19 8

. What You and I Want
Hiyo was climbing a spiral staircase. There was no apparent source of light, but it wasn’t dark. Not that it was bright either. There was just a spiral staircase rising through a void. It did have a handrail, though, so unless she was exceptionally careless, there was no risk of her falling off the sides.
What would happen if she fell? Hiyo didn’t know. She’d climbed up and down these stairs hundreds, thousands of times, maybe more, but she had never tried jumping over the railing.
Hiyo wasn’t alone. Following her up the stairs was a little woman named Io, who happened to not be half bad in the looks department, shortness aside. Hiyo had an eye for beauty, and she had to acknowledge that Io qualified. She loved people who were beautiful, regardless of race or gender.
Now, the woman’s two flunkies? They were no good. Awful, actually. How could anyone be that ugly?
“Hey, you. How far are we going?” Io’s voice didn’t echo. There were no echoes in this space. She was climbing the stairs just two steps behind Hiyo, but even from such a short distance, her voice sounded muffled.
“We’re almost there, okay?” Hiyo’s voice didn’t echo either when she responded. Their footsteps sounded like heartbeats.
“These stairs sure are creepy, huh?”
Hiyo was happy to see Io so unconfident. Joining up had been the former volunteer soldier’s choice. She didn’t even mind letting the woman’s hideous henchmen tag along. If being all alone made Io uneasy, then the girl was welcome to bring them. Hiyo had no intention of talking to anyone but Io, because there was no point in chatting with the girl’s disgusting goons. She’d chosen to let Io decide what to do with them, and they didn’t matter to Hiyo one bit beyond that.
Still, Hiyo had expected Io to challenge her when provoked, because she knew Io wanted information more than anything.
Io hadn’t been serving the master for long. And yet, he already seemed to value her over a long-time supporter like Hiyo. That said, Io’s knowledge of this tower was limited. She didn’t even know how this spiral staircase worked. There was a massive gap in the quality and amount of information available to the two of them. Io was no idiot. She had to have some suspicion that the master was just making it look like he valued her over Hiyo in order to win her trust. He had a silver tongue, after all, and was gifted at controlling people.
Additionally, Io had been one of the volunteer soldiers’ top priests, so Hiyo knew she’d have an inflated sense of self-worth. Io was used to having a bunch of worthless male orbiters tending to her every need, but she never opened her heart to any of them. Nor did she grant them access to her body.
Though she didn’t know it all, Hiyo had a great deal of information about something Io had forgotten—the woman’s past, which had been erased by the master’s secret drug.
The master had tasked Hiyo with gathering intel on all the volunteer soldiers. When she was bored, she had inquired into their activities on her own time as well. She wasn’t allowed to get close to any individual volunteer soldier without the master’s orders, but she had time to monitor them.
The railing of the spiral staircase came to an abrupt end.
Hiyo stopped and turned back. “We’re heeeere.”
Io looked at the spot with no railing and scowled. “I’m not seeing anything...”
“Funny, isn’t it? This tower is totally messed up. Did you know? A long, long time ago, they called it the stake.”
“The stake...”
“It’s been sticking out of the ground here since way, way, way back. Before Alterna, before even Damuro. When humans first arrived, the stake was already standing here.”
“How do you know that?”
“How long do you think Hiyo’s been in Grimgar?”
“I wouldn’t know... I mean, I’ve lost my memory. But you’re...older than me, right?”
“I see you’re watching your words. You’re so adorable when you’re by yourself, Io-san. I like it. Playing the cute little kitten suits you. Even if it is just an act.”
Hiyo extended her right hand out toward the break in the railing. She didn’t feel anything. There really was nothing there. And yet, Hiyo’s right hand seemed to be swallowed by the void. From the wrist down, and then the elbow down, Hiyo’s right arm was gradually vanishing.
“Wha...” Io’s pretty face twitched with distress. Oh, this was good fun.
“Come along, would you? It’s not dangerous,” Hiyo smiled and then hopped over to the other side.
Hiyo appeared in a spacious, dimly lit room. It wasn’t like passing through an invisible doorway. Rather, it was more along the lines of suddenly having been transported there, in the sense that Hiyo hadn’t entered at the edge of the room. No, she was more or less right in the center of it.
Io soon appeared behind Hiyo, her eyes widening as she quickly took in her surroundings and tensed up like a timid cat.
“Where are we?”
“Something like a warehouse, you might say.” Hiyo started walking.
The ceiling here was fairly high. It had to be seven, maybe eight meters up. The room was twenty-four or twenty-five meters wide, and close to twice that long. There were a number of round lamps emitting enough greenish light to let them see what was around their feet, but not so bright as to illuminate the entire room. Still, even at a glance, it was clear this place wasn’t totally empty.
The room was filled with a great many things in a wide variety of shapes and sizes, densely distributed all over the place.
Some were spherical, others cubic. Some were flat, some thick, and others more complex shapes. Some looked like furniture, others were obviously swords or armor, or seemed like they would make decent weapons. There were what appeared to be stationery supplies laid out on a table. There were containers, big and small. Both clay jars and glass bottles. Some were empty, while others were lidded, hiding whatever contents they might have held. There were bottles filled with liquids too. And sometimes that liquid had something floating suspended in it. Or things that had sunk to the bottom. There were shelves. Books too. And scrolls. Some of the objects looked like they would still run if you’d just plugged them in. A wireless radio. A TV. A telephone. Even Hiyo didn’t recognize some of the electronics. There were framed paintings. Statues and clay sculptures. Notably, all of these more special items were safely stored in their own particular areas, rather than being scattered at random.
There was a space in the center of the room with no objects, from which a grid of pathways spread out like the lines on a go board. Hiyo and Io started walking along one of those pathways.
Hiyo had seen the master bring things in here and had helped him do so herself too. She’d even come here alone to drop off some smaller items at his direction. The amount of stuff just kept growing. It was getting cramped in here, though there were other rooms in the stake. Hiyo knew of at least two that were empty, so they weren’t going to be running out of storage space any time in the immediate future.
The current situation being what it was, it would be difficult to go out and track down potential relics, or things that weren’t fit to be called relics but could be of otherworldly provenance. In other words, their problem for the time being was that they weren’t going to be able to fill up this room.
Or maybe the master had foreseen a situation like this?
“It’s all so mysterious...” Io murmured.
Hiyo sat down on a red couch she’d happened to be looking at. It was a bit dusty, but that was nothing she couldn’t put up with. According to the master, all the rooms in the stake, not just this one, were climate controlled, with systems to clean the air and maintain a constant temperature.
“Have a seat?” Hiyo suggested, patting the spot next to her.
Io hesitated a moment, but nodded and came over to join Hiyo.
“This couch...” Hiyo said, lying against its backrest and staring up at the ceiling. “It was a relic, you know. Master spent a long time studying it. It had the power to make the person sitting on it disappear, like a magician’s trick.”
“I could see you just fine, though.”
“It’s just a plain old couch now. Relics, they have this special energy in them called elixir. Although, I’m just repeating what I’ve heard from the master. Maybe he named it himself, or maybe he learned it from someone else. Hiyo couldn’t tell you one way or the other. I’ve been serving him for a long time, but it’s not like he tells me everything.”
“So, this couch...it lost its energy?”
“More like the master tore it out.”
“Your...master?”
“Oh, you silly girl. He’s your master too, isn’t he?”
“Oh, yeah. That’s what I decided, and I don’t think I made the wrong choice.” Io’s reply was instant, and it came with a smile. Whenever she tried to fake a smile, no matter how carefully crafted it was, her eyes would look dead, but right now they were sparkling. What a perfect grin.
“It was Master and Hiyo that stole your memories, though.”
“You had your reasons, right?”
“There are some things people are better off not knowing. The human race originally came from another world. Then they clobbered the elves and dwarves who’d already built civilizations here and claimed the fertile plains for themselves. We’re invaders, you know?”
“Our ancestors were, you mean?”
“I don’t know about that. But you and the people with you understand the language they use in Grimgar, right? You can even read their script. Well, it turns out that the humans were the ones who first brought writing to Grimgar. It started to spread after they appeared. If you think about it, the invaders were probably your ancestors, right?”
Hiyo looked down at Io’s right hand resting on the seat of the couch, then reached out with her left and placed it on top. For a moment, Io stiffened. But that was all. She didn’t try to bat Hiyo’s hand away.
“All sorts of things have happened. There’s a long history here. Like a group of barbarians trying to take over Alterna. Knowledge isn’t just a way for us to defend ourselves. It can be a weapon to hurt others, and a reason or motivation to do either.”
“You’ve...seen that kind of thing happen?”
“Well, I haven’t been watching as long as the master. I don’t look that old, do I? Though, just between us...” Hiyo tightened her grip on Io’s right hand. It was a pretty hand, not like one you’d expect from someone who used to be a coarse volunteer soldier. “I ought to be a shriveled old grandma by now, really. But I don’t look it, do I?”
“You don’t. Not at all.”
“That’s thanks to the master. It seems he’s planning something unbelievable—no, that’s not how I should say it... He’s come up with something that’s gonna be absolutely amazing. Something that’ll make all the rewards he’s given out to people like Hiyo who’ve had the honor of serving him look insignificant in comparison. Insignificant to him, that is. Not us. I think in every world with intelligent life, there must be people who wish to live longer or to fight off the effects of aging. Master won’t teach us about them, but it sounds like there’s plenty of relics that can do that kind of thing.”
“Which means I could receive the same benefits...” Io squeezed Hiyo’s hand in return. “If I keep showing my loyalty the way you have, that is.”
“If you want it, Io-san... And if the master sees a need for it, he might just do that for you, yes. Do you want to stay young and beautiful?”
“I’m beautiful?”
“Yes, I think you’re quite fetching.”
“I didn’t expect that.”
“That I’d give you a sincere compliment, you mean?”
“It doesn’t sound like you’re lying.”
“Because I mean it. Genuinely. Hiyo’s into girls, you know. Especially pretty ones like you.”
“So, you’re saying you want me?” Io’s eyes narrowed, her brow furrowing. The corners of her mouth turned up just a little.
Hiyo licked her lips. “This is how you work your magic on people, is it, Io-san?”
“What do you mean?” Io asked, betraying no emotion. Her hand, still gripping Hiyo’s, wasn’t tense at all. Io had played these games before, again and again, to manipulate men. Even with her memories gone, her skills hadn’t vanished entirely. “I’m just asking you. Do you want me? I couldn’t love someone disgusting, but you’re not so bad.”
“Even if I’m an old woman on the inside?”
“If you were a gross old granny, I’d stay away. But you don’t look like one.”
“You can’t seduce Hiyo, Io-san.”
“Oh, really?”
“Hiyo’s not what you really want, now is she?”
“What I...want?” For an instant, Io’s eyes lost focus. It looked like she’d been caught by surprise.
Men wanted Io. They desired her. The more they desired her, the more her value increased. Supply must never equal demand. If she always kept the supply of herself as limited as possible, demand would greatly outstrip it. When Hiyo had been observing Io, it had seemed as if the girl’s only goal was to preserve that imbalance. It probably was.
“What do you want, Io-san?” Hiyo pulled Io by the hand, drawing the girl a little closer to her. Io didn’t resist.
“Master told Hiyo she could show you this place. It’s a reward, basically. Even if everything here is just junk that’s been drained of elixir. There are other rooms filled with lots of treasure. Some that Hiyo can enter, and some reserved solely for the master.”
Hiyo gently rubbed her cheek against Io’s left shoulder. “If you do as he says, mayyybe you’ll get to go back to your original world one day. Not that it’ll be easy. I mean, even the master can’t do that yet. Still, that’s not the only reward he can offer. It’s impossible to reverse aging, as far as Hiyo can tell, but we can prevent it...”
Now Hiyo rested her head on Io’s right shoulder. Taking a breath, she adjusted her grip on the girl’s hand, firmly intertwining their fingers so their palms were pressed together. “You do as the master says, and you’ll want for nothing. The world outside is overrun by the sekaishu, but using the functions of the stake, we can still go out there. We can’t predict what will happen if we do use them, though, so the master is being cautious. It sounds like they’ve never gone this wild before.”
“So, what you’re saying is...‘Contribute more.’ Is that it?”
“No. You’ve got it wrong.”
“I do?”
“We have no choice but to serve the master. You know... Serve, and serve, and serve, and serve, and serve... Serve, and serve, and serve, and serve, and serve, and serve... We have to keep on serving him, endlessly.”
Hiyo could distinctly feel Io’s breath. It seemed to be a little hurried.
“Master has a grand ambition, you see. Even he doesn’t completely comprehend the stake, and he can’t make use of all of its functions.
Master wants to fully activate the stake. It’s why he gathers elixir. And Hiyo’s worked her butt off to do that for him.”
“And I’ll be doing the same, huh?” Io said to herself.
Her eyes were lowered slightly as she looked forward. Not that there was anything in front of her that she was looking at. She was just gazing absently. Even if something were there, it would have made little difference.
“But if I’ll be rewarded for my work, that’s not so bad. It’s better than nothing, at least.”
“Do...” Hiyo brought her lips to Io’s ear. “...you really think that?”
Io jolted and shuddered, looking sideways at Hiyo for an instant. The girl started to say something, but no words came out. Maybe she had thought better of it and stopped herself.
Hiyo planted a little kiss on Io’s forehead. It felt so soft and supple.
She wanted to just eat the girl right up. The jealousy was unbearable.
Even if the master’s gift had stopped Hiyo from aging, it was impossible to completely prevent the body’s degeneration. Every time she found a new wrinkle, every time one deepened, she felt a renewed sense of urgency. Sometimes she even started to panic. Touching her body didn’t feel like it once had. Even she could tell that. Her skin had been more supple a decade ago. And though her muscles hadn’t gained any mass, they felt harder.
And besides, mentally and emotionally, Hiyo was most definitely aging. The more she tried to appear young and vivacious, the more she realized how awkward and forced her act was.
However much she served, however much she sacrificed, she couldn’t stay young forever.
I’m not young anymore.
I’ll never get those years back.
Every second I spend is a second I no longer have.
I can extend my lifespan, but it’s still limited.
No, I’m not young anymore.
And it’s possible that I’ve been wasting what time I have. “Io-san, I...”
Hiyo whispered so close she was practically nibbling the girl’s ear.
 
 

“I’m you, decades from now. Do you want to be like me? I know more about the master and the stake than you do. Little by little, step by step, I served, and served, and served, and served, and served, and served as he fed me teeny-tiny little pieces of the puzzle one at a time as bait. Putting them together, I’ve gotten to the point where I can say that I have a broader, deeper knowledge of Grimgar than the volunteer soldiers, the Arabakians, the elves, dwarves, orcs, and even most of the undead. Do you want to be like me, Io-san? Well, whether you want to or not, it’s all up to the master anyway. If I ever anger him, ever make him think he doesn’t need me anymore, he’ll cut me loose in a second. You might just be my replacement. Or maybe that Alice kid. Or Shihoru. It’s all up to the master. Do you want to be like me, Io-san? What do you want? What do you think will happen when we fully activate the stake? Even when the time comes, I doubt the master will tell me. Because I’m just a slave. The master’s loyal slave. Hey, Io-san, do you want to be like me?”



0117A660. Song of the End, Echo Far and Wide
Hundreds, maybe thousands of pitch-black chariots tore across the land, leaving behind dark tracks that didn’t fade away. The grass of the Quickwind Plains that had long endured the harsh sun and the capricious gales so common to the area appeared to greet the invasion of the sekaishu with total indifference. The local beasts, however, had no such luxury.
Haruhiro and the party sometimes spotted an animal running in the distance. Not frequently. One, maybe two a day, at most. The birds were pretty much all gone. It was their sixth day on the Quickwind Plains, but neither Haruhiro nor Ranta had spotted a single bird flying in the sky. Occasionally, Yume or Itsukushima, whose eyes were much better, would point one out. That was how rare they’d become.
It was even hard to find animals that were usually common not just on the Quickwind Plains, but all across Grimgar, like round, fluffy, and thin-tailed chimos, or long-legged, rabbit-like pebies. According to Itsukushima, lizards and snakes were incredibly scarce too.
It couldn’t have been much more than a month ago that they had traveled north across these plains as they headed toward the Ironblood Kingdom. Everything had changed since then. It was like they were in a different world entirely. Haruhiro and the party were moving south now. There was no avoiding the sekaishu, spread out across the land like black veins. The group sometimes had to step over them to proceed. Or jump over them, in some cases. Whenever they were cut off by a sekaishu vein that was like a broad ribbon, or that had formed into a thick pipe like a dragon’s neck, they turned back just to be safe. So far, they had determined that the sekaishu wouldn’t attack in response to physical stimuli, but that didn’t rule out the possibility of danger.
Most sekaishu bodies appeared to be still, just staying where they were. However, they came across some that would shift around placidly. On a number of occasions, the group witnessed the stringlike forms twining themselves together to form something thicker. They also saw the remains of animals that had been half-swallowed by the sekaishu here and there.
It was best to keep their distance. Getting too close would be unwise.
The problem was that the sekaishu was everywhere.
The forms seemed to be crawling up from under the ground and were heading somewhere. The ones the party had seen in the Bordo Plains had been going east, likely toward the Kurogane Mountain Range and the Ironblood Kingdom. But it wasn’t like all the sekaishu forms were going there. Some seemed to be heading north, others south. And they couldn’t rule out the possibility that some were also traveling east or west too.
The Crown Mountains rose up ahead of the party. They took their name from the fact that their outline resembled a crown no matter what angle you viewed them from.
Alterna was one-hundred and fifty kilometers south and onehundred kilometers west of the Crown Mountains.
That was where the group was headed. Or so Haruhiro thought, but he wasn’t totally sure.
No, it had to be Alterna. They definitely needed to head back there first. That was what they had decided after talking it over multiple times.
His fever had receded, but his hands still ached. He’d decided not to talk about it. It wouldn’t have helped anyway. Wouldn’t have made them hurt any less. Honestly, he didn’t want to talk at all.
Conveniently, Itsukushima and Yume were focused on monitoring the area around them and charting their course, and Ranta was keeping quiet so as not to get in the way. As for Poochie the wolf dog, he wouldn’t bark if it wasn’t necessary.
Even when someone did say something, Haruhiro stayed silent. Yume had prodded him frequently until a couple days ago, but he had only responded that he was fine, so she’d eventually stopped. Each time, Ranta had told her she should leave him alone. He never would have been grateful to Ranta for it, but the dread knight was correct. Haruhiro wanted her to leave him be.
Everything felt like too much of a burden now. Every feeling, whether it was painful, difficult, or sad, weighed Haruhiro down. He needed to do something. He knew that, but could only conclude that anything he did would be in vain.
They walked, and they walked, and they walked, but they would probably never reach their destination.
Destination?
Did they even have one?
A goal?
A purpose?
Some hope for the future?
A destination?
A path?
He could tell that whatever direction his body was facing was
“forward,” and that was about all he understood at the moment.
That he was moving forward, maybe. Forward. Step by step. And by half-steps when a full one was too much for him. That was what he’d been doing all along. He had believed he’d been walking as best he could. And where had it gotten him?
This sad state of affairs.
Haruhiro didn’t want to think. But try as he might, he couldn’t stop.
Everyone tries to make the right choice for the situation they’re in. They don’t want to get it wrong. They don’t want to screw it up. They would want to benefit from it, if possible. And even if it’s completely impossible, it’s hard for them to accept losing something. Nobody would want to see that happen. If they had to be hurt, had to have something taken from them, they would want to keep their losses to a minimum. To be able to think, I might not have done the best I could have. But I tried. I did good.
It was all in vain.
In the end, it was like Haruhiro had been digging a hole. Little by little, he dug, and dug, and dug, piling up the dirt next to it. He had even felt proud when he looked down at the hole he’d gotten all sweaty making, or at the mound sitting beside it. It had felt like he’d been getting better at digging, and that pile of dirt sure had grown big. Wow. It was genuinely impressive. He really could do something if he set his mind to it.
And?
What about the hole?
What was it for?
Was it just a hole?
What had he been doing all this time? Digging a hole? That was it?
No, that’s not true, someone might say to console him if he talked about it. All sorts of things had happened since he first awoke in Grimgar. He’d met people. Said goodbye to them. He’d seen so much. There were things he’d accomplished, working together with his comrades, right? Maybe he couldn’t see it that way now, but each and every one of those moments must have had their own vibrant colors that made them shine. It wasn’t like digging a hole that served no purpose. It hadn’t all been for nothing. Even if, in the end, all that work went unrewarded, he shouldn’t have denied the value of the process. If he did that, it would be like saying that everyone was going to die eventually anyway, so there was no point in living, and being born at all was completely meaningless.
Well, yeah, it is, Haruhiro thought. Meaning wasn’t something that was just lying around. You had to find it. Even if all Haruhiro had been doing was digging a hole, if he could find meaning in the act of digging, then it wasn’t meaningless. Digging wasn’t all fun, but he’d had days when it had felt pretty satisfying. Haruhiro had seen meaning in those days.
Now, he was just empty.
No, the memories of the times when he’d enjoyed digging were now an actual torment.
If it was going to come to this, I never should have dug at all. If I was going to lose so much, I wish I’d never had anything, never wanted anything, to start with.
Time. What I need is time. That’s how it was with Manato, and with Moguzo, wasn’t it? I just need to tough it out for now.
And? How long do I need to endure? Can’t I end it? Is that so wrong? Says who?
Sorry.
Should I apologize to Yume and Ranta?
Sorry. I can’t do this anymore.
But that feels irresponsible. I don’t know if it’s okay for me to drop out now. I’ve still got the two of them. It’d be like running away. That’s cowardly.
But...still, you know? Ranta’s got Yume, and Yume’s got Ranta, right? And Yume’s got Itsukushima and Poochie too. What about me? Who do I have? What do I have?
Yeah, I know. I know how Yume and Ranta would feel if I ran out on them now. How it would hurt them. But still. Do I really have to try so hard for those two? Can’t I run away? It’s no big deal, right?
They don’t have to do anything special. Just leave me alone. If they’d just do that, I’d be fine. I’m not gonna do anything. I’ll just be here. Sitting. Then lying down, eventually. Once I lie down, I’m probably not getting back up.

Chapter end