80. I Want to Become Strong Too
80. I Want to Become Strong Too
Tachia Failoy.
What I felt toward her could be summed up as gratitude and concern.
During our first meeting, she handled everything with a detached composure, and more importantly, she gave me an item far too valuable for a rookie adventurer—completely free of charge.
But giving away something that valuable wouldn't be without reason.
"Here, try repeating after me. Ta."
That was precisely why the name this child had introduced herself with bothered me.
The soul of the Ego Weapon crafted by her hands bearing the same name as hers—maybe that was connected.
"Dah~"
"Not dah. Ta. Here, again."
"Tah~"
"Next, chi. Then a."
"Chee~ Ah~"
"Good, now say them together?"
"Dachiya~"
"...Yeah. Well done."
Maybe because she was still young and her tongue was short, the clumsy speech couldn't be helped, I suppose.
Still, it was only a matter of articulation. She could express her own will just fine, and more importantly, she could understand what I was saying.
Thanks to that, communicating face-to-face like this wasn't difficult.
"Hmm, so, would it be alright if I called you Failoy from now on?"
"Failnoy?"
"Yeah, since you share the same name as your mother, I think it'd be better to distinguish you by your family name rather than your given name."
I figured we'd have to settle on a form of address anyway if we were going to be together. As I brought it up, the girl who had been staring at me started shaking her head.
"Nyaaa, mama naem difwent."
"...You have a different name from your mom?"
"Difwent."
Different? What did she mean?
Was the mother this child spoke of not Tachia?
"What's your mother's name?"
"Dachiya Pennoi."
"And your name?"
"Dachiya Pinnnoy."
"...Aren't those the same thing?"
"Nyaaaaa! DIFWEEENT!!!"
A tiny shrew thrashing about in my arms.
Afterward, the girl, her face full of indignation, stared at me and declared with firm resolve.
"Mama Dachiya Pennoi! Me Dachiya Pinnnoy. Difwent!"
"R-Right. Yeah. They're different, I see."
I gently stroked the head of the girl who was emphasizing it so insistently, then recalled what I'd said earlier and came to a conclusion in my own way.
I pretty much got it now.
In short, their names had a certain similarity, but because of the pronunciation, the two of them sounded alike.
Well, if they were mother and daughter, they'd both use the surname Failoy, so the latter part would be the same anyway.
"So I can call you Failoy from now on, right?"
"Okee~ Hehe~"
And so, the baby shrew nestled in my arms became Failoy.
I wondered if it would be best to call her Failoy when using the weapon from now on, too.
Ego Weapon Pilloi... That doesn't have a bad ring to it at all.
"Now that that's settled, I'm wondering what I should do next."
After holding Failoy in my arms, I next set my sights on traversing the ruined city where I stood.
First, I was aware that this place was a dream, yet everything here felt too vivid to dismiss as merely a dream.
In reality, even this child who was nothing more than a weapon was in a state where she could communicate only within this place.
It would be a stretch to say the events unfolding here held no meaning whatsoever.
"Hey, Failoy. Is there anything special around here?"
So, wondering if there was a reason I had entered this place, I asked. Failoy stared blankly for a moment, then began pointing her finger at one particular spot.
"Ober der~"
"...There's something over there?"
"Yeah! O-ber der~"
Alright, the way she pointed with that tiny hand was seriously cute. Taking that in, I stroked Failoy's head, then immediately fixed my gaze in the direction her finger indicated.
A colossal castle, visible above the fog-shrouded, desolate ruined city.
It was smaller than the Empire's Imperial Castle, but it was still a building that boasted a considerable scale, even by modern standards.
It was like an old castle where the king of some royal house might reside.
As I set foot toward that place, which stood out conspicuously even within this barren land, Failoy raised both hands and shouted energetically.
"Wets go~"
"Alright, alright, let's go~"
Well, I have no clue what I'm supposed to do before waking from this dream, so I might as well go take a look.
Thinking that, I crossed the city, passed over the castle's drawbridge, and finally arrived at the entrance of the ancient castle that had been left neglected for a long time.
Fortunately, getting inside wasn't difficult. There was no need to force the door open; the gap in the doorway was already half open, so I had no problem passing through the interior even while holding Failoy tight.
"I just go inside here?"
"Yeah! Faaast~!"
Failoy urged me on, even tugging at my clothes.
A chill ran down my spine from the gloomy atmosphere unique to ancient castles, but whatever, it was just a dream. With that thought, I stepped right in.
Yeah, no matter what awaited me, it wouldn't be a problem for the me in reality.
"Hyosung-ssi."
That carefree thought shattered the moment I stepped inside and came face-to-face with someone familiar.
Airi Haven.
The person I considered to be almost my lover.
"Airi-ssi, why...."
But why was she.
Why was she stumbling around here, dripping blood?
-Thud.
Before I could even grasp the situation, Airi collapsed.
In that instant, I swallowed my breath and tried to sprint over—but halfway there, I noticed something had caught my foot and stopped dead in my tracks.
Lying fallen there before Airi, collapsed in a pool of blood, was a woman in a black hood...
"Me-Marilyn-ssi...."
Marilyn Sutherland.
The eyes that usually formed her signature eye-smile were, in this moment, blankly open wide, not even twitching.
She wasn't asleep. Since I'd been brought into this world, I had seen countless people in this exact state.
These were the eyes of a corpse.
The person I held special regard for had appeared before me, a corpse, in this moment.
"Why, how...."
The moment I realized that, when my head reflexively moved to grasp the situation.
Eventually, everywhere my eyes landed was filled with familiar faces.
Ga-ram, who had been with me as an adventurer. Tachia, who had bequeathed me her weapon. And all the others who had formed connections with me since I came to this world—hundreds, thousands of them—now reduced to corpses, welcoming me as I entered the castle....
"Th-This is... a dream. Right?"
Affirming to myself that such a reality couldn't possibly exist, I took a deep breath and forced my body, which had at some point slumped down, back upright.
Right, from the very moment I faced Failoy, I was aware this was a dream.
"Yeah, it's a dream. There's no way this... could be real."
-Yes, it is a dream.
Just as I was defining this as nothing more than a nightmare and trying to move past it, a familiar voice whispered into my ear.
-Yet who can guarantee this will not become reality? As you well know, this world is gradually marching toward its destruction.
I flinched in surprise, and my head snapped toward the source of the voice.
Standing there upon the field of corpses, draped in black rags and possessing a gaunt frame, was a single undead.
-Even if it is a dream, is it not also based on evidence...? Were you not already predicting a situation like this would come, and thus bore witness to such a tragedy within your dream?
"Gorgon Zola."
I knew him.
Because three months ago, I had encountered him, barely managed to survive by luck, and had lived to extend my existence to this day.
And afterward, the reason I resolved to face a powerful enemy like a Fallen Hero was born from the determination to never suffer such an indignity again....
-It has been a while, Woo-hyo. Do you like the gift I prepared?
"...It's not Woo-hyo, it's Woo Hyosung."
-Khaha! Did you think I, an aspiring distinguished professor, wouldn't know that? It's simply that I look upon you favorably, so I drop the surname as a term of endearment and call you Woo-hyo.
No, if you drop the surname it's Hyosung, so why the hell do you keep dropping the second character and making a fuss about it?
The moment anger flared up from that, I felt a stinging sensation near my neck.
Belatedly, I realized just what kind of situation was unfolding here.
"...A gift? What exactly do you want from me?"
On that day, when I met this bastard, he had grabbed my neck and injected a bizarre power into me.
Partway through, the War's Red Knight had barged in, and I somehow avoided becoming a corpse drained of all vitality, but that didn't mean the power he injected into me had completely vanished.
The occasional whisper, or impulse....
Until now, I had dismissed it as auditory hallucinations born from fatigue and brushed it off. But now that it had grown so vivid, I could no longer treat it as insignificant.
-Khuheu, what could I ever want from you? I simply wish for you to harbor a stronger lingering regret.
"Lingering... regret...?"
-All humans are fated to return to dust. Yet, if something exists after that, what proves the value of that second life would be neither authority nor strength, but what one might call 'lingering regret.'
Swish.
Before I knew it, Gorgon Zola had dissolved into powder and reappeared, revealing his presence behind me.
In his whisper, as he gripped my shoulder with a scrawny hand, there was no hostility directed at me.
-Do you not also possess a hunger? No matter how much you strive, no matter how much you grasp, do you not always find it lacking?
It was the exact opposite.
That whisper carried a sense of homogeneity and was trying to draw empathy toward me.
-Hunger does not end merely by eating and drinking. Whether wealth, power, or strength, all humans are doomed to live their entire lives in hunger.
Just as he said, I too was always starving.
I needed strength.
Strength to block not only the Heroes but also Calamities like this bastard—moreover, strength to intercept every danger aiming for me in this harsh world.
No, beyond that, I had dreamed every single moment of acquiring an 'overwhelming power'—the power to protect the people around me, the ones who were now scattered around here as corpses.
-Liberate that desire.
But this is dangerous.
No matter how true it was that I needed strength, that was something I had to achieve through my own will.
If it becomes driven by someone else's instigation, the outcome will unfold in a direction far removed from what I desire.
-Do not look back; press onward. If you accept that desire, my power will endlessly spur you on so that you do not waver.
"That's for me to figure out, so shut your mouth and screw off!"
The black rags scattered along with my shout.
But tenaciously, the bastard did not disappear right away. He solidified his form once again and let out a facetious laugh.
-Khuheu, of course. You are a special human, so I likely cannot fully dominate you with just this much.
With those words, the damn zombie completely diverted his attention from me.
But that wasn't a declaration that he would disappear from this dream.
As if considering a detour rather than giving up, he merely gradually shifted his gaze away from me.
-However, it seems a bit different with your companion.
"What...."
My head slowly turned to follow the direction the bastard's gaze had moved.
There, I saw Failoy, standing before Tachia's corpse.
The girl was staring blankly down at the corpse of her creator—no, of the one she would rightfully call 'mother.'
"...Failoy."
"Daddy, do you want to become stronger?"
Then, that girl began to turn toward me, her hands and mouth smeared with blood from handling the corpse.
Her once-clumsy speech had changed, as if it had never been, to become startlingly clear.
And her purely shining eyes had also, at some point, become stained with a hollow light.
"Me too. I want to become stronger. Because then...."
"Because then, I can kill the mom who abandoned me... with my own hands."
The moment my heart dropped at the spine-chilling smile painted on her lips.
That sensation unconsciously drove me to step toward that child.
"No. Failoy."
She's in danger.
Unlike me, that child is in a state where her ego hasn't been fully awakened for long.
Since she has absolutely no resistance to mental attacks, if things go on like this, she might be encroached upon by that damn undead's whispers.
"That's why you can't... stay like this."
"Come here, now!!"
"I have to get stronger. To make the mom who abandoned me... regret it...."
Spouting incomprehensible words, Failoy steadily walked deeper into the tragedy.
I hastily reached out toward Failoy, but before that could happen, the corpses lying on the floor were the first to seize my body.
-Sooner or later, all living things will ultimately become one with us.
Airi, Marilyn, Ga-ram....
The moment the corpses of everyone else connected to me bound my body and strained to shove me down beneath them.
-Therefore, do not reject the hunger. An endless hunger will strengthen you until the very moment you join us.
"Shut up!! It's none of your damn business, so get lost!!!!!"
How could I ever accept fear over an illusion that hasn't even happened yet?
If I couldn't even protect the one right by my side now, what use would any power I seized later be?
"Failoy! Come back!!!"
The struggle born from that tenacity shook off all the corpses restraining my body, and finally, my hand seized Failoy's shoulder with all its might as she was slipping away.
And then....
****
-Squish.
In that instant, I felt a soft sensation in my hand.
But it was completely different from the body of the little girl I had held in my arms before.
It was soft, yes, but far fuller than the simple plumpness unique to a child's cheek—a thing that stirred a desire far more primal than a protective instinct.
"Wow, look at you, going straight for the chest the moment you wake up."
"H-Huh...?"
Realizing from that sensation and the muttering that followed that the situation had changed, I belatedly recognized the person standing beside me in bed and my eyes flew wide open.
Tachia Failoy.
The very person who had created the girl I was with until just moments ago.
"You must be pretty hungry. Want me to at least give you a taste of breast milk here and now?"
"O-Oh, no, I... I-I'm sorry!"
I hurriedly pulled my hand away from her chest, but she merely stared at me without a word.
Judging by the lack of any sign of displeasure, it seemed the detached composure she'd shown since our first meeting remained unchanged.
But wait. Why was I lying in a bed?
And why was Tachia here?