And even if it did, she knew how to return to normal.
That’s what it meant to have lived a long life.
Having overcome countless hardships, Beezel’s grandmother had recovered enough to hold a conversation with me.
「Call me Bee-baa」
TN: It was written as ビー婆(Bi-baba(granny)) so who would have thought it should be Bee-baa(ビー婆(ばあ)). I guess her name is a punchline for “viva” which is a cheer like “long live”. I guess I’ll change her name to Beeanasista too. By the way, if you haven’t taken quiz 9, I recommend you do so.
Bee-baa, is it?
「No need for formal speech. Though I suppose that won’t be easy for you. Well, even if you speak roughly, I won’t get angry.」
Since Bee-baa was Beezel’s grandmother, that made her Frau’s great-grandmother.
Which meant she was also my great-grandmother.
And as for Frau’s daughter, Fracia...
What was the term for a great-grandmother’s mother again?
Was it great-great-grandmother?
That would make her Fracia’s great-great-grandmother.
A relative, in other words.
I’d like to get along with her.
Apparently, though Bee-baa had a house in Village Five, she had never introduced herself as a great-grandmother. That said, she had spoken with Frau there before.
Unfortunately, Fracia had only seen her from a distance.
She had also wondered what kind of man Frau’s husband was but never had the chance to meet me.
Well, even when I visited Village Five, I usually just stopped at Youko’s mansion, where the teleportation gate was.
I really should explore more of the village.
Also, Bee-baa didn’t know that Frau’s husband was the village chief.
I hadn’t been hiding it, but I hadn’t exactly made it public knowledge either.
In the noble society of the Demon King’s Kingdom, it was one of those things where only those who needed to know were aware.
Would it be better to announce it openly?
I’d have to discuss that with Frau and Beezel.
-0-
Now that I could talk with Bee-baa, I discussed what to do about the house I had dug up.
「Since you’ve already dug it up, there’s no need to go out of your way to bury it again. But leaving the surroundings bare would be a problem. Maybe plant a few trees or something... huh? You’ve already put in a lawn and a flower bed? Ah, I-I see... And there’s even a pond nearby? ...A pond?」 ȓåΝŏΒÊs
That was Hakuren’s doing.
Since horizontal attacks were dangerous, I told her to at least aim straight down if she had to attack—apparently, she hit an underground water source.
It shouldn’t have affected the house.
Just to be safe, we reinforced the area around the pond properly.
The water also seems to be flowing in and out from somewhere underground, so it shouldn’t stagnate or rot.
Probably.
Also, I told a young beast living nearby to keep an eye on the house.
It’s not a high priority, though.
Protecting Mereo’s breeding facility comes first.
The house is only to be watched over if there’s extra capacity.
If I ask it to do too much, the young beast won’t be able to move freely.
「W-Well, the house is fine as it is. I only stay there a few times a year anyway. If I ever need help, I’ll handle it on my end. More importantly, is that beast going to be okay?」
What do you mean by “okay”?
It won’t attack anyone, if that’s what you’re asking.
「No, I can see that it’s obedient. I’m more concerned about whether it’s going to stay there forever.」
It’s its territory.
That young beast wants to raise offspring as soon as possible and take on missions as a family.
As for a partner... it doesn’t have one yet, but it seems to have someone in mind.
However, that potential mate belongs to another beast’s pack, and without the approval of the other’s parents, they can’t become partners.
I can’t interfere in something like that, so all I could do was tell it to do its best.
Even if Hakuren or I tried to help, it wouldn’t mean anything if the other parents didn’t approve.
「I see. At the very least, I can expect it to help keep bandits away.」
「It wasn’t ridiculous.」
「But you said yourself it was a trivial reason!」
「That was just an old person’s way of starting a story. You should’ve let it wash over you.」
「No, I refuse to let it wash over me! First of all, someone like you wouldn’t have any trouble dealing with an attack or two. You didn’t need to go into hiding!」
「An attack or two, sure. But when you’re being attacked over ten times a day, there’s nothing you can do. Besides, it was causing a huge disturbance for everyone around me.」
「...You were attacked over ten times a day?」
「Yes. That minister’s wife was incredibly persistent. On top of that, her sons were generals, so she had the military power to back her up.」
「Ahh」
「The more I resisted, the more it became a situation where the Demon King’s Kingdom’s forces were being drained.」
「T-That’s...」
「And while I was trying to figure out a solution, it was discovered that I had been transporting the Demon King and other ministers to their mistresses’ homes. Naturally, even more people came after me.」
「Oh no...」
「At that point, the only way to calm things down was for me to disappear. So, I went into hiding.」
「Ugh...」
「Before disappearing, I did inform the Demon King and the other Four Heavenly Kings about my actions. Any chaos that followed was just the result of their little performance. If you need proof, just look at the fact that Chrome County wasn’t reduced at all despite my disappearance.」
「T-That’s true... But if that was the reason, couldn’t you have returned at some point?」
「That was the plan. I figured I’d come back after a few decades.」
「You couldn’t return?」
「No, I just found life incredibly free and enjoyable once I was away from the house and the Four Heavenly Kings...」
「So you lost the will to return? That’s just abandoning your duties!」
「I still lent my help from time to time while the previous Demon King was alive. Without pay, mind you. So I have no reason to be lectured.」
「Grr...」
「To be honest, I thought your mother, my daughter in law, would’ve told you about me. Why didn’t she?」
「After I inherited the count’s household, she stopped visiting because I reminded her of my late father. She still writes occasionally, but we rarely meet.」
「Why is it that I, an outsider, know where your mother is, but you, her own son, don’t? Let me guess, you’ve been too busy with work to check on her properly? That’s no good. You need to be kind to your parents.」
「Ugh... Fine. Tell me where she is.」
「I’ll tell you right now. She’s in Village Five.」
「Village Five?」
「Do you know the underground shopping district? The area with a lot of clothing stores? She runs a tailor shop there.」
「T-That’s a lie! Village Five? And a tailor shop!? My mother would never handle a needle herself!」
「Why would I lie? I helped transport her when she moved her shop there, so I’m sure of it. The last time I saw her, she was working on a dress for the Demon King’s daughter.」
「..................」
Beezel froze.
He was probably struggling to process everything.
Meanwhile, Mereo and the others, who had been listening in, learned a valuable lesson—proper reporting and communication are crucial.
-0-
As a side note—
A truly trivial aside—but when I wondered how Bee-baa managed air circulation while buried in her house, she showed me a large crystal and a pair of jars.
The crystal, called a Wind Magic Crystal, passively purified the air. Apparently, it was often used in enclosed spaces like caves or when working in airtight rooms.
But purification alone doesn’t increase oxygen levels... So does this crystal somehow generate oxygen too?
What a mysterious mineral.
This alone was enough to take care of air quality, but Wind Magic Crystals were consumable items.
Every few decades, she had to buy a replacement.
Finding that troublesome, Bee-baa acquired the jars about a hundred years ago.
They were a pair of interconnected magic tools—air placed into one jar would emerge from the other.
It was the same type of magic tool used for water transportation in Village Five. Just as I had that thought, Bee-baa casually mentioned that the creator of these jars was Loo.
Loo made this before we ever met, huh...
...
A wave of nostalgia hit me, along with a realization of how small the world is.
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