Slayers - Volume 17 - Chapter 2

2: Being a Peerless Spellcaster Isn’t All Fun and Games

The smell of the wind, the color of the greenery... Things I assumed would be the same anywhere you went revealed differences when I really stopped to take them in. Even the landscape, which looked like a generic verdant mélange from a distance, turned out to be full of unfamiliar trees and other plants upon close inspection. By the same token, I hadn’t yet seen any of the herbs commonly used for making magic items in the inner lands where I was from. I would have liked to do some research on what I was finding instead, but we had bigger fish to fry at the moment.

It was now the following day, and Gourry and I had left the city of Maricida en route to the capital, Palbathos. As we stopped at a fork in the road, I pulled out the documents Captain Bronco had prepared for us. He’d given me a map he’d drawn (that was more like a diagram of roads scrawled on a scrap of parchment) as well as the aforementioned letter of introduction—plus a courtesy fee for vanquishing the bandits.

“I gotta say...” Gourry said, peering at the map from the side. “That guy was nice, but he’s got pretty bad handwriting.”

Notes were written on the map at various points, but they were damned hard to parse. That said...

“It’s not bad handwriting. It’s a different alphabet.”

“A different alphabet?!” Gourry’s voice cracked.

“Yup. After all, the inner and outer lands have had zero cultural exchange for a thousand years. Of course they’ve diverged in that time. I’d chalked the slight quirks in the locals’ speech up to a regional dialect or something, but we’re honestly lucky their language is even comprehensible to us. If things had diverged too much, we wouldn’t be able to communicate at all. Point is, I suspect this is hard to make out because of the difference in written language—not because Captain Bronco’s handwriting is bad.”

I’d originally taken the sign at the inn back in Latka for badly written too, but apparently I was wrong about that. The writing was just divergent from the script I knew. Perhaps it was even our language in the inner lands that had shifted over the past millennium—not theirs.

“I guess that means you can’t read it, huh?” Gourry mused.

“I can, actually,” I informed him.

“The alphabet’s different but you can read it? How?”

“The script is different from what we use, sure, but it’s not that different. Which makes sense, given how little the spoken language has changed. Basically, the letters aren’t the same, but they have similar forms. And since this is a map, you can kinda already tell what words are supposed to mean north, south, east, west, left, right, mountain, river, and other geography-related stuff. So, from that, we can infer what the writing says, right?”

“Oh! Incredible!”

“That’s not to say I can make out all of this, though. Here, for instance...” I pointed to a particular place on the map. “It says to go left at this fork and we’ll end up at what looks like a ‘bas stop.’ I dunno what a ‘bas’ is, though. Maybe some kind of boat or shared carriage.”

“We’ll cross that bridge when we come to it, I guess.”

“Guess so.” I nodded, stuck the map back into my pocket, and dutifully followed the leftward path.

“Say, Lina, you think things will work out once we get to this capital place?”

“Dunno. But they sure won’t if we don’t go.” I kept walking as we chatted. To our left were trees. To the right, grassland. There was nobody else on the road. Maybe because it wasn’t a major road, or maybe because there just weren’t many travelers and peddlers in the outer lands, I noticed that it was fairly overgrown with weeds. “Ideally we’ll find out exactly where we are and what direction home’s in, but money is also an issue.”

“We don’t have enough?”

“We have no idea how much it’ll take to get back, and while I have gold coins that seem easily convertible into local currency, I’m not sure I’ve got us totally covered. Most of my assets are in the form of magic items... but there’s no sorcerers’ council here in the outer lands. If I try to sell them off at a local shop that doesn’t know what they are, they’re liable to treat them like junk. So another reason I want to go to the capital is to find somewhere that’ll give me decent—or at least not awful—prices. Of course, I’d also like to pin down some real directions sooner rather than later too.”

In simple terms, the Desert of Destruction that divided the inner and outer lands was to the south of Elemekia. So, also in simple terms, going north would get us home. Down in the nitty-gritty, however, there were bound to be geographical features we needed to maneuver around that would make our journey somewhat less than a straight shot. I would’ve loved to get my hands on a proper world map, but that was as good as out of the question. Even if such a thing existed, it’d be treated like a state secret. No way was a layman like me getting their mitts on it.

Now, I bet you’re wondering, “Why would a map be a state secret?” Well, lots of reasons. War, for one. Let’s say a neighboring kingdom wanted to invade. Which do you think would make it easier for them: access to a map detailing the local roads, towns, mountains, and rivers, or the total lack thereof? Keeping your geography hush-hush makes it harder for your enemy to advance, and easier for you to set terrain-based traps and ambushes. You could take a huge chunk out of their forces without fighting a single battle.

In other words, while countries generally did desire accurate maps of their own lands, they also had to be careful not to let them fall into enemy hands. Ergo, such things weren’t available to ordinary citizens or travelers. That was the case back home, and I was certain it was true here. Granted, how the major roads joined together and such was something that your average peddlers and travelers would know. So I figured hitting up the capital would let us chat up the right folks.

As I pondered all this while walking...

“Lina,” Gourry called to me suddenly. For a moment, I assumed there were more bandits—but I saw no sign of any. Gourry didn’t stop walking either.

“What is it?” I asked.

“Are you all right?”

The question felt totally out of the blue. “What do you mean?” I asked.

Gourry stared at me. “Seriously, are you all right?” he repeated.

“Dude, I seriously don’t know what you’re getting at. Why are you asking if I’m...” I started, stopping myself before I could finish. I let out a deep sigh and ran my fingers through my hair. “I guess I can’t hide it from you, Gourry,” I whispered, gazing up at the sky, the white clouds, and the birds that seemed so familiar at a distance. “Ever since we were sent here to the outer lands, I’ve felt... not quite depressed, but more sedate than usual. And it’s building up on me, little by little by little.”

“Homesick?” he asked simply.

I waved my hand dismissively. “No. I don’t think it’s that, anyway. After all, I was traveling solo before I met you. I was even more adrift then, you know? But now that we can’t get back—” I stopped, feeling a catch in my throat. This is... I mussed my hair. “Well, maybe you’re right. Maybe I am homesick, as unlike me as that is.”

Saying the words “can’t get back” had clearly affected me.

“I think it’s the difference between ‘won’t go home’ and ‘can’t go home,’” I tried to explain.

“What do you mean?”

“Before... I could always backtrack if I ever felt like it. Staying away was a choice. But now, I don’t know if going back’s even still an option. And even if it is, who knows how long it’ll take? That’s been getting to me. What about you, Gourry? How are you holding up?” I recalled he’d once mentioned that home for him was somewhere in the Elemekia Empire.

He smiled easily at me in response. “I’m feeling pretty good myself.”

“Really?”

“I forgot about most things, after all.”

“Don’t forget home, dude!”

“Hey, I’m just kidding. Just kidding.”

“It didn’t sound like it to me!”

Maybe it was because I was yelling at Gourry, or maybe it was because I’d finally put my finger on the source of my melancholy...

But I suddenly felt a lot more at ease. I looked up at the sky and stretched. “Well, now that I think about it, we’ve been through our share of impossible fights. So... I can’t say for sure that this’ll all work out, but relatively speaking, finding a way home should be a breeze.”

“I feel the same way.” Gourry smiled kindly at me.

I hadn’t totally sorted out my feelings. It was possible I’d let them get the better of me soon enough. But as long as I wasn’t alone, I’d be able to figure something out. That mysterious certainty swept away all the pain in my heart.

Listening to the songs of unknown birds, I followed our map until the trees to the left of the road began to thin out. Before long, I could see shining rays of sun through the gaps between them. The scent of water began to pervade the verdant smells too. And by the time the trees had disappeared completely, Gourry and I came to a stop.

The road before us was cut off by... blue.

“A lake?” Gourry asked.

“Or a river,” I responded.

There were barely any waves, and the water wasn’t very clear, but because of that, it reflected the surrounding scenery on its surface. I could just barely see the opposite shore. Whether it was a lake or a river, it was remarkably large.

“Which means...” I scanned the waterline until my eyes fell on a small building down the way.

Gourry gazed in the same direction and said, “That must be the whatsit stop.”

“Looks like.” We both started walking again. “I guess it’s a ferry after all.”

Looking closely at the seemingly calm surface of the water, there were signs of ripples along the banks. Probably a large river, then.

The closer we got, the better I could make out the ferry landing. The building was a sturdy little cabin, and there was a boat at the pier large enough to carry a dozen or more people easily. It didn’t have a roof, and the ‘seats’ were just a series of planks, but there were already several passengers aboard. A boatman stood at the helm, and... Wait, was it about to leave?!

“Book it, Gourry!”

“Hey! Hey, wait for us!” Gourry called as we took off at a run.

Thankfully, the boatman seemed to hear us. He waved and waited for us to catch up.

“Is this... the ferry... to Palbathos?” I asked when we arrived, heaving for breath.

The elderly boatman smiled widely. “Sure is! Payment in advance, please!”

“You got it!”

Catching my breath, I paid the man and boarded the boat from the pier. It wasn’t as unstable as I’d thought it might be, probably thanks to its size. The passengers already on board included a guy who looked like a peddler with a large pack on his back, an ordinary traveler, and various other folks along with a few caged chickens. The boatman must’ve ferried cargo too.

He waited until Gourry and I were seated, then bellowed, “The bas boat is settin’ sail!”

That was the last call before he reached out with a long pole with feathers at the end and lightly tapped the still water in front of the boat. Then, slowly but surely, solid black figures rippled to the surface. They were larger than humans, maybe even as long as an ogre was tall. It was a pair of...

“Fish?!” I found myself jumping up and shouting.

“Hey, stay in your seat. It’s not safe to stand up,” the boatman scolded me. “You seem a bit surprised... Have you never seen bas before?”

“Wait, so the ‘bas’ isn’t the boat. It’s...”

“A kind of fish, yes. Come on, we’re setting out. I’ll explain it as we go.” The boatman tapped the water with the feathered pole again, and the two figures slowly began to move. As they did, a rope surfaced in the water, pulled taut, and steadily dragged the boat along behind it.

“They’re known as giant bas, and though they’re fish, they’re very smart,” the boatman pronounced proudly. He indicated the chicken cages with his eyes. “As thanks for pulling the boat, I feed them. And as long as I uphold my end of the deal, they’re tame. They might even understand human language.”

“Wait, those chickens are fish food?!”

“Oh, yes. They swallow ’em up in one gulp,” he said even more proudly.

Maybe this goes without saying, but there were not fish like this in the inner lands I came from. Certainly none capable of pulling a boat the way a horse would a carriage. Although, when I stopped to think about it, we did have fish with arms and legs, considerable intelligence, and the capacity for speech. I didn’t know if the same fishfolk lived here in the outer lands, but I supposed I shouldn’t be all that surprised that they had some kind of intelligent fish.

The boat moved slowly at first, then gradually picked up speed until...

“Hang on! Hang on! Hang ooooon!” someone cried. I looked to see a girl running straight for the boat the same way Gourry and I had come. “Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait!”

Her voice grew louder and louder as she barreled toward us with tremendous speed, but the boat had already set sail. That didn’t stop her, though. In fact, she ran faster!

“Huuwaaah!” With a strange cry, she took a flying leap from the pier! Of course, there was no way she’d make it. And so, she fell with a splash between the riverside and the ferry...

Or so I would have thought, but it went down differently. Instead, the arc of her jump extended unnaturally midair and she kept heading straight for us until... Thunk! She just barely landed on—er, boarded?—the edge of the boat.

The ferry rocked heavily from the impact, and the passengers shouted in shock.

“Excuse me, miss!” The boatman was understandably agitated. “Don’t jump in like that! It’s dangerous, and you’ll startle the fish!”

“Eh heh heh... Sorry,” she apologized lightly, not looking particularly penitent. She seemed a bit younger than me, with curly golden hair flowing down her back and richly brown skin. As for her height and bust size... Ah, damn it. Never mind. Who cares about that?

She was dressed like she was out for a nice stroll around the block. Some would say she was traveling light, while others would have said she was woefully underprepared for a long journey. She was carrying a small sack for her belongings and a wooden stick whose purpose I couldn’t decipher. Overall, I got an “ordinary village girl who’d had a fight with her dad and run away from home” vibe from her.

“Do you have your fare, missy?” the boatman asked.

“Ah, yah, yah.” Turned out she was ready for a journey after all and paid her way when prompted.

“Now, never do that again.”

“Teeheehee... Real sorry. Ah, and I’m sorry to all of you too!” After being scolded by the boatman, she apologized to everyone and took a seat.

The fish-pulled boat sped up as we moved upstream. When I finally had a chance, I moved to sit next to the latecomer. Gourry followed, realizing I was up to something... or not. Who’s to say?

“Hi there!” I called to the girl casually.

She turned her brown eyes toward me. “Oh, hiya. Sorry for the fuss.”

I replied with a warm smile, “I’m Lina. And my companion here is Gourry.”

“Call me Ran!” The girl—Ran—took my outstretched hand and shook it. Her hand was so soft it shocked me a little.

“I was hoping to ask...” I said, still smiling. “You used a wind spell earlier to get on the boat, didn’t you?”

Most people couldn’t change the trajectory of their jump halfway through, so magic seemed like the only explanation. But here in the outer lands, where there was no sorcerers’ council and folks didn’t seem to know much about magic... just who was this girl casually using a wind spell like that? I decided to ask her straight-out and see how she reacted rather than trying to dance around the subject. And in reply, she said...

“Awesome, eh? An elf taught it to me long ago.”

She’s bragging?! Is it not some giant secret? Wait a sec... “What?! You mean there are elves here too?!”

“Oh, yah, but not too many.”

Had I just hit pay dirt? Elves in the inner lands lived longer than humans and were more skilled in spellcasting. Getting in touch with one potentially meant a big lead on how to get home!

But even so... I knew that if I started grilling Ran on the spot, it might put even a bubblehead like her on her guard. So I swallowed my desire to do so and casually replied, “I’ve known a few elves myself.”

“For real? Zowie! How about that! What were they like?”

“Well, one only ordered cabbage at restaurants, and the other was really shy but a total braggart underneath it all.”

Ran cocked her head. “So you don’t like elves?”

“No! Those are just the elves I know! It’s not that I think all elves are like that!”

But our conversation came to an abrupt halt when...

“Hey! Boatman! Behind us!” one of the passengers called out.

Everyone turned around and saw turbulence in the river behind us. This wouldn’t be anything special, except... it was moving upstream! Rather, straight toward the boat!

“What’s that?!” I yelled.

“No way! It’s the rockeye!” the boatman shouted back.

“The what?” Gourry asked.

The boatman didn’t even spare a glance as he replied, “A big fish that eats bas! Damn it! What’s it doing here?!”

It eats bas, fish even bigger than humans? Just how huge is this darn thing?! If something that size attacked, it could eat the boat—or even us!

The boatman used his pole to spur on the bas fish. Either in response to him or the approaching danger, they sped up and pulled us along swiftly.

Still, when I looked back, I could see the wake steadily gaining on us! If I squinted, I could see a flat figure just below the surface. I couldn’t make it out in full, but judging by its basic silhouette, it could definitely swallow a bas in one go. In other words, this thing was sea-serpent-tier in terms of size. And it was gonna capsize us soon if we didn’t do something!

But... what could we do? If we’d been on land, I’d have happily left things up to Gourry, but he’d never be able to hit the thing underwater. A lightning spell from me would harm the giant bas too. And while an indiscriminate area-of-effect spell might chase the thing off even without a direct hit, it would also cause a wave that would capsize us.

Okay, then how about this?! I moved to the back of the boat and began chanting a spell aimed at the lurking black shadow chasing after us.

Dynast with thy frozen soul, slumbering below the earth...

Just then... I felt like my eyes met those of the beast under the surface.

Most attack spells would be physically stymied by water. But what about a spell calling upon the power of a mighty demon? All they consisted of was life, spirit, and magic. A little water wouldn’t make a lick of difference.

That thought passed through my mind briefly... And then I finished my spell! “Dynast Breath!”

This puppy borrowed the power of Dynast Graushera, one of five high-ranking demonic lieutenants. When I recited the words of power, the head of the creature in the water froze and shattered! The scattering fragments caused the surface to swell, but not violently enough to burst. The rest of the creature’s body, not fully covered by the magical ice, continued to writhe a little even as it floated to the surface. It soon stopped moving and drifted off into the distance, carried away by the river’s leisurely current.

It was only then that the other passengers spoke up.

“Wow!”

“Was that for real?”

“How did you do that?”

“You took out that big thing in one hit?!”

Honestly, all the oohing and aahing had me a little bashful.

“That’s amazing! Was that magic?!” Even the boatman joined in.

“Well, yeah...” I responded impudently.

“Wait, are you a court magician?!”

“Not exactly, no...”

“Either way, you saved us! The rockeyes aren’t usually so aggressive, but that bastard acts like he owns this river. They say that if you encounter him, you should abandon ship and consider yourself lucky if you survive. I’ve known quite a few men who’ve lost their boats and their fish, so... thank you. Thank you so much,” he said, then turned away.

So that was the story, huh? I’d only seen the creature with its head blown off, so I had no idea what kind of beast it really was.

The next thing I knew, Ran was right beside me, looking at me with sparkling eyes. “Nissy Lina, you’re amazing!”

“Nissy?!”

“Oh, sorry! That’s what we say back home!”

“You do?” I just thought she was trying to be cute!

“Yeah. Here they’d say... Lady Lina!”

“That’s a bit much!”

“Should I call you ‘Lady’ instead?” Ran asked, cocking her head.

Nissy and Lady... I wasn’t exactly fond of either. “Just call me Lina.”

“Oh, but I couldn’t do that! Nissy Lina it is, then!”

“Ah, fine. Whatever.”

I hated the idea of being called “Lady Lina,” so I decided to just chalk this up as the lesser of two evils.

When I stopped to think about it, though, the nature of language was to change over time, and given what we’d learned, it was no surprise there were places where odd-sounding words had sprouted up. Much as it annoyed me...

Ran responded, scratching her back with one hand, “Oh, it’s nice we can understand each other even though I’m not from here, but sometimes the little things are real different. Like the laughter! I couldn’t believe it!”

“Even the laughter is different?”

“Yeah. At home, nobody goes ‘hahaha.’ They go ‘eh heh heh’ and such. And the dark lord in children’s stories goes ‘teeheehee.’”

“How is that intimidating?!” That sounds cute! While words might change, at least apply yourself and give us a ‘keh heh heh’ or a ‘bwahaha’!

“Well, to us, ‘teeheehee’ sounds real wicked!”

“Does it...?”

I wondered... What if Norst had sent me and Gourry to a region closer to Ran’s homeland? Just the thought of it exhausted me. I was gaining a new appreciation for the importance of dignity in language.

“So,” Ran began, “Nissy Lina and Rostir Gourry...”

“Rostir?!” Gourry and I said in unison.

“Oh, Rostir means—”

“Forget it. Just keep going,” I interrupted dismissively.

“Rostir...” Gourry muttered with a frown and a furrowed brow.

“So, where are you headed, Nissy Lina and Rostir Gourry?”

“Ah... Right. We’re on our way to the capital for now. There’re some things we need to look into.”

“Hmm... Say, can I come?” Ran asked capriciously.

“I don’t mind, but... are you sure? You aren’t heading somewhere yourself?”

“Nope!”

“I see. No destination in mind, eh?” I don’t know why, but even now that I understood her weird colloquialisms, I still couldn’t help but worry about the girl. I felt like adding Ran, who was also a stranger in these parts, wouldn’t be much of a boon to our already clueless party... Still, I wanted to ask her more about the elves she’d mentioned, and I had no particular reason to keep her at arm’s length. “Then let’s head to Palbathos together. We can go our own ways there if we want.”

“Okey lokey!” Ran said, throwing her left hand in the air... And her face went a little pink as she waved her hand side to side. “Sorry, flubbed it. I meant to say ‘okey dokey.’”

“I don’t understand either one,” I said extremely calmly.

As it turned out, having Ran with us wouldn’t be bad at all... In fact, it would be welcome. I just didn’t realize how much until that night.

About half a day after our ride aboard the bas ferry, right around the time the sun was getting low in the sky, we arrived at a small layover town with a harbor. I didn’t much know the lay of the land, so it didn’t completely register, but the boatman told us that traveling from where we’d set off to here would’ve taken two or three days by land. And if that was true, we’d managed quite a shortcut.

Me, Gourry, and Ran all got an inn together and were about to enjoy dinner when... I realized that I couldn’t read the menu on the wall at all.

That made sense, of course; it was still in the same weird alphabet. And yes, while most of the letters were recognizable and I could sound them out if I had to, I couldn’t be completely sure I was reading them right. I tried to translate the item at the top of the menu, presumably the day’s special, but all I could get was “gogiburdruhante,” which didn’t make any sense to me.

Cue Ran’s time to shine!

“Hey, Ran,” I called as she gazed at the menu herself.

“What is it, Nissy Lina?”

“Can you read the top line for me?”

She looked at it and said, “Sure can!”

...

......

“Er, I mean... please read it out loud.”

“Oh, yah. It says gogiburdruhante.”

I was right?! Too bad it still made no sense to me!

“So, what’s that...?” I asked.

“Hmm, ‘gogi’ is a kind of fowl. It’s tasty. And ruhante is a dish where you roll out dough real thin, sprinkle oil on top, then put stuff and sauce on it, and roll it all up and fry it. It’s crisp on the outside and fluffy on the inside! And the stuff they put on it is gogi, so it’s gogi-bird ruhante!”

“I see...” I asked Ran to decipher the rest of the menu for me in the same way.

Whew. Having Ran around turned out to be a huge help after all. Without her, I would’ve had to ask for dishes at random, and potentially end up with a meal of samey food. Plus, having Ran read things out to me was getting me a little more used to the language and how to decipher it. I mean, all I was amassing right now was food vocabulary, but still.

Anyhoo, I ordered a few things and some drinks and...

“Nissy Lina.” Ran tilted her head while we were waiting for our food. “You really can’t read?”

Geh... I paused for a moment, considering how to respond. It was true that I couldn’t read the language here—which was through no fault of my own, mind you—but I still didn’t really wanna cop to it out loud. I wondered if I should admit we didn’t know a lot about the area. Ran would figure it out sooner or later anyway...

Then again, if I told her the unvarnished truth—that I was from the other side of the demon barrier erected a thousand years ago, and that after slaying a whole bunch of high-ranked demons, one of their friends had sent me out here out of spite—she’d probably assume I was lying.

“The truth is, Gourry and I... are from a faraway land.” I chose my words carefully. “There was... something of an accident.”

“An accident?! Like a boat sinking?!”

“Hrm, well... Something like that, I guess,” I said, keeping vague. “The point is that we’re a long way from home, and the writing here is different. So having you read for me is a huge help.”

“No probsies!” she said, puffing out her chest proudly.

“Thanks. I appreciate it. Basically, we’re looking for a way to get home... Do you know a lot about the area, Ran?”

“Hmm...” At this, she hummed lightly. “I left my own home to go on a-wandering, so nah!”

“Oh? What’s your homeland like?”

“Green and bountiful!”

“Yeah? Sounds nice.”

“The middle of nowhere!”

“Yeah? Sounds rough.” Then again, she’d mentioned an elf had taught her that nifty little jump-enhancing spell, and elves tended to live in areas of untouched nature. “Did that elf who taught you that spell live there too?”

“Used to! But about ten years ago, they just went away.”

“Oh, really?” That put a damper on my plan to have Ran put me in touch with them. We kept chatting for a bit until...

“Here you go!” The waitress brought the various items of my order, and the lively—even raucous—night began.

After three days of travel, Gourry, Ran, and I found ourselves before the large wall and gate to Palbathos, capital of the Kingdom of Luzilte.

I’d like to give you a brief primer on the place’s history, but unfortunately, I knew nothing about how it was founded or anything that had ever happened here. We’d lost touch with the outer lands a thousand years ago, after all, so I was a little out of my depth on the regional history.

On our way here, I’d asked a lot of people what Palbathos was like, but all I’d gotten in response was that it was “a large city” with a “magnificent castle” and other standard capital-ish tidbits. Nobody gave me a rough history of the place or told me the origin of its name. Not that most folks cared about that kinda stuff, but still.

“It’s huuuge!” Ran cooed as she looked up at the place.

I’d seen quite a few castle towns back in the inner lands, and this was on par.

At the gate, we went through the entry procedure, which really just meant paying a toll. And next thing, we were walking out the other side and watching the city expand before us.

Probably as a safeguard against invasion, the streets and buildings weren’t laid out in straight lines, which made it hard to see very far. Around the distant town center stood a wall a story taller than the one surrounding the town, and over it, we could see castle spires.

“Now then...” I spoke to Ran as we walked around what appeared to be an entertainment district. “Looks like we made it. What’s your plan next, Ran? As I mentioned before, we’ve got some things to look into here.” I was hoping she’d stick around and teach me a little more about the local writing, but I wasn’t gonna twist her arm.

“Hmm...” Ran made a big show of thinking. “I’m just a-wandering, and you guys are good at finding great restaurants, so it might be fun to stick together a while longer. But I’m not sure I can help you with what you’re investigating... Ah, I know. Let’s get an inn together, and I’ll see the sights, and we’ll see what happens after. Howzat?”

“That’d be great,” I said.

“Awesome! Oh, Nissy Lina, how’re you investigating?”

“Hmm... Good question.”

On the way here, naturally, I’d talked to plenty of people about the various nations and routes in the area. I knew if I caught wind of a country with a huge impassable desert to the north, I’d know exactly what that was, but...

While there were rumors, they were largely conflicting ones, and it was clear there was a lot of bad info out there. Nevertheless, I did learn one thing from it all: If I asked about a given set of conditions (like a country with an impassable desert), people could at least tell me if something like that existed nearby. And the fact that that hadn’t happened told me there wasn’t.

I was hoping to get some more reliable information here in the capital, but whether I hit up the church, the court magicians, the library... If I just barged in any of those, they’d turn me away at the door. That left me with one option.

“I got a letter of introduction from the captain of the guard in another town to give to someone in the guard here. I figured I’d start with them.” With that, I pulled out the letter of introduction and gazed at it.

It was a rough parchment scroll sealed with wax, written with Captain Bronco’s name and addressed to what looked like “Captain Morgan, Head of Palbathos’s Fourth Division.”

“I’d say I’m up to speed now.”

His first words told me what was going on—and that the situation wasn’t good.

I’d asked around town and quickly learned where the Fourth Division’s base was. I then went and handed over the letter, saying I wanted to ask a few questions. They made me sit and wait awhile in a bare-bones room in the guards’ station. It felt more like an interrogation room than a parlor, but I was in no position to be choosy.

After some time, at last, a man named Morgan—a handsome middle-aged blond—came and introduced himself. He sat down, and that was the first thing he said. Basically, he knew what I wanted, but whether or not he would grant it was another question—that was the vibe he was giving me.

“Bronco and I go way back. I know him well enough, but...” He glanced down at the letter of introduction in his hands. “‘Mistress Lina is a very powerful magician, so please be accommodating to her. And I hope you’ll use this amazing find on my part to consider me for promotion,’ it says.”

Broncooo! Trying to use the situation to get ahead, huh?! That’s not to say people shouldn’t be ambitious, but give me a break!

Captain Morgan looked me straight in the eye for a moment. “He’s asked me to be accommodating, but what exactly is it that you want?”

“Information,” I responded immediately. “Me and Gourry here boarded a boat in a faraway country called Zephilia, got shipwrecked, and wound up here.”

“What? We did?!” The one who shouted in response to my story was Gourry... Wait.

Didn’t I tell you that was going to be our cover ahead of time?! I really wanted to yell that at him, but I had to keep my cool in front of Captain Morgan.

“Hmm? That seems to be news to him,” Morgan said suspiciously.

I responded gravely. “The shock of the incident caused his memory to become... estranged.”

“Estranged? Not lost?!” Morgan asked.

I responded coolheadedly, “That’s the term the doctor used.”

“I see... So that’s it, eh? Aha. I suspect you’re looking for a job and a place to stay, then?”

“No. For a way home,” I responded. “I don’t think there are presently any roads or sea routes I can take to get there, but I still want to try to find something. I just need to ask you one thing—is there a country to the north that abuts a large desert?”

“Hmm... A desert to the north, eh?” Captain Morgan thought a moment. “I’ve no idea myself, but some of the scholars and officials might know. Still, I’m not sure how accommodating they’d be. It says in the letter that you ‘took out a group of bandits with an amazing fire spell,’ but... While we’re grateful for your aid in ridding our country of the bandits that plague it, I don’t think that’s enough to convince our local scholars and officials to offer their aid. And so... would you be willing to aid us first, as to prove what you can do? In a few days, we’ll be embarking on a mission in collaboration with the Knights of the Silver Spear. Due to a shortage of manpower, they’ve had to ask divisions like ours to throw in with them. If you’re as powerful as Bronco claims, I think you could be very useful to us.”

“If this is about waging war with your neighbors, I’ll have to pass. I don’t want to get involved in anything that could make it hard for me to leave later.”

“No worries there. It’s not humans we’re fighting.” A small smile appeared on Morgan’s face. “We’re up against what we call... the Dark Lord of the North.”

...

“Whaaaaat?!” My sudden cry echoed throughout the room.

So, long story short... I slew the Dark Lord of the North.

“What?”

“Wait!”

“What the?!”

These astounded cries came from Captain Morgan, the bigwigs from the Knights of the Silver Spear, and all the others present. I let their reactions go in one ear and out the other as I investigated the area, keeping Gourry close at hand for any last-minute surprises.

Two days after departing Palbathos, we’d come upon a run-down fortress in the forest. They’d called it the stronghold of the Dark Lord of the North.

You may have put this together already, but this “Dark Lord of the North” that Captain Morgan and the others spoke of wasn’t the one we knew. Hearing the name had given me an initial shock, but I’d quickly realized the nature of the misunderstanding.

See, our Dark Lord of the North was a piece of Dark Lord Shabranigdu who’d destroyed Aqualord during the Incarnation War a thousand years back and now lay sealed in ice in the Kataart Mountains. But the folks in the outer lands, who’d been cut off from the inner lands just before the Incarnation War, had no way of knowing about that Dark Lord of the North, seeing as he hadn’t even existed until the final days of the war and all.

Hence, it was safe to assume that what Captain Morgan and company referred to as “the Dark Lord of the North” was really just some magic-wielding something-or-other that lived north of the capital. And, in point of fact...

“Looks like the sorcerer messed up the ritual and ended up setting his circle to auto-summon,” I said after investigating the large magic circle we found on the floor of a chamber deep inside the fortress.

The circle’s spell-writing had been done incorrectly, causing it to gather magic power from the surroundings over time and activate whenever it reached a certain level. I also spied a skeleton clad in caster’s robes in the corner of the room. He must have met with some kind of accident... or maybe he’d met his end when he lost control of one of his creatures. Word to the kids at home: summoning demons isn’t all fun and games!

So, yeah, the thing Captain Morgan and crew called “the Dark Lord of the North” turned out to be a single summoned brass demon. Easy pickings compared to the pure demons I’d tangled with in the past, though I wouldn’t exactly call it cannon fodder. You could defeat them with mundane weapons, but they had a tough hide, they were strong, and they could use attack spells.

The brass demon’s lackeys—or, I guess, just other creatures summoned alongside it—consisted of about ten or so lesser demons hanging around in the fortress. Lesser demons were weaker than brass demons in pretty much all respects, so your standard band of swordsmen could realistically deal with them so long as they knew what they were up against. Unfortunately, the people of the outer lands seemed to be clueless about attack spells, so they’d probably lost quite a few waves of men to the demons’ unfamiliar magics.

As a result, they’d dubbed this ominous foe the Dark Lord of the North.

On the way to the fortress, I’d chatted with the knights and guards. From that, I’d inferred that the so-called Knights of the Silver Spear had been ordered to slay the demon—and they were dragging the Fourth Division along to use as cannon fodder. So, knowing their necks were on the line, Captain Morgan had asked me and Gourry to lead the charge. But while Gourry and I knew demons could be dangerous, we were also pretty used to fighting them by now. After slaying the brass demon at the very end, we then destroyed the still-active summoning circle, and that was that. We made such quick work of ’em that I don’t even see the need to go into detail.

To Captain Morgan and the knights, though, the whole thing probably looked like the stuff of legends. The knights had surrounded the fortress at a distance, carefully judging their best moment to attack... Meanwhile, two drifters they’d sent in to draw fire just torched the bad guys lickety-split.

“Wh-Who are you people?!” Morgan croaked after finally regaining his wits. “You bested those demons—and the Dark Lord of the North—each with a single hit!”

“Well, yeah.” I shrugged a little. “Bronco told you I was powerful, didn’t he?”

Personally, I felt I’d shown a great deal of restraint by not simply blowing up the whole fortress on sight. I guess from the point of view of the outer landers, who were pretty naive to magic, my wide variety of attack spells was extremely unusual. I mean, Gourry had actually slain way more demons than me, but my spellcasting must’ve been way flashier, because I was definitely getting the lion’s share of the attention.

Captain Morgan stared at me dumbly. “Well, to be honest, I’d taken his letter with a grain of salt... but now I see you’re even more incredible than he said!”

“Why, thanks! Now, about that information I’m after...” I shot him a wink.

And the crowd just stood there, staring at me in shock.

Richly colored tapestries. A thick, exquisitely carved wooden table. A plush sofa made from the finest leather.

“Now... let me start by officially thanking you, Mistress Lina and Master Gourry, for your aid in destroying the Dark Lord of the North the other day,” Captain Morgan said as he beckoned us to sit down.

Two days following our return to Palbathos, Gourry and I had been summoned by Captain Morgan not to the barracks in town, but to a building within the castle complex itself. The whole city was surrounded by a wall, and the castle at its heart was encircled by an even higher one. And when the soldiers came to fetch us from our inn, that was exactly where they’d taken us.

We’d passed through a gate in the castle wall, crossed a large courtyard that looked like training grounds, entered some building, and found ourselves in a chamber at the end of a not-so-long hall. It was a proper meeting room—a big step up from the virtual interrogation room they’d sat us in at the guard station.

Captain Morgan wasn’t the only one present either. In the far right corner of the room, over Morgan’s left shoulder, sat a middle-aged man in an indigo robe embroidered with gold thread. Fully armored soldiers stood on either side of him, as well as on either side of the two doors in the room.

Captain Morgan continued without introducing the robed man. “You did a marvelous job vanquishing those troublesome fiends. The Knights of the Silver Spear also spoke very highly of you.”

“Thanks,” I began with a friendly smile on my face. “But it’s a small price to pay to receive the information I asked for,” I said, taking the lead.

Here, Captain Morgan’s face stiffened slightly. “About that, actually...” His eyes dropped to the table. “I tried my best, but I’m afraid I wasn’t able to learn much. Of course, the investigation is still ongoing, but we need to check through the old scrolls, and it’s probably going to take some time to find an answer. In the meantime, I’m sure it’s inconvenient for you to stay at an inn. We’ve prepared a proper residence for you both.”

“We appreciate the gesture,” I said innocently, standing up from my seat. Gourry joined me. “But we’d hate to impose, so I think we’ll just be moving on.”

“Please!” Captain Morgan rose from his own seat in panic. “Wait a minute! Is something unsatisfactory?”

“Oh, certainly not. I was just thinking it wouldn’t be polite to burden you anymore. And I’m not sure I can afford to sit around either, so I think we’ll be on our way to continue our search. See you,” I declared, turned around, and headed back to the door we’d come in.

As I did, the two guards standing there moved to block the door.

Aha. Thought so.

I stopped and turned back around. “Captain Morgan, if you didn’t have to tell the soldiers to block our way, that means,” I said with a bright smile, “this is exactly what it looks like, isn’t it?”

The instant I spoke those words, I heard a groan followed by two thuds against the floor.

“Lina!” Gourry called.

“On it!” I turned back to the door and saw it open with the big lug standing next to two fallen soldiers. Naturally, he’d taken them out while everyone’s eyes were locked on me—just like we’d discussed in advance. It was an easy feat for a swordsman of his skill.

“What?!” Shocked voices rose up in the room around us, but...

“Later!” With that, Gourry and I dashed out!

“D-Don’t let them get away!” someone shouted from the room a moment later. I didn’t recognize the voice. Probably the man in the robe.

“Are you sure about this, Lina?!” Gourry asked as we booked it down the hall.

“Perfectly sure!” I responded. I’d expected this to happen. Not that I’d wanted it to, mind you.

Here’s the skinny on what had likely transpired. Captain Morgan—or rather, the Kingdom of Luzilte—had decided not to let me leave. He and the knights had passed on word of all the spells I’d used to vanquish the brass demon, and someone in power had decided that keeping me around to boost the nation’s magical power was a great idea. If I could teach a few hundred or a few thousand soldiers offensive spells capable of killing lesser demons, after all, it’d make for an army to be reckoned with. On the other hand, if I refused...

Fweeeeet! A piercing whistle echoed down the hall.

In response to the sound, two soldiers appeared ahead and drew their swords when they spotted us! As they did, Gourry began charging even faster. I decided to leave the soldiers to him. Meanwhile, I glanced over my shoulder and saw the guards pouring out of the meeting room in pursuit.

But I’d expected this much too. As soon as Gourry and I had hit the hall, I’d begun chanting a spell, and it was just about ready! I placed my right hand on the wall and incanted the words of power! “Van Layl!” Vines of ice sprouted from my hand, slithering along the floor and the ceiling! And the moment they reached the soldiers chasing after us...

Zing! The men froze right over with an audible sound, stopping them in their tracks and blocking off the hall. Given that they were wearing armor, they’d probably pull through alive, if a bit frostbitten.

After making sure that was taken care of, I turned my gaze back to the hall ahead and found that Gourry had already defeated the other two soldiers. Since I hadn’t been looking, I couldn’t say exactly what he’d done, but given that there was no blood, the men were probably still alive.

We kept on running straight outside.

“Too bad for you.” Waiting for us on the training grounds between the building and the wall was a band of armored soldiers. I recognized the man in the middle who called out to us—he was the commander of the Knights of the Silver Spear. “If you’d only agreed to help our kingdom, we could have been tremendous allies. But Mistress Lina... you are simply too strong. If your power were to fall into the hands of another land, it would threaten ours. I must prevent that at any cost.”

Yup, there it was. The kingdom had decided that if they couldn’t have me and my fancy magic power, no one could.

Now, in truth, I’d anticipated as much and worked out a rough plan with Gourry ahead of time. Of course, I’d held out hope that they would keep their word, give me the information I wanted, and let me go on my merry way... But the second we’d entered that meeting room, I’d realized it was a pipe dream. It was clear they’d resolved to a capture-or-kill stratagem.

See, those guys in the meeting... they didn’t seem exactly hostile, but there was a certain crackling tension around them. There was a chance I was just being overly cautious, however, so I’d decided to hear them out. And big ol’ yellow flags like “we don’t know how long it’ll take” and “we’ve prepared you a house” turned red when the guards blocked our way out without needing to be told to do so.

That meant they’d gotten their orders in advance: Don’t let them escape, no matter what.

No way was I giving up on getting home to settle down in this country as their pawn instead. If I did, they’d eventually split me and Gourry up to disincentivize me leaving, and we’d lose touch with each other. And even if I did help teach the kingdom magic, once I’d done my part, they might still kill me just to guarantee I’d never turn on them. If whoever was orchestrating this was clever enough, my fate was as good as sealed. In other words, my only chance at freedom was to flee now.

The knights’ commander drew his sword with a cold metallic sound.

“I really am sorry... Forgive me.” His blade glinted in the sunlight, silver with a tinge of green. “I’ve seen your powers, Mistress Lina. I know there’s nothing you can do if I get too close. So behold... my family heirloom, the magical sword Huelgwilem!”

Um, okaaay... I swallowed down a reflexive groan and began chanting a spell.

“Now...” The knight readied himself. “Don’t underestimate me, child!” he howled as he ran at us, the sword in his hand flashing!

At the same time, Gourry stepped forward unceremoniously and drew his sword. Then, soundlessly... the knight’s sword was sundered near the hilt. The blade went flying through the air and hit the ground with a clink.

Gourry hadn’t broken it. He’d cut clean through it.

“What?!”

And as the commander stared in shock—Thunk!—Gourry struck him in the back of the neck with the butt of his sword. The blow, aimed right in the gap between his helm and armor, knocked the commander out.

Yeah... Shoulda seen that coming.

It wasn’t that the commander sucked or anything. His swordsmanship was pretty cool, in fact. But... dude didn’t stand a chance against an ultra-talented swordsman like Gourry. Skill aside, Gourry wielded the legendary Blast Sword, which absorbed nearby magic power to increase its own sharpness. It could even slay pure demons.

And if the commander had been telling the truth, his sword was magical too. In other words, the moment their blades clashed, the commander’s sword had only fed the Blast Sword’s enchantment. The result was a foregone conclusion. The only way the commander could have come out victorious was to take Gourry out before they ever crossed blades. But given Gourry’s skill, that scenario was highly unlikely.

We’d lucked out in that we hadn’t been asked to hand over our weapons upon entering the castle complex. They’d probably decided it wouldn’t do much good against a spellcaster like me, and that they’d be okay if they just stayed on guard. Of course, if they had asked us to disarm, we would’ve left on the spot.

Seeing their captain defeated in the blink of an eye sent a wave of hesitation through the gathered soldiers. They didn’t actually run away, though. They just concentrated their numbers around the gate.

Meanwhile, I sallied over to a part of the wall the soldiers weren’t guarding with Gourry in tow. Obviously there was no door there, but I placed my hands against it and... “Blast Wave!”

Crash! The wall around my hands blew outward with a big ol’ boom! Blast Wave was a spell that pulverized anything I touched with both hands. The exact results depended on the material, but I could open a human-sized hole in even castle walls if the conditions were right.

From there, Gourry and I exited into the city.

“We’d better head out, Gourry!”

“Out where?! Where are we going?!”

“North, of course!” I said as we sprinted forward. It was probably safe to assume there were guards posted at our inn already. We’d have to skedaddle without stopping by. I’d left some stuff there, but under the assumption that this would happen, I’d kept my traveling money and most of my important items on my person.

Fweeeeet! Fweeeeet! I could hear whistles all around us. I thought about chucking a few blasty-type spells behind me to slow our pursuers and block the road, but that ran the risk of harming innocent bystanders too.

In that case... I chanted a spell as I ran. “Sight Frang!”

Kwshhh! With audible intensity, a thick mist blossomed around me.

“What?”

“What’s going on?!”

“Wah!”

I could hear cries of surprise from passersby, but the spell I’d cast was purely a smokescreen. I hoped they’d forgive me that much. It would still stymie the soldiers, however, who’d be forced to slow their pace, wary of traps. And while they were doing that, we’d make ourselves scarce!

“Lina!”

“What?!”

“You know the way out?!”

“I figure we’d just run and sort that out later!”

That actually turned out to be a bad move. After running down random winding streets, we soon found ourselves at a dead end.

Of course. The capital was a castle town, after all. The streets were intentionally sinuous to thwart enemy invasions.

“Lina!”

“Shut up!”

“I wasn’t going to complain. I was just wondering why we can’t use your flight spell.”

“Mmgh,” I grumbled. I’d considered it, but if we flew over the roofs in broad daylight, we’d just draw attention to ourselves, which was kinda the opposite of what we needed right now. “Let’s just run for now!”

“I don’t get it, but okay!”

We turned around and doubled back down the road until we hit a fork, where we took the path we hadn’t chosen before. The city was designed to repel enemy invasion, but they couldn’t make it too inconvenient for the people who lived there. Following my instincts, I ran whichever way seemed most promising.

As we darted from one alley onto a wide street, we ran into a group of seven or eight soldiers! Darn it! They’re here too?!

“Found them!” they shouted as they drew their blades. I had no obligation to show any mercy to anyone trying to kill me, but these guys were just doing their jobs. They didn’t really have a choice about following orders. I was hoping to spare them, although it was gonna be tough to hold back against so many of them...

One soldier near the back of the group pulled a whistle from his pocket, put it to his mouth, and—before he could blow, a figure descended! Whomp! The head of the soldier with the whistle in his mouth rattled unnaturally and he collapsed on the spot. As for his attacker, who’d just jumped down from a rooftop like a cat...

“Ran?!”

“Hey there, Nissy Lina!”

The unexpected ambush sent a new shot of uncertainty through the soldiers. They instinctively looked in Ran’s direction and... that’s when Gourry made his charge! Some of the men kept their eyes on Ran, and the others turned their attention to Gourry.

“Blast Ash!” I shouted, seizing everyone’s fearful focus at once.

I hadn’t actually chanted a spell, though. I’d just yelled the words. But if the soldiers knew I was a sorcerer who could use offensive magic—especially if any of them had actually been there while I was mowing down lesser and brass demons with Blast Ashes during the whole Dark Lord of the North quest—it was only natural that threat would scare them something awful.

And that moment of distraction was all Gourry and Ran needed!

Knocking out the remaining soldiers didn’t take long at all. Gourry was using body blows and hilt strikes, while Ran was using her hands and her roughly hewn staff. She hadn’t mentioned anything about being the fighting type, but she seemed more than capable.

Still, this was no time to just sit back and admire her in action. We’d dealt with the soldiers in front of us, but it was broad daylight out with tons of witnesses. And for the law-abiding people of the town, we undoubtedly looked like the villains right now. It was only a matter of time before they reported us. We couldn’t stick around for long!

As I took off, Gourry—and Ran, for some reason—followed suit. I said in a rather chastising tone as she ran beside me, “What are you doing?”

“That’s my line!”

“Fair enough! The military types here wanted to exploit my spellcasting ability, so I had to run away, and here we are! So why’d you join in?!”

We’d been doing our own things during the day but staying at the same inn to have breakfast and dinner together. I was under the impression she was mostly sightseeing, but...

“I happened to be passing by when I saw you and Rostir Gourry attacked by bad guys! So I got mad and attacked them, and they turned out to be soldiers!”

“That’s crazy!”

“That’s how I roll!”

“Then stop rolling that way!”

“Eh heh heh! I hear that a lot.”

“Then listen for once!”

I hadn’t wanted to get her involved, but now that she was, I couldn’t just tell her to back off. She’d been staying at the inn with us, sharing meals with us, and now she’d been seen beating up soldiers with us. There was no getting out of that one. If we left her in town, she’d end up in a bad way for sure.

“Guess we’re going on the run together!”

“Yeppo!”

“Why do you look so happy?! Anyway, you’ve been walking around the city every day, right? Can you navigate us to the outer wall? There doesn’t have to be a gate!”

“You wanna go to a wall without a gate?”

“We’re gonna break through it!”

“Righty-o!”

I know I’m not one to talk, but there’s something wrong with someone who hears “we’re gonna bust through a wall” and responds with “righty-o!”

Anyway... that’s how me, Gourry, and Ran ended up as fugitives.