VOLUME 05

Posted by : Unknown Monday, 21 May 2018

Prologue

The Third Hero

On this day, a black sea was once more pushing in from over the horizon. The identity of the black sea was a swarm of living beings. They were the enemies of humanity, the embodiment of evil that devoted themselves to the destruction of anything and everything. In other words, they were demons.

The wasteland covered in dirt and a small amount of greenery was dyed by the black power clad around the demons. Like a piece of cloth as it slowly soaked in dye, they seeped ever forwards. In the northern part of the Alliance, standing atop a hill with an unbroken view at the south end of the Norfolk wastelands, the Alliance's hero, Kuchiba Hatsumi, was gazing at this situation.

Once in a while, a refreshing dry breeze would blow gently in from the north characteristic of the landscape. What was carried along with the wind though was a sensation that felt like it pierced and numbed one's skin. The reason for this was certainly the thirst for blood mixed in with the demons' impatience. It felt like the atmosphere was carrying desperation in the air from the sea of demons.

Those demons were in an unfavourable position after the previous battle and were now cornered. After being abandoned by their other forces, they were now in an unrecoverable predicament. That's why, to regain their honour, they were trying to bring about a definitive result by rushing in while gripped by the madness of inevitable death.

Sharply sensing that the opportunity for battle was steadily approaching, Hatsumi looked behind her over her shoulder. Right behind here, as if hiding themselves within the forest, were the companions she made when she was summoned over as well as the soldiers of the Alliance. To her right was the martial artist from the Alliance country of Larsheem, Gaius Forvan. To her left was the female mage from the self governed states, Selphy Fittney. And right behind her, kneeling down like he was calmly meditating, was the swordsman who served as the prince of the Alliance's sovereign state of Miazen, Weitzer Ryerzen.

These three names were known far and wide across the three countries and they were all warriors of valour who possessed skills which did not bring shame to those names. Their capabilities were already well proven. Up until now they had engaged in battle with the demons four times. Every time they had entrusted their backs to each other, and every time they cooperated perfectly.

After nodding to the three of them as if signalling them, Gaius returned a hearty smile as he struck his chest, Selphy quietly nodded back, and Weitzer put on a devoted face as he always did like he fully understood. After confirming their determination one last time, Hatsumi leaped off the top of the hill.

She spoke no words to signal the beginning. She spoke no words as a leader would to spur forth their men. However, there was no inadequacy in her actions. Cutting forwards straight towards the demons was nothing but swordsmen. Even without speaking, they followed her. As fellow followers of the sword, their wills were all as one. Thus, she ran down the hill without even looking behind her. She was plunging downwards head first. That slope that would normally make one feel uneasy was now a trifle before her body which received the divine protection from the hero summoning. Running at a tremendous speed, she traced the slope of the hill. The companions and soldiers behind her saw her as the vanguard and followed in her fervour. That was why there was not a single person present who felt uneasy, anxious or apprehensive.

While maintaining her speed, she came down at the demon army spread out over the wastelands right into the centre of their formation. Having received an assault from an unexpected direction, their reaction was late and became chaotic.

Kuchiba Hatsumi drew her sword. The weapon in her right hand was something she received from a dwarf blacksmith. Using materials that only appeared in stories, it was a rare beauty created using techniques also only found in stories, an uchigatana. It was a long mithril sword with a one hundred twenty centimetre long blade.

With the blade which gave off a silver lustre and the talent Hatsumi had for using a sword, the demons before her were just like thin sheets of paper. As she brandished it, whether it be flesh or iron, she split them in two easily without feeling any resistance. No grease or blood even remained on her blade.

She just had to swing it. By moving her body, her sword and arm were as one. Once she gave herself over to it there was no way she would ever lose. Facing the crowd of demons right in front of her who were rallying together in confusion, she swung her sword. The demon standing before her was cleaved clean in two. And then following the flow of the strike, she rotated her body and sent the head of the demon next to it flying.

Weitzer and Gaius swooped down on the demons on both her sides. The martial artist's fist and the swordsman's sword annihilated several of the demons. Soon after cutting down all the nearby demons, a battle cry was raised by many people. Though belated, the unit parted to the left and right. The swordsmen cut into the stretched out flank of the demons. The demons were completely divided. Seeing this happen, magic support came pouring down from the rear.

The mage unit commanded by Selphy were dealing the finishing blow to the divided demons just as planned. Before long, the demons who had their formation completely destroyed were bitterly crushed just as they had planned by the skillful swordsmen. If the first strike went well, all that was left was to continue at their own pace.

Perhaps because the demons' formation had been destroyed or perhaps because of their individual strengths, they no longer cooperated as they fought. There was also the fact that they were a force gathered together with monsters, they struck back immediately each using only their own strength. Such grandstanding while fighting would prove to be a fatal mistake.

That's why, all that was left to do from here was to cut out the affected region and remove the pus. The power of unity and the existence of a hero stood firm like a rock. A short time later, a demon whose status was an order of magnitude higher than the other demons came before Hatsumi. It was the demon general. Holding a sword clad in mana in its hand, it was a skinny demon swordsman wearing an overcoat. If she remembered correctly, his name was Mauhario. Calling himself the 'Violent Flickering Wind', it seemed that he had beheaded many of the Alliance's soldiers with his sword skills.

“Hero of the Alliance!”

What poured down as they met was a roar. It was a tremendous voice that one would not expect from his slender frame. Shaking the wastelands, it kicked up and blew away the sand in the area. Just from his voice, the movements of the Alliance soldiers became dull. It must have affected their spirits. As the demon's spirit shot through their hearts, their movements surely faltered. The only ones who were unfazed by the roar were several of the commanders, Hatsumi and her companions. In the brief moment after letting out a roar, Mauhario closed the distance to her in a flash. And then he let out a slash accompanied by a devilish storm.

“ORAAAAAAAA!”

“Seaah!”

Matching this, Hatsumi swung her large sword. As her blade cut through the air, it made a sharp sound and repelled the incoming demon's sword. As she did, Mauhario reopened the distance between them that he had closed in an instant. And then in the blink of an eye, he wrapped around to her left and brought his sword to task.

Putting out her mithril sword to defend, the harsh sound of metal clashing against metal rang through the air. Keeping that up, the demon who was taller than Hatsumi pushed down on his blade and brought the fight into a deadlock. Her body only had the muscle strength of a weak woman's body, but she was able to push back due to the power of the divine protection from the hero summoning.

“Hero of the Alliance! Today will be the day I defeat you and offer your damn head to Nakshatra-sama!”

“Tch... Too bad I don't have any intention of dying here.”

Finding his angry roar from close proximity to be rather annoying, Hatsumi slipped past both Mauhario and his sword and she pushed it to the side. And then as she went to slash at him, contrary to her expectations, having sensed the incoming danger, Mauhario broke away in the opposite direction.

Mauhario corrected his stance at a place that the tip of her blade would definitely not be able to reach. His movements were terrifyingly fast to the point where they could not be grasped... This demon swordsman was the type whose primary strength was speed. He always stood at a distance where her blade could not reach. In an instant he could leap in, close the distance and strike. With this distance between them where only he could attack, thinking about it normally, Hatsumi would be at a disadvantage.

Even so, she would not complain about it. Lightly opening her stance, she pointed her left ankle to her right heel and lowered her body. Her sword was hidden behind her neck as she held it over her right shoulder. Along with the breeze in the air, she could feel the cold metal against her skin.

She estimated there was about eight metres between her and the demon general who held his sword at the ready. The length of her blade was a little over one metre long. For that demon who specialized in speed and charging power, this was likely the ideal distance. Looking at her figure that was ready to attack at any moment, a scornful and joyous expression floated on Mauhario's face.

There was no mistaking that he judged that Hatsumi was gambling to launch herself towards him to bet on whether she would kill or be killed. That expression on his faced showed his confidence in his own victory at this sort of match... From her estimates, if she held out her blade, there was still over six metres to her opponent. It was a distance that her blade could never reach. However, this was a trivial problem for her. On the other hand, for the demon general who did not know this, it was a fatal problem.

“DIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIE!”

The demon general let out a ferocious and violent scream filled with fighting spirit. The sound wave which was like a mass of killing intent closed in like a forewarning, however Hatsumi's heart was like perfectly still water. All information she received from the outside world had been degraded to trifling matters.

Right at this moment, the howl filled with killing intent, the demon's joy, the screams of the soldiers and her companions' panicked voices all did not cause a single ripple in her heart. And then, the hand that she would play out was...

―The Phantom Sword of the Kurikara Dharani, the Long Sword of the Morning Sun

And then, at the same time that she abruptly opened her eyes wide, she exhaled her fighting spirit and brandished the sword on her shoulder as if she intended to clear away every single demon on the other side.

In the distance behind the demon general, one could hear the sound of the wind rumbling. Betraying the expectations of each and every being present, along with that swinging blade, the demon general's lower half gruesomely tumbled over with tremendous speed. Rubbish, wind, his upper half and blood were blown away in a jumble in the opposite direction.

Without even taking a single step forward, Mauhario tasted defeat. And then, all that was left was silence. Immediately following that was the cheers of joy raised by the soldiers. There was quite the number of them who were watching the demon's defeat. However, the demons in their surroundings did not move. The reality that a demon higher ranking than themselves was defeated was thrust right before them, but first and foremost they were completely bewildered as to why he was defeated in that kind of situation.

Having yet to actually die, while still lying on the ground, Mauhario pointed a surprised gaze at Hatsumi while spewing blood from his mouth.

“Im...possible. The range of your sword was surely...”

Yes, the tip of her sword never reached the demon general's body. However, just as Hatsumi had thought to herself earlier, it was a trivial problem. Looking down coldly at the body of the demon general who would never get up again, she flicked her sword as if removing blood from it, and spoke.

“―Despite being a swordsman what are you saying? A swordsman who can only cut things within their sword's range is at most second rate right?”

Her cold declaration would send shivers down the back of any she confronted. However without even being able to feel this sensation, the demon general perished.

... Eventually, the rustling of demons and humans came to and end. It was the humans―the Alliance's victory. The cheers of joy from swordsmen and mages alike could be heard all over. It was evidence that the fighting came to an end. A short time later, the wall of soldiers opened up, and a single young man walked out from them.

He was dressed like a knight. It was the prince of the Alliance's sovereign state of Miazen, one of the Seven Swords, Weitzer Ryerzen. He then knelt at Hatsumi's feet.

“It was a magnificent fighting style. Hero-dono.”

“I thought I had told you to stop calling me a hero like that many times already. Weitzer.”

Kuchiba Hatsumi let out a disconcerted breath after hearing the overly serious and stubborn young man's flattery. However he did not pay her any mind and took her hand as he attempted to give her a kiss on the back of her hand. Perhaps it was some sort of ceremony. Hatsumi did not feel particularly bad about that action itself, but for some reason, today, she also pulled away her hand like she was running away. As Weitzer looked up at her, his clever expression became slightly disappointed.

“Hero-dono...”

“Like I was saying, Weitzer...”

And then, from the opposite direction, Hatsumi's companion, Selphy Fittney called out to them.

“It can't be helped right? Hatsumi is in fact a hero after all.”

“Even Selphy...”

“Even if you say that like its troublesome, you cannot distort reality.”

“Muuu...”

As Selphy drew that conclusion in a taciturn tone, Hatsumi let out a groan. Selphy was wearing a pale green robe with a hood pulled over her eyes and truly looked like a mage. It seemed that under that hood, her stifled laughter had started to leak out. Hatsumi then noticed that at some point, a large shadow was standing behind Weitzer.

“So you were rejected again today, Prince.”

An awfully lively and loud voice came pouring down on Weitzer. The one standing behind him was a man who seemed to give off the image of a complete muscle man, Gaius Forvan. He slapped Weitzer's shoulder with his hand that had an old scar carved into it. Hatsumi thought that even though they were companions, he should hold back a bit when interacting with a prince, but setting that aside, it seemed that he misinterpreted Weitzer's flattery. Weitzer looked back at Gaius with a sharp gaze and bitterly narrowed his eyes.

“... It's not like I was particularly rejected.”

“Hooou? From what I've seen, I think that's always been the case though?”

“Kuu...”

As Gaius spoke like he was playing dumb, Weitzer's eyes showed just a little bit of irritation.

“I-It's not like I hate Weitzer you know? It's just that I'm not used to having that kind of thing done to me. Or rather than feeling like I'm not used to it...”

“But you know? It certainly looked like the behaviour of someone who disliked it.”

“Gaius, will you be quiet?―Hero-dono. It is because I genuinely respect you...”

“Both of you, don't go troubling Hatsumi like that.”

Selphy offered her candid opinion in a taciturn tone. However the two of them seemed to still have things they wanted to say. They both had a dissatisfied expression as they replied with a 'Yes...' and a 'Yeeeeah.'

“Well... At any rate, good work everyone.”

Hatsumi raised her voice in appreciation to them. With those considerate words, she raised her hand telling them not to reply, and the three of them each pleasantly nodded.

“But, it's surprising that there weren't as many as we thought there would be.”

Hatsumi knit her brows as she was not quite satisfied. Selphy then replied to her.

“That's because only one of the three armies of demons showed up this time.”

“Like I thought, the demon army we defeated just now was nothing but a sacrificial stone.”

Right now, there were three demon armies assaulting the Alliance. They had just defeated one, but there was still two other demon armies left and their scale was exceptionally larger than the one they just fought.

“But isn't it fine? We got a good result out of today's fight after all.”

“The enemy Hero-dono defeated just now was a demon general. Asking for more military gains than that would simply be aiming too high.”

“But...”

“Hatsumi, leave it at that. If you say any more than we would lose our position after having such a hard time until Hatsumi came along.”

“Yes. Until you came along, a single demon army was enough to push back the Alliance army. The moment you stood on the battlefield, not only were we able to push them back, but we were even able to fight against the reinforcements that came after them. And today...”

“We crushed one of those three armies and killed one of their generals. It was all because of Hero-dono's power.”

“Ah? All because of that? Then what about the ones I defeated?”

“The fact that we were able to crush the demon army, that we were able to defeat the demon general and that Gaius defeated the demons is all thanks to Hero-dono.”

Weitzer bluntly declared this before Gaius. Seeing that curt manner of speaking, Gaius' eyes were filled with anger. Seeing that it was probably going to turn into another fight, Hatsumi let out a sigh and changed the subject.

“Weitzer. We only won because we had prepared sufficient forces for the battle. It isn't just all thanks to me right? Besides, the hard part is yet to come.”

“... That's right isn't it.”

The only one who spoke up in agreement was Selphy. The demons they defeated this time were led by a demon general who was the type who was confident in his own strength. Thus, he used his army by leaving it simply all too individual strength. Because they only attacked monotonously, he was a relatively easy opponent to deal with.

After Hatsumi stood on the battlefield, they overturned their unfavourable situation and gained superiority over the demons. However, reinforcements arrived shortly after and brought the situation back to an equilibrium. The general leading the reinforcements was one who laid out proper plans and made fighting difficult. If it was not for those reinforcements, they would have been able to retake their territory much earlier. Seeing Hatsumi make a difficult expression as she thought about it, Weitzer spoke to her with an expression on his face like that kind of thing was completely worthless.

“As long as Hero-dono is here, something like a demon army is nothing to fear.”

“That's how it is. There's also me too.”

Gaius powerfully struck his chest as he brimmed with overconfidence as he always did. This time, not only Weitzer, but Selphy also pointed a sharp gaze towards him. In contrast to their high spirits, Hatsumi had a slightly gloomy expression on her face.

“... Hey, what does everyone think I am?”

And then as if she just remembered something...

“Ah, you can't reply by saying a hero okay?”

The three of them then exchanged glances with each other, and then each gave her their own reply.

“If not a hero, then an extraordinarily beautiful swordswoman right?”

“As for race, a human woman would be about it.”

After Gaius and Selphy gave their answers, Weitzer put his fist to his heart with an extremely serious expression and looked at Hatsumi.

“Hero-dono, is our princess.”

“―Hee!?... Weitzer, that kind of thing is super embarrassing though.”

“Hohooou! However, it doesn't seem like you hated him saying that, little princeeeeess!”

“Even Gaius!? Geez...”

Having such embarrassing things said right to her face, Hatsumi's face had become as red as the setting sun. However, she then immediately hung her head like she was somehow dispirited.

―That was not what she had wanted to hear. Selphy got closer and knelt down, looking up at her eyes which shook with anxiety.

“Does not having memories make you anxious after all?”

“... Isn't it obvious? I can only remember my name and sword skills you know? There's no way I wouldn't be anxious.”

The hero summoned by the Alliance, Kuchiba Hatsumi, only had memories from the moment she was in the room she was summoned to... In other words, all memories of her life before she was a hero were missing. To sum it up, she had amnesia. She didn't know what she had been doing up until this point, who she was or what she wanted to do. The only things she knew was that her own name was Kuchiba Hatsumi and the sword techniques that she used. Because of that, even now, the anxiety drove her to feel like her feet were not touching the ground. Gaius then walked up to her, and slapped her shoulder in a friendly manner.

“We're here for you. Right?”

“That's, true, but...”

“Hero-dono. If you do not have memories, then it's fine to just make them from hereon out, together with us.”

“Weitzer...”

Even after receiving those kind words and Weitzer's gentle smile, she could not get rid of her anxiety. Then, as if to make public the embarrassing secrets of another person, Gaius cupped both his hand around his mouth.

“Ooooh, Weitzer's corny speech has starteeeeed!”

Weitzer stood behind him and quietly drew his sword from its sheathe. After glancing briefly at her companions who were acting happily in a moment of victory, Hatsumi looked up at the sky.

“...”

She had lost her memories. But once in a while, she would see a scene that she believed to take place before she came to this world in her dreams. It was always the same dream. There were many things that did not exist in this world, and the same person always appeared. Whenever she woke up, everything became vague and ambiguous, however this only fanned her anxiety more.

It was something she must never forget, something extremely important. She just had that feeling scorching deep within her heart like a buried fire.

Chapter 1 To the Saadias Alliance

―There is a clue regarding the hero summoning ritual in the Saadias Alliance.

Suimei had found this information in the book Felmenia brought to him. And so, with Felmenia, Lefille and Liliana in tow, he left the capital city of the Nelferian Empire, Filas Philia, and was now on a journey to the northwest of the continent where the Saadias Alliance was situated. Right now, they were shaking about in a carriage headed towards the Alliance from the Empire. Though it wasn't actually a horse drawn carriage. With large horns and long fur, a creature about the size of an elephant called a cowhorn was pulling the large carriage―but setting that aside.

The modern magician, Yakagi Suimei was in a corner of a room in the cowhorn pulled vehicle lecturing Felmenia and Liliana about magic. He spread out papers he had prepared across the wooden floor of the carriage while Felmenia and Liliana quietly listened to him talk. On the other hand, having only begun learning magic and being a complete amateur, these kinds of talks were simply on a different dimension from what Lefille understood. She was on her own behind Suimei humming a song while polishing her sword.

“―And that's about it for that topic. Shall we move on to the next?”

“Yes.”

“It's, alright.”

After hearing a response from both Felmenia and Liliana, Suimei moved on to the next topic.

“So, what I'll be talking about from here is liturgical techniques from my world's magic and its practical use. Liturgy is a technique that takes the complex processes to use magic and simplifies them into simple actions and short chants. Moreover, it optimizes the processes and shortens the time it takes to use magic. It shortens long chants into abbreviated ones, takes chants which are hard to pronounce and changes them into gestures, replaces the need for difficult movements with a chant, among other similar things.”

After pausing briefly to take a breather, Suimei continued.

“The magic that I use with the most frequency is an easy to understand magic which uses liturgy, my attack magic. By only snapping my fingers, the effect manifests.”

“It's that right?”

As if to connect those words, Felmenia snapped her fingers. Following along, Suimei lightly snapped his fingers and sent the paper in his hand flying with a light shock.

“Whenever I used it in this world, everyone was excessively surprised.”

“In our world, magic is fundamentally something that is invoked by chanting a spell or keyword and requires the aid of the elements after all.”

“Because if that is not performed, using magic so simply, completely opposes the principles of magic in this world, anyone would be surprised.”

Having only touched upon magic that defied conventional wisdom, Liliana was still not used to new theories and knit her brows as she tilted her head to the side. Chants were something absolutely necessary. Being taught that this was unchangeable common knowledge, there was probably no way they could come up with something like liturgy.

“Attack magic. Originally, the effect was manifested after chanting the spell, but reciting the chant was replaced with the action of snapping my fingers, so after snapping my fingers, the spell which was brought out by a chant is called forth and the same effect can be pulled out.”

The two of them were fluently writing the contents of what Suimei was talking about onto paper. After seeing that they finished writing, Suimei continued his explanation on liturgy.

“By throwing away the waste, reducing the information and simplifying the necessary actions, magic becomes easier to use. Even in a situation where one is unable to speak or their actions are limited, magic becomes possible to use. And this part is quite important, but magic with many processes can also have their activation time reduced.”

“Suimei. How do you shorten it?”

“For example, say you have a chant which requires five verses to invoke magic. The time it takes to chant five verses is the time needed to invoke the magic. But say we replace two of those verses with a gesture and the use of a magic item as we recite the chant―”

“I see. The time to use the magic is reduced by two verses right?”

“That's right. Liturgy provides that kind of advantage except for circumstances where the actions you can take are limited.”

Hearing this, Felmenia and Liliana both let out a “Hooou...” in admiration.

“But Suimei-dono. Even if you shorten the time with liturgy, entropy still does not change right?”

“Yeah. Exactly.”

“Felmenia, what do you mean?”

“Shortening time using liturgy is different from modern magic theory where the time is shortened by mixing together different magic systems. The action of chanting is only substituted for another action, which means that in essence, what is being done is the same.”

“I see...”

Suimei had previously explained this to Felmenia and it seemed she did in fact properly understand it. It was not all that long ago that he began teaching her magic. Her ability to understand so quickly made him agree with her moniker as a genius mage.

“Well that's the basic structure of it, but let's go back over two thousand years ago in my world. At that time, in a western region, it was popular to perform speeches before congress and the masses to fascinate the audience and persuade others. Politics were taken care of in this manner as they yearned to guide their society down a better path. It became an indispensable technique for these performances to skillfully control intonation to convince others they were speaking the truth during their speeches. There was another technique that was also important, do you know what it is?”

“If it is about speaking, then it would be the ability to memorize the contents of the speech?”

“Yes, you're on the mark. To be specific, it's the ability to correctly pull out the memorized contents from one's head, mnemonics.”

Magic and memorization. The two were unable to see the connection and were making faces like they didn't really get it. Carefully taking that into consideration, Suimei continued his explanation.

“For example, when you're trying to memorize something, performing some other movement while doing so can make it easier to memorize. When you then perform a similar action you end up remembering what you had been memorizing at the time more easily. This kind of thing happens right?”

“Yes. I've heard of this.”

“Not being able to memorize something is usually attributed to having poor memory, but that does not necessarily mean that the brain does not remember it. People are able to learn things even when they are in an unconscious state right? Simply put, not being able to remember something only means one was unable to pull the information out of their head. In short, the actions I was talking about before are meant to support the brain and make pulling out that information easier.”

After pausing once more, Suimei returned to the original topic.

“And so, mnemonics will end up developing as a technique to pull out memories and end up in a state where it can even be incorporated into magic. Well, to put it simply, performing an action will call forth your memories, that stored information, so in other words―”

Felmenia continued from where Suimei left off.

“If we hypothesize that the information stored in one's head is the use of a magic spell, then not just with chanting, but with motion or gestures one would be able to draw out information about that magic, right?”

“Yeah, that's the way to think about it.”

Suimei gave a very satisfied nod to Felmenia's answer. Using the action used when memorizing the magic as a key, when one once more performs it properly, as if pulling that memory from within their head, they would be able to directly invoke the magic. After listening to this, Liliana made an expression like she was suffering.

“It sounds like, an erratic story, to me.”

“That certainly may be true. However, in the explanation just now I rushed from the theory straight to its established result. There was quite a lot of research in between to complete it.”

“Muuu....”

As Suimei explained further, Liliana groaned like she still wasn't fully convinced. Certainly what he had told them, taken to the extreme, was that just be memorizing magic they would be able to use it. Liliana must have been stuck on the point that without ever putting it into practise, just recalling something meant that it would only come up within her own mind, there was no chance to convey it into the physical world.

“It seems that you're still clinging onto the physical material. That kind of thing materializes due to phenomena using unnoticeable mysterious energy, mysterious vectors and mysterious laws. These are the 'mysteries' that we aim to dispel... Don't worry about it, once you start touching on it, you'll begin to understand gradually.”

Persuading Liliana with those words, Suimei brought his lecture to an end.

“So that's how it is. This arrangement and replacement of mystical actions, the materialization of a magic circle, Notarikon, Temurah and Gematria among others, are techniques to produce the ritual oneself and then analogize it. This is called liturgical techniques, or in short, liturgy.”

As Suimei finished his explanation, he asked if the two of them still needed more details.

“Any questions?”

Liliana then raised her hand.

“Magic circles... The one Suimei uses, when a magic circle is suddenly drawn, I want to hear about it.”

“Sorry, I'll talk about that another time. It is better to have a firm understanding of liturgy before moving on to the materialization of a magic circle.”

“That's, regrettable.”

Liliana seemed to be quite interested in that as she sulked.

“That's how it is, I prepared a fill in the blanks test. It has gaps on the main points of everything I talked about today except for liturgy.”

As Suimei handed them some paper, Felmenia looked at it with a doubtful face.

“Suimei-dono. I think it is better to learn by practical use but... In this case, it would mean actually implementing liturgy...”

“That may be so, but we can't put a whole lot into practical use within this carriage right? To do that kind of thing we need a properly prepared location, I prepared this because it is convenient to do here.”

“Well that is certainly...”

Felmenia agreed, but she didn't seem completely satisfied. Just as she said, just by doing this kind of test it didn't really give them any proper sense for what they were learning.

“I thought you would understand faster if you thoroughly remembered the details of the theory but... Teaching people is quite difficult huh.”

As if something heavy was sitting atop his head, Suimei hung his head down like he was troubled. Because he had never officially taken on students before, he was not used to teaching others. There was more or less a single exception to this, but that one was able to use magic considerably beforehand and was more of an assistant who used peculiar magic. This was the first time he taught anything starting from the absolute foundations. As expected, he couldn't escape having a hard time with it once in a while. Because of this, he had the two of them give him their opinions all the time though.

“Roger that. I'll think about something more in the line of practical use, so for now have a go at this.”

“Understood.”

“I feel like treating this pure white paper by just throwing it away, is a waste though...”

For quite a while now Suimei had been using the white sheets of paper quite liberally. Liliana lifted one up and frowned. In this world, pure white paper was quite valuable. Unlike the other world they had yet to have an industrial revolution. The machinery to create paper hadn't been created and no mass production lines existed.

(Is this also because of magic throwing its weight around...?)

In the other world, when it came to materials to write magic circles on, rather than white paper, specially manufactured parchment was judged to be better and more valuable. But in this world dominated by magic culture, rather than the easy to mass produce white paper, that kind of parchment was possibly much more mainstream. Before long, Felmenia and Liliana started their fill in the blanks test. Suimei span around on his butt and faced Lefille.

“Taking a short break?”

“We finished off one level after all. How much longer do you think we'll be in this vehicle?”

“The fortress on the national border should be coming into sight soon, it shouldn't be much longer.”

“It's been long. My ass hurts after sitting on a wooden floor for three days.”

“Suimei-kun. That's vulgar.”

As Suimei made a sour face, Lefille put on a smile and flicked him lightly on the forehead.

“Owowow... Anyways, even though we're close to the border, why have we not seen anything resembling a mountain?”

While rubbing his forehead, Suimei stuck his head out the window and looked towards their destination. Just as he had said, there was no mountain range or even a small hill in the direction they were going. In general, most national borders used a mountain range as a boundary. It was typical to place the bordering fortress within a valley which broke up the mountain range. It was a necessity to make it difficult for neighbouring countries to invade them, but strangely enough, Suimei could not spot any mountain ranges. While Suimei basked in the wind showing signs of skepticism, Lefille showed him a refreshing smile like it was a trivial matter.

“Beyond here there is a large fissure in the earth called the Valley which Peeks into Evil. This serves as the border between the Empire, and the Alliance and the self governed states.”

“A fissure?”

“In short it is a deep valley carved in the earth. It is said that it was created when the spirit who formed the counterpart of the Goddess' servant Ishaktney lost its temper and tore open the earth.”

“Hou...”

Suimei let out a breath with great interest. These kinds of stories tended to spike his inquisitiveness. The image of something the scale of the large belt carved across Africa came into his mind.

“At its deepest sections one is unable to see the bottom at all, so a bridge fortress was built at the shallowest section serving as the fortress at the national border.”

“... Hm? Does that mean there's only a single fortress?”

“The bridge fortress belongs to the Alliance. The Empire's fortress is basically enclosed within it. What we'll be seeing is that.”

Lefille gestured for a paper and pen from Suimei and then began drawing a picture to demonstrate. Across a black line which represented the fissure in the earth, she drew three bridges which crossed over it connected to a single fortress. As if to seal off the path leading out of it, the fortress had the shape of a semi-circle. After the two of them talked about it briefly, Lefille remembered something and changed the topic.

“Come to think of it, before we departed, we heard a rumour that the victims of the coma incident regained consciousness right?”

“Aah, that? It would have been fine if they were put to sleep a little longer though.”

Suimei made a bitter face as his plans were all thrown out of order. For him, he wanted the nobles who were victims of the coma incident to remain asleep until the memories of the incident became dim in the populace and they didn't see it as a problem anymore. It would have been fine for them to be dead to the world.

Though due to the fact that the citizens of the Imperial Capital had their perception of Liliana changed, this ended up not being an absolute necessity, but it would have been better to make sure they didn't take any action. On the other hand, Lefille was looking at Suimei like he was someone really shady as he talked about the victims of the incident in a rather reprehensible manner.

“... I think of it from time to time but, you are quite merciless, or rather cruel huh.”

“Hm? I'm a magician you know? I'm not a respectable human being.”

“Nevertheless, I don't think that's something you should be saying.”

“Well, that may be so. But doing this kind of thing at this point in time, I'll end up acting considerably selfish. You can tell from when I got Liliana pardoned right? At the end of the day, I'm the type of person who doesn't care how some unrelated guy ends up groaning over my actions.”

“Though wouldn't you just make people angry if you unreasonably hurt them?”

“I know that I'm being inconsistent. Well, that was more or less resolved before I came to this world. I believe that I'm well aware of what is born from the results of that inconsistency.”

“I see.”

Suimei was gazing at Lefille like he resigned himself. Perhaps having grasped his sentiments, Lefille did not continue questioning him about it.

“It's about that time where I faced a major setback. That thing I touched on lightly after we defeated Rajas.”

“Umu, I'm quite interested in it. I'd like you to tell me about it next time without fail.”

“I'll have to decline since I don't even want to remember it.”

“Fufufu.”

Suimei was very puzzled seeing Lefille let out a light laugh with a smile. He then moved the conversation back to the original topic away from this talk filled with his weaknesses that he couldn't possibly continue for his own dignity's sake.

“Well, the people of the Imperial Capital had their awareness changed, so Liliana should be fine anyways.”

“Speaking of being fine, I wonder if Reiji-kun and the others are alright?”

Lefille casually moved the topic onto Reiji and the others. They currently planned to stay in the Empire and ended up splitting up with Suimei, but...

“Is there something wrong?”

“No, it's just that they did end up raising a disturbance in the Imperial Capital. I just have apprehensions that they might be put at a disadvantage because of it.”

Lefille's concerns were natural. Suimei had Reiji and the others take a role in resolving the incident. It was quite the unreasonable role of stalling Graziella's party. In the end it all turned out well, but taking into account that they got in the way of an investigation and ended up having a scuffle in the Imperial Capital, it was natural that feelings of anxiety would be born from the possibility that their position in the Empire may be perilous. However, Suimei, who put up the plan in the first place, was surprisingly making a carefree expression.

“Suimei-kun?”

“Yeah. That will somehow work out. Before we left I played out my hand after all.”

“Did you do something?”

“Well yeah. An eentsy-teensy simple thing.”

Suimei was pressing and separating his thumb and index finger on one hand while making a very small crafty smile like a brat playing a prank.

“I get it. If you've done something then there isn't a problem.”

Perhaps because she heard that Suimei had dealt with it, Lefille's concerns were cleared away as she returned a relieved nod to his evil smile. Just like that the two of them amused themselves as they talked for a while when Felmenia raised her hand vigorously.

“Suimei-dono! I've finished writing my answers!”

“Oh, you're already done?”

Looking at Felmenia's appeal and her smile, Suimei drew nearer and received the paper from her.

“Fumu fumu. Un. Well it's filled in nicely. Liliana, how are you doing?”

“Just, a little more.”

As one would expect, it was still quite hard for Liliana who only just started to study his world's magic. While wrinkling her brows, she was scuffling with the paper using her pen. Her figure while she was groaning with a 'Muu...' as she tried her best was somehow charming. On the other hand, after receiving well over a passing mark from Suimei, Felmenia made a grand smile as she started to appeal to him for something.

“Suimei-dono! Suimei-dono!”

“What is it?”

“If you think I have done well, then please praise me!”

“Ha? Heh?”

While Suimei was completely bewildered, Felmenia was making an extremely cheerful face. If she sprouted dog ears and a tail, her ears would surely be pointed straight up and her tail would swing around as she was overflowing with vitality. As he sidled up to her like he was about to tease her, something suddenly pulled on the back of Suimei's collar vigorously.

“―Gueh.”

A shriek without an ounce of cuteness escaped from Suimei's mouth. The next thing he knew, Lefille, who was behind him, had grabbed the back of his collar and was gripping it tightly. Even though he didn't actually do anything yet... As Suimei looked at Lefille implying this, she focused her gaze in Felmenia's direction.

“Wh-what are you doing Lefille!? Are you trying to get in my way!?”

“Yeah that's right. Felmenia-jou, you're clinging to Suimei-kun a little too much.”

“Th-that's not, particularly...”

Felmenia was at a loss for words, Lefille then continued as if pushing in for an answer.

“You can't say that you haven't been. You've been sticking to Suimei-kun at every single opportunity have you not?”

“I-It's not like I particularly have an ulterior motive!”

“Even so, it's not allowed. I can't overlook it.”

While the two talked about it, their gazes crashed against one another. As Suimei winced while looking at of their two faces, Felmenia suddenly began fluttering around her hands in a panic.

“Just what is wrong with it!? When Lefille became small did you not also spend a lot of time with Suimei-dono!? Besides, you were having a fun looking conversation with Suimei-dono just now!”

“I-I was just genuinely talking to Suimei-kun about our plans from here on out! It was nothing more or less than that!”

“Then for me it is also no more or less than that!”

“You still can't! Right now your wicked thoughts are completely transparent! Just get away already!”

“I w-i-l-l n-o-t!”

In the middle of throwing her tantrum, Felmenia leaped into the air. Naturally the one she flew towards was not Lefille, but Suimei―

“Menia, what are you!?”

“What the!?”

Suimei was completely flustered as Felmenia clung to him like she would absolutely not let go.

“Suimei-dono! Please praise me!”

“Felmenia-jou! You can receive praise without having to do this kind of thing right!? Stop that disgraceful behaviour!”

Lefille pulled on the collar she was still holding and tried to tear Suimei away. On the other hand, Suimei, who was being whirled around being pulled on and climbed on, tried to mediate between the two of them, but...

“C-calm down! Both of you just step ba.... Uuu!?”

Because Felmenia was clinging on to him, her bountiful chest was pressing against him. Due to the unexpected soft sensation, Suimei became conscious of it and started to get flustered.

“Wai, this is bad! Oi, Menia! This is bad right now! It's become extremely bad so get away quickly!”

This was bad for Suimei as a teenage boy. However, being completely ignorant of this, Felmenia looked at him with teary eyes and sniffed up her runny nose.

“Suimei-donoo~. Even Suimei-dono is saying that kind of thing~?”

“Don't grumble about it! What's with you!? L-Lefi help me out h...”

“If Felmenia-jou is going to resort to that method, then I can also...”

“Wha, Lefille-san!? Why did it end up like this!?”

Lefille pressed up against Suimei's back with her hands on his shoulders and was completely glued to him. Being clung on to from both front and back, the three of them were now all bunched together.

“Wai-, both of you!? It's painful! Painful!!”

Suimei was no longer able to endure it and yelled out, but the two of them weren't listening to him at all as they held on to his body like their lives depended on it. Discerning that it was useless to try to talk to the two of them, he quickly resorted to appealing to someone else to escape this crisis.

“Liliana! Save me!”

Suimei earnestly appealed to her, but...

“Suimei, that's what is called 'If you cut somebody, your body will be wet with blood.'”

“What's with that!?”

“It's a proverb, from this world.”

Suimei guessed it had the same meaning as getting one's just desserts. However that's all Liliana had to say as she ignored his plea. She was still focused on her paper and did not even look at him.

“Oi, wai-, you're not going to save me!?” “I'm still, busy with the test.”

“No way, that won't get affected by just helping me a little right!?”

As Suimei kept hounding her, Liliana let out a deliberately loud exasperated sigh. And then...

“Suimei. The moment Lefille returned to her original form, this should have been obvious. Not being able to deal with it despite this, is Suimei's fault.”

“How should this have been obvious!?”

“That part of Suimei, is just like the Colonel...”

In the end, Liliana criticized Suimei as she looked at him with a half closed eye. Meanwhile, Felmenia and Lefille's battle was still continuing.

“Suimei-dono!”

“Suimei-kun!”

“I got it! I got it so both of you calm down a little! If you keep causing a ruckus it'll bother the other customers!”

... In the end, Felmenia and Lefille did not calm down until they arrived at the fortress on the national border.

★

In the northwest of the continent where Suimei and the others were currently located, though the temperature was cold enough to be appropriate for winter, there wasn't the dampness or dryness of the other seasons, so the climate was at a relative equilibrium and was quite calm. However, it was said that dragons lived in the craggy mountains and forests filled with black trees. There was quite a lot of land which was too harsh for people to live on, so compared to other countries, the amount of land untouched by human hands was relatively large.

After disembarking from the cowhorn drawn vehicle in front of the national border, they crossed the bridge and without any problems, were let through the fortress on the Alliance's side and were now visiting their first town of their first country in the Saadias Alliance.

Clouds were scattered in the sky, it wasn't quite a perfectly clear sky, but it was still nice to look at. It was the type of weather that was just good. The wind blowing around was cool despite it being the season in this world's calendar where it should be quite hot, it was rather relaxing.

The first alliance town they came across was unlike the Imperial Capital and the other towns in the Empire where houses were coloured based on section. Without any sort of colour coding, the buildings were vibrant.

Even the shape of the buildings varied with triangular roofs, flat roofs and gabled roofs among others. Overall it gave the town a gentle atmosphere. The space between houses was also quite wide and there was a lot of greenery and trees planted between them. One could see the flat shaved stone which formed the pavement once in a while, but the amount of nature present was considerably large. This could also be attributed to the fact that they were still far from the centre of the country, but Suimei felt like the Alliance town gave off more of a pastoral feeling than a fantasy one.

“So this is an Alliance town.”

Looking at the ornaments decorating the buildings and the town as well as at the people living out their lives, Suimei was somewhat moved. The Alliance town showed aspects that were different from Astel and Nelferia here and there. As if to add on to his impression, Liliana chimed in as well.

“To be precise, it is a town of one of the Alliance countries, Grafille. The Alliance is unlike Astel, Nelferia and the self governed states in that it is made up of a gathering of five different countries.”

“So this would be part of one of those confederate nations huh.”

While talking about such things with Liliana, Suimei took a casual look to the side and spotted Felmenia looking around restlessly at their surroundings just as he was. Suimei couldn't help but call out to his fellow comrade who was entranced by the appearance of the houses and the magic lamps hanging along the roads.

“It seems this is also unusual for Menia right?”

“Ah, yes. This is my first time in the Alliance, I was just a little curious... At any rate, the Alliance is quite different from Astel and Nelferia isn't it?”

Felmenia acted a little bashful like one of her embarrassing sides was spotted. Liliana then cut in and began explaining.

“Since long ago, it was a trait of the people of the Alliance to live in harmony with nature and the local flora and fauna, so unlike the Empire, they don't have many structures or products. But the Alliance feels somewhat relaxing, I like it.”

Certainly, it seemed like a place where people preferred to be around nature. This also applied to Liliana who was stretching her arms widely while taking a deep breath, but the people of the town seemed like they were all relaxing as well. Suimei then looked at Lefille. She had a composed appearance that wasn't all that different from her usual self.

“It doesn't seem like this is the first time for Lefi huh.”

“It's because I've come to the Alliance before when I was still a child. This isn't my first time here.”

“So it hasn't really changed since that time?”

“Yeah. I believe that time flows at a carefree pace in places like the Alliance so there aren't that many changes.”

Lefille was talking as she lightly raised the brim of her wide hat. Perhaps she was feeling nostalgia from her previous visit. In her adult form, the same as ever, Suimei saw all her gestures as quite elegant. Lefille then dropped her gaze down towards Liliana.

“Setting that aside, Lily is quite knowledgeable about the Alliance.”

“To memorize the state of affairs of neighbouring countries, is the duty of the Intelligence Branch. Moreover, I infiltrated it before with the Colonel.”

“That is to say, secret intelligence activities?”

Liliana gave a nod to Felmenia's question. It seemed that due to her time in the army she had quite a lot of experience. With Liliana's magic abilities, there were many things they could accomplish after all. Despite being rather young, she was a girl who had survived through quite the number of scenes of carnage.

Suimei and the others continued to talk about the Alliance as they walked down the streets. Suddenly, off the side of the stone pavement, they could hear some kind of speech being given in a loud voice. Turning their gaze towards it, they could see two men in white religious garments complaining to an audience about the Goddess' name.

“Oh children of man born in this world! Now is the time to throw away your faith in Alshuna!”

“Precisely now that the demons are approaching, everybody must unite not only in front of the menace closing in before our eyes, but also to release ourselves from all the fetters which bind us!”

The two men in religious garments were giving a speech while alternating between each other skillfully. They were making grand gestures and had quite the sense of presence. However, there weren't many people stopping to listen, the crowd at the side of the street was quite sparse. It was probably because the contents of their speech showed contempt for the Goddess Alshuna who had the deepest following in this world. Most people likely saw them as shady as they glanced at them and walked by.

“... What's with that?”

Suimei stopped and made an odd face as he tilted his head to the side. Following up on that, Felmenia and Lefille also looked at them with a puzzled expression.

“I wonder... It is the first time I've seen that kind of thing.”

“Same for me. Good grief, to think that they would criticize the Goddess in this kind of public place... To do so upon the land blessed by the Goddess is simply outrageous.”

Lefille was seething. She must have taken great offence. Though the majority of the people present likely shared her mental state in their minds. Faith in the Goddess Alshuna and the teachings of the Salvation Church served as a foundation for the people of this world after all. However, thinking of it like that, Suimei thought that people giving out this kind of speech in such a public place wouldn't be possible―

Liliana then narrowed her sleepy left eye even further as she gazed at them.

“That's, the anti-goddess religious organization.”

“Anti-goddess religious organization?”

“It's a religious group that has been gaining followers in the five Alliance countries as well as the self governed states. Their fundamental teachings largely emulate the teaching of the Salvation Church, but they adopt the principle that freeing themselves from the divine protection of the Goddess will allow the seed known as humanity to flourish, so they urge the people to call off their belief in the Goddess. They largely criticize the widespread use of magic and the oracles.”

“For this world where magic civilization is mainstream, you'd think that kind of thing would get weeded out right away though.”

“It seems that there are actions being taken with regards to that. I hear that once in a while they end up in skirmishes with the believers of the Salvation Church. However, they are still unable to sever the enrolment of new members.”

“Fuu...?”

It seemed that just by opposing the system, the organization had just that much more of an attractive lustre to it. Iconoclast-like people who derived a sense of purpose out of being part of a large, powerful crowd acting as they pleased against the status-quo came out everywhere one goes. There were also nations which created such organizations to harass enemy nations, so it wasn't completely baffling to Suimei, but taking into consideration the status-quo of this world which revolved around the Goddess, it was inevitable that carelessness would bring them in opposition to pretty much every country in the world. That was probably why this kind of organization came out after the chaos of the demons invading had started―

“The Goddess is not protecting us! For her own benefit! To guarantee her own interests! She is only pretending to protect the world!”

“The words of the Goddess are a poison which corrodes humanity! If you listen to her words blindly as you are now, humanity will not be able to flourish anymore and remain the slaves of the Goddess for all of eternity! Therefore, now is the time that humanity must flee from atop the Goddess' palm!”

Suimei was still looking at the two of them making their speech in a strong tone while closely scrutinizing them.

“... They're not denying the Goddess' existence but saying to call off the belief in her. Since the existence of magic proves the existence of the Goddess, it probably ended up like this.”

However, this kind of thing was occasionally used to prop up the existence of another god by passing down teachings that just sounded good. To pull down the belief in a one god by raising up a belief in another organization, it was faster and easier to just create another god.

But from what Suimei could hear, they weren't really urging people to change their stance on the teachings they were already following, so he couldn't tell what kind of benefit they were trying to get out of this. All he could feel was that those words, 'we cannot believe in the Goddess,' and 'we must run away,' held quite the sense of reality.

“Suimei-dono? Is something the matter?”

“No, it's nothing. So? What should we do from... Well there's one thing to do before saying that. Shall we do something about lunch first?”

Liliana, Felmenia and Lefille agreed with Suimei's proposition.

“I am also, hungry.”

“Then where shall we go...”

“It's right in the middle of lunchtime so everywhere must be crowded. Shall we just look around that area and pick one at random?”

The three others nodded to Lefille's suggestion to just find a place at random. After splitting up into groups to look around at the local restaurants, they fortunately chanced on a place with vacant seats and the four of them went in after Lefille. Just as they saw from the outside, there seemed to be seats available, and they were guided to a table that was a little large for the four of them.

At a glance it looked like a regular restaurant largely made of wood that one could find anywhere. But looking closely there were empty barrels everywhere. The tables and chairs were made out of repurposed barrels and the magic lamps were also made out of empty bottles. It was quite the elaborate interior design that wouldn't be outdone by even the modern world.

They eventually asked for whatever the waiter who came to take their order recommended, and before long the food was brought over to them.

... A little while later, Suimei and the others were relishing their food and taking a short break as they had some water while casually looking around at the other seats. Due to it being lunchtime, the restaurant was dreadfully packed with a whole lot of commotion going around as the crowd continued to jam in. Suimei noticed that those energetic customers all had a common characteristic.

“As expected of a place called the country of swords, there aren't many mages huh...”

From what he could see, even those who didn't appear to be swordsmen or warriors also had a sword at their waist. In comparison, the ratio of mages to swordsmen in the Empire was much higher. Over there it was somewhere around five or six out of ten people who were mages. But here it was maybe two or three out of ten. After Suimei expressed his thoughts as he looked at their surroundings, Lefille and Felmenia responded to him.

“Compared to other countries, the Alliance is a culture that respects swords greatly. Though they weren't summoned heroes, there is a history of hero swordsmen who liberated the lands in this area from the demons for the sake of the people.”

“To add on to that. The Alliance and the self governed states treat social status a little differently from Astel and the Empire. Rather than the important officials of a town, the swordsmen have a much higher social status and position.”

“Hoou, so as long as one holds a sword they'll receive favourable treatment?”

“No, that is not quite the case. To name yourself a swordsman in the Alliance you need proper authorization to do so. You can't call yourself a swordsman until you receive permission from the government of one of the five Alliance countries or from the Twilight Pavilion.”

“So in short, right now Lefille can't call herself a swordswoman.”

“That's how it is. If I did so here it would have to be self-proclaimed.”

Suimei thought it didn't really mean anything to someone who used a sword to say they were self-proclaimed, but Lefille made a somewhat self-deprecating smile. As she did, Liliana took a bite out of a sweet pastry larger than her own face, pushed it into her cheeks, and began explaining while slowly chewing it down.

“Even so, in the Alliance, just by holding a sword, it is certain, you get better treatment.”

“How so specifically?”

“Ha~mu. Your priority, goes up. Because there is quite the number, of services in this country, when they are in a hurry, the public agencies will see you favourably, without asking questions.”

“Well that's quite wonderful huh...”

“It doesn't mean, it applies, to absolutely everyone, though. Ha~mu ha~mu.”

Even so, it was quite the thing to have priority just by holding a sword. After Liliana finished talking while entranced with the sweet pastry pressed against her cheeks, Lefille cut into the conversation.

“So taking that into account for our plans from now on, shall we go to the Alliance's sovereign state Miazen first?”

“To the sovereign state?”

“The guild master of the Twilight Pavilion in the capital city there is an acquaintance of my father. If we rely on them as an intermediary, we should be able to arrange all sorts of things including the authorization to be called a swordsman.”

“Ha~mu. That, sounds good.”

“It is said that if you don't have a swordsman as a companion while walking around the Alliance, you should go hire one. I also agree with Lefille.”

“Well then, the investigation will have to wait until after that...”

Suimei talked as he brought some more food to his mouth. It was certainly true that he was in a hurry to return to his world, but it wasn't to the extent where he would be negligent of other matters. If he was to progress forwards, it was better to have an absolutely firm foothold. While talking some more and relishing their food, a waitress approached their table with a troubled expression on her face. She was a fair bit older than the other waitresses and had quite the good physique. If she were wearing an apron she would look exactly like the old lady running the local lunch shop. She was probably the proprietress of this establishment.

“Could I bother you for a minute?”

“What's the matter?”

As Suimei asked, the woman let out a weak laugh and pointed towards the entrance.

“I'm sorry, but would you mind sharing your table with that person over there?”

The one standing where the proprietress was pointing was a tall dark-skinned man. He was wearing an overcoat to protect himself from sand which hid the characteristics of his body, but his arms that came out of the overcoat were sinewy and thick. Suimei could guess that they were well tempered. He had long black hair and a peculiar embroidered bandana on his forehead. He had a scar running across his face, but rather than dangerous, he had a virile slender face which gave off a somehow sociable impression. The dark-skinned man was going 'Aah...' with a troubled voice, but he pointed a pleasant smile towards Suimei. So that the atmosphere wouldn't worsen, Lefille replied as their representative.

“Aah, we don't mind.”

“Sorry about that...”

The proprietress apologized meekly and then in a complete turn, she fired out a vigorous voice to the kitchen informing them that there was one more customer. The younger waitresses then came out with a seat and water. Opening up a space beside Suimei, the waitress set down the seat quickly and the man settled down in it.

“Aaah, sorry about coming in as you were getting excited~! After coming to this town I wanted to eat the chef's recommendation here no matter what!”

Slapping the back of his own head, the man let out a hearty laugh. He didn't give off a bad impression just from his appearance, but just as expected he seemed to have quite the sociable character. He didn't seem timid in the least and his cheerful smile was quite pleasant. The man then unexpectedly let out a timid laugh.

“Ah, but did I maybe do something bad to you lad?”

“... Hm? To me?”

Suimei didn't understand what he was talking about and cocked his head to the side. The man then suddenly put his thick arm around the back of Suimei's neck and joined shoulders like he intended to talk in secret.

(No, I mean another man just intruded on your meal with these beauties you know? Well, one of them is just a tiny girl, but aren't I completely being an extra wheel here?)

(Ha? N-no, I don't particularly think that you know!? Besides, those girls are just my companions...)

(...)

The man let go and made an astonished face while staring at Suimei who was making excuses in a fluster. Having no idea why he was being looked at like he was something strange, Suimei spoke up with a puzzled expression.

“What is it?”

“... Nothing, I get it. You're a virgin right?”

“HAA!?”

“No, like I said, you're a virgin right?”

“Wh-what the hell are you saying after just meeting someone!?”

Suimei bolted out of his seat as he yelled in a fluster. The man was slightly taken aback by his vigour.

“Aah, sorry sorry. My honesty is my redeeming feature you see. I have a habit of saying exactly what I'm thinking.”

“That kind of habit is too much of an annoyance!!.... Ah.”

Suimei then realized that what he was saying was just proof that he was in fact a virgin.

“Aah, I see. As expected huh.”

“As expected my ass...”

Suimei writhed in agony from the man's stupidly sympathetic voice. After using all his energy yelling, he let out a long breath and looked around at his surroundings as he remained on edge. He didn't know if Liliana was even listening as she was sitting beside him while completely focused on her sweet pastry. On the other hand when he looked at Lefille, she just dodged his gaze. As for Felmenia, she was staring at Suimei fixedly.

“... Suimei-dono is, a virgin.”

“I-is that a bad thing!?”

“Ah, no, it isn't particularly bad! Absolutely, completely, eheheh...”

Suimei thought she was trying to deceive him by laughing as she somehow seemed delighted. As Suimei was beginning to boil and returned his gaze elsewhere, he met Lefille's eyes.

“Uh.”

“Ah.”

Their eyes met, and the both of them only let out a single sound. Suimei and Lefille both stiffened up in this strange atmosphere. Eventually, as if to wipe away the difficult atmosphere, Lefille cleared her throat with a slightly red face before talking.

“No, un. I think it's a good thing that Suimei-kun is a virgin.”

“What's good about it dammit...”

While still standing up, Suimei hung his head in shock. His secret (?) was revealed to everyone and he was filled with despair from the embarrassment. Sensing that the atmosphere around Suimei was stagnating, Felmenia, intending to soothe him but probably just adding oil to the flames, called out to Liliana.

“H-hey, Lily, say something to Suimei-dono too.”

It was obvious going further with this conversation would only drive Suimei deeper into desperation, it was a terrible blunder on his part to let it out. Realizing that Felmenia was calling her, Liliana looked towards Suimei and tugged lightly on his sleeve. And then―

“Suimei. Even if you're a virgin, it isn't that embarrassing you know?”

“Fuguuu―”

Before her powerful words, Suimei crumbled to his knees. Hearing such an innocent girl encourage him in such an innocent way had quite the dramatic destructive power on him. On the other hand, the one who dealt the final blow to Suimei, returned to the conquest of her enormous pastry diligently. And then, all that was left was an air of pity hanging over Suimei's head.

“... So I'm a virgin dammit. I don't have any experience with girls dammit. None at all dammit. What do you want dammit, what's wrong with that everyone just goes virgin virgin likevirginsaresomethingtobehatedImeantherearen'tthatmanyguysmyagewithexperienceanywayssowhat's wrongwiththatevenI'mlivingmylifethebestIcansodon'tscrewwithmeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee...”

Suimei had tumbled into the abyss of his mind as he began mumbling to himself. Unable to just watch that pitiful man, the ringleader, the dark-skinned man, took on a shameless attitude as he tried to cheer Suimei up.

“... Well umm. Cheer up lad, you're still young. Life is just starting.”

“Shut up you damn ringleader...”

The man's gaze faltered as he heard Suimei voice out his resentment. And then like he suddenly realized something, he clapped his hands together.

“Oops, I haven't introduced myself yet huh? My name is Gaius Forvan. I'm a martial arts instructor in Larsheem.”

After his introduction, Suimei and the others also named themselves. Felmenia and Liliana gave out fake names while Lefille named herself normally. Though there was one among them who was in low tension acting quite slovenly, it didn't really need to be said who that was. To make up for the one who didn't want to participate in any more conversation, Felmenia spoke up.

“Speaking of Larsheem, that's a country in the northern part of the Alliance, but why are you in this town?”

“I had a job to do in the area, right now I'm in the middle of returning to Miazen.”

“To Miazen?”

“That's where my current workplace is.”

“Is that so? Right now, our current destination is also Miazen.”

“Hoou! That's quite the coincidence.”

Gaius was happily laughing at the unexpected coincidence. But he quickly stopped smiling and made a troubled expression as he gripped his jaw.

“But you guys sure are an unusual group huh.”

“We're not, spies, from another country, you know?”

Taking a short break from eating her pastry, Liliana pouted as she spoke hypocritically. Gaius returned her a laugh like he was in agreement.

“I can tell that much from looking. I mean it's a virgin lad accompanied by a bunch of women right?”

“You're still saying crap like that...”

Hearing Gaius pull back out the topic of his virginity, Suimei let out a low voice like he was cursing him. However, it seemed that Gaius was unaware that one among them was actually a former spy. Lefille then questioned Gaius.

“Then, why are we unusual?”

“Well that's cause your garments are all over the place. There's two of you wearing clothes from Astel, and a little girl wearing the frilly clothing that is popular right now in the Empire. And, Lefille right? You're from Noshias right? It's a curious combination. Well it might just be that you all just know each other, but it's also curious that you all came all the way out to the Alliance.”

It seemed that this man named Gaius was not just a simple hearty person. Suimei did not overlook that his eyes had sharpened for an instant while explaining his curiosity. Having finished making his point, Lefille continued to question him.

“Why do you think it is strange for us to come to the Alliance at this time?”

“Well, that's cause the northern part of the Alliance has become the site of a bloody battle with the demons. It's not the kind of situation where you just come sightseeing quietly right?”

He certainly had a point, there weren't many people who would come sightseeing in a region where the danger of having demons marching on the capital could occur at any time. Lefille then replied with a somewhat meek expression.

“I have an acquaintance in the Alliance. We're headed to go meet them.”

“Hoou, is that so? If that's the case, then it makes sense.”

Suimei finally recovered and reclined in his chair and folded his arms.

“But still, a battleground huh?”

“I believe I heard the demon army was forced back right?”

“Damn right! The hero summoned by the Alliance you hear!? She just chopped up the demon general! It was quite the magnificent view.”

As Felmenia looked at him while asking, Gaius slapped his chest and replied. It was as if he was bragging about his own reliability. But seeing him act like that, Suimei knit his brows and questioned him.

“A magnificent view you say, did you see it?”

“Fuufuufuu, what is there to hide? My glorious self was just recently fighting the demons alongside Hero-sama you hear?”

As Gaius revealed this full of pride, Suimei looked at him like his story was fishy.

“Is it that old man? Are you a day-dreamer? That's quite disappointing.”

“I'm not! It's the truth I say!”

“Really?”

Suimei shrugged his shoulders like he was poking fun at Gaius, who then fired off a turbulent voice while laughing.

“Fufufufufu... and so, are you saying that I'm some sort of small fry?”

“I'm lying I'm lying it's just a joke. I can tell from the muscles on your body that I would die instantly if you hit me.”

“That's right! Aren't muscles great!?”

Setting aside whether or not they were great, Suimei could tell that the martial artist in front of him was quite skilled. He couldn't tell specifically, but he gave off the atmosphere of a strong person. Gaius then suddenly went from his high spirited tales of heroics to letting out a complaint as he sighed.

“Well, thanks to that most of the army moved northwards.”

“Is something wrong with that?”

“Well yeah. All our forces are up there facing the demons you know?”

Suimei still didn't get what was wrong as he tilted his head to the side. Liliana then nonchalantly began explaining.

“The defence against the Empire, is thin. He likely has apprehensions on that front.”

“That's how it is. The little lady is quite well-behaved. Want me to pet you?”

“Please don't. I'll sue.”

Liliana did not seem to like being treated like a child by Gaius, she closed her eye and stuck out her tongue, then turned away from him.

“Is the relationship between the Alliance and the Empire stormy?”

“You don't know that it isn't very good? You sure are ignorant of the world huh. The Empire openly cooperates with Astel and the self governed states, but when it comes to the Alliance they are just treated as a neighbour you know? From what I've heard, the recent Empire has even been lunging at allied nations.”

“Mu...”

Gaius was speaking in astonishment, but it didn't really click with Suimei. In truth, he was fairly disinterested in the matters of this world. He had no reason to get serious about it and deny them. Liliana then brought herself close to Suimei's ear.

(It's, deceptive manoeuvring. Lately the Empire, has been distributing rumours of non-existent military expansion, to keep neighbouring countries, in check.)

(I see...)

It was probably something she learned during her time in the Imperial Army's intelligence branch. But if that was the case, Suimei couldn't really tell why they were spreading deceptive information. Intentionally deteriorating their image outside the country would cause hostility to build up towards them from new directions which would cause depression within the country. This usually ended up causing animosity towards the government. Furthermore, not only the country they were antagonizing, but even their neighbours would start keeping an eye on them. All this at a time where demons were invading as well...

Suddenly, Gaius regained his cheerfulness.

“Well there's a bunch of serious issues, but in our ranks we have both me and Hero-sama. There's no problem.”

He was probably making this declaration to wipe away the gloomy mood that he created.

“The hero huh...”

“And the glorious me.”

“So what kind of guy is this hero?”

“Don't just ignore me... Dammit. Hero-sama who was summoned by the Alliance is, believe it or not, a tremendously beautiful swordswoman.”

As Gauis boasted full of pride, Lefille spoke up next.

“That is to say the hero summoned by the Alliance is a woman right?”

“Yeah. You're also quite the beauty, but she's a woman whose beauty can be compared to yours... Well, she's still a little immature so she falls out of my strike zone though.”

“We're not asking about your taste.”

As Suimei quipped at him, Gauis looked at him in astonishment.

“... If you keep refusing to take part in this kind of conversation, you'll be a virgin for life you know?”

“You're still saying that dammit!?”

Suimei let out a cry as he once more stood out of his seat. He managed to learn a lot, but it ended up being an inconceivable lunch.

★

A few days after separating from Suimei's party, in the audience hall in the castle Groschler enshrined on the south end of the Imperial Capital Filas Philia, Reiji, Mizuki and Titania were attending a meeting with the Emperor of the Nelferian Empire. And just now, that audience had ended.

“I-I'm sooo tired!”

After arriving at the noble guest room, Mizuki was the first to raise her voice. After being freed from the restrictions of that stuffy atmosphere, she threw her back onto the leather sofa and let out all the breath that she had been holding back. She was draped over it just like laundry tossed to the side on the chair. She must have found it difficult to endure the atmosphere in the audience chamber. She was still sweating from the lingering sensation of the Emperor's intense aura but she was now recoiling from the tension and completely loosened up. Reiji was also quite tired. He sat down on a red antique chair that was in the room and gave Mizuki an awkward smile.

“Mizuki, good job today.”

“Uuun...”

As expected, Mizuki replied like she was there in body but not in spirit. Reiji wasn't sure if she heard him or not when she replied, but she was still just lounging in the sofa without moving at all. Even Titania who was a veteran at this sort of thing was letting out a relieved breath.

“... It looks like even Tia is quite exhausted huh?”

“Yes. I'm somewhat more accustomed to it, but I also have some problems dealing with his Imperial Majesty the Emperor.”

“I guess his status... is just that amazing.”

“Compared to other members of royalty, his Imperial Majesty is fairly unique. He is like a beast of prey.”

“Hahaha...”

Reiji let out a dry laugh at Titania's unfavourable opinion while recalling the Nelferian Emperor. Standing before the Emperor sitting atop his throne, more than just his majestic aura, Reiji could feel a sense of danger like he was standing before a carnivorous animal. The pressure was such that he felt that if he loosened his focus even just a little, then he would be immediately devoured. It must have been the aura of a leader who lead a military nation for a long time. However―

“In the end, they didn't say anything about what happened last time huh?”

Reiji was talking about the time they came into conflict with Graziella and the others for the sake of catching the real culprit behind the coma incidents. Lefille also had apprehensions about what would happen, but contrary to their expectation, the Empire did not make a fuss of it at all and it was not touched upon once during their time in the audience chamber.

As if the turn of events was slightly different from Titania's expectations, she stroked her jaw as she spoke.

“Since it involved the hero, they probably also do not want to make a problem out of it. I believed our public summons was likely either to restrain us or to strike a deal with us, but I guess his Imperial Majesty also wanted to avoid coming into conflict with the church.”

“Is that so...? It is only my intuition, but I felt like he was the type to swoop down on somebody the moment they revealed a weakness and would chew them down to the bone.”

“Reiji-sama's intuition probably isn't wrong. Certainly when I asked father about him he had said something in the same vein.”

While Reiji and Titania were showing signs of skepticism, Mizuki cut into their conversation while still lounging on the sofa.

“About that, Suimei-kun said he sent a letter to Elliot-kun.”

“Suimei did?”

“Something about for this state of affairs, on this occasion where every nation is depending on the existence of heroes or something, you probably don't want to cause any issues between the Empire and the Salvation Church he said~. That's why, Elliot-kun who didn't want to cause problems with heroes from other nations, something something or other~.”

She trailed off and started speaking nonsensically in the end, but Reiji understood what she was trying to say. If a rumour spread that two heroes ended up fighting each other due to a blunder by the Empire, then the world would turn against them. With the current state of affairs, that would be a major landmine for them to step on. However, Reiji tilted his head to the side as he still found it rather unusual.

“... It seemed like Suimei and Elliot didn't get along at all though.”

“Even if he hates me~, he seemed quite fond of Reiji-kun so if I ask he won't flat out refuse he said~. After that won't it work out one way or another~? He said something like that~.”

“... That is to say everything went exactly as Suimei intended it to right?”

“Seriously, somehow or other he really is cunning, that Suimei.”

“Usually I can't see him as anything but flippant though.”

Titania let out a sigh like she couldn't really accept it and mixed in some toxic words on top of Reiji's observation. Hearing these words which sounded like she was somehow annoyed, Reiji questioned her as if it was something rather unusual.

“... Somehow, Tia, aren't you suddenly rather cold towards Suimei lately?”

“Eh? No, that isn't the case right? Hohohohoho...”

Titania's unnatural laugh filled the room. To anyone who knew the actual situation, it was obviously laughter to try and deceive others, but Reiji and Mizuki did not know this.

“Well, it's true that Suimei-kun is flippant here and there though right~”

“I can't deny that... But when it comes to it he's the type who gets things done.”

“I agree with that, though reluctantly.”

Reiji let out a better smile as Titania grudgingly agreed with him. And then, as if she wanted to talk about something more sincere, she changed the topic.

“And so, Reiji-sama, what shall we do from here?”

“Our original plan was to go to the self governed states right?”

“Yes. The plan was to give solace to the citizens and inspire the soldiers as usual. Is something the matter with that?”

Reiji's expression grew hazy like he had something he was worrying about.

“... Un. I've been thinking about it. That I'm actually rather weak.”

“Ha?”

“Reiji-kun, what are you saying...?”

Titania was taken aback by his words while Mizuki looked at him with her eyes half closed like she was reproaching him. However, Reiji shook his head suggesting it wasn't really that off the mark.

“I mean, back in Astel I was overpowered by Rajas, and Elliot even held back on me. Moreover, I felt like her Imperial Highness Graziella's magic was quite the threat.”

“So with that, you're wondering if you are weak or not?”

As Titania predicted what he had to say, Reiji nodded seriously. On the other hand, Mizuki let out an exasperated voice.

“You know what, Reiji-kun. Someone like me still can't fight properly you know? Back when we fought in the Imperial Capital I somehow got by, but compared to that, hasn't Reiji-kun always been properly fighting?”

“Mizuki. I received divine protection from the hero summoning right? Even so, I got overwhelmed by the enemy I was meant to fight, and someone who received that same divine protection was able to make a clear distinction between our abilities. Do you think that's really okay?”

“Reiji-kun...”

Mizuki let out a worried voice as Reiji expressed why he thought he was unreliable. And then, after quietly listening to Reiji express his inner thoughts, Titania completely changed her attitude, and questioned Reiji with an increasingly firm expression.

“I will be repeating a question from before, but Reiji-sama, you said that you were unrelated to sword techniques, magic and fighting correct?”

“... That's right, but Elliot had a lot of composure over me you know?”

“I've heard that Hero-dono summoned in El Meide was a heroic warrior even in the world he came from. There was already a gap between him and Reiji-sama from the beginning. I believe it is quite substantial to be able to bite at him despite that gap existing.”

“...”

Reiji thought that Titania had a point. However, it all just seemed like an excuse to him. Stuck in a whirlpool of anxiety, he couldn't hear it as anything but empty words. Because she understood this fully, Titania continued to criticize his way of thinking.

“I understand Reiji-sama's feelings. However, that thing known as strength is not something which can be mastered in a single day. Strength, and the dignity attached to it, are things that are obtained only after experiencing a great many things that would have one's blood run. That's why, if Reiji-sama desires strength, then the only way to do so is to fight. And so, is that not what you shall be accumulating from now on?”

After speaking her opinion with fervour, Titania switched to a somewhat calmer tone as she continued.

“It is something that happens quite often to march forwards impatiently only to go down the wrong path. That is why I believe that it is for Reiji-sama's benefit that we move forwards while carefully looking ahead of us.”

As she finished speaking, Titania continued to stare at Reiji. On the other hand, Reiji closed his eyes for a brief moment, and then looked up at the ceiling.

“... That's right isn't it? Un, I got it.”

Perhaps because she was frankly addressing his concerns, Titania's words resonated deep in Reiji's heart and his expression became just a little bit more refreshed. The two then nodded to each other. Mizuki then spoke up with a wrinkle between her eyes.

“But, I know this is weird coming from me, but I think it is undeniable that we are out of our depth right? I think that if we're not at least as strong as Felmenia-san and Lefille-cha... I mean, Lefille-san, we're going to end up at the end of the line pretty soon.”

“That's...”

Titania was also concerned about that point. If Suimei didn't weaken Rajas as much as he did, Reiji and Mizuki would have been forced into a much harder fight. From here there would be other demons with the same combat prowess, and then there was the Demon Lord who probably surpassed all of them. If that one came out, there would probably be nothing they could do. With a wrinkle between his brows while racking his brains, Reiji turned to the two girls.

“What do you think we should do?”

“Dunno, training or something?”

“That's kind of trite isn't it?”

“But, isn't that about the only method we have?”

While Mizuki was struggling with the difficult problem before her, Titania let out a quiet voice like she had some sort of brilliant plan.

“There is one suggestion I'd like to make.”

“Which is?”

“It will not raise Reiji-sama and Mizuki's actual strength, but if we go to the self governed states near the Saadias Alliance, the equipment used by a hero previously summoned to this world is still there.”

Hearing those words, Mizuki, who was still slacking up until now, had a sudden change of expression.

“Th-that's what would be called a legendary weapon right!? Right!?”

“If one were to describe it cheaply, then that's what it would be.”

“That kind of thing exists?”

“Yes. A long time ago, a King who possessed tremendous power from the self governed states plotted to conquer their neighbouring country. Sensing an impending crisis, the Salvation Church performed the hero summoning ritual to defeat the tyrant. It is said that the esteemed hero summoned at that time possessed a substantial amount of power and wielded a powerful weapon. Not just the weapon used by the esteemed hero, but altars used to praise the tyrant as a god and books kept by the tyrant are all being kept under the church's jurisdiction as relics.”

“And so, you're saying we should go get it?”

“If we do, I expect it will raise our combat potential.”

“Good! That's good! Let's go with that! It's a legendary weapon! It's becoming interesting~!”

Setting aside Mizuki who was all of a sudden in high tension mode, Reiji also thought that retrieving the weapon would be a good plan. Improving himself was important, but the weapon he used was also essential.

Just as their conversation was coming to a head, someone suddenly knocked on the door to the guest room. Reiji and the others turned towards the door, and heard a familiar voice from the other side.

“Excuse me. I was informed that the hero Reiji was here but... Are you?”

“Yeah. That voice is Elliot right? By all means, I don't mind if you come in.”

With Reiji's permission, Elliot and Christa came into the room.

“Hello Elliot. What's the matter today?”

“Nothing really, I was told to come to the castle so I came. And then I decided to come and greet you.”

“Thanks for going out of your way.”

“I did have something else I wanted to talk about though.”

Before moving on to what Elliot wanted to talk about, Reiji cut in with something he had to say first.

“By the way, it seems that you made all sorts of arrangements with regards to the matter this time around.”

“Aah, that...? Fuu, I resent it going exactly the way that man planned, but I couldn't not do it for the hero who he was requesting it for after all.”

“Thank you. You saved us.”

“No no, you don't need to worry about it. It's fine to just think of it as me being meddlesome. Aah, if you meet that guy tell him he owes me. Also that he absolutely has to pay it back.”

“Hahaha... Got it.”

It seemed that it was his principle to show no mercy to Suimei. Reiji acknowledged his request with a smile. Mizuki then cocked her head to the side.

“I know it's rather sudden, but what does Elliot-kun plan to do from here?”

“Hm? Aah, we spent quite a bit of time discussing it, but we're planning to stop our sympathy calls and start linking up with the other summoned heroes.”

“I see... That's also quite important isn't it?”

Reiji had completely forgotten about that. Nobody had ever recommended it to him, so the thought never passed through his mind―

“This is what my business with you was today. Before heading to the decisive battle with the demons, I want us to be able to keep in touch. It's also important that we're able to move the armies of every nation. In this kind of situation, it's frankly best to act in harmony right? Though I don't know whether or not we'll be able to rely completely on the power of the church.”

The reason why cooperation had dulled was likely due to the cynicism of each nation's leaders. Elliot had put quite a lot of thought into the subjugation of the demons.

“That's why, when it comes down to it we'll have to be able to gather our forces. Frankly speaking I don't think an order from the church would be sufficient. So I thought that I would first start with the Alliance which is closest to us right now...”

As Elliot trailed off, for some reason he was making quite the bitter expression.

“Aaah, it's because I heard they were headed towards the Alliance. I'd like to talk to Lefille-chan and Felmenia-chan properly once more, but, that, will be there right?”

“Does Elliot-kun dislike seeing Suimei-kun?”

“Just seeing that face somehow causes me great offence. I heard the hero summoned by the Alliance was quite the beauty so that in itself is quite regrettable but... Ow!?”

“Elliot-sama?”

“Uuuuun, it's a joke, a joke, okay?”

Elliot started to try and calm Christa down in a fluster. From Reiji and Mizuki's perspective, it looked like a Nioh was standing behind Elliot. After trying to soothe her anger for a while, he let out a cough to clear away the strange atmosphere.

“Ehem! We'll be going through Astel to meet the hero in Thoria. So, about you three...”

“We're heading to the self governed states.”

Seeing Mizuki throw her arms in the air as she replied, Christa spoke up.

“The self governed states... is it?”

“We're also putting our sympathy calls on hold and going to get hold of the legendary weapon left behind by the heroes.”

“Legendary... Aah, that thing right?”

“Eh? Does Elliot-kun know about it?”

It seemed that he had an idea of what it was. However, Elliot went from looking like he knew to not being able to recall as he knit his brows.

“Sacra... something or other was it? It had a name like that right?”

“Eh? Sakura? Why sakura?”

“Elliot-sama, it is Sacrament.”

“Yeah, that. It's just that I also heard it was a weapon, but when I went to see it, it was just a decoration with a blue gem in it.”

“Could it be, you took it?”

“Aah, I intended to.”

Elliot paused there. Reiji could tell he wasn't permitted to, but he didn't know why, and he also didn't know what he meant by the weapon being just a decoration. As Reiji and the others tilted their heads to the side, Christa gave them the answer.

“From literature, it is certain that the decoration was passed down as a weapon. From the legends, it seems that as long as it is not someone deemed appropriate for it, it will not transform into a weapon...”

Christa hesitated to say it. Titania then looked towards Elliot.

“But Elliot-sama, you do not seem to be carrying anything like it right?”

“Yeah, I don't have it. When I tried it out, nothing happened at all.”

“That's why you left it?”

“Yeah.”

Elliot smiled weakly. After giving out that self-deprecating smile, he suddenly turned towards Reiji.

“Well, there's value for you to go and test it isn't there? It didn't acknowledge me, but it might acknowledge you after all.”

“That being the case, I feel like Elliot-sama is declaring his own flaw...”

“It's likely that there is a special condition for it. You can't deny the possibility.”

Elliot said this with a refreshing look. Reiji was compelled to nod reflexively such was the persuasive power of his attitude. He then looked at Elliot with a bit of envy.

“...? What's wrong Reiji? Looking at me like that.”

“No, I was just thinking that Elliot was quite refreshing.”

“I may just be squirming frantically behind this look.”

Reiji was unable to tell if Elliot was lying or not.

“But, you're strong right?”

“Hm?”

“When you fought against me you were holding back, and from what Suimei told me, that time you fought her Imperial Highness Graziella you weren't going all out either or something.”

“...”

“Elliot-sama?”

After a moment of silence, Elliot suddenly let out a snort with a cold expression.

“To be seen through by that guy, it gets on my nerves.”

“Then, Elliot-sama! That time!?”

“I didn't go all out. It was in that kind of place and time after all. But a loss is a loss.”

As Elliot gallantly accepted his loss, Christa closed in on him with force, hunched over like she couldn't accept it.

“Elliot-sama!! Why didn't you go all out!? It would have been fine to just beat her Imperial Highness Graziella into a pulp!!”

She didn't seem to be able to endure the fact that Elliot lost and began stomping on the ground with force. Mizuki looked at this in surprise and spoke up.

“Wait a sec, we're in the Empire's castle you know... Christa-san, you're inadvertently saying some amazing things right?”

“Aah!?”

Finally realizing what she had been doing, Christa looked around her surroundings abruptly. No matter the reason, it would obviously be bad if someone heard her showing contempt for an Imperial princess within an Imperial castle. Seeing Christa suddenly become silent over her blunder, everyone else smiled towards her. Soon after that, Titania made a serious expression and looked towards Reiji.

“And so, Reiji-sama, what do you think of going to the self governed states?”

“Un. Let's try and go. I think it is better to be greedy about strength right now. That's why, let's go and test whether I can use that Sacrament or not.”

“Okaaay! Then our next destination is the self governed states by the Saadias Alliance!”

Reiji showed a weak expression like he was troubled as Mizuki thrust her fist energetically into the air.

“But, it's not like we'll be going right away...”

“What do you mean we're not... AAH!!”

Mizuki let out a loud voice. She seemed to have finally remembered exactly what reason they were in the Empire to begin with.

“Fumu. Is there something going on?”

Titania replied to Elliot's question with a composed expression.

“There are some slight circumstances. It is not something that Elliot-sama needs to worry about.”

“Well that's fine then. If you're going it would be better to do so sooner though. The demons won't exactly wait for you.”

After giving them that warning, Elliot suddenly remembered something and turned a cynical smile towards Reiji and the others.

“At any rate, you also really have it quite rough huh?”

“...? What do you mean by that?”

Following Reiji's question, Mizuki and Titania also tilted their heads to the side. They had no idea why Elliot was shrugging his shoulders like he was saying 'good grief.' His words were too fragmented to grasp what he meant. Elliot then turned around.

“It's nothing, you'll understand what I meant soon enough. Now, it's about time we left, Christa.”

“Yes. As you will.”

“Well then, farewell.”

With those words, Elliot left the room accompanied by Christa.

“What was that...?”

“D-dunno...?”

While Reiji and Mizuki were completely bewildered, after a short pause, they could hear footsteps outside the door. Perhaps Elliot had come back, or maybe it was someone else? While Reiji and the others were thinking of that―

“Excuse me.”

A woman's voice called out to them from the other side of the door. Without waiting for a response, she rudely opened the door right away. The one who came in, was the one they were opposing the other day in the Imperial Capital, Graziella Filas Rieseld.

Today, she wasn't wearing her over the top military uniform, but a regular shirt. She still didn't look like an imperial princess and was dressed quite roughly. Perhaps this was what she wore casually. Her cleavage was exposed, but her style was so indifferent that it took away from her voluptuousness. However, her usual strong-willed and prideful features had a slight amount of dissatisfaction and irritation mixed into them and she was making a sullen expression. It seemed she appeared because she was unable to calm down. On the other hand, seeing her natural enemy appear, Titania went from her usual gentle expression to a cold one in an instant.

“Your Imperial Highness Graziella, do you have some sort of business with us?”

Seeing that Graziella was still quite composed, Titania made no attempts of hiding the hostility in her tone.

“Don't glare like that.”

“I am not glaring though.”

“My goodness, it seems that I am quite hated.”

Graziella was a little tired of the one sided hostility, yet Titania faced her with a swordsman's gaze as she questioned her further.

“And so, what is your business with us today?”

She more or less already had an idea as to why Graziella was there. As if speaking for her, Mizuki cut in with an anxious expression.

“C-could it be about what happened last time...?”

“Hm? Aah, that has already been resolved. I have no intentions of bringing it up again after all that. Besides, it would only be contrary to the Emperor's decree to continue hounding you about it after father already deemed it as something irrelevant.”

“I-I see...”

Seeing that her anxieties were unfounded, Mizuki let out a sigh of relief. It seemed Graziella had a surprisingly refreshing personality. Though she said that she did not mind in general, it seemed she was still holding a slight grudge, but she had no intention of mentioning it. Though it may be because she hadn't gotten to it yet... But setting that aside. She then let out an outrageous answer to the earlier question.

“And so, about the reason I came here today, it seems I'll be troubling you bastards from today onward.”

“Ha?”

“Heh?”

“Wh-what does that mean your Imperial Highness!?”

Titania yelled with such force that she bolted out of her seat. She hadn't even asked for confirmation and suddenly made that declaration which seemed to affect Titania quite deeply. Graziella then answered her with a bitter expression.

“It doesn't mean anything. It's exactly as it sounds. Your Royal Highness Titania.”

“No, but that's...!”

“In short, I'll be accompanying you bastards on your journey.”

“――――”

Titania fell back into her chair with force. It couldn't be helped. Reiji and Mizuki also had surprised and doubtful expressions on their faces. Graziella then offered them some candid advice.

“There's no need for all of you to make that kind of face. Loosen up. Well, I am also completely reluctant about this matter.”

“Then why?”

“If I was told by an oracle then I can only obey.”

“Wha... Alshuna's oracle...!”

“Elliot, this is what he meant earlier...”

Reiji finally understood. Elliot already knew this would happen beforehand, so he left them with those words. He likely predicted their current bewilderment and was laughing like a little imp. Reiji was unable to stop rubbing his brow. They were still unable to regain their composure as they all looked at Graziella.

“There are no objections I assume?”

“... Even if we did, we can't do anything but obey Alshuna's oracle.”

Titania's mental state must have been very complex as she admitted that. Her face showed that she did so grudgingly. Taking a short glance at her, Graziella then turned her attention to the other two.

“And you two?”

“I'm... As long as you don't squabble then it's fine, but...”

Still overwhelmed, Mizuki's words trailed off at the end. Reiji gave up with a sigh and showed Graziella a composed attitude.

“Then, I have one condition.”

“What's that? Are you saying that I should spend one night with you or something? You're unexpectedly a quick working man huh?”

“Th-that's not it!? Why did it end up like that!? Isn't the conversation progressing too quickly!?”

Reiji stood up and let out a grand yell towards Graziella's bombshell. Looking at his panicking figure without paying it any mind, she added on some words indifferently.

“What? I don't particularly mind you know?”

“I mind!”

“Me too!”

Unable to hand that over, Titania and Mizuki both objected instantly. After making a bored expression, she once more returned her gaze to Reiji.

“So, what is your damn condition?”

After letting out a tired breath, Reiji told her his condition with a serious expression.

“I'd like you to stop calling us bastards.”

“Fumu. Certainly, even it is only temporary, calling people who are to be my companions bastards is quite disrespectful huh. Fine then.”

She honestly accepted his condition. Reiji got the impression of a haughty woman from her, but she was unexpectedly understanding. Just like when she said she didn't mind about the previous matter, she had a much more refreshing personality that he thought she did.

“Well then, Astel's hero Reiji, your Royal Highness Titania, and our guest from another world Mizuki, I look forward to working with you.”

“L-likewise...”

They were taken aback by Graziella's suddenly humble attitude. Titania was making a dumbfounded expression. On the other hand, Mizuki leaked out a completely bewildered voice at the unexpected development.

“Just what's going to happen to us...?”

It seemed that their little group had suddenly become quite the stormy combination of people.

★

Suimei's party arrived at the Alliance's sovereign state of Miazen with the intent of relying on Lefille's acquaintance. On the way, they passed through two or three other major towns, but being the sovereign state, Miazen was simply on a different scale in terms of size. The walls surrounding the city were not particularly high, but its total circumference was larger than Filas Philia. Perhaps due to this fact, like the other towns in the Alliance, the houses were quite spread out, nothing was crammed together.

Also, other than just swordsmen, this city also characteristically had many demi-humans. As one would expect of the city called the Capital of Swords, the dwarves who created them had gathered in force, and characteristically of the country, there were many therianthropes around. Despite the fact that it was still the middle of the day, there were dwarves gulping down alcohol at restaurants. Due to the cheerful atmosphere, there were therianthropes and humans basking together in the sun outside. The mix of races was more prominent than it was in the Empire.

After arriving in town, Suimei and the others headed straight for the Twilight Pavilion. After informing the receptionist they were acquaintances of the guild master, she immediately went to get confirmation and they smoothly arrived at the guild master's office on the second floor.

―Inside the room, a person who looked like the guild master was sitting on a leather sofa while relaxing.

She was a woman. Her age was on the more youthful side and she leaned back considerably into her chair. She was wearing clothing which was somehow similar to traditional Japanese clothing while puffing at a pipe. However, her defining characteristics would be her golden hair and the fox ears sprouting out of it. From her rear there were one, two, three... all of seven fox tails coming out.

She gave off a calm presence, and appeared to be quite the showy fox type therianthrope. Lefille, who was the one who requested the audience as an acquaintance, was smiling pleasantly. Felmenia seemed to be quite nervous. On the other hand, Liliana just leaked out 'Many... Tails,' like she was completely entranced. Her eyes were pinned to the woman's golden, furry tails.

After everyone took their seat across from the therianthrope woman, a delightful stifled laugh came out of her like if she passed her limits. And then, after a while, she bit down her laughter.

“―To think that you were actually alive, Lefi. Kuu, fufufu... How do I say it, you've had quite the unexpected good fortune huh?”

The representative of the Twilight Pavilion's Miazen branch, Rumeya, raised her voice in joy at the stroke of good luck.

“It has been a long time, Rumeya-dono. I don't have the words to thank you for receiving us so pleasantly during this sudden visit.”

As Lefille expressed her gratitude in an overly formal attitude, the therianthrope woman, Rumeya opened her mouth with a 'Haa...?” like she was looking at something suspicious.

“What's this what's this? It's not like it's the first time we've met but you're really standing on formality huh? Even though we're sitting in this kind of place, I don't particularly mind you know?”

“It's been a long time so isn't it appropriate for my greeting to at least be properly formal?”

“How stiff. What are you even saying to a therianthrope?”

Lefille was making a difficult expression and Rumeya was just shrugging her shoulders. Suimei often heard that the therianthropes in general were, to put it poorly, rough around the edges. They seemed to dislike the decorum that humans used in formal situations. This woman must also be of that kind of disposition. As if to say that that was enough of formality, Lefille loosened her expression.

“By the way, what is that?”

Lefille pointed her gaze at the earthenware container in Rumeya's hand. Rumeya then replied quite indifferently.

“Isn't it obvious? It's alcohol. Al-co-hol.”

“A-aren't you in the middle of your official duties...?”

“Like I care? This is a celebratory drink to your survival.”

Saying that, Rumeya lifted her cup up and gulped down its contents. However, contrasting her merry attitude, Lefille was making a somewhat gloomy expression. Grasping the meaning behind this, Rumeya quietly closed her eyes in a complete change of attitude.

“... Like I thought, your father didn't make it?”

“Yes. In order to let me get away, his Majesty and the leader spearheaded the soldiers to stall for time. He probably didn't survive...”

“We lost a good man...”

“It honours me as his daughter to hear Rumeya-dono describe him as such.”

Lefille bowed down respectfully. Both her and Rumeya remained silent for a while to raise a prayer to the dead. After a period of silence passed, Rumeya put her pipe to her mouth and let out a puff of smoke.

“Fuu, a solemn moment isn't something to drag on forever. So, it is about time that you introduced the friends that you brought along with you.”

Rumeya tapped the ashes out of her pipe and took her time to pass her gaze at the others. Going along with her request, Lefille gave a brief introduction of Suimei and the others to Rumeya. As her introductions came to an end, everyone began to name themselves.

“Just as I have just been introduced, I am called Suimei Yakagi.”

“I am called Felmenia Stingray.”

“I'm, Liliana Zandyke.”

The reason Rumeya let out a 'Hou...' in an interested tone was likely because there were familiar names mixed in. And then, despite reprimanding Lefille for her stiff behaviour earlier, she set aside her pipe, corrected her posture in her seat, and named herself.

“My name is Rumeya. Rumeya of the golden fox clan. I am sure you are already aware, but I serve as the guild master here.”

Suimei noticed that Felmenia's expression hardened slightly from tension when she heard that introduction. That name was likely something that would normally make one wince. However, since Suimei didn't know who the famous people of this world were, he didn't receive any shock. Felmenia whispered into his ear that Rumeya was in fact famous. She was one among the Seven Swords, the swordswoman known as Camellia Sasanqua.

(I take it she's strong?)

(Camellia Sasanqua the Empress of the Sword Dance is considered strong even among the Seven Swords. If you are having difficulty grasping it, then it would be proper to think of her abilities to be on par or beyond the abilities of her Royal Highness the Princess.)

(Aah is that so... How scary.)

Suimei shrugged his shoulders as he felt disheartened. To have someone so dreadful show up out of nowhere was bad for his heart. Titania was in fact quite the menace and Rogue's abilities were also considerable. If the woman before him was on par with or beyond those two, she must have been a swordswoman with terrifying abilities.

Rumeya then suddenly focused her gaze on Suimei. Without saying a single word, she returned her gaze back to Lefille's face.

“I haven't heard this young man's name before, but the other two you brought along are quite famous aren't they? Astel's genius mage, and―”

For only a brief moment, she pointed a sharp gaze towards Liliana.

“One of the Empire's Elite Twelve, the daughter of the Lonely Figure Sword Master-dono.”

“I'm not, one of the Elite Twelve, anymore. Neither am I, a soldier of the Empire.”

“If I recall correctly, I heard you were made out to be the culprit of some incident. Did you resign after being reprimanded?”

“There were some circumstances, but if you were to put it simply, it's something like that.”

“Fumu, so there were circumstances. Well, as long as you weren't picking a fight with the children from the guild I don't really care.”

They couldn't tell if that was true or not as she tried to push aside the issue. Grasping this subtlety, Lefille spoke forcefully to bring it to a close.

“It's alright. Lily is my companion.”

“Fuu, is that so?”

Sensing the virtue behind Lefille's declaration, Rumeya smiled as she exposed her canines. She was either happy about such a strong declaration backing her companion, or she was showing her joy after seeing Liliana tightly cling onto Lefille's arm. Seeing the two of them get along, Rumeya's expression softened once more.

“I've never actually had a match with Lonely Figure-dono right?”

“The Colonel, also said the same. Also, that he wanted to have a match.”

“That reminds me, Lefille, you've also finally become stronger than me right?”

“No, that isn't the case. My swords skills still have a long way to go.”

“Fuuu... Do you really think that?”

Seeing Lefille speak humbly in a calm tone, Rumeya made a somewhat obstinate and evil smile. Just from seeing her movements, she probably saw through Lefille's abilities completely. The keen insight of a skilled swordsman was truly terrifying. Having said that, Suimei didn't doubt that Lefille's strength could be comparable to one of the Seven Swords but―

“Now that I think of it, why isn't Lefi one of those Seven Swords? You're about that strong right?”

Suimei had thought this quite a while ago, but he suddenly remembered and brought up his doubts. Lefille was the one to answer him.

“Once a year in the north, there is a competition to decide the swordsmen who are granted the title of the Seven Swords. If you don't participate and win, you can't receive the title.”

“So you didn't participate? Why not?”

“Because I have the power of the spirits. With that the matches will become unfair right?”

“I don't really think that kind of thing matters though. You used the same excuse to get out of the competition in Aldyfize. Lefi sure is stubborn.”

Rumeya puffed out some smoke once more. Just as she said, the power of spirits were Lefille's own power, it wasn't unfair. But that only applied as long as the person in question didn't deem it be unfair. It was necessary for the one who attained victory to be convinced of that fact after all. Having seen Lefille's power before her own eyes back in the Empire, Felmenia nodded deeply.

“With that power, I believe you could probably place quite highly among the Seven Swords... Or rather, I think it's possible you could even take the crown among the Seven Swords.”

“I'm also confident I could win.”

“I bet so.”

Suimei didn't complain about her confidence. Ever since he met her at the Twilight Pavilion, he already felt that Lefille was quite capable. On top of that, back when they fought with Rajas, it was her power which ultimately overpowered him. Even though there was a period time where her power was blanked out by her becoming tiny, it could be said that it was a small side effect of her tremendous power. He didn't know who all the swordsmen of the Seven Swords were, but if they all gathered in one place and fought with Lefille, he was sure their ranks would change. While Suimei was thinking about this, Lefille turned towards him.

“But if Suimei-kun used your magic freely, you'd be able to compete with your sword skills wouldn't you?”

“Me? No... That would be quite hard. Throwing a half baked swordsman like me against those opponents in an arena would be rather unreasonable.”

“Half baked? Didn't you study swordsmanship?”

“Partway through I became unable to continue learning after all. I mostly just know the fundamentals. Well, I was at least taught by an instructor though...”

An instructor―Kuchiba Kiyoshiro. This was the name of the swordsman who taught swordsmanship at the dojo Suimei attended, one of Japan's foremost sword masters. He was an old acquaintance of Suimei's father, and using that connection, Suimei strove to practice the sword under his tutelage from a young age.

Partway through he ended up giving magic his undivided attention and neglected taking lessons in the sword, but he did find this somewhat regrettable. His instructor also knew of his circumstances so if he went back after all this time to learn the Kuchiba's sword style, he would probably be pleasantly welcomed back... Though, it was obvious an unreasonable condition like 'you'll throw all your energy into this until you die,' would be tagged on.

“Fumu... From what I saw when you exchanged blows with Rajas, I don't think you would fall behind though...”

“What's that, little buddy here was named Suimei right? Are you really that strong? From the looks of it you seemed quite stringy and squishy, well I can at least tell you're a mage though...”

“Mu... Well, I can't really deny that about my physical constitution...”

Suimei let out a bitter voice as he agreed with her. It was true that he was not really muscular, and he may appear to be quite unreliable but... Even so, being compared to food like that was a bit much. Lefille then let out a bold laugh.

“He is quite strong.”

“Is that true? From what I hear, he looks like a mage though...”

“Suimei-dono is someone I summoned using the hero summoning ritual aside from the hero himself, he's a mage from another world... A magician.”

“Hou! He's a mage from the same world as that famous Hero-sama huh? I see, so that's why you guys are strong, I guess you really are powerful.”

After letting out her admiration, Rumeya took another gulp from her cup.

“Good grief it sure is amazing huh? Are people from other worlds nothing but strong guys?”

“No. It isn't quite like that.”

“Fuu? Is that so? This time around I heard that the heroes summoned over by the hero summoning ritual were pretty much all unusually strong.”

This was the first time Suimei heard this kind of story, he then began counting on his fingers.

“... Setting Reiji as a miss and that playboy hero from El Meide as sufficient, then the others would be...”

“I also don't know much about the hero summoned by Thoria, but the hero summoned by the Alliance is an incredibly skilled swordswoman. Once she stood on the battlefield, the demon army was pushed back. Though I haven't actually met her yet.”

“Now that you mention it, back in the first town we also heard Hero-dono from the Alliance pushed back the demons didn't we?”

“... As I thought, those summoned by the hero summoning ritual are simply different.”

Lefille suddenly leaked out some discouraged words as a shadow clouded over her face. She was likely feeling worthless when comparing the attack on her own country.

“I heard the demon army that attacked the Alliance was only a third of the size of the one that attacked Noshias you know? If it wasn't the case, I wouldn't be smoking tobacco here all carefree.”

There was nothing to feel down about. Rumeya was trying to cheer Lefille up like that. Hearing her concerned words, Lefille's expression cleared up slightly and Rumeya gave her a grand smile as she puffed smoke out of her pipe. She then bent herself over the table.

“So Suimei. In the end, exactly how strong are you?”

“Well, about the level where I can take pride in it.”

As Suimei modestly appraised himself, Lefille and Liliana both made astonished expressions.

“You sure can talk. As usual you've got quite the shady mouth.”

“Seriously. That statement, is a complete deception.”

“Oioi, what's with you two?”

While receiving Lefille and Liliana's criticism along with their glares, Suimei let out a perplexed voice. He only intended to humbly reply like anyone normally would, did they not hear it like that? Then, even Felmenia let out an astonished sigh.

“Didn't you even defeat her Royal Highness back in the Imperial Capital?”

“Hou? When White Flame-dono says her Royal Highness, that would be about the Twilight Beheading Princess right? Well that's quite amazing.”

Rumeya let out a grand laugh. She probably knew of Titania's true abilities. Felmenia then once more turned her reproachful gaze towards Suimei.

“... As I thought, wouldn't everything end peacefully if Suimei-dono just went to defeat the Demon Lord?”

“No way, no matter how you put it that would be unreasonable. I said before that the numbers would be relentless right?”

“Couldn't we solve that by gathering soldiers?”

“If it comes to that, the soldiers who came to support me would have to be prepared to get caught up in my magic.”

“Mu... However, with Suimei-dono's talent...”

Felmenia presented the possibility and was still clinging onto it. Suimei then suddenly showed his face as a magician.

“Menia, aren't you thinking about magic on the battlefield using this world's standards? I talked about mystical entropy the other day right? Thanks to the small amount of entropy produced by the mages here, there's no problem using magic on a battlefield. But I can't recklessly fire off magic repeatedly in that kind of place. On top of that, all the people on the battlefield would get stuck in the big magic explosions. We wouldn't absolutely mesh together right?”

“Ah...”

“But Suimei-kun. You can still fight without using large scaled magic right?”

“You're talking about that time? At that time I certainly did defeat ten thousand of them, but in exchange I was beaten up quite a lot. There was also the fact that I was gripped by anger and wasn't paying attention to myself or my surroundings, but the fight took enough time to adjust for entropy.”

As he finished, wanting to jump into the argument, Rumeya sneered as if she had just found something interesting.

“Fufuu. In that case, it would be fine to go around just defeating the enemy commanders right? With just that the fighting would become a fair bit easier.”

It was certainly just as she said, it was a sound theory to take out the head first. However, in a war against demons, that hand may only draw slight results.

“It's still unreasonable. Striking down the generals will surely give the upper hand on the battlefield, but in the long term there won't be much of an effect. After defeating the demon generals, the next batch of demons will just receive divine protection from the evil god.”

“... What do you mean by that?”

“Aside from their individual powers, the demons are given a piece of the evil god's power. That's why even if we defeat the stronger demons, the evil god will just split that power to a different target, so their total war potential doesn't change all that much. Well, if we defeated some genius strategist it would be another matter though...”

“Then Suimei-dono, just what needs to be done to remove the threat of the demons?”

“It's just my conjecture, but there is nothing but simply reducing their numbers.”

“The demons' numbers?”

“In short the problem is the evil god's ability to intervene and its capacity to do so. To start with, the existence known as divinity which exists outside the world exists on the fundamental principle that they are unable to directly interfere with the world. That's why they must appeal to beings who exist in the world and have them act as their own agents. Well, there's the exception of summoning someone over, but even so the intervention from the outside requires an indirect process. First of all, in the case where divinity wants to make the world their own, they must take the roundabout path of creating large amounts of beings who sympathize with them, such as the demons and the evil god.”

After taking a short pause, Suimei continued his explanation in his own way.

“They can either whisper in one's dreams to brainwash them or conceive fallen children. This way, divinity is able to increase the number of pawns under their control. And so, when the number of beings desiring the power held by divinity increases greatly, it becomes easier for the divinity to interfere in the world. When its ability to interfere increases, it becomes able to share its power with more beings. When that happens, the number of targets it is able to interfere with and brainwash increases, and then the number of pawns begin to increase―”

“Fumu. And a cycle begins, right?”

Hearing Rumeya groan, Suimei returned a nod.

“That's right, that's why as long as many of those things exist in the world, the divinity's influence will not be reduced. That's why in the end, the only way to bring about a resolution would be to do something directly about the evil god, or reduce the number of sympathetic beings until the evil god's ability to interfere is at threat. In other words, it is absolutely necessary to reduce the number of demons. That said, suddenly trying to face the evil god would be without a doubt completey reckless, so― ”

―Before going after the general one should first go after its horse, it becomes something like that.

“Well, this is all based on the origin of the demons' power really being the same as what we call evil gods and divinity in my world though.”

“So to summarize what Suimei-dono is saying, to do something about the demons, something must be done about the evil god. And to do something about the evil god, something must be done about the demons...”

“How, bothersome.”

“Seriously.”

After Liliana let out a tired breath, Suimei agreed completely and also let out a tired breath. However―

(However, thinking of it like that, it feels just like a war game where you just push into each others base. Well, that's based on the premise that the people are not released from their dependence on gods and spirits though... Ah?)

Now that he thought about it, he heard something similar back in the first town they came to in the Alliance. The anti-goddess religious organization or something. Certainly they were saying that they must release themselves from the Goddess. If they in fact managed to grasp the truth, and were taking action in that vein―

(Impossible, right...?)

Suimei hated overthinking things, he shook his head and scattered those thoughts away. He was being overly concerned. In this world where they didn't have the knowledge regarding divinity, they didn't have the grounds to think along those lines, so there was no way they would arrive at the answer of a conflict between gods. While Suimei was shaking away this thoughts, Rumeya seemed to suddenly remember something and cut in.

“Somehow we've gone a fair bit off topic huh? What were we talking about to begin with again?”

“Whether or not, Suimei is spouting lies right?”

“Oi Liliana, don't lie so nonchalantly.”

“My apologies. I meant, spouting big lies.”

“Oi...”

Suimei hung his head down like he was troubled while looking at Liliana let out a joke with a charming smile. Lefille and Felmenia then took on an attitude in complete agreement with her.

“What Lily is saying is not necessarily wrong huh.”

“Definitely.”

“How mean.”

Suimei no longer had any allies.

“―So, I still haven't asked, but what did you all come to the Alliance for?”

“We talked about how I was summoned from another world before right? So we came here looking for clues for returning to that world. It was written in an old book in Astel that the first hero summoning ritual was performed in a region within the Alliance.”

“So you came to look around. Certainly the place where the ritual was performed is still around.”

Rumeya replied with a quiet expression as she seemed to have an idea as to what he was talking about.

“Is that true?”

“Yeah, but about that place. Right now it's in the sphere of influence of the demons. I'm sure you heard that the demons invaded the Alliance because it was in the way by simply existing so you probably didn't look into it more. But when they first attacked they took over quite a lot of territory you see. At that time, the ancient ruins where the ritual took place was also taken over.”

“Mu... If that's the case...”

“If you want to go there, you'll have to do something about the demons who are still hanging around.”

Rumeya declared this with a serious expression as if to warn them. She was likely suggesting that it would be quite dangerous. Hearing this, Suimei let out a grand sigh.

“Haa... As expected, it ended up like this...”

Suimei slouched back into the sofa and looked up at the ceiling. He lost his strength knowing that in the end, a large scale battle with the demons was now unavoidable. Lefille then began speaking to him with a knowing look.

“Suimei-kun, it seems it is your fate to be unable to escape from battle.”

“Cut it out Lefi. What's with that commonly said phrase, seriously...”

“So, will Suimei-dono dive into the fighting by your own will?”

“What, she said.”

“Uu...”

Suimei couldn't say anything back to Felmenia or Liliana... And then, after the five of them talked of frivolous matters for a while, Suimei had one more matter to request of Rumeya.

“By the way, it may be somewhat impudent, but could you introduce us to some lodgings we could stay at for a while?”

“Aah, that much is no problem. Let's see... I know of a good inn, but I should take your financial situation into consideration. There are rooms available in the Twilight Pavilion's lodging house. How about there? It's free you know?”

“If you're letting us use it, then by all means we'll take it.”

Suimei lowered his head to Rumeya to show his gratitude. He only intended to have her introduce them to some lodgings, but the unexpected arrangements were more than welcome.

“By the way, how long are all of you planning to stay in Miazen?”

“We don't intend to inconvenience you for too long. Once our business is done I think we'll return right away but...”

“Aah, sorry, my bad. I'm not telling you to get out right away. I was just thinking it would be better if you could stay here for a longer period of time.”

“Why is that?”

“You see, the thing is, lately in the Alliance... No, not only here, but in Astel and the self governed states as well, feelings towards the Empire seem to be deteriorating. There's unrest everywhere. Well, it isn't to the extent where it will break out into a battle. So I was just thinking if it wasn't better to stay here instead of the Empire.”

They had just heard the same thing from Gaius back in the restaurant in the first Alliance town they visited. In other words, opinion towards the Empire has deteriorated considerably in the Alliance. That being said, even though a war wasn't going to start, she was probably being considerate because she worried for their safety. And then, Rumeya puffed at her pipe like she was really annoyed.

“And then there are those anti-goddess fanatics right!? Those guys can all just leave. Good grief every last one of them had to begin moving right with the demon invasion, they're all just worthless...”

Those last words likely came out of her position as a leader of the Twilight Pavilion. She must have had many anxieties in her heart to deal with. As she was complaining, Felmenia, Lefille and Liliana turned towards Suimei. The one to decide would be Suimei, the three of them were waiting for his thoughts.

“So, Suimei. What will you do?”

“I'll decide after observing the situation for myself. At any rate, I left a bunch of tools behind so I'd have to go back at least once to get them.”

“Got it. Well, with the skills you all possess there's nothing to really worry about.”

Judging that she was being meddlesome, Rumeya brought that conversation to an end. However, until she was fully satisfied, she had them tell her of their journey.

★

Having taken Rumeya up on her offer, Suimei and the others decided to stay in the available rooms in the Twilight Pavilion's lodging house. After dropping off their baggage, they relaxed in their own rooms to relieve the fatigue due to their long journey from the Empire.

After having dinner, it was now nighttime. Suimei was alone in his assigned room preparing his materials. The room was illuminated by the light from his mana. It was well lit enough that it would be comparable to a room lit by electric lights. The light carried a flame's orange brilliance, so everything within was dyed a light orange, but it wasn't really something to be worried about. While he was working, Liliana, who he had called beforehand for her treatment, came into his room.

“Suimei, I'm here.”

“Aah, then take a seat on that chair.”

After entering the room and announcing herself, Suimei pointed her towards the chair in front of a desk. They were now sitting side by side in front of the desk, much like a doctor and their patient in an examinination room.

“So, please take off your eye-patch and gloves.”

Liliana nodded once at Suimei's doctor-like order and removed her eye-patch and gloves quickly. What appeared, were thin reddish brown arms covered in bubbles like they were festering, and closely packed together reddish brown scales around her right eye. On top of that, her eye was golden and her pupil formed a long and narrow slit.

While Suimei casually examined her arms, Liliana narrowed her eyes sadly. He had treated her multiple times already since she became one of his companions, but as expected she still had mixed feelings about it, whenever he looked at her altered features she always made a sad face. Let alone showing others, even looking at it herself likely pulled her into a painful mental state.

Suimei gently took Liliana's arm and began applying magic to treat it. Placing his finger on her bumpy afflicted skin, he began moving it as if gently brushing the affected region while reciting his chant.

“Buzz, Bajia, trout, Mashiya, impose, Kashiya, Sharurai, Arumarai...”

It was Kabbalah magic meant to heal things such as tumours and swelling. After continuing the treatment for a while, the demonized portion of her arm seemingly became a little smaller. Suimei then moved on to treating her right eye and the skin around it. Liliana must have been worried as she let out an anxious voice.

“How, is it?”

“The skin on your arms and hands is healing, though little by little. If we continue at fixed intervals like we have been, it'll heal completely. The skin around your right eye is the same so there shouldn't be a problem. It's just―”

“It's just, what?”

“Your eye itself has been completely done in. After being drowned in too much malice, it's no longer a human's eye and has completely changed into something else.”

Suimei gave an accurate description of the state of her right eye with a bitter groan. Saying it has changed into something else must have reminded her of the times people projected the image of a monster on top of her. This change to the outer layer of her body was the result of being taken in by the use of dark magic. Hearing Suimei's words, Liliana despondently hung her head down.

“Then, this won't heal, right?”

“Yeah, I can't heal it.”

“I see...”

Liliana's voice had gotten quite depressed. Hearing this, Suimei realized he made a poor choice of words. Due to concentrating on his magic, he was replying in a mechanical fashion. He immediately corrected himself in a fluster.

“Sorry, my choice of words was bad. It's just that I can't heal it, it doesn't mean there's nothing that can be done. Back in the other world there are specialists in spiritual healing and engineers who can manufacture artificial magic body parts. As long as we're able to go over to the other world it won't be much of a problem.”

“Is that really true!? It can be healed!?”

Liliana yelled out as the good news reached her ears. Happiness was certainly mixed into her surprised voice. It wasn't like Suimei was a specialist in healing techniques, so his knowledge in the field was not particularly deep. Back in his world there were magicians who would just laugh scornfully as they healed this level of affliction with ease. If he asked one of them, she would be healed without a problem. However, as if there was still something on his mind, Suimei made a somewhat complex expression.

“It can be healed but... It's just that the most skilled magician that I can ask for this, is that monster professor though...”

In the back of his mind, he could recall that mysterious person with a plump figure wearing a white lab coat with his ominous faint smile and his mushroom hairstyle. He was a man who lived in the basement of the old castle which served as the Society's headquarters and used incomprehensible magic to produce incomprehensible things.

Naturally, Suimei didn't have any worries when it came to the actual treatment. Among all magicians he was considered to be in the same class as the best of the best. His skills at healing were probably in fact the best, he wouldn't permit anyone to call themselves a better specialist when it came to spiritual healing. There wasn't a single ounce of worry that it would result in failure. However, to put it poorly, the probability that the monster professor would cram in unnecessary functions was quite high. Setting aside the fact whether that was good or bad, Liliana, who did not know any of this, was innocently showing her happiness.

“What a relief.”

“W-well, that's right. It'll be alright. That's why we should find a way to return―to find a way to reach our destination in the other world. Until then I'll heal your skin.”

Suimei once more began humming his spell and applied his healing magic. Liliana's expression as she quietly received the treatment was far brighter than what she showed when she took off her gloves and eye-patch.

“Alright, we're done.” “Thank you, very much.”

“Whoa there...”

Liliana clung on to Suimei with a happy expression. Having gotten used to Suimei and the others, she seemed to have developed a habit of clinging onto them. This was also the case when she clung to Lefille's arm while talking to Rumeya, but whenever she was happy or sad, she would cling on to Suimei, Felmenia and Lefille to show her emotions.

Though indirectly, he heard that she had always been ostracized by her surroundings and that Rogue did not spoil her like a child much. Since she was never spoiled by others, it seemed that when her emotions swelled up she reacted like this as her longing for company increased. As Suimei gently patted her head while she clung on to him, she closed her eyes happily.

★

The Saadias Alliance was located in the north western part of the continent. It was a federation of states made up of five different countries. It is said that the name was given to it by the swordsmen who drove the demons to the north and liberated the territory while carrying the hopes of the people. At the centre of those countries was the sovereign state, Miazen, where many of the swordsmen given the title of Seven Swords came from. Many of the swordsmen of the allied armies also came from there, so among the five countries in the Alliance, it was the most powerful.

Those who admired those heroes gathered there aiming to become heroes themselves as they diligently devoted themselves to the study of sword skills. Because of this, to the west of the river which split the city in two, there were many drill sites among the shops which taught swordsmanship to the citizens and soldiers. And alongside them were many of the craftsmen who created the swords they were swinging. It was a city of weapon stores.

The day after arriving in Miazen, Suimei's party of four was headed to the west side of the city. Walking over the bridge which split the city in half, Suimei put his thoughts into words.

“How do I say it, everyone seems to be enjoying themselves.”

The city was overflowing with energy. Joyful voices could be heard all over the city, it was practically revelry.

“I heard it in the morning, but it seems it is because the hero's parade is today.”

“Aah, now that you mention it...”

As they were leaving, Rumeya did mention something about the hero's parade. The reason they were suddenly holding an exhibition in Miazen was because they were spreading the news that the Alliance's hero dealt a serious blow to the demon army and defeated a demon general. And so, the people of the city were unable to contain their boiling blood.

“It seems the parade will be happening in the afternoon? What will we do? Should we go and watch?”

“Seems like a good idea. That kind of thing is nice once in a while.”

Suimei nodded at Felmenia's suggestion. This would be the first time he properly watched a hero's parade. Back during Reiji's parade he only saw him off. During Elliot's parade in the Empire, there was still the coma incident going on so he couldn't go see it.

“There's still time until the parade starts though?”

“Then as we initially planned, let's look around town until it starts.”

Everyone agreed with Lefille's suggestion and began moving. While walking around the western district looking for a place to kill time, they came across a shop with a somewhat gaudy exterior. As it came into sight, the one to raise their voice excitedly, was Lefille.

“Ooh! This store is!”

What came into sight was a clothes shop which also seemed to sell many miscellaneous goods. The goods outside the store serving as advertisement were all cute things, it was probably a store aimed towards women. There were similar stores in the Imperial Capital, but this one was in no way inferior in scale to those and they seemed to have an abundance of complete sets of items. Taking a careful look at the store, Suimei recognized it.

“Aah, this place is that right? Kind of like that clothing store from before...”

The store resembled the clothing store that was in Kurant City. Back when they were looking for clothes for the tiny Lefille, they bought clothes for small girls that were the latest model from the Saadias Alliance, so this was likely the flagship store. To set up a branch in a foreign country in such an undeveloped world gave an indication of their profitability. The clothes that were set up here were all frilly clothing. Suimei then turned to Lefille.

“Do you, want to go there?”

“Eeh!? No I don't particularly, but...”

So she said, but her eyes were impulsively swimming towards the shop. Seeing this, Suimei put on a mean smile.

“You can't wear children's clothing now you know?”

“Nobody said anything about wearing that kind of clothing!”

“Is that right~? You can wear them if you become small again so it isn't completely unreasonable...”

“Shut up! I can't hear you!”

While the two were having this exchange, Felmenia surprisingly cut in full of excitement from behind him.

“Suimei-dono! Let's go to that store!”

“What, Menia also likes those things?”

“Yes!”

Felmenia was suddenly full of energy. As expected, it seemed that girls liked stores which sold cute things like that. The reason Lefille reacted like that was probably because she was the same.

“Well, shall we go and see?”

“I-it can't be helped. If everyone is going, I'll come along.”

After Lefille's tried to bluff them out with a trembling voice, Suimei began walking towards the store. For some reason a strange voice came from behind him.

“... Suimei-dono? Lefille? Where are the two of you going? It's over here right? Here.”

“Ha?”

“Mu?”

Hearing Felmenia's voice, Suimei and Lefille turned around. She was facing the same direction so they both thought she wanted to go to the clothing store, but they were wrong. However, in the direction she pointed towards, was a dubious store discharging an eerie atmosphere into its surroundings.

“Both of you, let's go quickly!”

On the other hand, Felmenia's entire face was smiling as she was brimming with energy. However, the building which seemed like a store did not give off any sense that it should make a woman so happy.

“H-here? Is it really here? Really? Seriously?”

“That's right. Please take a look at the gloomy atmosphere of this store which can't be found in Astel or the Empire! Take a waft of the suspicious stink of medicinal herbs! You can see numerous goods with magic words engraved on them from outside! How could you not be excited!?”

Felmenia was speaking passionately before Suimei who was looking at something weird with an expression like he didn't get it at all. After listening to her and taking a closer look at the store, magic goods―or magic tools as they call them here, were being sold by this store. But even so, he didn't nod in excitement.

“Suimei-dono? Why are you making such a strange face? Isn't it normal?”

“N-normal?”

“It isn't?”

“I-I mean...”

Judging that Suimei seemed hesitant to point it out, Felmenia changed the target of her question to Liliana.

“Lily, what do you think about it?”

“L-Liliana? It's weird isn't it? Right?”

Suimei was looking for someone to agree with him, but...

“That's not the case though?”

“Ha?”

“Just as Felmenia said, it seems, quite amusing.”

Suimei realized that just like Felmenia, Liliana's eye was sparkling.

“You see!? It is just as I thought! A person who doesn't tremble in excitement from looking at that store's appearance does not exist!”

“Is Suimei, different?”

“No, well I'm certainly somewhat interested in it....”

Suimei was also a magician. He was also somewhat interested in mysterious goods. However, whatever the circumstances may be, he thought girls wouldn't get so excited about it. While completely baffled by all of this, his shoulder was suddenly struck solidly as someone grasped it.

“It's alright. Suimei-kun's reaction is normal.”

“I-isn't it?”

Lefille was making a complicated expression like she was looking at something she could not understand. She must have been of the same opinion as Suimei. He was relieved that common sense was being protected by her.

“Anyways, Suimei-dono! Let's go inside!”

“Hurry, let's go.”

“... Alright, in we go then.”

Having his hands pulled by Felmenia and Liliana, they entered the shop. Suimei had gathered goods while he was the Empire, so he had been to magic stores before, but this magic store in the other world for some reason smelled of incense. Back in his own world, this kind of store would use incense with a pleasant smell to urge customers to come back, but that wasn't the case in this store. It reminded him more of incense used during funerals.

The shop's clerk seemed to have no interest in actually serving customers and was just looking at them. Before he realized, Felmenia and Liliana were already looking at the shelves of goods and books and already had medicinal herbs and a magic staff in hand.

This was also the case in the Empire, but the magic tools sold in these stores had many different appearances, they were somehow aimed more towards fashion. In this world they were items to show to others after all. From that point of view, unlike the other world where they took ornaments and made them into magic goods, this world took magic goods and made them into ornaments. Well, it was only a trivial difference.

“Suimei-dono! There's something interesting here!”

Felmenia suddenly called out to him. He noticed that Felmenia was holding something in her hand while bouncing up and down and smiling at him. Looking at what she was holding, blood drained out of Suimei's face.

“A-a stuffed doll...!”

“Is something the matter?”

“No...”

Suimei groaned in front of Felmenia who was holding on to an old fashioned stuffed doll while she tilted her head to the side in confusion. Back in the other world, he had a partner who would go, 'Suimei-kun, a doll,' which ended up as a terrible memory for him. Ever since then, whenever he saw a small deformed stuffed doll, he would recall that tussle that he did not want to remember.

Somehow managing to give Felmenia a reply, he took a peek at Lefille and Liliana. Lefille, who was not very familiar with such goods looked at them with a grimace while groaning. On the other hand, Liliana was skimming through a grimoire quickly. Felmenia then shifted her attention to a glass case with accessories in it. She was probably looking at amulets and talismans. She was the type of mage to not use a staff, so she seemed to have more interest in those goods than a magic staff. Looking closely, Felmenia had a sparkle in her eyes. She had no interest at all in the clothing shop before, but it seemed she at least had an interest in these kind of things that was more befitting for her age.

“Menia, if it catches your eye, shall I buy one for you?”

“!!”

“I-is it alright, Suimei-dono!?”

Felmenia let out a surprised voice as she agreed immediately. Suimei felt like Lefille was also pointing a surprised expression towards him, but it must have been his imagination since she was looking somewhere else when he turned to look.

“Then, um, how about this...”

“Aah, alright.”

Felmenia pointed reservedly at a brooch with a blue gem in it and Suimei gave her a pleasant reply. After calling the clerk to retrieve it from the case, he paid for it and handed it over to Felmenia. Felmenia held the brooch with both hands and was smiling with her whole face.

“A gift from Suimei-dono... Eheheh.”

“Do you like it?”

“Eheheh.”

“... Oooooi.”

Even after calling out to her, she didn't reply. It seemed only her mind was on a trip into her own little world.

“... Uuuuuh, what about Liliana? Is there something you want?”

“I, don't have anything, that I want no matter what.”

After saying that, Liliana continued to inspect the store's interior. And then― he could hear shuffling.

“...?”

After some more shuffling, he realized that Lefille was suddenly in his field of vision. While looking at her idly, she drew closer while shuffling about. While Suimei had a puzzled expression guessing she was tired or something, she then called out to him.

“S-Suimei-kun?”

“What's wrong?”

Lefille cleared out her throat. And then she spoke in a somewhat high strung voice.

“U-umm, Suimei-kun. I think it is somewhat unfair to only buy something for Felmenia-jou though.”

“Is that right?”

“That's right!”

“Do you also want something Lefi? But I bought you some clothes back in Kurant City right?”

“Th-that's true, but...”

“There's also the condition of my wallet to consider. If you want something, sorry but this time you'll have to manage on your own...”

As Suimei scratched his head apologetically, Lefille still stuck to her guns.

“B-before we left the Empire, did you not buy Lily an umbrella too!?”

“Aah, since she can't use dark magic that was too provide something to cover for that if only even a little.”

Before coming to the Alliance, taking Liliana's drop in self defence capabilities into consideration, he bought her a parasol which suited her well. While she was receiving treatment, it served the role of a magic staff and allowed her to use simple magics. Providing this for her was obvious. Lefille then looked at him with somewhat envious eyes. He didn't understand why.

“What's wrong all of a sudden? There's nothing here that Lefi would seem to want right?”

“Th-that's not true you know? After looking I got interested. Really, really interested.”

“Ha?”

“Th-that's right! How about this!?”

While in a fluster, Lefille grabbed something that caught her eye. However that dried up object...

“Ah, oi, isn't that an animal's cock? Just what are you going to use that for?”

“? UWAAAAAAH!?”

After figuring out exactly what she was holding in her hand, Lefille began to panic in confusion. After rampaging for a while, she hurried back to where she was, and without planning on giving up, picked up something else in her hand.

“Th-then, this!”

What she had in her hand now was a sort of container for cosmetics. Suimei took it and gave it a sniff.

“... This, is probably an aphrodisiac salve.”'

“... Sorry. Please put it back.”

Lefille hung her head down. Everything she grabbed in her hand was something strange.

“Like I thought you should stop. Lefi has poor affinity with this store.”

“Ugu... Suimei-kun is a bully...”

“Why did it come to that...”

She was looking at him with resentment while speaking the same way she did when she became tiny. Suimei couldn't grasp why she wanted something so much that she would go so far. Having noticed Lefille's state, Liliana tapped on Lefille's shoulder repeatedly.

“Lefille. Next time, let's go to a different store. There, you can ask Suimei, to buy you something. Right, Felmenia?”

“That's right~ Eheheh.”

Felmenia replied completely absentmindedly. Her mind still hadn't come back from her own little world. Or rather, it was somewhat strange that as the youngest member, Liliana was the most level headed among them.

“Alright! The next store will surely be!”

On the other hand, Lefille was suddenly filled with determination as she tightened her fist. In the end, the dull-headed Suimei had no idea what was going on. Suimei then noticed that the hustle and bustle outside had gotten a fair bit larger.

“It's become quite noisy.”

Lefille drew closer to the store's window.

“The parade is probably about to start. The people are moving towards the main street.”

“Well then, shall we go look?”

As Suimei asked, the three of them each gave a reply and before long the four of them left the store and arrived at the street the Alliance's hero would be passing through. It was just about to begin. The path on the street was completely empty for the parade and on each side of the route was nothing but people, people, people, people overflowing everywhere.

“Uwa, that's a ton of people. It was also amazing in the Empire, but I guess it's like this everywhere.”

As Suimei looked in astonishment, Felmenia spoke up.

“Certainly, there's an astonishing number of people. It is in no way inferior to Reiji-dono's parade.”

“Umu. That's right. That time there was quite a lot of people too.”

Lefille was the one who spoke like she was remembering the parade. During the parade in Astel, Suimei was holed up inside the castle. She must have seen it before meeting Suimei. While she remembered it with admiration, she was also shrinking back a bit for some reason.

“Everyone. It seems, it's starting.”

“Is that so? Liliana.”

“Yes. Over there, they're coming. The leading party is the hero and her companions, four people.”

After Suimei asked, Liliana pointed further down the street. As one would expect, she had sharp ears. Lefille also sensed their strong presence and squinted her eyes to avoid the sunlight while looking towards the hero's party.

“The noise is getting closer. They should be here soon.”

“Ah! I can see the leading carriage!”

Right after Felmenia let out her voice, a portion of the gathered masses screamed in joy. Before long, a well guarded escort carriage came into sight. Behind it, a festival float without a roof followed it. The festival float was being pulled by a cowhorn as to make it easier for the gathered masses to see. And on top of that festival float waving their hand was―

“Ah! That old man!?”

Seeing a familiar figure, Suimei yelled out in surprise. It was the tall dark-skinned man they met in the first town they came to in the Alliance, Gaius Forvan.

“That's, Forvan right?”

“Uheeeh... That old man, he was seriously one of the hero's companions...”

Suimei's surprise was completely leaking out, his eyes were wide open. Felmenia looked at him with a puzzled expression as she could not tell why he was so surprised.

“Suimei-dono. Did you not believe Forvan's story?”

“No, only half of it.”

He certainly didn't think it was a lie that he fought against demons, but he didn't really think he was one of the hero's companions. He thought he was just a soldier who fought near the hero at the most but―

“But really, that old man is really in high spirits.”

“Isn't he? He seems to be having a lot of fun... Um, like, really, a lot.”

Felmenia made a bitter smile. Gaius was unbecoming of his age and was excessively smiling at everybody. He had quite the slender face and features so it wasn't that strange, but looking at the figure of an old man overcome with excitement atop a festival float was somehow embarrassing to watch. Suimei thought the same back at the restaurant, but he was probably the type who was excited by his own confidence.

The festival float behind Gaius' then came into sight. On top of it was a person wearing a green robe with a hood. Their face was completely concealed by the hood, but from the lines made by their body it was probably a woman. She was holding onto a staff made of black wood with a large jewel at its tip and she was waving her hand in a mild-mannered fashion towards the populace.

“A mage?”

“Probably. Her robe and that type of staff are commonly used by mages in the self governed states. That's the first time I've seen such a large jewel installed in a staff though...”

Felmenia agreed with Suimei while looking at the staff curiously. However, as one would expect of the hero's party. A martial artist filled to the brim with muscles and a mage. They had all sorts of people gathered around them.

Before long, what appeared atop the next festival float was a young swordsman. He was somewhere in his teens. He seemed awfully familiar with this sort of event as he had a slight smile on his symmetrical face while responding to the people. From the fancy clothing that he was wearing, Suimei guessed he was someone of high standing. Liliana then looked at him with a sleepy looking eye.

“The first prince of Miazen, Weitzer Ryerzen.”

“Fumu, one of the Seven Swords huh? To think he would also fight as one of the hero's companions.”

Lefille seemed to recognize the name Liliana let out.

“A hunk huh? A hunk prince who is strong and famous is just winning at life too much, what a scam.”

Suimei made a declaration filled with envy, but setting that aside. If that was the third person, then that means it was the last companion. The one riding atop the next and festival float would be the hero summoned by the Alliance.

“Now then, what kind of person will come out.”

“Gaius-dono said that she was a beautiful woman right?”

“Certainly, he said that.”

“Suimei, it's here. The last festival float.”

“Ooh, you're right........ Ah?”

After turning around when Liliana called out to him, Suimei looked at the top of the festival float, and let out a puzzled voice.

―For an instant, Suimei doubted his eyes. That's because there was a familiar person standing right where he was looking. Just like their information had indicated, the one standing atop the festival float was a woman.

However, she was wearing the uniform of a girl's high school from the neighbourhood of Suimei's house, a short skirt and a white garter belt, on her arms were scarlet armoured hand covers and the mask of a devil. She had long blond hair along her back, her hair was parted to one side and was kept up in a tuft by a ribbon. She had jade green eyes with long eyelashes which gave a sense of her youth. From the way she held herself, her strength was also apparent.

He could hear sighs of admiration from here and there which were likely due to her beautiful appearance. A long sword curved sword―what is called an uchigatana was in one of her hands as she awkwardly waved to the crowd with the other.

No matter how much he stared, all that came to mind was 'There's no way she should be here.' That girl was someone from the other world. She should not be in this world. While trying to escape from reality, Suimei shook his head right away. It was simply impossible for her to be a hero, and for him as her friend to also be summoned here. However...

“Just what kind of probability is this...”

To think that not only Reiji and Mizuki, but another of his acquaintances would be summoned to this world. It wasn't like it was absolutely impossible, but the probability that it happened was astronomically low. It wasn't something that could simply happen by coincidence.

“Suimei-dono?”

Noticing that Suimei was making a menacing look, Felmenia called out to him. But Suimei had no time to pay attention to her. Paying no mind to his surroundings, he let out a loud voice towards the top of the festival float.

“Oi! Hatsumi! It's me! Hatsumiiii! Can she not hear me in this ruckus...? Fuck!”

His voice was being drowned out by the crowd, it did not reach her―Kuchiba Hatsumi. Cursing out at the irritation of things not going his way, there was no way he would just let it go. Suimei once more tried yelling out to her and then, her eyes met his among the sea of people.

“Hatsumi...”

However, she did not notice his existence and began waving in another direction.

“Eh....?”

She was supposed to notice him and make a shocked expression. Having found a familiar face, she was supposed to call out his name. But that fleeting thought was completely betrayed. Suimei stood stock still dumbfounded before this treacherous reality thrust before him. Seeing his strange behaviour, Felmenia and Lefille called out to him.

“Suimei-dono? Just what is the matter?”

“That's quite the expression you have...”

Right now, he couldn't even properly hear their anxious voices. Why was it? Why did this happen? These words whirled around in Suimei's head for a while and occupied all his thoughts. Eventually, he came back to reality, and raised his face.

“... Aah, let's go back to the Twilight Pavilion for now. I'll explain it there.”

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VOLUME 05

Prologue

The Third Hero

Chapter 1

To the Saadias Alliance

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