by Kiri Komori
“We won.”
I could only muster a simple reply.
“Right…” I said.
After that, Captain Dirbleu directed an expressionless gaze at me.
“Your family runs an inn at the foot of Mount Rofola, right? I’ll handle the paperwork. Go back home and spend the rest of your days in peace.”
His tone was detached. That was probably his idea of saying goodbye and repaying me for all my efforts so far. But there was a hint of bitterness in there, too… There were a lot of emotions behind that gesture.
“Thank you, Dir. I’m sorry it has to end this way…”
“Don’t worry about it, Marcus. But I’ll see to it you get medals and a prize. And retirement money, too. Once you’ve healed, come to De Marl. Rent a big carriage… Your retirement money should be more than enough for you and your family to live on for a good while without any trouble.”
“Heh. Half of it is gonna get wasted on my doctor’s fees, though…” I muttered bitterly,
“Don’t be stupid,” Dir chided me. “We’ll pay for that, too. When you find a doctor, tell him to claim the payment from De Marl. Even if the country won’t pay for it, I’ll do it out of my own pocket.”
“You idiot, I can’t depend on you that much…”
“Truth be told, some part of me wants to tell you to stay in the army and move to clerical work…”
“Nah, that’s not gonna happen… It was my dominant hand.”
Dir pinched his brows bitterly. He really was sad to see me leave his command. Given his position, he had plenty of political opponents, and people like me who shared his ideals and aspirations were hard to come by. Losing an ally like me was a painful blow for him.
The war with Edesa Kura was nearing its conclusion, but it likely wouldn’t be long before De Marl locked blades with them again. De Marl’s internal affairs would surely turn stormy with the aftermath of the war… I truly, honestly felt bad for him.
“Forgive me, Dirbleu… But I want you to know that, even if I’m far away, I’ll always think of you as a friend. That much I can promise. If there’s anything I can do to help you, you can count on me.”
“…You idiot…! How can you say that when you just lost your arm..?!”
I could only pray this was the last person I’d ever have to lose… And with that prayer at heart, I left the battlefield behind me. Those like me, injured to the extent where they could never fight again, were put on a carriage and sent back to De Marl.
Farewell, Dirbleu. My one and only brother-in-arms. Fighting by your side was an irreplaceable experience for me. I hope you can tell that these are my true feelings…
“Vice-captain, does it hurt? Do you need some water, or…?”
“The painkiller’s working, I’m fine. But Gildias, I’m not your vice-captain anymore. Just go back to calling me Marcus.”
“No. You haven’t officially retired yet! And you’re the only one I acknowledge as my vice-captain!”
“Gildias…”
Having a young, talented knight speak to me like that didn’t feel too bad. I probably should have been grateful, but looking at that frank gaze of his pained me… I’m a man who drove his own wife and daughter away and lost a battle in a way that essentially betrayed an unrivaled comrade. I wasn’t worthy of being called a knight. Where did the loyalty I once made an oath to uphold disappear to?
I’m pathetic…
“Gildias, I live at a lakeside inn at the foot of Mount Rofola. That’s where I’m getting off. They did tell you that, yeah?”
“Yes, they said that’s where your family lives… Are you going to make a living there after you leave the brigade?”
“That’s the plan. My folks are too old to keep running the place. Gotta repay them for everything somehow… Well, with the way my arm is, the most I can manage is maybe plowing a field or fishing, though. And maybe I can handle cleaning, too…? I could probably hold a broom with my left hand…”
“Sounds like you won’t be short on work there, then. Why not come to De Marl and ask a specialist to make you a prosthetic arm?”
“A prosthetic… Yeah. I suppose I shouldn’t expect much, but it ought to be better than nothing.”
The thought of showing up at my parents’ place scared me. I wrote them letters regularly, but I couldn’t imagine the faces they’d make when they saw me. Mother might cry… If I still had my wife and daughter by my side, maybe taking over my parents’ business would be a fun experience. And with that impossible dream on my mind, I cast a wistful gaze out the carriage’s window.
The carriage was full of moans, and the scenery outside was somewhat obscured by the carriage ahead of us. My only consolation was the chirping birds.
My life passed by too quickly, didn’t it…?
“Whoa!”
“What?!”
Thud!
The carriage shook hard and the horses neighed in complaint. Gildias wordlessly hopped outside the carriage. I thought to reach for my sword but then jolted with a start.
Right… My right hand’s already…
“What happened?” I shouted to Gildias.
“There’s a beast! A huge one!”
“What? A monster?!” someone shouted.
“Gildias, gather the guards!” I barked orders. “Stop all the carriages and gather anyone who can move! If it’s a beast monster, there should be more than one!”
…But even without my hand, I can still do something!
Gildias gathered people who could fight and headed for the front carriage. If it really was a monster, this was trouble! Monsters were much more dangerous than normal animals. It was said that long ago, an evil dragon tainted humans and animals with its wicked mana, and their descendants are monsters.
There is no power in the world capable of reversing this affliction, and slaying those monsters scatters a miasma called Kathra into the air. Anyone who comes in contact with Kathra also becomes polluted and turns into a monster. Worse yet, monsters attack other living creatures on sight… The only way to repel them is to weaken them and force them to flee.
“…Is that it?!”
“I-It’s huge!”
A black animal stood in front of the front carriage. It was bigger than we’d imagined and had three tails. All three of them seemed to swerve and waver on their own as it gazed at us silently, its eyes narrowed.
This… This isn’t a monster…
“What do we, vice-captain?! Should we have our mages attack—”
“No, that’s not a monster… Though it’s not a normal animal, either. If it was a monster, it’d have attacked by now.”
“Th-Then you’re saying that’s a…?”
“I dunno. It’s the first time I’m seeing anything like it, too… Couldn’t be a Mythical Beast, could it…?”
“A Mythical Beast…? It can’t be…”
Mythical Beasts… To the west was the demi-human continent, where races like the beastmen, elves, dwarves, kobolds, and lizardmen lived. But opposite of it, to the far east, was the mythical continent. There lived races of mythical creatures like dragons, pegasi, and griffins. It was their natural habitat, and only the bravest or most reckless of adventurers would brave that land.
Edesa Kura apparently had plans to capture territory in the mythical continent, but how would they fight off dragons?
But anyway, this creature looked fundamentally different from a normal wolf. It was that much larger, and there was a glint of intelligence to its eyes as it gazed at us, as if it was trying to decipher our next move.
Judging by the fact it wasn’t running…implied it wanted something.
“You guys stay where you are! There might be more of them, so stay vigilant!” I ordered the men.
“What are you going to do, vice-captain?” Gildias asked me.
“If it’s a Mythical, it should be able to understand human speech,” I replied.
“That’s too dangerous!”
“Just let me do it�
��!” I insisted, a hint of desperate urgency in my voice. “Listen, supporting Dir is gonna fall to you guys now, so… Please!”
“Vice-captain…?” Gildias looked at me, confused.
I took a step closer. Then another. Moving cautiously, as if trying to discern how close it would let me approach, I sheathed my sword to show I had no desire to fight. A Mythical should understand. They’re said to be even more intelligent than humans.
“Aaaah, I’m, uhh, I’m called Marcus,” I tried calling out to it. “A former knight. See, lost my arm… A washed-up old man who can’t do his job anymore. Uh… Could you tell me your name? I figure you’re a Mythical.”
All right… Is it gonna answer?
The beast wordlessly nudged its jaw to the right, its gaze fixed on me.
I-It answered! It really is a Mythical! A real Mythical! I just met a living legend…!
“Ah?!”
It then jumped a few feet ahead, and upon landing, fixed its gaze on me again. It then nudged its head in the same direction again and then sat down on the spot…
Is it signaling for me to follow it? This is unbelievable!
“…Gildias, it’s telling me to follow it. Keep an eye on the carriages, will you?”
“I’ll come with you, vice-captain! I can’t let you go alone!”
“No, that’s a Mythical. No doubt about it… It understands what we’re saying. If we provoke it too much, it might attack.”
“Ugh…”
The mythical creatures were the apex species of this world. Dragons were the clearest example, but mythical creatures were all more powerful than even the monsters. Challenging something like that to a battle when 90% of the people here were injured was effectively suicide. We’d probably lose before we even knew it.
I approached the creature, which broke into a light sprint once I crossed a certain distance, pausing after a while to let me catch up.
It’s definitely leading me somewhere. What is it trying to get me to do…? Does it want to eat me? But no, I’ve never heard of Mythicals eating other species…
“Mm?”
The black animal stopped under a large tree. Sitting beneath it was a small, cream-colored oval box. The animal nudged toward it with its nose and then turned to look at me…before taking a few steps back.
Is there something in there…?
I gingerly approached the box, picked it up, and peered inside.
Wh-Wh-What?!
“A-A baby?!”
The animal howled in response.
“Ah!”
And with that howl, the animal disappeared into thin air. At that moment, I realized why they call these creatures mythical. The way they appear and disappear resembles the phantoms people whisper legends about. The only things left in the wake of its disappearance were the gentle breeze, the sound of fluttering wings, the baby sitting in the small box…
…And me, who’d lost my right arm and everything I held dear to me all at once.
For whatever reason, my knees buckled. Placing my hands on the box, I could see its contents clearly. A little baby—without a single strand of hair or any teeth—slept serenely inside it.
Did that Mythical lead me here so I’d take this baby? What was that beast… What is this baby?
“An abandoned baby…?”
I poked the baby’s cheeks gently out of curiosity. It was surprisingly soft, warm, and tender. I took the baby out of the box and held it in my arms, shivering. I touched the baby’s cheeks again. Then its fingers. It then gripped my finger tightly.
It gripped me…!
I was speechless. That was all the baby did, but what was it? This feeling? Something overflowed within me… Tears ran down my cheeks before I knew it. She wasn’t just warm… There was something strong about the baby. Teeming with life. It was like this little baby had everything I lost. Both its arms. A future. Potential…
But at the same time, it was just like me. We had one thing in common. Neither of us had a family. Of course, the fact a Mythical simply decided to save a human child was shocking by itself, but…
“Are you all alone…? That’s no good…”
Aaah, aaah, aaah…! Gods of De Marl! Did you send that beast as a messenger to me? Why would you leave this child with me? I can’t leave this helpless little life here to die, but I’ve never so much as held my own daughter before. I’m a terrible, good-for-nothing father…
Is this why you sent her to me? To someone like me…who has absolutely nothing to his name?! To me, when I was foolish enough to lose my family, my knight’s honor, even my own arm…!
You would grant me another chance…?
Would you be my family, you little angel?
Aah, Gods of De Marl, thank you…! Thank you for showing mercy on this pathetic man who had lost all hope… For bringing me this baby—teeming with life and hope…!
♣Me, Age Four
THIS world, Wisty Air, consists of 50% humans, 40% demi-humans (beastmen, elves, dwarves, and other races), and 10% Mythical creatures, like dragons and fairies. It’s divided into three continents. The biggest and central one is populated by mankind. To the east is the Mythicals’ homeland, while to the west is the demi-humans’.
As such, each continent is colloquially named after the race that populates it. Of course, the continents have their native names, but unfortunately, I’ve never heard anyone actually use those.
Among the humans and demi-humans, only heroic adventurers dare brave the Mythical continent. There was once a peace treaty between the human and demi-human continents, which enabled prosperous trade between the two lands.
But that all ended a few years ago when a country within the human continent adopted radical, human supremacist ideas. They professed to everyone—the demi-human continent included—that mankind was the superior, chosen species, and began an armed conflict to uphold their skewed ideals.
It goes without saying that this pretty much screwed everything up for everyone involved. Of course, being a child, I didn’t quite understand things fully… But I did wish everyone could just get along.
“Tina, can you go get me some poteitos from the field?” Dad called out to me from the kitchen.
“Okay!” I replied.
I threw the dust cloth I used to wipe the window into a nearby bucket, which I then carried and placed next to the counter. I worked in a bar during my past life. I’d also worked part-time in a barbecue restaurant, so I was used to scrubbing windows whenever customer traffic was slim. So long as I had a chair to stand on, this kind of work was easy-peasy for my “current” self.
Putting the bucket in its place, I stood on my tiptoes and turned the front door’s knob with my fingertips. Then I leaned against the siderail, climbing down each step carefully, and hopped down the last one!
Our field was diagonally right of our “house.” It was surrounded by a fence to keep out animals. I opened the gate, which I could do even with my meager strength, and went to the back left of the fields to pull up some poteitos—a vegetable similar to potatoes.
Looking around the field, I spotted some ciarorots, oniuns, and cabbages (all the same as I remembered them), and also letapods (lettuce-like vegetables), totomos (which were like corn), and timates (basically tomatoes), among other vegetables.
I was used to vegetables growing according to the seasons in my world, but things were different here. Here, there were seeds you could plant, and they’d grow fully in a matter of days. I thought it was pretty strange, honestly.
“Ah, I forgot to ask how many he needed…” I muttered to myself.
Thinking back, I recalled our guests for today were a group of four adventurers. Two men and two women… And if both men eat about five poteitoes, I should probably take ten to make sure there’s enough and head back home.
Deciding to do that, I jumped and caught a small basket hanging on the fence and placed some newly harvested poteitos. It was a bit heavy, but pulling it along was half the fun!
&nbs
p; “A-one, two… One, two…”
I carried the basket into the house and placed it in the kitchen. This was a lot of physical labor for a four-year-old girl, but I was surprisingly strong. So this much was fine.
“Dad!”
“Aah, thank you, Tina. Ooh, you sure picked a lot.” Dad said, lifting the basket up with his left hand.
This was my adoptive father, Marcus. Apparently, he was a pretty amazing person who once climbed up to the rank of vice-captain in the knights of De Marl. The era I lived in during my past life didn’t have knights, so I couldn’t quite compare it to anything I knew, but I could understand he was a really impressive man.
Dad picked up a poteito and gazed at it with satisfaction in his eyes, before gripping it with the fingers of his other…prosthetic hand.
“Yeah! There are a lot of guests today, so I figured I’d get a bunch of them so they have enough to eat!” I exclaimed.
“Good on you, Tina. Thanks for helping me out.”
Oh, no, don’t mention it! This is nothing! I mean, you’re giving me food and shelter here!
But that said, there was a party of four adventurers staying today, but our inn—the Rofola Lodge—had six guest rooms. They were all built as little cottages, with four rooms for four, one room for five, and another for six. And today’s guests split up into two groups of one man and one woman, taking up two of our rooms for four.
In other words…we had vacancies.
And I had to wonder why. The road from De Marl to the port country of Fei Lu was a straight path forward, and we were one of the few inns located along that highway. Even if one traveled by carriage, the Rofola Lodge has a stable, and it’s an excellent locale to stop for a night’s rest in… The view’s nice, and the food’s great…!
Probably… I think…
Behind our inn was Mount Rofola, and the cottages looked out on Lake Rhiode. Our area’s natural features blessed us with a bountiful supply of fresh food from both the lake and the mountain. And we cultivated vegetables in our field. So, food wasn’t the problem here…right? In which case, why weren’t we getting customers?
“Dad, can I go to the study?”
