Starting Anew
"I wouldn't mind having another little one, but I'd really love to see some grandchildren too."
"Mom...!"
Completely ignoring Sister Adorian as she teased Melia from behind, I offered my thanks to Milia. It had only been a short stay of about four or five days, but I had gotten more than enough rest.
"You'll come back, right?"
"If I ever get lost in the woods on my way here again, I'll count on you. There isn't some kind of barrier that makes it impossible to enter without an elf's help, is there?"
"Of course not. Armeria had never come here alone before, and since it was the middle of the night, you simply lost your way."
I nodded gently, then, unable to help myself, reached out and ruffled Milia's hair. As she looked up at me with wide, round eyes, I smiled, waved, and set off on the road.
"Not a bad place to live, right? This village."
"I liked the cigarettes."
Adorian and Melia gave me disapproving looks, but I was dead serious. I hate being in debt, but I love taking whatever I can get within reasonable limits. So, along with a bag, clothes, and a hairpin, I had packed my bag to the brim with cigarettes.
"But if you're a mage, can't you use something like teleportation?"
"It's not some all-powerful spell you can just throw around. It's a real pain in the ass—it requires casting time, precise coordinates, a massive amount of mana, and absolute concentration. Normally, people use teleportation gates located in major cities. This village doesn't have anything like that, so we'll have to walk to the nearest town first. If teleportation could be used so easily, you'd be practically invincible in war or combat... though, I suppose there are rare geniuses who can pull it off. Not to the extent of teleporting every single second, of course."
For now, I had a cheap sword they'd lent me. It felt awkwardly light compared to the one I used to use, but it was only temporary.
"Back when I was with Yugran's party, we stopped by a dwarven village. I didn't really make any close dwarven acquaintances back then, but it would be good to introduce ourselves this time."
"Seriously, you visit elf villages, dwarf villages... just how exciting was your life?"
"Oh, it was quite eventful~ I even traveled with a red dragon once."
"A red dragon???"
Was it her personality that drew so many people to her? Or was it her sheer ability? Or maybe some kind of connections passed down from her parents or grandparents?
"You remember the blue dragon, Cellariond? That dragon was only ninety years old, so he got along great with my grandmother. Since dragons reach adulthood at a hundred and live for about five thousand years, he was incredibly young. Cellariond's friend kept tagging along because they wanted to go on an adventure... Jealous?"
I had been staring at her in blank envy without realizing it. Adorian smirked down at me, snapping me back to reality.
"Well, yeah. I only left home because I love adventure stories and heroic tales."
"I don't know how much talent you have, Syaruen, but one thing is for sure: you're going to experience far more diverse things than I ever did."
"I'm not trying to put myself down, but there's no way I'll go that far."
"Ahaha. But you have that, don't you?"
Adorian pointed at my body.
"Are you sexually harassing me all of a sudden?"
"No, I mean that ability of yours—your regeneration. Diverse experiences aren't had by the strongest; they're had by those who don't die. In that sense, Syaruen, your curse is a blessing. Especially for someone who loves adventure."
Still, an adventure without any risk doesn't sound all that appealing to me.
"Thirty hours a day, thirty days a month, twelve months a year, with a lifespan of a hundred and seventy to a hundred and ninety years to adventure—isn't that great? Heck, your lifespan might have even increased."
"We don't know anything about this regeneration ability yet. For all we know, my lifespan might have actually decreased."
"Then all the more reason to live fast and hard, right? Just think of it as getting closer to the person who defeated Chaos. Who knows? You might do something that leaves your name in the history books."
"Ah, that sounds way too burdensome. I'll pass."
While we were exchanging such useless banter, we arrived at the town on the opposite side of where we had entered the elven village.
"Let me tell you something that'll pique your interest even more. It's actually a secret, but even if it got out, it's not something people would believe. In fact, they didn't believe it, so it's a truth that sank into the deep abyss of history."
"My dopamine levels are overflowing."
"I told you my grandmother was the only human who sealed Chaos, right?"
"Yes."
"Then why, despite the history books clearly stating there was someone from the Yugran family present, did I say my grandmother was the only human?"
Come to think of it, I had wondered about that before, but the conversation had drifted elsewhere, so I hadn't been able to ask.
"Could they have been of another race? Something pretending to be human? Maybe an elf? Or a monster with the ability to disguise itself? Did someone turn into something else to purge a traitor of the family... No, they'd still be human... Wait, did the person who defeated Chaos cease to be human by the end of it?"
Clap!
Adorian clapped her hands and grinned.
"Too much dopamine, so I'll save it for next time! If you ever meet a Yugran, drop my name and ask them. Or you could just ask Erser himself: 'Who sealed you?'"
What a tease. I looked up at her with an exasperated expression, but Adorian didn't even glance back as she scurried over to Melia's side.
"Let's make a deal. We'll trade that story when we get home, and you can tell me about your crush!"
Ah, my dark past.
"Sister, Sister."
"Yeah?"
"Your hand."
"Ah."
It was a habit I'd recently developed. While my sense of touch remained the same, and my taste, hearing, smell, and sight had all grown sharper, I had realized my sensitivity to pain had dulled. Consequently, I'd developed a strange habit of scratching the back of my hand with my fingers. I would scratch until the skin peeled away and bled. I didn't do it while watching; it was an unconscious habit, like shaking my leg or cracking my knuckles. Maybe I did it because I knew my healing ability would take care of it anyway.
Suck...
For a minor scratch like this, if I just sucked the blood away and left it alone, it would completely heal in ten minutes. I had hated being imprisoned and experimented on because of the sheer violation of it and the senseless, painful hacking, but I couldn't deny my own curiosity about how my body actually worked. However, if this regeneration ability ever faded, and they happened to cut off my limbs and pull out my organs only for them not to heal... I never wanted to imagine the terror of when my arm was first severed ever again.
"Alright, we're here, we're here."
While I was lost in thought, we had arrived at the teleportation facility. From what I'd heard, it was too expensive for ordinary people to use unless they were wealthy nobles or merchants. However, discounts were offered to high-ranking officials of the royal court or the church, mages with immense mana, and high-ranking adventurers.
"And it just so happens that this very lady is a high-ranking adventurer with insane mana. To reach this level by forty is practically unheard of in this kingdom, you know?"
"Honestly, it's my first time, so I'm terrified. What if something goes wrong and I get blown to pieces... Well, even if I die, I'll just come back to life anyway."
"Ahaha, oh, you. You really love those dark jokes."
Unlike me, who was needlessly anxious and terrified, Melia stepped onto the massive magic circle with practiced ease and gestured for me to follow. Sigh...
"Destination: Elunaris."
"Hold on tight, customer, there might be some motion sickness~"
With Adorian's playful warning, my vision warped.
"So, so, so? What was your crush like?"
"He was just a normal honor student. He didn't have any talent for magic, but he was incredibly gifted at swordsmanship. He worked pretty hard, too."
"An honor student isn't exactly 'normal.' I'm surprised, Syaruen. I didn't think you'd be the type of girl to chase after some hotshot guy."
"I didn't chase him. And my feelings for him were only temporary anyway. We just sparred a bit during swordsmanship practice. But... do I really have to keep talking like this?"
"Why?"
"Because..."
Because I'm missing an arm and a leg, my neck is half-shredded, and I can't even move my remaining limbs properly right now!!!
"Still, it's a relief the accident happened to you, Syaruen. Teleportation is supposed to be absolutely, unconditionally, completely safe, so there shouldn't have been any issues."
The teleportation had been a success. Except for my body.
"Aaaack!!!"
"A-A doctor! Or contact the nearest cathedral, hurry!!"
My severed limbs were scattered nearby, and my neck was half-sliced, blood pouring out in torrents. Yet, perhaps because the shock was too overwhelming, or perhaps because of the nature of teleportation, I didn't feel much pain. Though tears of blood streamed down my face like crazy. Even so, it was still less than the blood gushing from my limbs.
"No, it's fine. We happen to have a doctor at our house, so we'll just do some emergency first aid here and treat her at my place."
I wanted to say something too, but with a hole in my throat, every attempt to speak only caused more blood to sputter out. After hastily patching up the severed areas on the spot, I was dragged to Adorian's house like a piece of luggage, since letting anyone discover the state of my body would cause a massive uproar. It was a miracle my limbs had been brought along; if they'd been left at the departure point, the panic there would have been unimaginable.
"You did say you'd survive even if you were blown to pieces, but I never expected it to actually happen."
Fortunately, by the time we reached the house, my neck had fused back together enough for me to barely squeeze out words.
"Do we need to attach your limbs back? Or will they grow anew?"
"They'll grow back even if they're severed. Ah, but they grow faster if you attach them. Those cultist bastards ultimately had some wholesome goal like 'the prosperity of humanity,' so they were way more interested in the healing aspect."
Unwrapping the bandages from my stumps, Adorian aligned my severed limbs and wrapped them back up.
"Fascinating..."
"Well, I was locked up for quite a while, but all they really did was cut off my limbs, starve me to death, stab me, and slash me. I have no idea what the actual mechanism behind it is."
"Why don't you try looking for other succubi? I wonder if you could communicate with slimes if you met them. Who knows? Since you have the fluids of a Slime Queen, maybe slimes will take a liking to you."
Sounds like a completely useless ability to me.
"And where am I supposed to find a succubus? Don't tell me you have succubus connections too?"
"I've met a Vampire Lord once, but never a succubus~ I don't even know where they live. Besides, they're a type of demon, aren't they? They're rare in the human realm. Anyway, anyway! Get back to the story about your crush."
"Let me go to the bathroom first. I've been holding it since earlier, argh—!?"
Having absolutely no sensation in my limbs, I forgot that my severed arm and leg were merely aligned and not yet fully attached. The moment I tried to step off the bed, I tumbled straight to the floor. The loosely wrapped bandages burst open, and I rolled onto the ground in a pool of blood along with my detached limbs. Fuck my life...