Chapter 78: Enter the Jungle

It was the next day. Jyn had gathered that the expedition was going to be soon, and now, with Alsae’s and Deckert’s permission, she was training Page in the Company arena.

There were more people in the arena today, but it wasn’t crowded. Page was left panting after struggling to dodge Jyn’s attacks for a full five minutes, but there was a smile on her face.

“You’re doing better,” Jyn said. “Unexpectedly.”

“You didn’t have to say that!”

Jyn smiled. A vestige of the past tried to weigh down on her smile, but she reminded herself that Page wasn’t her sister, but her friend—ah, well, they may as well be the same, but then and now weren’t the same. She wasn’t the same. She couldn’t be.

“If only I could cast spells, though…” Page said. Her pronunciation was still pretty bad, and she kept launching flaming biscuits at things. Instead, she wore a lanyard of wooden plates etched with basic spells. She’d rather not rely on her Collections, as she used up MP accessing them. There was also Kalender’s staff, which served as her primary weapon loaded with magic circles, but Kalender was working on it this afternoon to make the magic selector mechanism more straightforward and reliable.

“Kalender is working on your weapon, isn’t he?” Jyn asked.

“He is.” Page took a deep breath, expelling the residual tiredness of the fighting lesson. “Hey, um…h-how are you doing?”

“Hm? What brought this on?”

“You and Kalender, are you...”

Jyn blushed and shook her head. “Nothing of the sort.” She looked to Page. “What did you hope to hear?”

“Oh, nothing, just curious,” Page lied. The atmosphere between Jyn and Kalender yesterday over dinner was a little guarded. Their emotional auras, usually touching each other, were shy and colored differently: purple-white for Kalender, and yellow-gray for Jyn.

Page continued, holding up a training staff, “Come on! It’s two days until the expedition! Let’s go!”

***

The day of the expedition came.

There were nearly a hundred people gathered outside Harmony’s northern gate. They were mostly fighters with a few mages mixed in. A certain group of mages, however, stood out for being comprised of full-plate mages—specialists clearly from the castle, or maybe even the main Lyrican army. Most striking was a Librarian in the middle of that group, armored in padding like a marshmallow, and with fluffy chain mail gloves like mittens. Her headgear only left her eyes exposed, and strapped to both her arms were round shields, small enough to let her wield a heavy bludgeoning staff.

Page did not like the outfit one bit. It was hot inside, and sweat trickled down her face and she had no way of wiping it off.

She and Kalender caught sight of each other at the same time. They waved at each other.

“I can’t believe you recognized her,” Jyn remarked, waving to Page as well.

“It’s the way she stands,” Kalender said. “She stands in an A, while most people put their weight on one leg.”

Jyn chuckled. “How perceptive of you.”

“I mean, that, and look at how she’s looking around and shifting her feet. That’s the most Page thing you’ll ever see!”

Jyn and Kalender took their places near a group in front of Page and the research group. Lilia was already there waiting for them.

“Everyone!” Aunt Cage shouted from the front, “The group over there is the Research Guild’s! Don’t kill ’em.”

The cutthroat recruits spared the research group one glance, then went back to whatever they were doing.

The marching order came, and they set towards the Monster Wall. Jyn, Lilia, and Kalender were grouped together with a few others at the head of the column, while the Research Guild’s group was in the middle.

The general rowdiness of the recruits died down as the Monster Wall came into view. Everyone knew that it was a lush place, but now that they were coming closer, it was becoming more and more of a wonder how people even managed to enter it. Poking out of the jungle were thick fronds and leaves, and bushes with thorns that might be tipped with something paralyzing, for all they knew. It was just a wall of green, much higher than even Harmony’s castle walls. There was little in the way of sight-lines to peer through the curtain.

And yet, they dared to venture into a place like that. Even now, there were groups of harvesters chopping off leaves and fronds from the outlying hairs of the Monster Wall, all in the name of making cheap paper. Some among the harvesters were armed with spears, standing sentry against whatever might come out of the jungle, and yet, nothing ever came out. Nothing ever does.

“It stops being nice to look at once you’re inside,” Arpeggio said.

“Right…huh?”

Kalender looked beside him, and there was the suspicious, cloaked figure of the Princess Knight herself.

“Pri…Arpeggio?” Kalender whispered.

Arpeggio momentarily looked away because wow, someone actually used my name! She still wasn’t used to it.

“What are you doing here?” Kalender continued to ask.

She looked back to him. “The two don’t have a duel today, surprisingly. Since I have nothing to do, and I wish to escape mother’s grasp, I am here.”

Kalender looked around. Although the general anxious mood was still there, it was clearly because they were getting closer to the Monster Wall, and not because they were within arm’s reach of a living fairy tale. “How’s no one noticing you?” he asked.

“Same way I managed to join a marching column to Chello without anyone noticing until we were already there.”

“H-huh…”

Jyn looked back to Kalender, wondering why on Gaia he was chatting with some random stranger all of a sudden. She nearly stumbled when she realized it was Arpeggio, who didn’t fail to notice the Knight’s odd footing and snickered to herself for a prank well done.

The expedition stopped in front of the jungle. Kalender wondered how anyone ever got in. He scanned the treeline, looking for even a hint of a footpath, but there was none.

“Eyes forward—and squint!” Aunt Cage ordered. The last part confused a number of people, but after Kalender’s laser stunt, the mages all knew too well to shield their eyes from their impending optical demise.

(-2,798 MP)

All anyone “saw” was a roaring glow. Everyone smelled the wood fires, and everyone heard the crackling-exploding of wood. The violence of it all forced the unprepared to duck down out of fear of ballistic splinters.

By the time it was done, there was a steaming white path in front of them. The forest floor was embers and ash, too hot and unfit for travel.

“Tsk. Just 100 meters.” Aunt Cage turned around. She could normally do better—and actually, she could, but she had a better idea. “Your Highness, if you would please.”

Arpeggio smiled. “As sharp as ever, Witch Teller.”

She stepped forwards, instantaneously disappearing from Kalender’s side. When he finally processed that short conversation, he shut his eyes in a hurry, and just as well, because whatever violence Teller Cage fired out of her palms, Arpeggio unleashed magnitudes higher (-153,212 MP). Not crackling nor flames, but a terrain-changing bolt of concentrated starfire flashed the whole distance. Downrange, a plume of steam, splinters, and debris inflated like a bag, and the roaring shockwave came later, drumming everyone’s chest with a single, whiplashed beat, settling into a low, rolling thunder.

Just as suddenly as she appeared by Aunt Cage’s side, she reappeared beside Kalender’s. No one among the recruits realized they were the same person.

Pride for her handiwork lasted for all of two seconds before she bit her lips. What would Kalender think of that display? Was she too beyond human for him to be friends with, anymore?

The literal Champion of a goddess, with all of 30-something MP to his name, looked to her and said, “Maybe a bit of a warning next time.” He spat out some dirt that had gotten between his teeth.

Arpeggio chuckled. What was she worried about?

Even so, it was only she who was confident about walking into the Monster Wall—and maybe Kalender and Jyn, who knew she was there. The expedition’s leader, Witch Cage Teller herself also had confidence, but her other role was to take care of the recruits...in a place where there was a high chance at least one of them wouldn’t come out alive.

One kilometer. They would only do one kilometer today. A body count of one—and no more—should be enough to teach them to respect this place.