Chapter 47: Interlude: Past Chapter 9 – A Few Reasons Why Mira Broke

Mikami’s incredible speed crossed the vast Great Forest as if it were nothing more than a short walking path.

When the city entrance came into view, he muttered to himself, “Oops, better slow down from here… might damage the road otherwise… Would be bad if they charged me for repairs…” and visibly reduced his speed. At that somewhat practical grumbling, Mira felt her tension ease slightly.

Mikami decelerated sharply before the road and approached the city entrance at a reasonable speed.

There at the gate, as if she had been waiting, stood her mother Emma. She was pacing back and forth near the gate, her expression showing barely concealed anxiety.

Noticing them, Emma looked up with a start, forgetting her dignified bearing and hurrying toward them. Upon confirming Emma’s figure, Mikami gently lowered Mira to the ground as if handling something precious.

Mira and Emma stared at each other wordlessly for a moment. Tears rapidly filled her mother’s eyes and streamed down her cheeks. This was the first time Mira had seen her usually calm and dignified mother display such emotion.

“Mother… I’m sor—” Mira tried to apologize, but before she could finish, Emma embraced her small body with all her strength.

“Thank goodness…! I’m so glad, Mira…! That you’re safe… truly…!”

Emma repeated those words over and over, her voice choked with emotion. From the strength of her arms and trembling voice, her mother’s deep love was painfully clear, and tears naturally flowed from Mira’s eyes as well.

For a while, mother and daughter simply held each other tightly without words.

Mikami, who had been silently watching from the side, perhaps trying to be considerate or simply feeling awkward, attempted to quietly withdraw.

“Um… hate to interrupt the touching reunion, but I’ll be going now…”

“W-wait a moment! Mikami!”

“P-please wait! Shuzou!”

Almost simultaneously, Mira and Emma’s voices overlapped. They looked at each other in surprise.

Emma wiped her tears, stood up smoothly, and stepped forward before Mikami. Then, in the next moment, Mira witnessed an unbelievable scene. Her mother—as a noble, or rather as that proud Guild Master—knelt respectfully on one knee before Mikami, bowing deeply as a vassal would to a king.

It was proof that her proud mother truly revered this man called Mikami from the bottom of her heart.

“Shuzou… For this matter, for risking your life to rescue my daughter, I express my deepest gratitude. This great debt, I, Emma Cattleas, shall never forget as long as I live.”

Her voice overflowed with gratitude and respect.

Mikami’s eyes widened at Emma’s almost exaggerated demeanor, and he rushed over to her in a panic.

“E-Emma! Please raise your head! Stop that! I really just happened to be wandering around the Great Forest and got lucky finding Mira…! Besides, you’re always taking care of me, so being able to help with just this much makes me feel bad instead…!”

He desperately tried to be modest and get Emma to stand.

Emma slowly rose as Mikami’s hand urged her, then raised her face and directed a somewhat bashful yet passionate gaze at him.

“…Shuzou… You’re always so humble like that… I, well… really love such modest people… but… sometimes, I wish you’d notice my feelings a little…”

Her cheeks were tinged with a faint red, and her voice was slightly high-pitched.

Seeing that expression on her mother’s face, Mira was no longer surprised. She had seen it many times these past few days. The face she herself made when gazing at Mikami. It was unmistakably—the face of a woman in love with a man. Mira watched her mother with a mixture of joy, pain, and indescribable complex emotions.

Just then, several guards who seemed to be returning from their city patrol passed by. Noticing Emma, they saluted and greeted her. Then they began grumbling about something troubling.

“Man, Guild Master. It’s been chaos since this morning. The road from the city to the forest is all torn up like it was dug out.”

“Yeah, it was terrible. Not even multiple heavy cargo wagons could do that in one night. Unless some incredible force was applied…”

“I wonder who… or what did it. Maybe a divine beast from the Great Forest wandered out half-asleep and went on a rampage… Still, the repair costs won’t be cheap. What a headache…”

The moment Mikami heard the guards’ words, his body gave a large shudder.

“Oh no…! Yesterday I was in such a hurry, I accidentally went through the road…! And at quite a speed too…”

He turned pale and muttered quietly, then began backing away slowly.

Then, “W-well then, Emma! Mira! S-see you later!” he said, obviously flustered, and in the next moment literally ran away from the scene at tremendous speed like the wind.

“Ah! Shuzou! P-please wait!”

Emma hurriedly called out to stop him, but his figure was already nowhere to be seen.

Eventually, only Mira and Emma remained at the city entrance. Emma gazed wistfully in the direction Mikami had fled for a while, but when she finally turned back to her daughter, her expression had changed to something stern.

Mira braced herself to be scolded this time. However, Emma said nothing.

She simply let out a deep, deep sigh, and her stern expression softened, becoming the gentle face of a mother mixed with exhaustion and relief.

“…I have countless things I want to say… sigh… But not now. In any case… I’m truly… so glad… you came back safely…”

“Mother… I’m sorry… I… um…” When Mira tried to apologize, Emma gently interrupted.

“Not now. Let’s go home, Mira. …You can tell me the details slowly at the mansion.”

Mira, supported by her mother, began walking toward the mansion. Along the way, there was something she absolutely had to ask her mother. It was about Mikami.

“Um… Mother…” Mira began hesitantly.

“About Mikami… Why did you… I mean… even though he’s F-rank, why did you ask him to search for me?”

Emma stopped at that question and turned to face Mira.

Her expression was serious, and her eyes seemed to hold a deep heat.

“…Mira. You think of Shuzou as just an F-rank adventurer, don’t you?”

Emma began speaking quietly. Her voice was tinged with feelings she couldn’t hide.

“True, he acts that way. He extremely dislikes showing off his power… But Mira, he’s different. I can tell. That man… possesses tremendous power that can’t be measured by appearances, and… even more than that, a deep kindness hidden within.”

Her mother’s words held unwavering conviction.

“When it really matters, what you can truly rely on isn’t appearances or rank. It’s people like him. Today proved that, didn’t it? There aren’t many people who could bring you back safely from deep within that Great Forest.”

Emma looked straight into Mira’s eyes.

“He’s… also a very dangerous person. He prioritizes others over himself… That’s why I can’t leave him alone. I feel that I… I must be by his side to support him…”

Having said that much, Emma’s cheeks flushed red, and her gaze wandered as if looking at something far away.

“…I don’t want to… give him to anyone else… This is the first time I’ve felt this way. He is mine alone…”

The last part was almost a murmur, as if in a fever.

From her mother’s words and expression she had never seen before, Mira understood painfully that Emma’s feelings for Mikami went far beyond simple trust or respect—they were deep, intense love… no, something close to obsession.

…I have to… put Mother’s happiness first… If Mother being united with someone she feels this strongly about is her true happiness… then I must never let anyone notice these feelings… this pain in my chest…! I have to tuck them away deep inside… I mustn’t interfere with them…!

Mira made that decision firmly, strongly. She would earnestly and purely wish for her mother’s happiness. She believed that was the only way to repay the debt as an adopted daughter.

However, that emotion forcibly suppressed at such a young age would undergo a complex chemical reaction, instead quietly but surely cultivating a distorted obsession with Mikami Shuzou’s very existence deep within her heart.

And her complete fall into twisted love—yandere—was still a story for the near future.