Chapter 1: The Ring

Chapter 1:
The Ring

 

POV: AMELIA ROSEQUARTZ

 

AS SOON AS Akira stepped out of the building, the whole house went eerily quiet. I noticed the hero stealing glances at me from time to time, but he didn’t say a word. Asahina, the boy who’d taken Night to task a moment ago, seemed pensive and lost in thought. Eventually, the boy named Nanase dared to speak up, albeit with a heavy dose of hesitation in his voice.

“S-so, uh… What brings you to the beastfolk domain, Your Highness? And where exactly were you guys planning on going from here?” he asked, then looked away the moment I tried to make eye contact with him.

I let out a heavy sigh. “Well, our ultimate destination is still the Demon Lord’s castle in the heart of Volcano. We only came to Brute because we needed Crow’s help to fix Akira’s sword. I’m not sure if we’re going to head straight for the Demon Lord after this or not, though. Still need to talk with Akira and Night about that.”

I deliberately chose to ignore their request to accompany us, since it sounded like Akira was pretty opposed to the idea.

“Now, can I ask you all something?” I added. Nanase nodded, so I scanned the group and addressed the five members of the hero’s party who were not seated in chairs. “What about the rest of you? You disagree with these two, am I right? You’d rather not join up with Akira?”

The Ueno girl with the funny accent and the boy named Waki (who I assumed was an animal trainer, given that he was surrounded by tiny animals) nodded in confirmation. The other three, however, didn’t seem so sure.

“Well, if you want any hope of convincing us to let you tag along, you’ll need to come to an agreement among yourselves first. Luckily for you, Akira and Night are still pretty exhausted, so you’ll have plenty of time to do that while they recover,” I said, and the hero (who’d clearly been at quite a loss) bowed his head to me politely.

“We’ll do just that. Thank you for your consideration,” he said, before rising from his seat.

Asahina, who was sitting next to him, also stood up, gave a little bow, then followed the hero into the next room, and the other party members followed suit. They were all very polite, and it was obvious they came from a society very different from our own—though I’d heard it said that the eastern nation of Yamato on the human continent had a similar culture of respect. The hero who founded that country must have also been from that “Japan” place where Akira grew up.

“What do you think, Night? Would Akira be happy to have them along?” I asked, now that he and I were the only two remaining in the room.

The little feline looked up at me with piercing golden eyes from his perch atop the table. Then, after mulling it over a bit, he shrugged his shoulders. “Hard to say. Even though I’m telepathically connected to him, it’s hard to tell what’s going through that boy’s head. I do know Master was apparently rather close with that impertinent little rat,” said Night, referring to the Asahina boy he’d had a bit of a scuffle with. He was probably feeling a little annoyed that there was now someone here who probably knew Akira far better than he did. “Also, that animal trainer boy and the girl with the strange accent are clearly not fond of Master, to put it lightly. Hard to see any way that having them along would be beneficial.”

I nodded in agreement, though I didn’t have much room to judge whether other people would get in Akira’s way, given that I had nearly murdered him down in the labyrinth. I hadn’t wanted to, of course, and if I had only been stronger, that demon wouldn’t have been able to take control of me. Thankfully, Akira’s Shadow Magic was able to heal his wounds completely, otherwise he would have most certainly died down there.

Night, having picked up on my sudden glumness, peered into my eyes with concern.

“You can’t let what happened down in the labyrinth get to you, Lady Amelia. In the end, Master survived, and that’s all that matters. You didn’t hurt him; Mahiro did. I promise you Master doesn’t blame you for what happened,” Night said, trying to reassure me.

“Yeah. You’re right. Thanks, Night,” I said, forcing a smile.

Night nodded, buying my response, then fell back into deep thought, so I left him there on the table and exited the building. I found my way to a forest on the outskirts of town, where it almost felt like the trees were welcoming me as a member of the high elf nobility. We elves had always lived in harmony with the forest, after all. Long ago, we grew tired of the wars of men who were seeking wealth and dominion, and we instead became the stalwart guardians of the Sacred Forest, fearing that the other races might cut down the Holy Tree were they to get their hands on it. And the Holy Tree was not to be disturbed under any circumstances.

Gah, why am I thinking about this now?

Throughout my entire life, I’d retreated into the forest and asked the trees for their counsel whenever I was faced with a difficult decision or my thoughts reached an impasse. I pressed my forehead up against the bark of one, yet all I could think of was the moment my hand plunged through Akira’s abdomen.

“You don’t understand, Night,” I whispered, my clenched fists trembling. “While it’s true that I would never have hurt Akira like that of my own volition, I…I have to admit, the thought of leaving scars on Akira’s body that would forever remind him of me was…exhilarating, in a way.”

After all, there was no doubt in my mind that if he found a way to return to his world, he’d take it in an instant and leave me behind. He’d told me how his mother was very ill, and he couldn’t expect his little sister to pick up his slack forever. Perhaps what I feared most was him one day forgetting about me after he left. Maybe he would find some other girl who was prettier than me and more fit to stand by his side, and maybe they would get married and have a happy family together. But if I left an actual, tangible mark on his body, then maybe he would still remember me even after he grew old and senile. Which I knew was a rather disgusting thing to say—no one should ever want to harm their beloved—yet there was part of me that felt weirdly happy to have wounded him like that.

What a weak and spiteful woman I was, jealous of a hypothetical woman I’d never even met. How pathetic. As I was lost in self-loathing, I heard the sound of a branch snap somewhere above me. I looked up and saw jet-black eyes piercing through the veil of night straight into mine. They crinkled in amusement.

“So that’s what’s been bothering you, huh? Heh. And here I thought it might actually be something serious.”

My mouth went dry, and my mind went blank. Eventually, I managed to force out a single word through my dumbfounded stupor—the name of the person to whom those eyes belonged.

“A-Akira…”

 

POV: ODA AKIRA

 

I LEAPT DOWN from the tree to stand in front of a very startled Amelia, whose shoulders were trembling.

“A-Akira… How much of that did you hear?” she asked.

“Oh, I don’t know… All of it? I was hanging out up there before you even got here,” I admitted, scratching the back of my neck sheepishly.

Her face went deathly pale.

It really was just a coincidence, though. After hearing Crow’s answer to my question back in his workshop, I’d headed for the nearby forest to do some serious thinking. Being up high in a tree had always been the best place for contemplation, and while I genuinely wasn’t trying to eavesdrop, the truth of the matter was that I was just too lost in thought to notice her arrival until it was too late. Though I had a feeling that explanation would do little to alleviate her current embarrassment. Her naturally pale face was now white as a sheet. I placed a hand on her head, hoping it might calm her down a bit.

“Don’t worry so much. I’m not just gonna up and abandon you one day, and I could never forget you, even if I wanted to,” I said.

Sure, I cared a lot about my mom and my sister, Yui, but I cared about Amelia just as much. I could see tears welling up in her eyes as she clutched my black cloak with all her might.

“You mean it? You really won’t abandon or forget me?” she asked, pleading. There was a puppy-dog look in her eyes making it hard to not squeeze her tight.

“Yeah, I promise.” I nodded. “Besides, if anything, you’re the one who’s out of my league. Just in terms of looks, even someone like the hero would be a better match for you, as much as I hate to admit it.”

Amelia scrunched up her face as I drew one of my black daggers, forged from the remains of the Yato-no-Kami, and placed it into her hand.

“No way. I don’t like that guy at all. You’re way stronger and cooler than he is, and… Wait. What are you doing?” she asked, and I smirked.

It was true that the hero was far weaker than me, but less cool? Not by any traditional definition of the word, anyway. There was no way Amelia and I would have ended up together if I hadn’t been her savior and lone companion through a very specific crisis. It was like the suspension bridge effect, in a way. She needed a hero, and I was there.

With the dagger now firmly in Amelia’s grasp, I held her hand in my right hand and brought the knife up to my left. Amelia recoiled a bit, confused.

“I dunno how you do things in this world, but back home, we have a custom where a man and woman who’ve sworn to spend the rest of their lives with each other exchange rings worn on the fourth fingers of their left hands. We call it the ‘ring finger’ for that very reason. It’s not something I ever saw myself doing, so I don’t know the specific rules or history behind engagement rings and wedding rings, but when two people each have rings around their fingers like that, it’s a symbol of their bond.” I did my best to explain as I traced the tip of the dagger in her hand around the third joint of my ring finger. Even through the darkness, I could see blood trickling out, running down my arm before dripping onto the ground. No ordinary blade could cut through my skin in this world, but the Yato-no-Kami was no ordinary blade.

“Wh-what are you doing?” Amelia asked, her eyes wide as she watched me dig the dagger deep enough to leave a scar, but not so deep as to hit anything vital.

“How’s that? Looks at least a little bit like a ring, doesn’t it?” I asked, holding my hand up to the moonlight to see the bright-red ring just above my knuckle. “You said you wanted to leave your mark on me, didn’t you? Well, now you have.”

Amelia looked back and forth between the dagger in her hand and my finger. “A ring…as a symbol of the bond between a man and a woman…” she murmured, trying to wrap her head around the idea. Then, she placed the dagger back in my hand and, without even a second thought, began guiding it around her own slender ring finger. “I feel bad for causing you more pain, but at the same time…it feels so good to share something so precious with you.”

Standing next to me, she held her own hand up to inspect it. Seeing Amelia bleeding normally would have made me sick to my stomach, yet for whatever reason, it felt oddly comforting tonight. Suddenly, Crow’s heart-wrenching voice rang through my ears.

“The thing that terrifies me more than anything else in the world…is when I try to reach out for something and my fingers touch nothing.”

Perhaps I wouldn’t always be able to reach out and grab hold of Amelia whenever I wanted to. Given how powerful the demons were, there was a very real chance she and I could have both died down there if Crow hadn’t shown up when he did. But so long as we both had these scars around our fingers, she and I would be bound for eternity.

“Amelia, I’d break every bone in my body for you, if that’s what you wanted. I’ll happily wear any scars you see fit to adorn me with. But in exchange, I want you to tell me everything. Anytime you want me to do something, or anytime something’s bothering you, you come and tell me. I’ll do whatever’s in my power to make things right.”

I knelt down and planted a kiss on the back of her left hand. Then, realizing I was probably making a giant fool of myself, I looked up to see her cheeks flushed bright red, before she placed her hands on my cheeks.

“All right. Then I want you to promise me something too. Promise you’ll never forget me, never go anywhere without me, never die and leave me behind, and never, ever look at anyone else but me.”

I stood up and wrapped Amelia in my arms; her tiny frame fit perfectly. “Your wish is my command, my dear. And I’ll do whatever I can to grant it.”

The “never go anywhere without me” part was probably a bit unrealistic, but I felt confident I could safely commit to the rest. I certainly had no intention of dying on her, or forgetting her, or being unfaithful to her.

Cradled in my arms, Amelia smiled, truly content. It was the first time I’d seen her smile like she meant it since the incident down in the labyrinth. It was the sort of smile she only used when she was alone with me and Night—not the fake one she gave to outsiders just to be polite.

I still wanted to go home to Japan, my mom, and my sister someday. But right here, in this moment, there was nothing I wanted more than to hold on tight to that smile.

 

POV: ASAHINA KYOUSUKE

 

THE ROOM CROW had so kindly let us borrow was the largest in the house, and the seven of us were all currently spread out across it, trying to relax. I stood near the door with my back against the wall and my arms folded.

Princess Amelia had instructed us to come to an agreement as a group on what we wanted to do going forward, yet no one was saying a word. Usually, it was Satou who tried to lead discussions, but he hadn’t said a word since we left the other room. Even Waki and Ueno, the two members who could generally be counted on to kick up a fuss, were silent. Nanase and Tsuda both looked awfully restless, while Hosoyama seemed cool as ever.

I closed my eyes and tried to go over the whole situation in my head. It was safe to assume that Akira’s ultimate objective was the same as ours: to return to Japan. If anything, he probably felt more anxious to make it home than the rest of us, as he had to take care of his mother and sister. So why was he moving separately? Perhaps it was simply that he had a different idea about the best way to achieve that goal, but as I understood it, the only way to return home after being summoned to another world was to slay the final boss—though I was by no means an expert on the genre, having only heard bits and pieces secondhand about the novels Akira loved to read.

Hang on. Could it be…?

My eyes shot wide open, and Tsuda, who’d been standing directly across from me, jumped in shock. I turned my eyes to look at Satou, who was staring pensively at the floor. “Tell me something, Satou… Do you have any intention of trying to slay the Demon Lord?”

Everyone looked at me as I broke the silence, then over to Satou in anticipation of his response. The boy scrunched up his handsome face like he was pouting and shook his head. This was a grave sign indeed.

If there was one thing the knights back in Retice drilled into our heads each day during training, it was that the Demon Lord could be slain only by the hero with the sacred blade and the Holy Sword Extra Skill, and right now, that hero was Satou. As long as we met those requirements, defeating him would be a piece of cake. Our job as the hero’s companions was to see him safely to the Demon Lord’s lair, but if the hero had no will or desire to slay the Demon Lord, then there was nothing anyone could do.

“Sorry, guys, but I really don’t see a need to go and slay the Demon Lord right now,” Satou said.

In fairness, he had a point. The Demon Lord had yet to show himself in any recognizable way since we’d been summoned from Earth, and only Akira’s team claimed to have seen demons firsthand. We couldn’t completely rule out the possibility that the incident with the monsters flooding out of the labyrinth in Ur was nothing more than an accident. My Intuition skill begged to differ, but that didn’t count as hard evidence.

“Th-then how are we supposed to make it back home to Japan, huh?!” cried Waki.

This was perhaps the primary counterargument. Up until then, we’d all believed slaying the Demon Lord was our one and only ticket back home, and it was what we’d been working toward ever since our arrival.

“Whaddya mean, ya don’t see a need? Weren’t you the one who got us all gussied up to go and take ’im out in the first place?” Ueno asked.

She was right. Satou was the one who’d made a rousing speech to that effect. But that was back when we all still believed the royal family of Retice had our best interests in mind. They told us the Demon Lord was committing acts of tyranny and terror all across this world, and that we were the only ones with the power to stop him.

“Look, I don’t have all the answers, okay?” Satou responded. “All I know is the one who told us the Demon Lord’s the root of all evil was the same guy who used his daughter to place curses on all of us. And from what I’ve seen, none of the people in any of the towns we’ve been to since seem like they’re oppressed or under threat from any demons at the moment.”

Ueno and Waki looked at each other, their eyes wide, as they realized the truth of what was being said. It was true; the places we’d seen were all bustling with life and prosperity. Even in the eastern nation of Yamato, which was the closest point on the continent to the demons’ domain, none of the citizenry seemed even slightly fazed by the supposed threat of a demon invasion. Nanase and Tsuda simply looked pensive, perhaps fearing the worst for the classmates we’d left back at the castle in Retice.

“Um, are we all forgetting that Oda literally just got seriously injured by the demons?” asked Hosoyama, raising her hand. “Do we think he’s lying about that, or does that not constitute a serious threat?”

I squinted, feeling skeptical. Her words were clearly those of someone who felt we should take Akira’s side on this issue, yet I couldn’t tell whether she had come to that conclusion independently or was merely giving her classmate the benefit of the doubt. I always had a hard time reading her; she wasn’t easy to read like Waki or Ueno.

“Yeah, and you know what else? Akira’s stronger than I am,” Satou jumped in. “Probably has been since we were summoned to this world, now that I think about it. Even with all our powers combined, we probably couldn’t hold a candle to him. So if he’s right, and these demons really are so evil and terrifying that even he barely survived one encounter with them, then the rest of us don’t have a chance in hell against them, let alone the Demon Lord. As it stands now, we’re barely stronger than the average warrior in this world.”

That was the first time I’d ever heard Satou admit something like that. He was always so self-assured and seemed to despise showing any signs of weakness or vulnerability. Nanase, too, looked like he could hardly believe the words coming out of the hero’s mouth.

“Look, I wanna go home just as badly as you guys do,” Satou continued, “and I promise you Akira does too. But he doesn’t seem to think slaying the Demon Lord is an urgent priority right now. Have you considered that maybe it’s because he knows none of us stand a chance of winning?”

A wise deduction, perhaps. Were this a video game or a fantasy novel, the heroes would likely make a valiant stand against the Demon Lord, be promptly overwhelmed by his power, then spend a long time building up their strength so they could defeat him the next time. But this was real life, unfortunately, and in real life there were no extra lives or convenient plot devices. If we faced the Demon Lord now, he would slaughter us all without mercy.

“I can tell you guys with 100 percent confidence that Akira is probably more determined than any of us to make it home to Japan, and he probably also knows better than any of us exactly what it’s gonna take to accomplish that. Which is why I suggested we tag along with him to provide support,” Satou finished, and everyone nodded to show their understanding.

“Gotcha. Was that your reasoning too, Kyousuke?” asked Nanase, turning toward me, the only other person on board with the idea initially.

“No, nothing like that. I simply wanted to support him however I could, as a friend. Though I admit I’d only drag him down at my current level,” I replied. By now, Akira had grown far stronger than I could have imagined. If we traveled together, it would always be him protecting me, not the other way around. I was incapable of standing beside him on the battlefield. I hadn’t witnessed his strength firsthand, mind you, but I could tell from a single glance the kinds of ordeals he’d been through.

“Well, I still don’t trust ’im, for the record. I mean, it was his dang dagger in Saran’s heart, for cryin’ out loud! Maybe if he treated us like actual freakin’ companions before that, I’d give ’im the benefit of the doubt, but no, he was always runnin’ off doin’ shady stuff all by his lonesome!” grumbled Ueno, crossing her arms and leaning against the wall.

“Didn’t we already go over this? We all agreed Akira didn’t kill the commander.”

After our group left the castle, we held our first team strategy meeting in order to verify we were all free from the effects of the curse and set some ground rules. It was then that we all agreed—based on Akira’s reaction to seeing Saran’s blood-soaked corpse and the evil words that Satou allegedly overheard from the princess—that there was no way Akira could have killed him.

Ueno, clearly incensed, gripped at her hair in frustration. “I ain’t sayin’ he did! All I’m sayin’ is that he’s been actin’ awful fishy ever since we got here, so we shouldn’t just take his word as law!” she asserted.

I cocked my head, puzzled. Had she expected Akira’s core personality to suddenly change because we’d been summoned to another world? He was always the loner looking at the rest of the class from afar, rolling his eyes as if we were all a bunch of fools and he was the only one who could see it. The only two classmates who ever attempted to interact with him were myself and Nanase.

“Yeah, I’ve gotta agree with Ueno here,” said Waki. “If he wasn’t wandering around behind our backs from the get-go, none of us would have suspected him in the first place. Well, other than Ryuusuke, maybe, but everyone knows those two have got beef.”

The boy Waki was referring to was Oka Ryuusuke—one of his fellow soccer team members and our class’s resident “life of the party.” The tall, relatively handsome Oka had been going out of his way to taunt and badmouth Akira ever since the spring of our freshman year. I wasn’t sure what the impetus for their antagonistic relationship was, but he was almost assuredly to blame for Akira having become even more reclusive in recent years. I asked Akira once if he’d ever said anything that might have offended Oka, and he didn’t even know who I was referring to. This was fairly typical; he only reserved room in his brain for the things he cared about. I was sure he didn’t remember Nanase’s name either, despite them ostensibly being friends. Now that I thought about it, I remembered seeing Waki join in on Oka’s Akira-bashing on a few occasions.

“I mean, yeah, we all know Akira’s a lone wolf, to put it nicely.” Nanase sighed. “Or, to put it not so nicely, he’s a stubborn stick in the mud who’s never willing to cooperate on any terms but his own. But that’s just who he is.”

I nodded in agreement, deciding to let Waki’s comment go. Instead, I turned to Tsuda, who was hunched over in a corner, trying to be as invisible as possible.

“Any thoughts about all of this, Tsuda?” I asked.

He shot up, clearly shaken by my sudden address. This was the norm with him, and I had a hunch he didn’t feel totally comfortable speaking with me. We were both members of the school’s kendo team, but I was its captain. He probably felt like a bit of an outsider as well, having only taken up kendo in high school, and thus lacking the more chiseled body of a longtime member. His form was unassuming and almost feminine, and I could understand why he might be intimidated by me.

“Oh, um, w-well…I haven’t really had many chances to interact with Oda myself, so I’m not a good judge of his character, but if you think he’s trustworthy, Asahina, then I’m willing to have faith in him.”

I couldn’t help but blink. He was willing to trust Akira simply because I trusted him? That would imply that Tsuda respected me far more than I would have guessed. And here I thought the boy was terrified of me. Just goes to show how bad I am at reading other people, I suppose.

“What’s your vote, Hosoyama? It’s three against two now,” I said, turning back to her. While Nanase hadn’t given his vote yet, I was fairly certain he’d be on the pro-Akira side, which would make it four against two.

“If we want to join up with Oda, I’m totally fine with that,” she said with an almost motherly smile. “Though we’d still need to get Princess Amelia’s permission, which is another story entirely.”

For whatever reason, that smile of hers gave me goosebumps. I couldn’t suss out her intentions, and that made me anxious.

“Well, we don’t even need to ask for Nanase’s vote, then, because we already have the majority,” Satou concluded. “So, Waki and Ueno, what’s it gonna be?”

We’d come this far as a team, but that didn’t mean we had to stay together going forward. It had benefited us to stick together at first, since we had a common goal and were all equally unfamiliar with the world of Morrigan, but we were about to venture into far more dangerous territory, and it sounded like Satou was giving those who wanted it the chance to leave. Akira certainly wouldn’t care who tagged along.

The two dissenters exchanged glances with one another, before letting out deep sighs of mutual resignation.

“Yeah, had a feeling that’s what you guys would decide,” said Waki.

“Well, I s’pose me not bein’ Oda’s biggest fan is my own personal problem. If that’s what y’all have decided, I’ll go with the flow,” Ueno said.

This was good news. While they were both free to do as they pleased, losing them would have greatly upset our party’s balance and fighting style. I wasn’t especially worried; it wasn’t as though they had anywhere else to go. Satou, however, breathed a sigh of relief.

“Cool, then it sounds like we just need to convince the princess now,” said Nanase.

I nodded. We didn’t know the first thing about Princess Amelia, but chances were she’d be a much harder nut to crack than Waki and Ueno. She was the single greatest obstacle between us and our end goal.

“Well, I guess we probably have until they depart from the beastfolk domain to convince them, right? And it sounds like Akira and his familiar are both going to need plenty of time to recuperate from their run-in with the demons.”

It wasn’t as though we didn’t have time to sort things out, but we couldn’t afford to rest on our laurels either.

“Hey, speaking of R&R, I heard there’s gonna be a big festival in Uruk pretty soon,” Waki said, suddenly changing the subject. “Heard about it from some of the girls on the boat ride over here.”

For a bit of context: the stray cats of this world were far less friendly and much more cautious than those back in Japan, but an animal trainer like Waki could befriend them immediately, at which point they turned into the most affectionate cats one could ever meet. It was for this reason that Waki (or more specifically, his cats) often enjoyed attention from the ladies of this world. A swarm of them had surrounded him for the duration of the boat ride from Kantinen to Brute, all looking for a chance to pet his cats.

“A festival, eh? That would make for a nice change of pace. Maybe we should see if they’re interested in checking it out?” suggested Satou, and the two girls of the group immediately lit up. I fully expected Hosoyama to be all over the idea of a festival, but apparently Ueno was too.

“But what kinda festival is it, do ya reckon?” Ueno asked Waki.

“Dunno. All they said was that it’s the perfect chance for young women to strut their stuff.”

That almost makes it sound like a fashion show of some sort, I thought to myself.

“What the heck does that mean…?” muttered Nanase. “And do we even know what the average ‘festival’ in this world entails?”

It was a fair question, to be sure. While to us Japanese, the word festival conjured up images of yukatas and fireworks and food stands, in some other countries, they were more like parades.

“H-hey, um, now that you mention it, I think I heard some of the older guys at the Adventurer’s Guild talking about that,” Tsuda chimed in hesitantly.

Likely due to his rather feminine appearance, Tsuda was frequently approached by other adventurers whenever we visited the Guild…or more specifically, the retired old men who still hung out at the Guild would try to pamper him with attention and drinks, which would draw the attention of the younger adventurers as well, and…well, you get the idea. I wasn’t quite sure how it happened or when it started, but I was fairly certain that if anything were to happen to Tsuda, every adventurer in Ur would rush to his aid.

“They told me there’s an annual contest there to determine who the most beautiful man and woman are across all races, and that it’s being held in Uruk this year,” Tsuda continued.

Aha. So it’s like something of a Miss Universe competition, then. I had to wonder if those sorts of things were an inevitability in every world, or if people summoned from ours had introduced the concept. At the very least, it seemed the desire to crown a champion in any field was a universal constant.

“And while they said there’s both a guys’ competition and a girls’ one, the girls’ one is by far the most popular. O-oh, and, uh…” Tsuda trailed off, his face turning suddenly pale.

“And what?” asked Nanase.

“Well, a-apparently the winners always go missing each year, and rumor has it their organs get sold on the black market…”

Organ trafficking? Such a thing was completely unheard of back in Japan, and the very thought of such a gruesome crime being commonplace only served to drive home how different this world really was.

“Why only the winners, though?” asked Hosoyama as she rubbed Tsuda’s back to calm him down.

It was a good question. A beautiful woman’s organs would be indiscernible from a plain woman’s, no?

“Uh, well, the guys at the Guild said that organs from young and beautiful people sell for obscenely high prices on the black market, for whatever reason,” Tsuda answered.

There was no such thing as a police force in this world. Back in Yamato, there was a faux-Shinsengumi band of neighborhood watchmen devoted to maintaining public order, but even that was a group of volunteers not officially affiliated with the local government. The governments of this world would take action if their sovereignty were ever put in danger, but they didn’t do much when it came to things like thefts, murders, and abductions. This lawlessness was a bit more understandable in a world full of monsters that seemed to constantly be at war, but one would think they could at least do something about the rampant crime. There were plenty of assassination and revenge requests posted at the Adventurer’s Guild, though most adventurers wouldn’t dare take on that sort of work. Cold-blooded murder was still pretty taboo in this world, and few wanted to bloody their own hands on someone else’s behalf. Not unless they were in desperate need of money, at the very least.

“What would you have us do, Satou?” I asked.

He took his time in answering me; it seemed like there was something about this particular subject he was trying to mull over very carefully. When he answered, it was with measured words. “You said the festival’s being held in Uruk, correct? You don’t think that villain Akira and Crow were talking about might be involved, do you? Gram, was it?”

Right, the guildmaster of the Uruk branch, and the man Crow’s been trying to get revenge against for the past hundred years.

“Gee, I wonder,” Hosoyama joked despondently. Indeed, one would think a man with such a laundry list of criminal activity would be bound to dip his toes in organ trafficking sooner or later.

“Well, whether it’s him or not, it’s still not okay,” Waki added, and Satou nodded in agreement.

“We might not be in a position to judge how big a threat the demons and monsters pose to us right now, but we are in a position to judge that no one has the right to sell off another person’s body. If it turns out this Gram guy is involved, then Crow will probably want in, and if Crow’s in, that means Akira probably will be too… Don’t get me wrong, the festival sounds fun, but this also sounds like the perfect opportunity for us to catch whoever’s behind these crimes and prove to Akira and Princess Amelia beyond a shadow of a doubt that we’re companions who know how to get stuff done.”

With this final decree from Satou, our next course of action was decided.

 

POV: ODA AKIRA

 

“A FESTIVAL?! Are you out of your minds?!”

I couldn’t help sounding hysterical. I was so taken aback by the statement that I accidentally knocked over the water bucket I was using to wash my face. I knew the hero and his party had been talking things over last night while I was out in the forest with Amelia, because the light in the room assigned to them was on even after we got home. But I never would have expected them to invite us to a festival first thing the next morning.

Kyousuke, who’d floated the idea to me, picked up the bucket I’d knocked over and started refilling it. “No, we’re quite sane. It’s being held over in Uruk, and it’s quite famous from what we hear. Wouldn’t it be worthwhile to take a look?” he said, wearing his best poker face.

I took the bucket back from him and furrowed my brow. “Uruk, huh?”

That was where the man we suspected had summoned the demons was residing—the same demons who had tried to kidnap Amelia. I did still want to pay him back for that. At the very least, I wanted to make him wish he’d never been born. I leaned over the bucket and splashed some water on my face, which helped to wake up my still-drowsy brain.

“You and Night are both well enough to travel, but not well enough to fight, right? Obviously, training is important, but why not take a load off every once in a while?”

I mulled over Kyousuke’s suggestion. I had no idea what the festivals in this world were like, but I had no doubt they’d be perfectly enjoyable. And if they were anything like Japan’s festivals, then there’d be plenty of yummy food, which I knew Amelia would love. The only thing concerning me was whether Kyousuke had some ulterior motive for this recreational detour.

“What are you scheming?” I asked as I dried my face with my sleeve. He couldn’t possibly know about Amelia’s legendary appetite, so he clearly wasn’t trying to win her over with festival food. Was there something else about this festival making him so determined to go? I looked at him quizzically and he simply chuckled.

“I think you’re being a bit too suspicious. Not that I blame you, given that you just nearly escaped death’s doorstep. Believe me, there’s nothing deeper to it. The girls in our party really wanted to go, and so we thought Princess Amelia might be interested as well. It will give us some time to think about how to best convince her to let us join you.”

It was true; I had grown a lot more suspicious after having lived in this world for a while, but being distrustful was almost a necessity in this world, where one wrong move could get you killed.

After a moment’s deliberation, I said, “Consider us tentatively interested, then. I still need to ask Amelia and Night about it, but I think they’ll probably be on board.”

I also wanted a chance to ask Crow what festivals in this world were like. My face washed and my head clear, I began to put together my plans for the day.

Unbeknownst to me, Kyousuke flashed a satisfied smirk.

 

“A festival?!”

Amelia and Night were about as shocked by the idea as I’d been. The only difference between them was that Night was immediately opposed to the idea, while Amelia seemed delighted.

“Master, this wouldn’t happen to be the upcoming beauty pageant festival being held in Uruk, would it?” asked Night.

“Hell if I know. All I know is that it’s in Uruk… Wait a minute. You mean they have beauty pageants in this world too?”

“Wait, so we’re going to it?! Oh, can we?! Pretty please?!” Amelia asked, her eyes lighting up as she grabbed my hand.

“Y-yeah, I figured you’d wanna go, so I told them we were tentatively interested… What’s so great about this festival, though?” I asked.

“I have no idea!” She beamed, and I couldn’t help but slump my shoulders.

“Why are you so excited to go, then?”

“I mean, it’s a festival, right? There’s bound to be all sorts of food and goodies!”

So it really was all about the food for her, then. Couldn’t say I didn’t expect that, though it was kind of cute to see her get all excited like this. I looked down at Night, who was standing up on his hind legs and facepalming with both hands.

“Master, Lady Amelia, please. They call that thing a festival, but it’s really just a glorified all-out brawl. Though there are plenty of excellent food stands, to be sure.”

“Are you saying you’ve been to this festival, Night?”

“Indeed. And not that long ago, actually.”

And so Night proceeded to give us the rundown of what the beauty pageant festival truly entailed. Apparently, it had begun in Kantinen many years ago, but it was now so large that the human continent traded off hosting duties with Brute every other year. The pageant itself was divided into both a men’s and a women’s competition, though entrants were free to sign up as whichever gender they liked, and crossdressing was fully allowed. The pageant was traditionally only open to humans and beastfolk, though there had been a surprise upset victory by an elven competitor a few years back. Also, the winners always received a fabulous grand prize, which changed every year—last year, it was a free lifetime pass to one of the finest traditional inns in all of Kantinen. Since the pageant was being held in Uruk this year, word on the street was that the prize might be something more related to fine cuisine this time around. Upon hearing this, a fire ignited in Amelia’s eyes.

“That’s it. Sign me up,” she declared, clenching her fists.

“…Master?” Night asked, looking to me with the hope that I could talk her out of it. I shook my head. Once Amelia had set her heart on something, there could be no stopping her.

“Why did you describe it as an ‘all-out brawl,’ though?” I asked. If it was really so dangerous, then I wasn’t about to let her enter, even if it meant incurring her wrath.

“Well, you know how rowdy men can get… When the winner gets announced and it’s not any of the women the crowd was pulling for, things can get violent rather quickly,” he explained. This I could see.

“I’m gonna win that grand prize, Akira,” Amelia asserted, as though she hadn’t heard what Night said.

Night and I looked at each other, then shook our heads, exasperated.

“Well, I certainly find it hard to imagine that there could be anyone more beautiful than you, Amelia. She’d probably be a shoo-in, don’t you think?” I asked Night.

“…Probably so.”

 

“You guys are headed to the festival in Uruk? Seriously?”

Crow seemed just as taken aback by the idea as the rest of us had initially. It made sense; most people who had just barely escaped from a close encounter with demons probably wouldn’t be raring to go to a festival the next day. If I were in Crow’s shoes, I’d probably ask our group to get the hell out of my house.

“Do you wanna come with?” I ventured, and Crow went silent and looked away.

Uruk was the country where his sister’s killer resided. I didn’t know why he hadn’t already gone and tried to exact revenge before now, but I could certainly understand why he might have reservations.

“You’re serious about this?” he asked.

“Completely. Amelia really wants to go. She’s all about good food, as you know.”

Crow gave a little nod of understanding and then looked up at the night sky with the same vacant eyes as the night before. And just like last night, it was only the two of us sitting in his living room. I let out a sigh.

The hero’s party had gone out to assist with the city’s reconstruction efforts, and Amelia, Night, and Gilles had headed out at the same time to gather additional foodstuffs in the nearby mountains. This was a necessity now that we had so many mouths to feed, but I wasn’t feeling well enough to go mountain climbing just yet, so I’d stayed behind to hold down the fort with Crow. The silence in the room was almost unbearable, though, so I’d decided to broach the subject of the festival and ask if Crow wanted to come along.

Amelia had told me all about how Crow and Night first met, as well as the unfortunate circumstances surrounding his sister’s death. Being an older brother myself, I could definitely sympathize with the feelings he was struggling with. No matter how much you might bicker and fight with your siblings, family was still family. Although, since Yui and I were twins born just minutes apart, I realized we might have grown up to be closer than your average siblings.

She probably doesn’t really even think of me as an older brother, and she’s always believed that the doctor mixed us up and that she’s actually the older sibling. Whenever she’s forced to introduce me as her older brother, it’s like pulling teeth for her, heh. But to me, she’ll always be my adorable little sister, no matter how feisty she can be. If someone ever took her life, there’s no way I’d be able to stop myself. I’d use whatever means I could, no matter how illegal, to make the bastard pay. Obviously, I haven’t been through what Crow’s been through, but surely he must feel the same way about his sister, right?

“You’re wondering why I haven’t gone after my sister’s murderer even though I know who he is, aren’t you?” Crow asked, his tail moving to and fro. This snapped me right out of my thoughts. He turned his gaze away from the window and looked into my eyes, but there wasn’t the slightest flicker of light in those obsidian pupils of his. “I can tell exactly what’s going through your mind. You might have a pretty good poker face, but your eyes say more than your mouth ever could.”

It was easy to forget that this man had more than a century of life experience over me—probably due in no small part to the fact he didn’t look a day older than Gilles on the outside.

“There are two main reasons,” Crow began, his expression calm. “First, because I know my sister would never have wanted me to sully my hands with the blood of our fellow beastmen. And second…” Crow paused, then slammed his fists down against his knees in vexation. “I’m too old to fight for extended periods like I used to. You humans might not be able to comprehend this, but old age hits us beastfolk without warning. You could be feeling spry and lively one day, then wake up the next unable to even pull yourself out of bed. Happens to people all the time.”

Interesting. So there was a beastfolk-specific aging phenomenon. This was news to me.

“Obviously, it varies from person to person, but for me it came on pretty fast,” Crow continued. “After my sister died, I immediately started gathering all the intel I could on Gram and spent close to fifty years plotting my revenge, but by the time I was finally ready to put the plan into action, I was already an old fart. I think it probably hit me extra hard too, because of all the wild adventuring I did in my younger years.”

Crow flashed a self-deprecating smile. It sounded like Gram was a lucky bastard; either that, or Crow was extremely unlucky.

“You know that staff of Lia’s? I made that for her, way back before she was adopted into the royal family, since I knew she was gonna grow up to be a fine guardian one day. Finest staff I ever crafted. Got a very special mana stone embedded in it, and that’s what tipped me off to you being in mortal danger down in the labyrinth… Though I’ve gotta admit, I did think twice about whether I really wanted to save your butts.”

That meant we owed our survival to Lia as much we owed it to Crow. They must have known each other for quite a while. What was their relationship, exactly?

“But see, there’s a reason I came to save you. You know what that is?” Crow asked, derailing my train of thought. He looked uncharacteristically serious about this, as evidenced by the fire of emotion now burning in his eyes.

I gulped. “What?”

“Well…” Crow began, his lips curling into the faintest of smirks.

 

A few days later, we arrived in the country of Uruk ready to begin our little vacation, and no worse for wear from the journey. The city where they were hosting the festival (Mali, I believe) was among the largest in the nation. A giant stage was being constructed in the central plaza, and people in other towns all across Uruk would be able to watch the action via some sort of magic that sounded a lot like TV broadcasting. It wasn’t just Mali livening up for the festivities either—the entire country was abuzz and ready to get in on the action. There were food stands all along the road leading into the city, many of which had come all the way from Kantinen to sell their local cuisines.

The crowds were pretty unbearable. Even before we made it into the city proper, it felt like we were being crammed into a can of sardines. Only Mali residents and the actual pageant entrants were allowed within the city limits. I couldn’t blame the local officials for instating the rule, given the size of the crowds. Occasionally, I noticed people wearing flashy outfits—who I assumed were hopeful contestants—as well as plenty of folks who were just sitting on the sidelines, likely feeling overwhelmed by the sheer number of people.

“Look, Akira! There are so many foods I’ve never even heard of!” cried Amelia.

We were garnering a fair bit of attention just walking down the street. Our merry band certainly made for quite the sight—me, Amelia, Night, and the hero’s party all walking together down the main drag. Incidentally, Crow hated crowds, so he was staying off the beaten path with Gilles.

What surprised me more than anything, however, was that people didn’t seem to be focusing on Amelia, the princess dual-wielding fatty foods in both hands with childlike glee, but on me. At first, I couldn’t imagine why, but then I heard a group of bystanders talking among themselves, and it all made sense:

“Hey…isn’t that the Silent Assassin?”

“Wait a minute. Are you kidding me?! I thought he was just an urban legend!”

“The one who cleared a city block of monsters in half a second! You think he’d give me his autograph?”

Not a chance, I answered internally. I still couldn’t believe it; how on earth was an assassin supposed to do his job if the average person recognized him on sight? I didn’t ask to be a celebrity, darn it. And how did these people even know it was me, for that matter? Maybe it was the combination of black eyes and black hair, which wasn’t especially common in Morrigan.

“Are you famous or something, Akira? Maybe I should ask you for an autograph sometime too,” said Kyousuke, who was walking beside me. I groaned. His cluelessness could be frustrating at times.

“I don’t give autographs, you idiot. Now make yourself useful and help me hide.”

“Are you sure? Well, okay, then.” Kyousuke stepped in front of me so I could walk in his shadow. Unfortunately, this wasn’t enough to fully conceal me from the crowd.

“Hey, let’s go try to say hi!”

“Oh my god, can we?!”

“I’m coming too!”

“Please, no…” I grumbled.

“Why not just conceal your presence, Master? I don’t see a better way out of this for you,” said Night, who was riding on Amelia’s shoulder.

I nodded, having no problem with that idea aside from one small thing. “Okay, but you have to take care of Amelia for me.”

“But of course.”

The street was so flooded with pedestrians that I couldn’t easily conceal my presence without bumping into people. This meant I would have to jump up and walk along the roofs of the food stands lining the street—which wasn’t a problem, but it meant I wouldn’t be able to easily leap to Amelia’s aid if something bad happened. There had already been plenty of lowlifes catcalling her, so I was reluctant to leave her side. Having a black cat like Night on her shoulders was enough to deter most beastfolk from approaching her (given the whole “Nightmare of Adorea” thing), but most humans probably saw the cat as the perfect icebreaker.

“Kyousuke, I’m gonna step away from the group for a little while. I want you to keep an eye on Amelia for me. If any wise guys try to make a move on her, feel free to knock them into next week,” I said.

“Got it.” Kyousuke nodded.

I activated Conceal Presence, and all the older girls who’d been running my way for an autograph balked. Judging by their stunned expressions, I’d successfully turned invisible. I leapt onto the roof of a nearby food stand. Unlike the Japanese food stands I was used to, they all seemed to be made out of sturdy wood, so I could be fairly certain of my footing. The whole country had been waiting for this day for a long time, so it made sense that they’d had a lot of time to set these up.

“Hey, look, y’all! A target practice game!” said Ueno, noticing a festival game stand a little farther down the road.

It didn’t use BB guns like the ones back in Japan. Instead, it seemed to make use of wind magic so that any willing contestant could give it a shot. You simply aimed a device that looked kind of like a stick at the prize you wanted, channeled a tiny bit of mana into it, and a high-velocity wind bullet came shooting out. If you were successful, the prize would fall and you could take it home. It was all a matter of precision and mana control.

“Hey, little lady! Wanna try yer luck?” asked the staffer running the stand.

“You bet I do!” shouted Ueno, who immediately forked over the cash and picked up the shooting device with a grin. “Let’s do this! Hey, Amelia, you see any prizes you want?”

“Hmm… That bag of candies sure looks nice,” Amelia commented.

Ueno and Amelia had become fast friends since we began our journey to Uruk. Maybe they’d both gotten caught up in the infectious festival spirit. Come to think of it, I remembered them coming home together the day Crow and I were left alone back at the house while everyone else went off to do things. Maybe that was when they first became friends. In any case, I was glad to see Amelia enjoying herself. I knew being a princess made it pretty hard for her to have normal friendships.

“Aim carefully now, Ueno.”

“You betcha! And…take that! Ohhh!”

The prize fell to the ground, and Amelia’s face lit up.

“Lookit that, y’all! Your girl’s still got it!”

“Nice shot, little lady… Here ya go! Take this one too! On the house!” said the employee.

“Aw, shucks! That’s awful kind of you, mister!”

Amelia looked so happy to get the candies from Ueno that I couldn’t help but crack a smile. I was starting to feel very happy that we’d decided to come to this festival. It was almost enough to make me forget the bloodbath from only a few days prior.

 

As we made our way down the main road, stopping at any stalls that suited our fancy, we eventually arrived at Mali proper, and the site of the beauty pageant. With Amelia stopping at every food stand offering something she’d never tried before, and Ueno and Waki eating up a bunch of time playing festival games, we made it to the city just in time for the festival to officially start (we were planning to arrive with plenty of time to spare, for the record).

After watching from a bird’s-eye view, I was now utterly convinced that Amelia’s stomach had to be some sort of black hole. Since we arrived, she’d had both her hands occupied with a constant rotation of food that she inhaled fast enough to deter any would-be pick-up artists from hitting on her. Kyousuke, bless his heart, stuck by her side through it all in honor of my wishes, but even he couldn’t help but wince at the sight.

“Well, that was quite the ordeal,” Crow grumped as we entered the city limits and finally escaped the suffocating crowds.

Now the only people around us were pageant contestants and their attendants, so we could see more than clustered bodies around us. Granted, there was no gated entry or anything, so there were a few stragglers, but there weren’t many food stands or attractions set up within Mali to avoid overcrowding. There were still a lot of people, but we could at least make out Crow and Gilles as they walked over to rejoin the rest of the party.

“Oh, don’t be such a spoilsport! It’s a festival! The whole point is to let loose and enjoy yourself!” said Amelia as she hoovered down the last few bites of the remaining treats in her hands.

At this point, I jumped down beside her and deactivated Conceal Presence. “Well, let’s head on over to the venue. Still too many prying eyes around here,” I said, ignoring the surprised faces of the hero’s party members startled by my sudden reappearance.

Amelia was finally finished eating, so her beautiful face was beginning to shine through once more—which meant she was now subjected to jealous glares from other women who were clearly planning to enter the pageant, as well as lurid glances from the men I could only assume were attendants. Amelia was used to this kind of attention, so it didn’t faze her, but as her boyfriend, I couldn’t allow it to continue.

“Speaking of which, who all is planning to enter?” I asked.

Amelia, Hosoyama, Ueno, and the hero all raised their hands.

“Ain’t often you get the chance to enter a real-life beauty pageant! Sounds mighty fun to me!” said Ueno, ever the optimist.

“I always kind of wanted to try being a model,” said Hosoyama, who did indeed have the body for it.

“Sweet! This triples our chances of winning the grand prize!” said Amelia, who apparently didn’t care who won as long as she got to enjoy the prize. I took a quick look over at the hero, who was scratching his nose sheepishly.

“Er… Y-yeah, I kinda thought it’d be fun to try too! And by having someone in the men’s competition, that means we have yet another chance to win the grand prize. But don’t worry, Amelia—if it’s food-related, I’ll be sure to give it to you,” he said.

“You mean it?!” she chirped, her eyes aglow.

“Um, yeah, for sure…” he said, clearly a little taken aback by the sheer magnitude of her gluttony.

At long last, we reached the front of the registration line.

“Okay, anyone who wants to enter, please sign right here and provide some form of identification. Any escorts or chaperones, please do the same,” said the lady at the registration table. We all opted to show our Adventurer’s Guild dog tags, since that was the easiest and only form of identification we really had in this world. I couldn’t help but feel like security was fairly lax if all it took to register was an ID and a signature. But when it was Amelia’s turn to show her dog tags, the registration lady suddenly seized up.

“Wait, what? Erm, sorry, just one moment please!” she sputtered.

Well, guess I can’t blame her for being surprised. It’s not every day that elven royalty stops by, I thought as she turned around to call for her superior. Amelia had gotten a lot of attention for her good looks while we were in the beastfolk domain, but there probably weren’t many people here who could recognize her as princess of the elves from appearance alone. Few elves ever traveled beyond the borders of the Sacred Forest, so it wasn’t like her face was well known to the general public, even if her name and class as a spirit medium apparently were.

“Th-thank you so much for your patience, Princess Amelia,” said the man who’d dashed over, presumably the other woman’s supervisor. He was forcing a polite smile, but his eyes were scanning Amelia’s body from top to bottom. “I do apologize for the inconvenience, but do you have a secondary form of identification we could use to confirm that you are indeed Her Highness Amelia, Princess of the Elves? We’ve had to really tighten our security in recent years, because we do get the odd impostor from time to time, I’m afraid.”

In other words, they weren’t buying that she was who she said she was. But in a competition of looks, did her title really buy her that much of an advantage?

“And what benefit would an Amelia imposter get, might I ask?” said Kyousuke, apparently having wondered the same thing.

The man was now sweating profusely, but still trying to maintain his customer service façade. “W-well, I don’t fully understand the rationale myself, to be quite honest with you, but we do call all contestants by name before they walk out on stage, so bigger names tend to draw more attention; I’m sure you understand.”

That made sense. With the sheer number of contestants, something like that could definitely help someone stand out from the crowd.

“Very well,” said Amelia. “Will this be sufficient?”

She held out the envelope that had contained a letter from the king of the elves addressed to Lingga, and it still had the king’s personal seal stamped in wax on the back. Apparently, she’d gotten the envelope back from Lingga at some point.

The moment the man saw the seal, his facial expression shifted and he started bowing his head repeatedly. “A-apologies for having doubted you, Your Highness! Please do enjoy the festival to your heart’s content!”

The men’s and women’s competitions were to be held simultaneously, and while I had no interest in watching the men’s competition, especially since the hero was entering, I couldn’t shake the feeling that he and my fellow classmates were hiding something. The only person in the group I knew well enough to try probing for answers was Kyousuke, but unfortunately he had the best poker face of anyone I knew. At the same time, I could tell the more easy-to-read members of the group like Ueno and Waki were getting pretty antsy as the pageant was about to begin.

“Well, see you guys later,” said the hero. The men’s competition was being held somewhere deeper in the city. It wasn’t nearly as popular as the women’s competition, so it was much less of a popularity contest and more a collection of average dudes just hoping to take home the prize. Apparently, the footage of the event being “broadcast” to other cities focused almost exclusively on the female portion as well.

“Yup, good luck out there,” I said.

Waki, Nanase, and Tsuda went along with the hero to cheer him on, while the women, Kyousuke, and I stayed behind. Something still felt a bit off to me about all this, mind you, but before I had time to consider it, our attention was forcibly drawn to commotion near the entrance of the venue.

“I already told ya! My name’s Latty, and I’m a demon who came all the way from Volcano to enter your stupid pageant! What more do you people want from me?!”

A hooded girl was kicking up quite a fuss over at the registration counter, and once my brain actually had a chance to process the words she was saying, I froze up.

“A demon…?” Here in broad daylight, making a giant scene? I turned to look at Night on Amelia’s shoulders, only to see his mouth hanging wide open.

The girl’s purple eyes peeked out from under her hood as she threw her fists toward the sky in protest, not even caring about the dirty looks she was getting. She looked like a child throwing a tantrum. “What’s the big idea here, huh?! You’ll let humans and beastfolk participate, and even a freakin’ elven princess, but one little demon is where you draw the line?! This is racism!”

“W-well, you see, erm…” said a pageant official, this one sweating even more profusely than the last as he stumbled over his words. He was looking around desperately for someone to help him, but the other representative was clearly still feeling frazzled from his interaction with Amelia, and the new guy let out a heavy sigh when he realized he was on his own.

“Let’s go over there, Night.”

“M-Master?”

I grabbed Night by the scruff of his neck and headed toward the entrance. The pageant official, upon further inspection, was a rabbitlike beastfolk. I originally thought he just had long white hair, but it was actually a pair of long floppy ears hanging down the sides of his face. I always assumed rabbits were skittish animals, so I was surprised to see one in a position of authority. I could also see his little poofy bunny tail wiggling anxiously right above his tailbone. A fat man with bunny ears… Now I’ve truly seen it all.

“What seems to be the problem here?” I asked, with Night still dangling from my fingers. Immediately, the bunnyman’s eyes lit up, seeing a life raft to help him out of this situation. Before he could say a word, though, the hooded girl grabbed my free hand and started begging me to hear her out.

“Hey, you! Do you think I shouldn’t be allowed to participate just ’cause I’m a demon? If even a random bystander says I shouldn’t be able to, then I guess I have no choice but to give up.” She was standing so close to me that my eyes couldn’t help but be drawn down to her breasts—which were a fair bit bigger than Amelia’s.

I could feel Amelia’s eyes burning a hole in the back of my head, so I decided I’d better solve this problem, and fast. “I don’t see any reason you shouldn’t be allowed to enter,” I muttered, trying desperately to avert my gaze from her buxom chest. With this, the hooded girl did a triumphant fist pump, and the bunnyman looked at me like I’d just sentenced him to death.

“B-but that’s simply unheard of! It’s unprecedented! Never in the history of this pageant has there ever been a demon contestant, and, and—”

“Everything’s unprecedented until someone dares to be the first. Besides, she seems pretty harmless. If she tries to start trouble, I’ll be happy to put her in her place.”

My Detect Danger skill wasn’t picking up anything from her, and she wasn’t giving off an exorbitant mana aura either. Certainly nothing the average citizen couldn’t handle. I was fairly confident I could subdue her if she tried anything funny, and even if she was concealing her true abilities somehow, I could always ask Crow for help. There was no way this little girl could be any stronger than Mahiro, surely.

“Well, if you swear you’ll keep an eye on her as one of the princess’s retainers, I suppose… B-but if anything goes wrong, I’m holding you accountable!” the bunnyman said, before retreating back to his post.

“Guess this means you’re coming with us now. You got that?” I asked the girl.

She nodded excitedly, her purple eyes glimmering with hope from underneath her hood. She had such a different vibe compared to Aurum Tres and Mahiro Abe that I honestly found it hard to believe this spunky little girl could be a demon. Sure, she seemed every bit as mischievous and childish as Aurum had, but she didn’t seem to be at all messed up like him.

“Yup, works for me!” she replied, then squinted at Night dangling from my grip. “Hey, wait a minute. Don’t I know you from somewhere, kitty-cat?”

“Y-yes, um… It’s a pleasure to make your acquaintance again, Lady Latticenail,” Night said. Now this I was not expecting. Given that Night had been the Demon Lord’s right-hand pet, I’d always assumed his status among demon society had been quite high. So his use of honorifics with this girl implied she wasn’t just any ordinary demon.

“Right, now I remember! You’re Black Cat, aren’t ya? What the heck are you doin’ here, of all places?” the demon girl asked, and Night’s eyes began to waver.

“Erm, yes, well… About that…”

As Night fumbled over his words, the purple-haired girl’s eyes narrowed as if she’d come up with a brilliant new prank. “Oh, I get it… I had a feeling you wouldn’t just let yourself get killed down there, but I wasn’t expecting you to make a pact with a freakin’ human, of all things. Does Dad know about this?”

Dad? I wondered as Night nodded, anguished.

Then Latticenail sized me up for a minute before giving Night’s head a friendly scratch. “Welp, okay then! In that case, I’ll keep my mouth shut. Nice to meet you, little kitty I’ve never met before—what’s your name?”

“Hello, young lady. My name is Night. I’m this boy’s familiar.”

“Night, huh? That’s a pretty cute name.”

“I’m flattered.”

While Night seemed quite relieved at this turn of events, I felt like I was being completely ignored. Suddenly, I could relate to how Gilles felt around Commander Saran. After exchanging false felicitations, the two of them finally looked up at me.

“Welp, we’re here now, so we might as well enjoy the festival, right?” Latticenail grinned as she dragged me off by the hand before I even had a chance to ask Night what the hell was going on. The little kitty looked up at me with an ever-so-slightly pained expression on his face.

“I promise I’ll explain later. To you and Lady Amelia both.”

 

Amelia had planted herself not too far away, her arms crossed and her cheeks puffed in a pout. I flashed her a sheepish grin.

“C’mon, Amelia. Don’t be mad,” I said. At this, she promptly turned away. Apparently, she really wasn’t taking a liking to this Latticenail girl who’d suddenly apprehended me.

“I’m not mad,” Amelia huffed. “I don’t have anything against the girl whatsoever; she seems like a pretty good person, actually. I just don’t like that you’re being so flirty with her.”

“What? I’m not being flirty at all. Please don’t misunderstand me… Wait a minute. What do you mean, she seems like a good person?” I asked.

“She may be a demon, but I don’t sense any malice from her,” Amelia said over her shoulder. “Besides, did you even check her stats?”

I snapped my fingers, having forgotten I even had that ability. I’d sworn to only use World Eyes when absolutely necessary, so I generally didn’t check other people’s stats unless I was facing them in battle. But there was reason to be wary of this girl, so I quickly corrected that oversight and activated World Eyes to take a peek at her stats.

 

LATTICENAIL

RACE: Demon CLASS: Water/Fire Mage (Lv. 57)

HP: 33000/33000 MP: 44000/44000

ATTACK: 38500 DEFENSE: 33000

SKILLS:

Water Magic (Lv. 6) Fire Magic (Lv. 6)

Mesmerize (Lv. 8)

EXTRA SKILLS:

Monster Control Mana Suppression

 

I couldn’t help but rub my eyes in disbelief at the stats I was seeing. Granted, numbers so high from a demon weren’t all that unbelievable anymore after having seen Aurum Tres’s stats, but in Latticenail’s case, the numbers just didn’t seem to match up with my first impressions of her. How could this mischievous and seemingly harmless girl, who was currently waving happily to all the other pageant contestants, have higher stats overall than even Aurum Tres, despite being a lower level? Maybe her Mana Suppression Extra Skill was making her mana aura completely imperceptible, when, by rights, it should have been suffocating everyone in the entire venue. And to think I wouldn’t have even bothered to check if Amelia hadn’t pointed it out to me.

“You really do need to get in the habit of using World Eyes more often, Akira,” Amelia chided me.

I looked away, grumpy. “Well, yeah, but…”

Sure, World Eyes was a very handy ability—being able to sneak a peek at an enemy’s stats was an advantage few in this world were lucky to have—but I could never forget the traumatic experience I had when I first tried it out. Though I didn’t remember everything I’d seen in vivid detail, I still relived it in my nightmares from time to time. An image of Kyousuke’s and the other heroes’ lifeless bodies scattered across the rocky earth, and the only one left, standing right in the middle of them all…was me. I didn’t know if it was supposed to be a vision of a future that would inevitably come to pass, or just one possibility out of many, but I was deathly afraid to find out. And I probably could find out by using World Eyes again, if I really wanted to, but I wasn’t sure I could handle it if it turned out I was destined to kill my classmates.

“Remember, we both see different things through World Eyes, so I can’t know what exactly you’re seeing or what might be concerning you, but the fact that you just assumed that girl was harmless when she was really just concealing her powers was a dangerous oversight on your part.”

Amelia was right. Now that I’d seen the girl’s stats, I realized it was irresponsible of me to promise I’d take care of her if she tried anything funny, because there was a good chance she was too powerful for me to handle. Thankfully, Crow was here too, so we could probably work together if it came to that, but what if he hadn’t come with us?

“You’re right. It was stupid of me to cover for her,” I admitted with a sigh.

“No, you made the right call,” Amelia said, shaking her head. “She very well could have gotten violent if you hadn’t stepped in and made them accept her registration. All I was trying to say was that you’ve got eyes that can see things no one else can—so you should use them.”

There was a calm, almost motherly affection in Amelia’s deep red eyes.

“I hear you. I’ll be sure to check the stats of anyone I meet for the first time from now on,” I assured her, and she nodded before standing up on her tippy-toes to give me a few pats on the head. It was a pretty cute gesture, I had to admit.

“Ahem! Master, Lady Amelia? Can I speak to you two for a moment?” asked Night, butting into our little intimate moment before leaping up onto my shoulders; he probably wanted to tell us more about Latticenail.

“So? Who is that hooded demon girl, anyway? The way you were talking all formally to her, I have to assume she’s someone important,” I theorized. Night nodded, then cast a sidelong glance over to where Latticenail was standing.

“Lady Latticenail is… Well, to put it bluntly, she’s His Majesty’s daughter.”

Oh, is that all? I nodded a few times before this information truly sank in, then froze in place. Wait a minute. She’s the Demon Lord’s daughter?!

“Well…based purely on her stats, I can believe it, but she sure doesn’t look the part,” said Amelia, and I couldn’t agree more. Maybe it had something to do with how we couldn’t feel her mana whatsoever, or maybe it had something to do with her innocent, childlike behavior, but she sure didn’t seem like a daughter of the Demon Lord to me. Hell, I was still having a hard time believing the Demon Lord even had a daughter.

“Well, Lady Latticenail and His Majesty don’t get along very well, and they’re constantly fighting over one thing or another. I’m guessing she probably ran away from home again after getting in another screaming match with him. And, well…as you can see, she doesn’t really have the kind of personality that befits the daughter of a Demon Lord.”

I wouldn’t have gone quite that far, but it was true that she certainly didn’t act like I expected a demon would. Was he implying that she ran away to a completely different continent, though? Was that normal for demon teenagers going through rebellious phases?

“In any event, I’m sure things will be fine so long as you never lie to Lady Latticenail’s face, and never use discriminatory language or racist slurs when addressing her. Those are the two things she hates more than anything else.”

Right—she’d kicked up a huge fuss about the festival officials being racist for not letting her register earlier, hadn’t she? I was pretty sure I’d even heard her say something about how “Daddy says there’s nothing worse than a racist.” If she was referring to the Demon Lord…maybe I needed to reevaluate my preconceptions of the guy.

“Thanks, I’ll keep that in mind.” I nodded. “And I’ll make sure Kyousuke and the others know too.”

“A good idea, Master. I’ll stay here with Lady Amelia. Just be careful not to get on Lady Latticenail’s bad side,” warned Night, before hopping off of my shoulders and onto Amelia’s. Evidently, he was determined to spend as little time with Latticenail as possible.