Ankoku Kishi Monogatari (WN)

TN : Another Serving of Hero Party, fortunately it's not that bad… yeah, just like when you add a bit too much salt into your cooking.

===

The dancer was looking at the sea from the portside.

「What's happening!?」

Reiji and I rushed towards the dancer.

「My companion fell into the sea!!」

When I looked down at the water, I saw a man dressed in a satyr costume desperately trying to stay afloat.

「A man? What a bum… Chiyuki, take care of that man while I do something about those crabs.」

Reiji went towards the crabs as he said so.

「Good grief… can't you do something about that peculiarity of yours?」

I deployed 《Magic Hand》 towards the man while complaining about Reiji’s attitude.

After I’d saved the man and brought him safely on deck, he collapsed on all fours and coughed up sea water before fainting.

「WAIT!! HANG IN THERE, MARCHAS!!!」

The dancer rushed towards the man.

「SIENNA!! THANK GODS YOU'RE SAFE!!」

Decius, who had run after us, rushed towards the dancer.

「Nii-san!!」

The dancer had just called Dius, “Nii-san.”

What a rare pair of siblings. The brother was a priest of Oudith while the sister was a dancer.

「Anyone injured, Chiyuki-san?」

Sahoko finally arrived over to this side.

「It's not that bad but, just in case, please use healing magic.」

Sahoko used her healing magic on Marchas immediately. Color started to return on his face after having the healing magic cast on him.

I looked around at our surroundings. It seems that Reiji has already defeated all the Karkinos.

「But still… why Karkinos of all monsters?」

Decius muttered.

「I also have no idea why, Lord Decius… But, there's something that I'm sure about.」

I suddenly became the center of attention for my words.

「It's crab feast tonight.」

◆Black Haired Sage; Chiyuki

The Karkinos were dismantled right on the deck of the ship. Naturally, due to its large size and our lack of knowledge in this matter, we left the matter of dismantling and cooking them with the chefs on the ship.

It seems that the citizens of this world were already used to eating marine products like this. That’s why we could see them serving seafood such as crab, shrimp, and even octopus every once in a while.

But, as expected, it seems that the cooks are also at a loss since they’ve never eaten the giant crab-like Karkinos.

There was no such thing as soy sauce made from soybeans in this world.  Instead, they’d developed fish sauce in its place. It was possible to reproduce Japanese-style dishes with the said fish sauce.

Sahoko, whose forte was cooking, had made Japanese-style dishes for us before by using that very same fish sauce. Since this world had no tomatoes or potatoes, there was a turnip-like plant that resembled the taste and texture of potatoes that Sahoko had used to make a really delicious meat and faux potato stew.

Knowing the taste of them thanks to her cooking, I’m sure that Karkinos meat should be able to become delicious by using that fish sauce.

「Are these crabs the reason behind this commotion?」

Kyouka asked while looking at the giant crab-like Karkinos..

Currently, the ones who’d gathered on this ship were our group (except for Shirone), Euria’s groups, Shizufae’s group, and lastly, Decius and Sienna.

Clasus went to call the person in charge of security during this banquet while Nacius had gone to check on the situation of the other guests. Turia had also just left the place and gone to another ship.

「Are those the Karkinos who escaped from the arena? Even though their whereabouts were unknown, it's a mystery how they suddenly appeared in this place.」

Karkinos were amongst the list of monsters who’d escaped from the arena. Their numbers here matched the total number that were tallied on the list. That’s why, there was no doubt that these Karkinos were the ones who’d escaped from the arena.

But, the timing that they’d chosen for their attack was rather unnatural. As if these attacks had been planned by someone.

「Reiji-dono. I’ve brought people from the Trident temple.」

General Clasus brought a man who served under Trident, the Sea King. The Trident’s warrior standing at his side was a middle aged man equipped with netting and a three-pronged spear.

Though Nephim, the Hero of Water, didn’t use nets, the true Trident’s warriors normally used both the three-pronged spear and netting. These warriors were hailed as Retiarius, or Net Users. They would use their nets to seal their opponent’s movements and finish them off with their three-pronged spear. That was the typical battle tactic for Trident’s Net Users.

The middle aged man approached us while carrying a bundle of netting on his shoulder. According to General Clasus, he’s the person who’s responsible for the security of this banquet. Considering that the party was held on ships, it was only natural for a Trident’s warrior to be in charge of the security.

「Apologies!! Our negligence has brought this trouble on you!!」

The man bowed deeply towards us as he expressed his apology.

Since Trident’s warriors were rather rowdy people, just like Thor’s warriors, they never used polite speech.

「I don't mind. I know that you've a hard time lately too.」

Their temple was currently experiencing a shortage of manpower since they had to dispatch their troops to capture the escaped Mermen as well. That’s why they could only lend less than the minimum manpower required to safeguard this banquet, resulting in this incident.

But somehow, I felt that they still wouldn’t have been able to do anything to prevent this incident even if they had enough manpower on site. I mean, there’s no way that normal humans could deal with those Karkinos.

「Thanks for yer understanding, Black Haired Sage.」

The Net Warrior bowed towards me again.

「Rather than that, can you teach me more about Karkinos? I mean, I don't think it's just a mere giant crab.」

「More information about Karkinos, is it? I don't think I know more than you are. But, maybe they're being manipulated by the Mermen in the western inlet…」

The Net Warrior’s reply was exactly the same as my suspicions.

I’d heard that Mermen, otherwise known as sea folks, had the ability to manipulate powerful sea monsters. It seems that there was a story in which they’d used monsters to destroy the kingdom around the Red River, the Hatti Kingdom, in the past.

「I see. That's the biggest possibility for the sudden appearance of Karkinos at this banquet. Did you see any unusual phenomenon before the banquet began?」

「No, there was nothing unusual… we have no way of knowing the changes that happened inside the sand dunes afterall.」

The Net Warrior shook his head.

「I see, but that doesn't change the fact that someone is controlling those Karkinos. Afterall, the owner of the most powerful perception skills amongst us, Nao-san, also failed to notice the incoming Karkinos until just before they raided the ship. No doubt about it, they've been lying dormant inside the sand dunes waiting for this event. In addition, the timing for their attack is just too much of a coincidence to happen at the same time as this banquet.」

I told the Net Warrior my conclusions based on the events and his report.

「I see, the culprit might be the remnant of the Evil Gods who're still hostile towards us.」

I nodded upon hearing Reiji-kun’s words.

「No doubt about it. And those people used Karkinos who escaped from the arena.」

I had no idea what they’re trying to achieve, but one thing’s for sure: they’re definitely our enemy.

I looked at Euria.

「Uhm… is something the matter?」

Euria asked with an anxious look on her face.

「Do you know something about this, Euria-san?」

Euria shook her head when I asked her the question.

「I don't know anything about this. Atlana is the one who specializes in these matters.」

Euria spoke with a blunt tone.

Atlana was the alias of the even spider goddess called Atlankua. But that goddess had already been captured by Kuroki, Shirone’s childhood friend, and sent to Nargol.

「Do you hear something about this matter from him, Kaya-san?」

Kaya shook her head at my question.

「Nope. But, I think Kuroki-sama didn’t deliver Atlankua along with me to protect something.」

「Protect something?」

「Maybe the monsters who escaped from the arena. It seems he took pity after he heard that those monsters were forced to fight against each other in the arena for no reason.」

Kaya replied with her usual emotionless voice.

「I see…」

Surely, the whereabouts of several monsters who’d escaped from the arena was unknown. We might be able to find their whereabouts if Atlankua has yet to be sent back to Nargol.

Meaning that he might have sheltered those runaway monsters.

「Fufufu, as I thought, Kuroki-san is really kind.」

Kyouka sang praise for Shirone’s childhood friend.

Perhaps Kyouka hadn’t realized the severity of Shirone’s childhood friend’s actions considering that she was giving him such a high evaluation.

「But no one was hurt by those runaway monsters anyways. While it might be true that those monsters were forced to fight against each other, we shouldn't leave them to their own devices. We have to do something about them before they attack more humans.」

Reiji spoke up from my side.

Maybe he still has a deep grudge over the fact that he was almost killed by the Dark Knight back then. But, Shirone will be sad if she were to hear this conversation, you know.

But, even I had to agree with half og Reiji’s opinion.

The monsters who’d escaped might attack the humans in secret. If that were to happen, we have to exterminate them.

「Not like we can do anything about that though. Thinking about what to do from now is a more pressing matter for us.」

I shifted the topic to prevent us from speaking badly about Shirone’s childhood friend any further. Even though he stood by the Demon King’s side, I knew that he could be trusted after I saw and heard how far he’d gone to save us from the labyrinth back then. According to Shirone, he might not be completely under manipulation so I have to make sure of that matter first.

「Naturally, we're gonna destroy the remnant of that Evil God's force. Let them know who they're picking fight with.」

Reiji let out a daring smile.

Really now, what should I do with this idiot.

「But Reiji-kun. Do you know how to find them when we don't even have a clue about their whereabouts?」

In fact, even Rino and Nao couldn’t find any clues regarding the culprit behind this incident even after scouring the sea around this area. We’d conducted a physical examination of all the guests at this banquet too. Thanks to that, both Rino and Nao were exhausted right now and were being looked after by Sahoko.

If they were that skilled to the point of being able to outsmart us, then there was nothing we could do about this situation. Moreover, I had no intentions of getting to know more monsters like Atlankua.

The culprit might’ve escaped as soon as he’d summoned the Karkinos. Perhaps that’s why we can’t find any clues regarding the culprit.

「Then… let's look for clues in Ariadya.」

=== A Skit That Has Nothing to do with Story===

Courtesy to : MobCharacter

「Okay, it’s time for you to let go of me, Shirone. Look, there’s some wrinkles on your beautiful dress.」

I also tried to separate myself from Shirone.

「U~hm… dress… I see… gonna take it off.」

Shirone started to undress as soon as she spoke.

「Stop, Shirone!! You can’t undress yourself in this kind of place!!」

I quickly stopped Shirone before it was too late.

Honestly, I really wanted to see her naked, but she might hate me for that. I definitely wouldn’t use her drunken state to satisfy my worldly desires so I had to stop her.

「What’s the matter, Kuroki~?」

Shirone pouted as I stopped her from undressing.

「Just sleep for now, Shirone. You’re drunk right now.」

「But yu zayz ya take ma dress off…oh, I know…you undress too..」

Now she's trying to undress me!

「GET YOUR PAWS OFF MY KUROKI YOU FILTHY CAT IN HEAT!!!.」

Now Kuna is mad and trying to pry me away from Shirone by tugging at me by my shirt resulting in a kind of tug-of-war with me in the middle. And just in the pitch of it…

「KUNA-SAMA! SHIRONE-SAMA! Please. Stop before….」

Regena try to intervene but as she tried to approach she tripped on a table and went tumbling forward a flailing her hands which somehow got a hold of the wais of my pants which resulted in…

All of us lying on the floor. Me flat on my back. Kuna's breast on my face. My pants halfway down and…

「Mglfff! Umpf,gggllf!」

…my nuts somehow inside Regena ‘s mouth and … What's this moist an warm sensation enveloping my "junior "?

「Grgl ummf glp!.」 MY SHAFT IS INSIDE SHIRONE'S MOUTH AND ALL THE WAY DOWN HER THROAT!!!

「Gur-kh-pwah-hahpnf?.」

Shirone please! Don't try to talk…gasp! ooohh aaaah!

And right at that moment…

「Regena-San is Shirone-San al…right?!!!」

Kyouka and Kaya decided to show up.

"" ""

「My lady , stay away from that man. No matter what.」