We sat on the sofa in the entrance of the inn.
Hoss and Nabel had borrowed the kitchen and were cooking.
They were probably being considerate of us.
They had tea ready and all that, and we were finally able to calm down.
That was when Pakira quietly began to tell us.
Deep in a forest shrouded in an alien presence.
Surrounded by spider women, and for some reason, our Relics had stopped working.
Desperately fighting and trying to escape in that state, It appeared.
"That was something else entirely. Neither a 'broken one' nor a spider. It was a strange monster."
"...What do you mean by that?"
"I don't know. I was too shaken at the time to get a clear look."
It was because her Relic had suddenly become unusable, after all.
There was no way she could have handled it calmly.
Even so, I was curious about that monster.
"Either way, with our Relics disabled, we had no chance of winning. Even if we'd had them, whether we could have won is questionable."
"An opponent that powerful?"
"We'd need a plan that assumes Relic restrictions."
"..."
"But along the way, we found a man who had collapsed. He was badly wounded, but alive. We couldn't just abandon him. But we didn't have the luxury of doing so in our current situation. We... had to make a decision. Whether to make a heartless choice — that was when I was about to shoulder the burden myself. That's when Riv volunteered. He told us to take the man and run... With our Relics useless, he was the only one who could still fight properly. His Relic, for some reason, still worked."
It's not because of Relic restrictions or anything.
"Oh, that so? Same as Wof, then."
"Say what?"
"Uh... in my case, I think my gauntlets helped me out."
"Oh my. Those are quite the fine gauntlets."
"Yes."
Thanks to the witch.
They really are amazing gauntlets, though. Truly incredible.
But still... I get this weird feeling like they're on par with octopus tentacles or something.
"...That's why I left it to her. You could say I had no choice but to. Besides, with Riv, it'll be fine. He's cool like that, even if he doesn't look it. He knows when to pull back. He shouldn't do anything reckless. We didn't look back — we just shouldered the man and ran. After that, an earthquake struck the Great Heisen Forest. We were running on pure adrenaline after that. Before I knew it, we'd arrived at Finger Rock, rented an inn, laid the man down... his condition suddenly worsened and he was about to die, so the thing I got from Wof—"
"The Witch's Water, right?"
"Ah, yes, that's right. I gave him the Witch's Water to drink. Thanks to its effect, his wounds healed completely, but the mental exhaustion must have been severe — he hasn't woken up."
"And what about Riv?"
"What happened to him?"
At our questions, Pakira gave a small shake of her head.
For just a moment, a pained expression flickered across her face.
"...I don't know. I need to go look for him, but..."
"Let's go search right now."
"Of course! We're going right away!"
Bid and I stood up.
"Wait. Wait. Calm down. We must not act rashly."
Pakira hurriedly stopped us.
"Huh, why?"
"What do you mean?!"
Why was she stopping us? Pakira looked straight at us.
Her ears and both her long and short tails were perfectly still.
"Calm down. Even if we go searching right now, it won't help."
"'Won't help'?! Aren't you worried, Pakira?!"
"Of course I am. But that doesn't mean we should act carelessly—"
"Then why didn't you go search right away?! If she's a party member, a companion, you search right away! That's just common sense! And yet here we are sitting around doing nothing. What is this? Are you going to just abandon Riv—"
"Don't be ridiculous! You fool!"
Pakira shouted and grabbed Bid by the chest.
Her ears and both tails bristled as she glared at him.
"P-Pakira..."
"Why must you be so impetuous? If you rush blindly into the forest, you'll lose access to your Relic and could be attacked by that thing. And even setting that aside, those uncanny spider-women are wandering around in there. Do you intend to increase the number of casualties before you even find Riv? I want nothing more than to go search for Riv right this instant, with no plan at all. Lupinus feels the same. But what does the situation actually look like? Does anyone here even understand what's going on? What about you—do you have any grasp of what's happening?"
"N-no, I don't..."
"No one does."
She was right. No one here had a handle on the situation.
I wanted to understand. I really did.
But when I thought about it, ever since coming to Heizen, it had been nothing but one bewildering event after another.
I still had no idea what was going on, yet here I was, fighting that mastermind Larda for reasons I couldn't even begin to explain.
"…………"
"I understand how you feel. That is precisely why you must stay calm and think before you act."
"Sorry… sir."
Pakira gently released her grip.
Bid hung his head.
"It is fine. You were particularly close with Riv, after all."
After speaking softly to him, Pakira turned to look at me.
Her sharp cat-eyes bore into me, and I caught my breath.
"As I said before, Wof. Do not rush."
"…Yes."
I nodded.
A heavy silence settled over us.
What do I do now?
"My lady, he's awake!"
Lupinus came hurrying down from the second floor, her voice tight with urgency.
That actually helped. The tension in the air eased, just a little.
The one who had been lying in the room upstairs was Araya.
Leader of the Hoss subjugation party, and an elf.
"You've saved me. Thank you."
"If you're going to thank anyone, thank them."
"Thank you very much."
Araya bowed her head.
"More importantly, what happened?"
"What I remember is limited. We found the 'Injured One' in its territory and engaged it in battle. The 'Injured One' was strong, and casualties kept mounting, when a giant spider appeared. The spider fought only the 'Injured One' and didn't harm us at all. Since it was a monster, we couldn't consider it an ally. But whether it was a complete enemy was unclear. Things like that happen in the Heizen Great Forest. Our losses were heavy, and we had many wounded. So we decided to hold back and observe. But then Kuun Hunt... of all things, attacked the giant spider instead of the 'Injured One.' The spider summoned its kin, and Kuun Hunt was wiped out. But the kin-spiders apparently decided we were enemies too and attacked, forcing us into a three-way battle... and we were wiped out as well. But what I saw at that moment was... a draw between the 'Injured One' and the giant spider."
"A draw...?"
"Yes, a draw. But... I passed out once, and when I came to... I saw something unbelievable."
"What did you see?"
"...A monster that looked like the 'Injured One' and the giant spider had... merged together. No. Let me say this clearly. That was a monster born from the fusion of the 'Injured One' and the giant spider."
"Then—"
"That's right."
Pakira and Lupinus spoke in unison.
So Torquetam had encountered a fused monster.
"I don't remember what happened after that. When I came to, I was in bed."
"Good work. Araya. Rest as you are."
"I will. But still, I don't have a single wound..."
"It's the effect of the witch's water."
"That witch's... as expected... a witch."
Somehow that earned her admiration, and she accepted it without further question.
"Still, this has gotten troublesome."
"…Fusion, you say?"
"Ah, ah, that's right. There's one thing I remembered."
"What is it?"
"That monster was called the 'Queen.'"
"A Queen, huh…"
"A Queen."
The Relic had "Kingdom" in its name too, so it fit perfectly.
"Hmm. Queen. She certainly had that sort of presence."
"Well, naming things like this are important. It's decided — Queen."
Queen. That was our new enemy.
There was a knock on the door.
"Hey, you lot. Food's ready."
"Oh, right. Got it. Heading over."
"Let's go."
"We'll be waiting."
"I'll rest here a bit longer."
Araya. She had a tired look on her face.
It wasn't physical exhaustion. I could tell she was worn out mentally.
"Then I'll bring some over to you later."
"Thank you. Sorry. I'm going to sleep."
"Yeah, rest up."
With Araya off to sleep, we headed to the tavern next door on the first floor.
While eating, I filled in Hoss and Nabel as well.
"Even if the enemy changes, what we do stays the same, yeah?"
"Would the spider-slaying effect even work on a queen, though?"
"She did have spider legs."
"She was pretty creepy though..."
I was getting nervous about what kind of monster it might turn out to be.
The discussion went on. I listened while eating.
Still, a queen.
Between the curse removal and Riv and everything else, it was nothing but one difficult situation after another.
Could this be another EVENT?
I really wished EVENTS would stay in games.
The sun went down, and we decided to call off nighttime exploration — too dangerous.
Starting tomorrow, the search for Riv and the queen hunt begin.
Riv. Please be safe.
I couldn't help but wish for that.