Half a Lifetime Wasted
"…What the hell is going on now?"
"Oh, you're here?"
I was covering Lucy's body with my wings, watching her face melt into pure bliss, when Huey approached—his swelling seemed to have gone down a little—and asked in a thoroughly bewildered voice.
"As you can see. You took so long we were just killing time."
"Heheh…"
"Huh. She's completely melted already."
Even as he said it, the way his eyes kept drifting to my wings made it pretty clear he was jealous. Still, I wasn't about to do the same for him.
"Lucy. Time to go."
"Just a little looonger…"
Even at Huey's call, Lucy didn't so much as budge—she just shook her head from side to side.
"She won't move an inch."
Looking thoroughly exasperated, Huey tried tugging on her cheek and poking her forehead with a finger, but Lucy's melted expression never changed. Clearly she had no intention of moving. Eventually, Huey sighed and turned to me.
"Ren. Aren't you getting hungry?"
His ulterior motive was transparent, but I was genuinely hungry, so I decided to play along.
"Now that you mention it."
"It's almost lunchtime. We should get going before it's too late, don't you think?"
"Fair enough. Lucy, that's enough—let's go."
The moment I tried to pull my wings free so we could move, I felt resistance. And then…
"…Ah. They came out."
"Gyaaah!!"
A searing pain shot through both wings—right around where a human's arms would bend. Clutching both wings and screaming, I looked up to see two enormous feathers gripped in Lucy's hands.
"My feathers! My featherrrs!!"
The pain was nothing like having ordinary body hair ripped out. I rolled around on the ground for a while.
"Ugh, it stings…"
I'd rather get slashed by a sword or burned by magic. This alien sensation of having feathers yanked out was just too much.
"…You okay?"
"I-I'm so sorry…"
As I stroked the spots where the feathers had been pulled, the two of them spoke up in worried voices.
"No, no. It's just a kind of pain I'm not used to."
If I'd known this would happen, I would've just waited until Lucy was ready to move. Who would've thought she was holding onto the feathers?
"Um… Ren?"
"Huh?"
I was about to hurry along, worried we'd miss lunch entirely at this rate, when Lucy called out to me, still clutching a red feather tightly in each hand.
"What should I do with these feathers?"
"I don't know. Just throw them away or something."
Looking at them just made my wings sting more. I wished she'd get rid of them somehow.
"If you don't mind, can I take them? Since we've got them, I might as well try making a quill pen."
"Do whatever you want."
"Okay. Lucy, hand them over."
"Here you are."
A quill pen… That brought back memories of my master, who used them often. I wondered what Master would say if they saw me like this now.
"Ren?"
…There was an extremely high chance they'd blame this whole mess on my weak spirit and thrash me thoroughly. Assuming I survived the encounter, of course—just like right after I first met Master.
"Ren!"
"Whoa, you startled me. What?"
I'd broken into a cold sweat thinking about Master after the quill pen talk, when Huey called out loudly.
"There you are. We're here."
"Oh, we're already here."
Looking ahead as Huey said, we'd somehow already arrived at the gate.
"There's a lot of people…"
"Well, for a city this large, that stands to reason."
"Looks like lunch is going to be a while."
Merchants, adventurers, and all sorts of people coming and going from the city stood in line, following the gate guards' directions. I clicked my tongue at the sight. I'd been to Dublin a few times before, but it never seemed this crowded… There were seriously a ton of people.
"Halt. Please present identification first."
After waiting for quite a while,
"Here you are."
"Here."
"Verified. Welcome to Dublin."
Huey and Lucy each presented their adventurer registration cards and passed through. I was about to do the same—presenting the adventurer registration card hanging from my chest and stepping into the city—
"Halt."
"Huh?"
A gate guard's spear shaft suddenly blocked my path.
"What's this all of a sudden?"
"Um, is something the matter?"
"It appears there's a problem."
Incredulous, I met the guard's eyes and saw something wary in them. Something was definitely going on.
"I need to verify the authenticity of your adventurer registration."
His tone was far more forceful than what he'd used with anyone else—or with Huey and Lucy—just moments ago. Normally I would've smashed him first and asked questions later, but this time I wasn't alone.
"…Here."
Obediently, I gripped the case holding my adventurer registration with both wings and channeled mana into it. Adventurer registration cards had a built-in mechanism that reacted to the mana of the adventurer who'd been registered when it was made.
"Hmm…"
Watching the Adventurers' Guild emblem—an eagle symbolizing freedom—glow red on the card, the guard's expression finally relaxed, and he bowed to me.
"My apologies. There's been an incident recently, so I was out of line."
From what he explained, a few unidentified beastfolk had been committing robberies in the area lately. So orders had come down from above to tighten inspections on beastfolk.
"Ugh, I'm starving."
Whether it was the pointless hassle draining my energy or not, my stomach growled even louder as I clutched it and stepped onto the street.
"Oh, a proper city for once."
"Indeed."
The line outside hadn't been for show. Huey and Lucy marveled at the streets packed with people.
"Delicious skewers right here!"
"Hey, take a look at this! This caravan haul was a jackpot!"
"Whoa, look at all those gold coins."
"Come see the Ubaursi that just arrived from the north this morning!"
It was certainly full of life. I considered grabbing some skewers, but eating them with these arms—well, wings—would be a real pain.
"It's quieter around here."
"The area near the gate has a lot of traffic, after all."
Leaving the outskirts crowded with street vendors behind, the real city came into view. A large lord's castle in the distance, the Adventurers' Guild building over that way… Ah, and the restaurants were this way.
"Let's grab something to eat first."
"Yeah. My mouth's getting bored too."
"Very well."
Already smelling all sorts of food that made my stomach rumble, we set off.
"Ren, how about that place?"
Mid-deliberation over what to eat, Huey's voice pulled my attention.
"Oh…"
A large tavern came into view, the rich aroma of butter wafting from it in waves. Judging by how tall the building was, it seemed to double as an inn…
"Let's go!"
The food smelled good, so I decided to eat first and think later.
"Welcome!"
Opening the door, a wave of mouthwatering smells hit us full force. First things first—I moved to find a seat while scanning what the other patrons were eating.
…Perfect. Decision made.
"What do you want?"
"I'll have the corn soup."
"I'll take this."
Carefully lifting a wing, I pointed to the item written at the very top of the menu. Frank's Special Sausage & Pastry. After ordering our respective choices,
"Here are the dishes you ordered."
"Whoa."
After a short wait, the food was set on the table. I swallowed hard at the sight of a massive sausage wrapped in what looked like freshly baked pastry.
"So that's what everyone else was eating. No wonder the place reeked of butter."
"It does smell wonderful."
"When you don't know a restaurant, you should always check what other people are eating."
At least, that's what one of my party members used to say. Before my body became like this, I only ever ate bread and salad, so I never paid attention.
"Thanks for the meal!"
Gripping the sausage on its long plate with both wings, I brought it to my mouth.
"Hmph."
Whether it was because my mouth had gotten smaller or the sausage was just that big, even a small bite filled my mouth completely as I sank my teeth into the sausage and its outer pastry together.
*Crunch.*
First to greet me was the texture of the slightly cooled pastry shell shattering. Then the rich, savory flavor of butter bloomed from the still-hot, chewy interior, filling my entire mouth. Only after my mouth was saturated with that buttery aroma did I meet the sausage itself. The moment I bit down, scalding meat juices exploded outward. A beat later, the sharp kick of various spices followed.
"Eat slower. You're going to choke."
"Nobody's going to steal it from you."
The fact that I'd lived this long without knowing such happiness was truly lamentable.
"I've wasted half my liiiife…"
"Pffft!"
"Master?"
"Cough! Hack!"
What's wrong with him all of a sudden?
"Hey, you okay?"
"Ahem, I-I'm fine. Just went down the wrong pipe…"
He didn't look fine by any measure, but if he said he was okay… For now, the food would get cold if I waited, so I decided to finish eating first.
"Hmph."
No utensils needed, and the crispy pastry filled out the satisfaction that sausage alone might have left wanting. Truly, a perfect menu choice.
"Phew, that hit the spot."
It was a little disappointing that my smaller mouth meant I couldn't take big bites, but that also meant the same amount of food delivered a more satisfying fullness. I'd call that a win.
"Anyone watching would think you'd been starving for days."
"…That captain of yours is okay, right?"
I must have gotten a little too absorbed in eating. Lucy stared at me with a look of pure disbelief, while Huey wore an expression of genuine concern about my captain. Leaving Huey to keep suspecting the captain would be entertaining, but even I felt a little bad for the guy at that point.
"It's not like that."
Taking the handkerchief Lucy offered, I wiped my mouth as I spoke.
"Well, the truth is, I never used to touch meat of any kind."
Well, now that my stomach was full… Dessert would have to be some good old gossip.