My first conversation with Kiko took place after the selection interviews for Jairo’s Chivalrous Band ended in Maypool.
“Underboss Candidate. She isn’t exactly a traitor, but letting her accompany the chivalrous band would be a little…”
After hearing that from Jairo, my interest was piqued, and I decided to meet the girl isolated in a private room.
Obsidian.
Madwoman.
The greatest problem child in the Cineraria Family.
A girl who swung a great scythe and indiscriminately harvested heads.
Every rumor I’d heard sounded dangerous.
But when I actually met her, the madwoman I’d imagined beforehand was nowhere to be found.
“…Who are you?”
“I’m Crow. Believe it or not, I’m apparently a candidate for the next underboss. Somehow.”
Kiko’s expression didn’t move when she looked at me.
My lack of dignity was nothing new, but people usually reacted by either underestimating or respecting me. Such complete indifference was rare.
I’d heard she was thirteen, but she was strangely short and extremely thin. She was so skeletal that I wondered whether she’d lacked proper nutrition during her development.
Was she all right?
“I wanted to speak with you for a while… but you must be hungry. Shall we eat first?”
“…Eat?”
“I only have what’s on hand, so it’ll mostly be preserved food. I’ll put everything on the table. Eat anything you want, however you want, and as much as you want.”
Here. Eat your fill.
I took preserved foods from Storage. Dried bread and jerky were standard traveling companions. Dried fruit, hard cheese, and nuts were also common.
Unfortunately, subspace magic had no convenient function that stopped time. Even so, sealing food like a vacuum pack helped it last quite a while. Temperature-control magic tools existed too.
I also set down a small barrel of water and a cup.
Hmm. The goblin sausage too…
For now, perhaps I should at least bring it out. Tastes differed greatly from person to person.
“It isn’t a luxurious meal, but help yourself to whatever you like. I’ll make soup with dried vegetables.”
“…Is it all right?”
“Of course. That’s why I put it out. Ah, but the goblin sausage doesn’t taste good, so be careful.”
When I said that, Kiko cautiously reached for a piece of dried bread while watching my face.
Once she realized I wouldn’t scold her, she began stuffing food into her cheeks with single-minded intensity.
Now, now. There was no need to rush. The food wouldn’t run away.
She looked like a squirrel.
I took out a magic-tool pot and added dried vegetables, mushrooms, water, and jerky. The pot could heat itself using mana alone and was extremely useful during journeys when even starting a fire felt troublesome.
Its function was something like a simplified crafting cauldron.
Salt was the only seasoning, but the savoriness from the mushrooms and other ingredients seeped out and made the soup quite delicious.
By the time the simple soup was ready, every piece of preserved food had disappeared into her stomach.
Including the goblin sausage.
All of it.
“I’ve never eaten this much before. Is this a marriage proposal?”
“What? No.”
“I see. In the village where I was born, men proposed to women by piling a mountain of food before them… It certainly works. After receiving this, I feel as though I would obey any command.”
She’d abruptly become talkative once her stomach was full.
No—perhaps she’d been operating in an energy-saving mode before.
For now, I poured the freshly made soup into a wooden bowl and handed it to her.
Kiko took a mouthful, and her eyes widened enormously. She became delighted, as though her earlier languid air had never existed.
She remained expressionless, though.
“Kiko, I’ll give you this.”
With that, I took out a bag of candy.
Her extreme hunger had become too pitiful to watch. Hunger was painful.
I’d been observing her mana and thought she’d probably never eaten enough to feel full in her entire life. I’d experienced that suffering more than enough in my previous life, so I couldn’t leave her alone.
“Mm. What’s that?”
“These are magical-element candies. Living creatures normally eat food to absorb the magical elements contained in it, then generate mana through the mana organ below the navel…”
Judging from the flow of Kiko’s mana, she had a constitution that required an unusually large amount from birth. It was probably the effect of her magic or something similar.
I’d experienced the same thing in the early stages of my training.
When a body lacked magical elements, it broke down food that should have become nutrition and converted it into those elements instead. In other words, no matter how much she ate, her hunger never disappeared because she received only barely enough nutrition to avoid starving to death.
“These magical-element candies contain fruit juice concentrated in a special device so the magical elements can’t escape. Simply keeping one in your mouth supplies a large quantity. Once enough mana circulates through your body… your body will properly absorb the food in your stomach as nutrition, and you’ll finally become full.”
When I offered her the bag, Kiko accepted it with a slight tremble.
I’d originally made these candies for myself, in case Meditation alone couldn’t supply enough mana. But once my Meditation proficiency increased, they’d remained unused for a long time.
She took one candy from the bag and popped it into her mouth.
She must have felt the effect immediately. She swiftly dropped to one knee and respectfully bowed her head.
Why so suddenly?
“And so… whose head should I cut off?”
“Hmm?”
“Paying this much of a reward in advance means… there must be an enemy of equal difficulty whom you want me to kill. I understand that much.”
Um…
From my perspective, I’d merely given candy to a hungry child.
But Kiko remained on one knee, waiting for orders, and the atmosphere made it difficult to say, “It’s a misunderstanding.”
Hmm. In that case…
“Will you become my subordinate? If you do, I’ll give you magical-element candies whenever you need them.”
“I will.”
“That was fast. Then beginning today, you’ll work tirelessly as my hands and feet. I’ll send a letter to the head of the security division.”
Good, good.
If she became my subordinate, I could train her skills. Licking the candies only provided a temporary solution. But if she raised her proficiency in Meditation, she would probably suffer from hunger due to insufficient magical elements less often.
“Now then, the first job I want you to do—”
“Yes, sir.”
“I want to force the position of next underboss candidate onto Resina. I have a plan to make the Family members’ approval of her explode upward, and I want your cooperation.”
Yes. If Resina intended to push me forward as the next underboss, then I—who wanted to avoid it—only needed to push Resina forward instead.
I would absolutely force it on her.
“I intend to stage an improvised performance. I want you to swing that great scythe around as the ‘madwoman.’”
The imagined sequence went like this.
First, the traitors would attack Resina and have the tables turned on them.
“Aah! We’ll never oppose Lady Resina again!”
Then the madwoman Kiko would burst in and try to harvest their heads.
A deadly, desperate crisis.
But at that moment, Resina—who’d been their enemy only moments earlier—would risk her body to protect them.
Lady Resina is amazing!
Lady Resina is strong and kind!
We’ll follow her for the rest of our lives!
Each time I explained another step, Kiko tilted her head with increasing confusion.
“I’m not good at acting… sir.”
“Ah, you can speak as you always have. Being my subordinate doesn’t mean I expect loyalty. As for the acting… Let me see.”
Resina could use mind-reading magic.
We probably didn’t need to worry very much.
“Come on strong at first, then go with the flow. If it’s Resina, she’ll handle the details well.”