Chapter 98

It was far, but, truly still in my heart, my love for this world, and these memories of days that reminded me what I wanted to protect.

Now that many things were sullen, every day was important to stop the unwanted destruction of this world.

☆

「Ugh…」

Just before me was something that was more trouble than beating down an A rank magical beast.

「Hey, brother adventurer.」

「Wha? Hey, wait a second! Wait Kelly!」

As the thing in front of the youth was twisting its body back and forth, I took a step back without thinking.

「Listen, wait and think. Isn’t what you’re doing strange?」

From the mountain of stuff that the youth was holding in the bucket in his hand, he was taking out a little creature to eat, and it was an insect larva about the size of an orange having the colors of green and white.

As he held onto the creature’s belly, it looked like the fat little larva made a face of anguish.

Because of the time spent with Leticia in the dungeon, I was able to see a magical bug beast getting eaten up in a way that made me think 『It will probably better than what I saw in the dungeon, right?』

But this event still was quite different from that one.

I knew the beast wasn’t inedible, and it may have been good, but using a bug as food was something that Japanese people didn’t like…and tried to avoid.

「I said you can’t pick whatever you want to eat, big bro-adventurer!」

「Ug, Shen Fa. No, I wonder right? Look, he’s an adult, so he’s really strong so he can take it right?」

「What, that’s cheating!」 「That’s no good! I thought you were an adventurer!」

「Who knows, right, but being an adult is unfair! To be an adventurer and still not like certain things.」

They were kids that complained and whined and looked all around at each other,

「Why are you so against eating it? It’s nourishing and good too, these things.」

「Yeah, it’s soft and sweet, and tastes great. It’s a waste not to.」

「Ug, just swallow it down without eating it.」

「「Who’s the one that said chew every bite?!」」

「…it was me.」

『If you eat, chew every bite before you swallow』 is the thing that most parents lecture their children about in Japan.

However, in this world it isn’t well known.

On the other hand, when they eat food, they do it without taking any time at all and eat it quickly while it’s still fresh.

I understand why that is the case, but, if you’re going to get nutrition and help with digestion, you need to chew the food slowly before you swallow.

(Even so…)

You can’t eat what you can’t eat, I mean, why would you try to gnaw on something like that when you want a snack? Kelly, that stuff hanging from your mouth is its internal liquid, right? That’s the bugs organs, right?

「Ah, geez, Kelly, its stuff is hanging out of your mouth!」

Pleh, and Shen Fa’s tongue stuck out and licked the liquid dribbling out of Kelly’s mouth.

「Whoa! Idiots! What are you doing?!」

An embarrassed kid, and a strange girl. Around the age of Japanese lower-elementary school students.

Kelly was getting to the age where approaching girls was getting embarrassing so he was blushing, while Shen Fa watched Kelly a bit confused.

It was a scene that made you smile.

Kelly with a bucket full of those things and the fact that the girl licked up that…stuff…made me want to abandon thinking about them eating those bugs.

「Kelly, Shen Fa, sorry, I could eat frogs but those things are impossible.」

Really, it was sad to say to these kids that were enjoying life so much, but I can’t eat stuff like that.

「Ah, Mister Kaito, so you still are hanging around here.」

「Oh, Metelia?」

「Hey, the holy woman!」「Did you come to see the adventurer guy?」

Metelia called for us as we stood in the front lawn of the orphanage.

The sun was quite strong today, but even so she wore a long-hemmed habit.

Well, even wearing a habit you could see that she had large boobs, and if she wore anything less, it would severely affect my mental health, so it was good that she was heavily dressed.

I was used to seeing her younger sisters Mai and Alesia, and though she was only a year older, she was still a very kind and proper beauty, and was a feast for the eyes.

This may be sudden, but this world had far more beauties than the previous one.

「I brought you all something too. It’s a ricol pie that I made before I got here.」

She smiled a gentle smile and opened her basket, and a sweet and delicious smell appeared with the pie.

「「Yeahh!」」

「Hey you two, don’t try to eat it yet, we have to split it with teacher Myun and all the others!」

「「What?」」

She slapped their outreached hands with a quick tap.

Women love sweet things, but with this teacher it was obvious.

Regularly, as she worked with the children while caring for them, it was good for her to take a break from them time to time.

「Anyway, good job, Metelia.」

「Good, job?」

「Yeah, you did well.」

「No, Lunaris taught me everything, I just followed what she told me, Mister Kaito.」

This time, She had a peaceful smile on her face different from the previous one, clasped her hands together, and perhaps said a prayer for Lunaris.

「And you two, since you got a lot more that usual, you don’t have to hurry around. …even though you were asked to find more, that’s enough for now.」

「…」

As Metelia said, today was the last day we’d be away from the town.

We were about to go to war with the magical beasts again.

There were twists and turns, in the Empire and the wilderness, but we had prepared for a real war.

Since we had fulfilled our goal here in the town, there was no reason to hang around any longer. This war wouldn’t end until the demon lord was dead.

「Tch! You need to come to this town more. It’s boring after we made friends already.」

「Yeah, right! I wanna eat more of the holy lady’s treats too!」

The kids were complaining after hearing that I was leaving again without stop.

「Children, you can’t make demands on other people like that.」

Myun said as she arrived out onto the orphanage grounds as well.

「「Teacher!!」」

「Adventurers have their own work to do. Sorry about these children complaining so.」

「No, it’s nothing. I’m lonely without them too.」

When you think of a orphanage headmistress managing the place, you usually imagine a kind, elderly woman, but Myun was rather young.

At first, she and her adventurer husband started managing this orphanage, but because times were hard, the husband went into the woods to hunt in order to earn more and encountered a very strong magic beast due to bad luck, and never came home.

While the sharp sword that the husband used in hard times was lost, from then on, Myun was still able to manage the place herself.

「Myun, I made a ricol pie. If you’d like, you can eat some together with the children.」

「Well, thank you so much. I think they’ll be very happy. If you’d like, I can make us some tea…」

「Kaito!!」

「Oh, Toria, I told you it’s dangerous to run out like that before, right?」

She went thud as I felt her weight hit my back as if in reply.

Toria was the first child that I met in this orphanage.

It was because I began by saving her from a magic beast which is what first led me to this orphanage.

She was old for this orphanage, and quite precocious, so much so that she helped Myun by gathering herbs in the forest around.

The orphanage usually began using the children in the village for chores from age eight, and since then the orphanage was starting to receive money, but because Toria was so good that she even began helping the Guild, she was allowed to search for herbs on her own outside the town.

Since I accidentally stumbled upon her being attacked and helped her, I became acquainted with everyone else at the orphanage. If she saw me she would dash out to see me, and then grab me in the same way as she did now.

「No! No! I wanna go with you!」

「Toria?」

Toria was still clinging to my back, and she slipped her hand into a pouch I used for trips.

「I don’t wanna let go! If he leaves this town I want to go too!」

She had a strangle rare head of black hair and her irises were black.

It was vaguely like a Japanese girl, including the fact she liked being coddled, and it reminded me of when I was young.

「T…Toria! Just relax, okay? I’m not leaving anytime soo…」

「You lie! You came today but you’re going to leave tomorrow, right?!」

「Stop it, Toria. You can’t bother an adventurer like this.」

「I said no, no, no, no, no!!」

「Toria…」

Usually Toria would always listen to what Myun would tell her, but this time she just clung to me, and with her face clinging to my back, rubbed it in as she shook her head.

I don’t want to make the distinction, but out of all the orphanage kids, it’s Toria that has the strongest connection to me.

Since she was this obstinate, I was thinking about pulling her off of me, but I didn’t want to force a crying girl like Toria from me.

「…Toria, could you listen? The place I’m going is very dangerous, and there’s no way I can take you with me.」

Just before me was darkness.

During these two years, I became stronger. I couldn’t run to save Toria every time something unexpected happened to her.

Even more, because of this murderous battlefield where we kill each other in the dark, there was no way you could bring a child along.

「Ugh…uh…」

There was no answer. However, her grip on my clothes weakened.

「Please, Toria. If you leave with me, what will become of the orphanage? Everyone will be lonely, and since you’re an older sister to them all, no one can help watch the children, right?」

「Sniff, waaaaaaaahhhhh!」

Toria, after understanding those words, let go of my clothes with her hands. She then started bawling in a way that no one could stop.

「Hey, don’t cry. Stop crying. It just messes up a pretty girl’s face.」

I patted her head as that incessant crying continued. In the middle of it, perhaps from Myun’s intuition, Myun led the children and Metelia into the building.

「Sniff, sniff」

After gently patting her head for a bit, Toria finally seemed to calm down.

「Hey, I have something good for you.」

「Something good?」

「Yeah, I do. I was thinking of giving it to my little sister but…I’ll give it to you.」

It was the souvenir I got from the elf forest, a simple pendant of a bird carved from wood on a twine string.

「Here, it looks good on you.」

When I put the pendant on Toria’s neck, the crystal in the bird’s eye reflected the sun in a shimmer.

「Really, does it look good? Am I cute?」

「Yeah, of course…you are.」

I said it in the same way I used to say it when I was a kid.

I guess kids this age think the same way that I used to.

「Eheh heh heh, then I, I guess I’m now gonna be your mistress, right?」

「Wha?! T…Toria! Where did you learn that word?!」

It seemed so silly that I unconsciously spit out that cliched phrase.

No, 「I’m gonna be your wife」is something I would understand, but a mistress?!

「Um, I heard from the woman at the reception in the guild that 「A mistress gets more love than a wife does」she said.」

「…I don’t want to hear that kind of talk from you.」

「?」

Yeah, that doofy airhead from the guild would say that.

…the shadows really run deep.

「So, adventurer.」

「Hm? Yes?」

「Come see me again! I’ll be waiting!」

Then Toria again returned her face to the usual, bright smile.

「…yeah, I promise.」

And to calm her, I returned the same smile back to her.

☆

「…a dream.」

When I awoke, I slowly sat up. The room was still a bit dark.

I was a bit out of it and tried to search through my memories, and I remembered that I had arrived at this boarding place in Dartlas yesterday.

「…」

I had put force into my arms in this world.

Even if it was all for nothing, I wanted to protect those I wanted to protect, I thought, and I had no doubts about it.

That’s why, at that time, I had laughed.

No matter what, I thought I was going to protect those kids.

…the reason for the horrible result was, well, maybe my pride was the trigger for all of it.

In this black reality, you can’t laugh if your own self causes everything to happen..

「Even so, I am the type that gets bored quick.」

Was I always such a sentimental person up to now?

Before I slept last night, I felt bad having a dream of Ermia like I did, but to see another different dream again right after it.

「…maybe.」

Fwip, I manufactured the 【Holy Sword of Vengeance]silently.

What appeared during the item appraisal was the 【Holy Sword of Vengeance]creation conditions and effects.

However, the displayed contents were a bit different.

There was a missing element that was floating with the contents 【Seeing Dreams of Life Related to Trauma].

「That’s an ambiguous condition.」

It was so ambiguous it made me sigh.

I’ll see a dream, but there’s no way to tell which dream meets the conditions.

The dreams before were recollections that could or could not count as trauma.

「No, those were…」

My skills and Spirit Blade were relatively unfriendly to me.

I knew the Spirit Blade came into my possession what abilities it had, so I could see the explanation of its characteristics. However, that wasn’t the end.

The Spirit Sword has another ability as well. If the item review has 【？？？？？？？？]displayed in its characteristics, you can’t confirm one necessary thing for completion of something like the ability of the 【Holy Sword of Vengeance].

When getting the Spirit Blade, you can use it after fulfilling that one characteristic, and after recieving that strength effect from it just like now, that characteristic will be displayed in the item’s appraisal, which makes it quite an unfriendly setting.

For example, if I use the 【Water Fairy’s Droplet Blade]which I increased the abilities to maximum just a while ago as an example, its fluid manipulation was achieved when defeating a certain magical beast. However, the fluid heat manipulation was a power that I confirmed existed after using it while feeling something strange during battle.

Maybe they’re abilities that stay dormant until I notice them.

Well, there’s no use in it because it’s not like someone wrote a game system for me to be able to use it easily.

The one thing I knew that I didn’t like was the fact this world makes conditions very hard, harder than one would think. That’s why, sometimes, the plans I make and this world I’m in diverge.

「Nmyaaa, master?」

「Oh, sorry, did I wake you?」

In the bed to my right was Minnalis, who was rubbing her eyes and getting up.

It was the room of a boarding house with three beds next to each other in parallel.

I was the one that split the room up, and in exchange got one bed for each person, so I had to get a room big enough for three big beds to fit.

Dreaming is about being able to sleep comfortably. Getting a proper bed to suit the task is a must.

「Nnn…Yawn. Master, a kiss.」

After a light stretch, Minnalis’ expression of low energy and empty-headedness appeared.

She was much more of a proper type, I mean, until she started dressing like a maid. Now she seemed like that important time in my life when Minnalis wasn’t adapted to anything, right when I met her.

Even so, Minnalis had slept in a thin one-piece garment. It wasn’t good because you could see various curves and protrusions emerge from the garment’s neck and arm area. This was really bad in the morning.

「Okay, okay, go wash your face.」

「Yawn, okay…」

The space between each bed was big enough for a person to fit in, and Minnalis, with one hand on her face and one on an overcoat, slung it over her and went outside to the wash pail. After she washed her face and woke up clearly, her air-headed face disappeared, so there was no problem.

「And Shuria, I don’t want to step on you so stop sitting on the floor and waiting for me!」

「Okay Mister Kaito, you’re bullying me.」

Shuria pouted out her lips and didn’t move from the floor.

「…I told you to go wash your face, you flat-chested dog!」

「Oh, okay! Roger that!」

There was nothing I could do but raise my low voice to a high yell to get her to move. It wasn’t strange to get angry at something like that, but Shuria instead happily scampered away to the outside with a smile.

「…sigh, why is my life like this?」

My head, really, really hurt.

Even more, since the cause was my own, it hurt more.

「Damn, stop thinking about it, it’s going to get worse.」

This isn’t something that a normal person would call an interest or hobby.

It’s not like anything bad, but instead of thinking about it, let’s focus on the future.

「Okay, I guess I should wash my face too.」