I Don’t Want to Die as a Mob in My Second Life! ～A Story Where I Kept Training from Inside the Womb and Ended Up Being Mistaken for a Monster～ - Chapter 58: A Peaceful Morning! / The Fear Known as Kanata Soranaki

Chapter 58: A Peaceful Morning! / The Fear Known as Kanata Soranaki

Morning.

Inside the Soranaki household kitchen.

“As expected from the frying pan Maro recommended. The heat spreads just right.”

I dropped a dollop of butter onto the pan heating over medium flame.

It sizzled with a pleasant sound, and a rich, buttery aroma quickly filled the kitchen.

Alright.

I spread the melted butter thinly across the surface, creating a smooth, shiny base.

Once it was ready, I cracked some eggs into the pan.

The yolks were glossy, and the whites were pure and clear—

Definitely top-tier quality, just like Maro’s favorite brand.

The eggs started bubbling and cooking perfectly almost instantly.

“Oh right, gotta keep an eye on the other pan too.”

On another burner, I was cooking some thick-cut bacon.

The fat was melting out with a lively sizzle, and the side touching the pan was crisping up beautifully.

Listening carefully to the popping sound of the oil, I waited until it softened slightly, then flipped the bacon over at just the right moment.

Oh, perfect.

The browning was gorgeous.

The savory aroma was mouthwatering.

The surface was crispy, while the inside stayed juicy and tender—perfectly cooked for the ultimate texture combo.

“Alright. The eggs are perfectly soft-boiled too. Gotta plate them before the yolks turn completely solid… There. Done.”

Whew. That was some good work.

If it were Maro cooking,

He’d even calculate the time from stove to plate, using “residual heat to finish” with some mysterious pro technique.

But I wasn’t there yet, so I settled for doing my best.

Man, that guy was amazing…

“Now then.”

I glanced over to where Setsuna, the apron-wearing, sideboob-airheaded fake wife, was managing the soup pot.

“How’s the miso soup coming? You have to keep it just before boiling, otherwise it’ll ruin the flavor, alright?”

“…Wha…?”

Hm?

“Why can you cook so well, Kanata~~~!? I studied so hard for this, you know!”

Whoa—

She raised her ladle and started yelling at me.

“You’re even better than me! And you actually look good in that apron too~~~!”

“Sorry about that.”

Setsuna puffed up, fuming like a little kettle.

So full of energy this morning.

Was she… high blood pressure or something?

“I… I’m really good at making ham and eggs! Let’s have a cooking battle!”

“Uh, but I already made bacon and eggs this morning, so it’d kinda overlap…”

—The morning after the dinner party.

There I was, cooking side by side with Setsuna.

My second-round body had a monster appetite.

If I left it all to her alone, it would’ve taken forever to satisfy me.

Besides, since she was just my fake wife,

I felt kind of bad making her do all the work.

“Seriously, mou. Kanata, you’re a super-accelerated Everest-climbing baby! Normal babies are still drinking milk at your stage! Just eating solid food would be amazing enough—but you’re already out here cooking! You’re becoming a cog in society way too fast!”

“Haha… (In my first life, I stayed single and didn’t have enough spiritual power either. So I ended up cooking a lot for my Conceptual Spirits trio.)”

Conceptual Spirits often took on animal or human forms.

Since they couldn’t feed on spiritual power all the time,

Whenever they got hungry, they’d snack on sweets and treats to cheer themselves up.

‘Dear Customerrr, your lymph nodes are really blocked up~’

“Nn, nnnghh~…!”

When I glanced toward the living room, I saw the tiny loli [Doll] giving Riru a heavenly massage, making her go floppy.

Meanwhile, the blindfolded Chinese girl [Blank Shot] was blasting some chaotic death metal, screaming about things like “f*ck” and “I banged your mom yesterday,” making Riru twitch in terror.

And finally, the blonde, naked, bandage-wrapped girl [Ittan-momen] was proudly playing an anime compilation she edited herself—a collection of nothing but heroines getting tied up and captured, leaving poor Riru in a full-on panic.

Was this… hell?

“What a perverted sight…”

“Kanata’s spirits are seriously messed up… And to think all of them have spiritual halos, meaning they’re high-ranking spirits. It’s actually kind of shocking.”

Back in the day, my low-ranking Conceptual Spirits were so starved they constantly begged me to bake sweets for them.

Now though—

They’d eaten enough spiritual power to ascend into high-ranking spirits.

Honestly, it made me pretty happy.

Even if boosting my spiritual energy got me labeled a monster,

I was glad I’d done it.

After all, I just wanted my partners to be full and satisfied.

“But Kanata… is that whole pervy playtime really necessary for Riru Shiranui?”

“Apparently, yeah. At least according to [Doll]’s assessment.”

Riru’s body was, frankly, a little unhealthy.

Her arms and legs were thin, her ribs stuck out, and her belly sagged slightly like her organs had dropped.

It was the typical body shape of a malnourished child.

“I really doubt Ouma would starve a kid. Actually, I secretly asked the old butler—the one who used to look after her—and he said they made sure she ate properly.”

Also, the old butler had quietly pleaded, “Please visit us again.”

No way, man.

Ouma keeps throwing serious battle vibes at me… I’m not walking back into that fire!

“So even though she’s eating properly, she’s still malnourished? Is it because Riru Shiranui’s a demi-human?”

“Yeah, probably. Demi-humans are basically the offspring of Conceptual Spirits and humans. Their physical bodies aren’t fully grounded in the real world.”

Their cells were a mix of human tissue and the semi-spiritual matter that made up Conceptual Spirits—

In other words, a fusion of physical and fantasy material.

Because of that, their bodies slightly broke the normal rules of physics.

A few years from now, the Spirit Conductor researcher Saina Hiraga would publish a paper explaining it.

“Even if they eat properly, the nutrients can get absorbed by the semi-spiritual part and vanish. On the other hand, if the semi-spiritual part is dominant, they can survive even on tiny amounts of food. If it’s one of those two cases, Riru’s definitely the first type.”

In short,

She was a demi-human leaning more toward the human side.

Meanwhile, the other type leaned more toward Conceptual Spirits.

Like I remembered earlier,

For Conceptual Spirits, human food was just a “luxury” or “treat.”

They didn’t really need it—

As long as they had spiritual energy, they could live just fine.

“I see… So demi-humans are unstable, huh. But still… why did it lead to that pervy playtime…?”

“Ah. According to [Doll], ‘In that case, we must stimulate her real physical cells to activate them~!’“

Hence the weird therapy.

Massages, death metal, anime full of tied-up heroines—

All designed to overstimulate her body in different ways.

(Though seriously, the last two were way too messed up…)

If they could trigger the human part of her hybrid cells to grow stronger, then her body would eventually be able to absorb more nutrients properly.

Sooner or later,

Riru’s condition would recover too.

“Well, personally, I thought just [Doll]’s massages would’ve been enough. Her technique at hitting pressure points is insanely accurate. It’s a much softer kind of stimulation, though it probably would’ve taken longer to see results…”

When I explained that to Riru, she refused.

“‘I want to accept Lord Kanata’s hobbies too…!♡’ she said, and chose the hard mode herself… Even though I don’t have hobbies like that!”

“B-But Kanata, you’re evil, so… maybe you actually do have a little bondage or spanking kink deep down!? A-A-Anyway, even if you did, I wouldn’t mind—!”

“I don’t, you idiot.”

I’d denied it so many times already, but for some reason, 

Setsuna still refused to believe me.

Why though!?

◆　◇　◆

After breakfast.

Somewhere deep in the mountains of Chichibu.

“Thank you so much for coming today, Lord Kanata…!”

I was being bowed to by the butler uniform duo—

Yamada and Tanaka.

We’d met during the mock exam, where they had some kind of awakening.

They had passed safely and officially became Reisoushi.

They even chose to be stationed in Saitama, same as me.

“It’s fine. More importantly… you’ve already been handed a pretty nasty mission, huh.”

—They had rebelled against their master house, the Hebizuka family.

Because of that, some powerful figures tied to the Hebizuka clan, especially members of the special oversight division, the Elders’ Council, had already slapped them with some super petty assignments.

“‘Defeat 10,000 of the [Weeds]’ minions,’ huh. If you did it properly, it’d take days.”

—[Weeds].

One of the highest-ranked Conceptual Spirits.

A being that had survived since ancient times, capable of changing Earth’s environment itself.

It was classified as one of the “Old Rulers,” just like the Conceptual Spirit that unified all human languages into a single [Universal Language].

“[Weeds]’ minions are scattered all over almost every forest now. No matter how many you hunt, they just keep coming…”

By the way, those “minions” were like the blood wolves Riru had summoned earlier.

Spirits born from a fragment of their master’s spiritual power or flesh.

Which meant—

Even if you crushed them, it didn’t hurt the main body at all.

“Ahaha… But if you don’t cull them regularly, they’ll multiply and start creeping into the cities.”

“The pay’s not great, but it’s still necessary work.”

As they spoke,

Both of them suddenly sharpened their gazes.

Then—

With perfect timing, they kicked at the minions that had leapt at them from either side, crying out “Zasoooo!”

They looked oddly cute—like fat bundles of grass with arms and legs.

Their numbers were crazy, but individually, they were weak.

About the strength of a human child.

In terms of ranking, they were considered even below the lowest-level spirits, and were always available for beginner Reisoushi to take as extermination missions.

For new recruits from regular families without much money, it made for some safe pocket money.

“Za, Zasooo…!”

“Can’t they do something about that stupid cry?”

The kicked [Weeds] vanished instantly.

At the same time, the charm tucked into Yamada’s chest pocket gave a soft glow, and the number “1/10000” appeared on it.

It was a special charm empowered by the Conceptual Spirit [Record], automatically tracking their mission progress.

Super convenient—but once you started, you couldn’t just quit halfway.

“The enemies are weak… But making you guys kill ten thousand of them is pure harassment, no doubt.”

Running around the forest that long, you’d eventually get injured from fatigue or end up mobbed by a swarm.

That’s exactly why I came today.

“Leave it to me today. I want promising Reisoushi to grow up strong…! (So I can slack off in the future!)”

“Lord Kanata… Truly, the heart of a king…!”

While the two were getting all emotional, I raised the attaché case I brought.

And then—

“Awaken—’Cursed Steel: Hellbird’!”

Red particles erupted outward.

The case shattered and reshaped itself, becoming twelve floating blades that hovered in formation around my waist.

Above my head, a pseudo-halo of glowing magical patterns appeared, just like a magic circle.

Evolution beyond humanity.

Transcendence—or maybe even a fall from grace.

The true terror of this Conceptual Spirit Gear (the case) was its ability to trigger the profane transformation known as Half-Conceptual Spiritization.

“Alright—Let’s blow away everything we see!”

Phantom Particle Destruction Beam—

A flash of pseudo-nuclear fission light surged forth as I soared through the mountains.

And just like that, within only a few hours, we wiped out all of [Weeds]’ minions.

There was still over a month before the arrival of the Supreme-Class Conceptual Spirit [Erasure].

At this pace, we could save a lot of Reisoushi and properly prepare for that battle!

◆　◇　◆

—Deep underground,

Somewhere in the dark, dark corners of the world.

An ancient being, looking like a tangled mess of withered roots twisted into a human shape—the Supreme-Class Conceptual Spirit [Weeds]—

Trembled.

‘Ooh, ooh… My puppets… they’re being erased…!’

Its senses reached across to the Japanese archipelago—where, in the mountains, its minions were being wiped out one after another.

Sensing its offspring being destroyed faster than it could reproduce them, [Weeds] was seized by fear.

The overwhelming extermination power—

The pseudo-nuclear light unleashed by ‘Kanata Soranaki’—

Etched itself into its awareness.

It realized—

It truly understood—

‘At this rate… I might be completely… erased…!’

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

A peaceful morning (Hardcore therapy session still ongoing)

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