All Sellen did was put on the gaudy-patterned shirt that Krai had handed her.
The effect was nothing short of miraculous.
It felt as though her field of vision had opened up. The world had changed. Her entire body felt light, as if she had shed some heavy suit of armor.
No—she hadn't actually become lighter. What had happened, in all likelihood, was that every last bit of the oppressive weight she had been feeling was simply gone.
"A Comfortable Vacation."
According to the human, the shirt was a Treasure Weapon whose sole function was to make its wearer comfortable.
But for Sellen, the transformation was far too shocking.
All the worries that had always lurked in the back of her mind, the stress accumulated from barely sleeping while responding to a crisis threatening the world—all of it melted away and vanished. Only then did Sellen finally realize just how tense she had been lately.
What surged over her next, hard on the heels of a pleasure worthy of the word, was an overwhelming drowsiness.
The Treasure Weapon provided comfort; it did not erase fatigue itself. That must have been how it worked.
The Sellen of ordinary times would have crushed those impulses down and kept moving. She would have told herself there was no time to rest with the world on the brink. But Sellen's thinking had changed.
Remove the pressure, and one's state of mind changes along with it. Her mind, which had not been running properly under extreme tension, began to coolly sort through things once more.
While she was staring into space, a knock came and the door opened. Krai stepped in, took one look at Sellen draped limply in her chair, and gaped.
"Whoa, you look comfortable. Like a completely different person… When I first wore it, it didn't change me that much, though."
"When you first handed it to me, I had no idea what to make of it… Now I understand why you gave this Treasure Weapon to me."
It was a Treasure Weapon that a human had worn. Sellen had felt some hesitation borrowing it, but now she was glad she had listened and put it on.
When a person is wound too tight, even the brain doesn't function properly. The mind affects the body. That overpowering drowsiness was surely proof that her body was craving sleep.
She didn't want to move. She just wanted to surrender herself to this peace. Sellen let out a small breath at the thought.
"While I'm wearing this Treasure Weapon… everything seems trivially small… even the World Tree's rampage."
"Mhm, mhm, exactly… wait, what?"
Krai looked at Sellen as though she had said something bizarre.
Having borrowed the Treasure Weapon's power and been freed from every restraint, Sellen had arrived at an epiphany.
"The World Tree's rampage was inevitable—simply the natural course of things. For us Spiritfolk, who take as our creed living and dying alongside nature, to try to stop it was presumptuous from the start. There was never any need to feel fear. Once we had given it our all and it still wasn't enough, we should have surrendered ourselves to the fate of extinction. For the next hundred years, thanking the world and spending our days in peace—is that not the only path left to us?"
In truth, before the laws of the world, there was nothing the Spiritfolk could do. Even if they stopped it now, there was no telling what would happen next.
Mires, Yggdrasil's guardian spirit, had been corrupted by Mana Material and gone berserk, baring her fangs at Sellen. Perhaps that, too, had been the will of the gods.
Hearing Sellen's words, Krai blinked and tilted his head.
"That's way too dramatic a change of opinion—well, I guess it is about something a hundred years from now—hold on. What about Luke, then? He's still petrified."
"………………"
"Say something?"
She had completely forgotten. Of course, Sellen had done everything she could to undo Luke's petrification, but that was merely a step in resolving the World Tree's rampage.
She drew a long breath of cold air and spoke in a consoling tone.
"…………Well, in a long life, things like that happen."
"……Human lifespans aren't as long as Spiritfolk ones, but still."
"I'm incredibly sleepy right now. Let's think about it later."
"…………I'm starting to think there might be a defect in this Treasure Weapon. It didn't affect me at all, but—would you take it off now?"
Give up this Treasure Weapon? Give up this comfort?
At those words, Sellen pried open her half-lidded eyes and stared hard at Krai.
She had received the Treasure Weapon from Krai in the first place. Returning it was only natural, but she had only just put it on.
"…………Go ahead and try to take it off me if you can… but if you touch me, you'll be cursed."
The stress she had accumulated still hadn't fully dissipated. If this human in front of her had lent her the Treasure Weapon out of concern for her condition, then he couldn't have achieved his goal yet.
While such excuses ran through her head, Sellen clung to her chair. Krai furrowed his brows in a troubled manner, then seemed to think of something and pulled a flat object from inside his coat.
It made a strange, clattering sound.
"? What's that noise?"
"Nothing… I was going to show it to Lapis and the others later."
What was he talking about? She was a little curious, but even thinking had become a chore. All she wanted now was to surrender herself to this comfort.
She was aware that she was making a pathetic showing. But the pride of the Spiritfolk didn't matter anymore. This was simply—too comfortable.
Leaning her whole body into the chair and directing only her gaze outward, Sellen watched as Krai scratched his cheek and spoke.
"Come to think of it, I was pretty much the same way the first time I was invited to Citry's house… Who would have thought 'A Comfortable Vacation' had a weakness…"
No—this Treasure Weapon was perfect. She understood that, since it was a loan, she would eventually have to return it, but she wanted to stretch that out as long as possible.
Neither hot nor cold. Completely free of pain. The ill effects of the excess Mana Material that had been plaguing her for so long, the indescribable aura seeping through from the World Tree—every last thing that had been tormenting Sellen's spirit was shut out entirely. Right now, she could surely spend her time comfortably even inside the Treasure Hall.
And then, suddenly, a violent sound rang out from afar. Fine tremors shook the room.
Judging by the distance, it was somewhere inside Yggdrasil… Something had apparently happened. Sellen's keen senses, unique to the Spiritfolk, detected the presence of powerful magic being used.
Yggdrasil's barrier didn't seem to have activated—could it be an enemy incursion?
Since the excess Mana Material had accumulated, the forest outside Yggdrasil had become a realm of madness, but this was the first time anyone had penetrated to the interior.
Yggdrasil's barrier, like the Divine Tree Corridor, was woven from power drawn from the Ley Lines, and was supposed to keep out all intruders. For someone to slip through undetected—even with godlike power, that would be difficult.
The assault apparently came as a surprise; even Krai was looking around uneasily.
"It seems… something abnormal has occurred. I can't believe Yggdrasil's barrier has been breached. I have no idea what's happening."
There was nothing she could do. The only reason Sellen had been able to maintain Yggdrasil this long was thanks to her companions' help. In the end, despite being called the princess of Yggdrasil, she was no grand strategist—merely a single Spiritfolk.
"Isn't that bad…? But you look awfully calm about it?"
"……There's no point in panicking now. Before I put on this clothes, I would have made a huge fuss, but…"
Freed from her stress, there was nothing Sellen was afraid of. She wasn't even afraid of losing this comfort.
She slid off the chair she had been clinging to and rolled onto the floor, where Krai sighed and asked her.
"I can't believe you ended up in this state. So, what are you going to do?"
"? What do you mean, what am I going to do?"
"What do I mean, what are you going to do…? Something happened, didn't it? You have to go check."
She supposed… she supposed the human in front of her was right.
Sellen was the princess of Yggdrasil, and the future of Yggdrasil rested on her shoulders. Having this human—the one who had caused them no end of trouble with his eccentric behavior—tell her what to do was irritating, but— Sellen gazed at Krai with bleary, unfocused eyes while fighting off her drowsiness, "…………Sigh… Very well. I don't think there's anything I can do, but… That's it, human. You handle it. I'll grant you full authority over Yggdrasil. Command over the people of Yggdrasil, control of the surrounding land, all the术式—everything. This is entirely without precedent in Yggdrasil's long history."
"!?!?!"
It was a fine idea. As Yggdrasil's princess, Sellen possessed among the finest abilities of any Spiritfolk, but she lacked experience. Krai, on the other hand, was a fragile human who had nonetheless weathered countless life-or-death situations with that fragile body of his.
He was trusted by the Spiritfolk known as the Star's Holy Thunder, and had already agreed to cooperate. Handing over every last authority—giving it all away—would change nothing.
Even as they spoke, the tremors continued intermittently. A fierce battle must have been unfolding—she could sense a violent disturbance of magical power. This was the mark of high-ranking Mages battling one another.
From the feel of the magical signatures, one of them was Krai's companion—Lucia. The other was… familiar, yet not, giving her a strange impression. Could that be the enemy?
If there was one thing she could say for certain, it was that battles between Mages never lasted long.
"You need to hurry, or it'll be too late… Well, it's only a difference of whether extinction comes sooner or later."
"That's easy for you to say… There's nothing I can do. Fine, I guess…"
What was he planning to do? Sellen observed him with dreamy detachment as Krai rummaged through a pouch and produced a single sword.
It was a beautiful blade worthy of being called a treasure sword. The blade he drew from its scabbard was, astonishingly, transparent—a clear declaration that this was no ordinary weapon.
"Are you trying to threaten me? It's pointless. I'm not scared at all."
"No… Spiritfolk are lighter than humans, but they're still a pain to carry… Seriously, why am I the one doing this…? This is what they mean by having no sense of danger."
Krai sheathed the sword and fastened it to his waist, then slipped a hand under Sellen's body and hoisted her up with ease.
§ § § Why do I keep ending up carrying Spiritfolk on my back lately?
He grumbled inwardly as he walked toward the source of the noise. Sellen, having fallen under the spell of "A Comfortable Vacation," didn't protest even as she was being carried.
Spiritfolk were lighter than humans. But lighter didn't mean weightless—they were still human-sized, and carried a commensurate heft. The only reason a scrawny guy like him could carry Sellen with such ease was thanks to a sword-type Treasure Weapon with weight-manipulation powers—the Star of Silence.
Sellen's body was slender. Her skin was slightly cool to the touch, and as he walked, her dangling hair tickled his cheek.
Carrying her feather-light body on his back gave him a strange feeling. This was never supposed to be his job—lugging someone off to a battlefield like this.
As she was being carried, Sellen let out a small sigh by his ear.
"…………Human, why do you want to fight so badly? I, the princess of the Spiritfolk, have already said it's fine."
Who said I want to fight?
He couldn't help but snort. Since coming to Yggdrasil, there had never been even a single second where he wanted to fight.
Carrying Sellen to the battlefield like this was purely out of obligation. He bore the guilt of having put Sellen in "A Comfortable Vacation." The weapon had done nothing when he used it, but who could have guessed that someone who was normally so diligent would fall apart this completely when they used it?
Just imagining what Lapis and the others would say when they saw Sellen in this state made his stomach hurt.
But there was still a chance. "A Comfortable Vacation" merely made its wearer comfortable; it was not the kind of Treasure Weapon that altered one's personality.
Surely, once they faced an enemy, Sellen would snap back to normal. He hoped she would. He really hoped she would.
I answered Sellen's hopelessly off-base question with a hard-boiled grin.
"Simple—I'm a Hunter. That reason alone is more than enough."
For the record, it went without saying that he was useless even in front of an enemy. Right now, he wasn't even comfortable—just a plain old incompetent.
The sounds of battle still echoed around them. He didn't know what was going on, but since an enemy had broken in, there was no way Riizu and the others would stay quiet—they'd be fighting on.
"Besides, you said earlier you couldn't do anything, but there are things even you can do, Sellen."
"…………"
After all, she was a Spiritfolk—renowned for their exceptional qualifications as Mages—and a princess on top of that. Even Lapis, a mere Weak-rank, was famous throughout Zebuldea. There was no telling how powerful a Strong-rank could be.
Well, it didn't look like she'd been able to break Luke's curse, though…
He carried the silent Sellen onward, heading in the direction of the sounds. After walking for a while, even his dull senses began to pick up the aftershocks of combat.
A cold wind. A stinging vibration. His blunt senses couldn't perceive magical power, but… this looked like a serious fight.
He stopped when he spotted Lucia's figure. At the heart of Yggdrasil, a massive water dragon and a pitch-black dragon were crashing into each other.
The water dragon was surely Lucia's magic. The pitch-black dragon—was that the enemy's attack? As always, the spectacle of melee-class combatants fighting was something else entirely.
The water dragon wheeled in for a sweeping attack, but the black dragon coiled around it and consumed it in darkness in the blink of an eye. A pillar of light erupted from directly above, pierced through the mass, and detonated.
Rain made of water dragon fragments showered down to where he stood. It didn't look like they had the upper hand.
And then, the Sellen on his back let out a small voice.
"Ah… that is… Could it be, Finis's Withering? Why is Finis—"
"You know her?"
Could she be some kind of phantom beast that lived in the vicinity of Yggdrasil?
If she had information, she might know its weaknesses. As he looked to her with hope, Sellen spoke in a slow, measured tone.
"…………Yes. Rather than an acquaintance, that is the authority of Finis, the End—who oversees the death of life, one of Yggdrasil's guardian spirits. She challenged the Treasure Hall with her comrades and never returned… but—"
!?!? Once again, she was revealing something rather important in the most languid manner possible—"A Comfortable Vacation" really did need to be sealed away.