Volume 2 - CH 7.1

Act 2-7.1 : Reunion With A Certain Goddess

Once the Hero and his party had arrived in the kingdom and settled themselves in their mansion, Kuroki, along with Rember and the others, had gathered in front of the mansion to perform their escort duty.

As he gazed at the mansion, Kuroki couldn’t help but recall Shirone and the other women’s figures.

（Those were all… quite risque outfits…）

Their figures, tightly wrapped in those revealing clothes, were saved in an important folder in his memory for him to enjoy later.

All the men along the main street couldn’t keep their eyes away from Shirone and the other women’s bodies, and Kuroki was no exception. When he saw those familiar yet unfamiliar figures that he hadn’t seen in a while, he had gotten extremely excited, so much so that he had felt himself unconsciously draw closer to them—he was a moth attracted to a scorching flame.

If it weren’t for the fact that he was wearing a cloak, Kuroki would have definitely looked like a pervert, given the look on his face.

In the first place, there was very little stimulation in Nargol. He was surrounded by non-human beings, who pretty much looked like beasts, it was obvious that he wouldn’t be attracted to them. As for the dark elves and female demon race, whose figures greatly resembled that of humans, they were all Mona’s subordinates, thus he couldn’t get close to them since Mona didn’t seem to like him.

He then recalled Regena, the human princess he saved a few days ago.

He realized that he could have actually done those R-18 things with her since her status was that of his slave. However, when he registered how his thoughts had gone astray, Kuroki shook his head in dismissal of such an idea—he couldn’t destroy her future just because of a fleeting moment of carnal desire.

He wanted to properly look after her and her people till the end. When he had saved them, he had decided that he would send them back to human society later on in the future. Since he was planning to let her live amongst humans in the future, he wanted her to have a good life, keeping her in perfect shape would allow her to find a husband and build a family; it would allow her to be happy again. If she was tarnished in any way, life would become much more difficult for her.

（Nevertheless, it’s really hard for me to walk properly now.）

Kuroki was now seriously considering the option of visiting THAT kind of store that provided THAT kind of service, even though he had said that it wasn’t a good thing to buy women with money and had treated Galios’s remark as a passing joke yesterday.

（All of them were wearing such suggestive clothes. These attires are too deadly. Shirone’s butt was practically exposed.）

Though they used to enter the bathtub together in their childhood, he had never even seen her in a swimsuit after she grew up.

Kuroki was extremely impressed by the growth of his childhood friend.

Shirone’s chest had become bigger and her waist had constricted; the extent of her growth almost made him go wild. Kuroki pondered — (Does that mean that Shirone always shows that kind of splendid figure to Reiji while I, her childhood friend, remain unaware of it?)

He then recalled Reiji’s face as he was walking along the main street a while ago; there was smugness written all over it. He was clearly showing off while his pleased face implicitly said — “See, you guys can’t even walk along the street with such fine girls in tow, right?”

Kuroki was certain that just like himself, the other men who saw Reiji wanted to tear that smug look off of his face.

（I’m really envious of that Reiji. Shirone would never even show me her figure in a swimsuit, even if I asked her. On the contrary, she most probably would punch me if I make such a request.）

The more he thought about it, the more dejected he became. But, at least, thanks to that, his little buddy finally settled down.

「What’s the matter Kuro? 」

「Oh, nothing. No need to worry Gallios.」

Though Gallios, who stood beside him, was worried about his condition, Kuroki couldn’t really give him an honest answer; it would be too embarrassing if he did so.

「I see. Well, that Rember is quite late, huh. What happened to him…」

Currently, Rember was inside the mansion with the kingdom’s assigned escorts to have a meeting with the Hero. Kuroki and the others were waiting for him outside.

「Hmm, maybe they’re discussing the matter about those zombies from last night, or maybe the matter about the survivors of those Striges.」

「Striges? Are they the demons you talked about last night, Gallios-dono? 」

「Yeah Kuro. The zombies from the last night might have been controlled by surviving Striges.」

Kuroki recalled what Gallios had said about the Striges last night.

There was a demon race called Striges, their appearance was a crossbreed between a woman and a bird. They were a race similar to the Siren race, who appeared frequently in the southern sea, and the Harpy race, who lived in the central mountains.

Different from the Harpies’ eagle-like wings and the Sirens’ seagull-like wings, Striges had a pair of wings that resembled an owl’s. They were dangerous nocturnal demons with a hybrid of a human woman and an owl as their appearance.

However, what made them truly dangerous wasn’t their terrifying appearance, rather it was the fact that they drank human blood and that their race specialized in necromancy.

Many Striges families had taken residence in the tower near Rox Kingdom since who knows when. So, many people in the region had fallen victim to those Striges, including citizens of Rox Kingdom. As for the rampart, it was a meaningless defensive measure against airborne opponents like them.

Moreover, since they were nocturnal creatures, the only time people could defeat them was in the morning. However, Striges were intelligent beings as they would hole themselves up in their tower during the day, summon the undead, and place various clever traps to prevent the subjugation from going smoothly.

Though it was unclear whether this matter was a fortune or not, those Striges never went as far as ruining the kingdoms around them since they didn’t wish for humans, their food, to perish. Nevertheless, it didn’t mean that there were no victims.

However, on a certain day, those Striges had tried to kidnap Almina, Rox Kingdom’s princess, to offer her as sacrifice to the God they revered.

Naturally, both Rember and Gallios resisted them, but they were powerless before those Striges.

It was at such a time that a savior appeared in front of Almina: the Hero, Reiji, and his comrades.

None of the undead in the tower were a match against Reiji, all of them were annihilated at once with the pseudo-sun he created with his magic.

And the Striges who lived in that tower were completely annihilated.

Thus, there were no more Striges in this area, or so everyone thought until hordes of zombies appeared in Rox Kingdom right before the start of the festival.

Gallios told Kuroki that the culprit might be a survivor of the Striges race. That Strige definitely hated Rox Kingdom, who had invited the Hero who annihilated them.

But, no one in Rox Kingdom could defeat the Striges, that’s why they wanted the Hero to save them again. Rember was probably going to make such a request during his meeting with the Hero.

「I see now, so that might be the reason why he is late. Oh, Gallios-dono. It seems he has returned.」

Rember came back from the meeting with the Hero’s assigned escorts.

He returned with a somewhat depressed look on his face.

Kuroki guessed that something might have happened during the meeting.

「Sorry everyone, even though I implored you guys to gather today, the escort duty ended up as an unnecessary matter.」

Rember explained the situation.

It seems that the Temple Knights, who came along with the Hero, rejected the escorts Rox Kingdom had assigned. They just told them to look around for someone who was hostile towards the Hero.

The Temple Knights were clearly belittling Rember and the others.

Some of the Freedom Fighters were cursing at those Temple Knights due to their rude behavior.

Kuroki felt that Rember’s attempt to gather reliable people during the little time he had before the Hero and his party’s visit ended up as a fool’s errand.

「Sorry. Even though you gathered on such short notice…」

「Can’t be helped then, leave the escorting to those Temple Knights while we work behind the scenes to support them.」

Said Gallios to ease everyone’s anger after Rember told them such news.

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TN : Nothing really happen this week!