Published at 1st of March 2020 9:00 am

Chapter 26 - The Demon Lord Sees His Daughter in a New Light

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Right then, the thief Jaunis dashed out in front.

“Women gotta value their bodies more!!!”

He promptly stabbed the lizard in the neck. It must have been very effective, considering how loudly the lizard started screaming. However, at the same time, Jaunis had put himself in quite a lot of danger; the lizard mercilessly breathed out a stream of fire right into his face.

“Gkhh! That’s fuckin’ hot!”

The standard thief strategy was to avoid all enemy attacks while slowly wearing them down with their own attacks. If they came in straight from the front, though, attacking meant sacrificing any chance at evasion.

“Jaunis, are you all right?!”

It wasn’t only Angelica, the rest of the party all called out to him as well.

Because of Jaunis’s efforts, the lizard ended up falling to a barrage of Selene’s magic. However, Jaunis himself was seriously injured. The priest Nahalin cast her recovery magic, so he’d survive, but that used up quite a lot of her magic power.

“Jaunis, you idiot, why’d you do that? One wrong move and you’d have died instantly…”

“Men can’t help… tryin’a look cool in front of girls…”

Even though his face had yet to regain its color, Jaunis grinned broadly. Although, anyone could tell that he was forcing it.

This man had quite a backbone. I could leave Angelica to someone like him—was something I couldn’t say just yet, but compared to my first impression of him, he was certainly growing on me. He might seem frivolous, but it seemed he would step up when the chips were down.

But, hold on a sec… If he normally weren’t such a weird, flirty guy, then he went and did something like this, would my evaluation of him have improved to this degree? Was he running some kind of scam where he intentionally behaved like garbage to raise his stock with a well-timed heroic act?

Though, and I’m just guessing here, but from what I could see, it didn’t feel like Angelica and Jaunis were lovers anyway. If they were, she probably would have been more upset.

That being the case, I could say I accomplished one of my goals. It appeared that Angelica was not dating another adventurer, and it didn’t seem like anyone in her party was the kind of trash who would pursue her. In conclusion, Angelica was not in any immediate danger of being led on by an ill-intentioned male.

Laetia, your daughter is handling herself splendidly. You needn’t worry.

“Let’s get out of here and camp outside. The monsters out there shouldn’t be as strong as the ones in here.”

“Well said. It would take too long to reach the nearest village, after all.”

Apparently they were planning to withdraw from the caverns and set up a camp. Anything worked for me, but I was definitely glad I bought that bread now. If I hadn’t, I wouldn’t be able to bear the hunger right about now.

“By the way, it might be faint enough that only a thief could detect it, but I smell bread for some reason. Has someone been eating…?”

“Of course not. If the smell from a meal were to spread, we would attract monsters one after the other, obviously.”

Ah…… Could this bread have summoned all those monsters…?

Well, whatever. If I didn’t say anything, they’d be none the wiser, so let’s just keep my mouth shut.

By the time they got out of the caverns, it was already nighttime. Nocturnal monsters would be very active now. The party decided to have two people keep watch while the rest slept as best they could.

I was starting to feel sleepy as well, but I wanted to continue observing them. I had to be especially careful not to allow Jaunis to lay a finger on Angelica while she was sleeping… One could never be too careful, after all.

—That being said, Jaunis was the most fatigued of them all; he took a pass on watch duties and immediately fell soundly asleep in the simple tent. It looked like he definitely wouldn’t be up until morning. So I guess that mitigated the risk of any salacious events. Maybe I should just go home and sleep… Nah, I’ll stay up for just a bit longer.

Angelica and the girly-boy Zenkay were on first watch. The mage and priest were both tired after using their magic, so they made the correct choice in having them rest first. Magic users who were low on magic power had drastically reduced combat capabilities, after all.

Keeping watch next to a crackling fire, Zenkay offered a comment. “Y’know, this is like the first time I’ve ever seen Jaunis risk his life like that.”

“I don’t think you know this, Zenkay, but while Jaunis might seem like just a flirt, you don’t need to worry since he’s actually not so rotten on the inside. After all, the straight-laced Nahalin was the one who introduced him to us. That’s why Selene and I both accepted him.”

Angelica’s expression was much gentler now than it was in the caverns. Wow… so she can give off a look like that too. If possible, I’d really like it if she would show that expression around me, too. Yes please.

“Nahalin did?! Whoa… that’s crazy. I thought the two of them got along as well as a hero and demon lord did.”

“I understand what you’re trying to say, but that comparison gives me mixed feelings…”

So she had mixed feelings about me… I guess I was just reaping what I sowed by eavesdropping.

“Anyway, as long as you ignore whatever comes out of his mouth, I do think he’s pretty trustworthy. If he weren’t, there’s no way we could’ve gotten all the way to the demon lord together. We really have a great party.”

Angelica looked really grown-up right now. While she was still young, she was also a hero. I suppose it was true that you shouldn’t feel that others need your guidance to find the right path.

I may have been treating Angelica like too much of a child. While only fifteen years old, she was a hero, so I should really consider her closer to an adult. In that case, I could probably just leave matters of love for her to handle on her own.

“You’re right… We’ve, really got a good party… I can be proud of us, can’t I…” Tears welled up in the girly-boy fighter Zenkay’s eyes. “Back in my hometown, people always called me a little kid because I was so short, so I ran away and became a fighter to change myself… Even still, at first, I would get scared a lot and couldn’t help wondering if this really was what I should’ve done…”

“Right. Of course you’d get worried if people always told you you’d never become anyone.”

Angelica gave Zenkay a hug and gently patted his head.

Yes… Angelica was an outstanding example of both a hero and a leader. I wouldn’t tell her the intimate details, but I wanted to let Laetia know how amazing Angelica was. And there was no one better than me to judge Angelica’s performance as a hero.

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