Escape. (11)
"And if you carry me, who will fight right now?"
The words were a question, but the tone was not.
It was as if she was stating a fact.
Her eyes, full of pity, made my face tingle.
"...Can magicians materialize their gaze or something like that?"
"What I just did wasn't really materialized."
So that means they can.
At the child nodding her head, Hallibel shrugged.
"If it's a fight, I'll do it!"
"...You?"
Hallibel tilted her head at Elli, who cut in from the side.
This one, fighting.
This one, fighting, huh...
Can she really fight?
She was clearly one of the Hero's Party, but Hallibel couldn't quite trust her.
"Can you really fight? You're a Saintess, aren't you?"
"Even a Saintess can fight, you know?"
Elli clenched her hands, which had not a single callus, and waved them in front of Hallibel.
What could she possibly do with hands like those?
Of course, Hallibel herself wasn't much different, but she was a demon, and Elli was human.
Their basic specs were different from the start, their specs.
"Alright, do as you please for now. But if it gets dangerous, I'll step in immediately."
"Kid, get on my back."
Hallibel, carrying Rin who was pouting, felt a hand full of softness and her lips twitched.
The touch of a child.
She wasn't a pedophile, but seeing the childish side of the mature child was her recent pleasure.
"Alright, let's go, let's go~"
With a subtly drawn-out cheer, they began their journey.
The long, continuous cliff was so long that they didn't know where to descend.
It was fortunate, at least, that the elevation difference decreased as they walked.
"There's a squirrel!"
"..Are you a child or something?"
A cat! A dog! A bird!
She shouted, looking at every animal they saw passing by.
Hallibel let out a sigh at the voice echoing beyond the forest.
Perhaps the news that they were going to find the Demon King-nim was that good.
'I envy her simplicity.'
While someone else can't even sleep properly every day.
She recalled the face of her beloved Demon King-nim.
The one who saved me.
And the one who was so faint, she could disappear at any moment.
But she firmly believed that wouldn't be the case now.
"Oh, there's a monster!"
"You, won't you be a little quietㅡ"
Annoyed by the Saintess's shout, Hallibel yelled in an exasperated voice.
No, she tried to yell.
If it hadn't been for the monster visible in the distance.
"Hey, are you crazy? What are you going to do if that thing comes here, screaming like that?!"
"B-but..."
Aren't demons supposed to be able to control monsters?
At Elli, who tilted her head as if she knew nothing, Hallibel frowned.
Hallibel had no idea where she heard such a thing.
"No matter who told you that, huh?"
Just hurry up and come over here!
Hallibel grabbed her hand and moved her away from where she was standing dumbfounded.
"No, then, the demons and monsters moving together until now..."
"There are those who tame monsters, but not all of them do, you know? No, more than that, who was it that even gave those things the name 'monster' in the first place?"
There were separate entities that demons called 'monsters'.
Originally, beasts born and raised in the Demon Realm were called 'monsters', so there was no reason to call the ones in this world 'monsters'.
It seemed that one of the humans kept calling them 'monsters, monsters', and it just stuck.
"No, then what is that, exactly..."
"I don't know. Just keep calling it a monster like you've been doing."
What name it had didn't really matter.
What was important now was that thing was blocking the path down the cliff.
"...Should we lure it away?"
If so, someone would have to volunteer as a sacrifice, but there was no one who could really do that.
First, the Saintess wasn't trustworthy, and the kidㅡ
Even if she ran as hard as she could with those short legs, she'd still be much slower than Hallibel walking quickly.
And Hallibel didn't want to do it herself either.
"Then, how about defeating it..."
This option also seemed almost impossible, but there was no other way.
Looking at it now, it didn't seem like it would move from that spot.
The more time they wasted, the more the Demon King-nim's chances of survival would decrease.
"I have a good idea."
"...Tell me."
"It's to defeat that monster and then go."
Her confidence was good, but it would be a lie to say Hallibel wasn't uneasy.
Yes, I admit she was part of the Hero's Party.
But to say this one would fight well, well, that's a bit...
"This is a really serious question, but you can really fight, right?"
"Of course!"
Elli, pulling out a small blade from her bosom, smiled brightly.
Did she just pull that out as a weapon?
At the dagger, which seemed too small to kill even a human, let alone a monster, Hallibel let out a hollow laugh.
"Normally, using violence against others is something to be avoided, but I'm not a Saintess right now."
For a cleric serving God to harm others was an absurdity.
The most basic and simplest way to harm others was violence, and that's why she hadn't used violence.
But the current Elli was just Elli, not a Saintess.
That meant she could act freely.
"I'll show you the skills that even the Hero-nim acknowledged!"
"...Alright."
It seems like a choice that would cost her life.
Hallibel let out a sigh.
Well, it'll work out somehow.
***
Wouldn't you do something after cleaning the room neatly?
It was after that one remark that the cleaning was finished at a rapid pace.
"...I'm a little tired."
At Ariel, who was panting roughly and slumped into her seat, the Hero swallowed dryly.
He tried not to look, but his gaze was reflexively drawn to her.
Even the weariness emanating from her half-closed, tired eyes seemed like a form of beauty.
"Why are you staring so intently?"
"No, just..."
The problem was after he became aware of his own feelings.
No matter what she did, his gaze followed.
He tried to find meaning in every little action, and became unnecessarily restless.
At first, he harbored doubts about his own feelings, but after becoming like this, there was no denying it.
"Because I thought you were pretty."
"..."
At the sudden words, Ariel's body stiffened.
Only then did the Hero realize what he had said, and he hastily turned his head away.
You crazy bastard, what the hell are you spouting?
It was already far too late to fix it.
"Well, yeah. Uh, I guess you could think that..."
A small murmur escaped her lips, her eyes seeming to ponder whether to be angry or scornful.
It seemed he wasn't the only one flustered, as her pale face was now flushed red.
It was the first time he had seen such an expression, so he was speechless.
"That thing on your neck, isn't there any way to deal with it?"
"...I don't really know."
Her rounded, softened tone echoed in his ears, between her drooping eyebrows.
Ariel, who had become like an abandoned cat, had shed all her usual stiffness.
That must mean life here had been that hard.
"Can't we cut it off with the Holy Swordㅡ *cough*, *gasp*..."
She coughed, as the talisman glowed faintly and tightened around her neck.
It seemed the talisman activated just by the thought of trying to remove it.
The Hero, holding Ariel who was writhing in pain with her head buried on the floor, gritted his teeth.
"Are you okay?"
"...Not at all."
When he brushed away the hair stuck to her face, he felt a lot of sticky cold sweat.
Why must you suffer such things?
She had already suffered enough just from what I did, so why, why now?
"It seems the one that Fox Beastkin serves, who they call a god, is the Goddess."
And this talisman seems to be operating by borrowing the Goddess's power.
At Ariel's words, the Hero frowned.
The Goddess.
He recalled that detestable name.
The very one who incited him, placed a curse on him, and made him violate Ariel.
For such a being to once again hinder her.
"Won't this work somehow?"
With a sudden thought, the Hero reached into his bosom.
At the small horn placed on his palm, Ariel winced.
It seemed she was recalling the memory of when her horn was cut off.
"The Demon's Horn has the power to lift curses, so it might be able to remove the talisman."
"...Let's try it once."
Swallowing dryly, he slowly brought the horn closer.
For a moment.
At the talisman, where no change occurred, the Hero let out a sigh.
In the end, was following the Fox Beastkin's words the best option?
"For now, there's nothing we can do but wait until another solution appears."
"..."
She said she'd send her back if she gave birth to all her kin, didn't she?
It was an absurd condition, but for now, they had no choice but to follow it.
But he was not at all willing.
How dare he lay a hand on her body?
"Honestly, I still hate mixing our bodiesㅡ"
"..."
"ㅡStill, it's better than being forcibly violated by other guys."
It was a remark tinged with resignation.
It was the kind of thought that being with someone who had already forcibly violated her and regretted it was better than being violated by someone she met for the first time.
The Hero, reaching out to such an Ariel, slowly embraced her small body.
"I'm sorry, I'm sorry..."
"...If you understand, that's enough."
Those words hurt so much that the Hero couldn't control his trembling.
Could he truly wash away this sin?
No, could he make her happy enough to cover the wounds his sins had inflicted?
It felt as if everything before his eyes had been dyed pitch black, to the point where he could see nothing.