A Night of Paranoia (2)

'I don't understand. Don't you hate me? Why would you willingly want to help someone whose way of thinking is so different from your own?'

When Menou asked, Alice looked at them with genuine confusion.

'I don't hate you... You look after me, and everyone has different ways of thinking. Besides... that's all there is to it, right?'

'...That's all? I don't understand. Ah... never mind. I'll leave this to you. Though you're a child... you're the Demon King's daughter, so this should be easy for you. Split about eight more logs.'

Even when Menou told Alice there was nothing she could help with, Alice would find something she could do and eagerly try to make herself useful. Menou tried to send her away, saying, 'There's no need for the Demon King's daughter to trouble herself,' but Alice wouldn't listen. In the end, assigning her time-consuming work she could manage was the quickest way to keep her occupied and at a distance.

Of course, Menou disliked the fact that this left them indebted to Alice for helping. More than that, though, Menou wanted to keep her at a distance.

'Being around that girl... is going to drive me crazy.'

Menou vented their stress by venturing into the forests around the village to look for food. This was the one job they never let Alice do, insisting on doing it themself.

Menou's excuse to Alice was that 'it would be dangerous if you happened to run into a human.' In truth, they wanted to take out their pent-up anger and stress on the monsters living near the village.

Menou trained on their own and fought monsters to keep their skills from growing rusty and retain their feel for battle...