Explanation and Plans
Natasha, who was getting a little worked up when Kuti cornered her, seemed to have regained her composure.
Kuti’s expression of cold anger, which she rarely shows, was very encouraging.
But if this expression was turned on me, I would be more sad than scared.
“Quickly! Apologize to Lily!”
“I, I am sorry…”
“I didn’t hear you!”
“I’m sorry! I will do anything so please forgive me!”
“You heard her, Lily. What will it be?”
N? What was that about…
Anyhow, Natasha seemed to be apologizing to me as Kuti’s younger sister, not as the perfect Queen.
I mean, she was teary-eyed and she looked very immature.
She is apparently over two thousand years old. She has the same face as Kuti, so she looked super cute.
“Err, it’s okay, Kuti. I have you, after all. You will protect me, right?”
“Of course! Do you understand, Natasha!”
“Uu… yes…”
“Nownow, let’s wipe off the tears since you understand. I’m not scary~ it’s your Oneechan~ I’m very kind~”
“Kuti is acting as a big sister…”
Realizing that I was feeling okay, Kuti started taking care of Natasha.
Kuti, who was comforting Natasha who somehow regressed to a little child, looked like a proper big sister.
This is another sight that I have never seen before.
This sight alone was so fascinating that it made me glad to be in the Forest next to the world.
Kuti Oneechan… how nice!
“Natasha has a lot of piled up stress in her, too. With that serious nature of hers, she must find it difficult to let it out. Sorry about that, Lily.”
“No, it’s fine. I mean, she’s Kuti’s little sister. She’s like a little sister to me, too.”
“… I wonder about that?”
Kuti soothed Natasha in a hurry.
Feeling completely like an outsider, Sani Sensei decided to watch over the two warmly from distance.
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Some time passed and it was time for lunch, so Scarlet and Mira came over to deliver lunch or something.
The dish they made was made with ingredients brought from Auriol, but thanks to Scarlet’s leadership, it was made with a deeper flavor than the usual light flavor.
However, it was still thin in flavor, due to the fact that there were fewer kinds of seasonings compared to the meals in our past lives.
Well, I’ve been eating like this for six years now, so I don’t think I’d be able to eat it if I were to suddenly go back to the seasonings I had back then.
Especially nowadays, my taste buds are very sensitive and I would be surprised if I was served deeper flavors.
Maybe that’s why Scarlet’s seasoning didn’t surprise my stomach, and I was able to accept it easily.
It’s scary to get used to it. Lighter flavors are the norm nowadays, so deeper flavors feel fresh.
But it was very good, and I’d like to ask Scarlet to promote this method of cooking when I return back.
I can’t enter the kitchen just yet, after all.
“Ahem, I’m sorry about the umm, showing you something so unsightly.”
“No, I don’t mind it, please don’t worry about it.”
“I am glad to hear that.”
The time we spent at lunch allowed Natasha to get back to normal, so we resumed our discussion.
I’m not sure if it’s good that I saw her embarrassed or not, but I feel like I got much closer to Natasha.
It seems that it was the same for her, and the atmosphere was much softer than it was at first.
After all, as Sani Sensei said, she was probably suffering from a lot of heartaches due to her duties as the queen.
And so, if her biggest heartache is going to be resolved, her tension would surely rise in a rush.
Well, I think you have to keep your cool in such situations, but no one can do it perfectly.
Especially, since there were only the people she was close with in the room, except me of course.
I guess she just couldn’t hold it back anymore.
“I have plans after this, but I will explain it again later today. I think I would like you to personally observe the state of the darkness tomorrow.”
“State of the darkness?”
“Yes. The invasion of the darkness is very slow. There is no danger of it attacking this side, so there’s no issue with safety. We will be using a vehicle that can travel at high speeds just in case, you can rest assured.”
State of the darkness…
It’s true that I’ve only heard the stories and seen the 3D images, so I don’t think I have enough of a sense of urgency.
In fact, it feels completely like another person’s problem when they say the world is in the crisis of destruction.
Besides, what I am asked to do is not to do something about the darkness, but to establish a way to safely cross the dimensions.
Frankly, it’s impossible to repair a planet that is about to collapse, as was shown in the 3D projection.
That’s why I don’t see the point in seeing the state of the darkness directly with my own eyes—through my Contact Lenses, that is.