“There is one thing I would like to confirm.”
“Yes.”
“Is it normal in the lands beyond ours to cause incidents during one’s free time?”
“I’m so sorry!”
I dropped into the deepest bow of my life, my forehead practically drilling into the floor.
As for how things had ended up like this, it all traced back to the group of mysterious men who had attacked while I was enjoying the hot spring.
“No, truly, I am relieved that Seiichi-dono and the others were unharmed,” Yaiba said, letting out a slow breath. “However, given the circumstances, there was a… remarkable lack of tension for those who were supposedly under attack.”
“I am incredibly, terribly sorry!”
After that incident, Saria and the others had rushed to my side in a panic, which I appreciated, but they had been so flustered that we had all ended up naked. Especially Al and me. We had seen far more of each other than anyone ever should, and I had not been able to withstand the shock, promptly spraying blood from my nose.
As for Al…
“Ugh… I saw it… Is that… normal? That size… T-That big… I don’t… I don’t know… I don’t know anymore…”
She was still muttering to herself, her face bright red. I was truly, deeply sorry.
If I had just abandoned my stupid personal principles and calmly gotten dressed before fighting, none of this tragic nonsense would have happened.
No, wait. The ones at fault were those idiots who attacked someone in the middle of a bath in the first place. If they had not shown up, no one would be suffering like this now. Seriously, what was I supposed to do about that?!
Meanwhile, Saria seemed completely unfazed, acting as if nothing had happened at all. Well, considering she had lived in the forest for so long, where clothing was often optional at best, I supposed being naked barely registered as unusual for her.
In any case, after somehow driving off the attackers, we quickly got dressed and handed over the bound intruders to Yaiba.
Watching me prostrate myself, Yaiba let out a sigh, then fixed me with a serious look.
“Well, enough of that. For now, the fact that Seiichi-dono and the others are safe is genuinely good news.”
“I… I’m sorry…”
“More importantly, the real issue lies with these individuals who attacked us.”
His gaze sharpened as he looked toward a certain spot.
There, the mysterious men I had knocked unconscious were left bound and sprawled on the ground.
All of the strange masks had already been confiscated, so their bare faces were now fully visible. Not that it helped me much. I did not recognize a single one of them, so seeing their faces did nothing to clarify who they were.
That said, Yaiba clearly did recognize them. Or rather, he recognized one man in particular. His expression hardened as his gaze settled on the leader, the one who had ended up losing to me in that absurd showdown.
“To think that you, of all people, would fall in with the enemy…”
“Hmph. Say whatever you like.”
The leader looked to be somewhere in his forties. A large scar ran diagonally across the upper left side of his forehead. His hair was neither tied nor styled like the other samurai’s topknots. Instead, it hung loose and unkempt, giving him the unmistakable look of a bandit or mountain brigand.
“Do you know this guy, Yaiba?” I asked.
“I do,” Yaiba replied grimly. “He comes from a venerable house that once served to protect Muu-sama. While my role was to remain at her side as her personal guardian, his house bore responsibility for military affairs. They existed to deter the other lords through sheer power. This man is the current head of that house.”
“I see…”
Someone who should have been protecting Lady Muu had instead turned his blade on us.
For Yaiba, I could imagine how deep that cut must have gone. Even if their duties differed, they shared the same purpose: to protect Lady Muu. There had to have been a sense of kinship there.
“Why?” Yaiba demanded, his voice tightening. “Why did you do this? You have long kept the other lords in check. You bore that burden yourself. So why now?!”
“Yaiba-dono,” the man replied calmly, almost coldly. “The world is full of things that lie beyond human understanding. I learned that truth the hard way.”
“What are you saying?”
“That being is no human. It is something far more terrifying. A monster.”
“A monster?” Yaiba’s expression darkened even further at the word. “You would betray Muu-sama out of fear of something so vague and ill-defined?!”
“You say that because you do not know!” the man snapped back. “You have never witnessed that being’s true terror! That thing is not merely beyond Muu-sama. It is beyond the ability of this entire world to control!”
“What nonsense are you spouting?” Yaiba shot back.
The leader’s sheer panic left all of us at a loss.
Beyond this world’s ability to handle? What kind of existence even qualifies for that? The thought sent a chill through me. Don’t tell me he’s about to say something like a demon god. Please don’t say it.
“Enough,” Yaiba said at last, cutting him off. “More importantly, the real issue is that these men have discovered this place. The entrance to the Shadow Village should not be so easily found…”
“It’s already too late…”
“What?”
The leader slowly lifted his face, his voice eerily calm.
“Too late? What do you mean by that?” Yaiba demanded.
“I had nowhere left to run. You thwarted the first attack, and I failed to capture Muu-sama.”
“And that changes what, exactly?”
“Can you not see it? I was granted a second chance, one I could not afford to fail. And yet, not only you, but those foreigners over there stopped me as well. Because I failed the first time, that monster placed me under surveillance.”
“What?”
“There are already forces here, sent by that one.”
The moment those words left his mouth, the door to our room burst open. Tsukikage rushed inside, her movements sharp with urgency. On her back, just as expressionless as ever, was Lady Muu.
“Tsukikage-dono?!”
“Yaiba-dono, we must leave at once,” she said. “This village is under attack. Unknown creatures have begun assaulting the Shadow Village.”
“Unknown creatures?!”
Nothing about this situation made sense anymore. As confusion spread through the room, the leader clutched his head and began to tremble.
“They’ve come… It’s over. This country is finished. No, this world is finished. It will all be conquered by that being…”
“You…” Yaiba began.
At that very moment, something came crashing through the window of our room.
Whatever it was—
“Kishaaahhh!”
“W-What is that?!”
“It’s wriggling.”
Just as Origa said, the creature that had suddenly burst into our room looked like something stitched together from mismatched parts. It had the body of a human, but its head resembled that of a fish. Or rather, calling it a fish might have been too generous.
Its face was far more vicious, with bulging, glassy eyes, both of its arms transformed into writhing tentacles that squirmed incessantly.
Seriously, what is it with tentacles lately? Even when I asked the sea and the land for help, everything turned into tentacles. Is this some kind of trend I don’t know about?
“What in the world is that thing?!” Yaiba exclaimed.
“That creature is one of that being’s subordinates,” the captured leader said hoarsely.
“A subordinate?! This disgusting thing?!”
“Kishaaa?!”