Their eyes held each other, violet and gold, for a long, still moment.
Then the strength went out of Echi's hand.
She released the sword and stepped back. Baraha sat up and rubbed the back of his neck. His hands were cold with dried sweat.
"I'll trust you, Senior."
She said it, and then added in a quieter voice:
"I'm sorry about the cut."
"This? It's barely a scratch. Even smaller than the one on my back."
"Ah! Speaking of which, is that one healing all right?"
"I gave it some first aid. It's fine."
He stood as if the topic were already closed. Working his neck, he said:
"I'll say it again. Don't worry. I won't tell anyone. Not even my Lord."
"…Thank you, Senior."
She got to her feet after him. Picked up his sword and scabbard from where they'd rolled, and handed them over. He fastened them to his waist.
"There's a lot more I want to ask, but we can talk later. So... what now? No more monsters. Do we just wait for the node to open?"
"There's something I want to test first."
"Hm?"
"Let's go back to the starting point."
She turned and walked. Baraha followed. He stared at the much smaller figure ahead of him and let out a wry, private smile.
He'd tried to protect her. She'd protected him instead. And then threatened to kill him.
But it didn't feel bad. The opposite, in fact, watching her walk ahead of him made his chest tremble in a way that was decidedly pleasant.
Her appearance was a mess, clothes cut to nothing, hair coming loose, blood and crimson liquid splattered across her skin. And yet he couldn't stop looking. Her round head. Her slender neck. The legs visible beneath the shortened hemline.
When she had pinned him down with a sword, he had been more rattled by something other than the killing intent. Baraha pressed his hand over his mouth.
'There's no denying it anymore. I've completely fallen for her.'
The exact moment was hard to name, it had built from more than one.
His insides felt warm, and a grin tried to form under his hand.
A man of his upbringing charged forward when he found a woman worth having. And before charging, he devised a thorough plan, which was why that approach tended to succeed. Baraha began quietly working through strategy.
'We already share a secret, so we'll naturally grow closer. And however she tries to explain it, she clearly came into that node because of me, which means there's some degree of feeling there already. Good starting conditions.'
Entirely unaware of what was being plotted behind her, Echi was listening to the demonic sword.
[I think I might understand why the node formed. Back when I was with my previous owner, we'd see nodes fairly often. That person also used KairosGiosa to reverse time. There might be a connection.]
"…Rakia Giosa follows the disruption caused by KairosGiosa?"
[Maybe. You're the center of the change, you're the one who reversed time. The more things shift from where they were, the more nodes might appear nearby.]
"What happened to your previous owner?"
[He tried changing things for a while. At some point he said something about carelessly altering fate being dangerous, and started living quietly. Looking back, it was probably because of the nodes. The more he changed, the more they appeared near him.]
"…Damn it."
[I don't know for certain. I'm just saying it seems likely.]
"I understood you the first time."
She gritted her teeth and walked faster.
Lost in their separate thoughts, they reached the starting point without incident. With no monsters and no shadow soldiers remaining, the path had felt like an ordinary walk.
"What are you going to do?"
"Stab it again."
"Well... since the monsters are gone, it shouldn't be dangerous. But will that actually do anything?"
"The monsters inside a node are distortions of the space, not real creatures. They all surged when I struck the starting point before, so I think that's the node's weak point. And since this space was made by Rakia Giosa, stabbing it with ValderGiosa might... ah."
She stopped, mid-sentence, and her expression went strange.
She patted her face. Her clothes. Started looking around urgently.
"What's wrong?" Baraha asked.
"Just a moment..."
She looked at the remains of her burned tent and looked like her world had briefly ended. She turned to Baraha with desperate eyes.
"Senior! Do you have a mirror in your barracks?!"
"…What?"
"A mirror! I need a mirror! I can't go out looking like this!"
Yurien might be outside. She couldn't appear in this state. It was too close to what she had looked like when the cursed sword had her.
Baraha's expression did something complicated. He covered his mouth with one hand, shoulders trembling.
"A mirror.... yeah... there should be one.... pfft... the box next to the cot"
Laughter leaked through despite his efforts.
Echi shot him a look and sprinted for his barracks. The box next to the cot, right on top: a hand mirror. She held it up.
[…Doesn't this look just like the old days?]
Blood, dark liquid, ruined clothing, disheveled hair. A different hair color and different eyes, but otherwise. A chill moved through her.
Baraha appeared at the entrance.
"There's a barracks with water canteens nearby. They might still be intact. And if you need clothes..."
"Yes, please, desperately."
"My things would drown you."
He looked her over, started to say something else, and his face went red. He turned away.
"Borrow from Dame Teresa's barracks. It's close by. Given the circumstances, I think she'd forgive you."
"That works. Thank you, Senior."
"I need to clean up too."
"Yes. And, we should agree on our story before we go out."
He stopped, looking at her. She thought for a moment.
"It would be hard to hide everything, so, we tell the truth about almost all of it. But the monsters we fought were only at ghoul level."
His gaze drifted involuntarily to the enormous corpses scattered everywhere. She laughed awkwardly.
"It needs to be credible. We held out against the monsters and survived until the node dissolved. That's the story."
"…Fine. Works better than the truth for keeping your Giosa ownership quiet. By the way, Ian. He's been completely silent. Did the monsters get him?"
He bared his teeth.
"If that bastard made it out alive, he wouldn't have enjoyed the reunion."
"Who knows. Everything was so chaotic."
"Fair enough. Let's go. I'll show you the water."
He lost interest quickly and took the lead.
They found the canteen barracks.
The supplies were intact. They took one each and parted ways. Echi went to Teresa's.
"I'm sorry, Dame Teresa. Just borrowing a few things."
She murmured apologetically while rummaging. Teresa dressed plainly, and though taller, was at least another woman, there was something borrowable. Echi found a white blouse, leather trousers, a jacket, gloves. No boots in her size; she'd have to clean her own. The trousers were loose at the waist and too long... she cinched them with a belt and rolled the hems. The blouse was slightly tight across the chest but wearable.
Better still: she found a small collection of cosmetics. Lipstick, charcoal, cover cream. She had not expected to find anything at all.
She washed behind the barracks with the canteen water, changed, combed her hair. Applied what she'd found. Checked Teresa's mirror several times. No trace that might remind anyone of the demon with the cursed sword. She looked exactly like Countess Echinacea Roaz, wearing borrowed trousers because her dress was destroyed.
Anxiety persisted, but there was nothing more she could do.
"Echi, are you ready?"
"Yes! Sorry for the wait!"
She stepped out, still patting her damp hair with a cloth. Strands of wet pink clung to her clean, pale face. Baraha's expression flickered; he looked away.
"Your hair is still wet. Take your time."
"No! It's better not to linger. The starting point might behave the way I predicted. Let's check."
They walked back to the clearing. When Baraha reached for the flagpole, she stopped him.
"You don't have to hold it."
She removed her right glove and put it in her pocket. Drew ValderGiosa.
Baraha immediately took a step back.
[Look at his face. Like I'm a contagious disease. Tsk.]
'Honestly, that's a mild reaction.'
She gripped the sword and launched herself off the ground. Crimson liquid splashed in her wake, but she was already well above it.
She saw the crease in the air. Mid-flight, she struck it with the demonic sword. The entire space seemed to lock up for a moment.
She landed on top of Baraha's barracks to avoid soiling Teresa's clothes.
She retrieved the sword and let it dissolve back into her palm, slipped her glove back on, and looked up. A long fracture now ran outward from the starting point, smaller cracks branching from it.