Volume 1 - CH 25

Volume 1: Chapter 025: Tooru Suffers a Direct Hit

Tooru here.

Recently, I have decided to visit Karted with Master.

After Makia’s big tantrum, we ended up deciding to travel back and forth between Delia Fields and Karted. Even so, Makia is still fiercely opposed to me making the trip.

She rarely screamed or throw tantrums in front of the Master and the Lady, [1] they clearly don’t know what to do when she eventually stomps off to hide away in her room.

“… Hey Makia, I’m coming in”

I knock on her door but did not get a reply. I sigh and enter the room.

This clearly startles her as she suddenly sits up in bed. [1] Her red hair is all puffed up as she stares at me from her puffy blanket fortress.

“….”

Hey, are you a kid or what?!

“Uhmm… so, Miss Makia, are you awake?”

I touch the puffy blanket fortress and gently call her name. [2] A leg suddenly shoots out from the

blankets and plunges into my stomach.

“Ouch… Hey you… What’s up with the surprise attack?”

“Why… [2] why are you going to work in Karted with Father?”

Makia’s voice and words are rather fierce and piercing.

“It can’t be helped. I can’t let Master go alone… you might not realise this but Karted is pretty dangerous.”

“That… that’s… but if you go, I won’t see you for a whole month!”

“… hey…”

I get up from the floor, Makia’s kick was really hard. I tried pulling her blanket fortress apart. However, she stubbornly buries herself back into the thick blankets. No matter how I pull and twist, [2] I can’t see even a bit of skin or red hair.

“Oi, Makia. Aren’t too old for this kind of antics? It’s not like I’m leaving forever!!”

“I’m still 13 years old!!”

“Oh my god, you… After all of this time, you want to act like a child?!!!!!!!”

There were times it was easy to forget that we had ever inherited memories from our previous lives.

To avoid suspicion from people around us, we have to be careful and occasionally act our physical age. [1] However, sometimes, one or the other of us tended to go overboard.

“Back on Earth, you were a lot cooler and mature. You did not act like an actual child. Not even when your actual parents in that world pass away…”

“Shut up! Shut up! Isn’t it because we’re always together all the time!?”

Her leg pops out from the blankets once again.

Unfortunately for her, I am not so incompetent as to fall for the same trick twice.

“Alright, got you!”

I grab the offending leg and drag it out of the blanket.

“Wahaha, I caught a big fish!”

“Kyaaaaaa, stop it!! My skirt! My skirt!! You big pervert!!”

“Oi, enough about that. I have no interest in little 13-year-old girls.”

As expected, Makia let go of her blankets to push her skirt down.

[1] When I finally got her out, Makia’s bright red hair is a complete mess from being under the blanket fortress.

“W-Woah… The legendary Crimson Witch really is a mountain witch…”

“Shut up and die!!”

Makia shakes her feet [1] nearly kicking me in the chin with the other foot, lands and throws the blanket fort at my face.

She had always been a rather violent woman.

“Oi, oi, oi, still wanna fight?”

“Humph, good for you. Do as you like, I don’t care anymore.”

Makia combed back her hair, which had exploded around her like a mountain witch’s hair. She is being rather tsun-tsun [3] now.

“Sure, I understand. I’ll be going now.”

“… …”

When I turn my back to her, I feel intense killing intent floating toward me even after she told me to just ‘do as I like’

“… What?”

“… …”

“… What is it, Miss Makia?”

“Nothing,”

“… …”

Oi, oi, stop that. Don’t be so quiet all of a sudden.

Don’t be all meek now!!

“… Haah… What is it? Why are you so uneasy?”

“Because… We won’t see each other for a month.”

“I’ll return every night though.”

“I’ll be asleep at night.”

“Oi,”

Makia climbs back to her bed and curls up.

Looks like she is really against my going, but I can also understand that there is nothing she could do about it. [2] Look at her all sulking with her arms tucked around her knees.

Where did [2] the dignity of the Crimson Witch of the West go?

As expected, after many years of association, I cannot leave her alone like this. I drop my shoulders and sit down on her bed.

“What is it? Are you lonely?”

“… Humph, don’t think too highly of yourself. Even without you around, nothing changes. You weren’t here until I was 7 years old.”

“You say that, but the truth is you still feel lonely~~ Really, Makia~~”

[2] Now that it looks like she had finally calmed down, I lean over to tenderly stroke her head.

However, like a cat who suddenly decided she hated being touched, her claws stretch out and scratch my face. Too surprised to react, I immediately suffer the full brunt of her attack.

“Ow ow ow ow ow!!! You, what, stop it! Stop it!!!”

“Shut up!! You should just die, you idiot!!”

Makia is back in action.

From here on, my suffering is so acute that it is no longer cute.

First, she violently kicks me off the bed. Then, she jumps on me, scratching every bit of my skin, pulling my hair and even biting me when I tried to protect myself.

It is as though I had been attacked by a frightful Crimson Witch. Her tangled wild hair looked like a pile of writhing red snakes as she continued to attack me.

Makia has snapped. It had been a long time since I had seen her this mad.

“Enough!! I won’t be speaking to you for a whole month!!”

“Huh, you’re just tightening the rope around your neck…”

“Aaugh!! Annoying! Annoying! Die!! Just leave!!”

I have no idea where she has gotten the strength from in that little body, but Makia easily kicks me out of the room.

Finally, the sound of a lock turning in her door sounded for the first time ever.

It had really been a long time since I had seen Makia lose it like this.

“What the heck…”

Ahh, my whole body hurts. It is kind of humiliating, but I just got my ass kicked by a 13-year-old girl.

“Hey, are you really not going to speak to me for a whole month?”

“… …”

I called out from the other side of the door, but there was no reply.

Looks like ‘a month without speaking’ had just begun.

“Alright. If you’re fine with that… I guess I’m fine too,”

To be honest, I am pretty mad too. If she had asked me properly to not go, I would have made arrangements with Yodel and had him look out for Master at Karted with me only going occasionally to make sure things are going well. However, now that we have reached this point…

Let’s work the whole full month!

“… Geez…”

After a final glare at Makia’s closed door, I look down at my scratched and bitten body and left.

[Gumihou: I try not to let things overlap too much and to use different language styles for each character. The original was closer to bland.]

[1] Filling in the ‘Unspoken’. Often, when it comes to Japanese novels, the translation might feel a bit lacking since the author deliberately chooses to use fewer words and let the reader fill in the blanks through a preset cultural understanding.

If the missing info looks too sparse, Gumi will fill in some of the blanks. This is not to imply that the writer’s craft is lacking, but we do have a cultural gap. Gumi will try to fill in these gaps unobtrusively.

[2] Adjusted language for drama. Japanese can be quite literal. When translated into English,

‘she instantly kicked me away. I got hit pretty hard in the stomach’

could be more dramatically written as

‘A leg suddenly shot out from under the blankets and plunged into my stomach.’

[3] tsun-tsun of tsundere – if you don’t know this term… erm, here’s a link for you.