Chapter 59

Chapter 59. What I Received from Her, What I Gave to Her (1)

After receiving pity from the dragon, Narsh looked up at him with tearful eyes, then slowly lowered her head.

Beside her, Rene approached and comforted her in a quiet voice.

I lifted my head and looked up at him.

Now that the sun had fully risen, his body was revealed without concealment.

He was not a dragon that stood on two legs, but a dragon that walked on all fours, and his body gave off a deep, murky gray light.

Where his wings had once been, only long frameworks of bone remained. Beneath his long neck, which was raised toward the rising sun, a long scar was drawn across his chest.

Beside that, several strangely shaped wounds were visible here and there.

Perhaps they were traces of battles with something, wounds that looked as though they had been made by sharp objects.

And his head, with eyes that glowed in the darkness, had lost most of the flesh around its lips, revealing all of his sharp teeth.

The horns behind his head originally seemed to have numbered two, but now only one remained, and even that one was attached desolately with cracks around its base.

He stared at the morning sun for a long while like that, then lowered his head again and quietly looked at Narsh.

Then he turned his head again and looked at me.

-Han. There is something I wish to ask you.

Ugh. I do not want a question like the one he asked Narsh.

I looked up at him with an uneasy smile, and he said,

-Does a country with sandy land still exist?

Sandy land? Does he mean Serpiz?

At his words, I raised my hand and pointed toward Serpiz, which lay east of here. Of course, there was no way the city itself could be seen. The distance was far too great.

This Forsaken Forest was located between the borders of Merses and Serpiz.

Of course, the desert nation Serpiz would covet this fertile land, but there were so many monsters here that they had long since given up on it.

Merses also had no interest in developing it, since the forest served like a shield that blocked the sandstorms.

In other words, it could be said to be a place far removed from territorial disputes between nations.

“If you continue in the direction where the sun rises, there is a country called Serpiz. It is a desert nation.”

-That name differs from the one I know. Is that the power of time? I see. Serpiz, is it…

As he said that, he slowly, yet quickly, turned his body toward the direction where the sun rose.

Every time he moved, parts of his body crumbled and fell away with dry, brittle sounds, but he paid no attention to it.

His enormous body—his tail was draped over the hill on the other side—made a strange sound of wind as it spun half a circle, then he began slowly walking toward the sun.

THOOOM! KRAAASH! THOOM!

Hm? Is he going to Serpiz? Why?

“W-wait a moment!”

-What is it?

He continued walking forward without turning his head.

I ran out into the yard and shouted at his back.

“Where are you going?”

-Do not ask when you already know. You were the one who answered my question. My business with you is finished now. So say nothing more.

That is not what I was asking.

He continued moving forward, and every time he walked, the trees broke apart with pitiful sounds.

Ugh, I can see Rene’s face twisting mercilessly.

I looked back at Rene, then turned my head and tried to shout once more.

At least, until someone placed a hand on my shoulder from behind.

When I turned around, Exel was there. His always-clean silver-gray mane was dirtied here and there with dust.

“Just leave him. We have no reason to interfere in the affairs of the dead.”

“What do you mean?”

I asked back, but he only smiled and said nothing more.

Then, as though refusing to accept any more questions from me, he lowered what he had been carrying on his shoulder and held it out to me.

It was Jeff, looking utterly bedraggled.

I hurriedly took Jeff from him and supported him.

Leaning his shoulder against me, Jeff grinned loosely and said,

“He-heh! Good morning, Mr. Han. A fine morning, is it not?”

“What happened?”

Exel answered my question.

He raised the gun blade in his hand, tilted the cylinder, shook out the short pieces of metal inside it with a clatter, and said,

“We can discuss that inside over a cup of tea.”

After saying that, he hooked the gun blade onto the belt at his waist.

I looked at him for a moment, then quietly watched the dragon in the distance as he went thundering toward the sun.

When I tried to think about what had happened on my own, even something easy to understand would become confusing.

At times like this, it was a little cowardly, but I could hand my problem over to someone smarter than me and warmly watch them agonize over it.

And I had someone who accepted my problems as her own.

With that, I turned my head and hurried toward Rene while supporting Jeff on my shoulder.

Rene was looking sadly at the dragon’s back as he walked far away.

Then she slowly bent down and picked up a shard of glass that had rolled to her feet.

Rene lifted it close to her face, looked at it, and let out a small sigh.

When I approached, she showed me a hollow smile.

“All the windows are broken. What should we do?”

At her words, I gave her a bitter smile.

I handed Jeff over to Kal, approached her, quietly took the shard of glass from Rene’s hand, and threw it behind me.

If she kept touching it, she could cut her finger.

“What else can we do? We have to replace them. And quickly, too. The one regret is that there is nowhere to claim the repair costs.”

Rene slowly moved the hand that had been holding the glass behind her back, then smiled softly and said,

“If cold wind keeps coming into the rooms through the broken windows, the guests staying here could catch colds. We have to replace them today.”

She spoke to me like that with both hands behind her back.

At that moment, Narsh, who had been watching Jeff go inside while being supported by Kal with a worried expression, turned her head toward us and made a strange face.

“Miss Rene? There is blood on your hand…”

What? Damn it! Did she get cut when I took the shard of glass out of her hand earlier?

Rene smiled and told Narsh it was all right, but Narsh shook her head, asked Luna where it was, and ran off to get the first-aid kit from the kitchen.

Rene watched her go with a bitter smile, then turned her head back toward me and smiled with the corners of her eyes lowered.

Perhaps my face looked very sad right now.

I slowly raised my hand, placed it on Rene’s shoulder, and said,

“If you were hurt, why did you not say so?”

“Oh? Do you not do that often yourself? Who was it again who cut his finger and then went looking for a rag?”

I gave her a bitter smile at her words, then took Rene’s arm, which she had hidden behind her back, and lifted it.

“Let me see.”

Rene smiled bitterly, but obediently held out her hand to me.

The wound ran long across her middle and index fingers. Her index finger had only a little skin lifted, but the problem was her middle finger.

It must have been cut badly, because a fairly large amount of red blood was flowing from it.

I lifted my head and quietly looked at Rene’s face with an expressionless face.

Rene looked at me for a moment, then slowly turned her head toward the yard and pretended to be looking elsewhere.

“Exel, will you have tea?”

“Ah, I would like to have some beer first. My throat feels rough, so it is rather unpleasant. But Miss Tarsis? Reed is glaring at you with eyes that look as though he is about to cry. How about turning your head back?”

I wanted to tell Exel, When did I ever look at Rene with eyes that seemed about to cry?! But right now, this came first, so I did not.

I looked for a moment at Rene as she slowly turned her head toward me with a smiling face, then took the finger I was holding into my mouth.

The salty taste of blood spread over my tongue.

Luna, who was standing beside us, frowned and turned her head away.

However, Exel, who had been standing ahead with his arms crossed while looking east for a moment, glanced at us and gave a sharp whistle.

Whew~ Whistle!

Ugh.

And Rene looked flustered despite her smiling face, then slowly opened her mouth.

“Honey, that tickles.”

At the same time, I took Rene’s hand out of my mouth. The bleeding had stopped now.

I took the handkerchief from my pocket, wrapped it around her finger, and said,

“The same sort of thing happened before, did it not? Our positions were reversed, though. I hope you remember what you said back then. Of course, I was the one at fault, but you were the one who hid it.”

At my words, Rene nodded very slightly.

After wrapping the handkerchief around her hand, I changed my expression, smiled softly, and placed my hand on Rene’s shoulder as I said,

“All right, let us go inside. The windows can be repaired, and first, we need to hear what everyone has to say.”

“Yes.”

Rene and I turned around with smiles.

Then we saw Narsh, who was holding the first-aid kit in both hands and staring blankly at us.

With her face flushed, she hurriedly ran into the hall while holding the kit.

Oh dear. She must have seen me treating(?) Rene.

As my wife and I gave faint smiles to Narsh as she ran into the hall, Exel’s voice reached us.

“I am tired. When I get home, I need to rest properly.”

“Wait. Where are you trying to come in looking like that? Cleaning is troublesome, so groom your fur properly before coming inside.”

When I turned my head, I saw Luna standing in front of the door with her arms crossed, blocking Exel as she spoke.

And Exel, with one foot already on the steps, looked at her for a moment with an absurd expression.

Then he chuckled and raised both hands with a face that said he surrendered.

“All right, all right. I will shake it off before going in. Hold this for a moment.”

After saying that, he pulled the gun blade hanging at his waist and handed it to Luna.

Luna looked at the sword, which was as tall as she was, and clicked her tongue.

“What kind of sword is this huge?”

At her words, Exel grinned and moved some distance away, then began raking through his mane and shaking off the dust.

Seeing that, Rene and I turned and went into the hall, and I spoke to Exel behind us.

“A cup of tea and a glass of beer will be enough, right?”

“Yes, please.”

He answered while shaking his head violently forward and back, left and right, creating billowing clouds of dust.

Luna looked at that, muttered something, and frowned.

What on earth happened for him to get covered in dust like that?

When we went inside, Kal had seated Jeff in a chair in the hall and was slapping his cheeks while holding him by the collar.

SLAP! SMACK?! SLAP!!

That sound was ridiculously grand.

Jeff, who had been struck about three times while still dazed, bared his teeth and caught Kal’s hand as it flew toward him for the fourth time, then looked up at him as though he would kill him.

“Is it that fun?”

At that, Kal grinned and said,

“Yes.”

“Uaaaaah!”

Jeff sprang up from his seat, grabbed Kal by the neck, and shook him.

The two of them immediately collapsed and rolled across the wooden floor.

Beside them, Narsh was saying something to stop them, but the two seemed to pay no attention to anyone trying to intervene from the side.

Good grief! What impossible guests.

That aside, Narsh’s expression seems a little brighter. Am I seeing it wrong?

In any case, Rene and I gave them bitter smiles, then went into the kitchen and brought out tea, beer, and all the cookies we had.

After all, snacks were the best thing to have when talking.