Remembering Small Kindnesses
It had been exactly three minutes since I began wandering the shops near the Archive Tower, all while remembering small kindnesses. “Look at this bastard. Is he a male prostitute?” “Male prostitutes don’t walk around naked, you idiot. It’s obvious he got stripped somewhere.” The two men were talking among themselves. I had been grabbed by a clearly thuggish duo. The knives and single-shot pistols in their hands glinted ominously. Hmm. Had choosing the alley over the main road to avoid putting on a naked show been the problem? No, hasty judgments were forbidden. Maybe they just had ugly faces but were actually kind neighbors. A small good deed and a single piece of clothing. That much could even buy my heart.
“Excuse me. Do you gentlemen have some business with me?”
“Can’t you tell by looking? We’re robbing you~”
Heh. I had thought I was the problem, but now I saw that these bastards who had grabbed a naked man were the real issue. I was still in the state of a wild animal that hadn’t even put on clothes yet. At a glance, I didn’t look like I had anything worth mugging. What could they possibly take from a naked animal? My hide? I was genuinely curious about these guys’ mentality.
“Hey. I’ve done some mugging myself, so I know a thing or two, and that’s not how you do it.”
“What?”
“Do I look like I have anything worth taking?”
You have to hit something that can actually produce something, like a vending machine. Giving advice and then networking is an important skill set in the same industry. To raise my review score, I made that appeal, and the duo’s expressions twitched.
“What the hell are you saying, you idiot? Isn’t that money in your hand?”
“Oh. Yeah, that’s true.”
The coin held in my hand. It had simply been sparkling, so I had been carrying it around with excitement, but it seemed this was quite a valuable piece. “This is pretty much my entire fortune. You’re saying you’ll take it?”
“Yeah. Let’s be nice about it and go our separate ways. Yeah?”
“Ha, damn. I can’t do that.”
Since we were at it, I decided to ask how much it was worth. “How much is this worth, roughly? Can it buy me some soup at the market?”
“You don’t even know what a Ludens is? With just that, you can get girls at Ginhwaru or Eden.”
“Wow, I don’t know what that is, but it sounds expensive?”
Now that I had picked it up again, I realized this was what people meant by treasure. To think I had received something like this just by striking a pose once. The starting point wasn’t bad at all, I thought.
“Yeah. Yeah. It’s expensive. So hand it over while I’m still asking nicely.”
The tip of the knife came poking gently toward my body. I observed it carefully and asked, “Are you Corridor Walkers, by any chance?”
“Huh. What if we are?”
“Is there no problem with fellow Corridor Walkers beating or killing each other?”
At that, the skinny one of the duo snickered. “What, are you a newbie? Hey, let me teach you one thing. This city is the wild itself.”
“Oh ho.”
“Whether you’re a Corridor Walker or whatever, in this city the strong decide everything. If you’re weak, you get robbed and killed. That’s how it is. There are tons of crazy bastards who would kill people just for fun, enjoy the corpse, then sell it off, and everyone just accepts it. So if you want to live, you’d better behave—Crack?!”
Crunch!
I see. So it was the wild. Those words made my head feel hot. Of course the world I had woken up in couldn’t possibly be normal. With the knife now buried in his cheek by my own hand, I spoke to the trembling face.
“I will humbly accept Senior’s valuable advice.”
“Wha, what the…!?”
It was the Corridor Walker whose wrist I had grabbed in an instant—the one who had stabbed his own cheek.
“Graaah!”
I kicked the legs out from under the Corridor Walker who was trying to collapse while clutching his face.
Thud!
With knives stuck in both cheeks, anything he said would only cause more pain. Just lie down for a while. I had planned to let him go gently, but the other Corridor Walker raised his gun.
“Bullshit! Die!”
The single-shot pistol right before it spat fire. The sight of it sent tension surging through my body. But it wasn’t stiffness so much as expected tension. A preparatory reaction to anticipated pain. There was no way to dodge. No, there was no method at all. As always, I had no choice but to handle it the immortal’s way.
Bang!
Splurt!
Ugh. Donut. Along with the flame, I felt one side of my shoulder take a heavy hit. At the same time, I yanked the sword stuck in the ground and charged.
Slice!
“Gack?!”
The sensation of the blade pulling free of flesh.
“I take one hit! You take two!”
“Y-you crazy bastard!? Just like that!?”
I exploited the gap in reaction and struck the opening. Normally, when a hole opened in the body, it was natural to collapse or stagger. But this body had no such thing. Pain always followed one beat late. So the body was a consumable, and only the mind advanced.
As expected, the textbook of violence was clear.
Slash!
“Graaah!”
The arm flew off along with the pistol. The collapsing Corridor Walker. This was seriously easy. For Corridor Walkers, these guys were all show. Compared to the sword-drawing woman from earlier, they were pathetic. Was this the average level here?
Squelch.
Once, blood spread across the alley. My blood and the enemies’ blood. As it clung stickily to the soles of my feet, I realized. In times like this, what had I used to do?
Swish.
I looked around at the carnage in the alley. The naked me. The fallen enemies. A simple right was being imprinted. I wondered if I should unconsciously swallow the Corridor Walkers’ ether. My head hardened and I approached with simple inertia.
“Hi, hiiik?!”
Scrape!
I dragged the sword along the floor and peered down. Eyes facing terror and death. At the same time, I realized. Aha. These guys had something I didn’t.
Then sympathy surged. Jealousy surged. The natural right of the victor. That never changed no matter where you went. The one still standing completely devoured the one who had fallen. Swallowed. Filled himself. I had done so with others’ flesh and souls. I simply needed to execute a very simple right.
But a thread of reason held me back. Was killing those who feared my right? The self was blurry and the inertia was clear. Only a hunger like an empty stomach flared up.
“Hmm. What should I do…”
“That’s enough.”
Instinct carved wrinkles into the smooth brain. The voice stopping me from the end of the alley had done that. I turned around.
Clank.
Shining armor caught my eye. Shoulder plates covering the heart. Gauntlets reaching to the elbows. And curved leg armor. Everything else seemed to prioritize mobility and was light. I knew immediately. That one was strong. A knight.
Instinct cut through my hardened thoughts. It felt like blood was flowing back into the smoothed brain. Reason—the act of thinking—took hold. So who was it?
“What’s all this commotion?”
Hostility threaded through the calling voice. I answered purely on instinct.
“It’s just how things are done in the Corridor City, isn’t it?”
“You did this?”
The knight tilting her head had flowing hair. The silver-haired female knight swept her gaze across the carnage. Hmm. The sight was a bit much, I suppose. One Corridor Walker turned Joker, one turned Shanks. And one donut was standing there. Yep. That donut was me.
“Ouch.”
As the pain slowly arrived, I lightly covered my shoulder. Pain was an old friend. But it was also a bad friend that could never be ignored. The female knight, who seemed to have roughly grasped the situation, asked.
“Are you going to kill them?”
At the sudden question, I thought. Kill them? Truthfully, I was curious what her reaction would be if I did.
“I’m still thinking about it.”
“You may not know, but even the Corridor City has its own security and laws. I think it’s better to leave it to justice and the law rather than spilling blood recklessly.”
“Aha. That kind of character.”
The organization was complete. Clang!
I dropped the sword. The blade stained itself with the red blood trailing across the floor. The female knight blinked at my unexpectedly simple disarmament.
“Unexpected. I thought you would go all the way.”
“Really? Weren’t you saying that in the hope I would stop?”
It was a pure question. She stared at me and said, “Yes. But after seeing your eyes, I thought you wouldn’t stop.”
What was with my eyes? Hmm. Were they that hungry for murder? At least I was not some murderer or dark spirit. I did not commit meaningless, pointless killing. I simply set myself up according to the rules of the world.
“They’re the kind of eyes that say nothing matters no matter what happens. People with eyes like that usually don’t look back.”
“No, you’re saying I have those decadent eyes?”
“Do you not even look in a mirror?”
Mid-sentence, the female knight let out a deep sigh. Then she took out a small ‘box’ from her bosom and tapped it a few times.
“I just called the enforcers. They’ll come collect those Corridor Walkers lying there.”
“What are enforcers?”
“…. Is this your first time in the Corridor City?”
“Yes.”
“Hmm, I see. I don’t know which Diorama you came from, but think of them as the ones responsible for the city’s maintenance and defense. Police, knights, guards, sheriffs. If that doesn’t make sense, just apply whatever concept you already know.”
“Aha~”
So they were basically the police of the Corridor City. Since all I had ever experienced was anarchy or the era of broken public authority, it had been quite a while. Hmm. If I had to say, wasn’t an immortal a notorious outlaw? I would need to be careful. Whatever it was, going against it would only bring inconvenience.
After the concise answer, the female knight hesitated for a moment. I didn’t know what the hesitation was for. However, she looked at my shoulder and said, “The first impression must not have been great. Let me tell you, the Corridor City isn’t just full of scum like them.”
“Is that so?”
“Though the shadows are so thick it doesn’t show, small kindnesses and goodwill certainly exist.”
Swish.
Suddenly the female knight placed her hand on my shoulder. For a moment I considered opening the textbook of violence, but there was no hostility.
Flash!
Immediately afterward, mystery entwined from her hand. Light and warmth. Should I call it sorcery? A mystery of lower rank than magic that rewrote the world’s laws. It healed my naked body.
Oh. An unexpected kindness!
“I hope you too carry such nobility with you as you go forward.”
Crack!Grind!
A grotesque pain spread. It felt like flesh and bones were forcibly finding their places. No, it was simply flesh growing forcibly from flesh and blood. If a gunshot wound was burning pain, this was similar to bugs gnawing from the inside.
Wow, shit. How did I describe this again? Well, various variations of death were basic knowledge for an immortal.
“Ugh! It hurts?!”
“My sorcery is of low rank. It’s a bit rough, but please understand.”
A moment later, the hole in my shoulder had been filled. If I had to describe it, it wasn’t a complete cure but more like filling a hole in the wall with urethane foam. There was no bleeding, but it was pretty sloppy.
I rotated my shoulder a few times and nodded. “Thank you. Take care~”
The female knight paused as I tried to break into a quick run. “Suddenly? You’re just going to leave like this?”
“It seems like it’d be tiring to get involved unnecessarily.”
Not the female knight’s story, but the enforcers’. What would follow such a bloody incident? Detention or interrogation. For a penniless, unidentified immortal, the future waiting wasn’t very appealing.
“If the enforcers ask me about you, I’ll have to tell them.”
“It’s fine. From there, it’s my fate.”
The female knight didn’t stop me any further. However, before I left, she held me back one last time. “Are you an exhibitionist or something? How about taking some pants at least?”