Chapter 21.11

Extra 1.2

May I ask a question?」

「What?」

「Is Boss Man afraid of women?」

As they were preparing to gather ingredients for unclassified potions in the bushes outside of the East Gate, Nora spoke out.

「You guys can tell, huh…」

「Watching his expression and the distance he kept between us, anyone who doesn’t think so is definitely dense.」

Nora declared, and Haruna and Mio let about a chuckle.

「Sensei went through some stuff back home.」

「I’m impressed that he can be around you two.」

「All thanks to Haru. We just copy the distance she keeps.」

Upon Mio’s answer, the two rookies remembered the conversation they had in the workshop, along with where Haruna and Hiroshi were standing. They had a comfortable distance between them, indicative of more than a little buildup of trust. Neither Teres nor Nora were unobservant enough to think that, while Hiroshi and Haruna went through the formality of conversation, they mostly communicated via eye-contact.

「Um, I have a question.」

「Shoot.」

「Are you and Boss Man… In a relationship.」

「Nope.」

Haruna shut down Teres’ question without missing a beat.

「That’s sure what it looks like to me. You two are so in tune with each other.」

「We’re in tune exactly because we’re not in a relationship. Hiroshi-kun can’t even come in physical contact with a woman for more than a second before he starts hyperventilating. No way he’s ready to be in a relationship.」

Haruna answered with an expression that was too bitter to call a smile, but too sweet to call solemn. That mysterious entrancing expression made the hearts of the other three girls skip a beat.

「I understand how Boss Man feels. But what about you, Haruna-san?」

「What?」

「How do you feel about Boss Man, Haruna-san?」

「…Best friend, slash, partner in crime…?」

Haruna said without much confidence. Truth be told, she didn’t want to categorize her feelings as romantic. Something didn’t feel right about that. At the same time, she felt ambivalent enough that it would have been difficult for her to defend that there was nothing but friendship between them. If she were to call Hiroshi a sense of shipmate on this stormy journey, she would also have to call Tatsuya, Makoto, and Mio the same. But how she felt about Hiroshi was undeniably different from how she felt towards them. Her confusion about this unknown emotion emanated from her, enough that it was evident to those around her.

Haruna didn’t quite understand romance, in the first place. She had been in more rom-com-like situations like dealing with her friends’ relationships or be given the short end of the stick when it comes to drama around her. She had made it this far in life without so much as a “trial-period” relationship. In fact, she didn’t talk much with boys to begin with, mostly because she seemed so far out of anyone’s league.

Anyone who had asked her so far were the player types that didn’t even try to look beyond the surface, and cocky narcissist types. Anyone whom Haruna (or her friends and family) would approve would never try and go for the unobtainable. As a result, Haruna had never encountered a single man (who wasn’t a family member) who looked her in the eye and sincerely respected her character. It was less that she wasn’t keen to romance, she just lacked experience because of her circumstances.

If it was miraculous for Hiroshi to meet Haruna and form a safe partnership, it might also be miraculous for Haruna to meet Hiroshi, and that they were able to understand and respect each other sincerely until Haruna had developed some sorts of feeling for him. The problem was however, that Haruna could not foresee any future that took their relationship further in any direction.

「…I see. I think I understand.」

「Poor Haruna-san… And Mio-san.」

「Wait, what?」

「Haru, you never notice things about yourself…」

「What? What?」

Haruna really didn’t seem to see it. Mio let out a sigh in response. Everyone would have accepted this excuse, if she had given it any time before the first ball in the castle. But, after the assassination scare and the battle against Barold, Haruna’s emotions were clearly changing, albeit slowly. The only ones out of the core party who couldn’t see that were Haruna herself and Hiroshi.

It may be cruel to call Hiroshi unobservant in all of this, though. How could anyone expect him, out of all people, to consider romantic feelings towards him from the opposite sex? In fact, he wasn’t unobservant, and must have been noticing the slight changes in Haruna’s behavior, but he was too untrusting of women to deduce that to be an indication of romantic feelings. Considering his experience back in middle school, anyone could imagine that, even if Haruna had confessed her undying love to him as bluntly as humanly possible with not an inch of room for misunderstandings, Hiroshi would not believe it, barring a powerful (incredibly powerful) show of it.

「Herself… You too, Mio-san…?」

「Mio is fine. I don’t deny it. I just don’t trust my emotions and instinct enough to confidently say that I’m in love.」

Hearing Mio’s confession, Haruna flashed an expression. OF course, she had noticed Mio’s complicated emotions towards Hiroshi. Mio harshly reacting to Hiroshi whenever he did something sheepish, then regretting it (shown by an expression that Haruna assumed could only be picked up on by those who knew her well) while Hiroshi wasn’t around was telltale of the turmoil that was Mio’s adolescent heart.

「And what do you two think of Sensei?」

「I’m sorry. I don’t think he’s that charming.」

「I’m sure he’s a kind and honest person, but…」

Haruna and Mio could only chuckles at their honesty. Unfortunately, Hiroshi’s charm required an acquired taste. They were confident that, once these girls watch Hiroshi craft something (if they didn’t have very negative preconceptions about craftsmen for some reason) their impression would change. They also understood that most people could not see that quality in Hiroshi from a time as short as their interview.

「A fair first impression.」

「That was my impression back home.」

Haruna dropped, to which the girls looked surprised.

「Um, how long have you all been together?」

「Hiroshi-kun and I for three months or so. Everyone else came together like a month after that.」

Haruna added another bombt to Teres’ timid question.

「J-Just three months…?」

「Until we got transported here on accident, we didn’t interact much other than the occasional hello.」

In just three months, they had synced up as much as a couple married for decades. It was hard to imagine that Hiroshi would take any steps to close their distance, so they assumed that Haruna had carefully observed her partner, and kept a distance while carefully closing it. At first, it might have been out of necessity, but it was crazy to continue making that kind of effort with someone whom she had no special feelings for. This was way too much to chalk it off to her general kindness.

According to Teres’ values, anyway. There was another part of her that was wondering if Haruna was able to maintain that kind of relationship with most everyone.

「I guess some humans are truly extraordinary.」

「Haru’s very special. In a lot of ways.」

Mio interjected, not wanting Nora to think that Haruna was anywhere near the average human being. In fact, Mio didn’t want to be grouped in with Haruna just because they were the same species, especially since Haruna was practically a character from a romance simulator in the olden days, who would set up a bunch of events, only to lead to the game over screen after a single mistake.

Non-human species, like elves, would sometimes call people “humans” but it was never taken as an insult by anyone. Intuitively, the term did encompass all humanoid species of intelligence.

Haruna did give a little frown to Mio treating her like an outlier. But before she could say anything, Mio added:

「Too much chit chat. We need to work.」

「…Right. It wouldn’t hurt to get a big stockpile going.」

Losing the opportunity to say something about it, Haruna’s contempt left her with a sigh. It wasn’t a big deal to her, though. In a minute, it wouldn’t bother her anymore. What Mio had said was hardly an insult, especially compared to the nobles in the castle.

「So, gather these leaves. These grass, and these too. Cut off the leaves as cleanly as you can, and make sure to pull the grass up from their roots.」

Haruna said, while showing examples. A little taken aback by how quickly Haruna wiped her dissatisfaction (albeit trivial) from her face, the two rookies started collecting vegetation as they were shown. They were working in silence for a few minutes, but…

「So, are there any other women in Boss Man’s life?」

Teres jumped back into gossip, tired of the monotonous work already.

「There are, but…」

「Even if Sensei wasn’t afraid of women, he would never get close to them.」

Haruna and Mio answered, without stopping their work.

「Ooh, but Elle-chan might power through with her puppy dog approach if it weren’t for his phobia.」

「Possible. Her straightforward lovey-dovey eyes are what make me unsure of my feelings.」

「I can’t blame her, considering what happened… But poor Hiroshi-kun.」

「Her appearance aside, her age and status make it impossible.」

Some key phrases flew out, making the rookies hesitate to ask more questions. Without context, Teres and Nora could only imagine the worst. This drove them to concentrate on the harvesting in order to escape their own imaginations.

「Low key, I think it’s going to fall on whether or not we can make it home by the time Elle-chan becomes of age. What do you think?」

「I concur.」

The phrase “of age” left the rookies with no room to deny that they were talking about a young girl (too young to be considered an adult, at least). Despite obvious red flags, the rookie girls were overcome by their temptation for gossip, and ended up asking all sorts of questions.

And so, while they passed the time collecting more than enough herbs with colorful gossip, the four girls had bonded quite well by the end of it. Like Haruna once said, no girl turns down gossip and dessert. What they didn’t know is that, by the time they had left the castle, there was a dark horse of the romance variety (an extremely dangerous one, especially for Hiroshi’s mental health) lurking.

「Now. Why did a kid like you, who couldn’t even verify if his targets were viable, decide to get into the pickpocketing business.」

「I got nothing to say. Turn me over to an officer, already.」

Tatsuya started to question the kid they had captured, in the workshop’s dining room. Perhaps because they weren’t exactly gentle on the way here, the kid stubbornly refused to answer. Judging by looks and voice, there was no way that the kid was any older than Aearis.

「I mean, I got a pretty good guess.」

Hiroshi muttered with a long sigh, some color drained from his face. He had spoken louder than intended though, and caught the attention of Tatsuya and the kid.

「What do you mean a good guess?」

「I don’t wanna put it this way, but it’s ridiculously clichéd.」

「Clichéd? You mean…!?」

「Just a guess, but you got someone in your family who’s mighty sick, don’t ya?」

Even as a solemn expression grew on the kid’s face, the kid didn’t answer.

「It’s written all over your face, now.」

「What if I do!?」

「What if, ya say…」

Still not sure if he should come out and say it, Hiroshi trailed off. Watching this, Tatsuya chuckled and gave him a push.

「Why don’t you tell the kid that you’ll cure that person in exchange for working here?」

「Ya don’t think we gotta clear that sort of thing with someone?」

「It’s not like we’re hiring people by the dozens, I doubt anyone’ll mind. Besides, do you think those two will cut it?」

「Depends on how quick they learn, but I don’t think so. Even with three of ‘em, I don’t think they could handle all the food prep and maintenance here.」

Listening in on this conversation, the kid was growing more nervous by the second that, perhaps, it was a huge mistake to have targeted these men. In fact, this particular conversation could have been taken as a discussion for making some sort of illegal substance.

「Are you sure you can handle this patient, though.」

「I won’t know ‘til I examine ‘em. But it shouldn’t be anythin’ that spreads by air, droplets, or contact.」

「How do you know?」

「If it’s somethin’ that spreads that easy, we would have heard ‘bout it. Even if nutrition and stamina were factors, someone at the market would have known ‘bout it.」

「Good point.」

Even if it was a disease that was spreading in the slums, it’s not like residents of those areas didn’t come to the market. There was no way that a diseases spread by air or contact would be contained to such a small area. Sure, some people may not appreciate people from the slums going to the market, but they weren’t locked out of it.

Besides, the slums of Wulls were relatively low on crime compared to other cities. This was mostly due to the fact that it acted more as a refugee camp for people who lost their homes to monsters or natural disasters, rather than a cesspool of self-destructive people. While it wasn’t much, people even received aid from the government there, and soldiers would patrol the area, making it a little harder for crime to become rampant.

Of course, there were areas that housed people who decided to live short but couldn’t die young. But those areas were clearly segregated away from the slums, and the government kept watch on them. What’s more, after dealing with Barold, organized crime had mostly been abolished. The only gangs left were the types that would never mess with a civilian who had wandered off to the wrong side of town. The necessary evil types that helped keep the city’s peace in their own way.

「Lookin’ at this kid’s hygiene and malnutrition, they ate somethin’ nasty. In any case, we gotta clean this kid up, do an examination and get some good food in that belly. Just treatin’ the symptoms won’t be a long term solution.」

「Make sense to me. I’m getting hungry, too. Let’s eat.」

「Sure. I couldn’t get any new ingredients so we’re havin’ leftovers. Do ya mind?」

「Not at all!」

Upon Tatsuya’s response, Hiroshi disappeared into the kitchen. Considering what was in the pantry, leftovers (nine times out of ten) meant meat. There were heaps of monster meat stashed in there, on top of the Wyvern meat. Other than that, Tatsuya expected maybe some Pomey that Hiroshi had been growing in secret.

「…What do you think you’re doing…?」

The kid growled.

「Employee diversification?」

「…Huh?」

「If you do work here, I’ll guarantee you’ll eat the best food in Farlane.」

Tatsuya said, without telling the kid that most of those meals would consist of monster meat. Because, well, Tatsuya didn’t think that kid would mind as long as it was edible. No one needed to know that reasoning, though.