Night Lady

Lumian was also stunned by the carriage drawn by "devils" and the reactions of the undead. He forgot to struggle for a moment, and the invisible giant palm pushed him along for another ten seconds or so before stopping.

Although the carriage was growing more distant, his eagle-like eyesight still allowed him to make out the woman aboard it.

Her long brown hair was piled high, her brown eyes beautiful and bright, and her pale eyebrows somewhat sparse. She wore a fresh green dress and a crown woven from flowers, exuding elegance and majesty.

Madame Pualis! Lumian's first instinct was to identify the woman aboard the carriage as the Administrator's wife, the Parish Priest's mistress.

But when he looked more closely, he noticed clear differences between the two. Not only were their bearings very different, but their appearances differed somewhat as well:

The woman aboard the carriage had softer, more mature features.

If Lumian had to make a comparison, he would have preferred to call her Madame Pualis's full sister, seven or eight years her senior.

At that moment, the woman sat upright in the open carriage drawn by "devils," surrounded by countless undead and death knights as she headed toward the distant mountain forests, as though conducting some wondrous procession.

Aurora withdrew her gaze and hurried toward Lumian, shouting as she ran:

"Let's get out of here while we can!"

Lumian snapped out of his daze. He waited until his sister caught up, then took long strides, pounding toward the nearest edge of the wilderness.

Before long, both of them felt as though they had passed through an illusory curtain or a thick layer of water.

The scene before their eyes changed accordingly:

The wilderness dissolved like foam. Clear river water, fresh grass along its banks, and green trees came into view all at once.

To Lumian and Aurora, the scene was so familiar that they reached a conclusion without needing to examine it:

They were still in the vicinity of Cordou Village!

This was where Ava Lizier often grazed her geese!

We're back... Neither disappointed nor surprised, Lumian looked around with a sense that this had happened just as expected.

Aurora caught her breath and said, "Whether Madame Pualis did that deliberately or by mistake, we can't return to the village now.

"Keep heading for Dalege!"

Lumian immediately suggested:

"Then let's go to the nearest pasture. There's a dangerous path down the mountain there. With our abilities, we should have no trouble."

"All right." Aurora turned and broke into a run.

Since she occasionally borrowed a pony from Madame Pualis to ride, she was thoroughly familiar with the highland pastures around Cordou Village.

Seeing this, Lumian kept pace beside his sister.

He felt both relief and fear over their recent encounter.

He had never imagined Madame Pualis could be so powerful, with so many undead, "devils," and death knights following her.

Of course, that might not have been Madame Pualis.

As they ran, Aurora began to slow. Her breathing grew heavier, the sounds in her throat increasingly pronounced.

"What's wrong?" Lumian still had plenty of stamina.

That was one of the improvements being a Hunter had brought him.

Aurora simply stopped and panted. "I'm exhausted. Casting those spells earlier took a lot out of me."

Without hesitation, Lumian said, "Then I'll carry you. I'm not tired yet."

With danger pressing and time running short, Aurora didn't stand on ceremony. She nodded, walked behind the crouching Lumian, and climbed onto his back.

Lumian first removed the brooch from his chest and returned it to his sister. Then he straightened up and took off running again.

"Is this a Mystical Item?" He still had the energy to ask questions.

Aurora paused, then chuckled. "Looks like you know quite a bit now.

"It is a Mystical Item. I call it the Brooch of Integrity. It can create holy sunlight or help me ignite materials to use a secret art against ghost-type creatures. But wearing it for too long puts you in a state of fanaticism, and as soon as you put it on, you lose certain inclinations. You know, immoral methods might work better in a fight, but it prevents you from using them."

Aurora paused, then asked solemnly, "Where did you get your Beyonder Characteristic?"

As Lumian ran, he answered in fits and starts:

"Didn't that Wands Card... let me stay... lucid in my dreams?"

"What Wands Card?" Aurora looked puzzled.

Oh, that happened in the previous loop... Lumian reorganized his explanation:

"At the old tavern... I met a mysterious lady... who gave me a Wands Card.

"With that card... I became lucid in my dreams... and entered a strange space.

"There... I encountered some monsters... and obtained... a Hunter Beyonder Characteristic."

"A Hunter..." Aurora was very familiar with this Sequence, which was common in Intis.

As she murmured to herself, she suddenly gave a quiet laugh, though he had no idea what had occurred to her.

What's so funny...? Lumian was baffled.

Aurora asked another question. "Then who gave you the formula? That mysterious lady?"

"Yes." Lumian nodded as he ran.

Aurora sighed. "My silly little brother has secrets of his own now... I have no way to confirm whether what you're saying is true, so I'll take your word for it."

Unable to bear disappointing his sister, Lumian hurriedly changed the subject:

"That person... in the carriage just now... was she Madame Pualis?"

"She looked very much like her, yet very different." Aurora's words contradicted each other.

She considered for a few seconds, then said, "Since you're already a Beyonder, I'll tell you directly. My companions-uh, those pen pals of mine-have mentioned a few things before.

"They said that over the past few years, strange phenomena similar to what we just saw have occurred several times in southern Loen, southern Intis, and the Kingdom of Feynapotter. There was likewise a lady riding in a carriage drawn by devils-well, creatures suspected to be devils-through the wilderness and mountains, with many undead following the carriage across the mountains. Some Beyonders who knew the relevant secret arts would take the opportunity to have their spirits leave their bodies and follow the carriage for a while. This apparently gave them some sort of wondrous experience and a certain amount of mystical knowledge.

"One of my companions obtained the notes of one such Beyonder. They mentioned that the lady was called the Night Lady. Through the experience of following the carriage on its procession, the owner of the notes obtained a recipe for a secret potion, one that could use an infant's corpse to make an invisibility potion.

"Investigations found that the ladies in similar phenomena in different places weren't the same person, but these events all occurred late at night."

Lumian said in astonishment, "But right now... it's daytime."

Could the abnormalities in Cordou Village have caused a change?

"That's why I can't be sure." Aurora recalled what she had seen. "Perhaps sending Naroka to the Otherworld made things different. Perhaps that wilderness was the Otherworld, and the Night Ladies travel through it during the day, appearing in human society at night. Hmm, considering how much that lady resembled Pualis, I lean toward the first guess."

Lumian knew nothing about this area of mysticism, but his intuition told him his sister's suspicions were correct.

He ran silently for another stretch before finally asking, unable to hold back, "Why did you... try to sacrifice yourself... to save me? I'd rather... you were a little more selfish."

"I am very selfish," Aurora said with a smile. "I did consider abandoning you and escaping alone, then avenging you once I became stronger. But after thinking it through, I realized that even if I gave you the Brooch of Integrity and taught you how to use it, you wouldn't be able to draw the vast majority of the undead to you and give me a chance to escape. Only I, as a Warlock, could do that.

"Between both of us dying and at least you surviving, I don't need to tell you which I'd choose, do I?"

Making that choice couldn't have been as easy as you're making it sound now... Lumian could accept it rationally, but not emotionally.

He said glumly, "I'd rather... we died together."

"If you died, who would avenge me? Who would revive me? In the world of mysticism, anything is possible!" Aurora began lecturing her brother. "That's why I deliberately said something sentimental at the end. Only then would you remember it forever and not forget to work toward reviving me."

That's true... Lumian gradually began to agree with his sister's choice.

After another stretch of running, the nearest highland pasture came into view, and Lumian, carrying Aurora on his back, was clearly beginning to feel tired.

He didn't stop to rest. Summoning his remaining strength, he charged all the way up the grassy slope in one go.

There were several livestock pens and shelters here. The former were enclosed with stones and branches, their floors made of packed earth and flattened dung. At one end was a narrow exit that could accommodate only one sheep at a time. The shelters resembled primitive tents:

First, stones were piled into a low wall, leaving openings for a door and a smoke vent. A row of latticework was then built against the wall, its lower half buried in the earth and its upper end supporting a wooden frame. A roof of grass and mud covered that frame.

This was where the shepherds lived, in very harsh conditions.

Lumian set Aurora down and led her to the other side of the slope.

The dangerous path lay hidden below.

Looking at the path, which could only be reached by jumping down a seven- or eight-meter cliff, Aurora said to Lumian, "Although you can climb now, let's not waste time. I'll fly you straight down."

"All right." Lumian wanted to see what changes leaving Cordou Village would bring.

Aurora gripped Lumian's arm with one hand and scattered silver dust with the other.

Both of them floated into the air and slowly flew down the cliff.

While still in midair, Lumian suddenly felt a pain in his head, as though someone had struck him hard with a hammer.

Aurora reacted similarly.

Lumian's vision rapidly darkened, and he felt everything shatter into fragments.

Lumian abruptly sat up and saw the familiar wooden desk, chair, bookshelf, and wardrobe.

Am I back at the very beginning again...? Lost in thought, he got out of bed and went downstairs. As expected, he found Aurora wearing her light blue dress and preparing dinner.

"Aurora, what's the date today?" Lumian asked tentatively.

Aurora glared at him:

"Call me big sister!

"Did you sleep yourself stupid? It's the 29th."