Episode Three

The introductions were done and we’d settled into easy conversation when the carriage lurched violently. The driver’s panicked voice came through from outside.

“Adventurers! M-monsters—!”

We seized our tools and threw ourselves out of the carriage in the same motion.

It was only a glimpse, but I thought I caught something in Kiaran and Uno’s eyes — the look mages get when the situation turns real.

“Sion — we’re surrounded. Can you see them?”

“Six. If there are any behind the carriage, there could be more.”

High Wolves. Not especially dangerous one-on-one, but they were intelligent monsters that coordinated in packs, and that made them troublesome.

“Let’s show the Witches what we’ve got! Uno, if we finish fast, maybe we can get autographs.”

“…I want three. One from both together, one from the White Witch alone, one from the Black Witch alone.”

Those two were remarkably calm. Being able to trade lines like that in this situation — their ability might be the real thing after all.

“Sion and I will take the pack at the front. Can I ask you both to handle whatever’s behind the carriage? Driver — please stay inside.”

Selene’s voice rang out across the forest, clipped and sharp.

We’d jumped out into an uncleared forest clearing. Visibility wasn’t great, but there was space to move. As battlefields went, it could have been worse.

“Sure! Though we might just finish it all ourselves~”

Kiaran’s breezy voice followed me as I drew a quiet breath.

I pulled the dagger from my hip and reversed my grip.

Minimum magic. Against these — that would be enough.

“Selene!”

I called out and broke into a run towards the three shapes I had eyes on.

—Wrap around it.

A murmur, barely voiced. My left hand came to rest alongside the blade.

Black mana coursed through the dagger, and the iron mass became light as a feather in my hand.

A sound like something tearing the ground open — I turned my body sideways, let the fangs aimed at my throat pass by. A ragged breath swelled behind me; I dropped my centre of gravity and let the second set of fangs go by at the waist.

There’d been a third. It wasn’t in my line of sight. But I couldn’t afford to search for it. The rest — I’d leave to Selene.

I drove hard off the ground and brought the black-gleaming blade down onto the one that had lost its footing on landing. The resistance of thick hide splitting. Solid hit.

Without killing the momentum, I slipped the next lunge of fangs and drove the dagger into the second one. Deep again.

No time to wipe the blood from my face. I shifted my gaze towards Selene.

—Ray Bullet.

With Selene’s incantation, countless thin bolts of white light streamed from her staff — nearly as tall as she was. With every word she spoke, another monster dropped, and the remaining four went still in a matter of moments.

However many times I watched it, Selene’s way of fighting was beautiful. Not a single wasted motion — not in the arc of the staff, not between words of the incantation.

I confirmed no monsters remained and was moving to rejoin her when the earth seemed to split open with a thunderclap, and a blinding blue-white light poured down over the far side of the carriage.

“…What?”

Sweat prickled at my forehead. The lightning that came down had the force to scorch the whole stretch of forest. Was it aimed at the monsters — or did she intend to level everything in range?

“Selene, I think this might be—”

I ran to her side immediately.

“…Beyond what I expected. In every sense.”

She was composed, but her eyes held something shaken.

When the lightning finally stopped, what was left was a silence so complete it felt as though every living thing except us had ceased to exist.

I checked that Selene was unhurt and went to look at the carriage on my own. My foot nearly went out from under me in the mud.

It hadn’t been raining — so this was water conjured by blue magic, presumably.

“…Still alive?”

Uno’s small form appeared from inside the carriage, blinking.

“What — what happened?”

I heard my own voice come out hollowed of everything.

“…Kiaran brought the lightning down. I had a protective barrier around the carriage. The driver is safe too.”

I looked inside. The driver was curled up and trembling. After a sound like that erupting right beside him, I couldn’t blame him. At least he was unharmed.

“Let’s just — regroup for now.”

I turned to go back to Selene with a sigh — and felt something wrong.

One of the bodies that had been there was gone.

My eyes snapped wide. I scanned the area. Behind the trees, on top of the carriage, behind the —

In the same instant, a blood-soaked monster let out a dying snarl and hurled itself from the treetops straight at Selene.

However capable she was, casting magic required incantation. At this distance, she wouldn’t make it in time.

My dagger couldn’t reach either. So then—

—Pierce it!

I swept my left hand hard through the air towards the monster in flight. The ring flared dull with light, and a black crystal drove through the monster like a stake, pinning it to the ground.

I stood there for a moment with my heart hammering too hard to know what to do with, and went to check on the monster.

The crystal had punched deep through its abdomen. Not a twitch.

That had been close.

Without the magic — I wouldn’t have been able to protect Selene.

No hostility left in the area. I steadied my breathing and looked up — and met Selene’s eyes. The colour had drained from her face.

“…Sorry. Sorry — I’m — sorry.”

She murmured it faintly, eyes trembling. I reached around and rested my hand gently on her back. Selene, who was a little taller than me, looked somehow smaller than usual.

“I’m the one who should apologise. That one was probably the one I failed to finish off. I should have been more careful.”

Selene showing an opening like that was rare. She must have been more shaken than I’d realised.

“Sorry to interrupt — did I maybe go a little overboard?”

Kiaran’s voice, tongue slightly out, stealing a glance at us with an awkward expression. After using magic of that magnitude, she showed no sign of fatigue whatsoever.

“I just can’t really control the output. And there were so many of them, I figured I might as well do them all at once.”

“Sorry,” Kiaran added quietly, and immediately took my hand.

“But — the Black Witch’s magic, what was that?! How did you cast without an incantation?”

“That was—”

I hesitated, glancing away — and Selene cleared her throat, cutting across me.

She repositioned her staff and turned to face the group.

“…Forgive me for losing my composure. We can talk later — for now let’s sweep the area again.”

“As night falls, the danger increases. Better to discuss this on the move.”

“Got it.”

“Yep yep! Uno, come look around with me~!”

Selene and I kept our tools ready and moved through the area checking for stragglers. It seemed clear for now, but with the smell of blood in the air, other monsters could be drawn in at any time.

I watched Selene out of the corner of my eye. She looked composed — but there was a shadow across her expression that hadn’t been there before.

After everything that just happened, that was only natural. But it wasn’t like her, and it left something unsettled in me.

We exchanged a few brief words with the still-pale driver, and the carriage moved on towards its destination.