11 - CHAPTER XI PROPERTY






 And as it turns out, it was not that big, but not small either.

 I won't say what.

 I can't say.



"Hey, traveler. Is Lilliputian big?"



 Why do you ask?

 How do you want me to answer?



"Uh, ...... what is it?"

"Tits."

"Lillifurrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!"



 The sisters move around sloppily with Helian at the center.

 Both sisters are royalty and the other half-elves seem to be unable to touch them.

 Levee and Eltina, knowing that they mean no harm, stand on the sidelines.



"Hey, are you big?"

"Shut up, Rilifa!"



 While running around, Rilifa keeps glancing at me.

 If I don't answer, there's no end in sight. It reminds me of a fixed message from a villager in a long time ago RPG, who only gives the same answer no matter how many times I ask him.



"............ I don't know, but I guess I'm not old enough ......."



 I'll play it safe.

 I think it was actually bigger than that, but there is no need to go stepping on landmines that we don't know where they are.

 Helian has no taste for tap dancing in minefields.



"I see... ......"



 Lillipha's voice loses its tension as if she is dejected. But then, as if she had immediately regained her composure, she looked up and met Helian's gaze with dull eyes,



"But you have bigger tits than my sister, don't you?"

"~~! Lilifaaaaaaaaaaa--!"



 The sister's angry voice echoed through the small tent.









"Yes, my sister is very rude. ......"



 Leifa walks next to me, looking embarrassed and ashamed.

 Since the atmosphere was no longer conducive to awe-inspiring conversation, we broke up for the time being, and the group walked through the village for a change.



"No, ...... don't worry about it."



 How else to put it?

 No, there is no other way to say it, Herian assured himself as he thought back on the devastation he had just witnessed.



 The uproar caused by Lillipha was a good job in a sense, but it still doesn't make sense to me when I think back on it.

 I think that even though she is a child, she is old enough to understand what is going on. .......



"How old are you now, Mr. Rilifa?"

"Age? This is the year that Rilifa--"

"Hmmm, how old are you? Traveler, guess."



 Rilifa, walking on the right side, interjects.



 From the time they left the tent to this point, Rilifa has been walking with a firm grip on Helian's right hand. At first, she was just holding onto Helian's hem and following him, but before she knew it, she was holding his hand.



 I didn't want to see the sisters' slapstick again, so I left it as it was, but I was slightly afraid of the way Lieve and Leifa were looking at me. The meanings of their gazes may be different, but Helian was scared of both of them.



"Are you around thirteen years old?"

"Zanen! The correct answer was ten years old!"



 ............ surprised.

 Unlike in the case of my sister, this time I was surprised in a normal way.



 I was surprised that unlike the case of my sister, this time I was surprised in a normal way. I won't mention which part, but she is too well-developed.



"Rilifa has strong human blood just like her mother. People say that she looks just like her mother.

"Oh."

"So, just like my mother, Rilifa is going to have big boobs."



 Helian fell silent, though he didn't blow it because it was a double entendre.



 I feel that any response would be s*xual harassment. s*xual harassment is a terrible thing. Under any circumstances, the man is guilty.



"Oh my God! This girl again!"

"Oh, sister. Wenli is calling you over there.

"You think you can fool me with a lie like that ......!"

"No, it's true, Mister Leiffer. Wenli is running from the other side."



 Lillipha pointed to Wenli.

 Wenli came running up to her and overheard what was going on.



 Rayfa sighed as she heard Wenli's report, and then she glanced at her sister with a reproachful look.






"Excuse me, Herian, excuse me for a moment. ...... Lillipha, my sister has something to do. I'm going to leave now, but I don't want to cause any trouble for you and the others.

Yes, sir. Bye, sister!



 Waving her hands in the air, Lillipha sees her off.

 Leifa, who had been sent off with a smiling face, left with a reluctant expression on her face, as if her hair was being pulled back.



"Now we can talk at leisure, traveler!"



 He had a big smile on his face.

 It was as if to say, "Finally, the noisy one has gone away.



 ...... this girl might be a little black.



 And I don't know what to say to him.

 With a kid like this, it is not a good idea to gather much information.

 He takes a sip of water to calm down, wondering what to do.



"Hey, traveler..."

Hmm?"

"Will you marry me, Lillipha?"



 I spewed.



 I spit out the water in my windpipe as hard as I could.

 I told the story twice.

 I was lucky we were not indoors this time.

 Rieve rubs Helian's back with a hand that he has already gotten used to.



"Gefu ......! Gegho......"

"Are you okay?"

"Gee, I'm fine, but now what?"

"I was thinking that I want you to marry Lilliput."



 At any rate, it seems that Helian's ears are not broken.

 But I don't understand.

 I really don't know what any of this means.



 Helian has never been with a woman before. So he has no experience in what is called "cock fighting".

 I'd like to think that my face is not so bad, although my eyes are a bit bad looking, but I have a quiet personality that is only good for being kind, and I've always been able to make friends with women, but only as a so-called good guy.

 So what's the point? Why am I being proposed to here by a girl I've never met before? And from a young girl who looks like a junior high school student. Once again, I don't understand. I've never been proposed to before, not even when I played make-believe with my cousin.

 In other words, this is the first proposal in my life, and even though I am a man, I am not the one who proposed, but the one who was proposed to, and the other is a little girl, which is a very classic royal road, no, no, no, this is an event that could not happen even if the world were turned upside down, and I am sure that this is the first time that a man has ever proposed to a girl. I've been thinking that it was a dream from the very beginning, too, because there's no way that a transfer to another world could actually happen, but wait a minute, if this is a dream, that's just it. The fact that I had such a dream is proof that I have a subconscious desire to marry a little girl.



"--? Are you all right, Mr. Traveler?"

"I'm fine. It's just a dream.

"...... not okay, is it? It's not a dream. It's real!"



 The girl said a cruel thing in a casual way, but this must be a dream for sure.

 It can't be.

 There is no way that such a crazy story could have unfolded.



"All right, Mister Lilliputian. Calm down. In times like this, it's important to stay calm. You will be badly burned if you make a mistake. I know that. Don't underestimate those of us who've had the experience of being told off for a lame confession in a punishment game. So let's calm down and go back to counting prime numbers and proving one by one that this is a dream."

"...... I think you should calm down, traveler!"

No, you are the one who should calm down. You don't even know my name, do you? And you're asking me to marry you, what kind of a joke is that?"

"I'm not kidding. What is your name, traveler?"

Helian.

"Mr. Helian, marry Lilifa."



 This time I didn't blow it, but my head started to hurt.

 Why am I talking to a little girl face to face like this?



"Lillipha looks like your mother, so I'm sure her tits will get bigger, right? My mother's is bigger than my dog sister's, so will Lilifa's be too, right? Big tits, you know?"

"No, it's not because I have big breasts, you know."

"Would you prefer a smaller one?"



 Somebody help me.

 Why do I have to talk about my s*xuality with a little girl in a place like this?



 And why am I afraid of the aura that is wafting from behind me?

 I don't want to look at the faces of the two commanders who are guarding me. Especially Liewe.



 By the way, Eltina seems to have been omitted, as if she is not worth comparing. She is a pure-blood elf with a thin figure.



"That's a bit of a problem for me......... sister looks like my father, she has strong elf blood and small boobs..."

"That's not what I'm talking about. I'm not talking about that. I don't have any proclivities. Small is not a disadvantage, but I'd rather have a big ...... No, wait, what am I saying? That's not what I'm talking about.



 He sighs deeply.




 ...... stop it already. This is ridiculous.

 Shake your head and come back calmly.

 I can't waste my precious time talking to a child.



"Dear Lilliputian. Marriage is something that has to be approved by your parents. So we should talk about such things only after we've rescued your parents."



 This is a traditional Japanese family trick of postponing problems.

 She is a princess, after all, so she cannot be put in a bad mood. Therefore, he does not give a clear answer, but rather blurts it out.



 Perhaps I was being harsh when I mentioned the rescue of her parents as a condition, but Helian herself cannot afford it either. Even in the present situation, he already has his hands full. There is no time to waste on children.



 If they reply that love is enough even without parents' consent, we should use our trump card against children, <, to get out of this situation. Yeah, let's do that.



"Hmm. I don't think I'll be able to meet my mother and father... ......"



 As expected, the girl smiled, but her expression clouded. So Helian tried to say the procrastination line he had prepared,









"Because I'm sure they've already killed my mother and father."









 --The words were heart-grabbing.



"My sister and the others said , but I think they're probably already dead. Elves don't like half-elves, especially not 'half-elves who don't look like elves'. So I think my mother is the first one to be killed because she has big tits and doesn't look like an elf.



 Lillipha speaks these words.

 But she was still smiling.

 Smiling.

 With a cheerful expression.



"If Mother and the others were alive, I'd like to go help them, but unlike my sister, I can't use magic very well, and I'm not very good with a bow, so I can't do anything. So I'm going to do my best so that everyone won't feel so miserable.



 So laugh.

 She smiles.

 She does her best to smile.

 It's all she can do, but at least she tries.

 That's the kind of smile she had.



"----"



 ...... Oh.

 Helian was mistaken.

 All this time he thought she was a child.

 I thought she was an innocent little girl.



 --It was a terrible misunderstanding.



 She is royalty from the land of the half-elves.

 Then she can't be just like any other little child, no matter how young she is. You are not in a position to laugh at them innocently, without reading the air. There is no way that they have been brought up in a situation where they are allowed to not understand.



 Rilifa understood.



 In a sense, she understood the current situation of half-elves more calmly than anyone else. And she accepted the reality.



 Their country is in danger of extinction. All of their captured comrades could have been killed. There was nothing we could do.



 So she thought.

 What can I do?

 She wondered what she could do as a young girl who could neither use magic nor bow very well, and who could not come up with a plan to break out of this situation.



 The result is this smile.

 The result of all my thinking is the series of slapstick commotion.



 I couldn't do anything, but at least I smiled and tried to make everyone feel at ease, to cheer them up.

 While doing so, I kept thinking if there was anything else I could do.

 I thought and thought and thought, and still couldn't come up with any good ideas. .......



 In the meantime, she found a free force that belongs neither to the enemy (Noblewood) nor to her own country (LATESTWOOD).



 So she immediately took action.

 With her own body and the two cards that she was a princess, she tried her best to somehow make the travelers her friends and ...... allies in Rattestwood.

 She did this because she knew that, contrary to the values of the elves, most humans prefer the larger-breasted ones.



 The way she did it may have been poor for her age, but she still tried her best to do it in the best way she could think of at this young age.



 --What a terrible misunderstanding!



 How could she have thought that her smile was nothing more than a meaningless smile of an innocent child? And that he had been so easily dismissing the words he had uttered with determination, which were tantamount to offering his own body, as the nonsense of a child.



"----,"



 Once, when I was still a young child, my parents took me to see a children's play. It was a children's play with an easy-to-understand storyline of good and evil.

 I think it was a story about a princess who sacrificed herself to some demon king or something to save her country or something like that. I remembered it suddenly.



 The only difference from the play that I am witnessing is that it is brutally realistic.



"Huh? Mr. Helian?"



 Lillipha peeks into Helian's face with concern as she suddenly turns her head down. Her large eyes showed a hint of concern for Helian.



 ......Why do you worry about a stranger you just met today? You are probably too busy taking care of yourself.



 Helian thinks about that again. She thinks about it. And that, combined with the fact that she was full of herself, was a little, a lot, too much.



 I am aware of a slight burning at the corners of my eyes. But I could not let myself be seen in such a disgraceful manner. Apart from the idea that I should act as a king in front of Ertina and Levee, I couldn't show my disgraceful appearance here and now.



 Because Lillipha is smiling.

 She keeps smiling as much as she can, as the least effort she can do, keeping a lid on her emotions.






 Then there is no reason for me, a man older than her and still a man, to show my disgusting behavior. Herian's petty male stubbornness will not allow him to show his disrespect in front of a little girl (Lillipha).



"...... Hey, Mr. Hellian."



 Rilifa wondered what was going through her young mind.



"I wish you would marry Lillipha and protect Latticewood.



 He clearly states his request.

 This is the most "effort" she can make.

 This is the "effort" that Lillipha, a royal without power, can make with the greatest possible effect under the current circumstances.



"My sister has to be queen, so she can't do it, but I hope you will put up with Rilifa.



 Her cheeks looked slightly red as she said this.

 It must have been due to the sun's rays.

 Because this is not such a sweet and sour thing.

 It is definitely not like that.



"No?"



 Rilifa, who was always smiling and laughing.

 Only then did she say these words with a troubled smile and a lowered eyebrow.



"I don't think I can ............ get married. I have a lot of things I need to do."



 Don't let your sympathies get the better of you.

 Helian is a king, just as Lillipha is a princess.



 Therefore, we cannot easily reach out to her.

 No matter how much Helian wants to help, his position as king does not allow it. Especially when they are not even able to grasp the situation they are in and are not able to gather enough information.



"...... I see..."



 Lillipha muttered helplessly.



 She probably didn't really believe that he would marry her in the first place.

 She was probably prepared for a rejection.

 But if you don't do it because you think it might not work, there is no chance.

 She tried to give it a shot even though it might not work, taking a chance on a small chance.

 The young princess tried her best to do all she could do.



 And as she had expected, she failed.

 Her efforts failed.

 This is just a story.

 That's all there is to it.



 --But...



"But ...... I'd like to help you in any way I can."

Really?



 Lillipha jumped up from her prone position.

 She looked genuinely surprised.



"Yes, it's true. "Yes, it's true...but only to the best of my ability. There's not much I can do for you in my current situation. ......"

"That's it! As much as you can! You're really going to help me!"

"To the best of my ability," I really mean it. I'll prove it to you at ....... I'll cut off your fingers."



 Lillipha tilted her head cockily as she held out the little finger of her right hand.

 It was a gesture that seemed out of place in her slightly overgrown appearance, but seemed appropriate for her age if one knew her real age.



"Oh, you don't know about finger cutting. ....... It means to make an important promise to each other by intertwining the little fingers of your right hands. You mustn't break this promise."

"If I break it, do you cut off my pinky finger?"

"............, that's a little bit too dangerous."



 I felt like having the difference of the circumstances I have lived in drilled into my head when he said such a thing without a care in the world.



 Ah, but did he mean to say that finger-cutting maniacs swallow a thousand needles, too? Either way, it's a disturbing story. No singing will do.



 Lillipha holds out her pinky at his urging.

 I was struck by the small silver ring she was wearing.



 Helian intertwines his right pinky with Lillipha's, and then says only <, omitting the word "song".



"Is this what you promised me? Are you okay?"

"Yes, I made you a promise. Well then, let's go and make good on our promise.



 What? He pulls away from Lillipha, who tilts her head.



"I think everyone in the village is hungry. If we serve them here and make them feel full and energized, ...... would that help you?"



 Lillipha answered Helian's question with a hearty smile.

 It was a radiant and bursting joy, perhaps the first true smile that Helian had ever seen on Rilifa's face.