I turned to Vulcan. "We’re leaving."
We had already paid for the service, and there was nothing else we needed to deal with in that place. Except for Tanya, of course.
The girl was standing near Falco, like a loyal subordinate of Vulcan’s. Despite her position in the rcenary group, I had actually managed to raise her Affection Level high enough to turn her into a Valkyrie.
But I didn’t have a slot for her, and it didn’t even seem like she was in an easy position to make that change. I wanted her to join my party, but it wasn’t ti yet.
That didn’t an I couldn’t start paving the way for her to join .
"But it really is a sha that I can’t make you my subordinate," Vulcan complained, as if still trying to convince and pulling out of my thoughts.
"You certainly can’t," I told him. "Even so, I’d like to continue being your client."
An ambitious smile crossed Vulcan’s face. "Don’t tell ."
"The Ghosts of the Road certainly have several agents around the country, so I’ll request your informants’ services throughout my journey."
"I see," Vulcan said to , then slipped a hand into one of his pockets. "Catch!"
With a quick motion, he tossed sothing in my direction, and I caught it with extre ease. It was a small object, but quite solid, and when I looked at it in my hand, it had a familiar shine.
When I opened my palm, there was a gold coin. On one side, it had the map of Ashia, and on the other, a skull.
"Consider that a gift for an honored client," Vulcan said.
That wasn’t a normal coin I could use in the kingdom of Ashia. It was a coin used by rcenary mbers and their acquaintances for identification. For , who wasn’t a mber, it ant that I was an acquaintance of Vulcan’s and a valuable client.
"Thank you for the gift. I don’t intend to take any more of your ti, so we’ll be leaving."
"No problem," Vulcan said, then turned to Jasmine. "Escort them to the exit."
We left Vulcan’s tent and made our way through the rcenary camp. The rcenary with green-dyed hair didn’t say a word to us. The only voices nearby were those of the rcenaries running in fear when they saw us.
As she had asked, we didn’t use her real na near the other rcenaries. Vulcan and Falco already knew her secret, but in a group like that, she probably wanted to hide her origins as much as possible.
We arrived a little past the entrance of the hideout, far enough that no one could see us. I thought Tanya would stay a little behind, but she probably still wanted to say sothing in secret.
"Do you want to say sothing to us, Tanya?"
I couldn’t see her eyes because of the blindfold covering them, but Tanya certainly seed hesitant. "If you’re going after that Equidna, just be careful, okay?"
I hadn’t expected to hear that from her. The way she stood there, like an anxious girl, left only one word to describe her.
"How cute." It just slipped out of .
"D-Don’t call cute!" She imdiately grew nervous.
"Tanya, you’re all red," Diane said to her.
"Don’t say that, sis," she snapped back at her own sister, but her face really did look like a pepper.
"You can put on a tough-girl act, but you really are a good girl," I said, smiling at her.
"Hmm!" Tanya turned her face away, avoiding . "I don’t care even a little. Just hurry up and go back to where you—Huh!"
Tanya stopped talking to in her tsundere mode. At that very instant, her and Diane’s expressions changed, their faces turning serious as if they had realized sothing was wrong.
The mont there was a rustling among the leaves of a nearby bush, the two of them ran towards the brush, prepared for combat.
"Calm down, calm down! Please don’t attack!" When the two of them were close enough to attack, the person who had been hiding until then stood up with their hands raised in a gesture of surrender.
"Y-You..." Diane said, quickly putting her hand in front of Tanya so her sister wouldn’t advance. "Don’t attack. I know her."
I was having trouble seeing her, but I would recognize her voice anywhere. I raised my lantern so her face beca clear to .
The girl who had been caught had beautiful amber-colored eyes, and her wine-colored hair was tied up in a ssy bun. She had a crooked smile on her face, like soone who had been caught at the worst possible mont.
"Hi, Rick. Hi, Diane. W-What a coincidence, running into you here..."
"Don’t give that," I said to her coldly. "It’s obvious you were following us."
"Erina, what are you doing here?" Diane asked, as coldly as I had.
"M-? Well, I ended up seeing Diane leaving the room with you. I got curious and ended up following you. I just didn’t go in because this place looked really fishy."
I looked at Diane. It certainly wasn’t her fault she had been followed. This was Erina’s fault for being sneaky.
"So what were you doing in there?" she asked bluntly.
"You really don’t have much sha, do you? Asking that kind of thing right after being caught," I said to her.
"Don’t say that~" Erina said in an innocent tone. "I got worried when I saw you enter such a shady place."
Erina threw herself onto , ignoring Tanya and Diane, and hugged . She looked at sweetly with her bright eyes like a cat’s.
I sighed. "Well, it doesn’t matter much. Once we get back to the others, I’ll tell you what happened."
"Yeah, hurry up and go before soone else shows up around here," Tanya said irritably.
I turned to her. She was staring at while Erina nestled against my chest, and I stroked her hair. Tanya broke her silence first. She was visibly jealous of my affectionate wife, but too proud to compete for my affection.
"See you later, then. I’ll keep in touch, so don’t think you’ve gotten rid of , okay?"
...
We returned to the house of the family that had hosted us after the sun had already risen. My hope was that, since it was early, Sarah and the others would still be sleeping, but when we got close to the house, my hopes were carried away by the wind.
"She looks like a Demon," Erina said to . From where we were, it looked like we were staring at a furnace furiously giving off heat.
"Rick," Diane said hesitantly. "I think it would be better to avoid a direct approach."
"I don’t think I have that option."
"Maybe running away..."
"I’m not going to run away just because the situation looks difficult," I retorted to Diane.
"Then would you like to write your will first, Master?" Diane’s expression didn’t indicate that she was joking.
"Don’t say that," I said to her, but the girl a few ters away from us really did seem furious.
In front of us was Sarah, with her arms crossed, a furious expression on her face, and emanating an aura more dangerous than any monster we had faced until then.
"RI-CK!" my furious wife said, her heavy steps stomping on the ground beneath her feet and seeming to cause tremors.
"C-Calm down, Sarah!" Alicia said.
"Don’t go acting hot-headed!" Justine said next.
"Don’t you dare attack Master Rick, you red demon," Camula said, disregarding the fact that she herself was a kind of Demon.
All my Valkyries who had stayed behind were holding back my Swordsman, but it seed to be in vain because she kept moving in my direction.
"Yes, Sarah," I said to her with a calm expression as soon as she was less than a ter away.
"I hope you have a good excuse for disappearing from here in the dead of night! Or did you and Diane leave without saying anything to enjoy the night?!"
"I will explain myself, but first of all, I’d like to apologize to you."
"Eh?" Surprise overtook the anger in Sarah’s eyes.
"I kept a secret from you, Sarah. From all of you, and for that, I owe you an apology."
"N-No way." Sarah’s voice was overtaken by sudden fear. "We weren’t enough for you, and then you went looking for a brothel—"
"OF COURSE NOT! AND WHY WOULD I TAKE DIANE IF THAT WERE THE CASE?! ALSO, I SAID I HAD A GOOD EXCUSE!"
"Then what have you been hiding from ? Tell already," Sarah asked impatiently.
"It’s about Leo."
"Huh? Leo?" Sarah reacted, dumbfounded by the na of our forr party companion. "What about him?"
I was still weighing the best way to tell her, but it was already too late. Now that I had started talking, I had to tell her the whole truth.
"Leo had contact with one of the mbers of the Night Apostles."
"Eh?"
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