[V9C16] What the North Wind Brings
Translated by Jodas 9: Battle for the TowerFlowers of lightning bloomed everywhere you looked. The Werewolf with a girl on his shoulders — Finn — stopped to look up at the sky.
(…It’s Ms. Röhm.)
He’d made quite a bit of trouble for Ms. Röhm.
To begin with, they were planning to bring out this girl on his shoulders a little while later.
Yet after Julius was imprisoned and it had been decided that Sophie would curse Julius, Finn talked with Röhm and pushed the plan forward.
Röhm slipped sleeping drugs to the mages of the First Spire: White Smoke, while Finn brought out the ‘contractor girl.’
It was Röhm who undid the seal on the room where the girl was being kept.
Finn and Röhm’s objective had been to infiltrate the Wedge Tower and find the room where this girl had been hiding.
To that end, Finn frequently visited the Maintenance Office. Because, by helping out with maintenance tasks around the Wedge Tower, it would allow him to search the tower more naturally.
Röhm wasn’t a Monster, but a human who betrayed humanity to side with the Monsters.
Ever since the entrance exam, she had been a huge help to Finn.
She had secretly prepared clothing for Finn, who was running around in Monster form.
She had manipulated the mana measuring device during the mana evaluation.
She had handed him special paper that could withstand a Monster’s mana when they practiced pouring mana into paper.
And the most dangerous moment came during the magic battle against the Extermination Office.
As a Monster, Finn couldn’t use magical devices like humans could. He couldn’t pour mana into the paper used for inscription magic either.
So that left him with no choice but to get himself knocked out as soon as possible.
Sophie had comforted Finn, praising him for jumping out in front to save his teammates, but Finn’s heart had been filled with guilt.
(I’m not brave at all, and I wasn’t thinking of my teammates either, Sophie.)
The reason Finn had taken up this infiltration mission was because Finn had had his fang stolen by a man from the Extermination Office — by Dammer.
Finn had always been planning his revenge against Dammer.
“Hey.”
As Finn stood still, the girl on his shoulder spoke up to him.
It was a girl in her early teens with ivory skin and straight black hair. She wore a modest white dress.
“Mister wolf, is it fine for me to be awake yet?”
“……”
“Or would you prefer it if I pretended to sleep a little longer?”
There was no doubt that the girl was human.
However, this girl had been locked away in a room whose mana density was comparable to that of the Crystal Territory.
“Will you come with me?”
When Finn had asked her that question, the girl responded in a sweet voice.
“Yes, gladly.”
This girl knew her role.
Yet only now did Finn realize he didn’t even know the girl’s name.
“Can you tell me your name?”
“It’s Fiene, mister wolf.”
“Did you always want to be free?”
When Finn asked a question that suddenly came to mind, the girl chuckled quietly.
“I am a god, so I want to save everyone from hardship. Will you bring me to the people I need to do that?”
The girl twisted her body, leaving Finn holding her up with one hand.
When in his frail human body, he could never do something like this. Only now did Finn remember that his body was strong enough to lift up a human with one hand.
The girl’s white hands gently stroked the black wolf’s face.
“You wish to be saved as well, don’t you mister wolf?”
“Oi, Finn!”
A nearby bush rustled, revealing the form of a Werewolf with the same black fur as Finn. Yet this one’s body was twice the size of Finn’s.
“B- Brother…”
“You’ve got some nerve to go starting the plan all on your own! Our King hasn’t even arrived yet!”
His older brother growled ferociously at him. He was truly pissed off. The only reason he didn’t punch Finn right there was because Finn was carrying the girl.
Finn sulked and whimpered sadly. His frizzy tail curled up into a ball.
His brother stared into Finn’s mouth.
“Have you taken back the fang the humans stole yet?”
“N– Not yet…”
“You chickenshit! You still think you can call yourself a proud Werewolf! Have you no honor!?”
His brother howled. Finn’s ears drooped and he apologized.
“Sorry! I’m sorry, brother! I’m so sorry…”
“Whatever. I’ll take that girl to the King. You just go and take back your fang already…”
Mid-sentence, his brother stopped and looked up to the sky with a start.
Finn followed his gaze up as a cold Winter wind brushed against his fur.
A dusting of ice glittered brightly in the moonlight. Controlling that ice was a silver-haired boy wearing a simple tunic.
Flakes of ice scattered about from the icicles dangling from the boy’s sleeves.
“Winter’s here, so good evening.”
Finn trembled. That was a Greater Monster. In fact, wasn’t that the Monster Tia and the others encountered before?
“Along with the North wind, I came to deliver our King.”
Descending from the skies alongside the Monster of Winter was a young individual who appeared in its late teens, looking neither like a man nor like a woman.
White hair neatly cut at chin-length. It wore an ink-black robe that appeared to be dyed in the true blackness of the void.
A cloth bracelet woven from red threads dangled from the pale white wrists peeking out of its robe.
The most absurd thought crossed Finn’s mind: ‘That looks like the ones Rukiye makes.’ Were he not thinking of such unnecessary things, he wouldn’t have been able to keep his sanity.
(Scary.)
Before him stood the King of Monsters.
It typically resided deep within the Crystal Territory — an existence someone like Finn could never hope to see with his own eyes.
The King’s silver eyes gazed at Finn — or, more accurately, the girl Finn was carrying.
“I’d like you to set me down, mister wolf.”
As told, Finn set the girl down, then took a knee and bowed his head.
He was afraid to even let the King enter his field of view. His brother likewise kneeled on the ground and bowed his head.
Only the Monster of Winter, the sole Greater Monster, stood and watched the proceedings with a smile.
The King of Monsters spoke with a sing-song voice.
“We are the children of the Abyss. That which was born from the works of humanity. Thus, we cannot help but desire them.”
“I understand. You too desire salvation, don’t you?”
Why was this girl not terrified? She stood before the King of Monsters, practically a ball of concentrated fear.
The King of Monsters voiced the same question.
“Do you not know fear?”
“Nobody taught it to me.”
Finn lifted his face slightly, taking care not to look at the King of Monsters as he beheld the girl’s face.
For the first time this girl, who had always been smiling beautifully, clouded her expression. Not in fear, but in loneliness.
“…No, that’s right. The only one who taught me fear was my cute little birdie. That girl taught me how scary and lonely it was to lose something.”
The girl was beautiful as she spoke.
Her beauty was not one that could be expressed in words.
Even Finn, who understood little about human anatomy knew that everything about this girl — her appearance, voice, expressions, and atmosphere — were all beautiful. Humans might describe such a thing as mysterious or perhaps divine.
The King asked again. While exuding an aura that would drive any human or Monster mad with fear, he spoke silently.
“Do you mourn for death?”
“The Daughter of God is here for that purpose.”
“What say you of the deaths of Monsters?”
“The salvation you desire.”
The King’s hand, decorated with the red bracelet, grabbed the girl’s hands.
The King of Monsters spoke as if singing.
“The Wall has already been lost. Now that we have our freedom, I wish for only one thing.”
Yes. There was no more Wall to hold the Monsters back. With the Crystal Rivets, they could go wherever they wanted.
The Monsters had at last obtained the freedom they desired.
Yet it appeared the King of Monsters’ true wish was for something else.
“O Daughter of God — “
Just as the King of Monsters started saying something, a voice came out of nowhere.
“Ah, where is my child? … My beloved child… Ah, give her back… Give her back…”
It was the voice of a mature woman. A voice Finn didn’t recognize.
Yet what confused him was where the voice was coming from.
Among the magecraft that humans used was something called ‘voice projection magic.’ That was what Röhm had used when she adjudicated the magic battle against the Extermination office. By using that, someone’s voice could reverberate across a wide area.
However, he had a feeling that the voice he heard now sounded very different from voice projection magic.
“Ah… Where is my child? … Give her back… Give her back…”
It was an anguished, sobbing voice.
To Finn’s good ears, it sounded as if that voice was reverberating from everywhere in the Wedge Tower at once.
Then, a shrill sound could be heard. This time it was actually voice projection magic.
The voice of Assistant Headmaster Miriam echoed out with the help of voice projection magic.
“The Ancient Magical Artifact ‘Chariclea, the Wedge Tower’ has activated, conducting an emergency restoration of the Wall. Headmaster Möbius will arrive shortly. All hands, hold out a little bit longer.”