Grimgar of Fantasy and Ash vol. 1

18. Her Circumstances

Hayashi spoke, and this was the story he told:

Merry and I were comrades from the time we were trainees.

Michiki and I were warriors. Mutsumi was the mage, Ogu was the thief, and Merry was the priest. I think our party was doing fairly well for itself.

We targeted goblins in the Old City of Damuro, just like you guys, and ten days later we bought our badges.

We got our equipment together, learned skills, and even after we started hunting kobolds in the Cyrene Mine about eight kilometers northwest of Alterna, we hardly ever ran into a dangerous situation. At the time, I thought that was just how things were. I didn't notice it at all.

The one giving us a sense of stability in battle was Merry. Even though she had such perfect looks, she wasn't full of herself because of it. She was always cheerful and energetic, and she smiled all the time, to the point where there was never room for a dark moment in our party.

What was more, she learned self-defense skills in addition to light magic, and she fought shoulder-to-shoulder with Michiki and me.

Of course, she never neglected her job as a healer, either. If we got even the slightest scratch, she healed it right away.

In our party the front-liners were me, Michiki, and Merry. That meant Merry could heal us right away when we got hurt. If Mutsumi or Ogu got in trouble, Merry would hurry back to help them right away. Basically, Merry was doing the work of three people.

Despite that, we fought assuming that we had five. So of course it was easy. We were effectively a group of seven.

It happened to be that there were a lot of volunteer soldiers who arrived in the same period as us, and some of them were even more extraordinary, so we didn't draw much attention. Still, the more we fought, the more our confidence grew. We weren't afraid of anything back then. We hadn't run into much that could scare us, so of course we weren't.

However, I now know that it was different for Merry.

Every time we got hurt, she must have been on-edge. That was why she was so quick to heal us. Once one little thing goes awry, the rest can come tumbling down in an instant, so she may have been desperate to prevent that.

She probably knew. She probably knew that, honestly, the difference between victory and defeat was paper-thin for us.

The rest of us didn't realize that. We had gotten arrogant.

There were other parties aiming to clear the Cyrene Mines, and we didn't want to lose to them. We thought we wouldn't lose. So we went deeper. Ever deeper. And, finally, on that fifth layer of the mine which I will never forget, it happened.

You may already know, but kobolds are a furry race with dog-like faces. They're built just a little smaller than humans. However, in the lower mines, there are lots of big kobolds around 170 cm tall, and those ones are relatively tough.

While they're not as smart as humans, they've built a society with a rigid class structure. They have skilled smiths, and their magic is developing, as well. They're good at working in groups, and at least some of them are fearless warriors.

We had gotten used to cutting down those kobolds, heading down to the fifth level over the course of a full day. To be honest, we thought we were stronger than the kobolds, that we were superior.

Still, we never let our guards down.

But even without us letting our guards down, it was stronger than us.

Its hair had black and white spots and, because of the fact that several volunteer soldiers had fallen at its hands, those were known as the spots of death. The kobold itself was called Death Spots.

We had heard it went around the mines, bringing a small number of followers with it.

If you ever run into Death Spots, don't hesitate, run immediately! Sometimes, it even comes up as far as the entrance. Even if you aren't that deep in, you'll still need to watch out.

We knew all that, but we weren't careful. Because we'd never seen hide nor hair of Death Spots.

Now, that said, when a large — much too large — kobold that looked like Death Spots came at us, we weren't so thoughtlessly optimistic that we expected to win.

It's just... we were on the fifth level. It was a long way to the surface, and we couldn't get away easily. We thought we had no choice but to fight.

Michiki and I would take on Death Spots in turns, while Merry, Ogu, and Mutsumi took care of its followers. That was the plan we followed. It went well, at first.

Death Spots was as strong as the rumors had said, but between Michiki and myself, we were able to keep it in check, and Merry and the others were gradually whittling down the number of followers. If someone got hurt, Merry healed them immediately.

The moment all its followers were gone, I thought we could do it. After all, Death Spots was already wounded, but we were uninjured. To be accurate, even after taking countless wounds, we were uninjured.

I misread the situation due to my inexperience. If we had run away then, we might have been able to shake off Death Spots and hidden ourselves somewhere. But we didn't do that.

We attacked Death Spots, staining its spotted fur in blood. However, no matter how many times Michiki and I slashed it, Merry bludgeoned it, or Mutsumi struck it with magic, it refused to fall. We weren't even slowing it down.

It had boundless reserves of stamina, and the pain from its wounds wasn't weakening it; if anything, the pain was just making it madder.

It was an outlier, while we were ordinary.

First, it slashed open Ogu's face with its claws. While Merry was healing Ogu, Michiki took a hard blow that broke his left arm. While Michiki was being healed, it punched me hard, and I lost consciousness.

I was out for thirty seconds at most. But in that time, Ogu had gotten killed.

Merry was desperately trying to keep a near-dead Mutsumi alive a little longer. Michiki was covered in wounds and trying to hold Death Spots off.

When I opened my eyes, I desperately drew Death Spots's attention to me, letting Michiki fall back.

With the last spell Mutsumi let off before she breathed her last, Death Spots looked like it was faltering.

No, maybe that was just what I wanted to think. With every second, Death Spots was pushing me closer to the edge.

"Hurry, Merry! Hurry, heal Michiki!"

That's what I shouted. Again, and again, I shouted.

Until Merry screamed back at me, I didn't realize.

"I'm sorry, Hayashi! I'm sorry! I can't use any more magic!"

You can't just use magic as much as you want, for as long as you want. For mages and priests to use the power of the elementals and gods, they expend a spiritual power called magic power. Even I understood that much.

No... I hadn't truly understood it.

Even thought I'd known Mutsumi and Merry occasionally meditated to regain their magic power, right then, things like how much magic power they had left, whether they could spare any, whether they were almost out... those were things I didn't have a firm grasp on. Mutsumi and Merry hadn't let us trouble ourselves with those things.

Anytime we needed it, magic came flying. Our wounds were healed. That's what it felt like. We never even thought about how much the two of them were struggling to do that.

Even by the time we finished off its followers, Merry must have used a lot of magic power. And after a long, drawn-out battle, it had finally run out.

Michiki was the one who saved Merry and me. He worked up the last of his strength to stand facing Death Spots. Throwing one skill after another at it, he told me and Merry to run.

Merry refused, and she went to charge at Death Spots.

I stopped her.

I ran away, dragging her with me.

I won't make excuses for what I did.

I abandoned a comrade.