The dignified back of the young man in an impressive robe disappeared into the distance. Beside him, the beautiful shrine golem with long, flowing, silken hair and the appearance of a white goddess also disappeared.
The wind blowing from the west made a lonely sound.
“He really left, huh?” Chotos closed his eyes in front of his shop.
His daughter, Teru, continued to wave her small hand in the direction of the young man, although he could no longer be seen.
Chotos extended his arms and picked up Teru, who was light for her age. He used his sleeve to wipe the tears from his beloved daughter’s eyes. Then he looked back toward the street and said, earnestly, “Nemaki’s personality is… How can I put it? Not quite simpleminded honesty. Calling him a ‘maverick’ also doesn’t seem right. It’s hard to explain, but he’s got a strange charm.”
Nemaki Dasai was a truly odd fellow. A black-haired man with noble eyes who claimed to have come here from a distant country, his mannerisms and astonishingly excellent equipment proved he had been born into wealth. Chotos understood that the majority of Nemaki’s outlandish behavior was due to his upbringing. However, the real strangeness lay elsewhere.
More than anything, Nemaki’s unique fighting ability deserved utter admiration. The soldiers in charge of maintaining Sadie’s public order had been unable to lay hands on the Swordbreaker gang, yet Nemaki annihilated them as easily as twisting a baby’s arm. After that, he caught the attention of the strongest golem wielder in Sadie: the Four Jester Wielder. But likewise, despite distance and an overwhelming disadvantage, he managed to attain a crushing victory.
Nemaki’s talent as a golem wielder equaled—perhaps even surpassed—that of the strongest wielders in the vast land of the Heilemia Empire. Additionally, Nemaki had shown them a glimpse of his own tremendous fighting ability as a spellcaster sans golem. Chotos had never heard of a living human capable of destroying a military-grade golem, let alone at long range.
But the most terrifying thing about Nemaki was his abnormal clarity of vision on the battlefield; it was as if he could see through all the traps his opponents laid. It was no wonder his enemies could only describe him as a nightmare.
With his unorthodox, unbeatable strength, Chotos wanted to say Nemaki was just like the kind of hero who appeared in a picture book.
However, Nemaki didn’t seem to think anything much of these talents of his. The proof was in how he never looked down on the powerless townsfolk, nor did he put on a haughty attitude and show off his power.
Moreover, he constantly threw insults at Chotos, calling him a useless middle-aged man or a sloppy old geezer. At the same time, he always went out of his way to help out and protect Chotos. His words said one thing, but his actions showed a surprisingly gentle side. Frankly, he was more sincere than the protagonists in those books Chotos had read as a child.
Nemaki had been exactly the same way with Ginem Bari. He called Ginem harsh things like “delinquent,” “outrageous,” “pitiful,” and such, but at the same time, he visited Ginem every day until he recovered, always giving some random reason. Once Ginem had healed, the two practiced with their golems and ate lunch together. Now that Chotos thought about it, Nemaki might have done this out of kindness so Ginem wouldn’t feel alone after being put in such a difficult spot.
Nemaki’s words and behavior were often at odds, but it strangely attracted the people he came in contact with. That was the kind of young man he was.
A young man dressed in a gaudy, stage-worthy purple robe had been leaning against the shop wall and gazing down the road toward where Nemaki disappeared. He really couldn’t hide the loneliness in his eyes.
“Not simply honest, huh…? It’s as you said, old man. Nothing ‘simple’ can fully express Nemaki’s personality. When he was honest, he was utterly honest,” Ginem Bari muttered.
At this moment, Ginem suddenly remembered something. “Oh, yeah, Nemaki said that in his hometown, there was a special word to describe just such a personality.”
Chotos turned to Ginem with an interested face. “Oh yeah, like that ‘bahcode’ thing he says.”
“Right, right. And like ‘faiten geym.’ Um, what did he call it again…?” Ginem stared into space for a moment before raising his eyebrows. “Ah, I remember. It’s ‘tsundory.’”
“Tsundory?”
“Yeah. He said adorable people who care deeply for their partner but say all sorts of things to the contrary are called that in his hometown.”
“Huh. That’s another strange word.”
“Nemaki said he wanted to meet a charming tsundory girl in this country, but…it seems to me he’s the one who’s the most tsundory.”
“Ha ha, that’s true. That Nemaki is, without a doubt, a first-class tsundory.”
Chotos and Ginem exchanged a glance and laughed loudly. In her father’s arms, young Teru laughed along with them. The tears had finally dried from the corners of her little eyes.
The front of Chotos’s Mana Tool Shop was bathed in bright light after the morning rain.