“Ah, you’re finally here!! Soma, you’re so late!”
As soon as I entered the mansion’s entrance, my cousin’s loud voice hit my ears.
Beside her were Sahzan and Kuma, as well as Mitsuki.
I thought I had returned a little early, but it seemed we were the last ones to arrive.
Checking the time, it was 11:56.
After that, I had to collect Butcher’s final drop item, clean up chairs and other things, and then seal the rock pop-up point again. It took longer than I expected to wrap things up.
While I was thinking about this leisurely,
“K-kukuku…!!”
Sahzan suddenly let out an evil laugh.
“Heh. The days of subservience and endurance, from that Great Collapse until this very moment.
Ah, this day, how long I have waited for it!”
Just as I thought he was spouting nonsense,
“—Soooomaaaahhh!!”
He charged at me as if he had encountered his sworn enemy.
But, well, it’s Sahzan, so no problem.
I calmly responded with a front kick,
“What!?”
However, Sahzan’s movements were surprisingly sharp.
He narrowly dodged my kick, grabbed my leg like a coiling snake, and
“P-please! That thing is your stuffed animal, isn’t it!
Hurry and pull that demon away from me!!”
He clung to my leg and pleaded.
“Um… the demon, is that…?”
I pointed at Kuma, who tilted his head playfully and innocently. Sahzan shook his head.
“Yes! Who else could it be!”
“No, but…”
Sahzan was excessively afraid of Kuma, but I thought Kuma was just a kind stuffed animal who enjoyed scaring people a little with his creepy smile…
Well, it’s not just a stuffed animal if it moves on its own, but still.
I wracked my brain, but Sahzan’s opinion was completely different from mine.
“You say that because you only see its outward appearance!
Y-you still don’t know its true form.”
“What’s that supposed to mean? Did an alien come out from inside?”
I said that out of annoyance, but Sahzan shook his masked face roughly, saying no.
He glanced at Kuma behind him and continued in a hushed voice,
“…A few days ago, when I was staying at Alex’s house without permission to save on lodging costs, since it was always unlocked.”
“Hey, don’t just casually confess to a crime.”
And besides, Alex is incredibly careless.
Does he think no one but the Hero would search his house?
Well, he gives off this image of someone who wouldn’t lock his house anyway.
“That day, I was tired from the fierce economic warfare against the merchants of death who dealt in cursed items imbued with dark magic, and fell asleep quickly.
…The problem is the next morning.
When I woke up the next day, a Kuma…sama holding a knife was standing by my pillow!”
“That’s scary!”
That felt like a prank that was beyond a joke.
Sahzan shook his head further and continued.
“That’s not all!
If it had ended with just that, I wouldn’t be making such a fuss!
Startled by the sight of Kuma-sama holding a kitchen knife, I tried to pretend to be dead, but then I noticed.”
“W-what did you notice?”
Could there be anything scarier than a stuffed animal holding a knife by your pillow?
Swallowing, I said,
“—That breakfast was already prepared on the table!!”
“That’s a heartwarming story!!”
It was more like a devoted new wife.
“Y-you idiot! A stuffed animal made food!?
And better than me!!
I checked, having two helpings, so I’m sure!”
“You ate it all yourself!!”
He was truly exasperating.
“W-wait! The strange phenomena didn’t end there!
The clothes I had carelessly shed yesterday were also neatly folded!!”
“No, that’s a good thing too!”
As I said that in exasperation, Sahzan writhed as if I didn’t understand.
“Don’t say such things! M-my underwear was there too!
It’s embarrassing, isn’t it!”
“First of all, isn’t the problem that you carelessly shed your underwear?”
“M-my underwear isn’t embarrassing!!”
Sahzan shouted, his face red up to his neck, but I couldn’t go along with it anymore.
“…Kuma.”
“Eek!”
As I called out to him, Kuma gave a sinister grin and took the terrified Sahzan away.
I had wasted precious time dealing with his nonsense.
Looking at everyone else, while I was dealing with Sahzan, Ringo had gone to Maki.
“…Maki.”
“Ah, Ringo-chan, long time no see.”
“…Yeah, long time no see.”
However, even with Maki’s greeting, Ringo’s stern expression didn’t change. She nervously kept her distance from Maki, like a child on parent’s day, and said,
“…Watch this.”
What Ringo did was,
“—Hyu, hyuuun, Swaaaay!”
Step, High Step, Air Hammer, a fluid combo of movements!
And then,
“…Like this.”
With a barely perceptible proud smirk, even though her face was mostly expressionless!
Maki looked at me with eyes that seemed to say, “W-what should I do about this?”, but I pretended not to have seen anything.
“—Truly, they are always lively, aren’t they?”
However, there was one person who didn’t break her usual poker face.
“To be able to be so boisterous after parting for just a few days.
Do they perhaps miss their comrades and you that much?”
…It was Mitsuki.
She approached me with a cold expression, as if she had no interest in this foolish commotion.
“Uh, ah. …Well, maybe a little, we might be a little too excited.”
I answered vaguely, my gaze slightly upwards.
Honestly, I didn’t know how to react to what Mitsuki was saying right now.
Sensing my confusion, Mitsuki softened her stern expression slightly.
She said with a wry smile,
“Don’t worry, I’m not criticizing you.
Believe it or not, I’m also quite happy about this reunion.”
Mitsuki said this with her usual expressionless face, but with a hint of self-deprecation.
“No, it’s okay! I absolutely don’t doubt that.”
I replied with absolute denial.
“…Really?”
“Yeah, totally! Not at all! Not even a little bit!!”
I insisted more strongly to Mitsuki, who seemed to doubt me.
Because, of course.
Seeing the cat ears on top of Mitsuki’s head bobbing up and down with immense joy, how could I not come to that conclusion?
“Fufu. I’m glad you say that.
…You know, if I were more expressive with my emotions, I might have been more excited, though perhaps not to that extent.”
Mitsuki chuckled softly and said that.
Following her, the cat ears on her head changed from “Great Joy!” to “Ecstatic Dance!!”.
Seeing the cat ears dancing wildly, as if a dog’s tail wouldn’t wag that much,
“No, those on your head…”
“On my head?”
“…No.”
I managed to swallow the words that were about to come out of my throat.
Perhaps they were some kind of involuntary muscle.
Since she didn’t notice, I thought I should just leave it alone.
“More importantly, we can’t afford to be so leisurely.
Everyone, let’s finish our small talk and gather in the living room!
We’re going to start the final discussion.”
The strategy meeting that began then had more bad news than expected.
What was particularly unexpected was the state of the town.
According to Maki and Sahzan’s reports, the situation in each town seemed worse than I had anticipated.
Ten days was the bare minimum, and Sahzan was using Slime to reduce the monster invasion level, so I thought it wouldn’t be worse than usual. But I was mistaken.
Unlike game NPCs, real humans feel stress and anxiety in confined situations.
This seemed to be accelerating the deterioration of public order.
According to Maki, the Knights’ Order had suppressed it, but a riot had almost broken out in the Capital City yesterday.
Indeed, there was no more time to spare.
However, there was also information that made us hesitate to act immediately.
The Demon Lord’s weakening was slightly delayed from the schedule.
Among them, the fact that we couldn’t seal the Demon Lord’s “Serious Mode” characteristic, which activates when their HP drops to a critical level, was a painful blow.
Unless we completed a special quest to seal it, the Demon Lord’s attack power and defense would increase dramatically once their HP dropped below 10%, and their attack patterns would also change.
I remembered this clearly, having been killed by it once in the game.
At one point, when I thought our pre-planned countermeasures were going well and we were close to defeating the Demon Lord, I felt a killing intent-like shock, a wave, emanating from the Demon Lord.
Whether that was a system-level effect or my premonition, I didn’t know.
But from that moment on, the Demon Lord’s fighting style was on a different level than before.
My full-power attacks were easily repelled, and attacks that were vastly heavier than before came back instantly.
And that wasn’t all.
It also began to perform long-range attacks on the rear guards, which it shouldn’t have done if we were within 3 meters of it.
I myself somehow endured the Demon Lord’s onslaught, but the other members I brought with me could not.
The members at that time were largely there just to make up numbers, so that I could challenge the Demon Lord alone and prevent it from powering up.
There was no way my companions could withstand the Demon Lord’s attacks, and the front lines collapsed easily.
We were forced to taste defeat, which was likely not the first time for me.
(I absolutely cannot let the Demon Lord be on the verge of death!)
That would be an absolute requirement to prevent any sacrifices among my companions.
Fortunately, I now have a “special move” that my past self in the game didn’t have.
It should be possible to defeat the Demon Lord in one go without letting its HP drop below 10%.
However,
(If that’s the case, then there’s no choice but to use “Incarnation of Rage,” isn’t there?)
Thinking that, I glanced at Ringo.
“…?”
Seeing Ringo tilt her head in confusion after being suddenly looked at, I felt a pang of guilt.
It might worry her a little more, but it couldn’t be helped.
Besides…
(If there’s a reason like that, I can definitely be the one to deliver the final blow to the Demon Lord with my own hands!!)
There’s also the desire to settle everything with my own hands.
I know it’s a foolish desire with no benefit, but since it was me who caused Ena to be in that state, I wanted to be the one to fix it.
“…Shall we postpone?”
Mitsuki asked, perhaps mistaking my inner conflict for hesitation.
The cat ears on her head also swayed anxiously, as if asking, “Are we stopping?”
Indeed, I wanted to postpone it a little longer and make more thorough preparations.
Still, I declared, shaking off my lingering doubts.
“…No, today. Let’s do it now.”
I decided clearly.
I wouldn’t say I have no hesitation.
It’s not impossible that a time will come when we regret this decision, if our unpreparedness leads to defeat by the Demon Lord.
However, I didn’t think we couldn’t defeat the Demon Lord with our current strength.
We have made all these preparations, taken as many actions as possible within the limited time, and now we are gathered here.
I believe the winning odds are certainly not low.
And since I’ve decided, there are many things to explain and things to do.
First, the route and strategy will change depending on the extent to which the Demon Lord and the Demon Lord’s Castle can be weakened, so I haven’t yet informed everyone of the plan to defeat the Demon Lord.
While we haven’t devised an overly complex strategy, we can’t just proceed without prior explanation, and I want to practice coordinated actions in the Demon Lord battle.
Also, we decided not to open the castle gates until the very last moment, to prevent any situation where “monsters from the Demon Lord’s Castle spill out from the opened doors!”.
Since we were ultimately unable to open the last door by normal means, we will now have to enter “Kajidazo” to seal the castle gate and open all the doors to the Demon Lord’s Castle.
“I will now explain the strategy for defeating the Demon Lord!
After that, we’ll all go to break the seal on the Demon Lord’s Castle gate, and then…”
“Please wait.”
But midway through my explanation, Mitsuki’s voice interrupted me.
“Time is precious. I will go to open the castle gate now.
We’ll rendezvous at the location.”
“No, but…”
When I tried to object, Mitsuki shook her head with a hint of sadness.
“Unfortunately, I don’t know if I can fight sufficiently at the Demon Lord’s Castle even if I hear the strategy.
So, at the very least, I want to give my all in what I can do.”
In the game, Mitsuki would leave the party once we reached the vicinity of the Demon Lord’s Castle.
Her reason was something trivial, like not wanting to defeat the Demon Lord for her father’s sake. However, regardless of that, she seemed to have a growing discomfort with being around the Demon Lord’s Castle as we got closer.
It was questionable whether she could overcome that limitation when we actually entered the Demon Lord’s Castle.
“That…”
When I was left speechless, Mitsuki approached me and gave a faint, ephemeral smile.
“…Don’t make that face.
Even so, I will definitely fight alongside you.
And if danger approaches you, I will absolutely…”
“Mitsuki?”
Bewildered by Mitsuki’s sudden change in demeanor, she quickly regained her usual cool expression.
“…It’s nothing.
More importantly, don’t forget about our ‘promise’.”
She said that, then turned and strode out of the room.
“Hey, hey, Soma! What’s this promise!?”
I casually brushed off Maki, who was fixated on an odd detail, and slammed my hand on the table.
I couldn’t afford to waste the time Mitsuki was trying to buy us.
“—Now, I will explain the strategy for the Demon Lord subjugation battle!”
