Pioneering the Apocalyptic World - Chapter 43

Chapter 13: When you think it’s refreshing, you’ll be dropped again

After that, without nothing happening, morning came.
No, but… I feel like I’ve said quite a few things. I wonder if my stress was really close to the limit… Is there a name for the phenomenon that makes you want to writhe in embarrassment the morning, even if was fine in the high tension at night?

By the time I woke up, Fricka was already gone, and Uru was unusually up earlier than me. Maybe it’s because I put her to bed early.

“Good morning”

“Umu…”

It’s normal for her to be sleepy at this hour, but… I feel like something’s different with her this morning.
Did she had a strange dream?

“No, that’s not it…. Rion.”

“Yes?”

“You can count on me for a little more, okay?”

To the her words that were said with while sulking, my face involuntarily twitched.
No, I certainly expected her to read the atmosphere and pretend to be asleep even if she woke up, but I didn’t think she really did that…!

“Umm… From what part?”

“Almost everything.”

“Wait.”

Everything…. Gyaaah, how embarrassing!

“I may be unreliable, but…”

Towards Uru, who bacame depressed, while thinking that it was not the time to hold my head I hurriedly corrected Uru’s misunderstanding.
As if I could stand you being called unreliable! Even though it’s pathetic on my part, do you have an idea about how much I rely on you!

“That’s not true! I’m really counting on you! You’re reeaally helping me out!”

“Mu… Then at least you can complain a little more about anything. Even if It can’t resolve anything, it will be refreshing.”

……I am really an idiot.
Even though there are people who will treat me like this properly. Worrying alone on my own, accumulating various things.
Haa, I have to reflect on various things…

“… Okay, I’ll do that next time. I’m sorry, thank you. Uru too, please let me know if there’s anything.”

In response to my reply, Uru nodded with an “Umu.” and then added.

“In addition, the reason why I don’t speak harshly to you is because ‘you didn’t do anything that would make me want to say that’.”

“……I see?”

I said something similar to Uru before. Did Uru remembered that?
But this is a little unsettling, I wonder if Uru had the same feeling that time… Should I be a little more strict too?
No…It feels like something is wrong with that logic. Should I leave the things as it is?

By the way, it seems that the reason why Uru woke up early was “Fricka seems to be deep in thoughts, so just in case trouble occurs, just in case.”.
I didn’t consider that possibility… I’m sorry to bother you…

In contrast to the night, we finished the breakfast quietly.
Fricka, who had returned when the breakfast was over, said, “There is something I want to talk to you about.” and took me somewhere. Along with Uru of course.
Don’t tell me that is the back of the school building… No, in the first place there’s no school building in this village, and while thinking about stupid things the place we arrived was…*
It was the house of that gentle old man elder.

It’s not as big as the Zagi house who we have been staying since coming to this village, but it’s pretty big. The interior has a calm atmosphere as a whole, and I prefer this one.
In the same way, I was guided to a room that looked like a reception room, and Uru and I sat down on the sofa.
Facing us is the gentle old man, and this time Fricka is sitting next to him.

“Thank you for your hard work from early in the morning.”

……I feel uncomfortable when someone much older than use a that polite tone.
This person… Wiega-san wasn’t being hostile or flattering me like the rest of the Elders (so far). So my impression of him is not that bad.
But why I am facing Wiega-san? I glanced at Fricka.

“Ah, I didn’t tell you… He is my grandfather.”

“Eh.”

“Haha, if I add one more thing, I’m Zagi’s son. Well, since I am a son-in-law, we are not related by blood.”

“…E~h”

In other words, Fricka’s great-grandfather is that evil-looking……Cough, that black-belli-…Ah, I mean, In other words that Zagi.
I think it’s amazing about how, their personalities are so different, aren’t they…? I wonder if Wiega-san’s genes made her mellow out in comparison to Zagi…?
However…In this case, there was something I had to ask to Wiega-san.

“…Before your talk, may I ask you a question?”

“What is it, miko-sama?”

There are many things I want to say about this village, but… Among them, there are a thing that is inevitably closely related to me.

“…Why did you tried to make your granddaughter a bride for the miko?”

At first, Fricka said that she had been asked to be a bride “by the elders”.
In other words, he chose his own grandchild (or great-grandchild for Zagi). Is it just a matter of favoritism?
If that’s all it is, it’s fine… But to say that he purposely added “no matter what kind of opponent” could also mean “no matter how wicked the miko is”.
That’s… How is it different from a live sacrifice?
Did he want to take in the power of the miko, even if it meant destroying the lives of one of his relatives?
Did he sensed my feelings that were about to be overwhelmed by skepticism? Wiega-san gave a deep sigh.

“It’s because she’s my granddaughter.”

“…?”

“Because the ‘victims’ should end with only our relatives.”

A shock ran through my head as if I had been hit with a hammer.
My brain refused to understand the contents of what he spoke, and I was stunned for a while, but as it permeated, my anger began to bubble up.
Just before I was about to stand up in a fit of rage, Uru grabbed my hand and stopped me.

“Uru, why…”

“Calm down. Take a good look.”

Uru urged me to look at them with her chin and??Wiega-san face was full of bitterness, and it was as if he was saying “I was unwilling.”
In order to also swallow my anger, I scratched my head violently and then sit back on the sofa.

“…In spite of calling it ‘victims’ and other dangerous words, It seems that there are many people who want to be a Miko’s bride or son-in-law? ”

“Because they are from a different faction. Their response towards miko-sama is also different.”

When I asked him to explain in details, he said that there are currently two factions in Alness Village, the Zagi & Wiega faction and the other three elders faction. Surprisingly, the latter is the larger one.
The latter actively tries to actively incorporate a miko… To put it bluntly, they are thinking about using it, and are actively (from my viewpoint, they are trying in a diagonally upward direction) planning various things to realize their goals.
Originally, it was supposed to be Fricka alone, but since I’m a woman, isn’t that rule invalid? And with that argument, they were so blinded with the idea of incorporate me in their faction that they started to get ahead of themselves. How annoying…….
In the first place, why did the “bride system” was made?

“Three hundred years ago, there was a hyuman male miko-sama in this village.”

“Heh…”

Since the existence of Miko is well known, it wouldn’t be strange if there were other Mikos other than me, but even though it’s a person from the past, it’s the first time I’ve actually heard about one.
I wonder if this is where the idea of Miko=man comes from. I wonder if most of the other mikos were men?
Apart from that, what does that person have to do with this story? Just when I was thinking that, a terrible bomb was dropped.

“It’s a little hard to tell that to a women, but……That person was a terrible womanizer.”

“………………What?”

Since it was about 300 years ago, there were only a few people involved, including Zagi, and with the preamble that’s saying “It’s mostly hearsay.”, he started to tell the story
And when it started it didn’t stopped, the stories about that miko’s(scum) evil deeds.

*Translator note: Rion was making a reference about the love confessions behind the school building trope a classic in japanese culture/animes/novels.