Plans Ahead
Information obtained completely by chance.
He knew a way back to Huey's original world.
"…Is that really true?"
Huey, uncharacteristically, asked the same question over and over, as if he couldn't bring himself to believe it.
"I swear it upon my father, Aldebaran. I guarantee that friend of mine would know."
Faced with Huey's reaction, Dahaka nodded with a calm expression, even invoking the name of the god Aldebaran.
"I'll say it again — whether that friend will actually agree to meet you, I cannot say. Don't get your hopes too high."
"Just knowing there's a possibility is enough for me."
Huey's eyes burned with heat at the realization that a way home might exist.
"So, are you heading straight to Arcadia?"
Watching him, I asked whether he planned to leave for Arcadia right away. He rested a hand on his chin and thought for a moment.
"…No. Being too hasty wouldn't be good either. Let's finish everything we already have planned, then move."
He took a deep breath and spoke with a serious face.
"Haha. You're right. Rushing tends to ruin even the things that would have worked out."
Dahaka seemed satisfied with Huey's answer and added,
"Lu is a friend who lives for eternity, after all. Take your time and move at your own pace."
"…I see. Thank you for the valuable information."
"Think nothing of it. It was hardly anything."
And so, once the exchange between Huey and Dahaka was finished—
"I have something I want to ask, too."
"I don't know."
…I hadn't even asked the question yet.
"To begin with, the very idea that a being who was meant to live eternally alongside Lu has reached the end of their life is, to me, a thoroughly unknown territory."
"No, what I mean is…"
"Which is to say, I naturally have no idea how to return your body to its original form either."
I stared at Dahaka's face, feeling hollow and at a loss for words. He wasn't joking, and he wasn't lying. He simply looked at me with the calm expression of someone stating a plain fact.
"However."
Then Dahaka gave a short chuckle and opened his mouth again.
"There is one piece of information that might be of use to you."
"…Is that true?"
"Of course."
I'd been on the verge of feeling a little disappointed that I alone might walk away empty-handed—
"It's about Dana. That friend of mine. She was a completely different person in private than she was out in the world."
No! Nooo—! Don't listen—!
The moment Dahaka's story began, Dana started making a racket inside my head.
"Hold on a second."
"Hm."
At this rate, I wouldn't be able to hear a word. First, I shoved the thrashing, screaming Dana deep into the recesses of my mind so her voice would stop reaching me.
"Okay. Go on."
"…You really are something else."
Dahaka looked at me with a cold sweat, as if he found the whole thing absurd. I urged him on.
"Anyway, when she was alone with people she was close to, she wasn't all that different from how you are now…"
"Uh-huh, uh-huh."
"But out in the world, she was an entirely different person."
He said she had been the picture of a devout and holy priestess — a model for others to follow.
"When she clasped her hands in prayer, even those who knew her true nature would find themselves captivated. Haha."
What, so she was just pretty? Why phrase it so elaborately…
…Wait a second.
"Clasped her hands?"
"Indeed. Unlike the harpies who serve as her kin, Dana could transform into a form much closer to a human's."
Human hands. Human legs. And a pair of crimson wings extending from her back — a priestess.
That, he said, had been Dana's public appearance.
"I'd say that much is information of real use to you."
Dahaka looked at me with a meaningful smile.
"Wouldn't you agree, Sword Saint?"
I felt like I'd just taken a clean hit.
"…You're more of a tease than you look."
"Haha. Father asked me to tell you that he has high expectations of you."
High expectations, huh.
"A shame, really. If you weren't in that body, I might have gotten so excited I'd forget my age."
Running a hand along the haft of the massive axe hanging at his waist, Dahaka looked at me with something like regret in his eyes.
"Same here. I was curious just how strong an Apostle of a god really is."
"Haha. So you noticed after all?"
"I'm not so stupid that I wouldn't catch on to something like that. Haha."
And so, as Dahaka and I locked eyes and laughed—
"…Why is that guy picking a fight again?"
"Clearly his brain is made of muscle as well. I simply cannot comprehend his way of thinking."
Along with looks of pure exhaustion directed at Dahaka and me, the voices of two weaklings whispering at a volume clearly meant to be overheard drifted over.
"I can hear you, you know!"
I shouted, exasperated, and Huey and Lucy both played dumb, looking in opposite directions.
"Haha."
And Dahaka, watching the whole scene, smiled gently.
"Well then. It seems about time I took my leave."
"Ah, wait just a moment!"
As Dahaka pulled his robe back on and turned to go, I called after him.
"So what about that stone statue?"
I decided to ask about the thing that had been bothering me most since we'd entered this place.
"It is the divine statue of a god now forgotten — Vega, who was once called the God of Fire and Life."
With those final words—
"Elder?!"
"It seems he has no intention of traveling by ordinary means."
—Dahaka melted into the empty air and vanished.
"…It feels like a storm just blew through."
"Indeed it does."
And so, for a short while, we remained in that space, staring blankly at the bird-shaped stone statue — the divine image of the god Vega.
"Let's get moving for now."
"Right. Like Ren said. Let's move."
"Very well."
Each of us doing our best to sort through the tangle in our heads, we decided to discuss our next steps properly once we reached the next town.
The place where we had met Dahaka.
Several hours after leaving the site of Vega's divine statue—
"So, about our schedule going forward."
Having arrived at a fairly large city called Armaine, we secured rooms at a decent inn, then sat down at a tavern near the central fountain to eat dinner and begin a proper discussion of what came next.
"First, let's organize everything we need to do."
Huey pulled out a notebook, opened it in front of us, and I quietly read the writing on the page.
【The Demonic Realm in the West. Inspect my body.】
【The North. Meet Ren's mercenary company comrades.】
【The Great Temple of Arcadia. Meet Lu.】
Three items in total.
"Of course, we'll also need to search for Lucy's memories along the way."
Huey added, glancing at Lucy, who wore a vaguely sour expression.
"As things stand, these three are the leads we have."
I picked up the cup of after-dinner drink set on the table with both wings, took a sip, then turned to Huey.
"So, how do you want to move?"
After all, the leader of this party right now was Huey.
"…First, let's head west as planned."
Getting home was important, he said — but rushing so hard that something went wrong with his own body would be a problem.
"After that, we move north and meet Ren's comrades."
And if no additional leads turned up by the time our business in the north was finished, then we'd head to Arcadia. That was Huey's proposal.
"That's unexpected. If it were me, I'd have said we should go to Arcadia right this second."
"Like Dahaka said, there's no guarantee that person will even meet with me. On the other hand, there's also a chance I could return to my original world on the spot."
No matter how important going home was, he couldn't leave this world without at least saying goodbye to the people who'd taken care of him here.
"That okay with you?"
"What does it matter whether I'm okay with it or not?"
I nodded toward Huey, who was seeking our agreement.
"If Master truly does go home… what becomes of me?"
And only then did Lucy open the mouth she'd been keeping tightly shut.
"What, is that all you were fretting about?"
Looking at the fool who'd been worried she was going to be abandoned, I said something I'd been thinking for a while.
"If Huey leaves, want to join our mercenary company?"
"Pardon?"
Lucy stared at me with a startled face, making a dumb little sound, as if she couldn't grasp the intent behind my question.
"If you don't have anywhere else to go, come live with us."
The house was big enough anyway.
"You don't want to?"
She was just sitting there with her mouth hanging open, staring at me, so I asked if she was against it — and she shook her head hard.
"Of course not!"
With a face flushed red, Lucy smiled at me.
"I most certainly said so!"
"Yeah, yeah."
Well, she'd better be prepared to get worked hard for her keep.
"So, is that more or less settled, then?"
Right after, Huey's voice came through — he'd been watching us with an annoyingly warm, contented look on his face.
"Right?"
"Yes. It seems so."
And as Lucy and I answered Huey's question—
Poke. Poke.
"Huh?"
Something suddenly jabbed me in the side.
"What's with this little kid?"
I turned my head and found a green-haired girl, even shorter than Lucy, standing there.
…Even if I had let my guard down, I hadn't noticed someone until they put a hand on me?
"Hehe."
When our eyes met, the little girl curved her golden irises into a soft smile.
A tiny kid who looked fourteen or fifteen at best, even being generous—
"Ren. Right?"
—somehow knew my name, and asked me just like that.
…Wait a second.
Green hair and golden eyes.
And she knew my name?
"What, Ren? You know this kid?"
"What a cute person."
At Huey and Lucy's voices from beside me, I swallowed hard and took another look at the little girl who'd called my name.
Leather pants and a white shirt that didn't quite suit a girl of that age. Green hair that fell to her waist, tied back at the nape of her neck. And those golden eyes, full of mischief, that for some reason didn't feel unfamiliar at all.
"Has it been ten years?"
And then—
"You've become quite the interesting sight."
"…Hic."
In her small hand was a familiar silver rod.
"Why so quiet?"
I had no idea what could have happened to put her in the form of a child, but—
"My cute little disciple. Renny."
…It was Master.