Chapter 30: What is a battle?

“You are right. I know I can’t continue to live my life as it is now forever. I’m about eleven now, and I honestly don’t think I’ll be able to celebrate my thirteenth birthday properly, I have received invitations to do “that kind” of work in the past. It’s not just invitations. I have been almost kidnapped, almost violently forced to follow them, and chased by noble families and underworld traffickers.

A child in the group who was delighted to get a job was dumped in an alley a few days later, looking like a wreck. She was still too young to even be called a little girl… There were no eyes, ears, nose, fingers, or teeth on that child’s body. I don’t know if they cut them out after she died or while she was still alive… It is frightening to even think about it. We live in such a place. Can you keep living the way we are forever? …… That’s not true! We know better than anyone else without being told!”

Fire is in Cyrus’ eyes.

Anger. Anger at everything he sees.

How dare he, who comes from a privileged family who probably had nothing to worry about anything, talk as if he understands us?

Even if Al in front of him is a terrifying mage, it is unforgivable. He made a fool of me.

But Cyrus was still somewhat calm. His anger was genuine, but he calculated that this level of anger would be tolerated to the point of sympathy.

Al, not knowing that such a calculation was involved, saw the image of Cyrus, who showed his anger, overlapping with the image of Vera from earlier.

“Right. Good. You seem to have a good grasp of reality.”

「……！！！」

A very plain statement. Cyrus’ anger flared up even more. His eyes went blank. For a moment, beyond calculation, he spontaneously clenches his fist and turns to harm Al.

But it is impossible to sustain such harm.

His eyes meet Al’s.

” (Gasps) !!! ……!”

Eyes devoid of any light or emotion. That’s …… not a human.

“Why, Cyrus? Why don’t you fight? With the absurdity and unreasonableness of the world. Reality is hard and painful. For everyone. I do not know the reality of your lives. But you don’t know either, do you? How much unreasonableness we are living in …… hey?”

“…… aha, ah …… I-i d-don’t know ……”

Cyrus can’t resist what’s in front of him. Anger? They quelled it in an instant. He instinctively senses that such a thing will not work on “this thing”.

“Surely it must be hard for Cyrus and the others, too. I’m sure that Vera has been through a lot as well. You may not know the details because you are a non-mage, but …… I am from the frontier bordering the Great Forest in the south. Do you know the Great Forest?”

“…is, y-yes. I have heard of ……. It’s a den of monsters, and I’ve heard that …… high purity demon stone can be extracted from it…”

Cyrus is swallowed.

I thought of Mr Al, and the woman named Vera. Both are incredible magicians.

But what is this thing in front of him? Cyrus does not know. Fortunately, it was something he had never encountered before.

“The monsters in the Great Forest are mainly insectoid. There are some large beast-type monsters, but the smaller beasts and subhuman monsters have left after losing in the survival race with the insects. There is a legend that the defeated ones settled in the eastern canyon, but I don’t know the truth.

Well, what I’m trying to say is that …… Insects don’t even have the same compassion that beasts have. They just react to the situation. If I had to say that they are like machines……. Like magical tools that exert a predetermined effect when caged in mana, would you understand it? It is a place called the Great Forest, and it is us who are engaged in a year-round struggle for survival with such creatures.

In the Great Forest, there is no point in having feelings. How to outwit and kill your opponent. How not to let your presence be noticed? That is all. If you lose, you are just food for the insects. Worst-case scenario is live breeding for eggs and larvae.

We have become like them in the end, sad to say, to fight against such insects. Reaction rather than emotion. When you get hit, you hit back. Do it before they do it. We don’t consider the details of the situation. …… Well, I’m a human being, and I consider the rules of capital and people’s feelings, but…. I often slip up. No, I’m just making excuses.

I lived in a place bordering a large forest, and Cyrus was a vagrant in the royal capital. We share too few values. I am sorry that you are angry with my words, but remember that I will “react” if I feel threatened, and again, I take back what I said earlier and I apologize. There was no need for me, an outsider, to dare to put into words what Cyrus himself was painfully aware of. Sorry ……. This is exactly what I meant.”

Al quietly stands up and bows firmly to Cyrus.

“…Oh …..this is …… ……I’m sorry, I’m sorry. I almost lost my …… self when you just said to me the obvious thing ……”

How confused was Cyrus? A foreign being. He saw a glimpse of it.

Al is a human, a member of a noble family, and a mage, but he is a creature different from the others. That is what Cyrus thought of.

At least in the royal capital, a person associated with a noble family in the capital would never bow to a vagrant. No, it is the same for commoners. Cyrus and the others are treated like vermin that live in town.

Cyrus knows. Al’s words, and actions were uncivil, but he did not have any particular malice toward them.

And in his mind, vagrants, and nobles are probably the same. Either you can kill them or you can’t. Eatable or inedible. The same thinking as the monsters in the Great Forest that I just heard about.

“……A, Al-sama, please tell me one thing ……….”

“Hmm? All right. What do you want to know?”

The light returns to Al’s eyes. The eyes of humans. Cyrus was uncomfortable, but he thought all of these things would not offend Al. So he broke the story.

“You told me earlier, to fight against unreasonableness and absurdity. And …… We are fighting even now. Within the royal city. But, of course, not as much as in the Great Forest. …… How can we fight more?”

It was, in Al’s words. Fight. But from Cyrus’ point of view, even now, he is fighting to the best of his ability. The fight to live. A fight against unreasonableness and absurdity.

“It’s easy. Just run away. Don’t force yourself to continue a battle you can’t win. If living is a battle, just run away and survive. That is not the same as running away from weakness, is it? Rather than living life like this, why not think about moving towards frontier? Arrangements could be a lot of work. Well, it’s just an idea.

If Silas and his friends can use my work as an opportunity to work in a regular store or something and be independent after that, that’s fine. However, if you can’t, I could at least arrange for you to live in a frontier area.”

Run away. Run and survive.

“……to run away. In other words, leave the royal capital?”

“That’s right. If it’s hard for you to live here, you can find another place. Of course, I know it’s hard to even do that, but that’s life. Living is different from fighting a battle against someone in particular, isn’t it? Isn’t that what confronting life is all about?

Easy for me to say, and I know you might get angry again if I say it. Why is Cyrus continuing to live such a miserable life here? There are many farms in the south near, can’t you at least do some menial work? No ….. sorry. Forget I said that.”

He stared straight at me. With the eyes of the human. Cyrus asks himself. Why is he in the city of the outsiders of the royal capital?

“……..I never thought about it. …… I thought I was supposed to live here. …… I thought I belonged at the bottom of the pile. …… How can a tramp like me wish for a different place?”

“Why not? If you don’t like something, you don’t like it. What does it matter whether you are a vagrant, a noble or a commoner? Just shout loudly and clearly that you don’t like it. Perhaps by doing so, you increase the possibility of being harmed, but if you don’t say it, it won’t get through to them, will it? Human race especially.”

Al thinks. If you don’t convey the message, it won’t get through. If you don’t move, nothing will start. The only time you are allowed to stay still is when you are hiding and getting past the enemy.

However, there are a lot of things that Al doesn’t tell people around him, and when he tries to tell people, he often causes misunderstandings.

“Oh well. I met Cyrus and his friends by accident, but …… now I think it’s a bit of an atonement. You are the ones who were supported by Deacon Franz, right?”

“…..??! Ha, yes. How did you know that?”

“I was talking to Cyrus and somehow I thought, if that’s the case…… This is a secret, but I knew in advance that Deacon Franz and Mary were going to die. I knew how the two of them would die….. Especially Deacon Franz’s, and I left it alone. For my own reasons.

It surprised me when I looked him up later. I learned that he not only gave the children of towns of the outsiders alms on the spot, but also educated them in reading, writing, and other subjects. I was also told that he had arranged jobs in town for these children who had grown up that way. Not the work they would sell themselves for, but genuine, honest work. And that’s what Cyrus and his friends were doing, right?”

Cyrus’ manner. Clearly educated. And a certain amount of courtesy. For a mere vagrant, he seems intelligent.

And maybe there was another reason he was rummaging through the rubble of the abandoned church. Al thought back. Was the meeting of Cyrus and his friends a coincidence, or was it guided by events?

“I didn’t know Deacon Franz deeply before his death, but I was very impressed with what he was doing. He helped the powerless. That nature is worthy of respect. At that time, I did not seek a way to avoid his death. Maybe that’s part of the reason. Whenever I have a job request. The person I was thinking of asking was someone who had his support. Well, apart from sentiment, I’d like to see you achieve a certain level of success.”

Al also has regrets. Because he is an event character in the game. It was a free quest. He dismissed Deacon Franz in this way without a moment’s thought. No, it wasn’t that Al cut him off, but that he left him alone.

Many people mourned the death of Deacon Franz and Mary in the town of the outsiders. Al only learned later. Of the many welfare good deeds he had done as a deacon and a servant of the Goddess while he was impersonating an assassin.

This time, after meeting Cyrus and his group, Al thought of carrying out one of his ideas.

Adventurers’ Guild.

In the game, there was no special explanation for its existence; it was an organization or facility for ordering quests. Of course, there is no such organization in this world, nor is there a system of quests.

It is no longer only a game setting, but an original setting in this world. Even so, events occur one after another. It is impossible for an individual to grasp all of them.

But fortunately, the protagonists have the shadow of the royal family latching on to them, and both the kingdom and the church are watching their every move. There is no problem in leaving that part to them. Rather, Al thinks they should do their best that way.

However, there were many events and quests that did not involve the royal family or the church. Even though I can’ t cover all of them, if I could know about some anomalies in advance,…… Maybe a little information would stimulate my old memories and I might remember them. The quests.

The royalty, the church, and the academy are involved in what are essentially forced quests that are necessary to progress the story. The royal shadow or the church will take care of that one.

Quests in the royal underworld. This is an organization that Al became “friends” with while he was living in the town of the outsiders. He can get information from there.

The quests, including those related to commoners …… And those related to monsters and demons who hide their true identities, are basically set in the outer town and the popular areas. What about the signs of those quests?

Why not just string up a bunch of vagrants and release them in town? I’m sure the vagrants will have some horizontal connection with …….

So speaking, an imitation of an adventurer’s guild or an informant.

That’s Al’s idea.

“Would you …..use violence against us, Al-sama?”

“I don’t engage in senseless violence. As I said before, I can’t deny the possibility of “reacting”, but I will not unilaterally harm someone who has no malicious intent or power.”

“Can you provide us with food and a place to live?”

“Well, it’s a necessary expense. It is a matter of course. We’ll use the Angus Inn for a while.”

“Would you sell the children to the perverts?

“That’s out of the question. I don’t want you to do anything like that myself, by the way.”

“We may not be able to achieve what Al-sama wants.”

“If you’re not slacking off, well, I guess that’s just the way it is.”

“Are we allowed to run away?”

“I don’t think we should run away from fighting and living. It is natural to run away to survive. If you don’t run away, you will die. If you know that, you should run away. I, too, am persisting for now, but if I can’t fulfill the original purpose ……, I will run away and conquer the path of survival. That is a new battle. Believe it or not, I have respect for those who willingly leave.”

Cyrus thinks. I can’ t trust Al. His thoughts and values are so different from his own that he does not know what to believe. However, I don’t think he is lying. I would like to think so.

It has happened before. A helping hand held out in front of me. The moment you grasp it, you are almost pulled into darkness, or it fleetingly disappears. …… Cyrus thinks it’ll be the same this time. I don’t have high hopes. If we can at least overcome our temporary hunger…

Deacon Franz is no longer with us and support has been cut off. Some children became ill and died during that period. Some children suddenly went missing, and others were lynched to death by other groups.