Ostracized (2)
Yoris chimed in with a remark of his own.
"Maru, my friend. Parting is the lot of every person who walks this world. What matters is that you never show an ugly face at the end. Accept it with grace, as I have. It grieves me too, deep down, but what can one do? If that is the will of the Hero and Lady Natalie, then accept it we must."
"Are you fucking kidding me? Why do you all get to decide this together? Without even a single word to me first!"
"And what exactly are you?"
Natalie sneered down at him.
Lucy let out a mocking laugh of her own.
"Hey, mutt. Who died and made you the Hero?"
Yoris was no different.
"We all gathered around the Hero, you see. Not around you."
"No, what I mean is—!"
Maru's head dropped.
"Forget it. No, forget everything."
He did not open his mouth again.
He wore that gloomy expression for a long, long while, and only around dawn did sleep finally claim him.
And when he opened his eyes the next day, not a single one of his companions remained.
"A bunch of heartless bastards."
Maru grumbled as he began tidying up the campsite.
Even after he had packed everything, he lingered at the camp for a long time, unwilling to leave.
Maybe Kiera will come back. We're lovers, after all. She wouldn't just leave without saying a word…
He waited the entire day, sick with worry, but it was all for nothing.
Until the sun sank below the horizon, his girlfriend did not return.
As darkness began to close in, he quickened his pace and made his way out of the forest.
He intended to go to the lord's city Kiera had visited the day before.
His former companions—no, the companions who had once been his—had each taken their own gear, so his steps were lighter than usual.
He had always been the pack mule of the party, hauling mountains of luggage on his back wherever they went.
Thanks to that, he'd even developed a slight stoop in his neck and back.
"What if our paths don't cross with Kiera's…?"
That night, Maru arrived at Midos, the city ruled by Duke Toledo.
He headed straight for the duke's castle, where he managed to get news of Kiera from one of the guards stationed at the main gate.
"If you mean the Hero and her party, they all departed this morning."
"This morning…? Th-then did you happen to hear where Kiera was headed?"
"How the hell should I know? You reek—get lost already! Ugh, that smell. When was the last time you even washed?"
After that, Maru wandered the city until well into the night before finally finding the cheapest-looking inn he could.
Inside the cramped room, a dozen or so men were snoring in their sleep.
He squeezed himself into the middle of them, hugged his pack to his chest, and lay down on his side curled up like a shrimp.
It was tight and uncomfortable, but he got through the night on a thin thread of hope.
The gate guards didn't see Kiera leave, which means she's still somewhere in the city. Let's pull ourselves together and find her.
The next morning.
Hungry, Maru went from place to place looking for a cheap eatery.
He had poured every coin he'd earned into buying Kiera's equipment, so he had almost nothing left.
"Prices in a big city are no joke. But I haven't eaten a single meal since yesterday. Even if I have to skip lunch and dinner today, breakfast is non-negotiable…"
As he passed a fancy restaurant without a second thought, he ran face-first into his old companions, who had just finished their meal and were stepping out.
"Natalie? Lucy? Mr. Yoris? Why are the three of you together? And…"
Maru looked past his old companions, whose flustered expressions were plain to see.
Hiding behind them, head bowed low, stood the girl with short silver hair.
Maru's face lit up.
"Kiera! I missed you so much! You were looking all over for me too, weren't you?"
As Maru came bounding up cheerfully with his enormous backpack on his shoulders, Kiera hurriedly hissed at the companions in front of her.
"What is this? Why is that man here? Is this your idea of handling things?"
Natalie clicked her tongue.
"His head's smarter than mine, so I figured if I gave him the rough picture, he'd take the hint. Guy just doesn't know how to make things easy."
Yoris laughed.
"In fairness, the day before yesterday it did lack context. We should have told him that Kiera had departed for another city, so that our paths would naturally diverge."
Lucy yawned.
"Kiera, seeing as how it's come to this, just be honest with him and send him on his way."
"I'm done sugarcoating things."
"Kiera!"
When Maru drew closer, Kiera hastily raised a hand.
"S-stop! Don't come any closer!"
"Kiera…?"
"Don't come any closer."
"Don't come closer? Why?"
Kiera pressed a hand to her chest for a moment, then, as if steeling herself, lifted her head and stepped forward.
"Go back to your hometown."
"What? Your hometown?"
"Wait for me there. Once everything is over, I'll come back for you."
"What are you talking about all of a sudden? We promised we'd defeat the Demon King together, didn't we? And now you're saying you'll travel alone?"
Lucy cut in.
"You're so quick to play the clever one usually—how can you be this dense? You're not our companion anymore. You got kicked out."
"You've got to be kidding me!"
Dazed, Maru quietly looked back on the past.
The party's coldness—a chill reserved for him alone.
Even Kiera, the one he'd trusted most, turning those icy eyes on him.
He had already known.
He had known a day like this would come eventually.
Now that it was actually here, his head simply spun.
He didn't need a long explanation to have a rough idea of why they wanted to cast him out.
Get rid of the deadweight porter who can't help with anything, and squeeze out every last coin for themselves. That's all this is.
Ah.
Kiera's voice reached him, trembling ever so slightly.
"We're joining forces with Duke Toledo's army as an elite unit and heading for the Basilite Kingdom. There is no place for you there, Maru. Turns out there's only room for people with actual ability. So…"
"Shut up!"
When Maru glared at her, Kiera flinched and averted her eyes.
"You lied about disbanding the party—just so all of you could ostracize me? All of you?"
A hollow laugh burst out of Maru.
"For a warrior, you sure only learned the cowardly tricks, Natalie. Don't go around calling yourself a warrior—it's embarrassing. You've got no loyalty, no honor, nothing but lies!"
"Why you little pig—!"
"Let him vent. Leave him be."
Kiera stopped Natalie, who had begun to draw her sword.
Maru kept raising his voice at his companions.
"Yoris! You don't deserve to serve any god either! You vile, despicable priest!"
"O heavens above… grant me the patience to endure this blasphemy today."
"And Lucy! You were always this kind of bitch, so whatever, fuck it. Same old same old. Got nothing to say to you, fuck. Hope screwing people over keeps you warm."
"I'll let it slide just this once. Insult me again and I'll kill you, mutt."
"Traveling with you people was hell for me too. I'll leave quietly, so while you're at it, do us all a favor and shut your mouths!"
Maru whipped his head around.
"Kiera! How could you do this? We've been together since we were teenagers! I staked everything on you—how can you do this to me?"
"………"
Kiera simply listened with her eyes closed.
As if to say: get it all out of your system, say whatever you like.
As if to say: dump it all and leave quickly.
That look only made Maru angrier.
"I've known since a year ago, when you stopped refusing the dances men offered you! It was always me getting pushed aside while you flitted around princes, sons of nobles, sons of merchant magnates. You were far too generous with yourself! Did you want to dump me and snag someone better?"
That must have struck a nerve.
Her eyes flew open and she slapped Maru across the cheek.
Crack!
"Watch your mouth!"
Maru rubbed his stinging cheek and chuckled.
"Did I hit the nail on the head? Hm?"
Kiera immediately activated one of the Hero's abilities—Heart Speech, the power to speak with one's mind.
Her voice, pouring out its pent-up bitterness, reached Maru's ears alone.
You never had what they had! And you were far too weak! You can't make me shine the way I am now! I want to aim higher than any other Hero! I want the full, unconditional material support of the nobles! And every time I told them I had a lover, they all took a step back, as if on cue! Not that I'm saying I'd give myself to them. I just wanted to be exploited more easily!
So this is what it was.
This was what she truly felt.
It left a bitter taste in his mouth.
"I didn't realize you were a woman with that much ambition."
Any Hero is bound to crave greater power. If only so the Demon King can't kill her.
"………"
Because she had declared it over with her own mouth, letting go was, strangely, easier.
He'd suffered plenty within the party already, and he had no desire to cling to her like an idiot.
Out of love, and out of loyalty, he simply hadn't been able to say it—but perhaps the one who had wanted to escape this situation most of all, from the very beginning, had been Maru himself.
"I've known for weeks that we were broken. I tried to protect our love, even if it meant wearing a mask—but you never seemed to try at all. Fine. I'll make this baggage disappear."
Slinging his backpack over one shoulder, Maru waved to them all as he backed away.
"Let's never see each other again. And if we do, I'll pretend I don't know you."
Natalie sneered.
"That's my line. Try so much as pretending you know me, and I'll smash your skull in right then and there."
Lucy laughed too.
"Bet he gets grabbed by bandits on the way to his hometown and dies."
Yoris, too, waved brightly at Maru.
"I do hope you go very, very far away."
Kiera said nothing at all.
Her expression, for some reason, looked relieved—as if a weight had been lifted from her shoulders.
***
"That won't be nearly enough, sir. That dish is extremely expensive. Even nobles can't always afford to order it."
"Was it really that pricey? Then just bring me any deer dish you have. A cheap one. I've been craving it all day—I have to have it today."
"Hmm. Since you're short on coin, I was thinking of making a stew out of the offal we were about to throw away—would that suit you?"
"Yes. Please, that will do."
"Huh. You've got a cast-iron stomach, don't you."
At a fancy restaurant in the city, Maru sat in a corner and quietly spooned down the stew the waiter brought him a short while later.
Throughout the entire meal, he said nothing and thought nothing.
He never once let his gaze wander elsewhere.
He simply stared at his plate and silently ate the stew made of deer offal.
The things that used to make me happy are hell now. I'm never taking a lover again. Never making friends again. From now on, I won't trust a single soul.
After his meal, he left the restaurant and let his feet carry him wherever they pleased.
As he walked with no destination in mind, he happened to notice a crowd of people gathered in one corner of a plaza.
A woman—a wandering minstrel—was singing to the crowd, surrounded on all sides.
He drifted closer without thinking, and her beautiful voice pierced his ears with startling clarity.
In a certain kingdom, there lived a valiant queen.
Young, the queen was mighty indeed, and her armies shook the very world with their terrible power.
Then one day, an assassin's blade stole her husband away.
The will to live drained from the queen, and at last she cut herself off from the world.
The bright and spirited queen became another person entirely.
For long years she never once set foot beyond her castle walls,
Imprisoning herself in sorrow and loneliness.
Clutching her chest, the queen often murmured to herself:
Had there been but a child between us, perhaps it would not hurt so much.
Her lament was carried on the wind, up into the heavens.
On a night when the wind whipped like knives, a boy stood atop the castle ramparts, his hair black as ink.
The queen approached the wary boy and spoke to him.
And the longer she talked with him, the more her heart swelled with a mother's love.
Won't you live in my castle? I am the queen of this land, and I can grant whatever your heart desires.
Let me be a good mother to you.
Maru clapped his hands over his ears at once.
"Hah."
He hurried his steps.
Pushing his way out through the crowd, he moved fast—far away, and then farther still.
The minstrel's eyes never left his retreating figure, watching it grow smaller and smaller in the distance.