Chapter 2: The Name of That Emotion is "Jealousy"

Having promised to forget what I saw and receiving her forgiveness, I placed Meal—who had woken up at some point and was playing around chasing a butterfly—on my head and returned to the elf village with Sarona-san.

During the short walk back, we talked about various things, like how the twins, Yuyuna and Ruruna, were always teasing her, or how the monsters in the forest had been a bit more active lately so I should be careful. When we arrived back at the village, the twins, Siena-chan, and the elf guards were waiting for us at the entrance.

However, for some reason, Siena-chan had an angry, pouty look on her face. Siena-chan pointed right at me. “Wazu-onii-chan! You already have me, and you’re already cheating?!”

Oh geez, this kid! What is a ten-year-old girl saying?! I shifted my gaze to the likely culprit, Ruruna, but she vehemently shook her head and waved her hands as if to say, “It wasn’t me!”

Then who was it? I was still giving Ruruna a suspicious look when I looked closely and saw a familiar silhouette hiding behind a tree behind the twins. It was Siena-chan’s mother. The culprit has been identified. Or rather, what are you teaching your child?! I fear for the future of this mother-daughter duo. If she’s like this now, what will she be like in the future…

While I was shuddering at the imagined future of this duo, Siena-chan stomped over to us and, just as she had pointed at me, she pointed her finger at Sarona-san. “Even if the person you’re cheating with is Sarona-onee-chan, I won’t forgive you! But, if Sarona-onee-chan is going to become a member of Wazu-onii-chan’s harem, I will generously welcome her!”

Saying that, Siena-chan puffed out her nonexistent chest. …Seriously, what’s with this kid? She’s giving off serious big-shot vibes…

Watching this, the twins seemed unable to hold it in anymore and started stomping their feet in laughter, while Siena-chan’s mother looked somewhat pleased with her daughter’s growth. While I was exasperated with those three, Sarona-san responded to Siena-chan’s words.

“Fufu… That’s a delightful offer. You’re right, then why don’t the two of us make Wazu-san happy together?” “Yeah!” Sarona-san gently patted Siena-chan’s head.

She’s an adult. That was a perfectly mature response. But at the same time, it also meant she saw zero romantic potential in me. I wonder why… thinking about it makes a part of me feel a little disappointed. Also, the twins looking at me with their usual smirks pissed me off.

After that, Sarona-san and Siena-chan held hands like good friends and walked into the village. In a way, that childish side of her was heartwarming, but as the one left behind, I couldn’t help but feel a little lonely. The twins walked up to me and consoled me, saying, “Now, now, it’s just a kid being a kid,” as we entered the village. They told me breakfast was ready, so we headed back to their house.

While eating a breakfast of salad and fruit with the twins, we discussed my plans for the future. As I was wondering what to do next, the twins invited me to stay in the village for a while. Since I didn’t have anywhere in particular to go, I thought I might as well rest my bones here for a bit. The mountain environment had been harsh, after all… well, I got completely used to it halfway through, though.

Now then, if that was the case, food and the like were plentiful in the surrounding forest, and in the worst-case scenario, I could just pop into the mountain and hunt some monsters. But as for a place to sleep, I’d have to ask the elves. Wondering what to do, I asked the twins if there was anywhere I could stay. When I asked if there was a shed or anywhere I could sleep, they told me I could just keep staying here, so I decided to take them up on their offer. They explained that their parents had already passed away, and since it was just the two of them using the house, I could use it without hesitation. I thanked them and said I’d be in their care.

A few dozen days passed since I started freeloading at the twins’ house.

I had been going around the village with the twins as my guides, chatting with Sarona-san and Siena-chan when I ran into them, and going into the forest to hunt monsters. However, the twins’ movements looked as if they were trained in martial arts, and when I thought about it and looked at them, their builds seemed better than the other elves. So, while taking a walk in the forest with them, I asked about it.

The twins told me they belonged to the “Protectors,” a unique elven self-defense group tasked with guarding the village. During that conversation, I learned that Sarona-san was both the leader of the village Protectors and their strongest warrior. Sarona-san really is an amazing person, huh.

While listening with an impressed “Hehh~,” I casually asked something that came to mind. “So that’s why she was there when Siena-chan was kidnapped by that group… Do things like that happen often?” “Hm? Well…”

At my question, Yuyuna answered with a slightly displeased look, as if he had bitten into a bitter bug. “It doesn’t happen that often… but it’s definitely something we’ve heard about since the old days… The bastards who target us elves never seem to disappear, no matter how much time passes…” “Exactly! Why are elves always targeted like this? Even though we’re humans too!” Ruruna agreed with Yuyuna, her voice filled with indignation.

Yuyuna, Ruruna… that’s because all elves are incredibly beautiful. I found it strange that they didn’t realize that, but I sort of had an idea why. Elves often live deep in the forest. In a sense, that environment is closed off. That means the only people around elves are other elves. Even though their stunning looks stand out to outsiders, growing up in that kind of environment makes it seem normal. Because everyone around them is just as beautiful.

What a luxurious environment. Though they are completely unaware of it themselves. Still, if that’s “normal” to elves, what does my completely average face look like to them… Let’s stop. This is something I shouldn’t think about. Others are others. I’ll just be me.

While I was looking enviously at the twins, they abruptly stopped walking and both glared in the same direction. Following their gaze, I saw three elves standing there.

“…? Is there something wrong with those three?” “Nothing’s wrong… I’m just pissed off that Gazna is here.” “Gazna?” “A super awful guy!”

Hearing the twins’ words, I looked at the three again. Out of the three, two were young male elves around my age with fearless faces, wearing practical, green-themed elven clothes and carrying bows and arrows. The other one, however, had his blonde hair slicked back and a handsome, slightly older face. Unusually for an elf, his body was covered in a black robe. Most likely, the one wearing the black robe was Gazna. When I checked with the twins, they confirmed it.

The young elves seemed to be explaining something to Gazna with desperate looks on their faces. Normally, the distance would make it impossible to hear their conversation, but with my abnormal body, their voices reached my ears clearly.

“Like we’re telling you, Sarona-san is in trouble!” “She stayed behind to let us escape!” …Hm? In trouble? Sarona-san is? “Even if you run up to me and scream ‘trouble’, I can’t grasp the situation. Could you briefly explain what happened?”

When Gazna told them to calm down, the two elves took a breath to steady themselves before recalling their actions. “We headed into the forest to gather wild vegetables like always. But today, we took a different path than usual for a change of pace… That was a mistake.” “A monster appeared in front of us… We’re somewhat confident in our skills, so if it had been a low-rank monster, it wouldn’t have been a problem… but the thing that appeared was a giant scorpion, easily several times our size…” “We instantly turned on our heels and ran… We fired arrows, but they couldn’t pierce its hard shell. Despite its size, that giant scorpion moved incredibly fast, and as it cornered us, we thought we were going to be killed.” “But just then, Sarona-san appeared with a shout telling us to run, and she started fighting to draw the giant scorpion’s attention to herself… So please, get reinforcements quickly! No matter how strong Sarona-san is, at this rate, that scorpion will kill her!”

Hearing their desperate words, Gazna placed a hand on both of their shoulders. “I see, I understand the situation. That is worrying. Then let us hurry back to the village, gather reinforcements, and head to Sarona. Now, make haste.”

Relieved by Gazna’s words, the two elves started running toward the village with him, but my eyes didn’t miss it. The moment the two elves’ eyes turned toward the village, Gazna flashed a foul, hideous smirk. It was a smile that seemed to say this situation was perfectly convenient for him. I felt that Gazna’s words were a lie and that he fully intended to abandon Sarona-san. It was such an ugly smile that just seeing it made me feel a deep sense of disgust toward him.

Come to think of it, when I first arrived at the village, I sensed malice directed at Sarona-san. I suddenly wondered if it had been Gazna. But right now, I didn’t have the time to verify that.

I immediately relayed the information I had just heard to the twins. Realizing the gravity of the situation, the twins hurriedly decided to rush to Sarona-san, but the problem was where exactly she was. Since we couldn’t afford to waste a single second, we couldn’t afford to run in the wrong direction.

“Then what do we do?! Standing around here won’t help!” “I know that! I want to rush out to save her right this second! But we don’t know where to go, so we can’t do anything!” “We’ll figure it out if we just start moving!” “And what if we run in the complete opposite direction?!” “…That’s!” “Kyui! Kyui!”

While the twins argued and Meal chirped as if to scold them, I closed my eyes. I took a deep breath, calmed my panicked heart, and slowly spread my consciousness into the surroundings, letting it seep in. —It’s fine… with my current physical abilities and skills, I should be able to do this…

As I expanded my “Presence Detection” skill, a variety of information poured in. The arrangement of the trees, Gazna and the others heading to the village, the beasts and monsters living in the forest… As all this data flooded my mind, the information I was searching for finally arrived. Some distance away from here, I sensed the presence of Sarona-san moving frantically.

I immediately opened my eyes and turned to the twins. “This way! Let’s go!” “Huh? What? What do you mean?” “W-Wait! You can’t just suddenly say ‘this way’—” “Gah! I’ll explain later!”

Feeling Meal grip my head tightly in anticipation of my intent, I grabbed the twins’ hands and forcibly dragged them along as I dashed off. Since, no matter how you look at it, this is way faster. Kicking up a cloud of dust, we moved at an extraordinary speed. I could hear the twins screaming from behind me, but that was a trivial matter right now.

Exploding through the forest, I arrived at a spot where I could see the location I had sensed in the blink of an eye. What reflected in my eyes was the sight of Sarona-san fighting desperately against a giant scorpion. Several arrows were stuck in the giant scorpion’s shell, but they were far from fatal, and it was moving at a speed unimaginable for its massive size.

Sarona-san was reacting properly to the giant scorpion’s movements, dodging its claw attacks and deflecting them with her knife to avoid fatal wounds. Rivers of sweat ran down her face and she was breathing heavily, making it clear she was pushed to her absolute limit. Still, seeing her relatively unharmed was a relief.

I looked back to tell the twins that Sarona-san was safe, but their eyes were spinning. They were wobbling unsteadily and seemed to need a little more time to regain their senses, so I let go of their hands and turned my gaze back to Sarona-san.

At that exact moment, Sarona-san took a direct hit from the giant scorpion’s pincer and was sent flying high into the air. Then, the tip of the giant scorpion’s tail gave an ominous glow. The instant I saw it moving to impale the defenseless Sarona-san in midair, I poured strength into my body and dashed forward with explosive acceleration.

“What do you think you’re doing, you piece of shiiiiiit!”

Closing the distance to the giant scorpion in a flash, I unleashed my anger and delivered a brutal kick to the tail closing in on Sarona-san. With an explosive BAM!, the part of the tail I kicked shattered and flew off. I grabbed the remaining stump of the tail, stabilized my posture, used it as a springboard to jump into the air, caught Sarona-san in a princess carry, and landed gracefully on the ground.

In the time it took to land, I did a quick visual check of Sarona-san. She had a few cuts here and there, but there didn’t seem to be any danger to her life.

“Thank goodness you’re safe.” “Kyu!” “W-Wazu-san?”

When I smiled, happy that she was okay, and Meal raised one foot in greeting, Sarona-san looked up at me with an expression of shock. Huh? Why is she surprised? Ah, right. It’s because I appeared out of nowhere. As I nodded in understanding, I saw the twins running toward us.

“U-Um… could you please put me down for now? I mean… I’m sweaty… and the smell…” “Eh? I don’t really mind, though?” “I-I-I-Is that so? Then… I guess it’s fine…”

Just as Sarona-san had been flailing in my arms, her face suddenly turned bright red, and she quickly averted her eyes from me. Huh? Did I say something weird?

“Sarona! Are you okay?!” “Sarona!”

Since the twins arrived, I set Sarona-san down. The twins looked her over carefully to confirm she was safe, then rejoiced. Sarona-san also assured them that she was unharmed.

“Alright then, Sarona-san is safe, so I’ll leave the re—” “Kishaaaaaaaah!”

Interrupting my words with a monstrous screech, a giant pincer clamped down on my body.

“W-Wazu-san!” “Wazu!” “Kyaaaah! …Wait, huh?”

“Heave-ho,” I said as I pried the pincer open, and briskly walked away from the spot. Hearing the sound of the pincer snapping shut behind me, I turned back to the three of them.

“Sarona-san is safe, so leave the rest to me!” “””He re-said it!”””

All three of them played the straight man at the same time. Well, I mean, normally you’d restart the sentence, right? …Wait? Maybe people don’t normally restart their sentences? Hmm, the influence of living on the mountain is showing up in places like this, too…

While I was pondering common sense, the twins rushed over to me.

“No, no, wait, more importantly, are you okay?!” “Eh? I’m completely fine? Like, literally nothing happened.” “No, no, no, ‘nothing happened’… Do you realize what just happened? You were crushed by a giant scorpion’s pincer!” “Liiiike I saiiiid, I’m perfectly fine!”

I tried to tell the twins that I was safe, but they didn’t believe me at all. So, telling them to check as much as they liked, I thrust my body out toward them.

“…Fufu… Ahaha! You got clamped by a pincer, yet you’re completely fine… Fufu… Wazu-san, you’re incredibly sturdy, aren’t you?”

While the twins were patting and checking my body, Sarona-san suddenly started laughing. It must have been incredibly funny to her, because she was holding her stomach and cracking up. Was there a joke somewhere in there? I tilted my head at seeing this side of Sarona-san for the first time, and the twins were tilting their heads in the exact same way.

“S-Sarona?” “Fufu… sorry, Ruruna, just give me a second… fufu…”

Sarona-san held up a hand to stop Ruruna’s worried voice. Is this one of those things? The type where once she starts laughing, she can’t stop?

A rather peaceful atmosphere began to flow, but as if to destroy it, the giant scorpion’s pincer came thrusting toward us again. Sarona-san and the twins noticed and reacted instantly, but before they could, I leaped out, caught the pincer with one hand, and glared right at the giant scorpion.

“You stupid scorpion… stop! getting! in! the! waaaay!”

With a crunch!, I dug the hand holding the pincer into its shell, flexed my strength, and effortlessly lifted the giant scorpion into the air. The giant scorpion frantically wiggled its legs trying to escape, but I tossed it straight up and leaped into the air toward the airborne beast.

“For now, just die!”

I clenched my fist tightly and punched it with all my might, and the giant scorpion exploded in a spectacular burst of sound. Below, it literally rained giant scorpion blood, and as the remaining chunks of its body plopped onto the ground, I executed a flawless landing. Giving a thumbs up as if to say, ‘I did it!’, I turned back toward Sarona-san and the others.

Standing there were the three of them, completely drenched in the giant scorpion blood that had rained from the sky.

“Wazuuu… We get that you’re way stronger than we imagined, but… could you maybe take us into consideration a little more when you act…?” “Yeah, really… Being covered in blood is just too much… What are you going to do if this stains?”

The twins let out their anger. I could only respond with a wry smile. My thumbs-up naturally withered away and lowered.

“…Fufu… ahahaha! I can’t! I can’t hold it in! Yuyuna and Ruruna’s appearances, and this whole situation is just too hilarious!”

Perhaps Sarona-san’s laughter was contagious, because we naturally broke into smiles as well, and after looking at each other’s faces, we all started laughing.

“Hahaha! Hey, hey, Sarona, you look exactly like us right now! It’s pretty bad, you know?” “Pfft… Yeah, you really should check yourself, too. More importantly, the guy who caused this is completely spotless… This is an unforgivable situation, isn’t it?” “Ah! Ruruna is completely right!”

The three of them, suddenly finding common ground, began to inch their way toward me. …Hmm… this is one of those… really bad situations, isn’t it?

Considering I was the one who caused this mess, I couldn’t exactly go all out and run away. I was caught before long, and they made sure I ended up looking exactly like the three of them. The moment I was caught by the three, Meal had instantly detached herself and was watching from the sky as I got done in… Fufufu… It’s no good if Meal is left out, right?