I swear, I must’ve woken up from that damn alarm going off before that dream had just gotten good. I still can’t believe it though, I thought I first met Komi back in our first year in high school, but if those memories were legit … then we’ve gone way further back than I thought. She seemed to act so differently back then compared to how she was during our high school years, though. What could’ve happened to make that drastic change of character? Why did she call me ‘Kotori-sama’ back then and switched to ‘Jin-chi’ in high school? Was she teasing me all that time because I actually forgot about her? Shit … now I feel like an asshole.

What are those?

<“One: Whatever happened to the awkwardly formal blondie back then to become the ‘gyaru bitch’ blondie you met with later must’ve started somewhere between those two moments, and two: Looking back at the memory you had the night before, Komiwa Karuga was definitely the same girl who was with you and Hyoko Ishima speaking with that old man back in that hospital room. The resemblance between the two of them despite the length of time apart can confirm that.”>

Right … in the hospital room with that guy who said we share the same blood. I’ve never seen any resemblance of him from Mom’s side, so could he have been from my dad’s? How could he have known the three of us, though?

My legs are starting to fall asleep … wait, were they always this heavy before?

“Hey! Hey! Mr. Kotori! Is it true that there’s someone living in that tanto of yours?! Are you speaking to it right now?!”

“Hm?” I open my eyes after a long, detailed talk with Nyra discussing the memory in my dreams last night. Well, long in our case while it must’ve lasted about a minute thanks to my Hyper Thought Processing skill.

The first thing that meets my eyes is a large, light lavender-colored cleavage that’s centimeters away from my face. The sheer size couldn’t let me see that my lap below me is currently being straddled, and it isn’t until I look up to see that it’s the ecstatic, excitedly curious face of the first ‘fan’ of my adventuring career, an oppai loli Arch Imp named Sue, who I let come with us for the ride to Palocaesy just before we left Dondegarm. It was amazing that she was really nervous just being near me at first, but then tackled me in joy sometime later. She had no problems sitting and getting close for a selfie with me when I was in a mood for pictures sometime after that, and now after about 2 hours since then, she’s straddling my lap with her bombastic tits near my face like we’ve known each other in our whole lives.

Maybe Sue was trying to restrain herself back then in fears that she might scare me off with her ‘enthusiasm?’ I admit that I was certainly surprised by her sudden gesture, her strength that betrays her short stature and physique when she hugged me, but I have stupidly high defenses thanks to my Dragon Scale Defense ability. Also, after being exposed and trapped by the wonders of a woman’s flesh so much since meeting my new party, that kind of greeting by a cute girl wouldn’t really be unwelcome to me at this point. I just hope she doesn’t mind a surprising ‘hello’ from my energetic buddy below her.

“Your tanto! Is there really someone living inside it and you were talking to them just now, Mr. Kotori?!” Sue asks excitedly.

“A-Ah, yeah, that’s right. Her name’s Nyra and she speaks to me in my mind. Also, you can just call me Jinma if you want, Sue.”

“Okay, Jinma! Is it possible I could see it up close?”

“I’ll let you look, but you can’t touch. There’s a curse on this that will drive whoever holds it insane, and even after they release it, they will be left with side-effects that will end your life after a day. I’m only able to withstand it because of my … willpower. Also, it’s very sharp and could easily cut you and leave a scar that will never heal, even with magic.”

“I won’t touch it, I promise!” Sue rests a hand on top of her ginormous boobs while holding another up like she’s swearing an oath.

I take Nyra and pull her out of the sheath before holding it up before Sue. She eyes the blade with wonder as I turn it and let her see every centimeter of it.

“It looks so beautiful … what kind of person is Nyra who’s trapped in this? Is she saying anything right now?”

“… She’s a talented blacksmith who actually made this blade before getting sealed in it by the curse, and she’s saying you have a big heart that would warm anyone who’s near it.” Well, it’s close enough, anyway.

“Hm, being the same blacksmith who made this weapon is incredible but I bet she’s only saying that other part because my boobs are so big.”

So, she is aware of it!

“Anyway, I asked around Dondegarm and got somewhat the gist of what happened in how you got that tanto,” Sue continues. “A cult of humans tried to raid the city, you, your companions, and those residing in Dondegarm resisted, and at some point, the leader came in and started hurting people indiscriminately due to the curse from that tanto, right? You managed to take that away from him though, overcame Nyra’s possession from the curse, and the resistance gained a huge upset because of you and your new weapon to the point of victory. Did I get that correctly?”

“From what I have read in the reports when I returned the day after that, that is the short of it, yes,” Eugus confirms.

“And Master was amazing from there to the very end!”

“I still get the tingles just thinking about the manic look on his face as he cut those guys and Bear Moles down,” Ren and Erizora say respectfully, with the latter shivering a little in place.

Seriously, am I supposed to take that last bit as a compliment?

“He did not win without injury, however,” Kalline cuts in. “Getting that tanto away from Rasholl, the leader of the raid, was not initially intended at first. Master Jinma took the weapon to his stomach when it was aiming at me. I thought something vital was struck when he got stabbed. Not only was it a miracle for him to still move fluently but to even unleash such powerful magic … I admit I was rather frightened at first, but I did not overlook the fact that he saved my life; thus, I pledged my loyalty to him as a party member to repay my debt.”

I made sure to tell everyone last night, but we agreed to keep my use of the ‘Devil Eyes’ a secret from the public and try to make up something else if somebody asks about it. I’m glad Kalline managed to say that so swimmingly while dodging around that secret.

“Judging from the duel yesterday, your uncle wasn’t on board with that idea at first, and so Jinma had to resort to dueling him to win your freedom. Is that what the deal was?”

Kalline fails to stifle a giggle. “Indeed, and the conclusion twas quite one-sided, even when the duel conditions seemed to be against the victor at first. Is that not right, Dear Uncle?”

“Do not remind me …”

It kind of hurt seeing how much of a smug Kalline was making at her guardian. Somehow, I could see a similar scenario where a girl got cocky while proving against her father how great her boyfriend is, despite his criticisms.

“Wow … that’s really something else. So, are you a part of Jinma’s harem now like the other girls here?” Sue asks bluntly.

“Um … well, no. I am only serving him as his advisor and steed,” Kalline answers.

We introduced ourselves properly to Sue sometime after we set off on our journey … well, ‘properly’ might not be the correct term for how it went.

“I am Umeiyon and I am Jin’s proud primary wife who happily pampers to his needs.”

“My name is Ren. I’m the honorary alpha female and pet of Master’s sex slaves.”

“I-I’m … Erizora, the second of Master’s happy and unworthy sex toys to relieve his urges with.”

“… Kalline Gallofree, I am the party’s advisor and Master Jinma’s steed.”

“Kenaka, first of Master Jinma Kotori’s two familiars.”

“Mametama, the second of the two.”

At least Kalline’s, Kenaka’s, and Mametama’s were more dignified, with the latter two keeping their former king and queen titles a secret as I told them last night. I’m not sure Sue got really excited in awe of us thanks to that save or she was passing off the heavy ‘romantic’ stuff, but it was especially Ren’s and Erizora’s introductions that killed me a little on the inside.

I mean, I don’t know about calling them ‘toys.’ Them being my ‘sex slaves’ is pretty much true, especially Ren being my ‘pet’ as read in her titles, but they didn’t have to tell that to everybody. No matter how much I didn’t want to, I wondered if I should actually order them to not introduce themselves to other people like that.

“Really? Isn’t the Twilight Sky party basically Jinma’s harem? Save for his familiars, of course. If you’re the only one who isn’t, doesn’t that make you feel … out of place?” Sue asks.

“Can we please cease this subject any further while I am in the room?” Eugus asks.

“And speaking of ‘out of place,’ Sue, but don’t you think you’re bothering Jin if you continue to sit on him like that?” Ume asks with a tinge of annoyance in her tone.

“… Oh! I-I’m sorry, Jinma!” Sue apologizes before quickly getting back to her seat. “Come to think of it, I’ve been kind of all over the place with how comfortable I am being near you, have I? Compared to the others here, I’m still practically a stranger. Please forgive me for being so forward.”

“It’s fine, Sue,” I say while patting her head with a smirk. “It’s not often I come across people who warm up to me so quickly at first meeting, let alone having a fan, so I’ll let it slide.”

“O-Okay. Wow, this is, really nice …” She seems to be in a sort of daze as I pet her in comfort. I wonder if my maxed-out Petting skill has this sort of effect on people in general before Sue leans on my side and falls asleep.

Now that I think about it, isn’t 06:00 in this world really early? She must’ve gotten up in a hurry to even catch up to me before we left. Expending all of that energy must’ve wiped her out … hm?

As an extra measure for security, I’ve had my Insightful Mapping skill activated with Detect and Size Up added to it for any signs of life on the field since we left. I’m currently able to view a geographic ‘map’ that only I could see that spreads over 100 square kilometers of my surroundings in a perfectly spherical shape thanks to my magic capacity.

Looking at the map, I see a small cluster of blue dots that make up our group at the very center. Zooming in, I see more dots in red, scattered on both sides of the road we’re on and are about 600 meters ahead up north.

There’s also one more dot that’s of a white color that’s barely within my field of range on higher ground from us. I arranged my map so that the red dots would depict monsters on the field while any sentient beings are marked white.

I activate Size Up to appraise the red dots ahead of us in detail and confirm there are 7 fairly lethal monsters looking to be setting an ambush on us, their levels range from 40 to 70.

As for the lone white dot on higher ground …

“Master, I’m catching a scent of monsters ahead of us. There looks to be 7 of them,” Ren reports with a furrowed brow.

Wow, to be able to catch that from over 500 meters ahead. A Werewolf’s sense of smell is no joke. I tried focusing my Werewolf’s Olfactory Sensing ability to see if it works like Ren’s sense of smell. I could make out the different scents that are far ahead up north compared to those of us in the carriage.

“Oh, that many monsters ahead, huh?”

“Hm … I suppose this would be the time of the month when they would be pretty active, but for that many at once …” Kostos and Pantos say, respectively as they pulled the carriage in front of us.

“Master Jinma,” Kalline says while looking determined. “Would thou allow Ren, Erizora, and I to handle this? As this will be the first for us to really work together as a party, I would like to show thee what we art capable of.”

I look over to Eugus.

“Do not look at me. From start to finish, I will be evaluating how thou all work together as adventurers, that includes thy leadership and judgment. For the most part, I am not even here.”

“I see, then …” I look over to the jade green and white cougar cub sitting up on the floor. “Mametama, you go along with them to be my eyes and stand by until further notice.”

“We will be using that skill, yes? As you wish, Milord,” Mametama says while bowing her head.

I cast [Soundproof] around Sue to let her continue sleeping in peace while I pet her before turning to the other girls. “Ume, Kenaka and I will be here to look after Sue. Kalline, Ren, Erizora, it looks like the three of you planned something for this occasion by yourselves. Pretend I’m in Mametama’s place as she goes with you and show me what you’re made of.”

““Yes, Master [Jinma]!””