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We just kept going up. We were almost there.
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I wonder if Victor is not a human being, because he is not very breathless in spite of all this hard work. I feel like I've discovered a new animal: ...... Victor.
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"Can you afford this?"
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I call out to Leon, who follows me. He smiles a little too much.
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"I've been in more danger than this."
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...... I know, right? Being an assassin is always a risk of death.
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I can't say anything. I'm not crazy. Maybe two out of three people are from another dimension.
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I almost thought I was special, but I'm not.
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I made it to the top without any danger. I thought I was going to have to take a more difficult path, but it was just up a cliff.
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...... maybe it would have been easier to have some obstacles to distract me.
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It was mentally exhausting to just mindlessly climb up a wall with almost no summit in sight.
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"I guess nobody died."
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That was Viktor's first word to me when we reached the summit.
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Did he really think anyone would die?
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I stare at Victor, out of breath. I look at Leon and am relieved to see that he, too, is a little out of it.
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Victor's forehead was covered with sweat, but he did not seem to be in any distress. This man must have worked harder than I could ever imagine. I wish I could be like him someday.
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"Where are the flowers?"
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Victor's one eyebrow twitches at Leon's words and he glances at him lightly.
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"You think Maddie is just a flower on a cliff?"
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"...... Is there more from here?"
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"Do you see any flowers anywhere here?"
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Leon and I look around.
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All we see are weeds. It's just a bleak landscape. Maybe there was no Maddie.
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I look back at Victor. He walks in the opposite direction he came up and stops at the edge of the cliff.
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I wonder if he thinks about ...... following me and getting blown off. How can you turn your back to me like this?
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"I found it."
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I stare at the point where he looks at me. Leon and I look down. Halfway up the cliff, we see a single, dignified flower.
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An orange flower that could be anywhere. But this flower is incredibly precious.
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"You can't get this kind of thing!"
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"That's why they say spotting is incurable."
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Victor replies to Leon's words with a grim expression on his face.
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A flower only found in Laval. There is no magic here, so no one can go and get it if it blooms in a place like that. Besides, there are thorny plants around it, protecting it.
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It's like a knight protecting a princess.
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"They say the plant is poisonous."
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"Allegedly?"
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I respond to Victor's mutterings. Victor looks at Maddie and opens his mouth.
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"I've only seen that plant here. There are others who have been here, but none of them have been able to bring that plant or Maddie back home."
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"If those thorns are poisonous and protected by them, Maddie must be at the top of the plant world."
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"That's why it's so powerful, so powerful that it can cure spotted fever."
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"...... How do you get there?"
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Leon interrupts our conversation. Victor thinks for a moment and chuckles.
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"I should have brought Kii with me."
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