Chapter 43
Sheir seemed not to have expected an immediate apology and looked up at me with a strange gaze.
Then, perhaps displeased, he spread his small wings and fluttered up onto a tiny altar inside the cave.
“My name is connected to my soul, so the moment it’s spoken, it feels as though my soul itself is being touched… No—wait. Why am I even explaining this?”
“Oh, so that’s how it is? Got it. Then I won’t call you by your name. I’ll just call you Chick.”
“Chick?! How insolent!”
Geez. He’s really yapping a lot.
Still, he’s cute, so I’ll let it slide.
Ariel struggled to hold back her laughter as she spoke to me.
“R–Romi, please show proper respect to Lord Sheir….”
“Sorry, sorry. You’re just too cute.”
“How dare you do this to this body…! Insolent! Insolent!”
How could anyone not find him adorable when he was flapping his tiny wings like that?
As I watched with a fond smile, Sheir’s expression suddenly changed.
“… Come to think of it, no one should be able to speak my name without my permission. So how did you say my name? How very strange.”
Sheir tilted his small head from side to side.
I didn’t take his words all that seriously.
After all, the very fact that I’d crossed into this world was already absurd.
What’s the big deal about being able to say a name?
I figured it was just another perk exclusive to dimensional travellers.
But Sheir seemed to think otherwise.
“And what’s more, I sense His scent upon you as well. Human, what exactly are you?”
I scratched my head.
“I’m just Romi.”
Sheir narrowed his eyes and scrutinised me for a moment, then nodded as if he didn’t really care anymore.
“Well, I suppose this too must be His will….”
He trotted down the steps of the altar and stopped right in front of me.
He looked like he was trying to be imposing, but he was so small that he was nothing but adorable.
“You said you require an inextinguishable flame? Very well. I shall grant you my breath.”
I blinked, wondering if I’d misheard.
What? Why is he suddenly being so generous?
As if sensing my confusion, Sheir spoke again.
“No human can speak my name without permission. Even if I do not remember you, you must be a human engraved upon my soul. If you are one I once allowed to speak my name, then I can trust you.”
Now that Sheir had gone this far, I started to doubt myself.
Had I really spoken Sheir’s name before? Or was it…?
Could there be something wrong with my memories?
A strange unease I’d felt for a long time surfaced in my mind.
Everyone else was on their 100th loop—yet I alone was on my 99th.
I’d recorded every regression carefully in my journal, so my memory shouldn’t be wrong.
Is there something I don’t know?
I couldn’t continue the thought.
Sheir suddenly blew a soft breath toward me.
At once, a palm-sized flame floated in the air before my eyes.
As I stared at it in a daze, the blazing fire transformed into a small red gemstone and dropped into my hand.
“This flame will answer your call whenever you desire it.”
I stared down at the gem, no bigger than my thumbnail, resting on my palm.
Remembering Sheir’s words, I murmured softly.
Fire.
A vivid red flame burst forth as if it would burn everything away.
The gem vanished, hidden within the blaze.
“Ooooh….”
That’s way easier to use than I expected.
I extinguished the fire and carefully tucked the red gem into my clothes.
“Thank you for giving it to me so readily.”
“Did I not say so earlier? I do not grant my name to just anyone. If you are grateful, then one day, come and fill the memories I have lost.”
Sheir spoke with unwavering certainty.
Just like him, I had no memory of Sheir either, yet somehow his words felt true.
Maybe it wasn’t only Kaizen—perhaps my memories were flawed as well.
I wanted to talk more, but…
I can’t afford to waste any more time.
Saving Kaizen came first.
I had to leave before he woke up.
“Alright. I can’t promise, but I’ll try. I’ll never forget that you helped me.”
“You’re hopping around in such a hurry. Be gone at once.”
“Thanks! I’m in a rush, so I’ll be going now!”
“Until we meet again, human.”
I turned my back on Sheir and rushed out of the cave.
It was time to return to Kaizen.
Just wait a little longer, Kaizen.
Recalling the look in his eyes right before he collapsed, I quickened my pace toward the village.
All the conditions needed to lift the curse were finally gathered.
The essence of the volcano, the inextinguishable flame, and the saviour’s cooking.
“…Is it really okay to do this so casually?”
Hamma looked up at me with an anxious expression.
The dish I’d prepared was carrot soup.
I wanted to make juice since we were short on time, but I needed to use the inextinguishable flame, so soup it was.
“It’s fine. If it needed extreme care, the notebook would’ve said so.”
I gently laid Kaizen’s head on my lap and carefully poured the carrot soup into his mouth.
Gulp. His throat moved slowly.
“H–He swallowed it, right?”
“Yeah.”
I stared intently at his head, barely daring to breathe.
A few seconds passed.
Then, the skull icon glowing red above him slowly began to decrease.
Three bars, two bars, one bar—and then…
“…Huh?”
I nearly dropped the spoon in shock.
“W–Why? Don’t tell me… it failed?”
Hamma’s red eyes shook as if an earthquake had struck.
My hand holding the spoon trembled too.
Even as carrot soup dribbled from Kaizen’s mouth, I couldn’t tear my gaze away from above his head.
No—what is that supposed to be?
The skull icon was gone.
But in its place appeared a cloud-shaped icon—dark and ominous.
Just like the skull, it came with a five-bar gauge!
It looked cursed and unlucky just from its appearance.
A dark cloud… a dark cloud!
I need to check the notebook.
I rummaged through my bag, then, in my haste, turned it upside down and dumped everything out.
Among the pile of random items, I found the small leather notebook with engraved markings.
“W–What’s going on? What is it?”
I flipped through the pages, but all the previous records had vanished without a trace.
“H–Huh? Wasn’t the recipe written here before?”
“The skull above Kaizen’s head disappeared. Maybe the notes vanished with it.”
In its place, only a short, familiar sentence remained.
[If you wish to know the special ingredient, drip the hero’s blood onto the next page. Then the hidden truth shall be revealed.]
My eyes met Hamma’s.
I saw the corners of his mouth curl upward.
Slowly, I turned to look at Kaizen, still asleep.
“Hey. No. He’s still a ticking time bomb.”
Just look at that ominous dark cloud icon.
If we stabbed him secretly and got caught, Kaizen might actually erase Hamma from existence.
“Tch. Then when exactly am I supposed to stab the hero?”
Hamma muttered in disappointment—
And at that very moment—
“If you’re so fond of stabbing, there is always the option of stabbing yourself, rabbit.”
Kaizen’s eyes slowly opened.
With orange soup still smeared around his mouth….
“Kaizen!”
I’d been wondering if I needed to feed him an awakening dish since he wasn’t waking up on his own.
Yet Kaizen looked around with clear, lucid eyes, as though he’d never been asleep at all.
Then, noticing something odd, he wiped his mouth and frowned.
“What is this now… ha.”
Wiping his mouth with a deeply irritated expression, he stood up with a sigh.
The villagers of the volcanic village watched in silence as Kaizen changed.
He turned away from them and spoke to me in a flat voice.
“It worked.”
“Yeah.”
Carefully, I asked while looking at the dark cloud icon above his head.
“How do you feel?”
He seemed to choose his words for a long moment, then closed his eyes, looking exhausted.
“How I feel—what does it matter?”
His voice sank unusually low, hollow in a way that made my chest tighten.
“In the end, it’s all meaningless anyway.”
“……?”
“……?”
