(203) Younger sister route 5
Translator: Tseirp
Miri was wary of that group from the Church ― or rather they seemed organized more like an army.
Miri said to let sleeping dogs lie but as people who serve the Goddess, I figured that they wouldn’t attack us that easily. Even if they did assault us, Miri and I were very capable of turning the tables on them.
“Onii, you can’t underestimate the Church. Once you become their enemy, you will become the enemy of all humankind. Since the Church is a place where its teaching can even extend to killing gods.”
“To preach to kill gods, isn’t that getting their priorities backward? It’s like selling the land you plan to use to build a house to raise funds to build a house.”
“Hn, I think they’re a little different but …”
I tried using a metaphor I came up on the spot but as expected I couldn’t deceive Miri by going with the flow.
Well, Miri was the Demon Lord in her previous life so she was probably hunted down by the Church. Or rather, the hero certainly belonged to the Church so it can be said that she was killed by the Church. Moreover, it was also the Church that sold Haru into slavery and executed Haru’s father.
Thinking about it that way, I probably can’t get along easily with the Church.
Nevertheless, I was helped by the Hero Alessio at Ferruit and have been aided quite a bit by the Hero’s companion Daijiro-san ― or more specifically, I probably wouldn’t have been able to travel the world so smoothly once I came to this world if it wasn’t for Daijiro-san.
“Well, you might think I’m the worst kind of human being to say this but I have to be thankful for the Church.”
“Thankful for the Church? Why? Don’t tell me it’s because you received the blessings of the Goddesses? If not for the Church, I wouldn’t have had to die in my previous life.”
“That’s true. That’s why, without the Church, Miri wouldn’t have become my younger sister.”
I smiled as I said that and placed my hand on Miri’s head.
Perhaps she was caught off guard as Miri’s eyes became rounded and maybe she was embarrassed or angry for having been treated as a child as her cheeks dyed red and she snapped back.
“Onii, don’t say such words that set’s a person’s teeth on edge to other girls okay. You will be misunderstood.”
“Hn? Misunderstood? I really feel fortunate to be with Miri like this though?”
” … Hah.”
Miri sighed as if she gave up.
“Ah. I actually feel bad that I caused you to fall into a difficult situation that you had to kill yourself but don’t sigh because of that.”
“Sheesh, Onii has always been like this. It’s fine. I’ll always be with Onii after all.”
“No, you will one day find a nice guy and get married. Well, if there is a person out there who would take a selfish miser like you ― ouch!”
Miri kicked my shin. It hurt quite a bit.
My words just now did certainly sound like the sexual harassment of a father.
But if Miri really brought a boyfriend for me to see and introduce to me, what would I do?
Shall I give him a punch in place of our father? “You actually laid your hands on my cute sister! Shut up and take one of my punches!” or something like that.
“I still don’t have another half like that. Leaving that aside, what about Onii? Norn seems to hold quite some gratitude towards Onii.”
“Norn-san huh. Haha, I saved Norn-san when she was attacked by bandits so it’s only a feeling of gratitude. Even on my end, I only feel gratitude towards Norn-san for helping me when I was injured when Kobolds attacked me.”
“Then, Onii doesn’t like Norn as a person of the opposite sex?”
“Hahaha, it would be discourteous towards Norn-san if I had such thoughts.”
I replied. If I was a self-conceited person, I would wonder if she actually had feelings towards me by sending Miri all the way over here. However, I am a human capable of calm judgment. I understood that Norn-san did all that in order to repay me for saving her life.
“I see … so Onii doesn’t feel anything towards Norn. I guess I can let Norn go for now.”
Hn? I thought I heard something along the line of letting someone go for now?
Don’t tell me this Miri. She plans to punch my marriage partner once I bring her over?
Although I’ve never heard of younger sisters punching their elder brother’s wife candidate before marriage, if my predictions were true, currently Haru was facing the greatest danger.
Well, Haru was Miri’s previous reincarnation’s beloved girl after all so they should be able to get along well. Moreover, Miri who loved to make money should be able to build rapport well with Carol who is active as a peddler.
Thank god. It looks like a wife-sister-in-law war won’t happen.
Looks like it will be easier to introduce Haru and Carol as my future marriage partners. Well, I don’t intend to touch Carol until she reaches 18 so marriage will have to wait till after then.
“Nevertheless, those Church people don’t seem that keen on leaving. I wonder what happened?”
I thought and checked the surroundings of the Church people.
That was when a shadow of a black human-shaped figure appeared from within the walls.
When the Church squad saw that, they took out a coffin-like box from a small bag.
“That looks like an item bag.”
“I guess ― But, is that black shadow a monster?”
“I’m not sure. I’ve never seen a monster like that before.”
Just as Miri said that, the Church squad opened the lid to that coffin-like box.
The black shadow willingly entered that box and the lid was shut.
And the box was once again stored inside the item bag.
A living organism cannot enter an item bag.
Even though an undead can’t be deemed as living, it still maintained a moveable state so they also can’t be stored in an item bag.
In other words, that was not a monster after all?
” … A Homunculus like Pionia can’t enter an item bag either right? But an Automata like Sheena can so maybe it was some kind of magical life form. I’ve heard rumors that the Church was doing research on it.”
“Magical life form huh? It looked more like a kind of monstrous apparition(youkai) instead.”
The Church squad finally left.
However, we didn’t know if they would come back so we quickly moved to the lower level.
If I was alone, I would have investigated that wall that the black shadow came out from.
But like Miri said, to let sleeping dogs lie.
And then, we found a large field of grass growing right in front of the lowest level boss room.
“Which are the Kiriri grass?”
The grass all seemed the same and I couldn’t differentiate between them.
I’m capable of Food, Metal and Mineral Appraisal but I didn’t have Plant Appraisal.
That was a skill that Harvesters acquire so Carol had it.
“There’s no helping it. I’ll open a door to My World and call Carol so that she can help us look for it.”
“There’s no need for that. I memorized all plants there are.”
Miri surveyed the plants.
“Hn, there are a few of them but their quality is not good enough to be used for medicine. Kiriri grass weakens when subjected to monster miasma.”
“Then maybe we can harvest their seeds and grow them in My World? I can grow them in an instant.”
“I think that is fine too but I believe they also grow where the Goddess statue is at the back of the boss room so maybe we can decide after we check there.”
“Boss room huh … incidentally, what is the boss of this dungeon?”
“Ah. I think it’s a monster Onii likes?”
I listened to the features of the boss and felt a surge of motivation.
That’s because the boss was.
“Blue Eel. A natural eel monster.”
My favorite food.