Inside the Breathing Tree, the village of the fairies.
Aerialde.
We teleported there through Liliran.
“I’m sorry. Given the situation, I couldn’t come to save you.”
Liliran guided us to a house where a human-sized person could rest.
She kept apologizing to us as we walked.
“I’m just glad you’re safe.”
We weren’t safe.
Both of us had already died once.
“No, it’s fine.”
But showing that would’ve been amateurish.
It’s better to act like nothing happened.
Seeing the house Liliran led us to, I felt a bit of relief.
I had fully expected we’d have to sleep out in the forest, so this was a lucky break.
“Haru.”
At that moment, Aransel quietly spoke to me.
We had come here to deliver a letter to Liliran.
Surely it was okay to say it now.
“Lady Liliran, we were sent here by my master, Raphael, and by Aransel’s master, So-woon.”
“Raphael and So-woon?”
Liliran’s eyes widened. Clearly, she hadn’t expected that.
“So you’re their disciples.”
“Yes, that’s right. This is the letter.”
Liliran took the letter I handed her.
It had gotten a bit crumpled from all the rough handling, but it was still intact.
She opened the letter that was far larger than her and began to read.
Though she frowned a few times as she read, she finished it without issue.
“…I see. So the time of war is finally approaching.”
War.
The moment I heard that word, I instinctively listened more closely.
Even on Earth, talk of war always felt like something that happened in faraway places.
Sure, we had an enemy just above our heads, but that ceasefire line was drawn long ago.
War had always felt distant to me.
But now, from the mouth of the leader of the fairies, came the word “war.”
This was the worst-case scenario.
Maybe I should start looking for emergency rations and an underground bunker.
This otherworld was filled with powerful beings.
If they were to go to war, I could already imagine the scale.
It would be nothing like modern wars.
“Thank you. I’ll come visit as soon as this is all over.”
Liliran said that but swallowed a bitter smile.
The “this” she referred to was clearly Cosmic Zak.
And it didn’t seem like something that could be resolved overnight.
That said, it wasn’t a matter we could interfere in either.
“Lady Liliran, there’s a chance Cosmic Zak may target the search party coming after the airship crash.”
So, just as Aransel and I had planned, we decided to take care of what we originally came to do first.
“…I see. That’s certainly possible.”
“Yes, if we can get a letter to the airfield before the search party arrives…”
“That won’t be possible. I can’t leave the Fairy Forest right now.”
“Huh?”
What was that supposed to mean?
“Cosmic Zak had been preparing for quite some time. He’s installed sealing stones that twist spatial magic throughout the forest. Thanks to them, he can detect not only outside intrusions but also every internal movement.”
Liliran answered more generously than I expected.
It was probably because Aransel and I were disciples of people she knew.
And now, I understood why Cosmic Zak had found us so quickly.
With those devices spread across the forest, he noticed the moment we tried heading for the Breathing Tree.
I had thought it was just bad luck, but I guess there was a reason after all.
And now I also understood why the regular army hadn’t shown up, even though a Great Sinner had appeared.
Thanks to Cosmic Zak’s interference, they couldn’t send word outside the forest.
“And he stole something important from us.”
If Cosmic Zak had just gone on a rampage alone, she might’ve just ignored him.
She was a master of spatial magic. Sealing stones or not, she likely could’ve broken through somehow.
But the fact that she’d stayed put meant Cosmic Zak had pulled something else.
“Still, I can’t stay quiet forever.”
Liliran exhaled deeply.
“…I’m the one he’s after. If I step in, this will be over.”
Liliran turned to look at us.
“You don’t need to worry. I won’t cause you any trouble. I’ll finish this while you rest.”
With those words, she quietly stepped outside.
Now, only Aransel and I remained in the room.
“Haru.”
Don’t tell me she’s going to say I should leave so she can have the room to herself.
That I absolutely won’t accept.
I decided to stand against injustice in the name of gender equality.
At that moment, Aransel looked at me and bowed her head.
“I’m sorry for acting on my own and putting you in danger.”
My speech about gender equality was shoved right back down.
We hadn’t known that Cosmic Zak had set up such traps.
“You can’t blame someone for not knowing. We survived in the end, didn’t we?”
I had no intention of blaming others for something that was already over.
Besides, there’s no way Cosmic Zak would have figured out resurrection magic.
He probably just thought we used some trick or another.
“More importantly,”
I pointed my thumb toward the door Liliran had left through.
“Lady Liliran plans to take Cosmic Zak down with her.”
“What?”
Aransel looked at me, startled.
Her expression clearly asked: “How do you know that from what she said just now?”
“Just a feeling.”
And a pretty accurate one, at that.
Like it or not, I’ve become quite familiar with death.
There might be people who’ve died once, but no one’s died two, three, or four times like me.
Maybe that’s why I’ve gotten sensitive to the signs of death.
That look in Liliran’s eyes before she left—
There was no mistaking it. That was the look of someone ready to die with their enemy.
“Then what should we do?”
“There’s nothing we can do about this one.”
We had safely completed the mission entrusted to us by Raphael and So-woon.
That was our part. Nothing more.
Going beyond that wasn’t up to us.
“Let’s just sleep. I’m so tired I’m not even hungry.”
I stretched out on one of the beds.
Aransel stayed silent for a while, then quietly picked up her sword and left the room.
Seemed like she was going to train, even after fighting Cosmic Zak earlier.
Well, maybe she’d had some kind of realization.
Who knows? Realizations are important, after all.
No need to interrupt her.
Aransel returned late at night after swinging her sword for hours.
Soon after, I heard the sound of her washing up.
I heard the sound of Aransel lying down on the bed on the other side of the room.
Exhausted from the day, she quickly fell asleep and began to breathe softly.
I, on the other hand, had said I was going to sleep but hadn’t closed my eyes once.
Once I was sure Aransel was asleep, I quietly got up.
When I stepped outside, I saw the fairy village in the early hours of dawn.
The fairies who had shown interest in us earlier seemed to have all gone home and fallen asleep.
“Young man, can’t sleep?”
At that moment, a voice reached my ears.
When I turned my gaze, I saw Liliran sitting on the roof of the house we were staying in.
She had a long smoking pipe between her lips.
She slowly fluttered down in front of me with relaxed wing beats.
“The girl was training just a moment ago, and now it’s the boy’s turn, huh?”
She was still as small as ever.
I guess all fairies are like that.
“Lady Liliran.”
“Mmm? What is it?”
“Are you planning to die together with Cosmic Zak?”
Liliran paused.
Her eyes widened slightly, and then she slowly lowered her pipe.
“Did it show that much?”
“No. Aransel didn’t notice anything.”
I was just overly sensitive to these things.
The other fairies probably hadn’t noticed either.
“Yes, just as you said.”
Now that she’d been found out, Liliran didn’t bother to hide it.
“Cosmic Zak is after me. But he can’t catch me.”
She was a master of spatial magic.
Even Cosmic Zak wouldn’t be able to catch her while she was teleporting.
“But if the distance between us closes to within a meter, even I won’t be able to escape.”
Cosmic Zak’s explosive jumping ability—
It was far beyond what any human could do.
Most likely, his leaping ability was an application of a supernatural power.
“I intend to let him catch me.”
“You’re planning to take him with you through spatial teleportation.”
I understood her intent.
A spatial mage’s final act was obvious.
She raised the corner of her lips.
There was even a sense of relief on her face, one that had accepted death.
“Yes, exactly. I’ll take him to a place even he can never return from.”
A place where she would die together with Cosmic Zak.
Liliran had been thinking along those lines.
“I’ve come all this way, and yet I feel bad I couldn’t give a proper reply in the letter.”
I didn’t know exactly what Raphael had asked of her.
But I owed Raphael a huge debt.
She taught me holy magic just because old man Bulldog asked her to.
She even gave me a room in that massive mansion without hesitation.
To me, that was undeniably a debt.
And a debt is something that ought to be repaid.
Liliran was essential to whatever Raphael needed.
Lately, she hadn’t left her desk, working around the clock.
If someone like her is asking for help, it must be serious.
And if Liliran was needed to solve it, I would be willing to step in.
More than anything—
I was killed by Cosmic Zak.
That flower-head bastard… I’ve got to repay this debt properly.
“Lady Liliran, I’d like to propose a deal.”
Liliran’s eyes turned to me.
“But on one condition. This matter must remain absolutely secret from now on, and if I ever need help, you must lend me your help.”
She was the leader of an entire race.
And on top of that, she was strong enough that someone like Raphael, the daughter of the Grace Tower’s master, and Sword Lord So-woon would come to her for help.
Connections like that directly affect one’s quality of life…and even survival.
Just look at how my life changed thanks to my connection with old man Bulldog.
Connections are justice. They are truth.
And what’s the best way to form a bond like that?
It’s owing your life.
I had resurrection magic.
There was no better power for making someone owe you their life.
This choice carried risk for me as well.
But life was a constant series of risks.
The moment I took on the risk of resurrection magic, a life without risk was already off the table.
If what Liliran said was true… that this world was truly on the brink of war and in a state of emergency—
Then it’s better to have someone who would protect me, even if I have to use resurrection magic to make that happen.
It wasn’t until I met Cosmic Zak today that I finally realized this.
No matter how hard I try, could I ever become stronger than a monster like him?
Honestly, it was impossible.
I’ve long known that I didn’t have much talent for combat.
To make matters worse, my talent lay in holy magic.
Even if I learned to fight, could I ever stand against monsters on the level of the Great Sinners? There’s no guarantee.
In other words, I wasn’t capable of protecting myself on my own.
So the answer was to build trustworthy connections.
The kind of connection that even someone like Raphael would turn to for help.
A village leader.
A master of spatial magic who could send reinforcements at any time.
A person who didn’t hesitate to save a stranger they just met.
There was no one more suitable to be my first connection.
Through a gap in the Breathing Tree, the moonlight streamed in and my eyes met Liliran’s.
She still looked like she hadn’t quite grasped what I was proposing.
And so, for the first time, I spoke to her.
“Have you ever heard of resurrection?”
Under the moonlight spilling through the woods, I smiled.
My first gamble in this otherworld—
to reveal an ability that would selfishly kill only the enemy, even when she chose mutual destruction.
Leave a Reply