Mushoku Tensei (LN) - Volume SS - Chapter 7

Short Story:

A Special Present

SOMETIMES, NORN ASKED FOR a story before she went to sleep. I told her tales that I knew. Given that they were things I remembered, I thought they were stories for boys, but Norn always seemed to enjoy them.

One day, I tucked her in and offered to tell her a story, only for her to reply, “Hey, tell me a story about Mom.”

“Your mom?”

“Uh-huh. Um, today, um, Dol and Martha told me about, um, “First Love.” They said in Millis they got a ‘present from desst-nee,’ and that’s why they got married.” 

“Ah…”

Dol and Martha were a married couple from the Fittoa search party. Specifically, they’d gotten married around the summer of last year, so they were newlyweds. I’d been hearing them go on about how happy and in love they were for the past year. I couldn’t believe they were bragging to Norn about it too…

“Um, so then, Dad, I was wondering. Did you and Mom get a ‘present from desst-nee’?”

“Oh, gee… Nah, me and Zenith didn’t really…” I started to say, then I stopped. A few moments sprang to mind, but I didn’t look all that hot in any of those stories. I’d given Zenith plenty of presents, but mostly weird, selfish stuff that got me iffy looks from her. 

But as Norn looked at me with her eyes all sparkly, I remembered all of a sudden the reason why I’d started giving her all those presents. To be sure, I didn’t come out looking too hot in that story, either. But ah, heck. Lately, I’d done nothing but act the fool in front of everyone. A bit more couldn’t hurt. 

“Maybe there was. Right, I’ll tell you an old story. Back from when me and Zenith were still adventurers…”

Listening eagerly, Norn’s eyes shone even brighter as I began my tale.

***

Zenith had settled in with Fangs of the Black Wolf, and we’d just started taking on labyrinths for real. That day, Zenith and I were walking around some street stalls together. Why it was just the two of us, I can’t really remember now… That’s right, I think Zenith said she wanted to take a look at the stalls, and I’d made her take me along. Yeah, back then, whenever Zenith tried to go anywhere alone, I’d say, “It’s dangerous to go alone,” or something. So I used to go out shopping with her a lot.

Was that because I was already in love with Mom? Gee…yeah, I guess I was. I probably would’ve denied it back then, but I was already in love with her, and I’d have done anything to get her attention.

We were walking along when, all of a sudden, Zenith came to a stop in front of a stall.

“What’s this?”

The stall sold antiques…well, that’s a fancy way of describing it. Really it was just useless junk dug up from a labyrinth someone was trying to sell off. It was a pretty sketchy shop. The stall was covered in a jumble of old stuff they hadn’t even bothered to polish. When we stopped, the stallkeeper said, “Welcome! Take your time looking around.” Then he began to tell us about the goods. He showed us a flask that always produced water and a bottle that’d blow up if you threw it, and all kinds of stuff that sounded useful at first, but Zenith and I were veterans. We knew you could get magical implements with more powerful effects and for cheaper prices. The only people who’d buy stuff at a store like this were newbies who’d just started adventuring or idiot nobles going incognito.

Zenith took her time looking over all the items until she saw one that made her go “Oh!” She only said it quietly, but I was desperate to make her notice me, so I caught it.

“This is so cool! I wanted one of these.”

She was looking at a totally ordinary, battered old medal. Normally, I’d have given it a glance and moved on without a second thought.

“You have good taste, miss. This medal—”

“C’mon, let’s go!” I cut off the stallkeeper as he began his spiel and pulled Zenith away.

“Okay, okay. No need to rush.”

If I’d bought the medal and given it to her then and there, that would have been pretty smooth, too. But that wasn’t what I did. In order to make her like me better, I wanted to add a little something extra. So after I got Zenith away from the stall, I quickly went back by myself to buy the medal. Then, I went back to the inn and used the kit I used to clean my sword to buff up the medal. I figured she’d like it better polished up all nice than covered in grime like it’d been back at the stall.

The next day, I went to Zenith with total confidence to give her the medal. 

“H-how d’you do, Zenith? Fancy seeing you here.”

“Hmm? ‘How do you do?’ Formal today, aren’t we? What are you scheming this time?”

“Oh, nothing really. You know how the other day you saw something you liked at that antique store? What was it, anyway?”

I could have just said, “For you,” and handed it to her, but it’s about the mood, see. I asked the question to lead into it first. 

Zenith said, “Ah that,” with a satisfied sort of nod. “The knights of the Anchor Kingdom used those medals to identify themselves. There are seven types in all—” Then, Zenith told me about the legend of the Knights of Anchor. Well, it was called a legend, but really, she said, it was a story rewritten to appeal to kids. It had been popular in Millis for a while. It was about an order of knights from a kingdom that was destroyed battling demons in the Laplace War…but I’ll tell you that story another time.

Anyway. The story had seven main characters. The knight order had seven ranks, and there were seven kinds of medals. So basically, each person got one medal that symbolized that character.

“There was a picture of the medals in the book I read when I was little. Seeing the real thing made me all nostalgic… But why are you asking?”

“Uh, no reason! I was just wondering! See ya!”

If I’d gone, “Ta-dah!” and pulled the medal out after Zenith told me about what the medals meant to her, I was sure that’d have made her happy. But after listening to her, I reconsidered. There were seven medals. One would probably have made her happy, but that wouldn’t do. If I wanted to really impress her with one big gesture, one wasn’t enough. I had to collect all seven and give them to her… That’s what I thought.

From that point on, I was obsessed with medal collecting. I spent every free moment going around antique shops. Even when we were exploring labyrinths, when we found piles of junk, I hunted through them for medals. I even asked an information broker about the medals’ whereabouts, and I got Geese to help me search. It seemed to pay off. I found one medal after another until I’d managed to find six of them. Six medals. That’s right, six. Only the last one escaped me. I never got hold of it. The last one was the rarest of all the Anchor Kingdom knights’ medals. It had the most elaborate design, it was the biggest, and it was the most expensive. It belonged to the knight commander, of course. I actually hunted down an auction house where it was up for sale and tried to buy it, but I didn’t have the cash. That really got me down. I thought I’d never be able to give her the present.

What’s that? Mom would have been happy no matter what I gave her? Ha ha. You’re probably right. But that didn’t occur to me back then. 

Now, while I was worrying about what to do, Geese, who’d come with me looking for the medals, told me something.

He said, “Ya don’t have to collect ’em all, right? What if you got a pretty chain and made a kinda fashion accessory out of ’em?”

I wasn’t convinced. If it were me, I’d want the full set. Only a real bozo would wrap up six out of a set of seven in a pretty box and make a present of them. First, I’d had one medal. Now I had a set that was one medal short… Out of the two, I’d have taken just one medal.

That was what made me decide to take up Geese’s suggestion. But just doing as he said wasn’t interesting, so I decided to add a bit of flair. First, I went to a skilled artisan and had them polish the medals till they gleamed like new. You could see your face in them, they were so shiny. Nothing like what I’d managed with my sword-cleaning gear. Afterward, I went to a general store to buy a fine silver chain. The color went nicely with the medals. Then, I went back to the artisan and had them fit them all together. I went to a cloth seller and paid a pretty penny for a bit of silk, which I put in a box I thought I’d put the seven medals in once I’d collected them all. I nestled the medals gently on top of it. And then it was complete—a beautiful pendant that wouldn’t have looked out of place for sale at the sort of jewelers nobles shopped at. I was feeling pleased with myself. There weren’t many guys around who’d take a grimy old medal from an antique shop and make it into this pretty a present, I thought. 

I took the medal and went to find Zenith. Really, I should’ve made it a date, but back then, you know, I wanted to look cool. I felt like it was a bit lame to go to all that trouble for a girl. 

So I gave her the present in the dining room at the inn. 

“How d’you do, Zenith?”

“Hmm? ‘How do you do?’ Formal today, aren’t… You know, I feel like we’ve had this conversation before.”

“Have we?”

“So what do you need?” Zenith asked, propping her chin up on her hand. There was a sort of mischievous look in her eyes. She was so pretty. She had beautiful golden hair that shone in the sunlight, and she was elegant even with her chin resting on her hand. It was only her eyes where you saw that hint of mischief. It was the contrast, you know? 

I’d seen all kinds of girls in my time—nobles’ daughters and adventurers’ daughters and daughters of townsfolk—but there was something different about Zenith. She looked and held herself like a noble, all elegance, but she didn’t talk or act like a sophisticated type. She had this innocent air.

Sitting in front of her then, I got a bit nervous.

“Oh, uh, I don’t, I wouldn’t say I need anything, exactly.”

“Hmm? What’s up?” she said teasingly, leaning in to stare at me.

That was when it clicked. I realized that someone, probably Elinalise or the like, had ratted me out ages ago. Back then, I was the sort of guy who might have gotten mad and stormed off. But I’d put a lot of time collecting the medals and a lot of effort into wrapping them up nicely, and besides, Zenith was pretty.

I stuck out my hand with the box in it at Zenith. “For you,” I said.

“Huh?” Zenith probably thought I’d just hand her the medals. When I held out a box, her eyes went wide. “Can I open it?”

“That’s the only way to see what’s inside…” I muttered. Zenith slowly opened the box.

“Ohh!” she gasped. I wasn’t sure if it was a good or bad gasp. Partly because of that, I started to make rambling excuses. 

“You said that medal was cool back when we saw it at the antique stall, right? So, yeah. I mean, you said there were seven, so it would be better if I’d got the whole set, but I don’t have that sort of time…”

I really was thinking that I ought to have collected all seven. Anyway, when I was done embarrassing myself with my excuses, Zenith took the medals out of the box and gazed at them.

“They’re so pretty…” For a while, she held the medals up to the light to look at them, then she put the ones that made up the pendant around her neck and did a twirl.

“Well? Does it suit me?”

“Y-yeah. Looks great,” I said. Zenith blushed, but she smiled like she was pleased.

“Come here, Paul. I want to tell you something.” She beckoned me with her finger, so I obeyed and went up to her. Zenith leaned in to put her lips to my ear…

Mwah.

Before I knew it, she’d pulled away again.

“To say thank you!” she said. For a second, I didn’t understand what had happened. But I could still feel a hint of warmth as well as the soft touch of her lips on my cheek. She’d gone even redder than before. She laughed shyly and said, “Thank you! I’ll treasure it.” Then she fled back to her room.

***

“I found out later that Zenith had known I was gonna give her the medals after all. But she hadn’t thought they’d be so pretty. She assumed I’d just hand her some dirty medals as I’d found them at the antique stalls, so she was just thrilled… Then…huh?” 

As I went on recounting my memories of long ago, I realized that Norn wasn’t reacting like she had been at first. I looked down at her face—just like Zenith’s, but so much younger. Her eyes were closed, and she was breathing deeply. She must have nodded off while I was talking.

“Ah, jeez. Maybe she was still a bit young for that story.” I scratched the back of my head, then gently stroked Norn’s sleeping one. She’d grown a lot since the displacement incident too. For all that, she was still only a kid…but once she grew up some more, she’d be as beautiful as Zenith. With the boys she’d have chasing after her, Norn would fall in love one day too.

“I wonder what Zenith would say if she brought home a boy like me,” I said with a wry smile. Then I stood up.

We still hadn’t found Zenith, or Lilia, or Aisha. For now, I had to keep on doing what I could. That was the only way Zenith and I could be together to meet whoever Norn fell in love with.

“Ah, but I guess Rudy’ll be first.” Just the other day, I’d parted from my son. I pictured his face along with that of the girl with him. Then, I turned off the light and put a hand on the door.

“Goodnight, Norn,” I said quietly, then I left her room. “Right, I think I’ll do a bit more work!” 

With that, I returned to my job with the search party.