Chapter 28: 28

28 – Suddenly, Swimsuits 1

A few days after those four women fell over.

「Phew… Today’s interrogation was rough.」

I grumbled as I returned to my room. Mika replied…

『Yeah.』

Rather than agreeing, I feel like she’s just going with the flow.

「Who knew there were so many different kinds of pudding…」

『I’m shocked.』

I’ve been interrogated by the chief intelligence officer Vivi several times today.

This time, I ate a total of four types of puddings of varying combinations of hard/soft and elastic/not elastic.

They were all delicious, but I was amazed that there were even more flavors and toppings than that.

What an unfathomably deep dessert, pudding is…

Once again, Vivi splendidly got a hold of information on what would suit my tastes the most.

The answer was all of them.

「What’s wrong? I mean, sure, I guess you can’t eat anything.」

『It’s not like I’m sulking or anything…』

Eating is one sensation that I can’t share with her.

She usually doesn’t say anything, but I guess it actually bothered her…or that’s what I thought, but…

『It’s just that…it’s been too peaceful lately… Isn’t it creepy?』

「Too peaceful…huh…」

By the way, it’s currently noon.

The kids are mixed in with the king’s daughter, Myuri, during study time.

Mika calls the seven girls that I rescued five years ago The Seven, but this country actually gives even orphans equal opportunity to learn.

Each of those seven girls had an abundance of mana, and these kids were saved by Eleanor and me, but…despite those circumstances, there are no sad children falling down on the side of the road in town, as far as I can see.

『The fact that they hadn’t come to intervene yet must mean that this is all within the War God’s expectations, right?』

I tried asking Vivi about that, actually.

She is, after all, an exceptional intelligence officer who gained info on my time as part of the Saviors.

So, I thought that they might have an information network that would detect if those five are moving to take me back.

I told her to be careful not to get too close.

Anyway, this is basically the info she got.

The Sage, Swordmaster, and War God were unphased.

The Magic Archer would occasionally interrogate the captured hostile Demons if they know the Hero.

Every night, the Saint would sleep with her pillow soaked with tears, muttering incomprehensible things in her sleep like「I must save you…」

「The only one to watch out for would be the Saint.」

『The dangerous part about her is that we have no idea what she would do. She’s not the type to make grand plans or strategies, so if she were to just charge in, we could win.』

I am afraid of how much damage will be caused before we win, though.

If she ran straight from Human Territory to this country, it’s possible that she would just destroy anything in between.

Because it would be the first time that woman would use her powers as a Saint for combat.

She probably hasn’t made a move yet because she doesn’t know where I am yet.

『I can’t imagine that gloomy, nagging four-eyes isn’t thinking about it.』

「You say that, but…」

I’ve thought about it before, but is there any benefit to letting me freely live a freeloader life here in this country? I can’t think of any.

Knowing him…he probably predicted the fact that I wouldn’t abandon humanity itself even if I ran away…and he’s absolutely right.

If he was being harsh here and there in order to complete my transformation into a fighting force before my sense of self formed or I started harboring feelings of rebellion against this way of life, …then that makes sense.

If, by the end, I am compelled to never abandon humanity, then it has been far more beneficial than raising me slowly.

Since he can use a powerful Savior at an early age.

It is this way of thinking that Eleanor and the gang find incorrigible.

「If there’s anything to worry about, it’s…」

『Hm?』

「I…」

『Yeah?』

「Haven’t I been getting even stronger lately?」

『Huh? Again?』

Mika was amazed.

「No, hear me out. We defeated an evil dragon parent and child a while ago, right?」

『Man, that made us panic there. We thought we beat it, but it turned out to be the kid, and the evil dragon came down from the sky.』

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「Yeah, yeah, we had trouble with that one even though all six of us were there, right? But didn’t they say that was a “King” or something?」

『Yeah, Fripp said so. I guess it’s true that you’ve taken out various Demons like that King of Frozen Hell or Hungry Wolf King without breaking a sweat.』

「It’s fine coz it was years ago when we defeated that evil dragon parent and child. It lived for a long time, so I can imagine it being stronger than the other “Kings”. But lately…I’ve been doing better and better. I feel like I’m improving way faster than before.」

I’m sure there’s a difference of strength among those with “King” in their name.

The stronger ones have “God” attached while the weaker ones are more like “Dukes”.

God, King, Duke, and General seem to be in the order of decreasing strength.

A few years ago, it took all six of us to defeat a higher-ranked “King” and we risked our lives.

But now, I could probably handle that alone.

As Mika said, is it possible to get so strong, so suddenly again, even if the Crest removes the limitations of a human?

『If that’s how you feel, it must be true. But, if that’s the case, why? The only thing that’s changed recently is you living as a freeloader and…』

「Fighting without them.」

『Yeah…right…』

「There’s one thing I want to ask you, Mika.」

『Sure, shoot.』

「Have there ever been Saviors who were weaker than the previous generation?」

Mika took a while to answer that.

『It depends how you compare them, also in some generations, the Saviors didn’t work together, so I don’t have complete information.』

「That’s fine.」

『With each generation, the healing spells that the Saint could use increased, and the closer we get to now, the stronger the overall power of the Hero became.』

Since a portion of the Hero’s power is transferred to the sword, I thought it had nothing to do with the others, but…

If it is unrelated to that, then perhaps all the Crests store the powers of the person it manifests on and the next generation inherits it.

If that’s the case, then the reason I’m growing so quickly is due to the overwhelming power of the successive Heroes…

Hmm…but I feel like the stronger an enemy I defeat, the faster my power grows…

I thought I was on to something, but after wracking my brain for a while, I didn’t understand anything in the end.

「Ah, whatever. I’ll think about it when they make a move.」

The War God probably has all kinds of plans for everything including being monitored, but if the others make a move, Vivi’s group will know about it.

『…Yeah, we’re thinking too much about it. It’s not like they’re going to find out you’re in this country in the first place, and even if they did, only the Sage and Saint would come, and you won’t lose to those two.』

The only people who can cut through the miasma are those two.

I have a bad feeling about Mika’s statement, but eh…it’ll be fine.

「That aside, I wonder what we’re gonna do today.」

『You’ve done a lot of the things that you especially wanted to do.』

I think about the past and wonder if I missed anything.

Then, I think of one thing and I utter it.

「The sea.」

『The sea? Now that you mention it, even though we were there to exterminate aquatic Demons, we never did ordinary people things there like playing at the beach or fishing, huh?』

「Yeah, yeah.」

「Then let us take you there…!」

Eleanor appeared in my room.

She teleported in.

From what she said, it sounds like she heard my conversation and that makes me worried…

「I know just the island.」

「Island…」

「Yes, it is used as an evacuation teleportation point for dignitaries in case of emergencies.」

「Ah, that sounds important.」

In royal castles or a nobleman’s house, hidden passages are prepared for emergencies.

The Demon King Castle is different in that they make use of a Space Element user like Eleanor and secured an island for use in emergencies.

『Well, I’m not even surprised by your sudden appearance nor how you’re eavesdropping, so of course, there’s an island…』

「I-I would very much like to take Sir Rain there…!」

「A-ah, sure, thanks. If that’s the case, I’ll invite everyone.」

Eleanor’s face twitched for an instant, and then quickly nodded.

「Yes, let’s.」

『Even if you got the jump on everyone else, I’d still be by Rain’s side.』

「I have no clue what you are implying.」

『F-feigning ignorance, huh…?!』

They seem to be arguing about something, but I’m looking forward to it.

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