Naivety strangles you like silk floss.
When I sulked, Watase Obaasama tilted her head and asked:
“What exactly are monsters? Are they like demons or specters?”
I hadn’t thought too deeply about it before, but when I reconsidered, I wasn’t sure myself. But they have physical bodies, so I don’t think they’re ghosts or yokai.
“Monsters are monsters, I guess… But now that you mention it, what’s the difference between a monster and a magic beast? I’ve never really thought about it.”
The ever-honest Aldin-sama tilted his head. Surprisingly, it was Lavita who answered the question.
“Monsters are born from dungeons or taint. When defeated, they are purified, and only the power remains.”
“I see… Huh? Is it really okay to eat something that was born from taint?”
“Once it’s defeated, it’s just the remnant of power. There’s no problem. They do have physical bodies. However…”
“However?”
“If you keep eating them, you might absorb the power into your body and grow stronger. That might be one of the reasons beastkin have such tough bodies.”
In Christia, there’s dairy and livestock farming, but in Wolfanea, meat mostly comes from hunting, so they eat a lot of monster meat.
(………………………………………)
Everyone looked at me and Dirk. It might just be in my head, but I really felt like they did.
“………? Why are you all looking at Rin?”
Watase Obaasama asked. Please, don’t ask that!
“Rosarin-chan… we may have just uncovered the secret behind Rin Neechan’s freakish strength.”
“Hold it right there.”
“Yes, ma’am.”
“I’m not freakishly strong! I still lose all the time to Geraldin-san and Dirk, okay!?”
I’m not freakishly strong. Geraldin-san and Dirk aside, I’m just a normal girl!
“My Lord, you only lose to me in mock battles. When you are fighting to protect something important, that’s when you show your true strength. I’m sure you would defeat me with some unpredictable tactic.”
“The reason you can’t beat us is because you are holding back your magic so you don’t hurt us. Honestly, if you were serious and fighting for something, I don’t think even I could win.”
“Guh… B-but Dirk, you’re holding back a lot too, aren’t you!?”
“… Well, I’m used to it, after all.”
Dirk gave a wry smile. Even now, we occasionally have mock battles, but I never win. According to Dirk, after all our matches, he’s gotten used to reading my moves. Damn it.
“If Rosarin is normal, that would mean all women in the world are stronger than me. Even I’m not that ignorant—there’s no way Rosarin is ‘normal.’”
Shining White-sama said that with no malice whatsoever. Ugh… I mean, I only got strong because I had no other choice to survive!
“No, Rosarin-chan is something beyond the category of ‘abnormal’!”
“Yeah. She claims to be my disciple, but in every way, she looks more like someone who surpasses me at everything.”
The beautiful old man wept. No, listen? I can’t match your knowledge, Sage-sama! I-I’m sorry, so please don’t cry.
“… Anyway, Rinka, you’re banned from eating meat and potato stew for a while. I’m too irritated.”
“I sincerely apologize! I was honestly just a little—no, quite—no, ridiculously full of myself AAAAAAH!!”
Rinka pressed her forehead to the ground and begged with a desperate dogeza. Does she love meat and potato stew that much?
“You, what happened to your pride?”
“In front of meat and potato stew, pride is like dust! I can’t eat pride! So please forgive meeeeeee!!”
At that point, I just gave up and forgave her. Rinka’s obsession with what she likes is intense. How did she end up like this?
“… Rin is… no, Rin also fulfilled her duty as a shrine maiden admirably.”
“… Yes, indeed… I mean, yes, she did.”
“Noble one, you don’t need to speak formally to me.”
“No, you’re Rinka’s dear great-grandmother. I’ve decided to live as a proper human being now. So I want to do things properly.”
Watase Obaasama smiled gently… wait, what!?
“T-tomorrow it’ll be cloudy with a chance of Kurarin… Kurarin’s coming!! The world’s ending!!”
“Don’t say that! Kurarin might actually show up! What’ll you do if it really happens!?”
As we made a huge fuss, Lavita chuckled quietly.
“Anyway, Rosarin, no matter how you try to spin it, you’re not ‘normal.’ Even I, while tainted, was scared at first because your presence was just too overwhelming.”
Ah, yeah. The Kabaddi Incident. Sorry about back then. But I really didn’t have a choice. Please forgive me.
“… Rin, what exactly did you do?”
“W-well, Kabaddi and… a little bit of the traditional Japanese game, Kagome Kagome…”
“Kabaddi… is a sport, and Kagome Kagome is… you played that?”
Stop it! Don’t go digging into my dark past! My life points are already at zero!!
“Uh, well… Kabaddi has weird movements, so I thought it’d freak them out… and Kagome Kagome feels kind of ritualistic, so I figured it might be spooky…”
“… As I suspected, Rin and Rinka really are blood relatives.”
Watase Obaasama let out a deep sigh. Obaasama… what do you mean by that!? Compared to Rinka, I’m totally normal!
I wanted to argue with all my might, but I had a bad feeling I’d just dig myself into a deeper hole, so I held back.
What do you think about this chapter?
