Chapter 72

　Noel and I walked along the road toward the house in search of the beastkin woman. Before long, we spotted her crouching in front of the field beside our home.

　Even from behind, it was easy to tell how she felt. Her tail drooped limply all the way to the ground, so she must have been deeply depressed. …If she is feeling this low, perhaps she would not suddenly leap at me.

「Um, are you all right?」

　When Noel called out to her, the woman wiped her eyes before standing and turning around. She had definitely been crying, but perhaps so we would not worry, she gave us a small smile.

「…Oh, you’re the ones from earlier… Yeah. I’m fine. Did you come because you were worried about me?」

「Yes. …Witch-sama was worried about you too.」

「I see… Um, I’m sorry. I lost control of myself… and I was rude to Flower Witch-sama too…」

(It’s completely fine as long as you don’t threaten me, so don’t worry about it.)

　She lowered her verdigris-colored eyes apologetically, half-hiding them, while her gray ears, the same color as her hair, drooped sadly. I could hardly feel afraid of someone acting this meek, and perhaps was usually a nice girl and had only been agitated earlier for some reason.

「My name’s Miriya. You might not trust me, but I’ll do my job and properly hunt the monsters, so don’t worry.」

　Hearing that she would properly hunt monsters made me tremble a little, but the monsters she meant were the ones in the miasma-plagued lands, not me. …It was fine. There was nothing to fear. No, it was still a little frightening. If she discovered I was a monster, I would become one of her targets too.

「I’m Noel, and this is Flower Witch-sama. Witch-sama cannot speak because of the price she paid for her magic, so I’ll speak in her stead.」

「She does use incredible magic. Demonfolk really are amazing. …I can understand why he forgot about me and became obsessed with her.」

「Um, Miriya-san. …Daon-san didn’t forget about you. Humans don’t have noses as good as ours, so they can’t identify people by scent… and they don’t grow the way we do either. He simply didn’t recognize you.」

「…Really?」

　Daon had spoken clearly about her, so it was not that he had forgotten. Her current appearance was simply so different from how she looked in his memories that he had failed to realize they were the same person.

　When Noel explained that, hope returned to her eyes with a faint sparkle, and she seemed to regain a bit of strength.

「Ah, but… Witch-sama, you and Daon… aren’t close or anything, are you?」

(Not at all, not at all. There’s no way I could ever become lovers with a human.)

　After all, I was a mandragora. Merely touching someone would drain them of life force, and if things went badly, I might reduce them to ash like that tree earlier. …Thinking about it again, that was rather monstrous. From now on, I had to be even more careful and make absolutely certain I won’t kill a person.

(My body might be that of a monster, but I must make sure my heart never becomes one too.)

　As long as one’s nature was good, even a monster treated as a calamity ought to be able to coexist peacefully with the world and with humans, without threatening either. I was currently proving that myself.

「Miriya-san, do you want to marry Daon-san after all? …Even though you’re different races?」

「Yeah. Race has nothing to do with love. Even if he was a demonfolk… or something even more different, like a monster disguised as a human, the fact that he saved me wouldn’t change. …And neither would the feelings that came from that.」

　Apparently, racial barriers meant nothing to Miriya. In particular, I formed an extremely favorable impression of her willingness to accept even 「a monster disguised as a human.」

　From the perspective of an actual monster like me, it was incredibly reassuring to know that someone like her existed. …It gave me clear hope that if I continued doing good deeds and earned people’s affection, then even as a monster, I might still be accepted.

「Race doesn’t matter, huh…」

　After hearing her words, Noel muttered that and, for some reason, glanced briefly at me.

(…Wait, could he have realized that I’m actually…!?)

　I could think of no other reason for him to look at me, and I could only scream internally. However, he did not mention my species and soon turned back toward Miriya.

「There’s someone in this village who has crossed an even greater boundary between species, so compared to that, a difference in race might… not be such a big deal.」

(Someone who crossed the boundary between species…? ……..Ah, Ritter-san…)

　The image of that outrageous pervert and eccentric who had fallen in love with a plant despite being human came to mind, and I realized Noel had probably looked at me because he had remembered the purple plant, my familiar.

　Compared to that, there truly was little difference between a beastman and a human. They were both people, after all, and if those involved accepted it, perhaps there was nothing wrong with it.

「Huh? There’s someone like that? …Could they be useful as a reference for my own romance?」

「As a reference… I’m not sure…」

(Hmm… probably not useful as a reference… but it might give you courage… maybe…?)

　No one besides Ritter would ever need guidance on how to fall in love with a plant. Still, by seeing someone engaged in a romance beyond human understanding, perhaps she would gain the courage to think her own love was ordinary enough to pursue. …Probably.

「I’m going to do my best from now on. …And of course I’ll do my job properly too. I need to apologize for running off and talk about where I’m going to live.」

「That’s true. Shall we go back?」

「Yeah. …And later, introduce me to the person having that romance beyond species.」

　Was it really all right to show that to Miriya when she was smiling so innocently? …Well, it was probably fine. If she stayed in the village, she would see it eventually anyway, and it would likely be impossible for her to remain unaware of it.