What’s your true identity? (3)

What’s your true identity? (3)

… Come to think of it, Rumi was wary even when she first met Luna.

‘I really can’t understand why a person would be wary of a cat.’

Since Rumi was always a strange one, I decided to just let it go.

I was about to ignore Rumi’s somewhat stiffened face, thinking it would sort itself out if left alone.

Rumi spoke in a slightly subdued voice.

“Deren… I mean, young master. You have too many women around you. To the point where someone like me isn’t needed.”

Though quiet, Rumi’s clear voice was distinctly audible.

The moment I heard those words, I looked at Rumi.

But Rumi, seemingly not wanting to say anything more, turned her head away and closed her mouth.

At first, I was going to make some gesture in response to Rumi’s reaction.

But not only would answering be unlike Deren,

I also didn’t know how to respond, so I had no choice but to let it pass for now.

‘… It feels like things are getting a bit tangled.’

In any case, I tried my best to mend my relationship with Rumi.

Thinking that it wasn’t going to be as easy to resolve as I had hoped, I felt a strange sense of frustration.

I decided that we needed some time to think, so I slowly wrapped things up.

“This should be enough for the poster. I’ll go put it up, so you two rest.”

Leaving behind the unresponsive Rumi and the nodding Espin, I tucked Luna into my arms and slipped outside.

* * * * *

Rumi watched Deren’s retreating back as he left and squeezed her eyes shut.

Although they were bound to part ways, she shouldn’t show emotions like jealousy.

But she couldn’t help her true feelings from slipping out without her realizing it.

‘How foolish.’

She should just keep doing things Deren would dislike.

Why does she keep trying to mix in strange actions?

As she was berating herself, thinking she had been repeating these mistakes since long ago, Senior Espin approached her with an awkward expression.

“… Are you okay?”

It felt more like he was asking for information about the situation rather than offering comfort.

Wondering how to answer such a question, she eventually nodded and spoke.

“… Yes. Nothing happened.”

Intentionally trying to change the subject, she gave a vague response.

Seeming to have caught on, she didn’t probe further and continued speaking.

“That’s good, then.”

With those words, silence continued to linger.

Although they had grown a bit closer recently, that was only because they faced the same crisis.

There was no emotional exchange beyond that, so thinking it was a bit awkward now, she began to speak.

“Then I’ll go to work now.”

“… Work? Oh, okay.”

Senior Espin looks at me with a puzzled expression at the mention of work.

It seems he hadn’t heard about me working as a maid.

Seeing his reaction, I accepted his greeting and walked out into the hallway, almost as if escaping.

* * * * *

After posting notices in various places around the central government area, I slipped away.

Normally, it would be impossible to post notices so easily as even approaching the area would be difficult.

However, using spatial compression magic to quickly blink into desired locations made it not so difficult to post them.

Now, as I’m taking a short break waiting for the fish to take the bait.

Luna, who was in my arms, suddenly popped out and spoke to me.

[Master, Master!]

Her energetic call makes me feel uneasy for some reason.

I look down at Luna, wondering why she’s calling me.

Luna exclaims to me with somewhat sparkling eyes.

[There’s a seed of injustice far away!]

Far away…

Nodding my head, thinking that Luna’s detection ability has indeed improved.

Luna wiggled her body and told me proudly.

[I remember the things we saw in the Illusion Library before, so I think I can use magic now. I couldn’t use it before because I was too weak, but I think I can now!]

At the mention of being able to use all those spells, I nod my head, feeling hopeful.

Luna raised her mana and spoke to me.

[What should I use!?]

Not knowing what else there was, I told her to tell me what she could do.

[I can use illusion magic! I can raise corpses and… I can also cast curses!]

I had forgotten for a while.

Remembering that Luna’s very essence was ‘negativity’, I could only nod.

‘I guess the magic she can use is mostly of the dark variety.’

It could be my misunderstanding, so I asked if she could possibly use holy magic.

As I expected, she answered that holy magic was impossible to use and started licking her palm.

Seeing this, I nodded and fell into thought for a moment.

‘Curses, huh.’

If I use this, I could do some pretty interesting things.

Thinking that, I thought it might be good to try using curses and patted Luna’s head.

*

After feeding all the seeds of negativity to Luna, as we were returning home.

Luna patted her now bulging stomach and said to me.

[Master. By the way, when are you going to mate with other females?]

A rather surprising question.

Since the last time she mentioned mating, she must have found my embarrassment amusing.

She persistently dug into this and said triumphantly.

[While you’re hesitating, the boss cat said he mates with three females.]

“……”

I don’t even feel it’s worth answering, so I’m not responding.

Luna seems to have come up with a good idea.

She rubs her cheek against my chest and shouts at me.

[Oh, that’s right! Do you want to meet the boss cat then? He might give you an amazing answer!]

“No.”

[Why not? I’m sure it’ll be good! I want things to go well for you…!]

What a distorted conclusion.

I close my mouth, meaning she can do as she pleases, as I’ve grown tired of answering.

Luna continues to speak to me, purring and laughing.

[Master needs to be happy…]

At those words, I just sigh and quickly head home.

*

When I return home, I see Espin looking at me with a rather serious expression.

When I ask what the reason is, Espin lets out a long sigh and continues speaking.

“Haven’t you made up with Rumi yet?”

Make up.

I suppose from Espin’s perspective, it looks like a lover caught me kissing Sien, so he probably thinks we fought.

I nod at his words, and Espin sighs and says.

“Everyone has different views on relationships, so it’s hard to say anything. But if I were Rumi, I might have felt skeptical right after seeing that scene.”

“… Skeptical?”

To that question, Espin nods and continues speaking.

“Think about it. Someone of the opposite sex is being incredibly nice to you for no reason. Without realizing it, you end up liking that person.”

Is this talking about Rumi’s situation?

As I nodded and looked at Espin, he sighed and said,

“So you end up liking them, but then you find out that guy has an incredibly beautiful fiancée, and you even see them kissing. In that case, you can only feel two things: anger or self-doubt, wondering what you’re doing.”

Hearing that, I recalled Rumi’s recent behavior and said,

“… Is she upset?”

“Hmm, it’s a bit different. When someone’s upset, there’s a desire for you to make it better… but what I mentioned earlier is a state where they feel disillusioned with you or themselves, so it’s separate from making things better.”

I don’t really understand.

As I thought about how difficult it was to differentiate these emotions, I turned around.

Espin scratched his head as if unsure and said to me,

“Well, I’m not sure about the solution either. In cases like this, people usually just break up and that’s the end of it. It’s rare for relationships to continue like this. So in my opinion…”

While Espin was continuing his words.

Suddenly, Luna broke free from my arms, transformed into a human, and then shouted the phrase she’s been pushing lately.

“Just mate!”

“Yeah, rather than that, if you establish a relationship and make her yours… Wait, what?”

“Mate!”

At those words, Espin froze and blinked his eyes.

He probably didn’t expect Luna to shout something like “mate” after transforming into human form.

Espin looked at Luna with a somewhat dazed expression and then said in a slightly disgruntled voice,

“… The shock of her existence was so strong that I hadn’t gotten around to asking about it.”

“What’s this?”

“This naked creature with cat ears and tail, not to mention shouting about mating, what on earth is it?”

“……”

Having bluntly listed the facts, there’s not much else to say.

I remain silent, tightly closing my mouth at those words.

Luna giggles and answers instead.

“I’m like a seed storage container that gets fed the useless seeds from the master! I ate a lot today, so my belly is full and round!”

Hearing this, Espin smiles brightly and says to me.

“Hmm. I think I completely understand what kind of emotions Rumi is feeling.”