Footprints of Chaos

"Pardon my intrusion! Your Majesty—"

A soldier entered the room and whispered something to the king.

"Fumo, understood… Take care of the rest, Minister."

"Yes, leave it to me."

They left the room, leaving us behind… Many guards and robed mages followed them. The room was suddenly empty of people.

All that remained were Rokuko, the minister, a maid, and myself.

"So, what do you want us to do?"

"First, please take these hero bracelets. They will also serve as identification, so please wear them."

When the minister clapped his hands, a maid came forward, respectfully carrying a tray with two bracelets.

I took one, but it seemed suspicious. In fact, wasn't it just some kind of slave collar-like identification? I gave Rokuko a signal.

"Rokuko."

"I know."

Thankfully, Rokuko didn't seem to want to wear it either.

The minister frowned as he saw that we didn't intend to put on the bracelets.

It was my turn to intervene.

"Oh, will you not be wearing them?"

"Eh, these are things to be held by hand though…? Ah, it must be a difference in culture. Still, I will not wear something like a bracelet. I have a strong psychological resistance to the idea."

"Interesting. I take it that it is not customary to wear bracelets in your country, hero?"

"No one wears decorative items on their wrists in my circle, at the very least."

That's the story I went with. It wouldn't be strange for someone to have a magic-imbued gaze from the side, so I'm didn't lie.

The bracelets were meant to be held in hand before being worn on the arm, and it's natural that cultures are different. Moreover, I genuinely don't want to wear something suspicious like this.

Moreover, in my circle, it wasn't customary to wear bracelets. I didn't wear silver bracelets as a fashion statement either.

"… If it's an identification, just showing it in our hands should be enough, right? Or is there any inconvenience if we don't wear the bracelets?"

"No, no. However, they have anti-theft magic, so we were hoping you would wear them."

"Then let's thread a string through them and hang them around our necks so we don't lose them. Is there any problem with that?"

"…"

"Could it be… there are clothes in this country but no strings…? It seems we can't expect much in terms of rewards. Please give us some time to think about your request, then. Oh, let me take the chance to teach you how to make strings. You see, a string is a thin, elongated—"

"We have strings! Maid, bring them some strings! Enough for two people!"

"Ah, I'm glad there are strings. Don't scare me like that. It's bad for my heart."

We managed to avoid having to wear the bracelets by using a diversionary tactic and decided to hang the hero bracelets from leather strings around our necks.

It was then that I noticed a magic circle drawn at our feet.

… Just from a glance, I could see the phrases [Bring], [Keima Masuda], and [Involve].

Yep, that's definitely it. It's Leona's doing. The only one who knew my name correctly as [Keima Masuda] in this world other than me was Leona, who'd used Appraisal on me.

At the very least, the person who developed this magic circle was Leona. I don't know if she drew it herself or had someone else do it, though.

"So… we need save the country from crisis, was it? What do you want us to do?"

"The hero's job has always been to defeat the Demon King… Then a marriage with our country's princess—"

"That's not necessary. Can't you see?"

With a smile, I pulled Rokuko close by her shoulder. Rokuko shuddered, then leaned against me. Nice reaction.

Wasn't it contradictory to talk about marriage when they said they'd send us back after the job was done? Smells like a trap.

"Our country practices polygamy. Just leaving your seed would be enough."

"I refuse. My homeland practices monogamy, and having multiple wives is not allowed."

"We're in the Daido Kingdom, so there's no problem."

"It seems you don't understand my indirect way of speaking, so let me be honest: it's unpleasant to be suggested such a thing in front of my girl. I won't be motivated to work unless you offer a considerable reward."

"… My apologies."

"Let's consider it a joke this time. We have different cultures, after all."

"Thank you, hero."

The minister bowed his head, obviously forced.

"Can you give us some time to think about our answer? It's hard to prepare ourselves when we're suddenly asked to defeat the Demon King. Please write down the details of the job and the reward."

"… Understood, hero. For now, let us guide you to the guest room. Could you wait a while as we prepare everything?"

We were led out of the room by the maid. They promised to deliver a document with the job conditions and rewards after dinner.

"Please, this way."

"Oh, one room is enough."

"Yes, understood."

Hm? Well, no, it's fine. It was consistent with the bluff I pulled on the minister and separating is never a good idea, nor do I want to.

With that, Rokuko and I were left alone in the guest room, guided by the maid.

There was only one bed in the guest room. It had a window, but it didn't seem possible to exit from it since we were on the third floor. It would be different if we could fly, though.

The room was simple, but it wasn't cell, instead looking like a proper guest room. Are we being treated as ordinary guests, perhaps? Well, the bed did seem a bit narrow for two people to sleep in though.

Rokuko, seemingly tired, quickly sat down on the bed before letting out a groan as it seemed to be harder than she was expecting.

"Ouch… But Keima, what's going on here? This is Daido, right?"

"It's definitely Leona's doing, at least."

"What in the world did she do…?"

"I don't know. I don't know, but it's definitely Leona's doing…"

At the very least, it seems we hadn't crossed any dimensional barriers. We didn't meet any gods, so I figured they'd used some sort of transference magic formation with a cooperative ritual involving multiple people.

"For now… let's send out some scouts since it's no good just staying still. DP Summon, mouse, little bird."

"You're right. In a situation like this, the more information we have, the better."

Rokuko summoned a mouse and a yellow little bird, animals that could be found anywhere, and sent them out to scout. DP sure was convenient.

"… Oh, there's also the email feature in the menu. Let's email Haku-san."

"That's a good idea. We might get help from Haku-neesama—huh?"

As Rokuko looked at the menu function, the email feature was disabled.

"… Is it under maintenance?"

"I don't think Otou-sama would do that."

In that case, as much as I don't want to think about it, that was probably Leona's doing as well…