The Simple Job of Only Perishing to the Hero

After the meeting, Celis, Reina, Vermudol, Ichika and Sancreed all stood in Celis’ 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.」

「My name is Reina. Nice to meet you, Sancreed. It is a great honor to be able to meet an irregular like you.」

「Irregular?」

Ignoring Celis’ confused question, Reina continued talking.

「However, it is not the time for that. Neither Aklia nor Raidolg are with us in this land. Therefore, let’s see… When the time comes, I promise that I will introduce you to Aklia.」

「And when will that be?」

「When the crisis surrounding the Canal Kingdom is finally resolved, I guess.」

Noticing something in Reina’s words, Vermudol interjected.

「Hold on a second, from what you just said… Are you saying that you’re able to meet with Aklia even if he isn’t here?」

「Yes, that’s what I said. However, it is not the time for that right now.」

「Why is that?」

「When the time comes, you will understand.」

The only thing Vermudol understood was that she had no plans to give him a proper explanation. However, she didn’t say that they couldn’t meet, so there was no reason to get worked up. After all, there was no point in trying to force an answer out of someone like Reina.

「…I see. If that’s the case, there’s one more thing that I would like to ask.」

「What is it?」

「Why are the gods leaving ‘it’ alone? This situation could be easily resolved if something is done about ‘it’, right?」

Reina giggled as she realized that he was referring to Philia as “it” because Celis was in the room.

「…Even I don’t understand everything that’s going on. However, I will say this.」

Reina took a short pause.

「It isn’t exactly being left alone. The gods just have other things that they need to attend to.」

「Yeah, but those are things that they can get done with, right?」

「If you have any complaints, please reserve them for the gods themselves. There’s no point in whining about them to me.」

Taking a deep sigh, Vermudol prepared another question.

「…Fine. Now, I have another question.」

「Well you certainly have a lot of questions, don’t you?」

「Well I wouldn’t even be asking these questions if they wouldn’t do anything stupid.」

Vermudol tutted in irritation. Celis flinched. Noticing this, he forced a smile onto his face, trying to hide his anger. However, her ears remained standing up, quivering in fear.

「…Please excuse me.」

Uttering this, Ichika put her hands on Vermudol’s face. She started rubbing and pulling it.

「…What are you doing?」

「I cannot say.」

「Just say it.」

「Your face was looking a bit fiendish. It’s too scary for little human girls.」

「…I see.」

Despite his shock, Vermudol let Ichika continue to mess with his face. Seeing Celis’ ears return to normal, he resumed his conversation with Reina.

「So, back to where we were.」

「Oh, right. Ah, Ichika. Make sure to smooth out those wrinkles between his eyebrows. Yup, like that. That’s more like it.」

「Back to where we were.」

From the corner of his eye he saw Sancreed trying his best to hold back his laughter. Vermudol resumed the conversation once again.

「…It’s about this place called the Dimensional Gap. If you’ve heard of it before, please let me know.」

「The Dimensional Gap…huh.」

「Yup. In order to resolve the problem of the Alva, we have no choice but to venture into the Dimensional Gap. I was wondering if you knew how to get there.」

After a moment of deep thought, Reina quietly shook her head.

「…Unfortunately, I don’t have any knowledge about that. Also, isn’t there a better person to ask about this?」

Upon hearing this, Luuty’s face appeared in Vermudol’s mind.

「…Well, I guess. There is someone like that, but… Dammit, now that I think about it, I remember a very troublesome promise that I made.」

With a bitter look on his face, Vermudol gazed up at the ceiling.