This Is Your Gift

"Morris? It's been a while."

"Well, I'll be—Cher, you bastard! It's been forever, hasn't it? How've you been getting on?"

A friend, then? I stayed where I was, and it wasn't only this one. More and more of them began greeting Fur Ball as if they knew him.

"That's Chesian, isn't it?"

"Hey. Who's that next to you?"

They talked to Fur Ball and kept glancing my way, whispering. I tilted my head, and only belatedly understood the whole situation. A smile spread across my face.

Fur Ball, Cher must have brought his friends because he wants to show me off!

Wasn't that what the weak always did—set a strong one at their back, then boast and parade them around?

How am I this brilliant?

Pride swelled until my chest pushed itself forward of its own accord.

By then Fur Ball had finished greeting his friends and come back, and I opened my mouth.

Then today, I'll have you introduce me.

"……What?"

Fur Ball said something to me, as if the words embarrassed him.

Go on. Introduce me.

"What are you even saying. Be quiet."

Just trust me.

I'll make the introduction magnificent.

I nodded with fierce resolve.

"Ugh, what is this."

"There are this many people, and you're telling us to move?!"

"Hey!! Have you no manners!"

Just then, a commotion broke out around us.

I jerked my head up to see what the fuss was, and found one peculiar-looking individual walking out toward us.

At first I had no idea what I was seeing, so I only blinked—but soon a gasp of admiration escaped me at how singular he was.

"What's wrong all of a sudden? You see something?"

Fur Ball, beside me, cocked his head and asked, but I couldn't tear my eyes from the figure emerging through the crowd. I was spellbound.

King Big-Head.

His head was enormous. And it shone.

So cool.

How could a head be that big?

"Where are you—hey, put your hand down. Have you lost your mind?"

King Big-Head, hello!

"That man's a noble! Why are you waving at him?!"

I greeted King Big-Head with cheerful warmth.

A head that large and imposing—he was a handsome one, that fellow. Want to be my friend?

"I told you not to."

King Big-Head is over there.

It was marvelous. How was his head so huge, and so bright?

King Big-Head had no hair, and yet his scalp gleamed like a polished stone, glossy and full of light.

"Ugh. Is that Baron Bikhe again today? Look at the oil just pouring down his face."

"Why does he keep walking around with his chin stuck out like that? He actually thinks he's handsome."

"And why is his head so enormous? Every time I see it, I'm in awe."

"Right? Maybe all the bribes went straight to his head."

Watching the uproar around King Big-Head, I nodded to myself.

The bigger the head, the stronger and more popular, I suppose.

Well, even I had thought King Big-Head impressive, purely by instinct.

If a bigger head means stronger… then what about my Fur Ball?

I lifted my head a little and compared Fur Ball's to the people around us.

No bigger than a mouse's…

Fur Ball's head was conspicuously small.

"What's with that look."

What do we do if you're weak……

"Now what."

What do we do. My Fur Ball's head is small. Far too small.

How was he supposed to get through the world with a head like that? Worry tightened around me, and I looked at him with sorrowful eyes.

I knew it from the start. You're the sort who couldn't thrive even if it was handed to you.

"Would you drop that weird expression?"

I kept gazing up at him, my face brimming with worry, and Fur Ball's expression grew stranger by the moment before turning irritable.

"……Just wear the hat properly. That one's a noble. Nothing good comes of meeting his eyes."

Fur Ball hurriedly pressed the hat down on my head and drew me behind him, as if to hide me from King Big-Head.

At first I wondered why he was suddenly acting like this, but a moment later I was moved by the way he tried to conceal me.

Ah. King Big-Head is so strong, he was worried about me.

He must have been afraid I'd come to harm at King Big-Head's hands, and meant to protect me with that tiny head of his. It was truly touching.

"I've lived a long life, and this is the first zombie I've seen nearly get herself killed mouthing off at a noble."

What a good boy. So you even know how to protect your master now?

"Waving at that lunatic baron. Unbelievable. Seriously."

I understand how you feel.

I was so proud of Fur Ball that I smiled at him to say, We may not speak the same language, but I understand every bit of what you mean.

"What are you smiling for, like you did something right. Do you even know what you just did?"

But I'm strong, so don't worry.

"You've really made up your mind to die."

Our Fur Ball has all grown up.

When I said that and smiled, Fur Ball glared at me at first, then let out a short breath of a laugh and took my hand, leading me on.

We were walking hard like that when I caught sight of something glittering. It was silver all over, with what looked like a vivid blue stone set in the center. And then—

A woman's voice, warm with a smile, reached me like a hallucination.

"H-hey, where are you going all of a sudden!"

I drifted toward it as if possessed.

Chesian looked at the zombie whose hand was clasped in his.

She's being good.

The fruit of her training, perhaps.

At first she had tried to fling off the hat and clothes, as if they were too stifling, but once she actually began looking around the market, even the scraps of zombie-speech she let out now and then fell silent. She only glanced about, and she didn't resist.

After that, things went fairly smoothly. He bought meat for the zombie to eat, and groceries for himself.

"The sun's already going down. Let's go."

Between one choice and another, the day had slipped away.

Telling himself the only thing left was to get back before the sun was fully down, he started toward the carriage stand.

He would have, if the zombie hadn't seized his hand and gone striding off.

"H-hey, where are you going all of a sudden!"

Chesian, about to plant his feet on reflex, shuddered where he stood at the sharp pain biting into his hand.

What kind of strength…!

Zombie or not, the monstrous force was no joke.

"Chesian, is something the matter?"

A merchant who had been watching the two of them from the front called out. At the familiar voice, Chesian looked up.

"Uncle Hans?"

While Chesian was startled at running into someone he knew, the zombie only stared, entranced, at the accessories on display.

"Uncle. It's been a while. You moved the shop?"

"Well, yes. It has been a while. And who's this beside you?"

"Just, uh…… Business been all right lately?"

"Haha. Nothing but flies, day after day."

Chesian thought he had turned the subject aside smoothly enough, but Hans—a merchant with a sharp eye—didn't miss it.

They look like lovers. And what a lovely hand.

Interest brightened Hans's face as he stole a glance, eyes glittering.

He couldn't even see her face properly, but a person had an air about them. Thinking she was probably quite a beauty, Hans clicked his tongue at the folly of youth.

"Buy one, why don't you? I know you, so I'll make it cheap."

"What? No."

"Mm, but your lover looks like she wants to buy something."

Hans jerked his chin toward the zombie, whose gaze was fixed on the accessories, and Chesian shook his head in alarm.

"She's not my lover."

"Then are the hands those two are holding some kind of illusion, as far as my eyes are concerned?"

"This is……."

Embarrassed, Chesian let go of the zombie's hand.

He had only been holding it because she was a zombie and he never knew which way she might bolt—and it seemed to have invited a needless misunderstanding.

But the moment he let go, Chesian had no choice but to stare back down at his own hand, eyes round, face blank.

"Hahaha!"

Hans burst out laughing. Chesian opened his mouth and shut it again, over and over, before he finally managed to speak.

"……You."

"What an adorable lover!"

Because the zombie had wiggled her fingers and taken Chesian's hand again—the very one he had just released.

"No, I'm telling you, she really isn't!"

"Now, now."

Flustered, Chesian hurried to deny it and tried to pull his hand free, but the zombie's brute strength hardened his expression and stopped him mid-motion.

Is this a thug, or a zombie.

If he forced his hand out, he felt sure his wrist would snap.

"If she isn't, then why won't you let go?"

"Her grip is practically a natural disaster."

"A disaster? The disaaaster of love?"

Chesian turned his gaze from Hans, who was teasing him so gleefully, as if he had just witnessed something appalling.

"How strong could a little woman like that possibly be! You just can't let go because you like it, keh heh heh!"

"Uncle Hans, please be quiet."

"Hahaha! In all my years, this is the first time I've seen that look on your face! Red as a beet, you are, red as a beet~."

He said he didn't want it, and yet how lovely those two firmly clasped hands were.

Hans couldn't hold back the laughter that kept bubbling out of him.

"Uncle!"

Chesian looked at him with open distaste. His face was burning a furious red.

A soft tap.

Then a white, pale hand closed around one of the bracelets on the stall.

"Well now, miss. You've got quite the eye."

While his attention had been elsewhere, the zombie had already picked up a bracelet. Seeing it, Hans's eyes went round with admiration.

"What is this?"

Chesian narrowed his eyes at the bracelet the zombie had lifted.

A blue gem was set in the middle of the silver band, and that was all. It was so simple it looked crude, and the other bracelets beside it seemed far more splendid.

"This is a copy of the bracelet Her Highness Princess Isabel wore to an event last year."

"Princess Isabel?"

"Hey, you! You've got to add 'Her Highness'!"

When Hans grew rather seriously angry, Chesian corrected himself, though he had no wish to.

"Her Highness Princess Isabel?"

"Yes, that's how you say it!"

Hans nodded, and only then did Chesian recall that the empire's one and only princess bore the name Isabel.

Why would I know that.

He nodded as if he understood, but he had no particular interest.

He was a foreigner; he would never have cause to meet royalty, and he didn't much care for them in any case.

"Anyway, your lover seems to like this bracelet too—she's still holding it. Why not get her one while you're at it."

"No thanks. She can't even wear it."

"Tch. Stingy. Do you know how meaningful this thing is! While Her Majesty the Empress was still alive, she gave it to the princess herself……."

"Ah, I don't know. I don't know. Are you about to launch into another history lecture?"

As if it were a bother, Chesian waved a hand and cut Hans off.

"I don't know a single thing about imperial history, and I've lived just fine without it."

Even as he said so, Chesian studied the bracelet closely.