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Chapter 13
Chapter 1, Childhood Friend And I — Episode 13 : Date
Translated by KaiesV
Edited by KaiesV
————At the Royal Garden.
Birds chirp and butterflies and honey bees gather at the red and yellow blooming flowers. Beauty and the Beast walking with a beautiful sight in the background, or maybe I’m slow or a swine…
Somehow, seeing such a peaceful royal garden makes me wonder if we are really in a crisis situation.
Marielle invited me here to change my mood. I ask Marielle, who is standing next to me, as we leave the breathless given room and walk through the large garden.
I know I am incompetent. I didn’t want to understand it but… what about Marielle, then?
「Uhh, Marielle, Yurielle said that you’re incompetent, is it because you’re not as skilled as her?」
They are twins, but their personalities are the exact opposite. Sure, I would’ve been in trouble if I had remained there, but it’s a terrible thing to call someone without permission and then discriminate against them like that.
While Yurielle is a villainous lady, Marielle is a saintly woman who always smiles as if an angel had descended upon me. I’m just puzzled as to why such a cute girl is in the cesspool for me who is being treated coldly.
I’ve been attacked—!
And to fall into… no, that’s not possible. I don’t know if I was attacked or not, but Funabashi-san must have been interacting with another world at night.
I hear something bumping from the side.
「Heal, Middle Heal, High Heal, Antidote (Flora), Antidote (Fauna), Paralysis Recovery, Exorcism (Care), Exorcism (Pig), Exorcism (Insect), Exorcism (Dwarf)…」
While I was thinking about them, Marielle was rambling on and on. Apparently, it’s a skill…
「Wait, wait a second! Maybe she’s talking now about the skills that Marielle has acquired?」
「Yes, from Onee-sama’s point of view, it was tantamount to incompetence…」
That’s too good to be true. Although I’m depressed that I shouldn’t have asked, it’s enough to make her despise Marielle, despite the fact that she has mastered so much. Perhaps Yurielle has some amazing skills.
「Is there a big difference in the skills Yurielle and Marielle are acquiring if you are so amazing and yet incompetent?」
「Yes… I am unable to use the return revive that restores health from combat.」
Huh? Like if you have a heart attack, you can recover from it with an AED? No, Marielle wouldn’t understand even if I told her that.
Marielle continues, looking up at the distant sky with an expression of shame at her own helplessness.
「Even a Saint who has received God’s grace doesn’t have the power to revive a body or restore a defect. It’s the same for Onee-sama… That’s why, I swear that I won’t let that happen to Kaname-sama!」
She held my round hand with both of her beautiful white hands and pleaded with me. If what Marielle says is true, it seems this world is in a harder mode than I expected…
Her hands were soft and warm as if they were enveloping me, as if they were trying to loosen my hardened heart.
Marielle holds my hand tightly and I hold back my eyes from going into heart mode because of her concern for me. ××! I swear I would never cheat on you!
「Okay…」
Still, I responded without effort, but I had no idea what would happen next, not even fighting yet. I just didn’t want Marielle to have a good look, or even a downcast look on her face, so I had to respond.
That was when it happened.
Suddenly, Marielle, squeezing my hand, turned around and said to me with a big smile.
「It’s also depressing that we are both still down like this. If you like, we can go outside the palace. I can show you around!」
「Thank you. Then, shall we go now?」
「Yes!」
Just looking at Marielle’s cheerful smile, I feel as if I have been given the courage to do something in this world. She didn’t mention it earlier, but I think she might have some kind of buffing skill, like a Cheer.
Marielle took me by the hand and I was invited to the city of another world for the first time…
————Royal Capital, Arastaburk.
As soon as we hit the streets, we were surrounded!
「It’s Marielle-sama!」
「She’s so divine…」
「Our saint is in town!」
Stone houses reminiscent of medieval Europe line the streets. In the midst of all this, the people of the town raised their hands in joy and threw confetti from their second-story windows, as if some kind of carnival was about to begin.
「O–Oh no, everyone is overreacting.」
Marielle was humble, but with her lovely appearance and compassionate, yet somehow friendly nature, it seemed only natural that she would be loved by the people of the city.
「Are you a new squire over there?」
「I wonder if he’s a heavy knight because he’s a big fat guy?」
Marielle is spoken to by a father and son who seem to have good body shape and people, and she answers their questions. But I was impatient with what she was telling me.
「No–no, that’s wrong. The person you see here is the one who came all the way from another world to save the country, or rather, to save this world. He would twist a rabid demon lightly with one hand! Please don’t be rude, everyone.」
「I beg your pardon.」
「I’m sorry～」
The father and son bowed their heads and apologized to me, as if they thought it was impolite. But I don’t think it’s rude, and I’ve been told this much, or worse, in my former world, so it doesn’t bother me.
I’d rather…
「M–Marielle… I appreciate the sentiment, but it would be nice if you wouldn’t raise that bar…」
Her expectations were so heavy that my stomach ached a little. With that in mind, I called out to Marielle, but I couldn’t see her, even though she had been next to me earlier. I looked around and saw one of the stalls lined up in a row, stopping at a store that was roasting some kind of meat on skewers and waving at me.
「Kaname-sama～! If you are feeling down, you can eat this!～!」
「Ah… okay.」
Maybe, is this what people call a date…
She is so innocent that I would think she is really a princess. But I didn’t hate it. It was when I was about to go under Marielle.
「I–It’s a mooonnssteeerrrr!!!」
A shouted warning emanates from the castle gate that separates the city from the outside world. A small, brown, rabbit-like monster was coming toward us, weaving its way under the feet of the crowd.
People were startled and fell on their butts, or rushed to get inside their houses, causing a cloud of dust to form and wreaking havoc throughout the city.
「Hurry up and tell the Knights!」
「Roger, Warden.」
The well-dressed uncle, called the Warden, signals to the young man, leaves the child with his wife, and heads for Marielle’s place.
「Marielle-sama, let’s head inside quickly.」
「But the people of the city are still out there…」
But it was when they tried to evacuate to a stone house with the uncle’s guidance. Without a second glance at the townspeople, the monster leapt toward Marielle, jaws wide open to reveal fangs disproportionate to its tiny appearance.
It wasn’t aiming at me, but straight at Marielle?
「Watch out!」
I presented my arm to shield Mariel and prevented her from the monster’s bite.
But…
「Ugyaaaahhhh!!!」
The pain was so intense that I felt as if my whole arm was going to be taken away even though it was such a small monster. Sharp fangs were digging into my arm and fresh blood was dripping down to the ground.
「Kaname-sama————!!!」
「I don’t mind this, you get in there now!」
「Marielle-sama!! Now’s the time, let’s head in.」
「But, Kaname-sama is…」
I desperately appealed to the Warden with my eyes, and although it was half-heartedly forced, it seems that Marielle was safely hidden in the Warden’s house thanks to the bone-crunching pain I endured.
When I looked around with misty eyes, I saw that the bustle of the area had vanished and it looked like a ghost town with no one around.
「Shit!」
A rabbit-shaped monster that leaps to distance itself from me when I shook my shoulder as hard as I can, numbing the sensation in the forearm where it bit me.
Gigigih!!!
It stared at me with suspiciously glowing red eyes as if to confirm that I had lost the use of one of my arms, and then it suddenly ran at me and jumped at my throat.
Oh no, I’m dying!
If it bit me on the throat with such force in its jaws, blood would spurt out and the bones in my neck would break. I covered my face with one moving hand.
Ahh… This is how defensive creation in a case or something like that is done. That was when this thought occurred to me.
Pang! Pang!
A dry sound echoes through the ghost town-like city. I thought I heard a popping sound as if a gun or something had been fired, but the monster that had been biting me earlier had lost its frenzy and was lying twitching on the ground.
The person who supposedly defeated the demon immediately pressed a lump of black iron against the temple of the lying monster…
Pang!
The sound of bursting echoed throughout the alleyway again, and the dying demon was completely immobilized.
「Are you alright? Kirishima-kun.」
「Thank you… so much…」
This is the second time this person has helped me… Shirakaba-san unloads the magazine of his 9mm pistol, moves the slide with a click, checks the ejection port, and then puts it away in his holster.
Relief at being rescued and the sight of Shirakaba-san’s bravery, who was a true hero, unlike a confuser like me, made my eye lids water from a sense of inferiority.
The door of the house slammed open and Marielle jumped out, holding her hand over my arm, which was as pathetic as mine, hanging slack and dripping blood.
「You’re hurting so much for me…」
「Instead of protecting me, I’ve caused trouble for us.」
I look at Marielle and Shirakaba-san’s faces and I apologize.
「Don’t sweat it. Not many civilians can protect other civilians. This guy just saved my life too.」
Shirakaba-san lightly tapped his holster with a plop, and his face lit up. Marielle nodded her head in agreement with Shirakaba-san.
「Good grief, where are you wandering around at all, and what are you thinking, that you are dealing with more grain than livestock that you can’t even eat?」
The stares and verbal abuse that pierced me and Marielle like icicles. Yurielle, accompanied by a knight, looks down from the window of a black carriage decorated with gold and silver.
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「Kaname-sama is my partner, Onee-sama…」
「Hmph, you really irritate me! How can you be so incompetent when we came from the same mother and father? If you call yourself a saint like me, you should be able to do at least a complete nachtigal.」
After a deep sigh… she said to Marielle the words that would stop her.
「You don’t know anything about hard work.」
「Yes…」
Yurielle was treating Marielle so badly that I couldn’t stand still and thought I’d just say a few words.
But the hand that controls it comes forward.
An imposing and admirable figure who nods silently in my face. Still, he was not conceited and was kind to people like me. He was an ideal soldier, or rather, a self-defense officer.
「Yurielle-san, I do not know what happened between the two of you. But I think there are degrees to consider. I am in a position to strictly instruct and supervise my troops. This is to protect the people as an officer of the Self-Defense Forces. At the same time, I believe that the self-defense needs to be guided by the people, by love.」
Standing in front of the carriage, he gave an exhortation to Yurielle, the princess, in a flowing speech, unabashedly, but not angrily. It was like the admonition of a loyal retainer.
「I–If you say so, my dear hero, then I have no choice… I’ll forgive my foolish sister for today.」
Yurielle leads the knights to pull away. When she was out of sight, Shirakaba-san looked at us and gave us a kind look. The people of the town who had been hiding earlier also came out, and the ghost town came to life at once.