[410] Task Force (2)
A two-hour carriage ride from Creas City brought you to the small port village of Sanperos.
Galiant was a world-class resort, but out of season the place looked no more than a sleepy fishing village.
Arriving around noon, Shirone bought a handful of dried fish from a stall.
They were the kind that taste best when a little aged—chewy and jelly-like, with a deep, briny flavor.
There were no scheduled ships, so he'd probably have to hire a captain himself.
The fare would be expensive, but the money he'd saved so far would cover it.
The villagers said the boats that left at dawn usually took about an hour to return with their catch.
With nowhere to go, Shirone walked out onto the breakwater and stared at the open sea.
He wasn't new to travel, and his teammates waited on the island, but he felt like the last person left in the world.
"The school should be on lunch break about now."
He didn't dwell on it. There was nowhere to go back to. There couldn't be.
"Are you Arian Shirone?"
A woman in clothing completely out of place for Tormia stood behind him.
Despite the warm weather, her sleeves reached past her wrists and the hood hanging down her back was thicker than winter wear.
A pacifier in her mouth looked odd, but her eyes were deep and mysterious enough that it felt wrong to stare at her like she was a curiosity.
Shirone shifted his gaze to the strange creature hovering above her head.
It was soft and translucent, with a sphere inside that rotated and generated an electric field.
An Autoprism—scattering light to create localized invisibility. It had almost no combat power, but its utility was so great it was listed as a tier-4 summon.
Shirone regarded them warily.
At worst he could draw Armand and fight, but a mage able to summon a tier-4 creature would outclass him in raw power.
"Who are you? How do you know my name...?"
"I'm Julu. Gaold told me to bring you."
"Huh? 'Julu'?"
For a moment stunned by the woman's odd speech, Shirone blinked and looked her squarely in the face.
"Excuse me? Julu?"
No one would be ignorant of the name of the world's only—and strongest—summoning mage, the woman who could command tier-1 liches.
Not believing it, Shirone pointed at her to confirm.
"...Julu?"
"Yeah, Julu."
Julu nodded as if it were nothing. "We don't have much time. We need to cross the border before dark. Follow me."
"Where's the Association head?"
"He's already arrived in Galiant and is preparing with Gangnan. Are you coming or not?"
"I'll go."
Putting needless searching aside, Shirone approached. Julu dispelled the Autoprism and cast a mass teleport.
The landscape snapped into a point and then expanded into a new scene.
They stood on a mid-slope of the mountain behind the harbor.
The breakwater they'd been on was a tiny speck at the edge of sight, and below the slope the fishermen's hamlet clustered together.
There, Julu summoned a monstrous bird—a Kaidra.
Its smooth, furless hide was leathery, its beak long and stiletto-like, and its massive talons looked as if they could clutch the mountain itself.
Contrary to its fearsome looks, the Kaidra nuzzled Julu like a child, knelt, and drooped one wing.
Shirone climbed up and planted his feet on the wing behind Julu.
The Kaidra's spine jutted out like a shark's fin, reducing air resistance, and the concave spaces along the spine made a surprisingly stable seat.
"Be careful. We'll fly high."
The Kaidra pushed off with its legs and beat its wings, and as soon as it rose it shot up vertically.
Shirone turned pale with fear, eyes fixed on the sky rushing toward him.
Once it settled into a cruising altitude, the ground below was nothing but a speck.
"Kaidras are lift-based flyers. They don't need much oxygen, so they can operate at higher altitudes than muscle-driven creatures. That increases our chances of evading the Joners' search algorithms."
If a Joner's basic Spirit Zone had a two-kilometer diameter, scanning the sky wasn't difficult. But the higher you fly, the more the Spirit Zone has to be reshaped into targeted or sniper modes, which naturally narrows the search range.
Shirone finally accepted the reality of the moment.
The person in front of him really was Julu.
"Thank you for coming in person. Honestly, I didn't expect someone of your stature to fetch me."
"Gaold said the Association would start moving soon. It seems there's a lull inside. They decided to make quick preparations and head toward 'Heaven,' so I was assigned to transport. Right now I'm on my way to fetch a woman named Shiina."
"I see."
"Even if it hadn't been urgent I'd have come. Sain said we should use whatever's available to get results. I'll handle utility for the team, so if you need anything for the mission, say the word."
Julu's words made sense.
From now on they had to move as a single, coordinated team. Seniority aside, each person had to perform their duty to the fullest.
"Yes! I look forward to working with you!"
Shirone nodded brightly.
* * *
Kentra City.
The meat raised in Kentra, Tormia's famous grazing region, was prized for its quality and designated an official royal tribute product.
Culinary businesses thrived; whole streets were lined with restaurants.
Cowboy hats were common, leather clothing was fashionable, and whips flew off the shelves.
Shiina hadn't chosen this place for the food or the specialties.
It was precisely halfway between Creas and Bashka.
Shiina checked the restaurant sign and pushed the door open.
Compared to Creas, it felt more common, and though she'd reserved a table there were still plenty of empty seats.
She finished the glass of water the waiter brought and waited anxiously for the man she was to meet.
Twenty minutes remained until the appointed time, but whether he would show was far from certain.
If he were in his right mind, he wouldn't come.
To set a lunch meeting after going silent following a blind date, then send one congratulatory notice about a Grade-5 certification and insist on lunch—especially by rushed telegram in the dawn—that didn't add up.
'It's worth a try.'
The bell chimed as a man entered.
Parka Kuan, instructor at the Kaizen Swordsmanship School.
His cold, observant gaze was the same as ever, but his dress showed far more care than on the day of the blind date.
Kuan's ice-cold eyes softened only after he confirmed Shiina at the table.
As he hobbled over on his lame leg, the nobles in the room turned to watch him.
He never hid his disability, but at times like this he couldn't shake the feeling of being the odd one out.
Especially when their gazes slid from him to Shiina—then he wanted to cut down everyone in the room.
Shiina stood and raised a hand. True to her nature, she couldn't manage a warm smile, but she didn't care about the stares.
There was Armin, who had given up his sight for her.
Shiina felt no discomfort about Kuan's lame leg.
Prejudice can't be hidden simply by being conscious of it, and Kuan could feel Shiina's sincerity.
Perhaps that was why she'd come this far without caring how it looked.
"Thank you for coming. I'm sorry for the rude request."
"Given it was an urgent telegram, I figured there had to be a reason. Please, sit."
Food arrived, but they remained silent, concentrating on cutting and chewing their meat.
No one is immune to an occasion like this.
Still, Kuan found the courage to speak first.
"Congratulations. A Grade-5 licensed mage. That's quite impressive for your age."
Shiina could wait no longer.
She had little time, and if Kuan refused she'd have to leave for Galiant immediately.
"I sent the telegram because I need a favor."
It was an odd reply to congratulations. Kuan blinked, cutlery in hand, then nodded. "Go on."
Shiina explained the project.
She withheld details that would endanger the team, but since they'd stop being watched by the world tomorrow, her explanation was blunt and to the point.
"...So I want one of the team to be an assassin. I think you're the right person, Kuan."
Kuan, who'd been motionless until she finished, let his fork clatter onto his plate. He gulped water as if his appetite had vanished.
Shiina waited calmly.
It was, in effect, a suicide mission. It would leave a stain on history.
Persuasion was impossible; now she had to trust his judgment.
Kuan lowered his gaze to the floor and thought. Then he looked back up. "May I ask one thing?"
"Anything. If it's information I can share, I will."
"Why me?"
Shiina's expression turned cold.
"As you can see, my leg isn't whole. And I'm a swordsman who needs his legs. Why must it be you specifically?"
"That's because of your skill, Kuan—"
Shiina swallowed the flattery that rose to her lips.
She knew why Kuan had come—no man would travel so far for lunch with a woman he didn't care for. He hadn't come for that.
Armin had already left with her in spirit, and she wouldn't exploit Kuan's feelings. She would tell the truth and wait for his decision.
"Kuan, because I've heard you have no parents, no siblings, no ties."
Shiina's face was resolute. "I thought if you died, there'd be no power to move on your behalf. If the mission goes wrong, there'd be nobody to handle the aftermath. That made you suitable."
Kuan stared at her in stunned silence.
To tell a man such things to his face—
Somehow, since receiving the urgent telegram, things had felt oddly right.
"But don't mistake me—I'm not overlooking your skill. Your swordsmanship is—"
Heh. Heh heh heh!
Kuan dropped his head and laughed, shoulders shaking, and Shiina's tense expression softened.
"No ties, so no aftermath? If you really think that—"
Kuan's eyes turned cold as he split his mouth into a grin.
"You've come to the right man."
Suddenly she understood why she'd chosen him.
Because she lacked prejudice, she lacked pity.
To a man sick of the pretense of human life, her frank self-reproach was a relief.
Kuan withdrew his earlier doubts.
Apparently the gods had been watching his life after all.
Heaven, she called it.
Is there any other place more fitting for a swordsman's grave?
Kuan planted his hand on the table and stood.
"Let's go. It sounds urgent. There's nothing to prepare. I settled my affairs ten years ago."
"I'd appreciate at least a notice—"
"Don't worry. It's a decision made by one swordsman. If you wait until the moment of death to brace yourself, it's too late. There's no need to look back on the road to the battlefield."
His resolve was extreme, but as someone to take the assassin's role, few were better suited.
Whatever his motive, he was a suicide squad carrying humanity's future into the flames.
Shiina truly respected his resolve.
"Thank you."
Kuan gripped his sword's hilt as if swearing by it and bowed his head.
"And thank you as well."