Chapter 46

Chapter 46. "What the Dead Feel Toward the Dying." 6

"What do you mean by that?"

I threw the towel that had been hanging around my neck onto a nearby table and went out. Rene and Luna turned their heads to look at me, and the Huria woman gave me a sidelong glance.

Her lower body was still that of a long snake, but on her upper body she wore a white shirt. Interesting.

Where had she gotten that? In any case, thanks to it I was spared having to blush, which allowed me to carry on a smooth conversation with the Huria woman now fixing me with her slit eyes. She looked at me, frowned slightly, then raised her tail and pointed it at me.

"I do not like you, human."

At her words, I gave a slightly bitter smile.

We had not even spoken to each other yet, and she was declaring that she did not like me right from the start? Having said that, the Huria woman let out another sigh, lowered the tail that had been pointing at me, and continued,

"It is merely something I have long wanted to say to you. Since the opportunity came, I said it once. Do not concern yourself with it too much. And I am Karina. You are Han, yes?"

...Had I ever treated her rudely? But I had hardly ever seen her before, and today was the first time I had even spoken with her. Besides, if she had barely seen me before, how did she know my name? Thinking that, I turned to look at the sturdily built Lizard Men standing silently nearby, listening to our conversation, then nodded to myself.

Ah. They must have told her.

I turned back to the Huria woman who had called herself Karina and said,

"Yes. But what did you mean by what you said earlier? What do you mean, the king will rise?"

At that, Rene and Luna raised their heads again to look up at Karina, whose own head sat a full head higher than an ordinary person's.

Hearing me, Karina made an expression like a headache was coming on, then brought her right hand to her forehead, closed her eyes, and said,

"I heard that humans from outside were staying here. Two men, one woman. And two golems as well, yes?"

"Yes, that is right. But why?"

Karina lowered her hand from her forehead, crossed her arms, and came toward the place where I stood.

As she approached, a strange slithering sound drifted up from the floor. A moment later, Karina had lowered her head and was looking down at me.

I lifted my head to look up at her, and after staring at my face expressionlessly for a long while, Karina let out a small sigh, raised her head, turned around, and spoke quietly to Rene, who was sitting there looking at me.

"He is merely a little handsome. Do you really like him that much?"

What was that supposed to mean all of a sudden? In any case, at her words Rene smiled and nodded. Karina frowned slightly, turned her head back toward me, and said,

"I do not know what you did, but an elf living with a human is something that should not exist."

I looked up at her with a faint smile.

"I doubt you came all the way here just to say that."

At that, Karina looked down at me in silence, then bared her teeth and said,

"Of course that is not why I came. Shall I continue what I was saying earlier? Have those humans returned yet?"

"They have not yet."

"Did they say they would return?"

"Yes."

Hearing that, the Huria woman gave a cold smile and turned her head.

"Good. Then I shall remain here. You lot, go and hide yourselves throughout the forest, and the moment those men enter this house, surround them so they cannot escape."

"Kyarrrk!! Ukralami! It mus ra domitai!!"

At her words, the Lizard Men suddenly began acting strangely. They bared their teeth and pounded their feet against the wooden floor. Whatever else, at this rate the floorboards were going to crack.

Whether Karina understood what I was thinking or not, they did it a few more times, and then Karina hissed, widened her eyes, and said icily,

"If you had all been a little more careful, this would never have happened. Abandon any thought of facing them proudly like warriors. They are not opponents in battle. They are merely thieves who stole something."

At her words, the Lizard Men snapped their mouths shut, then slowly turned and went outside. Karina watched their backs retreat with a face full of contempt, then said,

"When did they say they would come back?"

"They said around lunchtime. But they also said they might be later."

At my answer, Karina closed her eyes, then called out to the Lizard Men walking out the door.

"Hey. A few of you go into the forest and try finding them first."

At that, Aruma, who had arrived leading the Lizard Men, spun around sharply, glared straight at Karina, and bared his sharp teeth.

"Do... not... take... us... for... fools. We... already... did... that."

Karina gave a small laugh at his words, turned her head, and said to him,

"Now that you mention it, where is Kan?"

"He... is... leading... the... rest... of... the... tribe... and... searching... for... the... humans."

Aruma threw those words at her and went out with the others. Karina let out a small sigh, then climbed onto a nearby table and sat there with her coils folded beneath her. She let the last part of her tail hang loosely beneath the table.

Mm. That worried me a little. Surely the table was not going to break under her.

Watching that, Rene rose from her seat, looked up at her, and said,

"Um, would you like some tea?"

"Tea? Ah, the water steeped with leaves. If you offer it, I will drink it gladly."

"Understood. Please wait a moment."

Rene walked into the kitchen, and Luna, who had been silently staring at her retreating back, glanced up at Karina and then quietly got up and followed Rene into the kitchen.

Seeing that, Karina let out a small laugh, then raised her tail and pointed it at me, where I was leaning against a nearby table.

"It has been roughly five years since you two came here, yes?"

"Yes."

When I nodded, she seemed to think about something for a moment, then lowered her tail and spoke.

"Then let me ask you one thing. Do you know why this forest came into being?"

What?

At her words, I shook my head, and Karina frowned and said,

"Since things have turned out like this, it would be best for you to know at least a little. I will explain, so listen carefully. The elves in the kitchen as well."

I glanced toward the kitchen, only to hastily turn my head back at Karina's voice. With her arms still crossed, Karina said,

Roughly four hundred years ago, a dragon flew to this place. He was a dragon whose lifespan had run its course. After passing all his duties on to the one who would succeed him, he came here in search of a place where he might lay down his body.

And here he died. Several years later, this forest was born. I believe it was his influence. And, wishing to preserve his pride as a dragon, he cast magic upon his own body.

Before dying, he made a request of our ancestors, who at the time were nothing more than insignificant monsters. He asked them to protect his body from the other races. Our ancestors accepted, and the price he paid for that is this form I have now.

A beautiful face, and the intelligence to create our own language. Those Lizard Men received such abilities as well, though they chose to keep their old appearances. They said that if even their forms changed like mine, then they would be no different from humans.

After saying that, Karina looked outside for a moment in the direction the Lizard Men had gone, then turned back to look down at me again.

What he meant by protecting his body was simple. The bones and hide of a dragon, and everything else besides, are treasures beyond price to humans and the other races, yes? He hated that.

The thought of his body being cut apart and turned into cloaks and weapons. So he asked that we not allow such a thing. But as time passed, that too was gradually forgotten, and in the end this happened.

Human wretches dug through ancient records left by their ancestors, discovered stories about him, and today, four hundred years later, came here to steal from the dragon in order to satisfy their greed.

By the time she finished speaking, Rene and Luna had come out of the kitchen, and I could only stand there staring up at her without a word.

Then, suddenly, I felt a slight weight settle onto my shoulder. Turning my head a little, I saw that behind me Rene, having handed Karina a teacup, had lowered her head and was resting her forehead against my shoulder.

I let out a small sigh, raised a hand, and stroked Rene's hair where her forehead rested against my shoulder.

Rene seemed to draw in a deeper breath, then took hold of my hand tightly, lifted her head, and asked Karina, who sat atop the table,

"If what was taken cannot be returned, I would like to hear the worst that may happen."

Karina, who had been lifting her cup to her lips while holding the tray in one hand, opened only one eye and looked down at Rene. Then she closed it again and said,

"...I do not know."

"What?"

"It has been four hundred years. We do not live as long as your kind. Perhaps about as long as humans at best. So it was forgotten. Unlike elves or humans, we never thought to write such things down."

"Is that so?"

At my question, Karina nodded and lowered the cup she had been drinking from. She placed it on the table and said,

"There is time until tomorrow morning for the worst to happen. If by then you find the King's Heart and put it back, that will be enough."

"What is the King's Heart?"

That was Luna, who had been listening silently the whole time. Karina lowered her head deeply, then looked down at Luna, who sat there with both hands in her pockets and her back straight.

The King's Heart is the Dragon Heart, the gemstone set into his forehead. It is a crystallization of the enormous quantity of mana a dragon gathers over the course of its entire life.

If a low-ranking mage obtains it, he can become a high-ranking mage at once. If an ordinary person obtains it, that person will never tire, no matter how far he runs, and will suffer no illness until the end of his natural lifespan. I have also heard that if the person already has an illness, it will heal that too.

The moment she finished, Karina lifted her head and looked at us with an odd expression.

The reason was simple.

Rene, Luna, and I had all looked at one another with bitter smiles.

To her, it must have seemed strange.

I turned my head to look at Rene.

"Our guess was right."

"So it was. Jeff aside, the affection Mr. Kal shows toward Miss Narsh is almost like..."

"Like that of a parent toward a child. No, exactly that. That is what you are thinking, is it not?"

Luna spoke while still keeping both hands in her pockets, and Rene and I nodded. Then I looked at Karina and said,

"It is simple, then. In other words, if the King's Heart is returned to its rightful place, he will not rise, correct?"

Karina nodded, and I lowered my head, turned around, and looked at Rene standing behind me.

"You heard that, dear? So you do not need to worry so much. We only need to find it and put it back. And the people who took it had their own proper reasons, so there is no need to hate them."

Rene smiled with her eyes.

"I see."

"Are you coming too?"

"I will pass. If I go, I will only get in the way. I will stay and guard the house instead. But what exactly are you planning to do once you find them?"

At Luna's words, Rene, now changed into trousers and a jacket she could move easily in, ran her fingers over the longswords hanging at her waist and answered with a bitter expression,

"I feel sorry for Miss Narsh, but we will have to persuade her and return it to its rightful owner. No one lives in this world alone."

"To my ears, that sounds like saying you will sacrifice the few for the sake of the many."

Luna had struck directly at the hardest part of our situation.

At her words, I could say nothing. But Rene, standing beside me, wore a faint smile and nodded with the frank, dignified honesty of an elf.

"That is right."

"If you admit it that plainly, then I have nothing more to say. Be careful."

Luna stood outside seeing us off and said that.

When I had first seen her, her face had said, If you die, you die. As long as I live, that is enough. When had she changed this much?

As Rene and I turned and started toward the forest, Karina, who had been standing behind Luna with her arms crossed and silently watching us, asked in an indifferent tone,

"So your story amounts to this? That you mean to help?"

Rene and I only turned back to her with small smiles, saying nothing more.

At that, Karina, still with her arms folded, let out another small sigh, which seemed to be a habit of hers, shook her head to the side, brushed back the black hair that had fallen across her chest, and said,

"Very well. If you mean to help, then I have little to say about it. But remember this. If you cannot fit that thing back into his forehead by sunrise tomorrow, then the king will rise again. And there is no one left who knows what the risen king will do. The king is to the north. If you have wandered around this place enough, you should know it. If you keep going north, there is a wide clearing without monsters. There is something like a strangely shaped hill there. That is what the king looks like now."

"You mean that hill really is him?"

At my dazed question, Karina nodded, and Rene and I exchanged a somewhat foolish little conversation.

"Dear, she means that place where we used to go on picnics."

"Hm, really? I never once realized. We went there often because there were no monsters."

Watching us, Luna let out a small laugh and went back inside. Karina looked once at the sky, sighed softly again, and said,

"And if those people return while you are gone, we will handle them in our own way. You have no objection, I assume?"

"Please do not take their lives. There are things we need to ask."

Looking up at Karina, Rene said that. Karina looked down at her for a moment, then turned and slid back into the house as she answered,

"Understood. I will leave them alive."

At her words, Rene let out a small sigh. I placed a hand on her shoulder and gave her a faint smile.

"We find them before they come back here. That is all."

"Yes, that is what we must do. I hope nothing serious has happened. We only just settled down here. If we have to find another place to live, how long would that take?"

Rene said that with a worried face. I looked at her for a moment, then gently pulled her into my arms and kissed her on the lips. After a while, I pulled away, took her hand, and turned my steps toward the forest.

"Just trust me."

Rene looked at me with a slightly blank expression, then followed with a soft smile.

"Yes. I will trust you."