Chapter 47
Demon, Subjugation,
Target
Translator : PolterGlast
A hand reached out.
"Ah!" I
exclaimed in surprise. If I reached out, I could probably reach it. Golden hair
and the bright blue color of his eyes were strikingly similar to my own from
before. It was Socius. I knew immediately. He was the boy I had been with since
birth. I was surprised for only a moment, wondering why he was in a place like
this, but seeing him desperately reaching out to me, I didn't know what to do.
But then, "El!!!" Lotus's voice rang out.
"Hiee! Uwah! Hieeーーー!!"
Boing, there was an
impact, and startled, I curled up like a cat and fell into Lotus's arms. It was
only a fall from about the second floor, and I even had flight skills. But it
was so sudden that I completely froze, and I heard Lotus's long sigh above me.
It seemed that Ichi
and the Nii had tackled me, softening the impact, and the two of them were
panting heavily. I was ashamed.
"L-Lotus,
sorry..."
When I apologized, he
scolded me in a trembling voice, "You idiot." Even if I thought I
should do what I could myself, it was pointless if I just caused him to worry.
I shook my head vigorously and bit my lip. "S-sorry..." I lowered my
voice to a murmur again, and then I gasped. Ichi and Nii had completely
revealed their original forms from the sheer impact, and I was now clearly
trying to break into the tower. I was a suspicious person. Looking up, I saw
Socius leaning out of the window with a stunned expression.
We stared at each
other, and I watched his lips faintly move, saying "El." Lotus, still
holding me, looked up at him curiously, and then he seemed to remember.
Lotus had met Socius
once before.
--I'm sorry I couldn't
do anything back then.
Eldorado's village
would be destroyed by monsters. That's why I had secretly returned to the
village with Lotus. It wasn't because I wanted to help the villagers who had
driven me out, nor did I want to abandon them. I just went. That was all.
It was also possible
that my thought that the village would be destroyed by monsters was just my
imagination, and I had gone back to confirm. Having gone there, it would be
strange to just leave it alone, and under the faint moonlight, Lotus had
defeated the monsters. It was then that Socius had seen us.
Socius was my
childhood friend, and when I became a demon, he was so surprised that he had
collapsed. His lips moved silently, his expression showing he didn't know what
to say, and his eyes were just filled with confusion.
There was a thorn in
my heart. But when I met him again, the words "I'm sorry" that he had
said had changed shape little by little within me over the long passage of
time. I didn't usually remember it, but even if I did, the pain of the thorn
felt milder than before. But maybe I just thought that because time had passed.
For better or worse, time moved on.
The necklace on my
chest might have flickered because he was nearby. The cheap necklace I had
bought at the village festival was a matching one with him.
The boy who was
peering out of the window, looking down at us, had of course grown bigger than
I remembered, and although his features should have been somewhat similar to
mine, he had become more boyish. The voice I had heard earlier was lower than
before, but it still had a cute quality, though he had probably grown taller.
"El," Socius murmured again softly, and then he looked like he was
about to cry. Why was Socius here? This wasn't Cloudy Country. This wasn't the
place where he was born and raised.
After thinking that, I
remembered that Socius knew I was a demon. Around us, I could clearly see Ichi
and Nii chatting about how scared they were. They hadn't concealed their forms.
The slimes talking to each other suddenly started trembling, saying, "Hey,
Ichi is completely visible!? Nii too!?" and were flustered. I was also
flustered. Lotus alone remained silent and calm. Oh yeah.
Demon, subjugation,
target.
"A-ah,
ah..."
While I was trembling,
Lotus hurriedly put me back into a rice bag carry. "E, e, e." And
then he bolted with his long legs. "E, e, escapee-eeーーー!!" "Calm
down." I was the only one panicking and making a fuss.
Behind us, I heard
Socius's shouting, "Hey, w-wait, Elーーーー!!?" Sorry, childhood friend. Of course, I immediately clapped my
hands together and concealed Ichi and the others' forms. Considering the
possibility of being followed, we circled around the city and finally reached
the inn just as it was completely dark. I let out a sigh.
"Why is Socius in
this city...?"
"Who knows? Maybe
things like this just happen."
That was the calmness
of Lotus, who could just dismiss it with "maybe things like this just
happen." He tended to give concise opinions like, "Well, things will
probably work out somehow." It was still okay that Socius knew I was a demon.
But Socius also knew that Lotus was a demon. Because when we last met, he had
used his flight skill quite openly.
Thinking that I should
have just trudged along and escaped from the village, I imagined that it would
have been a very embarrassing sight. But there was no point in talking about
what had already happened.
"Uwaaaah... what
should I do? Socius is in the tower, right? It was already going to be hard
enough to figure out how to get in, but the difficulty is just going up!?"
"...Give up and
go to another city?"
"Maybe that's one
way to do it."
Getting the Mirror of
Foresight wasn't an absolute necessity. It was just that since the original
story was progressing, I was inevitably curious about the Saint's movements.
"What should I do?" I sighed again and knocked on the inn door and
opened it, noticing that it was strangely noisy. There were a few other
travelers staying at the inn besides us. It was smaller than the Harapeko-tei
where I used to work, but it even had a dining area. I blinked as I watched
them lively chatting and drinking.
"Ah, you
guys!"
Seeing us, the young
innkeeper came rushing over, wiping his hands on his apron. "Your room, it
was terrible! I wondered when you'd be back." "...Terrible...?"
Lotus and I exchanged glances. Though I couldn't see them now, I secretly glanced
at Ichi and the others. I imagined. There was a thought. Had they made it too
shiny...?
"Monsters
appeared! A little while ago, a big shot from the Magic Tower came and said
there was a monster in your room...! Man, that surprised me."
Before he could even
finish his sentence, Lotus and I slipped on the floor, our bodies and minds not
keeping pace, and forcefully flung open the door as if slamming it.
I couldn't call his
name. I didn't know who might be listening. But he wasn't anywhere. The room
was certainly sparkling clean, but it was clear he had held back. He could have
made it even cleaner, but it wouldn't be good if El got upset, so he had kept
it to this level. I pictured San cleaning the room while hei-hei-ing.
Where in the world had
the monster the innkeeper was talking about disappeared to? I desperately tried
to maintain my composure and asked, suppressing my trembling voice.
"Maybe he was
taken to the Magic Tower."
The innkeeper himself
looked at the tower stretching sturdily into the dark sky with a tone that
suggested he didn't really know. It was the place we were aiming for.
"What should I
do?" I huddled in the room. I had asked him to look after the luggage, so
he had stayed behind. We should have all gone together. No matter how many
times I thought about it, it was too late, and I punched the bed several times
with my clenched fist. But I couldn't stay like this. "I have to go help
him." I stood up, wiped the tears that were about to spill with the back
of my hand, bit my lip, and turned around. Lotus had an indescribable look on
his face as he looked down at Ichi and Nii. They were myuin-myuin-ing.
Ichi and Nii, the two
of them, were trembling and shaking with each other, their bodies swaying and
slightly more elongated than usual. What were they doing?
But then suddenly,
they both returned to their usual round shapes and nodded un-un while bouncing,
"Ah, it's okay, it's okay." They had zero sense of urgency.
Immediately after that, there was a doin-doin sound of something hitting the
door. It sounded like something the size of Ichi rolling and bumping into it.
It was very specific. I opened the door. A familiar-sized slime rolled in. It
was San. He was dancing, saying he was back and full of energy. Isn't this too
peaceful?
"............Hoowwww!!!!!"
These days, I was the
only one who could shout since no one else would comment. Ichi and the others,
the three of them, were dancing, saying "Welcome back, welcome back!"
So peaceful. Well, Lotus remarked that it was good that nothing had happened.
The fact I learned
today. Ichi and the others would not be in any danger.
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