Steel Boy (1)

<Side : Trike Steel>

One day, a boy fell into the world. The naive boy wandered the harsh world, not knowing the names or faces of the parents who bore him.

A life that received neither love nor even a fragment of common sympathy instantly stained the boy’s pristine white heart with mud.

With his spirit broken, the boy failed to develop his talents, and all that remained for him was a single-minded determination to live. If he buried his face in the mud, it would fill his throat and he would die.

Therefore, the boy did anything to survive. Of course, a boy who had lived an improper life could not have survived by doing the right thing.

To live, he stole, and by selling or trading what he stole, he got money and food. For the misguided boy who had never received an education, this was the law of the world and his lifeline.

Taking advantage of his small stature, he mingled among the crowds and stole coins and items from pockets. Guilt? The boy had none. From the start, the boy’s heart had been worn down beyond repair. He had no sensitivity left to indulge in such human emotions.

He felt no anger towards those who did not help him. He was just… just sad if he couldn’t steal enough for a meal, and happy if he could eat. If he was caught stealing, he was beaten to within an inch of his life. But that was all. He was a boy who endured, reminding himself to be more careful next time.

The boy’s body, bruised, wounded, and swollen, gradually hardened. The boy took pride in his body, feeling as though it was made of steel. What pierced through the boy’s arrogance and put an end to it was something very trivial.

As usual, he mingled among the people to steal something, and the moment he put his hand into a man’s pocket, the sensation in his left hand suddenly disappeared, and his body rapidly became heavier, starting from his left arm.

The boy, who prided himself on his tolerance for pain, found his left arm being stained with the very steel he had boasted about. For the first time in his life, he was greatly flustered, feeling the emotion of bewilderment for the first time.

The boy soon lost his balance and fell to the street, unable to bear the weight of his arm. It was so heavy that it cracked the pavement, making it difficult even to crawl, and only the smooth skin of the Trike Steel reflected his cold sweat.

Still unable to grasp the situation he was in, the boy stroked his Steel Arm with his remaining right hand. The only opportunities the boy had had to touch steel were when he happened to acquire iron sculptures or daggers. His arm felt like those objects.

The man smiled at the boy, who was sitting on the ground. He told him to pay the price for stealing. The man, wrapped in bandages, said that and dropped a single crystal on the boy, leaving one last word before disappearing from the street.

“This is a crystal that reduces weight. The duration is three days. If you can’t find a way to break the curse on your arm by then, you will be buried in the sin of that Trike Steel forever, unable to move and die.”

The price for the sins he had committed throughout his life was too great for the boy. He could somehow survive even if his wrist was cut off. He could eat even if his tongue was cut off. But what if his arm became heavy Trike Steel…? The boy quickly understood the situation he was in.

I’m going to die for sure. There’s no way to solve this… The boy already had a heavy burden of sin. He had stolen from other comrades in the alleys, not just from the common people. It was just that the boy was agile and hadn’t been caught.

As soon as he held the crystal in his hand, his left arm moved as if by magic. He clenched and unclenched his fingers, bent his elbow, and turned his palm over. It was his own hand, but it felt like a Steel Arm that didn’t belong to him.

The deadline was three days. What he had to avoid were the comrades lurking in the alleys to execute the sins he had committed. There was no choice. There was no time to despair. The boy, with his faint emotions, shook off his gloomy mood and stood up. He was certainly afraid of dying without being able to do anything. But that was all.

As if his mind had been influenced by the Trike Steel when his arm turned into Trike Steel, the boy trudged into the darkness of the alley. He must not show his weakness to anyone. It was his own survival instinct, learned in the lawless zone of the city. He wrapped his left arm in rags, hid in the shadows, and searched for a target.

Someone who could possibly heal his arm.

A priest? No. Those religious types can’t be trusted.

An adventurer? Absolutely not. He had heard that adventurers were pleasure killers who killed barbarians and vagrants for fun.

A guard? An ignorant and incompetent sentry… or so he had heard from his comrades.

A magician? …Yes, someone like that would probably have an item to break the curse in their pocket.

This is the story of a boy. Also, a story about the encounter with the magician who saved the boy.

~~Excerpt from ‘Trike Observation Diary Volume 1’~~ [Author: Heri Tetrahedron]

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“Month of the Cross – 27th (Lunchtime)”

Following Heri’s orders, while tailing Elizabeth, who had suddenly broken up with me…

I was subjected to humiliating and painful acts by the bizarrely transformed Elizabeth and a woman presumed to be her companion named Rachel… or could I even call her a woman? They both had Dicks…?

Anyway, it was all so unbelievable that I wondered if I was having a nightmare.

But as if it had really happened in a dream, there wasn’t a single wound or scar left on my body. Even the traces of blood that had flowed had disappeared completely. If I were to say what had happened to me, I would surely be treated like a madman.

“Haa…”

I let out a deep sigh and stretched out my feet weakly. The destination is the guild. First, to report the results of the tailing mission… but I must not tell them what I experienced.

Because…

[You know what this means, right? Shhh♥ If you tell Heri any nonsense, I’ll kill you. Both you and Heri. In the most painful, most agonizing way. Behave yourself, Trike.]

Rachel’s threat. She had easily pulled off my Steel Arm without showing any signs of difficulty.

Her cold-blooded declaration was not something to be ignored. If I told the truth, not only me but also the people around me…

Especially Heri, could be in great danger.

“Hoo…”

While pondering this and that, I arrived at the back door of the guild.

Heri had said that I was registered as a formal guild employee, but in the case of missions that Heri gave me directly, most of them were top secret, so when returning to the guild during a mission, I should come through the back door.

The back door, which had been magically treated by Heri, could not be opened by anyone who had not been authorized by Heri.

–Creak…

When I stood in front of the back door, it opened automatically without me even touching the doorknob. I was also one of the people authorized to enter and exit through the back door.

Climbing the stairs beyond the back door, a door with the nameplate ‘Guild Master’s Office’ appeared. Due to Heri’s Magic, although the back door and the main entrance were different, they always led to the second floor.

“Heri, it’s Trike. I’m coming in.”

I knocked lightly on the door and opened it as it was. Other guild employees had to knock on the door and get Heri’s permission to enter, but Heri…

“Trike can just come in!”

…said that I didn’t have to go through the complicated procedure.

When I opened the door and entered, Heri was floating documents in the air as usual, resting his chin on his hand and looking at them. His sullen expression brightened as soon as he saw me.

“Oh… Ah! Trike, you’re here!? You should have given me some notice. Then I would have prepared something…”

Ah… that’s right. I was supposed to leave a signal for Heri whenever I was about to return… I was so confused that I forgot about it.

“I’m sorry. It’s because of my incompetence…”

“Ah, no, no! It’s not Trike’s fault! Anyone can forget things!!”

Heri waved his hands and comforted me. He then organized the documents floating in the air with a wave of his hand and placed them on the desk. Heri sat down in his chair and spoke to me.

“Ahem… You’re really cute, you know. Our Trike♡ Oh, right! How was it? Beth? Was there anything strange?”

Kuh… I knew he would ask. What happened when I was chasing Elizabeth… I had to report that series of events to Heri. But I must not tell him about that.

After hesitating for a moment, I handed the logbook in my pocket to Heri and said,

“Immediately after leaving the guild, Elizabeth bought an apple at a grocery store and ate it. She didn’t meet or talk to anyone on the street during that time.”

“Hmm… Didn’t she have any special conversation with the owner of that store?”

“She didn’t have any conversation other than a simple exchange for the calculation.”

“Is that so? Hmm… And then what happened next?”

Next… Heri, who hadn’t checked the logbook I handed him yet, seemed to want to hear about Elizabeth’s movements directly from my mouth.

And as far as I remember, Elizabeth came out of the grocery store and… met Lacey at the weapon shop…

“We, weapon… Ah…!”

Rachel’s warning flashed through my mind. She had torn out a few pages from the logbook I had written, and those few pages contained the fact that Lacey and Elizabeth had met at the weapon shop.

If I said this… Ah, no, maybe Heri…?

Heri, who always said that the title of Archmage was not just for show, might be able to defeat that woman named Rachel. Even if I ignored Rachel’s warning and spoke, she might not know.

Bu, but what if… what if… she found out that I had said it…? What if Heri got hurt because of what I said…? What if I suffered pain worse than death…?

A myriad of thoughts rushed through my mind in a matter of seconds. The disadvantages and advantages that I and Heri would receive if I said what I was told not to say… Heri always said,

“When you’re torn between two things, you have to carefully weigh the pros and cons between them and decide on the one with the greater benefits and the smaller losses. If the benefits and losses are similar or you don’t have enough information to know, always choose the one with the smaller losses.”

The one with the smaller losses… That means…

“Nothing happened… She just continued to walk around the streets after leaving the grocery store and went straight home.”

In case… in the worst case scenario, I decided that it was better to hold back.

“Hmm…? It’s about 6 o’clock now… Wait a minute, Beth left the guild at almost 12 o’clock, so she walked around the streets for 6 hours other than stopping by the grocery store for a while?”

“Ah… that’s…”

This is bad. I didn’t think about this far… Even if I try to gloss over it here, it’s only a matter of time before Heri finds out if he investigates himself.

Bu, but I can’t change my words now. If I tell the truth… neither I nor Heri will be safe…

Heri said that and started to open the logbook I handed him and read it carefully page by page.

“She didn’t meet anyone… She went home at 6 o’clock… Is that all that’s written here?”

“Yes, that’s right…”

“But Trike. I have a question for you.”

“…?”

“What’s with the torn part in the logbook?”

……!! The torn part… Ah…! The torn part of the logbook must be the part that Rachel tore.

Moreover, it was an unnaturally torn part in the middle, and Heri felt that strangeness and was questioning me.

“I, I tore it because I wrote it wrong…”

I made up an excuse for now. I tore it because I wrote it wrong… It’s an absurd excuse, but I can’t take it back anymore.

“What did you write wrong that made you do that?”

Heri, showing a sharp look, kept asking me to the end. It was a natural course of events.

But I… I, who had crossed the point of no return, repeated the foolish excuse.

“I, I wrote the time wrong. So I tore it up and thr, threw it away…”

I was being foolish. No matter how I thought about it, I was being foolish. Although it hadn’t been long since I had learned about roles such as tailing and espionage, there was one thing that was emphasized as the most important among the things I had learned even a little.

Do not leave any traces during covert operations. It was something I had heard not only from books but also from Heri many times. But despite such learning and advice, I said that I tore up the paper and threw it away.

“I see… You tore it up and threw it away… Hmm…”

Heri was holding the logbook in one hand and turning the bunch of keys with the other.

He seemed to be deep in thought, but I couldn’t tell. I didn’t know if he was thinking about my punishment or something else…

“Heh… Even those clumsy points are still cute♡”

“Yes?”

“Ah, it’s nothing!”

Heri seemed to have finished thinking, smiled faintly, got up from his chair, and came to me. Then, he stroked my cheek and started talking.

“I’m sorry for questioning you, Trike. It seems that this case is quite sensitive, so I had no choice but to raise my guard a little. I’m sorry if you were hurt by this. But from now on, even if you write something wrong, don’t tear it up and throw it away. Write it on the next page or cross it out with two lines and correct it. You can’t let anyone see what you threw away. The first principle of covert operations. Do not leave any traces. Got it?”

“I, I will keep that in mind.”

“Then shall we go back home?”

Heri reached out his hand in a friendly manner and suggested that we go home. I was living in Heri’s house. So, after work, I always went home with Heri.

“Ah, before that, I’ll take back the Magic Tool I gave you this morning. Can you give me your coat?”

Ah, that’s right… This morning, I received a lot of Magic Tools suitable for covert operations from Heri in order to tail Elizabeth. This coat I’m wearing now… the cloak that makes you invisible was one of them.

I was just putting what I had received back in its place. As Heri said, I took off my coat and handed it to Heri. But… Heri’s face distorted at that moment.

“Tr, Trike? What happened to the sleeve of your left arm…? Why is it torn off?”

“So, sleeve, you say?”

What was Heri talking about….

“Ah…”

Following Heri’s flustered gaze, when I looked at my left arm, there was the sleeve of my clothes torn off, and only the smooth Steel Arm was proudly revealed. On the contrary, the right sleeve was intact, so it felt even more contrasting.

“Trike… You really said nothing happened? Looking at that sleeve of yours now, how can I believe that? Tell me the truth. What did Beth do to you? Right?”

Heri, questioning me again with a scary face. That face… was an expression I had never seen before since I met Heri. Shadows were cast on his face, and he grabbed my shoulders tightly. His arms were trembling.

“I, really nothing happened… This is just…”

The friendly atmosphere that had been there just a moment ago changed in an instant. Black haze was swirling around Heri, enough to make me realize that he was angry.

“Dare to lay a hand on my Trike? I can never forgive you, even if it’s Beth, I can’t forgive you, I can’t forgive you, I can’t forgive you.”

Heri was muttering while biting his nails. The atmosphere was as if he was about to explode at any moment. If Heri went to attack Elizabeth like this…? I didn’t think Heri would be safe at all.

I can’t let that happen. Heri is my benefactor… He’s the precious person who saved me…

–Whack…!

“St, stop it, Heri!”

“Uh, uh-heh…! Tr, Trike?”

I hugged Heri from behind, who was trembling and uneasy. Then, Heri was very flustered and stuttered, turning his head to look at me.

“I, I really didn’t get anything done to me. So, please go home. I, I’m hungry too. And… and…”

Now, I felt like I was about to cry. I absolutely hated the thought of Heri getting hurt because of my mistake. I pleaded and pleaded again.

Hearing my sobbing voice, Heri’s face gradually softened. The trembling body and the strange haze also gradually subsided.

“Cough, cough… It’s my first time seeing Trike like this.♡ Ah, I understand. Trike… you must have had a hard time too. Okay, let’s go back for now. We’ll talk later, later.”

Smiling brightly again, Heri stroked my head and draped his coat over my body. Then, he held my hand tightly…

“Trike… cute.♡”

“Yes…?”

“Ah, no…!? L-Let’s go home quickly. You said you were hungry, right? We should have dinner soon.”

Heri and I held each other’s hands and returned home. Heri readily invited me, who had nowhere to go, to his house and even let me sleep there. Moreover, he even said that I could continue living in this house until I became independent later.

I had already received countless favors, and receiving even this was beyond words of gratitude.

“Then, Trike. I’m going to take a shower. Wait a little bit. I’ll make dinner soon.”

Heri always took a shower first when he returned home. I also decided to tidy up the equipment I wore today and wait until Heri finished showering.

“I wish everything that happened today was just a dream…”

It was a memory I didn’t want to recall. The woman with a wicked smile, her breasts larger than my head, swaying. Rachel… the monster who nonchalantly ripped off my left arm…

But… but why… the more I recalled Rachel’s face, the memories of that time… why is my Dick getting hard…! Why, why is this happening…? S-Should I consult Heri…?

When I was buried in Rachel’s soft breasts, a very sweet smell stung my nose. That fluffy inside was softer than the pillow Heri had gifted me, saying it was exclusively for me.

And one more thing… Rachel’s words to me before she left lingered in my mind.

[I’ll tell you one thing. Heri isn’t as righteous as you think. He’s filled with more sinister thoughts than you can imagine. Well, goodbye for real.♥ Let’s meet again if we have the chance.♥]

Out of all those events, only this one was clearly remembered and still rummaged through my head. Why, why…?

I wasn’t such a soft existence that I would be swayed by such words and doubt the benefactor who saved me. My life had completely changed after Heri took me in.

–Slap, slap!

I slapped my cheeks hard a few times with both hands to clear my head. This was also something Heri had taught me. When you have worries, slap your cheeks to organize your thoughts, or something like that?

Anyway, today’s events, which I wanted to forget but couldn’t. Heri had calmed down inside the guild, but he might ask about it after he finished showering. I didn’t say it directly, but Heri noticed that something had happened to me as soon as he saw my torn sleeve.

“I can’t say it…”

I thought in my heart several times. If I say it, I’ll die. It wasn’t just a simple threat, it was a clear menace. Not only I, but Heri could also get hurt…

I thought hard. But I couldn’t think of anything. What… what should I do…?

“Trike.♡”

“U-Uett…? H-Heri?”

It was Heri who pulled me out of my deep thoughts. Still flushed from just having taken a shower, Heri, wearing only a towel, wrapped his arms around me from behind.

“P-Please put on some clothes… I-I’m embarrassed…!”

“Trike, really. You’re always like this, why are you so embarrassed~”

Heri always wore only a towel after showering. I had seen it so often that I was used to it now.

But for some reason, my gaze turned to Heri’s chest, which was always like that. The pink hair attached to the moist cleavage gave off an indescribable atmosphere. Pink hair… the same as Rachel’s… but a much smaller chest than Rachel’s…

No, no. Why am I…? Why did I think of Rachel when I saw Heri…?

“Trike, you seem to have some worries. Is it something…”

“N-No. It’s nothing… I had no worries.”

“Hmm… is that so…? Then, I’ve finished showering too. Let’s have dinner~”

Heri gave a subtle smile and waved his hand, and indoor pajamas fluttered and landed on Heri’s shoulders.

After moving his hand a few more times, the kitchen utensils floated in the air and made food on their own. It was a scene I had always seen, but seeing the kitchen move like a living creature, slicing ingredients, baking, and plating them… I realized that Heri was truly an amazing magician.

It only took about 10 minutes for the food to be made and placed on the table. The quickly made food was naturally placed on the table, and even the tableware and water were set before me with a single gesture from Heri.

“Eat well, Trike.♡ Eat a lot and grow taller… well, you don’t need to grow taller, just stay healthy.♡”

“Thank you for the meal, Heri.”

“Yes, yes~”

Heri didn’t eat until I picked up my spoon. Whenever I asked about it, he would only answer that he felt full just watching me eat… It was the usual routine of dinner that I had become accustomed to.

“So, what should we do tomorrow, Trike?”

“T-Tomorrow, you say…”

As I took a spoonful of soup with my spoon and ate it, Heri looked at me with satisfaction and spoke.

“You didn’t think I’d let this go without saying anything, did you? I’ll have to go and talk to whoever laid a hand on my precious Trike.”

“W-Wait a minute, Heri, I really…!”

“Stop. I told you before. I can’t trust Trike’s words about this matter. In that sense, I’ll give you a different mission tomorrow.”

Heri had been thinking that while looking at me all along. I was flustered and stood up while eating and shouted at Heri, but Heri didn’t bat an eye and continued speaking.

“I can’t send Trike to such a dangerous woman anymore. But Beth is also my precious colleague. I’m feeling very complicated right now, and something’s just not right…”

A shadow fell over Heri’s face again. Perhaps it was a clash between disappointment about Elizabeth attacking me and the desire to resolve the situation she was in…

I, who had never even had a lifelong friend, found it difficult to empathize… but when Heri made such an expression, I also…

“Anyway, my Familiar will keep an eye on Beth’s movements. Trike, would you meet Myrit, who was expelled from the Territory, tomorrow?”

“M-Myrit…?”

An unexpected name came up here. Myrit, Myrit Radius. Elizabeth’s husband and also a first-class adventurer. Heri had told me that he was an excellent adventurer who wore a huge Gauntlet and crushed enemies with a hearty spirit, while also devising sharp tactics…

“While you were chasing after Beth, I wrote a letter to my Familiar and sent it to Myrit, who lost in the duel. I just received a reply confirming that the letter arrived properly.”

“What does it say…?”

“He’s willing to talk. I was originally going to step in myself, but since Trike has been through this, I absolutely can’t send you to Beth’s side. So, would you go in my place this time?”

Heri said, shaking a letter envelope that I didn’t know when he had taken out. Heri made this decision solely out of concern for me.

There was no good reason to refuse the offer, so I decided to follow Heri’s words.

“I have to go to the guild early tomorrow morning, so I’ll write down the place Myrit asked you to come on a map and leave it on the table. Find it well. I’ll leave a lot of Magic Tools behind, so be sure to take them with you.”

Heri finished speaking, handed the letter to me, and began to eat his meal.

“Of course, I still don’t like sending you alone. Beth was like that, and there’s no guarantee that Myrit won’t be the same… but at least Myrit isn’t the kind of person who would hit someone, no matter how crazy he is.”

Heri smiled bitterly and mumbled while scooping up the soup and putting it in his mouth.

“Can I really handle such an important mission…? I’m not such a great person…”

It was a thought I always had. What did Heri see in me, who was just a back alley pickpocket, that made him show such infinite trust? Above all, I was the one who tried to steal Heri’s belongings…

“Not a great person? Ha…! Who said that? Forget it. Don’t worry about it. No matter what everyone in the world says, I… only I believe in you, Trike. Cheer up. You are my lovely… no, precious man.♡”

Heri’s sincere and heartfelt words encouraged me and comforted me.

“Th-Thank you, Heri…”

With those words, Heri and I enjoyed a cozy dinner. Perhaps because he was worried about me, Heri didn’t bring up any more stories related to Elizabeth.

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『Month of the Cross – 27th (Evening)』

“Shall we go to bed now~”

Before I knew it, we had finished dinner, and Heri cleared the dishes and cleaned the table with a wave of his hand. After I had dinner, showered, and came out, Heri took my hand and headed to the bedroom, saying we should go to bed.

There was only one bed in Heri’s house. I slept in the same bed as Heri.

“Haa… Trike’s soft cheeks that end the day♡ I love them so much♡ Sniff… Haa~ Your hair smells so fragrant too.♡”

When it was time to sleep, Heri always rubbed his cheeks against mine and sniffed my hair. This was also something he had done every day since I was taken in by Heri, so it wasn’t strange.

–Squeeze♡

“Umm…”

He buried my head in his chest, and I always fell asleep in his arms. But today, I felt strangely strange.

Was Heri’s chest always this small…? Or am I still not over Rachel’s chest…?

“Good night, Heri.”

“Yes, yes. Sleep well, Trike.♡”

But today was too hard. Hearing Heri’s whispered words, all the fatigue melted away on the soft bed, and I fell asleep.

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