Mediator Oshiras Listens to the Parirot Couple's Story

“Um, if I could have a moment......”

While Oshiras was feeling exasperated by Arcus's nonsensical remark, another participant spoke up.

It was Parirot, one half of the couple seated on the right side of the round table.

“Yes, what is it, Parirot-san?”

Feeling a little relieved at the sight of sensible Parirot, who had raised his hand and was politely waiting for his turn, Oshiras invited him to speak.

“As Mediator-sama said at the start, I understand that today's discussion was convened over the custody of that, th...... Emi-san.”

“Yes, that is correct.”

“In that case, this discussion is none of our business, my wife's or mine. We have no intention of becoming that child's guardians. We only came because we were called. I know we've only just started, but I have work to attend to, so would it be all right if we left now?”

“Aaaah?”

Hearing Parirot's indifferent remark about the matter at hand, Arcus, who until then had sat in his chair with a smile, however ill-mannered, gave a displeased growl for the first time.

And he fixed Parirot with a hard glare.

Parirot, for his part, did not back down.

Though he was shaking slightly, he leaned forward a bit as if to shield his wife from that gaze, and glared back at Arcus.

“Arcus-san, please restrain yourself.”

Oshiras was also breaking into a cold sweat from the special-grade adventurer's 【Intimidation】, but he was the mediator.

His job was to lead this case to a resolution through a peaceful discussion.

Patching together a calm front with his pride in his work, he reined Arcus in.

Then, after checking the documents created from the preliminary interviews, he questioned Parirot.

“It can hardly be ‘none of our business,’ Parirot-san. From her own account and various testimonies, your wife, Rana-san, has been found to be Emi-san's birth mother, you know?”

“Yes, that may well be so. But even so, it is ‘none of our business.’ My wife parted from Emi-san because she divorced her former husband, after all.”

“Hmm......”

Oshiras put a hand to his chin and thought.

According to the documents, Rana had previously lived in a rural village in the Raybreak Kingdom.

For reference, he flipped through the laws of the Raybreak Kingdom in his mind, parapara.

Divorcing and leaving the child to the former husband.

That certainly amounted to forfeiting parental rights at that point.

And in the Raybreak Kingdom, once that happens, parental rights are lost and are not automatically restored afterward.

As far as he remembered, that was how the system worked.

But this was Naganahate, and......

“We were not told of this during the preliminary investigation, were we?”

“I am very sorry. I was agitated and forgot.”

“Furthermore, do you have any evidence to prove the divorce?”

“No. Since it was a remote rural area, there was no custom of leaving agreements in writing. Moreover, since the village has been destroyed, there are no witnesses.”

It was Parirot, not Rana, who rattled all that off.

All the while, Rana kept her head down and would not even look up.

She would not even let the strangely dressed girl Emi, sitting across from her, into her line of sight.

Emi, too, paid absolutely no attention to Rana, who was by rights her birth mother.

She simply continued to eat Mekena Sandwiches in total silence.

“Heeey, I've been listening this whole time, and, y'knooow......”

And just then.

The man in golden armor, Arcus, planted an elbow on the round table with a gachari and propped his cheek on his hand, cutting in as he blew out cigarette smoke.

“Setting aside the hard stuff about evidence and whatnot, y'knooow...... ‘We're divorced, so it's none of our business, let us go home now,’ is iiit......?”

The man's deep, menacing voice echoed through the deathly silent room.

A man who had given off a coarse, even slovenly air.

But this man was a special-grade adventurer who even now fought monsters on the front lines and carved paths through unexplored lands.

He was by no means a mere thug; his words possessed a power that gripped the listener's ears without room for argument.

“Even so, that woman is still Emi-chan's birth mother, isn't she! What kind of life her own child is gonna lead from here on...... she's got no interest in any of it at all!? Even if she's got no feelings as a parent, that's too much! DON'T YOU PEOPLE EVEN HAVE HUMAN FEELINGS!?”

His voice was so loud that the window glass rattled, biribiri.

Overwhelmed by that force, Parirot went pale, his mouth opening and closing, pakupaku.

Rana hung her head even lower, sniffling.

“At least think with a little common sense before you speeeak......”

Muttering that last part as if groaning, Arcus began puffing on his cigarette again.

Silence enveloped the room once more.

In his heart, Oshiras wholeheartedly agreed with Arcus's words.

He caught a glimpse of the black-haired, black-eyed girl, Emi, out of the corner of his eye.

No emotion could be read from the girl, who continued her meal expressionlessly.

She almost looked as if she didn't care about anything.

But.

But in reality, how much pain and sadness were in her heart?

She had just been told, in essence, ‘I don't care about you,’ by the people on her birth mother's side.

At that moment, she had been abandoned by her mother all over again.

Oshiras felt pity for Emi.

Even if she did have black hair and black eyes, a look generally loathed, this treatment was far too cruel.

Perhaps he felt this way precisely because he was Mediator Oshiras, who always strove to ‘be fair and without prejudice.’

When he looked at Rana, the birth mother, sitting opposite Emi, she had shrunk into herself and was trembling.

Her current husband, Parirot, was rubbing her back, desperately trying to protect his wife.

That much was obvious just by looking.

They had their own circumstances, too.

Rana, the birth mother, had looked nothing but frightened all day today.

Parirot was simply trying to protect her.

He was a kind man.

Toward his wife.

But still, as Arcus said, it was a fact that the way that kindness showed itself had led to words and actions far too lacking in common sense.

But on the other hand.

This was a trivial matter, but.

While he greatly agreed with Arcus's remark to ‘speak with common sense.’

Looking at Arcus, who was clad in golden armor despite being indoors, and who was puffing away on cigarettes despite the non-smoking rule, Oshiras couldn't help but think.

You're one to talk about common sense......

“Heyyy, heyyy......”

While Oshiras was thinking that, a new voice spoke up from the front left.

It was Lairine, smiling brightly.

“For nooow, y'knooow, come ooon, how about we just say I'm Emi-chan's mom, okaaay?”

............What is this woman saying!?

She's completely ignoring everything that's been said so far!!

Is she not even here to discuss anything in the first place!?

Scary!!

Sure, Arcus has common sense!!

Compared to this woman!!

“Hey.”

Then, this time, a new voice came from Oshiras's left side.

It was Emi.

Rapping a fingertip, konkon, on the big plate that had held a mountain of Mekena Sandwiches until a moment ago and was now completely empty, Emi said.

“Seconds.”

............And this one's just as bad, in her own way......!!!