Chapter 13: Blue Eyes and Long Ears

Chapter 13:
Blue Eyes and Long Ears

THE ROAD EXTENDED straight to the west. Wearing an excessively expensive-looking olive-brown robe, I walked through the auburn wasteland accompanied by my excessively beautiful partner.

The headwind brushed against my cheek. The usual scenery extended as far as the eye could see, but I thought we couldn’t be that far away from our destination of Samari, and we would hopefully arrive that day.

Two and a half hours had passed since I took responsibility for turning Goltarou into a bishoujo figurine and cried tears of deep sorrow. My partner had turned into an elf golem too beautiful for this world, but I was not the Greek-statue fanatic or gentleman pervert she had mistaken me for.

In fact, I was starting to feel a bit reluctant to be seen by others with her in this form. Undoubtedly, anyone who saw her would fall in love with her. I, on the other hand, standing next to her, would be taken for some kind of obsessive figurine connoisseur…

Anyway, I had completely switched gears within those two and a half hours. The bond I shared with my partner had returned to normal.

See, I wasn’t a man who judged anyone based on their appearance. I took pride in that. After all, I had thought those abominable monkeys were cute and friendly until I learned of their savagery. So there was no need to work myself up over this!

The resolution to my crisis had been right there in front of me. Even if Goltarou now physically resembled a bishoujo figurine, I would never ever abandon him—he was my partner. And if he turned into a statue of a macho bear because he mistook me for a gentleman with a fetish for burly muscle-men, nothing would change between us then either. No matter what form he took or what others said, he would always be my beloved, adorable, and compassionate Goltarou.

Still, calling my partner “Goltarou” in this form did feel strange. In her current shape, a girly name like Golko was insufficiently feminine. Maybe something like Wilhelmina or Margareta…though if I didn’t give her a divine name like Aphrodite or Psyche, I might get scolded…

“Let’s pick up the pace, Gol. I want to reach Samari before the sun sets.”

Gol. That was the simplest I was going to allow, given my personality. I’d already called my partner “Gol” on several occasions in the heat of the moment. As such, there was no sense of discomfort. Besides, it was just a nickname. Her real name would always be “Goltarou.”

Yeah. If someone asked me, “What’s your golem’s name?” I would unhesitatingly answer, “It’s Goltarou.” I refused to yield my pride in my christening skills.

To tell you the truth, I thought perhaps that if I didn’t drastically change her name, Gol might grow tired of being a bishoujo figurine and return to his original form. I was crossing my fingers that, if such an opportunity arose, he would transform into that cool armored golem warrior I imagined when I made him.

I held little hope for that, though.

Now that I look back on all that happened after, no matter how many times I kindly begged, Gol firmly stuck with that bishoujo figurine form…

Returning to the moment, I said to Goltarou, “Let’s reach Samari before sunset.” I believed that was possible so long as nothing dramatic happened.

By calculating the time required to reach the road from the basin and the several days it took to reach the shrine after that, I had intuited the map’s scale, especially with the help of the many geographical landmarks.

I wanted to pick up the pace because I was thinking about what would happen after we arrived. The later we got to the village, the more difficult it would be to negotiate lodging.

“If we make it tonight, I want to sleep under a roof…”

Ever since leaving the basin, we had slept outside. I originally planned to spend a night at the shrine, but because of that over-the-top battle, we were forced to escape.

I called out to Gol, so she popped her head over my shoulder to listen. This was her usual gesture, but with her new form, her long ears lightly brushed against mine. It tickled.

Her ears sure were long… I wondered if all this world’s inhabitants were elves. Since I’d only met skeletons, I had no clue as to whether such ears were a common feature. Bones didn’t really give you a good sense of ear-shape.

Ah, wait. When I thought about it, the Greek statues in the shrine all had normal ears. The goddesses on the high relief also had human ears. Then that meant this world wasn’t populated solely by elves.

In that case, uh, what? Did that mean that from Gol’s observations of my behavior, he didn’t just decide that I must be a bishoujo figurine fanatic, but that I had an elf-ear fetish?! So in his never-ceasing attempts to better serve me, he took on this new form?

Tears of regret were once more about to fall from my eyes.

Then again, even someone who knows you well can end up misjudging appropriate gifts, especially if they’re from a different species. Once, when I was bedridden with a cold, my pet cat was worried and dropped a dead sparrow on my pillow. To be frank, it was unpleasant… But I knew he was acting in a way he thought would please me. That was why I showed my cat the biggest smile I could muster.

In that case, there was only one thing I could do as a recipient of Gol’s kindness. Besides, it wasn’t like I was put out.

“Your long ears are cute,” I said. “I like them.”

I could not have imagined the impact those words had on Gol. I thought I was just expressing my gratitude with a compliment. I didn’t put much thought into the statement. Rather, I didn’t put any thought into it.

And yet, at that moment, a tremendous whirlwind of emotions slammed into me all at once. What was happening? What was this? The emotion surging through me like a torrent was an incandescent joy… No, it was close to ecstasy.

Since Gol’s creation, it had been rare for such a strong emotion to flow into me from him. In fact, this was the first time any of his emotions had reached such intensity.

Her feelings continued flowing into my head like a deluge. They were as thick as flooding rapids mixed with mud, and as hot as a violent flame fanned by a harsh wind. I felt dizzy, and red and blue sparks flared behind my eyelids.

This was bad. I couldn’t take any more of this. Hey, stop, Gol. My brain is melting. Ah, I can’t. I can’t…anymore…

As my consciousness faded, I saw a long-haired woman sitting on a large rock in the middle of a dense forest. The violet of twilight enshrouded her surroundings. Was that why she stood out so clearly? When she noticed me, it looked like she was desperately trying to call out to me. However, the noise from the wind was so loud that I couldn’t hear anything…

When I woke, a pair of worried blue eyes peered at me. Hm? Blue eyes…?

I jerked to full awareness. It appeared that I had fainted on the road and Gol was bent over me. As always, Gol’s face was very, very close. It seemed she had been taking care of pathetic ol’ unconscious me. Also as always, she was a good gal.

Furthermore, Gol’s eyes were, of course, red.

Whoa! From this close, I realized her eyelashes were incredibly long. How had those come about? No, I had to focus, stone eyelashes notwithstanding.

Though…I wondered who the owner of those blue eyes had been. And hey, why did I lose consciousness on the road in the first place?

There was only one thing that all these questions pointed to.

Yup, in short, after the series of increasingly stressful events stemming from the sudden change in my environment, my mental state had reached peak exhaustion. I needed a break.

In order to rest in safety as soon as possible, I hurried us along to our destination of Samari. Because I had collapsed, we were behind schedule, and the sun would set soon.

***

“Is this…Samari? No way…” I was speechless.

Right before sunset, we made it to a settlement I believed to be Samari. To be more exact, we made it to the settlement’s ruins.

The settlement of Samari consisted of about a hundred wooden houses, all lined up. It gave off the impression of an old-fashioned farming village. But there were no people, only abandoned houses, and a wide flatland over yonder that must have been a field.

I walked through several buildings, but as expected, they were all uninhabited. There were a few pieces of furniture left inside, but only a very few. Unlike Luvel Zairein’s hideout in the basin, it appeared that most of the furniture had been removed from these houses. Did the whole town move?

Walking between the houses made me feel like I had wandered into an old western film. To tell you the truth, this wasn’t a completely unexpected turn of events. I’d thought it was strange that I hadn’t encountered a single soul on the road. And above all else, the monkeys were troublingly strong. The ones nearby were the huge gorilla-sized variety, the kind that could easily kill a normal human.

I definitely wouldn’t have made it this far without my partner, Gol. After all, my arsenal consisted solely of NTR, which was completely useless against physical attacks, and Create Pebble, which was only capable of creating uselessly large rocks. Without Gol, I would have been monkey food a long time ago.

I was having doubts that I was actually the “Sorcerer King of Destruction.” Rather, I was starting to think my profession was more like the “Sorcerer King, Golem Moocher.”

Great, now I was depressed on top of feeling spineless.

Although I had expected this to a degree, actually seeing the settlement uninhabited really hurt.

However, switching gears was, as ever, one of my strong suits. I readjusted my thinking and decided it was time to find a minimally damaged empty house where we could spend the night. And anyway, if I remembered correctly, we would encounter another settlement, maybe even a large city, if we continued farther west.

I decided to adjust the plan and look over the map again. Since I now knew the map’s scale, I could calculate exactly how many days it would be until our next destination. Fortunately, we also still had plenty of supplies.

“Gol, let’s borrow an empty house nearby and eat…” I called out and turned to my partner—but she was looking past my shoulder.

She got like this whenever she discovered something unexpected or was on the alert. It was easy to tell when Gol was in hypervigilance mode. As long as she didn’t need to look elsewhere, her eyes were glued to me. So, if she wasn’t facing in my direction, she was inevitably looking at something that felt off.

And these past few days, Gol had only turned away from me to focus on a monkey hiding in a blind spot.

I readied myself. The sun would soon set completely and the area was dim. This would be the first time a monkey came upon us so late in the day. They normally appeared on the road up till sunset, when they would return to their burrows to escape the cold.

Slightly wary, I looked in the direction of Gol’s attention. There were no monkeys.

“That’s…”

I couldn’t believe it. Up ahead was a house with a light in the window.

No…it couldn’t be. I would’ve seen it before. No, wait—I realized now that the sun had set, which meant it was way easier to actually see the lights. As I suppressed my excitement, I approached the illuminated house.

I checked myself in front of the entrance. This could be my first contact with someone from another world. First impressions were important. After all, I didn’t have the best looks out there. I lightly fixed my hair and brushed the dust off my clothes.

All right, I should be good now, I thought. As for Gol…

“Well, you don’t look as unappealing as I do, so you should be fine,” I said. Just in case, I fixed her hair slightly. Truthfully, there was no need, but since she obediently presented her head to me, I went along with it.

When I brushed her long, silky hair to the side, I saw the crest on her forehead. I’m glad this didn’t change, at least… Still, what exactly is your hair made of?

No, no distractions. I had to focus on a more important matter.

I took a deep breath in front of the door. To be frank, it took a lot of courage for me to even stand there. According to my past experiences with this world, it was highly likely that past this door, I would encounter a skeleton. After all, in this world, illumination didn’t necessarily equate to living people. In fact, in all my experiences thus far, illuminated places had a one hundred percent chance of being inhabited by a skeleton.

I resolved myself and knocked on the door. The thuds of my fist on the hard, wooden door echoed in the empty settlement.

I was met, yet again, with silence.

As expected, another skeleton.

But just as I thought that, the door opened, and a face appeared in the gap. “Yes, yes. Who is it?”

Whoa! It wasn’t a skeleton, but a living, breathing human! Specifically, it was a thin man wearing round glasses.

This was the first living human I encountered in this other world. It wasn’t a maiden or a beauty—it was an exhausted middle-aged man.