Little Bird

When was it again…?

I can’t quite remember, but at some point, for whatever wind had blown through him, Garid had bought flowers. Very unlike him.

It was one thing for a burly, muscle-bound man with a long scar across his face to take up gardening.

Just because someone looked rough around the edges didn’t mean they were forbidden from having a hobby like that.

The same went for people who looked neat and kind. You couldn’t trust them blindly, either.

Form an impression, sure. Don’t leap to conclusions.

I’d lived in a place where if you judged people by their faces and got burned for it, you had to blame your own stupidity, so if I wanted to survive, I had no choice but to be cautious.

In uglier words, you could call it suspicion.

So when I said he was unlike himself, I wasn’t talking about Garid’s appearance.

The first time I came to Garid’s house, I couldn’t believe the place he proudly pointed to was actually fit for human beings to live in.

The yard was overrun with weeds and littered with trash that had been tossed about carelessly, and the furniture inside had been arranged with all thought for convenience or comfort thrown out the window.

There was the sour stench, the dust, piles of dishes crusted with food, and finally, mushrooms clustered in the corners.

Was this a house, or just a garbage heap in the slums?

There was no way to clean it up, so in the end we abandoned that place and moved to a new house.

After that, I took care of all the housework.

Which was why, when Garid bought those flowers, I had no choice but to ask:

“…Are you insane?”

A man who couldn’t even manage basic cleaning had brought home flowers, of all things, and meant to grow them in the yard. It was absurd.

“I’m not touching them, so do whatever you want.”

“Aw, you’re cold. I wasn’t planning to ask you in the first place, kid.”

“Why flowers all of a sudden?”

“I just figured there’d be no harm in growing a few.”

After that, Garid threw himself into tending the yard, which gradually turned into a garden.

I’d expected him to forget about them, kill them off, or lose interest quickly, but he kept buying flowers, planting ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠them, and checking on them with surprising care.

One day, Garid sat me down in front of the brightened garden and grinned from ear to ear.

“Pretty, isn’t it?”

“…Yeah, I guess.”

“Ha ha! See? I told you you could do it if you tried. So? Don’t you feel like tending a garden too? Planting flowers, trees, huh? Come on, don’t you?”

“Not really.”

“…Honestly, you’re so blunt.”

I remember him grumbling about how a girl like me seemed to hate flowers more than he did.

Even now, years later, I still didn’t know why Garid had done that, and probably never would.

So instead of trying to find out why, I planted flowers before his grave.

I hoped these flowers might bring him peace, however little that meant now.

“….”

Maybe it was because I’d seen the face I didn’t want to see, and the Empire bastards, too, but I was getting sentimental today.

I brushed away the last lingering traces of mana and turned around.

Had they understood my words?

The three standing behind me looked helpless and flustered.

Even the greatsword idiot, who seemed like she’d never notice anyone else’s mood, was beginning to read the room, and it was honestly funny.

“Ah, um….”

Joni, the only one I could say I was at least a little familiar with, started to speak awkwardly, but I was faster and held out my hand.

“…Huh?”

“Feed me.”

I’d worked up an appetite.

* * *

In the country I’d lived in during my previous life, Korea, there were an absurd number of sayings ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠about food and rice.

Even Mount Geumgang is best enjoyed after a meal. A ghost that dies with a full belly has the prettiest complexion. Dogs won’t even be disturbed while you’re eating, and so on.

Just from those sayings alone, you could tell how important a meal had been to the old ancestors.

This world, the one I’d been reborn into, wasn’t quite as obsessed with rice as Korea was, but it still understood the importance of eating.

The problem was simply that there were too many poor people for that to matter much.

So yes, what I was doing here was perfectly normal.

Thunk.

“H-hey… Kana? I’ll definitely bring something tomorrow, so please don’t be mad, okay? Fine-nim, Yuki-nim. Do you happen to have any leftovers?”

“We came straight here to fight after logging in. There’s no way. I’ve got rock bread and some preserved rations, though….”

“I have jerky.”

“Doesn’t look like she’d eat that. …Kana, do you want this?”

“….”

…Did she really think I would?

I stared blankly at the jerky Joni held out to me, and she withdrew her hand with an awkward look on her face.

I’d eaten enough jerky in my life when I was a knight. I never wanted to see the stuff ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠again.

Back then, I’d still try to make sure I ate proper meals whenever possible, but when time was tight or I had to stay hidden, there was no choice but to chew on preserved food like jerky.

I sighed as I watched the greatsword idiot gnaw away at her own strip of meat.

I knew it wasn’t Joni’s fault.

She’d never even asked for repayment in the first place; she just kept bringing things on her own, so I knew it wasn’t strange for her to stop whenever she wanted.

But it had to happen now, of all times.

When Joni admitted she hadn’t prepared anything, my shoulders slumped.

It wasn’t that I’d been looking forward to whatever food she brought because it was delicious.

Not that it hadn’t been good, but I’d eaten so many better things that it just didn’t stir me much anymore, that was all.

Even though I’d been looked down on inside and out, I was still the commander of the knights, and that meant I ate with royalty and nobles more often than not.

Royalty or nobles, they were all the same: people who thought it was enough to stuff their own mouths while the commoners ate whatever they could get.

The dishes on their tables were always perfect, from the taste to the presentation, with nothing lacking.

Even if the food Joni brought was tasty, that was why it didn’t leave much of an impression.

But the food she’d brought yesterday had been different.

Honestly, it hadn’t been to my taste, but that crazily spicy heat had somehow carried a whiff of nostalgia from my past life, so intense I wanted to slap the cook.

I’d been hoping she might bring something like that again, something that stirred up that same old feeling….

“Guess there’s nothing for it….”

I got to my feet and trudged back to the hut, then returned to the clearing with a big pot and the leftover ingredients gathered up as best I could.

It was ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠a hassle, but I didn’t want jerky, so I might as well make a simple stew.

Throw everything in, sauté it a bit, add water, let it simmer for a while….

And there it was: a perfectly decent stew.

Slurp.

Munch, munch.

“Mm….”

Good thing there was still some cocatrice meat left.

The savory richness of the meat seeped into what might have otherwise been a bland stew, turning it from merely edible into something actually good.

If only there’d been more ingredients, and more time.

Suppressing my lingering disappointment, I handed out the spare bowls I’d brought separately to the three chicks.

“…Eh? You’re giving us some too?”

“Never thought I’d live to eat food made by a gravekeeper….”

They hadn’t been invited, but they’d come to my house, so I might as well feed them.

Besides, they’d fed me plenty of times too.

More than anything, if I ate alone and left the three of them sitting there, I wasn’t sure I could handle the way they’d stare at me.

“…This is better than I thought.”

“Yeah. I didn’t expect much since you just hacked everything up and tossed it in, but it’s exactly the kind of thing you want when you need something quick.”

“Slurp.”

They were babbling, but they were eating happily enough, so I guessed it suited their taste.

Looks like the cooking skills I’d honed while keeping Garid fed hadn’t rusted over yet.

I tuned them out and went on eating.

I was the first of the four to finish.

I’d started before them, and I hadn’t eaten much anyway, so I set down my empty bowl and spoon and got up.

Sitting on the edge of the cliff, I stared blankly at the sun crossing overhead.

“Should I leave…?”

I wasn’t worried that the Empire would attack.

From what that snake brat had said, they didn’t seem to want to poke at me while I was staying quiet, so things would probably remain calm for a while.

Sure, other bastards might come as revenge for the slaughter of the knights, but unless the snake brat or the Empire’s swords showed up in person, there was no way I’d lose.

Still, the thought of leaving Garid here alone kept weighing on my heart.

To me, Garid had been more than a father—he was the kind of man you could call your father without hesitation—and he was also the one who’d caught me when I was drifting, rootless and unmoored.

And so I, having lost Garid and the will he’d protected, drifted away from the world like a leaf torn from a tree.

Here, where he was buried, I too would end my life.

I’d made that promise, and yet when I thought about leaving, guilt kept jabbing at me.

Were dimensional beasts, the Empire, Apostles, or Edel more important than Garid?

…Absolutely not, but why did I keep agonizing over it anyway?

Thud.

Then someone came over.

Joni was terrified of the sheer drop below the cliff and trembling, but she still forced herself to sit beside me and dangle her legs out over the abyss.

Pat, pat.

Then she lifted a hand and petted my head.

“…???”

I’d felt her presence, but I never would’ve guessed she meant to do that.

I froze, eyes going wide.

…What?

* * *

Even while she ate the stew, Joni kept sneaking glances at Kana.

Every time Kana blinked, every time that tiny mouth moved, Joni silently screamed inside.

At the same time, she still couldn’t believe that this adorable child had killed those formidable knights in an instant, and that made her look at Kana with a suspicious eye.

On the outside, she looked like a girl who should be spending her days hugging a doll and playing in the flowers….

Just look at her arms—they weren’t any thinner than Joni’s own.

No wonder so many people still couldn’t believe that the terrifying gravekeeper was this little girl.

Joni took a bite of Kana, then a bite of stew, then another bite of Kana, then another bite of stew.

Nibbling away like a miser, it took her a long time to finish, and in the end Kana had emptied her bowl first and gotten up.

Kana sat at the edge of the cliff where the grave was.

She looked perfectly calm, but the sight of her perched there, as if she might fall at any second, made Joni even more nervous.

Watching her anxiously, Joni suddenly asked Fine, “Are you going to keep doing Perclun, Fine-nim?”

“…I can’t.”

Fine answered flatly.

“Public opinion’s one thing, but I just can’t picture the scene where we bring Kana… down.”

“I still want to fight her again. That last one was truly, truly, beyond words… intoxicating.”

“…I see.”

Tired of scolding her, Fine gave up and answered however he felt.

“I’m just going to keep leveling and wait for the next raid to show up. What about you, Joni-nim?”

“Well….”

Unlike Fine, who had already decided on his next steps, Joni still didn’t know what she was going to do.

At first, her plan had simply been to get close to Kana, but now that things had come to this, she couldn’t help wondering if that was really okay.

Whether she wanted it or not, the fight between the players and the Empire had begun because of her broadcast.

To make sure the same thing never happened again, she would have to shut the stream down… but abandoning her job like that would never be easy.

She had gotten close enough for Kana to tell her not just her nickname but even her real name, so maybe they were close. But if you asked whether she’d gotten as close as she’d originally hoped, that was another matter.

In the middle of not being able to choose either way, Joni noticed her bowl was empty.

She set it down neatly and walked toward the cliff.

“It’s high….”

One glance down at the view made her shiver, and she moved forward carefully, one tentative step at a time.

Even from up close, the back that had looked tiny from a distance was still small.

What kind of story had this little back been carrying to make her voice sound so full of pain?

Looking down at Kana, Joni was suddenly seized by curiosity and absentmindedly pressed the information check button.

It was a feature you could use on objects, NPCs, and players alike, though most people only used it to check a player’s ID.

That was because, while objects and NPCs displayed information based on what you already knew, players’ information came out exactly as it was.

For example, if an NPC named A lied and said her name was B, then it would show up as B, and if you bought plain water thinking it was a miracle cure with no actual effect, it would be labeled as a miracle cure.

So it was basically a half-baked feature, but….

Even Joni didn’t know why that curiosity had struck her so suddenly.

Her name appeared exactly as Kana had introduced it, with the title “Little Bird” attached in front.

Sometimes titles like that appeared on NPCs.

Kana was stronger than anyone Joni had ever seen in all her time playing Silia Online, and yet she thought that title suited Kana perfectly.

From Joni’s perspective, Kana looked like she might vanish without a trace if you blinked once….

Joni sat carefully beside Kana and lifted a hand to stroke the little bird.

She didn’t know what kind of burden this girl had been carrying, but she hoped the bird that had folded its wings and come to rest could fly again.

Joni watched Kana, startled by the unexpected touch and staring at her with wide eyes, and smiled softly.

…She wouldn’t kill me just because she’s mad, right?

Ah, well. Surely she wouldn’t go as far as killing her, would she?

Even while worrying far too late, she savored the sensation winding around her fingers to the fullest.

Just as she had expected, Kana’s hair was incredibly soft.