Volume 5 Chapter 6.5

Translator: Reflet

Editor: Weasalopes

「……Well, putting aside Tatsu and Mako for a moment, there’s another subject I want to bring up.」

「Wazzup？」

「Lime, how’s it going at school？」

Anticipating this conversation about liquor to continue on indefinitely, Mio quite forcibly changed the conversation as she picked up some stir-fried vegetables with her fingers. Aearis and Artiem also focused their attention on the workshop members, seemingly interested in Lime’s school life.

「I’m, not exactly sure how to answer that……」

「I imagine that it’s what Haruna-san and the others have anticipated.」

Suddenly the center of attention, Teres and Nora hesitated to speak before finally giving an evasive response. Lime stared at this spectacle in a puzzled manner as she ate the entrails. Hiyohiyo was nonchalantly pecking at yakitori. At this point, no one even questioned whether this counted as cannibalism or not.

「And what was it that you anticipated?」

「Well, this is a given, but there will always be those who harass children like me or Lime. Putting aside whether they are actually succeeding or not.」

Haruna, who was getting a good idea of the overall picture, asked for further clarification, to which Fum moved away from the tendon she was eating and chimed in.

「Sis, you’re getting harassed？」

「Uhh no, I’m pretty sure the main target is you, Lime……」

「For realsies？」

「For real, yes.」

Watching the two sisters converse, Hiroshi and the others got the gist of what was going on. Still, be as that may, they couldn’t help but worry now about dense Lime was behaving.

「Sis, I think there’s a bit of a problem if Lime-san isn’t aware of what’s going on……」

「Well, I suppose even you think that, eh Artiem? Still, I dunno……」

「Even me? You’re so mean, Sis……」

「What do you mean? You were totally oblivious to those sorts of things too.」

Artiem, who had mentioned something that Hiroshi and the others had been concerned about, was verbally struck down by Teres’s point blank commentary. Artiem being dense when it came to mischief or harassment was no doubt either because she didn’t care at all about the sexual harassment that older people would pester her with or because she hadn’t caught on to the fact that there were many eyes on her as she went around with Douga as Aearis’s lady attendant.

「So in actuality, what’s it like？」

「It’s not possible to classify that as harassment. If you want to actually harass people who grew up in the slums it’d have to be something like burning all of our belongings.」

「If you compare it to my time in the slave trade, this is nothing special.」

「Well, I won’t say it’s just because you’re an elf, but when a lady goes on a solo journey there’s bound to be a lot of things going on……」

When Hiroshi asked, Fum and the other two all gave rather fierce answers. It was easy to forget since they were currently living in a decent environment, but had the three of them lived in a peaceful, safe environment, none of them would be here right now. For these girls, who were already in an institute with a warm environment and wouldn’t lose much even if they were kicked out, there was no way anyone could effectively harass them.

「Umm, can I say something real quick？」

Aearis, who had just finished eating the roasted poms, had a slightly puzzled expression on her face as she cut into the conversation. Generally she had been an outsider in regards to Lime’s school life, hence why she had refrained from saying anything until now.

「Wazzup？」

「You were just asking how Lime-san was doing at school,, so why exactly did the topic of harassment come to the forefront？」

Everyone found themselves go silent at this profoundly reasonable argument. Usually, the first thing you’d question with a child like Lime mixing with a grown-up environment would be whether she could keep up with the classes or not. And yet, no one was concerned about that. It wasn’t strange at all for Aearis to be puzzled by that.

「Well, judging from how the experiments went, I figured that Lime probably wouldn’t have any issue with keeping up in class.」

「Yuuup, it’s just a beginner’s thing anyway.」

「Besides, with events unfolding the way they’ve been, it’s not so much her studies as it is the reluctant instructors that I’m concerned about.」

「In fact, that was always what we were concerned about, mate.」

Hiroshi and Haruna mentioned a big part of what was on their minds as they answered Aearis’s question.

「Lime asked a bunch of questions that only someone well-versed in the background would be able to understand, and it looks like there were plenty of students who felt an incredible sense of crisis as a result.」

「Yep yep.」

「And so they do silly things because of their worthless pride.」

「Yeah, and then they just self-destruct.」

Fum and the others got on the bandwagon one by one after Makoto mentioned this, satisfied with the taste of the new shochu. Aearis stifled a grimace when she saw the conversation returning to square one. Still, she was able to grasp the gist of the chain of events up till now, so she went on to the next point of interest.

「But I don’t think that’s enough to have the professors join in on the harassment like that…」

「Well, it depends on what’s in the question.」

Hearing Nora’s answer, Aearis had a faraway look on her face, tremendously understanding of this situation. Lime, with all of her childlike innocence, would no doubt pierce the professor’s reputation mercilessly, causing them to lose face, not to mention that Lime was asking all of these questions in earnest, as part of her studies and not to harass or anything like that. Aearis also had had plenty of experience with this.

Professors were already a very prideful breed of humans to begin with. Consequently, from the viewpoint of a professor, the fact that a young child like Lime could understand their lectures normally was something to be proud of, because it meant their lectures were just that easy to understand, and yet instead of thinking that way, the professors tended to feel that a young child like her understanding meant the lectures were low level in some way.

Of course not ever professor was this way. Because of their high pride, some professors would become indignant upon hearing that a student didn’t understand their lecture, thoroughly explaining till the student began to understand, while some professors felt shame at not being able to give proper answers to objections, thoroughly examining the content before moving on to the next in order to make up for this loss of honor.

Those professors were actually very grateful to have Lime as a student, and of course some of them doted on her tremendously.

「So in the end, Lime stands out for better or for worse, causing her to stand at the forefront of these faction wars. I see. Of course she herself has no idea of this.」

「？」

「Ah～、don’t worry about all the small details, Lime. You’re fine just the way you are, kiddo.」

「？　I don’t really get it, but I’ll do my best.」

「Ah～、geez、you’re just so cuuute, Lime！」

Makoto said, and Lime tilted her head puzzledly. She did seem to grasp that she was at the center of attention here, but didn’t quite comprehend the context. This sort of thing was to be expected for a child her age, though.