A Familiar Feeling
It wasn't as if we'd gotten out of this because the Hero had taken down a disaster-class threat with her own power.
I simply couldn't wrap my head around the claim that Huey had been the one to handle it.
"So, what happened was…"
Lucy gave me a brief rundown of everything that had gone down while I was out cold.
"…Anyway, that's how it went. Well then, I'll go help Master."
"Yeah. Thanks."
Putting the story together, it basically meant Huey had landed the finishing blow in place of the Hero, who'd been struggling with a bad matchup…
"Hey! Stop drinking already!"
"Huueng… You're so mean…"
While I was listening to the explanation, I walked over toward the Hero, who had tracked down Chloe hiding off to the side sneaking drinks and was now thumping her on the head.
"Hero. There's something I want to ask you."
"You can just call me Sion! So, what's the question?"
There was one part I just couldn't accept.
"With that kind of power, couldn't you have handled it on your own?"
If the current Hero's strength was anything like what I'd heard, then even if we called it a disaster-class for convenience's sake, there was no way she should have struggled against a sandworm that was just big and nothing more.
"Ah, well… Should I say?"
"They did help us with the mission, so it should be fine, right?"
Just as I thought.
At my question, the Hero and Chloe whispered back and forth as if there really was some circumstance involved.
"It should be okay, right?"
Eventually, they seemed to reach a conclusion.
"I got pretty badly hurt during the last disaster-class subjugation. Ahaha."
"Please don't tell anyone. It's classified."
"Anyway, I was wondering whether I should push myself… and then that guy over there seemed like he had something going on, so I decided to leave it to him."
So Huey and Lucy, who were preparing dinner over there, wouldn't notice, the Hero quietly pointed to her left side.
"…I see."
"Nothing else you're curious about?"
"Nope."
"Then it's my turn."
Saying she had something she was curious about too, the Hero asked me with a bright smile.
"You're Ren of Esras, right, big sis?"
"…Huh? Hero? Who are you talking about?"
"You figured it out?"
"Well, Lord Aldebaran only ever left that kind of mark on one person — you, big sis."
Ignoring Chloe, who seemed to have sobered up from the shock of learning my identity and was panicking beside us,
"Hehe. I thought so. A while back, Lord Aldebaran mentioned something interesting had happened."
"If you get a chance to talk to that muscle-bound guy later, tell him for me. There won't be a second time, so he'd better look forward to it."
"Yeah. I'll pass it on."
"Sister Ren… ugh, br-brother Ren? That kind of talk would be a huge problem if Lord Aldebaran's followers heard it…!"
"Who cares."
"Aw, it's fine, Chloe. It's just us here."
The Hero laughed, brushing off Chloe's fretting as if it were nothing to worry about.
"Ugh, I need a drink… I need to drink…"
"Sigh, fine. Do whatever you want."
That aside.
"But if you know who I am, why are you calling me big sis?"
"Because you are my big sis?"
"No, I mean why 'big sis'?"
"Because I feel like it?"
"Ugh."
As if daring me to complain if I had a problem with it, the Hero was playfully swinging her fists around. I was in the middle of venting my frustration at her when—
"More importantly, big sis."
"What."
"I've been thinking it since earlier, but you're really pretty."
She took a step closer and met my eyes.
"Wanna marry me?"
"…What?"
"Pffft!"
I was only briefly startled by the sudden declaration. I blocked the alcohol Chloe had sprayed mid-drink with my wing and grumbled.
"Ugh, damn it. Gross."
"I-I'll go help Brother Huey!"
—Fwoosh!
I set fire to my now-soaked wing to burn off the spit-mixed booze, then glared at Chloe as she fled.
"Hmm? Big sis. Let's get married."
The Hero took another step closer, eyes sparkling.
"Kid. Keep the jokes within reason."
"I'm not a kid! I'm already eighteen, you know? I'm an adult!"
"Yeah, you're a kid."
Even if she was the Hero, still. Were the people of Arcadia really sending a kid who wasn't even twenty to fight disaster-class threats?
"More than that, what's with the sudden marriage talk."
I muttered in disbelief, and the Hero took another step closer, even snorting with determination.
"I'm serious!"
"…Fine, just back off a little."
After pushing the approaching girl away, I plopped down roughly on the nearby sand and patted the spot beside me.
"No, setting everything else aside for a second. Why the sudden marriage?"
"Because that's how I can retire."
Answering my question, the Hero — Sion — flopped down next to me and started grumbling with her lips pursed.
"I'd rather make clothes than swing a sword, you know. But it's always 'a Hero has to do this' and 'a Hero has to do that.' I'm sick of it."
She said even the clothes she was wearing now were ones she'd designed herself.
"If I just say I make clothes, people give me grief, so I reluctantly made some armor pieces and stuck them on… Anyway, I hate being the Hero."
"Tsk. Being the Hero isn't all sunshine and roses, huh."
The way Sion was grumbling somehow felt familiar and endearing, so without thinking, I lifted a wing and gave her head a single stroke.
"…Big sis. Can I take this as you accepting my confession?"
"Don't talk nonsense. Looking at me like this, and you're still talking about marriage?"
If I'd still been a man, I might have at least considered a formal marriage of convenience. But my body was female now.
"Totally fine!"
"What?"
"I don't care if it's a guy or a girl. So it's okay."
…Well.
There were people like this sometimes. Yeah.
"Wouldn't it be hard marrying someone like me who doesn't even have proper arms?"
Of course I had no intention of marrying her and living together. I just said it half as a joke, half to scare her a little.
"And there's almost a ten-year age gap between us."
At that, Sion looked at my wings with a lecherous expression, drooling.
"…That's fine too. No, actually, that's even better. Hehe."
Apparently this kid was a Hero all the way through to her brain. No limits.
"Don't. Kid."
—Thwack!
"Ow!"
I lifted the wing that had been stroking her head and bonked Sion on the crown.
"What marriage. To someone you just met today."
With that, I stood up, looking over at Huey, who seemed to have finished preparing dinner and was waving me over.
"Hiiing."
"If you go around confessing to people just by looking at their faces like that, you're gonna get in big trouble."
"…I'm not doing this just because of your face."
Right after, I sensed Sion suddenly moving toward me while muttering something, but by the time I noticed, she was already too close.
"Eep!?"
"I'll settle for this much this time!"
In an instant, Sion came up from behind and hugged me tightly.
"Wow, that looks delicious!"
Then she dashed off toward Huey, dodging my gaze. Watching her go—
"…Good grief."
Unlike usual, instead of embarrassment or anger, a warm, fond feeling rose up, and I let out a wry laugh without meaning to.
Looking at that kid, I felt an oddly familiar sense of closeness.
"Is this how the Captain always felt?"
I'd always been so annoyed that every time we went into a city, he insisted on stopping by the orphanage to play with the kids. But now, I thought I could understand that feeling a little.
"Maybe next time I'll help out too."
I was snickering at the sight of Sion innocently smiling as she took food from Huey when, before long, Huey urgently called out to me with frantic gestures.
"Hey, hurry up! Your food's gonna disappear!"
"What? Save some, you brat!"
At those words, I arrived at where everyone was eating.
"Wow, this is delicious!"
"Sion, please eat slowly…"
"Incredible."
"Ahaha. Our Hero does have quite the appetite."
In that short time, Sion had been devouring the food at an astonishing speed.
"Tsk, you should've come faster. Too bad."
When I arrived, Huey came over with a fed-up look and patted my shoulder. I roughly swatted his hand away and asked,
"It didn't all run out already, did it?"
…Yeah. It's fine. I didn't flinch this time.
I still twitched a little, but I didn't react as sensitively as before.
"As if. You think I'd forget yours?"
"Whoa, that startled me."
"Nothing special today, so make do with this."
As he said that and handed me a bowl of stew with bread that he'd set aside in advance, I was glaring at him when I noticed something odd.
"Huey, your neck…?"
"Ah, this?"
Black scales had sprouted near Huey's neck. They looked similar to a snake's scales, and as I wondered about them—
"Don't worry about it."
Huey pulled the collar of his windbreaker robe, which had slipped open a little, closed to hide the scales, then waved it off as if it were nothing.
"They'll settle down by tomorrow or so."
He said he was fine, so I wasn't worried. But I was still curious.
"Hey, come over here a bit."
I sat down near the campfire and called him over.
"What happened?"
Holding the stew bowl with both wings, I took a sip and asked about the situation. Huey sat down next to me with a troubled look.
"It's like a side effect from using that power Lucy mentioned earlier."
He shivered once, as if the wind brushing through his sleeve was cold.
"Ugh, it's freezing. Light a fire for me, will you?"
He scooted a little closer to me and casually started demanding fire. It was cheeky, but looking at the bare skin visible through the torn right sleeve, he did look cold.
"…Here."
Still, he'd gone through his share of trouble, so I could at least do this much for him.
With that thought, I lit a fire on my wing. He immediately held his right hand out to it, and I flinched a little at the sight—
"Hah, that feels better."
"That's why you shouldn't go tearing up your sleeves."
Putting on a deliberately casual front, I decided to bring up what I'd heard from Lucy.
"Haha. When I get into that state, it gets so stuffy I just can't stand it."
"Are all otherworlders like that?"
"Nah, of course not."
He chuckled at my question, then opened his mouth with a bitter expression.
"After I came to this world, a lot of things happened before I started adventuring."
And so, with a face that seemed a little reluctant, Huey began his story.
"So, this was about five years ago."
The story of when he had just arrived in this world.