Editing CubexCursedxCurious:Volume2 Chapter2 (section)

===Part 5===

"Uehehehehehehe... Wooh!"

"Hey! You're scary when you're acting all high instead!"

They had arrived at the supermarket and was currently at the rice cracker section. Haruaki had asked Fear to choose two bags&mdash;one to offer to guests as snacks and one for herself, but who knew if she was listening as she gazed at the rows of rice cracker laden shelves, muttering to herself: "Sesame... No no, soy sauce... Ufufufu..." Occasionally she would go "meow~" as she twisted the corners of her mouth. Quite a terrifying sight indeed.

"Hmm, hey! Haruaki, what's this white one that looks soft and puffy?"

"The okaki rice cake? That's the rice cracker's friend. With savory black beans inside, they're quite tasty."

"What!? Then I'll need to add it to the candidate list... Hmm, how troubling..."

In the end, she selected one bag of black bean okaki and one bag of soy sauce rice crackers. Although Haruaki had asked her to choose two bags based on their purpose, it did not really matter because ultimately the vast majority of rice crackers at home were going to end up in the same stomach.

Not only was Fear's HP gauge restored, she was also sent into a berserk state, screaming at the rice cracker shelves as soon as they entered the supermarket. Once she finally calmed down, it was finally time to begin buying normal groceries.

"So this is the supermarket... Taking a closer look, it's really interesting with so many things I've never seen before."

Fear walked along the aisles, looking all around.

"You'll gradually get used to it. Okay, treat this as a lesson. Why don't you get me a head of cabbage while I go pick the eggplants... You do know what a cabbage is, right?"

"Don't treat me like an idiot! Of course I know what a cabbage is. Just you wait and see!"

The silver-haired little lady ran noisily towards the vegetable section and happily examined them. When the racks blew out a puff of cold air, she jumped in fright, screamed and began to laugh... As if infected by her mood, Haruaki could feel the corners of his lips relaxing. No particular reason&mdash;but let's bring her along again next time, thought Haruaki to himself. In any case, she had clearly recovered her spirits.

Fear immediately came running back.

"Fufu, look at this!"

"Thank you for making such a classic mistake. This is lettuce."

"...Mmm~"

Even though they were similar, the cabbage had a more rugged feeling&mdash;after giving her this hint, she got it right. However&mdash;

"To tell if a cabbage is fresh or not, you need to look at its core. This one is already darkened, so it's a bit old. Get a new one!"

"How nitpicky. But if it'll be tastier, it can't be helped.

Even if it was nitpicky Haruaki forced her to memorize it. As the master of the dinner table, compromises were unacceptable.

Preparing to go select the meat, he wondered why Fear was not following. Wondering what she was doing, he was surprised to find&mdash;

"Hey, old lady over there. You need to check the cabbage core for freshness. That one is no good, pick this one!"

"Ara ara, why thank you. Even though you're a young foreigner, that's very helpful of you, hoho~"

"Why of course, it would not be wrong to call me the cabbage master. I won't mix it up with lettuce either, because cabbages have a more rugged feel. So, old lady... Hmm? What's up, Haruaki? Why are you showing such a delicate expression?"

"I was just caught in a dilemma, wondering if I should ridicule you for 'Proudly showing off what you just learnt!' Or 'Be careful or else people might mistake you for a stingy old hag.' Or praise you for 'Doing a good deed'... Whatever, I just said them all out anyway."

"I don't get it. Anyway, it feels great to be thanked by others!"

Words of thanks. Perhaps a single phrase expressing a person's wish was enough to reduce Fear's curse by one ten-thousandth or maybe one billionth. What she had just performed was the first step, one that she needs to repeat over and over from now on, but Fear did not seem to have noticed.

Precisely because she was naturally enjoying the act of helping others, Haruaki believed Fear would absolutely have no problem in the future.

Sooner or later, she would surely lift her curse one day. Arbitrarily creating her and willfully feeling hatred towards her, selfish humans were responsible for everything&mdash;the curse conferred upon her.

Suddenly, Haruaki thought of Sovereignty. Her situation was the same. Though he did not know the details, she was also cursed because of humans. And currently, she was disappointed in humans.

If he wished for her to become like Fear, would that simply count as human conceit? This sort of contradiction, was it analogous to a murderer begging for mercy? But deep down, perhaps Fear also&mdash;

Even though he trusted her, he could not stop his lips from moving. He must be too weak.

"...Do you like humans?"

"Well enough, so-so."

He could not see her expression. Viewed from behind, she was examining with great curiosity various products displayed on the shelves. The cold air blown from below caused her silver hair to sway slightly. Then she straightened her arched back. Her face still out of view, she held her tiny hands together behind her back&mdash;

"&mdash;About the same as rice crackers, I suppose."

Saying that, her voice sounded quite gentle.