The Weight of Familiar Fools
Dan was wary of ‘Didi.’
That little brat was anything but an ordinary human, no matter how you looked at him.
At first I thought I was imagining it.
Raven himself had long since stepped outside the bounds of normal, and the mercenaries who had only recently met him might not have noticed. But Dan—who had been watching the child from afar without once taking his eyes off him—knew for certain.
He doesn’t use the bathroom.
The child showed no physiological needs whatsoever.
Almost like…
Yes. Just like Raven.
Dan had been so focused on Raven that Didi had only entered his peripheral vision. That was why it had taken him this long to notice. But it was undeniable. The so-called noble young lady had not visited the bathroom even once since they began traveling together.
If that was the case, it stood to reason that other aspects of the child might resemble Raven as well. From there, Dan could make one more inference.
The way he keeps missing mealtimes and skipping them altogether… maybe it isn’t because he’s being considerate and not wanting to cause trouble. Maybe he simply doesn’t need to eat and just forgets.
Whether Raven couldn’t eat or simply didn’t was still unclear. Either way.
That thing is not human.
After looking into Didi’s eyes, Dan was utterly convinced. Those were not the eyes of someone who saw humans as their own kind.
That must be why he had sensed such unease from the start. A superior being who could neither understand the weak nor even wished to would never be able to convincingly imitate one. How could a creature that looked at people like annoying insects and openly displayed killing intent possibly act out the role of ‘human’ perfectly?
…It was dangerous.
His instincts were screaming in alarm. Whatever ‘that’ was, it shared certain traits with Raven, yet existed on an entirely different plane. A far more monstrous, unfathomably ancient presence.
…It’s fine.
Even as the clear threat to his life washed over him, Dan forced himself to appear calm as he accepted the bundle of papers from his Sculpted Soul. Cold sweat had soaked the back of his shirt.
Raven is nearby.
I won’t die.
That thing went so far as to pretend to be a bug just to stay at his side. It wouldn’t risk killing me and getting caught.
It was almost laughable that his life now depended on his enemy, but for the moment, this was the best option he had.
So Dan suppressed the instinct urging him to flee and looked down at the papers in his hand.
He hadn’t been able to watch closely because he had been monitoring Raven, but these were the very things the child had been secretly receiving and then tearing into tiny shreds before returning to Raven’s side.
He needed to confirm what the monster clinging to his target had been trying so quietly to erase.
This is…
“What are you looking at?”
“!”
Dan flinched and spun around. In that instant, Eckhart snatched the bundle of papers from his hand.
The man had only glanced over the sheets without much thought, but his expression soon grew strangely complicated.
“What the hell is this?”
He had come over to keep an eye on things because the little assassin-in-training had been creeping closer and closer. He’d been worried the kid might try to kill their captain again.
“A wanted poster…?”
What was he doing with something like this? Was the little assassin thinking of switching careers to bounty hunter? Well, a bounty hunter who stayed within the bounds of the law was certainly better than an assassin or a stalker.
At least he wasn’t trying to kill Raven. That was a relief.
So who was the criminal their little dreamer was planning to turn in for his first catch? Interest flickered in Eckhart’s now-relaxed eyes. He slowly began reading the contents.
…No criminal record? Just looking for a person?
Catching criminals from the start was indeed difficult. He was about to shrug it off when his eyes caught the enormous sum written in the largest font.
A reward far too large to be for simply finding one person.
This is suspicious.
It would be a nice payout if he turned the target in, but…
Just what kind of person would have this kind of price on their head? Curiosity rising, he read the physical description. His face gradually grew more and more peculiar.
“This… why does it feel like someone I know…?”
“Did one of your acquaintances turn out to be a criminal?”
“Ah, Captain…!”
When did he get so close…!
Raven suddenly poked his head in without warning and snatched the paper from Eckhart’s hand. While the mercenary fidgeted anxiously, Raven scanned the contents. All expression vanished from his face.
“…So that’s what it was.”
Yes, it was definitely someone he knew.
The people chasing him seemed to be working quite hard. Raven glanced once at the wanted poster bearing his own description, then at Eckhart and Dan, before turning his gaze toward Didi, who was nervously shifting her eyes back and forth not far away. His reaction was calmer than expected.
It’s nothing new.
He had already noticed Didi’s suspicious behavior from the beginning. Being surprised now would be ridiculous.
Though he hadn’t expected that suspicion to include something like this.
“This…”
Anyway, he needed to sort out the situation first.
In the strange atmosphere where everyone was watching one person, Raven felt their gazes upon him and opened his mouth with an expressionless face. A voice difficult to read emotionally flowed out.
“If I go myself, do you think they’ll still pay me?”
“……”
“The amount is pretty decent.”
The Guardian Spirit lets out a sigh.
“No, Captain! That’s not what’s important right now! Just who the hell are you that they’d put a bounty like this on your head?!”
“I have no idea.”
The frozen atmosphere loosened slightly.
Raven casually brushed off Eckhart’s protest and flipped through the identical wanted posters without much interest before approaching Didi. He returned the bundle of papers to her hands and asked calmly.
“So, why were you secretly collecting these?”
“T-that’s…”
“Were you planning to hand me over once we reached the capital?”
Is that why you collected them without me noticing?
Even though he could guess that the child had done this several times during their journey, he had never once seen any paper. Perhaps she had been secretly destroying them. If she had been trying to get rid of these this time and got caught, it made sense.
He wasn’t angry.
It didn’t harm him in any way. Besides, betrayal was only possible if you trusted the other person to begin with.
I am curious who’s searching for me with such determination. Being captured doesn’t sound so bad…
That was what Raven had been thinking indifferently when Didi suddenly grabbed his sleeve in a panic.
“It’s absolutely not that!! Hand you over? There’s no way I would!”
“Then?”
“That…”
“……”
“I-I was afraid that if Raven-nim saw this… you wouldn’t want to go to the capital anymore…”
“…What?”
“I was scared you might not take me there…”
Her voice grew smaller and smaller until her head drooped forward. Raven stared at her quietly, then slowly closed and opened his eyes before letting out a deep sigh.
“…You’re worrying about all sorts of things with that tiny head of yours.”
“I’m sorry…”
“I’ll definitely take you there, so stop worrying about useless things and go rest.”
He patted her back encouragingly. Didi, still looking anxious, glanced at his face as if checking his mood before walking in the direction he nudged her and sitting down. After confirming she had settled, Raven glanced sideways at Dan.
…He’d probably prefer to kill me with his own hands rather than hand me over in some half-hearted revenge.
No need to worry about him reporting this.
In fact, he would likely prefer that Raven not be captured, since that would mean losing sight of him. So this one could be overlooked. Raven turned his gaze to Eckhart.
“Are you going to report it?”
“Eh?! No?!”
The sturdy man practically jumped.
“He doesn’t even look like a criminal. Why would I go out of my way to earn someone’s grudge?”
“Criminal… huh…”
“…Don’t tell me you really are a criminal…?”
“Not officially, at least.”
He went around killing people, but he had never been officially wanted, so he wasn’t a criminal.
Still, where exactly had Eckhart heard that he had killed Dan’s family? Normally, after hearing a story like that and then finding a wanted poster, wouldn’t most people immediately assume the person was dangerous?
As expected of someone who had been acting strangely from the start. Raven tilted his head crookedly.
“With a bounty this high, you could live five years without worrying about money. You really won’t report me?”
“Of course not—”
“Even if I refuse to join your mercenary group?”
“…That would be a shame, but.”
Eckhart scratched his head with a sour expression.
“Forcing you to stay with threats like that would obviously backfire. There’s nothing uglier or more pathetic than holding a grudge just because someone rejected you.”
“……”
“And I’m not so desperate that I need to sell out a promising young man who isn’t even a bad person just to make money…”
Raven’s head creaked as he turned.
“Promising… future?”
“Yes.”
“Who?”
“Who else? You, Captain.”
He looked at most like he was in his early twenties.
…Said the fluffy twenty-something brat with baby-face fuzz.
Raven, who had only recently confirmed through Death that he was one hundred and seventy-four years old, stared at Eckhart in open bewilderment.
“You… Never mind.”
“Are you still uneasy? I can understand why, but if that’s really the case…”
Misinterpreting Raven’s reaction, the mercenary walked toward the important hostage. The bandit leader, sensing danger, rolled his eyes and tried to scoot backward, but his struggles while tied up were meaningless.
Shing.
A gleaming blade appeared before the bandit leader.
“Mmph! Mmmph!!”
Faced with the immediate threat to his life, the man thrashed desperately. His gaze instinctively followed the hand holding the sword upward—only to meet eyes that now gleamed with a chilling light, completely unlike the cheerful expression from before. Terror filled his face.
No matter how lighthearted he seemed, Eckhart was a ‘mercenary’ who had killed before.
“There must be a reason this guy was listed as capture-only. He probably has backers. If he dies, I’ll be in serious trouble.”
“……”
“So.”
“Mmph! Mm—.”
Slice.
The noisy sound was cut short.
Without even wiping the blood splattered across his face, Eckhart turned to look at Raven. A bright smile bloomed on the man with the strange green eyes.
“Now my life depends on keeping your secret too, Captain.”
“…Why go this far…?”
“Well… consider it the price of my life. You saved me, after all. I can’t just casually pry into your circumstances or butt into things I don’t fully understand. So I figured I should reassure you like this.”
“……”
Crazy bastard.
Raven had no idea what to say.
He had been planning to adjust the timing if Eckhart tried to report him, but the problem had been solved in a completely unexpected direction. After a long silence, Raven finally spoke.
“I wasn’t the one whose life was on the line.”
“What?! Only I die?!”
“Well, I’ll at least applaud your courage in wanting to make your life more difficult. It must have been very boring for you.”
“Captainnnn…”
“Instead of whining, you should clean up first. If you want to raise the difficulty of your life even higher, you can just leave it as is.”
He curled one corner of his mouth in a crooked reply.
.
.
.
While the mercenary handled the cleanup, Raven belatedly realized Didi was watching and pulled her into his arms, covering her eyes.
At his soothing touch, the child’s body went limp as if the tension had drained away, and she fell asleep. By the time even the crow perched on a nearby tree was nodding off, Raven—who had been quietly staring up at the sky—finally spoke.
“I wondered why it felt so familiar…”
“?”
“There was once a fool like you before.”
His calm voice spread softly through the quiet night.
“A guy who would get his hands bloody for someone he’d only known for a short time, without even thinking about the consequences.”
“Is that a compliment?”
He had been a mercenary too.
Whether because they shared the same profession or because their personalities were similar, the memory of that past day suddenly resurfaced. Raven lowered his gaze.
…Now he finally understood why he had unconsciously grown softer toward this noisy fool.
“He was completely, utterly insane.”
“Was that an insult?!”
“Be quiet. You’ll wake the kids.”
Because the way he acted was exactly the same as that person back then.
They had only spoken face-to-face for such a short time, yet he would stain his hands with blood for someone like that.
“It’s a compliment, in its own way. It takes an extraordinary amount of courage to do something so reckless.”
“Ah…”
Even though that idiot would completely forget him if he didn’t see him for five hours and treated him like a stranger every time he woke up, the immature Raven of the past simply couldn’t leave him.
So.
“Well, in the end, I killed him.”
…So, he had no choice but to kill him.