CH 72.3

She screams stupidly as she sloppily lies down. But it can't be helped. Ahead of her, Tsuru sighs through an opened sliding door. But that's okay. It's an expected reaction. The problem is what's next to Tsuru.

A figure in black clothes and a mask... a Hannya mask. The appearance was familiar to her. It was the appearance of a servant used by the exorcist. The Hannya masks indicate that he is Yun-shoku. And she knows only one servant whom Tsuru knows and may bring with her. And he has the same appearance, the same air, the same build...

"Huff, I apologize. I'm sorry for this situation. Should I discipline her more strictly?"

"No, well... Miss was alone until a few minutes ago. Considering her current position, I think she needs to take a break when she is alone."

The person beside Tsuru laughs and defends her behavior to Tsuru who lets out a sigh of exasperation. But that is no consolation. She just keeps her mouth agape like a fish on land. It's as if it has run out of oxygen. In fact, her mind was so muddled that she needed more oxygen to organize her thoughts. And then, as soon as she understood everything, she said...

"A..."

""A?""

"Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhh!!??????"

her scream was not exactly ladylike. Oh, it's really a terrible experience...

* * *

"This is terrible, this is seriously terrible."

The sun had set, and it had set completely. As the servants had been informed during the day, dinner was brought by the maids. The rice was pure white, with no mixture of brown rice or other grains, and it wasn't watered down. It was cooked to perfection, plump and fluffy. Accompanying it was miso soup with tofu and onions, simmered daikon and shiitake mushrooms, grilled salted ayu fish, and a large variety of pickled vegetables. There was even barley tea. In the rural areas of this world, this would be considered a feast.

Naturally, the servants and the footmen were overjoyed. They had rushed to eat after coming out of the hot springs, and some even choked as they ate too fast. It is my job to warn them. But I didn't have the mental capacity to do so.

(Now wait just a minute. Why is the item shop's vendor here?! The whole situation is absurd!)

There was a flag, sure. But I didn't expect it to so happen like this. Even though the situation is out of sync with the original story, this is a complete deviation!

(Wait, calm down!! Not yet. This is still a possibility...!!)

I'll clear my memory. I remember that in the manga version, the first and second chapters were set before and after the harvest festival. The main character will fall in love with a maid who is his friend and also his servant. She is chosen to play the role of a dancing girl at the festival, and at the end of the festival, they go to see fireflies in a pond. Readers who do not know the original story may have misunderstood the maid as the main heroine since the artist has put a lot of calories into her drawings.

...However, in the third chapter, which takes place a few days later, the village is burned down, and in the fourth chapter, the same maid is brutally killed in front of the main character. Ah, it's a pretty brutal start. As one might expect from a manga version, which is even said to make the main character more gloomy than in the original story.

Anyway. The original story starts a few days after the village's harvest festival. And as far as I can tell, it seems that the harvest festival was held about two weeks or so ago now. In other words, there is still some time to spare. Kayo and the others will leave before the original event starts, and we will leave about a day before the attack. Everything will be all right. That should resolve everything. It'll all come together perfectly. ...Please, let it be so.

"Yun-shoku? What's wrong? You haven't touched your food at all since earlier, have you?"

"Hmm? Oh, haha...it's nothing. ...I got some tea cakes from the young lady. I got so focused on it that I'm not hungry at all during mealtime. It's tough, you know."

It's a lie. No, it's true that Kayo persistently offered me tea cakes to cover up my embarrassment, I honestly couldn't taste anything. In fact, it was such a hassle to be asked to accompany her tomorrow, or rather ordered, that I ended up throwing up in the bathroom.

But I can't help it. It's a troublesome matter that I can't refuse, even though I want to quickly investigate and defeat the youkai to get back on track with the original route. And now, I want to throw up, too. I lose my appetite. Of course, I can't show my weakness in front of my men, so I stay strong.

"By the way, it's about time for the hot spring eggs to be ready. How about I bring them while we exercise?"

And I say that as a way to distract them. The fact about the hot spring eggs is true. I bought eggs from the villagers and prepared them for the hot spring bath. I wanted my men to eat them anyway. Protein is precious in this world where people basically fill their bellies with cereal porridge.

"Boiled eggs in the hot spring... Wouldn't they be the same as boiled eggs?"

"No, no, they're completely different. Well, you can look forward to it."

With this remark, I get up from the table. I leave the long house and go to the hot spring where I have prepared the eggs.

"...It's very lively."

The main hall of the village headman's house, where Kayo, Uemon, and the others were probably being entertained, was brightly lit, but that was not all. The whole village was bright. Many houses still had lights. This was before electric lights. Candles and firewood were not free, but the brightness of the whole village proved its affluence.

"...Left them to die, huh?"

I take one look at their daily life and mutter a small, really small, word. I stare at the village in silence for a while. ...It's true that what I'm about to do is the worst thing I could ever do. However, precisely because I dislike it, I cannot yield. The lives that will be lost if the main character does not awaken are not just those of the people in this village. And my family has... been ready for years. My determination will not waver now.

(Even if I abandon them, at least the contents are not so offensive to that demon (oni)...)

It was fortunate that I wouldn't have to worry about touching a nerve with that blue demon who had a strong desire to cultivate heroes despite her self-destructive tendencies. Although she may seek the brink of death, she doesn't desire recklessness. She desires a situation where it's a matter of life or death. And, it's a common misconception, but what she desires is a literal hero tale.

She won't allow the hero to abandon his lord, his best friend, his princess, or any other "famous" characters who are important to the hero, or to use them as bait. But that is all.

She doesn't care what happens to the mob, to the nameless little roadside stones. It doesn't matter to the blue demon whether the daughter of the Ako family is killed, whether the boy of the hidden group is minced and hung from a tree by the monsters, whether the girl who is his childhood friend is chest-bursted, or whether he fails to save a village or two, it doesn't matter to her. That's why the main character was able to continue the story even after those events, and that's why I'm still alive today. Rather, a tragedy is a tragedy even if it is a third-rate one. I know that she thinks of them as a turning point for the hero to shed his skin and grow up. If he fled in front of the attackers, he would be out of the game, but if he left the village before the attack, there would normally be no problem following his own rules of engagement. Hahaha, I'm such a scoundrel.

(But there's nothing to gain from intervening in this event...)

This is not like the case of Gorilla-sama or Shiro. Intervening in this case will not have any positive effect on the original story. It would be far more harmful if the main character would not awakened. Therefore, it is definitely best to abandon them.

....That demon really has no sense of judgment. To think that she would take a liking to someone like me. That's why she's been tearing candidates to pieces because she's disappointed in them. Well, I'll do my best to take care of the hero. So just hurry up and get killed by the hero. Then everyone will be happy.

"......"

I take one more look at the night view of the village, and then I continue on my way to the hot springs. It was chilly in the middle of the night even though it was a sacred place.

The moonlight was hidden by the clouds, and darkness began to envelop the area...

...

...

...

"Was it around here?"

I muttered to myself as I walked along the rocky beach. I had just arrived here today. It's not surprising that I might get lost in the darkness.

"I let my guard down thinking it was close by. If only I had a torch... no, at least if there was moonlight..."

Even so, the hot springs are warm and steamy. There was also the distinctive smell of sulfur. I struggled a little, but soon I arrived at the hot spring where I had just bathed with my men.

"Let's see, the eggs are... Ah, this is the one..."

I find a roughly woven basket soaked in hot water in the darkness. I touch the egg in it. Okay, this one looks like it's warming up nicely.

"Kukuku, this one is delicious on top of rice, and pour soy sauce on it..."

I'm afraid of food poisoning from raw eggs, but hot spring eggs are relatively safe. Now, should I start packing up and leave...?

"Huh?"

The next moment, I noticed a shadow. I had only just noticed the shadow that was so close to me because of the darkness. At the same time, I guessed that the other person had also noticed me. My sixth sense, honed by years of experience, told me that the figure had turned its gaze toward me.

"Who are you...!?"

I quickly pulled out my Dagger (tantō) from my pocket and took a defensive stance. If it was a human, that would be fine. If it was a wild animal, that would be lucky. However, if it turned out to be a monster... the possibility was low, but my body was already reacting reflexively. The shadow, perhaps realizing that I have pointed a blade at it, takes a step back as if startled.

The next moment, the moon peeked through the clouds again. Slowly, a faint light shines on the surface of the earth. Then, the figure of the being in front of me is revealed.

It was a person. The black hair with a bluish tint that resembled moonlight, and the eyes with colors reminiscent of fireflies, all gazed at me in surprise. Was this person in their mid-teens? Their androgynous, gentle appearance suggested they had not experienced much hardship. Of course, I had seen it many times.

"You are..."

Unexpectedly encountering someone in an unexpected place, I was left speechless and gaping. Silence filled the air.

Immediately afterward, the moon emerged from the sea of clouds, illuminating the person in front of me who had been bathing in the hot springs. The person was completely naked, revealing their slender, delicate body, which resembled that of a young girl. The small, firm buttocks and slender, curving waist were just as in the original story. The taut, bowl-shaped breasts are not particularly large, but they are perfectly in proportion with the body, and their shape is also in harmony with the body. ...But, breasts?

[Illustration displayed]

"What?"

I couldn't help but look at her genital. I was staring at it, trying to deny what I had just witnessed. But there was nothing there. No shadow, no shape. No stick, no bag. Nothing.

"......"

Again I look at "his" upper body. And I confirm again that what I have just witnessed is not my mistake. I see "his" face. "His" expression, confused with surprise, fear, and shame, is a woman's face just like the original one, just like a real woman, or rather, a woman without a doubt, given what I have just witnessed...

"Hey, you... what on earth..."

As she looked at me, the 'girl' began to moisten her eyes and spoke. Seeing this, I lower the dagger (tantō) that I had been pointing at "her". Then I take a couple of deep sighs to calm my confused thoughts.

...Alright, the truth is the truth. I have to admit it. There is no point in running away from the reality in front of me. ...Well, for now, let's just do that.

"Blarggg(h)..!!!?"

"Huhhhh!!!??"

I vomited heavily on the spot, making the supposed "girl" who was the main character screams.

"Huh, no... Huhhhh!!? A-are you okay? And, why did you suddenly...!?"

The "girl" ran up to me as I suddenly vomited in front of "her. She rushes over to me to take care of me, but in a way, even her kindness is hopeless for me now. In a way, her actions were exactly like those of the main character that I knew, without any hesitation to help a stranger who might be cursed or sick, even against a peeping tom.

And ironically, her kindness only served to cruelly remind me of who "she" really was.

"Huh...? Princess! What's the matter?"

"Ah, Suzune! Perfect timing! This..."

I heard a third voice and hurried footsteps approaching. "She" seems to be talking to someone about something, but I soon lost track of it. There was no time to listen.

Sweat poured out of me like a waterfall. Nausea didn't stop, and I vomited stomach acid multiple times. I was having a panic attack. In the face of such a shocking revelation, my consciousness grew dim, and my field of vision narrowed. My consciousness was rapidly fading away...

Well, in other words, I was screwed. It was a laughable situation, really... I was, somehow, doomed from the start.

"...Please, have mercy."

My whining echoed in the dark night...