No one was missing. Nobody had taken serious injuries. Everyone was here — and yet one step in the wrong direction last night, and this might have been a room with an empty space in it.

I kept my quietly trembling hands out of sight and lowered myself onto the bed.

“First of all — good work, all of you. I haven’t fully sorted through it myself yet, but let’s talk about what happened.”

Selene looked around at the three of us and began.

So much had taken place in that settlement. It had been all I could manage just keeping up with what was in front of me — but what I did know was that the Shaman had been far from ordinary.

“If Kiaran could tell us what she saw, I think we can piece together most of it. Would you?”

Selene looked toward Kiaran as she asked.

“Sure.”

Kiaran’s answer was clear and direct. She’s loud ordinarily — but in a moment like this she doesn’t deflect or joke, and I’ve come to think that’s one of her better qualities.

She looked around at all of us and began.

“After the White Witch gave the signal, I fired into the tower. It was dark and I couldn’t get to the roof, so I just — sent the whole thing up.”

The lightning that had bleached the entire settlement white for one instant crossed my mind.

“I mean, it’s just a Shaman, right? So I thought that was that.”

She paused for a beat, then told us.

“It was alive.”

The room went quiet for a moment.

Surviving that lightning was impossible. My thoughts still refusing to settle, I put the question to Selene.

“Shamans — the body itself isn’t that strong, is it? That’s what I’d always thought.”

“Right. A Shaman fights by directing the monsters it summons — it watches from a distance. But…”

Selene hesitated, just briefly.

“A Shaman should only ever be able to summon monsters weaker than itself.”

She said it quietly, her eyes dropping to the floor beside the bed.

“Weaker than itself…”

Log-thick limbs and spear-sharp claws. That creature, too, could only have come from the magic circle.

“Exactly what the White Witch said. Something as weak as a Shaman shouldn’t have been able to take that. And it didn’t just take it — it immediately started chanting the next summoning spell.”

“Which is how the Brute Bear got called in… that’s what you’re saying.”

The words came out barely above a murmur.

“…By the time I noticed it, the bear was just there. So — yes, probably.”

“So in other words: Kiaran’s magic didn’t finish it. It took the hit, and immediately called the Brute Bear. That’s what we’re saying.”

“That can’t be…”

Eyes wavering with something shaken in them, Selene murmured it almost to herself, thinking aloud.

“…Was that not a Grave Shaman at all — but something of a higher tier?”

I’d heard that Shamans came in several varieties, with higher-ranked individuals among them.

“That’s actually what I wanted to bring up.”

Kiaran stood from the sofa and held something out to Selene and me.

“A brooch?”

The ornament she handed over bore an engraved design — a golden eagle with its wings spread wide.

“After I finished off the big bear, the Shaman went down pretty quick — and I was looking at the body and this caught my eye. Isn’t it unusual for a Shaman to be wearing something like this?”

“It’s hard to say. It may have been… taken from an adventurer.”

I’d heard that more intelligent monsters sometimes seized equipment from adventurers and wore it themselves. Whether to hold onto a victory, or to mock the humans they’d defeated.

For a creature as powerful as that one, it wouldn’t seem out of place.

“Well, I don’t really know what it means. But — things worked out, so that’s something!”

“And,” Kiaran added, drawing a single breath before she went on. She looked at each of the three of us in turn.

“I’m sorry for not getting it done properly. The White Witch opened the path for me and I still couldn’t put it down.”

Unusually for her, she kept her eyes lowered as she said it quietly.

“If that is the case, then I owe everyone an apology as well. I made the wrong call at the start. I’m sorry.”

Selene followed, her voice also dropping.

I don’t like this kind of atmosphere.

“Can we not do that. It was the Shaman that was wrong — that’s all. If anyone’s going to say that, then I did barely anything at all.”

I looked between them with a self-deprecating little laugh. If anyone in this room had the right to blame themselves, it was me.

“…That’s not right. Everyone did their best.”

“…The witch ladies, and Kiaran. And me.”

“…So the self-blame ends here.”

Having said what she wanted to say, Uno returned to her usual faraway gaze, eyes drifting somewhere in the distance.

She didn’t say much — but what Uno said, she said straight. Something in the air had loosened. I could feel it.

“…You’re right. I made things uncomfortable. I’m sorry.”

Selene finished speaking, then stood from the bed as though switching gears.

“I think we’ve pieced together the main events from last night well enough. Let’s go and call on the headwoman shortly. The brooch may be something she can speak to.”

I got up too and reached for the robe hanging on the wall.

“Alriiight, let’s report in fast and get food — I talked so much I’m starving~!”

Whatever seriousness had been in her a moment ago, gone entirely. I watched Kiaran bounce out of the room and shook my head, following after.

When we’d first met I wasn’t sure how this was going to go — but the four of us were managing rather well, it seemed.

The thought that this noise was nearly over made something in me feel, just slightly, sad.