“Wolf!?”

That is indeed his voice, and he did yell my name. But Wolf said the voice he heard wasn’t mine, but someone else’s.

“Are you okay? Tell me, quick, where are you hurt!?”

I try to confirm his injury with him again, after all I was the one who hurt him.

Crouching down, Wolfram makes a short grunt and then stands up forcefully with his legs. He desperately stretches his previously bent back, pus.h.i.+ng away my hand with all his strength. I hurriedly chase his shadow, coming to the spot underneath the bright sunlight s.h.i.+ning down from the surface.

“Wait a sec, Wolf, where are you hurt…”

I reach out my left hand to touch what feels like a body, and feel something like torn cloth and animal fur. My thumb and index fingers are moist and warm, when I rub them it even feels a little sticky.

“I’m sorry, really…”

Wolf tries to step back from me, and I quickly grab his waist, pulling him to me. Hugging him tightly with my right arm, I press my left palm to his stomach—The warmth from his skin spreads over to me, a numbing pain climbing up my arm at the same time.

I was healed this way a few times before, as long as I do exactly as I remember, I should be abke to heal others too. After all Gisela and Anissina taught me before, too, and I successfully did it last time, right?

“Stop!”

I’m pushed away forcefully, falling onto my b.u.t.t on the hard floor, only managing to prop up my upper half with my hands.

“…Wolf?”

“Don’t touch me!”

Of course I can’t see his expression, and can only rely on my hearing to tell, but the emotion that comes through his voice, is very obviously anger.

He’s standing in a spot with light, so I can see his shadow clearer. Although it’s not the honey color that I see when I can see completely clearly, there’s still a golden glimmer around him that’s different from the surroundings. His own body looks like a dirty grey, though, so I can tell that he’s wearing something he rarely does. That might very well be the reason I mistook him for the enemy.

“Sorry, I was wrong. I never thought it would be you.”

Another black shadow falls to the ground blurrily. No, rather than say he fell, he should have slid down using the rope, it’s just that the rope is too thin for me to see.

“Yuuri!”

It’s Conrad’s voice, and so panicked it doesn’t sound like the usual him. He walks past Wolfram, who’s standing in place, and approaches me, on the ground, even crouching down according to my eye level. Perfect, now I can heal Wolfram’s injury.

“Conrad, you’re just in time, Wolf is pretty badly hurt, press him down while I’m healing him.”

“Wolfram is fine, it’s just a small wound on his clothes and abdomen, thankfully he had an amulet with him, so the wound isn’t deep, not so bad that he has to trouble Your Majesty to heal him.”

“But he lost so much blood.”

“That’s your blood.”

“Eh?”

“Your palm is wounded, and that’s not all.”

He grabs my shoulder a little roughly, and a sharp pain immediately runs down my right side, until I can’t help but yelp. After a short apology, he instantly reduces the force he’s using, but his voice is still very stiff.

“This is?”

“What…”

Conrad doesn’t wait for my reply, shouting,

“Sizemore!”

“Yes, Your Excellency.”

Another shadow drops down to join us, now there is twice the number of people underground.

The large shadow moving in a fl.u.s.ter, should be Captain Sizemore. His ancestors never thought that, as a tribe who made a living on the sea, he would one day be called to this kind of sand-strewn lands. After all, this is an area he can’t show off his talents at all.

“His Majesty is hurt, do you have any cloth that can be used as a bandage? Also…”

Conrad orders Sizemore,

“Arrest him immediately.”

The shadow that looks like the Captain stops abruptly, revealing his confusion with the question, “Arrest who?”

“Lord von Bielefeld. He hurt His Majesty, we mustn’t let him approach His Majesty.”

Now it’s my turn to panic.

“Wait a sec! You misunderstood, Conrad! This is a misunderstanding!”

“No matter what the reason, it’s a fact that Wolfram hurt you with a sword, this is an unforgivable crime. Haven’t you noticed the pain in your right shoulder?”

Once he says that, I finally remember that the two of us were at each other’s throats just a while ago. At the same time I grabbed the blade with my hand, the other person was holding a broken sword, so that’s how both of us ended injured.

“Didn’t you hear me?”

Lord Weller repeats his order to a helpless Sizemore, and the only result is the Captain’s already balding hair falls out some more.

Because now there are two people giving orders.

“Of course he[1] heard you!”

Wolfram must have been waving his hand as he spoke, because I feel a breeze brush past my face. Wonderful, his movements are no different than usual, and his voice is powerful too, I can’t help but heave a sigh of relief.

“Don’t be mistaken, Lord Weller. They are s.h.i.+n Makoku soldiers, and will not obey your orders. Sizemore, you don’t have to arrest me, but from now on you must keep a watch on me, if I try to approach His Majesty then you must do everything to stop me, even if it means using force, understand?”

Apparently I’m not the only one who feels relieved. No matter how loyal a soldier, they like orders that are easy to accomplish. Captain Sizemore’s voice has also become obviously lighter,

“I just have to stop you? But Your Excellency, why…”

This part is particularly vexing, to me as well.

“You don’t have to know the reason.”

“Wait a sec! Wolf, what do you mean by keep a watch? What do you mean, you can’t approach me? More importantly, why are you here, come on and explain to me! How will I know anything if you don’t tell me!?”

“Why am I here?”

Wolfram can’t approach me, but there’s amus.e.m.e.nt in his voice when he talks. But that isn’t self-jest or embarra.s.sment, much less joy. If I had to describe it, that should be pride, right?

“Staying by Your Majesty’s side, isn’t that my duty?”

“This…”

“That’s why I came to find you.”

I want to see his expression so bad, to see what kind of att.i.tude he said that line with. Surely he must have his arms over his chest, his body tilted back slightly, even looking down on me with his chin raised.

“Is that so? So you came to look for me, thank you.”

But I lost my rational mind, mistaking him for an enemy and even hurting, it’s only natural that he would be mad, I can’t even blame him if he starts hating me for it.

Just then another new figure complete ignores my surprise and the current atmosphere, falling down with a speed that makes one wonder, ‘Did he really use the rope?’ With a ‘thunk’ he hits the ground waist first, yelling out exaggeratedly,

“U-ha! Ow--! I’ll explain, let me explain!”

“Dacascos?”

Actually I didn’t recognize him by his voice, but by his head—that sunlight-reflecting, sparkling head.

“Your Majesty, let me explain briefly. His Excellency Wolfram and His Excellency Günter both volunteered to look for Your Majesty, but since His Excellency Gunter was so worried for Your Majesty, he kept leaking sticky Gün-juices, so there was no way to determine a winner~~”

“Dacascos, cut the nonsense! Hurry up and get clean cloth and water to help bandage Yuuri’s wound.”

“Wolf, you too.”

I reach my hand out towards Wolfram’s back, to be precise, towards the shadow I decide is his back, and of course I can’t reach.

“It’s okay if you don’t want to touch you, but your wound must be healed! Don’t underestimate it just because it’s not deep! Where’s Gisela? Didn’t Gisela come?”

“About that, Your Majesty…”

Dacascos rubs his head awkwardly—It’s because his sparkly head got dimmer, so I could immediately tell the action he’s doing.

“Although Sergeant did cross the sea to get here, but her maryoku is too strong, so it’s not convenient for her to come to land.”

“Wait a sec, you said ‘cross the sea’? You guys actually managed to get past such strong storms?”

“Oh~~ That’s because Captain Mountain Range and Terine-shan…”

According to Captain Sizemore and Dacascos, they seem to have used another route quite a distance away from the normal way to reach Seisakoku. That’s the route smugglers and pirates used in the path, and so it’s also called the Golden Road or the Pirate’s Sea Road. But this route requires navigating past intricate islands and currents, and so needs experienced seafaring skills, so they must have overcome that with the skills and will of Sizemore, master of the sea. In my heart I’m also wondering how s.h.i.+n Makoku’s ‘Find Me Team’ knew about such a mysterious route…

“It seems Captain Mountain Range’s grandfather or great-grandfather was a pi… No, an unofficial merchant, and Terine-shan was by his side the whole time, so it memorized the route.”

“I see, so his ancestor isn’t Mountain Range, but Pirate King[2].”

“That’s how we managed to arrive at the secret port on the north-west part of this continent, finding horses there and sending people out in all direction to search, luckily only our team here found Your Majesty. Oh dear—How very lucky! All this is thanks to the guidance of His Excellency Günter’s curse.”

“Hold on hold on, there’s something I can’t pretend I didn’t hear, what do you mean by ‘Gunter’s curse’? Don’t tell me Günter cursed me? He didn’t throw the kitten into the pot, did he? But Gwendal should have stopped him… Ow!”

After confirming the wound on my palm, Conrad starts bandaging it forcefully, so all the flesh in my palm is instantly squeezed together, even bleeding a little… Although I can’t see, that’s how it feels like.

“Please bear it a little before the wound closes up, although your shoulder is banged up pretty badly, but the wound shouldn’t have reached the bone. Alright, whatever you want to say next can wait until we reach the surface, Hazel and the others should have started worrying about how to deal with the luggage too.”

It’s only when I hear ‘luggage’ that I remember, Saralegui who was packed and wrapped in a sack is still on the surface. Other than my palm and shoulder, now my head starts hurting too, and when I hear Dacascos asking in an innocently oblivious tone what’s in the sack, my head hurts even more. I just ignore his question, standing up slowly along the stone wall. Just as I think, ‘c.r.a.p, my condition ain’t good’, I realize that my legs are fine. No problem, I can still stand, and I can walk.

“If it’s okay with you, please allow me to carry you on my back… Your Majesty?”

“Eh? Oh~~ Mn.”

I hear them hurrying me, so I walk until I’m underneath the hole, but as I advance, my gaze is still trained on the pitch black tunnel ahead. Of course I don’t want to stay here, but I don’t want to leave just like that either, so even though I know I can’t see, I’m still staring at the pitch black cave.

“Yuuri.”

“…I know.”

Of course I know, my comrade can’t possibly come back, and ‘he’ won’t be happy either. But if I leave him alone in the darkness just like this, I really don’t know how to calm down my own emotions.

I even think of his body, it’s just that the fearsome noun scares me. Because I obviously refused to believe that he’s dead, so that makes me start hating the I who accepts this reality.

Conrad knows what I’m thinking, saying to me softly,

“I won’t let him sleep on this land.”

“Really?”

“We always try our best to send our comrades’[3] bodies back to their homeland, to the hometown he acknowledged. It’s just that we can’t do that immediately, right now.”

I hope that the place he acknowledged as his hometown, is by my side.

Travelling in the desert is really very tough.

Just like a kindergartener carrying a cloth doll backpack, I’m tied to Conrad’s back, and finally return to the surface I missed so much. The unsheltered sunlight is a huge torture on my weakened vision, even after a few minutes of adjusting, the surroundings are still foggy.

But being unable to withstand the blinding sunlight is a pretty good excuse. Rather than letting everyone accept the fact that my eyes can’t see, it’s better to let them think I can’t get used to the bright environment for now. After all I… we spent nearly a week in absolute darkness, not only can our eyes not withstand the sun’s rays, our stomachs are also so hungry they’re stuck to our backs, and our stamina is terrible, so much so we can’t ride a horse alone.

So behind me is Sizemore, sitting with his body pencil-straight.

His arms are at a ninety degree angle, his straight upper body looking as though someone stuffed a baseball bat down his back. Since he said “Being able to ride together on the same horse with Your Majesty, is my honor!” in the beginning, we haven’t found much in common to talk about. I’m embarra.s.sed to put all my body weight on his nervous and stiff body, so in the end I’m still relying on my own strength to hold up my body.

There’s a way to sleep even on horseback, that should be a certain someone’s lie.

Even though I’m exhausted I can’t rely on Wolfram, after all he’s injured too, right now it’s probably all he can do to take care of himself.

Although he keeps insisting to his brother that it’s a light injury, but a soldier’s idea of a light injury is different from a sportsman’s. To us baseball boy, a sprain that takes three weeks to heal is already a fairly serious injury. A sword stab to the stomach is basically throwing away the entire ball season, so serious it will seriously let down all the fans.

As for Conrad, he’s riding with the blindfolded Saralegui. Although he’s now in a truce with s.h.i.+n Makoku… I should say, with me, he’s still Dai s.h.i.+maron’s emissary on the surface. Taking his position into account, he’s the best candidate to take care of the Shou s.h.i.+maron king.

But Saralegui is really impressive too. Even though we tied his hem to the saddle, and blindfolded him under the pretense of protecting his eyes, but he’s not scared or angry in the slightest, even leaning his entire body on Conrad and sleeping.

“Rather than say he’s sleeping soundly, he’s so deep asleep he might as well be dead. I think he won’t wake up even if he falls off the horse.”

So says Dacascos, astonished.

After they found out what’s in the sack, not just the people from Seisakoku, even those from s.h.i.+n Makoku were completely taken aback. Amongst them, Ajira-san the translator’s expression changed drastically, and he even wanted to run from the scene… Okay, that’s what I think happened, after all while I held my breath, all I heard was the sound of kicking sand.

Even if we explain that this person is not the Emperor of Seisakoku Yels.h.i.+, and is instead his twin brother Saralegui, we still can’t convince the rebels. Once his older brother knows about the secret organization, the underground resistance will be in great danger. At first we wanted to tell them Saralegui’s eyes have already been blindfolded, but they went ten horses ahead of us ages ago, refusing to come any closer no matter what.

“Aren’t you tired, Your Majesty?”

Only Hazel Graves would occasionally bring her horse to the group in the back.

“I’m okay, Sara is probably fine too. It’s as you see it.”

“Mn—He seems to be super relaxed.”

Seems so, because I can hear his snoring from here.

“If we continue ahead for a while there should be an oasis, for now we can only pray that this map is correct.”

“Can the people in the front tell which direction they’re advancing in?”

“If we had a magnetic mineral stone, at least we could use it as a compa.s.s. Compared to sewing, since young I’ve always been better at making tools. It’s just that I’m not sure if the direction it points at is the same as on Earth.”

“I see.”

Because the Captain’s compa.s.s needle is swinging left and right behind my head, I can’t help but wonder how she knows where we are now in this vast and empty desert.

“On the other hand, Your Majesty, there’s something bothering me.”

Hazel suddenly lowers her voice, and my heart grows nervous accordingly.

“The few people in the front, plus the Captain-san and Baldy-san here, they’re all Your Majesty’s men, right?”

“That’s right.”

“And that one who’s angry because his stomach got hurt, the handsome guy that looks like a fairy tale prince, he is too?”

“Mn, actually he is a prince.”

“In that case, he’s Your Majesty’s brother from a different mother or something like that?”

“No, no, he’s the son of the previous Queen.”

“Eh? s.h.i.+n Makoku isn’t patrimonial? Even though it’s a kingdom, it’s full of wonders.”

I don’t mention that Wolfram is Conrad’s brother, because that will only complicate things further.

“But when we were surrounded by the equestrian people, they showed up so suddenly and in such a cool way, I’m really very grateful, because he’s practically like a Prince Charming… True, he is indeed a real prince. And then Lord Weller is the Little Buddy’s… Your Majesty’s bodyguard, right?”

“Ah—About that… More or less, I guess—”

“They’re all Your Majesty’s men, so why don’t PRINCE and Lord Weller seem to get along?”

Ah~~ So that’s it, that’s what she wanted to ask? I heave a sigh of relief, deciding to set Hazel’s username for Wolf as PRINCE.

“They actually get along very well, just like real brothers.”

I should say, they are brothers to start with.

“So what is PRINCE so unhappy about, why is he so angry?”

“Maybe because I injured him.”

“What!?”

Hazel nearly yells out loud, then she quickly lowers her voice, putting her hand on my uninjured shoulder, caressing it a few times as though comforting me.

“Something happened while you were underground, right? Such as you started fighting your own, or tried to kill each other.”

Behind me, Sizemore’s body is getting stiffer and stiffer, we’re talking in a language he doesn’t understand, and even having bodily contact, so naturally he would be at a loss for what to do.

But Hazel doesn’t seem to worry about all that, continuing to talk to me, and in a quiet, steady voice, as though talking to herself,

“Listen up, Little Buddy, no matter what happened in that underground tunnel, it’s not your fault, and not anyone else’s fault, either. That is an evil place, scary things happen there. Tragedies will happen there, that seem to tear apart your heart, and leave deep wounds. So no matter what you do, never blame yourself, it’s not Little Buddy’s fault, and it’s no one’s fault.”

“Hazel.”

“If you have to say, the people who built that kind of place long, long ago are to blame, in other words those guys who built the tunnel to the royal tombs. That place is full of evil intention, the tombs continuously emitting the curse of their entire clan towards the world. Precisely because they built a tunnel to the royal tombs, that’s why those kinds of tragedies happen.”

“Hazel… Hazel Graves, what’s the matter with you?”

I search for the silhouette of Hazel Graves in the middle of my blurry vision. I reach my hand out for the figure that’s slightly blocking the sunlight, although I can touch her with my fingertips, because we’re both on horseback, my fingers rub her face even if I don’t move at all.”

“That’s not like something an experienced adventurer would say, I never thought you would say something so unscientific.”

“…Your Majesty, it’s exactly because I’m an adventurer that I say that. No matter how unscientific, seeing is believing. Everything you see will happen, no matter how illogical—It is just that kind of place.”

“When you say ‘illogical’, exactly how illogical…”

“Like impossible images, or comrades dying for impossible reasons etc.”

The skin I touch, is so dry it doesn’t even feel like a woman’s anymore, carved with deep wrinkles. Back when my eyes could see, she was so energetic and robust, but now she’s aged until she’s practically a different person.

“But that’s not your fault, Your Majesty. Never blame yourself.”

Suddenly I feel that’s she old and small, and the corners of my eyes grow warm. Hazel Graves spent her life, very long by Earth standards, here in this land where there’s only yellow sand.

Only her alone.

People call her Venera.

“Did you tell anyone else about the same thing?”

“You mean about the underground pa.s.sage?”

“Yes, Hazel.”

The face and chin in front of my fingers move from left to right.

“No, I never told anyone. Because as far as I know, no one will go in there.”

“Who would have thought I’m the only one.”

From not far away there’s a call of “Your Majesty?”, and also “Yuuri—”

“So only I experienced the same thing you did.”

My hand moves down to her chin along her face, past her neck and chest, exploring downwards blindly. Maybe she can’t stand my clumsiness, because Hazel takes my hand on her own accord.

“If so, I’m also the only one who can say this.”

She grips my hand tightly, with a palm smaller and fingers thinner than when I could see.

“Hazel, that isn’t anyone’s fault.”

In that moment it’s like I could see again, at the same time it felt as though I could hear someone saying something. That voice doesn’t go through my ears, but comes out from my throat, resounding in my head directly before the words leave my mouth.

That person is telling a tall figure, “This isn’t your fault.”

I even thought that this is the same as before when I was underground, a long dream, but the illusion disappears in a second, all I see now is the shape of Hazel’s face. Beyond that is a blur of yellow sand and sunlight merging.

I rub my eyes with my bandaged left hand, my right hand holding Hazel’s again.

“But I have to thank you, Hazel. I will try my best not to blame myself, and convince myself to think that way.”

“Perfect, looks like my words still have some use after all. Then I need to go back now, abandoning them in the front like that is really very pitiful.”

Hazel Graves speeds up her horse and catches up with the group ahead, I dazedly stare at the pale brown slowly goes into the distance, approaching a patch of similar color.

She never once mentioned Josak’s name, or asked about his whereabouts. I’m afraid she already noticed, is this the so-called ‘samurai’s compa.s.sion’?

“What is it, Your Majesty? Did that woman say something to displease you?”

“Eh? Why would you say so?”

Sizemore drops his arms, finally relaxed, scratching at his receding hair,

“This is very hard to say, but it feels like… she keeps making Your Majesty yawn.”

“Yawn… Ah!”

Sometimes it’s very hard to understand a rough and tough soldier when he tries to say something subtly. Maybe it’s because I was a bit rough rubbing my eyes just now, so my eyes turned red, or maybe some sand got into them and so I teared up.

But before trying to explain, I really want to yawn. The oxygen hasn’t even reached my brain yet, and my mouth is already wide open.

“Sorry, I want to take a nap. I can’t stand it anymore, after this I may keep on sleeping.”

“Ah!? You want to sleep here!?”

“That’s right, Captain. Hasn’t the Shou s.h.i.+maron king already proven that you can sleep while riding a horse?”

Anyway that guy must be all over Conrad, snoring, right? And I’m sure he’s not dreaming.

Whatever, I’m exhausted, so tired my body feels like a puddle of mud, and can fall off the horse whenever.

“Call me when we reach the oasis.”

I don’t care, even if I fall there’s sand underneath me, and even if I do fall to the ground, someone will pick me up.

I’m not alone in the pitch black darkness anymore.