by Funa
In theory, the only time she had ever killed had been during the incident with the Crimson Lightning, but that had been many years ago. Though there was the possibility that this girl was the little sister of one of the many bandits they had captured and turned in during her time with the Crimson Vow, the idea of a bandit’s little sister coming to take revenge was more or less unheard of. And honestly, it would be more appropriate for such a person to be thanking her for only capturing the bandits and turning them in alive.
Anyway, in that case, it would be incomprehensible for the girl to be glaring at Reina alone and not paying the slightest mind to the other three.
Even Reina thought this peculiar. “Why are you looking at me?! If there’s anyone you should be glaring at, it’s that black-hearted girl over there,” she said, pointing to Pauline.
“Wh-wha-wha-wha?! What are you trying to say, Reina?!” Pauline blustered.
Like so often happened, the scene was rapidly falling apart.
As Reina and Pauline quarreled, Mavis continued to stare at the little girl, without taking her eyes off of her. Mile observed the girl as well.
She appeared to be around ten years old, and was wearing not the leather guards of a hunter but the garb of a normal townsperson, and was equipped with nothing but a small knife strapped to her waist. Such a knife was a necessity when a civilian entered the forest alone. It would come in handy for cutting through brush and grass, and for driving off any goblins or kobolds who should appear.
And if an orc or some larger monster should happen upon her? This little lady had already resolved herself to enter the forest all alone, so she had to have resigned herself to such a possibility and how such a encounter might end.
She wore her hair uncovered, with no hood or bonnet. It was parted down the middle and wrapped into a bun on each side, very much like the style that you’d see drawn on any little girl in a manga who wore stereotypically Chinese clothes—though of course, such a style was unusual for these parts.
Her hair was brownish, and she had golden eyes… Somehow, Mavis and Mile were struck with a sense of déjà vu.
“It’s all your fault!” the little girl shouted, as if irritated by the sudden commotion among the party. “My big brother, who always gave me big hugs, suddenly stopped hugging me one day! And when I went to hug him, he looked c-confused and pushed me away…”
The girl’s eyes welled up with tears.
“Wh-what are you on about? I have no idea about anything like that!” Reina shouted, utterly bewildered.
Ah…
It was then that Pauline, Mavis, and Mile recalled exactly the “big brother” whom the little girl was referring to. Reina was the only one who had yet to catch on.
“What are you saying?! What kind of brute—what kind of fiend—could wound Chirel’s heart so deeply and then pretend to know nothing about it?!”
“Chirel…? Who is that?”
At this rate, the conversation was never going to get anywhere. Reluctantly, Mile curled her index finger toward Reina in a signal, directing Reina to look at her face. Once she confirmed that Reina was looking toward her curiously, Mile stuck both of her index fingers up and pressed her closed fists to the sides of her head.
“What? What are you miming there? Why do you have your fingers up like horns—oh.”
Reina flipped her head to the side and looked at the little girl again. Her gaze focused just past the girl’s two hair buns.
“Ahh! Is that what’s going on then? You should have just said so from the start!”
Indeed, Chirel was the young demon whom Reina had defeated in battle back during their tournament—and apparently, this little girl was his younger sister. Her hair was arranged the way that it was so that she could hide her horns and feign being a human.
Sounds like he’s been too traumatized to let any girls hug him…
For any ladies who might hope to become his lover in the future—as well as his sister, who appeared to have a bit of a brother complex—this was clearly a serious problem.
“I’m sorry…”
Now that she understood the situation fully, Reina apologized sincerely.
Truthfully, they had fought a fair and honest match, so Reina did not believe that she had truly done anything wrong, but there was no point in trying to explain such a thing to a little girl. For once, Reina decided to be the adult in the situation.
“Do you really think I’d let you go with just an apology?!”
“Y-you little brat! If you don’t watch your step…”
“Whoa there, Nelly!” the other three admonished.
And just like that, Reina’s mature attitude had vanished.
“Anyway, it seems like it’s been a bit too brief a time between your brother getting home and you getting here, don’t you think, little Merril?” Mile asked, biding their time until Reina could calm down.
According to what they had heard from the demons previously, Merril was the girl’s name. However…
“Don’t call me ‘little Merril’ like I’m some child! We demons mature far quicker than you humans!”
“Ah, my apology—uh, what? Wait, does that mean that you’re even younger than you look?”
“Uh…” Merril was lost for words at this earnest question.
“Just how old are you, then?” asked Reina.
“Er…”
“I. Said. How. Old. Are. You?!”
“Err, se-seven…years old…” the girl finally confessed, unable to stand up to Reina’s forceful questioning.
“What? You’re still practically an infant then. And here I thought you were at least ten!”
“Wh-what do you mean ‘an infant’?! I am a mature, beautiful lady!”
“Ah yes, sure, sure…” Reina flippantly waved off Merril’s protest. It didn’t look very cool to go around getting irritated at seven-year-olds, after all. “Anyway, Mile asked you a question just now. What do you have to say to that? How did you manage the round trip between here and the demon lands so quickly?” she pried.
“Lord Berdetice came to check on things and then carried the five whom you fought back home so that they could give their reports more quickly or something. And then, Lady Shelala heard what was going on and got interested, and she carried me back here. She’s going to take me back home, too, of course, so she’s up in the mountains waiting for me. She’s going to carry you as well, so you need to come with me!”
She pointed straight at Reina.
“Ah…”
Now, the Crimson Vow understood. Apparently Merril thought that she could take Reina, the cause of her brother’s trauma, back home with her and do something or other with her to dispel his newfound fears. The four could understand her feelings. However, understanding her plan and obediently going along with it were two different matters entirely. If she were to actually bring Reina back to demon country and try to bring her near the individual known as big brother Chirel…
Mile, Mavis, and Pauline were able to protest with absolute confidence:
“That would only make his trauma worse—irreparably so!”
“What the hell, guys?!” Reina protested, but they held firm.
“B-but then how do I get him back to normal? Ever since he met you, he won’t hug me anymore, and sometimes he spaces out and starts mumbling weird things to himself, like ‘that softness’ and ‘that sweet smell’ and ‘burned both my body and soul’—things like that…”
“Umm…”
The four were speechless again. Even Mile, in her infinite naivete, had managed to grasp what was really going on. Of course, so did Mavis and Reina.
And Pauline? Well, there was no way that she wouldn’t know.
“Th-th-th-th-that means that…”
In a rare display, Reina was shaken. Everyone always treated her like she was a child or some sort of dangerous beast. Never before had anyone in her life seen her as a lady.
Truthfully, it was not as though there had been a total scarc
ity of interested suitors in her past, but Reina herself had never noticed them. Unwittingly, she had smashed completely through every single warning sign.
Yet she quickly remembered that the one who was interested in her was a child who appeared to be no more than twelve or thirteen. And if Merril was a seven-year-old who appeared to be ten, then…
“S-so exactly how old is your brother, then?”
“Huh? Well, he’s sixteen, but…”
“Whaaaaaaat?!?!”
A seven-year-old who looked ten, and a sixteen-year-old who looked like a pre-teen? The Crimson Vow were all stunned.
Just what was with these demons and their ages?! the four wondered, but then again, it was not unusual for wild animals to go rapidly from infancy to self-sufficient maturity. For demons, this rapid growth probably continued from birth until around the age of ten to twelve, after which they matured more slowly—just like elves.
“W-we’re the same age…” Reina muttered unconsciously.
For the people of this land, who were very much like the people of a continent called Europe in a place called Earth, a boy of around twelve or thirteen would be, on average, around 5 feet, 2 inches. So, at the very least, he was already taller than Reina, whose growth, by now, could only be assumed to be completely stunted.
He was fairly good-looking, as far as appearances went. The boy was gentlemanly, and as a demon, he had a natural aptitude for magic and was fairly strong. He was cool and handsome…
“Uh…” For a short while, Reina stood still, making curious sounds, her cheeks a bit red. But then…
“I won’t go!”
Of course she wouldn’t. First and foremost, there was no way that Reina, only sixteen years old, was prepared to go and marry herself off to some foreign non-human. She had a shining future as a B-rank hunter ahead of her. Plus, she was filled with (perhaps baseless) confidence that she would be able to snag an even more impressive man in the future.
Really, given her looks, combined with her magical ability, this was not necessarily an impossibility. As for her lack of development in certain areas… well, there were more than likely those in this world who had a preference for that sort of thing. Such as those within the Austien family.
And so, after some convincing, Merril listened as the Crimson Vow instructed her as to how to approach her brother and offer him some comfort.
“Ew, Reina, no! They’re brother and sister! That’s wrong, isn’t it?!”
“I think it’s fine, as long as they aren’t anywhere near me! Plus it’d be funny, wouldn’t it?”
“Just what do you think is wrong with that, Mile?”
“M-Mavis, don’t tell me…”
“Hm? That was normal between me and my little brother Alan, too…”
“Whaaaaaaat?!”
“Right?”
“Y-you two…”
Things were falling apart again.
***
“I understand now. Taking you back home with me would be fruitless. You’ve given me quite a bit to consider, so I’ll head back for now and see what I can do on my own.”
She’s really going to try it…
In the heat of the moment, Reina had begun to spew out all sorts of irresponsible instructions. A cold sweat now ran down her body. Mile, too, was a wee bit worried about how appropriate Reina’s advice had been, but both Mavis and Pauline thought that her guidance had been perfectly normal and reasonable.
“I-I might have overdone it. You two are siblings, and you’re only seven years old, so please forget about plan 2, plan 3, plan 5, and definitely plans 8 and 9!” Reina stammered, unable to bear the guilt weighing down on her conscience.
“Th-tha-tha-tha-that’s right!” Mile added, looking a bit relieved, “Those are a little too extreme!”
“Hm? I mean the fact that I’m only seven doesn’t really matter, does it? Though I guess it might be a little different if I were ten or older…”
And yet, there were Mavis and Pauline, the devils on her shoulder.
“That’s right! Those are completely normal things for a healthy brother and sister to do together!”
“You said you’re seven, but you still really do look older than ten!” Reina protested, but Merril was busy running the simulations in her head and did not hear her.
“Oh, that reminds me,” Merril said. “Um, you there! Let’s see, golden hair, tall… Yep, you must be the one.”
This time, she was (unsurprisingly) pointing at Mavis.
“Huh? Me?” Mavis asked, puzzled.
“Reltobert, the swordsman who you fought against, said he wanted to see you again and asked me to extend an invitation for you to come along as well. Lady Shelala already agreed to carry you. She said you sounded interesting…”
“Whaaaaaaaat?!?!”
This day had turned out to be excellent training for the Crimson Vow’s vocal cords.
***
When Merril fired a magical shot into the air as a signal, Shelala came down to meet her and Merril climbed onto her back.
“I feel like I’ve learned a lot today, so I guess I’ll leave things here. Let me warn you now, though, if I don’t get any results from the things you told me to try, I’m coming back for you! You still haven’t properly taken responsibility!” she said, before patting Shelala on the neck to give her the signal that she was ready to ride.
“If you ever have any other interesting stories to tell, please call on me!” said Shelala.
“Shut up!” Reina roared back. “Anyway, it’s not like we were the ones who called you here in the first place!”
Shelala tittered at Reina’s indignation, taking off into the sky with Merril on her back.
It should go without saying that Mavis was still on the ground.
“Seriously, what the heck was all that about?”
“I’m so tired…”
Reina and Mavis were ready to turn to mush. Pauline, however, seemed displeased.
“Why didn’t anyone come asking after me?! I mean, it’s not like I want any demons fawning over me, but still, Reina and Mavis got something. Where’s mine?! Just what was my battle partner thinking?!”
“………”
Pauline’s opponent was the man who’d tasted the flames of hell on his lower body, thanks to her “hot” magic.
It wouldn’t happen, the other three thought. It absolutely, positively, would never happen…
At least on this occasion, Pauline being asked after was a complete impossibility.
“Let’s go home already,” Mile suggested wearily.
She received no objections, and so, with a record zero catches for the day, the Crimson Vow went tottering back to the capital.
Chapter 54:
Fairy Hunting
Today was a rest day for the Crimson Vow. It was not the rest day that came once every six days, as defined by the calendar, but rather a day that the girls themselves had decided to take off.
There was no reason for everyone in the world to have the same days off, after all, and it meant that the dining halls and shops weren’t completely packed once a week. So the girls took their rest days as they pleased, as job circumstances allowed.
Indeed, for the next five days, the Crimson Vow would not be traveling as a group but would each go off on their own to do whatever they liked. No matter how much they liked their fellow party members, or how well they got along, it was important to have a little private time now and then.
I think it’s somewhere around here…
Based on information that she had been gathering here and there, Mile now found herself loitering in a dense forest near a small village some distance away from the capital. When Mile was completely alone, she could cover even sizeable distances in a very short time, thanks to her immense speed.
“Nanos!”
YES, MA’AM!
“Let’s start around here.”
ROGER THAT!
With that, the nanomachines set to work, and soon the ground
began to rise up before Mile, the dirt wriggling about until a shape materialized.
It was a winged girl, around 20 centimeters tall—a perfectly accurate scale figure of a fairy that Mile had designed and colored herself, based on information she had gleaned from illustrated references and the tales told by elders. The nanomachines had helped, of course; they knew what the genuine article looked like and so had made minute adjustments to bring the figure closer to the real thing, based obliquely on Mile’s guidance.
As Mile had decided from the start that she would rather not ask the nanomachines directly, the tiny beings were left to dither about on their own. Though they wished that Mile would be a bit more assertive in utilizing their services, they were of course aware of the reason why she did not, and as they found her reasoning to be fair, they respected her judgment.
For some reason, this figure’s fairy wings were tattered and its clothing stained with something red like blood.
Flap flap.
And then, it moved. Apparently it was not just a figure but a golem.
SOMETHING LIKE THIS, THEN?
“Yes, that’s perfect! A perfect storm!”
This punchline was one that Mile had been holding onto since her previous life. Though she had ended said life without once getting to use it on anyone other than her own family, thankfully, she now had the nanomachines here to appreciate her humor.
Mile then turned over the tiny fairy golem, which was a size smaller than Cham Huau from Aura Battler Dunbine, and attached a fine, strong, and nearly invisible thread to its back. It was the thread that she had previously crafted to use as fishing line.
“Liftoff!”
“Mah!”
Reading Mile’s thoughts, the nanomachine-controlled golem fluttered up at the sound of the control word.
“Golem, Golem… Gowappa 5?” Mile muttered something incomprehensible to herself.