Short Story 8: Pantile Defies All Vice 4
*
People die when they are killed.
When Cokes Candelight realized this obvious truth, her world burst into vibrant color.
It was simple, really. People accomplish what they can within their limited lifespans.
Her mother, who died having used up her lifespan, was merely an example of that.
What a beautiful, precious world this was.
If people die when they are killed, then lifespan is neither a curse nor fate.
It’s merely a limit, nothing more than a final destination.
Understanding this, Cokes rejoiced in her own good fortune for having chosen the profession of an adventurer.
She would help people reach that final destination.
She would wield her Sword to defeat the Monsters that harmed people, ensuring their path to the end would be peaceful.
Each step taken towards that final destination.
That itself was noble and precious.
*
“Still, you believed her pretty easily.”
Shin turned around at Jenniferlin’s exasperated voice.
He had just pushed the table aside and laid out their sleeping bags on the borrowed blankets.
This would be their bed for the night.
Chako Candelight had told her mistress to use her bed, but Jenniferlin had firmly refused.
“About Cokes dying, I mean.”
Seeing that Shin’s turned face showed absolutely no understanding of her question’s intent, Jenniferlin added an explanation.
“Normally, I don’t think anyone would believe that.”
Shin wondered for a moment how to answer Jenniferlin’s words.
He understood she wasn’t looking for an answer full of adventurer spirit, like how he wouldn’t disbelieve the story of a friend’s friend.
But the reality was worse than that.
It had been purely intuition.
Another reason was that, to his eyes, Cokes’s Magicka hadn’t seemed like it was lying, but Shin didn’t say so, figuring she wouldn’t believe him anyway.
“I make it a point to trust my intuition.”
So Shin answered that it was intuition.
In response, Jenniferlin, slipping into her sleeping bag, made an indescribable face.
I see, Shin thought. She asked me if I believed it, but Jen herself isn’t fully convinced.
And yet, she looked worried enough that Cokes, who had said she was going to sleep for the day, told her, “It’s not like I’m dying today.”
As Shin slipped into his own sleeping bag, he wondered what he should say.
Inside Shin, there was a conviction that the old woman, Cokes Candelight, dying was the truth.
There was the thing about her Magicka, but beyond that, a strange certainty resided within Shin.
Because he couldn’t put it into words, he couldn’t think of what to say to his friend.
Jenniferlin, burrowed in her sleeping bag with her back turned, murmured in a whisper.
“Making her friend worry this much… she’s a real piece of work.”
Shin simply agreed with a single “Yeah,” and turned off the Magic Stone Lamp.
*
The next morning, Shin woke up and, careful not to wake Jenniferlin, got out of his sleeping bag to perform his daily training routine, which he hadn’t been able to do for a while.
Perhaps because they were in the forest, the early morning air, before the sun had fully risen, was still thick with the remnants of night.
He lightly stretched his body and moved on to Physical Enhancement training.
He repeatedly changed the intensity of his Physical Enhancement, from minimum to maximum strength.
He focused on making the transitions as smooth as possible, as seamless as possible.
Since Shin couldn’t properly use most magic, his master, Kind Barbara, had thoroughly trained Shin’s Physical Enhancement magic, one of the few he could use.
While his own aptitude was certainly a factor, the result was that Shin, at the age of thirteen, had reached a level that Kind Barbara acknowledged as quite usable.
“It’s not that I doubted the Young Lady, but I never expected it to be to this extent.”
The one who spoke was Chako.
Her apron-clad figure, unsuited to her faint presence, made her look like a mere servant at first glance, but the aura she exuded was far too dangerous.
“My master only ever tells me ‘still not good enough,’ so I’m happy to hear you say that.”
Shin, who had sensed he was being watched the moment he stepped outside, calmly replied, weakening the Physical Enhancement only on his throat.
Seeing this, Chako sighed, muttering, “That’s freakishly dexterous.”
“That master of yours… I suspect she might be the same type as my grandmother.”
“If that’s the case, you have it tough too.”
Replying simply as a matter of fact, Shin swung his Sword.
Recalling his master’s footwork, which he was finally becoming able to imitate, he swung the Sword carefully, yet with all his might.
The tip of the sword slicing through the early morning air was almost invisible to Chako’s eyes.
She shuddered at the movement, which lacked absolutely none of the usual sloppiness seen when using Physical Enhancement.
I see, Chako thought. I would definitely lose to this. And I would likely bet everything on escaping.
This, at thirteen— Chako almost tilted her head, imagining the amount of blood shed for a noble boy, who shouldn’t have known any hardship, to reach such a level at this age.
What kind of resolve drove him to shed so much blood? Chako wondered, but she put a lid on that question.
Right now, such things didn’t matter.
“Shin Longdagger-sama, as a friend of the Young Lady, I have a request for you.”
Following the etiquette learned at the Pantile House, she straightened her back and lowered her head.
“I humbly request that you continue to support Young Lady Jenniferlin as her friend from now on.”
The sound of the sword tip slicing the air and the sound of it returning to its sheath were heard almost simultaneously.
Chako was inwardly speechless at the Supreme Skill performed so effortlessly.
“Well, this is awkward.”
The boy spoke, his voice sounding troubled and fitting for his age.
More than the content, Chako swallowed at the dissonance. Isn’t the Young Lady afraid of this boy?
“It’s easy enough to imagine a future where Jen drags me around, though.”
Ah, indeed.
Chako couldn’t help but agree.
“But I can’t quite picture myself being the one doing the supporting. Well… yeah. As long as these hands can reach, definitely. Is that good enough?”
Perhaps embarrassed by his own phrasing, Shin waved both hands towards her as if to brush it off.
Seeing this, Chako thought, I see. This boy is indeed my mistress’s friend.