Chapter 28
“I’m checking if you’re okay.”
“Why are you checking like that?”
“Because this is how you’re supposed to check?”
“You don’t need to check. I’m fine.”
And then Irix got up—only to collapse again.
Thud—
That probably hurt even more.
“Just stay still. At this rate you’ll actually get a concussion and then you won’t be fine.”
Irix tried to get up again, but I grabbed his forehead and pushed him back down. He gave up and let the tension drain from his body.
“…I guess I should just lie here.”
“You should have been lying down from the start.”
Still lying there, Irix tilted his head back.
“The monsters… they’re all gone.”
“Yeah.”
Only the sound of wind remained.
The horrible screeching noise—like metal scraping together—that had filled the air just moments ago was gone. The train that had been falling was now back on the bridge.
“What happened?”
Irix looked at me, and I looked at Meimon. Meimon lowered his head awkwardly.
“I… didn’t see much either.”
“Just tell us what you know, Meimon.”
“Yes, young master.”
Meimon explained—and in the end, it really was true that he hadn’t seen much. I still had no idea what he was talking about.
To sum it up: when the train began to fall, Meimon ran toward us and threw his chain. And luckily, he caught us in one go.
I rested my chin on my knee and looked at Meimon. Irix lay there with his arms folded, staring at him too.
“That’s it?”
Irix asked.
“Yes. That’s all.”
“Feels like there should be a lot more to explain.”
“If you tell me what, I’ll try. I really don’t know.”
“The train fell off the tracks, right? I saw that much and then….”
“You passed out,” I said.
“Shut up. I was just disoriented for a second. I didn’t pass out.”
He continued.
“But a lot happened in that short time. The corrupted monsters vanished all at once. This train that was about to fall somehow ended up back on the bridge.”
Meimon looked deeply apologetic.
“I’m sorry. I was focused only on saving you two, so I didn’t see anything else.”
Even if he’d been focused on us, how could he miss that?
“When I pulled you up, the train was already back in place. I don’t know how it got there. Anything else you’re curious about?”
There was a lot I wanted to ask, but I doubted Meimon could answer any of it.
“The monster swarm?”
“They suddenly disappeared. When I turned back because the noise stopped, they were already gone.”
“And you don’t know how they disappeared either?”
“No.”
That part I knew. Peregion wiped out some of them, and the rest were taken care of by the train guy.
But he didn’t see any of that?
“Anything come to mind?”
“Couldn’t it have been a natural phenomenon?”
Irix scoffed.
“Ah yes. Nature chose the perfect moment to help us. Guess we were incredibly lucky.”
Meimon nodded.
“Yes. That’s right. Corrupted monsters appear quickly and disappear quickly as well.”
“…Right.”
Irix stared at him with exhausted eyes, like he’d given up.
“Then did nature also help the falling train climb back onto the bridge by itself?”
“It wasn’t magic.”
Meimon said this with certainty. Irix and I both looked at him with a flicker of hope.
“I didn’t feel any flow of mana. Nor any knight’s aura. No special ability either.”
“How do you know?” I asked.
I’d promised not to reveal I was from another world, but curiosity got the better of me.
“It’s an ability I was born with.”
I glanced at Irix. No reaction. A perfectly reasonable answer.
Fine. If the local says so, it must be true.
Act like I already knew people could have abilities like that.
“That leaves only one possibility,” Meimon said.
“What is it?”
Irix asked in a lifeless voice.
“Is there perhaps… some natural law that can lift a train?”
“No,” Irix said flatly.
“There’s something called gravity. To defy it, either a mage uses magic, a knight uses aura to haul it up, a priest blessed by a god uses divine power, or someone who possesses Aether draws on the power of a god. Which one was it?”
At the last part, my ears perked up.
Someone who uses Aether to draw on a god’s power.
Meimon shook his head.
“It wasn’t the first three. As for Aether… I’ve never sensed it before, so I can’t be sure.”
This was really strange.
Something huge had happened, yet he saw nothing.
Irix fainting was one thing, but Meimon had been fine. This was like he’d had his eyes closed the whole time.
“…However,”
Meimon added after thinking for a moment.
“The wind… was very strong.”
“….”
“I think the strong wind caused it.”
“Think?”
“Yes. There was a tremendous wind the whole time. It was so fierce I had to close my eyes for a moment. When I opened them again, the train was back on the bridge. You two were beside me as well.”
“….”
“So… perhaps it was the wind?”
“….”
“….”
No matter how strong the wind, it couldn’t lift a train. Even in another world, if such a wind existed, we would’ve been blown far—much farther than the train.
But Meimon’s dark eyes simply looked at us with innocent certainty, as if that was the most plausible explanation.
Maybe gaining special abilities lowered one’s intelligence. Or maybe he’d spent so long training his powers he never trained his common sense. But did basic logic really require training?
“If you need me to investigate further, I will.”
“How?”
“I’ll try.”
“….”
At this point, I was starting to wonder if I hadn’t just ended up in the wrong storyline entirely.
How did someone like this manage to find Irix alone in the Order’s secret monastery? Impossible. He shouldn’t even be left alone himself.
Then—
“Excuse me.”
Only then did I realize there was another person here besides us.
I turned. Damn it—Telekus was there.
When the three of us looked at him, Telekus sighed in relief.
“Ah, it’s quiet now. Thank goodness. It’s all thanks to Lord Peregion’s—”
But both his hands looked ordinary. Peregion’s blessing was gone. It had been withdrawn.
“Uh, well…”
Telekus said with a trembling voice.
“L-let’s go now! We just need to leave! Lord Pe—Peregion will return….”
I looked at Irix. He was still lying down.
“No.”
“…What?”
“I’m not going. I’m tired. And I have something to do first.”
“What do you have to do?” I asked.
Irix pointed at me.
“I can’t just leave senior like this.”
“Why me?”
“With Aether leaking out of you like that, where do you think you’re going? I still have a conscience. Let’s deal with that first.”
A conscience?
Something was definitely wrong.
Maybe I’d ended up inside a discarded draft from Room 301.
The hidden villain using conscience as a standard for action and judgment?
Telekus trembled and glared at me.
“So in the end, it’s because of this woman!”
“I told you not to be rude to senior,”
Irix said, getting up.
“The curse and wrath of the god Peregion will fall upon this woman!”
Telekus raised his hand dramatically—but nothing happened.
He stared blankly at his now-normal hand, then clenched it and reached to his waist. When his hand emerged, he was holding a dagger. Its blade was covered in writing. Not an ordinary dagger. A blue aura seeped from it.
That looked dangerous.
Tension and anger sent a chill through my body. A cold energy began to spill from me, and the shadows around me deepened.
Then suddenly, pressure landed on my shoulder and all those sensations vanished. Irix had placed his hand there.
“Senior, your Aether is leaking everywhere right now. Unless you want to attract every stray god in the vicinity, calm down.”
“Like that’s something I can control.”
“Make it something you can control.”
“….”
Then Irix turned toward Telekus.
And—
Crack.
A familiar sound.
Telekus raised the hand holding the dagger.
My snake was hanging from it, teeth sunk into his hand.
“Ah….”
That was Irix.
“Aaagh.”
That was me.
“?”
That was Meimon.
Telekus stared at the snake dangling from his hand, fangs embedded in his skin.
“What is this worm…?”
A moment later, the sound everyone expected rang out.
Thud—
His name was Telekus Ivan.
He had been a trainee of the Order, and through diligent effort quickly became a Guide. From the rank of Guide onward, one was considered a proper executive of the Order. Telekus took this for granted. He had always believed he was destined for such a path.
Then one day, fate came to him.
The Book of Solei appeared before him.
