It's Not Like I Missed Her or Anything
Whatever wind had blown through Huey, his sudden offer to make fried chicken had me celebrating—if only for a moment.
"You already… finished it all…?"
When I came back to my senses, I stared in despair at the empty table—nothing left but chicken bones to prove the meal had ever existed.
"Ren. Your wings are covered in grease."
As I gazed forlornly at the empty plates, Lucy came over grumbling and started wiping down my wings.
But—
"Ugh, grease really doesn't wipe off easily."
Far from cleaning them, she was just spreading the oil around. Her face scrunched up, and the grip on my wings grew tighter and tighter until—
"Peep!"
—I shrieked at the pain shooting through them.
"Ah, my apologies."
In the end, we decided I'd take another bath before bed. Still rubbing my aching wings, I muttered,
"Ugh, if only my wings were even half as sturdy as my legs…"
As I grumbled to myself—
"What are you two doing?"
"Ah, Master."
Huey returned. He'd stepped out earlier, insisting that since he'd borrowed the kitchen, the least he could do was clean up after himself.
"I was wiping the grease off Ren's hopeless wings."
"You weren't trying to pluck them off?"
"…Shall I actually pluck them for you?"
"You two are having fun."
He watched Lucy and me bicker and glare at each other for a moment, then—
"Haaah."
—let out a sigh and leaned back in his chair, looking more worn out than usual.
"You look extra tired today."
"Uninvited guests kept showing up since morning."
"Uninvited guests?"
"Yeah. The person who knocked you out yesterday."
Yesterday?
"Did I get knocked out?"
"……"
"It's hopeless, Master. She's completely erased yesterday from her mind."
Faced with Huey and Lucy's looks of pure disbelief, I decided to carefully retrace my memories.
…Come to think of it, why was there a lump on my head?
I clearly remembered eating dinner at a tavern in the city last night, and then…
"I feel like I might've seen a little kid who looked a lot like Master…"
"…You catch on early for once, you idiot disciple."
Right then, from the seat directly beside me, came the sound of something being gulped down—followed by a little girl's voice.
And just like that, last night's memories came flooding back.
"Peeeeeep—?!"
Terror seized me. I shot up from my seat, ready to flee—
"I'm not gonna hit you, so sit still."
"Peep!"
—but she'd clearly been ready for this. Before I could take more than a few steps, she transformed the rod in her hand into a snare and snagged me by the neck.
"This much is fine, right?"
"…It still feels like you're putting a bit too much strength into it."
"Nngh."
Even as I choked and gagged with my neck caught, I caught Huey and Master exchanging words with strangely meaningful looks on their faces.
"You—you traitorous bastard… ghk!"
I'd thought something was off the moment he suddenly offered to make chicken!
Betrayal washed over me as I glared at Huey—and the snare around my neck yanked tight.
"There's nothing our Ren won't say in front of her master."
"I ran into her while cleaning the kitchen just now. And Marta—why are you quietly putting more force into that? Let her go already."
The snare around my neck vanished.
"Tsk."
I sat there, too stunned by the incomprehensible scene to even get up, staring blankly at Master.
Master… was listening to someone else?
"…Is this an illusion?"
The Master I knew would never do this…
"Tch. There was a situation."
"I found a good deal, so we made a trade."
For a "trade," Master was looking at Huey like she wanted to tear him apart on the spot—but the fact that she still hadn't acted on it suggested it was true.
"Anyway, I heard from Sion. You touched the wrong relic and ended up like that."
Sion? The Hero, Sion?
"She said she took Sion on as a disciple not long ago."
"…Huh?"
"Is that true?"
"Yeah. She said she only recognized you because Sion and Chloe explained everything to her."
Wait, why was this getting harder and harder to follow?
"Who took who as a disciple?"
"Me. Sion."
……
"If you don't get your body back soon, she'll overtake you in no time, Ren."
I stared at Master, speechless. Every trace of playfulness was gone from her face—she was completely serious.
"That kid is the same kind as you."
Blessings of the gods aside, she'd been born with a special talent of her own.
"…And what about you, Master? What's with that look?"
"Me? Heh. Aren't I adorable?"
She puffed up proudly and struck a cute pose. Watching Master—now a full head shorter than me—try to act cutesy was, frankly, painful to look at.
"Urgh."
"You little—!"
"…Marta. Your hand's going up again."
"Kh."
Whatever deal they'd made, Master's hand—already rising—dropped at the uncharacteristically cold edge in Huey's voice.
"You look decent enough, but you're a nastier brat than you seem."
"Nasty is more your style."
"……"
Huey had dropped all formality entirely and was just glaring at Master. It felt strangely out of place.
"I've never seen Master like this before."
"You too?"
So it wasn't just me. Lucy was staring at Huey with the same look of fascination.
"Ahem. Anyway! There's a reason I ended up like this!"
Master cleared her throat loudly, clearly trying to change the subject.
"I ordered a magic potion from the black market after seeing an ad about younger-looking skin, and this is what happened!"
Getting scammed was nothing to be proud of, yet she announced it like a badge of honor. Watching this middle-aged woman laugh about how nice it was to be young again, I could only sigh.
"Haaah. At least it was just a youth potion. What would you have done if it'd been something else?"
"Hmm? Hmmmm? What's this? Are you actually worried about your master right now?"
Her ears perked up at my words, and she sidled over with a wicked grin.
"…No, I'm not."
"Heh, mheheh, how can you be this cute!"
She lunged at me and mashed my face into her chest—
"Gyaaah—! The smell of booze—!"
—and the reek of alcohol rolling off that rock-hard bosom made me thrash to get free.
"Aaaah— I knew it, the only one who worries about this master is our Ren—!"
"Get off me, you old hag—! When did you even drink—!"
"Before I came to see our Ren?"
Even in a child's body, her absurd strength was intact. I couldn't pry her off no matter how hard I tried.
"Well, anyway."
I suffered in the arms of a drunk, choking on the stench of hard liquor, until—
"It was good seeing you after so long, Ren."
—she said it was about time and stood up, looking almost reluctant.
"Don't you think not visiting for ten whole years was a bit much?"
"After the way I ran away, what kind of reception did you think I'd get if I showed up?"
This from the woman who'd screamed she was going to kill me the very day I fled.
"…Getting ambushed in your sleep is one thing, but if someone also sprains their back falling into a trap, I feel like most people would react the same way—whether it was me or not."
"A trap…? Ren used her head…?"
"Good heavens. I never would have expected that."
Somehow I was becoming the villain of this story.
"It's not that I can't use my head. I just don't."
Heads are for weaklings. If your body's no good, your head has to suffer for it.
"…We'll go with that."
"That's such a Ren thing to say."
The pitying looks Huey and Lucy were giving me hurt more than they should have.
"Well, it'd be nice if we stayed in touch from now on."
"I'll try."
She said she'd be staying with the Hero for a while, so if I needed to reach her, I could contact the Grand Temple—and then, without even waiting for a proper goodbye, she vanished just as suddenly as she'd arrived.
"I thought I'd die if I ever saw her again."
The Master I'd met today had been so full of genuine goodwill toward me that I almost wondered if I'd only ever remembered the bad parts.
…Not that I'd particularly missed her or anything.
"Well, the thing we were worried about didn't happen, so that's good, right?"
My head was still a little scrambled from the sudden turn of events, but for now, I decided to take Huey's advice and just be grateful that I'd reunited with Master and come out of it in one piece.
"Hwaaam… If we're done, we should get ready for bed. We have to set out again tomorrow."
Lucy's voice came with a cute little yawn. The way her head was bobbing, she was clearly half-asleep already.
"Lucy's right. Shall we head up?"
"Yeah, sure."
"Ren. Wash your wings and… haaauu…"
"Sheesh. Fine. I'll go wash, so you go on ahead and sleep."
I still had a few things I wanted to ask Huey about, but there was plenty of time for that.
And so—
"Look at her, heading straight for my room again."
"Haha. Why don't you two just share a room from now on?"
"…I'll have to think about that."
Huey and I watched Lucy naturally crawl off toward my room.
"Well then. See you tomorrow."
"Yeah. I'm gonna go wash up."
We met each other's eyes, shared a quiet laugh, and went our separate ways—Huey to his room, me to the bathhouse to scrub the grease off my wings.
For the record.
I only realized I could have just set my wings on fire and burned the grease off—saving myself the trouble of washing them—after I'd already finished bathing and lit them up to dry.