Kumo Desu ga, Nani ka? (LN) - Volume 1 - Chapter 11.1

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THE ELF MAIDEN

My father summoned me.

Both me and Katia, no less.

For some reason, I even had to bring Fei along.

All three of us were puzzled as to what it might be about.

“You don’t think it’s about an engagement, do you?”

“What? Whose?”

“You know, uh…you…and me…?” Katia’s insane suggestion left me at a total loss.

“No, it couldn’t be.”

“What’s this? Have you developed a taste for BL or something?”

“Well, it wouldn’t be BL in this case. Look at us, would you? A boy and girl, around the same age, from a similar pedigree. Not to mention, it’s clear that we get along. Would it be that surprising if our parents decided that we should get engaged?”

When she put it that way, it didn’t seem so far-fetched at all.

I was a member of the royal family, after all, and Katia was the daughter of a venerable duke.

From that perspective, we were a perfect match.

“Uh, and you’re okay with that?”

“Man, of course not. I can’t even imagine marrying a dude. But it’s bound to happen eventually, so I figure I better prepare myself.”

“I’m surprised you’ve thought this stuff out that far ahead.”

“Well, excuse me. But honestly, in practical terms, it’s better to marry you than get stuck with some rando I’ve never even met. You know what my deal is and everything… Besides, it’d be kinda bad manners, but we could always mutually break off the engagement if we really had to.”

Was that something you could do?

I’d never even considered the prospect of getting engaged before, but since I was a member of the royal family, that was probably going to come up sooner or later.

In which case it might actually be more convenient to get engaged to Katia, since we’d both be able to just carry on normally.

Except for one small problem.

“What would you do about Sue, though?”

“Ah.”

Yeah.

My sister, Sue, wouldn’t let anyone else near me.

I’d even seen her murderous stare directed at Fei, who from Sue’s perspective was just a pet.

How can you get jealous of even an animal just because it’s female? I wanted to ask her.

But I was afraid her response would be something along the lines of “Why wouldn’t I?”

She seemed to have gotten slightly more tolerant of Katia by now, but if she ever suspected we might get engaged, there was no telling what she’d do.

“Right. She’d probably kill me.”

“Come on, I think you’re exaggerating a little.”

“…Am I, though?”

“I have to admit, I could see it.”

I knew Sue was a little bit out there, but I still thought they were being ridiculous.

As we chatted, two more people—a man and a small girl—entered the room.

Katia, Fei, and I all gaped in shock at the newcomers.

Their ears were far too long to belong to humans.

“Greetings, friends. I am called Potimas Harrifenas, and I have been sent to this fine kingdom as a goodwill ambassador of the elves. It is I who requested your presence here. It is a great pleasure to meet you.”

The man, Potimas, introduced himself in a disinterested tone.

This was my first time meeting an elf.

I knew that they existed, but seeing one up close and in person for the first time drove home that I was in a fantasy world.

“Hmm. So you do have it.”

Potimas narrowed his eyes, and I got an uncomfortable feeling in my gut.

“Oka, these two humans and the creature here have what we’re looking for. I’ll leave the rest to you.”

“All righty, then. Understood!”

“I’ll be on my way, then.”

“Thaaanks for your help!”

Potimas left the room, just like that.

All Katia and I could do was stare, dumbfounded. We didn’t even get to introduce ourselves before he took off.

With no idea what to do next, I turned my attention to the little girl who’d stayed behind.

“Now, now, let me see. I suppose we’ll start with introductions, shall we? My current name is Filimøs Harrifenas. So lovely to meet you!”

Katia and I looked at each other.

How were we supposed to respond to such an introduction from this small girl?

“You know, if your teacher introduces herself, it’s only proper to respond in kind, I’d saaay! And who might you beeee?”

“My apologies. I am the fourth prince of this kingdom, Schlain Zagan Analeit.”

“I am the eldest daughter of Duke Anabald, Karnatia Seri Anabald.”

At the girl’s prompting, we scrambled to introduce ourselves.

“I see, I see. A prince and a duchess-to-be, is it? Verrry nice. Sooo cute.”

Something about those words jogged my memory.

Her odd manner of speaking had seemed familiar all along, and now I knew who she reminded me of.

Katia’s eyes widened as he realized it at the same time.

“No way… Ms. Oka?!”

“You really oughtn’t to give nicknames to your teacher, you knooow? But that’s corrrrect.”

Before our eyes was our homeroom teacher in our former lives: Ms. Kanami Okazaki, or Ms. Oka for short.

This teacher, who we all called by her nickname, was a bit of an unfortunate person.

Apparently, she’d adopted the speech tic of one of her favorite manga characters in middle school and ended up talking like that all the time.

She went to a university with a strong history program because of her interest in manga about the Warring States period, and she became a teacher mostly out of a desire to meet a younger man.

Overall, a pretty sad excuse for an educator.

However, her pathetic nature actually made her rather popular with the students.

“All righty, then, how about you? The one pretending to be a pet over theeere?”

“Huh?! How did you know?!”

“It’s obvious, you knooow! Really, now, I would think you’d already know that, since we made sure to invite you, toooo.”

Fei looked extremely displeased about this. Probably because she used to misbehave in class a lot and got more than a few reprimands from the teacher.

Maybe she felt a little sheepish about it.

“Uuugh. I’m Feirune.”

“Yes, yes, verrry good.”

The teacher patted Fei on the head.

Fei grimaced a little at this treatment.

“So? Why are you here, Ms. Oka?”

“Why, because I knew you three were here, of cooourse! You’ve become quite the hot topic, you knooow? The young prodigies born of the Analeit kingdom are the talk of the town!”

As we spoke to our teacher for the first time in so long, we all ended up using Japanese.

Soon, we told her our names from our previous lives.

The moment she heard Katia’s old name, her eyes widened, and she murmured something like, “Sooo cute!”

“So you came just to see us?”

“That’s riiight.”

“Okay, I understand how you knew these two oafs were here, but how’d you find out about me? I thought I was blending in pretty well as a pet.”

“Then you don’t realize how unusual you are, my deeear. There are rumors, you knooow? That the prince’s pet is a genius, toooo.”

“What, really?”

“That’s riiight. A normal monster wouldn’t listen to the commands of a person who doesn’t have the Creature Training skill, not to mention working out and training alongside them, you knooow!”

“Ah, I guess that makes sense. How stupid of me.”

It was disconcerting that the information could leak outside the castle so easily, but I guess there was no stopping the rumor mill.

“But that’s not the only reason I’m here, my deeears. I’m still a teacher, you knooow? I have to at least make sure my students are safe, you seeee. As safe as you can be after being reincarnated, anywaaay!”

She said it jokingly, but I think she actually meant it, and I was kind of impressed.

It hadn’t even occurred to me to worry about anyone’s survival but my own in this world.

I did suspect that my other classmates might be here, too, but I had never considered actually looking for them.

“This world is far more dangerous than Japan, you knooow? If I can ensure your safety, I’d like to do it as soon as I caaan.”

I’d never thought about that, either.

It should have been obvious, given I knew there were monsters and stuff in this world, but since I was safe, I had just assumed that my other classmates would be, too.

Fei had even told me how she nearly died, but at the time, it had seemed to me like a story from far away.

“So you came to protect us, then?”

“Oh, goodness, nooo. Considering your positions, I can hardly just take you away with me, you knooow. But if any of my students wish it, I’ll gladly take them to the village of elves for protection, you seeee.”

“Does that mean you’ve already found others?”

“Oh, yesss. There are eleven students in the elf village, and I’ve managed to contact six others, including the three of youuu. And I’ve located two more, so I’ll be off to visit them next, you seeee.”

There were twenty-five students in our class.

Which would mean there were still six more whose whereabouts were unknown.

But to put it another way, that meant only six students hadn’t been found.

In a vast world like this one, it must’ve been no small feat to find that many reincarnated students.

“You’ve really been looking out for us, then, Ms. Oka.”

“It’s my duty as a teacher, of cooourse. Besides, most of them were living as humans in human territory, you knooow. So it wasn’t as hard as all thaaat.”

“Mostly humans…”

Fei was stunned by our teacher’s words.

“Don’t worry about it” was the only comfort I could muster.

Despite Ms. Oka’s light tone, it was clear she’d been working hard to find everyone.

I bowed my head toward her in thanks again.

“All righty, then. There’s sooo much more we should talk about, but I’ll be off to enter the school of this kingdom soooon. We can discuss everything then, all riiight?”