Ankoku Kishi Monogatari (WN)

◆ Black Haired Sage, Chiyuki

We were walking inside a hidden passage right beside the one that was booby-trapped.

「This path seems to have been used often… 」

「That's because it’s a safer one. There are many traces of people passing through here recently.」

Nao spoke as she turned around.

Since coming to this world, Nao's appearance had changed a little. With beast ears protruding from the top of her head and a tail coming out of her buttocks, she was in what we called a demi-beast state.

When she fully transformed, she became a beautiful winged leopard.

Her beast form heightened Nao's perception and physical abilities to an entirely new level. On the other hand, she had to use less armor and her dexterity and mental resistance decreased.

In short, the beast transformation had its pros and cons, hence why it was limited.

「They really are using this road, then. Nevertheless, there's almost no reaction at all.」

「Yup, it's just an empty passage.」

「Geez! Please stop it, you two! This is much better than that trap-filled passage!」

Sahoko was right. This was much better for us.

We were advancing steadily, and it gave me time to think about the reason behind the mass kidnappings, which remained a mystery. What could the Minotaurs be aiming for with that?

Was there even a reason behind those kidnappings?

Things became much easier than when they were on the ground floor and Godan and co swept the monsters ahead of them.

We traversed the 1st underground floor and reached the 2nd underground floor, but there was nothing special so far.

This passage was discovered by the Freedom Fighters who had entered this dungeon. I wonder how many people fell victim to the trap room before this passage was found.

The Freedom Fighters had mapped out the labyrinth to the 4th underground floor. So far we have had it easy since the path ahead had already been explored.

However, from the 5th underground floor and beyond, there was almost no information.

No one had returned.

Exploring the 5th underground floor and beyond was our responsibility now.

Suddenly, Shizufae and her group stopped in front of a ladder heading downwards.

「What's the matter, Shizufae? 」

「Reiji-sama, we're about to reach the 3rd underground floor. I have to warn you; the demons on this floor are troublesome.」

「Is that so? What kind of demons are there? 」

「There are Akephalos and Evil Eyes. They loiter around in groups of three and four.」

Akephalos were humanoid demons that had no heads. They had eyes in both palms of their hands and a huge mouth on their stomach. They were similar to a Chinese apparition called Kei Ten.

Aside from having an iron-like body, Akephalos could spit a powerful acid from their stomach mouth. When they were armed, they were a force to be reckoned with.

Evil Eyes were demons that resembled huge eyeballs with tentacles around their bodies. Firing a light ray from their single eye that could charm, stun and petrify their targets was how they killed their prey. They stunned then entangled their victims with their tentacles.

Both of those demons were quite dangerous for normal people.

Shizufae and her party met one of those Akephalos a long time ago when they ventured deep into the labyrinth. They had barely managed to escape.

At that time, half of the parties that entered the labyrinth were annihilated.

Godan had gone ahead of us.

Would he be alright?

Shizufae seemed anxious when remembering that past encounter.

「Don't worry, Shizufae. We're with you. 」

「Reiji-sama…」

Once Reiji reassured her, Shizufae's complexion brightened considerably. Novis, who stood by her side, did not seem to like that reaction.

「Godan and the others are ahead of us, don't worry about it. Let's hurry up.」

◆ Freedom Fighter Girl, Shizufae 

「Air Bullet!! 」

Madia fired a spell that ranked lower than Sonic Web, but it managed to make the Giant Bat lose its sense of direction anyway.

I ran with Big Sis Kenya to where we predicted they would fall.

Even we could defeat demons of this level.

Reiji-sama and the others were behind us. We should do our best until we reached the 4th underground floor. Reiji-sama didn't need to fight the small fry.

Novis, Leylia-san, and Nora-san had just defeated the zombies coming from the right when a shout came from behind us.

「Stop right there, Shizufae-san!! 」

I stopped walking the moment Nao-sama's warning registered in my ears. I noticed she was in her half-beast form, which gave her an extremely keen perception.

Nao-sama pointed at the part of the wall that was broken.

「Something is coming…」

A huge eyeball appeared from the broken wall.

Behind the eyeball was a disgusting mass of wriggling tentacles.

「Evil Eye!! 」

「O Light!! Protect Everyone!! 」

Saint-sama promptly reacted, her voice resounding in the area.

In the next moment, the demon's eyeball shone. I unintentionally covered my eyes, but nothing happened to me. When I opened my eyes, I saw light particles around me.

It seemed like Saint-sama protected me with her magic.

Sage-sama moved in front of me.

「Get back, Shizufae-san.」

「Sage-sama!! Evil Eye has high magic resistance. Magic won't work on it!! 」

Madia warned Sage-sama. It was true, Evil Eye had powerful magic resistance. We should fight with swords instead of magic in this place.

「It's alright, look. Bullet Blast!! 」

A red light appeared in front of Sage-sama and flew toward the Evil Eye. Then, the moment it came into contact with that eyeball, it exploded and killed it for good.

「No way… It got defeated… With magic.」

Madia was dumbfounded.

「Oops, there are more of them coming this way.」

Nao-sama pointed in a different direction.

「Now it's Rino's turn, right? Salamander-san, please!! 」

A fire lizard came out from Rino-sama's hand and killed the approaching slimes. From the slimes' color, I knew that they were the dangerous kind that could discharge a powerful acid from their bodies.

Reiji-sama's wives easily dispatched two dangerous enemies at once.

「Let's get going.」

Everyone started moving again when Reiji-sama said so.

It was as if there was nothing to do here.

「Cool… To kill those demons that easily…」

Novis muttered so with a vexed voice and I agreed with him.

Black haired sage, Chiyuki-sama.

Snow white saint, Sahoko-sama.

Rino-sama's spirits.

Nao-sama with her excellent searching abilities.

And Reiji-sama, the Hero of Light who gathered them all.

They were all gifted with both brains and beauty.

And it seemed that the girl who was hailed as the Sword Maiden wasn't here at the moment. That person seemed to be as amazing as the others.

I didn't know that such amazing people existed in this world. I knew that I could never win against that kind of line up.

Reiji-sama and his party advanced steadily. No demons could stop them.

「Let's follow them.」

Everyone immediately agreed with me.

Thus, our party started moving again.

◆ Black Haired Sage, Chiyuki

「OOOOOOOOOOOOH!!!」

We caught up with Godan and the others on the 4th underground floor. They were in the midst of a battle against an Akephalos.

Godan's axe and the Akephalos's shield clashed.

After repelling Godan's axe, the Akephalos attacked Godan with its sword, but Godan dodged it with a backstep.

It was a good match, but Godan seemed to be slightly inferior to his opponent. The Akephalos was 2 meters tall, around the same height as Godan.

The other Freedom Fighters lay around them. It seemed they were caught up in the Akephalos and Godan fight. Upon a closer look, some of those Freedom Fighters' shields and armor were loose.

After it had got away from Godan, the Akephalos' abdominal mouth opened.

「F^CK!! 」

Godan hid behind a giant shield.

The Akephalos spat some sort of liquid on its surroundings.

「GUWAAAAAAAAAA!! 」

Godan, who protected the Freedom Fighters behind him with his shield, ended up drenched with the Akephalos's liquid.

Smoke rose from the bodies of the Freedom Fighters that got splashed with the liquid from the Akephalos. The liquid seemed to melt even metal armor.

Godan's enchanted shield might have no problem warding off that liquid.

Meanwhile the sorcerer and dwarf Freedom Fighters were covering for Godan.

「Woah, this is a bad situation…」

As Nao said, they were going to lose sooner or later. Although Godan was putting up a good fight against the demon, he had no resistance against that fluid.

Nevertheless, his battle looked different from the other Freedom Fighters, or should I say "as expected of the Hero of Earth"?

But he had reached his limits. We should save him.

「Leave this place to me. My hands are itching from doing nothing.」

Reiji unsheathed his sword and walked towards the Akephalos.

He was composed. Oh, well… That kind of opponent would be killed in one hit by Reiji.

「Here I go, SUNDERING LIGHT!! 」

Reiji closed in the distance between him and the Akephalos. In just a moment, he tore the demon apart with a series of slashes faster than the eye could see.

The demon's body split apart and crumbled.

「Wooow…」

「This is the first time I see such swordcraft.」

「This is the power of the Hero of Light.」

The Freedom Fighters who saw that scene remarked full of wonder.

「My deepest gratitude, Master of Light.」

Godan went to Reiji and bowed his head to show his gratitude.

Meanwhile, Sahoko healed the injured Freedom Fighters. The advance party of Freedom Fighters was almost completely incapacitated, to the point they could barely move ahead.

「We're almost there. Our turn will come on the next floor.」

I told Godan, Shizufae and their parties that we could advance through the safe route and wander through fewer places with their guidance.

The stairway leading toward the 5th underground floor should be just a bit ahead of us. Beyond the 5th underground floor lay uncharted territory, thus none of the Freedom Fighters here could guide us. Moreover, they would just be a burden if they were to come with us.

Hence why we were the only ones who proceeded beyond that point.

「My apologies, Reiji-sama. We… We can't guide you to the end.」

Shizufae apologized to Reiji.

「Don't worry about such things. How about going out when I return from this labyrinth? If possible, just the two of us, how does that sound?」

Reiji looked at her with a refreshing smile.

「Yes, by all means.」

Shizufae stared at him with a delighted expression. It seemed we would have some fun waiting for us once we returned.

Shizufae's and Godan's party returned to the surface.

Only our party was left now.

「We're by ourselves now. Have you found the way, Nao-san? 」

「No doubt about it. The smell of the people who passed through here is definitely not that of Freedom Fighters.」

Nao said as she sniffed the surrounding area.

「Then, are the kidnapped people ahead of us? 」

「Maybe, Sahoko. The problem is how far they are ahead of us. 」

Reiji had a serious look on his face. He was right, we didn't know how deep this underground labyrinth went.

We might need to return if it went too deep.

「I want to go back alread~y. This place is so gloomy.」

「Just a bit more. Do your best, Rino-san, it's a little brighter here.」

The labyrinth was lightly illuminated with eternal light magic starting from the 1st underground floor.

It seems this labyrinth wasn't made for someone with night vision.

「By the way, how long do you think this will continue on? 」

「Well, I wanted to keep going on until we found the place where they are keeping the kidnapped people… In case we don't find them on the next floor, we can go back to the surface for the time being.」

Even if there was no one on the next floor, we had to descend to the 5th underground floor first. Otherwise, who knew what would be waiting for us down there.

「Well, let's get going everyone.」

We continued on with Reiji's command.

◆ Freedom Fighter Girl, Shizufae

「Haa… Somehow, we made it back.」

I sighed when we got back to the surface.

Since Reiji-sama and his party decided to continue on, we returned to the surface with great difficulties.

The other Freedom Fighters were also sighing in relief once we arrived on the surface.

The 4th underground floor was an extremely dangerous place.

It was a miracle that none of us met our doom in such a dangerous floor. That miracle might be attributed to Reiji-sama and his party.

「Nevertheless, they were such amazing people… Right?」

Madi commented as she looked at the stairway that led to the 1st underground floor.

「Yeah… They were amazing, indeed. Not even I was in such good terms with the spirits when I still had the power to speak with them.」

Nora-san was referring to Rino-sama.

「Saint-sama is also a wonderful woman. I mean, her healing magic is so powerful.」

「The girl called Nao too. She could move so flawlessly inside such narrow spaces.」

Leylia-san and Big Sis Keyna sang praises to Nao-sama and Saint-sama.

「Sage-sama's magic was amazing, too. No matter how much I study I won't be able to reach the heights her magic has reached.」

Madi praised Sage-sama.

Everyone was full of praises to Reiji. Although I felt bad about Novis, Reiji-sama was the true Hero. The difference between him and the other Heroes was like the difference between heaven and earth.

I looked at Novis, who was called Hero of Fire. For some reason, he was pouting. Could he have some sort of rivalry with Reiji-sama?

I grew up with Novis, and I knew he was a sore loser. But I thought there was no point in him having a rivalry with Reiji-sama because he was someone chosen by Goddess-sama.

Despite numerous other Heroes existing, Reiji-sama was the only Hero Goddess-sama loved. That's why he was the True Hero.

That's why Novis was too reckless for wanting a rivalry with such a special existence.

「Why are you making such a displeased face, Novis? 」

「It's nothing… I'm not pouting.」

When I saw that expression on his face, I sighed.

「You will never win against Reiji-sama, so don't be reckless! 」

「HAAAH!!! 」

Novis glared at me and let out that strange scream when I told him that. That expression confirmed I hit the bullseye. He really felt some sort of rivalry against Reiji-sama.

I wanted to tell him to man up already.

「Ah, you can say that to him, Shi~zu♪.」

Big Sis Keyna embraced me from behind.

「Big Sis Keyna?!! 」

When I turned around, I saw Big Sis Keyna grinning at me.

「Hihihihi, Novis just doesn't like that the Hero of Light invited you back there. Riiiiight, Novis?」

「Big Sis Keyna!!! 」

Novis shouted at her.

「He doesn't like the fact that the Hero of Light invited me… Why? 」

「It means that the Hero of Light wants your virg—-UHMMMMM」

Novis covered Big Sis Keyna's mouth. I had no idea what she was trying to tell me.

「I don't know what you are talking about, but Reiji-sama inviting me is just lip service. It's not like he was actually serious about inviting a girl like me.」  [TL: … Is this good]

There was no way Reiji-sama wanted to go out with me. Beauties surrounded him, so there was no way he was interested in me.

「Haah… Shizufae doesn't understand, huh… He was serious…」

Novis shook his head, but no matter how many times I thought about it, I found no reason for Reiji-sama to have any interest in me.

And why did it affect Novis if Reiji-sama invited me?

「Geez, what kind of incomprehensible things are you saying!! Let's stop this useless chit-chat and go back to Teseshia!!」

I began walking as I told him so. I could hear the heavy sighs of my comrades coming from behind me.

Really now, just what in the world do those sighs mean?

◆ Black Haired Sage, Chiyuki

We arrived in a spacious room with a giant door in the innermost part. It seemed like that door led to the 5th underground floor.

But a giant metal golem stood right in the center of the room, protecting the door.

「That must be the gatekeeper.」

According to Shizufae, that metal golem was the reason why no one could reach the 5th underground floor.

But I've heard stories about people who used a gap in the metal golem's defenses to sneak into the 5th underground floor.

Those people never returned.

「What shall we do, Reiji-kun? Should we beat that golem or take a detour? 」

We needed to avoid combat as much as possible. I wondered if something in the 5th underground floor prevented those people from returning.

We should conserve our power by avoiding battles as much as possible.

「No. We will fight here, Chiyuki. This thing will become an obstacle on the way back if the kidnapped people are being kept in the 5th underground floor.」

As he spoke, Reiji unsheathed his sword.

Reiji's sword was the Holy Sword of Light bestowed by Rena. The blade released a golden light.

「True enough.」

I set my cane too.

「Don't forget about me.」

Nao readied her boomerang.

「Who will go first? 」

「Let me go first, Rino-san. You can't use your spirit's power in this kind of closed space.」

I went forward as I said so.

Rino excelled in spirit and mind magic, but the spirits wouldn't answer her call in a closed space.

She could still use the bare minimum of her power to fight by calling the low ranking spirit of fire, Salamander. But high-ranking spirits were impossible to be called in this place.

And her magic wouldn't work on inorganic objects like a giant golem. In short, this opponent had bad compatibility with Rino, thus I stepped forward.

It seemed the giant wouldn't make a move unless I approached a certain distance. It stood still.

It was a giant with a bizarre appearance. It looked like two people tied back-to-back with 4 arms and feet. Each hand was holding a magic sword. Its 5 meters tall metal body was rigid.

I summoned my magic. A huge red ball as tall as I appeared.

「Blast Bullet!! 」

The red ball hit its target and exploded, forcing the immovable body of the giant to move.

Blast Bullet was my original magic which I created by compressing the power of Explosion into a smaller form. Not even that giant golem could escape unscathed if it got hit by that strengthened explosion.

I cleared away the smoke caused by my attack. One of the giant golem's arms was dangling down, filled with cracks.

「Tough. It can even break them, I think…」

I think I might be able to destroy it with slightly more powerful magic. Maybe the power of the Blast Bullet was reduced since we fought indoors.

Moreover, the giant seemed to be made of a special kind of metal. It was really tough.

Nevertheless, I knew I could destroy it for sure. It would break into pieces with a few more Blast Bullets.

The giant's eye shone red. It seemed to notice us after my first strike.

Bands of light suddenly appeared from the floor and walls.

「EH!! EH? It won't regenerate, right? 」

Sahoko sounded astonished.

The giant's body moved along with the light of the floor and walls, then the broken arm was back to normal. Its surface filled cracks were gradually disappearing.

「It seems this guy has a self-repair ability. It must be the effect of the magic equipment installed in the entire room.」

What a troublesome guy.

The giant started moving as it pointed its sword toward us.

Reiji stepped forward.

「OVER MY DEAD BODY!! SUNDERING FLASH!! 」

The giant stopped moving due to Reiji's continued barrage of lightspeed attack.

「Dodge, Reiji-kun!! MAXIMUM TRIPLE EXPLODING BULLETS!! 」

I fired three enhanced Blast Bullets as soon as Reiji dodged to the side.

The giant exploded and fell backward.

「Did we defeat it? 」

「NOT YET!! 」

I replied to Sahoko.

Upon a closer look, the four swords in the giant's hands shone as it guarded against my attack at the last moment. Just like before.

We could damage it, but we couldn't defeat this thing.

When the giant stopped moving, the room shone for the second time. The light recovered the giant's damage.

It seems we couldn't defeat this thing with just half-baked attacks. But using even more powerful attacks could damage the room.

「EAT THIS!!! 」

Nao threw her boomerang.

The boomerang approached the giant as it generated kamaitachi [wind blades].

[TL: Kamaitachi are weasels in Japanese myth which generate vacuum blades]

The four swords shone again, then a golden shining membrane coiled around the giant's body.

The flying speed of the boomerang reduced considerably once it came into contact with the membrane and then it was repelled by the four swords.

「Ooh?! This guy is a tough one, huh.」

Nao exclaimed in admiration.

Despite her excellent detection ability, Nao's offensive power was on the weaker side.

It seemed her attack couldn't even scratch the giant.

「Nao-san, Rino-san, you two get back!! I'm gonna defeat this guy with Reiji-kun!! 」

Rino and Nao couldn't even scratch this golem. I guess Reiji and I were the only ones who could defeat it.

But Reiji ordered me to fall back, too.

「No, Chiyuki. You fall back too. Leave this thing to me.」

「Are you sure, Reiji-kun? That golem seems to be a tough one.」

「It's okay, Chiyuki. I want to test something on that thing.」

Reiji flashed a daring smile at me.

He drew his other sword. Although not as powerful as the Holy Sword, this sword which was given to him by Rena was made by a certain famous dwarf.

Reiji wielded both swords, each in one hand. It was the dual-wielding style.

Honestly speaking, this form was never shown to Shirone, because it was Reiji's trump card to defeat Shirone's childhood friend.

The defeated Reiji sought out the dual-wielding style for more power.

[TL: Uhm… Lloyd?]

Reiji progressed at a monstrous speed. The current him might be able to defeat Shirone's childhood friend. Reiji wouldn't be defeated a second time.

He charged at the giant, who used its four swords to intercept Reiji's attack.

Reiji handled that giant greatsword skillfully with his two swords.

「Reiji-senpai is amazing. Even Nao can't move like him.」

Nao praised Reiji. She had the highest physical abilities among us. Reiji, who could move in a way that was impossible even for Nao, a true monster.

In fact, Reiji was ambidextrous. He could write with both his hands at the same time. I was extremely surprised when I discovered that.

That might be the reason why he could use swords with both hands so skillfully.

The giant wielding 4 greatswords was far bigger than Reiji. Against that Reiji was dual wielding swords. And yet, the giant was pushed back.

Reiji wasn't even short of breath as he kept overwhelming the giant with his lightspeed attacks.

Although I couldn't see his face, I knew he was laughing.

It seemed he was enjoying the fight. For Reiji, an opponent of this level was nothing more than a playmate.

But the room shone every time the giant was wrecked. We really couldn't beat this thing.

「As I thought, this guy is troublesome… Then how about this!! 」

Reiji retreated as he opened some distance from the giant.

「TAKE THIS!! LIGHT WINGS SUNDERING HEAVEN!! 」

He lowered his sword and sprung towards the giant as if his whole body was a huge coiled spring. His overwhelming speed made him look like a light arrow.

I've seen that move before. It was a ramming attack where one jumped as they used their whole body like a spring. Although it was relatively easy to dodge that move due to its glaring pre-motion, its power was enough to pierce anything struck by it.

Reiji's strike punched a hole right in the giant's center, leaving a big space in its abdomen. The giant collapsed with numerous cracks spreading from that hole.

The room shone again. But the giant didn't get restored.

It was pulverized with no possibility of being fixed again.

「YAAAAY!! 」

「Reiji-san!! 」

「Rei-kun!! 」

The three of them rushed toward Reiji. They embraced him while showering him with numerous praises.

I felt the same way as them. In the end, only one person truly defeated the giant.

Moreover, Reiji didn't seem to have given his all.

I rushed at him too. Although I wouldn't embrace him, I couldn't stop myself from praising him.

「Good job, Reiji-kun!! 」

「Naturally. How's that, falling in love with me again? 」

Reiji smiled as he looked at me.

To be honest, I thought it would look better if it wasn't for his cocky attitude.

Couldn't be helped, it was Reiji after all.

「Geez, what are you talking about?! Let's get going.」

I dismissed his words as I looked at the gate that the giant had been protecting. I didn't know what awaited us behind that gate.

We opened the door and found a stairway descending further.

Beyond that lay a huge room.

Despite its size, the room was smaller than the previous room.

There was a magic circle right on its center.

「Is this a teleportation magic circle? It seems we can't continue unless we use it.」

I commented as I approached the magic circle.

「Chiyuki-san. Someone dropped shoes.」

Nao had found something.

Everyone went toward Nao's position.

Rino was the first to speak.

「This are children's shoes.」

「Does that mean they took the children too? 」

「That seems to be the case, Sahoko. They might have been transferred somewhere with that magic circle.」

I felt the same way as Reiji.

「What should we do, Reiji-kun? I don't know how they were transferred ahead, but…」

「We have no choice but to go forward. The kidnapped people are alive. So it shouldn't be a place where humans can't live.」

「Surely…」

The kidnapped people were alive. It was hard to imagine it, with so many dangerous traps here which could kill them in an instant. As long as the transfer area wasn't inside a sea of fire.

After looking at the transfer magic circle, I found out that it was a one-way transfer. It would be a path of no return.

But we won't know unless we try.

It might be for the best to leave one person behind. But that person definitely wasn't Reiji, our most powerful fighter.

I'm in the same position as him in this case since someone had to start the magic. I wanted to take Nao too for her excellent searching skills. Sahoko's healing magic couldn't be excluded either. And despite her competency, Rino hated being left out.

So that meant no one would be left behind.

We nodded as we looked at each others' faces. Then we stepped into the magic circle.

The magic formation shone.

The scenery distorted and then we were sent somewhere. The room wasn't a secret room, because some light was coming in from the outside.

「Bright. How can it be? 」

We turned around to see the outside due to Sahoko's statement.

「It's really spacious… Doesn't feel like we're inside the labyrinth.」

Like Nao just said, we had arrived at a spacious place. It was as if 10 cities could be crammed in this place. The ceiling was high, too. It projected a giant crystal as big as a city. That crystal was the source of the light.

It was thanks to that crystal that this place didn't feel like the inside of a labyrinth at all.

「There's a forest and a lake, too. It's as if we're outside.」

Rino exclaimed in a loud voice.

I was surprised. I never thought such a place existed in this labyrinth.

「There's a field, too. It seems people are living in this place.」

Reiji gazed at a faraway place.

What appeared before our group was a wayside like a shrine. That small shrine was built on top of a hill. That was why we could see the surroundings.

「Looks like there's a city but it's rather far from this place…」

Nao was looking at a certain direction where she saw several buildings.

「Shall we go, then? That might be the place where they took the kidnapped citizens. Let's go!」

We agreed with Reiji.

I had no idea what was waiting for us. But we had no choice but to advance.

We headed towards the city.

◆ Goddess of Spiders, Atlankua

Euria, the princess of the Pashipea Kingdom, was staying at my mansion in a certain place located in the Ariadya Republic. She looked outside the window.

「Fufu, Reiji-sama should've arrived at dear father's place around this time. With this, Reiji-sama is mine… Don't you think so, Atlan? 」

Euria muttered as she looked toward the direction of the labyrinth.

「Euria-sama… Zarxis also wishes for the Hero's power.」

「That person is too good for that undead. He should be mine.」

I felt troubled when I heard her say those words.

The princess was born between the queen of the Pashipea Kingdom and Labrys.

Despite being a daughter of a god, she was a human. Her power wasn't that great either.

Nevertheless, her father was Labrys, so it was better to be safe than sorry. Hence why I bowed my head.

The princess was quite the stunning beauty herself, just like her lucky mother. I believed her appearance might be that of a disgusting creature if she resembled her father.

「In that case, the promise is…」

「No can do. Moreover, I've already asked my father. As long as I am asking for it, his promise to Zarxis is a trivial matter.」

She laughed. That laugh resembled Labrys' for some reason.

Her father, Labrys, was a nasty man who loved to rape women and torture men to death. And she was as greedy and arrogant as her father.

The thing she wanted had to be obtained.

Labrys was the kind of man who could break a promise without even batting his eyelids. If his daughter wished for it, he could easily throw away his promise to Zarxis. Zarxis wouldn't be able to suck the hero's power.

Euria let out an innocent smile. Both parent and child were egoistic people.

「Moreover, your aim should be Rena, right? Just think how annoyed that goddess will get once she learns that the man she loved was snatched by me.」

Euria was blushing.

I played one of my tricks for her to invite the Hero of Light. It seemed she really enjoyed the Hero of Light at that time.

And it was as she just said.

I wanted to slap that bitch Rena. Although I felt bad for Zarxis, this feeling of mine wouldn't change. So I told him that everything went as planned as I pondered about that.

I wanted to say "Serves YOU RIGHT" right on Rena's face. We caught your most important man. I am sure you are really vexed by now, right?

You matched very well with that brutal Labrys.

I smiled lightly as I thought of that.

Well, what are you going to do then, Rena? I couldn't help but feel excited when I thought that way.