CH 27

Act 2 – 27 : Leaving Rox Kingdom 2

White Scale restaurant was more deserted than usual, when they sat there it felt as if they had booked the entire restaurant for themselves.

The Freedom Fighters, who often hung out in this place, were currently in the Royal Palace as they had been invited to the banquet. The banquet held by the royals was a very large scale one, so large that even the female employees, who usually helped out in the store, were invited to the Royal Palace to work there and receive some extra wage. This had left the restaurant owner to tend the restaurant by himself.

In such a deserted place, one could easily find the figures of Kuroki and Renber. In front of them was served a small variety of snacks and liquor, different from the usual as only the simplest of snacks were available, no cooked or intricate ones in sight. It made sense to them though since all the food from various places was sent to the Royal Palace for the grand banquet.

The ostentatious banquet that was arranged to praise the Hero who saved the kingdom was only getting started.

The restaurant owner apologized profusely to Kuroki and Renber for the lack of the variety in his menu today. Kuroki was fine with that since, from the very beginning, he wasn’t looking for a luxurious meal, just simple snacks and liquor was enough for them.

「I… can’t do anything.」

Rember, who sat right in front of Kuroki, spoke with a pained voice. He couldn’t protect the woman he loved and had ended up losing her to Reiji. The worst thing was that he couldn’t bring himself to hate Reiji since he knew for a fact that if it weren’t for him, he and Almina would’ve been killed by Orua; he had saved their lives.

（Wow, I’m speechless. How am I supposed to comfort him? I guess all I can do now is just listen to him.）

Kuroki looked up to the ceiling, at a loss for words. The current Renber couldn’t do anything but curse his own weakness, but there was nothing Kuroki could do about it. He understood Rember’s feeling though—deeply so—he had gone through the same thing back home.

「So, what are you going to do after this, Renber-dono?」

「I’ll quit my position as a knight.」

「… I see.」

Kuroki would choose the same option if he was in Renber’s position right now. Reiji had stolen princess Almina’s heart. The only way left for him to mend his broken heart was to leave his position and this kingdom since he knew that someone better than him had already occupied his fiancee’s heart.

「Traveling with Kuro-dono after I quit sounds like a good option to me…」

Renber spoke as he looked at Kuroki. Despite only knowing him for a while, Renber knew that Kuroki was a great man, that’s why he wanted to join him.

Kuroki felt the same towards Renber, the knight before him was a great man. Though he couldn’t take him on his journey, he knew that Renber would be fine even if he quit his stable job as a knight and became a Freedom Fighter. Though he was still inexperienced, it would only be a matter of time until he got the hang of it.

Kuroki was not worried about him in the least, rather he was more worried about Rox Kingdom and what would happen to it after they lose someone as talented as Renber.

A man like Renber was needed to maintain peace.

Though he was less conspicuous, the everyday life of the whole of Rox Kingdom was protected by none other than Renber and his diligent work. Though it sounded like a boring and uninteresting life, one would only realize its true value once they lost it.

Such a thing wasn’t something that Reiji was capable of. Though Reiji shone brightly during emergencies, his brilliance was only limited to big catastrophes, without it, and during times of peace, his brilliance would only rot from the inside out—there would be no use for it whatsoever.

In a way, Reiji was befitting to be hailed as a “Hero”, heroes wouldn’t shine unless there was an enemy, in this case a demon king, involved.

「Journey, huh… Well, I’m going to leave this kingdom tomorrow morning, but we might meet each other again someday as long as we both keep on traveling.」

「Once that happens, let’s have a drink together again, Kuro-dono.」

Renber started laughing, his gloom slowly vanishing. Kuroki felt relieved upon seeing him smile since it showed that he had regained his spirit a little bit. Seeing his comrade still guffawing and merrily drinking, Kuroki realized that Renber would strive to become an even better man now, rather than waste his time in lament.

That was what Kuroki wished for him too.

「Definitely, let’s have a drink once we meet again.」

Kuroki happily toasted Renber. He had no idea where he would meet him in the future, but he wished that fortune would allow them to meet again later.

◆Rox Kingdom’s Freedom Fighter, Gallios

「Good grief, what the hell is that… even though we did our best too.」

Steros voiced his complaints as he stared at a particular spot. At the end of his line of sight was the figure of the Hero, surrounded by so many women.

Due to their efforts during the incident, Gallios and the other Freedom Fighters had also been invited by the Royal Palace. As a way to reward the fighter, the Royal Palace had also invited young women from the kingdom to the banquet so they could give their gratitude to those who fought during the incident.

Young Freedom Fighters, such as Steros, had come to enjoy such an event, but since they had gotten here those young women had only been interested in the Hero, not even sparing them a glance. So the men ended up huddling up in a corner near the food and liquor, trying to entertain themselves… and trying really hard not to be jealous.

「Well, Reiji-sama is a special case after all.」

「But still… Gallios-san…」

Steros voiced his complaints to Gallios once more. He still felt the situation to be unfair, it felt like they were being discriminated against for not having Godly powers.

""

It was at that moment that a girl approached their group.

「Shirone-sama!!」

Steros’ gloomy face turned bright the moment he saw Shirone’s figure, it was none other than the Hero’s comrade who came to them, it felt like an honor.

「Thank you for today, everyone.」

The young Freedom Fighters’ dissatisfaction vanished upon seeing Shirone’s smile.

They raised a cheer upon seeing the coming of a flower in the midst of a hellish sausage party. [EN: I know I should make this sound more “posh” as an editor, but I love translator-san’s phrasing (ᗒ ᗨᗕ) ]

「Shouldn’t you stay by Hero-sama’s side, Shirone-sama?」

Gallios approached Shirone while asking in bewilderment. The Hero was currently surrounded by many beautiful young women. Gallios looked worrily at Shirone as his eyes clearly tried to transmit – (Aren’t you worried that he might cheat on you?)

「It’s okay since there are other beautiful girls by Reiji-kun’s side.」

Shirone spoke as if she didn’t care at all.

「… I see.」

Gallios felt that something was off about what she said.

If the women around the Hero decided to scatter themselves, their next target would definitely be Steros and the other young Freedom Fighters since, notwithstanding Reiji, they were very desirable men. The woman before them, on the other hand, was a special case.

She was different from normal girls, she was a flower on a cliff, unattainable no matter how much Steros and co tried to reach her. They absolutely couldn’t get Shirone, that’s why Gallios would be happy if they ended up with one of those other girls.

（This girl doesn’t seem to care even if there are many women clammerig at the Hero. Maybe that just shows her caliber as the one hailed as the Hero’s wife. If it was me, if I ever acted as a hero, I’m afraid that Peneroa would chase me down with a kitchen knife in hand.）

Imagining how his wife would act if he was in a similar situation, Gallios couldn’t help but tremble in fear.

「Uhm, Shirone-sama… may I have a bit of your time?」

Someone suddenly interrupted Gallios and Shirone’s conversation.

「You’re… Nimri-san right, sure what is it?」

Nimri nodded to Shirone.

「It’s regarding what the Black Haired Sage said before… It’s been on my mind」

「Chiyuki-san’s words? Uhm, could you elaborate?」

「About the man who saved the Black Haired Sage, I… I feel that it might be Kuro-dono who saved her.」

Gallios finally noticed that Nimri was talking about Kuro.

Before the start of this banquet, the Black Haired Sage had mentioned someone. She had said that he contributed the most in this battle, even more than the Hero himself.

Gallios couldn’t help but recall the matter with Kuro upon hearing Nimri’s speculation.

（At that time, Kuro parted ways with us, saying that he would stop the source of the dark mist. Since the dark mist did stop, Kuro definitely succeded.）

Gallios felt deep gratitude towards Kuro despite him not participating in the fight.

「Kuro?」

Shirone tilted her head. It seems she had already forgotten Kuro’s existence despite his participation in the tower’s inspection.

Gallios and Nimri then told her more about Kuro.

「U~hn. I can’t say for sure since I’ve never met the person who actually saved us after this incident. I’ll try to ask Chiyuki-san later.」

「Please do so, Shirone-sama. We honestly believe that we were saved by Kuro-dono. And it feels wrong for the person with the biggest contribution to not praised.」

「I also sincerely wish for the same, Shirone-sama. Though Kuro seems like the kind of person who hates standing out amongst the crowd, personally, I think that he deserves such praise.」

Both Nimri and Gallios bowed their heads as they made such a request to Shirone.

◆

Chiyuki was in a really bad mood right now.

She couldn’t take a break since the nobles of this kingdom kept coming to her one after the other. It was a duty that always got relegated to Chiyuki.

Properly speaking, it should be Reiji’s duty, but since the person himself was always surrounded by many women, no men could get close to him. Chiyuki felt more and more irritated as she saw Reiji’s situation. She wanted nothing more than to get away from the long and winding talks with the old men.

「Uhm, Chiyuki-san, can I have a bit of your time…」

Shirone, who should’ve been with the Freedom Fighters, was calling out to her.

（THANK YOU, SHIRONE-SAN!!）

Chiyuki praised Shirone in her heart.

「My apologies. I shall excuse myself for a moment…」

Chiyuki used Shirone as an excuse to get away from the old men.

「Thanks Shirone-san. So, what’s the matter?」

「There’s something I’m worrying about…」

Shirone then retold everything to Chiyuki, that, according to Gallios, the one who saved Chiyuki in the underground passage might be one of the Freedom Fighters, Kuro.

「This is just a hunch, but you see… he couldn’t even withstand the Strigoi’s magic.」

「Sure enough, the masked man is definitely far more powerful than a Strigoi. Saying that the man called Kuro defeated the masked man when he can’t even resist a strigoi’s magic is definitely a strange story indeed. Fine then, did Gallios tell you where that man Kuro is staying? We’ll go visit him tomorrow morning.」

Chiyuki couldn’t tell whether her savior was really the man called Kuro or not. But, she got the feeling that she would understand once she met him.

（I can’t even imagine what would have happened to this kingdom and us if not for him. The one who deserves the most praise right now isn’t Reiji-kun, but him. If he really is the man called Kuro, then this kingdom must thank him again. The same goes for us. I wonder what he’s doing right now?）

Chiyuki thought her savior who hid his face.

◆

「Dwi~nk with me~ Kuro-donyo~~」

Renber was already dead drunk. Kuroki wondered how things had turned out this way.

「Renber-dono… I think it’s about the time you stop drinking…」

「NAY! I’VE YET TO HAVE MY FILL! DRINK WITH ME TOO, KURO-DONO!」

Though he was already dead drunk, Renber was still insisting on drinking more liquor. Kuroki, on the other hand, hadn’t drunk even a single drop of liquor no matter what Renber said.

It didn’t mean that Kuroki had no drinking experience, his seniors in Akamine’s dojo would always bring him to their drinking parties. He had tried beer and liquor before, but he ended up never getting drunk and only experiencing the hangovers.

Since then, he had decided to never drink liquor again.

The already drunk Renber was trying to get Kuroki drunk with him too.

「He’s definitely smashed. What should I do now…」

Kuroki really wanted to cry right now.

Thus, Renber kept drinking until late at night.

◆

The next morning, Kuroki, dressed in traveling clothes, told the Gallios’ couple that he would go and continue his journey.

「I see, you’re going to leave, huh…」

Gallios spoke with a reluctant look on his face.

Yesterday, both Kuroki and Gallios returned late at night. Thus, Kuroki had only managed to tell Gallios that he was leaving very late. Though the Gallios’ couple had managed to hold him back from leaving last night since they were worried about his safety, he still ended up departing the next morning.

「My apologies, but I’ve to depart now due to an urgent business…」

Kuroki looked at the mountain as he spoke, it was the residence of the Holy Dragon which could be seen from Rox Kingdom.

「Thank you for looking after Renber last night…」

Peneroa thanked Kuroki. Renber was dead drunk last night, and Kuroki ended up bringing him back to Gallios’ house since he didn’t know where Renber lived. The person in question was still sleeping in the guest house right now.

Kuroki wished that Renber would meet an even better woman.

「Come again, Kuro!!」

Kuroki nodded to Gallios..

（Let’s come back again in the future.）

Kuroki departed from Rox Kingdom thinking so.

◆

「He left first thing in the morning?!」

Chiyuki was told when she visited Gallios’ house.

It seems she was a step too late.

She couldn’t blame Gallios either since she never told him that she would visit his house in the morning to meet Kuro. Worst of all, the man called Kuro hadn’t told Gallios about his next destination.

""

「What should we do, Chiyuki-sama?」

Kaya, who had accompanied Chiyuki, asked. The reason she had asked Kaya to accompany her was because she wanted her to confirm Kuro’s identity as the pervert who groped Kyouka’s br*ast back in theHoly Republic of Lenaria, and came out unscathed.

「Can’t be helped, let’s go back. We’ll go meet him once he returns to this kingdom, we have to give up right now.」

It happened the moment Chiyuki finished her sentence.

The bag strapped on her waist began to ring.

Upon opening the bag, she found out that the sound was coming from the bell entrusted by Rena to her.

「No way… the Dark Knight.」

Chiyuki then looked at the mountain, residence of the Holy Dragon. That bell was the signal for the Dark Knight’s arrival.