Little Bird
‘My name is Garid. I’m the commander of the Red Flame Knights. Go on, call me Big Brother Garid.’
‘...Mister.’
‘...Uncle.’
‘Mister.’
‘...Commander, isn’t it a little shameless to ask a kid that young to call you Big Brother?’
‘Hah...!’
Back when I’d only just met Garid, I called him Mister.
In my short time living in the slums, I’d learned a few things. One of them was that not everyone was kind, and another was that just because someone showed you goodwill didn’t mean you had to trust them blindly.
At the time, Garid was wearing armor emblazoned with the insignia of the Red Flame Knights, a red flame rendered in metal, but there was no way someone like me, living in the slums, would have known what that meant.
Besides, all I’d ever heard of the Red Flame Knights was a rumor or two drifting through the streets.
‘Kana, how about coming with me as my adopted daughter?’
‘...?'
‘Ah, “adopted daughter” just means a child you take in—’
‘I know what it means.’
‘Y-Yeah? So, what do you think?’
‘...That came out of nowhere. Why are you asking me this all of a sudden...?’
‘Because it feels like fate, doesn’t it? I liked the way that tiny little brat kept fighting the monsters to the very end. Looks like you’ve got talent, too.’
‘...’
‘Honestly, I don’t know if I’d be any good as a father. I probably wouldn’t. Still, I can make sure you never have to get your hands dirty. I happen to have money, you know.’
‘Adopted daughter... Okay. I’ll do it.’
‘Oh-ho, really? You won’t regret it, I swear. Now then, from this moment on, you may call me Father. Go on, try it. Father.’
‘Mister.’
‘...’
After I became Garid’s adopted daughter, time passed, and as our bond deepened—
‘...Garid.’
‘Hm?’
‘You said you’d keep my hands clean. So what’s this on them right now? If that isn’t water, what is it?’
‘Ahahaha, my bad! I’m not exactly gifted in the cooking department.’
‘...Then why aren’t you cleaning?’
‘It’s going to get dirty again anyway. Why bother cleaning it right away? If you can’t stand it, you do it then. Hahaha!’
‘...’
‘...’
‘Garid.’
‘Y-Yeah?’
‘Die.’
‘W-Wait a second, Kana?!’
Once I could trust him a little more, the way I called Garid changed to his name.
‘Hey, Kana!’
‘Commander, why are you here?’
‘What, I’m not allowed to come here? Besides, stop calling me Commander and call me Father, will you? Or at least call me by my name like usual!’
‘Commander, keep work and private life separate.’
‘Oh, come on... You’re awful. Why don’t you just become commander yourself, then...? ...Cough!’
‘...Commander!’
‘Ah, damn it. There it goes again. Don’t make such a fuss, Kana. It’s not the first or second time this has happened.’
‘...Why don’t you just rest?’
‘Can’t do that. I’m not exactly eager to see you become commander, either. I’m not handing this honey of a position over to you.’
‘Honey? You’re more like a dog that’ll bark if told to bark and bite if told to bite.’
‘Exactly why I can’t give it to you. You’d charge in and start fighting the moment you were dissatisfied with anything. How could I possibly hand it over to you?’
After I joined the Red Flame Knights under Garid and rose to vice-commander, I called him Commander.
In private, though, I still called him by name.
‘Cough, cough!’
‘Garid...’
‘Don’t worry... I’ve got no intention of dying before I see you get married and have kids...’
‘Then that means you’d die with me.’
‘Hey, that’s not how it works! Even if you don’t have kids, you still have to get married. Dying alone would be way too lonely.’
‘You never got married, either.’
‘Yeah, but I have a daughter, don’t I? A beautiful one who grew up splendidly. My pride and joy.’
‘...Hmph.’
As the aftereffects of the wound he’d suffered from the snake worsened, Garid’s condition kept declining until, in the end, he could no longer get out of bed.
‘...I’m sorry. I wanted to see you get married... but I guess I won’t be able to keep that promise.’
‘...You never made that promise in the first place.’
‘Haha, is that so...? Then that’s a relief...’
‘Garid...’
‘...Kana.’
‘...’
‘...Canaria.
‘...Yeah.’
‘...My proud daughter, Kana. I love you.’
‘...I love you too. I love you too, Father...’
How embarrassing could one little word like “Father” possibly be?
It was only when the time came for us to part that I could finally bring the feelings I’d hidden deep inside me to the surface.
* * *
Lately, if you asked people to name the most popular broadcast on Fishy, they’d all point to one channel without hesitation.
Joni’s stream, shining at the very top of the real-time viewer rankings.
You could say, of course it’s popular if it has so many viewers, but the fact that it opened every time with a huge gap between first and second place was no ordinary feat.
And the reason that was possible was thanks to an NPC—once a gravekeeper... now revealed to be named Canaria Grasis.
From the insane raid with a difficulty so ridiculous you had to wonder whether the developer had made it after downing three or four bottles of liquor, to the grave with a magnificent sword planted in it, to the way she rejected people by slaughtering every last one who came near.
Anyone could see she was overflowing with story.
When Kana, as prickly as ever, finally opened her heart and told them her name for the first time, there were even people who found themselves smiling warmly without realizing it.
Those who had followed Joni’s slow process of getting closer to Kana as though it were their own business.
When Kana stood before the grave and let the word “Father” slip from her lips, they had no idea what she was saying.
Even if they were playing a game in a relatively familiar language like English, they still desperately searched for Korean patches, so there weren’t many people learning Granic, the far stranger language of that game world.
And the same was true for foreigners.
Pronunciation, ways of thinking, grammar... people are naturally optimized for the language they’re born into and grow up speaking, so suddenly learning a completely different language is no easy task.
“We play games to have fun. Why should we have to study in a game, too?”
For that reason, people either gave up on learning Granic or memorized only a few easy words.
But not everyone was like that. Some viewers and some players, including Joni, kept studying Granic, and thanks to that, they could interpret what Kana had said.
“She said... Father?”
[GASP]
[GASP]
[HOOOOOHHH!!!]
[Eeeeek!!!]
Maybe it was just something that slipped out because she’d suddenly started missing her father.
But if she said it while standing in front of a grave, with those sad eyes that looked like they might spill tears at any moment, could anyone really think that way?
Unless you were spectacularly lacking in basic human decency, you had no choice but to clamp your mouth shut.
[Comments]
-? What the hell is wrong with this guy all of a sudden;
┗ Did you miss your meds?
┗ (link) Go read this
┗ What is this
┗ You motherfuckers; are you even human?
┗ That turnaround was lightning fast
The grave, Kana calling him Father, and the sword planted before her.
It was only natural to assume the sword was her father’s keepsake.
[I DIDN’T KNOW!]
I didn’t know it was a keepsake...!
How the hell was I supposed to know, damn it;
If I’d known that, I wouldn’t have done it either
[Comments]
-Common sense says if it’s stuck in front of a grave, you’d think it was a keepsake, no?
┗ Excalibur is absolutely impossible to resist
┗ You lunatic, you literally said you wouldn’t have done it
┗ You believed that??
-Indiana Jones, are you watching this?
┗ ??? : What the hell, don’t drag me into this;
-Even in our line of work, this is a bit much...
It was the kind of situation where, even though people were shouting and arguing happily, the moment parents came up the whole thing turned into a classic turning red fiasco.
The post written by the person who’d first discovered Kana was instantly shredded by a barrage of criticism, and after that, the targets became the raid parties running for the first clear.
Thrown under fire out of nowhere, they cried foul.
[No, I wasn’t trying to steal anything]
I just wanted to do the raid -_-
Don’t lump me together with them!!!!!!!
[Comments]
-So what you’re saying is that, for no reason at all, you wanted to beat up a little girl who lost her father young and lives alone?
┗ Wait, hold on
┗ Boo, trash
┗ Boo, trash
┗ I said no!!!
-Officer, it’s this bastard!
-Wow, what a one-of-a-kind piece of garbage.
[Honestly, that’s just standard RPG behavior]
Didn’t everyone do that when they were kids and played RPGs??
You’d go into any open house and steal stuff
If there were jars or empty boxes, you’d smash them
You didn’t know any of their backstories, and if something looked interesting, it made sense to interact with it, right you know?
[Comments]
-Dude; the degree of freedom is different
-Nowadays even in other games, if you blatantly steal something in front of everyone, you get arrested
┗ Isn’t that normal?
┗ Old games didn’t work like that
-Author says they’re currently locked in an imperial prison, please delete this post
┗ How’d you know?
┗ I got caught breaking into a house and looting, and they threw me straight in prison, damn it
┗ This is why I believe it
┗ Then what did you expect lol
Not everyone was joking, of course, but most people treated it as a funny little incident.
After enough time had passed for the laughter and chatter to settle, posts about the war and about Kana began appearing one by one.
[The saddest people right now]
Are the Outlaws for real.
(Photo of Ro Arca Empire knights.jpg)
The knights came in and everyone cheered because they thought they’d won
(Kana cutting them down in one stroke.jpg)
Then they all got wiped out at once lol
Seriously, it still doesn’t make any sense;
To kill the thing even the number-one-ranked player is struggling against in one shot, just how strong is she?
Cute and strong, a total GOAT...
Seriously, looking at her again makes her absurdly cute;
I want to hand her a piece of candy and just pat her head forever
[Comments]
-You’re a pedo...
-Tsk, that’s a pretty rough take...
-(Kana Shocked Con)
┗ ??? Are Con images already out?
┗ (Kana nodding nodding Con)
[But am I the only one thinking this]
Isn’t she the strongest NPC so far? That would make sense, too
She could have some tragic backstory, sure
But does it make sense for a kid who looks like maybe a middle schooler at best to beat trained knights?
And not even after a hard-fought victory—she annihilated them with just two sword swings
The game company seemed to be leaning so hard into the trope that it actually put me off
[Comments]
-Agreed; it put me off a bit too
┗ It’s “put me off,” not “put me offed”
┗ Fuck off, damn it
-It is a little lacking in plausibility
┗ “A little”?
-Turns out she was really a polymorphed dragon
┗ So it was Grasid;
┗ A deus ex machina, then;
┗ What the hell is that, you nerd
┗ Here go the nerds again, using fancy words like they’re impressive
One way or another, it seemed undeniable that Kana had become the community’s favorite.
---