A few days after what happened twice had somehow happened for a third time.
I was in the classroom. More and more people were talking about their plans for summer vacation. If I was the same as before, the flames of envy would have been burning intensely deep within me already.
However, things were different now!
“Gufu…gufufu…micro-bikinis…ahh, no, maybe I should ask them to wear school swimsuits…”
“Kyotaro. I’m telling you man, you for real gonna be arrested one of these days.”
“Your face and your words alone are enough to make the police act.”
“Shut up, you two pervs”
“You’re the one who deserves that title right now, you know.”
“Agreed.”
That was rude! Sure, saying those words and letting my thoughts show on my face wasn’t great of me, but as far as simply having those thoughts, any healthy high school boy would have thought of them too.
Slightly upset, I scowled at them, but then, Uoyama-kun brought his face close.
“So. It seems it happened a third time for you. How are you?”
“…mentally, I don’t think there’s any real problem.”
As part of regulations for this kinds of events, I went to a clinic again but the doctor deemed that there wasn’t anything serious going on with me. Well, I did feel down as soon as I got back home from the dungeon, but that was understandable. And by the next morning, I was somehow fine again.
Proper sleep, eating delicious food, talking with family and now with friends, and overall just returning to my daily life. Even my doctor agreed that those helped.
…although, I suppose the best medicine for me was enjoying some time with Yukine who put on dog ears, Layla who put on cat ears, and Reinforce who put on bunny ears. Yukine even asked ‘I’m a beast too now, aren’t I?’ with a mischievous grin.
“Anyways. What’s the news on that purification ritual of yours?”
“I want to do it in a proper place, but as you’d expect, those places are also popular grounds for Awakening training…”
“Ohh, yeah…”
I looked at the distance while I answered Kumai-kun’s question.
This seemed like the kind of thing where if we were to compromise, I might end up with some strange curse. Moreover, we might get some troublesome solicitations too. With those in mind, although it would be a bit of a pain, I would rather we do the ritual in a large shrine.
I had called the shrine I went to for my first shrine visit every New Year to see if there were any vacancies, but…
“The soonest we can do it is about 1 or 2 weeks later.”
“Really? But you might get caught up in another dungeon overflow in the meanwhile.”
“And then, after all that wait, he gets caught up in another overflow while on his way to the shrine.”
“NO. No, no, no, just no.”
Aware that my face was twitching, I shook my head vigorously. No matter how I think of it, that was just too much. I would really cry and then just laugh out of madness.
“…actually, I’ve heard there are people out there that have been caught up in 4 dungeon overflows.”
“What, are those people cursed?”
“You’ll be among them soon, you know.”
“It’s not set in stone just yet!”
Why would you say such an ominous thing!? Don’t you know about the magic of words!? What if now that you’ve said it, it actually happens, huh!? And don’t you say that that idea belongs to the realm of the occult! We’re living in a world where the occult has become real, you know!
“Nice to know that you can still retort like you always do, Kyotaro.”
“Yes, I’m relieved to see that you seem alright.”
“Your relief came at the cost of my own sense of relief, you know…”
Can you two not use that method to confirm? Unlike you, I’m a pretty ordinary guy, you know.
At any rate, it would be best for me to refrain from going on trips until I could undergo a purification ritual. Hopefully that way, I would be able to avoid any dungeon overflow incidents.
But, well, I had already been involved in 3 dungeon overflow incidents in such a short span of time, so surely, it couldn’t happen again, right? …be that as it may though, I should probably replace the bandages I used before. While I was at it, I thought I should probably look into obtaining some flash bangs and flares.
* * *
After parting ways with my friends on the way home, I walked leisurely by myself.
Along the way, I wondered whether a purification ritual at a shrine would even have any effect. To be frank, I could handle any ‘normal curse’ just fine all by myself.
Black Magic now existed in the world. Basically, it was the branch of magic that dealt with curses and necromancy. It was a heretical magic that allowed one to hurl spiritual poison that would eat away at a person, as well as to control both the corpses and souls of the dead…apparently. There seemed to be derivations or maybe it could be called subdivisions, but I wouldn’t go about those here.
Black Magic has been reported to be used in crimes overseas, especially lately. I knew a little about it due to the news I heard plus the lectures I got about it from Layla and Uoyama-kun. Although I suppose my closest encounter with it was when I fought Liches, monsters that used Black Magic.
It was considered to be a magic that only a few could use, yet it was still widely known about. So were its dangers. This magic was especially dangerous to non-Awakened Ones, more so than it was for us Awakened Ones. After all, most if not all kinds of curses were basically just launching a cluster of magic power at a target.
First of all, Awakened Ones could perceive to a certain extent that cluster of magic power. And if they made use of their magic power, Awakened Ones could interfere with the curse. Moreover, depending on their Resistance stat, they could repel the curses without so much as moving.
On the other hand, non-Awakened Ones couldn’t even perceive the curses. For that alone, the public was especially on guard against Awakened Ones who could use Black Magic. …I felt that kind of prejudice would only push someone more into committing crimes though, but again, it had nothing to do with me, so I would just shut up.
My point in all this was to say that if what was affecting me was that kind of curse, then between my Resistance stat and my Silver Apple, I would be pretty immune at all times, which in turn meant I didn’t need the help of anyone. What had me worried was not the curses that Awakened Ones could use, but a more, well, conceptual one…like a cursed destiny or something. I couldn’t really put it into words.
“Something troubling you, Silver?”
“…it has been a while, Hanazono-san.”
A line of cold sweat ran down my face. I seriously didn’t notice her, not at all.
When I slowly turned around, I saw a beautiful girl with a voluptuous body. She wore a smile on her face and nun clothes on her body. At a height of about 2 meters high, she had a rather uncharacteristically Japanese height. Another uncharacteristically Japanese trait of her were those huge boobs. Add in the fact that she was a half-elf and there was little doubt who she was.
Oh man, what should I do? My heart is beating so fast. Can this be love? Yeah, no. This is definitely fear.
“Ahm, if possible, I’d rather you don’t show up behind me out of the blue…”
“My, Silver, has someone sent assassins after you…?”
“No. I was just surprised.”
I mean, think about it. You’re all by yourself, on your way home from school, and then suddenly, a suspicious…err, strange person shows up and calls out to you. Scary, right? Also, I know it’s rude to call my savior that, but her being a weirdo is an undeniable fact.
“…this meeting of ours must have been fate. So, firstly, please let me say my thanks: thank you for saving me back then.”
Regardless of what I thought, thanking her should come first. Who knew when I could get another chance to do so. That was just the kind of world we lived in.
While thinking so, I bent my body forward and bowed my head deeply.
“Silver?”
“I will never forget your kindness in saving me from the Fire Drakes. It is thanks to you that I and my companions were able to survive and return home.”
“…it’s no problem. It is only natural for me as a holy knight to help my comrades. Now, raise your head please.”
“I’m not your comrade though.”
“Together, let us continue keeping watch for the yuri couples the world over!”
“There is nothing to continue as I have never done so in the first place.”
“And when a man ever dares to get between a yuri couple, we shall smite them!”
“Sorry but I’m one of those men who want to be sandwiched between a yuri couple.”
“Oh, you want to be sandwiched, is that it?”
“Hiie!”
Please don’t bump your fists together while smiling like that. Especially not when you’re making a sound like the space between your fists is being compressed! It’s so scary!!
“Ahem. Jokes aside, you seem like you’re well, both in body and mind. That puts me at ease.”
“Huh? Were you worried about me…?”
“But of course. Any member of the clergy who would think that saving somebody’s life is all that’s expected of them ought to be ashamed of themselves. Some time might have passed since then, but do know I’m still worried about how things went for you after that event.”
“Hanazono-san…!”
Man, what a good person she is…still not convinced she’s a member of the clergy though. More like a self-professed clergy. Or rather, more like someone who should apologize to all the real nuns in the world.
“More importantly. You seemed troubled, Silver. Did something happen?”
“Ahh, no, it’s nothing. Just that, well, I’ve been caught up in too many dungeon overflow incidents lately, so I’ve been thinking of undergoing a purification ritual or something.”
Given that there were no people nearby and that there were concrete walls around the houses nearby to block the vision of those indoors, I thought it unlikely that I would be exposed as an Awakened One. As such, I decided to tell her in plain terms about my situation.
“A purification, huh. Would you like me to do it?”
“No, I wouldn’t dare trouble you over this.”
I politely declined her offer. I felt like it would work somehow, but I also felt that something else equally strange would haunt me in exchange. I knew it was rude of me to even think it, but that was neither here nor there for this matter.
“But what if you think of it this way: that your supposed curse of getting involved in dungeon overflows can be a kind of blessing instead.”
“Pardon?”
What the heck is she talking about? I’m no masochist, you know. Rather, in what kind of crazy world would nearly getting killed by a Minotaur and some dragons be considered as a blessing? And that’s to say nothing of having to see the many corpses scattered everywhere, despite my wish to avoid such sights.
“Because you were caught up in those dungeon overflows, there were lives that have been saved. For that alone, I wouldn’t consider your experience to be a purely bad thing. I for one would be grateful to God for any opportunity to save a life that is on the verge of disappearing.”
“…….”
I couldn’t deny what she said. I wasn’t someone who aspired to be a hero, yet I still wound up saving lives. I was even thanked for it. Nevertheless though…
“The only ones who would think like that are those who are wholly ignorant and those who are true heroes. Sorry, but I’m neither of those.”
Some people could readily say such things because they haven’t experience a life being snuffed out in front of them, because they were ignorant of the fact that the same fate might befall them.
While some others could say such things because they were true heroes, because they wholeheartedly valued others’ lives and even felt great satisfaction from being able to save people.
The fake nun before me was probably on the latter camp. That was just my guess though.
As for me, I was a fool, for sure. And yet, I believed I wasn’t ignorant of life and death by now. My experiences have made me, forced me to learn of at least that much.
“I, I’m not going to die for someone else.”
“…and I say that’s another good thing about you. After all, people who don’t throw away their own lives are exactly those that truly values lives of others.”
“Sorry, Hanazono-san, but I’m going to have disagree with you there.”
“No need to apologize. We are comrades in equal footing, after all.”
“We’re not comrades though.”
“And besides, what kind of yuri you risk your life for is entirely up to you.”
“I figured it’d circle back to that kind of thing.”
Yup, she’s definitely crazy.
“Ahh…on another note, I’d like to thank you properly, I hope you’ll let me treat you to something later.”
“I see…you want a proper discussion about yuri.”
“Shouldn’t you rather doubt that I’m just making an excuse like some kind of pickup artist…?”
“…? Why should I when we’re comrades?”
“We’re not comrades though?”
Like I thought, we might seem like we were on the same page, but we were most definitely not. It felt as though I was having a conversation about fetishes with my friends and Aihara-kun.
But let me get this straight: does this mean that of all my acquaintances, only Togo-san is respectable? I haven’t been in contact with Yugata-san since then, so I doubt I could even classify her as an acquaintance.
“Anyway, because of that, I’d like to get your number.”
“Silver Lily.”
All of a sudden, Hanazono-san put on a serious expression and looked straight at me.
This wasn’t something I had done much ever since I entered high school. By this, I meant looking up to meet a woman’s eyes while talking with her. To make matters worse, the one I was talking with at the moment was rather pretty, so I felt all the more pressured.
But it wasn’t like I felt any hostility from her. In fact, I only saw anxiety in those beautiful eyes of hers. She was the strongest woman I knew, yet here she was, looking at me like that. I gulped down hard.
“…I don’t have any cellphones because they keep breaking by themselves, without me doing anything to it.”
Oh, so you’re the kind of person who’s bad with gadgets.
“You seem to have misunderstood, so let me make it clear. It is not at all because I’m unable to control my strength. It has always been like that before even the Return of the Age of Myths.”
“Just to make sure, you do read the manual that comes with the unit you bought, right?”
“…I guess I did screw up on something after all.”
“The manuals are there for a reason, you know: because we need it.”
“I-I’ll take better care next time.”
“Please do…anyway, for now, I’ll give you my number and the email I use for my smartphone.”
I took out a notebook and a pen from my bag and then copied the details in my phone’s settings screen. I didn’t usually have to write down my details when giving them out, so it was a rather novel experience for me.
I tore off the page and tried to hand it to her, but I noticed that Hanazono-san looked bewildered for some reason.
“Ahm, what’s a smartphone?”
“…it’s the term for cellphones nowadays.”
“I see!”
…just what kind of life does this woman have? I’m kinda curious but I’m also scared of knowing the answer, so I think I’d rather not ask.
“All that aside, Silver! A friend I made recently gave me a special feature article about Charlotte Barton-san, that famous Detective Girl. Let’s go read it together!”
“H-huh?”
“The article is in a British magazine though, one that’s hard to get here in Japan to boot, but that friend I mentioned was kind enough not only to give me a copy but to translate the article into Japanese for me too!”
Charlotte Barton. If I remember correctly, she’s that Self-proclaimed Reincarnation of Sherlock Holmes, isn’t she?
Even though she was still in her early teens, she was already a powerful Awakened One. Moreover, under her self-given title as the reincarnation of that great detective, she had already solved various cases. Her most famous case was the Hamelin case that happened in the UK.
Even here in Japan, we would occasionally get news of her deeds. Between her deeds and her beauty—she had black hair cut at the jaw line and blue eyes—it was no wonder that she was quite popular even here.
“Included in the article are information about her relationship with Jane Watarai—a relative of hers and also a former military doctor who is presently working as a civilian doctor—and also a glimpse into the yuri-like daily life of that female relative. Both are written without ever becoming long-winded. And make no mistake, this is no performative yuri done for public imagery. No, it is undoubtedly a still-unaware but true yuri!”
“C-calm yourself, Hanazono-san!”
“Ah, ah, ah, ah, ahhh!! I can feel my brain being revitalized and expanding at the same time…! This must be the divine protection of the lily garden…!”
Her eyes were bloodshot as she recited those words. It was the same kind of eyes I saw on TV before: the eyes of people with severe drug addiction on TV.
“Ahh, we can’t do this here! Let’s go to a nearby cafe or family restaurant and talk there instead! Until sunrise!”
“H-hold on”
“Let’s go, Silver! The goddess of yuri is smiling down upon us!”
“S-sure”
My instincts told me not to defy her.
For all her eccentricity, the fact of the matter was that she saved me. If I was the only one to be sacrificed to her whims, I couldn’t simply refuse her out of hand. And besides, I had the ulterior motive of building a connection with the ‘strongest lunatic’.
I made her agree to at least let me return home for a bit so that I could change out of my uniform and also notify my parents that I wouldn’t be back until morning. I had a feeling she was serious about talking until sunrise.
Normally, when a son of high-school age tells his parents what I just did, the parents would be angry. For some reason though, mine were crying in joy.
Sorry but nope, it’s not like what you think. Without a doubt, this won’t turn into a spicy thing.
“Silver!! Lily flowers truly are so beautiful! And while a man getting between the flowers is a sin and must be eliminated, a woman caught between two flowers, on the other hand…it’s a beautiful sight too!”
“I see…”
Well, I don’t disagree with her there. Being in a love triangle with an older woman and a young girl…yeah, that’s deep…
Taroppe-sensei(author)’s Q&A corner
Thank you for reading!
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Q: What kind of person is Charlotte Barton?
A: She is essentially the British equivalent of Hanazono Karen. While Hanazono Karen’s guiding principle is yuri, Charlotte’s is Holmes.
Born into a mostly well-off and happy family, her head was rather up in the clouds. She was a dreamer to put it kindly, and delusional to be frank. So much so that she seriously believed herself to be the reincarnation of Sherlock Holmes. But unlike with Hanazono Karen, her government knew how to control her.
Frankly speaking, Charlotte is influenced by a certain event in the Sherlock Holmes stories, so she was rather unable to refuse requests from the King of the Great Britain. So, for things like monster cullings and criminal arrests, she was quite cooperative. Moreover, because of her desire to be the ‘perfect detective’, she was mindful of causing disturbances and the like to her surroundings and even cooperated with the regular police force.
There were concerns, such as her young age, in employing her, but with the UK specializing in controlling the media through agencies like the MI6, things were working out so far.
Well, Charlotte does sometimes act strangely without warning, but that was mostly just to tease her relative who, albeit reluctantly, has taken on the role of being her Watson. So, if anything must be specified as an issue, it was definitely the steady increase in power of the royal family.
Cigar and drug use? Well, she’s an Awakened One of the highest caliber, so those things are just simple fumes…be that as it may, her relative who was also a female doctor would seriously lecture her about it and confiscate those things away.
TL note: I translated it as Jane Watarai, but her surname could be read as Torai as well.
Also, a reminder that yuri can mean lily as in the flower, so that’s why there’s a lily garden being mentioned. Plus, Hanazono is written with the kanji for flower and garden.
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