Chapter 76
"Just as
I expected from my oshi!" "Are you pressuring me?"
Translator : PolterGlast
Yuko, who had been
frozen in a backward lean, snapped upright and stood facing us, a fierce look
on her face. My first thought was to run. But it was too late for that, and if
we were going to run now, we shouldn't have gotten involved in the first place.
--If it's just about
escaping with you guys, I can manage that however many times you want.
Remembering Lotus's
words, I put strength in my legs and faced her. We could run away anytime.
That's why I looked forward. But unfortunately, it was Lotus that Yuko was
facing. She didn't even have me in her sight. That was somehow sad.
"...Huh? Lotus?
Are you the Lotus from Cloudy Country??? Isn't that wrong? You've got to be
wrong, right?"
"I don't know
what's different, but my name is Lotus."
"No way, right?
Lotus is all about darkness calling to darkness and the dark attribute, isn't
he?"
"Attribute, huh?
I hear some guys have that, but I don't."
"You are just a
nice, good-looking guy, huh!?"
"Being told that
to my face makes me a little embarrassed."
No, you're not
embarrassed at all. Lotus replied with a scary look. Certainly, if the Lotus in
the game was on the dark side, the current Lotus was pure sunshine. If you
called him a nice guy, well, maybe he was, or at least, that's how Yuko saw
him.
Or rather, their
conversation seemed to flow but didn't connect at all, which was kind of
amazing. I could only watch with bated breath along with Ichi and the others.
"Ah, Instructor, goodbye~!" "Yeah. See you tomorrow."
"H-he's replying~~~!!?" "Of course, I would." Lotus just
greeting a student caused a huge stir.
"I-isn't that
weird? Y-you have an arm, and, um, your eyes too."
The original Lotus was
missing an arm and an eye. He had a big scar on one eye. It was a wound he
received protecting everyone when facing the monster that attacked his
hometown, Velvect. The current Lotus didn't have that scar, but in its place,
he had become half-demon. I was hiding that with my illusion skill, so Yuko
didn't know. It was total chaos.
Even Lotus, who was
usually unflappable, seemed troubled by her reaction. What a very laid-back
guy.
"A lot
happened."
(He summed that up
really concisely...)
"A lot happened,
huh..." Yuko nodded, but then said, "No, what do you mean, 'a
lot'!?". Her barrage of questions didn't stop. "B-but, definitely,
your voice is Lotus! No mistake!! It's complicated!!! I can stan you!!! As
expected of my oshi1!!!" "Are you... pressuring me?"
You're wrong.
So, "stan"
was a specialized term, I realized, remembering how Veda, who had heard Yuko's
shouts through the Mirror of Foresight, had been confused, wondering if she was
using some kind of magical language. They couldn't even understand words
without translation.
Just as I was holding
back tears from the sadness of not being understood, Ichi and the others next
to me started a little skit, saying, "Help me, Suraemon~!"
"Pururun, Translation Slime~!" "Papara-pappara~!" Who told
them about such a dangerous copyright thing? That was me. Anyway, it was a
belated surprise that Yuko's oshi1 was Lotus.
"By the way, who
is this kid who's been here the whole time? A relative's kid? You guys don't
look alike."
Finally, Yuko's gaze
landed on me. I flinched and hid behind Lotus along with Ichi and the others.
He had a big back, so I fit right in. Lotus quietly closed his eyes. And then
he completely turned away and ignored her. Silence. Only Ichi and the others
were dancing around with a "wai-wai" to lighten the mood. Of course,
Yuko couldn't see them.
It would definitely be
troublesome if Yuko found out I was Eldorado, so we had discussed keeping the
information to a minimum in case that happened. Well, regardless of Yuko, I
didn't want anyone other than Veda and Socius to know I was a demon, so it was
the same situation as always.
Seeing Lotus's
reaction of not saying a word, Yuko pouted and muttered, "Well,
whatever," which made me feel a little relieved. That's right. There was
no way she would think this miniature me was the curvaceous Eldorado.
Certainly, my face and hair color were the same. But in the game, there was no
official setting that Eldorado could change her appearance.
Known as the Phantom
Witch, she used her illusion skill to manipulate men at will. If you brought
male characters to the final battle with Eldorado, the manipulated characters
would turn against Yuko, resulting in a forced loss event. Yuko had to face
Eldorado alone, raising her ATK as much as possible and fighting physically.
So, many players,
including me, thought Eldorado's ability was to bewitch people, but when I
actually tapped the explanation for the illusion skill, it said it was the
ability to "turn belief into power." In other words, if I tried,
could I also manipulate people at will...? I tried doing an "ah-han"
pose. Me, El, a very nice-bodied girl. Everyone's so charmed by my allure,
there's no way they wouldn't listen to me right away. I ended up thinking
"no way" quickly at the end.
Yuko didn't pay any
attention to me, who was collapsing in the realization of my own low abilities,
and just kept asking Lotus questions. Why was he here? Why didn't he look at
her and not tell her he was Lotus? In the first place, this wasn't Lotus. Lotus
replied to all her questions vaguely, and unusually for him, kept looking away.
There were some questions that were difficult to answer, but honestly, Yuko was
quite rude. He was almost a complete stranger to her. If it was some other
people, they might have gotten angry.
In other words, they
weren't having a conversation at all.
Yuko was talking to
Lotus, facing the image of Lotus in her mind. It looked as if she was talking
to a mirror. Lotus understood that too, so he scratched his head, quietly
looked down at Yuko, and spoke.
"I am who I
am."
"This isn't Lotus,"
Yuko had insisted several times during their conversation. Hearing those words,
she bit her lip sharply. Then, as if searching for words that had no place to
go, she took a slow breath and exhaled.
"Lo...
Lotus..."
The words that
followed, muttered as if asking, "Aren't you... my knight?" were very
quiet. Even I might not have heard them if I hadn't had my eavesdropping skill
on. But Lotus heard them.
"No."
Lotus replied in a
clear voice. For a moment, I thought she was going to cry. Still clenching the
paintbrushes in her fist, she trembled, and with a "Hwah!", Yuko
slammed the paintbrushes onto the ground. Ichi and the others scattered away.
"That's,
that's..."
Her body was trembling
all over. She couldn't get the words she wanted to say out. With that face, she
tried to say something but couldn't, turned her back, and shouted, "Hmph!!
I'll make you fall to the dark side, you hear meeeeee!!!!" Don't
underestimate the Saint, you hear meeeeee!! And she stormed off.
Wondering what kind of
parting words those were, I felt uneasy about whether that was the right way to
handle things. Since we weren't in a fixed story, there was no way to know what
was right.
Plop, Lotus's large
palm rested on my head.
I reached up towards
the hand on my head and touched it lightly. Lotus's body temperature was
actually a little higher than a normal person's. I had feelings I couldn't
swallow, but I managed to let out a little bit. Yuko's disappearing back was
already quite small.
Ichi and the others
slowly approached the paintbrushes that Yuko had thrown away, as if trying to
rescue them. They stretched out the tips of their hands and poked them, forming
a circle around them, wondering what they were. Then, they suddenly looked up
at the sky. It was still a clear blue sky without a single cloud. Just as a
breeze blew, the membrane of the sky swayed gently.
--It's going to rain.
I couldn't tell at
all. They told me so because they could smell water.
And then, a heavy rain
suddenly began to fall on the capital of Kasei. Rain, in this country where it
never rained. It was a downpour as if many buckets had been vigorously
overturned.
1 In the
context of idols, "oshi" (推し) refers to the person or group that a fan is most passionate about
and supports.
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