Bonus Short Stories

The Young Girl Gets Lost

“What should Latina do...?”

Latina was troubled. She looked all around at the people passing her by.

This occurred on Dale and Latina’s way back from Tislow, in a post town they’d stopped in. Latina had been walking right behind Dale, but then a wagon passed by, and her attention was completely captured by a mountain of some kind of fruit she’d never seen before. Unsurprisingly, in that short period of time, Latina got lost.

“Still, it’s okay.”

She had grown up quite a bit since back when she’d gotten lost in Kreuz. She was now aware that at times like this, she should stay put and wait for Dale to find her rather than darting all about. She felt a little... just a little... lonely, but she was alright.

“Dale will definitely come for Latina.”

And then she’d be sure to apologize for getting distracted. Also, she definitely wouldn’t follow any strangers before Dale arrived.

While repeating all that in her head, Latina went to the side of the road. She resumed stretching out on her tip-toes and looking for Dale.

“Wah...”

And then, she started to feel conflicted about what she had told herself earlier.

“Latina!”

Dale’s scream echoed throughout the post town moments later. He should’ve known that that girl was a bundle of curiosity and could easily get lured away by things that interested her, so it was his fault for letting his guard down. What was he thinking, taking his eyes off of her? He was in a dangerous enough mental state that if, on the off chance something were to happen to her, he would burn the world to ashes and then follow after her.

“Was it a cat? Did she wander off after a cat again?!”

That was his current hypothesis. As an animal lover, whenever Latina saw a stray cat, she’d stop in her tracks, then slowly and steadily approach to see if she could pet it. He’d have to check whether or not there were any cats out for a stroll in nearby alleys or on walls.

“Latina... where are you?!”

“Dale.”

Dale was at his wit’s end when he at last heard that adorable voice he’d been seeking. He’d just been about to go around to all the passersby and start asking if they’d seen his unbelievably adorable daughter, with her platinum hair tied up in two pigtails.

“Latina, I always tell you not to wander off—” Dale started, only to stop when he saw her.

“Dale... what should Latina do...?”

She was desperately trying to comfort a sobbing child.

“Is he lost...?”

“Probably. He hasn’t stopped crying, so Latina doesn’t know the details.”

A lost child was looking after another lost child. The boy of about three was sobbing heavily, his face pure red. Latina wiped his face with her own handkerchief as she squatted down.

“Should we take him to the community watch station or something?” asked Dale.

“Maybe that’d be alright. But Latina wants to try to get him to stop crying for a bit longer.”

“Right. Well, I’d probably just make him cry harder, so... I’m counting on you, Latina.”

Dale stood by her side and looked around, trying to see if he could spot a parent searching for their child. All the while, Latina tried her hardest to calm the boy. Latina really is kind, Dale thought. He had completely deviated from his original plan to lecture her.

The lost boy’s mother appeared around when Latina finally successfully got him to stop crying. Latina hugged Dale tight as she watched the boy run to his mother, looking like he was about to burst out in tears again.

“Latina?”

Looking at her expression, he realized that what he needed to do wasn’t to give her a lecture for wandering off. Instead, he needed to comfort her. Dale’s pained smile turned into a more natural one, and he hugged the girl tight.

The Doting Idiot and the Girl Visit the Quirmizi Harvest Festival

Ahmar was the principal god of Laband.

But it wasn’t as if the other gods weren’t worshipped. For the people who lived near a temple of Quirmizi, the harvest festival was a well-known event.

“So, it’s time for the harvest festival.”

“Is it that time already?”

That’s how Kenneth and Dale started off their conversation in the Dancing Ocelot.

“I got asked if Latina could be a flower girl for the festival.”

“I see.”

Kenneth gave a satisfied nod, knowing that the flower girls who performed the offering ceremony during the harvest festival were chosen from about town with no concern for whether or not they had divine protection, unlike with other rituals. Since all eyes would be on the flower girls on the stage, beautiful girls were always chosen.

Latina was still just ten years old, but if she were to stand upon the offering stage in festival wear, she’d surely captivate a great number of people. Kenneth thought for sure that the doting idiot Dale would be proud about that request, but he wore a pained smile and shook his head.

“I turned them down.”

Ah, so that was it. It was because he was such a doting idiot that he didn’t want her getting unnecessary attention like that. Having come to that conclusion, Kenneth looked back at Dale with a disgusted expression.

“I know what you’re thinking. If Latina were to become a flower girl, she’d definitely be cute! And I’d end up feeling bad for all the other girls on the stage with her!”

That statement made Kenneth want to demand that Dale apologize to the other children.

“Still... It just wouldn’t work.”

“What is?”

“The offering the flower girls do is a dance.”

Kenneth went silent in response. They could both hear Latina, who was sweeping the Ocelot, humming a tune. Her rhythm was as exhaustingly off as always. Such things were entirely outside of her field of expertise.

“That’d be difficult for her...”

“Right?”

Dale was blindly doting towards Latina, but his judgment on this matter turned out to be shockingly sensible.

A Full Account of the Platinum-haired Maiden’s Greatest Weakness

“Woof.”

The incident began when one day, Vint faced a corner of the attic in the Dancing Ocelot and tilted his head.

“Grr...”

“What is it, Vint? You actually sounded like a dog there.”

Dale tilted his head as well in response to Vint’s growl towards the corner. Noticing the beast and the man’s actions, Latina tilted her head, too.

“What’s wrong, Vint? There’s nothing there.”

Aside from the space that served as Dale and Latina’s room, the rest of the attic was used as storage for the Ocelot. In addition to the stock of general goods and medicine sold on the first floor, there were also spare linens used for lodgers. Thanks to the slope of the roof, the ceiling was low and there was less usable space than on the lower levels of the building, but because Dale and Latina usually sat on the floor rather than in chairs, it wasn’t overly inconvenient for them.

“Grrr...”

Surprisingly, Vint kept on with his low growl, not paying attention to Latina’s voice. Looking at that “pup,” Dale remembered a bit of folklore.

“Now that I think of it, they say that dogs and cats can see things that people can’t.”

“Things that can’t be seen?”

Not understanding what Dale was saying, Latina tilted her head. Her puzzled, innocent expression was just too cute, so Dale wasn’t able to restrain himself from messing with her.

“For example...”

“Yeah?”

“Ghosts and stuff.”

“Huh?”

“Ghosts.”

When he repeated the word, Latina turned pale as a sheet in the mere blink of an eye. Ever since she was young, she’d had an unparalleled fear of the undead.

“Wha... Huh?! Th-There’s one here?!”

“One what?” Despite obviously knowing what she was asking, Dale purposefully played dumb. The girl’s big grey eyes grew moist, making her look like a bit of a crybaby.

However, Latina didn’t feel that way. After all, they were in their own room right now. It was only natural that she couldn’t stay calm when she was told that there may be some unknown presence there.

“U-Undead...”

“Yeah. That’s what they say...”

“Wah!”

Latina hurriedly glanced all about with her watery eyes. She looked straight at Dale, then fearfully stared in the direction that Vint was growling. It was hard to discern the meaning behind her actions, but she was so cute that Dale didn’t mind.

“I-I don’t see anything...”

“I don’t, either.”

As this was a world where undead monsters like zombies and skeletons prowled, monsters like ghosts also undoubtedly existed.

By the way, Dale didn’t find the need to pay any heed to anything as weak as ghosts. They just floated around and couldn’t cause any direct harm, so he didn’t mind just leaving them be. They were essentially just pests to him.

However, that wasn’t the case for Latina. She had no trouble crushing bugs under foot without hesitation, but that didn’t work for undead monsters. In fact, they could fundamentally only be harmed with magic.

“Oh light of heaven, grant this request by my name...”

“Wait, Latina, stop! What are you doing?!”

“Don’t stop me, Dale! I’m... I’m going to defeat the monster!”

“Don’t use magic if you don’t even know if anything’s there or not!”

“I’ll purify every single spot where they might be!”

Dale held the crying Latina’s arms behind her back to stop her from randomly firing off magic. He even found her cute when she was about to blow her fuse, but that didn’t mean he was fine letting her go wild and burn everything to ashes.

At some point, Vint had started grooming his front paw, looking like nothing had happened. Dale stared at him, not sure what to say about his relaxed manner, and started thinking again about how to calm Latina down.