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CHAPTER 5 – A STORY THAT’S STARTING TO CHANGE
PART 01
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While Satsuki gathered the essential information to carry out our battle plan, there was a place I needed to visit.
“Who would have thought I’d be heading back there again so soon,” I mumbled as I stared at the bracelet, the Red String, around my wrist.
With this, I just had to wish really hard, and I would be transported to the other world where Harissa lived.
The needles on my watch showed that it was just past 6 p.m.
I had six more hours until the meteor struck Earth… Six more hours to travel to Abraham to retrieve the item I needed.
Iris guided me to a courtyard, where I would be free to utilize the Red String.
“Alright, I’m heading off.”
“OK, let’s go!” Iris replied determinedly as she wrapped her hands around my arm.
“…Iris, you’ll be teleported to the other world as well if you hang on to me like that.”
“That’s why I said, let’s go.”
“No. It’s too dangerous.”
With a fashionable pouch slung over her shoulder, Iris looked ready for travel. When I tried to explain the dangers of her following again, she grew angry,
“You’ve already defeated the Demon King, right? So it’ll be safe there. Besides, Papa has given me back my teleportation device. And the other world sounds so interesting! I won’t forgive you if you abandon me again!”
She insisted as she pressed herself closer to me. Her b-breasts…!
Even with her two soft mounds pressed uncomfortably against my arm, I was glad that Iris was back to her energetic self again. I guessed it was true that there was no longer any dangerous element present in that world, and it probably wouldn’t be an issue taking her along.
“Alright. You can come along, but let go of me.”
“You loser,” R commented.
‘Shut up, you flat-chested girl,’ I almost quipped back.
Ignoring the floating R, I grabbed Iris’ hand and wished hard upon the Red String.
‘Please bring me to Harissa.’
The Red String started to glow with a bright light.
Then, a single red thread rose into the air and formed a circle about 1 meter across in radius. A flaming red space opened up on the other side of the circle, and before I could blink, Iris and I were sucked into the round, scarlet portal.
When I opened my eyes, I was standing inside Abraham’s palace.
The Red String disintegrated and fell off my wrist. I guessed it was a one-time-use item.
“Wow… That felt totally different from warping,” I heard Iris comment from beside me. Her eyes, sparkling with curiosity, were roving around the room along the stone walls.
“H-hero-zama?”
Just then, a voice called out from behind me.
“…Mdm Waitress?”
Turning around, I saw the waitress woman from earlier, who had been so worried about Harissa.
She was blinking rapidly, as if still comprehending the fact that we had just appeared right before her eyes.
“Huh?”
I was sure that we would appear by Harissa’s side… Oh well, I just had to ask the waitress to find out where she was.
“Sorry, where is Harissa?”
“…Not here.”
Her reply wasn’t anything I’d expected.
“Huh? Why not?”
The woman’s eyes narrowed at me in anger.
“Because of you!”
“Me?”
“Because you weren’t ze true hero-zama! Harissa-chan has been accused of being a liar, and is going to be executed soon!”
The woman yelled at me in fury as her shoulders shook, but then her expression scrunched up in sorrow as she buried her face in her hands and started sobbing.
“I-It’s all your fault…”
“Please, tell me! Why was Harissa accused of lying?”
I clearly remembered defeating the Demon King with Harissa.
This “story” should have been resolved.
However, as I listened to the woman tell her story, I realized what a fool I had been.
“…So they won’t recognize me as a hero because I didn’t retrieve the ‘Hero’s Sword’?” I summarized the problem in one sentence.
As we had used the warp watch to teleport into the Demon King’s fortress, there was nothing to prove that we had been there and defeated the King. And to get everyone to believe that we had accomplished it in only two hours… If one really thought about it, the whole thing truly seemed unbelievable.
To add fuel to the fire, I hadn’t even retrieved the “Hero’s Sword”, which would have proven that I really was the hero.
To the others, it must have seemed suspicious that Harissa had summoned an ordinary looking teenager, who had then disappeared from the palace after two hours, leaving the “Hero’s Sword” untouched.
And then?
“Zey assumed that you lost your nerve and ran away.”
It was natural for them to arrive at the conclusion that the woman had just uttered.
Then, having deemed Harissa’s summoning a failure, she had been subjected to her original fate of being executed…
“She insisted right up till ze end zat you were ze real hero-zama. But because noone believed her, she passed zis Red String to me before she was brought away to ze execution grounds.”
“Shit!”
It was all my fault. I had been so hasty to leave this place that I hadn’t even thought of explaining the situation to the King!
“Hey, Rekka! Where are you going?”
“Of course it’s to save Harissa!” I yelled as I tore my jacket sleeve from Iris’ grasp.
“But Rekka, it’s true that you had run away. Even if you go to explain to the King now, they would still think you’re a liar, right?”
“Urgh…!”
I froze, feeling as if a bucket of cold water had been dumped over my head.
Iris had a point.
I had already been labelled as a liar. I would need to produce some proof in order to let everyone believe me.
Calm down…! Think of what I should do now.
I’d have to prove that I was the true hero.
Then, I’d also have to prove that I’d defeated the Demon King.
The latter was more important right now, and I needed to travel to the Demon King’s fortress to…
“Damn it! I didn’t bring the warp watch along!”
It had been confiscated by the police guards when I entered “Owaria”.
Just as I was about to descend into real panic, Iris tapped lightly on my shoulder.
“I have the warp watch.”
“Huh? Really!?”
I glanced at her wrist, but saw no sign of the watch…?
“All my devices are inside here,” Iris explained as she retrieved the warp watch from the pouch slung across her shoulder.
“This pouch contains a worm hole, so I can store anything inside it. I’ve even prepared laser guns for Rekka and myself. I’ve also got sweets and juice and a change of clothes and shampoo and-”
Was she really talking about a worm hole, a portal that connects two separate spaces? Which meant that whatever she’d put inside the pouch would be transported to another dimension, and could be retrieved anytime she wanted them. The aliens’ technological advancements were really limitless.
I took the warp watch and thanked Iris.
Alright! Now I could travel to the Demon King’s fortress.
“Alright, let’s go retrieve the ‘Hero’s Sword’ first! Madam, could you please lead us to the basement where the Sword is sealed?”
“Huh? A-Alright,” the woman nodded quickly, acceding to my request.
“Thank you. Let’s hurry!”
With the woman leading the way, Iris and I hurried down to the palace’s basement level.