Chapter 178
Chapter 178
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Translator: Vine
Chapter: 178
Chapter Title: Chocolate Donuts and a Declaration
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We were back at the lake park again today.
Sitting side by side on a bench, we were each busy demolishing our favorite pastries.
I had a chocolate éclair filled with custard cream, while Shiroko had a strawberry cream sandwich.
It seemed Shiroko’s favorite pastries were the sweet, creamy kind.
It was a choice that seemed completely at odds with her stoic expression, which looked like it wouldn’t bleed a single drop even if you pricked it.
Then again, eating a mountain of pastries like that was already a stark contrast to her image.
“Hm? What is it?”
“Bread… so much…”
“Ah… You’re asking why there’s so much bread? Haha, it might not suit me, but… eating a lot of bread is how I relieve stress. I suppose I’m lucky to have a body that doesn’t gain weight easily.”
Scratch, scratch.
Shiroko answered awkwardly, touching her neck as if slightly embarrassed.
Well, relieving stress by eating is pretty common. Is there really any need to be embarrassed?
I picked out a chocolate pastry from the huge pile and munched on it.
I really do love chocolate the most. The thick, bittersweet kind is the best.
I’m not sure how long the two of us had been frantically devouring the pastries.
No matter how freshly baked and moist the bread, your throat is bound to get dry after eating for a while.
Shiroko, who had been gulping down milk from a bottle, soon looked out at the lake and spoke.
“…Thank you. Both last time and this time. I’m the adult here, yet I feel like I keep bothering you. I can’t keep doing this forever…”
“…”
“You’re saying it’s okay? Heh, you’re very kind, Yuria.”
I’m the one who feels bad, getting all this free bread.
I shook my head, as if to tell her not to worry, and tried to comfort her.
Was her mind filled with complicated thoughts?
Shiroko rubbed her face with her hands, then looked out at the distant lake and spoke.
“…This might be a little out of the blue, but Yuria. If there was something you didn’t really want to do, but had to… what would you do?”
“...?”
“What if… what if you had no choice, in order to carry on the will of someone you deeply respect…?”
What exactly does that mean?
With a donut in my mouth, I glanced sideways.
There sat Shiroko, lost in deep thought, not even holding a pastry.
It seemed she wasn't really expecting an answer from me, but was merely voicing her own questions aloud.
Hmm, something you don’t want to do, but have to…
I pondered the vague question, unsure of what exactly she was referring to.
*‘Something I don’t want to do, but have to… That’s a pretty common thing.’*
For example, in my past life, I had to work to make a living, even if I didn’t particularly want to.
And now as Yuria, I’ve gotten involved in incidents even though I don’t want my psychic powers to be discovered.
But the moment you think you *have* to do it, isn’t it already something you can’t get out of?
Even if you say you don’t want to, you’ve already prioritized it in your head.
So, I organized my thoughts and somehow conveyed this meaning to Shiroko.
If you yourself think you have to do it, then you should just follow through.
“Is… that so. But as you can see, I’m very timid and cowardly…”
“...!”
“Hehe, you find that surprising? I… suppose so.”
What timid person in the world can intimidate a professional protester with their aura alone?
I shook my head in disbelief, as if to say that wasn’t true at all.
Did she find some comfort in my gesture?
She gave a faint smile, as if all the strength had drained from her, and nodded in thanks.
I don’t know what she’s dealing with, but I hope I was at least a little bit of help.
As I was wondering how to give her a little more encouragement, a strange man’s shout suddenly echoed from nearby.
“Hey, what are you gonna do about this! These are my favorite clothes, and they’re ruined!”
“E-Eek… I-I’m so sorry…!”
Whip.
Turning toward the sound, I saw a rough-looking man and a mother and daughter standing before him.
Seeing that the man’s trousers were soaking wet, it seemed the child must have made a mistake.
But the way he was intimidating the woman, who was bowing her head deeply in apology, was quite a disgraceful sight.
It’s not like she was brazenly walking away without apologizing. There was no need to go that far.
As I frowned at the unsettling situation unfolding before me…
The angry man’s companion added with a sleazy expression.
“Boss. Looks like they’re taking us for pushovers. Don’t you think we should teach them a lesson?”
“You’re right. We can’t just let this slide.”
“Eek! P-Please don’t…! Hey, someone…!”
“W-Waaaaah! Mommy!”
Grip.
The man grabbed the frail-looking mother’s wrist and tried to drag her away.
No matter how you looked at it, it was an act that made you frown.
What are they doing in a park in broad daylight? A child is watching!
I shot up from the bench, dashed forward, and rammed the crown of my head into the man’s back.
It was a headbutt so clean it could have been in a textbook.
A crown-of-the-head attack that instantly silenced its target.
“Gack…! A-Aaargh…!”
“Boss! Wh-What the hell is this!”
The man, properly struck in the back, sank to his knees and crumpled forward.
I guess he wasn’t the sturdy type.
The sight of him screaming and curling into a ball was utterly pathetic.
However, the man’s companion was still standing there, glaring.
I naturally inserted myself between the mother and daughter and the men.
“…”
“Kgh, urgh… Wh-What the hell is this brat!”
“This little brat!”
Naturally, the men’s attention turned to me, the sudden intruder.
They were the ones trying to drag out something that could have ended with just getting the cleaning fee.
It was absurd how angry they were just because I had interfered.
*‘Hmph, for scrubs like these, I don’t even need psychokinesis.’*
Just as I thought that and was about to use the self-defense techniques I’d recently learned by watching Alice…
A powerful presence suddenly spread from deeper within the park, so intense it made my shoulders flinch.
It was an absurdly intense sensation, like dry ice exploding from a sealed container, the feeling of a creature at the apex of life.
It was so staggering that even the menacing men whipped their heads around…
And where their gazes landed, a beautiful black-haired woman stood confidently, sweeping her bangs aside.
Horns grew from both sides of her head, and a plump lizard-like tail protruded from below her waist.
Her identity was, of course, Shiroko, who until moments ago had been wearing her hat pulled down low.
“Is there any reason to go that far? If she apologized, you could have just accepted the cleaning fee and been done with it. To use it as a weakness… Tsk, how pathetic.”
“Wh-Who the hell are you to butt in! You want me to tear your eyes out!”
Thud, thud.
Shiroko approached, her murderous gaze looking like it could kill with a single glance.
Was this really the same person who had been timidly eating pastries just a moment ago?
With a charismatic face that could make one’s knees tremble just by looking, she strode up to the man.
“Curious who I am? Then I’ll tell you. I am Shiroko, the Chief of Public Security for the Nighthaven Police Department. I have more than enough power to throw a punk like you in a holding cell with a single finger. Is that a sufficient answer?”
“Wh-What, the police…!”
“Boss! I-I think she’s for real! Sh-She’s that famous demon!”
As she said this, Shiroko pulled out a police badge from her pocket that looked undeniably authentic.
And her rank wasn’t some mere patrol officer or constable, but the impressive-sounding title of Chief of Public Security.
The men knew just how dangerous the police in Nighthaven were.
Realizing there was no falsehood in her words, they began to slowly back away.
It might have been different if they hadn’t done anything.
But because they had tried to do something nasty under the pretext of a cleaning fee, they couldn’t possibly hold their heads high.
“U-Ah, ah… It was nothing at aaaaall!”
“B-Boss, wait for me!”
Scramble.
The two thugs fled in an instant, as if their pants were on fire.
The terrified mother and daughter, along with a few onlookers, were all that remained.
The mother and daughter thanked us profusely, bowing to both me and Shiroko before leaving.
The onlookers, disappointed that the situation had ended so quickly and without much excitement, also dispersed.
Soon, only I, the headbutter, and Shiroko, who had taken off her hat, were left.
She seemed quite uncomfortable about having revealed her hidden identity to me, and uncharacteristically for her cool demeanor, she began to pull her hair forward to hide her face.
Let’s not just stand here awkwardly. Let’s go back to the bench where we were sitting.
As if to say that, I gave a light tug on the hem of Shiroko’s clothes.
“…”
“Y-Yes… Let’s go back.”
Back on the bench, Shiroko clasped her hands and grunted with effort, retracting her horns and tail again.
Then, her overwhelmingly heavy presence vanished in an instant, like a mirage.
Ah, so that’s why I couldn’t easily sense her presence.
Finally understanding, I nodded to myself.
“…”
“…”
Anyway. What am I supposed to do about this atmosphere, which is even more awkward than before?
It seemed she had wanted to remain just Shiroko, the older sister who likes bread.
But having suddenly revealed her identity as the Chief of Public Security, she seemed unable to speak.
In that case, I’d have to work hard to ease the tension.
As if to show I didn’t mind that she was a police officer, I scooted closer to her on the bench.
Then, I offered her my chocolate donut.
The meaning was something along the lines of, *Let’s eat this and break the tension*.
“Ah, um, thank you…”
“Mhm…”
Thankfully, it seemed to have worked.
My great chocolate donut offensive was a success in easing the atmosphere.
And so, we returned to a relaxed atmosphere, sitting side by side amicably.
Suddenly, as if she had a question, Shiroko spoke to me while still hiding her face.
“Um, Yuria. Why did you step in earlier?”
“...?”
“From what I can see, you don’t have any magic, and your physical abilities seem ordinary… What would you have done if they had hurt you? To be honest, I was very worried.”
Ah, she’s worried about me.
Of course, you can’t tell at a glance that I can use psychic powers.
To her, I must have looked like a reckless little tomboy who stepped in without having any abilities.
But if I hadn’t stepped in at that moment, today would have become the worst day for that mother and daughter.
And even if something had happened, I had enough power to protect myself. That's why I did it.
I wondered how I could possibly convey all this to her.
Then, looking at Shiroko, I slowly and haltingly opened my mouth.
“Haf… haffu… ha… ing…”
“Y-Yes…? Are you perhaps… talking about what I mentioned earlier, the thing that ‘had to be done’?”
“...Mhm.”
“I see… So that’s it. Because it was something that had to be done…”
Why can’t I speak properly? It’s so frustrating.
More importantly, how on earth did she understand that? Can she read minds or something?
I marveled at Shiroko’s ability, silently watching her as she seemed to be lost in deep thought.
I worried if my point had gotten across properly.
Fortunately, it seemed to have reached Shiroko just fine. She smiled lightly, her face looking as if a great weight had been lifted from her shoulders, and said.
“Thank you. I think my thoughts have cleared up a bit. Hehe, this is to show my gratitude.”
“...!”
As she said that, Shiroko took all sorts of pastries from the bag on the bench and handed them to me.
There were so many that I could barely hold them all with both hands.
Does this mean she doesn’t need to relieve any more stress with bread now?
I couldn’t help but tilt my head at this rather positive-seeming conclusion.
*
The next day.
While working at the general store as usual, my gaze was suddenly drawn to the TV screen in the corner of the shop.
The reason was simple.
On the screen, surprisingly, was Shiroko, the woman I had shared pastries with on the bench just yesterday.
She wasn’t wearing a hat, nor were her horns and tail hidden—she was one hundred percent charisma.
At what looked like an official press conference, Shiroko spoke with a very serious expression.
[ “…Therefore, I, Shiroko, Chief of Public Security for the Nighthaven Police, will be running as a candidate in the upcoming mayoral election. I will strive to lead this great city built by my father, Tempest… more steadfastly than anyone else.” ]
I never would have guessed. A declaration of candidacy.
I silently applauded the announcement from Shiroko, the half-dragon daughter of Tempest.
Could it be… that the thing she didn’t want to do, but had to, was *that*?
Maybe I’ve just drastically changed the course of history.
That faint thought briefly crossed my mind.