At night, at my favorite brothel.
　While Ortia cleaned his ears in her lap pillow, he looked out the window at the little watchful moon - the moon that will be full tomorrow.

　He said he was enjoying the softness and the nice smell and the breeze.
　Ortiz suddenly asked me as if he remembered.

''Hey, Hermes-chan, is that rumor true?''
"Rumor?
Again, you're lying to me about this.

　Ortiz grins. What's so fake about it?

It's all over town right now, so you'd better know about it.
No, I really don't know what you're talking about.
See, Hermes-chan is killing Orycto Jr.
What?

　He was so startled that he jumped up from Ortizia's lap.

'What's that all about?'
'Huh?　Are you sure you don't know anything about this?
I don't know, let's hear the details.
'That's fine but you see, the Trikala mine was recently tapped by Hermes-chan and turned into a silver digging mine, right?
Yeah.

　Me nodding.
　I mean, Ortizia was involved in that one, and I got her to help me.

I'm sure you'll be able to find a lot of good reasons for this. And everyone was bothered by it, but one day it was exterminated.
'Is that what they're doing now?　Unresolved talk, is there more than one?
They say it's immortal, that if you beat it, it will regenerate.
I see.
Rumor has it that Hermes is the one who did it for me. The new lord of the Order of the Cross is so cool that he can defeat immortal demons with a single sword.
What have you done...

　I've never heard that rumor before.

　I mean, it's not even close to being annoying.
　Having an immortal or something, he's a strong monster no matter what you think.
　And the rumor that I'm the one doing it is very annoying.

　I need to unravel these rumors.

　　　　　You know.

　The next day.
　Trikala mine, about 20 kilometers from the city of Pindos.
　I came alone and met the man in charge of the mine.

　A building at the foot of the mine that looks like a government building.
　I was sitting on a couch facing a man there.
　The man's name is Gorlath, and he is a rough-looking, dynamic man who looks like a mine foreman.

I'm not sure if it's really the lord of the land.

　Gorlath laughed good-naturedly.

I didn't mean to open it up, either, but it's become such a rumor. I think it's best to just get it straight.
Yeah!　Rumors alone don't make people feel completely safe.

　Gorlath responds in a bold and frank tone.

　I came over here and told him, "I've done the orict jr. so far.
　And Gorlath said, "Oh I knew it! And then I said, "I'll show you proof," and here we are.

"So, is that guy going to be on the show today?
I don't know. I don't want you to get out of here today.

　Gorlath said with a troubled face.
　That demon must be really annoyed by the people in the field.

'Oh well, just show me where it's likely to come out, I'll take a look around.
Oh. Take a look at this.

　Gorlath laid out a map on the table between us.
　It was this map of the Trikala Mine.

　There are a number of X's on that map.

"It's skewed to the east of the mountain.
I'm assuming there's a nest or something close to it around.
Okay, all right, I'll get on that side first.
Oh, my lord. May I have a word?

　I stood up and was about to leave the room when Gorlath stopped me.

'What?'
One of the mine workers is particularly thrilled by word of our lord. Can they be allowed to watch?
Yeah, that's good.

　After a moment's thought, I agreed.
　It's more of a crossover.


　There's a reason why I came to the Trikala mine and offered to exterminate Orikut Jr.
　Because I want to fail to exterminate it in front of witnesses.

　Rumor has it that I'm the one doing it.
　The only way to get rid of it is to play the role of "Lord Idiot," who took advantage of the rumors but didn't have the competence to do so.
　You have to override the rumors with failure.

　So I'm actually going to come along and fail to exterminate them.
　In other words, the more onlookers - and the more people who are excited by the rumors and expect to see "me", the better.


　I've decided to take the onlookers out for a losing battle.

　　　　　☆

　The middle of the Trikala Mine at night.
　Under the full moon, I took a group of miners working in this mine and went around looking for the point where there was a sighting of Orict Jr.
　Not the users of refining magic, but the people who dig the ore and carry it out.

　Hence, all of them were quite burly and the tension was high.

''I didn't expect it was really the lord-sama who did it.
And I'd love to see you take it down in person.
I didn't want you out of here today no matter what, but you're going to have to do it.

　I listen to the excited people as they talk around the X points on the map.
　I see?　It's not like they don't come out every day?

　That's tricky.
　It's a pain in the ass to come here every day, so I prayed in my heart that today's patrol would bring me out of it all at once.

　I wonder if my prayers were answered, and the demon appeared.

'Whoa!'
Shit, he came out this way.
Everybody scatter!

　I got out, and it was the guys following behind me.
　Under the full moon, a demon that looked like a big rock monster was about to attack the miners.

　I drew my sword.
　Rumor had it that they were defeating them with swords, so I needed to mimic that, so I brought it with me.

　I drew my sword and tried to jump in and slash at Orikut, but--

'Wow!'
Klaus!

　One of the miners got his foot caught in an uneven surface and fell down.
　And his foot was stuck and he couldn't seem to get out.
　Only one of the miners was able to escape completely.

　And Orict Jr.'s attack approaches the fellow.
　The distance - too subtle.

　If you're fighting to lose, time will be extended and you might get involved.

''Tch!''

　I increased my speed and jumped in.
　The longsword that came off - a flash!

　The demon was cut off in both directions with a response that was as hard as it could be.
　It crumbled down with a rattle and stopped moving.

'..........

　I did it.
　The miner was in danger and I went to save him, but I knocked him down.

　The whole thing went sideways. It wasn't supposed to be like this.

　...well, let's look on the bright side.
　Rumor has it that I was right.
　The rumor was that I was the one who beat you, and now I'm the one who did.
　That's all there is to it.

　But you know what?

"f*ck, f*ck, f*ck.
It was nice to actually see you beat that thing with the full moon.
Thank you, thank you.

　Some miners have left to worship, something is wrong with the story.
　I feel that the miners' eyes, the look of respect is stronger than before we left.
　I had a bad feeling.

　I asked the guy closest to me.

"What do you mean by 'that guy with the full moon'?
I heard that monster changes strength with the phase of the moon.
Huh?
A full moon can be a real disaster, and the whole Iibacho could be destroyed. Everyone here didn't want them to see a full moon.
....

　You know, you've been saying that for a long time.
　I don't want you to leave, just not today.

　I took that to mean "I don't want you to go out of the game, just not today".
　And the fact that he beat them....

　I look at the miners, my respect for them getting stronger and stronger.

　Maybe I've overridden the rumors with a stronger result....