Chapter 195

Chapter 195: An Understanding Person? (1/3) (SHORT)

There was light within the secret space, but it was a lot weaker compared to my light magic, so the room was dim.

It might be because of that that Niki found my side bright as he held his knees by the wall.

He’s sitting down and isn’t moving, but he doesn’t look to be in pain.

“Thank goodness you’re safe. Are you hurt?” [Ryouma]

“…I’m fine.” [Niki]

“Really?” [Ryouma]

“Yeah… I twisted my leg when running, but it’s not so bad that I can’t walk…” [NIki]

“I see.” [Ryouma]

I’m guessing he’s talking about when the goblins chased after him.

“Can you show me your twisted leg?　I can use healing magic.” [Ryouma]

The goblins have been dealt with already, so let’s get his leg fixed and go back.

That’s what I had in mind, but Niki suddenly stopped extending his right leg and pulled it back.

“…Don’t…” [Niki]

“Huh?” [Ryouma]

“I don’t want to go home.” [Niki]

“Ryou…kun! …hear me!?” [Shin]

Niki muttered in a faint voice as if he’d just remembered something.

At roughly the same time as he said that, I heard Shin-san’s voice come from outside. It was hard to make out, though.

How do I deal with this issue of not wanting to go home? Hmm… But before that, I better contact the members of the Wharf of Shikumu.

” ‘Whisper’ …Can you guys hear me?　It’s Ryouma. It’s hard to hear each other from here, so I’m using a wind spell to send my voice there.” [Ryouma]

“I can hear… you!!” [Shin]

“That’s good then. I found Niki-kun. He’s in good health and unharmed. But…” [Ryouma]

When I explained the situation, the members of the Wharf of Shikumu from outside tried to say something.

Unfortunately, their voices conflicted with each other and made it hard to understand what they’re saying. Despite that Niki-kun was still able to understand that they were trying to get him to come out.

Unfortunately, their efforts only had the opposite effect.

“Shut up!　Shut up! Shut up!　No matter what anyone says, I’m never coming back!　There’s no point since you won’t believe me anyway!” [Niki]

Niki yelled angrily in response to the voices calling out to him, but as he hung his head, his voice gradually became tearful.

…This is a narrow area with no place to run. If I wanted to, I could easily capture Niki-kun and throw him into my Dimension Home for the slimes to hold captive. Once we get back to the village, I could hand him over to his parents, and this incident will come to a close.

But if I do something like that, this same thing will probably just repeat itself.

Since he was able to build this secret base of his, Niki-kun could be said to be a child with some ability.

If he were to run away from home a second time, he might just do it with resolve.

“…Sorry, guys. I want to talk to him, so can you guys wait out there for a bit?” [Ryouma]

Chapter 195: An Understanding Person? (2/3)

I might be sticking my nose where it doesn’t belong, but I want to try talking to Niki-kun.

They probably discussed it among themselves first, but after a short while, their leader, Shin-san, gave the go.

I thanked him and approached Niki.

“I got us some time, so let’s calm down first. By the way, did you make this whole place yourself?　That’s pretty amazing.” [Ryouma]

You can’t get to this secret base without crawling through that tight entrance, but the secret base itself is surprisingly big. The ceiling here is high enough so that you can stand up and just barely not graze the top.

He probably scraped out the mud in between the roots of the trees and cut out roots to make this space. After which he used the cut roots and branches and leaves brought from outside to strengthen the space in between the yet alive roots to prevent mud from flowing inside.

It’s a bit crude, but considering Niki-kun’s age and the fact that he didn’t rely on magic makes this whole thing a huge undertaking.

“I also made a place like this in a forest before—” [Ryouma]

“Shut up… I don’t need your flattery. You didn’t come here for that, did you?” [Niki]

“—I see.” [Ryouma]

I failed to get closer to him.

To be honest, I really did think that he did an amazing job with this place.

“In that case, I’ll just get straight to the point.” [Ryouma]

“What? You’re just going to ask me to go home too, aren’t you? You said as much earlier.” [Niki]

“No. Before that I want to talk.” [Ryouma]

“You want to talk? About what? Me going back home?” [Niki]

“No. I want to talk about you. Weren’t you yelling awhile ago, saying ‘there’s no point since you won’t believe me anyway!’ or something like that? If so, then there must be something that you want to say.” [Ryouma]

I was just saying things to get him to let out his feelings, but his reaction was unexpected.

He wasn’t looking at me earlier, but now he’s raised his head up and is looking straight at me.

After that he turned his eyes away as if he were at a loss for words. He might be a lot more honest than I gave him credit for.

“Why are you asking something like that?” [Niki]

“I just felt like it, I guess.

To be honest, I barely know anything about you, and yet here I am in the middle of nowhere after spending half a day looking for you. I suppose you could say I’ve gone too far to turn back. Anyhow, if there’s something you want to say, then I’m all ears. I’ll listen until the end. If we do that we should be able to understand each other better. At the very least, that’s what I think.” [Ryouma]

“…Didn’t they tell you? I’m a bad kid who plays pranks on people.” [Niki]

Yeah, I’ve heard that already…

But, hmm… If he’s saying that with this timing, then that must mean he himself acknowledges his reputation of being known as a prankster to be correct, and if he’s saying that ‘people won’t believe in him’, then…

I thought back to the stories I heard of back in the village.

‘A promise not to prank people other than villagers’ ‘Niki always protects that bottom line’ ‘That’s why he’s let off with just a punch and a light sermon’

Putting everything together… Maybe my assumptions were mistaken.

“Could it be that you ‘never intended to prank anyone originally’?” [Ryouma]

“!!” [Niki]

Niki looked like he didn’t know whether to say something or not… Looks like I was right on the mark.

“In that case, I’m sorry, but I also thought that you intended to play a prank on me this afternoon. I heard a lot of stories while we were looking for you, and there’s something that concerns me. Supposedly, although you like to prank people, you know where to draw the line. If that’s the case, then why did you make an exception today and played a prank on an outsider such as myself?” [Ryouma]

But if that was originally not meant to be a prank, then the story finally starts to make sense.

And if I think back to what happened back then…

‘I’ll give this to you!’

That’s what he said when threw the okuta at me.

“If I were to take those words at face value, then Niki-kun, you were just trying to give me the okuta as a present, weren’t you? Unfortunately, when you threw the okuta, it ended up spraying ink at me.

I don’t know why you would want to give the okuta to me, but… What do you think? Did I get it right?” [Ryouma]

I lined up my conjectures and asked my questions as gently as I could. In response, Niki-kun gradually opened up.

“That afternoon… I saw the slimes at the beach. There were a lot of them and they moved oddly. …But I thought they were kind of amazing.” [Niki]

So he saw that and thought they were amazing?　Well, I guess he has his good points. But right now I should just quietly listen.

“And then… I became a little curious, so I wanted ask about them. But I didn’t know you and I remembered that when a new person comes to the village, mom would give them a gift. So I thought I should bring one to greet you with.” [Niki]

“Ah, I see. So that’s what happened. But why an okuta?” [Ryouma]

“I thought you’d like it since it resembles a slime. Your slimes have limbs like the okutas, after all.” [Niki]

“I see…” [Ryouma]

I smiled a little at that.

Who would’ve thought he’d have a reason like that?

But when he puts it that way, I can kind of see it. I mean both okutas and slimes are soft and flabby.

My slimes also extend parts of their body, which do kind of resemble okuta limbs.

Chapter 195: An Understanding Person? (3/3)

“I’m glad my questions have been answered. Thank you.

So I guess the adults must’ve thought you were playing pranks again and you got scolded, right?” [Ryouma]

When I said that, his face turned grim.

“I’m sorry for covering you in ink and running away. It became a habit since I’m always throwing okutas as a prank… As such, I’m not exactly without fault either, so I just let them scold me at first, but… But!” [Niki]

“Relax. I’ll hear you out until the end…” [Ryouma]

When Niki-kun remembered the time he got angry, he started crying.

I took out a glass from my Item Box and poured him a glass of water. Then I heard him out as I consoled him.

He spoke while crying, so it was a little hard to understand. There were times when the things he talked about didn’t seem to be connected, so I had to put the pieces together as I listened to him.

Apparently, he was once falsely accused by the village children.

The snack prepared by the elders for the children were wasted, and he took the blame for it, but the truth was that it was another child who was responsible for it.

Of course, that child also didn’t intentionally commit the crime, but he was afraid of being scolded, so he decided to push the blame onto Niki-kun, who was widely known as a mischievous boy.

But at that time, although he was blamed for a moment, the village elders and his parents protected him.

His parents believed him and said ‘our son wouldn’t do something like this’.

Later on the real culprit eventually named himself and the incident came to a close.

At that time, the adults told him that if he really didn’t do something, he should stick out his chest and say so.

Seeing the adults make a proper judgment, Niki-kun believed from the bottom of his heart that if he just spoke the truth, the adults would understand.

He believed them, but…

“That’s what not happened this time.” [Ryouma]

“Yeah. I told them I didn’t do it on purpose, but they just yelled back at me and said ‘Don’t make excuses’!　They didn’t listen to me at all… We kept yelling back and forth, and before I knew it, I’d run away…” [Niki]

“I see.” [Ryouma]

They wouldn’t listen to him, so he ran way on impulse.

Something like that happened to me too when I was a child, so I can more or less relate.

“But if that’s the case, then that’s all the more reason for you to go back.” [Ryouma]

“What’s the point of talking? I ran away precisely because talking didn’t work. If they were going to listen to me, then what happened this afternoon wouldn’t have turned out like this.” [Niki]

“Talking might not have worked this afternoon, but if you try again and talk to each other calmly, maybe you’ll be able to understand each other. This time I’ll be there to help you. Right, if they try to hit you without listening to you first, I’ll stop them.” [Ryouma]

“You will?” [Niki]

“I may not look the part, but I still am an adventurer. I’m strong and sturdy, so I’m sure I can protect you from physical harm.

Besides, the reason why your parents and the villagers are angry at you is because they’re worried about you. We’re the ones who ended up coming here, but there are a lot more people searching the village. No one could find you, so we turned our eyes to the forest. That’s why I’m sure that if both sides are calm, you’ll be able to talk properly.” [Ryouma]

“Really?” [Niki]

There’s no doubting the fact everyone is worried about him.

“If not that, then they wouldn’t get so mad or look for him.” [Ryouma]

It’s normal for a person to feel bad when scolded, while the angry person probably feels good saying whatever he wants.

But despite that, anger surprisingly takes a lot of toll on one’s stamina and also makes things awkward between him and the person he’s angry at. There are times when the angry person will be hated too.

As such, there’s not really a lot of advantage to the person who’s angry.

That’s why if someone really doesn’t care about another person, he wouldn’t waste his time being angry.

Just like the proverb goes, ‘Behind the anger is a flower’.

“…I got it. I’ll go back.” [Nyiki]

“!” [Ryouma]

Niki-kun’s face shows he’s still somewhat reluctant, but he’s agreed to go back.

I’m surprise that everything went without a hitch, but… No. He himself admitted that he was at fault for running away after smearing me in ink, so it’s likely that he just missed his timing to go back after running away on impulse. The truth is that he’s a good and honest boy.

“Onii-chan?” [Niki]

“Y-Yeah.” [Ryouma]

In any case, he feels like going back home now.

“You said you twisted your leg, right?　Let’s heal it, and then go out. Show me your leg.” [Ryouma]

He showed me his leg. It’s swollen a little, but there’s nothing wrong with the bone.

A basic heal should be able to fix it.

I casted the healing spell quickly, and then informed the others through my wind magic that I was able to convince him.

“Alright. I want to explain the details to them, so I’ll go first.” [Ryouma]

The entrance is too narrow, so it can only accommodate one person at a time.

I believe that Niki-kun will go out on his own, so I left the secret base first.