Hero Esmeralda (3)
[Note: I am in a good mood.]
Something was off.
That was the conclusion Esmeralda had reached lately, after watching Jim around the clock.
Her eyes could read a person's heart, though not with perfect accuracy. Unless she was thinking the exact reason why Jim was in a good mood, she couldn't pin it down. In other words, she could only skim the surface layer of his thoughts. That made it convenient for seeing through anyone who approached her with an agenda, but her ability had its limits.
"Jim, is something going on? You've been looking awfully pleased with yourself lately."
"Huh? Ah, ahem! Well, of course! It's been ages since we all gathered and moved out together like this. How could I not be in a good mood?"
Jim gave a model answer.
[Note: I am in a good mood because of the operation we'll be executing soon.]
That model answer told Esmeralda even more. Apparently, asking directly pulled up that much more of the surface layer of his mind.
Esmeralda nodded along as if she felt the same way, and quietly organized her thoughts.
Yes. It's high time I made my move.
She shuddered. Far too much karma had become tangled around a single demon named Jim. She couldn't even guess when exactly things had gotten this twisted. Only one thing was certain: if they lost Jim like this, the Hero Party would fly apart at the seams.
Worst case, someone like Milia might actually go berserk. Having reconfirmed that very possibility back at the Fortress City, Esmeralda had no choice but to tread carefully.
"Ah! Tah-hah-hah!"
"……?"
Jim, who had been grinning in delight only moments before, abruptly started bawling his eyes out.
What the hell is that lunatic doing now?
It was suspicious to anyone watching. If he was planning some scheme, this was exactly the kind of situation most likely to blow his cover.
"Jim, what's wrong? Are you okay? There, there! No crying, now."
But Irina, apparently deciding that comforting him came first, was already patting him on the back.
[Note: I am delightfully looking forward to whatever nonsense Jim is about to spout.]
That wretched woman……. Even in a moment like this, all she thinks about is herself.
Consciences were in short supply, as ever. Esmeralda could see perfectly well that rather than questioning the situation, Irina intended to exploit it to score points with Jim — and it irritated her.
Was she really the only one in the Hero Party who genuinely wanted to save the world?
"Jim, are you all right?"
And then there was a second one who thought exactly like Irina.
Esmeralda stiffened at the strangely smooth flow of the conversation.
Nobody finds this the least bit suspicious?
It was a bizarre scene — everyone in the party seemed to be playing along with Jim's little act.
"I'm homesick."
"……."
Now, of all times? You haven't spared a single glance toward that direction this whole while?
Esmeralda nearly blurted it out, but swallowed the words to keep up her act as the righteous, pure-hearted, dim-witted Hero.
"I understand. Your homeland is ruins now, of course. But you want to at least lay eyes on what remains of it. The more I'm confronted with death lately, the more I feel that way too."
"Oh, how thoughtless of us, then. Forgive us, Hero."
"……."
Grinning slyly, Irina slyly took Jim's side and piled the hardship onto Esmeralda's shoulders. She was simply enjoying the show — eager to see how the Hero would talk her way out of this one.
Oh, right. Careful now. The Hero has some kind of mind-reading ability.
Brainwashing Lv. 32
Irina tampered with her own surface thoughts, staging the whole scene as though she were merely an adolescent girl trying to score brownie points with Jim.
"Why not let him go see it, just this once? Even a single look at his homeland would mean the world."
"Hero……."
Listening to Jim's performance and Irina's cheerleading, Esmeralda broke out in a cold sweat. The justification was simply too good. She had managed to talk her way around his resignation attempt, but she couldn't reasonably block something like this.
No — she could, if she forced the issue. But then she'd never be able to stop the resignation declaration that would inevitably follow.
The Hero Party members already did as they pleased more often than not. Demanding that Jim alone be kept on a leash in the middle of all that was impossible. Until now, the excuse had been that Jim's hometown (alleged) was a blasted crater, so there'd been no reason to send him anywhere. But with a reason like this, that was off the table.
I failed to cut off the momentum.
She should have shut this avenue down at the source, before it ever reached this point. Instead, Irina had gone and backed him up — that was the problem.
Milia had chimed in on Jim's side as well, but Milia was fundamentally clumsy with conversation, so Esmeralda couldn't even call it a real responsibility on her part.
Esmeralda looked at Irina, who was gazing back at her with eyes gone moist somewhere along the way, and went pale.
That lunatic can crank out tears on demand, too.
Even so, she didn't forget her face as the Hero.
"Of course. Naturally that's fine. Jim, I will personally escort you to your hometown — so let's use this chance to shake off your regrets and face forward. Agreed?"
She'd grant this kind of stunt exactly once. Esmeralda packed that unspoken warning into her words as she addressed him.
"Thank you! Thank you so much, Hero! Tah-hah-hah!"
"……."
And so, Hero Esmeralda walked straight into the trap.
Night had fallen. With a simple camp pitched, the watch rotation was under way.
Esmeralda let her thoughts run while Tina dozed beside her.
Three pieces of information pried out over the past few days, disguised as worrying about Jim.
First — Jim's goal is to split the Hero Party apart for a while.
Then again, her companions' time was hardly cheap enough that they'd accompany a trip to inspect Jim's hometown. Which meant his goal would most likely succeed. However much the girls hated being parted from Jim, the organizations standing behind them would surely feel differently.
And second.
Once he's thinned the party's numbers as much as possible, he'll execute another escape plan like the last one.
This one she could live with. After all, she'd managed to dramatically reclaim Jim in a nearly identical situation. Back then, luck had been on their side — they'd swept up everyone up to Field Officer grade with minimal effort.
And third.
Every last one of these plans was orchestrated by a Lieutenant General of the Demon King Army's Operation Staff — a woman named Lilith.
Esmeralda didn't know precisely who Lilith was, but between the lofty rank and a surname that looked positively refined compared to every other demon's, she knew the woman warranted vigilance.
Demon names were mostly slapped together without care. That was simply the nature of demons, who lacked a parent's affection. So a dignified, thoughtful name meant that its bearer came from the aristocracy among demons.
Demons didn't technically have a nobility system, but the sheer variety of their species had produced an informal hierarchy. You couldn't very well lump some common goblin or kobold in with High Demons like vampires.
If a noble-class demon personally built this plan, there's a good chance she's committed troops to match.
A scheme similar to the last one. But if the quality of the forces involved was different this time, then even Esmeralda was in danger.
"Gah?! N-no, don't!"
"……Tina, did you have a nightmare?"
Esmeralda cut off her musings and gave Tina, who had woken herself up talking in her sleep, a bleary stare. The girl was drenched in a cold sweat — clearly a bad dream.
"Ah, sorry, I nodded off……."
"It's fine. Anyone would when they're exhausted. Honestly, you did all the work picking out the campsite and scouting the area. I understand. ……So, what did you dream about?"
"Mmm, I'm nervous even saying this. In the dream…… you and Jim both got skewered and killed by some colossal demon……. You think we'll be okay? You're even taking Jim to his hometown this time, and he said he'd go alone."
"……He never said he'd go alone. He said everyone else was busy."
A sense of dread crept over Esmeralda.
Tina's instincts were sharp. And that was precisely what made it ominous — because her dreams had a way of actually coming true.
"Stay careful, Esmeralda."
"Yes. I'll keep that in mind."
Esmeralda gave her a graceful smile. Inside, of course, her stomach was churning. The one thing she could pin her hopes on was that the enemy's objective was Jim's defection.
There's a chance it's just a dumb dream, too.
She prayed with everything she had that it was.
Commander of the Demon King Army's 11th Legion.
Eleven sat across from Lilith, who had descended upon him like a parachute appointment.
Ever since that verbal blunder, Demon King Belphegor had been pettily shutting Eleven out of council meetings.
"You would have me go fetch a mere company-grade officer?"
"And will you refuse the assignment, then? The Demon King's will is firm."
Lilith had, in fact, offered him this chance.
"Ha! You make light of me far too much."
"You don't believe you can do it?"
"Can't? Do you ask me in earnest? Do I look like a man who fears some lowly human Hero?"
"Then consider it a holiday. By the time you return, I'm certain the Demon King will be calling for you again, Eleven."
"……."
Lilith knew her own worth. Belphegor had most likely already erased Eleven's existence from her mind. But if Lilith framed it as pardoning him for the sake of the work, the Demon King would summon him eventually. Though naturally, that was contingent on his first setting his past mistakes to rights.
And the justification is airtight.
Lilith looked at Eleven through the mask of a cold, merciless commander that the other demons looked up to. She was confident that a single punch could wring tears out of him on the spot — yet her acting was flawless.
So he truly is the Demon King's blood. He doesn't so much as blink with me standing right in front of him.
Please! Please! Please! Please!
If this affair went unsalvaged, Lilith stood to lose everything she had built. That desperation was what drove her performance to the next level of gravity.
"Hmph! Then I shall confirm it with my own eyes and decide for myself. And if the wretch proves to be trash not worth saving, I'll dispose of him by my own hand!"
"Of course. But I'm quite certain…… you'll be pleased with him."
And so Lilith, spouting groundless nonsense, dropped Jim straight into hell.