[V8C28] For It Will Disappear Come Dawn
Translated by Jodas 8: The Witch of the BoundaryThanks to the efforts of Wedge Tower mages and the Lange Family, the Monsters who attacked the Lange Hamlet were finally repelled.
That said, they had no clue when Monsters would come streaming out from the Crystal Territory next. Thus, when night fell, fires were lit all across the Lange Hamlet.
From a window in the Lange manor, Tia stared idly out at the torch flames flickering outside.
The night was buzzing with activity. She could hear countless human footprints and voices from every direction.
Because, even though it was nighttime, the lookouts couldn’t rest, doctors were called for, and leaders walked around assessing the damages.
The whispering voices that came to her ears were less relieved at successfully defending the village than they were concerned over the possibility that more Monsters would be coming any moment now.
“Tia.”
Tia was not surprised to hear a voice suddenly call to her from behind. She’d heard the footsteps.
She whirled around to find, as she expected, the young dark-skinned black-haired man Rikard Oks.
“Can I borrow some of your time?”
“Sure, that’s okay.”
Muttering “Thank goodness,” Rikard acted a little embarrassed as he broached the subject.
“I’m sorry to bother you this late at night, but… Could you come take a look at Frederik for me?”
“Is the surgery over?”
“Yes. He’s conscious again, but he’s showing no sign of resting.”
His body was always sleep-deprived to start with, then on top of that he fought desperately against Monsters and suffered grave wounds. Ample sleep was indispensable to a proper healing process, but it seemed like he had no inclination to sleep at all.
“Yeah, okay. I’ll sing him a ‘good night’ song.”
“Sorry to make you do this; I appreciate the help. We’ve reached the point where our only other idea is to use medicine to force him to sleep.”
Tia walked off alongside Rikard.
As she waddled, Tia asked:
“Rikard, I have a question.”
“What’s up?”
“…There was a large-scale extermination of Harpies, right? When was it?”
Tia asked her question with a flat voice, to which Rikard contemplated for a second.
“Oh right, the increase in Eyeball Birds was because there aren’t as many Harpies around, huh? Is that what you wanted to ask about?”
It sounded like Rikard had skillfully misunderstood the intention behind Tia’s question.
The members of Hütter’s class had been the ones to put forth the theory that the Monsters were able to leave the Crystal Territory by using the crystal shards. He must have assumed her question about the Harpy extermination was a part of confirming that theory.
“I think the Harpy extermination was about two years back. Helena and I don’t deal with Harpies that well, so we were sent off on a different mission, but Frederik should have been there.”
‘Yes, I thought so.’ Tia remarked internally.
If you were exterminating Harpies, mages who specialized in long-range attacks or mages who excelled at flight magic would be your best bet for getting the job done.
As one of the most outstanding flight magic users, and with his hatred for Monsters, there was no way Frederik wasn’t part of that mission.
(I knew I had made a mistake.)
Despite the commotion of the night, Tia’s heart was as dark and quiet as a lake at midnight.
The Harpy’s ears picked up human voices. Voices shouting their anger towards Monsters, voices of resentment, voices of fear — Those voices should all have been music to her ears as a Monster, as a Harpy. They should have been.
“Who was it… that killed the most Harpies?”
“I think Headmaster Möbius and Frederik got about half of ‘em each.”
“…I see…”
Reflecting the lights of the lanterns, Tia’s eyes wavered as she walked down the dark nighttime hallway.
Deep within her swaying eyes like amber liquor sloshing around in a glass, her piercing pupils searched for their prey.
The room where Frederik was trying to sleep was right ahead.
On the other side of that door lay the man who killed the Harpies… But Tia’s ears could hear him. She could hear that anguished voice through the door.
“Excuse us.”
Rikard opened the door. Lying atop a bed in the clean, spartan room, Frederik groaned in pain.
There was a chair beside the bed, upon which sat Helena. She wasn’t a doctor, but she knew enough to help out with medical duties.
After fighting against Monsters without rest all day long, since returning she’d spent all of her time making medicines, wrapping bandages, and working tirelessly to attend to the wounded.
Strangely enough, at times like this, her “It’s so sad” catchphrase was nowhere to be heard.
“Rikard, I can’t condone you bringing a young Apprentice like that into this room. Not to mention, I’ve heard that kid has been working all day and night already.”
Helena’s voice was quiet but extremely harsh. Rikard fell silent with an embarrassed expression.
While Helena leveled Rikard with an icy gaze, her expression softened when she looked at Tia.
“Tia Vogel. You had only just come back after your encounter with a Monster yesterday. On top of that, you managed to bring Frederik back safe and sound. No one would blame you for getting some well-deserved rest now.”
Helena, gently instructing her to go back to her room and go to sleep, almost seemed like an entirely different person from the Helena who cried while cursing out her allies during the daytime. The Ancient Magical Artifact ‘Eurydice’ on her neck was silent as well.
“You don’t need to concern yourself. I’m well experienced at forcing drugs down the throats of patients like him… In fact, I was just thinking of giving him those drugs to shut him up right now.”
“Pebubu…”
On second thought, maybe she was still a little terrifying.
Tia averted her eyes from Helena and looked at Frederik as he lay on the bed.
Rather than not sleeping at all, it would be better to say that Frederik was in a state of hazy consciousness.
He looked to have quite a high fever, as drops of sweat trickled across his pallid face.
His baggy eyes were hollow and unable to focus on the same spot. Only groans and murmuring could be heard from his dried-out lips.
“…Ngh… mn Mon… Ah, Ahh… Monsters… ll yo…”
With her superior ears to humans, Tia could understand the meaning of Frederik’s words.
“You damn Monsters, you killed my father. I’ll kill you.”
Tia had half a mind to repeat those words right back at him.
(…You damn human, you killed my sister. I’ll kill you.)
As she whispered those words in her mind, she noticed something.
Tia couldn’t bring herself to paint those words with hatred in the same way that Frederik could.
“…hy……ou……tend…an… Ah, ngh… Eurgh…”
Tia barely managed to stop her face from twisting weirdly to his muttering.
“Why would you pretend to be human?”
Those words were probably directed at Romy, who wore human skin and approached Oliver.
But he could say the same thing to Tia.
She felt terribly called out. The reason her heart ached so much was because Tia had only just realized the mistake she had made.
“…Helena, please just let me sing him a little song.”
“You can’t. Singing in the middle of the night would be…”
“Just a bit.”
Tia stared into Helena’s eyes.
Helena looked right back at Tia with her eyes that resembled pools of holy water, then stood up, relinquishing the chair.
“Go ahead.”
Chirping “Pefun,” Tia sat down in the chair.
Then, she held her hand over Frederik’s open but hollow eyes.
While she was still uncomfortable using human fingers, she’d reached the point where she could gouge out his eyes if she wanted to. Against a weakened human like this, it would be no trouble for her to wring his throat either.
“……”
Tia closed her eyes and began to sing.
So that her singing voice could cover up the nervous and fearful whisperings of the people.
So that the murmuring voices may be separated from the quiet of night.
“This is a charm of the night
A modest token for those who await the dawn
Teylfia larna lihr sheyt
The curtain shall hide the traveler from sight
Granting him but a moment of calm
Teylfia larna lihr sheyt
With this tiny charm in hand
A modest token to those who await the dawn
Teylfia larna lihr sheyt
For it will disappear come dawn.
…For it will disappear.”
The anguished groaning gradually faded away into silence, eventually replaced by the peaceful breaths of sleep.
His sleeping face was hard to describe as ‘peaceful,’ though. It looked like he’d more-or-less just passed out instead of naturally drifting off to sleep.
Tia hoped that Frederik wasn’t having any scary dreams. Truly, she did. It was no lie.
After all, that song was one meant for warding away the scary night.
“…My rival.”
Touching the sleeping man’s fingertips, Tia whispered inside her heart.
(Some day, we’ll kill each other for sure.)
That was why, at least until that day came… How should she put it? Even she didn’t quite understand what it was that she hoped for.
Yet, at the very least:
“For now, rest well.”