"Brigitte?"

A concern-filled voice shakes me from my latest bout of self-condemnation.

"Ugh..." I drop my shoulders. "...shit."

After heaving yet another sigh, I use my staff as support to push myself fully upright.

"Sorry," I mumble, "I know I was really careless bac-"

"There is nothing that you need to apologize for!" Yahanaseara blurts out. "I was the one who acted foolishly!"

Before I even know what's going on, she's got my hand in both of hers and has her head bowed down so low I can't even see her face.

"Were it not for the distraction I caused, there is no doubt that you would have had zero difficulty slaying the lot of them..."

The grip of her trembling hands tightens.

"How could I possibly blame you for hating me after I nearly-"

"Stop."

"!!!"

Startled by my interjection, Yahanaseara freezes in place. And at the same time, I feel a not-insignificant jolt race through my hand and up my arm.

Because of COURSE she got the wrong idea from that why am I so fucking incompetent when it comes to other people and if I shake free of her grip this stupid misunderstanding will just get worse but I'm holding my staff with my other hand god damn it why am I so bad at this aaaaaaaagh

"......"

With a sigh of resignation, I tuck my staff under my shoulder to hold it in place as I reach for the Elemental Spirit.

"...don't get the wrong idea."

And rest my semi-liberated hand atop her fluffy head.

"I don't hate you."

As my hand sinks down into the depths of floof between her horns, it's barraged by countless tingly shocks.

It actually feels kind of nice.

"..."

Yahanaseara's trembling grip tightens ever so slightly.

"I acted without thinking..." she mumbles, "...and nearly got you killed as a result."

"That was my mistake," I reply, "not yours."

While giving her hair a quick rustle, I take this opportunity to finally slide my other hand free of her grip.

"I've been dealing with bandits in some capacity for almost ten years now, but it's not like I ever mentioned that to you," I say. "So you probably thought that I was just being suicidally careless, right?"

"...well, yes..." Yahanaseara mumbles.

"And it's my fault for not taking you into consideration," I reply, rustling her hair again. "So I owe you an apology, not the other way around."

"But I still caused you to-"

"To drop my spell?" I sigh. "That was one hundred percent on me for being a careless dumbass. Hell, I wouldn't even blame you if you wanted to yell at me for-"

"I would never!"

"You're yelling right now, though?"

"Geh-"

The frustrated expression on her face just makes me want to rustle her hair even more.

So I do.

"...if you want, we can talk some more about this later," I say while finally backing away from her, "but I really need to do something about all of this."

I gesture with at my staff at the scene of carnage that we're presently standing in the middle of.

"You would tend to their dead!?"

Yahanaseara hits me with a look that suggests that I just said the most absurd thing ever.

"I mean I did kill the lot of- ...most of them," I reply, remembering her contribution to this battle. "Responsibility of the victor and all that."

"They deserve nothing more than to have their bones picked clean by the carrion birds," she spits.

"True, but I'd prefer to avoid desecrating their corpses any more than I already have," I shrug. "Or traumatizing the next group that's unlucky enough to come through here."

The expression on Yahanaseara's face implies that she's still less than happy with the idea, but she keeps whatever additional opposition she has to herself.

As such...

"Silhouette Orchestra."

Man, I can't even remember the last time I cast this spell this many times in the same day.

"...you are going to use that 'collapsing star' thing to dispose of their bodies?" Yahanaseara asks, her disdain seemingly having given way to surprise.

"No, that'd be an even worse act of desecration than leaving them out here to rot," I shake my head. "I'm just gonna use this to gather everything up into a smaller area."

Because there is no way in hell I'm about to move bandit viscera with my bare hands.

Owing to my mastery of this spell (as well as the fact that this is far from my first time doing something like this), it doesn't take overly long for to comb across the battlefield and gather up all the gore, bodies and pieces of bodies that were previously strewn about.

And once I'm finished, the remnants of the people who tried to kill me are all gathered in a-

...well I wouldn't call it a heap since it's not like anything's piled on top of anything else, but still...

Meh, let's just say it's an area. A relatively small area covered in a single dense layer of dead bandits. And with the preparations complete, now it's time to finally lay these bastards to rest.

"Okay..."

A deep breath.

"This is gonna be annoying otherwise, so I'll need you to do me another favor," I say, glancing at Yahanaseara.

"A favor?" She tilts her adorable head in that adorable way she does.

"Hold on to this for me," I say, holding out my staff. "And stand right there."

"Eh?" Her eyes widen for a few seconds, but she quickly nods in acknowledgment. "Y- yes, of course."

Considering that the Aggregate Archive is like a head taller than me, the sight of someone as tiny as Yahanaseara trying to hold it up is honestly kind of comical.

And the way that she's practically frozen in place, desperately trying to hold it perfectly upright while also keeping it from touching the ground is even moreso.

I shall refrain from actually saying anything about that aloud though, as it's not the most appropriate sentiment to have at the moment.

Field of carnage and all that.

"Am... am I supposed to do anything else?" the Elemental Spirit asks with an uncharacteristically stiff expression.

"Nope," I reply, "just wait there while I do this."

"Very well."

Come to my aid
Oh beast of steel.
Place within my hand
The spear of kings
And let us rend asunder
All that stands before us

Fragment Lancer.

Normally I would've just broken off a tree branch to do this, but we're in the middle of a clearing and I have no intention to go all the way into the treeline just for that.

Not to mention that I could have just as easily forgone either of those options and used my staff instead, but there is no way in hell I would ever sully my father's greatest work by using it to trace a line in the blood-drenched ground.

Because that's what I'm doing with this here magically-created spear. Walking a full perimeter around the gathered corpses while dragging its pointy end along the ground as I go.

A couple of minutes later, I'm back next to Yahanaseara, the circle has been completed and I can now move on to the final step in this morbid process.

 

The tranquil surface is a facade
Concealing the hunger of the depths
Solidity is falsehood
Fluidity is reality
Eternally shifting
All shall move aside
For the eternal march downwards

Sinking Sediment.

 

The instant I vocalize the spell's name, all of its Script vanishes and the sole visual cue of its effect makes itself known- namely, the fact that all the former bandits and bandit parts slowly start sinking into the ground. And since it's not like I have any intention to use it again, I toss the Fragment Lancer-created spear into the effect radius and watch it get swallowed up along with everything else.

Despite how I'm using it right now, Sinking Sediment is primarily used for traps. It works by altering the ground within a specified area to behave more like water, with plant material "floating" in place and pretty much everything else that goes inside doing the opposite.

It also just so happens to be extremely useful for the quick disposal of bodies.

And now that that's taken care of...

"Thanks," I say, extending a hand towards Yahanaseara.

"Er-" She flinches. "Y- yes, it was nothing."

As she hands me back my staff, her movements are so jerky that I honestly wouldn't be surprised to hear creaking noises. And instead of staring right at me like she usually does, she's got her head lowered her head just enough for her bangs to cover her eyes and-

"......"

Her hands.

To be more specific, her nails.

The pretty silver nailpolish is still there, but it's also marred by a layer of black dirt or-

...or soot.

Leftover soot from when she jammed her nails into that guy who grabbed her's hand.

"...dammit..." I groan.

"W- what is wrong?" Yahanaseara suddenly snaps fully upright.

it's obvious that when she lightninged away the blood that she only did it to try and calm me down because I was in one of my moods and I probably scared her and she's just been dealing with it I know I'd be freaking out with that shit on my hands this entire time dammit I need to pay better attention to her how the fuck is this taking responsibility

"Your hands," I sigh. "The soot."

"Ah-" she grimaces. "...this is nothing, you need not concern yourself with-"

"Hold 'em up," I mumble. "I'll take care of it."

Exterior Erasure would probably do the job, but there's something about the actual act of washing hands that just feels nice. So instead of using the more complicated spell that probably two people other than myself even know, I opt instead to cast the most basic, beginner water spell there is.

Dew of life,
Come forth and quench my thirst.

Aqua Suspend.

And much to my surprise, Yahanaseara knows exactly what to do once the spell is invoked, plunging her tiny little hands into the grapefruit-ish-sized floating sphere of water that materializes above my decidedly more average-sized mitts and proceeding to scrub away all the charred blood-ash.

...

......why the hell does everything have to become so morbid today.