Fourth Bath – The Light of the Goddess, Obscured by Steam

Mixed Bathing in Another Dimension The Hero of the Unlimited Bath — LNCrawler · All chapters

That evening, we decided to take a bath before dinner and catch each other up on the day’s events. I was concerned about Sera, but she had gone into the sauna with Sandra, Rin, and Lumis. She was probably going to talk to them about our conversation earlier. I reminded myself to check in on them if they stayed in the sauna for too long. I listened to what Clena and the others had to report while lying on top of Prae in the cedar wood bath.

“Eheheh~” Prae was the only one of us who used the deeper end of this bath, so I suggested that we all take our bath here tonight. She seemed really happy to have us here. She was hugging me like a stuffed animal as I leaned back, sinking into her. This softness and bounciness gave the third floor bedroom a run for its money. But I felt too much like a little kid like this, so I asked Rakti to come sit in my lap. I rested my weight on top of Prae, burying my head in her knockers, and hugged Rakti’s dainty little body on top of me. Ah, this was bliss.

Just like this, I chatted with the others about today’s happenings. I told them how Kannami had visited us with the Beast King in tow, about the Great Ares Arms Competition, and that Nakahana was in Jupiter.

“Wow, that’s a lot of new stuff...”

“Nakahana is in Jupiter...?”

Unsurprisingly, they were mostly commenting on Kannami’s party. They were curious about Nakahana’s party too, but we didn’t have any more details right now, so there wasn’t much to discuss. No one here was interested in the arms competition, though. I thought Sandra might like the opportunity to test her skills, but she told me “Battles are not for show.”

Meanwhile, Daisy was using a bucket in place of a bathtub and talking to Rium and the others about all the scary faces that Kannami’s party had made. That aside, they all agreed that it should be fine to have his party around. They hadn’t turned hostile even after I told them that I had revived the demon lord, and they had taken in a demon general as a party member as well, so I think we had nothing to worry about.

“We have Yukina here too, so if they told me that they saw all demons as enemies, then I might not have let them go.”

“Yeah, I can see you doing that.”

Our relationships with the Demon Dog and Flame Devil weren’t so bad right now, and I could hold a pleasant conversation with the White-Faced Ogre. The demon lord was, well, Clena’s grandfather. That of course didn’t mean that we would turn against the sacred family. We were on good terms with Princess Franchellis right now, too. If the demon lord and the generals said that they didn’t intend to fight Jupiter, then we could leave them alone for now. They might cause some trouble economically, but the princess had already sent a message of warning, so we had done all we could at this point. Now, the one thing left to focus on was finding a place for the cyclopes and glaupis to stay.

“We should start planning for the cyclopes,” I said, which made Prae tighten her arms around me. Woah woah, I was getting buried alive by squishiness. The cyclopes and the glaupis were like family to her. Of course she was worried. If we wanted to make a plan, though, I wanted the assistance of the demon lord’s army, who had been living in Ares for the past 500 years.

“How did things go on your side? Did you deliver the miso sweets?”

“Can you get your face out of there before asking us?”

Whoops. I got back up and straightened my posture a bit.

“He didn’t say much, but he asked to have more three times, so I think he liked them?”

That sounded like he absolutely loved them.

“What about Foley?”

“They had tea together after he finished eating the sweets. It sounds like she believes that he’s not going to start another war with Jupiter now.” Roni further explained that while Foley had been skeptical at first, the demon lord said that there was no profit to be gained from starting another war, and that convinced her.

“Does that mean that she understood the financial aspect of it?”

“I’m not sure; it sounded like she had made some poor assumptions about him, but when he said that he wouldn’t start a fight, she believed him...”

...Well, as long as she was convinced, we could leave it at that.

On that note, Ricott and the imperial guards had arrived earlier this evening, and we let them stay in the Unlimited Bath. They were shocked to see the inside of the Bath for the first time, but then the princess talked to them about the truth of 500 years ago, and they were hit with an even bigger shock than what they were already experiencing. The princess had yet to fully recover, but now she was busy trying to deal with Ricott and all the guards. Having something to do would help take her mind off things, at least.

Cosmos, in the meantime, said that he wanted to try entering the arms competition. Now the princess had one more thing to worry about, but I could do nothing but watch over them. My condolences. I had one more thing on my mind, but it was something I had to ask the demon lord and the generals about, so I saved it for later when I could meet with them about the cyclopes. Right now, I had other things to do.

“...All right, I’m healed!”

“Are you okay, Touya?” Rakti looked up at me with worry, but her face just healed me even more.

“Will you be okay? Don’t push yourself,” Yukina also asked with concern.

“Don’t worry, I can handle it.”

There was one thing I had to put my mind to, even if it meant making everyone else worry.

“The demon lord’s army will be coming by tonight, right?”

“Yeah. They said they want to use the bath, too.”

“And we have Cosmos’ party here tonight as well.”

“That’s a lot of people...”

Right, I was going to use all of my MP to generate as much rice and other ingredients as I could to treat all of our guests tonight.

I decided to take a break and headed to the study room on the second floor of the main building. The magic bookshelves that we had taken from Hades were lined up neatly and filled with books, but other than that, this room was barren.

We had asked the demon lord about all of the things we’d taken from his castle, including these bookshelves, but he simply said that we could keep them all. Maybe it was for his granddaughter Clena, or maybe because they had collected dust for 500 years anyway.

“...What’s up?” Rium was sitting directly on the wooden floor, holding a large book that could barely fit between her arms. She spent a lot of her time in this room immersed in our book collection. Right now, she was reading a picture book that we had bought at an auction in Neptune. It was filled with bright and colorful illustrations; it felt pleasant just to admire the pages.

We really did need to put some furniture in here other than the bookshelves. It’d be nice to have a table and chairs, though that might mean that Rium would spend even more time in here. Anyway, I couldn’t relax in this room, so I was going to bring some books to the third floor. It was the most comfortable place besides the tatami room downstairs, which was in use right now.

“I used too much MP, so I’m taking a break. I’m bringing some books to the third floor, do you want to come?” I offered. Rium stared at me silently for a minute, then nodded. I grabbed a few books that caught my interest off the bookshelf, took the heavy picture book from Rium, and we walked to the third floor hand in hand.

I lay down on the giant fluffy bed that took up the entirety of the third floor and started reading. Rium snuggled up next to me and opened her picture book again. She kept close to me without saying a word, and once in a while snuggled up closer as if to remind me that she was there. She was like a kitten. We didn’t have anything to talk about since we were reading different books, but it felt nice to spend time together like this. She was the type to enjoy passing her time quietly and peacefully.

The book I was reading was much smaller and thinner compared to Rium’s picture book. It was about the religion of the Goddess of Darkness during the time of Hades. Something had been on my mind since we’d arrived at the White Orchid Corporation. None of the demon generals, not even the Demon Dog, seemed to be followers of the Goddess of Darkness. They respected Rakti to an extent, but clearly weren’t pious. I was sure she had noticed this by now, too.

A goddess’ powers grew in proportion to the amount of faith she received. The demon generals were still alive, and there should be plenty of descendants from Hades here to this day, yet Rakti had lost all her power and was nothing more than an average young girl right now. I had picked up this book because this had been bugging me. It should tell me about what the religion of the Goddess of Darkness was like back in the day.

“Hey, Rium, do you have a moment? Do you know if any of the other goddess religions have books like this?”

“...What kind of book is it?” Rium peered at the book I was holding. She flipped through a few pages, then made a perplexed face. “I’ve never seen something like this before... Maybe it’s unique to the Goddess of Darkness’ religion...?”

So none of the other faiths had this. This... sightseeing book of sorts.

At first I thought that this might be a holy script on how to worship the Goddess of Darkness, but upon reading it, I found that it was a guidebook about places to see inside the temple and shop recommendations near it. The book said that the pond in the courtyard, where Goldfish had been hiding, was a beautiful garden that had attracted many visitors at the time.

“This makes the head temple look less like a place of worship and more like a tourist attraction.”

“That would be crazy for the other temples...”

I could see why they would do it, though. Many shrines in Japan were treated the same way. I bet the demon lord’s army had something to do with this book. I noted to myself to ask the demon lord later about this and the Goddess of Darkness’ religion. It might be a sensitive topic, so I decided to save it for after dinner and somewhere Rakti wouldn’t be around.

Rium seemed interested in the book, so I handed it to her and picked up another. This one was another book from Hades.

“...And this one’s a tour of the castle, huh.”

Apparently the demon lord’s army had put a lot of effort into tourism back in the day.

Dinner went off without a hitch that night. I was worried that there might be another incident like our dinner with the temple of earth’s elder, but surprisingly, Cosmos was a fan of miso soup. He quickly gulped a bowl down and asked for another serving. The princess and the rest of their party looked a little uncertain at first, but they also drank it without complaints.

“This sure takes me back. I like seaweed, but I prefer miso soup with bulkier ingredients in it, like tomatoes.”

“...What is that?”

“Oh, you don’t know?”

Cosmos and the demon lord started talking about their favorite miso soup ingredients. They were actually hitting it off well, probably because the demon lord was interested in learning about all the different foods that he’d never heard of before. The princess and the others were looking at them like they were aliens.

Well, they were getting along, so I think we had nothing to worry about. The princess might have to deal with more headaches, but this lowered the probability that they’d break out into a fight against the demon lord.

On another note, the main ingredient tonight was a seaweed-like plant that was commonly found around Ares. We selected it because it was readily available to buy and paired well with the miso soup. After being enlightened to the wonders of tomatoes in miso soup, the demon lord demanded that we include them for tomorrow. I think this world did have a vegetable similar to tomatoes... But that aside, did that mean the demon lord was planning to come here every day? For now, I just warned him that I couldn’t guarantee that we could find tomato-like vegetables.

After dinner, I asked the Demon Dog to arrange for the demon lord and me to talk. I wanted to know more about what had happened while the demon lord had been sealed, so I asked the White-Faced Ogre and Flame Devil to come, too. The Demon Dog didn’t join, saying that he had some work to take care of.

I asked Clena and Haruno to come with me, and we met at the central room on the second floor. We faced each other, three people on each side. The demon lord’s lower half was coiled on the ground, and the White-Faced Ogre and Flame Devil sat to his left and right. The two looked like a normal housewife and an ordinary merchant compared to him, so it was a bit of an odd sight.

There was some tension in the air. That was probably between the demon lord and the Flame Devil. They weren’t on bad terms, but for some reason, the air always became heavy whenever they were near each other. Maybe the Demon Dog didn’t like this atmosphere and had made an excuse to dodge this meeting. On the other hand, the White-Faced Ogre seemed unaffected by them, maybe because she was used to it. I guess those two had always been like this. It seemed like it was best to ignore them and move on to our discussion.

And so I asked the three of them, mainly the White-Faced Ogre, about what had happened to the Goddess of Darkness’s religion.

She replied, contrite, “Um... we had to pay heed to the primary religion of this land...”

“...So in order to make Ares your base, you had to convert to the religion of the Goddess of Earth?”

She nodded with a somber expression.

“Also, it would have been impractical for us to continue after we had lost both our temple and all of our clerics.”

“You lost your clerics? All of them?”

“They chose to remain at the temple back then...”

“But didn’t Goldfish run away?” If I remembered correctly, he was the elder of the temple of darkness at the time. I could imagine him choosing himself over the Goddess of Darkness, though. I see, so although their elder was a problematic one, all those under him were devout believers. Everyone who was connected to the temple of darkness chose to share the temple’s fate, and thus no one was left to uphold the religion of the Goddess of Darkness. Just as the White-Faced Ogre said, they had had no choice but to convert to the religion of the Goddess of Earth.

“...Er, you couldn’t have converted just like that, could you?” Clena rebutted hesitantly.

Come to think of it, she was the only one here who was originally born in this world. Her common sense, as a native to this world, told her that such a thing would be preposterous. I could empathize with them, though. It was like how you could go to a Christmas party, then visit a shrine for New Years a week later.

I recalled learning that the demon lord conducted sieges against religious powers in his previous life. His way of thinking in regards to religion may have differed from ours in modern Japan, but I doubted he was pious either. I took out the temple guidebook I found earlier and showed it to Clena, who flipped through its pages.

“What’s this...? Huh? Is this okay?”

“Ahh, how nostalgic. The demon lord poured his life into this book to increase the number of visitors to the temple.” The White-Faced Ogre’s eyes softened as she looked wistfully at the guidebook. So the demon lord really was behind these guidebooks?

As Clena looked around in confusion, Haruno took the guidebook from her.

“This was to increase business for the shops near the temple, or more specifically, to increase tax revenue, right?”

“More visitors to the temple means more donations.”

“And that’s how you convinced the temple to take part?” Haruno looked straight at the demon lord, but he gave no response. But he wasn’t denying it either, huh. So the Goddess of Darkness faith, or rather its temple, was nothing more than another tool at his disposal.

“Well, faith is something that can change whenever the need arises,” said the Flame Devil, who then reached into his pocket and took out emblems representing the Goddesses of Darkness, Light, Fire, and Earth.

Oh yeah, I did see him at the temple of light before. So he was a follower of light, too?

“Though I admit that I do not follow the Goddesses of Wind and Water. I have not had a chance to visit their temples.”

“You don’t have an issue with being so flighty?”

“Oh, you devout types are so rigid. Joining a temple and making a little donation makes doing business so much easier,” the Flame Devil laughed. Clena’s jaw was about to drop to the floor.

“As you can see, I have carried the Goddess of Darkness’ emblem with me this entire time. Perhaps I am her most devout follower right now!” he laughed even harder. No wonder Rakti’s powers weren’t returning.

“Hmm...?”

I suddenly remembered something. The souvenir that Cosmos gave me. The immortal who fought and lost 100 battles, Phoenix. He was, in a sense, our savior, being the one who summoned Yukina to this world. But the hero summoning spell was cleric magic, and a pretty high-level one at that.

“Um, out of curiosity... Is Phoenix a cleric of darkness?”

“Hm? Ahh, after he was dismissed from being a general, he cooped himself up in the temple. I am not aware if he became a cleric after that.”

I see, so he became a shut-in after getting fired. Since Goldfish was now dead, the top follower of darkness might really be Phoenix. While I mulled over my thoughts, the demon lord asked me inquisitively, “Lad... Don’t tell me you are planning to use him? He would be of no use to you.”

He hadn’t won a single one of the 100 battles he fought, so of course the demon lord wouldn’t recommend him. His voice had carried an unexpectedly worried tone. Anything involving me would also affect his granddaughter, Clena, so that was understandable.

“But that’s as a demon general, right? He might be of use as a temple elder.”

Phoenix might be a high-ranking cleric who could pull off difficult spells like hero summoning. The demon lord had said that he wasn’t aware if he had become a cleric or not, but hero summoning wasn’t a spell that you could randomly slap together either. If we wanted to restore faith in the Goddess of Darkness, then we also had to rebuild the temple of darkness. As far as I knew, the only cleric we could possibly appoint as a temple elder was Phoenix.

“Well, why don’t we give it a try? Even if he’s not devout, he knows enough magic to become a high cleric. He could at least take the position of elder in name only,” the Flame Devil commented as if to back me up while undermining everything I just said at the same time.

“I never received word of him fleeing the temple after he placed himself there, so perhaps he did take his practices seriously...?” the White-Faced Ogre added. Hopefully he had learned some piety during that time, too.

“...Can’t you use cleric spells, too?”

“I only learned them because they would come in handy.”

The demon lord tried to nominate me. It sounded like he really didn’t want to use Phoenix. I may be the person closest to the six goddess sisters right now, but if you asked if I was religious, I’d hesitate to answer. I didn’t think I would be ready for life as a cleric. Though if we really had no other candidates, I might consider it. Phoenix really was more qualified than I was, so if possible, I wanted him to do it.

Also, the ancient cleric spells that the goddesses had been teaching me didn’t count. The MP costs of those spells were out of this world, and I could feel why they had become obsolete with every fiber of my own being. If becoming a temple elder required that level of magic, then they would have run out of candidates long ago.

“You are thinking quite hard about this. Does this mean that you are considering reestablishing the temple of darkness?”

“I just want to do something to help Rakti.” That was my primary reason. I wanted to reinstate the temple of darkness as a means to help her, but not because I had become her follower. I felt more like her older brother, or maybe her guardian. Either way, she’d been trying to act like my older sister lately, so she’d probably puff out her cheeks and whack me with her little fists if I said this in front of her. Yeah, Rakti wasn’t an object of worship to me, but an object of protection. Her acting that way was yet another adorable side of her.

“But Touya, where do you plan to do that?” Clena interjected with a worried tone.

“Where? I haven’t really thought that far yet.”

“That will not do,” the White-Faced Ogre reprimanded. “The religions in this world are, in essence, tied to the land in which they have taken root. Fire, Water, and Earth hold especially strong connections to their territories.”

“What about the other three?”

“The sun rises and falls no matter where, and wind always blows throughout the world.”

I saw what the White-Faced Ogre was saying. The Goddess of Fire’s religion had taken root near volcanoes, followers of the Goddess of Water lived under the sea, and adherents of the Goddess of Earth developed their city underground. The spirits had a strong presence in each location, so belief in the goddess who governed each element grew. You could also say that they simply couldn’t ignore the power of the spirits where they lived. Maybe that was another reason why the demons from Hades had converted faiths as well.

The other three faiths weren’t tied to a particular location. That was how Light was able to exert its influence so far, and why Wind had been able to reestablish its head temple somewhere else after being driven out of Athena.

“So where exactly do you think you can build the new temple of darkness?” the Flame Devil asked me again, grinning widely.

I had been hoping to rebuild it in Ares, where the demon lord’s army was based, but perhaps that was too naïve. The Goddess of Earth was the type to smile and say “go ahead,” but that wasn’t necessarily the case for her followers. That, and it would be difficult to put the temple of darkness here, where the presence of the spirits of earth was so strong. So this was why Clena had been worried.

On the bright side, the religion of darkness wasn’t stuck to a particular location. Maybe we had to avoid places where white nights occurred, but judging by what the White-Faced Ogre mentioned earlier, it didn’t sound like this world had those.

I considered using the island the Phoenix had used as his hideout, but that was right next to the water religion’s place of worship. I wanted to find a place that wasn’t already inhabited by other believers.

“Do we have no choice but to go somewhere uninhabited...?”

I bet another reason why they moved the temple of wind to the forest of Thebai was because no other religions had claimed that area. The issue was whether or not such a place existed within the Olympus Alliance... Any city with humans would already be occupied by another religion, so that was a no go. The void was not only right under Jupiter’s nose, but also a barren wasteland.

I glanced at the demon lord. The void had once been his domain. If I suggested that we rebuild the temple there, he might insist on coming with me. If that happened, I bet Jupiter wouldn’t stay quiet.

“Do any of you have any other places in mind?”

Haruno thought for a moment, then shook her head. She only had knowledge of the countries she personally visited, so that was to be expected. Neither the White-Faced Ogre nor Clena had any suggestions either. The demon lord had just recently awakened, and he had yet to catch up on the world’s current state of affairs. He remained silent with his eyes closed and a pair of arms folded.

“A place not yet occupied by another religion signifies a place uninhabited by humans. Which, in turn, signifies a place that would be difficult to inhabit. If you wish to reinstate the temple in a place like that, you must be willing to start from scratch in the wilderness.” The Flame Devil was the only one who offered something constructive, but it was also a harsh reality.

In the end, we didn’t get anywhere. The White-Faced Ogre said that she would try asking some of the regulars at the White Orchid Corporation about it. She mentioned that this was how she kept up to date on information regarding the surrounding areas anyway. I decided to talk about this with everyone else as well. Maybe tomorrow, after Sera calmed down a little more.

That night, I brought this up with the Goddesses as well. They told me the same thing that the Flame Devil had brought up. Rakti was happy with my idea, but she also latched onto me, apologetically crying, “I’m fine staying like this. Don’t push yourself too hard, okay?”

The other goddesses had similar reactions. They agreed that it would be a difficult task, but they were all in favor of it. The Goddess of Earth looked glum, saying how she wished we could rebuild it in Ares. There was nothing we could do about that, so I hoped she didn’t feel too down about it. The idea of not worshiping the Goddess of Earth even while living in an underground cave was honestly pretty scary.

Judging by the Goddesses’ reactions, there seemed to be a reason why they were eager to restore the temple, or more specifically, faith in the Goddess of Darkness. When I mentioned this, the Goddesses started awkwardly mumbling, but told me that at this rate, Rakti would lose the ability to maintain her corporeal form, and we would no longer be able to go to this dream world. Since this dream world was Rakti’s sanctuary, that would mean I wouldn’t be able to meet the Goddesses anymore. So that was why.

“Rakti is like a little sister to me. Now I have all the more reason to pull this off.”

“I’m your older sister!”

“You’re so cute, big sis~”

Ignoring her words of protest, I picked up her petite body and spun her around. Her cheeks flushed red as she pouted, but eventually she gave me a bashful smile. Yeah, I had to protect this other little sister of mine.

“...Wah!” I felt envious stares piercing my back and turned around. All five of the other goddess sisters were gazing at me with expectant eyes. “Umm...”

“Are you sure you only have one ‘cute big sis,’ Brother?”

“You’re right, I have five more.”

After that, I picked up and spun all of them. When I was done with everyone, Rakti begged me to pick her up again, and we all ended up going for three rounds.

From then on, my days got much busier. First, we called for the ketolts and glaupis who had been waiting at the port. For lodging, we borrowed the guest villa that the White Orchid Corporation owned. We couldn’t keep using the Unlimited Bath, since I wouldn’t be able to move from that spot. There was a storehouse next to the villa that the cyclopes could use. It had a high ceiling, so they could stay there comfortably. We did try to pay rent, but they refused. Apparently, since it was the demon lord’s granddaughter borrowing the place, they didn’t want any money.

As for Phoenix—or rather, his skull—he had yet to calm down, so we couldn’t put him back together yet. However, something about the dark spirit stone inside the Japanese tatami room struck a chord with him, so we placed him next to it. I guess he was supposed to be another one of our guests now. He wouldn’t yell if he was next to the spirit stone, so whenever we left the Unlimited Bath, we would wrap him up together with the spirit stone and take him with us.

Meanwhile, Cosmos had signed up for the arms competition. The princess was actually thrilled with the idea. She said that a hero should leave records of his achievements in a competition like this. She was more surprised that Haruno and I weren’t joining. Thus, their party left to rent an inn close to the arena where the competition would take place. They also might not have liked the idea of receiving favors from the demon lord.

I hadn’t seen Kannami again since that day. He had given up on persuading us and was going up to the surface every day to train. They were staying at an inn next to a road leading outside.

“What’s it like above ground here, anyway?”

“’Tis very hot.”

The Demon Dog said that above ground, the sun’s rays blazed on a desert almost entirely devoid of plant life. I did remember seeing that reddish-brown earth when we arrived at the port city, but I hadn’t realized it was so hot.

“Is it like the void?”

“I would assume it similar. I heard that long ago, the Torano’o tribe traveled away from Ares and eventually arrived at the void.”

No wonder everyone lived underground. The demon lord’s castle had also been underground, and I remembered it being much more pleasantly cool there.

Though the underground city was much cooler, the residents still needed their sunlight. The people of Ares valued their time in the sun very much. Resorts were constructed above ground, and mini-golf and falconry were all the rage. The former was native to Ares, but the latter had been introduced by the demon generals. Now, both had become popular pastimes.

The avian monsters that were trained for the sport were called “falcons,” but they were not the same falcons from our world. They apparently even had falcon shows, where they competed to see which one was the best groomed. The demon lord had taken an interest in this and had been going above ground every day lately.

“He got all pumped up and said that he’s going to catch a big and majestic one.”

“So step one is catching them? The Demon Dog showed me the one he owns, and it was really colorful.”

They looked like tropical birds. The Demon Dog’s bird wasn’t that big, but it had vibrant yellow feathers, clear eyes, and a sharp beak. I was curious about keeping a bird monster as a pet, but I honestly didn’t have the time for that right now.

Let me summarize the events of the past several days. We needed to buy a lot of things so that everyone could live at the villa even when I had to close the door to the Unlimited Bath, but that in itself involved me having to leave the Bath often.

First, we visited the temple of earth, since I needed to discuss the matter of the temple of darkness with them. If they said they were against it, then my idea of restoring the temple would turn into nothing more than a fleeting dream. The temple of earth wasn’t against the restoration itself but didn’t want it to happen in the underground city. There was plenty of free land above ground, but they didn’t recommend trying to develop anything there. Not only did it get unbearably hot, there were also extreme temperature fluctuations between night and day. So basically, “Don’t do it in Ares.”

Next, we were invited to the royal palace. At first, I thought it was because the demon lord had been revived, but they were actually more interested in the earth altar inside my Unlimited Bath. They had gotten word of it from the temple. I was worried that they would try to seize the altar, but it turned out that they just wanted to pay their respects. And so, we headed to the royal palace with the courteous White-Faced Ogre as our guide. Our group also included Haruno, Clena, Rulitora as our bodyguard, and Roni as our attendant.

“The formal wear in Ares... Oh, it’s like the outfit that the daimyo wears in historical movies!”

Haruno told us that those outfits were called kamishimo. The name itself came from the Edo period, but the clothing existed during the demon lord’s time as well. Hence, I was now dressed like an actor in some historical play. In a fancy daimyo getup, at that.

“They were influenced by us. We have been here with them for 500 years, after all.”

The demon lord’s army had peacefully assimilated into Ares, but Ares must have absorbed some of their culture in kind. Falconry had spread in a similar fashion.

The girls were dressed in magnificent kimono, as if they were princesses. Roni’s kimono was a bit less showy compared to the other two’s, but she looked adorable all the same. They didn’t have any kamishimo for lizardmen, so Rulitora was dressed in his usual armor. Though lizardmen did live in Ares, they normally wore loincloths. The Torano’o tribe had been similar.

The White-Faced Ogre told us that marsh lizardmen like the ones we saw at the port lived underground in Ares, but sand lizardmen lived above ground. However, they were a different tribe called the Merek tribe, and they had thorns growing across their bodies.

“Are they related to you, Rulitora?”

“No, I believe that was the name of the tribe that drove my ancestors away to the void...”

“...Why did that happen?”

“It was a war over water sources.”

Back then, the sand lizardmen above ground and the dark elves underground often fought to claim the limited water resources in the desert. Many of the palace guards were from the Merek tribe, so there was a high chance that Rulitora would come face to face with them.

“Will you be okay, Rulitora?”

“It is just a story from many hundreds of years ago.”

He said that it ended up being a good thing that their tribe was driven to the void, where they didn’t have to fight over water, so they had no long-standing grudges. Thus, nothing of note happened when we crossed paths with the Merek royal guards. They did look at Rulitora out of curiosity, but it was more due to the dragon bone armor that he was wearing. It was one of our finest possessions, after all.

Then we had our audience with the royal family... They were dark elves who almost looked like an idol group. The prince and princess were said to be close to 100 years old, so I didn’t even want to think about the ages of the king and queen, who could also have easily passed for pop stars.

They paid their respects to the earth altar without any particular trouble, then we had a luncheon. We would be presenting food to the royal family, so the chefs of the palace came to help us cook. They had learned about miso soup from the temple elder, so they requested that we make the “the goddess’ soup.” They too thought it was dirt soup at first, so I guess it was stuck with that reputation now. Well, we could still serve it to them all the same, so for now I just told them that the correct term was “the goddess’ miso soup.”

Anyway, I was excited to see what the palace chefs would cook up using miso and soy sauce. The ones who would actually be watching them were Haruno and the other girls though, who would be helping them cook. In the meantime, Clena gave me an impromptu lesson on table manners so that I wouldn’t embarrass myself, at least not horribly.

Finally, it was time for the luncheon. Was it just me, or was the royal family’s reaction to the miso soup way bigger than their reaction to the earth altar? Anyway, I brought up the temple of darkness during the meal. The royal family also asked us to do the restoration outside of Ares. They added that since they’d had good relations with Hades in the past, they could offer us aid. Basically, they didn’t want us to encroach on their land but would be happy to establish friendly relations.

The busy days continued, and I was finally about to find some time to relax a week later. The arms competition had already started, and Comos and Kannami were dominating the preliminaries. I really wouldn’t have had the time to participate.

I also tried asking the ketolts and the glaupis what they thought about the temple of darkness, but none of them seemed against it, perhaps because the Goddess of Darkness was originally a goddess of demi-humans. I wondered what the king of Hephaestus would think. I asked Pardoe, who said that he would probably have had the same opinion as the king of Ares. In other words, he would be happy to help as long as it was outside their country.

The glaupis asked me to consider reestablishing the temple of wind as well. I asked who would be the temple elder in that case, and they said that Prae knew enough magic for the position. I refrained from asking whether her personality would be the best fit.

I already had my hands full with the temple of darkness, so working on the temple of wind at the same time was a tall order. Prae said that she also wanted to restore the temple of wind, and I did want to help her, but it was physically impossible for me to rebuild two temples in two different places at the same time.

“Hmm...?” I suddenly had a thought. Did it have to be two different places? Ceres had both a temple of light and a temple of earth. Hepheastus also had a temple of light and a temple of fire. It wouldn’t be absurd to build a temple of darkness and a temple of wind in the same place.

The king of Ares and the temple of earth probably wanted to keep us out of Ares because they didn’t want us to compete for followers. However, the goddess sisters all got along with each other. I’m sure they would allow this. In fact, I think they’d be happy about it.

“And maybe we could construct all the other temples too...?”

I was afraid of how the temple of light might react if we only reconstructed the temple of darkness. But what if we also constructed a temple of light, and the other four temples? This might work. It would be something I needed to talk with Sera about. I immediately headed over to her.

These days, Sera had been poring over holy books in her room in the villa. Hence, she had been put in charge of watching over the place while the rest of us were out. We could always rely on Sera and Sandra while we were absent.

“Are you there, Sera?”

This room on the second floor had a sliding screen door, so instead of knocking, I called out to her. A moment later, the door slid open and Sera poked her head out.

“...Do you need something?” she asked, looking up at me. She seemed tired.

I hoped this conversation would lift her mood a bit. I told her that I wanted to consult with her about something, and she invited me into her room. Each room in this villa was furnished simply with a desk, a chair, a bed, a small cabinet, and a clothing drawer. Sera had brought her own clothing drawer and collection of books. The room was as starkly decorated as mine, but the air felt different, maybe because it was Sera’s room.

“What is it that you wanted to talk about?” She gestured for me to sit down in her chair, then she plopped herself down on the bed. The remnants of body heat on the chair made me embarrassed, making me think about how she had just been sitting here. But I couldn’t get carried away by that. I sat up straight and told her about the idea that I had just come up with, about building all six temples together in one place.

“...Are you suggesting that you will enshrine all six Goddesses in one temple?” she sighed and asked after I finished talking.

“No, I’m thinking of building all six temples in one location.”

She sighed even longer after I said that. Was it that strange of an idea?

“Oh no, that’s not what I mean.” She waved her hands after noticing my look of doubt. “Um... There is one problem with that idea...”

“A problem? What is it? I can try to modify my plans to cover for it...” I asked, leaning forward.

“Th-That’s...” she stuttered. I kept staring at her, not saying anything else, and eventually she sighed again and continued. “...I think the temple of light would be the only problem.”

“...Can I ask why?”

“The Goddess of Light is the oldest of all the goddess sisters. Because of that, it’s always been agreed that she is the most highly ranked goddess.”

“So if the other temples were next to them...”

“...They would likely not want equal treatment.”

In the worst case, they might even drive all the other temples away. Before that happened, they could also induce strife between the other temples.

“Then how about just leaving the temple of light out...? No, that wouldn’t work.”

“...That may cause a conflict that splits the Olympus Alliance in two.”

“But the Goddesses get along so well...”

“I believe you. From what I have researched, there is nothing in the holy scriptures that indicates that the eldest sister is also ranked the highest. However, that somehow became an accepted notion, and it still is today.”

Is that what she had been reading about all this time? If only everyone was as kind-hearted as Sera was, then we wouldn’t have to deal with all these troubles.

“Oh, but what if we made you the elder of the temple of light?”

“I can assist you as much as I can, but as long as I am working for another temple of light...” she trailed off, then we both sighed.

“I’ll try talking about this with Rakti, too.”

“That’s true, it would be best to ask a goddess about issues concerning herself. I’ll continue studying as much as I can about the history of the Goddess of Light’s religion.”

I would continue investigating this from the Goddess’ side, and she from the human’s side. She was a cleric, as much of a specialist as one could be on this topic. I could trust her with this. She called out to me as I was about to leave the room.

“Um, I don’t think your proposal to bring all six temples together is wrong.”

“You brought up some good points, too. Thanks for hearing me out.”

“I’m glad I was able to help,” she said with a feeble smile. She really did seem tired. I wanted to find a solution as quickly as possible, not only for Rakti but for Sera as well.

I went looking for Rakti after that but came across a peculiar sight in the villa’s garden. Rakti was sitting on top of a rock in the garden and Yukina was praying to her. Prae was crouching to the side, cheerfully grinning at them.

“...What are you doing?”

“Oh, Touya. You’re gonna rebuild the temple of darkness, right? So I thought I should start by becoming a follower~”

So that was why she was praying to Rakti. She looked a little uncomfortable sitting on her rock.

“But it doesn’t really feel right. Like, Rakti’s just a kid.”

“I knew you weren’t praying for real! You know I’m Touya’s big sister, right?!” Rakti hopped down with tears in her eyes. Prae went over and softly patted her head with her big hands. Damn, she beat me to it.

“Does that mean you’re my big sister, too?”

“Yeah, I am!”

“...Pff.”

“Did you laugh just now?! You’re laughing! Touyaaa!”

“Okay, there, there...”

“...Yeah, you’re not the big sister.”

I also didn’t feel right calling Rakti my big sister. That was the second reason why I wasn’t a follower of the Goddess of Darkness myself. The first was that if I chose one goddess to follow, the other five wouldn’t stand for it. They wouldn’t get angry at me, but I bet they would sulk.

I talked about my idea of building the six temples in one place, and Rakti reacted with the same apprehension about the temple of light as Sera. Prae was ecstatic about rebuilding the temple of wind. She jumped onto me from behind, enveloping me, and rested her chin on top of my head. She wasn’t light at all, but for now I let Prae indulge herself. It was sounding like the temple of light’s aggression may become a real problem, though.

“But they seem better than before. They have less reason to be aggressive now.”

“Does that mean they might be more accommodating now?”

“Right. They couldn’t afford to back then, and that was why they banished the demi-humans.”

The attack on Hades 500 years ago was because they had been driven to a corner. But if we wanted all six temples to be treated equally, I wondered if they wouldn’t complain about that. Even though the goddesses themselves thought it was the right thing to do.

“The Goddess of Wind wouldn’t care about that,” Prae said from above my head.

The Goddess of Wind was the other goddess I was hesitant to call an older sister. She didn’t look as young as Rakti, but she still looked about high school age. She was the class clown type, and was someone I’d enjoy having as a classmate. I bet she also wouldn’t care about the hierarchy of the goddesses.

“If only we could all get along~”

I could see traces of the Goddess of Wind’s benevolence in Prae as she smiled at me. Come to think of it, she had been able to speak with the Goddess of Wind before. Maybe she had been gradually influenced by the goddess’ personality.

“If only we had some way of making the temple of light behave...”

“Then maybe we could ask momma to scold them?”

“‘Momma’?”

“The Goddess of Chaos. Isn’t she the momma of all the Goddesses?”

My eyes opened wide at Prae’s suggestion. Oh yeah, that might work.

“What do you think, Rakti? We could build a temple for the Goddess of Chaos...”

“That could solve things, but how do we get everyone to recognize Mother’s existence? There are no records of her left, or rather there never were any.”

So she had left nothing behind that could prove her existence.

“If there was one way... It would be to use one of Mother’s spells.”

“A chaos cleric spell, huh?”

“Yes, a high-ranking cleric should be able to tell that it is a cleric spell, but not something from the six goddess sisters. They should be able to realize Mother’s existence from that.”

“...They can tell?”

“We can~”

Even Prae could? Thinking back, she had known Rakti’s identity at a glance. Maybe this was the difference between a full-fledged cleric and one still in training. I told myself to pay more attention the next time I used a spell.

“It sounds like this method would only work for high-ranked clerics, but do you think that’s okay?”

“It would at least be a step in the right direction.”

“I’d laugh if a temple elder couldn’t tell.”

“I don’t think that would be a laughing matter, Yukina...”

The “high-ranking” in this case didn’t refer to their position within the temple, but their skill as a cleric. I hoped that the temple elder in Jupiter was powerful enough.

“By the way, as for people who could learn to use that spell...”

“That would only be you, Touya.”

“I knew it.”

Rakti said that step number one was being able to remember the Goddess of Chaos. If we wanted to increase our chances of that happening more quickly, then I should pray to her every morning and night. It was a matter of us meeting in the middle.

“...So how do you pray?”

“Have you never prayed before?!” Rakti exclaimed.

“I’ve done it with Sera and the others a few times, but I just imitated what they were doing and never really thought about it...” I said.

“I think you have to recite something. Phoenix would always be mumbling when he prayed for a long time,” added Yukina.

“That’s probably a verse from a scripture. Memorizing and reciting is the foundation of prayer.”

“I haven’t memorized any scriptures.”

Seriously, Prae?

“Then what do you do?”

“Umm, I talk about what happened that day with the Goddess of Wind.”

She was no longer able to hear the Goddess of Wind now that she’d lost her corporeal form, but she still prayed every day, believing that it would reach the goddess.

“Oh, that’s okay, too. I’m sure your prayers have been reaching Sister Wind. I think Mother would also be happy with that sort of prayer.”

“I can do that, too!” Yukina exclaimed.

I see. I think I was more suited for that type of prayer as well. Yukina seemed up for it, so we would start praying to the Goddess of Chaos tonight.

That evening in the bath, I told Clena and Haruno my idea of building all six temples in one location, as well as all the opinions I had gathered so far. We had been busy ever since arriving in Ares, so we promised to share the events of the day with each other in the bath every evening. Recently though, I couldn’t help but feel awkward whenever there was a pause in our conversation. I couldn’t look straight at them, so my eyes wandered everywhere else. However, if I looked down, I’d see those four melons, and if I looked around, I’d be goggling at everyone else. Thus, the ceiling received most of my attention during bathtime recently.

I knew what had started all this. It was the Hoshikiri that the demon lord had given me. The original version of that katana had been given to the Dark Prince in his former life when he inherited his family’s estate from the demon lord. Here, he had not given it to his granddaughter, Clena, but to me. When I thought about what that meant... I couldn’t help but get overly self-conscious.

Haruno had noticed it too. I couldn’t say if that made her more competitive, but she had been using every opportunity to glue herself against me. That, in turn, caused Clena try to one-up her. It was hard to endure when the two of them were squeezing up against me like this. In many ways, really. Especially when we were in the bath. Meanwhile, everyone else just stared at us coldly.

The only way I could counteract this was by keeping our conversations going. And so, in order to keep my mind on other things and run away from this situation, or at least postpone it, I kept talking about the temples. Clena had the same opinion I’d heard from everyone else so far.

“Hmm...” On the other hand, Haruno had some different thoughts. “I suppose logically, the mother would be above the goddess sisters...”

“Do you think there’s a problem?”

Haruno said that the issue wasn’t logic, but sentiment. She had witnessed the wrongdoings of a pastor in Athena, so she had some unpleasant memories associated with the temple of light. Sera and the temple knights shivered at that comment, but I decided to ignore that for now. Sentiment was a tricky thing to deal with, though. We couldn’t argue against it using logic.

We’d start getting dizzy if we stayed in the bath for too long, so we moved to the lobby. We changed into yukata, lounged on the massage chairs, and continued pondering.

“We’re getting nowhere... Is there anyone else we could talk to who’s knowledgeable about this...?”

“Someone more knowledgeable than Sera? That would just be the temple elder... Oh, maybe the princess?” Roni responded.

“Princess Franchellis? I wonder...” She did participate in the hero summoning ritual, but that didn’t necessarily mean that she knew more than a full-fledged cleric. She might know a few secrets about the inner workings of the temple, but I doubted she would tell us. “We’ll need to talk to her about this sooner or later, anyway.”

“Shall I make arrangements for you two to meet?”

“...No, let’s save it for later. I bet she wants to focus on supporting Cosmos right now.”

This plan was still in its early stages, so we didn’t have to bother her right now. There were plenty of other things we needed to be working on, anyway. I shelved the temple of light to the back of my mind.

“Roni, can you make arrangements for us to meet the White-Faced Ogre and the Flame Devil tomorrow?”

“Oh? But...”

“Oh, it doesn’t have to be tomorrow. Whenever they have time.”

“No, that’s not it...” What was she worried about? After I tilted my head and prodded her on, she timidly added, “They said that they would be staying over tonight. The demon lord and the Demon Dog, too.”

I sunk into my chair. Well, it was nice that I could talk with them so quickly, but I was tired, so let’s do it tomorrow after all.

I began working even harder starting the next day. Just in case, let me be clear that I wasn’t exactly slacking before this. I just wasn’t the type of person to focus on the religious aspect of things.

Yukina and I prayed to the Goddess of Chaos every morning and night. It was more like we greeted her in the mornings and talked to her about our days at night, but Rakti said that this was perfectly fine. I saw the Goddesses in my dreams every other night. To be accurate, I also saw the Goddess of Chaos on the opposite nights, but I couldn’t remember those dreams. This wasn’t something we could fix immediately, so I just had to patiently keep at it.

During the day, I was running around raising funds. We hadn’t decided where to reestablish the temple of darkness yet, but we needed money for it regardless. The White-Faced Ogre, Flame Devil, and I made a business agreement to sell products generated in my Unlimited Bath. I had also considered liquidizing our hoard of treasures, but unfortunately Ares didn’t have auction houses like Neptune did.

Therefore, I decided to supply goods to the White Orchid Corporation. Ares had a lot of demand for cold, clean water. They could also sell soap and towels as luxury items. The only thing from the quern-stone and the faucets that could be sold was sugar. The vinegar was high quality, but the residents of Ares wouldn’t embrace the flavor so easily. The same went for the miso and soy sauce. As for salt, Ares was already exporting it. The drinks were in demand, but they were so cheap that there was little profit to be made from them.

However, sugar was not only a luxury item, but also in demand everywhere. It was also high purity, which meant it could easily sell for a high price. This got the cash flowing. The White Orchid Corporation supplied us with containers, which I filled with sugar and delivered back to them. They sold it for me and controlled the supply so that the price wouldn’t collapse.

Next, the Flame Devil asked me to entrust him with tatami sales.

“Do you have potential buyers?”

“Though he may not look it, this man has connections with the elite.”

“Oh, we simply share some hobbies. It is no big deal.” His bragging tone completely invalidated his humble words.

I didn’t have any connections of my own, so I gave him some samples and left it all to him. When an order arrived from the Ares royal family the next day, I thought it was some kind of prank.

“Heheheh, just you wait. I’ll create a tatami flooring boom throughout Ares.”

“He’s planning to use this opportunity to popularize tea ceremony as well.”

“I mean, that’s not like an evil ulterior motive or anything, so let’s just ignore him.”

I just had to hope that he didn’t have any other ulterior motives.

I would need some connections of my own for our current goals. I couldn’t keep depending on the White Orchid Corporation and ignoring other influential figures in this country. The Flame Devil was incredibly proficient at getting me access to those connections. No wonder he was able to make his way into the temple of light, too.

“You can’t just go and meet them without a retainer. Take Roni with you.”

I had just intended to take Rulitora as my bodyguard, but Clena said that that wasn’t enough. For safety’s sake, I needed more guards, and I should also have two maids. It was okay if one of them was a butler instead, or I could have a butler next to me and two maids waiting behind. In short, it was a matter of appearances. She also said that I couldn’t use Rakti as a maid. If I was going to advocate for the temple of darkness, and they later found out that I used the Goddess herself as my maid, there would be hell to pay.

In other countries, we would also need a horse-drawn carriage, but the roads here were too narrow for that, so it was fine to walk. However, that also meant that we needed even more bodyguards.

“In that case... Guess we’ll have to show off a bit.”

I gathered the following members.

“Leave your protection to me.”

First off was the usual suspect, Rulitora. He would be captain of the bodyguards.

“I’ve prepared my special breastplate!”

Since we would be visiting the homes of the elite, I brought Shakova, who was the most familiar with fashion out of all of us. Needless to say, the breastplate that he mentioned was homemade.

“I wish I got to be a maid too. They’re so cute~”

Prae asked to be a maid, but she might not fit inside many of the homes, so she was a bodyguard instead. I did order a maid outfit for her, though. It would have to be custom-made due to her size, but if it made her happy, I would gladly pay the price.

“I admit, I’m nervous to be included in this party.”

I also asked a glaupis warrior to come with us. His skills stood above the rest.

“If you don’t know how to respond to something, just give me the signal and I can handle it.”

I brought Roni as one of my maids at Clena’s request. She was used to dealing with nobles.

As was obvious from the group so far, I took this many demi-humans with me on purpose. This was to show that I wasn’t prejudiced against demi-humans; in fact, I welcomed them.

“Hey, hey, Touya, does this look good on me?”

It might raise eyebrows if I only had demi-humans with me though, so my other maid was Haruno. Her position in our group was more like my secretary or strategist. I was going to suggest something more businesslike for her to wear, but she herself wanted to dress up as a maid. She had bought the outfit when they went to Ficus Brand the other day.

And so a bit over half a month went by as we conducted our negotiations with the Ares elite. We weren’t meeting people back to back, but I did have the Flame Devil work on making our next arrangements every day.

I tried talking about my plans to restore the temple of darkness and build the other temples, but they all had similar reactions to the royal family and the temple: They wouldn’t mind as long as we did it outside of Ares. I guess that was the nature of the people in this country. However, several of them said that they would send aid when we got started on construction. That alone made these meetings worth the effort. It sounded like a good plan to continue gathering supporters like this.

The arms competition had also been progressing steadily over the past half month. I was surprised that it had taken so long in the first place, but apparently this was normal since they had so many participants. Unsurprisingly, the heroes were kicking up a storm over there. The Beast King had been knocked out after matching up against Kannami early in the tournament, and right now the semifinals included Kannami, Cosmos, and Achilles. I had wondered if Cosmos was breaking any rules with his Unlimited Bullet, but apparently it counted as magic so it was allowed.

The fourth person to make it to the semifinals was a young knight from an aristocratic family, a rising star who carried some high expectations. His opponent was Cosmos. On the other side of the bracket was Kannami and Achilles. Depending on the outcome here, the finals may be a clash between two heroes of the sacred king.

I had been asked several times why I hadn’t joined even though I was a hero. I couldn’t just say that I didn’t want to fight the other heroes, so I told them that I was too busy with the temple and other matters. Hey, it wasn’t a lie.

Anyway, they were livening up the arms competition even more than it usually was every year. The demon lord had been going to spectate every match. Clena had been joining him, along with Yukina and Daisy. Man, those two really had no sense of fear. Well, I guess it was just like going out to watch sports with your family, so there was nothing to be afraid of.

“Roni, what are our plans for today?”

“We don’t have any plans to go out, but the White Orchid Corporation said that they’re running out of sugar.”

“...Didn’t we just restock some for them?”

“It sounds like it’s selling well!”

“I guess today’ll be a sugar generating day.”

“Everyone will be happy to hear that.”

“’Cause it means you get to use the pool,” I sighed and shrugged. Roni giggled.

We had been going out so often lately, so we’d hardly been using the Unlimited Bath. I was sure everyone would be excited when they heard that they’d have unfettered access to it all day today.

The semifinals should be starting about now. I couldn’t go watch, but I rooted for Cosmos and Kannami to make it to the finals. The excitement from the arms competition was elsewhere. I’ll just spend my day in peace and quiet here. At least, that was what I had planned...

“Touya, bad news~!”

...but Yukina and Daisy crushed those plans as they came flying inside.

“Bad news, Touya! It’s an abduc... abdububub...!”

“Calm down.” Yukina was too panicked to form a complete sentence right now, so I asked Daisy, who was more composed, what was going on.

“Uh, well... There was a kidnapping.”

A kidnapping? At the arms competition? Maybe this was a clichéd scenario where Cosmos’ opponent took the princess hostage and threatened “if you want her back, then lose in the semifinals on purpose!” or something.

“Cosmos never showed up! So the princess thought that he might have been kidnapped!”

Wait, he was the one who was kidnapped?!

Clena was rushing back here along with the princess, and these two had flown on ahead to alert me. In that case, I should go ahead and get started.

“The sugar can wait. Roni, find a map and bring it to the open-air bath upstairs.”

“Huh, to the bath?” she asked in confusion.

I gave her a confident smile. “The bath upstairs, where we can look outside. It has its uses at times like these, right?”

Yukina and Daisy followed me to the indoor open-air bath. After we arrived, it was Rium and not Roni who brought over a map. Roni was getting the place ready for the princess when she arrived. Of course, we wouldn’t be taking a bath, so we kept our clothes on. Yukina said that the princess never received a threatening letter or anything of the sort, and she couldn’t think of anywhere Cosmos might have gone.

“He was with the princess until this morning, right?”

“They’re staying at the same inn, so that should be the case.”

“The princess said that she had some business this morning, so she left first.”

I wanted to wait until we got more information from the princess, but for now, let’s do what we could to search. There were few ways you could move between neighborhoods or go above ground in this city. From the central neighborhood, where the arena was, there were three roads going to other neighborhoods and two leading to the surface. I projected one of the roads leading to the surface on the screen, the one that was closer to the arena. A bustling crowd appeared across the entire screen. It was like we were watching a live broadcast on TV.

“Try looking around, everyone.”

“Got it.”

“...Okay.”

I couldn’t project more than one location at a time, but we could search faster with everyone’s eyes on the screen.

“Oh, Balsamina might be with Cosmos.”

“Really?”

“She doesn’t seem to be getting along very well with the princess and the rest of the party.”

Since she was rather forcefully persuaded by Cosmos to join the party, she wasn’t fitting in with the rest of the group yet. Cosmos was the only person she was used to, so she spent most of her time around him.

“Cosmos and Balsamina were the last in the inn this morning, and they might have both vanished at the same time.”

Maybe Balsamina had made some sort of request, and Cosmos had put that on priority. That would be a fine outcome to all this. They’d get mad at him later, and that would be the end of that. But I set that possibility aside. We should keep searching under the assumption that he had been kidnapped right now.

I moved the projection above ground, where we saw a big garden resort. The imperial guards were frantically asking the dark elves questions. I checked the other roads, and each of them already had imperial guards doing investigations.

In that case, let’s try somewhere else. I positioned the camera high in the sky so that we could see into the distance. The desert above Ares had little vegetation. The only inhabitants were the Merek tribe, whose settlement was located a bit farther off. I couldn’t see anything that could work as a hiding spot, and there were no signs of anybody around.

“Okay, next.”

I moved to the port, the other main way out of Ares. Just like the last time I was there, it was crowded. Though we couldn’t hear anything, I could tell it was bustling and lively. I spotted human merchants here and there. There were also some demi-humans we didn’t see at the center city, such as marsh lizardmen. In contrast, I didn’t see anyone from the Merek tribe here. Perhaps they couldn’t stand the humidity and ocean winds, like Rulitora.

There were more people to search through here, but we split up the work and looked around again. I changed the view every once in a while. Suddenly, Rium raised her voice.

“...I found Balsamina.”

“Where?!”

I looked to where she pointed and saw a red-haired demon girl sneaking around behind a row of barrels. Yukina confirmed that that was indeed Balsamina.

“Cosmos doesn’t seem to be with her...”

She was alone. I didn’t see Cosmos anywhere nearby.

“What’s she doing?”

“She seems to be looking around pretty restlessly.”

She was fidgeting, too. Was she also trying to look for Cosmos?

“Touya, Clena just came back! She’s with the princess’ party and the White-Faced Ogre,” Crissa ran inside and called out to me.

“Bring them here right now. We might have found a clue.”

“Wha? Oh, yes! Right away!” And she darted back outside.

We waited a short while, then Roni came back with Clena, the White-Faced Ogre, Princess Franchellis, Ricott, and Foley in tow. Of course, everyone was still dressed. Crissa was handling the other imperial guards right now.

“Wh-What is all this...?” The princess was stunned seeing the screen surrounding the bath for the first time.

Clena gave her a sidelong glance and smiled. “It looks like you’ve been taking care of things here.”

“Yeah, we’ve been searching around using this.”

“Okay, I’ll leave everyone here to you. I’ll be going back with the White-Faced Ogre to the shop.”

“Got it. Be safe.”

Clena waved and walked off. The White-Faced Ogre bowed then followed behind her. Now then, time to get talking. I gave a brief overview of this screen, then told them that we had found Balsamina.

“...The goddess would not bestow such a gift to someone who would use it for ill deeds,” the princess mumbled, covering her mouth with a folding fan.

I bet it wasn’t just my paranoia telling me that she was saying that to console herself. She probably wondered if I was using it to peep. I understood why she might think that, but she seemed to have already convinced herself that it was okay, so I made no comment. It was rare for me to take baths alone anyway, so I never had a chance to peep.

“That is indeed Balsamina.”

“Why is she all the way there...? Is she trying to escape?”

Foley and Ricott were inspecting the image of Balsamina right now. Had she been so uncomfortable with them that she would try to run away?

“None of us have been treating her poorly because she is a demon, but she has had a history of bad luck with being forced into parties...” the princess added as I looked at them.

“Was it that bad?”

“No matter how many times Cosmos tried to persuade her, she refused, until she finally lost to his perseverance...”

“So we’re unsure how much she actually accepts the situation that she’s in right now.”

“Maybe it would be best if we let her escape...?”

The three of them exchanged dubious glances. I could see how it had been difficult for them to get along now. It would have been convenient if she could be tamed by food like the Demon Dog was.

“Maybe she’s looking for a ship she can stow herself onto?”

“What about the possibility that she’s trying to tail the ones who kidnapped Cosmos?”

“I wonder about that...”

The princess and Ricott looked at each other doubtfully. At this point, I couldn’t tell if Balsamina was just being shy, or if she really was uncomfortable around them.

“Did you all find out anything new?”

“We searched the house of Cosmos’ opponent, but did not find anything there...”

The princess said that the opponent was no longer one of their suspects, but now it was even harder to narrow down who it may be. Indeed, now we couldn’t even guess what the possible motive for his kidnapping might be. Was it completely unrelated to the arms competition?

“Touya, she’s going somewhere!”

In the meantime, Balsamina had taken off. She flew closer to the boats and was inspecting them one by one. Maybe she really was searching for one to stow away in.

“It looks like we should go meet up with her.”

“Right, even if she happens to find Cosmos in one of the boats, if they both take off, then we wouldn’t be able to keep track of them.”

“Please excuse us.”

Out of courtesy, we escorted the princess out of the indoor open-air bath to where the rest of the imperial guards were waiting.

Ricott adeptly called out orders, and Foley took two of the guards and went on ahead. The princess, Ricott, and the remaining guards would soon follow behind her.

“Sorry we couldn’t be of more help.”

“No, thank you for letting us know that Balsamina is at the port. Now then, we will be off.”

Ricott gave a quick bow, then ran off in the direction of the port in pursuit of Balsamina. Hopefully Balsamina knows where Cosmos has gone off to, I thought as I saw them off.

After the princess and her party left, I returned to my task of generating sugar. When that was done, I decided to take a break in case the princess called for help. I wanted to recover my MP, so I closed the door to the Unlimited Bath and went to the villa to rest.

We never heard back from them, though, and soon it turned to night. I didn’t know if that was a good sign or not, but I hoped that things were going well.

“...She’s late.”

On another note, Clena still hadn’t come back. Maybe she was planning to return with the demon lord for dinner as usual. But even then, it was getting a little too late for her. I was feeling uneasy. Because of the incident with Cosmos earlier, I couldn’t get the word “kidnapped” out of my head. The anxiety wouldn’t let me sit still, so I went outside and saw Rulitora and Lumis standing guard by the entrance.

“Is Clena back yet?”

“We still have not seen her...”

Rulitora and Lumis looked concerned, too. We started talking about going to the shop to get them when the Flame Devil arrived. He was with his three bodyguards, but still no Clena.

“It doesn’t look like you came here to escort Clena back to us.”

“About that...”

He was acting uncharacteristically unsettled. A feeling of dread welled back up inside me, transforming into alarm bells ringing inside my head.

“...Lady Clena has been kidnapped.”

I knew it, I immediately thought. I’d had a gut feeling that something like this was going to happen. I wasn’t too surprised as a result, but a torrent of distress still washed through my chest. A bead of cold sweat slid down my cheek, and my palms became clammy.

“When? Do you know who kidnapped her? Cosmos was kidnapped too, do you know if that has anything to do with it?” I drew up to Flame Devil and fired a barrage of questions at him. However, he didn’t answer, instead just telling me, “Let’s go inside for now...” Lumis also motioned for us to enter the villa.

Two of the Flame Devil’s guards remained at the front gate, and the third came with us. After we arrived at the lounge, Lumis returned to the entryway, and Roni took her place inside a moment later. She had brought drinks, but I noticed that the tray she was holding was shaking.

“...Did you hear?”

“Yes, from Lumis just now...”

“We’re going to go over the details right now, so sit down with us, Roni.”

“Y-Yes!”

Roni and I sat opposite the Flame Devil, each on our own sofas. His bodyguard was standing by diagonally behind him. I finally calmed down after seeing Roni so shaken, thinking how I needed to be supporting her. I took a sip of the drink she had brought me, then gestured to the Flame Devil to start speaking.

“It seems you have calmed down.”

“Yeah, so tell us what happened.”

“Well then... Clena was attacked on her way back to the villa. The White-Faced Ogre was accompanying her.”

“Who attacked her?”

“The Dark Giant.”

The guy we fought at the water capital, huh. Which meant it must have been an order from the Dark Prince.

“The White-Faced Ogre was able to prevent a fight from breaking out, but the Dark Giant’s subordinates had been hiding nearby. They caught Lady Clena off guard and took her away.”

Roni’s face tensed up. Don’t worry, it’ll be okay. I’ll make sure to bring her back.

“Was the demon lord not with them?”

“The demon lord was invited to a party hosted by the Ares royal family today. I heard that he had asked Clena to come with him, but...”

But Clena turned him down, huh. So the assailants took their chance when Clena wasn’t with him.

“I have three questions. Was it a coincidence that they attacked Clena while she was on her way home today?”

“...We have confirmed that a few employees in the White Orchid Corporation were working under the Dark Prince.”

So that was how they’d gotten the information.

“Did the Dark Giant escape?”

“No, the Demon Dog chased after him, and he and the White-Faced Ogre were able to pin him down.”

He added that after the Demon Dog had beaten him to a pulp, he ran off following Clena’s scent. That dog’s pretty strong, huh. The White-Faced Ogre then took the Dark Giant back to the shop, where she locked him inside the room deep underground where the demon lord had slept. Then the demon lord placed a seal on the room, so it’d be impossible for him to escape of his own accord.

“Back in the day, the demon lord would often go easy on the Dark Giant, but he’s not going to forgive him this time around.”

If he were still causing trouble, I’d have taken the Gravesword and given him a good whacking, but since he’s already been captured and locked up, then whatever. Clena was more important right now.

“My last question—do you know where they took Clena?”

“We found out that the Dark Prince has a few bases of operation in the city center, but we have yet to find any leads...”

“Tell me everything else you know right now. I’ll investigate what I can, too.”

“Then let us go to the shop. They may have beaten some new information out of the spies by now.”

“I-I see... Okay, let’s go. Roni, you get ready, too.”

“Y-Yes!”

“I shall accompany you.”

The Flame Devil offered to take us there with his bodyguards, probably out of consideration of the possibility that I could be attacked too.

I put on the Magic Eater, attached the Hoshikiri to my hip, and carried the magic axe Crescent Moon and a round shield in my hands. I wanted to carry the Gravesword on my back as well, but that would be too much weight, so I asked Rulitora to carry it instead.

Besides Rulitora, I had Roni, Haruno, and Rium come with us, and I also took Daisy as our messenger just in case. There was a chance that the villa might be attacked while we were gone, so I left enough combat-ready party members behind. Sandra and Sera would be in charge of them.

After we finished getting ready, we went to the White Orchid Corporation with the Flame Devil and his bodyguards. The armor was really conspicuous in the city streets, but this wasn’t the time to be worrying about that. We arrived outside the shop to find a swarm of people rushing about, even though it was nighttime.

“What’s this...?”

A menacing aura was emanating from the building. Daisy cowered from my shoulder, tightly clinging to me. The people around the shop looked terrified as well. Rium also hugged my waist; she probably also got scared. Rulitora and Roni appeared to be unaffected, but I noticed that Roni’s tail was curled inward and trembling. I was about to go inside to see the demon lord, but the Demon Dog appeared first.

“Weren’t you off tracking her scent?”

“I was indeed, but the scoundrels threw a stink bomb at me...”

His nose was useless after that, so he couldn’t trail them any longer. I noticed that his fur was damp; maybe he had gone to wash the stink off. The assailants must have known that the Demon Dog would be around, and they had taken measures in advance to incapacitate his tracking abilities.

“By the way, what’s this incredibly menacing feeling in the air?”

“...’Tis the demon lord.”

According to the Demon Dog, the demon lord had gone ballistic when he heard that his granddaughter had been kidnapped. The White-Faced Ogre was desperately trying to pacify him in the back of the store, but his wrath couldn’t be contained and was leaking out.

“Thanks to that, the Dark Giant has been keeping quiet, but ’tis both a blessing and a curse.”

“Why did he kidnap Clena then, if this is already making him so scared?”

“He had thought that Lady Clena was preventing the Prince from acting freely...”

The Dark Prince had wanted to become the new demon lord, but ever since reuniting with Clena, he stopped pursuing that goal. But the Dark Giant, one of his supporters, assumed that the reason behind his change of heart was that Clena wasn’t on their side, so he took her by force to push the Dark Prince back on that path. From the information gathered so far, that was what they’d surmised to be the motive behind the kidnapping.

“Also, this was carried out by the Dark Giant of his own discretion. The Prince was not aware of it...”

“...How much can we trust that?”

“We do not believe he is lying right now.”

“This is hardly the first time that man has tried to take matters into his own hands,” the Flame Devil affirmed. I suppose we could trust this bit of information.

The goddesses had told me that we’d already prevented the Dark Prince from becoming the new demon lord, but the Dark Giant hadn’t given up on it yet. It was at least a relief that he wasn’t intending to harm her.

“Tell me everything you’ve learned so far. Including how far you were able to track them, Demon Dog.”

“Understood. Please behold these documents. This is the latest intel we’ve obtained from the spies that were hiding within the White Orchid Corporation. I was just about to inform the demon lord of this.”

The Demon Dog showed me several maps, each depicting a city in Ares, with locations marked on each. There were even three circles marking his hideouts in the city center.

The Dark Prince had probably split up his followers so that they wouldn’t be detected by the White Orchid Corporation. The spies didn’t know where the attackers had taken Clena, but judging by the trail that the Demon Dog had sniffed out, we could narrow it down to two locations. The horde of people in the shop right now were preparing to storm those two hideouts. I was about to ask if we should join forces with one of the groups when Haruno cocked her head and asked, “Hmm... Since they threw a stink bomb to prevent you from tracking them, isn’t there a chance that they went in the opposite direction after that?”

Everyone looked at Haruno. She had a point, that could have been their plan.

“Even so, we cannot ignore these two bases.”

“If we cannot find them in any of the bases, they may have run somewhere else entirely.”

“...What are you planning to do after this, Flame Devil?”

“Now that it has come to this, I am willing to assist. I will lead the charge on one of the bases, yes.”

He was suggesting that we split up the work and assign a leader to each group.

“What about the demon lord? I doubt he’s going to stay put while his granddaughter has been kidnapped,” Rulitora asked.

“Oh, if the demon lord were to set out to retrieve the lady, then not only the city itself, but the entire cave system would be blown into smithereens...” the Demon Dog responded with a strained smile.

I see, so that meant that we needed to rescue Clena while the White-Faced Ogre restrained the demon lord. I bet he was worried sick about her too, but we couldn’t have him destroying Ares.

“What should we do, Touya?”

“Hmm... How about we have these two go to the two bases as planned, and we’ll search the third one?” If we couldn’t find her there, then we’d search the bases in the other cities, too. The screen in the indoor open-aired bath could get the job done quick. “Though if we do find her, we have no way of contacting you.”

“No matter. We need to take control of the other bases, either way.”

“Okay, let’s go with that.”

I asked them to prepare as fast as they could, then we went to the delivery area. We entered the door to the Unlimited Bath, went to the indoor open-air bath, and checked out the location circled on the map.

“It looks like a normal house.”

“It doesn’t stand out at all.”

Houses in this city only had doors and windows, and since they weren’t decorated with signs like shops were, they looked very plain from the outside. If it weren’t for the intel from the spies, we’d have had no way of finding this place other than a brute force search of every building in the city.

The inside of the house wasn’t too lavish, but it was still decorated with elegant-looking furniture. A male dark elf sat not far past the entrance. A female dark elf was cooking something in the kitchen. The amount of food seemed to be a bit too much for two.

“Hmm...? Hey, Touya, isn’t that a hidden door?”

We were looking around the rest of the house when Daisy pointed at the floor at the end of a hallway. I zoomed in on the area, and though it was hard to tell, there were indeed slits in the floor there.

“Is there something below?”

We didn’t know how to open it, nor could we if we did, but we could still look past it. I moved the screen downward and revealed a staircase that led to an underground room. This room was many times more extravagant compared to the rest of the house. It wasn’t a Japanese-style room, but it had a Japanese flair. There was a table in the center of the room with two sofas facing each other on either side of it.

“There she is!”

A silver-haired man sat on the sofa facing away from the door. He wasn’t wearing a helmet, but I could tell who he was by the rest of his armor. It was the Dark Prince himself. On the other side was Clena, sinking into the sofa with a disgruntled look on her face. I couldn’t hear what they were saying, but the Dark Prince seemed like he was trying to persuade Clena of something, while she hardly acknowledged his presence.

This incident had apparently been carried out at the Dark Giant’s own discretion, so he was probably trying to tell her that he hadn’t ordered it. Clena didn’t look completely angry at him, but she didn’t seem willing to listen to his excuses, either. She was safe right now, but who knows when the Dark Prince might blow a fuse and take her away somewhere. We shouldn’t waste any more time.

I asked an employee back in the shop to tell the demon lord the news, but he gave me a look that said he was clearly unwilling. Even so, we had to leave to rescue Clena now, so he had to be the one to do it. I told him that he should pass the message on to the White-Faced Ogre, at least.

The six of us left for the house in question. Rium rode on Rulitora’s shoulders. We had to push through pedestrian traffic, but Roni and Daisy weaved through the crowd as if they were threading a needle. The rest of us weren’t nearly as agile with our heavier armor, but the crowd moved out of the way at the sight of us. Thanks to a combination of the weight of our armor and our individual physical stamina, Roni and Daisy quickly blazed ahead of the pack, Rulitora and Rium followed a bit after them, and Haruno and I lagged even farther behind them.

Haruno looked like she still had some stamina left, unlike me, but I wanted to believe that it was just due to the difference in armor weight. I was tempted to use earth spirits to help us run, but that would involve shifting the ground below us, so I couldn’t use it in the city.

We kept running as if our lives depended on it, and we finally arrived near the Dark Prince’s hideout. I wanted to take a moment to catch my breath, but every wall in the city was lined with doors and windows, so I couldn’t hide myself anywhere.

“Touya, there’s a shop over there.”

“Looks like it’s open. Let’s go in there for a minute.”

We went inside the shop to stake out the hideout. While I was busy catching my breath, Roni asked the shopkeeper about the residents of the house in question. We paid him for both intruding and the information, which made him break out into a beaming smile; he even brought us drinks.

The shopkeeper said that a dark elf couple had been living in that house for about ten years, but they didn’t get along with the neighbors, so he hardly knew anything about them.

“What business do you all have with that house?”

“We came to rescue one of our comrades who was abducted.”

“Huh? You don’t mean...”

“Did you see her?!” Roni drew up to the shopkeeper’s face, and he quickly nodded.

He believed us after seeing Roni’s frantic reaction, so he told us that a man wearing a full suit of black armor, similar to mine, had gone inside with a silver-haired girl. A full suit of black armor—that was likely the Dark Prince.

“Does that man come by often?”

“Occasionally. He’s the only one who ever visits that house. Though he doesn’t usually show up in that armor. I didn’t recognize the girl, though...”

The girl was likely Clena. The assailants had probably handed Clena over to the Dark Prince at another location, then he took her here.

Okay, I had caught my breath now. That was enough information gathering.

The homes in Ares looked identical at a glance, but the doors and windows could be unique. Since wood was an expensive commodity, doors were usually thin and made from light metal—dense metal would be too heavy to open. Some homes were even just covered by a curtain. The shop we had invaded was like that.

The door to this house, though, was made of polished wood. You could tell that the owners were affluent. There was a window next to the door, but it was covered by a curtain. I made sure to stand away from the window in case someone was looking through the cracks on the other side.

Roni knocked... but there was no answer. Maybe they had a secret knock? If that was the case, we’d have no way of guessing it.

“Let me take a look.” I opened the door to the Unlimited Bath next to the house’s door, then used the screen to confirm that Clena, the Dark Prince, and the two dark elves were still inside. Okay, no holding back. I ran back outside and ordered Rulitora to destroy the door.

“Hrmph!” Rulitora smashed his fist into the dense wooden door, demolishing it. We immediately went inside and saw the male dark elf stand up and draw a knife from his hip. However, Rulitora and I swiftly pinned him down, then tied him up with rope.

“...This, and this, and this.” Rium walked over. She took his knife, which had a pattern engraved on the blade, a short wand affixed to his waist, and last, a ring with a small gem in it.

“What are those?”

“He can’t use magic as long as he doesn’t have these.”

They were magic conductors, like Clena’s sword. This guy was dressed like an ordinary upper-class townsperson, yet he was anything but.

“Who are you?!” A woman appeared from another room with a wand in her hand. She shot two fire arrows, but Haruno stepped in front of us and the arrows vanished before they could hit her. That was her gift, Unlimited Reflection. The woman froze when she saw her spell vanish into thin air. Roni used that opening to dash up to her and strike the wand out of her hand while Rulitora circled around and pinned her arms behind her.

“She has a ring too, and...”

“Wha?!”

Rium walked up and took a ring from the woman, but then she poked her head underneath the woman’s long skirt.

“...This too.”

She rummaged around under the skirt for a moment, then came back out with another wand in her hand. The woman had hidden a spare wand under her skirt.

“Identifying these devices is my specialty...” Rium puffed out her chest. As a crystal mage, she must have been able to sniff them out.

The two elves wouldn’t respond to anything we said or even look us in the eyes. We didn’t want to risk them getting in our way, so we bound them up tightly enough that they couldn’t move an inch. We had already kicked up a racket, but the Dark Prince had yet to show himself.

“Maybe he thinks that we don’t know about the secret room yet?” Daisy suggested.

“...Oh, that could be why,” I agreed. The elves looked at us in shock. I see, they’d thought that we wouldn’t figure out that the Dark Prince was here as long as they stayed quiet. Haruno’s magic-repelling gift was extraordinary, but mine was just as useful.

“We’ll keep an eye on these two.”

“All right, I’ll leave them to you.”

I left Haruno and Rium in charge of being lookout. I could trust those two with it—especially Haruno, since she could deal with the neighbors in case they came to check out what the commotion was.

Rulitora, Roni, Daisy, and I went to the end of the hall. I inspected the floor and quickly found the trap door. It was fitted with a lock, but not a very study one, so Rulitora effortlessly crushed it with his glaive.

“Okay, I’ll take the lead.”

I positioned myself as vanguard so that I could absorb any surprise attacks with the Magic Eater. Following behind me were Roni, then Rulitora. Daisy rode on Roni’s shoulder.

There was a hidden staircase underneath the trap door. It gradually curved to the left, drawing a wide arc. I guess it was circling around the hidden room. We reached the bottom of the stairs. I placed my hand on the doorknob, positioning myself so that I wasn’t in front of the door. I slowly turned it—it wasn’t locked. I asked Roni and Rulitora to switch positions, then had Rulitora open the door slightly ajar, and I bolted inside.

The inside of the room was the same as what we had seen on the screen. It was ornate but not overwhelmingly so, lending a soothing atmosphere. The demon lord was known for liking flashy things, but it looked like his son didn’t take after him.

A table sat in the center of the room with two long sofas on either side of it. Clena was sitting on the sofa facing the door, just like she was on the screen earlier. However, the Dark Prince was standing next to her, looking my way. He was still wearing his armor, but had put on his helmet now. He had probably noticed our presence when I turned the doorknob a bit earlier.

There wasn’t a trace of fear on Clena’s face; she looked relieved to see us. I could see the Dark Prince’s face through his helmet, but he was expressionless, I couldn’t tell what he might be thinking right now. He wasn’t holding a weapon. It was hard to tell if this was a hostage situation or not.

Rulitora and Roni had entered the room, but I didn’t want anyone to make any careless moves. Roni looked like she was about to pounce on Clena at any moment, but Daisy was desperately holding her back from atop her shoulder.

This was the first time I’d had a long, hard look at the Dark Prince. His armor really did look similar to mine. It likely had magical properties, too.

“This is quite the violent intrusion,” he accused, still stone-faced.

“Who’s more violent between me or you, kidnapping Clena?” I quickly rebutted. I knew that the Dark Giant’s recklessness had started this, but it was the Dark Prince who had kept her captured after that. He didn’t talk back to me, so he must have thought so too.

Now then, what next? All I wanted was to get Clena back, but the Dark Prince wouldn’t give her to us so easily. Otherwise, he would have already done so by now. In that case...

I took a step forward, which caused the Dark Prince to raise his hand toward me. His palm was embedded with a conductor, like the one my Magic Eater also had. It really was a magical suit of armor. I paid no mind to his actions, approached the table, and sat down on the sofa facing Clena.

“...What are you scheming?” The Dark Prince finally showed an emotion on his face as he looked suspiciously at me.

In contrast, I confidently stuck out my chest, then answered, “We won’t get anywhere by glaring at each other. Let’s negotiate.”

“...Negotiate?”

“We know that this whole thing was the Dark Giant’s idea. So I think we can come to a deal... What do you think?”

“......That is fine with me.” The Dark Prince hesitated for a moment, then sighed. He sat down next to Clena and gave me a sharp look.

I thought about what we should discuss first, but then I noticed that we both had our helmets on. This would leave me vulnerable from the neck up, but I was the one who suggested we negotiate. I should give him a reason to trust me first. Okay then, if it came down to it, I could at least defend myself with my arms.

I took off my helmet and put it on the table. The Dark Prince narrowed his eyes, but after a moment, copied my actions, placing his helmet on the table as well.

“Before we start, I’d like to confirm one thing—Did you have anything to do with the abduction of Cosmos the hero?”

“Oh, I’d heard about the ruckus at the arms competition. Was that what happened? I know nothing of it.”

“...So it really is unrelated.”

The Dark Prince and Dark Giant had no reason to target Cosmos. I wanted to ask to make sure, but I already assumed that there was a low chance of them having anything to do with it. In that case, I wondered who in the world had targeted Cosmos, but that was a topic for later. Clena was the priority right now.

“One more thing. Was this really something the Dark Giant did on his own?” I questioned. The Dark Prince breathed a heavy sigh in response.

“That is the case. I was honestly shocked when his subordinates brought Clena to me.”

So it was a surprise for him too, huh. I could honestly empathize with him right now.

“Let me ask you something as well. What have you done with him? I heard that you have managed to capture him.”

“He’s being confined in the underground room where the demon lord was sleeping.”

“So you didn’t let him off easy. That’ll teach him a lesson. I was working on arrangements to ensure that my subordinates wouldn’t be caught up in these affairs, yet he goes and does this...!”

I see, so he had been staying in Ares for the sake of his subordinates. Clena wanted him to hurry up and leave to find her mother, but it would have been irresponsible for him to abandon his followers. She must have understood this on a logical level, too.

“He thought that if Clena was at my side, then I would be free to take up the mantle of the new demon lord. Unfortunately for him, I am no longer in the mood to do that...” The Dark Prince laughed bitterly, looking like he had burned out.

The Goddesses had said that the birth of the new demon lord had been prevented when Clena threw her sword—they must have been referring to this. But despite giving up on his own goals, he was still trying to take care of his subordinates. He must have had a strong sense of responsibility.

“Um, about your other bases...”

“I know. I ordered them to surrender themselves to the Demon Dog without a fight. That way, they should at least be unharmed.”

He had planned that far ahead, huh. He must have been researching us.

“My plans have been delayed, but now I can finally go to Juno.”

“Then will you release Clena?”

“Well, that’s...”

He suddenly became evasive. If the Dark Prince wanted to go to Juno, then he should have no reason to keep Clena captured.

“Just earlier, he was trying to persuade me to go to Juno with him,” Clena spoke up to clear my confusion.

“This is a good opportunity!”

“I told you, don’t act like my father until you apologize to Mom!”

They both stood up and started quarreling like a typical parent and child. Roni and Rulitora were dumbfounded by the sudden shift in atmosphere, and they just stood there watching them.

Though the Dark Prince hadn’t willed it, his daughter had fallen into his lap, and he wouldn’t let go of the chance to take her with him to see his wife. Daisy mumbled, “What an idiot,” from Roni’s shoulder, but the Dark Prince didn’t hear her over their quarreling.

“I heard all about it! You’re going to reestablish the temple of darkness, isn’t that right?!”

We hadn’t been hiding it or anything, but he’d even found that out?

“So what about it?!” Clena retorted.

“If Jupiter finds out, they’ll send their army your way before you can lay down a single brick!”

So he also wanted to bring her along for her safety. The only reason I was rebuilding the temple of darkness in the first place was because Rakti was with us. If she wasn’t, I couldn’t say that I would have made this decision, so I understood where he was coming from.

“One correction. We’re not just trying to rebuild the temple of darkness. We want to build all six temples in one location,” I said.

The Dark Prince sat back down on the sofa, sighing heavily. Clena looked between the two of us, then moved to my side of the table. I scooted over on the sofa, and she sat down next to me. It was a little statement from her. The Dark Prince looked like he wanted to say something about that, but he refrained.

“Wouldn’t that just make it harder for yourselves?”

“We figured it would be better than only building a temple of darkness.”

“That may be true, but... Do you even have a candidate to appoint as the temple elder?”

“Our current candidate... is Phoenix.”

“......Wouldn’t that just make it harder for yourselves?”

Perhaps, but we really didn’t have anyone else.

“I will not allow Clena to participate in such a risky plan!”

“That doesn’t mean you can make me go with you to Juno.”

The Dark Prince made a sour face at Clena’s quick rebuttal.

“For the millionth time, go apologize to Mom first!”

“Now now, he’s just worried about you. We haven’t decided where we want to build the temples yet, so it wouldn’t be out of the question for you to visit Juno for a bit...” Why was I trying to defend him? Though of course, I wasn’t suggesting that she go alone. We would all go with her.

“I know, but I just can’t let him have this one. There’s this feeling I get, like he’s too scared to go alone...” Clena stared at him as she said that. The Dark Prince’s eyes wouldn’t meet hers, so maybe she was right on the money. In that case, we couldn’t go to Juno with him. If we forced Clena to go, then it’d create a lasting grudge for her.

“...You should give up. Why don’t you go apologize to your wife by yourself first?”

“Grrgh...! G-Give me some time to consider!”

“No, we can’t.”

“Why not?!” He was starting to lash out, but I didn’t falter. We really couldn’t wait for him, after all.

“We don’t know how long the White-Faced Ogre can hold the demon lord back.”

“Nnngh!!”

Right, we didn’t know when the demon lord might come here unleashing hell on us. My words dealt him the finishing blow, and he fell prostrate with his hands on the table, knocking his helmet to the floor with a clang.

“I will... release Clena... on one condition...!” The Dark Prince slammed his fists on the table and wrung out his bargain. We had to spare the lives of the two dark elves upstairs and take them in as our subordinates.

“We were never going to kill them in the first place, though.”

“This is my responsibility as their superior. Your comrades are keeping them captured, no?”

I see, so they counted as my prisoners of war right now. This was also a way for him to ensure Clena’s safety. This house was too small to be used as an actual base. It was likely just for the Dark Prince’s personal use. He had entrusted those two dark elves to maintain his home, which showed just how much trust he placed in them, and now he wanted to send them to us. That was the true intent behind the Dark Prince’s condition.

“You may not understand this word, but those two are suppa.”

“‘Suppa’? Hm, I think I’ve heard that before... Oh, ninja?!”

“Hoh, is that what they are called from your region?”

Haruno later told me that ‘ninja’ was actually a relatively modern word, and back in the day, they were called different names depending on the region.

Those two were ninjas, though? Magic-using ones, at that. They really hadn’t looked like anything more than an ordinary town couple. We’d made the right call to disarm them after our surprise attack.

In any case, considering our current situation, we should take them in. I told him as much, and then he went back upstairs and gave them his last order: He would be going to Juno, so they were to vacate this house and join my party.

The two looked at each other for a moment, confused, but eventually just bowed deeply at Clena and I. Accordingly, we returned the weapons that we had taken from them. I asked Haruno what she thought about the two elves joining us, and she smiled and told me that it shouldn’t be a problem.

“If you’re moving out of this house, does that mean that you’re going to find us again after you reunite with your wife?”

Oh, I see, that was why he was moving out. The Dark Prince looked away nervously, so Haruno had probably hit the mark.

“In that case, please come back with Clena’s mother. We’d be happy to have you. Right, Clena?”

“...Just make sure you make up with her first.”

She was still being curt with him, but it sounded like she had room to forgive him now. That was enough for the Dark Prince, though, since he became overwhelmed with emotion and started crying on the spot. The dark elf couple took part in his joy as well.

Now then, it’d be nice if this was a happily ever after... but it was too soon for that. We needed to go back to inform the White Orchid Corporation that Clena was safe and quell the demon lord’s wrath. The Dark Prince would meet with the demon lord after this to ask him to spare his underlings’ lives, and I would go along to back him up.

We couldn’t waste another second, so we ran back to the shop and just so happened to find the demon lord exiting the door. He wasn’t wearing any armor, but four of his six hands were holding large swords. His majestic physique and threatening aura made him a really convincing demon lord right now.

All the houses in the vicinity had their doors closed and windows shut. Everyone was taking cover, waiting for the storm to pass, so the area was dead silent. The White-Faced Ogre, who was still trying to placate the demon lord, noticed us and called out to him. He turned to us, then lowered his menacing stance. We were just in time. If we had arrived just a moment later, who knows what would have happened to the city...?

He then saw that the Dark Prince was with us and raised his swords again, but Clena and the White-Faced Ogre held him back. He still seemed like he would snap at any moment, but as we explained everything that had just happened, his wrath gradually abated.

“...I see, that’s what happened,” he said in a composed voice and nodded deeply. “You have my thanks for bringing my granddaughter back unharmed.” He then bowed at me.

“Oh, no, of course I would rescue Clena, and the Dark Prince was never intending to harm her in the first place...” I gave a flustered response, since I wasn’t expecting him to bow down at me like this.

The demon lord glanced at the Dark Prince, then brought him inside the shop. He would probably be willing to listen to the Dark Prince’s requests now. I bet it would take a while, though. We had yet to let everyone else know that Clena was safe, so we saw the two of them off, then left.

When we returned to the villa, we saw Prae pacing restlessly out front and Lumis trying to soothe her.

“Cleeenaaaa!!!” When she spotted us, she dashed toward us at an impressive pace.

Clena braced herself, but it would be too much for her to handle alone. Before Roni could step in, I ran behind Clena and held her up—Prae, that is, who had draped her entire body over Clena. She had pounced on her so energetically that the momentum almost toppled me over, but I somehow kept us standing. If it wasn’t for Rulitora’s backup, the three of us would be on the floor right now.

Everyone else heard the commotion and rushed outside, so we were able to let them all know that Clena was safe and sound.

“We were somehow able to deal with it peacefully. The Dark Prince is meeting with the demon lord right now, and I think they’ll be able to come to an agreement, too.”

“Thank goodness you’re all safe. I hope your family will be able to make up with each other, too,” Sera smiled at Clena. Clena averted her eyes, looking embarrassed. They still had a ways to go, but if her parents could make amends, then I think everything would turn out fine.

“Also, these two will be part of our party now. The Dark Prince sent them to us because he’s worried about Clena.”

“Though if it were up to him, he would have joined our party himself,” Haruno pointed out. Clena wasn’t going to forgive him just yet, so this was all he could do for now.

The man was named Brahms, and the woman was named Mem. They were now Clena’s subordinates, and Roni was their superior. They were a married couple, so they could use one of the rooms together.

I wanted to throw them a welcome party, but we were tired, and the negotiations between the demon lord and Dark Prince were still underway. It would have to wait for another day. For now, let’s just get some good rest.

The Dark Prince came by the next morning after everything was wrapped up. He wanted to talk to us before leaving for Juno, so we borrowed a room in the villa. Clena and Roni joined me, sitting to my left and right.

“My father was willing to hear me out thanks to you all. I offer you my gratitude.” Those were the first words from the Dark Prince, and he bowed before us.

“So your subordinates that were captured are safe?”

“Y-Yes... Most of them.”

“...Most?”

“Those who were directly involved with Clena’s kidnapping, not so much.”

“...I see.”

That was unavoidable. It wasn’t something I could step in on, either. Though the Dark Giant was still only being kept locked up, so I doubted that they’d take their lives.

“The White Orchid Corporation will be taking everyone in.”

“That sounds like a lot of people, is that okay?”

“Their company can handle it.”

Looking at it another way, the White Orchid Corporation had gained that many new workers, so now they could expand the scope of their business even more.

The Dark Prince had no more obligations tying him to Ares, so he was scheduled to depart on a ship from the port this afternoon.

“Sorry for the sudden question, but will you make it in time?” Roni brought up a reasonable worry. The shop had reserved a gembolic wagon for him, but considering how long it would take him to reach the port, he couldn’t spend much more time loitering around.

“Haah... You’re hopeless,” Clena sighed, stood up, and walked to the door.

The Dark Prince looked at her back and reached out his hand, but didn’t call out to her. Or rather, he couldn’t. I figured I should say something, but then Clena turned around.

“Let’s continue talking on the way there. There’s not much more time, anyway.”

The Dark Prince was briefly taken aback, but then quickly gathered himself. He broke into a broad smile and energetically stood up.

“Roni, find Brahms and Mem, and accompany them as bodyguards.”

“Okay!”

I was going to let them go alone, but Clena had given me a pleading look. It looked like she was asking for help. She’d taken a step forward on her own, but didn’t think she could handle talking with the Dark Prince by herself yet. I guess I should go with them, then. I added Rulitora to our list of bodyguards.

We exited the villa with the Dark Prince, who had a spring in his steps. He and Clena were the stars of the show right now, so Roni and Rulitora took point while the dark elves and I stayed in the rear.

The Dark Prince tried bringing up several conversation topics, but it didn’t take long for that spring in his steps to return to a heavy trod. The two of them were still being pretty awkward with each other, and all of their conversations were being cut short. Clena was only responding with short answers to his questions without ever bringing anything up herself, and the Dark Prince didn’t know what else to talk about besides her mother. He wasn’t sure how far he should be digging into Clena’s personal life.

The dark elves were itching to help, but weren’t sure if they should interrupt, so they were just fidgeting restlessly behind them. Rulitora was blinking at me from the front of the group as if to say, “Do something about this.” I couldn’t see Roni’s face from here, but I bet she was thinking the same thing. All right, guess I had to pitch in here.

“Can I ask something?”

“Hm, what is it?” He latched onto my question. I guess he couldn’t stand the silence either.

“What are your plans after making amends with Clena’s mother?”

“What are my plans...?”

“Are you going to stay in Juno and live with her?”

“Mm, that’s...” The Dark Prince glanced at Clena. She looked back at him dubiously, but remained silent. “I would need to discuss it with her first, but I intend to leave Juno again. Of course, it would be together with her.”

“I see. And then...”

“We’ll go see Clena again, as her parents.”

Clena didn’t respond, but she also wasn’t refusing him.

“I don’t think we’ll stay in Ares for long, though.”

“We’ll figure out a way to find you.”

He sounded pretty sure about that.

“...Clena, you didn’t get Inept Scout cast on you or anything, did you?” That was a spell that allowed the caster to see and hear everything that the subject of the spell could.

“I don’t think he would’ve had the time to do that...”

“I would not use that!!”

I then asked if he had a way to communicate with the dark elves, but he said that he didn’t. I didn’t know what he had in mind, but he seemed pretty confident about finding us again, so I decided not to worry about it for now.

Anyway, the Dark Prince seemed a lot less anxious now, so he returned to prodding Clena with questions. She remained apathetic, but still answered him. They continued exchanging words as we walked, and eventually we reached the gembolic station.

“Take care of Clena.”

“We will.”

“Leave it to us!”

I thought he would say more, but he gave us a bow, told the dark elves that he was leaving the rest to them, then climbed into the gembolic wagon and took off. Clena wrapped her arms around mine and pulled herself closer to me. She was wearing a complex expression, so I let her do as she pleased right now, and we watched the gembolic wagon disappear into the distance.

“Sir Touya, look over there...”

However, we didn’t have much time to bask in the emotional goodbye as Rulitora raised his voice a moment later. He pointed to a gembolic wagon that had just arrived.

“Oh? Princess Franchellis?”

Out from the wagon came Princess Franchellis, Foley, Ricott, and Balsamina. Clena hurriedly separated herself from me and straightened up. Ricot spotted us and walked our way, but the princess looked like all the life had drained from her, and Foley was keeping her upright. Balsamina seemed uncomfortable.

“Why are you all here?”

“We were just seeing someone off. And how about you? Where’s Cosmos?” I asked, and Ricott looked downward in frustration.

“They got the best of us. As you can see, we were able to find Balsamina, but while their forces were distracting us, the bunch that kidnapped Cosmos left the country...!”

So they had escaped, huh. Balsamina had witnessed Cosmos’ kidnapping and had been trying to track them. Thanks to her, they were able to find out that he’d been taken out of the country.

“The ones who were distracting us... were soldiers from Jupiter.”

“...Is that true?”

“Yes, I could recognize some of their faces. I am not mistaken.”

Why did Jupiter take Cosmos? I could see them taking Haruno or me, since we were Heroes of the Goddess, but Cosmos was a Hero of the Sacred King. Also, if their party had found out that much, why did they come back here instead of pursuing the ship?

“They went as far as to steal our ship! Sir Touya, could we please request your assistance?”

I see, since their ship had been stolen, they needed our help cross the sea. I couldn’t just abandon them in this situation. But even so, the princess needed some rest right now. I took the four of them with us back to the villa.

Kannami had just dropped by when we returned. We had a whole host of visitors today. He looked clearly disgruntled, and an aura of rage was seeping out of him.

“...Did something happen?”

“Actually...”

According to Achilles, the finals of the arms competition occurred this morning. Kannami was up against Cosmos’ opponent from yesterday, who had won by default due to Cosmos being a no-show. However, the match was a curb stomp, and Kannami had taken no more than a second to defeat him. Thus, he was left with an unblown fuse and had been acting like this ever since the match ended.

“So he came here to complain, huh. We don’t exactly have the time for that right now...”

“I see that Her Highness is with you... What in the world happened?”

I’ll take this chance to get them mixed into this, too.

“The group who kidnapped Cosmos also stole their party’s boat and escaped with it.”

“Hah...! So it’s their fault the finals were so boring.” Kannami was the first to react. Cosmos would have moved on to the finals had he not been kidnapped, so he wasn’t wrong.

“Will you come with us?”

“You don’t even need to ask. I would feel guilty ignoring someone who came from the same place as me.”

Kannami and I exchanged a firm handshake. Yeah, I knew he would be the type to get on board with this. Now, we just needed to keep moving forward.

First, we needed to inform everyone that we’d be moving out of the villa and traveling again. We had the numbers, so I asked everyone to help with preparations. The princess was still haggard, though, so I let her rest.

“Now that Her Highness’ imperial guards are with us, our numbers have increased by quite a bit.”

“You won’t be able to buy everything in one shopping trip. We’ll help you out, too.”

Kannami’s party offered to help out with shopping, so I left it to them. Clena, Haruno, and I went to see the demon lord.

The White Orchid Corporation had returned to its usual operations overnight. Customers were going in and out of the shop. An employee led us into the inner room, bowing repeatedly all the meanwhile. That was probably due to Clena’s presence. We came across the White-Faced Ogre first, so I told her that we were leaving to rescue Cosmos.

“And about the cyclopes and the glaupis... Can we leave them in your care for the time being?”

“...Please wait a moment.”

I was asking to let them stay in the villa until we decided where we’d build the temples, but the White-Faced Ogre didn’t give an answer and instead left the room. The three of us looked at each other in confusion, but she returned before long to guide us to another room. The demon lord was asking for us.

This room was newly furnished with tatami mats. Besides that, it was covered from floor to ceiling with flashy decorations; I would even say it looked gaudy. Hardly a room that you could relax in. The tatami mats were from the Unlimited Bath. So they were using them here, too?

When the demon lord saw us, he gestured for us to come inside and sit by him.

“I heard the news about the competitor that disappeared from the arms competition... It has turned into a messy situation.”

“I want to help rescue him. We can’t just leave it be.”

“Heheheh... Are you indebting the sacred family to you so that you can rebuild the temple of darkness?”

I hadn’t thought that far, but he wasn’t wrong.

“In any case, I owe you a favor for the incident with my fool of a son. This is a good opportunity, so I will present you this.” The demon lord handed me a cylindrical scroll. I unfurled it and quickly noticed that the paper was thick and high quality.

“...The deed to the nation of Hades?”

The document stated that the entirety of Hades was to be transferred to my name.

“A deed... Is that okay? The person who wrote you the deed to the Mino province...” Haruno asked, peering at the paper from beside me. I remembered seeing this on TV once. A historical figure who had given the deed to his land to this demon lord was later betrayed and killed by his own son.

“Are you suggesting that he would once again betray me? Hah, if that were to happen, I’ll make sure he never stands again,” the demon lord laughed off the idea. I guess the Dark Prince would have no reason to turn against him again.

The deed to Hades, huh. It was one of our location candidates to build the temples. We were on good terms with the Torano’o tribe as well, so we wouldn’t have any issues with the locals there.

However, our biggest obstacles were the barren wasteland of the void and the fact that ruins were all that remained.

“To return to the subject at hand, there are not many places where you can reestablish the temple of darkness that would not also clash with other religions, no?”

“Would the forest of Thebai not work?”

“The former location of the temple of wind... I am not so familiar with it, but can you easily gather people and resources there? If it is a far off area, then it would be difficult.”

“Well...” I looked at Haruno, who shook her head silently.

“Though of course, Hades has plenty of problems of its own. But you are forgetting something important. Restoring the temple of darkness, and in turn the religion of the Goddess of Darkness, also means restoring the land of the void.”

Come to think of it, the void had transformed into a wasteland because Rakti had been sealed. If faith in the Goddess of Darkness was restored, and Rakti regained her powers, then the void should also naturally return to what it once was.

“No matter where you build the temples, the void will be resurrected. When that happens, Jupiter will turn its eyes to the land of Hades. That is not something I wish to deal with.”

His true thoughts leaked out in that last sentence. So that was why he was giving the deed to me. He wanted me to establish the temples in Hades, even if it meant gritting my teeth to all the disadvantages of building there.

The challenges of building in the void had been on my mind until now, but if the land could be revived, then that was a game-changer. Hades immediately jumped to the top of our list of candidates.

“What do you all think?”

“I think it’ll be important to be able to say that the land was given to you by the former king of Hades,” Clena said.

“You can also use it to convince everyone that the demon lord doesn’t intend to return there,” Haruno agreed.

I see. I could convey a sense of legitimacy and security to everyone in the surrounding nations with this. It would only be effective to a certain extent at first, but it certainly took away some of the challenges.

Clena had more to add. “Also, there are nearby countries in all directions.”

“That’s right. If you build all the temples there, you’ll attract lots of pilgrims. Hades isn’t a bad location at all for that,” Haruno nodded.

I was worried about Jupiter being north of it, but there was also Hephaestus to the east, Ceres to the west, and Neptune a bit to the southeast. It was a prime location to gather both people and resources.

“You can enlist the support of the Torano’o tribe, too.”

“And above all, Rakti will be happy with it! Both the land and the people are in your favor! I can’t say anything about luck, though!”

Well, us having to rescue Cosmos right now certainly didn’t suggest that luck was on our side. But that was something we had to handle ourselves. In any case, these two seemed eager to build the temples in Hades. I couldn’t deny the advantages, either.

“I understand. I’ll gladly accept the deed to Hades.”

“Mmm. Leave the cyclopes and glaupis to us. You may come back for them after you’ve settled the matter of the kidnapping.”

“Thank you very much.”

Now we had sorted out one of our problems. After we rescued Cosmos, we would immediately start heading to Hades.

In essence, the demon lord was lending us his support right now as we set off to rescue a hero who had been kidnapped by the forces of the sacred family. I didn’t know what the heck was going on either, but it was the truth, and it didn’t change what I needed to do. I had many things on my mind right now, like why Jupiter would abduct Cosmos, but for now, we just needed to hurry up and get ready to depart.