Maybe he wanted even less to do with me after I witnessed how bad his relationship with his father was.
What should I say to him?
“So you know about the building collapse that happened yesterday. About that building, I wanted to ask—”
“I told you, who cares?! I got nothin’ to do with it. Just leave.”
No good approaching from the topic of the incident, either. But what’s with his attitude?
“Tch. What, and you’ve got another lady with big boobs following you around today, too?”
“Huh? What do you mean, lady—?”
He had clicked his tongue at something behind me. I turned around to look.
“Hey, my cute little Akuto!”
Standing there was Elma, the half-succubus.
“Elma… How long have you been there?”
“What’s with the face? You look like a cockatrice that got shot with a BB gun. I came here to give you a souvenir from the Hero’s Village. But when I found you, you were standin’ in front of that middle school lookin’ all suspicious. Anyway, eat up. Freshly roasted using Holy Flame!”
Elma, with her reddish-purple hair, demon horns, and tail, had been part of the former Hero’s party. She kept up a guise that made her look like she was only in her twenties, and showed off her voluptuous body in a tight bodycon dress. She had what I’m pretty sure they used to call a “rockin’ bod.”
From the way she spoke to me, it sounded like she didn’t know about yesterday’s incident.
“A cockatrice egg omelet… Wow, it’s huge. Let me pay you something for this.”
“Oh, stop. Quit it with all the politeness. It’s the least I can do after you saved our village. Laman’s doin’ good, too. Has he visited you yet?”
“I haven’t seen him.”
“He was supposed to have gone to see you. Maybe he caught you while you were at work and just took it upon himself to guard the perimeter or somethin’. He’s got nothin’ better to do. ’Specially now that there isn’t as much trash in the village. That was your doin’ too, wasn’t it?”
“The amount of garbage that was there before wasn’t normal. Come on, enough with that.”
The Hero’s Case—in which, after decades of Laman and his party choosing the slightly wrong paths, the overflowing garbage in the Hero’s Village caused an out-of-control fire. After its resolution, Laman once again took up the job of burning the garbage with his Holy Flame magic. But we had also found better ways to divide up the responsibility of the kingdom’s garbage processing.
“Little Akuto, you’re so cute and sweet! Let me give you a hug! ♥”
“Wait, Elma—ah, mmm!”
Right in the middle of the street, I sank into the succubus’s ample flesh. I thought I might suffocate.
I couldn’t see him, but I heard Gobta let out a “Whoa…” somewhere close by.
“Hmm… Do you wanna do it with me, too, goblin boy? I can take you both at once if you like…? I’ll get rusty if I don’t practice my seduction techniques every so often.”
“Mmph, wait, Elma!” I popped my head out from between her cleavage. “That’s way too sudden, and anyway, he’s way too young for you!”
“Hm, I guess you’re right… A middle schooler is a bit too young for a seventy-year-old.”
“What?” Gobta was shocked.
“Elma is the same age as Laman the Hero. Her appearance is just a magical illusion. Do you get it?”
Gobta’s eyes bugged out of his head as he let out an “Eek!”
I don’t blame him, really.
“Mmm! Good boy! Oh, Akuto, I just can’t help but pet you. If I had grandkids, I wonder if they’d be like you.”
She started petting my head like a dog. Her womanly scent was starting to make me feel dizzy.
“Oh, speakin’ of garbage, Laman remembered somethin’ about the Black Scales.”
“Please, tell me.”
Black Scales…
They were connected to a mysterious entity who had appeared before the Hero’s party incident, who attempted to steal away the Shard of Judgment. Considering that they had tried to pass themselves off as an official of the kingdom’s government, it was a mystery we were eager to solve.
“First, he told me that the Shard of Judgment he had given to Fiona was momentarily taken. But, since the shard has a special characteristic that automatically returns it to the hands of its owner, Laman was able to recover it.”
“I see… That means it would be difficult to take the shard by force.”
As I thought about the shard I had in my own possession, it started to respond and become warm inside my pocket. While it looked like nothing more than a fragment of a courthouse staff lapel pin, this sacred artifact that gave its holder the ability to use the Judgment Spell was being targeted by some mysterious power behind the scenes.
“Second, he said the offender made themself invulnerable to attack as they escaped. These two points were the only information he could say for sure.”
“It’s very important information, especially coming from the Hero himself. Thank you, Elma.”
I couldn’t help but feel happy, thinking that a hero from another world had sent me this information.
“All right then, I’ll be headin’ back. I feel like there’s trouble brewin’ in the air in town, so be careful. Also—”
Elma let go of my body and turned toward Gobta.
“I think it’s too early for you to be choosin’ the path of the lone wolf. Li’l Akuto here is always helpin’ others, so let him help you. I guarantee you won’t regret it.”
“Elma…”
She had sensed the awkward atmosphere between us.
Her trust meant a lot to me.
“But really…you’ve got a long way to go, Akuto. He noticed you were followin’ him, but you didn’t even notice I was followin’ you. If this was a real battle, you might be dead, kid.”
She sounded like she was trying to scare me.
“G-got it!” I responded, flustered.
I’m definitely no match for her.
“Well, catch ya ’round! ♥ Mwah! ♥”
The half-succubus blew a kiss as she left.
“Just as I was thinkin’ I might be jealous that you’re always surrounded by babes… I guess it’s actually not so easy for you, Window Mage.”
“I’m glad you get it now. And by the way, can you cut it out with the ‘Window Mage’ thing?”
The atmosphere seemed to soften up a bit after the two of us were left alone on the street together again.
“Okay…just ‘Windows,’ then.”
“That’s even worse. It’s an insult to Bill G*tes. Man, you’ve got a weird sense of humor.”
“…Heh-heh.”
Gobta broke into a smile. After the front he had been putting up all this time, I felt like I had finally gotten a glimpse of the real him.
“Anyway, sorry for tailing you like that,” I said.
I figured I would try to come at the investigation from another angle. But then…
“Hey. There’s something I wanna ask you, bro.”
The serious look Gobta got in his eye made me stop in my tracks.
“Do you like action games?”