Chapter 444: Reunion Fullfilled at the Deep Depths

“…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.

“What’s the answer, Rona?” (Makoto)

“If it is about the words at that time…it is both. As for the one today, me.” (Rona)

“The all-winning element that should only be possible to use by the Apostles of the Goddess, lightning. That black lightning was your trump card, and even when facing me, you still maintained a sense of leisure, so you were aiming to use me as your safety measure. Have both you and me die by having someone from the Kuzunoha Company kill you after. That’s the picture you painted then?” (Makoto)

“…Yeah. When I use that, there’s an incredible burden to the body, so it by no means can be used frequently. Even so, it is the truth that it is my most powerful attack and my trump card. It cuts all spells and magic power, and it is in theory a one-hit kill weapon that’s impossible to evade on the first time.” (Rona)

“…By the way, what effects does the black lightning have?” (Makoto)

“Rona, answer with no lies.” (Sari)

“With Raidou still being alive here, I won’t be able to kill him anymore, so I will talk without hiding anything.” (Rona)

She really is honest when it is Sari.

She is an actual Demon Lord child that is blood related to Zef-san after all.

Rona knows that, and that’s why she must think dearly of Sari.

There’s no doubt she isn’t serving the demons but the Demon Lord Zef himself after all.

If I were to compare her to someone from our side, it would be Mio.

I personally don’t like this, but I feel like Mio would prioritize me over anything that happens to Asora.

“Even though it is already a cheat element, it even has a lot of effects. There’s still an Apostle of the Goddess, so I would like as much information I can have of the lightning element. What’s the effect of the black one?” (Makoto)

“…You are talking as if you know other lightning aside from this one. Even though the existence of this era’s Goddess’s Apostles hasn’t been made clear yet.” (Rona)

“…”

So the demons don’t know about Alte.

“The effects of the black lightning are simple. Pain that brings death. That’s all.” (Rona)

“Pain that brings…death? What kind of pain is that?” (Makoto)

Is it different from poison and curses?

“There’s times when people die from shock by registering way too much pain -even if the wound itself isn’t lethal.” (Rona)

I see.

Death by shock from a way too intense pain.

Unbearable pain?

If that’s the case, it certainly is simple.

Judging from what Rona said, it most likely doesn’t pack high destructive power.

I have managed to endure the damage after all.

“First time I have heard of that.” (Makoto)

“At the very least, that’s the information I am aware of regarding the black lightning. If you are using it on a person, it can bring deadly pain even if you are a woman.” (Rona)

“Even if it is a woman, huh. I have certainly heard that pain receptors of women have more resistance than that of men…” (Makoto)

“Really? I thought that it was because women have an easier time getting the blessing of the Goddess. The reality is that I have shot the black lightning around 5 times until now, and they have all died instantly without showing any exterior wounds.” (Rona)

…That black lightning is way too scary.

Shiki said that Rona was injured because of the backlash of the spell.

She was in a state where she would have died from blood loss if she had been left there.

And yet, she has used that 5 times.

She is also in the nutcase category.

“…And why did you begin bleeding?” (Makoto)

Alte doesn’t spurt out blood and collapse each time she shoots red lightning.

In that case, it may be a price characteristic of the black lighting, or the price when others aside from the Apostles of the Goddess use it.

The chances of it being the latter are higher.

I wait for her answer while predicting her answer myself.

“I don’t know, but whenever I use the black lightning, I always end up that way. The lightning element is apparently one of the trump cards of the Goddess that can only be used by the Apostles of the Goddess, so maybe it is the price of being able to use it as a demon, or simply the fact that I am lacking in my amount of magic power, so my body ends up taking the toll for it.” (Rona)

“You haven’t investigated it then?” (Makoto)

“The only ones who have seen it and come out alive are you and Risui. No, Tomoe and Mio too, huh. There’s no other. The only ones who know I can use that are me and his Majesty. I am in a line of work where I would be dying from everything else aside from my lifespan, so I could just use it and deal with it later with every trick I had in my book.” (Rona)

That’s a mess.

‘I am alive right now and can use it, so that’s fine’, ‘I can just kill everyone who knows about it’, huh.

“Leaving aside that violent way of thinking, don’t go calling Tomoe and Mio without honorifics while you are here, okay? That goes for Shiki too. Make sure to at least add the -san. They are being liked by the employees, I will have you know.” (Makoto)

I felt like the people themselves had veins popping out and were about to pounce, so I at least pointed it out.

I have no intention to reveal that this is Asora and what kind of place it is.

But I can’t just return her immediately, so her interaction with others will increase to a certain degree.

Problems might happen if she were to call Tomoe and Mio without any honorifics.

“I will be careful. And so, how should I be calling you, Raidou? Boss—” (Rona)

“Risui is alive? Well well.” (Sari)

“!”

?

Sari?

“The things I would personally want to ask have increased. Waka-sama, do you still have time?” (Sari)

I feel like I heard the added words ‘you do, right?’.

Before Rona could string dangerous words, Sari created a mysterious pressure and came out to the front.

…

Looks like the talk isn’t going to be ending anytime soon.

We are deep down the ocean anyways.

It is impossible to escape without the cooperation of me or a follower.

Let’s go the patient route here.

About Rona and Sari, well…they have been reunited after a long time after all.