My Reincarnation as a Chicken

Chapter 71 Side Story - The Jealous Tyrant

Minerva had just woken up from her sleep. She let out a yawn and proceeded to call for her friend.

"Tori-kun, wake up."

There was no response, but then she noticed something odd. She couldn't sense his presence in the cave. She looked around but her friend wasn't around. And so, she used her skill [Overlord] to look through the west.

? Luckily, her friend was still in the forest. However he was not alone.

'Have they kidnapped him?'

She thought to herself, but immediately discarded that idea.

'No. Tori-kun is not that weak.'

She had scouted their strength and could tell that there was quite the power gap between Hinotori and those two. So what was happening? She decided to eavesdrop on their conversation.

"I hope the Spider king decides to help us."

"Yea, we will need all the help we can get since the Wolf king and Minerva refused."

As soon as she heard that, she knew what they were talking about. Hinotori was going to ask for help for the self-defense. Minerva, however, saw all that as pointless. It wasn't like the ogre tyrant could actually decimate the West.

There were various reasons for that, but the prominent two were the fact that he destroying the west was the same as going against Larm's wishes, and the other being that he would have to face her. Minerva had never met the ogre tyrant before, but she was very certain of one thing. He was afraid of her. Why else would the creatures in the West to leave? He was afraid that if she had decided to fight back with the races in her territory he would suffer defeat, so to avoid that, he wanted to crush her alone with an entire army.

While eavesdropping, she went about her normal business. Hunting and sleeping. She expected Hinotori to have returned by tomorrow, so she would live her day in solitude.

The next day, when she woke up she was planning on getting some food to celebrate his return, however she heard the tree sprite say that he needed to be there until Diane gave them a thumbs up for them to return.

In silent rage, she walked over to the dryad's tree. When she got there, there was a tree sprite standing in front of the tree.

"Welcome Mad Witch Minerva. Sister Diane has been waiting for you."

The tree sprite courteously bowed to Minerva, but the hob-goblin just stomped past her and entered the tree.

When she got in, there was a table set with two seats, of which Diane had already occupied one. So Minerva sat across her. She took an apple from the basket filled with fruits on the table.

"Oh, Minerva. How do you do?"

"Why did you say Tori-kun shouldn't come back now?"

"Oh? So you've already heard about that?"

"Hurry up and say it. Minerva is hungry."

"I'm sorry, but I can't really tell you for security reasons."

"Fufu… who do you think is in charge of security here?"

"You are, but you are refusing to do your job. Maybe if you took an active role in this whole issue I could tell you."

Minerva glared at the dryad sitting in front of her. Minerva cringed when she saw Diane's smile. It reminded her of the forest king and she didn't like it. At times she felt like this dryad was the forest king himself. Radiating a calming aura, but having a calculating mind behind that smile. Sharp eyes that looked like they could read your mind.

The hob-goblin stood up and proceeded to leave.

"If you ever feel like helping out, just tell one of the leaders. Or Hinotori-kun."

Minerva ignored the dryad and returned to her cave.

That night something odd happened. She noticed a new creature in the West. It was a rare creature that looked human, but wasn't. It was weak and looked exhausted. She ignored its presence. So long as it didn't cause any problems, she wouldn't bother herself with it.

The next day, while monitoring Hinotori, she had noticed that her friend had gotten close to the spider king. They were always bickering and playing with each other. She didn't know why, but it gave her a certain feeling. An emotion she hadn't really ever experienced. She wanted to kill that spider king, but just decided to ignore it. There was no problem with Hinotori making friends, right?

The next day, while Minerva was out hunting, she realized that Hinotori had run into the creature she had ignored from before. Hinotori offered to help her. Minerva couldn't explain why, but she regretted not killing the creature earlier on.

She couldn't take it. This feeling in her heart. Hinotori was making new friends and he was going to probably leave her alone. She didn't want that.

"Haha you don't have any friends. You are boring."

She imagined Hinotori saying something like that to her. Although she could squash him if he said that, she didn't want to. So that day, she spent it by looking for a friend. She remembered her first friend. A timber wolf, Fang. But it was killed by humans. Ever since she hadn't really thought about searching for a friend ever again. That was until she met Hinotori.

Now while she was searching she was thinking about what the perfect friend would be like. She found a nest of jackalopes, but they all ran away as soon as they saw her. Then she went to the bulldeers, but she ended up killing and eating it. She was thinking about timber wolves, but decided against it. They all hated her because she killed their previous leader. Then she went after night vipers, but they attacked her and she ended up killing them in a rage. Next was a giant centipede, but it ran away. Then she intentionally let herself get caught in an armardrillard's trap, but when it saw her it ran away.

She decided to go into the dungeons. She was attacked by skeleton warriors, but when they attacked her, they collapsed. Minerva was getting tired by how all the animals were running away from her, or performing suicide attacks. But then, she spotted something. A colorless gelatinous blob that was slowly moving around, consuming the bones of the fallen skeletons. She picked it up and it was trying to erode at her with its acid, however her defense was so high it only tickled.

"That's it! Minerva found you!"

She was glad. Her search had come to an end. She had found the friend she was searching for. A slime. This would surely make Hinotori jealous. She expected to see him begging her to continue being his friend.

She went back to the cave and had been playing with the slime she called Slimy for a short while, then got bored since it couldn't talk or so something stupid like Hinotori usually did.

When Hinotori returned the next day, she had already prepared herself, but Hinotori never came to her. Instead, she slept at Diane's place. She expected Hinotori would rather come the next day. Hinotori didn't come, so Minerva would wait for the next. The next, nothing happened as well and the hob goblin was getting restless.

The next day, the same events reoccurred, however this time Minerva was so angry she decided to leave the cave so as to avoid breaking anything of hers. While she was walking through the forest the annoying timber wolves surrounded her. She was happy because she had found something to help vent out her frustration. That night she wasted it by pounding on the timber wolves till she was tired. Mentally that is.

After much thinking, she decided that it would be best for her to go talk to Hinotori herself. However, this time Hinotori was with a giant spider, the spider king. That was it. She would kill that spider, but Hinotori fled with the spider before Minerva could do something.

Then there was the fight. This was when she reached peak. She got so angry she almost killed Krull. Post-fight, Hinotori was giving out rewards. Minerva felt like she deserved a reward as well, but she couldn't tell Hinotori to her face, so she was keeping quiet about it.

Finally, Hinotori had proven her point, so Minerva would just pretend as if she was never thinking about it and everything would smooth over naturally. However, Hinotori apologized and asked if they could stay together again. Minerva accepted the offer quickly. Still, Hinotori just ruined the mood by bringing the little dhampyr over.

She just couldn't help it when Hinotori introduced her. But she didn't want Hinotori to know that she was feeling jealous, so when Hinotori brought the creature she decided that it would be best if she let the creature lived with them. That way Hinotori wouldn't notice that she was jealous, right?

That night Minerva made Hinotori go hunting all alone so that she could talk to Ulva. As expected, Hinotori complained but Minerva kicked her out of the cave, literally. When she was left with Ulva, she just looked at the little girl.

"You sleep there. Minerva sleeps here. Don't cross into Minerva's space."

She wanted to unnerve this girl and establish their roles. However, the girl had already prostrated herself before Minerva.

"T-thank you for taking me in."

This action surprised Minerva. She didn't necessarily hate the girl. In fact, the girl had done absolutely nothing, still, Minerva's pride wouldn't allow her to talk to the girl normally. So, she just turned around and pretended to sleep. As long as nothing really changed between her daily routine with Hinotori, Minerva was willing to welcome the idea of a new friend.