◆Dark Knight; Kuroki

  The banquet held to praise the feats of the Hero of Light, Reiji, had begun in the afternoon. Thus, the sky was still rather bright. We could see the situation going on outside from inside the canopy which was made from a thin material that covered the deck of the ship. Many people could be seen going to and fro from atop our ship that was anchored in slightly a separated place from the other ships.

  「Nu~~~」


  Kuna was groaning cutely on my left.

  「Is something the matter, Kuna? Are the dishes not to your liking?」


  There were numerous dishes placed in front of us. They were the same kind as the ones that were served up at the banquet so that might be why some of them might not be up to her tastes.

  Take this Hageese meat for example. It was definitely unpalatable for me.

  Hageese was a round, platypus-like animal whose entire body was covered in hair and lived on high ground. It was a creature that was hard to catch since it could move nimbly with its three long feet. Since it was a rare cuisine, it had been served here.

  By the way, there’s a saying that you can’t trust a person who eats Hageese.

  But, I guess the source of Kuna’s displeasure isn’t the dishes.

  「It’s not the fault of the dishes, Kuroki!! It’s Shirone’s fault for coming on this ship!!」


  Kuna spoke while glaring daggers at Shirone who was leaning comfortably against my right side.

  「My apologies, Kuna-sama… I couldn’t reject a request from Chiyuki-sama to look after the drunken Shirone-sama.」


  Regena bowed her head towards Kuna to apologize.

  In the first place, the reason we could attend this banquet was because Regena had received an invitation. But, well, the main reason we’d attended was nothing more than wanting to enjoy the delicious local dishes. I mean, why not?

  Originally, Regena was supposed to greet the big shots of this country including Reiji and co. But then, an incident cropped up with Shirone getting dead drunk and Regena had ended up accepting Chiyuki’s request to let Shirone rest in this place.

  「Kuroki, you dummy~… why diz you go~. I’m zeally worriez you kno~w」


  Shirone’s breath reeked of liquor. The smell was too much for my nose.

  Just how many bottles of liquor had she downed to get herself so wasted like this?

  By the way, I don’t drink liquor. The beverage in my cup I’ve been sipping at is fruit juice. Though there were many different types of distilled liquors made from a palm-like fruit amongst the dishes in front of me, I didn’t touch any of them.

  It was interesting though that this world did have distilled liquor. Though the majority of it was made by the believers of the God of Liquor, Nector, a small portion was also made by the believers of the Goddess of Medicine and Herbs, Fanacea since distilled liquor could also be used as medicine.

  It seems that food and medicine were always intertwined no matter what kind of world it was.

  Anyhow, there were many herbs used in both the liquor and the various dishes present. Though that was the case, too much of these liquors wasn’t particularly good for health. I mean, you only needed a sip of the liquor for medicinal uses, not hundreds of bottles.

  「HEY, BAKA SHIRONE!! GET AWAY FROM KUROKI RIGHT NOW!! LOOK, KUROKI IS TROUBLED BECAUSE OF YOU!!」


  Kuna was looking at Shirone with piercing cold eyes.

  In fact, Kuna had almost lopped off Shirone’s head as soon as the former saw the latter being brought onto this ship. I’d ended up having a hard time stopping her from going on a rampage.

  But well, she ended up forgiving it after my desperate plea. She didn’t even cause another huge commotion when Shirone had clung to my other side. Or rather, that just might be my imagination since my nerves were currently completely focused on my right side which was enjoying Shirone’s supple yet soft skin.

  Of course, Shirone’s actions had made Kuna even more displeased as the latter attempted to try to peel the former away from my side.

  「Okay, it’s time for you to let go of me, Shirone. Look, there’s some wrinkles on your beautiful dress.」


  I also tried to separate myself from Shirone.

  「U~hm… dress… I see… gonna take it off.」


  Shirone started to undress as soon as she spoke.

  「Stop, Shirone!! You can’t undress yourself in this kind of place!!」


  I quickly stopped Shirone before it was too late.

  Honestly, I really wanted to see her naked, but she might hate me for that. I definitely wouldn’t use her drunken state to satisfy my worldly desires so I had to stop her.

  「What’s the matter, Kuroki~?」


  Shirone pouted as I stopped her from undressing.

  「Just sleep for now, Shirone. You’re drunk right now.」


  I gently placed Shirone on top of a soft sofa to let her get some sleep and took out her hair clip since it would disturb her sleep.

  「Eh, this hair clip…」


  I took a look at the hair clip.

  That hair clip was amongst Shirone’s possessions when she came to this world. It was a present from me to Shirone, something that I gave long before our huge quarrel. It seems that she was still using it.

  「U~hn.」


  Shirone suddenly swung her leg, exposing her blue panties for me to see clearly.

  By the way, there were panties in this world along with the technology to make bras too. But, it seems that this type of underwear has yet to spread to the entire continent. There were some regions that also had adopted loincloth-like or fundoshi-like underwear, or thongs. There were more types, but they were part of the minority.

  Generally, the men here wore a fundoshi-type underwear while the women wore a thong-like underwear. The thong type was one that was fastened or tied at the side with cords.

  In fact, the underwear left behind by Rena back then in the Rox Kingdom was the fastened thong type. Naturally, I was still safekeeping it.

  And now, the one Shirone was wearing was also the type that was tied to the side with cords.

  I did my best to endure the urge to want to plant my face on her cr*tch.

  Besides the fact she was showing off her underwear to me, her splendid dress was a mess right now. Even her mouth was hanging open loosely like a fool’s.

  Shirone never showed this kind of a sloppy look in front of the man she loved back in Japan. But of course, I saw this kind of sloppy look more times that I could count back when we were still in Japan.

  It seems that she hadn’t changed at all even after she’d come to this world.

  「Sorry, Regena. Please cover Shirone with something.」


  「Yes, master.」


  Regena covered Shirone with a white cloth at my behest.

  Not now one will be seeing her underwear anymore

  「Humph!! what’s with this girl!!」


  Kuna was looking at Shirone with an angry look on her face.

  Even her angry face was really cute. Seeing her like that, I almost couldn’t hold back from embracing her.

  「Sorry Kuna. Please be patient with Shirone for now.」


  I had no choice to ask Kuna to endure for now.

  「Kuna is not… Kuna doesn’t mind even if Shirone sticks by Kuroki’s side. But, if it results in her staying by Kuroki’s side forever…」


  Kuna spoke softly while leaning against my back.

  Eeh, how did I end up making a girl cry? Usually, I could make Kuna look really happy just by patting her head.

  「KYAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!」


  At that moment, there was a scream that rang out from a different ship.

  「What’s that scream?」


  Something was happening on another ship.

  ◆Black Haired Sage; Chiyuki

  As soon as we arrived at the scene, we saw the men dressed in Satyr costumes screaming in panic. They were the actors who were called to perform at this banquet. The men in the Satyr costumes were the ones who performed background music during the drama.

  When I was wondering why they looked like that, I realized that this was the first time I was seeing satyr in a theatre play of this world.

  Their costumes were quite well done and looked like a real satyr.

  Satyrs were said to be a race that loved to sing and dance merrily. Though they were no match for minotaurs in terms of raw power, they could use powerful curses through song and music. Additionally, every single one of them loved lewd hunks and beauties.

  One needed to be careful when receiving their invitations since satyrs would use their magic on their intended prey.

  I’d even seen a terrifying black satyr once before in Nargol. Those black satyrs were far more powerful and looked more akin to goats compared to the normal satyr. They were adept magic users who would come to the human realm once in a while to lure women by saying they would grant their wish.

  Thinking about it now, it was rather similar to Sabbath.

  Women who received the love of Black satyr gained the ability to sense supernatural powers and become a witch. Naturally, there were no witches in this place and the fact that the satyrs were just men in costumes.

  「Chiyuki, LOOK!!! THERE’S A GIANT CRAB!!」


  Reiji shouted to me.

  As I looked around, I saw a giant crab creeping onto the deck of the ship.

  The crab was almost five meters wide and its pincers were about one meter long.

  This crab-like monster was known as the Karkinos. And currently, there were many Karkinos spitting out attacks towards the people on this ship in a bubble-like form.

  The bubbles seem to have some sort of strong viscosity since some of the people who’d been hit by them were trapped inside, unable to break free from it.

  「HAAA!!!」


  Reiji summoned his sword and sliced one of the Karkinos in half.

  But, there were five Karkinos in total and every single one of them was attacking a different ship.

  「HEEELP!」


  Suddenly, I heard a girl’s scream.

  She might be a dancer who came to perform at this banquet.