60. Reward
60. Reward
[Ronan!]
"What the—all of a sudden..."
I startled and lifted my head.
Stella and Pina were... asleep.
No, not so much asleep as... knocked out? Unconscious? That's what it looked like.
Even the Magic-Power-suppressing restraints I'd tied them with were all undone. Their clothes, too... they'd been changed into my pajamas.
What in the world is going on... here?
[Ah, aah... aaah! Finally!]
I looked down at the glowing mass snuggled against my chest, rubbing its cheek into my shirt... at the flying squirrel wrapped in light.
"...Wh-what are you?"
[It's me! Me!]
I frowned and carefully cupped the grinning flying squirrel in both hands.
A flying squirrel that talks.
And it knows my name—knows me from my Past Life.
And... I can feel a strangely familiar power from it.
It doesn't seem like an ordinary animal.
Obviously not. A talking flying squirrel can't possibly be an ordinary animal. So what the hell is this thing?
Should I kill it? Let it live? What?
Killing it probably wouldn't be a big problem.
"Who are you, and how do you know me?"
[Flora!]
"Flora?"
[Yeah! That's my real name! The name 'you guys' gave me is Sparkle!]
"...Sparkle?"
My mouth fell open.
"S-Sparkle? You?"
[Kyahahahahak! Look at your face! You really do remember me! Uwaaaaah... I missed you. I really did...]
"Oh, you crazy... You're seriously Sparkle?"
[Yeah! I'm Sparkle! Do you know how badly I've wanted to talk to you?!]
"...Good god."
Sparkle.
The child of the World Tree I barely managed to save from the ruined land of the Beastkin four hundred years ago. In other words, a spirit.
Back then, it couldn't even communicate properly—it was just a speck of dust floating in the air.
But now...
"Why do you look like that?"
[What?! Is that what you have to say right now?! I should be the one asking! Ronan. Why do you look like that?]
"No, fuck. I... I..."
How am I supposed to explain this?
If I'm going to explain, where do I even start?
Should I start with the part where I died?
While I was agonizing over that, Sparkle kept chattering away, saying whatever it wanted.
[Did you pick up some weird hobby over the last four hundred years? This is insane. Ronan, you were... one of the most masculine men I'd ever seen, and now you've turned into a beautiful girl like this. And your hair is even the same cherry-blossom color as Arisa's. Good lord!]
"Sparkle. I can fucking pop you like a bubble and kill you right now, you know? So if you keep talking shit, you're in big trouble."
[My god... your filthy mouth hasn't changed either.]
The flying squirrel stared at me with its mouth hanging open.
The sight was funny, and also ridiculous.
And the fact that it recognized me—recognized my past-life self—that it knew me... made me feel a little... strange.
"Huh, I... yeah. I, uh, think I reincarnated."
[Reincarnated...?]
"Yeah. My name now is Eliarnes Eustetia."
[...What?]
"Eustetia. Arisa's descendant."
[Arisa's descendant? That's... that's impossible. Th-that can't... be...]
"I thought it couldn't be, too. Thought it over and over. But here I am. Anyway, how the hell did you recognize me?"
[There's no way I wouldn't recognize Ronan's soul. Though it seems like you pushed yourself too hard and your soul's gotten really weak right now... Anyway, it's definitely Ronan's soul.]
"Soul?"
[Yeah. Ronan. Your soul is... how do I put it. Uh... incredibly hot, ferocious, terrifying... that kind of soul. So it's really easy to recognize. Honestly, Paulo, Luna, Kaloso, and Arisa are all unusual too. Hehe.]
"I was a rough, hot-blooded man, I guess."
Anyway, it recognized my soul.
That means my soul is the same as it was in my Past Life.
So I really haven't changed. I am Ronan.
I was Ronan Luzarak, and I am Eliarnes Eustetia.
My thoughts weren't delusions, and I wasn't mentally ill.
I wasn't a fucking goddamn chimpanzee.
I know that, and Sparkle knows it.
At that fact, I found myself smiling for no reason.
"Anyway, Sparkle. Where the hell have you been, and why did you follow me?"
[Huh? I didn't follow Ronan.]
"Then?"
[I've been inside Pina's body this whole time!]
"...Huh?"
[Pina didn't tell you? This kid received the World Tree's blessing. And the reason Pina was able to approach you was because I persuaded her like crazy and she barely managed to get close to you!]
"What the... what the fuck..."
A Beastkin blessed by the World Tree.
Which means.
She's Beastkin royalty.
The squirrel sprawled out on the bed over there, curled up with her tail wrapped around herself and sleeping like a log—she was the Beastkin monarch.
The Beastkin monarch was different from the ordinary concept of a king.
It's not a position you rise to by being revered by the Beastkin—it's a position you can only take if you're chosen by the World Tree that truly protects them.
That was why the monarch could see spirits, command them, and ultimately communicate with the World Tree. That was the nature of the role.
But still.
That Beastkin monarch.
"Why the hell does she look like that?"
[Look like that? You really say anything to a kid, don't you.]
Pop. The flying squirrel's tiny fist smacked my lips.
[I could explain all sorts of things to you, but rather than hearing it from me... I think it'd be better for you to hear it from Pina later. Pina will... tell you everything someday.]
Having said that, Sparkle put on a deliberately gloomy expression and looked at me carefully.
[But, Reincarnation. How did that even happen? Ronan... did you really die?]
"Did I really die? What's that supposed to mean?"
[...Was it... because of 'that'?]
"No. It wasn't because of 'that.' I just..."
I started to explain how I died, but then I rubbed my strangely aching chest and shut my mouth.
Arisa... saying I died protecting that chimpanzee is incredibly... shameful and embarrassing.
"I just died fighting. Anyway, what did you mean when you asked if I really died?"
[At the end, when the Demon King was sealed. The World Tree told me... that Ronan was the only one not there. So... so I thought, no way. I thought there was no way Ronan... had died.]
Tears welled up in Sparkle's eyes.
[You're completely selfish, violent, eccentric, hot-tempered, have anger management issues, get angry all the time, curse, hit people, ferocious, shitty-tempered, rude, a bastard, a psycho, and your hands go first at the slightest thing—that's Ronan, but...]
"Fuck you."
[Still, even a Ronan like that... I thought there was no way you'd died. I mean... you were Ronan Luzarak, the one they called the Calamity Star.]
"The Calamity Star, huh... heh."
Come to think of it, that Demon bastard called me the Calamity Star before he died, too. Well, he probably called me that after seeing how I fight.
"Anyway. Yeah. The reason I was the only one not there back then was because I'd died..."
No, wait. Wait wait.
Hold on.
"Hey. Sparkle. What did you just say?"
[That you're completely selfish, violent, eccentric, hot-tempered, have anger management issues, get angry all the time, curse, hit people, ferocious, shitty-tempered, rude, a bastard, a psycho, and your hands go first at the slightest thing—that Ronan?]
"I'll really snap your neck."
[Uh... that when the Demon King was sealed, you were the only one not there?]
"Yeah. That. I was the only one not there?"
[I... don't know. That's just what the World Tree said.]
"What about Kaloso?"
[The World Tree didn't say anything about Kaloso...? Why?]
So Kaloso was there when the Demon King was sealed, too?
As an enemy? Or for what reason...?
"...The bastard who killed me... was Kaloso."
Sparkle's eyes went wide.
[Wh-what...?]
"That fucking piece of shit Kaloso killed me."
[You two really... huu... I knew it would happen someday.]
"You knew it would happen?"
[You two... were always going at it, grinding your teeth, fighting over who was stronger. Didn't you die doing that?]
"...You think I died doing that? Kaloso betrayed us."
[...Betrayed?]
"Yeah."
Sparkle covered its mouth with its tiny flying-squirrel hands.
I let out a deep sigh and explained everything that had happened... the process of my death and Reincarnation from my Past Life.
Killing the Fourth Legion Commander, the Demon King awakening, Kaloso betraying us at the same time, trying to kill Arisa, me protecting her and dying, then recovering my memories at age ten.
That kind of shitty story.
After hearing it, Sparkle just trembled silently for a while, its tiny body shivering.
"So, do you know anything about those bastards?"
[The other... friends?]
"Yeah. I—I don't think those bastards are dead. They'd eaten Elixirs that good, each of them had downed two bottles of Elixir, and as if transcending humanity wasn't enough, we'd all reached Tier 10. There's no way... no way people like that died."
Four hundred years. That's an incredibly long time for humans.
Time enough for mountains and rivers to change several times over, time enough for countless humans and their descendants to die and die again.
But.
Not us.
We weren't humans who would die from a mere four hundred years.
I don't know about me, since I was on borrowed time anyway.
But those bastards are alive.
I'm certain of it.
[...Um, Ronan.]
"Yeah."
[I don't know about... the others.]
Sparkle lifted its head and faced me.
[But Arisa—I know about Arisa.]
I listened without saying a word.
[Arisa... came back alone.]
"What?"
[Yeah. Without Paulo, without Luna, without Kal... loso. Alone... she came back from Ge Vihenum.]
"Then you... met Arisa?"
[Yeah... Arisa came to find me. To the home you all... made for me. Arisa came alone.]
Alone?
Kaloso I could understand, but Luna and Paulo... why?
[Arisa came back carrying Ronan... your weapons. All of them. She stopped by the land where the spirits dwell for a little while, then left a week later.]
"...My weapons?"
From the Demon World. From Ge Vihenum, all the way to the Empire.
Carrying all that equipment. Alone?
She couldn't have gotten a horse.
Even if she had, she wouldn't have been able to ride it.
Just the equipment of mine that remained at the time numbered over ten pieces.
Then, a wagon?
No, even if she'd tried to take a wagon, the terrain was so shitty it would've been impossible.
To travel, she would've had to cross the Land of Chaos, climb over the northern snow mountains, and pass through the brutal plains of eternal snow.
That means walking for nearly a month straight.
Why would she do something so stupid?
If it was heavy, she could've just ditched some weapons and ridden a horse or something on the way back.
-Once we defeat the Demon King and return to the Empire, won't our equipment sell for an insane price? Just selling the stuff Ronan's carrying might be enough to buy an entire country!
-Why would you sell the equipment? There's no need to even bring it. The Emperor will pour money on us just for coming back. We could get even better equipment.
-Really? Still, we have to bring all the equipment! It got us this far, and it's full of precious memories!
-Precious memories my ass. So you're going to sell my weapons, full of those precious memories, to buy a country?
-Oh... that's, true? But I didn't mean anything bad by it. I just... wanted us to have a place where we could all be comfortable together... Then I'll sell my stuff instead of Ronan's.
-What equipment does a chimpanzee have to sell? You gonna sell the bandages wrapped around your hands and your underwear? Still, well. For a chimpanzee, that's a pretty admirable thought.
-Wh-what? Ronan... do you want my underwear? Ugh... but selling them for money feels a bit... so I'll just give them to you. But... I should wash them first, right?
-Wash them? No need. I wouldn't take them even if you paid me!
-Huh...! Then th-th... ththth, then just... just take them?!
-Aaaagh!! You fucking bitch!!!
Stupid, foolish woman.
My chest felt strangely tight.
Maybe I overdid it in the fight against the Demons.
I felt a little dizzy and nauseous.
I set Sparkle down on the floor and sat down myself.
"...So, did Arisa say anything to you separately? The reason I was able to reincarnate—I'm pretty sure those bastards did something. There must have been... something."
Sparkle shook its head.
[No, she didn't say anything about Reincarnation. But... she did say something else. Something she asked me to pass on if I ever met Ronan.]
"If you ever met... me?"
Sparkle hadn't known I was dead.
The reason was probably those words.
The message she'd asked to be passed on if it ever met me.
Because of that, it had mistakenly believed I was alive.
But I had been dead.
Which means Arisa...
Had known about the future where I would reincarnate.
I ground my teeth and stared at Sparkle.
"What was the message she asked you to pass on?"
[...Uh, well...]
Sparkle hemmed and hawed for a while, then squirmed bashfully and opened its mouth.
[She said she never got married. That she'd be a virgin her whole life, so don't worry... she asked me to tell you that.]
"Is she insane?"