Even though they called it exile, it did not mean I was thrown straight outside the castle walls on the spot. It was much worse.
With soldiers holding both of my arms, I walked down the long stone steps, passed through the castle gate, and was made to walk like a prisoner being led down the main street inside the castle walls.
It was a fine-paved stone street. Shops with tile roofs lined both sides, and maybe because it was morning market time, there were quite a few people around. The savory smell of a bakery, a woman spreading laundry by a well, an old man pulling a cart—it was a peaceful morning scenery that could be anywhere.
Right in the middle of it, a shabby outsider flanked by soldiers was being led along. People on the street glanced over at me. The fabric of my school uniform, which looked completely different from the clothes around here, probably drew extra attention. I know those looks. They were the very sensible looks of people who did not want to get involved in trouble. No one tried to help. Well, that is only natural.
After passing through the main street, the houses gradually became sparse, and the paved stones turned into a dirt road. Farmlands spread out, and beyond them, the outer wall surrounding the town and the outermost gate came into view.
That large wooden gate opened heavily, and the soldiers finally stopped walking there.
“From here on is outside the royal capital. Don’t ever come back!”
And just like that, I was literally thrown outside the town. Behind me, the gate closed with a heavy creak. The dull sound of the lock dropping into place. That was it.
…She’s gone. No, they’re gone.
When I looked back, there was a closed gate and high outer walls. Beyond just this single wall, the smell of the morning market and people’s lives should still be there, but they suddenly felt terribly far away.
What spread out before me was an abandoned outlying field. There was no one to plow it, dead grass grew wild over broken ridges, and not a single human shadow was in sight. Only a narrow path led unreliably toward a pitch-black forest far ahead.
This was outside the royal capital. The place the king said monsters appeared. There, all alone, with a status of all ones—where everything was at its lowest value—I stood empty-handed.
…Yeah, to put it mildly, I am trapped.
I start walking for now. I have no destination. I just kept moving my feet away from the wall. As I pushed through the dead grass, something moved sluggishly in a hollow ahead on the road. A black, stocky beast about the size of a dog. Goggling red eyes slowly turned toward me.
Is it a monster?
The option of fighting was out of the question from the start. After all, my physical strength, speed, everything is at one. I don’t feel like I could even properly throw a single stone. I quietly lowered my body and headed back the way I came. Holding my breath, I made a wide detour and quietly slipped out of the beast’s field of vision.
My heart was beating so loudly—but yeah, only running away was something I was strangely good at since long ago. Letting it pass, I let out a sigh of relief in the shade of a tree. I won’t fight. I won’t stand out. I’ll just survive. I just need to keep doing that.
That said, that “surviving” was immediately quite a difficult puzzle. The sun dips, and it gets cold at night. Plus, the darkness is probably when beasts like that start moving around. Probably. Unless I do something, I won’t be able to welcome the morning.
Fortunately, stats don’t matter when it comes to using your head.
First, water. Relying on the faint sound of a current, I went down a slope and found a narrow stream. Choosing a clear spot higher up where the water wasn’t stagnant, I scooped it up with my hands and drank. It felt like coming back to life.
Next, food. What caught my eye were red berries and mushrooms on the ground. But I didn’t touch them. I didn’t have the courage to put something unfamiliar into my stomach, and if I got food poisoning, that would truly be the end of it. Tonight, I will get by on water.
And then, a sleeping place. Lying down on dead leaves was out of the question. It wouldn’t block the wind, and most importantly, I would be wide open.
I found a narrow gap where a single person could barely squeeze in at the edge of a cliff made of overlapping rocks. If I pushed my body deep inside, my back and both sides were protected by the rocks, and I only had to worry about the front. I blocked the entrance reasonably well with nearby branches and leaves. Good. This way, the wind and the beasts’ eyes will be a bit better off.
I fervently wished I could start a fire. But I had neither matches nor lighters. I tried the trick I saw in movies of rubbing branches together for a while with my numb fingers… and in the end, not a single puff of smoke rose. Fire doesn’t seem to be something that spawns so conveniently for a modern kid like me.
Even so, with just a thin school uniform, the cold of the night slowly and mercilessly soaked in. My teeth were chattering, and my stomach felt like it was stuck to my back. Honestly, I couldn’t call this comfortable even if I died. I hugged my knees and shrunk my body into the gap in the rocks.
Doing that, I noticed a silence that made my ears hurt. The sound of insects, the rustling of leaves, the sound of cars driving far away—not a single thing was there. All I could hear was my own shallow breathing.
I’m used to being alone. Whether in the classroom or at home, I was always on the outside of the general crowd. But that was just a matter of people being around me and me not being counted among them.
This place is different. No matter how much I look around, there isn’t a single light or sign of people. If I stopped moving in this gap in the rocks tonight, there is probably not a single person in this world who would notice. That fact alone hurt more than this cold.
Still, strangely enough, I wasn’t despairing. I can probably manage to get through today somehow. That’s enough. Originally, I’m the type of person who doesn’t wish for much.
It was right then, as I was trembling and starting to doze off.
Deep inside my eyelids, that glowing window floated up with a warm glow.
“Daily Reward”
“Today’s Gift—Experience Points +2”
Huh. Experience points, plus 2.
I almost wanted to laugh. 2. It’s just 2. Well, of course nobody would pick that.
Still, I thought as I rubbed my numb fingers together. This comes every day, even if I do nothing. No matter how long I live from now on—since I won’t age, it will keep arriving, always, always.
I couldn’t quite swallow that thought. No matter how much I thought about what lies beyond that, an image wouldn’t form. But more than that…
The window had more.
“For First-Timers—We offer a welcome bonus.”
When I realized it, something was sitting right on my knees. White and mottled, fitting completely in both hands—was it an egg?
“You have obtained [??? ‘s Egg].”
An egg? Why an egg?
Tilting my head in confusion, I gently wrapped it in both hands. Then—
—It’s warm.
Deep down, it was warmly comforting. In this freezing night, only that spot felt cozy like a little fire. There was no sign of it cracking. Even if I poked it or shook it—though I stopped doing that right away—it was just quietly warm. I didn’t even know what was inside.
What are you?
There were so many things I didn’t understand. But holding this unreliable size of warmth in both hands, I realized for the first time that I had been biting my back teeth ever since I was chased out. With a soft and long sigh, I naturally let it out. I gently tucked that egg deep into the inside of my clothes where it wouldn’t get too cold.
That night. Holding an unnamed warm egg and a tiny “+2”, I fell into a muddy sleep.