Chapter 123

Former friends

Tatsumi and his party proceeded smoothly along the highway, arriving at a small inn town before dusk that day.

It was a little early, but that was the end of today’s itinerary. If we pa.s.sed through this town, we would have to make camp along the way.

Although there is no one in the group who would have a hard time camping out, it is one of the ironclad rules of hunting monsters and beasts to take a good rest when you can.

Stepping into the inn town, Tatsumi looked around the town from the top of his beloved Porsche.

It is not that big an inn town. It was probably the smallest lodging town Tatsumi had ever seen.

“It is smaller than I thought it would be.”

“It’s not that important of a highway. Besides, there are no larger towns around. So not many travelers use it.”

“I see. Does that mean it would be a waste to develop it further?”

Morgernike, with his parlors lined up next to Tatsumi’s, nodded his head in agreement.

“Still, not all travelers use the roads, and the forests and mountains near here are surprisingly good hunting grounds,” he said. “So there tends to be a lot of magical beast hunters using the road.”

In my own perspective, I noticed a lot of people wearing armor walking around town. As Morgernike says, they are probably hunting monsters and beasts that are hunting for prey in the vicinity.

“This characteristic of the town is another necessary piece of information for a hexen beast hunter.”

Tatsumi listened intently to Morgernike’s explanation with a serious expression on his face.

And Calcedonia was staring at Tatsumi’s back from a little further away.

Her beautiful face, which shines as brightly as the reddish light of the sun as dusk approaches, is tinted in a color called “grumpy.”

“…ngghh… Master and Morger are getting along too well again.”

“Oh my G.o.d, Calce. You can’t be jealous of Master Morgernike, can you?”

“I’m not sure it’s like that.”

“Then, Mr. Jadock, maybe… you heard it, too…?”

Calcedonia turned around in a hurry, and out of the corner of her eye, she saw Jadock with a wry smile on his face.

He said, “People of all genders gather around a good-looking man. If you are the wife of Tensho, you should be proud of that.”

“I know that, but…”

“Don’t look at me like that. I heard that Mira’s face is quite smart because of the proximity of her hometown to this town. She says she knows a good place to stay, so let’s get settled in there as soon as possible.”

Jadock looked in the direction of Mira and Sheila, who were getting out of the boar cart and moving away from it, and Miruil’s back.

“Tatsumi and Sir Morgernike, stop staring at the town and get going,” he said.

“Oh, I’m coming.”

Tatsumi and Morgernike came advancing down the parlow side by side.

Calcedonia was watching them, still looking uninterested.

Mira led the group to an inn called the “Shining Sunset Inn.”

It is not a large inn, but it is said to have a reputation for its delicious food.

“I’ll go talk to your father and get you a room. Two separate rooms for men and women, right?”

The group nodded at Mira’s words. One or two of them seemed dissatisfied, but as expected, they did not speak up about it.

“Then we’ll go and put Parlow and the others in the stables while we’re at it.”

“I understand, Mr. Tensho. I’ll let your father know you’ll be using the stables.”

Tatsumi pulls the reins of the Porsche and Ferrari around to the back of the inn. There is a well-kept stable there, and he ties up the two perros to a vacant spot in the stable.”

Morgernike also put his own beloved horse, and Jadock put his Pajero, which he had removed from the boar’s cart, into the stables.

After preparing plenty of food and water for the horses, Tatsumi and the others once again headed toward the inn.

“The inn was quite nice,” said Tatsumi.

“Yes, that’s right. The stables were well cared for, and that shows the personality of the innkeeper.”

Jadock and Morgernike exchange words as they look at the exterior of the inn.

As they say, this inn is well maintained down to the smallest detail.

Although the exterior of the inn is indeed old and rundown, it does not look dirty at all. The old and dilapidated appearance, on the contrary, creates a nice atmosphere.

Perhaps the innkeeper is a serious and attentive person. It is pleasant to dine in such a person’s restaurant.

Mira also said that the restaurant had a good reputation for its food, and Tatsumi felt something uplifting in his heart.

The three of them slowly push open the entrance door in a friendly atmosphere.

The various smells and hustle and bustle that immediately flow out are completely familiar to Tatsumi.

However, as soon as he took a glance inside the restaurant, a cold rage overflowed from Tatsumi’s body.

Jadock looks up to the heavens and smacks him on the forehead with one of his four arms.

The reason for Tatsumi’s sudden anger.

It was because he had witnessed his beloved woman being entangled with several men.

“Dad.”

When Mira called out to him, a middle-aged man who was busy behind the counter turned around.

“Oh, it’s Mira, isn’t it? It’s been a long time.”

The owner of the restaurant smiled at me, shaking his big, fat belly.

“If you take a closer look, you’ll see that they are all pretty girls. Are they all Mira’s acquaintances?”

“I’m not sure. We met each other for a little while. We are going to the lake now.”

Mira and the shopkeeper talk in a friendly manner. Indeed, as the shopkeeper says, many of the members of this group are good-looking.

Calcedonia, a well-known “saint,” and Sheila, an elf, are among them. Even Mira herself is not bad looking at all.

In fact, the male beast hunters and travelers in the inn’s dining room have been glancing at the girls since they entered.

“Towards the lake… where the rumored armored dragons are?”

The shopkeeper looks at Mira and the others in turn. If he could determine from their equipment that they were hunting magical beasts, he could get a general idea of their purpose.

Just in case, the owner was about to give them some advice. Suddenly, three or so men interrupted from the side.

“They’re all women, and you want to hunt the armored dragon? Are you insane, Mira?”

“I didn’t expect to see you here… after all, aren’t we bound together by the will of one of the G.o.ds?”

“Heh heh heh, there’s a lot of good women here. Alright, alright, I’ll help you hunt the rumored armored dragons. In return… you know what I want.”

The men smile with a sly, icky smile as they say self-serving things with their mouths. Looking at their faces, Mira’s complexion instantly turns pale.

“Hey, Mira. could it be that these guys are…”

Miruil, who had an idea who the men were, asked while standing in a position to protect Mira from the men.

“Ummm, yeah… these are the guys that I used to work with.”

Yes. They were the ones Mira had teamed up with before, the hexenbiest hunters who had tapped into her distrust of men.

Looking at the men with their repulsive smiles, Miruil realized that with these guys, it was no wonder that Mira distrusted men.

The ulterior motive of their smiles and the not-so-high level of competence that was evident just by looking at them. On the contrary, it makes you wonder why Mira was with these guys until recently.

So, with a cold expression on his face, Miruil simply rejected their offer.

“No, thank you. We have enough manpower. More than enough, at that.”

He tells them, moving one hand as if waving something away with a flick.

Meanwhile, Calcedonia totally ignored them, while Sheila looked anxiously at Miruil and Mira, comparing them again and again.

“Don’t be so cold. Don’t be so cold,” he said, “It’s not safe with all women. You’d better stay here with us. It’s safer for you.”

Before Miruil could say anything, “It’s much more dangerous with you guys,” the other men were closing the distance between them and the girls.

“Oh, look at the elves and the pretty pretty girls!”

“Well done, Mira. I forgive these sisters for running out on us without permission.”

“Then I’ll be dealing with my elf sister.”

“Oh, I like the big-breasted babes over here.”

“Don’t make up your own mind. That means I’ll have Mira and my strong-willed sister over here.”

The men are talking selfishly, and their sticky smiles deepen even further. The women all reveal their disgust at these men.

Taking advantage of the women’s silence, the men approach their partners of their own choosing. They reach for the women’s bodies as they please.

Just then, the door to the inn opens and two men and a shade enter the store.

It was what could be called the worst possible timing for these men.

Tatsumi steps forward, a quiet anger radiating from his entire body.

A strong arm tapped him on the shoulder.

“Wait a minute, Tatsumi. As usual, you get angry when Calce gets involved.”

“I’m sure that Calce would easily brush off a group of men of that caliber. Why don’t you have a little faith in your own wife?”

Tatsumi looks to the left and right as both sides call out to him, perhaps with a hint of exasperation.

Morgernike and Jaddock look at Tatsumi, not even trying to hide their stunned expressions. However, Tatsumi could tell that they, too, were not in a peaceful mood after seeing their fellow women entangled in the situation.

He said, “Leave this to me, Sister.”

Jadock slapped his muscular chest and chuckled. Tatsumi sensed something akin to a terrible taste in that smile, and the flames of anger that had been burning in Tatsumi’s heart suddenly subsided.

Honestly, as an otome, I can’t tolerate a man who treats a woman as he pleases.

With a single snap of his neck, Jadock approached the men with a wide stride. Tatsumi, however, noticed that Jadock made no footsteps at all. On the contrary, the presence of his huge body is so rare as to be a lie.

Now Jadock is truly a hunter approaching his prey.

“Could it be that… Jadock is also quite angry right now?”

“Normally, he is rather mild-mannered…”

Tatsumi and Morgernike looked at each other as they said this.

“That’s enough, brothers. If you’re looking for a girl, I’ll take care of you.”

The sudden voice coming from behind them startled the men who were about to touch the women’s bodies, making them jump up.

When they turned around, they saw a huge man with a terrific smile on his face.

He had a muscular, well-trained physique and four thick arms. And the third and fourth eyes that lined his forehead vertically insisted that he was a shade.

The demonic energy overflowing from his huge body made the men flinch in no time.

“Don’t… touch my pretty girls without permission.”

Although the words are gentle and light, the power contained within them loosely entangles the men’s bodies.

“What the h.e.l.l are you?”

“You’ve got a weird way of talking… Why are you licking your lips?”

As soon as two of the three said that, their faces were enveloped by large palms.

The large palm – Jadock’s, of course – dug its thumbs and pinkies into the men’s temples without hesitation.

“Holy Sh–”

“Argh…!”

The men screamed and writhed in agony as the pressure was applied to them as if their heads were about to crack open.

As he did so, Jadok turned his sharp eyes on the last man.

He said, “You’d better leave as soon as possible. Otherwise… those men over there, who are scarier than I am, won’t shut up, will they?

Jadock points behind him with his chin.

The man looks in his direction and sees two hexenbiest hunters.

Two men in black and red armor. One is dark-haired and dark-eyed, instantly recognizable as a foreigner. The other was very distinctive with his tall stature and flame-red hair.

‘Well, I don’t believe those two are…”

The man is also on the edge of the magical beast hunting. He has heard rumors of a hexenbiest hunter with an appearance like that.

“Ji,《Free Knight》and 《Tian Xiang》…? How did such big timers get on a team… with Mira?”

Myself, Mira, and the others are barely in the middle of the pack of magical beast hunters. It’s not very good, but the rumored famous “Free Knight” and “Tensho” are too different from us. The fact that Mira is with these two is incomprehensible to the man.

“If you mess with my girls any more, those two really won’t shut up, will they?

Jadock says slowly, with even more ghastliness.

“No way… Mira is with… those two.”

At the man’s words, Jadock’s smile deepens. Of course, he dares the men to misunderstand him.

If Mira and the other women here are mistakenly thought to be “related” to the bigwigs such as the “Free Knight” and “Tensho,” they will never bother them again.

Instead, strange rumors may start, but when you get to the level of Tatsumi and Morgernike, rumors are already being whispered here and there. It wouldn’t make much difference if there were one or two more rumors now.

Releasing the men who had been holding him tight, Jadock once again indicated behind him with his chin. It is a silent instruction to “get the h.e.l.l out of here.”

The three men, now completely intimidated by the giant in front of them and the big guys behind them, ran out of the restaurant like herbivores being chased by carnivorous beasts.

“It’s all right, it’s all right. Come on, Tatsumi and Sir Morgernike, come over here.”

Jadock smiled at his friends with a warm and friendly smile, the opposite of the one he had just shown to the men.