Short Story 7: Longdagger Hunting Diary (Sam) Part 2
*
Try’s memories were hazy from the moment he realized his chest had caved in.
He simply thought he was going to die.
He thought he was going to die without achieving his goal.
Maybe if he bet his life, something could be done? Such thoughts were nothing more than sweet delusions.
To die, trampled by Iniquity—well, it was a common way for adventurers to meet their end.
Even as he resigned himself to this fate, he couldn’t get his friend’s face out of his mind.
He was sarcastic, a worrier, and a kind guy.
As his consciousness faded, Try called out the name of his friend, Sam, praying that at least the two who had traveled with them could escape safely.
If attacked by that thing, even if his wish wasn’t granted, he should have been able to buy them time to escape. Those two who had asked to accompany them resembled Try and Sam quite a bit.
Isn’t it okay to overcome Iniquity just a little? After all, he had even bet his life.
Just as Try surrendered himself to a sense of satisfaction akin to making an excuse, and the sensation of falling backward somewhere, the moment he was about to completely let go of his consciousness—
A sharp pain shot across his cheek, and his fading consciousness was literally pulled back up.
“Hey.”
Confused by the irritated voice directed at him, Try opened his eyes.
He saw the face of the Merchant girl, grabbing the front of his shirt, forcibly pulling up his fallen upper body, her right hand raised.
“Wake up.”
He understood what had happened from the pain running across the opposite cheek.
“Why haven’t you run?”
Those were the first words out of his mouth. Try realized he truly had taken a liking to these two.
He even felt anger that the time he’d bought with his life had been wasted.
“Save your sleep-talking for when you’re asleep.”
For some reason, his cheek was slapped again.
He was stunned by the Iniquity of it all. Didn’t need a third time, did I?
“My friend doesn’t consider something of that level worth running from.”
His gaze, bewildered by the sudden boast, caught sight of the boy facing the Majin head-on, trading blows.
“No way.”
“It’s not a lie and not a dream. Do you desire another shot?”
Try hurriedly shook his head at the girl raising her right hand.
He felt relieved, forgetting the situation for a moment, as the girl nodded and lowered her hand.
“Hey you, tell me. Why do you call that Majin ‘Sam’? How do you know that thing is Sam Boardian?”
That’s my line, Try Flohs barely managed to swallow the words.
*
Shin felt a sense of unease. The Apemajin’s arms were as thick as a child’s torso, yet the Physique they connected to was no thicker than a human’s.
The hair covering its entire body writhed like seaweed, though there was no wind.
Despite its ape-like face, its teeth were molars. The way it bared them threateningly evoked a sense of unease and disgust, differing so much from common sense.
In short, everything he saw was a source of unease and disgust.
Feeling disgust even from the gaze imbued with Magicka directed at him, Shin carefully measured the distance.
He dodged the casually swung arm instead of blocking it with his Sword, then brought his Sword down onto the limb.
It felt like striking hard wood; although he felt the blade bite in, it seemed unlikely he could sever it with his skill with the Sword.
Twisting his body to avoid the Apemajin’s counterattack, Shin thanked Jenniferlin internally.
As expected of Pantile. Jen’s judgment is sound.
Even though he’d swung the Sword down half-seriously, he hadn’t worried about it breaking.
If only its sharpness were better, it would be perfect, but demanding that from a mass-produced item would be asking too much.
Shin, entertaining thoughts that would likely make Jenniferlin roar with laughter if she knew, took advantage of not having to worry about the Sword breaking and used it to bat away the Apemajin’s thick arm.
Now then.
“If I cut off your head, will you die?”
Shin posed a question he knew wouldn’t be answered.
*
There was no time to waste.
Jenniferlin, confirming Try’s consciousness had fully returned, asked him directly what she wanted to know.
“Why do you know the Majin’s name?”
Seeing Try freeze with a surprised look at her question, Jenniferlin felt relieved; the possibility of him having muttered ‘Sam’ by chance was gone.
“Sorry, but I don’t have time to listen to clumsy lies.”
Jenniferlin sensed Try searching for words to somehow feign ignorance and warned him preemptively.
Try still seemed to search for words several times, but he gave up when Jenniferlin raised her right hand again.
“That thing… he was my partner.”
After hearing those words, Jenniferlin paused, blinking two or three times in silence, before speaking.
“I see. So that thing is human?”
“You believe me?”
Unable to believe his words were believed, Try, who had expected to be treated like a madman or hit and told not to lie, stared intently at Jenniferlin’s face in surprise.
He had hesitated not because he was trying to deceive her, but because he thought she wouldn’t believe him even if he told the truth.
“I may be just a Merchant, you know, but I’m good at judging character.”
That’s not really the issue, is it?
Try thought so but didn’t say anything unnecessary.
From her way of speaking and her aura, he had thought she wasn’t just a young Merchant, but…
It seemed the girl before him was beyond his imagination.
“I… so that he wouldn’t attack people after becoming like that… if he did attack, I thought at least I should be the one to kill him…”
“And that’s why you were approaching people heading north and accompanying them?”
Jenniferlin let go of Try’s collar, which she had been holding, and stood up.
“I don’t know how many people you escorted, but that’s foolish self-satisfaction, Adventurer-dono. If you truly wanted to stop that thing that was your former partner, you should have reported it to the Adventurers Guild. You didn’t need to say it was Sam Boardian; just reporting that you saw a Majin would have been enough.”
Jenniferlin watched Shin fighting on par or even better against the Apemajin with the Sword she had given him, feeling satisfied.
Indeed, a good painter needs a good brush, and Shin needs a good weapon.
“Did you not realize your own strength was insufficient, or perhaps you did? Saying things like ‘at least I want to kill him with my own hands’… did you truly intend to kill him? Wasn’t it more like you were prepared to be killed by him?”
Jenniferlin spoke, aware she was being a bit too harsh.
Because she was angry.
Not because the information that there might be a Majin where they were headed had been concealed from them.
Saying you’d stop your friend even if it meant killing him, yet choosing such an unreliable method – isn’t that disrespectful to your friend? That’s what Jenniferlin was angry about.
If you believe in your friend, believing he wouldn’t forgive himself for becoming like that, then you should put your heart and soul into killing him.
Being prepared to add yourself to the list of his victims is nothing short of an insult to your friend.
At the very least, even if Shin became like that, he wouldn’t want me to let him kill me. I can believe that with confidence.
In that case, you should go all out to kill him.
Because she believed Shin would do the same for her if their positions were reversed, Jenniferlin didn’t hesitate.
“But, but I… I didn’t realize until he became like that… That’s why I wanted to kill him with my own hands, I felt I had to kill him…”
Jenniferlin was no longer looking at Try, who had started reminiscing behind her like a Soliloquy, his gaze lowered to his hands.
She was focusing on Shin’s fight with the Apemajin, gauging the timing for support.
Still, Try’s words reached her ears.
It was a rambling reminiscence where emotions overtook facts, but precisely because of that, she understood well what had happened between the adventurers Try and Sam.
It was truly a commonplace story.
Two young adventurers who called each other friends. One of them had talent, the other did not.
That was all there was to it.
The one without talent agonized over it, while the other couldn’t understand his partner’s struggles.
Eventually, the talentless one gave up and returned to his home village.
That was all there was to it.
And the fact that upon returning home, there was no longer a place for him in the hometown he had left as if discarding it, was also a common story.
“Because I was an idiot, I thought if I went to get him, Sam would become an adventurer again…”
But for the talentless one, Sam, that was enough to break whatever final thing remained within him.
“When I met him in his hometown, he kept apologizing to me with a dark expression I’d never seen before. I didn’t even understand why he was apologizing anymore.”
Listening to Try’s voice, tinged with emotion, Jenniferlin became convinced that Shin would win.
Not once had the Apemajin’s attacks properly landed on Shin, and despite being cautious against a Majin opponent, Shin was gradually beginning to overwhelm the Apemajin.
“He said, if only I hadn’t come… if only I hadn’t come, he could have remained human…”
I sense Try covering his face behind me.
“Just when I thought he said, ‘Finally, don’t you end up like this,’ he suddenly turned into that thing.”
I… I ran away.
Apparently, it happened just outside the village beyond this forest.
Jenniferlin, who hadn’t intended to respond, opened her mouth, having become convinced that Shin would win even without her support.
“Good for you, Adventurer-dono. At least while that Sam fellow was still human, he was thinking of your future.”
Jenniferlin Pantile didn’t know what had happened between Try and Sam, nor what feelings they shared.
Honestly, the mere fact that a human had become a Majin was beyond her comprehension, let alone imagining the inner thoughts of a stranger like Sam.
But even so, she understood the meaning of the words that Sam fellow spoke while he was still human.
Those words were like a final step forward before his fall.
Not words of resentment, nor regret.
He uttered words thinking of his friend’s future, telling him, “Don’t you end up like this.”
To Jenniferlin Pantile, that was a noble Greed.
She understood that feeling of the Sam fellow’s clearly.
“He was a good friend, wasn’t he?”
Jenniferlin said this frankly.
She had no intention of comforting Try, who hadn’t understood his friend’s feelings and had been thinking it was fine to throw his own life away, but the fact remained the fact.
She could tell Try gasped behind her.
She didn’t care what happened to Try’s feelings, but she couldn’t rest unless she told him that, at the very least, his friend had been a good friend.
Not for Try’s sake, but for Sam’s.
These were the words of a man who could think of his friend’s future at the very moment he ceased to be human. For those words not to reach the person they were meant for, to remain unheard—wasn’t that the height of Iniquity?
Just as Shin thrust his Sword into the Apemajin’s neck, Jenniferlin turned around.
Hmm, it seems it got through properly this time.
Jenniferlin felt satisfied seeing Try’s face frozen in surprise.
Alright, with this, I’ve fulfilled my obligation towards “Sam Boardian”.
Jenniferlin felt a slight pang of guilt about disparaging the very person she had praised as a good friend before the words were even dry on her lips.
There was something she had to tell Try.
Aware that her own voice had become chillingly cold, Jenniferlin spoke.
“That aside, Adventurer-dono, if you ever breathe a single word of what you just told me—especially if it reaches Shin’s ears—I, Jenniferlin Pantile, will use my full power to kill you. I strongly recommend you never, ever forget that.”
Truly, I strongly recommend it.
Jenniferlin said this with a smile.
＊
Once I managed to tame the murderous intent that had been overwhelming me, it was nothing.
The Apemajin was only slightly formidable in strength.
Shin Longdagger was surprised at his own calmness as he snapped one of the Apemajin’s arms with his Sword.
Perhaps because of the revulsion rising from his gut, he felt none of the usual exhilaration he experienced when fighting Monsters, and because of that, he even felt a sense of aversion towards the fight.
Although the murderous intent, almost akin to a sense of duty, remained unchanged, Shin the adventurer was surprisingly calm.
He dodged the monotonous attacks of the Apemajin swinging its snapped arm with minimal movement.
Sensing Jenniferlin, his protection target, looking for an opportunity to provide support from a distance, Shin watched for a chance to deliver the finishing blow.
If my master found out I’d been supported by the person I was supposed to be guarding, he might actually kill me.
The moment the Apemajin showed a human-like emotion—frustration that its attacks weren’t landing.
Shin stomped on the Apemajin’s fist as it swung down from above.
He felt the sensation through the sole of his shoe as the Apemajin’s fist was crushed between the ground and his foot.
Towards the Apemajin’s inevitably lowered head, towards the neck connected to it, Shin unleashed a full-power thrust.
I have to thank Jen.
I’m grateful for a Sword that doesn’t break even with a full-power thrust.
As the Apemajin spurted blood from its molar-filled mouth, it raised both arms—the broken one and the one with the crushed fist—towards the sky.
Judging this to be its final struggle, Shin gripped the Sword’s hilt with both hands and twisted.
He could feel his murderous intent being satisfied by the sensation crawling up his palms—of flesh tearing and bone shattering.
For the first time in his life, feeling relieved that a fight was ending, Shin severed the neck.
The Apemajin’s arms, stretched out as if grasping for something, sliced powerlessly through the air.
＊
Majin leave corpses even when they die.
Even knowing this intellectually, seeing it in reality felt strange.
As he rolled the Apemajin’s corpse into the hole
Shin groaned at Jenniferlin’s answer.
“It’s okay to complain to your friends when you’re eating with them.”
That was common sense Jenniferlin didn’t know.
It hardly seemed like words that would come from a member of a noble family.
For a noble, dining with others fell squarely within the scope of work.
“Say, are you perhaps a commoner who just thinks he’s part of the Longdagger Family?”
“Jen, stop suddenly questioning your friend’s sanity,” Shin protested, a satisfied smile playing on his lips despite Jenniferlin’s sarcasm.
“Is it something you can’t talk about?”
Shin’s smile vanished, replaced by a serious expression tinged with worry.
Seeing that face, Jenniferlin hesitated for a few moments.
Just as Shin had said, once she ate, she mostly forgot about things.
About threatening Try, about Sam Boardian.
At least, she could set them aside.
Instead, a new realization surfaced—what had truly been bothering her became clear.
Jenniferlin was perplexed by this.
It was simple, really.
She had thought: I don’t want Shin to kill someone for the first time during my Escort Mission.
Just as she wanted to look back on this little trip as a fun journey.
She wanted Shin, too, to think of it as something enjoyable when it was over.
She didn’t want him to remember it as the journey where he first killed someone.
Once she acknowledged it, the thought was so embarrassing she wanted to cover her face.
Therefore, Jenniferlin Pantile took up her weapons.
That is to say, words, sarcasm, and her true feelings.
“It’s because of my friend that I can no longer say it.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
Shin let his serious expression drop.
What did it say about her as a person that her friend felt relieved when she resorted to sarcasm? Jenniferlin swallowed the question down along with the rest of her soup.
“Can someone who holds secrets they cannot tell their friend still be called a friend?”
It was a cunning question to which she already knew the answer. How very Pantile-like, Jenniferlin thought.
“Do you call someone who tries to pry out secrets they can’t be told a friend?”
Choose your friends wisely, Pantile.
Shin answered with his own question as he brewed tea.
“For the record, I’m the type to silently investigate my friend’s secrets.”
“Stop it, you idiot.”
Shin chuckled wryly as he handed her a mug filled with tea. Jenniferlin waited for Shin to pour his own tea before speaking.
Through the rising steam, she thought of that Sam fellow.
She thought of Try, who mistakenly believed it was fine even if he was killed.
“Since I can’t tell you, will you join me in one thing instead, Shin?”
Shin simply shrugged, indicating his assent.
Very well then—.
Jenniferlin raised her mug.
“To the one who was a good friend until the end, and to a greedy friendship.”
—A toast.
Jenniferlin offered the cup to Sam Boardian, whom she knew only by name.
For one’s last words as a human to be thoughts for a friend’s future… what a greedy man you were, Sam Boardian.
Try will surely never forget you, for all eternity. He’ll remember you at every milestone in his life. He’ll remember you telling him, “Don’t end up like this.”
Isn’t that just the height of Greed? Isn’t it a fitting return for betting one’s life?
As one who is similarly greedy, I offer this cup.
I don’t understand a single thing about you, but this much I know. Seeing Try come for him, knowing he could no longer return as an adventurer, he must have thought this, right? If he wasn’t going to be remembered as the adventurer he parted ways with, then he wanted to be remembered as the friend who thought of Try until the very end.
What childish Greed. As a final wish for a human being, it’s truly aiming high. What expensive Greed.
To the small difference between Sam Boardian and herself—who likewise harbored a childish Greed, wishing for Shin to remember this as a good journey. That is, the difference between being remembered as one living, and one dead—Jenniferlin raised her cup.
She gave a wry smile seeing her friend across from her raise his mug as well, even while tilting his head in confusion.
We’re quite similar in how our friends don’t quite understand us, aren’t we?
“To Greed.”
“To Greed.”
Jenniferlin clinked her mug against Shin’s and drained her tea.
Until the heat passing down her throat faded, Jenniferlin Pantile felt envious of that fulfilled Greed.