Chapter 71
[Unknown, are you still in Alucina?]
[Unknown! Are you very busy? I wanted to ask you something.]
Since then, I had sent several messages to (Unknown), but received no replies. It seemed these elves really didn’t like talking to strangers.
Welcoming Leviathan was at hand, and this was one of the few cards I had left to play, yet even this turned out to be a dud. Damn it.
As the day of the final battle approached — just one day left — I felt like I should be too anxious to eat… but strangely, my appetite was fine. Probably because I thought my body might no longer be capable of eating anything after tomorrow.
Sitting alone at the village bakery, halfway through my third piece of bread, I sent another message to (Unknown).
[Unknown, you must be busy. I’m eating bread. The fresh milk cream bread at the village bakery is really good. Try it sometime.]
This wasn’t a diary, and yet I kept leaving these messages out of habit, not even knowing if they were read. I had just lifted my head when—
“Hhhk!”
Alfie’s face was suddenly right up against the bakery window I was sitting by — way too close. Her eyes sparkled with excitement. I seriously almost choked on my bread.
“Keisha! Keisha, you’re here!”
As soon as he saw my face, Alfie got all hyped up, bouncing in place before bursting into the bakery.
“Keisha, you’ve seemed down lately. Did something happen?”
He asked while munching on a piece of whole wheat bread like it was the most normal thing in the world.
‘Alfie is unexpectedly sharp, huh? But how should I even explain this? Would he believe me if I told him?’
More than that, did Alfie know about the otherworldly girl who appeared every year? And that because of her, this entire world’s daily life repeated in a yearly cycle?
There were a lot of things I wanted to ask, but I decided to hold off. Surviving tomorrow came first.
“Mm… how should I put it? I’m in a situation where I kind of… need strength.”
“Strength?!”
Alfie raised one of his fluffy arms and struck a muscle-flexing pose.
No, not that kind of strength.
“Um… so, I’m looking for a way to maybe survive being hit by someone really strong.”
“…Someone’s trying to hit you?! Is it those bullies?!”
“No, not them… More like… a way scarier bully, I guess. Sorry, Alfie, it’s hard to explain.”
Leviathan. The king of all bullies—not even comparable to small fry like Brachias.
I took a gloomy bite of my milk bread, chewing slowly. Alfie started rummaging through his pockets. Then he plopped something onto the table.
“I’ll give you this!”
“…What is it?”
What he set down was a small purple orb about the size of a marble.
“It’s a magic orb the Grand Sorcerer of our kingdom made by… uh, ruminating on it for a whole year.”
A whole year of ruminating…? That sounded like information I very much did not want to know more about. More importantly, what was this orb actually for? Was it even safe to touch?
As I narrowed my eyes suspiciously, Alfie nudged the orb a little closer to me and beamed.
“They give one to every exchange student! But I haven’t needed to use mine yet.”
“…What’s it for?”
“We mostly use it when we urgently need to go home.”
“A teleportation orb?”
“Close. It swaps the phase of two designated targets.”
“…The phase…?”
I tilted my head. It was one of those explanations that felt almost clear but still slipped just out of grasp. Alfie went on cheerfully.
“For example, if I say ‘Swap my phase with the haystack at home!’ and smash the orb, then our positions get switched!”
“Oh… I get it now. So the targets can be anything?”
“I heard there aren’t many restrictions. But I’ve only ever seen it used to go home, so I’m not sure about the rest.”
If I ever need to make a quick getaway, I could switch places with Ventus using this thing, right? It seemed useful enough, so I decided to accept it gratefully.
“Oh, but when you use it, you need to have a clear image of what the target looks like.”
“You mean I can’t use it on something if I don’t know what it looks like? Like a legendary being or something?”
“Exactly!”
“Thanks. I’ll put it to good use!”
“I hope it helps you, Keisha!”
With that, I had one more item added to my anti-Leviathan arsenal. Compared to the two duds I already had, this one felt… ambiguous, but still, it was better than nothing. I shoved another bite of bread into my mouth like it was my last supper.
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