“Hey sis… are you feeling okay?”
In the quiet room, Hephaestus’s subdued voice echoed.
“Of course… I’m perfectly fine.”
I answered while thumping my chest thump-thump.
“… I’m sorry. But it was to protect me and Rubia… um…”
“Uhh-huh. It’s okay…”
“But, I… h-huh… it’s just that you’re… ugh…”
Hephaestus finally clutched at my clothes, her voice trembling.
I didn’t even get what she was apologizing for, but I quickly soothed her, worried that she might start blowing her nose on my clothes again.
“Ah… n-no… don’t cry…! R-really, I’m fine…!”
Even though my clothes were all torn and had holes in them…
I mean, I washed them clean at the bathroom, and Rubia dried them too, right?
But if snot gets on them… um… it’s not like I’m saying Hephaestus is dirty or anything… but still!
I carefully pulled my clothes from Hephaestus’s grasp.
“Uhh… you felt scared… right…? sniffle”
“Really, I’m fine… so please don’t cry…”
Thus began the twelfth apology and the twelfth consolation…
Crying is great and all, but I really hope she doesn’t blow her nose on my clothes… seriously…
“I-is it alright now…?”
“sniff… Yeah… I-I’m fine…”
We must have been comforting each other for about ten minutes.
After some time calming down, Hephaestus slowly unfurled her hunched body.
“By the way, sis… um, earlier… was it because of the fragment that you were like that…?”
She glanced down at my Great Sword and opened her mouth.
Well, it wasn’t exactly because of the fragment; that’s just how I always hunt… um…
“Y-yeah…?”
“Originally, it wasn’t like that, was it?”
… bleh-errrgh
After staring at me for a long time, Hephaestus lowered her head and struggled to speak.
“I see… it wasn’t originally like that, and it changed because of the fragment… sigh… I get it.”
Hephaestus kept her head down for a while, then suddenly shot her head up and shook her hair whip-whip.
“Anyway, I wonder what the princess and Rubia are doing? It’s so quiet…”
“Um… Yeah…”
Rubia and Charlotte had said they needed to do something alone and sent Hephaestus and me, who just finished taking a bath, to the next room.
Well, they only asked us to move for a bit but since they told us not to peek in with our magic senses… it was basically the same thing.
To be honest, I could secretly peek with my magic senses without anyone knowing, but I promised Rubia with a pinky swear, so I’m holding on.
“But I was really surprised. I opened my eyes and… the princess was looking at me.”
“Oh, I see…”
I was surprised too.
I never thought the princess would be that weird…
Plus, no matter how much I think about it, the third princess never showed up in the game…
There was never any mention of her becoming an adventurer either.
So weird, it’s really weird.
Just like how Sirin, who apparently became the tenth Master…
“But… could she really be just like the rumors say…?”
“Rumors…?”
“Yeah. Haven’t you heard the rumors about Princess Charlotte?”
“I-I don’t know anything about them…?”
Hephaestus, who was cautiously checking her surroundings, moved closer to me.
“Um… they say Princess Charlotte really loves women.”
“Y-yeah, it seems like…”
“And she has a lot of lovers too…!”
“Oh, I see…”
“But what’s even more amazing is that… everyone who dates the princess… never leaves her. They say she treats them extremely well?”
“Huh…?”
For just a moment, I recalled the image of Charlotte from what I’d seen until now.
“That’s… ridiculous…”
A pervert?!
“I’m serious…!”
The stories that followed from Hephaestus were truly shocking.
They said she had forcibly brought a woman, who was living happily with her husband, to the Imperial Palace, and then… she did some really bad things right in front of the husband.
Turns out that husband was the leader of a crime organization forcing women to work at night, and Charlotte had known that beforehand and saved the woman…
There was also a story about her forcibly subjugating a newly arrived maid and calling her into a bedroom filled with people…
Only to find out it was all to gather wizards to break a curse placed on the maid…
And about how she suddenly robbed the Imperial Treasury and stole money…
Then led hundreds of adventurers to wipe out the local women’s slave market…
There were tales about her executing all the nobles who brought in poor women and did horrific acts…
I heard so many rumors about Charlotte that she would jump in wherever there was a woman without thinking twice.
“And the reason she became an adventurer… they say one of her lovers wanted to travel the wide world before she passed away, so she became an adventurer in her place…”
“R-really…?”
What the… that’s… cool, isn’t it…?
“Although it’s just a rumor, but recently the slave market has been eradicated, and many nobles have been executed, right? Also—”
Hephaestus trailed off with her words, looking very small as she muttered.
“Just looking at you… makes it feel like the rumors can be true…”
“Me…? I’m not…!”
My rumors are just nonsense, right?!
A blood-drinking demon or what was it again?
The red beast that tears apart monsters…?
Good grief, it’s absurd.
At least treat me like a person!
Hephaestus looked at me with a puzzled face, shaking her head.
“Anyway, you need to be careful too.”
“W-why suddenly me…?”
“Just in case. You’re way too defenseless.”
“Defenseless…?”
When I tilted my head in confusion, Hephaestus crossed her arms with a frustrated look.
“Yeah. Lucky that Rubia is next to you… If not, oh my…”
“W-what about me?!”
“Look at yourself right now. Is it okay for someone in a skirt to be sitting like this? Anyone below would see your panties!”
“P-panties…? They shouldn’t be visible…”
“What’s not visible?! Just bending your head a little would show everything!”
While I was pulling down my skirt extra tightly…
I decided to sit with my legs crossed after hearing Hephaestus’s words.
But my panties really shouldn’t be visible…
How could not wearing them be seen…?
“And the fact that it’s not showing so daringly is even more enticing.”
“Ugh… r-really?”
“Yup. You could imagine all kinds of things freely! Plus, just the way you act, how you speak… there’s too much to say, so just be careful.”
Oh come on… unless I had a stunning body like Rubia’s.
What could possibly be attractive about this shabby body… with all these scars…?
That… and thinking about my body like that… is not human, it’s beastly… ugh…
“I-I’m not that kind of body though.”
Upon hearing my words, Hephaestus suddenly straightened her back and spoke in a serious tone.
“Sis. There’s something you don’t know.”
“W-what…?”
“What you should be most cautious of is… Rubia…”
Pah-dang—
Hephaestus was about to say something important, but just then, the room door opened and interrupted her.
And at the same time—
A rather calm voice of Rubia rang out.
“What interesting conversation are you having?”
Hephaestus’s face stiffened immediately.
“J-just… Hephaestus was telling me to be careful about… um, this and that. Was everything finished, Rubia…?”
Hephaestus began to tremble as her mouth just fumbled, so I answered instead.
What’s with her?
“…Yes. It’s all done. I have something to say to both of you, and I’m thinking about sleeping here. What do you think?”
“Umm, I don’t mind…”
“I-I agree too!”
With a suspicious look at Hephaestus, Rubia nodded and opened the door wide.
“Then, shall we move to the next room for now?”
“Sure.”
As I got up from my seat, Hephaestus carefully grabbed my clothes and followed me closely.
“Hephaestus… can we talk for a bit before bed?”
“Yikes… um, okay…”
Creek-
As we exited the room, Rubia immediately opened the door to the adjacent room.
Charlotte was still sitting on the couch, smoking a cigarette.
I wondered where the pile of stuff Charlotte had brought went…
“Haah… I’ve got a lot to say, but first, come sit down.”
Nodding, I plopped down on the couch Charlotte pointed to.
Then Rubia sat next to me, and shivering Hephaestus sat down as Charlotte finally spoke.
“I’ve decided to join you two. Just until we find Yuria.”
Hephaestus gasped in surprise, swallowing hard.
“I’ll give you both a disguise robe. Especially you, pinky. Be careful.”
After extinguishing her cigarette, Charlotte turned to Hephaestus.
“I thought it would be good to tell you this. Someone’s targeting Yuria.”
“Master…?”
“Yeah. A really strong guy.”
Hephaestus’s breath quickened.
“The Black Knight Kalt. He’s a Master, and if Yuria fights him… she’ll definitely die.”
“…But why would someone like that…?”
“I was just thinking the same. Since Yuria’s the target, you should be careful too. I wish I could just leave you both in this village, but I don’t know where Kalt is… it’s frustrating.”
Hephaestus exhaled in trembling breaths and gripped the rock in her hand tightly.
“I have more to discuss, but for today, let’s rest well, and we’ll keep talking tomorrow.”
Seeing Hephaestus like this, Charlotte shook her head and pulled out a new cigarette.
At that moment…
“Hey, pinky. Why’s that rock flickering so much?”
“Huh…? Ohh… this light…”
With a scream-like voice escaping from Hephaestus’s mouth, simultaneously—
KWA-WHOOOM!
On the peak of the Karahan Mountain Range, a sound erupted like the sky tearing apart.
