Chapter 51
He loosed an arrow toward the oncoming wave of monsters.
-Thwack!
“Kerrrk!”
When a monster, unlucky enough to take an arrow through the neck, let out its death cry and fell, another took its place.
He nocked another arrow without pause.
If the monsters had formed ranks like wolves and attacked all at once, the city wouldn’t have lasted ten minutes.
But the black-fleshed beasts were not intelligent creatures.
They were closer to rainwater flowing downhill.
The defenders had overcome the confusion caused by the breached gate and formed ranks, doing what they could to resist the monsters.
As long as they held their formation with their long spears, they wouldn’t be easily overwhelmed by monsters that, twisted as they were, still resembled beasts.
The archers on the wall were raining arrows down from above.
Tarmin panted heavily.
“Hoo…”
He shot his bow, swung his hand axe, and struck out with his hands and feet.
He had to kill them before they reached Enya behind him.
He shot them down, pierced them, smashed them, and trampled them to death.
His fingertips felt numb as they brushed against his quiver.
His breathing grew ragged.
His vision blurred.
If only they would be cowed by his fierce attacks.
The monsters were steadily sacrificing their own bodies to wear down his arrows—and Tarmin himself.
Even in this precarious moment, Tarmin felt calmer than he’d expected.
In a dreamlike haze, his thoughts wandered to things that had nothing to do with the moment.
He was thinking of questions his friend standing behind him could have answered in an instant.
Questions he hadn’t dared to ask again, not when she looked so fragile, with her small shoulders and glistening eyes.
Why were monsters, which only brought harm to the world, still standing before him?
Why were people hunting the Hero instead of being grateful for her devotion?
Had the Hero’s adventure failed?
Did she feel responsible for the monsters because she was a failed Hero?
Whether he barked at her or spoke gently, Enya never answered.
The lonely look in her eyes whenever she brought up the past was so heartrending that he’d said no more.
Now that he’d seen his friend cry, all he could do was believe in her.
Until Enya gave him the answer herself.
Until she worked a miracle.
All he could do was buy her time.
Compared to the miracle Enya would perform, that was simple enough.
He couldn’t afford to complain.
It seemed Tarmin was once again fulfilling his role without a hitch.
Soon, Enya would raise her shining sword.
She would give everyone a happy ending.
Just as he was thinking that—
“Aargh!”
A scream and shouts came from behind them, not from the front where the monsters were surging in.
The soldiers sounded confused.
“Hold them! Hold them!”
“What is this? What kind of strength…!”
The hairs on the back of Tarmin’s neck stood on end.
An instinctive sense of danger beyond words was warning him.
A terrifying threat capable of harming Enya was drawing near.
He shot down a monster that had come too close, then retreated a little.
He turned to look down the street.
A huge centaur clad in jet-black armor was sending soldiers flying with their spears and trampling the barbican as he approached.
He bellowed in fury, looking around incessantly.
Thanks to the centaur’s helpful shout, Tarmin quickly confirmed that his sense of danger had been right.
“Hero! Stop hiding and show yourself!”
At the centaur’s words, Tarmin held his breath.
Of course, he had no intention of telling him that the Hero he sought was right here.
When he turned his head, he saw Enya with her eyes closed, holding the blazing holy sword.
Not yet.
He couldn’t let her concentration be disturbed.
He had to keep the centaur from reaching them.
He lightly drew the bowstring, swallowed, and watched the centaur carefully.
Should he ambush him now, while the centaur hadn’t pinpointed their position?
Or should he hold his breath and wait until Enya’s light appeared?
As he hesitated at the crossroads, the centaur’s gaze turned toward him without waiting.
“Damn it!”
Tarmin cursed and loosed the bowstring.
-Fwoosh!
Baring his teeth, the centaur swung his halberd and knocked the arrow aside.
Even as Tarmin fired arrow after arrow, the centaur didn’t falter. He began to charge.
Tarmin gritted his teeth.
The centaurs had already suffered humiliation at his arrows once on the grasslands.
They must have figured out how to deal with them.
All they had to do was stop trying to dodge.
That alone was enough to easily neutralize an archer.
At one point, his father had even warned him never to leave a target alive.
That was one reason his father had lived as a ruthless outlaw.
For a brief moment, Tarmin looked regretfully toward the distant city wall.
If he had the family bow now, he might be able to land a solid hit on the centaur.
His father was probably on the wall with the archers.
He needed another weapon.
He raised the hand axe at his waist, then lowered it.
It seemed impossible to face a long halberd with this.
As he bent to pick up a spear lying on the ground, he saw the Alchin bow.
“H-Huh?”
The black bow stave, smooth enough to reflect his face, looked just as it had in his father’s house.
A composite bow made of a demon’s horn lay at his feet.
Tarmin blinked in confusion.
How had this bow gotten here?
What about the succession ritual his father had mentioned?
Where was his father?
His surprise didn’t last long.
There was no time to think.
He had to do something to protect Enya.
Without realizing it, he lifted the bow and nocked an arrow.
He hooked his fingers over the string and drew it back.
He aimed the arrowhead at the centaur.
He only had a moment to worry whether he could use a bow he’d never handled before.
Tarmin could feel it.
The wind of the grasslands gathered along the bow stave.
The wind blowing over the demon grasslands.
The centaur’s face twisted as he sensed something amiss.
At the end of his charge, the centaur hurled the halberd of resentment with all his strength.
As the destructive throw that had torn apart the city gate was about to reach him, Tarmin released the bowstring.
Alchin’s unstoppable arrow pierced the hurled halberd, then plunged into the centaur’s chest.
A bursting sound as flesh tore apart.
-Splat!
At that moment, Enya swung her sword.
**
A wave of white light poured over Tariq.
-Fwoooosh…
Glory descended to earth, piercing the awnings over the carpet-lined streets and pouring down into the city.
Shadows cast by the newly risen light overlapped across the apricot-colored buildings, giving them a fantastical hue.
In that sacred place, only the presence of monsters was forbidden.
“Kerrrrrk!”
The light that had once set the night of the Garden Festival ablaze was erasing the monsters in the city.
Blades of light swept in every direction, and the monsters crumbled as if cut down.
After a blinding flash passed, there were no monsters in sight.
As if they had never defiled Tariq in the first place, they returned to nothingness without leaving a single drop of bodily fluid behind.
The soldiers who had been fighting desperately at the far end of the street dropped their spears and shields, staring this way with wide eyes.
They were looking at the source of the miracle. They were looking at the Hero.
Tarmin, standing beside her, cried out joyfully.
“Enya!”
Enya was still a Hero.
There was no need to abandon the city and flee, nor to lure the monsters somewhere else.
With her power alone, she had righted her mistake.
…
The light faded, and the blazing white sword fell still.
The surroundings were so quiet that the chaos from a moment ago felt like an illusion.
The wind had stopped, too.
No one made a sound.
Tarmin could say nothing more. He simply watched her.
He couldn’t bring himself to approach; his body remained rooted in place.
She was his friend, and perhaps he hoped for something more, but the awe newly born in him weighed him down.
He could tell himself he was watching for any monsters that might still be left.
But the light had swept in every direction, leaving no blind spots.
As he wavered, Enya looked up, and Tarmin held his breath.
Enya looked at him with a small smile.
For a moment, he thought her clear, deep red eyes looked strangely sorrowful.
Then a dazed expression came over her face.
…Ah.
The sword clattered to the ground.
Then she swayed.
Enya’s body tilted as if she were about to fall.
The moment he saw her, he realized there was a problem more important than the outcome of their adventure.
Why had Enya hesitated before using the holy sword?
A foreboding instinct jolted him, and he rushed to Enya.
“Enya!”
Enya staggered, steadied herself, then waved one hand as if telling him not to come closer.
She was telling him to keep hold of the bow.
To stay ready for another emergency.
But Tarmin was the person who had ignored Enya’s words more than anyone else in his life.
Enya’s shoulders trembled as she panted harder than she had after fighting the monsters.
He pulled her into a tight embrace.
Burying his face in her slender, snow-white neck, he inhaled deeply and said,
“You did great! I’ll do anything you ask, except obey if you tell me not to hug or kiss you. What do you want?”
Instead of asking if she was all right, he offered his thanks in a slightly twisted way.
“No. This isn’t the time for this…”
Enya struggled weakly for a moment, as if trying to escape his arms, then gave up and said in a trembling voice,
“H-Hug me…”
“I’m already hugging you?”
“Tighter.”
Tarmin gladly obliged.
He wrapped his arms around her waist and shoulders and hugged her as if to crush her.
Their passionate embrace was clearly a kind of signal.
The people who had been staring blankly turned to one another, exchanging fervent looks as they made sure each other had survived.
A little while later, the citizens and defenders of Tariq let out a thunderous cheer.
“Waaaaah!”
It was a cheer of victory, a cheer of survival.
*****