Episode 5 —

What on earth is he talking about? An engagement?
It seems something happened between “Rita” and this sea creature.

No, judging from what he said, it doesn’t sound like “Rita” is his fiancée anymore… so maybe this sea creature was kicking up a fuss and Rita was busy swatting him away.

Well, Rita wouldn’t want to marry a sea creature anyway. Even if her eyes had been installed on her feet before she transmigrated.

Besides, this guy called Rita “some war orphan who crawled out of who-knows-where.”

He insulted Rita twice with one sentence.

First by saying “who-knows-where,” insulting her past.
Second by calling her a “war orphan,” insulting her circumstances.

Even little kids don’t use the word “orphan” in front of an actual orphan. Does this bastard have the intelligence of something less than a child?

“Hey, you listening? You finally feel like becoming obedient?”

Rita closed her mouth and simply stared at the jerk making snarky faces at her.

A scene suddenly flashed in her mind.

“Man, I really wonder what you would’ve done with your life if you weren’t a cop.”

That’s what her coworker told her after she finally arrested a guy she’d been gunning for.

Hot-tempered, meddlesome, unable to walk past injustice…
Of course she became a cop.

Rita agreed with that statement, and she was grateful too.

But the real reason she chose to become a police officer was something else.

Because being a cop allowed her to legally punish trash like this!

‘If I hadn’t been a cop, I’d probably have a whole list of convictions by now…’

…Well, that wasn’t important at the moment.

“Why aren’t you talking? Finally realized you were wrong?”

Rita grabbed the finger tapping her forehead.

“Eh!”

And twisted it sharply.

“You freaking starfish wannabe… ‘obedient’? This is my version of obedient, you bastard!”

She flung his hand away and swung a solid punch at his face.

Thud!

Judging by how his face snapped left, she hit him good.

The sea creature blinked stupidly, as if he couldn’t comprehend what had just happened.

Rita snorted loudly.

“Y-you… you actually h-hit me?”

“Yes, I hit you. So what?”

For a guy who sexually harassed a woman by calling her “some stray from who-knows-where” and throwing ‘orphan’ as an insult, a beating was the perfect medicine. Life is a battlefield.

When Rita tilted her head arrogantly and answered, the sea creature’s face finally flushed red.

Blood dripped from his nose.

He stared at the drops hitting his hand and shrieked in horror.

“B-blood!”

“……”

“You dared make me bleed!?”

He jumped up, cursing, and grabbed Rita’s hair.

“Argh! Let go, you damn octopus head!”

“Whatever, I was gonna beat you at least once when we got married, might as well do it now!”

And thus the brawl began.

***

“Rita, did something happen?”

Margaret finally spoke up, unable to ignore Rita eating breakfast with her hair covering her face and saying nothing.

Yesterday she’d come home, muttered something about being tired, and locked herself in her room… Something must have happened after she went to the clinic with Benny.

Rita chewed her vegetables and glanced at Margaret’s worried face.

“N-nothing… happened…”

Damn it, yesterday was rough.
That bastard knew how to throw a punch, which made dealing with him harder. Her split lip still burned.

But if she skipped breakfast, Margaret would worry, so Rita pretended she was fine.

At least the guy wasn’t a sniveling brat who’d run crying to his daddy just because he got hit.
Well… aside from the part where he got his teeth knocked out in the middle of the street.

Things ended only when one of the household servants appeared screaming, “Oh heavens, young master! What is happening!?”

Apparently the sea creature was from a rich family.

Still, she won.

She was the one who knocked out his teeth and broke his nose.

Not something to brag about, but… in moments like this, it felt worth bragging a little. Rita smirked to herself.

“Ugh.”

Her spoon poked her split lip and she groaned.

Margaret looked over in alarm.

“What’s wrong? Oh my goodness—Rita!”

She pushed Rita’s hair aside.

“Why is your face like this!?”

“Hehe…”

With nothing else to say, Rita simply scratched her head and smiled.

Now that she thought about it, someone was worrying about her like family—even though they weren’t real family.

And that bastard basically insulted Margaret too by talking that way about Rita.

‘Should’ve hit him more…’

Margaret carefully examined her face: split lip, swollen cheek, bruised brow.

Tears welled in her eyes.

Why hadn’t Rita told her? Was it because she wasn’t her real mother…?

“Rita…”

Margaret sniffled, then steadied herself.
If she cried, Rita would worry even more.

“Let’s go to the clinic and get you treated.”

Rita panicked.

“N-no, it’s really not that bad! I—I hit him way more!”

“Good. But you still need treatment. Go get ready.”

“I can just put ointment on at home!”

“No.”

Rita’s protests were useless.

And the worst part… she couldn’t show this face to her dear deer-like favorite character.

Completely defeated, Rita trudged to the clinic.

“Good heavens. Rita, what happened to your face? You look like a wreck!”

‘Thanks for the reminder…’

Rita puffed her cheeks and leaned forward obediently as the doctor applied antiseptic.

“Ow! Could you go a bit easier?”

“Hmph, such fuss.”

At least Benny wasn’t here to gossip about her face all day.

Rita kept glancing toward the room where Deer (Dear/Deir) was.

Please, don’t come out. Stay in your bed…

But of course, the door opened.

“……”

“……”

He stood there—beautiful as ever—staring at her wrecked face.

He must be shocked. The women he knew probably didn’t get into fistfights like this.

She looked even worse next to his neat, elegant face.

Trying to hide her embarrassment, Rita greeted him awkwardly.

“H-hi! H-ello?”

…Her voice cracked. She wanted to die.

“Are you… hurt…?”

Deer looked at her with a strangely mixed expression.

His voice, as always, was so beautifully gentle it only made everything worse.

“…You look like you’re in pain.”

…said the man who was half-dead just days ago.

“I-I just look bad, I’m not hurt—aaaagh!!”

“Can you fetch some painkillers from the shelf?” the doctor cut in, not even hesitating.

Even though the doctor was just a commoner, Deer fetched the medicine silently.

After giving her painkillers and antibiotics, the doctor clicked his tongue.

“No broken bones, thankfully, but where did you even get hurt like this?”

“Well, you see…”

“Margaret’s going to age ten years from stress because of you. Even my grandkids aren’t this reckless.”

Rita grumbled, touching her bandage.

“Well, that half-baked lump of clay started insulting me, what was I supposed to do, just sit there?”

“That doesn’t mean you should end up like this.”

“Yeah, but then he suddenly started talking about engagements and marriage and stuff, and I have a weak stomach—”

“Again? That boy…”

“Yes! Again! And I should’ve thrown up on his face too—”

Then Rita suddenly froze.

Deer was still right there.

She’d just admitted the fight was with a man.
And she’d let out a string of extremely crude insults.

His expression was… indescribable.

“…I’m sorry.”

It seemed her image in front of her favorite character was now officially beyond repair.