Chapter 66
Just to let
you know,
Translator : PolterGlast
Lotus had a childhood
friend.
They grew up in the
same orphanage, and thirteen years ago, the boy he was close to turned into a
demon. The eight-year-old boy with crimson eyes was dragged away by the adults
and disappeared. Demons all possessed powerful fixed skills, but those
abilities rarely manifested right after turning into a demon.
Demons were believed
to be beings that would destroy the world. That's why humans who turned into
demons, marked by their red eyes, were disposed of. I was pushed off a cliff.
So, Lotus had always
believed that his childhood friend who had turned into a demon had died.
I knew about Lotus's
past, but I didn't want to pry unnecessarily, and even if I had heard the boy's
features, I wasn't sure if it would have clicked. After all, it was a boy he
had been separated from thirteen years ago. Just like Lotus had asked me
earlier, the words, "Could it be your imagination?" almost escaped my
lips, but one look at Lotus's face told me such a question would be pointless.
In an atmosphere where
neither of us knew what to say, the gathering broke up. Veda gave Lotus and me
temporary passes that allowed us to freely walk around the tower. When we
explained that we had checked out of the inn amidst the commotion, he even
offered us rooms to stay in. He was incredibly accommodating. We said goodbye
to Socius, saying we'd meet again, and Lotus and I carried the slimes, who had
completely fallen asleep mid-conversation, probably exhausted. They were soft
and squishy like mochi, and it felt like they might spill out of our arms.
Thinking how cute they
looked as they snored peacefully, I rolled them onto the borrowed bed. I always
slept in the same bed as Ichi and the others. Lotus was in the next room, as
there were plenty of spare rooms.
It was already quite
late, and we had to sleep soon. Ichi mumbled in his sleep, "El... you
should sleep soon... sleep soon... slee..." His words trailed off. I
patted him gently. He was right, but my mind was strangely wide awake, which
was troubling, so I opened the door and went outside. Then, Lotus was there.
Perhaps he couldn't
sleep either. He was leaning on the windowsill in the hallway, gazing blankly
outside. From there, we could clearly see the water membrane enveloping the
entire city, and the faintly glowing lanterns scattered like stars in the sea,
flickering gently.
"...Lotus?"
I hesitated whether to
call out to him. But I immediately felt I had to. He looked too alone.
"Oh."
His reply was
surprisingly normal. I had thought he might tell me to go to sleep quickly, but
instead, we quietly gazed at the lantern-lit sky together. Around that time, I
decided to think a little. I wanted to say something to Lotus. But I didn't
know what to say.
In times like that,
what if I tried to imagine? A childhood friend he thought was dead was alive.
Lotus had probably been thinking about the boy called Veja, now a young man who
had become a demon, somewhere in his heart all this time. Otherwise, there was
no way he could look at someone he hadn't seen for thirteen years and say with
certainty that it was him.
This must have been
incredibly shocking for Lotus.
"I-it's good,
isn't it!?"
After saying that, I
realized it wasn't that simple. Lotus turned his gaze from the window to me,
his eyes widening in surprise. The frozen look on my face was clumsy, and Lotus
probably noticed it too. But he nodded and said, "Yeah." Someone he
thought was dead was alive, in whatever form. We should be happy first.
"But if that guy
is Veja, then the one who manipulated the monsters and destroyed the city three
years ago was him too, right?"
"U-uh,
yeah..."
I hadn't actually seen
the demon manipulating the monsters. But intuitively, I felt it was definitely
him.
"One wrong step
and people could have died. No one died, but that's not the point. The city was
destroyed. There are plenty of people who ended up having to cry."
"Yeah..."
In fact, in what I
could call the real story, or maybe not, Sutra-san and the others should have
died in the game's main story. Lotus himself lost an eye and an arm, and he
came to resent demons after losing important people and places. In the game,
did he know that it was the work of his childhood friend Veja? If so, what was
he thinking?
"...I only played
Lotus's story very roughly. So, I don't really know the deep details."
I regretted that
deeply. If I had played it more properly, I could have prepared in advance for
anything, and I wouldn't have this feeling of not seeing anything, not knowing
if it was coming from the right or the left. But it's too late to regret it
now. I groaned and put my hand on the windowsill. "You don't need to do
anything like that," Lotus's voice came from above my head.
"It's natural not
to know what's going to happen. And more than anything, the game you're talking
about is an 'otome game,' and you have to do all sorts of things with guys I
don't know, right? I don't want to show you that kind of stuff, and I don't
want to do it either."
"U-uh,
yeah..."
"All sorts of
things" must have been a little difficult for Lotus to say. Unusually for
him, he spoke vaguely, lowering his voice for that part.
I wasn't sure how to
take his words, so I gave a vague reply, but it felt like happy words. Perhaps
Lotus didn't mean anything deep by them, but I repeated them in my head. The
corners of my mouth turned up in a smile. But this wasn't the time for that, so
I pinched my cheeks with both hands.
Lotus was looking at
me with eyes that said, "You're doing something strange again." The
conversation continued.
"...Is Veja
targeting you?"
"Maybe."
I felt like he was a
man I shouldn't have met. But I also felt that wasn't his original purpose. We
had traveled for three years after all. That silver-haired demon, no,
Vejasha-san, no, -kun. Whatever, I had only met Veja once because we had never
run into him. It was the result of being careful not to stay long in cities or
places where people gathered, but we had encountered monsters manipulated by
demons, in other words, demonic beasts.
The one I had defeated
with Elma, a girl with a name similar to mine in Leishan Village, was just a
monster. Demonic beasts were incomparably stronger than monsters. There was
only one character besides me who understood the beginning of becoming a demon.
Or rather, it might be better to say one creature. I knew that demonic beasts
would come to that child's town, so I consulted with Lotus and the others, and
we went there ourselves.
I think we were able
to handle it much better than the time in Velvect. That's why there are
probably very few people who know what we did. That's probably why it wasn't in
the bubble-like memories Veda showed me. That child who had turned into a demon
also showed their fangs and said, "Thanks, nyaanen!" before disappearing
somewhere. Maybe they meant to say, "See ya."
"Maybe... maybe
he's gathering demons, rather than targeting me."
After saying that, I
wondered. Gathering demons and taking them to a demon country. It wasn't an
impossible possibility. Perhaps destroying the city was mixed with his own
resentment.
There was no point in
thinking about this. Just thinking about it would make the night pass.
"El, go to sleep
already."
As expected, he said
it. This was just as I had imagined, so I grinned sheepishly. Sleep makes one
grow after all. "I'm going to sleep too," he said, and then patted my
head. He did that often, so I didn't think too deeply about it, but Lotus, at
that moment, kept his hand on my head and thought for a little while.
"Just so you
know, I want to be with you too."
I didn't really
understand what he meant, but I knew he had said something nice.
"Thanks," I said with a sheepish grin. Lotus looked at me and gave a
wry smile, completely back to his usual self. "See ya," he said and
disappeared into his room.
Feeling the night
breeze, I wondered what he had meant just now. Then, suddenly, I remembered my
own words.
--It's not that Lotus
is with me! I'm the one who's with Lotus!
--I!!! Just wanted to
become Lotus's wife! That's why we're togetherーーーー!!!
Words I had asserted
to Socius.
"Ah, u-uh,
augh..."
I probably turned a
little red. "Ughh-hyeh..." All I could do was curl up.
I was already
suffering from regret, thinking that if I had given a better reply, the
atmosphere might have been better, and I groaned, wishing I had prepared
better.
Lotus, I think it's
not good for you to suddenly show affection like that sometimes...
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