#616 An Account of the Struggles Letasreit Faced During Her Tour

This story is also shortly before Momoko and co.’s wrestling show started.

* * *

I am Letasreit, messenger of the almighty beans.

Yes, beans are the almighty ones, not me.

Anyway, I got involved in a pro wrestling show. 

As the emissary of beans, I never say no when asked to do something.

Why?

Because beans save everything!

As the envoy of beans, it is my mission to do my best to help those in need.

Starting today, I will be touring civilian society as the mysterious masked wrestler, Miss Bean Crush.

Being a former princess, I have to hide my identity.

My princess background is a liability in this situation.

That aside, in order to make the opening show a success, it is my job to advertise in advance and increase its popularity.

I’ll visit every town and village in the Demon Kingdom, handing out flyers and performing demonstrations to advertise the show!

Oh, by the way, I heard the elves made these flyers.

They sure can mass-produce such pretty pictures at a super technology level... 

* * *

And so, I immediately went to the first village to advertise the show...

But all the villagers ran away and locked themselves in their houses.

Next came some guards to chase me away.

...What is the meaning of this?! 

Actually, if I think about it, their reactions are reasonable.

If a masked stranger marches into a village without advance notice, anyone would first think of a robber. 

Only someone with questionable intentions hides their face behind a mask!

Drats!!!

I managed to get past the guards and found a little girl.

She’s crying under a tree... What’s wrong?

“Mii-mii climbed up the tree and can’t get down!”

I look up to find a kitten clinging to a tree branch, meowing desperately.

Is that her cat?

If that’s the case... hup, there we go.

With the power of beans, I can jump vertically to about sixteen times my own ht!

Thus, I can easily reach the height of a tree branch, easy-peasy!

I rescued the kitten and brought it back to the ground safely.

“Here you go. Don’t let it run away again, okay?”

“Mii-mii!” 

The kitten looks happy to be back with its owner.

“Thank you, big sis! ...Big sis?”

The girl is surprised upon noticing my mask for the first time.

She must’ve been so focused on her cat that she didn’t worry about anything else.

“You finally noticed, huh! I’m the messenger of the almighty beans, Miss Bean Crush!”

I’d look like a complete criminal if this girl started bawling, so I need to trick her a little.

“I’ll give you this flyer, so please ask your mom and dad to come and watch! And bring your kitty along, too! Farewelllll!”

I managed to do my advertising, but more importantly, I ran away with lightning speed!

The distant words “Thank you, big sisss!” almost sounded like “Mr. Guard, it’s herrr!” for a moment!

* * *

...Phew. That’s right, at the end of the day, people dislike me.

It’s not surprising for me to be treated as suspicious and have the guards called on me. 

Even when the Human Kingdom fell and I was brought out from the castle, the townspeople kept throwing rocks at me.

If so, I might as well embody being the hated person!

I heard that in pro wrestling, there is a position called “heel,” where you take a villain role!

I’ll aim for that and make an impression on the general populace by making them hate me.

I’m going to do all the evil I can in the next village I’m visiting!

Do you want me to turn you into a wax doll, too?!

“...”

“Huh?”

The villagers are reacting differently this time.

They don’t run away in fear at the sight of my suspicious appearance.

“And who are you? Are you a robber, all masked and everythen’?”

“Um, no...!”

I guess that’s what I look like to them with this mask on.

“Sorry, we have nuthen’ valuable with us. Our crops are already runnen’ scarce. We’re barely getting by with the portion to feed ourselves. Depending on the situation, that might not be enough too. We’re right in da middle of figuren’ out the best solution for this.”

“We’d appeal to the authorities if we could, but our feudal lord is a blockhead and won’t do nuthen’ unless the central government orders him. It’d take months before we can get a reply from the Demon King in the capital, even if we directly appeal to him...”

“But if we starve to death till then, it’ll be all for nuthen’...”

Hmm, sounds like a dire situation. I can’t possibly invite them to watch the show with this depressing state of affairs.

Oh, I know!

“Beans! Eat these beanssssssssssssssss!”

“UWAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!”

I unleashed sacks of beans I hurriedly brought from the farm on everyone in the village!

There are roughly 30 sacks of them!

The farm has a stockpile of my beans, and four warehouses are built to store them, so rationing this many is no problem for me!

“Huh? Beans?! There’s enough to feed us for the time being...! No, this can tide us over until the next harvest...!”

“But for you to donate this generously... Are you a god?!”

I am not a god.

If there’s a god here, it’s the beans!

I am the messenger of these beans that are synonymous with god! Miss Bean Crush!

I hope to see all of you at the show!

* * *

Surprisingly, many villages I visited to promote the show were suffering from crop shortages.

Every time, I would donate beans from my storehouse. It’s also a great way to publicize the show, after all.

Today, I visited another village suffering from poor harvest, so I gave them sacks of beans along with a poster advertising the wrestling show!

“Ohhh! The goddess of salvation has graced us!!!” 

“She was masked and suspicious, though! But where have I seen her before?”

It feels good to be thanked by the villagers.

But this has got to be the poorest village I’ve been to so far.

It’s still underdeveloped. Maybe this is one of those reclaimed settlements?

It’s like they’re just starting to clear out the land and cultivate it.

I doubt they’d come to watch the show even if I handed out flyers here... Huh? Wait a minute...

There’s an old man staring at me a distance from the crowd of people crowding around the beans...

Father?!

As in, the former king of the Human Kingdom?!

Come to think of it, I’ve heard that Father, like me, was ‘executed.’ But the truth is, he’s still alive and well somewhere in the middle of nowhere!

This remote region must be that very place!

To think our father-and-daughter reunion would happen here!

Oh, how I want to take off my mask and hug him right this instant, but I mustn’t!

I’m Miss Bean Crush right now, the messenger of beans!  

My mission to spread the beans outweighs any familial love!

...That’s not it!

We’ve been kept alive by the kindness of the demon race. If we were to leave our penal colony and reunite without permission, it’d be an act of betrayal!

It shouldn’t be a fact that we met here!

I’m sorry, Father... But I hope you at least eat the beans I carefully grew and remember me!

Beans are my way of life now!

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Author’s Note: Our pro wrestling arc ends here.

A new project will begin in the next chapter.