Chapter 84: Those With Memories (2)

As expected, I guess.

Humans didn’t taste that good.

I wonder what kind of taste other guys have in this kind of food.

I clicked my tongue and turned my gaze, and the man on his knees flinched.

He must know that he did something wrong.

“Come out. I’ll kill you when you wake up, so come out quietly.”

“…”

Tamako didn’t wake up easily once she fell asleep, so she didn’t seem to wake up despite the commotion.

If Tamako had seen those humans, she wouldn’t have let them live—well, since she had some questions, it was a good thing in a way.

The first thing I’ll ask is…

“Do you know me?”

“…Yes, End.”

“That’s interesting. And that title that only children would use.”

I had a strong feeling that I was involved in something annoying.

My goal was to live a peaceful life by clinging to Emerald, but…

I let out a sigh and slowly listened to the man’s words.

“You destroyed the world. And we are the ones who remember and worship you.”

I thought that only magical girls—Emerald, Ruby, and Sapphire, to be exact—would regain memories of the previous world.

It seems that other magical girls, or even other humans, have also regained memories of the previous world.

It’s really unfortunate for me.

“How interesting. What do you gain from worshiping me?”

“It’s not for profit. We just—”

“We just want to see the world burn, right?”

He smiled brightly at the human who hurriedly started making excuses.

A group of humans who have no intention of protecting what they have.

A human who cries out death just from getting hurt on his own body is wishing for the destruction of the world?

That was nothing more than a lunatic.

“It would have seemed more sincere if you had asked me not to destroy the world.”

“…”

“In the end, you were not worshiping me, but the destruction that I brought about.”

It wasn’t like some small tribe on the African continent, tsk.

They worship lightning as a god, they worship typhoons as a god…

What they do is nothing more than worshiping natural phenomena.

Ah, here, natural phenomena, I’m going to live quietly, so don’t disturb me.

Really, it’s annoying.

“Go back and tell them. You guys, you…”

Ah, right. In that sense, it might be better to put up a warning sign.

“If you just go back okay, your colleagues will think it’s weird, right?”

“What’s that…”

The man raised his head at my words.

Unlike his calm demeanor until now, his face was quite frightened.

The reason he lowered his head was to hide that face.

I thought he was some kind of fanatic like you see in comics.

“You’ve lived as a fanatic until now, so it won’t be hard to live as an idiot, right?”

Growl, growl, growl—

I thrust my head toward the man who was making a stupid expression.

So that my cold breath could reach him.

And, so that my appearance would never be forgotten in his mind.

From now on, whenever this man thought of me—no, whenever he thought of the color red, he would lose his mind.

Knock, knock, growl—!!

“Ugh, ugh— Ugh, ugh, ugh!?!”

“Be quiet. There’s a human sleeping inside.”

I covered the man’s mouth as he tried to scream and smiled broadly.

Where should I start and where should I eat?

Arms? Legs?

Oh, let’s take out the legs. We’ll need them when we get back.

“I don’t really like eating something tasteless twice a day, but…”

“Eeeeeeeep!!!!!!!!!!!”

“Let’s make an exception today.”

That arm that was about to stab Tamako, it wouldn’t matter if it was cut off.

The dog’s head rose from the shadows and rushed at the man.

Of course, there was no scream.

***

“Ugh…”

“…Huh, benefactor?”

When I woke up, my benefactor was asleep next to me.

I knew that he would sometimes come into bed and sleep, but it was so rare that I was startled every time.

I lightly reached out and poked my benefactor’s cheek.

The soft texture.

The softness that ran through my fingers made me smile.

‘…Today, I received help again.’

Every time I sleep, I have nightmares, and when I have nightmares, despair comes out and creates nightmares from that despair.

Since I became like that after being experimented on, the only place I could sleep in peace was next to my benefactor.

My benefactor was someone who lived off despair, and because he wanted to be by my side, I had fewer and fewer nightmares.

It was only for food, but even if it was for that reason, it didn’t change the fact that I had received a favor.

“Please don’t leave me, benefactor.”

The nightmares were very diverse in content.

There were dreams about the end of the world, the death of an acquaintance, being chased by a monster, and people I couldn’t save when I was a magical girl.

However, the recent nightmares were all similar in content.

A dream about my benefactor leaving me.

“Without my benefactor, I—”

“I’m home, senpai…”

Just as I was about to say something, the door opened and a familiar voice was heard.

Garnet. My cute junior.

A poor child who had been absent from home recently, perhaps because of something.

“You’re back, Garnet?”

“Yes… Seriously, I thought I was going to die from the hardships…”

Garnet, who was in my arms, let out a lot of sobbing.

Lately, people have been more of a problem than monsters, and yesterday, she saw someone throwing rocks at her, and so on.

It seemed like she was busy rescuing people from accidents that occurred day and night.

After all, things caused by people were more of a headache than things caused by monsters, so yeah.

“Yeah, yeah, you’ve had a hard time. You’re always doing your best, Garnet.”

“Yes, yes…”

It definitely wasn’t like this before, but when did she become such a spoiled brat?

I slowly stroked Garnet’s hair, which was in my arms.

Although she had grown bigger, her attitude had become even more difficult.

I was grateful that she cared about me, so I guess I felt sorry instead.

‘What if I had at least given Garnet a proper explanation before leaving?’

Garnet didn’t blame me for leaving without saying anything.

But not resenting me didn’t mean the wounds in her heart would disappear.

Now that she was back, it was also my job to care for this child’s wounds.

“By the way, what’s wrong, Akari?”

“Ugh…”

“Garnet?!”

Garnet, who was being held, saw her benefactor next to her and quickly reached out her hand.

Before she could stop him, her benefactor rolled down the bed.

“…What’s wrong, Garnet?”

“It’s your fault for sticking so close to your senior.”

“…I don’t understand English.”

Her benefactor, who had gotten up from her tangled body in the blanket, let out a small yawn.

Her dull black eyes took in Garnet’s figure and then quickly became blurry again.

Everything seemed annoying.

She looked like a cat lying down in the sunlight.

Although she wasn’t a cat, she was a monster.

“Anyway, since I protected Tamako in your stead, I guess there’s some kind of return for that, right?”

“Rather, since you’ve been by my side the whole time, shouldn’t you be doing something in return?”

Both Eun-in and Garnet seemed quite sincere.

What should I say, the two of them argued about this quite often.

To be exact, it seemed like Eun-in was teasing Garnet.

When Garnet and Eun-in were arguing, they usually acted like girls their age.

“Do you really want something in return from me?”

“…Uh, huh?”

“I never imagined you would want that much from me.”

“Hey, wait…”

Eun-in smiled deeply and sneaked up to Garnet.

Anyone could tell that it was an act of teasing Garnet, but Garnet, who was the one involved, didn’t seem to realize it.

No, it wasn’t to the point of not realizing it; her ears turned red as if——as if?

“Oh my, oh my…”

“…Senior?”

Now that you mention it, Eun-in said that he saved not only me but also Garnet.

The director of the underground research lab.

I had heard that he was a great help in driving out that evil man.

In that sense, the benefactor was also a benefactor to Garnet.

And, an ordinary girl would say to the benefactor who saved her—

“Garnet. I, I realized.”

“…What?”

“I’ll cheer you on, Garnet!”

She clenched her fists and let out words of encouragement.

Garnet, who seemed to not understand, looked even cuter today.

A girl who hides her true feelings is beautiful, after all, right?

“So, what on earth?!”

A bewildered voice filled the room.

A face that seemed to really not understand.

Ah, maybe she didn’t realize her own feelings.

Although she had no direct experience, she was fully versed in knowledge from years of study, so she was able to immediately figure out what kind of state Garnet was in right now.

‘This might be the heroine who doesn’t have self-awareness…!’

Of course, it was all just a delusion, but it took quite some time for my misunderstanding to be resolved.