9.Wound Of The World

Editing/Standardisation: Medicine Melancholy
Original Translation: Medicine Melancholy

Iris/Yanagi

“……Hey…miss, wake up… you hear me…?”
A discreet call and a tap on the cheek with just enough force not to
hurt, and my consciousness slowly rose from the darkness.
I looked up, wondering what it was, and saw a strange uncle’s face right
in front of me.
“!?”
An inarticulate scream rushed from the back of my throat.
“Woah?! Miss, you alright there?!”
The two people who I could always count on to be there for me were
still nowhere to be found!
Reiji, Ayame, where are you?!
In my haste to get away from the stranger in front of me… I seemed to
have accidentally stepped on a wet tree root, and the feeling of the
ground disappeared from under my feet.
“Kyah?!”
Just as I was about to stand up, my slipping body fell backward, and I
plunged headfirst into the still soft snow.
After blinking a few times, I finally remembered why I was here, sticking
my head into the snow as I felt the coldness enveloping my head.
“…Have you cooled down now?”
“Yes, literally… Sorry for causing you trouble…”
I looked away from the bewildered uncle in embarrassment.
“…So, are you the one who fixed me up, miss?”
The stranger, introducing himself as Scott, pointed to a large hole in his
blood-stained clothes and asked. The clothes didn’t magically heal, but
the skin peeking out from underneath was unscathed.
“Thank goodness… you don’t seem to be hurt anymore. How are you
feeling? Any discomfort?”
“All good. I honestly didn’t think I would make it, so you really saved my
life.”
I hurriedly asked Scott-san, who was bowing to me in a deep, down-onhis-
earth posture, to raise his head. I didn’t feel comfortable when an
older person was kneeling before me.
“Though… I honestly think I shouldn’t have survived… That was my
punishment, after all.”
Suddenly, Scott-san looked dark and somber, and appeared to be on
the verge of tears.
“Punishment, you say…?”
“That’s right… You see, I’ve seen a lot of terrible people doing a lot of
terrible things, and I’ve pretended not to see them… I should have been
punished for my inaction…”
“No…”
The person in front of me didn’t look like a bad person.
He had been guarding me when I was unconscious and vulnerable for
ten minutes, and stayed in a certain range away from me because of his
concern for my earlier behavior.
And yet, such a person said, “I shouldn’t have been saved”. If he puts it
that way, we, too, are averse to trouble, and we turn a blind eye to the
“bad things” in front of us a lot.
When I thought of that, I unintentionally took his hand with both of
mine.
“…Please don’t blame yourself, Scott-san. You must have a lot of
regrets all this time, right? I’m sure you’re a better person than you
think you are…”
“But…”
Ah, my hands were shaking. I hoped he didn’t notice. But I was less
distraught than I thought I would be.
“If there’s a next time, you can always try to be brave… As long as
you’re alive… surely, there will be other opportunities to make
amends… so please, don’t say that you should die, okay?”
I held his craggy hand and smiled to cheer him up as best as I could.
I felt a faint pulse from the hand I held. Yes, they were alive. The people
of this world were not NPCs, but human beings with blood in their
veins, who had lived their own lives and had their own problems.
“I’m just glad that you’ve made it and live on.”
Indeed, I, who had only been able to live by being saved by someone
else, was able to save this person.
“…Thank you, miss. From now on, I’ll do my best with the life you’ve
given me. And sorry for showing such a pathetic scene to you, someone
who should be my daughter’s age.”
He let out a chuckle. Looks like the matter had been settled.
“What are you going to do now, miss?”
“Um… there’s a few things I want to do, so I have to get going…”
“I see… It’s only a couple of minutes’ walk to the nearest town, but be
careful and get there early, you don’t want to stay in such a deserted
place any longer. See you.”
And so, leaving me with a warning for my safety, he said his goodbyes
and disappeared deep into the woods.
“…Well then.”
I had to finish my business here. My headache had subsided
considerably, but I was still tormented by a sense of urgency that
something must be done.
Scott
I worked for some lowlife mercenary band… or should I say, “used to
work for”?
These mercenaries were a bunch of thugs in all but name, who ran out
of job after cheating their clients, and turned to banditry in the middle
of nowhere because they couldn’t afford to eat.
I was a scout because of my eyesight and quickness, even though I had
never been good in a fight. I didn’t know how things turned out the way
they did. I should have stayed in the countryside and worked in the
fields all my life, I thought now, but I couldn’t find a way out and ended
up here getting involved in terrible things.
Then I got attacked by a strange monster and had my stomach ripped
open. I thought I was going to die, but an angel appeared before me.
For some reason, when I woke up, there was a beautiful girl sitting
unconscious in front of me, and I was so shocked that I thought my
heart might stop again.
The angel, no, the young miss, was a very nice person. She was scared
of me, a stranger, at first, and when she talked, her hands never
stopped shaking for a moment… as if she were a little girl forcibly
brought in by a bunch of people and treated crudely.
And yet, she listened to my problem and even took my hand and told
me that I was a better person than I thought I was, that she was glad
that I was still alive, with tears welling up in the corner of her eyes. Her
hands were still shaking with fear when she did all that.
But I’m sure even that girl would be disillusioned if she knew the truth.
And for not telling her because of my fear, I still remained a horrible
person.
So at the very least, I have to lead those bastards somewhere else so
that the young lady can get out safely. To do that, I needed to change
my clothes… If I dressed like this, I’d end up bringing those bastards the
treasure called “the priestess who can bring even the dying back to
life”.
Not only that, but she was a really pretty girl, and no matter how I
looked at her, she seemed to be an aristocrat or a lady of some nice
place.
If I incurred those people’s wrath, who knew what kind of hell would be
waiting for me… I’m sure there were spare clothes in the cabin down
the road.
“Hey, what the hell are you doing away from your post?”
The voice behind my back freaked me out. Dammit, the footprints were
still there…!
“Hmm… you look like you’ve seen some shit… Spew out everything you
know. If you lie to me, I’m sure you know what happens next…”
The long sword brushed against my cheek.
I…
Iris/Yanagi
“Woah…”
In the middle of the forest, a small space with crystals growing in a
circle suddenly appeared from the ground.
There was no snow around these parts, creating a fantastic landscape
that looked like a different world…
“This must be the ‘Wound Of The World’…”
Yes, this view was similar to the place called “Wound Of The World” in
the game, where high-level raid bosses and dungeons spawned.
Though, the scenery in the game was much larger than this.
Once in a while, these “Wounds” opened in the world and various
threats emerged from the other worlds… that was how it’s supposed to
be set up, which meant this place was actually on the verge of
becoming another world.
“Why is it in such a place… hyah?!”
As soon as I took a step, the wings on my back revealed themselves
without me being aware of it.
Knowledge that instantly flooded from the back of my brain. It was as if
I were remembering something I had forgotten… or as if the installation
was complete at this very moment.
“Ugh… I think I kind of know what to do now…”
Wandering around, I walked up to the center of the space, which was
no more than 10 meters in diameter.
As I was led, I held up both hands, and a crack in the space, the main
body of the “Wound of the World” appeared between my hands.
It hurts.
It’s painful.
Help. Help. Help.
I felt as if the world itself was screaming directly at me.
The three pairs of light wings on my back gently embraced the crack
that was the root of the pain.
In my arms, I could hear something that was not a person crying out in
pain, something that until now I could only recognize as pain.
So this is why I was called here.
I heard the voice that called for my help.
I began to sing.
The lyrics themselves were nothing special, just a well-known lullaby
back in my old world… but through these wings it becomes a spirit of
speech, clothed in healing power, and permeated the “Wound” like
patting a child on the back, soothing it.
The crack in my arm slowly filled in little by little, as I felt something
slipping out of my body with the most tremendous force I had ever felt
since I was sent to this world… Eventually, that feeling disappeared, and
so did the cries for help.
My strength in the lower body was so drained that I sat down on the
spot.
However, before I knew it, the space was overgrown with grass, softly
accepting me as I had lost my strength.

(Author’s Note)
The protagonist often collapsed. Fortunately, Iris didn’t lose
consciousness this time.
The song is the famous Schubert lullaby. Don’t ask me for the full lyrics.