Three Remaining
After that, Nicoletta excused herself, saying she wanted to tour Antico on her own.
I'd considered walking around the city with her since we'd come all this way, but Nicoletta insisted that dragging me along for sightseeing would be far too rude, and firmly declined. Thanks to that, we finally had time to rest properly.
Pina and I didn't even catch up when we arrived — we just collapsed and slept. We only opened our eyes again once night had fallen.
Late into the evening, I poured myself a full glass of berry wine laced with alcohol and leaned back against the chair. I tilted my head comfortably, gazing up at the ceiling at a slant, then spread all five fingers wide and raised my hand high.
I'd taken down Disastro in the wasteland where the future had vanished — in Antico. I folded my thumb.
This time, I'd slain the yeti Neveumano on the highland where the snow never melted. I folded my index finger.
Three targets remained. Once I finished things at Calor Outpost next week, that number would drop to two.
I carefully folded my middle finger.
If I dared to predict my next opponent, the Fire Serpent Gangcheol seemed likely. I took a sip of berry wine.
Of course, you never knew how the world would turn.
Thinking back to how he had revealed himself the moment I killed Neveumano, there was clearly some connection between him and the supreme-grade monsters guarding each region.
Wedges…
I recalled what Miteraos had said. What did "wedges" even mean? I still had no idea — and there was no need to force myself to figure it out. Right now, resting comfortably mattered more than racking my brains over that.
Besides, once I killed the Fire Serpent, only two would remain. And once those two fell as well, Miteraos would finally show his true form. Knowing that much was enough.
And once Miteraos himself went down, my fate would be decided. Whether I could stay in this world or would be sent back — I'd find out then.
I liked this world.
It was the bright life and future I'd rediscovered. A world that had breathed life back into the snuffed-out candle that was me.
I understood the value of this life and this world well enough that I had no desire to return.
But it would be a lie to say I didn't miss home.
On nights like this, thoughts of home crept in. The world I'd once lived in.
A lonely night with nothing but the moon and stars made me think of neon signs, building lights, and the headlights of cars. And that was only the beginning — if I started listing everything that came to mind, there would be no end to it.
Then I heard a rustling beside me. I turned my head toward the bed. Pina had woken up, kicking the blanket off with her feet and stretching her arms wide.
"Nngh~cha!"
After a vigorous stretch, Pina sat bolt upright.
"You're up?"
"Ah, yes…"
Pina answered in a half-cracked voice. I took another sip of berry wine and set the glass back on the table.
"When did you wake up, Alice-nim?"
"Not long before you."
"Whew, still — it's so much warmer here than Lacrima. I didn't wake up even once while sleeping. In Lacrima it was so cold I'd keep waking up in the middle of the night."
Pina let out a small yawn. The way she rubbed her eyes and mumbled with her mouth was genuinely adorable.
"We're heading somewhere really hot this time, right?"
"That's right."
"It's going to be so sticky from the sweat…"
Pina let out a short sigh. I shrugged.
"It'll be better if you dust on some Cooling Powder."
"Depending on powder like that feels kind of weird. Makes you sound like a total addict."
"It's not bad for you, though."
It wasn't a drug, so it was fine. Of course, the dependency was probably just as high. If someone told me to survive Lacrima without Thermal Powder, I couldn't do it either. Cooling Powder would be just as essential in Calor.
I tilted my glass again.
"What are you drinking?"
"Pineberry wine."
"Huh, at this hour?"
"I was a little hungry."
I leaned back in the chair and tapped the glass with my fingers.
It had been a long time since I'd had a drink. The alcohol content wasn't particularly high, but the act of swallowing liquor itself felt like something from a distant past. I didn't especially love drinking, but I figured the occasional glass wasn't so bad. It made a body that rarely got to rest feel even more pleasantly heavy. But that was my fate — what could I do about it? I let out a soft sigh.
Growl—.
"…I am pretty hungry, actually."
Pina flushed and rubbed her stomach. We'd skipped dinner entirely and slept the whole day, so it made sense. I stood up and stretched thoroughly, then glanced briefly at my reflection in the window.
It had been nearly a year since I'd been in this body.
I'd grown so used to living as a woman that the figure in the glass no longer looked like a stranger — it looked like me.
I flopped down onto Pina's bed and tilted my head just enough to look up at her. Pina rested a hand on my head. The way her fingers gently combed through my white hair was wonderfully soft.
"Alice-nim, your hair's gotten really damaged."
"Has it?"
"I mean, that's inevitable with hunter work, but… yours is especially bad."
Pina looked down at me with pitying eyes. I hadn't paid much attention to my hair on a normal day, so I only became aware of it after she pointed it out. Not that I planned to do anything about it. If being a hunter was what damaged it, then damaged was how it should stay.
No — was that a little irresponsible? I didn't know how the original owner of this body would feel about it, which made things awkward.
I carefully asked Pina,
"How do you take care of it?"
"Brushing every day and washing it properly is the basics. Then you mix Polloari egg yolk with Saponir essence and apply it thoroughly. After washing, you work it into your hair, wait thirty minutes, then rinse it out. That's it. I do it myself sometimes — want to try?"
"Uh… maybe later."
I had no intention of actually doing it. It sounded incredibly complicated.
Pina seemed to read my mind and shook her head.
"How about tomorrow, or the day after?"
"Huh?"
"It's not like you do any self-care normally, Alice-nim — just weapon and armor maintenance, that kind of thing."
Well, that was because nothing else was necessary…
Even if I'd become a woman, the idea of dressing myself up still made me a little uncomfortable. Clothes were fine, but actively trying to look pretty carried some indescribable feeling I couldn't quite put into words.
"There's plenty of other things too, but let's start with that tomorrow."
"Tomorrow…?"
"Once we head to Calor Outpost, we'll be busy for a while again."
Pina's resolve showed no sign of wavering. I reluctantly nodded.
She'd been through a lot traveling with me — the least I could do during this break was go along with whatever she wanted.
I rolled over so my face pointed at the ceiling, and found myself looking up into Pina's face as she gazed down at me.
"Want to get a late-night snack?"
"A late-night snack?"
"We skipped dinner and slept all day. We're hungry."
"Well, that's true, but…"
Pina touched the corner of her mouth.
"If you eat at night you gain weight… I don't usually eat late, honestly."
"Weight?"
I reached up and gave Pina's side a gentle squeeze. She twisted violently, flailing her arms until she caught my hand and stopped me.
"Th-that tickles!"
"You barely have any fat to begin with…"
"Ah, right? Don't I look like I've lost some weight?"
Pina laughed softly. Honestly, she looked the same to me as she always had.
"I can't really tell."
"I… see…"
She looked a little deflated, so I quickly added something like an excuse.
"Maybe it's just because it's me. If you asked your family, they might say something different."
I'd been with her the whole time, after all. If it were someone like Noah — someone I hadn't seen in a long while — it might be different.
Speaking of which, I wondered how Noah was doing. Was she still grinding away in the wasteland with Melchior? Then again, Melchior was a decent enough guy, so it probably wasn't too rough on her.
Anyway, I hoped only good things were happening for her. And I was hungry.
"Forget it — let's eat."
"Is anywhere even open at this hour?"
"No, I mean we make something ourselves. Sounds fun."
"…Oh. Should we?"
We got out of bed and shuffled over to stand in front of the kitchen. And so began our late-night snack operation.
Pina was an excellent cook. She'd often prepared meals for her younger siblings back home. My cooking, on the other hand, was one step short of a natural disaster. Beyond simply roasting meat over a fire and chopping vegetables into something resembling a salad, I couldn't do much of anything.
"Alice-nim, could you handle this?"
"Sure."
And so—
"A-Alice-nim. I'll do that one."
"Ah, okay. Then I'll take this…"
Then Pina—
"Um, so… could you just grill the meat? I'll handle the rest. Just grill the meat and wait for me."
"…Alright."
She really went through a lot.
Cheese, multigrain bread, cured meat, fruit, soup, and pineberry wine to wash it all down. Truthfully, I couldn't even prep ingredients cleanly, so Pina took over everything. In the end, the late-night snack was a success — but throughout the process, I was little more than a decorative screen.
Was hunting really the only thing I was good for? If I weren't a hunter, what else could I even do with my life…? Or maybe that wasn't even my problem to begin with.
We cooked late into the night, enjoyed our snack, and chatted quietly together. Back home, I hadn't even had a friend I could make memories with or talk to like this. This moment was so precious to me that, before I knew it, thoughts of my old world had completely faded away.
The night drifted by, slow and gentle.
And the next morning.
Someone from the Association came by first thing — nothing serious or urgent. They'd come to deliver the materials from Neveumano and Neveterde that I hadn't been able to collect last time.
At last, it was time to see Matillo.