The group traveled a long way farther between the desert and the hills.
At last, on a peaceful evening, when a streak of golden-red afterglow set the distant, low ridgelines ablaze, Vigel suddenly stopped.
He raised the astrolabe he had polished countless times, narrowed his eyes at it for a while, then said quietly:
"...We're here."
Flugel looked up and followed his gaze.
At first, he saw nothing-only a horizon bleached white by windblown sand, and a few dead trees growing crookedly beside the road.
But when he narrowed his eyes and looked again, a gentle glow, like the gathered lamplight spilling from countless windows, was slowly rising from the distant plain at the edge of the horizon. Those myriad lights were their destination.
"Kararagi City."
Farsale stood behind him, his voice carrying an indescribable lightness, as though he had finally reached the end of some journey,
"-We've arrived."
The wind in Kararagi was sweet. It was not the sweetness of flowers or fruit, but more like warmth from somewhere far away, mingled with the scent of sea salt and rice. Brushing against their faces, it made them narrow their eyes involuntarily.
It was completely different from the vast wilderness and deserts before.
Flugel stood at the entrance to a market beneath a windmill, holding the half pie Farsale had given him, staring blankly at the bustling scene before him.
An unbroken stretch of wooden shacks lined both sides of the street, colorful cloth banners hanging beneath their eaves, covered in crooked writing in the common tongue.
People in all kinds of clothing-merchants, travelers, street performers, children running around in short, practical clothes-packed the entire street. The mingled smells of grilled fish, spices, and damp earth drifted through the air.
"This... is Kararagi?"
"A border market, to be precise."
Farsale stood beside him, smiling as he looked around,
"Kararagi isn't one city. It's an entire union of cities governed by merchants. No shared city walls, no emperor-only money and contracts."
"I hear its founder is quick-witted, and could certainly be called a legendary hero-he built a flourishing city that ranks among the four great nations on a stretch of wasteland, and once took a city without bloodshed during the demi-human war in Banan. Such remarkable methods! And I hear he even had a sage helping him behind the scenes."
"So I've come here to see whether I might have the chance to learn a thing or two from this legendary figure."
"Sounds like a place for swindlers."
Vigel followed behind, muttering under his breath, though his eyes darted across the stalls laden with goods, as if assessing the value of every item.
"-A place where newcomers like you can get settled."
Farsale added with a smile,
"Besides, there are no flying dragons here."
"Well then, my young friends, let us part here for now. I'm heading to the city's council hall to visit this legendary figure."
"See you, small fry. Don't go dying again in a minute."
"Who says that when they're saying goodbye...?"
Flugel replied awkwardly.
"Forget it. Just ignore him."
Without looking back, Vigel squeezed through the crowd toward a fruit stall ahead and waved,
"Stop staring and come on. Whether we find somewhere to stay tonight depends on these few coins in our pockets-"
The sharp sound of shattering porcelain interrupted him.
It came from the corner ahead. While Flugel was still trying to pinpoint its source, a figure had already stumbled out of the alley-a slender silver-haired girl, clutching a clay jar with a chipped corner, water still dripping from its bottom.
Before she could steady herself, a merchant seized her fair wrist.
"Stop! You little thief! That's from a batch of high-quality pottery I just got in!"
"I didn't mean to! It slid off the shelf by itself-"
The girl's voice was urgent and clear, like a startled bird taking flight.
"Slid off? I saw you pick it up, look at it, and stuff it into your arms-and you've obviously already broken it! How else would it have ended up in your hands? You're buying it today, or you're not going anywhere!"
"I really only wanted to look at the color! It slipped off by itself!"
Flugel stood three paces away, initially giving them only a casual glance.
But as the girl stumbled and turned under the merchant's grip, her face entered his vision without warning.
Her long silver hair looked like shattered moonlight beneath the sun, every strand catching a golden gleam.
There was dirt and dust on her face, her lips were pressed tight, and her violet-blue eyes shone so brightly they were almost impossible to look straight into-that brightness was exactly like the first lamp being lit at a night market.
Like someone who had just made up their mind, unsure whether they could manage it, but already moving forward.
He froze. Time stretched in that instant, and the noisy voices around him, Vigel's muttering, and the distant creaking of the windmill all seemed to have been erased.
All he saw was the girl tensing her shoulders hard the moment the merchant grabbed her, yet biting her lip without crying-
And for some reason, Flugel suddenly felt that if she did not smile, this world was not good enough.
He did not know how long he stared at her. Perhaps only a few seconds, perhaps longer.
He only knew that when the merchant yanked hard on her wrist, he found he had already started moving and was striding toward her.
Those steps were not a decision he had thought through-it was more as if his body had moved ahead of his mind, as though something had sounded softly deep inside his chest, and then his legs no longer obeyed reason.
He had to go over.
Had to stand in front of her.
Had to make her unclench those hands gripping the hem of her clothes.
He strode forward, pushing Vigel behind him as he went, and stepped between the silver-haired girl and the merchant.
"Sir-wait, wait! Stop! Quit pulling her!"
He whipped out the money pouch Vigel had given him. It held all the savings they had scraped together by living frugally along the way, and now he emptied every coin onto the stall with a clatter,
"I'll buy the jar she was looking at! If there's enough left over, wrap up another two for me-here, keep the change!"
The merchant's furious expression changed in an instant at the sight of the coins, swiftly replaced by a smile.
"Oh, my! What a generous customer you are! Certainly, certainly! Take all these goods! Miss-hee-hee, here you go-"
Only after the merchant had left happily did the silver-haired girl straighten from the position in which she had nearly been pulled off her feet. Holding an old clay jar with a broken rim, she looked at Flugel and Vigel with some embarrassment and confusion.
"Thank you... Why did you help me?"
Her voice softened a little, her fingers tightening slightly around the jar's rim,
"Um, I, I really wasn't trying to steal anything. It slipped off by itself... But I really didn't bring any money. I was going to put it down once I'd finished looking-"
"It's fine, it's fine! No big deal!"
Flugel grinned, trying to strike the dashing pose of a seasoned veteran,
"I don't have many good points, but I can't stand seeing anyone bully a beautiful girl-that guy was obviously forcing you to buy it..."
"But your money..."
"It's all right-our companions are meeting with whoever runs this place. They can come over in a bit and teach that blind, lawbreaking merchant a lesson..."
In truth, he had no idea whether Farsale and Reid had met that so-called "legendary figure," but it was enough if his words sounded convincing.
"Hey! Flugel, what you just pulled out... That was my money! My money! You're fucking using my money to pick up girls! Do you have any conscience at all?!"
An angry Vigel caught up and thumped Flugel hard on the back, then smiled at the girl and introduced himself,
"My name is Vigel. I'm traveling with this fellow."
Then he swung another punch. Only then did the aching Flugel stop grinning foolishly and begin introducing himself.
"Hello, I, I'm-"
Flugel finally managed to speak, then discovered his voice was much hoarser than he had imagined, and hurriedly cleared his throat,
"My name is Flugel-uh-we're, we're travelers who came here together from Vollachia..."
"I'm Satella."
She tilted her head and raised her eyes to look straight at him-the way she studied people was like a flower that had spent a long time gazing alone at the moon at night.
Her gaze lingered on his face for a moment, and the corners of her lips curved slightly, as if something had amused her,
"Thank you both. You really helped me out back there."
Her silvery voice rang out, and at last, a smile of anticipation and joy appeared on her face.
Flugel felt as though he could barely stay on his feet.
His mind raced frantically, trying to find something good enough, clever enough, natural enough to say in response to that smile.
But the more anxious he grew, the more his thoughts resembled a ball of yarn tangled by a cat, with no end to be found.
He opened his mouth, closed it, then opened it again. What finally escaped was:
"Your eyes-"
"They're violet-blue. There isn't anything dirty on them, though, is there...?"
She answered casually, the corners of her lips curving a little more,
"Is that what you wanted to ask?"
He turned to stone. Behind him, Vigel let out an extremely restrained, muffled laugh that he could barely contain.
Just then, a man leaning on a cane emerged from the crowd.
He wore a shabby gray robe, his dark red hair tied in a braid that hung beside his shoulder. His amber eyes looked very deep in the sunlight.
He walked over to Satella, glanced at the broken jar in her hands, then at Flugel and Vigel, and spoke in a voice like the kindly greeting of an elder:
"Are you all right, Satella? What happened? And these two are...?"
"Hello, mister. We're travelers from Vollachia."
Vigel spoke first.
"These two kind gentlemen helped me out with a merchant who was forcing me to buy something... Hoshin, you have trouble walking. You really should rest more."
"I know, I know. Isn't this just a little rehabilitation exercise? Sorry for making you look after me again, Satella."
"It's all right. This is hardly anything-actually, shouldn't you be at the council hall right now, Hoshin? Echidna said there were several merchant delegations from other countries you needed to receive..."
"Well, you know how Echidna thinks. She knows far too much. This time, she sent me here to find some people she called... 'those outside fate and those bound by fate.' I also came to confiscate the property of a merchant operating illegally."
Hoshin sighed, then turned to Flugel and Vigel,
"Thank you both for helping her out. My name is Alec Hoshin. In name, I'm one of this city's builders... Though really, I relied more on everyone else's efforts."
"Why are you saying that again, Hoshin! Don't keep erasing your own achievements. Without your courage, Echidna and I couldn't possibly have done it alone, so be a little more positive!"
Satella spoke to him with a slightly sulky expression, her puffed cheeks faintly flushed.
"Oh, Hoshin, that merchant just now..."
"Operating without a license and forcing sales, and this newcomer even bribed the gate guards to sneak in-those crimes are enough to put him behind bars. Soldiers already dragged the criminal away just now."
As Hoshin spoke, he pointed to one side, where soldiers were dragging the merchant along the ground, his trousers already soaked with fright.
"Of course, your money will be returned twofold, my young friends. Thank you for helping Satella..."
Flugel was just about to speak when a white-haired woman hurried over from behind the crowd as well.
She had a young, exquisitely beautiful face, and pale purple eyes that seemed to contain countless layers of paper window coverings, each concealing something different.
Before she had even stopped walking, she spoke:
"Since Hoshin has found you two, please come away with us at once!"
"Has something happened, Echidna? You look so flustered. What could make even you...?"
Satella asked with concern, worried that this wise woman, who almost always remained rational, should act in such a panic.
After stopping, Echidna first looked at the jar in Satella's hands, then at the money pouch Vigel had yet to put away. Finally, her gaze settled on Flugel.
"You're the 'person from another world'?"
Her voice was neither questioning nor curious. It was more like a casual confirmation while crossing an item off a list.
"How did you kno-"
"I've been observing you ever since the moment you stepped across Kararagi's border... I noticed your stars as well. I know a little about such things."
As she spoke, she glanced at Vigel,
"Your stargazing friend should be able to feel it too-the paths of the stars over this region have shifted recently."
Vigel's brow furrowed:
"You mean...?"
"I mean-"
Echidna's gaze swept over everyone,
"An aura of death that should not have existed is descending now... Someone is tracking me, or rather, hunting me, the Witch of Greed. I simply didn't expect them to come so quickly..."
"Echidna..."
"So I need your help. You two must have other companions, so please bring everyone and return to the council hall with me immediately-"
"We do have two other companions, but those two already left ahead of us, saying they were going to meet the city's builder... If there really is danger, we should hurry too..."
Just as those words ended, heavy footsteps came from the end of the street. They were very slow, each step sounding as though it landed in wet mud, yet carrying a pressure that sent chills down their backs.
Echidna's expression changed at that moment.
Without further explanation, she abruptly turned and seized the wrist of Satella, who was closest to her.
"Come with me."
For the first time, a rare urgency entered her voice,
"Hurry."
She pulled everyone into an unremarkable wooden house beside the street, a temporary hiding place she had purchased in advance. The instant the wooden door shut, the footsteps outside happened to pass by.
Heavy, shuffling sounds, as though treading on something wet, slowly moved past the door.
No one spoke. Only when the sound gradually receded did Echidna release the hand she had kept clasped around Satella's and say quietly:
"...He didn't stop. But he knows we're here."
Something indescribable seemed to drift through the air, like a smell carried from very, very far away, something resembling old cotton cloth mixed with rust.
Flugel suddenly shuddered.
The smell was faint, yet it reminded him of that corner in the valley where he seemed to have encountered that figure in a tattered robe.
Before he could speak up to warn them, Vigel, who was closest to the window, realized it first-
"Someone's coming."
His voice was tense.
Then came a muffled crash, as though something had struck it, and the wooden door, together with half the wall, buckled inward, splintered, and collapsed.
Wood chips and dust filled the air, choking them and making it impossible to keep their eyes open.
Standing beside the window, Vigel was thrown to the floor by the shock wave. The astrolabe slipped from his hand and rolled into a corner.
Flugel was knocked to the ground by the shock wave, the back of his head striking the corner of a table, and his vision instantly blurred.
But he still saw it-in that space of mingling dust and darkness, a slender figure was slowly stepping through the shattered wall.
It was a languid boy with dull, tawny-brown short hair and beautiful, feminine features, wearing a tattered dark robe. His entire figure looked like an outline that had stepped out of some old watercolor painting, already mostly faded.
He actually looked like-
"A disgusting clown."
"Found you-"
The voice seemed to come from somewhere impossibly deep and distant, carrying an indescribable weariness.
"The all-knowing, all-powerful... Witch... is right here."
"Get back! El Fura!"
Echidna's magic was faster than his voice.
Two blue-white beams burst from her hands at once, joining the silver blades of light Satella sent in from the flank and cutting through the swirling dust.
It was a combined, full-power strike from the two of them, powerful enough to shatter an entire city wall.
Flugel saw that light. But before it touched the Melancholy Fiend, it seemed to hit an invisible wall. First, its edges began to warp, then an invisible pressure exploded from the center-the beams were crushed back upon themselves, dissolving into countless tiny motes of light in the air.
The Melancholy Fiend raised his right hand. The motion was not fast, yet it carried an inescapable sense of oppression-as though that attack would find you no matter which way you ran. It had no physical form, yet weighed like an immense weight.
"Gravity..."
Echidna's body abruptly bowed, as though something heavy had pressed down on her from above.
Her knees struck the floor with a dull thud, followed immediately by the sharp crack of breaking ribs.
She did not even manage to scream.
Her body was crushed down by that pressure, like a book slammed shut.
A muffled, scalp-prickling crunch came from the floor. Dark red liquid slowly seeped out beneath her, spreading along the gaps between the floorboards like a dark flower slowly blooming.
"Echidna!"
Flugel wanted to shout her name too, but his throat felt as though it had been filled with sand, and he could not make a sound.
He saw Satella lifted into the air by that invisible force, her body trembling violently in midair as though an unseen hand had seized her throat.
Her feet dangled, her lips slightly parted, but all she could produce were broken, breathy sounds, as though struggling on the verge of suffocation.
"Satella!"
Unable to bear the sight, he spat out the blood in his mouth and finally managed to cry out.
Flugel lunged toward her like a madman, trying to pull her free, only to be struck head-on by another invisible impact and sent flying backward, slamming into the corner of the table.
Flugel felt some invisible force pressing his limbs into the floor, his bones giving off alarming creaks under that pressure.
He struggled to move, even if only to twitch a finger, but that force was heavier than anything he had ever endured.
Agony exploded from his left shoulder, instantly blurring his vision, but he still struggled to get up-he saw that Hoshin had already raised that unassuming cane and charged forward. Some hidden patterns seemed to be glowing on its bronze shaft.
"-Let her go!"
Hoshin's voice was urgent and low. He had specifically learned some self-defense magic from Echidna and Satella, hoping to be of more help to everyone.
"To begin with, I was just a useless old man nobody cared about. If Satella hadn't saved me, and Echidna hadn't taught me so much, how could I have taken on the mission of building Kararagi City? A useless man who should have died long ago..."
He slammed the cane into the heart of that darkness, only for it to feel as though he had struck a mass of sludge-half the shaft sank into it before some invisible force pushed it back, the shock driving him three or four steps backward.
But his attack did have an effect-Satella's body slipped down as though a rope had been loosened, and she landed on the floor, gulping for air.
"Interesting."
The voice seemed to shift slightly in pitch.
"You still have the strength to resist. Then-how about this?"
Darkness suddenly spread outward-like a vast blanket shaken open, instantly covering the entire room.
Then the Melancholy Fiend tilted his head slightly, as though correcting an imperfect angle-Satella's body was violently hurled against the wall, the back of her head striking the stone bricks with a teeth-grating sound.
Her body slid down the wall, her silver hair dragging a long, thin streak of blood across its dark red surface.
Flugel felt something tightening around him from every direction, like invisible nooses strangling his limbs and neck.
He struggled to turn his head and saw Vigel pinned motionless to the wall, the astrolabe in his hand broken in half.
Hoshin was sent flying backward, knocking over the table and the scrolls upon it, and never got up again.
Echidna, the clown's first target, had long since been crushed into a meat patty, her internal organs scattered across the floor and blood spreading everywhere.
And Satella-
Satella lay faceup on the floor, her violet-blue eyes wide open. Something churned in the depths of her pupils, surging like a tide and struggling like a trapped beast.
Her mouth was open, as though she were shouting something, but no sound came out.
Beside her, Flugel, who was closest to her, reached toward her with all his strength-
He reached toward her with all his strength-his fingertips almost touched hers.
Just a little short.
The pads of his fingers could even feel the gradually cooling surface of her skin.
Just a little farther, and he could have held her hand.
But the next second, that dark shadow seemed to finally lose patience and abruptly contracted toward the center-
His vision was engulfed by a blinding red, and the sound of the world shattering filled his ears, then abruptly ceased at some instant.