Maou Shoujo Magical Chaos

They're totally staring at me.

So what if this is my seventh loaf of bread and tenth bowl of soup? My body needs nutrition; I'm a growing girl! Actually, I shouldn't fill out my breasts yet, since a sudden size increase will cause suspicion. But I want to return to the way I looked before. Well, I do have blond hair and blue eyes now, and my hair is longer, so I can't change that either, as long as I'm with these people.

These people, incidentally, are a group of travelers around Rolan. He's a self-taught swordsman and gathered a few people who share his sentiments of eliminating dangerous beasts that emerge from the wild across the country and attack human settlements. That's totally an adventurer, and this is totally his party. If I had been reincarnated in the typical setting, I would have been in his position! Then again, I would have been a baby still, since this is only the second day since I came here. A Crawling Chaos grows up fast, huh?

We're in the only tavern in this tiny village, a farmer's pastime when outside of sowing and harvesting seasons. I'm sure he's also eyeing me with a blank look. I'm eating away a lot of his stored food.

"You must have been really starving, little girl." The guy with the needlessly loud voice comments with a laugh. He's one of Rolan's companions, a giant man with an equally giant shield strapped on his back. His body is robust, and I wouldn't be surprised if he could lift me with one hand. So this is the tank of the group, huh?

"Leave her be, Gram. The lady just had a terrible experience." The guy with the needlessly flowery language stops the giant man from patting me on my back. I would have choked if he did that. Actually, what's up with that name, Gram? You look like you weigh a ton! This other guy is carrying a lute. A bard in this day and age? Oh wait, this is a fantasy world, after all. I'm sure his existence has a justification here. "Hm, are you perchance falling for me, fair lady?" He might be good-looking, a little slimmer than Rolan, but this behavior is plain annoying. I turn my gaze to the fourth member of their party.

"What, do I have something on my face?" Unfriendly. It's a girl, quite pretty, with light blond hair and sapphire blue eyes. By the usual pattern, she's in love with Rolan, who doesn't know about her feelings. I glance at the man in question and then back at her. She looks at me in bewilderment. Oops, I think I just smirked a little. "If you have something to say, just out with it!" She clenches her staff nervously. So she's a mage? That robe makes it quite obvious, I guess.

We have the whole clichéd adventurer party together. A swordsman, a tank, a mage, and a bard. Actually, I still don't think the bard fits in too well and should be replaced with a healer or an archer, but I'm sure his existence has a justification here. Hm, I think I just repeated myself. That's how little faith I have in this guy's profession. "What a hot gaze, you must be interested in my humble self." I think I'm about to throw up. A pitiful, doubtful gaze is one filled with affection in your eyes, huh? This guy is the densest of them all.

"Now that you had your fill, I'll introduce everyone." Rolan seems quite forceful about this. I must be hurting his wallet with my seemingly endless hunger. What do you mean, had my fill? I could eat ten times this amount. At one point I ate literally a ton of Vularen in one sitting - or maybe even more? Admittedly, I had to rebuild half my body at the time... " The big guy is Gram Vestegard, he usually just drinks a lot, but can be quite reliable when the situation calls for it. The flirty guy is Sigurd Nurmi, don't pay him too much attention, he does that with all girls."

"Hey, that's not true. I only flirt with the most beautiful ones."

"... the one with the attitude is Runa Sigint, she's the only one who knows magic in our group. And once again, I'm Rolan Helt. I'm the one holding this ragtag bunch of ne'er-do-wells together." He ignored the bard's interjection. This tells me volumes about their group dynamics in regards to his behavior. Also, Luna? That's such a common fantasy name! And a mage's no less. Ah, she's glaring at me. I'm sure I didn't let my thoughts become visible on my face though... "So, what's your name?"

"Ku-..." I was about to say my real name out of habit. In this world, I'm Chaos. "Cha-" Wait, these are very clearly humans, and I feel like Chaos is a demon name. I mean, even I know what the English word chaos means. "Kuroe Makoto." No harm in giving my real Japanese name, then. I can't come up with a random fantasy-sounding name on the spot, I'm sorry.

"Chloe Marcott?" Ah, of course, they wouldn't pronounce it right. I'm not going to correct them, though. "That's a strange name. Maybe it's from the Mineva Republic?"

Leave my name alone, oi! You're really rude right now, useless bard. Oh, he just mentioned a place called the Mineva Republic. Makes sense that humans have various countries with their distinct cultures, where people's names are different. Many fantasy settings just have humans as a monolithic entity fighting against the evil demonkind.

"Were you traveling alone?" Rolan asks me. I was, but I can't really say that, or else they'll think I'm either very strong or plain stupid.

"I was with my parents, but they..." Are still alive and well in the world I came from, or so I hope, but to me here, they may as well be dead. Ugh, it's depressing to think about it, but at least it'll bring out the proper emotions in me. Oh wait, when I consciously think about it, it won't...

"I see... I'm sorry." The leader looks empathetic. "What were you doing in these parts? If you're from the Mineva Republic, you're quite far from home." I never said I was, but at least now I know that this Mineva place is far away. Actually, I'd like to see a map of the world, don't you happen to have one? Hm, maybe I can act like an aristocrat's sheltered daughter who doesn't know the world. Ah, but for that, my eating behavior was not good enough. Don't sweat the small stuff; the setting is that I almost starved to death and I can always play on being a more rebellious, tomboyish child. Well, I was really hungry though.

"I was traveling with my parents. They were showing me the world for the first time, but then..." I leave the rest to their imagination once again. It's more effective than saying it yourself. A construct of lies works best when a large part of it is provided by the person you want to lie to. I didn't say that I was from the Mineva Republic, but I also didn't deny it. They will now think I'm from there, but I can always change that part of my background story later. That's depending on where the republic is in relation to the Demon Continent though.

"Poor girl..." Gram says with a grimace. He's been the friendliest one among them without being overbearing. Actually, he's a pretty nice guy, despite looking so fierce. Arms as thick as my waist, a magnificent mustache but a bald head. I would have avoided him if I saw him on the streets in my world, but here, he seems like someone you can depend on. "What shall we do with her? We can't just leave her in this little village."

He's being nice by calling this collection of a few houses a village in the first place.

"Why don't we bring her along with us to the capital? The republic's embassy will take care of her then." The bard's making a good point. If I go to the capital, I can gather a lot of information. I won't be going to the embassy though since I'm not a citizen of any human nation in the first place. They might even see through me that way.

"I object." Of course, Luna disagrees. Now, let's hear her reasoning. "She will only drag us down if a fight breaks out." Well, if I could show my full power, I wouldn't. But I can't very well do that when I'm acting like a weak aristocratic daughter. "And she doesn't have any money on her. If she always eats like this, we will run out of all our funds pretty quickly."

Alright, that's a point I can't deny. I really have nothing of any value on me, including inside my body, and I do eat a lot of food. And since I can't show my powers, I can't very well go out and hunt for myself.

"Uhm, if you could point me in the direction of the capital, I can go there myself." Being surrounded by people I can't show my true self to is too tiring. If they could just show me a damn map already, I could make my way there alone...

"No, we can't let a young lady fend for herself in the harsh wilderness. She was lucky to survive a bandit encounter, and you want to send her out there without protection?" My argument was ignored by the bard, who stood up against Luna in my stead. I'll keep quiet and watch this unfold.

"So are you telling us we should babysit her?" Why does she hate me so much? What did I ever do to her? I guess because I'm female and got a lot of attention from her beloved Rolan.

"You're being harsh, Runa." That Rolan finally speaks up, and it earns him a glare. Yep, he's the dense type. "We found her, so we will have to see things through to the end."

"You found her. I didn't want anything to do with it. In the first place, you always..." I stop listening. This is a lover's quarrel if I've ever seen one. Both Gram and the bard are staying out of it and look to me with apologetic expressions. I don't really mind; I just would have liked not to be the spark that ignited this argument between the two. I'm sure it was a long time coming, too.

"Just do as you like!" Luna stands up abruptly and slams her hands on the table. The tower of bowls I stacked up topples but Gram and I barely catch the ones that nearly drop to the floor. Storming off, the mage leaves Rolan speechless.

"What's with her?" He actually dares to ask that. Ugh, I can't watch this.

"Follow her! You don't understand a woman's heart at all!" I know I'm meddling, but I'm a girl, too. I can understand her frustration. Confused, the leader is taken aback by me raising my voice. He's still not moving, though.

"What-"

"GO!" I shout, and he finally reacts. Jumping up, he runs after Luna. I sigh. One good deed a day, huh?

"There they go again... let's go drinking tonight." The bard suggests to Gram. It seems they know something I don't. What?

"Yeah, I don't want to be anywhere near their room tonight." Gram responds with a knowing nod. What what?

Don't tell me these two are already a couple and I was really just pointlessly meddling? Even I'm not dense enough to not understand what these two mean. They're going to have make-up sex tonight, and it's going to be loud. Ugh, I didn't want to know that. How much of this was an act on his part to make her jealous, how much was it an act on her part of being jealous for no good reason? Ahhh, normies should just explode...

Ok, I'm not that socially inept and had my fair share of confessions (from girls though), so I shouldn't be one to talk about normies. But those who get all lovey-dovey in a way that bothers people are so annoying. I would never make it a public thing. Well, I haven't had a relationship yet, so I can't make a definite statement about that. Now that I've become a monster, I don't think my chances will improve in that regard.

In either case, I will not be anywhere near them tonight, either. Maybe I should go drinking with these two. I never had alcohol before, since it's for twenty and up in Japan, but this isn't Japan anymore. Well, I'm also not a human anymore, so those rules don't apply to me either way. I'll drown my sorrows in drinks tonight.

"Let me join you..." Huh, why do you look so surprised? Ah, the image of me being an aristocrat's daughter is crumbling already, I guess? How do I save this? Nothing good comes to mind. Then, understanding creeps onto the bard's face. What? What did you understand?

"Alright. But before then, there is a task we have to complete." The bard stands up with a determined expression. What are you going to do?

"Miss Marcott, please remain here until we return. You'll be safe here." Gram is trying to reassure me, but I feel like I'll be missing out on something if I don't go along with them now.

"Where are you going?"

"We're out to fulfill the request we came here to do. Recently a rogue Wulfar has been attacking livestock in this area, and the people fear that it'll attract more of its kind that way." That name... sounds like a wolf? Maybe it's similar to the Vularen. Well, if this is a starter area, it can't be something at a similar degree of danger.

"I want to come along." I know I'm being selfish, but I'm really curious. If it's actually a Vularen, just called differently in another country, I want to assess the capabilities of this party of adventurers. From that, I may be able to gauge the strength of humans in this world. Especially Luna's powers as a mage is a big mystery to me. I've only seen Maou-mama's and Mithra's magic so far, but they must be on an exceptionally high level.

"Now look here... this is a dangerous beast that requires all four of us to fight. We won't be able to protect you, Miss Marcott." Scratching his head, Gram seems to be at a loss. I don't need protection!

"I won't get in your way, I promise!" I look at the bard with upturned eyes. I know he's the type to fall for that. And surely enough, his expression changes as he turns to the big man.

"It should be alright if she stays near me. Your protection is flawless either way, big man."

Gotcha! I can see the large man's resistance fading at the flattery. I see, weak to flattery. This should be useful in the future. Ah, damn, I'm doing it again. Why am I being so calculating? Is this body affecting my mental state? I'm not such a cold-hearted person normally... Well, I don't think I even have a heart at all with this body.

"Let's go find the quarreling lovers..." Gram sighs. I don't want to, but well, the whole party is needed after all.

- Chaos has joined the party -