Chapter 212

As expected of a place close to the back alleys, three punks came sauntering out.

Unable to do anything in the back alleys, which were the territory of the Order of Yorus, they were trying to play tricks the moment they left their sight.

……Of course, unlike the thugs of Dragon Street, they were genuine punks.

*Rumble—*

Roan scowled deeply.

‘Who is burning with love with whom?’

How unlucky for them to dare associate a black mage with a Saintess?

Furthermore, Roan was a boy only in body; the soul within was an adult who had aged plenty.

‘Just as expected of low-life punks…….’

Roan displayed his displeasure without filtering it.

‘Abyss Blood Spear, Abyss Blood Spear, Abyss Blood Spear.’

Roan generously gifted them one Abyss Blood Spear each, fair and square, in the blink of an eye after not using it for a long time!

With the Circuit Ring equipped, the speed was even faster than usual.

*Thud— thud— thud—!!!*

— ???!?!?!!!?!?

— W-What is this?

To the punks, it probably felt as though a pillar had suddenly slammed down right in front of their noses with a loud roar.

*Rumble—!!*

Roan did not stop there but even summoned Blood Fragments, wrapping them around himself and Sion as if to protect them.

Combined with the dim night atmosphere of Gilsburg despite the lights, an immense pressure filled the street.

— H-Hieeeek—!!!

— A-A Great Demon King!!

— Save me!!!

The punks, who had merely tried to harass ordinary civilians, immediately tried to flee, but.

*Flop—*

Their legs had already given out, leaving them sprawled on the ground, screaming at the top of their lungs.

However, even that did not last very long.

— Where do you bastards think you are when Lord Yorus is watching with his two eyes wide open!

— How dare you toward someone who is reciting Volume 3 of Yorus!

— Haha, have a good time. Farewell!

*Thud— thud— thud—*

The holy knights of the Order of Yorus had appeared like shadows, knocked the punks unconscious, and dragged them away.

Murmurs like “If you wanted to do this, you should have done it during the day,” could be heard faintly.

‘Yorus is not watching with his eyes open.’

Roan pointed out a setting error in the holy knights’ words.

Yorus, the God of Night, always walks around with his eyes closed to make even his own vision dark.

……Of course, since he is a god, he sees perfectly fine himself.

In any case, the suddenly appearing punks made a swift exit.

*Frizzle……*

Roan’s magic also vanished as if it had never been cast.

The only trace left was the ground where the Judgment of Holy Blood had struck.

However, Roan’s displeasure did not disappear completely either.

“So, what were you trying to say?”

Roan looked at Sion beside him and asked.

Sion’s eyes shook as if an earthquake had occurred.

‘I-I really can’t do this!’

She had forgotten since she hadn’t seen Roan fight properly lately.

Roan was truly terrifying!

“T-Then…… O-Of course, speaking formally is my habit. Hahaha…….”

‘That’s so strange……’

Anyone could tell she had changed what she originally wanted to say.

Roan frowned slightly, wondering what it could have been.

“H-Hieeeek──!!!”

At that, Sion lost her color and stepped back as if bouncing away from Roan.

It was clear that Roan wanted her to speak informally to him.

But even if she were beaten to death, speaking informally to Roan was just too terrifying.

Sion, furiously racking her brains in her own way to find a compromise.

As expected of the owner of a brilliant intellect, she found a decent move.

“T-Then, Roan…… I’ll call you Roan instead of Darc!”

“Huh? Ah.”

Roan tilted his head.

Come to think of it, Sion had not only spoken formally but had also persistently called him Darc.

“Well, I don’t care.”

It didn’t matter either way.

In truth, whether Sion spoke formally or informally was not something Roan concerned himself with either.

He had only brought it up to change the mood, hoping Sion wouldn’t blame herself too much over a minor mistake.

On the path heading toward the Holy Emperor in the future, there would be numerous crises and hardships, so she shouldn’t get depressed over tailing someone just once.

……And if they were close enough for the Holy Emperor to call him by his name, she probably wouldn’t kill him right away even if his identity was exposed.

‘Indeed, I must somehow raise Sion to the position of Holy Emperor. That way, everything I’m doing now will serve as insurance. Then again, if I think about it that way, just in case, maybe Yusina or Espard too……’

Roan fell deep in thought, deciding that keeping a reasonable distance from the Saints and Saintesses might be the best path.

They were both a heavy burden and powerful insurance.

But with Roan’s skill and knowledge, it was not an entirely impossible idea.

*Chuck—*

Roan smiled faintly at the rosy future pictured in an instant.

Sion, seeing that smile, also felt deeply moved.

‘Phew, he is satisfied with just this level. I won’t have to worry about being attacked for the time being. A-Ah, not that Roan would ever attack me, though……’

As expected, choosing to call him by his name rather than his last name seemed to be a highly appropriate compromise.

Although their thoughts differed greatly, both individuals achieved satisfactory results!

“Shall we head back to Jane’s Horn now?”

“Sure, Roan!”

When Roan proposed with a bright expression, Sion nodded vigorously and took her spot beside him.

Roan and Sion arrived at the hotel in high spirits.

However, the moment they stepped into the hotel lobby, they ran into a crisis.

“You guys…….”

An unusual voice, an unusual atmosphere, an unusual expression.

The person calling Roan and Sion with a literally unusual presence was none other than.

“S-Saintess?”

Yusina.

Goodness knows since when, but Yusina had been sitting on the lobby sofa, and the moment the two entered, she stood up and stumbled over like a zombie.

With Locke asleep on her head, she indeed seemed to have waited for quite a long time.

‘What kind of nonsense is she going to spout now?’

Roan instinctively knew he was in trouble the moment he saw her.

Yusina was someone who displayed a competitive spirit in odd places.

It went without saying that whenever that competitiveness emerged, quite troublesome things would happen to the player.

*Step—*

Coming right in front of Roan and Sion, Yusina asked with her hands on her hips.

“Just where on earth did you two go together?”

“……From where did you watch?”

It seemed she had seen Roan and Sion going out.

Yusina giggled and said proudly.

“Well, you see~ I was returning after buying gifts to give to the juniors, right? But then, a kid who looked exactly like Roan left the inn~ and right after, a kid who looked exactly like Sion left too!”

‘She saw everything.’

Indeed, the world of “God & Devil” was both vast and narrow.

“My intuition is great~ Out with it~ What did you two do?”

Yusina smirked slyly as if she had caught them red-handed.

Sion jumped at the way she spoke as if something was going on between Roan and Sion.

……It was true that something had happened, but it would not be the kind of thing Yusina was imagining.

“I-It’s nothing like that, Saintess!”

“Hehe, I don’t believe Sion. Roan, who can’t lie, tell me the truth.”

Yusina leaned her face slightly closer to Roan with a more smirkish expression.

‘If I tell the truth, she probably won’t believe it instead.’

Just think about it.

There was an item imbued with dark mana called the Corrupted Holy Mark in the Secret Vault Number 3 of the Order of Yorus in Gilsburg.

Knowing precisely that it existed, opening the secret entrance to the Order of Yorus’s temple, deceiving everyone completely, and entering the branch manager’s office.

Receiving the code to enter the Secret Vault Number 3, and just as he was about to retrieve the item and leave, Sion, who had tailed him, got caught, so he had no choice but to bring her along?

If he came out with this story straight, Yusina would find it absolutely absurd.

She would ask why he was lying so elaborately when he could just say they went out to play secretly.

Thus, when Roan could not answer easily, Yusina seemed convinced that her thoughts were correct.

“See~ What kind of great adventure did you two have?”

It was indeed a great adventure, but it likely wasn’t the kind Yusina expected.

Sion spoke to Roan with a flustered gaze.

“Roan, what should we do……?”

It was merely a normal sentence asking Roan for a solution.

*Boom──!!!*

“W-W-W-What???!!!”

Hearing that, Yusina reacted as if she were about to faint from shock.

*Chirp—?*

Even Locke, who had been sleeping soundly on her head, was startled awake.

Yusina shuddered, rubbing her arms as if getting goosebumps just from imagining it.

“Ugh, I knew it! I knew it! I knew it! You two had a blast all by yourselves!”

“……Just why.”

Roan could not fathom at what point Yusina had flared up like that.

“Just why……? Did you just say, ‘just why’……?”

Yusina wore an expression of disbelief.

“Sion just called you Roan just now……!”

‘Then she would call me Roan, not Demona…… Ah.’

‘What a sensitive Saintess.’

Roan thought.

“It just happened that I returned with Sion, but it is not what you think.”

Since it was clear that leaving it like this would make the rest of the trip—no, even after returning to school—highly troublesome, Roan tried to clear up the misunderstanding for now.

Even she might believe it if he phrased it well.

But his opponent was Yusina.

“Ugh…… How scandalous, how scandalous…… Kids these days, really, it was unimaginable in my time. What is Acherandir coming to!”

Yusina poured out the classic speech of an old fogey!

Then, she backed away as if telling them not to even speak to her, and rushed to the elevator.

The elevator, which happened to be stopped in the lobby, instantly took Yusina in and went up to the guest room floor.

*Daze—*

Roan and Sion, left behind after suddenly incurring a heap of misunderstandings, exchanged bewildered glances.

“It’s really nothing like that…….”

Sion also seemed quite aggrieved.

If there was actually something between them, she wouldn’t even have an excuse!

Right now, she had so many things she wanted to say she could write an entire book.

It was just that they decided to call each other by name instead of their last names from now on.

‘And if we’re going by that standard, there are plenty of scandalous people around, aren’t there……?’

Even without looking far, she called him by his name himself.

Roan scowled deeply and spoke to Sion.

“……Let’s go up too.”

“Ah, y-yes!”

Since it was clearly an atmosphere where she shouldn’t provoke him, Sion decided to just follow without saying anything.

* * *

*Click—*

When Roan entered his room, Bell and Charlotte, who were sleeping soundly on the bed, lifted their heavy eyelids.

[Eh…… master…… mm…….]

“……Just sleep.”

They seemed to want to greet him, but it was merely at the level of babbling.

Even that instantly closed their eyes as Roan gently stroked their heads.

It was already a late hour, so it would be even harder for the young holy beasts to stay awake.

Roan turned the desk lamp to its lowest brightness and read through the information Lesper had given him without missing a detail.

‘Well, for the most part, the way to lure these kinds of guys is usually similar, but……’

Sure enough, the pattern was not very different from Roan’s expectation.

It was just described separately because dealing in holy relics and magic tools simultaneously was unique.

What they did was no different from ordinary smugglers.

However, they seemed to be exceptionally cautious, so it seemed he would have to put in quite some effort.

*Slide—*

Roan clicked his tongue slightly in regret, halting as he was about to head to bed.

‘It would be perfect if the Prophet’s Eye could be used on the weekends too, what a shame.’

The Prophet’s Eye, an item that allows one to see the branch of a bad ending, that is, the future, in a dream.

However, since he had used it last Monday, the cooldown had not finished yet.

What could he do even if it was a pity?

‘Then again, considering what I did today, worrying about the Prophet’s Eye too would be exhausting.’

Roan laid his head on the pillow without much regret.

The fatigue from the eventful Saturday caused him to fall into a deep sleep the moment he closed his eyes…….

*Rustle—*

“Huh?”