That day, my father came home around evening, When I told him that I had received a letter from the Kamiarizuki family, he groaned and said, “Hmmm”.
“I wanted to tell them about you. Just as well. Let’s head there tomorrow.”
“You want to tell them about me? Why?”
“That’s right. I’ll have to explain it to you.”
My father nodded, took a sip of the tea from the teacup in front of him and said, “Hot!”.
“Itsuki, you exorcised Raikou-douji, didn’t you?”
“Yes, I exorcised him.”
“That was a hot topic among the community of exorcists.”
Hot topic in the exorcist community?
The fact that there is a community of exorcists is new to me.
I wonder if the “ruckus” that the black-robed brother was talking about is happening in that community?
But still, I wonder what they are talking about.
“Did he really exorcise him at the age of five?” or something like that. It seems likely.
If I was in my previous life, I’d be saying things like that on social media.
“What do they say about me?”
I asked my father casually.
“First of all, there are three major factions divided over you, Itsuki.”
The words that came back to me sounded like it was going to be a bigger deal than I thought.
“Ha haa…?”
“Hmmm. I would call them the convinced, the doubters, and the deniers. In other words, there are three schools of thought about you Itsuki: “Let him become stronger and exorcise the other sixth-rank monsters in Japan,” “I don’t know if he has really exorcised him, so I’ll just sit tight,” and “He can’t exorcise a sixth-rankl monster at the age of five. I think his dad is lying because it would be impossible to exorcise a monster of the sixth rank at the age of five.”
“Eh, but I have Raikou-douji’s treasure, right?”
“Yes, but the “doubters” and “deniers” seem to think that Papa, and not Itsuki, exorcised Raikou-douji.”
……Hoh, that kind of thing.
Well, if it was my father, he would be able to exorcise Raikou-douji.
I don’t blame them for their suspicions.
“Itsuki, you may have your own feelings about it, but there is nothing wrong with leaving these two groups alone. Since they don’t believe that you have exorcised the monster, they won’t take any action. The problem is with this ‘convinced’ faction.”
“You mean the ones who think I exorcised the monster?”
But doesn’t that put both my father and Renji-san in this category?
What’s the problem?
“Among these people, there are the extremists, who are shouting that you shouldn’t be sent to school and should be forced to train hard, or that you should be given a wife and have lots of children.”|
“……”
I growled quietly, because I didn’t understand what he meant.
Train hard without going to school.
That’s something I thought about for a moment. If I practiced magic and close combat for the amount of time I spent at school, I would be stronger. Of course, there’s a world of difference between someone who has practiced only one hour and someone who has practiced 100 hours.
But if that happens, what would my final education be?
I didn’t go to preschool or kindergarten, so I’m neither a preschool graduate nor a kindergarten graduate.
Maybe no education?
“Papa agrees that you need be stronger, but I’d like you to at least go to school. I want you to make lots of friends and acquaintances who are not exorcists. Because life is not only about work.”
I was at a loss for words for my father as he exhaled deeply.
I had been repeating the same thing in my previous life, and the words “life is not only about work” seemed so dazzling to me because it seems like a good idea. That’s true. I can’t deny that.
But can I really say with pride that “life’s not only about work” when all I did was waste my time watching YouTube and playing shag games in between jobs? It occurred to me.
“Of course, you can’t live without work. Still, Papa doesn’t want your life to be all about work.”
“……Yes.”
I nodded and at the same time blew off my earlier naïve thoughts.
That’s only up to my previous life.
In this life, I can have a good life. It’s okay to live a more enjoyable life, not like a stamp rally where I have to fill a set frame with the same shape of stamps.
So, there is no reason to be bound by the thoughts of the previous life.
That’s right. I’m already living a new life.
“By the way, there are already about 30 people who want to be your wife.”
“……?”
“I told them no, because they’re all over 20.”
My father said it like it was nothing, but that’s the most amazing thing I’ve ever heard!
I’m only 6, remember? Why am I getting offers of marriage from people over 20!?
“And besides the conviction faction, there are rumors, rootless rumors, starting from the fact that you had exorcised Raikou-douji.”
“Rumors?”
“Mm-hmm. Rumors about you being a two-meter tall giant, or that you ate Raikou-douji, or that you’re not five years old, but fifty… It’s all ridiculous and absurd.”
Isn’t that half hilarious?
I thought so, but I didn’t say it out loud and threw in what was bothering me.
“But, Papa. How does this connect to the ruckus at the Kamirazuki house?”
“Mm. If Akane-dono could tell the convinced faction to settle down, that would be enough to calm things down.”
Speaking of Akane, she’s the blonde priestess who is the head of the Kamirazuki family.
The fact that she is in charge would mean that the real leader of the family would be that person.
The other heads of the family are all men, but she’s the only woman, and everyone uses honorifics, so I thought she was something else.
“Isn’t it okay if papa says so?”
“I tried to do it, but Renji nailed me told me not to do it, that it’ll add to the flames.”
Renji-san. That’s a good answer.
“Anyway, the sooner it dies down, the better. Especially since it only takes a moment for rumors to spread.”
My father looked bitter.
I hate not being able to go to school and make friends, but if the rumor is that bad, we can let it go, can’t we? I guess it’s no good.
Well, I don’t care about rumors, but I too have business to attend to at the Kamirazuki house. First and foremost, I want to thank her for the talisman. It was because of that talisman that I was able to keep my life.
And if I may be so extravagant, I used the talisman in the battle with Raikou-douji, so I would like to have another one if I can get it.
When I was thinking about that, my mom called my father and I.
“Dinner is ready!”
“Yes!”
Today’s meal is curry.
I love curry bread, so of course it’s one of my favorite foods.
Now, the next day.
My father and I are in the car as he was driving, heading to the Kamirazuki house. Hina wouldn’t be busy even if she came, and the fact that she didn’t come means that there is an adult to take care of her, which means that my mother and Hina are staying at home in a friendly manner.
By the way, my father is driving because it was yesterday, so there was no time to ask the Kamirazuki family for a chauffeur.
As we drove along, I noticed one very new soundproof wall on the highway that caught my eye.
That’s the one from when I exorcised the highway monster.
The soundproofing wall that was destroyed by the monster I met on my way to my 5 year old’s Shichi-go-san. I know it’s only been a few months since the incident, but the highway is so clean it’s hard to believe that anything like that happened, let alone the debris that was scattered all over it.
Human beings are amazing.
I was astonished at how much infrastructure has been improved, and this time I arrived without incident.
“Umu…Welcome. We’ve been waiting for you, Itsuki.”
Standing at the top of the stairs was Akane and another woman.
The one who’s not Akane is dressed in what looks like a black suit, but is more middle-class than that, and has a silver rosary hanging around her neck.
She’s is hanging it, but first of all, there is something that caught my attention before that.
“Huh? Her hair color is ……”
Akane-san’s hair, which used to be a blonde maiden, had turned pastel pink.
“Mmmmm. It suits me.”
She said such a thing in front of my bewildered face and puffed out her chest.
Oh, a shrine maiden can have a makeover?
And then, in spite of my bewilderment, the woman standing next to Akane-san, leaned back and looked at me.
Blue eyes, golden hair.
She wasn’t Japanese.
She was of Western descent.
“Nice to meet you, Itsuki.”
“Nice to meet you….”
Despite her appearance, she spoke fluent and smooth Japanese, but I was too puzzled to reply anything more than a small greeting.
Who is this person?
She opened her mouth with a smile, probably because I had that look on my face.
“I am Irena. I’m a British exorcist.”
