Twins of Water and Ice

Shaw laid out the rest of the plan with a great deal of gesturing.

"Right, the details — we put a, ah, ship on the slope. Whoosh, like that—"

He angled his right arm out at a slant, set his left fist on top of it, and slid the fist down the line to demonstrate.

Marisa's flat eyes sharpened. The contempt riding in them deepened a shade.

"You actually believe a metal ship will slide cleanly down a mountainside full of bumps and ruts? Friction alone will see to it that nothing moves. Tell me — are you stupid?"

"That is very rude. Of course I know that much. The slope is what the other Demon Lords are for. I have an idea."

His eyes drifted, and Marisa's followed. They came to rest on the front line.

"Those two girls down there. See them? The two who look almost exactly alike. Twins, I'd guess."

"…Children?"

A heavier silence than usual trailed her last word.

"Why are children—"

"They've been there from the start. Either they're impish or just shy — every time we were piling stones for graves, they ducked out of sight. Easy to miss."

Where Shaw was pointing stood two small girls with long blue-silver hair. Younger than Lilium. Far younger.

The fact of their being on a battlefield at all was almost enough to make a person mutter you have got to be joking — and yet, weaving spell-formulae with practised ease, they were holding their own against Mūzeg's mages.

The techniques they used leaned heavily toward water and ice. Which was exactly what had caught Shaw's eye.

"We get them to lay a path for the ship. Out of water and ice."

"…I see."

A continuous chain of water and ice across the slope — low friction, smooth descent. Marisa accepted the reasoning, however reluctantly. The twins' control of their spell-work was that good.

"Then I shall fetch them."

"Ah, no need. Our 〈Fist Emperor〉 over there — that's him, isn't it? — has been throwing them concerned looks for a while now. The meddling sort, by the look of him. He'll grab them by the scruff and bring them over any moment, I'd say."

His prediction held up.

The 〈Fist Emperor〉, who had been arguing with the twins down at the front, finally gave it up. He tucked one girl under each arm and came pelting up the slope toward Shaw and Marisa.

He skidded to a halt in front of Shaw, breathing hard, and shoved both girls at him.

"You! Don't let these two anywhere near the battlefield, you hear me?! I can't watch — they'll get themselves killed!"

"We can fight too!" "Fight too!"

"Quiet! We're not in such a tight spot we need little kids pitching in!"

"Not little kids!" "We're young ladies!"

Twins, then. No question.

The faces matched, and the voices — piled on top of each other — were practically interchangeable.

The 〈Fist Emperor〉 turned a defeated look on the pair, then dropped a hand on each girl's head.

"Fine, fine — I get it! Just stay up here this round, all right? I'll buy you candy after! Yeah?!"

Surely no one falls for cheap bribery like that these days, Shaw thought, unimpressed—

"Okay!" "Okay!"

It worked.

The two of them straightened smartly to attention, with a soft, conspiratorial nihehe of a giggle.

"Oi, 〈Alchemy King〉!"

"I'm not particularly fond of that title. Please, call me 'money-grubber.'"

"Asking to be called that yourself takes some kind of nerve. Well — fine. Oi, money-grubber!"

"Yes?"

"You got an escape plan worked out? Things below'll wrap up soon enough, what with 〈Merea〉 and the 〈Sword Emperor〉 down there — but Mūzeg's main body is somewhere further down the mountain. That's a fight we can't take."

"I just finished thinking one up, actually."

"Good. I'll get back to it then. We'll mop up what's left, so make it quick."

"Yes, yes."

The 〈Fist Emperor〉 took off back to the engagement at a sprint.

Left behind were Shaw and the twins. And Marisa. And Aiz, who looked thoroughly stunned by the speed at which everything was changing.

Shaw turned to the twins without missing a beat.

"You two — water and ice formulae are your specialities, am I right?"

"Yeah!" "We're 〈Water King〉's and 〈Ice King〉's kids, after all!"

"…I see."

Of course they are.

"In that case — I'd very much like to slide a very beautiful ship down this slope, shortly. The trouble is, the ground is rough, and it won't slide well. Would you two mind smoothing the way for me? With your water and ice."

"Sure!" "Got it!"

"Then I'll get to building the ship. Now — it's going to be really pretty, so make sure you watch the brilliance properly. After all, what is brilliance, if not the brilliance of gold?"

That settled, Shaw finally got moving.

"Best to keep a few coins back. Just in case we need them once we're down."

He pulled a fistful of gold coins out of his coat and scattered them around his feet. Then, with a fingertip, he traced spell-circles around them.

"Earth content, about so much… and yes — with only what I've got on hand, this is going to ask a lot of the gold to span a ship of this size…"

The figuring took a while. Even rushed, his careful inscriptions couldn't be hurried much.

"…Right. That should do it."

He gave the finished array one last look-over.

"And now — gold's turn to perform."

He pressed his right hand to the centre of the circle and triggered the formula.

The array flared. A deep gogogo rumbled up out of the earth, and something started pushing itself up out of the ground.

In the same instant, the gold coins inside the array began to melt — running off in muddy rivulets and soaking into the rising soil, fusing with it as they went.

The shape that emerged was, generously, a ship.

"…A bit shoddy, isn't it. Honestly, being short on gold is terribly inconvenient when you're trying to alchemise."

There was a hint of decoration along the hull, maybe; but at heart, the thing was a hollow half-cylinder sitting on the ground with no apology for itself.

"…A ship?" "…A ship?"

Two small heads tilted in unison.

"Calling that a ship is beyond even me. And I am a near-perfect maid."

"Oh, hush. It's fine. If I say it's a ship, it's a ship. Failing all else, the power of gold will make it so."

"Looks like a kamaboko¹!" "Kamaboko!"

The hull did look to be wrought entirely of gold — whatever its shape, it had a high-class sheen. The walls were thick, too. Sturdiness wasn't going to be a problem.

"All right then — up I go."

Shaw set the example by clambering aboard.

There were a number of window-like openings cut into the hull, evidently meant to slip in through.

"Come on, get in."

"From… where…?"

"Where?" "Can't see the entrance to this kamaboko!"

Aiz tilted her head along with the twins.

"Anywhere's fine. Plenty of windows."

"You will never take up shipwrighting. Humanity will not survive it."

So saying, Marisa scooped up the twins and Aiz alike and pitched them briskly in through one of the windows.

"Ah, Marisa-san — would you mind giving the ship a push onto the slope? Once it's moving the twins will take it from there, but we have to be on the slope first."

"You're suggesting I shove this lump of gold down a hillside on my own?"

"Is it impossible?"

"Trivial."

He'd braced for I can. Trivial he hadn't seen coming. Shaw was still recovering when Marisa walked round to the stern.

And then —

"Hngh."

"Whoa!" "Ehk!"

A massive clang, and a jolt that ran from the seat of the pants out the top of the head, slammed through the four of them at once.

The golden ship juddered forward, its belly grinding rock with a gigigi, and finally got its bottom onto the slope proper.

A second impact landed from astern, and the ship slid into its descent.

Gravel friction kept it crawling, but they had at least made the slope.

Shaw turned at once to the twins.

"Right then — over to you, please."

"On it!" "Going all out for the candy!"

The twins answered cheerfully, leaned out of the window in matched motions—

"Water—" "Ice—"

—and laid their hands to the ground.

Shaw stuck his head out of his own window to watch them work.

"…Oh."

From the patch of ground beneath their hands, water came surging up — and was, almost in the same heartbeat, frozen solid.

Fast.

The 〈Water King〉 girl was conjuring water with her formula; the 〈Ice King〉 girl was sealing it the moment it surfaced.

The interval between conjuration and freezing was barely a blink. They moved like a drilled team.

The golden ship rolled onto the freshly-laid track of ice — and the hull that had been crawling in fits and starts under gravel friction leapt forward and began to accelerate in earnest.

"Will you two be able to keep this up to the foot of the mountain?"

"Ten candies!" "I'll give it everything!"

"Understood. I'll splurge."

The twins' faces were light. Almost, you might say, having fun.

Watching them, Shaw felt some relief — and underneath it, a smaller, meaner feeling. The shame, as the eldest present, of having to lean on children this small.

Not the moment for that, though.

"For now, the only thing that matters is getting away. By any means."

Marisa, who had launched the hull with that astonishing brute push, slipped lightly back in through a window.

"Aiz-sama, no injuries, I trust? Did the money-grubber's foul stench get on you anywhere?"

She crossed to Aiz's side at once, fussing.

"A-ah, um, yeah — I'm… fine?"

"By this point I am, I admit, beginning to get used to it."

Aiz returned a troubled little smile; Shaw kept up a passable imitation of composure.

The golden ship picked up speed by the moment.

In another breath or two, they'd draw level with the engagement at the cliff base.

"You two — when we come up on the front line, ease the speed off a touch."

The other Demon Lords still had to be brought aboard. Shaw gave the instruction with that in mind.

"Candy!" "Twenty pieces!"

"You jumped the price again?! Don't tell me you're going to double it from here on?! That is cruel commerce—"

But to the twins' answer, in the end, Shaw could only nod.

Footnotes

1. 蒲鉾 — a traditional Japanese steamed fish cake, formed into a flat-bottomed half-cylinder. Exactly the silhouette of Shaw's lopsided alchemised ship. ↩