444 – Footprints of Chaos

“Forgive my rudeness! Your Majesty —”

A soldier comes into the room and whispered something to the king.

“Hmm, I understand… please take care of the rest, Minister.”

“Understood. Leave it to me.”

And one by one they left the room, The only ones that left are me, Rokuko, the minister, and the maid.

“What should we do now?”

“ah, first I will need you to wear this Hero bracelet. This will also serve as your ID, so please wear it.”

The minister then clapped his hand, and the maid brought forth two bracelets in the tray that she had been carrying.

I inspect it, this is suspicious. No matter how you look at it, isn’t this ID-like slave collar?

I stole a glance at Rokuko.

“Rokuko.”

“Yes, I know.”

It seems that Rokuko is also hesitant to wear it.

The minister showing his worries seeing how we only took the bracelet without wearing it.

This is my chance.

“Can you please wear it?”

“Oh? Is this something you wear on your hand? Ah, I see… our culture is different, sorry… but I can’t wear anything like this bracelet. It’s going against my belief.”

“People in Hero’s country didn’t use bracelets?”

“At least not from where I come from. No one wore ornaments on their arms.”

That is how I decided to play this. I did not say any lies because I was wary of someone monitoring us with lie detection tools somewhere in this vicinity.

The bracelet is supposed to be used by holding them in your hand and put it on your other arms. And it was natural if our culture is different, what more, I don’t want to wear such a questionable thing in my hands.

It also the truth that no one wears bracelets around me. You won’t have a good time sleeping with that attached to you.

“Also, if you only use it for ID, isn’t it enough to just hold it in your hand and show them whenever you need to, right? Or… there’s some inconvenience for you if we don’t use this?”

“No, of course not, but it had some magic to prevent theft, so please wear it.”

“Is that so? Then I will put a string through it and wear it like a necklace. Is that okay with you?”

“…”

“You don’t say… there are clothes in this country but you don’t have strings!? This is bad… okay, let me postpone your request and teach you how to make a string, it’s li….”

“There are! We have strings! Oi! maid over there! Bring string for two people, at once!”

“Oh, thank God. you have it, don’t you scare me like that. It’s not good for my heart.”

Thus, we managed to avoid being forced to wear bracelets, and the said bracelets are now tied with string and we wear it as a necklace.

And I also managed to read that a magic circle was written at the back of the room.

There is a chain of words, some of them said come here, Keima Masuda and forced type

Yeah, this confirmed it. This is Leona’s doing. The only people in this world who know my name correctly as “Masuda Keima” are me and Leona, she is the only one who ever uses the appraisal on me.

Or at the very least, Leona is the one who made this magic circle. I don’t know if she draws it personally or had someone draw it for her.

“So, you want us to save this country from crisis, right? What do you want us to do, then?”

“Since ancient times, the Hero duty is only to vanquish the Demon King and then married with our princess…”

“Ah, I don’t need the latter part, can’t you see this?”

Then I smiled and hugged Rokuko’s shoulder. Rokko trembles a little and then leans her weight against me. Nice reaction.

Look, he said he was going to send me home after I finished my work, but this marriage business is a contradiction to that promise, It’s obviously a trap, right?

“We’re a polygamous nation. All you need to do is leave your descendant here.”

“I decline. My home country doesn’t allow me to have more than one wife.”

“This is Daido country, there’s no problem.”

“I’ll be blunt, since you don’t seem to understand my goodwill on my word choice, but I’m uncomfortable with the idea of having a second life partner, and even more you when you made an offer in front of her. You have done well to demotivate me; I will expect much more reward for this job.”

“…I’m so sorry about this!!”

“Well, let’s treat this one time as a joke, we are from different culture after all.”

“Thank you very much!”

Said the Minister while bowing his head forcefully.

“Rather, can you give me some time? My mind is not prepared to take down the Demon King, this all too sudden for me. I’d like to consider it, so please compile the contents of our work and it’s compensation in a document.”

“…I understand. Hero, for now, let us take you to your room, please rest while I prepare your request.”

The maid then guides us out of the room. It seems the documents I requested will be delivered after dinner.

“Please come, this way.”

“Oh, by the way. We only need one room.”

“Understood, sir.”

Hmm? No, this is fine. I’m only bluffing to the minister but it turned out to be the best way to proceed for now. and I don’t want to leave Rokuko alone, it will be dangerous if the things suddenly go south.

So, I and Rokuko were left alone in the guest room where the maid has taken us.

There’s only one bed in the guest room, it had a window, but since it’s on the third floor there’s no way to get out of here. Unless you can fly.

It’s simple, but this looks like a proper guest room, it’s not a prison or anything. I guess this is just a guest room for common people. Ah, the bed seemed a bit too small for two people to sleep in.

Rokuko was tired and slam down her body on the bed, it turns out the bed is harder than she thought she groaned, “Hoguah!”

“Atata… but Kehma, what does this mean? We’re in Daido country, aren’t we?”

“At least I can confirm that this is Leona doing.”

“What on earth is going on…”

“I don’t know, I really don’t know… the only clue we had is Leona.”

Also, I don’t think we’ve crossed any world. the evidence lies in the fact we didn’t meet any gods, and it’s more likely to had something to do with a teleportation system using ritual magic with multiple people utilizing the magic circle.

”For now. since it’s not like we have anything better to do, let’s send out a reconnaissance. Let’s use DP summon for rats and little birds.”

“Yes. In a situation like this, we can never have too much info.”

Rokuko sends out rats and yellow birds which are common wherever they are and sent them to scout the area. DP function is convenient.

”Oh, there’s also an email function that allows you to email others. I’ll send an email to Haku.”

“That’s right, Haku-nee-sama will surely come to help… what is this?”

Rokuko tried to access the email function but it cannot be used.

“Maintenance…?”

“I don’t think Father need to do that.”

I don’t want to say this… but this is probably also Leona’s works.