Chapter 34 - Hope Theory (2/2)
“Who the hell are you!? Unhand me!!”
“……”
It was Alhart who quickly understood who the stranger was and ignored the 2 who had shouted after them.
So, that’s how it is, Alhart exclaimed, and, at the next moment, similarly took Mars’ hand and ran, while Yuto, who also made the realization, also took Tedla’s arm, and followed suit.
“Mission success, I say.”
Tyrtinkle, who watched everything unfold from the sky, descended to the roaring monster, flew around it in a circle, and after a few seconds, both figures were gone without a trace.
ーーーーー
ーーー
ー
“And…?”
“……Huh?”
After running for a while, they arrived at a small square, a little farther away from the center of the town.
The person who was pulling Akari and Frackt’s hands finally stopped, and the two who started to breathe deeply also stopped.
And then, the question that was thrown earlier was raised again.
“Are you satisfied now that you revealed yourself in such a manner?”
“……Wh-what?”
“Hey…… you, who the hell are you!?”
“I’m surprised. You still don’t know who I am?”
The hooded figure shrugged nonchalantly at Frackt’s question and removed the cloak, revealing a seemingly displeased Syltina whose eyebrows were drawn together.
“The Prince-sama and the Saintess sure are dense. We realized right away, you know?”, said Alhart, who carried Mars under his arm.
Following him was Yuto, who pulled Tedla by the hand from behind.
“What do you mean?”
Akari, who finally caught her breath, asked while glaring at Syltina, whose answer was accompanied by an exasperated sigh as if she were truly tired.
“The 3 of us — Tyr, Kuro and I, made a plan to save you from the ruckus you caused.”
“?”
“Therefore, the monster that you saw earlier was Kuro who transformed, and the shrieking voice you heard earlier was Tyr’s.”
“Why did you do such a thing?”
“……Well, you see…”
Syltina became speechless toward Akari’s response for a moment, and proceeded to carefully piece her words with a tight smile.
“If you were surrounded as you are, then, it would be inevitable that someone will impose their wishes against you. We don’t have time to listen to individual wishes in this purification journey, so we rescued you before it became any more troublesome. Do you understand?”
“No, I don’t think I understand.”
“Ha?”
“Don’t you think they might have given us something as thanks for the purification? Like they might give us a place we can stay in this town for free, or they might give us a town treasure or something. Why do you only think bad of people? All the citizens of this country are very considerate and kind-hearted people. They understand that this purification journey is tough, so they won’t let us do anything more.”
“……”
“Your mouth is hanging open, Sylti.”
“Oh my, pardon me. The Saintess has such overly optimistic thoughts, so… ”
“What is overly optimistic about it? Why don’t you try to believe in others!?”
“I do believe.”
Syltina smiled sweetly.
“Ah, right. If it’s the people of this country, then the right word would be believed.”
“Believed? Why is it in the past tense?”
“….. Well, I wonder why? At least for me, the people in this country are not worth believing in anymore. That’s why I always doubt them.
“That’s strange! The people of this country are nothing but good people after all!!”
“…… Even if you tell me something like that…”
Syltina, whose smile had disappeared, took a long breath, and pointed to the direction that they were previously running from.
“It’s better if you go back there and try to confirm. I’m sure you’ll get magnificent results.”
“Fine, I get it! I’ll see it for myself!! And if everyone is as kind as I just said, then you have to apologize in front of everyone!!”
“Akari!?”
“Big sis!!”
Fighting fire with fire*.
Following her sharp comeback, Akari returned the way they came from first, as a flustered Frackt and Mars followed after her.
“……”
“……”
“……”
“……Umm, is it alright if Yuto-san doesn’t come along?”
“Ah, yeah. He needs to come along after all……”
Quietly seeing the two figures run off, Tedla conservatively voices his concern and nominates Yuto, who sighed and walked after them.
“I hope the Saintess understands how reality actually works after this.”
Syltina merely shrugged at Alhart’s statement.
Translator’s Notes :
* “ As you wish, my liege” – the original Japanese text is, “あぁ、ご随意に我が主よ” (Aa, gozuii ni wa ga omo yo), which is extremely polite speech, or keigo. Kuro usually calls his master “Sylti”, but he used polite speech sarcastically in response to Sylti’s order. In this case, it is not keigo, but baka-teinei, or polite speech used in a sarcastic way.
**Fight fire with fire – the original version, “売り言葉に買い言葉” (uri kotoba ni kai kotoba) is a Japanese idiom which means “to be provoked by the opponent’s quarreling words and reply appropriately”. Simply, it is ‘tit for tat’, or ‘(fight) fire with fire’