by Kiri Komori
“…Under, stood. Will do, as you say. Clan, I protect.”
“That’s a good boy.”
…Did he just talk to those animals…?
Baby superpowers are amazing, I thought to myself. I always heard stories about babies being able to understand what animals say, but…
The animals’ presence grew further away, and the man peered down at me again. He was a beautiful young man… He felt like he’d come from another world altogether compared to those filthy, smelly men from earlier. He had black hair and dark eyes, just like a Japanese person…
And that figure! He’s like a model or an idol or something…! I only ever saw people that pretty on TV!
But the gaze in his eyes was so sad…
Did he come here to save me? Did he tell the animals to come here? Who is he…?
“I went ahead and did it, didn’t I…? What am I going to do? I can’t raise a baby…”
Wait, whaaaaaaaat?!
The young man dropped his shoulders in a spectacular show of regret. He then crossed his arms and brought a finger to his lips in contemplation, after which he cradled his head in both arms…
This guy’s totally regretting this!
“Leaving the baby to those beasts is… Yes, I couldn’t do that. They’ve got their hands full just staying alive, and besides, I can’t leave a pack of demon wolves with a baby and expect them to raise it… But I can’t do this either! What am I supposed to do?!”
Well, I don’t know what I’m supposed to do, either, mister! But, uhh, thanks for saving me! Really! From the bottom of my heart!
If I’d have stayed with those thugs, I’d have lost either my sanity or my life. This man effectively saved my life.
“Aah…” I cooed as I reached my hands out toward him.
I wanted to at least show him my gratitude. At hearing my voice, the young man looked at me with a pale face, his eyes full of anxiety…
This guy… He’s a nice person.
He wouldn’t be this worried and anxious if he wasn’t. Those bandits earlier weren’t occupied with actually raising me—they just wanted to take advantage of me, to use me. And the way they handled me was awful.
But by comparison, this man was pale with concern over the question of what to do with me. Only a kind, good-hearted person would make that kind of face. But still…I couldn’t bring myself to ask someone who was this afraid of the idea of caring for a baby to raise me…though, that said, I couldn’t speak to begin with!
And since he’d saved me, I wanted to return the favor, somehow. But even that was out of my reach, since I was a baby. All I could do was coo and babble while I tried to withstand my empty stomach…
You’ll have to forgive me when it comes to going to the bathroom, though. My body can’t help that. I mean, I am a baby! I really don’t have many options in the way of repaying favors!
“…For today, I’ll just take you to my place. And tomorrow, we’ll check along the human highways. Maybe we’ll find a traveler kind enough to take care of you… Not anyone like those people from earlier, though. Hmm…”
The man bent over and picked up my ark. The ark rocked ever so slightly—he’d picked me up rather carefully. And with his face so close to mine, his handsome features became all the clearer.
…This guy really is a pretty boy. Like, wow.
But he did have an odd pattern on his forehead… Like a tattoo. Is he from some Amazonian tribe? Except he wasn’t going around half-naked…and looked more Japanese to me than tribal.
“Aaah, aaaaaaah.” I cooed.
Who are you? And, erm, thanks for saving me.
I couldn’t convey anything meaningful to him, but I had to at least try. He did save my life.
“Hm? What is it…? You’re such a strange baby. Are all human babies this smart? You don’t have to thank me. I just saved you without thinking of the consequences, and I can’t raise you. Forgive me.”
“Aaah! Aaaaaah!”
Oh, not at all! I understand…! Wait, are you reading my thoughts? C-Can you tell me your name?
But all I got was silence.
Okay, wow, I just got totally ignored! Or I guess you can’t actually hear me…
“This is my house. Or…so I call this little cave… We’ll go looking for someone to take care of you tomorrow, so hang tight until then, all right? Oh, you must be hungry. I’ve got some Kalupa milk. You want some?”
“Aaaah!”
I’ll have some! Please! I don’t know what a “Kalupa” is, but if it’s milk, it’s probably the best thing! You have no idea how hungry I am! I’ll never forget this, mister! You’re a lifesaver!
I flapped my little hands, begging for milk. Very baby-like of me, as it were.
“…B-But how do I feed you… Should it be cold? Or maybe I should heat it up, or… Wait, where did I put it again… Aaaah…!”
…I don’t know what’s going to happen next, but, erm… This guy’s really clumsy.
♣♣♣
THE next day, the man disappeared after sunrise. In his place, some giant monster peered down into my ark. As I looked back with wide eyes, the beast spoke with the nice man’s voice, saying, “I’ll try rocking you a little…”
…No…way…
“Aaaah?!”
This black monster that makes the demon wolves from yesterday look tiny by comparison is supposed to be that handsome guy?! Who is this person?!
The fact was, though, he saved me. The monster closed its jaws around the handle of my ark and started walking. From my point of view, all I could see were its upper jaw fangs and cute whiskers.
The morning glow was just barely visible in the sky. We were off to look for someone who’d adopt me…which made sense. I was a baby, so I needed an adult to take care of me. I could only hope we’d find someone nice…
However, I still held on to a strong resistance to all this. I mean, I still recalled most of my past life, so I had my pride as an adult. And I felt it all too keenly here.
Think this through, damn it! Be realistic! I was a baby—a defenseless infant who couldn’t walk or talk on her own. I needed to throw my pride aside and choose life as a baby. After all, my alternative was to die a helpless baby…
“Uuu, aah…”
“What is it? You need to pee? Poo?”
The black monster noticed I’d gotten louder and carefully placed me down on the ground. Its big black nose sniffed my lower half carefully. The shame made me wish the ground would just swallow me up.
The nice man took off the cloth that served as my makeshift diaper yesterday, then tied a new one in its place, but…having that region sniffed was still embarrassing!
“…What is this stone, by the way? I’ve never seen anything like it. Is it some kind of pact stone?”
“Aah?”
“Oh, I mean the stone inside your room… Well, I guess you don’t understand.”
Can you really call this cradle my room? It feels kind of…off… But I guess this is my room, in a way… Also, what’s a pact stone?
Indeed, I’d no idea what any of this meant. But someday, I might need to know, so I begged him to explain.
“Aaah! Aaaah!”
“You want to know?”
“Aaah!”
“Pact stones are produced when some kind of contract or pact is sealed, as proof of the agreement. They hold no meaning for anyone except for those bound in the pact. To that end, I doubt this stone belongs to you. You’re far too little.”
Given what he’d told me, I doubted this was mine, too. I couldn’t recall anything that grand happening to me.
“But since you have it, it must mean your parents gave it to you with some kind of wish in mind… Perhaps the fact your voice reached my ears wasn’t a coincidence.”
…Really? Well, either way, you chose to come to my aid, and I’m grateful for that! I’ll repay you for this debt someday, I promise!
“Anyway, here we are. We should wait for someone to pass by. I
f you get hungry or need to go to the bathroom, let me know.”
“Aaah!”
Roger that, sir!
I really couldn’t express how grateful I was to this person. Normally, I’d at least go to the bathroom on my own if I could… And if I wasn’t a baby, I could at least work to earn my own meals!
Are there any jobs in the Amazon forest, though…?
“Aaaaah…”
Incidentally, all I could really do was look up, and my view was just the monster’s face and a lot of thick, green foliage. Which begged the question: just where exactly was I?
Isn’t this kind of weird, actually?
I ended up sort of just rolling with it, but the idea of this monster actually being the nice mister who helped me yesterday was odd…
Is he a man who can turn into a monster? Mm? Or a monster that can turn into a man? Huh? Which is it? Can people in the Amazon do that? Is this some kind of hunting technique? I mean, it doesn’t look like a disguise…
I looked at my small hands as they waved forward. I couldn’t exactly fool myself into thinking I was anything but a baby at this point. But even if I could accept this weird turn of events, there were plenty of other things that made no sense.
Like…where was I? What corner of the world was I in? Why did my parents leave me? And, practically speaking, sending a baby down a river was pretty much tantamount to killing them, right? Was I thrown away? But my mother and father looked so kind…
Mother had jewels on her. So she probably wasn’t hurting for money, but…maybe there was a famine? I mean, undeveloped regions don’t exactly have convenience stores or supermarkets… So maybe they sent me down the river, hoping someone in a city might pick me up?
But does the Amazon river even connect with any cities…?
I never visited the Amazon or felt really driven to look into the place… But apparently, there are telephone poles near the Egyptian pyramids and the Sphinx, so for all I know, there could be surprisingly modernized cities even in places like this.
Aah…
It was odd. I had so much to think about, but the breeze was pleasant, and the scent of the foliage made me oddly sleepy…
Well, sleeping is part of a baby’s job description…
Sorry, mister…I’m…tapping out…
♣♣♣
WHEN I woke up, I found myself looking up at an unfamiliar ceiling.
“Ah, she’s awake!”
“Ooooh!”
And this time, old men covered in bandages look down at me.
Uhh, mister, who did you leave me with?! I guess…they don’t look like bandits, but…
They were all injured, and some of them were wearing armor… I had no idea what group of folks I was left with.
“Stop gawking at the baby, you guys. You’ll scare it.”
“Sure, sure… Are you really gonna raise it, though, vice-captain?”
“Your wife and kid ran off on you, right? Ya sure you’re up for this? Maybe it’d be better off in De Marl’s Orphanage…”
“Nah, I’ll raise her. A Mythical Beast saved this kid. Something weird might happen if I leave her in De Marl.”
“Y-Yeah… At this point, Mythicals are pretty much more a legend on this continent…”
“I guess there’s still a few left…”
…Mythical Beasts? Legendary creatures? Like, the kind that shapeshifts between human and animal form… Wait, so that nice man wasn’t human, but a Mythical Beast?
All those questions were certainly on my mind, but more importantly, it seemed that the bearded man was going to raise me. They called him vice-captain, but I had no idea what group he was part of. All the people I could see were bandaged, so maybe it was a mercenary group?
Huuuuh?! Mercenaries?! What country is this?!
“…Gotta come up with a name for the kid first, though. What do we call it?”
“Is it a boy or a girl?”
“A girl. Mm… A girl… A girl’s name…”
My name…
If nothing else, it looked like these bandaged people had their priorities straight, unlike those bandits from earlier… Albeit, they were still injured, so that was concerning.
Who are they?
Everyone seemed lost in thought as they tried to think of a name, which was a pretty funny scene, but…
“I know! How about Tinaris?” The bearded man suggested.
“Huh…?” One of the injured men groaned. “V-Vice-captain, you just added a letter to Tiaris’ name. You know, that dancer everyone likes from De Marl…”
“Agreed.”
“Yeah, sounds good.”
“Tia’s the best.”
The group seemed to be in agreement.
“Huuuh…?” The man who argued with the bearded man eyed them with surprise.
Huuuuuuh?!
“All right, it’s decided! Starting today, you’re Tinaris!”
“Gaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!” I broke into tears.
“Ah, she started bawling!”
“See! She doesn’t want you to name her after a dancer!”
“But it’s not the same name! It’s just inspired by it… Aah, okay, okay, just stop crying, okay?! H-Hey, how do you soothe a baby?!”
“Huh?! Forget having a kid, I’m not even married! How am I supposed to know?!”
“Maybe she wants milk? Or, uhh, maybe she needs to take a piss?”
“S-Stop the carriage!!!”
♣The Day I Became a Foster Father
MY name is Marcus. I’m a knight of De Marl, a country located on the northeast corner of the human continent. De Marl isn’t ruled over by a king or emperor. Sixteen senators handle legislation, three priests oversee the justice system, and four knight captains govern military affairs. It’s what’s called a democratic country.
De Marl was allied with the demi-human continent to protect their rights from an empire called Edesa Kura, which claims mankind is the superior species. Edesa Kura is an empire to the southwest that’s vassalized quite a few smaller countries.
They seek to unify the human continent and threaten to attack the western demi-human continent under the banner of human supremacy. They’re radicals, plain and simple.
My kingdom of De Marl is a land of peace and has allied with some of the demi-human tribes that are relatively friendly towards mankind. As such, we’ve been resisting Edesa Kura’s radical expansion alongside them.
We were far from the only country to do so. Edesa Kura did seek to “unify” the human continent. So, we resisted them by banding together and forming a united front with other countries. In so doing, we hoped to stop their ambitions.
Drawn by De Marl’s peaceful ideals, I became a knight of the kingdom. During my enrollment in the knight academy, I met a beautiful girl called Kelt in town. We went on to marry and have a child, while I graduated as the highest-ranking knight.
I became a successful knight, and advanced rapidly through the ranks…I sailed through life without a hitch in my twenties. But as I turned thirty, the fighting grew more intense, and I was sent on campaigns more often. When I came home, my wife and daughter would gaze at me with cold eyes, and we’d hardly talk.
I didn’t know how to converse with them anymore. I couldn’t talk to them about the bloodshed I’d seen, and the dirty jokes my unit’s knights told weren’t going to amuse them. And if I were to ask them about how things were going in town, none of it made much sense to me. What would I know about a town I was mostly absent from?
We started talking less and less often. My wife and daughter would just wordlessly put meals on the table and shut themselves off in their respective rooms. I wanted to find some kind of answer. To do something for them. But before I could figure out a solution, I was sent out on my next campaign.
And when I came back from that campaign, I was informed my achievements earned me a promotion to the rank of vice-captain! This will surely make my wife and daughter change their minds about me, I thought. I was
a vice-captain, after all! A vice-captain! Four knight captains govern over the military affairs of De Marl, and I was now a direct subordinate to one of them! I was one of the highest-ranking people in this country! Saying that I moved up in the world would be an understatement!
You two get it, right?! I fought hard, risking life and limb, and now I’ve finally climbed up to this rank!
“Kelt! Nakona! I’m home! Listen, I’ve got something to tell you, I…”
But when I came back home, I found a dark residence with its lights out. On the table were two pieces of paper. One was a letter that curtly said, “I’m going back home to my family. Goodbye.” The other was a divorce form.
Aaah, Gods of De Marl… Where did I go wrong…?
♣♣♣
“VICE-CAPTAIN Marcus!”
The voice of Gildias, my subordinate, yanked me out of absentminded troubles. A sword swung down at me. This was a blow I normally would have dodged. But now, I didn’t even know what I was fighting for. For my country? No…I fought for the country where my wife and daughter were. But they had cast me aside and left me behind.
So what do I have left to fight for…?
And as I wavered, the enemy’s blade knocked my shield aside, and the second blow swung down at my sword arm…severing it below the elbow.
It’s all over…
My career as a knight ended at that moment. But for whatever reason…part of me felt relieved. No longer would I have to fight. I’d grown tired…so, so tired…
“Vice-captain!”
Gildias slew the opponent that maimed me. The other knights carried me off while I simply lingered, dazed from the pain of my lost arm and my relief at never having to fight again.
Charging forward was a mistake. And even as I was overcome with guilt for failing the captain, the battle ended in a narrow victory for us. I wasn’t there for the victory, of course. The captain entered the first-aid tent and told me two simple words.