by Okina Baba
In fact, wouldn’t it be faster for her to go take care of it herself?
She’s technically got an adventurer permit, so why doesn’t she just beat the ogre as an adventurer or whatever?
“Why don’t you just defeat the ogre yourself, Miss Ariel?”
Ooh, looks like Vampy was thinking the same thing.
“Hrmmm. We don’t wanna stand out here, so I’d like to leave that as a last resort. Plus, there’s supposed to be some famous mage and swordsman in the army that’s coming, so we wouldn’t want to pick a fight with them.”
The Demon Lord doesn’t seem to want in on the whole ogre-hunting biz.
I can’t imagine that the army would be upset if the Demon Lord beat the ogre first, and even if they were, I’m sure she’s strong enough to handle them.
But it’d still be a pain for sure, and in the worst-case scenario, it could slow down our trip through the Mystic Mountains even further.
Since the imperial army’s supposedly gonna beat this ogre without her help, I guess she’d rather just wait until they take care of it for her.
We’re probably only delaying our departure by a few days, so it shouldn’t affect our journey anyway.
If it were a few weeks, that’d be another story.
“So we’re going to sit tight until the ogre gets beaten. Merazophis, be careful not to draw any attention, all right?”
“Of course.”
Mera nods.
If anyone was going to cause a problem here, it’d be Mera.
Sael and I do run the risk of being spotted as monsters, but that just means we have to stay out of sight as much as possible.
As a natural shut-in, I have no problem with staying inside, and I don’t wanna go out into the sun anyway.
And Sael wouldn’t go outside unless she was specifically told to do so.
But Mera’s situation is different.
He and the baby bloodsucker are vampires.
The little one’s a Progenitor, so her title cancels out normal vampire weaknesses, like sunlight and needing to periodically drink blood.
But Mera doesn’t have that advantage.
He takes a small amount of damage if sunlight touches him, and he has to drink blood occasionally.
The latter is the real monkey wrench. It means Mera has to attack people and drink their blood.
And not just any blood. Human blood is by far the most effective.
The blood of monsters like us gives him only enough energy to hold him over temporarily.
Since Mera used to be a human, drinking human blood is the only way to keep him going, for whatever reason.
Okay, I don’t understand the specifics, but basically it means he has to drink human blood to get the results he needs.
Which means he’s been attacking humans every night to drink their blood whenever we visit a town, but now the Demon Lord’s saying he has to cut that out.
We wouldn’t want to draw the imperial army’s attention.
“Fortunately, I have some in reserve, so I’ll be all right.”
Mera’s not talking about carrying around bottles of blood or anything like that.
Since his Vampire skill has leveled up, he gained the ability to stash the blood he drinks inside his body.
He can gradually stockpile any excess blood, so now he can go for a short while without drinking blood if he absolutely needs to.
“So yeah, that’s the first problem, but it’s not super-serious. It’s the other problem that’s kind of the big one.”
The Demon Lord crosses her arms, still looking serious.
For some reason, though, something about her expression says that she’s not quite convinced.
What in the world happened?
“To sum it up, we just got attacked by a group of elves.”
The Demon Lord is saying that our greatest enemy of all, the elves, has just come after us.
After two years of unnerving silence, Potimas has made an assassination attempt.
A CHANCE ENCOUNTER WITH A NEMESIS
It happened earlier this afternoon.
“Huh? The road is blocked off?”
Miss Ariel’s voice echoes through the guild.
There aren’t many people here, and it’s not particularly large, so Miss Ariel’s voice is pretty clear.
“I’m afraid so. An extremely dangerous monster has appeared near the road up ahead. Until the monster has been dealt with, the road is closed. We truly apologize for the inconvenience.”
The receptionist bows politely.
This place is an adventurers’ guild.
Adventurers are essentially professionals whose job is to defeat monsters, and this guild is where they gather.
Monsters have a tendency to aggressively attack humans, so in order to ensure the safety of the town and major roads, there have to be people to fight those monsters.
That’s where adventurers come in.
In this world, even the smallest village or town has to have adventurers, who are generally well respected by society.
This town is no exception, which is why they have this adventurers’ guild.
A single step out of town is where the realm of monsters begins.
In addition to hunting monsters, adventurers also protect ordinary civilians who have business outside town.
Which is why you can never have too many.
“Ahhh. Is that why there are so few people here?”
Ariel looks around and nods.
A town this size should have a healthy population of adventurers, yet the guild is almost entirely devoid of people.
They must all be out hunting for that monster right now.
“No, erm…”
The woman trails off vaguely.
Peering at her, Miss Ariel frowns as a thought comes to mind.
“Don’t tell me… Have this town’s adventurers been more or less wiped out?”
““Huh?”” the receptionist and I utter in unison.
I shoot a nervous look at the receptionist, but she isn’t paying me any mind, just staring at Ariel with a pale face.
Judging by her expression, it’s all too evident that Miss Ariel’s guess was correct.
I suppose the receptionist and I were surprised for different reasons: I was surprised because Miss Ariel’s words came out of nowhere, and the receptionist was surprised because she’d guessed the truth.
“I see. Well, that’s unfortunate.” Ariel sounds somewhat detached or maybe annoyed. “I guess there’s nothing we can do about the blockade, then. So are they actually going to defeat that monster?”
“Er, yes. The army is being mobilized and should be on its way.”
“An army? Not adventurers from other towns?” Ariel asks.
“Ha, not a chance. No adventurers are ever gonna beat that thing. Besides, the only adventurers left around here right now are from other towns. They were too late to join the hunting party, so lucky for them, they got to live.”
Instead of the receptionist, one of the adventurers answers Miss Ariel’s question.
One of the few adventurers in this mostly deserted guild.
“Mr. Gotou…,” the receptionist murmurs somewhat pityingly.
The man approaching us with a lopsided grin must be named Gotou.
And judging by the receptionist’s attitude and the way he speaks as if he’s seen the monster, he must be one of the few survivors of the wiped-out adventurers.
“Nice to meet you lovely ladies. The name’s Gotou. Might not look it, but I’m an A-rank adventurer. Though that title ain’t worth much after I ran away from that ogre with my tail between my legs.”
Gotou shrugs bitterly.
Looking closely, I see that his eyes are red around the edges.
He must have had close friends among the adventurers who were killed.
“Yeah? So what’s an A-rank adventurer like you doing here now?”
Rather harshly, Miss Ariel ignores his obvious plight.
/> Not even a word of comfort for this clearly wounded man?
Well, I suppose it might be strange to comfort a complete stranger who suddenly started talking to you.
“Oh, nothing. Just thought I’d do ya a little favor.” Gotou smiles wryly at Ariel’s cold demeanor, but then his smile fades to a serious expression. “I’m willing to bet you’re a lot stronger than you look, but if you’re thinking about going up against that ogre, I’d think again. That thing’s a beast. If you underestimate it just ’cause it’s an ogre, you’re gonna end up regretting it, just like all of us did. That thing’s a walking natural disaster, same class as any elder wyrm.”
It sounds like the dangerous monster that’s appeared is an ogre, albeit a very unusual one.
But what really catches my attention is that Gotou discerned Miss Ariel’s true strength so easily.
Miss Ariel looks like a child, not an all-powerful being, but those with sharp senses might detect a hint of the sheer intimidating aura rolling off her.
Even if she turns off the Intimidation skill, she can’t quite suppress it because of the effects of titles and such.
But with her high Stealth, she can generally hide that, too, so only people with particularly strong intuition should be able to see through it.
If he picked up on Ariel’s true nature, then this Gotou must be pretty strong himself.
I guess he’s an A-rank adventurer for a reason.
“The army that’s coming is being led by Elder Ronandt and Elder Nyudoz. Just let them take care of it. No need to try face a monster like that by yourself.”
I don’t recognize the names Gotou mentioned, but based on his tone, they must be quite strong.
Perhaps even strong enough to defeat an ogre with the strength of a full-grown wyrm.
“Hrmmm. All right, then. We’ll wait it out until that ogre’s taken care of. Not that I planned on meddling with the thing myself in the first place.”
Miss Ariel shrugs.
From her perspective, this is probably an unwelcome bit of advice.
Whether it’s an ogre, a wyrm, or even a dragon for that matter, it wouldn’t even pose a threat to Miss Ariel.
It would be a simple matter for her to defeat it, if she felt so inclined.
But she doesn’t seem to want to, so either she’s trying to be polite or just wants to avoid drawing too much attention to herself.
“Glad to hear it. What business ya got up that road anyway? It don’t lead anywhere but the Mystic Mountains, y’know.”
For a moment, Gotou’s eyes seem to glint sharply.
Could he have caught on to Miss Ariel’s true identity?
No, surely he’d have no way of knowing that she’s the Demon Lord.
But he might have picked up on the fact that she’s not human. If he sensed her power to a certain extent, he knows there’s more to her than meets the eye.
Plus, she’s traveling with a bunch of little girls in tow, including myself.
Right now, our group consists of Miss Ariel, Merazophis, Ael, Riel, Fiel, and me.
Aside from Merazophis, all of us appear to be children.
Ariel looks just barely old enough to be called a “young lady,” but the rest of us look even younger than that.
I’m sure our group looks very unusual to other onlookers.
I wonder if they assume Merazophis is our guardian?
At any rate, since Miss Ariel is our leader and he knows that she’s more powerful than she looks, I’m sure he finds us quite suspicious.
“Well then, it must be obvious that our business is in the Mystic Mountains,” Miss Ariel responds casually.
Should you really be admitting that so honestly?
“And what might that be, eh?”
“Why should I have to tell you? I wouldn’t give you any more information unless we were close enough to be sharing a bed first.”
…I wish she wouldn’t throw around such adult topics so casually.
You’ll be a bad influence for all the little girls here, y’know.
Although I guess all of us, including me, are actually older than we look.
Ael, Riel, and Fiel are monsters like Miss Ariel, so they’re hardly young.
And while my body is as young as it looks, my mind has been around for much longer.
If you include my previous life, I’m pretty grown up, no?
I do feel like I don’t fully have control over what my body does sometimes, but my mental age is quite high, I think.
If you take my age in my old life into account, I’m surely an adult by now.
I always assumed that once I reached my twenties, I’d naturally calm down and become more mature, but I never imagined that I’d actually end up back in the body of a child.
But I suppose it was unrealistic to assume that I’d turn into a proper adult based on age alone.
I suppose I hoped that the people who used to look down on me would become a little easier to deal with in adulthood, too.
But looking at myself now, I can’t help feeling like all of that was just wishful thinking.
…Wait a moment.
Does that mean that I haven’t actually done that much growing up mentally, but I’m avoiding that fact and giving up instead?
No, that can’t be.
I’m a proper lady.
I might look like a young girl, but I have to be well-balanced at least on the inside!
I’m an adult.
I’m an adult!
All right.
“Guess you got a point. Sorry to bother ya.”
While my mind was wandering in an unexpected direction, it seems like Miss Ariel settled things with Gotou.
He’s peeling away, so it looks like there won’t be any unnecessary trouble.
If he’d been too persistent, it might’ve ended badly, considering Miss Ariel’s true identity.
In the worst-case scenario, Ariel and company might have beaten him to a pulp.
Really, Miss Ariel could destroy this whole town if she was so inclined.
By wisely choosing to withdraw, Gotou might’ve just narrowly escaped death.
“Any other information worth noting?”
“Ah, no, I don’t believe so.”
Ariel abruptly turns back to the flustered receptionist.
“Oh, right. They were building a village at the foot of the Mystic Mountains, but the place is a total ghost town now.” Contrary to the receptionist’s words, Gotou provides some other news. “Rumor has it that the ogre might’ve killed ’em all. If you knew anyone there, well, I’m sorry for your loss.”
“Huh. Well, I didn’t, so I guess that doesn’t make much difference to me.”
At Ariel’s response, Gotou’s eyes glitter again.
“Mr. Gotou, that information’s supposed to be top secret…”
“Oops, my bad! Totally forgot. Pretend you didn’t hear that, all right?”
Miss Ariel rolls her eyes and shrugs in response.
“Let’s go, shall we?”
Deeming it pointless to stay here any longer, Miss Ariel leads us out of the guild.
As soon as we exit, I use a certain skill.
It’s a vampire Progenitor skill that creates familiars.
I use it to make a mouse familiar and leave it at the guild house.
This gives me the ability to link my consciousness with the familiar.
In this case, I have it approach Gotou without being spotted.
Then I listen closely.
“When is the army arriving?”
Through the familiar’s ears, I hear Gotou’s voice, sounding much more serious than before.
“Oh, erm, we d-don’t know the particulars just yet…”
The receptionist stammers.
Maybe Gotou’s sudden change in demeanor is making her nervous?
“Well, shit. The hell’s going on in this place? Is this town cursed or what?”
“P-pardon?”
As Gotou mutters darkly,
the receptionist stares at him in confusion.
As I watch through the familiar’s eyes, Gotou heaves a heavy sigh and speaks again.
“I’d bet anything that those folks were demons.”
“What?!”
The receptionist exclaims with shock.
“Shhh! Keep your voice down! I’m not positive yet, but no human that age would normally carry themselves like that. Demons often look younger than they actually are. Most likely, that was a group of demon spies, using their appearance to blend in and gather information about humans. Bet they’re planning to go through the Mystic Mountains and retreat into the demon realm once they’re done here, yeah?”
Wow.
That’s not exactly right but still pretty darn close.
“They are?! Oh no! Whatever shall we do?!”
“I told you to keep it down! For now, I dunno if this town’s forces would be able to deal with ’em, what with us adventurers being in this sorry state. If those guys are going to leave without causing any trouble, there’s no sense in pissing them off for no reason.”
Oh?
I thought this was going to end up being a huge pain, but it seems like Gotou is willing to just wait and watch.
“Really? Are you sure that’s all right?”
“It’s not exactly my first choice, but something about those girls gave me the feeling we wouldn’t be able to beat ’em. They must be pretty well-trained demons. I know they seem small, but they looked at me like I wasn’t worth a damn. Like they knew they’d be able to easily deal with me if it came down to a fight.”
Well, he’s not wrong.
“Ugh, maybe I should retire from being an adventurer already. My confidence is in pieces here.”
Gotou seems seriously down in the dumps, and the receptionist, unsure whether to comfort him or how to do so, simply watches him anxiously.
“Anyway. Make sure you tell the guild master about this, yeah? In fact, maybe it’d be faster if I do it myself.”
“W-wait! Shouldn’t we tell the Church, too?”
“Yeah, good point. You take care of that, then. I’ll go talk to the guild master.”
With that, Gotou heads up some stairs behind the reception desk.
The receptionist hesitates for a moment, then tells the few remaining adventurers that she’s stepping away from her desk for a little while and goes outside.
She’s probably off to tell the so-called Church about us.
