20. Rubina (2)
"Her parents died a few years back. She and her sister scraped by on whatever odd jobs the sister could pick up around the village."
"Every time I went by their place, all she ever did was sleep."
"She's a shy little thing, barely ever set foot outside, so I can't say I know much about her…"
"Truth be told, we all thought she couldn't talk."
Yona drifted through the village, which had gone quiet again after the cathedral delegation left, gathering what she could about Rubina — and her thoughts grew more tangled with every answer.
She could just leave the girl behind.
Put her down right where she'd been found, and everything would be easy. Only Yona's own conscience would have to live with it.
"…Haah, damn it."
Perched on a boulder in the empty lot at the back of the village where the troll's corpse had lain, Yona scratched irritably at her head.
Days of unwashed grime had matted her hair into a greasy mess, and scratching it felt gross under her fingers and put her in an even fouler mood.
"What's eating you this time?"
Someone spoke up beside her, and she turned to find Alec.
"Get your head out of the way, Baldy. You're blinding me."
"Well, excuse me."
"You here for healing?"
"My hair roots didn't die, no."
"Shame. Was about to offer."
Alec gave a dry half-laugh and settled down beside her. When their hips knocked together with a thud, he instinctively scooted a little distance away.
"So? What's the problem? The little kid?"
"Yeah. Ugh, this is such a mess."
Alec studied her quietly.
There she was, simmering with frustration, muzzle jutting out a good hand's width, glaring straight ahead with her chin propped in her hand — honestly, it was quite the sight.
"Can't you just do whatever feels right?"
"That's exactly the problem — what feels right won't shut up and pick one…"
Yona let out a long sigh, and then her hand crept stealthily up onto Alec's head. She ran her fingers over his scalp a few times before fixing him with a sullen stare.
"Hey, touching me with the hand that's wrapped in the Holy Shroud feels weird. Come sit on my left."
"You insane little — honestly."
Even as he grumbled, Alec rose without protest and moved to her left side.
"There we go. Much better. What was I worried for — like my tattoo's going to transfer onto your head."
With her bare left hand, Yona began to stroke Alec's head.
Smooth and squeaky clean. A genuinely satisfying feel.
"Anyway… if we leave her here, it's going to haunt me forever."
And sure enough, leaving her behind was the one option that truly turned her stomach.
Going by what the villagers had said, she couldn't picture any future for the girl here except starving to death.
She could barely speak, and she was so painfully shy that there was no way she could wander the village looking for day labor — which meant she couldn't even beg.
And honestly — she couldn't sell her body in a village this small, and a child that young shouldn't have to anyway.
"But taking her with us…"
Their travel pace was already slow thanks to Yona.
Drag Rubina into the mix, and it would only get slower.
"If that cathedral back there had run an orphanage, it would've been perfect."
"Tell me about it."
Yona nodded along to Alec's words.
— While it is called a cathedral, it's really an educational facility. I'm told there's no attached orphanage. I've never seen one myself…
That was what the beastkin had said, wearing an apologetic expression. Judging by that face, it almost certainly hadn't been a lie.
And besides, the doctrine of the Heavenly God Religion commanded the faithful to reach out a willing hand to those in need — which only made it sting more.
"Hey, Yona."
"Hm?"
Yona answered in a listless voice. Alec, watching the silhouette of her hunting knife pressed against her left thigh, spoke up.
"Remember the first job you ever took with me?"
"…Why are you bringing that up all of a sudden?"
"I said, do you remember."
"Of course I do."
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇
It had been a wild goblin culling job.
Nothing grandiose despite the word "culling" — it was simply the first commission they'd taken, the very day the two of them registered at the adventurer's guild. As it happened, two fresh Iron Rank adventurers trying to recruit a party was no easy feat, so the two of them had gone out alone.
A tiny nest, four wild goblins in all.
Goblins were only child-sized, low-grade monsters — surely the two of them could manage, they'd agreed, cautiously optimistic. It was not, as it turned out, so simple.
They'd barely pulled it off.
Yona, being a Healer, couldn't hold a weapon in her right hand, so she'd borrowed the round shield Alec kept nested inside his main one, and slammed it down onto a goblin's skull in a battle that, looking back now, wasn't the least bit funny.
So there they were, triumphantly gathering up the loot and muttering that wild goblins were no big deal — when, of all times, three more wild goblins returning from a hunt walked in on them.
The two of them were utterly spent from taking down four goblins. They had nothing left to face three of the creatures, enraged over their kin's deaths, so they ran.
And in the middle of that flight, a small child — apparently lost — appeared in their path.
Dispassionately judged, the right move was to run. The child was the child's problem.
Because right behind her, three goblins driven mad by the slaughter of their kin were closing in fast. If you didn't want to die, the only thing to do was run — the two of them alone.
And yet—
"Hhhk — you — you son of a — haa, haa… FUUUUCK—!"
Alec glanced back mid-run at the sound of Yona's cursing scream.
With the child clutched tight in her arms, Yona was running for her life, slowing with every stride yet refusing to stop.
Her face burned scarlet, tears brimming in her eyes — but her pace kept draining away.
Behind her, the goblins came tearing after, the rusted daggers in their grips — coated, no doubt, in poison lethal to humans — flashing and gleaming as they swung.
Where on earth had that courage come from?
Yona held onto that child and never once let go.
"Ah — damn it — sob, hhk, haa — hah — FUUUUCK—!"
Alec was no different.
He never did figure out where the courage surged up from, but he too charged out in front of Yona, shield raised.
Faster than the daggers stabbing toward her, his shield smashed into a goblin's arm. The dagger went spinning with a crack, and Alec swung his hammer and caved in the creature's skull.
In that instant, another goblin's dagger sank deep into his shoulder.
"GRAAAAGH—!"
With Alec's scream, a second shield came crashing down onto that goblin's head. The instant the creature dropped with a shuddering shriek, the dagger was yanked free of Alec's shoulder — and a hand wrapped in a pristine white Holy Shroud smoothed over the wound.
Like a lie, the pain drained away and the wound closed.
"You crazy woman — if I die, it's on you?!"
"You're not going to die! Trust me, Baldy!"
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇
"…Yeah. That did happen."
Yona clicked her tongue loudly.
Something like that really had happened on their first job. She couldn't say why, exactly — only that back then, she'd known for certain the child would die if they left her, that it would sit on her conscience.
That she'd have nightmares about it, probably.
"So why'd you do it back then?"
Alec grinned and jabbed her in the ribs.
His meaning was obvious — how is now any different? — and Yona smacked the back of his head in response.
Not a trace of real force in it — just the familiar back-and-forth the two of them traded like a handshake.
"Nightmares. Didn't want to have them."
"You weren't worried I'd die along with you?"
"Back then? Wasn't worried about you at all."
"And now?"
"……"
Yona didn't answer.
Without a word, she slid down from the boulder and stretched her back with a long, deep crack of her spine.
"Hey, why aren't you answering?"
"Not telling you, you bald bastard."
And with that, Yona wheeled around. Her eyes, having made up their mind, were resolute.
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇
"Kayak."
"Good timing. Come, sit."
Kayak and James were already seated at the table. Beside James sat Rubina — seemingly having warmed up to the hulking orc by now, showing no trace of displeasure even as his hand, larger than her whole head, gently patted her hair.
Four leather pouches lay on the table.
Even at a glance they carried a decent heft — thick and stuffed full.
"Payment for the troll. Two gold pieces' worth. I took it all in silver for easy splitting."
"Ohho."
Yona's eyes lit up as she came over and sat down. When Alec settled in beside her, Kayak lifted the pouches and set one down before each of them with a decisive thump, coins rattling and clinking inside.
A sound that lifted the spirits just to hear it.
Whatever else they were, Yona and Alec were adventurers at heart — and money earned for work done like this was precious beyond words.
"Is there something you wished to say to me?"
Only after watching her stow the pouch away did Kayak ask.
"Ah — yeah. I do have something to say, actually."
Kayak looked at her steadily.
The way she kept darting glances at that little girl even as she answered him — honestly, he thought, she was an easy creature to read.
Humans really were fragile things.
Creatures that passed through an uncommonly long childhood, and so long a childhood that they could not even hope to survive it alone. A lesser species that would never have built its empire at all, were it not for their absurd fecundity, their hunger to challenge, and their ravenous thirst for knowledge.
As a lizardman, Kayak found it difficult to comprehend — and yet he felt no urge to reproach Yona for it.
"You mean to take the girl with you."
"Huh? Ah — yes… that's right. I do."
Yona nodded, looking as though she'd been caught off guard.
She'd expected he would see through her. She and James had already reached more or less the same conclusion in their own no-nonsense way.
"Yes. I'd like to bring her to the cathedral orphanage in the Grand Duchy of Carpatia. …It's on the way anyway. Kayak — I'm sorry for keep interfering with your journey home."
Yona lowered her eyes and bowed her head slightly.
Truthfully, the homecoming had been nothing but an excuse — and it was precisely this side of her that made Kayak hold Yona in such high regard.
Besides, a delay of a mere four days was no great hardship.
"Very well. But when adventurers ask such understanding of one another, proper compensation is owed."
At those words, Yona placed her leather pouch back onto the table.
Comrades or not, they were adventurers still. If she was going to inconvenience them, it was only right she pay for it.
Kayak drew the pouch toward him without a moment's hesitation. He loosened the mouth of the bag and tipped it over, and silver coins spilled out across the table in a dazzling gleam.
"James, Alec, and myself — the three of us will split your share, Yona. Understood?"
"…Yeah. No complaints."
Yona nodded.
If anything, it was a clean arrangement. Settled in cold coin, without guilt or the sense of owing anyone anything — and in truth, that made it cleaner.