Chapter 71

I only wanted them to quiet down a little because the shouting scared me. It wasn’t like I wanted attention, so I immediately withered the Silent Grass at my feet.

The plants causing the silence were gone, so sound should have returned, yet somehow an awkward atmosphere still lingered over the area, and everyone remained frozen, staring at me.

(Being stared at this much makes it hard to move…! Noel, help…!)

When I looked toward Noel, he immediately understood and hurried over to stand in front of me. I felt genuinely relieved and placed a hand on his shoulder. Just having Noel stand before me felt like gaining a very reassuring shield.

「Witch-sama simply dislikes conflict.」

(Exactly, exactly. Loud shouting is scary… Can’t everyone just get along peacefully? As expected of Noel, he understands perfectly.)

「Tch, damn beastman… no, never mind.」

I nervously looked toward the rough-looking adventurer who clicked his tongue. The moment our eyes met, he quickly looked away and fell silent.

Still, I hadn’t realized discrimination against beastmen ran this deep. What was I supposed to do about this?

Should the female beastman adventurer be given a separate campsite from the others? If I had to make another one, where should I put it?

Behind the adventurers stood Daon with his arms crossed and a grim expression. When he noticed me looking at him, he nodded and walked toward them.

「Let us refrain from infighting. The enemy we should be fighting is the threat of monsters, not each other.」

「…That’s true enough. But whether we can get along with a beastman is another matter. And she’s a woman too, we’d prefer she move somewhere else.」

「…Certainly, there is some logic in separating the men and women. Lady Witch, may I consult with you on this?」

(Ah, that’s true. The problem is where to make it… If it’s too close, they’ll probably just keep fighting.)

Still clutching Noel’s shoulder, I distanced myself from the frightening group of adventurers and moved away from the square, returning to the forest path to approach Daon.

Apparently deciding the argument had ended for now, the adventurers began preparing for camp individually, pitching tents in the clearing and unpacking their belongings. They looked very used to it, so perhaps I didn’t need to build lodgings for them after all.

…Even so, later I’d at least make a hut or maybe just a roof for shelter from the rain. Maintaining my image as a kind witch was important. Maybe then they’d try not to scare me and stay quiet.

The female cat beastman couldn’t bring herself to mingle with the other adventurers. Looking uncomfortable, she stood nearby fiddling with her bangs.

「There are not many female adventurers. We have no way of knowing whether any women besides her will volunteer for demon realm duty in the future.」

(Then the space doesn’t need to be as large as this one. …Maybe somewhere closer to the village?)

When I pointed toward the village, Daon made a troubled expression. He looked from the beastman woman to Noel, then slowly shook his head.

「Certainly, if it were only one additional woman in the village, there would be no issue. But allowing a beastman to live there… would be unfair to Noel. Thanks to him, the atmosphere of rejecting beastmen has disappeared from the village. Even so, he still lives outside the village.」

I had meant that I wanted to build a women’s campsite closer to the village, but Daon apparently interpreted it as suggesting the woman herself could live inside the village.

Since Noel fit in so well, it was fair to say Bit Village itself barely discriminated against beastmen anymore. But apparently the issue was whether it was appropriate to let another beastman live there while the very person responsible for changing those attitudes, Noel, still lived outside the village.

「I don’t mind. …Living with Witch-sama already makes me more than happy.」

「…Honestly, you really are a good kid.」

「, I-I’m almost an adult already, so you don’t need to praise me like that.」

Daon patted Noel’s head with his large hand.

Though Noel protested with his words, his tail was wagging, so he was probably happy about it. It was likely that age where children tried to act mature and got embarrassed about being treated like kids.

「I’d hate to make Witch-sama go through the effort of creating another site from scratch, so if things can be managed within the village, perhaps that would be best. …However, there are no vacant houses at the moment, so that poses another issue.」

Recently, it would be fair to say Bit Village was prospering. Many merchants came and went, and the number of goods and animals had increased. Empty houses had either been torn down and turned into farmland or remodeled into sheds for livestock, leaving no unused buildings at all.

Still, there was land available, so I figured I could simply make a house like the one I made for Nikolaus in an empty spot. But just as I thought that, the woman quietly raised her hand and joined the conversation.

「…Um. What about your house? You live alone, don’t you?」

「…Hah? My house? …It would hardly be proper for a young woman to stay in the home of a strange man.」

That was such a perfectly reasonable response that even a plant could understand it.

And yet the cat woman looked utterly shocked. Tears welled in her eyes, and then, with her fur bristling and pupils narrowed, she glared fiercely at Daon.

「That’s awful! You said you’d marry me!!」

(Eeeeh…!?)

The cat woman shouted that shocking declaration, then burst into tears and ran off toward the direction of the watermill hut.

Startled, I looked toward Daon, only to find him equally bewildered.

Watching him act as village chief made it obvious he was an extremely dependable person, and he certainly didn’t seem like the sort of man who fooled around with women or behaved irresponsibly.

But at the same time, the woman didn’t seem to be lying either.

…Perhaps it was some tragic misunderstanding.

「Could she possibly be… that girl from back then…?」

「Daon-san, did you really promise to marry her?」

「No, that was… merely something I said to persuade a child to calm down…」

Still looking troubled, Daon explained the situation.

Apparently, around five years ago, just before retiring from the knights, he had rescued a beastman village from monsters during his final mission.

At the time, a young cat girl from the village had tearfully clung to him saying, 「Marry me when I grow up!」 and he had tried to calm her down.

「I am human, we are different races, and I was already thirty-five years old. There was no way I could seriously accept the dreamy confession of a nine-year-old girl.」

(Hm? You said five years ago, right…? Then that woman earlier is… fourteen…!?)

She had been tall and slender with a balanced, athletic figure, taller even than me in heels. No matter how anyone looked at her, she appeared to be a fully grown woman.

I knew beastmen matured quickly and had shorter lifespans, but this was still astonishing.

「Fourteen is adulthood for beastmen. She’d probably already entered her growth phase at nine, so growing that much isn’t unusual… Give me another five years and I might even end up taller than Daon-san myself.」

「…Even if I know that intellectually, my instincts can’t keep up. Fourteen is still a child for humans.」

Apparently beastmen and humans perceived growth and age very differently.

Daon had only intended it as a way to placate a child. When the girl absolutely refused to give up on marrying him, he’d apparently answered, 「If you still truly can’t give up after becoming an adult, then I’ll seriously think about it.」 He assumed that after enough years passed, she’d calm down and eventually find someone more appropriate.

But she had believed him, and interpreted 「I’ll think about it」 as 「I’ll marry you.」

Then she had grown up and come chasing after him.

…And because Daon hadn’t recognized her at all, she ended up deeply hurt.

「This is exactly why people say interracial relationships are a bad idea. …I’ll go talk to her. If you go, Daon-san, she probably won’t be able to stay calm enough to talk properly.」

「…I’m sorry. Once she settles down, I’ll speak with her properly myself.」

「Yes. Leave it to me.」

(Well, of course she’d be hurt… Come to think of it, she ran toward the house area, didn’t she…? I should probably go check on her too.)

She really did seem hurt, so a kind witch ought to go after her.

…Though honestly, I was terrified because she’d glared at me with hostility earlier, so I didn’t really want to get too close. But a kind witch wouldn’t abandon an upset woman.

Still, I was worried.

Since I’d been talking with Daon earlier too (well, not literally talking, since I can’t speak), maybe she’d glare at me out of jealousy and shout something like 「You homewrecking cat!」 while pouncing at me. …No, wait, she’s the cat. I’m more of a root.

Thinking back on her behavior so far, she seemed rather emotional, which honestly made her scary. Trembling a little, I followed after Noel, hoping he’d talk to her first. He glanced back at me and smiled with a look that seemed to say, 「I knew it.」

「I thought so. Witch-sama was worried about her too, right? …She’s probably feeling pretty down.」

(Ah, yeah… Sorry it’s not just pure concern…)

I felt a little guilty.

Maybe I hadn’t been considerate enough toward other people’s feelings after all.