Linaris the Obsidian - 1

It was back before the assault on Togie City, four short months prior.

Itaaki Highland City, home of Sirok the Sextant, was cold and dreary, blanketed in cloudy weather year-round.

It wasn't a poor city. The region, with its clear waters and yields of high- quality radzio ore, was a high-class vacation home destination, up until they were all abandoned in the face of the True Demon King's invasion, and it used to be quite active and prosperous.

Now, it was as though a thin black curtain was draped over all the scenery. The people on the streets constantly felt the weight of this invisible black curtain, with the colorful goods displayed in the market, too, looking faded through its veil.

It may have been an effect of the True Demon King's terror, still lingering in the world.

Or perhaps…it was the shadow of Sirok's own mind, having once sworn in his young heart he would retake his city from the Demon King, only for his own strength to prove insufficient to grant his wish.

After making it through the city streets, he looked at his destination.

That's a big mansion.

The residence rose up from its hidden spot amid the dense, dark forest. He felt it didn't fit the scenery surrounding it.

Though it may have been an aristocrat's secondary home, there didn't seem to be any good reason to construct a house in a place so difficult to get to, and which received so little sunlight. Though there was ivy crawling up the outer walls and gate, given its location, it would have been impossible to show off the house's fine craftsmanship to anyone in the first place.

I'd be surprised if there was even anyone living here…

Sirok had been hired by the adults to get a clear census of the residents who had returned to the mountain.

It wasn't a particularly strenuous job. His youthful stamina and the leg muscles he had built up in his eighteen years as a warrior proved very useful as he roamed up and down the Itaaki Highlands.

Although it wasn't his preferred way of life, this was his reality now. All that his parents left behind for him was the enormous house his grandfather had once been gifted by a noble.

I need to finish up the mountain area fast. I still have to cover the foot of the mountain, too.

Consequently, Sirok then peeked inside for just a moment through a gap in the gate and planned to label the place uninhabited and be on his way.

"…Oh."

In other words, he hadn't thought about what he'd do if there was a person on the other side.

A well-kept garden stretched on the other side of the gate, its paint beginning to flake away, and there, in full bloom, were a number of beautiful pruned black roses.

Standing among them was a young girl.

In front of one of the rose bushes, she was gracefully crouched down while trimming their leaves.

A dense, dark forest. Roses as black as the dead of night.

Yet looking at the young girl's profile…her breathtakingly pale skin was enough to shine through the dark curtain.

…A person. Did she always live here? Or did she wander in and settle down?

She looked to be sixteen or seventeen years old—nearly the same age as Sirok.

Nevertheless, her beauty made him question if she was a figment of his imagination.

The smooth nape of her neck peeked out from her downturned black hair.

Long eyelashes, tinged with melancholy. Pupils colored gold.

…Those pupils happened to turn toward Sirok. A brief, heart-stopping moment passed.

The young girl smiled.

"…Um, I-I've been tasked by the council of lords to verify all our

residents…"

Immediately, an excuse forced its way out of his mouth.

That wasn't his reason for looking at the girl moments prior. Sirok was ashamed of himself.

"Oh, is that so?"

Her smile exceedingly delicate, she walked up to Sirok, who had remained rooted to his spot in front of the gate. Sirok's heart was deeply captivated by the girl's floral fragrance; she was a pale blossom made flesh.

"How do you do? My name is Linaris. Might I have yours?" "S-Sirok…the Sextant. You're the person living here…right?" "..."

Linaris didn't answer. Something else appeared to have caught her attention.

She slightly knitted her well-kept eyebrows and placed a finger to her pale lips.

"I do beg your pardon…but it seems you've been injured." "...Huh?"

Following her gaze, Sirok finally became aware of the blood trickling down his left middle finger.

A sharp cut. He had either scratched it on the edge of the iron gate, or he had pricked it on a thorn of one of the roses wound around it. He had been so enthralled by the young girl's appearance that he hadn't even noticed the pain in his finger.

"Oh, no, my apologies…! But this cut isn't really worth worrying about…"

"Please, come inside the mansion so I may treat it." "I'm fine, really."

"…Should one of the roses I raised prove to have injured you, Master Sirok, why, I would be unable to face your parents or your employer… I ask that you please reconsider my offer."

Faced with the fixed stare of her gold pupils, Sirok was unable to answer her.

She appeared to take his silence as affirmation and smiled.

Together with a light metallic creak, the gate separating the two of them opened.

I'm just here to verify residents. There's absolutely no need for me to go inside…

Sirok hesitated, flickering his eyes back and forth between the girl and the path he traveled to get there.

This house was his only major excursion for the day. All of the other homes he could verify on his way back.

Not only that, but…if he was going to confirm whether anyone was living here or not, then an argument could be made to properly see for himself who else was living in this old mansion.

"Okay. I can't stay for long, but if that's fine with you…"

"…Indeed, I would most appreciate it. I shall prepare the finest amber tea for you."

Following after Linaris, Sirok was finally able to look out over the state of the garden.

It wasn't limited solely to the rusted gate. Cracks stood out in the mansion's old stone walls, and despite the mansion resembling ruins, the garden was carefully maintained, without a single piece of gravel out of place.

The sights around him were adjacent to the part of Itaaki he called home, and yet much like the young girl and her ephemeral beauty, it was so removed from his daily life it seemed otherworldly. Maybe when the girl led him through the door of the mansion, it would lead all the way to the land of the Beyond.

…When had this young girl started living in this lonely mansion? Just who was she?

As though to further pierce Sirok's inner anxieties, Linaris looked back slightly.

With a sidelong glance, her gold eyes met his. "Please watch your step."

"Y-Yeah, of course."

She hadn't actually read his mind.

Buried partway in the dirt, stone steps led up to the entryway. Sirok crossed over the small step, praying that she didn't sense the sweat on his back—the result of her simply looking at him.

In complete contrast to the exterior, the inside of the mansion was very neat and tidy.

The furniture was scarce, drab, and tasteless, not unlike Sirok's own home.

Also, it was dim and gloomy.

…It should still be the middle of the day right now.

As he made sure of facts that normally needed no confirmation, he hung up his hat.

Were there any other family members living here? He was about to ask Linaris—

"Please, if you'll wait just a moment."

She slid the black cape from her shoulders.

Her previously concealed white blouse exposed, he could now see the full volume of her breasts, straining against the delicate fabric. Sirok was taken aback.

She was the same age as him, if not slightly younger, and yet… Her arms and legs were so slender, and her presence felt almost incorporeal, but more than anything else—

"Is something the matter?" "…O-oh, no it's nothing."

Linaris applied ointment to Sirok's wound and began wrapping it with a fresh bandage.

Just below his eyeline were her beautiful gold pupils. When he took in her full form, stooped down at his feet, he couldn't stop his mind from wandering down a certain path.

Although he felt frustrated by the thought that he was losing his head over this girl, to Sirok, who had set his heart on the path of the warrior long before he could learn the names of any girls his age, his shock was all but to be expected.

"Excuse me while I prepare some hospitality. It is quite embarrassing, but…this mansion has no servants, you see."

"You mean you're living here by yourself…?"

"...My father is here. Please, Master Sirok, feel free to wait in the sitting room."

Following her request, Sirok sat with nothing to do, enveloped in a sense of guilt, and his heartbeat pounding like an alarm bell in his head.

There was indeed nothing for him to do. Linaris said that her father was in this house.

Through observing her demeanor up until this point, he was able to get a sense of Linaris's lineage and upbringing. They were either the original owners of this vacation home or close relatives of the nobility, who inherited it. In which case, if his beautiful adolescent daughter were to invite a man of low birth like Sirok into his home, what would said father do to him?

Even though he understood he was being excessively self-conscious, he couldn't stop his intrusive thoughts. Moreover, if he let his mind wander, the deluge of mental images of Linaris's beauty and her pale-white skin would all but swallow him whole.

Get a hold of yourself.

He put a finger on the claw-sword suspended from his hip and began to still the waves of his heart with martial concentration.

Get it together, Sirok. You just met this girl. This is all just part of the job. He wasn't sure if he could keep up this focus until Linaris returned. Either way, it took far longer than he would've imagined to simply prepare some

tea.

"My apologies for keeping you waiting. In a dark house like this…you must have been awfully bored."

"…Oh, no, nothing of the sort. It was a sudden visit on my part so it's only natural."

"How kind of you to say. Here you go. The leaves are from Caidehe."

Sirok brought the amber tea up to his lips, but he couldn't really tell the difference in taste… If anything, he felt that the tea he was accustomed to tasted better. He wouldn't dare say this to Linaris, who was quietly staring at him, so he gave his best smile and replied:

"It's delicious."

"Oh, I am very glad… Well, it has been quite a long time since we've had guests. Would you mind if I asked you about yourself, Master Sirok?"

"S-sure. I don't think there's anything interesting to mention, though…" "Hee-hee. You do yourself a disservice. Well then, when did you make

your way back here to Itaaki?"

"About the same time as most of the residents. Immediately after the True Demon King fell. Of course…nothing was left for me besides the house passed down from my ancestors. With my path to distinguishing myself on the battlefield gone, now I work under the council of lords."

"…You followed the path of the sword, then?"

Linaris cast her melancholic eyes down to Sirok's claw-sword.

No matter how deep the forest was, there were no beasts in Itaaki that would willingly attack people. The weapon was not a lifestyle necessity but more of a lingering attachment to an era that was slowly fading away.

The age of stories, desperate for a hero that bestowed the chance to follow the path of the sword to all who desired it.

"It's not a rare thing among men. With the Demon King gone, with it went the need for the younger generation to tragically throw their lives away… I didn't have any opportunities to distinguish myself in battle, so now I'm doing the boring and menial work of a manservant. Though I did train for

quite a long time…" "…Oh, what a pity."

"Ha-ha. Say that, and you're just inviting the scorn of those that suffered under the True Demon King terror. I mean, even my parents were killed by the Demon King's Army. More than battlefield exploits, I wish I could get them back. It was a truly twisted time."

"Yes…that is indeed true, without a doubt. Nevertheless, your story, Master Sirok, I find is quite similar to my own."

True to her words, Linaris's faint and refined smile had a slight sadness to

it.

No, there's no way, he thought to himself, looking again at her physique. Slender arms and legs. Transparent white skin like glass, as though it had

never once stood beneath the sun's rays.

Slim fingertips becoming a high-born young woman. Her hands had never even held a hatchet, let alone a spear or sword.

There was no way she could be a warrior. "By that, you mean…?"

"I, too, lost much to the True Demon King… A great many things. Now the only things I have left to me are this mansion and my dear father."

"Oh, right, of course… You're right. Similar to myself." What exactly had he been thinking?

Obviously, that was the implication behind her words. Those unjustly taken by the True Demon King.

What was sought after in the dawn of this new age was peace so that people like him, without any strength of their own, wouldn't lose anything ever again.

"May I ask what your father's name is?" "…Obsidian. Rehart the Obsidian." "Obsidian…?!"

Sirok nearly jumped to his feet. It was a name he had never imagined he would hear.

Obsidian. There could only be one person with a second name like that. "Obsidian Eyes…?"

The terrifying spy guild, boasted to be both the biggest and strongest in the land.

No one knew the whole story behind them. Nor did anyone know

precisely who their members were. "Hm…? Is there something wrong?" "No… Is th-that truly his name?"

"Tee-hee-hee… Would there be any reason for me to lie about my venerable father's name? Did you find something otherwise strange about what I said?"

"…No, it's fine."

Was it really a good idea to interrogate Linaris about this here?

She was so clearly unperturbed that she also seemed completely unfamiliar with the name Obsidian altogether. If what she said was the truth, then Sirok had inadvertently gotten closer to the true identity of one of the era's shadowy masterminds and was now under the very same roof.

Sirok, trying in vain to appear calm, gulped hard.

"If you're Obsidian's daughter… L-Linaris…Miss Linaris, can I then, um, ask you what your name is?"

"...? My name is Linaris."

Linaris still wore her innocent smile as she cocked her head to the side.

From what he had seen of her refined etiquette, there was no question she possessed the common sense to answer when asked for her name, so it was possible she was mistaken about something.

Sirok asked once again.

"I meant your second name, Miss Linaris." "I don't have one."

"...You don't?"

"Indeed. I am Linaris. I do not yet possess a second name. I am only Linaris. I would ask you to refer to me as such."

Was that sort of thing even possible?

No matter how young she was, she was still sixteen or seventeen at the very least. Naturally, there were many examples of people who changed their second name either through later achievements or reputation, but she was of an age where she should have been bestowed a second name many years prior.

In a dilapidated mansion away from the eyes of others, there was a beautiful young girl, ephemeral like a ghost.

She said her own father was "Obsidian."

And finally...she didn't possess her own secondary name.

It's almost like…a horror story.

The meager light that filtered in through the gaps in the windows faintly outlined her silhouette.

Was this girl the same sort of creature as Toroa the Awful? Linaris began to speak again, as though nothing was amiss at all.

"Earlier, you mentioned that you were verifying the area's residents, correct? Why exactly did the council of lords decide now of all times to conduct such a survey?"

"To balance the tax revenue and expenditures. There was also talk of an aristocrat who knew how to write making a ledger."

"…Is that indeed so? In that case, Master Sirok. May I ask you to do me a favor?"

"A-as long as it's something I can handle… What is it?"

"If there is indeed one who can read on the council…I would like you to bring this letter back with you. It is regarding something my father needs."

A rolled-up parchment, sealed with wax. Perhaps writing this letter was what took her so long when she went to make tea.

More than that, though, Sirok was surprised that Linaris, not much different in age from himself, could read and write. It must have been the simple Order script. Either that or an aristocratic alphabet that was passed down among upper-class families.

"I don't mind at all, of course… But, if the alphabet system you use is different, there's no guarantee the aristocrats will be able to read them."

"You honor me with your concern. Nevertheless, I ask you to bring the letter to them, Master Sirok."

Linaris wrapped both of her pale fists gently around Sirok's hand. He couldn't help focusing on her chest as she leaned forward.

A dark manor. Obsidian. Beautiful Linaris.

One thing after another, everything happening before him was impossible for him to fully process.

It was at that moment— "..."

—Linaris suddenly turned around. Somewhere, a mysterious something clattered.

There was another presence in the house. Was it Rehart the Obsidian? Danger.

The remnants of his warrior instincts, aroused by the sound, narrowly managed to ring alarm bells within him.

He couldn't remain in this manor any longer.

"…I understand. I'll bring it back with me immediately. Thank you very much for the amber tea. This was a wonderful moment of respite."

He simply needed to put on the fake smile he used when dealing with the other residents and take off.

Would he ever come here again? Well, even if he were to come back, it would have to be after he had calmed down and probably thought through everything that happened.

"Will I see you again?" Linaris said, a tremor in her voice. "…Hmmm, yes. I'm sure you will."

"Master Sirok. It's very embarrassing to admit this, but, well… It's been so long…"

Her gold eyes closed in. A strand of her hair brushed his cheek.

It should still be daytime out. Yet her smile was almost like a nighttime hallucination.

"…and I've been so lonely by myself."