Chapter 32: The Gravekeeper

Author: Kurohitsuji
Raw: https://ncode.syosetu.com/n2086fk/33/
Translator: Lilia v4
Editor: Yuriko AYA

Early morning, before the sun is fully up.
I wake to the noise.

I get ready and go outside, and even at this hour the town is full of life.
Stalls are already out; everyone is moving around busy, but somehow cheerfully.
I buy breakfast bread at a stall along the way and walk eating it, and I hit the harbor right with sunrise.

The sun comes up from the wide sea’s horizon.
The waves catch the morning sun and glitter. Pretty.
Lots of sailors are going in and out of the ships, and the unloaded cargo is being carried toward the market.

I sit on a big rock, eating bread and staring vaguely, and a big splash goes up in the distance.
A water monster, maybe. It’s huge.

…The fact that I think it looks filling might mean I’m a bit far gone.

I’m looking at that vaguely when.
Suddenly. Black hair at the edge of my vision.
I start and look: black hair cut even at the shoulders, and kind black eyes.
A woman in a long cotton dress is there.
That… a Hero, right?

But I don’t know. Different from the other Heroes. A quiet atmosphere, or something.
A somehow calm impression.
More a quiet moonlit night than the sun.
Ah, our eyes met. She’s coming this way, looks like.

“You, might you be connected to Arei?”

A woman smiles, brushing hair streaming in the sea wind back.
With the glittering sea behind her, she’s as pretty as a painting.

Also. Her chest is large. Tremendously large.

“Uh. I know Arei, and I’m Ouka. Are you a Hero?”
“Oh, I’m sorry. I’m Himukai Haruka. A former Hero, and… a gravekeeper now, I suppose.”

Haruka smiled, looking lonely as she said it.

“A gravekeeper?”
“Yes, a gravekeeper. Say, if you’d like, won’t you come to my house?”
“Um. Then, I’ll impose.”

A fleeting smile.
My heart is drawn, and I end up imposing on Haruka’s house.

○○○○○○○○

It was a house like a small hut.
The unusual part was the many small gravestones lined in the yard.
I look at them vaguely as I go in, and I’m welcomed with homemade baked cookies and homemade herb tea.

“I can’t do much, but please.”
“Thank you very much.”

Hmm. I don’t know. This person doesn’t seem Hero-like, or something.
I feel something close to Liza and Sister Naria, though.
Kind and soft. But somehow lonely. That kind of impression.

“The others like those too. They say it tastes like home.”
“Home… your original world?”
“Yes. A country called Nihon. A rich country with no war. It was peaceful.”

Is she looking back at the world of the past.
Again, she smiles a little lonely.

“I see.”
“So I’m bad at fighting… after the Demon King was defeated, I’ve been holding funerals for the war dead here.”

I see. So that’s what gravekeeper means.
The small gravestones visible from the window too.
Those must be a great many people’s graves.

“All alone, the graves, the whole time?”
“Yes. Just me, likely until I die.”
“That’s… amazing.”
“What’s amazing are the people who keep fighting. I’ve already stopped. That’s why I keep graves.”

…Ah, I get it.
This person has decided not to move from this place.
Different in the way she is from the other Heroes, who always try to go forward.

“Um, Haruka. Do you know Owen?”
“…Yes. The former knight-captain, and someone I respect.”
“What kind of person was he?”
“Let’s see. Stubborn, inflexible, and very kind. He was bad at smiling; little children were always crying at him.”
“…I see.”
“He’s sleeping at one of the stones outside too. Protecting me.”

Eyes as if looking far away, as if cherishing. Kind.
A complicated expression, different from the lonely face until just now.
A habit, maybe; she brushes black hair off her ear toward her back.
Hnn. Did Haruka like Owen.

“Um. May I pray?”
“Yes, of course. After you finish eating.”

Haruka smiled softly as she said it.

○○○○○○○○

When I go out to the yard, I can see flowers planted by the gravestones.
Amazing. The whole place is a flower field. The stones are well tended too.
She does this every day? Looks hard.
Thinking that, I put a knee down in front of a stone and fold my hands.

Owen. I don’t remember, but you found me.
Thank you. Because of you, I’m alive now.
And I intend to go to the place I met you.
If you would, please watch over me.

“Thank you. I think they’re all glad.”

Haruka, saying that, had a very kind smile.

○○○○○○○○

“Then I’ll be going.”
“If you come near again, come play.”
“Yes. Someday.”

I go into the sky while she sees me off with a small wave.
I gain altitude as I am, heading for Gernika, and think.

A kind Hero who stopped her feet in sorrow.
Heroes who still keep helping someone even now.
There are all sorts of Heroes, I think.
Well, of course. They’re people, even if they’re called Heroes.

Everyone is walking their own life.

I have to look for my own life too.
Anyway, for now it starts with knowing the beginning.