act4d0

第一关（前）

♪ Do you hear the thunderclap? ♪

♪ See the clouds blanket the peaks ♪

♪ Long forgotten faces, long forgotten things ♪

♪ Find the way back to Vermeil ♪

♪ Take me home ♪

♪ Bright red clouds ♪

10:37 A.M. \ Overcast

Siracusa Low Catastrophe Sector - Wilderness - Cabin in the Woods

Hm...?

I heard you singing. There is no need to hide. I bear you no ill will.

...The headsmen all say that. But in the end, they draw blood.

Headsman? I am afraid I do not understand your wording. I represent the Laterano Notarial Hall——

Shut up! You can't fool me!

I gotcha!

You did not.

Eeh?!

Pardon.

Target escaped out the window. Quick response time.

Environment analyzed. Cured fowl meat, tanning bench, processed animal skins, worked with wooden tools and small knives.

Drop the bow. I am aware of your position, hiding behind the window.

I repeat, I bear you no ill will.

——No way!

Your awareness of your surroundings is impressive.

I'll turn you into a pincushion!

H- he caught it with his hand?

But... what the hell are you?!

As the report states, the heir is fickle, slow to trust, and difficult to communicate with.

The above is my last will and testament in its entirety.

However, I have one final, selfish request.

In the forests of Siracusa, I met a one-armed Vulpo girl.

She had long walked a single-minded path of revenge.

In my compassion, I gave her aid. While this may have hurt her pride, I found myself moved by her stubborn determination to survive.

I later learned that the aid I gave her only strengthened her obsession with revenge, which left me uneasy.

I want to give her all that I have. Sadly, that is very little. Only a few sad heirlooms.

——Pardon the interruption, but there is no Vulpo on your list of kin. This will make our work rather difficult.

As such, this is but a petty request from a childless Laterano citizen on his deathbed.

(I smell blood on him. And he gives me a nasty feeling...)

(Another fella coming to wreck up our homestead? Gross!)

He took the bait!

I see. Another trap. There are trigger mechanisms all over.

Listen up! You walked right into a hunter's trap. If you don't wanna die, hand over your weapons and don't move!

If that will aid communication, I will comply.

Who are you?

I am an executor from the Laterano Notarial Hall, working as executor of this estate. You may call me 'Executor.'

Laterano...?

'Vermeil,' you are the target of my mission.

How do you know my name?

Your name was given by the deceased, Mr Dürrenmatt.

I don't know any Dürrenmatt.

For several reasons, he used a variety of aliases.

Where do you wanna take me?

In the interests of secrecy, I cannot say.

...Grr, you're full of it! You're gonna die here!

I'm not leaving. My mom, my dad, my uncle, my auntie, my friends, my people, they're all, all...

My task is to bring only you.

Shut up! Do you even know where you are?!

I am in a situation in which I am unable to advance my mission.

Hrmph. Anything that walks into this forest is our prey.

The bones you're standing on are all beasts and even worse people.

I understand. The area around this base of operations was full of traps.

Pits, snares, landmines, triggered darts.

Rest assured, I have disarmed them all. The traps were of basic construction, but carried the possibility of injuring the object.

Please, come with me.

——! Stay back!

One step closer and I'll shoot you dead!

She escaped again.

Hey, why did you save me?

I'm a hunter too, after all.

How could I look past a respected colleague, short one arm and lying in a pile of her own guts next to a big old tusker?

Hmph... You're no hunter. You can't fool me. I don't smell any dirt on you at all.

Hah. I guess I can't. But when I saw you there, I was moved by how well a little one like you had conquered the wilderness. That's the truth.

What do you mean?

Just saying what comes to mind.

What's the deal with the circle on your head? And the thingies on your back?

Have you never seen a Laterano before, Little One?

Hm?

These are... I guess they're what's left of my homeland I walked away from.

You can't ever clean off the dirt from your hometown.

Maybe you're right. The short of it is, a lot's happened. Come, let's try to get you walking.

Let me put this on you.

This... it's an arm? A metal arm? What a weird thing.

A token of my respect for a child of the wilderness.

You a carpenter? A metalworker?

I learned all sorts of things in my old job.

...You saved me, so you can't be bad. I'm gonna need an arm to get my revenge. So thank you.

Revenge, huh...? Well, I can't decide your fate for you.

But when you pull your bowstring with this arm, I hope you'll think about why it is we're alive, besides revenge.

If you don't think enough, you might just end up like me.

I——

I don't want to hear you say 'I live for revenge.' That's too cliche.

...Damn right. Totally played out.

(Laterano... He said he's from Laterano...)

(It couldn't be...)

Ack! That hurts!

It seems Mr Dürrenmatt's assessment was correct.

What?

Damn it, how long have you been hunting me?

Hey! Let me go!

Stop resisting. I cannot hurt you, as you are the heir to this will.