A Familiar but Slightly Lacking Meal
After finishing a meal that felt strangely familiar but somehow two percent lacking…
I wandered the streets, casually scanning for a place to stay, when the old coachman spoke up.
“How long do you plan to stay in Windren?”
“Hmm…”
It was a question about how much longer I intended to remain. I let out a long, drawn-out hum, pursed my lips, and thought for a moment. Truthfully, I could have left right away, but after suffering through the entire carriage journey, I wanted to rest my aching back and waist at an inn for at least a day. They say it’s better to get hit first, but I planned to return home in peak condition. After that lengthy hum, I slowly answered.
“I’ll stay about a day before heading out.”
“Hm? You’ve got somewhere else to be?”
At the news that I’d only stay one day before leaving—not even long, just one—the old coachman widened his eyes in surprise. When he asked about my destination, I kept walking forward and muttered my reply.
“Yeah, it’s a small village called Pardin…”
It was an unfamiliar place that even the coachmen of the royal capital barely knew. Figuring he wouldn’t recognize it either, I scratched the back of my head awkwardly as I answered. That’s what I thought, but then came a short, crisp clap.
“Aha, that place, huh?”
His reaction came back mixed with understanding and a touch of admiration. I’d only tossed it out thinking he probably wouldn’t know anyway, but he seemed to know it surprisingly well. I turned my head from staring straight ahead and looked at the old coachman.
“You know where it is?”
“Of course I do. Around autumn, I sometimes go there to buy Yellow Wrinkle Fruit.”
“Hmmm—?”
I tilted my head slightly and let out a sound that mixed surprise with a feeling of oh, I see~. The old man said he occasionally visited Pardin in autumn to purchase Yellow Wrinkle Fruit. So even besides traveling merchants, other people came to the village. …Was I just the one who didn’t know?
That thought suddenly occurred to me. When I really thought about it, I didn’t have many memories of approaching the village’s outer fences while playing with Rein, Mir, or Lyla. The merchant who’d said he visited Pardin often was someone I’d only seen when I left the village two years ago. Since that was around the time I recalled the story of Oath of Eternity, I suppose it couldn’t be helped… but it seemed I really hadn’t cared much about the outside world.
As I let out a gloomy sigh, the old man walking beside me continued.
“Not many people head there this time of year…”
He grumbled to himself. Muttering alone that there probably wouldn’t be any coachmen going to Pardin at this time, he seemed to remember that I’d said I’d stay in Windren for a day. He turned to me and asked,
“Ah, you said you’re leaving tomorrow?”
“Yes? Ah, yes.”
“Then I’ll get ready on my end too… Let’s meet at the carriage around lunchtime. My mouth’s been feeling a bit empty lately, so this works out nicely.”
I’d answered in a flustered mumble without thinking. The moment I’d been secretly hoping for, the words I wanted flowed from his wrinkled lips. I could have just gratefully accepted, but because of the debt I owed him for the bandit attack, I felt guilty about forcing him to change his schedule. With that slight pang of conscience, I asked carefully.
“Um, is that okay with your original plans?”
“Mmm… I’ve got some days off with no runs scheduled for a while, so it’s fine.”
His calm reply came back that it was no problem. I couldn’t tell if it was true or not, but when he put it like that, I couldn’t refuse. I bowed my head, told him I’d be in his care again tomorrow, and parted ways with the old coachman to look for an inn.
Now then, an inn, an inn… The geography of the royal capital, where I’d been stuck for three game years, was crystal clear in my mind, but I wasn’t as familiar with the other cities. With no choice, I studied the map of Windren on a signpost standing there. A red dot marked my current location, with nothing else but black lines for buildings and a white background. It was crudely different from the game map, where potion shops, inns, mercenary request offices, and every other enterable building had been visible at a glance. At this rate, I had no idea what was where…
I guess I’ll just have to head there first.
In the end, relying on two-year-old memories, I headed for the place that hadn’t caused any problems before. It was the inn in Windren that I’d visited with someone else back then, but now I was going alone. Perhaps because two years had passed, the wrinkles on his face had deepened, but the same old man I’d seen before was still standing behind the counter at the entrance.
“Welcome.”
His voice rang out dry and indifferent. The old man greeting customers half-heartedly flipped a page of his book without much care. As if it were only natural, he showed no sign of even trying to recognize me. Well, it made sense that he wouldn’t. I’d grown quite a bit during my growth spurt, and my clothes were completely different. I was still much shorter than an adult, but my appearance had matured somewhat.
“One room, please.”
When I handed over the amount written at the entrance, instead of a reply, a key was tossed with a jingle. It was so different from the friendly way he’d spoken to Mister Esmar that I felt a strange sense of alienation, wondering if the person had changed. I wondered if the old man knew about Mister Esmar’s death or not. My lips twitched as I almost spoke, but in the end I said nothing, took the key, and headed upstairs.
The hollow, empty-sounding thuds of the wooden stairs pounded dully in my ears. Whether by some incredible coincidence or not, it was the same room I’d stayed in the first time I came to Windren. The scenery hadn’t changed at all, and for a moment my breath caught in my throat. The memory of myself that night—sneaking out quietly with a pounding heart full of excitement—flashed through my mind. I stood there dazed for a second before letting out a long breath. Strangely, I grew oddly calm. I set my luggage on the unused bed.
The carefree, relaxed face I remembered grew a little clearer when I looked at the empty bed. Ah, I was starting to feel a bit melancholy. If I had been the protagonist of this world, could I have beaten that woman back then? Even if I entertained such delusions, it was all in the past now. For the moment, I entrusted my body to the soft bed that would let my tired back and waist rest.
My body, which had spent three straight days on the hard wooden seats of the carriage or the cold dirt ground. The moment something soft touched my back, it was as if it was finally time to sleep… Like a gust of wind snuffing out a precarious candle flame, my consciousness was blown away.
Mmm…
As my severed consciousness gradually returned, a familiar ceiling came into view through half-lidded eyes. The low sun that had made everything vivid was gone… Only the darkness covering the room and faint moonlight told me that quite a bit of time had passed. Curled up like a shrimp, I turned my gaze slightly toward the window. Sure enough, I saw the blue moonlight shining through the deep darkness.
With my eyes closed, I rubbed the closed rifts with my index finger and let my thoughts wander briefly.
I guess I’ve slept enough.
With still-heavy eyes, I lazily lifted my body and walked indifferently toward the door with heavy steps. The creaking scream of the old wood grated unpleasantly against my ears. Back then, I’d walked on tiptoe so as not to make even this sound and carefully opened the door… Now, there was no need for that.
The click of the key locking the door, the hollow thuds of my steps on the stairs. As if to say make all the noise you want, my indifferent actions matched the sounds that refused to stay quiet. The old man at the entrance, awakened by the footsteps, glanced at me with narrowed eyes… but as if it had nothing to do with him, I walked outside without a care.
“Huuu…”
The night air of midwinter was quite cold. Even the light breeze brushing my skin made my body shiver, and my stomach felt empty. Since the last thing I’d eaten was that one meal, it was only natural to be hungry. And that meal had been bread and meat soup—a combination that somehow felt two percent lacking… It was pure survival instinct that had driven me outside to put something in my mouth.
“Eheheh, let’s drink moreee…”
“Yeah—! First one to pass out loses—!”
Stores sparsely lit the street. Occasionally, drunkards sitting in front would shout with slurred, tangled words, sounding like they were having fun. It was far from the royal capital, where food stalls brightly filled the streets and guards patrolled every alley to calm the drunkards… but I didn’t mind. It had the smell of real people, unbound by stiff regulations.
More importantly, where could I actually get a meal? Everywhere I looked was a tavern, and the next place was another tavern. Alcohol, alcohol… the whole area reeked of the thick scent of booze. It was enough to make me feel drunk just from the smell. I didn’t know any restaurants around here—what now?
Should I just walk in somewhere, say I don’t want alcohol, and ask for food only…?
As I thought that, my mind added its own rationalizations. Yeah, taverns don’t only serve drinks, right? There wasn’t even a sign saying “No Entry for Under 20” at the entrance. While I was searching for restaurants one by one like that, the dining area had somehow disappeared from view. Whoops, it looked like I’d already passed the food alley.
Just as I turned my body again to head back toward the restaurant street…
“Hey kid, you lost or something?”
A sinister voice came from behind me.