『Uwaaa… huh?』
When I came to, everything in front of me was pure white.
I found myself in an incredibly vast space. When I tried to look at my hands, there was nothing there—my body wasn’t there.
‘Ah… I see.’
The fact that I felt like I was screaming earlier meant exactly that.
‘I’m dead, aren’t I?’
I was definitely a support member of an S-rank adventurer party. Because my body was gone, my memories were starting to fade.
My role was ‘porter.’ I had no combat skills, but I was highly skilled in carrying things.
‘I wanted to live longer… well, I guess it can’t be helped.’
“No, it absolutely can be helped.”
‘Huh?’
In front of me appeared an unbelievably beautiful woman, so beautiful it was otherworldly.
She was semi-transparent, with a shimmering aura around her. She didn’t seem to be human; she looked like a different race—long ears, hair nearly silver. She resembled a ‘High Elf.’
“As you suspected, this is not the mortal world. This is a kind of mezzanine between life and the afterlife.”
‘So I’m not dead yet? I need to get back to the party!’
“…You can’t go back anymore. You made the greatest contribution to your party in your final moments.”
‘I don’t remember what happened at all. What exactly happened to me?’
When I asked, the woman looked down. Maybe it was rude of me, but I couldn’t help feeling urgent.
“Your party was forced to retreat from a boss monster deep within a dungeon. To allow your comrades to escape, you used your cargo to buy time, and in the end…”
—Old man, don’t use the teleport crystal! If you use it here…
—Ahhh, I told you! That’s why you shouldn’t have carried it…
—No, the defense magic won’t reach… Beck-san is…!
‘I troubled Ryud, made Angelica angry, and worried Sophia.’
“Those two are safe as well, but it seems the party is divided on whether to go back and search for your body.”
‘A body… it’s tough to hear that even though I know I’m dead.’
After turning thirty, my stamina had gradually declined, but Ryud and the others valued my experience and let me join them. I didn’t want to drop out, but I was prepared to die. Still, it felt heavy.
‘…Well, I guess feeling heavy doesn’t mean much now that I don’t have a body.’
“Why do you talk as if it doesn’t concern you? You’re dead!”
‘As long as the party is safe, that’s enough for me. I was becoming a complete burden anyway. My chronic illness was getting worse; it was time to quit.’
Why is she the one getting angry? Is it because I’m too withered?
Seeing her like a daughter made me speak gently, almost coddling her. This kind of rudeness often made Angelica angry too.
“Didn’t you have things you wanted to do? To join a party that belittled you for ten years, only to die as a sacrifice…”
‘Something I wanted to do… I wanted to become more efficient at carrying things. If I had better gear, maybe the party wouldn’t have been wiped out.’
“That’s not your fault at all. You’re such an idiot.”
‘…Thanks for getting angry. It makes me feel a bit better.’
This is the end. I could feel the time running out.
“No, it’s not over. You have regrets. And I’ve come to like you. If someone dies tragically, it makes me want to save them at least once.”
‘…What?’
“See, you’re already expecting it. You really want to live, but you used the teleport crystal to evacuate your comrades, and then took the dungeon boss’s corrosive breath head-on, turning to bones instantly.”
‘Ugh… I figured it would turn out like that…’
So there’s no body to recover, and even if I have regrets, I guess I’ll just have to disappear like this.
