The Old Orc
"I'm saying, I'm just normally cold too."
"Th-then, I'll cover you with a blanket...!"
"Says the one who kicks off perfectly good blankets."
"Ugh...!"
What the hell was this first thing in the morning? Thanks to Lucy clinging to me, sniffling, after I'd told her to stop touching my wings when we slept, we were noisily making our way through some nameless little forest at the crack of dawn.
"Haha. You two sure know how to have fun."
And there was Huey, muttering as he watched Lucy and me.
"Does this look like playing to you?"
"Master has never been covered by wings before. Clearly he's jealous."
"...Don't you two think you're treating me a little too roughly?"
In the end, after getting an earful from both Lucy and me at once, Huey slumped his shoulders and let out a heavy sigh.
"Haaah."
And so we walked along, taking in the scenery of the lush green forest.
"...Hold on."
Huey, who had been walking ahead, suddenly stopped and pointed in one direction, as if wary of something.
"Huh?"
"What is it, Master?"
Wondering what was going on, I looked where Huey was pointing.
"There's something this way."
"What do you mean, something?"
"Isn't this just an ordinary forest?"
All I could see was a stretch of woods that looked no different from the scenery around us.
And then—
"...Is that so? To my eyes, it doesn't look like a forest. It looks like a clearing."
Saying something I couldn't make sense of, Huey carefully stretched his left hand forward. The next moment, his left hand vanished up to the elbow, as if melting into empty air.
"Huey!"
"Master. Your hand!"
At Lucy's and my reactions, Huey waved us over as if to say he was fine. Before long, he disappeared completely.
"We should follow him, right?"
"Of course, Master."
And so, as we stepped in the direction Huey had vanished—
"...Huh?"
"This place is...?"
The scenery around us shifted, and at the same time a certain presence began to make itself felt. A presence that, for some reason, filled me with a deep sense of nostalgia.
This is...
Just as expected, the moment we entered this space, my chest began to stir with emotions that weren't my own, just like before.
Father...?
It seemed this place was connected to the god that the voice in my head had always praised so highly.
"There's someone over there."
"A statue... it seems."
Turning at the sound of Huey's and Lucy's voices beside me—
"...I've seen a statue like that somewhere before."
There was a statue of a form I vaguely remembered seeing once, and in front of it, a person with their head bowed as if in prayer. For a moment I stood dazed by the aura pouring from the small statue carved in the shape of a bird with great wings.
"Well, this is unexpected."
The person who had been praying with their body covered by a robe spoke as they removed it. What was revealed was—
"Not only sensing the barrier, but actually coming all the way in. I never expected guests."
A towering height of nearly two meters. Red skin and a pair of large tusks. An orc—the race known as born warriors.
"Meeting like this must be fate as well. Heh heh."
Though he was thoroughly aged, his muscles withered and his back slightly stooped in frailty, I could tell. The old orc before me was among the strongest of anyone I had ever met.
"My name is Huey. I'm an adventurer. This is my companion Ren. And..."
"Luciella... if you please."
And then, the emotions flowing from the voice in my head, which had been quiet until a moment ago. From within those emotions surging so hard they made my chest ache, a certain memory began to surface...
Stop. Don't think any further than that. If you do, you might become 'me'.
...I felt like the one carelessly leaking those feelings was the one at fault, but—
Sorry. I never thought I'd end up seeing a situation like this either. I'll be careful.
Before I even had time to wonder at how unusually meek the apology was, I found myself looking at the old orc, who had somehow already come right up to where we stood frozen in place.
"...Well now. To see two faces I missed so much, both at once."
His eyes wide with surprise as they took in Lucy's face and mine, the old orc dropped to one knee before us and spoke with a kindly expression.
"I'm sorry to ask this of strangers, but would you let me hold you just once?"
At that question, Lucy and I exchanged a glance, then nodded toward the old orc. Normally I would have told him to get lost, but for some reason I felt no desire to refuse this orc's request.
...Well, it was probably because of the other one inside me, not me.
"Thank you."
And so the orc quietly reached his arms toward Lucy and me. Those arms, like an ancient tree that had weathered thousands of years, wrapped carefully around us as if afraid we might break.
"You foolish friends of mine..."
Then the old orc began to pat our backs, thick tears falling one after another.
"Leaving without a single word. How could you be so heartless..."
At the old orc's voice, thick with sorrow, I silently asked the voice in my head if she had anything to say—
It's fine. I'll definitely regret it later anyway.
—but the voice in my head only answered with what sounded like regret.
After sniffling and patting our backs for a while, the orc quietly rose as if nothing had happened.
"...Come to think of it, I still haven't introduced myself. How terribly rude of me."
Seeming embarrassed about having cried in front of us, he scratched his head and forced a smile as he spoke.
"My name is Dahaka. As you can see, I'm an orc."
Dahaka kept bowing his head toward Huey, apologizing for having ignored him earlier.
"No, no. It's fine. If you had your reasons, of course."
And Huey waved it off toward Dahaka.
"It's hardly enough to call it repayment, but if you have questions, I'll answer them as best I can. You must have quite a few, I imagine."
Then, with a meaningful look, Dahaka regarded Lucy and me as he spoke.
"I can't imagine those two would have properly handed over their positions, after all."
...Just how had they lived for an acquaintance's assessment of them to be like that?
That's a misunderstanding!
Some misunderstanding. Coming from someone who still hadn't even told me her own name or the name of the god she served.
Th-that is...
And so, finding the rare flustered reaction from the voice in my head amusing, I was bickering with her for a bit when—
"Elder, why are you in a place like this...?"
Huey started with a question first.
"I was tending to a dear friend's parent."
At that question, Dahaka pointed to the divine statue behind him.
"Due to certain circumstances, no one comes here anymore except me."
Dahaka looked at me with a bitter smile.
"Ren, was it?"
"Yeah."
"That form of yours is surely not your original one."
"......"
"She can be a bit of a prankster at times, but she's a good-natured friend at heart, so she won't do anything to harm you."
An attitude as if he had seen right through even the existence of the voice inside me.
"...How?"
"As you get older, you start to see more things."
After meeting my eyes for a moment, Dahaka smiled in a way that didn't quite suit him and said to me,
"Dana. My friend. Even so, you should have at least told her your name."
...Dana.
Ugh... I can't win against him. Seriously...
The owner of the voice in my head muttered in a troubled tone. Dana.
"Don't worry. I won't go around telling anyone."
Toward Dahaka, who closed his mouth after those words—
"Do you... happen to know anything about me as well?"
Lucy asked, swallowing hard.
"...I'm sorry, but there's not much I can tell you about yourself."
Seeing Lucy's shoulders slump in disappointment at an answer different from what she'd hoped for, Dahaka quietly reached out and began stroking her head.
"However, I can say with certainty that your mother Ella loved you more than anything else in this world."
"Mother...?"
"Mm. And let me offer just one piece of advice."
After gently patting Lucy's head with a look of pity, he withdrew his hand, leaned down, and met her eyes with a serious expression.
"Don't hate humans too much."
An abrupt remark.
"Pardon?"
Lucy seemed just as unable to make sense of it, tilting her head at the cryptic words.
"I don't particularly hate them, but..."
"When the time comes, you'll understand what I mean."
After looking at Lucy for a moment, Dahaka turned his gaze to Huey this time.
"You are from another world, are you not?"
"...Yes."
As if he had grasped Huey's identity in an instant as well.
"You carry something quite curious within you."
"I have my own circumstances as well."
"I see. You must have something you wish to ask me."
Resting a hand on his chin, Dahaka quietly regarded Huey. And then, at that attitude that seemed to already know what would be asked, Huey swallowed hard and opened his mouth with a tense expression.
"I'm looking for a way to return to the world I originally lived in."
"A way to return... that's a question that's difficult if you call it difficult, and easy if you call it easy."
"Do you know something!?"
At Huey's question, Dahaka fell silent for a moment, then said that while he himself did not know, there was someone who would certainly know the method.
"...Go to the Great Temple of Arcadia."
"The Apostle of Ciel, God of Light and Order, and his only descendant. Lu."
Dahaka clapped Huey on the shoulder as if to encourage him.
"Though whether that friend will agree to meet you is another matter."