Chapter 3: CH 3

“Oh, what’s this? A secret date?”

Exiting the rustling bushes, I saw that it was neither a boar nor a bear, but a man that looked a bit like a bear. He laughed heartily while making a cheeky comment about the two of us. He was a big man, probably over 2 meters tall, and with muscles like a bodybuilder, he looked even bigger. His hair and beard were a dark brown, thick and shaggy. He wore a simple, dirty, long-sleeved shirt and trousers and, on his upper body, he wore a cloak made from some kind of fur. There was also a sword on his waist and an axe in his right hand.

He looked like a bear-man or a mountain-man — like someone who was used to camping in this area. In other words, a reassuring helper had arrived.

“Please help up!”

“Of course!”

I asked him frankly, and his willingness to help was very encouraging.

The bear-man told us that he lived in a nearby town and that he regularly patrolled the forest as he worked.

“It’s common for beginners to get lost around here, but today I found something unusual.”

Having said that, the bear-man holstered his axe and lifted the fallen man onto his shoulder, held me in his other hand like a child, and began walking five times faster than I could. He didn’t look like he was even breaking a sweat, instead laughing heartily and talking about the deer he caught the other day and recalling how his kid often got lost here when they were younger.

While I was amazed by his boldness, we arrived at the town, marking the end of our lives as collapsed people.

“You! Treating the injured people roughly again! Not everyone is as tough as you!”

“S, sorry…”

“After yesterday, the clinic has no empty beds. I’ll go get a doctor, bring them to Rudis’s house! And put sheets on the bed!”

“Will do~”

At that point, I finally lost consciousness.

When I awoke, I found myself in a wooden house, being taken care of by the bear-man.

The bear-man was Gartis-san and his wife, Mesil-san, was the woman who had shouted at him as soon as we had arrived in town. They were our benefactors — the ones who took care of us.

They thought that we had gone out and collapsed together. Why? Apparently, the man, while unconscious, had latched onto my arm and never let go. He wasn’t squeezing too hard and, in such a position, I had endured another two days without a bath.

I desperately objected that I didn’t even know his name, but then the man, who had slept like a corpse, got up without a care in the world. Looking at him, he had clearly taken interest in me. I was so surprised that I ended up dropping my argument.

Farther into the conversation, they seemed to have misunderstood my name and inferred that I had been born in a distant village and abandoned in the forest after being mistreated, while the man had been attacked by bandits or something. Shocked at the strangely specific story, I thought for a moment that I had amnesia. Though, looking at the big picture, they weren’t too far off from the truth. 

Since the “mireko” part of my name seemed to have given them that idea, I told them to just call me “Sumire”. The man was really quiet, so I couldn’t really tell, but he didn’t seem to have any particular problem with being treated like this.

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After that, we were guided to a bath to get rid of our sweat, but it was so dirty that it physically pained me to look at. After that, the man followed me like a baby bird behind its mother, causing warm looks to wash over us as we walked through the town. The house Gartis-san had brought us to was vacant, so we decided to live there together for now.

In this world, there was the coveted Adventurer’s Guild. I had encountered a screaming plant, so this was within my expectations.

Gartis-san was in charge of the guild branch in this town and, because of that, I was allowed to help out with the guild and the recently-recovered man, who I now knew was named Fikar, began working as an adventurer. It was a completely unfamiliar world, however, and there was much less science and technology. It wasn’t easy getting used to living in such a situation, but thanks to Fikar, who was like a big, quiet dog, I was slowly getting there.

And then, Fikar disappeared.

One morning, I was busy finishing up my early prep for the winter, since it was going to be my first winter here. After cleaning up from breakfast, Fikar called out to me, which was unusual.

“I’m going out for a little.”

“Eh? Erm… is it work far away?”

Fikar nodded slowly. Silence returned, so I continued asking questions. I was used to it.

“Are you going to stay overnight? Does Gartis-san know about this job?”

He nodded. Basically, Fikar completes his communication with this act of nodding.

I sent him on his way, thinking that it wouldn’t be an impossible job if Gartis-san knew about it.

Autumn passed, then winter, and Fikar hadn’t returned until today.

“I, was, worried, to, death, that, you, would, die!”

*squish* *squish* *squiiish*

After I finished stretching his cheeks, he said “I’m sorry” in a small voice.

To be honest, I wasn’t actually worried enough to die. Two days after I had sent him off, I was getting worried and asked Gartis-san about Fikar, but he told me that Fikar’s job had been completed. He looked into it a bit more and found that Fikar was taking additional requests in the region he had been sent to. After several such exchanges between us, Gartis-san finally said, “There comes a time when every man must go on an adventure.” Mesil-san hit him on the head for that.

In the first place, it’s not like we were travelling together, so it shouldn’t have been surprising if we were to go our separate ways. Pushing away the thought that I would miss him, I went about doing my daily work and household chores, occasionally checking with Gartis-san to make sure that Fikar was still alive and taking requests.

As much as it saddened me to think that he might not come back, it also frustrated me that he should have told me. Though, any fiery feelings I had were extinguished when I saw the real Fikar in front of me. His happiness at seeing me again seemed to help the firefighting efforts.

As the taller Fikar lifted me up to his eye level, I could see his silvery hair shining iridescent in the rising morning sun. His dark blue eyes were softly narrowed as he stared straight at me with an almost unchanging expression. I smiled back and he hugged me again.

“… I told you, it hurts…”

A spring day was about to begin.

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