Chapter 11
Lotus
Translator : PolterGlast
Under the leaden sky,
he wore two swords at his waist, his lips always pressed into a grim line. He
had a perpetually displeased expression, a difficult look on his face, and yet
even that was incredibly picturesque. It was the opening scene.
The young man
scratched his short black hair. However, half of his handsome face bore a scar
that sharply cut across his eye. His black-purple eyes now only opened on one
side. He was a man shrouded in shadow. And the young man only had one arm. Yet,
he always carried two swords.
That was the character
Lotus.
Perhaps because he was
a man who had risen through the ranks as a soldier, his speech was rougher than
the other romanceable characters, and he rarely spoke sweet words. But the dark
expressions and heavy sighs he occasionally showed made hearts flutter, and he
was quite popular among fans. However, in a battle against Eldorado, if you
brought Lotus along, he would be swayed by her illusions and team up with her
to challenge the protagonist, Yuko. It was impossible to win.
Eldorado was the
villain in charge of Cloudy Country. The story had several routes, and you
could ignore Eldorado and go to other countries, but in the first playthrough,
it was common to take Lotus as a bodyguard and fight Eldorado. Do you
understand? The Cloudy Country route was known as the "first playthrough
killer." I had been a victim myself.
That's why Lotus was
so strongly associated with Eldorado, and Eldorado with Lotus, but when I first
met him, I never imagined that this young man was Lotus.
There was
delicious-looking spaghetti in front of me. The young man was holding the plate
with his "left hand" and gripping the fork with his "right
hand." Because he had slanted eyes, I would flinch and shrink whenever he
glanced at me.
"Auntie,
water!"
In the noisy diner,
Lotus held up his empty glass with one hand. "We're busy here! Just get it
yourself!" "Seriously? I'm a customer, you know." And then he
got yelled at. But he smiled wryly, showing a glimpse of his canine tooth. The
young man who always fought with a low voice, filled with hatred for demons in
the game, was nowhere to be seen. Lotus was neither one-armed nor one-eyed, and
he had no noticeable scars.
It was natural that I
felt he looked younger than his standing pose in my memory. This was three
years before the original story, so he probably wasn't even over twenty yet.
His build was also different. He had a more imposing presence in the main
story. That might have been due to the way his muscles were developed.
But none of that
mattered. Why was this happening? There was also a white plate in front of me,
piled high with meat spaghetti. I swallowed hard and shook my head.
After passing through
the gate with Lotus and learning his name, I stared up at the young man,
blinking in bewilderment. "What should I do?" My heart was pounding
with an unpleasant sound. I had to run. I had to escape immediately. But
contrary to what I felt deep down, words of gratitude that I should convey to
him were involuntarily coming out of my mouth.
"Um, thank you
very muuuuuuch???" For some reason, I was easily lifted up by the young
man. Carried like a sack of rice. "Eeeeeeeeh?" I was carried with an
"eh-ho, eh-ho" as if I were just luggage, and then, shouting "No
way!" I was sat down in this diner.
After passing through
a sign with a crossed fork and spoon, I was lowered at a window seat. The
bustling interior of the restaurant was reflected in the windowpane. It seemed
to be a very popular diner. The staff seemed to be overwhelmed right now, with
only one person serving. Maybe there was another person in the kitchen.
"U-um,
well..."
"Auntie, two
spaghetti!"
Lotus ordered without
looking at the menu, in a familiar tone. A portly woman in the back of the
restaurant replied with a loud "Alright!" I flinched and jumped.
After a while, two plates of spaghetti were placed down on the table, and not
knowing what to do, I looked at Lotus's face.
I was definitely
hungry, but I could at least wait. I thought it was okay to eat, but I couldn't
do such a thing without permission, and in the first place, he and I were
enemies. I knew that this past Lotus of the original story wouldn't know that,
but I slowly recalled his words and actions in the original story once more.
Lotus was one of the
five romanceable characters in [The Tale of the Five-Leafed Country], but he
hated demons the most. And he always had a gloomy expression.
(But, he's not injured
anywhere...)
And the biggest thing
was the change in his appearance. Seeing his eyes properly open and
occasionally blinking gave me a strange feeling. As I stared intently at his
right and left hands, I realized I was having very rude thoughts. He was a
living human being. If he was said to be a character in a game, then that would
mean I was too. I lowered my face and tightly clenched my small fists on my
lap.
This was definitely
the past.
I seemed to recall a
scene where he talked about his eye and arm being injured by demons. In other
words, he hadn't been injured yet, and he was just a low-ranking soldier, but
in the battles against demons, Lotus would steadily rise in rank. And he would
become the kingdom's greatest knight. Otherwise, he wouldn't be entrusted with
the great responsibility of protecting the saint.
It might have been unavoidable
that I didn't realize he was Lotus. Not just his appearance, but the atmosphere
he exuded was completely different from the game. Could a person change this
much in just three years? I wondered. But thinking about his future life, maybe
it couldn't be helped.
Lotus, who always had
a dark expression in the game, already had a displeased look now, but he would
occasionally smile cheerfully when spoken to by the surrounding customers. He
looked appropriate for his age, cheerful, and energetic. That looked incredibly
cute, and when my heart skipped a beat, his black-purple eyes glared at me. Or
so I thought, but that was probably just because I knew his feelings towards
demons from the game, and I was just getting scared on my own. In reality, he
might just be someone with a naturally sharp gaze.
"Aren't you going
to eat?"
"Ah,
well..."
To be honest, I was
waiting for permission. I didn't even have money to ask if I could eat. It felt
too presumptuous. Lotus sighed and said, "It'll get cold, eat up."
"Y-yes...!" I hurriedly reached for the fork.
For the past few days,
it had been a monotonous rotation of fish, mushrooms, and berries. "Yeah,
yeah, just eat quickly..." In the brief moment when Lotus, who had already
finished eating, turned his face away, my mouth was filled to its limit, my
cheeks bulging. "........" I was a little too unreserved. Lotus's
silence was painful.
"Well, um... it's
delicious, right?"
"Y-yes, it's
delicious."
"That's
good."
He smiled slightly.
His sharp-toothed grin was fleeting, but it made my heart pound, and the
spaghetti I had swallowed got stuck in my chest. "Geh, goh, ugh..."
"Drink some water." I had been poured a drink by the enemy himself.
Though I didn't know if I could really call him an enemy.
"...Phew."
As I swallowed the
water and the contents of my stomach soaked in the long-awaited proper meal, I
gradually started to calm down.
It would probably be
easier to leave the city than to enter it. Even though I had gone to so much
trouble (though maybe it wasn't that much) to get into the city, I might have
to give up after all, run away, and go back to struggling in the forest. The
food in my cheeks was delicious, but my chest felt like I had swallowed lead.
As I quietly swallowed the spaghetti, Lotus, leaning his elbow on the table,
asked me, "Hey."
"Y-yes..."
I replied with a
flinch, but Lotus said nothing for a while. He just stared at me, sizing me up.
That was the feeling. My already small body kept shrinking. Only the noisy
voices in the diner echoed, and it was terribly frightening. I was afraid I
would be turned over to the church right now.
"The slimes were
definitely there, just like you said, all over the place. It was as if nothing
had happened. Hey, how did you know?"
The words he asked
weren't that surprising. Rather, it was a natural question.
――――The slimes, maybe
they've already gone back to normal. Maybe you should go back sooner.
I could only think
that I had gotten carried away. Those were my parting words when I ran away
from him.
He had said he was
dispatched because of me, so I felt apologetic, and I thought I would never see
him again. My lack of planning was exposed. It was too late to regret it.
"...Um, well, I
was walking in the forest for a while... At first, I didn't see any slimes, but
around that time, I started seeing them occasionally, or rather..."
My excuse sounded
strained. The "Clumsy Liar" title was blinking at the edge of the
window. "Guu," I bit my lip tightly. Stop blinking.
"...Hoo."
No matter how I looked
at it, he was suspicious of me. He scratched under his chin with his thumb,
looking like he was thinking about something. "Well, whatever." Was
it really whatever? Would he let it go? I remembered him waving his hand
dismissively at the escaped baby unicorn, saying that he didn't care if it ran
away. But what about me? I gripped the edge of my plate anxiously when he
asked, "Hey, do you have anywhere to go?"
That question made it
clear that he recognized my words about being separated from my parents as a
lie, but I gave up and quietly shook my head.
"...Where are
your parents?"
"N-no, I don't
have."
This was actually not
a lie. Even when I was El in the village, I had no parents as far back as I
could remember. That's why even though my voice trembled at the beginning, I
could look him in the eyes clearly at the end. His two black-purple eyes were
looking at me intently. "I see," Lotus said, quietly lowering his
eyes. Then, he suddenly stood up. Seeing that, I hurriedly called out.
"Ah, um, well,
the bill..."
Even though I had no
money, I had already eaten my fill. So I would be in trouble if he told me to
pay, but I still couldn't pretend I didn't know, and yet I also knew the words
I wanted him to say, so I felt conflicted by my own cowardice.
As I lowered my face,
Lotus came to my side and roughly patted my head. "U-uwa." I
hurriedly touched my own head. I thought it had become messy, but come to think
of it, it was like that from the beginning.
There was a notice
posted in the diner.
『Help Wanted!』
"Well, for
example."
Lotus pressed the
peeling corner of the paper against the wall and moved his fingertip as if
reading the letters. I couldn't help but look. Eldorado didn't know how to
read. Even if she could, it was only barely, but the letters in this world were
written in Japanese. So, it felt strange that I could read them fluently now.
"It's because
it's the world of an otome game," I could only think so. But if I thought
that the creators had set it that way, the game and reality would get mixed up,
and that didn't seem like a good thought, so I quickly forgot about it.
『Any age. Start immediately, any time. Seeking serious,
cheerful, and hardworking individuals.』
"They look
busy," I thought, looking around. Even while Lotus and I were talking, more
and more customers were coming in. The staff couldn't keep up with the number
of customers.
"...Just for
example,"
Lotus repeated the
same words.
If I could work in a
place like this.
If I had money, most
things would work out somehow. I didn't want to work in a suspicious place, but
Lotus had said he was a low-ranking member of the knighthood. This was a
restaurant he frequented. It didn't seem like a strange place, and it was quite
prosperous. The restaurant was two stories, and the first floor seemed to be
the dining area. If I could somehow ask them and, if they happened to have
spare rooms, even if I got a low salary, if they could rent me even one room...
As I thought that, I had no choice but to recall my memories from Japan.
Of course, I had
worked part-time at a restaurant in my previous life, but this was different.
Even though I had past memories, I'm definitely Eldorado now, just an
eight-year-old child. I mustn't forget that. I and the "her" in my
memories were different people.
Even if it said
"Any age," if I insisted in this form, I would definitely just be
chased away, being told, "What are you talking about?" My palms were
too small; even if I borrowed something, it would just be like a cat's paw.
Lotus didn't say
anything more. He just stared at the notice with stern eyes. Suddenly, I
noticed that his hand was blocking the last sentence. I craned my neck
painfully to read it.
『Anyway, right now, even a cat's paw will do!』
"........"
"........"
Lotus and I stared at
each other in silence. In the back of the restaurant, the portly woman was
shouting as if screaming. Even though she was just taking orders, her voice
sounded like she was pleading for help.
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