Chapter 25

I can’t quite remember when it was…

Although I can’t recall the details well, there was a time when, for some inexplicable reason, Garid brought home flowers, which was unlike him.

A muscular man with a long scar on his face tending to flowers—well, I suppose that’s possible. Just because he has a rugged exterior doesn’t mean he can’t have such a hobby.

The same goes for a well-groomed, gentle-looking person; you shouldn’t trust them blindly either.

You can have an impression, but don’t jump to conclusions.

I had learned the hard way that judging people solely by their appearances could lead to trouble, so I had to be cautious to survive.

In bad terms, I could be described as overly suspicious.

Thus, when I said that Garid’s behavior was unlike him, it wasn’t just because of his appearance.

When I first arrived at Garid’s house, I couldn’t believe that the place he confidently pointed to was actually a home where someone lived.

The yard was overgrown with weeds and littered with discarded trash, and the furniture inside was arranged haphazardly, devoid of any thought for flow or comfort.

A musty smell, dust, and a mountain of plates smeared with food scraps, culminating in mushrooms sprouting in the corners.

Was I in a house or a dump in a slum?

I couldn’t bring myself to clean it up, so we eventually abandoned that house and moved to a new one.

Since then, I took over all the housework.

So when Garid brought home flowers, I couldn’t help but ask:

‘…Are you out of your mind?’

It was absurd that someone who couldn’t even tidy up would suddenly want to grow flowers in the yard.

‘You’re on your own with that. I won’t touch it.’

-‘Oh, how cruel! I never planned to ask you for help, anyway.’

‘Why the sudden interest in flowers?’

-‘Well, I just thought it wouldn’t hurt to grow some.’

After that, Garid diligently tended to the yard, which had turned into a garden.

I expected he would soon forget to take care of it and let the flowers die or lose interest, but he surprised me by regularly buying new flowers and tending to them with great care.

One day, after sitting me down in the brightly blooming garden, Garid smiled broadly and said,

-‘Aren’t they beautiful?’

‘…They are, indeed.’

-‘Haha! See, I told you, you could do well if you tried. How about it? Don’t you feel like growing a garden yourself? Planting flowers and trees, huh? Right?’

‘Not really.’

-‘…You’re just so unfeeling.’

I remember Garid grumbling about how a girl could dislike flowers more than he did.

Even now, years later, I still don’t understand why Garid did such a thing, and I probably never will.

So instead of trying to figure out the reason, I planted flowers in front of his grave.

I hope these flowers bring him peace.

‘…’

I didn’t want to see their faces, but I ended up seeing the imperial soldiers too, which made me feel quite emotional today.

I turned my body, shaking off the faint remnants of mana left behind.

Did they understand what I said?

The three behind me were fidgeting, not knowing what to do.

It was pretty funny to see even the greatsword-wielding chick, who seemed oblivious to others’ opinions, cautiously glancing around. seaʀᴄh thё novёlF~ire.net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.

“Um, uh….”

Joanie, who I could say I had a bit of a relationship with, was hesitating to say something, but I was quicker to extend my hand.

“…Huh?”

“Feed me.”

I was hungry after exerting myself for the first time in a while.

***

In the country I lived in during my previous life, Korea, there were a lot of sayings related to food.

“Even Mount Geumgang looks good after a meal,” “A ghost that has eaten well is also well-dressed,” “Don’t bother even a dog when it’s eating,” and so on.

From these, you can tell how much our ancestors valued food.

The world I was reborn into, while less focused on meals than Korea, still recognized the importance of food.

It was just that there were too many people who were so poor that it didn’t mean anything.

So, what I was doing now was completely normal behavior.

“Uh, um… Canaria? I promise I’ll bring some tomorrow, so please don’t be angry. Right, Yuki? Is there any leftover food?”

“There’s no way there would be any after logging in just to fight. There are some stone biscuits and preserved food….”

“I have beef jerky.”

“I don’t think I’d want to eat that… Uh, Canaria, do you want to eat this?”

“…”

…Do you want to eat it?

As I glared sulkily at the beef jerky being pushed toward me, Joanie awkwardly pulled her hand back.

I had eaten so much jerky during my time as a knight that I didn’t even want to see it now.

Even back then, I tried to make sure I had proper meals, but in situations where time was tight or I had to hide, I had no choice but to eat preserved foods like jerky.

I let out a sigh while watching the greatsword-wielding chick chewing on the jerky.

I knew it wasn’t Joanie’s fault.

After all, I had never asked for a reward, and it wouldn’t have been strange for her to stop bringing food at any time since she was doing it on her own accord.

But it just had to be right now.

Hearing Joanie’s words that she hadn’t prepared anything made my shoulders slump.

It wasn’t that I was expecting her food to be delicious.

It’s not that it wasn’t tasty; it’s just that I had eaten a lot of better things, so I felt indifferent.

Despite being looked down upon both inside and outside, as the commander of the knights, I had many meals with royals and nobles.

Nobles and royals, regardless of what the common people eat, only care about filling their own stomachs, which is why the dishes served on their tables lack nothing in flavor or presentation.

Even if Joanie claimed the food she brought was delicious, it didn’t particularly excite me for this reason.

However, the food she brought yesterday was different.

To be honest, the taste wasn’t really to my liking, but the insane spiciness made me want to slap the chef’s face; it oddly evoked a sense of nostalgia from my previous life.

I was secretly hoping she would bring another dish that would trigger such nostalgia.

‘There’s no helping it…’

Getting up from my seat, I trudged over to the cabin, gathered a large pot and some leftover ingredients, and returned to the open space.

It was a hassle, but I didn’t want to eat jerky, so I might as well whip up a simple stew.

After roughly throwing in the ingredients and frying them, I added water and simmered for a while…

And there it was—a stew that was just about decent enough to eat.

Slurp.

Yum, yum.

“Hmm…”

I was glad to find some cockatrice meat left.

The nutty flavor of the meat melted into the stew, transforming it from just eatable to pretty good.

I wish I had more ingredients and time.

As I satisfied my longing, I shared the extra bowls I had brought with the three chicks.

“…Uh, are you giving this to us?”

“I never thought I’d be eating food made by a gravekeeper in my lifetime…”

Even if I hadn’t invited them, they had come to my place, so I had to offer them something to eat.

After all, they had fed off me before.

Most importantly, I felt I wouldn’t be able to handle the gazes directed at me if I left the three of them to eat alone while I dined by myself.

“…This is better than I expected?”

“Right? I didn’t have high hopes since you just tossed everything in, but it’s perfect for a simple meal.”

Slurp.

Even while chattering away, they were eating well, so it must suit their taste.

Fortunately, it seems my cooking skills, honed while feeding Garid, hadn’t dulled.

I decided to ignore them and continued my meal.

The first to finish eating among us four was me.

Since I started first and also ate less, I placed my empty bowl and spoon down and got up from my seat.

Perched on the edge of a cliff, I stared blankly at the sun passing overhead.

“Should I leave…?”

I wasn’t worried about the empire invading.

From what that snake said, it seemed they didn’t want to stir me up while I was being quiet, so it would likely remain calm for a while.

As a form of retaliation for the massacre of the Order, other beings might come, but unless the snake bastard or the Imperial Army directly marches in, there’s no way I could lose.

However, the thought of leaving Garid alone still weighed heavily on my mind.

To me, Garid was more of a father than my own, someone I could call a father without hesitation, but he was also the one who held me steady when I felt rootless and shaken.

Therefore, losing Garid and the will he protected left me drifting in the world like a fallen leaf from a tree.

Here, where he was buried, I would also meet my end.

Despite this resolve, the thought of leaving made guilt prick at me.

Do the dimensional creatures, the Empire, the Apostles, or Edel hold more importance than Garid?

…Without a doubt, that wasn’t the case, but I still wondered why it troubled me.

—

Thud.

Just then, someone approached.

Joanie, trembling as if afraid of the sheer cliff, managed to sit beside me, stretching her legs into the distant void.

—

Pet pet.

Then, she raised her hand and began to stroke my head.

—

“…???”

I had sensed her presence, but I never expected her to actually pet my head.

I froze, my eyes wide open.

—

What is this?

—

—

Even while eating stew, Joanie kept stealing glances at Canaria.

With every blink of her eyes and every little movement of her mouth, Joanie silently screamed in her heart.

Yet, at the same time, she couldn’t believe that this cute girl had killed the formidable knights in an instant, casting a suspicious look her way.

She looked like a girl who would be playing with flowers and hugging a doll…

Looking at her arms, they seemed even thinner than her own.

No wonder there were still many who couldn’t believe that this terrifying Gravekeeper was such a girl.

She glanced at Canaria, then at the stew, back and forth.

Eating like a penny-pincher took a long time, so ultimately, Canaria finished her bowl first and stood up.

Canaria sat on the edge of the cliff where the grave was.

Although she sat there casually, the precariousness of her position made Joanie anxious as if she would fall at any moment.

Watching her with worried eyes, Joanie suddenly asked Pine.

“Are you going to continue with the Perclun, Pine?”

“…I can’t,” Pine decisively replied.

“Public sentiment is one thing, but I just can’t imagine taking down Canaria…”

“I still want to fight. That last one was truly… it was just so exhilarating to think about…”

“…Yeah.”

Pine, now too tired to chide further, replied half-heartedly.

“I’m thinking of leveling up while waiting for the next raid to be discovered. What about you, Joanie?”

“Well, I’m not sure…”

Unlike Pine, who had a clear plan for the future, Joanie couldn’t decide what to do next. Initially, her intention was to become friends with Canaria, but with things turning out this way, she couldn’t help but feel a sense of doubt.

Whether she wanted it or not, the war that players were fighting, with the Empire intervening, was sparked by her broadcast.

To prevent the same thing from happening again, she’d have to turn off her stream… but abandoning her main job was not an easy decision.

She felt like they had become closer, especially after revealing both her nickname and real name, yet it didn’t seem like they had achieved the level of closeness she had initially aimed for.

As she hesitated, Joanie noticed her bowl was empty.

She gently set the bowl down and headed towards the cliff.

“It’s high…”

Glancing down, the view was dizzying, causing Joanie to shudder as she carefully moved her feet.

The small back she had seen from a distance still looked small up close.

What kind of story did this small figure carry that made such a pained voice come out?

As Joanie looked down at Canaria, curiosity suddenly struck her, and she instinctively pressed the information check button.

This function could be used on objects as well as NPCs and players, but it was mostly used to check player IDs.

While the information from objects or NPCs was based on what was known, player information was displayed accurately.

For instance, if an NPC named A lied and said their name was B, it would show as B, and if someone mistakenly believed that a useless plain water was a miracle cure, it would show as a miracle cure.

Thus, this function was somewhat of a double-edged sword…

But Joanie didn’t even know why she suddenly felt such curiosity.

[Little Bird, Canaria Grasis]

The name appeared just as Canaria had introduced, along with the title “little bird.”

Sometimes, NPCs were given titles like this.

Though Joanie had seen Canaria, who was stronger than anyone she had encountered in Silia Online, she thought the title suited her very well.

To Joanie’s eyes, Canaria seemed like she could vanish without a trace with just a blink…

Carefully, Joanie sat next to Canaria and raised her hand to pet the little bird.

Though she didn’t know what story it carried, she wished the bird, which had landed with its wings tucked in, could fly again.

As Joanie smiled softly while looking at the surprised Canaria, whose eyes widened in unexpected shock at the sudden touch…

‘…She wouldn’t kill me for this, would she?’

No way, right?

Even as she entertained such late concerns, she savored the feeling of the soft texture wrapping around her fingers.

As expected, Canaria’s hair was incredibly soft.

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