Meat skewers. Or grilled meat on sticks. Which one is it?
You cut meat into dice-shaped cubes, spear them onto a stick with vegetables and such, and grill them.
While they cook, you season with salt, pepper, and what have you.
When they're done, some stalls brush on sauce with a brush.
Then again, there are also grilled seafood skewers instead of meat. Or is it seafood-on-skewers?
In the end, which is it?
"Hafu hafu, delish—"
Narcessa was eating with a skewer in hand, looking thoroughly satisfied.
She had such a nice eating style about her that the stall owner gave her another one on the house.
Narcessa accepted it as a good deed and pulled her hood deep over her head.
Never mind her eyes, but her purple hair was conspicuous. She did have Legendary and Legacy items to hide it, though.
But the fact that she was wearing a hood like that made me think she just didn't want to use those.
"Hafu hafu, munch munch, delish—"
"Sauce. It's around your mouth."
"Wipe it."
"Huh?"
"Both my hands have skewers in them, so I can't wipe it. Obviously."
"............"
"Wipe it."
"...Fine, fine."
I had no choice but to wipe the sauce from around Narcissus-san's mouth... with my handkerchief.
For the record, I'm also the one paying for these skewers.
Well, about this—
the
money
whose
owner
no
longer
exists—
I
obtained
it,
so my
wallet
doesn't hurt.
Apparently, there's a custom called "spirit money" where you bury a person's belongings along with them.
But since they were erased without a trace, there's no spirit money or anything like that. No option to erase things together, either.
Even I have to admit, corpse-looting is going too far.
But being useful like this means maybe it lightens their sins a little.
Even so, those guys really never decrease, do they?
I get that there are more of them because of the festival.
Is there nothing to be done? They're like ticks and cockroats.
After going around two, three, four stalls, Narcissus-san had a satisfied smile on her face.
"The street food's pretty decent too, huh?"
She says that, but she'd been eating quite a lot. More than me.
How's she going to manage dinner after eating that much?
Well, I'd had my fill too, more or less.
Looking at the stalls beyond the food vendors—oh, knives.
"Oh my, welcome."
A street vendor with a turban wrapped around his head called out to me.
Goods were laid out on a threadbare carpet spread on the ground.
Scrolls. Small stone figurines. Some kind of monster horn. A few rings, necklaces, and bracelets.
They were all intricately crafted, and the bracelets especially came in a wide variety of shapes.
Not a single one had the same design.
"...Hm?"
Among them, sitting off by itself, was a knife.
This knife... it was silver, with a rare cross-shaped design.
"That one caught your eye, huh? It's a knife found in a desert dungeon."
"…Can I pick it up and take a look?"
"Sure, take a good look at every part of it."
I picked up the knife.
It didn't feel particularly heavy. Single-edged, easy to maintain.
"You've taken a fancy to it?"
"Great deal for you. How about 4,000 oro right now?"
"4,000…"
That wasn't bad.
Then Narcissus spoke up in a high-handed tone.
"It's expensive. Ura commands you. Make it 2,000."
"Well, that's a bit much—cutting it in half?"
"4,000 is still too expensive even so."
"…How about 3,500, then?"
"3,000."
"…How about 3,200?"
"3,000."
"…Fine. Fine. I'll sell it for 3,000 oro."
"…"
"Hurry up and buy it already."
"Th-thanks."
I paid three thousand oro.
Narsesis had her eyes drawn to the next stall over. Was she going to eat even more?
The old stall vendor suddenly let out a helpless laugh.
"Well, you've got me beat."
"I-I'm sorry."
"No, no, haggling like this is half the fun."
"Oh, then—um, I'll buy all of these bracelets."
"All of them? You sure?"
"Yes, please. To be honest, these were the ones I had my eye on the most."
I did feel a bit bad, but I wasn't lying.
Some of them had shapes and colors I thought were just right.
It was perfect for something I'd been considering for a while.
"If that's the case, then instead of three each—no, I'll let you have them for a thousand."
"Is that really okay?"
The stall vendor smiled.
"I told you, didn't I? Haggling like this is half the fun. That's what you call a bulk discount."
I thanked him and paid.
"Anytime. But what are you going to do with so many?"
"As a small token of thanks, I want to give them to the people who've been looking after me."
"…Actually, that reminds me. Those bracelets—they're all handcrafted by me."
"Really?"
"Haha, that's what I do for a living — craft things like that. So I was a little happy to hear your kind words."
"Wof. What are you doing? Let's go to the next stall."
"O-okay. Well then."
"Ahaha, come again!"
I lightly waved and parted ways with the vendor.
That was a good purchase.
After that, Narcissus kept buying and eating at the stalls.
The money for all six of us had
safely served its purpose.
We entered the park. There were stalls inside the park as well.
"Oh, that looks delicious."
"You're going to eat more?"
"How rude. If you say that, it makes Ura sound like a glutton."
"I can't beat a fairial, though."
"I'm not competing, you know. How rude."
I gave a wry smile.
"What about dinner?"
"This is dinner."
"Whaaat… I'm not doing that."
"You're really stubborn, aren't you?"
Narschesis sat down on the bench and immediately patted the space next to her, her eyes never leaving me.
I caught on and sat. From within her hood, Narschesis's purple eyes glowed.
Something about her feels different.
"What's wrong?"
"...I'm sorry."
Without warning, she bowed her head and apologized.
"Wh-what's wrong?"
"For trying to take you... about Arveld."
"A-ah."
I had completely forgotten.
Right. She was the cause.
It's hard to believe, but she was.
"I'm truly sorry. Ura was completely in the wrong."
"That's already in the past."
"So please stop fighting with Arveld."
"That's..."
She raised her head.
"Ura is entirely at fault. Whatever you do to Ura, Ura has no right to complain."
"I never intended that. I won't do anything."
"Stop fighting Arveld."
"Why?"
"Because you'll lose."
"........."
I couldn't say a word.
Narcissus looked at my expression and seemed apologetic.
"Doesn't look like you've given up."
"Even so... I haven't."
"I can tell you've gotten stronger, that's clear. But Arveld is stronger than Ura."
"Even so."
"Why do you want to fight Arveld so badly? I know it's rich of me—the one who caused all this—to say this, but I still want to know."
Why. Why was that?
I thought about it. At first, I had been frustrated.
No matter what I did, even with Generous, I had been completely defeated for the first time.
That frustration gnawed at me. I wanted to win. I couldn't accept that I had lost.
There were those murky feelings underneath it all.
"I was frustrated because I couldn't accept losing. That's why I wanted to win."
"I understand that. But if you fight again, you'll just go through the same thing."
She was right. I knew it too. The way I was now, I couldn't win.
And yet, precisely because of that. No, that's not quite right either.
"I want to fight."
"Huh?"
I was surprised by the words that had slipped out of my mouth unconsciously.
Right. That was it.
"I want to fight. I don't really like fighting, and even after becoming a delver I tried to avoid it, but here I am, wanting to fight."
"That's because of Alveld?"
"—Yes. I want to fight Alveld."
"Even if you lose?"
"I don't think it's right to go into a fight already expecting to lose. If you're going to fight, you fight to win. And I don't think Alveld wants that either."
"That may be true. He's the kind of... —"
She started to say something, then stopped herself.
"Narcissus?"
"...Yeah. I guess you do want to win in the end, don't you..."
"Yes."
"If that's the case... and there's the apology to consider... but there's no time... and besides, that witch... this is... hmm. I should probably confirm... hmm."
She was muttering to herself. What should I do?
"Wof."
Narcissus stood up.
"Y-yes."
"Sorry. I just remembered something I need to do, so I'll be going now."
"I-yes."
"Wof. I had a lot of wrong ideas about you. You're a nice person. Also, it was fun. I didn't hate this kind of thing, either. It was so-so, though."
"I'm... glad to hear that."
"Anyway, I should hurry. Goodbye."
"G-goodbye."
Narcissus took off running. In the blink of an eye, she vanished from sight.
She really was like a whirlwind of a person. And she seemed younger than she looked, somehow.
"She wasn't a bad person..."
I was glad I'd figured that out.
Oh, right — I'd forgotten to ask about all sorts of things regarding Banish.
Next time we meet, I'll ask her then. I leaned against the bench and gazed up at the sunset sky.
Small stars were beginning to twinkle faintly across the sky.
"...I want to win. I want to win, but... I'm just one step away."
The last puzzle piece was missing.
Just one more.
I reached out my hand.
Because it felt like I could touch that star.
Night.
A deep, black night with neither stars nor moon.
I held my breath.
"Come, come, now, come right this way."
A witch wrapped in a single black sheet smiled gently as she beckoned.
This wasn't a room.
That's why those three weren't here.
It was just me and the witch.