Stella awkwardly patted the white puppy cuddling in her lap while doing her best to avoid the pointed gazes from the dog-eared and cat-eared girls sitting across from her.

After finding the gazes a bit too unnerving, Stella cleared her throat and then turned her head to the side.

She was in a carriage, one headed to the Great Forest.

Onii-chan said that they were heading there anyway, so he arranged things to take some of the children back first before he set up a warp gate to bring the rest.

For now though, most of the children were waiting back at the house Onii-chan made with Miss Rostelina, Mister Totally-not-Onii-chan Pierre, 'Papa' Paul, and Aunt Therese.

The result was that their house turned into a makeshift daycare/school, but it wasn't like their family was planning to live in Saint Port permanently. Plus, it was going to be mostly empty since Onii-chan took the entire family along for the ride.

Well, along for the ride in separate wagons.

Stella didn't know how everyone else was getting there, but right now she was stuck in a carriage with those two beast race girls and Miko while Sister-in-law Eris was driving.

...Riding? She was sitting at the front and directing the horse leading the carriage, whatever that was called.

Anyway, the scenery...

Green, green, and more green with lots of dark green up ahead.

It was pretty, but it was also pretty boring.

Unfortunately, Stella couldn't really do anything about it.

Was this Onii-chan getting back at her for telling Norn nee-chan about the hot cocoa? Stella was stuck with two girls she couldn't understand, a puppy that apparently chose her as a legendary hero, and Miko... who recently started following Stella around like she was Miko's only lifeline.

Stella petted the puppy again, smiling a bit as the puppy snuggled against her.

And then she felt a pair of sharp stares directed towards her. A floating Wata and a mini floating Fai staring daggers at the puppy.

Stella rolled her eyes and said, "You two can have your turns later. Mister Puppy worked really hard to save the kids, so he deserves to be pampered a bit."

Fai puffed her cheeks and said, "I worked hard too!"

Wata nodded. "Yeah! And I helped translate!"

The puppy raised his head, letting out a smug look and then barked. "Wan!"

Wata stuck up his fist and said, "Don't think you're special just because you're a holy spirit animal! When I grow up, I'm going to be a Primordial!"

Fai's head bobbed up and down and she said, "Yeah! And I'm going to grow up to be a Seraphim! Plus Wyn's already a- W-Whoa?!"

A sudden breeze blew past, spinning Fai around. After that, Wyn materialized on Stella's head and yawned. "Stop bragging you two. And don't be so smug, you mutt. A hero's companion is nothing special, you know?"

"Wan..." The puppy whined and then buried his head beneath his paws.

The cat-eared girl frowned when she saw that and started talking, pointing at Wyn.

Of course, Stella didn't understand a single word so she just gave the cat-eared girl a blank stare.

The cat-eared girl seemed to realize that Stella didn't understand and then let out a deep sigh, muttering under her breath.

The dog-eared girl looked downcast and then turned to talk to the cat-eared girl, clearly upset.

...Maybe Stella should have tried things like Onii-chan when she was a baby. Apparently he developed a crazy mana sight thing because he crossed some wires when he was a baby, so maybe Stella could have-

Wait.

...Wyn, Fai, and Wata didn't always speak a normal language, right? But Stella had always understood them even when they couldn't talk. So why couldn't she-

"...The hero have to be a human, Toni? She can't even understand us."

?!?!?!

It was that easy!?

The dog-eared girl sighed and said, "She's nice and Holy Beast-sama says she's special, but it's really disappointing."

The cat-eared girl 'Toni' nodded and said, "I know, Sena. I thought the hero would be someone super cool like the white-haired man who saved us."

Stella snorted and then said, "Well sorry that I'm not as cool as my Onii-chan."

"Eh?" The cat-eared girl, 'Sena', suddenly turned to look at Stella.

The dog-eared girl, 'Toni', gasped and looked at Stella as well.

Stella coughed and then averted her gaze again, feeling her face heat up.

At that time, Miko suddenly giggled. She had been quietly sitting in the corner of the carriage the entire ride, but it seemed like the situation was too funny for her. Glancing at Stella, she smiled and said, "You really are a meanie, Stella."

"A-Am not!" Stella puffed her cheeks and said, "It's not my fault that those two couldn't talk clearly enough!"

Fai floated next to Stella and then reached out to pinch her cheeks. "You meanie! Why'd you pretend you couldn't understand them and make us translate?"

Stella smacked Fai away and said, "Quit that! And I just realized it, okay?" She coughed and then looked at Sena and Toni. "A-Anyway... You can understand me, right?"

The cat-eared girl, Sena, nodded and said, "Yeah! ...You sound a little funny though."

The dog-eared girl, Toni, nodded as well and stared at Stella with sparkling eyes. "Did Holy Beast-sama give you special powers to understand us?"

Wata snorted. "As if that mutt is so that special."

The puppy growled and then barked. And after that-

"At least I'm a real dog instead of a fake cat like you!"

Wait. Did she just-

Wata flew over and started smacking the puppy's head. "Say that to my face again, you mutt!"

"Fake cat! Fake!"

"Grrrrr!"

"Rawrrrrrrr!"

Stella covered her face and let out a deep sigh. "This is going to be a long ride, isn't it...?"

Miko giggled.

"Oi!" Eris glanced back from the front of the carriage and said, "Keep it down back there before I decide to take the fast way there and send you brats flying through the air!"

Toni and Sena flinched, quickly scooting towards the back of the wagon.

Miko flinched as well and covered her mouth. But a big smile could still be seen behind her hands.

Wata and the puppy kept glaring at each other, but they stopped growling at least.

Even so...

...Stella still thought that Onii-chan was lying about who he was. Like... Come on. There's no way that stuff like this would happen to an ordinary person that got reincarnated, right?

Right. This was definitely all Onii-chan's fault. If Stella had been reincarnated in a normal family, she definitely wouldn't be dealing with this sort of hectic situation and sorting out whether or not she really was a chosen hero or something...

-RNG-

"Are you sure it's fine to leave Mama Eris with the kids, Daddy?" Ena glanced back at the wagon behind us and said, "What if she gets mad?"

Roland nodded and said, "Red Mama has a bit of a temper..."

Sylphy nodded as well and said, "What Rolo said. Don't you remember how Eri was when we were kids?"

I rolled my eyes and said, "I don't want to hear that from my wife whose adventurer title is 'Eternal Witch of Frost' because you permafroze an A-ranked adventurer party who looked at you funny in the past."

Sylphy puffed her cheeks and said, "T-They deserved it! And it's not as bad as Roxy's 'Callous Witch of Destruction'!"

"I dunno. Master Roxy's title is from collateral damage. Yours is pretty purposeful."

Sylphy pouted and then leaned on Roland. "Rolo!"

"Y-Yes Mother?"

"It's Mama! And hug me! Mama's sad!"

"U-Um..." Roland looked at me for help.

I rolled my eyes and decided to let my dear son sort it out while I checked on the situation.

We were traveling in two carriages. One was obviously with all the kids. I figured that it'd be a good chance for them to all make friends and also much better than hanging out with us boring adults.

Also, Stella needed actual friends.

But anyway, the kids were in one carriage and I asked Eri to keep an eye on them because she was the most responsible adult out of us all.

Still ironic considering all I heard about her from Rudeus and how she acted when we were kids, but she was definitely the proper mother-like figure needed to handle the kids in case issues came up.

As to the other carriage, there was me, Ena, Eos, Sylphy, Roland, and Norn.

Eos was the coachmaster right now, but I was probably going to switch out with her in a bit.

In short, me and the whole family... minus Dad.

He was being a responsible adult and helping to both babysit and rescue the rest of the kidnapped children at Saint Port.

I think getting showed up by Stella got him motivated.

...Motivated.

...I felt like there was something funny there that I was forgetting... But anyway.

The plan was pretty straightforward.

Me and my little family went on ahead to set up a waypoint before we sent all the rest of the rescued beast race children home. In the meanwhile, Pierre with his dubious connections all over the place would work on getting the other children back while Rostelina and Aunt Therese ran a daycare.

And the key to a peaceful diplomatic mission with the beast race was my baby sister, who had apparently been declared the legendary hero because that white puppy she saved was the equivalence of the M*ster Sword or something.

Kind of funny how that worked out. And also kind of confirmed my working theory that the Greyrats were a family of protagonist type individuals with different main character archetypes among the family-

'Rudy?'

A familiar voice in my head. Rika's.

I blinked and then tilted my head to listen.

'...We have a problem.'

HappyVainGlory

Difficult to squeeze in time for two story updates. Might shift this to every other day until I get used to the current writing pace... We'll see.