The Fall
“Kaniel, go to the eastern forest.”
Swoosh—the paper that flew over was an order to capture or exterminate a flying-type demonic creature that had appeared in the eastern forest. The recipient listed wasn’t Kaniel’s name, but the name of the very colleague who had just thrown the paper.
“Um, this was issued to…”
“Yeah. But you’re the only one free right now. We’re busy with a meeting.”
A meeting? They were just chatting without even cleaning up after lunch—how shameless.
To begin with, he and Kaniel were the same rank. That meant he wasn’t in a position to order him around like this.
However, Kaniel didn’t add anything more and nodded.
“Understood.”
“Right. There’s no time, so hurry up and go handle it.”
“What? Right now? It’s still lunchtime…”
“So? Then if the flying demonic creature destroys the forest, it’s all your responsibility. Since it happened because you were lazy. You’re prepared to take responsibility, right?”
It was an absurd complaint, but Kaniel kept his mouth shut this time too. If he refused, only harassment would return. He’d already experienced it several times. Harassment like nitpicking everything, not conveying important notices, or ignoring him right to his face.
As Kaniel stood there quietly, the colleague who had been looking back turned around toward the group, dismissing him. The other colleagues who had been facing this way lifted one corner of their mouths in a smile. It was an expression mixed with ridicule and contempt.
After standing like that for a moment, Kaniel turned away from his colleagues who were already chatting and laughing as if he had disappeared, gathering his saddle and reins.
“Why does he always go around looking so gloomy?”
“Don’t you think you can tell why his dad kicked him out as soon as he became an adult?”
“He’s always staring creepily. Say something, would you?”
“Right? I’m so glad Amber kicks him out every time. Otherwise, it would’ve been suffocating.”
Giggles followed the whispering voices. His hand gripping the door tightened at the slander coming from behind.
Leaving the tower where the office was located, Kaniel roughly folded the order and shoved it into his pocket, then silently began walking toward the stables.
***
Demonic creatures usually resembled ordinary living things. Bat demonic creatures resembled bats, and cow demonic creatures resembled cows.
But peculiarly, there were a few demonic creature species that produced variants. Among them, the most representative demonic creature species was the horse demonic creature.
“Have you been well?”
Kaniel passed by the horses that were sticking their heads out of their stalls and banging the floor with their hooves, going all the way to the innermost part.
There, a white horse with huge wings folded neatly—large enough to span 4 meters when spread—was waiting for him with an arrogant expression.
“Hello, Lafort.”
Snort—Lafort snorted and raised its head.
“Yeah, yeah, I’ll give you mana.”
Kaniel placed his hand in front of Lafort’s mouth and released a bit of mana. Then Lafort purred pleasantly and rubbed its cheek against his hand.
“I have to go to the eastern forest. You’ll take me, right?”
When he opened the stable door, Lafort walked out as if waiting for this and spread its wings wide. The large, beautiful wings fluttered as if meeting the wind. It was the result of the winged horse demonic creature’s power to ride the wind being displayed.
When Kaniel mounted the saddle and grabbed the reins, Lafort stamped its feet heavily and took flight.
“Wow…”
Flying through the sky was truly a special sensation. Everything looked beautiful, and even places he passed by every day seemed new and special.
A feeling as if everything became perfect.
As the wind hit him in the sky, the unpleasant incident from earlier felt like nothing to Kaniel.
Kaniel felt that he always made bad choices.
It was the same when his mother passed away. He should have gone to an orphanage instead, but he stayed under his adoptive father. When his mother was alive, his adoptive father had been kind and gentle, so he thought it would continue to be that way.
That misconception led to the ending of having all the inheritance money received as child support taken away and being kicked out of the house as soon as he became an adult.
Employment was the same. Thanks to his constitution that made him popular with demonic creatures, he passed interviews at three places, and of all the jobs he chose from among them, this was the result.
Still, he endured thinking he needed to build at least one year of experience. And as soon as a year passed, he submitted his resume to various places, but no one had contacted him yet. It had only been four days, so he should wait a bit longer. Surely someone would contact him.
This time, may he be able to make the right choice.
As he continued those thoughts, he had already arrived at the eastern forest. Just as Kaniel was about to pat Lafort’s back with a lighter heart and suggest they descend to the forest—
“Now then… ugh!”
His body was caught by something and flew away with a swoosh. When he came to his senses, he was being held by a man with wings. A beastkin! A winged tribe beastkin. What’s more, a beastkin with large wings who was clearly an apex predator no matter how you looked at it.
The man wore loose white pants that seemed suitable for hot climates, with only a vest and leather straps on his upper body, and a curved-blade sword strapped to his back. With one eye covered by an eyepatch, he looked like a pirate from books.
In short, he was a man who seemed very delinquent and dangerous.
“Well, aren’t I lucky? Coming to such a convenient place on your own.”
“Wh-who are you? What is this…”
“Quiet. I really hate loud things.”
“Who are you?!”
“Now, now, since it’s come to this, just accept it.”
“Did Amber put you up to this? Stop. This is a crime!”
When he shouted, the man who clicked his tongue removed his hands from Kaniel’s body. What came next was naturally a fall.
A sensation of his back tingling and the inside of his chest growing cold dominated his brain. He didn’t even have time to scream. His body fell hundreds of meters in an instant.
Wind fiercely brushed past his ears, and he could feel his eardrums rumbling.
Kaniel reflexively looked down, then felt the illusion of the ground approaching right before his eyes and let out an “Hic!”—a scream that wasn’t quite a scream.
If he continued like this, he would fall to the ground and his entire body would be crushed.
That’s when it happened. He saw Lafort flapping its wings with all its might and flying toward him. Kaniel also reflexively reached out his hand toward it.
However, just as Kaniel was about to reach Lafort, something flew over and pierced Lafort’s body forcefully.
NEEEIGH! Lafort’s pain-filled scream rang out sharply.
“Lafort!”
Meanwhile, Kaniel was still falling.
Lafort was in danger. That wicked winged tribe man was dangerous enough to shoot arrows at an innocent horse demonic creature. He had to protect Lafort.
To do that, he needed to use flight magic. But Kaniel was clumsy with flight magic. If he used magic he couldn’t even use well in such an agitated state, terrible pain might come as a backlash…
No, it didn’t matter whether he was clumsy or had a low success rate. Right now, he had no choice but to do it.
Kaniel barely held onto his consciousness that felt like it would faint and manipulated his mana.
“<Wings to rise on the wind…!>”
CRACK! A sharp rupturing sound rang out and the mana scattered.
As expected, he failed again. When using magic, a calm mind and precise mana manipulation were important, but right now neither condition was met.
Don’t get excited.
Don’t tremble.
Take a deep breath slowly.
Kaniel, who had soothed himself, took a deep breath and recited the spell again. Again, again, and again.
But no matter how many times he tried, the spell failed every single time.
When he squeezed his eyes shut as fear rushed over him at the thought that all that remained was to fall to his death, the man who appeared again caught him. Kaniel trembled as he grabbed the winged tribe man’s clothes and shouted.
“Lafort, what did you do to Lafort?!”
“I guess you need to fall one more time to come to your senses…”
At the chilling mutter, Kaniel flinched. And soon he gritted his teeth hard. He was frustrated and angry that his body had frozen in fear for a moment and he had succumbed to the winged tribe man’s threat.
“Why are you doing this to me?”
“Shh. You should speak nicely.”
“Why… are you doing this…?”
However, he couldn’t deny the fact that fear surpassing his anger lingered around his chest. As soon as he moved away from anger even slightly, helplessness and fear engulfed him.
“Good. Now we’re going to the surface from here on, and if you scream or resist, you’ll get to take another wonderful flight. Got it?”
“I-I understand…”
The surface—what was he going to do there?
Kaniel had never been down to the surface before. No, most humans living on the Floating Island would be the same. The Floating Island belonged to humans, and the surface belonged to the winged tribe.
Long ago, they promised to respect each other’s territories, and since then, they hadn’t invaded each other’s lands without special reasons determined by those above—that’s what he’d learned. It wasn’t that he’d never met winged tribe members, but he’d only exchanged a word or two with those who visited for cultural exchange.
And the winged tribe he met at that time said the surface was a dangerous and cruel land. That scary beasts were scattered everywhere so you couldn’t go anywhere without weapons, and that it was a place where humans, even mages, couldn’t survive.
