HEO 80

It wasn’t just any ordinary seabird. From a distance of about twenty paces from the wreck, it really stood out. It was a bird he’d never seen in Stoll before, and it looked exceptionally cute. Could it be a pet bird from Atania that had escaped from a wrecked merchant vessel?

Silver’s heart started pounding. Right now, beneath his human skin mask, his face must look no different from the expressions of people seeing Starry Eyes for the first time. I-I want it! I want that bird!

The bird might have thought the corpse was a delicious fruit since it was pecking at the back of its neck. Silver approached on tiptoe. Five steps to the bird. From here on, he lowered his body as much as possible and crawled forward. Just as he was one step away, their eyes met.

“Sweetie, I’m not a bad person…! Aaaarh!”

Silver spread his arms wide and pounced on the bird. Thud.

All he felt in his arms was a hard corpse. Silver looked up at the sky, and saw the bird flying away. Shit!

〔Pfft. If you say “I’m not a bad person” with a face like that, you look like the worst person in the world, you know?〕

From his shoulder, Starry Eyes tapped Silver’s cheek with his forelegs. Silver pretended not to hear, dusted off his clothes, and stood up. For a drowned body, it was almost completely unbloated and looked perfectly fine. Blonde hair clung to his waist like seaweed. Its back was covered in tattoos.

“Damn it, how many spots does he have……. Does cutting off a donkey’s ears make it a fine horse?”

Silver cursed and kicked the corpse over. The front had far more tattoos than the back. It seemed the spots were concentrated on the torso alone; judging by this, his mother must have cried her eyes out in despair after giving birth to him. Whatever, let’s just take off his pants… Huh?

What is this, a metal rod…?

〔Ƨᴉɼʌԍʁ. This body is mysterious.〕

Starry Eyes pointed to the corpse’s third leg. On the left thigh, wrapped in waterlogged Atania Belfoca cotton pants, a long, thick, heavy outline stood out.

〔The fabric of the pants is highly elastic. It didn’t tear even while wrapped around a weight that size.〕

“……You’re right. I can see why even a senior pirate would covet it.”

Silver, who had been muttering to himself, rubbed his eyes in disbelief once more. The corpse’s face caught his gaze as he looked at it absentmindedly. It looked familiar.

No way.

Silver closed his eyes and then opened them again. He strained his eyes and stared at the corpse’s face while harboring the usual misguided hope that it might change if he looked again.

It didn’t change. It was that face. The face that would suddenly take over his vision like an assault, whether in dreams or when drunk. A face that bore a slight resemblance to that servant bastard, whom he wouldn’t be satisfied with even if he ground his bones to dust and scattered them into the sea.

It’s… definitely someone else, right…? The servant wasn’t this handsome.

The frame was the same. To use a metaphor, they wete like loaves baked from the same mold.

Except Wolf was the undercooked loaf pulled hastily from the oven.

The corpse was the finest loaf, carefully baked to a golden brown by a chef who meticulously adjusted the fire in front of the oven.

Wolf was the “pretty decent-looking neighborhood big brother” you might happen to glance at once in a while.

The corpse was the “overwhelmingly handsome man” whom God personally sculpted with a chisel, then sent down to earth, marveling, “Even I have to admit, I really did a good job on this.”

It was a different person. A person’s face couldn’t possibly change this much in just a year.

Around this time last year, Silver saw Wolf from a distance. After traveling all over the world to find out whether Black Weasel and himself were real people, he had headed for the capital of Stoll. In fact, he had heard the rumor long ago that Wolf was White Deer’s biological son and that Red Eagle had committed suicide. The journey Wolf had taken to meet White Deer was also known to be a story vastly different from Silver’s memories. In none of the rumors about Wolf did a wandering mercenary clad in a wolf’s pelt and his son appear.

Nevertheless, he headed to Stoll to ask Wolf, “Don’t you recognize me?” To cut to the chase, Silver caught a brief glimpse of Wolf from afar as he appeared at a festival with the king and queen, then turned away and left. The moment he saw the man’s face, he felt afraid. He was afraid that even Wolf might ask, “Who are you?” No, he was certain that was exactly what he would say.

The Wolf he had seen back then looked almost exactly the same, except his hair had grown longer. He’d seen countless cases of people aging rapidly from hardship, but he’d never heard of the opposite happening. It was surprising enough when a friend you haven’t seen in ten years was unrecognizable, but to transform into a stunning man in just one year? Was that even realistically possible?

It wasn’t just his face that was different. First, his rock-hard muscles. He looked like the kind of guy who devoured meat every three hours, did nothing but strength training all day, and slept in a push-up position every night. Next were the tattoos covering his entire upper body. The servant without a single freckle on his body would never get such tattoos.

Third was his height. The corpse’s height rivaled that of Blacl Weasel. Finally, his third leg. Wolf was big, but this guy was even bigger. Overall, his face was hundreds of times more handsome, and his physique was three or four inches taller and more muscular. No matter how he looked at it, he was a different person.

But…….

“Starry Eyes. Do you remember that servant’s face?”

〔That guy? Hmph, of course I remember! We saw him last year.〕

“This guy. Does he look like the servant to you?”

At those words, Starry Eyes glanced quickly at the corpse, then crossed his long front legs to make a decisive X-sign.

“Are you sure? You’re not mistaken just because it’s been a year since you saw him?”

〔Ƨᴉɼʌԍʁ, my memory retention is different from humans’. It’s permanent, without distortion.〕

Starry Eyes’ pupils glowed coldly.

〔That mysterious body is only slightly similar in appearance to the servant, but completely different. Comparing such a high-quality face to the servant’s is an insult!〕

“Isn’t it possible for a person to change dramatically in just a year?”

〔Ƨᴉɼʌԍʁ, the probability of a human achieving this degree of skeletal realignment in just one year is extremely low. It’s more reasonable to assume that the mysterious corpse is related by blood to the servant. If they’re distant relatives, their facial features could bear a resemblance.〕

“But… there are plenty of cases where people look completely different once they lose their baby fat.”

〔Losing weight doesn’t turn a donkey into a fine horse. That mysterious human’s facial features must have been excellent even in his youth.〕

Starry Eyes shook his front legs.

〔His biological functions have ceased. Even if he is the same person as the servant, it doesn’t matter now.〕

“Why doesn’t it matter?”

Silver’s lips twisted.

“That bastard is the one I’ve been saving to tear to pieces. He shouldn’t die in such a pathetic way.”

〔Don’t worry, Ƨᴉɼʌԍʁ. That body isn’t your enemy.〕

“It shouldn’t be… but…”

Still feeling suspicious, Silver leaned in to look closely at the man’s face. Up close, he was even more handsome. As the saying goes, he shone like the sun. Come to think of it, if this guy really was that servant, that would be a problem too. I’m so pissed off, how could I… Huh?

The corpse’s chest seemed to be moving slightly. It wasn’t his imagination. The man’s lips had parted slightly, and he exhaled.

This bastard isn’t dead?!

Just then, the man’s eyelids lifted weakly. The moment his pupils were revealed beneath his thick, brush-like eyelashes, Silver was left speechless. They were amber-colored.

There was no focus in the man’s eyes. He looked like a drunk who’d downed a barrel of booze all night, passed out in a ditch, and only just woken up to the morning sun. His eyes wandered aimlessly before locking onto Silver’s face. A scream burst from his mouth immediately.

“Aaargh! Shit!”

He looked like someone who had suddenly woken up from a deep sleep only to find a giant cockroach crawling into his gaping mouth. It was a natural reaction. Silver had been just as startled the first time he saw his own hideous, masked face in the mirror.

“What the hell! As soon as I open my eyes! Hey! Move your face! It’s disgusting!”

The man scooped up some sand and threw it as he sat up. He gaped while pointing at Silver, then looked around frenetically, and even backed away by bracing himself with both hands on the floor. Silver was even more dumbfounded.

Even his voice sounded just like that bastard’s.

Only slightly lower and deeper than Wolf’s. It was a subtle difference, but it was the kind of tone kids would call “cool” and compete to imitate.

The man suddenly froze. His gaze turned towards Starry Eyes, perched on Silver’s shoulder. Only then did Silver come back to his senses.

“Don’t drool, bastard! This is my bug friend!”

He hurriedly shoved Starry Eyes into his belt pouch. The man’s gaze didn’t leave Silver’s belt pouch.

“Why are you so surprised? Never seen a mantis before?”

When Silver tightened his pouch and asked, the man looked up.

“Well… I’ve never seen a talking mantis before.”

Huh?!

“I thought I heard it. You were talking to the mantis…”

“You heard wrong! You just picked up some nonsense from a dream!”

Silver raised his fist. The man flinched and stepped back.

Silence.

Neither Silver nor the man spoke. Silver glared at the man, his fist still raised. The man didn’t avoid it and stared right back at Silver. Only the sound of waves washing ashore and the raucous laughter of pirates partying like it was a harvest festival after-party filled the air.

“Hey.”

The man spoke first.

“Who are you?”

“……For starters, I’m the one who came here to take your pants off.”