Chapter 12
After receiving a message from the captain, I dried my wings, then
put my clothes back on and returned to Osmun’s house.
“Try fixing him.”
“Impossible. He’s completely gone.”
I found Huey staring blankly into space like a broken doll, muttering to himself in a language I had never heard before.
“What on earth happened outside?”
Lucy asked me with a perturbed look as she sipped steaming cocoa, wherever she had gotten it.
Judging by the faint smile on her face and how fresh and fluffy she looked overall, she must have washed while we were out.
Then again, even if you ask what happened…
“All he did was see me naked.”
“…Oh dear.”
Upon hearing my explanation, Lucy approached Huey and began patting him on the back with a sympathetic expression.
“Poor Master. That’s what you get for going out for no reason….”
Why did I feel as though I were the one at fault?
What the heck?
“Anyway, if there’s something you want to discuss, let’s do it tomorrow. Judging by Master’s condition, I don’t think he’s up for talking today.”
“Tch. I suppose that’s for the best.”
Come to think of it, whether we discussed it now or in the morning,
it wasn’t as though anything would really change.
“I’ll sleep here tonight, so Ren, go rest in the room on the second floor.”
“Are you sure?”
“You must still be uncomfortable, right?”
Lucy urged me to go upstairs, saying she was fine because she had already seen me in every possible state over the past six months anyway.
“I’ll gratefully accept your consideration.”
“Hehe. Have a good night.”
And so I entered the second-floor room I had been shown earlier, lay down on the bed,
“…Oh. Pretty good.”
Impressed by its softness, which rivaled even the bed in my room at the hideout, furnished at great expense,
I let the encroaching sleep take me.
* *
While everyone in Huey’s group was asleep, someone was moving busily in the study.
-Creak.
Even without being able to see, Osmun was searching through the bookcase with the spirits’ help when he turned his head at the sudden opening of the window.
“I seem to remember that I refused your proposal.”
“Oh, don’t be so wary. I’ve only come as a guest this time.”
At the same time, the spirits blocked the way in front of Osmun, their expressions fierce.
And standing in front of Osmun was a single figure.
“I have a gift for you.”
Blue skin, black hair, and long ears.
A man with beastlike yellow eyes set against black, unlike ordinary human eyes.
“Osmun Lloyd, the Storm Serpent. One of the few top-class spirit mages on the continent, and an otherworlder who was part of a former Hero’s party.”
“You found all that out in such a short time. Even the guild doesn’t know about those events from my past.”
“Kehuhu. Gathering information is hardly difficult for an incubus.”
A dream demon. An incubus.
A demon said to invade people’s dreams and drain their vital essence.
Even though an incubus, a demon said to live only in the demon realm, stood right in front of him, Osmun reacted nonchalantly.
“As I told you last time, I’ve already….”
“The spirit you contracted along with your eyes has also vanished?”
“….”
Osmun touched the corners of his eyes, as if he had been struck in a sore spot.
“Looks like I hit a sore spot. My apologies.”
“Your attitude is quite different from last time.”
“…I have something troublesome to deal with.”
The incubus grimaced as he said this.
“It seems you have a perceptive friend.”
“If you intend to lay a hand on my guest, I won’t remain idle.”
“Don’t worry. It isn’t time yet… Besides, if I touched it and it woke up, we’d be the ones worse off.”
At those words, Osmun quietly sighed in relief,
“I should go to bed early if I’m to prepare breakfast tomorrow, so let’s get to the point.”
“Well, if that’s what you want, so be it. Still, since it’s been so long, couldn’t you at least give me a cup of tea?”
A moment later, the incubus clicked his tongue as he looked at the dozens of spirits surrounding him.
“Tch. Fine. Here’s the gift.”
The incubus raised both hands to show he meant no harm, then carefully set a bracelet he had been holding in one hand on the desk.
“…What is that?”
“Don’t worry, it isn’t dangerous. No, wait—is it dangerous after all?”
Then he slowly took one step, then another, backward,
“Anyway, I believe it’s something you’ve been longing for.”
“No way!”
“That’s right. It’s an artifact with a supreme water spirit sealed inside.”
“How did you…? No, more importantly, a water spirit? That’s impossible…!”
“I’m not foolish enough to joke about an artifact containing a sealed spirit in front of a spirit mage.”
The mention of a water spirit greatly startled Osmun.
“I imagine you know better than anyone what this item is worth.”
“….”
“Kehuhu.”
As though Osmun’s silence itself were the answer,
the incubus let out an unpleasant laugh and turned away.
“The choice is yours. My master also hopes your dream will come true.”
With those words, the incubus vanished like mist.
“…Just when I had finally managed to put it out of my mind.”
Gently stroking the bracelet he had left behind,
“What a cruel twist of fate.”
Osmun muttered in a hollow voice.
“What should I do, Kevin?”
* *
-Swoooosh.
The first sound I heard upon waking that morning
was the refreshing sound of rain drumming on the roof.
“…Yaaawn.”
“Are you awake?”
“Good morning.”
I waved a wing at Lucy, who had come to wake me at just the right time,
then got up and carefully held the blanket down with my foot so I wouldn’t tear it, roughly straightening it.
“You’re surprisingly skillful.”
“I can’t even control my strength, and if I couldn’t do this either, it’d be seriously dangerous.”
After all, this foot was the only thing I had left that could pick anything up in place of my hands, which had become wings.
At first, I’d even been startled when I saw the ground get gouged by a claw I planted without thinking.
“Oh, you’re up?”
“You’re fixed.”
“Yes. I woke up this morning and found myself back to normal.”
“What an annoying bastard.”
“Indeed.”
“…All of a sudden!?”
Ignoring Huey’s aggrieved protest, I accepted the water Luciela handed me and drank it.
“Phew. I feel alive again. Thanks.”
“Not at all.”
“Um… Ren? Lucy?”
“What? Why? What?”
As I spoke while glaring at the idiot who had broken down just from seeing me naked,
Huey shrank back as though he were the most aggrieved person in the world.
“No, I mean….”
I watched him for a moment, but eventually I couldn’t hold it in any longer, so I met Lucy’s eyes,
“Pfft!”
“Hehe.”
and we burst out laughing.
“Huh? Huh?”
“I was just teasing you, you idiot.”
“So this is why people play pranks.”
On my way downstairs, I gave Lucy a subtle look after seeing Huey, and she caught on immediately and played along.
“Whew, you startled me.”
“Who told you to make such a spectacle yesterday?”
“…I understand, but you really did look pathetic.”
“Ahem.”
With Huey clearing his throat, we moved into the living room,
“Oh, everyone’s up early.”
“Good morning, Mr. Osmun.”
Looking a little tired, as though he had stayed up all night,
Osmun came staggering in.
“You look exhausted.”
“You do.”
As Lucy and I watched him and murmured about it,
Osmun took something out from inside his robes.
“This is a journal I kept when I traveled with my companions, searching for a way to return to my homeland.”
“Huh?”
“I looked for it hoping it might help your journey, even a little.”
As he said this, he handed Huey an old book he had taken from inside his robes.
The soot covering various parts of the book and its worn corners
were enough to tell me how precious that journal was to Osmun.
“…Thank you.”
Holding the journal Osmun had handed him protectively against his chest, as though it might tear,
Huey bowed so deeply that his head nearly touched the floor and expressed his gratitude.
“Haha. Well, I apologize, but I was up all night. I need to get some sleep.”
Though he apologized for not being able to see us off, he told us to rest comfortably for whatever time remained before we left.
“Mr. Osmun….”
“We’re deeply in your debt.”
“Indeed.”
Since I couldn’t see his eyes, I couldn’t know exactly what he was feeling,
but his haggard appearance after staying up all night made it clear he had spent a great deal of time agonizing.
“Well then, since we’ve received such rare encouragement….”
“Ren?”
“There’s somewhere I need to go.”
Still, I thought we’d waste more time if he got sentimental again, so I decided to change the subject.
“They say a place where items from another world appear has been discovered in an unexplored region of Vista’s southern desert.”
“A desert.”
“It’s been a while since we’ve visited an unexplored region.”
After sharing the information I had received from the captain last night,
“Anyway, even just to hear the details, we need to head north.”
A city about a week’s walk from here.
“Swinford.”
“North?”
“Wouldn’t it be better to go straight to the desert?”
To be honest, I wanted to suggest going to the desert in the south right away, but
there must have been a reason the captain told us to head north; otherwise, he wouldn’t have.
“…There’s someone I need to meet first.”
Our captain may be narrow-minded, but he wouldn’t say that just to mess with me.
The details… Well, I suppose I’ll find out when we meet.
“Frederica.”
“I mean, the witch of our mercenary band.”