"E-enough already… End it…"
Rosclay the Absolute lingered in her sights.
This man would certainly not be a threat to Kia. Not only would piercing her all-powerful defenses be impossible, but even more fundamentally, at this point, he couldn't even take a step forward.
However, the presence in front of her was, without a doubt, a deeply obsessed specter, summoned by the curse of the masses.
Tormented with fear, Kia desperately tried to think of a way to defeat him. She came to one terrible conclusion after the next. No. She didn't want to.
Even after she had brought all of Rosclay's movements to a complete halt, he still didn't give up.
"What am I supposed to do…?!"
What did she have to do to be able to defeat him?
Right now, it was Kia's side of the match that needed to come up with the answer.
"Surrender… Right, surrender! Say that you surrender!" "Sur…"
Rosclay's trembling lips were forced open, and he spit up blood.
Physically controlling the movements of his mouth, she would make him say the words she wanted him to say. If that happened, then she wouldn't destroy his mind or end his life.
"Sur, rend…"
In that moment, Rosclay's right arm leaped up into the air. An instantaneous movement.
He cut his own throat with his sword.
"Eek…!"
He crushed his windpipe. Without a moment's hesitation or reservation. Rosclay understood instantly that he couldn't let the people hear his words. "Wh-what does that…what does it even accomplish?! Listen! You don't have
any way to win, right?!"
"Gahak, koff!"
Rosclay gave no reply to Kia's words. He could no longer answer her.
His vocal cords and his windpipe were torn apart. There wasn't much time
left before his breath would catch in his throat, and he would die.
The only choice was to make it clear to anyone's eyes that he couldn't stand up again—
"Tw-tw… Twist!" "Augh, hngh!"
With a horrible splattering noise, both of Rosclay's legs were twisted backward at the knees.
She had to take both legs from him. If he was left with one, he'd stand back up again.
Blood oozed out from the flesh of his torn leg, and the champion's body was now unable to stand ever again.
"I-I'm—I'm sorry… Please, I'm so sorry…" Nevertheless, the match wasn't declared to be over.
A wave of sorrow spread throughout the audience. Yet it wasn't one of a despair…
"Get up, Rosclay…! C'mon, stand up!"
"Use your sword, Rosclay! Cut off that demon's head!"
"Please… Please, Wordmaker, give Rosclay your divine protection…" "Rosclay…"
"I believe in you, Rosclay!" "Rosclay!"
"Rosclay!" "Rosclay!"
They believed. Believed in the absolute champion's victory. Such worthless prayers.
"This isn't right… A-all of you, something's wrong with you, all of you…! J- just let this person…just let him lose already! Can't you see?! Look at how beat- up he is! How do you expect him to stand up with his legs like that?!"
They weren't aware of it themselves. How could they fail to realize that they were the ones trying to kill Rosclay?
Kia could see. The champion she was fighting against was unmistakably alive, minian, and painfully tormented by each and every one of his wounds— Kia could see it all.
This was all plain fact to anyone who looked upon him, just as evident as Kia's victory.
Even with his legs twisted and broken, this champion still wasn't allowed to lose.
What did Kia need to do? What did they expect her to do?
Trust changes into faith, and excessive faith turns into unquestioning belief, and the extremes of unquestioning belief leads to fanaticism.
All the people in this vast arena believed in Rosclay. From deep in their heart.
"Foul play!" someone shouted from among the throng.
Even if she was a tender-aged girl…as long as she was Rosclay's enemy… "N-no… It's not foul play… Truly… I really did this all on my own, so
why…?"
She could hear a Word Arts incantation.
Right now, in this arena, if there was any clear foul play at hand—Kia looked at Rosclay.
"Egirwezi io rozsl. Meameaokea. Nomkloer. Ea kot aarmeal. Wareaoir." (From Ekraezi to Rosclay. Trudging beast's path. Dwell in a single bough. Sword of all punishment. Expand.)
"Gaugh, hngh…mrrrn… Unnghh…!"
Rosclay had been forcibly holding in his screams, but he then let out a horrible, agonized groan.
The Life Arts coming in from afar were rapidly healing his throat and both of his legs.
Due to the exceedingly rapid healing, as a matter of course, his bones grew distorted and pierced through the skin on his knees.
The outer surface around the tip of his foot branched off, tearing away even more flesh.
While it was ridiculous to even call the resulting body part a leg, it made one single thing possible.
…He was able to stand back up. "N-no… Aaah! Aaaaaaaaaaaah!!" "Now, then—"
Drenched in copious amounts of sweat and stifling the intense pain, even then Rosclay smiled. While spitting out blood from his throat, freshly healed with Life Arts.
He was Rosclay the Absolute, after all. "Let us give it our all."
The knight's body was sent flying. He collided at high speed into the edge of the garden theater and collapsed to the ground again.
Just then, Kia whispered her Word Arts, guided solely by denial.
"Fl-fl… Hic, hnghh… Fly…" It was fear.
A tremendous fear that made an ordinary person forget their aversion toward murder.
Many people don't kill someone with a particular reason in mind. The kill simply out of fear.
Even Kia was capable of it. "..."
Kia looked down at her own hands.
The sea of emotions billowing about inside her, in that single moment, seemed to quiet, as if she had never felt any of it in the first place.
"Ah."
She wiped her tears. With it, she snapped back to normal.
She moved just as she had before the match…as if she couldn't hear the voices of the crowd.
I…
A single fetter had fallen off her.
The tender-aged young girl, in that moment, for the first time, became cognizant of the truth in her own power.
...I can, do it…
She walked toward Rosclay, slammed into the wall.
Her father and mother. Her sister. Yawika and Thien. It was all to prevent her homeland from being annihilated.
She couldn't care less about Aureatia, criticizing her to their hearts' content, playing dirty and trying to pillage Eta for its resources. Even if, by chance, there were other faces mixed in among the masses that Kia recognized.
I have to do it.
If it was all to protect what she held dear… If it was while she had this resolve in her heart, she could definitely kill him.
This was an enormous change to the young girl Kia, but it was also the thought that her beloved teacher had continued to harbor every day.
I have to do it, I can do it.
Aureatia's strongest knight had collapsed facedown, almost as if he were sleeping.
…She didn't need to do anything special. If she gave the one-word command Die, she could bring his life to an end without any suffering, without witnessing any horrific spectacle.
"…The match's mine. I win." "…Iska…"
The knight mumbled indistinctly as he lay on the ground. "…Iska… I... I…"
It was someone's name. "Hngh, gauugh, bleeergh!!" Kia vomited.
Thi-this person's… This knight's…
Kia covered her face with both her hands. She was trembling.
All the fear she had but temporarily left behind came surging back.
She realized she was a hair's breadth from dipping her fingers into a horrifying abyss.
Just moments beforehand—and over her own volition.
A person… He's a person…! A person, just like, just like me…! He has someone dear, just like me… He's a-alive…just like me, and I…!
She had overwhelming power. Absolute power she had obtained out of nowhere.
Kia had a wish. She had something she wanted to protect. She needed to fight.
But did she need to go that far?
With her unfair powers, bestowed by the Wordmaker, she could make all her intentions come to pass.
She could crush someone who thought just as she did, who desperately tried to live in the world just as she did, under her foot.
Did she truly have to do something like that no matter what?
Without realizing it, she herself was transforming into a monster who harmed others without a moment of self-reflection.
What would everyone back home—what would Elea—think seeing Kia like that?
"Your power is a gift to bring happiness to others."
"I—I—"
It was at that same moment that someone's body hugged her close. The body warmth, the soft feeling, enveloped her.
"This is the Seventeenth Minister! We surrender!" the intruder shouted. "Elea…"
Elea was in tears.
"N-no more… Don't make her kill… Enough… Stop, please…"
Kia could do anything.
While she may not have possessed a second name yet, with how freely she could do anything she wanted with her Word Arts, she could easily give herself a name someday that would astound everyone.
Five years earlier. The world beyond the forest was under the threat of the True Demon King's grave despair, and all the adults seemed to think that the Eta Sylvan Province where Kia and her friends lived was the only place left behind by the rest of the world.
The children like Kia and Thien were still young and hadn't been taught yet about the existence of the True Demon King, so they simply assumed that all the adults were discussing some sort of difficult topic.
Yawika was still very small, and while all the adults went to their gathering, Kia would often look after her. Yawika was an elf born with tanned skin, which was apparently somewhat rare.
Since Kia was the one looking after this rare child, the adults also showed her more respect, and she felt that they should've then been more willing to overlook her teasing and pranks.
"Kia, Kia."
"Yes, yes, what is it, Yawika? Sleepy?"
Kia had brought Yawika along to the lake as usual and was gathering mushrooms to use for cooking.
Frogs were croaking all around her, and Kia thought they sounded almost like musical instruments.
"Mrrrm, Kia, cheek!" "Sheesh, what is it?"
Yawika's small hand slapped against Kia's cheek.
From an early age, Yawika had acted a bit spoiled, and while she wasn't great with words, she was a cheerful child who smiled often.
"If only you'd hurry up and establish your words so we could actually have a conversation together."
"Cheek! Cheek!"
Even in this world, where all sentient living beings could converse with
Word Arts, it didn't mean that newly born children could eloquently use their words to communicate. As they began to grow, they needed to naturally shape their inner system of words. Along the course of learning their own unique words, they begin to realize that those same words addressed the people and things around them. These were the Word Arts that could bring about various phenomena.
As Kia dipped her toes into the cold lake, she addressed the ground right by her side.
"Grow."
With a speed that seemed to send pops into the air, mushrooms sprouted up from the gaps in the rock.
They were the mushrooms Kia was asked to gather for the day's meal. She could make them grow right outside the house if she really wanted, without needing to come all the way out to the lake, but Grandma Micchi would get angry at her, so she thought it was better not to.
She claimed that mushrooms and fruits should each grow in their proper and befitting places, and if Kia kept using her Word Arts nonstop to make food, the forest might become sick.
I don't really think there's anything to worry about, honestly.
Kia could do anything. Whether it was creating, destroying, or even changing situations to be exactly how she wanted them to be.
With my power, I can reverse anything back to normal no matter what happens.
She used Word Arts once again on the mushroom.
"Disappear."
The mushrooms Kia made appear now disappeared. Just as things had originally been.
Before she had fully formed her own words, Kia was equipped with Word Arts that could make anything and everything obey her as she saw fit. Thanks to this, Eta was never lacking food, all the houses in the village had been renovated anew, and they were never troubled by terrible weather.
Kia thought she deserved even more special treatment if she was being honest, but nevertheless, just like the other children, she was forced to look after and care for Yawika like this.
Although, in Kia's case, she just needed to say, "Refresh the chimney," or "Make it rain until tomorrow," and her job would be over, so perhaps that was simply the way it was.
The adults were always hard at work tilling the fields, repairing the waterways, and trimming back the forest. If they asked for Kia's help, it was all work she could finish with a single word, but she understood that the adults all thought there was value behind things gained through this intense labor.
"Ah, now there's nothing to do, huh, Yawika…?"
That was why even Kia would bear with it sometimes. Even if the root vegetables she hated showed up in her dinner, she didn't change them into different ingredients like she did when she was younger. Nor did she interfere when someone was spending a lot of time and effort making a wooden chair, by using her Word Arts to finish the chair for them unasked.
As she continued to mature, Kia grew to understand she had a vague and undefined set of standards. She could use her Word Arts if it was to help create food. If she was going to create toys to play with, she could use them as long as she made sure to clean them up afterward. If it was for everyone's benefit, she could use them to change the weather. Manipulating the water level in the river wasn't okay unless it was truly and seriously for the sake of everyone, too, but if necessary, she would absolutely use them.
"Grow. Disappear."
"Mrrrr, mrrrrn."
Yawika groaned. Perhaps she didn't like that Kia was playing with the mushrooms. It was truly very rare for Yawika's mood to sour when the two of them were together.
"What's wrong, Yawika? Are you all right? Did a bug bite you?" "Mmrrrr!"
"Are you hungry?" "Kia, bad!"
Yawika's nails caught a bit on Kia's cheek as she slapped her face. "Ow! Sheesh, what's your problem?!"
She could do anything she dreamed of, and she was obediently looking after her, so why was she being treated like this?
"Why're you mad? Want me to sing you something?" "Shoes! Shoes! Mnnnh!"
"Sigh. I still don't get it…"
Kia didn't understand children at all. As long as their Word Arts language was still undeveloped, they were halfway between a beast and a sentient person. Maybe Yawika's parents could understand what she was trying to say?
"Nooo! Mnnnn!"
Finding herself at a complete loss at what to do about Yawika's cries, Kia's eyes happened to fall on the mushrooms growing beside her.
Oh, right.
For some reason, up until that moment, the idea had never once occurred to Kia.
If her all-powerful Word Arts could bring forth anything and everything she wanted and even be capable of re-creating things entirely…
Perhaps she'd be able to make another person who understood Word Arts do whatever she told them to?
To Kia, it seemed like a truly genius idea. She had fixed up injuries for her parents and everyone in the village, but why then had she assumed she couldn't change their thoughts, too?
"Hey, Yawika."
Kia was truly just about to do exactly that.
There were no obstacles anywhere to stop her from putting it into practice, and a single instruction would have been all the incessantly crying Yawika would need.
"..."
Yet suddenly, her eyes stopped on the frog crying on the ground right next to Yawika. Truly, just a simple coincidence.
I mean, giving it a try on a frog first won't change anything, right?
Kia looked toward the frog and commanded it.
"Stop crying."
Instantly, the single frog in her sights stopped its croaking.
Up until that very moment, the frog had been desperately letting out a shrill cry without end.
"…Great. See, that went just fine. I'm a genius."
Absentmindedly patting Yawika as she wailed in her lap, Kia kept observing the frog for a few moments. The frog didn't cry.
As the collective choir of their croaks continued on loud enough to drown out the sound of the wind, the frog simply remained there, its eyeballs goggling about. Gradually, Kia began to find the sight unnerving.
This frog remained like this because Kia had told it to do so.
Even an overly serious boy like Thien would catch frogs and play with them, yet for some reason, the now absolute silence of the frog seemed a much more terrifying deed than dragging, spinning, and crushing one until it popped.
"G-go…"
It was okay. No matter what happened, she could do things over.
"Go back to normal."
The frog once again began to croak. Kia breathed a sigh of relief. Thank goodness.
"Yawika?"
The young girl Kia held in her arms was no longer crying. "Huh? No way."
It was weird that she wasn't crying. After all, she had been in such a sour mood a few moments ago.
"Wait, but why?"
She was unsettled. She needed to ask an adult for help.
There was a voice—gweh, gweh. Kia's body trembled in surprise.
It was the frog's voice. It had gone back to normal—and was croaking again. "…G-go—go back to normal."
Kia once again used Word Arts on the creature.
She couldn't clearly say why. But she got the sense there was something off about this frog. Like the intervals and pitch of its cries weren't exactly how they had been before.
It wasn't croaking like it had been at first. It was as if it was croaking in the way that Kia thought it had been croaking.
"N-no, it can't be."
Kia hugged Yawika close. "Kia, Kia!"
Yawika smiled, as if everything before had been a lie. "C-cry. C'mon, cry."
She was scared. Even though it was only an insignificant frog she had changed with her Word Arts—and she hadn't actually used them on the tiny Yawika at all.
"Yawika. It's all just a joke, right? You're still you, right?" "Cheek!"
She drilled her finger into Kia's cheek. Just like always. Like the Yawika Kia knew. Without scratching her with her nails at all…
There was no possible way to confirm it for herself. Yawika still hadn't fully developed her Word Arts. There wasn't any way to prove if she had been eternally changed forever or not, no matter what she did.
"Yawika!"
Kia roughly shook Yawika.
"Mww…"
No one had seen. Yawika might be just as she was before, and Kia wouldn't get yelled at—but it certainly wasn't okay to do such a thing without the world ever knowing about it.
"Mweh."
It was likely because her tiny body had been shaken so thoroughly—Yawika threw up the contents of her stomach.
"Weeeeeeh…!"
Then she started to cry. Just like normal.
"H-haaah…"
Kia lost her strength and sat down where she stood. It was a relief.
Thank goodness—she never even thought that Yawika would end up vomiting. Yawika hadn't been transformed into a version that bent to Kia's whims.
"Yawika…"
She stroked the young girl's back. What a handful, a truly troublesome child. But that was the Yawika she loved.
"Kia."
Kia realized that, at some point, Yawika had taken off her right shoe. She had been so distressed that she didn't have the presence of mind to notice before.
"Aaah… Right. So that's what it was." "Shoes! Look!"
A tiny frog had slipped inside her shoe.
She had been crying because it was uncomfortable. Once she was able to get it off, her mood improved.
There wasn't anything strange at all. That was the simple truth to it. "I'm sorry… I'm sorry, Yawika…"
For a few seconds, she continued to embrace Yawika while she cried. The fact that, in that moment, she didn't go through with her intentions must have been the most fortunate period in Kia's life.
"I'm so, so glad I didn't use any Word Arts on you."