Chapter. 20. Off-road (4)
****
Snap.
Snap.
‘ah. ‘Is this it again?’
Let’s sleep comfortably for a day, please.
Sometimes, I wonder if my subconscious is such a damp place. Do you sweat while you sleep?
A dream I dream every day. Now, it’s a nighttime ritual that I’ve become so used to that just hearing the sound of the shallow water lapping makes me think, ‘This must be a dream.’
Now, when the owner of those footsteps approaches and whispers in my ear, ‘Find it~ I don’t know what it is, but find it~’, I jump out of bed with terrible nervousness-
[World Tree. Can I ask you something?]
He’s going to wake up suddenly.
‘….different?’
A dream that had never changed in my life changed into something completely different.
Same space, same voice.
[Anything I can answer.]
And the voice I heard for the first time.
Hyde realized that the voice that had always commanded him on his quest was now talking to someone else.
Someone with silver hair who doesn’t know if they’re a girl, an adult, or middle-aged.
[Are you afraid?]
[Yes. If it wasn’t for that person, I might have been crying.]
[Wouldn’t it be strange if a child didn’t cry after coming out of its mother’s womb?]
[Uh, well… you know that metaphor is a bit hard to accept, right? My um… producer was uh… virgin conception? Should I call it a bachelor conception? Anyway, it’s a bit harsh.]
[It’s a story that will cause him to go on a rampage if he hears it.]
[There’s a high possibility that he will choose to leave me without me in order to destroy the evidence.]
I felt a tremor between the small jokes and the laughter.
It was like the voice that usually whispered in his dreams, but it was a completely different tremor full of determined fear.
[World Tree.]
[I’m listening.]
[I’ll forget everything, right?]
[Yes. Like all other data souls. This is something that cannot be changed no matter what you do. Because it’s the rules of this world.]
[Oops. I thought that someone as high as the World Tree could be so rude.]
[I’m sorry. I, too, would have been happy if I could have faced him with your memories intact. It will definitely be a nice sight.]
[What can I do? I’m saying no to something that can’t be done.] As
a bright road unfolded in front of the two people who were walking side by side, a familiar voice turned to the silver-haired woman and spoke.
[Then I guess I’ll have to ask for the other side.]
[The other side?]
[Yes. I think this is enough.]
The man grins like a bad boy at the sight of a woman full of doubts.
And then –
rrrrrrr!
‘Ugh?!’
The conversation between the two was drowned out by the sound of the shallow water on the floor rising in an instant.
A sensation felt even though it is in a dream. A sound that resonates in the eardrums and a faint ‘Kwaekkeak!’ sound.
‘Why now!’
I was waking up. He tried to somehow concentrate on having a conversation in his dream, but the more he tried, the clearer his mind was, the more it pulled him towards reality.
[….right?]
[….me. …. …. But …. ….. was.]
Hyde opened his eyes wide. The voices had subsided, but the last glimpse of the two people was still visible.
A man separates from a woman and throws himself into a huge stream of light.
The words left by the woman who saw his last appearance in the empty space.
I desperately read the shape of her mouth.
I hope your will reaches the end.
Hyde.
.
.
.
.
-Whaaah!
****
– Jump up!
“Kuhuhuhuh!”
“Kkeaeaeak!”
A dream where I woke up as if I was being dragged.
He was clearly reaching out for the silver-haired woman, but what was actually caught was the goblin’s skinny arm.
“Kwaaeak! Let go! Let go, human! “I have terrible sleeping habits!”
“Umm. “I’m sorry I had a dream.”
“Dog customer! Have a quieter dream next time! “Strange human being!”
It’s a different dream.
Yes, I had a different dream. It was a dream in which the voice that had been tormenting him all his life appeared in a different form.
I’ve never had anything like this in my life.
“…Is it morning?”
“lunch! Late lunch too! “He was moaning all day, so I woke him up!”
“Lunch?”
I even overslept. He wakes up at 6 in the morning like a machine and sleeps until late at noon.
I can’t believe Pathfinder Hyde overslept!
“O-mm!”
“What are you doing?”
“No, I heard people do this when they oversleep.”
I quickly went back to bed before this precious experience was lost.
I stretched out my arms and legs to the point where they were pulled out of my body and moaned as if I had been stabbed in the stomach.
Stretching is something I always wanted to do when I overslept.
“…Nothing special?”
Contrary to what other people said was the most refreshing feeling in the world, my head was pounding and my throat was raw. It’s good to realize that you’ve had a good rest, but it’s a bit much to feel like you’ve wasted half of your day.
“Hey, don’t be foolish and come and eat!”
“Oh, did you cook food too?”
“transaction! Accommodation and food provided! Kaibuen value is precious! “I do what I get paid for!”
“It’s a meal prepared by a goblin…”
It seemed a long way from the ‘breakfast and lunch I’ve always dreamed of, feeling refreshed and stretched after oversleeping’, but I don’t know when I’ll be able to oversleep again in the future, so I decided to experience everything I needed. It would be nice.
As he followed Kaibuen, who was even wearing an apron, Hyde thought about the last moments in his dream.
Hyde. The name he called me, whispering in my dreams all my life.
A name that has now become my name.
The name the woman in my dream called him.
Who on earth is Hyde?
After observing people all his life, this guy who can figure out what kind of person they are and what their current state is just by looking at them, actually has no idea what his own identity is.
“…Kaibuen.”
“Dog customer?”
“What’s on the breakfast menu?”
“I fried this and that until it was unrecognizable! it’s good!”
“…At least it’s a name that might help you wake up.”
Hyde laughed at his own contradictory state and quickened his pace.
I guess it’s because I didn’t sleep well.
I was thinking that if I ate something, it would help me think.
****
Click, click, click.
“Squeak! So, you dream every day! “What kind of man is whispering?”
“Uhm, that’s right. “Hey, give me another bowl of that.”
Rattling, crunching!
“The man in my dreams calls you ‘Hyde’!”
“okay. “I’ve been like that since I was about five years old, so I’ve been doing it for 23 years.”
“In the dream I had today, there was a man and a woman!”
“Mmmmm.”
“The woman called the man with the same voice as in her dream ‘Hyde’! Am I right?”
“hmm. I understand. After all, goblins are a smart race, right?”
Kkuul-kuk!
“Then it’s Hyde, the man in the dream! “You yourself!”
“That’s ambiguous!”
“Isn’t this a memory lost by dream humans?” “I don’t have the slightest memory from the time I was at the temple orphanage until now, so where are the memories I lost?”
“There really isn’t one!”
“doesn’t exist!”
“What about the silver-haired woman?”
“I’ve never met a woman with silver hair, let alone one who looks like that?”
“Gehooooo…. Eeeng keueuung….”
Dining table.
The ‘stir-fried food until it loses its shape’ that Kaibuen confidently brought was surprisingly palatable, and as soon as I emptied the palm-sized bowl, the guy suddenly demanded an additional fee, so I bought the whole small pot. I ate it up.
While eating a late lunch, I told him about what I had seen in my dream to clear my head. Today’s dream, which was completely different from the same voice that was commanding me to find it, even my name that it called.
Percussion!
“Kaibuen got it!”
“Oh what?”
“That’s a fucking dream! “You lost your money!”
“Hey. Hey, don’t you see some connection? The ‘World Tree’ and the voice in my dream said that they were waiting for someone called ‘him’. Wouldn’t it be okay to assume that he’s the Warlord that strangely keeps getting involved? The voice waits for the Warlord. Brainwashed me and made me find the Warlord. huh? “Is there anything that comes to mind?”
“Dog dream! A double dog dream that prevents you from even eating! “I haven’t even eaten half of it yet!”
“Okay, okay, I’m sorry, dude. “Finish your meal.”
I expected him to say something with his unique, brilliant ideas as an engineer, but as you can see, the result was.
Kaibuen, who had been groaning for a while, saw that his share of the meal had gone cold and concluded that it was just a dream.
‘There will be another opportunity to check the shortcomings later.’
A series of strange events have occurred recently. The connected parts were too clear to be considered a coincidence.
‘Hyde in his dreams is waiting for someone named [him].’
‘And he called me Hyde and told me to find the Warlord.’
‘I share the Warlord’s memories and sometimes even his emotions. It’s something that can’t happen in reality, but I’ve experienced it myself, so it’s true.’
Then I.
Is it the [Hyde] of a dream or the [Warlord] he is waiting for?
Or is it Pathfinder Hide?
Each revealed part is so visibly connected, but the connections are so intertwined that it’s hard to tell what’s what, so for now I can’t help but leave it as twisted as this.
Anyway, I will continue to pursue the Warlord.
Warlord’s memories and emotions will come to me in the future.
As we have discovered so far, there will be more things to discover in the future.
Putting the overall picture together may come after pieces of information are gathered.
So, as for dreams that I don’t even know about right now, that’s it.
For now, I need to focus on the reality in front of me. For example –
Click!
“Is this it?”
“2.3 million shillings! A water beak breathing in the deep sea! “Because it will be used in places with high magical power concentration, the frame and exterior materials are all made of empty magic stones!”
Something like equipment for diving into the ‘Deep Blue Line’, the most infamous sea on the fragmented continent. “And this !
Bankrupt sword! “It was an honor to be able to touch something like this!”
“Oh quite.”
My sword, the Anti-Auror Sword, has been reborn as if it were completely new from the outside.
Sereung –
When I pulled out the sword, I could definitely feel that the spirit of the sword was revitalized. The flames that bounce off the friction part of the entrance when pulling it out also seem to have become a little clearer.
“Are you okay?”
“Keek! Kaibu had a hard time! The magic stone sword cannot be melted! Put it in the gongmanseok storage room in the underground workshop here, and if other pieces stick, cut them off! Squeeze and repeat! “Processing a magic stone is not possible like that!”
“no wonder. “When I asked other blacksmiths or magic engineers to help me, they all waved their hands.”
“A very unusual device! The device on the scabbard holds the sword and the power to draw it activates different magic stones! A very unique method in which the power of the kick controls the output! This is a novelty that is hard to find in the standardized modern magic engineering! If it had been used by a wealthy ancient imperial noble, the output would have been just around the edge of a magic battery! It’s highly likely that it got its unfair notoriety! A very, very great device! excellent! Overwhelming!”
“That’s right. So what has been improved? “They said they discovered a fatal flaw related to durability.”
“Fixed it! “A genius never before seen in Kaibuen history!”
“Oh oh! “So you can swing it about ten times a day?”
“no! We modified the durability test and expanded the allowable output range accordingly! Still twice a day! “More powerful than before!”
“I should have just been able to swing it one more time!”
Sigh!
“Geez! Craftsman preference! “Ingratitude!”
“What a craftsman! “At best, it’s still a two-shot premature ejaculation weapon!”
“Super powerful premature ejaculation that doesn’t even require two shots! Ultimate power! “The pride of a weapon that will destroy itself if it cannot kill the enemy with one blow!”
With twinkling eyes, Kaibuen passionately explained the magic engineering wonders of the Anti-Auror Sword, and finally showed the oval-shaped groove on the inside of the scabbard.
“As the name Deep Blue Line suggests, there is a mountain range under the sea. “A sea cliff with no end in sight, rising into the ground with an explosion.”
“I know that name because I’ve heard it before.”
“I don’t know from the explanation! A place where all the mana that should have spread around the world exploded! The entire sea is full of dense mana! “A crazy sea where a waterfall of mana flows over the mana void!”
Crack.
“Thanks to that, a strange magic stone was created! All kinds of substances melted under the pressure of the explosion! A magical gemstone in which a mountain’s worth of mana and all kinds of strange power concepts were melted and condensed! The magic stone that must be used when making the living weapon Shard Armor that every famous Shard Knight has! The ‘Dragon Vein Fragment’ comes from the depths of the sea! If you insert it into the groove of the scabbard, the broken sword will be revived! “An ancient magic weapon with a legend of murder or suicide, I can’t handle it without a magic gem!”
“It must be dangerous there, right?”
“The sea where all kinds of knights drowned! A place where the waves throw the boat and float it! The runaway mana has released a lot of monsters into the sea! Strongly acidic seaweed that floats on the water and sticks to boats, eating fish that explodes when touched! “If you underestimate me, you will die!”
“yes. “Because the rumors I heard were similar.”
Haaaa.
I don’t want to go.
If the only way to the old Rodrik area wasn’t by boat, or even if the guy I was visiting wasn’t a crazy killer who had ate up an entire area, I wouldn’t have even thought about diving into such dangerous waters.
“If only I had an Auror, I wouldn’t have to worry about this.”
Ouch!
Out of resentment, I tried to hold the sword with all my might, but all that remained was a trembling sword and marks left on my hand.
“What can I do? The poor guy should try harder.”
click!
With a sigh, I sheathed my sword
and swung it.
I carefully placed the preserved food and consumable equipment I bought with the remaining money in the pockets of my cloak.
….Sweet!
Lastly, I opened the glass box carefully kept on Kaibuen’s table and took out a boat ticket bound for Roderick.
Kaibuen had prepared all the routes to the port (3 million shillings including introduction fee and boarding fee, paid in cash and items), so all I had to do was go out and help smuggle the Mado train that stopped here briefly and catch it.
“Geh. Are you leaving now?”
“okay. Thanks to you, I rested well, ate well, and spent well. “I’ll see you again when I get a chance, Kaibuen.”
“…Squeak! One before that! question!”
As the time came, I was about to leave, but he caught me.
“You Hyde! There are many ancient relics other than the Pasan Sword! The magic modified cloak, of which 13 of the 39 pockets are subspace pockets, and all the items in it are precious and hard to find! How did you get it! It’s too expensive to say I bought it all! does not make sense!”
“what. “Have you been curious about that?”
“I’m curious! abnormal!”
Seeing how strangely serious the guy looked, I thought he wouldn’t let me go if I just gave him a quick look, so I just told him.
“Well, I got the little things from people I met in passing, like you and Kerujaru. “I found most of the valuable items, such as relics from the Magic Empire.”
“Looking for you? relics?”
“okay. Sometimes the city sends a train and an earth wizard to dig up ruins in the soft land. I usually participate when something like that happens. “Go find it and take a peek.”
“Geez… that’s weirder than saying you can buy things with money!” “Hmm? why?”
“There are as few as cockroach tears at historic sites where useful relics are excavated! You are twenty-eight years old! “If you own that many relic-level items, your name should be on every discoverer of relics discovered in recent years!”
“…Is it that much? “I stay there whenever I feel like it.”
“That’s it! abnormal! “It’s ridiculously abnormal!”
Kaibuen ran wild and grunted for a while before saying.
“As expected, you have erased memories!”
“I said there isn’t one. Can you at least write a diary here? “Since I was five years old, I have been able to write without missing a single day?”
“Anyway, there it is! As a result of the flow of events you mentioned, you ended up in the old land of Roderick! One flow! ready!”
Gehooooo…. Kkeuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu….
“I don’t know Kaibu anymore. But you have someone prepared for you! As if ‘Hyde’ in your dream made you what you are after constantly muttering! your abilities! Your tools! Someone in your head told me! “To the place where there is something prepared for you!”
Kaibuen held my hand tightly.
“You are a very important person! “There is inherent value that you don’t even know about!”
“Uh… Kaibuen seems a little excited right now…”
“Values change! Kaibuen was involved in your worth! The more great you become, the more valuable Kaibuen becomes! Very great deal! Perfect and not worth the money!”
He seems a little excited, but I think it’s similar to goblin-style cheering.
“Uh um yeah. “Thank you.”
“Go, go! If it’s late, its value disappears! You’re something amazing that I didn’t recognize! I want to see the change! “Go quickly!”
As I was pushed by the guy’s hand to the track, a magic train that had slowed down considerably came into view. The cargo compartment door is half open, so it looks like they are not going inside the workshop and are leaving items nearby to retrieve them.
It seemed difficult to hang on as the speed increased, so I started running in that direction too. The driver held out his hand and held me as if he had been notified in advance.
『Puuuuuu-!』
With a powerful whistle sound, a goblin was seen coming out onto the tracks next to the speeding train and squealing.
A screeching voice that can be heard clearly even in the noise of the train.
“-evidence! you! “It’s proof!”
“I’m not in a bad mood now! You’re fine! “That’s proof that you’re not being manipulated!”
“Ready! you! Ready for now!”
The small run that followed the train quickly moved away.
Get ready. All the strange phenomena that happen to me due to my ability and situation are preparations for a certain moment…
“That’s an interesting opinion.”
It kind of makes sense.
….shake!
“hello!”
“Hey Pathfinder! “Isn’t this the rumored wanted man?”
“They say your talent for slaying dragons is amazing, but it’s truly unbelievable! “I’m friends with all the goblins!”
“Hehehehe. If the wayfinder can’t even find a way to get my body out, I’ll have to quit the business! So where should I apply?”
If you are preparing, what are you preparing for?
Hyde burrowed into the gap between the train drivers, thinking that he had one more thing to ask when he met Warlord.
The port was quite far away, so I had plenty of time to think.
****
