Mediator Oshiras Listens to Lairine's Story

“‘How pointless,’ you saaay......”

The first to react to the words Lairine spat out was Arcus.

His stunned expression lasted only a moment before he knitted his brows, his face becoming visibly displeased.

“Yep, it's pointless, isn't iiit.”

In contrast, Lairine's expression was serene.

Without hiding her boredom, she cast a cold gaze toward Arcus.

“Your feelings and your background and all thaaat—honestly, I couldn't care leeess.”

Twirling a lock of her hair around her fingertip, Lairine began to speak.

“So you're Emi-chan's blood relative, so what? If blood ties matter so much, go hurry up and make a kid of your own. It doesn't have to be Emi-chan, does it? Oh, but for an unpopular old man, maybe that's impossible from the staaart?”

“Aaaah?”

A low, menacing voice leaked from Arcus's mouth.

His face gradually, visibly, began to flush red.

“And you brag about having a little experience raising kids, buuut, wasn't that, like, seriously just a teeny while? And with only that, you're confident about raising kids? Honestly, talk about brazen and shameleeess...... oh, so that's how you can wear that tacky, gaudy gold armor without the slightest embarrassment, maybeee?”

This was a provocation.

That much, Oshiras understood.

This was not a good turn of events.

Arcus's armor began to make small, intermittent kachakacha sounds again.

His body was shaking with rage.

“Emi-chan is going to be my daughter. Because I've decided so.”

Lairine said this languidly, then let out a wide yawn.

“So your story, y'knooow, is pointless and boring, and listening to it was honestly just a total waste of tiiime. Ah, but your face while you were going on so desperately, that was kinda funny, it made me laaaugh. That much, I'll give you credit fooor.”

“You bastaaard......!!”

Arcus growled it under his breath...... and then drew a deep breath.

Then, the kachakacha sound of the armor stopped.

Had he calmed himself?

Oshiras thought so at first, but upon checking Arcus's expression, he instantly realized he was wrong.

Even to Oshiras, who was unaccustomed to violence, it was obvious at a glance.

In that man's eyes...... murderous intent was burning.

He raised himself slightly off his chair and leaned forward.

He had the aura of a beast just before pouncing on its prey.

The woman, seeing the man's expression, was smirking.

The tension in the quiet room swelled rapidly.

And then, it exploded.

Just before that.

“PLEASE WAIT!!!”

DAN!!

Yes, as if slamming both hands onto the table with all his might.

Oshiras shot to his feet, sending his chair toppling backward, and shouted in the loudest voice he had ever used in all his life!

Slowly.

Arcus, whose face was flushed with beast-like rage, and Lairine, who was smirking, stared at Oshiras, who was pale and shaking.

Oshiras glared back at the two of them with everything he had.

“This is...... a place for mediation, for discussion. Please refrain from violent behavior...... Arcus-san.”

Quietly, low, very low...... but clearly, as if speaking to a bear encountered on a mountain path, Oshiras addressed him.

“............Sorryyy......”

The light of reason back in his eyes, Arcus gave a small, quiet nod and sank deep into his chair again with a dochari.

“You as well...... please refrain from acting in a way that provokes others...... Lairine-san.”

“......Ufufu, I'm sooorry.”

Though that was what her mouth said, Lairine turned a beautiful, beaming smile on Oshiras.

And then.

“You got lucky, brat.”

While casting a cold gaze at Arcus, she muttered those terrifying words.

He shuddered.

Oshiras had thought that Lairine's earlier provocation was...... a trap to make Arcus commit an act of violence, which she could then use to denounce him as unfit to be a guardian.

He was wrong.

‘You got lucky’ meant, in other words.

Lairine might have actually intended to physically eliminate one of her rivals.

Arcus, calm again and back in his chair, was pale.

It showed that Arcus had reached the same conclusion Oshiras had guessed, and that even Arcus, a special-grade adventurer, was someone Lairine could easily slaughter.

◇ ◇ ◇

Intuition.

That was the reason Lairine gave when Oshiras, pale-faced, his pride as a mediator the only thing holding down his urge to run, drew out of her why she wanted custody of Emi.

Lairine spoke while directing a passionate gaze, as if she were in love, toward Emi in the next seat.

A person who could be her equal, someone she had spent long years searching for.

That it was Emi.

That this meeting was fate.

That anyone who tried to tear this fate apart, even if it were a god, she would never forgive.

That was what she said.

......Even if you tell me it's intuition.

Oshiras wanted to hold his head in his hands.

Even if you tell me it's intuition, that you just felt you should be her mom.

If he just went, oh, yes, I see, and granted her custody on that basis, Oshiras would be a failure as a mediator.

But Lairine was by no means joking.

This crazy woman was serious.

Surely, if anyone here dared to say she was not fit to have custody, this woman would tear them limb from limb and kill them, smiling.

This woman was that kind of monster.

She had never actually gone on a rampage in front of Oshiras.

But the aura of strength she gave off made even Oshiras understand it.

But!

But, still!

As a mediator!

He could not accept it!

To accept Lairine's claim here and grant her custody of Emi would be to bow to her unreasonable pressure!

Oshiras's pride as a mediator absolutely would not allow that!

Oshiras was a man capable, diligent and foolish enough to agonize over exactly that.

How should he settle this discussion?

Oshiras thought desperately, desperately.

Thinking desperately, desperately.

And then, he suddenly noticed.

Swallowed by his fear of Lairine, he had completely forgotten.

In this room.

There was one more person whose opinion he absolutely had to hear.

That person.

Without seeming to care at all that the room had just been enveloped in a hair-trigger tension.

Just silently.

Kept on polishing off the mountain of Mekena Sandwiches in front of her.