As Ollia had expected, the expedition was pouring everything they had into finding their missing priest.
Before they learned Ollia was safe, Riko had to open twelve portals to pass word along to the scattered knights.
Though it was less Ollia's request and more Notin's bullying that pushed him to that kind of overexertion.
“Priest Ollia!”
“Priest!”
They had been treating the knights gathered at the campsite when Hersta and Taylor, having caught the news, came rushing over.
Both of their faces were so pale it was impossible to tell whether it was from the cold or the shock, but the moment they spotted Ollia standing there unharmed, they let out their relief in the same breath.
“I'm so sorry, Priest. To think I was right beside you and still failed to protect you... It's entirely my fault.”
“I thought my head was going to split from trying to figure out how I'd have to kill Taylor if we couldn't find you. Are you all right? You're not hurt anywhere?”
By the calendar a full day had passed, but counting by the hours it had probably only been around seventeen. It seemed everyone had had quite a hard time of it in the meanwhile.
Ollia gave a small laugh and stepped in front of them.
“Sir Taylor is a precious asset to the expedition. You must treat him with care, even without me around.”
“Priest... No. A useless man like me ought to step down from my post this instant.”
“Ha ha, Sir Taylor. Your joking's gone too far.”
“I'm truly sorry, Priest.”
Ollia naturally clasped Taylor's hands and looked up at his deeply bowed face. Then, with an expression of boundless benevolence, he said,
“The other knights who got caught in the landslide told me it was thanks to the rope-tying you ordered that the damage was kept to a minimum. As for me, I simply don't have anywhere near the strength the others do, so I couldn't hold on. That's all.”
“I should have paid more attention to that...”
“Regretting what's past is enough now. I came back perfectly fine, and I'll go on being fine. The future matters more than the past, doesn't it?”
At the tender, gentle tone, Taylor bit his lip as if holding back a surge of emotion. He bit down so hard it made a grinding sound.
Honestly, I climbed back up that cliff path knowing full well the landslide was coming, so I've got no right to any apology.
To reunite with Cassian with as little deviation as possible, he had chosen to go through every accident exactly as it had happened. He'd done so even though there had been options to avoid the landslide and keep the knights safe.
But there was no one more important to him than Cassian.
“All right, that's enough moping for the show, Taylor. Step aside. Priest Ollia. I hear you got some mages' help getting back?”
The instant he confirmed Ollia's safety, Hersta briskly sorted out his priorities. Ollia nodded and led him across the campsite.
“I met two mages from the 'Knowledge of Dawn.' If it hadn't been for them, without a portal it would have taken ages just to get back. Ah, there they are.”
Riko and Notin were gathered in front of the campfire, and Cassian and Onon were there beside them too.
“Thank you, truly. If it hadn't been for you, I'd have... died. I would have died. You saved my life, Cassian.”
“You were hurt, but you wouldn't have died. Sir Onon, you're strong.”
“No. Even in the last battle, you looked like a more skilled swordsman than me. And you, someone who's only been learning the sword for a few months. The inferiority that stirred up in me is what dragged me down this far. ...Listen, from now on don't stand watch in my place. I'll take every shift myself.”
Onon seemed to be in the middle of thanking the man who'd saved his life.
Every time I think about how Cassian went through all that suffering because of that bastard... it makes my blood boil.
Ollia shot Onon a quiet, sidelong glare and called out to Notin and Riko.
“Riko, Notin.”
“Ugh, stop it, Priest. I can't open any more portals. We need magic left to get ourselves back too, you know!”
“No, that's enough now. I've brought His Highness the Second Prince.”
Even with the Second Prince before him, Riko stayed sprawled on the ground and offered his courtesy with words alone, while Notin only made a halfhearted show of politeness.
It seemed to come from the fact that they weren't imperial subjects, and that theirs was a free organization roaming the whole world.
Or perhaps the two brothers were simply a matched pair of rude ones.
Fortunately, Hersta wasn't a man who cared about such formalities, so he dealt with the mages without a trace of displeasure.
“I hear you two brought Priest Ollia back. To think the ones who carried our landslide-swept priest here would be the very 'Knowledge of Dawn' mages the expedition was searching for. What a remarkable connection.”
“It's true we escorted Priest Ollia here, but I couldn't call it saving anyone. This fellow would have died buried in the snow if not for Priest Ollia, and I too would have been killed by the Ice Foot if not for the knight over there.”
Notin pointed at Cassian with a satisfied face, as though gesturing at a child he'd raised himself. Following his gesture, Hersta looked over at Cassian and gave a flick of his brow.
“...You mean Cassian?”
“Yes. We were helped by Sir Cassian and Priest Ollia, so we merely did our part in return.”
“That too must be fate. Are the rest of your organization's mages scattered somewhere on the snowy mountain? If they've gone missing, the expedition will put its effort into the search as well.”
Since Hersta was a man who never moved without profit, even this goodwill was entirely aimed at obtaining information.
The 'Knowledge of Dawn' was a group that staked their lives investigating the disaster for the peace of the world. But whom they chose to share their information with rested entirely on their own judgment.
What Hersta's expedition had gained was simply the chance of a meeting. The better he could look in the mages' eyes, the greater the odds that their interests would align and yield a satisfying result.
But.
“Missing or not, we wouldn't know. We usually operate in pairs of two. Once we're back in Halen, we'll find out whether the others are alive or dead.”
Useful opportunities were rarely handed to Hersta.
“Then return to Halen with us.”
“You'll be traveling by portal?”
“Yes. Now that we know you're heading back, wouldn't it be better to return together and discuss matters? If we use portals over two days, we should be able to arrive.”
Notin, who had been gazing at Hersta's strikingly handsome face, soon burst into laughter as if he'd heard something amusing and said,
“Ah, the thing is, we can arrive right this instant. And there's a matter I'd like to hurry back and deal with. Two days, you said? We'll likely be at the temporary headquarters until then, so we'll wait for you.”
Then he forcibly hauled the utterly spent Riko to his feet.
“For the trip back, I'll let you use my portal, special treatment.”
“Brother, if you use another portal here I'll die.”
As Notin began preparing an incantation on the spot with a half-dead Riko tucked under his arm, Hersta let out a flabbergasted voice.
“You're really leaving ahead of us like this? Traveling together for two days would let us do other investigations or experiments a small group couldn't manage.”
“Ah, that. As it happens, this friend here just told me some incredible information. We have to run an experiment at the temporary headquarters, so we need to get back as soon as possible. Well then, farewell.”
Notin gave a crisp farewell to Ollia and Cassian as well, and before anyone could stop him, boarded a portal and vanished.
Hersta looked at the suddenly empty spot and gave a short click of his tongue.
“This is why I say, mages.”
“Your Highness, there are still knights we haven't found. It's too soon to move out.”
“I know.”
After telling Taylor to gather up the knights who were in decent shape, Hersta called Cassian over.
“What on earth did you tell Notin, to send him off like he was being chased?”
“Well...”
Ollia had already heard everything Cassian had been through on the way here. Instead of listening to the conversation between Hersta and Cassian, he moved to the tent where the injured knights had been gathered.
A monster that had halted its movements for some inexplicable reason and lay in wait; a beast that cooperated with the monster; the habit of fleeing whenever divine power was unleashed.
Not a single one of these was ordinary, so perhaps it would be better to experience and prove things directly rather than relying solely on the 'Knowledge of Dawn's' information.
I really want to confirm whether my divine power truly has the power to drive the monsters off. I hope a battle or two breaks out while we're traveling.
So while Ollia treated the knights and replenished the divine power in the holy stone, Taylor and Weil, who had put together a search party with the lightly injured knights, succeeded in finding the remaining three missing knights in just half a day.
But there was one problem: all three of the recovered knights had lost their memories of the time of their disappearance.
“Hmm, I've healed all the wounds. There's no erosion either. I suspect a piece of their memory was wiped from a heavy shock, whether physical or mental.”
Such was the diagnosis Ollia gave after treating the knights, whose faces were dazed as if they were dreaming.
At that, Taylor knit his brow with a grave expression.
“These three were all found beneath the same thicket. As if someone had dumped them there. There were no serious wounds, and no particular traces around them either.”
And yet the three of them had simultaneously lost their memory of the same point in time.
“It really is... strange. Let me take a closer look.”
Seeing the knights in a blank state, as though something inside them had broken, gave him an odd sense of déjà vu. What was the difference between these men and the other knights who'd gone missing?
He had a premonition that uncovering the secret hidden within those concealed memories would be no easy task.
