by Ao Jyumonji
Even if they managed to find a mud gob tomorrow, and managed to take it down without incident, it might only have a silver coin with a hole in it. One of those was worth thirty copper. Split between the six of them, that was five each. They’d be in the red even if they camped out.
It’s looking pretty bad for us, when you think about it. He wanted to say that, but he decided against it. Once he said something, it would cause problems too big to ignore. He’d have to do something before it was too late.
Well, today wasn’t so bad, and no one knows what the future may bring. Tomorrow may be better than today. So, it’s fine. For now, at least.
“It’s nothing,” said Haruhiro.
“Okay,” replied Manato, “that’s fine, then.”
“Okay!” Ranta suddenly leapt down from the top bunk. “I’m going!”
“Huh?” Haruhiro sat up. “Where are you going?”
“I let it go yesterday,” Ranta said with a strangely stern look on his face. “But I just can’t do that today. A man’s gotta do what a man’s gotta do.”
“Huh...? You’re not making any sense here.”
“You are so dense. How can you not get it? It’s obvious. I’m going to the bath. The b-a-t-h.”
“The bath? For what?”
“The girls are in there now, right? They’re stark naked, washing their hair and bodies. And if they are, there’s only one thing I ought to be doing, right...?”
“Y-You— You can’t be planning— To p-peep—”
“Eheheheh. Here comes Ranta!”
“Wait, you can’t do that!” Haruhiro got down out of the bed, chasing after Ranta. But Ranta was incredibly quick at times like this. He wasn’t able to catch him all the way to the bathing room.
The bathing room was outside. It was attached to the lodging house, but it was in an annex, so it might have been more accurate to call it the bathing hut. Ranta crouched down, pressing his ear up against the door.
“You—” Haruhiro called out, but Ranta glared angrily and brought a finger to his lips. He looked ready to kill someone. Intimidated, Haruhiro fell silent without intending to.
No, no, I can’t let him intimidate me.
Haruhiro crept up, whispering, “You can’t do this...” in Ranta’s ear. “There are lines you just shouldn’t cross.”
Like I care, Ranta mouthed at him. Even if it makes me a failure as a person, I’ll become an ogre or a demon if that’s what it takes to accomplish my goals.
Okay now you’re just blowing things out of proportion... I’m just telling you to show some restraint.
Restraint? Ranta shrugged. I don’t know the meaning of the word. It’s not in my dictionary, that’s for sure. Heh.
...W-What?
Ranta pointed to the door. I can hear inside. Their voices. Eheheheheh.
Haruhiro nearly pressed his ear against the door as well, but stopped short. He thought, No. I’m curious, but I don’t want to lower myself to Ranta’s level.
Ranta gave a silent but salacious laugh, staring Haruhiro in the eye. Don’t hold back, Haruhiro. You’ve already given in to temptation. If you hadn’t, you’d have already dragged me away kicking and screaming, or shouted to let them know.
Urkh... That had hit him where it hurt. Haruhiro held his chest, looking around the area. He nearly groaned. There was someone off in the darkness. Two someones. They were coming this way. Who was it?
Hey, waved one of them, Manato. The giant behind him was Moguzo.
It must have caught Ranta by surprise, as his eyes were wide. Y-You guys...
“Hey—” as Haruhiro was about to call out to them, but Manato brought a finger to his lips.
Not you, too, Manato, Haruhiro thought in dismay. Is that it? Are you okay with this?
When he looked to them questioningly, Manato silently nodded. Moguzo, too, he mouthed.
Haruhiro let out a silent laugh. I give. My... no our... baser instincts win this round. Honestly, we’re just curious, right? We’re not going to look, right? We won’t go as far as peeping, right? There’s a paneless window in the hut that’s high enough I can’t see into it, but I can see the light leaking out and the steam rising from it, and it’s all very tempting but, well, it’s too high to get to, right? I mean, sure, if someone were to let me up on their shoulders or use someone as a platform, it might be doable. But we’re not planning to go that far, right? We won’t do it, right? We seriously won’t. Not a chance.
Haruhiro leaned in and pressed his ear up against the door. He could hear them. It was faint. No, he needed to focus harder. He should be able to hear more than that. There. He could hear them now. Very clearly.
“Even when you wear that...”
Was that voice Yume’s?
“...Wh-Wh-What?”
That one was Shihoru.
“...they sure’re big, huh.”
“...H-Huh...? Huh?! Wh-What are...?”
“...Your boobs, Shihoru, they’re big. Oh, and their shape is adorable, too.”
“...A-Adorable...?” Shihoru’s words, by fate or by chance, expressed exactly what Haruhiro was thinking. No, probably not just Haruhiro. Ranta, Manato and Moguzo must all have been thinking the same thing. Big and adorable? How does that work?! They had no idea!
“...Yup, they’re adorable. Mind if Yume touches them?”
“...Wha, th-that’s not, ah! N-No, it tickles! Eek...!”
“...Whew, Yume thought they’d feel good, and boy do they ever.”
“...Wai—No—Ah—Nyaa...”
“...Nyaa? You’re making kitty cat noises now, Shihoru.”
“...P-Please, Y-Yume, not so hard...!”
“...Boing, boing, look at ‘em bounce.”
“...D-Don’t say th-that, it’s e-embarrassing...”
“...It’d be fun if Yume’s were like this. Look what Yume’s stuck with.”
“...I-I think you’re cute though, Yume...”
“...Whaaa? That’s not true at all. What about Yume is cute?”
“...W-Well, how should I put it, you aren’t fat like me, you’re soft...”
“...I don’t think you’re fat, Shihoru. Yume has more flab than you do.”
“...Well, the way you look soft is t-tasty, so...”
“...Tasty? Shihoru, you say the weirdest things. Yume isn’t edible.”
“...Ahhh, ummm, I-I know that, It’s just, well, a metaphor, you could say.”
“...Want to try a bite? Go on.”
“...Oh, um, but...”
“...Just sink your teeth right in. Yume wouldn’t mind if you take juuuust a little from right here.”
Wh-Why would she do that...?! Haruhiro pulled his ear away from the door and shook his head. No, no, no. Wh-Wh-What are Yume and Shihoru doing? What’s going on in there? This is crazy. My imagination is running wild. Is that what girls are like? I don’t know. How could I know?
When he looked, Manato, Moguzo, and even Ranta had backed away from the door, as well.
That figures. Of course they would. It was too much for us to handle... what a mystery. Every mystery leads to another, and now our heads are a mess.
Haruhiro looked Manato in the eyes, trying to send the message: Let’s go back to our own room. But Manato turned his eyes in another direction. Following his glance, Haruhiro saw Ranta looking up to the night sky.
No, that wasn’t what he was looking at. Not the sky. It was the window.
Ranta stared at that window with the eyes of a ravenous beast. He stood up straight, walking over beneath the window. He reached out for it, stretching. He couldn’t reach. Ranta turned to them. He had the face of a demon.
...Don’t you guys want to see? Are you seriously okay not doing it? You want to pass up this golden opportunity? Can you say for sure that you won’t regret it? Well? Can you?
Th-That’s... Haruhiro ground his teeth. That’s not...
I might regret it, Manato was candid. I can’t say for certain that I won’t. Still, what good can come
of us going any further? What do you think will happen?
Ranta scowled. What do you mean by that...?
Think for a second. We’re excited enough as is. Any more is dangerous. If we push ourselves too far, then what? We go back to the room... our room. A room with four guys. I don’t want to go through that. It’s not too late to turn back now.
Haruhiro shuddered. That’s Manato for you. He can see it would be bad... no, a tragedy. But, right now, if we stop here, we can hold on to this as a good memory—I think. I’m sure we can. We should be able to. It’s probably possible, I guess.
This was the line. If they stepped over it, there would be no going back. If possible, he wanted all of them to come back from it.
He crossed the line, but I did nothing. If only I had acted differently back then. He wanted to avoid anything happening that might make him feel that way later.
Let’s go back, Haruhiro grabbed Ranta by the arm. He was ready to drag him away by force if necessary. Yet an unexpected ambush awaited him.
Moguzo stood up slowly, walked over to beneath the window, then leaned forward, putting his hands against the wall. A platform. Was he trying to become a platform? Moguzo looked to Haruhiro and the others, giving them a thumbs up.
Everyone climb up. Don’t worry about me.
Haruhiro looked to Ranta. Then to Manato. They looked like they’d been struck by lightning.
I can’t, Haruhiro thought.
Moguzo’s resolve weighed on him. It was too heavy. He couldn’t shake himself free from it. He couldn’t do it. There was no way he could. It was impossible to shake free.
I have to do it.
Haruhiro and Manato nodded to each other. Which of them would go first? Haruhiro was happy to go later, or last even. First up would be Ranta, it was his idea, after all.
Ranta was crying. His eyes were streaming tears. He wasn’t just crying; his nose was running, too.
Without wiping his snot or tears, Ranta went over and slapped Moguzo on the back. “Come on, man! Don’t make me cry like this! You’re such a great guy!”
Haruhiro whispered, “Hey...” and the next moment turned and ran the other way.
Manato was well ahead of him. That was Manato for you. Quick on his feet.
“Why does Yume hear Ranta’s voice...?!” shouted Yume from inside the bathing hut.
“Oh, crap!” Ranta bolted. “N-No! It wasn’t me! I-It was Moguzo! Yeah, Moguzo! I didn’t see or hear nothing!”
“Whuh?!” Moguzo tripped spectacularly and Shihoru shrieked.
“Ranta, you numbskull!” They heard Yume kick the wall hard from inside. “You creep! You letch! You pervert! Go far away and never come back...!”
10. Damuro
They confessed their sins to Yume and Shihoru, prostrating themselves on the ground as they apologized profusely.
Haruhiro, Manato, and Moguzo did, that is.
Ranta said, “I didn’t see nothing, so quit your whining!” disgusting everyone with his aggressive lack of contrition. It went further than that, though. Yume and Shihoru began to resolutely ignore Ranta’s existence.
Haruhiro couldn’t say for certain if that had made their teamwork any worse or not, but it probably had no real effect.
The following day, the day after that, and the day after that, Haruhiro and the others earned basically nothing. And by “basically nothing,” that meant their income was close to zero. Okay, let’s be blunt, it was zero.
Haruhiro couldn’t bring himself to ask his comrades about their pocketbooks, so he didn’t have a full grasp of their finances. His own however, he knew in meticulous detail.
Over the three days, he’d been 14 copper in the red, 13 copper in the red, and 12 copper in the red, for a total of 39 copper in the red. If he didn’t include the less-than-one-copper he owed in deposit fees, Haruhiro’s total assets included one silver and 49 copper.
His hopes to buy daily necessities from the market, or to buy a new pair of underwear, were long since dashed. Of course, when it came to his hope of moving somewhere better than the volunteer soldier lodging house, it would be presumptuous to even dream of something that far beyond his means. He had been cutting his food expenses down one copper a day, but how low could he get them? That was the biggest concern for him right now.
The shock of going three days without income was big, so incredibly big that since coming back to the lodging house and bathing today, no one had spoken a word.
All of the others were lying on their beds. Maybe they were asleep already.
No, probably not. None of them could possibly be so dense as to be able to sleep soundly under current conditions. Well, or so he thought, but Ranta was snoring.
Wow. Haruhiro was so disgusted, it went all the way back around to a sort of admiration. Well, me too. I ought to get some shut-eye. All this thinking isn’t doing me any good. Something good might happen tomorrow, anyway. Today’s over now. I can’t do anything about that. Tomorrow’s what’s important now. What will I do tomorrow? Give it my all and go hunting for prey. I have to earn something, even if it’s just one copper. I guess one’s not enough. Yeah, that’s no good. I’ll earn a lot. As much as I can. Gotta do something before the money runs out.
As he tossed and turned, he heard someone getting up in the bunk below him.
“...Manato?”
“Yeah.”
“You’re up? It’s still night. Or rather, the night just started. Running to the washroom or something?”
“Nah,” Manato had gotten out of bed, it seemed. “I’m going out for a bit. I probably don’t need to say this, but I’ll be coming back, so don’t worry.”
“Huh. You’re going out... at this time of night?”
“The night’s just getting started,” Manato smiled slightly. “See you later. You must be tired. Don’t wait up for me. Go ahead and sleep.”
“Oh, okay.” Haruhiro nodded, then it occurred to him that maybe he shouldn’t let Manato go alone. But, by the time it did, Manato had left the room.
To assuage his anxiety, he struck up a conversation with Moguzo, who hadn’t gotten to sleep yet, talking about this and that, but at some point, Haruhiro nodded off. When he woke up, Manato was back. He’d even gotten out of bed earlier than him.
“Morning, Haruhiro. I want to try going to a new place today. What do you think?”
Last night, Manato had gone to Sherry’s Tavern, a place on Flower Garden Street where volunteer soldiers gathered. While he was there, some people had treated him to drinks, while others had practically forced them on him. Manato didn’t go into details, but it must have been pretty expensive.
“You could’ve taken me with you,” Haruhiro tried saying.
“Haruhiro, you can drink?” Manato asked in response.
“I dunno,” Haruhiro tilted his head in contemplation. “Have I drunk before? Maybe not.”
“Well, as for me,” Manato smiled mischievously. “It turns out I might just like it. So, maybe part of the reason I went there was that I wanted to drink.”
Everyone was sick and tired of the forest by this point, so there was no resistance to Manato’s proposal when he made it.
Around four km northwest of Alterna, a bit over an hour’s walk away, there was a city.
Well, no, it would be more correct to say that there was what once had been a city. At least for the moment, nobody lived there. Nobody human, that is.
Eighty percent of the defensive wall that had once protected the city had now crumbled. More than half the buildings had collapsed, probably seventy to eighty percent. It was full of rubble, with weeds growing in places. There were rusted swords and spears lying around, some of them stabbed into the ground. Even more terrifying were the skeletons scattered all over.
There was some kind of animal, they couldn’t decide if it was a cat or dog, walking atop the roofs and crumbling walls, but it ran away immediately when they tried to get close. There were crows cawing everywhere. When they looked towards the s
ource, they found one ruin had become home to tens of crows, possibly more.
Long ago, Damuro had been the second-largest city in Arabakia. It had been much larger than Alterna. However, the No-Life King’s allied forces had invaded and laid waste to it, bringing it under undead control.
Things were different now. After the breakup of the Undying Empire, the goblins, who had once been a slave race with no king, revolted and drove out the undead to make the city their own. Now, Damuro was a den of goblins.
However, the southeast corner of Damuro, called the Old City, had gone unmaintained and fallen to ruins. Even so, it was not the case that there were no goblins in the Old City of Damuro. There were.
“...There’s just the one... I think?”
Haruhiro had hidden behind a wall that looked like it would collapse if he put his full weight against it, spying into a house that was missing a ceiling and one wall. He was a thief, so he was gradually becoming the party’s go-to person for scouting, but he hadn’t learned the Sneaking or Burglary skills, so he was really just an ordinary guy who could open locks with the Lock Picking skill. He wondered if it was really wise to have him handle this.
Mud goblins, like the one they had taken down in the forest, were a variety of goblin, apparently. And the goblin here certainly did look similar to the mud goblin. But this one had yellowish-green skin and wasn’t filthy. It even had clothes on, and was carrying a club or something at its waist. The bag slung over its shoulder must have been a goblin pouch. The mud goblin had kept its valuables on a string around its neck, but these goblins carried bags like that one around. They had heard one of the traits of goblins was that they would put any valuable things they had in there, carrying it with them at all times.
The goblin was sitting, back to the wall, with its arms crossed. Its face was cast downwards, its eyes closed. It was still daylight hours, but was he taking a nap? That was what it looked like.
Haruhiro quickly, but as quietly as he could manage, headed back to where the others were standing by.