Living as an Unemployed in Another World

33 – 2. The Path of the Dagger (14)

14.

“There was a famine.”

It was a calm voice. I looked up. Mira was still looking at the dagger.

“The famine. Starving to death How old was he, he was still ten years old…….”

Purple eyes twinkle faintly, and that voice speaks as if it were telling a story from the distant past. However, knowing her age of only twenty, the fact that she was in danger of starving to death before she was even ten was very disconcerting. At least, I couldn’t help but think that it wasn’t the past that I could talk about so calmly. Whether I thought so or not, Mira continued to speak softly, as if it was something she had already shut up in her heart.

“That year, insect pests covered the rice fields, so the whole village starved since there was not enough food for the winter, but rather something to harvest from the fall. It was said that it was because of the appearance of [Worm of Persona] Wearing masks, but the belated adventurers and knights finally cut down the monster…… Even if the culprit was killed, the dead fields did not come back.”

Worms of Persona. It was one of the monsters I got to know about while overhearing the chatter of adventurers. Hundreds or thousands of worms and maggots coalesce to take the form of a human, and it is said that they use plague magic that far surpasses that of ordinary high wizards. It must be a monster that farmers would never want to face.

“My father was one of those knights. Although he was somewhat blunt, he lived with the pride of dedicating himself to the lord. Her mother also said that she fell in love with her confident appearance. However…… Everything changed when famine struck the village.”

It’s a common story, as if to say Mira stopped talking and laughed. Even though it wasn’t a funny story, she kept giggling. She shed tears even when she laughed, and the sight of her stroking the blunt blade of a wooden dagger I made with her finger without a drop of her tear evoked, one might say, a little bit of fear.

“When the food ran out, Yeongji, who was in a remote place, reached out to the surroundings. But the damage was the same in other territories, so there was no place to reach out to us. The lord, whom his father respected, locked the gates of the castle…… Knights were no exception. My father, a commoner, fell out of that frame.”

Imagine. A night without food to eat tomorrow. The days when there is no hope of being able to live anymore. I looked at the mummy’s thin neckline illuminated by the sunset.

“I was starving. There were days when nothing came out of my body even though my stomach hurt so much that my stomach skin stuck to my back. Even drinking water is fetched up a faraway river, but it seems that the father with the weapon was able to survive thanks to the clear upper water. The people who drank the worm-contaminated bottom water…… Because they laid worm eggs inside their bodies and died.”

This world is vulnerable to disease. There is a miracle that heals humans, but that reduces the scope for the development of the technology to heal humans. They know that wounds must be sealed and disinfected, and broken bones must be left alone, but those who cannot afford to rely on magic and divinity will surely perish.

“I wonder how many days have passed since I lasted only drinking water. I didn’t even have the energy to talk to each other, so me and my mom hugged each other all day and communicated with vibration instead of words. Father will come, Father will come…… Tomorrow, my father will surely feed us by hunting animals…… Like an idiot.”

After talking to that point, Mira’s expression changed a little. Her laugh at herself turned into a laugh at fate. The corners of her crimson lips trembled and twisted from side to side.

“Then another day, my father finally came. Unwilling to welcome her, the mother squeezed the last of her strength and looked at the open door. By the way, do you know what was there?”

“… ….”

“It’s a merchant. Slave trader. For a mother and daughter who are dying, if you gain weight, it will be useful, it will be worth watching…… After making such noises to my ears, I did not tie me and her mother and loaded them into the wagon like her luggage.”

Mira said. Funny enough, his father had already eaten and his complexion had returned a little. And while they were loaded into the wagon, they didn’t even look at us and dragged the sack full of food into the house and locked the door…….

There is no slavery in this country. On the surface, yes. There are no permitted slaves, but that does not mean that there are no ‘animals’ that rich people raise in their homes. It’s a disgusting story.

“Yes. While dying of starvation. I survived. Funny enough, he greedily ate the watery porridge the slave trader gave him.”

“…… Mira, your mother…….”

“Mom? Mom was also alive. Until then. Was it because he was giving me the leftover pieces of fruit, or was it simply because his stomach was bigger…… Shocked, he couldn’t swallow a bowl of porridge, so he died in the carriage. Do you believe My father, who was a knight respected by everyone, sold my mother and me for the sake of my future…….”

Mira’s hand gripping her dagger trembled. She feels that the model, which she made hard by feeding it with water, will break at any moment. After that, Mira soon laid her upper body on the counter.

“After that, I spent some time with strange people in a similar situation to me in a place like a deep underground where I don’t know where…… It happened while she was counting the nights on all her fingers and toes.”

“That thing?”

“I mean Master. That person…… The person who insisted with his whole body, ‘I am a suspicious person’ even with a child’s eyes. It was an instant. There were several guards at the entrance, but they disappeared and reappeared with a flash of a hand, and after defeating all those who were imprisoning us, we freed them all. I am…… I longed for the person who tore my fate apart.”

It is said that when everyone left to find their hometown, some of those who had no place left to return to tried to entrust themselves to him. From my point of view, he saved a drowning man and asked for a bundle, but he said that he took responsibility until the end, going around temples and leaving people, not like a thief. Mira smiled with her slightly relaxed face.

“Me? I insisted on following Master until the last place. Eventually, he became a disciple. It was at that time that my name became ‘Mira’.”

I heard and saw it. I had unknowingly assumed that Mira was her orphan when she said that her father gave her a name. I couldn’t hold back my curiosity and asked.

“So, what was your original name?”

“…… Secret.”

“Oh, damn it.”

When I spat out a curse word, Mira chuckled. As if her sad past had ended there, Mi-ra drew a line and recited to me as if she was proud of the days she spent with Master.

“From the beginning, they said that if you use a real sword, it will cut all over, so they made me practice with a clumsily cut model of a dagger. What I asked you to make was a copy of that dagger as I remembered.”

“For some reason, the blade was too short even considering it was a model.”

“Yes. Because I had to consider the arm length. A lot has happened. As a young girl, she learned how to survive on her own, and worked as an errand boy at a well-known Changgwan…….”

“… ….”

“Don’t make that face. Because that was part of the class. Thanks to you, I have definitely learned how to seduce men.”

Did Mira’s mysterious origins come from a collection of experiences? Somehow it was too stimulating for me.

Everything is said to be new. The days were rougher and colder than life in the village before the famine came, but he said that he was able to endure it somehow because he had someone to be with.

“He was a peculiar person. In many ways.”

“It seems so.”

“Even though he was such a skilled thief, he never entered a dungeon. Isn’t your job to deal with monsters? If he had been an adventurer, he would have surely succeeded.”

“Like the adventurers in the Party?”

“Yes! Are there bandits in that party? I’m sorry, but my master would have been better.”

I smiled at the sight of Mira, a five-year-old bragging about her father being stronger, but she still felt a little bit offended by her words. He must have been strong, so what happened to that master now?

“To Master…… Have ever been That’s why I made them learn skills against humans. I found out later, but it was all because of them that [Worms of Persona wearing masks] Appeared in my hometown. Master’s goal was to ruin their schemes and reveal the truth.”

“…… Is that situation a secret?”

“Yes. I’m sorry, but no.”

I nodded quietly and shrugged my shoulders. There would be no reason for me, as an outsider, to intervene in a story already closed between the two of us. Soon Mira muttered with a sad face.

“After living so intensely day by day…… I ended up leaving…… But, because I am now.”

“It’s reassuring.”

“Yes. I will continue to do what Master was doing. Although I’m down for a while now, I’m waiting for the right time…… Let’s see, because one day everyone will know what he was doing.”

Mira said that with a confident expression on her face. I licked my lips without speaking.

Honestly, to me who lived in another world for 3/4 of my life, there were still many moments where I couldn’t relate to their lives.

Adventurers who throw themselves into the labyrinth, people who give everything to religion…… That fierce way of life is so different from me that sometimes I feel alone and isolated in this wide world.

When I close my eyes, my soul is still in that mansion, and my alter ego remains in my world. In my dream, I am swimming in the sea of fantasy and never get out of there. But… ….

“Yes, I will.”

I want to believe.

One day I’ll wake up from my nightmares and I’ll be able to go after what they’re after. Taking advantage of Mira’s carelessness, I snatched the wooden dagger I had made from her palm and said,

“Huh? My dagger.”

“Come to think of it, didn’t you almost give away something so important for free? It’s too bad I can’t I’ll record 6 days’ accommodation in the ledger, so you know that?”

“To go around and get a shilling after all!? Give me back my impressions!”

Mira quickly reached out and tried to snatch the dagger from my bosom, but she couldn’t. I hurriedly thrust the dagger into her pocket and walked into the kitchen. And while listening to the story, I put the roughly cut bread on a plate and handed it over, and walked around the counter leisurely.

“Jin? What’s this?”

“He said he was hungry. Eat that, don’t drink today, and sleep quietly.”

“Sheesh… ….

Mira mumbles while I’m climbing the stairs, asking where she gets a shilling. It seems that you like this dagger quite a bit. With a satisfied smile…… When I reached my door, I quietly closed my eyes.

“…… These f*cking feet.”

Mummy.

Why you? All in all…….

I stood still in front of it, unable to open the door for a long time.