CH 179

『I’m a nameless demon. Smith is certainly a demonkin, but he had been picked up as a baby and then raised by his foster parents. He always worried and suffered about being different from the other kids around him. Only his parents supported him. …I had been sealed in a cave where he got locked up by the children as a prank. His wish of 『wanting to go back home』 resonated with me. I also want to go back home… Having been summoned into the material world and sealed away, I always wanted to go back to the spirit world』

Hmm, I see, I see? So Smith wants to go back to the demon king’s country?

『Because I resonated with him, I became able to occupy Smith’s body. But, we haven’t done anything. We just wish to 『go back home』』

Sword scratched his head, asking me telepathically, “What we gonna do ’bout this?”

“Okay, it’s true that you haven’t perpetrated anything, I suppose. Well, Miss Nameless Demon, I have heard and understood your wish. Sending you back is easy enough. ……It is, right?”

“Yeah, light magic would normally work on a demon,” Sword chimed in.

“So, Smith, where’s the place you call home? Guessing from the story just now, it’s not your parents’ home, is it?”

“……I don’t know.”

Smith finally spoke up for himself, huh?

“But, I always felt that this isn’t the place I belong to. I feel grateful towards my parents for picking me up and raising me. But, everyone other than my parents shunned me, so I always thought that I want to go back to some place I can call home,” he explained to us while squeezing the words out through his tears.

＊

After pondering about it for a while, it suddenly hit me.

“I got it. In other words, you want to become an adventurer!”

“No, that’s not it.”

I was denied in no time.

Bahh…then what?

“I planned to leave the mansion which was the root of all persecution and abuse by my parents, but I didn’t have a place I wanted to go to, you see?”

“……If one is as strong as you, I think it’s possible to build your own home even without going back, but I’m not as strong as you are.”

“You’re just not training enough, right? Your negligence in putting forth effort to train yourself is grounded in your parents pampering you, isn’t it? …I see, that’s the reason why you should be able to get along with my sister, too.”

Cain, now Smith, lifted his face, and stared at me, “……Eh?”

“My sister Primrose, you see, was raised by her mother, the lover of Earl Springcoat, while being spoiled. Earl Springcoat played around while using the fortune of my mother, and generously spent money on his lovers. Using that cash, Primrose and her mother were able to lead a luxurious life in town despite being commoners. But then my mother died, and at almost the same time, Primrose’s mother died as well, resulting in my scummy father marching back into the mansion. With Primrose in tow. The mansion’s servants and maids tried to teach manners to the overbearing, willful commoner girl, who had received a culture shock, but it was bound to fail for that spoiled, forgetful retard, leading to Primrose’s father blaming me for the inabilities of his commoner daughter.” I raised a finger at Smith. “In other words, in the eyes of Primrose, she had spent a happy life of being pampered in a way that she didn’t need to learn anything about being a commoner, but then was suddenly tossed into the world of nobles, just to get treated coldly by anyone around her other than her father. Believing her father’s words, she complained about her elder sister being at fault for everything, lamented about her gentle mother not being with her anymore, and grieved over her own misfortune. Hence, I can easily guess that Primrose would certainly sympathize with the story of your life, believing that she had experienced the same.”

I see, I see. Primrose’s ability to see through trashy guys, who got pampered to no end, is not to be underestimated.

……But wait, if that’s true, her having zeroed in on Instructor Sword means…he also has such a part to him?

When I looked at him, I immediately received a grounding of my temples.

“Your thinkin’ some weird shit ‘gain, aren’t you?”

I shook my head violently.

Once I turned my eyes back at Smith, he seemed to have suffered a shock. I smiled at him, “Isn’t it wonderful that you were kindly raised by parents who didn’t give birth to you? I was disciplined by my birth mother to the extent of abuse and torture, and the man, who appears to be my father, told me, 『We don’t know who might have fathered you, so it’s not said that I’m your father』, you know? Well, ever since the age of five I’ve lived a comfortable life without having to think about not having a place to call home, though. The trick to that was me discarding all expectations towards other people. Because you want others to act as you hope, you harbor that ridiculous dream of wanting to go back to some place where you belong someday. Other people live their own lives. They act in a way befitting themselves, so you have to act in a way befitting yourself.”

Smith had listened to me while being dumbfounded.

“Now that we’ve confirmed that Smith is a pampered boy, who hasn’t even put in any effort into anything, without possessing any relevant power either, it’s time to exorcize him. Sword, I leave it to you.”

“……Your truly meticulous in shreddin’ other people’s hearts to pieces, aren’t you? Even I felt like cryin’ there.”

Why!?