Extra Chapter:
Beyond Eternity
MAYBE THE STARDIA FAMILY felt so warm because I’d spent so long in that cold and lonely room. When I was still living my life, two hundred years ago, I’d never felt this at home anywhere.
And not only was the company enjoyable, but the food was delicious. The soup, meat, vegetables—even the bread was like nothing I’d ever tasted! Either I’d spent far too long down there, or everything had gotten tastier in my absence.
“Master, are you sure you should be eating so much? You’ve been fasting for so long—shouldn’t you start with something easy on your stomach? Like porridge…?”
“Bah! And besides, you should be proud. This flavor is enough to impress one of the greatest adventurers in history! That’s me, I mean. In case you’re wondering.”
“Oh, goodness!” said Noir’s mother. “I’m honored! Ms. Olivia, please, try some of this.”
Noir’s mother was so pleased I liked her cooking that there was no stopping her after that. She went to fetch one of her most recent culinary creations while Noir, his father, Alice, and Tigerson all looked the other way.
“Fish sashimi?” I asked.
“Frog, actually,” said Noir’s mother. “It’s extra delicious if you dip it in soy sauce.”
“Huh? What’s soy sauce?”
“Oh, it was brought here a while ago by a visitor who came from another dimension.”
Rare though it was, people from other dimensions occasionally got lost in our world. Many of them went on to become adventurers. Apparently, about a hundred years ago, one of them had introduced a bunch of culinary techniques from his homeland.
I tried the black liquid in the little dish she set down in front of me. It was salty at first, and then…the most indescribable flavor filled my mouth.
“It’s delicious! Wow, the people from that other dimension really know how to cook! Wish one of them were here so I could give them a big ol’ hug!”
“There aren’t very many of them around anymore,” said Noir. “But soy sauce is amazing. Not sure I could say the same about what it’s being served with…”
He looked down at the frog sashimi and pulled a face, but it didn’t bother me. I popped a piece of the pink flesh into my mouth.
“Mmm, it’s good!”
The sashimi itself wasn’t too impressive, but the soy sauce made it amazing.
“I’m so glad you like it,” said Noir’s mother. “By the way, Ms. Olivia, it’s quite incredible how you have the same name as such a famous adventurer, isn’t it?”
“Umm,” said Noir. “Maybe I should explain that one.”
He told them everything and, in the process, threw a big wet blanket over the whole atmosphere.
“Ah ha ha ha! No need to be so nervous!” I told them. “These days, I’m just Noir’s kindly master, and he has been my most wonderful disciple.”
“O-ooh!” Noir’s father stammered. “So my son’s been a good student. That’s my boy!”
He jumped up, and we exchanged a high five. It seemed escaping from a dungeon after two hundred years had made me excitable. At least being super-duper positive was better than the alternative.
The next morning, I took some soy sauce and headed out, planning to hunt some fish or meat to try with the new sauce. A lot of things had changed in the last two hundred years, but a lot more was still the same. Just outside of town, I found a group of adventurers fighting a pair of giant boars.
I fired up my Discerning Eye for the first time in ages and examined everyone there. I might have given Get Creative, Editor, and Bestow to Noir, but I still had a ton of skills I’d made before that. My level had dropped with being chained up for so long, but it was still higher than anyone in the town.
“So the adventurers are all between Level 13 and Level 24, while the boars are Level 34 and Level 31, huh? What a load of weaklings!”
I really wanted to take out those boars and eat them posthaste, but it wasn’t polite to interfere. For now, I just stood back and waited.
“Are you a civilian?” one of the adventurers shouted. “You should run!”
“Actually, I’m a top-class adventurer,” I said.
“Ha ha ha! Pull the other one!” he shouted back. “What kind of adventurer runs around in a negligée? Just get out of the way, okay? These things are stronger than they look, and I’m not going to break my neck trying to protect you.”
“You know, if they’re too much trouble, I could take them out for you,” I said.
“As if you could! I’d like to see you try!”
The adventurers looked like they were starting to struggle, so I strolled calmly into action. Soon enough, I was right under a boar’s giant eye as it closed in on me. I kicked it lightly in the jaw.
The boar’s massive body flew several hundred yards and plowed into the ground, killing it instantly. I killed the remaining boar in a flash and dusted off my hands.
“Wh-who are you?” one of the adventurers stammered.
“Do you want one of those?” I asked, nodding toward the carcass of a boar.
“Huh? Oh, uh, yes.”
“Fine. You can have that one, but butcher and roast the other one for me. I want to try it with some soy sauce.”
I didn’t have to tell them twice. They promptly started taking the creature apart. Adventurers always had respect for those stronger than them. They also had good survival instincts, and were scared enough of me to agree to whatever I said. While they worked, the most manly of them came over to me.
“I can just tell you’re an S-Grade adventurer or something.”
“Hmph.”
“So, um, we want to get stronger. So we’ve been talking and…will you please take us on as your disciples? We want to become heroes!”
It didn’t matter what time period you were in—there were always people hoping to hit the big time. They seemed passionate about it, but I was unmoved. There wasn’t anything special about them. And besides, if they had time to stand around chatting, they should have been working harder to butcher that boar!
“No can do, buddy,” I said. “I already have a disciple.”
“I don’t mind being number two!” he said.
“I said no. Noir’s enough for me.”
“Aw, man…”
I drummed my chin. “Still, I might make an exception for today. But only for today. I could teach you how to fight.”
“Really?!”
“Sure. But I have some conditions.”
Namely, they had to become my servants for the day and satisfy all of my culinary desires. All the same, all five of them happily agreed. I guess they didn’t get many chances to receive instruction from a top-class adventurer.
When the boar was finally roasted, I got to try it with some soy sauce.
“It really is delicious,” I said. “But it could use a little sugar or something. Anyway, let’s try some fish!”
So next, we went fishing. Then we hunted a variety of other monsters and animals, roasted them, and ate them. As we went, I gave the young adventurers the promised instruction in a variety of forms of combat. By the end of the day, it was safe to say they’d learned a lot.
Around dusk, I bid them farewell and sat down on a hill to watch the sun set behind the gently sloping plains.
“How long have I waited to see something like this again?”
The wind murmured through the grass, and the expansive sky opened overhead while the sun gilded everything with a gleam. All these things were so normal, so everyday, that most people didn’t even think about them. I hadn’t thought about them before I was imprisoned. Only after they were taken away did I realize how special they were.
How many things in life were like that? That only seemed to matter when they were already gone? Why didn’t people relish every single moment? How could they be so foolish? And why had I never thought about these things, back when I was free?
Regret swam up through me slowly, throbbing in my chest.
“So this is where you are!”
“Hiya!” I said. “Long day?”
Noir sat down beside me, and I scooted over to press my cheek against his. I picked a strand of his hair and started playing with it.
“Okay, okay, I’m not a toy!”
“Nonsense! And besides, I’ve wanted to touch you for ages!”
Noir sighed. “Fine. But only for a little while.”
After I was done teasing him, I looked back toward the setting sun. “You know, if you’d never shown up that day, I’d still be stuck down there. Maybe I’d be stuck down there forever.”
“You changed my whole life too,” he said. “I’ll never be able to thank you enough.”
“Look at your earnest little face!” I teased. “I lost that kind of innocence so long ago.”
“That’s not true,” said Noir. “And besides, you’ve only just gotten your life back. You just need to find something you want to do again, that’s all.”
His words were like cool water for my parched heart.
“Thank you, Noir,” I said. “I won’t give up.”
It might have been two hundred years, but this time, I would live my life protecting the things that really mattered.