kscans

Chapter 265 - Two Idols, and After the Battle

Until recently, I hadn't felt the cold. But this morning, a chill seeped into me, as if sinking right through my skin. My lungs, filled with the morning air, seemed to pump that cold throughout my body. The tip of my nose was already numb. I tried to pull the blanket up over my head, but it snagged on something and barely moved. Annoyed, I tugged harder, only for it to be pulled back in the opposite direction. Was someone trying to rip it away from me? I reluctantly tried to see what was going on, but my eyelids were heavy. My consciousness was sinking back into a slumber. The sensation of my body melting into the bedding was so pleasant I had no will to resist it. I turned onto my side and curled up, pulling my knees to my chest.

"How long do you plan on sleeping?"

A voice whispered in my ear. It wasn't Famu or Mizuki; it was a voice I didn't recognize. But contrary to the words, it didn't sound exasperated, but rather soft and familiar. Something tickled the tip of my nose.

Trying to escape the itch, I waved a hand in front of my face. My fingertips brushed against something soft and smooth. It was cold at first, but a gentle warmth spread through it as I held on. It felt like someone's arm. I tightened my grip on the wrist, trying to get a feel for the texture of the skin. As I tried to see the face of my prankster, I cracked my eyes open slightly, and a brilliant white light flooded in. I grimaced against it, waiting for my eyes to adjust. Eventually, two slender, delicate silhouettes appeared, backlit and hazy.

"Airi...?"

I spoke to one of them. She was holding the tip of her own hair to my nose. My hand was clamped around her arm.

I pushed myself up and looked around.

"Where's Famu?"

After the battle, our home had been burned down, so we were staying with the nomads. The flap of the tent was wide open, letting in the cold air and the light of the newly risen sun. The members of Levante were supposed to be in here, but they were gone. Only Rinko and Airi were here.

"Are you really only ever thinking about Famu?" Rinko asked.

I thought she was teasing me, but her expression was neutral, as if she were simply stating an honest observation. That just made it more embarrassing, and I turned my face away. My gaze landed on Airi, who was blushing just as furiously. I realized I was still holding her arm. Neither of them was dressed like an adventurer; they wore white long-sleeved blouses and knee-length jumper skirts. As I watched her, Airi just stared back at me, looking dazed. I pulled her closer and rolled up the sleeve of her blouse. She had moved with such agility during the fight, but her arm showed no sign of it. Smooth, fair skin stretched over a slender limb. The Slave Mark I'd seen in the prison was gone. I touched the spot where it had been and let out a breath.

"Hey! What do you think you're doing?!" Airi snapped back to reality, yanking her arm away and backing off.

"I'm not doing anything! Just let me check a little more."

I moved toward her, and she let out a shriek and started to genuinely run away. The high-pitched sound was too much for my just-woken ears, so I gave up the chase.

"So, where in the world did Famu and the others go?"

"They went to take a bath."

"Are you kidding me?! They left me behind?"

"Were you planning to go with them?! Obviously, you'd go separately!" Rinko shot back. I'd already cast a cleansing spell on all of them, and Marmi was with them, too. It had to have been Mizuki's idea to take everyone.

With that thought, I got up and stood.

"So, what are you two doing here?" As I started to leave the tent, Rinko and Airi followed.

"Where are you going, Mash?"

"Breakfast."

"The nomads' cooking is really good, isn't it? Like, authentic curry!"

"Hyakka said she gets tired of it if she eats it every day."

Speaking of which, neither Hyakka nor Kalpana were around.

"Ehh, I could eat it every day."

Were they planning on eating, too? They chatted along as they walked with me.

After eating a curry-flavored kebab sandwich, I was walking through the streets of Miglutt. Most of the battle's aftermath had been cleaned up. Shops were open, and the voices of hawkers filled the air. Rinko and Airi were still following me, and I slowed my pace to match theirs. They were unbearably slow, constantly peeking into shops they had no intention of buying from and chattering endlessly to each other.

"So, where are we going?" Rinko asked, falling into step beside me. Had they been tailing me this whole time?

"To the One-Land family estate."

"Maryanne's place?"

"That's right." Hearing my words, Rinko stopped and clenched her fists.

"Seriously, all you think about is girls!"

"That's not it! I have some business with her... a favor to ask." After the battle, Maryanne had provisionally taken control of the city's governance. The Star Union Family was assisting her, the Sky-Lot Family was looking for a way to rebuild, and the head of the warmongering Air-Ally Family, Istvan, was in custody. To think that just half a month before I arrived, she had been completely removed from the political stage.

"I wonder if that little doggy-girl can even handle politics," Rinko said in a joking tone.

"Are you going to help her?" I shook my head at Airi's question from behind me. I knew Maryanne must be having a hard time, but I didn't know the first thing about politics. I'd only get in the way.

"Then what are you going for?"

"I need to get Shirasu, Ilysalie, and Sameim out of prison as soon as possible." They were being detained along with Yuki as figures on the side that started the civil war. Zeno, Clovis, and Kaima of the Crimson Brigade were dead in battle. The adventurer-like man and the demon woman who were Yuki's companions, the adventurers who fought Hyakka and the others in Crystal Garden, and those who had been positioned at the entrance to the Crystal Palace had all fled and their whereabouts were unknown. I had checked the adventurer's storage, but the only things of note were what looked like Clovis's journal, Yuki and Shirasu's smartphones, and the belongings they had when they came from their original world. Marmi was holding onto Clovis's journal.

"No way, they're war criminals! And again, it's all girls! Wasn't the deal that they'd be released if they became your slaves?"

"Ugh, I'll admit I'm only interested in women! ...But isn't being a slave a bad thing?"

"Well, I wouldn't want to be your slave, Mash. But why are you against it? You're just planning on doing perverted things with them anyway, right?!"

"Ugh, I'll admit that too, but... how should I put it? It's more fun when they're feisty. Someone who has to obey your every command is just no challenge, you know?"

""Pervert!"" Rinko and Airi shouted in unison. Everyone's eyes immediately shot toward me.

"Why are you two following me anyway?!"

"Well..." Rinko and Airi trailed off, exchanging glances in a silent negotiation over who would speak first.

"You've only been in this city for about half a month, right, Mash? I thought I'd show you around somewhere interesting. You'll just get in Maryanne's way if you go to negotiate now, and you're free today, right?" Rinko said, moving behind me and pushing me forward.

It was a low wall, hardly deserving of the term 'rampart'. Rinko took my arm and led me up a flight of stairs to the top, where a dry wind blew past. A stone-paved path stretched through the city before us. It wasn't particularly well-maintained; some parts were crumbling, and in other spots, grass grew where birds must have dropped seeds. It was about two meters wide, with parapets on either side, marking it as a city wall. There was no one else around, as if no one ever came here. The only sound was the cry of a bird from high above. I shielded my eyes with my hand and searched for it, but there was only a vast blue sky. It felt much higher than it did when I was first transported to this world. I let Rinko pull me along the path. The sight of houses lining both sides of the old wall felt strangely surreal.

"These are the remains of the old city wall. Apparently, it used to be much taller, but about half of it got buried underground."

As Miglutt's population grew, the city had abandoned its walls. What we were walking on was a remnant of that past. Most of it had been demolished for obstructing traffic, but it seemed some sections, like this one, had been left standing.

"There's a park up ahead."

"That's fine, but Airi's not with us."

"She went to buy lunch..."

"Didn't we just eat?" Since coming to this world, the concept of lunch had faded for me. I ate a big breakfast and had dinner early. Many people skipped lunch, though some still ate it.

"It's fine, it's fine." Rinko tugged at my arm. Her chest had been pressed against my arm this whole time. Sometimes it would flatten against me, then bounce away, only to envelop my arm once more, constantly reminding me of its softness and size. In this situation, I arrived at a single conclusion: Rinko's were bigger than Airi's. Lost in thought, I tripped on a hollow where a stone had fallen out and nearly lost my balance.

"Whoa!"

Rinko was dragged down with me, and we almost fell in a heap, but I managed to brace myself at the last second. She arched her back, and I straddled her, my feet planted firmly as I wrapped an arm around her back to support her. Rinko's face was inches from mine. From beneath the shadow of her long eyelashes, her large eyes looked up at me, wavering somewhere between surprise and confusion. Her skin was so smooth it seemed to glow. The line from her shapely forehead to the bridge of her nose was so perfectly proportioned it felt almost unreal. The corners of her thin, youthful lips trembled.

"You're too close!"

She yelled, her cheeks flushing red. She tried to push me away, which made her lose her balance again, and I had to pull her even closer.

"Hey! Let go!"

"Alright, just stop struggling!" I said, helping her up. She immediately pulled away, and a breeze flowed between us, stealing away her lingering scent.

"Sorry about that."

"It's okay. I'm not mad," she said. She ran her fingers through her hair to fix it and started walking again. I stood still, watching her back.

"Did you have plastic surgery?"

"Just my eyes, a little." Rinko lightly tapped her temple with her fingertips. I couldn't tell if it was an unconscious gesture or if she was trying to show me something.

"I didn't want to know!"

"Then why did you ask?! You weren't interested in me anyway!" Rinko spun around and yelled.

"I am interested! I just said it on a whim, without any proof. I can't even tell if someone's had surgery or not. In situations like this, you're supposed to lie and say it's all natural!"

I thought she was cute, but I was too shy to say it directly. I'd only meant it as a joke, so I never expected such a serious answer.

"I would say that to anyone else!" she retorted. She stared at me for a moment, then looked away.

"Airi and I were childhood friends. We started streaming videos together, and someone from a talent agency contacted us."

"So you're saying you were cute to begin with and didn't change your face that much?"

She tilted her head.

"No... I want to say that's not it, but I guess it is? I don't really know how cute I am."

"Really? I'd never post my face online, not in a million years. You must have been confident in your looks from the start, right?"

"Try saying that to Airi. This was all her idea today."

"What do you mean? Is she in charge of sleeping her way to the top or something?"

"Of course not!" she shrieked, then sighed. She took my hand, since I hadn't started walking again.

"We decided to thank you for saving us, and we were trying to think of something nice, but we didn't really know what would make an old person happy..."

"Hey, don't talk about me like I'm an old man!"

We continued along the decaying wall until we reached the park, just as she'd said. Rinko explained that it was a disaster-prevention park. I wondered if a person from another world had been involved in its design when Miglutt was expanded. Apparently, there were also stadiums and amphitheaters placed around the city as firebreaks and evacuation spaces. It was a wide, well-maintained green space. A large plaza covered in grass like a lawn was surrounded by trees. Airi was already there, standing alone in the center like she'd been left behind. When she saw us, she lifted the basket she'd been carrying to her chest and smiled. It was like a scene from a movie. There was no one else in sight. The battle had just ended, after all. The city was busy with recovery efforts, and perhaps people didn't have the luxury of relaxing in a place like this.

"There's never anyone here," Rinko commented, still holding my hand as she led me toward Airi. I took a ground sheet out of my storage, and the two of them spread it out on the grass. Rinko was the one who never stopped talking. She was always the proactive one, pulling Airi along. In contrast, Airi was often quiet and passive. However, it seemed that once she committed to something, she saw it through to the end; she had been the one to stop Rinko from quitting their idol activities. It showed in their expressions, too. Rinko's eyes and eyebrows were sharp and defined, and her cheekbones were sharp, while all of Airi's features were soft and round. However, Rinko definitely had the bigger chest.

"What are you smirking about?!" Rinko's voice snapped me back to reality. They were already sitting on the sheet. Rinko patted the empty space between her and Airi. I took her up on the offer and sat between them, but it felt surprisingly awkward and uncomfortable.

"Did you have plastic surgery too, Airi?" I asked, feeling I had to say something. Airi shot a sharp glare at Rinko, who quickly averted her eyes.

"Sooo, the bread and jam they sell around here are super delicious," Rinko said, her voice flat as she reached for the basket, trying to change the subject.

"Both Rinko and I just had the corners of our eyes done. To make them look bigger overall," Airi muttered in an angry tone. It was probably best to drop this topic.

"The other members of your party were locked in prison by Yuki and her group too, right? Are they okay?"

At my words, Rinko's hand, which had been about to slice a round loaf of bread about the size of both her hands, froze.

"Yeah. But we decided to disband the party."

Rinko smiled weakly.

"Why...?"

"We were originally just replacements for the other transmigrators who were here before us. Our goal was to avenge them. And we're probably going back to our world anyway."

"Hold on, that was just me saying it might be possible to go back. It's not like it's happening right away. And there might be other people who want to return, too..." Rinko leaned in, peering at my face.

"There's something else, isn't there?"

"It's just an idea, I have no proof. Besides, when we came to this world, our hair color changed and everything, right? Laciel said that was us 'adapting' to this world. To go back to our original world, we'll probably have to reverse that. I think."

"You think?"

"What do you want from me? I don't know either. I'm sure if I ask Laciel, she can give me a clear answer." With that, I flopped onto my back on the sheet. Above the shade of the trees, a wide blue sky was visible. The silence was a stark contrast to the chaos of yesterday.