Chapter 485: The First Woman, Shimegamamo 2<ol><li><strong> The First Woman, Shimegamamo 2</strong></li></ol>


    * * *


    A touch-and-go situation.


    An unsettling tension hangs in the air of the peaceful, rural town’s main street.


    Kmaruyu doesn’t even try to hide his hostility towards Shimegamamo, and the two adventurers acting as guards don’t lower their fighting stances.


    The few residents who were on the street, sensing danger, quickly hid inside their houses.


    The three town guards, who should be the first to protect Kmaruyu, began to distance themselves from him, nervously.


    “Kuku, ‘Barbarian’, huh? Those are harsh words, brother-inw, for your brother’s wife.”


    However, in that tense atmosphere, only Shimegamamo remained calm, smiling quietly.


    “Who’s your wife!? Our country’sw doesn’t recognize your marriage to my foolish brother!”


    “But ording to our n’s rules, my husband, Wakiteryu, and I are already married. Unfortunately, he passed away before I could bear his child…”


    “Don’t say such ridiculous things! What n rules!?”


    “Kuku, that’s right… there’s only one of us left in our n. It’s hard to talk about rules in such a situation… Even I understand that.”


    Kmaruyu was furious, shouting, while Shimegamamo didn’t seem to care about his anger at all.


    Their conversation, going nowhere, echoed clearly through the windless street, with no one there except for them and the guards.


    “But as thest Shimegamamo… I have decided to live ording to the rules… Therefore, brother-inw—“


    Here, Shimegamamo erased the smile she had been wearing, no matter what was said to her.


    And looking at Kmaruyu with her straightforward eyes, she said clearly, in a gentle voice, like a mother admonishing her spoiled child—


    “Stop ‘ravaging’ the Great Grasnd of Beginnings.”


    …


    A breeze blew through the street under the blue sky.


    That cool breeze, carrying the scent of the grasnd, incongruous with the atmosphere between the two, ruffled Kmaruyu’s coat and Shimegamamo’s reddish-brown hair.


    For a moment, there was silence.


    “…Haa! What would a barbaric woman who knows nothing about politics say!?”


    And the one who broke the silence was Kmaruyu.


    “Do you even know!? I doubt you do! …How much our First Viscounty is looked down upon—as a backwater! We… need to change! How many hundreds of years have we been stagnant!? We need a revolution!”


    Kmaruyu, his face flushed red, shouted, trembling!


    He continued spitting out words, driven by his emotions!


    “And you barbarians… are always getting in the way, talking about rules! If you don’t want to suffer the consequences—“


    “Brother-inw.”


    Shimegamamo stopped Kmaruyu’s angry words—


    With a single word, spoken clearly, a troubled, wry smile on her face.


    And then, she stretched her left arm straight out.


    And then, the vine wrapped around her left arm—


    Started growing rapidly, and in an instant, wrapped itself around one of the adventurers guarding Kmaruyu!


    “Wha…!?”


    The adventurer, taken by surprise, was helpless!


    And then, with an unbelievable force, he was pulled—flying towards Shimegamamo…


    “GYAAAAAAAAH!?”


    And he was easily—cut clean in half… by her cleaver—like a de of grass!


    “P-Partner!?”


    The other adventurer screamed in shock and grief, but he should have taken some action, instead of just standing there, dumbfounded.


    Because the next moment, Shimegamamo’s vinespletely wrapped around him!


    “U-Uhyaaah!?”


    And he too, screaming pathetically, was pulled towards Shimegamamo, and cut in half!


    Blood gushed out from the severed parts of the two adventurers’ bodies.


    And then, surprisingly, the pool of blood that spread out on the street—quickly turned into green moss, from the edges inward.


    The bodies, cut into four pieces, also quickly turned into lumps of moss, and grass started growing from them… and they transformed into small bushes.


    The traces of the carnage were quickly transformed into a peaceful thicket.


    “…………!!”


    Kmaruyu, seeing the sudden carnage, and the supernatural phenomenon, his face turned pale.


    He desperately gritted his teeth, and didn’t scream.


    “H-Hiiih!”


    “Please spare me! Please spare me, Shimegamamo-samaaa!”


    “Shimegamamo-samaaa!”


    The remaining three guards, trembling, prostrated themselves on the ground, their foreheads rubbing against the dirt, desperately begging for their lives.


    “Brother-inw, I really didn’t want to do this.”


    Shimegamamo spoke gently to Kmaruyu, watching the men.


    “But there are rules. Those who break the rules will not be forgiven… Even if it’s you, brother-inw.”


    She said that gently, gently, with a smile.


    “Stop ‘ravaging’ the Great Grasnd of Beginnings.”


    And then, she emphasized that onest time, and—


    Shimegamamo turned on her heel, and disappeared into the shadows of the buildings.


    * * *


    “…Haa! …Haa, haa, haa…”


    A few seconds after Shimegamamo left.n/?/vel/b//in dot c//om


    Kmaruyu resumed breathing, which he had forgotten, gasping for air.


    “Tomandon… Jemizogu…”


    And then, not caring that his clothes were getting dirty, he knelt on the ground, and called out the names of the two adventurers who had turned into bushes.


    They were two trustworthy people whom Kmaruyu had known for a long time.


    Whenever Kmaruyu went out on field work as a researcher, he always asked them to be his guards.


    They were serious, and good-natured people.


    And yet…!


    “…………”


    Kmaruyu looked up and red at the direction where Shimegamamo had disappeared.


    He stared, and stared…


    And there was a pair of blue eyes, watching him from the entrance of a shop facing the street.


    At that point,


    He wasn’t aware of that.