Blurring and Smearing, the Country Road

“Really, you're leaving already?”

It's early autumn.

Outside the window, a 6-winged creature that looks like a dragonfly is flying across the pale blue sky.

This is the study of the Salar baronial house, only just repaired.

Wrapped in the scent of fresh wood, I sit facing the baron.

Beside him is Madam.

Maid-senpai and the sinister butler have gathered in the room too.

Today is the day I say goodbye to everyone.

My one-month term guarding Sara Salar, the baron's daughter, has come to an end.

A little while ago, she set off by carriage for the academy in the royal capital.

As it turns out, Kiskett-sensei, who had been treating her, was set to join the academy faculty just as she enrolled, so he's taken on guarding her as far as the academy, riding in the carriage with her.

Kiskett-sensei is a rank-2 adventurer as well as a healing mage, so apparently he can hold his own in a fight.

According to Sara Salar, the baron's daughter, Kiskett-sensei is apparently “not a capture target, but a reliable helper character.” She's grown very attached to the teacher, who visits regularly for follow-up checkups.

......More so than me.

Or rather, since I don't appear anywhere in her memories...... the “otome game” memories planted by a god, it seems that in her mind I'm just a background mob character, not worth any particular attention.

The Sara-chan who invited me, saying “Let's go to the academy together,” is gone.

I'd worried a little about what to do with myself from here on, but it turned out to be a needless worry.

The idea of being able to spend time with a friend from now on was like a dream to me, but in the end, it was nothing but a dream.

It was merely a fleeting dream, one that surfaced like a bubble, only to pop and vanish.

“For my part, I think very highly of your abilities. If you are willing, I wouldn't mind if you continued to work at this mansion.”

The baron offers, but I quietly shake my head.

After one month together, even I, with hardly any experience of people, can more or less tell how everyone feels about me.

The sinister butler hates me to begin with.

Madam and Maid-senpai are, somehow, afraid of me.

The baron doesn't let any aversion to me show on the surface, but...... I get the feeling he's forcing himself a bit.

In this world, where people believe that ‘a black-haired, black-eyed cursed child is unlucky’, even if his reason tells him it's only superstition, he probably can't quite wipe away the unease.

I think continuing to work in such an environment would be painful for both of us. Mentally.

Or rather, I myself want to leave this mansion as soon as possible.

I want to escape right now from this place that makes me remember Sara-chan.

But right, before we part, there's one thing I want to check with the baron.

“Baron, why hire, me?”

“Hm?”

“Cursed children, unlucky. Me, not even allowed into villages. But Baron, hired me. Why?”

Would he really hire a cursed child just because I'm strong and seem useful as his daughter's guard, for that reason alone?

The discrimination against cursed children in this world is deeply rooted.

I feel like there is another reason.

“......A long time ago, back when I was a rookie adventurer. I slipped up and was about to die, and I was saved by a black-haired, black-eyed special-grade adventurer, ‘Nameless Yogin’.”

The baron starts telling the story, fiddling with his little mustache.

“At that time, he told me, ‘You needn't think of repaying me. Instead, when you have grown older and gained power, if you encounter a black-haired, black-eyed person like myself, please help them if you can.’ The time had come to keep that promise. That's what I thought.”

......Huh.

“Nameless Yogin,” huh.

Thanks to that person, I've been able to live a very human life this one month.

I'm grateful to the baron, and to Yogin-san too.

Wait, Yogin-san was a “special-grade adventurer”......

<It means he's among the very top of all adventurers.>

To climb to such a position while being black-haired and black-eyed in this world, he must be something else.

“Yogin-san, can I meet him too?”

“I wonder. As his epithet ‘Nameless’ suggests, his activities are not very public, and no one knows where he is. To begin with, he was already quite elderly when I met him. I don't even know if he is still alive.”

Even so, if he is alive, I'd like to meet him if possible.

I want to thank him.

I've gained one more purpose for my journey.

◇ ◇ ◇

Under a pale blue sky, a country road that stretches on forever.

Gazing at the fields spreading all around, the mansion behind me, I trudge along alone.

Every so often, a 6-winged creature resembling a dragonfly

<That is a Tighi bug.>

Tighi bugs cross right in front of me without a care, so I snatch them up and snack on them as I amble along.

Upon my departure, the baron wrote a letter of recommendation for me.

He told me that as long as I have this piece of paper, I likely won't be turned away at the door, at least in the town called Yoshanka that lies ahead.

There is an Adventurers' Guild branch office there, and if I show the letter of recommendation and register as an adventurer, I can obtain a card that serves as identification, called an “adventurer card.”

And with that, the times I'm driven out of towns or villages without question will probably decrease.

That's what the baron said.

Apparently, a letter of recommendation isn't actually necessary for adventurer registration, but it was the baron's kindness to ensure I wouldn't be treated unfairly.

On top of my wages, the baron has also given me clothes to replace the Grim Wolf outfit, which got so tattered it's useless now.

A tight-fitting black inner set with three-quarter sleeves, shorts to wear over them, a jacket with plenty of pockets, a backpack, and a cloth I can wrap around my head to hide my hair.

The inner set especially is apparently ‘woven with magic and pretty high-grade’, and it's wonderful to wear.

I really can't thank the baron enough.

I have nothing but gratitude.

By the way, I declined the shoes.

They'd make 【Silverfish】 harder to use, and 【Grasshopper】 would just break them immediately anyway.

Thanks to 【Body Strengthening】, it's unlikely I'd injure my feet even while barefoot, and any injury my 【Body Strengthening】 can't prevent probably couldn't be prevented even if I wore ordinary shoes.

So I'm staying barefoot.

<Haah~~~...... So at last, you're making your adventurer debut too, Emi~~~......!>

For some reason, Omake-sama is excited.

<At the Adventurers' Guild reception, I can't wait to beat back the old guys who'll pick a fight with you, saying stuff like ‘Hey, hey, this ain't a place for brats!’, I just can't waaait~~~!>

......What on earth is this person talking about???

Sometimes, I just don't understand Omake-sama's way of thinking.

But this much I do know.

The reason Omake-sama is acting strangely cheerful is because I'm depressed.

Sara-chan.

My first friend.

The precious person I couldn't protect to the end.

She's ended up in a strange situation, a vessel for a reincarnator's soul, neither clearly dead nor clearly alive.

Even if her own soul could be revived in the future, I am a vagrant, a rootless drifter.

We probably won't meet again.

......I hate them, I do.

I hate the gods.

I hate the gods of this world, who force their fates upon people as they please.

But, even if I hate them.

The opponent is a god, and I am a human.

There's nothing I can do.

It's empty.

So, at the very least.

I'll get stronger.

More, and more, I'll get stronger.

So that next time, I can overcome the unreasonable and protect what is precious to me.

I'll get stronger.

Goodbye, Salar Barony.

Goodbye, Sara-chan.

I won't forget.

You.

And my powerlessness, too.

The country road stretching straight through the fields, blurred and smeared.

And so, Arc 5 is mostly concluded.

This time, it was a story where Emi-chan, caught up in an “otome-game reincarnation,” struggles against fate but lacks the strength to stop its flow...... something like that.

She is still too weak to smash through fate and push through her own will.

Still, Emi-chan's power-ups are coming along steadily. Don't give up, keep at it!

Now then, now then, I know I just wrote ‘Arc 5 is mostly concluded’, but there are a few more chapters left, so please stick with me a little longer.

And if you'd like, I look forward to your support in Arc 6 and beyond.