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「Good morning. Today’s breakfast is bread, cheese, scrambled eggs, smoked meat, and salad. There is also jam for those who wish to put it on their bread」

Our chef’s prided breakfast.

Peris’ desire for knowledge is surprising. Her cooking skills have already exceeded me. I am thinking of bringing her to the capital to further broaden her horizons.

I cast an appearance-changing barrier on her, but due to her build, she looked like a fat human. She is still a princess though……it seems that my barrier skill still has some room for improvement.

By the way, I made Jeneha look like a horse. She lives in the stables, so it happened naturally.

「Have a nice day」

Peris sent me off and I headed for my store. The business flowed as smoothly as ever. Recently, Peris often asks me to buy some things, but the quantity is rather impressive. It takes me until night to finish buying everything. However, thanks to that, I can have the beef stew like in that hotel.

I arrived at my store and manned the counter. A few merchants and adventurers were already there as if they were waiting for me to arrive. While I was dealing with customers, a messenger from the prime minister arrived. He told me to head for the royal castle right away.

Closing the store for now, I went to the royal palace. As if waiting for my arrival, the prime minister came immediately. He had dark circles under his eyes.

「I apologize for suddenly summoning you. I have a favor to ask of you」

「Guarding the royalty again?」

「Something like that. I want you to escort a certain royalty to the empire’s border」

「You mean, the border with Ashiria? Or Belganda? 」

「Any one works. I just want you to escort the royalty out of the capital and towards the border」

Quite the request you have here.

「Well, about half a month ago we discovered the royalty of the cat tribe in the Chill village. He declared himself as a hero who will defeat the Great Demon King. He had some nice gear, so I decided to contact the Piao Kingdom first. They said that he did it on his own volition. Moreover, his gear was stolen from the national treasury. The Piao King was enraged and decided to exile him」

……Those retarded cats again? They even received a shelter from the empire. I don’t want to involve myself with them.

「A messenger came from the Piao Kingdom to report his exile and take away the treasured gear, but that guy went on a rampage. He wounded the messenger and several attendants」

That is the worst. Fortunately, there were no fatalities.

「He was restrained and deprived of his gear, but regretfully, he bumped into the first princess Ricolette. Everything would have been fine as long as he restrained himself a bit, but he insulted Ricolette-sama」

Everything became even more complicated. Just what did he say to her?

「…..He said「Idiotic princess, who is absolutely useless without her father’s authority」」

Yeah, death penalty confirmed.

「Now, he is in prison. Can’t help it, he did insult the princess. Ricolette-sama is very angry too. She is saying「behead him」since a while ago. I have a hard time calming her down. For now, we decided to exile them from our empire, but we can’t let them create a mess in the capital. That’s why we need someone to guide them out of our territory」

Can’t you put them in a carriage and let a soldier drive it?

「……He insulted Ricolette-sama. Of course, he also did that to the maids, attendants, and ministers. Do you think we can leave this mission to a simple soldier? In the worst case, the very same soldier will cut him down」

Isn’t if fine to cut him down?

「In that case, it will affect out empire’s reputation. We can’t predict the movements of the neighboring countries if that ever happens.」

「If they are this troublesome, can’t we just quietly dispose of them?」

「Such things should be done before the commotion. Everyone already knows the fact that he proclaimed himself a hero, who will defeat the Great Demon King. Anyway, we just need to escort him out of our country. Therefore, I ask you, with your experience of protecting the royalty. I don’t care where, just throw them out of the empire」

…….Your real intentions surfaced in the end. I see. I prefer to hide most of my skills on purpose. As a barrier master, I can successfully deliver them to the border. The possibility of them killing me and me killing them is also low. It’s hard to be me.

I can’t produce any motivation at all. However, it is a request from the prime minister. I can’t just say no. For now, it seems that he will lend me a carriage, so let’s use a barrier to confine them inside until we reach the border. As expected, he couldn’t just ditch them outside the border, so he stuffed the carriage with food and water. He said that he didn’t mind sacrificing every single carriage as long as they successfully leave.

「That being said, such an idiotic royalty」

「No, that happens rather often」

Rather often?! Is every royalty in this world an idiot? Come to think about it, the king of the Juka Kingdom was an idiot too.

「They are well-mannered and educated, but no one informs them of the common sense of the general public. Rather than take an initiative to learn that, they become prideful」

Waha. That’s where people like those idiotic cats come from.

For now, I went to the place where those cats were. As I left the room, I saw a young lady walking in my direction. Just when I thought that she would pass by me, she stopped and looked at me.

「Is there something?」

「This, Rinos-dono, is the First Princess Ricolette」

The prime minister said to me in a hurry. Hoh, is this person the rumored princess? She looks intelligent. I hurriedly knelt.

「I unintentionally offended Your Highness」

「Are you the rumored barrier master? My name is Ricolette. This kind of attitude isn’t required」

Even though she said that there was no need, I didn’t budge.

「You are neither my nor the emperor’s vassal. You are the retainer of the prime minister Guremont, am I right? I don’t have the right to directly command you, so there is no need for you to be so formal. I don’t know about the others, but you don’t need to do it before me」

She said her piece and left just like that.

「Well, she’s such a person. Her thinking pattern is fundamentally different from ours」

I parted with the prime minister and followed a soldier to the underground prison to see the cats.

Ricolette’s ideas aren’t wrong from a certain standpoint. However, it goes against the established traditions. It might work in the turbulent times, but in the already established empire, such thinking might even be treated as a heresy. She seemed like an intelligent woman, but she was born too early.

While I was thinking about such things, we reached the basement.

Idiot prince and idiot princess were assigned to the separate cells. Each had their own servant accompanying him/her. Therefore, the people, who take care of their needs, were placed in the same cells as them. They are treated rather nicely, for a jail. Can’t say the same for their servants though.

「Yo, long time no see. Are you doing well? 」

「Ah, you are that offender! You were from this castle all this time. Hurry up and get me out of here. The Great Demon King won’t wait for anyone! I’m surrounded by idiots! 」

「…..As noisy as always. Anyway, you have been banished from the empire. I’m going to throw you out once we reach the border. Let’s not waste any time! 」

「Banished? Why is it always me and my brother!?」

「Your plight was caused by your own actions. Your words, your actions have created this situation」

I took out the four cats out of the prison. He was equipped with fancy gear before, but now he is unarmed and wearing dirty clothes. There was no trace of royalty left.

A man in a hood passed behind us. When I spared some attention on him, he stood before a certain cell, asked a guard to open it and entered inside. I had a memory about the person inside that cell.

Third prince of the Hideta Empire, Hideta Shua Serias.

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「Hero? What is that? 」

The cat named Willis introduced himself as a hero. It seems they aren’t a cosplay group.

「Yes, I am the hero who will save the world! The world is doomed without me! 」

「Ha? Save the world? 」

「The Great Demon King has revived! No one can defeat him but me! Isn’t it natural to help the hero, who will save the world? 」

The Great Demon King is me, or so I didn’t say. It seems that I attracted the troublesome bunch again. However, those guys are the hero’s party. I wonder what skills they have.

Willis (Cat Tribe’s Royalty, 14 years old) LV6
HP: 8/49
MP: 14/14
Sword Arts LV1

Shera (Cat Tribe’s Royalty, 13 years old) LV5
HP: 30/38
MP: 10/16
Recovery Magic LV1

Amalia (Cat Tribe, 14 years old) LV6
HP: 24/35
MP: 4/17
Recovery Magic LV1

Yuriel (Cat Tribe, 15 years old) LV7
HP: 20/51
MP: 13/13
Liberal Arts LV1

……..Low! Far from being a threat, it is a miracle that they survived in the forest. Calling himself a hero with these skills……Are they naive or just idiots? Since they are the royalty, is it the former? Or neither?

「You managed to survive here. There are plenty of monsters in this forest」

「…..When I entered the teleportation magic circle, I ended up here」 [¹]

The cat named Amalia answered me. Teleportation magic circle? Is there such a thing? Where?

「…….It transferred us here and immediately disappeared」

The hell is that?

「Where is your house? Please guide us there for now. If there are villages or towns nearby, you can lead us there. I won’t ask for anything extravagant at this point. I’m counting on you」

The male cat named Yuriel said while approaching me. You think that you aren’t asking for anything extravagant, but you do.

「My house? Denied. If we are to talk about the villages, there is one in a day of walking from here. Of course, on adult legs. Do your best walking」

The hero’s and the princess’ faces froze.

「The great Demon King has revived! Everything will be destroyed if he isn’t defeated! No one can defeat him without me! 」

「Shut up」

I held back and released a LV4 fire spell. The snow melted and a part of the forest turned into scorched earth.

「If you can’t do at least this much, forget about the Great Demon King, you won’t be able to even leave this forest. Can you cast such spells? If you can’t you should have made a backup plan」

「Amazing! Rejoice, I will add you to my party! Come on! Protect our rear and let’s head for the Great Demon King! 」

…….As I thought, he is retarded. What kind of thinking pattern should one have to turn the conversation in this direction? Idiots are scary.

「I’m not interested in you, the Great Demon King or the destruction of the world. Even if the world is going to be destroyed, you won’t be able to protect it in any way. You guys, who requested you to slay the great Demon King? 」

Everyone became silent.

「You are just a self-proclaimed hero, right? The hero is something that should be recognized by others. Even 3-year-old kids can proclaim themselves as heroes. Picking a fight with the Great Demon King without being aware of your own ability, I’m getting exasperated just by listening to it. If you like playing hero so much, do it at home. Don’t involve the other people」

「Offender, I won’t forgive you!」

The self-proclaimed hero took out the sword.

「I told you that I will protect you! I told that I will save the world and this is your gratitude!?」

「I didn’t ask for your protection. All you do is just trying to 「forcing the good」. To be honest, it is a bother. Rather than that, you should thank me for accompanying you until now with this stupid conversation」

「You!」

The sword was swung towards me. I folded it. However, it didn’t break. Seems like it is a pretty durable sword.

「Fu, fufufufu. This is the orichalcum sword. A national treasure of our country. I won’t forgive a puny servant going against me, with this you will be split……gufuh! 」

Without listening until the end, I struck him in the stomach. Then, I punched that annoying face.

Willis flew away with blood streaming out of his nose, crashed into the tree and fell on the ground.

「Uh, uu」

「As I said, you are weak. You will die without a doubt in this forest」

「We apologize if we offended you. Please help us. At least, save Prince Willis and Princess Shera, please help them」

The cat girl named Amalia desperately begged for my help. Apparently, the conversation is possible with this girl.

After that, I asked Amalia about their circumstances. I could see a lot of things with my skills, but decided to ask myself before I came to know more than I should. [²]

It seems these cats came from the Piao Kingdom situated behind the sea, north of the Niza Duchy. Apparently, it is a country created by the evolved cats. It is not unusual for monsters to gather together and create a kingdom, but they adopted the human culture.

The self-proclaimed hero Willis is the fifth son of the King. Shera is his younger sister.

The evil aura that appeared several years ago reached all the way to the Piao Kingdom and they concluded that it was a sign of the resurrection of the Great Demon King. They decided to postpone any action until the Great Demon King revealed himself, but this idiot of a prince decided to subjugate him.

The prince, who didn’t pay any attention to his studies and martial arts, started to work hard towards his goal of subjugating the Great Demon King. Everyone was glad at first, but as this prince kept improving, he grew overconfident. Then, he stole the treasured sword and armor, took his sister and his subordinates and snuck out. Of course, the King wasn’t aware of this. He thought that as long as he slew the Great Demon King, everyone would forgive him. A nice picture that was drawn by an idiot.

「We have no food to return back and no place to stay. We will all die at this rate」

Desperately begged Amalia. I silently put the barriers on the four. It can retain the heat and protect them from danger.

「I cast the barriers on you. It should last until the night of the day after tomorrow. Do you best to reach the village until then. It is west from here. There is a river close by. Follow the river westwards and you will find the village. I bet you are hungry. I will leave some food for you. Bread and smoked meat. If you split it well, it should be enough to reach the village」

I took out the food from the infinite storage followed by a wooden water bottle. I poured the water produced by water magic inside and warmed it with a small fireball.

「Your body should be pretty cold. I will give you some hot water too」

Yuriel and Amalia stared wide-eyed at my actions. Amalia was afraid and timidly accepted the bottle with her head lowered.

I and Irimo took our distance from them.

「I’m tired. I’m really tired, Irimo~」

「It was such a surprise. I never expected them to behave like that. I became disgusted for first time in a long while」

「I can relate to that. Let’s go back and sleep」

Irimo spread her wings and flew away. The sky was full of stars. I hurried home while healing my heart by this scenery.

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The purple belial keeps screaming. Indeed, its body is small compared to the others. As Gon and Jeneha said, it seems to be still young.

Even though it is a monster, I was not pleased from seeing it in agony. For now, I enclosed the belial in a barrier, taking away its ability to resist, before healing it. If it has ill intent against us, I will kill it right away.

「All right, let’s get to the healing. Ultimate Heal! 」

It was enveloped in the blueish light and its spirit was restored. When the light disappeared, the belial was motionless.

「Hey, are you all right?」

「…….」

The purple belial didn’t answer. I tried giving it some water, but it didn’t stretch its hand. Looking closely, it seems to cry. I appraised this belial with my appraisal skill.

Peris (Belial Princess, 11 years old) LV12
HP: 154
MP: 119
Fire Magic LV2
Water Magic LV1
Wind Magic LV1
Lightning Magic LV1
Recovery Magic LV1
MP Recovery LV1
Presence Detection LV1
Mana Detection LV1
Body Strengthening LV2
Spear Arts LV2
Evasion LV1
Etiquette LV1
Liberal Arts LV3
Flight LV2

I unconsciously leaked a surprised voice. She is 11 years old and has Liberal Arts at LV3. She is quite smart. Her skills are rather high for her age. It seems that her standing amongst the monsters was quite high due to her being a princess.

「For now, I saved your life but left a barrier on you. Your actions would be severely restricted. If you attempt anything weird, you will lose your life in a moment. Still, what the hell was wrong with you guys? You suddenly came and attacked me」

「……」

Silent as always. I used the appraisal again and peeked into her past. [¹]

「Oh, the daughter of the belial king? So you were sent to defeat the Great Demon King to inherit the throne. Ho, those three……are unfortunate fellows…..Yeah, your attack was stupid, it really was~」

「H-how did you!? Do you understand it? Are you the Great Demon King…..?」

「Yeah, kind of. I was one for a moment. Although, I didn’t want to! 」

「Uuu……..」

The purple belial shrank its already small body and started crying. For now, it doesn’t seem to be the problem to undo the barrier.

「Well, if you don’t intend to harm us, I will just let you be. Return to your forest」

「……I don’t want to return」

「Un?」

「I do not want to return to the tribe……」

「Ha? You are the belial princess. You would become the Queen upon your return, right? 」

「….I don’t want to be a queen. And my father…..wanted me to run away when the three fail to eradicate the Great Demon King. They were my escorts」

「Then what are you going to do from now on?」

「I want to know a lot of things…..Why do the stars come out? Why do the plants grow? I want to know the unknown. The queen can’t leave the castle. I don’t want it」

……I see Liberal Arts LV3 aren’t just for show.

「If that’s the case then I don’t mind it. But with your appearance…..You absolutely look like a small dragon. If you are going to live by yourself, then it is fine, but……..」

「As expected it would be impossible for her to live in this world alone」 [²]

「Master, if you aren’t against it, how about letting her stay in this mansion? If found, she would be immediately subjugated, even monsters would treat her as a primary target. This girl doesn’t have much stamina」

「Un, well, I don’t mind, but it’s up to this belial. What do you think? Will you stay in this mansion until you determine your future plans? 」

The purple belial thought for a while and gave a small nod.

「As for the name……are you fine with Peris? The belials won’t launch an offensive if you do not return, right? 」

「……Before his death, father picked a representative to act on his behalf, so it should be fine」

Like that, Peris became a freeloader in my mansion.

I thought she would remain unapproachable for quite a while, but my expectations were immediately overturned. After being impressed by my food, she approached me for its recipe with overwhelming vigor. After that, she gradually started cooking herself and absorbed my recipes one by one.

Originally curious, she started experimenting with various ingredients. In no time, she became much better and assumed a role of the chef in our house.

I could often see her debating with Gon about the intricacies of farming. Gon also considered Peris, who absorbed knowledge like a sponge, as an excellent student of his.

Recently, she created a flower garden with a lot of colorful flowers in the backyard. The appearance of the little dragon cheerfully tending to the flowers gave me a contradicting feeling.

She also wanted to learn how to write and I could often see her staying late to study letters. As a result, one of the rooms on the second floor became hers as if it was a natural thing, before I noticed, she became a new member of our family.

While doing all of those, the winter came and the surroundings transformed into the world of silver. I turned 16 years old, and maybe because I was in my growing period, my height rose considerably. And along with that, I grew a beard. Before I went to sleep, one of the harpies even said that it might be about time to consider shaving.

「Master, we spotted 4 kids stranded in the forest. How should we act? 」

The forest located between me and the Niza Duchy is quite deep. I rarely even see the adventures going there during the winter. This time, they were discovered by a harpy, so I decided to help them if I can. However, 4 kids in the wood is a rare occasion.

「Understood. I will head there right away」

I mounted Irimo and entered the forest.

When I looked at the map, the children moved. Are they about 15 years old? Still young. Although it was a hard work for her, Irimo decided to use her wings and fly all the way there. [³]

When I reached the kind, I called out to them.

「Hey, are you all right?」

They were sitting shoulder to shoulder under a large tree, but the moment they heard my voice, they slowly looked up.

「……A cat? 」

The cats wearing the armor and robes like the humans do. Unlike the beastmen, they looked like giant cats posing as humans. Who on earth are they? [⁴]

One cat discovered me and stood up. Apparently, it was a woman. She quickly approached me.

「Slow! Too slow!! What were you even doing!? Why didn’t you came to pick me up sooner?!! Cold! It’s cold! 」

I unintentionally stumbled. Did her brain freeze in this cold?

While I was wondering about these speaking bipedal cats, an armored cat approached me from behind. Apparently, this one was a man.

「Just where were you all this time? Hurry up and bring us to a warm place. We are hungry. I will leave the meal preparations to you. Un? Did you come alone? What are you even doing? We won’t be able to ride on a single horse. Shouldn’t you bring more horses in such situations? You are useless. Whatever, I and Shera will ride on this horse. You will go walk together with Amalia. Yuriel has no choice but to walk. Don’t you lose the light of Yuriel」

I couldn’t make heads or tails out of this situation. What is going on? I? Came to help you? How did it come to that?

When I tried to assemble the puzzle in my mind, I hear the armored cat’s voice.

「Hurry up and dismount! We can’t get up with you being there! Do you understand!?」

「…….Thank you for your hard work」

「M? What? 」

「…You worked hard getting here. Well, good luck」

「Oi, what are you saying?」

「I’m not your servant and I’m not your slave. I coincidentally discovered you in the forest and thought of lending you a hand. But I’m not in the mood anymore, I don’t want to involve myself with you」

「What Are you saying?! Don’t you know about me? It’s me! Isn’t helping me a matter of course? 」

「Unfortunately, I don’t have any cats as my acquaintances. I don’t know who you are or where you came from, but where you receive a person’s good intentions, you should respond accordingly. I have no intention to help people, who aren’t aware of such a simple thing. Work hard and try to reach your destination. Best wishes」

I and Irimo turned around and headed back. The armored cat ran in desperation and stood in front of us.

「Please help me! I’m the hero! Hero Willis! 」

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A nameless continent is located in the northeast from the Hideta Empire. An unexplored continent covered by the forests and volcanoes. This continent became a home for all kinds of monsters. In addition, the powerful monsters lived in the surrounding sea. No one can step on this continent and return alive.

There are three big forces on this continent. The rulers of the volcanoes, the purgatory demon birds, the harpies led by a general harpy, who control about the half of the forest and the belial tribe, which controls the rest.

The purgatory tribe can only live on the volcanoes, while the rest can live only in the forest. That’s why there was no conflict between the purgatory tribe and the rest.

The problem lied in the belials and the harpies. The two were always at odds. This was mostly attributed to the belials’ pride as the high-ranking demons. They held ambitions to someday rule the continent.

The belials, who had the appearance of the mini-dragons, had great mobility and hard bodies, were able to dominate every single species they came across. However, they weren’t able to force the harpies to submit no matter what. Although it wouldn’t have been a problem if they fought one on one, the harpies specialized in group attacks, which caused some serious casualties in their ranks.

There, the general harpy and the belial king agreed on the ceasefire 120 years ago, which lasted up until now.

However, at that point in time, an abnormality occurred. A tremendous evil aura appeared in the direction of the Juka Kingdom.

The general harpy reacted to it. She gathered her tribe and ventured to slay the self-proclaimed Great Demon King. The belial tribe became impatient. Harpies’ group attacks posed a great danger to them. What if…..They were worried about different possibilities. If the harpies manage to slay the Great Demon King, the equilibrium will immediately collapse. There was a high possibility of harpies bringing new subordinates with them.

The being said, you need to cross the Juka Mountain Range to reach the Juka Kingdom. There are dragons living there. Even harpies won’t be able to escape from the dragon unscathed. However, if they were willing to sacrifice some of their members, it wasn’t impossible. The belials panicked.

Adding to their misfortunes, the 300-year-old belial king was one foot in the grave. Together with the matter of the Great Demon Kind, they also needed to pick a new king.

In the belial tribe, the strongest is the king. The candidates fight each other and the winner becomes the king.

Originally, that would have been fine, but they needed to come up with a countermeasure against the great Demon King. They wanted to avoid losing their tribe’s strength. There, the belials decided to give the crown to the one who manages to slay the Great Demon King.

The almost dead king had a single daughter. Her name was Peris. In human terms, she was about 10 years old, but she inherited the king’s intelligence.

Peris was the daughter of the king, thus she received the best education. She easily grasped the basics of fighting skills and magic. However, the princess was more interested in the world. For what reason do stars appear? Why is this plant can grow here and not there? You could say that she had a disposition of a scholar.

The king’s last wish was to let her become a queen. The three belials were entrusted with this. The strongest Belialk, the best magician Seshius, the wisest Satorius. [¹]

Peris didn’t like those three too much. She wanted to avoid becoming the Queen and living a restricted life. However, she couldn’t go against her father’s will. On the contrary, the king ordered the three to guard her on her journey to defeat the Great Demon King.

The intelligent Peris immediately understood her father’s intentions. Those three probably won’t be able to defeat the Great Demon King. So when they get wiped out, run away and live a free life.

On the day of their departure, her father, the belial king had died. To distract themselves from sadness, the four proceeded to hunt for the Great Demon King.

The trip was going well. They were attacked by monsters, but it didn’t trouble them at all. Even Peris was able to easily defeat them. While the three were hyped up, Peris calmly analyzed the situation.

She didn’t hear about the dragons trying to slay the Great Demon King. The dragons, who were famous for their intelligence, didn’t move at all. There should be a reason for this. She ended up thinking that the opponent was too strong for the dragons to handle.

An abnormality happened when they were in the Juka Mountain Range. They felt the presences of the harpies together with the general harpy.

When they tried to approach the presences, they were blocked by a barrier. The didn’t manage to break it no matter how many times they slammed into it. This was completely unexpected. The pride of the strongest species on the earth was hurt deeply.

The three decided to break the barrier apart. The three position themselves with Peris in the middle and launched their assault. The power greatly increased, that much was true. However, Peris had a bad premonition.

「Gumomomomo! All right, charge!!」

「Oh! The barrier has cracked! Once again! 」

「How is that, Peris? This is our power! Gumo! 」

「Stop it! I understand, so please stop it! 」

The barrier was finally breached. There was the general harpy with her tribe and a single youth. Peris was surprised after listening. They said there was no Great Demon King. Forget about that, the harpies actually lost to the youth. She said they served him in exchange for their lives.

Why did they even come here? The belials were greatly disappointed. But if they were to defeat the man, who defeated the harpies, then the story would be different. They would be able to rule the continent, they naively thought. Their hearts danced.

However, their thinking was too naive. The youth dispatched the belials in a matter of moments. The wisest Satorius was melted completely.

Peris judged that she won’t be able to win and attempted to escape. However, in the opposite direction, there was the general harpy and her comrades. Peris desperately tried to escape but was caught up in their attack. When she tried to open the bloody path using her strongest magic, she received a tremendous impact on her head. When she looked back, she saw the youth with black katana in his hand. When she thought that she died, a chill run through her soul.

She fell on the ground before she noticed. Then, accompanied by the tremendous pain, her limbs were torn away one by one. When she looked at her wounds, she saw a myriad of tiny rats gnawing at her. [²]

「Stop it!! I beg you, stop it!! Mommy!! Mommy!! Mommy!!!」

Peris unconsciously called for her late mother.

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I, together with Gon, came back from Ohi-sama’s mansion.

It looked like some kind of space magic, I do not think that too much time passed. While I was mulling over that magic, I saw a big shrine with the fox statues on its sides standing next to the small one. Most likely, this shrine is connected directly to Ohi-sama. Let’s prepare the offering tomorrow.

While I was thinking that, I saw a few harpies flying into the stables where Jeneha was. I guess, they came to deliver the food for the chicks. Let’s check on them.

「Jeneha-sama, the food for today was delivered」

「The meat of the great mouse once again. You can’t feed the children with only meat. You need to add some fruits and something sweet as well」

「Yes. Roger」

Oh, I understand what they are saying! I can only hear them saying「pipyi」, but I can subconsciously understand the meaning. Liberal Arts LV5 is amazing.

「I will make ohagi very soon, I will bring you some then. Or would you prefer zenzai? 」

Jeneha and the harpy made weird faces. Oh, did my words get through?

「M-master, how come you can speak in our tongue?」

「Well, I kind of received a skill from the god, who was Gon’s superior. You can properly understand me, right? 」

「Yes, I understand. I’m happy to have a direct conversation with Master! 」

「Master, it is Irimo. Do you understand my words? 」

「Oh! Irimo! I do understand you! You have a beautiful voice」

「Ehehe, it’s embarrassing」

While enjoying the conversation with the monsters, I unintentionally learned about their past. While prying further, I understood why the harpies came into this forest in the first place.

「Ho, so you came to visit the Great Demon King?」

「Yes, it is embarrassing to admit it, but we came here with the intention to defeat the Great Demon King. We sensed a tremendous evil aura and followed it. We thought that as long as we are together we could beat any opponent. We were confident in our strength」

When she sensed my aura, she was like「Ah? The world’s strongest? Who said that? Say that after you defeat us! 」and became strangely motivated. Come to think of it, it was said that Curse LV5 could attract the animosity of others. No wonder.

「However, Juka Mountain Range was filled with the dragons. Just when we were about to locate him, his presence vanished. Without any other choice, we settled here and met Master」

I see, and then they aimed for my beef stew and got smacked.

「Honestly, we didn’t think much of a single human’s power before. However, the whole family was cornered and almost died. I can’t forget that horror even now. But I’m grateful to master. You told us that there is always a higher mountain and even healed our wounds. Not just that, Master gave us a place to stay, gave the tasty food from time to time and protected our children. I can only be grateful」

Sure. It was just a whim of mine though.

Jeneha also mentioned the possibility of other monsters coming here, so I had the harpies be vigilant against any strange entities. As a reward, I ended up making some sweets for them.

As soon as the weather became warm, the little harpies started to practice flying. They still weren’t able to, but they tried their hardest. It was really cute. Watching them healed my soul. [¹]

At that time, my map displayed the monsters trespassing into my territory. Their color was yellow, they carefully approached the mansion. The harpies gathered and were prepared for the attack. The map displayed them as「Belial」. There were 4 of them.

「Belial」….its appearance resembled that of a mix between a dragon and a demon. It’s a quite high-ranking demon. I erected the barrier and the harpies took their positions. I also went outside to keep track of everything.

The 4 Belials decided to attack the barrier. However, my barrier wasn’t that brittle. It repelled them as if it was natural for it to happen. Then, the Belials steeled themselves, clad themselves in lightning-like magic and pounced at the barrier at extremely high speed. After assaulting the barrier for 10 times, they finally broke it apart.

Belials came inside, the harpies weren’t able to cope with their speed. With a loud sound, they appeared before me. Two of them were yellow, one was red and one was purple. Is color somehow related to their abilities? While I was thinking about that, the harpies descended around me and made a defensive formation.

「Gumomomomo, why are the harpies standing beside a human? No, is he the Great Demon King? 」

「No, I don’t feel any kind of evil aura around him」

「Hey, harpies! Where is the Great Demon King?! It would be better for you to obediently answer gumo」

「This human is our Master. There is no Great Demon King here. Go and cross that mountain range if you want to find him. The being said, that mountain range is the dragon’s den, even we can’t easily pass it」

「What?! No Great Demon King here!? This human is your Master?! ********! Are you saying that you lost to a puny human!?」

「That’s right. We lost to our Master. Therefore, in exchange for our lives, we are serving him」

「Gumomomomo. You, a general harpy, have descended into idiocy! Fine! If we can’t find the Great Demon King, we will increase our fame by slaying your Master! We will remind everyone about the Belials, the strongest species! 」

…..Don’t just decide that on your own. Increase your fame by slaying the Great Demon King? Are you retarded? Your lack of knowledge is extreme. Besides, I’m not in the mood to fight. While I was thinking that, one of the Belials released a high-speed fire magic. Fast! I tried to evade, but due to my negligence, it hit me anyway.

「Harpies are to protect Irimo and the children!」

I shouted as I ran in the opposite direction of the mansion. The Belials chased after me and very soon I was surrounded.

「Gumomo. Die for our sake. I’m hungry and you can make a nice snack. Gumomomomo」

「I understood that you are the Belials, but do you have a name? I wish to hear it」

「Our name? Fine, let’s make it our parting gift. I’m the top of the Belial family, Belialk…..gueee! 」

I put the noisiest one inside the barrier and started shrinking it. Its bones and body were crushed in a matter of moments and it completely and utterly died. You were too god damn loud!

「Y-you!!!!」

The remaining Belials released the high-speed fireballs at the same time. I resisted with the ice barrier. As soon as they released the fireballs, they moved in the air. I aimed at one of them and released the wind cutter. Transparent wind blades with exceptionally sharp edges tore the Belial apart.

At that moment, I was embraced by another Belial. Then, he released the explosive bullet from his mouth at the hair’s distance away. A grand explosion happened, but I was completely unscathed. While still being embraced, I increased the temperature of my surroundings with fire magic. In a blink of an eye, Belial’s body lit in flames. Since I instantly raised the temperature by a several thousand degrees, its body turned completely red. Its originally red body became even redder as it melted away.

Only the purple Belial was left. Or so I thought, but couldn’t see his figure. I heard the harpies’ screams from the stables. When I rushed back, I saw the scene of harpies struggling against the purple Belial with their sharp claws as their weapons. Fortunately, not even one was dead as of yet. To deal with the harpies, the Belial started chanting fire magic. I took out「Onigiri」from the infinite storage and slashed at it.

「Gumooooooooo!!! Gugyaaaaaaaa!!!」

The purple Belial raised a scream of agony and staggered.

「Is everyone fine? Ah, you over there, are your wings got hurt? Extra Heal! 」

I healed the wounded harpy. They are already something like my family. Fortunately, not even one was fatally injured and everyone was fine, children included.

I was relieved. Then, the purple Belial, who was screaming in agony, entered my sight. After he got tired of screaming, he spoke in a crying voice.

「Stop it!! I beg you, stop it!! Mommy!! Mommy!! Mommy!!!」

「This Belial is still a kid. It is even female. She is not an adult yet…..how pitiful」

Jeneha said in an exasperated voice.

「Un, my heart hurts to leave her to die in agony. After all, she tried to escape instead of joining the battle. Perhaps we should listen to her circumstances first」

Gon appeared by my side before I knew it. Eh? How bothersome. What am I going to do about it~

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「All right. Let’s go! 」

「Uu, I don’t want to go」

While forcibly dragging Gon, I arrived at the shrine. The three-year gathering of the white fox, if he didn’t go, his abilities will disappear. I must avoid it at all costs.

I am going to do my utmost to help Gon. I don’t know about the attitude of this Ohi-sama, but in the worst case, I’m prepared to exchange a few moves with her.

That being said, I’m not going there to pick a fight. I want to resolve this peacefully and prepared a certain countermeasure. It is said that she has her aides by her side. We can try the「Gift Strategy」. In my previous life, I was used to dealing with superiors.

That’s why I spent some time to make ohagi and fried tofu. Ohagi and fried tofu that I left in the shrine a while ago had miraculously disappeared. Believing that they liked it, I made a lot of both of them. If they didn’t, I will just give it to the harpies.

We stood in front of the shrine. For a moment, my surroundings became pure white. Before I noticed, we appeared in front of the large mansion.

The gate quietly opened. Once inside, I saw a Japanese style house. There was a fox in a peculiar outfit sitting in front of the entrance. When we approached,

「I was waiting for you」

She slightly lowered her head and led us inside. Gon was completely nervous, but she didn’t care and proficiently guided us inside. Surprisingly, my map doesn’t work here, is there some kind of a barrier?

Soon, we arrived at the hall. In the far end of the room, two foxes were sitting. We entered inside and sat in front of them.

「Oh, the one, who was dispatched to the Juka Kingdom, finally came back」

「It is good that you came back. Did you wash your neck? 」

Hohoho, laughed his superiors. A sudden preemptive strike was fired. Gon was completely defeated by it. He seems to have a trauma.

「You even brought a friend with you. You probably don’t know any manners, but I will allow you to tell me your name. Go ahead, state your name」

I breathed out and prepared my speech. I used a certain performance as a reference.

「I apologize for sullying your mood. I’m one of your faithful believers from the Hideta Empire named as Rinos. On this occasion, I presumptuously accompanied a white fox here. Although I overstepped my bounds, I hope you can forgive me. I’m aware of the intricacies of your relationships, but I still hope to have a fruitful conversation」 [¹]

「……Ho, quite courteous of you. It seems that you at least have etiquette in your skills」

All right, the first objective clear! Let’s go to the next step.

「Today, we are here to offer you our humble food. It might not suit your palate, but I still wish to present you with it」

I took out a lot of ohagi and fried tofu from the infinite storage. They immediately showed a reaction.

「This is something we found amongst the offerings a while ago. That thing was superb. It is even so much…..You are such a lovely boy. Umumu, leave it to us. I will bring Ohi-sama right away」

The superiors were surprisingly easy to deal with. They called Ohi-sama and waited in front of the bamboo curtain. After a while, the bamboo curtain was lifted

……and I saw a giant fox there. She truly had nine tails and was rather silver than white. She gave me a radiant feeling. Gon was desperately prostrating on the floor, and I followed him in his prostration.

「Umu. The one from the Juka Kingdom…….This one is willing to listen to you. You brought a mysterious person in our abode……But on behalf of your offering, this one will allow it. You can raise your head」

Gon became even more scared. While being relieved with her permission, I saw her aides nodding at her.

「This place isn’t suitable for a conversation. You two can follow this mistress inside」

The bamboo curtain was lifted aside. It seems, she called us in a different room. A different fox appeared and guided us inside, once we passed through the corridor

「I can only guide you up to here. The inner chambers are just ahead. Please proceed inside」

she said so and disappeared. We quietly pass through the corridor and headed towards the room.

「I’m glad that those girls didn’t lash on me this time」

「Somehow we managed to pass. The gift strategy was successful」

「I’m saved. But still, Ohi-sama is beautiful no matter how many times I look at her. I want to have such a princess as my wife. That would be nice. At least for three days……..」

「What the hell are you saying? You are her follower. Forget about Ohi-sama. Just go and buy a prostitute when we are home! 」

While having a silly conversation, we arrived at our destination. When we opened the sliding door, we saw two cushions. Once we sat down, we waited for Ohi-sama to start a conversation.

「This mistress summoned you here to ask for a favor」

I smell something troublesome.

「Ohagi and fried tofu from the last offering. This mistress won’t ask for it…….every day. Can you offer it once a week? Of course, it won’t be for free. This mistress will bestow a worthy reward upon you」

「That would be easy for me. But is it safe to assume that you forgave this Gon? 」

「Umu. This mistress took a liberty to look through your memory up until now. Including you killing thousands of people and becoming a Great Demon King. Even though you are of the same race, you can still accumulate the experience from killing. The experience gathered from such a number of people is tremendous, that’s what boosted your skill to such an extent」

Hou, I see.

「The fact that you gave up on being the Great Demon King is not because of that fox, but because of your own heart. More than that, this mistress is deeply pleased with you dealing with that demon fox, Paoran. That ****** ***** was leading our people astray. She even killed some our us」

I see. Mm? Did I just hear something outrageous?

「Therefore, this mistress forgives that fox. Forget about that, ohagi! Fried tofu! Even this mistress, didn’t eat something so exquisite in 10000 years. It is a waste to leave it all to the officials. You are to bring it directly to this mistress」

Such a spoiled princess. I’m totally fine with this arrangement, you know?

「Oh! So you accept. To repay you, this mistress will bestow the「Divine Protection」upon you. This one will also raise your liberal arts, while at it. Un? You have a lot of imposing titles. This might be a little difficult….this is…..」

Ohi-sama’s body shone. Like that, I obtained「Divine Protection LV5」and「Liberal Arts LV5」.

「With Divine Protection you can bestow and deprive people of their skills. Normally, you can only take or give skill below your own LV. But starting from LV4, you can manipulate the skill of the same LV as your own. When「Liberal Arts LV5」increase in level, you can freely interact with other species. You have a lot of different species around you, right? It should be rather convenient to you」 [²]

Oh! I’m going to dance in joy!

「A lot of your skill have reached the god-class and you obtained a multitude of titles as a result. Thanks to that, this mistress was quite hard pressed to grant you these skills. Most likely, this mistress won’t be able to alter your skills any more」

Didn’t know that the titles have such a characteristic. Un? Gon doesn’t have any titles, but……

「He is under me and acts on my behalf」

I see. So that is the reason.

「Thanks to granting you the skills, this mistress’ MP decreased quite a bit. Yes, granting and depriving the skills consumes a lot of MP, so be careful. It’s been a while seen this mistress used so much and this mistress became tired. Let’s give up increasing you skills any further on this occasion. Chieda, Saeda, if someone comes to see this one, you are to send them away」

Acknowledged, said the aides. Is it all right?

「Come to think of it, when you were about to enter this room, you voiced a strange word. 「buyaprostitute」, what does it mean?」

This….I’m troubled how to answer.

「W-we, common people, when we want to come home and relax, say「buyaprostitute」」[³]

「Oh, so that’s how it was」

I somehow succeeded. After that, we returned to our mansion. I still need to make more of fried tofu and ohagi.

….One day, we had a visitor from Ohi-sama. An old fox named Sandill.

Sandill is the second oldest fox after Ohi-sama with an age of 6000 years. His intimate attitude creeped out the females on the first glance.

Ohi-sama didn’t like Sandill very much. Be it his actions or his attitude. She always thought of sending him away.

「The one who worships the princess’ beautiful face, Sandill, at your service」

「You must be tired as of late. This one allows you to take a break and buy a prostitute」

After that, Sandill went away for a week, while Ohi-sama enjoyed her free time.

Ohi-sama (Fox God, 10112 years old) LV97
HP: 13579
MP: 18745
Appraisal Magic LV5
Presence Detection LV5
Mana Detection LV5
Liberal Arts LV5
Divine Protection LV5
Barrier Magic LV3
Space Magic LV4
Evasion LV5
Recovery Magic LV4

Erudite, Sage, Life and Death, Renowned Scout

Erudite: Liberal Arts LV5
Sage: Appraisal Magic LV5
Life and Death: Divine Protection LV5
Renowned Scout: Presence Detection LV5, Mana Detection LV5, Evasion LV5

Rinos (Barrier Master, 15 years old) LV∞
HP: 49859
MP: 62874
Barrier Magic LV5
Fire Magic LV5
Water Magic LV5
Wind Magic LV5
Lightning Magic LV5
Earth Magic LV4
Recovery Magic LV5
Life Magic LV2
Chanting LV5
Appraisal Magic LV5
Sword Arts LV5
MP Recovery LV5
Presence Detection LV5
Mana Detection LV5
Mana Absorption LV5
Body Strengthening LV5
Evasion LV5
Etiquette LV3 (UP)
Liberal Arts LV5 (UP)
Paralysis Resistance LV5
Poison Resistance LV5
Mental Resistance LV5
Black Magic LV5
Divine Protection LV5 (NEW!)

God of War, God of Knowledge, Greater Demon, Iron Man, Iron Fist, God of Barriers, Ace, Skilled Warrior, Renowned Scout, Life and Death, Erudite

God of War: Sword Arts LV5, Lightning Magic LV5, Wind Magic LV5
God of Knowledge: Appraisal Magic LV5, Recovery Magic LV5
Greater Demon: Black Magic LV5
Iron Man: Mental Resistance LV5, Poison Resistance LV5, Paralysis Resistance LV5
Iron Fist: Body Strengthening LV5
God of Barriers: Barrier Magic LV5
Ace: Fire Magic LV5, Water Magic LV5
Skilled Warrior: Chanting LV5, MP Recovery LV5, Mana Absorption LV5
Renowned Scout: Presence Detection LV5, Mana Detection LV5, Evasion LV5
Life and Death: Divine Protection LV5
Erudite: Liberal Arts LV5

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The snow finally melted and spring arrived.

My surroundings were wrapped in cheers, that being said, those were monster’s cheers.

Should I call them as subordinates? The harpies brought me already hatched eggs. 84 harpies below the general harpy have gathered in the stables, big things are happening here. [¹] Harpies hatching period is long. It takes about 1 month. After the end of the year, I was asked by a general harpy (I named her Jeneha) for a permission to increase her family and I accepted. The four mother harpies lived in the stables during that period.

They will take care of the baby harpies until they would be able to join the flock. Their meals were taken care of by the rest of the flock. It is said that they increased their camaraderie spirit this way.

Every chick was healthy and they would stay here until they can fly.

Harpies, of course, weren’t slacking with their work. They hunt monsters in the forest every day. They bring a lot of tasty monsters, but they also bring fruits back. Thanks to them, we have an abundance of food in our mansion. I bring the surplus meat to the hotel that has that beef stew.

From time to time, I make food for the harpies. Zenzai, tempura, karaage were present, all of them were popular. When I make their meals, they always take it with great delight.

「All right, as a gratitude for increasing your comrades, I will make ohagi!」

「Pyiiii!」

I spent a whole day to make a ridiculously big hundred-portion ohagi. It goes without saying that everyone was delighted by the taste.

While everyone enjoyed their meal, I discovered a shrine in the back of the kitchen. Shrine? Was there such a thing……..? I wondered and tried to appraise

「The shrine of the Fox God. Has the power to communicate with the Fox God. Has a divine blessing」

and this appeared. Since it is under the divine protection, it shouldn’t be something evil. Since it is in the name of the Fox God, I’m pretty sure that it is Gon’s handiwork. I left the leftover ohagi as an offering and left. [¹]

During the night, he used it to communicate, undid his human form and started trembling.

「This time has finally come. They won’t let me be after all」

Gon started crying. This is something unusual. When I asked him,

「We, apostles of the Fox God, Ohi-sama, are checked on every three years. She investigates your life in these three years and as a result, your position in the family may rise or fall」

Oh, so you had such a system.

「I converted a Great Demon King and participated in Paoran’s subjugation, but after that, I ditched my duties and peacefully lived without contacting anyone, they will surely blame me. I’m scared. The supervisors under Ohi-sama are all mean people. When I think about what they would say to me, I feel my soul wilting」

Aah, the so called「deadline」. However, Gon achieved a lot as a farmer in this mansion. He also succeeded in making the sweet tomatoes. Moreover, he served an excellent interpreter and mediator between various monsters. You can say that a lot of what I have right now is because of Gon.

「I’m happy to hear it, but lies won’t work against Ohi-sama. Since we have the power to look through the memory, they will definitely be angry」

Hey, Gon. What did you do while I wasn’t looking? No no, just say it, I won’t be angry. Maybe we can work out a countermeasure against it. How about it? Since I won’t be angry, you can just say it.

「….Actually~」

I heard him out and became exasperated. This idiot fox took out my free card, sneaked out while I wasn’t around, and went in「Miraya」to play around with a prostitute. The person in question tried to brush it off as a human transformation practice, but such excuses aren’t going to work on a male, which is I. You climbed the stairs of adulthood ahead of me. Nuuuu…..How was it?

「Girls in Miraya have all kinds of skill, you know. I can’t count how many times I was sent on a cloud nine. When they gently traced my back with their hands……How about going together to Miraya for a change of pace? Guhehehe」

This ero-fox. How many times did you go?! Miraya’s girls are dreadful existences. For them to be able to satisfy a transformed white fox……I silently confiscated the card.

With thing as they are, Gon is in for a divine punishment. Originally, he should spread his blessings around, but he was enjoying life all on his own. Extreme disregard of his duty.

However, if he receives such a punishment, all his abilities will vanish. That would be troubling for me. Until now, Gon told me a lot of other monster’s common sense and traits, while also being an interpreter, a walking encyclopedia. Suddenly becoming a normal fox would be pretty devastating.

「Do you need to go to this Ohi-sama’s place alone? If not, I can accompany you to try to make some follow-ups……」

「There were such cases in the past, so it shouldn’t be a problem, but….」

「But what?」

「Ohi-sama’s aides will pick on you since you would be there for the first time. They said a lot of harsh things about me, I don’t want another person to experience it」

「Well, aren’t superiors always like that? How much did they tell you? 」

「The told that I can’t even greet people properly. Even like that, I lived for 200 years in human society, I was pretty confident in my etiquette. They laughed at me while calling me a bad-mannered fox. I didn’t forget that frustration even until now」

「How horrible. Just what kind of greeting did you make? Show it to me for a reference」

Gon agreed and straightened his posture with a light cough.

「On this bright day, I present you my sincerest congratulations. From the old days, there were three kinds of bags you should never forget: a bag for money……」

……Isn’t it a greeting for the wedding ceremony? No wonder you superiors couldn’t help but retort.

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I became 15 years old. Now, I’m twice adult.

I didn’t really tell anyone about my birthday, so there was no celebration party to speak of. From time to time a met the owner of「Miraya」, Akima. She always tried to invite me to play in her establishment. When someone tries to invite you so hard, it makes it even harder to agree.

There was also a pleasant result. I was able to replicate the beef stew, which I always ate in that hotel.

Because I often ate there, the chef noticed me and taught me some things. When I praised his creation, he gave me some demiglas sauce and the recipe. No one will fault me for replicating it. Being able to enjoy that beef stew in my home is…..priceless.

I finished my work, returned home, took out a large pot and loaded the ingredients. The chef in the hotel had to spend about 12 hours to cook it. Therefore, I cooked with utmost care, following the recipe.

I really did that for 12 hours. While adjusting the heat with fire magic, it took me until the morning to finally complete it.

Then, the incident occurred.

Gon declared that he was hungry. I planned to split the finished beef stew into multiple portions, but, as expected, I was pretty hungry myself. At that time, I planned to stuff ourselves with some fried dishes.

「Doon! Gasshan!!!」

The beef stew, which was the product of my titanic efforts, was spilled on the kitchen’s floor. The time stopped for me.

「Kyaaaaaaaaa」

A harpy was attracted by the smell and sneaked into the kitchen trying to steal the pot. However, when it tried to get away, it succumbed to its sheer weight and spilled the stew all over the kitchen. Recently, there were no monster attacks, so I dispelled the barrier some time ago. My map didn’t help at all. I was aware of a monster flying above my mansion, but since it didn’t have any ill intent, I overlooked it. I never expected to meet a monster that was after our food.

The harpy fled outside with a mocking expression. Its arms and legs were that of a bird, but the rest of its body was human. I could read its expression very well. This thing was considering me an idiot. Something exploded inside of me.

「God damn it!! I will slaughter you!!!!!!!!」

Stepping over the beef stew remains, I picked a club and went outside. Harpy was flying in circles above the mansion, but maybe because it recognized me as an enemy, it attacked me with its sharp claws.

「Gachin!!」

The harpy’s attacks proved ineffective in the face of the barrier. I grabbed its leg and smashed it on the ground. Again. And again.

「Pigya! Pigya!! Pigya!!」

It tried to slap its wings and escape into the air, but I used the club to smash them.

「Pyiiiiii!!!」

I thoroughly beat up the wailing harpy with the club.

「Just how long do you think it took me!? Do you know how long I stirred and stirred and stirred and stirred and stirred and stirred and stirred and stirred and stirred and stirred and stirred and stirred and stirred and stirred and stirred!!」

The harpy didn’t have a single uninjured spot. In the end, I smashed its face using the club as a baseball bat.

Harpy still seemed alive. How tenacious. When I planned to continue with the punishment, I saw a presence on the map. Dozens of harpies were flying towards me, most likely, its comrades.

When they saw their comrade, they instantly recognized me as an enemy and launched the attack. However, their numbers are of no concern to me. I will plummet them just like the previous one. Plummet. Plummet.

「Pii……Pyi…..」

Tens of harpies with their limbs bent in the unnatural directions lying on the ground. My wrath won’t be dispelled with just that. When I was thinking what about their fate, even more harpies came out of the forest. Fine. I will be your opponent, no matter how many there are!

Dozens of harpies appeared following behind a huge harpy. The giant harpy saw the disaster site and raised a loud screech. With that as a sign, the harpies banded together and attacked me.

Even an elite knight or magician would find it difficult to escape from this situation. However, that didn’t apply to me. I smashed their wings and made a mess of them like before. The giant harpy, which was hiding behind the rest, launched a wind magic attack at me. It was a nice tactic. However, it was easily dodged by me while I caught it by the leg.

「Pyiiiii!!」

It attacked me with its free leg, but wasn’t able to even scratch me. While holding its leg, I smashed it against the ground, broke its wings, broke its limbs and smashed its face.

Close to hundred harpies sprawled around me. I enclosed them inside the barrier. Then I applied recovery magic on them and called Gon to interpret my words.

「Because we won’t be able to talk while you are injured! Even if they are you comrades, you made a mess of a stew that I stirred and stirred and stirred and stirred and stirred and stirred and stirred and stirred and stirred and stirred and stirred and stirred and stirred and stirred and stirred and stirred for who knows how long! How are you going to compensate me!? Don’t think that you would have an easy death!!!」

A strong-willed harpy tried to attack me from inside of the barrier. I dragged it out and slashed at it with「Onigiri」.

「Pyiiiii! Pigya!!!!!!!」

It screamed in agony.

「This was just an appetizer. I will let you suffer even more before I kill you! Do not make light of the food grudge! 」

「Pi, pyii…..」

The harpies were shivering. Some of them even wet themselves.

「Pi! Pipipipi! 」

The giant harpy said something.

「It wants you to quell your anger」

「Ah? Quell my anger?! Don’t talk about it with that mouth of yours! 」

「I’m a general harpy, the head of this flock. I wish to avoid my family being killed at all costs. We apologize regarding the conduct of our comrade. We can obey your demands, but we want to avoid being wiped out, or so it says」

「You can’t do ****! Nuu, only your blood can quell my anger! There is no other way but to atone with your blood! 」

「No, rather than that, we can use the to guard the vicinity. Harpy is a B rank monster, A rank in the group. In such a number they should even reach S rank. They would be extremely convenient to reduce the monster population around us」

Ho, so I can obtain monster meat without doing anything.

「Besides, harpy’s eggs are quite the delicacy. It’s a good idea to make them pay some eggs as a tribute」

「All right, if you accept those condition, I can leave you be. If you don’t, I will leave you here to starve to death」

Of course, the harpies agreed in a moment. Once I accepted it, I healed the one slashed by「Onigiri」and returned it to the flock.

According to Gon, harpies are creatures with a strong sense of camaraderie. With the general harpy at the top, they could triumph over any other creature in this forest. In other words, there are on top on the food chain in this forest.

「They just stumbled on the Great Demon King」

You mean, me?

The whole flock of harpies, which were confident in their victory, was instantly plummeted. Quite scary if you think about it.

In general, harpies are very protective of their young ones. They lay about five eggs in three years and carefully nurture every child. But it seems that before the eggs hatched, they do not have much interest in them and the conditions were accepted smoothly. [¹]

The general harpy stayed behind as a hostage. It was prohibited from accessing the insides of the mansion until I give a permission. This condition limited her scope of activity, but the general harpy itself didn’t have any objections. On the contrary, it got addicted to the food I gave and became friendly with Irimo. Even now, it stays together with Irimo in the stables.

By the way, amongst the harpies, the word「stirred」became a word of a devil. When I occasionally use this word, the general harpy as well as the others freeze in fright.

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Several months have passed.

Right now, I’m having breakfast with Gon. Pure Japanese menu of rice, tamagoyaki, and tofu.

After finding the right ingredients in the capital, I immediately managed to produce tofu. I wasn’t able to produce the same taste as my father’s and grandpa’s, but it was still a proper tofu. Since tofu can be made, soymilk and yuba can be made too. And by frying them together with tofu, I can make「Ohage-san」.

I tried making「Ohage-san」for Gon. I thought that a fox might like it and made an attempt. I made two kinds of flavors and presented it to him.

……Gon cried. He cried while saying that it was the tastiest meal in his life. It wasn’t such a big thing though.

Making tofu every day is a bother, so I making it only once a week. Without the soy sauce, I was using the salt, but, as expected, I definitely want to make it.

On the other note, the renovation of the mansion was finally complete. I didn’t change much, but it took me unexpectedly a long time to complete.

First, I made a bath. Initially, there were four room on the second floor, but I merged two of them to make a bathroom. Both, the kingdom and the empire do not know the concept of a bath, so I took a long time to explain it to the craftsmen. In addition, it was bothersome to install the drainage system on the second floor, however, due to their hard work, a magnificent bathroom was completed.

Following after that, I made a toilet. The toilets in this world are based on scooping. It’s not like I can’t use them, but I was fixated on making a proper restroom. I went out of my way to demolish the previous toilet and expand the room. I drew water from the nearby river and made a flush toilet. The winter in the empire was rather cold, so I attached a warm seat to it. I enchanted the seat with a barrier that was able to change its temperature according to the temperature outside. [¹]

I was troubled with the sewage disposal, but Gon said to leave it to him.

Since I moved in this mansion, Gon was often housesitting. Since he is a fox-sama, I thought that he should have been spreading his religion, but there is another fox-sama in the capital. In Gon enters the fray, there would be something like: Don’t you steal my believers! Like that, it will result in a quarrel, so there were no moves from our side.

Then, to kill his boredom, Gon created a vineyard on the mansion’s land.

As expected, it was rather difficult to do farm work in fox form. Without any other choice, he transformed, but it was the same fox-headed human as before, his naked appearance looked very eerie. Fortunately, his skill rose a level and he became a「human resembling a fox」.

He used the water from the toilet as a kind of fertilizer. It is the fertilizer, but you need to be careful of overusing it, lest you want all of your plants to die.

Gon’s vegetables: potatoes, cabbage, radish, and tomatoes, were quite delicious. That’s what you get from an experienced person, who always stayed around humans. When I taught him the way to make sweet tomatoes, he began a desperate research. Maybe he should quit being fox-sama and become a farmer.

Even so, this year was filled with upheavals. Around the same time one year ago, I enjoyed hunting with Eril in the forest. I enjoyed the casual daily conversation with Falco and Elsa-sama. Then, I lost everything, obtained new friends like Irimo and Gon and moved into the imperial capital of the Hideta Empire. I found a job and bought a nice house. Looking back at my slave life, I can say that I achieved something.

It is not gigantic, but it’s a neat mansion, I made a wide bath and a toilet, work is going well, there is no shortage of money, my life is a smooth sailing. I wish it would be like that from now on…….Or so I wished while gazing at the setting sun.

However, I didn’t know. About the events that were about to happen. About the troublesome future ahead of me…..

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「……T-this thick thing is going to enter my body? 」

「It is all right, leave everything to this big sister. Now relax…..」

「Kuh, ah, it is pushing in, it is pushing in…….」

「Hora, it pierced all the way. This is your first time today, so you shouldn’t move for a while」

「B-big sister, my body is hot!」

「You’ll get used to it after a while~. You will definitely like it once you get used to it. All right, I will start to move」

「Fuh, kuh, kuaaaaaa」

…..I came here for the acupuncture. I liked the needles from my previous life, but I never expected to be punctured in the belly by such a thick needle. [¹]

With the issue of my new house settled, I will open the Daquet Company tomorrow. The army and the nobles even asked me to guide them to it. My store is placed between my house and the imperial capital. When I was buying my house, I conveniently purchased a vacant store at affordable price. It is in 15 minutes on Irimo from me, not that big of the distance.

With the opening preparations over, in order to maintain my body, I visited an acupuncturist next to the red-light district. I fully enjoyed the treatment. It was a nice place. When I about to leave, a woman, who did the acupuncture on me, escorted me until the exit. She was young, but had some skills. My body became much lighter. When I said

「Uwa~ I was truly comfortable~. I feel refreshed! 」

「Sometimes, your body just craves for it~. Please come again at any time」

the people around us bitterly smiled. This was right outside the red-light district. They, most likely, misunderstood something there.

…..In reality, my barrier store became a big hit. As for the working hours: the store was opened from 9 to 17, the store is closed for 1 hour during the lunch break. I became famous as a shopkeeper that changes the days off and holidays based on his mood, but I still received about 10 orders every day. There are unexpectedly a lot of customers amongst the army, nobility and even the commoners. I was often asked to put up a soundproof barrier because of the noise.

Since I didn’t have any time to satisfy every order I received, I refused some of them at first. But then, I came up with something.

I picked up some stones from the river and sold them off as「Magic Stones」. It is possible to control my barriers remotely. Then, I enchanted them according to the characteristics of the desired barrier. Like that, 「Barrier Magic Stones」came into being. Of course, it was still just a normal stone, but the customers completely believed me. Since I was “LV2”, the maximum duration was about 3 days. The barrier was also able to withstand only about 5 full force sword blows, but the demand was still overwhelming. I priced them about 100G, quite the price, but they still sold well. The production costs are zero, so every coin is a profit. Don’t call me a scammer. [²]

To my surprise, there weren’t many orders from the royalty. I only sometimes accompanied prince Viras when he had business outside the palace, and even that is estimated to be once a month. The longest time was 1 day. It was when His Highness and his little sister visited a remote town for a local event.

After I closed the shop, I was free, so I spent my time sightseeing the capital. It is quite wide, so it takes a long time to see everything. I discovered a good weapons and armor store. I also found a splendid grocery store. During the days off I eat lunch in the hotel, I spend my days rather extravagantly if I say so myself.

When I moved in, monster often came out of the forest, but they were mostly goblins. They were subdued without any difficulty. Currently, there is an effect from the barrier, so I didn’t see any monsters recently.

My cooking repertoire also increased. I succeeded in making ohagi. It wasn’t the same as my grandmother’s, but I still pride myself in being able to replicate it to a certain extent. Gon was extremely delighted.

I enjoyed myself with Chinese-style rice and onigiri, from time to time, I challenged something like tempura or karaage. This was also popular with Gon. Right now, I’m making a pudding. It is currently in the prototype stage. [³]

I didn’t go to that establishment in the red-light district yet. It is somewhat embarrassing and I often come straight home at night. After all, Irimo wants to go home as soon as possible. Well, considering the size of the stables, Irimo lives quite comfortably. I can easily fit several horses there, so I thought of buying another horse to reduce her workload.

Autumn passed, winter passed, I can finally feel a smell of spring. The business is fine and there is no shortage of orders. I left the stone gathering to Gon, but he brought less and less each time.

One day, I discovered a drug store close by. It was placed in an inconspicuous corner and sold rather dangerous things. It was a poison store. There, I found something unexpected. A poison named「Cash」, which can cause a heart attack when drunk in large quantities. I appraised it and「magnesium chloride」came out. So-called「Bittern」.

Once I found it, my tension skyrocketed. I can create tofu. My parents owned a tofu store in my previous life. The method of creating tofu was crammed in my head by my father and grandpa. To escape that, I worked as a programmer, but in order to repay my dad and grandpa, I swore to make tofu in this life one day.

Once again, there was a thing called「Aphrodisiac」in that store. There was a description. Helps to convey the pleasure to your partner to feel the pleasure together…..or something incomprehensible amongst those lines, but for some reason, Gon reacted to it.

Helps to convey the pleasure to your partner to feel the pleasure together. Young big-breasted beauty, skin, white as a whitefish. With her beautiful fingers, she will stroke my fur and reach the apex of pleasure with me……how wonderful. Such is my dream. Uhehehehe」

Regarding the drugs, it seems that it is possible to adjust the effect. Gon’s face became even more deplorable. For now, I decided on what to buy from the drug store. I relayed my order to the shopkeeper.

「Excuse me, do you have something to cure the idiocy?」

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I decided to accept His Excellency’s proposal. It was unexpectedly easy to reach this decision.

On the next day after the dinner party, some figures from army and nobility swaggered into my room. With quite the vigor that is.

「Become the barrier master for our house! I will take care of you! 」

「We will attach you to our flying dragon’s corps, be grateful!」

No matter how hard I refused, more and more kept coming. Some soldiers even fought in the lobby. As expected it wasn’t a good development so I was somehow calmed them down.

On the other note, I decided to set up a company. I named it「Daquet Company」. As expected, it was too embarrassing to use my own name in the company name. There, I borrowed a part of the name that the late regent prince came up with when he proposed to Versam family to adopt me. [¹]

Next, I searched for a house to live in. Seono from the Knight’s Order introduced me a real estate company. Although, he had a cramped expression when he did that.

A real estate agent introduced me three houses. There is Irimo, so there were only three places that suited my requirements and had stables attached. First was a ridiculously large mansion near the residence of the prime minister. It seems that a rich retired merchant lived here before, as expected, it is too much to manage for the lone me, so I refused.

Following after that was a sturdy stone building in the area where the imperial knights live. It wasn’t that bad, but since I had my fill with soldiers recently, I refused.

The last building was at the edge of the capital. There was a spring in the forest nearby, it also had a farm field attached. A two-story building with stables. The second floor had four rooms, it is said that it was built to resemble a small Versam mansion. It seems that the royalty lived here long time ago, it had a wide area of land to use. The land goes as far as I can see. Adding to that, it was 100G per month. 10000 in Japanese yen. The reason is simple, recently, there were monsters coming out of the forest, so it wasn’t very popular amongst the buyers. Of course, I have a barrier, so there is no problem. The mansion was protected and kept clean, but the real estate company wanted to pass this hot potato as soon as possible.

After the negotiations, they agreed to sell it for 1000G, like that, I became a mansion owner at 14 years old.

It takes an hour to reach the palace from here, but with Irimo, 20 minutes is enough. Well, this much is acceptable.

After that, I gathered the daily necessities, bought bed and sheets to bring home, I also purchased a mountain of food ingredients. Of course, I bought a lot of rice and beans. And of course, it was the glutinous rice. I bought it without any hesitation. Different kinds of beans were also bought in excess. Different kinds of seasonings were also available for purchase, with this, my repertoire should increase.

The hospital and other health institution were close by, it seems this city is rather kind to its inhabitants.

The preparations were over after two weeks. Following after that, we moved out of the hotel. The dishes in the hotel were more delicious than I expected, so I decided to visit that place from time to time. With this in mind, I left some tips behind when I checked out.

When I left the hotel and was walking around the capital, I noticed a commotion in the red-light district. Apparently, a woman was arguing with a soldier. [²]

「Why are you trying to detain us! We didn’t do anything!!」

「Shut up, ******! You are the villains who disturb the public morals! I’m capturing you for the sake of public order! Hurry up and walk! 」

「Wait! We are permitted to our do business here of behalf of His Majesty the emperor! You need a special decree to capture us! 」

「From the looks of it, the soldiers often stay in our place too! Don’t you spout some nonsense! 」

「S-shut up, shut up, you ******! There is no need for the emperor’s decree. This is the order of the first princess Ricolette! This vile place has to be demolished!!」

A soldier tries to bring the prostitutes away, someone related to them tries to stop him and the gallery is being noisy. And once the soldiers grabbed them by the hair and tried to bring them away, they walked in my direction.

「Brat, move!!」

「You just mention that you wanted to demolish this place, but there are plenty of less violent ways, you know?」

「An? What did you say??」

「You are going to capture these big sisters, right? Such a bother. There is way to deal with this situation even without that」

「A brat that spouts ********. What is it, try to say it! 」

「You just need to stop visiting this place」

「Ah!? That’s it!?」

「There is a saying in my homeland:『There is no sin in selling, only in buying』. In short, their establishment is not at fault. The customers are at fault. If no one ever pays for their service, they will be gone in no time. That’s why, people just need to stop coming here, including you 」

「Chi! This brat!!」

The soldiers pulled out his sword and slashed at me. There is now way such crude swordsmanship will work. I knocked his sword away in a moment.

「If you are insisting on continuing, instead of a sword, your head might fly away next」

I clad my hand in fire. Maybe because I’m a magician, the soldiers faltered.

A red dot appeared on my map. It is behind my back. I glanced behind my back and noticed a big carriage.

「Hey, you! Well done!! I felt a throbbing in my chest!! Good job! 」

「I never liked those troublemakers! They didn’t even pay occasionally! 」

A fat aunty, who looked like an owner of this place, slapped me on the shoulder. Hurts! It hurts! On the other hand, I’m deeply grateful towards a big sister, who pushed pressed her impressive valley against my arm.

「You are interesting! I’m the owner of this「Miraya」establishment, my name is Akima. Follow me! 」

The fat aunt Akima entered inside with great vigor. The breasts sister, who still didn’t let go of my arm, dragged me to follow. I also brought Irimo with me. She seemed to be hesitating though. On the contrary, Gon, who was on my back, laughed happily. Such a carefree fox. [³]

Once inside, aunt Akima brought out a single card and handed it to me.

「Show it and you can play here for free! It is supposed to be one-use only, but you can come here until the end of this year! 」

「Do you want to play? Big sister will teach you everything」

「No, I will accompany him myself! It is so cute when he calls us「big sisters」. I will be gentle! 」

「We have all kinds of girls here! I will definitely find a girl to suit your tastes, leave it to me! 」

No, no, I’m not even adult yet……Big sisters? approached me with overwhelming vigor, somehow I was able to escape.

This card, when would I use it??

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While I was having a lunch, I had a visitor, Seono of the imperial Knight’s Order. It was about the prime minister’s invitation to a meal at tomorrow night. I had no reason to refuse, so I agreed. By the way, I was eating the beef stew. The meat melted in my mouth, it had a very refined taste. Is there a curry or demiglas sause in the Hideta Empire? After that, I was eating that beef stew almost every day.

「We sure have too much free time」

Muttered Gon while yawning. Agreed, so bored. Since I’m here, I thought of loitering around the imperial capital, but I’m still under surveillance. I have no idea whether I’m allowed to freely move around. Well, let’s try something.

「Such a magnificent capital. Oh, how I want to explore it once」

Although I wasn’t that good at acting, for now, I tried to say it loud enough for guards to hear. Ah, one of the guards moved. After a while, Seono arrived once again.

「Do you have any plans for today? If you are free, I can show you around the capital….」

Fast! While thinking that there was no way for me to have any plans, I gratefully accepted his offer.

The imperial capital was more prosperous than I thought. The districts in the Juka kingdom were clearly separated from each other, but there were no such signs in the imperial capital. Just when I saw a dense cluster of shops and though it to be a commercial district, I saw residential building behind them. It is a functional city in a good sense. There were a lot of stone buildings in the kingdom’s capital, but here people reside mostly in the wooden houses, especially commoners. Somehow, it reminded me of Japan of the past.

There was a pleasant discovery. They were selling rice! Of course, it was a glutinous rice. Even here, in the imperial capital, rice and beans were considered the livestock’s feed. Maybe I would finally able to taste rice again. I was told that the gold from the kingdom was usable in the transactions in the empire, I would buy it once I have some free time.

Also, I found out the secret of a shower. They used mana crystals, which are the result of crystallization of mana. They have attributes of either fire, water, earth, wind or lightning and could be combined in a variety of ways. As expected, Seono wasn’t adept at craftsmanship so he wasn’t able to tell me the details, but it was still a good harvest.

Since they were watching me in the name of escort, I didn’t buy much, only the clothes for everyday life and the clothes for the dinner party. It seems that the official clothes need to be custom-made, so they told me to pick it up tomorrow. I appreciated their service and ordered a shirt and a necktie.

The next day was dedicated for sightseeing. He guided me to the theater, university, and even the army’s headquarters. Even though they say that they put an emphasis on the army, the capital has considerably advanced culture and education.

I picked up the ordered clothes and headed towards the prime minister’s mansion. Gon, as usual, was staying in the hotel.

「It’s a private dinner party. You didn’t need to be so formal」

Laughed the prime minister, but he is properly wearing the formal attire, I’m glad I spent some time to dress up.

Next to His Excellence, was a beautiful woman, his wife. It seems Isara is her name. As for her age…..as expected, it is difficult to call her a lady. The word madam suited her elegant and slightly aged appearance much more.

After a short introduction, the dinner party started. The prime minister told his wife about the Versam family’s plans to adopt me, about the audience with the emperor. Meanwhile, I enjoyed the dishes with a bitter smile.

「I’m sorry for being late」

After those words, a young man appeared. He is wearing a pretty fashionable attire. He also has a nice sword with him. Let’s appraise him right away.

Hideta Shua Viras (Royal, 21 years old) LV19
HP: 109
MP: 57
Sword Arts LV2
Body Strengthening LV1
Evasion LV1
Etiquette LV3
Recovery Magic LV1

A royal appeared. Who on earth is this guy? Why did he come? I smell trouble. Well, having arrived at this stage, I was prepared to a certain extent.

「This gentleman here is His Highness, Viras. He is the second son of the emperor and second in line of succession」

I stood up and kneeled.

「Relax, relax. Discard your stiff attitude. Just wanted to talk with everyone a little. Please, enjoy yourself」

From the first impression, he tried to look intelligent and wise. Unlike the regent prince, whose eyes didn’t laugh. An amusing person. However, why did the emperor’s second son even come here? His relationship with the prime minister? As I was speculating

「As a matter of fact, His highness is also our grandchild. Don’t be surprised, our daughter, Sheri, was working in the palace, you see. There, with His Majesty…..you know. Well, we are quite close with His Highness」

Grandson! Haha, that’s why you are the prime minister.

「A have a favor to ask of you. You are free to decline if you don’t like it. I want to ask of you to contribute to the royal family’s protection」

When I asked I learned that the crown prince, although currently healthy, has a frail constitution, he also has withdrawn personality and lives quietly. There is no problem with him, but there is a problem with his younger sister, first princess Ricolette. The princess is strong-willed and ambitious, it seems she wants to give the throne to her older brother and rule the country from the shadows.

Of course, she isn’t able to achieve anything by herself, by there are also nobles. Unexpectedly, a lot of them are eager to stand under her banner, she has an impressive number of supporters.

And that first princess seems to be increasingly active these days. The point is, there is a possibility of her approaching her brothers and sisters. Most likely, she intends to threaten and blackmail them to incorporate them into her faction…..at least that’s a possibility.

However, there is no way to know what those idiots are about to do. Their royal status makes it even more troublesome. The emperor had already lost his previous vigor and ambitions. He doesn’t want his children to be harmed and is looking for a peaceful solution.

「Originally, I was supposed to inherit the title of a duke, but my older brother is like that. I never know when he might collapse. I also have my own matters to attend to」

In reality, this Viras was attacked once already, resulting in casualties.

「I want to ask you to guard the three princesses who are younger that His Highness Viras」

Un? The idiot, who attacked me in the Runo forest, was supposed to be a royal of Hideta, right?? I guess, he died in the forest.

「Is there any chance that something had already happened to the other princes?」

「…..As expected of a servant of the Versam family. It seems that it is futile to hide it any longer. The third son, prince Serias, is currently under house arrest」

Oh, so he somehow escaped.

「As soon as he heard about the abnormalities in the Juka Kingdom, he immediately gathered his subordinate and his tutor, took the emperor’s horse and went to subjugate a Demon King. Rather reckless, if I’m to judge. There were also rumors about him secretly murdering commoners, such a troublesome prince」

He had「Curse」on him if I remember correctly.

「We searched everywhere and finally discovered him in a state of confusion inside the Runo forest. Currently, the healing magicians cast recovery magic on him every day, but I’m not able to say when he would be able to recover. His subordinate said that he battled the Demon King, but there is no danger to his life. This subordinate is also under house arrest. As for the prince’s tutor, I’m not aware of her whereabouts」 [¹]

Oh! So Irimo was indeed the emperor’s horse. I’m glad that I concealed her horn and wings. Are those murderers still alive? Well, only I can dispel it anyway, they shouldn’t be able to treat it on their own.

「Let’s return to the previous topic. In short, I want to leave the safety of the royal family to you. At least, until the crown prince produces an heir or Viras inherits the title」

「But my barrier magic is LV2」

「It is okay to protect them only when they go outside. The imperial barrier master will protect them inside the palace. You was able to erect a permanent barrier on the Versam mansion, am I right? Thanks to that, our messenger wasn’t able to enter and returned in shame」

「I understand. Since this is how you put it, I would like to think about it before everything else」

「There is no need to think. You are free to attend to your own matters in your free time. You only need to protect the royal family, as for the other duties, you can choose them on your own, of course, we will pay you. Otherwise, you will be approached by the army. The people with barrier skill are rare after all. If you want to have a career in the military, I’m not against it」

No way. I want to live in peace. In the end, I delayed my answer and arrived at the hotel. When I came out of the mansion and was left alone with His Highness,

「Grandfather truly wants to hire you. That’s not that hard to understand. After all, he has plenty of enemies. Grandfather pays so much attention to you. I would be happy if you agree」

The prime minister and His Highness, both urged me to accept. Then, I dragged my tired body and returned to my room.

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「Umu. The regent was rather competent too. This is also regretful」

The conversation with the prime minister continued. I was summoned here only to tell him about the circumstances of the Juka Kingdom. If it is only that, the conversation should soon reach its conclusion. When I was about to return to my hotel and think about my future plans, the prime minister’s face changed.

「Well then, I summoned you here for a certain purpose. I have a thing I want to ask from you」

I wonder what? I don’t know about complicated stuff.

「Do you know the whereabouts of Falco, a Versam family’s magician?」

「Teacher Falco!? Do you know my teacher, Falco? The great magician Falco is my teacher. Unfortunately……」

「I see, so he passed away too. Is it possible for you to tell me about his last moments? 」

I told him about the fact that he lost his arms, was stabbed and eaten by the dragon.

「Such unsuitable ending. That person should be quite skilled since he was able to cut off his arms. It was right decision to not mess with the Juka Kingdom. Although we have twice as many soldiers, we would probably have been decimated」

「It might be presumptuous of me, but how do you know Falco?」

「You see, Falco and I are childhood friends. Right, Falco is a citizen of the empire. He was an excellent mage since the early days. Upon his graduation from the magic university, he was able to use almost all attributes. Especially fire magic, he was top class amongst the imperial magician. He was a magician with great future prospects」

「Then, why such a great magician came to the Juka Kingdom?」

「This is….He crawled into the princess’ bedroom at night. The guards were somehow able to stop him before the deed, but a number of them died」

……Teacher, what the hell did you do?

「If only it was only that, I would have been able to cover for him. After all, he was once in a millennium genius magician. However, at the same time, he was also an instructor in the magic university, and his teaching methods were rather brutal. He was able to use recovery magic, and with a mindset that it was fine to heal if you get hurt, he didn’t show any mercy. His lessons were too strict and a lot of people abandoned the studies」

I know your feelings~. I don’t know about them, but it was really hard for me. He really attacked until I was on the death’s door. He didn’t have any mercy even for a child…..After that, Eril joined us too……

The memories of the hell revived inside of me. Tears came out.

「In the empire, his reputation wasn’t the best. People called him an excellent magician with the worst personality. And at that timing, he “visited” the princess. Even I can’t close my eyes on it」

Right~? It is a route to certain death.

「Since it was Falco, he wasn’t executed in the end. He was just jailed for some time. Nevertheless, he escaped and crawled into her bedroom again」

Eh!? Twice?? Teacher, really, was the hell were you thinking!

「Her quick-witted attendant and luck helped her, but the problem lied in Falco. The empire even organized the suppression troops. At that time, he escaped to my mansion」

Troublesome as always.

「I tried to persuade him to give himself up, but he declared that he wanted to escape into another country. He is my childhood friend, I didn’t want him to die if possible. There, coincidentally, marquis Versam appeared. With the help of the marquis, he successfully escaped into the Juka Kingdom. I was in contact with the marquis since that moment」

Is it all right to tell it to me? Or so I thought, but I don’t think that the prime minister will divulge information detrimental to his persona. In other words, he has enough power to say what he wants without being affected by it.

It seems my teacher staged a nice play during his escape. He seriously injured the prime minister in front of the army (of course, he pretended), then, with a face full of suffering said「No…..I fatally injured Guremont, my childhood friend!!」and vanished. Sounds fake, doesn’t it? Or so I thought, but it seems that the prime minister was able to follow-up smoothly. In a certain sense, this excellency before me is a talent of his own.

While we were talking about it, a man entered the room and whispered something to the prime minister. What? Is it true? Or so he said. Just when I started wondering,

「It seems, his majesty wants to meet you. I apologize for taking away your time, but may I ask you to follow me to the audience hall? 」

I can’t just say no in this situation. I obediently follow behind his excellency. After wandering in the maze-like corridors for a few minutes, we reached a ridiculously large door.

「Please, wait here for a while」

The prime minister went first. After some time, the door opened and I was urged inside. I saw a big throne in the far end of the hall. As I was going forward, I noticed the soldiers ahead of me. Most likely, it implied that I shouldn’t go further.

I knelt and put my right hand on my chest.

「It’s my honor. I’m serving the Versam family from the Juka Kingdom, my name is Rinos. I’m glad to be of use」

For now, let’s make a favorable impression. Receiving permission to lift my head from the prime minister, I looked at the emperor.

He has a fearless face. He is a little aged but gives me the feeling of being full of energy. Is it because he grows a beard? After a while, the emperor opened his mouth.

「….trip….ku….uh…..and a….li….yo…fine」

What again? I didn’t hear a thing. Put some power into your voice!

I looked at the prime minister and he nodded. No, don’t you nod. I can’t hear a thing!

「For someone without a title to receive an audience with the emperor is an exception amongst exceptions. His majesty is willing to directly hear the story from you. You should be grateful and answer honestly」

Or so the prime minister said, after that, I told about Kushana and my previous conversation with the prime minister. Of course, I left the matter of Falco off record. The emperor listened intently and said with interest.

「…..did….end…..Yo…..to…od」 [¹]

I can’t hear his voice after all. His excellency is quite something since he is able to understand him. Do you have any specialized skills? While I was thinking that, his excellency indicated that I should leave and so I did.

After that, the prime minister said that he had matter to attend to and entrusted me to a guide. It seems he intends to invite me to his mansion the other day.

I came back straight to the hotel, once I was out of the imperial palace. The time was already approaching noon. Still, I’m beat. Let’s eat something.

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「Kept you waiting. A messenger from the imperial capital arrived. Can you spare some of your time? 」

He is finally here. I got up from the bed and followed the commander. I heard that it should have taken 3 days, but he arrived only after a whole week. Thanks to that, I had plenty of time to waste. I had three meals a day and the soldiers didn’t talk to me needlessly. I wonder if the commander was busy recently, I rarely saw him. Feeding Irimo was my only activity during this time. It seems Irimo didn’t have anything to do either.

I was about to find something to do when the report came. Nice timing.

「I’m Seono of the Knight’s Order of the Hideta Empire」

Black-haired strong-looking guy. A guy with soft and fearless personality.

「Rinos-dono, our prime minister Guremont-sama expressed his desire to meet with you directly. Although presumptuous, I would like to escort you to the imperial capital」

I introduced myself as a butler, but seeing his courteous attitude even to someone like me, I feel inclined to accept his escort.

Accepting his proposal, I put Gon on my back, mounted Irimo and departed for the imperial capital. Seono performed his duties as an escort perfectly, he was well trained.

The imperial capital was 1 day away from Kushana, if you have a horse. We took a break in the middle. One of the guards had the appraisal skill, but he said「I heard that he was a barrier master, but I didn’t see the barrier skill」. His colleagues blamed it on his lack of training since his appraisal was LV1. For now, let’s make my barrier skill visible as LV2.

We took several short breaks during the journey, but you could say that we were riding for the whole day. Even though Irimo was fine, I wasn’t used to the long rides and was pretty tired.

We arrived to the imperial capital with the setting sun. It had no high walls and was situated on a mountain. We climbed a zigzag mountain road and saw the capital in all its grace. It looked as if someone flattened the mountain and built the capital here.

We entered the capital through the gate. After waiting for some time, I was led to a building. I was told to leave the horse here and go inside.

I had a design inspired by that of the Juka Kingdom’s royal palace. I thought it was a part of the actual castle, but, unexpectedly, it was a hotel. A man, who wore the same butler uniform as me, greeted me and guided me to my room. The room was very wide, VIP treatment indeed.

「I will pick you up tomorrow morning. Until then, feel free to rest」

Seono bowed to me and left the place. After that, I was provided with a meal from the hotel, it was a roasted beef. It reminded me of the Versam family. In addition, they had the bread and a soup, I really enjoyed those times.

「They seemed to be wary of us」

When I finished the meal and the dessert and was quietly relaxing, Gon muttered so in a loud voice.

As expected, they didn’t poison the food, but we are under constant surveillance from their side. There are soldiers around the whole room. They even have two guards in the ceiling. Like the ninjas. They might be here for protection, but the empire is clearly cautious of us.

Since arriving in Hideta, I never dispelled the barrier. I still have no intentions to do it, let’s leave it as it is.

To my surprise, there is a shower in this room. I have no idea how they achieved that, but it is my first time seeing one in this world. The bed was fluffy and I was able to have a nice sleep.

At morning, Seono came to pick me up. Once outside I noticed the royal palace in the distance. Compared to the one in Juka it is rather small, but here, it is a place where only the royal family lives. All kinds of administration and food facilities are spread around it.

I thought that I would end up in one of those building, but they, surprisingly, guided me inside the palace. And I wondered why the road was so wide. The road was maintained so well, that you could never guess that it was on top of a mountain.

Once inside the royal palace, Seono told to wait here. As a substitute, a butler appeared to guide me. The insides of the royal palace were akin to a maze, without the「Map」, I have no confidence in being able to find the way outside.

I passed through a reception-like room and waited for a while. This room was under heavy surveillance too. Ceiling included. They think too much of me.

While I was thinking that, a bald aged man with a mustache appeared together with a wizard-like man in a robe who hid his face. Aged man stood in front of me and

「So you are Rinos-dono. I’m the prime minister of this country, Guremont. It was a long journey for you, please do take a sit」

The magician behind Guremont whispered something in his ear.

「Ho, you have barrier LV2 at your age. Your education skill is also high. It seems you really are a person from the Versam-dono’s household」

The magician person most likely appraised me. It seems he wasn’t able to see through me.

「It is an honor to meet you. I perform as a butler for the Versam family, my name is Rinos. Your Excellency, you don’t need to use the honorifics with someone like me」

「No, that won’t do. You are a boy that marquis Versam tried to adopt despite your status of a slave. I was in his care in the past. I can’t make light of his intentions」

He already knew that I was a slave. Thinking that his intelligence-gathering abilities can’t be underestimated, I lowered my head.

「Well then…..I heard the report about you. Was the capital truly destroyed? What about survivors?….I see, the capital is uninhabited right now. What about the king? Marquis-dono?…..I see, so they are no more」

「Correct. The capital is completely empty…….Will the empire invade the kingdom? 」

「No, it’s not like that. The Great Demon King appeared and destroyed the capital. I think that finding his whereabouts is a priority right now」

「Then, does that mean that the empire won’t touch the kingdom?」

「Versam-dono and general Karugi are no more. The country will probably enter the civil war from now on. Didn’t you come here to escape from it? Well. let’s close the matter. Still, a talented individual was lost」

「Are you talking about my lord, marquis Versam?」

「No, him and general Karugi. It is no exaggeration to say that they alone supported the kingdom. The empire was never able to defeat Karugi’s army. Marquis was restraining the general, thus creating an equilibrium. I don’t have much hope to meet another politician or general like them」

「I don’t know the detail, but I heard that general Karugi was greatly trusted by the king」

「That king didn’t care about anything other than his desires. You don’t need to hide it. It is an established fact. However, for that country it was rather convenient. If the fool of a king was to personally regulate the army and politics, the kingdom would have been destroyed long ago. Even if it didn’t collapse, the neighboring countries would have done it. The two geniuses were enough to support the country」

That swine king didn’t have any redeeming points, isn’t it?

「However, marquis’ death is regrettable. With that man alive, the country would have been able to rise again. After all, he was able to work for 3 days without any rest. He seemed to be asking his employees「Can you fight for 72 hours? 」every time」

Laughed the prime minister. I see, that’s why he wasn’t around all the time. He was a monster from a certain perspective.

「But I must say, people like you are rare. While not a royalty or a full-fledged adult, you was able to reach the imperial capital, it is not happening every day」

「I’m 14 years old, I’m already an adult……」

「Only the Juka Kingdom considers 12-year-old as an adult. In our empire and the neighboring countries, you can be considered an adult only upon reaching the age of 15. In that kingdom, you can’t bed a woman who is not yet an adult, or so proclaimed the first king. This law was established so that children won’t become hostages, but the king really wanted a young woman in his bedroom. For that, he sent his trusted subordinates in the court. There, he pushed through the law that stated the adulthood since 12 years old. It was fine during the next king, but he had a habit of whipping himself. Maybe because of that, he died rather quickly passing the throne to the last king…… The last king seemed to inherit his grandfather’s blood」

It seems that the kings iterated as lolicon=>pervert=>lolicon. Were there any good kings in that kingdom?

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[¹] Few hours after crossing the mountains, we saw a city. There is no mistake. This is Kushana.
As Lars’ mother said, there were no dragon raids. I only saw a single dragon flying behind us. Most likely, a scout. We crossed the mountains smoothly and without any problems.

I slowly go down. As long as we have Irimo’s wings, there is no danger of falling. Once out of the mountains, we landed on a small hill. Looking closely, Kushana’s gate is closed shut. There were no gatekeepers. Most likely, the town is closed during the night. Without any other choice, I decided to wait for the sunrise.

There was a big tree nearby. I created a barrier and rested my body.

There is a reason for my trip to the Hideta Empire. There are many political opponents of the Versam family in the Juka Kingdom. Most of the capital’s surroundings belong to the people of the anti-Versam faction. The Versam territory is 2 days of horse travel from the capital. Between the capital and the Versam territory, there is the territory of duke Hira, who was ******* for Eril. Going there might bring unnecessary troubles, or so I thought. On the contrary, Versam family seems to have some connections in the Hideta Empire. Marquis Versam had amiable relations with the empire’s prime minister, or so Elsa-sama said. Having this in mind, I chose the Hideta Empire.

Actually, Irimo was against this at first. After all, she has wings and a horn. Of course, it stands out. Until now, she was able to travel without meeting any people, but here, she will meet them even if she doesn’t want. She was born and raised in Hideta, yet she doesn’t have any good feelings because of the constant abuse.

She was strongly against returning into such empire. However, using the barrier you can even change the appearance of a person. I can’t see her as anything but a unicorn pegasus, but others should perceive her as a normal horse. As expected, I can’t change the physique, but without the wings and the horn, she looks just like a horse.

By the way, this kind of barrier is also applied to the Versam mansion. It looks like a big tree. A tree with a thick several thousand-year-old trunk. There should not be any idiots that will try to cut it down. Probably.

I opened my eyes to the morning sun. I wanted to sleep for a while longer, but it would be difficult in these circumstances. I got up and dispelled the barrier. Of course, the barrier that was covering us originally was left in place. Both me and Gon have the hard barrier that can withstand any attack cast on us.

The gatekeeper came out. He was standing there with the sleepy eyes. I mounted Irimo and approached the gate. When the soldier saw our figures, he was startled for a second.

「Oh, where did you come from? You didn’t cross the mountains, right? Did you come from Juka? 」

「Yes, I crossed the mountains. It wasn’t easy」

「Eh? Crossed the mountains? Wa-wait a minute!!」

The gatekeeper run off somewhere. Please hurry up, we are busy these days.

After a while, he brought with him a cool-faced uncle in his fifties. The uncle glanced at me and

「Aren’t you just a kid? How old? 14? Why did you even come here? More importantly, your name? 」

「I’m a butler of the Versam family. My humble name is Rinos」

「Ju-Juka Kingdom?? Versam?? You didn’t lie to me, right?!」

「No, it wasn’t a lie. I’m serving Elsa-sama of the Versam family. With the collapse of the Juka Kingdom, I passed through the Runo forest and crossed the mountains. I managed to retain my life and arrive here. If I’m not fated to enter this city, I will go on my way. Please, do not hesitate to tell me」

「It can’t be, this, this brat…..No, I apologize. Here is inappropriate. Let us talk inside」

Like that, I was able to enter the Kushana city.

We passed through the barracks and reached the commander’s office. Apparently, this uncle is a commanding officer of the defense army.

「Did Juka Kingdom really collapse? I used various means to investigate the situation, but the information is rather disorderly. I want to hear what you know」

「I think it won’t be that different from what you already know」

「Then, the appearance of the Demon King, who, with the help of a dragon, attacked the capital and destroyed the royal palace and everyone inside is true?」

Ah, I wasn’t the one who was ordering the dragon though. Well, he is mostly right, I guess.

「I don’t know about any Demon Kings, but the rebellion of the marshal Karugi and his army, together with their occupation of the royal palace, did happen. After that, the dragon appeared and destroyed the city, that is a fact. I escaped the capital and with the help of adventurers passed through the Runo forest. We were wandering around and, before we noticed, we were already outside the forest. Then, I was separated from adventurers and somehow arrived here」

「Hm. There are plenty of high-ranked adventurers in the Juka Kingdom. It was your luck to meet them. You even split in the mountains. That place is the dragons’ den. You did well to arrive here in one piece」

「Adventurers confronted the dragon and told me to run away on my horse. I left everything to the horse, I don’t even know in which direction I rode」

「Well, that not surprising. Most likely, those adventurers became the prey for the dragon. All right. I need to report to the royal palace. I apologize, but you will have to stay in this city until the orders from the royal palace arrive, is it fine with you? 」

「I understand. I am willing to cooperate. However, I am bringing the horse with me, I need a suitable….」

「You can use the stables in the barracks. The food is abundant, you can feed it whenever you want. You can use a vacant room in these headquarters. It is a room for an officer, so it should be better that an average inn」

The room was a little narrow, but it had a proper bed, toilet, and a washplace. Indeed, compared to an inn it is a good room.

「You can freely walk around the headquarters, but I ask you not to leave its premises. The meals will be provided, if you need anything, you can ask the guards outside. You are a guest, but at the same time, you are a citizen of the other country, in addition, you belong to a noble household. Do you understand what I mean? 」

「Of course. I’m extremely grateful for your hospitality」

「Polite….huh. Well, take it easy. Don’t worry, the orders should arrive in three days」

I got permission from the commander, so I brought Irimo into the stables, entered my room and fell on the bed. I said plenty of excuses, but I’m relieved that it worked out. Gon looks tired too.

I wonder what will happen in this empire? I would lie if I say that I’m not worried. I just want to have some peace. If possible, I want to buy a house somewhere and live together with Gon and Irimo. While I was thinking that, I fell into deep slumber due to my lack of sleep.

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