「Then… did he also have the same look when he was looking at you, Shirone-san?」


  Rino drew back a little bit upon asking that.

  「Yeah, and it was especially bad when I came into his room wearing a mini skirt. But well, since we’ve known each other from childhood and I know that he’s not the kind of man who will assault women, I’m pretty much used to it. I think the people who aren’t used to it react just like you though. After that, this girl who saw Kuroki from afar asked me to introduce her to Kuroki but, well, she drew back as soon as I told her the contents of the p*rn book hidden under Kuroki’s bed. That’s why Kuroki’s never had a girlfriend…」


  「I see now…」


  Yeah, it was only natural for those girls to draw away from him since Shirone told them about the contents of the p*rn book hidden beneath his bed.

  I hope she stops doing something like checking the p*rn books under his bed. It’s a breach of privacy. And even if she did, she shouldn’t tell anyone about it.

  It seems the poor childhood friend didn’t even have something like privacy when it came to Shirone.

  「Yup, that might be the reason they drew away…」


  「I feel the same as you, Rino-chan…」


  The two spoke in agreement while making a disgusted face.

  「But still… It’s pretty much impossible to get along with him even if we manage to take him back…」


  I mean, being exposed to a lewd gaze around the clock was pretty much impossible.

  He had no choice but to stay in the base, house-sitting. [Note: And have Rena come to f*ck him]

  After that, we shifted our focus back to the theatrical play to avoid topics about him.

  On the stage, Sienna, who played as the princess, defeated the witch.

  Honestly speaking, the woman who acts as witch should be Ainoe. But, Ainoe had escaped along with the Lesser Daemon.

  That was why the role of the witch was switched with a masked actress. Despite being a substitute, the masked actress displayed an excellent performance comparable to the full-time stage actress.

  Finally, the play came to a close and all the cast members returned to the back stage.

  「Chiyuki-dono, I heard that you’d come to see the play too.」


  Someone then called out to us when we were about to take our leave.

  「Is something the matter, Decius-dono?」


  The one who called out to us was Decius. He should be still busy with the post-processing work after the 「Black Storm」 incident.

  「I came to make a report since the post-processing ended faster than I expected. Come to think of it, I didn’t see Reiji-dono and Kyouka-dono today? I came to express my gratitude for the reconstruction fund that Kyouka-dono has provided for us, but…」


  Decius spoke while looking around.

  Reiji was responsible for half of the reconstruction fund to rebuild Republic Ariadya.

  Well, all of it was in fact funds provided by Kaya and Kyouka. They just put it under Reiji’s name.

  But then, the thing that I was worried about was the fact that Regena also provided the other half of the reconstruction fund. The thing I’m worried about is the origin of Regena’s money.

  「Reiji-kun is still being treated by Sahoko-san. His wound isn’t a big deal, the real problem is his exhausted mana. That’s why he’s resting for now.」


  Reiji was currently under medical care from Sahoko.

  Though there was no danger to Reiji’s life, he’d consumed most of his mana during the fight against Shirone’s childhood friend.

  Even Reiji, with his vast amount of mana, couldn’t win even after he exhausted all his mana. It reminded me again just how much of a monster his opponent, Shirone’s childhood friend, the Dark knight was.

  And then, since his endurance and recovery ability took a nosedive when he exhausted his mana, Reiji had a hard time recovering naturally.

  In addition, healing magic didn’t work for his depleted mana since it wasn’t an injury.

  Though there was a drug that promoted mana recovery, the drug was far from enough to recover Reiji’s vast amount of mana. Though Elios seems to have such a drug, I heard that it was pretty rare even for them.

  But then, since mana would recover just by sleeping, it was pretty much not a big deal even without that rare drug.

  For that reason, Reiji was currently put under special sleep to recover his mana. Well, he should wake up sooner or later.

  「I see. I guess that makes sense. Well then, the report is about the devils who retreated. It seems they retreated into the labyrinth and have turned it into their base.」


  「I see, the labyrinth, huh…」


  It was the place that used to be ruled by the evil god, Labrys.

  And now, according to Decius’ report, it was now under the control of the demon king.

  But, honestly, I didn’t feel like recapturing it.

  「And then, about the damage report… How should I say, I don’t know whether to call it blessing in disguise or not, but none of Ariadya’s citizen died during this incident. However, there are still some freedom fighters that haven’t returned from underground waterway.」


  Decius spoke with a grim look on his face.

  It seems that many freedom fighters had fallen victim to the ratmans.

  The damage might’ve been even worse if Sienna hadn’t used her flute back then.

  The humans who were changed into ratmen were returned to being human with Sahoko’s magic. They were also currently under medical care.

  But, I had no idea whether all the ratmen had already transformed back into humans.

  It seems that those with poor hearing and those who couldn’t walk around have yet to be lured out of the underground waterway.

  I wanted to ask Sienna to play the flute again, but it seems she returned it to the Dark Knight along with her katana. That’s why the flute was no longer in this country.

  「And then, regarding Ainoe-dono, we honestly have no idea about her whereabouts. The witch hunters are really frustrated over this matter.」


  Witch hunters were the people who hunted those who made a contract with an evil god and daemons despite being human. They were volunteers from Rena’s faith, Faeria’s faith and Oudith’s faith, where the witch hunter regarded witches as abominable beings.

  I heard that the promoter was the professor of the university and Oudith’s priest.

  Though they’re not regarded as the official members of Oudith’s faith, they dared to act boldly in their hunt. They were more relentless than hunting hounds and their torture methods were simply beyond cruel.

  In addition, they didn’t even hesitate to get completely unrelated bystanders involved if it was for their hunt and thus are regarded as an extremist organization.

  There was no doubt about it, there’s only cruel torture waiting for Ainoe once they find her.

  「Haa, her whereabouts aside. It seems she doesn’t have any important information… Moreover, even if we find her, there’s no way we’re going to hand her over to the witch hunters.」


  We didn’t actually care about her since she didn’t have any important information with her. But then, we also didn’t want to send her to the witch hunters since their torture methods were simply too much.

  「Indeed. The witch hunters do go a little bit too far in that regard. They even dared to put my little sister, Sienna, in their suspect list.」


  Decius spoke with a slightly indignant look on his face.

  He seems to have a bad impression about them after they put his little sister on their suspect list.

  Sienna didn’t have any contract with a daemon. Though that matter was as clear as day, the witch hunters weren’t convinced.

  Thus, I gave them my guarantee that she wasn’t a witch.

  The witch hunters had no choice but to withdraw since it was a guarantee from me, the hero’s comrade. I mean, they might put Sienna through torture right away if I hadn’t given my guarantee.

  「Well, anyhow, we have an even more urgent matter at hand now. We have no leeway to think about Ainoe’s whereabouts right now.」


  I said so while shaking my head.

  I mean, we need to investigate the Silver Witch right now.

  Thus, I started to ponder about the girl with silver hair again.

  ***

  ◆Sienna

  「SIENNA!! WHAT’S WITH YOUR PERFORMANCE JUST NOW!! IF I’M PUT IN YOUR POSITION, I CAN DO IT MUCH BETTER!!」


  After the two of us retreated to the backstage tent, Ayla, who had just taken off her mask, scolded me.

  Even when she changed her face, her character was still the same as before.

  Ayla’s face wasn’t her real face. She changed her face with magic. That’s why she didn’t need to wear a mask to hide her face.

  But, those with high magical power could see through her disguise. And when that happened, the witch hunters would definitely come to arrest her.

  That’s why she wore her mask to avoid such a situation and played her role while wearing the mask.

  I remember the time when I was questioned by the witch hunters.

  They were suspicious of me having a contract with a Daemon since I had the katana entrusted to me by that person.

  Naturally, I denied all their accusations.

  I mean, that person wasn’t a daemon- they were an even higher existence.

  Thus, I never made a pact with daemon.

  But, the witch hunters who used lie detection magic didn’t seem to understand that fact.

  They might have tortured me if not for my big brother and the hero’s comrade’s interference.

  To be honest, that was such a close call.

  After that, I returned the katana and the flute to that person via Regena-san. I’m really glad I did it before the witch hunters came to interrogate me.

  I mean, they were definitely going to confiscate those items when they found it.

  「Yeah yeah, thank you for your guidance. Aino— I mean, Ayla-san.」


  Woops, I almost called out to her by her real name.

  The woman called Ainoe was no more. Instead, she was reborn as a woman called Ayla.

  As for the reason why she was staying in this place, well, I had to say that it was due to my request to that person.

  I mean, no one in our troupe was skilled enough to replace her. She was the backbone of our troupe.

  Thus, she returned to this place.

  The only ones who knew about this matter were Leader Midas and I.

  Leader Midas wasn’t the type of person who would fuss over whether Ainoe-san was a witch or not as long as it was related to theater play.

  Naturally, she also accepted her return to the theater.

  In the first place, she wasn’t the type of person who could abandon theater considering it was what she loved the most.

  I mean, she should have been able to raise her fame fairly easily as long as she asked the lesser daemon she was contracted with.

  And yet, she never did that.

  Because that is just how much Ainoe… or should I call her with her current name, Ayla loved theatrical play.

  Thus, she agreed to my proposal immediately.

  That was how she made her comeback to the theatrical stage.

  Naturally, I had no intentions of yielding the lead role to her.

  There was still a possibility of her trying to kill me, but I felt that such possibility was quite low due to a certain reason.

  「Another quarrel?」


  And then, someone entered our waiting room.

  「Regena-san!!」


  「Regena-sama!!」


  Ayla and I stopped our quarrel at once to greet her.

  Regena-san was our patron, that’s why there was nothing wrong with her coming to our tent.

  「Please stop these useless quarrels, my dear master entrusted the two of you to me after all.」


  Regena-san spoke with a troubled look on her face.

  「That’s a misunderstanding, Head Priest-sama. We’re not quarrelling…」


  Ayla spoke with a business smile on her face.

  「Ayla-san, Sienna-san is receiving direct support from my dear master. Please hold back from hurting her.」


  Though Regena-san was smiling, her eyes were radiating piercing cold killing intent.

  Ayla’s face was dyed in fear. Well, it was only natural for her to get that scared. I mean, Regena-san was the apostle of the Dark Knight who had brought fear to the whole of Ariadya. It might be only a portion, but she could use a part of that person’s power. If she felt like it, she could beat a few human heroes all at once with ease.

  And then, the will of that person was an absolute order for Regena-san. If Ayla tried to hurt me, she would lose her place in the theatre.

  That’s why she would never go as far as trying to kill me again.