CH 5

Chapter 5: Fighting Together

There were still a few days until my meeting with Turgis’s head of state, so we were having Kuu show us around the nearby cities.

Going to unfamiliar places, seeing how the locals lived, and identifying the similarities and differences between them and our own people was fun. Whenever we found something new, we met the discoveries with excitement.

“Oh, what’s this?” I commented. “I’ve never seen this kind of fruit before.”

“Big Brother, they’re selling some weird animals over here!” Tomoe called. “They’re small and cute.”

“Let me see... Wait, Tomoe, doesn’t it say there that they’re for eating?”

“People eat them?!”

Tomoe and I looked around with great enthusiasm, while Juna and Roroa smiled.

Those easygoing days continued, but today was different.

Today, there were two days left before the meeting with the head of the republic.

It was still early in the morning, but Kuu rushed over to the room where we were staying. He was out of breath, and looked like he’d been in a hurry. Behind him was Leporina, looking just as winded.

“Hah... Hah... Ka-Kazuma...” he panted.

“What’s wrong?” I asked. “You’re totally out of breath.”

When I invited them into the room and asked Aisha to fetch some water, Kuu raised a hand to stop me, and tried to get his breathing under control as he said, “It’s fine... I don’t need water. Before that, I have a favor to ask.”

“A favor?”

“For now, can you get all of your people together in this room?”

Seeing a serious expression on Kuu that I’d never seen him make before, I gathered my traveling companions, despite some misgivings.

There were nine of us gathered in the four-person room: me, Aisha, Juna, Roroa, Tomoe, Hal, and Kaede, along with Kuu and Leporina. Having nine people made it awfully cramped, but he had said “everyone,” so there was no helping it.

“So, Kuuie. What’d ya have in mind, gatherin’ us all here?” Roroa asked suspiciously.

He was the son of their head of state, so I thought it was a bit much to be calling him Kuuie, but... given the tense situation, I decided to pretend I hadn’t heard it.

Kuu stood up and bowed his head to all of us. While we were all still taken aback by the suddenness of it, Kuu desperately said, “I’ll keep this brief! Please! Lend me your bodyguards!”

“P-Please do.” Leporina hurriedly stood up as well, and bowed her head like Kuu.

“I’m sorry to get foreigners caught up in this! But still!” he cried.

“Calm down, Kuu,” I said. “Just what happened?”

“Ah... R-Right.”

Kuu finally calmed himself. With a big, deep breath, he slapped his own cheeks, maybe as a way of psyching himself up.

“The thing is, a previously undiscovered dungeon has been confirmed to exist near a mountain village that’s around two hours north of here by carriage. It seems it was a rocky mountain, and when there was a landslide, the entrance to the dungeon appeared.”

A dungeon.

I was used to them being a thing in RPGs, but in this world, a dungeon was understood as a labyrinthine place with its own ecology. They were also the only place outside the Demon Lord’s Domain where monsters could be found. But the monsters found in such places all had intelligence on the level of wild beasts, and they were nothing like the sentient demons found in the Demon Lord’s Domain. There were a fair number of these dungeons on this continent.

This was what I knew about dungeons so far:

They came in a wide variety of types, and were inhabited by low-intelligence monsters.

The deepest point contained what was called a dungeon core.

For as long as the core existed, monsters would continue to appear, no matter how many were defeated.

If the core was destroyed, the monsters stopped appearing... and so on.

The connection between monsters and dungeon cores was still unknown.

However, the destroyed dungeon cores could be used as jewels for a Jewel Voice Broadcast.

In addition to the cores, there were also cases where other out-of-place artifacts and overtechnology could be found.

There were even groups that made it their life’s work to study the artifacts. The House of Maxwell, which Genia the “overscientist” belonged to, was one of them.

The existence of such artifacts had caused an insane amount of progress in this world’s technology.

In addition, there were adventurers like Dece and Juno who made their living exploring the dungeons, and nearby towns that profited off such adventurers gathering. With the various demands overlapping, dungeons were considered dangerous, but also potentially profitable.

Kuu told us, with a look on his face like he had bitten into something unpleasant, that one of those dungeons had been discovered just two days from here by carriage.

“Now, I’m sure there are things to be gained from a dungeon,” he said. “However, that’s something we can only discuss once the safety of the people in the villages near the entrance is secured. You never know what’s in a newly discovered dungeon, after all.”

“So, something came out, then?” I asked.

“Yeah. I hear ten ogres, or something like that, came out.”

Ogres or something like that, huh...

Ogres were oni. In Japanese mythology, oni were a symbolic representation of those who didn’t conform to the system, and were depicted as powerful and terrifying, but somehow tragic. However, in Western mythology, they were man-eating humanoid monsters, and were often barbarians or demi-humans. From what I was hearing, these ogres sounded like the latter.

“Around the same time that the guys from the village who found it rushed to the capital to report on their discovery, a little over ten ogre-like creatures crawled out and attacked the village,” said Kuu. “From what the guys who got away said... they saw them eating people indiscriminately.”

“Eating people...” I murmured.

If the ogres were attacking people indiscriminately, and eating them, at that, it was no different from an attack by dangerous beasts. Unlike a war waged for a purpose, there was no room for negotiation, and we could only exterminate them like we would animals.

“Naturally, we’re putting a force together to put them down ourselves, and we’ve put in a request with the guild for adventurers to slay the monsters that came out of the dungeon, but... time is of the essence,” Kuu said. “Once a beast has a taste for human flesh, it’s sure to attack people again. These things are going to be the same. We don’t know when they’ll attack another village. I dunno if they’re ogres, or what they are, but I’m not letting them do what they want any longer.”

Kuu looked more serious and heroic than I had ever seen him before. He was completely different from the Kuu who was always aloof, and laughing. It was his anger at the people of his country being attacked. Kuu had acted like being the son of their head of state meant nothing to him, but in that anger, I felt like I could see the pride of one who stands above others.

“I see,” I said, nodding. “You have to prevent any further casualties.”

“Yeah. That’s it, Kazuma. I want you guys to help!” Kuu said and bowed his head once more. “We can travel to the village quickly from here. Also, I know you’ve got capable bodyguards on hand. Particularly the dark elf girl, and the red-headed guy. If they’d come, it’d be reassuring. Do you think you could ask them to?”

Emotionally, I wanted to help, but... I’d be risking the safety of my family, so I couldn’t say yes so easily. I wanted a little more information.

“Aisha?” I asked. “Just how strong are ogres?”

“Well, they have the strength to crush boulders with their bare hands, but even ordinary soldiers could defeat one if they surrounded it with ten men. I could do it alone,” Aisha added with a confident snort.

“It sounds like there are more than ten of them,” I said. “Can we fight that with the strength we have on hand?”

“If it’s around ten, I don’t see us failing. Madam Juna, Sir Halbert, and Madam Kaede are all superb combatants, and Sir Kuu is quite skilled himself.”

“I see...”

In that case, if we could confirm the situation on the ground, we could help.

“Got it,” I said. “Let us help.”

“You mean it?!” Kuu cried.

“This is a problem that could happen in any country. It’s practically a natural disaster. Now isn’t the time to be worrying about whether it’s Friedonia or Turgis.”

“Thanks! I owe you one!” Kuu seemed relieved to have our help.

I added, “However, I want you to bring me, too.”

“Darling?!” Juna shouted.

“Darlin’?!” Roroa cried.

Before they could say any more, I raised my hand to stop them. “I can’t fight, but my magic is suited to scouting. Let me help.”

“If that’s how you want it... Okay,” Kuu said. “I’m counting on you.”

“Yeah. We’ll get ready to go immediately, so wait outside for us.”

Kuu said, “Be quick about it,” and left the room with Leporina in tow. Once we had heard the sound of their footsteps leaving, Roroa confronted me.

“Hold on, darlin’! Are you outta your mind?! Goin’ to a dangerous place like that?!”

“I’m opposed to it, too,” Juna objected. “If anything were to happen to you, sire, I...”

From the fact she was referring to me as “sire” not “darling,” I could see she was seriously concerned.

Roroa continued. “You’re not strong like Big Sister Ai, now are ya?! Why can’t ya just wait here?!”

“Listen, I’m well aware I’m not strong, but I want you to let me go.” I plopped my hand down on top of Roroa’s head. “I don’t think Kuu was lying, but to prepare for the possibility of a trap or any other unplanned-for event, it’d be convenient for me to be next to our greatest combat asset. If I’m going to be loaning out my family and vassals, I need to make sure they’re returned to me.”

“Well, maybe, but...”

“Besides... I think this is a good opportunity for me to learn about what monsters are like.”

“Learn about monsters?” Roroa asked.

“Yeah. Since coming to this world, I’ve seen vicious creatures through the eyes of a Little Musashibo I was making work as an adventurer, but when it comes to monsters, I only have secondhand knowledge. Thinking about the future, I’d like to actually see them and gauge the threat they pose for myself.”

There might eventually come a time when I would have to face demons from the Demon Lord’s Domain. If that happened, I might get tripped up if I approached it with the naive thought that it would be okay because they were intelligent. In addition to the demons, there were apparently scads of monsters in the Demon Lord’s Domain, too, after all. That’s why I wanted to take this chance to learn about monsters.

“Of course, I’m going to secure my own safety as far as possible... Inugami.”

“I am here.” Inugami suddenly appeared from the shadow of the door Kuu and Leporina had left through.

There were always more than ten members of the Black Cats posted nearby, watching over us unnoticed. It had been that way ever since our departure for the Star Dragon Mountain Range.

I handed something over to him and gave him an order. “You were listening to us, right? I want you to send some of the Black Cats to scout out the site now, and confirm that the situation and number of monsters matches what Kuu told us. I’ll leave the choice of members to you. If there are more of them than we can handle with our number, report back to me with this wooden mouse. If that turns out to be the case, I’ll feel bad for Kuu, but we’ll have to back out.”

“By your will.”

Inugami took the wooden mouse possessed by my Living Poltergeists, then vanished as suddenly as he had appeared. He was getting more and more like a ninja, wasn’t he?

“Hrm... Well, if you’re gonna be stayin’ in a safe place, I guess it’s fine...” Roroa murmured.

“We’ll have to accept it,” Juna agreed.

I smiled. My thorough safety measures had made Roroa and Juna reluctantly accept that I would be going along.

“Have no worries!” Aisha declared. “We’ll wipe out those monsters immediately. We’ll not let them lay one finger on His Majesty. Right, Sir Halbert, Madam Kaede?”

“Sure thing!” Hal agreed. “I was just thinking I wanted to test out my new weapon, too!”

“Geez, Hal...” Kaede muttered. “But if it’s a royal command, we’ll follow it, you know.”

Aisha proudly thumped her chest, and Hal and Kaede nodded. What a reliable fiancée and comrades I had.

Now that our direction was decided, I gave each of them their individual orders. “Roroa and Tomoe will stay in this town. We’ll leave some members of the Black Cats to guard them.”

“Well, even if we did go, we’d only end up bein’ a hindrance,” Roroa said.

“Stay safe, Big Brother,” Tomoe added.

“Sure. I won’t do anything dangerous, so just trust me and wait.” I placed a hand on each of their worrying heads, and patted them gently. “The rest of the group will go with Kuu to put down the monsters. I will keep in contact with the Black Cats, and scout ahead from the rear. I’ll ask Juna to be my bodyguard.”

“Leave it to me,” Juna said.

“Aisha, Hal, and Kaede, you’ll put down the monsters with Kuu. But don’t push yourselves. If you think it’s dangerous, pull back immediately. That goes for if I detect more enemies than anticipated during my scouting and give the order to retreat, too. I won’t stand for us losing a single person here in another land!”

“Yes, sir!” Aisha exclaimed.

“Gotcha!” Hal said.

“You can leave it to us, you know,” Kaede confirmed.

Hearing everyone’s replies, I gave the order.

“Now then, everyone... Let’s go!”

““““Yes, sir!””””

In the carriage on the way there, I explained my magic to Kuu and Leporina.

Obviously, if I told him about the limitations or the area of effect in detail it would take a long time, so I only told him what he needed to know.

“My magic transfers my own consciousness into objects modeled on living creatures, like mannequins, and allows me to control them freely. For instance, if I transfer my consciousness into this wooden mouse, I get an overhead view of... well, just assume I can see what the mouse sees.”

“Wow, that’s one hell of an ability!” Kuu said, impressed at seeing the wooden mouse moving around on my hand almost like it was the real thing. “Oookyakya, if I had an ability like that, I could peep on the women’s bath all I want!”

“You had to go there immediately?!” I exclaimed.

“Young master, you’re embarrassing me as your subordinate, so please show some self-control,” Leporina protested with tears in her eyes.

Unlike the pensive look on his face when rushing into the inn, Kuu was already back to his usual self.

I ignored them and continued. “That’s why, if I send this wooden mouse out to scout, I can get an accurate picture of the situation without the other side knowing. The problem is, if I don’t know what direction the enemy is in, I can only send it to patrol the area around us.”

Maybe Aisha could, but I couldn’t do something like sense the enemy’s presence. If I knew the direction the enemy was in, I could send one out immediately, but until then. I’d have to have them spread out in the area around us to patrol.

That said, once sightings came in from the Black Cats we’d sent on ahead, I’d know the right direction immediately. However, I couldn’t let Kuu and Leporina know about the clandestine unit operating under my orders.

“In that case, we can have Leporina look,” Kuu said as if it was no big deal. “Leporina and her fellow white rabbits have good ears. Even in forests with poor visibility, she can sense what direction things are moving in by the sounds they make.”

“I only know the direction of the sound, and if it’s a single source or many, though,” Leporina added.

Oh, that paired well with my ability. Leporina could narrow down the direction, and then I just had to send out the mouse.

Then I received a message.

“Inugami reporting in. Target sighted.”

The report from Inugami and his men came into my mind through the separated portion of my consciousness.

“We have visual confirmation of five from here. The targets are ogres. However, Your Majesty... their form is somewhat warped.”

Warped? I was able to see the dolls I was controlling from an overhead view, but that also meant I could only see the area around them. Because the Black Cats were monitoring the targets from a distance, I couldn’t see them myself, so I could only imagine based on the report.

“Their faces and size match ogres, but their arms are massive and touch the ground, resulting in them walking on all fours,” said Inugami. “I hear many monsters are bizarre in form compared to those told of in legends. Most likely, this is one such subrace.”

A subrace of ogres... huh. I made the mouse he was carrying shake to indicate I understood.

The arrangement was that Inugami and his people would stake out the dungeon the ogres had appeared from for now. That was to prepare for a situation where more monsters crawled out of there, and because I couldn’t have a unit of spies doing anything that stood out too much.

Even so... it caught my attention that many of the monsters that resided in dungeons had bizarre forms.

The large number of monsters and demons that showed up after the appearance of the Demon Lord’s Domain. They were distinct from the many strangely shaped monsters that inhabited this continent’s dungeons. What was the difference between them? Was there even one to begin with?

In order to get a full picture of this world, I may need to turn my eyes to that, too.

It was a vague feeling, but that was the sense I got.

While I was thinking that, we reached the mountain village said to have been attacked by the monsters.

It was a hamlet with only about ten buildings, but it looked like it had been hit by a typhoon. None of the buildings were burned, but almost all of them were collapsed or had holes in the walls. If there was one difference from a typhoon, it was the splatters of blood that could be seen here and there.

The lines of blood that looked like someone had been dragged were especially disturbing.

“Damn... First, we search to see if anyone’s here!” Kuu said, gritting his teeth.

We all looked around to see if there were any survivors. However, we couldn’t even find the bodies.

Those who could escape had fled, and those who couldn’t must have been devoured or dragged off.

Having confirmed there was no one left in this village, we gathered again and began our search.

“Leporina,” I said. “Can you tell what direction the monsters are in?”

“I’ll try.” Leporina perked her rabbit ears up, and twitched them. A few seconds later, she added, “There are five at two o’clock, seven at three o’clock, and noises indicating the presence of several others.”

“I hear ogres move in groups,” Aisha explained. “The five and seven are likely ogres.”

The several others were probably the members of the Black Cats posted throughout the forest.

I sent the wooden mice in the directions Leporina indicated. Then, when they had gone about eight hundred meters from the village, I confirmed five ogres, and another kilometer away, there were seven of them.

Like in the report I had received from the Black Cats, the ogres did indeed have a bizarre form. Their arms were bizarrely fat and big, making their bodies extremely unbalanced.

From manga and games, I had an image of ogres as fat macho guys with horns wearing straw skirts and swinging clubs around, but while these ogres definitely had ogre heads, they wore no clothing, carried no weapons, and their bodies were covered in long hair. They were like what you’d get if you crossed an oni with a gorilla, and resembled the ijuu I had seen in the youkai encyclopedia I had read as a child.

The wooden mice crept closer and confirmed both groups were sitting in a circle and feasting on something. I had a bad feeling, so I decided not to look, but I caught a glimpse of one of the villag... No, best not to think about it.

The gorilla-like ogres with their bloodshot eyes were devouring their food with reckless abandon. The only thing I got from them was they were intensely hungry.

Good thing we didn’t bring Tomoe...

If I were only considering my objective of learning about monsters, Tomoe’s ability would have been useful. But I could tell just from looking. There was something different about these guys. They were only thinking about eating.

When it came to humans and animals, once their stomachs were full of food, they calmed down. However, these ogres were eating, but they didn’t show any signs of satisfaction whatsoever. They were like starving ghouls out of hell. If Tomoe could understand what they said, she’d probably faint in shock. It was a pretty harsh sight.

While forcing down the nausea, I informed everyone of what I had just seen.

Hearing my report, Kuu slammed his fist into the ground as if to take his frustrations out on it. “Those bastards! I’ll never forgive them!”

Hal crossed his arms and said, “Is there a distance between the two groups? It’d be a pain if they joined up.”

“Defeating a divided force is basic strategy, you know,” Kaede, who was Ludwin’s staff officer in the National Defense Force, agreed. “If possible, I’d like to dispose of the smaller group quickly.”

Kaede placed five and seven stones on the ground, then dug a trench between them with a stick.

“I’d like to lay a trap between these two groups. One that will let us delay the seven if they notice something is wrong with the five and rush to their aid, and that will maybe injure them if we’re lucky.”

“Do we have time to be laying traps?” I asked.

“I can easily use my magic to make pitfalls, if nothing else, you know. That’s why I’d like to sit out the fight with the five, and instead focus keeping them separated. If possible, I’d like to have an archer who could aim to injure and weaken them...”

“Then Leporina can go with you,” said Kuu. “She acts like a moron, but she’s a capable archer.”

“You didn’t have to call me a moron,” Leporina protested, but she still followed the order.

That more or less gave us our battle plan. While Kaede and Leporina were delaying the arrival of the seven, Aisha, Hal, and Kuu would wipe out the five with their full combat potential. I, myself, would only be in the way, so I’d be supporting them at range using the Little Musashibo (Small) with Bowgun Equipped I had brought.

Juna was to be on standby as my bodyguard and strike commando.

When the operation started, Kuu gave an order. “I’m sorry to get you people from another country wrapped up in my country’s problem. But for now, please, lend we your strength! Let’s get this impromptu combined force going!”

““““Yeah!””””

Though we were a small, hastily thrown together team, the first joint battle between the Kingdom of Friedonia and the Republic of Turgis had begun.

In order to defeat them all before the seven arrived from elsewhere, we decided we would first hit them with a surprise attack with the greatest power possible. The goal was to make sure at least one went down in the initial strike.

And among us, the one with the most power was... Aisha.

“Hahhhhhh!”

With a war cry, Aisha swung her greatsword.

Caught unaware by the assault, one of the ogres was bisected without being able to do anything about it. The other four panicked when they saw one of them had gone down.

Then Aisha, Hal, and Kuu sprang on them.

“I’m sure you know this, redhead, but we don’t have much time!” Kuu shouted.

“I know, whitehead!” Hal shot back.

Wait, Hal, he’s the son of their head of state, okay?

Kuu was holding the cudgel decorated with a golden centipede that we had seen in Taru’s workshop. Hal was holding two short spears, but the bottoms of their shafts were bound by a thin chain. Was that the new weapon he said he’d bought at Taru’s place? I believe it was called the Twin Snake Spear.

“You punks are gonna pay for what you did to our people!” Kuu spun his cudgel around like a windmill, then weaved nimbly through his opponent’s onrushing arms to accurately whack the ogre’s forehead, solar plexus, and other vital points. “Too slow! Here, you can eat this, too!”

Most likely, that cudgel was strengthened with an enchantment. Every time the cudgel struck flesh, there was thumping sound. The ogre held the place where it had been struck and winced in pain.

Compared to Kuu’s style of infighting, Hal was working at medium range.

He wreathed his right hand spear in flames, and threw it at the ogre. When the ogre evaded it, the spear stuck in the tree behind it. That moment, the flames burst. There was a loud roar and the tree exploded into pieces.

The ogre closed in on Hal, unintimidated, and raised up its huge arms.

“Oh, crap!” Hal cried.

Before it could swing down, Hal pulled on his remaining spear.

That pulled on the chain connecting the spears at their base, and the other spear smoothly returned to his hand. Hal crossed the two spears and blocked the ogre’s downwards blow.

“Urgh... Yeah, I’m not doing so hot, taking it into battle without any practice,” he groaned.

While he slid his crossed spears and redirected the ogre’s arms to the right, Hal spun his body, and landed a flaming backwards roundhouse kick on the ogre’s flank. The ogre’s body, which was easily over two meters tall, was thrown back about five meters.

Hal cracked his neck, and looked at the ogre. “Sheesh... I’ll have to train to be able to use it quickly.”

Hal grinned, then threw his left spear at the ogre this time.

The ogre tried to dodge it again, but Hal used the remaining spear and chain to change its course. The ogre was unable to avoid it, and it struck its right shoulder.

“Blow up!” Hal shouted.

The flame-wreathed spear blew away the ogre’s right arm.

While Kuu and Hal seemed to be holding the advantage in their battles, Aisha was fighting two ogres alone. Despite that, there was no sign whatsoever that Aisha was in trouble.

Warding off all of the ogres’ heavy blows with her greatsword, she followed that up by slashing them. As time passed, the number of gashes carved into the two ogres’ bodies increased.

“So inexperienced. This isn’t even a warm up,” Aisha said as she cut off one ogre’s fat arm at the shoulder.

All three of them were doing an amazing job fighting.

Incidentally... for my part, I was watching them from a distance.

That was so I could keep a watch on the seven that were being delayed, as well as keep an eye out for any signs of further enemy activity in the surrounding area.

While I would occasionally see an opening and have my Little Musashibo (Small) with Bowgun Equipped take a shot, the ogres’ thick muscles kept getting in the way, so my supporting fire wasn’t doing much more than harassing them.

“Everyone so strong,” I murmured to myself.

“Of course,” Juna said. She was standing beside me as my bodyguard. “Aisha and Sir Halbert are among the best warriors in our country. Sir Kuu is strong, too, I might add. I’m not sure I could beat him.”

“Oh, yeah. Now that you mention it, you were one of them, huh...”

The commander of the marines in the former navy. She was someone who had a strength she could compare against others.

“I know I can rely on you,” I added.

“Hee hee.” She seemed pleased. “But... don’t let your guard down, okay?”

Juna suddenly pulled out a number of knives and threw them forward.

The water-wreathed knives left a trail as they flew forward, then stabbed into a large boulder that had flown our way at some point, and in the next instant, the boulder was pulverized. It seemed one of Aisha’s ogres had gotten cornered and started throwing around anything that came to hand in desperation. One of those things must have ended up coming our way.

“Because the thing to truly be afraid of at a time like this is the stray arrow that comes at you without killing intent,” she finished.

“Oh! Okay...”

As she brushed her hair back and said that, I felt myself falling for Juna all over again.

When there was only one ogre left, we learned there had been movement from the other seven.

“Ah! The seven are coming this way! Kaede and Leporina are coming, too!”

I reported that to everyone, then prepared myself for battle again.

Leporina and Kaede rushed in from over there. They were moving as planned, but for some reason, Leporina looked flustered. She rushed straight over to me.

“Wh-What is it?” I asked.

“Hah, hah... K-Kazuma! In addition to the seven, another group is coming in from eight o’clock! There are five of them!”

A group?! Reinforcements, now?!

But I’d received no report from the Black Cats. Whatever the case might be, I sent a wooden mouse in the direction Leporina indicated. Then, when I confirmed the group... I was shocked.

Huh?! What are they doing here?!

I was so surprised, I was at a loss for words. When I came to my senses, I hid my Little Musashibo doll in the bushes. It’d be bad if those guys saw it.

“Wh-What is it?! Is it something bad?!”

Leporina had a worried look on her face, so I hurriedly shook my head.

“Oh... It’s fine. They’re not our enemy.”

And then they came out from the other side of the bushes.

You could tell at a glance that they were five adventurers. The handsome swordsman, the green-haired, boyish female thief, the muscly martial artist man, the mild-mannered priest with the gentle face, and the quiet beauty who was a mage. I... knew these people well.

“We’ve come to support you in response to a request from the adventurers’ guild!” the handsome swordsman known as Dece shouted. “Is there someone in charge here?”

Whenever I had Little Musashibo go out and play adventurer, this was the party he often teamed up with.

The swordsman’s name was Dece.

The female thief was Juno.

The mild-mannered guy in the priest’s uniform was Febral.

The female mage’s name was Julia.

The muscle man’s name was... Who was he again? He hadn’t been there the first time I’d teamed up with the party... Oh! Augus. It was Augus.

“Hm?”

Then Juno came over to me, and...

“Hey, you. Haven’t we met somewhere?” she asked while staring me in the face.

This is just a reminder, but adventurers were people who made their living clearing the dungeons that existed all over this continent, slaying the dangerous creatures that sometimes spilled out of them, and performing tasks like defending merchants and subjugating bandits.

An group of adventurers’ final goal was to clear a dungeon and earn wealth and glory by destroying and bringing back its dungeon core.

Among themselves, they had job names based on the roles they played.

If they specialized in close combat, they were a “swordsman” or “brawler.” If they specialized in long-range combat, they were an “archer.” And if they focused on magic, they were a “mage.” In addition, there was the scouting and commando role played by the “thief” and the healer role played by the “priest,” but these were only job titles, and that didn’t mean they were actual thieves or priests.

They were like Jacks and Jills of all trades whose bodies were their primary assets, which meant their position in society was not particularly high, but if they managed to recover something useful from a dungeon, they could possibly strike it rich, so it was a reasonably popular and romanticized profession.

Furthermore, due to the nature of their trade, they often worked across borders, so registering with the adventurers’ guild also had the benefit of simplified checks when entering or leaving a country.

You might think that would make them easy to use as spies, but it also meant that it was easy for them to draw attention. If an adventurer carelessly got too close to important secrets, they would surely be put down without question.

Still, it was true that it was a convenient way of getting someone into another country undercover, and that was why the Gran Chaos Empire’s Little Sister General, Jeanne, had used it to make contact with Souma in past.

Now, returning to the story. We turn back to about half a day earlier.

On this day, the swordsman Dece, the thief Juno, the priest Febral, the mage Julia, and the martial artist Augus left their usual area of operations in Friedonia in order to visit the Republic of Turgis.

They were here to buy equipment. They needed to procure new arms and armor to replace the ones they had used up in their adventuring business, and they all agreed that, if they had to buy them anyway, they should get Turgish equipment, which was noted for its high quality.

Being contractors who took jobs from others, not only was function important, but appearance, too.

Because imports were relatively expensive, they had decided to go to the place where they were made as a means of conserving money.

Dece and the others were all smiling after buying their new equipment, but then the adventurers’ guild issued an emergency quest.

Apparently, there had been a dungeon discovered near a mountain village, and ogres had crawled out of it to attack that small settlement. The quest was to “cooperate in subjugating the ogres.”

These sorts of emergency quests were issued in the name of both the guild and the country, and adventurers in the affected area were half-forced to accept them. They could refuse, but in the event they did, they would face harsh measures such as being stripped of their status as an adventurer.

“Well, if it’s an emergency quest, we can’t exactly refuse,” Dece commented. “Let’s go, everyone.”

“Urgh... I just got this new equipment, and I need to get it dirty already?” Juno complained.

Their shoulders slumped, as they realized they were getting dragged into some real trouble.

Even so, they couldn’t ignore an emergency quest.

There nothing else they could do, so Dece and the others hurried into the mountains to join up with the group that was already on location and dealing with the issue.

“...Hey, you,” Juno said. “Haven’t we met somewhere?”

The female thief had distinctive green hair and was seventeen, maybe eighteen years of age. Her defiant eyes seemed a poor fit for her childish face stared hard at me.

Within her party, she specialized in scouting and ambushing, so she dressed lightly, with hot pants and a tank top with a breastplate over it. But because of this country’s cold climate, she was now wearing a cape over top of that.

“Your face...” she went on. “I feel like I’ve seen it somewhere before?”

“Erm...” I said.

I wasn’t sure exactly which face she meant. Was it my face on the Jewel Voice Broadcast as the King of Friedonia, or my face from when we’d encountered each other in the former slums, or the face of the person inside the adventurer Little Musashibo...? Oh, wait, I had been controlling that Little Musashibo remotely. Well, no matter which of my alternate identities it was, it would be troublesome to explain.

Judging from the wrinkles on Juno’s brow, it seemed Juno herself couldn’t recall where she had seen me. In that case, my solution was decided.

I offered my right hand to Juno. “Nice to meet you. Would you people happen to be the adventurers coming to support us?”

“Huh? Uh... Yeah, but...”

“Whew, it’s a good thing you’re here.” I took Juno’s right hand and shook it hard.

My plan was to move things along before she figured anything out. While I was still holding Juno’s right hand, I pointed to the last of the five ogres which the others were working on defeating.

“We also came here to slay ogres and answer the request for aid that Sir Kuu issued.”

“Y-You did?” Juno looked at me blankly.

Whew... It looked like I’d managed to play it off well enough.

“...Darling?” Juna, who had been standing beside me, was looking at me with a smile.

Even though she hadn’t said a word, I could tell what she was thinking...

“Oh, my, just how long do you plan to hold her hand for?”

“Just what sort of relationship do you have with her...?”

I felt like I was being interrogated. I was like a frog, paralyzed by being glared at by a snake. No, not just any snake, a giant sea snake. It was times like this when I could really sense that Juna was Excel the sea serpent’s granddaughter.

I let go of Juno’s hand, then turned the conversation over to the party leader Dece, who had a look on his face like he was wondering what we had been talking about.

“We’ve finished slaying these five, but another seven ogres are coming this way,” I said. “I’d like your assistance in subjugating them.”

“S-Sure,” he said. “Got it. Let’s go, everyone!”

“Yeah!” said Augus.

““Yes, sir!”” Febral and Julia shouted.

Juno continued staring at my face, but thanks to Juna subtly inserting herself between us, we were able to break her line of sight.

Juno took on an irritated expression at someone getting between us.

Juna didn’t let her smile break even as the other woman glared at her dubiously.

Sparks flew between them.

...Why was it? I felt a pain in my stomach.

Well, that aside.

Not long afterward, the seven ogres appeared, but with our original group of seven being bolstered by the five adventurers, there were now twelve of us.

Even excluding me, because I was unable to use my Little Musashibo doll in front of Juno and her party, which meant I had been reduced to a scouting role with Juna guarding me, we still had enough people to overwhelm them.

While Dece and Juno were way below Aisha or Hal in terms of ability, Dece and Augus kept the ogres under control on the front line, Febral healed their wounds, Juno disrupted the ogres and cut them with twin poison-coated swords, and Julia finished them with magic.

They used that sort of party-like teamwork to take out two ogres. They were defeating enemies they couldn’t beat alone with the power of teamwork.

It was a style that differed from soldiers on the battlefield, and it suited them as adventurers.

Little Musashibo has been part of that...

The Little Musashibo I was making act as an adventurer had often formed a temporary party with them. His role was the sort of front-line fighting that Dece and Augus were doing. Even if it was temporary, he had joined them a number of times, so I was confident he could work in concert with them.

He had been asked to formally join the party, too, but I couldn’t afford to let one of my consciousnesses be constantly devoted to adventuring, so I’d politely declined.

To think I’d encounter them in this country... I pondered. Was this mean to be...?

“Fate is a fickle mistress, and misery acquaints a man with strange bedfellows...” I murmured.

“Hm? Did you say something?” Juna asked.

“Nope, not a thing.” I shook my head.

What had at some point become the last ogre took Hal’s flaming spear in its flank, which created a big hole when it exploded.

Now we’d exterminated all the ones in this area.

There was no report of more enemies from the Black Cats watching the entrance to the dungeon, so this was mission accomplished.

“You all did great,” Kuu said. “Kazuma and company, and you adventures, too. I thank you on behalf of the people of this country.”

Kuu and Leporina both bowed their heads. He was speaking formally, no doubt because he was the quest issuer.

Then Kuu raised his head and smiled at Dece and the others with a laugh. “You really saved us. We’ll tell the guild the quest’s complete. And about your part in it, too, of course. Go to them for your reward.”

“R-Right,” said Dece. “Understood. We’ll be going, then.”

Dece and the others bowed and turned back down the road they came.

When they were almost out of sight, Juno seemed to panic about something and raced back over on her own.

Oh, crap! Had she figured something out?

She stood in front of me, and thrust a finger in my direction. “I remember now! You—you were the guy in Parnam’s refugee camp!”

Oh, that’s the one she remembers, huh...

It seemed she recognized me not as a king, or as the one inside Little Musashibo, but as the guy she’d happened to encounter in the refugee camp. I wondered how I was going to dodge the issue, but I had a feeling that trying to lie while she was staring at me so hard would backfire.

I put my hand on top of my head and bowed slightly. “Ohh... Thank you for that time...”

“I knew it! I’ve wanted to ask you all this time! Back then, I never gave my name, but you called me Juno! How’d you know my name?!”

“That’s...”

What was the best way to answer that? I couldn’t say it was because I was Little Musashibo and I had often worked with her party... right?

But, huh? Was there a need to keep that secret? It would be problematic if they learned I was the king right now, but if they found out I was connected to Little Musashibo... that wouldn’t really be a problem, right?

“Well... The truth is—”

“Hey, Juno! We’re leaving you behind!” Dece was calling her from off in the distance.

Juno ground her back teeth, then thrust her index finger towards me again. “Next time we meet, I’m getting answers out of you!”

Leaving those words behind, Juno ran over to the rest of her group.

“Next time we meet... huh.”

I was fine with telling her, but I’d ended up keeping the secret, after all.

To be fair, I was always in the center of Parnam, and I didn’t go out to the castle town that often, so was I ever actually going to meet Juno in the flesh ever again?

While I was wondering that, Kuu clapped his hands. “Now then... Leporina, Kazuma, there are no more ogres left outside, right?”

“Right,” Leporina said. “I don’t hear any more groups moving around.”

I concurred. “I sent my wooden mice after the individual sound sources, and can confirm that there are no ogres left near here.”

Kuu nodded. “In that case, it should be fine now. The army should be getting here anytime now, so we can leave guarding the dungeon to them. You were watching the entrance, just in case, right?”

“Yeah,” I said. “Looks like there’s been no movement there.”

Though, if I were to be wholly accurate, the ones watching it were the Black Cats. There had been no more reports, so it was probably fine.

Kuu considered for awhile.

“Then can I get you to watch until the military arrives?” he asked finally. “If any more monsters come out, we’d have to deal with them.”

It spoke well of him, as one who stood above others, that his position was that every caution should be taken until things were fully secured. Naturally, I wholeheartedly agreed to do it.

“Roger that,” I said. “I’ll keep watch until the military arrives.”

“I’m counting on you. Okay, shall we get going back, too, then? Man, I’m sorry. Getting you caught up in our problems like this,” Kuu said with a grin. “I’m really grateful, you know? Let me pay you the same reward we’ll be paying the adventurers.”

But I shook my head. “No, this was within the realm of international cooperation. I don’t need any compensation.”

“Huh? I don’t feel right leaving it like that...”

“You don’t? Hm... If you insist, then could you ask your father to be willing to make all sorts of concessions to my country in the coming talks?” I asked jokingly.

Kuu laughed and threw his arm around my shoulder. “Oookyakya, that’s not happening! When it comes to negotiations with other countries, my people’s livelihoods are involved. I may be grateful, but we can’t make concessions there.”

“Ha ha ha, really? That’s too bad, then.”

“You don’t mean that,” Kuu grinned. “If you do, then try to look a little more disappointed.”

We looked at one another and laughed.

Aisha and Juna watched us with smiles.

“I don’t know how to say it, but they’re just so young when you look at them like this,” Aisha said.

“Hee hee,” Juna giggled. “It’s relaxing, somehow.”

I felt a little bit embarrassed.