Chapter 34
The road east did not lead toward safety.
Mai realized that before the sun had fully risen.
The path was narrow, overgrown, and marked by old wagon ruts half-filled with rainwater. Thorny bushes crowded both sides, their branches reaching across the road like skeletal hands. The trees gradually thinned behind them, but the open land ahead offered little comfort. Without the forest’s cover, they would be easier to see.
That was exactly what Miss Aiko wanted to avoid.
“Stay off the road,” she said, guiding them toward the shallow ditch beside it. “The collector knew where we were before we saw him. If he has scouts in the area, we should assume the main route is being watched.”
Puss glanced toward the road. “And if the ditch is full of monsters?”
“Then we deal with the monsters.”
“That was not the reassuring answer.”
“It was the honest one.”
Mai followed behind them, keeping one hand near the crest beneath her clothes. The silver line crossing its centre had not faded since the resonance event. It remained faintly visible through her clothing, glowing whenever she became frightened or excited.
At the moment, it was doing both.
She kept thinking about the red space.
The strange symbols.
The memories.
Yuuno sitting in the classroom while Miss Aiko lectured about an ancient war. Okama standing with a sword in his hand. Puss as a cruel-looking girl pushing books from Mai’s desk.
That last memory bothered her most.
She knew Puss had been someone before becoming a cat. She knew the girl’s memories were damaged and incomplete. But seeing that image had created a cold knot in Mai’s stomach.
Puss had been the bully.
The realization had not fully formed when the memory flashed by, but now it kept returning. A girl with dark hair. Narrow eyes. A cruel smile. Mai’s books scattering across the classroom floor.
She had seen that girl before.
Not in this world.
On Earth.
“Mai?”
She looked up.
Okama had slowed until he was walking beside her. His expression was serious, though he was trying not to make it obvious that he had been watching her.
“You’re quiet,” he said.
“I’m always quiet.”
“Not like this.”
Mai looked ahead. Miss Aiko and Puss were several steps in front of them, apparently arguing about whether the road counted as a road if no one used it anymore.
“I saw something when we were inside the resonance,” Mai said.
Okama’s expression tightened. “About Puss?”
Mai stopped walking.
He stopped too.
“You saw it as well?”
“Not clearly.” He glanced toward the catgirl’s back. “Enough to know it was important.”
Mai lowered her voice. “I think she used to be someone from our class.”
“She is.”
“You’re sure?”
“No.” Okama looked down at his hand, where the crest glowed faintly beneath his sleeve. “But the classroom memory wasn’t random. The system connected the four of us. It showed us pieces of our old lives. That means Puss probably wasn’t just assigned to Mai by chance.”
Mai swallowed.
“You think she was one of us.”
“I think we should assume she was until proven otherwise.”
That was exactly what Mai had been afraid of.
She looked toward Puss. The catgirl was walking with her arms folded, tail swaying irritably behind her. She complained about the mud, the cold, the road, and the fact that no one had asked whether she wanted to be involved in another mysterious magical journey.
She did not look like the girl from the memory.
That was the problem.
The memory had shown someone cruel and confident. Puss was confused, defensive, and frightened beneath all her irritation. She had protected Mai during the fight. She had risked being left outside the resonance circle to reach them.
Could the same person have done both?
“Should we tell her?” Mai asked.
“Not yet.”
Mai looked at him sharply. “Why not?”
“Because we don’t know enough. If we’re wrong, we could hurt her. If we’re right, she may not be ready to hear it.”
Mai frowned. “That sounds like an excuse.”
“It is a cautious approach.”
“It sounds like an excuse said in a serious voice.”
Okama’s mouth twitched.
For a moment, the tension between them eased.
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Then a low horn sounded in the distance.
Everyone froze.
The sound came from somewhere beyond the open fields ahead. It was deeper than the horns they had heard during the night, and it lasted long enough to vibrate faintly through the ground.
Puss’s ears flattened.
“That is not a normal horn,” she said.
Miss Aiko raised her staff. “No. It is a military signal.”
Another horn answered from farther east.
Then a third.
Okama stepped off the path and crouched near the ditch. He pressed two fingers against the damp soil, his expression becoming distant.
“What are you doing?” Mai whispered.
“Listening.”
“To the ground?”
“To the mana.”
Mai could not feel what he was sensing, but she saw the crest on his arm brighten. Thin red lines spread outward from the ring, forming a geometric pattern beneath his skin.
He opened his eyes.
“There are people ahead,” he said. “A lot of them.”
“How many?” Miss Aiko asked.
“Difficult to tell. At least several hundred. The mana is unstable, like a large-scale spell is being prepared.”
Puss’s tail puffed out. “An army?”
“Maybe,” Okama replied.
Miss Aiko studied the eastern horizon. The sky there had begun to darken, though the morning was still young. It was not cloud cover. Red light flickered beneath the distant haze.
“Another battle,” she murmured.
Mai’s stomach tightened. “Do we go around?”
“We need information and supplies,” Miss Aiko said. “If there is an army ahead, there may also be a town, fortress, or military camp nearby. We cannot keep travelling blindly.”
Puss raised a hand. “I would like to vote for travelling blindly in the opposite direction.”
“Vote noted,” Miss Aiko said. “Overruled.”
They left the ditch and moved toward a low ridge overlooking the fields. The grass was wet with dew, brushing against Mai’s boots as they climbed. Once they reached the top, the source of the horns became clear.
A fortified town occupied the valley below.
Its walls were made from pale stone reinforced with metal bands. Watchtowers stood at each corner, their roofs capped with blue crystals. Several gates had been closed, and thousands of people crowded the roads outside them.
Some carried weapons.
Others dragged carts.
A few were wounded.
Smoke rose from the eastern edge of the valley, where a line of black-armoured soldiers stood facing a mass of creatures gathered beyond a shallow river.
Mai stared.
“What are those?”
The creatures were too far away to identify individually, but their silhouettes were unmistakable. Some were tall and thin, carrying long weapons. Others were hunched and broad. Several rode large beasts with glowing eyes.
A red banner flapped above them.
The same jagged crown symbol appeared on its surface.
Mai’s heart sank.
“Redcaps,” Okama said.
Miss Aiko’s expression hardened. “The Blood Crown’s army?”
“Possibly,” Okama replied. “But the force is too large to be the group from the western cliffs. There are several thousand signatures.”
Mai looked at the fortified town. “They’re attacking it?”
The answer came from below.
A massive spell erupted beside the river.
Red light surged upward, forming a towering wall of flame. The black-armoured soldiers raised shields in response, and a blue barrier spread across the town’s outer field. The two forces collided with a sound like thunder.
The shockwave reached the ridge a few seconds later.
Mai stumbled.
Okama caught her elbow before she fell.
“Stay low,” he said.
“I’m fine.”
“You keep saying that.”
“Because you keep asking.”
He did not let go immediately.
Mai noticed.
So did he.
His fingers loosened, but neither of them moved away as quickly as they should have.
Puss gave them an exaggerated cough from several steps away.
Mai pulled her arm back. “What?”
“Nothing,” Puss said, looking far too pleased with herself. “I’m simply enjoying the battlefield.”
Miss Aiko ignored them both.
“The town is under attack,” she said. “We should determine whether the attackers are targeting civilians or the fortress itself.”
“Does that change what we do?” Mai asked.
“It changes how much danger we face if we intervene.”
Okama looked toward the town. “The defenders are losing the eastern wall.”
Mai followed his gaze.
He was right.
A section of the outer barrier had begun to flicker. Red flames pressed against it from the opposite side, burning holes through the blue light. The soldiers were retreating toward the gate, dragging wounded comrades with them.
Beyond the barrier, several redcaps had crossed the river.
They were moving toward the town.
“People are trapped outside,” Mai said.
Miss Aiko’s expression became grim. “Yes.”
“We can help them.”
“We can also be captured, killed, or identified by anyone watching the battle.”
Mai stared at her. “You’re saying we should leave?”
“I’m saying that courage and recklessness are not the same thing.”
Okama looked between them.
Then he pointed toward the town’s western wall.
“There’s another problem.”
A group of civilians was trying to reach the gate from the opposite side of the battlefield. The road was blocked by a collapsed wagon and a burning section of the outer barrier. Children and elderly people were trapped between the flames and the advancing redcaps.
The soldiers on the wall were too far away to reach them.
Mai’s crest flared.
Not from fear.
From certainty.
“We have to help,” she said.
Miss Aiko closed her eyes briefly.
When she opened them, she looked toward the trapped civilians, then at the redcaps closing in.
“All right,” she said. “We help them. Quickly, quietly, and without trying to win the entire battle.”
Puss raised both hands. “I would like it officially recorded that I warned everyone.”
“No one is keeping records of your warnings,” Okama said.
“I am.”
Miss Aiko pointed toward the western approach. “Mai, stay with me. We’ll create a path through the fire. Okama, secure the civilians and block pursuit. Puss—”
“I can handle myself.”
“I was going to say support Okama.”
Puss lowered her claws slightly. “Fine.”
They descended the ridge at a run.
The battle grew louder with every step.
Spells tore through the air overhead. The ground shook beneath their feet. Redcaps screamed from beyond the river while the town’s defenders answered with volleys of arrows and magic.
Mai kept low as they crossed the open field.
A burst of red fire struck the ground nearby, throwing dirt across her clothes. Miss Aiko raised a barrier before the second blast could reach them. Ice spread across the earth, forming a curved shield that deflected the flames toward the sky.
“Keep moving!” Miss Aiko shouted.
They reached the collapsed wagon.
The civilians huddled behind it, terrified. A woman held two children close while an older man tried to push the burning wood away from the path.
“Stay down!” Mai called.
A redcap vaulted over the wreckage.
Okama intercepted it.
His sword flashed once, striking the creature’s weapon aside. The redcap swung again, but Okama raised his hand and formed a glowing holographic barrier between them.
The redcap slammed into it.
Okama’s fingers moved.
[[Stability: reinforced]]
The barrier thickened.
A second redcap charged from the side.
Puss appeared behind it.
She struck the creature’s back with one clawed hand, and a dark pulse spread through its body. The redcap staggered as its movements slowed. Puss followed with another burst, forcing it to collapse onto one knee.
“Move!” she shouted to the civilians.
The woman grabbed the children and ran.
Mai lifted her staff.
“Miss Aiko, the fire is spreading!”
“I see it.”
The teacher thrust her staff forward.
A wave of frost rolled across the burning wreckage. Flames vanished beneath a thick shell of ice, leaving a clear path toward the western gate.
The civilians hurried through.
One child tripped.
Mai rushed forward and caught them before they hit the ground.
“You’re safe,” she said.
The child stared at the glowing crest beneath Mai’s collar and began to cry harder.
Mai pulled them close.
Behind her, a roar shook the field.
The redcaps had broken through the outer barrier.
Hundreds of them poured into the town’s western quarter.
Miss Aiko’s expression changed.
“Everyone move,” she said. “Now.”
Okama stepped beside her, sword raised.
“There are too many.”
Mai looked toward the town gate.
The civilians were still running.
The defenders were retreating.
The redcaps were advancing.
Then her crest began to glow.
The silver line across its centre brightened until it became almost white.
A system window appeared in front of her.
[[Temporary link available]]
[[Group resonance detected]]
[[Collective Skill activation possible]]
Mai stared at the message.
“What does that mean?”
Okama’s crest flared in response.
His Coded Hologram appeared without him raising his hand.
Miss Aiko’s staff began to shine with pale blue light.
Puss’s claws darkened, shadow curling around her fingers.
The four of them looked at one another.
No one spoke.
They already understood.
The system was offering them a choice.
Not to flee.
Not this time.
Mai tightened her grip on her staff.
“Can we use it?”
Miss Aiko looked at the approaching redcaps.
“I don’t know.”
Okama raised his sword.
“Then we find out.”
The four crests connected.
Red and silver light spread across the battlefield.
And for the first time, the world recognized them as a group.