Strategy for Dealing with Problematic Girls

Leaving the girls' odd little exchange alone for the moment, Jhin pulled out a world map of the continent of Astraea, jabbed a finger at a spot near the edge marked in gilded lettering, and announced with obvious relish, "Let's go here next!"

"Golden Sea Dream… wait, we're not going back to Landosol?" Megumin had assumed they were headed for the royal capital.

"I bought the deed to the guild house ages ago, so there's no problem if we stay away a while. We left in a rush, but there's nothing important sitting in the place. I'll find time to write Miss Hanarin a letter and ask her to keep an eye on it for us."

"Master, why the sudden trip to the seaside?"

Jhin gripped Kokkoro's shoulders, a grim, tragic aura rolling off him. "Kokkoro, it's because I absolutely cannot endure this heat any longer. You move a single step and you're soaked through, sticky from head to toe — do you understand that feeling?"

Kyaru's face went stiff at the memory. Those first days baking inside the Red Dragon Volcano had left a mark on all of them.

"I understand. Then let us go to the sea." Kokkoro patted Jhin consolingly, then turned. "Pecorine, what do you think?"

"Um… should be fine." She agreed in a fidgety mumble. Everyone knew she was still stuck in that awkward place where she had no idea how to face Jhin, and that sort of thing only untangled itself from the inside. No one else could do it for her.

After a quick round of packing, the members of the Gourmet Edifice set off for the famous stretch of sand known as "Golden Sea Dream." Before leaving Maple Syrup Valley, Jhin and the girls took a group photo under the glaring summer sun, the still-riotously colored maple woods spread out behind them.

Kokkoro planted herself in front of him as a matter of course. Megumin and Kyaru each latched onto one of his arms. Pecorine stood off to the side, staring awkwardly at her four companions and feeling thoroughly surplus to requirements.

But Jhin was not one to let that stand. Wanting to get things back to how they used to be as soon as possible, he called Megumin and Kyaru over, and between the three of them they hauled Pecorine onto his back.

"Wha— th-this really isn't a good idea!" Pecorine went rigid as a plank, lying across his back like a wooden puppet, palms braced on his shoulders to keep as much distance as physically possible.

"What's not good about it? Eyes on the clearing ahead, I'm taking the picture. Three, two, one!"

He handed the finished photo to the girls. Kyaru looked at it, and tears welled up and spilled down her cheeks, bright as crystal — the feeling of a lost treasure returned to her hands, joy sharp enough to hurt.

Jhin gathered her gently into his arms, murmuring to her, then pressed a light kiss to one fluffy cat ear. He printed out a fresh copy of their old group photo and pressed that into her hands too, and soon enough she had settled.

"Th-that's incredible… he calmed her down that fast…" Watching Kyaru melt into a soft, docile kitten, Megumin was thunderstruck.

Of all of them, she got along with Jhin best, which meant she'd absorbed a great deal of his geeky vocabulary. She knew perfectly well what "tsundere" meant, and Kyaru was the walking definition of it. That this was what Kyaru looked like now beggared belief.

Shouldn't she be snapping something like, "I-I don't need you to comfort me! I just got sand in my eyes!"

Could it be… that this was the difference between a girl and a woman?

Megumin felt enlightenment strike a second time. Anyone who could survive that kind of terrifying ordeal would naturally come out of it a little more honest with herself.

Sure enough, the instant Kyaru left his arms she reverted to her usual prickly self. When he tried to sling an arm around her, her tail smacked his hand away, and she muttered things like "Don't get carried away" and "There are people watching," which only proved she was still flustered about earlier.

With that little interlude finished, the journey to the sea officially began.

Crossing the plains, a lotus visible from an absurd distance caught Jhin's eye. He tapped Pecorine's shoulder. "Look over there. Isn't that a Giant Frog Lotus?"

Since the group photo, Pecorine had gradually adjusted to simple physical contact with him. She no longer seized up the moment he came within arm's reach.

And now the gourmand's soul she'd been suppressing for so long flared back to life. With her mind fixed entirely on those delicious lotus seeds, she grabbed Jhin by the wrist and hauled him off toward the lotus at a run. "It really is one! Hurry, let's get over there!"

The other three trailed after them, holding a hushed conference as they went.

"So Pecorine is… also…"

"Probably. But the way she's acting about it is strange."

"Honestly, the Gourmet Edifice might as well rename itself the Harem Edifice."

Megumin's razor-edged remark left the other two with nothing to say, because neither of them could actually argue with it.

"Let's just watch for a while. Maybe Pecorine has some hidden circumstance of her own."

"What hidden circumstance could she have? Jhin's said it before — there are plenty of people who are loud and careless normally and turn hopelessly shy the second romance shows up. Maybe she's that type."

"Master has also said that the more carefree a person seems, the more likely they are carrying a heavy past."

Kyaru pressed a hand to her forehead, exasperated. "Could you two maybe wish for something good to happen to people for once…"

When they reached the giant frog pond, an adventurer's guild party was already locked in battle with the frogs. Spotting fresh competition, a burly man with a great axe over one shoulder bellowed at them, "Get lost, brats. [Dog Fang] spotted this first."

Had he been even slightly civil, Jhin would have simply cut the lotus down and shared out part of the seeds. Wild ingredients like this belonged to whoever had the skill to claim them; arriving first proved nothing about your ability to actually take the prize.

But since your attitude is that rotten, well — sorry about this.

"The World!"

Jhin donned his [Elemental Armament] and cleared the distance in a few bounds, landing dead center in the Giant Frog Lotus. The seed pod was already packed with plump, round seeds; there was no need to wait for the petals to fall.

He scooped every last seed out with wind elemental power and swept them into his storage space, returned to his original spot, and released the time stop. Then he took Pecorine by the hand and led the whole group back the way they'd come.

"Hmph, obedient little things. Probably brats fresh out on their first adventure." Seeing his rivals leave, the axeman paid them no further attention. By the time he and his companions had ground their way through the surrounding frogs and hauled themselves up onto the lotus, the seeds were long gone — nothing left but a honeycomb of empty sockets in the pod.

Word has it that the next guild party through heard him cursing from inside that flower for a solid night.

Jhin took the seeds and cooked the girls a pot of soft, fragrant Red Date and Lotus Seed Congee. The clean scent of lotus paired with the sweetness of red dates drew endless praise from Pecorine — appetite trounced embarrassment, and she rewarded him with an enormous hug.

Shyness? Can you eat that?

So said Pecorine.

____

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