Miri was wary of that group from the Church ― or rather they seemed organized more like an army .
Miri said to let sleeping dogs lie but as people who serve the Goddess, I figured that they wouldn’t attack us that easily . Even if they did assault us, Miri and I were very capable of turning the tables on them .
“Onii, you can’t underestimate the Church . Once you become their enemy, you will become the enemy of all humankind . Since the Church is a place where its teaching can even extend to killing gods . ”
“To preach to kill gods, isn’t that getting their priorities backward? It’s like selling the land you plan to use to build a house to raise funds to build a house . ”
“Hn, I think they’re a little different but …”
I tried using a metaphor I came up on the spot but as expected I couldn’t deceive Miri by going with the flow .
Well, Miri was the Demon Lord in her previous life so she was probably hunted down by the Church . Or rather, the hero certainly belonged to the Church so it can be said that she was killed by the Church . Moreover, it was also the Church that sold Haru into slavery and executed Haru’s father .
Thinking about it that way, I probably can’t get along easily with the Church .
Nevertheless, I was helped by the Hero Alessio at Ferruit and have been aided quite a bit by the Hero’s companion Daijiro-san ― or more specifically, I probably wouldn’t have been able to travel the world so smoothly once I came to this world if it wasn’t for Daijiro-san .
“Well, you might think I’m the worst kind of human being to say this but I have to be thankful for the Church . ”
“Thankful for the Church? Why? Don’t tell me it’s because you received the blessings of the Goddesses? If not for the Church, I wouldn’t have had to die in my previous life . ”
“That’s true . That’s why, without the Church, Miri wouldn’t have become my younger sister . ”
I smiled as I said that and placed my hand on Miri’s head .
Perhaps she was caught off guard as Miri’s eyes became rounded and maybe she was embarrassed or angry for having been treated as a child as her cheeks dyed red and she snapped back .
“Onii, don’t say such words that set’s a person’s teeth on edge to other girls okay . You will be misunderstood . ”
“Hn? Misunderstood? I really feel fortunate to be with Miri like this though?”
” … Hah . ”
Miri sighed as if she gave up .
“Ah . I actually feel bad that I caused you to fall into a difficult situation that you had to kill yourself but don’t sigh because of that . ”
“Sheesh, Onii has always been like this . It’s fine . I’ll always be with Onii after all . ”
“No, you will one day find a nice guy and get married . Well, if there is a person out there who would take a selfish miser like you ― ouch!”
Miri kicked my shin . It hurt quite a bit .
My words just now did certainly sound like the sexual harassment of a father .
But if Miri really brought a boyfriend for me to see and introduce to me, what would I do?
Shall I give him a punch in place of our father? “You actually laid your hands on my cute sister! Shut up and take one of my punches!” or something like that .
“I still don’t have another half like that . Leaving that aside, what about Onii? Norn seems to hold quite some gratitude towards Onii . ”
“Norn-san huh . Haha, I saved Norn-san when she was attacked by bandits so it’s only a feeling of gratitude . Even on my end, I only feel gratitude towards Norn-san for helping me when I was injured when Kobolds attacked me . ”
“Then, Onii doesn’t like Norn as a person of the opposite sex?”
“Hahaha, it would be discourteous towards Norn-san if I had such thoughts . ”
I replied . If I was a self-conceited person, I would wonder if she actually had feelings towards me by sending Miri all the way over here . However, I am a human capable of calm judgment . I understood that Norn-san did all that in order to repay me for saving her life .
“I see … so Onii doesn’t feel anything towards Norn . I guess I can let Norn go for now . ”
Hn? I thought I heard something along the line of letting someone go for now?
Don’t tell me this Miri . She plans to punch my marriage partner once I bring her over?
Although I’ve never heard of younger sisters punching their elder brother’s wife candidate before marriage, if my predictions were true, currently Haru was facing the greatest danger .
Well, Haru was Miri’s previous reincarnation’s beloved girl after all so they should be able to get along well . Moreover, Miri who loved to make money should be able to build rapport well with Carol who is active as a peddler .
Thank god . It looks like a wife-sister-in-law war won’t happen .
Looks like it will be easier to introduce Haru and Carol as my future marriage partners . Well, I don’t intend to touch Carol until she reaches 18 so marriage will have to wait till after then .
“Nevertheless, those Church people don’t seem that keen on leaving . I wonder what happened?”
I thought and checked the surroundings of the Church people .
That was when a shadow of a black human-shaped figure appeared from within the walls .
When the Church squad saw that, they took out a coffin-like box from a small bag .
“That looks like an item bag . ”
“I guess ― But, is that black shadow a monster?”
“I’m not sure . I’ve never seen a monster like that before . ”
Just as Miri said that, the Church squad opened the lid to that coffin-like box .
The black shadow willingly entered that box and the lid was shut .
And the box was once again stored inside the item bag .
A living organism cannot enter an item bag .
Even though an undead can’t be deemed as living, it still maintained a moveable state so they also can’t be stored in an item bag .
In other words, that was not a monster after all?
” … A Homunculus like Pionia can’t enter an item bag either right? But an Automata like Sheena can so maybe it was some kind of magical life form . I’ve heard rumors that the Church was doing research on it . ”
“Magical life form huh? It looked more like a kind of monstrous apparition(youkai) instead . ”
The Church squad finally left .
However, we didn’t know if they would come back so we quickly moved to the lower level .
If I was alone, I would have investigated that wall that the black shadow came out from .
But like Miri said, to let sleeping dogs lie .
And then, we found a large field of grass growing right in front of the lowest level boss room .
“Which are the Kiriri grass?”
The grass all seemed the same and I couldn’t differentiate between them .
I’m capable of Food, Metal and Mineral Appraisal but I didn’t have Plant Appraisal .
That was a skill that Harvesters acquire so Carol had it .
“There’s no helping it . I’ll open a door to My World and call Carol so that she can help us look for it . ”
“There’s no need for that . I memorized all plants there are . ”
Miri surveyed the plants .
“Hn, there are a few of them but their quality is not good enough to be used for medicine . Kiriri grass weakens when subjected to monster miasma . ”
“Then maybe we can harvest their seeds and grow them in My World? I can grow them in an instant . ”
“I think that is fine too but I believe they also grow where the Goddess statue is at the back of the boss room so maybe we can decide after we check there . ”
“Boss room huh … incidentally, what is the boss of this dungeon?”
“Ah . I think it’s a monster Onii likes?”
I listened to the features of the boss and felt a surge of motivation .