Episode 1-b. The One Who Follows the Fury.
Letter.
To put it simply, it was something I had received up until quite recently.
Despite expecting it, I had to wait far away for his journey to grow longer and longer.
I studied writing in order to read that letter, which contained just a few lines.
I was quite curious about the feelings he wanted to convey to me and what emotions would be contained within it.
I didn’t want to ask someone else to read that precious letter he had sent me.
So, even if it meant cutting into my limited time, I continued to study writing.
Before I knew it, I was able to read and write on my own.
The overwhelming feeling I experienced while reading his letter for the first time—those few lines of scribbled words—is still vivid in my memory.
Each letter, written somewhat unevenly, was delightful.
Every single bit of his somewhat awkward and clumsy feelings made my heart flutter.
Even if the content was trivial, the fact that it contained things we knew was quite thrilling.
So.
What is contained in a letter is his heart.
Attempting to hide it by pressing it down and smudging the letters, his true feelings still shone through.
The burdens we had kept hidden from each other until the day we said goodbye were laid bare, flowing from the letters sent intermittently and embedding themselves deep in my heart.
And because of such things, I thought that letters were truly wonderful.
I could keep each one stored in a box, cherished.
They remain vividly in my memory, but I could also feel their warmth as I gently touched them with my hands.
Bit by bit, the heart of a man who was as awkward and lacking as me was being conveyed to me.
So.
I smiled.
I hope that my letter is filled with feelings for him and flew away.
—
She was quite a talkative person.
Thud—
“Um…, so where did the magician come from? I’m from the Haven Kingdom; do you know Haven Kingdom?”
“…”
Even in the cramped, rattling carriage compartment, she crawled her way up right behind the driver’s seat and blurted out her words.
“Well, we’re headed towards the Saravati Principality, so… you must have come from the Empire! You’re from the Ephrin Empire, right? Right?”
“…, Please be quiet. It’s hard to concentrate when you talk.”
“Ah, I’m sorry.”
She spoke her apologies just like now, but after about five minutes of silence, her chatter would definitely start again.
So.
“But, Mr. Magician, are you a remarkable person?”
“…”
“The carriage is nice, and it’s filled to the brim with luggage…. Plus, magicians are rare and invaluable people, so… ah! You really are remarkable!”
It hadn’t even been five minutes, and her mouth was open again.
It was noisy.
“Then, I don’t know if I’ll be able to help, but… if it’s alright, could you take me just to the Principality…?”
“…, I understand, so please be quiet.”
“Wow~ Thank you, Mr. Magician. I guess being a remarkable person means you have a generous heart too!”
She was so loud that I couldn’t even entertain any wandering thoughts, and I had to focus on driving the carriage.
Even though I thought it was lonely when going alone, it was funny that in this situation, I wished to be alone again.
—
Last night.
She was hastily gulping down stew and introduced herself as she pleased.
Eileen.
She said she was an adventurer by that name and smiled bashfully in a disheveled state, which made her rather pitiable.
Her face was smeared with stew, and seeing her licking her bowl because she was hungry truly was something.
Of course, she didn’t tell me my name.
I didn’t want to casually reveal my name to someone whose identity I didn’t really know, so while I listened to her ramble, I kept my own story to myself.
Even though I treated her with half indifference, she kept pestering and sticking to me, which I couldn’t help.
So.
If you were to ask why I didn’t just leave her behind, I would tell you that the help and affection directed towards me in the past came to mind, making it hard to push her away.
I had made the selfish choice to follow Ain, but even in the midst of that, I was just trying to be a good person.
—
And so.
The carriage traveled for quite a while, facing the setting sun.
“Wow…, the sunset is beautiful. Don’t you agree, Mr. Magician?”
“Yes.”
“Oh, you’re finally answering me?”
“…”
The sky was an orange hue obscured by dark clouds that couldn’t fully reach the horizon, but there was a sun slowly disappearing far in the distance.
It was vanishing over the mountains I was about to cross.
And then.
Thwack- Splatter-
Even after quite some time since last night, the rain slapping against the carriage hadn’t stopped.
The horses were breathing heavily, soaked and muddy from the pooling rainwater, and the wood of the carriage was slowly becoming damp.
These things were starting to weigh on my mind, and by nightfall, we might have to stop and camp somewhere.
After all, I couldn’t just enter any city looking like this.
—
And then.
Maybe because of the rain, the scent of grass brushing against my nose was particularly strong.
Even as the sunset faded and the violet twilight began to shift its colors into darkness, it remained so.
However.
The thick scent of grass lingered for a while before slowly mixing and intertwining with other scents, changing into something slightly strange.
Thud thud thud—
The ground shook with sounds.
Scores of figures that could number in the dozens were closing in from all directions like a tightening net.
A different, sticky, and pungent scent from the alleys was increasingly becoming strong, and I grimaced slightly as I muttered.
“…, Something is coming.”
“Excuse me…?”
“I don’t know what it is, but it’s approaching from all around.”
So.
Crack—
Although they were horses that had already been suffering, I urged them on once again.
“Well, there’s no sign of any…?! Ahh! There are Impers! A group of Impers is chasing us…!!”
“What is that?”
“Creatures forsaken by the gods, a race that was not chosen…! Ugh, they look too grotesque…!!”
“…”
If they were called forsaken by the gods, perhaps I was one of their kind too.
Looking at the appearance of those rushing from afar, I would have to say they had been abandoned more severely than I.
But I didn’t feel any particular disgust.
Perhaps, I felt a sense of kinship.
As I said, the feeling of being forsaken by the gods and bringing about disgust was something I shared with them.
“Ahh!! They’re trying to cling to the carriage…! Mr. Magician, please do something about this…! Ugh!”
So.
I gripped the reins with one hand and reached out my other hand.
I wanted to offer a brief prayer for those poor beings and then chant an incantation.
—
“Gray powder.”
“Color spreading…”
“…, Ah.”
However, I hurriedly shut my mouth mid-sentence.
I instinctively tried to use the familiar magic, but that was still of the kind that unleashed gray powder.
Like the phrases of a spell, the gray powder would spread all over.
“Mr. Magician…! Ahh! They’re sticking to us, sticking to us…!”
Recalling the fact that the disheveled adventurer was panicking behind me, I proclaimed another spell.
—
“Stars of the sky.”
“They pour down upon me.”
—
As soon as I chanted the incantation, sparkles began to rain down from the sky.
Puff—
The colorful bursts of light, reminiscent of fireworks launched into the sky during the festival, poured down, shooting down one by one the figures that had attached themselves to the carriage.
Puff—
The pitiful horde, numbering in the dozens or perhaps over a hundred, burst apart like fireworks mingling with a similar number of light clusters.
And just like that, the path the carriage passed through was left with only the lifeless remains of the forsaken.
“Wow…, you really are a remarkable magician….”
“…”
With the glowing clusters falling like meteor showers, they charged forth and erupted, bursting with thick, sticky fluids.
—
And so.
I waved my hands, sketching in the air until the somewhat sorrowful sight ended.
I hoped that the light clusters I unleashed would grant them peace.
I thought to myself that perhaps I could have been born as one of them.
The notion of being forsaken struck a particularly sad chord within me.
Strangely enough, I bowed my head and prayed for their souls.
—
To put it simply.
For those forsaken by the gods like us, there exists a kind of kinship among the forsaken.
