“Either one would make for a satisfactory husband.”
“…But I’m Natureless. It would be painful for both of us,” Yae said as an excuse to refuse them both. She normally hated that she was born Natureless, but she still used it as an escape whenever convenient. She felt like mocking herself for that, but she maintained a blank face.
I doubt it’s actually me he wants. He’s probably just interested in Arai and Sui. Even Yae, Natureless as she was, could tell that the brothers’ divine power was different in quality and scale. It might well have been fear of Arai’s great divinity that caused the people of Miya Province from a century ago to try to install him as their chief and then to seal him when he refused. They wouldn’t have done that simply because someone possessed exceptional divine power. In other words, the ones who sealed Arai must have sensed what he was, even if only vaguely.
Regardless of all that, even now, Yae’s feelings and wishes were once again being treated as an afterthought. She was always going to be inconsequential in the eyes of others. I’m letting it get to me again. Is there nothing I can do to stop hurting? No, that wasn’t right. There was no point to any of this if she couldn’t start being honest with others and let them know when she was hurt.
“Yae,” Arai said suddenly as she hung her head in thought. “Do you have something you wanna say to me?”
“Huh? No, I don’t,” Yae responded, flustered. The timing of the question had caught her off guard. I wouldn’t have guessed, but maybe he’s the type to overthink things, too. He had the opposite problem she had—too much attention from others had cast a shadow over his life.
Yae observed him as he made a sullen expression. Akanagi was certainly good-looking as Tamao had just boasted, but to her, no one was more gorgeous than Arai. His bright sunflower-colored eyes drew people in like a magnet. They had come a long way from Kuroashi’s muddied gaze.
A short silence fell, and the white tiger, who had until now been searching for the corpse bugs’ leader, emerged to jump nimbly from bone to bone and sit down next to Yae. She patted him on the head with an expression of sympathy. “What were you talking about?” he asked, the circles of his ring crest turning in his eyes. Tamao had probably noticed their unusual crests.
“This old man was talking about marrying Yae to one of these weaklings, so I was thinking about how best to dispose of them,” Arai responded, dropping a bomb of a statement. The white tiger’s eyes went wide.
“Why would we give Yae to them at this point? These people are shameless,” Sui said in his usual kind voice, and Yae felt her face stiffen. At the same time, both embarrassment and a slight sense of hope filled her. It sounded like Sui wanted her by his side. “Anyway, Yae. I don’t really like this place. Let’s get out of here.”
Sui tended to operate on his own schedule even more than Arai did.
“Why?” Yae asked.
“Because the corpse bugs in this monster don’t have a leader. That means his deformation was caused by a curse.”
“Huh?! A curse?” she exclaimed, surprised.
Sui bobbed his whiskers in affirmation and looked at Tamao with unreadable eyes. “You’ve known all along who cursed him, haven’t you?”
“Hey, what do you mean by ‘curse’?” Akanagi demanded, also surprised. Hoodori looked at Yae and the others in bewilderment.
“Hmm. That’s a troubling accusation,” Tamao said with a sigh. “I’m sure this is true of Kaki Province as well, but no one would dare curse someone of their own province. If they did, they would certainly suffer banishment.”
“I don’t care why this monster was cursed. What I don’t like is that you hid the truth from Yae even though she agreed to treat him,” Sui responded, and he tugged on Yae’s sleeve with his mouth as if to say they should leave. He almost pulled hard enough to make her fall from the rib. She patted his chin to tell him to wait.
“…I agree. That kid already said that Yae has done more than enough. She has no obligation to continue helping. Also, Yae will not marry any of you. I won’t stand for it,” Arai declared, dropping his second bomb, before lifting up a surprised Yae and putting her on the white tiger’s back. Sui ignored Yae’s protests as he kicked lightly off the rib and landed on the ground. Arai remained in human form and leaped from bone to bone to join them. He always moved as if almost floating, possibly due to the heavenly raiment around his shoulders.
They were headed for the house they had been borrowing during their stay in Miya Province when Arai gave Yae a warning. “If you stay here much longer, they’ll force you to marry. You need to make up your mind sooner rather than later.”
“…Okay,” she responded quietly, and the white tiger’s fur bristled.
“What? Are those men your type, Yae? Are you thinking of marrying one of them? Why?” he asked. Yae wasn’t sure how to answer a direct question like Why?
“It’s not that I particularly like them, it’s just… It would be sort of a political marriage, I guess…”
“You would choose one of them even though you have me and Arai?”
“I-it’s not like that at all! It’s about obligation.”
“Obligation? I don’t know what you mean, but is that obligation more important than us?”
Yae was at a loss for words.
“That’s good, Sui. Let her hear it,” Arai cheered Sui on without any sense of responsibility. Yae glared at him. “Yae, I know you have something to say. Keep it down too long and you’ll choke.”
“I don’t.” Yae sighed and decided to ask the white tiger about what he had said earlier. “So, Sui. Did Hotaru really get deformation because of a curse?”
“Yep,” he answered disinterestedly. “I have a good nose for curses. Those corpse bugs have a rotten stench that’s different from normal deformation. I scratched open one of his bones to check, and it was packed with ants and mud.”
“Why were you scratching open his…? Wait, ants?”
“Ants are insects that consume righteousness. Hotaru or someone close to him might have done something immoral at some point. I think he was cursed as a result. That’s why I have a bad feeling about this place,” Sui finished with a slight emphasis to his tone.