Chapter 83
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 83
Chapter Title: A Story from Another World
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"Hero bro, I've got a question."
The girl's sudden words.
The man called Hero bro reacted a beat late.
"Oh, were you talking to me?"
The girl paused in fixing his hair and grinned mischievously.
"Who else is here but you, Hero bro?"
"Truth is, I'm still not used to being called a hero. Could you just use my name instead?"
"Your name's hard to pronounce. And you need to get used to it. You're a hero starting today. The Hero of the Moon, no less."
"Well, I'll try."
The man grinned goofily.
The girl laughed along with him.
"Anyway, can I ask you something?"
"Hmm, answer my question first."
"What's that?"
The man turned around to face the girl, who was tilting her head quizzically.
"What do I look like?"
The man's extremely serious question.
The girl answered right away.
"Handsome!"
But the man's expression hardened even more.
"You said I blinded you, you brat."
"I can still see a bit. Enough to tell when someone's smiling."
The girl beamed as she continued.
"Anyway! No matter what anyone says, to me, you're the handsomest guy in the world, Hero bro!"
"That's the kinda thing parents say half-forced to cheer up their kids."
"I know."
"Hey, you little—"
The man swallowed his anger with a sigh before speaking.
"Hah. Fine, got it. So what's your question?"
"Where are you from, Hero bro?"
"Why ask that all of a sudden?"
"You're leaving tomorrow. I wanna know a bit more about you before then. Where you're from, what you did, stuff like that."
"Hmm."
The man let out a short hum.
The girl prodded him once more.
"So, Hero bro. Where are you from?"
In the end, the man smiled helplessly and answered her.
"A brutal place."
"How brutal?"
The girl tilted her head.
The man replied flatly.
"A land of death, where more people died than were born."
"Whoa, so you're basically the sole survivor from there?"
"Not quite that bad. It's called a land of death, but it did have the form of a nation."
"Ah."
The girl nodded with a smile before suddenly throwing out another question.
"But if it's a nation, there's gotta be a king, right? Didn't he issue any orders to stop it?"
"They made us dance to pray to the gods for children."
"Huh? Why on earth?"
At the girl's baffled question, the man gave a faint smile. A strange mix of self-mockery and longing.
"It was a theocracy. In other words, a country where religion was deeply rooted among the ruling class."
"A place like that exists? We have religion here too, but not to that extent."
"Hard to believe, I know, but where I'm from was a true theocracy. They even decided the nation's fate based on shamans' words."
Shamans...
It was a word the girl had never heard before.
"Shamans? Like sorcerers?"
"Kinda similar. Different in the details, though."
The girl thought it was a weird place.
No matter how devout, could a country really run like that? Surely not everyone's brain was just for show.
"Anything else besides that?"
"Of course."
The man chuckled lightly and went on.
"The weather was fickle, unlike here. The ground would scorch hot one day, then biting cold would sweep in the next."
"Farming must've been tough."
"We managed somehow, but you're not wrong. Most of it was harsh terrain, hard to develop."
"So how'd you survive?"
At that moment, the man's voice sank low.
"Weapons."
"Weapons?"
"Yeah. We made a ton and sold them to other countries for food like milk and fish."
"For real?"
The girl was stunned.
She couldn't wrap her head around it. How could such a barren land produce enough weapons to trade for food?
As far as she knew, making even one weapon required vast skill and resources.
"How's that possible? You're lying."
"We fought wars—not just with other countries, but among our own people too. Wars kept going right up until I came here."
"Wars...?"
"Yeah, wars. Had to get good at making weapons. The pain of war ran so deep, people obsessed over them like mad."
"..."
The girl fell silent.
She knew what war was. Not from experience, but from the horror stories of village elders who survived it.
And that war was ongoing?
How tragic.
The girl forced her mouth open.
"Why'd you live in a place like that, Hero bro?"
"Didn't have the strength to leave."
The man smiled lightly. But to the girl, that smile felt unbearably heavy.
How worn down do you have to be to smile like that? And still step up willingly for her request.
She felt so sorry.
And so grateful.
The girl hugged him tightly.
"...You must've had it rough, bro."
"I'm fine."
She knew it wouldn't help, but she hoped the gesture offered some comfort.
To lighten the heavy mood, the girl forced a bright voice.
"What'd you do there, Hero bro?"
"Hmm, too much to list."
"Then the last thing."
"Last one, huh..."
The man trailed off, then smiled faintly as he continued.
"When it rained, I'd dry the wet ground."
"How'd you end up with that job?"
"I just griped to the stars a few times while holding this thing called a gun. Said life was too hard. That's how I got the gig."
"Oh, the stars granted your wish? Like wishing on a shooting star!"
"Something like that. Not exactly what I wanted, though."
"Whoa, that's cool. Wish the stars here granted wishes too."
The girl grumbled wistfully.
The man patted her head.
"Anyway, after that, drying wet ground when it rained became my job."
Longing seeped from his voice. The girl liked it.
"But."
Suddenly, his voice hardened.
"Every time, the stars would come trample and soil the dried ground."
"No way..."
How heartbreaking.
If you're gonna grant a wish, see it through. Tormenting someone like that?
What's so fun about stomping on precious land people worked so hard for?
Before the girl could get mad, though, the man's voice softened.
"I'd roll huge metal lumps over the wounded land to mend and pack it. No matter how many times the stars trampled it."
What an incredible person.
Relentless violence breaks the spirit. Even she had buckled when rejected by others.
Yet he kept rising, silently doing the work.
Noble. Sublime.
Was this what adults called a saint?
"Doing all that amazing stuff, were you a hero back then too, bro?"
"Not wrong, but a bit different. They had a special name for it."
"Oh? What were you then, Hero bro?"
"Well, me..."
Seeing the girl's eyes sparkle with anticipation, the man beamed.
"I was a tennis court maintenance soldier."
Such an odd word. The girl thought so.
Hard to pronounce, like his name, but it didn't feel off-putting.
Like honey she'd never tasted, its sweet scent wafting over.
Then a question popped into her head.
"What'd you do for fun then, Hero bro?"
"For fun?"
"Yeah. Even you can't work that hard all the time. Gotta rest sometime."
Adults said so, the girl added.
"Hmm, a bit before that, but when I had free time, I'd climb towers."
"Climb towers? That's not resting."
At that, the man's face fell slightly.
"It was all I could do for my parents, who died because of people's clumsy hands."
"..."
The girl's face fell too.
She felt awful. Like she'd pried open a wound he'd buried.
"Who killed your parents...?"
"Comrades from the battlefield I trusted with my back."
Betrayed by allies he'd fought shoulder-to-shoulder with.
"So I'd climb towers obsessively. Even when they told me to come down, I wouldn't. Felt like I couldn't face my dead parents if I did."
How tormented he must've been.
How hard.
The girl couldn't imagine.
"Must've been tough..."
"It's fine. All in the past."
At his wistful smile, the girl shed quiet tears. Crying in his place, since his heart was too worn to anymore.
The man gently stroked her as he continued.
"Not all bad, though. Joined the golden ranks in just a year."
"Golden ranks? That's good?"
"Yeah, I was top-notch at climbing towers. Couldn't reach jade or platinum because of squadmates, but my real skill was challenger level."
"Whoa, that's awesome!"
The girl was genuinely impressed.
Truly amazed.
Whatever platinum or jade was, surely rarer than gold.
And challenger? Must be challenging something huge.
But his next words shocked her more.
"Later, I went back to the metal ranks."
He'd given up gold.
The girl couldn't understand.
"Huh? Why?"
"People in gold were all flash, no substance. Especially the ones wandering lost in the woods."
"You mean the hunters?"
"Yeah."
Hard for the girl to grasp, but she caught one thread.
"They messed up but blamed it all on you, huh."
"Right. All I did was stubbornly climb towers."
"That's so unfair."
The girl's face darkened.
He hadn't quit gold willingly.
Forced out by others.
Maddening. Why should an innocent guy pay for others' faults?
As if consoling her, the man grinned and patted her head.
"Not so bad. Got to try all sorts of things in metal ranks."
Loving his smile, the girl grinned back as brightly as she could.
"So you worked in a smithy or something? Wasn't swinging hammers tiring? Just watching looked deadly."
"Did some hammering, axe work too. Handled swords plenty. When bored, I'd take a cat up the tower."
"Whoa, a cat!"
The girl's pinkish eyes sparkled with excitement. Seeing them, the man patted her head.
"If we can go someday, let's go together. I'll give you a piggyback ride then."
"Yeah! Name me then too!"
"Sure. I'll give you the moonflower then."
"Got it!"
As they traded smiles, the girl raised another question.
"Sounds like you were amazing even off-duty. Did people have a special name for you?"
"Of course."
The man nodded.
"They trashed me as a tower-climbing maniac, but praised my skill as god-tier."
And, he continued,
"So they called me..."
"What?"
He laughed.
"Tower God Soldier Maniac."
Brighter than the moon above.
A night not even a full day long.
A fleeting moment in the girl's life.
But the most radiant one.
Because of that beautiful memory, the precious promise with the man, the single moonflower she still hadn't given...
The girl was okay.
"Hero bro..."
Even living day by day in dread of death, waiting endlessly for an uncertain reunion.
And even now.
Even with her body rotting away, leaving only half her head, part of her upper body, and one arm clutching the trampled moonflower.
Even realizing they could never reunite, and that she mustn't.
"Don't hurt..."
The girl was okay.