Shido met Hermit and had a simple conversation with her.
He told her that he had no intention of attacking her at all, and that he had only come to help.
The name of Hermit that came out in the process was Yoshino. Yoshinon was the doll’s name.
“If you mean the doll, it won’t be here.”
At Yoshino’s words, saying she had been looking for Yoshinon, Jae calmly told her the truth.
Since Tobiichi Origami had taken it after finding it in the department store, there was no way it would still be here.
At the fact that Yoshinon was not where she had been searching, Yoshino looked as if she had been shocked.
“Ahaha... then, what do I do now...?”
Originally, Shido had meant to help her find Yoshinon.
But after Kotori confirmed over the intercom that Jae’s words were true, he had no idea how to help Yoshino.
Then, at that moment, a sound came from somewhere.
Grrr...
“Hm?”
“......”
Jae and Shido both turned their eyes toward Yoshino.
She had not eaten anything, so she was hungry.
And because the sound had happened to come out while other people were there, she was terribly embarrassed.
“Uu...”
Yoshino pulled her hood down and hid her face beneath it.
Even so, the part of her face that was still visible had turned red.
“...Yoshino, would you like to come to my house and eat?”
He did not have any special motive.
Of course, he could not say he had no intention of sealing her at all, but even so, Shido simply wanted to show kindness to a hungry girl.
Perhaps because that feeling showed in his eyes from the start, Yoshino gave a small nod to show that she wanted to go.
“What about you, Hyun?”
Taking the chance, Shido also asked Jae.
He had heard from Kotori that he did not even eat, so he was a little worried.
“......”
At Shido’s suggestion, Jae folded his arms and thought about it.
Was it really right to accept that offer?
He could no longer taste anything. Since he had died countless times, his sense of taste had long since been lost to physical and mental suffering.
So even if he accepted Shido’s offer, it would mean nothing to him.
No matter what delicious food Shido made, for Jae it would be nothing more than taking in nutrients.
And since he did not even need those nutrients, there was even less reason for him to accept.
Besides, refusing would probably help the progress of the sealing as well.
For those reasons, Jae was about to turn Shido down.
[Hyun, why don’t you go too?]
Just as he was about to shake his head, Kotori spoke to Jae.
[Even if you can’t taste anything, things might be different now.]
Kotori personally felt sympathy for Jae’s situation.
He had suddenly appeared, his emotions were broken, and from what she had heard, he seemed to have lived a very bleak life.
Even if he was neither human nor Spirit, he clearly had a human form, so it was only natural that she would feel pity.
[More importantly, you never know. Yoshino might show some strange behavior.]
She added that before Jae could even voice his refusal.
Based on the words and actions Jae had shown so far, giving him a “clear reason” worked best.
Sure enough, only after Kotori said that did Jae slowly nod.
“Thank you, Kotori.”
Shido thanked Kotori for persuading Jae, then headed home with the two of them.
#
After arriving at Shido’s house, Yoshino and Jae sat on the sofa and looked around the living room.
Yoshino found the living room of a normal house fascinating, while Jae felt a sense of nostalgia at the somewhat familiar sight.
Seeing the two of them look around for their own reasons, Shido gave an awkward smile and began preparing the ingredients to cook.
After nodding in satisfaction at the neatly arranged ingredients like green onions, onions, and eggs, he turned on the heat.
And then, Jae stood up from his seat and walked over to Shido.
“Hyun?”
Shido voiced his confusion at Jae suddenly approaching him.
To that, Jae asked,
“May I borrow your fire for a moment?”
“Fire...?”
“If possible, I would like to eat something I know.”
If he was going to eat, Jae wanted to eat something familiar to him rather than something else.
More precisely, he wanted to taste it.
By the time Jae first ate normal food with Siegbert, he had already lost his sense of taste.
Maybe he simply wanted to recall a memory that had once been good.
“Ah, if that’s the reason...”
At Jae’s explanation, Shido stepped aside.
Maybe he was also curious about what kind of cooking Jae had in mind.
What kind of food did Jae know? He had heard that Jae came from another world, so what would he make?
As Shido watched with anticipation, Jae asked him to bring out a pot.
The dish Jae planned to make was Estus Soup.
Jae’s close friend, Siegbert.
The recipe for the soup he had given Jae before the full-scale battle against the Giant Yhorm was still etched in his memory.
‘If you should ever meet another Ash like yourself whose fire has gone out, then make Estus Soup for that one as well. In this barren world, a little help is surely needed for Ashes like us.’
At his words, asking Jae to do for others what he himself had done, Jae had no choice but to nod and accept.
‘First, I suppose it was to add Sieg’s drink.’
Slowly recalling what Siegbert had taught him, Jae took Sieg’s drink out of thin air and poured it into the pot.
Next came the Estus.
The liquid carrying a warm orange glow slowly flowed into the pot and gave off a faint light.
If he stirred it and let it boil in that state, the Estus Soup Jae sometimes relied on would be complete.
“......”
Jae looked at the finished Estus Soup.
The warm soup, tinged with orange light, was enough just to look at to bring back memories of Siegbert.
Even in a world marching toward destruction, not all of his memories had been bad.
He thought of the last cup of drink he had shared with Siegbert after Yhorm was finally slain.
“......”
Jae quietly closed his eyes and savored the Estus Soup.
And, as expected, he could not taste a thing.
Comments (0)
Please log in to leave a comment. Login or Register