༺ Finding A Place Is Hard! (3) ༻
Salome declared.
“I’m Naru’s mother.”
Her tone was decisive, as if she was simply enunciating a fact.
Brigitte scowled at her overly confident voice.
“What did you just say?”
“Didn’t you hear? I’m likely to be Naru’s mother. I’ve heard everything, you know? That Naru came from the future, six years from now.”
Salome spoke boldly with her veiled face.
Upon hearing this, Brigitte looked at me and retorted as if it was absurd.
“Judas, we shouldn’t talk about Naru carelessly…! She might be in danger…!”
Brigitte’s retort was justified.
If the rumor that Naru came from six years in the future spread, it would undoubtedly cause a lot of trouble.
Of course, I knew this well and didn’t tell people unless necessary.
However, the situation with Salome was a bit special, so I ended up telling her everything in the flow of the conversation.
And now that I think about it, it really was a foolish thing to do.
I ended up revealing a deadly secret to the one person who should never know.
Salome then added.
“Naru has a talent for thievery. That talent runs in her blood. Wouldn’t I, who was once called the Princess of the Back Alleys, be a fitting candidate for Naru’s mother?”
It was a sound argument in its own way.
The talent for thievery that Naru possessed was definitely inherited from her parents.
“You being Naru’s mother….”
Honestly, I had never considered the possibility of Salome being Naru’s mother.
But hearing it, it sounded somewhat plausible.
“Naru, what do you think? Does she seem like your mother?”
I asked Naru, who was listening quietly to the adults’ conversation with wide-eyed innocence. Then Naru circled around Salome and hugged her leg.
“…It feels familiar somehow! If I hug a little more, I think I might remember!”
A familiar feeling?
She thinks she might remember?
Could Salome really be Naru’s mother?
If so, that means I reconciled with Salome and even got married in the future where Naru was born and grew up.
What on earth happened?
Did my future self make progress with Salome again while taking down Jack?
While I was thinking about this, Sifnoi also nodded her head.
“Indeed, are you the thief who was called the Princess of the Back Alleys? Little Kore Naru shows the qualities of a despicable thief… It’s a reasonable guess…!”
Sifnoi seemed convinced, Brigitte on the other hand, asked Naru again.
“Naru, think again. Didn’t your mother have a large chest? But this thief here does not have a large chest.”
Indeed, Brigitte’s reasoning was quite sound.
Salome, the agile thief.
Her chest size was not small, but it was also not so large.
“Now that I think about it, they do seem smaller than Mom’s….”
Naru, with her arms crossed, nodded.
She must have looked at Salome’s chest.
Then Salome spoke from behind her veil.
“Don’t breasts grow when you have a child? That’s common sense. It seems like mages are so focused on magic research that they don’t know about human biology. That’s why you’re still not married at 25 years of age.”
“…This bitch…!”
Zap—
Electricity twirled in Brigitte’s hand.
Brigitte, who could cast up to a 3rd circle magic without chanting, was preparing an attack spell.
Probably a Lightning Arrow containing the three words ‘Lightning, Destruction, Arrow’.
I can’t recount how many villains, thieves and monsters have been ended by that one spell.
Everyone who got hit by it would immediately collapse
I was hit by it in the past, and it really made my hair stand on end.
“Return my clothes, you thief!”
Zap—
Finally, unable to hold back, Brigitte fired a lightning arrow at the thief.
Of course, Salome leaped gracefully and jumped to the mansion’s roof in a flash.
“Anyway, I just came to say hello. So, see you later, Judas.”
Pop—
With those words, Salome disappeared into the dim evening darkness.
What did that girl come to do?
* * *
“I’ve only cleared about a tenth of it.”
It was late in the evening.
I had cleared the clutter and garbage from the entrance of the gate to the entrance of the mansion building.
It was quite a time-consuming task, even with my transcendent abilities.
“I’ll have to do the rest tomorrow. Brigitte, can I crash at your lab for the day? It feels a bit shameless to ask this of you after you helped clean.”
“Do as you like. But, since there won’t be time to cook dinner, we’ll have to eat outside.”
“Oh, holy shh… Naru likes eating out…!”
Naru raised her hand with excitement.
She then spoke again.
“There’s a restaurant near here, on 5th Street, where I used to go with Mom and Dad! They have a children’s menu, and they used to give out small toys if you eat…!”
Pop—
Naru grabbed my hand and Brigitte’s and pulled us.
Soon, the restaurant that she said she used to frequent with her parents appeared.
It was just an ordinary restaurant.
The menu was simple with meat, bread, soup, wine, etc.
“No children’s menu?”
Naru tilted her head while looking at the menu.
Perhaps there’s a difference between what she remembered and the actual menu?
Well, this is six years in the past.
The world as Naru knew it would be different in many ways.
Naru looked disappointed and puckered her lips.
“Then Naru will have the tomato spaghetti here! Naru loves tomato spaghetti!”
“This Sifnoi… will have pancakes with strawberry jam…! Pancakes that cost 50,000 Arc per plate… I will try it myself to see what it tastes like…!”
Sifnoi and Naru had already decided on their food.
Next, the menu was handed to me.
I ordered a decent soup, bread, and a glass of wine.
A few minutes later.The food came out quickly.
It was surprisingly decent.
As the meal time came to an end.
I asked Sifnoi, who had been chatting about this and that.
“So, Sifnoi, what were you doing in Jack’s hideout?”
“This Sifnoi… after the dissolution of the Demon King’s Subjugation Party… was wandering around the world in search of the legendary ‘Skeleton Key’…!”
“Oh, holy shh…! Skeleton Key! Naru knows what it is! I heard it’s a treasure that can pick all the locks and locking mechanisms in the world!”
Perhaps it’s because she had been drinking wine?
Brigitte, whose face was slightly red, added with a chuckle.
“Come to think of it, Sifnoi, you joined the Demon King’s Party to find the Skeleton Key. But it wasn’t in the Demon King’s treasure vault. Isn’t it just a thing from a legend?”
“This Sifnoi doesn’t think so…! I thought a famous thief might have it, so I sneaked into Jack’s hideout… and ended up… somewhat in the middle of a management position…!”
I see.
She has a good social disposition, after all.
Sifnoi was frankly rather noisy and interesting, maybe he just kept her around like a radio.
Don’t famous pirates usually have a parrot or a monkey, right?
Sifnoi must’ve been something like that.
“In the end, I couldn’t find the key… But, being next to Judas or Brigitte will increase the chances of a legendary treasure appearing…! Sifnoi is going to be freeloading for a while…!”
I see.
And thus our meal continued.
Glug— Glug— Glug—
Brigitte’s glass filled up with red wine several times.
I said to Brigitte.
“Aren’t you drinking too much?”
“Don’t worry. I won’t get drunk with this much.”
Her face was flushed as she said that.
Soon, Brigitte banged on the table.
“That thieving bitch, just wait until I catch her.”
I see.
It seems her anger towards Salome was what made her prone to drinking today.
Brigitte had been unilaterally provoked and harmed by her so that was only natural.
Soon, Brigitte asked.
“Judas, do you think so too?”
“Think what?”
“Do you think Salome could be Naru’s mother?”
“Well, if you ask me, it’s not impossible. After all, Salome is a mature woman who can bear children.”
“Then, that woman. Couldn’t that woman also be Naru’s mother? That woman too? That woman too? Aren’t all of them mature enough to bear children?”
Brigitte pointed at the women in the restaurant.
I had no choice but to nod at that.
“Well, they all have a chance. Most women are all potentially Naru’s mother. They’re in a potentially motherly state.”
“Does this include this Sifnoi?”
“No. Even so, definitely not you.”
“… That makes sense!”
Sifnoi and I laughed as Brigitte clicked her tongue.
Then she frowned and said to me.
“So you’re saying any woman will do, you bastard. Just like Cariote and Cecily. And Salome. A thief with no integrity or principles…”
Brigitte was really angry.
I’ve felt this before, but Brigitte has a surprisingly low boiling point.
She couldn’t easily endure being provoked.
Because of this nature, there were several times when the Demon King’s Subjugation Party faced a crisis due to her succumbing to being provoked
Of course, those crises were all overcome by the firepower of an enraged Brigitte.
“Urgh, I didn’t choose to age. Time passes quickly. Before I knew it, I was twenty-five… But I’m not old enough to be called an aunty…”
“Naru is sleepy now!”
Naru yawned.
It was getting late.
“Should we get up? Brigitte seems pretty drunk.”
Drag—
I pushed the chair and stood up.
We stood in front of the counter, waiting for Brigitte to pull out her wallet, because I didn’t have money, Naru obviously didn’t, and Sifnoi just got out of prison and didn’t have any too.
Rustle—
However, as she rummaged through her pockets, Brigitte’s face gradually changed.
“Eh…? M-My wallet…”
She frowned as if she’d realized something.
“That thieving bitch─.!”
Is this for real?
I don’t have money either.
I thought Brigitte would naturally pay.
We had no choice but to leave a tab at the shop.
It only worked because we were famous.
“That thieving bitch, just wait until I catch her!”
Brigitte’s anger pierced the sky.
It’s always been like this between thieves and mages.
Stagger—
With a mix of anger and drunkenness, Brigitte kept staggering.
I offered my shoulder to her, and Brigitte said somewhat gruffly.
“Judas, do you think the same?”
“What now?”
“Do you think it’s too late for me to get married?”
Too late to get married?
Brigitte was the same age as me.
25 years old.
I don’t really think it’s too late to get married at this age.
But that’s my perspective as a 21st-century human, and in this continent of Pangea, most women at 25 would have already been married and had children.
Of course, there were plenty of successful mages like Brigitte, career women who chose not to marry and live alone.
From the start, it seemed mages believed that getting married would lead to a loss of magical power.
So I thought Brigitte wouldn’t care about age or marriage, but she seemed more sensitive than I had expected.
I said to Brigitte.
“I’m not sure. And I think you might be Naru’s mother.”
“What do you mean by that?”
“Well….”
I awkwardly scratched my nose.
Before we knew it, we had arrived at Brigitte’s lab.
There was a letter posted outside the lab, on a luxurious-looking purple paper.
There was also a seal with a butterfly pattern on the envelope.
Upon seeing that, Brigitte reached out rather violently.
Plop—
She dropped the envelope on the floor and began to read its contents.
As her breathing started to become rough, Sifnoi picked up the letter envelope, examined it, and said.
“A butterfly pattern… one of the ruling families in the west, the symbol of the Walpurgis…! No wonder the envelope gives off such a luxurious vibe…!”
Walpurgis, was that Brigitte’s family?
I remember that they were a famous magical family.
As I was recalling this, Brigitte finally ripped the letter.
And then she said.
“When will they ever learn to mind their own business? Coming here now and trying to play the role of a family? Those damn bastards.”
I wonder what’s going on.
I wanted to ask, but I kept my mouth shut.
A foreboding sensation crept over me, sending a shiver down my spine just like when the Warrior was injured by a saw trap in the Demon King’s Castle.
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