kscans

Chapter 27 - The Pre-Pilgrimage and the Little One, Part Two

"Huh? Seriously?"

Visible in the distance was a large spider, easily five meters long. A creature of that size could be none other than Joker. He was lumbering along with several of his children.

The carriage slowly came to a halt, and a frog tapped pechi pechi against the window. This was their signal for when they spotted something.

The carriage pulled by honeybees had no driver, relying instead on the frogs to report anything suspicious. One of them was stuck to the window, pointing ahead, so the Little One got out of the carriage with Dorfen and the others.

She spotted Joker walking up ahead and rushed toward him in a hurry.

"Joker!"
"Well now? If it isn’t the King. It has been a while."

Blinking his eight eyes, the spider nonchalantly wrapped the Little One in thread and lifted her onto his back. Her small body was pulled up by the thread that wound shurun around her.

"Haeh?"

"Chihiro-sama?!"

Ignoring the panicked Dorfen, Joker lumbered on noshi noshi with his children.

"What’s up? We were just on our way to see you."

As the baby spiders unwound the guru guru threads, the little girl tapped pechi pechi on Joker’s head. He gave her an annoyed look and let out an exaggerated sigh.

"There’s someone collapsed near the border, apparently. The soul of their attendant or what have you got caught in my web. It was being a nuisance, begging for help, so I came to see for myself."

Oh ho.

So that’s it. His web of salvation is still active.

The Little One nodded in understanding. But as if reading her thoughts, Joker shook his head furu furu.

"The web is certainly still there, but that is a web of ruin. The souls of the ordinary dead do not get caught in it. Nowadays, the dead are properly purified by the gods’ providence. And yet, that soul fell into the web of ruin. Don’t you find that odd?"

Ah, so that’s how it is.

In other words, it was an abnormal situation. That’s why Joker himself had come all this way. She was glad they hadn’t missed each other. From behind the Little One, who felt a faint sense of relief, a tremendous killing intent erupted.

"Let Hiro gooo!"

Moving with the speed of a gale, Chihaya broke past Dorfen and lunged at Joker with his rapier. He accurately targeted the great spider’s leg, his white blade flashing. The murderous intent was real. His young eyes glinted menacingly as he slid the blade, ready to slice the leg in two with a single breath.

"Stop, Haya!"

Her eyes wide with surprise, Chihiro tried to stop him, but before she could, Mugi-ta, who was on her shoulder, put up a barrier. It easily deflected Chihaya’s rapier, and the protective membrane sent him bouncing back with a soft poyon.

"Uwah!"

Catching the repelled Chihaya as he flew back, Dorfen sighed softly. His eyes looked down at the mischievous boy in his arms with an air of resignation.

"That is the Lord of the Western Forest. He is a servant of Chihiro-sama."

"That thing?"

"Do not call me ‘that thing.’ Honestly. What a rude bunch."

"I’m sorry. I thought a monster had kidnapped Hiro."
"Who would kidnap such a troublesome child? The Western Forest would be surrounded by the Queens within half a day."

"Aha, you’re right."

The two of them chatted nonchalantly.

The Little One and Dorfen’s faces stiffened in astonishment.

"Haya, can you, by any chance, hear Joker’s voice?"

"Eh? He’s talking, right?"

No wayyyy.

Clutching her head as her brother tilted his in confusion, the Little One had a thought and removed the ear cuff from Chihaya’s ear.

"Can you still hear him?"

"Eh? Huh? I can’t hear him."

Joker was speaking right in front of them. But all Chihaya could hear was the kachi kachi sound of his fangs.

So this is the cause.

The ear cuff, a gift from the gods. Apparently, it could pick up the voices of monsters as well. She thought it was just an item for super hearing, but it seemed to have Solomon-like effects too.

Isn’t this also really bad if people find out?

Placing the new source of trouble back on Chihaya’s ear, the Little One listened to Joker’s story.

When Hayslave was destroyed, the world itself collapsed and was lost. Just as in Chihiro’s memories of her past life, the lost world would apparently trigger a big bang and become the foundation for a new one. The web of salvation was supposed to have served its purpose and disappeared, but Joker, who had taken a liking to it, had left a portion of the web for his naps. However, as Joker was dozing today, a soul suddenly fell into his web. The soul was a boy in his late teens with light brown hair and purple eyes. Though surprised by the giant spider monster, he had apparently started screaming hysterically, asking where Hyrulia-sama was.

"Hyrulia?"

"Seems to be the soul’s master. He said she collapsed somewhere around here, but…"

Even though this was the border, it was quite far on the Frontier side. The wilderness itself served as the border, so the area was extremely vast and ambiguous.

"Hmm, I’m curious. Let’s go have a look."

With Chihiro still on his head, Joker lumbered on through the wilderness. The honeybee carriage followed behind him.

They did not have to go far before they found the person they were looking for. A girl with a wealth of silvery hair, so pale it was almost white, lay powerlessly, her hair spread across the ground. Her breathing was faint, as if it could stop at any moment. Was the person collapsed over her an attendant? This one had already stopped breathing.

"This is it. Well then…"

Joker muttered softly, raised one of his forelegs high, and swung it down toward the girl. The tip was wickedly sharp. Her eyes widened with an "eh?" as Chihiro leaned forward in a panic.

Wait, hold on? She’ll die, right? She’s going to die, right?

Leaping onto Joker’s foreleg, which held clear murderous intent, the Little One grabbed on tight and cried out with an accusatory gaze.

"Hey, what are you doing!"

"What do you mean? She looks like she’s suffering, so I thought I’d put her out of her misery."

Huhhh?

As the Little One’s jaw dropped at his words, something was flying fuyo fuyo around her. The something charged at Joker and bounced off him again and again. It was a palm-sized, faint light. The tennis ball like thing moved back and forth before looking at Chihiro. It had no face or eyes, just light. Yet the Little One felt it was looking at her. After they stared at each other for a moment, the light clung to Chihiro as if pleading. Puzzled by the light’s beckoning movements, Chihiro followed where it led. The light desperately circled the fallen girl.

Does it want me to help her?

Looking down at the pair, Joker looked up at the heavens with a weary expression.

"Is it fate that we met here? What will you do, O King?"

Huh?

"What do I do? If she’s still alive, there’s only one choice. Help her, of course."

Isn’t that obvious? As Chihiro reached a hand toward the girl, she heard Joker’s low murmur in her ear.

"That’s a princess of Castrato, you know?"

But even as she heard this, Chihiro cradled the girl’s head and beckoned to Dorfen, who had gotten out of the carriage behind them. Dorfen’s attribute was water. It was an attribute specializing in defense and healing. While it could be used for attack, its true strength was protection. Entrusting the girl’s care to Dorfen, Chihiro moved only her eyes to glare at Joker from the side of her vision. Her gaze was cold and sharp.

"So what if she’s a princess of Castrato?"

Her short words were laden with thorns.

Sensing this, Joker shrugged his shoulders.

"How peculiar. To willingly pick up a seed that harbors misfortune."

"Don’t be ridiculous. Fortune and misfortune are intertwined like a rope. If it harbors misfortune, then it must harbor the opposite too, right?"

The little girl chuckled with a kufu.

The tense, sparking air that lay between them was dissipated by a carefree, drawn-out voice.

"Hirooo, help meee."

"Nii-ni? Who’s that?"

When Chihiro turned around, she saw Chihaya dragging someone she didn’t recognize on his back. Apparently, Chihaya had been huffing and puffing as he dragged a person who was twice his size. But unfortunately, this person was already dead too.

"This light, you see. It told me to follow it, so I did, and I found this person collapsed."

Huh?

Seeing her brother collapse with a weary "Haaah, I’m exhausted," Chihiro broke into a cold sweat.

You just said something I can’t ignore, didn’t you? Onii-sama?

A light floated vacantly.

If this was what Chihiro imagined it to be, then Chihaya had obtained a terrifying power. She glanced softly at Joker, and the gentleman nodded with a knowing look.

"That’s the one that fell into the silver bed."

I knew ittt!

Chihaya was communicating with the blinking light.

"You see, Hiro. This person says her name is Princess Hyrulia, and she ran away because someone was trying to kill her. And then…"

"Wait wait wait! The rest can wait until later!"

Ahhhh, they gave him a broken item, they really did! Abyss! Chaos!

Gazing resentfully at the shimmering needle quartz on Chihaya’s ear, the Little One clutched her head at the premonition of new turmoil. Oblivious, Chihaya played with the round light floating mysteriously, whether it was a ghost or a spirit. Dorfen looked back and forth between the brother, who was laughing kyakkya with delight, and the sister, whose expression was as grave as if she were digging into the abyss, with a puzzled face.

With three different expressions on their faces, they loaded the collapsed person into the carriage, and Joker and the others headed for the Western Forest.

They had no idea that in the Western Forest, a search party was running around in a state of trepidation, looking for the Lord of the Forest who had suddenly bolted. They couldn't imagine the future that awaited them, where they would be lectured to death by a Border Count with a face crumpled in tears.

Oblivious to the revived princess’s bewildered expression, the carriage and Joker headed straight for the Western Forest.