Chapter 121
Half a Year Later…
“AND MAY THE WINDS of fortune be with everyone…”
Cheers roared from down below as a silver-haired girl waved at the crowd before stepping back from the veranda of the temporary structure.
“I’m so…bored,” she sighed.
HANG IN THERE, LADY MILE.
The nanomachines often tried to offer Mile comfort, realizing that they were one of the reasons that she had ended up in her current position. Not that the circumstances would have been much different without their mass broadcast…
Six months had passed since their epic battle. Presently, Mile was living—or rather, had been made to live—in her own personal residence, a hastily constructed temporary building where she would remain until construction was completed on the inner sanctuary of the temple dedicated to her at the nexus of Tils, Brandel, and Albarn. Every day, she was pressed to perform her duties as a divine messenger to help heal the hearts of the people after the battle that had devastated the land and left so many dead. Naturally, there was no way she could govern either her own land of Ascham in Brandel or the county that had been granted to her in Tils under these circumstances, so the duties were left to the various deputies appointed by those countries’ kings.
Incidentally, as a noble in Brandel, Mile was still known as Marquis Adele von Ascham, while in other kingdoms she was Countess Mile von Ascham or Marquis Mile von Ascham. In this way, Brandel continued to insist on the fact that Mile—or rather, Adele—was a noble of their kingdom, while the other nations blatantly ignored her origins. That said, it was rare that Mile was referred to by any of these titles; typically, she was simply known as the divine messenger, or Lady Mile, or “our savior,” or the guardian, or various other such appellations.
But whatever you called her…
“I’m so bored!”
And she was.
Life in the temple was an exercise in futility. She was constantly ordered about by the various “priests” and “acolytes” who had popped up out of the woodwork to lecture her on manners and miracles. She was always being forced to meet with this or that king or noble or bishop or important merchant and listen to all manner of boring conversations. Now and then she was forced to heal the inconsequential ailments of whatever overdressed official or wealthy person came passing through—not a single one of them young, cute, or fluffy.
(…Well, obviously not, Mile!)
***
“What a drag…”
By now, Countess Reina von Reddlightning had finished writing her memoir, The Crimson Lightning and I: The Early Years of Crimson Reina, which was published by Orpheus Publishing, to whom Mile had referred her.
Naturally, it was a bestseller. There was no way it wouldn’t be, having been penned by one of the great heroes who saved the world. No one could keep the books on shelves. There wasn’t a library on the continent that didn’t have a copy, and it was the talk of every town.
Yes, Reina had already accomplished her life’s work, achieved a previously unachievable dream.
And yet…
“I don’t know anything about managing an estate, so I’ve had to leave it all to the person the king dispatched. I’m so bored…”
***
“I’m so bored… I wanted to live a happy life with all my friends, full of high-stakes adventure, celebrated by the people—not be chained to a desk day after day, swamped with the minutiae of running an estate! Besides—”
“Mavis, it’s time to eat. Marquis Callios and his family are visiting today, so please be sure to attend to them.”
Mavis’s second brother, who had been trained in the ways of lordship in case anything should ever happen to their elder brother, was now charged with coaching Mavis in estate management and how to attend to nobles. Of course, every last one of these nobles Mavis had had to “attend to” was vying desperately for her hand in marriage. Such was the fate of Countess Mavis von Mireirine. (As head of a newly minted noble household, she had taken the name of her friends as her new family name…)
“Gah! Aaaaaah! Mile, save me!”
***
“How dreary…” grumbled Countess Pauline von Beckett as she sank into an office chair in her room at the main manor of her new estate.
Most of the estate management was handled by a representative from the capital, so she was focused on studying, along with operating her shop, the House of the Holy Maiden. This shop was a joint investment between the lord of this estate and Pauline, funded by both the fief’s operating budget and her own personal assets. The distribution of profits would be proportional to the investments, with part of it going back into the estate’s budget and part to Pauline’s personal coffers.
Of course, since she was both the lord of this estate and the business’s other owner, she could do whatever she liked. Still, Pauline ran a clean business, keeping everything fair and aboveboard. The business had been as profitable as she had hoped, and she had run into hardly any problems. Naturally, there was not a soul who would dare swindle a business operated by a lord, let alone one of the friends of the divine messenger and savior of the world.
However.
“This is no fun! This doesn’t have any of the thrill—any of the joy of business!”
Yes, for a merchant, there was nothing in the least bit exciting about any of this. She was quite unhappy. And she had far too much time on her hands…
***
“Lady Mile, a letter has arrived for you.” One of Mile’s shrine maidens appeared before Mile as she lounged in her chambers, politely offering her a letter set atop a silver tray. The letter was, of course, from an approved sender. Mile was typically inundated by letters from merchants and nobles and others hoping to cozy up to her, but most of them were disposed of by the temple staff before they got to her. Even if a piece of correspondence was from a friend from her school days, a fellow hunter, or Lenny, there was a good chance the letter might not make it to her. Even though she had instructed them to forward such missives her way…
Yet one more reason that Mile had grown to despise living here.
This letter, however, was from someone that the staff could not ignore—one of the world’s four greatest heroes. Yes, it was from one of her fellow members of the Crimson Vow.
“Oh, it’s from Reina! What could it be?”
Mile accepted the letter and gleefully tore open the envelope, hopping onto her bed to read the contents. The shrine maiden quietly took her leave, glad to see Mile brighten up—she hadn’t seemed especially cheerful lately.
“Last time, the letter started and ended the same way: ‘I’m so bored!’ Mavis and Pauline’s letters have been the same…” Mile muttered. In fairness, her own letters to the others had not been much different. Lying back on her bed, she continued reading. “Hmm, I see… That’s a fair point. And… Oh! Aha. Ah ha ha ha ha!”
Nanos!
YES, MA’AM!
Is that thing ready to use?
BY “THAT THING,” YOU MEAN…?
The one I had you make before, that I only used once and that’s been in storage since… I think I called it the “living robot” Mile-001, the one that was made overnight. I think it’s time for her to take the stage!
OH! OHOHOOO!!!
The nanomachines were thrilled. Finally, it was time for their creation’s second debut. This was their big chance!
***
“Over here!”
“Oh! Reina, Mavis, and Pauline! It’s been too long!”
The four girls had met in a forest near the capital of Tils—the same forest where the beastfolk village was located. Obviously, there was no way for the four of them to assemble unaccosted within city limits, not after their faces had been broadcast across the entire continent. Of course, Mile could use optical camouflaging or alter her face, but the other three were not capable of this and would, furthermore, be unable to locate her if she was in disguise. And so, they had decided to assemble in the forest instead. Besides, a more discreet location was also more conducive to what they planned to discuss next. Even though only Mile, thus far, was aware of this…
“Obviously, we can’t write candidly in our letters, since they’re being inspected, but I assume we’re all thinking the same thing, yes?” Reina said, jumping right into the matter at hand. The other three nodded.
“Life as a noble is so boring,” Mavis muttered.
“Acting as a divine messenger is even more boring!” Mile exclaimed.
“Capitalizing on pity to turn a profit with no real challenge is no fun at all! Every day is just more aggravating than the last!”
“Right?!”
“So I guess there’s really no point in my asking, given that you all recognized the cipher I was using in the letter and came straight here, but…” Reina continued, teeth bared in a grin. “What say we leave our estates to the deputies and go back to hunting for a little while?”
“Yeah!!!”
The four were unanimous in their agreement. However…
“That sounds like a great idea, but everyone on the continent knows our faces, don’t they? We could take up disguises, but even then, if we try to re-register as hunters under false names, someone’s sure to draw some conclusions about a group of four young women operating together. Especially if there were four particular young women who had run away, their whereabouts unknown…” sighed Pauline.
“It’s true. Plus, I’m pretty sure someone would figure it out the moment we tried to register as fresh F-rank hunters and form a party together. The guild clerks aren’t that stupid,” said Mavis.
“That’s another problem. There’s no way we could possibly register as F-ranks and sit around gathering herbs at this point. And if we tried to apply for a rank skip, they’d clock us in an instant,” Reina agreed, sighing.
“Well, no one’s going to know that I’ve run away, at least,” Mile smiled.
“How?!” asked the other three.
“I left a replacement. A duplicate of myself, made with magic: Mile-001!”
The other three remained quiet. They had no idea what this “Mile-001” was, but they knew from experience that there was no point in protesting or even thinking too hard about it. For their own part, they had left letters behind, indicating that the management of their estates be left to their deputies or father and brothers, as relevant. If they perished, or did not return within five years, Pauline’s estate and title should be left to her younger brother, Mavis’s to her second elder brother. As Reina had not a single relative, she indicated that she would merely relinquish her title in case of such an event.
“Anyway,” said Mile, “I don’t think we’ll have to worry about anyone recognizing us. Everyone on this continent knows our faces, sure, but that’s only on this continent…”
“Huh?”
“Well, I mean, our warning message and the live broadcast of the battle was only shown on this continent. If we went to another continent, we could be completely anonymous background characters!”
“What?!”
“Think about it! Though we like to say ‘everyone in the world’ knows who we are, the nanos have only ever said ‘on this continent.’ So, I asked them for clarification, and it turns out that I was right—the images and sounds from the battle only went to the people on this continent. Honestly, it wouldn’t have been of much use to broadcast those images to people on other continents, who don’t know us and would have had nothing to do with the recent situation. They wouldn’t have understood what was going on anyway. In other words, if we went to another continent, we could be nobodies! Just some anonymous rookies!”
“You say rookies, but rookies at what?” Reina asked. “They wouldn’t have a Hunters’ Guild on other continents. And would they even speak the same language?”
Mile seemed unconcerned.
“Tsk, tsk! Long ago, this world was all one big civilization. It was left in shambles by the previous extradimensional invasion, after which society gradually regressed and intercontinental exchange became impossible. But I bet the language stayed the same or similar, and that similar organizations existed overseas, too, based on the ones that were already in place before intercontinental communication and travel became impossible!” Mile said confidently.
In truth, she had already asked the nanomachines a fair bit about the other continents. As their languages had once been the same, though pronunciation would differ by now, along with the names for technologies once lost and then rediscovered, they could probably communicate without too much confusion. The difference in vocabulary would come down to things like “compass” versus “directional needle,” “north-finding disc,” or some such. Because people using the same language tended to name things with similar concepts, there wouldn’t be vast differences even after a gap of many years. It would be equivalent to two dialects of the same tongue.
Additionally, Mile had confirmed with the nanos that there were also monsters and something like a Hunters’ Guild on other continents. The recent monster incursion had happened only on this continent, but monsters had always existed on other continents as well. On this occasion, they had quashed the rift right from the start, but had they left things as they were, perhaps rifts would have eventually begun to open up all over the world. That, or maybe the monsters that had spread across this land during the previous invasion had crossed the sea to proliferate on other lands as well. They could have made their way onto the ships and other transports still active at the time or else been transported by that machine intelligence in some way.
At any rate, the societies of other continents seemed to be fairly similar in form.
“Well, how are we going to get there?” asked Reina. “To a faraway continent that none of us have ever been to?”
“Kragon is going to take us there!”
With her wartime appointment of a level-7 authorization having been sustained even when the battle was through, Mile was able to utilize the nanomachines to transmit pictures and sounds to far-off locations. In other words, she now had a method with which to summon Kragon. Her parabolic gravity-based method of transport was so out of the ordinary that she was only comfortable using it when she was on her own.
The other three were quiet.
Another continent.
Adventures in a brave, new land.
Everyone was practically vibrating, body and soul.
Yes, they’re all on board! Mile thought, seeing this.
Reina then began to speak again. “By the way, Mile, weren’t you supposed to stop by the guidance office back at Eckland?”
“Like I will!! Why are you bringing up something from six months ago?! I’d rather not have to submit a fifty-page essay reflecting on my actions, thank you!” Mile was none too happy about this but swiftly recovered. “Anyway, I presume we are all in agreement?”
“Yeah!!!” the other three chorused, pumping their right arms into the sky.
“Okay then! I’ll go ahead and call Kragon!”
“Aren’t we moving a little too quickly? We need to plan,” Mavis wondered, surprised at Mile’s haste.
“I’ve already packed all of the necessary food and clothing into my storage space, so no need to worry about that. As for money, I still have all of my share from when we divided up our funds, and there’s some stuff that we hunted and gathered in there, too, so we should be able to exchange it for some starting capital as soon as we arrive.”
The others had stuffed their purses with as many gold and orichalcum pieces as they could upon their departure but left most of their personal funds back at their manors. It would have panged their hearts to bring it all with them, not to mention the physical impossibility of carrying that much coin. They did not have storage magic or an inventory space, after all…
“I’m sorry, I only brought some of mine with me,” said Reina.
“Same here,” said Pauline.
“Me too…” Mavis sighed.
“Well, I mean, that’s fine. You all don’t have storage magic like I do. There’s no guarantee they’d even use the same currency on another continent, so the coins won’t have much value beyond the metal they’re minted from—and we don’t even know how much that will be worth. It’s safer for us to leave our money here. It’s not like we’re never coming back again. Plus, isn’t it more fun for us to start over from scratch, without a single copper to our—oh!” Mile started to assure the others that it was normal for them to be carrying only a small portion of their funds (not their estate’s money but what they had earned themselves as hunters), then suddenly cut herself off.
“What’s wrong?” Reina asked.
Mile suddenly looked less than confident. “Um, well, thanks to the contract you made with the nanos before the battle, you all leveled up, right? That means you might be able to use storage magic, too…”
“What?!” the others shouted.
Yes, yes indeed. Reina and Pauline’s previous attempts to use storage magic had ended in failure. But what about now that they had been promoted to a level-2 authorization? At level-2, they could neither speak directly to the nanomachines, nor could they use an extradimensional pocket as an inventory, the way Mile could—not without her giving explicit instructions to the nanomachines as she had with Marcela and the others. But normal storage magic…
Creak.
Creeeeeeeeak.
You could almost hear the sound of Reina and Pauline’s heads turning slowly Mile’s way.
“M-Mile…”
“Mile…”
“G-guys, please! You’re scaring me!”
***
Somehow or other, Mile managed to talk down the frantic pair, assuring them that it would be best to take their time and start practicing their storage magic tomorrow, as there were a number of things to attend to. Then, she quickly called Kragon.
The method for this was simple—as previously mentioned, her level-7 authorization meant she could utilize the nanomachine network to send pictures and sound to distant locations. What this actually looked like was a little screen that would appear in front of Kragon’s face, which she could use to speak to him. Unlike the screens used for the continent-wide broadcast, this one allowed for two-way communication. And unlike the audio ducts used to transmit voice during the battle, this method transmitted the sound as data, much as Mile had done during her warning broadcast. This was more practical, given the distance involved.
A short while after Mile made contact, Kragon arrived.
“Lady Mile, savior of the world! I am so utterly privileged to receive word from you!”
He was becoming increasingly humble in the way he addressed her—deservedly so, of course. Before, Kragon had merely been expressing his gratitude to someone he owed a personal debt. Now, Mile was a literal savior of the world, a patron who had aided the elder dragons in accomplishing their creators’ decree—their very raison d’être.
“Here—this jewel is proof that you are an honorary councilor for our clan. It is our privilege to say that you may henceforth refer to yourself as an honorary elder dragon. Both the council of our village and the greater assembly were unanimous in this decision!” said Kragon, handing Mile some kind of dragon ball. It was a pretty thing, completely different from what she had received after carving the clan leaders’ horns and nails.
“What the heck?!?!” the other members of the Crimson Vow shouted as one.
Could it really be that Mile had become an honorary elder dragon?
It did make sense that even an elder dragon would hope to stay on the divine messenger’s good side as much as possible.
“Anyway,” said Mile, “as I mentioned, would you be able to carry us to another continent?”
“Of course! I already consulted with the elders, who traveled to other continents long ago, to confirm that it might be feasible to make such a journey. So, which continent would you like to travel to?”
Mile had already considered this. The north was too cold, the south too hot. That didn’t leave very many possible options…
“The west! The continent to the west!”
***
Kragon took them high up into the sky, higher still than when he had transported them to the demon settlement. From that altitude it was easier to see, and there was less air resistance, which made for higher speeds. The riders were safe within a two-layer protective barrier made by Kragon and Mile, along with Mile’s warming and air-compression magic.
Thankfully, Reina had already overcome her fear of heights (earned during the “thunderbird incident”) on their previous dragon flight. In fact, it was far less scary to fly at a higher altitude than it would be at a more middling height.
With nothing to look at during their flight beyond the sky and the sea, Mile’s mind began to wander.
I’m kind of worried that evildoers might try to meddle with the ruins, now that everyone knows that the Scavengers and golems are our friends. They might think they can just sneak in there and not be killed on the spot… They might try to steal valuables or precious metals… Actually, even the iron the Scavengers smelt would be much purer than anything humans or dwarves could make. There are definitely going to be some tomb raiders or treasure hunters who pop up and start targeting the ruins. I probably should have founded some organization to protect them. I could call it…the Ascham Foundation!
She was overjoyed at having come up with this, as happy as she had been when she came up with “A Certain Magical Reina-gun.”
The ones on the ground could be known as “Sprayguns”…
***
Around the time when everyone was starting to get tired of flying…
“Hm? Mile, what do you think that is?” Mavis, who was always the first to spot their quarry, pointed to something in the ocean ahead of them. Between the two of them, Mile had the better eyesight, but for some reason Mavis was always the first person to notice things—except when Mile was using her search magic, of course.
“Huh? Um, that looks like… Hey, Kragon, take us slightly to the left! Full speed, lower altitude! That boat is under attack!”
“Roger that!”
“Everyone, prepare for aerial descent!”
“All right!!!”
Mile could make out more details as they approached. It appeared to be a small ship, the sort that hugged the coastline, a vessel of twenty tons or so. Or at least, it was a small ship by Mile’s standards, but quite a large one for this world. It was currently under assault from several sea serpents.
The name “sea serpent” did not refer to any specific variety of monster. Instead, it was more of a generic term for any type of unidentified creature with a massive, narrow body that dwelled in the ocean. A swarm of them was currently fixated on this vessel.
“Mavis, sword at the ready! Reina, Pauline, prepare your attack spells! As I explained previously, I’m going to be controlling our descent speed using gravity and wind magic, so please don’t hesitate to jump! We’re almost on top of them now, standing by… Three, two, one… Launch!!!”
“Hyaaaaaaah!!!!” the four members of the Crimson Vow yelled, leaping fearlessly from Kragon’s back as he reached an altitude of about fifty meters above the sea. Naturally, Mile had already dissolved the various protective fields around them.
Even Reina appeared calm as they plummeted. Her faith in Mile was unshakable. Plus, Mile had a proven track record of being able to support a falling body, as established during their fight against Lobreth.
The sailors on the boat had been focused on furiously combating the sea serpents and had not even noticed Kragon’s silent approach. Now, they looked up as they noticed the four girls falling from the sky with a cry…and froze at the sight of an elder dragon’s massive frame above them.
The sea serpents took advantage of this opening to redouble their attack. However…
“Dragon Killer Blade!”
“Dragon Destroyer Blade!”
“Ice Cutter!”
“Water Cutter!”
The four figures falling from the sky were not kind and peaceful angels…
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