Chapter 49
Come to think of it.
It was an absurd story from the very beginning.
There are any number of ways to simply transform the body.
But a method that doesn't merely transform the body,
and perfectly changes even one's sex and race? There couldn't be one.
-Impossible.
Even I, a complete ignoramus when it came to magic, knew how impossible that was.
-A dispel means tracing the flow back step by step and returning it to its original state, but in this case, there isn't even a flow to trace back.
A mage the captain had once brought in as a famous dispeller known across the continent had said that.
Where, exactly, was there any trace of the man I had once been in this body?
Ever since then.
I had desperately denied the one hypothesis that kept coming to mind, making all sorts of excuses.
A change in appetite could happen when the body changed.
I had accepted traveling with others without complaint because I needed to get my body back as soon as possible.
I had let Huey look after my body, too, because it was better to have fewer people see me in an embarrassing state.
And besides.
I had rationalized every action I had taken that the old me would never have taken,
with excuses like, 'Because I can't hold a sword.'
Even though I knew better than anyone that that couldn't be true.
If this body had belonged to someone else from the very beginning,
if my body hadn't changed, but my mind had inhabited someone else's body,
then I could explain all the changes I'd undergone so far.
If.
As time passed,
my mind was gradually assimilating into the body...?
-Shiver.
At the thought that I would disappear if this continued,
a shiver ran through me.
Of course, it was still only a hypothesis.
But if.
If there was even the slightest chance
that I failed to get my original body back
and became completely assimilated into this body,
could what remained then really be called me?
Something whose way of thinking and principles governing its actions were completely different,
and which merely retained Ren's memories from when he had been a man—could I really accept that as myself?
“Damn it.”
I brushed away the thoughts that kept multiplying endlessly
and looked up at the storm clouds slowly dyeing the sky black.
“…Looks like rain.”
There was no point in dwelling on it; it would only make me depressed needlessly.
“Sigh.”
I decided to stop worrying over something that wasn't even certain yet,
and got to my feet from where I had been lying on the roof of the Adventurers' Guild building.
-Tap. Pitter-patter.
Since raindrops had begun to fall as well,
I decided to go inside before I got unnecessarily wet.
“Oh, you're back?”
“Ms. Violette was right.”
As soon as I opened the door and stepped inside, Huey and Lucy waved to me.
“Where's the captain?”
“He said he'd find a carriage for us instead.”
No doubt he'd said something useless and run off.
There was no other explanation for that lazy man voluntarily going to the trouble of arranging a carriage.
“That aside, are you all right, Ren?”
As I grumbled while thinking of the captain who had run off like that,
Lucy called out to me with a worried look on her face.
“Huh? All of a sudden?”
Huey, too, had a similar expression,
so I asked in return, wondering whether they'd noticed something wrong.
“Your face is pale.”
“If you're not feeling well, should we rest here for a while?”
This time, even Huey, who had been sitting down, stood and came over, worried about me.
At that, I tilted my head and quietly checked my condition,
“…Ah.”
Only then
did I realize that, along with feeling a little colder than usual,
the tips of my wings were trembling.
“I'm fine.”
I forced a smile as I said it.
In truth, if I just sat around claiming to rest, I was sure I'd only feel worse.
“Really. I said I'm fine.”
“…Ugh.”
“Anyone can see that you're nowhere near fine….”
As I spent a while arguing with the two of them, who kept urging me to rest because they clearly didn't believe me,
“Oh, you're back?”
“Ah. Captain.”
Apparently the rain had begun coming down fairly hard in the meantime,
and the captain returned, already quite soaked.
“What's with your face?”
“…What do you think? It's because you're saying weird things, old man.”
“If you've got time to spout nonsense, get ready to leave. I've got us a carriage.”
He said he'd even had to pay extra to a coachman who refused to go,
then approached Huey with a yawn.
“As you just heard, I've arranged a carriage that goes straight to Swinford.”
“That was quick.”
“I was planning to leave as soon as I confirmed the surrounding area was safe, too.”
He wouldn't have time to look after us if it wasn't today, anyway.
After telling Huey that in a languid voice,
“When you're ready to leave, look for a coachman named Philip over there. Well, I'll be off.”
he picked up the spear he'd left standing in a corner and headed outside.
“…It feels like everything just flew by in an instant.”
“I know.”
“Our captain's kind of like that when he's busy.”
Anyway.
“Things have turned out this way, so we're leaving right away, right?”
“If it were up to me, I'd like to rest a little, but….”
“It can't be helped. You can rest in the carriage, at least, Master.”
And so,
we decided to set off again after our brief pause
without even imagining what awaited us ahead.
* *
Four days had passed since we left Ennis in the carriage the captain had arranged for us.
-Whoooosh.
Perhaps a landslide had occurred because of the torrential rain that had poured without pause for four straight days.
After sending the carriage back when its driver said the road was buried and we couldn't go any farther,
“Ugh, it's really coming down forever.”
“Seriously. Why does it rain so much here? It was like this last time too.”
“The rainproofing artifact can't keep out the damp, either. I'm soaked through.”
We wearily watched streams of water flowing everywhere like rivers, wondering how much water we had soaked up,
as we made our way over a small hill toward Swinford.
“But isn't this a little strange?”
“Huh? What is?”
“It is. It is a little strange.”
As we traveled along like that,
the two of them nodded to each other and conversed with serious expressions without offering me any explanation.
“Let me in on it too, you rotten bastards.”
“Can't you tell even after looking at this?”
When I spoke up, annoyed by the way they were whispering among themselves,
Lucy pointed at the stream flowing around our feet, as if wondering why I didn't understand.
“No, what's so special about this?”
It was only a somewhat forceful stream, with nothing particularly unusual about it.
I was about to ask again, still unable to understand, when—
“Ren. Swinford is just beyond that rise.”
“…Huh?”
Pointing toward the end of the uphill road, which wasn't far away,
Huey spoke with a grave expression.
“Wait. Then what are all these streams of water?”
Until now, I had assumed a river up above must have overflowed.
But there was a city beyond it, not a river?
“You'll see.”
We hurried our steps and reached the end of the uphill road.
Just as Huey had said, we could see Swinford in the distance.
More precisely.
“What the hell is that…?”
“…Seriously?”
“What on earth is this….”
A city that had been completely shattered and submerged.
Buildings broken into pieces so thoroughly that it was impossible to recognize their original forms.
Corpses floated here and there, as though their owners had failed to evacuate in time.
Some bodies were so swollen and waterlogged that it was difficult even to tell what they were.
“It looks like at least three days have passed. There can't be any survivors….”
I said that to Huey, who turned his gaze away from the horribly mangled corpse as if this were his first time seeing a drowned body,
“Frederica seems to be over there, at least. What do we do?”
Following Frederica's faint presence, which I could sense from far away,
I took off the robe I was wearing and handed it to Lucy.
“…Let's go together.”
“There seems to be enough room to move around inside. Just take me as far as that spot.”
With the city in such a state and clearly several days having passed,
the fact that Frederica was still here was actually more unsettling.
“All right. Then….”
-Fwoosh!
The presence I sensed already felt much weaker than usual, which was worrying enough.
-Flap!
After spreading a great burst of flame to scatter the raindrops around us,
I lowered Lucy first inside the submerged city.
“…Gulp.”
“What's wrong?”
“N-no, nothing. Grab on!”
I flapped my wings toward where we'd started to carry Huey over,
and resolved to keep my mind off it.
I absolutely mustn't think about it.
-Thump.
“Peep… hng!”
I forced myself not to flinch at the sensation of Huey's hands gripping both my legs tightly,
then flapped my wings once more and carried Huey to where Lucy was.
“It's even more desolate from inside.”
“The places we can move through are limited, too. What on earth happened?”
The flooding itself could be explained by all the rain that had fallen,
but there clearly had to be another reason the city had been utterly destroyed.
And so, as we slowly searched through the submerged city,
I came upon an unbelievable sight.
“…Huh?”
“Ren?”
“Did you find something?”
In the distance, at a place where what remained of the lord's castle stood precariously, half collapsed,
“Isn't that Osmund?”
“What? Why is Mr. Osmund here….”
“You two should look beside it, too.”
Atop a huge snake that looked as though it were made of clear water,
alongside Osmund, who was sitting there with the bandages around his eyes undone for some reason,
“…Frederica?”
we could see Frederica faintly writhing inside a sphere of water.