“Hmm, what should I talk about first?”
Maria said leisurely.
Miyako, unable to stand up, listened to her voice while thinking in circles, ‘I need to catch up to Fuuka-chan quickly, but is that really the right thing to do?’
“An angel or something… or in continental terms, maybe a celestial maiden. That’s what I thought I was.”
While smelling the aroma of raspberry tea, Maria—Shanly’s partner and mother to her daughter Aisha—spoke.
The civil war on the Nice continent was at its peak about ten years ago.
There was a mercenary named Maria.
Known as the [Calamity Witch], this mercenary was wounded on a battlefield and continued to flee.
A genius at killing.
A running slaughter.
That was what she was called.
(Damn… that useless squad leader!)
A man who boasted only of his career took command of the mercenary group.
His command, being part of the regular army, was terrible, and many mercenaries fell victim to it.
Yes, not to the battle itself.
They fell victim to his command.
In the battle, their squad was annihilated.
Maria thought there were no survivors. Her own wounds were deep.
(So anticlimactic. Truly anticlimactic…)
She lost her family to war when she was young.
Picked up by remnants of the resistance.
She was told to choose.
Become a prostitute or a soldier. They said she was lucky just to have a choice.
She lived as a soldier.
When the resistance was destroyed, she was lucky to survive.
She lived as a mercenary.
Luckily, she survived countless battlefields.
It was always outsiders who started calling her things like the angel of slaughter.
But that ended today.
“Family and such… I really had nothing to do with that, huh.”
Dragging her blood-soaked body, she collapsed behind a rock.
In an oddly relaxed voice, Maria muttered.
That’s when it happened.
“Please stop!”
A high-pitched voice rang out.
Dragging her heavy, cold body, she peered out to see a girl there.
Surrounded by several bandits. The girl was unarmed.
In the girl’s arms was an infant.
“I won’t let you kill us!”
Shouting, the girl shielded the infant in her arms.
Seeing that, Maria realized: she had never once fought to protect someone. She had fought only for the sake of fighting.
So, she thought.
If I’m going to die anyway, just one more time.
This time, at least.
“…………Scatter, you small fry.”
Before she knew it, her body had gripped a dagger on its own.
She wanted to protect this nameless girl she had just met.
Yes, that’s what she thought.
“I noticed, you know.”
When she next woke up, Maria was wrapped in a blanket.
Her wounds were badly damaged, but it seemed her life had been spared.
What a twist of fate.
She had survived again.
“…Did you take care of me?”
The girl nodded slightly.
The infant strapped to her back with a baby carrier was sleeping peacefully, puffing out soft breaths. It seemed the crisis had passed.
“Well then, I’m going to head out now.”
The girl spoke as if whispering, then after a brief silence, her voice tinged with a testing tone.
“Ahh, if you don’t mind… could you look after this child for a little while?”
“Huh?”
She pointed to the infant on her back.
Saying it would be easier to move that way.
It was Maria’s first time holding an infant, but she gladly accepted.
The infant was soft and warm, seemingly fragile, and had a sweet scent.
“You know, Maria was my hero.”
Shanly said while adding raspberry jam to her raspberry tea and stirring it round and round. She gave a tehehe embarrassed laugh, and Aisha laughed, saying, “Oh, Mom!”
“I come from a clan said to be descendants of sennin, you know. So, see? Even though I’m 30, I look young, right?”
“Yes, you look young or rather, no matter how you look at it, you seem about fifteen.”
“So you know, on the continent, children from our clan were often targeted.”
According to Shanly.
Keeping a descendant of sennin by your side was a status symbol for people of noble rank.
When Shanly met Maria, she had just escaped with her newborn daughter from a noble’s mansion where she had been forcibly taken and kept as a concubine.
“Really, you know. I thought I was going to die.”
The neighboring country was in the midst of a fierce civil war.
The nobility didn’t care.
In such a situation, Shanly who looked no older than a girl fleeing with an infant… the outcome was obvious.
She’d be killed.
The moment she thought that, a large woman appeared.
Her body covered in blood, she precisely took down the enemies.
After defeating the men surrounding Shanly, she collapsed to the ground.
“Ah, I thought, I have to save her.”
Shanly giggled.
“So, I found a cave~. Borrowed various medicines and food from a nearby village~, sold and bought the valuables I had to increase my money~”
“Y-you were doing business even back then!?”
“Yep, business is fun~. It’s a way to live.”
Shanly puffed out her chest proudly.
“Well. So that’s how it is. For us, it’s like fate, or love at first sight? …Something like that, I guess.”
Maria laughed, ufufu.
Looking closely, Miyako noticed old scars like from slash wounds on her arms and cheeks.
From Shanly’s kera-kera laughter and Maria’s soft smiles—you’d never imagine the past they just heard.
Everyone has their circumstances.
Every family has its past.
It was an obvious thing, but for Miyako, it felt fresh.
“Um, may I ask one thing?”
“Mhm, anything.”
“Shanly-san, why did you decide to help Maria-san back then?”
It was a straightforward question.
Maria was someone who had helped her in a desperate situation. There was gratitude, of course. But could she really have thought to help someone covered in blood, wearing the uniform of a fleeing army, so easily?
Helping her might have been seen as meddling.
At worst, she could have been killed, and even if not, staying there at that time would have been nothing but a risk for Shanly.
“Mmm, it’s simple.”
The thirty-year-old woman who looked like a girl said.
“Because I wanted to help her.”
“…!”
“And now, I’m so happy.”
Shanly continued quietly.
“Is it different for you, Miyako?”
“I—”
The face that came to mind was Fuuka’s.
The tragic girl who was the villainess in an otome game.
A hard worker more than anyone, a pushover who prioritized others over herself.
“—I”
Knowledgeable, bad at cooking, happy to be helpful, stubborn, lonely, hardworking, kind, and cute—my beloved Fuuka-chan.
Miyako thought.
—Why did I want to bring her out? Because Fuuka-chan was pitiful? Because I wanted to save Fuuka-chan? For Fuuka-chan’s sake?
No.
That’s not it, it’s different.
—I.
‘Because I’ wanted to save Fuuka-chan.
That’s why I ran.
Simply because I thought so.
“…S-sorry, Shanly-san, Maria-san, Aisha-chan.”
“Yep.”
“I have to go!”
At those words, Shanly and Maria smiled.
Surely, it was the smile of those who had overcome many hardships, surpassed their worries, and still stood together. Now having obtained a peaceful life.
“That’s the spirit, isn’t it?”
Miyako thought.
Yes, this was my selfishness from the very beginning.
Then, I’ll go to take her hand as many times as it takes. I’ll chase her no matter how far.
Because I regret it all—enduring everything, collapsing from overwork in my previous life. Because I decided to live selfishly.
“Umi!”
‘Meow~’
She looked out the window.
Night had deepened completely.
It was late at night, with a full moon high in the sky. Aisha had been yawning repeatedly for a while now.
It had been almost a full day since Fuuka disappeared.
If they had taken a one-horse carriage like when they came here, it might be fine, but if they had used a three-horse carriage or better they might already be near the royal capital.
I have to chase them quickly.
There probably aren’t any carriages departing at this late hour.
But Miyako had Umi.
‘What is it, meow? Have you finally made up your mind and decided to rely on my power, meow?’
Umi—the great water spirit Undine—fluffed her fluffy tail, pafun pafun. Suppressing her impatience, Miyako commanded.
“Yes. Please, Umi. By the name of your contractor, I command you—take me to the royal capital, Ode!”
Instantly.
A light imbued with the pure power of water filled Shanly’s house—and Undine revealed her divine true form.