Contract — Interlude

Mrs. Reece was dead. I stared blankly at her, the pure white cloth drawn all the way up over her head.

There was none of the movement a living person ought to show. She lay still, the way a thing lies still. She was certainly dead.

Skin that ought to have been soft had hardened as if it had turned to stone. She was certainly dead.

A body that ought to have been whole had been broken and toyed with, like a doll put together wrong. She was truly, certainly dead.

"......"

I offered her a silent bow, then rose.

Outside, a simple cot had been set out, and Myu lay on it. She had cried herself into exhaustion at her mother's side and collapsed, so the bustle all around her drew not the slightest movement.

"Nn..."

"......"

I lightly ruffled Myu's hair and stepped fully outside.

"Come on, come on! Finish this and we're done! Let's wrap it up quick!"

"The patient's about to seize! Hold them down!"

"I'm telling you, my house is gone!"

The uproar that had seized Contract after the monster raid quieted in short order. Perhaps that was only to be expected. Contract was vast enough to be called a great city, thick with mercenaries, and it even possessed a Warp Gate through which help could be called from the imperial capital. It was no small town that would falter over minor damage.

"...Right. This much counts as minor damage."

The man who seemed to be her husband showed no sign of coming. The lord who had fled likewise had no thought of returning to a Contract already rushing to rebuild. I suspected I would not meet either of them, not even in the moment I left to carry out my mission.

"You're heading for the Houndfell Margraviate?"

"Not yet. Things aren't settled. I'll go once they are."

My mission, strictly speaking, was one that began in Houndfell. An incident might delay it, but I could hardly go back to the Emperor having done nothing at all.

"Doesn't it bother you at all, Hero?"

At Serena's sudden question, I turned. She was wiping blood from her hands with a handkerchief, watching me.

"...What?"

"The feeling when you fail to save someone. That desperate wish to save them. I know it well."

"......"

"Even when I can't properly save someone right in front of me, it leaves me uneasy. So I can imagine how you must feel now."

Serena looked down at her own hands, which were giving off a clear light. Divine power—a strength the goddess had granted to humankind, an ability devoted to healing and protection. She seemed to have come here only after tending the wounded until just now.

"...Who knows."

I answered her bluntly. It wasn't because she still made me uncomfortable, and I didn't think she was putting on a show of hypocrisy either.

At least in the way she was treating me now, she was sincere. ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠So the reason I couldn't give her a proper answer was, unexpectedly, a simple one.

"I don't really know."

I didn't understand my own feelings. I wasn't sad enough over her death, or over the wreck of that family, for tears to come, and I wasn't angry enough at the goblins who had killed her for a single thought to rise. I even wondered whether she had been someone I would think about this much in the first place. It was a death that could only be called bad luck. I felt it was a pity. That was all. Mrs. Reece had only been someone I had spoken with once, while she guided us to the carriage.

"On the battlefield there were deaths worse than that, and deaths more absurd. I'm used to people dying, to a point."

People die. A soldier who had been joking only the day before would be there the next with a spear through his neck, mouth hanging open. A brave knight falling into danger while saving a comrade was an utterly ordinary thing. And sometimes—absurdly—you met an enemy so absurdly strong that you died for nothing.

"......"

In any case, her death didn't seem to have stirred any great feeling in me. Probably.

"Ah. Though I think there is one thing I've been thinking."

"What's that?"

"What if I'd set everything else aside and run straight for Contract... I keep turning that other choice over."

Saving the village had been purely my own stubbornness. Maybe that was why her death weighed on me all the more. If I had gone as Vivian suggested, instead of insisting on my own way, might she have lived, even a little? A simple, foolish question I kept asking myself.

When I glanced ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠at Serena, both of her eyes were trembling finely. I couldn't tell what kind of reaction that was, but I went out of my way to ask, a little meanly.

"Do I look a little pathetic? Just sitting here going, what if I'd done it this way, over and over."

"No. You don't, Hero. Everyone has regrets like that, don't they? There's nothing strange about it at all."

Serena waved the question off, denying it outright.

"Only... I don't think you can stay in the past forever. Thinking about regrets and what-ifs is necessary, so you don't repeat the same mistakes in the future. But if you sink too deep into them, they'll break you."

She was right. Lingering in the past forever isn't good. That was part of why I was here with all of them like this. I smiled at her and asked.

"Is that so... Have you ever been like this too, Serena?"

"I'm a person before I'm a servant of the god. There are times I think about regrets and what-ifs, too."

"......"

Serena smiled, soft and bright. It was a gentle smile, the kind that seemed to lift the mood of anyone who saw it.

"...Then you've completely left that past behind now?"

And yet Serena's smile was often like a painting. You could think it beautiful and warm, and still feel that if you reached out to touch it you would find only the cold, rough grain of ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠paper.

"Of course. Obviously."

That you made me a little uncomfortable. I had tried, a little, to understand. She had comforted me, so I ought to have been grateful. Understanding you would probably take me a little more time. I thought that, and smiled.

For an instant, a crack seemed to run across her face. Suddenly it was funny—her, so kind and speaking nothing but lies, and me, unable to bear the one offering that comfort, tossing out a single blunt word.

"Hide your heart too long and you'll make yourself sick on the inside."

"...What do you mean."

It wasn't only Serena. Vivian, too, and Freya. Each of them had parts I couldn't understand. It was uncomfortable, certainly. But even so, it wasn't bad. Even if they made me uncomfortable, I could still treat them kindly. We were, strictly speaking, a relationship gathered for a purpose, tied together because each of us stood to gain. There was probably no need to know one another that deeply.

"Anyway. I'm going, Serena. Fighting all day has left me tired. We leave tomorrow, so you should rest too. You worked hard."

It was late. Managing my condition was essential for the next mission. I had to rest as much as I could if I was going to move on.

Rest first. Think after I'd rested. With that, I turned from Serena and walked straight to the lodgings. Serena remained where she was and watched me go, on and on.

Morning came quickly over wounded Contract. In the early light, the party and I were checking our gear in front of the carriage.

I also opened the quest window I hadn't managed to check yesterday. Objective 1 had been cleared long ago, so it was time to confirm the reward for Objective 2, which until now had been nothing but question marks.

"Oh."

The random stat applied at once, and my stamina rose. Strength or agility would have been more efficient, but this wasn't bad either. Stamina wasn't merely the power to keep moving for a long time. It was a stat that raised the body's overall stability, vitality and defense included. And the higher it climbed, the more I could roll resistance checks against disease and all manner of debuffs, so it was useful in more ways than one.

Truth is, since I'm going for a balanced build, there isn't a stat worth throwing away.

Whatever the stat, if you can raise it, you should. Only its importance changes with your lean. Players who dumped everything into a single stat usually just recruited other characters to cover whatever they themselves couldn't do. Feeling the sturdier stamina in my body, I clenched my fist and opened it again, then checked the next reward.

{Skill EXP ×2 Coupon ×1}

This was good, too. Use the coupon, and for a set time the experience gained from skills shot up explosively. It even applied to special skills, whose experience requirements for leveling were overwhelmingly high, so it would be worth saving for a day I set aside to train.

And the next reward was...

"......"

"Uh, Hero, that..."

Why on earth would they give me ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠something like this. With a sigh, I looked at the lunch basket in my hands. Woven from thinly split wood, it retained nothing but its shape—so frayed and filthy it could no longer serve any purpose. What was I supposed to do with them handing me this.

"...Shall we get going, then."

I set the basket on the carriage and looked over the party. A day's rest seemed to have left them all in decent shape. Vivian gave a curt little nod. Freya stretched out a long yawn, lazy and at ease. And Serena wore only a smile that had cracked, just a little.

My own condition was fine as well. The penalties stacked by Battlefield Interference had long since faded, so heading out on the mission now ought to be all right.

"Let's go."

An unexpected incident had kept us in Contract far too long. I had already reported to Regina, so there was no major problem, but I couldn't leave the mission she had given me sitting like this. Even now, we had to depart for the mission grounds. I was thinking that, about to tell the coachman to make for Houndfell, when—

Thud-thud-thud-thud!

Hoofbeats, coming fast. And with them, breathing so ragged it almost sounded desperate.

A man who looked like a soldier, riding alone, was tearing madly across Contract from outside the walls. His eyes were sunken, the corners of his mouth pale. The light in those unsteady eyes looked ready to gutter out at any moment.

Inside the departing carriage, my gaze went to him—not because he looked so desperate, but because his face was one I knew.

He was the soldier who had fled Contract with the lord's jewels. The one who hadn't wanted to give his life for strangers. The husband who had quarreled with his wife and wanted to make peace.

"......"

Watching the man ride away, I set the basket down outside the slowly moving carriage. For a moment I thought I heard his wail, and a child's cry of pain. There was nothing I could do about it. I had no intention of doing anything in the first place. Things like this were more common in this world than one would think. So.

"Get us to Houndfell. Quickly."

I was only doing what little I could. The basket I had set outside the carriage sat there alone, left behind.