Chapter 444: Reunion Fullfilled at the Deep Depths (1/2)

“…Sari-sama, it has been a while.” (Rona)

“Yeah, Rona, it has been a while. It is rare to see you do something unreasonable. Be properly grateful that Waka-sama didn’t kill you.” (Sari)

“…Yes.” (Rona)

“Then don’t be so obstinate and don’t ask for the unreasonable either. This is none other than a matter about demons, so I will be observing you as a member of the Kuzunoha Company.” (Sari)

“…”

You should be saying ‘yes’ there, right?

About Rona, we have roughly removed the Charm and finished the treatment of her injuries.

For some reason, we haven’t been able to completely treat her abnormal state.

Thus, ‘roughly’.

She is at least in a state where she can maintain rationality, and it has been made faint enough that the Rona I know should be able to hold it down with strength of spirit, so we have restrained her, brought her to Sari, and had her be present too.

According to Tamaki, it should feel incredibly uncomfortable to continuously fight back a lingering Charm.

She told me that they would be tasting the pain of being sane and feeling the continuous rewriting of a favorable opinion on a person they should be hating.

She should be experiencing at least that much suffering for dragging me into this without my consent.

Let’s not touch the issue that she is being restrained in a certain turtle manner.

This is by no means my taste and was the result of Tomoe and Mio fooling around.

“If it would be smoother for you to talk with only you and Sari, I am fine with that.” (Makoto)

Thinking about a situation where we would have to doubt and confirm each and every piece of information Rona says, it is not like I have to really be present here.

Sari has called me Waka-sama in Rona’s presence.

She won’t be calling me Makoto-sama by mistake.

Different from me, she can properly sense the subtleties in a conversation, and she might be a girl that can unconsciously use the necessary words.

It means that, even if she were to be left alone with Rona, she won’t be betraying the Kuzunoha Company.

“You are quite reasonable, Raidou. I am sorry, but could you do that? Unfortunately, in my current state, I might end up saying things I shouldn’t be saying. I would prefer being together with someone I can trust.” (Rona)

“No, I will have Waka-sama stay here. Rona, this time’s matter has worsened the impression the Kuzunoha Company has of the demons by a great deal. I have eagerly served Waka-sama, and at the time when he might have accepted our requests, you used Waka-sama in the worst timing. It is absolutely necessary for the demons to redeem themselves here.” (Sari)

The result of me saying ok to the migration of demons.

There’s Lorelei too, so if they were to mostly live in the sea, I wouldn’t have minded accepting it.

Lime did ask me to accept orphans that have hyumans included after all.

I honestly do think that accepting them has higher risk compared to other races.

Kidnapping is out of the question, but whether it is demons or hyumans, there’s no reason to refuse them if they are asking to migrate respectfully.

About the hyumans…there’s the matter of the Goddess so, if possible, I would prefer to accept them after I have dealt with her though.

But from experience, I know that things don’t go as I want.

I silently thought that things would end up with me having to accept them before I finished things with the Goddess.

Right now, Asora is just on the rise in terms of money and goods, so there shouldn’t be any problems with accepting a whole village or race unless there’s quite the circumstances involved.

As long as the reports they give are not filled with erroneous numbers because of fear of punishment, I think it is a worry that Asora doesn’t need to have.

“Even if you were to try to use me as a hostage and tried to escape here, this place is technically like a prison with no exit. Even if I were to cooperate, it would still be impossible to run away.” (Sari)

Sari takes away the choice of escaping from Rona.

I am grateful for that.

Rona might endlessly try to aim for that if she doesn’t understand that it is pointless.

By the way, the front here is that the only ones here are me, Sari, and Rona.

Tomoe, Mio, Shiki, and Tamaki are also off to the side, but Rona probably can’t detect them.

“Then, let’s go for the things that might be easier to answer for you. Rona, you were hit by the Charm of the Empire’s Hero and came to kill me. Correct?” (Makoto)

“That’s not an easy question to answer at all.” (Rona)

“Rona?” (Sari)

Rona tried to bring the lead of the conversation back to her with a light tone, but Sari pointed it out and she pulled back.

“…Yeah, that’s right. I used you as a safety measure. Not being dead is a complete miscalculation though.” (Rona)

“Alright. Then, next question.” (Makoto)

“Hey, are you really the Kuzuno Company’s representative, Raidou?” (Rona)

“I doubt there’s many hyumans resembling me. What’s the matter?” (Makoto)

If it hadn’t been hyumans, I would have conceded that there might have been similar-looking people to me though.

I don’t know if I should be happy or sad about it, but I haven’t met a hyuman that looks like me yet.

There’s apparently 3 people who are similar to you in the world, but that might not apply to this world.

“Because your atmosphere has changed quite a lot.” (Rona)

“I am still young, you see. Of course I would grow a bit while we haven’t seen each other.” (Makoto)

“Grow?” (Rona)

“Yeah. Also, you said that not being dead was a miscalculation. About that…whose death were you referring to there?” (Makoto)

“…!” (Rona)

About the fact that she is still alive, or…about the fact that I am still not dead?

The words of Rona at that time, the ‘why not dead…’ felt like words out of surprise from me still being alive.

“…”

That black lightning.

Of course I will have her talk about it later, but that attack was quite the special kind.

Pain I haven’t felt before.

If I hadn’t experienced the one of Alte before, I seriously think I could have lost consciousness from it.

The one imbued in the thrust of Rona was far more painful, but I received several shots of the lightning of Alte, so there’s no doubt it served as a plus here.

The eyes of Rona were shaking with uncharacteristic hesitation here.

Sari at the side took a step back and showed an atmosphere similar to fear there.