After pouring everything I had into [Lahat Haelev], there was one thing I hadn’t thought about.
Landing.
Of course, since I was undead, it wasn’t like falling like this would really be a problem.
But a crushed body and blood splattering everywhere would be a huge shock to everyone else, so I should have prepared for the landing.
"Huaaahhh!!"
More than anything else, I was fucking terrifying!
"...And there you go, saying weird crap again."
Natsumi’s voice reached me as I screamed on the way down, right before a shock hit my neck.
"Ghk!"
"Ah, sorry."
Natsumi had used [Haniel] from behind my clothes to catch me as I fell.
Thanks to that, she stopped me from plummeting by leaving me dangling from [Haniel], but it also cut off my breathing.
Natsumi apologized and set me on [Haniel] properly.
As we slowly descended toward the ground while riding [Haniel], Natsumi asked me a question.
"...Come to think of it, there’s something I want to ask."
"What is it?"
"...Why were you so nice to me?"
"Why was I nice to you?"
It sounded like the same question she’d asked before, but this time the mood was different.
Last time, it had been full of self-loathing and negativity. This time, it was just pure curiosity.
I answered Natsumi’s question calmly.
"Because I wanted to be."
"...Huh?"
"I’m saying I just wanted to, okay?"
"Does that even make sense?"
Natsumi looked at me like she couldn’t understand me at all, but I had no intention of taking it back.
When someone wants to help another person, they don’t need some grand reason. Wanting to do it is reason enough.
That was why I helped Natsumi.
But she still didn’t seem convinced, so I decided to give her a reason she could actually understand.
"If I had to put a label on it... yeah. Pity, sympathy. And a sense of kinship."
"...Pity and sympathy I can get, but kinship?"
"You must have been lonely."
Jolt!
Maybe I’d hit the mark, because [Haniel], which had been descending smoothly, wobbled a little.
And judging from how Natsumi’s ears turned red, I was definitely right.
"N-no, I wasn’t! Why would I ever feel lonely...?"
"Well, if not, then fine. But at least from where I was standing, that’s how it looked. Like you said, if people keep looking down on you, you can’t help but get lonely."
And since the transformed version wasn’t her real self, even if she got close to people that way, it probably wouldn’t feel like she’d really become close to them.
"......"
After I laid out all my guesses, Natsumi didn’t answer anymore.
It looked like she was thinking about feelings even she hadn’t realized she had, or maybe just chewing over what I’d said.
After confirming her reaction, I continued.
"I was the same."
"...You were too?"
"Yeah. Where should I even start...?"
I thought about where to begin.
But in the end, I decided it would be better to just tell her everything that had happened.
"Yeah. Better to tell it all. I lost my parents."
"What!?"
Maybe that was too sudden, because [Haniel] shook violently.
Natsumi even apologized when I nearly fell, but that was my fault for bringing up something so heavy out of nowhere, so I told her it was fine and got back to the point.
"Anyway, to put it another way, after I lost my parents, it felt like I was the only one left in the world."
A crushing despair, like I was the only person who existed.
The loneliness that came with that was more than I could handle.
So I probably got addicted to the game Dark Souls, avoided reality, and ran away from real life.
"But back then, there was a friend who always helped me out and stayed by my side."
The guy who was always there for me, helping me out, was Min Gyeong-sik.
Because he never left me, because Gyeongsik was there beside me, he pulled me out when I would’ve probably shut myself away in my room for ages, and that let me escape loneliness, at least a little.
"Seeing you made me think of that. You’re different from me, but I figured you must have felt something similar. More than anything, you reminded me of my past self. That’s why I helped you."
That was everything I had to say.
There wasn’t anything else to add, and I didn’t feel like I needed to explain how I’d ended up in Dark Souls or this world.
As I watched Natsumi’s reaction, her body started to tremble a little.
"Natsumi?"
"......"
I called her name, wondering if something was wrong, but there was no answer.
"...I’m not doing it."
No, her voice had just been too soft to hear.
"What was that?"
"...I’m sorry."
"Huh? Out of nowhere?"
I stared at her, bewildered by the sudden apology, and saw tears welling up in her eyes before they began to stream down her cheeks.
"Honestly, I didn’t trust you guys.... I thought you’d be the same as everyone else... even though you were so kind to me..."
Natsumi’s true feelings came out between sniffles.
I closed my mouth and listened closely to what she had to say.
"I did a lot of awful things... and even after I lost the bet, I still hid it...! But you always treated me... like I was just myself, and you were sincere with me.... When you made things up for me, I was happy... I was really, really happy..."
[Haniel] was still wobbling, but I didn’t feel the slightest bit uncomfortable.
Right now, all I could do was wipe away Natsumi’s tears.
"Th-thank you... really, thank you...!"
Saying that, Natsumi wrapped her arms tightly around my waist.
Maybe she didn’t want me to see her crying, because she buried her face in my arm and kept sniffing.
I patted her back and felt [Haniel] finally stop shaking.
Now that she’d let out all the knots in her heart, she seemed to have calmed down.
Relieved, I looked down at Natsumi.
Still hiding her face in my arm, I spoke softly to her.
"Thanks for telling me the truth."
"...Mm."
"If you tell the others too, I’m sure they’ll be happy."
"...Mm."
Watching her nod and mumble her answer, I felt like we’d finally become friends.
As that thought crossed my mind, another question suddenly came to me.
"Natsumi. Do you have somewhere to go?"
"...Huh?"
"I mean, I don’t know where you’d want to go."
Even though Natsumi had lost the bet, it was also true that thanks to her help, we’d shot down the satellite without any real damage.
If Natsumi wanted to leave, I was prepared to let her go.
"If you don’t have anywhere in mind, then... want to live with us?"
"With... us?"
"Yeah. There’s a mansion called the spirit mansion that [Ratatoskr] built for the spirits. I thought it might be nice if you lived there with us."
Since Natsumi might want that, I suggested she live at the spirit mansion.
If we lived together, we’d have plenty of chances to get closer, and then it’d be easy for us to become friends.
"Well, if you hate it, forget it."
But that was only if Natsumi wanted it, so I said it was fine if she didn’t want to live with us.
Natsumi slowly shook her head and said,
"No... I want to live with you. If that’s okay..."
Seeing her cautious expression, I gave a small laugh and nodded.
"Of course. I was the one who suggested it, so there’s no way I’d turn you down."
"They won’t hate me, will they...?"
"No way. Everyone already thinks well of you."
"R-really?"
"Yep."
After I answered her, Natsumi let go of my arm.
And on her face, I could see it.
A smile brighter than any I’d seen before.
*******
When Natsumi and I came down to the ground, the others welcomed us.
"Darling, you startled me. A giant drill just appeared out of nowhere."
"Ah, haha. Sorry."
I scratched my head and apologized at Miku’s words.
I hadn’t been surprised because I’d already planned to use [Lahat Haelev], but everyone else had seen some huge thing suddenly appear, so of course they’d be shocked.
"By the way, the person behind you is...?"
When Miku glanced behind me, Natsumi clung to me even tighter.
"Natsumi?"
"H-hello..."
When I had no choice but to call her out, she carefully stepped out and waved at everyone.
And, as expected, Miku immediately went wild.
"Kyaa~! Such a cute girl! Darling, were you hiding a girl like this from me? Natsumi, would you like to be friends with me?"
"...Ugh. Gross."
Of course, it wasn’t the kind of rampage that made her lose her reason like last time. It was just a little worse than usual.
I let out a relieved sigh at how everything had somehow worked out, and as I watched Natsumi talking with the others, a window suddenly appeared in front of me.
"Huh?"
It was the window for obtaining a witch’s soul.
I had no idea why it was popping up now.
"Natsumi doesn’t exactly like me that much, does she...?"
I was lost in thought for a moment, but then decided that if it was good, it was good, and walked over to Natsumi.
"Natsumi."
"Mm?"
"Do you happen to have a spare set of clothes or something?"
"Why...?"
Natsumi tilted her head, unable to understand what I meant, but the other spirits all knew exactly what I was talking about, so they backed away a little.
"I’m about to seal your powers, but when I do, your clothes disappear."
"So that means...?"
"You’ll be naked. That’s why I asked."
Saying that, I pulled a hoodie out of my inventory.
"Here, take this."
"Clothes just came out of thin air...?"
"It’s my ability."
Natsumi was fascinated by my ability, but only for a moment. Then, remembering that she’d be naked, she blushed and told me to turn around.
"Ready?"
"Y-yeah."
"I’ve got her covered with my angel~!"
Natsumi was surrounded and concealed by the organ pipes created by Miku’s Gabriel.
Since Natsumi had said she was ready, I pressed obtain without hesitation.
Then a new soul appeared.
I took it out, placed it in my hand, and crushed it with all my strength.
Crack!
The clear sound rang out as Natsumi’s spiritual power was absorbed into my body.
With that, Natsumi’s sealing was complete.
Now that Natsumi’s sealing was done too, I was thinking how nice it was that everything had ended well when—
[Hi! It’s not over yet! A bomb is falling your way!]
"What!?"
"What do you mean, what happened!?"
I yelped in shock at the sudden news that a bomb was falling, blurting out a loud cry on reflex.
Because of that, Natsumi and the other spirits were startled too, all asking what was going on.
"Another bomb is coming...?"
"Huh!?"
At my words, everyone looked up at the sky.
A huge bomb was falling from above.
As I hurriedly equipped [Lahat Haelev] again to deal with it, a beam of light suddenly flashed and pierced straight through the bomb.
"What the..."
The bomb exploded in midair as the beam went through it.
We were left speechless by yet another unexpected arrival.
"That’s... Tobiichi...?"
The one who had blown up the bomb in the sky, Tobiichi Origami, was looking down at us while wearing a CR-Unit similar to Ellen’s.
--------------------
[Witch’s Soul]
One of the strange souls that carries power.
The green, fluttering soul is capable of changing into any form.
Using it, you can seal the witch’s spiritual power within your body.
The witch is a spirit who can change anything and make anything change.
It is said she has an extremely self-deprecating value system.
Comments (0)
Please log in to leave a comment. Login or Register