Volume 3 - CH 10.2

Act 3 – 10.2: Land Dominated By Ogre 3

Upon seeing those rounded tissues, Shirone pretty much guessed what they were. She had found similar things in Kuroki’s room when she would inspect it… without his permission. She knew better than to touch those tissues.

「I hear that normally, this is what a single man’s room looks like…」

Kaya muttered.

「Kuroki never left his room this messy though. Uhm, there’s something there.」

Shirone found a box in the corner of the room, which looked like it contained something important.

Curious, they approached the box.

「Watch out, Shirone-sama!」

Kaya suddenly shouted at Shirone. The box had suddenly moved as if it had its own will. The lid of the box had opened on its own as if forming some sort of a creature’s mouth. There were also tusks growing from the lid of the box—it was about to bite into Shirone.

「The heck is this?! HEYAAA!!!」

Shirone reacted quickly, kicking away the box before it could bite her. The box was sent flying and crashed into the wall, and then stopped moving.

「It seems to be a Trap Beast. A quasi-life form created to protect important treasures.」

""

Kaya spoke while looking down at the box that had already stopped moving.

A Trap Beast was a quasi-life form similar to golem. It was created with magic and abided its owner’s command. It was usually used to protect something really important. Though it was in the form of a box this time, some Trap Beast took the form of houses or gates. Its special trait was the fact that it would attack anyone who got close to it aside from its owner.

「Good grief, it seems we’ve underestimated that ogre. To think he prepared something like this.」

「Yup, indeed, Kyouka-san. But, since it’s protected by a Trap Beast, the content must be an extremely precious treasure.」

Shirone approached the box as she spoke cheerfully.

Ogres were famous for keeping treasure in their mansion. There was a famous story Shirone had heard a long time ago about a youth who stole a singing harp from an ogre who lived in a castle above the clouds.

「Eh, this is…」

Upon opening the box that had already stopped moving, the thing that Shirone found inside was a stack of books. And, the front cover of all those books held the pictures of naked female ogres.

「What is this?」

Kyouka, who peeked at the books from behind Shirone, tilted her head in puzzlement upon seeing those books.

「I think these books are… porn books. Kuroki also used to hide these kinds of books under his bed…」

Shirone told Kyouka while flipping the books in flash.

Just like the front cover, the inside of the books were filled with pictures of naked ogres. Kyouka and Shirone kept scanning the contents of the books. Though the naked female ogres pose in a sensual manner, Shirone felt that their tusks and square jaw wouldn’t be to the liking of human men.

The reason Shirone enjoyed skimming through those porn books was because of her habit of secretly reading Kuroki’s secret stash of porn books, which he would hide under his bed.

「Please don’t open anymore of them, Shirone-sama.」

Kaya finally raised her voice with a dumbfounded look on her face, she couldn’t let Shirone keep doing that.

「Ah, my bad. Let’s dispose of these books immediately. I feel it’s a bit too wasteful though.」

「Eeh, I’m curious about the men’s hobbies though.」

Despite her flushed red face, Kyouka couldn’t help but keep peeking at the books.

「Not you too Milady… Haa, it pains me to think that you’ve learned some sort of strange knowledge… Let’s burn these filthy things.」

Kaya, fed up, spoke while gathering the books.

「But still, any normal, healthy young man always has these kinds of books. Even Kuroki had his own collection.」

Shirone spoke while nodding.

「Is that true, Shirone-sama? It seems I should ask you more about him.」

「I-Is something the matter, Kaya-san? What’s with that sudden change of attitude?」

「It’s because even though you often talk about your childhood friend, he doesn’t give a strong impression in your stories. And yet, as you already know, he defeated Reiji-sama and a monster who could fight on par with all of us, and that’s with him not going on the offensive. Which makes me wonder whether he’s really your childhood friend that you always speak off, Shirone-sama?」

「He is… definitely Kuroki. Yeah, no doubt about it. There’s no way I can mistake Kuroki for someone else.」

Shirone replied to Kaya with a confident look on her face. But, she couldn’t help but think about some of the questions she had been asked.

Kuroki should have been spending his normal, boring days in Japan, so how did he come to this world?

The Kuroki in her memories was an extremely normal, mundane man. The Kuroki she knew wasn’t supposed to be this powerful.

「Since that’s the case, he must have been hiding his strength. The way he moves is that of a trained martial artist after all. Though I’m also trained in martial arts, I think he’s far more powerful than me. He’s so powerful to the point that I don’t think someone has ever achieved such height in martial arts before.」

Shirone received an even bigger shock upon hearing Kaya’s evaluation of Kuroki. She used to think that there was nothing she didn’t know about Kuroki. But now, the reality of the situation hit her hard.

（Come to think of it, the number of times I met Kuroki sharply decreased after I started hanging out with Reiji-kun and the others. Does that mean that something had happened during those times?）

Shirone felt frustrated since she had no idea what could’ve happened to change him. [TL : Zamaaa miroooo!]

「Honestly, I don’t know about that part of him. There are way too many things…」

「I see… well, I guess we should stop talking about this topic.」

Kaya decided to stop her inquiry upon seeing Shirone’s face.

「Yes, Kaya. I’m pretty tired and want to go to bed already.」

Shirone and Kaya smiled upon hearing Kyouka’s declaration.

「Sure enough, we should go to sleep as soon as possible…」

「Well then, I shall quickly prepare some light supper. I don’t think we can eat the meat in the kitchen, but the vegetables should be pretty safe. Things like the bed sheets and other things look like they’re better quality than the ones made by humans too.」

Shirone and Kyouka nodded, agreeing with Kaya’s opinion.

Thus, they called the people who came along with them and had supper after tidying up the room. Shirone felt really grateful for deciding to bring Koki’s citizens with them to this mansion. They were all hard workers, especially the pair of father-daughter who had almost been separated.

Naturally, some of them worked out of fear.

Shirone and co had no idea what would happen to Koki after they left. Some other monsters might come due to the disappearance of the ogre. But, the citizens must learn to deal with that on their own.

After making them help with the cleaning and cooking, Shirone and the others sent Koki’s citizens back. They then had a light supper and hot bath and went to sleep.

Since it had been cleaned thoroughly and changed with new bed-sheets, the bed didn’t stink anymore.

Though there was only one bed, since it was one made for an ogre, it was big enough for the three of them.

（Well, there’s nothing I can do even if I keep mulling over this matter now. Thing will clear up as soon as I meet Kuroki again.）

Thus, Shirone fell asleep while thinking such things.

◆

（Uuh, save me!!）

Echigos, who was tied up and gagged, couldn’t speak properly.

Koki’s citizens had returned to their country without doing anything, only looking at his pitiful state with indifference. He and Daigan had been knocked out as soon as Zengu had appeared, and were now tied up with lots of chains and padlocks, which twined around their bodies.

Though they hadn’t killed them, Kaya had still locked them with chains and padlocks and hung them up in mid-air from the roof of the mansion.

（That woman is a demon.）

Echigos recalled the way they looked at him, he was not shivering just because of the night’s cold wind.

（Uuh… why do I have to go through this torture, someone please save me.）

Yet, no one answered Echigos’ sorrowful wails.