Side Story In the Meantime
This chapter is from Hiyoko's POV
I'm a chicken. The name's Hiyoko.
...Having my name means 'chick' as a chick myself is weird, but I've given up on it. I might have ended up with an even weirder name if I protested. What's even Gonzales.
This stupid name of mine stems from [Mom]'s naming sense.
Heck, why is he a 'mom' when he's clearly a male? that thought did cross my mind, but he was the first person I saw when I cracked my egg shell open, so I've no choice. It's the law of the world.
Heck, mom is so obviously not even the same species as I am.
<TLN: Hiyoko uses 'Watashi' to refers to themselves.>
According to mom, I did have a biological parent.
He looked guilty as he narrated how he fought my parent to death and came out victorious but honestly, I don't really care about it.
To me what's important isn't who gave birth to me but who my mom is.
I mean, the meals mom feed me are always so tasty.
Apparently wild magic beasts eat stuff like random grass or raw meat, things like that, yet mom would go out of his way to cut, grill, and season my meals.
I did give those raw meat and random grass a try but they taste plain and feel gross in the mouth. They're not fit for consumption.
It gave me goosebumps thinking I'd have to eat that nasty stuff had I been born as a wild magic beast.
I feel so glad mom is 'mom' on every mealtime. Good food is bliss. But I won't tolerate crab miso. That stuff is just gross.
Mom is sometimes gentle, sometimes strict raising me.
He'd tell me to fight multiple magic beasts at once or even against opponents far more powerful sometimes.
I'm not sure how many times I'd have died if not for the mana and stamina control I learned from mom and the power up I got from eating my biological parent's feathers.
But I know he'd come to my rescue if I was truly in danger, and he'd give me good food if I worked hard. It's nice.
I feel so warm and fuzzy whenever he rubs my head and chin while saying, 'You did great'. He doesn't do that often in front of Alma and Reina though.
Alma and Reina are two females belonging to mom's brood (party).
They don't seem to be mom's mates, they're just along for the hunts and meals. I never see them copulate. Not like I wanna see it though.
I often see these two getting raised by mom too.
While I always understand what mom says from the beginning somehow, I couldn't get what these two were uttering at first for some reason.
I've learned most of it after comparing words though.
Alma is the strongest after mom. She's the brood's No. 2.
Actually, standing-wise, she might just be above mom even. I mean I never sees him go against her.
...Well, she's got this weirdly imposing aura whenever she gets mad, so I get him.
Reina is on the bottom-rung. She just is no matter who's saying otherwise. Okay?
She's not that strong yet she can use weird moves like diving into shadows or creating body doubles.
She's just so reckless it falls on me to clean up after her or she might get hurt badly. Good grief how will she go on without me. Ehem.
Mom is always the focal point of us. I couldn't even imagine us without him.
And now it's been days since we last saw mom.
It's not because he dumped us or made us go independent, no, it's for training apparently.
And the end result is of course...
Hiyoko here, the mood in this nest is just the worst.
Mainly due to Alma.
Oh. I'm not blaming her or anything. She hasn't done anything wrong after all.
First day without mom.
Alma and Reina got along well to begin with.
So they do chat every now and then even when mom isn't around.
But I feel like they barely talk to each other today.
Or rather, Reina has been trying to initiate a conversation but Alma isn't responding well.
I mean, her expressions have always been scarce but today she looks especially gloomy, I think.
Second day.
We went out hunting magic beasts and Alma was in charge of giving commands in mom's stead.
Mom can instantly tell our opponents' Level, Skills or whether they are venomous or not but we're not equipped with that.
As a result, Alma would sometimes give the wrong commands when the enemies did something unexpected. She looked so sorry about it.
Alma isn't in the wrong. Mom is just weird that way. Don't be so down now.
Third day.
But then, we managed to learn magic beasts' traits and didn't struggle as much.
Or rather, stuff like brawny-looking beasts that shoot out magic or lanky-looking beasts that hurl boulders your way. There's just way too many magic beasts that could kill you when you least expected it.
Of course anyone's gonna make a mistake faced against those. Alma isn't in the wrong at all. In fact, she's done really well, yep.
Once we were done, she let out this lonesome aura around her (her expression was the same as ever though), and I thought I'd sleep together with her just for today but I stopped short.
I mean, it was sooo awkward hearing her call out mom's name while sobbing outside the door to her room during bedtime. Just how much she loves mom anyway.
<TLN: Catch the latest updates and edits at Sousetsuka .com >
Fourth day.
Alma's started muttering incomprehensible things like, 'I'm Hikarun deficient.' She's on the verge of breaking down.
Is mom an addictive drug or what...? I feel like mom said something along this line too while clinging to me sometimes. Fluff something something. What is that even.
As I was watching Alma from afar along with Reina, together fearing her popping off from the stress, the super scary female who had been training our brood came by.
I have to keep myself from jolting up whenever this female shows up. I mean she's super scary.
She's supposed to be 'Alma's mom', but she turns way beyond nasty whenever she's in battle despite her calm demeanor outside.
During training, she won't stop shooting barrages of magic enough to kill us dead.
Try getting close to her and she'll hit you with her staff really hard. Where'd all that power come from those thin arms anyway.
My personal greatest bloodbath was that time I got hit by her magic directly and wafted a weirdly appetizing aroma. I was sure I'd die then. Actually I must have.
She's so kind normally, but she's like an ogre when it comes to combat. Just like mom.
Hey, wait, maybe this is the norm for 'moms'...? Wonder if I'll become like them too if I ever find a mate in the future. No way, that's too scary.
...I got weirdly sidetracked.
And now for the problem at hands. This continent, no it's happening on all continents apparently, are currently facing a crisis. Some sort of important places to humans are being raided by a huge number of magic beasts.
If those places fell, the people living on the continent would fall into chaos with no way of knowing what's gonna happen next.
To deal with this crisis, Alma's male parent went to another continent, while Alma's mom was to go with us to fight the beasts raiding this continent.
...At first, I wanted to ask why do we have to get involved, but then I realized it was a good way for Alma to release her stress.
Actually, mom should join us too considering the situation and all but I'm told he's also fighting the same fight on another continent.
If only he was here, Alma would have cheered up... But I guess it is what it is.
Let's do our part and do what we gotta do.
And the result was a cinch.
I mean, not only Alma's mom summoned that usual flaming giant, every single hit of her spells turned hundreds of magic beasts into ashes.
Alma also shot magic and swung her sword like a mad man as if she was venting her anger.
Reina went around inside shadows setting up all the 'mines' thing she got from mom and blew up those beasts like nobody's business.
...Other humans could only witness them in blank amazement. Get to work you peeps.
Thanks to the sweep, Alma and Reina leveled up a lot and I even evolved.
My body got smaller but I can tell I've gotten way stronger than my pre-evolution self.
My biological parent also looked like this. It got no head or legs cuz mom cut them off though.
I think the magic beasts we fought were around upper Lv30s to 50s.
A demon-like someone popped up in the end, and sacrificed lots of magic beasts as well as itself to summon a stupidly strong magic beast, but then Alma's mom made a short work of it... She's way too terrifying.
Alma looked a bit calmer after going wild against all those beasts, small fry they might be. Thank goodness.
After the battle we took a break until the next day when Alma's male parent came back at noon.
He seemed tired but he doesn't seem to be hurt anywhere... This man must have gone on a rampage as well.
"Welcome home. Thank you for your hard work, dear."
"...Yea, I'm home."
He responded weakly to Alma's mom's appreciative greeting.
...? His expressions looks grim somewhat.
Did something happen during the battle.
"...What's wrong?"
Alma noticed his strange behavior as well and asked worryingly.
The male parent turned to us with a severe look on his face before opening his mouth.
"...Alma, Reina-kun, I want you to stay calm as you listen."
Oy dangit, you just gonna ignore me?
"You already knew about the same crisis on the fourth continent and how Hikaru-kun, Neora-kun and the other kids went there to handle it, right?"
"Un. What, about it...?"
He looked down, and lifted his face up after a brief pause with a resolute look.
"The fourth continent's king fell in the battle. And... Hikaru-kun has gone missing."
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