I let out a sigh of relief. It had been quite some time since I was in a fight, but it seemed to go smoothly enough. Fighting the unusual ogre was nerve-racking, but I was determined not to lose, especially with what I said to Laladie.
“Master! Thank you so much for saving Lala! You’re her hero! You were soooooo cool!”
She wrapped her arms around me gleefully, and I tried not to appear too awkward as I stroked her puffy hair. In my line of work, “hero” wasn’t a title I could accept easily.
More importantly, there was business to attend to with Maho and Yuuto. Their party had been thoroughly shattered with the deaths of Longman and Mary, and I was somewhat apprehensive as to their next move. I hoped we wouldn’t find ourselves enemies.
Yuuto forced an uncomfortable smile. “I… Well, I need to do a lot of thinking about what I should be fighting for. In the meantime, I’m quitting being the Hero. I don’t think I’ll be finding my answer anytime soon.”
He had felt quite strongly about his allies, after all, and being betrayed so ruthlessly no doubt weighed on his mind still.
After nodding to him understandingly, I turned to Maho.
“I’m done with the Hero’s Party,” she declared firmly. “I’m not going to work for a country that literally tried to kill me.”
That was a perfectly sensible answer. What were her plans, then? If she wanted to be an adventurer, she could get into whatever guild she wanted with her skills.
Her gaze drifted. “Well, I guess I could join your guild if you’re—”
“Nope.”
Laladie immediately cut her off with surprising speed and ferocity.
Maho narrowed her eyes at the mandrake. “Excuse me? Are you the guildmaster? It’s not your choice to make.”
“Master doesn’t have the time to waste on you, bitch.”
“What did you call me?!”
Maho glared at Laladie with malice, and she smirked back condescendingly. I hated it when people around me fought, and I was never very good at mediating. I cast Yuuto a pleading look.
He smiled faintly. “Haha… You want to go back home, right, Maho? That’s what you’ve already told me.”
That’s right, she mentioned that during our time on watch last night. I didn’t have the chance to tell her back then, but I could send her back to her world if she wanted me to. Just offering was a load off my chest.
“…”
All three of them stared at me in shock. Laladie and Maho were frozen in their playful struggle, each stretching the other’s cheek wide to force them to surrender. Honestly, it was a little unnerving.
Yuuto and Maho reacted at the same time.
“You can do that?!”
“Why didn’t you say so last night?!”
I flinched a little at the sudden pressure, but I nodded in response to Yuuto. I only didn’t tell Maho before because I’d missed the ideal timing, and it never felt like the time to bring it up afterward. I learned the secret of interdimensional transport a little while—no, many years ago now—to help her return to her world. I’d done a lot of research on the topic, and it was within my power to do so.
“YESSS!!” Yuuto cried jubilantly, his earlier discomfort gone.
Maho didn’t say anything, however, and her brow furrowed uneasily. I knew she wanted to go back, but something was keeping her here.
Having a decent idea of her feelings on the matter, I handed her a pendant with a small red gem embedded in it. She accepted it dubiously.
“What’s this?”
“It’s a useful tool, a relic that makes the wearer’s magic function even in worlds devoid of mana. It has a few other uses, like increasing one’s mana stores and making spells more efficient.”
With talent like hers, I knew that she could master interdimensional travel if she put enough practice into it. It would help her to that end if she wanted it to, and if she ever found herself missing our world, she was welcome to pay me a visit at any time. I wouldn’t be dying anytime soon, after all.
“… Y-Yeah!”
Her face lit up like a star, and I smiled back from the bottom of my heart.
✦ ✦ ✦
Before me, Maho and Yuuto were standing at the ready, waiting to be sent back to their world. We hadn’t known each other for long by any measure, but I’d never forget having met them. Our time together was far to eventful for that.
I looked them both in the eyes in turn, then prepared myself to cast the spell that would return them home.
“Could you perhaps hold on for a minute?” said a singsong voice from behind me.
I turned around to see a familiar woman in a priestess’s garb—Anat.
Laladie recoiled in surprise and disgust. “Geh?! What are you doing here?!”
Anat smoothly ignored Laladie and headed right toward me.
“Oh, it’s been far too long, Master! I was so, so lonely without you! Won’t you please soothe my poor, wounded heart?”
With that, she hugged my face tightly into her bosom. She held me a little too tight, in fact, as I began to asphyxiate.
“You slew that ogre with such style and grace,” she cooed. “My heart was aflutter with joy at the sight, and I was getting rather hot and bothered when you penetrated it with your mighty spears!”
I could barely make out what she was saying, let alone reply. She was literally smothering me to death, and I flailed about as I tried to get my point across.
“Ahh, your breath is so blessedly warm!”
She let out an oddly labored sigh, sticking my nose even deeper into her cleavage. It was no use. I wasn’t getting through to her, and I could feel my head beginning to grow light. There were worse ways to die than at the hands of my daughter, so to speak, but I hoped nobody would remember how I went. I couldn’t imagine a worse epitaph than “was smothered to death by boobs.”
“Get off him!!”
“Ahn!”
Luckily, just as I was about to pass out, Laladie grabbed the back of my clothes and yanked me free.
Th-Thank you… I certainly wasn’t keen on dying so soon after giving Maho the pendant.
“The hell are you doing here?!” Laladie barked at Anat, ignoring me. “If that’s all you came here to do, Lala swears she’ll kill you!”
Come on now, Laladie, she’s your guildmate. Why would you ever threaten her with something so cruel?
“Well, giving Master a great, big hug was certainly part of it—but more than that, I’ve come to give Maho-chan an offer of recruitment.”
“M-Me?!” Maho stammered. “Recruit me for what?”
Anat loped closer to the otherworlder with a smile. For some reason, I was reminded of a hyena stalking a rabbit. She turned back to me, a broad smile across her face. For some reason, I got the feeling that something was about to go horribly wrong.
Anat and Maho whispered the spell back and forth, before the priestess took a large step back with a smile.
“Now, let’s put you to the test! What’s your main objective as soon as you get back~?”
“To spread Masterism throughout my world!”
Maho’s eyes were spinning oddly, and she spoke with more enthusiasm than I’d ever heard from her before. Did Anat just brainwash her? How was that even possible in such a short conversation? What happened?!
I took a deep breath. Either way, Maho was going back to her world, and it was my duty to see her off with a smile. I turned to Yuuto. If anything went wrong over there, I knew he could handle it.
“Wh-Why me?!”
The poor boy, already shaken by the sudden power of Anat’s brainwashing, paled at me in the face of his great new responsibility.
✦ ✦ ✦
“It was a pleasure traveling with you, Master.”
“I’ll see you later, I promise! I’ll master how to cross the dimensions, and by the time I’m back, my whole world will be singing your praises! We’ll be unstoppable!”
With that, Yuuto and Maho were whisked away, back to their own world. I was growing increasingly scared of what Maho was planning, but I didn’t doubt that Yuuto would rein her in before things got too out of hand. It was out of their hands, and if she really wanted to spread what would clearly come across as an evil cult, that was her business, and I hoped Yuuto would have her back if the worst came to pass.
Anat turned to Laladie and me with a broad smile. “Well, then, let us head back to our guild. We were all so terribly lonely without you, Master.”
“Dammit!” Laladie cursed under her breath. “Looks like this is the end of Lala and Master’s special date…”
I nodded at Anat. We had been gone for quite some time, after all, and I had some apologizing to do.