329 – Aro

When I arrive, I see Aro at the centre of a clamour of Lithovars.
The flesh of her face, belly, and arms are shaved away, and she cowers on the ground, clearly on the verge of death.
Her autoregeneration is restoring her missing flesh, but possibly because she’s low on MP, progress is slow.

The ground around her is pitted and trees are toppled, clearly the result of a fierce battle.
Scattered aroudn are corpses of what looks like [Starved Hunters] members as well as pieces of meat from the exploding rats, the trell rattons.

Aro’s shoulder is pierced by a Lithovar’s spear.
It has been thrust all the way through into the ground, fixing her in place.

“What are you doing!? I told you to stop!”

“Why would I stop!? No matter how you look at it, it’s a monster! See! It caught Gran’s leg and he still can’t move! That was clearly its doing!”

“Have you gone insane too!?”

The Lithovar who stabbed Aro is arguing with another.
Both are close to reaching for their weapons.

“Quickly, tear it apart! Before it summons a dreadful calamity!”

An old Lithovar woman with a cane shouts repeatedly, her face bright red.
Out of breath, her shoulders heave and then she notices me.
With tears spilling from her eyes, she falls to her knees and prostrates herself.

“Ooh, dragon-god-sama! Please, remove the evil one and save us!”

Not sure what to do, I almost panic.
I want to deny what I’m seeing.

And then, our eyes meet.
The flesh around her chin is scraped away, and there’s a big gash in her forehead where something hit her.
She smiles forlornly towards me, then opens her mouth as though trying to tell me something.

『I’m already satisfied, 』 is what I can tell she’s saying.
But there’s still regret in her eyes.
I understand that she’s offering her life in order to keep the peace for me.

“GUOOOOOH!”

Before I’ve decided what to do, I [Roar] powerfully.
The Lithovars all stiffen and fall into silent.
Now I can finally think calmly.

The one thing I was most worried about has happened.
Despite trying so hard to regain her human body, her broken and crumbled body has been revealed to the Lithovars.
She’s finally become able to speak.
So I thought that, if her first impression went well, she could have blended in.

But that stumbled at the first step.

I feel empty, thinking that everything I’ve done on the basis that there was something that she wanted to achieve, has now only led to meaningless torment for her.

I pull out the spear with my mouth and bring my head next to her.
After a moment’s hesitation, she touches me.
Her hand shines, and I feel my MP decreasing by a small amount.
Her regeneration speeds up.

“Dr-dragon-god-sama… Why…”

As the Lithovars watch dumbfounded, Aro gets to her feet and looks at two of them.
Then, she slowly stretches out her hand.

“…[Gale].”

With a snap, the ground beneath her feet splits open as a sandstorm rises.
I’m surprised too.
For a moment I think she’s attacking them all of a sudden, but all she’s doing is scattering the earth beneath her feet to hide herself from view.

In that opening, she escapes from the Lithovars’ encirclement and breaks into a run.

“Wh-what is this!?”

The Lithovars scream out again.
A multitude of rabbit-like things made of hardened earth shift around.
They’re the products of Aro’s [Clay Doll] skill.
It seems she spread them around as a distraction so she wouldn’t be chased after.

“It’s the undead’s kin! We need to crush them and seal them with a ritual! Call for the dragon-god’s miko! The miko! Where’s that traitor Bella wandering around!?”

Amidst the furore, a Lithovar woman shakes off the man who was holding and chases after Aro.
I finally realise who she was looking at earlier.

“Sorry!”

“Uguh!”

A man who was being similarly held backs takes advantage of the uproar over the [Clay Dolls] and elbows the person holding him down to run after Aro.
They’re Aro’s parents, Aino and Tatark.

“Don’t be stupid! That’s not your daughter any more! It’s a monster!”

One of the Lithovars reaches for Aino and pins her arms.
But the next moment, Tatark hits his face and pulls Aino’s hand in the direction of Aro.

“Hey, Aino! This way!”

“Y-you’ve done it now! Hey, someone stop those two! They’ll get themselves killed!”

The man who was elbowed shouts, pointing at Tatark’s back.

“That’s not the matter here! Hurry up and kill these kin! Dr-dragon-god-samaa! Dragon-god-samaa!”

The old woman shouts, spittle flying from her mouth, surrounded by three tottering earth rabbits.
After a final glance at the clamouring Lithovars, I follow Aino and Tatark.

In the last moment, I’ve created a gap between myself and the Lithovars.

Aro stands on the banks of a wide river.
In front of her stand Aino and Tatark, out of breath.
A lot of her body is still tattered, but it looks like most of her flesh has been restored.
At least, none of her bones are showing through.

“Aro! You…really are Aro, right? Say, say something!”

She was looking down to hide her red eyes, but in response to Aino’s appeal, Aro opens her eyes and looks up.

“…Dad, mum.”

Aro mutters.
With just those two words, Aino and Tatark stop their desperate appeals and close their mouths.

“…Since the day it was decided that I would be sacrificed… Both of you were always fighting about the dragon-god’s miko… Dad was saying he’d leave mum and go to the other village, so I was always worried.
Dad… You really left after that, didn’t you?”

As though at a loss for words, Tatark looks down.
As I thought, he held suspicion about how the miko was related to the sacrifices and left for the anti-dragon-god village.

“But… That monster’s no more, and the villages are back to one… I’m really glad that you followed me together.
Don’t fight anymore, okay?”

“We won’t! I definitely won’t do anything that makes you feel anxious again!”

“So Aro, come with…”

Aino reaches out, calling Aro’s name.
Aro gently takes her hand and squeezes it regretfully, then slowly shakes her head and pulls back.

“I… I can’t stay here… Bye, dad, mum.
I love you.”

Aro looks down and takes a step back.
A sudden gust of wind blows.

The wind stirs the ground, raising a cloud of sand.
There is a plop sound, then when the cloud of sand clears, Aro is gone.
In her place is white fragment.
It looks like a piece of her bones.
Tatark gently picks it up and passes it to Aino.
Then, as though they both suddenly realise something, the two of them burst into tears and embrace each other.

I hear nothing but the sound of their sobbing and the flowing of the river.

I glance at the small bone fragment that Aino is grasping one last time, then follow the river downstream towards the edge of the forest.
Her lingering regret was about Aino and Tatark, then.
She was unbearably worried about what they would do after her death.
If that’s the case, then it’s natural for her to return to the next world now that her regret has been resolved.

I continue down the river, feeling a gaping hole in my chest as I tell myself over and over that this is for the best.
I hear a rustling sound and turn my head to see a black spider with a white mask on its head, the petit nightmare, walking towards me.

“Guooo…”

I call out feebly.

Ooh… You’re coming with me? Thanks.
The other araenies?

The masked spider, the petit nightmare, shakes its head left and right.
It seems they’ll be staying in this forest.
For monsters, the environment is a matter of life and death.
On an instinctive level, moving around isn’t a simple matter.
I suppose that’s only natural.

As I face forwards, a tree suddenly turns around.
Treant-san! …Y-you were here.
I see… You’ll come too…? I see… H-how am I going to you? You’re a bit on the slow side, treant-san.
Well, I suppose there’s no need to hurry… As I think that, I spot a girl sitting in its branches.

The girl jumps from the branch and lands right in front of me.
The girl… Or rather, Aro.
I lower my head and bring myself closer to her.

H-huh… Why? Did she not pass on peacefully? S-she came here? Even though I need to leave the forest?

“…I can’t stay here either.” 

She looks back at the forest with a slightly lonely expression.
I silently apologise to her, and flustered, she flaps her arms.

“But it’s fine now.
I was able to say goodbye one last time… He said they wouldn’t fight any more.”

“Really, when I saw mother and father getting on well, I thought I would fade away.
But there was one more thing that I had left undone.”

One more thing left undone? Th-that… Is it okay for you to go far away, then? You don’t have to be considerate of me, you know?

She brings a hand to her mouth and gestures to me with her other.
Thinking it strange, I bring my ear close to her.
She softly kisses my cheek.

“It’s a secret.”

With just that, her white skin is tinged a faint red and a smile appropriate for her age appears on her face.
Then she turns her back to me and runs out of the forest.
Taken aback, I glance to the side and see my partner smirking at me.
A little embarrassed, I return my gaze to the front and follow.

After matching her pace for a while, I come to my senses and look back to see the petit nightmare just behind me, and treant-san, far behind us, desperately trying to catch up.