16

 

After dinner finished I was relaxing in my room.
Somehow a lot happened over the past few days so as expected I was a bit tired.

Therefore I was given a tea made from herbs that are effective against fatigue that Sana had prepared.
As expected of you, Sana.

“Thank you, Sana.”

“Not at all, it seems that Ririina-sama is exhausted so may I suggest to rest for the day after drinking this. How about it?”

“That’s true, I may do that.”

Fuu~ This tea is delicious~
Somehow it warms me up from the depths of my body.
Ah! Come to think of it, there was something I had wanted to ask Sana.

“Say, Sana.”

“What is it? Ririina-sama.”

“Sana, did you perhaps already know about Chris-sama being a male?”

“Uh! A,ahe-that is .. yes .. I knew.”

After all.
I did think it was strange, what happened when I mentioned about how Brother might end up marrying Chris-sama.
She said that would be difficult because she already knew that Chris-sama was a male.

“Mou. If you knew already you could have told me ..”

As entered my losing-spirit mode Sana rushed to bring up explanations while flustered.

“W-well you see, there was a time where I wanted to tell Ririina-sama as well but I got stopped ..”

Eeh~ getting stopped, you say, by who?
Why would anyone do such a thing, I wonder~

“I am truly very sorry! I was told by Ricardo-sama to leave things be until Ririina-sama would realize it herself.”

Oi oi, the culprit was my Brother, huh.
There’s a need to have a proper fistcussion under the pretext of a discussion for once. ^[1]
As I was considering just how I would be arguing with my Brother Sana continued talking with an extremely apologetic expression on.

“And well, about the reason of why Ricardo-sama asked me to stay silent about this towards Ririina-sama .. Ricardo-sama as well had thought of Chris-sama as a girl, you see. Moreover .. is it fine to say this I wonder ..”

“What now, having come this far you can just tell me the rest as well.”

“That is true .. Ano! The truth is, Ricardo-sama, when Chris-sama stayed here for recuperation, at that time he asked for Chris-sama’s hand in marriage!”

!!
Ou, Brother, what a thing to do!
But as expected, it was just as I had thought, Brother had been in love with Chris-sama ..
But that is just too pitiful.
But how come Sana knows about this?

“On that note, how come Sana knows that Big Brother eh .. asked for Chris-sama’s hand in marriage?”

“.. I happened to be at the exact location. Ah, of course, I wasn’t peeking or anything! It just so happened that those two came to a place that I had already been in, and Ricardo-sama confessed then and there.”

“Ara ara. What can I say about this .. So in other words that is when Big Brother was told by Chris-sama that he is a boy, I see.”

“About that .. rather than being told about it, how to say it, more being made to realize it by force ..”

“What’s up with that?”

“Fuu~, you see, he made him touch his own chest in that place.”

“Eh!?”

“That’s why I’m saying, Chris-sama grasped Ricardo-sama’s hand and made him touch his chest.”

What a thing to happen. ^[2]
Brother! .. Out of all the things to come to learn of that truth by such a method ..
The fistcussion has been called off!
The next time I meet Brother let’s try to be nice to him.

“Sana .. for Big Brother’s sake we will make it so that I never heard about this. But, thanks for telling me.”

“Not at all, I also apologize for not having told you about it ever since.”

And thus with a strangely turned atmosphere the day came to a close.

— The following day ⁽¹⁾

While I was thinking of reading something in my room I got notified by Sana that my Mother was calling for me and that I was to visit her room.
At once I headed towards it.

“Mother, you have called me but has anything happened?”

“Aa, Ririina. The truth is this morning a letter from Leaf got delivered.”

A letter from Father.
I wonder what was written in there?

“What did Father write?”

“About that, it seems he wants you to return to the capital once more.”

!
What was that~~
After I had finally returned to the territory~~
I haven’t even been on a single monster hunt~~!

“Mother, for what reason am I to go to the royal capital?”

“Leaf said he wants you there to make the cancelation of the engagement official.”

Muu, official .. it is?
I suppose that makes sense, right now it’s been left hanging in a dubious state after all.
Yoshi! Let’s gather some fighting spirit and go break off that engagement!

“I understand. In that case when would it be alright for me to head there?”

“Let’s see, this time I am going to come along as well so around the day after tomorrow I think. Right now Father and Mother are present so the territory will be alright.”

Ara, this time Mother will be comming too, is it.

“Understood. In that case as for preparations .. even if I say that I don’t really have anything I need to prepare.”

“That’s fine, we don’t need that. We’ll be returning right away, after all, anyway.”

As expected of Mother.
She sure is reliable!
And like that is had been decided that I would be returning to the capital once more.

 

Next Chapter

Prev Chapter

 

Translator’s notes

What an incredibly enjoyable chapter.   Just .. I did say I wanted to go on only until she finally gets to go on that monster hunt, didn’t I. .. Are you seriously going to go to the capital again before that ..

 

[1] 1度話し合いという名のどつき合い必要だな。 ->  hanashiai (discussion, literally ‘meet to talk’) vs dotsukiai (made up word consisting of ‘to punch, to jab/hit’ and the second half of discussion, literally ‘meet to punch’)
[2] This sentence is completely written in Katakana, signifying Ririina’s utter shock/reaction to that revelation : ナントイウコトデショウ。

(1) Each time I have to translate this phrase : 次の日 I can’t help but inadvertly think of ‘You have 72/48/24 hours left’ with that eldritch, deep bass sound effect in the background and the visage of that moon in mind .. For all who don’t know what I’m talking about, it’s an occurence during The Legend of Zelda Majoras Mask which signified that you were doomed even harder than before. Scared the hell out of me as a kid, while I excitedly trembled all over at the same time.