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Even though he has his eyes shut, how is he able to walk so easily without bumping into anything?? He’s even turning corners without any problem.
Nobody like him appeared in the game, right? I think this impoverished village was only mentioned briefly.
Wait a second…. That’s right! I remember now!
During the game, this village was described as being super dangerous! They said that once you entered, you wouldn’t be able to leave, so the heroine didn’t end up coming here.And without realizing it, I ended up walking right into that sort of place….. Will I be able to survive long enough to go home? As it is, I’m probably going to be eaten or something.
But this old man had recommended that I hurry home…. So doesn’t that mean I’ll be okay?
But seriously, to think that a miserable place like this actually exists….. It’s to the point where the moans and groans of the poor people all strewn about the ground never ceases.
I can’t help but shiver. There’s tens of thousands of people living under these terrible conditions. In this place where even the the moon’s light won’t shine because of the magically induced fog. Some people might die without ever knowing what the moon looks like.
And what if even the sun’s rays aren’t able to reach this place….?
But it’s fine. I’m sure the heroine had some sort of plan to fix this during the game…..
Ugh, it’s no good. The stench is overpowering. I can’t remember what she did at all.“Here it is,” the old man says, stopping in front of a little hut that seems to be in an equal state of disrepair to all the other houses I’ve seen so far.
Disregarding the fact that it looks like it could collapse at any moment, he walks right in, not waiting for me to reply. I hesitate for a second, but then I follow him inside as well.
The interior is actually much more normal than I was expecting. Although I guess by normal I just mean that it has the typical furnishings that a house should have… Like a bed, though old and tattered, and a wooden desk and two chairs. There is also a crumbling hearth in the corner, though I’m not sure if it’s still safely operational.
“It’s a bit small, but welcome,” the old man says, lightly pulling out a chair for me to sit on. All of his movements thus far have been like that of a gentleman.
After pulling out a seat for me, he walks over to sit in the chair opposite, so I decide to sit down as well.
“Sorry. I’m afraid I don’t have any tea that I can offer you.”
“Oh! No. Please don’t worry about it.”
“And? What brings you such a dangerous place like this, young lady? You seem like a child from a good family, not the typical visitor we’d see around these parts.”
My heart skips a beat at his words. Even though his eyes are closed, how can he tell that I’m from a good family?
Plus, I’m still wearing my cloak with my hood up, even if he could see he shouldn’t be able to….
Though, now that I think about it, I really should have taken off the hood as soon as I entered his house. How rude of me.
I quickly push my hood back from my face, trying to remedy some of my impoliteness.
….Wait a second…. He’s been calling me ‘young lady’ since the beginning. Has he known all along that I’m a noble?
“Grandpa, are you actually able to see!?”
Before answering his question, I ended up replying with a question of my own instead….
Ugh, my behavior has been deplorable. And I haven’t even introduced myself yet!
But the old man, seemingly oblivious of my atrocious misconduct, merely smiles at me and says, “No, I cannot see.”
“Huh, then, how…..?”
“Even without seeing, I can still sense various things. Though I’ve lost my sight, my other senses still work just fine.”
Even so, the amount of information that a person gathers through their vision isn’t a small amount.
Merely through hearing and smell, you shouldn’t be able to figure out that I’m a noble….
“Even if my field of vision is dark, there’s still plenty of things that I can understand just by being near a person. Their manner of breathing, their stride, the sound of their footsteps, the way their clothes sound when they move, their scent… All of these aspects set you apart from the rest of the people here,” he continues, as if he knew exactly what I had been thinking.
“Have you been blind since you were born?” I ask, but at my question his face falls.
“No, during my twenties my sight was stolen from me.”
His sight was stolen…..? What’s that supposed to mean…..?
“I worked for the Royal Palace, once upon a time,” he tells me. And even though he smiles slightly while he says it, he expression somehow looks lonely and faraway.
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T/N: So…. What do you guys think? Do we trust this grandpa!? Also, just a little side note…. Alicia said she thinks he might be younger than he appears, and that he might be purposely trying to seem older. I don’t think I was able to properly convey this with my translation, but even his manner of speaking is indicative of an older person. He uses “washi” as his personal pronoun, “jya” instead of “da,” and ends a lot of his sentences with the sentence particle “no”. In my head, he talks kind of like Agasa-hakase (professor) from Detective Conan.
