Editing Unlimited Fafnir:Volume 4 Chapter 3 (section)

===Part 3===

Before long, the Principality's police gathered and the surroundings became slightly noisy.

Shinomiya-sensei and Prince Alfred explained what happened on our behalf. Exhausted from battle, we were driven back to the castle by Helen-san.

In the car, Firill was still crying nonstop. Lisa was hugging her against her chest, caressing her head gently.

Ariella was sitting in the opposite seat, staring at Firill with a pained expression. Kili was looking out the window blankly.

Feeling responsible, Mitsuki had her head down without saying a word. Iris, Tia and Ren were looking at everyone worriedly.

I found myself unable to think of any comforting words and could only listen to Firill sobbing.

After reaching the palace, Firill told Lisa "...I'm fine now, thank you" and went back to her own room.

"Impossible... How could she be fine?"

Lisa murmured with a regretful look, but perhaps she decided it would be best to let Firill have some quiet time to herself, Lisa did not chase after her.

"Then I'm returning to my room..."

Kili's room was located separately from ours. After saying that in a feeble voice, she left too.

"......"

Staring at Kili while she left, Mitsuki looked like she wanted to say something, but in the end, she entered her own room silently.

"Goodnight, Mononobe."

Iris smiled weakly at me and greeted me goodnight, then opened her room door.

"Yeah, 'night."

I said goodnight to her and returned to my room, laying myself on the bed directly.

Firill's sobbing and Kili's dry laughter kept circling in my mind.

—Not enough to make you go all-out?

Kili's words still lingered in my ear.

"Damn it..."

Tormented by regret and a bit of guilt, I fell asleep as though fainting.



—Knock knock.

Perhaps because my body was still in combat mode, even though I was exhausted, my consciousness rapidly awakened after I heard quiet knocking at the door.

I checked the time on my portable terminal. It was just after midnight. We had returned to the palace at 8pm, so that meant roughly four hours of sleep.

"...Who is it?"

I sat my heavy body up and projected my voice at the door. Despite lingering fatigue, at least the headache from transmutation was gone now.

"—It's me, Ariella. Can I... take a bit of your time?"

"Ariella? Sure... I'm opening the door now."

Despite feeling troubled by the unexpected visitor, I got off the bed and walked to the entrance. Since Midgard's dorms were usually unlocked, I actually forgot to lock my door last night and tonight.

"Good evening—Thanks for having me."

As soon as I opened the door, Ariella swiftly entered without waiting for my response.

"H-Hey."

"Mononobe-kun, come this way."

Ariella pulled my hand and took me to the window. Opening the window, one could reach the balcony outside and view the courtyard scenery.

"What the heck is going on?"

"Look over there."

Ignoring my troubled feelings, Ariella pointed outside the window.

I looked in the direction indicated and found a figure kneeling near the courtyard fountain.

"Is that... Firill?"

I looked closely to discover it was Firill in her formal dress.

"Yes, I was looking out the window by chance and saw—That's why I came to let you know."

"Let me know... Why me?"

"I want you to go over to her."

Hearing Ariella say that as though it were so easy, I frowned.

"In that case—Isn't Lisa a better choice than me?"

In the end, I had accomplished nothing. I could neither protect King Albert nor think of any words to comfort the crying Firill. All I did was watch.

"Firill was putting on a brave face in front of Lisa when we returned to the palace. To her, Lisa is probably her best friend but not someone to seek help and rely on."

"Even if that's true, why me—"

"Intuition, I guess. After seeing what happened in this country, I feel that you're the best choice."

Ariella replied with a cheerful smile. However, I could sense from her expression that she seemed to be forcing herself.

"Did you think of going yourself?"

"If I go, we'll just be licking each other's wounds. Even though I can empathize, I can't shoulder her pain and sorrow."

Ariella answered bitterly, looking at me with eyes glinting from tears.

"—Me too, my loved ones' souls were eaten by Hraesvelgr."

"What..."

"I mentioned a bit to you during the daytime. I grew up in an unstable Middle Eastern country. Many people died whenever large-scale conflicts occurred. And every time, Hraesvelgr would arrive to gorge itself on souls to its heart's content."

Looking up at the night sky through the window, Ariella continued:

"Although some call it a messenger to transport souls to heaven, I think it's simply feeding, that's all."

Ariella touched the window frame and moved her fingers along it. In a voice of suppressed emotions, she said:

"But Hraesvelgr doesn't kill people directly. My loved ones lost their lives because they got caught in a terrorist attack. But even so... I still can't forgive Hraesvelgr for taking their souls away in the end."

Saying that, Ariella scratched the window glass with her nails, looking like she was about to burst into tears, she stared at Firill who was kneeling in the courtyard.

"Because if we're forced to confront the fact that the souls are no longer, what exactly are we supposed to pray to? It's extremely despairing to know that talking to the dead is meaningless."

"Ariella..."

"That's why you should go to Firill. Words that cannot be conveyed to the dead can only be confided to the living."

Ariella smiled sorrowfully then took my hand and led me out of the room.

"Then I'm counting on you, Mononobe-kun."

Ariella gave my shoulder a pat then was about to return to her room.

"Ariella, are you okay?"

But I was worried about her too, so I asked her from behind just as she was leaving.

"Oh. Yeah, don't worry about me. Because it happened long ago. It's way in the past. To me, the hardship after that was much worse."

"After that?"

"Basically the time after losing everyone I could rely on, but before coming to Midgard. I'll be very happy if you care about me and you're willing to listen to my story when we have time in the future."

Ariella showed a bit of vulnerability in her eyes while she spoke.

"Yes, I promise you."
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"—Thank you, Mononobe-kun, you're so nice."

Ariella blushed happily and thanked me. Her expression moved me.

The path she had trodden in life so far seemed full of hardship I could not imagine.

If only I could help her somehow...

With such thoughts, I made my way to Firill.

Walking down the stairs, I found a door leading to the courtyard and opened it.

Instantly, cold wind of the night blew, forcing me to shiver. Staying here for extended periods would catch a cold.

Anyway, I went for the fountain in order to bring Firill back indoors.

The center of the fountain was decorated with a bronze statue of a girl playing with birds. Perhaps because it was late at night, the fountain's water was not flowing.

I saw Firill kneeling next to the fountain, her shoulders trembling.

Since she did not react even when my footsteps approached, I took off my suit jacket, the one I had worn at the banquet, and draped it over Firill's shoulders.

"It's very cold here, let's go inside."

"...Mononobe-kun?"

Firill looked up to stare at me with eyes red from crying.

"I know you are very sad, but you're going to catch a cold at this rate."

I placed my hand on her shoulder and spoke but she shook her head.

"I don't care."

"Firill..."

Just as I hesitated, wondering what I should do, Firill asked me quietly.

"This fountain's statue, what does it look like to you?"

"Huh? It looks like a girl playing with birds..."

Despite feeling perplexed, I answered with what I saw.

"Let me tell you... This is me. Apparently after I went to Midgard, Grandfather ordered it made. Fufu, not much of a resemblance, right?"

Firill spoke in a hoarse voice and smiled stiffly.

"No—now that you mention it, there is a resemblance. Although it's much younger than your current look, I can still tell vaguely."

"Really? I still think it looks like someone else. However, what I'm curious about is... Is this how I look in Grandfather's eyes?"

Firill silently stared at the image of herself in her grandfather's eyes.

"But... There's no way to confirm now. Whether questions, farewells or thanks—Nothing is possible now. Until the very end, I did nothing more than enjoy Grandfather's protection."

With intense chagrin in her voice, Firill lowered her head again.

"Being protected isn't a bad thing, right?"

Saying that, I put more force in my hand on her shoulder.

"Huh...?"

"I'm sure in deciding to protect his granddaughter, he didn't need any reasons or calculations. He protected just because he wanted to protect. Until the very end, even as a soul, he still acted according to these feelings. Were I in his shoes, I'd definitely have no regrets."

Firill glanced sideways at my face then exhaled lightly. The white breath scattered in the wind.

"I think putting it that way... has nothing to do with my wish."

"Yeah, you're right if you take the extreme view. But so-called protection, in a certain sense, is a one-sided action to begin with. It's there regardless of the receiver's wishes."

"That's way too sad, never considering... the feelings of the one who is protected."

"Maybe, but there are people who only know how to protect in that way."

While saying this, I felt a stabbing pain in the depths of my heart.

I was probably like that. To protect Mitsuki and Iris, I had paid a terrible price.

That was self-satisfaction ''without caring about the other side''. The result of that was I had deceived Mitsuki and hurt Iris.

"Mononobe-kun, you're terrible. If Grandfather is satisfied... Then my crying becomes selfish crying only for myself, leaving me no choice but to stop crying."

"No, crying for yourself is nothing bad. It's just that—You should do it somewhere warmer."

In as gentle a tone as possible, I urged her to go indoors.

"...Got it, then I'll cry somewhere slightly warmer."

Firill nodded but she hugged me directly.

"What!? F-Firill?"

"If it's in your embrace, Mononobe-kun, with this kind of warmth... I guess I'm allowed to cry?"

Firill had her arms wrapped around my waist, her forehead against my chest.

Things happened too suddenly, surprising me. The sensation of a soft bulge shook my mind. But the sight of her trembling shoulders restored calmness in my heart.

"—Yeah."

I gave her an affirmative answer and placed my hand on her head.

While I was combing her sleek hair with my fingers, she wept silently.

Earlier, when the principal was stroking my head, I felt embarrassment and pleasure—The feelings back then were like I was being acknowledged, being accepted.

Hence, I wanted to reassure Firill too, so I gently stroked her head continuously.

My shoulders felt cold because I had lent my jacket to Firill but due to hugging her, my front side was very warm.

Feeling the night wind against me like this, I listened to her quiet sobs.

After a while, the sobbing stopped. Rubbing her eyes, Firill looked up.

"Mononobe-kun... The tip of your nose is red."

"Yeah, because it's quite chilly. On the other hand, your eyes are very red."

"Then that makes us a pair, right?"

"I guess."

"Fufu—"

Firill smiled and separated from me.

"Thank you, I've calmed down a bit. It'd be bad if you caught a cold, Mononobe-kun, so let's return."

Firill held my hand with her cold fingers and walked towards the palace.

However—

"...!"

She suddenly made a pained expression and held her hand against the vicinity of her left shoulder.

"What's wrong?"
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"I don't know, it suddenly feels scorching—"

Firill pulled her dress away from her shoulder to check out the location of the symptom. I panicked at the faint glimpse of her chest but I stopped shifting my gaze away when I heard her go "eh..."

Firill's dragon mark was on her left shoulder. Its edges had turned slightly yellow.

"Don't tell me..."

Unable to believe the sight before my eyes, I groaned hoarsely.

Just at that moment, a sinister voice arrived, carried by the night wind.

"I guessed this would happen."

Kili emerged from the shadows under neatly trimmed trees.

"How long have you been there..."

"I just arrived. I saw you two flirting from the window. Curious, I came over to have a look."

"We weren't flirting."

"Now isn't the time to get hung up on that part, right? I believe the color change of her dragon mark is the most important right now."

I knew without needing her to point that out, but I just needed a bit of time to calm down.

"This phenomenon means that Firill has caught the dragon's eye?"

Looking at the partial color change of Firill's dragon mark, I asked Kili.

"Yes, that's exactly it. And since it's the same color as mine, Hraesvelgr is the one targeting her. Hraesvelgr probably found its suitable mate, the real one, not an imitation like me, and it happened earlier at that place."

Kili answered with a heavy tone of self-deprecation.

"What do mean by an imitation, Kili? Weren't you targeted by Hraesvelgr too?"

"My dragon mark was forcibly modified to match Hraesvelgr's wavelength."

"Modified? Don't tell me—"

That was something possible only for Kili's creator, Vritra. But I could not bring that up in front of Firill, so I stopped mid-sentence.

"Yes, it's basically what you imagine. Hence, I'm an imitation, in all sorts of ways."

Kili spoke mockingly.

"Kili..."

"Don't look at me with those eyes. The one you should pity currently should be her, whom Hraesvelgr has chosen as a mate, right?"

Kili keenly noticed the shred of pity in my heart and pointed impatiently at Firill.

"Mate... huh? Then Hraesvelgr will still—"

"Once her dragon mark changes color completely, it should come again. In Tia's case, the dragon mark took around ten hours to change color completely. Then after that, Basilisk began to move. I'm guessing that she cannot be made a mate unless the dragon mark finishes changing in color."

"Ten hours..."

The color change was already in progress so the time limit might be even shorter.

If it started from the encounter earlier, there was only six hours or so remaining in the worst case.

Hraesvelgr flew away despite getting interested in Firill, probably because the preparations for Firill to become its mate had not finished.

Speaking of which, it was the same for Iris too. Between her initial report of symptoms and when Leviathan started to invade, there was a time gap.

"I've been chosen by Hraesvelgr—"

Firill was staring at her dragon mark in shock.

"Okay, what will you do? Have a rematch against an opponent that you lost helplessly against? Or..."

Kili stared coldly at me.

"...Anyway, I have to report this to Shinomiya-sensei and Mitsuki first. Then we'll talk about what's next."

Without thinking about the worst option, I accompanied the two of them back into the palace.

We first went to find Shinomiya-sensei but it looked like she was not back yet, so I knocked on Mitsuki's door.

"—Coming. Eh? Nii-san? With Firill-san and Kili-san? It seems like something happened?"

Seeing our unusual vibes, Mitsuki showed a solemn expression and invited us into her room. She was probably in the middle of work. I could see various documents in progress on her tablet's screen on a table in the room.

Mitsuki was dressed in her usual uniform. I guess wearing these clothes probably felt more calming.

"Firill's dragon mark has changed color."

After this opening line, I explained the current situation including what I had heard from Kili.

Firill returned my jacket and showed Mitsuki her dragon mark whose edges had started to change color.

"...I see now. That explains why—"

Mitsuki spoke with a grim expression.

"Explains what?"

"Shinomiya-sensei informed me that Hraesvelgr was still flying in the Principality's outskirts. Due to that, air traffic has been blocked off completely."

"In other words, escaping is impossible right from the start... And reinforcements cannot come either."

In any case, I did not think Midgard or NIFL could make it in time even if they started mobilizing now.

"Right, so we have to handle it here."

Mitsuki answered gravely but Kili spoke up in response.

"Clearly nothing works no matter what you do. May I ask how exactly do you intend to handle it?"

"Indeed, our attacks cannot even harm Hraesvelgr, but that battle was not completely fruitless for us. I happen to be in the middle of organizing the report and I have also added my own analysis to the content."

Mitsuki moved over to the tablet at the table then continued:

"There are two noteworthy phenomena. My antimatter projectile did not react with Hraesvelgr at all... And the fact that what appeared to be the manifestation of King Albert's soul was able to touch Hraesvelgr."

Mitsuki raised two fingers and displayed a photo of Hraesvelgr on the screen. Since this was inside the castle hall, it was probably taken by Shinomiya-sensei.

I thought back and agreed. Shielding Firill behind him, King Albert had interfered with Hraesvelgr. Before that, all our attacks were futile no matter how powerful, yet he succeeded in smacking away Hraesvelgr's beak, attracting its attention and stopping the monster's attack.

"Antimatter did not cause an annihilation reaction, which means that... The composition of Hraesvelgr's body is something that cannot be defined as matter. And the so-called soul is precisely a concept that does not exist in physical laws. While searching for a hypothesis capable of explaining these phenomena, I found one that matched."

Saying that, Mitsuki switched the information shown on the screen.

It was a paper titled "Unidentified Mediating Particle for Causing the Manifestation of Souls" with the author's name being... Miyazawa Kenya.

"According to this hypothesis, Hraesvelgr's ability is to produce mediating particles to manifest the spirit—defined as 'ether wind.' Since spirit bodies, which use mediating particles to obtain tangible form, do not follow the rules of this world, all kinds of interference will not work."

Mitsuki turned the pages and continued to explain. It sounded like the same hypothesis as the one I heard from Ariella.

"It looks like Hraesvelgr, whose appearance is a golden bird, is the manifestation of a spirit body. That is why our attacks do not work yet King Albert is able to touch it, seeing as both are spirit bodies."

At this point, Mitsuki turned her gaze away from the screen and looked at her hands.

"Back when we were engulfed by golden particles, the reason why we were unable to move was probably because we possess material bodies."

"What do you mean?"

Unable to link those phenomena together, I tilted my head in puzzlement.

"Because our spirit is inside the flesh, one could speculate that even if the spirit manifests, it is still in a state sealed inside the body."

"In other words... There's no way to interfere with Hraesvelgr unless the spirit leaves the body to become a purely spiritual existence?"

"Indeed, according to this theory. However, you can also say that we are protected by our bodies. If we fought as spirits, we would surely have ended up like King Albert—"

Perhaps in consideration of Firill, Mitsuki stopped mid-sentence.

Indeed, a human with only a soul would just be food for Hraesvelgr. Predator and prey—the gap was too large between them.

"What is this? So the result is still no solution."

Kili sighed in exasperation.

"Well... Indeed, there is no concrete plan at the moment. But as long as there is a hypothesis, it should be possible to take countermeasures."

Mitsuki glared at Kili and retorted.

But at this moment, Firill, who had been silent all along, spoke up.

"That hypothesis—Ariella mentioned... It was not recognized because there's no way to apply it."

"F-Firill-san... But—"

Mitsuki was at a loss for words but still wanted to argue. However, Firill cut her off.

"I am prepared."

Clenching her fist, despite trembling shoulders, she was about to voice the worst option.

"If there's no solution, I'll—"

"Hold on!"

I yelled acutely and grabbed Firill's shoulders.

"At least I still have a method I haven't tried yet and Mitsuki might come up with an effective battle plan next, so don't jump to conclusions so hastily."

I persuade her in a strong tone of voice. Firill answered with trembling lips.

"This verbal reassurance—"

"It's not verbal reassurance. I'm speaking the truth. There are other possibilities, so I won't give up."

After declaring that clearly, I turned to face Mitsuki.

"This is similar to the Leviathan situation. The same goes for you, Mitsuki, don't give up until the very end. Even if you can't think of a single plan, I'll still find a solution."

"Nii-san..."

Mitsuki's eyes wavered, showing uneasiness.

Meanwhile, Kili watched us as though she had something to say.