"Cease right now."
Quiet voice stopped the movement of daemons. The daemons turned their faces to the direction of that nuisance's voice.
Even Dorothy came back to her senses, gazing ahead while her body was still pressed down.
On the opposite of her eyes which had been blurred with tear brimmed over unnoticed, there was chevalier riding astride his steed.
His physique which can be called a well-built man was wrapped in harness; a huge sword was carried on his side. As for the face under helmet, it was attached with a mask which almost hid his eyes.
Despite of the staring filled with hostility of daemons, the knight with mask slide down his horse, walked toward the direction of the dorothys slowly. This time was the daemons' turn to take stances.
"Damn, it's Access! Isn't he the goody-goody chevalier selling his soul recently?"
The daemon which was holding down Dorothy shouted. The chevalier called as Access turned his face. There was not a tendency he turned toward Dorothy's face, but toward the daemons'.
"You know I'm Access, then, away." he said.
The daemon was conversely resented, dividing from Dorothy's body,
"What a bustling! You are not a thing pleasing me sense you got in! I don't know should I be favorite of this arrogant guy, but if you get in our way like this, we will make you a good posture to lie!"
Squealing like this, it also faced and called out at the daemons around.
"Get him!"
All at once, daemons rushed on Access. Access unsheathed his large sword without a word, responding to them.
...You can hardly say it was a battle.
Like an iron storm, Access's sword mowed down groups of daemon without difficulty.
Dorothy, who regained the freedom of her body, however, still looked stunned as if she had not escaped.
That was not because of fear.
"Wha-who are you, what are you doing here..."
Just like those fairytale, she thought, when a princess was in crisis, by literality, there will always be a chevalier with his steel appeared valiantly and defeated the enemy. So, as the story said, the princess is me, Dorothy. Therefore, that chevalier when his mask is taken off, he must be a marvelously handsome gentleman. Gazing at the broad back of Access who just repelled the daemons, she thought.
Dorothy was still in an age which is possible to be called as a little girl, still was excited at this kind of situation. However, the words from the chevalier who turned his face betrayed her expectation substantially.
"Away."
"...what?"
"Go back just from here. Here is not a place a person like you comes"
In a wink, Dorothy's excitement transforms in antipathy.
"Wha-what are you talking about!"
"Here is a world different form where you live. Here is the world where the stronger one is legal, a world according to which the strongest survive."
It was neither threatening nor preaching, simply, it's the tone he states out the fact.
"No one could help you or anything."
"If so, why you helped me then?"
"I heard you were calling someone's name."
"If there is one still calling other's name for help ..."
Before he could finish his sentence, Dorothy turned blush and yelled at Access.
"Stop saying things silly! I never called anyone for help! I, will not come back. Am I made for coming back? Certainly I will become the magician stronger than that fellow here!"
Hearing the threatening words form that girl, the expression of the knight with mask seems like stirred a little from the first time they meet.
For a while, Access looked into Dorothy's eyes which staring back straightly at his sight.
"...Everyone has his own right to delight himself."
Said as such he reversed his heel, walking toward the horse which was waiting for its master.
Vaulting on his horse and looking back casually, he saw the girl before taking big strides into the depth of the forest from behind. Without knowing why, Access, who saw off that form until it became invisible, looked like being in meditation on his horse for some time. But when he finally moved his horse by two or three steps, the deafening roar rang out from back.
And it continued as such.
"Stoooop... it!"
Surely, it was the shriek from the girl before. Though the knight ignored it and still moved his horse several steps forward at first, he sighed and reversed the horsehead, started sending the horse to the direction where the shriek rose. On the lips behind Access's mask, you can also see a faint painfulness played over it.
Several minutes later,
Dorothy was put on the horse in a posture as if she was cradled in Access's arm. There was an awful change in her manner from just a little while ago when they split, Dorothy buried her face downward and restrained herself desperately from sobbing. In consequence, her own magic had totally no use on those assailing bugbears, and then again she was rescued at a near thing by Access.
Felling sorry of herself, even though it's a piece of cake for Dorothy to repair her dress, which had been stained by bugbears' saliva, or heal her sprained ankle if she used magic, now she was not in a mood to use magic even on such kinds of thing.
The horse carrying the couple, sauntered into the forest slowly.
Some time after, Dorothy lifted her face accidentally and looked round the environment without intention. Though it's hard to see through the nocturnal darkness, it seems like they had got into the Forest of Netherworld quite deeply.
"Where are we going?"
"Send you back to outside."
"Wait! I have to...!"
"No thrice."
It was a voice of peremptory. Dorothy kept silent. The fact that she was still saved by others in the second time was a shock to her. Training of magic, it's always a thing she accomplished by her own. Only by herself she can manage considerable magic ...it should be so. However, the result was a thing like this. Though she herself will never accept this, the helplessness which she felt for the first time since she was born was now breeding in her heart.
Yet the direction the horse carrying the couple pacing toward, seemed like completely opposite from where they entered.
"...But, aren't we walking into the forest ...?"
"You already entered the domain of this forest of Netherworld. Once you entered, the place where you can escape from this forest is limited."
As usual, it's a indifferent tone of Access who was just stating out the fact, but to Dorothy, it sounded like he was saying "You don't know even this?". For Dorothy, lowering her head down made her feel stifled all along, though. Feeling overflowed with embarrassment somehow, she lowered her head down again.
So did Access look fixedly at front once more and shut his mouth.
Eventually, this time the hush was broken by the question sounded like muttering from the knight with mask.
"Why, you want to be stronger."
"Not your business!"
"I understand."
Somehow, Access, who simply shut up then, infuriated Dorothy sharply.
"Why! Why you say you understand!"
She said half-exclaiming. All at once, Dorothy, who was driven by an impulse which she herself had not yet recognized, started expounding all the details of her course till now at one stroke. From she escaped form home, had an eye to become the World Greatest Magician; things about PikkaPom; till the Dragon-summoning magic which she does not go so well, at one stroke. Yet it's only the things about that fellow that she will never speak of under any condition.
"...is it."
After the girl finished her story, Access said.
Noticing there was a response which did not exist till now in this sound, Dorothy was surprised.
"What is that?"
"I think I understand, that you are short of magic."
With a "eh?", Dorothy jerked to turn around. Though the mask hiding Access's face stood expressionless, it was absolutely different from the first time they met. You can see as if it was decorated with a mild sheen. Suddenly Dorothy felt the beating inside her chest. This time was her turn to avert her gaze from him hastily and stared toward front.
"I-if you say ¡¥short of talent', I'll slap you!"
The knight's breastplate contacting with Dorothy's back stirred a little. As if he was laughing. Somehow, through the massive armor, Access's temperature still transmitted out, as she felt.
"I never do such tasteless thing."
"Then, what is that. Tell me."
By Dorothy's question, in a while Access said nothing, yet eventually he said with a voice as if he was talking to himself,
"...No. I cannot tell you that."
"What's 'that' then?"
However, Access no longer answered to that kind of question. "Here might be alright," he said and stopped his horse. Dorothy tried to look around, but in the ever-dark forest, nothing changed so significantly.
"What happened?"
"Now, the night is coming."
"Huh, it's already night?"
As she got near to the forest of Netherworld, the sky became darker because of the thick cloud, the distinction between night and daytime also became vague. In addition, inside the forest there were trees and shrubs shedding out the light which had been dimmed by their leaves; they are the reason why this forest had not become completely pitch-dark. As for Dorothy, from the time when she herself arrived in this forest, she already could not tell whether now is morning or evening.
"It's the time when Sun sinks, while Moon comes out. It's possible to move on as it is, but the hours for those inside this forest are after this time also. As soon as the Moon waxed, they'll be excited at blood and tending to find a rival to fight. As for me, too many duels make me tired."
The chevalier who got off his horse said, gave his hand to help Dorothy to get off. As her sprained feet were discharged onto ground without twinge, he lent his own mantle to the girl.
"...Actually he can also be gentle."
It may be the consequence of she vented all her miseries to Access. Dorothy recovered her vigor a little, making persiflage as such then. In fact, for Dorothy, it had been ages since she talked to others this much last. She was always alone.
"Is here anyone saying? I did not hear it."
Though she heard it actually, she still wished she had never heard. As if in order to answer partially to this kind of feeling of Dorothy, Access kept being silent. Being mute, he gathered some fallen sprigs and piled them up, picked up five pebbles handy then arranged them around same-distanced. Then he turned his face toward Dorothy,
"If you are a magician, do you know how to stretch a boundary?" he said.
Dorothy shook her head in reflex. It was not because of she did not know, but because of she was not sure if she will succeed. No, it's because of she did not want to fail, before this knight with mask.
Access looked at Dorothy doubtfully; at last he covered upon the sprigs he collected by hands, as if infusing some power. Before the astonished girl, the light assembled at Access's palms, and the sprigs was ignited as if the fire burst out from their internal. At one time, the five pebbles settled around were loaded with radiance which seemed like pale blaze as well, the boundary had been formed - A magical boundary which will eject those who hold hostility.
"Boundary of fire ... You also perform magic?"
"Well ...in this degree only."
This degree. Dorothy's heart hurt prickly again. Doesn't she make him deem her as "you cannot handle even such magic"? If it's the case, wouldn't it be better if she did it by herself from beginning? These words escaped from her lips in spite of herself. Another herself startled herself who had been timid like this. But this time, before Dorothy could finish her question, the answer had been referred from Access's way.
"It is not worthy of being proud. As for my current magic, I don't know whether this boundary will stand long if two of us get in."
Insistently it's the calm voice of Access. There was no change in the tone which was stating out the fact. But just as she heard this, Dorothy burst into laughter. The laughter could not be stopped. Access's face hidden under mask still looked funny to her as it turned back at Dorothy again in doubt; the girl continued her laughing till her tears brimmed out.
Wrapped in Access's mantle, Dorothy was lying down. Lying by her side, she saw the silhouette of the knight with mask.
Access was sitting in a position of holding his sword to his chest. The flame glowing in the center of the boundary reflected on his mask, making tiny luster dance on it. Were the eyes inside the mask facing on the flame closed or watch whatever accident-would-occur, Dorothy did not know. Merely, she was sure that he had not slept.
How old could he be? Dorothy was reckoning such a matter. Judging from what she saw he was rather younger. Yet by considering his concrete behaviors she also think he was much elder than her. He made her feel that he had experienced much, much differed from that boyish fellow who accomplishes everything just by his gifted talent. Then ...this man ...indeed what kind of person he is?
"Well, Access."
Being unable to tolerate anymore, Dorothy called out at last.
As she thought it was ignored, yet Access turned his face toward this way.
"What is it."
"Could I learn something of you?"
Access turned his face back to the flame with no word. Dorothy was aware of the refusal, but this time without more caring, she said.
"Are you ...also a daemon? Or a human of the world outside?"
"Well, I understand. You cannot say by yourself, the daemons will become active at night, excited at blood and tending to fight. But you did not act so."
"And, this boundary of fire is a saint magic, no matter what a magician could be, if he holds the lineage of daemons, he cannot perform this. That's what I know."
After a while, Access turned his mask directly toward Dorothy,
"You know enough," he said.
"Ah..."
Unconsciously Dorothy muffled her mouth, noticed her face was burning. Seeing a girl acted like this, the lips under Access's mask seemed like curved up a little.
"Access..."
Dorothy was quite happy to know it.
"In that way, why are you being here? And this mask ...Why you wear it?"
However, this query seemed touched a taboo. Access's lips was strictly contracted from previous
"I'm chevalier Access, of Netherworld. This mask is the proof of my loyalty to our king, that's all!"
As these words were gushed out, his head had turned back.
"...I'm sorry."
Finding no other words to say, Dorothy squeezed out a sound like that, then turned her back to Access. It's hard to be convinced that it was her own emotion-instability. Being melancholy, tears were coming out.
In the course of time, from Dorothy's back, Access's voice phonated in monotonous syllables.
"I haven't learnt your name."
Dorothy, keeping her back toward him, took great effort to build her voice,
"Dorothy," she made herself known.
"So, Dorothy ..."
It's a voice like mumbling.
"Seeking for strong power, the one who thought of entering this forest of Netherworld, you are not the only one."
Dorothy turned to him in surprise as she caught the connotation.
On that time,
A large shadow plunged into the boundary with rising braying. The feathers scattered all over. As Dorothy directed her eyes at it in a panic, there was a figure of a bird whose big pupils were sparking sharply.
It was a falcon.
The falcon had caught onto Access's erected left arm in a blink. Being aware of the gasped Dorothy, the falcon bawled out a shrill cry.
"It's all right."
Saying both to Dorothy and the falcon at a time, Access petted the falcon's head. The falcon also raised its chatter as if fawning, looking up at the knight with mask.
"Wha-What is it? Who is it anyway, this falcon!"
"It's my falcon... What's wrong? O falcon, may thou convey thy internal words to me."
As Access chanted so, the falcon transformed from inside successively. It changed into a form looked like a mail combined with several pages. Before the dazzled Dorothy, Access went through the scripts rising to that letter's surface. As he read, Dorothy perceived that Access's countenance kept fluctuating.
"Access...?"
"This bastard...!"
As he finished reading, a voice like groan escaped from Access's lips. If it had not been hidden under the mask, it would be possible to observe his varying countenance. Even this man would bring out this kind of voice? At the moment Dorothy was thrown into wondering, Access shook his hand and reset the falcon which had become letters back to its origin, and whistled through fingers shrilly. His steed came out of nowhere.
"What's wrong on earth? Access!"
Being unable to bear Dorothy cried out. By the voice, Access turned round to Dorothy as if finally recalled her presence,
"I've my way I have to go. You'll be okay if you wait here. I surely return."
"What?"
As Dorothy countered, Access's huge body had already ridden astride his steed.
"What's that? What are you talking about? Tell me please!"
But the chevalier with mask did not answer to these questions,
"You'll be alright inside the boundary."
"Don't say things I never get!"
"You will do by yourself!"
Leaving words as it, he kicked on the stomach of the horse. The steed bawled aloud, barreling out from the boundary with full speed.
"Wait a minute! ...Ouch!"
Rashly Dorothy tried to run after as well, while the sprained ankle made her face lined with pain. Though she knew she had better to heal it at first, she did not care anymore. Getting ready on her both hands beneath, she keenly concentrated.
(Broom!)
The following instant, with a soft pop, the broom of regular use appeared in Dorothy's hands. No problem, it could fly properly. Hopping on the broom, this time she waved her left hand ahead. Light gathered in the space onward, and the route had become clear because of illumination. That may have attracted the eyes of daemons, but Dorothy did not consider such a thing. With it the broom darted out from the boundary, in an impetus of a hawk chasing its prey.