Chapter One: In the Dappled Light of the Forest, a White Flower Blooms
I
The White Forest
The Great Mage Lassara Merlin possessed a genius that put her far ahead of her peers, and it was this that had led to her inheriting the Heavenly Orb mage circle from its previous bearer at a young age. When she’d learned that Felix’s Azure Knights and Olivia’s Eighth Legion were to meet in battle, she was determined to see the clash for herself and so left her dwelling in the forest, taking with her the fairy Silky Breeze.
She trudged for an hour along an unseen path through the deep snow, cloaking herself in a spell of concealment in order to avoid fruitless confrontations with dangerous beasts. Just then, there came a sudden flurry of snow from above, and Lassara, perceiving the vast shadow that fell across her vision, came to a halt with a heavy sigh.
“I cast a spell of concealment only for the last creature I wanted to see to find me,” she muttered. “All right, what do you want?” Lassara looked coldly up at the magnificent beast that towered over her, covered in a coat of pure white fur.
Vajra, king of the beasts, feared by many as a fearsome beast of calamity, worshipped by some tribes as a god, flashed a mouthful of fangs that could have shattered boulders with ease.
“It is not every day that you venture forth from the forest. Whatever has gotten into you?”
“I don’t have to explain everything I do to—”
“The two of us,” Silky cut in breathlessly, “are going to see Felix.”
You just had to run your mouth... Lassara clicked her tongue quietly, glaring at Silky, who hovered in front of her face.
“There’s no need to hide it from Lord Vajra,” the fairy pointed out, leaving a trail of stardust behind her as she flew up to perch on Vajra’s nose.
The great beast’s golden eyes narrowed slightly. “Did something befall him?”
“What’s that? It’s not like you to worry for the boy.”
“It is you, not I, who appears to be worried,” Vajra replied dryly, then sat down, causing an eruption of snow that buried Lassara. She brushed it off brusquely with one hand, while in the other she grabbed a handful of snow before lobbing it at Vajra as hard as she could.
“Would it kill you to take a bit of care when you sit down, you stupid mongrel?”
“Foulmouthed as ever, I see...” Vajra remarked. “But what has happened to Felix?”
“Not much. I just got word he’s to have it out with one of the Deep Folk, so I’m going to watch. That’s all.” Despite Lassara’s throwaway tone, Vajra’s three tails began to wave up and down in apparent interest. Silky, eyes sparkling, charged straight at the tails.
“The Deep Folk...” Vajra said. “The name has passed nary a lip in many years. Do you know of Gracia? Such a talent was wasted on humanity...”
Lassara was surprised by the hint of fondness behind Vajra’s words—she had only seen Vajra express a liking toward a human once before. Among all her knowledge, she did know of Gracia, renowned as the Deep Folk’s greatest warrior. And it was plain from how Vajra was acting now there had been some bond between them.
“I could not care less about your dog-eared stories that are so old, even the mold’s shriveled up,” Lassara said with blunt honesty. Vajra looked at her curiously.
“I do not believe I speak of anything so very old.”
“Gracia lived seven hundred years ago. Time doesn’t pass the same for humans as it does for you, mutt.”
Vajra wiped its face with one of its front paws. “In any case. A descendant of the Deep Folk still lives, then. Indeed, they and the Asura were always rivals without equal. I understand why it would interest you.”
“Hmph. I’m not that interested,” Lassara replied grumpily, keeping one eye on Silky, who was having a wonderful time clinging to one of Vajra’s tails.
“Very well. I shall let the matter rest, then.”
“Is that all you wanted to say?”
Instead of replying, Vajra slowly stood up, throwing Silky forcefully from its tail as it did so. She landed, giggling, on Lassara’s shoulder.
“Ahhh, that was fun,” she said with a contented smile.
Vajra stared hard at her. “Silky Breeze, the fairy.”
“That’s my name, don’t wear it out.”
“Humans are a cruel and ugly species whose fragility has made them uncommonly cunning. If you leave the forest, you must take care,” Vajra warned.
“You’ve got some nerve saying that in front of a human,” Lassara muttered.
“I thought you had all but cast off your humanity.”
“I cast off nothing!”
“I’ll be okay, Lord Vajra,” Silky Breeze interjected quickly. “Like I told Lassara, no lumbering human’s got any chance of catching me.”
“Silky Breeze.” Vajra’s voice was quiet, but carried a forcefulness that brooked no argument. The look on Silky’s face changed, and she started nodding frantically.
Lassara understood. Two hundred fifty years ago, Vajra’s only cub had been captured by a troupe that made its living putting rare beasts on display. By the time Vajra learned of its child’s misfortune, it was too late. Seeing the child changed beyond recognition, Vajra was consumed by a burning fury. Tearing the troupe to death with its fangs had not been enough to quell Vajra’s rage, and it continued on to wreak devastation on the nation where the troupe was based. It showed no mercy to the scant few who escaped either. Vajra, it was said, pursued them relentlessly before slaughtering them all. From the perspective of the victims who had nothing to do with the troupe, it was nothing but an indiscriminate rampage, but on the other side of things, it wasn’t hard to fathom the enormity of Vajra’s wrath.
“She’ll have a great mage beside her,” Lassara declared proudly. “No need for you to worry yourself, mutt.”
They regarded each other for a moment, then, instead of replying, Vajra crouched low before launching itself into the air at a speed unbelievable for its size, leaving like a roar of wind.
Lassara was buried in even more snow than the last time. “That was deliberate!” she bellowed after Vajra, who was now a mere speck in the sky. Silky doubled over laughing, her voice ringing through the White Forest.
Lassara and Silky left the forest, then positioned themselves on a sheer precipice that commanded a sweeping view of the Azure Knights’ main camp. That being said, the camp was a considerable distance away, even through a spyglass. How, then, did Lassara observe the progression of the battle? She solved the problem through magecraft to enhance her sight: a spell called Far-Reaching Oculus. Silky lamented how awful it must be to have to use magecraft just to see across such a distance. The battle began without warning, and they looked on together...
“Hey, Lassara? Are those humans too?” Silky asked tremulously as the sky suddenly turned dark above them. She watched Felix and Olivia without any sign of excitement. The stench of decay carried to them on the breeze, along with the monstrous figures’ horrifying moans, making it all too clear to Lassara that these were in no way human. Many ages had she lingered in life, and yet she had never seen anything like it.
“Lassara? Yoo-hoo!” Silky flew around to face Lassara, trailing sparkles, which captured most of Lassara’s attention. She knocked the fairy aside with the back of her hand.
“Don’t call those humans. Those are clearly corpses.”
“If they’re corpses, why are they moving?”
“How should I know?” Lassara snapped back.
Silky puffed out her cheeks. “You go on about being such a great mage, but in the end, you don’t know anything!” she cried, then immediately tried to kick Lassara in the head. Lassara roughly knocked the incoming attack aside.
“There’s plenty even great mages don’t know. All I can say for now is that those things have no minds of their own.”
The corpses emerging from the earth in their thousands were clearly targeting the living, throwing themselves wildly at royal and imperial soldiers alike.
From what Lassara could observe, they had no intelligence and didn’t even fight with weapons. They simply grabbed and bit. In that sense, they were almost like beasts, but even beasts had a certain order from which they did not deviate. The dead thronging beneath them clearly acknowledged no such order.
The ghastly moaning reached them once more, and for a moment Silky looked anxious. “Felix can’t lose to a bunch of creeps like that, can he?”
Lassara snorted. “You’re worrying over nothing. As if the youngster would let the likes of them get the better of him.”
“That’s what I thought! After he gave that weirdo lady what for and all. My Felix could never lose!” The second she said this, Silky’s face went beet red. Lassara had a good idea of why, but now wasn’t the time to tease her.
Felix and Olivia’s battle had brought back memories for Lassara of the two other battles between Asura and Deep Folk that she had witnessed. Unless her memory failed her, this latest superhuman clash had put the others to shame. The appearance of the dead had put an end to the battle before either of the two could finish it one way or the other, but there was no doubt that overall, Felix had had the upper hand. On that point, Lassara agreed with Silky.
She did not, however, think that Olivia was inferior to Felix. Throughout the battle, Olivia had fought with an assurance that seemed to imply that she could have turned the tables at any time if she so chose. The truth was, it had worried Lassara more than a little. What she knew for sure, having seen Olivia’s ebony blade with her own eyes, was the true form of the shadowy fear she had felt.
My guess is that blade trailing black mist isn’t of this world. I sense something akin to those corpses from it, and I can’t pretend it’s just my imagination.
Having said that, Lassara did not think that Olivia was responsible for the current state of things. For one thing, she sensed no darkness in the girl’s nature, but it was just as obvious from how she and Felix fought off the dead together, covering one another’s backs.
Lassara predicted it would take them ages to deal with the dead, but she was pleasantly surprised to find herself mistaken. Her gaze was drawn instinctively to a young man with blond hair in Royal Army armor.
Genius crops up in every age. Leaving Silky to her childlike delight at Felix’s heroics, Lassara thought hard. There’s no chance the dead rising and the sky going dark are unrelated. The youngster seemed shaken, and I don’t like that, but I can ask him about it later. First things first, I need to solve the mystery of why those corpses are walking about.
“Hey,” Silky said tentatively. “How come Felix is talking to that woman like they’re friends? They’ve taken out the dead; they should get back to fighting. He should beat her to a pulp!”
The fairy’s uncharacteristically hushed tone broke Lassara’s train of thought. She looked over and saw that Silky’s teeth were clenched in vexation, her hands trembling fists. If that had been all, Lassara would have let her alone, but when Silky then raised a tightly clenched fist high into the air, Lassara rolled her eyes and clicked her fingers.
“What’re you playing at?!” Silky cried from behind the bars of the tiny cell she now found herself imprisoned in.
“That’s what I want to ask you. What were you about to do just now?”
“Like you need to ask! I’m gonna give that cow what for! So you lift this spell right now!”
Silky kicked at the bars. Lassara found herself regretting having brought Silky along after all.
“Oh, for...” Lassara muttered. “Forget your petty jealousy.”
Silky went scarlet again. “I-I’m not jealous,” she whined. “And I’m far prettier and more charming than that cow. Felix even said that I was pretty.”
“Then pipe down a bit. The youngster likes his women quiet and well-mannered.”
“What?! He does?!”
This was, of course, a lie. Lassara had no way of knowing what sort of women Felix liked, nor did she remotely care. She wasn’t even sure he was interested in women in the first place.
Silky stared at her foot, still planted on the bars of the cell, then carefully lowered it with a chastened look.
“Um, Miss Lassara...?” she said haltingly. “W-Would you mind disappearing this cell?” Lassara didn’t reply. “P-Please believe me,” Silky tried again. “I’m mannered real good—” She broke off, clearing her throat. “I mean, I am a well-mannered lady.”
Lassara, only just holding her laughter at bay, casually clicked her fingers once more. The cage around Silky vanished, leaving them looking at one another. Silky raised her fist with a will, but a moment later she lowered it with a forced smile, hiding it behind her back.
“Hm? Something wrong?”
“Oh, my back cramped a little, so I was stretching!” Silky replied, her tone unnaturally polite.
“That so? You’d best take care of yourself.”
“Agh!”
“Agh?”
“I-I greatly appreciate your concern! I’ll take it, um, I’ll be ever so careful.” Silky covered her mouth with her hand and tittered. There was so much Lassara could have mocked her for, she very nearly broke her composure, but she held herself back—this would do if it saved her having to keep Silky from violence.
In the meantime, a group made up of the Azure Knights led by Felix, along with Olivia and a few of her soldiers from the Royal Army, began to move west. Lassara’s eyebrows rose slightly. Lassara had assumed their alliance was a temporary one, just as Silky had said, but apparently this was not the case.
That’s odd. From the direction they’re marching they can only be heading for the imperial capital. But what I can’t puzzle out is why he’s taking the Deep Folk girl along...
“Miss Lassara, aren’t we going to go and see Felix?” Silky said demurely.
“I want a look at those corpses first. Checking in on the youngster comes after that.”
“What?! I don’t wanna! I’m gonna—um, I mean, I wish to go to him now!”
“If you show yourself in front of Felix now, you’ll be seen by a whole lot of other humans too.”
“I don’t mind.”
“Perhaps you don’t, but that won’t matter if Felix feels different. Or do you think he’d be happy to see you discovered by humans?” Lassara asked pointedly. Silky’s face visibly fell. “Looks like we’re on the same page.”
As soon as she was sure the banners of the Azure Knights and the Royal Army were both completely out of sight, Lassara took extra precautions by casting the same labyrinth magecraft she used on her cottage over a wide area.
That should keep anything from bothering us. Lassara darted nimbly down from the precipice, Silky flapping along listlessly with a sour look on her face.
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