Chapter 63
“So even I get cold like a normal person.”
“T-then I’ll cover you with a blanket…!”
“As if someone who kicks off even a properly tucked-in blanket would.”
“Ugh…!”
What am I doing this early in the morning?
Thanks to Lucy, who tearfully clung to me after I told her not to touch my wings while I slept,
we were making quite a racket as we passed through some small, nameless forest from early morning.
“Haha. You two sure are having fun.”
Huey muttered as he watched Lucy and me.
“Does this look like fun to you?”
“Master has never had his wings covered before. You’re obviously just jealous.”
“…Do neither of you think you’re treating me a little too harshly?”
In the end, after Lucy and I both gave Huey an earful,
he drooped his shoulders and let out a deep sigh.
“Haa.”
And so.
We were walking along, admiring the scenery of the lush green forest,
“…Wait a moment.”
Huey, who had been walking ahead of us,
suddenly stopped and pointed to one side as though wary of something.
“Huh?”
“What’s wrong?”
Wondering what was happening, we looked in the direction Huey was pointing.
“There’s something over here.”
“What do you mean, something?”
“Isn’t it just an ordinary forest?”
Before us lay a forest no different from the scenery around it.
And then.
“…Really? I see a clearing rather than a forest.”
Muttering something incomprehensible, Huey cautiously extended his left hand forward.
Immediately afterward, Huey’s left hand disappeared up to the elbow as though melting into thin air.
“Huey!”
“Master. Your hand!”
At our reactions,
Huey waved us over as if to say he was fine.
Soon, Huey’s entire figure disappeared.
“We should follow him, right?”
“Obviously.”
And so, when we headed toward the direction in which Huey had disappeared,
“…Huh?”
“Where are we…?”
As the scenery around us changed, we began to sense some kind of presence.
It was a presence that filled me with a strange sense of longing.
-This is….
Sure enough, just as I entered this space,
as had happened once before, my heart began to stir with emotions that weren’t mine.
-Father…?
Apparently, this was a place connected to the being called a god, whom the voice in my head had praised so highly.
“Someone’s over there.”
“A statue… I think.”
At Huey and Lucy’s voices, I turned my gaze.
“…I’ve seen a statue like this somewhere before.”
I saw a statue in a shape I remembered from somewhere,
and a person bowing before it as if in prayer.
For a moment, I stood dazed by the presence emanating from the small statue carved in the shape of a bird with enormous wings.
“How unexpected.”
The person who had been praying with their body hidden beneath a robe spoke as they removed it.
What emerged was—
“Not only did you notice the barrier, but I never expected anyone to make it all the way here.”
Nearly two meters tall.
With red skin and a pair of enormous tusks,
he was an orc, a race known as natural-born warriors.
“Meeting like this must be fate. Heh heh.”
Though he was old enough that his muscles had withered away and his back was slightly bent, I could tell.
The old orc before me was one of the strongest people I had ever met.
“My name is Huey. I’m an adventurer. This is my companion, Ren. And….”
“Luciella… is my name.”
Emotions flowed from the voice in my head, which had been quiet until a moment ago.
Amid the emotions surging out so strongly that my chest felt tight, a certain memory began to surface….
-Stop. Don’t think any further. You might become ‘me.’
…I couldn’t help thinking that the one letting them flow out so freely was the one at fault, though.
-Sorry. I didn’t expect to see a situation like this, either. I’ll be careful.
Before I had time to question the voice’s unusually meek apology,
I found myself looking at the old orc, who had somehow already approached right in front of us as we stood there dazed.
“…Well now. I get to see two faces I’ve missed so dearly.”
His eyes widened in surprise as they took in Lucy’s face and mine,
and the old orc knelt on one knee before us and spoke with a kindly expression.
“I’m sorry to ask this on our first meeting, but might I embrace you just once?”
At that question, Lucy and I exchanged glances, then
nodded at the old orc.
Normally, I would have told him to go to hell,
but for some reason, I didn’t feel like refusing this orc’s request.
…Well, it was probably because of the other guy inside me, not me.
“Thank you.”
The orc quietly stretched out his arms toward Lucy and me.
His arms were like the trunk of a thousand-year-old tree,
and he carefully wrapped them around us, as though afraid we might break.
“You foolish friends of mine….”
Soon, the old orc began patting our backs as thick tears fell from his eyes.
“To leave without a word. How could you be so heartless….”
At the old orc’s voice, filled with sorrow,
I asked the voice in my head inwardly whether it had anything to say,
-It’s all right. You’ll definitely regret it later.
but the voice in my head merely said that, sounding wistful.
The orc patted Lucy’s and my backs and sniffled for a while,
then quietly rose to his feet as if nothing had happened.
“…Come to think of it, I haven’t introduced myself yet. That was terribly rude of me.”
Perhaps embarrassed about having shed tears in front of us,
he scratched his head and spoke with a forced smile.
“My name is Dahaka. As you can see, I’m an orc.”
Dahaka repeatedly bowed toward Huey, apologizing for ignoring him earlier.
“No, no. It’s all right. If you had your reasons, it’s understandable.”
Huey waved his hands dismissively at Dahaka.
“It isn’t much of a thank-you, but if you have any questions, I’ll answer as best I can. You probably have a lot of them.”
Immediately afterward, with a meaningful expression,
Dahaka looked at Lucy and me and spoke.
“I can’t imagine those two handed over their positions without a fight.”
…How must they have lived for someone who knew them to rate them that way?
-That’s a misunderstanding!?
What misunderstanding?
You haven’t even told me your own name or the name of the god you serve.
-Th-that’s….
As I enjoyed the voice in my head’s unusually flustered reaction, we bickered for a while.
“Elder, what brings you to a place like this…?”
Huey was the first to ask a question.
“I was tending to a friend’s parent.”
At the question, Dahaka pointed to the statue behind him and
“Due to certain circumstances, no one comes to visit anymore except me.”
gave me a bitter smile.
“You said your name was Ren?”
“Yeah.”
“Surely that appearance isn’t your true form.”
“……”
“Though he can be mischievous at times, he’s kind by nature, so he won’t cause you any harm.”
He spoke as though he could even see through the existence of the voice inside me.
“…How?”
“As I grew older, I began to see many things.”
After holding my gaze for a moment,
Dahaka smiled brightly—an incongruous expression—and spoke to me.
“Dana, my friend. Even so, you should have told him your name.”
…Dana.
-Ugh… I really can’t win….
The owner of the voice in my head, Dana, muttered in a troubled voice.
“Don’t worry. I won’t tell anyone.”
After Dahaka fell silent at those words,
“Do you happen to know anything about me as well?”
Lucy asked, swallowing nervously.
“…I’m sorry, but there isn’t much I can tell you about yourself.”
Seeing Lucy’s shoulders droop in disappointment at the answer she hadn’t expected,
Dahaka quietly reached out and began stroking her head.
“But I can say for certain that your mother, Ella, loved you more than anything in the world.”
“Mother…?”
“Yes. And let me offer you one piece of advice.”
Dahaka patted Lucy’s head as though he felt sorry for her,
then withdrew his hand, bent down, and met her eyes with a serious expression.
“Don’t hate humans too much.”
It was a completely out-of-the-blue remark.
“What?”
Lucy seemed just as unable to understand,
and tilted her head at the incomprehensible words.
“I don’t particularly hate them….”
“You’ll understand what I mean when the time comes.”
After looking at Lucy for a moment,
Dahaka turned his gaze to Huey.
“Are you from another world?”
“…Yes.”
He seemed to have grasped Huey’s identity at once.
“You carry something extraordinary within you.”
“I have my own circumstances as well.”
“I see. You must have something you want to ask me.”
Resting his chin on one hand, Dahaka quietly looked at Huey.
And then.
Seeing his attitude, as though he already knew what Huey would ask,
Huey swallowed nervously and spoke with a tense expression.
“I’m looking for a way to return to the world I originally lived in.”
“A way to return… That depends—it’s difficult if it’s difficult, and easy if it’s easy.”
“Do you know something!?”
At Huey’s question, Dahaka fell silent for a moment,
“…Go to Arcadia’s main temple.”
saying that although he didn’t know, there was someone who certainly would.
“Lu, the apostle and only descendant of Ciel, the god of light and order.”
Dahaka patted Huey’s shoulder as if encouraging him to keep trying.
“I don’t know whether Lu will meet you, though.”