Vol 1 Chapter 21 – Elena Seems to Drain Utaki’s HP Unconsciously

“Well, if you’re ever in a bind, I’ll lend you all the muscle you need~! Don’t you dare lose on me, Utaki~!”

“A-Ah, thank you, Maronie-san.”

She’s a good person through and through, no question about it—but she’s a lot. Hard to get used to. The gleaming black sheen of her impressively developed calves and abs isn’t exactly easy on the eyes.

For the record, Maronie-san’s manner of speech is distinctly feminine, but she personally identifies as a muscular man, and her romantic interests are women only.

Her movements are wide and masculine, but her work is delicate, and her way of talking is feminine—so my brain probably just can’t keep up with the disconnect and ends up getting drained of energy as a result. Well, I suppose there are all kinds of ways to exist—appearance, self-identification, expression. That was a discriminatory thought. Not a good way to think. I need to do better.

“Speaking of which, you’re heading to see Aria next, aren’t you~?”

“Yes—if we’re going adventuring, we can’t afford to see Aria-san first.”

“That’s fair enough~. Would you mind passing this along while you’re at it~?”

“Leave it to me. What is it?”

“Give it to Aria, and you’ll understand~. Better to hear the explanation from her~.”

What Maronie-san handed Elena was a blue bottle, roughly the size of a shampoo bottle.

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“So—what kind of person is this Aria-san?”

“Not a person.”

“Huh?”

“Not a person. Aria-san.”

Sure, Elena had mentioned there were non-human creatures around—but if this were going to be my first contact with something inhuman, I’d have appreciated a little more advance notice. I’m already getting energy-drained by Maronie-san, and now I’m about to have an encounter with something non-human on top of that? She’s really hell-bent on whittling down whatever’s left of my hit points, isn’t she?

“People call Aria-san the Prima Melody of the Night.”

“Of the night? Why night?”

“Because Aria-san’s role is the night.”

“Hey—can you stop casually dropping settings I know nothing about into the conversation?”

Role. What does that even mean?

“People say ‘role-bearer’ or ‘role-holder.’ It’s separate from a profession—it’s an assignment to govern a natural phenomenon.”

“So Aria-san governs the night.”

“Exactly.”

I understand maybe half of what she’s saying. What does it even mean to govern the night—it’s not like she’s some kind of god.

“There it is. That’s where Aria-san is.”

Tucked between two buildings in an alley stood a deep navy tent. A pole tent—think circus tent, if that helps. That kind of shape. The size? Shorter than me. Maybe fifty centimeters across. So small it was genuinely startling.

“Looks like a tent for kids.”

“Well, once you’re inside, you won’t be saying that. Aria-saaan, are you in~?”

“Elena? Come on in.”

“Good, she’s here. Let’s go.”

With that, Elena slipped neatly through the curtain gap. Wait—hold on. That tent was shorter than Elena. So why didn’t it budge at all? And that voice just now—it was neither male nor female. I’d been told she wasn’t human, sure, but even still—a sound that was neither high nor low, neither muffled nor crystalline—could it even be called a voice?

“Utaki, hurry up.”

“Ah—right.”

Unease lodged firmly in my chest, I lifted the hanging curtain and stepped inside.

Vol 1 Chapter 22 – The Prima Melody of the Night

“Utaki, I’ve heard about you from Pakira, I have. So you’ve got Hero aptitude, do you?”

“……”

“What is it—staring at me like that?”

“A bird?”

Yes. A bird.

Not a real bird, exactly—more like something that radiates that distinctly inhuman, otherworldly quality. The kind of thing where a strange, stylized head ends up looking oddly striking in its own right. Like that.

Blue feathers like a kingfisher or a peacock, with white legs—and when I say legs, I mean bird legs. Along with the wings, she had arms too, and those were a beautiful shade of blue as well. She wore a long white dress, which, combined with everything else, gave her a faintly costume-like appearance, for better or worse.

“It’s just—I’ve never encountered a species that walks on two legs and speaks human language before.”

“Human language is complex and strange, it is. Difficult to use.”

Kyokkyokkyok—Aria-san laughed. Didn’t laughing kookaburras make a sound, something like that?

“My broad category may be bird, but my species name—that would be Lorelei, it would.”

“Lorelei…?”

“The story about sailors enchanted by her singing voice, their ships running aground. Doesn’t your world have that?”

“It does.”

Wasn’t it the logo of a famous coffee chain too—no wait, that wasn’t Lorelei, that was—right. Siren. And Sirens were half-bird women, or mermaids, something along those lines, if I remembered correctly.

Which would mean Aria-san was essentially the real-world equivalent of a genuine supernatural entity.

“Pakira can speak too, they can—their species is clever, conversations never run dry. So then? Utaki—as a Hero—is that why Elena brought you here?”

“I don’t know anything about any of that.”

“The thing is—if you’re going to fight as a Hero, you’ll need Aria-san’s blessing and prayers. Equipment matters, of course, but for magic-related matters like this, non-human races that coexist with the arcane are far superior to mages.”

“Think of it like a diviner rather than a priest, and you won’t be far off, you won’t. No need to overthink it.”

Kyokkyokkyok—Aria-san laughed again. She laughed a lot, this one. Bird? Person? Hard to say.

“Well, before the blessing—let’s chat for a bit, shall we. I’m also curious about what Elena brought.”

“Ah, right—this is from Maronie-san.”

“What a thoughtful one—it’s a waste, having them present as a man.”

Elena passed over the bottle. The liquid inside gave a quiet slosh.

“This is called crystal water—a naturally occurring, magically inert crystal rendered into liquid form, it is. With this, I can show you both something rather interesting.”

Might as well brew tea while I’m at it, Aria-san added with a bright smile.

Lorelei. A bird. No wonder the sound she made didn’t quite register as a voice. Because this per—this Lorelei, when she meant it, could strand humans effortlessly. Which meant she was actively, consciously holding her allure in check just to have a conversation with us.

Did I really have to overcome species barriers this insurmountable just to defeat the Demon King?

“Kyokyo—you’ve got quite the frown going, you do. What an ugly mug.”

She bore no hostility toward us. And yet that composed expression said everything.

To them—humans weren’t even a potential threat to begin with.