The Bear's Blush
Marianne was smiling.
As I watched Sister Marianne making that bashful expression, I couldn’t stop the shock from surging inside me. ‘..Hehet? Did she just laugh with a “hehet” at me? Because I called her pretty?’ The same Marianne who had always been dignified, reliable, and my mentor—now giggling like an idiot? Even if someone had told me to imagine it, it would’ve felt weird, but seeing it in person completely overloaded my brain. It refused to accept reality.
“..Ahem! Why are you looking at me like that? Is there a problem?”
Sister Marianne’s face flushed red as she suddenly raised her voice, but the moment those cheeks turned pink, all the majestic, conqueror-like aura she usually gave off completely vanished.
“No… there’s no problem. What brings you here, Sister?”
“Hmph! I came because I was worried about how my precious apprentice and little brother might be suffering under that eccentric old hag!”
Sister Marianne declared proudly while hugging her arms across her chest, which only made her already enormous breasts look even more voluptuous. But strangely, my eyes didn’t linger on them at all.
‘..Lipstick? She’s wearing lipstick? And it looks like she put something on her cheeks too…’
The real issue wasn’t the makeup itself. It was faint, sure, but the fact that Marianne—of all people—had put on makeup was incredibly significant. Even during the third round, when she had ascended to the throne as queen, she had attended the coronation ceremony without a single piece of jewelry, let alone makeup. And now she was dressing herself up?
‘Plus, earlier… she definitely said she wouldn’t lose to Agnes…’
At this point, even the densest protagonist in a story would have noticed. People around me were suddenly acting differently in front of me, clearly conscious of my gaze?
‘Sister Marianne has started to regain her memories too…!’
I was certain of it. The same prickling sensation I’d felt when Violet suddenly lost all her confidence or when Shao Mei started acting unusually mature hit me clearly now.
‘..But why the makeup?’
If she was in the middle of recovering her memories, or had already recovered them completely, I could understand her being happy to see me… but that didn’t explain putting on makeup, did it?
“..Why do you look like that? Are you still dizzy from dehydration? Want more water?”
Sister tilted her head at my thoughtful expression, and seeing her like that gave me a brilliant idea.
“Ah… yeah, thanks, Sister.”
I reached out as if to take the water bottle she offered, but instead gently wrapped my hand around hers.
“...Hey, hey! Where are you touching, you idiot! Grab the bottle, not my hand! Here! Hold it properly!”
“..Sorry. My head’s still spinning.”
“Really? It must be pretty bad then… Should I tell Professor Senia and bring you an energy drink?”
She looked at me with genuine worry as she spoke, but in that exact moment, I saw it.
…The expression that flashed across Sister Marianne’s face the instant my hand touched hers was unmistakably that of a woman conscious of the opposite sex.
“What the hell are you doing to my disciple right now?!”
Just as I was wondering what kind of face I should make, the Heavenly Demon came running over and stole everyone’s attention.
“What do you mean, what am I doing? I’m making sure my apprentice and the Hero don’t die from dehydration, you damn old hag.”
“Are you interfering with my training? Awakened ones don’t die from mere dehydration like this! People only get stronger after they’ve been rolled around a bit!”
“Ha, I train people pretty harshly myself, but at least when someone shows signs of exhaustion I let them come to their senses! Unlike you, wiggling your fat ass on top of a Buddha statue and just sleeping there!”
“W-what? Sleeping?! That was me watching over the training from the Buddha statue! And fat ass?! Don’t talk nonsense!!! My ass is neither heavy nor flabby!!”
“I never said it was flabby, but it looks like you’re a little sensitive about it, Grandma Heavenly Demon?”
At their childish argument, my gaze instinctively flicked toward both women’s rear ends.
‘..Now I see who Shao Mei inherited those hips from. But Sister doesn’t lose either…’
The Heavenly Demon’s figure was definitely sleeker than Shao Mei’s. Still, it was undeniable that her backside was larger than the average woman’s. Of course, Sister Marianne had wide hips too, but because she constantly trained, her body was firm and elastic. The word “flabby” didn’t suit her at all.
“Ugh…! We promised not to interfere with each other’s bets, and yet you’re interrupting my training right now!”
“Interrupting? I just came by during break time to check on them. And if we’re talking about interference, weren’t you the one following Artin around all morning, Grandma?”
The Heavenly Demon’s body flinched hard. Sister Marianne laughed at her and pressed the attack, even pointing her finger.
“Do you know how many calls the student council has gotten? The professors and students are all screaming that they can’t even talk to the old hag and begging us to do something about it!”
“T-that’s…! I was simply sitting in on the insufficient classes to supplement them…!”
“Oh really? So anyone can just come to your class and supplement whatever they think is lacking?”
“What kind of nonsense is that! Who would dare give advice on the Heavenly Demon’s martial arts?!”
“Ha, acting all high and mighty with martial arts that are decades out of date. If you’re so great, why couldn’t you even kill the Demon King and ended up tormenting kids here instead?”
“..H-have you finished talking?!”
“Not yet? Though if I keep going I might get reported for elder abuse.”
As the fight grew more heated, both women began channeling mana and inner energy into their voices. The argument was slowly turning into a battle of auras.
“..Um, Artin? Shouldn’t we stop them?”
“Leave them be, Kaien. We get to rest this way.”
“..I guess so?”
I stopped Kaien, who had been about to intervene. Honestly, after everything the Heavenly Demon had done, I figured she deserved to hear a few bitter words.
“How dare you spout such nonsense to this lady, the Heavenly Demon herself…!!”
“So you’re going to hit a member of the royal family just because a junior gave you a piece of her mind?”
“Ugh…!!!”
After about ten minutes, the tide of victory slowly began tilting toward Sister Marianne. Of course, the Heavenly Demon—who had been throwing tantrums and acting childish from the start—had no real grounds to win a battle of words anyway.
“...Enough! I don’t need training or my great-granddaughter’s husband anymore! Today’s training ends here!”
Ah, she ran away. And not just any retreat—the Heavenly Demon let out a lion’s roar with a voice thick with tears before vanishing into the distance using her Qinggong.
“Hmph, if you’re that old you should at least know some shame!”
Watching the Heavenly Demon’s retreating back, Sister made a triumphant face and flashed me a bright V-sign with her fingers, grinning from ear to ear.
“Is that okay? No matter what, I feel like making her cry was a bit much…”
“Hmph, don’t worry about that senile old hag. She caused this mess and then just ran away, didn’t she?”
The outdoor training ground around us had been completely wrecked by that lion’s roar. It looked like a storm had just passed through.
Even so, the fact that neither we nor Sister Marianne had taken any damage meant the Heavenly Demon had still held back… at least a little.
“You two rest on the bench. I’ll clean up the Buddha statue and obstacles myself.”
“Huh? We can help clean too.”
“After you two were panting like dogs earlier? No way. Just trust your big sister and rest!”
With that, Sister Marianne grabbed both of us in one hand each, lifted us like we weighed nothing, set us down in the shade, and began cleaning up the devastated training ground.
Watching her hoist the Buddha statue we had barely managed to endure with one hand, I felt relieved. Even though she had blushed earlier, her tough side that I knew so well was still completely intact.
“Hey, partner?”
“Yeah? What is it, Kaien?”
“..Even if she’s the Heavenly Demon, she looked like she was really crying. Shouldn’t we go check on her later?”
“..Us? Why?”
When Kaien, who had been sitting beside me, suddenly started making a sweet potato move, I looked at him in confusion. Sister had worked so hard in that verbal fight to get us out of that mess—why would we willingly crawl back into the tiger’s den?
“The Heavenly Demon already fought with Shao Mei, right? Her family is all in the Republic Federation. Who else is going to comfort her?”
“…Honestly, isn’t that just karma? She could just go back to her island.”
“Besides, we’re technically her disciples. If our master runs off crying, we should at least check on her condition.”
After listening to his explanation a little longer, I started to understand where Kaien was coming from.
“Plus, she got so obviously sulky. If we don’t go comfort her, she’s definitely going to hold a huge grudge… don’t you think?”
“…Yeah. That’s pretty convincing.”
With that final point from Kaien, I had no choice but to fully agree. The same person who had fed us red bean jelly and then forced her great-granddaughter’s husband to train while pressed up against a gay guy—if she got that massively sulky, there was no telling what she might do.
“..Come to think of it, we still haven’t untied the cloth. It’s sticky, so let’s take it off quickly.”
“Ah… y-yeah, we should…?”
“...”
This bastard. He knew full well that our hands and feet were still bound together but had deliberately kept quiet about it. No chance. Before he could interfere, I used a spell to undo both knots of the cloth, freeing myself completely.
“Ah…”
Kaien made an extremely disappointed face. Seeing that expression actually made me feel a little satisfied.
“Anyway, after we wash up, let’s thank Sister and then go see the Heavenly Demon. If we bring her some red bean jelly, maybe she’ll calm down.”
“You think so…? Wait, what?”
“Why? You want to go like this? We’re covered in sweat and dirt.”
“N-no, let’s go, Artin! I mean, partner!”
I grabbed the staggering Kaien’s hand and helped him up.
…Normally I wouldn’t even want to touch him, but since he had suffered so much because of my shortcomings during training, I decided to pretend I didn’t notice.
*
“Finished cleaning, Sister?”
“Oh! Just wrapped up the cleanup. Did you shower properly? You look much better than before!”
“Thank you. Thanks to you, we have some time left, so I was thinking of catching up on the studies I’m behind on today.”
“..Really? That’s good. If there’s anything you don’t understand, make sure to ask this big sister! This sister of yours once got second place in the entire grade back in the day!”
Watching her naturally promote the idea of one-on-one tutoring with herself, I smiled awkwardly. At the same time, memories of what had happened the last time the two of us sparred flashed through my mind, and I had to use superhuman mental strength to stop my eyes from drifting down to her chest.
“If I run into something I don’t know, I’ll definitely ask you, so don’t worry.”
“That’s the spirit! By the way… why is the Silver Sword kid acting like that?”
“...”
I glanced at Kaien.
“…Haa… haa…”
Kaien, who had been staring at my body like a madman while we showered together earlier, was showing an even more intense reaction than before. Compared to him, Sister Marianne’s reaction had been nothing.
“..Just ignore him. I’ll be going now.”
“Ah, yeah, okay! My class is tomorrow so make sure you come! Got it, Artin?”
I left behind Sister Marianne, who was waving her hand enthusiastically in farewell, and dragged the mentally checked-out Kaien along toward where the Heavenly Demon was.
…While organizing my complicated thoughts about what to do with Sister Marianne and how to comfort the Heavenly Demon.