Dodge, You Mongrel Demon!

"It's been a long time, Kujira."

Watching the rugged man squeeze out from the sea demon army and block his view, Arata did not rush to fight him. He merely greeted him with his usual calm expression.

In a daze, he also recalled the first time they had met.

"I am a failure. I hardly ever notice whether the sun is shining, because I have no time.

"My parents could not support me, and I was not highly educated. Alone in the city, I searched for a future.

"I found many jobs, but none of them hired me. Maybe nobody liked someone who was bad at talking, unwilling to socialize, and unable to show enough capability.

"I went three whole days eating only two loaves of bread. Hunger kept me awake at night. Fortunately, I had paid a month's rent in advance, so I could keep living in that dark basement instead of going outside to endure the unusually bitter winter wind.

"At last, I found a job. Night watchman at a hospital—watching over the morgue.

"The hospital was even colder at night than I had imagined. The wall lamps in the corridors were unlit, and everything was dim. I could only rely on the faint light leaking from the rooms to see where I was stepping.

"The place smelled terrible. Every now and then, a dead person would be delivered stuffed inside a body bag, and we would work together to carry them into the morgue.

"It was not a very good job, but at least it let me afford bread. I could also use my free time at night to study. After all, few people wanted to come to the morgue unless a corpse needed to be brought in or taken away for cremation. Of course, I