「…Alec Brush?」
Wait, what?
「Yes, selecting the right plant material took some time, but since no woodworkers were needed, we’ve already begun mass production and sales. It’s popular for being easy to use and effective at cleaning」
That’s… a scrubbing brush, right? …Wait, it’s already being sold? When did this even happen? Well, whatever.
「――Hold on, Alec Brush!?」
「Yes, Alec Brush」
「W-why is my name on it!?」
「…You didn’t know? Well, we felt it would help to use Alexis-san’s name value… We even consulted with Sergent-san on the matter…」
I instinctively looked around for Father, but only Ralina papa and I were here.
Right now, Father was in my room admiring the old model of the Mother Doll. …Once he gets used to the old one, I feel like he’s just going to laugh again when he sees the new one.
Anyway, I’ll have to question him later. How could he create something called the Alec Brush without asking me first…?
Depending on his answer, maybe I should give the new Mother Doll an even bigger, bombshell body just out of spite.
「I didn’t know. And what do you mean, name value? Since when do I have something like that…?」
「You’re the one who invented Reversi, the game that’s all the rage right now… And of course, there’s the impact of the World Tree」
「Huh?」
The World Tree…? Wait, I’ve got a really bad feeling about this. I don’t even want to hear the rest.
「W-what does the World Tree….have to do with this?」
「I was told the Alec Brush was made under the command of the World Tree itself」
「W-who told you that!?」
「Sergent-san, of course…」
Father, what are you doing!? Do you want me to make even curvier, more explosive Mother Dolls that badly!?
Wait, this is bad, isn’t it…? The World Tree is the sacred tree, the god of the elves, right?
Am I… am I using God’s name for profit?
「C-cancel it! Cancel the whole thing!」
「What? But… it’s already being sold」
「T-then at least remove my name and the World Tree from it!」
「We’ve already used both extensively in the advertising…」
You’ve got to be kidding me…
This is bad… If this keeps up, I’m going to be condemned as a blasphemer using God’s name for money…
All elves worship the World Tree… No way, am I about to become the enemy of every elf? Over a scrubbing brush!?
First the church will come. As their vanguard, maybe even Laudette-san will come to capture me.
…Could there be a worse choice for a vanguard?
But wait, does this mean Laudette-san, a person of the church, will become my enemy too,
「It’s like Romeo and Juliet…」
「Excuse me? What is that? It sounds incredibly intriguing. As a merchant, I feel like there’s some way I could profit from it」
Oh, come on, don’t start thinking about business now. Actually, that’s kind of amazing, Ralina papa. He hears just the title and immediately smells money.
…Anyway, forget what I said. That was embarrassing.
◇
For now, I dragged Father away from the old Mother Doll he’d been spacing out around and brought him over to Ralina papa.
「So… could you two explain how it came to be that the… Alec Brush is being sold?」
Even saying Alec Brush myself feels weird…
「I’ll start then… I visited several times to discuss the conditions for selling Reversi. It was then that I noticed Sergent-san cleaning his equipment with some unfamiliar tool」
「Yeah, at that time I told him the original Alec Brush was something Alec made under the command of the World Tree」
Hmm… right. I guess that’s true. Thinking back, this all started because of a lie I told…
「And that led to selling it because…?」
「Well, it obviously looked useful, and as I said before, with Alexis-san’s name and the World Tree behind it, it would definitely sell… so I made the proposal」
「I kept wondering what the World Tree wanted from Alec… I think maybe it wanted him to spread that brush to the world」
The World Tree would never say that.
Still, Father’s been worrying over my lie this whole time…?
Now I just feel bad… Maybe I should hold off on making the nuclearshell Mother Doll for now…
「I just wanted to help Alec carry out the mission entrusted to him」
「I wish you had talked to me about it first」
「Sorry. Alec did tell me we could sell anything he made…」
Did I say that? …Actually, I think I did. So I basically dumped all the responsibility on Father…
So this is my fault? Am I the one to blame here?
「Alec, what’s bothering you so much?」
Father grew concerned as I sat there groaning with my head in my hands.
The truth was I was worrying about being condemned by all elves for profiting off the name of God, but of course I couldn’t say that to Father…
「Well, I’m just worried that using the World Tree’s name without permission might anger it… Maybe the World Tree doesn’t want its name used so blatantly in advertisements…」
Rather than “maybe”, it was pretty much certain the World Tree wouldn’t want that.
「I see… In that case, we’ll make an announcement ourselves, saying that using the World Tree in the ads was a mistake.」
That… would be painful to watch. I didn’t want Ralina-papa to take the blame because of me.
「If we do that, your name as a merchant, Ralina-papa, will be tarnished… The name ‘Ralina-papa’ will carry that stain… That guilt should be mine to bear, not yours.」
「…Alexis-san…」
Ralina-papa looked at me silently.
…What was this? At that moment, despite the age difference, I felt like a bond of friendship had just formed between us.
「I’ve been thinking this for a while… Alexis-san, you don’t actually remember my name, do you?」
So much for friendship. And what kind of ambush was that? That’s not even related to the topic at hand.
「N-no, this really isn’t the time for, 」
「‘This isn’t the time’? That’s a terrible way to put it. And what’s with this whole ‘the name Ralina-papa’ thing? Go on, say my name properly.」
「Look, like I said, now’s not, 」
「Say my name.」
「Come on now, let’s not, 」
「‘Let’s not’? Really? And anyway, Sergent-san, you should have confirmed this properly…」
And so the discussion turned into a complete mess. Instead of forming a friendship, things were quickly spiraling into hostility, the argument growing more and more chaotic…
I had no room for patience either, since the entire elf race might soon be out for my head. Ralina papa had been worn down by the infinite Reversi hell and was on edge too. Then came the World Tree issue, then his name on top of that… he just exploded. It reminded me of when Ralina-chan had her meltdown in the bamboo basket. Definitely parent and child.
In the end, nothing was resolved. Somehow, the Alec Brush stayed on sale, though we agreed to stop using the World Tree’s name so blatantly. The plan was to let things quietly die down.
Part of me feared that drawing too much attention might just provoke the World Tree even further.
…Was this really okay? In my previous life, things always turned out better when you just came clean and apologized. Would this whole “pretend it never happened” plan really work?
――And so I began living in fear of the World Tree’s apostles. Every sound, every shadow made me jump.
After about a week of this stress… I came down with a fever and ended up bedridden.
Next Chapter: Ralina-chan’s Devoted Nursing
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