“Hey, Fremy,” Adlet prompted.
“What?”
“I saved your butt, so maybe you could give me a thank-you?”
“There’s no reason for me to do that,” Fremy said coldly. Adlet shrugged.
Then Nashetania whispered to him so as not to be overheard. “Adlet.”
“What is it?” he asked, but the only reply she gave him was a cold look. “I’m sorry for abandoning you,” he said. “But I had no choice. It’s her fault for running away.” Nashetania’s eyes grew even colder as she glared at him. Adlet cringed.
“It seems you’ve gotten quite close to her in just a day,” she commented.
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
Nashetania put a hand to her mouth and smiled at him mischievously. What made it different this time was the genuine spite lurking in her eyes. “I was wondering why you would defend her. But now I see. So that’s how things are, hmm? Indeed, she is quite a beautiful woman, after all. I really am envious.”
“Hey…”
“Yes, yes, I understand very well indeed. Men are so very fond of women of that ilk, the type to inspire their protective instincts.”
“Listen, Nashetania…”
“Yes, yes, I hope you two get along quite splendidly. Hmph.” After heaping sarcasm on Adlet, Nashetania moved away from him.
“…Are you seriously a princess?” he wondered.
“I am often asked that, but yes, I am,” said Nashetania, and then she turned the other way.
What the hell? Adlet couldn’t help but silently wonder.
A heavy silence hung over the four of them. Fremy continued to completely ignore the rest. Goldof was eyeing Adlet as if quite grumpy about the other man talking to Nashetania. Just thinking about the atmosphere being like this the whole way until they met Mora put a cloud over Adlet’s head. And for that matter, why was this Goldof guy scowling at him? He decided to try initiating a conversation.
“Hey. With all that kerfuffle, I wasn’t able to introduce myself properly, but it was good to meet you. I’m the strongest man in the world, Adlet Mayer.”
“Okay.” There was clear disgust in Goldof’s tone.
“I hear you were chasing after the Brave-killer…after Fremy.”
“That’s right.”
“I get that you’re not really happy about this, but just bear with it for now. At the very least, until we know more about what’s going on,” said Adlet.
“What are you talking about?” scoffed Goldof. “All I do is follow the princess’s orders.”
That’s odd, thought Adlet. It seems he’s not angry about Fremy. So then, why does he hate me? “I’m sorry about what I did at the tournament,” Adlet said. “I injured your commanding officer. I’ve been wanting to apologize for that.”
“It’s not really something you need to apologize for.”
It sounds like that’s not the reason, either. So then, why? As Adlet mused, Goldof spoke to him—at a whisper, so as not to let Nashetania hear.
“Adlet…how did you butter up the princess?” he asked.
With that one line, it all made sense. Adlet looked at Nashetania and back at Goldof. Well, then. “What? You’re worried about me being close to the princess?”
“I—I’m not worried about that…,” he stammered.
“Relax, it’s not what you think. If you worry yourself over stupid stuff like that, she’s just gonna make fun of you.”
Goldof choked. “What are you talking about? Don’t be stupid.”
Now this was an easy guy to understand. Goldof apparently just didn’t like that Adlet was friends with Nashetania. He didn’t look like it, but he was still just around sixteen and merely a kid on the inside. “Do your best and protect the princess,” said Adlet. “I talked about a lot of stuff with her on the road. She really seems to rely on you. You’re the only one who can protect her.”
“Of course. Just me.”
Spouting such blatant flattery set Adlet’s teeth on edge, but Goldof’s bad mood had apparently abated somewhat. His predictability would save Adlet trouble. Goldof was nothing like Fremy and Nashetania.
“There’re no enemies coming to us, though, huh?” Goldof muttered.
Yeah, he’s right, thought Adlet. It was too peaceful. Why were they able to continue this silly conversation even as they were coming upon the Howling Vilelands, where the demons lurked? Adlet was finding the peace more and more ominous.
That was when Fremy, who’d been silent the whole time, spoke. “This is strange.” When the three of them turned, Fremy was facing back, looking up at the sky. “There have been flying fiends circling in the sky behind us for a while now.”
Adlet pulled a spyglass from his chest pocket and looked in the direction Fremy had indicated. She was right—a few birdlike creatures were circling in the air.
“There aren’t many of them. It can’t be anything much,” said Nashetania.
“Isn’t that direction…?” Adlet eyeballed the distance of the demons and compared his visual measurements to his mental map. “This is bad. That’s where the temple of the Phantasmal Barrier is.”
Tension simmered among them. According to what Private Loren had said, the barrier was made so that fiends couldn’t come near it, but even so, the situation was cause for concern. Adlet turned to Fremy. “Can you hit them from here?”
“It would be difficult. We have to get closer,” she replied.
“They just dropped something,” Goldof muttered. When Adlet looked, it seemed as if the fiends were spitting something from their mouths. Moments later, there was a thunderous roar and rising smoke.
“Adlet, what on earth was that?” asked Nashetania.
“Bombs. The fiends are dropping bombs on the temple,” he said.
“Bombs? That’s ridiculous!”
Adlet was surprised, too. Some fiends possessed intelligence, but he couldn’t imagine they had the skill or raw materials necessary to make explosives.
Nashetania looked at Fremy and said, “You’re the Saint of Gunpowder, aren’t you? This isn’t your doing, is it?”
“I don’t know anything about it,” Fremy insisted.
“Let’s just go!” said Adlet.
The four of them ran back the way they’d come. If they ran as fast as they could, it would take about fifteen minutes to get there. But after about five minutes at a sprint, they encountered a line of fiends standing across the path, blocking their way. They’d seen no
