Volume 2 - CH 7.2

Act 2-7.1 : Reunion With A Certain Goddess

「Well it really can’t be helped, Renber-dono. There are some things that we just can’t do, even with great effort alone.」

Kuroki didn’t mind that rejection at all, and though some of the Freedom Fighters were angry, Gallios managed to pacify them.

According to what Kuroki heard from their conversation, the Temple Knights of the Holy Republic of Lenaria were the strongest in the eastern continent, and since there were twenty of them escorting the Hero and his party, Kuroki felt that there was no need to get in the way of their job. The only choice they had now was to patrol the area and look for anyone who showed hostility towards the Hero and his companions.

Though he felt sorry that Renber was in a slightly miserable position, Kuroki truly felt glad of this outcome since it meant that he didn’t need to get close to his former acquaintances.

However, despite pacifying them, none of the Freedom Fighters were willing to go around the city just for a mere patrolling job. Thus, they were dispersed and only Kuroki and Gallios were left to do the job.

「I’ll go with Renber to patrol the city, what about you, Kuro? 」

Asked Gallios.

「Hmm, well I’ll go by myself then and patrol another area. I’ll just go explore the festival and enjoy it if I don’t find any notable problem.」

Hearing Kuroki’s words, Renber immediately expressed his gratitude to him.

「Don’t mind it, Renber-dono.」

「Oh yeah, Kuro, how about we hook up with some women after we finish our job? There are so many foreign beauties who came for the festival.」

Gallios suddenly mentioned the topic of women before Kuroki was about to leave. Kuroki felt embarrassed that the topic shifted to this one yet again. Since talking about it, Gallios had brought up this topic many times. This time he kept on emphasizing how there were many harlots visiting as tourists around this period of time and kept telling Kuroki that he should take this chance to hook up with some of them.

（No matter what you say, I basically have zero experience with women. Moreover, do I look that desperate to you?）

Kuroki was vexed by Gallios’s insistence, he decided that he was going to take care of this problem later and so ignored his advice.

In the first place, the store which provided THAT kind of service would not be a good option right now. Because of the fact that the Hero’s women walked around town in those revealing clothes, these kinds of businesses were probably filled to the brim with lustful men. After gazing at beautiful women, they were probably all pent up and these stores were their only option. Kuroki had no intention whatsoever to go there at such a time.

「Well, I guess what I really want now is to preserve myself…」

Answered Kuroki with a wry smile on his face. In the first place, he had thought that Gallios’s offer to take him to THAT kind of store was a joke. Now he just wanted it to be over.

Thus, Kuroki turned to leave. Having said he would, he was going to start a round of patrol at his own pace.

「Make sure you tell Peneroa if you manage to woo some girls.」

Said Gallios just when Kuroki was about to leave.

Kuroki had no choice but to wave his hand with his back facing Gallios and Renber.

（Reiji and co’s escorts are quite an absurd bunch. Well, still, though now I need to patrol the city, a promise is a promise. I have to do my job properly.）

After he went all the way to the top of the rampart, the highest building in this kingdom, Kuroki took a good look at Rox Kingdom’s landscape.

He could see far and wide. Kuroki’s eyesight had become remarkably better after he was summoned to this world. Thus, he could see what everyone was doing, down to the smallest of details, even from the top of the rampart.

He narrowed his eyes in focus, looking for any suspicious person.

When his gaze landed on the center of the city, he finally found something of note. There, he saw a suspicious group of people yelling something dangerous. They were all holding on to a flag with Rino’s picture on it. They were most probably some of her die-hard fans, some amongst the many who could be found all across the Holy Republic of Lenaria.

（I can’t believe they chased her all the way to this place… They do look to be cooking something dangerous indeed, but I guess those Temple Knights can deal with them. Let’s just let them be…）

Kuroki noticed another unusual event when he looked around them.

（Come to think of it, what’s with the crowd around those fans?）

Kuroki was intrigued by the crowd of people and their activities.

Upon closer look, they were selling portraits of Reiji’s women, particularly portraits of them with today’s attire. These portraits looked to be mass produced through some sort of fast printing art as each stall had many of them; their stocks seemed to be never ending. Many of those sellers were huddled together, each supporting a different woman. It looked like they were showing what camp they belonged to.

Seeing such a scene, Kuroki couldn’t help but grit his teeth, blaming himself for almost overlooking this kind of wonderful event.

（I can’t believe I almost missed such an event. Let’s buy some souvenirs after I’m done with this job.）

He then gravitated his attention to the right of the city. There wasn’t any suspicious person or notable event, he only found five Temple Knights instead.

They were not the ones he met a while ago.

It was his second time seeing Temple Knights up-close. They wore uniformed armors just like the ones he saw back when he raided Rena’s Temple during his visit to the Holy Republic of Lenaria.

（What the hell are they doing in this place? I can give them the benefit of the doubt and say that they’re taking turns in doing their job and are currently on break, but… I smell something fishy here.）

When he looked at them again, he saw them arguing with some men.

Kuroki strained his ears to eavesdrop on their conversation. Once he heard their conversation, he found out that they were competing for harlots.

（The Temple Knights are men who should love no one but Rena, but is it in fact different in reality? Well it really can’t be helped that they are trying to do something like that now. They probably want to get rid of their excitement, seeing that they’re always by Shirone and the others’ side, who also wore those risque outfits today. Rather, any normal man would react in the same way.）

Kuroki decided to overlook the truant actions of those Temple Knights and moved on the left.

It seems nothing was special there either.

But then, his eyes suddenly caught the figure of a woman. That woman was hiding her face under the hood of her robe. At a glance, she looked like any other tourist. But for some reason, Kuroki couldn’t take his eyes away from that woman.

He strained his eyes to look at her. After looking for a while he discovered the woman’s identity.

（I definitely wouldn’t have noticed her if I hadn’t strained my eyes! Why? For what reason is she here?! I never expected that the being that can harm the Hero and the others would come to this kind of place!）

Kuroki descended from the rampart and headed towards that woman as fast as he could. It only took him a moment to stand right in front of her, blocking her path.

The woman in question had also noticed his presence.

「D-Dark Knight?! 」

The woman looked at him with a shocked face.

「It’s been a while, Goddess Rena.」

Kuroki bowed in front of her.

Though she had changed her identity and pretended to be a normal human, she couldn’t deceive Kuroki’s eyes.

The woman in front of Kuroki was none other than Goddess Rena herself.

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TL : Boy meet Yandere Girl…