It Seems That I’ve Slipped Into a Different World. Also, My Gender Has Changed - Chapter 97

When lunch ended and I returned to my own room, shortly afterwards, Kuon-sensei showed up. I wonder if everyone is doing fine over there today?

“Good afternoon. You must have been tired, right, Seiren-sama?”
“Good afternoon-. …Kuon-sensei too, I’m sorry for troubling you. Is everyone at your house doing all right?”
“Today, my grandfather is looking after them, so please be rest assured. …Eh, what’s the matter, Oriza-san?”
“No, Alica seemed to have done something, but nobody wanted to tell me about it-.”
“…Ah-. I’m sorry, I also can’t seem to tell you about it…”

Hahaha. As expected, even Kuon-sensei didn’t have any interest to explain about it. Her face was cramped too, yup.
Oriza-san, really, sorry.
…eh, that’s right, Alica-san.

“Ah, how is Alica-san doing?”
“Aah. Her soberness has somewhat returned this morning, and she’s currently very depressed. The same goes for Kaya-san, though.”
“Really-?”
“…Really, Alica, just what did she do-?”

Yup, what did that person do? I reflexively tried to escape from reality. No, perhaps the ones who’d like to escape from reality would be Kaya-san and Alica-san, though.
Nah, really, when their soberness returned and they remembered what they did during when they lost their soberness, they’d want to bury their faces in the bed and scream, “Uwaaaaaaa!”, right?
Anyway, the only one who was left out in a sense, Oriza-san seemed to come to her conclusion after thinking for a while.

“To put it simply, did Alica do something rude towards Seiren-sama?”
“Yes, well, to put things bluntly, it’s something like that.”
“I understaand-. I will make Alica confess later on.”

Just do so. As expected, I really can’t say that I was going to be assaulted by my maid.
Even so, what was the reason behind Alica-san’s rash action?

“The cause of Alica-san’s rash action was probably my and Taiga-san’s exchange of letters, right? Alica-san was the one who handed me Taiga-san’s letter, after all.”
“That’s right. She didn’t have any external contact with anyone else these past few days.”
[Hmm, I see, so that’s it, huh? Still, I believe that there wasn’t any problem with the letter itself.] “If Alica-san didn’t become weird due to touching the letter and if there wasn’t anything strange with the letter, then wouldn’t it due to the postman?”

If Mikoto-san felt that there wasn’t any problem with the letter, then I guess that was really what happened.
If nothing was inserted into Taiga-san’s letter, then as Oriza-san said, it could only be the postman. Nah, searching for the exact cause might be hard since we’d have to go to the place where there would be many people passing by.

[Kuon, can we ask you to investigate?] “Please leave it to me. Ah, if I were to receive the influence, then…”
[Leave it to us. We would knock you up along with Jigen.]

No, no. If Kuon-sensei were to turn strange as well, then that’d be bad.
Towards me who fell prostrated near the table, Oriza-san gave me another cup of tea. Thanks for the tea!

Now, the main reason behind Kuon-sensei’s arrival today was regarding the pharmacy. Yes, the place where Kaya-san seemed to have acquired the narcotic.

“I’ve tried to indirectly investigate the pharmacy. Apparently, one employee who was working temporarily there showed up at the day Kaya-san came to buy some medicine, and their whereabout was unknown.”

Was it easy to guess, this result? And since it was the evil spirit’s deed, we couldn’t really blame the said person even if they were found-, or so I felt. This is so bad, for them to be moving this sneakily.

[That, huh? Can you just identify them from their ID?] “They seemed to be an acquaintance of the shop assistant who had been working there for so long, but even that assistant had no idea on their whereabouts. I’ll request an investigation from the garrison.”
[Hmmmm…]

In this world, there seemed to be an unwritten law of employing trustworthy people, especially in the case of shops that sold medicine or other stuff like that. Well, there didn’t seem to be any formal pharmacist qualification unlike the other world.

“Aah. As for the shop assistant who had been working for so long, there didn’t seem to be any problem. At least, they seemed to be at a level where they understood magic language.”
[Hmm…Then there doesn’t seem to be any problem, right?] “Yes.”

Kuon-sensei firmly nodded at Mikoto-san’s confirmation. Which means, the shop assistant who introduced the missing person wasn’t an accomplice, huh?
…People who were influenced by the evil spirit such as Kaya-san and Alica-san—the evil spirit’s influence shouldn’t last for too long, so it seemed to be all right.
If, for example, the missing shop assistant were to be affected by the evil spirit longer than we thought, from around Mikoto-san’s arrival here, I wonder what’d happen to them?
I wonder if they’d be all right? It’d be good if they’re all right.

[What’s wrong, Seiren?] “Wa-“

I was slightly surprised for having my name suddenly being called when I was in the middle of thinking. Mikoto-san was peeking my face, and at the other side, Kuon-sensei, Oriza-san, and Minoa-san had been looking at me so fixedly.

“Ah, no, I was thinking for a moment. The people who received the evil spirit’s influence for a prolonged time, would it give any bad repercussion to their bodies?”
[Hmm… Before worrying about the other party’s condition, wouldn’t it be better for you to worry about yourself first?]

Uguu…
Nah, certainly, I was the one they targeted. But as expected, wouldn’t you get curious of it?

“I have never heard of it before. What about Oriza?”
“I also don’t know about it-. Kuon-sensei, Mikoto-sama, do you know something-?”

Nn well, the example cases were scarce, huh? Well, I guess it’s a rare case.

“My grandfather seemed to have seen those kind of people several times. When it became severe, they seemed to turn into something akin to living dolls whose spirits were destroyed.”
[I’ve also seen it two or three times. There was also a legend where the people who were used by the evil spirits would become the vessels that the evil spirits could enter. That kind of tale wasn’t being talked that much recently, though.]

When I heard Kuon-sensei and Mikoto-san’s talk, I thought that the things the evil spirits did didn’t seem to differ that much from the other world. I mean, don’t evil spirits possess the living humans’ bodies to commit evil deeds?

“Well, it’s the thing that’s said to happen to those who were in a severe level. Kaya-san and Alica-san are both all right.”

I wasn’t the only one who was relieved upon hearing the words that Kuon-sensei added with smiles. Oriza-san and Minoa-san stroked their chests in their relief at the same time, too.

Alica-san and the others seemed to be fine, that’s good. Incidentally, Kuon-sensei changed the topic.

“Also! In regards to food, my grandfather has been casting magic to see through the food for each meal. As of now, there doesn’t seem to be any problem.”

Oh, it’s a very important matter, in a sense. Meals are important, but there are just too many people involved in the process of preparing the meals. As expected, we’d have to check on that, too.

[It surely takes up your time and effort, huh? Still, food has a direct connection to someone’s life and death, and the infectious capacity is quite strong. I think you guys understand it, but I repeat, please be careful.] “Yes, of course we know that. As expected, if it’s someone who’s at my grandfather’s level, even the evil spirits wouldn’t dare to directly touch the food, so I think.”
[If Jigen were to be gone, we wouldn’t be able to accomplish such a feat.]

Towards Mikoto-san who said it nonchalantly, Kuon-sensei muttered, “That’s right,” as she sighed. By infectious capacity, I was thinking of it as food poisoning, but could it mean the same thing as getting the evil spirit’s influence by eating the meal? I guess so.
As expected, Jigen-san was really at an outrageous level. I don’t quite understand it well, but even when I don’t really understand it, he’s already looking incredible. …Kuon-sensei who’s his grandchild is awesome too, though.
As I was thinking of it, Kuon-sensei turned to face me. Whoa, is there still something else to be discussed about?

“Also, Seiren-sama. Please tell me when you’re giving and taking letters with Taiga-sama. For safety reason, I’ll be dispatching the delivery snake.”
“Sha-!”

The usual serpent that appeared on Kuon-sensei’s shoulders spread its wings and as expected, it faced me and tried to intimidate me. Hahaha, my compatibility with it is that bad, huh?
But, I see. As the postal service is becoming a bit suspicious as of now, there’s no way I can risk using them for my letter correspondence. On the other hand, if I don’t send any letter, Taiga-san might ride Genjirou and show up here.

“Yeah, thank you very much. It’s just that this guy can’t really be emotionally attached to me, huh?”
“Since its wariness is so strong, we can feel safe entrusting it with the job of sending letters.”
“…Please help me, then.”

Nah well, that’s certainly true. Perhaps this snake is only attached with Jigen-san and Kuon-sensei, right?
And knowing that, it can deliver my letters without fail.
I’m relying on you, then.