MaruMAːMini-novel:nicetrip1

Have a Nice Trip - Part 1

I wonder how many years it's been since I had my head in a woman's lap?

And the woman was one of Shin Makoku's Three Great Witches, the terror of- no, the pride of all soldiers, Lady von Karbelnikoff Anissina.

Regaining my clouded consciousness and opening my heavy eyelids, the first thing that jumped into my vision was impressive, red hair that looked like it was on fire. Her long hair spilled over her shoulders and was touching my cheek as I lay somewhere I couldn't determine.

There was definitely the soft feeling of a woman's thighs under my head, but the rest of my body felt like it was floating in the air or water or some other unsteady place and it was making me anxious. However, everything below my neck felt like it had stiffened into stone and I couldn't look to examine my situation or touch myself to check either.

Perhaps noticing my unease, Miss Anissina's intelligent eyes narrow and she places her thin, white index finger on my lips.

"Shh, Josak. You must not speak."

This is definitely a dream. If not, this is that heaven or paradise that His Majesty is always talking about. Miss Anissina treating a mere soldier that wouldn't even be of any use in her experiments with kindness is something that would never happen in reality.

"There is nothing for you to worry about. Go to sleep, rest- oh."

Two small, white butterflies came flying into the edge of my vision. Maybe they were married or were lovers because they were frolicking about without separating.

"Oh my, how well you get along, but this is not a room for you to come into. Go that way." The corners of Miss Anissina's lips lifted slightly and, making sure not to hurt the insects, gently waved them away with a feather fan. "It's okay now, they went outside. They may have mistaken you for a flower or something."

Saying that, Lady von Karbelnikoff gave a small, breathy laugh. It was so adorable any man would be blissfully entranced.

Something is really wrong.

No one might know this, but she really is a kind person. But, that kindness is reserved for women, children, the oppressed, and the weak, not for me and the soldiers. However, today for some reason that kindness is being bestowed upon me of all people.

This is obviously a dream. If not, something horrible had happened to me to evoke this sympathy from her or this really is the heaven that His Majesty talks about and my body and Anissina's thighs aren't real.

I can't remember how things ended up like this or what I was doing before I came here. It's unclear, like a haze was covering it. I tried to retrace my steps, but all that came to mind was vague things from long ago.

Like a sunset the color of the blood I saw as a new soldier, the trumpet blaring for the wake-up call, the pitiful way I lived when I was a kid that was so long ago I was on the verge of forgetting it completely.

"How is he?" Lord von Voltaire Gwendal asked in that low, familiar voice as he peeked over Miss Anissina's shoulder to look at me. He is the man who is my boss, but he seems to be tired from being forced to take care of things that are not part of his regular job. The future of Shin Makoku is riding on His Majesty's shoulders, but when it comes to the lives of the citizens, it would be fair to say that that responsibility sits more on His Excellency's shoulders than His Majesty's.

It's a shame that he has wrinkles between his eyebrows and shadows under his eyes, likely from his endless worries, but His Excellency Gwendal is really a 'good catch.'

I feel bad for using a suggestive phrase like 'good catch' to describe Lord von Voltaire, the son of the Previous Maou and an authority figure in the nation, but all of the soldiers, myself included, are charmed by everything about this person, even the part of him that desperately tries to hide the fact that he likes cute things, so if I try to praise him using words that everyone uses, nothing really seems to fit.

"... It looks like his eyes are open, though."

"He probably can not see. It's possible he does not feel any discomfort anymore."

"I see," His Excellency answers before I can say 'I can see.' He's like his usual self, not using unnecessary words. Although, no matter how hard I try, I can't speak to or touch His Excellency.

The heaven that His Majesty speaks about seems to be a place where god and angels are. If so, I wonder if my god and angel are His Excellency Gwendal and Miss Anissina.

No, that feels a bit wrong.

If gods and angels were determined by level of respect, in my case I feel like there is another person that should be called god first.

By the way, something called Hotoke-sama is in paradise and Enma and monsters called oni live in hell. Since he has all of those different religious views in his head at the same time, His Majesty is truly an unfathomable person.

"Right now, you are in the middle of the road, Gurrier Josak. Stay as you are and close your eyes. Everything will be over soon. You will be at ease."

Miss Anissina gently stroked my cheek.

She said in the middle so does that mean that this isn't that heaven yet? Even if I try to ask, my tongue won't move. There's no way for me to check.

"Sleep now, peacefully."

On top of it all, the only part of my body that was functioning properly, my optic nerves, steadily begin to stop working. My field of view wavers and gets dark like a curtain was drawn across it and keeping my eyes open becomes difficult.

Even though I want to look at you two.

Even though I want to look at the two of you more.

---

Even I can't explain why I like Miss Anissina and His Excellency this much.

People say that men like women who resemble their mothers, but that seems to be wrong in my case. The woman at the edges of my memory who was somewhat like a mother has absolutely nothing in common with these two high-ranking mazoku. Starting from eye and hair color, demeanor, and even to the way they viewed the world, every aspect was completely different.

After all, my mother was a worthless woman who apparently led a depraved life of bringing men she met in the bar home and getting money after keeping them company for a while. I say 'apparently' because this is information I heard from other people.

With her light brown hair and eyes and her medium build and completely average face, she was an ordinary woman with no conspicuous features worth mentioning. That was the opinion of those around her. In other words, my huge breast-... chest and my biceps that His Majesty loves so much are attributes I likely inherited from my father.

I don't even know his name, but I'm thankful that he gave me such a sturdy body. Thanks to that, I was able to survive the flames of war and meet the new Maou.

Even though my mother gave birth to me, that doesn't mean that something tragic happened like she fell into a passionate love with a mazoku man or she ended up carrying a child of her hated enemy. It was just that the man she happened to pick up at a bar was a mazoku soldier.

She didn't know who the father was until I was born, no, until she had raised me for a little bit.

She didn't much care about the appearances of her partners and she was drunk year-round, so she hadn't even remembered that she had slept with someone of a different race. Even if that person was a manmer lord, she probably wouldn't have known until the morning. There was no problem as long as they had legs.

So, the first time she knew that her child was not normal was over a year later.

Random people at the bar looked after me, perhaps because they were tired of seeing a mother not take care of her child, but one day someone among them, a woman who already had three children, noticed how slow my growth was and said this:

"This child is strange. He's over a year old already, but he can't even roll over. Not only that, his cries are weak, like an underdeveloped, baby lamb."

And that was how my mother finally learned that her child was different.

What was fortunate for me was that at that moment, a well-informed person came to stay at the town's only lodging by chance. If he hadn't, they would have decided that I was a child who wouldn't live long and I would have been quickly thrown away. Right into a fast river or the mountains where beasts live.

His Majesty might faint if he heard this, but it's common in poor villages. Unless they have a considerable amount of money, no one has the luxury of spending money and time raising a boy who can't even become a soldier.

The traveler that meandered in stood in front of the indecisive women and said that 'he is probably an infant with mazoku blood.'

"Mazoku live many times longer than humans. Their growth is comparably slow."

'Ah, now that you mention it, there was a year where a man with different hair color stayed in this town for half a month.' When the woman who poured him a drink said that, the traveler said 'you see?' and pinched the nose of the slow moving infant.

"But there's nothing to worry about. It will take longer, but if you give him time he will grow and when he is an adult, he will have above average intelligence and strength. He might become a superb worker."

Now that I think about it, that traveler himself might have been one of us. He might have thrown a lifeline to his future comrade that he just happened to come across at a stop on his travels. It seemed he was a strange man whose appearance was modest but owned a magnificent sword. The prettiest woman at the bar used to complain about him a lot.

"He was really manly, but he didn't even try to play with us. What a weirdo. Maybe he wasn't interested in women."

In any case, my life was saved thanks to that traveler and I managed to not become the meal of starving beasts.

I lived with my mother for about two years, but luckily or unluckily, I have almost no memories of her. If we're talking about what I just barely remember about her, it was only her back as she walked out of town with an unmarried man she had successfully captured.

After that, I never saw her again.

I didn't resent or hate her, but I also didn't cry over missing her. A child around ten couldn't possibly understand the circumstances of a woman who abandoned her son even if afterwards others tried explain them to me. I only thought that she hadn't wanted to waste her life on me.

Without any relatives, I was given to the nearby church.

It wasn't such a bad place if you ignore the fact that we would be beaten with rulers at the drop of a hat, but after the oldest priest retired, the church had money problems and lost the ability to feed all of the children.

And so, the older children would wander out into town as they pleased to make their own living.

There were those who would directly steal food from the food stalls, and there were peaceful types who gathered around the well-off soldiers. There were even those who went against human ethics and stole from women and the elderly.

Well, it couldn't be helped. It's what starving children do. You just have to avert your gaze and accept that it's for survival.

I'm not proud of it, but I was pretty good at getting money. By just going out into town once, my wallet would quickly grow and, while not with the highest quality of meat, I would earn enough to fill my stomach.

That was all because I only targeted the money pouches of the rich and as soon as I snatched them, I would take only a small amount of the bills and throw the pouches back into the street.

No matter how tempting, I would never put my hands on precious metals or jewels. There are limited places where I could use those things and in the first place, if a snot-nosed brat tried to use things like those, the pawn stores and exchange shops would just be suspicious of them.

It also helped that my outward appearance was much younger than my actual age. I was already ten, but I only looked like I was four or five years old. Rich people don't usually count how much change they had on them and even if they realized that they had been robbed, they wouldn't think that such a young child would be smart enough to be the culprit. It was a winning strategy.

I didn't think that my mazoku-inherited appearance would come in handy in a place like this, but if you don't use all of your assets to the fullest extent, it's your loss. I did anything to fill my stomach.

I would take a portion of my spoils back to the small children who couldn't leave the church. I wasn't their parent or sibling, but they were all those who shared similar circumstances. We all shared our food with them as if we were feeding our own selves in the past. All animals have a period in their lives where they can only survive by depending on the help of others.

What I was most thankful for was that we weren't pressured into starving for god.

Even though they were servants of god, the priests all turned a blind eye. Even if the children stole, even if the town guards came, they would send them away saying they knew nothing. Not a single one of them told us that we shouldn't go so far as to commit crimes to fill our stomachs. It was likely their version of kindness.

But it seems even a strong institution such as that couldn't win against the troops hunting down other races.

At that time, Shimaron, which had been expanding their influence at a swift rate, was removing those who had mazoku blood from all areas of the continent. They were even putting pressure on lands that had not yet fallen under their jurisdiction to imprison any and all forces of opposition in preparation for the coming war against the mazoku.

Many of the mazoku who came across the ocean were forcefully deported. Either that, or an unlucky portion of them were detained at secret facilities and erased. The man who was my father was probably in one of those two groups. I have no intent of searching for him, and I have no sympathy. He probably didn't even know he had a son, after all.

The children born of a human and a mazoku and the 'foolish' humans who brought enemies into their families were isolated so as to not have a bad influence on the people around them. The soldier leading the platoon said that it was a measure to protect them. He said it was a plan to protect them from the violence of those who were deceived by rumors by securing them in a safe location.

Of course that was all a front. But no matter how stubborn the priests were, they couldn't protect me from the group of soldiers using that reasoning. I was quickly captured as I attempted to escape through the back door, sent to the village with others like me, and ended up having to live the rest of my life as a 'human' there.

It was the worst time of my life.

Even though it was called a village, it was an area of land surrounded on four sides by fences and a cliff, and it only had a few shacks. On top of it all, the people who were sent here were women who were involved with mazoku, their children, and their elderly parents, so there was a definite lack of workers. We had to make everything by ourselves and until we had built walls, we had to huddle together to escape the wind, and until we had thatched together roofs, we slept under the stars.

As soon as we had gotten to the point where we could keep out the rain, then we had to deal with the problem of food.

No matter how much you cultivate a dry wasteland, you will never grow crops. There was a large river flowing to the north, but the water's surface was at the bottom of a steep cliff wall and we had no way of scooping the water up for farming. Thanks to that, the residents were always starving and the water from the single well was so precious that children who misused it were kicked no matter how young they were.

It was even more tragic for the children without parents.

The children who still had parents and grandparents to protect them were better off. Children who were abandoned by their mothers and those like me who hadn't quite grown yet couldn't possibly cultivate their own farm.

Once every ten days, a wagon would come with a little bit of wheat and salt, but that small amount didn't last. All we could do was go around to the houses that had just barely managed to farm something and beg. Destitute amongst the destitute. It was life at the very bottom.

Even if I bowed my head, the mothers wouldn't share a single thing. Of course. It was to make sure that their own children got to eat even just a little more. Very rarely, the elderly who were tired of living would give me food. However, if they were discovered by their daughters, they would take it away from me to give to their own children.

No one had the liberty of being kind to others.

The priests who kindly gave me a place to sleep aren't here. There weren't even rich people meandering defenseless through the streets. I'd be able to get some money if they were just around. It would have been so easy to get enough for one person to eat.

Every night, I held my empty stomach and reminisced about the town I was raised in. Compared to life in this village, life as an orphan in town was paradise.

The several young boys who tried to escape probably thought the same thing. They were caught by the soldiers and beaten until they couldn't stand anymore.

The boys who had been made an example of needed medical attention, but in this isolated village, there wasn't even a doctor assigned here not to mention a hospital.

The only one who just barely looked after the ill was a woman named Lidona who had been a midwife. Without proper tools and medicine, even she couldn't provide proper treatment if she wanted to. For those who were malnourished, a simple cold was a serious illness. There were even those who lost function in their arms and legs from small injuries during work.

When standing before the unfortunate patients, she would always lament, "Why can't you use magic if you're the children of mazoku?"

Lidona was a middle-aged woman like you would see anywhere, and for some strange reason, she came here without parents or children.

If she hadn't given birth to a child of the enemy, she should have no reason to be here. Even if she had been involved with them in the past, she would have been able to fool the authorities somehow and even if she didn't do that, she would have been able to throw away the 'proof' like my mother did and go back to town as if nothing had happened.

Even if she herself had the blood of mazoku, if she lived her life normally as a grown adult woman, the chances of being found out were low. If she had moved to a quiet place where no one recognized her, she could have lived peacefully without ever being found.

However, Lidona continued living in the village and would not give her reasons to anyone who asked. The gossips spread rumors that she had lost her child right before she came, but that all came to an end with only a few select people learning the truth.

That being said, without her help, I probably would not have lasted even a year.

There were no doctors or medics so the residents had no choice but to enlist the help of Lidona. They didn't have money or property, so they gave her food in thanks. She refused this, but it seems she ended up accumulating a little too much anyway. If I and the other children without parents helped her with little things, she would feed us dinner. We would do trivial work like wash the scraps of cloth used as bandages and mix the mud to be used for burns.

The reward put before us was mainly thin soup and lumps of flour, but for us at the time, it was a feast.

It was fine if it was just warm, and if it was hot all the way through, it seemed luxurious.

Lidona was a person who always seemed tired and laughed as if she were troubled. She was probably around thirty, but she looked much older than she was. Her dull, blonde hair was just tied up and she had no time to groom herself.

She looked nothing like the dressed up girls at the bar, but even so, I thought that she was the very image of a messenger of god. I even dreamed that someone like her was my mother.

I believed in Lidona.

Until that moment.

---

The growth of children with mazoku blood varied and there were those who were bigger than me but younger and those who were older but smaller. There were even those who looked like they hadn't grown an inch since they came to the village and seemed to be a burden on their parents.

During my second year a miracle occurred and I quickly gained height and weight. I wasn't quite big, but I had grown enough that no one would be surprised if they heard I was twelve.

I had the body of a four or five year old when I was brought here, but in two years, I ended up growing the equivalent of six years for a normal child. It was unbelievable.

If I was twelve, I could hold farming equipment and till a field. It was small, but I somehow managed to secure my own plot and, imitating others, planted the seeds that Lidona had given me. By the time autumn harvest came, my food situation will surely have improved.

I had become used to life in the village and was on the verge of forming relations with the people. Now that I think back on it, it was mostly just me haven given up. I had probably grown numb to miserable, daily life, and had even given up living like a human being.

It was around that time that he brought in trouble.

On a summer morning, the wagon that came every ten days brought in five prisoners.

It wasn't anything new. The numbers had decreased, but there had already been unlucky newcomers here. Hidden comrades who had been flushed out and had fallen into the hands of their pursuers.

In most cases, the reason was betrayal. It seemed that many of the informants were their neighbors. If that's true, it would be unbearable.

Under the soldiers' gaze, an elderly person, their daughter holding a baby, and a little girl get out of the carriage. As I gazed unfeeling at that scene, Lidona's voice brought me back to myself.

"How unfortunate!"

Isn't everyone here unfortunate?

I was about to ask her that out of reflex, but the person she was sympathizing with wasn't all of us, but the last child to come out of the carriage. No one followed him. He was about the height of a human ten year old, but there were no guardians that came with him.

"Poor thing, he came here alone. That child doesn't have a family."

"So what? I don't have a family either."

"That's right. That's right, but Josak, you've grown up strong," Lidona said as she threaded together her rough fingers. "You didn't have parents or siblings before you came here so you've grown that much stronger, right? But look, that child is different."

"What's different about him?"

"Look at the clothes he's wearing. And his face. Look at those healthy cheeks."

Now that she mentions it, he was wearing spotless, well-fitting, and high quality clothes. I couldn't really tell the difference between good and bad cloth, but if the clothes fit him so well, I can tell that they were tailor made. They were clothes that had nothing to do with an orphan.

The color of his face was also good.

He was clearly shorter than I was, but his cheeks and limbs had a healthy amount of meat on them and his arms might actually be a little fat.

The food he's been eating is different. If I had stayed in that town, I might have grown even bigger and stronger.

Ignoring my complicated feelings, Lidona continued sympathizing with the newcomer to me.

"That child was raised in a fairly good house. You can tell as soon as you see him. But he came here all alone. Even though it was hidden that he was a child of a mazoku, the people around probably found out. Poor thing. I wonder if his parents didn't protect him? I wonder if they didn't go with him?"

"Giving up everything? There's no way." The richer the person was, the more difficult it would be to abandon everything and come to an isolated village. I shrugged my shoulders in exasperation. "Would they really do something so wasteful with their money just for one child?"

"Quiet. Don't say such things. The love for a child can't be exchanged with money and property."

Even if she claims that, I'm not inclined to believe her. After all, my mother had thrown away her son for a new man. Well, I don't really care about my past anymore.

"There must have been some circumstances. Some circumstances."

"Hmm."

In any case, it had nothing to do with me. Whether the newcomer was a rich kid or not, it had no bearing on my daily life. When it came to things under the sun that I cared about, it was only the autumn harvest.

However, Lidona went up to the newcomer and brought him over to me as I was about to leave.

"Josak, let him stay at your shelter."

"Huh!? You're joking, right? How did that get decided!?"

"Well, you know that my place is full of little children."

It's true that even I borrowed the edge of her shelter until I got bigger, but that doesn't mean that I'm obligated to look after some newcomer when I was struggling to look after myself. But Lidona did not back down. She gripped the hand of the newcomer and knelt in front of me and pleaded.

"It's okay if it's only until he gets acclimated. Teach him things about this place."

"Why do I have to-"

"Because you're smart."

For a moment, I fall silent.

It was because that even though I had been yelled at and called a crafty brat, no one had ever praised me for being smart.

"You're smart. You're the one who knows this place best. So I want you to teach him. Teach him how to live. I want you to become this child's family. Become his brother."

"I don't need a former rich kid as a brother."

"Then it's okay if you're just friends."

"I don't care!"

I had intended that shout to shake her off, but it didn't seem to be very effective. Maybe she told him to, but when I turned my back on her and walked away, he just casually followed after me. He was gazing curiously at the buildings around him built out of cheap materials. A child from a rich house has probably never seen such run-down houses before.

It was better than him crying out 'Mother, Father,' but it wasn't pleasant having him pointedly staring out of curiosity at our important shelters that we had struggled to put together. I kicked open the door made out of a thin board. It was smaller and shabbier than a hen house.

"You guys who came afterwards have it easy. There are already roofs and walls."

When I said that, he laughed with a strangely proper expression on his face. It was a high-quality smile that an orphan who had pick-pocketed could never make.

"Do you not like it?" he asked.

"What?"

"Letting guests stay at the house you built."

"You think you're a guest?" I asked seriously while forcing my voice low. I wouldn't be able to take it if I didn't scare this rich kid a little who's acting like he's on a vacation. At least that was the only reason in the beginning. "If so, then you're dead wrong. If you're having fun thinking that this is a bad place but you only have to put up with it for two or three days and it will be a good experience in the end, that's a huge misunderstanding."

Somewhere along the way, I ended up speaking to myself.

"You can't go home and this place isn't fun. Once you come here, you can never leave. We have no choice but to live the rest of our lives inside this fence."

"There's no one who's left?"

"Leave? How? If you escape, you'll get immediately caught by the guards. They have dogs. Big, ferocious dogs with good noses. There were some who tried to escape, but they got caught and went through a horrible experience. They were kicked until they couldn't move anymore. Even now, one of them drags their leg."

"I see, dogs with good noses."

"The only place that the guards and dogs don't watch is the cliff and you can't climb down that unless you're an expert rock climber. We don't even have any time to practice or any strong ropes."

"Oh, a cliff!" After he was inordinately surprised, he cut me off as I was about to say something and asked quite casually, "Do you know a lot about this place?"

"If you live here for two years, you'll learn a lot."

"I see."

"Why are you asking me that?"

"No reason. I just wanted to become friends with someone who knows this place. Okay, you probably farm somewhere, right? A field or something. I'll help you, Josak."

Having been taken completely by surprise, my reaction was delayed. He had completely gained control of the conversation.

"You're Josak, right? You were called that."

"... You're not going to farm anything, you amateur."

"Then I'll pick weeds. I'm good at it. They made me do that a lot at home."

A rich kid was picking weeds? I don't know just how honest he is.

Now that I'm seeing it in the bright sunlight, his hair was a soft brown bordering on blonde. When he grows up, it will be pure brown. There were always women complaining in every bar that their hair was blonde when they were children. His eyes were....

"Hey!" His eyes were a strange mix of colors. There was something flecked in them amongst the same brown as his hair. But I really didn't care about that. "What about you?"

Hair and eye color weren't important in this place. We were all discriminated against, anyway. This is a group of people put in isolation because half of their blood was from a different race. No matter what we looked like, the blood flowing in our veins was the same. An irresponsible mix of human and mazoku blood.

He cocked his head to the side a little. He's waiting for me to continue speaking.

"Your name. Ah, you don't have to tell me if it's some ridiculously long thing that's going to make me bite my tongue. It'll be a pain and I won't remember it."

"It's Conrad." His response was short. It wasn't some phrase that was too difficult to remember, but he gave me a smile that ruined my wariness and ended his introduction without saying his family name. "That's it."

---

From what I heard later, he wasn't ten or eleven but in the summer of his twelfth year. So he was the same age as me.

When put that way, he didn't look like he wasn't twelve, but it did feel like he was a bit too short. But to make up for it, the muscles on his arms and shoulders were developed and he had a body more well proportioned than any other child in the village.

There was no way he was body building, but he probably learned some defensive techniques or something for his health and personal safety. I can't imagine the life of a rich kid.

I'm over here training while swinging around the farming tools for adults, but it's hard to do anything about the bad food situation. If you don't take in any nutrients, you won't develop muscles. It's the same for both humans and mazoku.

"What do you need to eat to get that big?"

"Whatever. Meat, I guess."

"Meat!? Damn, how many years has it been since I've eaten meat?" The last time was when I had bought some skewered chicken meatballs with the money I stole from a traveling merchant. The man at the stall had been selling it as wild chicken, but it might have been rat. It was really cheap, now that I think about it. "Whatever it was, I don't remember what it tasted like."

"You'll be able to eat it again."

"Don't say something stupid. Not even snakes and lizards are in this wasteland, much less moles."

"If you grow crops, then rabbits will come, and if it's a good harvest, mice will sneak into the storage. They'll come no matter how much you shoo them away. Then, you'll need cats and dogs."

"... You're really optimistic, aren't you?"

After three days, we ended up talking about idle things between work and while we ate thin soup at dinner. That being said, it wasn't because we got along but because we had nothing else to do.

Conrad answered whatever question I asked.

He told me that his mother was mazoku, not his father, and that his house was big but not as big as an affluent merchant's and the only person hired there is a chef.

"My father isn't the kind of person who cares about dust and cobwebs, so sometimes the landlord gets annoyed and sends a cleaner over. They probably can't stand it if it isn't clean."

"Huh, I thought that rich people were all surrounded by beautiful servants. You know, servants in the bathroom, servants who help them get dressed, servants who shave their beards."

"I do everything myself. I don't shave a beard yet, though."

Probably because all of the topics of conversation weren't important, he never hesitated or fell silent. But seeing as he never spoke to anyone else, it seems he has chosen a companion. I myself am not the type that enjoys spreading rumors, so I don't think about telling others what he tells me.

Because of that, ten days after he came to the village, no one knew hardly anything about what kind of person Conrad was.

However, Lidona was very concerned, so I asked just one question for her.

"Why did your parents abandon you?"

When I asked that, Conrad said, without changing his expression, that they hadn't.

When I told Lidona, she cried and said 'poor thing' again.

"He can't accept the truth that his parents got rid of him."

Was that really it? I don't know.

I didn't have to go through the trouble of consoling him about his family problems, but I had to deal with his curiosity instead.

If Conrad had some free time, he would walk next to me and ask any and all questions about the village.

How many people live in the village in all? What was the ratio of adults, children, and the elderly? Were there any other people who succeeded in escaping? How many guards were there and how far apart were their posts? Does it take long for them to come running? Was the well from underground water? Was the river at the bottom of the cliff the same width downstream? Was the water level the same year round? What do you mainly eat? Who mends the clothes? Are the rocks hard or brittle?

He would follow me around and incessantly ask me questions that ranged from practical ones that seemed like he was forming an escape plan to trivial ones that just popped into his head. Finally I shouted and lost my temper and got right in Conrad's calm face.

"Why are you asking me stuff like that!?"

"You said you were knowledgeable."

"I did, I said so, but," I grab his sleeve and drag him into the privacy of the shelter. "Are you planning on escaping? No, it's alright. Don't say anything. You don't have to say. I'll be in trouble if they think I'm with you. How annoying."

"Trouble?"

He didn't attempt to free himself from my grasp and instead grabbed my collar. The abused fabric is gripped so strongly that it seems like it will tear and he smiles at me in a way that erases all of his childishness.

For a moment, I thought he was a different man.

"You'll be in trouble if they think you're with me?"

"... Hey."

"Then are you going to live here for the rest of your life? Here, in this village. On human land."

"What are you-!"

Conrad whispers in my ear as if he was trying to hypnotize me. It's bad if I hear this. Each word poured into me becomes a picture and spreads inside of me.

"Are you going to continue to live here like this without being afforded any dignity as a person? With only the clothes you're wearing and your weak body? Are you going to live each day without having anything decent to eat and not being able to gain anything? Where a cold or a small injury could cost you your life and where infants might not survive. They might not grow up."

"You're the one who said that it will get better!"

"I did say that. Any land will get better if it's farmed. There will be more crops next year than this year and more the year after than the year before. But here? Do you have to do that here?"

This isn't the way a brat speaks. I knew that in a corner of my mind, but I couldn't stop the ever-expanding scenery unfolding in my mind. What will this village be like in five years? In ten? We will always be thirsty. We will always be starving. We will always be suffering. We will always...

"While always fearing the guards?"

That's right. We will always be afraid.

"Just because you have mazoku blood."

When he moves his face away, he glares at me from below with those strange-colored eyes. In the evening light, I finally see what color they are.

The flecks scattered about are silver. Silver stars.

"If it comes to war with the mazoku, you'll be treated like hostages, to put it politely. Have you seen how Shimaron does things? Regardless of whether they are women or children, they drag them to the front lines and have them stand out front so the enemy can't use arrows."

"Stop!" When I push him off, my uneven nails scratch his hand and leave behind a small scrape. Tiny red dots form a line. "Stop... it's not decided that it's going to end up that way."

"Of course. It isn't decided. I just wanted you to hear that."

Holding my temple, I lean on the cracked wall. My head is spinning. The image from earlier is still in my brain and I can't get rid of it.

I pretended to not be shaken, but my tongue stuck in my throat and I couldn't speak properly. The voice I finally managed to get out sounded horrible like an old person's hoarse voice. "I'm sorry about that."

"This? It's fine. It'll heal if I put a little horse urine on it. Right?"

"If we had something as fancy as horse urine. I'll go get some medicine from Lidona."

I turn my back on him with that poor excuse. I just wanted to get away from him. The truth he just told me was so horrible I couldn't stand it. I was afraid that it would come true. What was even scarier was the fact that I did not see myself in the picture painted in my mind.

Where am I? I couldn't imagine myself in five or ten years. I didn't think I would survive after dealing with all of the obstacles and humiliation.

It was the first time I was afraid of dying.

I don't have any family or friends. Mine was a life that was created as part of my mother's alcohol expenses. It had no real meaning or worth. But I was afraid of disappearing in this isolated place without anyone knowing and without accomplishing anything.

In any case, the first thing I wanted to do was get away from here, but he grabs my shoulder as I attempt to walk away - with strength unimaginable from a twelve year old. Damn it. I curse lightly, but he obviously doesn't hear it.

"Wait, not Lidona."

"What? What are you saying? Who else is going to have medicine?"

"Not her. I said so, even a small infant could deal with an injury this small-"

"Shut up!" Spitting out another 'damn it,' I forcefully step forward without turning around. The shaken off fingers leave my body. "Let me think. Give me time to think."

With that, he probably won't come after me for a little while.

---

By the time I got to Lidona's place, the sun had sunk lower in the sky and the surroundings were starting to get dark.

Around her shelter, there was not a single one of the little ones who were always running around noisily. Did she send them away? Instead, inside the lit up room, Lidona was there with several unfamiliar men. They were Shimaron soldiers with dusty uniforms and the driver of the wagon that comes every ten days.

Since I saw five adults through the half-open door, I quickly hid. My view became narrower, but I could clearly hear what they were talking about. It sounded like they were fighting.

"The goal isn't to eradicate them, right?!"

It was strange for her to raise her voice.

The other men might have been caught off guard because they don't answer.

"The goal here was not to kill them. You said that you isolated them because it would be troublesome if they betrayed the humans and worked for the mazoku after allying themselves over there... You definitely said that you would just lock them up and keep an eye on them. Just as I've reported, the people here are all obedient. They deal with the lack of food and are carrying on somehow. There isn't a hint of resistance. They found out that they couldn't escape on their own because of that last incident, and they haven't planned escape or rebellion! Then why do they need to be persecuted even more? It's enough already. There's no point in doing any more."

... What did she say?

I doubted my ears.

As she reported? What and to whom did she report? Or is the woman full of resentment in the shelter not Lidona, but some other woman? You could only use a little oil in the dim light, so I might have seen things wrong.

"I don't have enough medicine. I don't have any medicinal herbs or medicines anymore. The next time a child gets a fever, there won't even be any fever medicine to boil and have them drink. And if they're plagued by an epidemic... Please, even if it's just leftovers from town, please help."

An epidemic?

Oblivious to my confusion as I eavesdropped, Lidona kept speaking emotionally.

"If people have died from it upstream, then it will come here in a few days. Even if we don't drink the water from the river, it might be connected to the water underground. The well might be contaminated. If not then birds and mice or even you might bring it in! Listen, go back to the office right now and bring back some medicine that will help with fever and pain. If not, I'll tell everyone. I'll tell everyone everything that you're trying to do. I'll say that even though you know an epidemic is coming, you won't give us any medicine. Without leaving out any details, I'll tell them you're leaving them for dead!"

"What's wrong, Lidona? This isn't like you. In the first place, birds and mice don't come here," one of the men finally said. He had been startled by her threats, but it seems he didn't take what she was saying seriously. "You're the one who accepted this post, aren't you? You said it was because you had a grudge against mazoku. It was helpful that you told us about that incident in advance. Thanks to that, we've managed to quiet them down. Your worth went up and you were happy that you would be able to support your son with that. The fact that you're protecting them now after all this time is laughable. This goes against your principles, doesn't it?"

Wait a minute. A grudge against the mazoku?! Who? Lidona? I was finally completely confused. She was indiscriminately kind not only to the little children, but to the other families as well. Lidona was kind. She was someone who everyone spread rumors about that she might have lost her child and those rumors strangely seemed to fit, but I couldn't believe that her kindness had been an act. I didn't want to believe that she resented us.

I took my palm off of the wall and walked towards the door as if I was stumbling through a dream.

"Li-"

And at that moment, my mouth was covered and my hand was pulled back before I could reach the door.

"This is why I told you no." When I force my head to turn, I see Conrad's brown bangs over my shoulder. I often forget, but he is much shorter than I am. "Didn't I tell you, 'not her,' Josak?"

There was a laugh in his voice despite the situation. As I walk backwards while being pulled along, I start to want to ask, 'Just when do you ever get flustered?' Do you get extra courage when what you normally eat is different than everyone else?

"You didn't say she was a traitor."

"She's not necessarily betraying you."

Thanks to his cleverness, we were about to get away from the shelter without being discovered, but unluckily, the group of children that had been sent away came back. Their faces lit up when they saw me and they all came running forward shouting my name.

They are children who can't live on their own. They are depending on her good will.

"Josak! Are they done talking?"

"Did the adults go home already?"

A man yelled that someone was there.

The movement inside the house quickly became hurried and the heavy sound of swords being drawn echoes out. Two soldiers rushed out of the door that the driver threw wide open.

"Did you hear!?"

We were too close to pretend we didn't hear anything. Without hesitating, we turned around and ran in the opposite direction. I didn't think I'd actually be able to escape, but there was nothing else I could do. They saw me and heard my name. I wouldn't be able to hide by going back to my own shelter. If I took shelter somewhere else, I'd just trouble the other person.

I could only run.

When I look behind me, in the distance at the edges of my vision, I saw Lidona holding the little ones who were standing there with shock on their faces as if to protect them.

"This way!"

"This way? ... You, if you go that way-!"

My arm was grabbed and my body tilts to the side. I'm the one who knows best where we are. I also naturally know what lies ahead. Shouldn't we be taking a gamble with slipping past the dogs and guards and climbing over the fence? Before I could suggest that, we were cornered.

The north end of this area was a cliff. You can't climb down it unless you're an expert rock climber. We didn't have time to practice or any sturdy rope.

Empty air with nothing on the other side and three soldiers with drawn swords - whichever one I faced, I was at a loss. The small stone I kicked with my heel rolled towards the open space and fell. The cliff was dark with the sun almost set, and I couldn't see the far away bottom that was definitely there.

Conrad spoke to me from so close I could touch his upper arm. His voice was strangely carefree.

"I forgot to ask you something important."

"What are you on about now!?"

"Can you swim?"

"Huh!?"

I almost thought back on my short, twelve years of life. I don't have memories of swimming or drowning. In any case, it was a shame. I was about to turn thirteen pretty soon.

"As if I could swim. I've never even been near the ocean or a river-"

"Then please learn how to swim right now."

When I was about to respond, Conrad pushed my shoulders.

"Sorry."

The ground under my feet disappears.

It's too late to apologize!

---

Thinking that the elasticity under my head had changed, it was because the person whose lap my head was resting on wasn't Miss Anissina anymore. I couldn't see their face with my eyes closed, but I could tell from the smell. There was a metallic ink smell mixed with milk coming out from the gaps of their buttoned sleeves.

The reason His Excellency Gwendal smelled sweeter than alcohol was because this person, with his big hands, was feeding puppies and kittens. Putting the milk of a goat or another animal on his fingertips, he was feeding little kittens who couldn't open their eyes yet.

... His Excellency's lap, huh? ... No, it's alright. This was a blessing one rarely got to experience.

The air moved faintly and I sensed a presence come close.

"How is he?"

I immediately recognize His Majesty's voice. And the sound of his footsteps.

His Majesty always walks with footsteps as if he wants to start running forward. His heel will properly connect with the ground, but he quickly shifts his weight to the tips of his toes and, like the moment before a bird takes off, he is always prepared to take off running. And when he is with someone, especially Young Mistress Greta or His Excellency the Third Son, he courteously adjusts his pace to theirs. So, in order to slow his pace, his right foot hits the floor just a little harder.

Just like now. He has probably brought along his cute daughter.

As predicted, a worried, soft voice reaches my ears. Sadly, the end of her sentence wavers.

"Josak isn't in pain anymore?"

Did I cry out even a sliver of a word saying that I was in pain? If I did, I'll rip those lips right off. Whose mouth was it, huh? Whose mouth was making the Young Mistress sound so much like she was going to cry?

"Josak." A warm hand touches my eyelids. Then it traces the corner of my eye and two fingers caress my cheek. The nails are trimmed neatly and are polished smooth. He had said that 'I don't do it, but there are athletes who get manicures for safety.' "... I'm sorry."

There's nothing for Your Majesty to apologize for.

I want to grab his hand and tell him that.

But my eyes won't open and my body won't move. I can't even lift my arm a hand's height. While I was trying to twist up my body in frustration, my consciousness separates from my body.

And completely-pon at that.

When that happens, everything in my field of vision that was hazy turns clear. I could see His Majesty, the Young Mistress, His Excellency, Miss Anissina, and everyone by my side. From above. Like I was a cloud or a decoration on the ceiling, I saw the room from directly above.

Even the large man with the citrus-colored hair lying on His Excellency's lap.

... Wait, doesn't this mean that I died for real?

---

Afterword

How are you? This is Takabayashi who is not Chii Takeo from the neck down. Everyone who has read this far is... not... doing very well, huh? ... This is very late, but here is the special booklet from the complete DVD. This isn't the time where I can say 'this is very late.' If this was school, it would be like showing up in the classroom during fifth period after lunch and saying 'What's up!' This isn't the rush when you're late. Ah... I'm sorry... The Yamanote line stoppe- don't blame the train! Now then, this time there is a page for an afterword. And it's not a space for vertical writing or horizontal footwear, no, writing. It means I can write what I want. Yeah, it's like a bonus track on a CD. I can write about what I like in my oden, the design of my kotatsu futon, that I squeeze myself into a 70cm space and sleep (of course, I don't turn over in my sleep), and that there are mushrooms I've never seen before growing in a corner of my room. Honestly, this room is a land of mountains. With just a little shock, an avalanche will start on the mountain of magazines and paper (a tetris tower 1.2m tall) and I'll get buried. I'm taking out the trash for the atmosphere. I'm working in a cliff-like environment (behind me) that's 'good for the muscles~!' It would be nice if a rescue team would come one day... Speaking of bonus tracks, have you all listened to the CD that has surely been bundled with this booklet, 'Murakenzu ++ (Double Plus).' I listened to it. Four times already. Also, it seems that GEG listened to it twelve times last night on the stairs. For those of you who have the 'Yume wo MisemaSHOW!' CD, please listen to that first and then 'Murakenzu ++' and it will be twice, no, five times funni-... more enjoyable. I spit out my beer so many times it was at the point where I was asking, Am I a geyser!? Ah, my keyboard. Ah, my display. But do His Majesty and friends really want to sleep that much? Are they that tired? ... Ah, they might be tired... In the main story... Actually, I received more mail and messages than usual after the newest volume, 'TakaraMA' (volume 12) came out... About Gurrier-chan... 'Did he die?' 'Why did you kill him?' 'Does the author hate Josak?' 'I think Wolf will make a cute bride.' (eh!?) Some things were unrelated, but I was surprised. 'Gurrier-chan was liked this much!?' But even if he was received that way, in the beginning he was a super small side character. The proof being that 'Josak' is a name that a lumberjack would have and 'Gurrier' is a French cooking term. So in reality, when I created him, I hadn't planned on him having such a large role. This is just between us, but in the beginning, he was two people. A small, chatty person and a large, shy person. He was a character that was supposed to disappear after 10 pages, much less last an entire chapter, but because he came in handy, I ended up favoring him and having him crossdress, be a spy, and 'when you're in trouble, rely on Gurrier-chan!' .... Uwaa, Gurrier-cha~n, I'm so sorry for doing that to you~~! I really love you. You're one of my favorite characters. Your voice is unique as well (I watch Nash Bridges every day). To make up for that, I've borrowed this space to write 'BACK TO THE Young Gurrier-chan Days.' In the main story, I've never written the backstory of a single character in such detail, so it's like I'm writing a spin-off and it's a very fresh feeling. And next time, that person will join the mix. Well, he's appeared a little bit already. Um, so I've used this space to make a passionate appeal because I want you to believe my love for Gurrier-chan (together with you). If I hated him, I wouldn't create a past for him that had nothing to do with the main story! So, do you believe me? G: "But Takabayashi-san, there might not be very many people who will read this small print on the side of the page." ........ Ehhhhhhhhh!? SEE YOU NEXT

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