From Mimic to World's strongest daughter

Chapter 28 Back to the Sea of Trees

Y/n's POV

We were traveling to the Sea of Trees in Papa's newest vehicle. It was a giant ship that reminded me of the submarine that we used to travel through the Sunken Ruins of Melusine, except Papa told me it was called an airplane. That didn't make any sense to me as he tried to explain it, which only left me more confused. Eventually, Papa just took us up in it before showing me an area where I could see the ground below us. "Woah! Papa, this thing is amazing. We're in the sky and not falling." I said, staring out the window as I tried to take it all in. I could see things moving on the ground below us, but couldn't make out what exactly each thing was. After a few minutes, I got bored and walked over to the control console that Papa had made for the ship, which he named Fernir, seeing Mama writing something in a book. "What are you doing, Mama?" I asked, looking over her shoulder to see what she was writing. She smiled as she patted her lap, letting me sit down as she continued writing. "I'm writing some things we've done with everyone. Mostly just the three of us though." I smiled as I saw her writing about the things we've done along with everything that's happened with the demons and the human kingdom. She wrote about how Kaori was killed before being brought back in a different body. And Myu being returned to her mom.

"Only two more Great Labyrinths remain. I hope to wrap it up quickly, so Hajime and I can finally pursue our dream," Mom wrote as I heard footsteps getting close to us.

"What are you two doing?" Papa asked, standing next to us. Mama freaked out, using some magic to forcefully close the book before looking at Papa. "It's a secret." Mama said, putting a finger to her lips like she did when I was supposed to be quiet. Papa sat down as he sighed about Mama's reaction to him asking what she was doing. Shea and Tio eventually joined us as Papa made sure Fernir was flying on the correct course. "Just a reminder. We're only dropping you off at the border, princess." Papa said, looking over at the princess, who was with us. 

"I know. I'm grateful for your assistance." Lily said, smiling at Papa. Yaegashi started talking about how the princess was on a different mission from the rest of us before Kaori mentioned wanting to visit where the princess was going. "No, you wouldn't, Kaori," Papa commented. 

"He's right. You wouldn't enjoy your time there. They may be humans, but their brutal nature couldn't be more different from the Heiligh kingdom. It's a military nation composed of powerful mercenaries and adventurers. It's a savage meritocracy; take what you want by force. Kill all your enemies. The weak must obey the strong, no matter what. They'll use any immoral method they find practical. That includes the act of keeping slaves." Lily explained.

"When you say slaves, you mean beastmen." Shea added. I frowned hearing that since Shea and all of her family and tribe members were super nice and powerful after Papa had trained them. 

"Yeah. That's the exact opposite of Heiligh," Sakagami said. I sighed hearing that and thinking back to the knight who called Shea's ears disgusting. "There's no racism in Heiligh from what I've seen." Suzu mentioned.

"That's not true." I muttered, already annoyed with thinking about the knight who tried to hurt Shea. Lily confirmed that beastmen with magic power were considered lowly and forgotten by God before confirming that they were discriminated against. "Princess of Heiligh. Shea doesn't take personal offense with you. It's just... She has her own tragic history with imperial soldiers." Tio commented.

"I'm so sorry to hear that. Perhaps there's something I can do to help in some way. If it's not too painful to recount, could you tell me what happened?" Lily asked. Shea stayed quiet before Mama spoke up. "Why not go on and tell her?" Mama asked. Shea was quiet for another moment before nodding. She talked about how the tribe was forced out before running into a band of soldiers. They killed and captured some of the tribe members before monsters attacked, killing off more. "It was all my fault." Shea said.

"No, it's those mean knights from the empire that hurt Shea and her tribe." I corrected, looking back at her since she sounded sad. 

"Y/n's right. You're not at fault for what happened," Mama added, patting my head as Tio agreed with us. Everyone was sad to hear about it before Kouki spoke up. "That's it!" Kouki shouted.

"You okay?" Yaegashi asked.

"Listen Nagumo. The labyrinths can wait. We need to go save these beastmen!" Kouki demanded.

"As messed up as it is, enslaving beastmen is commonplace in this world. It's not our place as otherworlders to go overturn societies. If you still want to help them, though, well, that's your call to make. No one's stopping you." Papa said, shooting down Kouki's idea. Kouki grunted before walking out of the room. Yaegashi followed him before I hopped out of Mama's lap. "I'll be right back." I said. She nodded as I headed after Kouki and Yaegashi. I could hear them talking about how powerful Papa was before mentioning how Papa did nothing for anyone else. Kouki was getting upset about how papa wasn't doing anything about God before Yaegashi pointed out that papa was just acting and how desperate he was to survive. Yaegashi talked about how Papa dragged himself out of the labyrinth where we had first met, gaining the power to protect and survive as he did. Yaegashi pointed out that they did stuff to help people while Papa did it to protect the ones he loves and how Kouki needed a different argument to get Papa to do things. "Excuse me." I said, stepping around the corner. Kouki and Yaegashi looked at me before Yaegashi smiled. "What's up, Y/n?" Yaegashi asked.

"I just wanted to tell Kouki something." I answered, walking over to them.

"What is it?" Kouki asked.

"I understand how Shea and Papa feel." I said, looking at Kouki. He looked at me confused before I continued. "You both know I'm a monster. So, I know what it's like to be looked down on for being different. While I look human thanks to Papa and Mama, I'm not on the inside, and people treat me differently when they find out. After we saved you in the labyrinth from the demon woman, you avoided me. I know you were worried about me attacking people and hurting others, but you still felt a certain way about me." I started before looking out the window towards the sky behind us. Kouki was silent as I turned, seeing him looking at the floor. "I mentioned I know how Papa feels too. He's trying to do everything he can to protect me, Mama, Shea, Tio and Kaori. I agree with Papa that we can't just go help people because we want to. That'd hurt more people, and what if the same thing happens again? I don't want Shea to be made a slave because of who she is. So, staying away from them is the best solution." I finished. Kouki looked at me as I smiled at him. "We can't help everyone just because we're strong compared to you. We can only focus on those we can help near us." I added. Kouki sighed before nodding as a giant shadow passed over us. We felt the ship turn before Kouki thanked me for explaining what I thought about helping people before we headed back to the command room.

Everyone was gathered around the hologram thing that Papa made so we could look closer at the ground. Yaegashi asked what was going on before Kaori mentioned imperial soldiers were chasing people. It was two Haulia tribe members before Papa pointed them out. We watched as they came to a stop before Papa told Kouki to calm down as he was freaking out about the girls stopping. "How can you even say that? Those poor, frail women. They're about to be captured." Kouki pointed out.

"Frail women? There's nothing frail about them. They're Haulia. Y/n, set up in case they need help." Papa corrected. I nodded, summoning my rifle before opening the door on the floor, aiming down the sights towards the soldiers. I heard gasps as I smiled, knowing that the girls were easily overpowering the knights. "As I thought, they're intentionally luring them in." Papa said. 

"I did not expect that from some rabbit girls." Kouki said. I zoomed in with the new scope Papa had made me, watching as each woman took out one or more knights in a single strike. Lily asked about how Shea was the outlier in the group before Shea mentioned that they all got strong after training with Papa. I was watching before feeling mana activate before firing a single shot. It ripped through the man, blowing him to pieces, leaving a puddle of blood behind. I unchambered the empty cartridge as I lowered my rifle. The Haulia tribe members saluted us as Papa smirked about what they did. "How did you know he was gonna..." Sakagami started.

"Do you have psychic powers too, Y/n?" Suzu asked.

"No, Y/n and I wouldn't have known if it was a physical attack, but if someone tries to use magic, we'll see or sense it." Papa explained. Suzu and Sakagami were talking about Papa's eyepatch before Papa pulled out his gun and shot each of them with a rubber bullet.