Chapter 112

“No. Maybe that place called the Sea God’s Sanctuary is located near the Demon King’s Castle. It’s not like the castle would have been built with urban planning in mind.”

I paused my racing thoughts for a moment. Then, I turned to Kelly.

“If you can map out the Demon Territory and know exactly what’s where… do you also know where the Demon King’s Castle is?”

“Huh? Oh… well…”

Kelly stared blankly for a second, then let out a soft exclamation as if she had just received some sort of psychic transmission.

“It’s probably here.”

The spot Kelly pointed to was at the northernmost edge of the Demon Territory. In other words, it was a location that had absolutely nothing to do with the coordinates Bell had given me.

“…Are you sure about this?”

“Yes. Probably.”

“Is this another one of those revelations sent down by that Merina lady?”

At that, Kelly laughed sheepishly.

“I don’t know. I know this sounds incredibly strange… but at the very least, I’m certain of it. As you know, Merina Elves are immune to mental interference, right?”

“So, you’re saying this is likely Merina’s divine intervention at work?”

“Most likely.”

Beside her, Chel nodded and added an explanation.

“Actually, unlike other gods, Merina does intervene directly on very rare occasions. Maybe once every ten or twenty years? If you count the interventions that aren’t publicly known, I’d say it’s about once every few years.”

“Hmm…”

I looked Kelly straight in the eye without saying a word.

Unaware of my underlying reasons, she received my gaze and turned bright red, smiling shyly. It was such a cute, demure smile that I couldn’t even imagine her usual rowdy personality.

‘She isn’t lying. At least, she firmly believes that what she said is the truth.’

In that case, the situation became simple.

Either Bell was wrong, or Kelly was wrong.

“Um… hold on a second.”

As I stood up from my chair, Elizabeth’s eyes went wide while she still had a spoon in her mouth.

“Eh? Mister? Where are you going in the middle of a meal?”

“The bathroom. To pee.”

“Ugh! While we’re eating?!”

“You talk like you never go to the bathroom yourself.”

“I-I don’t go. Beautiful girls like me don’t go to the bathroom.”

“Is that so? Then you’ll be dying of kidney failure soon.”

“Wh-What?”

“Oh. Mr. Sword God. I’ll set up a barrier for you.”

“Ah. Ailet. Thanks.”

After expressing my condolences to Elizabeth, who seemed destined for a short life, I walked out into the rain under the protection of the barrier Ailet had cast. Once I felt I was far enough away from the group, I closed one eye and accessed my Imagery.

“Bell. You were watching, right?”

“Yes.”

“What do you think about the location of the Demon King’s Castle?”

“To be honest, I’m not sure. As you know, my knowledge comes from Yuribel. I’d like to think an Archangel like Yuribel wouldn’t have incorrect information… but on the other hand, considering Yuribel spent most of the last 200 years wandering other planets for hero summoning instead of being here in Kion, I suppose it’s possible.”

“Then what about that Sea God’s Sanctuary?”

“I don’t know… I suspect it might be false information. It’s true that the Bordeaux Kingdom, being an island nation, worshiped the Sea God Pacanse as their guardian deity, but even back then, there wasn’t an actual Sanctuary.”

“Hmm…”

“In the first place, Sanctuaries are only established in nations of Empire rank or higher, or places with theocratic governments like Holy Kingdoms. The Church doesn’t grant permission for anything below that. But since that is also Yuribel’s knowledge… I can’t exactly insist that I’m right when I’m not the person herself.”

“…So in the end, both are possible?”

“Yes. On the off chance that the god Merina truly did intervene, then I would be the one in the wrong.”

“The god Merina, huh… Have you ever seen her?”

“Yes. Well, technically Yuribel saw her, not me. Memories with high security clearances have so many locks that the information is full of holes, but… she was at the Subordinate Heaven rank and looked like a quite young girl. Oh, and I don’t think she got along very well with the other gods. How should I put it? A voluntary loner?”

“I see. That’s the vibe.”

Just then, Elizabeth’s voice drifted through the sound of the rain from a distance.
It sounded like she was asking if I had died in the bathroom or something… I really don’t understand why she’s so obsessed with my every move.

“I should go.”

“What do you plan to do?”

I smiled as I picked up Sis, who was lingering at my feet.

“For now, I’m going to head toward the place Kelly mentioned.”

“Toward the Demon King’s Castle?”

“Well, we still have a long way to go. A journey of 650 kilometers will take at least a month, so I’ll keep an eye on things. If you’re right, it means something is wrong with Kelly, so I’ll have to act quickly… and if Kelly is right, we’ll be able to escape this place, so wouldn’t that be good in its own way?”

“I suppose so. That makes sense.”

“Mister! Mister!! Misteeeerr!!!”

“…Huh? Did something actually happen? …Sis, Bell. Anyway, I’m going. See you later.”

“Yes. Please come in and play with us even when you don’t have business.”

“Sure. I’ll do that.”

When I returned to the table, sure enough, Elizabeth was jumping around and making a scene.

“This is bad! This is bad!! I completely forgot!!”

The group stared with wide eyes at her sudden outburst in the middle of the meal. Of course, that included me, having just arrived.

“What should I do? Why did I forget this!?”

Her voice and expression were so urgent that I asked Elizabeth without even realizing it.

“Why? What is it? What happened? Did you remember something important?”

The girl pressed her palms against her cheeks, looking like a live-action version of Munch’s The Scream.

“No, that’s not it! My birthday party! Today was supposed to be the day of my birthday party!! I invited so many people!!”

At those words, Chel made a face like she was itching to give the girl a noogie.

“…As far as I know, your birthday is in October.”

“Huh? Yeah. October.”

“It’s May right now.”

“What does my birthday being in October have to do with having a birthday party in May? I throw a birthday party every month!”

“…”

“Wh-why are you giving me that look? Do you have any idea how popular my birthday parties are? Every month, my manager selects exactly one hundred followers and sends out invitations. Everyone is desperate to get their hands on one. Each invitation lets you bring up to five guests, so the mansion is packed to the rafters every single time—”

Chel waved her hand dismissively, having heard enough to get the gist.

“Birthday party, my foot. Basically, it’s just an event where people gather to suck up to a sucker like you and grab whatever crumbs they can. Let me guess—do you hand out expensive stuff there?”

“Well… yeah? I give out low-rank artifacts as party favors… sometimes I throw around some cash… a little jewelry too? But as the host, isn’t that just common courtesy?”

Kelly clicked her tongue.

“Good grief… I thought you looked pretty ragged for someone who earns as much as you do, but you were dumping all your money into stuff like that?”

“Sigh. Honestly, this is the problem with loners… you don’t understand the importance of communication and bonding. That’s why you don’t have any friends.”

“Friends don’t take your money, you total idiot.”

“Uh…”

“You… how many friends do you have that aren’t tied to money? I mean, friends you hang out with without paying a ‘friendship tax’?”

The girl fell silent for a moment before hesitantly counting on her fingers.

“Well… when I had the most, it was six. Right now, it’s fo—four…?”

Wait, six and then four. Don’t tell me…

Realizing the meaning behind those numbers, Kelly smacked the back of Elizabeth’s head.

Whack!

“Ow!”

“I’m going crazy. Seriously. Pets are not friends!!”

Indeed. Those were the number of pets Elizabeth kept. Originally there were six, but after the Cyclops died and during the process of taming the Lion, she had lacked ‘slots’ and released two of her existing monsters. Then Leo had filled one of those spots.

“In a situation like this, just say you don’t have any, you loser. Hey, did you invest in anything? Like companies or financial products?”

“Huh? Y-Yeah… My manager said it’s a waste to let money sit idle, so they introduced me to some people… said they were trustworthy…”

“…How much?”

“Every single cent I earned…”

Following Kelly’s scolding, Chel also shook her head in disbelief.

“This is exactly what happens when a brat who knows nothing gets too much power. Hey. Once you get back this time, send that manager to us immediately. I’m going to split their head open. Bring your entire investment portfolio, too. Wow, this is mind-boggling. Consider it a stroke of divine luck that you got caught by us. Good grief, you poor thing…”

Ailet, who had been focused on her meal in silence until now, finally chimed in.

“Elizabeth. Just in case… you don’t happen to have any debt, do you?”

“…W-Well, they said the investment was a l-little short… but if I could just get past this one hurdle, the returns would be several times the original amount…”

“…Tsk, tsk, tsk.”

Shocked by the sight of Ailet silently shaking her head, Elizabeth collapsed sideways.

“Augh…”

She stayed like that for about three seconds before suddenly and dramatically reviving like a hero who had just swallowed a Phoenix Feather.

“N-No! I have friends who aren’t connected to money! Three of them, in fact!”

“Really?”

“Yeah! There are three right here! Big Sis Chel! Big Sis Kelly! Big Sis Ailet!”

The three designated friends snorted in unison and turned their heads away.

“Who’s your friend?”

“I don’t have any loser friends.”

“Neither do I.”

“…!!”

Clutching her chest, the girl collapsed once more, this time looking truly dead.

“Elizabeth?”

…There was no response. She seemed to be a mere corpse now.

Seeing her trembling as she messed up her dark blonde hair was so pitiful that I finally extended a helping hand to the girl.

“Poor child. Do not be so disappointed. You still have me.”

The girl twitched in response. Still lying face down, she poked her head up slightly to look at me.

“…Mister?”

“Don’t worry. I’ll be your friend. Actually, why wasn’t I counted as a friend in the first place? It’s a bit hurtful now that I think about it.”

“…”

Huh? What’s with this silence?

“…I can’t. I can’t be friends with you, Mister.”

“Uh… am I not qualified to be your friend?”

“No, it’s not that. Mister is… more than a friend… hmm…”

“Huh?”

“Anyway, no. You’re forbidden from being a friend. Go be friends with the sisters over there. I’m not being friends with you.”

Wow. That hurts. I thought I had been pretty nice to her… I guess I’ll never understand what goes on in the head of a high schooler(?) anyway.

Regardless of whether Elizabeth cursed the world or not upon realizing the tragic reality that she wasn’t a “super-socialite” but actually a friendless loser, we planned our future itinerary.

We relied heavily on the new map Kelly had drawn for most of the plan. Surprisingly, that map was so precise and accurate that it was virtually identical to the one the angel had manifested in my Imagery.

Except for the one detail—that a Sanctuary was marked where the Demon King’s Castle should be.

Having roughly finalized the plan, we waited for the rain to subside a bit the following morning before officially beginning our move.

“Kiddo Ellie. Time to start earning your keep.”

With half-dead eyes, Elizabeth looked up groggily at Chel.

“…My keep? Can a friendless person like me even do something so difficult…? What do I need to do?”

“You were at the meeting yesterday, what are you talking about?”

“Ah… scouting, right?”

Right. This was the Demon Territory, a place crawling with monsters. Our combat power was formidable, but I’d bet Elizabeth’s nonexistent friends that if we just strolled around recklessly, we’d be corpses soon enough.

Therefore, our basic strategy was to scout ahead using Elizabeth’s pets before moving in.

It was a strategy based on the fact that most monsters, except for a few highly aggressive ones, don’t react very sensitively to other monsters.

“But you know, right? My pets aren’t for scouting. Unlike other Tamers, I’ve completely closed myself off from that sort of thing. I can’t even share senses with my pets. All I can do is the most basic communication.”

For the record, Elizabeth wasn’t just an ordinary Tamer. She held a high-tier vocation specifically titled ‘Bring Downer’ (the one who brings ruin).

The Bring Downer was a combat-focused Chosen Vocation where the pets received stat bonuses based on how strong and aggressive they were. All her support abilities were specialized for beating, killing, and smashing things…

In exchange, she suffered penalties in terms of utility.

The fact that she couldn’t even perform ‘Vision Sharing,’ a skill most Tamers could use from the start, was truly…

“It doesn’t matter. I’ve taken all of that into account.”

“If you say so…”

“You said you have three left, excluding the tin-can lion? The chick that follows you around like a passive (Saint Sol), the Twin-Horned Wolf, and a Carbuncle, right?”

“Yeah. The wolf is a mount. The carbuncle is long-range support. Both are 8-stars. If someone has to scout, it should be the wolf.”

“A Twin-Horned Wolf… is that guy as fast as the ones we know?”

“Faster. Because of my support skills and stat bonuses.”

“What about the size?”

“He’s been bound to me for a long time, so there’s a lot I can modify. Size is one of those things. I can summon him in any size I want, from a one-seater to a ten-seater.”

“How small can you make him?”

Elizabeth wiggled her fingers, trying to gauge the size, before scowling as if she had grown bored with the task.

“Just watch. I’ll summon the one-seater size now. …I summon you in the name of your master, Elizabeth. Come forth, O black beast who has made a covenant with me.”

Grrrrr…

No sooner had Elizabeth finished her incantation than a flash of white light crackled in the air, sketching out a faint shape.

And at the end of it, a sleek black beast with glistening fur appeared.

It was the black wolf with two horns, known as the Twin-Horned Wolf.