Rurin's Grocery Shopping (3)

What’s so good about it?

It would be a good line for El to say. She didn’t like being called unnie for no reason. unnie. unnie.

Rurin frowned and confronted the 5-year-old child hanging from her leg, refusing to let go.

“Let go. Only El can touch my feet.”

She was too small, making it difficult to use mana. If she died, it would be the same as killing her with the aura.

If she started a fight, she could have something to say after killing her.

But this wasn’t that case.

“Ugh, annoying.”

In the end, realizing that neither this nor that method worked, Rurin became teary-eyed.

She didn’t know how to get rid of such a small creature without killing it.

Then she clapped her hands. A very simple method came to mind.

“Hehehe, I’m a fool.”

She picked the girl up with her hand. She didn’t like touching humans, so she had unconsciously thought only of mana.

But there are many physical methods. And now, since she was in a hurry, she had no choice but to touch her.

Thinking that way, Rurin picked up the girl by the nape.

Then she put her down on the ground and started walking without looking back.

She didn’t want to get involved anymore.

It was annoying to have her clinging on.

With such thoughts, she felt the girl’s skin on her back this time. She opened her eyes wide, wondering when the girl had run up and climbed onto her back, and picked her up again.

“I want to go too. With unnie.”

“I don’t have a younger sibling. My mother only gave birth to me.”

Rurin shook her head and put the girl back on the ground. But soon she was clinging to her leg again.

“Unnie! Hehehe.”

What a self-centered kid. Rurin was bewildered.

As this kept repeating, she was overwhelmed with the impulse to throw her off, but she couldn’t do that.

The aura didn’t work, picking her up and putting her down didn’t work, and instead, she liked her even more.

Rurin, annoyed, puffed her cheeks out and crossed her arms.

“It can’t be helped. This isn’t breaking a promise.”

Rurin put the girl down, picked up her shopping bag, and decided to use teleportation immediately.

Running would look bad.

Then she would escape by teleporting.

At times like this, running away is the best. Thinking that, Rurin teleported to the restaurant.

“Dear!”

Rurin looked around after teleporting. But she couldn’t see El. Moreover, there was a bigger problem: despite dropping the girl and teleporting immediately, the girl was clinging to her leg again.

“Ugh, when did you stick to me again!”

“Unnie!”

The girl just called Rurin unnie and clung tightly to her thigh. Rurin felt a cold sweat.

It felt like she was stuck in a swamp.

Moreover, she couldn’t see El, who should have taken this kid off her.

“Where are you again?”

None of this pleased her. She couldn’t sense El’s presence in the lair or the restaurant. She could feel he was nearby, but not in the restaurant.

El’s mana was strong, so it wasn’t difficult to figure out how far away he was.

She knew he was nearby, but the problem was he wasn’t at the restaurant.

“Did he go to the castle? Sending me to the market! Anyway, that guy….”

Grumbling once more, she sat at the table. The girl struggled to climb onto the table.

But she was too short, making it difficult, and Rurin couldn’t help but chuckle.

“Do you want to get up?”

“Yes.”

The girl nodded.

And right then, El barged into the restaurant, breathing heavily.

“Huff, huff… Rurin, you…you! Teleport…huff…damn.”

“Dear! What is this? You sent me to the market, and where have you been! How sneaky of you!”

Rurin approached El, raising both hands in protest. Her hands soon went to her waist, and her eyes remained sharp.

“Who told you to teleport!”

“How did you know? Ah, no! I didn’t teleport!”

Rurin first confessed and then quickly denied it. But El was firm.

“I saw it right in front of me.”

That’s right. El would never just let Rurin go to the market alone. It was natural for him to follow and watch how she was doing.

Thanks to that, he was exhausted from running up the hill.

Since it was broad daylight and there were many eyes, he couldn’t use mana and had to genuinely run.

“Ru, Rurin…”

“Huh?”

“What have you done? Why did you kidnap her! Damn it!”

Moreover, El, surprised by the situation in front of him, shouted at Rurin.

“Nooo!”

Kidnap? Rurin felt very wronged. So she argued back loudly, full of indignation.

She was already stuck and couldn’t find a way to deal with it, driving her crazy.

She was so wronged that she felt like crying.

From Rurin’s perspective, she was just trying to follow El’s principle of not killing humans, and now he was yelling, making her understandably angry.

Rurin had brought a girl, a ridiculous situation. Rurin was furious, insisting the girl had clung to her, not the other way around.

I watched until the scene where Rurin was talking to the girl.

Worried she might cause trouble, I kept my eyes wide open and watched closely.

So I confirmed the girl clinging to Rurin. But running and holding on to Rurin while she teleported? Could such a small body be that fast? It’s beyond common sense.

“Unnie, unnie, this!”

“I don’t eat that! Why are you carrying it around? Funny kid.”

The girl handed an unknown flower to Rurin, who responded with a rebuke. The girl started laughing.

How should I say this.

The girl was definitely not ordinary. Very peculiar.

Rurin spoke to the girl looking at the flowers decorated on the table.

“That tastes bad too.”

“I know. I don’t eat that.”

“What? That and what you’re holding taste equally bad.”

“No, they don’t.”

The girl shook her head and started eating the flower she took out.

What is this combination?

Just looking at the two of them gives me a headache.

“Rurin, just to be sure, is that child a dragon? Or a different race?”

“No. I don’t feel any mana. If she were an elf, her ears wouldn’t be so ordinary, and elves, dwarves, or any other race have more mana than humans.”

“Well, that’s true.”

That’s a fair point.

There’s no trace of mana from the girl. She was a pure slate.

Just by looking, the amount of mana is the same as any other human child.

I approached the girl sitting daintily on the bar table chair. Seeing her naturally conversing with Rurin, I thought it would be possible to talk.

“Little miss, how old are you?”

The girl shook her head. I expected her to at least show her age with her fingers, as kids usually do, but she didn’t.

“Then, what’s your name?”

“Selly.”

“Selly?”

“Yes.”

“Then, your mom and dad? Where are they?”

“I don’t have a mom and dad.”

“You don’t? Where did they go?”

“They died.”

The girl, who introduced herself as Selly, said something shocking. But she said it as if it were the most natural thing.

Died? Should I take this literally?

She doesn’t look older than six. Can she speak so calmly about her parents’ death?

No, on the contrary, she’s not old enough to lie about death. She didn’t seem like that kind of child.

“Then, do you have anyone else you know? Why were you sitting at the market?”

The girl shook her head. Then, looking at Rurin, she spread her arms. It was the same pose Rurin used when asking me to hug her.

Then Rurin looked at me and spread her arms.

“What are you doing now.”

“She did it, so I’m trying it too.”

“Geez.”

“Anyway, I don’t know. I’m too sleepy, so I’m going to sleep.”

Rurin, saying that, slowly moved away from the bar table and tried to flee towards her lair.

Where do you think you’re running off to with the 36th stratagem?

“Huuu, huh, unnie!”

Then the girl began to cry, following the direction Rurin disappeared. How did she end up following Rurin? What is going on?

If this is something unbelievable, it’s unbelievable enough that I can’t close my mouth.

“There, there, it’s okay. I’ll take you to your unnie.”

“Really?”

“Yes.”

I set her down from the chair, and she started rubbing her eyes and nodding her head. She wiggled her hands and grabbed my arm. I couldn’t help but laugh inwardly.

It somehow felt like there were two Rurins.

“Just hang in there, it seems that kid really likes you. She’s about to cry when you leave.”

“Me?”

“One could say so.”

“Like you?”

“Huh? Why am I brought into this?”

Rurin, who had shown no interest, suddenly brightened up.

“Like you! Is that right!”

Her eyes sharpened now. The look on Rurin’s face was threatening to explode if I didn’t answer.

Her cheeks puffed up as if they were about to burst. Her eyes seemed to say, ‘Answer quickly. And it better be a positive one!’

My lips opened and closed repeatedly. Her cheeks puffed up and shrank, twitching.

It felt like her face would explode like a balloon if I delayed my answer any longer, so I had no choice but to speak.

“Yes, like me.”

“Heeheehee.”

She started laughing with a face that looked like she had the whole world. She flicked her nose with her finger, looking smug.

Then she slowly turned her gaze to the girl and spoke.

“Daring to like me. But I am not interested.”

And she shrugged. Well, that made sense. Considering how long it took me to win Rurin’s heart over, it’s absurd to think she’d be kind to a human girl just because she liked her overnight.

“Still, since you made me hear something good from El, I won’t kill you. Be thankful!”

“Kill her, my foot!”

She’s really out of control. When I attacked Rurin’s temples, she frowned and resisted.

“Ouch, it hurts! But it’s annoying!”

“Yeah, you tried to kill me saying it was annoying too. You little…”

When I brought it up because her actions were similar to when we first met, Rurin started shaking her head vigorously.

“That was different. It wasn’t because it was annoying. At that time, I was really, really in the darkness… No! I never said that. Didn’t I tell you last time that the me who tried to kill you wasn’t really me?”

“Don’t be ridiculous. Watch the kid. She keeps drooling, she’s probably hungry, so I’ll whip up a snack.”

“That sounds good. I’m hungry too.”

I placed the girl back on the table and seated Rurin next to her, then headed to the kitchen.

Let’s see.

Children are likely to eat food they’re familiar with in this world without much resistance. So I thought pancakes would be a good choice.

Even before Palenque, in the history of baking with the common bird eggs known as Seribine, pancakes were the staple breakfast in Greek City.