And with that, Chapter 1 comes to a close.
Meanwhile, Tenma was still lying collapsed in the forest. But then, just as the bag on Tenma's back seemed to stir, Shiromaru poked its face out from inside, checked the surroundings, and climbed out. Slarin was clinging to its back.
Shiromaru licked Tenma's face, but there was no response.
The two looked at each other, wondering what to do, when suddenly they sensed the zombies heading their way.
Shiromaru and Slarin worked together—Shiromaru hoisted Tenma onto its back, and then Slarin climbed on and held them both in place, and the three of them left the spot.
However, since they moved to get away from the zombies, they naturally ended up drifting away from the fortress as well.
After running along the outer edge of the forest for about four days, they found a river, and Shiromaru and Slarin decided to set Tenma down nearby.
Slarin had been periodically pulling water from the bag to give Tenma to drink, but they determined it would be better to let Tenma rest somewhere safe.
It was three days later that Tenma finally opened his eyes.
"This place is... Father? Mother?"
Tenma looked around with a foggy haze clouding his mind.
When a white shape suddenly appeared before his eyes, Tenma nearly flipped over in shock. Looking closely, it was Shiromaru. Shiromaru wagged its tail and began licking his face all over.
By the time he finally managed to pry Shiromaru off, his head had cleared up considerably.
Right—Father and Mother had been killed. Just as that thought hit him and his mood threatened to plummet to rock bottom, Slarin moved a little ways off and spat something out... It was a dark, metallic fragment—the same kind that had been growing on the Dragon Zombie's shoulder.
"Wha—! What are you spitting out?!"
The shock of it completely overwhelmed his sinking feelings, and Tenma let out a strange cry.
If Slarin had been capable of making facial expressions, it would have been putting on the most smug, self-satisfied grin imaginable. Its whole attitude seemed to say, "See? Took care of that for ya"... or at least, that was the vibe Tenma got.
In any case, thanks to Slarin, Tenma felt a bit more at ease. He used his Search ability, but it seemed Kukuri Village was beyond the range of his detection.
There were no signs of Monsters or large beasts nearby—this place appeared to be safe.
If he'd let his guard down for even a moment — but right then, a blip appeared on the radar floating in his mind.
"They're close! And they've been perfectly masking their presence all the way up to here — what the hell are they?!"
He scrambled into a combat stance, tensing up — but when he looked more carefully, the radar signal was coming from inside the river.
"From the river?! A Monster?!"
As he braced himself, the water swelled upward and a single fish poked its face above the surface.
"I ain't hostile, so don't go attackin' me, alright?"
"It talked?!"
He was so startled that he instinctively fired off an air bullet... but —
"Haah!"
— with a shout, the fish elegantly? jumped aside and dodged it. Its true identity: a massive carp, easily over three meters long.
"A carp?!"
"That's right, a carp! Everyone loves the Carp, y'know!"
He took the gag completely straight, and without thinking —
"Nah, I'm more of a Hawks man, personally."
— he shot back.
"Now what kinda thing is that to say?!"
The fish started talking in a suspicious Hiroshima dialect, so —
"Are you from Hiroshima?"
— Tenma asked, just to try to figure things out.
"Nah, I'm from Niigata!"
"So it's NOT Hiroshima?!"
And so we ended up doing a bizarre comedy routine. Although, as expected, our audience of Shiromaru and Slarin didn't laugh.
"Huh, wait—are you Namitaro? The one who was reincarnated before?"
"Ohh, you actually know! So that means you're a reincarnator too!"
It seemed this Namitaro had heard about me from the God of Creation. However, a few questions came to mind, so I decided to ask.
"How can you talk? And how old are you? Weren't you dead?"
"Don't fire questions at me all at once! I'll answer, but..."
And with that, he answered my questions.
Apparently, the reason he could talk was that he'd lived for a long time in his previous life and had accumulated a decent amount of wisdom, so he'd been given the ability to speak upon reincarnation. It seemed he'd stopped counting his age after surpassing one thousand. He'd been caught by a fisherman right after reincarnating, but when he was pulled up, he'd thrashed around wildly and escaped. Now that I thought about it, the God of Creation never actually said he was dead.
"Man~ First time I've ever talked to a human, counting both my previous life and this one~"
"First time I've ever talked to a fish, too..."
I mumbled that, but was ignored. Namitaro went on about things I hadn't even asked about. Apparently, in his previous life he'd also been called "Midori," he'd lived in a pond on top of a mountain, some of his fellow fish had been drawn in fishing manga and he'd beaten up anglers who were influenced by it, and he'd had a cute carp for a girlfriend—just a bunch of stuff that really didn't matter at all.
"So, why's a guy like you in a place like this?"
He asked, so I gave him a rough rundown of what had happened in the village. By the time I'd finished talking everything through, I'd managed to sort things out in my head to some degree. Namitaro had been listening quietly, and he tried to wipe his eyes with his pectoral fin... but couldn't quite manage it.
"Now that's what I call a sad story. You've been through a lot, haven't you? Come cry into old man's chest."
He said that in his fake Kansai dialect while trying to climb onto land, and I stopped him by pelting him with small stones.
"By the way, where exactly is this place?"
I asked. Namitaro said something about "Ow, that hurts," but I ignored him.
"Hmm~ I only recently moved to this area, so I don't know where this Kukuri Village is. Hold on a sec, let me ask around."
And with that, he looked out across the sky,
"Hey, Chi-cha~n!"
He was calling out to a small sparrow-like bird. The bird landed in front of Namitaro, chirping away. Namitaro nodded along, going "Mhm, mhm, ah I see, ah that makes sense."
"Thanks, Chi-cha~n! Tenma, I got it! Looks like this place is about 180 kilometers away from Kukuri Village."
"You figured that out just from that?!"
Apparently, Namitaro could talk to birds. When I was skeptical, he said it was an ability he'd received from the God of Creation.
"Chi-cha~n said one of his friends just came back from the direction of Kukuri Village. Apparently, everyone who was at the fortress the day before yesterday morning has gone off to some other place."
He informed me.
"I see... What should we do now?"
"Well, for starters, maybe we should head towards where people are? Or try to follow the people from Kukuri Village?"
He replied with something sensible, though in a light tone.
I was torn. I had no desire to go back to Kukuri Village without my dad and the others, and I definitely didn't want to stay anywhere under the control of Marquis Haust, who was partially responsible for all this.
So, I decided to leave the Marquis Haust territory and head for a large town outside his domain. When I told him that,
"Ah, that might be a good idea. Getting away from a tough place is one option."
He said... The secret thought that popped into my head was: Why am I taking advice from a carp?
"Since the sun will set soon, we should camp here for the night and set out tomorrow morning. If you follow this river, you'll eventually leave the Marquis's territory."
He was surprisingly knowledgeable, so when I asked him about it, he said this river flowed all the way down to the sea. Apparently, Namitaro migrated once every few decades by going down the river to the sea and then moving to another river.
That day, we camped by the riverside. For dinner, we kept it simple with dried meat, vegetable soup, and bread.
Since my body couldn't handle meat, I gave my portion to Slarin, but for some reason, Namitaro wanted some too. When he complained about the taste after I gave it to him, I pelted him with small stones. Incidentally, Shiromaru had caught a deer on his own, so I helped him bleed it, skin it, and butcher it, then lightly grilled some for him.
The next morning, as we were preparing to depart, Namitaro gave me a farewell gift of several dozen Magic Cores and Magic Stones. Apparently, he'd been casually collecting things that occasionally drifted downstream from upriver.
"Tenma, take care! If fate allows, let's meet again."
"Take care, Namitaro!"
After exchanging those words, I set off.
"So, why are you following me?"
It had been thirty minutes since I started walking, yet Namitaro was still swimming alongside me.
"Well, you know... just because?"
This back-and-forth continued for ten whole days until we finally moved away from the riverbank.
I was finally able to finish Chapter 1. It feels like it dragged on too long — sorry about that.
Namitaro, who only appeared by name in the prologue, made his appearance for some reason.
Regarding the exchange where he's called a hawk — when asked which one, that's the author's answer.
Please don't nitpick too much about the dialect, I'm begging you.