Ch.49Chapter 49. No, How Did Mom Get the Invitation…..

-Whoosh.

By the time I regained consciousness, I could hear the sound of wind.

Along with it, my blurry vision gradually cleared, and I began to see the surrounding landscape.

A succession of buildings, all collapsed and weathered.

Feeling abandoned in this inherently empty-feeling city, I took a moment to recall why I was in such a place.

“…What is this place?”

Isn’t it strange?

I was definitely in Tachia’s workshop, so why am I now wandering through these ruins?

-Thud.

A faint sound reached me as I was feeling confused by this inexplicable situation.

When I walked toward the source of the sound, I saw a girl crouching in what appeared to be the center of a plaza.

-Thud, thud.

Yes, she was a child.

With short blue hair and wearing only a one-piece dress, digging at the sand with a small trowel in her hand…

“Hey there, little one?”

This is fortunate, I thought, given the confusing situation. As I carefully approached and asked my question.

“…Huh?”

The girl responded by putting down her trowel and turning to look at me blankly, blinking her eyes.

She directed eyes full of untainted purity, in stark contrast to the desolation around us, toward me.

“…Pa.”

As if she had realized something, the girl soon smiled brightly and ran toward me, shouting.

“Papa~!”

“What, what?”

“Papa, it’s Papa. Hehe~”

By the time I came to my senses, the girl was already wrapping her arms around my waist.

Though I was bewildered at becoming a single father before I could even get married, the girl clinging to me and giggling was so cute that I couldn’t even think to question it.

Well, she looks to be about three or four years old at most, so she might be mistaking me for her father or missing him.

“Yes, okay. Let’s go with that for now.”

I embraced the girl with both arms and stroked her head while quietly looking around the ruined place.

In this unidentified ruined city where I found myself upon regaining consciousness, the only person I’d found was this little girl.

The situation was so bizarre that I couldn’t help but consider this child in my arms all the more important.

I wasn’t sure if we could communicate properly, but to overcome this situation, I needed to rely on this child.

“Hey little one. Do you not have a mother?”

“…Mama?”

Wait a minute. What did I just say?

I just used the kind of language that science-major hopefuls use when they get trolled in games, and to an abandoned child at that. What if she really is an orphan?

“Mama ish here.”

“So you do have a mother!”

Thankfully, the girl did have a mother, and I was able to escape the disgrace of being trash who makes parent jokes to an orphan.

And on the other hand, I was relieved.

At least I knew that this child wasn’t abandoned alone in this city.

“Then, could you tell me your mother’s name?”

“Name?”

“Yes, I’d like to know your mother’s name.”

I don’t know why this child is playing here alone, but if she’s lost, I need to call out her parent’s name to help find them.

When I asked for this necessary information, the girl who understood my words put her finger to her mouth and said:

“Ta…”

“Ta?”

“Tachi.”

“…What?”

“Yes! Mama is Tachi!”

Words I couldn’t understand.

Along with that, the girl jumped out of my arms and spread her arms wide, shouting in a bright voice:

“Tachi Mama is thiiis~ big!!”

“…Um.”

After staring blankly at the girl with her arms spread wide and eyes sparkling for about ten seconds.

I spoke the interpretation of the girl’s words that I had arrived at during that time.

What did she just say? Tachi mama is this big?

“Your mother is a giant rat?”

“Yes!”

The girl immediately nodded at my question.

I felt my mind going blank and spoke without thinking.

***

“No, how can your mother be a giant rat……”

“What kind of dream are you having?”

“…Huh?”

A nonchalant voice reached me as I was muttering blankly.

Only then did I realize my stiffened body was loosening up. I raised myself from the bed I was lying on and turned slightly toward where the voice had come from.

Beyond the messy room, at the entrance, stood a woman with a tired appearance, staring at me with indifferent eyes.

“T-Tachia?”

“You slept quite a while.”

Unlike the last time I saw her, she looked fine.

As I felt relief at this, she glanced down at my body and said:

“You must have been quite exhausted? You slept so soundly that you didn’t even notice when I undressed you.”

“…What?”

What does she mean by undressing me?

Feeling puzzled, I looked down at my body and saw that instead of the damaged armor I had been wearing, I was now in a white shirt and shorts.

That in itself meant that someone had changed my clothes for me, unless I had sleepwalked.

“Did you change my clothes while I was sleeping?”

“Is there a problem?”

Despite this, Tachia frowned as if I was asking something strange, waiting for my reaction.

It’s not something someone should say after seeing another person naked, but if we’re being fair, I did something more dangerous, so it wasn’t easy to respond.

From her perspective, she might have been in a daze, but seeing that I carried her to bed, she must have guessed the situation. Is she really going to let that slide too?

“…No, it’s my fault for sleeping in someone else’s house. Yes.”

No, let’s not think too deeply about this.

Come to think of it, this person even pressed closer when her chest touched me, saying she needed to measure for a groin protector.

With anyone else it might be different, but arguing about such things with this person is a losing battle. Calming my unease with this thought, I quietly took some time to look around.

…The child whose mother is a giant rat is nowhere to be seen.

So it was a dream after all?

“Anyway, now that you’re awake, come down and eat first. Looking at your luggage, it seems you have business with me.”

“What? Food……”

“Whatever you’re going to do, it’s morning, so you should start with breakfast.”

Tachia stood firmly at the door, glaring at me as she said this.

Her tired eyes showed only indifference toward me.

“What, you don’t want to eat the food I’m offering?”

“N-No. If you’re offering, I should gratefully accept.”

Of course.

Whatever it is, it’s free food, so I should be grateful.

***

A potato-based stew mixed with some meat and vegetables, accompanied by cheese-topped bread and salad, among other things.

The meal Tachia prepared was not only better than expected but could even be called good.

Of course, for novice adventurers without money, this would be a feast.

“…The spear flies to where you are?”

“Yes, like this.”

After finishing the meal and sitting down with tea served, I briefly explained what had happened and casually threw the spear into the air.

And then, thwack!

The spear, which should have fallen in an arc through the air, flew back into my hand.

“Anything else?”

“Um… I think it enhances its power by emitting mana on its own?”

“…Is that so?”

After hearing the whole story, Tachia silently sipped her tea.

She was still taciturn, but I could vaguely sense that her expression was more rigid than usual.

Her face didn’t look particularly pleased with the results.

“Was the outcome not as good as expected?”

“No, it’s more impressive than expected.”

When I asked with a feeling of unease, she casually answered my question.

“It means that what I created, which didn’t even have a sense of self when I made it, now has enough consciousness to find its master.”

Certainly, engraving a name on an Ego Weapon without a sense of self was said to be sufficient for it to recognize its owner.

And since it comes running when I call it, right now it could be said that the weapon recognizes me as its master.

Of course, given its value, she wouldn’t just hand it over to me for that alone, but… if I really want it, I could earn money and come back to buy it later.

Even if I sold all the materials I have here, it wouldn’t be enough right now.

“Anyway, while you were sleeping, I roughly looked through what was in your backpack. You want me to either buy this or make armor from it, right?”

“Oh yes, you knew right away?”

“It’s easy to guess when a penniless novice adventurer invests his entire fortune in armor, damages it, and then asks to make something from the materials of a Demon Tribe member he was lucky enough to defeat. I’ll attribute defeating a Demon Tribe member of this level to luck or potential, but…”

Tachia looked over the sprawled materials.

Then, as if something was bothering her, she soon began to direct her furrowed brow toward me.

“…Where did you sell the most important part?”

“What? Important part?”

“The heart. Judging by the quality of these materials, it seems like a Demon Tribe member that lived quite long, and at this level, a magic crystal formed from solidified magical power should have developed in the heart.”

Ah yes, I do recall being told to collect such things when I was working as a porter.

At the time, I was focused only on survival, so I didn’t know the details, but considering how emphatically they insisted that this should never be diverted, I could indirectly understand its value.

The Heroes who told me this all ended up dying, so it didn’t stick in my memory properly, but still.

“How valuable is this heart, relatively speaking?”

“If we compare the heart with everything else here, it’s about 2:8.”

“…The heart is 2?”

“The heart is 8.”

“Those guild bastards!!”

I understand taking 20% as tax and processing fees, but to include the most expensive part in that?!

Is it because they’re jealous that a novice adventurer killed a high-ranking Demon Tribe member? No, probably whoever did the processing or some high-up in the guild just pocketed the expensive part.

But even if I feel resentful about it, based on my experiences in this world, I was certain that complaining wouldn’t lead to anything good.

They’d make excuses like the price couldn’t be set because it wasn’t appraised at the time of processing, or that it was specified in the contract.

“Ah really, ignorance is a sin. Ignorance is a sin.”

To think I was robbed of something worth 4 times as much right under my nose and was happy thinking I’d won the lottery.

Anyway, the haves are worse here than anywhere else.

“Being scammed is unavoidable, but I don’t think you need to blame yourself for it.”

As I was ruminating on my frustration, Tachia took something out from her possession.

She pulled out a pipe with a blunt, curved end, along with a metal case, from which she extracted crumbled leaves and tapped them into the end of the pipe.

“The world has been made that way from the beginning, hasn’t it? Birds that don’t know the law are eaten by beasts on the ground, and even if you’re born a predator, if you don’t learn how to run, you can’t hunt and will starve to death…”

“Ah yes, that’s true, but……”

“If even parents who should teach such things leave because they can’t endure the harsh world, the children left behind won’t even properly learn the steps needed to become adults. In that situation, isn’t it strange to blame an otherworlder like you for not being familiar with this world’s rules?”

Along with the bluntly delivered advice, Tachia exhaled with a “whoo.”

With that, there was a sound of sparks from inside the pipe, and soon its interior turned red and began to emit smoke.

“The notion that ignorance is a sin only applies in a world where everyone has the same starting point and environment.”

Tachia said this while putting the pipe to her mouth.

“At the point where not everyone has the same origin, encouraging such a saying is just a pretty excuse to hide the imperfections of a law-abiding society. So there’s no need to blame yourself. At least from what I can see, you’re living much more diligently than other humans.”

Without even making eye contact, Tachia just smoked her pipe and blinked her haggard eyes quietly.

Her words, continuing as if there was nothing unusual about them, felt both pessimistic and carried a considerable weight.

Her uniquely decadent atmosphere vaguely suggested that her past experiences were not easy.

“…Um, Tachia.”

Yes, there’s a certain weight to her current advice.

As soon as I sensed this, the questions I had felt when facing her began to chain together, taking advantage of this moment.

“If it’s not impolite, may I ask you one question?”

Handling matters without regard for ethics or common sense, lending an Ego Weapon made of mythril to someone she just met.

And even this advice is something that, from an ordinary person’s perspective, is not easily given.

“What is it?”

“Tachia, are you perhaps not human?”

“……”

The answer didn’t come immediately.

Is that silence affirmation? Or is she just dumbfounded?

“…Phew.”

Instead of immediately answering my speculation, Tachia just exhaled the smoke from her pipe.

She opened her mouth again only when the leaves in the pipe were almost burned out and the smoke had become faint.

“Why don’t you try guessing?”

“…What?”

“You think I’m not human. Then don’t you have some idea of what race I might be?”

Is she not answering directly because she’s affirming or denying my statement?

Either way, Tachia didn’t seem inclined to give me an answer right away, and she didn’t appear particularly upset by my words.

“Tell me whatever comes to mind. What race do you think I am?”

“Um, well…”

Yes, I didn’t ask such a question without any basis.

Since coming to this world, I’ve met various races, and among them were those with “unique personalities and auras” like Hellcry and the Azure Knight of Death.

I asked this question because I vaguely sensed a similar aura from her.

“…Ta.”

But if her identity is what I think it is, is it really okay to say it?

As that thought turned from anxiety to fear, a sudden idea that flashed through my mind was blurted out.

“Are you a rat?”

“…What?”

Tachia stared blankly at me, removing the pipe from her mouth.

She, who I thought wouldn’t be surprised by anything, showed an uncharacteristic moment of bewilderment.

“A rat? Why would you think that?”

Despite maintaining her composure, I thought, “I’ve really done it now,” and followed my stream of consciousness.

“Well, your name is Tachia, so rat…”

“……”

“…I’m sorry.”

Damn, what am I saying?

Even if today’s dream was intense, to bring up “rat” as a way to gloss over a conversation about different races…

“Well, whatever.”

But despite such an absurd statement that could make her feel humiliated and angry, she just turned her head slightly and spoke indifferently.

“It could be. That’s an interesting joke.”

In that moment when the sunlight from the window obscured her expression.

Was it just my imagination that her lips seemed to curl up slightly beyond that light?