Episode 33 – Blood Ties V
The first place the three arrived at was the grasslands.
Far ahead, the silhouette of a forest could be faintly seen, and the three made their way toward it. The grass was short, the breeze was pleasant, and half the sun was hidden behind clouds—perfect weather for walking.
The journey went smoothly.
For Nada and Iris, who spent their days diving into the dungeon, this was practically a vacation—no monsters, no traps, no strange internal shifts like in the dungeon. With little to carry and no looming threats, they walked through the open plains in total ease.
The warm sunlight, which they hadn’t enjoyed in a long time, felt refreshing. Nada was in high spirits, smiling openly, and Iris—perhaps also unused to walking across plains outside a carriage—straightened her back and looked quite content.
But Tayla was different.
She had just walked this same road not long ago—under terrible conditions—so her expression was gloomy.
Noticing this but saying nothing, Nada and Iris continued on.
Eventually, the three reached the forest.
It wasn’t a particularly deep forest.
Conifer trees grew in spaced-out clusters, the area was maintained, and naturally, there was a road wide enough for carriages. Far beyond this forest lay the royal capital, Purgatorio. Since this road connected Inferno and Purgatorio, the kingdom had developed it for travel between the two cities. Weapons, Calvaon, and adventurers all traveled along this route.
As they walked, they began to notice Tayla’s steps lagging behind.
It made sense—compared to two active adventurers, a normal child, especially one who had been malnourished until just days ago, simply didn’t have the stamina.
“Hey, Nada. That girl—”
Unable to ignore it, Iris stopped the leading Nada.
“Yeah. I know.”
Nada halted, turning to look at Tayla, who was swaying on her feet.
“Then do something about it. She’s your little sister, isn’t she?”
“Yeah.”
He answered without hesitation and walked toward Tayla.
Thinking she was about to be scolded for slowing them down, Tayla flinched, her eyes trembling.
But without a word, Nada scooped her up in both arms and started walking again.
At first, Tayla squirmed in surprise, resisting.
But soon, smelling the same scent her father and older brother once had, she relaxed. Within moments, she was sound asleep in his arms, breathing softly.
It seemed exhaustion from the journey had caught up with her.
“She’s adorable,” Iris said, stepping closer to Tayla, who curled up in Nada’s arms. She gently poked Tayla’s cheek with delight.
Even with Iris teasing her, Tayla didn’t stir.
“…You think so?”
Nada murmured.
“Well, I have this thing called maternal instinct—something you obviously lack.”
“Sure.”
“Don’t you think she’s cute? Tayla-chan. So honest, scared of everything she sees, like a tiny little animal. Oh—actually, she reminds me of someone. There used to be someone just like her. Someone you know, too.”
“Someone she resembles?”
Nada tilted his head.
But no name came to mind.
The closest would be Nanaka, his old party member back in the Aghiya days—she had a small, animal-like presence. But Nanaka also had sharp fangs—figuratively and perhaps literally—the kind that could take a life along with her own if she had to.
Compared to that, Tayla felt more like a newborn creature with no fangs at all.
Did he really know anyone like her?
“Don’t you get it? Tayla-chan looks exactly like you did when you first came to that town. Back then, you were terrified of everything. Just like a newborn who knew nothing. When I think about it, Tayla-chan really is your little sister.”
“…That so.”
Nada’s expression darkened, as if she had touched a painful part of his past.
“Well, though, compared to Tayla-chan, I think your face looked even gloomier back then—”
Iris’s last words trailed off into a whisper, unheard by Nada, who had already quickened his pace.
After that, Nada and Iris walked for several hours, continuing to talk about recent dungeon matters, monsters, and other adventurer topics. As time passed, the sun gradually set, and the sky filled with countless multicolored stars.
By then, the three of them had reached a lake deep within the forest. It was a small lake—one you could walk around in about ten minutes, but because it lay in the forest, its water was extraordinarily clear, transparent enough to see the bottom.
Since night was approaching, they decided to rest at the lakeside.
Nada and Iris wrapped Tayla in a cloak they had brought, then picked up some branches nearby, returned to Tayla’s side, and lit them using the flint they carried.
While keeping warm by the fire, Nada took a pot, vegetables, and meat out of his bag and used the lake’s clear water to make soup. The seasoning was salt, pepper, and some powdered southern spices that Iris liked, giving the soup a faint spiciness. Nada chopped the vegetables and meat roughly with his kukri knife and simmered everything thoroughly.
Crackle, crackle—the branches snapped in the fire as the soup bubbled and boiled.
Whether it was the sound or the delicious smell that woke her, they couldn’t tell, but Tayla suddenly sat up, rubbing her eyes.
“Oh, Tayla-chan, you’re awake? The soup’s done, you know. Hey, Nada—bring out the bread too.”
Just as Iris said, Nada took a long loaf wrapped in paper from his duffel bag, sliced it with his kukri, and handed portions to Iris and Tayla before preparing his own. Then he received the bowl of soup that Iris ladled into a wooden bowl.
Nada took a sip.
It was delicious.
The rich flavor of potatoes, carrots, onions, cabbage, and other vegetables, together with the softened dried pork that had become tender from simmering, blended into a deep, layered broth strengthened by the spices. It left a slight numbness on the tongue, but that made it easy to drink and warmed the body. The meat fell apart softly on his tongue, and although the vegetables had lost some of their shape, their taste was superb.
On the other hand, the bread was hard and crumbly when eaten as is, and not particularly tasty. But once dipped into the soup, it softened to just the right consistency and absorbed the flavor of the well-simmered broth, becoming delicious.
The three of them each had seconds, finishing the soup completely. They extinguished the fire, and Nada and Iris took blankets from the duffel bag and wrapped themselves in them as they slept by the lakeside.
From where they slept, countless beautiful stars were visible, and the Milky Way shone so brightly it looked almost unreal.
While beasts growled deep inside the forest, the three went to sleep, preparing for the next day.
◆◆◆
At dawn the next morning, the three of them began moving again.
They woke to the cries of birds in the forest, then finished a simple breakfast—leftover bread from last night’s dinner, cheese from the bag, and hard dried meat that they softened by dipping it in lake water as they ate.
Once they packed everything back into Nada’s bag, they set off again toward Pequeño.
After leaving the lake, they soon came upon a mountain. Nada’s village lay halfway up its slope, so they entered the forest—now changed completely after five years. Trees grew in different places than before, and where trees had once stood, there were now stumps.
A rural forest like this was not maintained by anyone, so the three pushed their way through animal paths.
Nada’s memory had become completely unreliable, but Tayla seemed familiar with the roads around here, and thanks to that, the three reached Pequeño easily. It was still before the sun had climbed directly overhead—they arrived earlier than expected.
There was Nada’s hometown.
Nada had returned to the place of his birth for the first time in five years. Yet the feeling that welled up inside him was not nostalgia, but melancholy.
The village of Pequeño was as small as he remembered. The number of houses did not even reach thirty. Among the houses he remembered, some had already been torn down. People he knew had once lived there, but had they moved to another village, or—
There was no way for Nada to know the answer.
Most of the villagers were gaunt, and the situation seemed worse than when Nada had left. Many faces were familiar, yet his memory of them from five years ago was of people who looked a bit fuller, healthier.
Their faces were dirty with mud and dust from fieldwork and housework. With no river nearby and little water in the well, most had not washed.
Among these villagers, the cleanest-looking people were a few traveling merchants who happened to be in the village and the village chief’s family.
Nada entered the village and headed toward the house he had once lived in, relying only on memory. Along the way, the villagers of Pequeño stared at Nada and Iris—of course they would. Nada was a giant unlike anyone in the village, and Iris was a breathtaking beauty.
However, no one called out to them.
Nada and the others stood out far too much—so much that their presence felt alien to the villagers.
And they found Nada’s old house easily.
Of course they did.
Its location hadn’t changed since the old days.
When they reached what used to be his home, Nada opened the door without hesitation.
Ah… how nostalgic.
A house made of rough, cheap wood. Naturally, there was no entryway inside—people walked in with their shoes on and slept the same way. A single clay stove sat outside the house, and farm tools were scattered messily in front.
But inside was—
“—And who might you be?”
Someone Nada didn’t know was living there.
No—he had seen that face before. They were the couple who used to live a few houses down.
Apparently, since nobody had lived here for years, they had moved into Nada’s house.
“Sorry. Didn’t mean to intrude.”
Nada closed the door immediately and turned his back on what had once been his home.
He couldn’t understand the feelings swirling inside him.
He did feel sad.
But he couldn’t sort out what that sadness meant.
Was he sad because strangers were living in the place that had once been his family’s home? Or was it because, somewhere deep inside, he had still hoped that if he came back, his mother, father, and siblings would be there to welcome him warmly?
Nada didn’t know.
“Hey! Who are you!?”
The thin, middle-aged woman who had been inside rushed out after him.
She must have thought Nada—who had suddenly entered her home—was some suspicious intruder, and she chased him while shouting angrily.
But then the woman caught sight of Tayla—
The same girl who had left this village long ago, saying she would go to her older brother, who had headed for the dungeon city.
Tayla.
“Sorry for barging in like that,” Nada said—though he didn’t mean it at all.
“Wait… now that I look at you, you kinda look like Karol and Shama… Don’t tell me—!”
The middle-aged woman clearly thought Iris was some sort of being from another world, but Nada’s rough, earthy face triggered a faint memory in her, and her eyes widened in shock.
“No idea who you’re confusing me with, but this is my first time in this village. C’mon, Tayla—show me where your brothers’ graves are.”
And with that, Nada hurried Tayla along, almost as if running away.
◆◆◆
Tayla led them into the forest.
There, the color of the soil was different from the surrounding ground, and a large stone had been placed on top. On its surface were clumsy letters—so poorly carved they were hard to read—spelling out the names of Nada’s father, mother, and siblings.
“Ehehe… I carved those myself. A merchant who visited the village taught me how.”
While Nada stared quietly at the stone, Tayla spoke with a shy expression.
“I see. I think it looks nice,”
Nada said—though it was a lie meant just to comfort her.
“And you know, Mika helped me bury them. But I tried really hard too. But… but… my house doesn’t have anything, so this was the only place I could bury them… all the way up here in the mountains…”
Tayla desperately tried to explain that she had done her best to bury Nada’s family properly.
There was a communal graveyard in the village, but compared to that, this spot was undeniably shabby.
Nada figured that when her family died, Tayla’s household probably didn’t even have the means to bury them in the official cemetery.
“No… I think this is a good place. The wind feels nice up here in the mountains. Shama and Claire liked the mountains, after all—”
“They did!? Then I’m glad!”
Tayla was starting to get used to Nada; she was talking more and more.
Her figure overlapped with Claire, his other little sister.
Thinking that, something in his heart grew warm, and before he realized it, he was naturally stroking Tayla’s head, just like he used to five years ago.
When Tayla felt Nada’s large hand gently wrap around her head, she let out a soft “ehehe” and smiled.
Seeing that expression, Nada felt that Tayla no longer seemed attached to the family that had once lived here. Most likely, she had already said her farewells properly when they died.
And now, he intended to do the same.
A reunion with his family after five years.
If possible, Nada would’ve preferred to meet them somewhere else, under different circumstances.
But this was how things turned out, and he accepted it.
He had no regrets.
This was the path he chose.
If anything, he had originally planned never to return here again. In his heart, he believed he had already said his final goodbyes to them long ago.
But since fate had brought him back to this place, Nada knew he had to say farewell—
A real farewell, different from the one he made when he ran away from home as a child.
Nada knelt on both knees before the soil where his family was buried and closed his eyes.
He let many thoughts flow through him.
Thoughts of his father, mother, Karol, Shama, and Claire—his siblings.
He never put any of those feelings into words.
He simply stayed there, unmoving, holding his emotions inside for several minutes.
Iris and Tayla didn’t interrupt him.
◆◆◆
Afterward, the three of them entered the village of Pequeño once more—this time to leave it behind.
But waiting for them at the entrance were about five men, as if lying in wait. One of them was particularly stout, with a slightly bulging belly.
“Hey, you there—hold it. You folks aren’t from around here, are you?”
The stout man looked the three of them over, especially Iris—his gaze running up and down her body like he was licking her with his eyes.
The other men wore the same expression, fixated on Iris, who shone like a jewel—something this village had never seen.
“Hey, um—”
Iris tugged on Nada’s sleeve, pulling him in front of her.
Her grip was strong enough that Nada was easily moved.
“I’ll say this once—if you touch her, you’re not gonna like what happens.”
Nada spoke while glancing back at Iris, who had shrunk behind him and was trembling.
The men seemed to think she was trembling from fear and said things like, “She’s shaking, poor thing,” “She’s cute like that too,” completely missing the mark.
From Nada’s angle, he could see Iris doubled over, silently laughing. She was trembling because she was trying not to burst out loud.
Apparently, it had been a long time since someone tried hitting on her so blatantly, and she found it hilariously entertaining.
After all, in Inferno, Iris was famous—so much so that anyone who tried to touch her would face terrifying consequences.
Not from Iris herself, but from the adventurers—male and female—who worshipped her.
“Eh? The hell are you spouting!? Oi, big guy, don’t get cocky just ’cause you’re tall. Hand the woman over. That’s the toll for passing through this village!”
The stout man, blinded by Iris’s charm, barked something absurd.
Nada scratched his head with a troubled expression, but before he could answer, Tayla stepped forward.
“Wait! Big Brother Douglas! Don’t touch Big sis Iris!”
“What, Tayla? You came back? Mika begged me, so I was gonna let you stay at the house, but you ran off on your own like some ungrateful brat. …No, hold up. Tayla. You know this guy, right? Tell him already. We’re just gonna borrow the woman for a bit, that’s all. Hehe.”
The man Tayla called Douglas kept staring at Iris, his upper lip stretching out like a creep.
Nada recognized the name. From the dusty edges of his memories, he recalled Douglas.
If he remembered right, Douglas was the son of the village chief—the most powerful man in this village.
An only son, spoiled and protected, always given the best food, the best clothes.
Nada had interacted with him a few times, but they had rarely played together.
While Nada often went alone into the mountains to search for food, Douglas never needed to do such things—he always played with the other village children instead.
“Hey, Tayla—step back a bit.”
“Okay…”
Nada used his large body to shield Tayla and Iris, then—with his duffle bag still in his left hand—walked toward Douglas without a word.
Douglas, who was a head or two shorter than Nada, flinched at the sight of Nada’s massive frame and stepped back.
Nada extended his thick left hand and, without even making a fist, delivered a restrained backhand strike to Douglas’s cheek.
Douglas couldn’t dodge it or withstand it. Taking the blow head-on, he spun several times before crashing face-first onto the ground.
The men who had been with him immediately rushed over after seeing him in such a state.
Nada glanced at them from the corner of his eye and said simply:
“Move.”
Then the three of them left Douglas behind and headed toward the village exit—for real this time.
“Wait—!”
Someone called out again.
This time, it was a woman.
She looked about the same age as Nada, with her hair tied back in a simple ponytail and a small mole near her eye.
“Ah, Bis Sis Mika!”
Tayla’s face lit up with delight when she saw her.
Nada also remembered that name.
Someone his age, who often received gifts from the young men of the village during festivals. Her looks were considered among the best in the village. She now had a few freckles and spots, but the simple, natural charm she once had was unchanged.
“Hey… you’re Nada, right?”
She was also someone who used to give him food—a debt Nada had never forgotten.
He never kept the food for himself; he always shared it with his younger siblings.
Even so, the gratitude he felt back then hadn’t faded one bit.
“…Yeah. That’s right.”
Even Nada couldn’t bring himself to lie to the person who had once saved his life.
“Do you… remember me?”
Mika looked a little unsure, almost anxious.
“Yeah. I remember. No way I could forget you.”
“I’m so happy!”
She suddenly hugged his torso, as if trying to feel his warmth. Nada felt something slightly off at that moment, but Mika continued speaking anyway.
“You really did become an adventurer, huh?”
She said it while looking at the scars visible on his arms.
“Yeah.”
“You said it back then—when you left the village. That you’d become an adventurer.”
“Yeah.”
“I’m glad your dream came true.”
Her eyes filled slightly with tears, as if the happiness came from deep within her heart.
“…So, what’s with your stomach?”
Nada asked after noticing how her belly felt pressed against him. It didn’t stand out much visually, but being this close made it obvious it had grown a bit.
“…I’m pregnant.”
“I see. Congratulations.”
“Thank you. A year ago, I married Douglas. This child… It’s his.”
“…Wish you happiness.”
Nada gently released her arms and turned his back.
He had a vague feeling this would be the last time he ever came to this village.
But Mika called out loudly once more:
“Hey, Nada! You be happy too! Do your best as an adventurer! And take care of Tayla! Tayla, you stay healthy, okay!? See you again!”
“Yeah! See you!”
Nada said nothing, but Tayla waved her arm high and shouted back cheerfully in his place.
Mika also waved her hand from the village gate—over and over again.
Even after their figures disappeared from sight, she remained there until evening, staring at the path where the three had vanished.
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