Why He Is Needed (3)

The Saintess Irina—who had just finished crushing the heads of the demon stragglers one by one—turned to look at Jim and beamed radiantly.

“Hehe, you must be scared of bugs, Jim.”

It's not the bugs I'm afraid of. It's you, the person who treats sentient beings like bugs.

How could someone so gentle and kind-hearted the rest of the time transform into that the moment demons were involved? Jim did his best to keep his face arranged into a smile. He had to smile. If he didn't, he would die. His instincts rendered the verdict without hesitation.

“If you're that worried, Jim, shall I cast a bug-repelling spell for you?”

“...No, thank you. I'm quite all right.”

Jim refused firmly, all without dropping his smile. With that mischievous grin and both hands wriggling playfully, Irina looked for all the world like an ordinary girl her age—almost endearingly cute. But Jim knew that a single touch of those hands would feel like being caught in a deity's palm strike. A faint glow was already clearly visible at her fingertips, so there was no mistaking it.

For a human, it might make for a lovely massage. For a demon, it could only ever mean a one-way trip to the land of the dead.

“Really, I'm fine.”

“Hehehe.”

“Saintess?”

“Hehehehe.”

Jim retreated step by careful step, then bolted at full speed. Naturally, his escape did not last long.

“If you wander that far off, you'll get kidnapped again, Jim.”

Because Esmeralda—the one being whose entire purpose was to obstruct his flight with maximum force—had seized him by the nape of the neck and blocked his path, nagging away. Jim, who had only been running for ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠his life from a very real threat, felt profoundly wronged.

While he was being scolded, Irina had wiped the mischief from her smile and was approaching with an innocent, sunny grin.

“We were playing tag, and it seems I let my guard down too much. I'm sorry, Hero. Jim has been through a hard time lately, you see, so I only wanted to help him unwind. Was I being too thoughtless?”

“No, well... as long as you don't wander too far, I suppose it's fine?”

“...Saintess, I'm fine ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠with that as well. That works, doesn't it?”

Jim nodded along to Irina's apology. One way or another, everything she did sprang from good intentions. As proof, her hands were now folded serenely at her chest—she evidently had no intention of continuing her little game. Surely she'd only smashed those demon heads out of concern for Jim, who had already been kidnapped once before. He nodded again as he took in the generosity written all over her heart.

She hadn't been doing it on purpose, after all. Her hands, which he had been warily tracking this whole time, had simply come to rest over her heart. That was all.

“I'm well aware that the Saintess was worried about me.”

And so Jim forgave Irina. While quietly thinking that it would have been absolutely perfect if only she weren't the Saintess.

Honestly, between her looks and her personality, there wasn't a single flaw to be found.

“Haha... I'm so relieved to see the two of you getting along so nicely.”

Esmeralda, who had been watching the whole shameless display between Irina and Jim, let out an awkward laugh from the sidelines. She could see it. Irina's pitch-black inner thoughts, laid bare without a single filter.

“Ah... what a waste.”

Esmeralda decided to pretend she hadn't heard Irina's quiet murmur. Just imagining the work of coordinating this deranged party going forward was enough to turn her stomach.

The three of them set out on the road—Esmeralda, Jim, and Irina, in that order. Half convinced he was being escorted as a prisoner, Jim heaved a sigh.

That was when someone appeared behind him and rapped him on the back.

“Whoa, you look half-dead there, Jim. What happened?”

“KYAAAAAAAK?!”

Seized from behind without warning, Jim shrieked a thoroughly demonic scream and went sprawling across the ground in a spectacular tumble.

“PUHAHAHA! Anyone who heard that would think you were a demon. What kind of scream was that?”

Only belatedly did Jim crane his head to look at the person who had come up behind him. It was a girl with striking yellow eyes, red hair pulled back into a tight ponytail so it wouldn't get in her way.

“...Tina?”

“Oh, Jim. Long time no see. Didn't you miss this big sis even a little?”

Jim stared blankly at the girl claiming to be his senior. Unfortunately for her, compared to Irina, she was rather narrow-minded.

“...I don't like that look in your eyes.”

“I was just a little startled, that's all.”

Jim lied with a perfectly straight face. After all, wasn't his entire existence, from top to bottom, one enormous lie? A man without a shred of shame when it came to falsehood—that was Jim for you.

“Ah! Tina! You came out to meet us?”

Esmeralda lit up at the sight of their hero party member finally rejoining them—the brightest smile she'd worn in recent memory.

“Yep! Yep! Here I am. Everyone been doing well? Didn't get lonely without me? Puhehehe.”

Tina, a girl whose boisterous personality showed in every gesture, was a scholar affiliated with the academic organization known as the Eye of Truth, who had joined the Hero Party.

No matter how you look at her, she's closer to a common thief than a scholar.

Of course, the woman herself insisted she was not a thief but an archaeologist. But between the way she'd ambushed Jim from behind moments ago and her revealing, easy-to-move-in outfit, ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠Jim could see nothing in Tina but a rogue. She fought by whirling her daggers in dazzling flourishes and toying with her enemies—the only thing more suspicious than her being a thief was her not being one.

Well, I suppose even in the Human Realm you can't exactly recruit an actual criminal into the Hero Party, so they must have laundered her identity at least.

Jim settled on the most plausible hypothesis in his head. Still, he had made a genuine effort to understand Tina. Looking at a frame even frailer than the Hero's—despite them being the same age—he couldn't help feeling that even if she had been a thief, there was little to hold against her. Children who grew up starving were said to develop slowly. What could you do? Besides, she was the lowest-risk member of the entire party.

But she was still Hero Party. There were certainly reasons Jim found her dangerous.

“Hey! Esmeralda. You're later than I expected. Don't tell me you ran into demons on the way?”

“We did, actually... ran straight into them. Irina cut them down on the spot, though.”

“Nailed it~ My intuition really is something else.”

That was her legendary, inborn intuition at work. Tina was, in a sense, a being who knew everything while knowing nothing at all. For instance:

“What? Jim got kidnapped? Where on earth was your head? Or wait—could it be you were secretly colluding with the demons and planning to run off and abandon the party? Puhehehe.”

Tina grinned and teased him, but Jim could not muster a single laugh at her joke. It was always like this. She disguised her blows as jests and struck straight into his vitals. Every time, it knocked the wind out of him—standing before Tina, Jim always felt like his heart was one or two short of what the job required.

“So that's why you've been marching with him sandwiched in the middle like you're escorting a prisoner? And here I thought the two of you were hauling him along so he couldn't run away.”

Tina laughed cheerfully. And with every degree her mischievous smile deepened, the color drained further from Jim's face.

“Did you get all your business settled properly?”

“Oh! Right, right. So, at the ruins I went to this time...”

The recently reunited Tina and Esmeralda launched into an animated chatter. For Esmeralda, Tina was one of the few true friends she had. Setting aside Jim, a demon spy, even Irina only looked kind and pure on the surface—and remarkably, she had never once let that side of herself show in front of Esmeralda.

Which makes it way too suspicious.

Tina, on the other hand? Esmeralda liked Tina. Of all her companions, Tina was the closest to her in standing. Tina belonged to a prestigious academic order, yes, but at her core she was a commoner, same as Esmeralda. Naturally, they had plenty in common. And most important of all...

...was the fact that Tina showed him her unguarded, unfiltered self.

The Hero Party had a problem. The problem was that every single member was hiding something from the others. Of course, no one can lay every card on the table, and keeping a few secrets is only natural. But the Hero Party had been dysfunctional from the very day of its founding.

A commoner hero with no backing whatsoever. Countless factions had circled her, hungry to make use of her. The members—including Irina—were the survivors of an underground gauntlet of scheming and backstabbing, each selected after cutting every throat they had to.

And how had their first meeting ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠gone, exactly?

It had been the absolute worst. The Hero Party's Saintess and mage had been plotting to stab their leader in the back from the very first hello.

Which was precisely why they still hadn't kicked out the incorrigibly shameless Jim. At the very least, he drew the eyes of the lunatics who wanted to grind him into powder away from her—wasn't that an invaluable service?

But there had been one person. Just one, who had approached Esmeralda without a trace of self-interest. Because of her,

“I'm really glad to see you, Tina.”

—Esmeralda had managed to keep standing.

Overjoyed at the reunion, Esmeralda pulled Tina into a hug. Between Irina, who demanded the most vigilance these days, and Jim, whom she most wanted gone, it had been rough on her too. She had needed a refuge for her heart.

“Ooh, good to see you too. Didn't expect such a passionate welcome. Hmm, hmm... By the way, Jim—aren't you happy to see me?”

“...”

Of course, the sight of even Tina somehow taking a strange interest in him remained a problem Jim absolutely could not tolerate.