THE HERO'S SON IS A MONSTER-Chapter 69: bibliomancer

"Excuse me," Alexandra began, "my name is Belladonna and I just arrived in town. Could you perhaps be Rouge?"

It was just a matter of formalities for Alexandra since she had no doubt about the girl’s identity.

A bit earlier, she had a sort of flash from her childhood with Fresne in the middle ring. Her friend had that hereditary habit – or curse or whatever it was – that made her slip into languages known as "otherworldly". While Alexandra couldn’t pretend to understand everything Lefresne was saying on a daily basis, their proximity allowed her to be able to translate a lot of words and one of them was this girl’s name: Rouge.

From memory, Alexandra knew it was a color’s name – the color red to be precise. But what was the girl’s connection with said color, one might ask? Said one may be blind to ask that.

Red eyes, red headband, and red pullover. Oh, come on, even a child could have guessed that! Alexandra couldn’t help but smirk. That girl either had a decent sense of humor or a really big ego.

"..."

The girl stayed silent, her fist hiding her mouth. It was as if she was studying Alexandra from head to toe. After a few seconds like that, she smiled brightly and extended her hand to Alexandra.

"Belladonna, was it? Nice to meet you!"

"Me too."

Hm? The girl in red was quite friendly now, maybe that is why Shogo insisted on calling her by her name. Maybe they talked before? Hm... A bit of cautiousness wouldn’t hurt. For now, she will follow the plan and see how it goes.

"It might be a bit sudden, but I hope we will get along," Alexandra said, smiling back and imitating the girl’s gesture.

"Ah, that? Well, you see..."

The girl caught Alexandra’s forearm and pulled her closer.

"That will not happen, I am afraid."

"Huh?"

Alexandra had less than a second to realize what was going on. The girl had already thrown a punch with her left hand. Alexandra tried to parry, but she was too late. Thankfully, her struggle allowed the blow to miss her face, but she realized – too late – that it wasn’t the girl’s objective.

Her hand stopped at the last moment and opened. Suddenly, the girl let go of Alexandra’s arm and used her leg to make her trip. It was a swift succession of moves and quickly; Alexandra was on her rear without realizing how.

The surprise on her face was visible and acting on that, the girl closed her eyes, sighing.

"...Dear customer, dear customer," the girl said, shaking her head and her hand on her hips. "You said you were new in these lands, did you not?" The girl then stared down at Alexandra with an air of cold disgust. "Where exactly did you hear that name then, hm? I am curious."

Alexandra glared back at the girl, holding her shoulder. She didn’t appreciate her move and couldn’t refrain from voicing her anger with a sudden rise in her voice.

"What was that for?!" Alexandra yelled, standing up and approaching the girl in red.

"Excuse me? Isn’t there a little misunderstanding? ’I’ should be the one asquestioning that."

"Eh? As-what?"

Alexandra was taken aback, her anger swiftly disappearing to let its place to incomprehension. What in the world was that word? 𝘧𝓇ℯ𝑒𝓌𝑒𝑏𝓃𝘰𝘷𝘦𝘭.𝒸ℴ𝓂

"Oh dear, another wordily challenged one," the girl said, shaking her head again. "You know what? Nevermind. I have to ask you to take your leave now."

She indicated the door after clicking her fingers two times.

"That way. Out, I say."

"..."

"What is it? Do you wish me to escort you toward the door? That, I can do," the girl with a condescending smile.

"... the one asking."

"Yes?"

"You should have said, ’I should be the one asking that’. Asquestioning isn’t a real word, you know?"

"... Huh?"

As said before, Alexandra often had to deal with Lefresne’s weird speech habits.

and while doing that, she noticed that her friend’s default language was the otherworldly one. It resulted in a quite strange situation.

Often, people have words they don’t hear anymore when they speak. They are like reflexes; like when someone breathes or when they bat their eyes. And just like those, they can’t be heard unless the one uttering them pays attention to what she is saying.

Lefresne was like that. She would often ignore whole sentences unless she really paid attention which, admittedly, was not to be expected of her. Alexandra was used to that, so she had to remind her friend, from time to time, that this word or that one was not correct. That was a component of their friendship that just stuck with her naturally as years went by.

For that reason, when she heard the girl uttering that strange word, she couldn’t help but correct her. It was a remark devoid of malice, just like a child’s would be. And yet – maybe because it was a reaction akin to children’s innocence – it stung the girl as absolutely humiliating. Alexandra didn’t know at the moment, but this girl held great pride in her (in her own words) ’giantesque’ vocabulary, and that simple remark hit her right where it shouldn’t.

The blood ran to the girl’s face, a sign of her growing anger. It didn’t help that some customers laughed at Alexandra’s remark and commented that she may just be right. Unknowingly, Alexandra had made the most well-intentioned bad move she could.

The girl forced a condescending smile and let out a small grunt. "Hmph! Wordily challenged as I said! Who exactly do you think you are, you cheeky lower ringer, to even begin discussing etymology with me? You are uneducated, and uneducated people should just shut up. It shows badly when they try to act the smart part."

Well, I am a bibliomancer, Alexandra thought, though she did agree with the girl on one point: When uneducated people try to act all smart in front of smart people, it just results in this exact kind of conversation. Not that she would say that.

"Hm? Are you not a lower ringer too?" Alexandra asked with a point of irony her smile could hardly hide. She found herself unable to get angry at the girl; if anything, she found her funny. Thought it was in a really bad way.

Of course, the girl noticed Alexandra’s reaction. Needless to say, she wasn’t pleased by this sudden display of superiority.