… … …


  This maid is one of Kaya’s subordinates in Holy Republic Lenaria. In addition, Kaya is also leveraging the value of a maid girl in Holy Republic Lenaria. It seems that none of the girls who applied to become a maid to get closer to Reiji remained. Kaya chose the best maid from amongst the surviving maids. The standard of her choice is a cut-above-the-rest face and ability.

  And that one girl is currently guiding me.

  The chosen girl has seemingly received guidance from her senior maid or Kaya and is well versed in etiquette.

  Everyone gathered in one room after changing their clothes in their own rooms respectively. Everyone changed into their normal attire. Reiji’s showing a slightly disheartened face. As if I care about that.

  「Well then, let’s talk about our future plans」


  We are only ones in this room, without our escorts or the maids. We cleared out the outsiders since we’ll have a meeting after this.

  「First is regarding those suspicious guys, right? 」


  Some of us are nodding along with me.

  「They were everywhere」


  Rino says so. But the suspicious person she means might not be the special one.

  「….Let’s ignore those people」


  We have no time to suspect every one of them.

  「Nao, how about your side?」


  Nao’s perception ability is the best amongst us.

  Perception ability is divided into poison perception, enemy perception, magical power perception, and object perception.

  Reiji, Shirone, and Kaya can use object perception; Kyouka and I can use magical power perception; enemy perception is also Shirone’s and Kaya’s skill.

  However, Nao is capable of all of them.

  My magical power perception is superior to her, but in regard to enemy perception and other perceptions, Nao is the best.

  If even Nao can’t find that suspicious person, no one amongst us can find him.

  「There were strange guys indeed, but none of them are special like Chiyuki-san described」


  Though we have no need to take extra precaution if the hostile gazes were the usual ones from Reiji’s fans, it seems there was nothing noteworthy amongst the gazes of the men.

  「Then next is about Diehart….」


  Everyone’s expression changes when I say that name.

  That’s just natural. He defeated Reiji and overpowered Shirone. Currently, he is the most dangerous existence for us.

  And then, our real purpose for coming to this Rox kingdom is to hinder Diehart’s plan.

  And his goal is the horn of the Holy Dragon King. We don’t know what he will use that for. Maybe for a dangerous plan to swallow this world.

  But then, the gods of Elios have done nothing to hinder his plan. The one who’s in the move is just Rena.

  For the gods of this world to not make their move when there’s a danger to their world and making us bet our life is wrong.

  That’s why I’m vehemently opposing the plan to fight Diehart.

  But, Reiji can’t ignore Rena’s wish. As long as Reiji makes his move, the other girls including me will go with him and it might culminate in a battle.

  The best thing I can do right now is delay time as much as possible. As a matter of fact, we could have arrived at Rox kingdom even faster, but I delayed the departure purposefully to avoid a combat against Diehart. But then, we still arrived on time.

  I wonder where Diehart is right now?

  「Do you think that Diehart has already arrived at Rox kingdom? 」


  I’m looking at everyone.

  「As expected, we have no way to know that. According to the information available, I couldn’t find that dark knight」


  Nao says with dejection. According to her perception results, when she tried to sense his presence right after our arrival to this kingdom, he wasn’t within a two kilometers radius of us. Though there’s a possibility that he is hiding in some kind of a barrier, it’s hard to imagine such a strong guy hiding inside a barrier. Could it be that he’s yet to arrive at this kingdom?

  「I will know if he is directing his hostility toward us, but….」


  Shirone says so. Though Shirone, Kaya, and Nao can use enemy perception, it’s useless when the other side isn’t directing hostility toward them.

  In spite of fighting against Shirone, Shirone couldn’t feel any hostility from Diehart. It might be because he isn’t even considering Shirone as an enemy. What a guy.

  Come to think of it, Reiji is the only one who almost died under Diehart’s sword. Maybe Reiji is the only one whom he deemed as a proper opponent.

  But then, that Reiji can’t use enemy perception ability. Only the close combatants, Shirone and Kaya, can use them. Maybe there’s a reason why Reiji isn’t capable of that.

  Reiji can keep his composure no matter how many hostilities from the men of our world were directed toward him. It seems enemy perception is unnecessary for Reiji as he was always being showered with hostilities from the surrounding men.

  「How about we look for him in this area? 」


  Nao puts forth a suggestion.

  「No, I think it’s not a good idea. I don’t want to accidentally poke a snake under the bush. Moreover, this bell will let us know when Diehart is coming to cut the corners of the horn of the Holy Dragon King」


  I take out a bell. Moreover, it’s not like we have to search for him.

  「I agree. It’s been a while since we have come to the kingdom of hot springs after all. Let’s just enjoy our day at ease」


  Reiji is saying so with a cheerful expression.

  「You’re right. Let’s enjoy the hot springs here!」


  I noticed that it’s been a while since my opinion matched with Reiji’s.

  Unpleasant events keep unfurling one after another: Reiji’s near-death experience, losing the way to go back to our world, and doing queer things such as this one. I want us to have some change of pace at this point.

  I think we should just enjoy our time in this kingdom where hot spring gushes forth.

  Thus, we decided to enjoy the hot springs at the end of our meeting.

  === === ===

  ◆ Rox kingdom’s knight, Rember

  「We are enough as escorts of hero-sama; we have no need for you guys. Your only job is to just patrol around the city to make sure that no one in the city plotting something against hero-sama」[TL: though the ‘you’ here isn’t kisama, it’s still a bit too rude]

  This was the reply from the temple knights who became the escorts of hero-sama.

  Some of the chosen freedom fighters are enraged by the impolite words of the temple knights.

  Even though I managed to gather some trusted people, since there’s no need for escort unlike the last time they came here, my effort seems to have been wasted.

  「I’m sorry. I asked all of you to come and yet….」


  I apologize to the freedom fighters who have gathered at this place with me.

  「It can’t be helped, we won’t get our change if those famous temple knights become their escorts, after all…」


  Gallios is trying to comfort me.

  「Well, it really can’t be helped, Rember-dono. There are some things that we can’t do even with great effort」


  It seems Kuro isn’t that much bothered by it, either.

  Naturally, some of the invited freedom fighters were angry about it, but they’re persuaded by Gallios.

  Moreover, nothing will change no matter how angry they are.

  Chivalric order of the temple knights of Holy Republic Lenaria is the best in the eastern part of this continent and twenty of such knights have come as hero’s escorts. It’s natural for someone like us to not even get our chance.

  So, we have no choice but to patrol the city as the temple knights told us to.

  It’s sound a bit pathetic.

  It makes me wonder why I have to do this.

  Maybe I’m just unfortunate. In fact, different from the other knights, my job should have ended yesterday before the festival. I was supposed to be the first to sortie in case an unexpected matter happened during the festival.

  Because of this reason, I ended up drawing the short end of the stick by the hero’s sudden visit. There’s also the matter of those zombies. Too many things suddenly happened in one day.

  In fact, I should be enjoying the festival with Almina around this time. Since the things that could cause problems aren’t happening, I concurred that there’s no problem.

  But then, I can’t enjoy the festival with Almina since she became the hero’s guide. Misfortune keeps piling one after another.

  Since no one is willing to patrol the city, the gathered freedom fighter also dispersed.

  The only ones left are just Kuro and Gallios.

  「I’ll be patrolling around with Rember. What about you, Kuro? 」


  Gallios is asking Kuro.

  「I’m going to patrol the area, too. And then, I think we have to keep our eyes on the festival to prevent any accidents」


  Different from the other freedom fighters, Gallios and Kuro are willing to do the job. When I say my gratitude to them, they just laugh it off by saying “It doesn’t matter”.

  「That’s right, Kuro. How about you try to woo some women coming to this kingdom after this job is done?」


  Gallios suddenly pushes Kuro to woo some woman.