The Silent Ridge.
One savage flash of a blade sheared away more than half the trees, and the beasts that had just shown themselves scattered and ran.
Out of the smoke came a red-haired woman. Ellie brushed the loose dirt lightly off her leopard-skin coat and planted the blood-colored greatsword that had thrown that flash at a slant in the ground.
"Alice, the beast you mentioned earlier, was it in this area?"
"Cough—"
Alice fanned the air with her hand as she came out of the smoke, pushed her glasses up, lay down flat, tapped carefully at the ground, then released resonance mana, got up and sighed.
"It isn't here any more."
"Mm. Fine."
Ellie agreed to it without hesitation.
Little Specs, Alice, walked up to Ellie in confusion. "Teacher, this isn't your style. By all rights, shouldn't you be carpet-bombing the whole Silent Ridge with saturation attacks about now?"
Alice had seen Ellie with her power fully open. Death Valley, the so-called newbie-killer, had been routine content her teacher farmed in her younger days.
"Alice, have you forgotten what I taught you? What we need now is information warfare. Slaughter without information is only wasted effort."
"Oh. Hold on, let me write that down."
Alice produced her notebook, bit the cap off her quill, and began writing furiously.
"You have to write that down as well?"
Ellie pulled the blood-colored greatsword free and came over to Alice.
"Of course. The war theory I learned from books leans toward sand-table wargaming, and it's nothing at all like your practical doctrine, Teacher.
"An academy instructor would absolutely go for a saturation strike at this point. Better to eliminate future trouble than let the tiger back into the mountains."
The corner of Ellie's mouth twitched slightly as she remembered the academy faction's instructors in council, demanding budget like maniacs.
Well, that solved that mystery.
"The situation at the front is very far from encouraging. The magic beasts have somehow gained the ability to revive without limit, which is exactly why I want you lot to grow up quickly."
"A monster that revives without limit. Is it that its magic core can't be destroyed?"
Alice knew that a monster would certainly die once its magic core was destroyed. If a case of endless revival appeared, it was very likely the core hadn't been successfully destroyed.
"I don't know. I saw the core shatter in front of my eyes, and then the same monster would soon be back on the field."
"That... could you have been mistaken?"
"No. I can't forget its scent."
Ellie gazed off into the distance, and then, abruptly, her tone changed.
"Come to think of it, the danger counts as lifted for now. Since this magic wolf can't be found, I imagine someone has arranged all this, possibly waiting for Little Vi.
"I hear those cults have been raising their heads again lately. It may well be aimed at the Temple."
"Then we're not stepping in?" Alice was puzzled.
She had never really understood the way Ellie and Viya dealt with each other. She'd heard that Viya occasionally let a few monsters leak through into Ellie's territory as well.
"No need. Monsters at that level can't hurt her, and if I act rashly I may skew how things develop.
"The false-god groups aren't stupid enough to think a single Tier 5 monster will throw the Holy City into disorder."
Ellie stretched lazily. "Come on. Let's find somewhere to drink."
"Teacher, didn't you promise to stop drinking heavily?"
"Mm. I suppose I did. We'll discuss it once today is over. You need a bellyful before you have the strength to quit."
"Fine. Red wine only. I'm not keeping you company on beer."
"Tch. No fun at all."
After Ellie left, a gray Moonlight Wolf stepped slowly out, carrying Nightingale on its back, blowing bubbles with a bubble wand.
"What a strong human. Can swordsmen train their bodies to that level nowadays?"
The crow on the branch let out a few caws.
"Tch. If you can't talk, go and get some proper rest."
The crow cawed a few more times, and in the next second it dropped out of the tree and vanished entirely.
"Idiot. That one's a fake."
A voice came from some way off, and Raven walked slowly toward them in black court evening dress, lifting her skirt.
Nightingale pulled a face. "Only you would still remember all that fussy court etiquette. Don't make me think about those things."
Raven smiled faintly. "If I forget it completely, then my realm really is dead. Until the day it is successfully restored, at the very least, I will keep her alive."
"Ruthless. Fair enough. Did many of your people survive the cataclysm?"
"Not many. For now I've stored them in a world inside a bottle. There's no telling how much longer it can hold."
Nightingale bit her lip. "So you're using your own mana to keep that bottle world running? Play-acting the good sort. No fun at all."
"And you aren't? A certain member of the merfolk, who went and gave herself a bird's name. And what's more..."
"Shh. Don't." Nightingale cupped her own face, and the needle and thread in her hands drew out a water snake. "There isn't a fish alive that doesn't want to swim against the current, even if breaking the surface only buys her one instant of clear sky, at least she'll have seen it. Won't she?"
"But she'll die."
"Don't laugh. So will you."
"Stay away from our little sister before you die. I'd rather she didn't have to look at a fish floating belly-up with no bubbles left in it."
"Tch. Our little sister would hate looking at a crow with both feet pointing up, too. And don't imagine I didn't notice. That trick just now was you molting to buy more life. A few more sheddings and how much longer do you think you'll last?"
Raven's face darkened a shade.
A perfectly good Witches' Assembly, and everyone had turned it into a cripples' club.
Though from the look of things, their little sister was the one hurt worst of all.
"Tell me, do you think our little sister won't recognize me?" Nightingale sighed.
"She isn't a fish. Her memory lasts longer than three seconds."
"But I still remember her. If only I really were a fish."
Nightingale looked into the distance. "How about I drag our little sister down to the sea floor for a look? She might remember something."
"Certainly. She's in the Temple now, so go and beat that old phoenix overhead. Beat it to death and I'll give you a thumbs-up."
"Fuck that, I'm not going. How did our little sister end up in the Temple? I refuse to believe that old phoenix doesn't know. She's definitely using her. It's disgusting."
Nightingale puffed up with anger. If she hadn't kept her memories, she'd probably have assumed their little sister had gone over to the enemy.
"Mm. And our little sister is married."
Raven said it flatly.
"Wh... what? Why didn't you say so sooner? Is she pregnant? How far along? Can a body like our little sister's even carry a child?"
"A girl."
"Oh, so it's a girl. That's all right, girls are lovely too. I really am an old woman now, aren't I."
"She married a woman. There won't be any children."
Nightingale's eyes lit up. "Ohh, so our little sister goes in for that. I never noticed at all."
"No, some wicked woman took advantage of her having no memories and slept with her. Despicable. Which slutty vixen made off with her? Give me the name and I'll go and cut her down right now."
"The Saintess. Off you go. I'll have a headstone put up for you."
"The Sain... the Saintess? How is that possible? Be honest with me, was it that old phoenix's doing? She forced herself on my sister. And besides, with our little sister's constitution, she's got to be the one on top, hasn't she?"
Nightingale was working herself into a frenzy. Two factions that once couldn't have pissed in the same pot, and somehow they'd rolled into the same bed.
Raven's eyelid twitched. "You're asking me? How would I know? As for our little sister's personality these days... mm... it rather makes you want to bully her."
Nightingale's stomach dropped. "Do you have any method for extending a life? I think I've gone slightly off the idea of dying."