Chapter 3 – Story 103: Verbal Message (First)
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Of course, Ponpius had already heard of Shyemul. He knew her as the zoan girl who had escaped with the Divine Son of Destruction after they got imprisoned in the fort of the plains. He also heard that it was her achievement to have bound the Divine Son of Destruction, who was an unknown man at that time, to the Fang Clan, her family, as first among the zoan of the plains. Nowadays she’s said to be his most loyal retainer who has been approved by the Divine Son of Destruction and those around him to be always next to him. Even Darius had guessed her to be some sort of important existence to the Divine Son of Destruction.
Holding interest in Shyemul because of all that, Ponpius introduced himself to her first, which was answered by her doing the same.
“I’m Shyemul, daughter of Garguss and member of the Fang Clan, one of the twelve zoan clans. My formal name is 《Noble Fang》.”
Even though Ponpius couldn’t tell the faint changes in her expression apart as human, he could still feel dignity from her conduct. He sensed that she had a character as straightforward and honest as her formal name already suggested. Therefore he confronted her with his question head-on without using any allegories or roundabout expressions.
“Aren’t you scared?”
Shyemul slightly snorted at that honest, blunt question. But, she immediately perceived the intention behind Ponpius asking this and answered him just as head-on.
“Yeah, I was scared. Moreover, even now I’m still scared.”
She’s a very frank person, but not an imbecile, Ponpius assessed Shyemul and furthermore asked, “Why do you follow him despite knowing that he’s frightening!?”
Shyemul smiled bitterly at that question.
“Let’s see. If I had to be honest, not having much of a choice would be one of the bigger reasons.”
In reality, if the zoan of the plains hadn’t accepted the powerful poison called Souma five years ago, they’d have been cornered to the brink of destruction. One could also say that they had accepted Souma, a foreigner, because of that.
But, that wasn’t all.
Shyemul racked her brain for some time, groaning, as she wondered how to best explain it, but then she suddenly got an idea.
“This is going to be a story from my childhood. Wanting to relieve myself by chance, I left our tent at night, but I ran into a ghost.”
Even though he felt confused about what she was talking about all of a sudden, Ponpius went along with her story.
“A ghost…you say?”
“Yes, it was a ghost. I got scared and scurried back into our tent. But, that wouldn’t allow me to take care of my business. Frightened by the ghost, I couldn’t go outside despite the urge to relieve myself. As that urge gradually became stronger, I started to cry at last.
On that day, the Elder――the old woman who serves as our clan’s priestess――was staying in our tent. Woken up by my sobbing, the Elder told me that she’d go with me. Accordingly, I went outside while being led by the Elder’s hand.
Thereupon, I saw the ghost in the same place as before. I tried to go back into the tent after wailing that I’m scared, but the Elder told me that it’d be alright. She pulled my hand and went over to the ghost. And when we got close to the ghost, I was startled.”
Recalling the events of that time, Shyemul giggled.
“Of all things, the ghost turned out to be my breast sash which I had left to dry on the branch of a tree to dry, just to have forgotten about it.”
“B-Breast sash…!?”
Ponpius raised his voice hysterically. Souma also placed a hand on his face, as if shocked, and the zoan, who had come along as guards, politely pretended to have heard nothing. But, ignoring all of them, Shyemul started to explain even the size of the cloth, using both her hands.
“It’s a piece of cloth with a size like this. Since I was still a child at that time, the sash was small as well. Well, I used a slightly bigger chest sash to act all mature, though. Anyway, I thought that a sash as small as this was a ghost. Even now, this story serves as a running gag.”
As Shyemul laughed cheerfully after saying all this, Souma secretly prayed that she would finally stop shamelessly speaking about breast sashes with the same mouth that usually described her as a young maiden. Given how embarrassed Souma was at this moment, one could easily imagine just how embarrassed and perplexed Ponpius had to be.
Shyemul put on a solemn expression and asked Ponpius, “Now then, why did I consider that small cloth to be a ghost?”
Ponpius didn’t quite understand the intention behind her question, but he answered with what came to mind.
“You simply didn’t know that it was a cloth in the darkness of night, right?”
“Correct. I got scared of a small breast sash because I couldn’t make out what it was in the darkness of night,” Shyemul answered and after nodding lightly, she added, “After all is said and done, I’m scared of not knowing, I guess.”
“Scared of not knowing…?” Ponpius asked back like a parrot.
Shyemul answered, “Yes, I don’t know anything. I don’t know what he will do. I don’t know what will happen. I don’t know what I should do. Not knowing all of this is scary.”
At that point, Shyemul turned her face in the direction of Souma who had been silently listening next to her.
“I think the fears of Soma over here are similar to mine. For some reason, Soma can see better beyond the fog of uncertainty called the future than others. No, I suppose I should describe it as him knowing the future better. That’s why he quickly advances forward through what others consider to be pitch-black darkness while donning a calm expression. And whenever he does something, it looks to others as if he’s performing something strange within that darkness. I saw a small cloth as a ghost, so I can’t help it even if Soma appears to be a frightening monster to me, right?”
Shyemul looked back at Ponpius again.
“In that case, won’t he become not scary, if you simply get to know him?”
Ponpius was taken aback and froze by her all too direct words. Shyemul further told him, “If you keep someone away because they’re scary, they’ll always remain scary to you. If you look at them closely instead, you’ll understand what they see, won’t you? You’ll be able to see what they’re trying to do. And if you don’t understand despite watching all the time, you can simply ask them. And that’s easy because they’re close.”
“B-But! That’s just true if it’s a small cloth, isn’t it? What would you do if it was truly something terrifying!? What if it was something bringing about large chaos and destruction!?”
Ponpius unintentionally ended up shouting full of emotions. But, Shyemul didn’t get perturbed by that.
“That is possible as well. As a matter of fact, the lives of the zoan have become totally crazy thanks to Soma,” she said casually, but just as Shyemul mentioned, the lives of the zoan had completely changed after they started to obey Souma.
Not in the sense that they could now return to the plains after having been hiding in the mountains to escape human eyes.
In the past, the zoan had partially lived as nomads, wandering the plains depending on the season in search of prey. Having taken back the plains thanks to Souma, the zoan thought they could return to that sort of lifestyle, but that only lasted for a short time at the beginning. As they started to get food as payment for land from the pioneer villages, their opportunities to hunt decreased. The zoan began to settle near Soma’s Road made out of Roman concrete as it was very convenient to transport the villages’ food payment or get visits from merchants.
For this reason, the lifestyle of the zoan, which was suited to wandering, gradually transformed into something suitable for settling. But, that wasn’t all. Hunting was something important for the zoan to demonstrate the courage of a zoan warrior, but some among the young zoan began to talk about stopping the traditional hunt and farming like humans being more fulfilling. Because of that, some zoan, centered around the elderly, even started to criticize the change brought about by Souma while yearning for the old ways.
However, learning about this only now, it was Souma who got surprised the most about this.
“There were such complaints?”
“Yeah. Some among them even claimed that you’re trying to slowly destroy us as you’re the Divine Son of the Goddess of Death and Destruction.”
Souma had resolved himself to receive a certain amount of blame. But, he hadn’t expected to be accused of such evil, despite only having tried to do the best for the zoan. For an instant, he felt dumbstruck.
But, Shyemul lightheartedly asked Souma, “Why are you so surprised? Isn’t that logical?”
Shyemul poked Souma’s chest with her index finger.
“Did you believe that everyone is praising you and approving of your thinking? Did you think that all of them are applauding your every action?”
Shyemul laughed in mockery.
“That is awfully shameless and arrogant of you. I’m also getting insulted for having sold my pride as zoan because I fell in love with a human male.”
Considering that she was talking about herself getting insulted, Shyemul laughed rather cheerfully. But, this wasn’t a laughing matter for Souma. Shyemul should be a being, who gathers respect and affection from all zoan as divine daughter of the Beast God. For even someone like her to get insulted like that meant the situation was far more dangerous than it looked.
Despite that, Shyemul laughed off those worries of Souma.
“It’s way too late now to worry about this either way. I mean, I was told that I’m unsuited as a divine child ever since I approved of you as my Navel Master.”
Shyemul closed her eyes and folded her arms. Producing a rather clever, straight face, she nodded lightly while adding, “Certainly, you’re an incredible guy. And I’d expect nothing less of my Navel Master.”
She didn’t fail to stress the part about him being her Navel Master.
“But, you know, a method to make everyone happy doesn’t exist in this world. Even the gods aren’t capable of doing that. Not to even talk about a mere human like you.
Whenever something changes, it will bring about good and bad things. Whenever you do something, some people will welcome it while others will reject it. Isn’t that natural?”
Just as Shyemul said, it was only a very small fraction of the zoan who were discontent with Souma. If Shyemul were to inform Souma about each and every such complaint and rumor, Souma would become strangely conscious of it, resulting in the situation becoming unnecessarily complicated. Because she was convinced of that, Shyemul had deliberately kept Souma in the dark about all of this.
However, the one getting angry at her for that was Ponpius.
“Doesn’t it already have negative effects!? Those might be small right now, but don’t you think they will eventually become irreparable, leading to a huge disaster!?”
Shyemul cocked her her head lightly, looking mystified, at Ponpius screamed questions.
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Translation Notes: