episode_0752

To survive in social circles, you need to be able to read someone’s intentions based on their facial expression, tone of voice, or actions.

Of course, Joy is not Caria. She cannot see her opponent’s movements and read all his thoughts.

If you asked Joy to do the same thing as Caria, she wouldn’t even notice half the time.

Yet the reason Joy survived in high society was not simply because she was the Duchess’s daughter.

Since political investigation is conducted within an implicitly established framework, it is possible to understand the intentions of the other party without necessarily having to read their mind.

For example, the elder cat is smiling right now, but he is actually feeling uncomfortable with Joey stepping forward.

He has to talk directly to Lucy, the person he’s trying to convince, and he probably won’t like it if I get in the way.

Maybe he’ll try to cut me off in some way? Even if he doesn’t, he won’t listen to what I have to say.

I know. I think I would do the same thing in a similar situation.

When having a conversation with someone like this, you must first make sure that they can’t ignore you.

Only after you think about what’s going on do you have a chance to have a proper conversation.

“First of all, I would like to say hello to you, my esteemed representative.”

Look, they’re already trying to pick a fight.

Even though I introduced myself by name earlier, you still call me your agent.

Besides, I have no intention of introducing myself. It’s not worth it to me.

You shouldn’t get angry here. If you do, you’ll just be giving the other person an excuse.

There are two ways to protest in this situation.

One is to return the criticism verbally. This is a common tactic in social circles.

That’s why the social world is called the battleground of tongue-fighting. But I won’t use this method.

This is time-consuming and frankly frustrating. There’s no point in fighting it if there’s another way.

“I’m sorry, but you don’t know what I am.”

As Joy channels her magic around her, the sun in the garden is obscured and deep darkness falls.

This magic, a power possessed by the God of Darkness and modified by Erginus based on it, gave Zoe the right to determine day and night.

“It means that it is worth it to be next to that precious person.”

In the darkness that swallowed up all the light on the earth, Joy, who had revealed her form alone, confirmed that the elder cat flinched and retreated before taking the darkness away.

“So show respect. Otherwise, I will punish you, not Lucy.”

“…I’m sorry.”

“That’s enough.”

Joey smiled faintly when he saw the elder cat lowering its head, but the fear did not disappear from the cats’ faces.

You seemed a bit awkward when you first saw me, and now you’re looking at me as if I’m facing a plague.

Well, it doesn’t matter. Thanks to Lucy, I’ve already gotten sick of their softness.

…Actually, I’d like to touch it a bit more, but this is enough.

“Then tell me. Your relationship with the giant.”

“We are the ones who manage the life of this garden. We help the flowers talk to each other and help new flowers bloom and grow. I think we have played a big part in the Giant’s Garden coming this far.”

His neck is tense and his front legs are tightly clenched.

Judging from the unwavering nature of his appealing voice, it’s probably not entirely wrong.

If you remember what Lucy’s fairy said about them being a bunch of fairies, you can probably trust them to some extent.

“But that’s strange. The giant doesn’t seem to think so.”

Joey frowned, hiding his thoughts inside. Then the elder cat coughed and continued speaking firmly.

“That’s because he’s an idiot.”

“Interesting story. What do you mean, ignorant?”

“The giant thinks of himself as a gardener, but in reality he is not. To him, the garden is nothing more than a work of art he has created.”

Joey, hearing the veto about the giant killing and planting plants as he pleased, internally retorted.

That’s the role of a gardener. A gardener is not just someone who grows plants. He’s an artist who creates a garden that others will enjoy.

Joey could have refuted the elder cat’s claims any number of times, but he said nothing.

Because her job was to negotiate, not nitpick.

“Is the garden a bit more harmonious for you?”

“Yes, that’s right.”

The elder cat smiled brightly and nodded as I said something that the other person would like.

“Nature is truly beautiful when the lack and abundance are in harmony. If you destroy that balance and only give the garden excess, soon the flowers will bow their heads one by one.”

“Is the reason you fought the giants because of harmony?”

“To clarify, this is not a fight, but a one-sided oppression. We were trying to do what we had to do, but the giant wouldn’t allow it.”

If you only listen to their stories, it sounds like giants are heinous criminals, but if you listen to the giants’ stories, it’s probably different.

To begin with, the claim that the garden will collapse because the harmony is destroyed is nonsense.

As the Elder Cat said, let’s say the gardener is a being who only wants to create things that he thinks are pretty.

Then it is even more normal to care about the life of the garden. What artist would just watch his work of art being destroyed?

“I don’t know how many people died at the hands of giants during this conflict.”

“I see.”

Joey, who spoke in a deliberately low voice, cut off the elder cat who was trying to say something with a lot of emotion and turned to Lucy.

“You were listening to the whole story from behind, right?”

“Oh. But this problem is more complicated than I thought. It’s too different from what Erginus explained. He said that he just wanted to be able to enter and exit.”

“That’s right.”

Erginus certainly didn’t say anything about these cats. He just asked the giant to pass on his message.

Why? It’s impossible for him not to know about the space he created.

“So what do you think we should do?”

“It’s hard to make a decision right now.”

It doesn’t seem like the elder cat is lying, but it doesn’t seem like he’s telling the whole truth either.

I can’t give you an answer without hearing the giant’s story.

“That’s good. He just happened to be nearby.”

“…Huh?”

“You’re really persistent. If you’ve run away like this, shouldn’t you stop following me?”

As Lucy was talking, the sun disappeared and darkness spread as she jumped onto the grass.

It wasn’t the complete darkness that Joy had created, but a faint shadow created by a huge body. The huge body, whose end could not be seen even after raising its head for a long time, presented a considerable sense of intimidation in itself.

“You were here!”

Joey looked up with a frown on his face, his ears blocked by the giant’s shout.

The ability itself isn’t anything special. Compared to humans, it’s just average.

It’s just that the size of his body is so big that his ordinariness strikes us as terrifying.

How should I deal with it?

First of all, the priority is to destroy the bridge.

If you break the center and focus your vision, the strategy will come naturally.

Thinking so, Joey hurriedly tried to find Lucy and tell her his strategy, but Lucy had already reached that high place.

“Yeah. Here you are. Dengshin-ah.”

A loud bang echoes through the garden, as if following the sarcastic voice. And soon after, the shadow of a large man leans forward.

“Eww!?”

Joey, who was waving his hands in panic, tried to run away but stopped in his tracks.

If that giant falls here, it won’t just be me who’ll get hurt. The giant’s beloved garden will be ruined, and the cats behind me will be in danger too.

So what I have to do here is to stop that giant.

There’s no point in thinking about how to grow the bushes around it, because I can’t imagine any bushes that could support that thing.

Next. Leaping a giant into the air. Impossible. There’s no telling how much magic power it would take to do that.

I thought about using a strong impact to send it flying in a different direction, but I don’t think the giant would be unharmed by that kind of attack.

The same goes for the way it’s swallowed up by darkness. It’s nearly impossible to instantly create a darkness large enough to swallow that thing.

Then what should she do? Joy, who had been pondering over this, suddenly turned her gaze towards the magic that had taken root in this world.

The method Erginus used to create this world was reduction.

We just made the stage smaller in proportion to each person. It’s clear that the situation is smaller than before.

That’s exactly how Lucy and I entered this world.

What this means is that even that giant looking giant is probably being affected by the shrinking effect.

Then you just need to adjust the ratio a little bit.

I never thought that analyzing Erginus’ magic out of curiosity would help me at a time like this. The world really is unpredictable.

As Joy smiled and drew a magic circle, the darkness disappeared and the sun returned to the world.

“Kkaaaak!?”

Lucy intercepted the man’s screams that seemed to echo through the darkness, and took hold of the giant. She put him down on the ground, then approached Joy and hugged her.

“Good! Joy! As expected, you know how to figure things out without me saying anything!?”

Joy, who had been laughing out loud at Lucy’s lively laughter, felt a sense of discomfort and slowly lowered her gaze.

“Wait a minute, Lucy. You were expecting me to do this?”

“That. Of course! Of course! We’re friends! Normally, if you pretend, you pretend!”

“Let me ask you again, Lucy. You don’t even know what magic this place is based on, and yet you predicted what I analyzed?”

“That’s it. So.”

“To be honest, I just did it without thinking.”

“…Yeah.”

Joy let out a hollow laugh as Lucy nodded, avoiding eye contact.

“I can’t believe this. If it were Faby, I would have said, ‘Lucy, of course!’”

Lucy is right. If Pavie was here, she would have called me disrespectful for being suspicious.

But I know that Lucy doesn’t know anything about magic.

“Because I’m Lucy’s friend.”

“Is that so?”

“That’s right.”

As the two people faced each other and smiled, a scream was heard from one side.

Cats appeared out of nowhere and began to surround the giant.

“Let’s start with that first.”

“I guess so.”