Banished from the Hero’s Party, I Decided to Live a Quiet Life in the Countryside - Volume 13 - Chapter 3

Chapter 3

Courage, Peace, and Everyday Life

The next day, Red & Rit’s Apothecary.

After taste testing the food I’d made, I nodded in satisfaction.

“Garlic and smoked meat soup, and a baguette with smoked cheese.”

That was today’s breakfast, one of the results from last night.

In hot and humid Zoltan, leftover ingredients such as meat were smoked to preserve them, and this smoked meat was a common part of home-cooked meals in Zoltan.

“Using the medicinal herbs for smoking rather than eating them directly… I never even thought of that.”

Adding a clump of herbs to the wood chips infused the food with a refreshing flavor.

“Leaves can be used for herbal tea and the medicinal eggs, and the stems and roots can be used in the smoke for preserving leftovers.”

Of course, the herbs were also used to make medicine, and whatever was left from that could be burned for smoking as well. Different herbs contributed different flavors, and reducing waste would be a good selling point as well.

“Still, I use plenty of ham and bacon in my cooking, but I’ve never gotten in the habit of smoking things for everyday cooking.”

Even if I had adapted to Zoltan, there were still lots of things I didn’t know.

That was a fun thought.

“Ruti and the others should be coming by soon.”

Just as that thought went through my mind, there was a clang as the bell at the front door rang.

The day was starting.

Rit, Ruti, and I were sitting around the table.

Breakfast had been a big hit.

For the stall, being able to set up a smoker and leave it helped a lot in terms of efficiency. The medicinal eggs also worked well as festival food.

And with that, Ruti’s menu was all set.

“What are you doing today, Big Brother?” she asked.

“I’m planning to close up the shop a bit early and go to Storm’s place.”

“Oh.”

“What is it?”

It looked like Ruti had something on her mind.

“What’s up?” I asked again.

“There’s somewhere I’d like you to accompany me at noon.”

“If it’s not going to take long, it should be fine. There’s somewhere you want to go?”

“Mhm. Mrs. Cotton’s house—I want to thank her.”

“Ahh, yeah. It would be good to give her a proper thank-you and let her know you’ve settled on a menu.”

It made me happy that Ruti was trying to build connections with all sorts of people. Her world had really grown this past year.

“Rit, can I ask you to watch the shop?”

“Of course! Be sure to give her my thanks as well.”

“Will do.”

Since we were going over there, I figured I’d make her some smoked meat using the medicinal herbs as a gift.

Noon, the Pearlman house.

“Thank you, but you didn’t need to do that,” Mrs. Cotton said with a warm smile.

On the table was diluted wine, to avoid getting drunk, and the smoked meat I’d brought.

“It’s delicious. I’ll be sure to come visit during the festival, too.”

“But we were the ones who came to thank you…”

Ruti looked bewildered at being thanked, when she’d come to thank Mrs. Cotton.

Kindness begets kindness, and gratitude begets gratitude in return.

Ruti was also starting to understand that level of communication, and as her older brother, I was overjoyed and excited to see her keep growing.

“Last night, you mentioned you have kids, but are they not here now?” Ruti asked.

Not really knowing what to say, she was trying to make small talk.

“There are two of you living here?”

It wasn’t as if Ruti had researched the family; this was just her analysis based on the general signs of activity around the house.

“Right now, it’s just me and my husband…but my son used to live here as well. He’ll be twenty-five this year. When he was young, he was quite the little troublemaker, and Mr. Moen of the guards was always giving him an earful.”

“Was he a naughty child?”

“I suppose so. He was the sort of boy who would get into fights with older children. He just couldn’t accept things that weren’t right and had trouble compromising.” Mrs. Cotton had a distant look in her eyes as she spoke.

“You don’t see people like that often in Zoltan.”

“Hehe, you’re not wrong there. I often had to go and apologize on his behalf, but he never got violent or raised his voice at me or with his friends he adored. When he turned seventeen, Mr. Moen personally invited him to join the guard, and he trained to be in the reserve force.”

“He reformed.”

Hearing Ruti’s comment, Mrs. Cotton smiled, as if she’d said something funny.

“He was so blunt and ignorant of how the world worked as a child, but he grew up to be a splendid man who even took care to keep his room clean for my sake… It makes me happy, but it can also be lonely.”

“What do you mean?”

“He was a better person than his parents. Six years ago, when he heard about the terrible struggle against the demon lord’s army, he volunteered and left Zoltan to fight.”

“He volunteered…?” Ruti’s voice faded.

She and I both knew just how many soldiers had died on the battlefield.

“When I’m alone, I can’t help but worry, so it’s always nice when people visit like this.”

I hadn’t ever spoken much with Mrs. Cotton, but I had heard that the only son of the Pearlman family had volunteered to go fight in the war.

Seeing the concern in her eyes, I started to say something to bolster her spirits, when Ruti said, “I hope your son comes home safely, too.”

“…Thank you. That’s very kind of you.”

She hadn’t been able to say anything to calm Mrs. Cotton’s worries. Ruti knew it would be irresponsible to claim he was still alive after a battle like that, yet it was still clear by her words that she genuinely cared about Mrs. Cotton.

Although she sometimes had trouble verbalizing her feelings, the reason Ruti was so adored by the people of Zoltan wasn’t because she was the strongest adventurer but because of her kindness.

Mrs. Cotton’s face creased into a smile.

Just then…

Bam, bam, bam, bam!

The sound of the door knocker rang out.

It made plenty of noise even when you just knocked it gently, but it sounded like someone was hammering away at it with all their strength.

“I’m coming! Who is it?!” Mrs. Cotton stood up, looking a bit troubled.

“Big Brother.”

“Yeah.”

Ruti and I both stood up as well. We could sense something unusual in the air.

“Just in case, why don’t we come with you?” I said to Mrs. Cotton.

“Really? Well, true, this is certainly not normal.”

A worried look crossed her face.

The three of us headed to the front door. The knocking didn’t let up the whole time.

“Coming!”

“Cotton! I’ve got big news!”

“Oh, is that you, Lou?”

“Lou?”

“My nephew. Though he’s not much younger than me.”

Mrs. Cotton opened the door to reveal a middle-aged man standing there, red in the face. He had a letter in his hand.

“What’s all the fuss about, Lou?”

“Cotton! The war’s over!”

“What?”

Ruti and I were both stunned to hear that.

“Wait, can you explain that?” I blurted out.

The man held up the letter for me to see.

“It’s a letter from my son, who volunteered to fight in the war! The allied armies won!!”

I scanned the contents of the letter. It said that the allied forces led by Van the Hero had captured the final stronghold of the demon lord’s army, the former Flamberge Castle, and shattered the enemy.

Nothing written in it conflicted with anything I knew.

“I think the letter’s real,” I said quietly.

Ruti nodded, too.

“Then…my son’s coming home.”

“Yeah! We’ve gotta give them a grand welcome home!”

Mrs. Cotton covered her face with her hands.

They’d finally defeated the demon lord’s armies…!

In a scorched field that was all that remained of a town burned in the war, a group of ash giants fought against two swordsmen and a man with a bastard sword.

“Harmon, on your left.”

“Got it!!”

Harmon thrust out his sword, using its long reach to keep the ash giant in check. Then he hammered the swarm of corpses being controlled by the giant from above, knocking them to the ground.

While Harmon protected them, Taraxon’s and Bui’s swords swirled like a wild storm, cutting down the giants.

They say monsters appear in the ruins of battles, but these are on a whole other level! The war’s over, so why does God keep testing us?!

Things should have been peaceful, yet walking back to Zoltan, he still found himself fighting. If they didn’t defeat the monsters here, the people who came back to this razed town might well lose their lives.

Harmon felt there were still things he needed to do before returning to Zoltan.

After we left Mrs. Cotton’s house, we called on Rit and Tisse and went to the house where Habotan was living.

“Really…?”

Torahime let out a deep breath.

Her face, constructed with the skill of an upper-tier demon, looked like a doll’s. There was even a certain frailty to it, likely a result of her still being in recovery, but her eyes couldn’t hide the powerful determination simmering inside her.

The reason we’d come to Habotan’s house was to tell Torahime that the war had reached its end. Since she and Habotan were being chased by the demon lord’s army, the fact that his forces had been driven from the continent was a crucial piece of information.

“Lady Torahime.”

“Yes, this is joyous news… Having served as one of the four heavenly kings, I knew better than anyone that the demon lord’s army was destined for defeat.”

“Yet you still look unhappy.”

At the very least, the possibility of the demon lord leading an army here to Zoltan was now out of the question. So why did Torahime still look so unsettled?

“We warred and obeyed Taraxon and the accursed Asura because Lady Habotan was taken hostage.”

“Yeah, I was surprised when I heard that.”

The demons that made up the demon lord’s army had far higher morale than any human troops. Some knights even considered them to be the ideal soldiers; the demons would continue to fight and hold the line when any human would long since have broken and run.

However, that was only because they were bound by blessings that made them unable to disobey any order from a higher-tier demon.

This wasn’t a war that the demons had wanted.

“Countless of our fellows died in this war. They died as lowly invaders, pawns in the thrall of a false demon lord. They weren’t protecting anything.”

“Lady Torahime…”

“One day, I shall slay the demon lord. I will have vengeance for the lives lost in this war.”

“When the time comes, this one will support you, so please allow Habotan to remain by your side!”

“Thank you. To that end, please continue to increase your blessing level, gain knowledge and experience, and grow strong.”

“Yes, milady!!”

“While in Zoltan, learn well from Ruti the Hero and her comrades. Their strength will surely support you.”

It was an odd sight.

A former heavenly king of the demon lord’s army and the demon lord’s successor, hoping to learn from a human ex-Hero how to slay the demon lord.

I’m sure this hadn’t been in Demis’s script.

“Sir Ruti, please give this one another lesson on how to fight!”

“Sure.”

But, if you looked at it from another angle, it wasn’t really so strange.

A princess and loyal general fleeing from their country after the throne was stolen in a coup and seeking aid in a foreign land to reclaim the throne.

If anything, it was a classic story.

“Demon lord” and “Hero” were just titles decided by blessings. Habotan and Torahime were fighting their own battle of their own volition, and Ruti and I would protect and guide them until they set out on their journey… I guess that’s what made me the Guide?

In that way, Habotan and Torahime were heroes in the truest sense of the word.

The Demon Lord blessing serves the dual role of ruling over all the evil races of the dark continent and of fighting against the Hero as the pinnacle of evil.

That was the conclusion I’d come to, taking into account everything Torahime and Habotan had told us, what I learned in my investigations as a knight, what I’d seen as a member of the Hero’s party, and what I’d encountered here in Zoltan regarding the Hero.

Divine Blessings were created by Demis.

Their purpose was to recreate the soul of the Asura who’d been the first Hero.

Records showed that the demon lord only invaded our continent during times when the Hero was born. The church interpreted that as proof that God had never abandoned the world, but it was simple—if the Hero wasn’t in the world, the demon lord never left the dark continent.

The Hero saved people because that was what the first Hero did, and saving the world was just a means to that end. It was Demis who created evil blessings as well, so if the goal was to save people, then the Hero blessing would have to be overwhelmingly more powerful than any evil blessing. It could even have been made to have a high starting blessing level, like the Guide.

The demon lord was an enemy created to force the Hero to go through the same experiences as the first Hero. And when the Hero hadn’t been born, it served as a balancing presence to ensure that the forces of good and evil didn’t destroy themselves.

From what Torahime described, the position of the rightful demon lord in the army was simply to rule, while the four heavenly kings handled the actual management of the country.

What was expected of the demon lord was a powerful blessing and nothing more. Habotan had been raised inside the castle without ever leaving, because the Demon Lord blessing awakened within princesses and princes from clans with the potential to take over as the demon lord. They were essentially just vessels for the blessing, and as such, required no instruction to become ruler.

We knew of the example of Van’s miraculous blessing change, but that was built into the system on the demon lord’s side.

They resembled each other, although they weren’t exactly the same.

The Demon Lord blessing, which should have been held by Habotan’s father, the Raging Demon Lord Satan, had been stolen by Taraxon, an Asura lord without a blessing.

That was what Torahime had told us, yet it wasn’t easy to believe blessings could simply pass from one person to another.

Not given what we’d seen in the ancient human ruins.

The devices there had shown that ancient humans had been capable of analyzing Divine Blessings. If there were some way of handing off blessings, there would’ve been no need to create the Hero Management Bureau to seal the Hero away for their entire life.

Considering all of that, Demon Lord must be a power that came from something other than Divine Blessings. That “something” reacted with the blessing Habotan and the other potential inheritors possessed and modified their impulses.

That was the conclusion Ruti and I came to.

There was just one mystery.

Why had the Demon Lord Taraxon, who had merely taken in the power of the Demon Lord, chosen to invade our continent?

After leaving Habotan’s house, we all went back to our work.

This was Zoltan, so it wasn’t like anyone would get angry at us closing for the afternoon. Even if someone stopped by, they would just accept it and come by another day.

“But we can’t even tell such wonderful news to our customers!” Rit said.

“I know! Why don’t we give out some cookies to celebrate?!”

The war was over.

Despite the hopeless position we’d been in, humanity had finally triumphed.

And Zoltan had played a part in the victory.

The tide had turned for the alliance when Prince Salius and Van the Hero joined the fight—neither of which would’ve happened were it not for the events that unfolded here in Zoltan.

“We didn’t send reinforcements to the front lines, but the hard work of the people living here in Zoltan made a difference. That’s more than enough reason for everyone to celebrate.”

“Yeah! This year’s Harvest Festival is going to be so exciting!”

“Zoltan loves a festival, so I’m sure it’ll really be bustling.”

“And if that happens, the purse strings will loosen, too.”

Rit gave a merchant’s smirk, and I couldn’t help chuckling along.

It wasn’t the sort of expression anyone who’d known us as a knight and a princess would have expected us to make.

The war that had given birth to so many tragedies was finally over. If I was still a knight, I’m sure I would’ve been filled with joy and relief, my mind racing from the chaos of the aftermath and thoughts of how to start rebuilding.

But that wasn’t me anymore… Here in Zoltan, we were walking a completely different path in life.

I could only be so carefree because we were living in peace. Even so, our attempts to live a happy life here had ended up playing a part in ending the war.

It wasn’t as if we’d saved the world. Yet our efforts to live in peace had still been valuable.

I think that’s true for everyone living in this world.

The sun was starting to set as Rit and I rushed down the street.

“Damn! We were celebrating too much, and it’s already evening.”

“Stormy’s shop must’ve closed a while ago!”

We were hurrying to Stormthunder’s store.

We’d planned to close the apothecary early and go there to talk about the medicine containers, but it had gotten late.

When we finally got there, we saw the CLOSED sign on the door swaying in the wind, just as we’d expected.

Feeling bad, I knocked lightly on the door.

“Storm—sorry for coming by so late. It’s Red.”

I heard heavy footsteps approaching the door, then a click as the lock opened.

“Heeey…”

“S-Storm…”

The man appeared from behind the door with massive bags under his eyes and sunken cheeks. It was awful to see how much he’d changed.

It isn’t good to overwork yourself.

“You’re laaate,” he said.

“Sorry, the shop was busy, so we ended up closing late.”

“That’s good. I’m glad we’ve both got plenty of work.”

“Ha, haha…”

I didn’t know if it was the all-nighters, but there was a rabid gleam to his eyes that was a little scary.

Storm let us in, and we moved to his workshop in the back of the store. It was clear from the mess there that he’d been working day and night without any sleep.

We made our way to the table, careful not to step on any of the objects scattered around the floor.

“These are the finished bottles.”

Storm picked up two bottles from the table and handed one to me and one to Rit.

“You made two samples?”

“There’s a reason for that.”

“There is?”

“Don’t worry about that right now. First, take a closer look at the finished product.”

The bottle I was holding was done up just like the sketch. The design looked even better in real life, leaving an impression without standing out too much. The only colored parts were the small red spots for the birds’ eyes, but against the pale, almost white wood, they were noticeable even at a distance.

The wood was sanded and polished to perfection, giving it a nice feel when I held it. It was as comfortable as if it was attached to my hand, yet it wasn’t sticky, and I wasn’t worried it would slip out of my grasp.

It almost seemed like the hilt of a sword made by a master craftsman. A slash from a sword whose hilt fits the palm of your hand has several times the strength of that from an ordinary blade.

“I haven’t hollowed them out, since they’re just prototypes, but you can see the design and try out the feel.”

“Yeah, this is even better than I imagined,” I said.

“I really love it, too,” added Rit.

I was sure our customers would feel the same.

Storm, the master craftsman, had lived up to his name.

“I’m glad you like ’em. I’m proud of how they turned out.” He looked satisfied with a job well done.

I needed to give him a bit of a bonus when I paid him…

“Nah, the price we agreed on is enough.”

“Oh? That’s a surprise, considering you’re always so stingy.”

“When have I ever been stingy?!”

“You didn’t give me much of a discount when I was haggling, did you?”

“Don’t you think the real miser is the guy who spent half an hour haggling over a cheap bed?!”

He had a point.

“This job opened up all sorts of possibilities for me,” he continued.

“What do you mean?” I asked, confused.

“Oh! Is that the vanity you were making last time?” asked Rit. She was pointing to a piece of furniture covered by a cloth in the back of the room.

“It is indeed. Would you like to see it?”

“Um, as long as you don’t mind!”

“Of course not. Just for you, Ms. Rit.”

Even when exhausted, he sure didn’t forget to give Rit the VIP treatment. It was pretty impressive.

Walking over to the vanity, Storm pulled away the cloth.

““Hnh?””

Rit and I both cocked our heads.

Compared to when we’d seen it before, the vanity seemed to have a more subdued, somber feel.

Had Storm not had enough time to finish it because of our request?

“Let me borrow those bottles for a moment.”

“Uh, sure.”

He took the bottles from Rit and me and placed them on the table of the vanity.

““Oooh!””

The addition of the bottles completely changed the impression.

“Oh wow! Putting the bottles there creates a lovely design for the whole room! Amazing!”

“It’s reassuring to hear someone as perceptive as you describe it that way, Ms. Rit.”

His salesman’s smile faded into one that was genuine and heartfelt.

“There are little indentations here in the table section… Are they places to put cosmetics?”

The indentations were shallow and on the left and right sides of the vanity.

“Combined with these bottles I made for your request, this is a piece I can truly be satisfied with. If you put makeup or lotion in these and set them on my vanity, it makes a picture-perfect scene…”

He ran a finger along the edge of his handiwork.

“Furniture isn’t just for sitting around the house. This vanity isn’t complete by itself—it’s complete when it’s lined with accessories and being used by someone.”

Ahhh, I see.

Ordinarily, his customers would place furniture wherever they wanted, but this way, Storm could demonstrate how easy it was to use and the best way to incorporate it into a room.

“Is that why you made two test bottles?” I asked.

Storm nodded. “As a craftsman, it might be presumptuous of me to dictate how something should be used. And I don’t mean to say that this is the only way for furniture to be ‘complete.’ But this vanity is one answer I can offer my customers.”

“You’re incredible, Stormy!”

The festival wasn’t just an opportunity to sell things in a different way from normal—it was a chance to make something differently as well. For Storm, who was always making furniture to customers’ orders, it was a new challenge for him to think of the best way for people to use a piece.

He looked more satisfied than I’d ever seen him.

“You made something really great,” I said.

“Yeah,” Storm replied, his chest swelling with pride. “So, Red, I’ve got a request.”

“You want some cosmetics to use when you display it, right?”

“Yeah. Letting people sit down and actually try it out is the best way to get a feel for the vanity. Can you give me some generic stuff that any woman might use? …I don’t really know much about makeup myself, so I need to think about how best to set them up before the festival.”

“Got it. I’ll get Rit’s advice and deliver something to you tomorrow…but you should really rest for now.”

“Yeah? I could even go over to your place now if you want.”

“You’d collapse in the street before you made it.”

Storm had gone past peak exhaustion and was numb to it, but his body needed rest.

“You look like you haven’t been eating more than the bare minimum, either, right? Mind if I borrow your kitchen?”

“Huh?”

“What can I make quickly…? Soup, maybe? Anyway, I’ll cook something.”

“And I’ll clean up the room here,” chimed in Rit, looking at all the tools and bits of wood strewn around the workshop.

“M-Ms. Rit?! I could never let a customer do something like that.”

“It’s fine. You worked so hard on the request we gave you. I’m really grateful.”

“Me too. Thank you, Storm.”

“…Hehe. I guess I’ll take you up on your kind offer, then,” Storm said, smiling happily.

I took some eggs and potatoes from the pantry and whipped up a quick soup for Storm.

After he ate, the exhaustion seemed to hit Storm again, and he started dozing off.

I’m sure he’s sleeping like a baby by now… The beds he makes are the best.

“That’s one more thing checked off the list for the Harvest Festival.”

“We just need Stormy to make a good number of them, and we’ll be all ready.”

Rit looked up at the sky as we walked together. “It’s a full moon tonight. The autumn sky is so pretty.”

“Yeah, it is.”

Neither of us said anything, but we made our way to a nearby bench and sat down.

“We’re so much better at handling the store than we used to be when we were just starting out,” I said.

“I was expecting the preparations for the festival to be more hectic.”

When Rit had first suggested it, I’d expected we’d barely have everything ready by the time we set up the stall on the day.

“Do you think we’ve gotten used to running the shop?” I asked.

“Hmmm.” Rit put a finger to her lip in thought.

She looked so beautiful illuminated in the moonlight.

“I think it’s probably Zoltan we’ve gotten used to, rather than the shop.”

“Ah.”

I had to agree.

“Working out who we can go to for advice, learning how people in Zoltan think, and most importantly, having more people willing to help us out.”

“Yeah, exactly. We’ve really gotten comfortable in Zoltan,” said Rit.

We’d completely gotten used to the tranquil, lazy life here.

“After all!” Rit said, holding up a finger. “We never would have thought to take part in a festival a week away! I’m sure we would’ve been planning it a lot earlier in advance!”

“That’s true.”

We both laughed.

Being a knight and being an adventurer were both jobs that could be deadly if you neglected your preparations. If we’d intended to take part in the Harvest Festival, we would have planned to have enough leeway to handle any sort of trouble that might have come up.

Yet now, if Storm had turned us down, we would have really struggled to make our own containers. If it had come to that, we never would have come up with such a good bottle, especially not with so little time.

“It would have been fun in its own way, though,” Rit said.

“Yeah, I’m sure it would’ve been.”

Struggling and failing was enjoyable when I was doing it with Rit. Just working hard together toward something was enough to satisfy us.

“Red.” Rit leaned closer. “It’s cold at night.”

“Yeah, you can feel winter coming. It’s almost time to start bringing out the winter coats.”

I wrapped an arm around Rit’s shoulder.

“Can’t we wait a little longer to get out the coats?”

“Really? It’s pretty cold.”

“But if it gets cold, we can warm up like this.”

Rit wrapped an arm around me and snuggled close enough to share our body heat.

“We can’t stay like this forever, though.”

I rested my cheek on Rit’s head, and I could feel her warmth.

“And besides, even with a coat, there’ll be plenty of cold days.”

“Can we cuddle up on those days?”

“Y-yeah…”

Rit’s cheeks were flushed.

“It’s cold, so of course they’re red.”

Rit hid her rosy cheeks behind her bandana.

The way she does that is so cute, I thought, hugging her close.

“Even if it’s not cold, it still makes me happy to be like this.”

“Hehe, in that case, I guess I’ll let you bring out the coats,” Rit said with a laugh. “In exchange, though, you have to give me a proper hug.”

She’d been looking up at me through her lashes as she said that, and my face flushed bright red.

“Ah, you’re blushing,” Rit teased, seeing me look away.

Even as I still hugged her, she scooched up into my lap, trying to see my face.

Rit was blushing, too.

Just then…

Clang.

We heard a sound in the distance.

“…!”

Rit and I quickly separated. Then we adjusted our slightly ruffled clothes.

As we did, the clanking came closer.

“Armor?” Rit asked.

“Probably,” I agreed.

“But that sounds like full plate.”

“It’s odd for someone to be walking around in Zoltan in full plate armor at this time of night.”

Some guards and adventurers wore armor all the time, but even they only wore armor that was easy to move around in and protected the vitals.

Walking around in such heavy-sounding armor at night wasn’t normal.

“Damn, I didn’t bring a sword today.”

“I only have this,” Rit said, pulling out a couple of throwing knives.

I took one.

I couldn’t really say I was satisfied, but it was better than nothing.

At times like this, I always wonder whether I should’ve taken some of the common Grappling skills, but it just wasn’t feasible to fight barehanded without a Martial Artist’s inherent skills or something like it.

And it goes without saying, but a sword’s stronger than a fist.

Rit and I readied ourselves to be able to move immediately.

…Something’s coming.

The clanking drew closer.

And the armor appeared from the darkness.

“…!”

Something instantly felt off about it.

The way it moved wasn’t human.

In fact, it was hollow.

Living armor—a monster created by cursed armor that had started moving on its own.

It stopped in front of us. I couldn’t see anything but darkness behind the visor.

“…”

“…”

The visor opened with a clack.

““Mister Crawly Wawly?!””

Inside was a familiar spider, raising his right front leg in greeting.