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13 - My Complicated Mission
🕑 Added 2025-08-24 15:48:31 +0000 UTCAfter finishing our tea, Akeno and I stood up and prepared to wait for the children to arrive.
According to the monk, they had appeared almost every day for the past few months around eight o'clock in the evening.
So, Akeno and I found a discreet spot among the bushes near the entrance to the shrine.
If we were seen beforehand, it might intimidate the children, so it was important to stay hidden.
"I want to see if those children will come back after I scare them," said Akeno, snapping her fingers.
"Calm down. Let's try to talk to them."
"Sure... Talk..."
'For some reason, I didn't feel very confident this time,' I thought as a drop of sweat ran down my face.
It didn't take long before the peaceful sound of swaying trees was drowned out by the sound of laughter.
Moments later, we saw a trio of children climbing the steps of the shrine.
Two of them were boys, and the third child was a girl. None of them looked older than ten.
"I bet I can hit three stones in a row on the bells today!"
A boy with a red cap on backwards announced, pointing upwards.
"A-and I'll hit four!" commented a boy with glasses nervously.
"Guys, it's cold here. Let's go back to the playground!" The girl said, but the cold seemed like just an excuse to hide the clear fear on her face.
"I don't like this place."
"Don't worry, Ren-chan. No one comes here." The boy with the cap replied.
"I know, but..." The girl clasped her hands together, looking around nervously.
"What about that voice we heard last time?"
"Voice? HAHAHA! You're still going on about that? It was a tanuki or something!"
That's when Akeno stood up, with sparks of electricity shooting out of her eyes.
Contrary to what I expected, she definitely wasn't kidding when she said she would scare the kids for real.
'I think because it's an abandoned shrine, her emotions are overriding her reason!'
Quickly, I grabbed Akeno's wrist to stop her from going through the bushes.
"Wait, Akeno," I whispered, trying to keep my voice down so as not to alert the children.
"Maybe I should talk to them."
"Why do you think so, Leonard-kun? It's not like I'm going to electrocute them for real."
"Rias gave me this mission. I should handle it," I said, saying the first thing that came to mind.
Akeno looked into my eyes and probably saw something, because she took a deep breath and said,
"I understand. If that's the case, I'll just watch you this time."
Since I had volunteered to resolve the situation, there was no turning back.
Sometimes children could be more difficult to deal with than adults or teenagers, especially mischievous ones like these seemed to be, but I felt that I was good with children.
My younger sister in my universe really adored me.
"Hey, guys!" I called, waving my right hand at them after I came out of the bushes.
The high-pitched laughter stopped abruptly, and the three children turned to look at me with surprised expressions.
Apparently, they hadn't imagined there would be anyone else there but them.
I continued walking toward them, stopping at a safe distance so they wouldn't start running.
"What are you doing here so late?" I asked.
"Wh-who are you?" the boy with glasses asked, but I didn't even have time to answer.
"It's none of your business! We're here because we want to be! Thbbbt!" The boy in the red cap exclaimed and stuck his tongue out at me.
'What the hell is this kid...!' A vein popped out on my forehead, but I tried to stay calm.
"My name is Leonard." I introduced myself with one hand on my chest. "This place is very special to a friend of mine, and I heard that you come here every day. Do you like this temple?"
"Of course we do! It's fun to hit the bells with the stones."
"Ye-yeah! We like it!"
"I don't like it!" exclaimed the girl, stamping her feet.
"WHAT?!" her two friends exclaimed.
"I really don't like it! I think it's really scary! The stairs are covered in moss, the trees are too big, and the streetlights don't even reach here! It's terrible!"
The girl's outburst seemed to shock the boys, but one of them took it the wrong way.
"You're just saying that because that cute boy is here!" the boy in the cap shouted.
"W-well..." The girl didn't deny it and put her hands over her face.
"It's all your fault, pretty boy!"
So I regretted not letting Akeno just scare them away. It would have been easier. However, I had to resolve this one way or another now that I had started. So I knelt down to their level and said,
So, I knelt down to their level and said:
"You know this temple is a sacred place, don't you? The man who takes care of it is very concerned about the noise. How about you find another place to have fun?"
The boy with the cap frowned and clenched his right fist. "But it's more fun here! And that old man can't tell us what to do! He's not our grandfather!"
"I... I think we should go, Kenji-kun." The other boy, the one with glasses, finally spoke. "It's getting late."
"No! We're staying!"
That's when I realized it wouldn't be so easy to convince them, so I decided to bet on the same thing Akeno would bet on, but in my own way.
"Do you guys like ghost stories?" I asked, looking directly into their eyes. "This temple has some really scary stories, you know?"
The two boys looked scared when I brought up the subject, and the one in the cap backed away.
"What kind of stories?"
"Well..." I began, lowering my voice to a conspiratorial whisper. "...they say that the spirits who protect this temple don't like to be disturbed. Sometimes, at night, they come out to look for anyone making noise. And when they find them, they grab the troublemakers by the neck. After that, those people are never seen again. The temple's old man didn't want to tell you because he didn't want to scare you and give you nightmares, but I personally think you need to know."
The children exchanged nervous glances.
"Are you... are you serious, oniisan?" asked the boy with glasses.
"Very serious. So maybe you'd better go back to the playground and leave this temple alone. You don't want to disappear and worry your parents, do you?"
The three shook their heads at the same time, and without another word of defiance, they began to descend the stairs. In a matter of seconds, they were gone.
Akeno came out from where she was hiding and asked,
"The story you made up was quite convincing, apparently."
"I should have listened to you from the beginning."
She laughed softly. "Ara~ I'm impressed that there is a man who knows how to admit when he's wrong."
"Thank you?"
Akeno looked at the shrine. "Now let's talk to the monk to inform him that the problem has been resolved. After that, we can consider the contract terminated."
