RE: Ankoku Kishi Monogatari - Volume 2

Act 2-3.2 : In The Hot Spring Country

Kuroki urged Gallios to end his bath too.

Gallios’s line of sight then lowered toward a certain part of Kuroki’s body.

「You’ve got such an atrocious monster down there, which completely betrays your small and innocent look. That kind of size when in a normal state, huh.」

Said Gallios to Kuroki with a teasing tone.

「Wait a minute, where are you looking?!!」

Kuroki moved his hands down, trying to cover his crotch. This was not the first time for him to be teased about it, but there was no doubt that it always made him uncomfortable. Back in Japan, many would always tease him about his size, but in fact, what Kuroki wanted to tell them was that having such a fiendish little brother wasn’t always a good thing; rather, it was an unpleasant sight instead. He didn’t appreciate always having eyes on his privates.

「Oioioi, don’t be ashamed about that little thing of yours. You can satisfy all kinds of women with that king size of yours you know? Now tell me, how many girls have cried because of that thing?」

Gallios heartily laughed as he asked.

「I’ve… never been with a woman before…」

Kuroki answered with a whisper. He was really ashamed to admit it, but his giant bat was a completely useless piece of junk in his life. It was really meaningless to have such a thing if you had no use for it.

「It’s just a useless, giant piece of junk if I have no one to use it on, you know…」

Kuroki’s inner thoughts unintentionally leaked out of his mouth, he felt like he was on the verge of tears. In fact, Kuroki would’ve really wanted to lie to people once they asked him that question if he could, but it was an undeniable truth that he was a man who had never gotten along with girls. He had always had trouble with speaking to girls; his awkward personality and gloomy nature didn’t help as well as women always preferred someone sunny like Reiji. He could not even count the number of female acquaintances he had since it was a big fat zero. The only woman he had ever gotten close to in his sad story of a life was Shirone. She was his best friend, but she had also left him for someone better—she had become one of Reiji’s women. The matter of using his “giant weapon” was nothing but a pipe dream at this point.

Though his master would often teased him with:「Missy will have it hard in the future, huh!」, Kuroki felt that that kind of future would never exist for someone like him; his future was only bleak.

「No… I apologize for bringing something that bothers you up. Moreover, it seems that I made you recall some painful memories. That’s right, to make it up to you, let me take you to that kind of shop next time.」 [TL : Brothel]

Gallios suggested a slightly mischievious proposal.

「EH!! Are you sure?! What about Peneroa-san? 」

Penroa was Gallios’s wife. Kuroki wondered what would happen if she found out about her husband visiting such a place, which made him unintentionally blurt out such an invasive question.

「Ooops, my bad. Please pretend like you didn’t hear what I just said.」

(Tch.)

Gallios clicked his tongue in silent frustration. Kuroki had just stated his intentions out loud, now he couldn’t take him anymore. With how this town worked, news of what he said would reach his wife in an instant, that is if he hadn’t just saved himself right now. Gallios looked at Kuroki irritably, he just wanted to treat this healthy young man to a nice time as it was natural for him to be interested in that kind of thing. But now he had completely ruined it for himself. Gallios then sighed in regret, he shouldn’t have spilled the beans, he should’ve just asked Kuroki to hang out one evening then surprise him when they get there, that way he could finally experience the joys of life.

Forget about it, it wasn’t his place to meddle anyway.

After that, they left the bathroom while throwing one joke after another. They wiped their wet bodies with clean towels before wearing their clothes and leaving the public bath.

Kuroki had been staying in a detached annex of Gallios’s house ever since yesterday.

Ever since he came to this world, this was his first time coming into contact with human society. He had only been surrounded by demons and monsters until now, which is why he was now reluctant to finish his job of cutting the Dragon King’s horn and wanted to prolong his stay a bit longer instead.

When they arrived at Gallios’s house, they were greeted by his wife. She was Rember’s older sister.

「We’re home, Peneroa.」

「We’re back, Peneroa-san」

Gallios’s wife, Peneroa, was a humble and gentle woman.

Though everyone said that she was extremely scary when she got pissed off, Kuroki just couldn’t get the image of such a gentle woman being scary, or getting pissed off at that. [TL : …………]

「Welcome back honey. Rember’s been waiting for you you know.」

「WHA? Rember? How come?」

Gallios tilted his head in puzzlement.

Kuroki felt that it was strange too. They had just met him a while ago in the restaurant, yet he came looking for Gallios not long after. Had something happened in this short period they were apart?

Both of them went into the house to meet Rember as they pondered about this odd situation.

「I’ve been waiting for you, Senpai, Kuro-dono too.」

“”

Judging from his hurried tone, it seemed that Rember had been urgently waiting for them.

「What’s the matter, Rember. Did something happen? 」

They both sat down and faced Rember, as Gallios questioned Rember on the matter.

「To be honest, there’s an emergency. That’s why I want to borrow Kuro-dono’s power.」

Rember looked at Kuroki.

「My power?」

「I received an emergency report from the sentinels in the rampart. There’s a swarm of demons right outside of the rampart.」

「WHAT?! Demons you say? How can that be?! Are you sure they’re not simply mistaking what they’re seeing as demons? 」

Gallios-tachi had swept the demons in this region by gathering Freedom Fighters three days ago. Kuroki had participated too, so it was near impossible for demons to appear yet again near Rox kingdom in such a short span of time. It was way too early for demons to swarm this place when they came from such a far away place.

Even Kuroki thought that it might be the sentinels mistaking what they’re seeing for something else. Gallios had precisely made such a confident statement because it was a fact that humans couldn’t see well in the darkness of the night with their eyes, they didn’t possess night vision or other types of magic that could aid them, unlike powerful people such as Kuroki. So, he expected the sighting of those demons to be some sort of mistake on their part.

「Initially, I felt the same way as you, but… The sentinels used the lighting magic tools found in the rampart to light its vicinities and they stated that they spotted both goblins and orcs.」

The lighting equipment in the rampart could illuminate till far away by using a mirror. Rember explained that they could see to quite a distant place by using that.

But, Kuroki had said that both the orc community and goblin dens around the area should be completely annihilated after such a sweeping operation. With the help of his power it was not impossible to achieve, that’s why they doubted this piece of information.

「So, some were injured during the sweep… and survived, is it? Damn it, even though the festival begins tomorrow.」

Gallios clicked his tongue.

Three days ago, in the afternoon, he had accidentally heard about a mission Rox Kingdom had commissioned to ensure the safety of citizens and tourists during the festival: people were asked to go outside of the rampart and exterminate the demons near Rox Kingdom. He had of course immediately joined this mission along with other Freedom Fighters and Kuroki, but it seems that some of them slipped away without them noticing.

「It seems that they’re still lingering near the rampart. Nevertheless, we’re lucky that they’re not strong enough to climb the rampart. According to the sentinels, the way those goblins and orcs move is strange.」

「The way they move? 」

「Yes, so I’m thinking of taking a closer look since I feel uneasy about it. That’s why I want to ask for Kuro-dono’s help, I need him to confirm this matter with his night vision.」

「I see…」

Gallios nodded.

「What will you do, Kuro? I’ll come along if you decide to go.」

Rember and Gallios looked at Kuroki.

「Yes, I’m fine with that, let’s go.」

Kuroki agreed immediately.

He had a debt of gratitude to repay to the Gallios couple. Kuroki wanted to return their kindness by helping Rember, Gallios’s younger brother-in-law.

Thus, they headed to the rampart.