I was feeling just a little confused. First, there was the girl in front of me. From the words of the girl herself and Wendy's reaction, there was no doubt that she was Kushina. And in fact, her clothing and hair color were the same as in the game. Fiona and the others also weren't indicating anything to the contrary.
The problem was what Kushina had said.
She'd said, "I've been doing as you asked, keeping Vanaheim exactly as it used to be all this time."
…What did she mean by that? I thought sealing off Vanaheim like this had been her decision. I figured it was the same pattern as with Fiona and Tayuya, something ridiculous done out of loyalty. Yet from her words, it seemed that I (Naru) was the one who'd ordered her to do so.
But for what purpose? Why did this need to happen? Why did this place, full of horrible memories, have to be preserved?
"Kushina?"
"Yes!"
"First, let us apologize for making you wait so long. Sorry. We have put quite a burden on you."
"Those words are wasted on one such as me."
For now, I decided to praise her efforts. Before getting into the subject I actually want to broach, I'll need to grease the wheels a bit, won't I?
"So… getting to the point, will you tell us what you know of the Goddess's Script?"
"Of course. But before that, Lady Naru… How much of your memories are you missing right now?"
"…!"
I couldn't stop myself from showing real surprise in response to Kushina's question. It wasn't just me, though. Fiona, Tayuya, and the others also looked surprised. Could she have noticed that I wasn't actually Naru…? It didn't seem like it. But she did know that I didn't have Naru's memories. That threw me for a loop.
"So you know about that."
"Of course. It was none other than you who told me that the Goddess would probably erase your memories when you were revived, after all."
Kushina's answer to my question was, once again, something I hadn't expected.
So it was Naru herself who predicted that I (Naru) would lose my memories? Then did that mean everything was going according to her predictions?
Haruka was also looking uncharacteristically grim, and I could see a trail of sweat going down her face. It seemed that the she, who knew who I was inside, didn't expect the Naru from one thousand years ago to have done this, either.
"Huh? Uh, umm… Lady Naru, are you missing your memories?!"
"Wh-what?! Something like that…"
Unlike Fiona and Tayuya, who were surprised, Penny was calm. "As I thought." I looked towards Penny and waited for her to continue. "Your speech and the way you acted sometimes made it seem like you didn't remember your past. Also, not only did you not react to Kushina's form, but your reaction to coming here was more reminiscent of a person regaining their memories than one feeling nostalgia. I have concluded that you most likely were missing parts of your memory, just like I am."
Huh? This dumb golem's really sharp today for some reason. Is that really Penny?
At any rate, it seemed like I had no other choice than to admit to memory loss.
"If you understand that much already, then there's no need for pretense. For what reason did We order you to seal off this town one thousand years ago?"
"It would be faster to simply show you instead of tell you. The shock might actually reawaken your memories."
Showing would be faster? I suppose the reason is because it's something that would be easy to discern on sight. On top of that, Kushina implied that it would be quite shocking.
Kushina stood (or rather, floated) in front of us and headed off towards our next destination. We followed after her.
After leaving my home (the storehouse), we walked through the streets of the town—which were even more ruined thanks to Fiona and the others—before approaching the exit. There, Kushina stopped and turned back to face us.
"I'd like for only Lady Naru to follow me from here on. Everyone else, please wait here.… Also, make sure you don't fly into a rampage again. If you do, it might awaken."
"?"
Everyone agreed while not really understanding Kushina's warning. I wasn't quite sure what she meant by 'awaken,' but I agreed with them not going on a rampage.
Leaving Haruka and the others behind, Kushina floated up into the sky. I flew off a little ways behind her.
It seemed like our destination was the top of the mountain. An elevation of 3807m was nothing to us, since we were able to fly. Well, if you thought of it as walking 4 km, then it might still be quite a distance, but at our speed, it was nothing. It took us less than half a minute to reach the top, and I set down on a spot that looked good.
Vanaheim's peak had a crater in it, as if something had pierced through it. It resembled a volcano's mouth. But there was no magma at the bottom, just a huge hole.
"The answer is here. Please look inside."
"What? Is there something packed insi—"
I looked inside and froze mid-sentence. I was speechless.
Yeah, uhh… This is amazing. Being filled with magma might have been better.
This left a bigger impact than when I'd first seen Fiona's giant form. It couldn't even be compared.
"…It's huge."
There was something that seemed to be living at the bottom of the crater.
Wait, is it actually alive? If it is, then we're really off track now.
I already knew that this place was a fantasy world, and common sense didn't apply here. At least, that was what I'd thought. But even so, this ridiculous thing shouldn't have been alive.
What I saw was the head of something that looked like a lizard. Its eyes were closed, and it didn't even twitch, but its nose flared every once in a while like it was breathing. Whenever that happened, a warm wind blew up over the summit.
It seemed as if just its head might far outstrip Fiona's monstrous size. I couldn't tell whether it had folded its body and fit into the mountain that way or if it had been buried… Just how many tens—no, hundreds or even thousands—of kilometers long would it be? I can't even imagine.
At any rate, if that thing started moving, Vanaheim would be crushed easily.
No, wait. If things go badly, could it even wreck the world…?
"It's one of the Goddess's soldiers and an arbitrator of this world. It's one of the five dragons of this world, and it presides over the element of Sun. This is the Ouroboros of Heaven."
I shivered as Kushina named it.