Chapter 64
Information I never expected to obtain.
Someone knows how to return Huey to his original world.
“…Is that really true?”
Huey repeatedly asked, uncharacteristically unable to believe it.
“I swear on my father Aldebaran. I guarantee that friend of mine will know.”
Dahaka responded to Huey’s reaction.
Mentioning even the name of the god Aldebaran, he nodded calmly.
“As I said, I don’t know whether that friend of mine will agree to meet you, so don’t get your hopes too high.”
“Even the possibility is enough for me.”
Huey’s eyes shone with fervor at the thought that he had found a way to return home.
“Then, are we going straight to Arcadia?”
Seeing him like that, I asked whether he planned to head to Arcadia immediately.
He propped his chin on one hand and thought for a moment.
“…No. There’s no point in rushing. Let’s take care of everything we have planned, then set out.”
He took a deep breath and spoke with a serious expression.
“Hah hah. You’re right. Haste can ruin even something that would otherwise work out.”
Dahaka added this, seemingly satisfied with Huey’s answer.
“Lu lives for eternity, after all. Take your time and proceed without worry.”
“…I see. Thank you for the valuable information.”
“It’s hardly anything.”
And so.
After our exchange with Huey came to an end.
“I have something I want to ask, too.”
“I don’t know.”
…I hadn’t even asked the question yet.
“To begin with, the fact that someone meant to live forever alongside Lu had died is already beyond my understanding.”
“No, I mean….”
“So naturally, I also don’t know how to restore your body to its original form.”
At a loss, I looked at Dahaka’s face.
He wasn’t joking, nor was he lying.
He was looking at me with an expression that simply stated the facts.
“However.”
Dahaka soon smirked and turned to me.
“There is one thing. I do have information that may help you.”
“…Is that really true?”
“Of course.”
I was just about to feel a little disappointed that I alone might come away empty-handed.
“Dana, you see. In private, she was very different from how she appeared in public.”
-Aah! Aaaah―! Don’t listen―!
As Dahaka began his story, Dana started shouting noisily inside my head.
“Wait.”
“Hm.”
At this rate, I wouldn’t be able to hear the story.
First, I shoved Dana’s loudly struggling voice deep into my mind so I couldn’t hear her.
“There. Continue.”
“…You really are something.”
I urged Dahaka on as he looked at me in bewilderment, a cold sweat beading his brow.
“Anyway, when she was with close friends, she looked not much different from how you look now, but….”
“Yeah, yeah.”
“Outside, she was completely different.”
She had apparently been a pious and holy priestess, exemplary enough to serve as a model for others.
“When she clasped her hands and prayed, even those who knew her true form were captivated. Hah hah.”
What, so in the end he just means she was pretty. Why make it so complicated…
…Wait a moment.
“Both hands?”
“Mm. Unlike her harpy followers, Dana could transform into a form more akin to a human.”
Human hands, human legs.
And a priestess with a pair of red wings extending from her back.
That was Dana’s public-facing form.
“I believe that’s enough useful information for you.”
Dahaka looked at me with a meaningful smile.
“Isn’t it, Sword Saint?”
It felt as though he had gotten one over on me.
“…You’re more mischievous than you look.”
“Hah hah. My father asked me to tell you that he has high hopes for you.”
He has high hopes for me… huh.
“What a shame. If you weren’t in that body, I might have gotten carried away and made a fool of myself despite my age.”
He stroked the handle of the large axe hanging from his waist.
Dahaka looked at me with a regretful expression.
“Indeed. I was wondering how strong an apostle of a god was myself.”
“Hah hah. You noticed after all?”
“I’m not so stupid that I wouldn’t notice even that. Hah!”
I laughed as I met Dahaka’s eyes.
“…Why does he keep picking fights?”
“His brain must really be made of muscle, too. I can’t understand his thought process.”
As the two of them looked at Dahaka and me with exasperated expressions,
I heard the voices of the two weaklings whispering loudly enough for us to hear.
“I can hear you, you know!?”
When I shouted in disbelief, Huey and Lucy pretended not to hear and looked in different directions.
“Hah hah.”
Dahaka smiled gently at us.
“Well, it’s about time I got going.”
“Ah, wait!”
I called out to Dahaka as he put his robe back on and turned away as though he meant to leave.
“So, what is that statue?”
I decided to ask about the thing that had bothered me most since entering this space.
“It is a statue of Vega, a god who has now been forgotten. He was once called the god of fire and life.”
With those words.
“Elder!?”
“It seems you don’t intend to travel by ordinary means.”
Dahaka disappeared as though melting into thin air.
“…It feels like a storm just passed through.”
“Indeed.”
And so.
We remained in that space for a while, standing blankly as we gazed at the bird-shaped statue of the god Vega.
“Let’s get moving for now.”
“Yeah. Like Ren said. Let’s move for now.”
“Let’s.”
Each of us did our best to sort through our complicated thoughts.
We decided to discuss our plans for the future in the next village.
* *
The place where we had met Dahaka.
A few hours after leaving the place where the statue of the god Vega stood.
“So, about our schedule going forward.”
After arriving in a fairly large city called Armain, we took rooms at a suitable inn.
Then we sat at a tavern near the fountain in the center of the city, eating dinner as we began a serious discussion about what to do next.
“Let’s start by organizing what we need to do.”
I quietly looked at the writing in the notebook Huey had unfolded before us.
【The Western Demon Realm. Check on my body.】
【The North. Meet Ren’s comrades in the mercenary corps.】
【Arcadia’s main temple. Meet Lu.】
There were three items in total.
“Of course, we’ll also need to look for Lucy’s memories along the way.”
Huey added this while looking at Lucy, who had an oddly sullen expression.
“These are the three leads we have at present.”
After gripping the cup of the drink served for dessert in both wings, I drank from it.
“So, how are you planning to proceed?”
I asked Huey.
After all, Huey was the leader of this party.
“…First, let’s head west as planned.”
Returning home was important, too.
But Huey said it would be a problem if rushing caused something to go wrong with his body.
“After that, we’ll head north and meet Ren’s comrades.”
Huey said that if we found no additional clues by the time we finished our business in the north, we should go to Arcadia then.
“That’s unexpected. If it were me, I would have said we should go to Arcadia right away.”
“Dahaka may be right that Lu will agree to meet me. On the other hand, there’s also a chance I could return to my original world directly from there.”
No matter how important it was to return home,
I couldn’t leave without saying goodbye to the people who had helped me in this world.
“Is that all right?”
“It’s not like I get a say in whether it’s all right or not.”
I nodded at Huey in agreement.
“If Master really returns home, what will happen to me?”
Only then did Lucy finally speak after keeping her mouth tightly shut.
“What, was that all you were worried about?”
Addressing the fool who thought she would be abandoned,
I said what I had been thinking for some time.
“When Huey leaves, do you want to join our mercenary corps?”
“Pardon?”
As though she didn’t understand what I meant,
Lucy stared at me in surprise and let out a foolish little sound.
“If you don’t have anywhere in particular to go, stay with us.”
Our house is spacious, anyway.
“Don’t you want to?”
She stared at me blankly with her mouth hanging open, so I asked, thinking she might dislike the idea.
“Of course not!”
She shook her head vigorously,
and Lucy smiled at me with her face flushed red.
“You really mean it!”
“Yeah, yeah.”
Well, she’d have to be prepared to work for her keep in exchange for staying with us.
“So, is everything more or less settled?”
Immediately afterward, Huey spoke while looking at us with a smugly satisfied expression.
“Right?”
“Yes. It is.”
As Lucy and I answered Huey’s question together,
-Tap. Tap.
“Huh?”
Something suddenly poked me in the side.
“What the hell, who’s this brat?”
I turned and saw a green-haired girl shorter than Lucy.
…Even though I had let down my guard, how had I failed to notice her until she touched me?
“Heehee.”
The little girl smiled when our eyes met, her golden eyes curving gently.
She was small, looking fourteen or fifteen at best.
“You’re Ren, right?”
How she knew that, I had no idea.
She called my name and asked.
…Wait a moment.
Green hair and golden eyes.
And she even knew my name?
“What, Ren? Do you know her?”
“What a cute young lady.”
At the voices coming from beside me,
I gulped and took another look at the girl who had called my name.
She wore leather pants and a white shirt, clothes that didn’t suit a girl her age.
Her green hair reached down to her waist and was tied at the nape of her neck.
Her golden eyes were full of mischief, yet somehow familiar.
“Has it been ten years?”
And then.
“You’ve turned into quite an interesting form.”
“…Hiccup.”
A familiar-looking silver rod was held in her tiny hand.
“Why aren’t you saying anything?”
I had no idea what had turned her into a child, but…
“My adorable little apprentice, Lenny.”
…It was my master.