CHAPTER 4
GORGEOUS TIGER
1
Rewinding time to the day before Garfiel raced into the shelter—
“ ”
As he walked along a city street at dusk, Garfiel’s breath caught when he abruptly noticed someone’s gaze on him.
Standing at a street corner on the other side of a crowd was a black silhouette of a woman. Her reflection swayed gently on the water’s surface.
She was a familiar figure whom he saw at the edges of his vision from time to time—though Garfiel knew full well this was not a real person, but the phantom of a woman who had once existed.
He could not smell her.
Given Garfiel’s nose, it was impossible for him to miss picking up the scent of someone within eyeshot—never mind the scent of blood that had hung around that woman, so poignant that it was ingrained in his nostrils, never fading no matter how much time passed.
That was why Garfiel could speak with certainty: This woman was a phantom.
Besides, he had also been the one who killed her—Elsa Gramhilde—with his very own hands.
“ ”
But all that time later, the woman’s phantom continued to stare at Garfiel.
Her smile had been so blackish red, like the darkest blood, that he could almost swear that he smelled the colors. Those lips made his chest ache to this day.
The first time he’d noticed the wraith was about two months after leaving the Sanctuary.
Right after an incident involving him as well as Subaru and Otto in a certain town, Garfiel started seeing her flickering into the edges of his vision every so often.
Somehow, he understood the cause—this echo reflected the weakness in Garfiel’s heart.
Garfiel had never properly put that incident behind him. Even though he saw himself as nothing but a coward, Subaru and the others kept saying over and over again that Garfiel had done well.
When he thought back on it, he realized they’d always done that. His companions always overlooked his faults.
But Garfiel had not forgotten everything he had done to the people who were now his comrades.
One wrong step, and he surely would have ripped into Subaru and Otto with the very claws that he used to protect them. Even if he lacked the courage to do so, it would have become all too easy if he had fallen into despair.
That was why Garfiel could not forgive his own weakness or his cowardice.
Accordingly, Garfiel had accepted that he was seeing Elsa—the first life he had ever taken—because she was the manifestation of his weakness.
The phantom’s blood-colored smile mocked Garfiel the instant his heart foundered—
“Hey, Garf, are you listening? Right now, Mimi’s talking about some really good things! Mimi really is!”
A bubbly grin entered his view, blocking off that blood-colored smile in the distance. If this girl brought her beaming face any closer, he’d be able to feel her breath. Garfiel recoiled.
“…Uh, right, I’m listening.”
“Good! Anyway, Hetaro and TB are such spoiled kids. It’s really hard on me as their big sister!”
Garfiel’s reply was listless, but judging by her cackling laugh, the girl hadn’t noticed.
She had orange fur and round eyes that were overflowing with innocence. For whatever reason, the cat-person Mimi, a member of a rival camp, kept hanging around Garfiel every chance she got.
At present, Garfiel and Mimi were taking an evening stroll through Pristella together.
Garfiel would have preferred to be alone, but he’d blundered by letting Mimi find him and tag along. There was no way she had the ability to pick up on subtle social cues.
Somehow, ever since arriving in Pristella— No, ever since their first meeting at Roswaal Manor, she’d been particularly fond of him. At first, he’d assumed this was a vigilant investigation of a rival candidate’s combat strength, but the way she talked and acted had made his initial suspicions fade. At this point, he assumed she’d simply taken a liking to him.
Without any idea of why she might think that, he usually agreed to go along with most of her whims.
“Grrr! Garf, you’re making a weird face! Did something funny happen?”
“Does this look like a happy face to you…? I don’t wanna talk about it, and I got no obligation to.”
“You shouldn’t use hard words like obligation and courtesy the way Joshua does, okay? Mimi thinks it’s good to use regular words. Plus, smiling like an idiot like you always do is way cooler, Garf!”
“The hell did you just say to my face?!”
Perhaps she was sincerely trying to praise him, but Garfiel just got irritated and bared his fangs at her. The girl cried out with a “Waaah!” and smiled as she broke into a run. After going a short distance, Mimi came to a stop, grinning as she waited for him to catch up—and the phantom who had surely been there earlier was nowhere to be seen.
Garfiel had rushed out of the Water Raiment that evening because of the lingering effects of his interaction with Reinhard the Sword Saint.
The current Sword Saint was known as the strongest not only in the Kingdom of Lugunica, but in all four of the great nations.
Not only had Garfiel heard the run-of-the-mill rumors, but he’d also heard about the man directly from Subaru, who had met the living legend. That was why Garfiel had been longing for a chance to meet him in person someday.
He’d firmly believed that this was a necessary rite of passage for him to become the strongest.
To Garfiel, being called the strongest held a special meaning.
He was sure that anyone who was born a man must have dreamed of being the strongest at least once. And everyone who had that dream forgot about it at some point over the course of a long life, yearning for that which they had abandoned. Garfiel did not want to forget that dream.
That title was an absolute necessity for the cowardly Garfiel to protect the things that were most important to him. With that thought in mind, he chased after it without rest.
That was why the fact that he had subconsciously backed down the instant he was face-to-face with the strongest was currently driving him to despair.
He’d lived for a scant fifteen years, yet Garfiel had spent the majority of his life in training. He poured all his effort into mastering the martial arts, proving he could uphold his oath to protect what was precious to him with his own two hands.
The instant he yielded ground in the face of real strength, it felt like he had betrayed his oath.
Before he could make the Sword Saint draw his sword, before he could make the man brush away his honed fist, Garfiel had already lost.
Garfiel, worries or not, you’re damn strong.
That was how Subaru tried to console Garfiel as he struggled in the quagmire of defeat. Those words ate at him so much that he thought it was an achievement he wasn’t wailing pathetically that very moment.
Provoked by those feelings, which were swirling in his chest with no outlet, she became visible—the woman he had slain. Unable to ignore her presence, he’d raced into the Water Gate City at dusk all by himself.
That had been the plan anyway.
“Garf! Garf! Look, look! Hey, you can really see the sunset on the water—it’s so red! That’s amazing! Look! So pretty!”
Running around all excited, Mimi tugged on Garfiel’s sleeve, pulled on his hair, and even leaped onto his back. His self-styled companion seemed not to know the meaning of thoughtfulness or mercy.
Thanks to her, he couldn’t even find a moment to wallow on his own.
“Hey, simmer down already! Don’t you get that I’m down in the dumps?!”
“Hmm, nooope!”
“Who answers right away to a question like that?!”
Grabbing onto his arm, Mimi kept on tugging him along, forcing Garfiel to accompany her wherever she pleased.
He could have flung her away and fled if he was of a mind to, but that would only end with her chasing him through the city. He wanted to avoid causing trouble for Subaru and the others.
Ram and Frederica had also given him a strict warning before the group had set off for Pristella. He was to make sure his eccentricities bothered no one save Otto, who was an expert in cleaning up other people’s messes.
“Mm? What’s with the gloomy face, Garf? Some kind of anvie…anpie…anmiety?”
“Are you tryin’ to say anxiety?”
“That’s right, anxiety! So what is it? Tell me, tell me!”
Then and there, Mimi went, “Mm! Mm-hmm!” as she thrust a fist out to emphasize her request. Seeing the girl so eager for conversation made Garfiel clack his fangs, feeling like all the bitterness had simply drained away.
Garfiel turned his gaze toward the waterway, narrowing his jade eyes.
“…I guess the scenery is nice, eh?”
“Yeah, for sure! It’s amazing! It’s super amazing! I wish the young lady could see it, too!”
He only half listened to her rambling, but the sight of the sinking red sun reflected on the waterway was undeniably beautiful.
With the sunset drenching the world in cinnabar red, its rays left vivid patches of yellow and white on the water’s surface, burning that sweet, dazzling scenery into the hearts of all who laid eyes upon it.
“ ”
As that scene mesmerized him, Garfiel realized that his heart had become oddly peaceful.
He should have been all alone, wallowing in the feelings of helplessness oozing out of him due to his disheartening defeat, but the sunniness of the girl by his side had kept Garfiel from sinking into a pit of despair.
“Hmm, hmm, hmm.”
Standing next to Garfiel was Mimi, the girl in question, humming in high spirits. She tugged on Garfiel’s loincloth as she swayed her head back and forth, clearly enjoying herself.
All of a sudden, he realized that her hair and tail were the color of a vivid sunset. When he unwittingly reached a hand out and stroked her head, Mimi stretched her body up in apparent delight.
“Fluffy, huh? Our lady does that a lot, too. She says it has heawing properties!”
“Ahh, the general talks about healing properties and stuff, too. I feel like I kinda get what he means now.”
“Hey, Garf. Is feeling up Mimi’s fluffiness good for you?”
“Hold on, you made it sound really wrong just now!”
Mimi only went, “Huh?” and innocently tilted her head, causing Garfiel to burst into laughter.
The exchange made what negative emotions were still swirling in his chest dissolve and go away. He could tell that his competitive spirit, presumably dampened by humiliation and a sense of defeat, had defiantly rebounded.
“…No one becomes the strongest overnight. Me, I’m still in the middle of climbin’.”
“Oooh, that hill to become the strongest sounds really, really tall!”
“Heh, you understand surprisingly well, don’t ya? Yeah, that’s right. That’s what the road to becoming the strongest is like.”
When Mimi thrust a fist upward, Garfiel touched the white scar on his brow and clacked his fangs.
He hated to admit it, but he’d regained his competitive spirit thanks to Mimi. If he’d brooded over things all by himself, who knew how long it would have taken for him to reach the same conclusion?
“—Ah! Garf, over there!”
Right as he realized he felt grateful and couldn’t bring himself to openly admit it, Mimi tugged hard on his sleeve. Her gaze was trained on a waterway that was glimmering bright red. When he looked over there, Garfiel saw it, too.
A boat was moving by itself in the Great Waterway, which cut through the city. Some rope that had been keeping it moored to the opposite shore must have come undone. But that wasn’t the real problem.
“Those kiddies!”
Mimi shouted in alarm at the vessel sitting in the path of the small boat that was running adrift. Five children were playing on the moored craft, unaware of the approaching boat.
Upon hearing Mimi’s voice, people in the vicinity of the waterway quickly recognized the danger of a collision. The nearby boat owner hastily ran toward the children, but he wouldn’t make it in time. Noticing the ruckus, the children’s faces went pale as they finally saw the approaching ship as well.
At this rate, mere seconds remained until disaster—
“—Hey, runts. You better thank that big sister over there for bein’ the first to notice.”
“Garf!”
Clearing the waterway in a single bound, Garf landed in the vessel that the children were aboard. The children’s eyes went round with amazement at how Garfiel had appeared on a vessel in the water almost without making it sway at all.
Taking advantage of their surprise, Garfiel scooped up all five children in one go, leaping once more to escape. Hardly a moment later, the two ships collided and foundered in the waterway.
“There we go!!”
Caught up in the capsizing of the two vessels, other boats began tipping over like dominoes. Having dropped the children off by the bankside, Garfiel grabbed hold of the rope connecting the remaining ships to the docks and pulled on it hard to right them by force.
“Well, that’s that!”
As the force of the waves lessened, Garfiel meticulously retied the slackened ropes and flashed a smile at the children, who were now safe and sound. Afterward, he helped recover the two capsized vessels, and the boat owner bowed his head several times over in gratitude for Garfiel’s strength and for keeping the damage to a bare minimum.
Patting the shoulder of the unlucky boat owner, Garfiel paused to take a breath. It was then that—
“M-mister, thank you very much!”
—the children he saved spoke words of thanks all at once. When Garfiel looked over, he found that their gazes no longer contained surprise—they were filled with awe.
It was as Garfiel was having his moment with those children that applause began pouring down from all around.
Enduring this with an embarrassed look, Garfiel lightly rubbed the scar on his forehead.
“Don’t even mention it. It was just coincidence I happened to… The damp evenin’ wind told me, that’s all. If someone in this Water Gate City started cryin’, these waterways would overflow!”
The sounds of applause suddenly dwindled when Garfiel responded with pride.
For some reason, the voices of acclaim became distant, and the cheering became sparse and awkward. But unlike the other people around them, the reactions of the children remained just as dramatic.
“Th-that was crazy!” “So cool!” “No retreat! No surrender!”
“Ohh, that’s a good one! Just like The holy lady’s fist splits the ground asunder!”
“Mister, what’s your name? What should we call you?”
As Garfiel puffed out his chest, one of the children posed that question.
Instantly, Garfiel bared his sharp fangs, revealing a ferocious smile.
“I’m no one important enough to be givin’ out my name. If ya gotta call me somethin’, then… Me, I’m a tiger. Yeah, a golden tiger. So people call me—Gorgeous Tiger!”
“Gorgeous!” “Tiger!!”
When Garfiel struck a pose, stretching both arms up at an angle toward the heavens, the children got even more worked up, and they all imitated Garfiel.
“Garf, that’s amazing! Super cool!!”
It was then that Mimi, running a roundabout route about the waterway, met up with Garfiel and the children at last. Her eyes glimmered like the rest of the group as she joined in, making the same mysterious pose.
“Gorgeous!” “Gorgeous!” “Gorgeous Tiger!!”
With all applause and cheering long gone, the boat owner was the only other person still on the waterway, his cheek twitching as he observed in silence.
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