Vol 1 Chapter 15 (1/2)

Chapter 1, Part 5

The fantastic black horse-like creature had been zipping to and fro around the mountain forest with the speed of an arrow, but then suddenly stopped when Tohru and coed co quiet and still as a statue Not even a hint remained of its earlier ferocity On the contrary: its eyes were hollow, alh all its life force had been sapped and it had continued to stand there even after death

And so…

“…Hmm?”

With a rustling noise, a thicket of bushes was forcibly parted to reveal the figure of a man

On his sreen etation in this area, and it would be hard to distinguish between the man and the environment If the cloak allowed hie was even more effective

And this h

His face and his perfectly-shaven bald head were covered in paint rese that it looked like it could have concealed a huge sword, sireen and olive brown obi sash

“They got away, huh…” the man murmured

He earing that paint on his face, so a bystander wouldn’t be able to tell what kind of expression he wasNot even a little bit afraid of the unicorn, he walked up next to it and peered down into the ravine that Tohru and the girl had ju on the river that had washed them both away

“Guess the h Should I wait for Gillette-dono after all…?”

He seehts as he muttered to himself

Finally–

“No I can’t let this great opportunity get away”

A white crack spread across the ed face

He had bared his teeth and was laughing

“Let’s tie this thing up real nice, now”

While saying this, theas still as a statue–and began to unload the bag he had been carrying

They must have only blacked out for several seconds Otherwise they would most certainly have drowned

“Hgah…!”

Tohru regained consciousness quickly The mo onto the girl She was coughing up suds and flapping her ars wildly, but she was alive, and even conscious It was a stroke of luck for sure–the girl had ed to hold on to the coffin, so it fulfilled its duty as a flotation device Tohru had already guessed this by the noise it had round, but it appeared that it really was eh buoyancy to support both Tohru and the girl

“Ku…Ugh…”

Mustering all his strength, Tohru extended his ar down from trees, but he wasn’t near any of them However, water would sometimes rise in this area due to heavy rain, and it wasn’t unusual to find the soil whittled down or roots exposed as a resultRe river, he was finally able to grab the root of a tree and pull hiround with success

“Haa…Haa…Haa…”

Lying face-up on top of a asped heavily

He was incredibly fatigued He had the feeling he’d used up most of his stamina

A fleeting glance next to hi and hacking violently Even so, though, she still checked on the condition of her coffin–itvery important to her Then, she slowly turned her head in Tohru’s direction

“Abrupt Coercive Excessive–”

But that was as far as she got

“Mu…!?”

The girl froze in place, and her eyes ide

“…What’s wrong?”

“Blood…!?”

The girl pointed in front of her

Thinking that this could ot up and looked down at where he had been lying

There was…a pale brown color

It was definitely blood The river water trickling down fro the rock pale brown He had suffered a wound on his back fro The blood’s color was unusual only because it was ht pink, but closer to brown

“Ah, so it is…”

Tohru affirmed listlessly

“Failed”

“Failed…?”

The girl ca at his back intently

“Me Protecting me No?”

“Uh…well…I guess”

Tohru, of course, couldn’t see his own back, but he could iine what the situation was It didn’t seem like it had reached the bone, but he felt that he had soht line across his back, as if it had been inflicted by some kind of sword

“I wonder what happened”

“Urgent Treatment”

The girl then began to search her pockets feverishly, like she was looking for so out when she checked However, it see useful

“Not here…” she muttered dejectedly

“Uh, well, I think I’ll be fine,” Tohru said a bit wearily

After all, he knew his own body best If he had continued to be subed in the water, there was a chance that he could have died from blood loss or even frozen to death due to hypothermia However, he realized that the woundwas already beginning to stem

However…

“These frugal meals have cursed me”

His sta He had lost blood, and he had lost a lot of energy being exposed to the freezing river water A tired, heavy feeling had fallen upon him Not to mention, it had been a while since he’d had a square meal

“I guess trying to run away…ht not be possible,” Tohru said as if it was someone else’s problem

It had been a life-threatening situation–and yet neither his tone of voice nor facial expression displayed even one inkling of urgency It wasn’t that he was overly optimistic or hopeful, either That was just hoas

“A Feyra…and a unicorn to boot…it sure wasn’t too friendly”

The girl remained silent

Her earlier haughty attitude hadchased around by a Feyra in the rasp how dire the situation was

“It’s useless Probably best to give up It’s a stalemate”

As Tohru said this, he shrugged his shoulders When he did so, pain from his wound shot up his back, and he winced

“It was a pretty boring life, wasn’t it…”

Quickly ment, Tohru muttered

“Boring, life?”

The girl’s eyes blinked as she finally spoke

It was almost like she had never heard those words before

“Give…up?”

“…Basically”

Tohru nodded nonco a wry smile

“Perish?”

“Probably”

“Troubling”

“Yeah, I guess you could say that”

Tohru shrugged his shoulders again

“Death Not afraid?”

She pointed at Tohru after hearing that

“H I’m not afraid would probably be a lie, but–”

Tohru turned his eyes away froirl

He didn’t really understand it that well either

“From the start, I never knehat I should do with my life”

He smiled a self-derisive smile

“In…this kind of world”

He didn’t knohat to aim for

He didn’t knohat to wish for

He didn’t want to do anything Those desires had all completely vanished

And even now, there wasn’t a single thing he wanted to become

He didn’t have any clear wishes or goals When he thought about it, he wasto live each day aimlessly, in an endless cycle

Was there a proper occupation that suited him?

He didn’t knohat it could be

He could have worked for the sake of his daily bread, and when he had reached the suitable age he could have taken a bride, settled down in a small house in the corner of the district, and lived out those sae until his death–yet he had no interest in spending his re time like that

Just howdid that really have?

Would it really be any different than dying right here?

For what reason was he even born?

He couldn’t help but think about these things Putting effort into anything didn’t pay off very well The ale hu and then dying didn’t affect this corner of the world at all

There was nothing he could do There was nothing he could leave behind

It was a way of life that was a lot like an insect’s or an animal’s

The purpose of living

Heading towards a goal

Once, certainly, these things had existed for Tohru However, he began to doubt his reason for living, and one day it was all snatched away from him

That hen it ca, he would always question if it was even worth doing For a year, he had done nothing butin depravity

Tohru began to speak in a voice that bordered on sulky

“Back in the day, there were times where I wanted to do stuff”

He shrugged his shoulders

“But not now I don’t have the desire any to the laws of inertia”

“…”

The girl—stared at Tohru for a while, keeping her head tilted to the side

“Rediscovery”

The girl finally said this as she sternly pointed at Tohru, as if she was co

“Huh?”

“Again Will find From now on Once more”

The girl said this as if she was stating the obvious

However–

“It’s already too late”

“Why?”

“Frankly, I don’t have any special talents”

He had once had a goal in life

For that reason, he had spent his days away

He didn’t have the ti or outside techniques Tohru was a lump of clay that had already been molded into the shape of a plate and then baked It was too late to want to become a teacup instead Even if he was told to live his life differently, it wasn’t that easy

However–

“…”

The girl–

“Ouch!”

Without warning, she started pounding on Tohru’s back many times over

“What the hell are you doing, you idiot!?”

“Ah Apologize Feeling unsatisfied”

“‘Feeling unsatisfied’, my ass!”

Itthat area struck was still quite painful

“Same”

The girl suddenly pointed to herself

“What do you mean by that?”

“Untalented Same as you Can do—very little”

Saying that, she reached over to the coffin beside her and opened it up slowly

Since the coffin had been able to float in the river, he figured that it had been empty However…

“That’s–”

Tohru’s eyes opened wide

The girl was taking out a steel device

In an instant, Tohru speculated that based on its length, it could even be some kind of mechanical spear…but no, this was different

It was a long, long cylinder

Its base had been screwed into a mechanical apparatus

A scope, used to adjust aim

There was a wooden grip and a bipod, used to fix it to the ground

It was–a Gundo

It was a device that wizards used to attack with their ic Just as cavaliers used swords and archers used bows and arroizards used their Gundo In other words, having a Gundo was proof that you were a wizard