Chapter 57: The Truth and the Aftermath

We, having returned the Megalo Whale to the open sea, came back to the Good Loser, bringing the captured Demon with us.

“Oh, you’re safe, boy!”

“We’re so glad you’re all unharmed!”

Barn-san and Mayleen-san, seeing our return, welcomed us on deck. For some reason the deck was soaking wet, but well, a lot must have happened. Mainly the aftereffects.

“So, did you get any information? Ah, no, since the Megalo Whale went out to the offing, it must have gone well.”

“By the way, who is that over there? He has a rather strange appearance…”

Mayleen-san looked at the Demon with a puzzled face.

“Ah, he’s the culprit of this incident.”

“What? This man is the culprit!?”

“Yes, he’s the culprit, a Demon.”

I pushed the Demon out in front of Barn-san and the others.

“Hoh, a Demon, you say… A Demon?”

Barn-san tilted his head, like “Huh?” Mayleen-san also mused, “A Demon?”

“”…!!?””

And then, as if remembering something at the same time, both of them jolted.

“”A Demoooooon!?””

Wow, perfect sync.

“Yes, a Demon.”

“A-A Demon, you mean that!? The demon race that once tried to destroy humanity!?”

“You mean that Demon, said to be a scion of the evil god who led the world to ruin!?”

“Yes, that Demon.”

They’re called various things, but the correct answer is that Demons are actually invaders from another world. Humans from another world, that is the true identity of Demons. But it’s strange. I thought most knights and nobles knew that.

“So, I’ll hand him over to you two as the culprit who knows the whole truth.”

“U-Umu…”

Barn-san, having a Demon unceremoniously pushed at him, was taken aback.

“It’s fine. I’ve restrained him with a binding magic item, so don’t worry.”

“Y-You had such a valuable item!?”

“I got it by chance.”

The materials, that is. Saying that, I showed the magic item binding the Demon to the two of them.

Or rather, I thought everyone used binding magic items to capture criminals. Ah, right. These people are nobles, so they don’t do lowly jobs like capturing criminals. Yup yup, in my previous life too, people who only gave orders from above didn’t know such normal things. That makes sense.

Oops, I should attach a magic-sealing magic item just in case. I’m sealing his magic with my own magic right now, so it’ll be bad if the magic wears off. I quietly attached a magic-sealing magic item to the Demon.

“Also, this is a magic-sealing magic item. Please be careful not to remove it.”

“A-Ah. Of course.”

“T-To have such a thing… isn’t that national treasure class?”

Ahaha, what an exaggeration.

“W-Well then, let’s have you tell us everything.”

Barn-san attempted to interrogate the restrained Demon. However, the Demon looked at Barn-san and snorted.

“Hah, don’t make me laugh, human. Someone like you… Aaaaah, sorry, please don’t eat it! The wing! Not the wiiiiing!!”

The Demon tried to refuse Barn-san’s interrogation, but when Fluffy, who had jumped onto his head, unceremoniously started chewing on his wing, he instantly declared defeat. Are Demon wings delicious?

“I-I’ll talk! I’ll confess! So please do something about this thiiiiing!!”

I picked up Fluffy from the completely defeated Demon, and Fluffy looked proud, as if saying “Voila!”, and gave me a playful bite. Is he telling me to praise him?

“There, there.”

Well, he did make the Demon confess obediently, so I should praise him honestly here. Just then, Fluffy started trembling. Ah, no. This is the sign for pee. I hurriedly put Fluffy down on the ground, and Fluffy started letting out a little tinkle. Man, that was close…

“Owaaaaaaa!?”

Crap, I put him on top of the Demon.

“A-Awesome, not only did he capture that legendary Demon, but he used his pet to torture him, and then peed on the Demon after he confessed.”

“Completely breaking the opponent’s spirit. What a terrifying torture technique.”

Wait, I wasn’t thinking that! The crew members are looking at me from a distance, stunned.

“No, wait, that is not torture.”

Mayleen-san was the one who defended me. Thank goodness, she understands properly.

“Rex-dono did not lift a finger. The pet biting the wing and peeing was its own spontaneous… no, seemingly spontaneous action. In other words, Rex-dono did not perform torture. This is, strictly speaking, within the bounds of interrogation. After all, it was something the pet did on its own. Moreover, since the pet is an apparently adorable dog? it looks even less like torture. This will be a new revolution in interrogation for interrogators.”

Sh-She doesn’t understand at all!

“I-I see, a dog? So it can’t be helped, right.”

“Ah, but isn’t it a cat?”

“What on earth is that creature?”

Ugh, the misunderstanding isn’t cleared up at all, but well, since the doubt shifted to Fluffy, let’s resume the interrogation now. While I have the chance!

“So, let’s have you answer.”

“…W-We were carrying out a plan to launch a major offensive against humanity. As one of the operations for that, I was ordered to use a bioweapon utilizing a Megalo Whale. I was told to crush the seaside countries using the Megalo Whale’s magic power.”

That giant magic item.

“Crush!?”

Mayleen was aghast, being told her country was to be ‘crushed’ rather than ‘ruled’.

“It’s true. They were trying to manifest a mighty destructive power by condensing the magic power of the 5km-long Megalo Whale parent.”

“W-Was it really something that would blow a country away?”

Mayleen asked me, finding it unbelievable.

“It was a considerable amount of magic power, so maybe not the entire country, but the royal capital and surrounding towns and villages would undoubtedly have been annihilated.”

“A-Annihilated…”

Mayleen’s face turned pale and she trembled, realizing a situation she had never imagined was progressing without her knowledge.

“Please rest assured. The magic item was dismantled and the Megalo Whale also returned to the open sea. The immediate crisis has passed.”

“Y-You did something like that for us!?”

“Yes, it happened to be the kind of thing I could manage somehow.”

“The kind of thing you could manage somehow…”

Mayleen is dumbfounded, but if you know even a little about magic items, disassembly is easy.

Now, more importantly, the continuation of the interrogation.

“Was the Kraken appearing in the Inner Sea also part of that?”

“Yes. I, who drove the Megalo Whale close to the inland, brought Krakens so it could live even inland where there was little food. Though it seems some escaped.”

I see, so some of them escaped into the Inner Sea. With the Megalo Whale parent’s huge body, it’s impossible to pass through there. Well, it seems the fry followed, though.

“Why did you go to the trouble of giving it food?”

Barn-san asked the Demon.

“To buy time until the magic extraction into the magic item was complete, and as decoy bait to lure it further inland.”

I see, even if you drive it with attacks, it’s highly possible it would refuse to approach inland due to its biological instincts.

“What are the operation details? What other countries are being targeted?”

“I don’t know. I was only told the operation details I’m in charge of; I haven’t been told the operation details of other agents.”

“Don’t lie! How can someone belonging to an organization not know their comrades’ operation details!”

Barn-san flew into a rage, but I think the Demon is right. Because even in human countries, low-ranking officers are only given information related to their own operations, and common soldiers, in the worst case, might not even properly understand their own operation. Or rather, in my previous life, such experiences were quite common. For both enemies and allies.

But well, that’s a job for experts. In reality, just because I think so, it’s possible he really does have some important information. Therefore, I’ll leave the Demon’s interrogation to Barn-san and the others. After all, our job was just to investigate the Megalo Whale and Kraken coming to the Inner Sea.

“To think the Demons were plotting a major offensive… We must hurry and inform the country of this.”

Mayleen looked pressed and ordered her subordinate to report. For Mayleen and the others, whose country was actually targeted, it’s a problem that must be dealt with quickly.

“Our country too. Vice Commander, we will take this Demon back to the home country immediately and request a strategy meeting be held!”

“Understood. This is not just our problem, after all. We will also need to contact neighboring countries.”

The Vice Commander ordered his subordinates, and the Good Loser’s anchor was weighed.

“W-Wait a minute! The Demon was captured in our country’s territory. His custody should be secured by our country!”

“No, no, we are the ones who brought the information on the Megalo Whale. And one of our countrymen is the one who captured him.”

Ah, this is bad. Let’s get out of here quickly.

“Well then, we’ll be taking our leave now.”

“Wait a minute! You are the person of merit in this investigation! As a citizen of our country, I want you to participate in the detailed meeting.”

“Please wait, Rex-san and the others are our country’s saviors. Therefore, please let us treat you as our country’s honored guests!”

Yup, this is not good. Not good at all. They’re fully intending to use me.

“Umm, this seems like it will be a long talk, so could you sign these papers first? What we were asked to do by the Adventurer’s Guild was investigate the Megalo Whale, and that is complete since we were able to get details from the Demon. So, if it becomes a story involving the Demon, it will be a separate contract.”

“Mu, is that how it is? Hmm, indeed that might be so.”

When I held out the guild request completion certificate along with a pen to Barn-san, Barn-san obediently took it and signed for receipt.

“Is this good?”

“Yes, thank you very much. With this, the Megalo Whale investigation is complete.”

So… I turned around and called Liliera and the others over.

“What?”

“What is it, Bro?”

“What is it, boy?”

Barn-san tilted his head at our actions.

“Air Shade!”

I activated a blinding wind magic on the deck.

“U-Uwah!? What!?”

“We’d like to be excused from troublesome things, so farewell!”

“W-What!? What does that!?”

Ignoring the surprised Barn-san and the others, I gathered everyone and activated transfer magic, returning to the Royal Capital.

◆

“Okay, we’re back.”

When everyone opened their eyes, this was already my house in the Royal Capital.

“Eh? Is this your house, Bro?”

“Since when… wait, transfer magic!?”

Everyone was confused by the sudden transfer, but they gradually grasped the situation and calmed down.

“But why did we suddenly return to the Royal Capital? Those people still seemed to have business with you, Rex-san.”

“Yeah! They said they’d treat you like a state guest as the country’s savior!”

“No, that kind of thing is troublesome.”

“Troublesome…”

Mina looked at me, amazed.

“Is it fine? It was a chance to become a hero.”

“Liliera-san, ‘hero’ is a title used to bind someone with chains called honor and use them as you please. I thought living freely as an adventurer was far more important than such a meaningless title.”

“How can you abandon honor so easily?”

Liliera says, amazed, but honor is just a hindrance.

“If you become a hero, you’ll gain status and wealth. You could even become a noble, you know?”

That’s exactly what I don’t want. I want nothing to do with being a noble. At best, I’d be given a low-ranking noble title, be looked down upon by other nobles as an upstart, and if anything happened, I’d be told to take the lead for the sake of the country as a noble who stands above others.

“I have no interest in noble status or honor. Besides, I already have more wealth than I can throw away.”

“Come to think of it, that’s true.”

Honestly, I already possess a considerable fortune. I understand the prices in the Royal Capital, so unless I use money in some very strange way, I probably won’t become penniless anytime soon. Really, being an adventurer is profitable. Honestly, it’s unimaginable from when I was a hero.

“Besides, if I became a noble and chose a stable life, wouldn’t you lose your reason to follow me, Liliera-san?”

Liliera’s purpose seems to be repaying her debt to me. Well, as for me, I want Liliera herself to be the one to shine. I want her, who has lived an unfortunate life since childhood, to become happy enough to offset all her misfortune until now.

“Well, if you put it that way, it certainly would be troubling. I haven’t repaid the debt I received from you at all yet. Or rather, I feel like the debt is increasing…”

“Ahahaha.”

“In other words, Bro Rex is an amazing guy who doesn’t even care about petty fame! Since he can say something like being a hero of the country doesn’t matter, as expected, Bro is amazing!”

“Mhm, it’s normal for Rex to blow away this side’s common sense.”

“That’s true. Even if he saved the world, Rex-san would probably just laugh and say ‘I didn’t do anything great’.”

“So true.”

Wait, somehow I feel like I’m being overestimated? There are plenty of people in the world who can do what I can do.

But, well, everyone seems convinced, so I guess that’s fine.

◆

We, who returned to the Royal Capital, went back to Fizio Town once to submit the request completion documents to the guild. And after procedures to have the reward deposited into our guild savings, we returned to the Royal Capital again.

Part of this request’s reward involves the Inner Sea Knight Order, so there’s a possibility we won’t get it transferred until Barn-san returns. And meeting Barn-san again would likely lead to troublesome talks, so I had it deposited into our account. Well, either way, with the Demon incident, a long-term stay is certain. Fortunately, we have a mountain of savings, so we don’t need to worry about money.

So, we, who returned to the Royal Capital, were gazing at the guild’s request board.

“Hmm, as expected, there are still no decent requests.”

Due to the influence of the previous long-term subjugation, the number of requests is still low.

“Hey hey, let’s go on this one next.”

“It takes quite a few days.”

“But the pay is good.”

“That’s true. It seems good for the number of members too.”

Amidst that, Jairo and the others, who were still low rank, were examining requests without problems. Lucky, they look like they’re having fun.

“I wonder if I can ask them to lower my adventurer rank.”

“What stupid thing are you saying?”

I got scolded by Liliera.

“You became S-Rank, the peak of adventurers, and yet if you say such things, other adventurers will get mad at you.”

Hmm, as for me, I don’t even know why I became S-Rank, so I don’t mind dropping, or rather, wouldn’t it be better if I did?

“So, what are you going to do? Go to another town again? Or rest for a while?”

Let’s see. There’s no work even if I stay in the Royal Capital, and if I look too free, the Guild Master might guide me to another strange request. If so, maybe…

“I’ve been moving a bit too flashily recently, so maybe going to a faraway country might be good.”

“A bit?”

Just a bit. I’m about to be marked by nobles and the Knight Order, so maybe it’s good to be active in a foreign country until the heat cools down. I can return home immediately using Gate.

“Since it’s a good opportunity, maybe I’ll try going to a place I’ve never seen or heard of, like the Inner Sea.”

Besides, Liliera can fly now, so it might be good to go to a nostalgic place.

“Alright, I’ve decided! Next, let’s go on a trip to a foreign country!”

“I’ll follow the path you’ve decided on. Anyway, wherever you go, some outrageous incident will probably happen.”

Wait, please don’t talk about me like a trouble maker.

“Ah, right. Since it’s a good opportunity, maybe I’ll put the rough gemstone I got from the Megalo Whale up for auction.”

Since I’ve come all the way back to the Royal Capital, I should ask for a monster material purchase.

“Stop.”

For some reason, Liliera stopped me.

“Eh? Why?”

“Why, you ask? You just decided to lay low for a while, right? So why are you trying to throw in a spark to make a bigger commotion?”

“Eh?”

“Don’t ‘eh’ me!”

Since she stopped me so desperately for some reason, I’ll just sell the Megalo Whale rough stone in another country. If selling it in this country will cause a commotion, it should be fine in another country!

“Alriight! Then, time to prepare for the trip!”

Fufufu, traveling the world for a purpose other than fighting, what a strange feeling. I hope there are many mysterious places like the Inner Sea.

◆

I am the King of Monsters. Today, I devoured the winged prey my master caught.

Fooooooh!? What is this!? It’s like magic power is overflowing in my body!! Wonderful! This prey is a wonderful ingredient! I feel like wings have grown on my body!

Ku, kukuku… Kuhahahahahaha!! Foolish human! You seem to think you’ve tamed me, but in reality, you were merely offering prey to a beast you can’t handle!

Now, for the main dish. Yes, I will deign to devour your flesh!!

Nom nom… Am am…

Umm, I can’t bite through it at all.

“※※※※※※※※※※※”

Ah, no, it’s nothing, I was just kidding, Master?

Pat.

Master’s hand is placed on my head. He began to rub my head with exquisite strength. What? A sacrificial ritual? Am I being eaten?

Tinkle tinkle tinkle~. I peed.