Chapter 282 – To Nurture
For the time being, I was sitting on the deck and lecturing Espie.
“Listen, Espie. You shouldn’t cheat. But you lied to cover it up, didn’t you?”
“…… Because…”
“Because, you shouldn’t.”
Espie, while sitting on the floor facing me, turned away with her lips pursed. She seemed to be sulking.
But I had to educate her properly here, and before I knew it, I was doing something like this.
“Thing is… I would have hugged you regardless of the game…”
“Huh!? Was that so!?”
“If you didn’t cheat and lie…”
“I, er, I lied! Yes Yes! I lied!”
Surprised by my words, Espie turned her face here, raised her hand impatiently and confessed.
“Big brother, I cheated and lied! I trapped the fish tightly with telekinesis and lifted it up! I told you the truth, right? Yes, I did!”
Trapped it tightly, she did such a horrible thing… and to such a big fish without hesitation.
『Floating ability, psychokinesis, shockwave, this one’s abilities are not magic, and can be applied… well, even a fish of such mass is but a trifle to this one…』
Tre’ainar’s words made my head hurt.
She opened her arms, childishly asking for a hug… still, I’m tempted to say that she’s one of the Seven Heroes ~, but this place …
“No. No hug for you.”
“Why!? I told you honestly! Big brother is a liar!”
“You’re the one who lied first.”
“Uh~, Big brother is bullying! I’ll blow you away, okay?”
“Blow me away, that is something you say when you surely have no self-restraint, right?!”
“I surely don’t!”
Espie was pissed off and pouting, but the game was null and void anyway.
『She has shown a lot of self-restraint so far… you have shown her kindness and reminded her selfishness… I suppose she does not know how much more or less to take.』
「Geez… and she was so confused by the gift of a cheap ribbon…」
Somehow, instead of just going along with Espie, I have to teach her these little things in the future as well.
I don’t want to go so far as to call it parenting, but… well, I’d like her to teach me a little more about Bethreal, the Allied Forces, and my parents!
『Well… how about thinking of it as an experience for you as well?』
「Tre’ainar…?」
And so, Tre’ainar whispered to me with a wry smile.
Eh? No way, you’re not telling me to raise a child, are you?
『In Cacretale, you have trained yourself by training and advising Mortriage’s group. Well, it was only for a few months, so it was half-finished, but even so, going from a position where you were always being trained by me to a position where you were training others instead should have given you some insight.』
I could certainly agree with those words.
As a person who gives advice, I felt a certain amount of responsibility, and since I could not say anything out of line, I seriously studied their movements and strengths to determine the characteristics of Mortriage, Oratski, Mobner, and Budeo.
『Tis the same. You have been pampered until now… this time…… why not put yourself in a position to nurture others? What it was like for your father, mother, that maid… it might be a good opportunity to learn about such things.』
「N… nurture… Espie isn’t my child…」
『The maid is not your biological parent, nor is she your actual sibling. But still, she nurtured you with love, did she not?』
「Th, that’s… true, but…」
『And in a way… tis something… I cannot teach you, because I do not know what it is like…』
It doesn’t seem like he had any children, so it’s not wrong for Tre’ainar to say that, but… well, I have been trained by Tre’ainar, but… I don’t feel like I was being nurtured with enough compassion…
『I, inin, in any case!』
「Oh…」
『Y, you should also learn the difficulty of raising another! Tis not just about pampering, tis about seriously considering the future of others as well as your own! Try it!』
Ugh, he read my mind again… Tre’ainar started talking very fast, but was he embarrassed? When I thought about that, I got glared at again, so let’s change the subject… that I’m not just training her, I’m nurturing her …… and learning how difficult it is to do so…
“Big brother? What’s wrong? Is it, are you going to pick me up?”
“Hmm?”
And Espie looked into my face with expectant eyes… but I knew I shouldn’t spoil her here.
“No, no, nope.”
“Boooo! Stingy!”
“I’m not stingy!”
But, it seems that raising her is going to take a lot of work.
Moreover, she’s a child who has the power to destroy various things just by throwing a tantrum.
I’m worried about her future…
“No~, but it’s a really big deal, you two are really awesome siblings!”
“”??””
At that moment, some old sailors started talking to me and Espie, who were sitting face to face on deck.
“Yeah. You caught a shark this big, you know.”
“You got a bright future ahead of you, little missy.”
Espie used her ability, but the grownups who didn’t know thought she caught it with her own skill… well, in a sense, her ability is also a skill, but in any case, Espie’s eyes were shining as they looked at the shark she caught.
“Even the fishermen at the fishing port ain’t this good… this could be…”
“If it’s just the two of you, maybe… you could get that…”
“Ah… you might even be able to catch the ‘Lord of the Inland Seas’ as well.”
“”Lord?””
And in the course of the conversation, the grownups mentioned something that was a bit strange.
“Lord? Is there such a thing around here?”
I had never heard of such a thing on the boat trip, so I was a little curious.
“Oh, they call it the ‘Great Sea King Squid’… it’s an infamous monster among sailors. A ferocious creature that is said to have sunk many fishing boats and even warships.”
“S… Squid?”
“Yeah. Like a phantom, there’s no telling when or where it will appear, and very few people have seen it, but it definitely exists. As proof, there is a huge bounty on the creature, and many hunters are still searching for it.”
“Hm~m… squid…”
“That’s why this ship is also equipped with cannons and all sorts of things. Well, it’s just a countermeasure against the Demon King’s Army.”
Just in case, I looked to Tre’ainar beside me…
『Indeed. I certainly have heard of such a creature, but never have I seen it, and I have heard rumors that someone somewhere slayed it before I noticed…』
「Huh? Is that so?」
『Well, I suppose it has yet to be killed at this time of the era…』
「Hmm… I wouldn’t be surprised if I was the one who killed it ♪.」
『Heh, what a claim… such declaration…』
I was joking around, but Tre’ainar muttered in a surprisingly serious tone, so I thought, “No way…”, but I also thought, “But then, no way”.
And then……
“Alright, I’ve made up my mind!”
“Hmm? Espie?”
Espie suddenly stood up, clenching her fists tightly.
“I’ll catch it!”
“…… What?”
“And this time… Hug! Big brother, let’s have another game!”
It’s a matter that would terrify a normal person, but Espie was rather enthusiastic.
Well, she’s one of the Seven Heroes, and she’s powerful enough to challenge a Six Supremacy single-handedly, so it’s not unreasonable.
Surprisingly, what really killed that squid …
“Ahooooooy, there’s something huge floating straight ahead!!!!”
Suddenly, the wild voice of one of the sailors rang out.
“What is it?”
“I don’t know! But look at it!”
“…… U, ugh, what the hell is that!?”
The sailors rushed to the bow of the ship, and Espie and I followed.
And we saw it too.
“Oh… there’s something there, Big brother.”
“Yeah… it’s huge… what is that?”
A huge object floating in the sea ahead. Even from a distance, the figure is visible.
The fact that it can be clearly seen from this distance means that it is quite large.
It may be bigger than this ship…?
『…… enormous…… tis a cephalopod…』
「That’s…」
『Precisely, we were just talking about…』
「Eh!? Then…」
Instinctively, I also lean forward.
Certainly, I think I see a few…… tentacle-like things…
But the thing that bothered me the most was…
「That is… already…」
『Uh-huh… tis dead.』
「Huh!?」
I knew it. A mysterious object floating in the sea… no, the creature is already dead.
The carcass was floating in the sea.
But how could something so huge…
『Wait, look, near the carcass… a small boat… is someone onboard?』
「What?」
At Tre’ainar’s suggestion, I take a closer look.
And sure enough, there is a small boat floating… but I can’t clearly see who or what kind of person is on it.
But Tre’ainar and I would soon find out who it was.
And in a way, the one I’m going to nurture…
Wasn’t Espie alone.
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