Vermillion

It was a deep sleep, one without even dreams.

As if realizing it were an illusion, Kei suddenly awoke with a short gasp.

There was a sensation as if he’d been dragged up from the bottom of the ocean all the way to the surface at once. Above his narrow bed, the first thing he saw was a plain wooden ceiling. He quickly sat up straight, trying to shake off the remaining drowsiness.

The room he was in was cozy.

Gentle sunlight shone in from the open window. The room was spotlessly clean; there wasn’t even a speck of dust. However, it was packed so full with bundles of bug repellant herbs, chests, and other various everyday commodities that it gave off the impression of a storeroom.

Somehow—it looked familiar.

Huh? Isn’t this the room Aileen was sleeping in?

Yes, this was definitely the house of Cronen, the village leader’s second son. However, he was monopolizing the only bed in the room as if it were his.

Aileen.

“…Where did she go?!” He tried to jump out of bed as he shouted, but he suddenly felt a sharp pain in his left cheek. “Agh…” he groaned and stopped, timidly reaching a hand to his face. It felt rough and ached. It seemed that there was some sort of compress stuck to his cheek like a scab. It’s where he was cut during his fight with the bandits last night. He recalled leaving it untreated.

I guess someone treated it…

The tips of his fingers gave off a smell of medicine that tickled his nose. The village shaman Anka probably doubled as their medicine woman and did this. Once again met with pain when he touched the inside of his cheek with his tongue, he got a little depressed thinking that it would be hard to speak or eat for a while.

But that didn’t matter, not right now.

Aileen. Where did she go?

Kei slipped out of bed, opened the door with a heavy thud, and left the room. On top of being small, the structure was simple, the door opened to the living room. In the center was a dining table, at which sat a little girl going, “Aaah,” with her mouth open and a spoon full of soup in hand. Their eyes locked.

Kei remained in the doorway and she froze with her spoon still in front of her face.

She was a cute little girl, probably around three or maybe four years old. She stared with wide, reddish-brown eyes at Kei. Her chestnut hair fell to her shoulders and her lightly freckled face radiated innocence. She was frozen stiff as if she had run into a bear or something.

“…Hi,” Kei awkwardly smiled and tried to start a conversation to relieve her nervousness.

However, he had completely forgotten his own appearance.

He was wearing armor that was painted with his own and others’ blood, his muscular body towered over others in this world, and because of his wound, his smile appeared crooked and menacing. Of course an innocent little girl would be scared of such a villainous looking character.

“Kyaaaaaa!” A beat late she screamed cutely. She jumped out of her chair and ran outside, still holding the spoon, as she yelled, “Mama—!”

The steaming soup on the dining table was the only other thing there. Dejected, Kei lowered his hand.

After a short time, the sound of small footsteps running came from outside.

A young freckle-faced girl came into the house. “Good morning. I see that you’ve woken up.”

Her hands were wet, perhaps from doing laundry, and she wiped them off on her ap.r.o.n as she looked down.

Kei thought that he had seen her somewhere before. He remembered the young freckle-faced girl giving him a warm welcome last night and telling him the news of Aileen nearly dying while he was at the village leader’s house. Considering the situation, she was probably Cronen’s wife.

“Morning. And sorry, it seems that I frightened your daughter.” Kei shrugged, looking towards the doorway.

From outside the little girl was peeking in the door, but she quickly hid.

“No, she just isn’t used to people from outside the village… She’s probably just nervous. Jessica, come on out.”

“No!” She responded to her mother from outside.

Kei gave a wry smile, Well she doesn’t seem to like me.

“Ah, I’m Tina, Cronen’s wife.”

“I’m Kei, nice to meet you. If you don’t mind, I’d like to ask, the person that I brought was left here for care. Do you know where she is right now?”

“Your friend is at the village leader’s house.”

Kei sighed in relief after hearing her brisk reply.

“I see, so she’s awake again…”

“Oh, no, she’s still sleeping.”

“Huh?”

Kei thought that because she was awake she’d been invited to the village leader’s house, but it seemed that a.s.sumption was wrong.

Then, to answer why he had taken her place here, Tina said, “Yesterday, my husband and some others tried to carry you when you collapsed, but you were too heavy for them to move you far. Your friend was very light, so we thought it would be easier to move her to the village leader’s house and have you stay here…”

“Oh… Sorry, I suppose I gave you some trouble.”

If he had on his full armor on top of his large, muscular body, then of course he’d be heavy. His bracers, shin guards, helmet, and other small pieces of gear were removed, but with just his leather chest piece and chainmail he would still be quite heavy.

But, where did his armor and Dragon Stinger go?
“Ah, your armor is with our village’s leatherworker. Fathe— The village leader asked for him to look at it.” She said, antic.i.p.ating his intention, when she saw Kei feel for the scabbard on his waist and casually look around.

“I see, thank you.” He thought that maybe they had stolen his stuff, so knowing exactly where it all went relieved him. Well… I guess when I went unconscious, if the villagers were all evil, they would’ve stripped both me and Aileen of all our belongings.

A village-wide robbery. There wasn’t such a harsh trap in the game, but the world did reference such acts often in doc.u.ments. A cold sensation ran down his back when he considered Tahfu to be one of those villages. And then he realized that he was only thinking of such possibilities now, even though he was so calm last night.

After explaining the situation, Tina’s expression grew confused when she saw Kei’s face turn serious as he got lost in thought.

Before the silence grew too long, “Hey, I see you’re up.” Cronen spoke from outside the door, holding four or five pitchforks on his shoulder. A thin sweat coated his forehead, it seems he was doing some farm work.

“Yeah, thanks to a good rest I’m much better now. Sorry for the trouble.”

“What are you talking about, it’s not a problem at all.” Cronen smiled in response to Kei’s grat.i.tude.

Kei tilted his head and thought that Cronen was much more friendly than last night.

“Oh yeah, now that you’re awake, my father wanted to talk to you. Are you ready?”

“The village leader’s house?”

“Yeah.”

He also wanted to check on Aileen so he replied without hesitation, “Yeah, let’s go.”

Kei gave a serious nod. And then his stomach gave a magnificently loud growl. He failed to understand what just happened and Cronen blinked in surprise. A small giggle escaped Tina before she spun around with her hand over her mouth, trembling slightly.

At some point, Jessica must have hidden behind Cronen because she came out and asked in a nasally voice, “Are you hungry?”

“So it would seem.” Kei answered as if talking about a different person, causing Cronen and Tina to laugh loudly.  He had admired the phenomenon of one’s stomach rumbling when they were hungry since he was young, but he said it so seriously that he inadvertently made it even funnier.

“Tina, there’s still some soup left, right?” Cronen asked through his smile.

“Yes, there is.”

“Give our starving guest some lunch. I’ll call my father here.” He ruffled Jessica’s hair and quickly left the house. He laughed unrestrained outside.

Jessica was left standing and staring up at Kei with big round eyes as she licked her spoon like candy.
“Please, take a seat. It’s just normal soup, but I hope you’ll like it.”

In a wooden bowl, she served Kei some soup from a ceramic pot while smiling.

Finally getting embarra.s.sed, Kei sat down with a, “Thanks.”

Jessica sat down across from Kei and kicked her legs back and forth under the table as she began to eat again.

Now that he had soup, he also began to eat. It was a viscous yellow soup. It had a rough texture and it gave off a faint sweet aroma. It seemed like the only thing used to season it was salt; perhaps the ingredients were good, but it really brought out the vegetables’ flavors.

“…It’s good. What is it?”

“It’s pumpkin porridge. Try dipping some bread in it,” she suggested as she picked up a basket with some hard bread.

The bread was pretty hard, but it looked like it would be easy to eat if it soaked up some soup.

After taking one taste of the relaxing vegetable and grain meal, Kei became aware of just how hungry he was, and he began to eat enthusiastically. He thought it was weird that Jessica didn’t reach for the bread at all, but it was probably difficult for a little girl to eat the hard bread. Instead, it looked like some rice was mixed into her soup to make a risotto.

Tina continued to stir the pot with a big grin, periodically refilling the bowl that Kei emptied apologetically, as she watched over the two of them.

“I’m back!” Bennett’s house and Cronen’s house weren’t that far apart. The timing seemed almost intentional, but Cronen came back after just long enough for Kei to start feeling relaxed.

“Kei-dono, I’m glad to see you’re awake.” Bennett’s cane thumped as he came in.

Danny was just behind him with his insincere smile.