"… Why?"
What is he trying to do? I couldn't help but ask. This question was more important than my fear.
The feudal lord lifted the corners of his mouth a little.
"What will happen to me if you report this to the royal court? Will I be denounced as a foolish lord who continued to torment his people?"
Oh, so this is why he attacked us?
Underneath his desire to kill was fear. Fear of the dangerous presence that threatens his position.
I flew into a rage when I realised this, but I did my best to hold this rage in.
I don't care about this person's honour but that doesn't mean that he doesn't care about it. This was a natural emotional response.
I can't yell at him. I have to reason with him.
"You are not to blame for what has happened! Your actions after you find out about it is what will be questioned!"
"I can't manage the fief if mining stops. This is the same as taking away my land."
"I'm not asking you to stop forever!"
"Then how will you purify the water? Can it be done with magic?"
"… Magic can't do that, but…"
I should have said 'yes' even if it was a lie.
"I knew it. Magic is the power of destruction."
The feudal lord only listened to half of what I had to say.
"The mage slipped and died on the mountain since she wasn't used to climbing mountains. I will report this to the royal court."
"Wait! There is a way!"
The words that I said sounded like a false plea for my life.
There was no longer any room for explanation since the soldiers had come rushing towards me with their swords drawn.
Shyt. Why the heck did this happen?!
"Run away first!"
Giedt pushed me out into a gap before we were surrounded.
I didn't think about whether he would be okay, I just kept running without looking back behind me. I'm just a burden since I can't fight, especially in a close-range battle.
I rolled down the slope that didn't have a path.
I can get out somewhere at the foot of the mountain! I can survive if I just meet Gwen-san or someone else.
I desperately ran. I felt hope, fear towards the angry voices behind me which hadn't gotten quieter and fatigue from the slope that was getting steeper and steeper.
Oh no, I'm seriously going to fall!
But there was a greater danger looming over me than the fall.
I was only concerned about my feet, but when I looked up, I realised that there was no ground ahead of me.
It's a cliff!
I quickly twisted my body to the side and managed to stop at the very edge.
Th-that was a close call. The thick bushes were covering my vision, making it difficult to see what was in front of me.
I didn't want to look down but there seemed to be a big drop.
There was no way out of this, so ―――
"Huh?! Why'd you stop!?"
I heard Giedt's tensed voice, an impact followed by floating.
Then the fall.
"You idiot!!!"
"I didn't do it on purpose!"
Giedt, who had been watching his back for the pursuers, dived towards me and pushed me off the cliff without noticing.
I ended up cursing him since he had thrown me off the cliff. This isn't the time to be yelling!
"Minfairre!"
I chanted the opening spell and accessed where we would land while taking advantage of the wind.
It was almost a gamble to see how much mana I could produce before falling.
It seemed like an awfully long time.
"Zell'alew!"
I was enveloped by a swirling wind from below as we entered a green area and the speed in which I was dropping decreased rapidly.
But I still lacked the mana to slow down completely, and I still hit the ground hard.
It hurts.
But I'm alive.
"Giedt? Are you alright?"
I felt him getting up next to me.
The wind had stopped his fall as well. Objects dropped from the same height with the same initial velocity will fall at the same time regardless of their weight. That was the rule of free falling. There was a slight deviation due to the air resistance but that's okay.
"Can you stand?"
Giedt sheathed his sword which hadn't been lost in mid-air and lent me a hand.
"Somehow. I don't think they'll chase us all the way here."
I couldn't see much over the cliff, but I didn't see any figures up there.
But I could see a lot of clouds in the sky from the gap in the green canopy.
"They'll come to check if we died. Let's quickly get out of here."
"Yeah, let's go."
We were forced to continue on our way without knowing where we were going and were still in a bad situation, but we moved to get away from this place.
"… I always get into a bad situation whenever I'm with you."
He might have said that due to the leeway we got from our temporary sense of relief.
Giedt began to grumble as we walked.
"It's not my fault."
"I had a bad feeling about this. It's not surprising for people to flee from a land tainted by poison. And obediently accepting that he would have to halt a profitable mine? There's no way he would do that."
He spoke as if he knew what the outcome would be from the beginning. Isn't he just saying all this because it's already happened?
I glared at his armour-covered back, feeling a bit unhappy.
"Then you should have stopped me."
"You told me to shut up, didn't you? You think you're smarter than everyone else, and that everyone should follow what you say even though you're just a little girl."
His tone was somewhat different from his normal jests.
"Are you trying to pick a fight with me?"
I know we shouldn't fight here but I just couldn't let it go.
"I don't believe everyone should follow what I say. Things have never gone my way, not now or ever before. What do you know about me?"
"I told you to stop calling me that."
Giedt turned back to face me, and I spat my words at him.
"I didn't ask for someone who can't care about me."
His words made me angry more than being called cheeky.
But I didn't want to drag our argument out. I still had that much reason left in me.
"I'll listen to your complaints later. We should hurry off the mountain. The weather is getting worse."
I suppressed my anger and tried to be as mature as possible.
But the little shyt continued to whine.
"Don't you have any magic that can come in handy at a time like this? You should have used some magic to push the enemies off the cliff, then you wouldn't have fallen off the cliff."
"I'm not good at magic."
"And yet you shamelessly call yourself a mage?"
"Shut up. You were assigned to me because I can't fight. You should have pushed them off the cliff."
"I can't handle five or six enemies at once, and they've got a lot more experience than me."
"I feel the same way! Whatever, let's just go."
I jumped over a large stone buried in the ground and passed Giedt.
"Hey, don't walk in front of me when you're unarmed!"
"You're too loud and slow. We have to hurry to the foot of the mountain."
A deep, rumbling sound echoed as if it came from the depths of hell.
―― See, I knew it. We have to hurry.
The sound was actually coming from the sky.
I moved even faster.
"Hey, wait for me!"
I'm not waiting for you.
Hearing this sound in the mountain was the worst. It was hard to stay calm even if you hear this sound in the city.
"Hurry up. We're already in its range!"
"What're you talking about?!"
The easy-going Giedt was getting on my nerves.
"Don't stand next to a tree! We need to get somewhere we can hide!"
"What're you on about?"
"Lightning!"
My number two trauma, no wait, it's number one.
The fear of the thing that killed me took over my thoughts.
We need to quickly get to a rocky area or some place that has low conductivity and stay away from trees! We're in the danger zone if we can hear even the faintest sound!
"Wait! Stop…!"
Just as Giedt's voice was about to be drowned out, there was a flash of light in my vision, and I heard a thunderous roar as if the earth had been cracked open.
I fell ―――. Where? Don't tell me I died again? Give me a break.
Wait.
I'm still alive, but I don't know what my condition is. My mind went blank from the shock.
Then I felt another light shock but everything had already been wrapped up in a white light, so I wasn't sure what was going on.