The Principle of a Philosopher by Eternal Fool “Asley”

While Asley and Trace were having their discussion, Pochi, eyes bloodshot, came to the outskirts of Eddo.

Before Pochi’s eyes sat a gigantic Elf, lazily picking his ear with his pinky finger.

“What, you had a fight or somethin’? Those eyes aren’t lookin’ good.”

Tūs asked, but Pochi refused to give an answer. She only kept her eyes cast down as she proceeded to sit in front of Tūs.

Tūs, looking even more annoyed, scratched his hair and started drawing a Spell Circle.

“–House.”

Emerging from the completed Circle was the King Happy Killer Bull.

Tūs proceeded to lean against the tree behind him, his body weight causing it to creak quite loudly.

Bull, seeing that, immediately realized — with great annoyance — that he had been called out to stand in front of Pochi in Tūs’ stead.

The moment he turned to Tūs, however, the gigantic Elf had already started to snore.

Bull, having known Tūs for a long time, knew that the latter was only pretending to be asleep.

“You’ve always been good at this… Better make it up to me later, damn it!”

“Meh, countin’ on ya~~… ZZZzzz…”

As angry as he was at Tūs’ irresponsibility, Bull knew that his priority now was to help Pochi out.

Avoiding eye contact with Pochi, Bull searched for a topic to talk about, but in the end, he could not come up with anything.

“Haaaaaahhhhhh~~…”

Pochi let out a long, long sigh, causing Bull to be even more nervous than he already was.

[W-what the hell happened to make her this depressed? Did the other Heavenly Beasts bully her? No, that doesn’t make much sense… she’s strong enough to hold her own against them. Then… is she feeling excluded? Now THAT makes some sense — she IS the kind to be depressed about that. All right, let’s assume that’s the case and see how it goes…!]

Bull steeled his resolve, turned to Pochi, and said to her,

“S-so… you worried about something?”

“Haaaaaahhh…”

Pochi only replied with a sigh.

“…Can I do anything to help?”

“Haaaaaahhh…”

Pochi shook her head and let out another sigh — and at the same time, for a brief moment, Bull shuddered.

[Nope! Doesn’t look like I can help her! And I mean, she was here to see Tūs, not me! What can a Familiar like me do!? B-b-but… I do WANT to help! I should try to get to the heart of the matter…!]

Steeling his resolve again, Bull proceeded to say,

“D-do you feel like the odd one out among the Heavenly Beasts? Try not to let it get to you — most of them don’t have very good communication skills. And despite that, when the situation calls for it, they can and will work with one another–“

“Haaaaaahhh…”

“!?”

Pochi shook her head again, causing Bull to start shedding streams of cold sweat.

[–!? I was off the mark! Now what!? Another possible cause would be… Asley? He HAS made Pochi angry on several occasions before… but then again, Pochi has also made Asley angry just as often. Surely they would find a compromise and reconcile quickly enough. As far as I know, Pochi had never cried so hard that her eyes were THIS red… And besides, is it even POSSIBLE for Asley and Pochi to have a real falling out in the first place? No, definitely not… is what I’d like to say, but now is a time of uncertainty, what with the final battle against the Devil King’s army drawing near… All right, now what? What do I do or say? Damn it, Tūs, leaving me to deal with… Hmm? I’m sensing people? Who are they?]

Bull turned to the direction in which he detected people silently approaching.

Tūs’ ears twitched — while the Elf himself was still pretending to be asleep — and Pochi’s ears reacted in the same way.

The new arrivals’ silhouettes gradually became clear to Bull, whose expression lightened up upon realizing exactly who they were.

“Ohh…!”

Reddish-brown hair, eyes full of confidence — the mage who could draw her part of the Lucifer Break spell faster than Tūs could…

Indeed, one among them was known as the Silent Witch, Asley’s first ever student — Lina.

Walking beside her were Tifa, Fuyu, and Haruhana. In this hopeless situation, Bull saw them as a ray of light shining through a cloud of grudge against Tūs.

Their arrival filled his heart with what could be considered gratitude — and Bull hated himself for that. He saw no choice but to keep himself in character. After all, just like the Heavenly Beasts, he was too proud to accept that he needed help.

“…What do you want?”

Hearing Bull’s voice, Lina briefly shuddered.

Tarawo, walking behind Tifa, tried to turn around and walk the other way… but then Tifa immediately picked him up by the scruff of his neck and lifted him off his feet.

“Ah, well, Master Tūs said he needed to discuss something with us… Huh? Pochi…?”

Even Lina, a long-time friend of Pochi’s, had difficulty recognizing the latter through the depressing aura around her. This was clearly not normal — everyone realized that, and so they started gathering around Pochi.

“W-what’s the matter, Pochi!?”

Lina asked first, panicking.

“Y-your eyes are all red…”

Fuyu covered her mouth with her hands, taken by surprise.

“Ngh–!? What happened to you!? Did you get cursed!?”

“No. This has to be THAT…”

Tifa denied Tarawo’s speculation, but could not bring herself to be clear about the real cause.

“So… the one who did this must be Sir Asley, yes?”

Haruhana pointed out, and all the girls nodded.

[[How do they know that…!?]]

Bull and Tarawo turned to each other, both taken aback by the four others’ discernment.

“Haaaaaahhh…”

Pochi let out another sigh… but this time, it was a sign of affirmation.

Immediately following that, the four young women began their in-depth questioning session with Pochi. 

Bull and Tarawo, seeing their efficiency as nothing short of awesome, could only nod along as they watched over the conversation.

“…So if you don’t run away from the battlefield, Sir Asley will…”

Lina shut her mouth as she was about to the last word of the answer everyone knew by now.

After all, no one here would want to hear it.

They all understood now what the cause of Pochi’s sadness was, but there was nothing they could do about it — such was what the young women’s expressions implied.

“Pochi, I’m sure you understand… do you?”

Fuyu reluctantly asked, but Pochi kept her head down, refusing to answer.

However, since Pochi was not denying it, it was true — she understood Asley’s intention and her own position. Still, it was also true that she did not like it.

That was why Pochi had come to Tūs, the one known as the Philosopher of the Far East.

“Master Tūs, can you do something about that…?”

Tifa asked as Tūs kept on snoring — apparently on purpose.

“Tifa, the giant is sleeping. We must be careful not to make him mad when he’s woken up. That said, I am quite prepared to die for the greater good– GWOH!?”

Tifa blocked Tarawo’s mouth with her fist.

Haruhana proceeded to take a step forward.

“Is that not why you summoned us here?”

Hearing that question, Bull immediately turned to Tūs.

[That’s right… Lina said Tūs had something to discuss with them! Could it be about this situation!?]

Bull directed an intense gaze of surprise at Tūs. The latter, as if responding to that, stopped snoring and turned to Pochi with his half-open eyes, seeming quite annoyed.

“Master Tūs.”

But then Lina’s intense gaze changed his mind.

Tūs turned from Pochi to Lina, then Fuyu, Tifa, and Haruhana. He looked as grumpy as ever, but his mind had indeed changed.

After a few moments, Tūs heaved a sigh and scratched his hair.

“Hmm? Is this… snow?”

The ‘snow’ rained down incessantly on Tarawo — who was the only one not to realize what it actually was.

Even Bull had moved away from Tūs quite a few moments ago.

Tifa, looking at the oblivious Tarawo, narrowed her eyes.

[…Yeah, he’s sleeping outside tonight!]

“It’s not cold… What an unusual snow this is. This must be an omen of a disaster to come! Damn you, Devil King…!”

Tarawo looked up and saw not a single cloud in the sky.

And then Tūs, who had said nothing this whole time, finally spoke,

“I guess there IS a way for it…”

“”…!!””

Pochi immediately stood up, her tail wagging subtly — but then Tūs gaze turned sharp, as if to curb her enthusiasm.

“But you gotta do it yourself, Pochi… Can you?”

There was no longer a trace of sadness in Pochi’s eyes as she stared at Tūs, believing in the possibility that the latter had offered.

“I’ll do it! I’ll make it work!”

“Yeah, right… saying that is the easiest part of it. You mess up one step — nah, one MILLIMETER — and Asley’s DEAD. And you’ll be the one who caused it.”

“HELL YEAH!!”

No matter how coldly Tūs spoke, Pochi’s resolve remained unchanged — and neither would it change going forward.

Tūs proceeded to close his eyes, thinking to himself and letting time pass.

Eventually, he started explaining the way.

The information caused Bull to raise an eyebrow, and Tarawo to recoil in shock.

Tears started streaming from Lina, Fuyu, Tifa, and Haruhana’s eyes as they covered their faces with their hands.

Pochi — and only Pochi — had a different reaction.

“Well, well, that doesn’t sound hard at all!”

Even if just for a brief moment, she smiled… with genuine happiness.

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