Episode Five

The sky that had been draped in thin darkness was now a clear, brilliant blue, warm sunlight falling across the earth.

Wiping the sweat from my forehead, I kept running through the untended forest. My throat drove out hot breath, and my feet were sounding every alarm telling me I should stop. But I had no intention of stopping.

If the commission slip was right, Selene should be somewhere around here. If I couldn’t find her, I’d aim for the nearest village.

Sweeping careful eyes through the dim forest, a tree with the bark slightly gouged caught my attention. Close by, something that looked like a person’s footprints was pressed clearly into the ground.

Selene should be near here.

I shifted the dagger from my grip to a reverse hold and followed the prints forward.

Keeping watch around me as I traced the footprints, I heard something in the distance.

This forest holds no sound, as though it has left it somewhere behind. Since entering, I had heard nothing but my own breath and footsteps.

Moving slowly toward the sound with every sense on alert, I glimpsed something through the gaps in the trees.

A four-legged monster with two heads. An Orthos. Its blood-hungry eyes met mine.

——Pierce through!!

My voice rang through the quiet forest.

Several spears wrapped in dull black light, launched straight. No time to check whether they hit. Without slowing my feet, I swept my left hand immediately after.

——Penetrate!

Black crystals appearing from empty air pinned the monster’s body to the ground. One of the two heads dropped, and dark blood stained the undergrowth.

My fingertips were numb enough to stop moving and my head was splitting with pain. Even so I couldn’t stop the incantation.

——Cut it down.

As though drawn by my voice, dark and twisted lights gathered to my hand. The light gradually took shape, sharpening into something like a scythe.

“…Get out of my way.”

As the monster lunged at me with desperate ferocity, I brought my left hand down, smooth and simple.

The remaining head separated from the body too, and with a shudder through the undergrowth the monster’s heavy body sank to the ground.

My vision lurched. I held my folding knees up through sheer will and raised my face.

“Selene!!!!!”

I called out and swept my gaze around me. Only monster blood moved through the air. Nothing that looked like a person’s blood. The smell of blood hadn’t reached me on the way here either, so probably—

The shadow of the fallen monster. The gaps between the overgrown grass.

Pressing a hand against my aching head as I scanned around, something caught my eye that had no place in a forest like this — clear, translucent silver hair.

“Selene!!!!!”

I ran at full speed around the monster’s body. My whole body was screaming at me, but my body didn’t matter.

The figure I’d been searching for. The figure I’d so desperately wanted to see.

Leaning her back wearily against the roots of a large tree — it was unmistakably Selene.

“…Sion?”

No obvious injuries that I could see, but her colour was bad. The eyes that always looked straight at me were open only faintly now, unfocused and dim.

“Selene!! It’s Sion! Stay with me!!”

I beat at her shoulders desperately, trying to keep the fading consciousness tethered.

My hands wouldn’t stop trembling, my breathing kept roughening. Insufficient mana and oxygen were apparently stripping the calm from me.

“…!”

I hit my own chest hard. Frowning against the sharp pain and the sensation of air forced out of my lungs, I drew one deliberate breath back in.

What am I doing. I’m the only one here who can save a weakened Selene. I’ve always been the one being saved — at least at a time like this, I want to be her strength.

I threw the heavy bag down hard, rummaged through it with trembling hands, and pulled out a bottle filled with blue liquid.

“Can you… open your mouth?”

I murmured it, resting my fingers gently against her soft lips.

There was still some consciousness left. Into the small opening, I slowly poured the contents of the bottle.

She was coughing but drinking properly. That alone made the chest that had been near splitting ease just a little.

“Selene… Selene…”

I rested my hand at her chest and murmured it, clinging. Selene is strong, so surely… she’ll be all right.

It can only have been a short time, and yet this single moment feels endless as forever. Still with my face buried at her chest, a voice soft as sunlight reached my ear.

“…Sion, thank you.”

“…I’m all right now.”

I lifted my face immediately, and what met my eyes was the beloved face I’d been wanting so desperately to see — still contorted with pain, but there.

“Selene!!!!!”

I threw my arms around Selene where she still rested against the tree roots and held her tight. Through the robes I couldn’t feel much, but even so I felt her warmth.

“…I really thought you were going to die.”

“I really, truly… thought I might never see you again.”

Words that had started flowing wouldn’t stop easily.

“Saying things that made no sense, going off somewhere alone without telling me.”

“…Don’t ever leave my side again. I can’t live alone anymore. I really can’t.”

I put more strength into the arms around her back.

“…Take responsibility for that.”

“Stay with me always. Stupid Selene…”

My quiet voice fell into the soundless forest.

“…!”

I thought she was gently drawing me apart from her, and then warmth fell on my lips. Soft and warm. Touching lightly, like small pecks, several times, then drawing away almost at once.

I didn’t want it to leave, and I nearly moved my face toward her again, but stopped myself.

“…I love you.”

“I’m so glad you came, Sion.”

The moment I saw that smile, something that had been tangled deep in my chest for so long came loose.

The artless, slightly childlike smile she showed only to me.

“I love you too… so.”

Not wanting her to see the face burning hot enough to ignite, I muttered it with my eyes down. The heat isn’t from depleted mana. It’s from touching Selene. I’m sure that’s what it is.

“…Yes. There’s so much I want to talk about, but… let’s leave here first.”

“Can you stand?”

Selene pressed a hand to the tree and slowly got to her feet. Having taken in the potion, some energy seemed to have returned.

I had completely forgotten we were in the middle of a dangerous forest. There was so much I wanted to ask her, but right now we had to get out of here alive. I felt pathetic for not having noticed something so basic.

“Y, yes.”

“…I’m fine. Is your body all right? There are still plenty of potions, so don’t hide it if you’re hurt.”

After tending to the visible injuries, I took her hand and headed slowly toward the forest’s edge.

There was no sign of monsters, but I wouldn’t let anything lay a finger on Selene. It didn’t matter what happened to me — I would protect her alone.