Date

I awoke to the loud noise of someone rudely knocking on my door.

“Mr. Satou, are you awake?”

“Yeah, I am now.”

A slim ray of sunlight snuck in through a crack in the closed-up window. It was the sole window in the room, big enough only to peek your head through, without any glass. Maybe it was just for ventilation? I remembered that Martha had advised that I close it overnight to prevent crime.

I did a quick check of my appearance before heading to the door. A whole night had passed, yet there wasn’t any stubble on my face. Oh, right, I couldn’t grow any facial hair when I was fifteen. When it finally happened after I started college, I was so thrilled that I went around showing it off to everyone.

…Though my girlfriend at the time immediately told me to shave it.

I didn’t have any bedhead, either, so I put on the white embroidered robe I’d bought yesterday and left my room.

“Good morning.”

“If you don’t hurry up, your girlfriend’s going to come looking for you!”

Excuse me? My girlfriend dumped me over six months ago because I was too busy with work, you know. And I knew virtually no one in this city to begin with.

When I followed Martha downstairs, I found the magic soldier Zena waiting for me. “Good morning, Satou!”

“Oh, good morning. That’s a very cute outfit you’re wearing today.” Zena must have been off duty, because she wasn’t in her uniform. Instead, she wore a white blouse with a light-blue skirt, with a somewhat large yellow-green shawl over her shoulders. It wasn’t particularly fashionable, but on Zena, it gave a neat and wholesome impression.

Must be nice, being a pretty girl.

Didn’t she sprain her ankle? Is she all right walking around like that?

“Is your leg doing better now?”

“Yes, a priest at Garleon Temple healed it for me yesterday!”

Ah, so a priest healed it. That’s fantasy for you! It must have been Holy Magic or something.

“And, um, since I’m off duty today…I thought maybe…that is, um…I could show you around the city…!” She looked like she was going to faint. No need to be so tense…

I must have made a strange face as I suppressed my amusement at her anxious gestures, because her face started to fall.

Oh dear.

“Thank you very much! I’d certainly appreciate that.”

“Really? Great!” Zena rewarded my acceptance of her offer with a huge smile, like a blooming sunflower.

Yep, her youthfulness was blindingly radiant, all right.

I washed my face and set out with Zena.

She suggested we get breakfast from the food carts at the morning market on South Street. I guess she had no reservations about going there, despite being the daughter of an aristocrat.

Carried by the wind, the scent of soy sauce tickled my nose.

“Is that soy sauce I smell…?”

“That’s right! It’s one of the two great seasonings created by the ancestral king Yamato. It’s even exported to other countries! Did they not have it where you came from, Satou?”

“They did—I just haven’t smelled it in a long time.”

“Ohh, I see!”

I wondered if Yamato was written with the same kanji as the old name for Japan. Was the other “great seasoning” miso, perhaps?

Zena beckoned me over toward a cart where they were cooking something in oil. Croquettes, maybe?

“Good morning! Two Seiryuu croquettes, please.”

“Certainly! Just a moment.”

It seemed like the oil was made from tallow; the smell was awfully intense.

“Miss Lilio isn’t with you today?”

“She just got back from a long expedition yesterday, so she’s still asleep in her room.”

The man gave Zena two croquettes wrapped in leaves, and she held one out to me. They were a copper coin each, so while her hands were still full, I paid the vendor myself.

“Wait, I wanted to treat you as thanks for yesterday!”

“No, no, it’s fine. You’ve done more than enough already by bringing me to the city and helping me get settled.”

We sat on a stone bench near the cart to eat our croquettes. The bench was a bit dirty, so I took out a pair of handkerchiefs and spread them on the bench before we sat down.

Zena giggled. “I feel a bit like a princess.” Looking pleased and a little embarrassed, she took tiny, delicate bites of the croquette in her hands. I admired the scene as I ate my own croquette.

The deep-fried, meatless potato croquette was pretty good, but it was a little too heavy, maybe because of the oil. I got the feeling that if I ate more than two, I’d have heartburn for the rest of the day.

“Lilio’s boyfriend is actually the one who popularized the Seiryuu croquette.”

“Oh? Is he a chef?”

“No, not exactly. He can’t really cook himself, but he knows how a lot of things are made. It’s very unusual.”

Hmm. I know it’s bad to jump to conclusions, but that sounded like a Japanese person to me. It seemed like other Japanese people had come to this world, too, like that “ancestral king Yamato.” Maybe there was an easy way to get here and back, like walking through a wardrobe or something.

I finished eating first, and as I sat there idly, a little girl with flowers in a small wicker basket approached me. She stopped in front of me, holding out one small blossom.

“Excuse me, sir! Buy a flower, please?”

The little girl had been glancing in my direction repeatedly for a while, so she must have waited till I finished eating to take her chance. Pretty smart for such a young girl.

“Sure, I’ll buy one. How much?”

“It’s one penny.”

I handed her the asking price and received a flower in return. The girl thanked me happily before racing off to find her next prospective customer.

I handed the flower to Zena—after waiting for her to finish eating her croquette and wiping her hands clean, of course. She looked unusually surprised. Uh, what else was I going to do with it?

“Um…are you sure it’s okay for me to take it?”

“Of course. It would trouble me if you didn’t.”

I mean, I’m not gonna throw it away.

Zena smiled like she was trying in vain to disguise her happiness. Is it really that big of a deal? Well, I’m glad she’s happy about it, I guess.

I bought some melon-like fruit cut into bite-size slices to clear my palate, then tried some kind of plant stalks fried with soy sauce. I was a bit doubtful based on their looks, but they turned out to be perfectly tasty.

The next cart that Zena brought me to, however, was even more off-putting.

“These are called dragon wings! They’re fried bat wings coated in black miso sauce. It’s a Seiryuu City specialty!”

So did dragon wings look similar to bat wings? Apparently, this food was supposed to bring good luck. Zena promised they tasted better than they looked, so I trusted her and bought two.

As I was paying for our wings, I heard Zena let out a short cry behind me.

“Sorry, lady!”

A kid had bumped into Zena as he ran by. That was fine in itself, but unfortunately, the goopy miso sauce from the dragon wing had gotten all over Zena’s white blouse.

“The blouse I borrowed from my mother…,” she whispered, her eyes filling with tears. Maybe if we went to Teputa Avenue we could find someone to remove the stain?

“Excuse me? I couldn’t help but notice your troubles. Are you by chance in need of a charmer?”

“Sorry, but what we need is a laundromat where we can get out this stain.” Why is this person peddling charms or whatever at a time like this? Be a little more sensitive.

“Well, you see, I happen to be skilled at Everyday Magic. I could use it to clean that stain.”

Oh, so that’s what a charmer does? Her perfect timing was awfully suspicious, but for the moment, getting rid of the stain was the top priority. “Please do, then.”

“Certainly. That’ll be three large coppers for the cleaning-and-drying spell set.”

I didn’t want to bother with haggling, so I simply paid her the three coins to work her magic.

“Now then, first I’ll remove the stain… Soft Wash Juusenjou!”

The Everyday Magic cast on Zena left her sopping wet. The chest wrap that she wore in place of a bra was showing through her now-transparent shirt, so I quickly pulled a largish towel out of Storage and put it around her shoulders. I heard a few grumbles of disappointment from some unsavory men around us, but I ignored them.

The sticky miso stain that had been on Zena’s blouse moments ago had vanished completely. Just like magic!

“And now I’m going to dry you off… Dry Kansou!”

Just as if it’d been put through a drying machine, the blouse was suddenly free of water. Once I checked that her shirt was no longer see-through, I reached out to take back the towel. My hand must have entered the field of the drying spell when I did so, because I suddenly felt dry warmth and static as if I’d put my hand in a dryer.

Wow, that’s all it took for me to learn it? Magic skills are super easy to pick up.

That being said, the incantations seemed much harder to learn, so maybe it balanced out.

As soon as the spells were finished, the young charmer girl vanished into the crowd.

Well, I have a magic user with me right here, so maybe she can tell me about it. If I could learn Everyday Magic, I could use that in place of a washer and dryer.

“Zena, how do you recite the incantations for spells?”

“What do you mean?”

“Well, the pronunciation seems pretty strange to me…”

“I see… Well, most Wind Magic spells start with . If I had to sound it out, it’d be something like ‘lyuuu lia (etc.)…laaa luleli laaaao,’ maybe? But even if they can memorize them, most beginners still can’t sing the incantations at first. It’s…”

Zena tilted her head pensively, trying to figure out how best to explain it.

“…rhythm. Yeah, that’s it. You take that slow chant I said before and sing it to a steady rhythm. And if you keep that rhythm and increase the tempo, you’ll have ! In theory, anyway.”

Curious, I tried to practice the phrase she’d taught me, but after a few minutes, I had the feeling I wasn’t going to get anywhere. “That’s pretty difficult.”

“Well, yes, of course it is! It normally takes years to learn the incantations.”

“How many years did you have to study before you could use Wind Magic, then, Zena?”

“Technically, I’d say about three years of training. But thinking about it now, it feels like I’ve been training to be a sorcerer every day of my life.”

What did that mean? The faintest trace of a shadow, or maybe bitterness, clouded Zena’s usually bright smile. “For starters, I had children’s books about the history of magic read aloud to me, practiced reading poems aloud and abdominal breathing… I had toys that taught me the flow of magic, too. From lessons to playtime, everything was designed to help me grow into a sorcerer.”

I see… So she was raised sort of like a gifted child? There were little kids in Japan who couldn’t play with other children because they had lessons, too, so I guess this was sort of like that.

Maybe I shouldn’t have asked.

“Oh, but I don’t have any ill will toward my parents for raising me like that or anything! It’s fun to use magic, and my goal is to be able to fly someday.” Sensing that the mood had gotten a bit gloomy, Zena quickly added, “So why are you interested in practicing magic, Satou? Would it be useful for your trade?”

“Oh, no… There’s no bath in the inn, so I thought maybe if I could use Everyday Magic, I wouldn’t have to bathe outside and stuff.” Trying to lighten things up, I gave the silliest reason I could think of.

My clowning must have worked, because Zena stared at me incredulously for a moment, then burst out laughing. “Ah-ha-ha-ha! I’ve never heard of anyone wanting to learn magic for a reason like that!”

Was it really that ridiculous…? I must have hit her funny bone, because Zena couldn’t seem to stop laughing.

“Is that weird?” I was mostly joking, but I didn’t think it was that bad of a reason. Who wouldn’t want to make an annoying task more convenient?

Her reply was instantaneous. “Yes, it is! Really weird!”

“I mean, if you had the time and money to learn magic, you’d be better off installing a bath in your house, wouldn’t you? And you could just hire a servant or buy a slave to heat it up for you!”

Oh, so that’s how it is…

I tend to think that if I can do something, I’d rather just take care of it myself, but I guess it was normal to buy labor here. Apparently, it didn’t cost much, either.

But now that I knew the basics, I figured I could find an introductory book and practice the lines some more.

At any rate, sometime during the course of this conversation, I’d gained the skill “Secrecy” and the titles Clown and Gentleman. But I didn’t have time to worry about my log too much.

Having successfully restored the positive mood of our trip, I continued walking around with Zena, trying different foods. Our next destination was a sweet-smelling dessert area.

“This is a fried sweet bun! They make a paste with steamed sweet potatoes and knead it into the dough before frying it.”

A dessert-like bun made with sweet potato… That sounded vaguely Japanese to me. As I ate the sweet bun, I also sipped on a hot beverage that tasted sort of like watered-down ginger tea.

“And I saved the best for last! Lilio told me about this place.” The next stall Zena had guided me to was selling the same malt syrup candy I’d had with Martha yesterday. The shopkeeper was even wearing the same apron as the man we’d bought them from.

I gave the man two copper coins and bought one for each of us. Taking two slim sticks, the man dipped them into the sticky brown liquid and rotated them slowly before pulling them back out.

Zena seemed so excited about showing me, so I would’ve felt bad saying I’d had some yesterday. Instead, I decided to act like it had been a really long time.

“Malt syrup candy, huh? That brings back memories.”

“Oh…so you’ve had it before?”

She looked a bit disappointed. Damn… I guess I should have acted surprised for her.

“The syrup candy I’m used to is usually clear, so I didn’t know what it was at first.”

“Young master, the colorless syrup candy is a high-class product, made with rice and sugar. Ours is more for commoners, so we use potatoes and gabo fruits with malt. That’s why it’s brown, y’see.” The older man cut in rather quickly.

Young master? Who, me? He didn’t seem to be talking to Zena.

“Oh, sir…I’m just a commoner myself. A friend gave me the clear candy a long time ago—I didn’t know it was a high-class item.”

I mean, it was only two hundred yen at a festival.

After that, we browsed the other stalls, enjoying the sights and sounds of the crowded street.

I decided to buy some fried pastries made with honey for the girls working hard back at the Gatefront Inn. Zena and I each ate one, and they were pretty tasty. I figured the girls would like them, too.

After having more than our fill of food and drink, we visited some stalls selling miscellaneous goods.

A stand with cute shells and bisque pottery caught my eye. For some reason, the market price shown by my “Estimation” skill for the shells was pretty high. When I asked the elderly shopkeeper about them, she explained that they were vessels for holding medicine.

“This salve is very effective, young master.”

“Oh? What does it do?”

“It works wonders for cuts or chapped skin. If you hand it out to your servants, why, they’ll work hard as horses!”

On closer examination, the wrinkled old shopkeeper’s skin was much less cracked than the Gatefront Inn’s landlady. She’d fed me well with delicious food, so I decided I might as well buy some for her as a souvenir. And while the price was expensive for shells, it was still only a few copper coins.

“I’ll take five, then, please.”

“Now, that would be fifteen copper coins, but I’ll knock it down to twelve for you.”

Wow, that’s actually lower than the market price. I reached into my pocket for the money to pay the woman, but Zena’s slim hand stopped me midmotion.

“Excuse me, madam, but that seems a little high. Wasn’t it two for one copper last time I came here? And since he’s buying five, couldn’t you make it nine?”

Whoa. Zena was smiling sweetly as she drove a ridiculous bargain.

“My, I didn’t notice before because you have a man with you today, but aren’t you the girl who’s usually with Lilio? Well, I can’t go any lower than ten coppers.”

“Then can you throw in three of these small ones here, please?” Recognizing that she wasn’t going to lower the price any further, Zena had pointed at some small shell vessels beside the salve I was buying and asked for them as a bonus. Based on their size, I’d guess the miniature ones could hold about a third as much as the bigger shells could.

“Goodness, girl! If you start acting like that Lilio, you might never get married. I’ll throw in one of the small ones and nothing more.”

Zena’s face twitched a little at the part about marriage, but she maintained her smile as she evenly accepted the bargain. “Very well. That’ll work just fine.”

She’s only seventeen… It’s a little early to be worrying about marriage, isn’t it?

The old lady skillfully wrapped the shells in leaves, then used some kind of thin vine to bind them together. If I put them in my bag like that, I feel like they’re going to make a mess. I thanked Zena for looking out for me and gave her one of the shells.

I would have done it anyway, so…

After we’d reached the end of the street stalls, Zena brought me somewhere new.

“Are you sure you’re all right with coming to a place like this?”

“Yeah, the breeze feels great.”

“Hee-hee, that’s true.” Zena giggled as she surveyed the scenery below. We were standing atop one of the towers of the city walls. I had spotted it from the area past the street stalls, so she’d offered to take me there. Since it was a military installation, I couldn’t look around unless I was with her.

Zena seemed to be relatively famous, because even in her civilian clothes, she was allowed up without a problem.

“I know I’m the one who asked, but are you sure it’s all right to bring someone up here who’s not part of the military?”

“It’s fine! The only attacks we have to fear out here in this city are from wyverns. We haven’t fought with any neighboring countries for a few hundred years, and the war with the beastfolk ended ten years ago.”

Hmm… I wonder if the beastfolk slaves in the city were prisoners of war from that period?

“Zena, what is that windmill used for?”

“Oh, that? It’s a flour mill. But it can also be turned into a gun battery platform in case of a wyvern attack.”

A gun battery? In the middle of town? “If they fired cannons from a spot like that, wouldn’t it damage the houses nearby?”

“Well, they do have cannons, but against a wyvern they fire only nets or blanks.”

“I see… So it’s used to drive a wyvern away in a different direction?”

“That’s right. They drive it over to a field in that manor over there so they can finish it off.”

Wouldn’t that destroy the field, too?

Zena could tell that I was really interested in this subject, so she offered to take me to the manor and windmill. I’d been planning to ask her later, anyway, so that worked out for me.

Along the way to the nearby windmill, Zena said we could stop off at Parion Temple. The shady priest raising a fuss yesterday was from Zaicuon, right? And the one who healed Zena’s leg was Garleon… I wonder if all the gods have “-on” at the end of their names?

“Ah, there it is!”

A few streets away from the area with all the stalls, we arrived at Parion Temple. It was on a pretty big plot of land—about three-quarters of an acre? At any rate, it was three times the size of any normal house.

The wall around the area seemed to serve as the outer wall of the temple. It was made of stone; upon going through the arched entrance, I could see a space for parking horses and carriages and a wide-open gate.

There was an expensive-looking carriage in the parking area. Maybe it was wrong of me to presume, but I had a strong suspicion this clergy was loaded.

Zena took my hand and guided me into the temple. Inside was a large room with a high ceiling at least thirty feet up. Various banners and holy symbols decorated the room, and several priests were performing a sort of baptism ritual for the child of someone who looked like a merchant.

There were skylights in the ceiling, though no stained glass; on the upper half of the wall, there was a painting of a sword-wielding knight locked in combat with a horned demon. The image was a bit strange but oddly powerful.

“That’s a picture of the first hero battling the demon lord.”

“Oh, that’s the hero? I was sure he was a knight.”

“You can tell because his Holy Sword is glowing blue. It would be easy to tell if he was a knight—he’d be wielding a Magic Sword instead, and those glow red.”

Come to think of it, those Holy Swords I have glowed blue when I first took them out, too. But it lasted for only a second.

“Is the hero’s Holy Sword the only one that glows?”

“A Holy Sword should glow blue only if it’s accepted the wielder. But some Holy Swords have been used by people without the title of Hero—like Gjallarhorn, which the ancestral king Yamato left behind, and Claíomh Solais, the Holy Sword that protects our kingdom.”

“Accepted the wielder,” huh? I didn’t have a whole lot of confidence in my heroism, so I doubted a Holy Sword would accept me anytime soon. Anyway, Claíomh Solais was a famous enough name that it sounded familiar, but I’d never heard of Gjallarhorn.

Oh, but I got a bunch of titles, too… Since I did kill some dragons, I wonder if I got the Hero title? When I opened the list of titles to check, I encountered something strange.

…Godkiller?

Alarmed, I double-checked my log. Luckily, it didn’t seem like anything had been deleted yet.

Among the notifications of enemies I’d defeated, there was a scattered handful of titles. I’d gotten a few titles like Lizardman Slayer, Dragon Slayer [Lesser], Dragon Slayer [Fully Grown], Dragon Slayer [Ancient], and Dragon Slayer [God]. Aside from ~ Slayer, there were also ones like ~ Destroyer and Natural Enemy of ~.

And after all those…

Do you believe in gods?

I see… So the Meteor Shower can even kill gods? It can, huh…

I’d panicked and fired off three of them, but if I had stopped at one, would I have been met with a counterattack from an angry god? All’s well that ends well, I guess.

“That doesn’t mean just anyone can use a Holy Sword.”

After I’d fallen silent in shock, a woman’s gentle voice broke in to our conversation…

“Only those heroes who answer the call of our youthful goddess Parion can fight a demon lord. Before a hero who wields a Holy Sword from such a god, even a demon lord can do naught but fall to his knees.”

Turning around, I saw a young woman in a scarlet outfit not unlike a Western nun’s. Something about her, maybe her pale eye color, made her whole presence seem somehow faint to me. Her attire was different from the clothes I’d seen on the other clergy here. Was she an important figure?

Beside her face, an AR screen began to display the woman’s information. Very convenient.

“Sister Ohna!”

“It is good to see you again at last, Zena of the house of Marienteil. Is your younger brother in good health?”

“Yes! He’s going to become the new head of the family next year, so he’s studying hard.”

“I see. If anything should arise that I can be of help with, please don’t hesitate to ask.”

Having talked with the priestess for a moment, Zena turned toward me for introductions. “Sister Ohna is the count’s daughter. My mother was her wet nurse, so Sister Ohna is always worrying about my younger brother’s health.”

I see… She must care a lot about Zena’s brother, then. She’d approached us just to ask about him, after all.

“It’s a pleasure to meet you. I’m a peddler by the name of Satou.”

“I am Sister Ohna, a priestess who serves the temple of Parion. Please forget the lineage Zena spoke of; such worldly status is meaningless in the temple.”

So being a priestess here was sort of like being a Buddhist monk?

Though she was younger than Zena, her calm disposition somehow made her seem more like a doting mother.

“Still, your visitation brings me great peace of mind. Until now, Zena has only ever shown interest in the study of magic, but it seems spring has come for her at last.”

“Wh-wha…? No! It’s not like that at all! Satou and I, um, we’ve only just met, so…!” Zena, who apparently had little experience with love, seemed disproportionately flustered by Ohna’s remarks and was frantically making excuses. Her pubescent thought process was written all over her face: I’m fond of him…but it’s not love or anything… But I don’t think I’d object if…

She was so innocent… It brought back memories of my school days.

I wanted to talk with the priestess a little longer, but a commotion near the entrance forced us to break it off.

“Your Holiness! The head of the Boril family is deathly ill! He’s still far too young—please come help him!”

“Master Boril, is it? We novices alone can’t allay his illness…”

“Send the priestess, then!”

“Isn’t the Boril estate in the west quarter? We can’t very well send the revered priestess serving as our god’s Oracle to a place of brothels and filth!”

“Please! I’m begging you!”

A priest and a man who seemed to have barged into the temple were having a heated discussion. Sister Ohna turned to Zena. “There appears to be an emergency, so I must take my leave now, Zena.”

With that, the priestess walked over to the two men. “I will go. Please prepare the carriage.”

The priest still seemed indignant at the thought, but he was no match for the will of the “Oracle” herself. I could hear him arguing with her in an urgent whisper. It’s rude to eavesdrop, of course, but I’d forgotten to turn off my “Keen Hearing” skill, so I ended up tuning in.

“Sister Ohna, should you not go to the count to convey the Oracle you received not long ago?”

“I have already entrusted the head priest with that task.”

“But the prediction said there would be a disaster at Zaicuon Temple—it’s far too dangerous to go near it in the west quarter!”

“I believe it will be fine. The Boril estate is far from their temple.”

Zaicuon Temple, huh? That’s where that tubby priest was from, the one who’d been preaching in the east quarter. Was he going to do something drastic to win back followers?

Well, we’d just have to make sure we didn’t get too close if it seemed like a riot or something was about to break out. I was sure I could pick up Zena and hop onto a roof if it came to that.

Zena and I left the temple and returned to our stroll through town.

Walking around the European-style streets with a lovely young lady was certainly fun. Parks, open plazas, public wells, and the like were distributed throughout the city at regular intervals. We walked along a path next to one such park, taking in the scenery.

In a little plaza where the grass was cut short, we saw an old couple with an infant relaxing on a bench and a group of ten or so youngsters practicing martial arts. I’d thought the turf was a uniform lawn, but on closer inspection, I saw it was a mixture of different weeds and grasses.

Zena seemed to have found something of interest, because she stopped suddenly and rushed over to a large tree in the middle of the park.

“What’s the matter?”

“Satou, look what I found…”

Zena held out her hands—cupped inside was a baby bird.

A beautiful girl holding up a tiny bird, sunlight filtering down through the trees… Now, that was a picture worth a thousand words.

“It looks like there’s a nest at the top of the tree.”

The nearest branch was about eight feet up… Hmm. I could make that jump in one go easily enough, but that would probably look a little too superhuman. It was probably best to just climb and pull myself up.

“Um, Satou, could you please…?” Zena asked timidly, so of course I gladly agreed.

I’d already planned to, anyway.

Accepting the baby bird in one hand, I grabbed the first branch with the other. I did a one-armed pull-up to get onto that branch, putting my foot up and clambering to stand against the tree trunk. It was pretty tough to do without crushing the little chick.

The nest was at the base of a branch two or three up from the one I was standing on, but I was able to reach up and return it without too much trouble. As soon as I put the baby bird back in the nest, its mother swooped down at me furiously, so I was sadly too busy defending myself to enjoy the sight of the little chicks peeping for food with their tiny beaks opened wide.

Since I had the use of both hands now, getting down was much easier. When I reached the last branch, I had to remember to grab on to it and hang down for a moment before landing on my feet. I didn’t want to worry Zena by jumping straight down, after all.

“Wow! Satou, you really are very nimble!”

“Oh, it was nothing special.” Dodging Zena’s compliment, I returned to our idle chatter.

As we talked, it turned out that Zena had intended to ask me to lift her up so that she could return the bird herself. Oh, Zena. Good thing I misunderstood, because a skirt wasn’t exactly ideal tree-climbing wear.

Watching the group of kids practicing their martial arts, I asked Zena a question. “What sort of things does the army do for training?”

“Hmm… Well, the soldiers train the same way here as anywhere else, but magic soldiers have to be mindful that they don’t use up all their magic. The majority of us try to keep ourselves ready to cast at full power.”

I see. So they break up their training? It made sense—a magic soldier who couldn’t cast spells wouldn’t be of much use to anyone.

“The assigned roles of magic soldiers and sorcerers vary based on their attributes. This tends to surprise people outside of the army, but for example, Fire users are the only group that really focuses on direct attack spells.”

Yeah, I guess fire is definitely attack-oriented.

“As a Wind user, I have useful spells like Wind Protection, which defends against arrows; Air Cushion, which can stop battering rams; and Whisper Wind, which can convey orders. It’d be great to use Fly for scouting from the air and such, but there’s nobody in the county who knows how to use that.”

That’s right—wasn’t Zena’s goal to be able to fly?

“If you learn how to fly, it’d be fun to go on a date in the sky or something.”

I meant it as a joke, but Zena flushed all the way down to her neck and stammered, “P-please look forward to it!”

She was cute, but I was worried some ill-intentioned person was going to take advantage of her sooner or later.

When we emerged on the other side of the park, we’d arrived right at the foot of the windmill.

We weren’t able to go up to the top, but we did get to see the first floor where they grind the flour. There was something exciting about the sights and thunderous sounds of the dense metal machinery at work.

But all in all, it was a pretty normal windmill. Since this was a fantasy world, I would’ve liked to see some spirits dancing around as they ground the flour or something.

With that on my mind, I asked Zena about it. “Couldn’t they use magic to grind the flour somehow?”

“Probably, but…using a mill is much easier,” she replied, shooting me a look saying, What kind of question is that?

Our next destination, the manor field, was a little far to walk, so we took a horse-drawn carriage along Center Street. Apparently, it cost one large copper for any destination as long as it was within city limits. The vehicle was clearly meant for sightseeing, as it had no roof and the seats were about shoulder height.

We moved along through the city at an easy trot. A carriage ride through town in an exotic country with a beautiful girl at my side—this I could get used to. It’d be even better if it was a gorgeous, voluptuous woman, but that was probably a bit too much to ask.

The cart left the main street and headed north through a workers’ district. There, we saw many more vaguely muscular, stubborn-looking people. We passed by buildings that looked like workshops and factories, then through a lumberyard, until we were before the inner wall of the city.

Proceeding west, we reached a small path between the outer wall at the western city limit and the inner wall, on the other side of which was the lord’s manor.

“Once we pass through here, we’ll be right at the field.”

“These walls are pretty impressive, looking up at them on both sides like this.”

“Yes! It makes you feel safe, doesn’t it?”

Zena clenched both fists and drew a little closer to me. At that moment, with what seemed like deliberate timing, the cart jerked abruptly. We must have hit a pebble.

“Ah!” Zena lost her balance and toppled right into me, forcing me to catch her. She certainly felt a lot softer than she had in her armor before. There still wasn’t much worth mentioning about her chest, but she was very soft and feminine, though I’d rather wait at least another five years or so before doing anything like this.

“Are you all right?”

“Y-yes! I’m sorry, I’ll get up right now!” Flustered, Zena quickly pulled away from me. You don’t need to feel so bad about it.

For just a moment, I could swear I saw the coachman snicker. Was that on purpose?! This driver would make a great wingman.

After traveling this path for a little while longer, we came upon an open gate with a soldier standing guard. The driver nodded at him lightly, then proceeded through the gate into the lord’s manor.

The land seemed too small to provide enough food for the entire city, yet too large to serve as the feudal lord’s personal field. Our carriage proceeded slowly along the pastoral road. It looked like the farmhands were harvesting something. Using my “Telescopic Sight” skill, I was able to see that they were gathering the “gabo fruits” I’d seen yesterday.

And like at the market, a lot of the helpers were kids of only around elementary school age.

“Those children are probably from orphanages. Since it’s harvest season, the kids from town might have come to work, too.”

“Are those gabo fruits tasty?”

“No, not at all. They show up in army rations sometimes, but they’re so smelly and bitter, nobody really likes them.”

Zena was making an extremely unpleasant face. Did she hate them that much?

“If they’re that bad, why grow so many?” It seemed like an obvious question as I looked over the large field of gabo fruit. Wouldn’t it be better to just grow, say, potatoes? I wonder if they’re particularly rich in nutrients or calories or something?

“The civil officials say they’re a reliable year-round harvest. A whole field might not yield too much at one time, but they can be picked just about once a month, and the crop almost never fails. On top of that, it can even fertilize fallow land. It’s thanks to the gabo fruit that the rate of starvation in the city is dropping rapidly.”

What a convenient fantasy crop. That almost seemed like too much value.

It may have been secondhand information from an official, but that was still an impressively detailed explanation, Zena.

“However, it can be grown only in walled-in areas, so the food situation in the countryside is apparently still quite rough.”

The orchard’s outer wall was lower than the one surrounding the city—maybe about sixty feet? I wonder why it has to be walled in? Is it harder to grow outside, or maybe animals would eat it, or the feudal lord’s just monopolizing it? I found this very puzzling.

“Is there a reason for that?”

“They’re goblins’ favorite food. They’ll come and devour them all in a matter of moments if the fields aren’t protected like this. The fruit can’t be exported outside the city, either.”

Ooh, so there are goblins in this world, too? I’d definitely like to see that. From a safe distance, preferably.

“It seems like there’d be people who’d try to smuggle them out anyway.”

“Well, if they were caught, they’d be sentenced to slavery.”

Yeah, but if there’s a famine, there’d be people who’d risk enslavement anyway and try to smuggle them out.

“Over there is an anti-dragon defense tower.”

Zena was pointing at one of three large towers inside the manor grounds. Only two of them had windmills attached at the top like the one I’d seen from inside the city.

“It seems much bigger and sturdier than the kind inside the city.”

“Yes, it is. There are large Magic Guns installed there from back when they needed to defend against invasions from flying dragons and wyrms, so the tower has to be solid.”

Unfortunately, because of the cannon at the top, civilians couldn’t enter the anti-dragon defense tower.

I had been wondering for a while now: Why wouldn’t they just fight the dragons outside the city instead of here, where there were crops that could easily be ruined by such a thing? Perplexed, I posed the question to Zena.

“These fields were originally prepared specifically to fight against wyverns,” she explained. Apparently, since attacks had become scarce and the fields were falling into disuse, the current count had decided that the area should be used as farmland as well as a manor so it wouldn’t go to waste.

I see—so I had the order backward.

The carriage proceeded along a road that connected the towers. One of them was all but destroyed, crumbling and blackened inside and out. There were a few people taking measurements nearby, so it must have been in the process of repairs.

“Did a wyvern destroy that tower?”

“Oh… No, a lesser dragon destroyed it in an attack about two years ago. Apparently, it took out half the towers in the area, and there was even damage to the castle. We were still able to drive it off, though.”

“Only drive it off?”

“Well, a lesser dragon is still a dragon, after all. Wyverns are one thing, but defeating a dragon is impossible. You’d have to be a great conjurer like the ancestral king Yamato or a hero from the Saga Empire.”

I was tempted to look through my Storage, but I resisted. Zena’s story was still continuing.

“That was enough to scare off the lesser dragon, but forty years ago, when a full-grown black dragon attacked, they couldn’t make a scratch on it. It’s hard to believe, but they say it even destroyed the outer wall! The reason the manor wall is so low is because it was built after that event.”

“Then how did they fend it off? Did a hero step in and defeat it?”

“No… After it had eaten its fill of goats from the farms, it simply flew away on its own. I guess from a dragon’s point of view, human beings are nothing more than ants.”

Were dragons really that strong? Then I wonder if having defeated dragons meant that I could aim for world domination. Not that I had the ambition or drive to do anything like that.

“That’s right—we talked about this a little in the temple, but what exactly makes someone a ‘hero,’ anyway?”

“A hero? Well, apparently there’s a powerful magic technique in the Saga Kingdom called Hero Summoning. I heard that the cost of the summoning is enormous, though, so they use it only during the sixty-six-year cycle of the demon lords’ invasion.

“They say King Yamato and the first emperor of the Saga Kingdom were both heroes called on by the Hero Summoning magic to save the world. Amazing, isn’t it?”

So heroes were summoned here, huh? Maybe they really were Japanese, then. Yamato was definitely a Japanese name, and even this emperor “Saga” could be, too. And the reason the swords had names like “Excalibur” and “Claíomh Solais” might be connected to that, too.

At any rate, this “Saga Empire” may just hold the key to getting back to my own world. For now, I wrote a note about it in the networking tab.

“So does this ‘sixty-six-year cycle’ mean you know when a demon lord will attack next?”

“It’s more like a period during which he could attack at any time. But as of now, we haven’t heard anything about one appearing.”

Hmm. I definitely feel like it could’ve happened a while ago, and word just hasn’t gotten around yet.

“Isn’t it possible that a demon lord’s been revived, and the army just hasn’t heard about it?”

“The Shiga Kingdom and the Saga Empire have magical means of conveying urgent information, so even if one came back and destroyed the city, word would still get to us.”

Wow, that’s impressive.

“Besides, before a demon lord appears, the revered priestess at every temple would receive a divine warning called the Oracle, so we would know about it in advance.”

Even more impressive. These gods know what they’re doing!

“The Oracle is delivered before any major disaster, not just a demon lord. But apparently, not a single priestess had a premonition about the starfall two days ago… Perhaps the Oracle didn’t appear because it was on the other side of the barrier to the Valley of Dragons.”

Oh, that wall thing. So maybe it was in a different god’s domain and didn’t qualify for the Oracle or something?

“So a ‘demon lord’ probably has an army of monsters, right?”

“It seems to differ depending on the demon lord. Some have fought on their own, but most of them lead big armies of demons or monsters into battle. They say some have even had human or demi-human armies.”

Huh! So there’s a lot of variety.

“But the most frightening subordinates a demon lord can have are hell demons. Even the lesser ones are as strong as that wyvern we fought the other day.”

“Wow. You’d think ‘lesser’ would mean they’d be weak.”

“Hell demons are troublesome because they can only be harmed by magic or magically imbued weapons.”

“So if there are lesser hell demons, are there also intermediate and greater ones?”

“Yes. They say intermediate hell demons can easily destroy a whole city. Generally, it takes a whole group of knights or royal sorcerers to defeat one. The intermediate hell demons have higher resistance to magic, so weak spells won’t work on them.”

They can destroy an entire city? I feel bad for any hero who has to fight those.

But if that’s the intermediate level, does that mean there are even more powerful ones?

“So what about the greater hell demons?”

“They’re on the same level as a dragon or a demon lord. No human can defeat them. It’s the kind of opponent where you don’t think about how to win against them—just how to minimize your losses or run away.”

Then it’s on par with the fully grown dragon we talked about earlier, I guess.

Huh? Something’s nagging me at the back of my mind… Am I forgetting something? Oh well, I’m sure it’ll come back to me.

“So which is stronger, a demon lord or a dragon?”

“A dragon.”

Wow, that was fast.

“Once, a long time ago, there was a powerful demon lord who even defeated a hero… But he lost the battle against a dragon.”

“Then instead of summoning heroes, shouldn’t they just get a dragon to take care of demon lords?”

“That’s impossible. A dragon might fight demons for fun, but it would never take them down for the sake of humans. And the casualties of a battle between the two would be terrible—worse than the damage from a demon lord alone.”

I see… So it’s like the gods and the heroes have to collaborate to defeat the demon lord before a dragon appears.

With the power of Meteor Shower, I might be on the level of a dragon right now. If a demon lord attacked and the hero fighting him lost, I’d use Meteor Shower to kill him from a distance. I’m way too clumsy to fight one up close.

Too much serious conversation can be exhausting, so as we watched the sheep chewing on grass in the untilled fields, we chatted about our favorite and least favorite foods and such.

After we left the manor, we were planning to go to a well-known restaurant in the plaza in front of the castle, but it was still a bit early for lunch, so we postponed our trip into the inner wall and headed to the west quarter instead.

Apparently, there were alchemy shops there, so I wanted to check one out.

“In addition to stores catering to the not-so-wealthy citizens, there are butchery shops, alchemists, and stores of that sort. There are other things there, too, but…” Zena had gotten embarrassed and stopped there.

From what I saw on the map, there were also pawnshops, moneylenders, and brothels, at the very least. There was even a slave market on this very street. She’d probably been reluctant to talk about those things.

I had better not push the subject, or it might seem like I’m harassing her.

After we passed through an area selling groceries and other basic necessities, we started to see shops of a more dubious nature. Sexy ladies and unsavory-looking men were wandering around.

The plaza in the west quarter had plenty of street stalls, many auctioning off livestock and cattle. On closer inspection, young boys and girls were lined up in cages next to the cattle—slaves. I had seen a fair amount of slaves here already, but this kind of treatment was especially sickening.

I was tempted to buy all of them and set them free, but I was afraid I wouldn’t be able to look after them in the end.

At the front of the plaza, a merchant-looking man was making announcements about the slave market. Apparently, it would be occurring for three nights, starting tomorrow evening.

Once we left the plaza, a line of brothels greeted us. The scene was strangely reminiscent of a historical drama.

It would definitely be better to do perverted things with a lady in this line of work of her own free will. Why force a slave into it when you could be with a woman who knows her way around the bedroom and actually wants to be there?

I wanna go to a bar with some pretty ladies tonight! I wonder if they have hostess bars here? I’d enjoy talking dirty with a woman rather than take a bubble bath or whatever—Oh, shit. I probably shouldn’t be thinking about this when I’m with a girl, even if we’re not involved. Sorry, sorry.

Along the outer wall, there were public park areas every few blocks. One of them looked to be full of people.

“Please stop a moment,” Zena suddenly commanded the driver, looking into the crowd.

“What’s the matter, Zena?”

“Satou, look over there.”

Hmm? Isn’t that the tubby priest from yesterday?

“Let us punish these children of demons! Cast these sacred stones at them and pave the way to purity!” Amid the noise of the clamoring crowd, I could hear the shrill voice of the priest shouting in a near-falsetto. I guess since he wasn’t getting anywhere with his expedition to the east quarter, he was now trying his shtick on his home turf in the west quarter.

Unlike last time, though, it seemed like this crowd was on the verge of rioting. Was this disturbance the “uproar” the priestess had whispered about before?

“Good people of virtue! Do you remember the starfall of a few days past, surely a sign of divine wrath?”

“YES!”

“We remember!”

“YEAH!”

At least half these people are either hired shills or people who just like yelling.

“And there is more! Just yesterday, a servant of the demon lord attacked the count’s castle!”

“OH, LORD!”

“Please send a hero to save us!”

“NOOO!”

Hmm? Did that really happen? I glanced over at Zena and saw a troubled look on her face.

“Someone rushed into the guardroom of the count’s castle yesterday and said there was a black shadow flying around, but none of the watchmen or the other people on the grounds saw it.”

“Maybe they just made it up?”

“I don’t see why anyone would do that. I mean, that person was imprisoned in the castle dungeon for disturbing the peace.”

The laws in this world sure are strict.

“This is proof that the protection of the gods is waning! Good citizens, we must prove our virtue! If we perform enough righteous acts, we will be shielded from the coming storm!”

“Help us, Father!!”

“YEAH!”

“Virtue!!”

These people got worked up way too easily. Where was their sense of skepticism?

“We must accrue proof of our virtue! Do you understand, good citizens? Virtue!”

“VIRTUUUE!”

“YEEEAH!”

“TELL US HOW!!”

Pyramid schemes and telephone scams would be really successful here.

“Look at these creatures!”

The fat priest pointed accusingly at something in the center of the plaza.

“These demi-humans are failed hell demons… No, the spawn of the demon lord himself! Prove your integrity through the good deed of enacting divine justice!”

“YEEEAH!”

“LET’S KILL ’EM!!!”

Whoa, okay—calm down.

“Wait! Pious citizens!! To kill them would be against the laws of this kingdom. We must hold back!”

“Then what do we do, Father?!”

“KILL ’EM!!!”

Yeah, a lot of these guys were just here to yell.

“We cannot kill them—but we can cast these holy stones at the demon spawn!”

“FATHER!!”

“GIVE US THE STONES!!”

“YES!”

I looked where the chubby priest was pointing and saw three beastfolk girls: a cat-eared girl, a dog-eared girl, and a lizard girl chained up in a frightened huddle.

“But it won’t be free! Buying the stones with your own money is righteous indeed!”

“YEEEAH!”

“VIRTUUUE!!”

Oh-ho, not so many this time.

“The stones are one copper each! And to show my generosity, I’ll give you five stones for one large copper!”

The responses stopped. This was a frugal crowd.

“Devout men and women! Why do you hesitate? We have only so many stones, you know! This good deed is first come, first served!”

“I’LL TAKE ONE!”

“Sell ’em to me!”

“YEAH!”

“Form a line!”

Was this chubby priest using mind-control magic or something?

The people who bought the stones wasted no time in throwing them at the beastfolk girls. They weren’t holding back at all, either. Shit! Are you serious?!

“I can’t watch this anymore! I’ll be right back. Satou, wait here, please.”

A gallant Zena jumped down from the carriage and dashed into the heart of the commotion. I was so impressed that it took me a moment to react.

“Kill the demi-humans!!”

“YEAH!”

“Punish the demons!”

The reptilian girl was protecting the smaller girls. The crowd around them was heated, but the stones that actually hit the girls were relatively sparse.

I saw one person raising his hand to throw another stone, so I put a penny coin in the palm of my hand and flicked it at him, striking his fingers so that he dropped the rock. I was a little nervous about hitting anyone nearby, but since my “Throwing” skill was so high, I had a feeling I wouldn’t miss.

Alarmed by this and perhaps noticing that the stones in their hands were just ordinary rocks, the people holding them stopped for a moment. That should buy Zena enough time to protect the girls with magic.

But while it was easy enough to step in this time, there was no real point if it was just going to happen again…

As I stared at the beastfolk kids, an AR display appeared as usual to provide more details about them.

Aha!

I absorbed the information as quickly as I could.

The display had shown me a key fact: the name of the girls’ master.

It wasn’t the chubby priest. So where was this guy? Was he not here at all, and that was why he wasn’t intervening? Or maybe—was he the priest’s accomplice?!

Lately, I’d been depending on the AR displays alone for my information, but now it was time for the Search Entire Map spell to shine.

I looked up the owner’s name on the map. There he is! At the very edge of the plaza. The girls’ master was a small man, sitting on a wooden crate and watching the commotion in the plaza with a wily grin. I inspected the AR box.

His name was Urs, thirty-nine years old. Skills: “Fraud,” “Persuasion,” “Intimidation.” Owned slaves: “Cat,” “Dog,” “Lizard.”

…Hmm? The slaves were listed only by their race, not their name? Wait, that wasn’t important right now. More information! I didn’t have enough yet.

Affiliation: “Seiryuu City—lower-class citizen.” Guild: “Street Rats.” …That’s it! I searched the map for Street Rats members.

The guild had fifty-two total members. Ten of them were currently in the plaza, including Urs. Aside from him and the big guy beside him who seemed to be a bodyguard, the other eight appeared to be planted in the crowd.

I marked all the members of the guild, even the ones who weren’t currently present, just in case.

All right, time to make my move!

But I must have been more shaken up by the treatment of the beastfolk slaves than I’d realized, because I overlooked a key fact. I couldn’t turn back time, but if I had thought a little longer before taking this first step, maybe the outcome would’ve been different.

Zena seemed to have reached the chubby priest.

“Stop this inhumane treatment at once!”

“What was that, little girl? Are you an ally of the hell demons, too?!”

“Ally”? What happened to “spawn”? And he used a loaded question to make it hard for her to respond. This guy really is an expert agitator.

“Those who align themselves with demons are demons themselves!”

“YEAH!”

While Zena bought me time, I had to do something about the shills planted among the crowd.

“Don’t try to deceive these people! Does Zaicuon Temple intend to break the law?!”

“What wrong is there in casting holy stones at these foul beastfolk?” This conversation was getting nowhere—or maybe the priest was deliberately dodging the subject.

I climbed down from the carriage and pushed into the throng, making my way with the combination of my “Evasion” skill and years of experience with crowded trains.

“GET ’EM!”

“Let’s throw the stones at her, too!!”

“YEAH!”

It looked like Zena had already cast Wind Protection in advance. The spell protected not only her but the beastfolk kids as well. Leave it to a magic soldier from the count’s army.

Now I had to break this up before the crowd turned into a mob. Even Zena would be in trouble if a huge group closed in on her.

I moved toward a man who was stirring up everyone around him even as he kept throwing stones. To neutralize him, I maxed out the level of my “Hand-to-Hand Combat” skill. Thanks to that, I suddenly knew how best to knock them unconscious without killing someone.

I incapacitated the man with one blow.

It was just an instant’s movement, so the people around us didn’t take any notice. I pretended to be a friend concerned that the man was going through a bout of anemia and carried him to the edge of the plaza, dumping him in an alleyway. I didn’t have enough time to restrain him, so I just left him there.

The “Abduction” skill seemed like it might be useful for this, so I maxed it out. I didn’t want the “Assassination” skill, though. No thank you!

In the center of the plaza, a young man in the garb of a different temple had come to Zena’s aid. “The only one claiming that demi-humans are kin to demons is the Zaicuon Temple—no, only you!”

“Ah, the head of the ever-philanthropic Garleon Temple. If you’re so fond of the beasts, you’re welcome to use them however you’d like once we’re through punishing them!”

Gross… This guy is seriously the worst. I was surprised to see that Zena hadn’t turned bright red. Maybe she didn’t realize what he meant? Good.

“Kill them!!”

“Punish the demon spawn!”

“Yeah!”

I left the dramatic standoff to Zena and the new priest. I had some pest control to do.

I knocked out another Street Rat and then another, stowing them away in nearby alleys. Taking an extra second, I planted beer bottles near their hands for effect.

“Do you realize what you’re doing? If you keep working up their anxiety and turn this crowd into a mob, the Zaicuon Temple will be held responsible for treason!”

“Hmph—you’re nothing but a foolish lizard, playing at borrowing the power of dragons! You’re telling me not to kill the demons? Doesn’t that make you a traitor yourself?!”

“Kill the demons!”

“That girl must be one in disguise!!”

“Get ’em!”

I’d taken out about half of them by now.

The yells from the crowd had died down significantly, too. There was one guy left who was still shouting loudly, but he didn’t seem to be a member of the Street Rats. I marked him for now.

I’d have a chat with him after I finished my purge.

“People of the west quarter! All of us feel the same unease. But we must not become cowards who punish the weak out of fear!”

“Do you hear that? The Garleon priest condemns you all as evil! He condemns you for seeking out virtue!”

The crowd roared in response to the fat priest’s incendiary words, but not as loudly as before.

“Kill the demons!”

“That priest’s a fraud!!”

“Yeah!”

All right, two to go. I took them down easily and rolled them into an alley.

But before bringing Urs onto the stage, there was one last bit of preparation to do: I had to contact the man who was still yelling loudly in the plaza.

“Please end this already. No matter how many stones you throw, I’ll stop them all!”

“How dare you get in the way of our sacred deed?! You are a fool to defy our god!” the fat priest shrieked, but the replies from the crowd were scarcer than ever. And the remaining voices were disappearing one after the other.

I crept up behind Urs and tapped him on the shoulder. “It’s your turn now.”

“Wh-who the hell are you?! Oi, Banze! Come crush this twerp!” Startled, Urs jerked his chin toward the large man behind him. But unfortunately for him, when he turned around, his bodyguard was nowhere to be found.

“Banze? Where did that half-wit go?!”

“If you mean the big guy, he went off somewhere with a woman.” In reality, I had just knocked him out and left him in the back streets.

Without further ado, I kicked Urs in the solar plexus with my toe, causing him to faint in agony, then dragged him into the plaza.

“Everyone, please break this up! If this continues, the count’s army really will come to stop you. If you’re worried, come to the temple instead! We’ll listen to your fears.”

“Are you trying to defy God’s will?! You godless fool!”

Uh, both of you are priests, though.

I tossed the unconscious Urs down between them.

“Lord Urs?! Why, you! What have you done to this faithful follower who offered up his slaves?! You apostate!”

Okay, I’m just gonna ignore the fat priest.

“Sorry I took so long, Zena. And thank you for your work, too, Sir Priest. This is the man behind this scheme.”

“Amazing, Satou! Your agility really is the best thing about you!” I’m not sure if that’s really a compliment, Zena.

“This man is the culprit?” the young priest asked quizzically. I nodded at him with a smile. I had some things to do before I could stop and introduce myself.

“Zena, do you have enough power left to make my voice reach the whole plaza?”

“Yes! … Whisper Wind Kaze no Sasayaki!”

I lifted up the unconscious Urs for the crowd. His body doubled as cover so I wouldn’t be too conspicuous myself.

“Can you see him, everyone? This is the man behind the curtain! He loaned his slaves to the Zaicuon Temple to prey on your fears and fool you all into buying a bunch of ordinary pebbles with your hard-earned money!”

“Give us our money baaack!” cried one noticeably loud voice from within the crowd. Rallied by this, the people in the plaza began a chant of “Give it back! Give it back!”

“And he had an even deeper motive! On top of making a quick buck with this priest, his real goal was to provoke all of you into rebelling against the count. This man is the real demon worshipper!”

My “Fabrication” skill is working great!

The part about making money was probably true, at least. The rest of it was a stretch. To be honest, I didn’t really know yet what his goal had been—I was just embellishing for good measure.

If their goal was just to make money, it wouldn’t make a lot of sense. Even if they sold one hundred “holy stones,” they’d make only five silver coins. That wouldn’t even make up for the cost of the three slaves; according to my “Estimation” skill, they were worth at least six silver coins. And if things had gone on that way for much longer, those girls would have died.

Right? It just didn’t add up.

“Was this man controlling the hell demons from the shaaadows?!”

That was the loud man from earlier. I had asked him to yell things to turn people against the chubby priest, but I felt like he was missing the point a bit. Saying stuff like that might just freak people out and cause another riot.

Hmm? Hell demons?

That’s right… Now I remember!

When I first came to this city…

“Heh-heh-heh…”

Still held aloft with his arms pinned behind him, Urs laughed in a strange, stuffy voice. He shouldn’t have been able to move at all, but suddenly, two black arms shot out to attack.

The poisonous talons tore through the body of the chubby priest.

…I’d noticed a single hell demon was already living here.

The head priest of Zaicuon Temple died instantly, his vital organs ripped to shreds. I couldn’t even react to the brutal murder taking place before my eyes.

“What the hell…are these…?”

The violent black arms with their sharp claws were sprouting from somewhere around Urs’s chest. Down on one knee on the ground, he coughed up blood as he stared at his own chest in dumbfounded amazement.

“A hell demon! Everyone, leave the plaza at once!” The young priest was the first to get ahold of himself and shout a warning to the people in the area, backing away from the poisonous claws. Then he began to chant an incantation in a strong baritone.

The people still in the plaza took one look at the appendages sprouting from Urs’s chest and fled in all directions. The evil clawed arms seemed to have a will of their own, a separate entity from Urs, and they tried to attack in our direction—but Urs had dropped to the ground and sat frozen in shock, so they couldn’t reach.

“Satou, grab those girls and get them out of here! I’m going to find help!”

“R-right!”

Embarrassingly enough, it wasn’t until Zena shouted orders at me that I finally came to my senses and realized what I had to do.

First, I had to get the beastfolk girls out of harm’s way. Otherwise, what was the point in taking on that fathead priest? I ran over and put all my strength into trying to break their chains; instead, the stake they were bound to popped out of the ground. Not exactly what I’d planned, but at least they should be able to move now.

“It’s not safe here—you have to run away! I can’t get your chains off, so you’ll have to move together and try to hide in the shadows of a sturdy building.”

But the three girls didn’t move an inch. It looked like there was another reason they couldn’t move.

“He gave us an order…so we can’t…,” the cat-eared girl mumbled in a trembling voice devoid of all hope.

“He told us not to move.”

“I’m terribly sorry. Our master, Urs, told us not to move from this spot… If we disobey, our enslavement collars will tighten completely. Please, forget about us and go.”

The dog-eared girl and the scalefolk girl, whose back was bleeding, shook their heads almost apologetically.

At that moment, help came from an unexpected source.

“Charge! Defeat the hell demon!”

The same people who’d been chucking “holy stones” at the beastfolk girls were now throwing them at Urs and the arms sprouting from his chest. The man shouting the orders was the loudmouthed guy I’d bought over to my side earlier.

With a crack, Urs’s neck twisted at an unnatural angle. Instinctively, I looked away.

They sure value lives cheaply in this world. To think they’d try to kill the demon, Urs and all, without a moment’s hesitation…

Maybe I’m just too much of a pacifist.

“Ah! The demon’s getting up! Everybody hide!”

I turned my head upon hearing the loud man’s shout, and I saw that what had been the crumpled corpse of Urs was rising back up without bending its limbs, like a video being rewound. He looked like a zombie.

Black mist oozed out of Urs’s body. I glanced over at the young priest, but he was still in the middle of his chant. That incantation is way too long.

“You worms… You’re doing me a favor by smashing up my host’s head. I, grateful!”

Maybe it was just because of the strange way the demon spoke, but for whatever reason, I didn’t feel as afraid as I probably should have been.

“… Circle of Anti-Evil Fuuma no Enjin!”

“How clever. I, amused!”

The young priest finally finished invoking his spell, creating a circle of light that sealed in the demon. Despite his snickering, it didn’t seem like the creature could escape the magic circle. Without pause, the young priest started a second chant.

“Grrr… Cannot use magic with a human’s voice! I, frustrated.”

The people on the street peered nervously in our direction from the shadows of nearby buildings. Tearing through Urs’s body, the real form of the hell demon emerged.

He was a strange creature, like a large eyeball that had sprouted arms and wings. Just looking at him was chipping away at my sanity stat.

“Hur-hur-hur-hur. There, can speak more easily now. I, delighted!”

This way was actually even harder to understand.

And the thing didn’t seem to have a mouth, so where was he even speaking from? Was he making the giant eyeball vibrate like a speaker or something?

…Wait, that’s not important at all.

This had to be the “disaster” the Oracle predicted. The riot from earlier was just an opening act.

I turned toward the demon. His AR label had changed from Urs to Lesser Hell Demon. His name was there, too, but in phonetic symbols instead of normal characters.

Without taking my eyes off him, I checked and saw that the beastfolk girls were now Masterless after Urs’s death. Doesn’t that mean the kids can move now?

“… Sacred Javelin Seinaru Yari!”

A javelin of light flew from the young priest.

“I, amused!”

The fiend howled, and an inky-black barrier formed around him, diverting the path of the javelin. So not only could he speak now, but he really could use magic, too.

With another howl, the demon destroyed the magic circle at his feet.

“All that panic…the anxiety and fear…the prejudice and conceit… It suits my needs perfectly! I, content!”

This is bad. If he attacks with magic now, I won’t be able to protect these kids.

Should I try to beat him to the punch? But if I didn’t defeat him in one blow, I’d be putting the girls in more danger.

I heard another cry from the monster, this one noticeably longer and louder.

“And thus, will now create a nesting hole in this ground for my lord. He will be most pleased! I, hardworking!”

His “lord”? Don’t tell me he means a demon lord?!

A dark circle of magic spread out with the eyeball demon at its center. Shit. This is definitely some kind of attack magic. I picked up the three girls in my arms, ready to make a break for it. The young priest, too, carried an elderly person as he ran for safety.

At that moment, with the worst timing possible, Zena returned leading a group of soldiers from the count’s army.

“Satou! I brought reinforcements!”

I could see steam rising from Zena’s skin; she must have run like crazy. Judging by how fast they’d arrived, this group had probably been sent to suppress the riot the fat priest had been stirring up. Their metal armor clanking loudly, the army detachment readied their huge shields to try to surround the hell demon.

“Zena, wait! He’s is casting some kind of spell! Stay back!”

I hesitated for a moment between whether to repeat my warning to Zena or to carry the kids immediately to safety, but I never had a chance to decide.

The ground under my feet warped like an effect from some old movie. Though still solid, it suddenly glowed a dark violet, bent, twisted around, and pulled us under. In a flash, the world around me was plunged into darkness.

When my vision returned, we were in some sort of cave. A faint purple glow rising from the ground meant I could more or less see. Though the ground was still mostly the same, everything else around me was made of sheer rock. There was a single exit in one of the walls of the thirty-square-foot space.

The only other people in this place besides me were the three beastfolk girls still held in my arms. No Zena, of course, and no sign of the eyeball demon. The troops she’d brought were nowhere to be seen, either.

“Welcome to my lord’s labyrinth. It has no name yet, but it will soon produce demons to play with you. You should be grateful! I, diligent!”

The voice echoed from some unknown source. It didn’t seem to be telepathy, but…?

The cat-eared girl was pointing up at a corner of the ceiling. Apparently, the voice was coming from an air hole up there.

“Now amuse me with all your fear! Kill each other! Steal from each other! I, pleased!” The demon paused for a moment before speaking again. “…Resignation will hollow out your souls. I, disgusted!

“Thus, have made it so all the rooms are connected to the exit. I, fair!

“Looking forward to the moment your hope gives way to despair. Fight to survive, you worms! I, excited!”

…I see.

So this is the start of the “Escape from the Labyrinth!” mandatory mission, huh?