Let go of me!　If I become Ikennye, all my problems will be solved!

Young lady, I wouldn't want you to scatter your young life.

'Because I don't deserve to live!　My parents are already dead, and I was ugly in appearance, and I said, 'I don't know what kind of man would take you as a wife. I deserve a wife who is a domestic pig. No, pigs are precious livestock. I don't want to live my life being ridiculed for things like, 'You don't have one!　I am going to my parents in the other world!

....



　It was just as I had predicted.
　I stayed on the scene to prepare for the defeat of the Great Antigog, and since none of the inhabitants were left, we defeated it ahead of schedule... The defeat itself was just Larabelle throwing her spare sword over the top of the nest at full power, and Mew dropping a huge block of ice.

'No matter how much people usually make fun of me for being a dork, when it comes to Ikennye, everyone else will too.......'

'Oh no, I don't think they'll respect me.

　Mew assured him that the residents of Little Water Village would not appreciate the devotion of a girl named Frau when she became an Ikenier, even though she was not wanted.
　He had been told a lot about his appearance himself, and he must have realized the truth of the world.

'If a beautiful woman becomes Ikennye, well, it will be picturesque and tragic, and may be passed on to posterity, but if a dweeb like us becomes Ikennye, it will be forgotten in three days.

　Ikenyer is memorable because a beautiful person scatters life.
　Mew assured him that if an ugly person became Ikenyer, he would soon be lost to people's memories.

'Rather, they might criticize me for jumping in now.

Why?

Ikeniye is meaningless to begin with, so...

Is that so?

　Even if the giant ant-digoc was given an Ikeniye, it would not disappear until it hatched.
　According to Miu, it would take at least three months for the giant ant-digobog to hatch.
　If the giant ant colony has been around for three months after the girl named Frau had become Ikenye, the residents would say, "Well, look what we've seen. It's not a good idea to turn an ugly Frau into an ugly person,' they would obviously say, 'Well, we've seen it, and it's not a good idea to turn an ugly Frau into a good person.

'The great ant gobbler stops hatching within three to six months of being able to identify the nest. As long as they get the nutrients they need to hatch, they are gone, so Ikenyi doesn't matter much. A human being's worth of nutrition is not much, considering the size of a giant ant colony. It doesn't have much of an impact.

　Residents of Little Water Village mistakenly believe that Ikenyi is effective against the giant ant goby because of the closed nature of the oasis and the fact that the giant ant goby itself is a sand beast that is not very numerous.

　Hatched great mayflies only live for a year or so, and the eggs they lay can easily become food for other sand beasts.
　To avoid this, the mayfly lays its eggs in an area where there are no sand beasts, but then the eggs are too dry to hatch.
　Many of them are unable to build a nest and end up as food for other sand beasts.
　The great ant-diggers are not so strong as they seem.
　Since they rarely appear, they don't accumulate the knowledge and experience to deal with them, so they just do it anyway because they've always said it's a good idea.
　The villagers were not able to calmly judge whether it was really effective or not.

''If you turn a beautiful woman into an ikenye and she's no longer hatching a month later, ''In just one month!　I thought, 'Ikenier is effective,' and if you make Dobbs an Ikenier and a month later he's not hatching, 'It's taken me a month!　That's why you can't turn Dobbs into a Yekenye!' It's a human emotion. It's sad.

'Is it pointless for me to be Ikenyer but this is the only way I can go now!　I don't want to live alone every day with people making fun of me for being a dope!

"...and...

It was Frau, wasn't it?　How old are you?

I'm twelve.

When are your parents coming home?

My father died soon after I was born and my mother died of illness two years ago.

　Was this child, ever since I can remember, a mother and child, and was alone after losing her mother, her only immediate family, two years ago?
　

　Furthermore, this is a small oasis.
　It must have been hard every day alone.
　It is likely that he volunteered for Ikenyer, not so much for Little Water Village as for Little Water Village, which was half suicidal.

'It's hard to be alive, so I thought it would be easier to be an Ikenier...'

　Little Water Village is a narrow oasis.
　Residents have become so closed-minded that they have no qualms about doing horrible things to keep harmony among themselves, such as making fun of one girl for being a dope.
　It's a horrible story, but this kind of thing is common in Japan's underpopulated villages, small companies and organizations.

　Making one person an ikenye to maintain harmony with the rest of the population.
　Even for the king of the Bart Kingdom, he made Larabell and Mew look like fools to the nobles and tried to deflect their dissatisfaction with him outward.
　On the contrary, he was criticized by the hunters and beat-up soldiers in the field for being narrow to the two who were contributing to the defeat of the sand beast, though that king didn't realize it because he hated the big nobles, but he only cared about the nobles.

'Frau, dying won't change anything.

But I can't just stay here...

Then you should go out into the world. Do you have a crush on this place?

No, sir. No, sir.

'We're just looking for personnel to do chores like feeding, laundry, etc. When the Frau is larger, though, I'm willing to be a hunter, depending on your aptitude. We also have a business on the ship, so you can help out with that.

　It was so pitiful that I invited Frau to join me without consulting Lalabelle and Mew.
　I looked at the two of them, feeling sorry for saying it without permission, and I was glad to see that they agreed with a smile on their faces.

''(Hey, I feel guilty if I leave you like this)'

'' (Yes.) I had Mew, and I had the aptitude to be a hunter, so I could withstand the abuse from the people around me as long as I was out there taking down the sand beasts. This girl is alone, and no one can help her.)

(We were saved by Ms. Taro.) From now on, we can't save everyone like Frau-san, but it's probably fate that I got to know her here. She had her luck.)

　They both agreed, in a whisper, to let Frau join them.

'To the outside world?'

I'm not exactly a safe bet.

　Still, it shouldn't be as closed off as this oasis, and you shouldn't be ridiculed for being ugly by the same faces every day.

'You can't change what you were born with, but then you have to be strong at heart. You may be insecure, but you can venture out into the outside world and be strong enough to ignore what others have to say. We should have the strength of mind to ignore what others say. Nothing will change if you continue to stay in this place.

'Actually, I've always wanted to go out into the outside world. But I get scolded if I don't hunt sand beasts and deliver meat...

They're letting you do that too?

　How can they be so ruthless towards the weak people inside, despite their seemingly simple country folk atmosphere?
　They let the Frau hunt the meat of the sand beasts, a source of food, and instead of being grateful for it, they mock and exploit it.

　By doing so, they gain a mental advantage over the Frau and secure their own interests.
　And they kept the awfulness of the situation from being seen by outsiders.

'Convincing scum, aren't they?'

　Otherwise, how could we live in this little oasis?
　There is plenty of water, so that shouldn't be the case.
　It's just that the people in this oasis are probably rotten.

So if I try to leave Little Water Village, I should be disturbed.

Well....

　I see.
　So the residents here think that Frau should just be a sandbag and hunt the sand beasts.

That's a terrible story.

That's what's so scary about closed groups.

　It persecutes and exploits one person or a few, while others benefit and maintain group cohesion.
　It's a terrible thing, but as humans are living beings, it will never go away.
　The only way to fix it is to leave that group.

'Frau, do you want to go out into the world?　If you want to leave, we can help you, but if you still don't want to leave, we can't do anything about it. It's your own will to create your own life.

...I want to get out there!

Very well, then, I'll help you. Frau, go with our play.

I understand.

Well, let's take care of the big ant-dog first before we get to that...

　I asked Larabell and Mew to take down the great antigog.
　After all, it was not a very strong kind of sand beast from the point of view of the two of us, so when Lalabelle threw in her spare sword with all her might and Miu dropped a huge, pointed chunk of ice from the sky, it would be defeated in a daze.

''As long as you can unleash a certain amount of offensive power from a long distance, the Great Antidigok is not that strong of a sand beast.

'Most importantly, though, there aren't many hunters who have a certain amount of attack power from that long range. Basically, they're dangerous sand beasts because they go into their nests and attack.

　The great antigog was successfully defeated, and the next step was to start lying to the residents of Little Water Village.



'A penalty?'

'Yes!　If nothing else, we wouldn't be saying this either!　It was a profitable enough defeat. And this girl took the liberty of interfering with it, saying, 'I want to be Ikennye'!




　The next morning, I chastised the residents who had come to check on them in a strong tone.
　The next morning, I came to check on them, and I told them that I had interfered with the operation by insisting that Frau be turned into an ikenye, and that they had suffered unexpected losses, and that they should pay a penalty.
　Of course, that was a big lie, and the plan was to get Frau out of Little Water Village.

'What about the two of you?'

'Our meticulous plan was interrupted and we couldn't let this boy die, so we changed to a normal take down, and he's injured and lying on the ship. We need to get him paid for his treatment.

But with a contract like that...

　The old man, who represents the residents, is right.
　We have not formally signed a contract with the residents.
　But we are hunters who can take down the great ant goblins that the residents can't stand up to.
　In fact, there's a large ant-digog corpse in the den that I've only recovered the two fangs in its jaws.

　Only this time I was left out of the party, or rather, I left Larabell and Mew out of the party and had them take it down alone, so the corpse was still there.
　Going all the way around like this was part of the strategy to get Frau out of Little Water Village.

''Frau, why?''

When I'm a good-looking man...

So, if we'd left it up to these people to take down, we wouldn't have a problem...

Anyway, shall we charge you $10 million in penalties?　If you add in the cost of the two injured men's treatment and other expenses, this is still a very unreasonable price to pay. That's a concession considering the economic strength of this village.

　Of course Lalabelle and Mew were not injured and were in the ship for the play.
　The reason they dared to return to the ship was to make them think they were seriously injured.

'Don't tell me you won't pay me?　All right. I'll keep this village as a rumor among my fellow hunters.

Please don't let that happen!

　What if rumors spread that the residents of Little Water Village had interfered with the hunters who had offered them a free kill order, and after all, they hadn't been compensated at all....
　When the Great Antigog appeared again, even if there were hunters there by chance, no one would accept the request to take them down.
　If possible, they would want to avoid responding with Ikenyie, so they would be in trouble if they were blocked from doing anything else.

　It was written on the face of the old man, the resident's representative.
　Sorry, but I'm too old to know the outside world, and I'm too old to be naive.

'Then the penalty. If you don't have the money, I can get you something else...'

　However, there are no specialties other than water in this oasis.
　If there were, it would be a bit more developed.

''Chief!　Frau has gone too far, so Frau should compensate herself!

'Yes!　What the hell is wrong with you?

'You look like you wouldn't like it, even in the Great Antigog!

'Yes!　The penalty should be borne by Frau!

You'll have to work for it!

　She would not want to pay the 10 million dollar penalty fee.
　The residents, except for the old man, began to denounce her, saying that Frau should pay the penalty.
　The abuse came in rapid succession, but I hope that Frau will be patient with them a little longer.

'Frau will pay the penalty, we don't care.

This girl?　Do you have any special skills?

You can see his face, but he can hunt sand-sized lizards, and he lives alone, so he can cook rice and do laundry.

Frau will pay for it with her life. Is that all right with you?

Well, if that's the case.

　By the conventional wisdom of this world, Frau is an awfully ugly woman.
　The inhabitants thought that even though they were in great debt, they couldn't pay it off on the women's part.
　You can handle and use her as a hunter's apprentice and chore, they said.

　They would make decisions about people's lives on their own.
　I feel like I've seen the darkness of people living in the closed country.

'Would it be better if we could hunt the sand big lizard?　If only I could cook and do laundry...

So, we have a deal!

　The residents were probably afraid I would overturn the proposal because they didn't like Frau's ugliness.
　I hurriedly ordered Frau to leave Little Water Village.
　This is quite a way to get rid of him, even though I had heard that he had been working hard at hunting sand beasts until now.

　However, so far, it was to be expected.
　I hope Frau will be able to hold out a little longer.

''Oh, and also the corpse of the great antigod, shall I let her deal with it?

I hear it's good for fertilizer and we'll take care of the rest.

　They seem to be afraid that I will overturn the proposal.
　I was going to get the Frau out of Little Water Village as soon as possible because I had ten million dollars to spare.
　They also offered to take care of the corpse of the Great Antigog that they had defeated, and they said they would take care of it themselves.

　If we don't dispose of it quickly, the sand big lizards will be gathering, so they might end up dismantling the corpse for the day.

'Then I guess we should be out of here now.

Old City?

Yeah.

So have a nice trip.

　We were forced to leave Little Water Village as if we were being kicked out, with our bags packed up and Frau being shoved around, plus a free extra supply of water.




'Frau, I'm sorry to put you through such a hard time, even if it was for the sake of achieving your goal,'

　As the ship sailed safely away, Frau looked at Little Water Village, which was gradually getting farther and farther away.
　Even though she had painful memories of the place, from her point of view, it was still the hometown she had spent so far.

'Actually, I'm not too sad about it. I've never been out in the world before.'

Okay. All right then.

But I don't like that Sailor girl.

'You must be very confident in your beauty.

　Larabell and Mew, who had been pretending to be injured and in bed, joined me and Frau's conversation.
　The bandages that I had purchased from 'online shopping' and wrapped around my body had long since been removed.

　Just before Frau packed up her pack and left Little Water Village, someone approached her.
　The most beautiful girl in Little Water Village who first declared herself to be Ikenier?　A girl named Sailor, who is

　"These two are actually best friends who came to see each other off? I was foolish to think such a thing.
　Sela began to blame the Frau for sabotaging our defeat in a very bad way.
　Of course, the sabotage was a lie to get Frau out into the world, but I couldn't tell that to the girl named Sailor, so she just endured Sailor's sarcastic comments.

''Besides, a douchebag like you is a hottie?　Do you know the rules of Ikenyi?　She's the most beautiful maiden in this Little Water Village. Not a single Frau fits the bill.'

　Maybe she was actually relieved that she hadn't become Ikenier.
　Sela even changed her tone of voice and continued to curse at Frau.
　Perhaps this girl called Sailor is totally tenacious because people around her usually chide her for being a beautiful girl.

　From my point of view, though, it looks like a very misunderstood scene, with a pretty creature taunting a beautiful girl.

''I'm going to stop now.''

"Are you interrupting me?　You're the kind of girl who no one in my level of fame would want to marry. And you have two other dorks who are a good match for Frau. You have bad taste.''

'I see. You didn't discipline your children properly, and that's how you ended up with such an ugly personality.

"What?　What are you talking about?　I'm.....

''When your heart is ugly, even your face is distorted, isn't it? I don't care what you or the people here think, but I think Lalabelle and Mew are both beautiful. That's why I made you my wife, and Frau is tens or hundreds of times more beautiful than you are. You deserve to be an Ikenyer. I'm sure the big antigog will be worth eating, too.'

"Mmm, I feel like I've been bad-mouthed...

　Women in this world are praised for being 'plump' when they're fat, anyway.
　Serra is also quite fat, and all of BWH looks the same size, but the reason she was able to gain weight in this oasis where life is not so rich is probably because of the meat from the sand-sized lizard that Frau hunted.

"One more thing.

"What!　Ordinary Face!

'You'll get your comeuppance in time, I'm sure. Let me tell you that.

Payback?　What do you mean?

"I'll know it when it happens. Bye.

"Hey!　What's the retribution?　

　A reckoning is coming for a girl named Sailor.　
　She tilted her head to see what it was, but it was actually going to come for sure.
　That retribution is what Mew had found last night, but there was actually another ant ant that had just hatched a short distance away from the nest of that big ant.
　According to Miu, it would be building another big nest in a month or so.
　Moreover, that location was most likely the point where it had built its nest before for sure.

''If Frau were here, she would have noticed the little big ant goggle since she hunts sand beasts every day. She would have been killed immediately...''

　However, Frau leaves Little Water Village.
　Now, when will the other residents notice the new Great Antigog, and when will they find out?
　The great ant gobbler, which has only been here for a span of a few decades to a few hundred years, made another nest a month later.
　We'll see if we can deal with this... but since no high-ranking hunter comes there so conveniently, there's a good chance that Ikenier will be executed this time.

　And Ikenyer will certainly be Sailor's choice for Ikenyer.
　He was the first candidate to run, so he would be the main hope.
　I'll assume so.
　Is it not possible that perhaps that great ant-digog might not nest near Little Water Village?
　However, it would be best not to share this fact with the Frau.
　Lalabelle and Mew wouldn't tell Frau either.

'Frau only needs to think about the future. Your life in Little Water Village is in the past now.

Yes. Okay, Mr. Taro.

I don't need a master. I'm not the greatest.

'No, Taro-sama is the one who rescued me, and I owe him a debt of gratitude. That part is non-negotiable.

(Is she surprisingly stubborn?)