Where Peppermint Dances

I waited.

I waited.

I already waited.

—So now… it’s fine, right?

“Here you go.”

Having returned from the surface, Ornis handed a new book to Noi, who was relaxing in the living room.

“Thank you! I’ve been wanting to read this one! And this one! Ah! There’s even a work by the same author as the other day!”

Faced with the ten books she’d been given, Noi rejoiced with unrestrained delight.

The Mirror of Labyrinths and the Power of Illusions; Unknown Magical Creatures; Lost Traditions; The Weaving of Fate and the Riddle of Tomorrow; Words of Oracle ~Unraveling Destiny~.

Just reading the titles made her heart dance.

Lately, Noi hadn’t gone down to the surface. She’d been invited—“if you’re feeling better”—but she found excuses and refused.

She didn’t want to make any more attachments to this world than necessary.

“May I go read outside!?”

“Absolutely not. It’s said a single one of those books could build a house! If the book got damaged—”

“It’s fine.”

“Knew you’d say that!”

Ornis raised his voice and lamented Kardia’s easy permission.

She’d always thought so: the contrast of the beautiful Ornis—who could look almost cold when silent—firing off hot, full-throttle retorts was very appealing.

Smiling like a dandelion, Noi thanked Kardia, then grabbed one book and dashed out to the garden.

“More importantly, Master, there’s something worrying from the surface—”

As Noi closed the front door, Ornis was saying something to Kardia, but for now the book took priority.

On her way to the slight rise—one of her favorite spots—Noi noticed the boat Ornis had ridden home in rocking precariously.

“What’s this? He nags me, but he didn’t even tie it properly.”

I’ll make him pay me in boiled vegetables later, she thought. Walking toward the lake to wrap the boat’s rope around a post on the dock, Noi drew closer.

—Grab

Standing at the lake’s edge, Noi felt a hand seize her foot.

“!?”

Startled, she couldn’t even scream.

The one grabbing at her feet as she fell on her backside was a man. With a splash, he rose from where he had been hidden underwater and clambered up to the shore.

It was impossible.

This was the sky, too high for even the sigil-winged birds to reach. Only Kardia, Ornis, and Noi lived here, and the only rare visitors were those mounted on a Zephyrai-class holy beast.

Yet a man Noi didn’t know—his eyes clearly hostile toward her—stood there.

“Ka—!”

When Noi tried to call Kardia’s name, the man clamped a hand over her mouth.

Her breath hitched. His thick hand covered her mouth as he glared with a hard stare. In that hand he held a knife.

Sunlight flashed off the dull blade, glinting.

“You know the lord?”

The word lord—so he must be a resident of the Hyuetos Magic Count’s domain. That gave at least a hint to his identity; Noi felt a sliver of relief and nodded.

A middle-aged man in plain clothes growled low while glaring at her.

“Then take me to him!”

Perhaps in a frenzy, his eyes were bloodshot.

With no mana, there was nothing Noi could do in this situation. If it wouldn’t be settled in an instant, then bound with a blade at her throat like this, the best thing was not to provoke him.

Noi tapped-tap-tapped the back of the man’s hand that covered her mouth with her fingertip.

“Hah!? Can’t you hear me!?”

Even when he shouted, Noi kept still.

Perhaps sensing she had something to say, the man shifted his hand from her mouth to her chin.

“The lord isn’t here.”

With her chin pinned, it was hard to speak, but she managed.

“What? Don’t lie! Since I was a kid I’ve known—the lord lives on this island—”

“The lord is elderly. He’s receiving treatment, secretly, convalescing.”

Noi lied.

She had to tear this man away from here, no matter what.

Magic was not omnipotent.

Magic could not interfere with objects that bore mana—in this context, a human body.

(If a man this agitated were to find Kardia—)

The knife looked like one for butchering livestock, its blade large and its point frighteningly sharp.

At the thought of that blade piercing Kardia’s flesh, Noi shuddered.

“Then what?! I came up for nothing!”

He must have used the updraft Ornis rode to ascend from the surface, somehow making it up in the torrent. It wasn’t a route designed for swimmers. It couldn’t have been easy. If he bore that much hatred toward the lord, she needed to get down to the surface at once.

(I’m going to die anyway.)

She’d just happened to find a vessel with no mana. Though the conditions to slay the Demon King had aligned, the vessel could surely be replaced. It would take time, but Kardia—who had devised a way to butcher the Demon King—would find another.

Just as Panselinos had said, perhaps he could find a method that sacrificed no lives next time.

(…I believe in you, Kardia.)

“Fine, then I’ll—!”

The man glanced down toward the surface. Relieved that he seemed willing to descend, Noi stiffened with a jolt.

He must have felt the strange aura too, for he snapped his gaze up. There—amid a corona of sparks, hair lifting in the air with the heat of his fury—stood Kardia, wrapped in anger.

“Wha—”

At the inhuman expression, the man cried out.

“Wait! Stop!”

Noticing Kardia’s arm sweep to weave a spell, Noi raised her voice.

“He’s a subject of the domain!”

Kardia cherished his domain.

The people who lived within it were those he protected and nurtured. Especially Kardia as a child—who’d tried to forgo his own pleasures rather than harm anyone—Noi couldn’t let him hurt this man.

“And? ”

Ignoring Noi’s attempt to stop him, Kardia wove magic.

Sensing he was about to be struck with magic, the man tried to press his knife to Noi’s neck—but in that instant the knife frothed, melted into slurry, and plopped onto the ground.

“Hi—”

The earth around the man swelled and lunged at him. Moving like a living thing, it covered him from his toes to his mouth.

“Mm—!! Mmm—!!”

The man struggled, but he could no longer move even a toe.

Magic usually took time to prime. But Kardia wove his magic circle faster than even Noi—once called the greatest mage in the kingdom.

“Noi.”

Her name snapped from his lips, and she jerked.

Kardia stepped toward her one step at a time. Sparks showered around him; small explosions snapped in the air.

“What were you doing?”

It made no sense, yet Kardia stared only at Noi, as if nothing else existed.

“Why did you stop me? Why didn’t you call—for help immediately?”

Beside the man trussed in earth, Noi sat on her backside and stared up at Kardia in a daze.

“Noi. Answer me.”

Noi kept silent, unable to answer. Perhaps angered by that, Kardia shot her a fierce glare.

“Noi!”

Called, Noi shut her eyes.

When she opened them, she met Kardia’s red eyes head-on.

“…We can surely find another vessel for the Demon King.”

At her grave words, Kardia’s eyes flew wide.

The hair that had been floating fell to his back; the scattering sparks dropped, pat… pat… to the ground.

“…You knew—”

“Magic isn’t omnipotent. If someone must die by a blade, then better me—who intends to die someday—than you.”

“What are you—”

The instant Kardia staggered toward her, the man moved. Kardia’s attention slipped, and his control over the earth he commanded loosened.

“—Noi!”

Kardia shouted.

But by then, Noi had been dragged by the man—and together they leapt toward the surface.