Chapter 74

Chapter 74

Our Iris is Definitely a Filial Daughter!

***

“Jess, don’t pick up and eat anything. Spit it out, ptooey.”

“Baee..”

I made Jess spit out the small bird she was holding in her mouth. The bird shook its body and flew away. Jess smacked her lips.

“Are you hungry?”

I took out a jerky from the bag and put it in Jess’s mouth.

On the third day after leaving the arena of madness, we were walking along a forest path. There were villages in between, but we didn’t stop by. Not only did we not know what dangers there might be, but we had already purchased most of the necessary items, so there was no reason to visit.

At first, I had only thought about getting away from Jiso’s land, so I just walked aimlessly, but now it was time to properly decide on a destination. I unfolded the map and checked the path we had walked.

A village we had passed by earlier was marked on the map, so there was no difficulty figuring out our current location.

“You said you got separated from Noah in the middle and don’t know where she is?”

“Ung.”

Jess nodded while chewing on the jerky. Based on the information Jess had told me about the strange forest, I estimated the location where Jess and Noah had parted ways.

“You got separated in the Forest of Death? Hmm, I don’t know exactly which way she went… but since this is the closest city, should we go there and take a look?”

As I muttered while pointing to the name ‘Cardishian’ on the map, Jess vigorously nodded her head and flapped her ears. Iris just answered “yes” to whatever I suggested.

Seeing the two obedient children, a sense of responsibility grew within me.

‘Alright, let’s find the safest route and go!’

Thus, the journey of Jess, Iris, and I resumed.

***

“Haa… we finally made it.”

I let out a long sigh as I saw the city walls of Cardishian in the distance.

‘It took over a month just to get here.’

Since Jess said she had run without rest, I thought it would be no more than a week’s journey no matter how far. Of course, the map showed it as quite a long distance, but many villages had strange distance markings, so it was unreliable.

‘Still, I’m glad we arrived. First, let’s rest well at the inn and start looking for Noah here from tomorrow.’

Noah seemed like she would be living well even without me, but if possible, I wanted us to stick together.

‘If possible, let’s all act together with the kids. We just need to hold out here until the knight comes to save Iris.’

Cardishian was the place where Odil’s lab, the first place I had woken up, was located. So the knight who would later save Iris would also come to Cardishian.

Thinking up to that point, I remembered meeting the god of the dark fantasy world, the white hollow-eyed one.

‘…However, this world is no longer the world inside the novel, so nothing can be certain. That means… the knight may not come looking for this place.’

If that happened, we would have no choice but to escape the Demon Lord’s land together with the children. If I had no means of force, it would be questionable, but I had the strongest weapon, the demonic sword Gargandoa.

It would be difficult to escape together, but not impossible.

‘Still, it would be better to escape with the knight if possible. Life would be much more comfortable then.’

Just because we leave the Demon Lord’s land doesn’t mean we become completely safe. Fitting for a dark fantasy world, even if they weren’t residents of the Demon Lord’s land, there were plenty of crazy bastards around, and reality was harsh.

At least until we reached Iris’s family, we would be in a constant state of danger.

“Hey, good stuff has arrived, so come take a look!”

“Slowly get down there!”

While I was organizing my thoughts, we had already gotten close to the city. I habitually took out silver from my bag and handed it to the soldier guarding the city wall. About 30 copper per person, a way to pass through the city wall without any inspection.

“Pass!”

Leaving the smirking guard behind, I let out a low breath.

‘Since there are many people, they don’t bother us. What a relief.’

If I readily offered money like now, they would drag out the conversation or pick fights to extort more money like merchants. Some bastards would even spout nonsense about arbitrarily taking off Iris or Jess’s robe hoods and putting them up as slaves.

Every time that happened, my right hand couldn’t resist summoning the demonic sword and crushing the other party. Usually, if such a thing happened, it wouldn’t be strange to go to prison, but this was the Demon Lord’s land.

It was a place where the actions of the strong were the law, so the guards would rather bow and bring money as offerings. Even so, compared to the money I had, it wasn’t much, and it was annoying how they would cling on, so it was irritating.

Fortunately, it seemed like such a thing wouldn’t happen here.

“Let’s go to the inn and get a room first.”

Wanting to shake off the fatigue, I found a clean-looking inn and entered.

“Can I book a long-term stay in a room with three beds?”

“Yep, that’s possible.”

Although we looked terrible from being hit by the dust storm, perhaps because we were wearing fairly good quality clothes, the innkeeper smiled like a sycophant and nodded vigorously.

‘I’d like to get separate rooms if I could… but there are too many criminals for that.’

If we had booked separate rooms, there would be a 100% chance of a stranger breaking into Iris and Jess’s room tonight. Of course, both Jess and Iris were powerful experts with tremendous skills, so there wouldn’t be a problem… but you never know.

It’s better to prepare for danger if possible.

Taking the key, we headed to the assigned room. Compared to other inns, it was large and expensive, and the interior was definitely neatly decorated. If the inns we had stayed at so far were like motels, this one had a strong hotel vibe.

“I wanted to rest well, so this is great. You two wash up first, I’ll organize the luggage for a bit.”

“Bath! Master! Let’s wash together!”

I had scolded Jess for stripping every time I told her to wash, so now she just cheered and hopped around. Seeing her clinging to my clothes, I shook my head.

“As I said last time, no.”

“Kiiing..”

“Sseup… what can’t be done, can’t be done.”

“Okaaay..”

Jess headed to the bathroom with her ears drooping. Iris, who used to coax me to wash together with sparkling eyes along with Jess, had already entered the bathroom, unlike her usual self.

‘Children really grow up quickly.’

Seeing Iris grow up made me both happy and sad. This is a father’s heart!

With that thought, I pushed Jess into the bathroom. Not long after, neatly folded clothes and messily folded clothes were placed outside the door. The neatly folded clothes were Iris’s, and the messy ones were Jess’s.

At first, she would just throw her clothes around, but after seeing Iris and I folding the clothes neatly, she started clumsily imitating us. Every time I patted her head and praised her for doing well, she would come and stick out her head whenever she folded clothes.

Recalling Jess’s cute appearance, I started roughly organizing the luggage. As I finished organizing and placed the clothes for the kids to change into in front of the door, Iris and Jess came out of the bathroom, giving off a flowery scent.

The two children, who had changed into fluffy clothes and had their cheeks slightly flushed, looked extremely lovely.

“Master!”

Jess came running with water dripping from her head. I familiarly dried her hair with a towel, and she rubbed her face against my stomach, purring.

“Jess, wait a moment, I’m still dirty since I haven’t washed yet.”

“I like Master’s smell!”

“No, no. Your hair needs to be dried, so let’s separate.”

After coaxing her a few times, Jess reluctantly separated from me. There were no hair dryers here, so I only rubbed her hair enough so that water wouldn’t drip. It took too long to dry it any further.

“Brother, me too.”

“Alright, alright.”

When I dried Iris’s hair, who was waiting quietly, the flowery scent tickled my nose. After removing the moisture to a suitable degree, I put away the towel.

“Then I’ll go wash up, so you two rest.”

“Okay, can I… organize brother’s clothes?”

“I’d be grateful if you do that!”

I nodded with a grin at the sight of Iris already trying to be filial. I immediately went into the bathroom, took off my clothes, and slightly opened the door to put the clothes I had taken off outside.

Tak.

I closed the bathroom door, came in, and summoned the demonic sword. The demonic sword changed into the form of a thin needle as if it had been waiting. I roughly stabbed it into my thigh and started washing.

Ssshhh -.

“Whew…”

The warm water washed away my fatigue.

***

After Lian entered the bathroom, Iris, who was left alone with Jess, instantly erased the soft smile from her lips and approached the bathroom door.

“Sniff sniff…”

Jess followed closely behind Iris, lowering her body. Iris didn’t mind Jess doing that.

Since Jess acted so much like an animal, Iris half-considered Jess as a pet that Lian was raising. Thanks to that, her guard had lowered significantly.

After confirming the sound of water coming from inside the bathroom, Iris picked up Lian’s clothes placed in front of the door. Among them, she threw the robe to Jess.

Then Jess wrinkled her nose wildly and repeatedly narrowed and expanded her pupils.

“Sniff sniff sniff sniff!”

Jess put Lian’s clothes on the floor, buried her nose in them, and rubbed her face wildly, then took the robe and headed somewhere like a puppy trying to hide a toy.

Iris picked up Lian’s shirt and held it in her arms.

“Huff, huu… brother…”

It may seem like the behavior of a pervert, but there was a reason for all of this. Due to the habit of collecting Lian’s clothes and making a nest to feel at ease whenever he was away, she had to smell his scent like this to calm down whenever he left.

Iris knew this behavior wasn’t normal, so she only secretly hugged his clothes when Lian was away.

Giving clothes to Jess was not only to shut Jess’s mouth but also because when Iris was alone holding Lian’s clothes, Jess would constantly approach, sniffing with her nose, and interfere.

Anyway, she happily embraced Lian’s clothes that were heavily scented with his smell.

Bang bang!

Then, a sound interrupted her happy time. It was the sound of someone knocking roughly.

End of Chapter