Side story 1: Uncomfortable feeling

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Translator: Soafp

Ghost Phenomenon

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I'm Erius.

I'm the leader of an adventurer party called “Dragon Fang Bite.”

The party name comes from a phrase I like—“like dragon fangs biting”—a saying that represents unity.

The members—our “dragon fangs”—number five, myself included.

Phalan, a master of the spear.

Nick, an expert archer.

Lena, our healer.

And Nonoa, our accountant.

All of us are young, yet each is a top-tier expert in our respective fields.

As for me, I carry the skill “Sword Saint,” and I believe I have abilities worthy of being this party's leader.

Lately, though, I've felt that something is a little off about one of us—Nonoa, our accountant.

Yesterday, we finally completed a long-term request we'd been working on and safely reported our success to the Adventurers' Guild.

To keep a good balance between work and rest, we decided to take a one-day break while staying in Balhant.

After everyone spent their day off however they liked, we all gathered in the inn's dining hall for dinner.

Normally, Nonoa isn't picky and eats anything, but today her appetite didn't seem to be there.

Instead of looking at the dishes laid out in front of her, she was staring at her left hand with a gaze as if she were looking at something strange.

Following her line of sight, I voiced my question.

“Nonoa, what's with that ring?”

On her ring finger was a gold ring set with a pink gemstone.

I could say with certainty that it hadn't been there yesterday.

I train with her every day, so there's no way I would've missed it if she'd been wearing a ring.

It's been about three years since she joined the party.

Up until now, I'd never once seen the tomboyish Nonoa show interest in accessories.

She herself seemed unable to understand her own behavior, tilting her head as she spoke.

“I don't know… I saw it at a stall today, and before I knew it… I'd bought it.”

“Hm…”

Buying something on impulse?

That seemed about as far removed as possible from her usual frugal self.

If anything, she's normally the one scolding the rest of us for wasting money.

“By the way…”

She turned the back of her hand toward me, slightly averting her face, yet glancing my way as if gauging my reaction.

Of course, I do understand what kind of thing I'm supposed to say in situations like this.

…I do understand.

But I'm also aware that I'm not skilled enough to ignore what should be said and just flatter someone.

In the end, I prioritized saying what I thought needed to be said.

“If I'm being honest as your sword instructor, it looks like it'd get in the way when you swing your sword.”

The moment I said that, the other members of “Dragon Fang Bite” all made faces like, “Oh no.”

Yeah.

I get it. I really do. But still.

Nonoa only furrowed her brows slightly—that's the gesture she makes when she's holding back irritation.

Which means my answer was the wrong one.

Naturally.

“Oh, really. Then I'll go sell it.”

“No, that'd be a waste. After all…”

I scrambled to come up with something to soften the blow.

I felt like the others were watching me with a mix of expectation and anxiety.

As the leader, I needed to meet those expectations and somehow land on the right answer.

“Some accessories have special effects imbued in them… so maybe you should have it appraised first?”

“Appraised? …Oh, right. That makes sense.”

As Nonoa looked down at the ring, the others made slightly impressed expressions.

Encouraged, I continued.

“Depending on the effect… if it helps in combat, then even if it gets in the way of your sword, it might still be worth wearing.”

That should've given her a solid justification for keeping the ring.

—or so I thought.

The expressions around me darkened.

Inside, I felt both hope and dread as I waited for Nonoa's reply.

And her answer was—

“Well, either way, I'll take it off. Even if it has an effect, I can just put it on a chain and wear it around my neck. After all, it really does get in the way when swinging a sword!”

At last, Nonoa stopped hiding her irritation. She removed the ring, finished what food she had left, and stood up.

Watching her walk away, I muttered to myself without thinking.

“This is hard…”

“Hard my a*s! It's simple! What the hell is wrong with you!?”

Phalan's shout echoed through the dining hall.

“Don't yell all of a sudden, Phalan.”

“Don't make me yell! All you had to do was praise her honestly!”

He wasn't wrong.

But for me, that would've meant lying.

“But seriously, it would get in the way of using a sword… and as her instructor, there's my position to consider…”

“You rock-headed idiot!”

Hoping for backup, I looked to Lena.

She was staring at me with cold eyes.

It's rare for Lena to look like that.

She wears a similar expression when looking at monster filth.

In other words, that was the kind of look she was giving me.

“No, that was really bad, Erius.”

Apparently, it was really bad.

When Lena says something's bad, it usually is.

Feeling desperate, I turned to Nick, clinging to a shred of hope.

“What should I have done?”

I asked him for advice, since he's good with people.

“Well, Erius, this might be a bit high-difficulty for you, but…”

After that preface, Nick brushed his hair back dramatically, cleared his throat, and began.

“That's a lovely ring. You might have to take it off during training or adventures, but it really suits you. I almost wish I'd been the one to give it to you. Well then, I'll be off to train… Huh? What kind of training? Training to pierce your heart, of course—the hardest and most rewarding training there is…”

“Lena, what should I have done?”

“Hey! Don't ask and then ignore me!”

“No, like you said, the difficulty's too high.”

“If you give up, that's the end of the adventure! Have some ambition!”

As Nick protested, Lena changed her expression and let out a small laugh.

“But honestly, it's very you, Erius. Saying something flashy would feel out of character for you.”

“Right?”

“Yes. If you'd said something like Nick just did, you wouldn't be Erius anymore—you'd be Ero-us. Do you want to be Ero-us?”

“…No, I don't want to be Ero-us.”

“Exactly. Then isn't this fine? Nonoa understands, at least in her head, that you're not the type to smoothly praise a girl's accessories.”

Lena's words, filled with saintly consideration, eased my mind a little.

“Y-you think so?”

“Yes. A hopelessly dense guy who doesn't understand a thing about women—that suits you perfectly, Erius!”

For some reason, she looked pleased as she clapped her hands together and delivered that assessment.

So much for her consideration—it was apparently my imagination.

Still… what kind of evaluation is that?

Well, I guess I should just accept it gracefully.

Which means…

“So… problem solved?”

“It's not solved at all…”

Phalan muttered in a voice that sounded like he'd given up on something.

Just as he said.

In truth, nothing had been solved at all.

Lately, I've been having dreams.

Nightmares—would be the right word.

After all, they're always dreams where I die.

When I wake up, I forget the details, but I always remember one thing: that it was a dream where I died.

At first, it was about once a month.

Recently, though, I've been having them almost every day.

The first time I had one was about three years ago.

Coincidentally, right around when Nonoa joined the party.

It's not just dreams.

Even when I'm awake, I often feel a sense of déjà vu.

It was there when I met her, and at other times too—for example, when I saw that ring today.

I did my best to stay calm, but the sense of déjà vu the moment I saw that ring was overwhelming.

To put it dramatically, it felt like a sense of wrongness about this world itself.

What if the world I'm living in right now—the one I feel and experience—is actually the dream?

What if this is nothing more than a delusion at the moment of my death?

A loss of reality.

And maybe Nonoa feels the same way.

Buying a ring on impulse is something completely unlike her usual self.

“…How stupid.”

Trying to shake off those foolish thoughts, I took my sword and stepped outside the inn.

It's been my routine lately.

I swing my sword until I collapse, then crawl into bed exhausted and fall asleep—that's my daily pattern.

—And then.

“Hello there, Erius.”

As I stepped outside, there was a man standing there.

A familiar man.

His appearance was… distinctive—too distinctive to mistake.

A man dressed entirely in white, like a clown.

He was the one who told me about Nonoa three years ago.

“Oh, it’s been three years already… it's been a while. Thank you again for back then. Thanks to you, we were able to bring on an accountant.”

“Mm. Actually, that's why I'm here. First of all… I'm sorry. Because of my poor foresight, I've caused trouble for you and Nonoa.”

“…Trouble?”

When I asked, he nodded and said,

“Yes. Right now, you're under the influence of what's called the ‘Ghost Phenomenon.'”