Kia the World Word - 2

The sky was cloudy for the morning of their departure.

The Eta Sylvan Province was a rainy region to begin with, with the dense year-round fog keeping people away from the secluded region. The cloudy weather was commonplace.

As she fought her daily battle with anemia, Elea finished up her plain breakfast of boiled oats and a soup made from the milk of forest goats.

When she had first arrived in the village, where everything, from the level of civilization to the food culture, was different from what she was used to, she had needed help with even the most menial of chores. At this point, though, she could handle almost all of them by herself.

I wonder if Kia's already outside… How unusual.

For the two small months since she had become the girl's exclusive tutor, she had lived together with Kia. When it came to their hatred of mornings, the two were astonishingly similar.

Oh, great… And on our departure day…

Grumbling to herself, Elea left the house. In the plaza right in front, she saw three children.

"Ah! Teacherrrr!"

"Good morning. Don't you think it's embarrassing for an adult your age

to be sleeping so late?" "Teacher… H-Hello…"

Elea immediately straightened out her posture and snapped her drowsy and languid look into a perfect smile.

In the village, she was a model private tutor, beautiful and kind. At the very least, that's how she presented herself in front of all the children besides Kia.

"Good morning, Yawika, Thien… And you, Kia, you shouldn't always be so rude to other people."

"Um, today's the day you're leaving, and Thien said he wanted to come, too, so we came to say good-bye!"

"Um, no, I…j-just…um…"

"Tee-hee. Is that so? I'm happy you came to see me off, too, Thien." "…Y-yeah…"

Thien was the oldest among them, but he still cowered behind Kia's back like a skittish rabbit.

Elea was well aware of his feelings for her, and there were moments when she would use that knowledge to tease him.

"They came all this way to say good-bye, and you still couldn't get out of bed. You were getting bored, too, right, Yawika?"

"Nuh-uh! You were here to play with us! The hawthorn berries were cold and tasty, too!"

"L-like I'd be playing around with a kid like you! Don't go blabbering about stuff that's not important! Honestly, you've still got some stuck to your cheek…! Lemme wipe it off."

"Mmmmhhhph!"

Elea looked at the slender hawthorn berry tree, rising up from the small stream flowing through the plaza. Kia must have used her Word Arts to make it grow large enough to feed the berries to Yawika.

Kia was almost omnipotent. She had been gifted with an incredible aptitude for Word Arts.

Within this secluded forest village, her talents only extended to making hawthorn berry trees bear fruit and entertaining the younger children with light and fire. In the small world of the forest, free of competition and enemies to fight, she had no reason to use any more of her power.

"T-teacher! Kia may act like that, but…the village children, the adults, we

all…um, we're very grateful, and…"

"Really now? And how about you, Thien?"

"Eep! M-me too…! I-I'm very grateful. Before you came, I didn't even know where the clouds in the sky came from. Everyone's gotten a lot smarter, and it's all thanks t-to you. Truly."

Thien nervously stepped forward and looked Elea in the eye.

"If that's true, then as your teacher, hearing that makes me the happiest of all. I said it once in class, didn't I? Wisdom is like a seed—"

"—and knowledge is the life water that will nurture and sustain it. But M- Miss Elea's the one who sowed that seed in the first place. We've caused nothing but trouble, and we can't do anything to thank you properly…"

Elea patted Thien's head affectionately. Then she gave him a tight hug.

With his head nestled into her chest, Thien softly yelped like a cornered baby animal.

"Oh, please. Nothing makes me happier than knowing I've taught my adorable students well. Right, Yawika?"

"Yeah! I love teacher!"

"You're so shameless, honestly… She's the bad kind of adult. She managed to trick Mom and Dad, too. And you too, Yawika! You can't keep cozying up to her forever!"

"K-Kia, you just don't want to go study in Aureatia… You're jealous." "Pfft, it's a lot weirder to want to study, if you ask me!"

"My, my…hee-hee. Can't you be honest with yourself for once, Kia?" Elea was not an educator.

She was a member of Aureatia's Twenty-Nine Officials, the Seventeenth Minister. This fact remained unknown to all the elves in the village.

Devoutly attending to Kia, she managed to convince her parents, who were at a loss as to how to deal with their daughter's uninhibited behavior, to let Elea be the girl's personal teacher and have her study abroad in Aureatia. She had a very clear goal behind her actions.

Kia can definitely win.

Kia was nearly omnipotent. Not even old enough to receive her second name, she possessed unrivaled Word Arts power. Should a power like this quietly waste away in this secluded world, only used as a convenient parlor trick?

In the small world of the forest, free of competition and enemies to fight,

she had no reason to use any more of her power.

—In that case, what if someone else came along who was able to give her a reason?

If Kia fought, she wouldn't need to heat the winds with Thermal Arts and rain fire down on an enemy. She could just make her opponent burst into flames.

Prominent masters of Craft Arts were able to transform soil into blades to slice their enemies to ribbons. Kia needed no such technique. She could shape and rework her enemies' very forms in any way she desired.

At the Imperial Competition to decide the Hero, if such an overpowering existence—yet unknown to anyone and unheard of, even within the realm of armchair theorizing—suddenly showed up to compete… What would the other candidates' expressions look like then?

No matter who her opponent may be, the World Word is going to win.

Even Second General Rosclay…would be no match for her power.

What Elea the Red Tag was after was power. All the truer after gaining her seat within Aureatia's central governing body, she wanted absolute authority, not as a single functioning substitute among the other twenty-nine members, with no one able to threaten her or disdain her for the circumstances of her birth.

She didn't care if that meant trading in her endless toiling efforts to achieve the innocent trust placed in her to get it.

"Kia, Kia! Let's go to our spot! We're not gonna see each other for a while!"

"Ugggh… I don't need to go there… It's really not a big deal…"

This time, Yawika turned her fawning behavior on Kia. The young girl was overflowing with childish stamina.

"I've never heard about this before… Where is it?"

"As your teacher, I'm curious myself. Is this place a favorite of yours, Kia?"

"What?! D-don't be ridiculous; Yawika likes it, not me! I was just going with her!"

"Take me, take me!"

Kia looked, at least on the outside, like the whole idea was an annoyance

to her.

Yawika didn't take her response at face value, however. Kia was rude, and her grades were poor, but all the elves in the village knew her very well.

"Honestly…! Professor Viper can wait here! It's not that big a deal!" "Fine, fine… But maybe I'll just tag along anyway."

"Just stay here!"

Kia began walking with the other two children in tow.

The Eta Sylvan Province was a combination of rivers and trees, with rolling mountains.

If there were still any routes in the village Elea had yet to travel, she wanted to know about them.

Later in the afternoon, she would be leaving the village behind for good.

"…So there's a path through the bushes on that hill over there?"

"Yep! On the other side of the hill, right around where you can see the village watchtowers, you can slip through."

"It probably runs parallel with the elves' path for the animals of the forest to travel through. We could run into some deer or boars."

"…My Force Arts would be enough to handle a boar." "That's amazing, Thien!"

"Well, I could grab the whole group at once and hang them up at the very top of that tall tree over there instead!"

"You're amazing, too, Kia!"

"Come on now—don't leave your teacher behind."

The path Kia led the group down was very narrow for someone of Elea's height to squeeze through, with branches and leaves getting stuck to her overcoat.

Both her hands sunk into the dirt each time she passed under an arch of trees.

The experience was something Elea never would have had back in Aureatia. The Seventeenth Minister put all her attention toward her appearance and behavior during her schemes and intrigue, and only in this village were there times when she'd embrace her inner child.

Having never gotten to experience them for herself, the teacher ended up learning about these childlike experiences from her own students.

Finally…

…This will work. A minia adult could advance through here in a single file without issue. Judging from our direction, we'll come about midway up the fourth mountain. The people of the village don't know about this route. Plenty useful.

Elea's mind was always taking such things into account.

If there were still any routes in the village Elea had yet to travel, she wanted to know about them.

During the harvest festival, when she'd stood with her students and watched the adults perform their flame dance, she had let out a sigh of admiration at the display of fire and beauty. Conversely, she had recorded how long the men had been gone from the village to prepare for the event and what defenses had been set in place while they were away.

When she tried teaching about the practical uses for the vegetation found in the forest, she had been embarrassed to learn that the elves knew about all of it already. That night, she organized which medicinal herbs could be used to treat injuries and which mountain vegetables could serve as food provisions during a march, writing it all down and attaching it to a bird to send back to Aureatia.

For six small months, Elea had thoroughly surveyed the mysterious place, veiled in a dense fog to keep others away.

This village is peaceful. They aren't wary of possible infiltration. A single platoon would be enough to do the job.

The day was sure to come when Aureatia would seize every inch of this bountiful village.

This was the foundation of the minia nation's rebirth following their wounded and impoverished fate at the hands of the True Demon King.

Kia, the rare prodigy, would become the Hero under Elea's wing. The leftover village would be entirely converted into resources for the nation.

The rumors about "one who wielded omnipotent Word Arts" had existed during the age of the True Demon King, and Elea had learned the whereabouts of this individual village from a previously captured soldier of the New Principality. In that moment, the forest village's status as an unknown land of mystery was instantly shattered.

That soldier was no longer part of this world. By disposing of the few people who knew the link between Elea and the World Word, no one would

be able to prepare for Kia's power.

Curry favor with beautiful looks and corrode things from within.

Before her espionage, all fell with ease. Her second name, inviting both fire and blood, was Elea the Red Tag.

"…Okay, we're here! Teacher!"

Elea raised her head. Just as she had predicted, they appeared to be halfway up a mountain, looking out over a deep valley.

"Phew, that was tough! Are you tired, too, teacher?" "Ummm…I'm fine. Is this it?"

Sighing with a hint of exhaustion, Elea looked up and examined the scenery.

It was not an exceptionally moving view.

The far-off mountains were hidden in the clouds, and the whole landscape looked like a vague silhouette outlined in the fog.

"Well…that's it. I told you! It's not anything special! I told you I didn't need to come up here! Great, now my last memory of the village is all dreary and dull!"

Kia awkwardly laughed, sitting on a rock.

This place was a secret from everyone. Elea could clearly tell that by bringing her here, the children all considered her a very close friend.

Suddenly, Thien spoke up.

"…It shouldn't be cloudy like this, right? Kia, can't you just clear it up?" "Ooooh! He's right! Good thing you're here, Kia!"

"Hmm…? What do you two mean by that?"

"Give me a break. You make it sound so simple…"

Kia looked fed up as she turned her attention beyond the cliff's edge.

Lightly twirling the tips of her blond hair with her finger, she then awkwardly looked at Elea.

"…I'm not trying to show off or anything, okay?" She issued her next command with a huff.

"Clear up."

Her whisper, with its mystical tinge, surpassed the aural limits of language and echoed out over the sky's horizon.

It was like the receding waves of the sea.

The thick layer of clouds blocking the sky simultaneously all flowed out and away and ceased blocking the view.

Elea watched the gray clouds as they left, absent a single gust of wind, as though time itself were rewinding.

As if the whole world she had known before left with the clouds and was being carried on toward a new far-off place beyond the horizon.

"…Yeah."

She was invincible. Her power was without equal.

No matter what opponent tried to stand in her way, Kia was sure to beat them. Just knowing that fact was enough for Elea.

The exposed morning light passed over the landscape, shining azure.

The foggy outlines of the mountains in the distance were penetrated by the bright light, bringing them clearly into view.

The vast lake, once covered by the thick fog, spread out across the valley floor.

There, the entire beautiful spectacle reflected on the water's surface.

The Eta Sylvan Province. Elea had lived there. All the warm and gentle days, together with the children—it had all been here.

"See, I told you. The scenery is totally nothing special."

Turning her beauty into a weapon, Elea had focused on gaining power to ensure she would never be mocked or scorned again.

Even the beauty being displayed before her now, just like everything else, was nothing more than a means to an end for her.

Elea the Red Tag felt not a hint of shame for living her life this way. "Teacher, are you okay? Are you crying…?"

"Hmm…? What's wrong?" "You're crying."

Yawika pulled at Elea's sleeve as she made her odd comment.

Elea tried to smile. "I'm not crying."

She couldn't bring herself to look at the children. She could only stand there, unable to peel her eyes from the scenery before her.

It was her final morning in the elf village.

She was right. Yawika's comment was obviously off base. Elea remained ever their flawless, beautiful, and kind teacher. "…I'm not crying at all."

She had the power to ignore any and all defenses, bending existence itself to her will.

She exercised the authority to surpass nature, controlling weather and geography with a single word.

She was a singularity, beyond the predictions of the universe, who defied all estimations and analysis.

An omnipotent, peerless prodigy, whose limits were still yet to be measured.

The Elf Wizard.

Kia the World Word.