It was barely two weeks after the appearance of Demon of Arx Norr. The day was sunny with calm soothing wind all over the city. However, it was not so much of a good day to some people.
“YOU! YOU! ARGH!”
A loud, irritated voice could be heard from a room in Zagrant Empire most revered place, the imperial palace Gran Te’asvis. The maids working outside the room were startled but since it was hardly the first time, and being professional as they were, the maids quickly resumed their work.
“I thought I clearly said that the demon princess was seen in Arx Norr! Our spy network even concluded that a girl who just joined adventurer guild has a high chance to be the demon princess.”
Bulging veins can be seen on both his temple and the hand holding it with strength. The middle aged man who shouted in anger is the Marquis of Amark of Zagrant Empire, Daunte Kohl Amarkus. The one being reprimanded and is sitting with his legs on the table as if he is unaware of the tense atmosphere is the Empire’s strongest, Ruberius.
“No, well I only heard about the princess that might be there and the demon general that is coming to get her. So I thought the general is of higher priority than the helpless princess.”
“You battle crazed maniac! This is what I said at that time,’I want you to get her first and if possible also defeat that demon general as well’ meaning our priority is the princess, not the other way around. I even said that it was direct order from the goddess. And to top it off you failed to kill the general in the end.”
“Oh, come on, I also looked at the adventurer guild and merchant guild but let alone the princess there is no non-human in the guilds. As for the general didn’t I write about the interference by one helluva strong demon in my report?”
Daunte pulled out some pieces of paper from his breast pocket, only two to be precise, and slammed it onto the table.
“You call this a report? This?”
“Yeah, I mean, what else to write? The first few stages of the mission went smoothly but I was unconscious when that strong demon massacred my knights. Zeras did say that it happened in mere seconds though. Or do you want me to write details of the aftermath where blood, innards, and body parts scattered all around?”
“Not your knights, I was the one that prepared most of them from my spares. At least aside from the five coming from your verm liet brigade most of them were barely squire graduates so we didn’t lose too much but a loss is still a loss and this is a huge one since we gained nothing!”
“Okay then, let me tell you this. The new demon is at demon lord class. I’d wager my head that the guy makes most other demon generals I have seen look like a toddler in comparison. Saying that at least we didn’t lose me who is an important fighting force to his imperial majesty might help you.”
Looking at the grinning Ruberius, Daunte only sighed and sank powerless into the chair that was behind him all this time.
“So you do realize that I will fix the report and go to his majesty in your stead so you won’t get the brunt of his majesty’s anger then. Damn you, only acting all stupid whenever it is convenient for you…”
“You know that if the one who failed then go see his imperial majesty directly they might lose a limb or two, right? You’re the closest one to his imperial majesty after the duke so I’ll be counting on you. And it’s not that I don’t want to take responsibility, if such thing were to happen to me before your next plan comes into fruition we can’t say it is just me who will suffer. I will also go to report myself after his anger subsides given some time or if his imperial majesty is in good mood.”
Daunte just sighed again and stood.
“Can’t be helped then… In exchange, just teach my son the advanced form of your Ruberius style already.”
“Well, I guess he is ready now… okay. I’ll also add some more high quality wine for you later if you gave some excuses to his imperial majesty about me.”
Only waving his hand without looking back Daunte left the room.
Thinking that fixing the report can be done later Daunte chose to do so and decided on his destination. After walking with heavy footsteps for several minutes while planning for many different scenarios in his mind Daunte arrived in front of a double door as high as three adult human stacked on each other. The door which was made of blood red gemstone was decorated with intricate black and golden ornaments of which the middle part formed a soaring dragon spreading its wings in all of its majesty. The dragon is holding a figure of a maiden in its arms. It is the imperial crest and coat of arms depicting the goddess and her subordinate dragon.
Had been previously informed of his coming the two knight guards opened the door for him and the inside is revealed. It is a room so wide with ceilings so high that will make anyone who came here for the first time would have mistakenly thought that they were outdoor. Clad in seemingly golden full plate armor, holding various kind of weapons in their arms, lined on both sides of the room are not human guards as can obviously be seen from their height that surpassed even three storied building. They are the imperial guardians said to have been created during the first generation emperor’s reign dubbed as mechanical knights or simply as golems. As the technology to make them has been lost with time, the ones here might be the last in existence.
Daunte walked through a red carpet with golden linings that is spread until an elevated area with only few steps of stairs but enough to make whomever on top of it to look down on even the tallest of men. A throne which size is enough to make you think what kind of giant will sit on it is placed and a room leading further can be seen behind the curtain on both sides of the throne. The one sitting on the throne is, however, a young man in his early twenties based on looks alone. His gaudy clothing, the imperial scepter in his hand, the imperial crown atop his shiny golden hair, and a grand bearing despite his youthful look, made no one will doubt that he is the emperor himself, emperor Zenon Darius Forxa Al Zagrant.“
You have come, Daunte. We did not wait that long but quickly come forward will you?”
Elbow on the armrest, the emperor put his chin on his hand and beckoned Daunte over.
The emperor’s so calm attitude actually just served to increase the amount of Daunte’s cold sweat causing his clothes to stick onto his skin uncomfortably but Daunte immediately did as urged and raised his pace. Usually when a subordinate has failed a task given by the emperor himself the emperor will personally punish the one to fail which often ends in death or a disability at best. There are only two possible explanations when the emperor does not show his anger, to then explode with even greater wrath which equals death to the receiver, or that the emperor is in a terribly good mood. Even for Daunte who can be said as close to the emperor there is no guarantee that some painful experience won’t befall him. So, praying for the latter Daunte kneeled at a little distance before the stairs leading to the throne.
“Where is Ruberius? We were sure that he has returned.”
“I am afraid general Ruberius is unable to present himself due to his injury.”
Squinting his eyes, the emperor’s lips formed a faint smile for a moment.
“Is that so? For him to be injured and unable to even give some excuse himself... was the demon general he faced that strong? We surmised that it must be the weakest amongst all, the general from Estria. Were we wrong then?”
Beads of sweat traced his cheeks and dripped down staining the red carpet below but Daunte managed to wring out the sentence he had prepared on the way here.
“Your majesty is not wrong, however… an unexpected occurrence impeded the success of the task bestowed upon him.”
“Hooo? What is that, then?”
In an exaggerated manner, the emperor raised his chin for the first time and made a curious look albeit it seemed too fake to Daunte who has known the emperor since childhood.
“A new unidentified demon that might be as strong as a demon lord appeared and annihilated most of our men before injuring general Ruberius. I believe the demon’s purpose was to help the demon general of Estria.”
“Heee~ I see, I see.”
The lack of tension in the emperor’s voice made Daunte inadvertently gulped his saliva. Imminent wrath? Good mood? Which one is it?
“How about the demon princess then?”
Hesitating, Daunte faltered but quickly decided to speak when he saw the emperor furrowed his eyebrows.
“… The search team… was unable to find her…”
Daunte’s body shook as the emperor lifted the imperial scepter in his hand. Albeit smaller than most magic staffs the imperial scepter is one-in-a-kind artifact capable of conjuring forth one certain natural disaster class magic without the need to chant the spell aria and mana usage. Granted, such convenient ability has its limitations, mainly that the ability can only be used once in a month. However that does not mean the scepter does not have any other ability. The scepter holder has the authority to force command anyone with imperial crest engraved on their body limited to 3 commands in a lifetime for each. The scepter also greatly enhances both physical and magical capability of its holder. Many of those who failed the task given by the emperor himself has fallen victim to these abilities.
“HAHAHAHAHA! Don’t be so stiff, Daunte. We are not angry of anything, we were just playing along since you looked so nervous!”
Daunte breathed a sigh of relief, believing that the emperor is in good mood, he finally started wiping his sweat with a handkerchief. Daunte still won’t dare to say anything yet though.
“We might have become angry were you to come here a little earlier. Be grateful because we were told that the demon princess is not yet necessary at this stage and we have finally given the permission for that!”
“That?”
Before the emperor could explain to Daunte who told the emperor such and what “that” is, the room was suddenly illuminated by bright light followed by a formation of magic circle near the emperor.
What revealed itself from the magic circle was something breathtaking. An incredibly beautiful woman, with captivating fair white skin and long straight white hair reaching her waist in simple yet gorgeous blue and white garb. The most enthralling, however, would be a large pair of magnificent angelic wings on her back. The light has subsided a little but the room is still comfortably bright which enhanced the bewitching effect of the woman’s gentle smiling face.
“Ooooh!”
The emperor shouted with joy and immediately approached the woman before kneeling in front of her.
There is only one being to whom the emperor will kneel for. And this must also be the answer to Daunte’s previous questions.
The imperial scepter possesses one more ability which is the most important. The holder is granted the right to converse and meet directly with the highest of being ever known to human, the goddess.
Daunte who realized the identity of the woman immediately fixed his disrupted kneeling stance.
“You may raise your head my dear Zenon.”
With voice clearer than the chime of countless golden uarum bells rang together, the goddess spoke to the emperor.
“Yes.”
“I see you have gathered the necessary sacrifices so I am here to give you the promised artifacts.”
Prompted by the goddess emperor Zenon stood to accept said artifacts, five pieces of shining orbs covered in crisscrossing metal chains.
Daunte knows about the artifacts. They will be used to bypass the conditional requirements for hero summoning magic. Using the artifact one can ignore the limitation of only doing the summoning once per year and there won’t be any need to use high quality dungeon core which is very rare and extremely hard to get. There is still the limit of summoning five otherworlders but with this the summoning of each can be done both separately and simultaneously. The only requirements which is rather difficult to do was the need to sacrifice 500 human souls per otherworlder. For that goal the empire had gathered some war prisoners and criminals to the capital.
After receiving the artifacts the emperor kneeled again with solemn expression.
“I will always watch over you, Zenon. I will continue to give my blessing to you and the empire, to ensure victory against those filthy demon race.”
“I am honored to be able to receive your grace, my goddess.”
The goddess smiled and leaned to kiss emperor Zenon on the forehead. The emperor kept his solemn expression but it is clear that he is holding the urge to express his joy as can be seen from his trembling body.
Light and magic circle similar with before appeared once again until the goddess’ figure is gone.
With a blissful expression the emperor stood and faced Daunte.
“Daunte, the goddess Praesia has imparted her blessing upon me. Nothing else can make me happier. Now take these artifacts and do the summoning right away. We want to be alone and savor this great feeling right now.”
The emperor who usually used “we” was using “me” instead but Daunte chose to ignore that, accepted the artifacts, and immediately proceeded to do his next task.
***
Aside from the large door and high ceiling the room does not have anything else. The room is wide but with 5 hundred people stuffed inside it is more than just cramped and suffocating. They were forced to get in the room barely a quarter of an hour bell ago but the room already reeks of sweat and various complaining grumble can be heard all over. They are mostly criminals such as bandits and philanderer. Some of the demon race is also mixed in and they are facing discrimination even in this situation. They are getting spat on, punched and made to become man chair by some rougher looking men. Except for some brighter people who looked to be anxious or in despair the rest chose to calm themselves down by taking it on the minority and the weaker looking ones. Little did they know the fate in store will treat them all the same which is soon to be proven as the room is surrounded in ominous looking magical array.
Right above that room is a little less wide room with a complex magic circle etched on the floor. A shining orb is placed at the center surrounded by 5 imperial magicians chanting non-stop. The orb’s glow grows stronger as the souls, life of those in the lower room is being forcefully taken and sent into the magical formation which began to emit blinding light. Daunte who stood near the door raised an arm to shield his eyes from the light which soon dissipates leaving a figure standing in the middle of the room looking around with both surprise and caution.
The figure is wearing a helmet, a large backpack, and is clad in strange clothing with abstract pattern of different colors. He is holding a strange metallic object which he soon pointed at some of the mages in turn alternating between his sides and back while shouting in a language Daunte couldn’t understand. It seemed the language translation magic is yet to take effect. Daunte wouldn’t know that what the person was holding is M16 assault rifle and that he is shouting words of threat and demands for explanation. However Daunte immediately realized that the man is not a common pedestrian from how he acts and that strange object must be some kind of weapon. Recalling his hazy memories about what a certain past generation hero had said Daunte floated a smile.
“It seems we hit the jackpot.”
At the same time in four other similar but different rooms the summoning ritual has all been completed. One resulted in summoning a young man who is quiet and does not seem to be surprised by what happened. Only smiling to the mages that summoned him in an extremely chilling manner he asked them to tell of the event after confirming that his words connected as the effect of the translation magic kicked in. Strangely, the man seemed to be excited somehow.
Another one is a teen boy who, after looking around immediately jumped and shouted what sounded to be joyous words while making strange poses. In fact it was “Yeahhhh, finally my time has come! I am the herooooo! Don’t worry folks, I will save the world! Girls, don’t fall for me too easily although I’ll welcome any cute ones! Muhahahaha!” which continued even after the translation magic started to be effective.
Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.
The last one is a girl who looked to be more frightened than surprised as she realized whatever has happened to her. After the translation magic started to be effective and receiving explanation from the mages she immediately asked to be sent back to her world in anger. Yes, she is the last one. The fifth summoning was a failure. The prisoners all died and the artifact turned into dust which means that the process worked just fine but nothing came out from the summoning.
After the report came in Daunte was once again haunted by how the emperor will react to this but fortunately for him the emperor was still in good mood and brushed it off saying at least four was a success. Daunte was thinking that the emperor might actually use the topic as a chance to speak with the goddess once again and it sounded so plausible Daunte could not laugh it off. At least Daunte was then able to tell Ruberius that the emperor is in a good mood.
This failure befuddled many in the empire for some time until a certain event that will happen in the not so far future.
***
To Katja Eeva Virtanen, that day was her long most anticipated day. Her on-the-verge-of-divorcing parents who have been living separately for more than three months finally decided to reconcile. Her previous happy everyday life with her parents and siblings will be restored soon. And they will share the same house again at that exact day, or at least that how it was supposed to be. When she went to buy some celebratory gift for her parents all of a sudden she was enveloped in strange light and the next thing she knew she was in a place she has never seen and surrounding her are suspicious robed people who talked to her in a language she could not recognize.
Katja immediately felt fear to the many suspicious robed figure and the room with strange marks carved into its wall and floor. She timidly asked the robed figures with any language she has learned including English and French but it was useless.
For reason unknown to her at the time she gradually came to understand what those people are saying and her words seemed to connect as well so once again she immediately asked what happened. Their answer shocked her. She was summoned to a world that is not earth? She would believe it more were they told her that she was drugged and kidnapped instead. However the fact is soon established in her mind as she saw one robed man showing her a proof, magic.
As she remembered the moment before she was summoned, she began to demand to be returned to earth in loud voice. She doesn’t care even if it was another world or simply abduction, the fact is that today was a very important day and she could care less about anything else unrelated. And she was even angrier as they said returning her right away is impossible as there are many requirements. Having no choice but to accept that fact she could only follow their instruction to go and rest in a room they have prepared for her. Being treated like a VIP does not change her mental state. Holding her anger and regret she could barely hold her tears as she laid herself on a large bed in a room three times as wide as her room back on earth. It is only several days later when she learned that she was not alone.
Arimura Kazuya was, simply said, an avid otaku. He mostly keep things to himself and barely had any friends. People don’t bully him as he basically avoids trouble and often help the teacher to do some task. He is neither introvert nor extrovert and while he is often by himself, he does hang out with the few friends he have. If there is one thing that makes him rather special is that he was always preparing himself in case he get summoned to another world. Learning various martial arts albeit only to the basic level, reading book on particular knowledge such as agriculture, sales and management skills and so on.
His friends barely managed to stop him from doing a last resort to go to another world, the cliched truck. They convinced him by saying that method won’t guarantee a summon or reincarnation and that the incredibly high risk outweighed the minuscule probability of success. They of course didn’t say that it was simply too stupid in regards to his feelings.
In a bland twist of fate Kazuya was finally summoned during another day of his knowledge gathering in a library. He was finally released from all restraint, letting himself loose in the other world.
Inspired by the old movie “Saving Corporal Bryan” he watched with friends, the young Stanley Goldberg dreamed of becoming a soldier. To achieve that he trained his physique since a tender age, resulting in a strong well-built body at the age of 17. He finally managed to be enlisted and is now a private first class at the age of 19. He does not particularly aiming for a higher post and was just your average Joe that follows his commanding officer’s order word to word.
On a mission in the middle-east his squad was ambushed in a night raid. His comrades were all killed and as he was surrounded by the enemies alone in the frontlines a bright light of unknown source suddenly blinded him. He was surprised when the enemies in front of him disappeared and were replaced by many hooded figures. He held the urge to open fire as the people surrounding him this time showed no hostility. Concluding that he was saved from his previous predicament and after some deliberations to accept the fact that he is no longer on earth, he decided to follow the empire that saved him, for the time being.
Not much is known about the man called Rafael. As an orphan with shrouded origin, he lived his life without much contact with society. Nobody knows how he gains money for a living but he was managing just fine. The people around him never dared to approach him. The reason by his chilling eyes and smile that seemed to be able to gouge the innermost of your mind, revealing everything to him. Such is but paranoia, however people are creatures that works with emotion and not just logic. There are many dark rumors surrounding him and he never denied any one of them. Mysterious, creepy, and apathetic would be the only descriptions you can get from asking what the people around Rafael think of him.
When he was summoned to another world, however, for the first time in his life Rafael showed a hint of excitement.
***
Having no choice but to obey the people who summoned her with the promise of being returned to earth, Katja reluctantly held something she has never even touched before, weapons. She tried swords, spears, and some other melee weapons but she ultimately decided on a bow. She does not have the confidence and mental fortitude to fight at close range and to see blood being spilled directly. Although almost everyday she had to listen to some people in priest-like garb giving sermon about the filthy, undeserving to live demon race she still just couldn’t accept the fact that she has to participate in a war and to kill. The only creature she had killed so far were insects, the annoying summer mosquitoes. Today, she just barely managed to kill some monster they call as demon beast as her training program and it didn’t feel good.
After a week of training she finally met with three other people who were summoned from earth.
They were told that each of them will lead special squad comprised of elite knights and mages. They will also be sent to train at a place called Orum Arx. She doesn’t have a clue what that is but a boy named Kazuya immediately shouted “Yeah, my first dungeon conquest!”. Must be nice to be so carefree, she thought.
They are to explore said place in separate teams and to not help each other over there but their squad will do anything to keep them safe. They are, however, allowed to have joint training session in the castle. She felt that it was kind of a strange rule to be implemented but she won’t object. She barely knows the other three anyway.
***
Two days have passed since the dreadful event that hit Arx Norr. The streets which were usually filled with people is not even half its usual vigor. Some merchants left the town, bringing the news to other regions while some hard boiled ones chose to stay, looking forward at any possibility of revenue. The ones who left were not only the merchants, some adventurers that are starting to be afraid of whatever awaits them in the tower requested formal home base change and moved somewhere else, some even simply left without saying anything perhaps to quit being adventurer for good. Conversely, right now there are many guild staff and volunteer working to restore the town.
Remembering the scale of the disaster nobody dared to mention whether it was fortunate or unfortunate that the confirmed casualties only numbered to 29 death plus 33 heavily injured and 59 lightly injured. The reported missing counted to more than a hundred but most have been found and as of now there is no addition to the death count. If most people were not coming to the guild to get a look at the heroes perhaps the number would be much larger so in the end some might consider it a tiny bit of luck.
Most of the death occurred at where the gigantic dragon’s head fell. Despite its bizarre disfigured form, the dragon’s head suffered no deformity after creating such a wide crater and almost all witness said that the dragon’s head was already in battered state at the time it was falling. Moreover, it is obvious that someone or something made a clean cut severing the dragon’s head from its neck. The abnormal fact made everyone think that there is an even stronger and terrifying entity lurking somewhere up there in the tower.
“Vol en serte af letia rau eht rumeris.”
A young girl chanted the aria for a mid-basic class earth magic, however the effect was more than everyone would have expected. The magic was supposed to only be able to control small patch of earth but hers affected a wide area filled with rubble which was raised and made to incline on one side so the rubble would be gathered in one spot. Under the raised earth that was made to leave a single small circular area, figures of two children hugging each other can be seen, prompting the volunteers to quickly approach and take the children to safety. From what can be seen, the children are in critical state but if given proper treatment they should get better with time.
“Phew, with Lizzy around things are progressing faster than expected. With this I think most of the people trapped under collapsed buildings have been found.”
One of the volunteer, Yusa handed one of the children she was holding to the medical staff from adventurer guild.
Kaldor, Lloyd, and even Randall can be seen in the vicinity doing restoration work with many others like removing rubbles and moving them to designated areas for disposal. Liz and Yusa on the other hand are members of search and rescue team. The place they currently at is located fairly away from the crater but even just the shockwave caused the vast area around it to be damaged severely.
Working closer to the crater are teams comprised mainly of the heroes and adventurer guild officials. It seemed that some curious scholars both from the guild and those that just happened to be around at the time are examining the dragon’s head as well.
Liz and Yusa were looking at the tents being used as makeshift medical wards as they are taking some rest after working non-stop since early morning. Parents are reunited with their children and vice-versa, siblings, lovers, friends are consoling each other. There were some left alone without relatives or friends but they seemed to be fine at the very least.
“Lizzy, they are the people that you’ve saved.”
“Un, I’m glad everyone that we’ve found are alive.”
“I was surprised when you said you wanted to help everyone even before the guild proposed about volunteering.”
At first there were people opposed to Liz helping since she was seen as a mere little girl, but with Martlea’s recommendation and that some people already aware of Liz’s exploit in the tower she was finally allowed to. The more than satisfying result has made Liz to be well known not only to the adventurers but also the ordinary townsfolk. Although the person in question herself is somehow oblivious to that fact.
“I know how it feels to lose important people… there is no other reason.”
Not completely but that was a lie. Liz looked down with her mind in turmoil. Liz remembered the thought when she witnessed the event. She was truly happy when she concluded that Erik was safe and she will never deny that, however she was conflicted after she realized that the thought overshadowed everything else including sympathy to the victims. Erik might not know that the aftermath of his battle caused so much destruction, so with these thought as the reason and wishing to ease the burden Erik might have to bear she decided to give her all in helping the surviving victims.
“Thanks for your hard work. This area should be fine now so I guess that is all for today. Just leave the rest to us.”
Martlea who is supervising the volunteer in absence of the guild master brought some food and drink for Liz and Yusa.
“Yay! Perfect timing, I was just about to beg for food.”
Yusa gleefully accepted her share from Martlea while Liz just took it normally in comparison.
“This is?”
Liz noticed that some sweets were added into her share so she looked at Yusa’s to find none on hers. Martlea who saw the puzzled Liz quickly explained.
“That is a bonus from the people over there.”
Martlea pointed at the tents where some people, mainly elderly women and children, are smiling and waving their hands at Liz.
“That bakery owner lady is especially thankful since you saved her only granddaughter, you know.”
Liz looked blankly at the people waving their hands at her for a moment before she herself made a wide smile and waved back at them.
“Aaaah, aaahhhhh. THIS! THIS IS WHAT I’VE BEEN WAITING FOR!!!”
Looking like she just found her meaning of life Yusa shed some tears of happiness. On the contrary, Liz and Martlea looked as if they have just seen a madman… which is, in a way, true.
After carefully setting her lunch down Yusa jumped and grabbed Liz. It is the dreaded cheek to cheek skinship but the seemingly reluctant Liz only struggled for a bit before giving up.
“Aaaaah, Lizzy is just the best when she smiles! My mental health is being healed…”
Looking at the two Martlea also inadvertently smiled. Then she looked up, to the tower. She have started to connect the disaster to Erik. It was too much of a coincidence that the unprecedented disaster happened after he went up the tower. If, somehow he is related or even caused the disaster, Martlea is quite sure that it was not intentional. Since there is Liz in the town. Martlea might have concluded differently if not for that fact.
Just what in the world is that man? Martlea thought of that many times but nobody will answer it for her. Was it really him? Did he really kill such a gigantic dragon somewhere up there? Just how much of a monster is he? Rather than answer, more questions kept popping out as she thought of it.
“Just you wait. Once you get back, I’ll give you a thing or two from my mind. I’ll make you take responsibility no matter what.”
Martlea who made a sinister smile muttered so in a low voice. The decline of adventurer, the damage to the town, and the life that was lost. Although it might be unintentional, Martlea is sure that she has the full right to be angry at Erik, and she will. Putting the blame on him and announcing it up will raise some skepticism as nobody will believe someone much less a human made it that high in the tower and defeated a monstrosity beyond imagination. Some who really is looking for someone to blame might just choose to believe but Martlea is too scared thinking if Erik just decided to go with it and rampage here which might cause an even greater calamity.
“Yusa… it’s hot today so please stop.”
Liz who had started sweating struggled again to break free but at that moment Yusa has evolved from normal pervert into ultra pervert.
“Haaaa, zeeehh haaaaaa! Lizzy’s sweat! Can I have ‘em?”
“Fueeeee?!”
Liz is... terrified. Martlea finally decided that it was time to save her but before she could somebody threw a wet towel right onto Yusa’s face.
“Mguhhh!”
Yusa immediately grabbed the towel off her face and looked around for the culprit while shivering but there is no one who looked like to be one.
“This precision throw… I thought it was Erik bro for a second.”
Hearing that, Liz who managed to break off from Yusa also looked around. She hoped that Erik might be there but realizing that it wasn’t the case Liz sighed disappointedly. Erik did say that it might take a month.
Before anyone could raise a question as to who threw that towel, they could see a large group of people walking to their direction.
“A~ha ha ha ha! This great me has done so much today I deserve more praise! Or rather, when will I find my first harem member!?”
“Seriously, is that the only thing in your head? Be mindful of what you say in this situation!”
The four heroes followed by imperial knights and some guild official seemed to just have returned from the worst affected area.
One of the heroes is a young female who seemed to be in her late teens while the others are male. One with a well-built muscular figure, one with a slender but also properly built body, lastly is the one who looked to be youngest amongst them.
“Katja, if you’re not so nagging I would have added you as my first harem member you know.”
“Absolutely no! No way! And I don’t remember allowing you to call me by first name.”
“Still in your tsun-tsun period I see…”
“I don’t even know what that means but somehow I’m pissed off.”
Yusa and Liz watched the heroes as they passed by until the boy who had been talking suddenly looked at Liz, startling her.
“Oooh, what a beautiful angel that has descended upon me!”
He knelt and held Liz’s hand while Liz who is shocked cried out her usual “Fueeee!”
As the boy tried to kiss Liz’s hand an unexpected help came from Yusa. She immediately slapped the boy’s hand holding Liz’s down.
“You… I don’t care even if you are a hero or whatever. But I won’t allow you to sully my cute Lizzy even just tiny bit.”
“Yusa…”
Liz felt glad for the help so she let out a smile looking at such Yusa, until…
“I haven’t even done that myself and you dare to just go and do it before me HUH? I know Lizzy is toooootally cute but know your place!”
“Yusa…”
Liz immediately resumed her half astonished half scared expression.
“Ooh don’t worry, so you want to be a member of my harem as well huh? The little angel behind you is the best but I don’t discriminate age, so I’ll accept you as well. Here, come to my chest!”
“Huh?”
As Yusa became speechless to what the smiling boy just said the female hero walked behind the boy and smacked his head with full force.
“GUHHOKH!”
“I really wonder how this idiot’s head interpreted things to his own convenient delusion but that went too far. Sorry for this idiot’s rambling, we’ll take care of him so please forget what just happened.”
“Uhh, o…kay?”
Yusa and Liz looked at the boy sprawled on the ground in strange pose, it seemed that the hit made him lost consciousness.
“Goldberg, sorry but can you take this idiot back to our inn?”
“Affirmative.”
The muscular man lifted the boy with ease and put him on the shoulder before he walked ahead of the group immediately followed by the slender man who smiled at Liz and co. before he left.
Liz somehow felt that the slender man’s smile was scary but she could not pinpoint why she felt so. As Liz was still wondering about that the female hero lowered her head and spoke.
“I’m really sorry for this. As an apology, feel free to ask me a favor while I’m still in this town.”
Martlea who could finally follow what was happening approached them and the hero girl noticed her.
“Ah, miss guild secretary. I couldn’t tell you this before but thank you for your assistance in accommodating us here.”
“Don’t mention it. I was just doing my job. However that one, Kazuya, was it? He really is quite a troublesome one.”
“Ugh, I can’t agree more.”
Martlea spoke normally to a hero but different with Yusa who was simply enraged Martlea could do so because she thinks nothing of the existence called as heroes. Regardless of her position and opinion, Martlea is also of the demon race. Even if she is on this side, there is no way she can be comfortable with someone who might slaughter her kin.
“And…”
As the hero looked at Liz, she immediately approached Liz and crouched in front of her.
“My name is Katja Eeva Virtanen, just call me Katja. We’ll be going into the tower in 3 days after we finish our part on the restoration work so you’ll be safe from that idiot while we’re in there. Until then, if that idiot come to bother you again just call for me and I’ll smack his head again for you.”
“Umm, thanks?”
After saying that and a goodbye, Katja also left.
“There are also various kind of people among the heroes eh?”
“Well, from different world as they might be, they are human as well.”
Martlea answered Yusa who spoke in amazement.
“But still, I never thought that a hero could be such a pervert.”
To Yusa’s comment, Martlea and Liz immediately said.
““You’re not one to talk!””