Little Bird
The Grasis I knew was not a particularly good country.
There was only one thing the royal family and the nobility, who spent all their time squabbling and fighting each other, ever managed to agree on.
In the old days, it had been glorious. The founding king had been great. . .
And yet, when it came to the reason the story ended, each side told it differently.
The royal family blamed the nobles’ extravagance and arrogance for the kingdom’s decline.
The nobles, in turn, blamed the king and the rest of the royal clan for their incompetence and decadence.
Watching the lot of them brawl like a pack of dogs accusing each other of having mud on their fur, I couldn’t help thinking they were less funny than pathetic.
Arrogant, brazen, incompetent, wasteful.
Weren’t those all words that applied to them as well?
And honestly, did any country ever start out doomed from the very beginning?
Now that the house’s pillars had all collapsed, what was the point of bragging about how bright and glorious things had been in the past?
So what?
If they loved the past that much, why didn’t they make a time-reversal spell and go back to it? People without the ability to do even that much sure liked to run their mouths.
For reasons like that, I didn’t think of Grasis as a good country, and I didn’t like it, either.
Once my memories of my previous life returned and I became aware of myself, the moment I realized I was in the body of a four-year-old girl in a shabby shack tucked away in a dark back alley, I was doomed to hate the country called Grasis.
The poor lived worrying not about tomorrow, but about whether they would eat dinner that very night.
Begging, pickpocketing, theft, robbery . . . and if things got bad enough, going outside the city wasn’t unusual either, so it was a life a long way from stable.
Then, if you were unlucky, you died; if you were lucky, you managed to fill your belly for the day.
So my so-called parents choosing to raise me at all was probably some kind of investment.
They must have believed that if they endured one marshmallow today, they’d get ten or more marshmallows back someday.
Ironically, I was the exact opposite kind of person.
How did they plan to make back their investment?
Maybe they intended me to be the one who warned of danger and died, like they said. Maybe I would have become a human shield or bait.
Or maybe they would have sold me off to slavers or a brothel.
I had no way of knowing the answer.
The people who would have known had become nothing more than refuse atop a mountain of trash one especially dark night, when even the moon that had once lit the streets had hidden itself away.
According to the slums, it had simply been bad luck.
A miner who died before the canary in the cage did . . .
Yeah. The world really was full of ridiculous things.
But that was that, and since the caretakers who fed the birds were gone, the little bird left behind had to find a way to survive.
The bird slipped out of its small, cramped cage and joined a pack of orphans in a similar situation.
Life in the group was, surprisingly, comfortable.
Quite a lot of them gave me food or did me favors in an effort to win my favor.
I wasn’t sure why they didn’t just use force.
Maybe it was the fresh, innocent quality unique to children?
People say the purer a child is, the more cruel they can be, but I’d rather believe otherwise.
And then, two years later, a horde of monsters invaded the city where I lived.
Thinking about it now, they weren’t all that threatening.
They were just the sort of force that could have been repelled without any losses, if proper preparations had been made.
But the watchmen, who were usually drunk and collapsed in a heap, hadn’t been able to ring the warning bell, and the guards who were supposed to shut the gates were passed out beside them.
It was as good as opening the door and inviting the monsters in.
Of course they didn’t refuse the invitation, and the city became a bloodbath in the blink of an eye.
* * *
“Haa... haa...!”
My legs were heavy.
They felt like they were strapped with sandbags, but when I looked down, all I saw were legs smeared with dust and filth.
Why?
I didn’t even bother asking myself that.
It wasn’t an especially important question, and besides, thinking about it was less useful than taking one more step and surviving another moment.
The instant the first screams rang through the city, I headed straight for a small hole in the wall.
It was a passage used to sneak goods into the city.
Honestly, hearing screams in the city wasn’t all that unusual.
It could have been some poor bastard who ran afoul of a noble, or the shrieks of some idiot mercenaries fighting, or—well, in Grasis, it happened often enough.
Even so, I ran.
Maybe, like the new name I’d been given, I sensed a danger no one else could feel.
Whatever the reason, that was how I managed to get out of the city alive . . .
Kirrrr—!
Kyaaaagh!
“Hah, h-haah . . .”
Now even my exhale wouldn’t come out right.
As if they were enjoying toying with their prey, the monsters pursuing me slowed to a stop and began approaching at a leisurely pace.
Their snouts were slick with blood, their claws matted with flesh.
Staring at them through my blurred vision, I gritted my teeth.
...Hah.
I was probably going to die here.
It wasn’t that I wanted to die, but whether I had regrets . . . I wasn’t sure.
Still, I knew I didn’t want to die pointlessly.
I drew the dagger from my chest.
It was in terrible condition, since I’d found it while rummaging through a pile of garbage, but to me it was no different from a lifeline.
I steadied my breathing, brought both hands together, and gripped the dagger tightly.
Whoosh!
...!
A monster in the shape of a wolf lunged at me.
Its speed was faster than I’d expected, and as I threw my heavy body aside, something black whipped past my face, leaving my cheek burning.
I ignored the blood dripping down and kept my eyes fixed on them.
Just as I thought.
These bastards were toying with me.
If they’d really intended to eat me easily, they would have done it not long after I escaped the city.
But they deliberately slowed down so I’d barely be able to get away, and instead of swarming me all at once, one came at me alone, even making sure to miss on purpose.
Anyone with half a brain could see it.
“Ha, haha...”
I laughed before I realized it, and then a thought suddenly struck me.
Had I ever laughed since recovering my memories?
To my surprise, I couldn’t remember.
It wasn’t that I’d forgotten; I simply couldn’t recall ever laughing in the first place.
“...Congratulations.”
So that was why the kids had been straining themselves to act cute in front of me. You bastards accomplished what even they couldn’t.
Thanks to the monsters waiting for me, my breathing finally began to settle.
Maybe it was the adrenaline kicking in now that death was staring me in the face, but the crushing weight that had been binding my legs no longer felt so strong.
Did meat really taste more tender if you hunted it like this?
My own flesh would be plenty tender even without doing anything so disgusting.
As I entertained those useless thoughts, I angled the dagger and pointed it at the monsters.
My speed was no match for theirs, and neither was my strength.
I’d never learned how to fight properly, but for some reason I had the feeling that charging in first was the right move. So I bent my thigh slightly and kicked off the ground.
Tap!
My body sprang forward like a released spring and closed the distance with the monster in an instant.
Its eyes tracked my body; my own eyes tracked its, just a little more slowly.
By the time I was close enough to feel its breath, the monster leaped aside, narrowly avoiding the rusted tip of my dagger.
I dragged my foot hard against the ground as if trying to sink it into the earth, forcibly arresting the momentum that was pulling me forward.
Then I twisted at the waist and slashed the dagger toward the space where it had landed.
This time, too, I missed.
Not because the gap was too short, but because the monster had dodged.
A short, guttural sound escaped its throat, almost as if it were mocking me.
If it had been a sword instead of a dagger, or if only my arm were a little longer . . .
Pushing the brief regret aside, I sprang backward just as four claws sliced through the air where I’d been standing.
“Haa...”
Only three exchanges had passed, and I was already running out of breath.
...This was exactly why a child’s body was so damned inconvenient.
My arms and legs were short, which meant I had to move more than an adult, and yet I was winded after the slightest exertion.
And that wasn’t even getting into strength or stamina.
If I had to name one advantage, it would be recovery speed.
But recovery only mattered when you survived the fight and got to rest well afterward, and in a situation like this, that “advantage” was worthless.
How much longer could I hold out?
One exchange? Two?
Negative thoughts kept surfacing in my head, but I didn’t let them show and tightened my grip on the dagger.
If I couldn’t survive, then I’d at least drag one of them down with me.
I didn’t like the trade-off, but I knew it was enough to be grateful for.
The gap between us was that severe.
Without even a moment to catch my breath, the monster swung its claws.
Even though I’d made my own attacks, they apparently hadn’t been threatening in the slightest, because the creature’s leisurely assaults were still full of the same cruel intent to toy with me.
Clang!
“Ghk...!”
The violent vibration that began in the dagger as it blocked the claws surged up through my hand and tore at my arm.
I nearly dropped the weapon.
Ignoring the throbbing pain in my arm, I raced desperately through my thoughts.
What do I do? What do I do?
Pfft.
A laugh burst out of me, and this time I didn’t bother holding it back.
I’d been thinking about this all wrong.
If I was already planning to take one of them down with me, then there was no reason to worry about preserving myself.
Even if both my legs were ripped off, if I could still crawl over there and drive this dagger into that arrogant head, then I’d win.
The moment I hardened my resolve, breathing suddenly felt much easier.
Maybe it sensed the change in my mindset. The monster facing me grew more cautious.
I wasn’t a dog trainer, and it was exhausting to be having this bizarre exchange of “understanding” with a monster, but what could I do? I let out a sigh.
If I’d known this would happen, I should’ve watched some dog-training channels in my previous life.
Even while I was thinking that, my body was dutifully avoiding the attacks, though my breathing was getting rougher by the second.
As time passed, I grew more accustomed to the monster’s attacks, and my evasive movements became more economical, but that still didn’t mean my physical abilities had suddenly improved. There was no way to turn the fight around like this.
If I just held out a little longer, surely an opening would come.
As I endured with that belief, the moment I’d been waiting for finally arrived.
“Grrraaaah!”
...!
Now!
Apparently the monster was fed up with its prey continuing to evade it by the thinnest of margins, because it let out a savage roar and charged.
A large movement means a large opening, too.
It was a rush that would’ve been hard to respond to, but I had already spotted it and prepared for it, so once again I barely slipped out of the way.
BOOM!
The monster that had passed me by slammed its head straight into the rock behind me.
I charged the creature before it could regain its senses, as it seemed to be struggling from the impact.
Thunk!
Yip!
So now you make dog sounds too.
...That sounded a little weird, but whatever.
Just as I lifted my hand high to finish it off while it twisted its body,
Thud!
“Kyaaah?!”
A massive impact crashed into my back, and I was sent sprawling forward.
“Ugh, ngh...”
Blinding pain flashed in and out before my eyes.
I’d forgotten. I wasn’t fighting one of them.
Even when I tried to pull myself up, there was no strength in the arm I’d planted on the ground, and my face kept smashing into the earth.
In the end, even the strength to prop myself up vanished, and I lay there, glaring at the monsters.
Now that they’d lost interest in toying with me, all three were advancing at once.
“You bastards...”
The hand gripping my dagger was shaking violently.
So this was how it ended, after all, without me dragging even one of them down.
I met death as it slowly approached with my eyes wide and vicious.
The monster in front raised a forepaw, and then—
Fwush!
It vanished in a spray of black blood.
A diagonal line appeared across the body of the monster beside it, and that one followed the first into the afterlife.
A man who had appeared without warning was now filling the space where the monsters had stood.
“A brave little girl! What’s your name?”
Blip. Blip.
“...Mister, who are you?”
“M-Mister? Well, that’s a bit...”
That was my first meeting with Garid.
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