Gloop, gloop.
Slowly, I sink to the bottom.
In those murky depths, in that total darkness, I can’t tell if my eyes are open or closed.
Water gliding, coiling, slips past my body.
Down, down.
Without struggle, without despair, without consciousness, without a heart, I descend to the bottom.
I don’t know when I entered.
I don’t know when I’ll arrive.
Though I can only fear the unknown, without a heart, there’s nothing to feel.
I just fall.
I don’t know when I’ll get there, but I head for the bottom.
It’s the perfect balance between a moment and eternity.
Something snakes around my body, something other than water.
I have no way of knowing what it is.
But strand after strand clings to me, as if tracing the contours of my body, as if making it anew.
As if molding a heart, a blank slate.
It was a clear transformation. I —
I — .
My eyes still can’t see.
My hands, my legs won’t move.
But my mind screams. I have to rise from this place.
My soul trembling, my will burning, my heart shining, I rise to the water’s surface.
As naturally as going to sleep in the evening to awaken the next day.
— Rising from this swamp, I begin.
–
–
I woke up.
It was perfectly normal — no, not really. I knew that from a glance around the pitch-black room.
It was still dark. Dawn hadn’t broken yet.
The feel of the soft blanket wrapped around my body. I was lying in bed.
But something felt wrong. Not the waking up. It was that strange feeling.
It was a dream, but just a little earlier, it felt like something different… I couldn’t remember.
My wits still scattered, I lifted my sunken body off the bed.
“Ugh–!!”
For a moment, a stabbing headache attacked me. That woke me up all the way.
What’s with this headache?
I thought, but for just one moment. Hazily, I recalled what happened last night.
I was pretty sure I drank quite a lot of that mystery booze Leon recommended to me.
I didn’t have a single memory of anything that happened afterwards, but look, I drank that much. Long story short, I was hungover. The evidence: I was feeling awfully queasy.
But what’s this about, waking up this late at night?
Between the nausea and the headache, I definitely wasn’t going to get any more sleep tonight.
“Ueehh.”
Even so, the pain in my head was hard to take, but more than that, my nausea was getting worse. When I opened my eyes, my insides definitely woke up too. I felt something gradually rising from the area around my stomach.
I’m going to hurl.
Clapping my hand to my mouth, I looked around the room, just barely able to see by the tiny amount of light streaming in from outside. There’s no way I can throw up on the bed. Is there anything in here?
The room was surprisingly dreary, and I was the only one in it. Where did Aira and Palmira go? Are they by themselves, like me?
Aside from the bed, the window and the simple desk beside it were the only things to catch my eye. A washbasin and towel were placed on the desk. A pitcher and upside-down cup had been placed next to them.
These were definitely here so I could wash my face after getting up, right? But I couldn’t care less about stuff like that. I crawled off the bed, holding my throbbing head as I tried to slowly hurry over to the washbasin.
“UeeeeEEEeeehhh.”
When I finally struggled my way there, I released the near-critical pressure surging up from my stomach.
Panting and wheezing, I went again — and again, and again. In the quiet room, there were only the sounds of my groaning and retching.
“Ughhu…uh.”
Thanks to the strain of vomiting, the headache tightened like a vise, but I still felt just a little bit better.
There was an awful pounding at my temples, but as I held my head, it eased up bit by bit.
“Hoooo…haa.”
Forcing myself to take several deep breaths, I calmed my mind and body.
Picking up the pitcher, I didn’t bother with the cup, instead directly gulping down water from the spout.
The cold water washed the remaining vomit in my throat back down to my stomach. I drank too much and made myself sick again, so half of it ended up in the washbasin.
Then, I used the towel to wipe off the tears and snot and other miserable things that were sure to be all over my face.
“Phew.”
I had finally calmed down. My head still hurt, but throwing up had been the worst of it.
Even so, I wanted some fresh air. The stuff in the washbasin was turning the air in the room foul.
I went over to the window and threw open the shutters.
At that same moment, a fairly strong wind blew into the room. And it was cold. Thanks to the alt.i.tude here in the mountains, maybe?
But right now, I found that cold wind pleasant. Closing my eyes, I leaned forward and let it wash over my entire body. My headache seemed to improve along with the cooling of my body.
Opening my eyes, I surveyed my surroundings.
The room at the Brellwandy garrison couldn’t even compare to this one, located so high up. Looking down, I couldn’t even tell how many floors up I was.
But that was the very reason that the view here was wonderful. Beyond the walls that formed the city’s perimeter, I could see mountains. And above them, a sprawling sky of stars.
There were more clouds in the sky now than there were on the way here, their pure black shadows gliding quickly along. The wind might be stronger up in the sky.
Dropping my line of sight again, I could see pretty pinp.r.i.c.ks of light.
A sign that even at this time of night, many people were still out and about.
Fire blazed on top of the strategically placed watchtower, sentries huddled around and tending to it.
Then, the light from a tavern where merchants, or maybe off-duty soldiers, were walking around drinking. The lights of an inn.
Looking at them from above, they looked like finely crafted models. Human activity in miniature. The dancing lights. Me, looking down at them all.
If G.o.d is watching us, this is how we must look.
As I mulled it over, it certainly felt nice, and I was awfully satisfied with myself.
At least, I wanted to think that I was just another human under heaven’s gaze, even now. As pleasant as it was to look down from here, I didn’t want to make a habit of it.
Settling back from the window, I reached out my hand to close the shutters — and I saw it. On top of the outer walls. A black human shadow.
Well, there wasn’t really anything wrong with that. A sentry? Yeah, that would make sense.
But something wasn’t right. I couldn’t put my finger on it, so I squinted my eyes.
“?”
I couldn’t make it out very well.
It was pretty far away. Just my imagination after all. I put my hand on the window frame, about to close the window again.
Pii —
“…–!?”
At that moment, an shrill noise pierced my ears. It was grating; just listening to it threw me off-balance.
I looked outside, searching for the source.
Sure enough, it was coming from the shadow atop the wall that I’d just spotted. Even at this distance, I could tell. Because it was holding something to its mouth. This was probably the sound of a flute.
Then, the source of that wrongness became clear to me.
Big.
It was far away, and there was nothing nearby to use as a frame of reference, so I didn’t realize. It was a shadow of considerable size. If it belonged to a human, it would have to be something at least two meters tall.
And it was also strange that there were no reference objects nearby.
Why? Because on top of the opposite well, I could see at least three sentries on duty.
That’s right, three.
And not much earlier, that other wall had been manned by three people as well. But now it was one, and that one was blowing a strange flute.
Something’s fishy here.
Even though the ear-piercing sound of the flute reached me, all the way other here, the fortress took no action.
Aren’t they hearing this? Or is it that they can’t?
If so, then what’s with this flute? What the h.e.l.l is that shadow?
Staring at it, I felt a tingling at the nape of my neck. I touched my hand to it.
The same as the sensation I’d felt when I was with Regnum that night on the mountain road.
In other words, an ugly premonition. An unpleasant presence.
But it seems like people still hadn’t noticed it.
Should I leave the room and raise the alarm?
Just as the thought crossed my mind, the shadow took the flute from its mouth and looked right at me.
“!!!”
Feeling a chill running through my entire body, I took a sharp breath.
This distance, this darkness. There was no light in my room.
And yet I was convinced that the shadow had clearly detected my gaze.
Then, on that face I shouldn’t even be able to see, was a smile —
“–!”
Flooded by instinctual fear, I backed away from the window and made a mad rush for the door.
Hurry, I have to tell somebody. That thing is dangerous.
Kang kang kang —
At the same time, a shrill chiming suddenly echoed from outside the window.
Its range increased by a bit.
Just what the h.e.l.l was that? It was just a moment’s thought.
I instantly understood what it meant.
— Attack.
What, now!?
Just as my hand hit the doork.n.o.b, I looked back over my shoulder.
I couldn’t see the shadow on the other side of the window. Instead, something colossal roared like thunder next to the window as it pa.s.sed by at high speed.
GROOORR —
The sound and shockwaves arrived on a delay.
“Waah–!?”
The window I left open was blown to smithereens, fragments scattering into the room.
I hastily opened the door and tumbled out into the hallway. The room was pitch-black inside, but the hallway was lit. The radiance stopped me dead in my tracks for an instant, but it wasn’t that bright to begin with, so my eyes adjusted right away.
With a heavy koom, the entire hallway shakes.
No. That sense of alarm didn’t come from the shadow. It came from whatever flashed past the window just now.
Then what was that enormous thing?
Probably a monster. Something big that flies in the sky? Only one comes to mind — the king of monsters. A dragon.
Okay, yes, dragons were thought to dwell in the Sarcalnaa mountains.
But it was this shy of being a legend. Dragon sighting were just that rare.
Couldn’t say why, myself. Dragons treated those who enter their territory without mercy, but maybe they rarely left, or they have no desire to be involved with humans in the first place, or any of a number of explanations people have thought up.
My point is, it was almost impossible that a dragon like this would attack the fortress. It was a bolt from the blue for the garrison too, no doubt. I mean, this was also a first for me.
Still, the hallway shook in tandem with that thudding sound. Here and there were the sounds of creaking and groaning, and debris from the ceiling littered the floor.
But I was starting to put together a rough a.n.a.lysis of why a dragon would appear here. It was just a gut feeling, but I was sure that the shadow’s flute summoned it here.
I couldn’t even begin to imagine what its motive might’ve been, but I could at least say that much. This attack didn’t happen by chance; someone planned it for their own ends.
“Chris!”
Just as my speculation began to wake up vague fears inside me, I heard my name being called from behind and turned around.
“Palmira! You okay!?”
The door to the next room had been thrown open. Palmira emerged from within, dressed in pajamas with only her sword tightly gripped in her hand. That’s Palmira for you.
“I’m fine. But what’s going on?”
Apparently she knew something was up, but she couldn’t figure out the circ.u.mstances behind it. I was awake before the attack, but she’d most likely been woken up by the dragon’s pa.s.sage.
But if she were to understand it based only on this information, that’d make her nothing short of genius.
That aside, what about Aira?
“Big Sister~!”
“Aira! You in one piece!?”
As it turned out, I didn’t need to ask. Sure enough, Aira was the source of the voice coming from behind me. She’d apparently come out from the room on the other side of me, and now she was running toward me with a terribly confused look on her face.
At that moment, another tremor rumbled through the earth, the corridor shook, and Aira pitched forward.
“Look out — !”
I caught a nearly catatonic Aira in my arms, holding her as I waited for the shaking to settle. Aira simply curled up, completely unable to respond to the situation.
Though there was nothing we could do about that. Palmira and I had the appropriate experience, but although she’d been through a lot since her enslavement, Aira could still be considered an ordinary person. She was simply acting like a girl her age.
“Talk later! In any case, we’re going down. It’s dangerous here.”
Palmira nodded.
Though it was inside the fortress, there was a power being thrown around that could rock the structure down to its very foundations. I could only imagine that the danger of collapse was extremely high.
What’s more, we were on a pretty high floor. The greater the height, the greater the danger. It’s common sense.
“Aira, get it together. We’re getting outta here!”
I snapped at Aira, who was huddled up to my chest, still reeling from confusion and on the verge of tears.
It might be harsh, but this wasn’t the time for that kind of talk either.
“Kya!”
Aira screamed a little as I yanked on her hand and sprinted for the first hallway I saw, one I didn’t recognize at all.
My head pounded painfully. The adrenaline made me forget until just now, but not long ago I’d had a violent vomiting session. I wasn’t recovering from that anytime soon.
Running beside me, Palmira saw my condition and said,
“Chris, no more drinking.”
I had no words.
Author’s Notes
I said the story was halfway done around Chapter 18, but we’re already past 40 now.
Plus, it hasn’t reached the conclusion I had in mind.
Even I can’t predict how many chapters it’ll end up being.
For all you guys who’ve been wondering why a story without the word “swamp” in it is called “Swamp Girl!” — well, this doesn’t really answer anything. Enjoy!