Master’s Smile

C70 – Conclusion of Shield of Pride Case

Sorglos and I were back at the previous place before she was blown off by Rust.

Waiting for us was Lucille and the other members of the guild we had temporarily joined, who I thought had already left the area.

After all, no matter how you look at it, it would have been better for them to follow the normal guild rather than taking our side.

Well, that would make finding the elixir to rescue Lucica from the curse a long way off.

She would have been fine for a few more years if I poured my mana into her, though.

(TLN: Mana = “Magical Power” for you out there who don’t know RPG term)

…Ah, right, I didn’t tell them that.

Anyhow, I didn’t expect that they would come back here…

“Oh! Sorglos and Master! You both are safe!?”

The red-haired boy, Lucille, came running up to us, laughing happily.

He got injured a bit, but he seemed to have room to run.

Ooh… Lucille. You are still here….

“Huh? What are you talking about? Everyone is also here, you know?”

Saying so, Lucille turned around and guided my gaze.

“Oh! You guys are late!”

“Aaah, I’m tired….”

“……”

What entered my sight was the rest of the guild members.

Apollo, Heroro, and… is Rieg dead?

Apollo and Heroro were sitting on the ground as if they were having a hard time, and Rieg was lying face down on the ground.

…It’s impossible to compare with their usual calm demeanor.

But they all stayed here.

Ooh… I’m a little moved…

We are a dark guild. I reckoned we were an abhorrence to be avoided by the people, but I never expected them to take our side….

I think this will be a great thing for Sorglos and the other members.

After all, it’s better to have more allies than enemies.

Maho and Yuuto were going to be our allies, but they had gone back to their own world….

“….?”

When I looked back at Sorglos and said, “Isn’t this good?”, she replied with “Eh? What is?” and looked at me with pure eyes showing that she really didn’t seem to understand anything.

…W-Well, there will come a time when the girls understand.

“…Man, seems like the one who’s most tired here is Rieg, huh?”

Heroro, who had said he was tired, chuckled at the sight of Rieg, who was twitching while lying face-down on the ground.

No, he’s really dead, isn’t he?

That was what I thought, but when I took a closer look, I realized that it was just a symptom of him running out of mana.

“Well, it’s not just us, the same goes for them as well so let them sleep for a bit.”

Apollo laughed while saying so.

If that’s the case, shouldn’t you flip his body instead?

It’s too surreal to see….

I thought so and looked at the direction Apollo was pointing.

What lied there were the members of Prishield, excluding Rust, who were all tied together in a single rope.

They were all facing down seemingly to have fainted.

“Maaan~ It was hard to beat them up until they lost their memories!”

“…The one who got the short end of the stick was me having to heal them, though?”

Lucille smiled while saying so.

Aah… so that’s why they have so many bumps on their heads.

Rieg also managed to wake up and his face was distorted with a very depressing look as he flicked the dirt off his face.

“So, did you guys manage to defeat the “Prishield” guy? No, I’m sure you did, since you’re here already. I heard that guy was the strongest of them all.”

Heroro asked.

Aah, yeah, we managed to defeat him, thanks to Sorglos’ efforts.

“Fufu, you can praise me more, you know?”

Sorglos appeared suddenly and looked up at me.

Her sliced-off arm was already back to normal.

I was really panicked and anxious at first, wondering what to do, but she just stuck it back on like it was nothing.

I gave her my mana to see if there was anything I could do, but I was troubled when she let out a lusty voice.

“Oh, now that you mention it, you were talking about Rust-dono, yes? Here.”

After saying so, Sorglos let go of the rope on her hand.

What followed after was Rust, who sprung towards us while being tied at the end of the rope.

Heroro looked into his face.

“…Wha-? I can only see the whites in his eyes.”

“It’s quite common when you’re unconscious, yes.”

“He’s sticking his tongue out too.”

“It happens quite often, yes.”

“Liquid is spilling out from all his holes, though?”

“It happens quite often, yes.”

Sorglos nodded her head in reply to Heroro’s point.

“Ooooiii!!! We were doing our best to play it safe, but what’s the point if you kill him!?”

“Rude. We’re properly keeping him alive, you know? Look?”

As Apollo was looking as if he wanted to cry… or rather, he was already clinging in tears, Sorglos warded him off in annoyance and kicked Rust to show him.

All eyes were on Rust.

“ーーー”

Rust didn’t move.

Looking at him, Sorglos shook her head as if she had given up.

“Look closely, yes? He’s twitching, isn’t he?”

“Ain’t that because he’s at death’s door!?”

“Rieg! Quick! Healing magic!”

“N-Not again….”

With no other choice, Rieg dizzily approached Rust and started casting healing magic.

Then, his injuries slowly healed.

Well, Rust hardly received any injuries, though.

“(We guess healers of Rieg’s caliber won’t be able to restore his lost senses, nerves and memories, yes).”

Sorglos looked uninterested while watching Lucille and the others trying their best to heal Rust.

I guess she had no interest in Rust anymore.

Even though he reaped what he sowed, I kind of felt a little sorry for him….

“…It’s getting quite late, don’t you think?”

After Rieg finished treating Rust, Apollo asked as he looked up at the sky.

He was right, the sun had set and the veil of darkness had fallen.

The sun hadn’t set this low when we were fighting the Prishield members, but Sorglos got carried away with everything soon after…

I also found it a bit difficult to stop myself after seeing Sorglos’ arm get cut off, so it took us a while to get going….

“Hey, if Master and Sorglos don’t mind, why don’t you guys stay at our guild today?”

“Oooh! Great idea! Now that we managed to climb over this mountain, let’s have a drink!”

“Sounds good.”

Lucille told us.

Eh? With your guild?

Hmmm…. But some of the kids might be waiting for me to come back… rather, I hope they are waiting for me.

Also, I don’t like Apollo, who is obviously a drunkard.

He was already looking at us with sparkling eyes as if he was drunk.

As for Rieg… Ah, those are the eyes that want to drag us into trouble.

I guess he always had trouble dealing with Apollo and Heroro who are always drunk.

…Yeah. Sorry Rieg, but I have to declin-….

“Oooh! That sounds great, yes! Please take care of us!”

I’m not sure why, but when I tried to decline, Sorglos raised her hand and accepted the invitation.

W-Why!? Don’t you usually respect my opinion!?

Why is it that only today….

“(Fufufu…. With this, we have a good reason not to go back to the guild and we can extend my time alone with Master. Laladi-dono also used the heroes as an excuse to make Master her own for the night, yes. Hence, we should be allowed to do the same.)”

Sorglos murmured something while in deep thought.

After a while, she came up to me with haste.

“Well, searching for the elixir is going to take a while, yes? Hence, we thought it might be necessary to overcome the barrier between the dark guild and the normal guild while we’re at it.”

Sorglos conveyed her thoughts in a whisper.

U-Ummm, I guess she has a point, huh…?

However, as I thought, not contacting the kids in the guild is still….

I’m not sure if Sorglos could see that I was hesitant with this, but she whispered to me again.

“Then, we will use one of the promises that you said you will do anything to our demand. By all means, we beg you, yes.”

Ugugu… so it came.

Certainly, I have given her two rights to do whatever she wants.

I didn’t think she would be using one of them here….

…well, even if it’s not a promise, I’m very certain I’ll respond to most of the pleas from “Salvation Army (Yelquchira)” members.

…Sigh… If you’re saying it like that, it can’t be helped.

“Alright! Then, let’s go home and grab a quick drink!”

“Ohh! A toast!!!

“No, Lucille, you can’t drink.”

Apollo said while squeezing my shoulders tightly.

For some reason, Lucille was also screaming with excitement, and Rieg calmly retorted to him.

…It’s really a great guild, indeed.

Well, my guild also won’t lose, though!

Thus, Sorglos and I ended up visiting their guild.

…Speaking of which, Heroro didn’t join in that much.

I thought he would gladly join in the fun, given his personality….

“(…The gaze we felt. We’re not sure if it came from Rust-dono and his people, but… it was somehow giving us even more the creeps….)”

I called out to Sorglos, who stopped for a moment and was thinking about something.

Come on, we will leave you behind, you know?

“P-Please, anything but that!!!”

I smiled at Sorglos, who rushed over to me.

“Oh right, what are we going to do with those Prishield guys?”

“Aaah…, we’ll fiddle with their brains again and rewrite them so that they all return to their original places, yes.”

“What do you mean by “fiddle with their brains”!?”