Chapter 3: Home Base

Chapter 3:
Home Base

 

POV: ODA AKIRA

 

“SO, WHAT’S YOUR PLAN NOW, BIG GUY? As far as Lia’s concerned, I mean.”

Having noticed Crow’s sullen demeanor, I called out to him for the first time since entering the forest. He came to an abrupt stop, twigs snapping beneath his feet. Judging from the sun’s position, we were moving at a pretty fast clip today. At this rate, we might just make it to the rendezvous point not long after the hero’s party.

Based on my information about stats of the various monsters we’d encountered, I’d determined the hero’s party would be able to manage on their own (especially with Gilles on their team), but it also wouldn’t surprise me to learn they’d lost a member or two along the way. That was less a criticism of their skills and more a testament to just how deadly this forest was. It was little wonder that there were no signs of human or animal life to be found, and I was beginning to worry letting the hero’s team travel on their own hadn’t been a good idea.

“And why does that have anything to do with you?” asked Crow, eyes piercing through me.

I couldn’t help but gulp audibly—a reaction that normally would have elicited a snort or snarky comment from Crow, but went ignored this time as he stared into the forest. Apparently, his mind was in a much darker place than I’d thought.

“Um, Akira? Is something up with Crow?” asked Amelia, striding up alongside me as I stood there, frozen in place by Crow’s malice.

I reached out and stroked her face to calm her. “Yeah, seems that way,” I responded. “But I don’t think it’s a good idea to butt in on this one. That’s my take, anyway—what do you think?”

Amelia mulled it over and then slammed her fist into her palm as though she’d come to a firm decision. Amelia wasn’t one to fret over things for long, no matter what it was. The only time she ever seemed to waffle on a decision was when asked to pick between multiple different meal options, but even then, it didn’t take her all that long to make up her mind. But swift decision-making skills were no doubt necessary for a princess like her.

“Yeah, for now, I’ll just keep an eye on him too. Though I do think we should probably warn Lia and Amaryllis to steer clear from him for the time being. He’s a loose cannon.”

I couldn’t help but chuckle at that very apt description—it was probably the best way I’d ever heard anyone describe Crow.

“Oi, yew two! Try to keep up, will ye?!” cried Amaryllis from between the trees.

She had been taking a breather only minutes ago but was now apparently raring to go; her distinctive accent reminded me a little bit of the girl with the Kansai accent in the hero’s party. Though Amaryllis had switched over to a much more formal and refined register when we first rescued her, she’d fallen back into her preferred manner of speaking after getting to know us a little better. Which was good because, at first, she would only call us by needlessly formal titles: Sir Summoned Hero, Your Royal Elven Highness, Your Ex-Royal Beastfolk Highness, Sir Member of the Previous Hero’s Party—you get the idea. She seemed to warm up to people similarly to how a dog would. When we first found her in the cell, she was clearly nervous, given that all her fellow prisoners’ lives were potentially on the line, so she went into defense mode until she got to know us better.

Though now that I think about it, that sounds more like a cat than a dog, doesn’t it?

“Yes, we’ll be right there, sorry! Look, let’s just give Lia and Crow some space for now and try not to butt into their business. Does that sound fair?” Amelia asked, and I nodded. Even I didn’t want to try speaking to Crow again in his current prickly mood, and while Amaryllis had never known him any other way, I thought it best for everyone to stay away from him right now.

I could tell Lia was relieved after opening up to me a little bit, but the fact that she didn’t talk to Crow directly after our conversation told me she was probably waiting for the right opportunity. Her usual lighthearted rapport with him was nowhere to be seen. When we first left Uruk, she seemingly made up her mind and gained a new determination about something or other, but now she just seemed lost—or rather, Crow’s ill demeanor had given her cold feet. Ever since we’d entered the forest, they’d both become visibly emotionally unstable, which meant that Amelia and I certainly had our hands full.

“Sounds fair to me,” I finally replied.

At the very least, we needed to uncover the true reason behind Crow’s foul mood before we tried anything else. Amusingly, the way he was acting right now reminded me a bit of my little sister after being woken up: generally irritable, with even the tiniest of inoffensive things getting on her nerves as a perceived slight. That sort of vibe.

We continued through the forest in silence for quite a while after that. As the monsters we encountered continued to be on par with those in the deepest depths of the labyrinths, I began to feel more and more like the hero’s party wouldn’t be waiting for us at the rendezvous point. I was of course hoping they’d still be alive, but I knew reality wasn’t always so kind. I learned early on with Commander Saran’s death that this world could be a very cruel place indeed. And now my ignorance might get even more people killed.

“Monsters, ’hoy!” cried Amaryllis, whose enemy-sensing skills were far above even my own.

Amelia and I raised a hand in response—these monsters might have been deadly to others, but to us, they were small fry. With her Gravity Magic and my Shadow Magic, not to mention the help of a previous hero’s party member and a beastfolk princess, our team was hilariously overpowered. Not that we’d ever gotten careless, mind you.

“The heck is that thing? A robot…?”

I watched cautiously as the monster came into view, its eyes aglow. It wore dull gray metal armor that looked awfully unnatural for a monster of the forest, and it soon began taking aim at us.

Yep, that’s a robot, all right.

Its movements were smooth and lifelike, yet I could tell immediately that there wasn’t a person piloting it. Its joints were all heavily armored, but its body was considerably less so, which told me it was mainly concerned about protecting against attacks meant to hinder its movement. It was clearly a constructed automaton—though by whom and for what purpose, I couldn’t say.

Using World Eyes, I could tell the robot had stats, which told me it had been made by a skilled inventor indeed. One couldn’t simply give an inanimate object a name and expect it to develop stats on its own. It could swap between close-range and long-range combat at will, and all of its attacks came bundled with a paralytic status effect. And if that weren’t enough, it had limited mind control abilities and could regenerate itself at will. Granted, I could probably beat it down over and over until it was too exhausted to regenerate, and Amelia could probably just pin it to the ground using Gravity Magic, but if the other heroes were to encounter this thing, they’d be in deep trouble. Overall, I thought it was a pretty well-designed robot, aside from the childish name, and it could probably repel most of the monsters around these parts without any trouble.

But as we stared at the robot, mouths agape, Crow walked right up to it, completely unfazed.

“Lord Crow?!” cried Lia.

It was the first time she’d used his name since we’d entered the forest, yet Crow didn’t react—he simply grabbed the robot’s head and, before it even had the chance to attack, crushed it into scrap between his hands. In the face of such rage, Lia couldn’t even manage to get off the barrier she was already casting on him.

“I know you’re there, you nasty old hag! Show yourself!” Crow yelled with a surprising amount of venom in his voice as the robot attempted to regenerate.

With unbelievable speed, Crow drew a rune of some sort in the air and applied it to the robot, which silenced the contraption for good. Seeing this, Amelia swooned unexpectedly. Even I, who’d seen a little bit of the runic arts when Crow taught her how to use Inversion, knew it was not the kind of skills one could throw out with ease, especially in a state of mind like Crow’s.

“Well, well. If it isn’t my worthless son. Remind me, how many decades has it been since you last decided to grace your poor, old mother with a visit?”

An arrogant yet easygoing voice lilted out from the trees. It had to be the voice of Crow’s mother, though she sounded even younger than me—almost bordering on childlike. Perhaps the reason Crow had been in such a sour mood was because he’d sensed her presence. After all, he’d made us switch up the rendezvous point specifically to avoid running into her. Why had I not thought of this earlier?

“You’re no mother of mine!” Crow spat back. “Now hurry up and undo the bewitchment you cast on Lia.”

“Huh…?” said Lia—apparently this was news to her.

The rest of us all cocked our heads as we tried to discern what exactly Crow was implying. Had Lia been under some sort of trance? If so, then it certainly wasn’t showing in her behavior, which was more or less the same as usual.

“Oh, you noticed, did you? Yes, the one I placed on her is a bit different from the others,” said a small girl, who came walking out from behind a tree, glaring directly at Crow. Her hair and eyes were the same color as Crow’s, though aside from that, the two looked nothing alike. And what’s more, she bore no animal characteristics whatsoever—something anyone with beastfolk blood would no doubt have.

“She’s human?” muttered Amelia, having checked the girl’s stats with World Eyes.

The girl whipped her long pigtails back and forth, amused. “Right you are, young elven princess. Though I would caution you to mind your manners. A less tolerant soul than I would no doubt feel quite uncomfortable being viewed with that ability of yours,” the girl said, laying some thinly veiled criticism on Amelia in a way that didn’t match her youthful appearance.

Before Amelia could even apologize, Crow lost his patience and threw the robot he’d been clutching at the girl. “Hurry up and break the bewitchment and then get lost, you filthy crone!”

Just when it looked like the crumpled heap of scrap might hit the girl directly in the face, another robot dashed in from behind her and caught the battered husk of its friend. The new robot looked an awful lot like the first one, so I could only assume the girl had created both of them.

“Hmph. Very well. As a reward for having bested my masterwork, the Rabbot Mk 11, I’ll do as you say.” The girl snapped her fingers, and Lia immediately fell to the ground like a ragdoll.

“Lia?!” cried Amelia, who was standing nearby and quickly scooped her up.

“Dinnae worry. She’s only sleepin’,” Amaryllis quickly determined.

I let out a sigh of relief before turning back to where the girl had been standing, only to find she was already gone, just as Crow had commanded. Something told me this wouldn’t be the last we saw of her, and judging by the intense scowl on Crow’s face, I wasn’t the only one thinking that.

 

The canopies overhead swayed in the breeze as we made our way through the now peaceful forest, encountering nary a monster. However, while the world around us was quiet, the same couldn’t be said of the people in our party.

“Crow, if you keep being all pissed off like this, you’re gonna end up getting one of us hurt, so could you knock it off?” I finally demanded. I couldn’t allow Crow to keep lashing out at the rest of us just because he had an unpleasant run-in with his mother.

As he shot me a death glare, I realized my words had only awakened the beast within—and all this after I’d decided to leave him alone until the right moment. I couldn’t take back my words, so I just had to roll with it. I psyched myself up and prepared to double down. The three girls, who were all setting up camp, stopped what they were doing to watch the two of us. I waved them off to indicate I had it under control, though I knew full well it probably looked like I had a death wish.

“And don’t even get me started on that fight just now,” I went on. “What the hell’s gotten into you?”

I knew what was causing Crow’s mood, but I couldn’t just leave the question unasked. For someone like Crow to let ordinary monsters take him from behind, forcing Amelia to jump in and rescue him (followed by a stern lecture) was unheard of. And now here he was, trying and failing to start a simple campfire, surrounded by mana stones reduced to mere rocks, the monster lives it had taken to create them wasted. It was beyond wasteful to see so many used on a simple task. To be honest, in his current state, Crow was nothing more than a burden on the rest of us. In spite of everything, it was somewhat of a relief to see a more vulnerable side of him.

I knew I was deliberately pouring more fuel on the fire of Crow’s rage, but, perhaps due to his age, he didn’t yell. He let his anger simmer down and die off, his expression uncomfortable. Seeing him with a half-embarrassed scowl on his face was certainly a sight to behold, and I couldn’t help but see a little bit of my elementary school self in him in that moment. Perhaps even more damning was that his tail, which had been twitching angrily, was hanging limp like that of a chastised dog.

“What exactly were you hoping your mom would say to you, anyway? Did you secretly want her to blow her top and go off on you for letting her die right before your eyes?” I felt like I was lecturing a kid.

Crow shook his head, though, and then gasped as if a sudden realization had hit him. “No, it’s not that. I just…” Crow began, but then fell silent.

I let out a sigh and then pulled out a tiny mana stone from an inner pocket. “Well, if you say so, I guess. Just be sure to keep up your end of the deal before you do anything stupid, all right?”

I ignited the mana stone and tossed it onto the pile of dry logs in front of Crow. Within seconds, they’d caught fire. It seemed expressing my grievances had paid off, as Crow quickly shifted from an annoyed ball of anger back to his old, condescending self. Amelia was quick to declare that she liked this version of Crow much better, which made me laugh, but then Lia started nodding in agreement. Apparently, this was the first time she’d ever seen Crow lose himself, and it was genuinely bewildering for her.

Meanwhile, Amaryllis, who knew Crow the least, simply cocked her head in confusion as to what we were all going on about and then returned to her concoctions. She’d been making potions every time we took a rest along the trail, though I had no idea what for.

Not long after, we continued on, with Crow silently leading the pack once again. We soon came to a recently abandoned campsite that could only have been made by the hero’s party.

“Are they all still alive, do you think?” asked Amelia as she looked at the extinguished fire, obviously concerned for the classmates she’d befriended.

I scanned the area and then thought it over before nodding. “Obviously, I can only make an educated guess, but it looks like some sort of food spilled all over the ground here, and that looks like their sleeping area right over there. I’d say they were attacked by monsters as they were sitting down to eat. Based on the amount of food spilled and the number of sleeping spaces here, I think it’s safe to say they were all alive before the monsters attacked, at least. Looks like they dropped some belongings along the way, and they didn’t cover their tracks either, so we could chase after them if we wanted to.”

There was no telling how they might have fared against the monsters, but it appeared they had left behind just about everything aside from their weapons as they fled. We decided to pick up anything that might be of use. The hero, Kyousuke, Gilles, Hosoyama, Ueno, Waki, Tsuda, Nanase… Yup, they were all here.

“…Man, they sure managed to forage an awful lot of food from around these parts,” I mumbled, looking at the spilled remnants of their meal. The meat must have come from whatever monsters they faced along the trail, but someone in the party obviously had been able to tell poisonous fruit and plants from good ones: I was pretty certain Gilles didn’t have those kinds of wilderness survival skills.

“Twasn’t a dangerous fruit or herb in the bunch. Must’ve had someone with Appraisal or Poison Tester or some such skill. Kept all the poisonous ones neat and tidy o’er here,” noted Amaryllis as she examined the site, then pointed to a veritable mountain of picked weeds on the other side of the campsite. I couldn’t recall any of my classmates having a skill of that nature before, so it had to be something one of them had learned only recently.

“I hope we catch up with them soon…” Lia said wistfully, as she looked down at the scarred ground where some sort of skirmish must have taken place.

As she spoke, I realized that I felt the same way. My breath caught in my throat as I discovered I was much more worried about the hero’s party than I ever would have thought. I was even starting to remember their names after years of not caring.

“The monsters get fiercer the closer you get to the demons’ domain,” said Crow. “Feel free to hold out hope, but expect the worst.”

His icy words rang through my ears for a while after that.

 

“There it is. Right over there,” said Crow, after coming to a sudden stop and pointing a short distance away.

Off in the distance, among the trees, was a grand, three-story building that looked only a few decades old. Its outer walls were painted green to blend into the forest, with bits of white here and there that made it look classy. If Crow hadn’t pointed it out, I might not have even noticed it. I’d been anticipating the safe house to be an older and more dilapidated building, so I was pleasantly surprised to say the least.

“…Is something the matter, Lord Crow?” asked Lia with concern after Crow remained fixed to the spot, still pointing at the building, for a bit too long.

Upon further inspection, I realized Crow’s scowl was not focused on the safe house itself but on the area around it. His expression turned more grim as he scanned the trees and ground nearby. I tried to sense any potential ambushes, but there were no monster presences in the immediate area, so I had no idea what was making Crow so hesitant. The only possibility I could come up with was his mother, but she shouldn’t have been living in the safe house. Regardless, I had a bad feeling about this.

“Uh, Crow?” I said, waving a hand in front of his face. He grabbed my hand in a crushing grip and shoved it firmly away. Well, at least he’s mentally all there. Can’t have him daydreaming in the middle of a forest inhabited by deadly monsters.

“…It’s nothing. Let’s go.”

From his tone, it was obvious it was definitely something, and if he really wanted us to believe otherwise, he needed to seriously work on his poker face. He’d always been a man of few words, though, and he was starting to fall into old patterns, which was irksome, to say the least.

“What should we do, Akira?” Amelia whispered, having also noticed Crow’s odd behavior.

“Not much we can do.” I shrugged. “Not like he’d give me a straight answer even if I asked, y’know?”

I followed Crow, who was walking up to the safe house at a brisk pace and without a hint of caution. If he was the sort of guy who opened up to people when they tried to have a discussion with him, maybe he wouldn’t have such awkward relationships with his mother and Lia. Instead, his personality held him back from living a truly fulfilling life.

 

“…Guess we’re finally ’ere, eh?” said Amaryllis, her face blank.

We were now close enough to the safe house to see the entire building unobstructed, and the wear and tear was much more noticeable up close. The outer walls were covered in ivy—time had certainly taken its toll on the building, and it looked almost like your typical haunted house.

“Akira?! You guys all made it?!”

Hearing my name, I looked up and saw the hero peering down at me from a second-floor window. A wave of genuine relief washed over me as I raised a hand to greet my classmate. “Yeah. No losses on your end either, I hope?” I asked.

“Well, not exactly, but uh…” He faltered, and my heart dropped. “Anyway, I’ll be right down! …It’ll be quicker to just let you see for yourself.”

My mind raced over what bad news he might have to share as I waited for him to come down, but when the large doors finally opened, it wasn’t the hero who greeted me.

“Hey, guys! Glad to see you made it. You must be exhausted,” said Nanase, who checked to make sure we were all accounted for as he welcomed us with a smile.

“Yeah, glad you guys made it too,” I replied. “…Er, is something wrong?”

I noticed his face had matured an awful lot since the last time I saw him, as he now looked like a man who’d stared death in the face and lived to tell the tale. However, there were also signs of great weariness and emaciation, as though he might keel over and die at any moment. I assumed it was less that he was starving and more that he was deeply exhausted.

“Well, uh… I think you’d better just see for yourself,” said Nanase, echoing the hero’s sentiment as he hobbled out and around to the back of the building. Soon, the hero came outside as well, and we all followed Nanase.

“Oh, come now! Is that truly all you worthless fools have got?!”

“Kgh… Graaagh?!”

There was a loud crash, and then the earth quaked beneath my feet. Not long after, someone flew through the air. I recognized the high-pitched taunts—it was the very same voice that had put Crow in such a sour mood.

“What the hell are you doing here…?” Crow growled in a low and husky voice.

The little girl, having just sent an armed Kyousuke flying with her bare hands, finally turned to face us as though she’d only just noticed we were there. “Ah, why, hello there, my son,” she said. “I was just teaching the current generation of heroes a thing or two. If you’d like, I’d be happy to take this old building off your hands as payment for my educational services.”

Her eerie smile, and the fact that she hadn’t answered his question, suggested she perhaps didn’t realize Crow’s animosity toward her. She turned to us. “Oh, where are my manners? I haven’t introduced myself yet, have I? My name is Noa, and I’m your friend Crow’s dear old mother. Do try to get along with him, won’t you?”

With her long pigtails and borderline-gothic Lolita garb, she was indeed the same girl we’d met in the forest who’d bewitched Lia—though she looked far more like Crow’s little sister than his mother. As we stood there dumbfounded, Nanase and the hero dragged Kyousuke’s unconscious body back into the house. From the efficiency of their actions, I could tell they’d already been through this process several times and were beginning to feel pretty worn out. Now I understood why they seemed so relieved to see us.

“Now then. I think that’s more than enough introductions. If you wish to enter the land of the demons, you’ll need to make it through me first!” said Noa with an evil smirk that matched the classic supervillain line she’d just uttered.

It seemed our personal version of hell was only just beginning.

 

POV: SATOU TSUKASA

 

REWIND TO BEFORE Akira’s group found our abandoned campsite.

I awoke in an unfamiliar room but tried my best to calmly regain my bearings. I remembered we’d been attacked by a robot as we were getting ready to eat lunch. After a truly arduous battle, I unlocked a new skill called Limit Break, which allowed us to eke out a victory before the robot regenerated and reassembled itself. At that point, we were in deep trouble, until the robot’s creator—a little girl—showed up.

Beyond that point, however, I couldn’t remember. I assumed I’d fainted from my battle wounds combined with fatigue and hunger, but I had no idea where I’d ended up. It was a clean white bedroom, simply furnished with only the bed I was lying on, a desk, and a chair; there was no sign of anyone actually living in it, at least not recently. Perhaps it was some sort of guest room. After camping outdoors for the last good while, it felt like I hadn’t slept in a real bed with four walls and a roof around me in quite some time. The only building I imagined would be in the forest was the safe house, and, perhaps as a result of the relief I felt, or maybe because of my injuries, I fell back into a deep slumber.

 

“…y…ke up…! Can’t you hear me, boy?! Get up!”

The next time I opened my eyes, the light of the setting sun was shining warmly into the room. It felt uncannily like twilight back home. Aside from the ear-piercing voice trying to wake me up, of course.

“Hmph. Finally decided to wake up, I see,” the girl said, with a holier-than-thou intonation that reminded me a little bit of Akira’s black cat familiar.

“…And you are? Where am I, for that matter?” I asked as I tried to kick my mind into gear. Tired or no, there were certainly potential dangers associated with waking up in a strange room with a strange girl in gothic Lolita clothes.

As I reached for the sword lying at my bedside, the girl narrowed her eyes. “Did you already forget who I am? And to think I was kind enough to save your life. Though, for the record, my Rabbot Mk 11 would never have attacked if you hadn’t waltzed obliviously through the traps I set along my security perimeter. Some heroes you are.”

I could only sit there with my mouth agape. The nerve of this girl… I’d never met anyone like her in my life. Despite her refusal to answer my question, I did finally manage to remember who she was. She was the designer of the irritating robot we’d fought yesterday. I’d been rapidly losing consciousness when she showed up though, so the lapse wasn’t surprising. Her striking black hair and eyes reminded me of someone I’d met recently…

In any case, I relaxed a bit upon realizing she was not my enemy. Then, as if to signify my relief, my stomach let out a loud, unabashed growl, and my face turned beet red.

The girl, watching me blush over such a thing, simply sighed. “My, what a vocal gut you have, you slovenly oaf… Well, so be it. One of the main reasons I dragged you here was to get a good meal down your gullet, after all.”

I was just about to give her a piece of my mind, but then a bad feeling came over me and I stopped myself short. Something told me it wouldn’t serve me well to get on this girl’s bad side. I followed her out of the room and saw the rest of the building’s interior was just as clean as the bedroom.

“So where are the others?” I asked, fearing for the fates of my companions. I could sense there were some people on the floor below us, but I couldn’t tell if they were my classmates or not.

The girl simply snorted. “Well, you’re the only one who’s been out cold for two days straight, fool. The others are all downstairs preparing food for everyone—something you’ll need to help out with starting tomorrow as well.”

I didn’t know what made her think she had the right to dole out orders, but I decided to trust my gut feeling and not talk back to her, so I only nodded. Have I really been asleep for two whole days? No wonder I’m starving.

“Oh, hey! Satou, you’re awake!” said Waki as the girl led me downstairs.

“Mornin’, Tsukasa!” Ueno said with a smile.

“About time,” Asahina sighed.

They all stopped what they were doing to greet me, and my mood brightened. Soon, the others walked in from the next room over.

“Did I hear Tsukasa’s up and at ’em?” asked Hosoyama.

“Oh, good morning!” said Tsuda politely.

“’Sup, bud!” said Nanase.

“Good to see you awake. How are you feeling?” Gilles asked.

It looked like everyone was accounted for, thankfully.

“Yes, yes! Enough lollygagging! Get back to work!!!” the little girl barked. The fear on my teammates’ faces was palpable, and they all scurried off to carry out their assigned tasks like little worker bees. I wondered what she could have done to make them so afraid of her. And who exactly was she, anyhow? Her childlike appearance and crotchety, elderly personality didn’t mesh whatsoever.

“Hey, is there anything I can help you with?” I asked Hosoyama as she pulled some tableware down from a shelf, purely because she was the one closest to me.

She shuddered a bit and then shook her head; she seemed uncomfortable. “N-nope, I got this! You just focus on getting some rest, okay? You need it, so try to take it easy, at least for the next day or so.”

Well, who was I to tell a healer no? And I was still feeling a little achy, so maybe it would be best to just focus on helping fetch lightweight things and carry them around tonight.

 

“Now then. I suppose it’s about time I explained to you all what you’ll be doing next, wouldn’t you say?”

As we sat there enjoying our simple dinner of bread, soup, and salad (which, admittedly, felt practically luxurious in the middle of the forest), the little girl clapped her hands together and addressed the group. I felt compelled to ask some questions of my own. Where the hell did you get these vegetables and this bread? And who the hell are you, anyway?!

“…Not to be rude, but I think you’d best introduce yourself to these kids before anything else,” suggested Gilles, raising his hand. The way he said “these kids” and not “us” told me Gilles already knew who she was.

“Yeah, no kiddin’. We ain’t even know what the heck to call ya,” grumbled Ueno.

“I know, right?” Waki whispered. “We only came here ’cause that robot dragged Satou off without anyone’s consent… Next thing we knew, she was forcing us to do chores and shit and telling us we had to earn our keep.”

Interesting. So the others were already well acquainted with the girl’s strong-arming. I was honestly impressed that they’d managed to go along with a stranger’s orders for two whole days while waiting for me to wake up.

“Ah, right. I suppose I haven’t introduced myself yet, have I? You can call me Noa. I’m the mother of your blacksmith friend Crow, as it so happens,” she said, and we all froze, shocked by the massive bomb she just dropped. “For as long as you’re all here, I intend to work you to the bone, so you best ready for that.”

I watched Gilles’s face turn deathly pale under her devilish grin.

“To start off, we need to figure out what you each need to work on. Open your stat pages,” said Noa shortly after introducing herself. There were plenty of other questions I wanted to ask her about Crow and whatnot, but she silenced them all. She was not taking questions at this time, apparently.

“Display Status!” I chanted for the first time in quite a while, and my stat table appeared in the air before me, visible to me and me alone.

 

TSUKASA SATOU

RACE: Human CLASS: Hero (Lv. 78)

HP: 2150/3200 MP: 4685/5600

ATTACK: 9700 DEFENSE: 8000

SKILLS:

Mathematics (Lv. 7) Mesmerize (Lv. 8)

Martial Arts (Lv. 7) Swordsmanship (Lv. 7)

Elemental Magic (Lv. 5) Intimidate (Lv. 6)

Roar (Lv. 5) Scout (Lv. 4)

Detect Danger (Lv. 5) Herculean Strength (Lv. 5)

Adaptation (Lv. 1) Fleet Feet (Lv. 1)

Harden (Lv. 1)

EXTRA SKILLS:

Understand Languages Holy Sword (Lv. 2)Limit Break

 

When I saw my stats, I was genuinely taken aback. But then I realized I hadn’t checked them once since we left the nation of Yamato. So not only were my skills all higher levels, but I’d even learned a few new skills without even realizing it. Some of these were still at Level 1 because I didn’t even know I had them, but others like Detect Danger and Scout had already gone up a few levels. Then again, I had noticed I was having an easier time detecting monsters’ presences lately—but I thought that was just a sign I was used to combat and travel in this world. Though I wondered why Mesmerize was still my highest level skill, even when I hadn’t used it once.

I looked around at my companions, who were all viewing their respective stat pages and seemed equally surprised. They all must have leveled up quite a bit too.

“All done? Then let’s head out back,” said Noa, pointing to the back door.

I still couldn’t shake the feeling that she was keeping things from us, and she sounded like she was about to beat us up. If this were Crow saying all of this, I’d probably want to call the police ASAP… Not to mention, I could tell the others were equally confused by the lack of a proper explanation. I could almost see the question marks floating over their heads.

“Wh-what are you going to do with them?” asked Gilles, much to my relief, since it felt like anything us kids said to her would be met with ferocious backlash.

Maybe it was just my imagination, but I’d prefer to let sleeping dogs lie if at all possible. Like mother like son, she and Crow both gave off a foreboding aura that seemed to say “don’t even think about it.” It made me wonder what we’d done to get on her bad side.

“Why, I’m simply going to make punching bags out of them, that’s all,” Noa replied. “Because this latest generation of heroes seems pretty frail. If they can’t even take a few hits from my Rabbot Mk 11, I don’t know how they’re going to manage to fulfill their duty.”

Punching bags? If she was saying what I thought she was saying, then we might be in grave danger. I could see the corners of Gilles’s mouth twitch out of the corner of my eye. Wait a minute—did they have punching bags in this world? Sometimes I had to wonder if the translations I got with my Understand Languages skill were literal or just approximations meant to make things more understandable.

That said, I had a hard time believing this shrimpy little girl was really planning to fight us all herself, so I assumed her intention was to have us spar with her robot. I genuinely wanted to tear that thing limb from limb, but once we got out back, the robot was nowhere to be found. And after we put on all our equipment, it was Noa that curled her index finger tauntingly as if to say, “Try me. I dare you.”

“Wait. We’re going to be fighting you?” I asked without thinking, and she immediately stared daggers back at me. Crap. I think I just dug my own grave.

“Yes, that’s right. Do you have a problem with that?” she asked sweetly and with a smile. How could anyone look at her and think she was a suitable opponent? Did she even know how to fight?

“Does she really think she stands a chance?” whispered Nanase.

“I mean, even if she does, it feels pretty cowardly for us, with all our weapons, to gang up on a single unarmed little girl, y’know?” Tsuda whispered back.

Overhearing this exchange, Gilles opened his mouth as if to say something, but he was too late. A moment later, the duo of doubters was sent soaring into the air before crashing into a big tree.

“…Huh?” I gaped.

Right where the two of them had been standing was Noa, her fist clenched and thrust high into the sky. The rest of us looked on in confused horror, while Gilles simply gazed up at the sky.

“Sorry, did you think I was just a weak little girl? Remember this: in the land of demons, it’s the weak who die first! Never judge another solely by appearances,” stated Noa with a stern expression. The rest of us, understandably, raised our weapons to defend ourselves. A moment later, I was out cold.

 

THWACK, CRACK, CRUNCH!!!

After a few sounds I was fairly sure bones weren’t supposed to make, I watched as another of my friends went careening into the blue sky. It was like something straight out of an anime. Meanwhile, my thoughts wandered as I tried to ignore the carnage playing out in front of me. Wow, what nice weather we’re having today. Perfect for drying laundry on the clothesline…

“Come on! Is that all you’ve got?! Next!”

If it had been the overpowered robot sending people flying with single punches, I maybe could have understood it, but instead, it was a tiny girl in gothic Lolita clothes whose true age was yet unknown. And to make matters worse, we were all armed to the teeth with our usual equipment, while she was using only her fists.

“Is that all you’ve got, you so-called hero?!”

She drove her tiny fist into my abdomen, and my feet were swept off the ground. If someone told me she was the Demon Lord, I might have even believed them. My back crashed into a faraway tree, and I was knocked out cold for the fifth day in a row.

 

A few days had passed since then, and I was just awakening from being knocked out again when Akira arrived at the house,

to my genuine relief, not just because I was glad to know he and his companions had made it safely through the forest, but because it meant we’d have a few more worthy fighters on our side who might stand a chance against Noa. We hadn’t been able to block or dodge a single one of her attacks thus far, but Akira might be able to, and I was itching to have someone put that little girl in her place!

 

POV: ODA AKIRA

 

“SERIOUSLY, what the hell have I gotten myself into?” I muttered as I tried my best to dodge the fists flying inches from my face. By all rights, I should have been fast asleep in a nice warm bed, giving my body the time it needed to recover from traipsing through the forest. Instead, I was out behind the safe house, trying to dodge Noa’s fists of fury. I wanted to scream: “Can’t a guy get a friggin’ break?!” All these sudden and unexpected developments were really starting to take their toll.

We’d arrived at the house, and then after a quick one-sided introduction, we were under attack by tiny fists. Fists that, despite looking dainty and petite, had just sent Kyousuke soaring through the air; if it wasn’t for all my combat experience, I probably would have been right behind him. Thankfully, her punch missed its mark, but the sheer force of the momentum from the follow-through still tore the earth asunder. As I looked down at the gaping hole her fist had drilled into the ground, I grimaced. I wasn’t one to talk, but it seemed pretty unbelievable that a mere

human could possess such unfathomable strength. Noa, meanwhile, seemed rather impressed with how easily I’d dodged her blow, as her eyes went wide.

“Well, well… You seem to have far more potential than the so-called hero. Color me intrigued,” she said, licking her lips with delight.

A chill ran down my spine. I could feel her aura changing: my Detect Danger skill set alarm bells ringing in my head. A gut feeling told me that I should duck (which I did), and within a split second. Noa had whirled around behind me. I felt her fist fly right over my head, taking off a few of my hairs in the process. There was a sound like the wind being torn like paper, and I gulped. Was it just me, or was this girl actually trying to kill me? One hit like that, and I’d be done for.

“Hey, old hag! You tryin’ to kill him or what?!” Crow yelled as he dashed over from the sidelines.

“Trying to kill him?” Noa replied, raising her eyebrows. “Oh, son of mine, you do ask some silly questions from time to time. Of course I’m trying to kill him!”

I could feel a deep malice beginning to emanate from her tiny body, and I started quivering. Something told me Noa might be far more powerful than even Crow or myself. Perhaps no one here today could stand a chance against her. Behind me, someone gulped audibly.

“If I weren’t, we’d just have a repeat of the last generation’s hero’s sorry display,” she went on. “Surely you haven’t forgotten? For all your gallivanting and all your training to be the strongest team in the world, the demons still wiped out everyone in your party aside from you and the hero well before you even met the Demon Lord. And you called yourselves heroes? Did you forget what you went to the land of demons to do?!”

As Noa continued to berate her son, her focus remained fixed on attacking me. I bent backward, just barely managing to avoid one swipe that nearly grazed my nose.

“That’s what I’m here for!” she proclaimed. “You’ve all done well to make it this far, but if you can’t even beat an old woman like me without struggling, I wouldn’t dare let you go any further than this. If you think I’m going to let those demons kill yet another group of ignorant youngsters, you’re dead wrong.”

The fierce determination in her eyes made the resemblance between her and Crow all the clearer; it was exactly what I’d seen in her son’s eyes the night he asked me to kill Gram. Still, the way she’d called us ignorant youngsters didn’t sit well with me, so for the first time since this conversation-slash-sparring-match had begun, I reached out and caught one of her punches. She gasped, and her attention was entirely focused on me.

“I don’t care if you’re Crow’s mother,” I said. “You need to stop running your mouth because you don’t know the first thing about us.”

We had our own reasons for being on this quest, and our own set of circumstances. Whether we were on the right path, I couldn’t say. And I also couldn’t begin to guess whether our levels, high as they were, would be a match for the Demon Lord. Meeting Mahiro had made me wonder if his magic circles could be the key to making it back home, but that wasn’t a sure thing either. Heck, even if we made it back to our world safe and sound, it was possible time moved at a different rate here, and we’d return to Earth well into the future. Also, and only tangentially related, I had yet to find out what the Level 100 “Special Skill” Commander Saran told me about was.

The more I thought about things, the less I felt I knew. It was possible we weren’t on the shortest path to our ultimate destination, but all we could do was try to find our way through the dark and keep pushing forward.

“You guys can bicker about the previous generations all you want,” I said, “but me and my teammates have to keep going. If we’re not strong enough now, we’ll just keep working on it as we go. I appreciate your concern, but it’s really not necessary.”

While we were here, spinning our tires, my mom’s health could be deteriorating. I didn’t want to make it home only to find out that my family was gone.

In any event, having said my piece, I let go of Noa’s tiny fist.

“Okay, guys! Food’s ready!” Hosoyama called out from inside the building.

Oh yeah, I was wondering where the others who weren’t sparring had run off to. Guess they were inside making lunch. I couldn’t believe it was already past noon, but my stomach was certainly ready for some grub.

“Anyway,” I said to Noa, “it seems like you’ve got the wrong idea, so let me clarify: me and my friends? All we’re looking for is a way back to our world. Going to the demon continent is just a stepping stone toward that goal. Maybe we’ll end up fighting the demons, or maybe we’ll find some sort of middle ground. Who knows?”

If we get through this without any fighting, that’d be swell, but I knew that was a naive hope. I thought back to when we’d first met the Demon Lord’s cat servant, and it attacked us in dragon form—it wasn’t likely whoever gave orders like those wouldn’t cooperate.

“Sorry if you’re offended, but we’re already short enough on time as it is. And it’s not just us—your son is too,” I said with finality.

Noa’s eyes widened as she realized what I was implying. I could tell from the way he’d fought on our way here—Crow didn’t have much time left.

 

POV: NOA

 

AS I WATCHED THE BOY garbed in black walk back into the safe house, Gilles walked past me, so I stopped him in order to ask the question plaguing my mind. “What is that boy, Gilles?”

I’d known Gilles since he’d lost his mother thanks to my no-good son. At the time, he and I had stood at about the same height. He had long since surpassed me, and his youth was beginning to wane. As a boy, he was a foul-mouthed little brat, but he’d matured a lot. For one who’d lived as long as me, the years and months had passed in the blink of an eye, yet it still moved me to see just how much he’d grown.

“Who do you mean?” asked Gilles, cocking his head.

I pointed at the boy with my chin; a powerful determination lived in him. No mere boy of ten or twenty could have lived a life that would result in such deep-seated resolve, but the way he spoke told me that he was wise beyond his years.

“Ah, yes. Well…I’m not sure I can tell you. The only thing I can say is that Commander Saran took a special interest in him, and as you surmised, he is indeed far stronger than any of us here—the hero Satou included.”

I marveled to hear Gilles speak frankly and traced my lips with my forefinger. Gilles recoiled a bit. To be sure, the boy was the only one deft enough to dodge my attacks, and he had arrived several days after the other heroes. Yet he’d done it very naturally and without a hint of malice. If Saran Mithray truly had singled him out from the other summoned heroes, then there must be something special about him.

“There aren’t many who receive the great Saran Mithray’s blessing…”

There must have been something of value in the boy. Maybe he really would be able to succeed where the previous generation had failed. I watched as his black silhouette disappeared into the building; as he stepped through the door, his black eyes caught mine for a split second.

Once he was completely out of sight, I turned to face Gilles. “…So tell me, Gilles. How much longer does that son of mine have?”

It wasn’t until the boy had brought it up that I’d even begun to think about my son’s life coming to an end. But he was right—the son I knew would have stepped in and stopped me from beating his companions to a pulp. Even if he was confident in their abilities, he was never one to risk his friends coming to unnecessary harm. That was just the type of person my son was. And yet, despite raising his voice at me, he hadn’t even attempted to step in and stop me earlier. Or perhaps he wanted to but simply couldn’t. At his age, his body probably didn’t work like it used to.

Good grief. To think I couldn’t even notice such a distinct change in my own son’s behavior. I was starting to feel like a senile old woman, in spite of my immortality.

“…If I had to guess, I’d say another year, maybe? But that’s assuming he spends it largely at rest, without overexerting himself. If he keeps fighting like he has been lately, then, well…” Gilles trailed off, sounding almost on the verge of tears.

“…I see.”

I could only imagine what I must have looked like right then. First, my daughter died young, and now, my son (who I thought had gained immortality like me) was an old man approaching the end of his life. The longer I lived, the more of my loved ones I lost, yet it never got any easier.

“It seems I’m going to be left behind yet again…” I muttered softly.

Gilles must have heard, as he stirred uncomfortably. “I’m sorry you always have to go through these things.”

“I-It’s fine… Though it sounds like he and I should have a serious chat sooner rather than later, lest I come to regret it.”

I had many things I needed to speak to my son about. As a surviving member of the previous hero’s party, I knew he’d come back to this safe house one day, which was why I’d decided to move out here and make it my home base. Never would I have expected to be on such a short time limit.

“I think that’s probably for the best, yes,” said Gilles.

The only question was whether or not Crow would actually hear me out. Long gone were the days when he’d call me Mama and cling to my skirts. Though one would hope he’d grow out of his rebellious phase by the time he was on his deathbed.

 

“…May I help you with something?”

After an awkwardly silent lunch, during which I had no opportunity to speak with my son, I wanted to find someplace where I could be alone, so I headed out back. The sudden influx of people over the past few days had left me craving solitude. Figuring the heroes would not want to return to the scene of such carnage anytime soon, I was sure I’d be able to do some thinking alone out there, but it seemed someone else had beaten me to the spot.

It was the girl who’d fallen under the effects of my more powerful bewitchment. The other heroes had been affected by one that caused strife with their companions when they crossed into the forest, and the one she’d fallen under was a subliminal mental imprint that caused her to feel amplified anxiety regarding the person she trusted most—my son. He was the only one around whom she acted strangely. I never expected my son to have much luck with the ladies, given his attitude problems, yet it seemed this girl thought the best of him. I had been interested to see how my bewitchment might affect that, but my son had quickly put the kibosh on my experiment.

When I saw her standing there behind the house, she looked as though she had been waiting for me. It was an awkward situation, as the only one of my son’s acquaintances I knew was Gilles, and I had never seen this girl before meeting her in the forest.

“It’s a pleasure to meet you. My name is Lia, and I’m a former princess of Uruk.”

Her striking cobalt eyes were fixed on me as she curtseyed politely. I knew she had likely not lived an extended life span like my son, yet in some respects, she struck me as far more mature than him. Perhaps that was due to her royal upbringing. However, for whatever reason, hearing her name gave me pause. I recalled my son using her name when he demanded I lift the bewitchment, and though I hadn’t felt anything then, something about that name stuck out to me now.

“…What did you say your name was? Lia?”

“Yes. It was Lord Crow who gave me that name, actually.”

At this, my eyes widened. True, Lia was a fairly common name, yet it held a special significance in our family. I gasped in disbelief. “My son gave you that name?” I asked.

“Y-yes…? What about it?” she replied, tilting her head in confusion.

I shook my head. Judging from her reaction, she didn’t know the significance that name held. The son I knew would have never in a million years thought to name someone that just because they were the child of an honorable or wealthy family. No, there must have been something about this girl. But if he had not seen fit to tell her the name’s importance, then it was not my place to do so, and doing so would only make him resent me all the more. We already couldn’t hold a conversation without him being sarcastic and flippant.

“Oh, nothing. It’s just a fine name, that’s all. One that I wouldn’t think my son capable of coming up with.”

“Thank you. I really like it too.”

It seemed like she genuinely felt that way, so I couldn’t help but smile. I wondered if she felt the same way. “…But I digress. You look as though you have something you wish to say to me. Can I help you with something?” I asked.

If Crow had truly named her Lia, then that made her like something of a granddaughter to me. I couldn’t help but feel warmer and more accepting of her than I had been just a moment ago; it might even be enough to get me to open up about things I wouldn’t normally.

“Oh, yes. There are a lot of things I’d like to ask you, of course, but most importantly, I just want to know a bit more about Lord Crow.”

I nodded, having fully expected that. I’d already witnessed her obsession with my son—carefully watching his every move, trying to anticipate his needs and be of help to him whenever possible, and even bringing his food to him in addition to serving herself. This had seemed odd to me at first, but it must have been their normal rapport, given how the boy in black and his companions didn’t seem to find this behavior unusual. My son, too, seemed to just accept it as the norm. Perhaps I had imagined he was digging a figurative moat around himself to keep others out.

“I hope this doesn’t come across as too forward or disrespectful, but I was wondering how you feel about Crow’s deceased sister after all these years? Your daughter, that is. Are you content to let her memory be worn away by time?”

“What? No, of course not!” I responded instantly, showing far more emotion than I normally would have—but I couldn’t help myself. “I assume you’ve never given birth before, so you probably can’t relate to this, but every parent loves the children of their own flesh and blood—even if that child grows up to be a murderer or a seeker of world domination. Even if she was a disobedient child who had the gall to go and die before me, that changes nothing. She is still my beloved daughter.”

Lia smiled, pleased with this assertion. “Okay, then what about Crow? If the circumstances were flipped and he’d been the one to die instead of her, would you just forget about him and move on?”

“Absolutely not!” I replied without hesitation. Even if I was a little loath to admit it, I couldn’t lie. My maternal instincts simply wouldn’t let me. “I treasure my kids to this day—my son and daughter both. They’re both their father’s children, as well as my own. Nothing will ever change that.”

I could badmouth him all I liked, but in my heart, my love would always remain the same. I loved my children, and that was all there was to it. After losing their father, and my daughter, the only misery I had left to experience in this world was losing my son to old age. Lia, upon hearing this answer, sighed like a disappointed parent.

“Well, I know your family’s business is none of mine, but if that’s the case, then you and your son have some serious communication problems you need to work on. I’ll have you know that Lord Crow was a nervous wreck from the moment we ran into you in the woods until we made it here.”

Apparently, my son’s mental state was giving Lia an awful lot of stress. As she told it, he was even oblivious to monsters creeping up on him from behind, forcing his pupil to rush to his aid. She also mentioned how he struggled for well over an hour and wasted countless mana stones trying to start a simple fire. It was at that point I stopped her from saying any more. I had no idea that merely bumping into me would turn my son into a useless mess, though the fact that he was still taking on pupils at this age did surprise me.

“Do you know what Lord Crow said to me the other day? He said that was the first time he’d seen you since he and his sister ran away from home, and you still didn’t say a word about her. But judging from the fact that you clearly kept in contact with Lord Gilles, it’s not as if you haven’t been concerned about Lord Crow all these years, is it?”

Despite the shaky foundation for her logic, she had a point. However, I was never one who knew how to say the right thing at the right time. While I was busy trying to keep a close eye on his sister, Crow had gone off and nearly gotten himself killed at the Demon Lord’s castle. Then, the moment I started trying to keep a closer eye on him, his sister perished.

“As one who can’t die, I’ve always had all the time in the world. While that might sound like fun for a while, it also means I’ve had to stand idly by and watch as my family lived out their lives, from start to finish.”

And no matter how much I claimed to love them deep down, that didn’t change the fact that I was a crotchety old woman who only knew how to complain and criticize. Even here, alone with Lia in a private place, I couldn’t bring myself to say the things I truly wished I could tell my son. But Lia couldn’t know that, so she simply looked down on me and shook her head as though she were dealing with a stubborn child. She was probably thinking that I was just too proud to admit my feelings, even when Crow wasn’t around. And to that I would say: it’s none of your business. Still, I wasn’t going to just take something like this on the chin, so I decided I’d try to get a little payback.

“You’re in love with him, aren’t you?” I asked with a wry smirk.

“P-pardon?! No, of course not! A young girl like me could never fall for someone like him! It would be completely improper!” So she claimed, yet her beet-red cheeks and squeaky voice failed to convince, and she quickly fled the scene.

My, my, that was an even better reaction than I was hoping for. I was hoping to put the screws to her a little more, actually, but, ah well.

I headed back inside, feeling a little bit better for having spoken with her. Perhaps a girl like her was just the type of person who could rein that son of mine in. I headed back to my room, failing to notice the tail poking out from behind a nearby tree—a tail the exact same color as my hair.