It was a pretty cruel suggestion but admittedly not unlikely. Sae didn’t seem to mind, though; she laughed and glanced at Kaho, then said, “Don’t worry. If that happens, we’ll just rename ourselves to something along the lines of Jade Wings Plus One.”
“Pray tell, what signifies the glance you just gave me?! Do you mean to say it is my doom to be alone?!”
“Yeah, but don’t blame yourself, Kaho,” said Sae. “You just can only attract...certain guys. Yoshino and I have a less niche appeal.”
“Ugh. Well, I suppose it is true that we beastfolk have a certain scarcity value,” said Kaho. “And yet there are no fewer than four of us gathered here today.”
“Yeah, it’s kind of weird considering how rare beastfolk are around here,” said Yoshino. “By the way, Touya-kun, what do you think of Kaho?”
Oh, right, ever since we got here, Touya has been going on and on about how much he wants to marry a cute girl with animal ears, so Kaho is perfect for him. Even setting aside her fluffy ears and tail, Touya has more in common with her than he does with any beastgirl who was born in this world.
But Touya awkwardly averted his eyes from Kaho. “Uh, yeah, sorry, jailbait isn’t my type.”
“Jailbait?! We’re of an age!”
“I know we’re the same age!” said Touya. He seemed to be choosing his words carefully. “I’m just saying, I prefer women who look a little more...mature.”
Kaho reacted with obvious disappointment. She was shorter even than Yuki—as short as Metea—and quite slender—nowhere near curvy enough to match Touya’s tastes. We were still quite young, so Touya probably wasn’t in any hurry to compromise on his desires.
“Ugh. Cast aside before I made a single move of my own,” said Kaho. “Not to say I had any intentions of my own along those lines, and yet I’m pricked in heart.”
Metea waddled over to Kaho and patted her on the back. “Um, please cheer up, big sis Kaho. You’re very cute, so there’s nothing to feel down about!”
Kaho opened her eyes and beamed at the little girl. “What a kind girl you are. Would you care to join my party? We’ll take good care of you!”
But Metea turned her down without entertaining the offer for even a second. “Nah, I prefer being with big sis Haruka’s party!”
“Rejected again... Finding new party members is truly a Herculean task.”
“Yeah, it’s hard finding new people you can trust, ’specially if they’re boys,” Yuki said with a giggle. “I bet you’ll have better odds if you just give up on finding one person for each of you, though. Relationships in this world aren’t always one-on-one—just look at us and Nao!”
Yuki, why did you have to use that as your example? And why did you have to emphasize it like that?! Now all of the Jade Wings girls were staring at me.
“Huh?! Seriously?!” said Yoshino.
“You just gave a ring to Haruka-san, but you’re in a relationship with the other two as well?” said Sae. “I’m honestly impressed, Nao-kun.”
“Indeed! This is unquestionably a doughty feat!” Kaho exclaimed. “I had no idea that you had seduced all of them!”
“Please, I haven’t seduced anyone! That’s slander!”
There was a possibility that I would someday end up in relationships with Yuki and Natsuki as well as Haruka, but I hadn’t done anything weird or aggressive to bring this about.
But Kaho completely ignored my angry attempts to clear my name. “Ugh! There can be no doubt that you are the hero of the story Advastlis-sama has devised! My pretentious idiolect was all for nought! Never did I imagine I would encounter a harem protagonist capable of seducing women right and left!”
“I’m innocent! I never wanted to be the protagonist of any story!”
Also, I really doubted Advastlis-sama would ever tolerate a harem protagonist. I had no desire to build a harem, but more to the point, the thought of becoming the protagonist of a story Advastlis-sama had planned was terrifying. It was easy to imagine him putting someone like that through harsh trials on the grounds that it was more interesting. Nothing good could come of it.
“I’m begging you, please don’t say anything more. It’d be awful if Advastlis-sama got any weird ideas from you...”
I let out a deep sigh and wondered whether or not I should beg Advastlis-sama not to mess with my life the next time I visited the temple.
“Oh, speaking of which, can I ask a question next, Nao?” Yoshino piped up. “You guys visit a temple pretty regularly, right? We figured out why after we visited one ourselves, but you guys have gone a lot more often and donated a lot more money too. Do you have some specific reason for that?”
“I’ve been wondering the same thing myself,” said Sae. “Sorry to assume, but it doesn’t seem like you’ve become devout, exactly...”
“Is it possible that your eleemosynary endeavors are the result of awakening the loving-kindness of the Buddha and embarking upon the bodhisattva path?” Kaho asked.
The Jade Wings girls had, like us, survived a year in this world, so even without an explanation from us, they could probably guess our reasoning. They glanced over at the sisters, and Metea nodded, then used her entire body to express her agreement.
“Yeah, that’s right! Big sis Haruka’s party is nice an’ caring!”
All of us fell silent after that, including the Jade Wings girls. I honestly wasn’t sure how to respond to them. The main reason I visited a temple frequently was that it was fun to watch my stats go up, and the reason I donated so much money was that Ishuca-san helped us out a lot. I could simply have said all of that, but depending on what words I used, there was a chance that I would render the girls ineligible to receive Advastlis-sama’s blessings. I glanced at the other adult members of my party, and when no one seemed to have any advice to offer, I spoke up on everyone’s behalf.