CH 40

40 – The Freeloader Life of a Former Savior, Morning. 3

Eleanor and I went out for a stroll through town, but…

It turned into something weird.

The first thirty minutes were good.

We passed time peacefully by strolling around the morning market while stopping Eleanor from buying every single thing that caught my eye.

Walking with the horn on my head, there were people who asked “Are they siblings?”

Every time, Eleanor’s face would be twisted in ecstasy, saying “Yes we are.”, lying.

『So this is what she was after…』

Said Mika, exasperated.

The problem started from here.

「Sir Rain, this way.」

Eleanor dragged me into an alleyway.

She pressed up against a wall, and I was pressed up against her.

Her soft mounds engulfed my face and I could feel it heating up.

「Mrgh.」

「Ngh. Please be patient, Sir Rain.」

Eleanor’s seductive voice made me stiffen.

Wondering what’s going on, Mika’s voice reached my ear.

『…Ah, she’s here to ask questions.』

I can’t really see anything right now, so I fully activated my sense of hearing.

By doing that, I could hear a familiar voice.

「So this is Her-I mean Rain’s favorite grilled skewer shop… Shopkeep!」

This is the voice of Vivi, the Demon King Army’s Chief intelligence officer.

A woman with wavy, red-purplish hair, and sharp powers of observation. She leaves a loud and aggressive first impression, but she’s a kind-hearted Majin like the others.

In terms of information-gathering ability, she is second only to the War God of the Six Saviors of humanity.

No way, does she even know about the stalls I often visit?

Vivi is probably asking the crab-headed shopkeep about me.

He has a stall nearby and I was planning to visit it.

「Hm? A Majin kid with a sword? Oh! That boy who was blown away by the taste of the grub! Naw, I haven’t seen’im today.」

「I see. Understood. Sorry to trouble you.」

「Something happen to him?」

「No, it’s fine. He simply went out to play without informing me, nothing to worry about.」

「I see, I see. That boy’s lucky to have a sister like you.」

「…! Shopkeep. Please give me all of my little brother’s favorite skewers.」

『Every one of the Seven is way too easy…』

「Gr. Look at these horns! I’m clearly the sister!」

Eleanor was frustrated.

And I have been slowly suffocating.

『If you don’t plan on choking Rain out with your tits, let him go.』

「Oh! My apologies.」

「Hm? I thought I just heard the sound of Hero Rain’s breathing…」

I can sense Vivi’s intent heading this way.

『What sorta ears does she have?! Also, wait, his breathing?!』

「Gr, so there really is no fooling her. Sir Rain, Lady Holy Sword, excuse me.」

The moment Eleanor touched my hand, my view changes.

To be precise, Eleanor’s breasts still occupy most of my vision, but I could sense that we teleported.

I could smell the scent of trees.

「Was that Vivi just now?」

「I’m sure she was here to be a hindrance to our secret rendezvous… She mobilized faster than expected.」

『That’s cos you pulled a fast one over everyone.』

「N-no! I simply accepted Sir Rain’s invitation, I am not pulling a fast one over anyone!」

Eleanor looks away from Mika.

『She’s looking for you cos you left without consent, didn’t you?』

「This is troubling.」

『What is?』

「Eleanor, do you hate Vivi?」

「N-no, it’s nothing like that. It’s just…」

Eleanor blushes as she hesitates.

『She just wanted to see what it’s like to date you.』

「Guh!」

「Date?」

I’m not familiar with that word.

I know the meaning of it, though.

It’s a one-on-one outing, right? Usually a man and a woman.

She’s always looking out for me, so if this is what she wants, I will gladly do it.

「In that case, let me go back to leave Mika, and then I’ll come back.」

『Gr… I don’t know whether to be happy that you want to handle this by yourself or furious that my wielder is telling me to stay home…』

Mika seems troubled for some reason.

「N-no, you do not have to go that far.」

Perhaps caught off-guard by Eleanor’s answer, Mika turned her attention to it.

『Hm? …Wait a minute, you don’t think I’ll rat out to Louto, do you?』

Eleanor looks away from Mika rather unnaturally.

Looks like she was right on the mark.

Louto, who works as a teacher in the Magic Academy, is a beautiful woman with fluffy brown hair and narrow eyes that look like they were drawn in an arc.

She has a gentle personality, and her ability as a magic-user is high.

「To get back on track, this is a nature park that is popular even among the residents of this town.」

The identity of the smell I smelled earlier was revealed.

It was a recreation of a forest in the middle of the town.

A path has been laid out as a sort of walking trail.

「Huh…」

The Demon Territory is contaminated by the miasma that leaks out from Makai.

Flora and fauna exposed to this miasma will undergo horrific transmutations but…this looks like a regular forest.

The miasma barrier that the Demon King put up is working well.

We teleported beneath a massive tree. The sunlight filtering through the leaves illuminates Eleanor’s figure, her silver hair sparkling. She looked mesmerizing.

「Miss Louto, what sort of class is this? This wasn’t part of the itinerary, right?」

Again, I heard a familiar voice.

It’s Jural, a student of the Magic Academy, and one of my few friends.

She has her hair up in a twintail today as well.

She’s a young woman with an aloof air about her, but I now know that it comes from a deep pride toward magic-users.

Or I should say, I learned it after our duel.

「Feel free to sketch the wonders of nature or take a stroll through the woods~」

「…I have a bad feeling about this. This is an extracurricular class, right?」

「I have some business to attend to, so I’ll take my leave for a moment~」

「Wha-Wait! Miss Louto! For goodness sake!」

We saw their little exchange under the shade of the tree.

「Gr, since she lives in the same town, she, too, knows of the notable date spots.」

This is slowly reminding me of a mission that required covert operations, but is this also what a date is like?

「Let us abandon this place, Sir Rain.」

Eleanor teleported us once again.

Incidentally, Mika, who is good friends with Louto, avoided making a remark about her just leaving her students behind to search for me.

After that, Eleanor said that we should go buy me some casual clothes.

Since the Demon King Army takes care of everything, I’m not worried about clothes, but aside from my pajamas, I often pick what I wore when I was with the Saviors.

I just can’t seem to get used to the clothes made of top-quality fabric given by the Demon King Army.

I wonder if Eleanor thinks the reason for that is that I don’t like the design.

If that’s the case, I have to clear up the misunderstanding…or so I thought, but on the way to the store, Eleanor stopped.

This time, before she could pull me with her, I hid in the shadows too.

I feel bad about running and hiding from everyone who’s looking for me, but I am the one who asked Eleanor if she wanted to go out with me.

If possible, I want to go about this in a way that she can enjoy the most.

Apparently, another one of the Seven got ahead of us again.

It was the black-haired maid Lejie, escort to the Demon King’s daughter.

She seems quiet and timid, but whenever the Seven gather and do something, she will always take part in it.

It looks like her co-worker, the red-haired maid Azla, is with her too.

『Aren’t those two Myuri’s escorts? Should they both be out here together?』

The Demon King’s daughter, Myuri, is studying with the other kids.

That said, that doesn’t mean that her guardians can slack off.

「Someone most likely took over their post for them. I wonder if it was Leo… He is lenient on us.」

Leo of the Big Four. A Beastman with a lion’s head.

Ever since the dieting incident, I have met him occasionally.

I guess he’s always been a kind and caring person.

Speaking softly, they eventually reached a distance where I could hear Lejie and Azla’s voices.

「…They’re not in this shop either.」

「Then they’re somewhere else, right? I mean, why not just leave them alone? There’s nothing wrong with Lady Eleanor and Rai-…Sir Hero going out, right?」

Lejie sounded like she was in a bad mood, and Azla sounded tired.

「It’s not fair if it’s just Eleanor.」

「Pure and simple jealousy, huh?」

Azla smiled wryly.

「…Is going out with me…really that fun or something?」

Looking at everyone running around searching for me, I couldn’t help but say that.

『Life is short. People cannot be together forever. It’s a normal emotion for them to want to spend time with the people they like and cherish it.』

I suppose due to the long life that Mika has lived, she sometimes waxes philosophical.

Speaking of which, a Majin’s lifespan isn’t so different to that of a Human’s.

「Is that so… In that case, I should just invite everyone else next time.」

Because I grew up in a somewhat special environment, I lack the sense of what is normal.

However, I do care about people.

Eleanor is my benefactor and everyone else are my cherished friends.

「……」

『……』

Eleanor and Mika were unnaturally quiet.

Eleanor seemed a little frustrated.

『W-well, I think we can leave it at that for now.』

「What do you mean?」

But before I could hear the answer to that, we had to make a move again.

「sniff sniff… It’s Sir Rain’s scent!」

「You got the sense of smell of a Beastman…」

Azla was pulled along by Lejie.

「You’d better help me properly, Azla… I still haven’t forgiven you for going on a date with Sir Rain the other day…」

「I did not! We just happened to bump into each other so we ate some grub together!」

Actually, that did happen.

I ran into Azla who had lost all her money at the Centaur races. One thing lead to another and we ended up having lunch together.

I noticed this at that time too, but Azla’s tone of voice with Lejie right now is a lot less restrained.

「I, too, received a report about that matter. Azla…just how lucky could you be.」

Eleanor agreed as well.

『Wait, who gave you that report?』

There was no reply to Mika’s quip.

I grabbed a hold of Eleanor’s outstretched hand.

「Huh?」

She said in surprise as we teleported once again.

But this time, I was the one who cast the spell.

We teleported to…

The royal family’s playground.

The kids and I have been using this place recently.

「The kids are busy studying now, so no one will bother us here, right?」

I pull her by the arm towards the bench made for breaks.

「Or maybe it’d be better outside the castle?」

「…! N-no. So long as I am able to spend time with just the two of us, it would be pure heaven no matter where we are.」

Seeing Eleanor’s smiling face made my chest beat noticeably faster.

Distracted by that, I missed the opportunity to mention her exaggerated expression.

『Hey, I’m here too.』

Neither of us responded to Mika’s voice.

We locked eyes for a while.

Later.

I told everyone who was searching for us that I would make time to go out with each of them and they happily accepted.

Also, they objected to the fact that the design of my fake horns resembled Eleanor’s, and for some reason, they all started the process of making fake horns that resembled their own.