They walked beside the road hewn through the wilds, and soon the barren strip fell behind like a dead snake shed. Around them, trees, coaxed by sprites, pushed tender buds like green lanterns. Rains had been kind. With the Elf Clan’s gift for communion humming in the roots, give it a year, and this place would breathe again like spring after snow.
The Lita Sisters stared at the wide, horizon-bright highway, a river of stone uncoiling to infinity, and they swallowed hard like startled birds.
Ahead lay the thunder line they’d dreamed of for years but never dared to cross, a border drawn by fear like a moat of lightning.
When their parents still lived, they warned them: never set a foot beyond the forest, or masked humans—creepy “uncles” in snarling lion-head masks—would snatch you away like wolves in festival paint.
Especially the woods beneath the Emerald Mountain—haunts upon haunts, demons dancing like shadows in torchlight—unless there’s no choice, never go down there, not in this lifetime.
That day, demons besieged the city, and War-Goddess Medith alone stemmed the flood, one rider trailing dust like a comet, carving through the Mountain Bandits.
That legendary forest, too, was split open by Medith’s one sword, a seam of dawn knifing through the dark like a river of light.
Yet the shadows inside their hearts would not lift, like fog that lingers even after sunrise.
...
So at last, they took that step, a footfall like a pebble breaking still water.
“Wow! The land—look at it—the land’s this huge? Is the world really this wide?” They stared at the endless earth, then squeezed their mounts and flew like two little madcaps skimming the wind.
Iling, Sais, and Medith traded helpless smiles, soft as clouds breaking.
“Yaa—hahaha—” The Lita Sisters let themselves loose, hands thrown to the sky, eyes shut, riding the sea-flat plain and drinking the free wind like sweet tea.
“Poor things,” Sais sighed, voice cool as a mountain spring. “Her Majesty’s old dogma caged them, so even with no threat, they didn’t dare step past the door.”
“Let it go, sis. We weren’t much better when we first met,” Medith said, and memory pricked like cold rain; she’d been stiff with fear back then too.
“I was gonna ask how you’re so calm, but—” Iling stopped. Melia’s green eyes had gone wide, shimmering with a pilgrim’s longing like stars on a lake.
“This is... the world.” Melia couldn’t help it; silver tears spilled like dew.
“Mel-sis?” Medith watched those twin silver lines tremble like spider-silk in a breeze.
Melia wiped them away and broke into a laugh, rain turning to sunlight. “Sorry... I’m just a little overwhelmed. I never thought I’d step out of that narrow mountain wood and see a sky this grand. Thank you, Medith... truly.”
“You’re crying already? Wait till we enter a human city—you’ll drown,” Sais said, flipping a fan of flame-red hair, frost and fire on one face.
A wind moved. Melia’s waist-length ponytail swayed like willow branches, and that face, near-twin to Medith’s, held a subtle shift, as if a lock had clicked open inside her chest.
“Let’s go.” Melia glanced back with a spring-warm smile, a blossom opening to sun.
“Whoa... for a heartbeat I thought that was Medith,” Iling said, heart thudding once like a drum.
They shared a knowing grin, then called the two wild foals back, and the horses drummed on, hooves beating the road like rain.
...
“Commander, where are we headed?” Lina asked. Once the thrill ebbed, purpose rose like a shoreline.
Medith shrugged, easy as a leaf in wind. “We wander. When you’re hunting for things, there’s no set map. Call it an adventure.”
“You don’t sound like a general. More like a hero out of a tale,” Sais said, rolling her eyes like tossed dice.
“Works for me. I’ll just play along with Medith,” Iling said, careless as sunlight on water.
Rita listened, secretly shocked, a sparrow’s heart fluttering. Sais, sure—but even Iling dared to talk to the ‘Commander’ like that?
“Um... Commander...” Rita began, but Medith cut in, voice gentle as shade. “Just call me Medith. Save ‘Commander’ for the field. Right now, we’re besties—girlfriends.”
“Girlfriends?!” The Lita Sisters wore whole forests of question marks, feeling like country birds who’d lost the city flock’s rhythm.
“It means confidantes,” Iling said, grinning like a fox. “Put simply, Medith’s our little sis we can bully.”
“Little sis? That’s ’cause you haven’t seen her in bed—” Sais caught herself, clapped a hand over her mouth, cheeks sparking like embers.
“Oh! Oh! I heard that! Ew~” The girls snorted in mock disdain, smiles blooming like peonies.
Melia listened, then smiled, petal-soft and wicked. “Medith, seems it’s not just your hair that’s gone white. You’re white all over.”
“Mel-sis, you... you’re talking nonsense,” Medith flushed to the ears, a rose dropped into milk. She was the one who usually led, yet before Sais she turned into a lab mouse, laid out and helpless.
The Queen, by contrast, could attack or defend at will, like a sword that knew both sun and shade.
“Hey... look ahead!” Sais pointed, a slim finger like a drawn needle.
“Ew~ such a clumsy topic switch. Not buying it. Spill it—how ‘mighty’ is Medith?” The Lita Sisters pivoted fast, gossip flags flying like bunting.
“On guard.” Medith’s blush vanished like ink in water. Her eyes fixed forward, and a cold breath rolled in, a winter blade across the skin. No one thought she was joking.
They all looked ahead. What they saw was...
