Chapter 37
Chapter 37
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>Translator: Vine
>Chapter: 37
>Chapter Title: The Seed of a Great Organization
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Fearing I might lose a useful weapon if this continued, I held out my hand to Iris.
"Be a good girl, Iris. Quick, give that to me."
Iris hid the sword behind her back and shook her head furiously. I put on the expression of someone soothing a stubborn child.
"That was just a joke earlier. I was just surprised because you suddenly started crying. I'm sorry."
Iris's face crumpled. I was once again struck by the fact that not just anyone could be a protagonist if they could look this cute even with such an expression.
"I won't hold a blade to your throat anymore. Come on, give it here. The de… no, the sword is struggling, isn't it?"
At my words, Iris hesitantly brought the sword forward. The demon sword, which had grown about 5 cm to a length of 21 cm after absorbing so much of my blood, had now shrunk until its blade was only 10 cm long.
Including the hilt, it looked to be about 25 cm in total.
[ He-help me... pleeease... if this goes on, I'm going to disappear... ]
The demon sword wheezed and moaned like a critical patient on a respirator. Fearing it really would disappear if I left it, I strode toward Iris.
"My dear Iris, you're a good girl, aren't you?"
My tone was like that of someone soothing a wary puppy, but it seemed to work better than I expected. Iris, who had been glaring at the demon sword, reluctantly placed it in my hand. I immediately stroked her head and showered her with praise.
"Good job! You listen so well. Iris, you're such a good girl!"
"..."
Iris's face flushed faintly as she ducked her head. The way she tugged at the hem of my clothes was adorable.
'I want a cute daughter like this, too. Ah, since I'm kind of raising Iris now, doesn't that make me half her father?'
As I watched Iris with a melting expression, the demon sword spoke in a dying voice.
[ Kkhhh... I really thought I was going to disappear this time. For this great body, feared even by the Dragon Lord, to be extinguished by the hands of a mere girl... it's unthinkable. The shame is immense... ]
The demon sword muttered on and on like a shut-in holed up in the corner of their room. Seeing it looked more or less fine, I casually tossed it onto the bed. At that, Iris, seemingly genuinely relieved, let go of my clothes and took my hand.
[ Uwaah...! H-how dare you treat the great demon sword like this! No, more importantly! Hey, human! What is that human girl! ]
As the demon sword's blade hummed and it shouted, Iris's gaze turned toward it. The sword, which had been causing all sorts of fuss on its own, instantly fell silent.
"Let's just ignore that and go get a snack. They said there's cream bread for today's snack. Let's hurry and get some."
I left the room, holding Iris's hand tightly. Behind us, the demon sword.
[ W-what about me? If you give me some blood—... ]
*Click.*
Rian ignored the demon sword's words and closed the door.
***
In contrast to Rian and Iris's relatively peaceful days, Noah's situation was spiraling toward the worst.
*Thud.*
Noah stared at the leather bag that had fallen at her feet. Lifting her gaze, she saw the Black Mage, Mia, looking down at her with a cold expression.
"I'm only giving you this because of what he's done for me until now, so take it. And while you're at it, don't come back to the mansion or even linger around it. It's unpleasant."
A week. That was how long it took after Rian's disappearance for Mia to give up on him and abandon the slaves.
Mia was one of those Black Mages who fundamentally treated slaves like insects. She might make an exception for a slave like Rian, whose absence was an inconvenience and whose entire body was a mass of mysteries, but she was merciless toward ordinary slaves.
She had taken in Noah and the other slaves entirely because of Rian. With Rian gone, there was no reason for Mia to keep them.
She could have made a hefty sum by selling the now-useless slaves to the slave market. But Mia chose to set them free.
Part of the reason was that she had to leave quickly due to a summons from the Demon King, but she also couldn't bring herself to sell the slaves to the cruel slave market when she remembered how diligently Rian had served her.
Instead, she decided to pack them the bare minimum tools for survival and release them into the forest.
'Tsk, if he hadn't ended up with Lord Jiso, I would have tried to get him back somehow.'
After hearing from an informant that Rian had been kidnapped by Doban and handed over to Jiso, Mia had cleanly given up on him.
She had considered asking Rania for help, but Rania was currently quite busy with the Demon King's orders. It wasn't a situation where she could be called here and there over a single slave.
'More importantly, it would be foolish to create hostility between the Four Heavenly Kings over one slave.'
If Rania and Jiso were to clash in any way, a not-insignificant amount of blood would be shed. With the Demon King's army actively moving to conquer the continent, if an internal conflict broke out, the Demon King himself might intervene.
Rian's body was indeed fascinating, but it wasn't valuable enough to create a major conflict.
'Haa, whatever. It's for the best, since I had to leave the house empty for a long time anyway.'
Mia shook off her lingering regret, turned on her heel, and left the trembling slaves in the forest of death.
"B-Brother... what do we do now?"
Nero's voice trembled, on the verge of tears, as he grabbed Noah's hand. Noah, who had been staring blankly after Mia, finally spoke in a weak voice.
"...What, indeed."
Surviving in the Demon King's land with children not even ten years old was next to impossible. It was no different from being told to just die.
The shock of losing Rian, her purpose in life, combined with the sudden change in environment, had left Noah's mind adrift.
It wasn't the light-headedness of happiness. It was the floating sensation of being unable to accept the continuous, horrific situation.
"*Sob... hic...*"
"Rian, Big Brother Rian..."
The pitch-black, parched earth, the grotesquely shaped trees, and the strange, echoing cries of *kwehk, kwe-eehk* from the forest were more than enough to terrify the children.
With Rian, who had been their comforting guardian like a great, old tree, gone, the children burst into tears like the young kids they were.
The sound of the children's crying snapped Noah back to her senses.
*Smack!*
She slapped her own cheek hard enough to leave a red mark, dragging her dazed mind back to reality.
[ Snapped out of it, have you? ]
Juliana flew over to Noah, her voice sullen. No matter how much she had chattered and tried to get Noah to pull herself together, Noah had remained lost. So, Juliana had simply kept quiet, floating silently by her side.
Noah belatedly realized the effort Juliana had made for her and bowed her head.
"I'm sorry."
[ Well, it's fine as long as you've come to your senses now. More importantly, what's the plan? ]
"..."
It was good that she'd regained her composure, but that didn't improve their situation. They were abandoned in a brutal forest where monsters could appear at any moment. Just snapping out of a daze wasn't going to magically give her a way to survive here.
"...."
[ *Sigh*, I knew this would happen. ]
Juliana let out a small sigh and then spoke in a firm voice.
[ What we need to do right now is find a place where we can eat and sleep—in short, a place where we can secure the basics of survival. If we stay here, the kids will all die. And then—... ]
Although this wasn't quite the Demon King's land, Juliana was an experienced mercenary with plenty of experience camping in dangerous areas. Thanks to that, she was able to rattle off practical advice for survival.
[ After that—... we have to go find Rian. ]
"...!"
Noah's eyes widened at the words 'we have to go find Rian,' which came out abruptly at the end of her long speech. A glimmer of light began to seep back into her dull, sunken eyes.
"Right... Rian will need a place to come back to."
Noah suppressed the urge to run off and find Rian right away, reminding herself of her goal.
First, survive. Once they survived and created a safe place for them to stay, then they would go find Rian.
'Rian would have made the same choice.'
Rian, who always took care of the children before himself, would surely have chosen the same path as Noah.
What Rian had tried to protect, she would now protect. And beyond that, she would find the vanished Rian, no matter what.
And so, the seed of a terrifyingly great organization, one that even the Four Heavenly Kings and the Demon King's army would come to be wary of, was planted.
Just as Noah came to her senses and began to comfort the crying children.
"Mawster...!"
*Scamper!*
Taking advantage of the confusion, Jess twitched her nose and darted off toward the forest.