Gasi

Side Story – Zirco's Survival.

Part 1──That man was called Beck.

He was living in the forest of Valeri that was located near the border with Haurelia. He was a giant with height of 233 centimeters.

He had a gentle round face and large nose that made him looked amiable, but when his eyebrows were raised angrily, his face would look brutal like an ogre.

He also had extremely great strength and the village in the neighborhood talked of how he didn't lose in power when scuffling with a bear.

He worked as charcoal maker deep inside the forest, but he spent his time mostly alone for the whole year.

Other people was slightly uncomfortable staying near him because his size that was too big. No one from the village would interact with him other than the rare time when he came to sell charcoal or his catch.

Beck's parents, brother, and sister had all died from an epidemic when he was 12 years old. Beck who turned 28 years old this year only accepted that solitude indifferently.

.

「Today, cold.」

Beck saw the white breath that leaked out from his mouth and talked to himself with his unique way of speaking that didn't use particle. He then sluggishly stood up from his bed.

The forest was covered in morning mist at this early morning. It felt colder than usual.

However Beck only yawned and changed clothes without changing his expression in discomfort at all. He took his set of old fishing tool and got out from the front door.

At this time it was possible to fish good fish that was going up the river to lay egg.

Fishing was also a precious form of hunting in order to stock food for winter.

Beck was walking through the gloomy animal trail that was familiar to him with an agility that didn't suit his huge body.

His large footstep with size that reached around 36 centimeters left an impression on the damp ground of the forest. With him passing through here everyday, the trackless path that was covered with grass became hardened and formed a clear path.

「Hm? ...Someone, there?」

Beck was about to sit down on his usual spot at the river, but there he found someone unfamiliar.

──Is it a preceding visitor?

This place was deep in the forest where even the local hunter didn't visit. Beck never met other human here even once.

With Beck's common sense, that was the only answer that he could derive.

However when she saw that it was a woman with blazing red hair and blood dying the area around her stomach, Beck realized that she wasn't simply a preceding visitor.

「N-no, good!」

Beck hurriedly lifted up the body of the woman who was lying face down.

Her body temperature was terribly low perhaps because she had lost blood. Her pulse was so weak that he wasn't sure whether there really was any pulse or not.

Fortunately it looked like she hadn't swallowed too much water and she was still breathing.

The woman had splendid physique that the average person would find it difficult to carry her, but she was no different than a small person to Beck's huge body.

Beck turned back to his house in a great panic while feeling impressed with the woman's body that was soft but also clearly trained in a way that left no waste of flesh.

For Beck, woman was a weak creature that was like glass artwork that would break just from a touch and scared him just from looking.

.

Beck laid down the woman on the bed and lit fire in the fireplace, but then he felt troubled.

Beck who had been living alone until now didn't have any proper medical knowledge.

He also had no money to go down to the village and called for doctor. Above all else he also couldn't leave the woman alone in this house while she was in a critical condition.

「I warm, her body.」

Beck decided to first warm the woman's body that was cold like ice.

It would take a bit more time until the room was warmed by the fireplace.

What if he warmed the milk from the goat that he was raising and made her drank it?

「Yes, that, good.」

The goat's milk had higher nutrition value than cow milk and it was useful for recovering stamina.

Beck immediately started preparing.

He milked several goats that he was raising at his house's yard until he filled a glass full. Then he warmed it up and held it up to the woman.

「...Drink」

Even though he called at her like that, the unconscious woman clearly didn't drink the milk.

Beck his head from feeling troubled by that. Then he recalled his childhood memory when his mother was feeding his little sister who had weak body by mouth to mouth.

He realized that using that way then a person could swallow even while they were asleep.

Beck kneeled and suddenly drank the milk, the he quietly opened the woman's lips.

Even while unconscious, the milk flowed into the woman's mouth and her throat gulped. After confirming that, Beck happily drank the rest of the milk.

After that he helped the woman drank two glasses of milk.

The room too had finally turned warm and the color of the woman's cheek too looked like it had gotten a lot better.

Beck thought that she would be fine now and moved to exit the room, but then the woman's delirious muttering that sounded like a little child reached his ear.

「Don't leave me...」

A clear drop of water dripped down from the corner of the eye of the strong-willed looking woman. Beck was petrified on the spot.

His little sister who died from pandemic similarly also didn't want Beck to leave just before she died. That memory surfaced at the back of his mind and he became unable to leave from there.

Then starting from that night, the woman got a high fever and she wandered between life and death.

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Part 2「Oi, where are you guys going? The enemy is at the other side you know?」

The woman called out with a panicked voice at her comrades who turned their back at her and moved away while dragging their feet.

The frontline was already at disadvantageous situation. Her life would be at risk if they retreated as they pleased.

「Norris! That's you isn't it Norris!? Even you, just what are you doing!?」

The woman found an old acquaintance among those soldiers and she felt like she was betrayed.

The man who was called Norris was a famous shield user. His defensive strength when protecting his comrades at the front line couldn't be rivaled by anyone within the mercenary group.

The damage to their allies' morale would be immeasurable if someone like him ran away.

「Copper? Rock, even Dennis, just what's wrong with you guys!?」

The woman found even more familiar comrades among the retreating crowd and she yelled.

──Strange.

They weren't men who would abandon their comrade and ran away like coward.

Besides it was obviously strange that they weren't replying at all even though she was yelling this loudly at them.

In the first place where were they retreating to?

Which battlefield she was fighting at right now?

Her memory was lacking some pieces and things just wouldn't connect clearly in her mind. The woman gritted her teeth in anxiety.

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「──Zirco.」

.

A kind voice that was familiar to her since her childhood called at her. The woman patted her chest in relief.

Yes, her name was Zirco. She was a slightly famous mercenary and right now she was working for Baldr, big sis's son.

Even so, just where were they going to?

Zirco's gaze returned and a chill shook her spine.

The people were getting swallowed one after another by the pitch black cave that was opening its mouth largely.

She didn't know what was at the other side of that darkness, but Zirco instinctually felt that it wasn't anything good at all at the very least.

「You shouldn't be here. You'll also get brought into the darkness too if you stay here.」

「Mistol, what is that darkness?」

Even though the voice undoubtedly belonged to his childhood friend and comrade Mistol, Mistol's face was pitch black as though it had been dyed by ink.

Even though this place wasn't that dark.

Zirco was puzzled. MIstol shrugged with a troubled look and smiled wryly.

「──It's that world. That's why only the dead can go to the other side of that darkness. Just like me.」

*Crack*, her heart made a creaking sound.

Her sealed and forgotten memory was resurrected from the gap of the crack.

That's right. Mistol died to protect her at that battle against Haurelia army. Perhaps she too had died?

Then she was also going to that world after this too?

「It's fine, Zirco is alive. I didn't die in vain it seems.」

「Ah...」

As expected Mistol had died.

Zirco realized that the death of her childhood friend really happened and she let out a dejected sigh.

「Live long for the part of us who died too, then tell us the tale of your life later...it looks like your life is going to become interesting after all.」

Mistol said that and chuckled.

「──This might just be a dream, but I'm happy that I can meet you one more time Mistol. Can you show me your face for one last time?」

「You will get dragged along if you get too involved with the dead. You don't need to remember my face, just wake up already. Also, don't come over here for at least thirty more years.」

「...Yeah, I'll do my best. Even so, what do you mean by interesting life...?」

Zirco's consciousness was rapidly swallowed by white light there.

「Sayonara Zirco. I'll keep praying from that world so that happiness will always be with you.」

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Part 3Zirco's consciousness was drifting in the sea of vague sleepiness.

She was enveloped in a soft warmth. She felt indescribably pleasant.

Warm milk was flowing into her throat. Zirco swallowed it enthusiastically with how delicious it was.

The smooth texture of the milk that was passing through her throat was different from cow milk. It was most likely goat milk.

Zirco was simply thinking that absentmindedly, but her head was getting clearer as time passed.

And then she began to realize her current situation.

──This warm sensation was from someone putting the milk into her mouth through mouth.

「MUGAAAAAH!?」

「You, awake!」

There was the smiling face of a gentle looking man from very close where their lips could touch again by mistake.

It was only natural because they were just doing mouth-to-mouth.

A normal woman would scream just from seeing Beck's huge face right in front of her eyes, but Zirco who had been trained by living in mercenary business for many years observed the situation calmly.

She was lying down on a slightly hard bed. The room was very warm that it would be alright even if she dressed light.

And then seeing the glass of goat milk in Beck's hand, there was one thing that she could guess.

It seemed she was saved by this huge man.

「Did you save me? I am Zirco, what's your name?」

It had been a long time since Beck heard the voice of other person. It also helped that Zirco's voice was lively. Beck was relieved and smiled happily.

「I, Beck.」

Zirco didn't know but, she had been wandering between life and death for three days and three nights. During that time she was relying on Beck's mouth-to-mouth for water and nutrition replenishment.

Beck was convinced that Zirco had finally escaped from the abyss of death and he unconsciously caressed Zirco's head.

Zirco didn't remember anyone ever doing that to her since she was five or six years old. Her face reddened and she became greatly flustered.

「D-don't do something so embarrassing! What are you doing to a mannish woman like me...」

「Zirco, small, cut.」

「Ueeeeeeeeeeh!」

Zirco's face was dyed crimson by Beck's completely unexpected words. She blushed even until the tips of her toes.

Zirco had a height of 180 cm and trained arms that were thick like log. There wasn't even an inch of daintiness from her.

Unlike a man, she had moist and warm skin that was characteristic of a woman, but at the very least she wasn't someone who could be described as cute.

Perhaps the last time she was called that might be at her teenage year by a relative, maybe.

Zirco got extremely bashful by that punch that came from a completely unseen direction.

However Beck was saying his true opinion without any falsehood.

For a man with height of 233 cm, Zirco's 180 cm body felt small like a child.

And yet it wasn't like the body of ordinary person that was too small they might break if he touched them. Zirco gave him a feeling of safety that she would be alright even if he touched her casually.

Beck was enjoying the feel of a woman that he had almost forgotten since his childhood.

(Kuh...I don't know why but this is too embarrassing!)

Zirco's stamina still hadn't returned. She was unable to do anything except accepting Beck's hand on her head regardless of what she wanted.

Even so it didn't feel unpleasant by any means.

.

Although Zirco had stepped away from the abyss of death, Zirco's condition couldn't be said as that good.

Most of all her stomach wound still hadn't recovered. She was completely lacking blood and nutrition to move her body.

「Deer meat, Zirco eat.」

「Sorry, it's really pathetic of me to be in this state.」

She couldn't put any strength into her body. She had to muster all the strength in her body just to lift her upper body.

This was the first time for Zirco that her body wouldn't listen to her to this degree.

「Complexion, good. Soon, you can move.」

Beck's innocent smile drawn Zirco to also smile.

Beck's unsophisticated and pure good will made her happy regardless of anything.

「Today weather good. Going outside, a bit.」

「Fuwaah!」

It wasn't just that.

Beck thought that Zirco must be bored from just lying on the bed, so he carried her in his arms.

This was the so called princess carry.

Even Zirco was unable to immediately say something after being treated like this.

Although she had experience being carried on a stretcher, being lifted up by a man was something that she never experienced before other than by her father.

「Wha, wha, wha...」

Zirco was very flustered that she could only speak incomprehensible words.

It was like she had returned to being a girl of that age.

(Bad...this is bad...)

There was no way that she didn't feel happy from being treated like a woman in everything.

In the first place Zirco had a maidenly personality in her.

However due to her huge body and her natural unbending nature and added with her livelihood with a rowdy bunches like mercenaries, there was no chance of that side of her to come out to the surface until now.

「T-that's...Beck, I have a request. You see, when I'm healed, can you bring me until the chief's place?」

Beck's reply to this was concise.

「I'll stay, beside Zirco, always.」

If you meet a woman who you want to stay with, you absolutely mustn't let her go.

That was the teaching of his dead father.

Although Beck didn't understand about such emotion accurately, he was aware of it instinctually.

(──Crap.)

Beck's words pierced Zirco's words and something suffocating overflowed from her heart.

She shouldn't be an easy woman who would fall just because of a man's devoted care, but as expected it was a great point in Beck's favor that he didn't mind at all about her body that greatly surpassed the standard of average woman.

Zirco's shoulders shivered from euphoria that ascended her to heaven. Beck looked down worriedly at such Zirco.

「As expected, morning, still, cold?」

「No──」

Zirco was about to deny it but she desisted.

For some reason she wanted to continue to be spoiled like a child, no, like a woman just like this.

「Yes, it's cold. That's why hug me even stronger.」

Zirco felt the powerful feel of Beck's arm on her back while burying her face on Beck's chest happily.

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「Aa~~~~n」

「Aa~~~~n! It's really delicious Beck!」

Zirco was in rapture with her cheeks stuffed with breakfast.

「Not hard, to eat?」

「Nope, it feels the most comfortable eating like this.」

Zirco sat on Beck's lap like a child and she opened her mouth once more to ask for another.

It seemed she intended to be spoiled a lot to make up of all the tough fronts she had put up until now.