Chapter 191 – Reasons to Move On.
Nausicaa’s inn was quite famous in Parz. In particular, her restaurant, where she also works, is crowded with her regulars even when there are no customers at her inn. There were many reasons for this, but if I had to pick one, it was that I could enjoy dishes made with gusak, which can be said to be high-quality ingredients, at a relatively low price. Of course, her cooking skills in Nausicaa are also her masterpiece, so she is a place that cannot be missed even once by those who return home from work nearby. Her restaurant was abuzz with a topic.
“Oh, lady. Are you a new employee?”
It was that a new employee had arrived at her restaurant, which had rarely been hired.
“Is this the first face you see?”
“What’s up? Gusak came in here! A whole Gusak roast!”
Her customers didn’t speak to her directly, but they did catch glimpses of her waitress coming close to her as she ordered, or glanced at her as she moved her food. Her blonde hair, which was closer to yellow but glowed in the light, barely reached her shoulders, and her light brown eyes looked gentle, but the way she frowned while taking orders from customers and did nothing but work without saying a word gave a cold impression despite her youthful face. Perhaps because of this, there were no cases in which people directly talked to him about personal matters, even though they were sending curious glances.
Her women’s uniform was originally worn by waitresses, but her slender arms and legs were not enough to cover her entire body, and the bandages protruded from her neck down. Every time I walked, the skin peeking through the gaps in the bandages and the paleness of my face, which was not covered at all, made it possible for anyone to see that it was painful. She was somehow walking calmly, pretending nothing was wrong, but her feet were staggering little by little and her hands were shaking a little, making her look uneasy.
“Hey, Krikaliev, where else have you met a girl like that?”
Among her regulars who visited her today, the undertaker dressed in old cloths showed curiosity to her and asked Krikaliev, who was seated at one of her tables and was dozing with her drink and snacks in front of her.
“What do you mean, lady?”
He looked at them strangely, as if he didn’t understand.
“So, that new waitress lady!”
When one of hers secretly beckoned her and pointed at her, Krikaliev looked there and shook her head as if he had only just noticed.
“What kind of boy is the lady?”
“What?!”
“…You’re kidding, right?”
Yes, the waitress they mistook for a lady was not a lady. She really was him, not her.
“Then why are you wearing that outfit?!”
“A skirt is sometimes worn by knights and soldiers.”
“It’s for combat, so it’s for convenience! That’s just a women’s uniform!”
Upon hearing the story, Usher felt ashamed to death.
“Give me soup here at table number two.”
Turning around at the sound of Nausicaa’s voice, she was laughing as she watched him from her kitchen. Usher gnashed his teeth into her, serving the soup she had made on her tray.
“Because there is no one who treats you as if you are injured. Take it carefully. If you are really tired, will you listen instead?”
Nausicaa’s voice was kind, but Usher knew. That this is a mischievous joke masquerading as kindness.
“I do not need.”
Usher hit her as hard as he could and moved her food. He had a short break, but his legs, which had been overworked since lunchtime, hurt here and there whenever he walked, and his hands were numb, but he groaned and persevered. He couldn’t handle her teasing if he made any mistakes. As for why he was working in a women’s uniform, he had to go back to when he was given the uniform again by Nausicaa. The second uniform he was given was clearly men’s, but there was a problem.
“It’s too big.”
The uniform was too big for Usher, so he couldn’t wear pants, and no matter how much he tried on the top, it didn’t fit as well as the blanket it was originally covered with. In the end, he gave up on wearing her clothes and said that.
“Because I’ve never worked with a kid as small as you.”
“Ugh.”
Usher was still weak on issues related to height. He’s grown up a bit in the meantime, but his short stature for his age made him look younger.
“But it’s a big deal. I’ll have to wear a uniform to work or something.”
“Do I have to wear a uniform?”
“Of course!”
I wondered if that was really important, but it was hard to say anything when he said it so sternly.
“If it doesn’t work out, there is a way to order it separately. This is because you have to adjust it. You have to pay the price too?”
“How much is the uniform?”
“At least two silver coins?”
“Ugh!”
Usher frowned at her words. He knew long ago that clothes were expensive, but he didn’t know that they would be that expensive. He suddenly remembered the bag Belka had left behind. The bag was obviously full of money that the girl had put in it, but he couldn’t use it. What shame did he use it for? But other than that, he didn’t have the money to buy a uniform like that. Even if there was, I don’t know what would happen.
“Then another outfit.”
“No. If you don’t wear a uniform, I won’t let you work.”
Usher considered working elsewhere, but he knew that few places would treat him as kindly as he did here. Who would willingly give a job to someone they see for the first time? After all, Usher was forced to wear a tight-fitting women’s uniform. Even that was loose, so I had to tighten it up a bit with his straps. It was perhaps fortunate that he was less ashamed of the pain he felt every time he walked.
“Jeremiah, are you here?”
At that moment, Krikaliev discovered that a man in a clothes made of bones opened the door and came into the dining room.
“…Wasn’t that guy a man?”
“Because he treated me. I don’t know roughly.”
“I hope so.”
As Jeremiah sat down in front of Krikaliev, she glanced at the people near her as she slipped away, and continued her words. Even if it made her feel bad, she was good for Jeremiah. Even among these crowded people, it didn’t matter if I lowered my voice a little and had a simple conversation.
“According to the prophecy, there were two children in Paradise. One boy and one girl.”
“Except for the little lady?”
“Yeah, but why did you say it was only boys?”
“Or it’s just that they were both boys. Maybe they mistook each other for being pretty.”
Jeremiah wondered if that would make sense, but again she looked at Usher and nodded her head. Even so, doubts remained.
“Then where are the other children of paradise? They must have left paradise together.”
“You’ll have to find out for yourself. What can I do?”
“Tsk, that taboo is inconvenient.”
“Am I the only one who wears it myself?”
Jeremiah drank the drink that Krikaliev was pouring. And he remembered the ancient words he had interpreted so far. She knew how to read the ancient language in her own way, except for the languages that were made uninterpretable from the beginning, so there were quite a few prophecies that she had memorized. However, there were too many prophecies, which was a problem. I memorized the bold prophecies somehow, but there was a limit to memorizing them all. For now, it’s all about finding something meaningful in the fragments of the ruins that Krikaliev visits from time to time, but that was too miscellaneous.
“After all, to find out the whole truth, we have to go down to the Sanctuary.”
“If only I could stay undetected by the cultists.”
“Ha, damn it.”
They continued their masterpiece until all the guests who filled the inn had left.
“Ugh, the smell of alcohol! How much alcohol have you had?”
“About five bottles?”
Nausicaa, who came out of the kitchen when the clean-up was roughly finished, approached Krikaliev, who was quietly sipping a drink with Jeremiah lying on the table in front of her, and covered her nose at the strong scent of alcohol.
“So much!? I can’t live!”
“I didn’t drink a bottle. This guy drank most of it.”
“Mr. Remy? …You’re fully stretched out.”
She shook Jeremiah once, but shook her head motionlessly at the sight of her snoring.
“Because this guy can sleep separately. He goes upstairs to sleep.”
“Ugh, okay.”
Nausicaa followed him as Krikaliev helped him up to the second floor.
“A lot of people come dirty once.”
As soon as Usher entered the room, he threw off his uniform and sat down on the bed, muttering: As if it was funny that he thought it was no big deal, he found it more difficult than he thought to entertain guests who came to the restaurant. The clothes he was wearing were annoying as they were, and the more his legs moved, the more his body ached. What upset him more than anything else was that he felt that his body, which had no problem running for a long time, was getting tired even after walking for a long time. In the meantime, he had been trying so hard, but those efforts disappeared in an instant without knowing it.
Nevertheless, because he did not want to admit the fact, the wound on his leg continued to ache, and he could not stand it any longer and took off his shoes to see the condition. His legs were bandaged, as if his wounds had healed, but his blood could be seen oozing out little by little. Still, Usher ran his hand over the bloody bandages to keep the muscles from pulling the next morning.
“Keuk!”
The wounds on his hands hurt, but he still firmly kneaded his legs. After a workout that stimulated her body longer than usual, it was exactly what Donarna Belka did. The bandage seemed to hurt, but it didn’t hurt as much as I thought, so I finished it somehow and lay down on the bed. As he stared blankly at the ceiling, an unfamiliar and still silence penetrated his ears. It would have been better if he had fallen asleep sooner rather than later, but he always missed the arms of the girl who slept in his arms, but even when he squeezed her hand, all he could get was the cold air and the crisp feel of the bandage.
“…Belka.”
His words disappeared, hovering around the empty room without anyone to take them.
“You’re already sleeping.”
Nausicaa sneaked open Usher’s door, saw him asleep through the gap, and entered the room.
“Oh, it’s bloody again.”
She was horrified to find Usher curled up in a deep slumber with only her bandages wrapped around her. The bandages wrapped around his body were all messed up with red blood oozing out here and there. At least the wound didn’t ooze any more blood, as if the wound had hardened again, but at least the bandage seemed to need to be changed.
“Is it really okay to pamper your child like this?”
Nausicaa thought that she was being used to herself by that appearance. She asked Krikaliev, who came into the room with her. She’s him. She’s the one who told Usher to pamper her to the fullest.
“I can’t help it. If I don’t get busy, this guy will be impatient because he can’t dig his own grave.”
“But it hurts like this.”
“I’d rather be sick. No matter how painful and difficult it is, I’d rather have scars carved on my own.”
“Still.”
No matter how worried she was, Krikaliev seemed unwilling to change her mind.
“Miss.”
Helena spoke her words to Belka, who was staring blankly at her moon through her window. Then she barely came to her senses and looked back at her girlish golden glow. Seeing that, Helena wanted to comfort her, but she couldn’t say anything. She left the money with Nausicaa and Krikaliev and moved to another inn, but Belka was just staring out the window as if her soul had gone.
“Now it’s time to go to bed.”
“Huh.”
The girl quietly burrowed into her arms of Helena. In a desperate gesture, as if seeking some warmth from her, she pulled Belka into a hug.
“Helena, let’s find work together tomorrow.”
“Yes.”
Helena closed her eyes as she took the words close to her promise and the girl’s tears that did not dry up into her arms. Not noticing the dark shadows hovering around her.
“…There is only one left around the target now.”
“This is an order to be more careful, even if it’s just one thing. Don’t mess things up by acting hastily.”
“Yes, I’ll keep an eye on it some more.”
Parzu’s night was shining pale in the moonlight.
