Kyou kara Ma no Tsuku Jiyuugyou! Vol 4 Chapter 10

      I spent the next three days in Hildyard’s resort town staying in the hot springs from morning to night whenever I had free time.  By the end, I had gotten used to those scandalous bikini thongs and was in the dangerous frame of mind of being weirded out by normal swim trunks.       That’s so embarrassing I can’t tell anyone.

      Anissina stayed behind in the resort town.  It seems like she’s going to open a huge knitting and inventing goods shopping mall.  Once they’re healed, there will be around 100 young girls who knit and have delicate lady's fingers – as opposed to men’s fingers.  At night, she’ll teach them how to read and about business practices and have them work in the afternoon so they can get an education and a steady income.  Izura and Nina are also going to be a part of that facility.

      That speech is just a little bit sexist.

      “… Go… Good luck.”

      The hinomokou shop is being placed in a corner of the shopping mall and it seems as if the preparation of the palace food of the lost country of Zorashia is being carried on with precise attention to detail.  I’d also like instruction on the unique eating method of noisily slurping up one single noodle.

      “Apparently, you can see the future in the soup.”

      “That’s right.  I thought so too.  Maybe if it showed a ghost standing behind you, right?”

      Gegenhuber’s life was saved, but at the moment he’s simply ‘alive.’  His heart and lungs are both working, but it doesn’t seem like he’ll regain consciousness.  It sounded like he said something once, but that was probably just my imagination.  Especially since what I heard was:

      And that was it.  Is he a samurai or something!?  It was definitely my imagination.  If only there had been some old-timey nuance to the way he said it and it would have been hilarious.

      It was around noon, just when the temperature was rising, that I got back to my castle.

      “Uh, Günter, no, Mr. Günter?”

      He opened his arms as wide as possible making his already tall height even more towering and comes running at me… or not.  Under his arms, he’s wearing a strange, fluttering outfit that is completely wrapped around him.

      “You’re not mad?  And, you’re not even crying?”

      “Mad?  Why would you think I’d have that worldly emotion?  Your Majesty, I’ve attained enlightenment.  Love is to accept everything and to change yourself for the person you love.  And, the hardships that come along with love are all according to His will.”

      “So Your Majesty, the days that I was unable to see you were a test of my faith given to me by His Majesty the True King.”

      “… What are you doing, Dacascos?” Conrad suddenly asks.

      Conrad lifts the huge box behind Günter.  Inside, there was a completely hairless, middle-aged soldier operating a spotlight and a music box.

      “… I don’t really get it, but you aren’t enlightened at all… ah... I, I feel like I’m being glared at.”

      “… All of you… do… your work!” (2)

(2)    Another language related footnote.  Actually, I’m surprised there weren’t more of these in the other chapters.  ANYWAY, the word for ‘you’ that Gwendal uses is a derogatory way of saying ‘you’ in Japanese.  In fact, it can also be translated as ‘you bastard/son of a bitch,’ if you were so inclined.  It’s also written in katakana for extra emphasis (which is kind of like putting something in italics), so you can tell he’s REALLY pissed here.  I left it as just ‘you’ because that’s what it is and I just can’t imagine him saying ‘you bastard/son of a bitch’ to the king.  Although, the man has kicked a child before so I guess it wouldn’t be so unbelievable o.O;;

      Going off of our usual course a little bit, we climb up a gentle slope.  At the bottom of the short hill, there’s a carpet of green despite it being winter.

      “Can you see it?

      From under the green cut up in five places, a dark brown is peeking out.  There is a coarse net attached to evenly spaced, wooden pillars.  Several muscular young men were making a set of stands.  The stands were about ten levels high.

      “… Wow.”

      “Not at all.  It’s absolutely not strange at all.  It’s fine, there’s definitely a hundred meters on each side.”

      I unconsciously move my feet forward.  Or rather, I started to run forward and failed and my whole body fell right on the hard winter grass and I tumbled down the low slope.

      “I’m fine.”

      “… What do I do?”

      The young men who were working come running over.  They all have the same serious look.

      “Off duty?  What are you doing if you’re off duty?”

      Lord Weller finally catches up to me and lets me off the hook by sending the soldiers back to their work.

      “It’s because they want to make Your Majesty happy.”

      “But why are they making something so awesome?”

      Right field, center field, left field, third base, second base, first base.  A mound not quite high enough and a home base that hasn’t been put in place yet.

      “They worked so hard because they want you to like this country.”

      Conrad smiles a smile that pierces my heart and moves towards the batter’s box.

      I slowly move to stand behind home base and look out over the field.  I can see everything from here.  The mental state of the pitcher, the shifts of the fielders, the runner’s starts, even the inside of the mind of the batter who is so close I could touch their shoulder.

      I carefully kneel on the ground, ready my palm and bend my elbow.  From there, I lie down and press one cheek and ear to the ground.  It was cold at first, but after a moment, the heat from the ground came through.  The sunlight that lights this country is radiating from above and below the earth.

      “… Hey, can I say something boring?”

      “I think, you know, that it’s okay.”

      “... I think it’s okay.  You can’t have a visitor all the time.  It’s okay to have two headquarters and to have both Sapporo Dome and Seibu Dome as your homes.  Although you probably… don’t know what I’m talking about.”

      “Yeah, so… I might never be able to go back anymore, but…”

      “Besides, I came here because you wanted me, right?”

      “Then…”

      There’s no happier life than this.

      Because it’s awkward to bathe alone in that huge bath, at night I make Wolfram come with me for bath time.  I feel like if I spend time with him naked in the huge baths, we can form a friendship as men instead of he and his flirty fiancé.  The problem is that as we’re deepening our friendship as two bros, he’s getting discouraged. (1)

      After I woke up paralyzed twice tonight, my eyes open and I can’t sleep anymore.

      “Whadd’re ya sayin, you know whatime it is?  Stop bein’ so annoying.”

      And you’re completely rude by just ignoring the fact that you’re living in my bed and saying whatever you want.

      When I finally got to the dressing room, I jumped at the faint noise of water.

      “That splashing noise is obviously not very adult so the chances of it being Lady Celi are small.  If I had to say, it’s someone with a light build…”

      A child’s ghost just isn’t funny!  Or maybe it’s a zashiki warashi from a private house.  Or maybe a Japanese doll whose hair grows!?  Or maybe a Hina doll whose head comes off!?  As I go through the possibilities, they get less and less scary.  (3)

      “… um… ah! A doggy!?”

      I swim up to the small animal with a painstaking doggie-paddle and finally my fingertips meet fur.  It’s not moving so does that mean it’s already used all of its energy!?  Oh no puppy!

      It was too late by the time I noticed.

      By any chance is this that thing that I’m used to that always happens!?  Is this that well-known attraction that has become easier for me to use since that one was made at Tokyo Disney Sea!?

      After this, it’s just the Star Tours I haven’t seen in a long time.

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(1)    I realize the whole 'getting naked together to deepen our friendship instead of sexy feelings' runs counterintuitive to western thinking, but it's totally legit in Japanese culture and this wasn't meant to be funny or a 'Yuuri, you dumbass' moment :)

(3)    Yuuri is pretty much listing all the creepy dolls he can think of XD  A zashiki warashi is a childish spirit that lives in houses and plays little pranks, but it also brings the house good fortune.  You have to care for it or it will leave.  The doll with the hair growing is a reference to the Okiku doll, which is a real doll whose hair supposedly keeps growing because it’s haunted by the spirit of the girl, named Okiku, who owned it.  Apparently, they trim the hair and it grows back.  As for the Hina doll, well, a Hina doll is a doll which is part of a set of dolls that are displayed during the Hina Festival, or Girl’s Day.  They’re said to collect bad spirits and at the end of the festival are set adrift to get rid of said bad spirits.  As for the head popping off, that’s just Yuuri being Yuuri.

      It’s painful to breathe in the hot air and for a few moments while I got used to it, I was completely without oxygen.  When my throat and nose finally get used to the temperature, I start breathing frantically.

      What’s buya?  My cheek is getting slapped over and over again and my shoulders are being shaken roughly.

      “… ugh, Wolf, cut it out…”

      There’s instantaneous applause.  Startled, I open my eyes and the blue sky and the white gold of the sun assaulted my pupils.  This deep and tall sky blue is a color that’s only found in summer.  Among the three faces peering down at me, I only recognize one.  It’s been so many months since I’ve seen him, but why is Murata here?

      “… Yuuri Shibuya.”

      “Um… Ken Murata.”

      Struggling and turning my head, I see that I’m flopped on the Sea World stage like a tuna.  The thoroughly amused parents and children who are here on their summer vacation are rejoicing like this is all their personal affair.  Did I go on a Star Tours in front of this big of an audience!?

      “Ah, but I’m really glad, Shibuya.  You kept sinking farther and farther into the water and since we couldn’t see any shadows or shapes, for a while it looked like you had been washed out to the sea wall.”

      “I was so worried that the worst had happened since it was me who asked you out on a date!”

      In other words, I came back.  I came home to my original world.  It’s not ‘original’ or ‘coming home’ anymore.

      An older girl in a wetsuit grabs my belt in order to help me get to my feet and keep steady.

      Damn!  Today I’m wearing the demon’s normal use, black silk thong!

      “Stop it, Murata!  Don’t give an embarrassing explanation in public!  Miss, miss, don’t be scared by this underwear, no, please don’t be scared!”

      “Well that’s okay.  The value of a human isn’t determined by their underwear.”

      There would be so many people to help me out if I was over there.  Ah, I’m really starting to miss it.

      Like I think of my family when I’m far away, I’ll think of the demons while I’m here.

Chapter end