[Paul]
When I opened my eyes, I found myself in the middle of a grassy
plain.
It was an unremarkable stretch of flat, empty land, but oddly enough, it
felt familiar. I tried to determine where I was, and the answer came to mind
before too long. I was in the south of the Kingdom of Asura, near a town I'd
once spent some time in. It was the place I'd stayed back when I was learning
the Water God style…and Lilia's hometown.
Naturally, I concluded this had to be some sort of dream. I had no
reason to be here, after all. Still, it sure brought back some memories. How
many years had I spent in this area? One? Maybe two? All I knew for sure
was that I hadn't stayed that long.
Most of my memories from that period of my life concerned the
training hall, and the senior students I trained with there. They were a pack of
arrogant idiots with big mouths and no real skill. I had actual talent, so they
were always busy trying to keep me in my "proper place." I'd always hated
being bossed around like that—the whole reason I ran away from home in the
first place was to get out from under my old man's thumb, after all.
But he'd at least been a genuinely competent and intimidating man,
with enough power to justify his ego. The senior students, on the other hand,
were just useless trash with swollen heads. By the time I reached the
Intermediate rank, they were still lagging in the late stages of their Beginner
lessons. It was honestly kind of pathetic.
Hell, even the master of the training hall had only ever reached the
Advanced rank in the Water God style. He was one of those old coots who
loved to shout about "guts" and "determination," despite the fact they'd never
gotten him much of anywhere. I wanted to show every last one of them just
how good I really was someday. Never really got the chance, as it turned out. I eventually lost my
patience with their bullshit, forced myself on Lilia out of petty spite, and ran
away in the night. I'd been looking to get with her for a while…but in that
moment, all I wanted was to make a mess of something they all treasured.
By the next morning, they were all out searching furiously for any
trace of me. I fled to a foreign country with a sneer on my face.
God, I really was a stupid little shit. I didn't care how much the other
students hated me, but taking out my frustration on Lilia like that wasn't
exactly my finest hour.
"Mm…"
The wind was picking up. A bit of dust blew into my eye, and I
grimaced slightly. A moment later, there was a small tug at my sleeve.
"Daddy? Where are we…?"
"Hm?"
For some reason, I was holding Norn in my arms. She was looking up
at me with anxiety in her eyes.
At this point, I finally realized that I was actually standing in the
middle of a field in the clothes I wore at home. I could feel solid ground
underneath my feet…and the warmth of my daughter's body against my
chest.
This wasn't a dream.
"What the heck…?"
I didn't have the first idea what I was doing here. If I'd been alone, I
probably would have gone right on believing it was a dream. But Norn was
right there in my arms.
Yeah. That was little Norn, all right. My adorable three-year-old
daughter.
I didn't hug her like this very often. I was going for more of a stern,
dignified father thing, so I mostly kept the physical expressions of affection
to a minimum. What was she doing in my arms, then?
…Oh, that's right. Now I remember.
Just a few moments ago, I'd been chatting with Zenith in our house.
"You know, girls stop letting their fathers hug them once they grow up
a little. You really should get a few squeezes in while you still can."
"Nah, I'm working on my paternal dignity this time around. Compared
to Rudeus, Norn seems like an ordinary kid, right? If I play my cards right, I
bet I can convince her I'm the greatest man in the world."
"Wasn't that your father's approach, too? I thought you hated him."
"…You've got a point. All right, let me at her."
It was just a silly, casual conversation. Lilia was nearby as well,
teaching Aisha something or the other. After realizing that the girl was
"gifted," she'd decided to nurture her talents through constant lessons and
lectures. I argued that Aisha would be happier if we let her have a more
carefree childhood, but Lilia pushed back so ferociously that I had to back
down.
The kid really was growing up fast, though. She'd started walking at a
very early age, and absorbed everything we taught her like a sponge. Lilia
was a good teacher, so that was probably part of it, but Aisha was making so
much progress that it made me worry there might something wrong with
Norn.
When I brought up to Lilia, she told me "Aisha's nothing special
compared to young master Rudeus. And Miss Norn's a perfectly normal
child."
I didn't really care if Norn was "normal" or not, honestly. But when I
pictured her growing up in the shadow of two brilliant siblings, it made me
feel a little bad for her.
I remembered thoughts like those running through my mind…
And then I was suddenly enveloped in a blinding white light.
Yeah, I remembered now. There wasn't some sort of gap in my
memory. The fact that I still had Norn in my arms was proof of that. The girl
had been walking around on her own for some time now, but I was holding
her to my chest.
Something very strange was going on. That much was immediately
obvious.
"Daddy?" Norn spoke to me again in an uneasy voice. She'd been watching my face this whole time.
"It's all right, Norn." Gently patting her on the head, I looked around
the area. Zenith and Lilia were nowhere to be seen. Were they somewhere
close nearby? Or was I the only one who'd been brought here?
In that case, why was Norn still with me?
One possibility did come to mind.
I'd once triggered a very nasty trap in the depths of a labyrinth—a
hidden teleportation circle. And this felt very similar. At the time, I was lucky
enough to be teleported close nearby. But I'd reflexively grabbed Elinalise by
the sleeve as the trap went off, which got her dragged along as well. She was
pretty pissed off at me.
If you're unlucky, a teleport trap is the sort of thing that can be
instantly lethal. It wasn't really my fault I stepped on it, since our monkey of
a scout should have spotted the thing beforehand…but that wasn't important
right now. Basically, teleportation magic was capable of instantly moving
both you—and anyone you were in physical contact with—to a different
location. That would explain why Norn was still with me, but the
others weren't.
Why had I been teleported, though? There'd been no warning at all.
Had somebody done this to me deliberately?
To be honest, I did have enemies all over the place. It wouldn't be
surprising if someone launched a sneak attack on me, given all the bad stuff
I'd done in the past. But teleportation magic? That just didn't make any
sense. For one thing, there was no known incantation for it. To teleport
someone, you needed to use either a magic circle or a special magic item.
Teleportation items were banned worldwide, and the creation of teleportation
circles had been forbidden for so long that the art itself was all but lost. Why
would anyone go to such extreme, dangerous lengths just to take revenge on
a single man like me? And why would they just dump me in some empty
field…?
Could one of the students from the training hall have been responsible?
Maybe they were still nursing a grudge and teleported me away so they could
get their hands on Lilia. Maybe they put me here to send a message…and
when I made it back to my house, I'd find Zenith and Lilia being despoiled by a gang of vicious thugs.
Damn. That did sound like something those bastards would think of.
"Uh, Daddy…"
"Don't worry, Norn. It's okay. We'll get back home soon enough."
Trying to reassure myself as much as Norn, I set off toward the nearby
town. Fortunately, I had an Asuran gold coin hidden away in my sword
sheath for emergencies. And thanks to old habits from my adventuring days, I
always kept my sword on my person, even when I slept. The only time I took
it off was when I made love. My Adventurer Card was tucked away inside
the holder, too. Just a small precaution against exactly this sort of emergency.
I made my way to the local Guild and exchanged my gold coin for
smaller denominations. The receptionist handed me back nine Asuran silver
coins and eight large coppers. They'd apparently hiked their fees at some
point, but I had more than I needed anyway. I quickly reviewed the tasks that
were available, found one for an emergency delivery, and accepted it on the
spot.
My card had run out of magic years ago, so the lady behind the counter
had to recharge it for me first. When the words on it reappeared, she
exclaimed in surprise and asked me why a S-ranked adventurer was taking on
a job like this. Since it was an emergency request, the normal restrictions
didn't apply, but under normal circumstances it would have been an E-ranked
task.
I didn't have any real reason to hide my situation, but I didn't feel like
taking the time to explain. I fed her some vague non-explanation, then asked
if I could borrow a horse. This was one of the special perks the Guild offered
S-ranked adventurers. When you accepted an urgent delivery job, they loaned
you a ride free of charge. Of course, you needed to give the horse back once
the job was done…but this time, I was planning to ride off in a totally
different direction. I did feel bad for the client, but I had an emergency of my
own to deal with.
The horse they brought out for me turned out to be quite an impressive
specimen. I'd gotten lucky. That delivery job must have been very urgent
indeed. There was a real possibility I'd lose my status as an adventurer for this stunt, but I could live with that. I wasn't planning to make my living that
way ever again.
I hoisted Norn onto the horse, then hopped up behind her.
We galloped out of town immediately.
Halfway through the trip, Norn fell ill. The girl had no experience
riding horseback, and I kept us traveling day and night. It was probably just
too much for her to handle.
With the time it took to nurse her back to health, I didn't make it back
to the Fittoa Region for a good two months. It took so long I almost wished
we'd just taken a carriage from the start. I'd long since failed the delivery job,
of course, but the breach-of-contract fee wasn't too painful.
At the moment, though, I was in the depths of despair. We hadn't
reached Buena Village yet, but I'd finally discovered just how grave the
situation really was.
Everything in the Fittoa region had vanished.
I was bewildered. Totally bewildered. What the hell had happened?
Where was Buena Village now? Where were Zenith and Lilia? The Citadel of
Roa had disappeared, too. Did that mean even Rudeus was gone?
This can't be happening.
At some point, I'd fallen to my knees in shock and anguish. The words
"they were wiped out by a teleport trap" echoed inside my mind.
It was a phrase I'd heard more than once back in my adventuring days,
when I was still exploring labyrinths. Teleportation traps were the one thing
you had to watch out for. They split your party up and left you uncertain of
your own location. Triggering one was a very, very bad idea. I heard
numerous stories of veteran teams that were totally wiped out as a result of
those things. Once, I'd seen a stunned man recounting how his whole party
had stepped on a teleportation circle. He'd managed to team up with another
adventurer and fight his way out of the labyrinth, only to discover that all his
friends had perished.
But why had this happened here? To us?
"Daddy…aren't we home yet?"
Norn's voice snapped me back to reality. Her small hand was clutching
at my sleeve.
Without saying a word, I hugged her close.
"What's wrong, Daddy?"
That's right. I'm her dad.
This girl still didn't understand what had happened. But she wasn't
worried, because she had me with her. I was her father. I was a father now,
damn it! I couldn't show any weakness. I had to stay calm and confident.
Everything was going to be all right.
Teleportation was a dangerous trap, and I didn't have any idea why this
had happened. But I was alive, wasn't I? Zenith was a former adventurer in
her own right. And although Lilia wasn't as nimble as she used to be before
her poisoning, she still knew how to use a sword.
Aisha, though…
Think, damn it. Was Lilia touching her in that moment?
…I couldn't remember. But I wasn't going to give up hope, either.
For now, I'd just have to believe that Lilia was holding her daughter's
hand when that light hit us.
***
I returned the Guild's horse at the nearest town and began gathering
information.
It seemed like this magical calamity really had affected the entire
Fittoa Region. Philip and Sauros were both missing, so Philip's older brother
was currently serving as the acting lord. However, he was under intense
political pressure to take responsibility for the disaster. From the sound of
things, he was on the verge of being stripped of his position. All of the man's
energy was currently devoted to protecting himself, so he hadn't taken any
real steps to deal with the calamity itself. Instead of looking out for his
people, the selfish bastard was trying to save his own skin. And you wonder why I can't stand Asuran nobles.
In the course of my investigations, I met an old man named Alphonse.
He introduced himself as a butler who'd been in Philip's service prior to the
disaster. His loyalty to the Boreas Greyrat family was apparently unshaken,
despite the current circumstances. He was setting up a refugee camp, paid for
out of his own pocket, and he wanted me to help him get it off the ground.
When I asked why he wanted me, the old man explained that Philip
had sometimes mentioned my name. Apparently, he had me pinned as "a man
who shows his real worth in a crisis, but also tends to create them through his
own short-sightedness." I wasn't really asking for a critique, but whatever.
Alphonse admitted he'd been somewhat hesitant to approach me on the
basis of this questionable "endorsement." Once he took the fact that I was
Rudeus' father into consideration, however, he'd decided it would be wise to
seek my help.
I'd heard a bit about how things were going in Roa through letters, but
it was still nice to see my son was thought so highly of by someone he
probably hadn't even interacted with that often. In any case, I accepted
Alphonse's offer gladly and got to work right away.
After a month, we made plenty of progress.
Alphonse was a man with many connections. In only a few short
weeks, he somehow dealt with all the preparations and gathered enough
workers to get the refugee camp up and running. It was a seriously
impressive feat.
For my part, I recruited most of the younger refugees who'd gathered
in the area into an organization called the Fittoa Search and Rescue Squad.
We traveled all around the country, helping out people who'd been displaced
by the calamity. Of course, my primary objective wasn't to save a bunch of
total strangers. First and foremost, I was looking for my family.
At this point, the power struggle in the royal capital apparently
resolved itself, since Alphonse began to receive disaster recovery funds from
the government. I left a note behind at the refugee camp for Rudeus and set
out with my squad for the Holy Country of Millis, home to the headquarters
of the Adventurers' Guild. Asura and Millis were two of the biggest countries in the world. I figured the information I was looking for had to be in one or
the other. It felt like the logical approach.
Honestly, I thought I'd find everyone soon enough.
Talk about blind optimism.
***
My first six months in Millis were productive enough.
As it turned out, a large number of Fittoans had been teleported to this
continent, and we went around rescuing every last one of them. Some had
already been sold off as slaves, and forcibly liberating someone else's
"property" was against the law in Millis. But the thought of someone selling
Zenith or Lilia into slavery made me so furious that I never hesitated to break
that law. I stuck stubbornly to a policy of rescuing everyone we found.
Once I'd decided on that course of action, I turned to Zenith's family
for help. As it happens, my wife came from a noble house with some real
power in Millis. They were well-known for producing many famous knights,
among other things. With their assistance, I started to lay the groundwork for
freeing all the slaves we'd located.
All in all, our efforts went smoothly. We moved fast and found many
of the stranded, penniless Fittoans quickly. Once we extracted them from
whatever predicament they'd landed in, we provided those capable of
heading back home themselves with traveling funds, recruited any willing
volunteers into our squad, and found places for the children and elderly
refugees to stay.
Freeing the slaves took more effort, of course. We paid for their
freedom where we could. When that wasn't an option, we had Zenith's
family put the pressure on. And when that didn't work, we looked for
chances to snatch them from their owners.
Naturally, forcibly snatching away slaves didn't endear us to the Millis
nobility as a whole. Some of them even sent their personal forces after us.
We had a number of fatalities.
Still, I wasn't about to stop. I had the moral high ground here. I was saving desperate people who needed help. And for that reason, my squad
stuck with me despite the danger.
I used everything I had—the Greyrat name, my connection to Zenith's
family, and my reputation as a former adventurer—to find ways around the
obstacles in our path. But no matter how hard we worked, no matter how
thoroughly I searched, I couldn't seem to find any information about Zenith
or Lilia.
Hell, I hadn't even heard anything about Rudeus yet. That boy stood
out like a sore thumb everywhere he went, but now it felt like he'd fallen off
the face of the planet.
***
Before I knew it, an entire year had slipped by.
By this point, we were hearing about fewer and fewer stranded
Fittoans. We'd probably found almost everyone we were going to find in
both the Millis Continent and the southern regions of the Central Continent.
There were still some smaller villages we hadn't searched yet, and a number
of slaves we hadn't managed to free, but that was about it. My squad was
working systematically to liberate the remaining slaves. Once we got our
hands on them, the rest was simple enough.
I knew it was a violent approach. I knew that every slave we liberated
earned me more hatred from the local nobility. I did it anyway. Sometimes
that got my people attacked in the street. Sometimes they were badly injured,
or even killed. And some members of the squad blamed me for that.
Maybe they were right. Maybe I could have prevented things from
taking such an ugly turn.
But no matter what anyone said, I wasn't going to change my approach
now. I was too committed to the path I'd chosen.
We started getting more news about dead Fittoans than live ones. There
had been more bad news than good from the start, but the ratio just kept
getting worse. To be frank, the people we found alive were very much in the minority.
The Etos, Chloe, Laws, Bonnie, Lane, Marion, Monty…all of them were
gone now. Every single time I learned of another dead acquaintance, my
blood ran ice-cold.
Sometimes members of the squad would break down in tears at the
latest piece of awful news. More than once, we arrived just a little too late to
save someone, and a friend or family member would take their anger out on
me, demanding to know why I'd taken so long to get us to that one town or
village.
There was a risk we'd get ourselves stranded somewhere if we didn't
plan our movements carefully, though, so I didn't think my strategy was
wrong. Under my leadership, we'd managed to save several thousand
refugees.
Of course, if I'd managed to get a hold of the members of my old
party, the Black Wolf Fangs, they could have searched the Demon Continent
and the Begaritt Continent for us as well. But I'd only managed to get in
touch with one of them, and he'd vanished shortly after a few brief
conversations. I had no idea what he was doing now.
I wouldn't call them heartless or anything. We'd never gotten along
that well in the first place, and there'd been one hell of a fight when I left.
After the way I said goodbye, it would hardly be surprising if they still
resented me.
Why the hell did I have to leave things on such a sour note, anyway? I
was such a stupid kid.
But there wasn't much point dwelling on that now.
***
A year and a half had passed since "The Displacement Incident."
These days, alcohol was the only thing that kept me going. I started
drinking in the morning, and I kept right on going into the night. I was
literally never sober.
I knew I should stop myself. But whenever the booze wore off, the exact same thoughts always popped into my head.
I'd tell myself that my family was dead.
I'd think about the ways in which they might have died. I'd wonder
what had happened to their corpses. I couldn't think about anything else.
Can you really blame me? Even that absurdly talented son of mine had
vanished without a trace. I didn't want to believe it. I really didn't. But in all
probability, he was dead. They had all probably died sometime in the last
eighteen months—with tears running down their faces, waiting for me to
rescue them.
Every time I pictured it, I thought I might go crazy. What the hell was I
doing here, anyway? Why had I wasted all this time helping a bunch of
strangers? I should have headed straight to the most dangerous parts of the
world from the very start. I could have managed, somehow, even if I was on
my own.
I made the wrong choice, and now I'd lost my family. The people I
cared for most had been stolen from me, and I could never get them back.
I didn't want to believe that, of course.
So I drank. When I was drunk, at least, I could feel something like
happiness.
I wasn't doing much real work anymore.
In another six months, we'd be starting an operation to send many of
the Fittoans we'd found on the Millis Continent back home. These were old
people, women, children, and people so sick they could barely move. Even if
we gave them money, there was no guarantee they could endure a long
journey. But they all wanted to return to their homeland, and so my squad
would be escorting them all the way back to the Kingdom of Asura.
The planning was moving forward steadily. But despite my role as
captain of the squad, I skipped out on the meetings and spent my days
drinking.
I would be remaining in Millis after the operation, along with a few
other key members of the Search and Rescue Squad. Once it was complete,
however, our activities would be scaled down sharply. In other words, they were going to cut off the search for victims after only two years. It felt much
too early…but at the same time, I had to admit that I understood their logic.
Continuing to comb the countryside would just be a waste of money at this
point.
In the end, I hadn't managed to find a single member of my family.
I was such a failure.
Now that I was plastered all the time, the other members of the squad
had started to keep their distance from me. I could hardly blame them.
Nobody wants to waste their time dealing with some drunken moron.
There were a few exceptions, though, and Norn was one of them.
"Daddy! Guess what? Guess what happened when I was outside?"
No matter how drunk I might be, Norn would always chatter happily at
me. This sweet little kid was all I had left of my family now.
Right. There was a good reason I hadn't gone to the Demon Continent
or Begaritt, wasn't there? I had Norn to take care of. What was I supposed to
do, abandon my four-year-old daughter? There was no way I could have left
her behind and wandered off somewhere I might easily die.
"Hm? What's up, Norn? Did something good happen?"
"Yeah! I almost fell down in the street outside, but this big bald guy
helped me out! And then he gave me this! Look!"
With a big smile, Norn showed me the bright red apple in her hands. It
sure looked fresh and juicy.
"Oh yeah? Well, lucky you. Did you say 'thank you' like a good girl?"
"Yeah! When I said thanks, the baldy patted me on the head!"
"No kidding? I guess you ran into a real nice person. But you shouldn't
call him 'baldy,' okay? Some guys are kind of sensitive about their hair."
Chatting with my daughter was always so fun. Norn was the light of
my life. If anyone ever tried to harm her, I'd end them, even if it meant
picking a fight with the Pope of the Millis Church.
"Captain! We've got a problem!"
Just as I was starting to feel a little better, one of my men burst into my room. I can't say I was pleased to have a conversation with my daughter
interrupted like this. I might have tossed the guy out with an angry roar, but
Norn was still in the room. Some scrap of petty pride kept my voice calm.
"What's going on?"
"The guys who went out on that job today just got attacked!"
"What, seriously?"
Now who'd go and do a thing like that?
Dumb question. It was obviously those bastard aristocrats again. We
had explained a hundred times that innocent residents of the Kingdom of
Asura had been enslaved as the result of a magical calamity, but the
scumbags stubbornly refused to hand them over. As I recalled, we'd been
planning to rescue a slave from one of them today.
"All right! Get your gear on, everyone! Let's go!" I rushed out of my
room and called to the squad's brawlers. None of them were exactly seasoned
warriors, but it wasn't like we'd be going up against a bunch of veteran
labyrinth explorers, either. With my people following close behind, I headed
for the place where the fight had broken out.
It wasn't a long walk. They'd attacked the building right next door—
one of the Search and Rescue Squad's warehouses, a place we used to store
clothing and supplies for our personnel. If our enemies had found it, we had a
problem on our hands. We might need to change our base of operations.
"There's only one of them, but he's tough. Be careful, Paul."
"Is he a swordsman or what?"
"No, it's a magician. Looks like a kid, but he has his face hidden."
A kid magician? I knew my people were amateurs, but they were
adults in decent shape, and he'd taken down a bunch of them. This "kid" was
probably a halfling, if you asked me. They were always taking advantage of
their childlike appearance to deceive people.
A veteran halfling mage, then…hmm. Could I beat him in this
condition? I was confident I could handle a typical thug or three no matter
how drunk I was, but…
Nah, it should be fine. I've got plenty of tricks up my sleeve. Shaking my head, I stepped into the warehouse.