Berserk of Gluttony (LN) - Volume 7 - Chapter 6

Chapter 6:

A City Developing

ROXY AND I purchased sweet pies and ate them as we toured the city.

“This is utterly delicious,” said Roxy.

“Yep!” added Snow. “Utterly delish!”

Roxy and Snow both had a sweet tooth. For that matter, Eris and Memil had also eaten their fair share of sugary treats on the way to Hausen. I wondered whether there was any truth to the cliché that all girls adored sweets and desserts.

“Hm? Do you not care for pies, Fay?” asked Roxy.

She had to have noticed my countenance, lost as I was in thought. If I could help it, I didn’t want her to fret over me.

“Sure, I like pies,” I said. “This red jam is great. Er…what’s the fruit called again?”

“Raspberries.”

When she realized that I’d forgotten their name, Roxy puffed up her cheeks with disappointment.

“Y-yeah, that’s it,” I stammered. “We, uh, we learned how to grow and harvest these along with grapes, and we owe that to the help of the Hart family.”

Greed cackled at me. It was so shrill and metallic that I gave him a good prodding.

“But we really do, Roxy,” I continued. “Because of the Hart family’s support, we’re growing grapes and raspberries on Hausen soil. We couldn’t have done it without you, and I’ll always be grateful.”

“Think nothing of it,” she said. “I didn’t do anything special. The people who truly deserve your gratitude are the townsfolk who came from the Hart estate to help.”

“Well, them too,” I said.

The vineyards were quite a distance from us, so I doubted that I would have the opportunity to give them my thanks today. Regardless, I gave them silent thanks in my heart as I ate another mouthful of my raspberry pie.

Since arriving in Hausen, Roxy had been especially interested in learning the ways it differed from the lands of the Hart family. 

“Fay, what’s that?” She pointed at a sign hanging from the wall of an inn. 

Upon closer inspection, it was no ordinary sign. The arrow pointing toward the inn emitted light.

“The sign uses magitech,” I said. “It’s a paint that glows as a reaction to latent magical energy in the air.”

Those were Set’s exact words; I simply parroted them back to Roxy. He sent me letters whenever a new technology was implemented in Hausen. We gawked at the brightly lit sign for a short while, then Snow tugged at my hand.

“What’s up?” I asked.

“That guy is watching you,” said Snow.

“Huh?” 

Roxy and I both turned to see where Snow was pointing. The owner of the inn approached us, rubbing his hands together.

“Looking for a place to stay?” he asked. “My inn is very affordable. We also have rooms prepared especially for young couples such as yourselves.”

“Huuhhh?!”

Our response was so vehement that it drew the attention of passersby. Roxy and I were both completely flabbergasted.

“My apologies!” said Roxy. “I did not mean to give you the wrong idea while I observed your fine and reputable establishment!”

She hurriedly grabbed my free hand and pulled me along as she walked away.

“Roxy!” I cried.

Once the inn was out of sight, Roxy grinned at me. “What a surprise! To think we’d be asked a thing like that on a morning like today…”

“Yeah. Do you think, maybe…we look like we’re dating?”

Roxy and I looked at each other for a time.

“We don’t have time for jokes, Fay!”

I hadn’t meant it as a joke, but Roxy still smiled and flicked my forehead.

“Right; we have to track down Myne. This is supposed to be the place where she was spotted, but—”

“There’s so many people!”

“People! So many people!” cried Snow.

We’d only moved one block over, but the atmosphere was completely different. Snow had never seen so many people in one place, and she was practically bursting with excitement. When I noticed her little scorpion tail darting out from her white robe, I hastened to calm her.

As one of the holy beastfolk, Snow differed from the rest of us. Though she had a human form, her tail betrayed her unique nature. I didn’t want to startle anyone or cause a panic, so I always reminded her to act human.

“Snow! Settle down!”

“No! I wanna play! Over there!”

Snow gawped at some street performers putting on a show. She didn’t grasp what they were doing and assumed that it was some sort of game.

“Snow! They’re not—they’re not playing a game!”

Snow let out a growl when I grabbed hold of her. “Grrr…”

She struggled to break free from my grip with an unbelievable amount of power. She was in the Domain of E, after all. If she were unleashed here in the city streets, there was no doubt what would happen next: she’d wreck her surroundings like a tiny, rampaging god of destruction. I flashed back to the desert and the tortuous battle with Snow when she was in the form of the Zodiac Scorpion. 

Sensing an opening, Snow slipped from my grasp like an eel.

“Snow!”

“Ha ha!”

I had to stop her! She bolted straight at the street performers. Just as I lost all hope of resolving this situation peaceably, Roxy appeared and put something in Snow’s mouth.

“Hm?” Snow mumbled, her mouth full.

“How is it, Snow?”

“Amazing!”

While I’d been preoccupied with trying to keep Snow under control, Roxy had gone to a nearby food stall and bought some fried buns on skewers. Snow was wholly engrossed with the flavor, and all thoughts of playing with the street performers vanished. Roxy’s quick thinking had saved the street from catastrophe.

“Thanks, Roxy,” I said as I picked Snow up by her collar. “You saved us.”

“All in a day’s work!” Roxy said proudly with her hands on her hips. “I’ve been studying how to best handle children, I’ll have you know.”

When I asked her for details, she told me her interest had begun when I was still only a servant at Hart Manor. We had gone out to observe the common folk in town and encountered a lost child who cried the moment Roxy tried to help. Since then, Roxy had secretly studied how to befriend children and make them feel at ease. Her success with Snow boosted her confidence greatly.

When Snow and Roxy first met each other, Snow had kept a firm distance from Roxy. The image of Roxy’s slumped shoulders when Snow ran away from her flashed through my mind. They really were much closer now, and it was all due to Roxy’s tenacity.

“Do you want another, Snowy? Here you go!”

“Wow!”

Are they really closer, or is she just bribing Snow with food? 

Regardless, I was pleased to see Roxy beam with satisfaction. It was very much in her nature to doggedly pursue her goal. I was much more liable to panic and rush, so I was relieved to have someone like her by my side. 

I watched the two of them for a time, then felt a piercing gaze behind me. I could tell it was focused on me because nobody else, not even Roxy or Snow, had noticed it. Only someone with great control over their power could do such a thing.

“Greed,” I whispered. “Is that…?”

“It’s him, all right.”

We knew this gaze well. It was burned into our minds. It belonged to the man who had destroyed the monster known as the City Eater, which had once lived beneath an oasis. He had driven away the people who called that oasis home and left them rootless.

The City Eater lured its human prey by germinating a magnificently fertile land. The population drawn to this place multiplied until one day, in the far, far future, the City Eater would devour them all. Therefore, I couldn’t completely deplore the man’s actions.

Myne had told me about the City Eater when we first encountered it. She said that it would wait many hundreds of years before acting. There was still plenty of time for those people, time to explain the situation to them, and time to find a place for them to relocate and start anew. There was no need to kill the City Eater immediately. 

But he didn’t care about the people or their livelihoods. In his eyes, there lay only a resolute drive to vanquish evil from this world, wherever and whenever he encountered it. 

I turned on my heels to see him.

Libra smiled gently at me, but that smile didn’t touch his cold, unfeeling eyes. “Fate, we meet again.”

Libra was dressed in a priest’s vestments. As he approached, Roxy and Snow noticed him and grew wary.

“Oh, my apologies,” Libra said. “Do I frighten you?”

“What do you think? Did you imagine we’d forget what you did at the oasis?”

“Hm? The oasis? Ah, that. That was nothing. Besides, are you sure you have time to wander with so little urgency?” Libra stopped before me and leaned over to whisper in my ear. “If you don’t hurry to close the Door to Distant Lands, this place will suffer the same fate.”