7 – Princess Knight and Half-Elf
A campervan parked on a street in daylight.
Naoto is sitting in the driver's seat, 180 degrees turned
around and facing the interior, watching what is happening.
Out of the corner of her eye, in a six-mat Japanese-style room,
Sophia is facing a girl.
She is a lovely girl, about early primary schools age, with
pudgy cheeks that make you want to tug on them.
She is sitting upright on the tatami, her fists clenched in
her lap.
This is the first time in a long time that Naoto felt he is
in another world, because the girl's ears are pointed sideways, which is
impossible for a normal person.
“Elf… is it?”
“Half-Elf”
Sophia answered immediately, there must be some difference
that only people from this world can understand.
The girl was of a race that did not exist in modern Japan,
where Naoto was from, and he was very curious, but not in the mood to ask in
depth.
After answering Naoto, Sophia questioned the girl with a
look of how angry she was.
“Answer me, why did you burglarize the house?”
“……”
“Answer me.”
In a strong tone of voice, she questioned her further.
Naoto looked at the half-elf girl, who was clearly
frightened, and thought, "You don't have to go that far.”
“Come on, Sophia, its fine.”
“No, it's not!”
The princess knight said angrily.
“How can you allow such treachery, Naoto?”
“You're exaggerating. It was just the food in the
refrigerator that was eaten. It's not like the camper was burglarized…”
“Just ate, you say?”
Sophia glared at Naoto with more anger than she had directed
at the girl.
“It's what she ate that's the problem!”
“Natto, right? Sophia doesn't eat natto, so why not?”
So speaks Naoto. Yes, there is an empty pack of natto on the
kotatsu as evidence.
While Naoto and Sophia were away from the car for a while,
the girl broke in and ate some natto from the refrigerator.
To tell the truth, Naoto was more hurt by the fact that she
ate a special, expensive cup of ice cream (Häagen-Dazs) than natto, but it
wasn't enough to make him furious.
But for Sophia, this was not the case.
“Doesn't Naoto feel anything about having his Natto eaten
up?”
“No…”
“I... I can't believe this is happening, what am I going to
feed this child when there's no more Natto?”
Sophia said, pointing at the puppy. Her face almost fell for
a moment when she saw the puppy napping in the tangerine box with its face on
the edge, but she hurriedly cleared her throat and called back her anger.
“Oh, you're not eating it yourself.”
“Of course not! I was going to feed the puppy myself when he was ready for
me!”
“No, it's food. It'll go bad by then.”
"Isn't it rotten food from the beginning!?"
“…so you’re aware.”
Naoto laughs bitterly, and when he says so, there are no
words to reply.
Sophia turns to the half-elf girl with sustained anger.
“Okay, I'm not going to ask you why you burglarized my
house. It's more about your house. Tell me what village or town you live in.”
“House…?”
The girl looked at Sophia with a wary, upturned look on her
face.
“Yes, I'll go to your house and tell your parents to make sure
you're properly disciplined. At least for the burglary!”
Naoto thought that it was natural.
He was sure it was not good, so he thought he should at
least ask her parents to scold her.
She is a lovely girl, and it would not be good for her
future to let things go on like this.
So without interrupting, the girl who was asked just turned
her head away.
“Mom and dad… aren’t here.”
She answered.
“What?”
“They went somewhere far away….”
“Mmm”
Sophia's expression changes instantly.
The girl who did it was a little girl, the damage was food,
plus she was a half-elf and had no parents.
“It's a counting game, depending on how many half-elf dolls
(dora? ドラ)
are on board.”
[TN: No idea what this means ドラ]
He didn't know what the world looked like, but he figured if
it was the persecuted type, it was more than enough.
Naoto thought, "You can't blame anyone for having a
little compassion for this.”
(Especially for Sophia)
When I thought so, as expected, Sophia's attitude softened
in an instant.
She looks like she has begun
to sympathize with the half-elf girl.
"You… have no parents?”
“Yeah, they're not home.”
“Is that so?”
A moment of silence.
Naoto, who is not so angry
to begin with, forgives her completely. Sophia looks distressed, alternately
staring at the empty pack of natto and the girl.
Although they've only known
each other for a short time, Naoto is completely convinced.
He was sure that she would
definitely fall.
After a while, Sophia looked
up to the heavens, sighed once, and then said,
"Then ... it can't be
helped"
"Is it okay?"
"Of course"
"That... will you
forgive me?"
"Yes"
"Thank you!"
"By the way, what's
your name?"
"Mimi!"
"Mimi? Is there a place
for you to go?"
"Yeah, I'm going to
look for my dad and mom."
"Really"
Just when he was about to
feel sorry for her.
“Where is Hanemoon?”
“Well… huh?”
“Eh?”
Naoto and Sophia raised
their voices at the same time.
“Honeymoon?”
“Yes, my mom and dad left me
and went to a place called Honeymoon, for the second time. I'm chasing after
them.”
“……”
She answered in a high,
cheerful voice that echoed inside the camper.
The voice was crisp and
cheerful.
In a way, it was natural.
"……Let's go
together"
Sophia said in a low voice,
something that sounded like she was trying to stifle her anger.
“Are you sure?”
“Yes.”
She nodded, then mumbled
something with a scary look on her face, but he decided to pretend not to
notice.
I'm glad I'm not an unhappy
girl, Naoto thought.
He wondered about the couple
who would go on a second honeymoon, still in love after having a child. The
girl's expression brightened as soon as she was allowed to go with him, and he
could feel it brightening as well.
This girl has the talent to
be a mood maker. Knowing some of his colleagues in the company, Naoto somehow
thought that was true.
It wasn't just people who
were attracted to her.
Perhaps aroused by the
commotion, the puppy woke up, left the orange box, and padded over.
Then he stopped in front of
Mimi and sat down.
“Woof!”
"Wow, cute doggy!"
“Right!’
“Why is Sofia being so
intimidating?”
"It's really cute"
Mimi petted the puppy, which
wagged its tail in delight.
A puppy playing with an
innocent little girl, it was a funny sight and Naoto watched it with squinted
eyes.
The air is gentle.
---so it seemed.
“Woof! Woof!”
“Ogo!”
The girl squealed... The
moment she did, Sophia freaked out and the air in the car froze.
“Ogo?”
After the matter was settled,
Naoto's hand stopped sipping his sushi-lettered teacup in the driver's seat.
More than that, Sophia
completely froze.
It was as if she had turned
into a stone statue.
“Woof! Woof!”
“OgoOgo!”
“Wuuu!”
“Ogoo!”
They played with each other
and eventually the puppy showed its belly and Mimi petted it.
“So, you were picked up by
this brother, huh? You're with me, aren't you?”
“Hey…”
Naoto approached Mimi to ask
her what was on his mind.
“What, big brother?”
“What was that just now?”
“Now?”
“That Ogoogo”
“That's what the fathers
said.”
Mimi replied as a matter of
course.
“…fathers?”
"Yes, my dad and all
the people around him speak like this."
“All? What kind of people
are your mom and dad?”
“Like this!”
The girl was overjoyed and
pulled out a pendant from her collar. It was a wooden pendant with a pair of
men and women (?) carved on the top.
One was a pig-faced orc, the
other a knight in armour with pointed ears.
The pendant is engraved with
the image of two people standing close to each other.
As if they were a married
couple.
“Orc and… elf?”
Naoto asked as if to
confirm.
“Yes! Oh, the people in the village all
say, 'Ogo-oh-oh.'”
“Is that an Orc word? I mean, what does it
mean?”
“Well, in our language, it's…
Beauty and the Beast!”
The girl claps her hands.
“Oh, I see.”
Naoto nodded and asked
further.
“So you're half orc and half
elf.”
“Yeah, my dad was the
village king and my mom was a princess in some country.”
“…Orc king and elf princess
knight, and bilingual ...... multiplier don.( ドン)”
Naoto turned to Sophia.
"Is this common?"
"..."
"Sophia?"
Having no idea about the
common knowledge of other worlds, he was about to ask her, but she was still
frozen in place.
"…are you that shocked?”
“Doggy, Ogo!”
“Woof!”
Mimi frolics with the puppy.
She's doing the cries of the
orc that put Sophia out of action, but honestly, Naoto finds it adorable.
This is because his ears can
only hear the child imitating the cry of an animal.
However, it doesn't seem to
be the case for Sophia.
"Uuu……"
After a while, Sophia
managed to come back... despite her pale face.
"Are you okay? Your
complexion is pale."
“I'm sorry… I'm not okay… I've
always had a weakness for orcs, for some reason. Even when confronting an
Ancient Dragon, this does not happen…”
“Well, I guess that's
because you're a princess knight.”
“What kind of nonsense is
that? What
does that have to do with me not being good at dealing with orcs?”
“…nothing.”
Normally, Naoto added in his
heart.
Naoto is still very
convinced that she is not good at it.
He secretly thought that it
was rather natural that they were an orc and a princess knight, after all.
“So, what do we do? Take
Mimi in as is?”
When I asked, Mimi's hand
stopped and she looked at Sophia.
Her innocent, girlish eyes
stared at the princess knight.
It was a look that Sofia
could never match.
“Of-Of course, I’ll never go back
on my words.”
Mimi was overjoyed and hugged
Sophia.
An honest expression of affection
from an innocent girl.
“Wow, you smell just like my mom…”
A faint smile almost appeared on
Sophia's face as she accepted it.
“Woof!”
“Ogo!”
“--!”
Soon, she turned blue and froze
again.
From that day on, Sofia was
troubled by Mimi's sleep-talking "ogo-ogo" every night.
TN: Sorry for the late chapter. This was a really tough one to do though, so it took longer than usual.
TN: Other news, I'm starting a Patreon. So if you like my translations and want to show support, kindly consider becoming a patron. I'll start posting early access chapters starting Monday.
Also, if anyone's interested in reading Underground Dungeon, just drop a comment.
Lastly, thank you for reading and have a nice day! :)
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