“Well done, Leadred.”

I clapped Leadred, who’d taken the two heroes’ consciousnesses away, on the shoulder.

Neither were dead. She just struck them on the back of the neck with her sword to make them faint.

“I’m good taking this one to the guy waiting outside, yeah?”

“He’s one of my slaves too, so yeah. And… right. Perhaps I should leave a message for her?”

In order to make good use of Hayase, I told Leadred about what I thought up.

“… I see. In other words, say that it wasn’t me, but you, Hero, that carried her over?”

“Yeah. I’ll take care of matching the consistency on my end.”

If I use Absolute Command, it should work out.

Hayase favored me acting as Yuuji. I’ll make sure to put that to use.

“Understood. I’ll take this one, then.”

“Please. I’ll take Shuri and Tamaki. Is that room good to enter now?”

“Shuri’s cleaned up all the demons in it, please give her praise later.”

I could just picture Shuri going all out in cutting down the demons.

Pfft.

It brought a smile to my face.

“Got it. We’ll meet up later.”

I held up my fist and Leadred met it with her own.

“First though, three people. Good job.”

“Oh, thanks.”

When I said thanks, Leadred scratched her cheek awkwardly. She then held Hayase close and headed to the room with the stairs leading up.

“Now then.”

It would be easy to kill her with them unconscious and all, but the circ.u.mstances wouldn’t allow for that.

Besides… Shuri was friends with this one, huh.

“Haaah. Guess I’ll just carry them over there for now.”

Shouldering Tamaki’s delicate body, I started walking to the room that was recently used as an execution ground.

“Daichi!”

Upon opening the door, Shuri, who’d been standing right next to the entrance, ran over to me.

She’s so praiseworthy, like a small, adorable pet.

“Welcome back. Are you injured at all?”

“Nope. They were careless.”

“Really? That’s good.”

Shuri placed her hand on her chest and sighed in relief. My eyes being forced to the up and down movement of her chest was inevitable.

“More importantly, I wanted to ask you what you wanted to do with this one here, Shuri.”

I placed the hero, Tamaki Yui, on the floor.

“Eh. She’s… Yui?”

Shuri was surprised by their unexpected reunion.

“Yeah.”

“You brought her here, so… her too?”

“Yeah, I’ll be making her a slave.”

“Is that… so.”

Shuri looked down upon hearing my response. I guess she still found having her close friend killed hard to take.

“Sorry, but I don’t intend to stop, even if you say no. I need to have strong pieces to play to go against Samejima.”

“… Yeah.”

Her answer was short.

“Are you dissatisfied?”

“No! It’s just… well..”

Shuri started to say something, but closed her mouth. Her eyes looked here and there.

“Just, Yui is so cute… umm, she might… take Daichi away from… me…”

“Sorry, Shur—…. huh?”

I started responding to what I thought she’d say, but was taken by surprise.

It’s said that maidens in love have many troubles, but still, it shocked me.

I guess I need to clarify our relationship here, huh.

“Shuri.”

“Y-Yes?”

“There’s no one for me but you. No one. As long as you like me, that feeling will never change.”

“D-Daichi…”

She hugged me, her cheeks growing pink.

Looking at her, I realized something… This girl… she wasn’t sad at all.

… Could it be…?

“Shuri.”

“What is it, Daichi? The Shuri that you love is right here for you.”

“… That was on purpose, right?”

Her body stiffened in my arms. She looked up with a timid expression.

“… You found me out?”

She stuck her tongue out and pretended to look dumb.

“Showing your master something so cute is more than I deserve, but please don’t do it too much.”

“Sorry. I thought I should cheer you up somehow…”

She clutched the hems of her clothes and wiped her eyes, looking at me. How sly.

“Fibber.”

“Ow—”

I brushed away her hair and flicked her forehead.

“Shuri. Please don’t do stuff like that in the dungeon. You can do that as much as you want after we go back to the surface.”

“In that case, please hold me when we resurface.”

“… This is why I—!?”

Her tongue invaded my mouth. Our saliva mixed, her black eyes stared into mine. Our breathing grew rough.

A few moments later, she gradually released me.

A transparent string extended between our lips. Captivating. The woman within her childishness definitely made an appearance.

“Please hold me, alright?”

“… Alright.”

“Yay, I got you to promise.”

“Doing it like that’s unfair.”

“I had to endure being away from you so long, Daichi, please forgive me.”

“… Oh well then.”

With her leaning against me, I stroked her head for a while.

Her eyes closed in embarra.s.sment and—

“… What are you two doing, not getting that one back up?”

—we stopped.

Like rusted machines, we turned around slowly.

Seeing the red-horned devil glare at us with a look so unamused it could kill, all we could do was smile wryly.