Mushoku Tensei (LN) - Volume SS - Chapter 28

Short Story:

Nanahoshi’s Public Apology

NANAHOSHI SAT STILL as a stone, stopped abruptly in the process of raising a cup of tea to her lips, utterly motionless. She looked for all the world like she’d met Medusa’s gaze, but from the way her hair moved in the breeze, it was clear she hadn’t turned to stone. But there was someone glaring at her.

This person wore a white robe and had gleaming silver hair. Those sanpaku eyes, which set all who gazed upon them trembling, were a reptilian gold. If Rudeus had been there, he might have tried to sound clever by saying, “It’d be no exaggeration to call you Medusa.” But of course, this was no such mythical creature. It was Orsted.

Orsted, who might be considered even more terrifying than any mythical creature, had appeared soundlessly as Nanahoshi drank her tea and sat down opposite her just as soundlessly. Nanahoshi had totally freaked out and frozen up like a deer in the headlights. The reason for this was that Nanahoshi, in collaboration with Rudeus, had sold information on Orsted.

After many twists and turns, Rudeus, defeated, had yielded to Orsted. But that wasn’t going to get Nanahoshi off the hook.

A scene from a gangster movie she’d seen long ago flashed through Nanahoshi’s mind. She couldn’t remember the plot with any accuracy, but in one part, one of the characters had sold out a gang boss to a rival gang and then skipped off to a foreign country. Through a stroke of luck, the boss survived, and the incident resulted in the gang rising in the world. But the gang leader hadn’t forgotten about the man who sold out his boss. In order to take care of matters, they began tracking his movements. The man caught wind of this and ran, but the gang pursued him no matter where he went until, at last, somewhere in the depths of the Canadian mountains, they caught up to him. The gang leader sat down across from the terrified man and unhurriedly drank a hot coffee. They didn’t say anything that could be called conversation. The man who’d turned traitor just babbled a stream of excuses and pleas for mercy. Then, when he finished his coffee, the gang leader took out a gun and shot the man dead without a word. 

That scene had left such a striking impression on the young Nanahoshi that it had ended up being the only part of the movie that stuck in her memory. It had taught her the lesson that this was what happened when you lied to someone and sold them out. And so, with Orsted sitting in front of her, Nanahoshi was totally freaking out.

Orsted regarded her steadily. His expression was blank. Because his resting face was terrifying, he looked like he was angry. Nanahoshi had known him the longest of anyone she’d met since coming to this world, so she knew that wasn’t necessarily the case. But she couldn’t rule it out either. If it had been Rudeus, Nanahoshi probably wouldn’t have been so scared. For all his talk, Rudeus was soft. He might get angry and scold her, but the idea of him killing her was laughable. Though it might depend on what she had messed up, so long as she begged as hard as she could for her life, she would surely have escaped death.

Beg for her life. As she arrived at those words, movement returned to Nanahoshi’s petrified body at last. She returned her tea, now well and truly cold, to its saucer, then let out a breath. She knew what she had to do. She had to apologize. First, she would offer a sincere and genuine apology, then if he still didn’t forgive her, she would beg for her life. For the traitor in the gangster movie, his prodigious begging had earned him a truly miserable death… No, that wasn’t right. It was only because he couldn’t have escaped that miserable death that he had begged so pathetically. He had cast aside all pride and dignity, looking only for salvation, but lacking anything with which to buy it, laying his feelings bare as he asked that they only spare his life… Nanahoshi doubted she was capable of that, but from what she’d heard, that was how Rudeus had begged Orsted, and Orsted had forgiven him. That being the case, she decided that she had better do the same. This wasn’t about what she could or couldn’t do, it was what she was willing to do.

With that in mind, Nanahoshi snuck a look at Orsted. He was still glowering at her. It was the way he didn’t say anything that was really scary.

“I’m sorry.” She couldn’t look directly at him, so she said it with her eyes turned down. “I sold you out to Rudeus.” She felt like a cat wearing a pet-shaming placard. She questioned whether there wasn’t something else she ought to say, but given she had no idea how Orsted would react, she couldn’t find the right words. Nanahoshi knew that Orsted showed unexpected kindness toward those who came to him themselves. Make an enemy of him, however, and he was merciless. Everyone who had done so in the past, he had consigned to oblivion in a single blow. Nanahoshi had seen it many times. At first, she had been filled with terror by Orsted, who had no qualms about killing people. But she had slowly grown used to it, until she stopped minding it at all. Of course, that had been as long as she was not the target of his wrath.

Now, unable to guess when that strike would come at her, too fast for the eye to see, she was beside herself with terror. If she’d known this was going to happen, she would have put a phonebook or something over her chest. But this world didn’t have phonebooks, and besides, Nanahoshi wasn’t well-endowed enough to hide a phonebook.

“Nanahoshi.” At the sound of her name, Nanahoshi raised the spoon she hadn’t realized she’d been fidgeting with to guard her chest. But Orsted’s strike did not come. “Don’t let it concern you,” he went on. “I am always making enemies.”

It was slight, so slight that unless you knew him well, you wouldn’t have caught it. The corner of Orsted’s mouth twisted in a tiny smile. It carried a hint of self-deprecation. Nanahoshi’s chest grew tight at the sight of it.

“Oh…” Who was it who had helped her ever since she had come to this world? Who was it who had assisted her in searching for a way to return home? She hadn’t forgotten. “No!” she exclaimed. “Your curse doesn’t affect me! You…I owe you my life…though so does Rudeus…but that’s to say, I swear I didn’t try to betray you because I hated you or because I was afraid of you…” She couldn’t find the right words. Even though she had carefully selected what she would say here after thinking it through over and over again, her words came out in a jumbled stream.

“That’s enough, Nanahoshi,” Orsted said. Nanahoshi shut up. Neither Orsted’s expression nor his tone gave any hint as to what “that’s enough” meant. He might mean it didn’t matter to him anymore. But it could also mean…

“I shall return to check on you soon, Nanahoshi. Understood?”

These last words gave her the answer. She had, it seemed, been forgiven.

“O-of course,” she said, nodding. Orsted stood up, then, again without a sound, he left.

Nanahoshi watched him go. “It was so good to apologize properly,” she said with a sigh of relief.