Chapter 67
Chapter 67
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Translator: uly
Chapter: 67
Chapter Title: During the Absence (8)
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"The Iron Hounds are the pinnacle of 'magitech engineering,' successfully restored by the Goliath Counterintelligence Battalion based on fodder obtained from the Uzet Great Library. True to the Empire's technological prowess, they're versatile artifacts deployable in nearly every operation—hunting, tracking, assassination, stronghold defense, you name it. But that versatility comes at the cost of tricky maintenance."
Darling grunted as she hauled a massive silver rod out of the carriage. Crafting a lump of iron with 99.9% purity required meticulous casting with magical impurity removal—a finicky process.
It was a rare item, obtainable only from the largest forge in Pharenchia, home to the grandest furnace.
"The biggest issue is that if you don't feed them regularly, their loyalty drops. Especially if they're neglected and get a taste of pure iron like this, which they love—their allegiance shifts in no time. Even Goliath had headaches over it."
"W-Wait a minute!"
Erzebet cut Darling off, staring in disbelief at the two Iron Hounds wagging their tails at her.
"Those are from the 12 Alliance? How the hell are they in the canteen?"
"How should I know the full story? I just keep an eye on new additions to the canteen family and looked into it."
With that, Darling pushed past the path guarded by the Iron Hounds and reached the canteen entrance. The door was sealed shut with iron plating, but she easily found the back door here too.
"Kingdom building codes require at least one emergency fire escape passage. Even without that, knowing Louis's personality, he'd have carved out an escape route."
"Still... the door's locked."
"This one?"
Darling shoved aside a large flowerpot next to the back door with both hands, retrieving the key hidden beneath. She had Louis's uptight mindset completely figured out by now.
Just before unlocking the door, Darling turned to Erzebet.
"You should head back now."
"Pardon?"
"He's extremely sensitive to presences. He's probably sensing every move we're making up there. No need to rile him up—go on home. I'll soothe him."
"But... won't it be dangerous for you?"
Erzebet knew Louis's temper all too well. But the head of the Luhillen family grinned mischievously and shook her head.
"Louis has always been too much of a coward to lay a hand on me. No worries."
"Still..."
"You standing there isn't going to help. Now go—take that weird bird with you!"
Darling half-shoved Erzebet out of the canteen grounds, then pulled a large bundle from the carriage before opening the door.
It was a bundle packed with everything she could think of to lift Louis's spirits.
Kiiiek.
She entered the first floor of the canteen and headed straight up the stairs to where Louis was on the second floor.
"Canteen owner. I'm coming in."
Using a duplicate key she'd prepared in advance, she unlocked the door. Her crimson hair caught the glow of the late evening sunset.
Nova once said that the roots of humanity's primal urges all stem from a single thread.
In my case, tormented by the madness of war for so long, the partitions dividing those urges were riddled with hairline cracks.
Emotions were no different.
Everyone gets angry sometimes. But you can't always extinguish the raging inferno in your heart right away in every situation.
There must have been circumstances. Liv and Adella wouldn't have fought over something as trivial as the dinner menu.
But whatever the reason, the canteen was incredibly precious to me. It's only natural to get mad when it's smashed.
Even as I tried to rationalize it all and repeat it to myself, the thick sorrow lodged in my chest kept pinning my body to this sofa.
If I lost even a shred of reason, a real catastrophe might unfold.
Suppressing the anger until it calmed—until I could brush it off as no big deal with a laugh—that was my best option right now.
— Almost there, Eris. It's all over now. Don't worry. Terra and Nova will link up with Whitelett soon and head up.
— Even if we fail... the demon realm won't recover for at least a century.
Solitary silence. In it, idle regrets were always the shovel digging up the landfill of memories.
Since the adventure ended, my mind had been rotten soil where nothing would grow even if seeded. But for a kid like me, raised slicing demon necks instead of smartphones and computers, there wasn't much else to do in a situation like this.
Just sifting through memories with delicate hands and a worn shovel—like playing in the dirt. Digging into my heart, and instead of the occasional earthworm, out popped a black, stinking memory.
— Aren't you tired? Hmm... not sure. I've never been good at that sort of thing. Hell, I've even forgotten my original name now.
— Huh? D-Don't cry all of a sudden! What's wrong? Oh, right. Let's talk after killing the bastard beyond that door. You said you wanted to travel, right?
I looked up. A clock hung on the wall—intact, just ornamental.
Good. Or is it? Maybe it doesn't matter. It hasn't functioned as a timepiece anyway.
— Those holy kingdom bastards always chasing you? Don't worry. I'll make sure no one finds you. You can roam the continent freely.
So what about me? Am I fulfilling the role left to me now?
— I swear it—on my conviction.
Maybe I'm like that clock—obsolete and unneeded.
Lost in waves of memories like wandering a dream, I heard footsteps. My hazy vision, blurred as if dead drunk, cleared. The beautiful sunset outside poured into the room.
"Ah, you're awake. Excuse me for a moment. I patched the hole temporarily. Such a simple spell, yet you've been doing everything by hand until now."
Panting from the steep stairs, Darling swept the room's clutter into a corner.
Then she unpacked familiar items from her bundle, placing them one by one around the sofa where I lay.
"Huh? Where'd you get these? Don't ask. But canteen owner, your memory's pretty poor. When things start vanishing from home, don't most people at least change the front door key?"
I couldn't quite grasp what she meant. Clothes I'd bought at the market sometime hung over the sofa back.
The stuff Adella and Liv had broken was replaced with similar items. Magic sure is wondrous.
"These are precious to you in their own way, but everything finds its place eventually. Now, scoot over a bit."
Darling pushed me aside and plopped down next to me. She draped one arm over my head and kept making odd demands of her weary self.
"Right, keep telling me that story from your childhood. I don't know what local play you saw, but even your awful descriptions made it intriguing."
Childhood. Back then, I loved movies. I'd hook up the house DVDs to the TV and watch with my parents until we dozed off.
Actually, they might've been too brutal for a kid—maybe I didn't love them that much. But they were the most memorable Earth artifact etched in my mind.
"Tsk tsk, believing humanity could reach that star? Utter madness. But that screw loose in you suits my tastes perfectly, so Liv like that. No fixing it anytime soon anyway."
As I spoke, my mind cleared bit by bit. The sunset-tinted hair of Darling, nestled in my arms, carried a sunny fragrance.
Feeling the strength in my hand, she looked up at me.
Pretty eyes. Like amber (?!) encasing a mosquito from the dinosaur era.
"Your metaphors always make me want to puke. They're amusing sometimes, but can't you just say a woman's pretty?"
"...Viscount?"
"Looks like your wits are back, canteen owner."
"Why are you here—no, how are you here?"
"Is that important right now? Look at yourself."
Me? I smelled a bit unwashed, but otherwise normal. As I stretched and tried to sit up, Darling suddenly climbed onto my lap and pulled something from her bosom.
"You're not fully okay yet. Stay still."
"What're those scissors for?"
"To trim that dog-fur mop of yours. Didn't you tell me before? How good it felt every time the barber cut your hair."
"Well, that's not wrong, but... uh..."
It wasn't incorrect, but how did Darling know?
Besides, barbershops don't offer service where they embrace you from the front, pressing their chest against you. Petite frame, but that chest...
Still, maybe it wasn't entirely ineffective.
Each snip snip of the scissors brushing my ears melted away the fire in my chest like dalgona dissolving in my mouth.
Her scent filling my lungs with every breath lulled my fatigued body into deep sleep.
In my pleasantly fading consciousness, I drifted to Darling's voice.
Come to think of it, hadn't I been asleep all this time?
"Canteen owner, you probably think I've changed a lot. But I feel the same looking at you."
Snip snip. Snip snip.
"Remember how jittery and wrecked you were when you arrived at Pharenchia? I thought you'd rolled in a corpse. The first day I saw you, my heart raced—I couldn't sleep from nerves."
Snip snip.
"You still crash like this occasionally, but you've improved a ton. Personally relieved. Just a hunch... maybe those young academy mages rubbed off on you positively."
Snip.
"But I'm not giving up yet, so watch out. If you came to the Luhillen estate, you could rest way comfier than this. Well, this time I poached your cute dogs too, so I'll head back satisfied."
Mwah.
"You get some sleep too. You'll be busy when you wake up."