Chapter 64

“Where did I go?”

Quilbion got up, then brushed the dust off the back of his head.

“I was here the whole time.”

“No. You were somewhere else.”

Somewhere else?

It was so absurd that an empty laugh escaped.

“I was here the whole time. You saw everything from right beside me, so why are you saying that?”

The tavern where glasses clinked and men and women’s laughter intertwined was just imagination’s creation, a place that existed only inside his head.

“The Great Winte, you said it yourself. That they’re illusions with substance. I saw something that you also……”

“You were somewhere else.”

The great being didn’t seem to be joking. Quilbion asked back with a rather serious expression.

“Did I disappear before your eyes?”

“No. Your body was right in front of me.”

“Then I didn’t go anywhere. My body was here.”

“Your mind. Your mental world split apart. Your body was pinned here, but your mental entity was half-overlapping with somewhere that isn’t here.”

“What I saw was real? Not an illusion?”

“Explain what you saw.”

Quilbion slowly unpacked his memories. The music he’d heard, the smells, the alcohol he’d drunk. Even the various animals gathered there.

“What was your state? What were you doing?”

“It was ordinary. I was someone doing odd jobs at a guild. Um, I can’t remember the details. I remembered everything right before waking up, you know? But like a dream, once I come to my senses, it all flies away.”

“Interesting.”

“Is this bad? Is this a problem?”

“I can’t tell. It’s my first time seeing a case like this too.”

Winte’s golden pupils moved up and down. It was a look like grading pigs.

“Don’t even think about dissecting me, please.”

“Depends on the situation.”

“No, why are you changing your words? You said it can’t be done because of the promise.”

“……Regrettable.”

He really looked genuinely disappointed.

This was someone he shouldn’t feel safe around just because they could communicate. He might suddenly snap his neck and dissect him one day.

“That won’t happen. If I decide to do it, I’ll tell you beforehand.”

“Stop with the horrifying talk. What are you going to do about coffee if I die?”

“That is a problem.”

Winte crossed his legs.

“Ah, there’s one thing that’s been clarified.”

“What?”

“Your nark. According to the information Al Terua obtained, your nark kept flowing in from somewhere.”

“Al Terua, no, you said it was unusual.”

“I’m not Al Terua. You shouldn’t equate the role I created with me.”

“That’s the same thing. Anyway, what about my nark?”

“There was a connection. Nark intimately connected to your mental world. And your consciousness that was connected to somewhere other than here for a brief moment.”

Winte’s finger pointed toward Quilbion’s chest.

“Not here, but there. You seem to be receiving nark from another you existing in that unknown place.”

“……What are you saying?”

“I’ll need a bit more time to conceptualize it. More than that, another dimension beyond the Designer’s sight. It wouldn’t be strange if the world vanished tomorrow.”

“Stop saying scary things and explain it to me. Okay?”

Suddenly, Winte clapped his hands.

Clap, clap, clap.

He stared blankly at Winte at this unexpected action.

“Congratulations. First experimental subject.”

“Don’t call me an experimental subject. It’s ominous.”

“It seems you’ve become a creature half-removed from the god’s intentions. You’re a life that fits very well with this place. Disorderly and unplanned, yes.”

He felt Winte’s eyes glitter peculiarly.

“Maybe I really should dissect you.”

Quilbion frowned and jumped down from the rooftop.

He knew it was useless, but he ran desperately. He ran so violently that his body scraped against the air and got wounded, but when he came to his senses, he was back on the rooftop.

He could see Winte’s back as he gazed into the distance with his chin propped up.

“I’ll make coffee!”

Quilbion said as if screaming.

Winte quietly turned his head.

“Make it cold.”

Judging by how his lips jutted out resignedly, it seemed the dissection appointment wouldn’t be made.

He stroked his chest in relief and went down to the first floor.

After wiping out all the goblins that ate humans, now he was living with a dragon who seriously talked about dissecting him.

“Why is life so damn hard? Huh?”

Quilbion lamented to Twella who was watching from beside him. Twella whispered in her usual gentle voice.

“Then die.”

“Thanks for the encouragement. It makes me want to live even more.”

He looked up while brewing coffee.

The sixth sense eye caught the golden light rippling beyond the ceiling.

“Not here, but there. Where the hell is that?”

It really was a parade of incomprehensible words.

*

“Mr. Quilbion. This puts us in a difficult position.”

The old man who’d been reading documents with his glasses halfway down let out a murky sigh along with picking up his pen.

The pen danced across the paper.

Quilbion had to hide his bitter smile while watching the black line being carelessly drawn.

“Here, prepare this part again and bring it.”

“When’s the deadline……”

“Fifteen days. No extensions, and if you’re late, the permit gets canceled, so remember that well.”

“Understood. The cost……”

“Go to the reception desk on the left after you leave. Next person.”

Quilbion came outside holding the document envelope.

He’d moved his whole family here to open a shop, but things had gotten terribly tangled.

What should he do?

“Will you be using credit?”

“Ah, yes.”

Quilbion held out his credit certificate to the employee beyond the iron bars.

“It’s guaranteed by Codan Trading Company.”

“Yes, but is there a problem?”

“Their rating dropped. You should check the guarantee limit again. It’ll be trouble if payment gets blocked, won’t it?”

Was this also a stumbling block?

After getting the credit certificate back, he left the civic center. He entered the alley beside the building and put a cigarette in his mouth.

The moment he tried to light it with his lighter and take a long drag, a mechanical doll creaked into the alley.

The mechanical doll raised both arms.

– No Smoking Zone

“……Sorry.”

He threw the cigarette on the ground and stomped it out. It was made from cheap leaves, so it wasn’t a waste.

The mechanical doll turned around making worn sounds.

It’s a rigid place.

The village he’d lived in before wasn’t like this.

He shook his head while immersed in the surging regret and snapped to his senses.

What’s a man with a wife and kids doing being so pathetic? Quilbion slapped his own cheeks lightly. Cheer up, you can do this.

When he returned home, the children welcomed him.

They toddled over calling “Daddy” and hugged him, and the worries he’d gotten at the civic center washed away in an instant.

“You’re back?”

His wife poked her head out from the kitchen.

He felt unworthy to face her. She was a grateful woman who’d followed him all the way here trusting only her husband without a single complaint.

“What’s wrong?”

“Nothing, it’s nothing.”

“It’s not nothing. Tell me. What happened?”

His wife pushed the children’s bottoms gently, sending them into their room. While he sat in the dining chair massaging his forehead, his wife brought him water.

“Thank you.”

“The errand you went on, something didn’t go well?”

“Well, the thing is……”

It was when he was wondering how to explain.

The headache started. He buried his head against the table while clutching it.

“What’s wrong?”

His wife approached and shook him.

His wavering vision found its place. Quilbion looked at the unfamiliar woman’s face.

“Um, I’m…… sorry.”

“Honey.”

“I’m not, I mean, I’m not honey.”

“Why are you suddenly acting like this? You’re scaring me.”

“The thing is……”

The children’s room door burst open and the two children came toddling over. They grabbed his legs and shook them happily, calling “Daddy.”

“R-right. I’m Daddy.”

He couldn’t be cruel to the kids.

Quilbion said to the unfamiliar woman,

“Sorry. My mind’s all over the place, so could you let me be alone for a bit?”

“……Okay. Tell me when you’ve sorted things out.”

She picked up the two children clinging to his pants and handed them over.

Quilbion remained alone in the kitchen and looked around.

“This is driving me crazy, seriously.”

He touched the table. He could feel the smooth texture of varnish-finished wood at his fingertips.

From beyond the children’s room, small voices reached him. It was a lullaby.

“Marriage, children. Wow……”

Marriage wasn’t unfamiliar.

He’d gotten married countless times in another illusion, no, in another place.

There probably isn’t a man in the world who’s gotten married more than me, right? Even just counting children, there would easily be over a thousand.

The scary thing was,

“It’s getting clearer and clearer.”

Ever since hearing Winte’s words, the memories from the bizarre world had begun staying vividly etched in his mind.

Before, once he came to his senses, the things he’d experienced in that place would evaporate from his head in an instant, but as time passed, they wouldn’t easily fade as if he’d actually experienced them.

Imprinted and imprinted again.

At this rate, wouldn’t there come a day when he’d get confused about who he was? It was realistic enough a worry.

Quilbion closed his eyes and felt his nark.

The nark swirling inside his body wriggled in response to his will.

He opened his eyes slightly. His sixth sense stretched at the same time.

Black nark was streaming out from his body in tendrils.

The nark that flowed from his body coalesced about a hand’s width from his chest.

From the black nark gathered to fist-size, a fine thread was drawn out again and seeped into his heart.

Winte’s words were true.

Another him in the bizarre world was sending nark to the main body inside the surface realm.

They were connected.

He’d absorbed quite a lot of nark from catching goblins, so why hadn’t the total amount of nark increased much?

The answer was simple.

The nark absorbed by the main body was also flowing to the other Quilbions in various places.

“What’s what?”

Quilbion interlaced his hands behind his head and leaned back against the chair.

This place was a space even Winte couldn’t grasp. No, if Winte’s words were true, it was a domain unknown even to the great god who created everything.

It’s absurd.

That there’s something the creator of the world doesn’t know.

“Daddy, Daddy.”

From beyond the door came the children’s voices calling for their daddy while giggling.

His chest ached. Ridiculously, he loved the woman and children beyond that door.

The emotions of the Quilbion who’d built a life in this place were seeping in intact.

That’s why,

“Take care.”

Quilbion took a deep breath and exhaled it slowly.

Slowly, slowly.

Until all the breath from his lungs flowed out and the lungs shriveled to a point, creating a crushing pressure, he expelled every bit of breath.

When his breath dried up and his body screamed that he couldn’t endure any longer,

Quilbion held out once more at the limit.

Then he opened his eyes.

It was the bedroom full of tally marks.

Quilbion swept his face. Cold sweat clung to his palm. Even though it was a body that wouldn’t sweat a drop even running day and night for ten days without rest.

He got up from the bed and went up to the second floor.

He opened the door across from the stairs and entered, sitting at the desk.

A notebook made of quality paper and a pen.

There was no need to dip ink separately—when he placed the pen nib on the paper and wrote, an appropriate amount of ink flowed out.

Winte called this thing a ballpoint pen.

He recorded everything he’d experienced in that place in the notebook. After writing down the entire life story of a man in his forties, on the last page he drew the faces of his wife and children.

“This one’s all filled up too.”

Quilbion closed the notebook and put it on the left bookshelf.

Four bookshelves standing in a row.

Half of them were filled with notebooks.

Recording, and recording again.

He stared quietly at Quilbion’s record archive, then went outside.