Pawahara Seijo no Osananajimi to Zetsuen Shitara, Nanimokamo ga Umaku Iku Yō ni Natte Saikyō no Bōke

[The Person Who Turned the Mother]

After carrying Tirna to the boat, I explained the situation to everyone.

Thinking that Tirna’s mother’s case might be the same as that of the people of Lastall–having monster cells embedded in her body–I tried asking Tirna to calm her mother down so that I could purify her but,

“I can’t… Because she hasn’t listened to me at all recently…”

Well, I’d kinda expected it, as Vale also lost his reasoning halfway through our battle.

It was impossible for other races to control the cells of monsters, after all.

That being the case, looked like I had no choice but to resort to brute force.

“I see. Then, I guess I’ll just give it my all to purify her, so please wait here with everyone, Tirna.”

“…Alright. I’m counting on you, Exa…”

“Yeah, leave it to me.”

After giving her little head a pat, I soared up into the sky.

Now, where’s Tirna’s mother… oh, there she is.

She was moving in and out the surface of the sea.

For the time being, I tried to get closer to her.

“—Guoooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!!”

――SPLASH!

“Oops.”

But her mother immediately dived back into the sea. Looked like it would be difficult to touch her.

Now that it had come to this, it was time to sink or swim.

“Uoooooooooooooooo!”

BLAZE! Having transformed into Fire God Form, I plunged head first into the sea.

Now that such a big prey was wriggling under water, I was sure that she’d immediately take the bait.

“Guooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!!”

Look, she came.

“Ugh!?”

Tirna’s mother coiled her long body around mine, constricting me.

――Creak creak.

Um, Tirna’s Mother, don’t you think your hug is a little too intense…

I mean seriously, the bones all over my body were breaking. And not only that, she also was crazily biting at me…

Wait, this wasn’t the time to have such idle thought.

“Gugah!?”

I instantly transformed into Vermillion Bird Form before clinging to her body.

Then, I fully opened my purifying power.

◇ ◇

“…Where… is this place…?”

Seeing Tirna’s mother slowly waking up, we all sighed and patted our chest in relief.

This moment was the most nerve-wracking, but looked like the purification went well this time too.

“Mo… ther…?”

“…Tirna? Why are you making such a face? What’s wrong?”

“Mother!?”

――Hug.

As her mother tilted her head at her, Tirna broke into tears and went up to hug her.

But it seemed that her mother had no memories of when she was turned into a monster as she became flustered.

Hence, after Tirna calmed down, we explained the situation to her mother, whose name was Seleia-san.

By the way, Seleia-san was a mermaid, as we had heard from Tirna. Her upper body was one of a beautiful human female, while her lower body was a fish tail that gave off a pink luster.

Meaning, Tirna was a halfling born to a mermaid her and a human male but, I wondered just how she had come to be.

I mean, the reproductive system of the two races should be different in various ways… how curious.

“…I see. I have caused trouble for all of you.”

But anyways, Seleia-san apologetically bowed her head.

As you’d have expected, we couldn’t have possibly held a calm conversation on the boat, so we had decided to change location and were currently in the secret cove where Tirna and her mother lived.

“No, please don’t worry about it. More importantly, what exactly happened? How did you…” I asked.

“I’m sorry… I can hardly remember anything about it…”

“Is that so…”

Slump, Seleia-san became depressed, but well, no one could blame her for that.

After all, in all likelihood something was done to her without her knowing it.

Rather, she was the victim here.

I didn’t want her to be so down.

As I was about to cheer her up, all of a sudden Seleia-san, “But,” began to speak, “I have the feeling that I met some human female.”

“Human female? Are you sure of it?” Arca asked.

Seleia nodded, “Yes, I’m completely sure of it. My memory of it is vague, but I certainly have a feeling that I met a human female who was fully dressed in black.”

A woman fully dressed in black…

Ophir said, “Ain’t it that person? The suspicious woman that Exa met.”

Zana nodded, “Must be. I don’t know if it was so that Tirna join our party, but her method sure was extremely rough.”

“Was it really the doing of that person…?”

She didn’t seem to be a bad person, though…

But if it really was her doing, I wouldn’t forgive her.

After all, Tirna and her mother went through a really painful time because of it.

And there were many things I had to ask her.

Hence, I said to the girls, “Though it may be in vain, let’s look for her when we return to Ittle. If she really is the mastermind of this case, she owes an apology to Tirna and Seleia-san.”

““““—””””

Of course, everyone was of the same mind.