Why Did It Have to Be the Heavenly Demon?
The sound of Iris’s voice cut through the quiet like a cheerful explosion.
“Huff huff! Grandmaster! I brought water! Oh, Master! You’re awake!”
“Of course I’m awake, you idiot disciple. Did you really think I’d stay knocked out for hours like you?”
“You can’t compare me to yourself! But… what’s that huge bump on your head?”
Even Iris had noticed it. That told me everything. The lump on my head must have been spectacular. The word “slightly” I’d used earlier out of embarrassment had clearly been a mistake. The moment those words left my mouth, Master had smacked me upside the head without warning. There hadn’t even been time to defend myself.
“Crack! Why are you hitting me?!”
“Huh…? I… I don’t know!”
She’d hit me and then claimed she didn’t know why. I was too stunned to speak. Then I sensed Iris approaching and scrambled to my feet. Ever since, Master had been clearing her throat awkwardly and avoiding my eyes.
“Master. Here’s the water.”
“…You actually went and got it.”
“Yes. I heard a stream nearby, luckily.”
“Good work. There’s already water in the canteen, you know.”
Part of me still wanted to dump the whole thing over her head. My scalp was still throbbing. But that wouldn’t be a very dignified sight in front of my disciple, so I dropped the idea.
“Ahem!”
Suddenly Master shot to her feet. “I’m going for a quick walk,” she announced, then vanished in the blink of an eye. I didn’t even have time to stop her.
“…”
“…”
“Master.”
“What.”
“Did you fight with Grandmaster?”
“Don’t you know anything?”
“Well… this part I genuinely don’t know.”
Iris was carefully avoiding any direct mention of regression. Instead, she kept hinting at her identity as a regressor in the most roundabout ways possible. There was clearly something she couldn’t talk about. Some restriction, or some other force at work.
“For now, I told Master about you.”
“What?! You did? Wait, hold on… you didn’t—”
“Relax. I didn’t go into detail. I kept it vague.”
“Oh… really? That’s a relief. Whew…”
“Master was still wary of you. Since she’ll be traveling with us from now on, constant friction would be exhausting for you, for her, and most of all for me.”
The last part was the most important. I hated discomfort, and I hated knowing something was wrong and having to endure it even more. I wasn’t about to get stuck in the middle of their tension.
“Looks like she really did go for a long walk. Alright, let’s finish our conversation.”
“Master, about that…”
“We should go check on Iris’s condition, right? As quickly as possible.”
“Huh?”
I already knew Iris was a regressor. She knew that I knew. But she avoided saying it outright. So I simply steered the conversation while avoiding the subject myself. I hadn’t just learned martial arts while living under the Heavenly Demon. I’d also learned how to read the room and how to navigate the world. That was why I respected and admired my master so much.
“I was thinking we could take it slow for a while…”
“Master, wouldn’t it be better to move a little faster?”
“You think so too?”
“Yes. I believe that would be best.”
The way her eyes sparkled told me I’d guessed correctly. No matter where you go, loopholes always exist. That saying was absolutely true.
“I’m worried about what’s going to happen from here on out.”
“…It would be nice if we could know everything, but that’s impossible.”
“True. This world must have its own set of fixed rules.”
“However, there are ways to cleverly circumvent them.”
“Can I get my hopes up? Honestly, I’m a little nervous.”
“Right now I may be an inadequate disciple, but I won’t be forever. Don’t worry.”
Iris’s mature, grown-up side was something I had never seen. I was dying to know how much she had changed, but I held myself back for now. The fact that she didn’t deny a single thing I said suggested she was carrying some kind of penalty. The reason she couldn’t speak openly was probably because that penalty was extremely severe.
In that case, I would stick to my plan for the time being. I’d watch Iris’s reactions carefully and decide whether to push forward or hold back.
“Ah, Iris. One more question.”
“Yes, Master.”
“That sight we saw in the city—the sky splitting open. It was hideous, wasn’t it?”
I was asking if she knew anything about the Fragment of the Demon God. If she did, I wanted her to tell me even if it was only a rough outline. But Iris’s expression grew complicated. She wasn’t even trying to hide how troubled she felt. There was definitely something there.
When I stared at her, she slowly opened her mouth.
“When the chapel was attacked… it was such a perfect ambush. I was so scared.”
“…”
A perfect ambush. She had been scared. The moment I heard those words, I understood everything. I found myself frowning just like Iris.
If Iris was truly a regressor, she should have known about an event this massive. Yet here she was, talking about ambushes and fear. There was only one possible meaning.
It never happened in her previous timeline. This was something even the regressor hadn’t anticipated.
“…Do you have any rough guesses as to why?”
I left the subject vague, but Iris immediately understood what I was asking. She thought for a moment, then spoke carefully.
“…Wiping out the hideout of the Demon God Worshippers hidden inside the city was truly impressive.”
The hideout of the Demon God Worshippers inside the city. Now that I thought about it, the whole thing had started when Iris identified the spy. I’d been able to track them down because I already knew who the spy was. But if even Iris hadn’t predicted what came after that… then of course she couldn’t have foreseen the consequences of destroying their hideout.
My head hurts.
My skull was literally throbbing. I’d thought I’d found a breakthrough, but even that path was full of problems. Damn it. This stupid game never made anything easy. Not that I was any better, since I’d gotten myself trapped in it.
“Disciple. You’re sure no enemies will jump out, right?”
“They won’t. There’s no chance of that.”
“I see. That’s good.”
Ten minutes later.
“Disciple. What if there’s an ambush?”
“There won’t be. What kind of ambush could get past both you and me?”
“That’s true.”
Another ten minutes—no, five minutes—passed.
“Disciple. I suddenly had this thought…”
“No. There isn’t. Master, please stop.”
I knew very well that Master had lived as the Heavenly Demon in the martial world. And for the Heavenly Demon, setting out on any kind of journey meant walking straight into ambushes flying in from every direction. She used to tell me stories about it. One day she’d gone somewhere and ended up fighting dozens of orthodox sect experts. When they withdrew without a clear victor, the unorthodox sect bastards launched a surprise attack. After she crushed them too, the stench of blood was so thick she simply returned to the main headquarters of the Demonic Cult. Most of her stories followed that pattern.
That was probably why she was acting like this now. Master had decided the Fragment of the Demon God was a formidable enemy. She was burning with fighting spirit, constantly on guard in case it attacked from behind—or appeared right in front of us.
“…Iris. What do you think?”
“I am ‘certain’ that Grandmaster is worrying over nothing.”
Not just a guess—certainty. In other words, there would be no ambushes or open challenges. Of course, since the future she remembered had already changed, even her certainty needed to be taken with a grain of salt. Still, there wasn’t a single presence around us. What exactly was she so worried about?
“What a peaceful world. In the old days I would have fought several times by now.”
I’d told her countless times that this wasn’t the martial world. I wanted to snap at her, but since it was Master, I held my tongue. Justice was far away, but fists were close at hand—and the Heavenly Demon’s fists hurt more than anything else in the world.
“…Wait, disciple. Something’s coming.”
“Again…? Huh. You’re right… something really is coming.”
At first I thought Master’s worries had come true and Demonic Humans were launching an attack. But they wouldn’t be stupid enough to make this much noise or leave such obvious traces. Besides, the level of power I sensed was far too weak for anyone coming to fight.
This was clearly very different from what Master had been expecting. As the presence drew closer, I realized it wasn’t even worth paying attention to. Soon the identity of whatever was approaching became clear.
“It’s a carriage, Master.”
“So it is. Looks like some rural noble’s carriage. Let’s not pick a fight and just let it pass quietly.”
“Master. Please hide Grandmaster.”
Iris wouldn’t say that without a reason. So I tried to drag Master into the nearby bushes to avoid any collision. But would the Heavenly Demon ever lower her head just because someone told her to? It would be far better to hide her completely.
“You wicked child! Are you ashamed of your master?!”
“That’s not it. This is for your sake and ours. Please cooperate.”
I forcibly stuffed Master into the bushes. Moments later the carriage drew alongside us. I was about to bow my head slightly and let it pass without incident when—
“What is so important about that pathetic carriage that you would act this way?! This seat cannot tolerate it!”
Master burst out with those words. Thanks to her, she ended up face-to-face with whoever was looking out the carriage window.
…Please. Just keep going. Please.
This was such an obvious cliché, the most tired trope imaginable. A spoiled noble passing by on the road spots an absolute beauty, stops his carriage, and starts pestering her to come with him, only to meet a tragic end. All because the woman in question was a monster who could casually handle even a Hero.
This was bad. Really bad. Just keep moving. Keep moving, damn it!
Clack.
But the carriage trampled all over my hopes. It came to a stop, and the door swung open.
“Sigh…”
Even Iris—the idiot disciple Iris—let out a genuine sigh of exasperation. I never imagined I would live to see a scene like this. Well, I had expected something like this might happen. If this was a world inside a game, the most obvious cliché, the most inevitable trope, was bound to appear. It would be stranger if we managed to avoid it.
“You there, wench. Come over here for a moment. Quickly now.”
Wench. He actually called her a wench. To the Heavenly Demon, no less. It was an impressively creative and incredibly dangerous new method of suicide.
“…Was that remark directed at this seat?”
It certainly seems that way, Master.
I muttered to myself as I offered a silent prayer for the nobleman whose life was about to end today. Of all the people he could have provoked, why did it have to be the Heavenly Demon instead of Iris?