【】Washed Ashore, a Girl

Arc 8 begins.

It's a little short.

“Pipipi...... piyoppipi......”

Outside the house, an Asapippi was chirping.

The morning sun streaming through the window hit young Prough in the face; he opened one eye slightly, but then pulled the duvet over his head with an annoyed look.

(Just, a little more......)

Inside the warm, hazy dimness of the duvet, Prough began to drift off again.

Somehow, he felt as if he had been having a very nostalgic dream.

Once more, just once more would be enough, he wanted to see that dream again......

“Heyyy! Prough! How long are you going to sleeeep!?”

But Prough's half-asleep brain was jolted fully awake by his mother's voice echoing from the next room.

“Fuaah! I'm up! I'm up now, Mom!”

Prough leaped up in a panic and changed out of his pajamas.

He tied back his deep green hair, which had grown a bit longer recently, and got himself ready to go outside before heading to the living room where his mother was waiting.

“Honestly, Prough, you're such a sleepyhead!”

A beautiful woman with the same deep green hair as Prough smiled as she lined up plates on a simple table, setting out bread and fruit.

Her name was Otta. She was Prough's mother.

Having lost her husband a long time ago, she was now raising Prough all on her own.

“I said I'm sorry! I was having, like, a really wonderful dream!”

“Oh? Fufu, so you're asking me to forgive you for oversleeping? What kind of dream was it?”

“I forgot!”

The two of them finished breakfast while continuing their idle chatter.

Warm sunlight illuminated the room.

The golden-colored bread gracing the table sparkled, sparkled brilliantly in the morning sun.

A peaceful, happy time flowed by.

“Come now, once you're done eating, it's straight to work! As usual, Prough, go fetch the water from the river first!”

“Yeah, I know, Mom!”

Once breakfast was over, Prough dashed out of the house carrying 3 large buckets.

Prough's body was still small, but he was strong.

Even when he carried 2 buckets full of water in his hands and put 1 more on top of his head, he hardly felt the weight at all.

That was exactly why the morning water-fetching was Prough's job.

Everyone doing their absolute best with what they could do, without overextending themselves.

That was how every resident of this Grounoddka Village lived.

They lived easygoing lives, never without a smile, cheerfully helping one another.

They lived while pouring their hearts into growing their wheat.

As Prough walked toward the river, he gazed at the lush green wheat fields stretching far into the distance.

Prough loved the wheat fields.

He loved the green swaying in the wind under the blue sky.

He loved the gold that sparkled in the sunlight.

He loved every kind of wheat field.

Just looking at them made him feel happy.

And Prough also loved the people who worked there.

The man who noticed him walking down the road, stopped his work in the field, and waved with a smile as he wiped off his sweat was Uncle Hark.

Beside him, pulling weeds, was Granny Grute.

Both were Prough's neighbors.

Further beyond, cutting down trees to expand the fields, were Ronte-san and Itakk-san, who had recently come to the village.

Since they had been adventurers as a couple until recently, heavy labor was second nature to them.

They had somewhat rough personalities, as adventurers do, and there had been a bit of a scuffle when they first met, but now they were precious comrades of the village.

They worked with satisfied expressions, occasionally chatting with the other villagers.

“PROUUUUGH!”

Then, a cute voice echoed from behind Prough.

He turned around to see a girl running toward him, carrying a bucket.

“Fetti! Good morning!”

Her name was Fetti.

She was a bundle of energy, Prough's childhood friend.

Every time she bounced up and down, her hair, tied in 2 pigtails, swayed.

The accessories tying up her hair were a handmade present Prough had given her some time ago.

Prough had thought her calm brown hair was very beautiful and lovely, so he had worked hard to make hair ornaments that would suit it.

Fetti had taken a great liking to them as well.

“Hey Prough! Are you fetching water too?”

“I am, Fetti! Want to go together?”

“Yeah!”

The two of them set off together toward the river that flowed beside the village.

Time flowed gently.

◇ ◇ ◇

The river was a pretty one that flowed through the forest; head straight west from the center of the village, and you ran right into it.

It was an indispensable part of village life, used for laundry and bathing, but Prough didn't know the river's name.

Whenever people in the village said “river,” they meant that river, so he had never cared about its proper name.

“Hey Prough, I wonder if there's any treasure, washed ashore today?”

Fetti tugged at Prough's sleeve as she said it, with a sparkling smile.

Occasionally, various things would float down this river from upstream.

Most of the time it was nuts or strangely shaped black branches, but sometimes rare things like the fangs of some creature would wash up.

Fetti's hair ornaments were made by carving up some kind of beautifully shining scale that had drifted down from upstream.

Searching for those kinds of rare things...... treasures, was the modest pleasure of the two children on water-fetching duty.

“Ahaha, who knooows?”

Laughing, Prough headed on toward the water-fetching spot, gazing at the river's surface as it sparkled in the sunlight filtering through the trees.

This forest was well tended by the villagers, a bright forest with the undergrowth cut back and the trees thinned just enough.

No monsters had ever shown up here, so the two strolled along at their usual easy pace, treading on the soft, fluffy moss.

“Treasure! Treasure! ......Huh?”

It happened then.

Fetti had been walking ahead, tugging at Prough's sleeve, and her feet, stopped.

“Hm? What's wrong? Fetti...... ah!”

Puzzled, Prough quickly spotted the cause too.

At the water-fetching spot the two were looking at, something they had never seen before, something black, had washed ashore.

The two rushed over, and when they realized what the black thing was, they were utterly stunned.

It was a person.

It was a girl, who looked to be about the same age as them.

Looking at the girl, Prough couldn't help but catch his breath.

Because he had never seen such a beautiful girl in his life.

The clothes she wore were tattered, but her skin was translucent white, and her hair was as black as night.

And her features were so impossibly perfect that you could almost mistake her for a doll or something.

She was beautiful.

......Eerily so.

And Prough, though he didn't know why, looked at the girl's black hair and......

‘How nostalgic.’

That was what he felt.

Even though, in all his life, he should never have seen a black-haired person.

“Ah! Prough! This girl, she's alive!”

“Eh!?”

Prough had stood frozen, swallowed up by the girl's presence in spite of himself, but Fetti, it seemed, had not.

She crept up to the girl and noticed that the black-haired girl was still breathing.

“Let's take her to the village right away, Prough! We have to get her warm and help her!”

“Y...... yeah!”

Brought back to his senses by Fetti's words, Prough tossed aside his buckets, hurriedly hoisted the black-haired girl onto his shoulders, and ran back down the path to the village.