The Road to the Ruins (1)
Watching Mother, gradually being covered by earth, with only one arm remaining, I made a vow.
I would protect the little sister in my arms, no matter what it took.
"I'll protect you somehow, Lucia. I will."
Even as Mother rotted in the ground, time continued to flow.
We sisters needed money.
"We don't have any money. I'll do anything...! If I can just feed my sister something—anything... Please, I beg of you."
I discarded my pride.
With Mother gone, I played up the angle of two pitiful orphaned sisters.
Perhaps because it was a small village, it worked well enough. I took on all sorts of jobs that paid. I could feed my sister warm soup.
"Sorry... I have to go to work now. Let's play together next time! I promise!"
I abandoned my friends.
While I worked, I worried about my sister being alone. What if she was crying? What if she sank into depression thinking strange thoughts? What if someone bullied her for being parentless?
So I abandoned the friends I'd been close with. I drifted away from the friends I'd planned to enter the Academy with. The friends who'd made even a simple walk together joyful left me.
"So... how much is all this worth...? We're... selling the house and moving somewhere smaller..."
Mother's keepsakes. The house we'd lived in with Mother. Our memories. Our recollections. I sold the past I shared with Mother.
Even if I couldn't go, I wanted my sister to attend the Academy at least.
I earned my sister's resentment. But my sister didn't hate me for it. She nodded, saying she'd go to the Academy as her big sister wished—that if she succeeded there, Mother watching from heaven would be happy.
"Then what about my money...? The money for Lucia to enter the Academy...! Just half—give me back even half... Give it back!!"
I was scammed.
Short on money, I—and the villagers—agreed to invest in a man who claimed he was expanding the village waterways. I got not a single coin back. Apparently he never received Imperial permission. But the material costs already sunk were considerable, he said. He'd greased plenty of palms but failed, he said, and returned nothing.
The villagers stayed quiet. They had no choice but to stay quiet. I swallowed my rage. Because the other party was the Empire. This village, we ourselves—had no power, no ability, nothing at all, so we were simply crushed.
"I'll handle things myself, so mind your own business and do your job. Oh, right. Those gifts you gave me back then... well, thanks."
Sick of being taken advantage of, I put up my thorns. I sharpened my instincts so I could use others. I used the weapons I had—my looks, my figure, my pitiful circumstances. I extracted sympathy, attention, affection, love from people.
They could curse me. I didn't care. They could hit me. It didn't matter. I would do anything to protect my sister.
But perhaps some last shred of pride remained. I couldn't sell my body.
"Big sister Rubia! Look at this! It's already autumn!"
My sister never made it to the Academy, but she still trusted me and followed along. She grew up. She stopped saying things were hard. She stopped talking about Mother. She wanted to forget the past.
"What clothes should we buy this winter? I want to wear the same clothes as you, big sister! What about you?"
She listed off things that made her happy right now. She painted pictures of the future. I, too, buried the past to match her and painted the future.
I was happy. I had to be happy. After everything I'd endured. After everything I'd lived through. After discarding everything I had left to protect her.
Yes. I have to be happy. If my sister is happy, then I'm happy too. That's right. I'm happy. Really.
"Haa..."
The air, baked hot inside the makeshift tent, greeted my waking mind. Maybe because I'd had such a goddamn awful dream for the first time in a while, I felt like I'd slept soundly despite the heat.
I sat up and looked around the tent. Noah was nowhere to be seen. I straightened the clothes I'd mussed in my sleep and stepped outside.
"Huuuh... Did she close the flap to assassinate me or something?"
She'd probably shut it to keep the bugs out. The cool breeze against my sweat-soaked body felt a little refreshing, at least. As I stretched, a campsite that looked quite different from last night caught my eye.
"She ate and passed out, but she cleaned everything up."
Every trace of last night's barbecue had been wiped clean, and in its place lay sliced bread and what looked like salad vegetables, all laid out in a row.
Crooked. Jagged.
"What is this... Pffft..."
The cut faces of the bread were rough, and the vegetables had been butchered with extreme prejudice. As a bonus, a cup of completely cold coffee sat beside them. If she'd been here, I would have teased her again. Feeling a little disappointed, I looked around.
In the right-hand corner, a patch of grass had been thoroughly stomped flat, and a trail of footprints stretched out ahead of it. Had she been playing at trampling the grass over there again? The image of Noah grinning goofily as she stomped the grass floated up in my mind.
After a moment's hesitation, I closed my eyes and tried stepping on the grass myself.
Rustle— rustle—
"Hmm..."
I shook my head, sat down, and started eating the bread and salad.
"Wow... This is genuinely terrible."
A salad with almost no dressing was truly the worst. And this wasn't even salad dressing, was it? What kind of sauce was this...
I washed the pasty taste out of my mouth with the coffee.
"Huh. Still, it's a little... better than before?"
It still tasted awful. As I forced down the bread and salad, I wondered how to break the stiff atmosphere between us. A week wasn't long, but living in this kind of tension would be uncomfortable for both of us. I had no intention of letting her go easily even after we reached Cartia Village, but still.
To lighten the mood, I'd tried a few of the mischievous pranks and teasing I used to pull on my little sister. But instead of getting angry, Noah just kept bowing her head over and over. That look of hers was so pathetic and cute that I might have pushed things a little too far...
That aside—what was her real self, exactly?
The Noah I'd investigated and known about was a talented adventurer who'd climbed to Silver rank in the shortest time on record. The rumors said the same. What was that again? Her hair always stained dark red with magic beast blood, and the crimson eyes she showed in battle so chilling they haunted your dreams?
"Rumors really are just rumors, I guess..."
The Noah I'd actually met was... a neighborhood idiot who couldn't do a single thing on her own. Always looked down on, her self-esteem and confidence so thoroughly crushed she could barely hold a conversation. When I asked to be shown somewhere quiet, she led me to a blacksmith's forge... Well, it was quiet.
The absurd mountain of luggage she'd packed without even properly reading the list. An adventurer who couldn't even start a fire, let alone ride a horse, and whose cooking was truly atrocious. At this point she was worse than ordinary people. The kind of person who'd starve to death no matter where she went.
And yet—the Red Beast that Tears Magic Beasts?
Noah, grinning goofily as she went stomp-stomp on the grass in the corner, floated up in my mind again.
"Pffft... Unbelievable. Seriously."
Anyone could see she was an ordinary, pure-hearted girl. Right. Everything I'd seen so far made perfect sense if you just remembered she was blind. But she wasn't an ordinary blind girl. She was an adventurer who'd reached Silver rank in the shortest time on record—a rank that talentless people could pour every effort into and still never reach. That made it even harder to understand.
From what I'd researched separately, an adventurer's life was brutally harsh. How had a Noah like this survived in a place like that? How had she climbed all the way to Silver rank alone, without joining a party? And then there was that... side of her that only appeared when she didn't have her greatsword. All of it made me want to know more. Made me curious.
To prepare for the unexpected. To prepare for the day she became an enemy. And maybe—though it was unlikely—just in case, for the day she became a true ally. Strengths, weaknesses, anything at all. I needed to know.
Somehow finishing the dry bread and the horrific salad, I stood up and followed Noah's footprints.
Clang—
With a crisp, clean sound, my greatsword knocked aside the Black Bear's claws. A parry. At the same time, the greatsword rebounded to the right. Using that recoil, I spun my body—from left to right. The greatsword, which had been carving into the Black Bear's flesh, caught with a jolt against its ribs and stopped. With everything I had, I kicked the flat of the blade upward. A kick with maxed-out strength stats tore the Black Bear's right arm clean off, greatsword still embedded in it.
Grrr...
A blood-boiling roar reached my ears. Without stopping, I charged. I drove the greatsword into the severed stump of its right wing. Without the tough hide in the way, the blade sank easily into the interior. I twisted my body and wrenched the greatsword upward. The blade came free, shattering the Black Bear's shoulder blade and spraying droplets of blood as I recovered it.
Now there was no boiling roar—only a faint, ragged breathing. I spun with all my strength. The greatsword followed my body and smashed into the Black Bear's skull. With the sensation of splitting a watermelon, a foul liquid splattered across my entire body. The faint breathing cut off.
I recovered the sword. I gave the Black Bear's corpse a light shove with my foot.
"Whew! That was refreshing."
I looked around. Trees toppled every which way. A squelching, blood-soaked ground. For just one bear, the scenery was pretty rough. I'd moved more aggressively on purpose, though. Maybe it was the change of sleeping place, but something about my dreams had been restless. Was it because we were heading to the East Ruins, and that stirred up old memories...?
Anyway! Today's me is still super strong!
Just as I turned my back to head toward the tent—
"Noah...?"
Aileen's voice came from up ahead.
"Ah... g-good morning...!"
I walked toward Aileen, waving awkwardly. She started looking back and forth between me and the bear. Um... why, why is she doing that? Does she hate that I had all the fun by myself...? Even if it's a commission, a party's still a party, so maybe I should have hunted with her...?
I picked up my pace a little, intending to apologize. But the closer I got, the farther Aileen seemed to get. Is she that mad...? Well then, let's go catch another one...
"I-I'm sor—"
"Ah, no. Wait. Stop right there."
Aileen stretched both hands out, rejecting me. Was catching one bear really such a huge mistake...? I hung my head dejectedly.
"No, it's not that... It's just that Noah doesn't seem to realize what she looks like right now, so I should tell you..."
"Huh...?"
I tilted my head and looked myself over. Just a little bloodstain, other than that... Wait. What's this?
I pulled out a round something dangling from my pocket. Ah, a Black Bear eyeball had gotten caught here. Holding it by the optic nerve, I looked at Aileen. Is it because of this?
"Yes... that... First... let's go to the stream. And don't get too close..."
Aileen slowly turned her back and hurried toward the tent. Being a rear-liner, maybe she had a weak stomach. As expected of Aileen. You're younger than me. Heh heh.
Wearing a victor's smile, I followed Aileen toward the tent.
"The Red Beast that Tears Magic Beasts..."
I heard Aileen mutter, but it didn't sound like she was calling me, so I ignored it and kept walking. That aside—did she finish the breakfast I prepared? Breakfast is the most important meal of the day.