Chapter 90

Chapter 90

90: The Hunt As soon as I returned to the inn after a pleasant time with Charka, I saw Elle, Emily, and Mien sitting with serious expressions. “….” And in the center of them was the Demon Sword. Seeing it, I immediately understood why they were sitting with such grave faces. I didn’t know how it happened, but it was clear that she had discovered the existence of the Demon Sword. “Lyla, I have something to say.” Mien was looking at me with a serious gaze. Judging by the lack of hostility in her eyes, she either didn’t know the truth yet, or even if she did, she didn’t intend to antagonize me. The latter was probably more likely. She would know the rarity of a weapon like the Demon Sword, so it would be easy for her to deduce the whole story. “….Yes.” I sighed inwardly and answered her. I knew I had to tell her someday, but being caught like this left a bitter taste in my mouth. I didn’t know how she found out. Elle might have been careless, or Mien might have sensed the Demon Sword’s magic and barged in. My failure to mention the Demon Sword all this time was also a problem. There were many opportunities to talk about the Demon Sword after returning from Mesatria to Karaldin, but in the end, it was me who couldn’t bring myself to speak. Perhaps this incident was a good thing after all. It might have been better to be caught and get it over with than to keep worrying without reaching a conclusion. It was just a little disappointing that it had to be in this form. “Is this why you stayed in Mesatria?” When Mien asked me the question, Emily and Elle, who were sitting down, flinched. It seemed that they were the ones who got caught with the Demon Sword, rather than Mien finding it out on her own. But I had no intention of blaming them, so I gave them a wry smile and nodded to Mien. “Yes, that’s right.” “Do you know what this is?” “…Yes.” After nodding again, Mien stared at me for a while, then sighed with a complicated expression. “Lyla, I don’t just think of you as a nice person. To gain that much power at such a young age, you would have had to undergo bone-crushing training, or some kind of terrible magical experiment. I don’t want to arbitrarily judge someone who has made such efforts based on my own standards.” ….Strictly speaking, it’s neither, but I couldn’t nod here. I looked at Mien without saying a word, and she didn’t seem to expect an answer from me either, as she continued. “So, can you tell me honestly? How you got this Demon Sword, and who you killed, everything.” After she finished speaking, she looked at Elle. It was a seemingly indifferent gaze, but she wouldn’t be completely uninterested. This clearly meant that she wanted to know about her as well. “….” I looked into Mien’s eyes. Her black eyes were deeply sunken. They were eyes that seemed to contain no emotion at all at first glance. Looking into those eyes, I hesitated. Should I reveal everything? Or should I hide it? The hesitation didn’t last long. “Actually….” I stared straight into her eyes and slowly opened my mouth. // I told her almost everything about what happened in Mesatria. Sometimes I, sometimes Elle, explained the situation at the time, telling the story in as much detail as possible. Thus, the story ended around the time the bell rang to announce the evening. Mien sighed and rubbed her forehead after hearing our story. “Haa, a Gryphon Rider. Seriously….you’ve done something huge.” Killing a knight of the Eastern nobles was one thing, but killing a Gryphon Rider was definitely a big problem. The stronghold city in the Mesin Great Forest was a key area for the Western noble factions, and the Gryphon Rider was definitely a major force. “Let’s talk about that problem later. First of all….I’d like to hear more about Lyla and Emily, and Elle’s origins.” Surprisingly, Mien didn’t blame us for killing people. Rather than that, she was more interested in the reason why we were able to do such a thing, more than the events of Mesatria. The reason why we had such great power compared to the people of this world, and were able to have it at such a young age. I had no intention of criticizing her values. I was similar to her, so I wouldn’t be qualified to do so. Unlike Earth, this was a world where people frequently killed each other, and there was a widespread tendency to think of death relatively lightly. That’s not to say that you can just go around killing people, but that’s how it is compared to Earth. “Okay.” Now that I had started to tell the truth, I had no intention of making up lies now. In the end, I told Mien most of the truth. And that, in my judgment, was the best way. Mien was a mage, and her knowledge and logic would surely be able to see through any clumsy lies I made up. If I wasn’t confident in making up a perfect lie, it was best to tell only the truth from the beginning. Of course, I didn’t reveal everything. I only said that several people, including me, were reincarnated in this world, and that we had knowledge of a different world called martial arts. I didn’t say what that martial art was, who we were in our past lives, or how we lived, and Mien didn’t ask. It would take more than a day to tell all that. After telling her the general story, I bowed my head and apologized to her. “I’m sorry for not telling you all this time.” It wasn’t that I wanted to hide the fact, but that I had to. If Mien was just a passing acquaintance, it would be different, but since she was teaching me magic, it was a truth that I would have to tell her someday. It was a pity that I had to tell her in this situation, but I felt like I had lifted a burden off my mind by putting down the secret I had been hiding. ….Still, it would be better for my mental health not to tell the rest of the secrets, so let’s keep my mouth shut. “No, you don’t have to apologize for that. With that kind of past, it would be difficult to answer unless someone asked. But honestly, it’s a bit unexpected. I thought you were an Imperial spy or a half-demon, but an otherworlder….” “….For someone who says it’s unexpected, you seem to believe me very well.” Surprisingly, Mien seemed to accept my words easily. I was a little puzzled by that, but she seemed to have understood our existence in her own way. “Monsters and demons are also creatures from other worlds. If I think of Lyla and Emily as similar cases, there’s no reason why I can’t accept it.” As expected of a mage, Mien seemed to have explained our existence in her mind through the knowledge she had accumulated. But if she accepted it that way, wouldn’t she think of us as similar to monsters in the form of spirits? From a consequential point of view, it’s not exactly wrong, so it’s ambiguous. “Just in case, we’re not monsters.” “I’m glad you said that. I was actually a little unsure. So, absorbing energy from men isn’t a succubus’s ability, but magic from another world?” “Yes, yes?” “E, eh!?” Mien’s sudden bombshell shocked not only me, but even Emily. All I said was that we were reincarnated and had knowledge of another world. I didn’t say what kind of martial arts we had. Mien seemed to recognize it as magic, but that wasn’t the important thing, it was how she knew. “U, um, since when did you notice?” “I just thought about it. From a magical point of view, there has to be an input to have an output, but as you know, Lyla doesn’t eat that much compared to her physical abilities. My knowledge couldn’t understand that, so I thought about where she was getting her energy from and made a deduction. I didn’t even think I’d be right.” For someone who says she didn’t think she’d be right, she seems to be saying it very naturally. If you guess that accurately, I have no choice but to admit it. I sighed and nodded at her words. “….That’s right.” When I admitted her words, Mien had a faint smile on her lips. “It must have been a difficult story to tell, thank you for being honest. I’m sure Lyla and I will have a lot more to talk about in the future.” // Emily, Elle, and I sat side by side on the bed, listening to Mien’s words. “First of all, I need to make my position clear. I’m on Lyla’s side.” She said that even after knowing that we had killed people and committed crimes. It didn’t seem like a lie just to get through this situation. As if understanding our questioning gazes, she smiled faintly and replied. “The reason is…would it be insufficient to say that I have some personal feelings towards the kingdom?” Of course, it couldn’t be insufficient. We were grateful that she wasn’t reporting us to the authorities right away. Even killing people indiscriminately has its targets. Killing her, who taught me magic, was something I definitely didn’t want to do. “And I’ll seal this Demon Sword for the time being. All Demon Swords made in the Kilkard Kingdom are designed to periodically emit faint waves for tracking purposes. If you use a detector tuned to the corresponding frequency, you can detect its location from several kilometers away. It’s impossible to add magic to it right now, so deactivating the core is the next best thing.” I didn’t know that. If the Demon Sword itself served as a tracker, staying in Karaldin was dangerous in itself. If I left the Demon Sword as it was and went out on a request, I could be caught without even knowing it. Thinking about it that way, it was actually fortunate that Elle was caught with the Demon Sword. …Still, it’s true that I’m resentful. Should I spank her later? Mien’s position was to watch the situation a little more regarding this matter. The Eastern and Western noble factions weren’t on good terms, and this incident involved the interests of both, so it was hard to know how the sparks would fly. “Mesatria lost a Gryphon Rider, but because of that, they may actually try to cover up the incident.” A Gryphon Rider was killed by an unknown assailant, and the fact that they couldn’t find the culprit would be a major blemish on the lord’s reputation. Mien’s opinion was that they might rather silence the soldiers who witnessed the incident and cover up everything. I doubted they would take such a foolish approach, but this world wasn’t a highly informationized modern Earth. Honor was directly related to the lord’s power, and covering up incidents for the sake of honor was a specialty of the nobles, so there was a good chance that they would do so. We couldn’t just relax, but we didn’t need to be too scared and jump to conclusions. “It’s not too late to judge after we complete the request.” “…Okay.” For an adventurer, reversing a request was a huge blow. It would be one thing to fail, but canceling a request that you could do for personal reasons was a sensitive issue because it was directly related to credibility. There was a commotion, but the conclusion was simple. Seal the Demon Sword for a while, and continue the request. Instead, we needed to understand how things were going, so Mien decided to ask a ‘trustworthy person’ to prepare for the worst. “Then I’ll see you tomorrow. We’ll be leaving around dawn, so it’s best to go to bed early today.” Mien said that and left the room. “….” I stared at the spot where Mien had left for a while, then turned my gaze to Elle. She seemed to know that she had done something wrong, and she flinched and lowered her head. “S, sorry….” “It’s okay.” She apologized in a barely audible voice, and I accepted the apology. The matter had been resolved well, so it would be strange to blame her now.

However, we couldn’t just let it slide, pretending everything was resolved. I exchanged a glance with Emily, then grabbed Elle’s arm. I continued, “…You can repay me with your body.” “…Huh?” At my words, Elle’s eyes filled with bewilderment. Seeing her wavering gaze, I could guess what she was thinking, but it’s probably not what you think. “W-wait, why are you taking off my pants… Eek!” — SMACK! “Hngk!? Th-that’s what you meant!?” — SMACK! “Ah, it hurts! Just a moment! At least give me a moment to prepare myself!” She had trained in martial arts, so she could have resisted if she wanted to, but perhaps out of guilt towards me, she didn’t fight back. In the end, Elle had to endure spanking until she fell asleep that night.