Chapter 6
Huey approached Luciela and whispered in her ear as he watched Ren wolf down the meatballs without regard for how hot they were.
“…It’s good that Ren is eating so happily, but was it really enough to make Ren cry?”
“Maybe that mercenary corps bullied Ren earlier.”
“Anyone can see Ren was more likely the one causing trouble than the one being bullied. That.”
“What do I care? Munch.”
“It was my mistake talking to you.”
Huey gave Luciela a look that said, That figures, as she picked up meatballs and answered halfheartedly, as though even conversation itself were a bother.
Eventually, apparently giving up on talking to Luciela, he stared blankly at Ren as Ren ate, steam puffing from around her mouth as though the food were hot.
“You have a face that says you’d have scored some points with Ren just now if Ren really were a woman.”
“…Tsk.”
After swallowing the last meatball on her plate, Luciela looked at Huey with an exasperated expression.
“Seriously, Master has such peculiar tastes.”
“Shut up.”
At that, Huey turned away from Luciela with a face full of displeasure and roughly stuffed a meatball into his mouth.
“…It did turn out well.”
His eyes remained fixed on Ren until the very moment the meal ended.
‘They say a man becomes a woman if you treat him like one. There’s no need to mention a man whose body is a woman’s.’
He recalled what Luciela had whispered to him after learning that Ren had been a man and watching him freeze up.
Even though he thought he shouldn’t, he resented himself for being tempted by the idea at the same time.
“Sigh.”
In the end, Huey shook his head with a sigh.
“Whew… I’m stuffed.”
Meanwhile, regardless of whether Huey sighed, Ren grinned brightly, apparently satisfied with her meal.
“I’m glad you enjoyed it.”
“None of our members can cook, so it’s been ages since I had a proper meal!”
“…What kind of life have you been living all this time?”
“Stew made by dumping in some dried rations and boiling them, plus hard bread tossed carelessly into the storeroom.”
“Good heavens.”
As Huey watched Ren converse with Luciela with a smiling face, he thought to himself.
In any case, it was nice to see someone he had come to like smiling so brightly.
“I’ll make it for you now and then, too, so let’s get along.”
“Yeah!”
Ren was completely different from how she had been only moments earlier, displaying an innocent air as though the walls around her heart had been dismantled.
Huey added a line to his mental notes.
‘Weak to tasty food. Consider training her with food.’
It would be a little later before he realized that devious thoughts were piling up inside his heart one by one.
“Then I’ll take first watch tonight, followed by Lucy, and Ren last. Is that okay?”
“That’s fine.”
“Okay.”
“I’ll hang the clock here, so wake the next person when it’s your time.”
“Understood.”
“Okay.”
After cleaning up from the meal, the three decided on their watches and prepared for the night.
Huey took a sleeping bag from his pack, spread it out, and sat down.
Luciela undid the chains of the coffin she had been carrying, placed a blanket over it, and settled down to sleep on top of it.
Ren spread a blanket on the ground, lay down on it, and covered herself with her own wings as if they were a blanket.
As time passed, Huey listened to the breathing of the two sleeping people and gazed at the sky.
The deep-blue night sky was clear, without a single cloud,
and countless stars whose names he did not even know were embroidered across it.
He reached out a hand, wondering whether somewhere among those stars there might be a home he could return to.
“That’s probably impossible.”
It was still a long way off.
He weakly drew back the hand he had been about to extend.
“…Has it already been five years?”
There were constellations he had never even seen on Earth,
along with a red moon and a blue moon shining high in the sky.
Huey stared blankly at the night sky, so different from that of his homeland,
then soon recalled his family with a faint smile.
“If there’s no way, I’ll make one.”
His father, who always laughed heartily and told him not to be cowed wherever he went.
His mother, who always smiled gently and patted him and his younger sister on the back, telling them never to give up.
His younger sister, who often fought with him but always relied on her big brother whenever things were difficult.
“I’ll definitely return.”
Though five years had already passed since he had fallen into this world, it had only been one year since he had truly set out on his adventures.
The world was vast, so there had to be a way. He repeated the words as though making a promise to himself.
After making that resolve, Huey added more firewood to the dying campfire, unaware
that Ren was smiling gently, her eyes slightly open, before she closed them.
* *
At the sound of someone approaching, I roused my groggy consciousness and opened my mouth.
“I’m up.”
“…Oh.”
I met Lucy’s eyes as she reached toward me, and when I stood up, I heard an exclamation.
She looked utterly surprised.
“I’m not that much of a sleepyhead.”
“I see. Then I’ll be off.”
“Sleep well.”
“Good work.”
I waved a wing toward Lucy as she quietly returned to her place, then
used my foot to toss several pieces of firewood from the pile beside the campfire into the flames. I had no idea when they had stacked it there.
About two hours passed.
Around the time the far side of the sky turned red and the sun began to rise,
“Nnngh….”
I stretched and got to my feet.
“Yaaawn….”
Perhaps because this was effectively my first time sleeping rough since becoming this body,
I ached all over, so I decided to loosen up with some simple exercises.
“Huh?”
While I was warming up with some dawn exercises,
“Oh.”
I spotted several hulking figures approaching from far away and, regrettably, decided to wake the two sleeping soundly nearby.
“Hey, hey. Wake up. We have guests.”
“Hehe….”
“Oh, damn.”
When I shook his shoulder, Huey embraced my wing with a grotesque grin.
-THUD!
“Gack!”
Goosebumps rose on my skin, and I kicked him without thinking.
That bastard had just buried his nose in my feathers and inhaled…!
“Ow, what’s going on all of a sudden….”
“…Guests, I see.”
Fortunately, Lucy woke the moment my hand touched her shoulder.
“Who lit a fire in our territory and is enjoying themselves, huh!?”
“If our establishment catches fire, are you going to take responsibility!?”
“It’s dangerous to just light fires in a place like this, children.”
Sure enough,
seven bandits stood there, each with a weapon slung over his shoulder.
“Pfft.”
“Bandits these days really have a talent for comedy.”
Yeah. I admit it.
Honestly, even I thought it was funny.
Why are bandits worrying about forest fires?
…Was I supposed to say that?
“Boss, take a look at that. It’s a rare species.”
“Ooh, is it a bird beastkin?”
“That one’s top quality, too.”
“Heh, quite a prize….”
Was that bald guy talking about me?
“Ahem, if you let us pass quietly, we’ll pay a toll.”
“Bwahaha! Listen to this scrawny runt, boys!”
Huey apparently wanted to hand over a few coins and settle things peacefully,
but as if that was going to work.
“Huey.”
“What.”
“I’m expensive.”
“…I can tell without you saying it.”
Bird-featured beastkin were rare, so the human traffickers who dealt in them went absolutely wild.
I had never cared about that sort of thing, so I hadn’t known, but after becoming like this, the slave traders who chased me had made sure I learned, whether I liked it or not.
“Honestly, I can’t understand human tastes. They’re focusing on Ren instead of a beautiful girl like me.”
Lucy’s habit of speaking as though she herself weren’t human bothered me, too,
but I could ask about that after clearing out these unwelcome guests.
“Do your best.”
“What are you doing?”
“…Cheering?”
I took up a position behind them and waved my wings in encouragement, making Huey look at me incredulously.
But listen.
“If I fight them right now, I’ll die, you know?”
Because right now I was a useless human who couldn’t even wield a sword.
“…Fine.”
Fortunately, Huey seemed to accept that, so I began watching him sigh and grip the hilt of the sword at his waist while Lucy lifted the coffin, which she had somehow already bound up with chains again.
“Lucy, don’t kill them.”
“I’ll try.”
“Tsk.”
“Tch. Understood.”
Well, it wasn’t a request, so there was no real need to kill them.
And so the fight began.
-CRACK!
“Aaargh!”
“Wow.”
Lucy leapt straight into the bandits and swung the coffin. One of the bandits in the center went flying without even having time to react, the sound of his bones shattering ringing out.
It was an incredibly simple charge.
“Die!”
Naturally, one of the bandits outside the coffin’s range swung the club in his hand, but
-CLANG!
“Careful.”
Huey’s sword slipped between them and knocked the club away,
then he swung the hand not holding his sword and struck the bandit in the jaw, knocking him unconscious.
“Master. You’re in the way.”
“Go a little easy.”
“Hmph.”
Lucy swung her coffin without caring that Huey was right beside her.
The two of them subdued the seven bandits while even trading jokes, proving that Gold Rank 3 was no empty boast.
As I watched, one of the remaining bandits suddenly began charging toward me.
Ah, that was the bastard who had called me desirable earlier.
“Aaaah!”
“Master?”
Huey subtly stopped Lucy, who was about to move toward the bandit practically shouting, Grab me first!
…He deliberately let him through.
“I warned you. You’ll die.”
Hoping that the one charging at me was at least somewhat sturdy,
I thrust out my leg at the bandit charging toward me while he wildly swung an axe.
-CRACK!
Just afterward, as I felt the axe blade strike my leg,
“…Huh?”
-CRUNCH.
My foot sank into the center of the bandit’s body. He made a stupid noise, apparently shocked that the axe blade had broken instead of cutting into my leg.
It felt as though every one of his ribs had shattered, but I had been careful not to stab him with my talons, so if he was tough, he might not die.
-BOOM!
Huey and Lucy stared in disbelief as the bandit flew away with a thunderous boom and slammed into a distant tree, breaking it.
“See? I told you that you’d die. I’m still not used to this body, so controlling my strength is difficult.”
Not me—the bastard.