Konosuba: A Tale of This Beautiful World

~Vol. 5 Short Story Compilation~

Untitled

"Vallatrix."

"Kituiin?"

"Another set of tracks over here."

"Asura's?"

"No, something else…or rather, someone else."

"Someone? Here? You must be joking; this place is a death trap—especially with Asura roaming around, again."

"Well, I'm not positive, but it definitely isn't a Shadow Cat's…and it doesn't look like the tracks of any other animal I've seen."

"You really think there might be someone down here, then?"

"I'm not sure. The Shadow Cats have largely moved from this location, so while it is still dangerous, it's not as dangerous as it once was."

"Still, who do you think can be down here? We haven't got any word of any criminals being sent down, nor have we heard of anyone else making the trip. Think it could be another unlucky group who fell in?"

"No, I don't think so. Regardless, we're wasting time here; our priorities were to track down the whereabouts of Asura—and it's clearly not here."

"Clearly. *sigh* I didn't think it would be this difficult to track down a monster who could conjure a firestorm on a whim."

"Shadow Cats can be highly elusive, their leader even more so; it's not surprising to me."

"And when is something surprising to you? Anyway, let's get a move on, we're burning daylight here."

"Agreed."

The two figures walked away, but in the bushes, we all kept very still and very quiet.

After a long time had passed, several minutes or perhaps even an hour, we finally relaxed.

"*sigh* How reckless," Venora said. She turned to me. "Your Highness, are you alright?"

I nodded silently, tightly gripping the tiny bottle in my hand.

"Forgive me. I know it was sudden, but they took us by surprise."

"That was rather reckless," Yllora said. "Her Highness could've been hurt."

"I'm ok, you two," I remarked, finally shifting my attention from the bottle. "What's important is that we got mother's remains."

They both looked down, their faces consumed by a myriad of emotions.

"I'm sorry we couldn't obtain all of her," Venora said.

"There wasn't much left of her," I replied. I looked at the bottle again, the sparkling ashes it held. I tightened my grip on it once more. "And they didn't allow us to get more."

Yllora spoke. "Even if those two hadn't shown up, the wind had already scattered most of what was left, Your Highness."

I, once again, fell silent, my gaze locked to the tiny crystalline bottle.

"Don't worry," Venroa said. She gently placed a hand on my shoulder. "We'll avenge her. And we'll make sure you claim your birthright, Your Highness."

I heard them, and I valued their sympathy, but I wasn't listening; I was too preoccupied with the fact that my mother was now dead, and all I had as a reminder of her was a small collection of her ashes buried in a bottle. Reisuh Gurrand, the King of the Shadow Cats, had killed her; that's what I was told. And while I felt angry at it, I felt even angrier at the one responsible for all this in the first place: my father.

Mother had told me before that father had betrayed her, banished her to this place. I was born here, never having seen the outside of the forest, never having met my father. I could only see glimpses of it through breaks in the canopy, those structures towering over this place. Mother died, betrayed, all the while there he was, probably living a carefree life up there.

I never even met him, but all I knew was that I wanted him to suffer; I wanted him to suffer as Mother and I had.

As we made the trek back to our home, I kept glancing at the bottle, and each time I did, I would remember more of her, I would remember more of my mother; her kindness, her grace…her affection. I was taught to keep my emotions under control, to be tough, to never cry, but these were all things she taught me; with her gone, I no longer felt I had the strength to put those things into practice. For the first time in a long time, I felt it, the warmness of tears; tasted it, its bitterness. And like a mound of salt poured onto a drop of water, those tears had sucked away all the maturity I acquired in my nine years of life and left behind only the child that I was.

I could hold it back no longer; the dam of emotions burst, and with it came the weakness in my knees, the tightness in my chest, the overwhelming flow of tears occluding my vision, and the snot that had instantly blocked my sense of smell and my ability to breathe. I dropped to my knees and began to sob loudly.

"Your Highness!" Venora ran to my side. "Is something wrong? Are you hurt somewhere?"

"Ve…NORAAAA!"

I cried like I never did, clinging to her as I did.

Right now I wasn't the leader they looked up to, I wasn't 'Her Majesty'; right now, I was just a simple child—a simple girl crying over the loss of her mother. No amount of training or lessons, rigorous or otherwise, could overpower that fact.

I would continue to cry; for how long, I could not tell you. It felt like a long time, but no matter how much time passed, the both of them, Venora and Yllora, let me, comforting me silently. This was the last time I would cry, for I vowed to myself…I vowed to my mother, I would never allow myself to feel pain like this again.