Volume 8, Chapter 16: The Hero’s Secret Arts, Part 3

The golden saint was missing from the battlefield.

When the news came from the Staff Officer of the Operations HQ of the Joint Coalition, all of the soldiers of the forces of light were shocked.

Yurushia’s partic.i.p.ation in this recapture operation was only supposed to be a piece of propaganda for Sail – a mere consideration of politics.

With the exception of some of the influential members, like the Heroes, the upper echelons of the nations were all skeptical of the power of the [Saint] and thought that she wouldn’t sway the battle little even if she partic.i.p.ated. Some of them even thought that it would be very convenient for her to die here.

But, the upper echelons of humanity did not know.

They were too concerned over the military might of the heroes, that they thought of the tales of the Saint’s power as merely some sort of fairy tale for the common folk.

But for the common people, the name of the [Saint] was a name mentioned in the same breath as a [Hero], and just like how [Heroes] like Yuuki inspired the common people as their [sword], the [Saint] healed people, giving them hope as their [Shield].

The soldiers at the forefront of the battlefields understood that better than anyone.

The fact that they had the [Saint] on this battlefield, where death was no stranger, had given them a tremendous feeling of security.

So, what would happen if it was lost to them……?

The officers of every nation were astonished at the sheer influence that the label of [Saint] had, and some of them felt annoyed that she had even appeared.

“Yuru is missing?! What’s going on!?”

When the Hero of the Earth, Kanzo, returned with her wounded soldier and pressed Sefira for an answer, Sefira’s exhausted face grimaced.

“I’m sorry. I can’t believe it either, but it seems that she was set upon by armed bandits……”

“Where are they? I’m going to go kick them around!”

“P-Please wait, Kanzo-sama!”

That Kanzo, who was enormously tough on beautiful women, surprised everyone with her worry for Yurushia, and Sefira jumped to stop Kanzo before she bounced out.

“The armed bandits have already fled, and the horse carriage with Yurushia-sama has already left the area.”

“How did this……”

Sefira’s words caused Kanzo to clench her fists.

Seeing Kanzo in such a state, so far removed from usual, everyone else in the base was moved, and had thoughts of Kanzo as one of the [Heroes] who protected the people of the common folk.

But then.

“(Although this is a great opportunity, the efficiency will drop if Yuru’s not there!)”

Kanzo was trying to create the [Magic Gem] that he’d contracted Yurushia for on this battlefield.

But, without Yurushia, Kanzo’s plans would be compromised.

Kanzo could also create magic gems, but the prototypes she created with her magic were either too small or too flawed to satisfy her compared to the ones that Yurushia and her subordinates made.

The Hero of Wind wasn’t coming to the battlefield for some reason, but the hero of water and the hero of the flame were.

There was this slim chance for her to get the pure magic of the other heroes.

Even if one of the heroes disappeared because of that, the three other heroes could hold the line until a new one was summoned, and if that wasn’t enough, it would have been fine if the [Saint] covered that gap.

The war between the forces of light and the forces of darkness had been ongoing for thousands of years.

The [Skills] that had been born from contracting with the spirits and the summoning of [Heroes] had ground the war into a stalemate, and as a result, both the heroes and the men were carelessly thinking that the state of the war would not shift.

“Kanzo-sama, please leave it to us. I will take responsibility for finding Yurushia-sama.”

“……Yes. If it’s you, Sefira, I’ll trust in it.”

Kanzo, who seemed so impatient, reluctantly said so after hearing Sefira’s declaration, and changed her opinion relatively easily.

Originally, women like Sefira were the type that had no love for Kanzo, and everyone around them should have known it, but it was accepted naturally.

“…………”

Watching as the hero of earth returned to the battlefield again, Sefira sighed internally and grimaced when she thought that n.o.body was looking.

The heroes were not to be offended. The heroes of flame and wind aside, the hero of water didn’t trust others and was very careful with his actions, while the hero of earth was suspicious of small things like having perfectly womanly bodies.

Still, there were now no obstacles in Sefira’s plans.

The little “gap” in her plan was still well in the range of her corrections.

There was only one problem now…… she’d lost sight of where the [Golden Saint] that’d shifted her plans off track had gone.

“Where are you…… my “irregular” girl”

* * *

“Princess, your feet are starting to get worse. Please, let me.”

“Shall I hold you? You’re a girl, so you’re not too heavy to be held, right?”

“Hmm……”

What is this situation……!

Geas and Onzada-kun who were both in their humanoid forms again were trying to pamper me.

Honestly, this experience is new to me, so I’m having trouble reacting to it.

Geas is still okay. It feels like when I had a pampering grandpa as a Princess. But anyway, he gave off the feeling of a of a grandparent pampering their grandchild, so my heart just felt a little flittering, but the real problem is Onzada-kun.

“Things like this…… It’s been a long time since I’ve been able to hold Milady like this.”

While saying that, he brushed my hair with his fingertips and brought his face closer to sniff my hair.

Is this some sort of male behavior? Or is this the behavior of your animal side, o rabbit?

“Hey, Onzada-kun, you never did that before!?”

“Is that so?”

When I took my hair back from Onzada-kun’s hands and scolded him, he has a slightly dejected expression.

Stop that, it’s horrifying seeing that on a 30-something year old man.

As the Onzada-kun in my head was still in junior high, I don’t quite know what kind of face I would expect to see from this adult figure.

Although I love dandy uncles, but I don’t think this expression is cute at all.

“Hey…… Why do you even look like that in the first place……?”

“Hmm? Was it better to look younger?”

“Onzada-dono and I look wonderful as we are now. Although we could change what age we look, but it consumes a lot of magic power, so the amount of time we can stay in our human forms will shorten. Oh, there’s a pothole there, so please be careful.”

“Waah”

Before I could even turn my attention to it, Geas lifted me up gently and carried me over to the end of the b.u.mpy road.

We were in the enormous cavern that was home to the forces of darkness.

I asked the two of them to guide me, but I worried about letting them away from those two children for so long, so I called Onzada-kun, who was the chief on-site, to call in 150 [Greater Demons] from [Paradise Lost] and left them behind to guard.

…… Is 150 too much? Nah, there’s no such thing as too much. It’s important to pamper small children, you know?

Though my story’s gotten sidetracked again, we ran all the way here to the entrance of the cavern by foot.

It would have been nice if I could have teleported, but Onzada-kun and Geas didn’t have enough magic power to carry my enormous presence.

I could have been faster had I flown, but because various wild dragons were flying about, it would have been troublesome to deal with them had we run into them along the way.

Well, I can distort s.p.a.ce to some degree, so walking normally didn’t bother me since we were travelling at the speed of a car.

“Milady, the dark elves and beastmen will begin to appear from here on in, so please let us deal with them.”

“Leave everything to us, Milady. …… Will you behave?”

“………okay.”

You say it like I’m some sort of troublemaker………

“Hey, you, stop right there!”

……… eehh~…… What is this timing? Were you waiting just for it?

The soldier-like dogman called out to us, two subordinates in tow, and either because we were approaching him, or because it was dark, he lowered his spear towards us.

“Y, you guys, you’re Humans!?”

“Oi, do we look like “humans”?”

“Bugh!”

I burst out involuntarily.

What? Wait, I’m growing rabbit ears!?

Even though they were wary of me having burst out suddenly, as I suddenly stiffened from the shock of growing rabbit ears, the dogman officer…… nodded in a.s.sent and walked away with the soldiers.

“What, it’s a beastman. You scared me. That little girl…… well, you’re alright.”

Wait a minute. I didn’t do anything to disguise myself, though?

“……What was that about me……?”

I was told not to do anything, so I only spoke to them with a smile on my face, but the soldiers diverted their eyes in a hurry.

“N-no, it’s nothing……”

“Fufufufu, may I go now?”

“O-ok”

I don’t know why, but we were able to easily slip past the soldiers stopping us and head to the center of the city.

“Thanks to Milady, we were able to get in quickly. Thank you.”

But why?

“Why does Onzada-kun also have rabbit ears……”

“I can’t help it. I was turned into a rabbit by Milady to begin with.”

Ah, it seems that even Onzada-kun knows what shame is. I was a little relieved. At least, I think it’s good. “Geas; What is that?”

Geas was also imitating a beastman, but slightly different horns from Noa and Nea’s were growing from both sides of his head. Well I guess you could say it’s well within expectations, but……

“Why are you horns sheep horns? I thought you had bull horns?”

When I asked him, Geas smiled slowly at me while his eyes lit up kindly like a child’s.

“Yes, but now I am a butler”

“………”

…… GRAMPS!

Then we arrived at the sealed ancient castle in the center of the great cavern with no problems.

The castle of the demon king of old, that had united all of the forces of darkness.

And…… the castle of “the first hero”.

Author’s Notes:

Next time, what was left behind in the castle!