The opponent was moving fast; much faster than the opposing Armed Librarian Minth Chezine. While keeping his opponent at bay with a handgun, he retreated. His opponent specialized in close combat. Getting close would be disadvantageous.
“s.h.i.t!”
Minth’s opponent avoided his shots. The rubber bullets grazed her dark-brown hair. She avoided them not to the side or below, but kept on straight ahead. Tilting her body extremely forward, she leapt ahead.
“Tch!”
Minth stepped back but the distance between them became three meters. He was forced to decide whether to retreat further or engage her in close combat.
He chose the latter and threw away his handgun. He raised the wooden sword held in his left hand and slashed at his opponent.
Enlike Bishile, who was watching the two fight from the side, muttered to himself. Even though it’s futile, you have to make some distance. Minth didn’t have a good chance to win in close combat.
They were in Bantorra Library during dusk. This was part of training ground behind the main building. Inside a simple ring enclosed by fences with a radius of around 300 meters, Minth and his opponent were conducting real combat training. Enlike watched over their fight.
Minth excitedly swung down the wooden sword in his left hand. Just as he was about to get a direct hit, his opponent stopped her movements just before and lay on the ground.
It was uncertain whether Minth’s eyes could follow her next move. She rotated her body with her two hands as the axis. Her feet sled a few centimeters on the ground. Her heels. .h.i.t him accurately on his ankles. Both of his feet were swept away and his body floated in air.
She rotated her body once more. Spreading both legs, she clamped down on Minth’s torso.
Their bodies rolled on the ground. The next instant, Enlike spoke.
“That’s enough. Noloty won.”
They both suddenly stopped.
Noloty Malche ended up straddling Minth as he collapsed with his face up. She grabbed Minth’s left wrist with her left hand. Her fist was stopped just as it was about to strike.
If this was a real battle, fists would have rained down on him without giving him any chance to escape. This was the form of Noloty’s certain victory that once even felled the Monster Zatoh. Once the current Noloty has a.s.sumed this position, escape would be impossible.
“This makes it nine wins and nine losses. It’s a tie.”
Noloty said and grinned. Minth complained to her as she was atop his stomach.
“No, it’s nine wins, eight loses and a tie. I’m ahead by one.”
“You’re still saying that?”
Enlike lent Noloty his hand and she got off Minth. He then stood up.
“Enlike stopped us too soon then. It was a tie.”
Enlike was fed up with it. Minth dragged their fight five matches ago forever. Hating to lose wasn’t bad, but he was too persistent.
“No, that was my win.”
Noloty pouted her lips.
“No, I had a secret plan for reversal.”
“What is it? Please show me.”
“Even if you tell me to show it to you I can’t, it needs to flow with the fight.”
Although they just ended their fight, the two were energetically arguing.
“That can’t be.”
“It can.”
“Liar.”
“Oh, so it reached that point eh?”
The tired Enlike interrupted the two.
“I don’t mind which of you won.”
Minth was still dissatisfied.
“…That’s not good at all.”
“You’re stubborn as well. Oh well. Let’s end it here for today.”
After he said so, Noloty also made an unhappy face. Even though I can still continue… she wanted to say.
“If you still have the energy to spare go run. Ten laps around the island at your full speed.”
“Yes sir!”
Saying so, Noloty jumped over the fence and ran away. Seeing her jump over Bantorra Library’s wall, Minth plunked down on the ground. Enlike stopped the training because he knew fatigue had caught up to him.
Nine months have pa.s.sed since Noloty and Enlike met. During that time, Noloty grew strong beyond recognition. She was a different person from when they first met.
Her supervisor Mirepoc was no longer able to be her sparring partner. She ended up asking Enlike and other Armed Librarians to have real combat training with her. Weren’t they already at the situation in which an active Armed Librarian wasn’t able to compete with a trainee?
“She sure got strong.”
“Because Noloty made great efforts.”
Enlike revealed his honest impressions. Currently he was in charge of the trainee’s practice. The only one of them to come under his rigorous coaching was Noloty.
“But s.h.i.t, this is making me angry. Losing to her feels ten times as frustrating as losing to other guys. I’ve lost my confidence.”
Minth was still vexed. Since his ability is meant for intelligence and support, fighting isn’t his forte. He shouldn’t mind it that much, thought Enlike.
“Frankly speaking, I have no idea why she’s still a trainee.”
Minth said.
“It’s a problem of human nature. It seems people like Mirepoc and you have acknowledged her, but other people still think of her as an unreliable girl.”
“Certainly.”
Enlike made a small sigh. Although Noloty was lacking nothing in ability, her promotion to an Armed Librarian was being postponed. Ireia opposed it, and Hamyuts and Mattalast weren’t in favor either.
He could understand them. She didn’t know how to doubt people and hated killing. As long as she couldn’t grow out of her naivety, she was unfit to be an Armed Librarian.
“Well, her promotion’s close. At the end she is strong enough for an Armed Librarian. If we’re talking about her personality even the Director or Mokkania were more of a problem.”
Minth said and smiled.
“That’s true.”
Enlike answered with complicated feelings. She really wanted to be promoted, but becoming an Armed Librarian would put her in more danger. He felt worried and could simply not be happy about it.
“Well then.”
Minth rose up.
“I’ll get going.”
“Already?”
“Yeah, time is pressing. I now have to look for a spy in Rona.”
Minth’s ability was known as Sacred Eyes, allowing him to see a person’s soul and state of mind. It was the best ability to use when looking for traitors and spies. For the fight against the Indulging G.o.d Cult, he flew around the world without a moment’s rest.
“Sorry for asking you on such busy times.”
“What’re you saying, this was great for relieving my stress. Call me again if you need to.”
Saying so, Minth walked away.
Enlike left the training ground and headed back home. He rented a humble apartment at the downtown of Past G.o.d Bantorra’s Island. He ended up getting treated as an irregular staff member of Bantorra Library. His salary was about the same as a normal librarian. It was less than that of an Armed Librarian and even of a trainee.
If evaluated only by his strength, it wouldn’t be weird for them to give him enough money to play around for a year. But Enlike had no complaints. Because he told them the following himself.
If you were to give me a high salary, my troubles would only increase. Since he planned on leaving Bantorra Library at some stage, he didn’t want to get too deeply involved.
“Enlike-san.”
Someone suddenly spoke up to him at the Library’s courtyard. He noticed the Armed Librarian Ireia was sitting on a bench. Apparently having finished her work, she was busy knitting elegantly.
“Thanks for your hard work. Could I talk to you for a while?”
Ireia moved her plump body to the bench’s edge. Enlike sat down.
“I’ve seen Noloty. Unbelievable. She became that strong.”
“Since she’s fighting against me every day, it would be weird for her to not grow stronger.”
Ireia smiled wryly.
“Why won’t you frankly praise her sometimes?”
Enlike averted his gaze and snorted.
“I’ve been serving here for a long time. I’ve raised many children, but I’ve never seen one who betrayed my expectations that much. It’s all thanks to you, Enlike-san.”
“No, Noloty got strong by herself. That’s all.”
Enlike truly thought so. Out of all the trainees he taught, only Noloty was able to keep up with his h.e.l.lish training.
“She’s been the most pa.s.sionate child around from a long time ago.”
Ireia said while still knitting. Come to think of it, she was also in charge of teaching the next generation. It was her who brought up Noloty up until she became a trainee.
Enlike voiced a doubt that he wanted to ask about since a while.
“By the way, why does she want to become an Armed Librarian?”
“Oh, you don’t know? So you also don’t know about her origins and all that?”
“We haven’t really had personal talks.”
Ireia smiled bitterly.
“You should speak to each other more. Why are you strangely distancing yourself?”
“Leave me alone.”
Enlike became sullen.
“So, Noloty-san came from the mountain region in the southern frontier. She said it’s a small village where they did nothing but raise goats. Enlike-san, prepare to be surprised. I will tell you something amazing.”
Ireia sank into silence for a bit.
“That girl was her village’s princess.”
Enlike was surprised. Noloty, a princess? He couldn’t imagine it at all.
“Unbelievable, right? I thought it was a lie for a while. But when Minth looked at her with his Sacred Eyes he saw that it wasn’t.”
“Why an Armed Librarian then?”
“That girl ran away from home. She said that she wanted to leave the village no matter what.”
“They’re probably worried about her.”
“Probably. When you ask her about her hometown, she makes a really troubled face.”
Ireia smiled.
“So why an Armed Librarian?”
“Since she ran away from home when she was little, she was in trouble because she had nowhere to go. She heard that by getting into an Armed Librarian school she could receive food and education, so she rode on that chance.”
“That’s it?”
“That’s not all.”
Saying so, Ireia began laughing.
“I remembered something funny. It’s from when I asked her why she wanted to become an Armed Librarian.
She said it was because she never lost in a fight at her village.”
Even Enlike was dumbfounded.
“So she thought she could become an Armed Librarian…”
“Unthinkable. I thought it would truly be impossible. I told her that she should quit for her own good.”
“…But she didn’t?”
Ireia smiled wryly.
“She was the only child who didn’t listen to what I said in the last ten years. She truly troubled me.”
He could understand why. Looking at Noloty, she frankly never listened to most of what other people told her.
“I’ll say this clearly, but Noloty-san has nothing like some talent that can’t be found anywhere. There are plenty of talented children around her.
But, at some point, all these talented children were surpa.s.sed by that girl.”
“…”
“She truly is a mysterious child. She managed to make the impossible possible before we even noticed. I’m the most senior among the Armed Librarians, but I’ve never seen a child like her.”
“Then someday she will surpa.s.s both me and you.”
Enlike said half-jokingly. However, Ireia did not deny it.
“I want to say there’s no way, but… I don’t know that child’s limits.”
How stronger will Noloty grow from now on? Will she able to safely work as an Armed Librarian?
He certainly was anxious for her, but at the same time had some expectations. Noloty possessed something no other person had. He didn’t know what, but she had it.
Was thinking this only due to Enlike’s bias?
At any rate, the day she would be promoted to an Armed Librarian approached by the day.
And then, in December 18, 1925…
Noloty Malche has died.