Several more weeks went by. I was still living in the dungeon as before, but she never failed to bring meals down to my cell, happily chatting about days gone by.
As expected, this was a settlement governed by the sheep cat tribe. And she, Charme, served as the village shrine maiden, tasked with maintaining a barrier around the perimeter. According to Charme, that pendant served as the core of the barrier, and apparently no one else could use it.
That pendant was a relic excavated from a labyrinth or dungeon. The woman who gave it to Charme had likely been an eccentric hunter passing through these lands. It was a relic-class treasure, and the kind of hunter capable of simply giving such a thing away was limited to a very select few. Which meant—
"Urgh?!"
A sudden, sharp pain shot through my temples. I crouched down and clutched my head for a moment, then shook it off and stood back up.
(There it is again... Why do I know so much about this?)
I doubted an ordinary person would be so familiar with hunter common knowledge. More to the point, how was I able to tell that pendant was a relic-class treasure? I could use magic, and I possessed knowledge of it. Was it possible I had been a hunter myself, made some blunder on a ruin exploration quest, lost my memories, and ended up wandering out here? Knowing about monsters like the sheep cats was certainly plausible for a hunter. But no—a hunter would never venture to a place like this alone. In that case—
"There's no point dwelling on it..."
Either way, no matter who I used to be, it wasn't going to improve my current situation. After all, I was under house arrest, in a state where I could be executed at any moment. I shook my head and tried to change the subject in my mind.
"Even so, she's quite late today..."
Normally, this was around the time Charme would bring dinner, but there had been no sign of her for a while now. This was the first time that had happened in the past few weeks.
The sound of footsteps descending the stairs gradually drew closer. It seemed she was finally here.
"Am I... relieved?"
An intense, inexplicable emotion welled up out of nowhere. If it were panic over being abandoned by her, I could understand. But simply knowing I was about to see her face again filled the depths of my chest with a strange warmth. It felt almost like an illusion. In all likelihood, it was the exact opposite of what I had expected to feel.
"Ridiculous..."
I shook my head from side to side once more, forcibly casting aside the troublesome question.
"I wonder what tonight's dinner is."
I decided to distract myself with thoughts of the simple meals Charme usually brought me.
The food Charme prepared was messy and bland, falling well short of anything that could flatteringly be called culinary art, yet for some reason, it always whetted my appetite. It was a strangely addictive kind of cooking.
(Wait...)
The approaching footsteps were hurried and belonged to more than one person. There was no way it was Charme. If so, this might be bad.
The lock clicked open, and the door was thrown wide. A cat-faced young man with short blond hair and a cat-faced man with red hair and a scar on his left cheek burst into the cell. The blond youth darted his eyes around the room, seized me by the collar, and—
"Where did you put Charme?!"
Baring his sharp canines, he roared in my face.
Hm? So it wasn't that my execution had been decided. Still, his words carried an ominous weight.
"Did something happen to Char?"
"Don't play dumb with me!"
The blond youth flew into a rage, fangs bared.
He didn't look like he was joking or pulling a prank. Above all, they had no reason to lie to me. That meant Charme had truly disappeared. It was the only logical conclusion. In that case, there were a few things I needed to confirm.
"What about the barrier?"
"Huh?"
"I asked what happened to the barrier! Charme was maintaining it, wasn't she?!"
Grabbing the blond cat-faced man by the collar in return, I fired the question right back at him.
That sort of barrier-type magic tool required a specific connection between the caster and the land. If the barrier was still intact, Charme was somewhere near the settlement. Conversely, if the barrier was gone—
"The barrier... it vanished."
Confronted by my intensity, the cat-faced blond man answered with slight hesitation.
"Damn it!"
Charme was almost certainly no longer in the settlement. At the very least, she had been taken far enough away that she could no longer sustain the barrier. I couldn't imagine Charme leaving of her own free will, which meant her absence was caused by an external force. In other words—
—Throb!
A splitting pain tore through my skull, warping my vision. A memory or vision surfaced—a young girl collapsed face down in the grass, surrounded by a widening pool of crimson.
—Throb! Throb! Throb!
The headache surged with unbearable force.
"Guh..."
Unable to withstand it, I dropped to the ground, clutching my head as a groan tore from my throat. My consciousness began to slip away, and I bit down hard on my lower lip to tether myself to reality.
As I grimaced against the pain and the metallic taste of blood spreading in my mouth, a voice cut through the haze.
"Do you know something about my daughter—about Char?"
The red-haired, cat-faced man with the scarred cheek pushed past the blond youth and asked. I see—this man was Charme's father. Then—
"Charme... isn't in this settlement."
"See! His comrades took her!"
The blond youth yelled, but fell instantly silent when the scarred, red-haired man shot him a piercing glare.
"Why do you think that?"
Charme's father asked, locking his gaze with mine.
"Because the barrier vanished. Magic tools that bind to a user are linked directly to their life force. Barriers, in particular, have an intimate connection to the land. Conscious or not, as long as she remains in this area, the barrier should hold. Has it ever vanished like this before?"
"It has weakened significantly in the past, but it has never vanished entirely."
"Then, since obtaining that magic tool, has Charme ever traveled beyond a certain distance from the village?"
Charme's father paused to recall, taking a breath before answering.
"Not as far as I know."
That settled it. From what I had gathered, Charme had been attacked by magic beasts right outside the village gates, and even at that distance, the barrier had held. That magic tool was designed to fail once the bearer moved beyond a certain range from the designated boundary. That was how it worked.
Which meant—
"Then there is only one answer. Charme was kidnapped, and she is no longer anywhere near this settlement."
I bluntly laid out the harsh reality before them.
"Don't you screw with me!"
A full-force punch from the blond youth sent me crashing back-first into the stone wall.
The wind was knocked out of me. As I hacked and coughed, the youth closed the distance and seized my throat with his right hand.
"Stop it, Chato!"
Paying no heed to the father's command, the youth hoisted me up by the neck and bellowed,
"Your friends took her, didn't they?!"
"I... can't deny that."
After all, I had no memories. The sheep cat was an exceedingly rare species, said to be practically indistinguishable from the human race. I had heard rumors that some hunters operated like bandits, capturing and selling monsters on the black market. It wouldn't be surprising in the least if I had been part of a crew like that. In fact, it would explain my current circumstances quite neatly.
"You're finally showing your true colors, you filthy human!"
Glaring at me with bloodshot eyes, he extended the sharp claws on his free left hand.
"I told you to stop!"
Charme's father shouted, veins bulging along his temples as he caught Chato's left wrist just before it could tear into my throat.
"But, Kiji-san!"
"I won't say it again. Chato, stand down."
As Kiji delivered the order with cold finality, Chato ground his teeth audibly, then roughly threw me to the stone floor.
Charme's father—Kiji—stepped toward my sprawled form, crouched down, and asked,
"Gil, are you our enemy?"
He asked a question I couldn't possibly answer.
"I don't know. Like I said, I have no memories."
"Why, you—"
Chato bristled, veins popping on his forehead as he moved to snap at me again, but Kiji cut him off.
"Chato, I am speaking. Be quiet."
Kiji's voice was low and chilling. Chato shuddered, twisted his mouth into a scowl, and looked away.
Kiji turned his attention back to me.
"I asked the wrong question. As you are right now, what do you want to do about Char?"
It was a question I hadn't anticipated.
"What do I want to do about Charme right now... huh?"
They had abducted Charme without anyone in the village noticing. At the very least, whoever took her was an expert at this kind of work. Given how clean the job was, they were likely seasoned bandits. If so, the people of this village, completely ignorant of human malice and cruelty, stood no chance of getting her back on their own.
In short, left as they were, Charme would be sold to humans. At best, she would become a slave or a sideshow attraction; at worst, a plaything for degenerates until she was discarded and killed. The question was whether I could stomach that.
(Haha... What am I even thinking?)
I almost laughed at myself. The thoughts flashing through my mind right now were countless ways to slaughter the bandits who took her, and precise methods to get her out alive. I was plotting it all without a shred of hesitation.
(How absurd. For all I know, the old me might have been here to kidnap her myself.)
It really was ridiculous. Yet, the total lack of hesitation proved just how deeply fixated I had become on the girl named Charme. Of course, I could swear on anything that I was not some virtuous saint who saved people out of the goodness of his heart. My attachment began and ended with Charme alone; I couldn't care less what happened to the rest of the village. My own cold calculation made that much clear.
In other words, I wouldn't lift a finger to rescue her unless there was something in it for me. I was that kind of scumbag. So what was the point of risking my life to save her?
—Throb!
Another pulse of pain shot through my head. It wasn't as agonizing as the last, but once again, the image of that red-haired girl lying face down in the grass surfaced, only to dissolve like foam.
I couldn't explain the reason, but right now, rescuing Charme and slaughtering those bandits felt like an absolute imperative. Enough to make someone like me—who had cared only about self-preservation until now—willing to court danger for the first time.
And so—
"I want to get Char back. Tell me everything that happened."
I laid out the honest desire from the bottom of my heart.