Chapter 20
Prey, Scary
Translator : PolterGlast
It was that night. I
ran and ran. I turned on my Detection skill in my head, scanning my
surroundings. Lotus wasn't chasing me. "Touyaa!" With a shout, I spun
around with momentum and turned back into a child. The skill beeped frantically
in my head, and when I hurriedly checked my surroundings, a staggering man with
a sake bottle in one hand was blinking repeatedly and shouting, "The woman
disappeared!"
Oops.
I hid quickly in the
darkness. "She was here, right? She was definitely here, right? She had
blonder hair!" "There's no one here, you're too drunk."
"No, she was here!" While listening to their argument, I covered my
mouth with the blanket and mumbled.
"She was here.
Definitely. Damn it, I'll find her."
"Don't be stupid.
What woman would be walking around at this hour? If you want to cause trouble,
go somewhere else."
I thought it was bad
timing, but then I felt a cold sweat, thinking it was good too. I remembered
what Sutra-san had said.
[Listen, El. You
absolutely mustn't go outside at night. If a woman wanders around at this hour,
it's like she's begging to be approached. And if you do go outside, you can't
complain about anything that happens to you. Central area is one thing, but out
here, there's no way the knights are patrolling.]
She had pointed her
index finger at me with a sharp glare, saying it was incredibly dangerous,
while Ichi and the others were going, "Oh, I see~!" Slimes, it's not
your business. And Sutra-san brushed back her beautiful, slightly curled red
hair and said with a smug look, "By the way, I'm beautiful, so I
absolutely won't go outside! I'd be perfect prey!!"
Prey, scary~. (Ichi)
Terrible~. (Nii)
Be careful~. (San)
"You really have
to be careful~~!" (Sutra-san)
Of course, Sutra-san
couldn't hear Ichi and the others, but when you listened closely, it seemed
like they were talking to each other, which was quite a strange sight. Ichi and
the others and Sutra-san occasionally started a miraculous collaboration. And
the landlady's fist was part of the set.
Anyway, maybe those
drunk people were trying to talk to the adult me. I couldn't help but want to
point out how inappropriate my suspicious outfit was, but it was a midnight
alley with no one around. It was no wonder they were interested. If they had
seen my eyes then, it would be all over. Good.
Taking advantage of a
momentary gap, I camouflaged myself with my surroundings as a distraction and
returned to Harapeko-tei again. I carefully looked around, but Lotus wasn't
there. I snickered to myself, thinking he probably wouldn't expect the culprit
to return to the scene, and went back to my room, only to be tackled.
"Eeeeeeel!!!" It was Ichi and the others' scream.
"Sorry, I'm
really sorry, sorry... I'm sorry for worrying you..."
Baka, aho, doji!!!
I was being scolded
terribly, to say the least. They climbed all over me, bouncing up and down,
"I'm really, really sorry..." We all hugged each other. As I did, I
felt relieved, and then tears welled up.
I was surprisingly
shaken and felt utterly pathetic for crying so easily. That's why I didn't
notice it then, but the orange necklace was completely gone from my hand. I
should have worn it around my neck, but I had been holding the string in one
hand, holding it up to the faint moonlight. I had no idea when I had lost it.
On the roof, in front
of the shop, on the road I ran. No matter where I looked, I couldn't find it.
Only the passing wind was cold, and I plopped down on the ground. Then I took a
deep breath in and out. I didn't want to cry. I was just so pathetic that I
couldn't stand it.
***
"Lotus?"
While fiddling with
the string in my hand and holding it up slightly to the sky, my grey-haired
friend called out to me. He wasn't old, nor had his hair lost its color; he had
had the same hair color since childhood and was looking at me.
"What are you
doing?"
"Ah, yeah."
Leaning against the
outer wall of the city, I held up the necklace again. It was orange. I wanted
to say it was sparkling, but it was under a gray sky. The necklace just swayed,
with no reaction whatsoever.
"It's the color
of the moon, you know. I was wondering if it would glow a little even under a
cloudy sky."
"The sun's not
even out. It's impossible."
"Yeah, you're
right."
Still, as I kept
looking at it, a suspicious voice said, "Isn't that a woman's thing?"
"Yeah," I replied curtly. My friend frowned, as if to say, "No,
not that kind of answer."
Unlike me, people
often said he had a kind face. It wasn't that I envied him; it was just our
respective natures, so there was nothing I could do about it. I was me, and he
was him. Looks didn't determine anything.
"So, why do you
have it?"
A man named Yozaki
asked me directly. Despite his kind-looking face, he was a man who clearly
stated what he wanted to say. People really couldn't be judged by appearances.
It didn't make me angry or irritated. I just furrowed my brow. I was just
perplexed.
Yet, my face made such
an expression on its own. I remember being told as a child that expressions
were important. Every time I remembered, I tried to think and loosen my mouth,
but it didn't work. It was the same now. I gave up. However, I sighed and tried
once more to remove the frown between my brows. I was terrible at it.
"I don't
know."
Even if I thought
about it, I didn't really understand.
"Why I'm carrying
something like this? I don't even know myself."
I heard his voice that
sounded, "What's that?" and I agreed. The necklace dangled. Under the
cloudy sky.
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