115. Scent of Grass

115. Scent of Grass

“Nom nom nom….”

Numerous foods disappearing into the mouth of the nameless girl.

How hungry could she have been? The girl, not even noticing us staring at her, frantically devoured the bread and drinks. The chocolate bread and mint chocolate milk slid down her gullet and disappeared.

Naturally, all of it was the bread and drinks I had bought, but that didn’t matter much. As much as I love to eat, I’m not so heartless as to not share even a single piece of food with a hungry child.

Of course, some of it was food I bought for Freya, but my sister is kind-hearted by nature, so she wouldn’t be sad that her bread disappeared into a hungry child’s stomach.

… The problem was the sword hanging at my waist.

“Th-that… that!!!!”

“….”

Ur, who had been singing about ice cream, ice cream just moments ago, had witnessed her ice cream disappearing into someone else’s mouth.

And it wasn’t just the ice cream that disappeared. The bread, the chocolate chip cookies, and even Ur’s favorite strawberry smoothie had vanished into the green-haired girl’s stomach, so it was only natural for Ur to get angry.

“Thi-!”

“Ur, stop.”

Ur, who had instantly transformed into human form and was about to rush towards the girl. Ur, who had extended her foot to move forward but froze, then flopped onto the ground, burying her head.

That must have hurt.

“Ugh, why, why are you stopping me, Master! That cruel pointy-eared girl is eating all of Ur’s food…!!”

“Even so, you shouldn’t resort to violence.”

There’s nothing worse than swinging a sword or using power to oppress someone just because you don’t like it. Ur, who was a skeleton in her past life and is now a sword, seemed to be blind to such basic common sense.

… Even so, Ur actually didn’t have the strength to do that in the first place. Without her sword form, Ur is just a girl, so if she tried to hit someone, she’d just get hit on the head and get dizzy before passing out. That was the main reason I stopped Ur.

Meanwhile, no matter how much I reasoned with her, Ur showed no signs of calming down.

“Violence!! Violence is her eating Ur’s food!! Uwaaang!!! My smoothie!! Th-th-th-th %@&×^&’(※!!!”

Seeing the cold strawberry smoothie (or what was left of it) in the glass, Ur let out a shriek and struggled. It seemed the filter I had applied was overloaded.

“Ur.”

“@/&>※€^<☆”

“….”

Ur, who had been calling herself a Death Knight or something until recently… Sweet snacks can be so terrifying sometimes.

Anyway, I couldn’t leave Ur in this state. If I let her off the hook once, she’d do bad things twice or thrice, so I had to scold Ur sternly here.

“Ur, lift your skirt.”

“Eh?”

Ur, who had been thrashing around on the floor, froze completely, then sat up and grabbed the hem of her maid outfit and lifted it.

In the center of Ur’s lower half, which she hated because it looked like a girl’s, was a perfectly closed straight slit, as white as her hair.

(Omitted)

I then tucked Ur into my waist. Ur’s white and plump buttocks were exposed to the world, and as I raised my hand high in the air in that state, Ur’s face turned pale, foreseeing what would happen.

“M-Master, wait-“

Slap!

Ignoring Ur’s pleading voice, I mercilessly brought my hand down.

“Uaaang!”

As the cheerful sound echoed several more times, Ur began to cry mournfully, tears streaming from her wide white eyes.

I’m weak to children, so Ur’s sad appearance made my heart soften. However, for Ur’s proper growth as a human, I had to endure.

“….”

“What’s wrong, Claire?”

“It’s nothing.”

Claire, watching Ur cry with her bottom exposed, twitched her eyes. She seemed to be comparing Ur’s height to her own, but I couldn’t figure out why.

Priscilla, who was next to me, spoke up.

“She’s eating very deliciously. It reminds me of when you, Skadi, eat meat.”

“I eat like that?”

“Of course! Do you know how much you gobble up whenever you eat something, Skadi? If the Princess ate like that, she would have caught up to your height by now.”

As Priscilla spoke, Claire retorted indignantly. She seemed annoyed that her complex had been touched.

“Are you saying that for me to hear?”

“Huh?”

Priscilla lowered her head, following the source of the voice. Her golden hair shimmered in the sunlight, and Priscilla exclaimed in surprise.

“P-Princess?! When did you get here?!”

“….”

Wouldn’t Claire get even angrier if I said something like that while lowering my head?

As if on cue, Claire, enveloped in a golden aura, headbutted Priscilla’s stomach. With the sudden impact, Priscilla fell onto the floor, gasping for air. She seemed to be in a lot of pain.

… Although she recovered quickly when I waved my tail in front of her.

“So, who is that girl and why is she here?”

“I don’t know. Elves usually live in their own countries.”

“That’s… an elf?”

“Hm?”

Claire looked back at me, as if asking what nonsense I was talking about. Claire pointed to the green-haired girl’s pointed ears and said.

“Her ears are long, so of course she’s an elf.”

“No, she could just be a person with long ears?”

“What?”

Elves. Although there are various settings depending on the medium, elves are generally a race with long ears and a common characteristic of living in forests. Of course, there were elves in this world, which had most of the common fantasy settings.

I haven’t met elves or done any research on them, but from what I’ve heard about the elves of this world in my 20 years of life, I knew that the elves of this world were not much different from the general settings in my past life.

Long ears, living in forests….

However, honestly, it’s not easy to distinguish elves from humans. In a fantasy world where anyone can split avalanches and shatter the sky, can we definitively say there isn’t a single person with pointed, long ears?

There are also raccoon dogs with beaks on their mouths, webbed feet, and stingers on their tails, so a person with just long ears is nothing.

“It would be quite troublesome if you mistake someone with just long ears for an elf.”

“No, what nonsense….”

“But Claire, can you be sure that person is an elf?”

Claire looked at the girl. The girl was eating food with her long green hair flowing down. The girl’s ears were long and pointed, and her chest was very flat, reminding me of Claire’s. Her height was average, her eyes were a sparkling greenish-brown, and her skin was a healthy white.

There was nothing in any of these aspects that could definitively confirm this girl as an elf. She was certainly a beautiful girl, though.

“….”

“Right?”

“… Yes, let’s think so.”

Claire seemed convinced by my perfect argument and turned her head. After all, it’s not good to make assumptions about people carelessly.

Meanwhile, Priscilla, who had been sniffing my tail, finally got up from the ground. Priscilla naturally joined the conversation as if she had been part of it from the beginning.

“If she’s not an elf, then who could she be?”

“Hmm, I wonder…”

The girl was wearing loose cloth, and since she wasn’t wearing a school uniform, she was definitely not an academy student. Given her young appearance, it was also ambiguous to consider her a professor or other staff member.

I thought for a moment.

Hmm.

Green, green hair….

“Could she be a goblin?”

“Huk…! That’s plausible!”

“What’s plausible!”

Claire got angry. But if you think about it, isn’t it right? Green hair, long ears….

Of course, compared to ugly goblins, the girl is about five million times prettier, but many characteristics were shared, so it was a reasonably logical guess.

In any case, due to Claire’s strong opposition, goblins were removed from the list. As I pondered again, Priscilla raised her staff and said.

“I know a good way to distinguish elves.”

“What is it?”

“We burn them! Elves live in forests, so they burn easily. So, one fireball….”

“No.”

That didn’t seem like a good idea. Even if it could be distinguished, wouldn’t it cause a major incident?

“Claire, are there any other methods?”

“Why don’t we just ignore her and go to the dormitory?”

“Hey, if someone looks like they’re having a hard time, you should step in and help. If you want to be a wise ruler later.”

Ignoring Claire, who muttered, ‘I can’t become emperor anyway…’, I approached the green-haired girl. She seemed to have finished eating. Towards the girl who was rummaging through the empty bag, I opened my mouth.

“Was it delicious?”

“Yes! How long has it been since I last ate….”

“Then I’m glad.”

“Thank you….”

The girl turned her head. My reflection was captured in her small, peridot-like greenish-brown eyes. The reflection of a white wolf beastman, swaying her tail.

Up, down, then up again.

The girl, looking at my ears, tail, and face in order, opened her eyes wider and suddenly-

“Hiiik?!!”

“Huh?”

“S-sorry, just spare my life…!!”

She said urgently, bowing her head in front of me.