Villainess and the Stalker - Chapter 9 - The Youth's Special Skill

Chapter 9 : The Youth’s Special Skill

「Because sending her back is……. just too pitiful.」

She replied.

「Pitiful? Returning the summon beast to their habitat? 」

I asked again.

The reason I asked was because even if no one knew from whence those summoned beasts came, it was a well known fact that they were summoned from somewhere else, if not from this world, then the spirit world.

That’s why sending them back through de-summoning them meant that the summoned beast was sent back to where they came from. It’s not hurting them.

That’s why “Pitiful” was rather an inappropriate expression in this case, but…

「This puppy…. is special.」

The girl seemed to catch the hidden question behind my reply, hence why she said that the puppy is special.

「Special….. Uhm…..」

Certainly, summoned beasts aren’t well understood.

Whether this summoned beast was a dog or a wolf was unknown, but the size of its body basically told everyone that this one was special.

Even I could only come up with several conjectures as to this summoned beast’s true nature. Because, unlike their adult forms, there’s bound to be some uncertainties when it was still a puppy form. After all, the difference between an adult summoned beast and it’s ‘pup’ version were completely different.

Perhaps, it was those differences that she was referring to as “Special”.

「Well, I get the gist of your story.」

「Really…. But why? 」

I readily agreed with her, making the girl slightly puzzled with my easy acceptance. And that, in turn, made me tilt my head in confusion. I couldn’t make head nor tail of her fragmented question.

「This puppy, she never frolics with anyone but me….. And yet.」

Now that she had explained, I understood the meaning in her question. [ED: I don’t…and it’s rare that I don’t get what it means…]

In short, she didn’t understand the reason why this puppy was frolicking with me.

Then again, I couldn’t clearly explain this phenomenon myself, but I did have a reason for this puppy’s strange fondness of me.

And since there’s no problem in telling her the gist of my condition, I opened my mouth to explain.

「Ah, about this….. maybe I know the reason. Since I was a child, animals have always liked me. See」

When I looked up, I saw five small birds flying in the sky on top of us.

When I looked at them and stretched my hand towards them, those birds flew to me.

They flew around me once, and perched on my arm.

「No way…. are they, your pets? 」

「Nai, they’re not my pets. They’re wild birds. But, I simply asked them…. Well, I can’t order them to do something unreasonable, but I can ask them to stay still on my arm for a while, it’s more like a request.」

「…. WOW! 」

「Fufu. This is one of my few special skills which I take pride in. And thank you for your surprise」

The girl’s eyes, that were filled with doubt just a while ago, now shone brightly.

It was definitely not apathy or disgust.

When I asked the bird to perch on the girl’s arm, she stared at the birds moving on her arms calmly, unfazed.

「Do you love animals? 」

「… I love them. I hate humans though.」

「EH? 」

Though I was puzzled by her words just now, before I had the chance to resolve my puzzlement, the girl continued..

「But I like you. Name?」

She spoke while pointing her finger towards me, which I took as her way of asking my name.

「I’m Ryuu. Ryuu Amapola. And you? 」

「…. Hekate」

「……. Eh? Just first name? 」

To begin with, there are only two kinds of people attending this academy- nobles and commoners.

The ones without a family name are the commoners, which meant the girl’s situation wasn’t all that rare here. However…though there’s nothing wrong with her introduction, Hekate didn’t feel like a commoner to me at all.

I meant, while she was rather blunt with her words, her mannerism was something that could only be gained from constant discipline ever since she was a child.

Hekate was frowning upon hearing my words.

「…… House, I hate. I’m just Hekate.」

She stubbornly claimed so.

Well that feeling of hers…. was something that I could understand.

Most of the Nobles were the kind of existence that took pride in their family name, and it’s rare for them, who had been taught to be proud of that, to hate their family. But it’s not like everyone’s like that because once in a while, someone like me or Hekate, who hated their home, would appear.

There are various reasons for our hate. My case would be too grave for various reasons and I did not know Hekate’s own reason. She might have the same reasons as me. She might not. Who knows?

So in the end, I just nodded my head.

「I see. Well, that kind of thing happens from time to time. I understand. You’re just Hekate.」

Hekate was quite surprised to see my easy acceptance of the reason she gave without forcing for more.

「….. Really? 」

She asked back.

She asked me whether I was really not going to ask her family name.

Though this academy banned the noble children from flaunting around their power, one still had to know about the other’s family name or their character. Because not knowing which family the other noble children belonged to, would come to bite them from behind once they had graduated. That’s why students still needed to state their family name. That way, the chance of children, especially of commoner origin, offending noble children would be lowered.

Thus, it’s become an unwritten rule- one must reveal their family name when asked.

That’s why Hekate was puzzled by how easily I gave up on asking her family name.

Well, a normal noble would definitely keep pestering her for her family name..

But I didn’t care about such matters.

I had to admit that, at first, I thought that I should have just kept asking for the answer since it might help me later on when I went job hunting after I graduated. However, I guess I shouldn’t force her, seeing that she hated her house.

In the first place, what I did to her was far worse since I didn’t even tell her my real name.

I wouldn’t force Hekate to do something that even I can’t do.

Naturally, I wouldn’t explain my reasons for not pestering her…………

「Fine by me. Because I think that Hekate is still Hekate even without her family name.」

At my words, Hekate’s eyes that were already wide open from her earlier surprise, became even wider- almost a perfect circle.

「You’re…. the first to say that to me. But, I’m happy….」

And with that she instantly returned to her impassive face, as if her brain had just short-circuited a moment ago, and now it had returned back to normal.

「Well, we shall take our leave…」

Saying so, a girl and an animal turned around and went to another direction.

They appeared and vanished so suddenly, like a storm.

「Yeah… See you later, Hekate.」

When she heard me, Hekate turned around again,

「……… Yes.」

With a short word and a brief nod, she jumped on the back of the summoned beast and together they went away.

She was an unusual girl but….

「She isn’t a bad girl.」

Was what I felt about her.