Chapter 237

The silver-haired Xiarette, in her manifested form, had no chest, and when she pouted in dissatisfaction, her momentum couldn’t quite compare to when she did have one—but she was still quite formidable.

Her tone and blood pressure both rose a few notches with a spark of irritation.

“Belith, could you not cling to Sheffy so much? She said she feels hot!”

“Huh?”

Belith and Sheffy, the sisters, glanced around at the snowy and icy surroundings, utterly confused about what “hot” could possibly mean.

Realizing her reasoning was a little forced, Xiarette coughed awkwardly and leaned in on Sheffy’s other side, taking up the more advantageous position.

“Ahem… What I meant to say is—between me and Belith, in our little wager, I narrowly won… right?”

“Hah?!” Belith’s incredulous gaze swept over Sheffy’s small head, met with no obstruction, and stabbed straight toward Xiarette’s so-called victory claim. “I was keeping count, okay? I definitely smashed more snowmen than you did! How is it your narrow win? That entire eastern section of snowmen—wasn’t I the one who chopped them all down?!”

“That’s not right! I… I said ‘narrow win’ just to be modest! Because all those snowmen in the eastern area were—eh? Belith, claiming credit like that is low, don’t you think? That area? I was the one who cleared it out!”

“Shameless! Royal Sister, now’s your chance—use your Eyes of True Sight and expose the despicable truth of this lying woman!”

Fine, fine, I’ll take a look at the despicable truth of this lying woman.

Without hesitation, Sheffy activated her Eye of True Sight.

—But the first one she looked at wasn’t Xiarette—it was Belith.

That girl couldn’t be fully trusted. When they were little, she once said she’d learn to fish with Sheffy and catch a big one to give their Royal Sister. But what did she do? She secretly bought a whole tank of fish from the market and brought them to Sheffy, claiming she’d caught them herself—just to earn a head-pat. Unbelievable.

Still, Sheffy had accepted all the fish.

And gave the head-pat too.

But this time…

This time was different.

Sheffy looked at Belith first, then turned to Xiarette.

To her surprise, neither of them were lying?

Just as the two were once again about to clash head-on, Sheffy’s little ahoge twitched, and she clapped her left fist into her right palm—suddenly spotting a blind spot in their logic.

“Belith.”

“What is it, Royal Sister? You’ve decided to make a fair judgment after all?”

“No… I just remembered—you don’t know any holy magic, and you don’t know any fire-element magic either, right?”

“That’s right?”

“Then how did you destroy the snowmen?!”

“I used a blade, obviously! It’s all about the momentum! If a snowman revives, I just keep chopping! Hmm… although the more I chop, the more they keep reviving…”

“Then weren’t the ones you chopped and the ones Xiarette chopped the same snowmen?! What are you even boasting about, saying you took down more?!”

“Awooo…!”

Sheffy sprang up on the spot and karate-chopped Belith on the head, hoping to hammer some sense into this unfortunate little sister who only knew how to chop and chop.

Belith raised her hand to rub her smacked forehead… she did understand, of course, that the snowmen she chopped didn’t really count.

But if victory could be achieved by any means necessary—that was just a rule for getting along in the world, right?

There is no such rule for getting along in the world!

Sheffy crossed her arms in front of her chest, puffing angrily as she turned to Xiarette, raising her hand to declare her the winner.

Too short to lift it high, she gave it a symbolic raise.

“Alright, this snowman-smashing operation—Xiarette wins!”

As Belith wore a look of utter despair and defeat, Xiarette’s expression only grew more radiant and triumphant.

“Really…?! Then that means, Sheffy, to… tonight we’ll…”

“I never agreed to that, okay?! I just said I’d prepare a big fish for you!”

“Oh… is that so… well, I’m afraid it’s out of your hands now…” Xiarette began mumbling under her breath.

“What was that, Xiarette? I didn’t hear you?”

“Oh, nothing—I said I’m looking forward to the big fish tonight.”

“Ooh! Don’t worry! When it comes to fishing on this frozen plain, I’m a total pro!”

—

68. “You better stop talking.”

“By the way, where did Princess Livra and Miss Timani go?”

“They went to catch wild rabbits. But there aren’t any wild rabbits in this snowy wasteland. I’m guessing they’ve gone back to camp to sleep. Seriously… no sense of urgency at all—everyone’s out here fighting snowmen, and they’re taking naps. How can they even sleep?”

“……”

Sheffy, how could she say those words of reproach so calmly…?

Wasn’t she the one also taking a nap just a moment ago?!

Ah well, at least she was busy now.

Belith, stuck to Sheffy’s back like a little charm, radiated affection, while Sheffy trudged heavily around the last surviving snowman, circling it in close observation.

This snowman was over two meters tall.

Its face looked stupid—punchably so. The sight of its dumb expression reminded Sheffy of a certain equally dim-witted deity she’d recently encountered.

“There is a sense of déjà vu here… The only difference is, that shorty isn’t nearly as tall as this snowman. A shorty’s a shorty.”

—— Beep.

“Hm? Xiarette, Belith, did you hear that sound just now?”

“Sound?” Xiarette closed her eyes and used the Wright family’s special sound-location technique to focus, then shook her head. “What sound, Sheffy? The army down in the valley is pretty loud. Other than that, I don’t hear anything strange.”

“Mm… Royal Sister’s hair… smells so good… Ahem! Don’t worry, Royal Sister. If anything does happen, we’ve got numbers on our side—we’ll handle it!”

“It’s probably nothing… I must’ve misheard…? Uh, can you let go of me first—stop sneaking in some groping while you’re at it!”

When Belith clung to her like this, her little hands always got a bit too adventurous.

Sheffy smacked away Belith’s sneaky hand, which was inching toward her completely flat chest, and gently pushed her to the side.

She stood on tiptoe and patted the snowman’s head—it still wore that same idiotic expression.

The silver-haired dumpling turned her head left and right, scanning the area and confirming nothing seemed out of the ordinary.

——And just like that, she got cocky again!

“Ha! Looks like that shorty’s magic really is done for. I knew it! If she tried anything disgusting again, I was gonna catch her, tie her up, and hang her from a tree. Let’s see if she still dares to act out!”

—— Beep.

“No, that’s too good for her. I should tie her to a fishing rod and use her as bait, hahaha! That could totally work—she’s so tiny, I bet I could strap her to one!”

—— Beep beep.

“Phew… that felt good. Just thinking of her face makes me mad. What kind of so-called god acts like a brat and causes everyone trouble? Calling her a brat is putting it nicely—she’s just a stubborn old—”

—— CRASH!!

Huh?!

“Sheffy!”

“Royal Sister?!”

The snowman—exploded.

Normally, an explosion like that would’ve involved some kind of flame magic, where a compressed spell leads to a detonation.

But this snowman’s detonation involved no magic at all.

It was literal.

Its idiotic face seemed to frown for a split second—then it just spontaneously self-destructed.

The silver-haired dumpling, completely unprepared, was buried in snow as it blasted her full-force.

She didn’t fall—she stood her ground.

But the snowman was gone.

And Sheffy… had become the snowman.

Her entire body was buried in snow, with only a pair of confused, blinking purple eyes visible. Since they could blink, she blinked furiously to express her outrage.

Seeing this, Xiarette and Belith hurriedly brushed the snow off her and yanked Sheffy out from under the pile.

“Uuuu, Royal Sister, are you okay? I’m sorry, it’s my fault—I didn’t do proper intel! There was no trace of magic, so how did it just explode?!”

“Quick, Sheffy, put on this scarf, don’t catch a cold. Sigh… I’ve told you before, don’t talk bad about people out loud—you’ll get what’s coming to you.”

“She’s right.”

——She really is.

Sheffy rarely agreed with anything others said. She was, after all, a stubborn loudmouth.

But this time, she had to admit—words shouldn’t be thrown around carelessly.

And not just about people. Even gods—if you curse them hard enough, they will blow up in your face.

Dragged out of the snow, Sheffy lay flat on the ground, brushing the snow off her face, speechless.

No, there was one thing she wanted to say.

“You know,”

“I’m someone who’s never worshipped a god or done good deeds—and there’s a reason for that.”

“Now that the snowman’s gone, her little retaliation is over. Next, if that damn Aimeris doesn’t come apologize to me, I swear I’ll curse her every single da—mmph!”

Xiarette and Belith both lunged at once to cover Sheffy’s mouth.

That mouth.

Far too dangerous.

—

…………………………………

“Haahh… so sleepy… Miss Shaya? Why do you look so upset?”

“It’s nothing. I’m just, in my head, beating the crap out of a certain shorty.”

“What?! Why would you want to hit Miss Sylatrella? Did she do something wrong?”

“You should apologize to Sylatrella.”

“Huh?”

Livra, how can you even say “huh”? You just linked “shorty” with Sylatrella in your mind—if that’s not a reason to apologize, what is?

Except no? Livra also knew Miss Shaya herself was short, but since Shaya was speaking as the subject of her own sentence, she ruled out the possibility that she meant herself.

—

Sheffy and her group bumped along the road, eventually finding the hero’s illusion-carriage they’d stationed earlier in the central plains of the Demon Domain.

The matter was resolved, and naturally, it was time to return home.

Sitting inside the carriage, Sheffy used Visual Penetration magic to peer through the walls into the open wilderness.

——To the left, the banner of the Second Corps fluttered, their troops strong and orderly.

——To the right, the Third Corps looked a little worn, but still brimming with pride.

With the carriage at the center, the two corps formed a protective escort around Sheffy’s group, spreading their powerful formation across the broad plains in grand display.

Since Ailellek had already negotiated with the higher races, the demon army stationed at the northern border naturally had to withdraw.

Just from the sound of marching outside, Timani could tell how massive the combined forces of these two Demon King Corps were.

“This is insane… Is this supposed to be an escort? Sheffy, you sure live it up as a princess.”

“No, they’re here to send you off.”

“Send… send me? No way. I’m not some demon VIP. Wait—is it because I helped break the Skybound barrier that they’re—?!”

“I’m kidding. Don’t take it seriously. They don’t even know who you are.”

“You really have a terrible personality, you know that?!”

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