Chapter 25
Life is Full
of Unexpected Twists
Translator : PolterGlast
Lotus returned the
necklace to me properly. To be honest, I had half given up on it coming back,
so I was grateful that it did. It had the property of storing magic power, and
there was also the reason that it was a memento from my childhood friend.
"Yayyyy!" I
spun around with Ichi and the others, clapping our hands together. "I'll
keep it close from now on. If I had just worn it around my neck properly, I
wouldn't have lost it in the first place," I heard my own voice say, and
all I could do was shout back, "You're absolutely right!"
So, I decided to hold
onto it as securely as possible, not dangling it with one hand or anything, and
wear it around my neck. It was the same even in my original child form. I couldn't
bear the thought of Lotus seeing it, so when I wore it, it was under my
clothes. I wouldn't let it become a flag this time. I was more careful than
before, frequently patting my chest to confirm it was there, so the mimic
slimes stretched out their arms and patted each other. They seemed to be at the
age where they wanted to imitate everything. It was fine, but they weren't even
wearing clothes.
And, about Lotus.
***
"I wonder what
rain is like. Water falling from the sky sounds like a joke, doesn't it?"
"Maybe it's
something God accidentally spilled?" Lotus muttered, and I couldn't help
but put my index finger to my lips. "Shh! Shhh!" What would he do if
God really heard him? This was a world where gods actually existed. Ichi and
the others were surrounding us, so there was no sign of anyone else, but there
was always the possibility of church officials being around. Lotus looked at my
restless gesture, his eyes widening slightly, and after a beat, he chuckled. He
was still a young man whose usual expression was so different from his smile.
Since then, Lotus and
I have started talking occasionally.
Every few days, at the
same time and the same place. Under the roadside tree, leaning against the
trunk, gazing vaguely at the moon through the gaps in the branches and clouds.
I did wonder what I was doing, and I was a little exasperated with myself, but
it felt more constructive than enduring the cold on the roof of Harapeko-tei
while replenishing my MP.
It had been several
times now that I had talked with Lotus, but so far, no suspicious knights had
come to arrest me, and no crowds of church people had swarmed us. We were just
having casual conversations. Lotus had said before that he wanted to know about
demons. Little by little, he began to talk about it. I just listened.
――――Lotus was an orphan.
He didn't know his parents' faces and grew up in an orphanage.
I finally understood.
(Humans are the same
as demons...)
I knew that. Because
that was the setting in the game. In "The Tale of the Five-Leafed
Country," the protagonist, Yuko, reaches that truth. Humans and demons had
been fighting for a long time, but they were just a race with strong powers
called demons, and in the end, it was just humans fighting each other. And the
happy ending outside of individual routes was them joining hands and reaching a
grand finale.
(But it's difficult to
convey that to Lotus.)
Even though I didn't
doubt it, maybe my knowledge was just from a similar parallel world, and the
words weren't heavy enough to answer the questions that Lotus had probably been
struggling with for a long time.
I could only reply in
silence. Lotus was troubled. In the game, he seemed to have come to terms with
demons as evil. So, if things went well, would he become an ally? I had a
fleeting moment of hope, but there was no way things would go that
conveniently.
"Sorry,"
Lotus just breathed out.
"It's just a
weird feeling on my part. It's been stuck in my mind for a long time. But he's
already dead. So, really, there's nothing I can do about it. I don't even know
how much he resented us."
He didn't say
"sorry" to the dead boy. He probably understood that saying it would
just be an excuse. I thought for a moment.
"...Where are you
from?"
I had nothing to say
in response to his question, which seemed to be trying to gloss over the
awkward silence.
"Well, from a
little farther away."
If I accidentally said
the name of the village and it got connected to me, it would be terrible. The
story of a demon child being banished should reach the royal capital
eventually. At least I was glad I had become an adult. Ever since I fell off
the roof in front of Lotus, I have been very careful about what I say in front
of him. It was an unusual display of intelligence for me.
The branches of the
trees rustled. The night had slightly fewer clouds than the day. The moon
occasionally peeked out and looked down at us. It was quite awkward. It was a
little earlier than usual to just say "Well, see ya!" and leave with
a wave. Hmm, hmm, I crossed my arms and thought. Since Lotus and I always faced
each other when we talked, I couldn't see his face unless I looked to the side.
Suddenly, I wanted to tell him what I had been thinking about.
"When I was
banished from the village, or rather, kicked out, or rather, when I ran
away,"
I had been making all
sorts of ridiculous screams like "Uwaa, uhyaa, hinyaa!" but I had
been incredibly desperate back then. I had just remembered my memories from my
previous life, the adults' eyes looked strange—well, my eye color was the one
that actually changed, but the stones they kept throwing at me sometimes hit
and it was painful, it was just terrible.
Now that I had
survived, it was just a memory for me of something quite difficult that I had
worked hard to overcome, but for Lotus, it probably involved a traumatic story.
I heard him gulp. "No, no, that's not what I meant to talk about!" I
didn't want to talk about something that would blame him, so I hurriedly added,
"I also had a childhood friend."
When Lotus and I were
walking through the city, I saw unfamiliar children rush up to Lotus. They
called him "Lotus-niichan" and seemed to have a very casual
relationship with him, so he must have grown up in the same place.
Lotus had talent. But
the reason he was just a low-ranking soldier in the knights was because he had
no social standing. No wonder it was hard for him to get promoted.
I thought I knew the
setting, but I didn't know that background. Maybe it was a story that would
have come up if I had cleared the happy ending instead of just the normal
ending.
And, in the orphanage
where Lotus grew up, there was another demon.
It was misleading to
say there was a demon. Just like me, a boy who was Lotus's friend had become a
demon. He had bright red eyes and trembled with newly grown, weak wings. And
then he was taken away by the adults and thrown off a cliff.
The way newborn demons
were disposed of was always the same. It was the same for me. Demons suddenly
awakened to extraordinary powers one day. It was something terribly
frightening. They had to be killed quickly before they flapped their wings and
disappeared.
"But back then, I
thought it was wrong."
Lotus and the boy were
best friends. The boy was dragged away by the adults and disappeared. There was
nothing he could do. "Are humans and demons really different?" The
fact that appearances changed was actually a very, very big problem. Because
appearance was the easiest and clearest way to differentiate and discriminate.
Even as he spoke,
Lotus himself was perplexed. It must have been a thought he had been carrying
in his heart for a long time.
My relationship with
my childhood friend wasn't as close as Lotus with the demon boy who died was. But
my childhood friend was my neighbor. He had blonde hair and was from the same
rural village as me, but he was like a young master, a little older than me,
and when I thought back, he was subtly cheeky and often acted like an adult. We
played together, had sleepovers, and since I had already lost both my parents,
he was probably closer to family than just a good friend. I unconsciously
fiddled with the necklace around my neck.
"When that kid
found out I was a demon, he was so surprised that he collapsed."
He had opened his
mouth in a blank stare, astonished and dumbfounded by my changed eye color. I
could still clearly remember his expression.
"So, I don't
know. Towards that kid, I don't really feel resentment or anything..."
I couldn't bring
myself to say any more.
I didn't have the
confidence to say it clearly.
Remembering my past
life as a cowardly Japanese person, I didn't intend to just use my power for
revenge like Eldorado in the game. But since I wasn't exactly a good person
either, if someone suddenly attacked me, it's not like I would just forgive
them. I thought I had built a good relationship with my childhood friend's
parents. But they had changed completely and thrown stones at me with all their
might.
It was a mess, and I
didn't know who was who, so I didn't want to burn each one of them with the
flames of my anger, but if you asked if I resented them, I would of course nod
strongly. I would never forgive them.
Because it really
hurt.
Before I knew it, I
had retreated into my own world. This was my story, it had nothing to do with
Lotus. "What was I trying to say?" I thought, shaking my head, when
Lotus's long arm stretched out towards me. It was inevitable that my body would
take a defensive posture. He was definitely supposed to be my enemy.
"U-uh."
But what came was
Lotus's fist. It should have been open, but somehow it had become a closed
fist, and he gently tapped my forehead with the back of his hand.
Maybe he had intended
to ruffle my hair like he did when I was a child, but then thought it was
inappropriate. Here I was, a woman of marriageable age. The current Lotus was
eighteen, and just by looks, I might even be older than him. Eldorado, weren't
you exaggerating your looks a bit?
"You're a strange
one."
He was looking down at
me firmly. His tone sounded exasperated, yet the expression on his face was
hard to describe as he looked at me. "You're a demon, but you're
comforting me? You really are strange." Yes, I probably wanted to comfort
Lotus. I thought it would be nice if he felt a little better. It was terribly
embarrassing to have my own feelings, which I didn't even understand myself, be
known.
And then, Lotus's gaze
moved to my chest. Even in my child form, the blanket was a little too short,
so as an adult, it was even more so. It barely functioned as something to wrap
around my neck anymore. It wasn't like I could say, "Don't look!"
Probably his gaze had a different meaning, and in the first place, even though
it was unavoidable, I was the one showing everything.
Lotus just had a
puzzled expression. And then he quietly muttered.
"Hey, why are you
dressed like that? Aren't you cold?"
"Why, why after
meeting so many times, are you asking that now...!!? Why...!!?"
A calm retort only
increased my embarrassment.
***
"It was like,
well, maybe you should, like, do something about that?", it was terribly
painful to hear him say that, whether he was choosing his words carefully or
not. It wasn't like I liked dressing like this either. I wanted a wardrobe
change.
By the way, was that
form really my future self? I believed it was, based on the assumption that I
was layering illusions, but if it wasn't, it would be the beginning of a sad
deception. My current body was flat as a board, not even a hint of curves, so
if that voluptuous, sexy body didn't exist anywhere, I wouldn't even know what
I was enduring all this for. I believed in the production team.
El has her own good
points~~~!!
It was when I was
cleaning Harapeko-tei, twirling my hands around to blow away my sadness while
no one was watching, listening to the comforting words of Ichi and the others,
who had already become a quartet, that Lotus arrived and I immediately looked
up.
"Welcome!"
"Yo."
I'd gotten used to
meeting Lotus here. When I started meeting him in my adult form, he would stare
intently at my face at first. And then he would tilt his head. He might have
thought I looked similar to someone. In a way, my adult form did resemble me.
So, I really believed in the production team. But of course, I didn't think
"I equal me," and our conversation ended quickly. So I was feeling
confident now. Changing appearance like that was an incredibly rare special
skill, even among demons. No one would ever think of it.
Humming to myself, I
was about to ask for his order before he even looked at the menu, but I checked
first. The usual stew and hard bread. There were unusually few customers right
now. Sutra-san, who had recently started coming out to the front for short
periods for rehabilitation, waved a hand and said, "Oh, Lotus." They
were childhood friends, after all. So, did that mean Sutra-san also knew about
the demon boy Lotus mentioned? Of course, I couldn't ask.
"You should eat
something different once in a while. Your diet is way too unbalanced, isn't
it?"
"Yeah,
maybe."
"And your gaze is
completely off in another direction..."
Sutra-san's mouth
twitched. It seemed they didn't get along well in the past. Sutra-san had
mentioned before that they had managed to get along better once they were
older. Lotus, who had been giving vague replies, looked up at Sutra-san as he
sat down. His gaze moved from top to bottom. Sutra-san was wearing a short
skirt and the Harapeko-tei apron with a fork drawn on it. She was an energetic
older sister type.
"Hey, why do
women wear such revealing clothes?"
"Haaaaah???"
Sutra-san's jaw
dropped sharply.
Um... since you're
quite... beautiful... maybe you should hold your chin...?
That was the thought
of Ichi and the others and me combined. Ichi and the others had already
mobilized, stacking themselves up like a dumpling, extending their slime arms
as if to put her jaw back in place. Please stop.
"I suddenly don't
understand what you're talking about... what? Do you have a complaint? Are you
kidding me?"
"No, I mean, I
think people should wear whatever clothes they like. It's just that I know
someone who always wears really revealing clothes."
"I don't know
what you're talking about!"
I started to feel
restless.
Without a doubt, there
was someone very familiar that he was talking about. I felt really restless. I
was more worried than I had imagined. Clenching my lips and enduring the
situation, I just kept wiping the same table while eavesdropping on their
conversation.
"What, is that
'someone' a woman? Aha, I get it. You like her, so you're worried about her,
right?"
It was his favorite
teasing line. I knew it. Lotus was very good at that kind of teasing. When I
peeked, he didn't change his expression at all, just drank the water in front
of him. "Ah, yeah, that's right," he confirmed. It was such a smooth
reply that Sutra-san and I just went, "Oh, I see~," and let it go.
Wait, no! That's when Sutra-san and I turned back around together. Lotus, still
calm, nodded again and said, "Yeah."
"It's about a
woman I like."
I collapsed.
――――I don't want this kind of development.
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