Third Bath – A Mosaic-Tiled Prophecy

Third Bath – A Mosaic-Tiled Prophecy

Cosmos and his party arrived the morning of the next day. I’d left the door to the Unlimited Bath open all morning, so one of the staff of the White Orchid Corporation dropped by to alert us. I had been staring off into space ever since my dream last night, so everyone was worried about me, but thankfully Cosmos’ party came early.

The self-titled Cosmos, Princess Franchellis, and the elf Foley were the only ones who had come. I went to greet them at the door. They said that they had run into Pardoe’s group at the port city last night, where they learned that I had already gone ahead with the Demon Dog, so they left Ricott in charge of the imperial guards and got on a rapid gembolic carriage to find us as quickly as possible.

Thank god Princess Franchellis was here, though. If they’d left her with the bodyguards, I wouldn’t have anyone to hold a proper conversation with. Foley wasn’t a bad girl, but she and Cosmos shared similar dispositions and she tended to follow in Cosmos’ footsteps.

The princess looked exhausted. They must have rushed here without a break. I guess she also didn’t trust the other two to carry out a proper discussion since she went to such lengths to come here. I appreciated her efforts.

“Yo, glad you’re safe! I was so worried when I heard that the Demon Dog kidnapped you all! Did you get hurt? Oh, here’s a souvenir.”

I was about to ask them about the prophecy right off the bat, but Cosmos cut in first. He gave me a carefree smile and handed over something wrapped in an extravagantly embroidered cloth, which I accepted by reflex.

“...It’s moving.”

“Yeah, he’s pretty sprightly.”

Whatever it was, it was alive. I didn’t want it to suffocate, so I hurriedly unwrapped the cloth—an action that I immediately regretted.

“Give me back my body—!!”

I had revealed a shrieking skull with jaws rattling. It was Phoenix, the former demon general who had gotten fired from his position after fighting and losing 100 battles. As expected of an immortal, he still had energy to spare even after having been reduced to just a skull. I silently wrapped the bundle back together; even though he was still squirming in my hands, I couldn’t hear him anymore.

If I remembered correctly, he was a type of monster called a necroarc. Where did the rest of him go? He was a monster who could revive himself even after being burnt to a crisp—I mean, he was essentially already revived right in front of me.

“S-Sir Cosmos, you should explain things first! Um, that’s a curse-repelling mantle...” Flustered, Foley told us that this mantle could repel curses and other evil spells when worn. It was a relic of the elves and was passed down to Foley when she departed on her journey. Since Phoenix could always return no matter how many pieces you shattered him into, they had wrapped his skull in this mantle so that it couldn’t rejoin the rest of his body.

If Phoenix could control the rest of his body with magic, then this was similar to how I had nullified Goldfish’s ability to control metal by putting him inside the Unlimited Bath. Since the cloth muted his voice, I supposed his voice was also carried by something like magical sound waves. Skeletons didn’t have vocal cords, after all. Apparently the rest of his skeleton was tied up in various parts and under Ricott’s care.

“Do you think he’s pieced the rest of himself together by now?”

“It’s fine, they’re keeping his pieces very far apart.”

Okay then, but why did Cosmos give me his skull as a souvenir? ...I bet there was no actual reason behind it. Just something he felt like doing.

“How did things go with Balsamina?”

Cosmos responded with a thumbs up and a pearly white smile. Sounds like he had pulled it off. She had initially resisted Cosmos’ cajoling but finally gave up and joined their party after they successfully got Phoenix under control.

“That’s great, I’m happy for you!” He had congratulated me after we rescued Yukina, paying no mind to the fact that she was a demon. Now it was my turn to return the favor. Balsamina was apparently trying to avoid meeting any other demon generals right now, so she was staying with Ricott’s group.

“I remember that Balsamina had said something about their prince trying to revive the demon lord...”

“Oh, she talked about that with us, too.”

“Did she? I don’t remember~”

Yeah, I couldn’t expect anything from Cosmos.

“But the Demon Dog told us that the Dark Prince was trying to make himself the new demon lord.”

“The new demon lord?!”

“Oh, don’t worry. We prevented that from happening.”

“I-I see... That’s good to hear...” Foley breathed a sigh of relief.

The princess, who had finally caught her breath, joined our conversation and asked, “Um, how did you accomplish that?”

“I can explain that later...” I needed to tell them that while we did prevent the birth of a new demon lord, we’d also revived the old demon lord at the same time.

“So why does your story clash with what Balsamina told us?”

“Maybe Phoenix had been apart from the demon lord’s army for so long that the situation had changed without him knowing.”

It had been about 15 years since the Dark Prince declared he would become the new demon lord, so maybe Phoenix hadn’t been kept up to date. Maybe Balsamina was trying to avoid the other demon generals because she hadn’t seen them in so long.

“We’ve learned a few other things, and this is something that I’d like to ask Your Highness and Foley about... It’s about the reason why you summoned the heroes—about the prophecy of the demon lord’s revival.”

The princess’ eyes opened wide.

We led Cosmos’ party to one of the cabins in the Unlimited Bath. This room had a wooden floor, a table, and chairs, so it was more comfortable for the princess than a tatami-floored room.

Haruno, Clena, and the light cleric Sera joined us. I hadn’t told them about my dream last night yet, either. Honestly, I didn’t know how to tell them. That was why I wanted to hear the princess’ side of the story first.

After we all sat down around the long table, Roni came up to us dressed in a maid outfit and asked what we’d like to drink. I let everyone have their choice. Cosmos asked for tomato juice, commenting how nostalgic it was. Foley asked for apple juice, since it was a rare sight for her, and the princess chose carbonated water. Haruno and I chose green tea, while Clena and Sera asked for orange juice.

“To cut straight to the point, I’d like to ask you two—what exactly was the prophecy regarding the demon lord’s revival that caused us heroes to be summoned?”

The princess and Foley looked at each other. They seemed like they wanted to know why I would ask such a question, but I just continued staring at them. The princess sighed and started talking.

“The prophecy from the Goddess of Light was bestowed to us in fragments. We had not received a prophecy since the time of San Pilaca, several hundred years ago. The words that were bestowed to the sacred family and to the temple of light differed, so deciphering the meaning was a challenge.”

She said that the prophecy had been delivered to the sacred king and an elderly female cleric of the temple of light.

“Is that why Foley went to Jupiter as well?”

“That’s right, Miss Haruno. Our elder received the prophecy and ordered me to relay it to the sacred family.”

“But by then, as you all know, we had already interpreted the prophecy as a warning of the demon lord’s revival and performed the hero summoning ritual.”

“...Can you tell me exactly what the prophecy said?”

The princess’ face tensed up at my question. Sera half stood up from her chair, looking discomposed. Maybe it was taboo to ask something like this in this world, but there was no way around it. I had to know.

The princess turned to glare at me intensely, and for a while sparks flew between us. How should I get the information out of her? I was willing to share our intel in turn, but maybe I should spill a few things first as a tradeoff. Cosmos interjected before I finished my train of thought.

“Wh-What’s wrong? Come on, smile, everybody!”

The princess glanced at Cosmos, who was attempting to mediate, then smiled ever so slightly. She faced me again and slowly strung a few words together.

“Awaken... Darkness... Light... Darkness... Come together... Demon lord... Break... Seal... Those were the eight fragments from the prophecy.”

“Is ‘darkness’ supposed to be in there twice?”

“My father said that he had heard it twice.”

Apparently the sacred family, the temple of light, and the elves received five fragments each.

“The five fragments that the sacred family heard were ‘awaken,’ ‘darkness,’ ‘darkness,’ ‘come together,’ and ‘break.’”

“Our elder was bestowed ‘awaken,’ ‘light,’ ‘come together,’ ‘demon lord,’ and ‘seal.’”

“The temple’s five parts were ‘light,’ ‘darkness,’ ‘demon lord,’ ‘break,’ and ‘seal.’”

I see, that’s how it was. If those were the only words that they’d heard, then it would indeed sound like an ominous omen of the demon lord’s revival. Now I understood why they’d made such a big misunderstanding.

“...Your Highness.”

“What is it?”

“I have the ability to hear words directly from the Goddess of Light. When I told you that we had prevented the birth of a new demon lord, those were words from the goddess herself.”

“......What?”

“I also learned about the prophecy from her. This is hard for me to say, but... Your interpretation was wrong. The goddess did not make any prophecy related to the revival of the demon lord.”

Everyone in the room looked at me at once. Besides Cosmos, who was still glancing back and forth at the two girls beside him. Haruno and Clena looked obviously surprised, but all the color had drained from Sera’s face. I felt bad for her right now, but I couldn’t hide the truth from her.

“What... What do you mean...?”

“‘Awaken’ the Goddess of ‘Darkness’. Let the forces of ‘light’ and ‘darkness’ ‘come together’, go to the castle of the ‘demon lord’ to ‘break’ the goddess’ ‘seal’. That is what the Goddess of Light told me.”

“B-But that...!” The princess jumped up from her seat, her chair falling behind her. Her face had gone pale, her voice shaking. She turned to look at Sera imploringly, who meekly nodded to affirm what I had said. She already knew that I could meet the goddesses in my dreams.

They had assumed that the prophecy had come to them in fragments, but that in itself was wrong. They had only been able to make out parts of a full sentence. To hear a prophecy in full, you needed blessings from several goddesses and an enormous amount of MP. Even San Pilaca had not been able to clearly make out messages from the goddess back in the day.

The goddesses had told me that having the blessing of darkness made a big difference in regards to this. By going to the place in my dreams, the amount of MP needed to receive a prophecy greatly decreased. That was likely because it was a place much closer to the goddesses than this world. I asked if no one had been granted the blessing of darkness all this time, but they said, “Without light you cannot see, and without wind you cannot hear.” So only having the blessing of darkness wouldn’t do you any good, either.

“Also, the Goddess had been sending out this oracle constantly over the past 500 years. But hardly anybody has been able to hear it since the time of San Pilaca.”

The Goddess of Light, who loved her sisters, wanted to free Rakti, who had been sealed by a “stray bullet” during the war. You could only break the seal by combining the powers of light and darkness, and that was what she had been trying to tell us this entire time. Indeed—that wasn’t the first prophecy in several hundred years like they had thought. There just wasn’t anybody who could listen.

And yet she never gave up for 500 years. Finally, people who could hear a fragmented version of her message appeared, but they misinterpreted it and performed the hero summoning ritual. That was the truth behind us being summoned to this world.

“Just from those eight words, it does sound like the demon lord’s seal is about to be broken...”

“And if you only look at the words from the sacred family and the temple, it sounds especially dangerous.”

Clena and Haruno could both sympathize with why they had conducted the hero summoning rituals.

“And don’t the elves’ words sound like a method to deal with the demon lord?”

I see, something like “‘Awaken’ the ‘light’, ‘come together’ and place the ‘demon lord’ under a ‘seal’.” The “come together” could refer to the sacred family, temple of light, and the light elves.

“It can’t be...!”

The princess tumbled to the floor, losing all the strength in her legs. Foley rushed over to help her back up, but Cosmos remained still, probably because his brain was still trying to catch up with everything we had just said.

“Umm, so what are we talking about, in simple terms?”

“It’s like they couldn’t hear the goddess’ voice well because they only had one bar of signal. So they misunderstood what she was saying, and we were summoned as a result.”

“Ohh...” Cosmos looked up, finally understanding what we were talking about with the comparison to cell phones.

The princess was spent, so we decided to continue our conversation in a room where we could relax. We guided Cosmos’ party to the Japanese-style tatami room, the gift of darkness. There was no better place to recover than here. The princess and Foley were taken aback by the tatami floor, but Cosmos sat down on it as a matter of course, so Foley followed and nervously sat down next to him.

The shock had been too much for the princess, so she was using Cosmos’s lap as a pillow and was lying down languidly. A fatigued Sera was also using my lap as a pillow right now, so Cosmos and I were facing each other right now with girls on our laps. What a strange sight.

After all this, I still had yet to bring up the main point of our discussion. I needed to tell them that I had accidentally revived the demon lord. This was exactly why I wanted to talk about the prophecy first. Now we knew that the goddesses were not concerned about the demon lord’s revival and didn’t deem it a threat. The princess had taken the news worse than I had expected, but we were able to come to this room with its placating effects as a result, so it was a blessing in disguise.

“So you can meet him after this, but uh... I accidentally revived the demon lord from 500 years ago,” I said frankly.

“What do you mean?!” Foley raised her voice and stood up. The princess was faced away from me right now, but her body tensed up.

“It’s okay, stay calm. The demon lord said that he’s not intending to start another war with Jupiter.”

“...Is that true?”

“He awoke yesterday. There hasn’t been any commotion since then, right? You can confirm with him directly.”

“That’s a scary idea in itself...”

Even if he wasn’t planning on attacking Jupiter, he was still quite frightening, so I could understand her apprehension. But I had to convince them that he really wasn’t planning to start another war. That was my role, as the one who had revived him, otherwise Jupiter and the alliance might attack the demon lord again.

“This is from the demon lord’s point of view, but... The war 500 years ago was actually started by Jupiter.”

“...Huh?”

“Jupiter and the surrounding nations got themselves deep in the red after trading with Hades, so they tried to get back their money... That’s the truth behind the battle between the first sacred king and the demon lord.”

“Um, uh, huh...? Wuh? Huuuh?!” Foley’s face changed expressions at a comically rapid pace, but I couldn’t blame her. The princess was trembling with her back still facing us.

“Were they conducting some fishy business?” Cosmos asked, surprisingly calm. He grabbed Foley’s hand, and she obediently sat back down.

“I can’t say either way, but from what I can tell, the demon lord’s strategies were just too advanced for the other countries to understand.”

“Uh-huh...”

“It’s like how in the latter half of the 18th century, textile manufacturing in the British Empire turned India from a textile exporting country into an importing country,” Haruno offered.

“I understood nothing you just said.”

“...Oh, I remember learning that in class, Haruno.” I remember that it happened during the Industrial Revolution. I didn’t know whether the demon lord had tried to spur on an Industrial Revolution himself or not, but it was safe to say that he had used economic strategies that hadn’t existed in this world.

“I heard that the demon lord was big on fashion, too.”

“Huh, really?”

“Yeah, there are some accounts of it. He was also a fan of the new and unusual, so if you bring a person like that into this world...”

“It was like the perfect playground for him?”

Haruno nodded in response.

This world had gems that ours didn’t, like rainbow opals. Things like that must have gotten him worked up. Ficus Brand didn’t exist at the time yet, either. I bet he could have made a killing conducting business related to fashion alone. In fact, I wouldn’t be surprised if the demon lord had a direct influence on the creation of Ficus Brand.

Before I knew it, the princess had turned around to face me. The others were also listening to our conversation attentively.

“Hero Touya... Do you believe that the sacred family was at fault for the war?” the princess sat herself back up and asked. She looked solemn. Maybe she had known something about the truth of 500 years ago, too.

Everyone was looking at me now as I pondered. She had asked me this in earnest, so I had to respond in kind. I sorted my thoughts, then opined, “I think they were both at fault, but if I had to say who was more in the wrong, it was the sacred family.”

“...May I ask for your reasons?”

“The demon lord... well, Hades as a whole, took advantage of the other countries’ ignorance to conduct their business. I think they were taking it too far.”

“I suppose that is the case...” She seemed not so pleased by the word “ignorance”, but it was the truth, so I hoped she wouldn’t hold it against me.

“But I also think the other countries brought it on themselves when they used up all of their own money.”

“...I do not deny that.”

Even accounting for their ignorance, they should have known better and not spent so much on those luxuries. I of course had no details on what exactly transpired, but I bet they had been pretty generous with their spending.

“Also, starting a war just because they were running out of money is pretty questionable...”

“Ahh... Yeah, I can’t say I understand the logic behind that~” Cosmos agreed, though still sounding ambivalent.

“Ugh...” the princess groaned.

Maybe they couldn’t think of any other course of action at the time, but that was still no excuse to start a war.

“Did you already know something about the reason behind the war 500 years ago, Your Highness?”

“...This is from Jupiter’s point of view, but...”

That made my ears perk up.

“...The demon lord used a cursed power to devour the riches of all the neighboring nations, and the first sacred king committed himself to eradicating that cursed power.”

I looked at Sera on my lap, and she nodded. “The temple of light has passed down the same story.”

“A cursed power? Hahahah, like a god of poverty?” Cosmos joked.

“No, it was more like banks,” I replied.

“...‘Banks’? Excuse me, but what is that?” asked the princess.

“I can explain that. Banks are an institution that exist in our world...” Then Haruno started a little lesson on the world of finance. After she was done talking, the princess fell prostrate on the floor.

“Franchellis?!”

“A-Are you okay?!”

Cosmos and Foley rushed to the princess’ side, then Clena scooted over and whispered in my ear, “What happened to her?”

“She probably figured out the truth.”

“The truth?”

“The sacred family back then didn’t understand the financial structure of Hades, so they assumed it was a curse.”

“So from the sacred family’s point of view, they were cursed, which meant Hades attacked first.”

“But in fact, it wasn’t a curse at all...”

“Which means the first to attack was the sacred family. From Hades’ perspective, they were essentially being falsely accused.”

“The stuff about how the ‘first sacred king committed himself to eradicating the cursed power’ sounds fishy, too.”

Yeah, the first sacred king was a summoned hero, too. It made more sense to say that they made eradicating the cursed power their goal, and therefore they performed the hero summoning ritual. Though it was still possible that the first sacred king got fired up after hearing their situation.

I looked over to see that the princess was still prostrate on the ground. She seemed like she was actively resisting Cosmos’ and Foley’s help. She was still trembling, too. She was one of the people who summoned us to this world, but she was absolutely not a bad person. In fact, I knew that she was someone I could have a genuine conversation with.

She had a personal doctrine, which caused her to join Cosmos on their journey. But after hearing my story, her core values had been shaken. It was obvious how distressed she was right now. She needed time to sort out all this new information and her thoughts on them, so it might be best to leave her be for now.

“Cosmos, let’s leave the princess here to rest, and we can go outside.”

“...No, I’ll stay. I need to be by her side at times like this!”

“O-Okay...” I looked at the princess to see if she had reacted, but she was still prostrate on the ground and I couldn’t tell. I looked at Foley instead, who timidly nodded. I decided to trust her judgment right now.

“Are you all right, Sera?”

“Y-Yes, mostly...” she said, but couldn’t muster enough strength in her legs to stand.

“Up you go.”

“Kyah...!”

I picked her up like a princess. She was more than light enough. She seemed embarrassed, but didn’t resist. She even wrapped her arms around my neck to keep herself from falling. Clena and Haruno looked at me like they had complaints, but I had to help Sera right now. And so the rest of us, including Foley, left the room.

“U-Um...” Foley spoke up after we slid the door closed behind us. “Uh, um... Can you let me meet the demon lord?” Her shoulders were trembling, but she didn’t back down. She wanted to confirm the demon lord’s plans herself. I didn’t mind, but I’d be responsible if anything happened to Foley.

“...Why don’t we make something for him?”

“Huh?”

“Clena will bring some food to the demon lord, and Foley can tag along. Then you can speak with him.”

“I wonder if that would work... Would the demon lord get angry?”

I think he’d be happy, actually. It would be homemade food from his granddaughter, after all.

“I heard that he has a sweet tooth, so maybe we can make some sweets.”

“...Why do you know that?”

“He was a famous historical figure in our world.”

“Eh? So even his food preferences got passed down for 500 years? Do the humans in your world have long life spans?”

Japanese people did have a reputation for having long life spans, but I doubted we could beat elves. Foley still looked like she had misgivings, but I couldn’t provide any more reassurance. We had a quern-stone that could produce sugar now, so I agreed with Haruno’s idea to make some sweets for the demon lord. We’d elevate his mood so that Foley could talk with him. Haruno, Foley, Clena, and Roni made their way into the kitchen. I was going to bring Sera to the bedroom on the third floor, but before that, I asked Haruno what they would be making.

“Hmm, maybe a western dessert, since that would be new for him?”

“There are a lot of similar things in this world, so I’m not so sure about that.” This world did have cakes, though they didn’t have anything like a sponge cake with whipped cream and strawberries on top. “One of the books from Hades said that the demon lord had tried to recreate miso in this world, so we cooked a lot of miso-related dishes for him yesterday... We can’t use it for dessert, though.”

“Actually, there are a lot of sweets with miso in them.”

“Huh, seriously? But it’s miso.”

“You can make dango, manjuu, cakes, and cookies.”

You could even put miso in cakes? I wondered what it would taste like. Sweet and salty?

“With the ingredients in Ares, I think we can make miso dango and miso cookies.”

Planning out something like this during their shopping trip yesterday was exactly something Haruno would do. I could leave this to her.

We parted ways and I went to the third floor, where I laid Sera down.

“Get some rest, I’ll check on you later...”

“...Hold on, may I ask you something?” She looked up at me earnestly, still lying on the ground. I straightened my back and gave her my attention. “Was it wrong of me to become a cleric of light...?”

That was a difficult question. I wasn’t a cleric, so I wasn’t in any place to lecture her. But I wanted to give her a sincere answer. I stared back at her while carefully choosing my words.

“I don’t think I can deny that the temple of light was in the wrong 500 and 300 years ago.”

“When they attacked Hades, and when they banished the demi-humans?”

“For the former, I’d say it was more that they concealed the truth after destroying Hades.” If you asked me if they could have taken any other approach besides attacking Hades at the time, I wouldn’t be able to answer. But I couldn’t excuse how they had handled it afterward, especially with how they’d treated Rakti. “But I don’t think the followers of the Goddess of Light are in the wrong.”

“But it was us followers who made the wrong decisions...”

“The Goddess of Light never ordered you to attack Hades or to banish the demi-humans, did she? The temple of light isn’t entirely made up of good people.”

Sera’s eyes opened a little wider. She might have recalled her time back in Athena.

“...You’re right. Some of the people involved were in the wrong. If I don’t acknowledge that, then I can’t take the steps to correct it,” she said, and suddenly sat up vigorously. Light had returned to her eyes.

Did she mean that she wanted to take steps to correct the temple’s actions by herself? I didn’t think she needed to take on that much responsibility, but I bet she thought otherwise. I noted to myself to tell Sandra and the others about this conversation later. As temple knights, they were better suited to handle this than I was. Especially Rin, who could think these situations through with a level head. I could trust her to stop Sera if she tried anything rash, or at least alert me if she did.

“Hey, you couldn’t even stand by yourself earlier. Why don’t you get some rest?”

“Oh? Ahh, you’re right. I’ll do that.” Her cheeks flushed red, probably recalling how she had been carried here in the first place, then she lay down again.

Staying here would continue making her feel antsy, so I decided to leave her alone for now. I went to the entrance of the Unlimited Bath to find Sandra, and sure enough, she and Rulitora were standing guard by the door. I gave them a rough outline of what we had talked about with Cosmos, suggesting that she ask Sera for the details later.

Sandra was taken aback at first too, but she understood my message and told me that she would make sure to bring Rin and Lumis to talk with Sera later. I told them that they could come to me anytime, and she said they’d tell me when the four of them finished talking among themselves later. Looks like I had no choice but to wait for now.

“Rulitora, did anything happen while we were talking with Cosmos?”

“Kopan’s... the Flame Devil’s bodyguards came by, but that was all.”

Thinking about it now, the Flame Devil shouldn’t need any bodyguards. I guess it was to hide his true identity. That aside, if things continued to proceed smoothly between the demon lord and Clena, it was sounding like a good idea to call Pardoe and the others here soon. Apparently nothing else had happened in the meantime, so I was about to go back inside to clean, but speak of the devil... The Flame Devil was here.

“Happen to have some time right now?”

“...What for?”

He seemed fishy, and there was that incident in Hephaestus, but he had never actually done us any harm. On the contrary, he had done great work for us in Neptune. I didn’t know if he could tell what I was thinking, but he grinned at me and continued talking.

“Oh no, it is nothing important. I am just here to relay a message.”

“A message?”

“Yes, yes. Someone has come to visit you two, actually.”

“Who does ‘you two’ refer to?”

“That is, of course, you and Sir Cosmos. A Hero of the Sacred King, Sir Natsuki, has come to visit you.”

“...What?”

One of the five summoned heroes and a Hero of the Sacred King, Natsuki Kannami. The battle-hungry hero had finally appeared. I hadn’t heard a peep about him since he’d defeated one of the 16 demon generals, the Beast King.

“...Just to confirm, did he fight his way in?”

“No, he simply dropped by.”

So he didn’t come here looking for a fight after hearing about the demon lord...? I didn’t want to let him inside the Unlimited Bath before knowing his motives. We had the cyclopes inside, who weren’t fit for battle. However, I couldn’t stray far from the Bath as long as the door was open.

“Where’s Kannami right now?”

“I let him stay in that room. See, the room right over there.”

The Flame Devil pointed to a room by the delivery entrance. I think I could go that far without having to close the door to the Bath. All right, I could meet him there.

“How many people did Kannami come with? Just one?”

He had gone undefeated while battling his potential party members and had started his journey with the one person who bested him, an elderly general. They should still be a party of two, unless they had found more people.

“Oh no no, he came as a party of three.”

“Three? So there’s Kannami, the old general, and then who?”

“As luck has it, he brought the Beast King along with him.”

“...What?” I was getting more and more confused by Kannami’s intentions. “...Rulitora.”

“I will accompany you.”

“Leave the guarding to me. I’ll ask Lumis to back me up.”

Both Rulitora and Sandra were quick to respond. I guess Rin would look after Sera in that case.

Our visitor was a fighting addict whose first idea after being summoned was to choose his comrades through battle. If he had brought two party members with him, then I wanted to have two of my own who were strong enough to put up a fight in case it came to that. But Haruno and the others were cooking right now. If the glaupis were with us, I could pick one of the stronger ones, but that was impossible right now. I looked around, wondering who I should ask, then stopped on a certain someone.

“Flame Devil, you’re not busy right now, right? Come with me.”

“Oh?”

If they had a demon general with them, then I’d bring one of the Five Great Demon Generals.

“I’m not sure if you’re our ally yet, but if someone on their side knows your true identity, then they’d want to avoid a fight, right?”

“That is a harsh way of putting it, but you are not wrong.”

“And I don’t know why they have a demon general with them. Maybe they just want to ally with someone who knows more details about the demon lord’s army.”

“I would have preferred if you’d said that part first.”

He rambled a little more to me after that, but eventually agreed to come with me. It seemed like he was doing this for his own amusement, but he still seemed curious, so he wouldn’t try to wreck things of his own accord. Probably.

“Hey, Daisy~!”

“Coming! What’s up?”

“Come with us. If a fight breaks out, can you fly back and alert everyone?”

“Well that’s terrifying!”

I also enlisted Daisy as our messenger, just in case. Now we should be all set.

“What a worrywart,” the Flame Devil scoffed at me, but I ignored him. It was only natural to make preparations in case things went south.

We arrived at the door to the room. I knocked, heard a “Come in,” then opened the door. A fragrant aroma wafted through the air. I’d heard it was customary to burn incense when you hosted visitors in Ares.

The room had a bare wooden floor. It was fairly spacious inside and furnished with an elegant wooden table and wooden chairs. Most of the buildings in Ares were made of earth or rock, so wooden furniture was considered a luxury. This was the case for floors, walls, and ceilings, too.

Kannami’s party had been sitting down but stood up to greet us when we entered the room. All three of them had muscular builds and made the room feel much more cramped.

“It’s been a while, we haven’t met since Jupiter.”

“I’ve heard rumors of your accomplishments.”

Kannami reached out to shake my hand, so I did the same. He was wearing a plain but sturdy-looking sleeveless tunic. His bare arms were sunburnt and showed off his toned muscles. He had always been taller than me, but looked no slimmer than the last time I remembered seeing him. On the contrary, he seemed mightier than ever. The glint in his eyes made me think of a nimble predator. Daisy must have had the same thought as me, since she let out a little squeak and clung to my cheek.

“This is the first time we’ve talked. I’ve heard all about you guys. My name is Achilles.”

“I am Rulitora. I serve as Sir Touya’s raver.”

A giant old man gave a hearty laugh and slapped Rulitora on the shoulder as he introduced himself. He had a smooth bald head and a white beard. He must have been the old general. He looked like he was getting on in years, but wore heavy plate armor as if it were as light as a feather. He was just slightly shorter than Rulitora, and judging by the sheer bulk of his plate armor, it seemed like he had the body of a gorilla.

“...Why are you here?”

“I have a cordial relationship with the people here.”

A lion demi-human growled at the Flame Devil. He had a similar build to Achilles but looked taller, maybe due to his rich mane. He must have been the Beast King. I was curious why he was here, though.

“I beat him and then added him to my party.” Kannami’s explanation was short and simple. I’d heard that he had defeated the Beast King, but not that he had recruited him as well...

“What a bunch of muscleheads...”

I didn’t know how exactly their party ended up together, but just as Daisy said, they all seemed pretty similar.

“They are both seasoned veterans.” Rulitora said that judging by the demeanors of those two giants, they were both highly experienced fighters.

However, this intimidating aura I felt came not from those two, but from Kannami. I could only assume that he had a battle-oriented gift that more than made up for his lower physical strength. In any case, this party was composed of muscle, muscle, and more muscle. They were a different kind of extraordinary compared to Cosmos’ or my parties.

Kannami placated the Beast King and proposed that we sit down. Everyone besides Daisy, who still clung to my shoulder, obliged, then Kannami started the conversation.

“Where’s Nishizawa, by the way?”

‘Nishizawa’...? Oh yeah, that was Cosmos’ real name.

“The princess collapsed from shock, so he’s tending to her right now.”

“Shock? Did something happen?”

“This is a good opportunity, so why don’t you tell them all about it?” the Flame Devil suggested. He really was here for his own amusement... or maybe he had some other plans.

They had the Beast King with them, so maybe they had already learned a few things about 500 years ago. I think it was safe to tell them about the truth of what happened. And since they would find out soon enough anyway, I let them know that Haruno was here as well.

“...I see, so that’s what happened.”

It took a while for me to finish explaining everything, but Kannami seemed to take it all in relatively well. I guess he really had heard some of this already from the Beast King.

“I’d heard that Jupiter was the one who attacked first, but I didn’t know the reasons behind it...”

“Ohoh, so that was all you knew? But that is understandable, since why would the Beast King know anything about economics?”

“You bastard...!”

I stand corrected: they didn’t know much. They knew that Jupiter had been the ones to attack first, so they must have at least surmised that there was another story behind it all. Achilles was holding back the Beast King, who was about to leap out of his seat at any moment. I also whacked the Flame Devil on the top of his head, saying, “Don’t taunt him.”

I then told them about how the demon lord had reawoken, but the only thing Kannami replied with was “Did he seem strong?” So he wanted to try his hand against the demon lord? If so, please do it somewhere else. If they fought here, I could imagine the entire city ending up in shambles.

“Do you believe all of this, Achilles?”

“More or less. I wouldn’t be surprised if it really was true. It doesn’t sound all that strange. The most important part is whether or not it was a war to protect our country.” As a former military general, his priorities lay with protecting his country first, and everything else second. When he heard about the demon lord’s revival, he got up out of his chair halfway, but then sat back down without a care when I said that he wasn’t planning to fight.

“Can’t we just let the demon lord take care of these guys?” Daisy’s suggestion was a little tempting, but I ignored her for now.

Anyway, Kannami’s party could understand why the princess had collapsed now.

“So now’s not the best time to bother Cosmos...”

“In that case, please pass our message on to him.”

Kannami handed me a flyer. It was plain, with only text in a single color that said The Great Ares Arms Competition.

“What’s this?”

“It’s a competition that will be starting soon. By chance we have three—actually, four—heroes here, so why don’t we all enter?” Kannami grinned.

I see, this was why he had come to visit us. The flyer said that we could use our own weapons and armor, so I wondered how far my Magic Eater could take me.

“The winner gets 5,000 Ares gold coins. How about it?”

His eyes were sparkling; he looked like a kid in a toy store. He really did seem excited to participate. We had barely talked back in Jupiter, so I didn’t know he was this kind of person. He seemed eager for me to tell Cosmos about it, but also for my own response. Well, I didn’t have to think about this too hard.

“I’ll have to decline your offer,” I said bluntly. Kannami looked befuddled; he probably didn’t expect me to decline. I moved on to give him my reasons. “Have you heard about how the temple of wind was attacked? We’re taking care of refugees from there right now, and our priority is finding them a place to stay.”

“Wouldn’t the prize money help you with that? It’s 5,000 gold coins.”

“No worries, we’ve got money from some other sources.”

I glanced at the Flame Devil, who grinned back. I had talked with him last night, and he told me that the tatami mats from the Goddess of Darkness’ room could make us money. Furniture made from plant sources was expensive in Ares, so he wanted me to sell him tatami mats for 200 gold coins apiece. That would be enough for us to cover the refugees’ living expenses. The tatami mats were worth more than I thought, but he said that if faith in the Goddess of Darkness were still thriving, then they might have gone for 500 apiece. In any case, I had a way to earn 5,000 gold coins on my own. I didn’t want to fight fellow heroes for just that amount of cash.

“I’ll ask Cosmos about it, though his answer might depend on the princess.”

“G-Got it, thanks.”

And that was the end of our conversation. Kannami didn’t seem to want to push it further, either. We caught each other up on everything else we knew after that, but he brought up one piece of information that I found puzzling.

“Ritsu Nakahana is in Jupiteropolis...?”

“Huh, who’s that?”

“Oh yeah, you wouldn’t know her, Daisy. You could say that she’s a troublemaker hero?”

I’d heard stories of her back in Ceres, but didn’t know that she had returned to Jupiter.

Achilles was diligent about visiting every temple of light along their journey and contacting the sacred capital, Jupiteropolis, and that was how he had found out about Nakahana. Ares had no temple of light, so they didn’t have the latest information, but the last they had heard, she had found a position close to the prince and should still be there.

“Close to the prince? Wasn’t the prince really angry with her?”

From what I remembered, she had tried to recruit the prince into her party, but he turned her down. She then took her two existing party members and set off on her journey as an excuse to flee Jupiter.

“She apparently brought back an army, and he allowed Ritsu to return for the sake of bringing that army under him.”

“An army...?”

The last I had heard, she was living it up in the mansion of a wealthy landlord in Ceresopolis and gathering battle ravers. Had things escalated that far?

Cosmos’ party had the imperial guards, and until Athena, Haruno had taken the pilgrims of the Goddess of Light with her. Having an army with you was a safe decision, but... How did she end up in a position close to the prince? I couldn’t tell what they were after. I could assume that she had returned because the prince wanted her army, or maybe she had done something with her gift. She had tried to recruit the prince in the past as well, so maybe she had just given it a second shot. But I couldn’t think of much beyond that.

“So Nakahana didn’t do anything to stop the attack on the temple of wind?”

“I can’t say. Though she should have been in the capital around the time that it happened.”

I asked the princess about this later, but she said that she knew nothing more about it. She also contacted Jupiteropolis every time they passed by a temple of light, but they’d had no way of doing so ever since setting sail from Neptune. In that case, there was nothing else I could do right now other than shelving this information in the back of my mind.

Kannami and I made a deal to contact each other if either of us found out anything new. His party wanted to train for the arms competition, so after that, we parted ways.

“You bastard! If you want Clena, go win the arms competition!!”

“I’m not a prize!!!”

“Oof?!”

After that, the Dark Prince dropped by and thrust the same flyer in front of us, but Clena promptly shoved it back in his face. I decided to pay them no mind. The Flame Devil saw this exchange and started rolling on the floor laughing.

The White-Faced Ogre told me that the arms competition had a long history. These days, it was just a yearly tradition, but in the past, a former king of Ares was disgruntled by how his troops kept losing against the demon generals and started the competition as a way to recruit stronger soldiers. Due to this backstory, they asked the demon generals to refrain from participating even to this day.

“So that’s why the Dark Prince didn’t challenge us to a battle there or anything.”

“Yes, he actually cannot participate.”

I was thankful that he didn’t ask to fight us or anything, but I didn’t know if he was actually being nice or not.