"This photo really needs to be kept somewhere safe."
"Mm, it's a precious treasure indeed."
"Hahaha, did all of you see it? Even in broad daylight, my ominous aura-laden eyes still gave off a brilliance that pierced clear through the heavens!"
"Try not to get so worked up next time. If I hadn't timed the shutter just right, the red glow from your eyes in the photo probably would've blotted out your whole face."
"Ehh, really?"
Unlike everyone else, who had been thrilled to receive their Gourmet Edifice group photos, Kyaru wore a somewhat awkward expression as she accepted hers. On the one hand, she didn't want to sink too deep into this fellowship that was destined to be false and meaningless; on the other hand, she longed for this kind of warm, heart-melting relationship — even found herself wishing to keep it going.
The conflict between these two impulses left her deeply torn. In the end, using "refusing the photo would only arouse suspicion" as her pretext, she accepted the group shot Jhin handed her, gave it a single glance, and then tucked it carefully into the inner pocket of her clothes.
How strange... it was nothing more than a photograph, and yet tucked away inside her pocket, it felt strangely warm.
With the photos sorted out, Jhin and Pecorine started discussing their route all over again. He pointed at the first red circle on the map and asked, "What's the special ingredient at this place?"
"It's the fruit growing on the back of the Bubble Frog."
"This fruit doesn't have a name of its own?"
"No, because nobody actually eats fruit like that."
"... Are you sure that fruit isn't poisonous?" Jhin broke into a cold sweat. It really hadn't occurred to him that the food-obsessed Pecorine would want to try things nobody had ever tasted before. In ancient times there was Shennong, sampling a hundred herbs; now there was Pecorine, sampling a hundred fruits — that kind of pioneering spirit truly was admirable.
When it came to a foodie's thirst for knowledge, I, Jhin, would happily crown you number one!
"It shouldn't be poisonous. According to the folks in the nearby village, other magical beasts prey on Bubble Frogs without any signs of poisoning either."
Could it be that those magical beasts had evolved a corresponding antibody to the toxin?
Jhin thought it over but decided in the end not to voice a conjecture like evolutionary theory, which hardly fit this magic-and-fantasy world. With so many bizarre, eccentric flora and fauna in this place, casually carting one back to the Main World would be enough to give a scientist who studied evolutionary theory a cerebral hemorrhage on the spot.
"Then let's head to the area where the Bubble Frogs show up first."
Pecorine tilted her head and blinked those pure, sapphire-blue eyes of hers in surprise: "Are you sure that's all right? If we go there, the time it takes to reach Maple Sugar Valley is going to grow a lot longer."
"We're called the Gourmet Edifice, aren't we — taking a little detour for the sake of fine food is no big deal at all. And not just the Bubble Frogs, either; we ought to swing by the Musical Hot Springs and the Exploding Potato as well!"
"Won't that, won't that have us using up way too much time on the road?"
"Pecorine..." Jhin smiled and patted her on the shoulder. "Maple Sugar Valley isn't going to vanish into thin air. If we hurry there at top speed just to arrive quickly, then an adventure like this loses all of its meaning. The scenery along the journey is equally worth stopping to appreciate. Your gourmet picture-book still has plenty of blank pages in it, doesn't it? Let's fill them in together, all of us."
"Mm!" Pecorine nodded firmly, breaking into a smile so dazzling it could blind a person. Jhin's words made her remember the things her parents had told her when she'd first set out on her adventure — to observe the scenery she encountered with her own eyes, to measure out the roads of this world one footstep at a time. That was what her adventure had truly been about.
After returning to Landosol, after living through that event that had filled her with such dread, she really had forgotten the meaning of adventure and travel, fixating only on the result itself. If it hadn't been for Jhin shaking her awake, she very likely would have ended up missing a great many things worth her attention.
"Jhin... I'm starting to like you more and more!" The girl's abrupt confession — brimming over with passion and vitality — and accompanying warm embrace not only startled Jhin himself, but also left every one of their other companions stunned by Pecorine's brazen move.
Every hair on Kyaru's tail bristled straight up; she tried to wallop the food-obsessed girl, who looked for all the world like she'd been hit by some kind of charm spell, with the magic staff in her hand: "Pe... Pecorine! What in the world are you suddenly going on about?!"
"A confession?! That was definitely a confession, right?!" Megumin, who had thoroughly absorbed Jhin's expert art of melon-munching spectator-ship, immediately squatted down on the spot, propped her cheeks in her palms, and grinned so wide her mouth wouldn't close: "Say a few more lines, do! It's my very first time witnessing a real-life confession in person!"
Kokkoro wore the expression of a contented old mother, gazing tenderly at the two of them locked in their embrace: "Master... it's wonderful — to think you found yourself a lover in Another World."
Her companions' voices snapped the impulsive Pecorine back to her senses. She released Jhin and, with a wide-open generosity of spirit, flung her arms out wide to embrace the others as well: "I love every one of you just as much! To be able to become companions with all of you, to adventure together, to share meals together — really... really, I'm so very happy!"
All three of them got caught in her net at once, with her rubbing her cheeks against theirs. Because of how tightly they were being squeezed, every one of them wore an expression of imminent suffocation.
"Pecorine! Let go already!"
"Breathing... ha... haah..."
"I feel like the great gates of the Hall of Death are slowly opening before me..."
Thankfully, Jhin extracted them in time from the overexcited Pecorine's embrace, narrowly averting the tragic outcome of two being strangled to death and one being smothered to death.
"You don't need to say things so easily misunderstood just to express that you care about us as companions, you know!" Kyaru gripped her magic staff in fury and lightly bonked Pecorine — now kneeling there on the ground — on the head repeatedly: "And on top of that, how many times do I have to tell you — don't just suddenly throw your arms around people! Do you have any idea how much strength you actually have?!"
"I'm sorry, Kyaru, I was just so happy..."
"No making excuses for yourself! This isn't the first time you've done this, or the second either."
"Uuu... I was wrong... I'll be more careful from now on." Pecorine's ahoge drooped down listlessly.
Jhin stepped up, intending to put in a few words on her behalf, but Kyaru immediately shot him a sidelong glare that sent him retreating with an awkward laugh. All he could do was throw Pecorine a look that said "my heart is with you but my hands are tied" before going to check on his own little guide.
"Kokkoro, are you all right?"
"Mm, I'm all right. It's just the first time I've ever learned that a chest can, in fact, smother a person to death..." When she'd finished, Kokkoro stole another glance at Pecorine's huge "puddings," her eyes filled with awe: "Truly a pair of deadly weapons."
Indeed, no matter which way you looked at it, deadly weapons was exactly what they were.
Silently agreeing with her in his heart, Jhin turned his head to look at the chuunibyou mage who — for reasons he couldn't fathom — was still cackling away in a fine mood despite her gossip-watching going bust: "What's gotten into you? Did the lack of oxygen go and rot your brain?"
Megumin batted away the large hand he had reached toward her forehead: "Quiet, you. I'm currently pondering why the disparity between one person and another can be quite so vast."
"You can ponder a question like that and still be this happy about it? Don't tell me you've already made peace with the fact that you're stuck at this impoverished level of yours for the rest of your life?"
"Get lost, get lost, get lost!" Megumin aimed a kick at Jhin, only for him to nimbly dodge it. With nowhere to vent her fury, she snatched up her magic staff and gave chase, bent on murder.
She herself couldn't quite figure it out — why she was so very pleased upon realizing that Pecorine hadn't actually been confessing.
____
👻🔥Seek: Walnut-chan🔥👻
🔥 New history: A Martial Arts Master Will Never Be Humiliated
Let's hit these goals:
🎯 100 Powerstones = 1 extra chapter for the public!