Re: Zero -Starting Life in Another World- Vol. 1 Page 5

  Subaru and Satella led the girl along, with her between them, and the three continued down the main road through the waves of people together.

  “The way we are now, don’t you think there are some people out there who look at us and think that we’re a young couple with our child? How embarrassing!”

  “…Huh? Even with the benefit of the doubt I don’t see how anyone would think that you and that girl are anything other than brother and sister…”

  “I can’t tell if that’s just a really dry joke, or that’s really what you thought I meant!”

  As Satella and Subaru went on talking, the little girl between them let a small smile spread across her face.

  8

  Fortunately, perhaps because they really stood out as a group, it didn’t take long before they found the little girl’s mother. In this case, it wasn’t only Subaru who stood out, but also Satella, with her silver hair and extraordinary beauty.

  “Thank you so much!”

  Once the girl’s mother was reunited with her child, she thanked Subaru and Satella several times, though they smiled and played it off as if it were nothing.

  As the little girl and her mother were leaving, the girl looked back and waved good-bye several times, and Subaru and Satella waved back. Subaru turned to look at Satella, as she stood beside him waving to the girl, and saw that she had a bright and cheerful expression on her face.

  “Now, I get the feeling that we’ve wasted a lot of time doing this, but what does our big sister have to say? I’m sure she’ll find some kind of way to describe this as a means to an end!” Subaru said in an orchestrated manner, snapping his fingers and making fun of Satella’s all-too-kind nature.

  Of course, he wasn’t really criticizing her; it was more that he was just poking fun. After all, Satella had given such a roundabout excuse for why her encounter with Subaru was useful, so he was curious to hear what she would say.

  “…It’s simple.” In response to Subaru’s teasing, Satella smiled. “Now we can be in a good mood as we continue to search.”

  “…”

  “Even if we got my badge back, I’m sure I would have regretted not helping that girl. Don’t you think it is better to both help the girl and get my badge back?”

  It didn’t look like Satella was just saying that to keep her own hopes up. She looked so refreshed she probably believed it.

  With that kind of response, Subaru really didn’t know what to say. He would have to rethink his opinion of this girl.

  Not only was she the type of person who was so kind she always ended up losing everything, she also was the type of person who wanted to have it all.

  “I see. You’re right. Thanks to your quick decision, we won’t have to say, ‘Sure, we abandoned that little anxious crying girl all lost and by herself, but we were able to get the badge back, safe and sound, hooray!’”

  “Well that’s a really negative way to put it,” said Satella, frowning, then glaring at him as though she seemed to have remembered something. “But besides that… Why did you help me? I thought you were against helping the girl, Subaru.”

  “I just wanted to show off my ability to do magic tricks! …Which is, of course, a lie. Didn’t I say so before? I’m going to help you find your badge so I can do my good deed for the day and go to heaven.”

  “But since you helped the girl, doesn’t that count for your good deed for the day already?”

  “That’s a very good argument! But I mean, it’s not like I’m limited to one a day or anything. I can do more. So anyway, I’m going to do enough for tomorrow today! I’m actually planning to get this whole week out of the way!”

  Subaru had the feeling that he was getting away from the true meaning of this whole “do one good deed a day” concept, but he still tried to make an argument. Satella stood by, shocked.

  “Subaru…with a personality like that, you’re going to end up losing everything one day.”

  “You’re the last person I want to hear that from!” Subaru shouted, flipping her words back toward her, but Satella just tilted her head in confusion.

  Apparently she really just didn’t get it. “You really are a nice boy, aren’t you?”

  “You know, it kind of bothers me that you’re treating me like I’m younger than you. I know that a lot of people think East Asians are younger than they are, but we really can’t be that different in age, can we?”

  Subaru thought that by a rough estimate Satella looked to be about seventeen or eighteen years old. Given that Subaru had a rather early birthday compared to others in his age group, he was seventeen and thought that it was possible she could even be younger than him.

  But in response, Satella narrowed her violet eyes slightly and said, “However old you think I am, I don’t think that you’re very close… After all, I’m a half-elf.”

  “…”

  Subaru was at a loss for words. Seeing his response, a number of complicated emotions flashed across Satella’s eyes. Finally, the emotion that settled was an ineffable mixture of resignation and hopelessness.

  “I see. No wonder you’re so cute. After all, it’s like a given in fantasy worlds that elves are always beautiful.”

  “…Huh?”

  Subaru finally nodded, having come to his own conclusions about Satella being a half-elf. Satella blinked her eyes several times. Her expectations had completely missed their mark.

  “Hmm? What’s wrong?”

  “It’s not that anything is wrong, it’s just…I mean…I’m a half-elf, and…”

  “Yeah…I heard you the first time.”

  Unsure of what Satella had a problem with, that’s the only way Subaru could think to answer, but Satella’s reaction was dramatic.

  “….ah.”

  Satella made a strange sound in her throat, before suddenly turning away from Subaru, finding the nearest wall, kneeling beside it, and holding her silver-haired head in her hands.

  In the face of such an inexplicable reaction, Subaru just didn’t know what to say.

  “Take that!”

  “Ow! What the hell was that for?!”

  The gray cat, which as always seemed to come and go as it pleased, had punched him in the face with its paw like it was reenacting a fancy fighting move.

  Puck purred, flicking at his whiskers with the same paw he had punched Subaru with. “I don’t know, I just felt this overwhelming frustration and couldn’t keep it bottled up inside of me.”

  “If that’s the only reason, it’s going to be hard to get rid of the feeling that a great injustice has been done to me, but it was a soft and squishy punch, so I forgive you.”

  “I mean, I’m not really mad at you or anything. If I had to say one way or the other, I’d say it’s the opposite.”

  “The opposite?” said Subaru, confused.

  “Yes, the opposite,” Puck said with a nod.

  But before Subaru could ask what Puck really meant by that, Satella had returned.

  Twisting the ends of her silver hair in her fingers, Satella glared at Subaru.

  “Subaru, you…nincompoop.”

  “Nobody uses the word ‘nincompoop’ anymore, and what have I done to be insulted by you?”

  “Hmph. If you don’t understand, that’s not my problem. More importantly, we’ve got to continue our search.”

  With the subject of Satella’s unreasonableness cut off without another word, Subaru looked irritated, but that irritation evaporated as Satella began to act more friendly and familiar. Subaru still didn’t know why she’d had such a sudden change in attitude, but there were more important things to think about.

  “Anyway, that episode with the little lost girl made it painfully clear—isn’t this town just too big to be searching around for something in?”

  “Well, it’s the capital of Lugunika. It’s the largest city in the nation. If I remember correctly, there are about…three hundred thousand people who live here, and a lot of others come and go.” Satella answered Subaru’
s question in detail and with a hint of pride in her voice.

  “I see, I see. Three hundred thousand people, huh. That’s quite a lot… Thanks for the regurgitated information.”

  “Urr…” Satella muttered. It appeared Subaru’s guess had been on the mark.

  Subaru tried to use that new information to picture Lugunika’s capital city in his mind. If it had a population of 300,000 people, then for a city in a medieval fantasy setting, it was quite large. Of course, that number only reflected the people who lived in the city, so after adding in traveling merchants and adventurers, the number of people at any given time would probably be greater than that.

  As Subaru watched all of the people passing by from the side of the street, he was again astonished by the concentration of such variety in a group of people. There were half-humans, half-beasts, and regular humans all mixed together, and it really was like a melting pot of different races.

  The fact that they had gotten lost in the alleyways for almost an hour wasn’t just something to laugh about, either.

  The area was so large and the roads so complicated that they really had gotten lost.

  “In other words, we don’t have any more room for error. We have already given up a big advantage to the thief, and if we get stuck again it really will be too late. So let’s choose our next move carefully.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “If we run around without some sort of plan, we won’t get any results. For instance, if we go back to the place where your badge was stolen, we might be able to get more information out of people. Was there anyone who saw what happened?”

  “Actually…I think there may have been.” Satella put her hand to her mouth as if she had remembered something and then explained herself to Subaru.

  According to Satella, her badge had been stolen in broad daylight, right in the middle of a crowd of people. If so, the theft was a bold move, but looking at the commotion on the street in front of him, Subaru thought that it wasn’t necessarily a bad decision on the part of the thief. The more people there are, the easier it is to get lost in the crowd.

  “Do you remember where it was stolen from you?”

  “Yes, I think…it was this way.”

  Subaru followed Satella down the street. As they made their way through the confusion of the bustling crowd with its many different kinds of people, Subaru felt his sense of distance and direction taken from him just as quickly as when they had made their way through the maze of alleyways before. He felt as if he no longer had any idea of where he was walking. While the place they were in should have been one he had never seen before, Subaru felt a strange feeling that he had seen it before, and that feeling just wouldn’t go away.

  “Wait. No, I have definitely seen this place before.”

  Seeing the place that Satella had led him to, he scratched the side of his face and smiled a half smile.

  The place where Satella had had her badge stolen from her was the same street corner to which Subaru had been summoned.

  “This is where I was so confused I decided to go cool my head down in an empty alley, and then had my encounter with thugs A, B, and C…”

  Remembering what had happened about two hours earlier, Subaru now mused to himself that amazing coincidences like this really did happen sometimes.

  If so, he was in in luck. He had someone in mind that they could talk to.

  “So that’s the situation. I told her, ‘Leave it to me!’ and came over here to see you, Mr. Fruit Salesman.”

  Subaru spun around and pointed at the owner of a fruit shop on the side of the main road. The fruit that lined his shop was fresh, and just looking at it made his mouth water.

  “…What, it’s you again? I was hoping for a customer, Mr. Broke,” said the shop owner with a cold glare that didn’t seem fitting for one who dealt with customers on a daily basis.

  The man wore a bandanna and was very muscular. He had a stern looking face and a deep, threatening voice.

  To top it all off, he also had a white scar that ran down the left side of his face, probably left by some kind of blade. No matter how you looked at it, there was no way he was a respectable, law-abiding citizen.

  That’s why it was so surprising for him to be behind the counter of a fruit shop.

  “Oh, don’t be so cold, Pops. You were acting pretty nice to me not all that long ago.”

  “That’s because I thought you were a customer. If I had known you had no money on you, I would have chased you out earlier, like I’m about to do now.”

  Subaru was trying to act like they were best friends, but the shop owner was having none of it. He waved his hand as if he was shooing away a bug.

  “Oh, come on,” Subaru sighed, relaxing his shoulders. “Are you sure you want to treat me like this? Haven’t you noticed that I’m different from the last time I came here?”

  “What’s that?” said the shop owner, unsure of how to react as Subaru made a triumphant expression, nostrils flaring.

  Subaru stepped aside and held both his hands out to show Satella standing behind him.

  “Look at that! I brought someone with me! You may have chased me off once you learned I was penniless, but what do you think, now that I’ve brought in someone who just very well may become a new frequent customer of yours?!”

  “Um, Subaru…? I hate to say this when you’ve got your hopes up, but I don’t have any money on me.”

  “Huh, what, really? You’re telling me that we were walking around the capital without so much as a single coin between us?!”

  The shop owner gave a sigh as he looked at the two paupers in his shop.

  “So? What was it that you wanted to say, now that one beggar’s become two?”

  “Well, actually, we’re looking for something, and I wanted to ask if you could at least hear us out?”

  “That was just my way of saying I don’t have the time to deal with you people! Take a hint!” the shop owner yelled.

  Subaru felt himself take some intense eardrum damage.

  “Th-this wasn’t a good idea after all, was it?” said Satella, shrinking away as she tugged on Subaru’s sleeve.

  It might be true that asking for help without buying anything was pretty selfish, but that didn’t change the fact that they had no money to buy anything with.

  Just when Subaru was about to give up on trying to get any information out of the man, he heard a voice.

  “Hmm? Are you…the two from before?”

  Subaru and Satella turned around. Standing right in front of them was a woman with long brown hair. It was someone they had both seen before; after all, the woman was not alone. Holding her hand was a little girl who looked very happy to see them.

  “We are, but…why are you here in a place like this? The only other person here is this heartless, scary-faced man.”

  “Ha-ha… This is my husband’s shop, so I thought I’d stop by and say hello.”

  “Your husband’s shop?”

  Subaru and Satella looked at each other, and then turned back to look inside the shop, their gazes finally settling on the scar-faced man, who had folded his arms.

  “Pops…you didn’t kill this woman’s husband and take their shop, did you?”

  “What are you going on about? This is my shop, and that is my wife!”

  Subaru looked back in shock at the woman, who smiled, looking a bit unsure of how to react. She was a beautiful woman, with fine features and a gentle demeanor. This woman and that stern-faced man? There had to be some mistake.

  He couldn’t possibly be threatening her, could he? Subaru thought with a worried look. But despite Subaru’s rude conjecture, the little girl who was holding her mother’s hand darted past Subaru to the shop owner, who hugged her and picked her up.

  “Oh, look at you! Aren’t you all excited. Now tell me, do you know these two destitute beggars?”

  “Beggars? Dear, don’t call them that!”

  After hearing her husband’s sharp words, the girl�
��s mother raised her eyebrows and began berating her husband. She then explained how she, her daughter, Subaru, and Satella had come to meet.

  After hearing what happened, the shop owner set his daughter down.

  “I’m sorry about that. That was not the way to talk to the people who saved my daughter. Please forgive me.”

  “Oh, don’t worry about it. I mean, it is true that we don’t have any money on us, and…”

  “That’s right, old man! I hope you think long and hard about your action…s… Um…your cute face looks pretty scary right now.” A look from Satella shut Subaru up.

  Right after that, the little girl reached out her hand to Satella. In her hand was a small ornament in the shape of a red flower. Satella held her breath, and looked from the ornament to the little girl and back several times, with a slightly troubled expression.

  “Please, take it,” said the mother, placing her hand on Satella’s back, urging her on. “My daughter wants to thank you in her own way.”

  Satella nodded slightly and then took the flower ornament from the little girl’s hand, and pinned it on the left breast of her white cloak, before kneeling down so that the little girl could see it.

  “Thank you. I like it very much.”

  As Subaru watched Satella’s brilliant smile from the side, he found himself unable to look away. Seeing that smile, the little girl blushed and looked away, and the shop owner, watching all of this, cleared his throat.

  “You saved my daughter. I want to thank you. Ask me whatever you want.”

  With a strong nod, the stern-faced shop owner put on his best smile.

  Satella was surprised, but then looked to Subaru and smiled, but it wasn’t the same smile as before. This one was a triumphant one.

  “See, I told you. It really did come around and help us in the end!” she said, as if this odd twist of fate was entirely her own doing.

  9

  —Even though the street was just one off the main road, the atmosphere was full of gloom.

  It was still and silent, and there was no sign of any kind of life, let alone traces of people around.