Yuusha Party no Kawaii Ko ga Ita no de, Kokuhaku Shite (LN) v1c5 part1

Yuusha Party no Kawaii Ko ga ita no de, Kokuhaku s.h.i.+te Mita - Volume 1 Chapter 5 (part 1)
元部下と再会してみた
I tried reuniting with my former underlings.

Translation by Solistia, Proofed by Hobo, MuscleSpark, and Flyingjam


I've come to the Oth.e.l.l Forest today for a quest. It took about five hours by carriage to get here from the imperial city of Minerva.
Even though it's still the middle of the day, the sunlight can't quite get through so it's rather dreary. Sometimes monster growls can be heard, making it a creepy forest.

My rank has risen to C.
Last time at the Aquarain mansion, I learned that Hero-kun had also fallen in love with Cecilia.
I realized it would bad for me to keep on like I was, and I wanted to shorten the difference between Hero-kun and myself even if only a little bit.

So I came to the forest today to slay a rank C monster — c.o.c.katrice — who was causing trouble in the area.

"Geez, petrifying the nearby villagers impulsively at random...just what is it trying to do?"

The c.o.c.katrice is a monster with the power of petrification.
But, because it doesn't have any other noteworthy abilities, it's only rank C.
Still, it was a fearsome enough monster for your average villager.

After walking in the forest a while and doing a little bushwhacking, I heard a noise from the bushes ahead.
I stayed vigilant and slowly approached the bush.

“Woah!”

Suddenly, a headless knight jumped out sword swinging.
I avoided the sword with a backstep, and put some distance between us.
With my specialty magic I thought I'd trample him, but...

“....Huh?”

"...What the? Captain, is that you?"
Now that I get a good look this guy was one of my underlings at the Demon Castle: the Duke of Dullahan. The head he was holding to his right had a surprised look.

"I knew it was you, Captain! What happened to your horns and wings? Wait, before that, where have you been all this time? The Captain who never left his room was suddenly missing, the Hero vanquished the Demon Lord, we were all so worried!"

"Eh? Calm down first. Before I get to your questions, why are you here?"

When Cecilia persuaded me that day, there wasn't a moment to spare, so I ended up leaving the Demon Castle without saying a word.
Could it be that the others survived?

"I was searching for you, Captain! Hapyneth and Sheik too, we were all really worried about you!"

Hapyneth is a harpy, and Sheik is a pixie, both of whom were also my former underlings.

"Are they also here in this forest?"

"Yeah, today we decided to search for you here. We planned to rendezvous just a little ways from here. Let's go, Captain!"

I hadn't seen my old underlings in so long, I really wanted to see them again.
Plus, they'd been searching for me all this time.
How could I refuse to meet with them after that?
So Duke led the way, and we arrived at the rendezvous point.

"...Alive..."
"Hooray~! It's the Captain~!"

There was Hapyneth and Sheik, just like Duke said.
Hapyneth narrowed her eyes and looked away, while Sheik had a big smile and gave me a hug.

"...You guys were still alive?"

When the Demon Lord was vanquished by the Hero, I was worried that these guys had been done in as well.
I'm glad they were able to make it out alive.
Angry at my words, standing proud with his legs apart and a hand at his hip, Duke rebelliously replied,

"Don't write us off so easily!"

According to them, that day when the Hero Party came, because I always commanded them to dump the party at the nearby village, they were on standby in another room.
However, no matter how long they waited, I never called for them. Becoming worried, they checked on me in my room and...

“...Captain was gone.”

Hapyneth gave an uncharacteristically lengthy response,

"And then, you know, after the Demon Lord was defeated the three of us ran with our tails between our legs from the castle."

'Ahahaha~' Sheik was laughing.
When I asked what was so funny, apparently when they were running away, Duke was crying out "Captaaaiin!"
That is rather funny, I must admit.

"But, we never doubted that Captain was still alive...that's why we searched all this time."

Even half a month later they were still searching for me.
They sure thought highly of their boss.

"After all, Captain was a shut-in who never left his room. We couldn't help but anxiously wonder where you were."

...What?

"...Left alone...what would you do..."

Wait what?

"Sometimes you’d flip out and start yelling the strangest things~..."

Just a d.a.m.n minute, what the heck did these b.a.s.t.a.r.ds think of me?

"At least it's good that we finally found you.......Now Captain, I asked you before but just what happened to your horns and wings?"

"I got rid of them."

“...” “...” “...”

After that the reaction varied.
Duke was crying 'what were you thinking?!', and Hapyneth was saying something like 'you finally awakened'.
What's up with that?
And Sheik?
He laughed so hard he was left twitching on the ground.

"Captain! What on earth happened while we were gone?!"

Duke cried and hugged me closely, looking for an explanation.
How could I possibly explain this to them?
Should I just be honest?

"In the Hero party, there was this cute cleric girl. After I confessed to her and got shot down I've been living as a human."

The crying Duke, the callously faced Hapyneth, and the rolfcoptering Sheik.
The three who had previous reacted differently all simultaneously turned to stone.