After I saved the girl, she introduced herself.
"Thank you for saving me. My name is Miko. It's nice to meet you."
Her face went red.
"Could you… get out of my lap?"
I apologized and moved back, then said: "Nice to meet you. And thank you for treating me."
She'd healed my eye. I still didn't fully understand how.
"I'm Tai. An adventurer at the start of my journey."
"What kind of journey?"
"Looking for myself."
Miko was quiet for a moment, then said: "I'll reward you for this. Come with me to the elf forest — I want to honor you properly for saving me."
"I can't refuse that. I don't mind."
"And your journey — will you pause it?"
"I was already heading to the forest. And a journey doesn't need a fixed destination."
She stood, brushed the dust off her clothes, and walked toward the carriage.
When she got close and saw Carmela and Seijo, her expression shifted to anger.
"I didn't know you sold elves, slave trader."
She began chanting a spell to throw at me.
But Seijo and Carmela stopped her, both of them crying.
"He's our savior. He's our older brother. Please don't kill him."
Miko stopped. She looked embarrassed.
"I apologize for what I said."
"Don't worry about it," I said. "It's a normal assumption in this world."
"What do you mean, this world?"
"I'm the Shield Hero. I was summoned." I showed them the shield and its abilities.
All three of them bowed.
"Welcome, Master Tai."
"Master?" I said. "Just call me Tai."
Miko said: "You're our savior."
"How am I your savior?"
"The heroes were foretold — not foretold in the literal sense, but…"
"Then what makes you all feel this way about me? How did I become your savior?"
Miko spoke carefully.
"The half-races — especially the elves — have a long history with the Shield Hero. We suffered under humans for a long time. They bullied us, looked down on us because of what we are. But the first Shield Hero was the one who saved us, while the others did nothing. Because of him, we built a basic relationship with humans — trade, nothing more. And because of that, the bullying faded.
Then one strange day, we woke up to our people screaming. Fire was everywhere in our forest. The Demon King had come, with an army behind him. We sent requests for help to every kingdom. They all betrayed us — no response from anyone, except the Shield Hero. He sacrificed himself to stop the Demon King. Because of him, our entire army survived. Our people survived.
And the humans were trying to take our forest for themselves.
It has become clear to us that you will save us from the Demon King."
"Wow. That's quite a story," I said. "And the other heroes?"
"Garbage."
I laughed. "You're right. They're garbage. Though garbage is more useful — at least it gets recycled."
Then I said: "Alright. I'll save you."
And quietly to myself: I've been killing out of hatred. I need to learn from that.
I lit a cigarette and thought about what I'd just committed to.
Saying I was the Shield Hero meant I'd taken the protection of the elf forest onto my shoulders. But would it only be protection — or something deeper?
I agreed because I wanted to change. And I found the reason along the way to the forest, after saving Carmela and Seijo.
So. Let's go.
Miko asked: "Did anything happen after you were summoned?"
"Yes. And I expected most of it."
"I'm sorry — what happened, exactly?"
I told her everything. Except the part about threatening the king. If she knew that, she'd say the king would track me to the forest and destroy it, and refuse to let me come. So I kept that between me and the king, and let him find the forest on his own if he could.
That night, after covering a long stretch of road, I heard rustling in the bushes.
I checked it and found a massive wild boar.
It tried to ram the carriage. Miko slowed it with her wind magic, and I stepped in and took the charge myself. I grabbed it by the tusks, lifted it, slammed it into the ground, and killed it.
We ate it for dinner.
Miko and the siblings went to gather firewood while I checked the perimeter.
They came back smiling.
I lit the fire and cooked the boar. While I was handing out the plates, I looked at my spot, then looked around at the three of them.
Everything had changed. The past was the past — it needed to stay there.
Their faces were lit up with laughter. And I was just some strange person sitting apart, lighting a cigarette in the dark.
Then a ringing hit my ear without warning.
I pressed my hand to it, the pain sharp.
Miko looked over. "Are you alright?"
"Yes. It happens sometimes."
After we finished eating, everyone slept. I picked up the siblings and settled them inside the carriage, then sat up front where the driver sits and started smoking.
I lifted my head to the sky. Clear night. The stars were clear against the night sky. Cold air. A full moon.
I took a long drag, let it out, and said quietly, to no one:
"I don't know how I ended up here. From my mother betraying my father, to Saka dying, to Nino — and now I've been summoned to another world and accused of assaulting a princess. Everything piling on at once, and I don't know what to do with any of it."
I felt someone behind me and nearly reacted before I recognized her.
Miko.
"Don't do that again," I said. "I almost killed you."
"My death won't fix what's inside you," she said. "You have darkness in you like the bottom of an abyss. But I can see it — you're screaming. You want a way out."
"How much did you hear?"
"Everything."
"Weren't you asleep? Why did you wake up?"
"I heard a painful melody. Sad. Like a child crying. I followed it — and it was you. I've been following that melody for three days. I'm glad I found you."
"That's not your concern," I said.
Miko was quiet for a moment, then spoke.
"If you lost your father — marry, and you become a father yourself. If you lost your mother — marry, and your wife becomes that warmth. If you lost a brother or sister — have children and give them what you never had. Don't pour more into the wound. Cover it with something real. Think carefully before you throw yourself into something you don't understand."
Those words landed on me like cold water over the heart.
"As expected from an elf," I said. "Wise, beautiful, and sharp."
Miko's face went completely red. She looked flustered in a way that reminded me of Nino — and something tightened in my chest for a second.
I assumed it was the aftereffect of the poison from the men who'd tried to take her.
"What's wrong? Your face is red. Are you alright?"
"That's none of your business."
She lay back and rested her head in my lap.
"Why don't you sleep inside the carriage?" I said.
"So you don't run away. And because I want to. And because you look like someone who needs it."
Her answer hit somewhere I wasn't prepared for.
Something lit up behind my eyes. The moonlight caught them.
And I cried — quietly, honestly, without fighting it.
Then I looked at the moon and said:
"You can sleep. It's alright."
A tear fell on Miko's cheek.
She didn't say anything.
She just smiled — because the melody coming from my heart had begun, very slightly, to change.
End of Chapter 43