Editing/Standardisation: Medicine Melancholy
Original Translation: Medicine Melancholy
Iris
“…ey! Wake up!”
My consciousness slowly resurfaced as someone weakly slapped on my cheeks to wake me up.
So cold.
The feeling of the wet cloth sticking to my entire body was uncomfortable, and I felt as if my body heat and even my strength were being taken away from me every second.
What happened to me…?
The cold made it difficult for me to stay conscious.
Still, as I concentrated on retracing my memory, the events just before gradually came to the forefront of my mind.
The unexpected encounter.
While battling the enemy, the ground below us collapsed, and I jumped after Reiji-san who fell into the hole, then I got hit on the head and my consciousness went dark…
“…Reiji-san?!”
In an instant, my dazed consciousness was awakened, and my body sprang up…
“Argh?!”
“Idiot, don’t move so suddenly!”
The moment I tried to get up, a sharp pain came from my right shoulder and pierced through to the brain’s marrow.
As my vision flickered and greasy sweat ran down my forehead, Reiji-san gently laid my fragile form back down on my knees while looking at me with concern.
I breathed a sigh of relief. Despite everything else, we both managed to survive.
“…You got a dislocated shoulder and probably some torn muscle. You’re lucky I was able to make a sling from the stuff in my bag… Idiot, why do you always overexert yourself like that?”
“…I can say the same thing to you, Reiji-san.”
While enduring the oozing pain, I rebutted Reiji-san’s words with a pout. I quickly realized what I was doing and turned my face away.
“What’s with the ‘I knew you’d pull this crap again’ when I was trying to save your life? Not only did you interrupt me that one time, but you also told me to go back when you were falling to your death because ‘it’s dangerous’! How were you going to survive that fall on your own, Reiji-san?!”
He always chided others, including me, for being reckless, but ignored his own safety all the time.
I raised my voice in frustration, but regret washed over me as soon as I finished. I spoke out of line, didn’t I?
“It’s a good thing there’s water below us.”
Both Reiji-san and I were soaking wet, a true testament to the fact that we happened to fall into a deep pool of water.
I shifted my gaze elsewhere and immediately saw a scene not unlike the underground lake of a limestone cave I had seen once in my old world.
“Yeah, you’re right… Sorry about that.”
Reiji-san bowed his head to me in apology, and any remaining anger I had left was rapidly cooled with guilt.
“…No, it’s me who should apologize for losing my composure like that… You’ve done so much for me during the previous battle, even now you’re taking care of me…”
And he’d always been there for me since the beginning. I was too embarrassed to say that last part, though.
“Actually, how did we fall down here in one piece anyway?”
At the time I lost consciousness, it must have still been quite high in the air, since I couldn’t see anything below. If we had fallen straight down, we wouldn’t have gotten away mostly unharmed even with my “Protection” and the pool of water cushioning our fall.
“Well…”
Reiji-san started recounting what happened after I lost consciousness.
First, the reason I was knocked unconscious was because of debris falling on my head.
Second, the Reactive Shield enchantment of the “Clarte Iris” I was wearing was activated.
And last, Reiji-san quickly held me in his arms, leapt to the wall using a large piece of debris as foothold, jammed his sword into the wall and used it as a brake to slow down the fall, saw the pool of water below, jumped and landed in the water… and somehow carried me to where we were now.
The pool was clear, fresh water now that I looked at it calmly, but there was no way Reiji-san could see whether it’s deep enough to land, or whether it’s even normal water. That was a huge gamble between life and death, to say the least.
“…It’s still incredible even if you say that…”
We were only saved as a result of good luck on top of good luck.
Not to mention, the clothes I was wearing did indeed play a part in protecting me. Otherwise, I wouldn’t have been able to talk about this now.
…Thank you very much, Milly-san.
I inwardly expressed my gratitude to the person making my clothes, who was not present.
“Yeah, totally… I’m getting chills now that I’ve put everything into words… and the sword I usually use is completely trashed.”
I followed his finger pointing to the side and saw Reiji-san’s familiar sword lying there, broken. Half of its body was covered in cracks, and its blade was crushed.
“I already had the feeling that it was about to break when I got hit by that enemy attack up there… and somehow it managed to protect me and you until the very end… I salute you, partner.”
Reiji-san bid farewell to the sword he had been using ever since he came here, perhaps a bit saddened by his attachment to it.
“…Okay, so we’re now freezing and soaking wet all over. We’d better go somewhere that’s safe to light a fire and fix that shoulder of yours while we’re at it.”
“Why not here?”
“…We’re deep inside a mine, and unless you want us to go up in a not-so-pretty explosion, I wouldn’t advise you to light a fire in here. At least it looks like air is getting in, so we shouldn’t be suffocating.”
Yeah that doesn’t sound really pretty.
“I guess we could fly back the way we came…”
Reiji-san immediately shook his head and pointed upward. I turned my gaze toward that direction.
“So beautiful…”
The view was unexpected and spectacular.
I realized that we had been getting by without any lights since we fell down here. When I looked closely at the darkness, I could see that the entire ceiling, and even the floor, was covered with something that emitted a faint blue luminescence.
“It’s like I’m floating in a starry sky. What could this light be?”
“…Magic nullification stones, I’m afraid.”
“?!”
I remembered touching one of those when a peddler in town was selling it. This ambient light, all of it, was from those stones…?
“Iris, can you use magic?”
“Um… ‘Light’”
I chanted the most basic illuminating spell… and it’s as I feared, I got no response at all. In addition, the magic power that should have been flowing through my entire body was gone without a trace.
“It’s no good… I can’t get my wings out either…”
“Guess we’ll have to walk all the way then…”
Reiji-san’s words trailed off toward the end. Now that I think about it, he hadn’t moved from his position since he laid me down on my knees a while ago, could he actually…
“…Are you injured, Reiji-san?”
“Well… let’s just say the landing wasn’t exactly smooth.”
Reiji-san’s left arm was hanging slack, and he had not moved it since a few minutes ago… It’s not hard to imagine that because he was protecting me, he was struck without being able to defend himself.
“…My arm didn’t break or anything, and my legs are still good, aside from a twisted ankle… Don’t worry, I can still walk you out of here.”
“I’m sorry, if only I could be more helpful at this moment.”
“You should be happy that we’re both still alive… Thanks for saving me back there.”
He smiled at me, and I did my best to awkwardly return the smile.
By the way, I thought I felt something strange during the fall. It was like watching someone else moving my own body while I watched from a bird’s eye view, that kind of strange feeling.
What could it be…? It’s a vague memory, like an event in a dream, and it didn’t fit together well when I tried to pick it up.
“…Let’s get going. We can’t keep gawking at the scenery forever.”
With that, Reiji-san stood up and extended his hand to me.
He had a point. Even though we were saved for the time being, the current situation remained quite urgent.
“…I wonder if Nii-sama and Hayato-kun are okay.”
“I trust that Saul is sensible enough to get both of them to safety… I hope.”
“Then we should get back to them as soon as possible.”
I drowned out the anxiety that’s riddling my heart, grabbed Reiji-san’s hand, and put all the strength I could muster to somehow raise my weak legs-
CLANK
From far away, we heard footsteps of someone clad in metal greaves and froze on the spot.
“Quiet… Did you hear that?”
“That isn’t Nii-sama, is it…?”
None of us wore any metal armor when we came here, so this someone… or something, was unknown to us. We were both in no condition to fight properly and tension was running high.
CLANK
The sound of footsteps was getting louder and louder, as the unknown figure approached us without fail.
Reiji-san reached for the dagger strapped to his waist belt.
“Stay still… No matter what happens, I’ll protect you.”
Cold sweat dripping on his forehead, Reiji-san clumsily moved forward to shelter me… his legs clearly didn’t look very good. There’s nothing I can do now that I couldn’t stand up and use magic. I bit my lips in frustration.
As if to ridicule me, the unknown figure finally appeared out of the darkness.
A small humanoid dressed in full body armor.
“Dammit, a goblin?!”
Reiji-san clenched his teeth in rage. With his legs injured and his weapon gone, he was no match for even a normal goblin, let alone a goblin in full armor.
The goblin slowly moved his hands…
…Both hands raised. As if he was trying to tell us he isn’t hostile.
“…Eh?”
“…Huh?”
While we were frozen by the unexpected behavior, the goblin raised the visor of his helmet, revealing a definitely-a-goblin face, and opened his mouth…
“Sorry. Didn’t mean to scare. I’m not hostile. Can you calm down and hear me out?”
The goblin, while a bit broken in his speech, had a baritone, somewhat of a dandy voice.
My brain refused to comprehend what just happened.
“You…”
After a few seconds, my head finally caught up with the situation and began to work again.
Naturally, a voice escaped from both of our throats.
“YOU TALKED?!!!!”
…Uh, actually, it was a scream.
APM - Translation 