Yuri Hero and Loli Demon King - Chapter 17

This is a vast and beautiful world, but for one who has been imprisoned since its fledgling days, this world is frightening and dangerous.

How does one find food? How does one settle down? Where is the direction? What is this place? What is harmful to oneself? What is beneficial to oneself?

—It knows nothing about this world.

Having no survival skills, it finally collapsed on the ground after escaping the prison.

It was hungry and tired; not to mention moving, even breathing, something so instinctual and direct, felt incredibly difficult.

“I… don’t want to die…”

It prayed.

To whom it prayed, or how it prayed, it could not understand. It was not that it did not believe in gods; rather, it had never even heard of such deities, so it naturally could not pray to someone it had never heard of. Then, what about praying to this world like an atheist? Impossible; to it, this world was just a malicious entity that caused it harm.

—It could only pray to itself.

Praying, it thought, if it died here, everything would be in vain, everything would be meaningless.”I… don’t want to die…” The feeble creature continued to pray.

As the dim white light obscured its vision, a figure of a blue-green girl appeared in its hazy gaze.

—Who?

It didn’t even have the strength to think about that; it didn’t matter anyway. Even harmful things posed no threat to its current state, as it had no power to resist.

However, the blue-green girl did not harm it; instead, she saved it.

She saved the creature, taught it knowledge, provided it with a place to belong… Ah, all of this was granted by her! If she was everything to this creature, it would not be an exaggeration.

From the day they met, the creature tried to forget its past and regarded that girl as the most important existence.

The girl’s name was Haitang, and the creature abandoned its old name to become the dawn light that illuminated Haitang.

♀ ♀ ♀

Rei and Haitang were sitting together at a rectangular marble table in the guild hall, reading. However, as mages, they weren’t reading magic books, but rather books unrelated to magic—one held “Siscon Wants to Fall in Love!” while the other held “Winnie the Pooh.”

“Hey, wouldn’t it be great if Juka and Rokka could be a couple?” Rei said, looking at the siscon book in her hands.

“I haven’t read that one, so I don’t know who you’re talking about,” Haitang said, engrossed in her children’s book. “Wouldn’t it be wonderful if Winnie the Pooh and Piglet were a couple?”

“…A bear and a pig together would be interspecies love, right?!”

Haitang tilted her head in confusion. “Interspecies love?”

“It’s a romance between different species. It’s normal for bears to love bears and pigs to love pigs, but a bear loving a pig is interspecies love.”

“Oh.” Haitang nodded, somewhat understanding.

After Rei finished explaining the definition of interspecies love, for some reason, she raised her gaze to Haitang’s face.

—That means Haitang is a fairy.

Rei thought to herself: Even though she has a human appearance, are fairies really considered a different species from actual humans?

Just as Rei was thinking this, Haitang suddenly asked, “Do you oppose interspecies love?”

“Eh?”

“Interspecies love… don’t you like it?” Haitang repeated the question.

—Why are you asking me such a thing?Rei pondered the true meaning behind Haitang’s words: Could it be that she shares the same feelings as I do?

No, Haitang is not someone who hides her feelings, nor would she use such a vague remark to imply something.

“Speaking of which, Haitang is a fairy!” Not knowing how to respond, Rei decided to change the topic.

“Eh? I’m not a fairy, you know.”

“But didn’t you say that when you were on Ape Wing Mountain…?”

“Brother… President Haihong’s level is Lv.91, while the current Fairy King is Lv.90. Clearly, my brother is stronger, yet he hasn’t become the Supreme King. Do you know why, Rei?”

“Could it be…?”

“Because my mother and my brother are human.”

Haitang is… the child of a human and a fairy?

No, that’s too unreasonable! As far as I know, fairies are formed from magical plants. How is it even possible for them to have children with humans, who are primates?

Even if monsters can somewhat take on human forms later, it’s unlikely that they would love a human… Rather, what does it matter if they do? How could animals and plants ever produce offspring?

“You look skeptical; you don’t believe me, do you, Rei?”

“Because fairies should be transformed from plants…”

“Mm, fairies are indeed plants! So, Rei, you’ve never seen a fairy that bleeds, right? No matter what form they take, as long as they’re plants, fairies absolutely cannot bleed.”

“That’s true…”

Rei recalled the scene of Haitang fighting against Dragon on Ape Wing Mountain and getting injured and bleeding during the battle against Lufulus in Velur Village.

If Haitang is a fairy, if Haitang is made of plant material, she shouldn’t be able to bleed.

At that moment, Haitang raised her perfectly intact right hand, the hand that should have been severed by Lufulus: “Have you ever seen a human hand grow back on its own, Rei?”

“Haitang is really not a fairy, really not human…?””That’s not right; it’s correct to say both, isn’t it?”

Haitang nodded.

“Rei just said, ‘It’s normal for bears to fall in love with bears, and for pigs to fall in love with pigs.’ So, is interspecies love ‘abnormal’?”

“……”

Is interspecies love abnormal? — Haitang asked this.

How should I respond? How should I answer in front of this child born from interspecies love?

Saying it’s “normal” would be a lie; I simply cannot accept love between different species. Even though I have feelings for Haitang, I can’t accept it… Love between a human and a dog, or even between a human and an orangutan, which is a closely related species, is something I cannot accept at all.

I love Haitang, yet I detest interspecies love.

“……”

So, should I answer, “That’s right, interspecies love is abnormal”? In front of this child born from a different species.

I can’t bring myself to say it.

“What does Haitang think of interspecies love?”

Caught in a dilemma, Rei decided to throw the question back.

“People often say beautiful things like, ‘As long as you truly love each other, age, wealth, region, status, gender, race… none of that matters,’ right?””Then, according to what they say, isn’t interspecies love just a difference in species?”

“Haitang, you…”

Rei hesitated, wanting to say something but stopping short. Her reaction wasn’t due to Haitang’s reply, but rather her expression.

In her eyes shone innocence and resentment: “Why? Why do people say such beautiful things while looking at it with ugly eyes?”

As Haitang spoke, tears gathered at the corners of her eyes.

“Ah, yes… why is that?” Rei sighed slightly. “The truth is, most people despise age-gap relationships, same-sex relationships, and interspecies relationships! Even love between the rich and the poor is often interpreted as ‘for the sake of wealth’ or similar reasons. When people speak such ugly words, it truly is the epitome of ugliness! Forcing their own values upon others, pressuring others to become like themselves, and excluding those who are different.”

As Rei looked at the tears on Haitang’s cheeks, she realized that perhaps… she was a victim of such ugly values?

If interspecies love is heavily discriminated against, how could the children born from such love possibly have any good treatment?

Humans attempt to mask their ugliness with beautiful words, yet it often backfires.

Even knowing all this, I silently accepted people’s values.

“What if I tried to resist, to fight against these disgusting values? Perhaps it wouldn’t have come to this… ” As Rei lightly spoke, she quickly recalled various points from her past.

Not just the past, even the present.

It was because society opposed same-sex love and interspecies love that I had hesitated for years.

Why didn’t I face my feelings more openly?

—Because I was afraid.

“Haitang, I…”

Before Rei could finish her sentence, Haitang jumped in, “I don’t dislike interspecies love… No, that’s not it, I actually like interspecies love!””I can only be in interspecies love!”

Haitang lowered her head to wipe away her tears, looked at her palms, then placed her hands over her heart to feel its rhythm.

“I can only be in interspecies love… After all, where can I find someone like me, a mixed breed?”

“Haitang, that’s not true! Don’t say things like that. Who taught you such words?”

“Everyone says it like that!”

It was a sad smile.

Rei couldn’t understand how Haitang could smile while saying those words.

—Everyone says it, and I’m just a mixed breed.

Why not refute it? Why not resist? Ah, was it because rebutting would be useless?

Finally, Rei understood. She realized that President Haihong was strong because she worked hard not to let anyone look down on her.

At the same time, she couldn’t fathom how Haitang could maintain such innocence. How could she laugh in such a harsh environment?

“The air feels so heavy. Let’s change the topic?” Another smile, an innocent and carefree smile.

Compared to Rei’s affectation of a perfect sweet smile, Haitang’s smile could truly be called a “smile.”

“Fool.” Sometimes, Rei deeply felt that the gap between her and Haitang was really, really far.

“What do you mean by ‘the air feels so heavy’? You should say ‘the atmosphere feels so heavy,’ right?”

“Oh right! That’s what I meant to say!”

After saying that, she giggled and scratched her head playfully.Looking at Haitang like this really makes my heart flutter!

—She possesses the things that Rei has pursued her whole life.

“Haitang…” She swallowed hard.

I have to say it.

I absolutely must say it.

No matter what the worldly values are, no matter how Haitang views me… I must tell her.

So what if it’s a same-sex love? So what if it’s an interspecies love?

—I want to resist.

After all, conforming to societal values has only brought me tragedy, locking me in a cage of fear for many years. At the very least this time…

—I want to resist all unreasonable values.

“Haitang, I…”

Before she could finish her sentence, Haitang interrupted her, “Let’s go out together tomorrow? It’s been a long time since I’ve seen the sunrise! I know a great spot nearby for watching it!”

This sudden change caught Rei off guard for a moment, but she quickly gathered her thoughts, wanting to express her feelings again.

“I like…”

“I really like the sunrise! It feels like it can chase away the scary night, bringing warmth and comfort.”

“…” Give me a moment here!Finally, Haitang made an excuse of needing to go to bed early because she had to wake up for the sunrise and left on her own, returning to her room to rest.

Ah, after finally gathering the courage, why didn’t I call out to her at the last moment? Why couldn’t I say it directly?

In the end, my determination turned out to be as fragile as ever.