17-19. Pink-colored Calamities (4) Decoy Arc

"And then, after overcoming a fierce fight, we finally defeated the evil dragon desuwa!"

"Oh, gureato~?"

"Very very good nodesu!"

At a tea party held in Boruenan Forest, Karina and the girls narrated about how they defeated a level 80 DemiDragon Vanguard.

"Forgive me, Satou. I have lost half of Orichalc.u.m Golems."

"Oh don"t worry about that. I"m just glad that you are all come home safely."

Even for these girls who have been fortified with Satou"s cheat equipment, dealing against a higher ranked DemiDragon Vanguard was quite a challenge it seems.

"And here"s spoils from the fight, 『DemiDragon Meat』."

Zena took a huge piece of meat wrapped in a leaf from her [Magic Bag] and put it on the table.

"Oh that"s a rare drop."

Lulu murmured to see something that never got dropped in all their fights with the dragons.

"Is this even edible?"

"Looks yummy~?"

"It must be definitely edible nodesu! This one is surely absolutely the delicious kind nanodesuyo!"

Pochi insisted while swinging both her arms and her tail in full force.

Then Liza came back from the terrace.

"What do you think, Lizsan?"

"I don"t think there is any problem, is there?"

"Umu, it"s got this tasty scent to it."

A black gentleman coming from behind Liza cut into the conversation.

There"s folded black wings on the gentleman"s back.

"Is that you, Heiron?"

"Umu, this here be an avatar I asked Heavenly Dragon of Fujisan Mountains to create."

"I thought you had turned yourself into a humanoid for a second there."

Satou"s AR readings displayed him as [Dragon-blood h.o.m.onculus].

"Why would you use an avatar?"

"The high elf grandma would scorch me black with the World Tree"s lightning if I came over in my real body."

"You must black dragon, no? You"re being rude to Sacred Tree of Boruenan Forest, you know."

The elven miko Lua snapped at Heiron"s reckless remark.

"It"s a bit hurt to be called grandma I think."

The more than 100 million year old high elf had a slightly depressed look on her face.

When Satou saw that face, he took Heiron behind a cover at extreme speed.

After some kind of conversation in whispers, the two came back.

"So you are to be Kuro"s bride in the future. My bad, I shan"t call you grandma ever again, as such do accept my apologies."

Heiron haughtily apologized.

Not sure what the two talked about, but cold sweat is running down Heiron"s forehead.

"Kuro?"

"He"s talking about Satou-san."

Miko Lua whispered in the ear of Aialize who tilted her head to the side.

"Ehehe~"

Aialize who realized what Heiron meant by that smiled in a not-at-all-bad manner.

"J-just so you know, everyone here is Master"s future brides, okay!"

"Nn, decided."

Arisa insisted her wife status with a fl.u.s.tered look on her face, Mia too insisted while puffing out her thin chest.

Of course, so did the other girls.

"I see. Humans sure are fertile."

Heiron nodded disinterestedly.

His gaze is fixed to the meat on the table.

"If you were to eat that tasty looking meat, I shall partake in the undertaking."

"Won"t it be cannibalism?"

"Nay. It"s the same as me relis.h.i.+ng on wyverns."

He means to say that demi dragons are not dragonkind.

"Then let"s all have a feast together, shall we."

The [Demidragon Meat] which has been ripened up with Lulu"s cooking magic get cooked up into a variety of meat dishes with the help of Satou and Nea the elven chef.

"Barima~?"

"Delinjaras nanodesu!"

Tama and Pochi who are holding forks with meat stabbed on them in both hands shout in joy while alternately biting on the left and right meat.

By the way, the left one is demidragon meat, while the right one is demigoat meat they got from another floor.

"Umu, it is indeed good. I shall go on a tower hunt myself."

"Hahaha, your real body won"t fit inside, Heiron."

Satou told him that it was impossible size-wise.

"Then with Primeval Magic..."

Heiron was muttering some foreboding sounding words.

Satou spoke to that Heiron, "I"ll definitely treat you to another meal when we get more of this meat", and then went to listen to silver members about the happenstances in the tower.

"Instability of holy magic?"

"Yes, we overheard about it at the guild in front of the tower."

"Certainly, my magic"s strength and effective time were unstable."

The silver members looked surprised when they heard Sera"s reply.

"I didn"t notice at all desuwa."

"Neither did I."

Looks like none of them perceived that fact.

"As expected of Sersama. It"s no wonder you"re the successor of Lily-sama."

The princess praised Sera.

"How does the instability feel like?

"Well... It feels like it"s harder for my prayers to reach G.o.d when I cast holy magic, or rather, there are times when it feels like I"m trying to draw water with a bucket that has a hole on it."

Satou gets lost in thought after hearing Sera"s impressions.

None could read his trains of thoughts due to Poker Face skill, but what he was thinking about got conveyed to Arisa who"s connected to him through Familiar Link.

Arisa nodded lightly.

"Come to think of it, did any of you meet a pink-haired little girl?"

"About that, we were on the lookout for them as we went around hunting monsters, but not a sighting nor voice was heard."

The scout of silver members, Zena answered the question Satou threw like he was trying to change the topic.

"Perhaps, it won"t work unless there are other people on the same floor."

"Then let"s go about it with a different method."

Satou grinned and looked at Tama who was eating meat like she was competing with Pochi.

Tama nodded with meat in her mouth.

"Aye."

Tama trotted over to Satou and offered him meat on a fork.

Satou bit on the meat Tama presented while smiling wryly.

Unfortunately, their tacit understandings weren"t on the level where they could come to a mutual understanding without at least hand signals.

The day after demidragon meat BBQ party.

Nana went exploring the tower together with orphanage children.

"Nansama, gobu are coming over. There are three of them."

"All hands, a.s.sume battle formations so I inform. s.h.i.+eld users, block those gobu attacks in such a way to bounce them back, so I recommend."

"""OU!"""

Today, Nana is not wearing her bulky armor, but a one-piece dress with an ap.r.o.n with chick-patterned appliqué sewn on it. It"s probably intended to be in the image of a nursery teacher.

Nana is the only lightly dressed one here though, the children have protectors such as leather armor and s.h.i.+elds, which Nana prepared for them, equipped.

"Eyy!"

"Yah!"

"Tou!"

The children easily defeated the gobu--Demigoblin Vanguards.

It"s going so smooth probably thanks to the weapons Satou honed and Nana"s support magic.

"It"s candy!"

"Here too!"

"Yay yay."

The kids are happily picking up Demigoblin Vanguards" drop items.

From a remote spot, a group of boys with eyes murky due to adulthood are watching them.

"Tch, those guys again huh."

"And one of those gobu was about to come out of formation too..."

Apparently, they were waiting for the three goblins to break out of their formation.

"Comin" here with some nice equipment."

"And magic too y"know?"

"Really?"

"Like I"d lie "bout it. I saw that pretty woman using it."

"Magic on top of such nice equipment, so unfair!"

The boys grumbled to each other.

『Unfair?』

『Are those kids being unfair?』

"They are! We worked so hard just to get some worn-out swords, and those guys just got new swords with them!"

"s.h.i.+elds and armor too!"

"And they even got magic on top of all that, it"s unfair!"

Youthful voices mixed with laughter joined their conversation.

However, the boys continued their conversation as if it there was nothing wrong with that.

『That"s them being unfair. There"s no equality.』

『Isn"t it unfair when it"s unequal.』

"It really is! Those guys are unfair!"

『Unfair kids are bad kids.』

『Bad kids are unfair.』

『Bad and unfair kids need to be punished.』

『Punishment is in order. I mean, they"re bad kids and all.』

"Yup, punishment is in order."

The boys nodded without realizing that their thoughts were being induced.

『What kind of punishment you want?』

『What kind of punishment you need?』

"I want to turn those carefree att.i.tude into panic."

『Oh nice, that"s nice.』

『But, are you just going to make them panic? Isn"t it a bit too dull?』

"It"s not dull! Have them attacked by some strong monsters and let them wet themselves!"

"They"d weep real hard for sure."

The pink-haired little girls frowned to hear these inherently good-natured boys.

One of the little girls pulled up black mist out of ground and, "Fuu", blew it onto one of the boys.

『So, so, what"s going to happen to the bad kids?』

『They must end up miserable, right? I mean, they"re bad kids, so of course they would.』

"Un, of course. The monsters will attack right as they fell down in fear before getting chewed on by those monsters."

The boy with shadows under his eyes said some cruel words while smiling wickedly.

『Nice, that"s nice.』

『A fitting punishment for villains.』

『Terrible punishment that"s just right for villains.』

The pink-haired little girls extracted the miasma that came out of the boys with ugly smiles on their faces before leaving.

The boy with shadows under his eyes lost consciousness and got carried away to a safe spot by the other boys.

『There they are. Cheating villains are over there.』

Pink-haired little girls materialized in a spot with a clear view of Nana and the children who had changed their hunting spot.

『Get "em, ogre!』

『Get "em, troll!』

『Get "em, minotaur!』

Three giant monsters rushed toward the orphanage children.

"Uwaa"

"Something"s coming!"

"Big, it"s so big!"

The children fell into panic when they saw the giant monsters.

Seeing that, the little girls smiled s.a.d.i.s.tically, their mouths warped into crescent-shapes.

The monsters" shadows hang over the children.

The little girls bend forward while antic.i.p.ating a cruel spectacle to unfold.

However--.

"s.h.i.+eld Bash, so I inform."

With a monotonous-sounding voice, the monsters that should have trampled over the children got blown away like b.a.l.l.s.

The little girls ran off and hid behind a cover in a hurry.

『Fueee?』

『Its neck broke.』

『Mino-san"s neck broke and died?』

The little girls looked at each others" faces, confused at what had just transpired.

"I won"t forgive those who bully young organisms, so I declare."

The ogre died with a utility-pole sized transparent spear impaled through it, while the trolls had all its limbs cut, and sewn on the ground.

"Finish it off, so I incite."

"Un! Everyone, let"s do this!"

"""OU!"""

"Replying with [Hora hora sa.s.sa] would have been best there, so I inform."

The troll became the children"s punching bag.

『Why?』

『That kid is strong?』

『I dunno.』

『Her level"s high.』

『Eh, why didn"t you appraise her then.』

『I mean, I can"t appraise that kid, humph.』

Concealed thanks to [Harness of Thief G.o.d].

『Let"s bring over even more strong stuff.』

『Eeh, what a pain.』

『Riight, I mean, the strong ones would resist.』

『And they bite on us too.』

『Let"s look for other bad guys.』

『Yep let"s.』

『I mean, there"s a whole lotsa bad guys out there anyway.』

The little girls left through a hole that had opened in the wall.

『Eeh, we"re not gonna teach those kids a lesson?』

『Do it yourself if you"re so eager to.』

『No way I can do it alone~』

The other little girls left the complaining little girl alone.

『You can"t just leave bad kids like that.』

"Ou, yies~?"

『Eh?』

Shadows stretched out of the ground and coiled around the little girl.

『What what what--』

Even while panicking, the little girl cut off the shadow whips with a purple dagger that had appeared out of nowhere.

After escaping the shadow whips, the little girl frantically tried to escape into the hole--.

"Under arrest, nanodesu!"

Pochi who was cosplaying as a policewoman jumped out of a nearby shadow and captured the little girl as she tried to jump into the hole.

『Nooo』

"Under arrest~?"

Tama rushed out after Pochi, and together they wrapped the little girl in a bamboo mat.

"Fall back~"

"Roger nanodesu."

The two lifted up the little girl wrapped in a bamboo mat, and jumped into the shadow.

Looks like no evils are allowed to be let loose with Dog Policewoman Pochi and Cat Ninja Tama around.