Текст книги "Overlord Volume - The Two Leaders"

Автор книги: Maruyama Kugane

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Overlord ( オーバーロード)

Volume 8

The Two Leaders

Text source: http://skythewood.blogspot.sg/p/knights-and-magic-author-amazake-no.html

Author: Maruyama Kugane ( 丸山くがね )

Illustrator: So-bin

Publisher: EnterBrain

Web Novel:    Http://Ncode.Syosetu.Com/n4402bd/

Side 1 (1/2). Enri’s Upheaval and Hectic Days

Translator: Nigel

Editors/Proofreaders: Ferro, TaintedDream, Namorax, Skythewood, SifaV6,

NoirX, Rockgollem, JcqC, ZackTan

Part 1

Enri Emmot rose before the sun came up to make breakfast. There was a lot of food to prepare, and she wasn't as good a cook as her deceased mother.

Counting Nemu, Enri herself and the nineteen goblins loyal to her, she had to make breakfast for twenty-one people. Cooking for two more on top of everyone’s would make twenty-three in total. Preparing that much food was a lot of work, and could be considered a battle in its own right. Enri trembled while looking at the vast quantity of food in front of her and realised that it would all be gone in one meal.

“This is nearly six times as much as before…”

After taking a deep breath, she rolled up her sleeves, psyched herself up and got to work.

She sliced the vegetables up quietly, and then the meat. The process had been engraved into Enri's brain by now.

Although Enri was not especially talented at cooking, the fact that she had learned to cope with such an enormous task in such a short time was a textbook example of how diamonds were made under pressure.

Nemu woke from the sound of Enri making breakfast and rubbed the sleep out of her eyes.

“Morning, onee-chan. Let me help too!”

“Morning, Nemu. I'm good over here, but there's still that thing I asked you to help me take care of yesterday…”

Unhappiness flashed over Nemu's face for a moment, but in the end, she didn't complain, although she did droop her head and replied “‘kay” as she followed Enri's request.

Enri stopped halfway through the cutting.

Her heart ached.

Nemu was ten years old now, and she had been a lively and spirited girl once. After that incident, the formerly naive and carefree Nemu became slavishly obedient to her sister, without any of the playfulness or tantrums of children her age. She was a good girl now – so good that it hurt.

The smiling faces of her parents appeared in Enri's mind. Although several months had passed, the wounds from that incident had not yet healed.

If they had died because of illness, she could have prepared herself for it. If they had died from an accident or a natural disaster, she wouldn't have hated anyone else for it, and maybe she would not have been scarred either. But her parents had been murdered in front of her eyes, and her heart was now filled with resentment. There was no way she could feel otherwise.

Enri squeezed her eyes shut. If there was someone nearby, then she could work hard so they would not see her weakness. But when she was by herself, the loneliness reopened the wounds in her heart.

“―Isn’t that right?”

Even when she opened her eyes, her parents' smiles still floated before her. She replayed the tender moments of the past in her mind.

After the tender memories came the turmoil in her heart. Driven by her hatred for the people who had murdered her parents, Enri slammed with all her might at the hunk of meat with her cleaver and split it in half.

However, since she used too much force, she also chopped a divot out of the block, which made her furrow her brow in frustration.

If the blade gets chipped, it’s going to be hard to fix...… I'm sorry, k-kaa-san.

Enri thought as she apologized for damaging the cleaver that was her only link to her deceased mother.

She gently ran a finger along the edge to make sure it was fine, and at that moment, the door beside her, which led to the living room, opened up.

The person who entered was not human, but someone shorter – one of the demihumans commonly known as goblins.

“Morning, Ane-san. Today's our turn to… what's wrong?”

The goblin paused in the middle of a perfect bow to turn concerned eyes to Enri's hands.

Enri was a mere village girl, but the goblins served her without hesitation because she was their summoner.

After that incident, when the villagers had wondered if they needed to take shifts standing guard, Enri remembered the horn she had been given and used it to summon the goblins.

The villagers were initially surprised and afraid of the goblins since they had suddenly appeared out of nowhere, but they calmed down when Enri told them that she had summoned the goblins with an item from their savior, Ainz Ooal Gown. Needless to say, this was because of the gratitude and trust they felt towards Ainz. Thereafter, the work the goblins had done was enough for the villagers to put aside their suspicions and welcome them from the depths of their hearts.

“Good morning, Kaijali-san, I just used a bit too much force with the cleaver…”

As one of Enri’s summoned goblins, Kaijali, looking like a bear awakened from its winter hibernation, furrowed his eyebrows and put a concerned expression on his face before saying,

“That's no good, you need to take care of that cleaver. The village doesn't have a blacksmith, so we can't repair our equipment either.”

“Is that so…”

“Well, it's alright. We'll think of a solution when the time comes.”

Kaijali spoke in an earnest, yet cheerful voice while he helped make the breakfast. He drew a smoldering wick from the pot he was holding, and with a practiced manoeuvre, lit the stove. The deft ease with which he turned a faint ember into a roaring blaze was evidence of his skill.

But they can't cook… Why is that?

Goblins could not prepare even the simplest meals. Since they ate raw meat and vegetable without a complaint, she thought they might like raw food more, but it became clear that they preferred cooked meals ― although they could still stomach raw food without trouble.

Is it because summoned beings don’t know how to cook?

A mere village girl like herself had no answer to this question, and with that she threw herself into her work once more. Fortunately, the cleaver's edge was still intact.

Eventually, breakfast was ready.

There were a wider variety of dishes on the table compared to the days when her mother was cooking.

For example, there was meat. Although the local rangers often shared their kills in the past, the amount they could bring back was nothing compared to now. The reason why they had so much more meat now was because the villagers had expanded their area of activity.

The Great Forest of Tob provided its bounty to them in the form of firewood, wild vegetables and fruits to eat, animals for meat and fur, and even medicinal herbs.

Although the forest was rightfully regarded as a treasure trove, it was also home to wild beasts and monsters, which could make their way back to the village. As a result, the forest was not a place where that the villagers could casually enter. Even the experts like professional hunters were forced to skulk like bandits on the edges of the Wise King of the Forest's territory. However, with the disappearance of the Wise King of the Forest and appearance of the goblin troop, the situation had changed radically.

The greatest change was that the villagers could now easily enter the forest and harvest its resources. The goblins were a key factor in this; meat, which had previously been hard to obtain, could now be easily acquired, and their tables were decked with fresh fruits and vegetables. As a result, the food situation in the village had dramatically improved.

In addition, since the goblins were Enri's subordinates, they delivered the lion's share of their kills to her home.

In addition, one of the newest additions to the village was a ranger who had made contributions to the provisions.

She was a woman who used to be an adventurer in E-Rantel. For various reasons, she moved to this village, and was learning the ways of the hunter from the ranger who was living in the village. As she had been a warrior during her adventuring days, her skills with the bow were excellent, and she could bring down even the biggest game with a few arrows. It was partly because of her efforts that the distribution of meat in the village had improved.

The improved standard of living brought changes, which were reflected in the villagers' bodies.

Enri curled her biceps, flexing her muscles.

Her gains were quite impressive.

Ah, I feel so pumped~ they’re getting even bigger…

The goblins praised Enri at every opportunity with phrases like “Ane-san's totally ripped!” “Yeah, pump it up again!” “She's too swole to control!” “The goal is six-pack!” “Nice cut!”. They most likely meant well, but as a girl, it was difficult to accept such compliments.

If I ended up like how the goblins described, it wouldn't be good…

Enri swept the goblin's idealized, hyper-muscular final form of herself from her mind, and began serving breakfast.

That too was a tedious task. While the goblins wouldn't quibble over a small difference in portion size, the amount of meat in their soup was a huge issue. Enri ensured that everyone's dishes and bowls had a similar amount meat before moving onto the next task.

Sweat was dripping from her forehead by the time breakfast was ready.

“Then, let's call everyone and Nfirea over.”

“Got it~”

“I’ll go! Let me do it! I want to do it!”

As Enri turned around, she saw Nemu standing behind her with eyes alight.

“Have you done your chores?” Her sister nodded by way of reply, and so did Enri. “Really? Then go get Nfi―”

“No! I want to call the goblins!”

Enri had no idea how to answer her little sister's sudden outburst. Kaijali nodded gently to Nemu, presumably indicating that he would entrust her with that task.

“I'll leave that to you, then, I'll go get Nfirea.”

“That's more like it! A capital idea! Ane-san, let me go with you.”

Although this would leave the house empty, Enri wasn't bothered by it. After all, there had never been any issues with thieves breaking in before.

Together with Kaijali, Enri left the house just after Nemu did.

The wind blew in Enri’s face, carrying with it the scent of the grass and warmed by the gentle light of the morning sun. Enri took a deep breath, and when she turned to look at Kaijali, he was breathing in the scent as well. Enri couldn’t resist laughing at the sight, and Kaijali scowled, trying to regain his lost dignity with a fierce expression. Perhaps the Enri of the past would have been afraid, but Enri was used to life with the goblins now, and she knew this was just how he smiled.

On this refreshing, cool and clear day, Enri proceeded to the house next to hers.

It had been left ownerless from the tragedy that had befallen their village recently, and had become the home of the alchemists from E-Rantel, the Bareares.

The house was occupied by two people, Lizzie Bareare, the wizened old woman and her grandson, Enri’s good friend Nfirea Bareare. The two of them spent their days cooped up in the house, processing herbs to make potions and other medicines.

Not working closely with other villagers was a good reason to be isolated, and in the worst case scenario, to be kicked out of the village. But it was different for those two.

In every village, an apothecary ― someone who could prepare medicines in case of disease or injury ― was indispensable. They could be said to be important enough that the villagers would plead, “you don’t need to do anything except make medicine for us”.

This went double for a place like Carne Village, which had no access to priests who could use healing magic. For larger villages, priests would double as the village apothecary.

Priests would charge an appropriate fee for their healing magic. Or rather, it might be better to say that they would need to charge the fee. If the villagers could not afford to pay, then they would offer up their labour instead. For those who lacked the ability to even do that, the priests would use medicines compounded from herbs, since herbal cures were less expensive than magical healing.

One of the goblins in the village was a cleric, and he could heal minor wounds with ease, but the villagers had come together with the opinion that he should save up his power for an emergency, unless someone was very badly hurt . Not to mention, the cleric’s healing spells were very limited and lacked the ability to heal diseases or neutralize poisons.

Even so, despite the vital job they performed, the villagers didn’t dare to go near them.

The reason for this was abundantly clear as one approached the Bareares’ residence.

Enri scrunched up her nose, as did Kaijali. The house they were approaching was wreathed in an acrid odor. All things considered, it wasn’t actually that bad, but it still felt awful. The smell released from crushing up herbs might be off-putting, but ultimately it was only the scent of plants, and was not dangerous in itself.

Breathing through her mouth, Enri knocked on the door.

She knocked quite a few times, but nobody answered the door. Just when she thought nobody was home, the sound of someone approaching came from the other side, and after a lock was hastily fumbled with, the door opened.

ー!?

She did not want to react with her expression or words, but the smell coming from inside the house was truly horrific.

It was painful.

A harsh, stinging pain seared her eyes, nose and mouth. Worse still, the vile stench from inside the house suggested that the miasma around the house was nothing more than what had leaked out from inside.

“Good morning, Enri!”

Nfirea’s eyes, which were visible from between the gaps in his long hair, were wide open and blood-shot. He must have stayed up all night for alchemical experiments again.

She did not want to open her mouth to speak when she was enveloped by the eye-watering gas, but it would be rude not to return a greeting.

“G-good morning, Enfi.”

She felt her throat dry out as she said that.

“Morning, Ani-san.”

“Ah, good morning, Kai… Kaijali-san… Huh, it’s morning already? I was working so hard I didn’t notice. Seeing the sun makes me realize how the time just flew by… ahhh, I’ve been doing so many experiments recently, I need to get out of the house.”

Nfirea stretched like a cat and yawned.

“Looks like you’ve been burning the midnight oil, huh―”

Enri was about to add “breakfast’s ready, come over with your Obaa-chan”, but Nfirea interrupted. Or rather, instead of saying he interrupted her, it might be better to say that she was overwhelmed by his boyish enthusiasm.

“It’s amazing, Enri!”

Nfirea rushed up to her. His work clothes reeked of that same stinging odor which filled the rest of the house. Although Enri wanted very much to back away from him, she forced herself to endure it, because Nfirea was her dear friend.

“What, what happened, Enfi?”

“You’ve got to hear this! We finally managed to perfect the procedure for brewing a new type of potion. This is going to change the world! Even though all we did was to mix the herbs that we gathered into the solution, we managed to produce a purple potion!”

The only reply he received was a “Hah?”

Enri had no idea how this was amazing. Was the potion purple because they infused purple cabbage into it?

“And it can cure wounds! The healing speed’s on par with alchemically-refined potions!”

Enri raised his hands, showing off his delicate, slender arms that were unmarred by injury. Enri thought, “I have bigger biceps than he does”, but Nfirea didn’t stop there.

“Which is to say!”

“Yes, yes, that’s wonderful, tell us about it later.”

Kaijali spoke as he took a step forward.

“Ani-san here looks like he’s been sleeping too little and partying too hard. Maybe he’s high or something? Ane-san, let me take care of this. Why don’t you go back first?”

“Will it be all right?”

“Sure it will. I’ll splash some cold water on his face and when he calms down, I’ll bring him over. If you take too long, others will get worried. Say, what about Obaa-chan?”

“Obaa-chan’s still got her head buried in her research… I don’t think she’ll be coming for breakfast. I’m sorry, you went through all this trouble to prepare breakfast for us…”

“Ah, don’t worry about it. I was thinking that Lizzie-sama would probably be doing that.”

Situations like these had come up quite a few times already, so that wasn’t a surprise.

“Then, Ane-san, you should head back first.”

With that said, there was nothing to do but leave.

“Then, I’ll leave him to you.”

As he watched Enri leave, Kaijali turned a cold stare on Nfirea.

“Do you know what you just did? The only time a girl listens to a man talking about what he likes is if she likes the person. If she doesn’t like that person, then that blabbering’s only going to turn her off!”

“…I’m sorry, I just thought that since we made that amazing discovery… but it was really amazing! Revolutionary, even!”

Kaijali interrupted the motor-mouthed rant with a chopping motion. Clearly, Nfirea had not gotten the message he was trying to convey.

“Look, Ani-san. Are you alright with this? You’re in love with Ane-san, aren’t you?”

Nfirea replied with an “Mm,” and nodded his head vigorously.

“Then you have to make her the most important person in your heart. More important than your potions.”

“…I get it. I’ll try.”

“Do, or do not. There is no try. You need to win her heart. Me and the rest of the lads will do our best to support you. Plus, it’s not just us, even imouto-san agreed to help you out. I hope you get yourself together and do your part, Ani-san.”

“Mmm…”

“If you’re just waiting for her to say “I like you” first, then more likely than not, someone else is going to snatch her away! You’ve got to work up the courage to tell her how you really feel.”

That line pierced Nfirea’s heart like a dagger between the ribs.

“Still, despite everything I said, looks like you’ve been doing pretty well on that front yourself, Ani-san. Used to be you couldn’t even say a word in front of her. Now you can carry on a normal conversation, right?”

“That was because I didn’t have much chance to talk with Enri unless I came around to gather herbs… Now that I’ve moved into the village, I’m around her a lot more.”

“That’s it, that’s the spirit. All that’s left is to gather your courage and step up to the plate. Maybe you should show off your strength first. According to the villagers, strong men are still the most popular. Well, for the forty-nine year old women in the village, anyways.”

“I’m not too confident in my arm strength. Maybe I should do more farm work or something?”

“Nah, what you should be using is this, Ani-san,” Kaijali spoke while gently knocking on his head.

“Settle things with this. And then work your magic. If me or one of the lads think what you said was good, we’ll pose like this. That’s when you’re going to say or do something that’ll make her fall for you instantly.”

Kaijali posed to show off his shoulder muscles. They bulged mightily under his skin.

“Kinda like that. And if you need a more impressive demonstration…”

Next, Kaijali flexed his pectorals. Although he was quite short, his athletic, muscular body attested to the fact that he was a born warrior.

Nfirea wondered Why these kind of poses? But he couldn’t actually say that, because he’d already accepted Kaijali’s goodwill. Still, there was one question he wanted to ask.

“I… I’m curious, why are you guys doing this? I mean, I know you’re Enri’s subordinates and you’re loyal to her, but I don’t understand why you’re helping me.”

“Well, that’s simple,” Kaijali replied with an inscrutable expression on his face. In a tone better suited to coaxing little kids to behave, he replied, “That’s because we all want Ane-san to be happy. And from where we’re looking, you fit the bill. So the faster you two get married, the better.”

“N-no need for such a rush! T-the two of us can slowly reduce the distance between us, right?”

“…Wrong, actually. I mean, don’t humans take a long time between getting pregnant and having kids?”

Nfirea’s eyes went wide and his face turned bright red as the conversation suddenly jumped to the ultimate expression of male-female relationships in the form of pregnancy.

“T-that would be about nine months?”

“Hm, then it would take a really long time for about ten pups ― I mean, ten kids, right?”

“Ten?! Isn’t that a bit much?!”

Five children were the average for a farming village family. In tough times when it was hard to survive to adulthood, this number would go up. In the city, this number was usually less, with the help of priests to cure diseases or the use of contraceptives.

So, a woman to giving birth to ten children wasn’t a bit much, it was way too much.

“What’re you on about? Ten’s pretty normal for us goblins.”

“We’re not goblins!”

“Alright, point taken, our races have our differences… but still, you gotta have lots of kids to make Ane-san happy.”

“…All right, I can’t deny that she might be happy with a house full of children… but it still seems kind of wrong…”

“Really?”

Nfirea was at a loss for words as he saw Kaijali looking at him with his head tilted at an angle. But on the whole, he was still grateful for their assistance. .

“Then, let’s head out, Ani-san. I hope you make a move soon. Although keeping her waiting for too long might cause problems… well, I think a steady, tactical advance on the main objective is a strategy worth pursuing.”

“Where did you learn all of this?” Nfirea shook his head. “Oi, Obaa-chan, I’m going to Enri’s for breakfast, what about you?”

The reply that came from the house was a refusal to Nfirea’s question.

Most likely, she was in the middle of repeating an experiment, and had no time to bother with trivial things such as eating.

Nfirea could relate to that feeling.

The alchemical tools and other paraphernalia in the house were of an extremely high grade, and they didn’t know how to use most of them. The maid in the service of the great magic caster Ainz Ooal Gown had brought them over. The two of them had been ordered to use these materials to produce new potions and alchemical items. Oh, and the maid had even brought some sort of cure-all herbs.

When he asked her about the solvents and the proper usage of the instruments, all he got in return was a “figure it out yourself su~”, which didn’t help things.

So, the two of them had foregone food and sleep in their ceaseless quest to learn how to use these devices for experiments. It was a slow process, but they had finally made some progress. Of course, they had made mistakes as well ― Nfirea had been guilty of lots of those ― but the past two months had been some of the busiest moments in Lizzie’s long life. The fruits of their labor stood on the table, that bottle of purple potion, which Lizzie examined endlessly and filled Nfirea with excited joy.

“I’ll take care of the food, then,” Nfirea spoke as he closed the door behind him. Then, turning to Kaijali, he said, “Let’s go.”

♦ ♦ ♦

Although everyone was supposed to eat together, Enri’s house wasn’t anywhere near big enough to accommodate them all. As such, they usually ate outside when the weather was good.

Because they were outdoors, a certain amount of rowdiness was expected and tolerated. Had they been inside, it might have been unbearable, but even under the present circumstances, the situation had quickly turned aggravating.

“That’s why I’m saying, Enri-nee-san is going to be my wife!”

“Hey, punk, are you forgetting the agreement we all made not to touch Ane-san?!”

“That’s right, if you try and pull a fast one on us then I’ll make my move too!”

“You what mate? I was first!”

Several goblins kicked over their chairs as they suddenly stood up, and some even jumped onto the table. Suppressing her anger with sheer force of will, Enri spoke in a gentle tone.

“Everyone, please settle down.”

That had about as much effect as a snowball on the sun. The rancor in the goblins’ eyes had not abated in the slightest.

“Just give it up, lads. The victor has already been decided. Behold, this hunk of marvelous, radiant meat!”

One of the goblins, Kuunel, raised up his spoon to prove his point, displaying a piece of chicken meat that onlookers might well have mistaken for a pea. It was nothing more than a tiny bit extra that Enri added while portioning out the food to everyone.

“I finished my meat, yet there was more at the bottom of the soup! Do you have anything like that? I didn’t think so! This is nothing less than the proof of love!”

“You must be kidding me! That’s nothing more than a piece of meat Ane-san mistook for a chunk of vegetable!”

“Maybe that’s just wishful thinking on your part? Maybe the “meat” you ate was just potatoes or something, and the actual meat you got was that miniature thing. You’d better watch out, it’s proof that Ane-san doesn’t like you. Plus, my god clearly told me, “You must make Enri happy.”

“Isn’t the god you believe in an evil one, Cona?!”

Half the goblins were standing, and the other half were seated and squabbling, fanning the flames of conflict. Even Nemu had somehow joined the squabbling party. Only a few people weren’t participating in this battle royale. Those people had their heads lowered to the table, and the most prominent one of them was Nfirea.

“…Powdered ruby… arcane feathers… ashwood pestle… mor… mortar… tar… tatas?”

Nfirea was muttering to himself as he spooned the food into his mouth, but the food in the spoon hadn’t even reached his mouth before it went back to the bowl. His eyes weren’t visible due to his long hair, but in all likelihood he was walking on the thin line between dreams and reality.

“Enfi, are you alright?”

The goblins were still arguing, and although it probably wasn’t safe to leave them alone for too long lest the conflict spiral out of control, Nfirea was really out of it, and she couldn’t ignore him. He was most likely suffering from sleep deprivation, judging by the way he’d begun wobbling the moment he sat down, as though he’d fall over to his side at any moment. When he actually started on breakfast, he looked like a zombie, completely bereft of life or animation.

“Ah… don’t… worry… about… me… Enri…hu…”

“Hey, Enfi, get it together!”

“Weren’t you the one who said ‘Nemu was mai waifu’ and all that earlier?”

“That was then, this is now. I only just realised it recently. I used to think since Nemu-san was ten and was about the same height as us, that she was of a marriageable age. But humans… they only consider them adults at fifteen!”

“Eh? Is that true….? Ane-san isn’t a species like hob-human??”

The goblins leapt from topic to topic with incomparable speed. Enri wanted to ask them what a ‘hob-human’ was, but before she could open her mouth, the goblins had already gotten tired of the discussion and started a whole new argument for everyone to participate in.

“Ah! You stole my bread!”

“My wolf’s still hungry, don’t be such a tightwad!”

“Everyone!”

Although Enri was shouting at this point, her voice still couldn’t carry over the racket the goblins were generating. Spoons and plates were flying, while shouts and angry roars rose and fell like waves in a storm-tossed bay. Of course, everything being thrown was empty, because none of the goblins would even dream of wasting the food Enri made for them. Still, it was utterly inexcusable.

Steeling herself, Enri furrowed her brows and took a deep breath.

“Don’t wolves eat meat? Just because you’re higher level than me, don’t go thinking I can’t whup you fist to fist!”

“Fist to fist, you say? Since you’re so hungry, how about a knuckle sandwich?”

And just as Enri stood up, everyone immediately returned to their seats and calmly resumed their meal as though nothing was wrong.

“ALL OF YOU, QUIT MAKING A RACKET!”

Enri’s furious bellow echoed across the silent air above the breakfast table.

“Ah…”

Surprised, Enri looked all around, but the only thing she could see were the goblins looking at her with expressions on their faces which said, “We were all quietly having breakfast, is that a problem”, or “being suddenly shouted at for no reason at is really vexing”. After standing silently for a while, she plopped back into her seat, red-faced.

“Pfhahahahaha!”

The first to break the silence was Nemu. Then, unable to contain herself, Enri followed suit, clutching her stomach as she laughed and then the goblins joined in as well.

That flawless coordination and timing could not have taken place without careful discussion and preparation. It was quite amazing how seriously they prepared for prank like this.

“Ah, that was just weird. Were you all planning to make fun of me from the start?”

Even though she was tearing up because she was laughing too hard, Enri made a show of being angry and asked.

“Of course, Ane-san. We wouldn’t argue about things like this for real.”

“That’s right, Ane-san.”

“Yup, yup!”

The goblins were unrepentantly blathering on, deflecting Enri’s questions with jovial expressions on their faces. In response, Enri focused on Kaijali, turning a fierce stare on him. Under her stern gaze, Kaijali wilted, averting his eyes as he responded in a small voice that abdicated all responsibility.

“You see, how do I say this… we thought Ane-san looked a little down.”

Several nearby goblins shrank away, their heads lowered as they looked around uncomfortably without saying a word.

“Everyone―”

“That’s because… we’re all Ane-san’s bodyguards.”

“That’s right!”

“Yep! Bodyguards!”

“We put a lot of thought in how to look good as your escort.”

“That’s right, that’s right. Now, Ane-san and Nemu-san, stand here, in the middle, like this…”

“Eh? I have to go over too?”

“Of course you do, now, the two of you, raise both your arms like this, that’s right, in a totally cool and awesome way…”

Even if she gave them the benefit of the doubt, this pose made them look like frogs stretching their arms out to the sky.

“Look, I understand your good intentions, and to begin with, you don’t need to be my bodyguards… right, Enfi?”

Enri turned her head to her childhood friend sitting beside her for aid, but found that there was nobody there.

She had a bad feeling about this, but still shifted her line of sight down just a little bit… and found that Nfirea’s head was resting face down in his bowl of soup.