Chapter 2
Part 2
When I awoke, I was lying down. I could feel my back pressed against a rocky surface. Somewhere nearby was the sound of water dripping. My mind followed that sound as the water splashed against stone.
(....a cave...?)
On the edge of my dim vision, I noticed an indistinct figure that made every nerve in my body go wild. I tried to stand, but couldn't put any strength into my legs. It must have been because of the Mana Burst I used earlier. With how difficult it was to absorb the mana in the atmosphere in that frozen forest, I had entirely exhausted the Od present in my body, so naturally I was feeling the consequences of that now.
Even so, I still had the energy to shout my enemy's name. "Hephaestion!"
The Macedonian warrior was crouched down in front of a small fire. As if she hadn't noticed me calling out to her, she casually threw another stick on the fire. "Looks like you're awake," she said, eyes still locked on the fire before her.
Checking myself briefly, I was completely dry. Someone must have cleaned the snow off of me while I was unconscious. Naturally even I could figure out who that was.
"Why did you help me?"
"Because you're a warrior," Hephaestion answered, staring deep into the flames. Short and sharp. She gave me the same words she had the first time we met.
"It would be unacceptable for you to die in an accident like that. A warrior should die on the battlefield. I have no intention of hurting you here, so don't worry."
She spoke as if it was obvious. It was like she had been asked a simple addition question. In an era where a single moment's hesitation could spell your own death, perhaps that simple and straightforward way of thinking was valuable. Despite my nervous anxiety, she made no move to attack me.
Slowly, I rose to a seated position. Catching my breath, I forced my brain to work. If I had just collapsed due to the exhaustion of my Od, then I probably hadn't been unconscious for that long. Probably a few dozen minutes at most. I had no idea how far the train had gone. Would it be possible to catch up to it? Even if I couldn't, how could I let everyone know I was okay? I couldn't help but feel anxious.
My mind raced around in circles. My blood was terribly cold, and I couldn't stop myself from sweating uncomfortably.
(If my master was here, then...)
Even if it was Flat or Svin, it would be so much easier. I wondered how Caules was doing on the train. Melvin had been the last one to make it back, so I wondered if he was okay too. And I wondered how my master's condition was.
But no matter how much I thought about these things, it wouldn't help. Rather than think of what others would do, I had to figure out what I could do in this situation. I was the one in this mess, so I had to think what the best course of action was for myself.
(But what can I do...?)
I glanced at the soldier by the fire. Even with her just sitting staring at the flames, her presence was suffocating. I wondered if all Heroic Spirits were like that, or if she was special. At any rate, there was one thing I wanted to get from her...
After thinking long and hard, I chose my words carefully.
"...what is your connection to the Heroic Spirit my master summoned?" I didn't say the name Iskandar. I was afraid to say it out loud. For a short while, the only thing that answered my nervous question was my own voice echoing back at me. Once that echo died down, the Heroic Spirit finally answered.
"Of all the things to ask," she replied with a grunt. "What was our connection? How were we connected? Yes, it's a question I got often. To think even in this situation I'd get asked that." Hephaestion shrugged with a smile. Her expression seemed somehow happy as the fire threw shadows across her face. That was my guess, though I didn't have much experience in reading people with how few friends I had. Narrowing her eyes, she spoke slowly, as if speaking to the darkness of the cave itself. "Originally, I was told to watch over him by the mother."
"The mother?" I was taken a bit aback by the sudden introduction of a new character. Perhaps asking about her past life meant that names of people I didn't know would come up, but I hadn't expected it to be anyone's mother. After asking about Iskandar, the man who had come closest to conquering the entire world in human history, I hadn't expected the story to start there.
"Hmph. With the way I followed him from battlefield to battlefield, many people mistook me as his lover. That caused me no shortage of problems. But with the way he bellowed about the blessings of Zeus and with how hairy he became, there was nothing left of his old cuteness by the end."
"...I see."
I didn't know why, but I found those words strangely relieving. It was like the feeling of a rolling stone coming to rest in the place it belonged, a kind of meaningless feeling.
But the Heroic Spirit continued. "But there was really no king like him," she said, voice heated. As if she drew them from the flames in front of her, Hephaestion's words were intense. It was as if the person she was speaking to had turned into those flames. Burning since more than two thousand years ago, an unquenchable flame in the form of a person. A will of fire.
"The great expedition, the invasion of Egypt, the battle against Darius III, the war in the Indian Jungle...all of these things made his heart dance. Even when crossing the Ganges, his excitement didn't abate in the slightest. Even when he had collapsed due to illness, he drove us endlessly to pursue that sea at the edge of the world. How intense had those words been? How much had they shone to us? How much did they torture us? Even the sun's heat was as nothing before them. Like those words were boiling each cell of our bodies, they drove us to run ever forward. As we screamed from that pain, we covered thousands of miles. Burning as brightly as we could, even when his flame was extinguished, we never turned back."
Even now it seemed like the fire in Hephaestion's heart was growing. It felt like it was enough to incinerate everything in this tiny cave. It was enough to fill this cramped space with the memory of great armies long past. And then she spoke with an intensity far greater than that heat.
"I was his closest friend. I won't let anyone deny that."
And yet I wanted to. Whether directly or indirectly, I had heard my master speak of that Heroic Spirit numerous times. Those gentle yet distant words, as if he was calling out to someone in the far distance, had been locked up like treasure in my heart. But the emotion that charged his words was entirely different than Hephaestion's. It was the same thing I had felt when she first met my master the night before. The same emotion that had repudiated my master, trampling him down with no room for argument. It felt like her words weren't aimed at anyone in particular. Not at all. To put it in words, it was like she was talking about an absolute concept. Like a believer speaking of their god...
Was that the truth of it? If the king stood as a symbol for the people to pile their envy on, perhaps it was normal for his subordinates to worship him like that. I felt that was close. If I said that was it, most people would likely agree with me. But somehow, I felt a small, prickling sense of unease. A sensation in the middle of my chest that I just couldn't ignore.
"But, you..." The feeling made itself into a question. I remembered the dream that I saw. It wasn't reality, but an even greater truth, a distorted fragment beyond what i could imagine on my own. The figure of a woman, standing at the edge of the world, voice trembling as she shouted at the endless sea before her.
Answer me, Iskandar...!
"...why were you alone, condemning Iskandar?"
It was almost like I could physically feel the silence overtake the cavern. A heavy pressure covered the cave. A powerful feeling I couldn't put words to erupted from her, punching straight through my heart. It felt like my heart and lungs were suddenly in a vice.
"Umm...Hephaestion...?"
"What did you see?" Her voice reminded me of a snake. The voice that squeezed itself out of her throat was terribly cold. Her twin-coloured eyes were locked on me, shining as if to deny any effort I might have made to evade the question. The moment I realized what was happening, before I could avert my eyes, she gave me an order with those Mystic Eyes.
"Answer me. What did you see?"
A Noble Colour of Compulsion.
"...in my dream...you were..." The magical energy in those eyes forced my mouth to move, and I spoke. "...a distant sea...you were alone...and you asked...is this what you wanted?...why didn't you let this go?..." With no regard to my will, those words spilled out. Unlike the time on the roof of the train, I didn't have Add in my hands to help purge her magical energy from my circuits. "And you said....'Answer me, Iskandar'..."
After saying that much, I was finally released from the curse. Her instructions had been fulfilled.
"I should have noticed. You're something like a priestess. You're pretty susceptible to possession." Hephaestion spoke, her voice like ice scraping against iron. A weaker person might have given up on life just hearing that. The enmity dripping from the depths of her voice was that venemous. "But I said I wouldn't hurt you. A warrior of Macedonia would never go back on their word."
As she spoke, Hephaestion slowly stood up. She turned away. The sound of her leather boots on the stone floor of the cave sounded like a blade. The scent of something like flint filled the air.
"Once you can move, leave. Though I don't know if you'll be able to catch that train."
With that, she left the cave behind. It took almost a minute before I felt the pressure on me relax. Forcing my still trembling body still, after a few more minutes, I managed to push myself to my feet. As much as I wanted to rest, there was no way I could reunite with my master if I did that. When I made my way out of the cave, I noticed the landscape had changed completely. As if the landscape of snow and ice had been a lie, it had been entirely replaced with the dense forest from before. Though the sun was still high in the sky, only a dim light reached through to the forest floor, and there was no way to tell which direction the Rail Zeppelin had gone.
"What do I do now...?" I mumbled to myself, clenching a hand in front of my chest. As I did, my fingers brushed against something inside my cloak.
********************
"We made it through..."
The conductor sighed softly from the control room of the train. For those who knew him, seeing such a brazen display of relief from him would have been a shock. He had dedicated his entire existence to making the train run like a well oiled machine. "I had feared there was a chance it was the main body of Ainnash itself, but I suppose that was an absurd fear..."
"Thank goodness," the auctioneer gave a small nod.
The main body of Ainnash was a being on the same level as their own master. They would have had no choice but to put their lives on the line in defense of the Rail Zeppelin. For those of them left behind, that was their only mission.
After a while, like a tree leaving its roots, the conductor stood up. "Though it has put us behind schedule, let us wait for our other guests."
Normally, their usual customers would have sent a familiar by now. Even if they weren't able to place a winning bid, the information of what Mystic Eyes went to who was vital for those living in the world of magi. But they had only just broke free from the Child of Ainnash. It was hard to say whether even half of the regular customers would show up.
Perhaps having guessed the situation, the auctioneer nodded. "Apparently there is also one guest who has yet to return from the Child of Ainnash."
"If there was only one casualty, we should be thankful. Whether to that which they believe in, or something else," the conductor spoke in a dignified tone. That was the conclusion of the one responsible for running the Rail Zeppelin.
Originally Posted by Crown
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