episode_0020

“The attitudes of the people are strange.”

After finishing all his tasks, Allen looked at Lily, who was sound asleep in the inn room, lost in thought.

It could be that the people in this village were unusually cautious, but no matter how much he thought about it, something was indeed odd.

Usually, those in destitute situations were not quick to refuse others’ kindness.

This was more likely due to some incident rather than a matter of pride.

“I still don’t know… Should I investigate tomorrow?”

He could have pretended not to know anything and distributed relief supplies, but Allen wanted to uncover the truth behind the incident.

While providing relief supplies to the impoverished could temporarily improve their lives a bit, he couldn’t take responsibility for them for a lifetime.

As time passed, Allen would leave, and the issues he ignored could trouble the residents once again.

“I hope it’s a problem I can solve.”

Gently stroking Lily’s head as she slept soundly in bed, Allen himself eventually drifted off to sleep.

—

“This area belongs to the demons. Everyone, stay alert!”

“Yes!”

“…”

Although Irene knew that the demons couldn’t exert much power now that the Demon King was gone, she didn’t point out the Knight Commander’s words.

It was better to advance cautiously without any sense of complacency than to march forward carelessly.

“…The land of the demons.”

Normally, the Crown Prince would have tried to engage in conversation with Irene, but due to the tension of entering demon territory, he only muttered quietly.

“Still, it’s good that the Crown Prince is behaving.”

“That’s true.”

They didn’t know if they would regret it later, but even a moment of peace was much better.

The Hero Party and the Royal Knights continued their advance.

Despite the grandiose name of the demon’s land, unremarkable demons appeared to block their path, all of whom were swiftly dealt with by Irene’s sword without the need for the Royal Knights to intervene.

After marching for a while, the punitive force finally arrived at the castle where the Demon King used to reside.

“…Is this the Demon King’s castle?”

“Yes. According to reports, there are remnants left here.”

Irene pondered.

Even though the Demon King’s death had greatly weakened the demons’ morale, not a single proper demon had appeared until they reached the castle.

“…It seems like there are no real remnants.”

She had suspected as much, but once again realized that this was another scheme of the Emperor.

Perhaps the Emperor had created an opportunity for the Crown Prince and Irene to make contact under the pretext of subjugating the remnants of the Demon Army, while also allowing his successor to gain credit for defeating the remnants.

“To be used in such a trivial matter…”

She was furious, but she couldn’t turn her sword against the Empire.

Irene decided to finish the subjugation as quickly as possible and return to the Empire.

“Let’s go in right away.”

“…It could be dangerous.”

“If the Royal Knights won’t go, we’ll go alone.”

“Prepare to enter!”

At Irene’s words, expressing their determination to enter even if alone, the Knight Commander hastily ordered the knights.

Although the Emperor had instructed them to proceed slowly, they couldn’t afford to abandon the mission altogether.

“Charge!!!”

And so, the punitive force consisting of the Hero Party and the Royal Knights entered the Demon King’s castle.

—

*Squeak*

“Hmm, the accuracy is still lacking.”

“This… It’s a bit difficult.”

“It seems more than just a bit… It’s supposed to be difficult from the start.”

The monster had been dealt with as requested, but since there was no space to practice in the village, Allen, who had been teaching Lily to shoot a crossbow before returning to the village, sighed softly at Lily’s inability to hit the target even once.

“Indeed, it seems it was too much for now.”

Although Lily was strong, she still couldn’t properly balance her body, making it difficult for her to accurately aim at the target.

“For now… Let’s work on your posture.”

“Yes!”

As Lily responded loudly, Allen began adjusting Lily’s posture little by little over Jenny’s shoulder with the knowledge he had learned.

“Like this?”

“Yes, like that.”

While correcting her posture, Allen inevitably had to place his hands on Lily’s body.

Lily’s face turned slightly red, but fortunately, Allen did not see it.

“Ready…!”

After finally correcting her posture, Lily fired the crossbow.

Swoosh-

Thud-

“Wow! I hit it!”

“Oh.”

It was indeed a useful method, even though he had learned it over Jenny’s shoulder.

Thinking so, Allen applauded.

“Now I can fight too!”

“No. You still have a long way to go.”

“Why!”

“…Let’s focus on your growth for now.”

“…Hmph.”

Lily needed more growth to help Allen.

“After all, there’s only this much.”

“… ”

After entering the demon castle, the hero party and the royal knights headed in different directions.

Their thorough search left no room for error, but Irene’s hero party faced a disappointing end.

It was incredibly disappointing that they had traveled such a long distance just to defeat a mere twenty demons.

“Hero. Cough! Why did you come back… to deal with leftovers.”

“To exterminate the remnants.”

“Cough! Remnants… Are you calling this small number leftovers?”

…”

Irene had nothing to say.

Not only were twenty enemies a small number, but they were also incredibly weak.

Having already defeated the strong demons, only ordinary demons remained for Irene and the hero party.

Even though they wondered if they had missed any strong demons, the truth became clear now.

‘The emperor is toying with me.’

Irene’s anger rose to the tip of her head.

The crown prince acting smug?

Annoying, but somewhat ignorable.

The emperor scheming something sinister?

Disturbing, but she was confident she wouldn’t fall for it.

But… forcibly holding Allen back from finding him?

This was something she could never forgive.

Clang-

Feeling cold anger towards the emperor, Irene resolved that she would not move as the emperor wished and decisively finished off the dying demons in front of her.

Swish-

Light filled the wielded holy sword, and the demon’s head fell.

The extermination mission that took quite a long time ended so anticlimactically.

“Jenny. Rebecca.”

“Yes.”

“Yeah.”

“What the knights said… we should act together.”

“Got it.”

“I didn’t like those guys anyway.”

Since the extermination had already been completed, they couldn’t strongly oppose acting separately.

‘…Where could Allen be.’

Today, Irene especially wanted to see Allen.

“May I ask you one thing?”

“…What do you want to ask?”

Having brought Lily to distribute relief supplies, Allen briefly stopped the man who came to receive the supplies first.

“Did… any incident happen here before I arrived?”

“Well…”

The man seemed nonchalant as if nothing had happened, but Allen could sense unease and fear in his eyes.

“I don’t know what kind of incident occurred, but I have no connection to them. I would appreciate it if you believed me.”

“Well…”

After hesitating for a moment about whether to speak or not, the man slowly opened his mouth.

Actually, about a month ago, there was someone like you who came here to distribute goods.

“Is that so?”

“But… after distributing, a few days later, they demanded payment abruptly from people.”

“That’s…!”

Allen was shocked.

It was nothing short of coercion on the poor living in the slums.

Some reluctantly paid, but… a few who couldn’t pay disappeared thereafter.

“… So that happened.”

“Yes. That’s why everyone is cautious when strangers offer to share goods.”

“I have no intention of doing that, so you can rest assured.”

“Thank you.”

With that, the man nodded slightly and left.

“It seems there was a really bad person.”

“Yeah…”

Even if they belatedly demanded payment, the fact that those who couldn’t pay disappeared was alarming.

It was a more serious incident than Allen had anticipated.

“… There must be an information guild in this village as well.”

If there is an information guild, they might know the truth about the incident.

Allen was determined to catch the culprit.