There might even have been others out there like me who suddenly found themselves in this world.
“Are Wanderers always people?”
“No, not always. All manner of things, including monsters, wind up wandering through here.”
That meant that monsters could appear randomly in this world any time—a rather alarming thought.
While my mind ran wild with this new information’s implications, Ariane spoke up again. “Sir Villiers Fim, I understand that you say Arc’s body was from another world. Previously, you mentioned that the spring’s power placed a great spiritual burden on Arc when he tried to reclaim his body from this…other world. But you also said that he must partake regularly in the power of the spring. If he enters it again, will the same thing happen?”
Ariane’s question brought me back to the matter at hand. “I’ve been wondering about that, too.” Ariane’s eyes narrowed at me, nonplussed by my casual demeanor. I looked up intently at the giant dragon man, desperately trying to ignore Ariane’s intense glare.
After basking in the hot spring near the Lord Crown—a spring said to have the power to lift any curse—
I not only returned to flesh and blood, but found my head overcome with such intense emotion that I felt as though it would split in two. Then I lost consciousness for six days. I might have gotten my body back temporarily, but I was now a simple skeleton once again. Even if I could reclaim my body by bathing in the spring, it wasn’t worth passing out for another seven days. The situation almost felt like dying of thirst in the middle of the ocean, unable to drink a drop of water.
Villiers Fim scratched his chin. “The place where your body is, and the world where you come from, are not exactly the same. However, this difference is not worth dwelling upon just yet. Unless I am mistaken, you also find yourself lacking strong emotion as a skeleton, yes?”
I thought back on everything I’d experienced since coming here. He was right. Every day since waking up in this world had been filled with one surprise after another, yet I’d never found myself particularly moved by sadness or joy.
To be sure, I considered the treatment of the elves and mountain people atrocious, and didn’t hesitate to offer assistance, but not out of righteous indignation.
I’d figured that my rather indifferent demeanor was the result of thinking that this world was all just a game, or possibly a dream, and that there were no real consequences to my actions.
“Now that I think about it, you’re right.”
“I believe that the emotions you should have been feeling were suppressed, and when you returned to your body, they came flooding back like a tidal wave. That nearly unbearable burden caused you to lose consciousness.”
That made a certain kind of sense, at least. But why?
“Why are you so familiar with this rather unique situation?” Thanks to their incredibly long lifespans, Dragon Lords were immensely wise. I hoped Villiers Fim would have a satisfactory answer.
The Dragon Lord’s reptilian mouth curved into a smile again. “Many people confuse Dragon Lords with the other dragons that inhabit these mountains. We are, in fact, a completely different species. You see, we are akin to spirits that have been granted living bodies.”
I couldn’t help but look over at Ponta, who was in the middle of a large yawn, apparently quite bored with this conversation.
“Kyii?”
Villiers Fim dismissed my implication with a flick of his hand. “Spirit creatures, as their name suggests, are created by a spirit and an animal coming together as one. We Dragon Lords have created our bodies here in this world of our own will. This humanoid form is just one example of our abilities. Though, of course, it’s quite a challenge for us Dragon Lords to constrict our spirits into such a small form.” He puffed his chest out in pride. “The relationship between your skeleton and flesh is not all that different from the relationship between our spirits and physical vessels.”
I was surprised to learn that Dragon Lords had a spiritual side. Sadly, I didn’t see myself reaching that level of enlightenment any time soon. Still, I could think of worse ways to exist than as a spirit living inside a skeleton.
“So, what it all boils down to is that I’m not only unable to enjoy this wonderful hot spring, but also, any of the water’s positive effects will be temporary at best.”
Ariane shook her head, as if she couldn’t believe I was going on about bathing again. This was a pretty big deal to me, though.
“Ah, but that’s not true at all,” Villers Fim explained. “If you don’t enter the spring regularly, and experience at least some emotional release, then you will never again be able to return to your true body. It’s nothing short of a miracle that you could return to your natural form at all.”
It felt as though a lightbulb switched on inside my mind as I finally realized what he was saying.
I’d lived in this world as a skeleton for less than a month, and all the emotion I’d experienced in that time had been building inside me. The shock of two months, or even a year, of accumulated emotion might be so severe that it destroyed me.
On the one hand, not having to experience emotion certainly made navigating this rather tragic world much easier. But that left me with a debt that I would always have to pay after the fact. It was a curse in every sense of the word.
I could never have imagined that the curse I decided to create for myself back in the game would affect me like this.
“I guess I’ll need to test the hot spring’s limits.”
I wasn’t just saying that because I wanted another soak in an exquisite bath—the best I’d ever encountered. No, the hot spring’s powers could greatly impact how I proceeded forward. More research was needed.