When I realized Alice was serious, it already felt a little late.
I should have realized it the moment she started stretching.
Soaking in the water in this kind of heat would feel comfortable, sure, but there was a prerequisite—
You had to be able to float.
I…
A NEET.
A public menace of social anxiety, the sideline spectator at every sports meet, the dead last in the long-distance running exam, a deep-sea princess who sinks the instant the water gets too deep…
Se-serious?
And why could Alice, who lived in the desert (an oasis, actually), even swim?!
While I was still on my knees in the sand lamenting my own helplessness, Alice had already taken off her white robe, folded it on the beach, and swum a long way out.
The clear lake reflected the azure of the sky.
In that mirror-like expanse of deep blue, Alice waved at me from far away and shouted, “Yulin-chan~~ Hurry up and come! The water feels so good~”
Yes.
It felt good.
Of course I knew that (thud)!
My clothes and my wings were both black.
Under this blazing sun I might as well have been wearing a layer of heat conductors.
I didn’t even need to touch them to feel the waves of scorching heat coming off the wings.
Sweat had not stopped for a single moment since the sun turned from crimson to gold.
At that moment I could only sigh at how experienced Alice, a desert-dweller, really was.
Traveling by day would genuinely steam a person into jerky.
So it wasn’t that I couldn’t understand her excitement at the sight of this lake, but…
Ah.
Right.
I can fly.
…
Yes.
I can fly.
Remembering that, I slowly pushed myself up from the sand and clenched a fist in front of my chest.
Yes.
I can fly.
That single fact pulled me out of the heavy mood of having lost to Alice and lit a fresh spark of “I win.”
How grateful I was that “Heaven” had given me these wings.
At least I wouldn’t actually have to become a deep-sea princess in the lake.
Whoosh.
The pitch-black wings unfurled behind me.
Just as I had felt the first time, they were solid and powerful, yet facing the wind they were light and free.
With each beat of the wings my feet left the ground in a cloud of sand and I drifted toward Alice in the lake.
Looking up at me gliding over, Alice froze for a second, then broke into a smile as brilliant as the sun reflected on the water.
“Yulin-chan really can fly.”
“Mm… yeah.”
You already treat me as an angel, after all.
Even without soaking in the water, just floating above the surface I could feel the lake’s coolness.
It was still far better than staying on the sand.
Alice’s white robe hung from my arm as a conspicuous marker.
Swimming was naturally much slower than flying, but not so slow that I would lose her completely.
The buoy on the HUD was still parked at the foot of the mountain.
Yesterday’s accident apparently had not affected the signal source.
I hovered directly above the marker and waited a while.
Alice swam into the shadow at the mountain’s base and looked up at me.
[Unable to access Eden public service terminal. Please check link integrity]
Same prompt as before.
What surprised me was that the signal source was underwater and could still connect at all.
The connection only held when I was near the marker, though.
So it was probably limited to a certain range; only terminals inside that range could reach this signal.
Or the actual core emitting the signal was far from the marked location.
“Yulin-chan?”
I had stayed a little too long.
Alice in the shade of the water seemed to feel the cold.
She hugged her shoulders and shivered, then quickly spread her arms again to keep her balance and looked up at me.
“Is there anything I can do?”
“Mm…”
I cannot swim at all, so I can only rely on Alice.
After a moment’s thought I dropped a little closer to the surface until my toes hung just above the water.
“Alice, can you dive?”
“Dive?”
Alice did not seem to understand the word.
She thought it over, then said, “Does Yulin-chan want me to check underwater?”
“That’s right.”
I rested a hand on my chest and nodded.
“I cannot go very deep.
If I hold my breath I can last about a minute at most.”
Alice finished speaking, expelled as much air as she could, then sucked in a sudden breath.
“I’ll go take a look.”
“Mm.”
It should be safe, right?
We had stood at this mountain’s foot before the place was flooded.
Honestly, though, I still did not want Alice going down alone.
There was nothing I could do, but at least—
The scene of meeting the Hero’s party flashed through my mind.
Raging fire, blade-like flashes of light, and the silhouettes of those people writhing in the flames…
I shook my head hard.
I knew.
The halo above my head glowed faintly in the cliff’s shadow.
I knew I possessed tremendous power.
I simply could not control it.
If real danger appeared, could I actually protect Alice?
Would I do the same thing I had done to the Hero’s party—know they were not truly villains and still erase them from in front of me?
“Yulin-chan!”
“Eh?! Mm?!”
The splash of water and Alice’s voice startled me.
I looked down at her.
Her bangs were soaked and plastered to her face.
“Wh-what’s wrong?”
“Below… below…”
Alice gasped for air.
She looked both excited and frantic.
After panting for a good while she managed, “There’s a huge pit down there, and the pit is full of the water pipes Yulin-chan talked about.”
“Eh?”
Does that mean they are all traces of man-made things?
“I think it might be another ruin down there.
Or this whole enormous area is part of one ruin.
We… we might have found a God-Era City.¹ ²”
“God-Era City?”
It was a term I had never heard.
While I was still puzzled Alice pressed on, even more excited.
“Yes, a God-Era City!
I’ve only ever read about them in the Holy Scriptures.
In certain corners of this world there are ruins where the gods once lived.
I think this is one of them!
If it really is a God-Era City, this is an incredible discovery!
The Holy Scriptures only mention three God-Era Cities!
This might be the fourth!”
“I-is that so…?”
If that were true, Alice’s excitement—and the excitement of the Hero’s party we had met—was easy to understand.
The problem was that yesterday’s explosion had put the entire foot of the mountain underwater.
And I, never mind diving, could not even swim.
***
¹ God-Era City:
On the modern Star Ring, the mixing of multiple intelligent species and the loss of human control over the Ideal Ring have changed language, culture, and much else. Present-day humans (and other intelligent species) can no longer understand most of the ruins or the “ancient” cutting-edge technology of the Ideal Ring.
They recognize that a highly advanced civilization once existed and that humanity is its inheritor; the nobility in particular therefore insist they are the rightful masters of the Ideal Ring, while other intelligent species are regarded as lesser.
With the passage of ages many “ancient” texts have been lost or cannot be opened for lack of clearance.
Religion developed the Church around doctrines that humans once lived alongside the gods and received their direct favor.
That age is called the God Era.
Consequently, certain super-large ruins on the Star Ring whose functions remain relatively intact (former metropolitan districts of the Ideal Ring) are called God-Era Cities.
The royal capital of Alice’s country is one such city; its functional preservation rate is an astonishing 5 percent, and some factory modules still produce.
God-Era Cities are therefore vital strategic resources; some of the technology inside them can even serve as national defense.
² If ordinary ruins are resources that raise a nation’s level through archaeological study of ancient technology, God-Era Cities are technological resources whose principles are unknown yet can be used as-is.