Kays Translations
Just another Isekai Lover~
Chapter 80: Distance Between Humans and Dwarves
At the call of Long Beard, the passages of the labyrinth close.
Suddenly, a horde of undead attacks.
What remains afterward are the wounded, those who lost their city, and those who lost their families.
Dwarves crowd together in the narrow passage.
Groans, cries, and shouts of anger rise from all around.
“What was that just now?”
Lucius’s words spill out, eliciting a reaction from the nearby dwarves.
“It’s your fault!”
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Other dwarves join in the chorus.
“Why… did that person have to die!?”
“The humans broke the barrier!”
The air seems ready to lunge at Lucius at any moment. And toward the back of the passage, the gaze shifts to someone else. It’s Crane of the Orleans family.
―― Crane is safe too, that’s good.
Near the entrance of the passage, there are accusations against Lucius, and toward the back, there are accusations against Crane.
“Stop it!”
The chief raises his voice. Everything falls silent in an instant.
“Saying that now won’t change anything. Let’s go.”
Long Beard pushes through the dwarves and starts walking alone. Other dwarves follow suit, scattering about. The dwarven girl, Fagra, seems like she wants to say something, but she follows along with everyone without uttering a word.
Lucius and his group have no choice but to move forward, walking through the dim cave. Before they realize it, Crane is walking beside them.
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“…I’m glad you’re safe.”
“Yes, thanks to Lucius, many dwarves were saved.”
Crane responds weakly. The eyes of the dwarves around them are cold.
“…What was saved? My daughter…”
“If the humans hadn’t broken the barrier…”
“The humans who betrayed Fagra…”
Crane looks down, seeming dejected.
“Crane, you’re not at fault.”
If Crane was just a bystander when Lucial battle broke the barrier, then he’s merely a victim.
“No, it’s fine. I’m from the Orleans family.”
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“But――”
“Neither my father nor the Orleans family tried to understand the dwarves. And I gave up trying to change the Orleans family.”
Crane forces a painful smile.
Without saying anything more, he continues to walk the dark path of the labyrinth, head bowed.
◆ ◆ ◆
Crane was born as one of the sons of the Orleans family.
As with other Orleans, he was given a genius education, examining artifacts as toys from childhood.
When Crane was young, he had only one interest.
“Ah! There it is!”
In the desolate wilderness, young Crane stood next to a large rock, flipping it over.
Since there were hardly any monsters around the large rock that would attack people, it became a playground for young Crane.
Underneath the flipped rock was a small insect-like monster.
It had a shape resembling a pill bug.
It was a common monster that ate decaying soil and large monster excreta.
“It can survive in unsanitary environments. It must have an amazing immune system.”
With a single-minded focus, Crane observed the bugs through the magnifying glass-like artifact lent to him by his grandmother.
When he flipped the fifth stone, a shadow covered his hand.
“Hey, what are you doing?”
When Crane raised his head, a girl about the same age was peering in.
It was a girl he had never seen before, but there weren’t many acquaintances for young Crane.
He didn’t care.
Even to the girl wearing clothes with abnormally fine embroidery.
“I’m observing monsters.”
“Monsters?”
The girl also peered into Crane’s magnifying glass.
“Ew, gross.”
“If I study the immune techniques of these insects, maybe we can overcome any disease, you know!?”
“Insects’ techniques… No thanks.”
Crane pursed his lips and resumed his observation.
“Is this a monster’s technique? Strange.”
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The girl gazed curiously at the magic circle projected by the magnifying glass.
“This is the style of an ancient technique. A flat plane with three-dimensional structure circuitry――”
Crane, who was about to explain quickly, was interrupted by the girl drawing a double helix on the ground with her finger.
Multiple lines were drawn, connecting the two chains like linking chains.
“This is how I know how to write techniques.”
“W-What’s that?”
“I learned it from my dad. Techniques look like this.”
“I don’t understand.”
“Hmm. Hey, why are you studying bugs?”
“… ”
At first, Crane ignored the girl’s words.
But he gave in to the gaze of the girl staring at him.
“…My mom is sick. And it’s a disease that no one has ever recovered from before.”
“Sick… can’t it get better?”
The surprised girl showed a sad expression.
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But Crane forcibly smiled.
“She’ll get better! There’s nothing impossible in this world. Just last week, a quartet appeared that was said to be impossible! My great-grandmother, who appraised it, was also surprised.”
The girl seems to not understand the story very well.
“But, you don’t know how to cure it, right?”
“It’s okay. My dad is the best researcher. He said he would cure any illness right away. That’s why I’m helping like this.”
Once again, Crane’s gaze returned to the magnifying glass.
“Researcher? A skilled craftsman, you mean?”
“Craftsman? Well, yeah, my dad can make anything. And… he’s a kind person. Even though he’s busy with his research, he always reads lots of books to me before I go to sleep.”
“Your dad sounds amazing! My dad is also an amazing artisan! We’re the same, huh?”
The girl smiles brightly.
Crane looks away from the magnifying glass and smiles at the girl.
“Not “you”, the name is Crane.”
“…I’m Fagra.”
“Nice to meet you, Fagra.”
“Yeah.”
From that day on, Crane and Fagra began to spend time together. On days when it didn’t rain or snow, they would meet at the big rock and play until dusk became a daily routine.
As time passed, things began to change over the course of one or two years.
He began to wonder why someone who wasn’t from the Orleans family was living in this uninhabited place.
Fagra might not be an ordinary person, he thought. As this question began to arise, the girl suddenly stopped appearing.
Still, Crane continued to visit the deserted rock where no one was around for about ten days.
On the eleventh day, despite being rained on, Crane waited all day, only to realize that the girl had graduated from being a child.
After that day, Crane stopped visiting the big rock.
Eleven days late, the boy also graduated from being a child.
***
Time passed, and Crane celebrated his sixteenth birthday.
He wore a black hood with gold embroidery, pulled down deeply.
Despite that, Crane walked alone in the desolate land, looking as if he were about to cry. No, he was crying, but the tears were barely clinging to his eyelids.
The heir of a noble family had come of age.
Normally, there would have been a celebration with the whole family.
However, it was abruptly canceled.
Wandering aimlessly somewhere away from the base.
At that moment, Crane noticed a large rock not far from the base.
What felt distant in his childhood was now close by, just near the rocky mountain of the base.
Otherwise, in this land where monsters appear, children wouldn’t be allowed to play.
Just somehow, Crane’s feet led him to the big rock where he spent his childhood.
――It’s been a while since I came here.
He sat on the ground.
The sky above felt terribly narrow.
Scenes he saw in his childhood should have been large.
Trying to reach the seemingly close sky with his hand, Crane stood up again.
At that moment, he heard the sound of small stones crumbling.
He wiped away tears reflexively.
“Who’s there?”
There was no response.
All members of the Orleans family grew up in the same base.
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There was no need to hide.
There was only one person who wasn’t a member of the family at this location.
“….Fagra?”
Still, there was no response.
That absence made him feel near certain.
Crane began to move toward the sound he heard from behind the rock.
Then, someone tried to flee, and Crane caught the person’s arm before they could escape.
“Wait!”
In a hurry, he peered behind the rock and grabbed the arm of the person there.
The person whose arm he held turned around.
It was the girl he spent his childhood with.
Her face had grown, just like Crane’s, but Crane had surpassed her in height.
“Uh, um…”
He couldn’t find words.
There were so many things he wanted to ask—whether she was okay, why she disappeared without a word, what she had been doing all this time.
“Let go…”
“Ah, s-sorry.”
He quickly let go of her hand.
Silence fell between the two.
Crane was the first to speak.
“Hey, Fagra. Why did you leave without saying anything? It would have been nice to have at least said something, you know? It’s not fair.”
Fagra is a dwarf. Crane is a human. Humans despise dwarves, and dwarves cut off ties with humans.
She must have understood that even as a child.
But Crane wanted to hear it directly from her.
Something dark flickered in Fagra’s eyes.
“Unfair? The unfair ones are… you guys!”
“What? I didn’t do anything.”
Fagra’s expression gradually twists with anger.
“Don’t joke with me!! My mother… my mother was killed by you humans!!”
“K-killed?”
“Yes! I got caught by humans trying to escape without knowing anything! And then! And then!”
She knew that there were always people aiming for a quick fortune by digging into veins.
Among them, it’s a fact that there are humans who despise dwarves as much as monsters.
“I was stupid. I was just an ignorant child. I thought… I thought all humans were like you.”
“Fagra…”
“Give me back my mother! Why did my kind-hearted mother have to suffer like that!? Why…she didn’t anything wrong…?”
Tears stream down Fagra’s cheeks.
Then she drops to her knees.
Overwhelmed with emotions, Crane embraces Fagra.
“Let go! Don’t touch me, human!”
“I understand, Fagra’s feelings.”
“You can’t possibly understand!”
Fagra struggles in Crane’s arms.
“She… died too, two days ago. My mother.”
“What…?”
“It was a long, really long battle with illness… She was bedridden all the time… She was in pain… her whole body was in pain. But she said she couldn’t die until I came of age.”
“Crane?”
“‘Believe in Orleans’… until the end.”
On the hood Crane wore, there was an embroidered figure of a young man heading towards a beautiful city. Above it, the words “Believe in Orleans” were engraved.
“And just… just two days… and yet…”
Uncontrollable tears overflowed from Crane’s eyes.
“Ugh… I can’t… waaaaah!”
Like a dam breaking, he crumples his face.
“Don’t… don’t cry… ugh…”
Large tears fall from Fagra’s eyes again.
As they hold each other, comforting and cherishing each other, they simply cry.
The drops falling onto the big rock seem to fill the void left by their lost time together.