c15 1

Where was this pain coming from? Probably deep inside his head.
It wasn’t a stabbing pain, or a throbbing one. It was a little like an itch, but it felt unbearably itchy.
“We set out from Vele...” Merry pointed to a spot on the map. She moved her finger to the left. “We were heading to Alterna, but along the way we ran into... a camp... right, it was Ainrand Leslie’s camp — the Leslie Camp.”
“...It’s no good.” Setora crossed her arms and frowned. “I can’t remember it at all.”
“Oh!” Kuzaku still had a sausage in his mouth. “Was this including me, too? I was listening like it was about someone else...”
Io had a look on her face that was difficult to read.
“The Leslie Camp...?”
“What is thaaat?” Hiyo asked with a smile. “This, ummmm? Wrestling champ, was it?”
Merry looked Hiyo in the eye.
Hiyo’s expression tensed a little. That’s how it looked to Haruhiro.
“From there,” Merry continued without responding to Hiyo’s question, “We wandered into another world. It was like a really bad dream had become reality...”
Hiyo stroked her chin. “Hmmm.” Her eyes went up and to the right. “Y’know, if it was like a bad dream, that makes me think that maaaaybe it really was a dream? Oh, not that I’m doubting you or anythiiiing.”
“You could be right.” Merry looked down at the map. “It might all have been a dream I saw. Even now, I’m sort of wondering if the dream just hasn’t ended yet.”
“That’s not it,” Haruhiro said definitively. He’d said it without meaning to.
Merry, Hiyo, and everyone else looked at Haruhiro.
Haruhiro scratched his head and looked to the side.
“...I don’t think that’s how it is. If I were just a character in Merry’s dream, I dunno... I wouldn’t be able to think for myself or act alone, right? Probably not. But I am. I am... Or at least I’m trying to.
“Me too. Me too,” Kuzaku said with a chuckle.
“Don’t imitate me...”
“No, I’m not imitating you. I’m saying I think you’re right!”
“Like! I! Said!” Hiyo put her hands on her hips and puffed up her cheeks. “It’s not like I’m doubting you or anythiiiing.”
“Merry...-san, if your memories are right...” Shihoru leaned in, looking closely at the map. “Where would we be now...?”
Haruhiro looked around the room. This room and the one below had no windows. It went without saying that they were in a building, but what was it like outside? Like Shihoru was asking, where exactly were they?
“The handle...” Tasukete said in a small voice.
It immediately occurred to Haruhiro that he meant the handle on the wall downstairs.
That handle had caught his attention the moment he saw it. If Hiyo hadn’t suggested they could go up the stairs, Haruhiro might have tried pulling that handle like a lever first.
“I’m going back downstairs. I’m going to try that handle. It might do something.”
When Haruhiro made that declaration, Hiyo looked somewhat unamused, then let out a sigh. Haruhiro was almost certain.
Hiyo was a liar.
The question was what she was lying about, and why.


2. Red Moon Rhapsody

He had everyone back away close to the staircase for safety, and then Haruhiro went to stand in front of the lever alone.
Kuzaku had offered to do it but Haruhiro turned him down. It wasn’t that he didn’t trust Kuzaku to handle things, it was just that this was something he ought to do himself. He couldn’t help but feel that way.
Haruhiro remained alert, and he tried to emotionally prepare himself, but there probably wasn’t a trap. There wasn’t likely to be an explosion when he pulled the lever, or poison gas, or anything dangerous like that. When he looked at the handle, the base of it, and the wall around it, Haruhiro got the sense that it was safe. Tasukete seemed to agree.
This was something his experience as a thief told him. He didn’t remember any of it, but clearly those memories weren’t gone entirely.
Haruhiro grabbed the handle. His grip wasn’t exactly relaxed, but his fingers weren’t overly tense, either.
He gently pulled it down. There was a click, like something falling into place. Then, shortly after that, a portion of the wall began to sink in with a dull grinding noise.
“...So that’s how it works.”
Though he hadn’t been anticipating any danger, he was still a little relieved.
It was a hidden door. Where did it lead?
There was a somewhat chilly draft coming into the room. Wind. He felt a slight breeze.
Kuzaku and the others came over.
“...Outside?” Kuzaku put a hand on Haruhiro’s shoulder. “It leads outside, doesn’t it? Outside! We can get outside!” Outside, outside. Would you shut up?
Haruhiro smiled a little.
“Looks like it.”
He subtly glanced over at Hiyo’s face. She was expressionless. It was like she wasn’t thinking or feeling anything as she looked past the hidden door.
Merry tried to head outside. Haruhiro stopped her.
“Hold on.”
Merry seemed to come to her senses as she turned to Haruhiro, then nodded.
They waited for the hidden door to open fully, then Haruhiro went ahead on his own.
It wasn’t pitch dark. The distant horizon was still bright, so maybe the dawn was coming. Or the sun had just set.
He turned to look behind him and a tower loomed over him. They had been inside there.
Haruhiro was, for obvious reasons, confused. But considering he was able to recognize his own confusion, he figured he was still managing to keep his cool.
There was a slight orange hue to the horizon, but what direction was that? If it was west, it was sunset. If it was east, it was sunrise.
The moon hung in the sky above.
From where Haruhiro stood, the right hand side of it was occluded, but was it a waxing crescent moon, or a waning crescent moon? “It’s red...”
Something about that bothered him.
The moon. The red moon.
Wait... Was the moon red?
Of course it was red. If it wasn’t red, what was it?
Kuzaku and the others came out of the tower.
“This is...” Merry turned to look up at the tower. “The Forbidden Tower...”
The tower stood on a hill. It was a grassy slope, dotted with white stones.
They were like graves. Perhaps this hill was a graveyard, and the Forbidden Tower which stood at its peak was a massive gravestone.
“A town, huh?” Setora said, and Kiichi meowed.
Setora was looking past the hill. Was that a town?
It probably was.
There were tens, or hundreds, or perhaps even more buildings surrounded by high walls. Though quite sparse, there were lights there, too, which reassured Haruhiro for some reason.
No, there was no need to wonder about the reason. It was because there was a town right there.
“Alterna.” Merry spoke an unfamiliar word.
He didn’t know it, but he couldn’t say for certain that he had never heard it before.
Alterna.
It was probably not completely unrelated to the town down there. It had to be the town’s name.
Haruhiro tried saying it for himself.
“Alterna.”
Would a feeling of nostalgia well up inside him? He’d kind of been hoping for that.
Sadly, he felt nothing. The lack of emotion left him somewhat despondent.
“This is where it all began,” Merry said to no one in particular. “...We’re finally back. We took quite the detour, though.”
Haruhiro looked at Alterna once more. Yeah, he really wasn’t feeling anything.
Kuzaku, Shihoru, Io, Gomi, Tasukete, and Setora were looking towards Alterna, too.
“Le sigh...”
Hiyo was alone in gazing up at the red moon, her brow knitted.
“Weeeell, there goes that plan. Hrmm. Y’know? Sometimes things just don’t go how you expect, huh? Seriously. I dunno what to do. Should I report back to Master? Is he gonna get mad at me for this? It’s not Hiyomu’s fault, though. Hiyomu didn’t mess it up, okay? If anything, Hiyomu’s the victim here...”
At this point, no one was looking at Alterna. Everyone, even Kiichi, was staring at Hiyo in blank amazement.
“Hahh...” Hiyo let out another big sigh. Then her eyes swept across Haruhiro and the rest.
Her personality seemed to have changed completely. There was something sharp and toxic about the look she gave them.
“Okay, okay, okaaaay.” Hiyo clapped her hands twice. “Is everyone ready? Even if you aren’t, you should listen reeeeal good. Hiyomu’s about to tell you something important. If you miss it, you’re gonna regret it, like, terribad.”
Her tone was different. It was the same voice as before, obviously, but lower. This tone, though filled with menace, might have been more natural for her.
“You all have a choiiiice to make. Two options. First.” Hiyo brought her right hand forward, raising her index finger. “You can listen to Hiyomu. I’m not saying you have to be Hiyomu’s slave or anything. Buuuut, you do have to follow Hiyomu’s master’s orders, okay? It’s all upsides, really. He’s a great master to serve. I mean, Hiyomu swore her loyalty to him, so that should tell you just how great a master he is, right?”
“What are you talking...” Io started to say, then trailed off and fell silent.
“And?” Setora asked in a completely calm voice. “What is the second option?”
“Secoooond.” Hiyo raised the index finger of her left hand. “If you won’t do what Hiyomu tells you, then you can go do whatever the hell you want. Though, in exchange, I won’t be telling you a single thing about the mystery of this world and the truth behind it, okay? You’ll be back at the beginning, thrown out into Grimgar with nothing but yourselves to rely on.”

 
“The... mystery of this world?” Merry’s voice sounded hoarse. “...The truth? ...You know that?”
“Did you think I’d answer if you asked me, hmmmm?” Hiyo snorted. “Don’t misunderstand. I don’t like your attitude. It’s shit. Utter shit. Something reeks about you. Maybe because you’re a piece of shit, you bitch.”
“Somebody’s got a foul mouth on them...” Kuzaku sounded a little sad.
“Oh, yeah?” Hiyo ignored him and kept going. “Well, Hiyomu’s master possesses incredible knowledge and near-immortality. He has treasures in his collection beyond count. He is a great, great sage who’s learned all the mysteries of this world, and with his amassed wisdom, he obviously knows anything and everything you could possibly want to learn. Not that you’d know that, because you people don’t even remember anything. You’re not supposed to remember!”
“What you’re saying is that the reason we lost our memories,” Setora plainly pointed out, “is because you, no, your master, did something to us.”
Hiyo neither confirmed nor denied. She smiled slightly as she pushed her two index fingers together. Then, shifting in an instant, she glared at Merry and demanded, “You can’t possibly remember, so what is with you?”
Merry backed away.
“...What’s with me? I’m...”
Her voice was trembling. No, not just her voice. Her body, too.
Merry shook her head repeatedly. Again, and again, and again.
“I... I’m...”
“This is going nowhere.” Hiyo sounded irritated, and she clicked her tongue repeatedly. “Whatever the case, you all need to make a choice. I mean, you should be beside yourselves with gratitude that I’m even giving you a choice at all.”
Haruhiro was taken aback. The change was so sudden and complete. No, he didn’t have time to be surprised.
They were being pushed to make a choice. They had to choose here and now.
There were two options. Obey Hiyo, AKA Hiyomu, or don’t. Did they really have to choose?
Like he’d expected, Hiyomu was a suspicious individual. He had no idea how they could have done it, but it was even possible that she, or her master, whoever that was, might have been the ones who stole their memories. Which meant?
They were the victims, and Hiyomu was the perpetrator. Why did the victims have to do what the person who had harmed them said?
He was getting a little angry. Did Hiyomu have any right to make demands of them? She didn’t, did she?
Kuzaku looked like he was getting mad, too. “Now, listen!” he shouted, rounding on Hiyomu. That was the moment it happened.
Hiyomu whipped the headpiece, or hairpiece, or whatever it was off her head, and threw it at Kuzaku.
“Don’t move, dimwit!”
It was a small, less than fist-sized thing that looked like a stuffed animal. It probably wasn’t going to do anything if it hit him.
But when it struck Kuzaku square in the chest, “Gweh!” he let out a groan, and then fell on his backside so fast it looked like he might flip over.
On top of that, the thing bounced once, twice, and then returned to rest firmly in Hiyomu’s right hand.
Hiyomu turned to Setora, Gomi, and Haruhiro, making a menacing gesture like she was about to throw it, then chuckling to herself.
“Don’t you dare underestimate this relic, the Paw of Terror, that
Master gave me. Hiyomu’s the one who named it, though, okay?”
Kuzaku was still sputtering and coughing. He pressed down on the place where the Paw of Terror, or whatever she wanted to call that thing, had struck him.
“Ow, that hurt!”
It looked like it had done some serious damage. If he wasn’t exaggerating the pain, it might have even busted a rib.
“Annnnd.” Hiyomu tossed the Paw of Terror up a little, then caught it as it came back down. “This isn’t Hiyomu’s only weapon. Now, some of you lowlifes might think I’m bluffing when I say that, but I’m not. Hiyomu’s a relic master who serves as one of Master’s disciples, so murdering you all would be a piece of cake. I’m telling the truth here, okay? You wanna try me? Maybe I’ll kill one of you to make a point?” That, honestly, sounded dubious.
Haruhiro didn’t know what a relic master was supposed to be, but Hiyomu didn’t seem to have much other than that Paw of Terror on her.
Still, she might only be making it look that way. She could still be hiding some seriously crazy weapons.
“Okay.”
Io stepped forward. Her chest was thrust out and her chin was raised slightly so she could look down on whoever she spoke to despite her small stature.
“I’ll obey you. No matter who it is that’s responsible for it, the fact is that we have no memories. You have to be joking if you think I’m going to wander around with no idea what to do, or even what’s going on, and then just die somewhere.” Hiyomu grinned.
“That intelligence will take you a long way. Not with Hiyomu, but with Hiyomu’s master.”
Io shrugged, then turned back and quickly surveyed Haruhiro and the others.
“What about the rest of you?”
“...M-Me, too.” Tasukete stepped forward, his eyes lowered. “I think I’ll obey...”
“I hate yer guts,” Gomi said, glaring at Hiyomu. “...But, still. I’m, uh... Io’s—”
“Io-sama,” Io corrected him with a voice like an icy whip, “is what you are to call me. It’s beyond upsetting that a man like you would address me without an honorific, but if you could show me the proper respect and call me ‘Io-sama,’ I wouldn’t be completely unable to put up with you.”
“I-Io-sama’s...” Gomi twisted his neck to look at Merry. “Comrade... That was it, right? Was that even true...?”
Merry had an awkward look on her face. “...Supposedly.”
“Righty-o, let Hiyomu tell you the answeeeer.” Hiyomu said in a tone that was more silly than relaxed. “Gomi-kun and Tasukete-kun were Io-chan’s comrades. Io-chan went around making her comrades call her Io-sama. You all made a name for yourselves as the Io-sama Squad.”
“The Io-sama... Squad...” Gomi clutched his head.
“I was... Io-sama’s...?” Tasukete looked at Io through his bangs. “Iosama...”
“I know a whole lot more, too,” Hiyomu said with a nasty smile. “With Master’s permission, I could tell you a little at a time. You can switch from being used, to being the users. Let me tell you, this is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity here. Turn it down, and you are soooo going to regret it.”
Haruhiro turned his eyes towards Kuzaku. Kuzaku was still down on the ground. Was he dumbfounded by all of this?
Next, Haruhiro looked at Shihoru’s expression. Shihoru had her chin lowered and was looking at Hiyomu with upturned eyes.
He had no idea what Setora was thinking, but she hadn’t moved at all. Kiichi was at her feet, staying put.
“Merry,” Haruhiro called out to her.
“Huh?” Merry looked at Haruhiro with surprise. “...What?”
Haruhiro nodded to her. Even without putting it into words, he felt like she’d understand what he meant.
It looked like she got it. Merry nodded back to him.
“As for us,” Haruhiro said, then rubbed his nose. He thought he was sweating there, but he wasn’t. It was strangely cool. Was he feeling tense? Or was he not really? He wasn’t quite sure.
Haruhiro took a breath, then looked at Hiyomu again.
“We won’t obey you. Sorry to turn down your no-doubt wonderful offer, but we’re going to do what we want.”
“Oh, myyy.”
Hiyomu put on a smile that didn’t extend beyond her lips, narrowing her eyes unhappily, then swung the Paw of Terror.
Haruhiro moved as if he’d anticipated it. By the time Hiyomu threw the paw, Haruhiro had already jumped on Merry and pushed her down.
“Whaa?!” Hiyomu cried out in shock.
Hiyomu had thrown the paw at Merry, not Haruhiro. Based on how it flew, if Haruhiro hadn’t pushed Merry down, she’d probably have been in trouble. The Paw of Terror might have struck her right in the face.
“Nghmmngh...!” Hiyomu ground her teeth, then took off running. “We’re going, Io-sama Squad! Follow Hiyomu!”
“...I guess we have no choice, huh!” Io followed, and after a beat Gomi and Tasukete ran after them.
“Wait, you forgot this...!” Shihoru grabbed the cloak that was covering her. She might have been about to take it off, but she stopped just short of doing so.
Still running, Gomi turned back to look.
“You can have it! Wear the damn thing!”
The ominously dark-colored cloak that Shihoru was wearing had belonged to Gomi.
The four of them were heading for the Forbidden Tower. Still, it all happened so quickly.
“Urgh...” someone groaned underneath Haruhiro. No, it wasn’t just someone, it was Merry. Right. He’d pushed her down, and hadn’t moved since. Uh-oh.
“I-I’m sor—” he tried to apologize as he got off her, but she pushed him away before he could finish. “...Huh?!”
When Merry jumped to her feet, the fingers of her right hand were already moving. She drew some kind of pictures, or figures, or sigils in the air as she chanted.
“Marc em parc.”
 
 
Something like a bead of light appeared in front of Merry’s chest. It started off smaller than a fist, but grew visibly as Haruhiro watched.
Hiyomu turned back. “Huh?!” Her eyes went wide. “Magic Missile?!”
The bead of light, now larger than a person’s head, flew towards Hiyomu.
“Kofwohhhhhhhhhhhh?!” Hiyomu let out a weird scream.
“Seriously?!” Gomi turned and pulled out a big sword.
For a moment, it looked as if he had disappeared. Maybe he just moved that fast?
Gomi slashed the bead of light that was about to clobber Hiyomu with his sword.
Oh, that was something you can cut, Haruhiro thought.
It was light, after all. Could you cut sunlight with a kitchen knife? No way. But Gomi’s sword cleaved the bead of light cleanly in two. Once it was bisected, the bead immediately vanished without leaving a trace.
“The hell was that?!” Gomi shouted, holding his sword at the ready.
Having just been saved by Gomi, Hiyomu stared at Merry.
“...Y-Y-You’re a priest, but you just used m-m-magic...” Io and Tasukete just stood there.
Haruhiro looked at Merry. She was clutching her head, as if trying to tear her own hair out. Something was weird. Her face was distorted and her teeth were clenched. It looked like she was suffering badly.
“...Merry?”
“It’s fine,” Merry responded immediately, but she didn’t look fine at all.
The Paw of Terror hopped along on its own until it returned to Hiyomu’s hands.
“...I’m gonna have to take this one to Master right away. It’s weird enough she hasn’t lost her memories, but now she’s started using magic, too. Besides, that Magic Missile was beyond anything your average mage could do.”
Was Merry still struggling? Her face was turned down, but she was still glaring at Hiyomu, and her lips were moving. Was she muttering something? He couldn’t hear her voice.
Hiyomu waved her arm without another word, and when Io and her group noticed, they took off at a jog. Hiyomu headed for the Forbidden Tower, too, keeping a wary eye on Merry as she went.
Haruhiro and the others stood there in silence, not moving until the four of them were inside the tower.
Not long after they were out of sight, something about the Forbidden Tower changed.
“Ah!” Kuzaku cried out when he realized. “The entrance...”
They had pulled the lever to close the secret entrance. If there was no other way in, Haruhiro and the others wouldn’t be able to enter the tower.
“Hmm,” Setora nodded. “I see. It only opens from the inside. So that’s why it’s called the Forbidden Tower.”
“Is now the time to be thinking about that...?” Kuzaku offered a slight retort.
Shihoru hesitantly walked over to Merry, and took a closer look at her face.
“Um... Merry-san?”
Merry shook her head, then smiled at Shihoru.
“Merry is fine. That’s what I asked you to call me before.” It was an obviously forced smile.
The sky was getting brighter.
It wasn’t dusk. It was dawn.
Haruhiro looked towards the walled city.
“...Alterna, huh?”

 
3. The Second Time

How long had that tower on the hill near Alterna stood there? Merry said she didn’t know.
Regardless, volunteer soldiers called it the Forbidden Tower, or the tower that never opens. They couldn’t go inside it, so it was more of a landmark to them than anything else.
If one were to be precise, it only forbade entrance from the outside, and it opened just fine from the inside, so it was really the tower that never lets people in.
“Anyway, why don’t we try going to Alterna?” No one objected to Setora’s suggestion.
Haruhiro began descending the well-trodden dirt path. It led from the Forbidden Tower to the bottom of the hill, and then on to Alterna. There were grassy fields on either side, each of them dotted with large white stones.
He asked Merry about them, and it turned out they were graves, like he had guessed.
“They’re almost all graves for volunteer soldiers... Comrades of ours are sleeping here, too.”
“Whoa...” Kuzaku was speechless.
“But without any memories, we can’t exactly mourn them, now, can we?” Setora didn’t hold back.
Shihoru came to a stop, and for a little while she looked around the graveyard, as if searching for something, but when Haruhiro called her name she started walking again.
Haruhiro wondered about his erstwhile comrades, now sleeping beneath these graves. When things settled down, maybe he’d have to ask Merry where their graves were, and pay them a visit. Though, like Setora said, there was no way he could mourn their loss when he didn’t even remember them, so it felt kind of pointless visiting their graves.
“Can we get in?” Kuzaku asked himself in a whisper.
The stone walls surrounding Alterna were easily twice the height of a person, and the gate up ahead was closed.
“The first bell in Alterna chimes at six in the morning,” Merry told them. “The gate should open after that.”
The sun was almost up, but there were still watch fires lit here and there along the walls of Alterna. Were there guards posted? There were humanoid figures standing on top of the wall.
“Six in the morning, huh...?” Haruhiro said, then placed his hand lightly on his chest.
Was he imagining this?
No, he wasn’t. It wasn’t his imagination. There was something making his heart race. He just couldn’t put his finger on what it was.
“So, you people are volunteer soldiers, right?” Setora asked Merry. “Who exactly were you fighting against?”
Merry thought about that for a moment before responding.
“To sum it all up in one group, the Alliance of Kings. Arabakia, the kingdom of the human race, was attacked by the orcs, undead, goblins, and kobolds. They lost this land, which we now call the frontier.”
“Hmm.” Kuzaku cocked his head to the side. “Then, Arabakia’s enemies — our enemies — aren’t human?”
Merry nodded.
“They’re primarily orcs and undead.”
“...Well, compared to fighting humans, that’s... You know? Well, maybe you don’t know. But still.” Haruhiro came to a stop.

Chapter end