Chapter 299 (1/2)

After the meeting, Celis, Reina, Vermudol, Ichika and Sancreed all stood in Celis’s small room. Vermudol and Sancreed were originally just going to ask Reina a question, but in a turn of events, they had all gathered here.

Celis has probably never had this many people in her room. She carefully monitored the entire room, glancing around from place to place.

「Please, read whatever you want」 she said to Sancreed, who stood staring at the bookshelf. The moment she turned back towards Vermudol, she heard Sancreed’s voice from behind her.

「…And in the backyard I found a red bug with no stars. Even though he didn’t have a single star, he was very…」

「W-wait, no! That’s my diary!」

Celis snatched the book out of Sancreed’s hands. Shrugging, he picked up another one from the bookshelf.

「The stars shine bright in the sky. That is my…」

「N-no, that’s even worse! Also, why are you reading it out loud!?」

「I just felt like it’d be more fitting.」

「No, no! And out of all of these books, why do you specifically choose the ones that are hidden out of sight!?」

Sancreed thought deeply, searching for an answer.

「…Because I’m good at discovering hidden objects. For example, this one book on the very bottom row…」

「Ahh, ahhh! No, stop, no more!」

「It’s fine, Celis. Who do you think cleans your room? I already know all of their contents.」

「Reina!?」

Reina sidestepped away as a teary-eyed Celis lunged at her. Ichika watched them intently, as if she were watching something nostalgic.

Noticing her gaze as she held Celis down, Reina laughed.

「I remember you would also act like this back then. You would always sneak into the city to read your dramatic romance novels…」

「If you say any more, I will have no choice but to fight you, Reina.」

「Romance?」

As Vermudol spoke out unthinkingly, Ichika turned toward him with a serious expression.

「You misheard.」

「But…」

「You misheard.」

「…I see.」

「That’s right.」

As Vermudol fell silent, he recalled that Ichika’s very first dream was to become a “wonderful bride.”

As her heart continues to wear down as she is reincarnated over and over again, meeting Reina must have provided some sort of comfort for Ichika… Though her name was “Lia” at the time, these memories must be connected to her present self. In that way, Vermudol felt somewhat thankful for Reina.

Maybe Ichika’s taste in books is still the same.

However, there weren’t many popular romance novels in the Zadark Kingdom, and only a few came to mind… One of them was a tragic story about a goblin that falls in love with a big eater and ends up getting devoured by it. Another one involves a mouse Beastia that decides to form a harem for himself but ultimately ends up being shoved off of a cliff by the women… These were the only types of romance novels that he could think of…

「Maybe I should import some…」

Vermudol noticed that Ichika was glaring at him suspiciously.

「Import what? What are you planning to import?」

「Uhhh, um, uhh. Don’t worry about it.」

「It isn’t what you think it is, okay?」

「I understand.」

Vermudol backed away as Ichika began to approach him. He looked over to Sancreed for help, but Sancreed was too absorbed in what appeared to be a thick history textbook.

「Uhh… So, let’s get back to our main focus.」

「Yes, let us get to it. I’ve been able to settle down a bit as well.」

With Reina in agreement, Vermudol looked over toward Sancreed, letting out a sigh.

「Sancreed」

「What, do you want to read with me?」

「…Have you forgotten what we came here for? The thing that we were going to talk about?」

「Oh, right. I thought we weren’t gonna talk about it today.」

Sancreed turned to face Reina.

「…Let me introduce myself. My name is Sancreed.」