Pawahara Seijo no Osananajimi to Zetsuen Shitara, Nanimokamo ga Umaku Iku Yō ni Natte Saikyō no Bōken-sha ni Natta ~ Tsuideni Yasashikute Kawaii Yome mo Takusan Dekita ~ (WN)

[No Matter How I Think About It, It’s Gotta be Iris!?]

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Alright, let’s calm down for now.

Sure, the woman said that only when the seven saintesses surrounded me would I even begin to be able to fight against the ‘fate’.

But she didn’t say that Elma… the ‘Sword’ Saintess had to be one of them, neither did she say that I had to gather all seven Holy Arms.

To begin with, the Holy Arms were the creation of the ancient sage for the saintesses, they weren’t created by the goddess.

They were surely super-powerful arms but, then again, the inventors of Berqua were also able to create Pseudo Holy Bows whose performance was extremely close to the original, so this case shouldn’t have that much to do with Holy Arms, nor Elma for that matter.

That only left one possibility.

――Congratulations, Iris.
You were the seventh maiden.

…….

No I mean, that’s gotta be the case, right?

No matter how I thought about it, there could never be a thing between me and Elma, and Iris adored me, too!?

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Rather, I couldn’t imagine that Elma went “I really, really, really love you, Exa!” or the sorts!?

The day she said something like that gotta be the day the world come to an end!?

……No no, I ended up becoming too agitated.

Now that I calmly thought about it, the woman had only told me to gather seven saintesses by my side, she never said anything about them all being in love with me.

In that case, well, although I was really reluctant to admit it, the chance that one of them being Elma was not zero.

――But hold on a sec.

Iris had the power of the ‘Bow’ Saintess—《Heaven Bow》 skill.

She was one of the saintesses without a doubt.

Or rather, if I included her other sisters, there would be a total of 10 saintesses who were currently by my side.

Mm, the woman didn’t say there couldn’t be no more than 7 girls, and the more the merrier.

I had qualms in having the still young Iris and her sisters fight, but I could definitely trust them more than Elma, and I could leave my back to them without worry.

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Alright, that settled it, Iris and her sisters should do.

Or rather, please do, seriously…

As such, I wished out loud, “—It’s gotta be Iris.”

““““…Huh?”””

At that moment, the girls were stunned and petrified, and I realized the sensitiveness of the situation I had put myself in.

“N-no, you’ve got it wrong!? I was just thinking that Iris is the only one… wait, I don’t mean in that way, alright!?”

““““……””””

――Stare.

Of course, it took quite a while until the misunderstanding was resolved.

◇ ◇

“Fumu.
So, you took what the obviously suspicious woman said at face value, and kept agonizing over it all this time.”

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“…Yes, it is as you say.”

Needless to say, the one who was getting smaller and smaller was me.

I was made to confess about everything I’d done before coming back.

“But now I understand.
I had always been wondering why your swordsmanship was so excellent even though you had 《Phoenix》 skill, but turns out it’s because you were originally in the ‘Sword’ Saintess’s party,” said Arca.

“Yeah.
Elma… that saintess was my childhood friend.
She was so selfish that she didn’t even treat me like a human, and so I was fed up with her and left her.”

“Is that so… It must have been painful…” Magmell looked at me with worry, perhaps she was concerned about my feelings.

I smiled at her and said, “Yeah, but I have you all now, so I’m happy.
Thank you for your concern, Magmell.”

“N-no, I didn’t do much…” Magmell’s cheeks turned red.

As I was thinking how lovely she was, Ophir said with a doubtful look on her face, “But still, who the hell’s that woman? She guessed ‘bout all of us correctly, ain’t she?”

“Yeah.
She even foresaw that Arca was coming to look for me, and before I even noticed it, she was gone…”

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Now that I thought back on it, she was a really mysterious person.

As Ophir said, just who was she?

“Well, we can’t tell if what she says is true at the current stage, but I think it’s better not to believe what she said at face value.
She’s plain suspicious, after all,” said Zana.

Magmell agreed, “Indeed… Exa-sama even almost rushed into Iris route, too…”

No, that actually had nothing to do with it, though?

Rather, what the heck was ‘Iris route’…

“But that woman said that ‘a saintess has ties to the mermaids’, didn’t she? It may be a trap, but I think that searching for information about that saintess may be a good idea.
We regrettably have no other lead, after all,” remarked Arca.

That’s right.

In the end, the girls couldn’t get any useful information, either.

“Yeah.
She said that I already knew where she was too, though it didn’t ring a bell.
So, let’s start by trying to remember things that has happened recently, one of them may be related to her.”

“Ou, got it.
But first, let’s grab a meal.
Ya can’t even fight if yer stomach’s empty, after all.”

We all gave a big nod to Ophir who laughed boldly.