Elqueeness [EN]: Chapter 279

279.

“Dodge!”

“Kyaa!”

Razen, who was chanting a spell, widened his eyes and suddenly tackled Alisa, embracing her. Alisa, startled, screamed, and at that moment, a dull sound echoed. “Kugh!” A short groan escaped Razen’s lips along with a slight tremor. Alisa, momentarily stunned and confused, quickly grasped the situation and widened her eyes. A long arrow was lodged in his back. He had been shot by an arrow.

“What…”

Only then did she realize that Razen had embraced her to protect her. The arrow had come from a different direction than where Mulden was confronting the others. Alisa, flustered, raised her head and spotted a shadow flickering on the roof. It seemed to be reinforcements from the Grand Duke’s side.

“Are you alright? Are you hurt anywhere?”

“W-What are you saying! You’re the one who got shot!”

“Yes, it seems so. Tsk, they were hiding archers, were they?”

Razen raised his head with a pained expression. Immediately, another arrow flew and struck Mulden’s body this time. Alisa’s face turned pale rapidly from the pain of the mana draining away all at once. Razen noticed her complexion darkening and said urgently.

“Don’t push yourself too hard; send the spirit back.”

“Are you crazy? If Mulden goes back now, we’re all dead!”

“It’s alright. I’ll try to use defensive magic somehow.”

“You’re injured right now! I know that if blood is lost, the body’s balance collapses, making mana control even harder! It’s a shortcut to worsening the injury! How long do you think you can last in that state?”

“That’s…”

Razen couldn’t immediately respond to the sharp criticism. Alisa bit her lip. She had said that to Razen, but in reality, she wouldn’t be able to last much longer either. Even at this moment, arrows fired by the archers continued to strike Mulden. Mulden stretched out its branches to resist, but the distance to where the archers were was too far. Moreover, it was also defending against other attacks, so it couldn’t fully focus on the arrows. If this state continued, the moment they couldn’t endure would come in an instant. She had to send it back to the spirit realm before it was forcibly summoned back.

But what next?

Alisa clenched her fists to hide her trembling. For a spirit master, a contracted spirit was their only weapon and shield. She couldn’t think of anything she could do without Mulden. Just a moment ago, there seemed to be a chance of winning, but now everything seemed bleak.

‘If only Sibelius was here! El, help me, El!’

Would it have been better if she were a high-level spirit master? Tears welled up at Mulden’s painfully writhing movements. She had never felt so acutely aware of her own helplessness. She must have been mistaken for thinking she had become someone great, thanks to her recent successes. The daughter of the goddess who destroys the walls was nothing. Without El’s help, she was just an immature little kid who couldn’t even defeat a few people!

Even as she struggled, time passed, and finally, the final moment arrived. The archer aimed his bow once more. The arrow, shot as if sprung from the string he pulled with force, flew towards them. It should have been an incredibly fast moment, but strangely, every single scene felt slow. She seemed to know that if she got hit this time, she wouldn’t be able to endure it any longer. Alisa squeezed her eyes shut.

‘Isana!’

*Thwack!*

At that moment, a loud sound echoed from above. It wasn’t the dull sound of an arrow piercing. The terrible pain she had expected didn’t come either. Alisa slowly opened her eyes as she felt something falling softly. She wiped her cheek and found a damp liquid there. It was water.

‘…Rain?’

Was it raining now? If water was falling from the sky, that was the only explanation. Alisa raised her head absentmindedly and gaped blankly at the sight that unfolded before her. Something huge was riding on Mulden’s branches. It was a beautiful wolf made of water, so transparent that you could see right through it.

“Ah…”

Water droplets were dripping from the wolf’s mane, which was fluttering in the wind. It seemed that the thing she thought was rain was actually that. As far as she knew, there was only one beast with such a form in the world.

“What is that?”

Razen’s bewildered mutterings were heard from the side. She didn’t intend to answer, but Alisa unconsciously recited the wolf’s name.

“Sicueal…”

“Sicueal? Are you talking about Sicueal, the high-level water spirit?”

Razen wore an even more incomprehensible expression. Sicueal was holding a broken arrow in its mouth. It was clearly the arrow that the archer had shot a moment ago. She looked at the roof and saw that the archer had already fallen forward, collapsed. It was El. He had come. Once she had figured that out, the stiffness in her head began to clear little by little.

“Alisa, are you okay?”

“……!”

But something was strange. The voice she heard was different from El’s. It wasn’t an unfamiliar voice, but it was a voice that shouldn’t be heard here. So she couldn’t believe it.

Alisa slowly turned around in a daze. Someone was standing there. As he approached, he took off the hood he had pressed down on his head. From inside the confining cloth, radiant blonde hair flowed out. The moment she saw the soft, gazing blue eyes, Alisa gasped.

“No way.”

Her heart began to beat so fast it hurt. Could this be a dream? Maybe she was seeing a strange hallucination because she was so desperate. The tears that had been welling up in her eyes could no longer hold back and flowed down in drops. He reached out his hand towards her. Alisa ran without hesitation and jumped into his arms. She felt a familiar scent from the warmth that filled her arms.

“Isana…!”

* * *

“Haaaah.”

A long, drawn-out sigh escaped as a sense of relief washed over me. Even if I had ridden a roller coaster for dozens of laps, I don’t think I would have felt this dizzy. My legs were so weak that I couldn’t stand. As I slowly sat down, stinging gazes poured in from all directions.

“El? What’s wrong? What’s going on?”

Sibelius, who followed me and sat down with a worried expression, asked urgently. Looking at his face, which seemed to carry all the worries of the world, made me chuckle despite the situation. I patted his head to reassure him.

“It’s okay. It was almost dangerous, but it’s all resolved.”

“Dangerous! B-But it’s resolved?”

“Yeah, the prince showed up.”

Sibelius looked bewildered at the explanation that lacked context. I took another deep breath. I wanted to explain in more detail, but I still needed time to calm down. I was still a little excited because I had been so surprised.

“Please wait a moment. Dangerous, resolved—what are you talking about? Are you seeing something right now?”

Just as I was trying to calm down, questions followed from the other side. It was the man who had been watching us from the side—Asel.

“What are these guys?”

Sibelius seemed to notice their presence only then. Seeing that he was taking in his surroundings, it seemed he had some composure to spare. As soon as his fierce gaze landed on them, the people around Asel stepped forward as if to protect him. Thanks to that, the atmosphere became incredibly tense. I scratched my head for a moment and then pointed to the hand that was holding the end of my cloak.

“Can you let go of this first?”

“Huh? Ah…”

Asel, who had been wearing a puzzled expression, was startled and let go of the hem of my clothes. Looking at his embarrassed face, it seemed he hadn’t been aware of it himself. I smiled weakly at him as he felt awkward. Really, these were unhealthy times for my mental well-being.

“Alisa is gone! What does that even mean?”

From the moment I heard Sibelius’s words, I was almost out of my mind. I had to be careful in front of strangers, but I didn’t care about that anymore. I grabbed Sibelius and pressed him, and he explained the situation with a pale face. He said that he had gone into a food store with her to pick out fruit together, but at some point, he felt empty and turned around to find that Alisa had disappeared without a trace.

He said that he didn’t feel any killing intent or threatening aura, so he didn’t think much of it at first. He just thought she was looking around somewhere else nearby, so he started looking for her with a relaxed mind. But no matter how much he looked around, he couldn’t find Alisa, and that’s when he realized the seriousness of the situation. He had been looking for me ever since.

“There were no suspicious signs?”

“Yeah, I’m really sure of that. Even if they used magic or spells, there must have been traces left, but there was nothing like that at all.”

“Then did Alisa disappear on her own?”

“That’s what the circumstances suggest. But Alisa isn’t the type to do that…”

“Wait a minute. I’ll look for her now.”

Leaving him nodding behind me, I immediately deployed ‘Memory of Water’ [a spell that allows the user to track someone using water as a medium]. In my head, all sorts of bad scenarios were playing out. If an unknown force was involved, there was a greater possibility that she was no longer nearby. I was prepared to struggle even while attempting to track her. But surprisingly, finding Alisa’s whereabouts was easy. She was quickly found on the outskirts of the village. It was quite far from the festival site, but it was near an area connected to civilian houses.

However, I couldn’t rest assured just because I found her. Alisa was being attacked by strangers along with an unfamiliar man. The man had already been shot in the back with an arrow, and several arrows were also lodged in Mulden’s body.

No matter how I looked at it, the attackers seemed to be related to the Grand Duke’s side. As it was clear that they were in a critical state, I was going to start with spatial movement first. I would have done so if I hadn’t felt someone grabbing the hem of my clothes.

“……!”

As if he had been waiting for that moment, the person who touched me was Asel. It’s not that spatial movement is blocked or hindered by someone grabbing me, but that brief gap made the mind, which had been focused on only one place, look around. As the field of vision was slightly refreshed, a sight that I hadn’t even been aware of came into view. Not far from where Alisa was, a man wearing a hood was standing in that area. A scene followed where something was being summoned from the air at his call. It was a giant water wolf, Sicueal.

“…He really is strong with bad luck. That Isana.”

I couldn’t believe that Isana would appear at that moment. I don’t know why the guy who should be in the central army was here, but thanks to him, I didn’t have to step in. The sight of him rescuing Alisa was literally like a prince on a white horse. It was almost a similar production in that he actually jumped on Sicueal’s back.

“Isana!? Is Alisa with Isana?”

Sibelius’s eyes widened as if he had managed to hear the muttering. When I nodded, he looked even more embarrassed. From his point of view, who had only received the results, the situation itself was absurd. Even I, who witnessed it directly, was dumbfounded, let alone him.

“Why is Isana here…”

“I don’t know either. Anyway, I think you can rest assured since the two of them have met.”

“…Isn’t that just one more person to worry about?”

“Haha, it’ll be okay. There was a strong shield with them too.”

When Isana jumped in front of Alisa on Sicueal, another group appeared from the other side and blocked the thugs. Everyone had familiar faces, so I quickly recognized who they were. They were the Emperor’s Imperial Knights, including the spirit master Peris. Only after hearing those words did Sibelius’s expression relax as if he was relieved.

“Isana? Are you talking about Isana Lanne Swalt, the Emperor of the Swalt Empire, when you say Isana?”

Asel’s group couldn’t stand it this time either and joined the conversation. Sibelius’s momentum became fierce, but his existence didn’t seem to be in their eyes at all.

“I know that you are not Alisa-nim [term of respect]. Honestly, I don’t want to believe it, but from listening to the conversation now, I don’t think I can see it that way at all. I hope you will explain this situation to us.”

“…I think you would have guessed roughly if you heard it. What else are you curious about?”

“Everything is incomprehensible. The relationship between the real Alisa-nim and you, and even the appearance and actions you are showing now.”

“My appearance?”

“If you are not Alisa-nim, you probably don’t have precognitive abilities either. But you are talking as if you are reading everything. How should I accept that?”

“Ah…”

Come to think of it, I did too much in front of outsiders. The situation was urgent, but if I had considered the aftermath, I should have isolated them. I’m glad I stopped before trying to move spatially. I was aware that I was quite reckless and was feeling embarrassed when Asel’s eyes, which were staring at me, became intense. His face seemed anxious rather than just curious. He approached me as if he was about to rush at me.

“Please don’t avoid it and answer me. I’m asking you like this.”

“Yes? Ah, wait a minute. Hey, Asel?”

“I’m not asking because I have other intentions. I just want to know. What did you see? Can you see something? Maybe you too…”

“Hey, what are you doing now?”

“Ugh…”

Only after Sibelius, who had intervened, forcibly pushed him away did he seem to come to his senses a little. Judging from his flustered appearance, it seemed to be an action he hadn’t been aware of himself. Even his colleagues behind him were showing embarrassment. I calmly watched Asel, who had clenched his fist and was biting his lip.