Speaking of which, why don't you ask that Rico to give you access to a book with advanced information that you wouldn't normally have access to?

　As they were relaxing back at the inn, Meku suddenly mentioned something like that.


It's possible, of course. If you ask her, she'll probably give you the go-ahead, and you've got a good ally now.
'Well, but let's find a normal book to read for a while. And if we don't find them, I'll ask Rico to help us.

　The next day, I came to that conclusion.

　The next day, the town was suddenly in an uproar.


'What's all this noise?'

　When I stepped out of the inn, the people were making a lot of noise.
　They were zany and anxious, talking.

'What has happened, I wonder?'
Everyone looks worried...

　I have a bad feeling about this.

'Excuse me. What's all this fuss?

　I asked a middle-aged woman who was passing by what was going on.

'Didn't you hear me?　And then the brave men attacked us, you know. It is said that they led an army of tens of thousands of men. And they want the holy woman.

　What?
　A brave man?

''I'm telling you that we can't ever hand over the saint, but there are too many enemies out there and we're not sure what to do about it... The brave men are just a cruel bunch, and I don't know what will happen if it comes to a fight...'' ...Oh, it's horrible.

　The woman shudders.
　The notoriety of the brave man seems to be roaring all the way to this town.

''I didn't expect a brave man to attack us...''
Didn't we knock him down last time?
'There are four brave men. I defeated one of them, so now there are three, and one of them must have attacked this town.
Well, yeah. Then we'll take them down like last time!
Hmmm, but...

　You said you were leading an army of tens of thousands of people.
　Can you win by being attacked by that many people in a stone?

　There's no way I can do it alone. Even if I had the strength to defeat them, I would still need to kill at least a few thousand enemies to destroy the army. I don't have the courage to do such a thing.

　If I succeed in defeating the heroes like I did last time, maybe I can defeat them all by myself.
　I think it's not difficult to trap them in a trap, since they don't seem to be very smart.

''It's no use thinking about this and that here, what should I do?
Maybe we should go down to Rico first.

　That's right. She holds a great deal of power in this town, and it is Rico's custody that is being demanded in this case.

　She is probably the one who has the most information about this case.

　We headed to Rico's house.


　When we arrived, there were three times as many guards standing around his house as there were yesterday.

'I'm sorry, can we see Rico?'
I'm going to have to ask you to leave.

　He answered immediately. Well, that's not surprising, given the circumstances.

"I know a guy named Rico.
Not now.

　He stubbornly refused anyway.

　Then.

Oh, uh, Uncle Tetsuya?

　I was approached from behind.
　It was Issa, who was yesterday.

'What are you doing here?'
I need to talk to Rico, but he won't let me in.
'Oh, it's a lot of work. Hey, hey, these guys can come in!

　Issa said, and the guards went and said they understood and let us through.

'Meh, it's so hard to get into this mess! The town is noisy and it's not fun because of this brave guy.

　She seems to have a very optimistic personality and doesn't change her demeanor much, even in an emergency situation like this.

'Aren't you worried about Rico?'
Yeah, I'll be fine. As always, you've got people there to protect you.

　She seemed to have a lot of faith in her men.

　When we walked in the house.

'I'll go in here after all!　We don't know how many people will die if we fight!
'Not so fast!　I won't let Rico-sama go!

　I could see Rico arguing with his subordinates.