Small Talk: Being Too Lenient Is Nothing But Trouble… For Me! (POV: Shinki)
“SHINKI, where are we going?”
This punk wasn’t listening to a thing Miss Neema said again…
I told Kai we were going to the elemental palace, and he nodded dispassionately.
If you don’t care, why even bother asking?
At Kai’s feet, Inaho was jumping around excitedly as if saying, “Put me in already!”
“Miss Neema said she was going to carry you, Inaho…” I reminded the little kyubi, but Inaho let out a petulant “Kyun!” of protest. “If you don’t like it, take it up with Miss Neema.”
Inaho was completely enamored by the feeling of being inside the sack because she poutily insisted she would be riding in there.
I relayed this message to my mistress, who easily caved and allowed the change in plans.
Overjoyed, Inaho leapt headfirst into the sack, which Kai picked up and fastened across his chest. Inaho scuttled around a bit inside the sack, and her tails disappeared… only to pop back out a moment later.
“You’re going to fall out if you move around too much. Don’t expect Kai to catch you if you fall.” I had no idea what she was doing in there, but I gave her a stern warning just to be safe.
“Kyun!”
She said she understood, but I wasn’t sure she really did. Kai’s arms transformed into wings in his bird form, so if she fell out while he was flying, there was no way for him to grab her without falling from the sky himself.
If Inaho was going to ride in one of the sacks, either Seigo or Rikusei would be displaced. Thankfully, the issue was easily resolved when Rikusei eagerly volunteered to be carried by our mistress.
“Hey, hey, Shinki! The beloved child is going to the elemental palace too, right?”
“If we ask the elemental kings, they might let us play with her!”
“Help us convince them, pleeeease, Shinki!”
The bugs were being annoying again today. They would be a nuisance whether or not you acknowledged them, so I’d found it best to just ignore them.
We made good time, and before long, we arrived in the elemental forest, where, as you might imagine, the number of bugs increased exponentially.
With my mistress’s arrival, they were all shrieking with almost hysterical joy, “The beloved child! She’s here! It’s really her!”
“Was that an elemental spirit?!”
Miss Neema could see the elemental spirits within these woods, and the sudden revelation had surprised her.
That Emperor Linus guy hadn’t realized she couldn’t normally see elemental spirits. He began explaining the way holy beasts’ power worked to her, so I left them to it for the time being.
“Gratia, stop that.”
I grabbed Gratia, who was about to jump down onto a nearby tree. He clacked his fangs together irritably in response. He was saying that he’d spotted something yummy-looking but seemed to have conveniently forgotten that he’d been thoroughly cautioned not to kill any living creature within the confines of the elemental forest.
I can’t take my eyes off these guys for even a moment without them getting into some kind of trouble.
This was true of Haku as well, so I grabbed the mischievous slime tightly.
“Shinki, that hurts…”
“Deal with it. You were about to go play with Gratia just now, weren’t you?”
I stuffed Haku into my clothing, and after a bit of rustling around, it settled down. Gratia also seemed to finally accept that I wasn’t going to let him go play because he crawled into my hair and hunkered down.
Nox was sitting obediently on Seigo’s shoulder as Miss Neema had instructed him to before we left.
As for that rascal Inaho, perhaps because of how much fooling around she’d done before we left, she was sleeping peacefully inside the sack.
I wish the rest of them were as calm and well-behaved as Seigo and Rikusei.
Inaho was always super hyper, and Haku and Gratia only behaved if Paul was around. Paul was just as mercilessly strict with the monsters as he was with everyone who served the Osphe family, a lesson those two had learned the hard way.
I was walking along, babysitting Haku and Gratia, when the bugs started raising a ruckus again.
It seemed they’d only just realized that Miss Neema could see them. As a result, a deluge of bugs was swarming all around her.
Ick, that sure looks unpleasant. I suppose she’s not in danger, though, so I don’t need to step in.
Miss Neema asked them to give her some space, but the over-excited bugs weren’t listening to her. They finally backed off only after the emperor invoked the name of the elemental kings. Even the bugs, who were notorious for doing whatever they felt like, respected the elemental kings.
The swarm of bugs flew ahead to guide Miss Neema’s path to the elemental kings.
Each time an animal appeared along the way, Miss Neema eagerly approached it to observe it up close. I was well accustomed to animals flocking to my mistress, so I did what I usually did and tried not to get too close. If I were there, it would frighten the animals away, and I couldn’t bear the thought of ruining Miss Neema’s fun.
When the strange, eyeball-patterned animal ran off, the next animal to appear made a strange noise. The emperor warned Miss Neema not to get too close because this animal was dangerous, but of course, she couldn’t just let it go so easily.
“Haku and Gratia, isn’t this where you come in?” I said.
“What do you mean?”
“Didn’t you say you were going to take over for Dee as well in protecting our mistress?”
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🐎 🐎 🐎
DEE had journeyed home to be with the Goddess because of my mistake. If I’d only been more cautious, I wouldn’t have been knocked out.
In addition to mourning the loss of Dee, Haku and Gratia also had to deal with Miss Neema being in an endless slumber. They became very depressed.
Nox, too, refused to leave Miss Neema’s side and stopped eating.
Miss Neema’s family were very worried, so I’d been forced to intervene.
“If Dee could see you guys like this, he’d probably say he can’t possibly leave Miss Neema in your care. While our mistress is sleeping, you should become stronger so you can surprise her.”
“If we become stronger, will Mama wake up?”
Because Haku and Gratia were still so young, we weren’t sure how being named by a beloved child would affect them. It was clear that both were growing and evolving differently than the usual pattern for their species.
However, if they didn’t have the determination to become stronger, they wouldn’t.
There was something to be said for living a safe and easy life in a human dwelling rather than in the harsh environment of the forest, but without the need to constantly be fighting to survive, they wouldn’t gain the edge they needed to always come out on top.
“Perhaps the Goddess will return her to us once she feels we can keep her safe.”
Currently, the Goddess was protecting Miss Neema, so we didn’t need to worry about her.
Instead, we needed to worry about ourselves.
When it came to becoming stronger, it turned out that Nox was the most motivated. Nox was an animal, not a monster, so the more he trained, the more his flight skills improved.
Determined not to be outdone by the little rain hawk, I brought Haku and Gratia with me on a visit to Mount Reitimo. The purpose of the trip was to build up a tolerance to poisons with the help of one of the poisonous slimes.
While we were there, Haku and Gratia worked on learning how to use their abilities. Apparently, Shizuku, who’d been in charge of overseeing their training, hadn’t gone easy on them.