Published: March 21, 2026
Crow gave a thin smile and shifted his gaze to the upper right.
"Well, Beastmen don't have a custom of counting years. I forget the exact age, but I'm certainly over two hundred years old."
I widened my eyes.
He spent half of that time learning ancient languages?
What tenacity.
There's no way I could do that.
More importantly, why hasn't he died?
"No, aging didn't start until fifty years after my sister was killed, so it's about two hundred and fifty years? Or three hundred? Anyway, because of my eccentric mother I ended up living this long."
Eccentric...
That hardly seems like a word for one's mother.
Then again, Crow himself is pretty eccentric.
Hereditary?
"Who accidentally drinks an elixir of immortality? Because of that the old hag is still alive and my lifespan doubled... She's the root of all this."
After saying that, Crow slumped and leaned back against the sofa.
...Is he drunk?
He's more talkative than usual, telling old stories like a bunch of construction workers after a few drinks.
"Because your mother drank the elixir, she lived long, and you were affected in the womb?"
I asked, and Crow nodded with a distant look.
"Yeah. That crazy hag drank it before I was born, and it affected me while I was in her belly. So it's her fault."
So that explained why Crow lived unusually long even among Beastmen.
But even if his lifespan doubled, shouldn't it be nearing its end by now?
"I can't die until I avenge my sister, but I'm tired of living. I want it to end soon."
I was surprised at Crow's words.
Wanting it to end—does that mean he wants to die?
Or does it mean he wants to stop living driven by revenge?
Japanese lifespans are longer than some countries, but living a century is still rare.
I've not lived even a tenth of what Crow has, so I couldn't begin to understand how he felt.
...Maybe I should ask Amelia.
While I thought that, Crow had slipped into sleep on the sofa and started to breathe steadily.
His face looked so peaceful—hardly like someone who wanted to die.
"Please, leave him be if you can."
A voice made me turn; Mr. Zeal stood holding a blanket.
I sensed him earlier, but I guess he was nearby.
"What's your relationship with Crow, Mr. Zeal?"
I asked as he gently draped the blanket over Crow. He gave an embarrassed smile and sat on the white sofa opposite me.
"You know this man used to take on disciples, right?"
I nodded.
We'd just been talking about that a moment ago.
"One of those disciples was my mother. She's gone now, of course."
I opened my eyes quietly.
After Crow stepped back from the front lines, nations had tried to pass on the first generation hero's technique he had acquired to their own people, sending people to study under him.
Humans were no exception.
Crow didn't refuse.
His revenge was fading, aging had begun, and he had time on his hands.
And Mr. Zeal's mother, unsurprisingly, lost her mind.
"My father was an adventurer. He was gone by the time I was small, so my mother raised me alone."
I thought of my own mother—fragile, sickly.
"After my mother fell apart, Crow raised me. He recommended me to the knights order, and when they tried to get me to quit, he brought me back."
Mr. Zeal sighed and looked at Crow's sleeping face with gentleness.
It was a look full of affection, like an aging father's gaze; the scene almost looked like a painting.
"To me he's undoubtedly my benefactor, my father. I don't resent my mother at all. She's just clumsy."
"That was only for a short while, but I understand some of it. So, what do you want done with Crow?"
From what the hotel owner said, Crow has a tsundere, can't-ignore-a-troubled-person, champion-of-justice sort of personality.
A slightly twisted champion of justice, perhaps.
But why tell me this?
"Could you let him do as he pleases? As you can guess, there's not much time left."
"...I don't want to get dragged into anything more."
I'm not a champion of justice, nor am I a saint.
Crow saved my life, and Mr. Zeal helped me leave the castle, but I have my own objective.
I just want to go home.
That's all I want.
If Amelia, my classmates, and I are together tonight when the time comes, that's enough.