Chapter 5

Two days passed since then.

During that time, Juuichi spent his days peacefully—or rather, quietly and idly—in the abandoned castle.

He helped with farming and heavy labor when there was work to do, borrowing food and a place to sleep in exchange for his labor, and at night, he simply slept away his free time.

He had no other place to go.

Even if he wanted to venture outside, he realized that he couldn’t communicate and didn’t understand the geography.

“What should I do?”

Even as he muttered to himself, there were no options available.

Ultimately, all he could do now was the work he was asked to do, research how to utilize his abilities in his spare time, explore this abandoned castle, and observe the two girls and the children.

“***—!”

The beast-girl’s older sister waved to Juuichi from downstairs.

“Be careful! I’ll drop it—!”

From the second floor of the castle, Juuichi threw down a rotten bookshelf.

The bookshelf shattered upon hitting the ground, and the girl and the children, who had been watching from a distance, rushed over to it and began dragging it away. They might recycle the usable materials.

Today, Juuichi was tasked with cleaning a room.

It seemed they wanted to make use of the empty room that had been left unattended in the abandoned castle, so his job was to dispose of the furniture that was no longer usable.

“It’s tough moving with just the two girls and the kids. While the demand for heavy labor may guarantee my food, it’s still a challenge.

Well, next is this rotten book. It would be easy to use my inventory, but…”

Juuichi turned to look behind him.

In front of the door, the beast-girl’s younger sister was watching him intently.

“…”

She looked distinctly dissatisfied.

Since then, she hadn’t suddenly attacked Juuichi, but she still maintained a wary attitude toward the outsider.

She often watched him from a distance, seemingly on guard.

“Could you carry this down bit by bit and throw it away in the trash behind the castle?”

When Juuichi pointed to the pile of books, the girl began to move it, still wearing a sullen expression. It seemed she was willing to work.

“Hmmm. That strong sense of caution—did she have a bad experience with humans in the past? Or is there some other reason? In any case, I can’t understand their language.”

Over the past few days, some things had become clear.

Those girls had no adult guardians.

The circumstances were unclear. Perhaps due to war, disease, or famine, they had settled here, living off the bread made from flowers and occasionally catching birds that resembled sparrows to eat.

Once, Juuichi saw a girl and a child embracing and crying in the abandoned castle. They likely lost their parents and their hometown.

Even Juuichi, who had suddenly been transported to another world, was not in a position to take care of children whose situations he didn’t fully understand, but ignoring them also felt wrong.

He had no idea what could bring them comfort, and there was little he could do since they had just met.

Still, he felt some obligation for the food and bed he had received.

“I want to learn some words soon. We can’t communicate.”

There were limits to gestures. Juuichi didn’t even know their names yet.

Now, after tossing out the broken furniture, including a shattered table and a chair with a broken leg, he gathered the remaining pile of books and headed down the stairs.

He had investigated this castle over the past two days during breaks from his farm work, but he hadn’t found anything usable for traveling.

It seemed this place had been uninhabited for quite some time.

When no one was watching, he took the opportunity to test his ability to replay past events.

According to the internal clock in his head, this fortress had been abandoned after being used by a beastman army about 30 years ago.

“I didn’t think I could make the images invisible to others at will. This ability seems designed to avoid drawing attention…”

It was difficult to explain how to do it in words, but it seemed that the ability to replay the past had a function that allowed him to consciously show or hide it from the eyes of others.

On his way down, he caught sight of the younger beast girl, but upon seeing the load he was carrying, she must have thought his work was done, as she silently walked away. Juuichi discarded the stack of books, so rotten that the letters were indecipherable, at the trash dump behind the ruined castle.

“At least there’s some semblance of a written civilization, huh?”

It seemed that paper did exist here. It was a rough, low-quality product made simply from pressed plant fibers.

As for whether the girls could read or write, that was uncertain, but hints about the level of civilization in this world could be gleaned from such things.

Upon returning to the castle courtyard, he found the girls working on something with the scrap materials. It appeared they were making a simple scarecrow.

They would probably set it up in the fields.

Given that the flower garden was an important food source, it was certainly essential to take measures against birds.

…However.

“********!!”

“、**ー。、******！”

The two girls had started a trivial quarrel again.

It seemed they were arguing about what to do with the scrap materials.

Though he couldn’t understand what they were saying, it appeared that the younger sister wanted to repair some furniture based on her gestures.

In this case, the younger sister seemed to be the one being unreasonable. Food was a lifeline, and setting up the scarecrow was clearly the more sensible option.

The older sister was scolding or trying to calm her down. The younger children were siding with the older sister.

“Not again. What a hassle.”

Juuichi sat down on the steps at the entrance of the building. Propping his chin on his hand, he watched the noisy sisters.

Unlike how they acted towards him, they weren’t resorting to violence out of excitement, so there was no urgent need to intervene. Some seemed accustomed to the scuffles, chatting away without bothering to pay attention to the fight.

There were two girls who looked no older than about fifteen, along with eight younger children.

That made a total of ten.

“Would I count as the eleventh if I included myself? I wonder if an estimated prisoner from another world is counted in that number.”

He chuckled self-deprecatingly and muttered.

Well, it wasn’t a bad place.

Though he could do without the bathing arrangements—fetching water instead of having a proper bath.

The castle had a strange, nostalgic feeling, with fields of flowers surrounding it.

A fantastical courtyard where light streamed into the ruins. Ten children.

For Juuichi, this was not an unhappy environment at all, and even as he thought about ways to return to his original world, he felt it would be fine to spend a little more time here.

If only he could become better friends with these orphaned children. If they could all live comfortably together…

“I know I shouldn’t be wasting time playing around.”

He understood that it was common for humans to put their goals on hold and get swept up in the present. He had no intention of ignoring the circumstances of these children now.

There had to be something he could do, even if it was just a small help…

As Juuichi was lost in thought, a small boy, who seemed to be the youngest of the children, approached and looked up at him.

It seemed he wanted Juuichi to mediate the sisters’ quarrel.

“Hey, hey. I don’t even know the language, you know?”

“、、**……？”

“…Well, I guess it’s fine.”

He patted the boy’s head and brushed off the dust from his pants before heading towards the scene.

At that moment, the older sister, noticing Juuichi, lit up with a bright smile, as if she had found the best ally.

She tugged at Juuichi’s sleeve and hid in the shadow, pointing at her younger sister and saying something to him.

It seemed she wanted him to scold her sister…

“Hmm…”

The older girl had been showing signs of wanting to rely on Juuichi more often lately.

He could understand her feelings. In effect, she was the de facto leader of this group.

However, given their age, it was an inappropriate amount of pressure.

An older man who listens to instructions, with a large body and great strength—regardless of whether the words are understood, it’s natural for children to start developing a sense of dependency.

I can understand that, but… when I looked at the younger sister, her eyes were filled with tears, and she was shaking her fists.

She looked frustrated. While bravely hiding her feelings of fear.

I could understand her psychology as well.

“Wait a moment. If everyone starts blaming her, it wouldn’t be fair to the child, would it?”

The older sister was relying on a stranger, and most of the younger ones seemed to be on the other side, with no one agreeing with her opinion.

It’s easy for a child at this age to feel as if there’s no one on their side—that’s a characteristic of children at this age.

I crouched down to meet her gaze, wiped her tears with my finger, and said,

“You’re frustrated, huh? You feel like your sister and everyone are making you out to be the bad guy.

But you don’t have to feel that way. Calm down, try talking more, and see if you can find an opinion that everyone can agree on.”

When I smiled gently, the younger sister looked surprised.

It didn’t matter if she didn’t understand the words. What was important was not to give this child a sense of alienation.

The older sister, who had been behind me, also looked surprised at that exchange, as if she noticed something.

She awkwardly stepped forward and said something quietly to her younger sister.

Then, the younger sister scrunched up her face… and hugged her older sister, bursting into tears.

…It seemed like it went well. Watching the older sister panic, I let out a sigh of relief.

The little boy who had called me over was smiling happily and tugging at my clothes.

He was probably saying, “Well done.”

“Yeah, it worked out somehow. I was worried about what I’d do if there had been some ridiculous misunderstanding.”

I shrugged my shoulders and looked up at the sky.

The sky was clear, and a beautiful blue expanse spread out.

Below, a flower field stretched out, with the hugging sisters and the surrounding children.

It wasn’t a bad place.

Even if there were a few untouched problems…

Suddenly.

I heard a noise from behind me.

It was coming from the gate that connected the paradisiacal ruins to the outside world.