Ore wa Mada, Honki o Dashite Inai - CH 37

The Secret of Only Two People

Translated by Mlzkzr

Edited by Mlzkzr

On the outskirts of Pindos, off the main road, where the bamboo thickets grow thickly.

As I arrived there, I stopped at a faint sound coming from the woods.

It’s the sound of a zither*. (TN: Zither – https://www.britannica.com/art/zither)

The sound can be heard from the wind.

I stopped my feet, and listened carefully at the outside of the woods.

Then, I found that a woman was singing a song in accordance to the sound of the zither.

“A prostitute hah”

With my long relationship with Orthia, I quickly realized that this was the type of music that prostitutes were good at.

Although the melody is mellow, the lyrics are sensational and the way she sings is bewitching.

Well, in a nutshell, it’s a song to “lure” a man.

If this is playing out, does that mean that a prostitute is taking customers in the bamboo forest which is my destination? No, that’s strange, isn’t it?

Because, it must be Hestia who is in this.

Hestia, a long-ear tribe (elf) prostitute.

After paying out of being a prostitute herself, she had moved to the outskirts of Pindos, and I came here to visit her after hearing about it from Orthia.

It was strange how that Hestia is taking customers ―― I thought, but I soon found out why.

『Then the man won’t move』

I could hear Hestia’s voice.

It was a voice no louder than the sound of bamboo grass being blown in the wind, a voice that would normally be inaudible, but I can hear it properly as I listen.

That voice is different from the sensual pleasures.

It was serious, and even dignified.

『Take off the pants of your mind. Expose your heart. So that the gentlemen will irresistibly push you down while you’re playing. 』

『Ye,yes! 』

I heard the voice of another young woman.

I guessed it somehow.

Hestia seems to be instructing the performance.

She seems to be teaching her younger colleagues the essential skills of a prostitute.

If so, let’s not interfere. Let’s just wait here.

I’m good with waiting.

I just have to take it easy, and even if I wait like this, it won’t raise me a weird evaluation.

It’s good and long-winded, or something at that degree.

I’m in.

The wind was blowing, and the bamboo leaves were falling.

I somehow catch it, spin it around, and play with it.

Let’s drain the water from the bamboo leaves and let it die ―― for a moment, it felt like a desire to cause mischief raised in my head, but if I did do that, I might get a wrong evaluation, so I stopped it.

As I was just killing time by spinning around the bamboo leaves, after the performance, a carriage came out of the bamboo forest.

The carriage was operated by an old coachman, with the breaths of young women inside.

It seems that the class is over and they’re leaving.

Well, I guess it’s my turn now.

I walked into the bamboo forest.

When I traced their path, I found an elegant hermitage in the middle of the bamboo thickets.

The hermitage, looks just like an elegant refuge of a poet.

It was a small hermitage, so I immediately made eye contact with Hestia on the porch.

“Yoh”

I shuffled my hands up, and smiled at her.

Hestia was surprised to see me.

“Wha,what are you doing here?”

Eventually, her face turned red and asked me in a flustered voice.

“Hmm? It’s a little greeting. I heard you came here from Orthia.”

“I,is that so”

For some reason, Hestia absolutely became flustered.

What’s that? Her reaction is a little different from before, right?

How should I put it …… she’s kind of distant, no, does she hate me?

Then that’s fine, but why?

“Ah, greeting me, that’s all you had to do, is it.”

“Ah, that’s right.”

“Other than that?”

“Other than that? There’s nothing, though”

“Fu,fuhn. Is it okay for the Lord to do such a thing? What can you do to further develop your territory if nothing else? Isn’t it your job to think about the future?”

“That’s true, but ……”

What the? As I thought, something is strange with Hestia.

I won’t figure it out by thinking about it, so I decided to ask the person herself.

“You don’t like me coming?”

“Tha――”

Surprise, then confusion, and hesitation.

After a variety of emotions flashed across Hestia’s face.

She, turns her face away while still red.

“I’m no longer a prostitute, I don’t want you coming to visit me!”

“Ah, I see”

If you ask me, that’s true.

She’s not a prostitute anymore, which means, I’m not her customer either.

That’s why, she doesn’t have to look good.

That makes sense.

I understand it …… but what is it.

“Is there still something you want to say?”

“……No”

I’m still wondering about Hestia’s “this”.

☆

Finally, I said goodbye to Hestia, who was being cold in the end, and returned to my mansion in the city.

I walked down the corridor of the mansion, tilting my head at Hestia’s condition.

“Oh my, what’s wrong, Hermes?”

I encountered nee-san.

“You look like a boy whose mother has put a pornographic book on his desk.”

“I don’t know what kind of face it was, but it’s definitely different.”

While retorting at nee-san, I look at her.

I wonder if nee-san would know the reason.

I was still curious, so I decided to ask my sister.

I told nee-san that I went to visit Hestia, and all about her strange behavior.

I also told her that when I lent my power to her before, her favorability in me rose.

Nee-san silently listened to my story up to the end.

“I see, so that’s what it was.”

“Eh? You understand it?”

“Yes. I guess so…… did Hermes ever deliberately stick caterpillars on a girl when he was a kid?”

“What kind of play is that?”

“Or, scare a girl by putting a tu*d* on a tree branch” (TN: Turd – a lump of excrement.)

“Nee-san, don’t say tu*d.”

“I prioritized ease of understanding.”

It’s easy to understand, but …… I had a bitter smile.

“No, I’ve never done such things.”

“If so, it’s unavoidable that you don’t understand.”

“……in other words, it was about sticking caterpillars and being shown po*p.”

“The reason is the same.”

“……”

The reason is the same huh.

My sister is wise.

There are two kinds of cleverness.

Intelligence, and wisdom.

If you master the former, you’ll become a scholar, and the latter, follows the path of a wiseman.

My sister’s cleverness is the latter.

I think she’s extremely smart, and she can quickly see the essence of things.

If such nee-san said that “the reason is the same”, then that’s probably the case.

But then, what is the “reason”? (TN: It’s love, lol)

I’m not sure I understand―― when I think about that.

“Head-sama”

A maid called out to me from behind.

“Hmm, what’s wrong?”

“There’s a guest for Head-sama. She calls herself Hestia-san.”

“Hestia? Why is she here?”

I was wondering so, but I decided to go meet her for the time being.

I thanked nee-san lightly, and asked the maid to guide me back to the front door.

Hestia was there.

I can see her from a distance.

With a pin on her spine, she was a woman with an elegant appearance and a straight back.

Royalty ―― No, I’ll believe it even if you say she’s a princess or a queen.

However, as soon as such Hestia saw me appearing,

“Wha,what did you come here to do?”

She started hurrying around, saying something incomprehensible.

“What do you mean, this is my house, and I came here because of Hestia.”

“Tha,that’s true, isn’t it. Suh…….hah……”

Hestia started taking a deep breath for some reason.

Perhaps she calmed down after doing that, this time, she stared at me with a challenging “snap” in her eyes.

“Thi,this”

“Yeah? Is that a bamboo leaf?”

“Something you dropped”

“Something I dropped? …… Ah, that one I had huh”

I certainly had it.

It’s the bamboo leaf that I was playing with in circles while waiting for Hestia to finish her class.

I wonder if I dropped that off at Hestia’s place.

“No, it’s not like it’s something I dropped, it’s just ――”

“So~i!”

“Guwah!”

Suddenly, I felt a tremendous impact on my back.

As I rubbed the painful spot on my back, I turned around to see nee-san there after throwing at me with a lively form.

Looking at the floor, my sister’s high heel was lying.

“Hey, nee-san, why ――”

“Come this way, Hermes”

Nee-san quickly came over, grabbed me, pulled me away from Hestia, and asked me in a whispering stance.

“That person was the one you were talking about earlier, right”

“That’s right. But more importantly, nee-san ――”

“I see, it certainly is”

“Nee-san?”

“……”

“O~y, come back, nee-san”

“……Hermes, tell her a secret.”

“Secret?”

“Yes, it can be anything. Do one of those 『I’ll only tell you about it』 things.”

“Why would I do that?”

“You’ll do it because it would be good.”

Nee-san said that, and don! Then, she pushed my back and thrusted me in front of Hestia.

“Wha,what is it”

“Erm, no, that’s…….”

Even if I told her a secret.

I wonder what should I teach her.

Suddenly, I stared at the bamboo leaf I had just received.

At the time I was waiting for her, I had a mischievous thought that I should kill the bamboo leaf.

And, there’s Hestia.

I remembered her former profession, and her colleague Orthia.

I thought about it for a little, and decided to do it.

Partly because it was a secret, I toned down my voice.

“Look at this, Hestia”

“Wha,what?”

“I’ll take this bamboo leaf, and ……”

I pressed the bamboo leaf with both hands.

I put the bamboo leaf inside my hands which was pressed together like I was praying, and put some strength into it.

It’s little further ahead ―― than withering.

I steadily apply pressure and heat.

It’s my first time doing it, so it’s bit difficult to adjust, but I should be able to do it with roughly 10% of my full strength.

I did it for a while, then I opened my hands.

And, in there ――

“Is that…… a diamond?”

“Yes, it’s a diamond.”

In the palm of my hand, was a diamond in the shape of a bamboo leaf.

“Thi,this is?”

“It’s a secret, alright? I can make diamonds out of wood, cloth, and certain kind of other materials. I just have to add heat and pressure with all my might.”

Hestia took the diamond leaf, and seriously observed it.

“Beautiful……”

“If you like it, you can have it.”

“Eh?”

“Instead, this ―― would be our little secret.”

I changed a few words that nee-san had said to me.

I told her that it’s a secret that only the two of us have.

I address Hestia with words that would be the same in essence.

“……Yes”

Then, Hestia turned her head down with a blush, and held the diamond leaf carefully.

Oh, as expected of nee-san, the really weird Hestia is gone.

……A’re?

Although the weird Hestia is gone.

This red-faced Hestia, perhaps ――

“Nee-san, did you plot this?”

“I wonder what you’re talking about. You have solved it, haven’t you”

That’s true, but……

From the way nee-san was feigning ignorance, I was convinced that I was set up.