Mele the Horizon's Roar - 2

Stars were twinkling high in the night sky, dotting the infinite cosmos.

To the children, this night sky must have been unbelievably beautiful and so very, very sad.

The starlight framed the cart in shadow, climbing up the hill.

Many children called out incessantly as they continued to desperately pull the cart along.

"You see it, right? Look…the same iron pillars as always. We brought you to the Needle Forest! Ilieh!"

"Ilieh, hey! You better not be sleeping back there!"

"We're here together, okay? You're not in pain are you…?! Ilieh!" "…Yeah… I'm okay…"

Sitting inside the carriage was a young girl, wrapped up in a yellow blanket.

The pallor on her face was severe enough to see even beneath the moonlight, and she blinked in a fevered haze.

At the time, hers was a disease with no cure.

One of the boys jumped out in front and rushed off toward the middle of the Needle Forest. He raised his voice and called out a familiar name.

"Meleeee! Ilieh's here! She said she wanted to see you!"

The gigant was almost always lounging around on his back, but that was the one night when he wasn't sleeping like a log. He joylessly sat with his back to the children.

"Give it a rest, will ya…? Who the hell's that supposed to be? You brats all look the same to me."

Mele grumpily spat back without turning around.

He had almost never called the child—exceptionally small, even for a minia—by her name.

Part of it might have been because he was scared to develop any attachment to the all-too-feeble creature.

"Get off your high horse, you jerk! This is really gonna be the last time,

got it?! You've been close with her ever since she was born, haven't you?!" "..."

The gigant rubbed his face with a large hand, seemingly big enough to hold three full-grown adults.

In stark contrast to his everyday optimistic laugh, he spoke with a tremor in his voice.

"…Is it really time?"

The time for goodbyes always came, without fail. It came when someone set off on a journey, free of regrets, just as it came at times like these— always too soon.

"Damned minia… Your kind is too weak…too feeble by half."

At long last, the cart caught up to the boy. Adults, appearing to be the young girl's parents, gripped her delicate and fragile hand. The children whom Mele saw day in and day out were each calling out the girl's name.

Ilieh. She didn't even have a second name. Ilieh of Sine Riverstead. She was born into this world, and she would leave it without achieving anything at all.

"…Mele…you're awake… I'm glad..."

"…Just a coincidence, that's all. I was so bored I was counting the hairs in my beard."

"Oh, were you…? Um, Mele, listen… I always had…so much fun…"

"Is that right? Well, I'm happy to hear that. You enjoyed your life to the fullest, didn't ya, Ilieh…?"

It was around this time that the eyes of all the children in the area began welling up with tears, one pair after another.

Even the troublemakers, often fond of putting on a brave front, lost their composure.

Ilieh had been a precious friend to all.

Mele wasn't going to be swayed by these weaklings' tears, however. He was the strongest gigant of all, and the village's guardian deity besides.

He decided that he wanted to show her something big and impressive.

Wrapping both of his massive hands around the cart, Mele forced his trademark smile to his lips.

"All right. Well, if you're gonna kick the bucket today anyway, I'll grant any request you have. What'll it be, missy?"

"…Th-then, one more time…Mele. The stars…like you did before…"

"Oh sure, sure! You sat right up here on my shoulder and got a good look at 'em, didn't ya?"

"I…love…this village. The stars are…so pretty…"

"Bah-ha-ha-ha-ha! What, these tiny things? When the time comes, I'll decorate your grave with as many of 'em as you want!"

With his massive hands, big enough to hold three full-grown adults, the gigant carefully cradled the small, blanketed girl.

She was still here. She was still breathing, still warm, still full of life.

He remembered the day she was born. The sky had been just as clear as it was this night, with the stars dotting the heavens.

In an instant, her time had flown by.

Mele the Horizon's Roar had been born strong.

Minia… Their lives are so painfully short…

"Anyone else wanna look at the stars with me and Ilieh?" "I do!"

"Me too…!"

"Ilieh! I'm coming, too!" "C'mon, me too, me too!"

"Hop on, all of ya! No matter how close the stars seem, don't go trying to grab 'em!"

Mele held the precious little lives in both hands and lifted them high into the sky.

As he raised them higher and higher, even he got a good look at the glittering stars.

It was an exceptionally beautiful, and exceptionally sad night.

Higher still, so that she could get a better glimpse of the stars she loved so much. Higher than ever.

A memory from the distant past.

"…Hey, Dad."

It was the night following the deluge.

Away from the fireplace, the air was a bit chilly—the final remnants of the storm.

Finished with dinner, Miroya was brushing his teeth as he posed a question to his father, who was brushing his own teeth beside him.

"There was someone that went off to Aureatia from Sine Riverstead, right?"

"Oh, you talking about Misuna? Do you want to go to Aureatia, too, Miroya?"

"Nah, that's not it really, it's just… I wonder why Mele's heading off to those royal games."

"Hm? Where's this coming from?"

"…Well, it's a pretty long trip from out here to Aureatia, for one…"

"And you don't think he needs to go that far to earn money for the village, is that it?"

The serene and spindly father had the complete opposite personality and build from Miroya, who took more after his mother. Nevertheless, he was always able to see through and understand what exactly his son was thinking. "To tell you the truth, the royal games stuff was something we all decided

in part for Mele's sake, too." "…For Mele's sake?" "That's right."

The father thoroughly wiped down his face with a cloth and put on his normal pair of homely glasses. Since they had been exposed to the heat from the lamp, they were slightly fogged over.

"Mele's, well… He's never been outside Sine Riverstead before." "Whoa, no way! Really?!"

"Yup, that's right. He's always been up on that hill, sleeping…eating what the village brings him, shooting down wyverns for meat… It's always been that way, even back when my great grandfather was a boy."

"Doesn't he ever want to travel?"

"I'm sure he does. Normally, gigants live nomadic lifestyles. If they stay in one place, they more than likely run out of food… Not that that part really matters much to Mele."

It was the first time Miroya had given any consideration to what life must be like for Mele.

Up on that barren, weather-worn hill for two hundred and fifty years. No changes in scenery, and without meeting any other of his gigant brethren. Although he was the guardian deity of Sine Riverstead, he couldn't live together with the minia in the village. Both sides knew the difference in scale between minia and gigant was far too vast in every conceivable way.

Despite having eyes that could see farther than anyone else, he had never once visited the landscapes he beheld.

"This year's storm is over. That's why we want him to travel, just for a little while. With our survival assured for another year…we thought it would be nice if he could make some memories outside of this village."

"But he's gonna be fighting in the royal games. Even Rosclay will be there. Isn't that scary?"

"Hmm.… I think that might be a bit difficult for you to understand right now, Miroya."

The father folded his arms, vaguely pondering and frowning.

The chirping sounds of the birds could be heard coming in from the nighttime still beyond the window.

"Mele, well…he's strong." "I mean, sure, but even still."

"…He's strong. Far stronger than you think he is, Miroya."

Mele the Horizon's Roar was a champion of unknown valor and heroism.

Strangely, despite that, there was no one in the village who doubted he was the strongest in the world.

"Must have been about eight years ago now. Did you know the Demon King Army had spread out very close to where we are now?"

"What…? No way…"

"It's the truth. Honestly, I was terrified, and as a baby, you would cry nonstop every day. The whole area was crawling with soldiers of the Demon King's army…but if we didn't flee, we would've all been forcibly conscripted into the Demon King's army at some point, too. The situation was so bleak that there were some families that…seriously considered ending

it all."

"..."

Among the children, fond of telling stories about dragons, ogres, or even monsters like Toroa the Awful, the True Demon King was one figure that none of them ever joked about.

Everyone understood it to be a topic far too serious for their games.

"But that didn't happen. Everything else fell to the Army, but our Sine Riverstead alone remained safe… I remember it all. Almost every day, Mele would stand up on that hill, and look out over the Demon King Army. He had that black bow in his hands. He didn't fire any arrows… But the grim look he always had on his face was like nothing I had ever seen before."

"It's all thanks to Mele…that the Demon King Army never came here…?"

"Incredible, isn't it? Mele beat the True Demon King. It's the honest truth."

Maybe this was the sole anecdote describing Mele's heroics.

Miroya got the feeling he knew the reason why the adults never mentioned it. Imminent destruction, and rampant, shapeless despair. The day the smile disappeared from Mele's face.

Anything and everything completely different from the way the village was now… It was an event that everyone wanted to remember as nothing more than a bad dream.

Sine Riverstead was peaceful.

The residents of this small village continued to live on the lands of their ancestors, never forced to relocate to Aureatia, or have their bountiful resources devastated by the True Demon King.

Much like a select few of the other remote, unexplored regions scattered across the world, this was one of the minority of places that had been able to preserve its form through the age of the Demon King.

"Mele's a warrior. He's been strong forever…probably from even before he came to this village."

"…Even without anyone to fight?"

"Mele's always been strong on his own. It must be lonely. If he did fight, he'd be stronger than anyone else… Still, though, he continues to protect this village, without ever showing off his strength to anyone…"

Miroya didn't know about what sort of conversation occurred between the

adults of the village and Mele when he said he was going to join the games.

…However, if this was all true, if Mele had truly been a warrior the entire time…

He must have been so sad. So lonely.

Though the villagers brought him food, offered him arrows, and shared memories with him, this one part of him must have never felt satisfied.

The era of the True Demon King's tyranny itself gave birth to the various champions across the land. Thus, in this village, its safeguard of peace and tranquility unyielding, that meant not a single individual as strong as Mele ever appeared among them.

"…Dad. You think Mele can beat Rosclay?" "Sure he can."

"But I've never even seen Mele fire an arrow before." "Hm? You sure? I'm pretty confident you have."

The father cocked his head, puzzled, before opening the window that looked out on the hill.

The Needle Forest that overlooked the village was clearly visible from every house in the village.

"When you were seven, you said you saw a shooting star, didn't you?" "Yeah… I can't remember it all that well, though. What about it?" "Look. You can see it really clearly tonight, right?"

"...!"

Miroya instantly leaned out the window with excitement.

A shooting star. The clearly visible star was racing across the night sky. However, the star was climbing up to the heavens.

Scores of burning lines raced across the sky from the direction of the hill.

Rows and rows of them.

On a normal night, they might have been overlooked.

A pale light, too faint to be seen if not for the clear skies following the storm.

"…The lights from the burning earthen Craft Arts arrows. Far off into the sky there. Fast enough to scorch the earth below. Only Mele is capable of such a feat, and he does it every night."

"Mele…!"

Miroya simply hadn't noticed, but these shooting stars had been sparkling every night.

The huge gigant, always lazing around and laughing at everything… shooting his arrows night after night, right here in this village.

"Hey, Dad… Dad!"

Miroya stared so intently at the light he nearly fell out the window. Mele was a big liar. He shot his arrows after all.

Not only that, but he could pull off amazing stuff like this, too. Now, Miroya could believe.

He wanted to believe that the biggest presence in the Sine Riverstead for as long as anyone could remember was truly the strongest person in all the land.

"…You think Mele can beat Rosclay?!"

Stars were twinkling high in the clear sky. They stretched out across the wide-open skies.

…A beautiful sky, the storm long gone. "Ahhh, dammit… Damn near had it, too."

Looking up at the star twinkling in the sky, small enough to pass through the eye of a needle, Mele clicked his tongue quietly.

Nocking an arrow he pulled from the ground, drawing his bowstring, and then, aiming up high into the sky…he sent his arrow flowing toward the small speck in the heavens. He continued until he had exhausted all his strength and could enter a deep sleep.

He was sure that his aim was still just a little bit off.

He was sure that his arrow was still falling just a bit short.

Still, today was better than yesterday. That was why he knew he'd hit it eventually.

"Just watch."

Dragons don't devote themselves to training. The same was true for gigants and elves, who possessed equally long lifespans.

It is believed that, among the races of the world, it is only those ones with

a limited lifespan who are able to hone their skills and pour such fervent efforts into their endeavors.

However, if the long-lived races were able to devote the entirety of lives to the pursuit of a single skill…

The gigant cupped the star-filled night sky above him in both his hands. He was never without his confident grin.

On nights when the stars shined bright and clear, this was what he would

do.

"These should do nicely for her grave."

He possessed the apex of visual acuity, able to see past the edge of the horizon with his extraordinarily massive body.

He boasted near-godly accuracy, capable of changing the flow of raging rapids with a single shot.

He fired his bow with destructive force, each arrow impossible to block or evade—a single shot capable of leveling large swathes of terrain.

His astral arrows were launched from a place far from the realm of terrestrial comprehension.

Archer. Gigant.

Mele, the Horizon's Roar.