Volume 3 Digital Edition Short Story: Crusader of the Sleeping Forest
<TL Note: A reference to Sleeping Beauty, in Japan, the tale is known as “Beauty of the Sleeping Forest”.>
“Kazuma, I want you to hit me.”
The pervert amongst my party members requested that I do this broad daylight smack in the middle of the bustling guild.
…I couldn’t find the words to reply. I faced Darkness with as serious of an expression as I could muster, and lightly slapped her face.
“Apfft—!? W-, What are you doing!? Who said to hit there!?”
Darkness, whose face was now slightly red, grabbed onto my extended hand and gave me a verbal lashing.
You tell me to hit you then you tell me not to hit you there?
“What do you want me to do? Just to let you know, I have some stuff I need to go do as well, so I’m not gonna go along with those depraved hobbies of yours, alright? Afternoon today, a favorite store of mine is having a rock-paper-scissors tournament for their regulars. From what I heard it seems that whoever wins will get a ‘special course’ ticket. I haven’t lost a single rock-paper-scissor game to this day, so I will definitely join in.”
“A favorite store of yours…? Special course ticket…? Was there a store like that? What kind of store is it? Is this related to your occasional sleep-outs during weekends?”
“N-N-N-, Not really-!? My occasional sleep-outs are, oh, yeah I’m just drinking with my male buddies you know!? More importantly, why did you tell me to hit you!?”
As I desperately tried to change the topic, Darkness seemed to have a sudden realization.
“That’s right, this is not the time to do this! Kazuma, come with me for a second, I have something to talk to you about!”
“…Siren?”
“That’s right. There’s a stray siren living in the forest next to town. As of now, I’m pretty sure we’re the only ones that know this.”
–Darkness had dragged me to a corner of the guild and whispered the details to my ear.
“By siren, you mean the kind of monster that sings to charm people?”
“Mhm, the kind that leads people’s hearts astray and puts them to sleep. Originally, they’re a type of sea-spirit that only inhabits oceans, but…”
When she left early in the morning to go the forest and train, it seems that she heard a very beautiful singing.
Following the sound to its source, she found a female-type monster whose lower half was that of a bird.
“So what did you do after that?”
“After that, as I was listening to the song, I was assaulted by drowsiness so to speak. By the time I had awoken, I found myself alone in the middle of the forest. As a lone female sleeping defenselessly in the middle of a deserted forest… If something had gone wrong, I might have even fallen into the hands of some pervert…!”
Ignoring the flushed-faced pervert who restlessly squirmed, I reviewed the situation.
Why would a sea-spirit appear on land?
“If we leave her alone won’t someone eventually subjugate her? Report it to the receptionist, would you?”
“Sirens are pure spirits. Although they do cause harm to humans, they’re friendly spirits at their cores. It would be easy to just report it, but if they just happened to get lost, then I want to do everything I can to help her.”
Darkness had quite the serious expression. What happened to the regrettable pervert a moment ago?
“It should be just ahead. I heard the singing somewhere around here, but…”
Darkness brought me here to the forest, where we walked along.
I want to get the special course ticket by all means, so I should get this over before the event starts, but then—
“…I hear some singing.”
“Ah, that’s the voice.”
As we were drawn in by the voice, we found a female whose lower body was that of a bird singing with her eyes closed.
Her singing was beautiful, yet somewhat lonely.
“It’s as if she was called over by someone… There might be some sort of being around here that can cause water and sea-spirits to gather… So the siren might have been drawn in as a result…”
Darkness murmured th—… Hey, Oi.
“…There’s someone who can communicate on a spiritual level with that siren, I think.”
Rather, all this might just be that girl’s fault.
“Really!? Alright, I’ll stay here and keep watch. Kazuma, hurry back to town and…”
After saying that much, Darkness’ eyelids seem to droop…
“Hey, get up! You’ll die if you fall asleep!”
“Hapa-!? Aah, s-, sorry…! But still, falling asleep doesn’t mean that I will die, so you don’t have to slap my face so hard… Ah no, actually, it’d probably be better if you hit me a little harder…!
After forcing Darkness awake, I was also struck with drowsiness—
“Wake up! Come on, wake up Kazuma!”
“OWW—!”
Darkness punched me in the face to force me awake… T-, This friggin’ cunt—!
And so, we kept hitting each other for a good while… Then suddenly, I remembered what the heck we were here to do, and regained my senses.
This isn’t the time to be doing this. I should be calling the true culprit for this mess over. ‘Culprit’ being Aqua. It was then—
“…? What’s this? …Earplugs?”
Darkness, who had approached the siren at some point, pulled those out of the siren’s ears.
…To think that a spirit that charmed using songs would use earplugs… This was kinda surreal actually.
The siren, who had her earplugs pulled out, immediately opened her eyes.
Then, the siren, who just realized that Darkness and I were here, widened her eyes in surprise and took deep breaths—!
…When I opened my eyes, everything around me was a dark shade of red.
It seems that we took an all-out song from the surprised siren.
Beside me, Darkness and the siren were still sleeping.
Since the siren was still sleeping, this was the right time to go call Aqua…
Then, as I was thinking that, I realized… it was already evening.
Huh… What about the rock-paper-scissors tournament at the succubus store…?
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