“Sir Hayato! Is the hero all right?!”
A knight in black armor came crashing into the room.
My AR display said he was a knight of the Saga Empire. His gentlemanly moustache suited him well.
“Sir Ryukken. The hero is safe. He’s resting right now, so please try to keep your voice down.”
The priestess scolded the knight in black armor.
“Ah, my apologies. I came as fast as Arcadia would carry me.”
Arcadia was apparently the name of a high-speed airship of the Saga Empire.
I couldn’t help picturing a skull mark on the bow, thanks to a certain famous old anime, although that couldn’t possibly be the case.
“Hrmm? And what are these children doing in the hero’s room?”
The black knight looked down at us, addressing no one in particular.
“Satou saved Hayato’s life.”
“Saved his life?”
“It’s a pleasure to meet you, Sir Knight. I am a vassal of Count Muno of Shiga Kingdom—”
“Shiga Kingdom? What does someone from the kingdom that traitorous hero founded want with us?!”
The black knight bellowed over the rest of my introduction.
Wait, “traitorous hero”?
That had to be referring to the ancestral king Yamato—also known as Hikaru.
It was clear, too, that this man hated Shiga Kingdom.
As much as it rankled me to hear him insult Hikaru, there was probably no point in arguing with someone who hated anything to do with a kingdom he irrationally disliked.
Getting angry would only be giving him what he wanted.
“He received a divine message and came to aid the hero.”
“What can a brat like you possibly do?”
“That’s enough, Ryukken!”
Miss Ringrande stepped between the black knight and me.
“Of course. I’d forgotten you’re Shigan, too.”
“And what of it? I may be a duke’s daughter of Shiga Kingdom, but my loyalty is to Hayato the Hero first.”
“Rin, how are you going to mediate if you start picking a fight instead? And Ryukken, did you not hear Wee say that Satou saved the hero’s life?”
“…Your Highness.”
Even the haughty black knight couldn’t argue with a princess of the Saga Empire.
“I’m sorry, Satou. Allow me to apologize for Ryukken’s rudeness.”
“It doesn’t bother me,” I told her. Then, thinking of her position, I added, “I accept your apology.”
“…Nngh.”
My “Keen Hearing” skill picked up a small groan.
All the commotion must have woken Hayato the Hero.
“Hayato!”
“Rin…are we in the holy city? What happened with the demon lord?”
Hayato blinked up at Ringrande as she peered down at him.
He didn’t seem to have fully regained consciousness yet.
“Don’t you remember? The demon lord ran away.”
“Ah, right. So we’re back to square one again…”
Hayato clenched his fists and grimaced. His arms still seemed too weak to raise off the bed.
Then he spotted me.
“…Satou?”
“It’s good to see you again, Sir Hayato.”
I gave him a slight bow.
“He freed you from the demon lord’s curse.”
“Really? I owe you, Satou.”
Hayato smiled gallantly.
“I just happened to have a Holy Tool for removing curses, that’s all.”
With help from my “Fabrication” skill, I insisted that it was thanks to the glove that I was able to heal his curse. Otherwise, I was afraid I was going to get some weird new reputation.
“Sir Hero.”
“Ryukken, eh…I hate to ask, but will you help us search again?”
“Yes, of course. I shall send my scouting party to investigate right away.”
The black knight looked around smugly at the hero’s party.
As far as I knew, they didn’t have a scout. I guess they had to outsource some support members to track down the demon lord.
“If you’ll excuse me a moment, I must order my scouting party to set out at once.”
“Wait.”
The black knight turned to dash out the door, until Princess Mariest stopped him.
“Your scouts must be exhausted as well. Keep them on standby until Seina and the others return from searching for traces of the demon lord.”
“My subordinates are hardly so wimpy. Besides, I doubt that puny assistant is going to find anything much. We will continue the search with our own resources alone, as we always have.”
Though I’d never met her, evidently Seina was another one of the hero’s followers.
“You intend to search on your own again?”
“But of course.”
“Have you forgotten how many members of your scouting party have been lost already?”
“All battles come with sacrifice, madam.”
Princess Mariest’s harsh reminder seemed to fall on deaf ears.
“Is the search that dangerous?” I asked Ringrande.
“Yes, the Dens of Evil are just as complex as a labyrinth and filled with enemies and nasty traps besides.”
Maybe I should help with the search, too, then.
“Sir Hayato, if you’ll have me, I’d be happy to help as well.”
“What can some Shigan noble brat with no battle experience possibly do?!”
As soon as I offered my assistance, the black knight began snarling at me.
He probably felt like I was intruding on his dominion.
“I may not look it, but I am a licensed explorer. Searching a labyrinth is one of my strong suits.”
Even if the Dens of Evil weren’t exactly a labyrinth, they seemed very similar.
Between my “Search Entire Map” skill and my menu’s map functions, I should have been able to find the demon lord much faster than any ordinary scouting party.
I didn’t mind playing second fiddle to the black knight and his troops, either.
“My scouting party already boasts wind mages and scouts who excel at—”
“Ryukken.”
As the black knight started to protest further, Hayato interrupted him, with Princess Mariest supporting his weight.
“I intend to accept Satou’s offer.”
“Do you doubt our abilities, Sir Hero?!”
“Of course not. I have faith in you and your men. But I have just as much faith in Satou, you know. He’s a dear friend of mine.”
Although the knight still looked dissatisfied, he couldn’t continue to argue when Hayato the Hero spoke that strongly. He left the room, saying he would report to his subordinates in the Dens of Evil that the hero was safe.
“I’m counting on you to help us out, Satou.”
“Of course. I’ll do whatever I can.”
Hayato held out his hand to me, and I shook it firmly.
“Oh my, what a beautiful friendship.”
Arisa addressed the hero with the most formal and ladylike manners she could muster.
“Truly, I wish you a swift recovery, Sir Hero.”
“My honey!”
Hayato broke into a broad smile when he saw Arisa.
Behind her, Tama and Pochi hurried to put their hands to Arisa’s forehead. “Feveeer?” “She’s acting weird, sir!”
Liza promptly retrieved them before they could ruin the mood further.
“Your well wishes have already healed me a hundred times over…”
Hayato started to respond happily, only to cut off mid-sentence, his smile fading.
“Whatever is the matter?”
Without answering her, Hayato snapped his head around to look at me.
“Satou! What did you do?!”
He began staggering toward me unsteadily.
“Don’t tell me…you gave these little honeys demonic potion?”
“Um…no?”
Where’d this come from?
Also, his face was way too close.
“Then why in the world are these little girls all level fifty-four and above?!”
Hayato pointed at Arisa and the others so emphatically, I practically heard a whooshing sound effect, his voice was so fervent.
At first, I didn’t understand. Then I remembered that demonic potion has the effect of leveling up more quickly and figured out why Hayato had the wrong idea.
Still, I wished he wouldn’t get so worked up in his weakened state.
“Labyrinth trainiiing?”
“We worked really, really hard, sir!”
“Yes, it’s all thanks to the wonderful support and equipment Master provided.”
The beastfolk girls spoke up on my behalf.
“We just hunted monsters in the Celivera Labyrinth nearly to the point of extinction, wiped out huge areas of monster territory, and so on.”
Not wanting to complicate things, I left out the part where we recaptured Muno City, fought the red-rope monsters in the royal capital, and other notable incidents.
“Got it…sorry for jumping to conclusions like that.”
The hero bowed his head apologetically, and the girls began excitedly telling him about their training.
Arisa and Mia helpfully changed the subject whenever Tama or Pochi started steering toward something that was supposed to be secret.
For some reason, as the conversation went on, Hayato’s attendants looked increasingly shocked, muttering among themselves “Seriously?” and “Brutal…” and “Satou’s not as gentle as he looks…”
Personally, I felt like I’d just found effective training methods while putting safety first. Maybe without context, it sounded like I just threw them into harm’s way to train without stopping for rest.
Luckily, Arisa and Lulu made sure to talk about our barbecue parties and lunchtime breaks, too, so hopefully that made things clear.
“Are you all right, Sir Hayato?!”
A short-statured girl burst into the room.
Since she was somewhere between Arisa and Lulu in height, I thought at first that a child had gotten into the room. Only when I saw her face and the curves of her body did I realize she was an adult woman.
“Hey, Lilo. Don’t worry, we’re fine.”
“Thank goodness…”
Once she saw that Hayato was unharmed, she breathed a sigh of relief, then quickly readjusted her skirt and tousled hair. The panicked expression disappeared as she straightened herself up.
“Pardon my intrusion. When I heard that the Jules Verne appeared next to the cathedral and you were carried into the pontiff’s room, I thought something terrible must have happened to you.”
“You’re not wrong about that. Satou here saved my life.”
“Satou…?”
The woman tilted her head and looked at me.
“Lemme introduce you, Satou. This is Lilo. She’s one of my two secretaries, and a valued member of our group.”
So this was another of Hayato’s attendants. I learned later that the other secretary was a quiet girl named Nono, who was currently heading to the Saga Empire to replenish their supplies.
“Pleased to meet you, Miss Lilo. I am Viscount Satou Pendragon, vassal of Count Muno of the Shiga Kingdom.”
“The pleasure is all—”
“Viscount?!” Ringrande exclaimed, interrupting Lilo.
“Rin, I was in the middle of introducing myself.”
“Sorry, Lilo. But since when were you a viscount? I thought you were an honorary knight when we met in the old capital!”
“For various reasons, I was promoted at the kingdom meeting at the beginning of the year.”
“What kind of reasons? The girls mentioned earlier that you defeated a floormaster, but surely that would only get you promoted to an honorary baron or permanent baronet?”
Despite my best efforts to gloss things over, Miss Ringrande kept pressing for more information. Finally, I explained my publicly known achievements, mostly defeating demons and plunderers.
“It would certainly be wonderful to have someone so accomplished on our side.”
“Don’t worry, Lilo. Satou already agreed to help us.”
Hayato gave a thumbs-up with a manly grin.
“I shouldn’t be surprised, Sir Hayato. You have such a wonderful way with people.”
After that, the secretary excused herself. “I’ll go arrange for rooms for all of you. We can discuss the details later.”
Before she returned, a magic device in the corner of the room began to ring.
“Hey, Seina here. Hayato all right?”
A casual, somewhat boyish-sounding female voice came out of the apparatus.
It must have been a telephone-like device.
“Yeah, I’m fine.”
“Hayato! Oh, good. I was really worried, you know.”
“More importantly, did you find any clues?”
“Nope, no luck here. We searched high and low, but we couldn’t find a single trace of the demon lord. Now the scouting party says they’re withdrawing—guess I’ll head back, too.”
“Got it. Just don’t get careless on your way out.”
“Of course! The word ‘careless’ isn’t even in my vocabulary, you know!”
Ringrande told me that Seina was a member of their party in charge of scouting.
As their conversation wrapped up, Lilo came back and recommended that Hayato sleep for a while, telling the rest of his group to take a break as well.
She seemed to be in charge of managing the hero party.
I asked her about Raito’s situation, and she offered to introduce someone who would be willing to look after him, explaining that there were plenty of systems in place for this in the holy city.
Before we left the group to their rest, I gave out Nutrition Supplement Potions to Hayato and his party as thanks to help with the healing process.
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