Chapter 2-2
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Chapter 2, Part 2
It looked almost like a wound that had been reopened after healing.
A deep fissure running along the earth…and thick white fog pouring from it.
Some might have called it a spectacular sight.
Such a grand sight was sure to stir up emotion in the hearts of its observers, and even more so when looking down at it from above. It was the kind of scene that made one aware of how diminutive the human race was while broadening their worldview in the process.
However…keeping in mind that this place had been dubbed “The Valley of No Return”, the vision-obscuring fog took on a new, sinister significance. It felt like the dark—the feeling of something menacing lurking within, yet not knowing what that something is until you run into it.
“A-ha,” Akari said, narrowing her eyes. “So this is the “Valley of No Return.”
Akari peered down at the thick fog while perched on the edge of the fissure, where one wrong step could send someone tumbling straight down to the valley below.
The “Valley of No Return” was located to the east of Ladimeo.
This area was home to several steep mountains, so it stood to reason there’d be valleys…but at the depths of this “Valley of No Return,” there was literally a crack in the earth—of course, this land was much deeper than the land Ladimeo had been built on, which was actually quite flat.
“Fog that won’t clear up, huh. Strange.”
Just a bit ago she had been trying to size up the fog below her feet, but she obviously hadn’t been able to see anything. It was impossible to imagine how deep the valley could be. As a test, Tohru had tried throwing a small rock down there to see if he could estimate the depth from the sound it made when it hit the bottom—but there had been no sound whatsoever. He wasn’t able to tell if it was because that was just how deep the valley was or if the small rock had simply landed on something soft during its descent.
“This does look like an area where fog would come out easily,” Tohru said with a sidelong glance at Akari.
“But even if we tried going down, the fact that we can’t tell how deep it is really is troubling.”
“We might be able to get a layout of the area by using Chaika’s magic. That’d really help us out.”
With that thought, Tohru turned to look behind him.
Chaika was there, assembling the parts for her Gundo, which had been stored in the coffin she always carried around.
Chaika’s Gundo looked like it was fairly old. The small scratches and speckles of chipped paint along the surface told the tale of its heavy use. All down the mechanical parts and the base, which was as long as a human was tall, were parts lined up in a way that resembled a creature’s spine, creating a presence that practically announced that this was no ordinary device.
Come to think of it—
Tohru glanced at Chaika’s Gundo.
She had to have gotten that from someone.
It was unthinkable for someone like Chaika, who only looked to be in her teens, to have used a Gundo looking as aged as that for ten or twenty years. It was only logical to assume someone had given it to her.
Perhaps it was Arthur Gaz himself?
“…Complete!” Chaika exclaimed as she lifted the Gundo.
Skillfully shouldering the Gundo rivaling her own height, the girl peered through the scope attached to the upper end of the device.
Seeing a petite girl carry this Gundo made for a somewhat grim image.
On the other hand, however, the girl’s posture was completely natural. There was no doubt that she’d had plenty of experience handling the Gundo. Her form was like that of a small animal with full composure.
“…”
She looked like she was trying to secure a good position. Still looking through the scope, she walked forward—
“Muyaa!?”
But her fourth step merely touched down on air.
She had slipped. Naturally, there was nothing to catch her fall. Tumbling over the edge backwards, she began her descent down into the mysteriously thick fog covering the valley depths—
“Hmph.”
Or so it had almost been.
At the last second Akari had instantly unsheathed her hammer from her back, using it to grab Chaika’s collar and pull her back to safety. After a few staggered steps backwards, Chaika eventually landed at Tohru and Akari’s feet.
“I’ve always thought this, but how the hell did you even manage before meeting us?” Tohru said, looking down at her incredulously.
It was almost like…she was careless to the level that it impeded her daily life.
She would get in accidents when operating the vehicle because she wasn’t paying attention, and she’d often trip just walking around. If she was asked to help with the food she’d cut her finger on the knife, and plates would always slip out of her hands when she did the dishes. Essentially, she was bad at everything she did.
It was as if in order to balance out her outstanding ability to focus during desperate situations, her ability to pay attention had taken the plunge. Actually, even when Tohru had first met Chaika she’d been hopelessly lost in the mountains.
She was especially awful with issues pertaining to locality.
Just letting her walking around alone could pose a serious threat to her life.
“Tohru.” Raising up suddenly, Chaika addressed him. “Just now, revelation. New truth, come to light.”
“A new truth? What do you mean?” Tohru frowned.
Chaika gripped her right fist and exhaled through her nose, seemingly elated for some reason.
“Chaika, surprisingly sturdy.”
“Don’t be proud of that,” Tohru groaned. “All right, just use your magic to check it out already.”
“Mu…”
Chaika looked back and forth between Tohru and the cliff edge where she’d almost fallen from.
“That was, best place.”
“What? Oh—it was, huh. I see.” Tohru nodded.
Magic was actually rather fickle.
If even the most minute condition wasn’t satisfied, the spell wouldn’t function properly. That was why while anything unrelated to the environment was handled by the Gundo, it was up to the wizard to constantly tweak the spell while the magic was active. Temperature, humidity, atmospheric pressure, distance, celestial bodies and the pulse of the earth were all common factors linked to spells.
A wizard’s position was also, surprisingly enough, very important.
If Chaika wanted to use magic to investigate this “Valley of No Return,” the best spot to do so was about half a step off the cliff. While it was possible to activate the magic from where she was a few steps away, the accuracy of the spell would take a hit…was apparently what Chaika had thought.
“But even so, I mean…” Tohru looked at the cliff’s edge again. “It’s not like you can float in the air. If Frederica were here, you could probably get her to let you hang from her, but…”
Tohru had no idea where that shapeshifting dragoon girl had gone off to. She was always going invisible.
Though, Frederica had only tagged along because she hoped to one day defeat Tohru, so it wasn’t like he could expect to rely on her for anything anyway.
“Tohru. Support.”
Chaika assumed a strange pose.
Her body was bent and her waist was thrust out backwards, like a duck.
“Upper body, stretch. Can reach. But, will fall. Therefore, Tohru support.”
It seemed that Chaika was suggesting Tohru support her so she didn’t fall while she had her hands full lining up the valley depths in her sight.
“…Like this?”
Tohru walked over to Chaika and put his hands around her waist.
“Hya!?”
“Agh!?”
Tohru quickly released her after hearing her let out a strange yelp
“What gives!?”
“I—It’s fine. Problem, none.”
“…”
Though he continued to scowl, Tohru once again put his arms around Chaika’s waist, supporting her. With great effort and combined will, they made it to the cliff’s edge a few steps away. If anyone else saw them like this, they’d probably look ridiculously stupid.
But—
…Hold it, what’s this pose?
Suddenly realizing it, Tohru scowled.
Chaika, who had her rear stuck out towards him.
Tohru, who in order to maintain his center of gravity had his upper body pulled back, so his hips were thrust forward.
If someone saw them like this, they would think—
“Mmm…just as I would have expected from Nii-sama,” Akari said in a low voice. “Absolutely textbook. When it comes to taking a maiden from behind, no one can hold a candle to my Nii-sama. I can only admire you from the bottom of my heart.”
“Please don’t.”
“Of course, your mastery of the technique where you strip a girl’s lower half bare in an instant is also impressive.”
“I’ve never mastered a pointless technique like that!” Tohru yelled.
It was uncertain whether Chaika was actually listening to this exchange between siblings—
“…Efune…Herste…Ru…Bergir…Fai…Zev…”
Because Chaika had begun her chant.
A blue-white light began to envelop the portion of the Gundo connected to Chaika’s neck by way of a connecting cord—and immediately after, characters and diagrams issued from the center into the empty air. They began to slowly rotate and combine, and then the magic circle was complete at last.
“Come, ‘The Locator!’”
She finished the chant.
A high-pitched noise resounded through the air.
Though it was clear and crisp, it was so shrill that just one octave higher would render it inaudible to human ears. The sound repeated, intermittently, until it finally dissipated into silence.
Then—
“…Hey.”
Tohru addressed her with half-lidded eyes.
“Mui?”
“We don’t have to keep this pose anymore, do we?”
“Do not. May release.”
“…”
Still supporting her, Tohru stepped back two steps, and then removed his arms from her waist.
There, Chaika sat down, clutching her Gundo, and closed her eyes. Searching magic apparently brought the results directly to the wizard’s brain, but it would take some time for her to translate them to an easily-understood format within her mind.
“By the way, Akari.” Tohru faced his sister beside him.
“Yes?”
“What’s the meaning of that?”
“Hm? ‘That?’”
“I mean, what are you doing posing like that!?”
For some reason, Akari had both arms outstretched and ready.
“Ah, this. I see—well, actually…”
Akari gave a generous nod.
By the way, while her arms were outstretched as if to say, ‘Heehee, I’m gonna catch ya!’, her fingers were also wiggling as if each one were a living creature. It was the sort of pose that made Tohru think if he got any closer to her, something was going to happen to him.
“When I think about you, Nii-sama, I just get this urge to hug you.”
“…”
Tohru felt that staying silent was the best option for now. Anything else would just be a pain.
“I realized it after seeing you embrace Chaika,” she said as she inched closer. “When I thought about it, I realized I haven’t hugged you since the start of this whole trip.”
“What are you talking about?” Tohru asked with half-lidded eyes. However, just from watching her fingers move he had a pretty good idea what she wanted to do.
“I have an incurable disease that stipulates I absolutely must hug my Nii-sama.”
“First I’ve heard of it!”
“Indeed. This is the first time in my life that I’m about to go through spasms.”
“That’s a fake illness no matter how you put it!”
Tohru used his whole body to retort.
“Nii-sama, you’re being unfair.”
“Unfair? How am I being unfair?”
“More specifically, you’re being cruel.”
“And how am I being cruel?”
“Were you not just hugging Chaika earlier?”
“Because it was necessary!”
Tohru had never seen his sister’s fingers that dextrous. They were like those of a masseuse.
“It’s necessary for me as well. Ah, oh no, I feel a spasm coming on.”
Akari showed him an expressionless stagger.
But her actions betrayed her words, as there was nothing urgent or pressing about her behavior at all.
“Nii-sama. If you find your sister even the least bit cute, you had better give it up and let yourself be hugged.”
“What kind of threat is that!?”
…and so on and so forth. Tohru and Akari’s heated exchange continued on rather pointlessly until—
“Done!” Chaika exclaimed with a short sigh, her Gundo in tow.
“Figure anything out?” Tohru said, fending off an attack from Akari, her hands outstretched as if to say “you’re open!” Tohru had blocked her hands with his own. “Actually before that, what was that spell anyway? It actually seemed pretty reasonable.”
“Search. Valley. Condition. ‘The Locator.’”
According to Chaika, at its core it was essentially the same thing that Tohru did when he’d thrown the small rock into the chasm to gauge its depth. Of course, Chaika’s magic was far more advanced. Just from reverberations and echoes, it was able to determine distance, as well as the lay of the land and if anything was concealed within the fog and darkness.
“And…?”
“Valley of No Return” regardless, if there was someone within carrying a piece of the remains, they would have no choice but to head in there and find them. However, with the foreboding rumors of “people going in but not coming out” and “the fog not dissipating,” going in without a plan would not be wise.
He figured it’d be good if they could at least get a grasp on the majority of the land’s layout, but…
“…Uncertain.”
Chaika pursed her lips in a pout.
“Huh? What do you mean by that?”
“Search magic, ineffective.” She shook her head.
It seemed that “The Locator” was unable to locate anything within the fog. Still locking hands with Akari, Tohru frowned.
“Now look here…I know that we’re not in a battle right now, but this really is kind of a matter of life and death. If this magic really is possible, you need to wake up and get your head in the game.”
“Mistake, denial.” Chaika looked somewhat offended, her cheeks slightly puffed up.
“What? You weren’t just being scatterbrained?”
“Magic, without hitch. Problem—valley. Actually, fog.”
“…Huh?”
“Probably…magic,” Chaika said, pointing to the valley—or rather, the fog covering it.
“You mean…the fog is magic?” Tohru said, stunned. He looked down at the large quantity of fog below.
Now that she mentioned it, the fog did seem to have an abnormal bluish tint to it—
“I see. Well, it’s definitely not impossible.”
Tohru quickly amended his train of thought.
When people heard the word “water,” the image of it pouring into some sort of vessel would probably come to most minds. However, “water” encompassed everything from the morning dew dripping off a leaf to large bodies like lakes, rivers, and oceans, and in actuality the phenomenon “magic” was just as widespread.
Tohru had inadvertently been thinking of magic in terms of how Chaika used it so it’d slipped his mind, but there were also wizards who used large Gundo to perform large-scale magic.
He had at least heard that during the war there had been flying fortresses and large-scale destruction spells that could only be described as cataclysmic—on the level of a natural disaster.
Compared to those, it wasn’t probably that difficult to use magic to fill this entire area with fog.
And what’s more…
“Specific magic term, ‘Material.’” As Chaika explained she held up her index finger.
“Material?”
Magic, processed. Reacts to magic. Many uses.”
One could take stone, wood and other existing materials and process them so that they reacted more easily to magic. Among wizards, the result was referred to as “Material.”
Large-scale destruction magic used Material, and could create things like “strikers,” raindrops that fell with the force of a hammer. Tohru had heard about this before from some of his senior saboteurs. They had told him, “once that stuff starts showing up, you’d best give up right there.” That was the sheer scale of the destruction they wrought.
“Wait a minute,” Tohru muttered, suddenly realizing something.
The valley was filled to the brim with Material.
This wasn’t something that could be accomplished by a novice wizard, and they would have needed a large magic source to boot. Magic was required even to create Material, and to keep it under control for that long of a period…a magic source was definitely necessary.
In other words—
“Could it be…that Simon Scania, just like that Count Abarth, is…”
“Yes. Possible.”
Chaika nodded.
If Simon Scania not only had the remains but had inserted them into a large-class Gundo, magic of this level would indeed be possible. Not to mention this area had originally been a repository for fossil fuel, so there had to be plenty of magic sources around.
“Then—”
Akari folded her arms and glanced down at the valley.
“Does that mean that this fog is Simon Scania’s ‘stronghold,’ so to speak?”
“Possible,” nodded Chaika.
“We can’t just traipse on in there carelessly, then,” said Tohru, frowning.
If the reason people never returned from the valley was that Simon Scania had made the fog his own personal fortress…then this area was extremely dangerous. Even the commoners of Ladimeo would have been seen as intruders and dealt with as such. That meant Tohru, Chaika and Akari, who were trying to steal the remains, would be regarded as enemies all the more.
And at this point, they had no idea what sort of attack Simon Scania had in wait for his intruders and enemies.
“Let’s return for now. We need to prepare accordingly,” Tohru said, turning his back to the valley.
If possible, he’d like to get Frederica out of hiding.
He didn’t know to what extent Frederica intended to cooperate with them, but the girl’s dragoon transformation magic included the ability to heal wounds, which would make a world of difference. However (and Tohru understood this all too well after winning against her in battle), a dragoon’s healing magic was “partial”—in other words, it wouldn’t do much good for a body completely inundated with poison or illness.
“Antidote supply good?”
“We’ve got the necessities,” Akari replied with a nod.
Of course, they didn’t have medicine to get rid of every type of poison; however, the use of poison required more know-how than one might expect, which also meant that there weren’t a lot of specific poisons for a given situation. As long as Simon Scania wasn’t using some ridiculously specific poison, what they had would probably suffice.
“Let’s go, Chaika.”
“Ah, wait, need time.”
Chaika hurriedly began disassembling her Gundo.
Tohru turned to look back at her. “C’mon, let’s get back to the Svetrana and—”
But that was as far as he got.
“…”
He stopped there and scowled.
His hands were already on the two short comblades on the back of his waist.
At the same time, Akari lowered her hips slightly, hammer at the ready.
“Mui?”
Without understanding the reasoning behind the reactions of her two servants—her eyes popped wide open.
The two were clearly in battle stances. Chaika could at least understand that much.
But—where was the enemy?
She looked around the area, but couldn’t see anyone.
“Tohru? Akari?”
“—Chaika.”
Keeping his posture low-profile—any defined movements could easily be predicted by the enemy—Tohru addressed Chaika, yet he remained facing a certain direction.
“Don’t take that Gundo apart yet. Prepare some offensive magic if you can.”
“Y…Yes.” Chaika gave a nervous nod.
“Show yourself!” Tohru shouted.
Tohru’s voice echoed through the mountains—and faded away.
“You don’t actually think you’ll be able to come for our necks like that, do you?”
And immediately afterwards…
“How surprising.”
A ripple in the scenery.
That was no metaphor—it was literally a ripple.
Like ripples on the water’s surface, multiple circular distortions ran through the empty air.
At the same time a dull, hollow sound spread out—and finally a large, white vehicle burst through the ripples.
It had to be magic.
They had probably manipulated sound and light to conceal their presence as they approached. The sight of a gigantic object like this in a previously-barren area was uncanny—it was almost like the vehicle was some kind of stage prop.
“So they caught up with us,” Tohru muttered darkly.
The front of the vehicle was adorned with the emblem of a wolf.
Though the size was different, this was the same emblem on the scabbard of the sword of Alberic Gillette—the cavalier that was after Chaika.
“They sensed us even at this distance, huh.” A girl’s voice, and also one Tohru had heard before.
If I remember correctly, this voice belongs to…
The girl who had been walking with Gillette before, most likely.
She was more of an artisan than a wizard—a technician of sorts that seemed to specialize in Gundo and comblades.
“And here I thought we’d successfully fooled their eyes and ears.”
“Except we have five senses. Five.” Tohru said. “You can’t expect to fool us when you’ve only covered up two.”
Sneak attacks were a saboteur’s forte, after all. They were the experts when it came to snuffing out presence and silently blending in with the surrounding environment. What’s more, with a grounded vehicle that large it was impossible to completely mask the vibrations of the earth as it moved.
At any rate, a much fiercer, yet restrained presence was coming toward them—not raw enough to be called killing intent, but enough that Tohru and Akari recognized it as a threat.
“…”
When the white vehicle was approximately a hundred paces away from Tohru, Akari and Chaika, it stopped. Both of its side doors opened—and two figures emerged from each side.
One more than usual…
Tohru’s eyes narrowed as he sized up the enemy.
Three out of the four, he recognized.
If he remembered correctly, their names were:
Alberic, the cavalier.
Nikolay, the mercenary.
Vivi, the assassin.
And the last one, he hadn’t seen before. He looked like a young boy with the ears and tail of a beast—a demihuman, it seemed. It was probably best to exercise caution with this one. Though he looked frail, his body had undergone magical reconstruction so he had to have some tricks up his sleeve. In fact, depending on how he fought he could very well be the most dangerous of the bunch.
Those four weren’t all they had to worry about, either.
There was at least one more wizard inside the vehicle.
Shit.
This time, it appeared Alberic’s group wasn’t pulling any punches. Nikolay’s arm looked like it had healed, and they’d brought a complete unknown.
In comparison Tohru felt his group fell a bit short in battle prowess, and suspected their current equipment was insufficient for this encounter.
In a direct face-off, winning was nigh-impossible.
“Akari,” Tohru said, not taking his eyes off Alberic’s group for a second. “I’m leaving the two on the left to you. Can you take them?”
The mercenary Nikolay and the demihuman boy.
Nikolay was a powerhouse, and the demihuman boy was a soldier with an unknown fighting style.
At a glance, it may have looked like Tohru was pushing the troublesome opponents off onto Akari.
“But…”
“…Nii-sama, you really are soft,” Akari said, oddly earnestly. It looked like she had reached the same conclusion as him. Naturally, after having lived in the same village and having received instruction from the same teachers. “But I wish you’d have a bit more faith in me.”
“It’s not like I’m doubting your ability.”
“I know that, but…no, now is not the time to discuss Nii-sama’s concerns. I will do as you ask.”
“Leaving it to you, then.” Tohru dispensed with that short phrase.
Nikolay was an imposing giant, sure, but he was also still in the recovery process.
Even if the bone was mended with magic, he was unlikely to use his arm strenuously for a while. If he pushed himself too hard before he was fully healed the bone would break again, and if the bone kept breaking and ended up setting strangely, it would ultimately lead to the weakening of the bone itself.
Naturally, if he didn’t use his arm, day by day the muscles would gradually atrophy.
Of course on a technical level Nikolay’s skills were outstanding, but he should have less battle ability overall than he did when Tohru last fought him.
Then there was the demihuman boy.
He was unarmed, or at least at a glance seemed to have nothing on his person that could be considered a weapon. He could have a dagger or something hidden underneath his clothes, but it was definitely clear from his thin, delicate stature that he wasn’t very muscular, and therefore likely not very strong.
His attacks would be light and have a short reach.
Which meant that Akari, whose weapon had a long reach, would be more suited to fight them than Alberic and Vivi.
“Chaika,” Tohru said in a voice that was almost a whisper. “If any of them make the slightest move towards the vehicle, don’t worry about us and let loose. Preferably with your largest and most powerful spell.”
“Y…Yes.”
Chaika nodded and gulped.
Then—
“Tohru and Akari, I presume?”
Alberic addressed them in a clear voice.
Neither Tohru nor Akari recalled giving them their names. They had probably looked them up in Del Solant, which meant that their martial arts school and clan name probably remained unknown. During their time as refugees in Del Solant, they had never given the name “Acura.”
“I’ll give you the option just in case. Surrender. I’d like to avoid a pointless battle.”
“Your words are falling on deaf ears,” Tohru said, unsheathing the two short comblades at his waist.
“You’re determined to fight no matter what?”
The timbre of his voice carried an air of shock.
He was apparently surprised at the saboteurs’ unwillingness to concede, despite the odds being stacked against them.
Unlike nobility and royalty who carried the peace of their people, the dignity of their country and the burden of their faith on their shoulders, saboteurs had nothing worth throwing their lives away for. They would even cut ties with their own family if necessary.
However—
“We saboteurs have no principles, no creed, and we’ll allow ourselves to get ordered around by anyone—to you guys, we must seem lower than dogs. And that’s why we have one thing that we absolutely won’t budge on.”
He pressed the markings on his palms against the markings on the hilts of his swords.
A connection was established, and in a mere instant Tohru’s body became one with his two short comblades on an intuitive level.
While it wasn’t as showy as the connection between wizard and Gundo, it expanded his senses, which raised his accuracy. Using a comblade, one could even tie a thin string to the point of their own weapon.
“Saboteurs never sell out their master by chickening out from a battle.”
Saboteurs may have been despised on the battlefield, but they took pride in their resolute loyalty towards their master. That wasn’t something they’d abandon or betray so easily. No, it would be better to say they couldn’t. If they lost that, they could no longer call the battlefield their trade—they’d be little more than heathens.
It was precisely because they had no limitations or attachments to anything else that saboteurs considered it their reason to exist.
“Those’re big words.” The assassin Vivi laughed scornfully. “But deception and trickery are a a saboteur’s specialty, aren’t they?”
“Same for you, assassin.”
“…”
Vivi had nothing to say to that.
Truthfully, there were really no fundamental differences between saboteurs and assassins.
They too were despised beings that undertook the dirty, lowbrow jobs no one wanted to touch.
The real difference was that saboteurs were multi-talented, whereas assassins specialized in one field. If one was really nitpicking, though, it could also be said that saboteurs were mainly found on the battlefield, whereas it would be more likely to find assassins in general society.
“I understand,” Alberic suddenly spoke up, cutting between Tohru and Vivi. “It was my intention to learn what I could about saboteurs, but it appears my understanding is still far from complete. I must apologize for my rudeness in recommending you to surrender.”
Unsheathing the sword at his waist, Alberic stepped forward.
His eyes practically boring a hole into Tohru, he said,
“Regardless of how confined this space is, this is war. Now then, come at me with everything you have, and we’ll see who’s stronger. I, cavalier Alberic Gillette, henceforth declare war on you all.”
That was the refreshingly clear cue signaling the start of the battle.
TRANSLATOR’S NOTES
(NanoDesu) A Translation of the Hitsugi no Chaika Light Novel 