Chapter 68. [Language Battle]

“She’s a real monster.”

“……… Ha, ha! Do you mean that woman Iroha is as multilingual as you are? Well, I didn’t think that even though there are many multilinguals in this school, someone can match you!”

“No, I told you, didn’t I? She’s a monster. I’m nothing compared to her.”

“But, but, but!”

“I have no idea how many languages she speaks in total. The way she looks at me… It was like looking at a piece of trash! From start to finish, she just looked annoyed. She was telling me she didn’t care about me, not even a footstep away from me.”

“Oh my… I can’t believe she’s more of a genius than you.”

“She was in a different dimension. It wasn’t even a match. Or the vectors are different. It’s just incomprehensible. You should try talking to her. She’s a language genius. I’m sure you’d notice the discrepancy.”

“A feeling of discrepancy?”

“Yeah. She learns foreign languages in a different way than we do.”

“What does that mean?”

“It’s just a guess, but she may be ‘monolingual’. Or maybe she’s not even monolingual. Either way, she doesn’t have a foreign language brain…  I’m sure there are others out there who are aware of this.”

“No, no, no, no! Give me some more concrete evidence!”

“Yes, I do. For example, we subconsciously find rules in language.”

“Bylaws, do you mean, for example, grammar or vocabulary?”

“Yes, of course, but it’s more like being able to pronounce a language or word that is new to you to a certain extent. For example … well, try to read these letters.”

“Uhm [Songeregurappa]”

“Do you know this word?”

“No, I don’t. What does it mean?”

“I don’t know. I just made it up.”

“Hey!”

“But you pronounced it exactly as I thought it should be pronounced.”

“Oh, wow, now that you mention it. I’ve never seen the word before, but I pronounced it subconsciously.”

“This is a natural ability for native speakers of a language. If you’re multilingual, it’s an ability that comes into play even when you’re new to a language. That’s what I thought. But she doesn’t have it.”

“Then how does she learn other languages? Because that’s the first step in learning a new language.”

“Iroha maybe learns all the languages from scratch. Or maybe she learns languages according to a completely different set of rules, and not in a top-down way as we do. So, in other words, it’s a different dimension.”

“What’s that?”

“What the heck is that? If I hadn’t already been learning a foreign language, I would have worshipped Iroha as “Iroha-sama” and begged her to teach me English.”

“Why not now?”

“So, can you ‘forget how to remember’?”

“That’s impossible.”

“I don’t think so.”

“I see. The world is a big place. I heard that this school is the best in Japan for languages, so I enrolled, and I thought I meet a real genius like you, but to think that there is a genius even better than you.”

“That’s for sure. I was the one who got my nose broken. By the way, I’ve reached my limit.”

“Hmm?”

“AAAaahhhh Mamaaaaaa, I lost! Aah! Aaah! Bieeeeee! Come get me soon! Gee yaaaaah! Breastfeed me!”

“Eeehh!”

***

Thus, one student died socially and fell from the throne of the Four Heavenly Kings. And that led to my current situation – my appointment as the new Four Heavenly Kings.

I was so screwed up.

I’m screwed, aren’t I?

What did I do? What the heck!

But I can’t help it, can I?

Because I didn’t even realize that I was getting into a fight until I investigated the rumors like this. Before I knew it, my cheat-like translation ability had done its job.

But, well…

It was the language genius who was talking to me at that time.

You know, I don’t look at trash like that!

I did think, “This guy keeps jumping from one thing to the next,” and “Can’t you let me go home early so I can watch the video stream?”

However, I was thinking.

That’s all there is to it!

“That’s why my classmates are bothering me right now!”

“You’re not very good at teaching English, Iroha-chan! If you can teach English well, Mai should be fluent in English first.”

“That’s right! The guys at school need to realize that.”

What are they doing here every recess?

Am I some beckoning cat that makes you happy if you pet it?

They all beg me to teach them, but as a matter of course, I have no idea what they’re talking about, and then they leave, somehow satisfied, saying, “It’s hard to explain something so obvious.”

Fortunately, I hadn’t yet been exposed as a VTubers…

On the contrary, I wonder how they haven’t found out any longer.

Also, I had never heard that our junior high school is the best in Japan in languages.

Yes, I had thought that there were a lot of multilinguals there!

“Oh, no, it’s too much trouble!”

“Oh~, okay. There is something I would like to recommend to you, Iroha-chan, who is under such stress.”

“Hm? What is it?

“Iroha-chan, are you interested in animal therapy?”