episode_0005

I like fish, and I generally enjoy all kinds of seafood.

The reason I’m saying this suddenly is because I was adding it just in case Rie might be upset.

“Give me one more.”

“You look like you haven’t eaten in years. Here, have some.”

Arriving in a commercial district lined with stalls and street vendors, I was showering money on the numerous food stalls.

The fish and seafood Rie provided were truly delicious, but without cooking knowledge, I had grilled every meal, and at some point, I began to crave human-cooked food.

The vendor’s food tasted of various spices.

I decided to be everyone’s generous patron today, pulling coins freely from my money pouch and sampling all the dishes.

They say the ultimate customization is returning to the original.

My stomach was full from eating various dishes, but truly, the basics are the best.

I headed back to the very first stall I visited.

“Oh, you’re back again?”

The bald man who greeted me held out a golden-brown grilled meat skewer. It was a generous dish, with thinly sliced and minced meat bundled together, and thick pieces of meat skewered in abundance. I paid for it.

“This is… too much.”

“Then just pay what you think it’s worth.”

“This looks like exactly ten skewers.”

Today, I am Dark Fantasy Wolverine.

Holding ten skewers in both hands, I left the stall.

Carrying them like this, I might poke a passerby’s eye out, making it burst like a guard’s. I might get chased away if I did that, so I should eat them all in a corner.

I broke free from the human tide, forging a path.

“Forging a path” is a strong word; I was just heading towards the darkest-looking spot.

Thud, thud, thud.

The footsteps of countless people faded, but I still heard constant steps in my ears.

Were they following me, or were we just going in the same direction?

I pondered, looking at the dark alley.

This…

It would be perfect for leaving some graffiti.

A man, no matter how old, is always a child at heart.

It’s the instinct of a male creature to want to break frozen puddles with his feet and leave footprints on a pristine snowfield.

I held a skewer and chewed the meat to resist the urge to deface the clean wall.

Juices burst in my mouth, and the savory taste covered my entire tongue. As I was about to take another bite in admiration, a heavy arm wrapped around my neck.

“Huh? Who are you?”

“First time in Hellstrom, buddy?”

“Yes, it’s my first time today, and it’s a very nice place.”

“Looks delicious, won’t you give me one?”

“Hmm, help yourself.”

I had plenty anyway.

I’m definitely not getting extorted.

I shared the grilled skewers with the man who had his arm around my shoulder, another man with a split tongue, and a one-armed man.

When five skewers were gone, one of my hands was finally free.

Thwack, thwack, thwack.

“Luckily, he’s crazy.”

“Find him quickly!”

“Just a moment…”

Oh, damn it, sexual harassment.

The men, after receiving the skewers, stood there and patted and groped my chest and rear.

Even though I didn’t say anything, having hairy men do this suddenly made my temper flare.

I was debating whether to shout “No, stop!” when a loud voice echoed in the alley.

“Hey! I’ve already called the guards, so don’t run away! You wouldn’t claim you didn’t know robbery is punishable by beheading, would you?!”

“Miss, can’t you just pretend you didn’t see anything?”

“You must have seen on your way here, there’s still plenty of space at the gate even if three more heads are added!”

“What are you talking about?!”

Wham!

“Kyaa!”

A woman in a cloak screamed and flew back from the one-armed man’s powerful soccer kick.

When the flying woman hit the wall, it cracked, and junk rolled and shattered on the floor. Wow, he’s strong, isn’t he?

“Hey, are you alright?”

I shouted to the woman I was trying to help, still held in a headlock by the men.

“I-I’m sorry… I’m so hungry I have no strength…!”

“Bird-headed… no, bird skewers! Catch!”

Like a skilled baker, I threw all the skewers I was holding to the woman embedded in the wall with a strong voice.

The men looked at me dumbfounded, but honestly, I had eaten so much I was sick of it.

Thump, gobble gobble gobble!

The woman skillfully caught the five rotating skewers, gulped them down in one mouthful, and dropped the empty skewers to the ground.

Just as I was wondering what the punishment for illegal dumping of trash was if robbery was beheading, my vision flashed.

Crack!

“Ugh?!”

The man with his arm on my shoulder flew away. The man with the split tongue pulled out a dagger from his pocket, but as my vision flashed again, the dagger crumbled to dust, and the man was nowhere to be seen.

The woman’s fluttering cloak floated away on the wind.

With her cloak removed, the woman stood tall, her shoulders squared, and twitched her rabbit ears as she looked at the lone one-armed man.

“Hiiieek! A monster, it was a monster!”

The lone one-armed man frantically waved his remaining arm and fled. Perhaps bothered by leaving his comrades behind, he dragged them out of the alley.

He certainly had good strength.

“Ah…”

The woman, now without her cloak, looked at me, left alone in the alley, and hunched her shoulders.

Her snow-white hair fluttered, and her ruby-like red eyes avoided my gaze.

Standing proudly on two feet in a blue coat, the woman looked at the ground and apologized to me.

“I’m sorry, I let them all get away.”

“It’s fine. By the way, are you hurt anywhere?”

“Shouldn’t I be asking you that…?”

“You were embedded in the wall…”

“An explorer is nothing without their sturdiness. And, I-I’m sorry.”

“Huh? Why?”

The woman mumbled, her small lips moving, and spoke in an ant-like voice.

“Because I showed you something grotesque. You can run away if you want. But please, let me thank you. Thanks to you, I was able to deal with them.”

Twitching her rabbit ears, the woman covered them with both hands as if embarrassed to show them, avoiding my gaze.

Why would she do that?

“They’re just cute. Not grotesque at all.”

Mesmerized by her twitching rabbit ears, I comforted her. Men are creatures who naturally like rabbit ears, after all.

“What? What did you say?”

“I said they’re cute.”

“Are you… out of your mind?”

What was this? I had only offered a compliment, but the woman’s attitude suddenly turned hostile, surprising me.

Her gaze was more menacing than when she looked at the men who had run away. I looked at her, wondering if I had done something wrong, and the woman closed her eyes tightly and said to me.

“Rather, insult me like them! Point fingers and call my cursed appearance disgusting, and run away like them! I don’t need your fake pity!”

“I’ll show you with actions then.”

I approached the hesitant woman and extended my hand.

Her eyes trembled slightly, then closed tightly. I placed my extended hand on her rabbit ear and boing, boing, marveling at the ears’ springiness as I gently stroked them.

“Wow! Rabbit ears!”

“…Ugh…?”

A rabbit’s ears are an extremely sensitive area.

I had learned this from a documentary I watched long ago, but I hadn’t believed it.

On TV, magicians would put their hands in a silk hat and pull, and a rabbit, grabbed by the ears, would hop out, so I thought it was fake news created by the media.

The day after the weekend ended, I tried to imitate a magician by grabbing the ear of a rabbit in the school’s animal enclosure and ended up with the nickname “psychopath.”

What happened to that rabbit, I decided to keep buried deep in my heart.

Anyway, I gently stroked the ears of the woman, who had wide eyes.

Copying Rie’s touch on my face, I gently stroked along the grain, then softly massaged, and slowly caressed, watching the woman’s face redden.

How about it? Do you feel better now?

“That’s rude too!”

“Gah.”

Looking was rude, avoiding was rude, and touching was rude too. Thrice out, I stared with wide eyes in shock.

“I’m sorry…”

“…No, it’s… uh, you seem to be an outsider… You always have to be careful in Hellstrom. I’ve been watching you, and they were targeting you from the moment you passed through the gate.”

“Me? Why?”

“You spent over 100 tokens just at the stalls.”

“But how did you…?”

“…You were spending money so lavishly at the stalls, I wondered if I could get a meal… so I kept watching…”

Then what’s the difference between you and those men?

The woman, who had hunched her shoulders at my cold gaze, stiffened her rabbit ears and shouted.

“Don’t look at me like that!”

“Understood.”

We exchanged brief introductions and sat in the alley, sharing pleasant conversation.

It’s a secret that I visited a stall in the middle for her when her stomach rumbled from hunger.

“Yuseong, that’s a unique name.”

“I think the name Naia is funnier. Naia~”

“…Are you making fun of me?”

“But Naia, why did you really help me? Stop with the clumsy lie about getting a meal.”

“…! You knew?”

How foolish do you think I am? What kind of person would shamelessly follow someone for tens of minutes just to get a meal?

“…I wanted to help you, Yuseong. You were spending money so freely, I felt like you might get into serious trouble.”

“Really? But no one else came to help?”

“Because I’m an explorer.”

Howard’s Chronicles of Otherworldly Expeditions featured various explorers. There was Mr. Phillips, whose name I remembered because he was famous, and others, but I had never heard of Naia’s name.

“Explorers explore and record a harsh world, but… they also like to help people in danger!”

“Why?”

“Just as we explore to create a safe world, if we help good people, the world becomes even safer!”

Feeling Naia’s conviction, filled with belief, I clapped and praised her.

Naia’s face reddened, and she folded her rabbit ears, covering her eyes in embarrassment.

“Anyway, I’m glad you weren’t hurt, Yuseong.”

“Thank you for helping me, Naia.”

“If you say that one more time, it’ll be the hundredth time, you know?”

“Did I say that?”

We spent time chatting about trivial things.

Naia said she was resting in Hellstrom in preparation for her next expedition, and her companions had taken her bag, leaving her starving, when she met me.

Without me needing to say anything, Naia’s eyes would light up and she would beam whenever she talked about explorers.

I, too, remembered having loved something as much as Naia did, so I took her lively voice as music and became one with the dark alley, engraving her heroic tales deep in my heart.

But joyful moments pass quickly, and the sun was already beginning to set, and the time for my promised reunion with Rie was approaching.

“So, when I took the rope and threw myself into the cave-!”

“I’m sorry, Naia, for interrupting a good story.”

“W-What’s wrong? You’re getting up with such a sad face. I still have about three volumes worth of my expedition log left.”

Three volumes? Really?

“I have to go home now. I promised my employer I’d be home by evening.”

“Oh, I see! Then I’ll walk you to your house-”

“No, I came from a different city, not Hellstrom, so I’ll go alone.”

“Is that so? Yuseong, you were an explorer too!”

“No? I’m a painter?”

“Wow, that’s unexpected.”

…Her reaction is a bit disappointing, isn’t it?

“Tell me the rest of the story next time. Naia’s expedition log was very interesting.”

“…I can’t promise. Just as you have to leave today, I’m leaving for an expedition tomorrow.”

Being an explorer was a difficult and dangerous profession, constantly embarking on expeditions.

I was secretly disappointed to hear she was leaving, but I couldn’t help it; if there’s a meeting, there’s a parting.

“That’s a shame. But we’ll be able to see each other here again after your expedition, right?”

“I can’t guarantee it. Your words give me a lot of strength, Yuseong, but… this journey is going to be incredibly tough and arduous.”

“Is it that bad?”

“The Shabrian expedition team assembled this time is aiming for six months. Even if I return alive, it’ll be six months before I can see you again, won’t it?”

Naia’s face looked a little bitter as she said that.

“…That’s a shame.”

“Exactly. Sometimes I think… why do we, when confronted by an impenetrable darkness, overcome fear and press on, only to receive no reward and risk our lives, not knowing what disaster might befall us, on a continent infested with the demonic forces of [redacted] and [redacted]? If there is a god, I want to ask him.”

“Still, I don’t think you’ll quit being an explorer, Naia.”

“How do you know that, Yuseong?”

“Your eyes say so.”

They held a look of uncontrollable passion, so intense. I used to have the same expression as Naia when I drew fan art for Chronicles of Otherworldly Expeditions.

“You’re right! An explorer must always press on, no matter what hardship blocks their path!”

“That’s amazing~”

“To help humanity survive, my goal as an explorer is to illuminate the impenetrable darkness and discover lands where humans can live.”

Naia stood up from the ground, dusted off her rear, and turned to look at me.

Naia’s smile, brighter than the setting sun and more refreshing than a clear sky, was enough to inspire me.

“Naia, do you happen to have a pen and paper?”

“Oh, yes! An explorer always has to carry those.”

Twitching her rabbit ears, Naia handed me subtly warm paper and a pen from her pocket.

As quickly as possible, but with all my heart.

I decided to transfer Naia, who was staring blankly at me, onto the paper, and I drew her brilliant future.

I drew Naia joyfully celebrating in front of a snow-white palace, just like her hair, holding the skewers she enjoyed eating. I then returned the paper and pen.

“You said it’s dark and scary ahead, didn’t you?”

I chewed on Naia’s words and thought.

Rie had told me never to enter white buildings… but a place so dazzling it could blind someone seemed fitting for Naia.

A white palace fitting for her, who wanted to illuminate the deep darkness. Praying that she might find such a place, I said to Naia:

“Right…?”

“In that case, why don’t you try going to a white place instead?”

“Huh?”

“If you go to illuminate a dark place and can’t return, then just make that place bright.”

“…Ah… Ah, ah!”

Naia looked at me, then at my drawing as if she had realized something, and then raised her head with a face radiant with joy.

A smile so bright and so happy.

“I’ll definitely remember those words!”

“Goodbye, Naia.”

“We’ll definitely meet again!”

Naia and I exchanged no more words and went our separate ways.

Parting ways with a kindred spirit is always regrettable.

But if there is a meeting, there is a parting, and if there is a parting, there will be a time for reunion.

Today’s regret would return as an even greater joy when I reunite with Naia.

Believing that, I parted ways with her.

Bye~!

[Ah, what a pity. That’s why I told you to make that concession.]

[I’m busy, you know? Too busy enjoying a pleasant and happy time, oh – you’re back just in time.]

[Hee hee, who was it who just offered [redacted] in exchange for my collection?]

[It’s not something I can do as I please~]

“Good work.”

“Ah, yeah.”

“…Are you looking at that again?”

“I want to go back quickly.” “Be patient, it’s just the beginning.” “I know, that’s why I’m enduring with this, right?” “But to my eyes, it’s not a drawing, but scra-” “Silence.”

“Ahem! You’ll be busy for a while. All reachable survivors are flocking here.”

This place has no murky skies, no corpse-ridden land, no rivers tainted with rotten blood—only a happy palace.

You once said, if you can’t find it, why not create it?

Thank you. I believe one day you will see this writing. So, I will save the rest.

Because I want to meet you face-to-face and tell you myself.

We’ll definitely meet again.