The Victory Banquet
Satou here. Once a hero has fulfilled his duty, it’s common practice for him to reluctantly return home, especially to a certain land of light. But outside the realm of fiction, it’s often not quite so simple.
“Go to hell, demon looooooooord!”
GZIMGYBoOooo.
Hayato’s special attack burst out, and the demon lord let out a dying scream and crumpled at last into purple smoke and a vast pile of sand.
I checked the information in my log.
> Title Acquired: Demon Lord Slayer: Sandstorm Lord
> Title Acquired: Right-Hand Man
> Title Acquired: Unsung Hero
Yep, looks like that actually took it out.
“Sir Hayato, congratulations on defeating the demon lord.”
“Yeah, we finally brought him down.”
Supporting the unsteady Hayato, I looked up at the mountain of sand the demon lord had left behind.
A broken dark violet orb that had likely been the demon lord’s core was visible among the rubble.
“Hayato…!”
Hearing Princess Mariest call out, I turned around to see the rest of the hero’s party, with my own companions supporting them.
“We did it, guys.”
“Not yet. Everyone, get your talismans ready…”
At Mariest’s prompting, the other followers of the hero produced their Divine Talismans.
“There they are!”
She pointed at two small purple lights that were floating up from the area of the orb.
The God Fragments.
“Whee, wahoo, whoopie!”
“Heh-heh-heh, wah-ha-ha-ha!”
These ones were somehow different from the God Fragments I’d seen before.
Somehow, they reminded me of druggies who’d gotten high off some illegal substance.
“Divine Talismans! <Seal> the evil away!”
The hero’s party thrust their Divine Talismans toward the God Fragments and shouted.
A blue lattice formed around the purple lights, and they were sucked into Mariest’s talisman, which was larger than the others.
So that’s how past heroes had gotten rid of the Fragments. Makes sense to me.
“H-Hayato!”
Miss Ringrande’s cry of distress rang out in the enormous altar room.
Blue light was pouring down from somewhere up above, enveloping Hayato.
The exhausted-looking hero looked up at the source of the light, his lips moving.
Though it was hard to make out much with all the glimmering light around him, I could tell that the word “Parion” was somewhere among whatever he said.
Thank you.
I thought I heard a young girl’s voice speak to me from the blue light.
Unless it was my imagination, that must have been the mysterious blue-haired little girl who called me to Hayato’s rescue. I guess that really was Parion after all, then.
Eventually, the light faded, and silence filled the room.
Ringrande gazed at Hayato, wearing a complicated expression that seemed to say, “I want to ask, but I also don’t want to know.”
“That was from Parion,” he said at last. “She’s picking me up tomorrow morning.”
Evidently, Hayato the Hero was going back to his own world.
“N-no! That’s much too soon!”
Ringrande cried out as she wrapped her arms around Hayato.
“…I’m sorry, Rin.”
Hayato gently stroked her hair.
“Hayato…do you really have to go back?”
Princess Mariest hesitated before she asked her question.
“Sorry, Mari,” Hayato answered quietly. “I’ve got people waiting for me back home.”
“…Right. Of course.”
Princess Mariest turned away to hide the tears welling up in her eyes. She must have already known the answer.
The rest of his companions fell silent, too, and a heavy sense of sorrow filled the room.
“…Come on, let’s celebrate!”
It was Arisa who broke the dismal silence with a cheerful voice.
“You just defeated a demon lord. We’ve got to throw the biggest banquet ever!”
“Yeah, let’s party!”
“Leave the eating to me!”
Rusus and Fifi were the first to jump at Arisa’s suggestion.
I could tell from the forced excitement in their voices that they were just as devastated as the others.
“Mm-hmm, I’ll make Hayato’s favorites—Saga beef nikumaki and fried rice.”
“I’ll bring out my best brandy, too.”
Weeyari and Loleiya joined in on the cheerful chatter.
Ringrande and Mariest were clearly still brooding, but they didn’t seem to have any objections to the celebration, at least.
“Mew!”
Tama’s ears twitched, and she looked at the pile of sand the demon lord left behind.
The shadow it cast was shifting, forming a human shape.
“It appears I returned too late.”
I was bracing myself for an enemy to appear. Instead, it was the sage.
I’d forgotten that he retreated into a shadow during the first sandstorm attack.
“Satou.”
Mia tugged my sleeve, so I lowered my ear to her level.
“Miasma.”
At her prompting, I activated my “Miasma Vision” and saw that the Den of Evil was filled with far thicker miasma than the last time I’d checked—maybe even a dozen times worse. The area around the demon lord’s pile of sand was especially dense. Maybe the corruption that strengthened the demon lord had created this miasma.
At any rate, it probably wouldn’t be safe to ignore it.
“Satou, we’re heading back!”
The dimensional submarine Jules Verne appeared behind Hayato.
He and his party were loading the wounded in to return to the holy capital.
“Sir Hayato! We’re going to make sure the Light of Freedom cultists didn’t leave anything dangerous behind before we head back.”
“…All right. You better be back before I leave tomorrow!”
Hayato hesitated a moment before agreeing, not quite able to say it was unnecessary.
“Yes, of course. If you could send an airship to the Den of Evil’s entrance, that would be a great help.”
“Sure thing. I’ll make sure it’s a fast one.”
With that, Hayato and the others boarded the Jules Verne and left.
Once I was sure they were gone, I activated my spirit light to purge the miasma. Since that didn’t feel like enough on its own, I also set up some of my mass-produced Holy Stones throughout the area for good measure.
“Master, what are you doing?”
“I thought it might be good to make a gravestone.”
Even if we didn’t know what its name might have once been, I wanted to at least show respect for the life that was lost.
I mended the doll that I’d collected during the battle and placed it at the demon lord’s grave.
“Ameeen?”
“Rest in peace, sir.”
We all paid our respects to the fallen.
Since there was still some time left before the miasma was purified completely, I had everyone help me collect the Light of Freedom–related documents I found on my map.
While most of them had been lost in the battle against the demon lord, I was able to figure out that they were plotting to create more miasma in the Dens of Evil to mass-produce Sandstorm Soldiers and invade Parion Province.
“Was their ultimate goal world domination? What kind of old-fashioned league of evil villains is that?”
“Well, you probably could conquer a country or two with a demon lord on your side.”
The documents also revealed a few new hideouts. Hopefully I could get the pontiff or the cardinal to wipe out the rest of the Light of Freedom cult.
By the time I was done investigating, the combination of my spirit light and the Holy Stones had gotten rid of most of the miasma.
It helped that the place seemed to be structured so that miasma flowed more easily. Lucky for me, just cleansing the altar room reduced the miasma levels in the rest of the Den of Evil.
“Now, let’s celebrate the defeat of the demon lord! Cheers!”
“Hear, hear!”
As we opened bottles of all kinds of choice liquor, the table was overflowing with an array of Hayato’s favorite and most memorable dishes that Princess Mariest had prepared.
There were a lot of meat-based dishes, a hint at Hayato’s personal preferences.
Since my kids were forbidden from drinking, they were focused primarily on the food.
We’d returned to the holy city just before sundown, too late for Lulu and me to help with the dishes.
During the banquet, the table setting and serving was being handled by a group of gorgeous maids, courtesy of the Saga Empire.
“Satou! You drinkin’ or what?”
“Yes, of course.”
Hayato came over with a bottle of sake in one hand, pouring it into my cup.
I returned the favor by pouring dragonspring liquor from the table into his.
“I can’t thank you enough for the help. If it weren’t for you, my honey, and the rest of your friends, I don’t think we could’ve beaten that demon lord.”
“We only helped a little bit, really. You deserve all the credit for defeating the demon lord, Sir Hayato.”
It was true: We’d only taken care of the demon lord’s minions, while the hero’s party did almost all the heavy lifting in taking down the demon lord himself.
“It was more than a little bit…”
Hayato’s face was getting weirdly close to mine.
If I remembered right, he was only interested in girls, albeit on the younger side…
“…Thank you, Satou,” he whispered in my ear. “Or should I say, Nanashi the Hero?”
Huh? I don’t remember doing anything to give myself away…
“Whatever do you mean?”
“Don’t worry. I haven’t told anyone else, ’cause it seems like you’re trying to hide it. But I saw how easily you wielded a Holy Sword, and that’s only supposed to be possible for heroes or people who’ve gotten special permission with Ritual Magic. And you were an even match for the demon lord, even though his level was supposedly much higher.”
Maybe I shouldn’t have used the Holy Sword when I backed him up.
Incidentally, I’d already returned Blutgang to its wielder Mezzalt when we loaded him onto the Jules Verne.
“Come on, Satou. Did you notice that you didn’t even take a single scratch when we were fighting the demon lord? And once you started covering my back, I didn’t get injured anymore, either.”
I guess I probably should’ve taken a little bit of damage… I didn’t want to dirty my newly made silver armor, though, you know?
“After seeing all that, I’d have to be a total idiot to believe that you’re really level forty-five.” Hayato grinned, then turned serious as he continued. “Satou, I wanna ask you to look out for my party once I go back to Japan.”
“What do you mean?”
I knew he was going back to Japan, but I wasn’t sure why that meant he would entrust his faithful followers to me.
Now that they’d successfully defeated a demon lord, wouldn’t they be able to make a name and career for themselves in the Saga Empire or anywhere else they wanted?
“According to Lilo and Nono, there’s some serious tensions in the heart of the Saga Empire lately.”
“Do you think a war is going to break out?”
“Yeah, I’d say it’s likely. They might even be planning on teaming up with the eastern lands and going up against the Weaselman Empire.”
I’d heard a little bit about this before: The Weaselman Empire was known for invading or annexing some of the small human and demi-human nations nearby.
“If they start trying to recruit my friends for their interpersonal wars, please protect them for me, will you?”
“Yes, leave it to me. I can shelter them somewhere far from the Saga Empire’s grasp.”
I could get Count Muno to put them up as guests, or even hide them in Bolenan Forest like the old hero Daisaku once did.
“What a relief! I know I can count on you.”
Looking like a weight had been lifted off his shoulders, Hayato threw back his drink.
“Lemme know if there’s anything I can do for ya in exchange. I wouldn’t mind handing down Arondight to you, if you want.”
Hayato gazed at me seriously.
Perfect timing. I actually had a favor I wanted to ask him.
“In that case, when you get back to your world, would you mind mailing these for me?”
“Letters?”
“I don’t know if your world is the same as mine, but I thought it would be good to let my family know that I’m all right, if at all possible.”
I gave Hayato letters for my family, my friends, and Mr. Tubs and the rest of my coworkers.
The bundle included letters from Arisa and Hikaru, too.
“Yeah, no problem. Don’t worry—I’ll make sure to deliver them personally.”
“Much appreciated.”
Hayato pounded his chest reassuringly. I knew I could trust him with this task.
Although there was a good chance that Arisa’s would be seen as a prank, since she had died in her old world, she said that was fine by her.
“Hayato, do you have a minute?”
“Rin?”
Miss Ringrande appeared with a wineglass in one hand, letting off a seductive air.
Her jade silk dress had a decidedly mature cut; pheromones were practically flying off her.
The effect was so striking that the formally dressed black knight and other members of the scouting party kept stealing glances her way.
“Satou, I need to borrow Hayato now.”
“Please, be my guest.”
I felt weirdly like a parental figure as I watched Hayato and Ringrande leave.
“I-is this an NTR twist?”
Arisa had also been muttering things like “Hayato ‘X’ Satou… Or is it Satou ‘X’ Hayato?” for a while now. I bopped her lightly on the head.
“Don’t be an idiot.”
It was perfectly normal to want to make some final memories if the person you cared about was going away forever.
I hoped Ringrande’s feelings would find fulfillment as I drained my glass.
The next morning, we gathered in the courtyard in the back of the great cathedral to see Hayato the Hero off on his journey home.
Hayato was decked out in a suit that would look perfectly at home back on Earth as he said his farewells to people from Saga Empire and Parion Province.
“Hayato!”
The crowd parted, and a girl who looked just like Lilo the secretary appeared.
“Nono, you made it! This is amazing!”
“Borrowed…imperial ship.”
As she squeezed Hayato, she mumbled a brief explanation of how she’d gotten here from the Saga Empire in time.
“Congrats.”
“Thanks a lot. I owe it all to you guys for supporting me behind the scenes.”
Hayato patted Nono’s head softly.
Just then, faint blue light engulfed his body.
“Sorry, Nono. Looks like it’s almost time.”
With that, Hayato stepped back from Nono and looked at each of his companions in turn.
“Mari, you’ve supported me from the day I was summoned to Saga Empire. Thank you so much.”
“Oh, Hayato…my dear hero…”
Princess Mariest embraced Hayato and kissed him on the cheek.
In these last moments, he’d dropped the cocky tone he usually carried as a hero.
“Seina, it’s thanks to you that I was able to get back on my feet after that yellow demon bastard nearly destroyed us all.”
“Heh-heh, come back anytime if you need me to slap some sense into you again…”
Seina held back tears as she hugged the hero.
After that, he said his individual good-byes to Loleiya, Rusus, Fifi, Weeyari, Lilo, and Nono, until finally it was Miss Ringrande’s turn.
“Rin, when we first met, you were just an obnoxious, stuck-up noble…”
Yikes, not a great way to start, Mr. Hero.
“…but now, you’re an irreplaceable companion who understands me better than anyone else ever has, or ever will. Make up with your little sister, got it?”
“Hayato…Hayato, Hayato, Hayato…”
Miss Ringrande was sobbing as she embraced him tightly, unable to form the words.
“You don’t need to say good-bye, Arisa?” I asked.
“It’s all right,” she replied. “We said our good-byes yesterday.”
“…It’s time.”
At last, the light came down from the sky.
“Seems like Parion can only keep our worlds connected for so long. I’d better get going.”
Hayato handed his Holy Sword Arondight over to Miss Ringrande.
“Take care, all of you.”
The hero floated up into the air, beginning to fade out of sight.
Someone cried out “Hayato!” and soon all his companions were calling out his name.
Hayato the Hero kept waving until he finally vanished completely. Even then, we kept on gazing up at the sky.
“Satou, are you drinking?!”
“Yes, I’m drinking. But it seems like you might be hitting your limit, Lady Ringrande.”
After we saw the hero off, his companions invited me to a gathering where they shared their memories of Hayato. But for some reason, after the gathering, a drunken Ringrande started rambling at me.
She seemed to be something of a clingy drunk, wrapping one arm around my neck and refilling my cup over and over.
I have to say, I don’t think a proper noblewoman is supposed to drink straight from the bottle like that.
“Honestly! I went all-out with my womanly charms on full display, and that damned blockhead didn’t even try to give me a single kiss!”
“Sir Hayato is a gentleman with a strong sense of honor, after all.”
From the sound of things, Miss Ringrande’s advance the previous night had utterly failed.
“Well, a real man ought to trust his animal instincts in a situation like that!”
“I suppose it is important to let your passion guide you every once in a while.”
As I vaguely humored her, Ringrande eventually fell silent.
She must have finally drunk herself unconscious.
I turned to my own companions, who were peering in through the doorway with their faces stacked like a totem pole, and asked them to carry her to bed.
In the meantime, I sat myself back down on the sofa and drank the fruity water Lulu brought me to cleanse my palate.
“Hrmm, this is unexpected.”
“Is this about the letters?”
I nodded at Arisa as I looked at the marker list on my menu.
The letters I’d given to Hayato were on the list. Their current location read “World Line #N, Planet Earth, Japan,” with the “N” part containing an insane number of digits.
Hayato’s name was still on my list, too.
I guess Unique Skills continue to work even in other worlds.
“M-Master! You’re not going to sneak back home or anything, are you?” Arisa clutched my hand tightly.
“No, of course not,” I answered immediately. “If I do find a way back, why don’t we all go sightseeing on Earth together?”
Though I was mostly joking, I bet they would love the skyscrapers of Tokyo and the colorful subcultures of Akihabara.
“That sounds lovely.” Arisa smiled.
It would probably be difficult without the help of something like the World Connection Unique Skill that summoned Aoi and other Japanese people indiscriminately in Lumork Kingdom, or the divine hero-summoning system in the Saga Empire.
Since I could see the other world on my menu, I might even have been able to get there with Unit Deployment.
But based on the Unit Deployment page in my AR display, the location “Ichirou Satou’s Home” in Hayato’s world didn’t count as controlled territory that I could reach with that skill.
Maybe I should have given Hayato a tent that I might be able to use as a Unit Deployment destination and asked him to set it up in the other world. Or even a doghouse large enough for me to fit into, since a tent wouldn’t be ideal for permanent use.
Still, had I thought of all that and actually done it, I think it would have been too risky.
I’d be worried that my soul vessel would break, even if I borrowed Arisa’s soul shell garland before using Unit Deployment.
Any experiments with going back to Japan would have to wait until after I observed a summoning circle in the Saga Empire.
Two days after Hayato went home…
“If you’re ever in the Saga Empire, please do let me know. I shall happily fulfill my promise to show you the hero temple’s summoning circle.”
“Thank you. We’ll be sure to visit after I’ve fulfilled my duties as Vice-Minister of Tourism in the western regions.”
We stood in front of the dimensional submarine Jules Verne, saying our good-byes to Princess Mariest and the rest of the hero’s party.
“I’m sorry about yesterday, Satou.” Miss Ringrande looked sheepish as she apologized. “Once I’ve finished my duties as a hero’s follower in the Saga Empire, I plan to return to Ougoch Duchy, so please come for a visit sometime.”
She added crossly that she still hadn’t forgiven Sara, in her typical stern older sister act, but I figured she was just covering up her feelings about Hayato’s departure.
“If you find any more delicious liquor, please send me some.”
“Certainly,” I promised the priestess. “I’ll keep an eye out for something you might like.”
“Once we get back to the Saga Empire, Fifi and I are going on a training journey. If you’re in Shiga Kingdom, let’s do some sparring, got it?”
“Yeah, I wanna spar, too. I didn’t think anyone but Rusus and me could keep up with Hayato’s moves when he’s had a speed potion.”
Rusus and Fifi grinned fiercely at me.
When next we met, maybe they could face off with Tama and Pochi to see how they’d grown.
“Satou, if you like sightseeing, you should come to the long-eared tribe sanctuary. Long-eared folk can breed with humans, so I bet they’d love a strong guy like you.”
It was Weeyari who approached me next.
I was certainly interested in the long-eared tribe sanctuary, though I was hesitant at the idea of being potentially viewed as a breeding stallion.
“See you, Satou. I’m gonna go visit you in Shiga Kingdom as a spy, too.”
“Just visit normally, please. You’d be more than welcome.”
Seina the scout made a disturbing promise.
“…Thank you…for saving Hayato.”
Nono hid behind Lilo, whose face was identical to hers, as she mumbled her thanks.
“Thank you very much for your aid, Your Excellency. You should receive a letter from His Majesty the Emperor of the Saga Empire at your residence in the Shiga Kingdom soon. I imagine it will be regarding your medal and an offer of honorary Saga Empire peerage.”
Lastly, Lilo the secretary gave me a businesslike report.
“It’s up to you whether to accept them, but please do at least take the medal as proof that you helped defeat the demon lord with Hayato—we’ll all have a matching set,” she added with a faint smile.
Once they boarded, we watched the silver ship vanish into another dimension, and the Parion Province and Saga Empire representatives disbanded.
I thanked the two samurai, the maid staff, and everyone else who had helped us, and we departed our lodgings as well.
“…Mr. Noble!”
As we walked across the vast grounds of the cathedral, the sandfolk boy Raito came running up to us, waving wildly.
Though he’d been in Lilo the secretary’s care, he’d apparently returned to his previous job after the defeat of the demon lord.
“We found out where my dad went!”
He explained that he’d received word from the gatekeeper that the sage helped me make arrangements with.
“Glad to hear it.”
Now that the demon lord was defeated, I’d been thinking of looking for his father by using “Flashrunning” to move around Parion Province and use my map search. Evidently, there was no need for that now.
“Thanks to the sage, I’mma go to the place where my dad is, too!”
“Oh? What sort of place is it?” Arisa asked.
“They said it’s a village where people who’re ‘adept’ go to draw out their hidden powers.”
Raito was probably considered an “adept” because of his rare “Intuition” skill.
“I think the sage said it was called…the Training Village.”
“That’s a bit on the nose.”
While I agreed with Arisa, I was a little intrigued as well.
“Trainiiing?”
“Pochi loves training, too, sir!”
“I dunno if I like it much, but I’mma do my best so I can live with my dad!”
“I’m sure you can do it,” I encouraged the smiling boy.
With that, he dashed off toward the cathedral, saying that the sage had called for him.
We all watched him go, then Arisa turned to look at me.
“So, Master, where are we going next? Still the Saga Empire?”
“Since the demon lord disrupted most of our sightseeing, why don’t we take a proper tour of Parion Province and the western regions before we head to the Saga Empire?”
Everyone agreed to my suggestion with big smiles, and we chatted about what we wanted to see first as we walked to the main road to look for an inn.
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