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Chew, chew.

Munch, munch.

“This isn’t the taste I wanted!”

I picked up the chicken leg — or rather, the cocatrice leg, gnawed down to a skinny little bone — and threw it away.

The flavor was perfectly solid.

I’d worried it might have a gamey smell, but instead it was clean, tender, and pleasantly chewy, far better than I’d expected.

It was just not the taste I’d been after.

I’d cooked a lot before, so I was fairly confident in my skills, but it seemed one attempt wasn’t enough to catch up with the pinnacle of modern science.

“I suppose you can’t get full on the first bite?”

Then again, if I had succeeded on the first try, I might have ended up disappointed, thinking, So the taste I wanted was something this easy to make?

So I shouldn’t get discouraged by failure. I should simply be glad I’d found a tasty ingredient.

Some people might turn up their noses at monster meat, but I didn’t really mind it.

After all, even monsters were basically just the equivalent of wild game on Earth.

Only a little more vicious, a little more dangerous, and absurdly good at reproducing.

At first I’d had some resistance too, but once I started eating to survive, I realized it was tastier than I’d expected.

After that, well, I stopped being picky about what I ate.

“...Ah.”

Lost in my fullness, I felt a breeze brush across my cheek.

Holding my cape down so it wouldn’t slip, I enjoyed the wind for a moment before my gaze landed on the mess all around me.

There’s still a lot of ingredients left....

The cocatrice had been huge, so I’d prepared plenty of supplies, but apparently I’d bought too much.

And even the food I’d made had ended up left over.

I could keep the spices and use them again, but the milk and food would spoil if I just left them out.... I probably should’ve bought a storage artifact.

I could just drink the milk, sure, but I was so full right now I had no desire to drink anything.

After a little hesitation, I pulled myself together and poured the remaining milk into a cup.

Glug, glug.

“Fwaaa....!”

Ugh, I feel like I’m going to burst....

Still, if I drank this much, wouldn’t I get a little taller?

“...Sigh.”

Because I knew perfectly well that wasn’t going to happen, a deep sigh escaped me.

I didn’t need to be tall, exactly, but I did want to stop being a little runt.

Maybe the gods had decided that because I’d been tall in my previous life, I was meant to live small this time around.

Sadly, my height was exactly the same as it had ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠been a few years ago.

And I was still in my growth years, too!

I knew the reason. I knew there was nothing that could be done about it. But that didn’t make it any less unfair.

“Might as well finish cleaning up.”

I still wasn’t done putting everything away.

The spices went onto the shelf by type, and I’d eat the leftover chicken tomorrow.

With weather this pleasantly cool, there was no way it would spoil in a single day, right?

After neatly tidying everything up, I nodded in satisfaction.

“All right, then. Time to wrap things up.”

Clink.

Shing.

The sword at my waist slid free of its scabbard with a metallic rasp.

The iron blade looked so old and cracked compared to my cape that it wouldn’t have been surprising if it snapped at any moment.

It really had been used for a long time. For a plain iron sword I’d picked up from a blacksmith in a small village to have held up this long, it was honestly impressive.

Especially since I hadn’t exactly taken good care of it, either.

If the smith had the skill to make something like this, he might well craft a true masterpiece someday.

As I thought of the blacksmith’s rugged face — the one that had still somehow held a pure, earnest passion — a small smile touched my lips, and I swung the blade.

Swish!

A flash of silver-cut brilliance scattered blood through the air.

Red droplets pattered down over the crimson blossoms.

If they’d been blue flowers, that would’ve been awkward. Lucky me.

“...!”

At a glance it looked almost human, but the way it crawled along the ground made it obvious it was a rat.

Which made sense, because there was no way a person would sneak in like a rat in the middle of the night and crawl around like this.

And I wasn’t the kind of agape-loving saint who felt guilty for killing a single rat.

Ah, wait. Was agape even the right word for this? Well, the meaning got across.

I felt a little sorry for using a sword that should one day belong ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠to a master craftsman to kill nothing more than a rat, but I didn’t have a better tool on hand, so what else could I do?

Sorry, mysterious blacksmith. Next time I come by, I’ll make up for it by buying a pricier sword.

“Hmm.”

The rat’s corpse was swallowed by a ring of light and vanished.

I narrowed my eyes at the same phenomenon I’d seen when I’d taken care of the thief that morning.

“Did some organization I don’t know about pop up?”

If it were just one... no, one creature would’ve been one thing, but two of them made the suspicion reasonable.

I’d heard that some information guilds and assassin guilds used poison or artifacts that dissolved both the body and the evidence the instant someone died, but I’d never seen anything like this, nor even heard of it.

And that led me to another realization.

The thief from the morning had somehow slipped through my awareness and touched Crimson Aegis, which had seemed strange, but after just now killing the rat, I was certain of it.

These creatures’ presence was different from a normal human’s.

It wasn’t that I couldn’t sense them. It was more that they felt subtly wrong.

Because their presence was unlike anyone I ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠knew, I’d let my guard down, and that had allowed them to close in.

On top of that, their features had been so hazy I couldn’t get a proper look at them.

“I thought stealth meant reducing your presence, but I guess there are other ways to do it.”

They’d even devised a method like this. Human imagination really was something else.

But why had these things come here in the first place?

I’d thought the same thing before, but this place was deep in the mountains, with no road and no easy route through the terrain.

Even a herb collector familiar with the mountains shouldn’t have been able to reach this far without trouble.

“Don’t tell me....”

Without realizing it, I tapped the sword at my waist a few times, then shook my head.

“No. No, that can’t be it.”

Right, it was probably just a coincidence.

I forced down the unease rising in my chest and tried to soothe myself.

But if, just in case, it isn’t a false alarm and it really is true....

I looked down at the sword hanging from my waist.

A sword the same red as Crimson Aegis, and yet unlike it, this one had a thick, clinging sort of crimson to it.

◇◇◇◆◇◇◇

It hadn’t been long after a post on a community board had blown up into a hot topic when the original poster put up a new entry.

It was a post accompanied by the death message familiar to anyone who played Silia Online, something most players had seen at least once.

Those who’d been looking forward to it would have been disappointed, while those secretly hoping for failure probably laughed and said, serves you right.

If the contents had ended there.

For a game boasting limitless freedom, with so many things you could do, players’ thirst never seemed to end.

New clothes, new phones, new computers.

New things always had a kind of magic that made people’s hearts race.

That was why Silia Online’s users were constantly hungry for fresh information, and why information posts made up such a huge portion of the hottest community threads.

And now the discovery of a new boss was like rain in a drought to those thirsty players.

Posts burst out like weeds.

“A new ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠raid boss appeared?”

“It really is amazing. How did a game like this even come out of our country...?”

Sensing the point where she was about to plunge into hell, the streamer Journi hurriedly waved her hands.

“I just mean it’s amazing! Honestly, compared to overseas technology, it’s true that our tech is still behind.”

“But look at this. They didn’t even test it, and there isn’t a single bug. The optimization’s so good there’s no lag at all. Even top-tier overseas games with SSS-class specs weren’t this good.”

The chat, which had been burning hot, cooled down as people started chiming in to agree with Journi.

Journi, having narrowly dodged the drop into hell, let out a quiet sigh of relief no one else could hear.

“Anyway, the people doing raids must be thrilled.”

“I don’t really plan to, not yet.”

Journi’s attitude was somewhat negative.

“Raids are fun too, but I like traveling more. That’s why you all watch my stream, isn’t it?”

“Unexpected incidents are part of the charm of traveling.”

Chatting with her viewers, Journi quickly skimmed the post that had been uploaded to the community board.

It had only just been discovered, so the thread was full of speculation and thin on solid information.

“It is interesting, though. It has kind of an Arthurian Excalibur vibe to it. Is it guarding a grave or something?”

“The Gravekeeper. That’s a good name. I wonder what kind of story it has? I’m curious.”

Journi didn’t bother denying it.

“If I get the chance later, maybe I’ll go check it out. Ah, and I’m not saying I’ll try it, so don’t get your hopes up.”

When you stream, there are times you can predict exactly how viewers will react to something you say.

Sometimes, you even use that to steer them toward the response you want.

Yes, just like now.

Journi, having blocked the premature excitement before it could start, snorted softly as the reactions rolled in exactly as she’d expected.

The Gravekeeper....

Even though the cape obscured the figure’s body line, it was easy enough to tell that the person was small.

A child? A dwarf? Or maybe an old man with a hunched back?

What kind of story made someone guard a grave, and what story was hidden in the sword planted in that tomb?

Journi’s heart pounded with the thrill of meeting the unknown.

She had no intention of trying it right away, so she wouldn’t go there just yet.

And yet, for some reason, she had the feeling that she’d be meeting the Gravekeeper before too long.

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