A WEIRDO CAME TO REPAY A FAVOR
Beelzebub was over to hang out once again.
“Yes, this tea is quite delicious, and it has fragrances that I’ve never smelled nor tasted before.”
She was elegantly enjoying her tea at the table. It was normal to treat guests when they came over, but she did so way too often.
“That tea uses leaves from the plants growing on Sanshu Island, where those yetis lived. They were drinking it.”
I should get back to Sanshu Island somehow to pick more herbs in the future. I had my responsibilities as a witch, after all.
“It is a relief that was the island where you happened to fall. We have a saying that seems relevant: Unlucky to be injured, lucky to not be conscripted into defeating the hero.”
Words of wisdom on the upside of an injury existed everywhere…
By the way, Beelzebub was a little different from usual today. Her wings were spread out wide.
Because of this, she didn’t place her center of gravity on the back of the chair and instead sat forward. As a result, her posture was much better.
“Why are your wings out like that today?”
“I have had a lot of work lately, so I mostly keep them folded. If I do not stretch them occasionally, they will atrophy. ’Tis just as embarrassing as letting one’s clothes go threadbare.”
“Yeah, I guess they would get in the way if you always kept them out. Even though they are flashy.”
Beelzebub’s face clouded over, maybe because she remembered something unpleasant.
“When I keep them out, they often get caught when I close doors… The pain is distressing…”
“Yeah, that sounds rough…”
“I can use magic to hide them from view, but it is much more of a problem people believe they aren’t when they are… For example, sometimes people crash into them… It is a terrible nuisance, so I do my best to keep them folded.”
I’m sure winged demons could commiserate with plenty of these stories.
Living life as someone’s edgy, middle school OC sounded inconvenient enough.
And now that Laika had just sat down with us—
“When you and Flatorte are in your dragon forms, do you bump into things?” I asked.
If you were wondering what came of the tropical island incident, I was trying to treat Laika with extra care to atone for my sins. I poured her a cup of tea.
“No, dragons are much too big to fit through the doorways of average buildings in the first place.”
“I see… I guess you don’t really make buildings for dragon-form use only…”
Catching wings in doors sounded like a problem particular to demons.
“Well, now that I am here, I suppose I’ll do some work.” Beelzebub laid some documents on the table.
“Is it okay to take national documents out of the office? What happens if you lose them?”
“I am important, so ’tis not a problem.”
“I think it might be a problem because you’re important…”
“No need to worry. I would not bring any truly important documents. These are application forms for the odd-looking ones in the department. This work is trivial, so I may at least do it in comfort.”
The house in the highlands isn’t a café! Well, not most days.
“What do you mean when you say ‘odd-looking ones’?” Laika asked a bit sharply. Yeah, I didn’t know, either.
“There are some demons whose appearances occasionally change dramatically. They change so much that it is incredibly difficult to tell if it’s actually them, so they must submit applications to prove who they are.” Beelzebub rustled through her documents, searching for something. “For example, this species is called balloon demons. The difference drawn here is easily visible.”
In the section marked BEFORE TRANSFORMATION on the document, there was an image of a demon who looked like a deflated ball with arms and legs attached to it, like some kind of mascot. I vaguely remembered some sumo wrestler mascot like this.
“And this is after their transformation.” Beelzebub peeled back a page on the form.
In the section marked AFTER TRANSFORMATION, there was an image of a tall, model-like demon woman.
This had a very particular energy, like THE RESULTS OF THIS DIET WILL SHOCK YOU! SEE THESE BEFORE-AND-AFTER PICTURES FOR YOURSELF!
“There’s no trace of that other thing anywhere here! This is a totally different person!”
“Indeed. They look like an entirely different person, so the other staff members cannot tell if their looks are simply different, or if this is indeed somebody else. That is why we need these applications,” Beelzebub smoothly explained, as if this happened all the time in the demon world. “Not only that, but there are many cases in which demons will suddenly transform. Without warning, they shrink instead of gradually growing smaller, or they change form entirely. ’Tis truly difficult to judge.”
“I see… I would most certainly be confused if the expanded version of this person submitted a résumé with that picture, then the skinny one came to the interview instead…” Laika was overcome with amazement, too. That was how extreme the change was.
“It is a problem unique to demons. There are quite a few of them throughout all the ministries.”
I was going to scold Beelzebub for working on a weekend, but it didn’t seem like that intense of a job. It looked like she was just going through and checking the applications.
“Well, just don’t overwork yourself.”
“The girls are out shopping, so I have naught else to do. I have no choice but to check these documents.”
“Oh, so that’s your goal…”
The twins, Falfa and Shalsha, and Sandra were out shopping.
It was about time that I let Sandra do the shopping on her own, but she seemed to simply get tired while walking. Falfa and Shalsha would carry her or hold her hand sometimes.
“I have come to appreciate how adorable Sandra is as well. If I may adopt any of them, I would be fine with Sandra, too.”
“I keep telling you, I’m not letting you adopt any of them! Find your own daughter to adopt.”
“Well, I…find it awkward to live with someone I know nothing about… ’Tis much easier with someone I know…”
She sure was naive when it came to that stuff.
—There was a knock at the door. A visitor?
“Hello~? I—I am a humble human traveler. Is anyone hooome?”
The voice outside attempted an introduction.
“A traveler? Is it someone tired who wants a rest? But Flatta’s not far from here. Does this stranger really want to enter this lone house in the highlands?”
I was somewhat on my guard because information about a max-level witch was circulating. There were barely any nowadays, but adventurers had come by before wanting to battle the strongest witch.
“It is possible a lone traveler may have sprained an ankle, so why don’t we at least take a look and see?” Laika suggested.
Well, I would just open the door and see what they wanted. Having myself recently run into trouble on a desert island (that wasn’t actually deserted), I would do this in the spirit of helping.
“Hellooo. Who is it?”
I opened the door.
“Oh, I’m a humble, human traveler…and I got lost… Would you mind if I stayed here for a little while…?”
Standing there was a young woman, her hair in pigtails.
She did appear to be a traveler—she had what looked like a suitcase with her, after all. I was surprised those things existed in this world, actually. All it needed were the wheel parts.
The problem was that the girl had what looked like antennae and beautiful butterfly wings. Maybe she was a demon like Beelzebub.
“Um… You’re not a human, are you? I don’t know what species you are, though.”
She looked strange, so I decided to just ask.
“What?! Did she find out…? No, that can’t be! No, I am human. See, I’m just human all over! See, see?!”
Her wings and antennae were literally wiggling as she spoke!
Anyway, a weird girl was here now.
Hmmm… I wanted to show kindness to someone in trouble, but I could tell she was going to be another handful…
“I got lost… I’m sorry, but may I use your lodgings? To be more specific, for eight days and seven nights?”
That’s a long time! What is this, Airbnb?!
“I know you’re lost, but you should be able to see the village of Flatta at the bottom of the slope. They have inns there. There have been a lot more tourists lately, so there are even nicer accommodations now. One even has a hot spring, so I think that’d be a nice place to stay.”
“Oh…actually…my kin are forbidden from ever going to the village of Flatta… That’s, well…because we’ll drown if we go there!”
She was shameless!
I’d be stunned if any of that turned out to be true!
“You’ll drown…? There aren’t any lakes or ponds in Flatta, though.”
“No, I’m certain there must be puddles there… They’re surprisingly dangerous… You can drown even in a little water…”
By that logic, a rock might fall from the sky, so one shouldn’t go outside. I didn’t know how to respond…
“And, um…I may have injured my leg… It’s so bad that I must stay here for seven nights…”
She was really into the idea of staying here for seven nights!
“Please hold on a moment. I’m going to talk about this with my family.”
I smiled at her, shut the door, and immediately went to talk with Laika and Beelzebub.
“So what is she…?”
“I was watching it all from behind. She is quite the suspicious character…”
“I only heard her voice, but…I believe she is completely harmless. At the very least, I did not get the impression that she is a bad person.”
“Yeah, I agree.”
“She may be a handful to deal with, however.”
“Yeah, I agree with that, too… That’s why I don’t want to do this…”
Letting trouble stay at our house wasn’t going to change anything.
“The yetis took care of you, so why not allow her to stay for at least one night?”
Oops… Now that she brought that up, it was hard to refuse…
“But she doesn’t want to stay for one night. She wants to stay for seven.”
“How brazen of her…” Even Beelzebub was appalled by that.
“I trust that she’s harmless, but there are little kids living here…”
Then I came up with a plan.
“Okay, then, Beelzebub, could you take care of the three girls for a week? Sorry it’s so sudden—”
“Very well.”
The answer came quickly. I thought she might jump at it, and I was right!
“I know you probably have a lot of work, so is it really okay? You don’t have to force—”
“The girls are more important than my job!!”
She didn’t even finish listening to what I had to say. It was a fair argument, but there was something that still didn’t sit right with me…
“The Ministry of Agriculture has childcare facilities, and I can use my PTO! I can even just let them play in my office! I shall do it!”
This was the first time in a long while that I’d seen Beelzebub so excited.
Still, the mission was a success.
The strategy was to let the three girls stay with Beelzebub, earning her gratitude, while reducing the risk of letting this strange girl stay at our house.
I highly doubted she had plans to attack us, but I would put the girls somewhere safe just in case. Sandra, especially, was a mandragora, so it was hard to say that someone who knew her worth wouldn’t abduct her.
We reached an agreement, then.
“Beelzebub, take care of—”
“Miss Beelzebub already gathered up her things and left through the back door. She is apparently going to Flatta to meet up with the girls.”
Beelzebub was way too skilled at this.
I went back to the front door and opened it. “All right, you can use one of our empty rooms. I’m afraid we won’t be able to do much else for you, though.”
“Th-th-thank you!” Her butterfly-like wings fluttered. She had no intention of hiding them anymore, did she…?
“You don’t need to take care of me at all! You don’t even need to clean up after me! I will make sure everything is just as neat as I found it! Please do not peek into my room! If you do, this whole surprise will be for nothing!”
This girl sure could talk!
And I had a feeling she was showing her hand…
This reminded me of that tale The Crane Repays a Debt…
That said, this girl definitely wasn’t a crane. Who ever heard of a crane with butterfly wings?
“Come in, come in.”
“Thank you!”
Our guest slowly closed the door—and caught her wings in them.
“Ah! Shoot! I bent my wing! I messed up!”
She even mentioned her wings herself!
The visitor first introduced herself to me and Laika.
“My name is Nosonia. As you can see, I am a traveler, and I hurt my leg a little when I was walking nearby… I could barely take a step, so I decided I needed to stay somewhere for seven nights.”
She sure was emphasizing the seven nights thing.
“I am Laika, the red dragon. Say, even if your leg is injured, can you not fly with your wings?”
“Ha, ah-ha-ha-ha… Well, I am sure a dragon could fly, but I’m just a normal human. Good one~! Ha-ha-ha…”
I just wished she would tell us exactly what she was already, but I guess she was planning to keep it to herself at any cost.
“I’m Azusa, the witch. I’ll knock on your door when it’s mealtime, so come out whenever you’re ready and presentable. Is that okay?”
“Yes, Miss Azusa! Thank you so much! That is exactly what I want! I promise I will clean the room and leave it even more spotless than when I came!”
She was all talk, wasn’t she?
I took this Nosonia girl to an empty room. We had plenty of space, so we could deal with these situations immediately.
“Yes! This is excellent! I will work hard! Yes!”
The only thing I understood was that she was way into whatever she was doing.
“Work? Are you doing something here, then?”
“Um… Well, it’s work I can do anywhere so long as I have time… See, I’m a freelance writer… That’s all…”
“You have a lot of stuff for a writer.”
Her suitcase-looking thing was clearly massive. It was the right size for an adult to go traveling for three weeks, not just one.
“That’s…um…reference material! My reference books are very heavy! Yes, that’s right!”
Pressing her any further would just have made me feel bad.
Something was going to happen in a week, but I decided to just wait until then.
Even so, I realized The Crane Repays a Debt was a ridiculous story when you sat down and thought about it.
I mean, the crane that came to repay its debt suddenly appeared and asked the old man if she could stay… Someone would have to be really nice to let an uninvited guest stay like that…
There was also the part where she would get upset if the old man or the old woman saw her. If it bothered her so much, she should’ve just made the thing first, then paid them a visit to deliver it… For someone repaying a favor, she sure was selfish…
Well, it’s useless pointing out fallacies in old folktales. Now that I was experiencing it in real life, though, it really was ridiculous for a total stranger to ask to stay at someone’s house.
“Um, who is the butterfly girl…?” Laika asked when I returned to the dining room.
“You don’t know, either? I’ve got nothing.”
“At first, I thought she might be a fairy or a sprite.”
Oh, a sprite. I see! That’s cute; I like that!
“But fairies are supposed to be much smaller… The biggest would only be about Falfa’s or Shalsha’s size. She is much too tall…”
“Yeah, and her footsteps were way too heavy for either a sprite or a fairy… I could see a fairy being a little featherbrained like her, though. She reminds me of Halkara.”
“Now that you mention it, I have heard that elves are a race that branched off from fairies. The story is more akin to myth, however, so I am uncertain of the details.”
“Oh yeah, I can see that…”
If someone told me Halkara was just a big fairy, I’d believe them.
I could also kind of understand the explanation that the biggest fairies turned into elves.
I bet if I asked Nintan, one of the gods in this world, about that stuff, she would tell me. Having a god explain it felt like breaking the rules somehow, though.
“By the way, Lady Azusa, there is something I would like to ask,” Laika began somewhat reluctantly. “Did you ever help a butterfly in the past?”
“What?! You’re thinking this is a repay-a-favor kind of deal?!”
Given that this was a fantasy world, I couldn’t say it was impossible.
“Well, I wouldn’t say for sure that it is. It sounds more like a fairy tale. However, when I look at this Nosonia person, I believe it might be possible…”
Right. I guess it was a little childish in this world, too, for animals to repay favors…
“I don’t remember anything like that. I don’t get the opportunity to save butterflies very often anyway.”
In fact, the only situation I could think of in which a human would save a butterfly was if it was trapped in a spider’s web.
But that’s a very butterfly-centric perspective. From the spider’s point of view, it’d lose the food it worked so hard to capture. If I were the spider, I’d want to complain, Fine, YOU live without eating any animals or plants! This is discrimination!
Which was why I probably hadn’t saved any butterflies from spiderwebs.
“Well, it will all be clear in a week. We will wait until then,” Laika suggested leisurely.
Nosonia was a bit of an idiot, so we didn’t need to be that leery of her.
“What if we went over and opened her door right away? What do you think would happen?”
The desire to cause mischief budded inside me.
“Lady Azusa, please don’t…”
The girl, such as she was, was working hard on something up there.
At that point, Flatorte came in with heavy eyes. I guess she’d been sleeping in her room. “Mistress, I heard a lot of noise coming from one of the empty rooms. I tried to open the door, but it was locked. Is something going on?”
Oh no! She almost looked!
At least Nosonia was also being careful and locked the door. What a relief.
I told Flatorte about Nosonia. Flatorte could be irresponsible sometimes, but she did listen earnestly to what I had to say.
“Rest easy, Mistress. I, Flatorte, have no interest in her, so I won’t be looking in her room.”
“You could’ve phrased that a little more nicely.”
It was dinnertime, so I went to go knock on Nosonia’s door.
“There’s more info on the door here…”
There was a strange paper plastered to the door. This was like a company running out of a single room in a multipurpose building.
What on earth was she doing? If she was conducting business, I was going to start asking for rent.
I knocked. “Hey there, food’s almost ready~ Come down when you’re free~”
“I’ll go when I come to a good stopping point!”
I could hear her voice from inside the room. Was I a mom interrupting a kid playing video games to tell her that food was ready…?
“Boy, someone tried to open the door a little earlier, and I was so surprised that I thought my wings would fall off~! I was right to lock the door~”
“Oh right, so you do have wings.”
“No…it’s a proverb! A proverb, you know! I’m just a normal human! An extremely ordinary human!”
I felt like she already had more energy than a regular human ever could.
Also, she’d mentioned “good stopping point,” so that probably meant she was making something after all.
Ten minutes later, Nosonia emerged from her room just as Halkara was returning home from the factory. It would be best to have them introduce themselves.
“—So apparently, she’s going to stay with us for a week while she’s traveling.”
I gave Halkara the official statement just as it had been fed to me.
Nosonia definitely had something else going on, but it wouldn’t be fair to mention that right now.
“I see~ My name is Halkara, president of Halkara Pharmaceuticals.”
Halkara presented something like a business card to Nosonia. It was a very Japanese gesture.
“Oh, I am Nosonia, representative of the Nosonia Project. It is a pleasure to meet you!”
Nosonia produced her own approximation of a business card.
So she was lying about being a traveler… If I called her out on it, though, she would probably just brush it off with a random excuse like Oh, I’ve just turned it into my own business and work freelance now.
“Well, since we have a guest, why don’t we open a bottle of the good alcohol?!” Halkara was determined to drink. It was like she was looking for excuses…
Nosonia, however, seemed to be reserved when it came to these matters.
“I’m sorry. I only need some vegetables…”
Oh, she was rather humble.
“That won’t fill you up,” I said. “Plus, I want to give you more than just salad. Please eat as you normally would.”
“Oh, no, I’m not trying to be considerate… My kind generally only eat plants—which is a joke, and actually, I’m in the middle of a pilgrimage, so I can’t eat meat! That’s right! I’m not allowed to eat meat! Because I’m on a pilgrimage! For religious reasons!”
Even if you did think up a good excuse while talking, you didn’t have to say it twice!
“By the way, Miss Nosonia, your wings are very pretty~!” Halkara casually complimented her wings with no ulterior motive whatsoever.
“Oh, see, I always make sure to take good care of them—ha-ha, only kidding… Can you see the wings? My great-great-great-grandmother’s dying words mentioned that some winged creature was acting as my family’s guardian spirit and that people who are especially sensitive can see them. How strange, truly! Well, I didn’t really believe it myself, ha-ha-ha-ha-ha~!”
Her efforts to brush this off were incredible.
“You got no guardian spirit or anything with you,” Rosalie, our real ghost, pointed out.
“Oh, what? Then the guardian spirit must be a superstition~! It must be~! It’s so hard to believe in spirits and such, isn’t it? Ah-ha-ha-ha-ha…”
“I’m a ghost, though…”
Watching her constantly digging her own grave was something new at least, so I just let her keep at it. She was going to ruin herself the more she talked…
“Oh, you’re a ghost… My apologies… Oh! Just because you’re a ghost, you can’t go looking in my room, okay? Please, I’m begging you! Please don’t think you’re free to come in just because you can float through doors!”
“I’m not gonna go peeking into other people’s rooms. I can go through walls, but I’m always careful about it.”
I see. Even though Rosalie could pass through most barriers, that meant she had to consider her path in order to preserve other people’s privacy… Ghosts had a lot to think about…
“The only thing rotten about me is my body!”
That was probably a ghost joke, but was it okay to laugh?
“My apologies, Miss Rosalie. I’m not doubting you, but considering my circumstances, there are a couple of things I’d rather not have other people know about me. That is why I don’t want others looking in my room. It might cause trouble, so…”
“Hey, that sounded kinda cool!”
Nosonia’s warning seemed chivalrous, but if she was keeping terrible secrets, I wasn’t sure I wanted to let her stay at all… She was probably just saying whatever came to mind, though.
I clapped my hands together. “All right. It’s time for food. Can you have bread, Nosonia?”
“I can’t not have it.”
It was hard to imagine a butterfly munching on meat.
“All right. Then if your bread and salad aren’t enough, feel free to take seconds.”
“Of course. Oh right. Also, I have a request.” Nosonia produced what looked like a measuring tape. “Would you allow me to measure everyone’s figure?”
“You’re gonna make clothes, aren’t you?”
Wouldn’t it be better to just say everything outright? Then there wouldn’t be that weird tension…
“N-no… See, I…like measuring people… That’s all…”
Her excuses were getting so careless! That was an extremely niche hobby!
I raged a little on the inside when she was measuring Halkara.
“Wow, Miss Halkara, your bust measurement is incredible~!”
“You may be right. All the nutrients from my food go to my chest~”
Was there no spell that made all the nutrients from my food go to my chest?
When we were done eating, everyone except Nosonia stayed at the table to have tea.
We weren’t excluding her because she was a freeloader or anything—she insisted she had something to do in her room and went back to it. It didn’t exactly feel right making her stay to have tea with us, so we just let her do as she pleased.
Plus, it would be harder to talk about her if she was around.
“What sort of species is she, I wonder? She is not a fairy,” Halkara said as she sipped on some tea that was a little spiked.
“So she isn’t a fairy, huh?”
“No. Elves and fairies have relatively deep connections, and they even send delegations to the Wellbranch Marquessate sometimes.” Halkara seemed to know a lot about fairies.
“Where do they live? I don’t think I’ve ever seen one.”
I’d never seen one, but after three hundred years, it felt like I should have at some point.
Then again, I rarely left the area around the house in the highlands.
“Not only are they small, but their sphere of habitation is tiny. They cluster only in certain places in certain forests. That is why, if you don’t know exactly where to go, you might never see a fairy.”
“Like around one specific tree in one specific forest, right?”
Halkara nodded, her face flushed with alcohol. “That’s exactly it. They’re like smaller, more compact versions of elves. The majority of us elves tend to live crowded in one place, too. You don’t find us just anywhere in any forest, do you?”
That made it easy to understand. It was like how the better half of Japan’s land was mountains and forests, but that didn’t mean there were people doing forestry work on every mountain.
“Then what is Nosonia, seriously?” I asked, munching on an edible slime.
The conversation had reached the inevitable question.
“Mistress, she’ll tell you in a week, right? Then you just have to wait.” Flatorte sounded genuinely apathetic… “I’m not interested in fighting her to see which of us is stronger, and if she’s harmless, she can stay as long as she wants, as far as I’m concerned.”
Everything was sparring with her…
I wanted to fill out this hot topic a little more. Freeloaders almost never dropped by—although I wouldn’t want them coming all the time.
“Well, she’s got wings like Beelzebub does, so they’re probably related.”
Flatorte was sharp when it came to the weirdest things. She was an idiot, but that was because she never studied. Her street smarts weren’t half-bad.
“Oh yeah… Then is she a demon…?”
That was my natural conclusion.
“But Lady Azusa, I get the impression she genuinely intends to repay a favor to you. You would remember saving someone like her, no…?”
“Yeah, I totally agree, Laika…”
I hadn’t met any demons for a long time in my memory. Beelzebub had to be the first. A demon could have come by incognito, but I wouldn’t forget helping a girl like her.
“After living a relatively uneventful life for three hundred years—not to brag or anything—I’m sure I would remember caring for an injured person.”
I really didn’t mean to brag. There was a saying that went Working the fields in fine weather, at home reading when it rains, and that was exactly how my life was.
When it was sunny, I went out to collect herbs or kill slimes. When it rained, I read books about magic or killed slimes nearby. My life stuck to a routine—a routine that most often involved killing slimes.
The normal people of this world often asked me if I grew tired of it or felt like dying from boredom sometimes. The people of Flatta don’t ask me that anymore, of course, but they used to.
I’ll just jump to the point and say I didn’t.
I doubted there were any humans who could master different fields within their average lifespan. Many of them could never even master one.
In a way, the things I could do were practically limitless.
A couple of centuries was nothing.
If people were bored to death just because they lived a long time, then all the elves and demons and spirits would exist in constant despair. But of course, that wasn’t the case.
“Well, she doesn’t seem like a bad person, so I’m certain it’ll be fine. She even followed proper etiquette when we exchanged cards,” Halkara said. I let Nosonia stay because she didn’t seem bad, but an endorsement from Halkara only lowered my confidence…
We chatted a little more but were unable to reach a conclusion as to what exactly Nosonia was.
If she were a crane, we would probably have heard the thunk, whum sound of her weaving.
The next day, Nosonia came down for breakfast like it was the most normal thing in the world.
“Good morning! My leg still hurts, so please allow me to stay the next six nights! I believe it’ll get better if I stay put for six nights!”
“Sure, do what you like.”
You can concentrate on your work as hard as you want.
“Um, also, are there any other people who live here? If there are, would you please tell me what size they wear?”
“Sure, I’ll bring my daughters’ clothes over. You can probably tell their sizes from that.”
—Then at nine AM.
Bam, bam, bam, bam, bam! Diiing, diiing, diiing! Boom, boom, boom, boom, boom!
There was a cacophony coming from Nosonia’s room!
“What is happening?!”
Everyone in the house gathered in front of it, me included.
Flatorte banged on the door. “Hey, keep it down! It sounds like you’re doing construction in there!”
“I’m sorryyy! I will be done in a few days! Please forgive me!” Nosonia called back. Was she seriously making some kind of robot in there…?
Then, I could faintly hear a knock coming from the front door. Had the sound of her working persisted, I might have missed it.
—Knock, knock, knock, knock.
What? Who’s here now…?
I wasn’t the only one who froze at the sound—everyone did.
There was no doubt that Nosonia was making something. If all this obnoxious noise was just her travelogue, I would be very surprised.
But I wasn’t expecting someone else to show up.
“Hello? Is anyone home?”
Someone was definitely here. We all exchanged glances.
“It would be frightening if someone who looked exactly like Miss Nosonia came asking to borrow a room, wouldn’t it…?” Laika raised an eerie possibility.
“Hey, Laika! I don’t like scary stories… I don’t mind lending out rooms to weird people, but no scary stuff!”
That said, I couldn’t just ignore the door, so I cautiously answered it.
There stood a single demon holding several parcels.
I recognized our visitor as a demon right away because of the horns.
Don’t tell me Nosonia was a wanted woman who was now being arrested…? I hoped she wasn’t forging weapons in her room.
“We have some packages addressed to one Nosonia. Is this the correct place?”
Oh, a delivery person. I could tell from the wyvern waiting on the lawn.
“Yes… She is here…”
“There are a lot of boxes, but all of them are light. May I leave them just inside your door?”
“Oh, sure. Go ahead…”
After putting all the packages down, the delivery demon left. At least now I knew the human lands fell within their delivery range…
Written on the packages, by the way, were things like this:
• Fabric
• Cotton
• Buttons, etc.
She was definitely making some kind of garment!
I left the boxes outside Nosonia’s room. “There are some packages here for you!” I called.
“Thank you! They were so bulky, I couldn’t bring all of them~”
Her traveler facade was slipping.
For the next few days, Nosonia’s room emitted a constant stream of noise pollution.
“How are you doing? Is your leg healing?” Laika, being kind, was playing along with Nosonia’s lie.
“Yes, this is almost complete! Now I’ll be able to repa— Oh yes~! It’s gotten much better, but it still aches a little~”
Maybe she should have practiced her lying before she started worrying about repaying me…
Then finally, it was the promised eighth morning after the seventh night.
Nosonia was beaming with the contentment of a good worker. A professional, even.
“Thank you so much for letting me stay a whole seven nights. My work should be entirely finished in just a few more hours! Rest easy, because I will not be making any more loud noises!”
“Right, your leg will be fully healed in a few more hours. That’s good to hear.”
“Oh… Yes, right! It was my leg, my leg! Then I will be able to get back to traveling!”
At noon, Falfa, Shalsha, and Sandra returned with Beelzebub.
Falfa made a beeline for me, Shalsha followed a little after, and Sandra was somewhat hesitant, but they all came to me eventually. I crouched down to hug each of them—it was a mother’s duty and privilege.
“Did you have a good week, Mommy?”
“That’s what I want to ask you. You didn’t get sick or anything while you were in the demon lands, did you?”
Behind them, Beelzebub complained, “What a rude thing for you to say. I thoroughly spoiled them.” But was that good for them?
“It felt like going home. It was nice,” Sandra said, her face red in embarrassment.
“Oh yeah, Beelzebub’s garden is kind of like your hometown for you, isn’t it?”
“Let your precious children travel. That is a proverb they use in the north.” Shalsha just called herself precious—and she was absolutely right.
“Yes, Shalsha, you are precious. I love you so much!”
Yes, it was a truly touching reunion! A happy ending!
“—By the way, Azusa. Is your guest still here?”
Oh right, almost forgot about her.
“Nosonia’s here. She’s apparently just about to leave.”
“I see. Perhaps we may finally learn what she is.”
The truth about Nosonia would finally be revealed!
“Although, to be honest, I care not what the answer to this mystery is.”
“Don’t say that!”
“’Tis far more important to treat the girls with affection~ Oh~ You are all so cute~ You could stay for a hundred years if you want~ A week is much too short~”
This demon was much too greedy.
Beelzebub was fawning all over my daughters. If Falfa told Beelzebub to commit a crime, I think she’d actually do it. It was a groundless fear, though, since Falfa would never say such a thing.
While we were talking, Nosonia flew straight toward us. Literally. Using her wings.
“Miss Azusa, it’s all finished~!”
“Well, now that’s not a demon one sees every day,” Beelzebub commented, laying that question to rest.
But more importantly, I was going to find out why exactly Nosonia had been holing herself up in her room.
“What did you finish, Nosonia?”
“There is a lot of it, so would you mind coming to the room?”
We went to Nosonia’s room—
—and found several weaving machines and completed garments.
“Miss Azusa, thank you so much for saving my life back then! This is a silk robe of the highest quality! I made it to combine both witchiness and luxury!”
“Oh wow! Thank you!”
It was more perfect than I could have imagined!
“I was actually keeping this a secret from everybody, but I was lying when I said I’d hurt my leg and was unable to move. I couldn’t create my thank-you gift without knowing your sizes, so I stayed with you.”
“………Oh wow. I had no idea,” I deadpanned.
“I made clothes for everyone else, too! For the children, I made socks that will withstand years of outdoor play and never wear through and nice dresses for going out!”
The girls’ eyes glittered!
“I don’t know who you are, but thank you, Miss!”
“I must express my deepest feelings of gratitude, strange traveler.”
“…Th-thanks. Dunno who you are, though.”
She really was a stranger in the three girls’ eyes.
After that, Nosonia presented us with all sorts of other cloth gifts, including down quilts and superabsorbent towels.
“Wow, thank you so much. I feel bad you made all this for us…”
“I am also relieved I have successfully repaid my debt to you!”
Oh yeah. I still didn’t have an answer for that.
“When was it that I saved you?”
I tried to think of a moment where I’d rescued someone with wings, but it didn’t even ring a bell.
“What? Don’t you remember? It was about two hundred and thirty years ago.”
“Of course I’d forget something that happened so long ago.”
It was like asking someone in the 2000s to remember something that happened in the 1700s.
“But you picked me up when I was about to drown…” The girl looked somewhat disappointed.
When was it, really? I did genuinely want to know. I didn’t think I’d ever forget saving someone so unique.
“It was at the village at the bottom of the slope—Flatta, was it? My parents disguised themselves and were traveling on a pilgrimage.”
So the lie about being a traveling pilgrim wasn’t entirely baseless…
“But I was only this big back then.” Nosonia put a little space between her thumb and index finger to indicate the length.
That was three inches!
“That’s tiny! Fairy-size! No, hold on… I wouldn’t forget an experience like that! I would totally remember a meeting like that!”
“I am certain she looked different back then,” Beelzebub said in quiet exasperation. Guess our local demon friend had already worked it out.
“Yes, yes. Back then, I… Ummm, I have a picture of me from my early childhood—”
Nosonia took out a sketchbook that was probably full of designs for her clothes.
“Here!”
The picture she showed us was of a green, wriggly butterfly larva.
“Now that’s a crazy transformation!”
“She’s a crawler. Immature crawlers are indistinguishable from caterpillar larvae. They grow bigger and bigger until they come to be about our height, which is when they take on their winged form.” Beelzebub explained their growth cycle to us.
How was I supposed to know any of that…?
The name crawler probably came from the big caterpillar stage.
“Back then, my parents went shopping and left me on top of a leaf, but I lost my balance, fell off the leaf, and landed in a puddle…”
The made-up story about drowning in Flatta also had its origins in truth, huh?
“I thought it was all over for me. That little puddle might as well have been a vast ocean… But then Miss Azusa passed by and used a torn leaf to save me!” Nosonia looked at me, her eyes wet with tears.
But I still couldn’t remember. It wasn’t a situation peculiar enough for me to recall…
“I still cannot forget what you said back then. ‘I don’t really want to touch a caterpillar, so I’ll just use a leaf…’”
That was kind of a mean thing to say, though!
“It was thanks to you that I reached adulthood fifty years ago, safe and sound. I then started up my own individual firm in the garment business and managed to become independent, so I used this opportunity to repay you!”
“I see. I don’t remember it at all, but I don’t doubt I did something like that.”
I could see myself sparing a benevolent act for her. Had she been some sort of spiky, creepy-crawly, though, I might’ve ignored her.
“Ever since, I’ve trained to use spider and other types of silk, down, and every fiber imaginable so I can create the most comfortable clothing ever. It is a privilege to have shown you just a bit of the results of my hard work!”
There was a saying that went Even the tiniest insects have great wills, and I guess bugs could grow really big.
Rosalie was bawling, “What a nice story…” But it wasn’t exactly a tearjerker to me. I probably just felt like I’d saved a bug…
Still, even the smallest good deeds are worth doing.
Well, now that I knew the circumstances behind the favor she owed—
“Why don’t we throw a party? We have plenty of time until evening if we get started now.” I headed straight for the kitchen. “The girls are back now, and you’ll be leaving after this, right, Nosonia? Why don’t we finish this off with a closing celebration?”
“What?! Is that all right? I feel as though we’re even at the moment, but then I’ll owe you again!”
Maybe she felt like she’d finally settled a debt…
“Sandra, could you use that good sense of yours to gather up a bunch of tasty vegetables? And could you get some good flower nectar if there is any, too?”
“I can do that. I know what insects like, more or less.” Sandra was reliable in times like these. “I’ve seen the hardship of plants that have suffered because of insects…”
There was another natural enemy of hers here, too!
“Ha-ha-ha~! Looking at a mandragora girl makes me want to nibble on her a little bit~ I just sooometimes feel like taking a little bite, that’s all.”
She wanted to eat her? This was dangerous…
I was right to send Sandra off to Beelzebub’s place.
After that, we efficiently prepared for the party.
“““Cheeeeers!”””
Everyone clinked their cups together.
Nosonia downed her drink, which was made from the flower nectar that Sandra had collected.
“Ahhhh~! Delicious! Nothing like nectar after finishing a job!”
I guess nectar would be a big hit with a butterfly. No surprises there.
“Hey, Nosonia, is it still okay to call you and your people ‘crawlers’ even after you grow up?”
The name crawler suggested they would…well, crawl, but that wasn’t a butterfly’s preferred method of travel.
“Yes. From what I’ve heard, we are most remembered for that phase of life, so that is what we’re called. Also, we tire easily from flying, so we mostly walk everywhere.”
I see… I guess butterflies didn’t journey as far afield as birds…
“But it still doesn’t seem right calling you that when you’re a child, even if you are the size of a regular butterfly larva.”
“Yes, we do grow very rapidly, after all. Two years after you saved me from drowning, I was about seven feet long.”
“That’s massive! You’d be pretty hard to miss!”
“It wasn’t very easy getting from place to place, so I mostly stayed at home. Other crawlers do the same, apparently, so I don’t think you’d ever see them out and about in a demon town.”
Nosonia’s parents probably wouldn’t be able to take her on trips once she was that big. I guess I really did happen to meet her at some point. Fate works in mysterious ways, as they say, bringing people together.
During the festivities, I could feel Laika staring at me.
“Hmm? What is it, Laika?”
“You have been living so benevolently for over two hundred years, Lady Azusa. It reminded me that I still have much to learn from you.”
“Oh, no, no! You’re praising me too much! It was really just a little thing!”
Anyone would save a bug if they lived long enough.
“But you indeed saved her,” Beelzebub commented as she worked on her food. “You are allowed to be genuinely proud of that.” She wasn’t the type to be modest herself, and she was basically a quasi-member of the family already.
“You might be right.”
I wasn’t planning on getting a big head from this. I was just genuinely happy that I formed a new relationship by getting involved.
Shalsha and Sandra went up to Nosonia and started asking all sorts of questions.
I wanted the children to treasure every interaction they had.
“Please tell me about the livelihood of a crawler.”
“What kind of grass do crawlers like best? I want to know more about bugs so I can protect myself.”
“We wake up in the morning and go to bed at night. We like almost every kind of grass,” Nosonia replied.
Well, that was uninformative…
Also, Nosonia’s expression was brighter than it had been before. She was probably extra bold because now she had nothing to hide.
I was happy to receive the clothes, but connecting with a new friend like this was the best reward I could have gotten.
“Nosonia, it’s nighttime already. Why don’t you stay another night?”
“Thank you, but I still have a company to run and lots of work waiting for me. I must return as quickly as possible.”
Ahhh, so this girl had become a proud, working member of society.
A child I had saved came back as an upstanding adult—what an encouraging thought.
“Oh, I understand that. Running a company is such hard work~” President Halkara interjected.
“It is. There are so many things to worry about~”
The two executives are about to launch into a lively conversation, I see.
One hour later…
“Ooh, I feel terrible… I can barely hold my liquor as it is, and I ended up drinking so much…”
“You, too, Miss Nosonia…? I have gone way over the top…”
Nosonia and Halkara were both pale and slumped together, like good friends.
“This has to be one of the hardest parts about running your own business, isn’t it, Miss Halkara…?”
“Sure is, Miss Nosonia…”
This definitely had nothing to do with being a company president.
“Oh, Miss Azusa, Miss Azusa…” Nosonia extended a shaky hand and called to me. “I am terribly sorry, but I don’t think I can move right now. Please allow me to stay for one more night…”
“Yeah, sure, take your time…”
The next morning, Nosonia hurried on home.
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