I sent the miners home first, and I wandered around in Mount Trikara.

　Orikut Jr. was defeated, but there was still one big problem.
　A problem that only I can notice, that I can't notice.

　That is, who defeated Orikut Jr. so far?

　The person who defeated Orikut Jr. and spread the word that it was my achievement.
　It wasn't Midea. She's obsessed with me, and she's trying to spread the I-Nanus name.

　I'm not going to say it was Hermes.

　It was someone other than Midea.

"The new Master of Cano looks pretty careless.

　I turn to the voice.
　A man looks down at me from the mountainside, higher than me.

　He laughs through his nose, his face a cynical smile.

'You ... are ... Taratos.
I knew you knew it was me.

　Taratos stared at me, hatred in his cynical smile.

　Taratos.
　He was one of the men who had asked my sister to marry me before, the one who had found out I was 'made up from repeated marriages and divorces'.

'You the one who started the rumor?'
Yeah, I figured if I did this you'd come out on your own.
Did you take down Orycto, too?
That's right.
Why would you do that?
Why?

　'Ha,' snickered Taratos.

'It's good, now the Cano family. To me, you know. There isn't a woman who doesn't fall in love with this face and this skill. If only you hadn't interfered, I could have taken a liking to that woman, married her and had the Cano family.
Do you hate me for getting in the way of that?
'Yes, I'll make you disappear here and no one will get in the way. Then we can slowly remake your investigation as bullshit.

　I see.

　I sigh, and Taratos draws his sword.
　The sound of the sheath run can be heard beautifully. It's only because he himself calls himself "this skilled".

　It's no wonder that he defeated Orict.

"Give up and die here. There is no hope for you anymore.
Is there no hope?
Phew, draw your sword.

　The face of a victorious Taratos.
　For now, he pulled out his sword as he was told.

　The moment I pulled it out, the sword rotted to pieces.

''Immortal Orict jr, I've been cursing you every time I've defeated you.
"A curse to destroy the weapon of the next person you fight.
That's right. Now you're unarmed. If you don't resist, I can let you go without pain.

　If the position you're standing in is up, then the words you're throwing at me are pretty much upside down.

　I knew about it from my research, but when I met him in person, I was surprised to find out that it's more than research.
　It's a refreshing scum that I haven't seen in a long time.

I'm going to be able to say that I've grasped the power in the fight with Orict anyway, it was a mistake to barge in with that level of power. Die!

　Taratos took a small leap and slashed at me.
　The Tang Bamboo Split swinging from above my head, a slash that tore through the air and attacked me.

''........Heh?''

　I pinched him with two fingers to stop him. It's a finger version of Serious White Blade-taking.

　When I twisted my wrist, the tip of the blade snapped off with a beautiful sound with a bang.

"d*mn!

　Taratos reacted, jumping back with his broken sword at the ready.
　He threw the broken cutting edge.
　The blade sliced through the air and flew away.

　It collided with Taratos' broken sword, and Kiki Kiki Kiki!　And multiple impact sounds were heard.

　By the time Taratos landed, the sword that was more than three quarters of the way down had snapped off and all that was left was the hilt he was holding.

''Bah, that's ridiculous!　I didn't know you were this strong. Are you telling me you weren't serious when you were in Orict?
No, that would be a mistake.
What?

It's not even close to being a real thing.

You're a monster.

　Taratos turned himself around and ran away, but he didn't let him go.
　He picked up a suitably sized pebble from the ground, popped it with his finger and sent it flying, hitting the guy.

　With the momentum of his run and the pebble hitting him in the back, Taratos sprinted forward and plunged face first into the ground, unconscious.

　He approached slowly, flipping his body over and turning his face upwards.

　I wondered why I was going to do it.
　This junk, it's stupid to be serious, and to get my hands dirty.
　Let's just do something random....

　I thought about it for a minute and came up with a good one.

　I put my hand over Taratos' forehead.
　One of the punishments is to tattoo the crimes committed on the face of a sinner.

　In the same way, I have a tattoo on the forehead of Taratos.

　--I'm a marriage cheater.

　And.
　You're proud of your face, but you can't fool a girl anymore.

　　　　　★

Hey, Hermes, is the rumor true?
Orict Jr. would be me?

　As I was having a good drink with Ortizia, looking out at the lower moon, she asked me the same question as before, to which I replied normally.

'Not that way,'
Yeah?　Then what?
Talatos, the man who punished him, rumor has it that Hermes did it while he was out killing Orict.
'Oh...'

　I didn't know that was the word.
　Well, I was at Mt. Torikara that night, and right afterwards, a tattooed Taratos in the public eye would make that association.

　Well, that's not the point.
　People who know what happened with your sister can understand what happened, and the fact that I got that tattoo can be used to create a bad reputation.
　Yeah, that's right.

"Well, I did it.
Yeah, right. Everyone was talking about it. They said it felt good that someone finally did something they couldn't touch before, and that it felt good to have someone to do it.
You couldn't get to it?
'Yeah, for two reasons. One is that the women who were used for good and then dumped don't say a bad word about it.
You're a high-level con artist.

　I half-impressed and half-amused.

'The other reason is that, you know, you were too strong to mess with.
Are you that strong?
'Yes!　They say it's one of the top five in that generation.
Isn't it true?

　He's that strong?
　I mean, I just admitted to Ortiz that I got him.

And you know what?
There's more!
He tricked a nobleman's daughter into giving him his famous sword, Siphos, and it's so powerful. I can't believe he's so strong.
What?　Was that a good sword?　I didn't even know it was happening.
Yeah!

　Oltia shouted aloud.
　'Sheesh,' he thought.

'It's true that you shattered the famous sword Siphos!
'No, no, that's not...'
It's true.
No, no, I didn't do that.
Your nose twitches when you lie, little Hermes.
-Oh!

　I held my nose with a puff - that was a mistake.
　It's like Ortiz admitting that this is the action, whether it's true or false.

　Nodding in resignation, I asked Ortiz, disappointed, "I beg you, please, for the rest of my life.

"Do me a favor for the rest of my life and don't talk about this to anyone else,
Okay, don't tell anyone.
Well that's definitely not true.

　I know what I'm talking about.

　I've never had a woman's "between you and me" story become a story between us.
　If it was just a normal "I get it", I'd be relieved because we've been together long enough, but if she said "just between us", I'd despair.

　I tried to keep my mouth shut for a while, but it was no use.

　The rumor that I was the one who did the Taratos spread that it was true, with the option of further crushing the famous sword Siphos on top of that.
　Voices of praise for me rose from all over the place.