TDKWP 01

TDKWP

Episode 1

Prologue

When I was young, my family ran an inn.

From a young age, I helped my parents by taking care of the inn’s chores.

My friends worried it must be very hard, but the truth was, I actually enjoyed helping with the inn work.

The first floor doubled as a tavern, and occasionally there were adventurers who would down mugs of ale there; as a child, I loved listening to their stories.

Of course, since it wasn’t a very big village, it was extremely rare for adventurers with continent-shaking reputations to visit.

But just because they weren’t famous adventurers didn’t mean they lacked storytelling skills.

In fact, in my experience, the lower-tier adventurers tended to embellish and boast more in their tales, and those exaggerations and boasts were positive elements that made the stories even more interesting.

Naturally, young as I was, I was old enough to tell what was a tall tale and what was the truth.

But there was no need to point out their lies and make things awkward.

I would just play along appropriately and enjoy listening to the adventurers’ exaggerated stories.

However, the boasting this adventurer was spouting today was hard to play along with good-naturedly.

“So, mister, you’re saying you are the Corrosion Demon King?”
“Kuhaha. That’s right, that’s right.”

A middle-aged man with a potbelly and a nose as red as any drunkard’s.
When I said I wanted to hear an adventure story, he promptly declared he was a Demon King.
And not just any—a named Demon King even my seven-year-old self knew well.

“The Corrosion Demon King is ranked first among all Demon Kings, you know?”
“Hahaha. The kid knows all sorts of things.”
“Besides, the Corrosion Demon King is one the Empire has been desperately hunting but can’t find. If you’re going to make something up, you should have picked a different Demon King.”
“Why are you blaming me just because they’re incompetent and couldn’t find him?”
“Alright, let’s say you are the Corrosion Demon King… What have you been up to lately?”

At that, he gulped down his drink.
Thud.
And roughly set it back on the table.
In that instant, I felt his demeanor change.

“Trampling sprouts.”
“…What?”
“Come to think of it, I see quite the sprout in you too.”
“……”
“But it’d be a waste of talent to just kill you. If corrupted properly, you’d make quite good material.”

I froze.
Not because the content of his words was chilling—I didn’t even understand what he was saying.
It was simply because his eyes, which until a moment ago belonged to a commonplace drunkard, had sunk into an utterly cold gaze.
As I stood there speechless—

“Dail! Come carry this for a moment.”

My father’s voice came from the kitchen.
I shot up and headed for the kitchen as if fleeing.
From behind, a voice like this seemed to reach me.

“I wonder what curse would be good.”

A month after the strange man who claimed to be the Corrosion Demon King left.
One evening, after finishing an errand and returning to our house—the inn—my mother’s form had vanished.
It wasn’t that my mother had run away or anything.
What vanished wasn’t my mother, but my mother’s form.
The two are distinctly different.

“Da-ai-il, you’re baa-aack.”
“……”
“Why-y a-are you sta-anding the-ere li-ike thaa-at.”

A fear I had never felt before.
That thing was standing in our kitchen.
The place where my mother would normally be preparing dinner.
But my mother’s ‘form’ was nowhere to be seen.

What occupied that space was a monster.
No, perhaps it was more accurate to call it a ‘phenomenon’?
If I had to describe the appearance of what I saw, it was like this:
The feeling of countless, very small, opaque white squares piled on top of each other.
Innumerable squares covered its entire body, making it look like a monster.

“W-what, what is that! Who are you!”
“Wh-y-y a-are you ye-elling a-at me-e-e.”

To make matters worse, even its voice was distorted.
If a voice were something visible and tangible, it felt as if someone had grabbed it from both ends and stretched it out like taffy.
It was impossible to tell if the voice’s owner was male or female, what emotion it held, or even what it was saying.

At my young age, I froze completely.
Tap.
Then someone tapped my shoulder from behind.

“Dail? Why are you standing there dazed?”

It was my father.
I was sincerely relieved he was unharmed.
Clutching my father’s arm with tears streaming, I spoke in a trembling voice.

“Sniff. D-dad. Over there. Over there!”
“Over there?”
“There’s a monster standing there. Can’t you see it?”
“What? You rascal.”

Thwack.
My father hit me hard on the head.
It didn’t seem like his usual playful flick; he appeared genuinely angry.

“What kind of way is that to talk to your mom?”

That’s right.
That thing was my mother.
Just yesterday, she was the mother who applied medicine to my scraped knee and blew on it to soothe the sting.

From that day on, my mother’s form never returned.
My parents never spoke a word to anyone outside about my abnormal phenomenon.
They acted with all their might as if nothing was wrong at home, and forced me to play along as well. Around this time, I believed the ‘monster’ before my eyes had swallowed my mother, so I struggled and resisted.

“Dad, does this look like Mom to you? It’s a monster! The monster ate Mom!”
“You, really!”
“It’s true! I have a hunch. Please listen. Please!”

I explained about the so-called ‘Corrosion Demon King’ who had visited our inn a month ago.
That he said he trampled sprouts.
That he said he saw one in me too.

“So he cursed me. He said, ‘I wonder what curse would be good.’”
“Dail, please…”
“That curse is what made that monster devour Mom! Believe me, Dad. Please?”

Instead of answering, my father just let out a deep sigh.
And the monster, as if it were truly my mother, sobbed and said,

“Wh-y-y a-are you-u-u tre-e-eating ou-ur so-on li-ike thii-is.”

The household grew darker and more depressed day by day.
Half against my will, half not, I was confined to my room, my comings and goings controlled.
Looking back now, it was probably protection, not control.
Who knew what would happen if rumors spread that I was a cursed child.

“Honey. Don’t cry. Dail will be fine soon.”
“Huuuuuuuaaaaaah.”
“You know I have some connections with the church, right? I’ve put in a request through them for the Holy Maiden to grace us with her presence. When she comes, everything will be alright.”
“I-if yo-ou-u sa-ay so-o, it mu-u-ust be-e tru-u-ue.”

My father said he had called for the Holy Maiden.
This, too, in retrospect, was likely a delusion steeped in hope.
It was true my father worked for the church, but a small, remote village church wouldn’t have the authority to summon the Holy Maiden.

“……”

Peeking through the crack in the bedroom door, I bit my lip.
The person my father should be holding and comforting is only my mother.
Not that bizarre monster!

But with my father completely fooled by the monster, there was nothing I could do.
After that, I spent my time suppressing my emotions as much as possible.
Resisting the urge to run away from home that very moment was quite difficult for my young self.

Time never stops.
When two months had passed, my father spoke to me with a deeply serious expression.

“Your mother is very sick.”
“…!”

My face lit up.
Seeing my expression, my father gritted his teeth and continued.

“Don’t look so happy.”
“Dad.”
“Go take care of your mom a bit, hug her. Your mother fell ill from the shock because of you.”

Of course, I did no such thing.
I didn’t even believe that monster was sick in the first place.
To me, it was just the same opaque white squares and that chilling, stretched-out voice.

Right. I definitely did not seek out the monster.
But the monster came looking for me every day.

“My-y so-on.”
“You-u-u wi-i-ill be-e fi-ine.”
“Mo-om wi-i-ill ge-et be-etter so-oon, so-o do-on’t wo-orry.”

See?
Being sick was a complete lie.
It was just a trick by my father, bewitched by the monster, to bring me and the monster closer.
That’s what I believed at the time.
So I pushed away or avoided the monster that came for me daily, sometimes even insulting it.
And so, more time passed.

Half a year had passed since my mother vanished and the monster appeared.
That day, strangely, the monster did not come looking for me.
Having days like this sometimes should make me feel at ease.
I spent the whole day in my room thinking just that.
And then late at night, probably around midnight.

Knock knock.

A knocking sound.
I didn’t answer, but carefully, softly, the bedroom door opened.
What was revealed as the door opened was that familiar monster.

“So-on, a-are yo-ou-u a-awake?”

The monster’s voice still sounded stretched and drawn out, but compared to the beginning, it was at least not completely incomprehensible.
That was likely not because the monster’s vocal ability had improved, but because I had grown accustomed to understanding the monster’s language.
Normally I would have ignored it, but that day, for some reason, I fell silent for a moment before answering.

“Not asleep yet.”
“Ca-an Mo-om co-ome i-in for a-a-a bi-it?”
“What is it. You monster.”
“Do-on’t sa-ay su-uch thi-ings to Mo-om.”
“You’re not my mom. Give me back my real mom.”

The monster fell silent.
Its expression, hidden behind the mass of white squares, was unknowable.
No emotion could be felt from its voice.
Thus, I had no way of knowing what feelings the monster was looking at me with.

But somehow.
For some reason, I felt the monster was ‘sad.’

“So-on, Mo-om i-is a li-ittle un-well to-oday.”
“……”
“Mo-om’s fee-eling a bi-it stra-ange.”

I’m a little unwell today.
Feeling a bit off.
That’s probably what it meant to say.
I answered cheerfully.

“So? What am I supposed to do about it?”
“So-on.”

Strange.
The monster’s voice was gradually becoming clearer.
Objectively, it was still a muffled voice hard to understand.
But perhaps because I was focusing so intently?
For the first time since my mother was devoured by the monster, I could hear the monster’s words fully.

“If Mom has done anything to upset you, I’m sorry.”
“……”
“So, can’t you make up with Mom? It’s Mom’s wish.”

If only at this moment.
Why, even at this moment, didn’t I fall into those arms and beg for forgiveness?
Far from it, I foolishly threw a pillow and shouted.

“Get out of my room right now!”

The monster caught my pillow and said nothing for a while.
Now I understand.
At this moment, the monster must have been crying.
Of course, those tears were invisible to me back then.

“I understand. But please listen to just one thing from Mom.”
“……”
“Son. Your condition… doesn’t seem like it will be easily cured. So remember Mom’s words. You must never tell other people about your condition.”
“……”
“The world is a very cruel and frightening place. If they find out you have a sort of… mental illness, everyone will shun you, curse you, and point fingers. Mom can’t bear to see her son go through that.”

The monster’s long speech.
Words that should have been incomprehensible.
But somehow, on this night alone, I could understand everything the monster said.

No emotion could be felt from the voice.
It wasn’t a voice with enough pitch to reveal emotion.
In fact, the more you listened, the eerier and more chilling it became.
But the content of those words was clearly worried about me, and that was very unpleasant to my younger self.

So, without realizing, I shouted loudly.

“Go away. Go away. Just die. Just die!”
“……”

The monster showed no reaction for a while.
Only after several minutes did it leave behind this one sentence.

“Mom loves you so much. My son.”

The monster rose and went outside.
And the next day.

“Waaaaah! Honey, please open your eyes. Please!”

I ran to the main room at my father’s scream.

“…!”

And there I could see it.
My father clutching someone’s motionless body and weeping.
The body he held was not that of the monster.

“M… Mom.”

My mother. My mother’s face.
That appearance was not the one I originally knew.
Her face held far more wrinkles and sorrow than in my memory.
My mother’s hair, once a source of pride as bright blonde, was white like a grandmother’s.
Her body was emaciated, her skin and lips rough, her back bent.
I opened and closed my mouth, then spoke.

“M… Mom?”
“…!”

My father turned to look at me sharply.
His eyes held boundless grief, frustration, and a faint trace of hatred directed at me.

“Do you finally recognize your mother now?”
“Wh-why does Mom look like that…? Why is she so old?”
“What do you think? Who else’s fault could it be?”
“……”
“Your mother couldn’t sleep properly a single day because she was worried about you! She spent every night in tears, wondering when her son would recognize her again.”
“……”
“She was never a very healthy person to begin with, and on top of that, she fell ill in her heart… this was inevitable.”

My father stroked my mother’s face as he spoke.

“I know Mom went to your room last night. What did she say there?”
“……”
“When she came back from your room, your mother said this. She couldn’t go on anymore. That she just wanted to die….”

I covered my mouth with my hand.
Suddenly, my stomach churned.

“Ugh.”

Unable to hold back the rising nausea, I dashed outside.
My father seemed to be shouting something behind me, but I couldn’t hear it well.
The world spun and grew dizzy.

“Bleeech.”

I vomited spectacularly under the tree right next to the house.
How much of what was inside did I expel?
I slowly raised my head.
Then I noticed someone standing before me.

“Keke.”

It was him!
The self-proclaimed Corrosion Demon King who cursed me!

He was still pot-bellied and had a bright red nose.
A shabby appearance with not a shred of dignity.
But his gaze alone was sunken and chilling.

“Still haven’t fallen yet?”
“Ugh, ugh.”
“Your mental strength is quite strong. You’re holding out better than I thought.”
“You… you… It was you….”
“Guess I need to raise the intensity a bit.”

Snap.
He flicked his finger.
I reflexively closed and opened my eyes.

Nothing changed immediately.
The Corrosion Demon King who had been before me just a second ago had vanished without a trace.
I slowly let out the breath I was holding.
That was when.

“So-on, le-et’s go-o ba-ack i-inside.”

That now-disgustingly familiar, muffled, stretched voice.
My whole body trembling, I turned around.

“Da-ad wa-as wo-orried a-abo-out yo-ou ju-ust no-ow.”
“Ugh…”
“We-e mu-ust ta-ake ca-are o-of Mo-om.”

I covered my face and wailed.
The form transformed into white squares.
Finally, my father had changed like that too.

“Waaaaah!”

I nearly went mad and ran out into the village.
It had been almost a year since I’d stepped outside our house.
Villagers who saw me after so long called out to me with surprised faces.