311 – The Limits of Patience (Toilet)
「Sorry. I know you’re having a serious conversation and all, but…」
Ripping apart the tense atmosphere was Kusama-kun, who we’d completely forgotten about. Kusama-kun, who was still tied up while facing Ogiwara-kun, had spoken up with a rather stiff expression that couldn’t be expressed in a still drawing.
「…I’m almost about to leak here. Do you mind if I go to the toilet?」
This led to a fascinating change of expressions in Ogiwara-kun, who was tied up together with him. He went from showing an appalled face expressing “You damn idiot who can’t read the mood” to a shocked face expressing “Are you serious!?”. Yeah, well. They are tied up together after all. So if Kusama-kun leaks, then it would indeed be bad for Ogiwara-kun who to stuck to him wouldn’t it. Naturally, you’d make such an expression.
「It should be fine I guess? It seems that some people need to calm down a bit anyway. So let’s take a little break.」
Before I could say anything, vampire girl went and declared a break. Not only that, the moment she gave that declaration she stood up from her chair in a rush and stomped outside. She’d had a bored expression that she didn’t even try to conceal since earlier, but she must have been really bored I guess…
「Okay then, toilet break!」
Kusama-kun vanishes while shouting that line. As if he had never been tied up, he vanishes in an instant. Ooh! That was rather ninja-like for once. So he could have instantly escaped at any time if he’d felt like it. I guess you could say that he more or less read the mood by not doing that without getting permission first? Was the reason why he declared an intention to go to the toilet also for the sake of changing the mood then? … Nah, no way. Of all people Kusama-kun wouldn’t do that. Most likely he simply couldn’t find the right timing to ask to go to the toilet. There are people like that aren’t there – those who need to go to the toilet for some reason at a critical moment. Like during an exam.
Due to vampire girl and Kusama-kun suddenly leaving, the other reincarnators seem a bit lost as to what to do. However, as if responding to oni-kun mutely sitting with his eyes closed, when Yamada-kun picked up the chair that had been kicked over earlier and calmly sat down, they began to move. They soon started doing whatever they felt like. Some people started to talk with others next to them and some people went upstairs, and so on.
Ah! Talking of upstairs, sensei should be being looked after right now! I’ll go take a look at how she’s doing.
Is it fine for me to leave since I’m the one facilitating this discussion though? With everything that’s been going I feel worn out anyway, so even if I’m not around it’ll work out somehow. Putting it another way though, it doesn’t feel like it’ll make any difference whether or not I’m here.
I stand up from my chair, and walk over towards the staircase. Somehow, I get the feeling that everyone left here really paid attention to me, but let’s just say that it was probably just my imagination. In particular, I feel that there were intense gazes stabbing at me from around Kudou-san and Shinohara-san, but I’ll just ignore that!
「If you’re going to where sensei is, then is it okay if I come along with you?」
While I’m feeling like I’m forcing my way through a bed of needles with my iron will, there’s one hero who fails to read the mood and calls out to me. Yeah, well, you are in fact the Hero in practice, Yamada-kun. Or rather, that’s not something you need to ask permission for anyway, and despite phrasing that as a question you’re totally brimming with the intent to get up from your chair you know.
Everything’s gotten so bothersome, so I silently make a nod signifying permission, and just ignore Yamada-kun otherwise while leaving. Yamada-kun follows me in silence as well. Behind him, Ooshima-kun follows with the sense of not really having anything else to do. There’s all these gazes following on behind us, but you lose if you worry about such things!
After silently climbing up the stairs, we arrive at the intended room. Just in case I’ll knock on the door out of politeness and wait for a reply. But, instead of a reply the door is opened from the inside. The one who opened the door is Kushitani-san who was attending to sensei.
「Come in. She’s still sleeping, so please be quiet.」
As might be expected from a former adventurer – it seems that she had sensed our approach. I’ve thought this since the start of the discussion, but Kushitani-san and Tagawa-kun are better at understanding the situation since they know both about the outside world and living inside this elf village. Perhaps because they have the experience of being self-sufficient as adventurers, their ability to make decisions feels different to the other reincarnators. There’s the example just earlier where she took the initiative to take care of sensei for a start. Regarding that, while Yamada-kun and the others had also lived outside, the key difference is that they had a sheltered upbringing.
At Kushitani-san’s prompting we enter the room, and can now see sensei who is laid out on a bed. She should have been conscious when Kushitani-san had taken her out earlier, but perhaps out of anxiety or something it seems that she’s been put to bed. Also, apart from the bed that sensei is sleeping in, this room has another bed, and there Hasebe-san is sleeping. Felmina-chan, who is monitoring Hasebe-san, is sitting silently beside that bed. Somehow… I feel that Felmina-chan’s gaze is really cold. It’s surely my imagination! Today I’ve felt all sorts of gazes on me, but I’m sure they’re all just my imagination! I gotta handle such things this way though! Okay!?
「How is sensei’s condition?」
Yamada-kun asks Kushitani-san that question.
「I can’t really tell. Rather than a problem with her body it’s a problem with her mind after all. She’s currently asleep due to fatigue, but I don’t know what will happen when she wakes up.」
Saying so, Kushitani-san closes the door. With her frank manner of speaking, that might come across as being somewhat heartless, but I’m sure she’s worried about sensei in her own way.
「How are things on your end?」
Rather than asking Yamada-kun, Kushitani-san asks that while looking at me. It seems that she’s asking how things went downstairs, since if the discussion has finished then it’s rather early for us to be showing up here.
「We’re taking a short break. I had rather derailed the conversation.」
Yamada-kun replies with a wry smile. So he was self-conscious about having derailed things huh.
「Well, it can’t be helped. There’s too many things that people want to ask, so the situation is one where you don’t even know from what point to start asking about.」
Kushitani-san glances at me while sighing. For Kushitani-san herself, it seems that she has concerns about what we’ll be doing from now on as well. Even if she is a former adventurer with much experience, being unable to envision how things will turn out is worrying, I guess.
「There’s just one thing I’d like to know. Wakaba-san, what do you plan to do with us from now on?」
Kushitani-san had gathered her resolve in order to ask that. Hmm. I can understand that it would take a lot of courage to ask such a thing, but in comparison my reply is going to be rather curt you know.
「Not much. There’s nothing in particular.」
「Huh?」
I guess even Kushitani-san wasn’t able to make sense of my reply, since she gave out a strange voice.
「“Nothing in particular”…」
Kushitani-san seems like she’s about to start clutching her head in bewilderment, but, yeah, well, anyway. It’s basically true though. The main reason why we wiped out the elf village was to kill off Potimas. After that, it was to free sensei who was being used, and after that it was to rescue the reincarnators who had been confined. To put it bluntly, rescuing the reincarnators was simply something incidental to killing off Potimas. Therefore, to be honest, I hadn’t really thought about what to do with the reincarnators. Whatever they want to do from now on, I think it’s fine for them to be free to do it. That being said, suddenly tossing them out and simply telling them they’re free to do whatever they like is a bit much, so I do plan to give them a minimum amount of support though. Well, they’re all plenty old enough when including their previous lives, so if I just prepare the basics for them I believe they should be able to support themselves. However, perhaps due to them being walled off in a little garden, it seems that mentally they haven’t grown that much, so it’s not like I have no concerns though.
It would be fine to explain all that, but it’s a pain. This damn mouth of mine! I wanna sue it for being hopeless at talking! That being the case, it’s best to simply offload everything onto somebody else at times like these.
「Felmina.」
「Yessir!」
And there’s an excellent sacrificial lamb available here.
「Take care of the rest.」
「……Yessir.」
There was quite a pause before her reply, but Felmina-chan can be depended upon to take care of the rest. I’ve seen how sensei is, and since this is a place for sleeping there’s no point in making it any noiser. Therefore I’ll be able to take a proper break now. This is definitely not a case of deserting under enemy fire. I’m not, okay! So anyway, I’ll head back.
Leaving the dumbfounded Kushitani-san and Yamada-kun and co, I turn around and leave the room.