I read the title on the cover, and silence dropped for a while.
If I had gotten this in Japan, I would have brushed it off with a grimace, but…this is bad.
What Maya-san told me and what Dokora said were resonating in my mind.
Demon Lord; the fate of the ones resurrected by the forbidden spell and the ones that spun the worst history.
And the earthling that’s said to have created this resurrection magic.
This book is clearly related to this.
It is not like I am not curious about it. This is the first time I see something related to Earth in this world.
But what’s written there is way too ominous.
Sample, Research Record…
Because of how those words were swirling in my mind, the contents that might be written in there were showing in my mind.
It is something left by Dokora who lived as an Anbu. His thought circuit moved ‘in that way’.
“…Are you not going to read it?” (Cara)
The voice of Cara-jii brought me back to reality.
Right, I am not the only one here.
Cara-jii is here too.
“Cara-jii, there’s something I want to say first. Please keep silent about this as much as possible since this is only known by Ilias and Maya-san.”
“Got it.” (Cara)
I tell Cara-jii honestly about my own circumstances.
About how I was transferred to this world from the Japan of Earth without knowing the reason why, about how I can communicate with Maya-san’s possession spell.
I told him everything without hiding anything.
And then, I also told him about the details of my conversation with Dokora with that as the baseline.
“And now we are in front of this book…”
“I see… I can understand why you are shaken right now. However, what is it you yourself want to do?” (Cara)
“What I myself want to do…”
I thought of this and sighed.
“…I won’t read it. Not now.”
“You might lose the opportunity if you let this chance go, you know? Is that okay?” (Cara)
Seeking knowledge about resurrection magic is forbidden in this world.
If the contents of this book are exactly as the title states, reading this would be stretching my hand towards that taboo.
It is true that there’s the possibility this book has the relationship between Earth and this world written down in it.
But the chances are high that there’s a lot I should not know about.
“I might have been able to read it if I had to shoulder it by myself, but now that I have shared it with you, Cara-jii, I plan on matching this world.”
“I am good at keeping secrets though.” (Cara)
“Even if you can hide it, I don’t have the confidence I would be able to.”
At the very least, I have absolutely no confidence I would be able to hide it if I were to get interrogated.
My heart would most likely break the moment a single nail is about to be torn off from me.
I give the book to Cara-jii with a bitter smile.
“But I am thinking of entrusting this to a person I can trust. I unfortunately don’t want Lord Leano and the other knights to find this.”
“Entrusting it to me means that it might end up in the hands of Lord Ragudo or even the king.” (Cara)
“I haven’t met him yet, so I can’t say anything concrete, but if you trust him, I don’t mind.”
“I have been entrusted with quite the heavy expectations. But don’t worry.” (Cara)
“Now then, let’s go back.”
This is fine.
In the case this book is deemed dangerous, the ones who have read it will most likely be treated in the same manner.
Ending in a situation like that when I stand as an outlander wouldn’t be good.
Cara-jii is a knight that’s trusted in this country.
His testimony of me not reading it in front of him should have had an effect in itself. Even if I did read it, Cara-jii would probably not say it though.
But Cara-jii is a knight. If he had to put his loyalty to his superior and his king on the balance with his verbal promise with me, there’s the possibility his resolve will shake. Even so, he might still keep his promise with me.
However, I don’t want such a great knight like him to do something like that.
I must not make him betray his allegiances, or make him break promises.
“Last confirmation. Is it really okay?” (Cara)
“I want to live safely…together with my friends.”
“Fuafua! It is fine to be adventurous while you are young, you know?” (Cara)
It is not like my chances of reading this book are completely gone. Most likely—I was about to have hopes bordering on an excuse show up in my mind and decide to forget about it.
I have made my decision. Now I will leave it to the flow.
And so, we returned to Taizu in that fashion.
◇◇
After Caragyugujesta separated from the young man, he headed to the place of Lord Ragudo.
He must have sensed something from the sudden visit, the room was filled with a tense atmosphere.
“And so, what’s this sudden business?” (Ragudo)
“I went to investigate a certain base on my own volition using the map that the leader of the bandit alliance, Dokora, left.” (Cara)
“—It is not like you didn’t know about Lord Leano’s investigation team being the one doing the preparations from this, right?” (Ragudo)
“Various circumstances aligned, you see. My apologies.” (Cara)
“I don’t mind. Explain what comes after.” (Ragudo)
“Here.” (Cara)
Saying this, he gives the book he found in the cave.
Lord Ragudo grabbed this book and looked at the cover.
“Fumu, words I have not seen before.” (Ragudo)
He then opened the book and he couldn’t read a single word in it.
But there would be times when there were what looked like drawings in it.
However, the meaning of it was unknown too.
Lord Ragudo skimmed through the book and his movements stopped.
“Caragyugujesta, did you read this?” (Ragudo)
“No, I have not opened it once since finding the book until now. I can swear this.” (Cara)
“I see, that’s a relief. I am impressed ‘that young man’ managed to restrain himself.” (Ragudo)
Caragyugujesta’s eyes opened wide.
“So you saw through me.” (Cara)
“I heard from Maya. Ilias tried to make it vague though.” (Ragudo)
The other members of the Ragudo Division were there when he was talking to Dokora.
In that case, there must have been people who heard about how earthlings created necromancy and resurrection magic. There’s no way they wouldn’t report this to Lord Ragudo.
And if Lord Ragudo heard about his origin from Maya, it would be easy to assume why he went there alone and who was by his side.
Caragyugujesta lowered his head.
“Please forgive me for trying to hide this.” (Cara)
“I forgive you. We are not strangers here.” (Ragudo)
Lord Ragudo closed the book after skimming through all of it.
“I will believe in what you said about not having opened the book. In other words, that person managed to read this cover, right?” (Ragudo)
“Yes, I said I couldn’t read it, and he read it out loud for me.” (Cara)
“What did he say?” (Ragudo)
“Sample No.4: Research Record of Blue Demon Lord. That’s what he said, if I remember correctly.” (Cara)
The face of Lord Ragudo turned even more severe.
“One of the many Demon Lords that created the worst history, the Blue Demon Lord, was the 4th one to appear.” (Ragudo)
“Yeah.” (Cara)
The drawing inside the book he barely managed to understand the meaning of, and the meaning of the title.
“It seems like there’s a need to investigate the origins of this book.” (Ragudo)
“…”
“Don’t worry. You and the young man have done nothing to be punished for.” (Ragudo)
“I see…that’s a relief.” (Cara)
Caragyugujesta was relieved, but Lord Ragudo was shaking internally in contrast.
He has to tell this to Lord Marito and must investigate it in detail.
If knowledge of this is located elsewhere as well, they can’t just leave it be.
Lord Ragudo put the book inside his bosom and stood up.
◇◇
I separated from Cara-jii after finishing the forest exploration.
There was a result from it, but I wouldn’t want to step on that landmine.
The time it took to move there was decreased with the horse, but it is evening, at the time when the sun is about to sink.
My hunger is progressing pretty nicely after I finished a light supper.
I would like to show up at Dog’s Bone at night. There should be no issues in having dinner there too.
My body was all sticky from doing a round trip in the forest.
Let’s return to the house once, wipe my body, and change clothes.
Man, having a place to live and a change of clothes is wonderful, isn’t it?
It was only for around a day, but living in the mountains served as a good lesson to appreciate my daily life.
“I am back~.”
Even when living alone, I end up saying that, especially when I am in a good mood.
“…Welcome back.”
“Owa?!”
Ilias was glaring at me while sitting in fetal position.
Right, this is the house of Ilias!
Why is she sitting at the entryway?
Moreover, she seems to be in an incredibly bad mood. Something must have happened at work.
Can’t be helped. As the adult here, I should follow-up on her.
“Don’t scare me. This is the entrance, you know? Do you do that on the regular?”
“It is not regular. It has been since morning today though.” (Ilias)
Hmm, what does that…oh? Oh oh?
If I remember correctly, Cara-jii was off-duty today.
In that case, Ilias is also free today, and probably returned yesterday.
And she has been at the entrance since morning…
Hmm, hmm.
What’s this? Even though it is so fresh, I feel sweat coming down from my forehead.
“Were you waiting here…this whole time…?”
“Don’t worry, I managed to feel the sadness of being abandoned for a day. It was a good experience. It doesn’t seem like you need to be guided through the city anymore.” (Ilias)
“Uhm…sorry.”
“…”
Aah, she is sulking.
She is not giving me the luxury of her gaze.
W-What should I do?
“R-Right, want to have dinner together?”
“Unfortunately, there’s no proper ingredients. I couldn’t go do the groceries, you see.” (Ilias)
“I-It is okay. I found a nice place. The owner and the waitress are good people…”
“I see, so you were there when I was waiting for you the whole time last night.” (Ilias)
Not good. This is extremely bad.
“So you were having fun in that place today too, huh…” (Ilias)
“N-No, I was with Cara-jii in the afternoon…h-having a walk!”
“You were having fun with Cara-jii while I was waiting for your return at the entrance…” (Ilias)
What’s with her?!
Being grabbed by the collar and shaken was better than this!
“…Sorry, I was unreasonable there.” (Ilias)
Is what I was thinking, but she apologized.
“I am still immature, you see. I was a bit too merry about having people wait for my return at home and spending time with someone else on my day off… Even though you also have your circumstances… Forgive me.” (Ilias)
Aah, so that’s what it was.
Regardless of how it happened, I betrayed the expectations of Ilias without knowing.
She is without doubt a super 1st class knight when it comes to battles.
But in everything aside from that, she matches her age. No, she might even be younger than other girls in that front.
She is just like in the far long past, holding faint hope for others…
“Wait a moment, I am gonna change clothes. We are heading out once I am done.”
“O-Okay.” (Ilias)
I can’t do anything about having saddened her. It is not like any of us was in the wrong.
What we must learn here is one thing: properly pick up what you can see at least.
And then, both of us arrived at Dog’s Bone when the sun had completely sunk.
“This is…that Dog’s Bone?!” (Ilias)
Ah, so she also knows about it, huh.
“Yeah, that Dog’s Bone with an established opinion about the food.”
“I was actually thinking about coming here when I wanted to punish myself. I see, so the time has come.” (Ilias)
That far? No, it really was that far, huh.
“It is okay. I have had them be reborn after all.”
“?”
We enter. There’s already a whole lot of customers enjoying themselves inside.
Saira was busily moving around, but when she saw us, she raised her voice.
“Welco—ah!” (Saira)
“It is even livelier than yesterday.”
“It is super busy!” (Saira)
She is half in tears. You are that happy? …Yeah, let’s leave it at that.
I let my gaze swim and feel something off.
No, it would be weirder to not notice it…
“Aren’t there unknown people also working?”
“Domitorkofucon-san gathered a number of acquaintances. ‘There’s no way only 3 people can manage when they are bringing out something this good. I will call some of my friends!’, is what he said!” (Saira)
Aah, it is true that there’s lovely women doing their best as waitresses.
There’s also other people in the kitchen aside from Gozu and the wife of Cara-jii.
It would have been rough even with 3 people, so I was thinking about helping them out after eating, but it seems like there won’t be any need for that.
“Hey, those ladies…aren’t they the wives of the Ragudo Division?”
“Really? I am so moved!” (Saria)
If even the wives of her idols makes her happy, she might just end up settling with this job.
Now that I look closely, the people of the Ragudo Division have come too, huh.
Even Cara-jii is here -within the people that are grouped up at the corner of the store.
I see. It is a free day for these guys, but their wives have come here, so they had to come here to have their meal, huh. It feels like they are not the ones wearing the pants in the house. I didn’t expect such a sad sight.
Well, they are eating the food as if they are enjoying it, so it should be fine.
I will just ignore the sight of them getting glared at by the wives when they tried to make an extra order of alcohol.
Let’s sit down for now. I called Ilias who was peeking here from outside the door.
“Ilias, that table is open, so let’s sit there.”
“O-Okay.” (Ilias)
“…I-Ilias-sama?!” (Saria)
Saira displayed her biggest shocked face since meeting her.
Ilias was also surprised by that face.
“Waah, waah, I am honored that you would come to a place like this!” (Saira)
“The waitress shouldn’t be saying ‘a place like this’…”
She asked for a handshake and Ilias accepted awkwardly.
It seems she really isn’t used to getting favorable treatment from the people.
“Make sure not to crush her hand.”
“Like hell I would!” (Ilias)
We sat at the table and left the order to Saira.
Drinks that looked like wine were brought to us, and we were served chips and fries as snacks.
Now that I think about it, this is the first time I drink alcohol since coming to this world.
The smell and taste is close to that of wine, but the strength of the alcohol is on the high side and it is sweet.
I feel like I would get drunk really quickly if I drink this without care.
I stretch my hand towards the food in order to fill up my empty stomach.
“…This is tasty.” (Ilias)
“Right? There’s normally no food that uses salt after all. Yesterday was terrible.”
I then tell her what happened yesterday.
My meeting with Saira and how I came to this store.
About how I brought Gozu to the place of Maya-san and had him train under her.
About how I went to the company of Ban-san to get salt and thought of a new menu with the others.
How we worked until late in the night and I ended up falling asleep then and there from how exhausted I was.
“Even though it is an unknown city for you, you did so much in just a single day of not seeing you, huh.” (Ilias)
“I am completely exhausted because of it.”
“Even though you were working hard for other people’s sake, I was resentfully waiting for you… How pathetic.” (Ilias)
“—What did you think when you saw how welcoming Saira was?”
“I was a bit surprised… Flustered even.” (Ilias)
“But you were happy, right?”
“Yeah…” (Ilias)
“It is not only the knights of the Ragudo Division. There’s also citizens who accept you and follow you. Looking only at the people who criticize you, but turn a blind eye on the ones who do love you, isn’t that just detrimental?”
“Yeah, I will reflect on that and be careful in the future… I really am immature.” (Ilias)
“You are still saying that?”
“I have been living my life in a way so that I can become a great knight like my father. But now that I think back on it, I have been getting happy when people evaluate me highly, would get bothered by it, and would have my heart swayed by it…” (Ilias)
“That’s fine. Feeling bad about being criticized by others, being happy about others liking you; that’s a natural thing to feel as a human. Cutting it off as being immature is in itself a representation of your weak heart.”
“That’s…” (Ilias)
“Did your father not smile at you even once? Was he a cold person that continued killing his own heart even in front of his daughter?”
“—My father was a proud, heroic, and strict person…” (Ilias)
Ilias faced down, looking inside the wine in the glass.
“Aah, but I remember that time. When I was young, I made a flower crown and gifted it to him, that smile of his…” (Ilias)
“—You don’t detach yourself from it. You accept it and take it in. If there’s things you don’t like, change the anger to strength and crush it. If something makes you happy, enjoy it, and turn it into strength to continue onward.”
“Is that…how it works?” (Ilias)
“It is how it works.”
“But showing it in my attitude still does make me immature.” (Ilias)
“I won’t deny that. Just be diligent without mistaking your path.”
“Aah, to think you would be lecturing me about paths. Even though you are even more dangerous than me on that front.” (Ilias)
“That much?”
“That much.” (Ilias)
Ilias laughed. It is most likely in part because of the alcohol in her system.
That smile dyed faintly in red made her look more mature than normal.
Let’s bring her here often. There’s a lot of Ilias’s allies here.
This will become her strength.
I give a sidelong glance to see the figure of those reliable people.
Saira had tripped while carrying the plates.
Gozu was being scolded by Cara-jii’s wife and was in tears.
There weren’t enough tables now because of the increase in customers, the members of the Ragudo Division were made to sit on the floor.
…Maybe bring her here every now and then, yup.
After that, I had to piggyback the dead drunk Ilias on my way back.