"Ashuban Sherwood"

I stared blankly at the tombstone with my name on it.

"What... is this."

It was my tombstone.

How many people get to see their own tombstone in their lifetime? I was one of them.

As it was a rare experience, I couldn't quite come to my senses. My mind was blank. As if I had been hit on the back of the head with a hammer.

"Ashuban Sherwood"

No matter how much I stared, the name engraved on the tombstone did not change. It means I wasn't seeing things.

The tombstone, which was stuck right next to Tina's like a partner, felt like a very unfamiliar existence to me.

Besides, if it's Ashuban, it's just Ashuban. Why Sherwood?

A surname is usually attached to the names of nobles, and it means the name of the family one belongs to. Just as the Count of Stavanger's name is Herman Stavanger. Just as Ashley's name is Ashley Grangalde.

My name had somehow become Ashuban Sherwood.

"...."

My family had been created without my knowledge.

"...Ha."

A dry laugh escaped me.

I looked at my name written on the tombstone, especially glaring at "Sherwood," and then lowered my gaze and read the epitaph written there.

"The world laughs at those who try"

"But in our memory, only those who tried remain"

"...What a load of crap."

Who was it that teased me when I came back after being beaten up by a kid?

They might as well have written

"Overwhelming talent tramples on effort"

"The one who was miserably trampled sleeps here"

That would have been more fitting.

"Isn't that right, Master?"

[....]

The Heavenly Demon has been silent for a while now.

Whether he was or not, since the Heavenly Demon was the only one left for me to complain to, I complained to the Heavenly Demon.

"Master. Do you know how much money it takes to place a commoner's grave here?"

[....]

"It costs an unimaginable amount. Why on earth did these damn guys do such a useless thing? For whose benefit?"

I know better than anyone how much money it takes for a commoner's grave to be placed in this cemetery. Because I've done it myself.

It requires an astronomical cost, so I don't know why they did such a useless thing. The very guys who had tried to dissuade me when I was doing it. Isn't this a contradiction?

"...Ah."

Come to think of it, I was the one who had taken the lead in that useless act before anyone else, so I quickly shut my mouth.

"...."

Only after moving Tina here was I able to let go of some of the things that had filled my heart.

Did they also feel more at ease by doing this?

They had been so angry, telling me not to waste money on useless things. Why did they build my tombstone here? You guys who don't make any sense...

I stood there for a while, staring at the two tombstones standing side by side.

It was at that moment.

...Rustle

I heard footsteps and looked, and a girl holding flowers stopped and looked at me with a slightly surprised face.

She must have been in her mid-teens. She was at an age where she was just starting to shed her girlishness. She was a handspan taller than Joy.

Of course, I didn't know her.

The nameless girl looked at me, the tombstone, and the flower in my hand in turn with slightly widened eyes.

She quietly nodded and came to stand next to me. She bowed to the deceased, and then placed the flowers she had brought in front of the two tombstones.

The girl stood next to me with her hands politely clasped and looked at the tombstone for a moment... and then asked in a quiet tone.

"Did you... come to pay your respects?"

I nodded silently.

"Then the flower you brought."

"Ah."

Only then did I gently place the flower I had brought in front of Tina's tombstone. It was a flower as white as her hair and as blue as her eyes.

The girl tilted her head slightly when I placed the flower on Tina's tombstone, but she didn't say anything. Instead, she took out a handkerchief from her pocket and began to wipe the tombstone with a familiar skill. Starting with mine, and then Tina's.

I watched her blankly. Her skill was quite meticulous, and she looked proficient. As if it were something she had done often.

"Do you know him?"

The girl asked cautiously, wiping my tombstone.

I answered in a bitter tone.

"...He was a pathetic guy."

"Was he."

The girl smiled faintly.

This time, she said, wiping Tina's tombstone.

"Do you know who this person is?"

I answered, pretending not to know.

"It says... Tina."

"Yes."

"Do you know who she is?"

"I don't know her well."

"Then?"

At the question of why she was so carefully wiping someone's tombstone she didn't even know well, the girl smiled faintly and answered.

"I don't know her well, but the person next to her seems to know her well."

I was at a loss for words for a moment. Because it was a little absurd to be treated as a dead person.

The girl continued, not caring.

"She must have been very precious to Sir Ashuban."

"...Why do you think so?"

"I heard that he used all the money he had saved his whole life to have her buried here. Wouldn't that mean she was that precious?"

At the girl's innocent question, I felt at a loss for words again.

"Were they in love?"

"...I don't know."

The girl folded the handkerchief she had used to wipe both tombstones and put it in her pocket, then came to stand next to me.

We looked at the tombstone silently.

A silence fell for a moment.

By the time the gentle wind had brushed my hair three or four times, the girl spoke again. Her gaze was still on the tombstone.

"Are you from the Sherwood Mercenary Corps?"

I didn't answer.

"His comrades come by sometimes."

A laugh escaped me.

"They're not the type."

"They couldn't retrieve his remains, so they buried his belongings instead."

Come to think of it, that was true. My remains couldn't exist. Because I'm alive and well here.

Then did they pour so much money into a fake grave with no remains?

Pfft.

A sneer escaped my lips.

"What a pointless act."

The girl turned her head and looked at me.

"What a waste of money. Pathetic guys. Incredibly stupid. The most useless act since the founding of Maia."

The girl narrowed her brow and glared at me.

"Don't speak so carelessly."

I met her gaze silently.

"Why?"

"He is precious to me."

I observed her slightly angry face from the beginning again. Brown hair with a reddish tint, and freckles on the bridge of her nose. No matter how much I looked, I didn't know her.

It would have been different if my sister had been wiping it. Why was this girl, whom I had never met before, wiping my tombstone and Tina's?

"Precious... Who are you to be wiping this idiot's tombstone?"

The girl answered in a choked voice.

"I'm Mary."

It was a common name. But it was not a name I knew.

Even after hearing her name, I couldn't recognize her, so I observed her clothes. At a glance, she wasn't from the city. A white shirt and a long green skirt. Her simple attire made her look like a country girl who worked on a farm in the mountains.

"Mary who?"

"Just Mary. I'm a commoner, not a noble."

"You look like it."

"...."

The girl glared at me. I held back a laugh. The little girl was fearless.

When I met her bold gaze without avoiding it, she seemed to flinch in fear and then slowly lowered her gaze.

I looked at the disheartened girl and asked in a low voice.

"You don't seem to be from around here."

"No. I'm not."

"How am I supposed to know if you just say Mary? This guy wouldn't know either."

As I kicked my tombstone, Mary was startled and stopped me.

"W-what are you doing! The members of the Sherwood Mercenary Corps will be angry if they see you!"

"So. Are those so-called Sherwood guys here now?"

As I continued to kick the tombstone, the girl clung to me and protected the tombstone with her whole body.

"Stop it! Stop it, I say!"

I chuckled and calmed her down.

"Alright, alright. I won't kick it, so tell me. How did you meet this guy?"

Mary hesitated for a moment, then answered.

"...He saved me."

"He saved you?"

"Yes. It's a bit of a long story."

"I have a lot of time."

"You look like it."

"...."

"Ah! I told you not to kick it! Are you trying to get struck by lightning?"

Only after promising not to kick the tombstone again could I hear her story.

"One day, a magical beast like a huge boar appeared in the village. It dug up the crops and attacked the livestock. The adults set traps, but they failed to catch it. Some people got hurt. Thinking it wasn't an ordinary magical beast, the village chief put in a request to the mercenary guild."

A magical beast like a boar? It's a guy that appears sometimes.

"The guild, after hearing the magical beast's characteristics and appearance, judged it to be a D-rank magical beast, and a little later, a mercenary came to the village. The adults welcomed the mercenary and held a small festival. He was a guest who had come to the village after a long time, and since our village is so remote, they were worried that the mercenaries wouldn't come."

I nodded.

"So it's a backwater village."

"I-it's not a backwater village!"

"Seeing you get so defensive, it seems to be true."

"I said it's not a backwater village. Anyway, we were having a big festival with a roasted pig, when suddenly a terrible scream was heard. I thought my heart was going to stop. It was a terrible scream that made my legs give out just by hearing it."

At this point, I felt a strange sense of déjà vu. A boar, a backwater village, a roasted pig, a festival, an intrusion. It was a familiar sequence of events.

"...It was a monster. Its appearance was as terrible as its scream. A monster from the forest invaded the village. Everyone was frozen, but he shouted. To run away. Only then did the villagers come to their senses and run away in a panic, but I couldn't. The monster was staring at me. My body was frozen and wouldn't listen."

Kwaaaang!

It was as if I could hear its roar.

"I just stood there stupidly, watching the monster get closer. And just as the monster opened its mouth wide to eat me... he rushed at the monster."

Mary said, with a look of seeing a distant place, as if the scene from that time was still vivid in her mind.

"I watched him fight from beginning to end. It was really... desperate. No matter how I looked at it, it seemed like he had no chance of winning. He looked so small in front of that huge monster. It seemed like he would die without even leaving a bone if he got hit just once. I was scared to death just watching, but he rushed at the monster without hesitation."

I watched the girl, who was explaining earnestly while choking up. I still didn't know her. But I realized that we were definitely connected by a thread of fate.

Was this the past connection that Ketel had mentioned?

"He was seriously injured and dragged the magical beast into the forest... but he didn't come back. I waited and waited, but he didn't come back."

"...."

"Later, when I asked the members of the Sherwood Mercenary Corps who had come looking for him, they said he had fallen off a cliff with the monster."

Mary lowered her head and her shoulders trembled.

"...It's all my fault. If I hadn't just stood there like a fool, he wouldn't have been so seriously injured. Then he wouldn't have fallen off the cliff with the monster..."

Mary sobbed. Tears dripped down her chin.

"It's all, all my fault. Because of me... because of me..."

"...."

I stared blankly at the sobbing girl. What was so sad? I was the one who died. Why are you crying?

I could guess how much guilt this girl had been suffering from, how much she had been tormented. Bringing flowers and placing them in front of the tombstone, and carefully wiping the tombstone, was a part of her atonement to soothe her heart.

Then and now. She was still a foolish girl.

I placed my hand on the head of the sobbing girl.

"It's not your fault."

Mary looked up at me with tear-filled eyes.

"Because that guy would have chased me until I died anyway."

The girl's watery eyes stared at me blankly, and then slowly widened.

"...Huh?"

(End of Chapter)