Why We Need Him (4)
The moment Tina joined the Hero Party, the whole atmosphere brightened considerably.
"No, but that guy——"
When she was talking with Tina, Esmeralda could shed every last one of her burdens and act like an ordinary girl.
"It seems our Hero is quite happy to be reunited with Tina, Jim."
"……"
"With him paying attention to nothing but Tina over there, shall the rest of us just entertain ourselves?"
"No."
"Hiyah! Insect Extermination Art!"
"KYAAAAAAAAAK!"
While Jim was answering half-heartedly, keeping an eye on Esmeralda and Tina's movements, Irina's palm landed squarely on his back.
Struck head-on by Irina's sudden Tathagata Divine Palm, Jim let out a bizarre shriek and rolled across the ground.
"Hahaha, what on earth was that?"
Of course, Irina seemed to take it as Jim's idea of a joke, laughing cheerfully.
"Ahem! I-I was just trying to liven things up a little."
"You startled me, you know?"
"Ha ha……"
Jim, the bug who had very nearly been exterminated, had no choice but to laugh along.
Tears were prickling at the corners of his eyes, but thankfully no wound remained.
Any ordinary demon would likely have died from that attack just now — but then, Jim was that rare breed, a half-blood of demon and human.
"Puhehehe, Esmeralda, did you see that? The acting is so convincing. Jim, you little bastard — are you actually a demon?"
"……"
Tina glanced back at Jim's scream, then doubled over clutching her stomach, laughing.
Jim, who had been rolling on the ground trying to get up, found himself unable to lift his head for a moment.
Don't tell me she actually figured it out? I'm scared to look at her face. Just… scared.
But perhaps fate had taken pity on him, because Esmeralda, laughing just as heartily as Tina, said:
"……There's no way that's true. Honestly, Tina. If Jim were a demon, he'd have died from Irina's attack just now, wouldn't he?"
It was a defense built on the standard knowledge of human history that Esmeralda possessed, combined with the information only Jim himself knew.
Jim thought he'd dodged a bullet, dusted himself off, and stood up.
"You never know, though. Jim could be a half-blood of demon and human, couldn't he?"
"Oh come on, there's no such thing as——"
But Tina's assault didn't end there. The grin on her face looked like she was merely teasing him, and yet at the same time like she was trying to lure him into a trap.
"Oh my? She might have a point, actually."
And Irina chimed in on Tina's joke.
Jim, at his hour of utter desperation.
This, of all moments, was one where even Esmeralda found it difficult to come to his defense.
If she got serious here, wouldn't it only deepen the suspicion?
"Shall we test it, then?"
"……I'm sorry, what?"
"Hup!"
This time Irina didn't merely touch him — she wrapped her entire body around him in an embrace. And naturally, her body was wreathed in holy power.
"……"
Esmeralda's eyes went round as saucers at the scene, and she held her breath.
For now, all she could do was trust in Jim.
Thankfully, Jim seemed to have steeled himself from the moment Tina's joke had started, because far from screaming, he didn't so much as blink as he endured Irina's deadly embrace.
"……"
But he couldn't speak.
He was barely holding back the pain. Jim was rigid to his very core, so to anyone who didn't know better, it might have looked like he'd stiffened out of sheer embarrassment.
"What is this? Boring."
Though she was the one who'd started the teasing, Tina clicked her tongue at the tableau before her, which looked for all the world like a pair of fresh, awkward new lovers.
I'm bored too, you two.
Jim ground his teeth inwardly.
The only one having fun right now was Irina, who was toying with him.
"Gah! Get off her! What's with the lovey-dovey act in the middle of the sacred Hero Party? And you, Saintess — if you're a saintess, act like one and behave with a little modesty!"
"That's remarkably similar to something our Own Holiness likes to say, Tina. Though he's far better-looking, fufu."
"What was that? Are you picking a fight? Esmeralda! She's picking a fight, right?"
Esmeralda, on Tina's behalf, studied Irina's expression carefully.
[Note : Currently deliberating on how best to dispose of Tina.]
"No, I think Tina's the one overreacting here?"
"Traitor! And here I thought we were friends!"
Esmeralda had tried to save Tina.
But no one gave her salvation any credit.
So this is the path of the Hero. What a lonely, agonizing road it is.
While secretly swallowing her tears, Esmeralda turned to look at Irina.
Was she really already planning to sweep it under the rug over just that one little remark? Esmeralda gained a firsthand appreciation for just how murky the internal politics of the church truly were.
"No time to rest. We need to rendezvous with Milia as soon as possible, right? Tina, you said Milia is waiting at base camp?"
"Hm? Yeah. She's laid down every trap spell known to man over there, so it should be fine. Even if something happens, they're close enough that we'd know."
KWAAAAAANG!
The instant Tina finished speaking, a colossal explosion sounded in the far distance.
"Oh dear……. Please tell me I didn't jinx that by opening my mouth."
Tina muttered, looking sheepish.
A distant explosion. Tina flustered, Esmeralda blinking in disbelief.
As I watched the two of them bolt off, a sudden realization struck me.
Wait. They're both gone now — doesn't that mean I can just run away?
My spirits soared. My pulse quickened.
Quietly, slyly, I turned my body in the direction opposite the one my party members had taken.
"Shall we go as well?"
"……Yes."
Then I spotted Irina smiling sweetly behind me, and quickly turned my eyes back to the front.
Somehow, a chill was crawling up my spine.
I had a feeling I was not supposed to be here. After all, hadn't I very nearly ascended to heaven in the physical sense from Irina's holy-powered hug just moments ago?
"Fufu."
"……"
I ran. I resolved to run with everything I had. To escape the reaper of the underworld at my back — to escape that pristine white death shadowing me like my own silhouette.
And so, fleeing death at a full sprint, what I ran into was——
"GRAAAAAK!"
"Please! Please just kill me!!"
"Uwaaah! Uaaah! It won't come off my body! What IS this thing?! Uaaah!"
CRACK! CRUNCH! SPLAT!
A hellscape spread across the clearing.
Screaming demons, and amorphous shapes clinging to them.
Burning, warping, shattering.
The demons writhed on the ground howling in agony, while the one responsible for it all simply watched, as though the whole thing were mildly interesting.
With Esmeralda struck speechless and Tina trembling like a leaf, there stood the final member of the Hero Party.
The joint successor of the Seven Great Magic Towers of the continent. A prodigy of magic the likes of which the world had never seen.
"Oh, Jim. It's been a while. Welcome."
Milia Asrin.
She greeted me.
A face with a faintly gloomy cast to it, a brown bob cut, crimson eyes, and a billowy black robe.
And most importantly of all — a chest so prominent it was unmistakable even through that billowy robe.
Truly, the strongest mage of the Hero Party.
If Irina Saintis was 'decidedly above average,' then Milia wasn't even comparable — she was simply enormous.
They say mages need to be smart, but wasn't she essentially carrying two spare brains on her chest?
I was sneaking the longest possible look at Milia's chest under the cover of plausible deniability when she wiped a fleck of blood splattered on her cheek with her sleeve and flashed me a bashful smile.
Don't smile. You'll make me fall for you.
I somehow shook off Milia's bewitchment spell and asked:
"Ahem! So…… Milia? What exactly are you doing right now?"
"Hm? Experimenting. Look at this — it's a new spell. I imbued each attribute into a liquid with adhesive properties, so it can apply sustained shocks."
So you've created a horrifying spell like that.
And you're testing its effects on us demons.
While keeping them alive, no less.
Milia's figure — recording something as she watched the demons scream and thrash — bore an uncanny resemblance to that of a lunatic.
If Milia ever reported this spell to the Magic Tower, a new entry would be added to the forbidden arts list before the day was out.
It was, unmistakably, a spell specialized in torture. And once it was classified as forbidden magic, every nation's covert units would find it ever so useful.
I was already starting to pity the demon soldiers who would someday be captured alive.
"Oh, Jim. This is for you. I read it first, and it was fun."
"Sorry? Oh, ah — yes, thank you."
I'd been watching the writhing demons with a heavy heart when Milia handed me a book.
She did this from time to time — gifting me books. Probably because I was the only other person in the party who enjoyed reading.
Granted, one could argue Irina also loved reading, in a certain sense — but the only book she ever touched was scripture.
So enjoying genre fiction like this was a shared interest between me and Milia alone.
Since Milia devoured every miscellaneous book she could get her hands on, the odd strange one did get mixed in — but her recommendations were generally well worth the read.
So, what would it be this time?
The Female Knight and the Tentacle Dungeon
Ooh. An erotic novel.
Frankly, the things that made being wedged into the Hero Party uncomfortable weren't this and that — so in a way, this worked out well.
Though it does make you wonder about a woman who gifts you things like this.
Well. A win is a win, I suppose.
"Read it and tell me your impressions."
"……I'm sorry, what?"
She wanted me to read this and report my thoughts on it?
Milia's expression retained its usual gloomy cast, making it impossible to tell whether she was joking or serious.
More than that, the fact that she could hand over a book like this in the middle of committing horrifying atrocities was, if anything, the truly astonishing part.
"Ahem! Er, hem…… I'll, ah, give my impressions some thought……. In any case, I'll treasure the book. Thank you for the gift, Milia."
"Mm."
But one must not treat a gift carelessly. I decided I would keep Milia's present safely stored and read it now and then.
It would do nicely for those lonely nights, after all.
How very poetic of me.