kscans

Chapter 145 - Understanding a Woman's Heart is Hard for a Baby

Despite the commotion, the afternoon recording was set to proceed as usual.

As expected of Japan.

It is a country where, even if a massive earthquake were to occur, you would be ordered to come to work.

Perhaps we Japanese will still be working even on the day the world ends.

Thinking that it seems all too plausible and feeling dejected, I go about my work.

The recent regression incident is apparently being processed as a combination of heatstroke caused by the heat of the studio lights and mass hysteria.

I thought that was a bit of a stretch, but humans tend to believe what they want to believe.

The people of the other world would accept anything as either "a miracle from God" or "the work of a demon."

People in modern Japan try to make sense of anything by linking it to scientific phenomena.

Science has merely taken over the role once held by religion; fundamentally, nothing has progressed in hundreds of years.

If anything, I wonder if we are more regressed than primitive humans who created tools and civilization out of nothing.

Between a primitive man who first discovered how to use fire and a high schooler who goes viral for bragging about crimes on social media, the former is certainly the smarter one.

A high level of civilization does not necessarily mean intelligence, and vice versa.

Even if they were born in a medieval-style fantasy world, a sharp person is sharp no matter what.

Mage Erin is exactly that.

After all, her profession isn't mage; her race is mage.

She is a rare race said to have higher magical and intellectual power than pure humans, with a lifespan nearly twice as long.

Since they are not blessed with physical build or strength, they can be described as natural-born backliners.

In fantasy works, you often see witches with hooked noses wearing robes; she is the same kind of existence.

However, the difference is that she isn't an old woman, but a lovely young girl.

Erin turns twenty-eight this year.

But since they age slower than the Human Race, she likely looks only about half her actual age.

She was the companion who joined my party after Philia, and I primarily relied on her for debuffs and magical firepower.

My impression of her was that she was a woman as taciturn as a stone, making it hard to tell what she was thinking.

She was the type whose dialogue always started with "...". No matter what I said to her, she would only answer with "...Mm," and she had almost no joy, anger, sadness, or pleasure.

However, she showed tears just once, and if that is the cause—then she has a motive to hunt me.

I wonder if Erin resents me after all.

Or perhaps she came reluctantly, ordered by the King.

Or maybe her target isn't me, but she simply came to retrieve Philia?

Well, whatever the reason, it doesn't change the fact that she is a troublesome opponent.

Since her mental state is sane, there is no doubt she will move more cautiously than Philia.

A master of debuffs and attack magic. Moreover, she's invisible, and if you get close, your intelligence is stripped away...

I finished the shoot while concentrating most of my awareness on countermeasures against Erin.

Because my concentration was scattered, I failed a few magic tricks, but that seemed to lead to laughter instead, and my reputation among my co-stars was good.

I suppose it was a blessing in disguise.

"..."

A blessing in disguise.

That's right.

An element that should have been a disadvantage can be turned into an advantage.

I might be able to win against Erin...

I had the two Ayako-chans in my mind.

If things go well, I can bring her into close combat while maintaining my intelligence. If we get into a scuffle while I'm in my right mind, she is an opponent I can win against one hundred percent.

Depending on the situation, it could become a fight to the death.

That's why, before that, there was something I wanted to confirm.

I took my smartphone out of my pocket and sent a message to Angelica.

'Can we talk for a bit now?'

The best way to ask about women is to ask a woman, and I wanted to hear Angelica's take on Erin's psychology.

I wanted to know if, if Erin were targeting me, this was the reason.

"...She's slow."

I sat on a bench and waited solely for a reply.

Angelica is unemployed, doesn't go to school, and neither looks for work nor does housework, fitting perfectly into the fifteen-to-thirty-four-year-old bracket, so she should basically be free.

And yet, today, the "read" status is unusually slow to appear.

Just as I began to make idyllic assumptions like, Is she hanging out with Ayako-chan?, the message finally switched to read.

"Oh."

Angelica, who is still not used to operating a smartphone, takes an incredibly long time to type characters.

I stared at the screen with a wry smile, thinking that this part felt very much like someone from another world.

'Geez. What is it, Father? Do you want to act spoiled by Mama again?'

'Mama?'

I tilted my head, wondering what this vibe was about.

Come to think of it, I feel like I might have been fiddling with my smartphone while I was suffering from intelligence loss.

Don't tell me I was contacting Angelica while my brain was in an empty, dazed state?

Since my memories of that time are vague, I couldn't tell.

It would be clear if I read past messages; should I scroll back?

It's also scary that Angelica's previous post was 'I've never seen such an extreme radical baby before.'

Feeling a chill, I raised my index finger and prepared to scroll.

However, almost simultaneously, Angelica sent a new message, so my attention immediately shifted there.

'Delicious milk is waiting for you when you get home, okay?'

'Did you buy some milk or something?'

'It's a surprise for when you get home, my baby.'

My baby...? Is she just translating the English phrase "I love you, baby" directly into Japanese?

While wondering strangely why she was suddenly pushing this "foreigner" element so hard, I replied.

'Actually, there's something I want to ask Ange.'

'What is it~? Is it what Mama was doing until just now? Of course, I was doing something naughty all by myself while thinking about Father. You'll have to take proper responsibility for making Mama like this, you know?'

...Why is this girl acting so thirsty in the middle of the day?

Generally, she's always like this, but today, I feel a certain... moisture even in her text.

The moment I started reading the logs following my bad feeling, Angelica sent another new message.

'Father, you like sweets, don't you?'

'Yeah, what about it?'

'Hehe~. Then I think I've prepared a wonderful feast that will suit Father's palate.'

'I don't care what it is if you've taken an interest in cooking.'

If she did housework, she'd fall out of the definition of a NEET.

While rejoicing that Angelica's life was heading in a healthy direction, I immediately got to the main point.

I felt like there was something I had to confirm, but more importantly, it was Erin.

It seemed my head wasn't quite at its best yet, as I had tendencies to be forgetful.

'Listen, now isn't the time for fooling around. An Assassin from that other world has come again. It's my second Party Member, Mage Erin. I want to consult you about that.'

'Was she the person good at debuff magic? Are you okay? You aren't injured anywhere, right?'

'No external wounds. Don't worry. More than that, there's something I want you to judge.'

'What is it?'

'It's about Erin's mental state.'

I recalled the numerous conversations I had exchanged with the petite witch.

'I think she's somewhat more reasonable than Philia. However, there's a possibility she hates me. Since I'm slow on the uptake, I want to borrow Ange's wisdom.'

'Is my intuition telling me this is a trouble between a man and a woman? Is it really that?'

'Probably.'

'What a sinful baby, honestly.'

I asked while thinking something trivial, like that joke is going to last a long time.

'Erin was a taciturn and expressionless woman, but she would smile occasionally. Like after winning a battle, or after learning a new spell. But after a certain time, she never showed a smile again.'

'What was the trigger?'

'When I told her that I had started dating Elsa, she shed tears silently, and she hasn't smiled since.'

'...What did Erin-san say then?'

'If the Hero is happy, then that is enough.'

'That's still ambiguous. It might have been tears of joy, celebrating a comrade's love. Could you tell me specifically, like, how did you two meet?'

It's difficult when asked how we met. Since it was nearly sixteen years ago, my memory was hazy in places.

I closed my eyes, searched through the folds of my brain with all my might, and squeezed out the memory.

'...Right. If I recall, I picked her up when she had been kicked out of the party she previously belonged to.'

'Why was Erin-san kicked out? The Mage Race are naturally excellent wizards, aren't they?'

'Well, you see, until she met me, Erin believed she was human. Apparently, she was a foundling raised by human parents. Because of that, when we first met, she was even working as a Thief instead of a Mage. Of course, she was useless and got kicked out.'

'...She had her own Race wrong? She's somewhat like Elsa-san.'

'The names are similar, too. Well, their appearances are completely different, though.'

'Um, so how did Erin-san realize her aptitude and change jobs? Could it be that Father was involved?'

'You figured it out. When I appraised her status, it turned out she was of the Mage Race, so I recommended she become a Mage. After that, she really started to stand out.'

'In other words, Father discovered Erin-san's talent for her?'

'Is that how it goes?'

'I have a bad feeling. A worst-case misunderstanding.'

'What do you mean?'