Fate: Hammer Time

Chapter 38: May the Best Magus

Sometimes, Fiore Forvedge absolutely hated being confined to a wheelchair.

On most days, she didn't really think about it. Her legs had been paralysed from the moment of her birth, and she thus had no perspective on how her life could have been if her legs had been functional.

Yes, in her youth, she had sometimes dreamt about walking by herself, but those dreams had long since been left behind, together with the rest of her childhood dreams. As long as she had Magic Circuits in her legs paralysing her nerves, walking was not an option for her.

As such, Fiore had put the idea of ever being 'cured' out of her mind and tried not to think too much about her disability.

That didn't mean though that she was always perfectly serene about it. While sitting in a wheelchair might not be much of a problem in her normal everyday life, there were situations in which her disability was extraordinarily difficult to deal with.

One of the best examples of such a situation would be a fight, and especially a large battle between two groups in which the fog of war made it almost impossible for someone as inexperienced as Fiore to keep track of what was going on.

In such cases, sitting in a wheelchair was a massive disadvantage that could easily get her killed, and Fiore had always made sure to avoid situations like that as much as she could.

Until today.

The purge of the Meluastea had begun, and Rosaly and Fiore had decided to join in and search for their friend Marie Alva, who may have been imprisoned somewhere inside the massive Department of Archaeology.

Sure, Fujimaru might have agreed to find Marie and keep her safe, but that didn't mean they were going to sit back like dainty princesses and wait for him to fix all their problems. They were more than capable of putting in some effort themselves.

They had egged each other on, and then they stormed into the Department of Archaeology along with the rest of the crowd after the Bounded Fields went down, dead set on finding Marie.

Fiore was regretting that hasty decision very much right now.

"Watch out!" Rosaly screamed, and she threw herself against Fiore, toppling her wheelchair and sending both girls to the ground just in time for them to avoid a Curse fired at them by some random opponent.

Said opponent was reduced to shreds a moment later by Lady Barthomeloi, and Fiore heaved a sigh of relief when she saw the danger had passed.

"Sorry for knocking you over." Rosaly apologised as she rightened the wheelchair and helped Fiore back into it. "I panicked."

"Completely understandable." Fiore quickly waved away her friend's apology. "Thank you for saving me from that Curse."

"Y-You're welcome." Rosaly stuttered, looking around with wide, half-panicked eyes. "F-Fiore, I know that we said we were going to save Marie, b-but I don't think there is much we can do here. This is too chaotic!"

And chaotic was indeed the correct word to describe what was going on.

They were standing in a gigantic hall, with multiple floors, connected by numerous flights of stairs, and countless hallways and doors. If Fiore had to compare it with something, she'd say it was like a large, multi-floored mall or something like that.

It was not a place that had been built with people like Fiore in mind. The geography of the place was confusing, the lay-out was extremely unfriendly to someone in a wheelchair, what with the many stairs and steps and other nonsense, and the floor tiles were so uneven Fiore could barely move around without being shaken silly.