Chapter 206
Chapter 206
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 206
Chapter Title: The Plaza of Beginnings
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As soon as we disembarked from the ship onto the pier, evidence that we'd changed continents began assaulting all my senses.
‘The steamy hot breeze carrying exotic spice scents... And all those unfamiliar languages echoing from every direction—they're all Southern tongue?’
It had originally been a dialect of the Republic language (Imperial too, for that matter), but after three hundred years, it had diverged so much it now seemed like a completely separate language.
Still, being at the continent's gateway, the so-called common tongue—the Republic language—was heard frequently enough.
Valensidis pulled her hood low over her face first and turned.
“I'm off to gather intel on the current situation. I'll join up later.”
“Intel, intel, intel.”
Pipi landed on her head as if volunteering to tag along.
They seemed even closer since the Ringkland incident, but don't get cocky. Pipi and I are the tightest.
I grumbled inwardly, but in moments like this, she was surprisingly reliable.
“I'm going to renew my ID tag. Gosl, you?”
“Me too.”
Not planned, but Miria and Rem ended up pairing off. Makes sense—they're both girls, so they bonded faster than most.
Miria seemed pretty overwhelmed by Rem's quirky, blunt personality...
Gosl was Rem's arbitrary nickname for Goblin Slayer, which she'd started using at some point.
“I'm heading to see the Rista party statue.”
“Aki.”
“Me too!”
Only Bart vanished into the crowd without telling us where he was going.
“With all these people, hold tight so you don't get lost.”
“Don't know what lost is!”
“Then you'll never see me again.”
Aki's eyes bulged wide.
“If Aki disappears, does Daddy die?!”
How'd she jump to that conclusion...?
Aki hopped up, planted her feet on my shoulder, and snatched my straw hat. It was heavier now, but I could handle it.
And so, with Setsunen in my arms and Aki on my neck, I crossed the bustling fish market district.
“Crocodile!”
“Leather.”
“Aki!”
“Dog!”
“You said crab?”
“Aki!”
“Mixed!”
“It's mussels.”
“Aruru!”
Alakishi, this is Aki's current level of smarts... She's growing big and healthy, so that's all good, right?
‘Fish market, huh...’
What a different scene from three hundred years ago, when it evoked end-of-the-world vibes. Life brimmed everywhere now. Back then, despair was all you saw.
‘People lined up begging Fride for prayers.’
Plenty approached with gaunt, starvation-hollowed faces.
Right where that fishmonger now grabbed a flopping sailfish to draw eyes from passersby, kids dying of disease had lain.
And over there, a swarm of flies clumped in human shape. When I stepped forward, they buzzed up in a cloud.
‘Come to think of it, the smells back then were just sewer stench—like rotting corpses and shit...’
The rear lines had truly been a city of the sick.
Villages and cities away from the front had it better, even.
Refugees from across the continent had flooded the rear, so it was inevitable.
- Let's clean up the city first, then head out.
Fride spent three sleepless days and nights tending every patient, while Rista distributed all the ship's food stores.
- We'll manage with local supplies.
I followed Rista's orders.
I used telekinesis to gather and sort the corpses littering the streets (if identifiable), then lit pyres to cremate them and prevent disease spread.
I even distributed the ashes to survivors—probably the first time someone bowed in tears of thanks.
- Thank you so much, mage...
It embarrassed me, made me awkward, so I just waved it off, but it wasn't a bad experience.
- You'll learn on the journey. Where and how to use the power the gods gave Lin...
It reminded me of the dean's words before leaving the tower. My chest swelled with heat.
“Grilled fish!”
“Two, please. Small ones.”
After leaving the fish market, a short walk brought us to the famous ‘Plaza of Beginnings.’
‘Just like back then.’
The square buzzed with merchants crossing the continent, but amid the crowd, that towering statue stood clear in the distance.
‘Where our journey truly began.’
Rista, holding aloft the Polar Star Sword Shyrfang.
Followed by Fride, Kies, and... me.
Not merchants, but local citizens paused before the statue, hands clasped demurely in silent prayer.
“Thank you.”
Murmuring so.
For a moment, déjà vu spun dizziness, blanching the noisy surroundings white.
My stone companions' faces gained life, each voice pulling me into memory's depths.
- I want a world where everyone can smile freely.
Rista—who at some point hoped to spread smiles across any era—smiled on every statue.
Had my eyes glazed over?
Snapping back, I saw Aki on my neck and Nenn in my arms staring up at the statue.
“Aki, Nenn.”
“Daddy?”
“Aru.”
“People are remembered in the future by the deeds they pile up now.”
She smiled at everyone.
Smiled in any situation.
Her smiles spread light through the war's despair—just as she was remembered now, unchanged.
“How do you want to be remembered in the future?”
And just as Alakishi—who fulfilled her mission and died after a millennium—burned vivid as flame in my heart.
These kids too.
These kids, who must live through the final age... I hoped they'd leave beautiful footprints for many.
“I just wanted to be remembered as a good uncle by the kids I protected.”
Answering my question was a giant casting a long shadow amid the crowd, his bulk forward.
Bart.
No clue when he arrived—or if he'd been there first... He gazed at the statue with sad eyes.
“I never wanted to be heroes like them. Never dreamed such delusions.”
“What're you talking about, Bart?”
“Just self-pity from a pathetic me.”
Bart had been a woodcutter in the Imperial east mountains, taking in kids abandoned in villages or hills.
He chopped firewood with twenty-some kids, sold it, and scraped by—simple, lacking, but happy.
Later I learned why he loved kids: his wife died in stillbirth, baby and all.
“The problem hit when I went down to the city to sell wood and came back a day later than usual.”
Demons rampaged from the Abyss's stirring.
One attacked the cabin, devoured all the kids, wrecked the house.
Seeing it unleashed something. Like dormant senses awakening...
“Never trained in swordsmanship before... but when I came to, I clutched a bladeless axe. Demon dead before me.”
Days blurred—he clutched their bloodied clothes, sobbing.
- The dead don't return from tears. Let them go now.
An elder from the Naryun Sword Sect, tracking the demon, calmed him, cleared the ruins and bodies, spotted his talent, urged him to swordsmanship.
- If you can't protect your daily life, protect others'. Times grow harsher.
That elder was now sect leader Taiwin Esrad. Bart trained five years under him, top disciple, then descended.
“Followed that teaching, took up the sword, became an adventurer...”
So that's why.
Rain thought. That first meeting, why Bart's smile evoked Rista.
That mindset.
“I still can't do anything alone, past or present. Pathetic, right?”
Rat-Spider Queen, ant nest crisis, this incident—all the same.
All talk, no skill.
Without you, I'd have promised help and achieved nothing.
“Me, platinum rank... Standing before them, it's laughable.”
Somehow, the crowd's flow around us quickened.
Yet his wistful, self-mocking voice rang clear.
Before meeting Rista, I'd have brushed off such venting. But now, body reacted before thought.
“Not laughable.”
I'd leaned on him countless times. In key moments, clung like a spoiled child.
I could dare that.
Just as, three hundred years ago, with them.
“Being able to fight sincerely for someone—that alone makes you amazing, Bart.”
Took me years to realize that.
Without the dean, without days with Rista, I might never have.
Without those five years, I wouldn't be here.
“Those kids probably thought so too.”
As I thought of Rista... Aki and Nenn chimed in.
“Think so!”
“Aruu!”
That instant—emotional overload?—visions of the dead kids' smiles flashed before Bart.
- Uncle!
- Uncle Bart!
A bitter smile tugged his lips.
And lingering in his eyes...
“Hope you're right.”
Gazing at their phantoms, Bart smiled, fragile as if it'd shatter.
I hope so.
Really, I do.
He turned back to the statue once more, then toward the plaza's far side.
“Where to?”
“Renewing my tag to platinum.”
Watching his back, Rain rubbed his temple.
My vocab still lacks to convey true feelings. No Rista gentleness, no Fride grace...
Swallowing a wry smile, Aki leaned down, shoving her upside-down face into my view.
“Like Daddy!”
“Huh?”
“Wanna be remembered like Daddy!”
Aki's grinning eyes sparkled gold, dazzling like flames without light to reflect.
No, not blinding eyes.
This warm, touching settle in my heart—like facing the dean, Rista, Alakishi.
“No, Aki.”
I tilted my head, forehead to hers. Warm as a winter hearth.
You'll be remembered far greater than a mage like me—who failed journeys, broke promises.
Just recalling you will empower the world... Don't become like me.
“Aruu.”
Then a jolt raced over my chest.
Setsunen tugged my collar—her eyes, identical to Aki's, stared straight.
Those absolute lifeform eyes, peering soul-deep, seemed to speak.
No... you're wrong.
Not sure if truly saying it or my fancy, but I just let out a deflated laugh.
“Sheesh, now who's caring for who?”
True regret welled.
Why, that young day, didn't I say one warm word to the dean or Mom?
This joy, chest-aching, beyond words...
I'm learning bit by bit.
A parent's heart from child.
Fragments of truth no book holds.