Chapter 387 |
An Adventure That Could Happen Anywhere (3)
Najin is twenty-two years old.
If you factor in the time spent inside the Tomb of Stars and experiencing the memories of others, his mental age would be considerably higher, but under imperial law, Najin is twenty-two.
Considering that commoners in the Empire marry at eighteen while nobles tend to marry in their early twenties, Najin was squarely within the typical marrying age. For martial practitioners whose aging slowed or stopped entirely as their cultivation advanced, that window shifted further back, but still.
Anyway. The point was that he was in his prime.
Not that Najin cared in the slightest. With a mountain of rotten things whose necks needed cutting right in front of him, what was the point of romance, let alone marriage? He would sooner use that time to sever one more demon head.
That was the philosophy he lived by.
But after sending the head of the Outland's most notorious demon, the Carnival King, flying, and after the story had settled into a natural pause, Najin had found himself turning something over in his mind.
'Strange how little I think about that sort of thing.'
Najin was no oblivious fool. He was not so dense as to miss the signals from Dieta or Yuel, the way they had quietly been closing the distance. But sorry as he was to both of them, he felt nothing. Truly nothing.
He could register things like: I like this person. I enjoy their company. They are beautiful. Being with them is pleasant. Those surface-level impressions existed. But nothing deeper stirred.
As though that particular drive had simply been cut out of him.
At first, Najin had not found it strange. He had always lived an ascetic life, and the reason was simple enough. Where had he been born? The Underground City, crammed full of every variety of human being imaginable.
Growing up in a place like that meant seeing all manner of filth. He had watched plenty of idiots lose their minds to what was below the belt and cross lines they should never have crossed. Some had skimmed from the organization's funds to feed a brothel habit. There was nothing more to say about that.
Having been the one who chopped off those idiots' wrists, it was only natural that a certain conclusion had lodged itself in Najin's head.
'Lust makes people stupid.'
He had seen it from a very young age.
Desire clouds judgment. It becomes a weakness. In the Underground City, weakness led to loss, and loss led to death, so self-control had grown in him naturally.
Sitting in the position of Ivan's hunting dog, Najin had never lacked for women trying to get close to him, and that had only sharpened his restraint further. Eventually the only feeling they stirred in him was irritation.
Even so.
Back then, the drive had not been entirely absent. He was suppressing it, not missing it. He tried to pinpoint the moment it had stopped existing altogether.
'Excalibur.'
It was after pulling Excalibur.
He had suspected as much, but it was not something he had ever said aloud to anyone. And after entering the fairy Merlin's dream, he had been operating with Excalibur separated from himself.
Quite a lot of time had passed since then.
Now Najin understood that his hypothesis had been correct. Looking at Merlin sleeping right beside him, her soft breathing rising and falling, he let out a quiet, involuntary laugh.
'I really am something else.'
The ripple on the surface of sleep lasted only a moment. As if nothing had happened at all, Najin closed his eyes and drifted off. He woke again in the dead of night, a few hours later.
A presence beside him brought him back.
He opened his eyes. When he turned his head, Merlin was there, watching him. Between waves of hair falling loose across her face, her blue eyes were wide and round.
"What. You're not asleep?"
"That's my line."
She had fallen asleep with her back turned, apparently too embarrassed to face him, yet here she was now, staring without blinking. It was a rather heavy gaze. When Najin asked why she was looking at him like that, Merlin smiled.
"Just because. I like it."
"Like what?"
"Everything. That you didn't forget me and came to find me. That we're out here adventuring together like this. That I woke up and you hadn't disappeared, that you're right here beside me..."
Merlin closed her eyes.
She tucked her head against Najin's chest with a soft sound.
"It all feels like a dream."
"When you say it feels like a dream, it doesn't exactly sound like a compliment."
"Pfft, what are you talking about. I'm human right now, aren't I?"
She giggled against him. Tilting her head up to look at him, Merlin smiled with a happiness that showed plainly on her face.
"If this is a dream."
She hoped it would not end.
Not ever.
2.
Time moves on.
Najin and Merlin kept adventuring. They took quest after quest, completed them, and proved themselves again and again. From newcomers to mid-rank, from mid-rank to Veteran Adventurers, the two of them climbed.
By now there was not a single adventurer at the Guild who did not know them.
Their looks alone were enough to catch anyone's eye, and the fact that they had never taken on additional party members, always operating as just the two of them, made it impossible not to talk.
"How on earth did you clear that labyrinth? It's been an unconquerable dungeon for decades. The inside is packed with monsters and the layout is a nightmare to navigate..."
"We burned it down."
"Huh? What?"
"Poured in a lot of oil and set it on fire. The monsters came running out on their own."
"......"
"What?"
Their methods were nothing short of savage. Supposedly impregnable dungeons fell to approaches no one would have dreamed of. Strategies that made people ask, does that actually work? Their stories passed from mouth to mouth constantly.
Not famous enough to set the whole continent talking, exactly.
But famous enough that adventurers and mercenaries brought them up in every tavern they visited.
"We're Veteran Adventurers now."
"We are. The number of completed quests crossed a hundred."
"Right. More than a hundred mid-rank quests alone."
Undeniably Veteran Adventurers. Adventurers who could take any quest they liked, whose skill had been proven across every kind of rough terrain imaginable.
They had grown, in their own way, into the complete article.
Money had piled up as well.
To celebrate their promotion to Veteran Adventurer, they clinked glasses with fellow adventurers that night. As the mood warmed up, one of them spoke.
"So, are you going to try it now?"
It was the adventurer who had given the two of them advice back when they were still newcomers, the one who had told them that challenging the Barkilid Mountain Range required both Veteran Adventurer-level skill and expensive cold-weather gear.
"The Barkilid Mountain Range."
At those words, both of them went still for a moment. Najin only moved his eyes to check Merlin's reaction. Neither had said it aloud, but both of them knew.
What was hidden in the Barkilid Mountain Range.
The legendary adventurer Derrick's Treasure Vault.
That finding it was the final chapter of this scenario. Najin understood somewhere beneath conscious thought that it would be their last adventure. Merlin would not be thinking any differently.
"......"
Which was why Najin looked at Merlin.
"Heh, the word's already gotten out, has it?"
Merlin opened her mouth with a laugh.
"Of course it has. Just you wait and see, everyone. When I find that treasure I'm going to buy the most expensive building in this city outright."
Whistles and laughter broke out from the adventurers around them. Someone said they were counting on a round of drinks when that happened, and Merlin's voice rang out in reply, one corner of her mouth curling up: just one round? you think that'll be enough?
She was smiling.
She glanced over at Najin, still smiling.
That look pulled a reluctant smile out of him. Clink, glasses met. The party wound down and they headed home, and partway there the drunk Merlin swayed, staggered, and simply sat down where she stood. She reached her arms out toward Najin.
"Carry me. I can't walk."
"I told you to drink in moderation."
Najin loaded her onto his back and walked. Deep in the night, moving down a street where lanterns flickered, he thought: the story is ending.
He asked himself.
Was he sad about it?
'Probably.'
Did he hope this adventure would never end?
'I'm not sure. There are things to do out there. But I enjoyed it enough to feel something when it ends.'
And Merlin.
'......'
What about her.
'......'
Najin put the answer off. The weight on his back was light. So light it felt like it might vanish at any moment.
"Merlin."
"Mm, hm? Did you say something?"
"Tomorrow."
"Yeah."
"...Tomorrow we should go buy cold-weather gear. We need to get ready."
Yeah, let's do that. Merlin's voice as she answered seemed somehow far away. But despite that distance in her voice, the arms she had looped around Najin's neck tightened their grip.
As though she did not want to let go.
3.
A night spent drunk and asleep.
On the deep night before the final adventure, Najin opened his eyes to the weight pressing down on him. Moonlight filtered in through the window.
Her hair caught the light as it came through.
Blue hair shone like still water.
With the moon at her back, she was staring down at him without looking away. The moment their eyes met, her lips moved.
"You're awake?"
As if that was exactly what she had been waiting for, she reached out her hand. Her fingers passed his neck and came to rest against his face. As if to say she would not let him look away, Merlin cradled his face between her palms.
She leaned down.
Blue hair spilled over him. The instant Najin opened his mouth to say something, Merlin stopped it. A brief moment passed, and then she exhaled, breathless.
A faint trace of alcohol.
And a deep, rich scent of flowers.
When she lifted her head, she broke into a mischievous grin. She tilted her head to the side and smiled slyly. Still not fully sober, she kept laughing at nothing.
"Caught you off guard, didn't I."
"...Hah."
While Najin let out a baffled breath, Merlin leaned down a second time. He did not stop her. She looked fragile enough to shatter the moment he did.
It lasted longer than the first time.
When she raised her head again, she buried her face in the crook of Najin's neck, as if she could not stand to let him see her expression.
"You know, don't you."
"Know what?"
"You're going to keep pretending you don't? Again?"
"So what exactly is it you think I know?"
"I've been making it this obvious?"
Still with her face pressed into his neck, Merlin's shoulders trembled. He felt something wet against his skin.
"I don't want it."
Her body shook.
"I don't want it."
Her voice trembled.
"Why-why can't it be me? I wanted to be your guide too. Why can't I......"
Merlin began to cry. Broken fragments of words she could not shape into full sentences came out in pieces. Najin could not say anything. He only reached out and ran his hand slowly down her back.
She cried for a long time.
When she finally collapsed into exhausted sleep, Najin carefully laid her down beside him and got up. He pulled the blanket over her, then sat on the edge of the bed.
He could not go back to sleep.
* * *
"...Just asking on the off chance, right."
The next morning.
Merlin sat on the bed blinking blankly at nothing, then whipped her head around to look at Najin.
"What did I do last night?"
"Pardon?"
"I remember falling asleep drunk, that part's fine. But it feels like I did something half-asleep, I just can't quite remember. Did I do something?"
"You did."
A flinch. Merlin's eyes wavered.
"Wh-what, what what what?"
Her voice shook as much as her eyes as she asked again. Najin shrugged.
"I'm not telling you."
"Hey, you...!"
What did I do. What did I do! Merlin shrieked, but Najin refused to tell her right to the end. He gave a short scoff and started changing his clothes.
"What are you doing, Merlin?"
Najin jerked his chin toward the door.
"Time to get ready. We're going out."
"...You're really not going to tell me?"
"Depends on how you behave."
Still muttering complaints, Merlin changed her clothes. With his back turned to her, Najin let out a short breath. Good thing she doesn't remember.
"Right then. Shall we go?"
Off to prepare for the final adventure.
