Chapter 39: Nighttime, White Weirdo Inn.
As I returned to my room, armorless Armored Pres-san also followed after me, so I sat her down on the bed, right next to me. There is no deep meaning to why I chose the bed. Though there might be meaning not so deep. Anyway, I just want to talk.
Since she can’t talk that well, for now, I use this chance for a sort of rehabilitation and discuss various things with her. We barely know anything about each other, but there is no need to rush. She finally got out to the light, to a place with lots of people.
She must want to chat, that’s why we talk, using it as a practice. Though she still mostly replies by nodding or shaking her head, she is trying to use words as well. For now, she is quite laconic, with 『…Yes』,『…Un-der-stood』sort of replies, but she is doing her best to speak. She seems to be quite delighted with me patting her on the head as she does that, so I for now hold back from touching her in the other places. She finally reached a bright place, so turning off the lights in the room wouldn’t be good. I’m doing my best as well, you know? I’m holding back with all I have.
The first thing we discussed was the future, and to be more precise 『Taming』.
She is not a monster anymore. It’s strange for a person to be tamed by another person, so it should be lifted. A person shouldn’t be bound by a skill meant to control monsters… The bitches aside, they probably aren’t even humans? So the skill classified them as monsters. Which is reasonable considering how scary they are. Or rather, I can’t lift it? It apparently can’t be arbitrarily canceled by the tamer?
I told her that she is free, that she can remove the taming and do what she couldn’t do until now, go where she couldn’t, return where she was unable to, do whatever her heart tells her. I told her that she can do whatever she wants, and explained that even without taming on her I’d help her out with anything. I did. But she shook her head with tears welling up in her eyes? Looking me right in the eyes she frantically repeated 『I-don’t-want-to』.
I thought that she probably didn’t understand me, and tried to go over it again, over and over, but she kept shaking her head no matter how many times I do it? Since it seemed like she was about to really burst into tears I asked『Then, let’s leave things as they are until you’d want to cancel it on your own?』, to which she energetically nodded with a smile.
She was alone all this time, there must be no one she knows left in this world. So she probably wants some sort of connection with someone, even if it comes from something as terrible as『Taming』.
So it’s fine if things stay this way for a bit more. It might be not fine in terms of my Affection Rating, but I’m pretty sure that at this point it is so low that it won’t budge from something so trivial. And even if it were to fall, chances are it is already at rock bottom, so it must be okay. Can this be called okay, though?
The next question was why she resigned from being a skeleton. Can you even resign from that? Even if you do, would you return to being human because of that? But Armored Pres-san actually has a splendid record of resigning from the posts of Dungeon Emperor, Lich, No Life King, and Dullahan. A long history of evading responsibilities, so it might not be that strange if she were to slack her way out of being a skeleton.
Struggling with words and helping herself with gestures, she explained bit by bit how and what happened.
And then the reason, the cause, and the culprit became apparent. All mysteries were revealed, verification completed, the missing link established, and the last piece of the puzzle discovered! The reason, the cause, and the culprit was none other than I! Wait, what?!
Well, as obvious as it may sound, but people cannot come back from the dead, and undead, on top of having only a soul, they are also cursed, so they cannot come back to life as well. They cannot be revived. Impossible. Or so they say.
Originally, a skeleton is possessed bones, which move through the power of soul and magic. But when she was given『Full Silver Armor「Complete Immunity」「Enhance All」「Skill: Guardian」? ? ?「Cursed: Fuses with Flesh」』the armor fused with the flesh part of the soul and the magic power, merging into one. Then, when she was given『Blessed Bangle, Alleviate Curses and Misfortune (Can be Equipped only Once)』the curse was lifted, and she regained her flesh. Through still dead, but she now had the soul, the bones, and flesh. And then, there apparently was some guy that gave her『Jewel of Necromancy – Controls Life and Death, Instant Death, Instant Death Resistance』. Well, trying to control life and death in such a state she is bound to come back to life! There is no way anything else could happen! Who was that guy? And it seems he even gave her『Ring of Pilgrimage – LuK Up (Greater), Brings good fortune, Wards away bad fortune』. That would revive her for sure, yup, that’s our culprit. Yeah, that’s me?!
All of the items, with the exception of the swords and the mantle, worked together to bring forth a miracle. And it seems she is grateful to me for that. But it has nothing to do with me or luck. The very fact that such peculiar items were all gathered in that dungeon is a miracle in itself. So that must’ve been inevitable. It’s not like I did anything, all those items were there for Angelica-san’s sake, waiting for her all that time. That’s why all of the unique treasures, the likes of which one wouldn’t be able to find even after searching the whole world, were gathered in the same dungeon. Then it’s an inevitability.
She began crying when I said that, but such coincidences are impossible, and if it’s impossible, then it is an inevitability. That’s why it wasn’t a place for her to die such a sad death all alone.
She cried for a very long time. She must’ve been unable to cry until now no matter how painful, bitter, empty, lonely, or sad she felt. Until now she couldn’t shed a single tear and didn’t even have anyone to lean on, so she cried a lot. She cried as if she was trying to cry out all of her sorrow. She finally can cry when she feels like crying, so she should cry as much as she wants.
After that Armored Pres-san wanted to hear about me, so I told her my… our story.
That we came from a world completely different from this one.
About meeting that old geezer in the white room.
About getting garbage skills.
About living in the cave on my own.
About my first fight.
How I ate nothing but mushrooms.
How the geeks and gobs were annoying by making noise in the middle of the night.
How I started fighting with the staff.
How I joined up with the girls and had to live in the tent.
How we wandered through the forest, trying to reach the town.
About our life in the town after we finally found it.
About the ground stomping trend among the local nobles.
About how stupid the idiots are.
And the story of how I didn’t die when I was heading for death.
How I then went to the dungeon, fell down, and met her. About everyone. I told her everything.
Talking about it like this makes it sound like all of it happened a long time ago. It’s only been a month, but without me noticing, it now felt like something that happened years ago.
For some reason, she appeared angry when I spoke about Whatever-kun. Crying, but angry. This reminds me, when I came back the girls also were angry and crying. I feel like they are always angry at me?
But since everyone is smiling now and we even got 1 extra person, it’s fine, right? Or rather, I’m not to blame here?
And as it got late we gradually grew tired of talking… So after doing the deed, we went to sleep. After going at it to the point of complete exhaustion. No, I mean, I’m a highschool boy? What did you expect?
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