Chapter 89: “【Crying Red Oni】”

"It's the gap in status, isn't it?"

Frederica murmured thoughtfully.

"That child Rem has always been wary of strangers in the manor. From her point of view, now there's a potential threat who eats and drinks for free every single day and wanders around everywhere, so it's only natural she'd act this way."

"That idiot Barusu, going and doing something so thoughtless again! Now Rem's regard for Barusu is going to plummet to absolute zero,"

Ram fretted anxiously, the scene from the previous loop—of Rem treating Natsuki Subaru so coldly—surfacing in her mind once more.

[But Natsuki Subaru did not give up. He clung steadfastly to his goal of building a good relationship with Rem and Ram, and over these few days he made decent progress.

Worth mentioning is that during this time he also found a moment to go ask Betty—who reads a lot of books and is broadly knowledgeable—for help.

And from her he successfully learned about the ability that had made him grow weak and die during the first and second loops.

It was precisely the thing known as a curse.

Unfortunately, even after racking his brain for ages, he still couldn't figure out exactly when that mysterious Curse Caster had gotten close to him and planted the curse on his body.

"This is excellent progress. Surely, once Mr. Natsuki goes to the village one more time and runs into that one dog—the only one that bit his palm, the one that had deep contact with his body—he'll grow suspicious, won't he?"

Otto's spirits lifted, and he threw a fierce punch at the empty air in front of him, overjoyed.

"This... should... be the case..."

Hearing this, Emilia, off to the side, lowered her head a little guiltily and stared at the floor beneath her feet, as if she could find a whole flower blooming in it.

How was she supposed to tell the others that Subaru had made yet another blunder this loop—asking online, urgently!?

[Several days flew swiftly by.

In the afternoon, Natsuki Subaru, having returned to his room once more, came over to the wooden table and used his rest time to leaf through a collection of fairy tales to study reading.

Before long, Ram pushed open the door and walked straight in.

"Pardon the intrusion... Oh, the guest really is studying."

Ram came forward carrying a tray, and noticing the fairy tale collection on the table, said with some surprise.

"Hey, you're being super rude, you know. I am at least a guest here."

"A freeloader living under someone else's roof—that's how I understand it, guest."

Compared to Rem, Ram was far more relaxed when interacting with Natsuki Subaru in private.

Although she'd come ostensibly to bring tea to the guest Natsuki Subaru.

In the end, she made herself right at home, sitting on the edge of Natsuki Subaru's bed and elegantly taking small sips from the cup of tea in her hand.

"So how is the guest's studying coming along?"

Ram asked offhandedly.

"How should I put it—within these fairy tale books I've felt a collision between knowledge and common sense."

"Maybe this is what they call cross-cultural exchange?"

Speaking of the fairy tale collection, Natsuki Subaru suddenly seemed to think of something and proposed to Ram.

"Let me introduce some fairy tales from my own hometown too—like [The Crying Red Oni] and such."

Natsuki Subaru rambled on, but then suddenly saw Ram in front of him freeze for a moment upon hearing the name of the fairy tale he'd just mentioned.

"[The Crying Red Oni]?"

Ram's expression stirred slightly—though it didn't change much, it clearly betrayed a sense of surprise.

"Hm? Does Ram want to hear it?"

Natsuki Subaru raised an eyebrow, not having expected Ram to take an interest in oni—even if they were only beings from a fairy tale.

"Then please, lend me your ears."

Natsuki Subaru said with a smile.]

"The Crying Red Oni... So Subaru's hometown has a story like this too. I wonder what it's about?"

Ram gazed blankly at the screen, lost in thought, fully able to understand why the version of herself in the picture had frozen.

If she had to say it—wasn't she herself a Red Oni?

She was truly curious: what kind of story would the one Barusu told turn out to be?

"Long, long ago, deep in the mountains there lived a pair of dearly close friends—a Red Oni and a Blue Oni."

Natsuki Subaru took out two quill pens to play the parts of the Blue Oni and the Red Oni respectively, swinging his left and right hands back and forth.

The Red Oni longed to live in harmony with the humans of the village at the foot of the mountain, but the moment people saw his oni appearance, they were too afraid to come near.

And so, in order to help the Red Oni, the Blue Oni devised a plan for a "good oni" to drive away an "evil oni"...]

Outside the picture, Ram's expression flickered at these words.

Since it was, in reality, just a fairy tale, the way the story would develop was easy enough to guess.

The Blue Oni's plan was, no doubt, to play the villain alone and exile himself, exchanging that for the happiness of his friend the Red Oni.

A very simple story, but somehow Ram felt a slight resonance with it.

She had guessed wrong—she was not the Red Oni in the story, but the self-sacrificing Blue Oni.

On that night, when she was little, when the oni clan's village was attacked by the Witch Cult.

In order to save Rem, she had willingly paid the price of having her own horn cut off by someone, in exchange for unleashing that one crucial strike.

From then on, she fell from being a prodigiously gifted genius of the oni clan all the way down, becoming the useless older sister who had to rely on Rem to live.

She had no regrets and no complaints—just like the Blue Oni in the story—

["The plan was a great success. The Red Oni became friends with the humans. But amid those now-lively days, a part of the Red Oni's heart felt hollow—ever since then, the Blue Oni had never come to see him again."

Hearing this, Ram, sitting upright on the bed, unconsciously tightened her fingers around the handle of her teacup.

The light of the setting sun spilled through the enormous window onto Ram's face, casting her expression in an ambiguous gloom, as though she were deep in thought, or perhaps finding some kind of resonance within the story.

"One day, the Red Oni couldn't bear it any longer and made a special trip to the Blue Oni's dwelling, only to find the front gate tightly locked, with a neatly written note pasted on the door.

The note was written by the Blue Oni: Red Oni, please get along well with the humans and live happily.

If I keep associating with you, they might come to regard you as an evil oni too. So I have decided to set off on a journey, but I will never forget you.

Farewell, and please take care of yourself.

Your friend forever, written by the Blue Oni.

The Red Oni held the note, reading it over and over again, sobbing as tears streamed down."

Natsuki Subaru let out a long breath and said.

"The end."]

"...That Red Oni is such an idiot, and the Blue Oni is an even bigger idiot."

Outside the picture, Ram grumbled.

The Blue Oni, who let himself be hated in order to bring about his friend's happiness.

The Red Oni, who dragged others into his own wish and thereby lost the Blue Oni.

And the ending where they part in the end, with their reunion nowhere in sight—that was the worst blunder of all blunders.

And yet, how very alike she and the Blue Oni were.

Ever since her own horn broke, she had been afraid that her own deficiency would drag Rem down.

Just like... the Blue Oni who feared that the Red Oni's closeness to him would get the Red Oni branded an evil oni as well!

So then, what about the ending for her and Rem? Would they too be separated, like the Blue Oni and the Red Oni?

No—surely not!

Ram, who had been in low spirits, suddenly felt a warm and dependable figure surface in her heart, along with the dream she'd had that one night on the brink of death.

Barusu, Rem—we promised we'd become a family!

A bright light gradually rose in Ram's eyes.

Ram was very useless, so she couldn't be sure whether she might someday burden Rem after all, repeating the Blue Oni's mistake.

But with Barusu it was different—he was a strong and dependable man, and also the person both of us sisters love.

So, it would be fine.

There was nothing left to fear about the future!

Thinking this, Ram turned her head and gazed tenderly at Rem, who lay in her arms.

Even though Rem had once done such excessive, unforgivable things to Barusu.

But it was all right—she would act as a bridge to mediate between the two of them.

She would bring Rem along to spend the rest of their lives atoning to Barusu.

Ram blinked, and after pondering for a good while, she realized—

If it was only this much, then her devoting herself, body and soul, all on her own to acknowledging Barusu as her master before now seemed not quite enough.

Perhaps she ought to help Barusu gather more... mm, though the people who came later would have to be of even lowlier status than herself.

____

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