Elina: WhWhat was that just now, Igni?!

Rania: YYes! Please explain it to your big sister!

Igni: I think you know, Elina. And Im also not your brother, Rania

The baby was nowhere to be seen.

Thats because it disappeared as soon as it said, Yoori to Igni.

Igni: That thing.this is just a guess, but is human stagnation that became self-aware.

Igni spoke his thoughts out loud as he sorted through the information inside his head.

Nie: Human stagnation.you mean that thing thats made up of peoples curses, jealousies, and stuff that is discharged along with Magic Power from your body?

The younger sister, Nie, was standing behind Igni without him realizing as she spoke up.

Igni nodded in affirmation.

Igni: Yes, thats right. So that thing is something.made up of what used to be part of human emotion and gathered together and took shape. I heard of rumors, but I never thought I would see one.

Rania: Igni, why did you ask about its condition? Igni answered Ranias question.

Igni: Its something where human curses and suffering solidify, so there is a human emotion at its core. In other words, I asked <what all this emotion was cursing at>. And then it simply answered..I didnt think it would be that easy.

Rania: Wait.then..

And Rania seemed to realize and opened her eyes wide as she spoke her thoughts out loud.

Rania: That baby has some resentment towards Yoori? Igni: Yeah, that would be the case.

And Igni nodded slowly to affirm their suspicions.

But a curse of that magnitude and also gains consciousness is quite the phenomenon.

Rania: Then, did Yoori do something terrible?! Was Yoori that dangerous of a person?!

Igni: No, Yoori is.

Igni brought back all his memories about Yoori in his head as he spoke.

Igni: Yoori has a good heart. As far as I know, Yoori isnt someone who would do anything to create that much resentment.

As Igni spoke, Elina also nodded in agreement.

Elina: What Igni says is true. I cant believe that anyone would hate Yoori to that degree. I cannot imagine Yoori doing anything that bad. Do you think that thing is mistaken? Igni: As you saw, that thing was composed of many peoples resentments..so its hard to believe that its hatred is pointing to the wrong person.

Elina: Then, that means for whatever reason, Yoori became the center of its resentment.

Igni: Yes, thats probably true. But there may be some misdirected resentment or misunderstandings regardless though.

But this was only Ignis theory, and the other 3 understood that.

Nie: UUm!

Nie raised her hand.

Nie: Thatthing..if we were going to attempt to eradicate it, we would need to bring Yoori here?!

Igni: .......that would be the case.

Igni affirms.

Nie: EElder Sister! What should we do?!

Nie panics and looks to Rania.

Rania: Calm down, Lil Sis. If we do that, well be known as the heartless Black and White Sisters.

Rania speaks slowly to help calm Nie down.

Rania: We cant do that. There are too many heartless mercenaries, and we wouldnt be able to stand out from the rest!

Nie: Then? Rania: It would be most beneficial for us to work to help protect Yoori in this case.

Igni: (What kind of reasoning is that?)

Igni didnt think once to reflect on his own ambitions and reasoning as he retorted silently in his head.

This is now a regular habit. He should at some point, do some self-reflection.

Elina: Igniwhat do you think? Elina looks at Igni.

Igni nodded deeply and began explaining his own point of view.

Igni: ......Im against bringing Yoori here.

Elina: Can you tell me why? Igni: Curses arewell, if you bring the object of the curse, theres a chance that it will grow bigger. Thats why bringing Yoori here may not help us at all.

Elina: I see.

Rania: Then what do you think we should do? Igni: ..........well, lets see.. Igni began brainstorming for a solution.

How to resolve someones deep resentment.

Igni dug deeper and deeper down that line of thought to seek out a solution until he found <that memory>.

<<<<>>>>

[Oye, Igni. There are some things in this world that you should never touch.

[What? Like an angry dragon? [Of course not. Just use a Spell, and its dead. There are things far scarier.

Though theres only a handful of people who can instantly kill a Dragon, known as the strongest Monster race in this world, but not knowing that, Igni tried to think seriously of something scarier than Dragons.

[.......I cant think of any.]

[It is a womans resentment.

[............what?]

[Listen well, Igni. The scariest thing in the world is women. Especially, when relationships get complicateda woman who resents her opponent is frightening. When a woman cheats on a man, a man may criticize and condemn the woman who cheated on him..but the woman <may even kill> the other woman the man cheated on. yes, there is something terrifying when she catches on.

[......the..resentment of a woman..!]

Young Igni realized that there are things more terrifying than Dragons and shook and trembled from his core.

And it would be a lie if he were to admit that the thought of maybe Popularity isnt worth it didnt cross the back of his mind at that instant.

Thats how scared he was and shook in fear.

[WhWhat should I do..?!]

Thats why Igni reached out desperately to his grandfather for an answer.

And Lucas looked at him gravely as he nodded.

[Yestime will heal everything.]

[.........what?]

[After about a year.well, the resentment would probably be gone by then.]

[.....................]

[Why are you looking at me like that? It cant be helped. Time is the best medicine and antidote in this case..]

[Grandpa, youre the worst!!]

Igni headbutted Lucas in the stomach and made him fly back a few meters into the air.

<<<<>>>>

Igni: (Tsch. That old man can be so useless sometimes.)

Ignis hands fidgeted as he cursed his grandpa in his mind.

He hasnt felt resentment like this since the first day of the Academy.

Igni: And we cant just waitfor things to resolve itself naturally.

And Igni thought out loud as he continued to ponder.

Igni: (.....hm? Wait.)

Dont they say to fight fire with fire? And Igni had a slight epiphany.

Igni: Elina, what would you do? Elina: Me? Igni: Yes. If you had so much resentment towards someone that you wanted to kill them, how would you resolve those feelings? If you are scared of buying resentment from women, then you can ask a woman for a solution.

It is Popularity Etiquette No. 13.

Elina: ....... me? Hmmm, well. I would talk it out.

Igni: Talk? Elian: Yes. Sometimes, its just better to verbally say everything you want to say, and in most cases, you would feel better afterwards. .but I dont know if that would be helpful in dealing with [that thing] though.

And shes probably referring to that gross fetus monster.

Igni: .........talk, huh. Yes, thats true. We do have to find out whats happening.

Igni nodded in agreement to Elinas words.

And it gave Igni and his group next steps towards a solution.

Igni: Lets ask Yoori about what happened.

Nie: ........um, Mr. Igni? Igni: Hm? As soon as Igni determined their next move, Nie popped a question.

Nie: If..Yoori didnt do anything..and if it was all a big misunderstanding, I would agree that that would be ideal but.

She sucked in a deep breath.

Nie: But if..if Yoori..did something that truly deserves the curses and resentment of that thing..what would you do? Igni: Well

Igni answered without hesitation.

Igni: No matter what, Yoori is my friend. Thats just how friends are.

A Popular man does not hold the past against any woman.

Igni: (Well, even if Yoori is a guy!!)

And Igni retorted to himself silently.

<<<<>>>>

CHONKY TL:

WHAT DID YOU DO, YOORI.

Put your guess in the comments!! You will be awarded the CHONKY TL Light Novel Plot Sleuth award (this is not a real award). Of course, don't participate if you already read ahead!! (I haven't)

Assuming that there are no delays, will come out January 19, 2022 @ 9:00 PM U.S. Central Time!

<<<<>>>>

CHONKY Notes LiT (Lost in Translation)

Just to clear the air of sexist ideology and thoughts, yes, saying jealous women are scarier than jealous men is not true. There are plenty of cases where jealous men kill both their partner and the man or woman the partner cheated with. If Grandpa wanted to be accurate, theres nothing scarier than when you get caught cheating. Now THAT, I can agree with.

Just googling, I found a 1987 crime study from 1982 - 1984, where it found that (1) homicide was least likely to be committed by a stranger, and (2) Spouses or ex-spouses committed over half of all crimes by relatives.

This is just from reading the abstract, and I didnt vet the source data or replicate their results, so take it with a grain of salt. Undoubtedly, this trend could morph and change over time, but its one data point that Crime drama loves to point out as a case in point.