Fourth Bath – Opening the Lid on Hell’s Cauldron

“Fall back!”

We ran out of the armory into the hallway and immediately shut the door behind us. We backed off a little farther, and I opened the door to the Unlimited Bath. His weakness was my MP-infused water.

“Roni, get the hose!”

“Y-yessir!” Roni flipped around on her heels and made way for the Unlimited Bath, but she stopped in her tracks at the sight of something next to the door. “S-Sir Touya...”

“What’s wrong...?” I followed her gaze, and what I saw really took me by surprise.

It was a sword—one of the iron swords that the knight statues were holding. Of course, it wasn’t the sword itself that surprised me, but the fact that it was floating in the air next to the bath’s door.

“Roni!”

“Kyah!”

The moment the floating sword started to move, I lunged at Roni. The sword flew at us. I swiped it away with the back of my arm. If I hadn’t been wearing gauntlets right now, my arm might have been sliced through.

“What the hell’s going on?!” I shouted impulsively, but I was met with a loud booming sound from behind me. I flipped around to see that something had punched through the door. Behind the dancing cloud of dust, I saw the silhouette of a gauntlet.

“Strike, Lightning!” Clena hurriedly swung her sword, and sparks of electricity shot out from the tip toward the fist. The impact was met with loud zaps and bright flashes.

“That should be effective, with the metal armor and fish tank inside...”

“Wait... that armor isn’t black.”

“Huh?”

“You’re right...”

Rium pointed out this detail to me.

Once the dust cleared, it revealed a silver gauntlet, not black like the one Goldfish wore. Maybe it was an effect of getting fried by Clena’s attack?

“Ya buncha... good fer nothins...” This time, a foot kicked the door down.

Behind the fallen door was a full suit of silver armor. It was the one right next to Goldfish’s black suit.

“If only ya had blown the whole door down, woulda saved me the trouble of doin’ it myself.”

Three full suits of plate armor, two silver and one black, emerged from the armory. So he could control armor other than his own, too? We wouldn’t have enough time for the hose like this. I closed the door to the Unlimited Bath and took up my broadaxe instead.

“Hahahah... it’s no use.” As Goldfish laughed, I started feeling a strange power in my arms. The broadaxe was pointing at Clena before I realized...

No, it wasn’t in my arms. The broadaxe itself forced its blade in Clena’s direction. No way, he couldn’t be...

“Hiyaaah!”

This is bad, I thought, then mustered all the strength in my body to slam the broadaxe into the floor. Next I summoned earth spirits, which took bits of the floor the axe had just broken and formed a hard shell around the blade.

“Whoa, what are you doing?!”

“Watch out! He can control weapons!”

“Oh, just like the armor...!”

The floating sword that attacked us, the two suits of silver armor on either side of Goldfish, and the broadaxe that attacked Clena by itself... Judging by what we had just witnessed, Goldfish could control all the weapons around him.

“My knife...!” Roni’s knife was trying to unsheathe itself from the scabbard hanging from her hips. She quickly grabbed the knife and stabbed it into the floor like I did. “Sir Touya!”

“Leave it to me! Stand back, Roni!” Unlike the axe, the knife could still be dislodged easily, so I stepped on the tip of the hilt and buried the whole knife into the floor.

“Clena!” Clena would be in danger next—or so I thought, but she was holding her sword with a confident look on her face.

“Don’t worry about this sword, Touya.”

“Tch! That one’s covered in magic?” Goldfish clicked his tongue. Seems like he could only control weapons without magic already influencing them. “I can do this, though!”

“What?! I’m being pulled...!”

“Lady Clena!”

Goldfish flicked one of the gauntlet’s fingers once, then Clena’s entire body started moving in turn. Roni dove in front of her, wrapping herself around Clena’s waist to keep her from moving.

“My armor!” Clena’s armor was made with hard leather, but it was a high quality product reinforced all over with metal. So that counted as metal too, not just the weapons.

“Am I next?!”

“Bingo, now take this!”

“Guh...!” Unlike Clena, my entire body was surrounded with metal—from my metal-reinforced shield to my brigandine, vambraces, gauntlets, and greaves. He was taking control of everything, and I was being pulled along like a puppet. Rium tried to wrap herself around my waist to stop me, but her tiny body didn’t stand a chance against the power.

Damn it. I should have worn my hard leather armor, even though it was weaker.

The two sets of plate armor had their swords drawn. If I kept being dragged into their range, they would start hacking away at me. I quickly dug my feet into the ground, then summoned spirits to create an impromptu wall between us using the floor’s materials. I lost my balance, hovered in the air for a split second, then slammed my back into the wall I just created. Better than being cut into pieces, at least. A rock broke free from the wall and fell on my head. I used the spell while I was still unstable, so the earth hadn’t hardened itself properly.

The wall was full of holes, but none big enough for a set of armor to pass through. It was similar to a fence. I wanted to praise myself for the extra caution I took to protect Rium from getting hurt.

“Are you okay, Touya?” Rium asked me in a worried voice.

“Somehow, yeah,” I tried giving her a smile in response. I didn’t know if I’d succeeded though, considering how my body was still being pulled into the wall.

I could take off all my armor, but that would be a lengthy process. It wasn’t a realistic option right now. The only silver lining was that Goldfish’s power wasn’t strong enough to pull me through the wall. I couldn’t fight in this state, though.

I could have just used something coated in magic, but if that was so easy to come by, then I would have bought it back in Jupiteropolis. I could also use a non-metal weapon, but we didn’t have any on hand, so I had no options other than to form a makeshift hammer from the floor and walls. In any case, we were at a huge disadvantage. We essentially had no armor or weapons, while he had them all.

I could barely move my arms, so I decided to ask Rium to cut the belts holding my armor in place. That would be much faster than removing it normally.

“Rium, cut my belts for me.”

“Okay,” she said softly, then took out a knife and started cutting away at the belts on my gauntlets.

I was hiding her with my body, so Goldfish probably couldn’t tell what was going on. I looked over at Clena and Roni, who were struggling to get their breastplates off.

“Ye did all that with a basic spell...? I knew I shoulda brainwashed ya.”

“Come to think of it, why aren’t you trying to do that right now? So it was the water after all?” I tried asking Goldfish, but he didn’t respond.

We had thought drinking the water would’ve allowed him to brainwash us back then, and it seemed we were right on the mark. He likely couldn’t brainwash anyone outside of that spring. But honestly, if he could do that to us now, on top of everything else, all hope would be gone. Goldfish—the Masked Cleric, one of the 16 demon generals—was this powerful when he could freely use his magic.

“Y’all are really gettin’ on my last nerves...”

One of the suits of armor approached the wall and banged against it several times. Goldfish sure was playing it safe by keeping his distance. I guess he didn’t have any specific plans to use against us.

“Aye, the MP has blended in like a charm. Shame ye weren’t summoned under the Goddess of Darkness, kid.”

“But I needed to be dead for that.” The Goddess of Darkness only summoned the deceased.

During our exchange, Rium had moved on from the gauntlets to the vambraces. She had cut my arm a little in the process, but it was hardly the time to complain about that now.

“Just imagine... You could become king if I summoned ya. After all, the Goddess of Darkness—” Goldfish started rambling about the demon lord again, like he had all the composure in the world to spare.

Looks like that talkativeness was just inherent to his raw personality after all. I was thankful for it right now, at least.

Rium finished cutting the belts on my greaves in the meantime. My brigandine was the last item, and this one had three clasps with two belts at my hips and chest. Rium started with the belt at my chest that had a small clasp.

“—So it’s a downright shame, y’know... I couldn’t summon ya even if I were to kill ya right here and now!”

I heard a sea of rattling sounds from the other side, so I turned around to find a countless number of swords, spears, and axes floating together. Shoot, the lower belt wouldn’t be done in time.

“Rium, run for it!” She had just finished cutting the top belt loose, but I moved away from her and stuck my two gauntlets into a hole in the wall.

“Instant rocket punch!!”

“Hurgh?!”

The power was still trying to draw me in, so the gauntlets, now freed of any constraints, flew through the wall. The gauntlets drew an arc and hit Goldfish’s helmet head on. A metallic clang pierced my ears. As if a bunch of strings had been suddenly cut, the three sets of plate armor and the countless weapons all fell to the floor. So Goldfish could lose focus too. The fish tank was sturdy, though, and he began standing the three sets of armor up again.

I used the opportunity to take the knife from Rium and cut my last belt. I removed my vambraces and greaves, too.

“Geez, Goldfish is pretty persistent at full power...”

Clena stood next to me, having removed her chestplate. It looked like she had torn her surcoat off.

She and Roni put their armor next to my greaves, and I buried them all into the ground. I couldn’t thank the earth temple elder enough. I had no weapons or armor right now, only earth magic.

Clena also had no armor, just a thin sword that didn’t seem too useful against opponents covered in full-body metal armor. Roni had hard leather armor but no weapons. Rium was the only one who didn’t wear heavy metal armor regularly, and all her metal weapons were imbued with magic crystals, so they were safe from influence.

We had little chance of winning in this state, but we couldn’t give up.

Now that we had regained control of ourselves, I considered using the wall to blockade ourselves from Goldfish, but I was more afraid of losing sight of him. I had to come up with a plan that would give us a chance at victory.

“Rium, do you think your spear can reach him?”

“No. Not enough distance.”

Her silver spear only grew larger once it left her hands. The spear needed more space to grow if it had any chance of doing any substantial damage to our armored opponents.

“...Rium, use your flying disc to call Rulitora here.” I deduced there was no choice but to call on Rulitora, and ordered Rium to do as such. We destroyed all the golems on the way here, so the flying disc would be the fastest way to make contact with him.

“...Understood.” Rium didn’t probe any further, and immediately set off on the flying disc she’d been carrying on her back.

In the meantime, Goldfish had managed to get the three suits of armor back on their feet and lifted the countless weapons back in the air. My gauntlets were among them.

“Yer not gettin’ away!”

“Don’t you dare!”

Goldfish sent a sword flying through an opening in the wall when he noticed Rium, but Roni slashed it away with her bare hands. I knew lycaons had superhuman strength, but I wasn’t expecting that.

We can count on her to fight, I thought as I submerged the sword into the ground.

“We’re running out of space to bury everything. Let’s fall back a little.”

“Got it.”

We couldn’t bury much more into the ground here, since the remains of the knight golems were already scattered everywhere. We retreated a little, still guarding against Goldfish’s attacks.

“Hmm...” Goldfish put his hand to his chin, thinking about something as he looked at us. The other two suits of armor were attempting to break the wall with their axes.

“Looks like this’ll take some time... Might as well enjoy the hunt while I’m at it,” he said, waved his left hand, and sent weapons flying through the holes in the wall. “Now don’t you die until I get there, alright?”

His voice was eerily calm. I was sure he was smiling on the other side of the wall. Not a moment later, a number of weapons rained down on us. “Watch out, one wrong step and you’ll get skewered.” Clangs of metal and Goldfish’s joyful voice echoed through the otherwise quiet hallway.

We defended ourselves against the wave, Clena with her sword and me with gloves I formed with gravel on the floor. I was amazed at Roni, though. Even though she had leather braces, she kept striking away every piece of weaponry that came at her using just her arms. Despite the situation, I was captivated by the way she looked so fearless.

I couldn’t afford to get distracted, though. I stayed a few steps behind them and quickly buried all the fallen weapons into the floor or walls. I wanted to submerge them all at once, but couldn’t risk the entire building collapsing on us, so I had no choice but to bury them one by one while only modifying the building structure slightly each time.

Roni stopped a hand axe with her bare hands, but couldn’t stop its momentum, so she deflected it into the floor. Her breathing was ragged. The heavier weapons must have been taking a toll on her.

And then a knife came flying toward the back of Roni’s head. It was at a blind spot to her and she didn’t seem to have noticed it yet.

“Roni!” I immediately reached out for the knife. Grabbing it with my bare hands, a sharp pain ran through me.

“Sir Touya!”

“Keep looking in front of you!” She instinctively started to run toward me, but I shouted at her to stop.

Enduring the pain, I plunged the knife into the wall and stomped the axe into the ground, concealing both. There was a red line running through the fingers of my right hand, with which I’d grabbed the knife. I didn’t have the time to chant a healing spell now, so I stopped the bleeding by forming a gravel shell around my hand.

This wasn’t my only injury, though—all three of us were covered in wounds. If we could get close to him, we had a chance at victory. But right now, all we could do was defend. My wall was on the verge of collapsing, too.

It felt like it had been a while since Rium left. Seeing as how Rulitora had yet to arrive, though, time might have just been passing slowly for me.

I caught a sword that flew at me from between Clena and Roni. I managed to catch it by the handle this time, but my grip sent pain running through my still-open wounds. I didn’t raise my voice, though, and stabbed the sword into the ground. The pressure made the pain run from my hand to my head, but it wasn’t the worst sensation. It kept me alert while my concentration was currently being tested.

Then, I heard the sound of something crashing to the ground. I looked behind me to see that Goldfish and the two suits of armor had created a large hole in my wall, rendering it useless. This was bad. We already had our hands full with the weapons he controlled, so if the suits of armor were added to the mix, we wouldn’t stand a chance.

“What’s going on?!” Clena’s voice snapped me out of my dumbstruck state.

I looked over to see my gauntlets trying to wrestle Clena’s sword from her hands. Before Roni or I could move, an axe came flying toward her arms as she was trying to keep a grip on her sword. She quickly let go to dodge the axe, and the gauntlets returned to Goldfish’s side.

“Yer all outta moves, kid. Yer magic ain’t from a blessing, am I right? Ye can’t use magic unless ye have a medium to channel it into.”

“Urgh...!” Clena grumbled vexedly.

He was right on the mark. Come to think of it, she had never used spells without taking her sword out. And now she was completely defenseless. I stepped in front of her, shielding her with my back. Goldfish took the sword from the gauntlets, inspecting it with a curious eye.

“...?! Where’d ye get this, ye scalawag?!” Goldfish cried out when he was about to raise the sword in the air. It looked like he noticed something from the pattern on the handle.

I stared at Goldfish, perplexed.

“Why, this is the Dark Prince’s sword!”

“What?!” I inadvertently yelled.

The Dark Prince was one of the demon lord Amann Naga’s—rather, Nobunaga’s—sons, and one of the Five Great Demon Generals. Goldfish claimed that Clena’s sword was the general’s.

“...Clena, is that true?”

“I’d heard it used to belong to the demons... This is the first time someone told me it used to belong to the Dark Prince, though.” Clena responded in a strained tone.

I had to keep my eyes on Goldfish, so there was no telling how Clena looked right now, but Roni was looking at Clena and I with a worried expression.

“Tell me how ye got yer hands on this! Maybe a little bit o’ pain will get yer lips movin’?!” Goldfish’s voice trembled with anger as the other two suits of armor started advancing toward us. The blades of their large axes, which had broken down my wall earlier, gave off a dull glow.

If I tried stopping that with my rock-covered hands, it’d probably just slice me in half. My only option was to make a weapon from the gravel and combat it using brute force. I squatted down, placed my hand on the floor, and shouted toward Goldfish...

“Now, Rulitora!”

Goldfish stopped in his tracks, taken by surprise, but in the next moment a glaive came crashing down from behind him. It only knocked his helmet off, though.

Yes, when I shouted at Goldfish earlier, I actually had my eyes on Rulitora, who had somehow snuck behind Goldfish. He must have found a way to sneak into the armory. Goldfish’s magic cut off, the suits of armor and numerous weapons all fell to the floor.

“Curses, where did you come from...” Goldfish quickly raised the black suit and tried to pick up his helmet, but I wouldn’t let him.

“Throw the helmet over here!”

“Roger!” Rulitora ran at the helmet faster than Goldfish could and kicked it over to us.

I picked it up and saw something that looked like a fish bowl inside. There was no physical bowl, though. The water itself formed an orb that remained inside the helmet. And in it was Goldfish. I’d hoped that his bowl would have cracked and broken from the impact just now, but unfortunately that wasn’t the case. I secured the helmet under my arm, opened the door to the Unlimited Bath, and ran inside.

“What are ye doing, bastard?!”

“I’m inviting you inside my gift! Show a little appreciation!”

“You fool! Hiding me away will do nothin’! All I need to do is throw those weapons around and your friends will be all sliced up! Just like this!”

I immediately closed the door to the bath, but Goldfish only sneered at me. That last part must have been him using his spell... to make the suits of armor and weapons from outside attack everyone again. I kept the door closed, though, and instead headed toward the bath.

“Hahahah! You dimwit! You tryin’a seal my magic again with that water of yours?! Too bad for you, but as long as I have this water, yer water’s not gonna do nothin’ to me!”

Goldfish, having spotted some knives and forks, started throwing them toward me. I shielded myself with the helmet, but two knives manages to pierce themselves into my arm and thigh. Since the floor here was wooden, I wasn’t able to bury the utensils.

“Heheheh... how long can ye hold on for? Oh, I know. Why don’t we bet on who dies first, you in here or yer friends out there?”

He raised the utensils at me again, minus the two that were stuck in me.

“Don’t worry, you’ll be the first one to go.” I jumped inside the bathing room and closed the door behind me as a shield.

We were enveloped by hot steam once I entered the bathing room. The knives and forks slammed against the door, but that was all they did. Fortunately they lacked the power to bust through.

I pulled the knives out of my body and threw them inside the bath before Goldfish had a chance to do anything with them. He shouldn’t be able to access them anymore. I then started pushing buttons on the control panel next to the bathtub.

“W-what are ye playin’ at?!” Goldfish yelled out. He must have finally caught onto the abnormal situation.

Steam started escaping from the cedar tub and the water inside started to bubble. He must have spotted it now, too—the number “100” on the control panel. Though he might not have been able to read it, seeing as how it was written in a language from my world. A normal bath wouldn’t have these extreme settings for safety reasons, but my Unlimited Bath did. It could run up to 100 degrees Celsius and make water boil.

“Y-you bastard... don’t tell me...”

“I think you’ve got something wrong, Goldfish. Nothing can interact with us from the outside right now, so in turn we can’t affect anything inside.”

“What?!”

“Your magic isn’t reaching outside right now.”

“Y-yer lyin’...” Goldfish looked suspicious of me, but I wasn’t just making things up.

Once I closed the door, we were cut off from all outside influence, but we couldn’t do anything from inside as well. That was one of the special traits of my Unlimited Bath. The black suit of armor must be still and lifeless right now, having been cut off from Goldfish’s magic.

I approached the cedar bath and hung the helmet over the water. The steam was hot— I couldn’t stay here for long.

“So now you know, what happens outside doesn’t count. It’s a bet whichever one of us dies first. There are still plenty of knives outside, do whatever you want with them.”

Goldfish tried writhing the helmet around, but I didn’t loosen my grip.

“W-Wait... if I die, then I can’t summon another demon lord...!”

“Then what did you ruin your country for?! There’s not a single citizen of Hades left! Or were you hoping to create a kingdom of the dead?!”

I ignored Goldfish’s plea and aimed a shower head inside the helmet. I sprayed water inside, cutting the helmet off from his control, and the water orb fell out. I made sure the orb fell into the boiling water before throwing away the painfully hot helmet and jumping out of the bathing room. As soon as I passed the door, I saw the knives and forks all pointed at me. Unsurprisingly, he had mustered his strength for one final attack.

“Who will die first, huh...” The moment I spoke, the knives and forks flew at me with great speed. “...Sorry, but there are a million ways I can shield myself in here.”

Instead of me, the utensils ended up piercing a folded up bath towel. I wrapped them all up in the towel and pressed it down on the ground with my feet. I could feel them twitching around under my feet, but they weren’t putting up much of a fight. My victory was sealed if I just kept doing this.

I waited until the utensils stopped twitching, then lowered the temperature of the water using the control panel. The inside must have been a sauna right about now, so luckily I could control the temperature from the outside. I opened the door and hot steam blasted in my face. It wasn’t as bad as when I first started boiling the water, but it was still unpleasant. I then went back to open the door to the Unlimited Bath.

“Touya!” Clena ran over to me once she noticed the door was open. She had her usual sword in her hands, already sheathed. Looks like she got it back safe and sound.

“Where’s Goldfish?”

“Being boiled.”

“I see...” Heat was coming from inside, so she must have been able to tell.

“Are you alright, Roni?”

“Piece of cake!” She must have gotten seriously injured, having taken the brunt of the damage earlier, but she still managed a courageous smile. Her bravery was so endearing.

“Thank you as well, Rium, Rulitora.”

“It’s fine, I only called him here.”

“I’m just glad you’re safe.”

Rium was clinging onto Rulitora’s back.

On that note, when I asked how Rulitora got into the room, he said he simply cut a hole open with his glaive. He might have gotten noticed if he crashed through the wall, so he cut a triangle using the floor as the base, then carefully lowered the cut piece of wall to the ground.

Now that we’d cleared that up, I needed to treat all of our wounds. I wanted to confirm whether or not Goldfish was dead first, though. Maybe we should take him outside and crush him under our feet to be safe.

I reentered the bathing room to find the water back to a normal temperature and Goldfish floating just below the surface, belly-up. I pinched his large fins and lifted him out of the water.

“What?!” I was intending on only lifting him out, but the orb came up with him. It was the same orb that was inside the helmet.

“The bastard’s still alive...!”

“Don’t think ye can kill me off so easily! Curse yer hides!!”

Goldfish fired something at me. I let go and dropped him to the floor. I couldn’t muster any strength into my legs anymore and collapsed onto the bathing room ground.

“Prepare to suffer... ye scalawag...”

I gazed at Goldfish, who was finally on his last breath, gradually fading from consciousness.

I had a dream.

I wasn’t sure if I was standing or lying down. I might have been floating in the sky or buried underground. I was only sure of the pain coursing through my entire body and my shortening breath.

I saw three shadows, though I couldn’t tell how close or far they were. The one that stood out most was a woman with blonde hair tied in a high ponytail. She was tall, clad in a long dress with pure white hems. I thought she was a radiant beauty, but she wore a harsh expression on her face. She had her hands at her waist, reproaching one of the other shadows.

The one being reproached was a woman with black hair. She was sitting down hugging her knees so I couldn’t say for sure, but she looked petite. In contrast to the other girl, she was clad in a pure black dress, with her long straight hair spreading out on the ground and melting into her skirt. She was teary-eyed and her shoulders trembled as the blonde-haired woman kept condemning her. She seemed kind of ephemeral.

The last shadow was trying to calm the blonde-haired woman down. She had wavy green hair and dark brown skin. She had a larger build than the blonde-haired woman, which combined with her gentle expression reminded me of a towering tree.

The black-haired girl might have noticed me since she looked over through her tears, seemingly about to burst out crying any second. The blonde-haired girl took a glance at me as well, but instead she looked even angrier and scolded the black-haired girl some more. I couldn’t tell what they were saying, but I could read as much from the atmosphere. Lastly, the tree girl came over to me with a gentle smile, reached her hand out, and all of a sudden my pain and shortness of breath had vanished like they were never there. I closed my eyes with a relaxed expression.

That was the dream I saw.

“Ugh...” I woke up from that strange dream to find Roni and Rium’s worried faces staring down at me. Rium had tears in her eyes, to say nothing of Roni.

“Lady Clena! Rulitora! Sir Touya has awakened!” Roni called out as she waved her disheveled custard-colored hair around. Rium poked my cheek, probably wondering if I was okay. Her cocoa-colored hair tickled my cheek as she drooped her head down.

“Are you okay?”

“...Somehow, yeah.”

I tried to sit up, bearing the pain of my wounds, but a twang shot up my arm when I pressed my hand against the floor. That was the wound from when I grabbed the knife. My hand was still in the gravel-cover I had made, so I removed it and closed the wound with my healing light. I had several others wounds across my body, but nothing worrying.

I looked around to find that we were in the armory that Goldfish had hidden inside. The others had brought out blankets for us to rest on.

I couldn’t detect the rotten smell anymore. I guess Clena had ventilated the air in here. The door was closed and Rulitora was sitting at the hole in the wall he had cut, keeping watch outside with his back facing me. He turned around, though, probably curious about me. The carriage was parked right under the hole in the wall.

It was bright outside. Either not much time had passed since I had collapsed, or a whole night had already gone by.

Clena came over to me, her silver hair a mess. From that, I assumed an entire night had passed.

“How long was I out for?”

“Almost a whole day.”

So it really was the latter. She probably didn’t have the time to do her hair yesterday.

“I’ll reheat the soup for you.”

My stomach grumbled in response. It was just before noon right now. We had started exploring the demon lord’s castle after having a light lunch yesterday, so that meant I had skipped dinner and breakfast.

I noticed that a lot of our luggage had been taken from outside the Unlimited Bath. I had collapsed with the door to the Unlimited Bath still open, which would have consumed my MP all the while and placed a heavy burden on me. Clena must have realized that and took blankets and other things out, closed the door, and had us rest outside. They didn’t know when I would wake up. It was a wise decision, considering how they couldn’t open the door again until I did.

“What happened to Goldfish?”

“We thought it’d be bad to shut him inside, so we took him out. But as soon as we did, he turned into waste and disappeared.”

“So he’s completely dead now?”

“Yeah, I think so,” Clena replied, drooping her shoulders. Looks like Goldfish had been completely destroyed. “More importantly, how are you, Touya?”

“I don’t feel great yet, but could be worse.” I said, then stood up. My limbs moved just fine. All operational.

If what happened in my dream was real, then I had reason to believe I was fine. I couldn’t be sure of anything right now, though, so I left that unspoken.

“Want to go and see what changed inside after all that?”

I assumed I had leveled up after defeating Goldfish—the Masked Cleric, one of the demon generals—not to mention having been cursed by him, as well. I opened the door to the Unlimited Bath, fully expecting it to have changed from before. And sure enough, the sight that greeted me was completely unfamiliar.

“...A garden?”

“Hm? Isn’t it too small to be a garden?”

The changing room was always the first thing to greet you, but this time there was a space of around one meter, or one stuto in this world’s units. A stone path led to another door, which I assumed was the changing room. But other than that, the space was just scattered with gravel. The door leading to the changing room had an ultramarine curtain hanging in front of it with the word “bath” written on it. I decided to inspect our current one stuto space before opening the door to the changing room.

It was surrounded on both sides by walls. I had thought it was a small garden at first, but after walking around, I discovered that the path formed a loop all the way around the bath. It felt like a building inside a large room. There were windows, but I couldn’t tell what was beyond them since it was dark inside.

“I’d call this more of a pathway than a garden.”

“It’s cramped.”

Clena and Rium, who were following behind me, couldn’t figure out what this space was for. I had thought this might be a good place for Rulitora to rest, since the steam didn’t reach out here, but unfortunately it’d be little too narrow for him.

“Don’t tell me...”

It was an intriguing development, but thinking about that dream I had I came up with a possible explanation.

In that dream, a women who might have been the Goddess of Light was reprimanding a woman who might have been the Goddess of Darkness, and then a women who might have been the Goddess of Earth took away my pain.

You could say that my gift was “inside” me, though of course not in the physical sense. The bath inside this box-shaped building was currently caught between the Goddess of Light’s blessing and Goldfish’s curse. And the gravel pathway at our feet was the “Earth.” The Goddess of Earth’s blessing enveloped the bath itself, keeping me from taking damage. Thinking about it that way, the dream made sense.

“Sir Touya... Whoa, what’s that?!”

Roni had come back with a cup of soup. I took it from her and started sipping on it. It was too hot to gulp down all at once, but it warmed my body right up.

“The real question is what’s inside.”

“I’ll open the door, just in case. Touya is the only one who can use healing spells.”

“...I’ll leave it to you then, sorry.”

I wanted to be the man here, but Clena was right. If this were a game, a recovery spell would heal you right up even if you were on the verge of death. But since this was the real world, I needed to be in good enough condition to cast the spell. I noticed that Clena and Roni were wrapped in bandages all over. Since I fell unconscious, they hadn’t been able to heal the wounds they’d suffered from the battle against Goldfish.

“How about I heal those injuries first?”

“This is nothing. Let’s go inside first. We won’t be able to heal ourselves at all in the future if anything happens to you.”

“...I understand. I’ll heal you guys right after we check out what’s inside.”

“Thank you.”

Roni stood on guard in front of me, while Clena opened the door from the side.

“H-huh? Hold on, there’s no door knob. Nothing happens if I push it either,” Clena grew flustered, not having seen this type of door before. Come to think of it, I’d never seen sliding doors in this world before.

“...That’s a sliding door. Try pushing it to the side.”

“Huh? Oh, you mean like this?” Clena pushed the door to the side, blushing a little. It opened with a rattle. The sound was pretty nostalgic for me.

There wasn’t any battle between light and darkness going on inside, it was safe—but even so, the view had completely changed yet again.

“More doors?”

“Looks like this was just the entrance.”

It looked like a square building from the outside, but there were a few more rooms inside. There was an entranceway right where we entered, and another door. The inner door was check-patterned frosted glass, and we could tell it was dark on the other side.

We opened the door to find that there was indeed no lighting in there. I looked beside me and surely enough, I saw the faint glow of the keys to a control panel. Inspecting it closer, I found that it was just the light switch. Of course, my bath had always had light switches in the past, but this one had been upgraded with even more options.

I turned on the light to find the biggest room we’d seen yet in this bath. Judging by where our luggage had ended up, the room was about twice as big as it was before. There was a sink and washing machine to the left and right of us. I had thought the entrance was narrow compared to what we had seen from outside, but the sink and washing machine took up those couple extra chunks of space jutting past the door.

Along the wall on the farther side, there were two doors. The one on the left was the same folding door that led to the bathing room. We opened it, looked inside, and saw the same Japanese cedar bath as before.

The doors on the right were actually fusuma panel doors. We opened them cautiously to find a room laid out with tatami mats. It was eight tatami in size, with another set of fusuma inside. I opened the fusuma, excited that there might be futons inside, but unfortunately it was a completely empty closet. The room was about the same size as the bathing room, including the size of the closet.

The girls were all flabbergasted at the unfamiliar architecture.

“What is this room...?”

“This is a type of room from my world. Just like the changing room with the wooden floor and the cedar bathing room.”

“Doesn’t it smell like the outside here?”

“The floor... is it made from dead grass?”

“Assuming it’s the same as it was from my world, it’s made from a thing called soft rush straw.” The plant hadn’t necessarily died, it had just been dehydrated.

“I see, so that’s why it smells so nice,” Roni said, then took a deep breath. She was right, the room smelled like fresh tatami. It seemed she had taken a liking to the scent.

“Wow... this is made using some complicated techniques.”

Clena had a stunned look on her face and kept silent. I could guess her train of thought, though. There were a variety of buildings in this world, but the majority of them were made with mud walls, while the nobles would live in houses built from stone.

Only poor farmers lived in wooden houses. These girls probably couldn’t ignore their bias, having grown up in this world. They could tell the tatami wasn’t on the same level, though, after seeing how intricately woven it was. Her astonishment came from the mismatch between her idea of grass flooring and the complex methods used to make the tatami.

“Wow... Amazing...” Rium got on her hands and knees and inspected the weave on the tatami mats.

Fighting off the urge to pat her little protruding butt, I returned to the changing room to get started on healing everyone’s wounds.

“Rium, are you alright?”

“Yes.”

Rium hadn’t sustained any injuries during her call for reinforcement, so I left her in the tatami room. Next, I stuck my head out of the Unlimited Bath and called out to Rulitora.

“Are you wounded anywhere, Rulitora?”

“I’m fine. Nothing to worry about.”

He seemed uninjured as well. Only Clena and Roni needed some healing. I ignored the wounds on my own limbs and started their treatment.

“I just realized, but Healing Light won’t let you heal your own back.”

“Isn’t there a higher level healing spell to make up for that?”

I couldn’t heal my back since I wasn’t able to reach it, but there was a more complex spell for that. I sort of understood the theory behind it, which I suppose was good enough for now.

“...Well, in any case. Show me your wounds, you two.”

“Alright.” Roni took the initiative to undress first, stripping down to her underwear. I couldn’t heal her unless I was touching her skin directly, after all.

“Where are your wounds?”

“Our hands and feet... Roni has one on her back, too.”

“Lady Clena, we’ll need to heal the one on your chest as well.”

“Yeah, I’ll make sure to heal that up really carefully.” I gulped down the last of my soup and psyched myself up.

I didn’t have any ulterior motives, I promise. There was no way I could leave a scar on Clena’s breasts. Sure, I had to touch them to heal them, but I had only pure intentions. Probably.

“You touched me in a really perverted way.”

“I’m a man, after all!” I wasn’t gonna make excuses.

Besides, I couldn’t heal her properly by just brushing against her skin. I needed to make sure every last nerve ending in my hands made contact with her breasts.

After I finished healing her, Clena stared at me as she put her clothes back on, but she understood I’d completely healed her so there was nothing left for her to say. When I had taken off her bandages, I had seen a deep cut running across the top of her voluptuous right breast. It would definitely have left a scar if I hadn’t healed it myself.

She said she tried dodging a knife that came flying at her, but didn’t make it in time. She’d still been lucky, though, considering how the knife would have gone straight through her chest if she hadn’t dodged at all. She had a few deep wounds on her arms and legs as well, but I managed to heal all of them up without a trace.

I could use my magic without any issues. Rather, I might have had an even bigger supply now compared to before.

“I believe the room got bigger from defeating Goldfish, but the structure inside changed and we have one more room now.”

“Let’s make the tatami room the bedroom. We won’t have to sleep surrounded by luggage anymore.”

I looked inside the room with the open fusuma to see Rium rolling around joyfully. Looks like she discovered how comfortable tatami was. Roni’s eyes sparkled as she watched Rium, so I told her to go ahead and join.

“I wonder what the curse he cast on me really was?”

“...” Clena was silent.

I looked over, wondering what was wrong, to find her looking down at her exposed chest, collar unbuttoned.

“Are you implying I should look?”

“N-No, I’m not!” Clena covered her chest, flustered. She was probably inspecting the area I had just healed.

“Did I heal it alright?”

“Yeah, you did. But Touya, do you really feel okay?” Clena peered up at me with a worried look.

I could see her cleavage since she hadn’t buttoned her collar yet. She blushed as soon as she noticed my gaze, then turned her back to me and buttoned herself up.

I looked at her back and asked, “Do you have any idea what the curse might be?”

“This is just my guess, but I think it’s the blessing of the Goddess of Darkness. The tatami room must have been created from that.”

True, I couldn’t imagine my Unlimited Bath being upgraded from a curse. Especially since this gift was originally from the Goddess of Light. So just like how the bathtub turned into cedar from the Goddess of Earth’s blessing, the tatami room could have been created from the Goddess of Darkness’ blessing.

“So the curse was a blessing?”

I remembered a saying back in my world that went “both a blessing and a curse.”

“Isn’t that how you become one of the demon race, though? Will you really be okay?” Clena asked me again, this time with an argument we couldn’t ignore.

Still, I felt absolutely nothing abnormal in my body.

“Er, but wait. Was his goal trying to turn me into a demon? Really?”

“That would explain why it would’ve been a curse...” Clena muttered pensively.

We didn’t have any proof, though. Goldfish had commented that I’d make a fine demon lord, but was he actually being serious?

“What happens when you transform into a demon?”

“Your physical appearance changes first. Take off your clothes a little.”

“A-alright...” It was my turn to strip now. I decided to heal my own wounds in the meantime.

Clena inspected my body while I healed the cuts on my arms and legs. I couldn’t see my back, but Clena said I had no injuries there. I wasn’t showing any signs of transforming into a demon, either.

“Yeah, you’re fine here, too.”

“...Stop looking at that so casually.”

“What, you think I’ve never seen it before? This makes us even.”

I won’t get into the specifics of what she was talking about, but her stubborn face was bright red at the moment. She didn’t look as composed as she tried to act.

“Y-you’re really the exact same everywhere...”

“Actually...” I told her about the strange dream I had while I had been knocked out.

What if those were the personifications of my blessings, assuming the forms of the goddesses? In other words, the light and darkness blessings inside me were clashing with each other right now, but the earth blessing was protecting me from getting harmed by it.

“So maybe the Goddess of Earth’s blessing is keeping my body from morphing right now?”

“Well, it’s a possibility,” Clena saw the logic in my argument. “But there’s also the chance you become a demon without changing physically.”

“Is that possible?”

“I don’t know... but there might have been demons who didn’t look much different from humans at all. I can think of some off the top of my head.” Clena looked off into the distance.

I was reminded of what Goldfish said when I looked at her. It would be awkward, but I decided to go ahead and ask her now.

“...Is your sword really related to the Dark Prince?” I asked, looking her dead in the eyes.

Goldfish said that Clena’s sword, which she used as a medium for her spirit magic, belonged to the Dark Prince. She claimed that she didn’t know who the original owner was.

Clena looked back at me for a while, then eventually sighed deeply and started speaking.

“Alright. I’ll tell you everything.”

I stood up straight and perked up my ears. I noticed that the fusuma to the tatami room had shut before I realized it. Roni was probably giving us some privacy.

“That sword used to be my mom’s.”

“Did one of your ancestors steal it from the Dark Prince, or something like that?”

“No, mom said that she got it from the prince himself.”

Now that piqued my curiosity. Her words implied that the Dark Prince gave his sword away of his own accord. What in the world would have brought him to do that? No, I should be asking what sort of relationship Clena’s mother had with the Dark Prince in the first place.

“Wait a second...!”

“...Yeah, this sword was a present that my dad gave to my mom. At least that’s what I’ve been told.”

“So that means the Dark Prince is your dad?”

“I don’t know. The only thing I can say for sure is that my dad, who I’ve never met, gifted my mom this sword.”

I see. Even if the sword really belonged to the Dark Prince like Goldfish claimed, the one who gave it to Clena’s mom might not necessarily have been him.

“You’re not lying about your age, right?”

“I’m not. I’m really 15.”

It had been 500 years since the demon lord and the prince had been summoned to this world. There was a chance the sword had been passed down a few generations, or that it had fallen into someone else’s hands along the way.

So Clena was mixed human and demon...? No, I couldn’t say that just yet. There was still a chance that some human had stolen the sword from the Dark Prince.

“So I came all the way here to find out more about my identity.”

“To find out who your father was?”

Clena shook her head at my question. “That’s part of it, but I wanted to know whether I was really a demon or not.”

So her claim that there might have been “demons who didn’t look much different from humans” was referring to herself. She didn’t know who her father was, so she had no idea if she was human, demon, or a mix.

“I thought I’d find something out if I came here... But it was all in vain. Looks like I’ll have to start from the beginning again,” Clena said with a laugh—but she looked frail, like she could burst into tears any moment. “...It’s gotten kind of humid. We should start getting lunch ready soon.” She stood up and quickly exited the Unlimited Bath. I couldn’t help but notice the tears at the corners of her eyes, though.

“...Are you going to be alright?” I called to her from behind as she started prepping for lunch. It wasn’t just my imagination that her shoulders were drooping a little.

“I’ll be fine. Just wait and see, I’ll put everything I’ve got into making lunch.” Clena turned around and smiled at me, but it was plain as day how much she was pushing herself.

Roni was the primary cook in our party, while I was the one who helped her out the most. It was abnormal for Clena to take the initiative to make lunch like this.

I walked over and positioned myself between her and the frying pan so that we were facing each other. She really was looking glum.

“I can guess what you’re about to say, but are you really okay, Touya?”

“Okay with what?”

“You know, aren’t you feeling anything? You might turn into a demon any moment now.”

“Oh, that...”

A human would transform into a demon once blessed by the Goddess of Darkness. We had no proof, but that was likely the curse that Goldfish placed on me. Calling it a “curse” was probably just his brand of sarcasm.

My reputation would definitely take a hit if I became known as a hero summoned by the Goddess of Light who turned into a demon. That was probably another reason Goldfish called it a “curse.” Well, we had no way of confirming it with him anymore, seeing as how he turned into a boiled fish and then evaporated. But nothing other than my Unlimited Bath had changed so far, so I wasn’t feeling the gravity of the situation yet. The possibility that Clena’s father might be a demon had me a lot more worried. She had come all the way to the desert kingdom, Hadesopolis, in search of clues about her father, yet we had found nothing.

“Don’t worry about me. Even if we don’t find anything here, I’ll just need to keep looking elsewhere. What matters is what you plan on doing after this, Touya.”

“I’ll gather more blessings from other goddesses and... help you find clues about your father. There’s not much for me to think about.”

It hadn’t sunk in for me yet, but both Clena and I might be flesh-and-blood demons now. Though it was only a possibility for her at the moment.

“Can’t we just say that we’ll keep traveling together for the time being?”

“...You’re right.”

It was faint, but she finally gave me a genuine smile. She then returned her focus to the pan and continued cooking.

“Give that to me.”

“Huh?”

“You’re holding it all wrong, it’s dangerous.”

My biggest problem to tackle right now was helping Clena out with cooking.

After we finished cooking, I decided to send Haruno a letter before sitting down to eat. We were on guard with Goldfish around and didn’t want him finding out that we had friends outside our party, so we had held off on writing letters until now.

I might as well take this opportunity to mention that we defeated one of the demon generals. I wonder if Haruno would be happy to hear that? Or maybe she’ll be worried after learning that we were fighting a demon general?

I decided to hold off on telling her about my curse or the blessing from the Goddess of Darkness. We didn’t have any definitive proof yet, so I didn’t want to worry her too much. Of course, I kept Clena’s story a secret as well. I’d be safe telling Haruno about my feelings, though...

“Hmm, you’re writing a letter to Haruno?”

“Yeah, since we can let our guard down now... Don’t look, okay?”

“I’m not the type to read other people’s letters. But...”

“But?”

“Don’t start ignoring us, alright?”

It felt like she returned to her glum mood from earlier. I see, the fact I was contacting an old friend had her worried. I had to make things clear on this topic, too.

“By ignoring, you mean not taking baths with you anymore and things like that?”

“...Yeah, though I guess you’ll never do that.”

“Of course. I’ll never stop as long as you don’t tell me to.” I wanted her to believe that she and the other girls were all important to me.

After hearing my answer, Clena had a relieved, though exasperated smile on her face.

Afterward, during lunch, I was served a bigger helping than usual. Clena, who had set the table, must have been in a good mood.

After finishing a peaceful lunch, we decided to start our investigation in the armory. A few weapons and pieces of armor were left. Goldfish couldn’t control anything with magic cast on it, which meant that every item left in this room was protected by some sort of spell.

“Oh yeah, there was one full set of armor left.”

“Hm? Didn’t all three come out?”

“There was one set that Goldfish took apart so that he could hide himself.”

“...Oh yeah.”

Come to think of it, Goldfish had taken apart one set of armor and put it on the shelf, then concealed himself among the other two suits of armor. So if only three suits of armor left the armory, that meant the fourth had some sort of spell on it.

“...I can see why he wasn’t able to control this one.”

The remaining set of armor was pure black, just like the one Goldfish used. I didn’t know enough about metal to tell if it was made from the same material, though. The helmet had two ogre-like horns growing out of its forehead, and the rest of the armor felt like it was designed to incite as much fear as possible. If Goldfish could control this, he definitely would have used it to scare us.

“The only problem is that we don’t know what sort of spells have been cast on it.”

“We can’t do anything about that until we have an expert take a look.”

“Let’s put it inside the Unlimited Bath for now.”

No matter what sort of spells were on that thing, we couldn’t just leave it behind.

Besides that, there were plenty of swords, spears, axes, and even a bow scattered around. We couldn’t find any arrows to use with the bow, though. For now, we carried everything we found into the Unlimited Bath.

“Rulitora, help us out with this.”

“What about keeping watch?”

“I’ll take care of the hole.”

We had Rulitora and the horse come inside the armory, and then I resealed the hole using earth spirits. It was quick work since the slab of wall he had cut was still there.

“A full suit of armor would be worth a lot. What should we do about the other three outside, Sir Touya?” Roni asked, tilting her head.

It was easy to imagine that the armor was worth more than my brigandine. I could literally wash away any spells Goldfish had cast with my water, and weight wasn’t an issue as long as we put everything inside the Unlimited Bath. And so we brought all three with us. It’d be a waste to just leave them behind, anyway.

“Let’s bring everything we can, including the stuff I buried into the floor and walls.”

“There were a bunch of cheap ones mixed in there, you know?”

Goldfish controlled everything that hadn’t had any spells cast on them. There might be a famous sword or two in the mix, but most of them were just old and rickety weapons. We had limited space, so we put everything in the one stuto wide area surrounding the bath. Of course, we made sure to handle everything carefully.

We spent the rest of the evening sorting the weapons and armor left in the armory and the hallway outside. I didn’t have an eye for weaponry, so I relied on Clena’s judgment and placed the most valuable-looking ones in the back. The job would be easier if Rulitora could help, but unfortunately he was too large to squeeze into a space just one stuto wide. Thus, the hard labor fell on Roni and I. As a man, I didn’t want to lose to Roni here.

We spent the next two days exploring the castle. We came across a library, but most of the books were tattered and eaten away by insects. However we did find two shelves of books still intact toward the back. The shelves were probably encased in a spell that protected the books inside, so we carried them in their entirety into the Unlimited Bath.

We found five treasure chests filled with gold coins inside the treasure room... as well as dozens of ornaments decorated with gems and precious metals. Of course, we packed all of them away as well. I was worried that we wouldn’t be able to use the gold coins, but after inspecting them, they were the same ones that the Olympus Alliance had in circulation since long ago.

So far, we had more than made up for the funds we used to travel to the desert kingdom. Besides that, we also collected whatever furniture and accessories hadn’t deteriorated too badly. According to Rium, anything that hadn’t decayed in 500 years likely had some sort of spell cast on it. We carried everything into the Unlimited Bath, just like the weapons and armor.

“What’s this?”

While we were exploring the castle, we came across a strange room—no, it was just an open space. There were no walls or ceiling left, so you couldn’t call it a room anymore. It was a crater with a diameter of about 100 stutos.

“There used to be something here, but it was all blown away,” Rium said as she stroked a piece of rubble that she picked up at the edge of the crater. “...It got melted, but then it cooled and hardened again.”

“Really?”

“Really.”

Come to think of it, all the rubble facing the inside of the crater was awfully smooth. What in the world happened here? The battle between the first sacred king and the demon lord was the only thing I could think of. So we’d eventually be fighting against an opponent who could make this much of a mess? While I mulled that over, Rulitora noticed something and pointed to the center of the crater.

“Sir Touya, look over there.”

“Huh, where?”

I looked to where he was pointing and saw some sort of black stick at the center of the crater. I approached it and found that it was a black plank sticking out from the floor. The plank was engraved with red lettering, and the sides were sharp and jagged. It was sticking out from the ground in a slant, but it’d probably reach up to my chest if it weren’t. The surface was glossy and gave off a black luster. Looks like it was made from some sort of metal.

Clena came around from the other side and peered at the letters. The engraving was the same on both sides.

“This isn’t the language of Hades...”

“It’s cursive kanji, huh... I think the bottom part reads ‘of the Sixth Heaven’... Including the part buried underground, it might read ‘Demon King of the Sixth Heaven.’ It’s written upside down.”

“Sixth Heaven?”

“It was sort of the nickname of Oda Nobunaga... I mean, the demon lord Amann Naga. Basically, that’s what he was called back in my world.”

“So he was a demon lord even back there?”

“In a different sense, but I guess so.”

I recalled learning that they started calling him that after the Siege of Mount Hiei. I thought he even referred to himself by that nickname in his letters, but I bet he never expected to truly become a demon king in another world.

Anyway, the plank must have had something to do with someone who was summoned from my world, since the engraving spelled out “Demon King of the Sixth Heaven.”

“This almost seems like an epitaph on a tombstone.” It might have had something to do with the first sacred king, considering the writing.

“But Sir Touya, didn’t a demon general escape with the demon lord?” Roni asked from behind me.

If Goldfish had been telling the truth, then a demon general should have taken the demon lord and escaped from Hadesopolis. So if this was a grave, then whose was it? Well, there was a chance this was a grave, but the possibility put me off from finding out by digging it up.

“Was this the cause of all this destruction? What in the world...” I mumbled and traced my finger along the red engraving, wondering if it was made using some sort of paint. Not a moment later, the letters started to glow, and I instinctively grabbed my round shield to cover my eyes. The light grew brighter and brighter, and soon enough the entire plank started to shine. It was so intense that I couldn’t keep my eyes open even while shielding them. Rulitora yelled out my name and I replied that I was fine, since I hadn’t been physically hurt. But the moment I said that, I wondered if I’d really be okay. I moved back a little so that I could guard the three girls.

“What did you do, Touya?!”

“I just touched it!”

We waited it out, and eventually the intense light started to dim. I lowered my shield and looked toward the metallic blank plank, but surprisingly it was now floating in the air. It was still shining, though not as brightly as before.

“Ah...” I finally realized. It was upside down, but this was a grave marker that you’d commonly find in Japanese cemeteries. Instead of wood it was made from metal, plus it was all black, so I hadn’t connected the dots until I saw the entire thing removed from the ground.

“Why a grave marker...?” I looked at the palm of my gauntlet. The metal board was sharp, but I figured I’d be fine if I had a firm hold on it, and reached out to grab the plank. As soon as I did, it stopped giving off light and fell into my hands. It felt dense and heavy.

“I-is that okay?”

“I think so...” Nothing was happening now that I was holding it, so I figured we’d be safe. What was that light, though?

A moment later, Rium pulled on my arm.

“Touya, there’s a strange person.”

“...What?”

I looked at Rium, then followed her gaze and saw a pitch-black mass crouching on the floor. I quickly let go of the black plank and drew the dagger I had on my waist.

Roni moved as well. She took a battle stance next to me. Right when Clena was about to draw her sword, the metal plank I had dropped made a loud clanging noise against the ground.

“Eek...!” At the same time, the pitch-black mass squealed a bit and started trembling.

That voice made all the tension vanish from my body. Roni had a silly look on her face.

Now that I looked more closely, the pitch-black mass was actually a pile of hair. She was wearing a black dress and crouching on the floor. I could see small pale hands wrapped around her knees.

Between strands of hair, I spotted her fear-tinted eyes. She was looking right at us, so I put my dagger away and walked toward her. The mass started shivering more, but when I parted her hair I found a pair of tear-ridden eyes staring back at me like a scolded puppy. Her face was neat and elegant, prettier than a doll could ever be. She appeared to be a bit younger than me. She had a clearly frightened expression, her pale white skin turning almost blue.

I was at a loss for words after seeing her face. It’s not that I had fallen in love at first sight... But I had seen her before.

“Could you be... the Goddess of Darkness?!” Yes, she had the same face as the Goddess of Darkness that I had seen in my dream.

“You... you won’t bully me?”

“...No, we won’t bully you.” I could only sigh and droop my shoulders at her shaking voice on the verge of tears.

Looks like her personality was the same as in my dream, too.