0106A660. Beyond the Quiet Night
The pain never went away.
But Haruhiro thought, I’m glad.
Thank you, pain.
Thank you!
What for?
Thank you?
What’s there to be grateful for?
It hurts.
It hurts so bad.
There’s nothing but pain.
Was Haruhiro walking? Or had he stopped?
“Haru-kun.”
That’s Yume.
He heard Yume’s voice. She was saying something. What could Yume be saying? Yume was saying something. That much he was sure of. But he couldn’t make it out. And yet, despite not hearing her properly, he was nodding. Mm-hm, mm-hm, Haruhiro was nodding.
Mm-hm.
Mm-hm...
Why?
Why was Haruhiro nodding? What was he nodding about?
It sure is dark, he thought.
It’s night.
Was it night already?
Huh...?
He felt that was strange.
Wasn’t it night before too...?
Before?
Before what?
Before...
Before night. The night before.
The night comes and goes. Night and day.
So this night and the night before weren’t the same. That had been a different night.
That must be the reason... No doubt...
Still, where was this?
Where am I again?
Haruhiro thought without really thinking.
Where’ve we been walking...?
We.
Oh...
Oh, right.
It made sense to Haruhiro now. Right. He’d heard Yume’s voice.
I’m not alone.
Yume was with him. There, next to Haruhiro. Yume was walking by his side. Staying with Haruhiro. She was concerned about him.
“Haru-kun.”
“Haru-kun?”
“...Haru-kun?”
“Haru-kun...”
Yume spoke to him every time something came up.
I’m not...alone...
Someone clicked their tongue.
That wasn’t Yume, right...?
It wasn’t. Yume didn’t click her tongue like that.
It was Ranta.
He pisses me off...
Whenever there was something Ranta didn’t like, he clicked his tongue. It must’ve been a habit.
Could he stop...?
He wanted to say “cut it out.”
But he was hesitant to.
Well... I’d rather have him here than not...
Yume.
Ranta.
And Itsukushima was around too.
Also, Poochie. The wolf-dog was with them.
Poochie... How long’s he been here...?
He hadn’t been around initially. No, not at first... At first?
When did “at first” refer to?
By the time I noticed...he was there.
What time was “at first”?
When?
Haruhiro tried to think back to it.
By the time I noticed...
What about when they’d left the Ironblood Kingdom? Was Poochie with them then?
He wasn’t. No, Haruhiro didn’t think so.
Somewhere... Yeah... We met up with him somewhere. Where was it...?
When?
Where?
Where...?
Where was this?
This is...
It wasn’t the forest. He wasn’t in the sea of trees that spread out across the foothills of the Kurogane Mountain Range anymore. The ground wasn’t uneven here. Wasn’t rising up and sinking down all over the place. Totally unlike those woodlands. It hadn’t been nearly this easy to walk around there.
Where is this place...?
Was Haruhiro thinking that? Or was he saying it?
Saying it?
Was Haruhiro talking?
To whom?
To himself?
Was he talking to himself?
Yeah.
Yeah...
The next thing he knew, Haruhiro found himself nodding.
“Haru-kun?”
That was Yume’s voice.
Yeah.
Yeah...
He needed to respond. Yeah. Needed to give her an answer.
Yeah... I do, don’t I...?
I can’t make her worry, thought Haruhiro. I’m okay.
I’m totally fine.
I’m fine?
Me, fine?
How am I fine?
Where...is this...?
It was night already.
Ultimately, that was all Haruhiro knew.
“Oh, screw it! Yume, let him rest! He clearly can’t do it!”
“Mew. Haru-kun, you sit down here. Okay?”
Yeah.
Yeah...
I’m fine, though...
Walking, sitting, even lying down, none of it would change much. That being the case, wasn’t it better that he keep moving? Moving. Move.
Was it better to move?
What for?
He didn’t know. There was little Haruhiro did know. So very little.
Regardless, he seemed to be sitting. Someone had probably sat him down. Yume, who was taking care of him, maybe.
When he was like this, not moving, he felt like he was sinking slowly into the earth. He might have been exhausted. That had to be it. Exhaustion. An important concept. Haruhiro was likely exhausted. How could he not be? He was exhausted, and in pain too. Pain. Another important concept. It hurt. It really hurt.
Hands? Do I have them? My hands...
When it all came down to it, were his left and right hands even still there? Haruhiro couldn’t sense them for some reason. Were they still attached? Had they fallen off?
They hurt...
Well, in that case, they couldn’t be gone. They were probably there. He still had his hands. If he’d lost both hands, they couldn’t be hurting him now.
Hurt.
Pain.
A definite stimulation and response.
The hands, which were there, hurt.
“Haru-kun, I’m gonna change your bandages, ’kay?”
Yeah.
“It hurts, right? There’s no way it doesn’t.”
Yeah...
“Just hang in there a li’l longer, okay?”
Okay.
He’d hang in there.
I’m fine...
“Weird, isn’t it?”
What’s weird...?
“Yeah.”
Whose voices were those? Two people were talking.
“That must be the Bordo Plains. It’s an old battlefield, right?”
Bordo Plains...
“Yeah. That’s what they say.”
“The story goes that a long, long time ago, the dwarves fought against the Alliance of Kings and died like crazy out in the fields here, yeah?”
Bordo Plains.
That was what people had called the flatlands between the Kurogane Mountain Range and the Dioze Mountains long ago.
I think...
Though they were called plains, they were crisscrossed with hundreds, maybe thousands of thin ravines, like claw marks left by a demon god. However, because of all the grass and bushes, the ravines didn’t stand out much, and there was a serious risk of accidentally falling down one. The Bordo Plains looked like an unassuming grassy field by day, but the area was, in fact, quite dangerous. And at night one could plainly see, even under the faint moonlight, that the Bordo Plains were all the more dangerous.
“I’d heard there were more moving corpses than insects. Could be an exaggeration, though.”
“Yeah, I guess.”
“Anyway, it’s all ’cause of that thing. You know, the No-Life King’s curse.”
“Yeah.”
“Weren’t the dead supposed to start roaming around at night because of it? Because I’m not seeing any of them. What gives?”
The Bordo Plains... Oh, I see, thought Haruhiro. This isn’t the forest. It’s the Bordo Plains.
“They also call it ‘Dead Man’s Field,’” Ranta said, sniffing. “I thought the place was pretty bad news, so I was bracing myself for it, y’know?”
“While it’s light out...” Itsukushima was apparently trying to light a torch. “The dead hide in the countless ravines, and then they come crawling out when it’s dark.”
“Ravines, huh? There’ve gotta be some around here too, right?”
“Yeah. Why don’t you go look?”
“You’re not trying to get me killed, are you?”
“It’s not a bad thing to be afraid.”
“Who’re you calling afraid? Nothing scares a guy as awesome as me.”
“Oh, yeah?”
“As if I’d be scared. Nuh-uh. No way. Yeah. I’m just gonna go take a piss and look around while I’m at it. Just a peek, you know?”
“Be careful.”
“Heh. No need. I’m invincible, after all.”
“Even if you can handle the dead, it’ll still be a pain to climb out of the ravines if you fall in.”
“For anyone who isn’t me, right? Didn’t you know? I can jump around like I’ve got wings, you get me?”
“Sounds convenient.”
“Don’t just brush me off, old man...” Then, turning to Yume, Ranta said, “Hey, I’m gonna go take a piss.”
“You don’t need to go tellin’ Yume every time you have to pee.”
“Why shouldn’t I? Anyway, look after that moron, Parupiro, for me.”
“Yume’s watchin’ him just fine without you sayin’ anything. And Haru-kun’s not a moron, okay?”
“Don’t get mad.”
“Yume’s not gettin’ mad.”
“Yeah, you are. Be more tolerant. Let your heart fly free.”
“You’re talkin’ too much.”
“You ever think what’d happen if I were quiet? It’d be the end of the world for real.”
Ranta walked off somewhere. Where was he going? To relieve himself, maybe? Haruhiro felt like he’d been saying something like that.
“Haru-kun?” Yume put a hand on Haruhiro’s back. “Are you cryin’?”
Haruhiro shook his head. Was it up and down or left and right? Even he didn’t know. Haruhiro couldn’t breathe properly. He was gasping for breath. Like a drowning man. He was drowning. Even though this place, the Bordo Plains, was on land. Obviously. His lungs were spasming. His eyes felt hot. The inside of his nose did too.
Sorry...
If he opened his mouth now, he had a feeling something weird would happen. Haruhiro hadn’t said a thing. No words would have left his mouth.
“You don’t have to say sorry.”
Yet, for some reason, Yume kept repeating that as she stroked his back.
“Listen, Haru-kun. There’s no need to apologize, understand? You ain’t got nothin’ to apologize for. So stop it, all right? It’s okay for you to cry. You can go ahead and have a real, reeeeal good cry, but don’t apologize.”
He hadn’t been aware he was crying. Who was it he heard sobbing? Probably himself. And yet, the thief couldn’t imagine himself shedding tears. What reason did he have to cry? He wasn’t sad. He didn’t feel anything resembling anger. Was he in despair? He couldn’t say he wasn’t. Still, it wasn’t like he had no hope. Yume was with him, and so was Ranta. Somehow, they’d both stayed by his side. Haruhiro sensed he was a burden on them. A liability. Since the group had Ranta, Yume, Itsukushima, and Poochie, they were already set. They’d be just fine without Haruhiro. The thief had no place here.
At some point, Haruhiro had lain down. There was something firm supporting his head. Something warm. It was Yume. Haruhiro’s head was resting in her lap.
Is that okay? he wondered vaguely. He felt guilty. Like he shouldn’t have been doing this, for Ranta’s sake. The dread knight had gone off somewhere, and wasn’t coming back yet, but when he did he was probably going to be pissed.
Shouldn’t I stop her?
But Haruhiro only thought those words. He couldn’t say anything. He was in no position to talk.
Honestly, the thief was grateful. Yume was doing so much to help him.
Haruhiro was touching Yume’s thighs. Or rather, he was rubbing his face against them. More precisely, he was burying his face in them. Through his contact with Yume, he had a concrete sense he was connected to something. That was a feeling Haruhiro desperately needed right now.
Maybe it didn’t have to be Yume. But she was the one next to Haruhiro right now. Only her.
He was glad it was Yume.
Haruhiro had no confidence that he could accurately describe what Yume was to him. She was a comrade and also a friend. But not just a comrade, and not only a friend. Friend, comrade. Those words weren’t nearly enough.
“Ugh! I couldn’t see a damn thing! It’s too dark!” Ranta was shouting somewhere in the distance.
“Of course he can’t. It’s the dead of night, y’know?” Yume said as she stroked Haruhiro’s head like he was a child, laughing a little. Despite that laugh, her voice was tearful.
Their loss was so incredibly great.
They had all had so many things taken from them.
It felt like they’d lost everything, and were on the verge of breaking. But at least things were quiet tonight.
Too quiet, really.
At some point, Haruhiro’s eyelids had closed. He’d probably shut them. He thought Itsukushima had been making a fire. But he couldn’t see any light from it.
He heard Yume breathing. Or maybe that was Haruhiro’s own breath. It almost seemed to be melting into the night. He vaguely recalled thinking that. The night that had enveloped the Bordo Plains was turning Haruhiro into goo.
He opened his eyes. It was still dark. Not pitch dark. The sky now had some slight color to it. Dawn was approaching. Haruhiro was still lying face-up with his head in Yume’s lap. She was lying down with her legs extended. Her hands were clasped together, resting over her solar plexus.
Haruhiro tried to feel his hands. Well, they weren’t not there. As he lifted his arms, he felt pain. Strength flowed through his wrists. He could even move his fingers.
He was in a better state now than before he’d passed out, at least. He’d been able to get some sleep, even if he wasn’t sure how much. That might be why.
He tried to get up, but his head was all foggy, and he wasn’t sure he should. He didn’t feel well. No, he felt bad, but he’d survived worse.
The campfire had burned out. Poochie the wolf-dog was lying next to it. Itsukushima was sitting on the ground, resting his back against his animal companion. Was he awake? No, it looked like he was asleep.
Poochie raised his head to look at Haruhiro. Their eyes met. Then the wolf-dog immediately lay back down.
“Ranta...?” Haruhiro called the dread knight’s name in a small voice. Ranta was nowhere to be seen.
The thief hesitated for a while, then rested his head in Yume’s lap again. He had an excuse all thought up for it. This might not be the worst he’d ever felt, but he was still in bad shape. He was in no shape to move, so he had to rest. He didn’t want to do anything, and he couldn’t. He just wanted someone to tell him clearly that he didn’t have to. Haruhiro was indulging in Yume’s kindness. She’d let him do that unconditionally.
Haruhiro went back to sleep. When he opened his eyes again, it was a good bit brighter than the last time. Just before the sun came up, he guessed.
Yume was breathing softly in her sleep. Itsukushima and Poochie had gone off somewhere. To scout or something, maybe?
“You’re awake now, huh?” Ranta crouched and looked down at Haruhiro.
“Yeah...”
His throat felt tight, and it was hard to speak. Haruhiro took a long breath. He might have had a fever. His wounds were probably festering.
Ranta clicked his tongue. The dread knight wasn’t wearing that tasteless mask that he seemed so fond of. In its place—though they weren’t a replacement for it—he had bandages wrapped around the upper right portion of his head and his left ear. They weren’t just for show. They were covering the katana wounds he had taken.
Ranta had taken a slash from Takasagi. The cut—which started above the right side of his forehead, went diagonally between his eyebrows and continued to below his left ear—might have scarred him for life.
“That looks pretty badass,” Haruhiro said in a hoarse voice.
With a snort and a shrug, Ranta replied, “I was always badass.”
“Oh yeah?”
“Bet you slept well. You’ve got a damn fine pillow there.”
“Yeah... I guess I do, huh?”
“You’d better be grateful, you piece of shit.”
I am, Haruhiro was about to say when, suddenly, Yume let out a strange mumble.
“Fwuhhh! It’s mornin’, huh?” she said, sitting up using just her abdominal muscles. “Mmmeww. G’mornin’, Haru-kun.”
When he saw the beaming smile on her face, Haruhiro couldn’t help but grin and respond with a “good morning” of his own.
“Sheesh... That’s some divine grace you got there...” Ranta was mumbling to himself.
“Whuh?!” Yume’s eyes were wide. “You’re here too, Ranta? Huh?”
“Don’t say it like I’m an afterthought! I’m not just another person. I’m the goddamn protagonist!”
“Muh? You’re a proto-mist?”
“No, that’s not what I said, and what the hell is a proto-mist?”
“How’s Yume supposed to know. You’re the one who was callin’ yourself a proto-mist, Ranta.”
“I didn’t say that. Don’t try to put your crimes on me!”
“Yume’s not tryin’ to give you any limes either?”
“Yeah, there aren’t any limes out here. This isn’t exactly the kind of place you’d find them, y’know?”
“Yume’s been thinkin’ for awhile, sometimes it feels like talkin’ to you makes no rootin’ sense.”
“You’re the one who makes no rootin’ sense! And what’s rooting supposed to be?!”
“Rootin’s like a close relative of tootin’ or flootin’, and a more distant relative of mootin’ and lootin’.”
“You’re messing with my head!”
“Yeesh. Is your hair all flat like that ’cause your brain got fried?”
“I was born like this! And wait...no one’s called my hair flat before?!”
“It sure is lively over here,” Itsukushima said as he returned with Poochie. The hunter had a number of large field rats hanging from his waist. He might have set traps for them.
Haruhiro tried to sit up and Yume helped him.
“Try not to push yourself,” she said.
“Can’t you even get up on your own?” Ranta said, smirking a little.
Haruhiro managed to get on his feet somehow, setting them firmly on the ground and taking a deep breath. He bent his waist, stretching, then turned his arms in circles, which made his wounds ache. That made him let out an involuntary groan.
Itsukushima smiled a little.
“You’re so young.”
His tone didn’t suggest he was being sarcastic.
“I don’t know about that.”
“Feeling well enough to take a look at something awful?”
“Am I...? Uh, well, maybe not. But I have a feeling this is something I have to see, right?”
“Maybe.” Itsukushima started walking. “Everyone, follow me.”
Poochie tailed behind Itsukushima. Haruhiro, Ranta, and Yume looked at one another for a moment. Then they went after the hunter and his wolf-dog.
Itsukushima hadn’t gone far. Not more than a hundred meters or so from where they’d made camp. Once they’d pushed through about ten meters of chest-high bushes, Poochie came to a stop. It seemed the wolf-dog didn’t want to go any farther. His snout wrinkled a little, a look of displeasure on his face. Or perhaps it was unease. Itsukushima, along with Haruhiro and the rest, continued for a few more meters.
There was a ravine on the other side of the shrubs. It was less than four meters across, and several meters long—Haruhiro eyeballed it as being about five or six meters. It was probably more than five meters deep too.
Ranta leaned out over the edge of the ravine and looked down.
“It’s swarming with them...”
Haruhiro dropped to one knee and brought his head down low to get a better look. The sun was already rising, but he still had to squint to see the bottom of the ravine.
Yume crouched next to Haruhiro and hugged her knees.
“Nwuhohh...”
The skeletons and desiccated remains in the bottom of the ravine were piled on top of one another. There were too many to count. Some of the bodies were naked, while others wore helmets or chain mail. Scraps of decayed clothing clung to some of them. Many, though, were missing not just their clothes, but most of their flesh as well. War axes, spears, swords, and shields, or what was left of them, caught Haruhiro’s eye. Based on their stocky bodies and beards, most of the dead here were dwarves.
“I wouldn’t say ‘swarming’s’ the right word,” Itsukushima corrected Ranta in a dry tone of voice. “The dead aren’t moving at all. When I came through the Bordo Plains before, they squirmed even during the day.”
The dead had been swarming in the shadows of the ravines, where the sun’s light couldn’t reach, even when it wasn’t night. That was how it had been before.
Yume clapped her hands together. She’d lowered her head and closed her eyes. Probably praying for the departed.
“The curse...” Ranta murmured. “It’s vanished, huh? The No-Life King’s curse...”
“Look,” Itsukushima said, pointing. “Over there.”
It wasn’t the bottom of the ravine. He was pointing to the steep incline on the other side. It didn’t have much grass or moss on it, just the gray and brown of exposed dirt and rock.
Is that a snake?
That was Haruhiro’s first thought. There was a snake-like creature climbing the slope.
Long, thin, and jet black.
“Hrm...?” Yume opened her eyes wide and stared at the slope. Ranta cocked his head and took a long, hard look at the area.
It was awfully long for a snake. Too long, in fact. Tracing it with his eyes, Haruhiro saw that the thing went from the bottom of the ravine, which was thick with the bodies of the dead, all the way up the firm rock-and-dirt slope and over the ledge at the other side.
It wasn’t the only one either.
There were several of the snake-like creatures.
“Wha...”
Haruhiro shuddered and looked down at his feet. Were they only on that side? He’d suddenly suspected that might not be the case.
For better or for worse, there were none near the group. But there was a black snake about ten meters to the right of them.
“Sh...”
“Whoa?!” Ranta cried out as he noticed it.
Itsukushima seemed unfazed, since he seemed to have known about them in advance, but Yume went “Gwuhwhuh?!” and jumped up into the air.
“Wha—Wha-wha-wha-wha...?!” Ranta was clearly panicking, but he had enough presence of mind to have one hand on the hilt of his katana.
There was something different about those creatures. They weren’t snakes. They might not even have been creatures at all.
Haruhiro stood up. He walked along the edge of the ravine to the right.
“Haru-kun?!” Yume hurried after him.
Ranta hesitantly followed, babbling, “Whoa, man, hey! Don’t be stupid!”
Haruhiro came to a stop sixty or seventy centimeters from the long, black thing. It had crawled up from the depths of the ravine and was headed off in some other direction.
Haruhiro looked at the sky, calculating the general direction based on the position of the sun.
“East—and maybe a little north, I guess?”
Was the long, thin black thing on the move, heading out of the ravine and toward the east-northeast? He wasn’t sure if it actually was moving, though.
Haruhiro bent over. It looked completely still, but also like it was moving ever so slightly. He couldn’t be sure which.
“How’s it look?” Ranta asked, poking his head over Haruhiro’s right shoulder.
What if he were to push Ranta out in front of him and make the dread knight step on the long, thin black thing? Haruhiro considered it for a moment, but unfortunately, his hands were out of commission. Besides, before he could do anything, Yume walked up to it and cried, “Take that!” as she gave it a firm kick.
“Why?!” Ranta jumped on Yume, his face a mask of panic. He pinioned her and pulled her back and away. “Wh-Wh-Wh-What do you think you’re doing, Yume?! That’s dangerous! What am I supposed to do if something happens to you?!”
Haruhiro was sweating bullets too. Though Yume could be overly bold at times, she wasn’t reckless. She had her own way of judging these things. Something had made her decide she could get away with it.
Haruhiro moved up closer, poking the black thing with the tip of his boot. The stimulation didn’t cause it to move at all. He pressed down on it lightly with his foot and felt some sort of subtle vibration. He didn’t think he was imagining it. The thing really was moving.
Had it come up out of the ravine to go somewhere? That wasn’t clear, but he could see that it continued off until it was out of sight.
Haruhiro moved his foot off of it. It was less than five centimeters in diameter. Maybe three or so. Was its cross-section round? It didn’t seem like it would be flat.
There were several similar-looking—actually, they looked exactly the same—things stretching out of the ravine—dozens, possibly, although maybe “growing” was the right word instead. That didn’t feel quite right to Haruhiro either, but he couldn’t think of any other way to describe them. He did, however, know what these things were. Haruhiro was confident of that.
“Sekaishu...”
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