Stolu Pula’s Melancholy, Noon On Day 7 Of Life In Another World

~Noon on the seventh day of life in another world. In the depths of the “forest” in the northern plains region near the adventure city~

How did it come to this?

“Noooooooooooooo!! I messed up, I messed up! I skimped too much on Relic Blade’s output!! Lazaaaar! A really energetic one is coming your way!”

“Y-You idiot!! A full-of-energy Titanos Mare?! Ah, Great Tooth! Please grant your blessing to our foolish selves!”

I was up in a tree, looking down at him from a thick branch.

Below me, that person, who had shoved his arm into a Titanos Mare’s nest, was running through the forest from the other side with snot dripping from his nose.

Its body was thicker than a log crawling across the ground as it writhed and opened its huge mouth.

A great serpent monster. Even among the Knight Order, the only ones who could hunt that without injury would be high-ranking knights or those around the Ten Knights.

“Aaah, damn it! Naruhito, hurry and run to this position! Push through with guts!”

“H-Hehehehe! I’m gonna die! I’m gonna dieee! I’m seriously getting eaten! Hehehehe!”

Beside me, the lizard-san shouted while his expression changed over and over. At this point, there was no meaning to the ambush anymore.

Right now, they were on the verge of death. They were being nearly killed after choosing as prey a monster that even knights would flinch from.

Ah, but why was that?

“Uoooooooooh!! Awaken, my finishing kick!!”

“Run, run, run! Naruhito!”

“Shaaaaaajuraaaa, s-s-s-s-s-s-s-s-snakeeeeee!!!”

Snot, sweat, tears, and the monster’s scream. A space bordering death.

That space should have been filled only with fear and despair, and yet, ah, why were they—

“H-Hehehehehehehe, nheh, hehehehehehyahahahahahaha!”

“H-Haha, you idiot, ha, hahahahahahahahaha!!”

Why did they look like they were having so much fun?

Why were they laughing so much?

I could not understand the reason they were laughing.

Ah, and why was it? When I looked at that person and the lizard-san, those two laughing before a monster, something in my chest felt a little itchy.

The two of them laughing together were, for some reason, very dazzling, and for some reason, that felt lonely.

“Stolu!! It’s your turn, stupid brat!”

That person called my name.

He looked up at me while running, while sweating, while dripping snot.

He called me.

Why was it? Just that alone made my loneliness disappear.

“—I’m not—dis.”

My chest stirred.

My body was hot.

“…It cannot be helped. Let us steel ourselves. Stolu, it is your turn. Let us go save that fool. Lend us the strength of the First Knight. Are you ready?”

The lizard-san muttered in a low voice, looking down at that person with a very gentle expression.

The great serpent continued chasing that person.

“Shaaaaaaaaaasnake!”

“Uwabara! This is bad!! It’s catching up?! I’m getting eaten, I’m seriously getting eaten! Hey! Stolu!”

That person called me.

Me, who had no value. Me, who had lost Justice and become useless.

Me, who had no value in living because I was useless—

“Stupid knight!! Be useful to me!”

His voice echoed.

At the same time, my body burst forward, and unbelievable power welled up—

“I am not stupid-dis!! Tooyama Naruhito!!”

Floating. Before I knew it, I had jumped down.

“—Snakesna?! Bu?!”

Impact. I slammed my sword into the crown of the great serpent’s head as it had closed in directly below while chasing him.

There was a mushy recoil, and the cheap sword I had bought at the market bent and snapped.

The great serpent thrashed. Unable to finish it off with such a crude weapon, I was thrown off and rolled across the ground. Ah, I was weak.

“—But I…”

Even though I had accepted death once back then, why was it? My body moved on its own. The unpleasant feeling of nosebleed dripping and wetting my lips; I wiped it away and stood up.

Because I wanted to hear that person and the lizard-san’s voices again.

Because I did not want to be left behind by them as they laughed so happily, I stood up, moved, and tried to live.

“Snasnake.”

Ah, the snake, the monster, was before my eyes.

I was going to be eaten—

“Well done.”

It was the instant its huge mouth opened toward me.

A shadow fell upon the snake.

On top of the great serpent monster’s raised head, the lizard-san had leaped soundlessly.

His movements were so captivating that I was late to notice them, utterly soundless.

I felt like I understood why he had survived against two of the Ten Knights.

“Hah!”

“Sna?! Snaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa?!”

The knife swung down powerfully with both hands gouged into the snake monster’s head. However, it was not a life form that would die from that alone.

The monster, the great serpent, moved its black-scaled body wildly. It thrashed about, mowing down trees and tearing through bushes.

“Sna!!”

“Mm?!”

The monster began headbutting the trees. Just before he could be crushed against them, the lizard-san jumped down by a hair’s breadth.

“D-Dangerous!!”

“Muoh?!”

However, waiting for him the instant he landed was a blow from its tail, and the lizard-san was smacked away.

He rolled across the ground and immediately tried to stand, but the great serpent, Titanos Mare, was already closing in on him with its huge mouth open.

He would not make it in time. That should have been true.

Yet the lizard-san smiled with his wounded face.

“Naruhito.”

“Yeah, Lazaar.”

Snap.

The lizard-san snapped his fingers. The sound echoed pleasantly through the dense forest.

Shadow.

The shadow created by the great trees blocking the sunlight distorted thickly.

The great serpent lost its stance the moment it touched that shadow. As if it had sunk into a swamp.

“Shaa?!”

“Hey, snake bastard.”

Thickly, the great serpent struggled after sinking into the shadow, and right beside it, he appeared. Emerging thickly from the shadow swamp, he clung to the snake’s huge body again.

Compared to the lizard-san, his movements were not refined at all, but they were powerful, and he steadily climbed the monster’s body.

Holding two knives in his hands, he stabbed them in and used them as supports while climbing. The monster twisted its body, but because it was stuck in the shadow swamp, it could not move much.

Taking more time than the lizard-san, clumsily, but still, he too reached the top of the snake’s head.

“Heave-ho. Lazaar’s shadow really is a terrifying power. To think he can even choose targets that can move freely inside the shadow. Is that a cheat?”

“Never mind that. Hurry up and finish it.”

The lizard-san, sitting on the spot while pouting, spoke in a voice that was very gentle despite his words.

“Got it. Let’s kill it, Relic Blade.”

“Snasnasnasnasnasna?!”

From there, it was an instant.

What sprayed from his neck was white haze, mist. Mixed in with the mist, what appeared was a chipped… blade?

Why did it come from his neck? Why did his body not bleed? I thought about many things.

But faster than that—

“The wound. There.”

Schlursh.

“Sss—”

He thrust that blade into the wound on the monster’s head, the wound I and the lizard-san had made.

“Direct is the most effective.”

Mist. Mist again leaked from the chipped blade he held, and through the stabbed blade, it went directly into the monster.

“Snaaa…”

That ended everything. The snake monster opened its eyes wide, shuddered its long and supple body, and that was the end.

Blue blood flowed from its eyes as it slowly laid its body on the ground and never moved again.

“Exploration complete.”

The chipped blade was pulled out of the wound with a wet slide. It emerged trailing blue blood, then turned into mist and vanished in the blink of an eye.

He had finished off the monster.

“Splendid. I thought you were going to get eaten like that, Naruhito.”

“Yeah, seriously, sorry. I got used to it. I tried saving a little cost and couldn’t kill it inside the nest.”

He climbed down from atop the monster lying powerlessly, and the lizard-san stood up.

Even though they had just finished walking a tightrope between life and death, the two of them acted as usual.

Even among Church Knights, most people would have their hearts shaken by excitement or relief right after a monster hunt, yet they were far too calm.

“Well, be careful next time. Still, this makes the twelfth Titanos Mare. The market will be thrown into chaos again today.”

“Well, I’ll leave those annoying parts to the old man’s trading company. We need to hurry up and save rent and startup funds for the bakery. Now then, there’s still more work to do. Tomorrow’s labor heroes are us.”

“I do not understand what you mean, but I feel those words are ominous. Oops, my apologies. Stolu, are you injured?”

“Oh, stupid brat. No, Stolu. Nice kill. Your blow is terrifying. You even gouged that snake’s skull.”

The two of them smiled at me.

“—Was I useful?”

My voice trembled. Fearfully, fearfully, I squeezed it out.

The two of them looked at each other, then silently gave me thumbs-ups.

Ah, why was it? Why was it?

My chest was hot. I should not be allowed to feel this way.

I, who had failed to be useful to the Knight Order, should have no value anymore.

I held down my cheeks, which were now helplessly loosening.

Suddenly, I remembered what the bishop-sama had said that day.

…………

……

…

~Three days earlier, around noon. Angel Church, interrogation room~

“Kneel, First Knight. You are before the highest person in the Angel Church, the bishop-sama.”

The saint, no, the saint-sama’s words were directed at me. She had a flower-like fragrance, a very nice smell.

It was a beautiful room.

It was made of colorful glass, and the picture spread across the entire ceiling was, I had once heard from the Deputy Commander, a depiction of the angel-sama whom no one had ever seen.

Huh, even though no one had ever seen the angel, there was a picture. I thought that was strange.

“Your punishment has been decided, First Knight.”

Ah, so this is the end.

The voice of the bishop-sama, the highest-ranking woman in the Angel Church, was cold, and her narrow eyes glared at me.

A pure white room. The bishop-sama sat deeply in a large chair, and around her were cat beastfolk wearing strange masks.

My hands were tied, and I was kneeling.

Beside me was the saint-sama. If I went wild or something, she would probably kill me.

Unexpectedly, I was calm. I did not really understand, but I knew only that I had done something terrible. But I did not understand at all what had been wrong.

“Despite bearing the heavy responsibility of First Knight, through assumptions and rash judgment, you attempted to lay hands on your comrades of the Church, believers of the Inquisition, an organization directly under me. That is an abhorrent barbarity contrary to Church doctrine.”

The bishop-sama’s words were cold, and I hardly understood what she was saying.

Because I was raised as a sword, I was taught that I did not need to think about anything. I had been raised being told that all I had to do was protect the justice decided by the Church.

The Church’s justice: following the angel-sama’s teachings, obeying the Church.

In other words, obeying the Knight Order. Devoting myself to the Knight Order.

I had been taught that this was justice.

“You threatened the Angel Church through your ignorance and foolishness.”

I did not really understand, but I had probably failed to protect the Church’s justice. I had failed to fulfill the Knight Order’s orders.

In other words, I was no longer justice.

At the orphanage, there were many children besides me. But half of them disappeared before they reached graduation at fourteen.

The orphanage teacher would say: those children had become unable to fulfill their role. It was discovered that they could not become the Church’s justice, the Church’s power, so they disappeared.

Everyone had a mission they had to do. Children who could not do it, or children who did not try to do it, were not allowed to live. They would go to a faraway place.

Humans who were not useful to everyone, useless humans, had no meaning in being alive.

“…It is my turn, dis.”

I had killed many. I had judged many. Things contrary to the Church’s justice, things that would become the Church’s enemies, things that opposed the Knight Order.

Every single thing that was not useful to us.

It had been the same at the orphanage. I killed children who had been taken in by the Church but were not useful to the Church as part of my training.

Useless things were killed, meaning my turn had come.

“You have not been granted permission to speak. Be silent.”

The bishop-sama cut off my mutter.

Yes, in other words, that was how it was.

I, who had failed to carry out justice, no longer had value. I, who had mistaken justice and failed to be useful to the Church, no longer had value.

I had lost the value of being alive. I had also lost my reason to be here.

Even when I called my “Justice,” there was no answer.

My sword had shattered and broken.

No one in the Knight Order would help me either.

But that was fine. That was natural.

Useless humans did not even need to live. That was everything I had been taught at the orphanage.

I accepted that too. I did not really understand, but I, who could no longer use Justice, probably no longer had any value.

“First Knight Stolu, you originally have the right to receive a Church trial by the Knight Order. However, due to an unforeseen accident, the Knight Commander and Deputy Knight Commander, who hold the authority to convene a trial, are currently missing. Therefore, under Church law, your judgment will be carried out in the name of me, Kanosa Tier Field, the supreme leader.”

I did not really understand what she was saying. The bishop-sama knew many difficult words, and I thought she was impressive.

“If you have any objection, raise your head. If you do not, answer with silence.”

Of course I had none. This was the order of things. Everyone lived, killed, and was killed. Those who had stopped being useful were killed in order. Because they were no longer needed. That was how things were made.

Killing and being killed, living and dying.

Those who were no longer needed left the stage. The world turned that way.

I, being smart, knew that.

“Very well. I take it that there is no objection. By simplified procedure of Church trial, the crime of rebellion against the Church will be applied to you. Punishment for sin. You should understand this system well.”

“Yes.”

I would die, die, end.

I had never really thought about it, but what happened when one died?

What happened to the people I had killed until now under justice?

Suddenly, I remembered. The many people I had killed as training at the orphanage.

Why had they been crying so much back then?

Why had that child been laughing?

Why had that child reached out a hand to me just before being killed by me?

“First Knight Stolu, for the crime of rebellion against the Church, the death penalty will be applied to you. Do you have any last words?”

“…No, I do not.”

Where had I gone wrong? What had been wrong?

I had done as I was told. I had done as I had been taught.

But it was no good. Well, it could not be helped. I no longer had value.

“…Very well. However, allow me to ask one thing. Why do you say nothing? Do you understand? You are about to die.”

“Yes, I understand, dis… I do. I will obey the Church’s decision. I have no objection.”

“…Tch, really, I do not like this.”

The muttered voice, filled with irritation, surprisingly came from the bishop-sama.

I instinctively raised my face.

The great person who could be called the very existence of the Church itself, normally quiet like a doll, a perfect person who even the Commander and Deputy Commander respected, wore a strange expression.

As if angry.

—As if crying.

“Why are you, why are you all like that? How can a child like you accept death so easily?!”

“…I do not understand what the bishop-sama is saying. I no longer have value. I no longer have any meaning in being alive.”

“…Gh, why are you all like that?”

“Are you angry? I do not understand the reason bishop-sama would be angry. I am sorry for causing trouble. I am sorry that a useless person is alive. I pray that, through the Church’s judgment, at least my incompetence will be cleansed.”

“…Gh~ I understand. I understand very well. The reason you truly do not fear death from the bottom of your heart. In other words, you mean to say that you are an existence that may die, and that you have no lingering attachment to life.”

“…I do not really understand what bishop-sama means. I have no value—”

“Be silent, you fool.”

“………………”

“Do not say you do not understand without thinking carefully. Do not abandon thought without even properly turning your mind. Do not chirp before me using ignorance as an excuse.”

Why was it? Even though the bishop-sama’s voice was very cold and sharp, I could not think of it as frightening.

Why did the bishop-sama look like she was about to cry?

I did not understand. I did not understand the reason the bishop-sama had such a face, nor the reason the saint beside me was glaring at me.

I understood nothing.

“I understand very, very well. What kind of human you are, how you were raised, and what you were arranged to become. Very well.”

It seemed the bishop-sama understood everything. I was impressed that she was smart enough to understand things I did not understand.

“For you as you are now, death cannot serve as punishment. You truly believe that you have no value in living, and from the bottom of your heart, you truly think that those without value have no meaning in being alive.”

“…But is that not the rule?”

“…No. There cannot be such a shitty rule. First Knight Stolu, not even the death penalty is fitting for you. As you are now, the death penalty cannot serve as punishment. I am not so kind that I will kill a human who does not fear death.”

The bishop-sama’s words flowed smoothly.

But I did not understand what she was saying.

“What do you—”

“I have decided your punishment.”

The bishop-sama crossed her long legs again. Her white hair spreading over her black nun’s habit was very beautiful.

“For one who does not fear death, the death penalty cannot serve as punishment. In that case, I will first have you become able to fear death.”

“Huh?”

“If one is not useful, one has no value in living. I have no intention of correcting that twisted sense of values of yours. In that case, I shall give you value. And you will live. You will live, and when you come to regret losing that life, I will give you a punishment befitting you.”

“…I do not understand what bishop-sama is saying, dis.”

“First Knight. I order you to indefinite service under the Dragon Slayer—no, the Angel Church Inquisitor, Tooyama Naruhito. This is an order.”

“As of today, Stolu Pula, you are expelled from the Angel Church Knight Order. Due to the absence of the Knight Commander and Deputy Knight Commander, the Knight Order’s autonomous right to reject orders from the bishop is not recognized. The seat of First Knight will be treated as vacant. From today onward, you will be treated as an ‘inquisitor’s attendant apprentice.’”

“…………Huh?”

“It is not you who decides that you have no value. The one who decides the handling of your life is me. This order goes into effect today. Furthermore, consider the inquisitor’s orders to be the same as orders from the Church.”

“Wh-What are you trying to make me do, dis? I-I do not understand what is happening.”

“Be useful. If you say the meaning of your life is being useful to others, then be useful to us.”

“Loyalty to the Knight Order is, in other words, nothing other than loyalty to the Church. If you still have the awareness of one who lives with the Church’s sword—no, the angel’s teachings—in your heart, then you have no complaint, correct?”

“B-But. I, I no longer have Justice…”

“Fool. Not everyone will force you to become a sword for them as the Knight Order did. …The one who strongly wished for your life to be spared was the inquisitor.”

“Huh? By inquisitor, you cannot mean—”

“Yes, Tooyama Naruhito. The man you almost killed. In a certain transaction with me, he chose to spare your life. To be honest, I wanted to take this opportunity to erase you, the strongest fighting force of the Knight Order, but… Well, it is the word of the Dragon Slayer. It is not something I can simply dismiss.”

“Why would that person…”

“Your sin is not ignorance. It is permitting ignorance and benightedness. Not knowing is not a sin; remaining ignorant is the sin.”

“Stolu Pula. If you are still a believer of the Church, you understand what you must do, do you not?”

With the bishop-sama’s words, I understood.

I was smart, so I understood.

“…………I gratefully accept your generous treatment. In the name of the Church and the angel’s light, I will fulfill the mission imposed upon me.”

The inquisitor, that person, must have called me so he could kill me with his own hands.

Because we had crossed blades and tried to kill each other, I understood.

That person was that kind of human.

“Will you abandon your role as the Knight Order’s sword and obey orders as a follower of the Church? If you object, raise your face. If you accept, answer with silence.”

“………………”

It did not feel bad.

Either way, it was probably unchanged that I would be killed. That person, whom not even my Justice could kill: the inquisitor, no, the Dragon Slayer.

If I was to be killed by that person, then, well, that would be a proper enough end.

“Very well. At this moment, Church Knight Stolu Pula has died. From this moment onward, devote yourself to the Church as Stolu, merely a believer. That is all. The details will come later. Have her withdraw.”

“““Yes, ma’am.”””

“…Bishop-sama, you have my gratitude. I will properly finish my role.”

“…You seem to be making some worthless misunderstanding. Well, it does not matter. I do not wish to understand what fools think.”

The bishop-sama said that, then stood and left the hall.

“Huh?”

The bishop-sama’s words. Something seemed strange. But I could no longer ask what they meant.

“Stolu Pula-dono, I will guide you to your room. This way.”

“…I do not understand.”

Led by the cats, I left the hall. Though I should have been inside a familiar Church building, it felt like an unfamiliar place.

I truly understood nothing.

After that, I received new clothes, and before I knew it, I had been put in a carriage, arrived in the adventure city, and was taken there.

A cheap-looking rundown inn.

A shabby inn for travelers with no money, away from the commercial district, was their dwelling.

In that room, a dusty room lit by morning sunlight, he was there.

“Yo, shitty brat. No, stupid brat. It’s been since yesterday.”

There was no hostility in that person’s smile, and—

“Wow, so this person is the new worker! Nice to meet you!”

“Isn’t she not that different in age from us? Nice to meet you, I’m Rida.”

“…Nice to meet you.”

“Nice to meet you, Stolu-onee-san.”

“Aa-uu.”

There were children around him. Children not much different in age from me, and children even smaller than that.

The children from the slums mentioned in the report.

No, their eyes were clearly different from the slum residents I knew.

They looked at me with a shine like jewels.

Among them were the lizard-san and him. Their figures, the ones I had tried to take under justice, the ones I had tried to take without knowing them, were there.

“U…”

At that instant, every kind of thing I did not understand seemed like it would spill out from my mouth.

It was realization.

The people I had judged as a Church Knight under justice—no, the people I had killed. Among the things taken by the power I had wielded without understanding, had there also been scenes like this?

I did not understand. The things I had not tried to understand now swelled up and tried to crush me.

“Stupid brat, don’t panic.”

He, my new master, Tooyama Naruhito, spun words.

“It doesn’t matter whether you were conscious of it or not. You’ve killed a lot, right? Under the rules you defined, you killed others by your own will.”

“I, I…”

“Hey, Naruhito.”

“No, Lazaar, leave this to me. Brat, listen carefully. You are evil. You are an evil one who has harmed others while using the nice-sounding word ‘justice’ as a shield and excuse.”

His words made my nausea grow even stronger.

“B-But, that was the only value I had…”

As a sword, I had killed. I had killed many.

“Ah, is that what they taught you? No matter what world it is, the words of those who use children for evil are the same. But no matter what reasons you had, what you did does not change, and the ones you killed will not come back to life.”

His words were sharp and correct.

Only now, after leaving the Knight Order, did I realize it. What kind of things I had done until now.

Killing for justice should not have been wrong, yet when I realized that perhaps I had taken away scenes like the one before my eyes, my heart became very fragile.

“Ah, ha… Ha, what I’ve done until now…”

I understood nothing.

“Are you scared now? But it’s already too late. The dead don’t come back, and there’s no one who can truly do something as convenient as atoning for sin.”

“I, should I, as I thought, die, dis?”

I was not asking for comfort. There was no sweetness in his words.

Naturally. And I had done what I should do.

“If, if you wish it, I will die right now… As a believer of the Church, I have heard that your words are the same as the bishop-sama’s words, so p-p-permission to commit suicide…”

Saying that, I had unconsciously placed the small knife I had stolen from the boy with the hat against my own throat.

“Huh, no way, a knife…”

“H-Hey, Luca! Isn’t that your knife?! When did she?!”

The children began making noise. The boy with the hat seemed to have a certain amount of skill, but from my perspective, he was still far from enough.

“………If I told you to die, would you die?”

In contrast to the children, he and the lizard-san were calm.

The lizard-san glanced at him, and he answered only with his eyes. I had no one I could understand through such exchanges alone, so it felt a little strange.

“Yes. Because that is the only value left to me.”

If I had no value as the First Knight, as a sword, then that was all I had left.

At the very least, as a believer who protected the Church’s teachings, as one who obeyed the bishop-sama’s words and the Church.

I would obey him and die.

If he would take action directly, that would also be fine.

“I see. Then, no. I don’t permit you to die.”

He said it as though it were nothing.

Without taking his eyes off me, yet calmly, he even drank directly from the water pitcher placed on the table.

“……………Why, dis… Why?”

“Ulp. Don’t run away. I won’t allow such selfish behavior. Listen carefully, close your eyes, and remember the faces of the humans you killed until now.”

His words were strange.

They should not have resembled each other at all, but they sounded like words I had heard somewhere before.

Yes, they were similar to the bishop-sama’s words.

“They are all watching you. Your soul is already cursed by them. That is why you are not allowed to find peace so easily.”

In the room where morning sunlight shone, I felt as if human figures writhed in the shadows of the beds and the table.

“I won’t allow you to throw them away. Take all of them with you. Their grudges, hatred, and curses. The only way a human who has killed something can live is to carry all of them and keep living.”

Those shadows were watching me.

Those shadows were watching him.

I knew. I could see it. He too was a human on the killing side. I killed under justice. For what purpose did he kill people?

“You are the same, are you not?”

I said it without thinking.

I wanted to know. Right now, I was beginning to feel a little afraid of what I had done. So why could he remain so calm? I wanted to know.

“Ah, I am. I kill, and I have killed. I chose for myself who I would keep alive and who I would kill. I decided it myself.”

He declared so. He turned his gaze toward the lizard-san and the children.

The shadows looked at him resentfully. But none of them could approach him.

How strong, how arrogant. How—

“I…”

Compared to that, I—

“They’re all watching you. So don’t forget them either. Well, that’s it. We’re both cursed humans, so let’s get along.”

“Ah…”

Because I was dazed, he took the knife from me very easily.

A small but sharp knife that seemed easy even for a child to handle.

“Here, Luca. So even you can get pickpocketed, huh?”

“…Sorry. I won’t let it get stolen ever again.”

The boy with the hat received the knife he held out. He looked relieved from the bottom of his heart. He hugged that small knife carefully.

“All right, I’m counting on you. Now then, stupid brat. Unfortunately, you don’t have time to die. You heard from that money-grubbing woman, right? Dying because you can’t be useful or whatever—despite being stupid, you think too much about all kinds of things.”

“I-I am not stupid.”

“You are stupid. Thinking about things you don’t need to think about, things that can’t be helped even if you think about them, and things with no answer is what stupid people do. Things like value and reasons to live are for idle people with too much time. And we do not have that time.”

“What are you trying to make me do?”

“Hm? Odd jobs and bodyguarding. When the brats go into town, you escort them. After that, fun monster hunting with the three of us: Lazaar, me, and you. I know your strength very well, after all.”

“………Pardon? Wh-Why?”

“Huh? What?”

“No, but, you called me to your side to hurt me, to take revenge on me…”

“Revenge…? Who, on whom?”

“No, but I, to you—”

“Huh? Why? I beat you, didn’t I?”

“Huh?”

Our conversation did not line up.

“F-Fhahahahahaha! Naruhito, she got you there! Indeed, back then, we did not settle things with her.”

The lizard-san began laughing. Showing his fangs, covering his face, and holding his stomach.

“Haaah?! No, no, no, no, Lazaar, Lazaar, Lazaar-kun, in terms of the flow, that was clearly our win, right?”

The two of them made noise together.

It was the first time I learned that adults could laugh like this and make noise like this.

“Hehe, they are interesting people, are they not? Onii-san and the lizard-san.”

“You are…”

From beside that person and the lizard-san, a cute girl smoothly approached me.

“Nice to meet you. I’m Niko! What about you?”

Her smile was like the sun, and I was unintentionally softened by it.

“…Stolu. Stolu Pula, dis… I am.”

“I see! What a lovely name! May I call you Stolu? Hehe, I heard about you from Onii-san. He said you were very strong and reliable.”

“That person said that about me?”

“Yes, hehe. Onii-san is an interesting person. He is very cold and frightening, but warm and kind. He is a fun and lonely person, so sometimes people misunderstand him… But all of us like him.”

The girl like the sun gazed at that person with eyes like she was looking at the sun.

“No, no, no, Lazaar, against that brat, if it’s me, I’m definitely stronger! That understanding hurts my pride!”

“Naruhito, were you influenced by her? You sound like the Gathering Dragon-sama.”

“Ugh, seriously? …Fine, let’s settle on a draw.”

The two argued noisily, but the conversation seemed to end with the lizard-san brushing him off.

“Hey, stupid brat. Naruhito.”

He approached suddenly and pointed at himself.

“Huh?”

“Don’t say ‘huh.’ My name, my name. Let’s introduce ourselves again. I’m Tooyama Naruhito. And you?”

“M-Me?”

“You. You just introduced yourself to Niko, didn’t you? Do it for me too. For now, I’m going to be your boss. My name is Tooyama Naruhito. This lizard man here is Lazaar. And you are?”

I was asked for my name.

I should have introduced myself when I first met them too. But for some reason, those words felt very far away.

“Hey, hey, hey, don’t drag it out. We’re going to be busy. Rida, Luca, Niko, Pero, Shiro. What’s today’s work?”

“Yeah! Luca and I are helping clean the inn and earning one copper coin!”

“…Same as Rida.”

“Yes, I will help auntie in the kitchen while looking after Pero and Shiro! I will work hard to earn one copper coin!”

“Yes, yeees, Shiro and I will… try not to sneak food!”

“Daa-u! Dau!”

At his voice, all the children answered happily. This was not the relationship between adults and children that I knew. This was not the scene between adults and children that I knew.

There was a world I had never seen there.

Even though it was such a cramped room, I did not know anything like this.

Throb.

I did not know why. Why, at that moment, did I remember the children from the orphanage who could not graduate?

“Oh?”

“Ah…”

The thing I had unconsciously extended toward them was my hand.

Ah, I did not understand. But I had realized it. The graduation exam at the orphanage, the day I killed that child.

That child too had stretched out a hand just like I was now.

“Here, handshake.”

“……………………?”

My hand was grasped.

I was taken aback and could not move. My throat suddenly dried. Ah, but what a large hand—

“All right. Since the newcomer is showing motivation too, provisional Lazaar Bakery, everyone, let’s start today’s work. The little ones will work inside the inn. Me, Lazaar, and the stupid brat are going to the Adventurers’ Guild for physical labor time.”

They began to move. Inside the cramped room where sunlight pointed in, the children’s eyes shone brightly, and the adults too were facing forward firmly.

“…Not, dis.”

“Huh?”

“I am…”

Why was it? Even now, I do not know.

But surely, from this moment, something inside me would begin to change. That was how it felt.

“I am not stupid brat. That is wrong. My name is…”

Making my dry throat tremble, clutching my trembling chest.

“I am Stolu. Stolu Pula, dis!!”

As if shouting, I gave my name.

After looking a little blank, they began laughing loudly.

Only I was left behind. But a little, just a very little, I was drawn in and laughed too.

Ah, on that day, from that moment, something of mine began.

I was wise and smart, so I understood that.