Chapter 26 How to Raise a Death Goddess?

"...Aoi?"

With a feeling that she got shocked when I said that, she asked me.

"Yeah. I decided to name you 'Aoi' because..."

Ah, looks like I need to think of a reason...

"Y-You see, you have beautiful blue hair and eyes. Yeah! That's why when I came up with that name I immediately thought that it suits your characteristics. Also, a friend of mine told me before that it means 'blue', so it's not a mistake for you to have that name." I spoke while sweating profusely.

To be honest, I really don't know why I came up with 'Aoi'. Well, it's true that someone (Rin) told me the meaning of it, but never in my imagination that I'll be able to use it as the Death Goddess' name.

'Azul' sounds better too, considering that it shares the same meaning as 'Aoi', but my tongue already slipped and I'm not sure if I could take it back now that I've said it to her.

Now to see if she likes the name I've given to her...

"..."

She only looked at me without any emotion. A blank stare, to be exact.

That's a totally awkward reaction she got there!!!

I'm expecting that she would either say that she likes it or she doesn't, but a silence coming from her is I guess, the worst reaction that I would ever see from someone. At least nod a little, will you?

"Y-You don't like it? I'm sorry, my naming sense really suck. B-But if you want, I can think of another name for you...um..."

Tsk. Do I have to think again of another name? Maybe I shouldn't depend on her physical attributes and consider naming her based on her personality instead but I have no idea what her personality really is.

Other than that, giving a name just because I like it doesn't sound so right in my ears. Would you even prefer to name your future child 'Doggie'? If my parents gave me a name of that level I would certainly feel...embarrassed and hurt, for it greatly affects the way people give their impressions of me.

I don't want to make this girl suffer that kind of fate, that's why...

"...Aoi...Aoi...Yes, I like it! Please call me 'Aoi' from now on, big brother!" She said after repeatedly saying the name I've given to her just like in an incantation.

She liked it, she said.

Of course, I'm happy for her now that she has a name of her own. For a girl who already lived for so long, now's the time for her to be fully reborn like a phoenix bursting out of its egg.

Let's try calling her a few times to make sure that it fits right as it should be.

"Aoi...Aoi...?"

"...Yes! I'm Aoi!" She quickly replied, completely satisfied with me calling her by the name.

"Ah, yes. You're Aoi, my little sister."

As I thought, she's way too perfect for that name.

"Ahihi~" Aoi chuckled as she went closer to me. "...I'm so happy right now, it feels ticklish. Oh, it must be because it's my first time to receive something that I could actually call mine! Thanks, big brother!"

Seeing her feeling extremely pleased with her new name, I couldn't help but to pat her head.

Meanwhile, Prick only looked at us the same way as Aoi before, his stingers 'stooped' down a little like he's confused with the sudden turn of events in front of him.

I glanced at my right. "Um...looks like...we need to explain things to our buddy right there, Aoi."

"...Yes."

And so, I explained to Prick how everything ended up like that, while all of us gathered by the bonfire and eating our dinner.

------------------

"And to cut the story short, by stroke of fate she became my little sister. The end." I said to Prick.

The behemoth, however, is busy trying to steal a fruit from Aoi's hands, that it's uncertain if he actually listened at all to my story.

"...You can't! You already ate your share, right?! These are mine, you ugly creature!" Aoi said while slapping one of Prick's stingers that is about to stab into her fruit she's about to eat.

And so, a dilemma came into my attention that moment.

With Aoi joining, I readjusted the appropriation of food that is supposedly divided between Prick and I so that Aoi could also have her share. Before, the share would be 9:1 with Prick having the greater share of food, considering that he's a pretty huge fellow and his diet is more than ten times bigger than mine. For today's dinner, I tried dividing the fruits that I've gathered from the shrubs at the oasis between the three of us in a 8:1:1 ratio, with Prick having the greatest ratio as usual, but I noticed that Aoi has a MONSTROUS appetite of the same magnitude as Prick. The reason for that overeating behavior, she said, is because she haven't eaten anything for the past 2000 years, and she wanted to compensate for that downtime. It's amazing that she's immortal, but I feel pity at the same time because she had to endure hunger for a very long time.

With Aoi's situation taken into account, I then took some of Prick's share and gave it to her, making the ratio 6:3:1, but Prick doesn't seem to like those figures, as shown by the ruckus between the two right now.

Prick began his counteroffensive by trying to poke through Aoi's defense as she protects them at the same time. Aoi successfully dodges every attack, but Prick made a two-pronged attack with his stingers and was able to snatch one of the fruits that Aoi placed behind her.

Aoi's face turned into a frown and she shouted: "...A-Ah--?! Y-You...BIG BROTHEEEERRRRRR!!!!!"

After seeing Prick showing gestures of jubilation (his front pincers opening and closing noisily as he waved them), Aoi felt irritated and started to show killing intent towards him.

"All right, stop! Stop, you two!"

In order to prevent any untoward incidents I hurriedly pulled the fruit from Prick's stinger.

"Prick, bad! You shouldn't steal someone's food without their permission, understood?"

When I said that to him, his stingers slowly dropped due to guilt and embarrassment.

I also glanced on my right, then spoke to the girl beside me with a deep sigh. "And you too, Aoi. Although you're not in the wrong here, you shouldn't call anyone names such as 'ugly creature', okay? I already said that to you earlier, but it seems like you already forgot."

"...Uuuuuuu..." Aoi's face became gloomy after I reprimanded her.

Seeing the two of them feeling down because I scolded them both, I also felt guilty of the words that came out of my mouth.

Honestly, I know the feeling of being scolded, not the feeling of scolding another person. I don't have the opportunity for it in the first place, due to me being the only child in the family, and also because I prefer to stay silent if the person is so much younger than me. I remember one time, when my little cousins visited our house and they accidentally destroyed one of my prized action figures, I only let my mom do the scolding for me. It's unbearable for me to scowl at them while looking at them as they're about to cry, even though I'm extremely mad at that time.

I still have that sort of weakness towards children but I need to change my ways from now on. Having these two young-minded beings I met in this desert as my companions, I need to become a bit stricter for them especially to Aoi, for I want her to have an upright character despite of her 'evil' nature...

*grumble*

My stomach growled again after I made the two settle down. Well, since I have this fruit in my hand, no one will complain if I eat it, right...

"...A-Ah?! D-Don't eat it, big brother!!!" Aoi yelled in panic when she noticed that I'm about to eat the fruit I took from Prick.

Prick also got panicked by my action that he tried to take it away from me, but I stopped him right away.

"It's fine, you see? This fruit, it's the same as the [Demon Berries] that I ate before. Eating these helps in the rapid recovery and detoxification of the body, so I won't get poisoned if I ate a food that's has Prick's venom on it." I explained to them.

Before, I became so worried that I was going to die when I accidentally ate a small part of Prick's food, but I discovered that the fruit negates the damaging effect of Prick's venom that is smeared on its purple skin on my body. This fruit has anti-venom properties, if I should say.

Eh? Both of them are looking at me with eyes of astonishment and awe.

"...Awesome!!! Big brother, you may not look like one but you're really awesome for discovering something like that!!!" Aoi praised me in a high spirited manner.

"W-What do you mean by 'not looking like one'?! W-Well, anyway...thanks."

At the same time Prick clapped his stingers and pincers while letting out a few, short grunts.

Stop it, I'm being flattered, you know?

After dinner the three of us, having our mood livened up by our antics, chatted and chatted until the night became deeper.

Looks like little by little, the three of us became more comfortable with other as before.

The next morning, I woke up just before the morning wind start blowing sand and dust around the desert and the sun's just about to rise from the horizon.

"Prick...get up. We need to go now..."

As I'm about to get up, I felt someone tugged right into my arm, hindering my movement. Upon inspection, I realized that it was Aoi who's tugging my arm right now.

For our first night of becoming siblings, Aoi wanted to sleep beside me so bad that she pestered me by jumping around until she got tired and plopped right into the sand in deep sleep. Feeling puzzled, I carried her and placed her beside Prick, then I lie down beside her. Prick's leathery skin served as mattress and blanket that protected us from the cold and the sand, so it's no wonder that Aoi's still sleeping right now.

I gently touched her cheek to wake her up. "Aoi?"

When I called her name, her eyes slowly opened and sluggishly looked around until she saw my face. She smiled and said, "...Good morning...big brother..."

"Good morning too," I said while also letting out a smile. "We need to prepare for our today's trip, so you should get up now."

When I said that, Aoi stopped clinging on my arm and stood up in a rush. "...Where are we going, big brother?"

"Hmm, to be honest I don't have any idea as to where we are going, but Prick seems to know where the next oasis is. There might be a possibility that there's a town at the end of the line of oases, so we need to rely on him on our way."

"...Eh? We're lost, big brother?!" Aoi asked in surprise.

"M-Maybe? I'm sorry that your brother is useless during times like this."

Aoi shook her head. "...No. You're not useless, big brother, because you're the one who could understand Prick. I never met anyone who could do that same feat as yours, and that I think is very useful for this journey."

Hearing those words from her, my morale got a huge boost that I mounted on Prick's back in a second and beckoned Aoi to come. "The desert's windy today. Let's hurry up in order to not get caught by the sand storm."

"....Y-Yes!" Aoi replied as she grabbed my hand.

It was almost noon when we reached the next oasis thanks to Prick's navigating prowess. As soon as we dismounted off Prick's back, Aoi got amazed with the surroundings that is around us.

"...Big brother, big brother! Look, the sand here looks funny!" She said while pointing her finger at a certain sand formation in front of us.

"Funny? What makes you say so?" I asked.

"...I don't know, but compared to the place where we left, this place has more rocks and the sand looks like a fruit with a bite mark on it." Aoi explained.

Suddenly I began to ponder deeply about the things she had described.

Compared to the place where we rested last night, this part of the desert is full of crescent-shaped sand dunes, showing to us that the wind here blows in only one direction. Comparing also the direction where the dunes are facing and the current position of the sun (assuming that the sun moves in the direction the same as that in Earth), maybe I could finally determine the direction where we are heading to.

"The sand here looks funny because the wind made them look that way." I explained to her while I'm scribbling lines on the sand using a stick.

"...Eh? But why? Does the wind have a grudge against them?" She asked while feeling puzzled.

I got surprised at her question, that I subconsciously went along with her train of thought. "P-Perhaps? You see, we can't directly talk to nature just like the way humans do, that's why we don't have any idea if the wind and the sand are currently having grudges with each other. If that was truly the case then, we shouldn't meddle with their affairs as it they might get mad at us."

Aoi nodded in agreement when I said that. "...Y-You're right, big brother. Nature's problems are outside my jurisdiction as a death goddess, that's why I shouldn't think of it too much."

Deep inside I couldn't help but to put up a wry smile at her, thinking that she has a really strange perception of this world: maybe because she haven't seen the outside world for a very long time, or; because all this time she devoted all her time fulfilling her role as the Death Goddess, or lastly; it's because she's just a child that's still ignorant of the ways of this world. Either of the three reasons is the reason why I, Ren Mortel, resolved to be her brother that will teach the things she needs to know in order for her to live her life to the fullest.

If that's the case then I should start gathering as much knowledge about this world from now on, if I'm really eager on teaching her.

As I kept on scribbling lines on the sand, Aoi went outside the shade made by Prick's stingers standing against the sun's glaring heat and rushed towards me.

"...What are you doing, big brother? Are you playing in the middle of the heat?"

"Nope," I replied. "I'm trying to find out our current location."

Aoi's face turned into a shocked one as she stare down the lines I wrote on the sand. "...Why? Are you not confident with Prick's sense of direction?"

"That's not it. I'm doing this because in case Prick can't determine our direction due to some circumstances, we have a back-up method of determining which direction we're going. He's a good fellow, but we shouldn't solely rely on him too much for navigating through this desert."

Although she can't understand any of it, she attentively listened to me observed my antics.

Okay, now about my direction-finding efforts...

Just by observing the direction where the dunes' crescent is pointing and the direction of my shadow against the barren ground, I found out that they are pointing towards the north, since the hot air came from behind when I stood while facing the dunes, and my shadow is towards my left side as the sun's still not on its peak. Using that as a reference, I find out that we're following an almost straight line leading towards the northeast.

"Okay, that should be enough! Now that we now know where we're heading to, we should start preparing for our food. Prick, can you look for our lunch while we're finding a shady place for us to rest?"

When I said that, Prick who's currently sand-bathing hurriedly shook off all of the sand that covered him, and started crawling towards the shrubs growing on the oasis.

"...I still don't know how a creature like him could understand human vocabulary," Aoi muttered while looking at Prick.

"Same. It remains a mystery for me as to why he could do that." I nodded slightly on her words.

The two of us then focused more on the place where we could eat our lunch. Thankfully the trees in this oasis are taller and their leaves are more dense compared to the last one, as if there's a mini forest in the middle of the desert.

"...Big brother, big brother! Look, I found these while also looking for food!" Aoi said while carrying a piece of long cloth as she ran towards me.

"Oh, looks like someone left it after he left this place. Although it's dirty, we could still wash it with the water of this oasis. Good job, Aoi." I said while patting her head as a reward.

"...Hehehehe~Big brother, I'll continue doing my best!" She said as she melted from pleasure.

A few minutes later, Prick returned with fruits on a pouch-like depression just below the base of his stingers. On his back too, there's also a rectangular object that looked like a treasure chest.

"Oh, you also found something, Prick? Amazing!" I also patted his stingers as a reward.

Aoi, on the other hand, frowned when she saw me also praising Prick for discovering something on this oasis.

"Did someone also left this here in this oasis? I wonder what's inside the chest..."

As I inspected closer on the 'treasure chest', I noticed that the lock has already been corroded by rust and is about to break. By hitting it with a rock the lock completely cracked and shattered, unlocking the chest. When I opened the chest, we found pieces of soaked paper, a rusty dagger, a large flask for carrying liquids, and a huge white blanket inside.

"...Eh? I thought we could find something amazing inside the chest but there's none." Aoi spoke with a voice of disappointment.

"We could still use the blanket and the flask on our journey, so I think it's still a lucky find." I told her.

We took the contents out of the chest first before we proceed with our lunch.

Regarding our lunch...man, I'm starting to get tired of eating fruit every time. I need to eat meat! Yes, lots of meat! However, the problem is, where would I find meat in this kind of place? It seems like other than Prick and the other monsters I still haven't met before, there's no meat-carrying animals here in the desert.

Looks like I have to stick with a fruit-only diet until I get out of here.

"...Hm? Big brother, is it just me or the ground is shaking right now...?"

Just after she finished eating about twenty pieces of fruit as her lunch, Aoi asked me if I also noticed it.

"Y-Yeah. Should we evacuate now?"

At that moment Aoi started acting strange as she started looking around us, checking for any suspicious behavior in the surroundings.

"Aoi...is there something wro--"

Aoi stopped me from saying any word with only a slight gesture of her hand. Her eyes became sharp and vigilant, as if there's enemies nearby. Seeing her like that make me feel worried.

"...I sense...killing intent." Aoi declared briefly to me.

"H-Huh?"

Her eyes kept on looking around until she fixed her gaze downwards. "...Enormous killing intent coming from...below!"

At that moment, the ground trembled again violently and at a distance right in front of us, a huge worm-like creature burst from the sand.

"...Big brother..." Aoi called me with a serious voice.

"W-What is it, Aoi?" I said while looking at the huge creature with a petrified stare.

Aoi, on the other hand only stood beside me, filled with extreme composure befitting for a deity. Her face also showed killing intent, but for some reason I didn't get scared when I looked at her.

"...I think..." She looked at me with a fearless smile on her face. "We could finally eat meat tonight."