Surviving in a World Teeming with Monsters with the Useless Skill 【Everyday Items Master】! I Was Just Hunting Wild Animals with a Crowbar, So Why Is Everyone Screaming It's an S-Rank Monster? - 92

Chapter 92: A Parent’s Heart

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“Thank you so much! You even went so far as to act like that back then… We’re truly grateful…!”

After completing the mission to defeat Kraken, we were being profusely thanked by the village chief of Ikasashi Village.

“Oh no, we just did what we could.”

“No, no! You protected us with your own body, even getting all beaten up like this…! P-please, at least let us show our gratitude for today! We’ll prepare a feast!”

“A feast?”

In the village square of Ikasashi. Just when we were about to say our goodbyes and head off, the chief made this suggestion.

“Yeah, yeah!”

 “Since those guys aren’t raiding our food anymore, we’ve got plenty to go around!” 

“Please, enjoy yourselves!”

The villagers, not just the chief, were all on board with the idea. As I hesitated, Shachimaru slung his arm around my shoulders.

“Aniki! We should totally take them up on their offer! Besides, we probably won’t be getting our official reward from Kraken’s main base until tomorrow or later anyway!”

He added with a grin.

 “Consider it a pre-celebration!” 

I turned back to the village chief and said.

“Alright, we’ll take you up on that.”

“Of course! Then please, head over to the community center! Everyone! Let’s give these saviors the warmest welcome we can!”

With the chief’s shout, the villagers responded in unison.

“““Yeah!”””

From there, things moved quickly. I had the healer Ui brought along patch me up, and by the time my wounds were mostly healed, the feast had already begun.

“Aniki! Over here, over here!”

Shachimaru waved me over energetically. It was evening. Around us, the villagers were getting rowdy, drunk on freedom and alcohol.

The members of the Ferocious Shark Gang who hadn’t participated this time were left out to avoid overwhelming the hosts, so it was just us who’d taken part and a few others, including Ui, enjoying the feast on the down low.

“Aniki! First drink of the night! Here you go!”

“Oh, sake? Nice. It’s been a while.”

We raised our ochoko cups and clinked them lightly.

““Cheers!””

Gulp—I downed it in one sip. That unique sake aroma, the hint of sweetness. Tasty, I thought as I licked my lips.

“This is good. This is top-notch stuff for sure.”

“Right!? Apparently it’s their specialty. We should totally buy some before we leave!”

“Totally down for that. Genius move, Shachimaru.”

“Right!? Ehehe!”

In high spirits, Shachimaru poured himself another cup of sake. I did the same, refilling mine, and turned my attention to the spread of sashimi and other delicacies in front of me.

The other boys we’d brought along weren’t drinking alcohol, but they seemed to be enjoying the food and chatting with each other. Or so I thought—until the cheeky kid who’d been giving me attitude earlier locked eyes with me and suddenly dashed over.

“Old man!—No, I mean, Aniki!”

“You just de-aged me.”

As I threw out a half-hearted comment, the cheeky kid bowed his head deeply beside me.

“Today’s operation… It really moved me! Someone as strong as you getting beat up on purpose to protect everyone… I’m turning over a new leaf! I’m following you from now on, Aniki!”

“Uh, oh…Okay…”

As I stood there stunned, Shachimaru let out a hearty laugh.

“Hey hey! So you’ve finally realized how great Aniki is, huh!? That’s right! Aniki’s amazing, you know! Mind, body, and spirit—he’s got it all!”

“Probably not the body part.”

It’s a well-known fact—by me and everyone else—that I’m pretty scrawny. I don’t move much either.

“So yeah, please work me to the bone from now on! I’m counting on you!”

After bowing once more, the cheeky kid returned to his seat. While I sat there dumbfounded, Shachimaru said.

“I bet you’re wondering, right, Aniki? Like, why does everyone call you ‘Aniki’ all of a sudden?”

“Not even thinking about that.”

“In the Ferocious Shark Gang, we have a tradition of calling people we respect ‘Aniki.’ We’re not parent and child, or just friends—we’re ‘brothers.’”

Drunk and rambling, Shachimaru continued on, but I found myself more intrigued than I expected, so I listened with sake in hand.

“We were all orphans. Stampede disaster orphans, to be exact. Kids who got separated from their parents during the disaster and had to survive on their own. That’s us.”

Shachimaru took a sip of sake. I drank with him, muttering.

“…I did think you were all pretty young. You’re the oldest one in the Ferocious Shark Gang, right?”

“Now you’re the oldest, Aniki.”

“Ugh, that’s not the kind of information I wanted to hear…”

“Ahaha.”

As I scrunched my face in discomfort, Shachimaru laughed and took another sip.

“Everyone in the gang resents their parents. We were all abandoned in the chaos of the disaster. No adults around—and the ones that were, we rejected.”

He paused, then continued.

“That’s why the Ferocious Shark Gang only has brothers.”

Shachimaru drank again. I glanced at him and followed suit.

“…Resented their parents, huh.”

My situation was different, but their issue didn’t feel totally unrelated to me. I could empathize with them. I repeated the words to myself.

“I think the reason everyone rejected you at first, Aniki, was ‘cause you seemed more like an adult than they expected. Not in age, really—more like how composed you were, maybe?”

“What the hell does that mean?”

“There’s this vibe, like ‘adults are boring.’ We’re all just kids. Please don’t be too hard on us.”

“You don’t have to say that. Besides, I don’t even think anything of it. I just thought that you’re all young. Besides—”

I let out a breath.

“Once you step outside the quarantine zone and start ‘being an adult,’ it really is as boring as they think. In actuality, adults are just kids in adult skins.”

“For someone saying that, you sure play the adult part well, Aniki.”

“I’m twenty-seven, man. I can’t go around acting like a kid.”

“Whoa! Aniki’s mad!”

We messed around for a bit, then laughed together. After a pause, we clinked our cups again. And then I said it.

“What does it mean to be an adult?”

“You’re the most together person here and you’re asking me that?”

“From where I’m standing, you’re doing a great job being an adult too, Shachimaru.”

“Huh? I’m shocked, for real.”

As Shachimaru made a sour face, I smirked.

“Heh… Shachimaru. One day, you’re gonna be even more shocked. When you turn twenty-seven, you’ll remember this conversation and go, ‘Wait, it’s been five years already?’ That day will scare the crap out of you.”

“Eeek! C-come on, Aniki, don’t tell ghost stories! Man, that gave me chills!”

“I’m living through that horror show right now.”

“Gah… A-Aniki…!”

He looked at me like I was something pitiful. I seriously wanted to cry. Then I said.

“That’s why… When I hear about how the Ferocious Shark Gang resents their parents, it doesn’t make me sympathize—it makes me scared.”

“…Scared?”

“How do you become a parent that doesn’t get resented?”

Sip. I realized I’d only been drinking sake all this time.

“I’m not even thirty yet, but with that milestone approaching, I’ve been thinking… Maybe I should find a partner, get married, have kids… But that kind of ‘normal’ still feels so far away from me.”

“Huh? But Aniki, you’re surrounded by beautiful women.”

“If I started seeing kids that way, that’d be the end of me…”

I sighed. 

They’re all gonna grow into beautiful adults, I bet. By then, how old will I be? Man, this is starting to make me want to die.

“And then, after going through all that ‘normal’ adult stuff, I think things like raising kids come next.”

“True.”

“I wasn’t exactly abandoned, but… I still hold a grudge against my parents. When I was a kid, I could hate them as much as I wanted.”

After defeating regular monsters and getting a little closer to being ‘normal,’ I felt like I had grown from a child into an adult. After bringing Luna into my life and raising her like my own daughter, I realized something.

“Being a parent is scary.”

Luna was precious to me. Just spending a few weeks together was enough to make me feel that way. I adored her—maybe too much. And that was why it scared me.

“The responsibility is too heavy. I keep thinking about what it really means for a child to be happy.”

I raised the cup to my lips but realized my head was fuzzy and decided against drinking.

“But, you know, kids eventually grow apart from their parents. You can’t take care of them forever. Still, I want her to be happy. I don’t know how though.”

I muttered. I had no idea what the right answer was. Trying to comfort me, Shachimaru spoke.

“…Bringing Luna-chan to the Ferocious Shark Gang was the right call, I think. At the very least, it was better than letting the government take her.”

“Probably, yeah. But Luna gets lonely because she can’t come with me when I go out to fight.”

She was a smart kid. She would complain or act a little spoiled, but in the end, she always listened. Still, when I got back from defeating Inago yesterday, she was crying in her sleep. When I saw her like that, I couldn’t help but wonder.

Isn’t there a better way?

“She’s still so little, scared after being separated from her parent… I want to be by her side, but if I did that, I’d just be a freeloader in the Ferocious Shark Gang. I can’t let that happen.”

“Aniki, you’re doing your best. Luna-chan is a good kid, I’m sure she understands.”

“Haaaaa… Parenting is so hard…”

I hung my head. Parents and children. Children and parents.

They say ‘a child doesn’t know a parent’s heart,’ but I think kids have the luxury of being irresponsible. They don’t have worries, and they can resent their parents as much as they want. Even so, I could never bring myself to forgive mine.

Shachimaru lifted his sake cup and gave me a pat on the back.

“Well, let’s drink tonight! You took down two grand raider gangs two days in a row! No room for gloomy faces right now, yeah!?”

“Is that so…? …Yeah, I guess you’re right.”

“Tomorrow we need to get supplies from Kraken, so you get to rest, Aniki. Then the day after, we’ll crush Kagerou and seize the old Mountain King area! Come on! Eat some sashimi, Aniki! It’s not just about the sake, you know!”

Prompted by him, I finally reached for the food. It was incredibly fresh, and I was shocked—why the hell had I only been drinking? The feast lasted deep into the night. Ui joined us partway through, and the three of us laughed like idiots and had a great time.

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