Volume 8 Prologue (1/2)

Thinking it had heard the cry of a beast in the distance, the figure pulled back with a start.

After taking the time to slowly survey its surroundings, it began walking again.

However, its steps were unsteady. Swaying like a branch in the wind, it limped on, one step at a time.

She was wearing a flight suit for riding in an airs.h.i.+p. It was torn all over, but the reason the skin was completely exposed at her arm was because she had ripped the cloth herself. She had wrapped it around her head. There were faint bloodstains through the cloth.

Even her sense of time was vague. She felt like she had been walking almost forever, but also like it had been less than an hour since she started.

But the darkness had certainly increased.

Which means... At least ten hours. A mist seemed to be hanging over her consciousness and she was just barely able to muster that thought in a corner of her head.

It was certain that the fighting had broken out just before dawn. She had tried to stop the war, but her abilities had not been up to the task. In the end, gunfire had been exchanged near the border.

Even so, she had unable to give up. She had flown an airs.h.i.+p. To dampen the enemy's spirit, she had gone so far as to pretend to hurl herself at them.

But, as she had been turning around to put some distance between them, a stray shot had hit the s.h.i.+p's stern.

It could be called good luck amidst misfortune that she had not picked up too much alt.i.tude because of the need to threaten the enemy. One moment, she had been thrown from the c.o.c.kpit and into the air, the next, she found that she had rolled to the bottom of a mountain path.

When she recovered consciousness, the cacophony of battle had completely and utterly disappeared. Nothing but quiet mountain scenery spread out all around.

Dragging her aching body, she started to make her way back to the airs.h.i.+p. If she followed the path upwards, she should find the s.h.i.+p and in it, a map and a compa.s.s.

But, no matter how much she climbed, the reality was neither the shadow nor shape of the airs.h.i.+p could be seen. And although there had been a battle, she didn't come across any corpses. By the time she realised that she was moving away from the battlefield, she had already lost all sense of direction.

Her head throbbed with pain. Putting her hand to it, she noticed for the first time that it was bleeding.

Although she tore her clothes into shreds and wound them around her head, it couldn't erase the uneasy feeling of having been thrown, alone, into an unknown land.

When she remained still, a strange feeling welled up from the bottom of her stomach. Her body trembled and she instinctively wanted to scream.

So she pressed forward aimlessly. If she stopped, she would have to recognise that the feeling could only be called fear. By now, the path had started to go downwards. Even though she had decided to continue down when she had been looking at it from above, as she walked along it with unsteady steps, for some reason she found herself walking along an upwards sloping path again.

There were no signs of life.

Even when she strained her ears, all she could hear was the chirping of birds. The echoes of swords and of gunfire didn't reach her at all.

Thinking about it, changing direction back there had been a mistake. In the end, she was just getting more and more lost.