Chapter 155 – I Wanted — to Set You Free

"Ria...!"

Determined never to drop Rofi, whose eyes were wide with shock in her arms, Letaria held her firmly and desperately kept her legs moving toward where she sensed no presences.

How long had she run? Slipping through the blind spots of tangled pipes and containers, she finally reached a quiet corner where she could feel no trace of pursuers at all.

"Haa... haa... haa..."

She sank down to sit where she stood, lowered Rofi gently to the floor, and a violent pounding of her heart seized Letaria.

Never, in this world or even in the world she had once lived in, could she remember running flat out like this. And all the while she had been carrying a whole girl in her arms.

The moment she stopped moving, sweat burst out all over her body.

"Ria, are you okay...?"

Rofi peered up into her face, worry in her eyes as she watched Letaria.

Letaria let out ragged breaths, nodded desperately, and spent several seconds steadying her broken breathing.

"Yes... I'm fine... I am quite all right..."

At the words that slipped out of her mouth as she caught her breath, Rofi's pale light-blue eyes went round.

The casual speech she had forced upon herself as a disguise had been blown clean away, and her manner of speaking had returned completely to her usual, true self.

Letaria looked back at the fragile-looking girl staring at her. Those transparent eyes held a very clear light, with no fear and no cloudiness whatsoever.

"And you... Rofi... are you all right...? Are you hurt anywhere...?"

Her breathing still not fully recovered, Letaria asked gently.

"Mm."

Rofi reached out softly and squeezed Letaria's fingers back.

"...So that's how you really talk, Ria."

At Rofi's murmured words, Letaria smiled, embarrassed, yet softly.

"Yes, it is... I was forcing myself, for the sake of the infiltration. ...My real name is Letaria."

-- Letaria.

The instant she spoke that name, Rofi's eyes flew wide.

"Leta... ria...?"

Rofi's face held astonishment and bewilderment all at once. Even to Letaria's honed senses, Rofi's emotions clearly came across, heaving violently like great waves.

But what it meant, Letaria had no way of knowing just then.

"...Yes, Letaria. ...Is something the matter?"

She asked, but Rofi did not respond at once, frozen as though she had lost all sense of time. Then, after letting out a single breath, the strain in her face suddenly eased.

"...Why...?"

Why had she come to save her, at such risk? Meeting Rofi's question, Letaria looked straight into those pale light-blue eyes and answered in an unwavering voice.

"I wanted... to set you free."

"Free..."

Rofi murmured it. It was a hollow murmur, strangely unfamiliar, as though she were hearing the word for the very first time in her life.

"Yes. Somehow, I must get you out of a place like this...!"

Letaria murmured it as if to convince herself, and once more tried to gather the magic within her body.

That she could endure a Makina's Trace Mode with her flesh-and-blood body alone showed how high Letaria's physical ability was. But stamina, above all, was bound by the limits of the body.

Amid such severe fatigue and pounding of her heart, even she could not sharpen her magic as she wished.

She could not sense nearly enough. But she had to go...!

Though the incomplete detection made her anxious, she knew full well the danger of staying here. Letaria squeezed Rofi's small hand tightly and stood up firmly.

◆◆◆

Gripping Rofi's slender hand firmly once more, Letaria resumed walking.

She tried somehow to focus her magic, but her badly drained body dragged at her, and the detection that should have spread outward like ripples was dull. The sense of not fully catching the presences around her bred impatience.

Rofi followed in silence, but her steps were somehow unsteady and frail.

Getting out of here came first...!

Letaria dropped her gaze to the bracelet terminal on her arm and scrolled through the simple map shared with her beforehand.

She could not read the whole of the complicated structure, but the route guidance Priscilla had set up was displayed in pale blue light, and she could at least grasp the way back to the dock.

But -- as she went on, a strange unease swelled larger and larger in Letaria's chest.

...Something is wrong. Why is it so quiet...?

Only moments ago, the shouts and footsteps of the guards chasing them should have echoed everywhere.

And yet now an eerie silence lay over the passage.

Unable to shake a bad feeling, she passed through a connecting corridor and stepped into a somewhat open materials storage area -- and in that very instant.

"Ah--?!"

A dazzling light suddenly blazed down, brightly illuminating Letaria and Rofi. Blinded, Letaria instinctively covered her face with one arm.

Beyond the light, forming a semicircular encirclement that left open no way of escape, stood guards with their weapons trained in orderly formation.

And at the center of them were two figures.

"Marei, Carol..."

Rofi whispered in a small voice.

"Wh-- they knew where we were...?!"

Letaria was aghast at having been headed off. To her question, the ponytailed woman -- Carol -- answered with a smile, stepping forward.

"There's nothing mysterious about it. We've implanted a transmitter in R1's body -- in Rofi's body. No matter where you run, it's pointless."

Carol pierced Letaria with a sharp gaze.

"...And that voice of yours, just now. It matches, without the slightest deviation, the voice of the 'Rampaging Lady' the media has reported on time and again. I ran it through voiceprint authentication. ...There's no mistake."

Then Carol took another step forward.

"Seldia's -- no, Syn-Fibra's... enhanced human, Letaria."

"...?! What are you saying?!"

Letaria shouted back at the word so suddenly thrown at her.

"I do not understand what you mean, but it is you people who are committing the vile crime of toying with human beings -- 'enhanced humans' -- is it not...!"

"Playing dumb is useless."

Carol scoffed at Letaria's words, coldly raised a hand, and gave the surrounding guards a short order.

"This was not part of the original plan, but if she has jumped into our hands of her own accord, all the better. Take this 'Letaria' into custody along with her."

The soldiers released their safeties all at once and closed the distance inch by inch.

Just when it seemed all was lost--

"Rofi...?!"

Rofi, who had been holding hands beside Letaria, suddenly let go of her hand and began walking forward.

"Rofi! Come back!"

As though holding back the shouting Letaria with her back, Rofi planted herself in front of Carol and the others.

And without turning around, she said quietly:

"Ria... no, Letaria. ...Go."