A New Departure

Pan!

I press my hands together and close my eyes in front of a stone placed in the shade of the trees.

This stone is Master's grave.

I don't know how to mourn the dead in this world.

Well, if you asked me whether I knew how to do it the way they did in my previous life, I'm not really sure about that either.

There probably aren't that many Japanese people who, handed a corpse and told to go ahead and mourn it, could hold a proper memorial service all on their own.

Omake-sama should know too, from watching Isekai Reincarnation Broadcasts, but her memory of how funerals go was hazy.

Well, she doesn't seem all that interested in the dignity of the dead anyway......

She probably thinks that since they're just going to go through the cycle of reincarnation regardless, it doesn't matter how you hold the funeral, right? Omake-sama, that is.

<It is quite distressing to be spoken of as if I were inhuman......>

No, I'm not blaming you.

It's just, even after being together this long, some differences in values can't be helped, you know.

But then, you're not human in the first place, are you.

Well, anyway.

Since I didn't know the correct way to mourn, I decided to do it in the way that put the most heart into it, and that's why I made this grave.

This stone is something I cut out from the cliff where I once did my jumping-off training.

I used 【Grasshopper】 and 【Silverfish】 to climb halfway up the cliff, and from there, I used 【Mantis】 to cut out a beautiful, square stone.

This stone contains many of the techniques Master taught me, and a great deal of my gratitude.

“Myogoo...... myogomyogomyomyo...... shugooooooo......”

From far away, I can hear the cry of a Myogomyogoshugo, sounding slightly different from the ones I used to hear in Naso Forest.

Even up on this mountain whose name I don't know, real summer has finally arrived, if a little late.

When I open my eyes and look up, a brilliant, beautiful blue sky peeks through the gaps in the leaves.

In the distance, huge thunderheads are billowing up.

<Now...... then, Emi.>

Yeah, you're right, Omake-sama.

......It's time for a new departure.

◇ ◇ ◇

Wearing the clothes Master made for me, and carrying some dried meat and such.

Other than that, empty-handed.

I departed from Master's house.

Of course, I have an attachment to that place.

There are enough beasts that I don't have to eat bugs, so I'm never short on food.

Even so, there are several reasons for leaving this place.

First, because if people like that baldy's pals come looking for Master from now on, there's no way I can handle them on my own yet.

In the end, who was Master?

I never got to hear it from him, but...... going by that baldy, Master was apparently some kind of legend.

Powerful people with screws loose will come searching for Master.

But only I will be here.

They'll kill me just to vent their frustration.

......I don't think that's an impossible scenario.

Judging by how that baldy and his lot acted.

Next, because I want to eat good food.

Humans get spoiled, and I'd started to get a little bored of meals of Master's barley porridge, meat from the beasts we hunted, and edible wild plants.

No, I know it's a really spoiled thing to say, and I'm not complaining about Master's cooking at all.

But one of my goals in life is “to eat a feast with Omake-sama in a warm house,” you know.

Unfortunately, if I stay hidden in Master's house, it doesn't look like that goal will be fulfilled.

I'm going to search for delicious feasts.

And then, there's one more reason.

Master's final words. The words “Hang in there.”

What was Master thinking when he told me those words?

What did he want me to hang in there for?

Master passed away without saying anything but “Hang in there,” so I don't really know.

But.

Living on in Master's house, scared of assassins coming for him, not knowing when they'll come or whether they even exist......

Somehow, I thought, that just doesn't feel like hanging in there.

I want to become strong.

Of course, that's a feeling I had even before I met Master.

Because if I'm not strong, I can't survive.

But that feeling grew even stronger in the half year I spent with Master.

I want to become strong.

I want to learn all sorts of techniques.

Like Master.

No, someday, even stronger than Master!

I want a strength that can repel anything unreasonable!

That's why I'm setting out.

I'll travel around, see various things, and absorb them.

I decided I wanted to try living like that.

I thought maybe that's the kind of life Master was cheering me on to live.

By saying “Hang in there.”

◇ ◇ ◇

I push through the thickets, taking a path that's no path at all.

I don't know where I'm heading.

I have nowhere in particular to go, so when I left Master's house, I let a stick fall over, and I'm heading straight in the direction it pointed.

I endure attacks from poisonous insects and plants with 【Body Strengthening】, and if there's a cliff, I overcome it with 【Silverfish】 or 【Grasshopper】.

And then......

<......Emi, they're coming.>

Yeah, I know, Omake-sama.

A clearing that opened up abruptly in the middle of the mountains.

It probably formed when a large tree fell during a storm.

As soon as I reached it, I was surrounded by the ones who had been tracking me this far.

They're called Grim Wolves.

The monsters that were kind enough to chase me all the way to the mountain where Master lived, before I ever met him.

Their number: 5.

They surround me, letting out growls as if mocking me.

......I thought I had 【Presence Concealment】 up properly, but apparently I couldn't fool a wolf's nose.

I've still got a long way to go.

““GYAOOO!!””

2 of them leap at me.

1 from the front, and 1 more from right behind.

Staggering their timing a little like that: I can feel a beast's crafty cunning in it.

They must be planning for the one from behind, leaping a beat later, to finish me off through the opening I leave while I'm distracted by the one in front.

But, too bad.

““GYAO!!?””

With a hand chop, I split the Grim Wolf attacking from the front vertically in two.

【Mantis】.

The one from right behind, attacking a beat later, gets split clean in two as well, in empty air where there should be nothing, before it ever reaches me.

This was the 【Magic Slash Thread】 I had deployed in advance.

I can't move it freely yet, but even just setting it like a trap makes it plenty useful; it's now one of my precious means of attack.

The remaining 3 are startled and confused: the prey they meant to toy with until it died has fought back.

Listen, you guys.

You're hunting, right?

This is a fight to the death, you know.

You don't have time to be spacing out like that.

And you're supposed to be beasts.

Too soft.

I instantaneously gouge out clumps of soil from beneath my feet, and 【Stone Throw】.

Pa, pa, PAAN! The wolves' heads explode, and the remaining meat falls dosari to the ground.

Maybe thanks to 【Solidification】, maybe 【Body Strengthening】, my 【Stone Throw】, useless against them half a year ago, has grown along with me and is now strong enough to kill Grim Wolves.

Alright, combat over.

<......The sun is starting to set. Perhaps it would be a good idea to take a break around here for today?>

That's true.

Now that that's decided, it's time to prepare food.

I'll process the fresh meat rolling around nearby.

I heard in my previous life that carnivorous beasts aren't tasty, but Grim Wolves are at least tastier than Naked Awful-tasting Mice.

They're perfectly edible.

And there's plenty of it.

While butchering the Grim Wolves, I wonder.

How would Master have defeated these 5?

He probably would have lopped off their heads in the blink of an eye.

I can easily imagine such a scene.

......Ah.

It's no good, tears are welling up.

Master.

Master, Master, Master......

I'm going to get even stronger, okay?

Please watch me.

Please cheer for me.

You have to, okay?

The souls of the human dead are sent to the Underworld, and after going through some processing there, they promptly rejoin the cycle of reincarnation.

The Underworld is strictly a processing facility for souls; things like Heaven or Hell, the so-called “afterlife” where the dead can exist while retaining memories of their previous life, do not exist in this world.

Even though Omake-sama explained it to me that way.

Even though I know in my head that Master no longer exists anywhere.

I don't think I'll be able to stop chatting with Master for a while yet.