Can Someone from a Tradition-Ridden Village Pull Off a Narou-Style Story in a Modern Dungeon? ～The Higher Being Behind Me Is Way Too Much of a Final Boss～ - Chapter 144: Common Point (Patreon)

-Thank you DCRangeRange, Dean Dexter and CannedbreadFollow me on Patreon via Linktree https://linktr.ee/Mnotia-

The aromatic black tea was something Karin often liked to drink.

She didn't know other children's homes in detail, but even so, whenever Senano and the others asked, the adults prepared it for them right away.

Black tea could be said to be one of the things built into their daily life.

(I'd been avoiding drinking it because it brings back memories, though.)

For Senano, now an instant coffee enthusiast, it was her first black tea in a long time.

Just by smelling this aroma, she fell into the illusion that both her body and mind had become much younger.

The old cathode-ray tube TV caught in the corner of her vision was useless, and the finger puppet placed on top was sun-faded.

"Still, I want some tea sweets. I wonder if there's anything left."

As if seeing off the retreating figure who headed to the refrigerator with slippers pattering, the large clock ticked away.

Everything remained as it was in the past.

The only difference was that the something sitting in front of her was not family.

"You're called Senano-chan, right?"

The gray hair swayed with the movement of the girl, who leaned forward a little and looked at her.

Her emaciated face had prominent cheekbones, and though she was smiling, it was unnaturally devoid of any sense of life.

"That's right. I'm Mikama Senano. And you?"

"I'm Matoi Shiwo."

"Matoi Shio...?"

"Shiwo."

When Shiwo said that, she traced the name on the table with a fingertip like a slender twig.

"Because it has the same reading as my big sister's, I'm often mistaken."

"Big sister...!?"

"That's right."(TL Note: Younger sister's name is 的井シヲ and older sister's name is 的井シオ. They're both read aloud as Matoi Shio but younger sister's is spelled with a W. I am just now catching this. I'll be going back through past chapters to fix this if they appear.)

She seemed used to saying that too, and it didn't seem this topic would go any further.

Shiwo seemed more interested in the black tea than that, and after fidgeting while looking back and forth between Karin, who had gone to look for tea sweets, and the black tea, she secretly took a sip as if stealing it.

"Delicious!? I've never had black tea before, but it's this good!"

While observing her drink the black tea in one go, driven by surprise and desire, Senano thought.

She wasn't so foolish as to treat the matching name as coincidence.

(No matter how I think about it, it's connected to Matoi Shio. If I take this girl's words at face value, they're sisters. ...Was Shio someone on the Enri Agency side? No, even so, too many things are sloppy. If she'd infiltrated to probe our side's movements, there's no way that one would overlook it.)

The absolute information advantage held only by Senano and Ei.

That was the fact that the Tide-Weeping Shrine Maiden was already acting freely in human form.

That girl whom Shio admired as an Enri Bearer was none other than the calamity-lord-class who ruled the sea, and naturally no mere human could deceive her.

By a strange coincidence, the existence of the Tide-Weeping Shrine Maiden proved the innocence of the girl named Shio.

(Assuming what this Aberrant Entity is saying is true, I want to draw out a little more information.)

Senano gently slid the black tea in front of Shiwo.

To her, who tilted her head upon seeing that, Senano said while resting her chin on her hand.

"I'll give it to you."

"Really!?"

"It's fine. I'm a coffee person."

And above all, she wouldn't do something as foolish as putting something from inside the labyrinth into her mouth.

At the smile she made to hide the real reason, Shiwo said, "Thank you!" and innocently drank it all down.

"You're kind."

"You drank it so deliciously that I couldn't help it. More than that, I want to hear more about you. Will you tell me about your big sister?"

"Of course. My big sister is kind, a bit of a show-off, and a hard worker! And she's a hero of justice."

Shiwo said, as if savoring it while gazing at the empty cup.

"It's a job where you defeat bad guys called Aberrant Entities. It's called an Enri Bearer. I heard she saved someone before, too."

"...I see."

She quietly gave responses so as not to interrupt the story.

But beside that, she continued organizing the information.

(Wasn't she a dispatched employee? Did she put on a show... or did she become a dispatched employee for the sake of big money?)

It was a story unrelated to an excellent Enri Bearer like Senano, but there were those who occasionally became dispatched employees themselves to earn money.

Shio was probably that sort too.

If so, many things made sense.

From that Shio's sensibility, which was far too much that of a common-sense person, and the appearance of the Shiwo in front of her, she could make a simple conjecture.

(She probably intended to earn money for surgery expenses or something... but how did it end up like this?)

"Hey, hey."

Shiwo leaned forward again toward Senano, who was lost in thought.

The scent of black tea came from her.

"You're an Enri Bearer too, right?"

"...Yes, that's right."

"I see...! That's so cool...!"

Perhaps satisfied with Senano's answer, Shiwo sat back down in her chair and directed a voice of admiration and a gaze of envy at her.

Normally Senano would puff out her chest and receive it all, but even she couldn't bring herself to feel that way.

(She doesn't recognize me as an enemy. Looking back, when it was my master and me, it only attacked after we started a fight from our side. Strictly a counter. I still don't understand the phenomenon similar to tide-weeping, but there's one thing I do understand now.)

While directing her gaze at Shiwo, who was waiting for a refill of black tea, Senano reached one conclusion.

(This Aberrant Entity has the consciousness of the girl named Matoi Shiwo.)

There was a precedent.

It was a researcher who, while being eroded by EN-2417 『Gabigabi』, still moved to protect their younger brother.

Those siblings proved to Senano that, if one lacked self-awareness, one could leave a certain degree of reason as a human within an Aberrant Entity.

If the Aberrant Entity before her was like that, she should interact with it more cautiously.

"Being an Enri Bearer is quite hard too. Your big sister must be working very hard as well."

"That's right. My big sister always looks tired when she comes to see me. ...Because my body is weak."

Shiwo, pinching the edge of her hospital gown, looked apologetic.

It was easy to imagine that she had apologized to Shio many times.

And that each time, Shio encouraged her and acted even more stouthearted.

"I've been weak since I was born. That's why I was abandoned by my dad and mom too."

"...Abandoned?"

"Yeah."

Shiwo nodded.

Her face seemed to have already cut ties with the matter of her parents, and unexpectedly it was cheerful.

The time when she had been talking about the burden on Shio earlier has far more tragedy to it.

"My big sister and I were abandoned together. After that, we entered an orphanage that would also look after my illness. It's called The Blue House. It's a wonderful place where you can see the sea."

Within Senano, she felt something was quietly being assembled.

The thinking ability she had trained daily began inference and scrutiny before her emotions could catch up.

Before she knew it, a question had slipped from her mouth.

"...That is, were there any strange customs? Like the hallway being odd, or bowing before handling fire, or always living by the light of flames from 11 p.m. to 3 a.m."

"Hmm, there wasn't anything like that. Everyone was nice, after all."

"I see."

"Yeah! Everyone was weak like me, and came to The Blue House together with their older brother or older sister. When I was feeling well, we went outside together and such. It was fun..."

"...Did everyone have an older sister and older brother?"

"Yeah. My big sister and big brother are healthy, so they made meals for us, and even after leaving the facility, they sometimes sent us games and stuff. My big sister also sent a new-model TV to the facility! Everyone was super happy!"

"...I see."

She had a bad premonition.

No, rather than a premonition, it might be better to call it a highly credible hypothesis.

(Children gathered according to a rule, and the current situation)

If Shiwo's appearance before her was not a coincidence.

If there was a clear reason why it had not shown itself during Happou Fusagi or Nene, and had interfered only with her.

"Shiwo."

"What?"

"Is there a god in your home... in The Blue House?"

That question was directed at Shiwo along with conviction.

The sound of the clock flowing through the brief silence echoed in Senano's heart like a heartbeat.

Eventually, Shiwo nodded with a slightly surprised face.

"Yeah, there is. How did you know?"

After more than ten years, the two who shared a strange common point met here.

-Thank you DCRangeRange, Dean Dexter and CannedbreadFollow me on Patreon via Linktree https://linktr.ee/Mnotia-