Ankoku Kishi Monogatari ~Yuusha Wo Taosu Tameni Maou Ni Shoukansaremashita~ Chapter 17.1

TL : Cnine

ED/PF : akshaythedon, Timberlord

「It was surprisingly easy」

No one was able to resist my sleeping magic till I arrived here. I made everyone who I met so far to sleep.

If I knew that it'll be this easy, I wouldn't have worn my dark knight armor. I considered the possibility of things turning out into a fierce battle, but….

I just shake my head, as carelessness will bring your fall, after all. Better be safe than sorry.

As long as I open this door to the altar room, I expect to meet Rena there.

I send a telepathic order to the spartois to stop anyone from entering this room.

After I open the door and entering it, I find the altar room to be extremely wide. The room is being illuminated by several light magic tools.

A huge magic formation is drawn at the center of the room.

And there was a stone lantern which is just a bit higher than me standing at the 4 corners of the magic formation.

The stone lantern is somewhat similar to the one that I saw when I was summoned by Modes. Undoubtedly, these are tools for summoning a.s.sistance made by G.o.d of craftsmans.h.i.+p, Heibos.

And then, a woman was standing at the center of the magic formation with her back facing me.

「Have you captured the intruder, chief priest？」

Rena asked that question without even turning around.

「My apologies, I'm not the chief priest」

Rena turns around after hearing my words.

「Dark knight… No way, DIEHART！ ！ 」

Rena stammered with a panicked face.

「Transfer,（TELEPORT）！  ！ 」

But the magic formation couldn't be invoked.

「My apologies, I sealed transfer magic the moment I started this temple raid. No one in this area can utilize transfer magic for now」

Rena showed a surprised expression.

I remember hearing that the magic to seal your opponent magic cannot be used if there's a big difference in magical power level with your opponent. So, I guess the amount of Rena's magical power and mine isn't that much different.

If this method didn't work, then it can't be helped. I'm relieved that everything went so smoothly.

When I approach Rena, she took astep back while scanning her surroundings.

Perhaps, she is looking for a weapon.

But, it seems nothing in this room can be turned into a weapon.

「Your target is… me」

I shake my head in denial and then take off my helmet.

I can hear Rena catching her breath.

「Nice to meet you, G.o.ddess Rena. My deepest apologies for intruding your temple in this manner」

Thus, I displayed my manner while holding my helmet on my side.

I became anxious as to whether I'm following the proper manners to her.

I learned from Modes regarding the manner toward the G.o.ds of this world. I thought that I needed to learn the manner after guessing that I will end up travelling this entire world.

The manner of this world wasn't that much different with the one from my world. Since it seems that there's no point of contact nor similarity of the cultures of the countries with my world, maybe it just happened to be similar.

The matter of me showing my manner is because it's not yet decided that Rena is a bad person.

Though she may not be a bad person, I can't just display an impolite gesture in front of her.

When I raise my head and look at her, I saw a figure that was even more beautiful than her image.

Rena is gazing intently at my face.

I was waiting to hear Rena's words.

But, she just kept looking at my face without saying anything.

「G.o.ddess…. Rena？ 」

I timidly call her name.

「Yesh…. EH…」

It seems she finally came back to her senses. Rena is slightly confused.

「I-It seems that your target is not me. What are you coming here for then, dark knight？ 」

Rena smiled gently. Unintentionally, I was charmed by her smile.

Maybe she's relieved since I'm not aiming for her life.

「G.o.ddess Rena, may I confirm something from you?」

「A… confirmation？ 」

「Yes.   Are you…. going to summon the people of spirit world like me again？ 」

There, I told a lie. I was thinking of getting as much information as possible from Rena, since I've come all the way to this place.

「Ah, so it's about that huh… You've misunderstood, dark knight Diehart」

It seems that Rena was thinking that I had come here to prevent the summoning.

「Then… what？ 」

「It's to send the comrade of the heroes back. Wouldn't that be more convenient for you？ 」

Rena's still thinking that there's antagonism between the hero and me. Maybe she thought that it'll be more convenient for me if the comrade of the hero became non-existent.

「It'll only decrease my war potential since the summoning of the people from spirit world has already been banned by the G.o.d world. So, there's absolutely no summoning」

「Is that true？ That's strange, as far as I know, returning the summoned people to their original world with this arts is…. supposed to be impossible, right？ 」

「Ah, it seems you already know about that from Modes… But, you have no choice but to trust him. No more summoning is the truth, you know」

「Understood, let us a.s.sume that I trust your story. But then, your actions will put the comrades of hero in great danger, right？ 」

「That's certainly is true.  But, it has nothing to do with you, right?」

When I heard Rena saying those words, I wear my helmet again.

I've confirmed everything.

「Dark…. knight？  」

Since my state changed so suddenly, Rena is calling out to me with a bewildered voice.

Further questioning is useless.

I draw my sword while jumping high and then sliced one of the summoning a.s.sistance devices.

「W-WHAT….」

It's Rena's surprised voice.

The top part of the a.s.sistance device crumbled down and crashed to the floor with a bang.

Following that, I sliced the second, and the third device.

After slicing the fourth one, I point my sword toward Rena.

「What are the heroes to you？」

I'm saying so while supressing my rage.

Rena is confused upon hearing my question. There's a little fear mixed in her expression.

「… That's right… It's natural since you're a summoned person, too」

Rena's mumbling with slightly misunderstood guess.

「Why are you going as far as to trick the heroes…」

I say so while pointing my sword toward Rena.

「It was an extremely big problem, you know… I worked on the summoning art to…」

Rena said with a bitter face.

Somehow she lost her composure to the point of going as far as making the summoning art.

「While it might be true…」

「It can't be helped you know; it was such a disgusting thing. That ugly Modes went as far as creating my clone….」

Rena said while averting her gaze.

「He finally got expelled from Elios after such hards.h.i.+p, and yet…. WHY DID HE DO SUCH THINGS!!!」

I can't reply anything after hearing her words.

The origin of her dispute with Modes was due to his ugly face. And then, we were summoned to settle this dispute.

To be honest, I lost my strength after hearing that.

But, when I try to think about it again, maybe the cause of any dispute, in general, is because of such emotional circ.u.mstances like this case.

Nevertheless, I'm starting to get a headache on thinking that nothing would have happened if Modes was the type of man that would be loved by women.

The demon king in the story has kidnapped the princess. Maybe the story used to gather the heroes to travel and beat the demon king is in order to not cause headaches after hearing the truth？

In the first place, if the demon king was a hunk, he wouldn't need to kidnap woman if he was liked by all of them, and thus there won't be a conflict. Rather, why the h.e.l.l do they even need to fight?

The silent princess who has no chance to say a line during the course of the story might even curse, “DIE, YOU DISGUSTING UGLY PIG!” to the demon king. Since I have never heard the story where the kind-hearted princess spares the life of the defeated demon king.

But, that is not the reason for her to trick s.h.i.+rone.

She has to at least tell them the real reason. That might be the best outcome for Rena and the other summoned beings.

「G.o.ddess Rena, please tell the truth to the heroes」

I direct my sword toward Rena.

A tense air drifts between me and Rena.

「….Hey, will you become my knight？ 」

But, Rena said the most unexpected words.

「HAAH！?」

I let out an extremely surprised voice.

「It's strange for someone like you to serve under Modes. That's why, you should just become my knight」

What the h.e.l.l is this G.o.ddess talking about?.

Then, what will become of the hero？It was when I listened to such a strange request.

A shadow leapt out from the opened door.

「ZEYAAAAH！ ！ 」

The shadow approaches and slashes towards me just like that.

I retreat to dodge that slash.

「Thank G.o.d you're alright, Rena！ ！ 」

That shadow was none other than s.h.i.+rone.

「Sorry for being late. There were those spartois guarding along the way…」

s.h.i.+rone is pointing her sword at me while protecting Rena behind her.

「You coward. HOW DARE YOU POINT YOUR SWORD TOWARD AN UNARMED WOMAN！ ！ 」

s.h.i.+rone is looking at me with an angry face.

To be honest, I rather not to have her looking at me with those kind of eyes.

「Run, Rena！ ！ Leave the rest to me！ ！ 」

「Ah, yes… I understand, s.h.i.+rone… I'll leave the rest to you」

Rena, who was being pressured by s.h.i.+rone's spirit, rushed toward the door.

「WAIT….！！」

When I try to chase after her, s.h.i.+rone blocks my path.

「You won't pa.s.s beyond this point！ ！ Your opponent is me！ ！ 」

I can't let Reiji fight this battle.

I'm watching Sahoko frantically trying to stop Reiji.

She couldn't let Reiji-kun go since anymore than this will hurt him.

That's why it was my turn.

Reiji-kun is our hero.

I knew about Reiji-kun when I was in middle school. At that time, I just recognized him as a hunk.

Till an event that occurred on a certain day.

At that time, I wanted to save my junior female friend from getting herself involved with delinquents.

I was quite confident with my own skills that I trained in my home. I really wanted to save my junior.

That's why, that day, I went to save my junior while bringing along my wooden sword.

There, I met five men surrounding three girls. Maybe because the men were highschool students, they were releasing violent-looking aura from their body.

I never lost to a boy of my age until this point. I was sure that I can beat them as long as I have my wooden sword.

But, I was wrong on that day.

A man who become enraged when I pointed my wooden sword at them attacked me with an iron pipe.

I received his attack with my wooden sword. It was a terrifying attack. That time, my hand became numb, and I dropped my wooden sword.

They were sneering at me as I got frightened after losing my weapon.

Reiji-kun made his appearance during such a time. Not just me, my juniors also called for Reiji-kun to save them.

I can very well remember Reiji-kun's maneuvers at that time. Reiji-kun is using his bare hands despite facing armed opponent, and yet he easily took out five of them.

Though he had no weapon when facing against opponents taller than himself, he easily beat them all. His figure was like that of a legendary hero.

That Reiji-kun was smiling gently at me who was trembling due to fear. I started crying upon seeing that smile.

Reiji-kun received a wound on his right hand due to the brawl. So, my junior and I decided to taking care of Reiji till his wound healed. Naturally, I planned to protect Reiji-kun if something were to happen to him.

I met Sahoko-san and Chiyuki-san during that time.

There were all kinds of teasing when we became Reiji-kun's followers.

I was annoyed by such things. Even though I don't care if they're ridiculing me, I definitely won't forgive anyone who ridicules Reiji-kun.

Even though Reiji-kun didn't do something bad against them.

I even quarrelled with my childhood friend, Kurok,i due to that matter. Though Kuroki didn't say it frankly, he obviously complained about Reiji. It made me extremely irritated.

No, maybe this is the reason why Kuroki became so angry.

This time, I noticed that I might have said too many bad things to Kuroki. I think Kuroki might have been dismayed when I said such cruel things to him.

I thought that I might have overdone it this time. Even so, Reiji-kun is a hero, and I wanted Kuroki to recognize that.

And that Reiji-kun is the hero of this world.

Now, I recall the anime that I watched a long time ago. It was the story about a hero who came from another world to defeat the demon king. The current situation is exactly like in that story.

Long time ago, Kuroki and I role played as the hero of that anime. The hero is I, while Kuroki was role playing as the villain and his subordinates. By the way, I forgot the name of the villain.

I know that Kuroki always wanted to play the role of the hero too. But, I wouldn't yield, thus I always became the hero.

(~'.')~To Be Continue To Chapter 17 Part 2~(‘.'~)