CH 69

After investigating for a bit, well perhaps it’s just as we expected in one of the possible scenarios, I found out that there are various problems in this town, either it regarding the current states or about the citizens.

Like, the feudal lord of this town who doesn’t put the citizen’s opinions into his eyes, the tax that is very high, and recently the nobles who govern this town have made some suspicious movements, such typical corrupt nobles’ deeds.

Looks like this town has many rotten parts, to the point they can’t be hidden from the citizens.

But there’s a certain rumor that piques my interest.

—a certain noble was ruined by the feudal lord’s order, and then ran away.

“A certain noble”, it’s ‘a certain’ but, people who govern this town are also “nobles”. And yet, it seems like there are disparity problems even among those nobles themselves. Because they were “ruined”, perhaps they were two or three ranks lower than the feudal lord… or you could say, lower level noble house.

I’m not too well-informed about nobles, so I don’t know either which noble house it was, or how great the influences they possessed.

But if, strictly speaking of possibility, if by any chance the one who’s walking next to me, Niko-chan, her family name of “Arcs” was actually a name of a noble house, then that rumor about the ruined noble, wasn’t that about Niko-chan’s house?

Also, even if they’re nobles, of course they’re still obliged to pay tax. And now that they’ve been ruined, they can’t affor to pay it.

If that’s really the case, it wouldn’t be strange for them to be chased after by the knights, and if their house was seized as well, that means they had no home to return to, that also explains his unkempt and agitated state back then.

The problem is, why did Niko-chan’s house have to be ruined?

If their aim was something Niko-chan’s father possessed, then they wouldn’t have any need to search for Niko-chan as well. Also, in that state it’s obvious that most likely he’d been chaught already, so that means their aim has something to do with “Niko Arcs” or something, huh… when I peeked at her status, I didn’t see either special looking skill, special title, or exceptional status on her, in other word she’s just a normal child, and that also means that their aim should have something to do with her being “the child of a noble”, huh… but I just can’t think of what use of such a thing is.

Or rather, given the fact that her house is already ruined, she isn’t a “noble” any longer, so perhaps those things are also meaningless already.

“…hmm, I’ve been doing some guesswork, but… I just can’t think of what their aim is.”

Well then, at the state where I don’t know what their aim is, they already put a mark on me so, what should I do, I wonder?

But well, let’s put that matter aside, currently, because we’d been going here and there to investigate, we’d grown hungry, so we decided to return to the inn to have some lunch.

I’d spent most of my money to buy our supply and renting carriage, thus we decide to return to the inn and cook some of our purchased supply for lunch.

I do think that it’s kind of waste to use some of our journey supply here, but I also have no other choice here. I really don’t want to do it but, for the time being let’s rely on Leila-chan’s pocket, and then earn our money when we’ve arrived at the next town.

“Is it tasty?”

“Nm… *gulp*… yes.”

“Glad to hear that.”

I hasn’t asked how old she is, but she seems to be around four-year old, so I made her an imitation of French toast using a bread. It’s easy to chew and swallow, so there should be slight chance for it choke her throat.

Be that as it may, perhaps it’s her first time eating something like this, at first she timidly reached out her hands to it, but after trying a mouthful of it, she’s now engrossed nibbling on it. Seems like she takes quite a liking to it.

Well, I did chores on my own, so I have no choice but to get used to cook. At that time, it was quite an ordeal, though.

“….”

“…ah, another one, right?”

“♪”

Seems like Niko-chan has a considerably bold nerve. She knows nothing about us, perhaps she also doesn’t know the precidament she is currently in, and yet she doesn’t yield in the slightless about food.

In a way, I do admire her instead. In a certain meaning, she surely has a promising, she’ll surely become a big-shot.

Nevertheless, what’s the situation on Leila-chan and Rishe-chan’s side, I wonder? It’d be great if they could manage to investigate the circumstance around the knights, but there’s also a possibility that they might be in some kind of trouble because of the information about me from that man.

Leila-chan is also there so I’m not that worried about their well being, but I just can’t imagine the scene where she acts friendly with Rishe-chan. That makes me worried instead….

◇　◇　◇

Around the same time when Kitune was gathering informations about the feudal lord from the citizens, on Leila and Rishe’s side, things weren’t going that smoothly.

That was because, in contrast to Rishe who was seriously gathering informations, Leila’s motivation was wholefully rock bottom.

The main case was because she was separated from Kitsune, but ever since the time when she was living alone, she always acted on her own way, so right now, in the situation where her “target” and her sole “interest holder”, Kitsune, wasn’t there, she had no motivation to do anything at all.

Of course, she also thought that information gathering was bothersome, so she didn’t want to do it etiher.

“Oi, Leila! Where are you going?”

“Eh, it doesn’t matter where I’m going to, does it?”

“We were asked by Kitsune to look for information, weren’t we?”

“That’s bothersome, after all… just do it on your own.”

Completely different from the time she was conversing with Kitsune, Leila was very blunt with her. As if a child who got angry because of being scolded by her mother, she bluntly rejected Rishe’s words regardless.

With her red eyes half-closed, she suddenly began briskly walking without any clear objective. Seeing that, Rishe flusteredly chased after her.

“W, wait, Leila!”

Rishe was flustered at such selfish and willful Leila. Actually, Kitsune once asked her to befriend Leila, so that was why she wanted to make it so that at the very least they could hold conversation normally.

However, no matter however much Rishe reached out to her, if Leila herself had no thought about extending her hand to her as well, they wouldn’t be able to close up that gap. ‘What should I do, I wonder?’, Rishe kept pondering as such.

And then, recalling Leila’s usual behavior, a certain idea flashed into her mind.

There was no romantic story during the period she was practicing as a knight, and she was also bad at such topic, but she was well aware that Leila was in love with Kitsune, and yet she was unable to reason that fact.

However, this very moment, “this is the right choice”, such thought flashed into her mind.

“…a, aah~, if we gather information properly, I think Kitsune will surely praise us~.”

Suddenly, Leila stopped her legs.

And then, she turned around and face Rishe. There was a hint of joy in her face, her sullen expression up until now was nowhere to be seen, and happy expression took its place instead.

“Really? Will I be praised by Kitsune-kun?”

“Umm, yeah, I’m sure you will, I think.”

“Really really? Will I be patted on the head by Kitsune-kun, I wonder? Will I be hugged tightly, I wonder?”

“Umm… I don’t know about that, but I do think Kitsune will surely be happy, you know?”

“I see… ufufufu, then I think I’ll do my best to gather information.”

While smiling and imagining something in good mood, Leila walked forward happily even while swinging her body. Rishe walked as well as if to chase after her.

Hearing that Leila would also do the information gathering, Rishe heaved out a sigh of relieve for once.

However, the next instance, her expression stiffened. That was because…

…from Leila’s body, dark miasma was overflowing and spreading all around.

At that very moment, she recalled about what Kitsune once said to her, that Leila was demon who manipulated miasma, “Red Night”. And also about those miasma, he said that it had property that could turn human into “Red Night” as well.

“Leila! What are you doing?”

“Hmm? It’s In~for~ma~tion~ga~the~ring~, you know~?”

However, in contrast to Rishe’s flustered state, Leila herself was very flippant.

What she was doing wasn’t mass producing “Red Night” by infecting everyone there. There were several ways to manipulate miasma.

Like, solidifying and materializing them.

Like, scattering them to probe the surrounding area.

Like, infecting living being and turn them into “Red Night”.

This time she was using the second way where she probed the surrounding using the miasma. The spreaing miasma was very small to the point almost invisible, and the sensor range was also vast.

However, this time, she didn’t use them to probe the surrounding itself, she used them to gather every sounds by probing its vibration. Herewith, by gathering every sounds of conversation around, she was gathering information.

“…will that affect the people here?”

“It won’t, or rather… “Red Night (me)” is me and only me, if I carelessly turn people into one and if by any chance they come into liking Kitsune-kun as well, that would be troublesome after all… if my prey is gone, that won’t be good, right?”

Toward Leila who said such words while smiling sweetly like a maiden in love, Rishe held a fear toward her.

If, if by any chance she fell in love with Kitune as well, no matter how close they were, Leila would surely come and kill her, or so she believed.

“…I see, you are, right.”

“Ufufufu, then let’s stop being so obstinate, and gather information, right, Rishe~?”

Those words from Leila, they were filled with her feeling for Kitsune. Everything, was for Kitsune.

As long as Kitsune would praise her, would pat her, would smile to her, would hug her, would look at her, Leila would do anything.

If he were to ask her to stop eating human, perhaps she would really stop eating human until her end. If he were to ask her to kill the demon lord, perhaps she would really go and kill it. In exchange, toward those who held affection toward Kitsune, she’d be merciless toward them. There was exception such as Finia, but aside from her, perhaps she’d surely kill them.

Humane emotion, love surely had sprouted in her, but… that didn’t change the fact that she was an S rank demon.

While Leila was happily laughing, there were faint heart mark images on both of her eyes.

“…when she isn’t in front of Kitsune, she looks like a completely different person….”

Rishe muttered so in a voice that couldn’t be heard, and decided to stay put there so that she wouldn’t disrupt Leila.

◇

After a short while, both of them returned to the inn to have lunch as well.

However, just as Kitsune thought, Leila and Rishe hadn’t become closer at all. Or rather, it felt as though a race barrier, human and demon, had appeared between them.