EP.20 Going Home -3
EP.20 Going Home -3
There was a time when I'd wondered how things would turn out, but thankfully, no blood was spilled in the end.
Normally, Miho would have gone on a mad rampage, yet for some reason, the fox stayed quiet.
When I gave it some thought, the reason was surprisingly simple.
My sister and I had always torn each other down since we were kids, so Miho had, in her own way, been adapting to it.
That was why, even though she was the type to chase someone to the ends of hell if they insulted me, she let it slide when it came to Seon-a.
I'd never once dreamed that the way my sibling and I had been biting at each other all our lives would end up being helpful like this.
In any case, now that things had passed quietly, everyone except my sister was seated around the dining table, talking.
"So... you're telling me all these ladies are your Companion Animals, and they're also the so-called walking catastrophes known as Divine Beasts?"
"Yup."
"Wha...!! Have they all seriously gone insane...?"
"Seon-a, that's another 10 minutes added for holding your hand up."
"M-Mom?!"
Honestly, Seon-a's reaction was the normal one.
Her brother, who'd lived without any Companion Animal, suddenly came back having made Divine Beasts into his companions somehow, and they were all beauties?
Where was the plausibility in any of that?
Even I thought that if you wrote a novel like this, people would probably curse you out.
Yet reality was, unexpectedly, full of things that lacked plausibility.
For example, say there was a platform that had only been open for five months somewhere. But because there were already established competitors with solid foundations for it to grow against, many people predicted that said platform would be buried in short order and disappear into history.
But reality turned out completely differently.
One of the competitors was already rotting from within and had begun to collapse.
Another, while operating well, made a single mistake, drew customer outcry, and started burning to the ground.
Of course, this new platform also made the same mistake and did burn once.
But after it captured public sentiment through a strong subsequent response, it flourished instead.
A new platform that didn't particularly do anything special—it just handled things well while its competitors crumbled on their own, and it became recognized in the industry.
Anyone hearing about it might call it an implausible story, but it was also reality.
So I believed that whatever you came across, you needed to approach it with some capacity for acceptance.
Of course, my sister possessed absolutely none of that sort of acceptance.
"No! I can't wrap my head around this, you know? I can understand you finally getting a Companion Animal when he never had one! But that Companion Animal being a Divine Beast? And those Divine Beasts being such lovely women? That's just nonsense?!"
"Then... would you understand if we showed you our true forms...?"
"Uh? W-well, o-of course..."
Kor, who'd stepped forward, reverted to the same wolf form I'd met her in.
At that, Seon-a gaped in shock.
The innocent-looking woman had transformed in an instant into a wolf nearly two meters tall, so Seon-a couldn't help but be shocked.
Our parents, meanwhile, simply chuckled while looking at Kor's true form.
As if not a shred of doubt existed in their minds at all.
"My, that fur looks so fluffy. Just the type our son likes."
"Our Seon-ju, are you grooming that fur every day?"
"Yeees...! Seon-ju does it for me with great care every siiingle day...!!"
I wasn't sure how my father knew my fur preferences, but he was right—Kor's soft fur suited my tastes perfectly.
Why else would I have missed that night in the wasteland, sleeping in Kor's arms?
I remembered I'd had two incredibly sweet sleeps back to back then.
"Me too! Me too! Yuu petted and petted me every day!!"
"Sure, sure. Good for you, Tia~"
"Hehe! Yuu's mommy's pet-pets feel great too!"
When the innocent Tia also changed into a small dragon, things started reaching a point where Seon-a had no choice but to believe.
And the one to put the final nail in the coffin, Miho, was...
"Right, left, back, forward, one jump, then spin three times and lie down backwards. Do that five times."
"Kii-woong...!!"
She was venting all the pent-up frustrations on Seon-a's companion fox, Hoya, by putting her through training that rivaled PT gymnastics.
Come to think of it, pedigree-wise, Hoya was a fox born from our parents' companion fox, too.
To Miho, she was a biological younger sister.
'No wonder Hoya was uniquely terrified of me, and there was a reason she'd desperately dissuade Seon-a whenever she made out-of-line remarks...'
Since Miho couldn't bear to lay a hand on my sister, she was taking it out harshly on her own younger sibling, Hoya, instead.
Even I got pushed around by Miho often, so I couldn't even begin to imagine just how much Hoya had suffered at her sister's hands up until now...
It was beyond my wildest imagination.
Meanwhile, how was my sister reacting to her companion fox's situation?
When I sneaked a glance out of curiosity, she was utterly devastated.
The fact that her treasured companion fox was being pushed around by someone else seemed very hard for her to accept.
I did feel sympathy, but I didn't exactly have anything to say.
Because I, too, was on the receiving end with Miho nine times out of ten.
-Ding-dong~! Ding-dong~!
Amid the clamorous atmosphere, the doorbell chimed as if someone had come by.
When I checked the intercom to see who it was, a young man with a deeply annoyed expression was on the screen.
Our house must have been too loud.
"I'll go out."
"Sure~"
My mother was petting Tia, and my father was talking with Kor.
Miho was running Hoya ragged, and Seon-a... was having a rough time.
Since there was no one besides me to greet the man who'd come over, I rushed to the front door and opened it before he got even angrier.
"Um, how can I—..."
"I'm your next-door neighbor! Keep it quiet, will you?! It's so loud I can hear everything at my place!!"
"I sincerely apologize! We'll be mindful of it!"
Just as I'd expected, the noise reached next door and the neighbor had come in person to lodge a complaint.
This wasn't my own home, but I'd be bothered if my parents' house developed bad blood with the neighbors for nothing.
So I lowered my head and politely apologized to him as he vented his anger.
Because if my one apology resolved things nicely, that was a cheap price to pay.
But the guy, as if he couldn't be satisfied by that, kept standing there, leaning on one leg.
Then he looked me up and down once from bottom to top and soon wore a sneer at the corner of his lips.
"Excuse me... was there something else about me that rubbed you the wrong way?"
"Of course there was! How many times have I come to this house over the noise problem so far, and you think a single apology wraps it up?"
"You've come multiple times?"
"Yes! I've been suffering that much because of the noise that middle school brat living here makes every day!"
Seon-a, that damn brat...
"I'm truly sorry! You've been troubled because of my little sister! I'll make sure to scold her severely so it never happens again."
"Just words?"
"Huh...? Ah! Then, I'll bring my sister right now and have her bow her head and apologiz—"
"No, no! That's not the kind of compensation I'm demanding."
"Then...?"
"I'm saying you need to add up all the suffering I've gone through so far and compensate me materially."
"Material compensation?"
"Yes! I'm an examinee currently preparing for the open agent exam. In other words, I'm someone who'll become an elite one day! But because of your sister, I can't study properly, so my timeline keeps getting delayed!"
"Yeahh..."
"Therefore, I deserve to be properly compensated for having my valuable time—which will go toward doing great things for this country—stolen like this!"
The young man's self-esteem soared through the roof.
After just a few words exchanged, I understood at once that he was an arrogant person.
He was the very annoying type of character, someone I really didn't want to deal with.
No matter what counterargument I made, he'd obstinately insist he was in the right. It would've been best to ignore the demands of such an obvious jackass, but...
In the current situation, where it was clearly my sister who was 100% in the wrong, there were too many problems with ignoring him.
"What kind of compensation do you want, specifically?"
"That would obviously be this."
Seeing him make a circle with his thumb and index finger, it was clear he was demanding money.
I thought asking for compensation for mental suffering over noise might be a bit shameless.
Still, when I asked the desired amount just in case, the young man's answer was a sum with absolutely no conscience behind it.
I'd made plenty of money working as an agent up until now, so I was free of financial issues, and giving him what he wanted would've been fine.
But if I did, I worried he might demand the same from my family some time when I wasn't here, so I fell into thought.
"What? I should've guessed it! It's this nuisance of a NEET! You're here again!"
"Huh?"
While I was deep in thought, at some point, Seon-a had come up behind me.
She was pointing a finger at the money-demanding young man and shouting.
I gave the head of that immature sister of mine a thump with my fist.
"Ow!! Why'd you hit me out of nowhere!"
"Hey, how dare you point your finger at someone who's been suffering nonstop because of the noise you make?"
"That's a lie! Sure, in the very early days after we moved in, I was a little noisy, but after getting called out on it once, I've been living like a mouse ever since, okay? Yet this guy just kept coming by every time to take his stress out on me because he flunked his exam!"
"D-don't spew bullshit! You damn middle school bitch!"
"What bullshit! I even bought slippers so my footsteps wouldn't make a sound, yet you kept coming to my house and throwing a fit, saying it was loud!"
"Is what my sister's saying true?"
"Urk...!!"
If what Seon-a said was true, then it wasn't a matter to be taken lightly.
The noise issue had already been resolved a while ago. The fact that he was taking it out on our family just to relieve his own stress was already wrong.
And now he was demanding money? Attaching a ridiculous sum, at that?
Our side hadn't done a single thing wrong, yet he kept causing trouble and even demanded compensation...
At this rate, we were the ones who should be receiving an apology and compensation from him.
Of course, this was only on the condition that everything Seon-a had said was true.
Seeing as this young man wasn't particularly trying to refute her, it seemed my sister's words were indeed fact.
"Gah! Fuck!!"
"Ah! Wait just a—!!"
Just as I was about to cast an illusion on the neighbor to more clearly verify who was right...
Maybe he sensed things weren't going his way, but the young man suddenly turned tail and began sprinting away.
Just like that, the young man dashed quickly out onto the road in front of the house.
He twisted his body, intending to flee all the way back to his own home, but...
-SCREECH! CRASH!!
A collision loud enough to startle even the cat on the roof of the house across the street.
As it happened, the hastily fleeing young man had been struck by the car that was heading to our house.
And it wasn't just any car... but the supercar driven by my companion crow.
"Dear husband! Would you go get Mother and Father for a moment? I'm taking them somewhere nice!"
"Um..."
Well, one person's already been sent to a better place.