Volume 3 Chapter 10.2
Translator: Reflet
Editor: Weasalopes
「I-I would never harm anyone…I just, want to try my best to be of use, and have Deary reward me for it…」
「Guilty.」
「Guilty.」
「Guilty.」
The female trio blasted the girl with guilty verdicts as she desperately appealed to them. By this point it felt like bullying, and Hiroshi was having an even tougher time of it as he appeared to be close to shivering in the corner of the room begging for his life.
「Heeey, calm down for a moment.」
Unable to be indifferent to Hiroshi’s current condition, Tatsuya began trying to calm down Haruna’s group. Tatsuya had expected this from Makoto and Mio, but Haruna? He honestly hadn’t anticipated her reacting so excessively to all of this, but maybe it was cruel of him to expect a girl whose romantic efforts were going all to naught to remain calm. Plus in this case, not looking after her romantic interest could mean the difference between life and death. No matter how logical of a creature Haruna was, it wasn’t entirely her fault that she had become so aggressive.
「As of this moment I can’t tell who’s the bad one here.」
「So you’re saying you trust this brat, Tatsuya?」
「Nooope. It’s not that I trust her, but that Hiro’s in a bit of a pickle at the moment.」
Hiroshi had truly begun to shiver in the corner of the room begging for his life, and now that the other three noticed this, they skipped calm and went straight to pale faces. Even if they were to repeat something like this, they couldn’t do it in front of Hiroshi.
「Plus, even though I don’t trust this girl, I definitely felt some way about how you were treating her. No, we can’t just sweep away what happened before, but that doesn’t mean we can do whatever we want.」
「Ah～、I’m sorry……」
「……I really regret that……」
「……Yeah. That was really inhumane of me……」
Being admonished by Tatsuya coupled with Hiroshi’s state of being, the three girls recognized what they had done. Now they really couldn’t speak badly of Hiroshi’s middle school classmates.
「Alright, we’ve cooled down a bit, so what now? I feel like even though she can’t be trusted, she can be useful. But thinking about Hiro, maybe it’s best not to have her too close.」
「I don’t think we should even use her. For the sake of Hiroshi’s heart and for our mental health, I think we should cut off all ties when possible.」
「One vote for Mako.」
「And Hiro can’t exactly vote right now, so how about you, Haruna?」
After hearing Makoto and Mio’s opinions, Tatsuya sought a response from Haruna, who was collecting her thoughts. If she had the same opinion when calm, then Tatsuya wasn’t going to object.
「I feel the same as Makoto-san and Mio-chan. But from what I’ve heard, she didn’t really have any sense of self or personality when she attacked Hiroshi, right?」
「Judging from His Highness’s letter, I’d say you’re right, yeah.」
「In that case, not giving her one more chance to atone and rehabilitate is definitely a bit unfair. She was just a simple tool back then, after all.」
「So?」
「On several conditions. But first I want to observe her a bit. After all, it’s true that I don’t have all the answers, right?」
Haruna had the softest verdict out of everyone. The fierce aura from earlier had vanished as if it were never there to begin with. Haruna was never the type to hold aggressive emotions for very long. She had blown her top when she saw Hiroshi’s predicament, her words becoming more and more agitated as she teamed up with Makoto and Mio, but if Haruna had been alone, she would likely have never denounced the defenseless girl as much as she did.
「Is it okay?」
「Sure. It’s true that we need time to make the proper judgement.」
「I don’t want to, but judging from Hiroshi’s reaction, I feel there is some room for compromise.」
「As long as there’s a way to get rid of her if anything happens, I don’t have a problem with it.」
As long as they stayed calm, the group did in fact have its ethical, humane, moralistic qualities. They were a little too virtuous to do anything more to the girl, so no one objected to Haruna’s suggestion. However, they were more than ready to eliminate her if she decided to attack them, so no one let their emotions get the better of them.
「So that’s what we’ve decided on. Whaddya say, Hiro?」
「I’m sorry I’m sorry I’m sorry I’m sorry—」
「Heeey, earth to Hiroshi!」
Lightly hitting Hiroshi on the cheek as he continued quivering and begging for his life in the corner, Tatsuya attempted to bring him back to reality. He was a bit dumbfounded at the excessive reaction, but then again, Tatsuya himself had been rather taken aback at everything going on, so maybe Hiroshi wasn’t acting so unreasonably after all.
「Girls are scary girls are scary girls are scary girls are scary—」
「I am tempted to agree with you just this time, but can you please just get a grip on yourself?」
Realizing that only a little bit of shock would not bring him back, Tatsuya decided to take out a forging hammer and smash Hiroshi’s head a little. This would normally be a matter of life and death, but this was the kind of guy who could directly take a hit from a pole arm (granted, it did not have its blade out) without taking any damage. It was doubtful if the impact from Tatsuya swinging a hammer (that he had no skills for) would even inflict any pain on Hiroshi.
「Ouchie!」
Yeah, that might have been a little too much, thought Tatsuya as he saw what the hammer had done. But now Hiroshi’s eyes were focused again. The damage inflicted was just the right amount.
「Whazzat whazzat?」
「So you finally came to.」
「What happened, mate?」
「You freaked out with the scuffle between the girls and the assassin and begged for your life as you shivered. Then we finally reached a consensus and I had to give you a good whack to get you back.」
「……Bro, that’s kinda extreme……」
「No, you wouldn’t have come back with a regular wake-up call.」
Hiroshi continued to puzzle himself over the fact that he had no recollection of anything occurring as he was begging for his life. As he caught glimpse of the former assassin girl again, he seemed to remember quite a bit as his face went pale.
「We’ve finally reached a consensus on what to do with her.」
「Whatcha gonna do?」
「We decided to have her work for us on a few conditions in order to see if she still has it out for us or not.」
「……Well, if Lay sent her over here, it probably means it ain’t all that dangerous, so I don’t really mind……」
「And I get that you’re uncomfortable. Hence the conditions.」
Tatsuya said, looking at Haruna, who nodded at him and began reciting the conditions she had thought up.
「First. You will not attempt to interact with Hiroshi-kun without our permission.」
「Wha!?」
「Second. You will never speak with Hiroshi-kun one-on-one.」
「N-No way!?」
「Third. Unless we call you out here, you will need to get permission from His Highness Layotte beforehand if you wish to interact with us.」
「That’s the same as it’s been.」
The assassin swung from joy to sorrow as she listened to Haruna lay out the necessary conditions in a placid tone. Thanks to that little exchange, it was now clear that this seemingly expressionless girl had quite a rich set of facial expressions.
After she added a few little conditions here and there, Haruna took the information relating to Darl and began to end the discussion.
「Since His Lordship has been so considerate for you, we will gladly put this all into effect.」
「I want a reward for being a good girl.」
「You think you’re in the position to demand such a thing?」
「Ugh……」
The assassin dejectedly drooped at Haruna’s savage response.
「Putting that aside, what’s your name?」
「……Rainy. Rainy Moon.」
「Alright.」
After a tough, long fight, former assassin Rainy had finally managed to succeed in getting her name out. Once she had done so, the atmosphere felt as if it had softened a bit, and everyone felt a just a little happier.
「So what specifically did you want for a reward?」
Then again, thanks to Tatsuya’s ill-natured remark, it was all bound to break.
「I did my best, so I’d want him to fondle my breasts.」
「What!? The frick!?」
「Guilty! I knew it, she’s guilty!」
Rainy’s incredibly over-the-top, perverted statement made the softened air freeze in its place. Hiroshi went straight past disgust to being terrified, and Haruna threw all caution to the wind and lay down a guilty verdict with a ferocious look on her face. The situation was so out of control that the other three froze in place, unable to even decide how to react.
「Nope, no probation for her!」
「No, I mean it was unexpected, but I think you all have a problem if you get angry just from her saying what she wants.」
「But just think about how much danger Hiroshi will be in if we let her loose!」
「So what you’re saying is that you don’t accept her being in such an enviable position?」
「Heck no!」
With Haruna heated up again, Tatsuya sought to steer the conversation in a different direction by messing with her on purpose. Once Haruna’s consciousness had drifted to Tatsuya, Rainy had evacuated from the area at a speed that not even Mio could supplement. Makoto and Mio, who had been gazing in mute amazement, returned back to reality and began whispering to each other in undertones.
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