"I beg of you, wait!"
What was this voice?
Where did it come from?
'Could it be…?'
Sylvie froze.
'Was it my…? …!'
Everything about this moment… pointed to that possibility.
'But when? How? WHY?!'
'It couldn't be my voice, right?' Sylvie panicked. 'Why would I ever…'
This beast turned around.
It turned around!
Maybe not all was lost!
And just like hope shed some of its glorious light upon the poor girl…
She called for that beast herself!
No matter how hard the girl wished to deny it, this was the undeniable truth. As a result, this monster kindly heeded her call and stopped only to turn his head back.
Its face was…
It was the perfect picture of all the questions that plagued Sylvie's head.
Why? For what? Didn't I just let you… Are you insane, naive, or flat-out imbecile?
The monster spoke no word, but she could read them from the shocked disbelief in its eyes.
Not a scare, not a surprise nor a shock.
Just… a disbelief.
The monster then squinted its eyes.
"What?"
Sylvie nearly broke out in tears.
It wasn't her own will that made her call out, that's for sure. She wasn't coerced to do so by any force either.
But then… what made her voice come out?
Was it a pull of fate?
The tears started to squeeze from the corners of the fairy's eyes.
Balancing between life and death, Sylvia's heart only continued to suffer.
"I…-" she couldn't even bring her voice out "I…!"
Sylvie cried out, failing to hold back her emotions and act on her dignified indifference.
'I don't want to die!'
Then again, her voice acted on its own will, fully autonomous from the wishes of her mind.
"You want to catch them, right?!"
"If you want to catch them, I beg of you, wait!"
Whatever the meaning behind those words…
It made this monster… stop.
Or rather…
Sylvie gulped her saliva down.
'If it's a pull of fate…' Clearing her mind of all the spare thoughts, she took a deep breath before immersing herself in this weird feeling of powerlessness.
And as if by the blossom of an ancient spell, her tongue kept going.
Startled by everything as she might be, though, Sylvie still pushed herself to figure out what the hell was going on.
And it turned out to be a good idea when, right the next moment, she realized that whilst her tongue continued to move as if to articulate something, her voice came out no more.
'Shit!'
The monster… No, the revenge-driven young man ahead of her continued to stare right into the fairy's face. And even from beyond her mask of a woodland elf, she could see at least a single spark of interest in his eyes.
But she had to say something.
And now that she decided to do that, it was as if something in her mind… snapped.
"They are not going to stop."
As if a certain part of her brain finally awakened, Syvlie could now… feel the right answer. The right words to use in this situation her own unruly tongue put her in.
"You won't be able to get to them before they reach the town. And that's why…" Sylvie reached down to her pouch.
Yet, just as she was to pull out her participation token, she froze.
'No, that's not… that's not it…'
Again, it was just a feeling.
And following this feeling, Sylvie suddenly collapsed in on herself, her body slumping as she leaned low over her own lap.
"By telling me to go back there on my own, you are no better than driving a blade through my heart yourself."
Somehow, Sylvie managed not only to say this sentence in full but also to keep a serious, composed face through the ordeal.
But then, right away, she broke down even further as tears now squeezed out of her eyes.
"P-please…" Her voice grew weaker, more weary. Tears rapidly rolled down her cheeks as she squeezed her eyes shut. "P-please, don't…!"
After a moment of silence, a moment of air somehow growing completely still… Sylvia forced her eyes to open, to at least know her fate before it would come.
For she spoke the truth.
Without a group of at least five, taking the Borderwood trail was akin to a death sentence.
Be it from hunger to wild animals or the blade of some bandit, one would meet their end. A lone traveler was just that easy of an opportunity none of the dangers would ever pass on to it.
On the other hand though, if not back where she came from, then…
Then where was she supposed to go?
*******
'Are you for fucking real?'
If not for the witness, I would just cover my face with my hands and raise my laments all the way up to the heavens.
What a pain.
A heavy sigh this time properly escaped from my mouth.
'I don't know if this is her intuition or what, but she really knows how to press my damn buttons!'
This was outright annoying.
For how could I, a hero of ten lifetimes who gave up said lives for the sake of prosperity of the human race… How could I condemn this damn innocent girl just because she happened to be at the wrong place and at the wrong time… But what's even worse, with the wrong people.
I would really turn into a joke of a hero if I did that.
This brings us exactly, to why it is such a massive pain in the rear.
Then again… she did try to mention something about those bastards I was pursuing.
"What was that before?" I finished my sigh and asked.
"E-eh?"
The girl jumped a little and then took a moment to refocus her eyes as best as she could.
"I-I mean…" Startled like some sort of a small animal, this girl locked her eyes on the ground as she stepped from one hand to the other. "They will get to the city. And they won't let you in. But it doesn't matter, because…"
The girl clutched at her pouch again before pulling out some sort of… crystal bead? A carved one to boot?
Judging from just how much her hand shook as she did so, it wasn't an item… of somewhat established importance.
From how she pulled it out, it was clear it was supposed to mean something.
But what?
The answer to that question didn't seem to exist within the repertoire of my memories.
Then again, as she raised the bead in her hand, the girl looked me straight in the face with the first gleam of determination I've seen in there from the very start.
"I know with absolute certainty, where they are going to be in three weeks."
And now I knew where did that seed of confidence in her eyes came from.
"That's interesting," I admitted with a nod of my head. "But I don't give a shit," I shrugged my shoulders. "Because I'm going to catch them before they get to the city."
I turned around as if to leave…
But as much of a pain in the ass as it was, I was, in fact, a freaking hero.
Even if I had no plans for this life of mine to be anything beyond leisurely retirement. This was the precise reason why I would rather hurry up and deal with this issue so that I could move on to getting rich and comfy… Rather than turning this feud into a whole side story that would stretch over two or three arcs.
Those cowards were just a prologue. And I had no intention of turning my chase after them into a whole damned arc!
This reincarnation, I was finally going to take things easy!
Then again, I was a fucking hero, regardless of how many years of racial genocide and constant war crimes I had to commit to bring about a happy end for that bitch's world. And I wasn't going to just leave an innocent girl to die when she was begging me for mercy like that.
"I'm going to catch them, but that also means you will have an open path to the city."
Eager to get going, I turned back to the girl and looked her directly in the eyes.
"You never saw me, we've never talked. Understood?"
The girl's face twitched as if she instinctively wanted to retreat under my gaze… But she still ended up nodding her head, at first slowly and then… quite vigorously.
Which, no matter how much of a desired outcome for me it could be… Still irked me somewhat.
"Now then…"
I turned back again in the direction my chase would continue. And after taking a short breath, I started to run again.