Chapter 59

Yobi looked up at the dilapidated stilt house.

This was the house where Yobi, Naba, and the dead child once lived.

Yobi was born to parents of the land turtle-type beastman species.

It was a small, rural village, but Yobi's parents, being of the land turtle-type beastman species, were gentle and raised Yobi with love, without abandoning or abusing him, even though he was born as a bat-type beastman.

All the villagers were also of the land turtle-type beastman species and, due to their nature, did not discriminate against Yobi but watched over him warmly.

Later, Yobi learned that the land turtle-type beastman species were often looked down upon by bird-type and beastman species.

To the bird-type and beastman species, who respected the strong, the land turtle-type beastman species, who were strong but avoided conflict and lacked assertiveness, were often objects of contempt.

The twelve years Yobi spent with his parents were treasures to him, and he could confidently say that without these twelve years, he would not have been able to trust others and would have cursed the world.

It was just twelve years.

Twelve years after Yobi was born, the village was destroyed by a monster attack.

Yobi happened to survive. He survived.

After that, there was no hope for a decent life.

He somehow made it to a large city, but had no relatives. Without knowing Gushuti, he had to survive by scavenging in the slums, catching small animals and fish in secret. If he was caught by those who claimed the territory, he knew he would be beaten, so he had to hide and catch them.

Before he learned spirit magic, he could only use it to fly. He didn't even know his own affinity.

He became an explorer at fifteen, and his affinity was darkness and wind. Being a bat-type beastman, he was already shunned, and with spirit magic that was not useful, he couldn't form a party, and the little money he could earn in the shallow floors was barely enough to survive.

He received payment as a front-line fighter in temporary parties, and when there was no work, he even engaged in quasi-prostitution with explorers in the ruins.

Still, he never took from others.

That was the teaching of his deceased parents.

He continued this life for ten years, but one day, he was hired as a meat shield as usual, and unfortunately was abandoned, unable to escape, and was cornered with no way out.

At that moment, Naba saved him.

Naba led his party and cleared the swarm of monsters. Naba, spreading his red peacock feathers and flying, looked radiant.

From that day on, his life changed a little.

Naba's speech was a bit condescending, but he was not abusive or unreasonable. Despite being a lower-level seventh-class explorer, he was respected by veterans, accomplished all tasks with versatility, showed excellent leadership, and was good at taking care of others. Junior explorers like Yobi were also helped and guided.

Yobi, out of consideration for the other party members, did not join Naba's party but was hired as a porter and sometimes explored the ruins with Naba when he was alone.

Naba did not discriminate.

When Yobi mentioned this, Naba frowned and said he didn't want it to be like his home.

He didn't seem to want to talk about it much.

On Yobi's twenty-sixth birthday, they were united for the first time, started dating, and got married six months later. They also had a child.

It was a happy life.

For the first time, outside of the memories with his parents, he felt truly happy.

He even thought he didn't need anything else.

But that happiness began to wane when the hero completely cleared the ruins.

Naba could not handle other ruins.

The party members had to earn a living and left Naba.

Naba desperately tried to join several parties, but was ultimately rejected by all of them.

And in a desperate attempt, he lost one of his wings.

Everything collapsed in less than half a year. It was a fleeting thing.

Yobi had nothing to rely on and couldn't let go of the infant.

He could only watch as Naba, losing his wing, fell from the sky.

Yobi looked up at the dilapidated house, recalling the past happiness like a slideshow.

It felt as if everything had changed in just three days. It even looked like someone else's house.

"…Can I, for a moment?"

Zangren nodded.

Yobi did not go up the rough wooden ladder but headed for the eaves of the house.

Under the dim eaves, there was a rough wooden stake.

It was a grave.

Yobi knelt before it and clasped his hands in prayer.

Zangren, who was standing behind, solemnly filled a cup made of earth spirit magic with water and cut the portable food, which resembled a French bread, into cookie-like pieces with a knife and placed them on an earthen plate as an offering.

Then Zangren also clasped his hands in prayer.

Yobi bowed his head slightly and faced his child's grave in silence.

After a while, Yobi quietly stood up and looked at Zangren.

"…Thank you."

"Was it unnecessary?"

"No, there was no one to mourn. Thank you."

"I see. Then, shall we go?"

Yobi nodded.

It seemed that Yuki would wait under the eaves, and she lay down in front of the grave, replacing Yobi.

She lay down with her eyes closed, but her long tail was sweeping away the dust around the rough wooden stake and the grave.

Yobi also bowed to Yuki and headed for the ladder under the eaves.

Zangren knocked on the door.

"Is anyone there?"

He knocked on the door several times and raised his voice, but there was no response.

When Zangren pulled the door, which seemed to be there but not, it opened easily.

Zangren stuck his head through the door to check the inside and stepped in.

"If you're there, at least answer."

The room was in disarray.

The strong smell of cheap alcohol was overwhelming.

A man was slumped on a rough chair at the table.

His hair, which had grown out of control, was tied back messily, and he had a beard, but it was easy to imagine that he was a handsome man in his mid-thirties with a sharp presence. He was tall and wore a robe similar to the one worn by the messenger of the peacock-type birdman species, which Yobi was not allowed to wear, but it was much rougher and dirtier.

This man looked like Naba.

"…Who are you?"

The man reluctantly got up and saw Zangren, then Yobi behind him.

"…Ah, you became a slave somewhere. What do you want? I don't have any money left. I'm broke."

Naba said this while looking at the collar around Yobi's neck.

Zangren made room for Yobi, who leaned against the wall.

Yobi was silent, just staring at Naba.

Various emotions were intertwined, and he couldn't find the words.

"Why did you come? …You seem to have found a good buyer. I'm impressed, a hundred pammits."

"…Yes, I'm being treated well."

"Then, what do you want?"

Yobi hesitated to open a box that should not be opened, but he had decided to open it and come here. If he didn't open it, he couldn't move forward.

"…Do you know who killed Daao?"

Yobi asked Naba in a strained voice. Daao was his dead son.

"…Yeah, I know."

Naba answered unexpectedly easily, and Yobi lost his expression.

He wanted to believe.

He still loved Naba. He believed.

Even after hearing the words of the Rwang family's monitor, he couldn't believe it. He was so enraged by those words that he killed. But he had no regrets, even though Daao's killer was also Naba.

"What, you wanted to know that? If you had asked, I would have told you anything."

Naba said this and scooped up alcohol from a wine jug at his feet into a wooden container and drank it in one gulp.

"…Ugh. That day, I was called by my father. I knew he would tell me to break up with you as usual, but I didn't have money to buy alcohol, so I went. But my father unusually gave me some money and told me not to go home. I knew what he was going to do. I didn't care, so I took the money, went to the casino, and passed out in a bar on the way back. Well, you know what happened after that."

Two robbers broke into the house where only Yobi and Daao were.

It was the night they were celebrating Daao's birthday modestly.

Yobi desperately tried to protect Daao, but the robbers, who seemed to be beastmen, were much stronger.

She was slashed and beaten in several places, and Daao's crying grew faint until she finally lost consciousness.

When she woke up, she couldn't move at first. Her body was stiff. She might have been in a state of apparent death. Still, she managed to apply emergency treatment to herself and searched for Daao.

She somehow knew where he was, but Daao wasn't moving.

Yobi crawled to Daao.

Daao was covered in blood.

She couldn't hear his heartbeat, but she tried to heal him.

The healing that didn't work well was frustrating.

Even if the healing had worked well, she knew Daao was beyond saving.

She knew it, but she didn't want to know.

Then, her consciousness suddenly faded.

She was out of magic power.

She might have died. She had exhausted her magic power with only emergency treatment on her body.

If that had been the case, it would have been better.

But she survived.

Naba came home when Yobi had woken up again, recognized that Daao was dead, and was crying while holding his body.

Naba calmly burned Daao's body. It was believed that if a body was not burned, it would become an undead.

Then he buried the ashes under the eaves.

That was all.

Like Yobi, Daao had no Gushuti, so he had no place to go after death. If he was buried outside the city, he would be defiled by a monster called a "bone eater." The only place to bury him was under the eaves.

But just burying him seemed too pitiful.

Yobi stuck a rough wooden stake in the place where Daao was buried as a grave marker.

That was all she could do for him.

"So, what are you going to do now? Kill me or kill my father? Well, it doesn't matter."

Naba scooped up more alcohol and