CHAPTER 50

Another

“Seiya defeated the Demon Lord?!”

I find myself taken aback by Mirei’s claim.

Wh-what is she talking about?! A year ago, Seiya lost to the Demon Lord, which is why Ixphoria was destroyed! It’s why we’re back here now!

But Mirei wears a puzzled expression as well.

“I totally thought that Seiya had finally come back with the dirt Kurio asked for. Is that not why you’re here?”

“‘Kurio’? ‘Dirt’?”

“Kurio is my son. My husband, Glesden, runs an inn in town, and when Seiya traveled here from Termine and stayed with us a few weeks ago, Kurio asked him if he could bring back some dirt from Rhadral, since you can make some really high-quality clay by mixing it with the dirt here.”

“Uh…”

I have no idea what Mirei’s talking about. They asked Seiya to pick up some dirt? Seiya’s been traveling with me the entire time we’ve been in Ixphoria. Her story doesn’t add up.

Could there be something wrong with her? Just when I start wondering this to myself, Seiya grabs me by the neck and jerks me away from Mirei.

“Gwah?! What the hell?!”

“Rista, see if you can open a gate.”

“Now?! Why?!”

“Just do it.”

I reluctantly cast the spell, create a gate, and open it…only to find a white wall on the other side!

A—a spell stone’s preventing us from leaving!!

Seiya nods gravely.

“Hmph. This confirms that the town is already under the Death Emperor’s rule.”

“Wait. Does that mean the people living here are…?!”

A chill travels up my spine as I look at Mirei and the bustling townspeople behind her. A-and they call him the Death Emperor… Does that mean everyone in this town is…dead?! I shudder. Seiya, on the other hand, is wearing an annoyed frown.

“Unbelievable. We walked right into the enemy’s lair. I had sent earth serpents out to patrol Fulwahna’s perimeter, but apparently, they didn’t deem it necessary to report anything to me because they didn’t find any monsters. I’m going to need to make some adjustments so they’ll notify me the moment they detect something even slightly odd.”

“I—I don’t think anyone could have prevented this from happening.”

While Seiya regrets entering the town of Fulwahna, Jonde and Kiriko survey the area.

“This is strange. It’s hard to believe that such a peaceful town currently exists in Ixphoria.”

“There were so many ghosts and skeletons outside, too, but this town is fine for some reason…”

Seiya quietly nods.

“It doesn’t matter that these people are strange. What matters is why. A town where the dead gather, an illusion, monsters that transformed into humans, clay dolls—there are too many possibilities. I’m just going to have to investigate every possibility one by one.”

“But how?”

Seiya takes a pair of hemp gloves out of his pocket as he approaches Mirei, then puts them on. She seems puzzled at first, but without warning, Seiya reaches for her chest and rips open her shirt! Mirei’s exposed, ample bosom bounces free.

“S-Seiya?!”

He sends me a contemptuous glare, then begins groping Mirei’s body: her chest, her hips, and even her hands and legs! Her cheeks redden.

“Unf! Seiya?! Y-you’re making me—a-ahn!”

“Seiya?! What the hell are you doing?! I-I-I’m so sorry, Mirei!”

But Mirei appears to be exhilarated, even.

“No, it’s okay. It’s…very okay. My husband doesn’t touch me like this anymore…”

“Mirei?! Don’t tell me—are you turned on right now?!”

The married mother doesn’t seem angry in the slightest. In fact, she seems pretty excited.

What the…?! So you can just molest whoever you want if you’re good-looking?! If Jonde tried something like that, he would’ve been arrested in record time!

As I lament how unfair the world is, Seiya moves away from Mirei and mutters to himself:

“She didn’t react to my holy-water-infused gloves. There wasn’t anything out of the ordinary when I used Scan on her, either. It appears she’s neither ghoul nor ghost but a living human.”

Jonde narrows his eyes while observing the humans walking by.

“The others do not seem to be undead, either. I hate to admit it, but I can sense these things.”

I guess undead can sense the presence of other undead. Now that I think about it, my goddess senses aren’t picking up an evil aura from the townspeople, either. It doesn’t seem like they’re trying to trick us.

“What’s going on with this tow—huh…?”

I stop midsentence, taken aback after looking at Seiya. His sword is unsheathed, and he plunges it into the back of his own hand! The blade goes right through, and blood drips to the ground.

“Wh-what are you doing?!”

“Inflicting pain on myself. Nothing seems to have changed, though, which means this probably isn’t an illusion.”

He stabbed straight through his own hand to try and wake himself up just because he thought the enemy might have put him under a spell?!

“Well, it was highly unlikely that the enemy cast a spell on me without my knowledge, but I had to make sure. Rista, heal my hand.”

“Already on it!”

Ugh! How can someone so cautious do something so careless with a straight face?!

While I’m healing Seiya’s hand with my magic, he casually conjectures.

“In short, ‘the townspeople are alive but have been hypnotized or placed under some sort of spell’ seems to be the most plausible explanation at the moment.”

After I manage to close Seiya’s wound, he rubs some medicinal herbs over the back of his hand for good measure.

“At any rate, this place is suspicious. I’d like to leave, but—”

“But, Hero…! If what you say is true, that means the townspeople here are still alive, right?”

“Yeah! We need to protect them before the Death Emperor tries anything!”

Each of us stares at Seiya until he eventually lets out an exaggerated sigh.

“Fine. We’ll stay for the time being and gather information. Besides, going outside the city right now might not be such a good idea.”

“Huh…?”

Seiya looks up. The sky above Fulwahna is clear, but the clouds around the city are a dark, eerie shade. If anything, it feels like the outside world is far more ominous than anything inside the town.

“All right, let’s start investigating. Don’t let your guard down and do not leave my side.”

Seiya walks ahead. We start to follow him farther into town, but Mirei stops us.

“H-hey, our inn is right at the end of this street. As always, we won’t charge you, so…stop by later if you want.”

Just as one would expect from a town in the desert, the ground hasn’t been paved. Tents stand one after another on the sides of the street, each with numerous goods lined up on the ground like a bazaar.

“Hello, Hero!”

“Nice to see you, Hero!”

“Thank you for coming all the way from Termine to visit!”

The people of Fulwahna shower Seiya with friendly greetings as we pass. Unlike the usual glares of resentment we’ve been getting since we came to Ixphoria, everyone’s eyes are brimming with respect. They really are treating him as if he defeated the Demon Lord.

“What a rare sight! There’s a weapon shop!”

There is?

Jonde points at a tent. Lined up on the ground are swords shaped like sabers. This world is ruled by the Demon Lord, so we haven’t actually been able to buy weapons like this since we got here. Seiya curiously approaches the weapon shop, but after staring at them for a bit, he apathetically says:

“This is all junk.”

When I Appraise the weapons, I notice that not only are they unsurprisingly weaker than a killer sword, but they’re nowhere near as strong as a platinum sword, either.

“I figured as much. These are weapons sold by people being controlled by a monster. I bet they’re not even swords.”

“Huh? They look like normal swords to me.”

“I read a picture book long ago about a tanuki who deceived a traveler. Not only were the people in the town an illusion, but everything in the town was illusory as well. Whatever we buy here might turn into balls of mud later.”

“That’s actually a good point.”

While Seiya is usually too suspicious for his own good, I completely agree with him this time. There doesn’t seem to be anything at this weapon shop worth buying. Just as I’m about to walk away, though, I witness something unbelievable. Seiya has taken his money pouch out of his pocket and is now talking to the turban-wearing shopkeeper.

“I’ll take a hundred of these swords.”

“What the…?! So you are going to buy them?! What was all that about mud balls, then?!”

“While highly unlikely, I decided to buy a few on the off chance they don’t turn into mud balls.”

“Okay… But you still don’t need a hundred! What are you going to do if they all turn into mud?!”

“Even then, they could still come in handy down the line.”

The shopkeeper, who has been quietly listening the entire time, erupts in a rage.

“I ain’t sellin’ any mud balls!”

Anyway, after I’ve convinced Seiya not to buy a hundred but only ten mud balls—I mean swords—he decides to stop by the item shop’s tent next. Herbs that heal wounds, poison, and paralysis are lined up on the ground.

“Hey, you. Sly old man.”

“M-me?!”

“Yes, you. These are just ordinary, useless leaves, aren’t they?”

“How dare you! These are highly effective medicinal herbs!”

“Hmph. Yeah, I bet. At any rate, I’ll take all of them.”

Despite his complaints, Seiya ends up buying every last herb there.

“S-so, uh… It looks like you bought everything you could get your hands on…just like you always do!”

“It beats the potential regret of not doing so later.”

The sun gradually starts to set while we’re shopping. As we’re carrying loads of new items down the street, we see a large building at the end of it. It looks like a home made of mud, and it’s the biggest house we’ve seen here yet. That has to be the inn that Mirei runs with her husband. A young boy stands to the side of the building.

“Oh! Seiya!!”

He rushes over as soon as he notices us, then looks up at Seiya and beams with joy.

“You brought the dirt so I can make more pots, right?!”

“Who are you? I don’t carry dirt with me.”

“What?! Those aren’t bags of pottery material you’re carrying?!”

“They’re bags of assorted leaves.”

“Why are you carrying so many leaves around?!”

In the midst of the excitement, Mirei and another man come rushing out of the building. The honest-looking man, who seems to be in his forties, walks over to Seiya and lowers his head. This must be Mirei’s husband, Glesden.

“Kurio, stop that! I—I am deeply sorry, Seiya!”

“But Seiya didn’t bring me the materials he promised!”

“Kurio, Seiya has amnesia.”

“What?! But…!”

Kurio whines. It sounds like Mirei filled Glesden in on what happened. He wears a gentle smile and holds his hand out.

“You all must be exhausted, and it’s getting late. Please come this way. I’ve prepared the best room for you like always.”

Glesden tries to take us to the inn, but Seiya shakes his head.

“No thanks. What kind of idiot would willingly enter a monster’s den?”

“A what?!”

Seiya ignores the innkeeper—currently in shock after hearing his inn being referred to as a monster’s den—and walks to an open space.

“This should do.”

Seiya then places a hand on the ground, and the patch swells, transforming into an earthen dwelling just as remarkable as the inn.

“M-my god…!”

Seiya casts a scornful gaze at the stunned couple, then creates a few golems and earth serpents with his earth magic before positioning them around the structure. He then shoots a glare at Glesden.

“Glesden, was it? A bit of advice: Things won’t end well for you if you plan on attacking us while we’re sleeping. These monsters will not hesitate to crush you.”

“M-my dad would never do something like that!” Kurio yells before continuing, “Sigh… Seiya didn’t bring what I asked, and now he’s acting like a weirdo. This sucks.”

This time it’s Mirei who scolds Kurio.

“Kurio! He saved the world! Show some respect!”

“Is he even the real Seiya?! He looks scary, and he’s a jerk! It’s like he’s a completely different person!”

Kurio glares at Seiya, and Seiya glares at Kurio.

S-Seiya?! Stop trying to start a fight! He’s just a kid!

“He’s different. The Seiya I know is nothing like this.”

Kurio then turns away from the Hero. He looks down the street as a tinge of red illuminates his face. A shadowy figure approaches with its back to the evening sun. I squint until I can make out the face…causing my heart to skip a beat. Rather than armor, he wears the clothes of a nobleman bearing the crest of Termine, but his shiny black hair and gallant profile are one of a kind.

N-no way!! How is this even possible?!

Kurio merrily yells:

“See! I told you! There’s the real Seiya!!”

Another Seiya gently smiles as he walks toward us.