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Chapter 27: The Fleure Family
Chapter 27: The Fleure Family
Chapter 27: The Fleure Family
I wonder what happened with the Hunting Festival in the end.
According to Noela, Lilika had come to the store to give her thanks, but she had already gone by the time I appeared.
If she came to give her thanks I suppose it was a great success.
If it wasn’t, it seems like she’d say it was because my strategy was bad or something.
Mina appeared when I went to the medicine room to make medicine.
“Reiji-san, are you busy right now?”
“Nope, I’m not. What is it?”
Did she gain weight again…?
“Ah-. Are you thinking something rude right now?”
“Of course not, of course not.”
Approaching swiftly, Mina sat opposite of me.
“Reiji-san. I … in the end, I want to go on an outing with Reiji-san and Noela-san…….”
“We’re always relying on you to watch the house, after all.”
I thought about whether I could do anything for her.
The person herself always says one thing or another, but Mina’s current situation is completely that of a ghost; I don’t really know if there’s a single medicine that can manage anything for her.
“Have you tried to go outside before?”
“Of course I have. It was a long time ago, though. When I went to take one step, I returned to the inside of the house. I was in the living room before I realized it…”
It doesn’t seem like she’ll be paralyzed if she leaves the house’s grounds, nor is there an invisible barrier-like thing that hinders her or the like.
In terms of a board game, it seems like the situation is “Return to Start.”
I’d heard it when we met, but Mina is a mysterious ghost that is satisfied when the people in this house live their lives happily.
At the very least, I have no dissatisfaction about my daily life and am having fun go about it.
It’s probably the same for Noela.
“But even so, she won’t disappear, I guess…”
“What is it?”
In the first place, Mina might also be mistaken about her own condition for disappearing.
“Yeah. She’s the type to hand over a note about her panties, so it’s not impossible…”
“I,isn’t that enough about that~!? Everyone’s had mistakes. – I don’t care about you anymore, Reiji-san.”
Hmph; Mina turns her face to the side.
The kind and caring Mina also has times she gets mad, huh?
It’s kind of fresh.
“Can I show it to you once?”
Glancing at me on the sly, Mina pressed on with the previous subject.
“I do want to see someone for whom leaving the house is impossible.”
“Understood. It really only takes a moment, after all.”
Standing up, we left by the kitchen door.
Passing through the garden, I opened the small gate.
Exchanging looks, I nodded and Mina took a deep breath and took one step outside of the grounds.
And when she did.
Swoosh; Mina’s form disappeared.
When I returned to the house and entered the living room, Mina was there on top of the sofa.
“So it’s like that.”
“It’s like that for both your physical form and spirit form?”
“Yes…… Like I thought, I suppose I can’t go outside…”
Hmmmm.
There’s no way to deal with it if we don’t know what’s causing it …
After that, the result was the same no matter how many times we tried it.
“I’m … dead anyway … so I’m never going to be able to leave the house ever again … … Ahaha … … haha … haa……”
Mina hugged her knees on top of the sofa, clearly depressed.
… The inside of her skirt was completely visible from my position.
How to say this; she keeps it from becoming extremely serious.
Although that’s another one of Mina’s good points.
“Cheer up. One day, you might be able to go outside all of a sudden. If we leave it like this, it’s sad for Mina, right? As for me, I want to go on vacation with all three of us. A company vacation. We’ll spend all of the profits we’ve saved up. Sounds fun, right?”
Hehe; as she laughed, tears fell as Mina began to cry.
“Reiji-shaaan… I met a good houseowner … fuee…”
There, there; I patted her head.
Although I said that, I don’t know a single thing about the situation, so I’m not going to do anything.
It’s possible that she’s that kind of existence.
It’s also possible that she’ll disappear if we forcibly take her out or something.
Hearing our voices, Noela came into the living room.
“Mina, what’s wrong?”
“Noela-saaaan…”
Glomp; Mina hugged Noela.
With Noela’s fluffy effect, fuhehe; Mina’s face released its tension.
Seems like fluffiness is justice.
“Why the sofa?”
Noela tilted her head, mystified.
It’s a rare chance for Mina to be sitting on the sofa.
She’s always in the kitchen, cooking and cleaning up, or moving around as she cleans, after all.
… Come to think of it.
We were leaving by all sorts of exits, but Mina always returns to on top of the sofa.
No matter how many times we repeated it, the place she returns to is absolutely the same.
“Is there something about the sofa…?”
No, the sofa was something I bought when we decided on this house ….
“If it’s not the sofa, is it under it?”
There’s nothing there even if I look under it, just normal flooring.
In that case, is it below the flooring?
When I look at Mina, she’s fluffing Noela, loosening up.
“Hey, Mina. Was this room remodeled at any time in the past?”
“Yes. It was. Just one time by the first family after I’d become a house protecting spirit.”
She won’t break her stance saying that she’s a house protecting spirit instead of a ghost no matter what.
I don’t have an ability nor tool to check beneath the flooring.
“- Noela, call that person over.”
“That person…! Understood, will call.”
Swoosh; Noela dashed off, and after 10 minutes she came back with an old man on her back.
It’s the carpenter who remodeled the entryway and shop area, Gaston-san.
With his back hunched over nearly 90 degrees, he moved his mouth lightly.
It feels like his eyelids would close at any moment.
“Underneath this sofa is flooring, right? I would like to see underneath this flooring; can you do that?”
“Huuuh~? What did you say?”
His ears are as ineffective as before.
“I want to see! Underneath! The flooring! Can you help!?”
“Aah, aah, Granny, see, in the old days ~”
I didn’t ask about that.
“That’s right, in the end, she was stolen, see.”
<t/n: unspecified if Gaston took her from someone or vice versa>
This again?
……. Continue; I’m curious, so I’d like to here it.
“Who! Stole! Granny!?”
“Under the flooring? Aah, I can do that~.”
He returned to the topic!?
Dammit, I’m extremely curious.
It has absolutely no relevance so I’ll stop digging any further for today; I ask Noela to remove the sofa.
“Here, right? Awright, awright, I’ll do it~.”
Clatter clatter; taking his tools out from his toolbox, Gaston-san began to work.
Wor-king, wor-king
Like I saw before, he works at quite a leisurely pace.
“Um-! How long! Will this take!?”
“Let’s see~, three days abouts~”
“It takes that long…? – Alright, I’m going to use THAT. Noela, bring it over?”
Seems like I conveyed what THAT was; Noela returned to the store and took a bottle.
“Gaston-san, have this. It’s something that will give you energy. It might improve your performance.”
“What this~? Some weird sort of drink?”
Narrowing his eyes, Gaston-san looked at the bottle.
He’s totally forgotten that he’s drunk it before.
Tilting his head, he drank one mouthful, two mouthfuls.
Take that. My number 2 best-seller.
Energy potion.
Woosh; the bottle was thrown at me, and I caught it.
“Boy, hold on to this. I’m overflowing with power… -! Fuhahaha!”
Oooh, just like I thought! His personality changes! The Legend version.
His warped back straightened in a blink of an eye, and a mysterious aura blazed intimidatingly behind him.
“With just this much wooork! I can do it! In 10 seconds! Don’t look down on the Legend-. Fu-hahahaha!”
Um, just those words took 10 seconds, though.
Enough with the stupid smirking and move your hands as you speak.
“Don’t regret … that you woke me!”
“Why do you look like you’re 5 seconds away from a fight? Rather, please fulfill my request.”
Fuhahaha; while raising a loud laugh, Gaston-san exhibited the work of the Legend.
He immediately opened a hole in the floor so that I could peek underneath.
“And neeeext! It’s fine to take this with you-!”
Saying so with a loud voice, Gaston-san installed a tiny door that could open and close.
His work is careful and quick. Yup, this guy is a pro alright.
But his commission isn’t high and his sense of duty and empathy is that of a gentleman.
“It’s fine to call me over again!”
“Yes! If the chance comes, we’ll rely on you!”
Bowing smartly, Gaston-san gave a nod and took his leave.
“He’s an amazing person, isn’t he… I wonder if he has a split personality….?”
“Crazy… he’s just, crazy…”
Oh, this is the first time these two have seen him.
His personality is pretty strong, naa … especially aftr he drinks the energy potion.
“Reiji-san. What’s underneath?”
“If my expectations are correct, I think something that concerns Mina will appear.”
Haa; Mina doesn’t seem too keen on it.
“Concerning me…?”
I quickly opened the small door installed into the floor.
There was a small cavity there, and a worn out ladder continuing further below.
I descended downwards on the ladder.
It’s not that deep and I reached the ground soon.
There was a small room when I opened an old door. It had a single bookcase, desk, and chair.
The dust was gathered thick all over.
H-m. Is there anything out of place?
According to my expectations, I thought there would be something draws Mina to itself, though-.
When I pulled out a drawer from the desk to look, I found a brooch that resembled the shape of a flower petal.
[The Fleure Family Brooch: an expensive ornament inlaid with green garnet.]
Fleure…? Come to think of it, I’ve never heard what Mina’s family name is before.
“Reiji-sa-n, are you alright-?”
“I’m coming back now.”
I went up the ladder and returned, showing the brooch to Mina.
“Do you recognize this?”
“Ah-. That’s something Mother entrusted to me-! How nostalgic … this, it was in the basement(?)?”
“Yeah. Your mother entrusted it to you?”
“Yes. It’s something Mother passed on to me, telling that I should only wear it for important days. In those days, I was … um, when she no longer had those opportunities, Mother entrusted it to me. In the end, I never had a chance to wear it and … … ahaha….”
Isn’t this what’s pulling Mina…?
Let’s try it out.
I took the brooch and went to the medicine room.
“Mina-! Go ahead-!”
When I said so with a loud voice, appeared in the middle of the air and descended like that.
“Uuwaaa!?”
“Kyaaa!?”
Crash;
I was pinned underneath Mina.
“A,are you alright, Mina?”
“Y,yes, somehow … Ah, sorry, Reiji-san. I landed on top of you.”
Mina got off, and I got up.
“It really is this. If Mina leaves past a certain distance, she returns to where the brooch is.”
In order to prove my hypothesis, I attached the brooch to Mina and we went outside together.
Mina wasn’t returned back, and she was constantly there just like that outside of the grounds.
“It really is this! If you carry this, Mina won’t be bound to the house.”
Ya-y! Mina raised both hands.
“It’s outside, outside-! I can go shopping by myself, and I can do anything-! Reiji-sa-n!”
“Yup, like this, the three of us can go all over the place, right?”
Glomp; Mina hugged me.
“Wai, let go. This is outside, so -”
“I can, go, anywhere … uuuuu, fueeeee~.”
“Why are you crying?”
“Because I’m happy~”
Hearing our voices, Noela came over, and going along with what was said, clung to me.
“Noela too.”
“Noela, Mina can go out now, so where should the three of us go from now on?”
“Ru-? Master, Mina. Going out, all three of us-”
Swishswish. Swishswish.
Noela’s tail is wagging in perfect form.
“A company trip. Where should we go?”
Her eyes swollen, Mina wiped her tears and smiled.
“Reiji-san, I’m very happy.”
“Noela too, Noela too.”
“Yeah, me too.”
The bonds between the members of Kirio Drug have deepened greatly.