Volume 2 Chapter 6 Part1 (2/2)
”….” [Cecilia & Youki]
Cecilia and I were dumbstruck.
Sophia-san said something after that, but I couldn’t remember what.
When Clayman brought the room keys to us, Cecilia hid behind me, which caused him to tilt his head in wonder. Nonetheless, there was nothing I could do but give him a pat on his shoulder for now – an indirect way of telling him not to mind it. In any case, I had not expected that Clayman has a 'maid moe'. (1)
I went to bed after that to prepare myself for the next day.
The next day, we headed to the mine after we finished our preparations.
It was somehow saddening though, when I saw how Cecilia was avoiding Clayman as we left the inn. Sophia-san was dressed in her maid outfit, as she had declared yesterday. It seemed that it was certainly similar to her maid clothing yesterday.
I wonder if it was okay.
On the other hand, since Clayman didn’t seem to know the reason why Cecilia was avoiding him, he grew a little anxious.
By the way, as for me, there is a proverb that describes what I think about people’s preferences: To each their own.
At the moment, we were proceeding into the depths of the dim mine, with the help of Cecilia’s magic as illumination.
“Hey. I have a feeling that the young lady from Aquarain family is avoiding me…” [Clayman]
“Ah, un. Well, isn't it just your imagination?” [Youki]
I gave him an ambiguous reply as I looked at Cecilia, who was on the front line illuminating the mine.
Cecilia and Sophia-san were in the vanguard while Clayman and I were the rearguard.
“It’s not just my imagination. I have this feeling ever since I came back from the reception table yesterday.” [Clayman]
“Ahahaha…” [Youki]
I smiled bitterly.
Hmm, it would be somewhat unpleasant to prolong this awkward atmosphere, so I guess I should tell him what happened yesterday.
I explained the content of yesterday’s conversation to Clayman secretly, speaking in a low voice, so as to prevent Cecilia and Sophia-san from overhearing it.
…though, Sophia-san might have overheard it anyway.
I caught her glancing towards us once when I started talking.
“Ah, I see.” [Clayman]
Clayman seemed to be convinced after listening to my story.
“Hey, do you really have a 'maid moe', Clayman?” [Youki]
To be honest, Clayman doesn't seem to be the type of people who have maid fetish to me.
So long as it’s Sophia-san, any clothing will look good on her. That is how Clayman is, in my opinion.
“Maid moe? What’s that? I don’t really get it, but all I said was that… When I see Sophia wearing those clothes, I realize that she has a normal job.” [Clayman]
“I see. Was there a reason for that? I had initially thought that you have a 'maid moe'.” [Youki]
“Like I said, what the heck is that moe thing? I’ll say this beforehand. I did say that I like it, but I did not force Sophia to wear it.” [Clayman]
As what Clayman said, it seemed that they did not request it from each other directly. However, it was a fact that Sophia-san did have a maid outfit custom-made for his sake. Even if they did not say it out, this couple tried to satisfy each other’s demand as much as possible.
“When I see how intimate the two of you are, it makes me somewhat envious.” [Youki]
“What’s with you, all of the sudden? I’ll say this first, but don’t you dare get any ideas about Sophia. Our relations.h.i.+p is still lovey-dovey now.” [Clayman]
I never had the intention to do that at all, so what the heck was this guy saying?
The way he said it sounded like how a father speaks.
“Which reminds me, do you have children, Clayman?” [Youki]
“Ou, I got a daughter and a son. They are starting to resemble Sophia and me recently.” [Clayman]
Clayman said as he laughed… Wait, son?
I was certain that I had not heard about his son when I eavesdropped on Sophia-san and Celia-san’s conversation the previous time.
“Hey, you have a son, too?” [Youki]
“Didn’t I just say that I have a son? …Ah, you have overheard it from Sophia before. Sophia hardly talks about Quinn. That’s probably because he bears a remarkable resemblance to her.” [Clayman]
Apparently, his son was just not mentioned in the conversation.
“That means your son resembles Sophia-san then. What about your daughter?” [Youki]
“Sophia’s giving her different kinds of education now but… it looks like she’s starting to take after me when she plays with me.” [Clayman]
Clayman said as he laughed, but hearing what he said had instantly made me realized the difficulties Sophia-san was facing.
She did tell Celia-san that she was educating her, but she didn’t tell her that her daughter was starting to resemble her beloved husband, did she?
I could roughly imagine what she would be like since she resembles Clayman.
It seems that the son takes after Sophia-san while the daughter takes after Clayman. It really made me feel like meeting them.
“Youki-sama, Dear. It’s time to put a stop to all that idle talk.” [Sophia]
At Sophia-san’s words, we turned to the front, to find countless black shadows coming towards us. They were probably a group of demons.
According to the information provided by Clayman, the demons in this mine are about C-rank.
When Cecilia illuminated the surrounding with her light magic, we were able to eventually discern the appearance of the demons; they seemed to be rock lizards and rock gorillas.
The surface of those demons' body seemed to be as hard as rock, as expected of the demons in the mine. Though, I wasn’t sure if it had any relation to that.
It didn’t seem as if physical attacks would be effective against them. Magic is my forte, so I guess it didn’t really matter.
I had initially intended to defeat the demons with magic, but before I could do so, Sophia-san, who was supposed to be standing next to Cecilia, suddenly advanced towards the demons before us.
She jumped up, spun in the air and landed an axe kick on a rock lizard, pulverizing it.
“Ou, as expected of Sophia! Your skills haven’t gone rusty at all, even after you became a maid. Your movement’s really agile.” [Clayman]
Even after encountering a group of demons, he still seemed to be doing things at his own pace as he observed Sophia-san’s fight. In the meantime, Sophia-san was delivering killing blows to the demons one by one.
“No wait, I should go help, too.” [Youki]
“Ah, you should guard the young lady for the time being. Sophia and I will handle them.” [Clayman]
Having said that, Clayman moved in front of Cecilia and me.
Certainly, Cecilia was in a defenceless state at the moment, so I guess I should be guarding her.
At any rate, how does Clayman fight?
He didn’t seem to be carrying any weapon, so he was probably a magic user like me.
Nevertheless, I soon realized that the way Clayman fights was vastly different than what I had imagined.
“Wha.. Cecilia, what’re those” [Youki]
“I’ve seen them before when I was travelling as a member of the hero’s party. That is what we call s.h.i.+kigami.” [Cecilia]
I had seen them before in manga in my previous life. The ones using it should be priests, I think?
…Somehow that doesn’t seem right. Well, such a trivial thing is irrelevant to me.
Clayman was fighting the demons using that s.h.i.+kigami look-alike thing, but…
“Do s.h.i.+kigami look like that?” [Youki]
“No, I’ve seen quite a few s.h.i.+kigami users already, but…” [Cecilia]
Cecilia appeared puzzled, too.
Apparently, they were different than the ones Cecilia saw. Well, it wasn't surprising.
“The ones Cecilia saw were in the forms of humans or animals, weren’t they?” [Youki]
“Yes. Youki-san, you actually knew about it already, didn't you?” [Cecilia]
“No, well that is, I’ll leave it at that.” [Youki]
Sophia-san and Clayman might be in the middle of a fight, but I still don't think I should talk about my past life while in their presence.
I gave them a quick glance.
“…I’m sorry. So it’s like that.” [Cecilia]
Cecilia nodded, as if she understood what I meant.
As expected of Cecilia!
Our conversation ended up getting deviated from the main subject. What was I supposed to be talking about again?
“To me, I can only see what looks like origami fighting.” [Youki]
Facing the group of demons that were attacking, humanoid-shaped papers could be seen fighting against them with weapons like swords, spears, and wands that were made of paper, like origami.
Moreover, those origami were strong.
They stopped the rock lizards’ claw and fang attacks easily, and dodged the rock gorillas’ fierce attacks without difficulty. The origami swords cut through the rock surfaces with ease, the spears were able to penetrate the demons, and fireb.a.l.l.s could be seen flying from the tip of the wands.
Nonetheless, Clayman, the one had created such a surreal spectacle, was just standing there.
In the beginning, I thought he was concentrating on manipulating the s.h.i.+kigami, but that didn’t seem to be the case. He could still repel the occasional stones that flew towards him with his hand, as though he found them irritating.
“Fuaa~” [Clayman]
Not to mention, he started yawning, looking relaxed about the whole thing.
While we were watching the Clayman, wondering if he was actually fighting considering his languid demeanour, the battle ended before we realized it.
All the s.h.i.+kigami grew smaller and returned to Clayman.
Sophia-san was also brus.h.i.+ng the dust off her maid clothing.
“Alright, shall we proceed?” [Clayman]
“Hold it, hold it. Clayman, what were those thing from a while ago?” [Youki]
“Don’t you know about it? It can’t be helped then. Listen well, alright? Those are what we call s.h.i.+kigami…” [Clayman]
“I’ve heard that from Cecilia earlier.” [Youki]
That was not what I wanted to hear.
“Umm… Why do Clayman-san’s s.h.i.+kigami look like that?” [Cecilia]
Cecilia wound up asking him in place of me.
She must be curious about it since she had seen what s.h.i.+kigami looks like.
“Cecilia-sama, my husband said it was a troublesome to think of the s.h.i.+kigami’s form, so they ended up becoming like that.” [Sophia]
“Huh?!” [Cecilia]
Cecilia was surprised, but that explanation had convinced me.
So that was the reason.
It seems that Clayman is actually a genius who excels at using both weapons and magic.
However, since he is lazy, he wanted to think of a way to fight without exerting much effort.
When he tried searching for the means to do so, it seemed that what he found was the art of s.h.i.+kigami.
It appeared to be a skill from a foreign country and it seemed that he had a hard time learning it.
Nevertheless, it was not known if it was due to his talent, or his high tenacity that resulted from his laziness, but he ended up acquiring the s.h.i.+kigami skill.
“However, because of my husband’s usual lazy habit, he decides to leave the s.h.i.+kigami’s forms as is and use them.” [Sophia]
“…That means, if he wanted to, he was able to change the forms of the s.h.i.+kigami earlier to humans or animals and use them in that fight?” [Cecilia]
”Yes.” [Sopha]
”…” [Cecilia]
Cecilia c.o.c.ked her head, seemingly not convinced by it, but…it didn’t really matter to me.
That behaviour was just like Clayman. As long as those s.h.i.+kigami can fight, who cares what they look like.
To be honest, I was tired of coming up with a retort for Clayman’s antics.
“Time is precious. Let's proceed ahead.” [Youki]
If we don’t hurry up, it will eventually be too late to save Gai and Tiel-chan.
When I urged everyone, Cecilia lighted the mine with her magic and walked ahead.
“By the way, is it common for demons to appear here?” [Youki]
“That’s right. Is there something wrong?” [Clayman]
“I was just wondering if there would always be requests given out to subjugate them like this.” [Youki]
“Of course not. The people working in this mine are unexpectedly high ranking, so they are capable of fighting off the demons here on their own.” [Clayman]
The interior of this mine seemed to be well-maintained, so I guess they would try handling whatever things that they could do on their own.
In other words, it was certain that there was another more troublesome enemy aside from the normal ones: one that couldn’t be defeated by those who could normally defeat C-rank demons.
Well, it was expected that it would be a troublesome request, judging from Clayman’s behaviour.
Not only that, but I still need to acquire the magic ore for Gai and gather the herbs for Tiel-chan’s medicine too.
Henceforth, there was no way I could back out of this.
Footnotes
(1) if anyone doesn’t know what ‘moe’ is x3
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