Chapter 184

「I can see it, over there . 」

Kurou abruptly came to a halt, and pointed at something further ahead .

In between the nearby trees, there was a splendid three-storied building that gave off a sense of cleanliness despite it having been abandoned for several decades .

The outer wall was painted green as if to blend in with the trees of the forest, but there were spots of white here and there, giving it a certain flair .

It was worth seeing, to the point where we might have overlooked it if Kurou didn’t point it out .

I had imagined it to be more dilapidated and about to collapse at any time, but my expectations were disappointed, in the best way possible .

「…Kurou-sama, what happened?」

Seeing that Kurou was pointing at the building without moving, Ria looked at him with worry .

What the frowning Kurou was looking at was not the safe house, but what was in the vicinity of it .

He had a grim look on his face, and scowled at the crevices in the trees and the ground .

Thinking that it was an enemy attack, I looked around, but there was no indication that there were monsters nearby .

If it weren’t monsters, then why was Kurou frowning like that .

What came to mind was Kurou’s mother whom we met just recently, but wasn’t she living somewhere else .

Aah, but, I had a bad premonition .

「Oi, Kurou?」

When I waved my hand in front of his face, he grabbed hold of it using a lot of force .

It seems that he was, more or less, conscious .

There were tons of troublesome monsters in this forest .

I wish that he wasn’t so confusing .

「…it’s nothing . Let’s go . 」

From his tone of voice, it wasn’t nothing, and if he was going to say that, I wished that the look on your face expressed that as well .

Truly, this guy treasured his words like gold .

Irritated Kurou had returned .

「What are we going to do, Akira . 」

Looking at Kurou who was clearly acting strange, Amelia whispered this .

I shrugged my shoulders .

「There’s nothing I can do . It’s not like he would obediently listen to me . 」

I said this, and followed after Kurou who walked in a brisk place without a shred of vigilance .

To begin with, if he was a man who listened to people’s words, his relationships with his family and Ria wouldn’t be this complicated .

Seriously, he was the embodiment of someone who wasted half their life because of his personality .

「…we’ve arrived, is it?」

Amaryllis muttered this with a dumbfounded look on her face .

We were a bit of a distance away before, but we were able to see it in its entirety now that we were closer .

As expected, perhaps it couldn’t withstand the passage of time, as the collapsing wall that we couldn’t see from far away was entwined with ivy and seemed like a haunted house in some respects .

「Akira!? So you were alright!」

Having been called, I raised my head, and the hero was sticking his head out from what seemed to be a window on the second floor .

I raised my hand, feeling relieved from the bottom of my heart .

「Ooh . Are you all here as well?」

The look on the hero’s face was slightly clouded over at my words .

My heart jumped .

Was someone gone .

Who the heck was it?

「I’m going over there right now! …it’s faster to see for yourself . 」

My sharp ears caught those words that he muttered .

What was going on?

「Oh! You’ve arrived, good work . 」

The big door at the entrance opened, and the hero came out, with Nanase at his heels .

After confirming that it was us, he broke into a smile .

「Ooh . you too, good work . …is something wrong?」

Having been on the verge of death, the look on his face was clearly different from before .

However, apart from that, he had become very thin, looking like he was about to die .

Rather than say that it was due to hunger, it was probably because of fatigue .

「…well, maa, it’s faster to see for yourself . 」

Nanase said the same thing as the hero and staggered towards the back of the building .

We followed after the hero and Nanase who came out of the building .

「Hey, hey, what’s wrong! That’s all you guys got?」

「Guu!! Gaa!?」

There was a light sound of impact, and then there was a hole in the ground .

Following that, a human body flew through the air .

The high-pitched voice that was out-of-place here led me to understand something .

Or rather, because of the owner of that voice, Kurou had become a waste .

There was no way I could forget it .

「Why the hell are you here… . 」

Perhaps the low voice that seemed to be emitted from the back of the throat couldn’t be heard, as she bare-handedly made Kyousuke, who had a weapon in hand, lose consciousness in an instant, and then turned towards us, as if she just realized we were here .

「Ooh, you’re late, my son . Right now, I’m training the current heroes . I don’t mind receiving this building as a reward . 」

Perhaps she didn’t notice that Kurou was still feeling murderous, as Kurou’s mother said this with a suspicious smile on her face .

She did as she liked, and completely disregarded Kurou’s question .

And this time, she faced us .

「Oops, I haven’t introduced myself yet . My name is Noa . the mother of Kurou over there . I hope we get along from here on out . 」

Wearing Gothic Lolita clothes that were hard to move in, the young girl had her hair, that was the same color as Kurou’s, done up in pigtails and was obviously more like a younger sister than a mother, but she was the younger girl in the forest who casted magic on Ria .

TN: Lolita clothing is a type of clothing that closely resembles that of dolls’ . There are many variations of lolita clothing, one of which is gothic lolita, which puts more focus on darker shades of color compared to the usual pastel colors .

We stood there, dumbfounded, as Nanase and the hero carried the unconscious Kyousuke into the building .

No matter how you looked at it, they had done this in a practiced manner, and I understood that this situation had occurred a good number of times .

Because of that, I was able to understand why Nanase and the hero were exhausted, and the reason for the gloomy yet somewhat relieved look on their faces

「Saa, let’s end the greeting here . From now on, if you want to go to the demon territory, do so after defeating me . 」

Speaking the lines of a certain villain, the young girl—rather Noa, grinned .

That was the beginning of hell .