Let's put the situation in perspective for a moment.

　Just when you think you've defeated the Needle Turtle, demons appear in the city.
　They were beings revived by a spell called "Necroearth".
　To put it very simply, they are undead.

　The one controlling the undead is the skinny man in front of me.
　He wears a black robe, giving him an air of an 'evil wizard'.

　The man's eyes widened in surprise.
　That's natural, isn't it?
　There should have been close to a hundred undead, but they were all wiped out in a single moment.

''What do you mean by that ......?　Who are you, you ......!
I'm an F-rated adventurer just passing through, hi.

　I took out the Hikino Wood Spear from the item box while returning the greeting in a very cursory manner.
　The man had a crystal ball in his right hand, which he was using as a magical aid.
　Let me break it first.

　Hikino's wooden spear, I throw it at him.
The wooden spear with 《Hit Corrected S+》 and 《Throwing Critical A+》 was given to the wooden spear, which struck the crystal ball as aimed and shattered it into pieces.
　Then, many black light balls flew out from the pieces of the crystal ball.
　Could they be the souls of the demons that were enclosed in the crystal ball?

　...... They were all sucked into my body.

　Apparently, the 【Soul Absorption】 skill was activated.
　This situation seemed to be unexpected for the man and he screamed with a trembling voice.

''Ta, ta, soul-absorbing, ......!　No way!　Do you think you're a better undead user than I am?
'I don't remember being one of those things,'

　I replied briefly, but this time I took out the Hero Killer's Great Sword.
　I run.
　I close the distance between me and the man at once and swing the Great Sword.

''I got it!''
Hi, hey, hey!

　The man sits back down and sits there.
　As a result, my slash was mostly empty.
　I only made a shallow wound on the man's right hand.

　However, I fulfilled the conditions for activating the granting effect ...... 《Skill Bind EX》 of the "Heroic Slayer's Great Sword".
　When I [Appraised] the man, I found some skills that seemed a bit troublesome.
　--【Dark Magic】, 【Undead User】, and 【Transition Magic】.
　I don't know what kind of transference magic is, but it would be tricky if they could escape.
　So in order to make the first move, he sealed it with 【Skill Bind EX】.
　This guy is just a skinny old man now.

　When I turned my gaze to the man again, the man was terribly frightened by just that much.

''Waaaaaaaah!　Get off me!　Get away from me!　Yeah, that's right!　With the transference magic given to me by my Lord: ......!

　Apparently, the man is planning to escape.
　I've already blocked the [Transference Magic] skill, but I'm not going to bother teaching it to him.

''--Carry me away far away, across space, teleportation travel!

　Naturally, the magic didn't go off.
　The man's chanting just echoed vainly in the sky.

'Wha, why?　What have you done?
'You wouldn't bother to tell the enemy your hand. Use your common sense.

　I took out my 'hikino chair' and gave the man's head a knocking, light smack.

'Ugh.'

　This chair was granted 《Fainting Enhancement S+》.
　The man fainted and fell to the spot.

　Hmph.
　So, it's all settled, right?

　I activate 【Energy Radar】 and 【Energy Radar and Convergence】 just in case, but there is no response from the demons.
　It seems that the battle is over.

''Feng.''

　As I took a breath, I suddenly met eyes with the Needle Turtle I had revived earlier with Necroearth.

''Good job, thanks.''
"Yew!

　When I deactivated the Necro-Earth, the Needle Turtle let out a very pretty cry and returned to the soil.
　Its soul does not ascend to heaven ...... but returns to my body.

　They say that I can summon it anytime, anywhere, as many times as I want, wherever there is soil.
　If I put all the other souls together and resurrected them in the Necroearth, I'd have an army of immortals.
　Maybe even world domination is possible.

　Well, I'm not going to do it, though.
　The world is a pain in the ass.
　I just want to live my life on my own terms.


　* * *


　The damage the man caused was very small.
　It's because I rushed to the scene as soon as the demons began their rampage.
　Early detection and early response is important, after all.

　Speaking of damage, there were only a few people who were lightly injured due to the dark boa.
　Among the demons, there was also a black goth, but this one was just munching on the tavern's menu list and fliers.

　...... You really like to eat paper, black goat, don't you?

　It seems that even if you become undead, your favorite food remains your favorite food.


　* *.


　Soon after, the guards rush in and hand over the man who did it.
　The man is still unconscious.
　The guards tied the man up with a rope and bowed deeply to me.

'Thank you for protecting the city!　But I didn't expect to take down the Needle Turtle in one blow: ......!　What great magic did you use?
Dark Burst.
Dragonslayer, isn't that the lowest level of offensive magic available ......?
Yeah. But I beat him with a dark burst.
'What a great ......!　You're not only top-notch with your sword, but also with your magic: ......!

　The guards said, "Oh! I let out a sigh of admiration.

　It was then.

　The guards and I were talking in the middle of the road, when I suddenly saw a figure in the distance.
　A small, silver-haired girl.

　Lily Lunaria.

　She's 14 years old and attends the magic academy in the royal capital, and I rescued her from a pedophile sorcerer when she was tangled up with him before.
　In return, she received a 'Tsukimihana no Bookmark'.
　The language of the flower is "I will never forget you," "Eternal love," and "deep gratitude," presumably meaning "deep gratitude.
　Lily should be staying in the city of Thouet right now because she has some business to attend to.

　So why would she be in the city of Thurie, then?
　As I was thinking about ...... and other things, my eyes met with Lily's, I felt like.

　Lily jerked and shook herself and ran into the alleyway beside her.
　What on earth is going on?






　If this were an anime or manga, I'd leave it at that, saying "Oh well.
　And later on, I would say, "If only I'd caught Lily then and listened to her ......! It's going to be like that.
　I'm familiar with it.

　I suppose there should be a distinction between reality and fiction, but this is a bad one if left unchecked.
　Kang, who has been involved in several flaming cases as a black company employee, tells me so.

　I opened my item box and changed outfits.
　The diabolos armor disappeared, and in its place, a suit of Fenrir fabric wrapped around my body.

　I said to the guards, "I'm going to go get the girl who might be involved in the case," and activated the 《God Speed Blessing S》.

　He chased after Lily.
　The other side didn't seem to be that fast, so he was able to catch up with her just after entering a narrow alleyway.

　This day, Lily had silver hair that was tied up in two ribbons.
　Her hair was in a so-called "twintail" style, and it swayed every time she ran.

　I grabbed Lily's right hand.
　I pull it back and make her turn to me.

　She still tried to run away, so I put my hand on the wall with a don, blocking her retreat.
　I'm much taller than him, so I'm just looking down at him.

'...... Lily, why are you here?'
Oh, um, .......

　Lily's face was bright red.
　She was probably breathing hard from running as fast as she could.

'I'm not going to let you go until you answer me. ...... do you know anything about the man?
Yeah, and, well, you know: ......

　Lily looks up at me with her eyes.
　Her eyes were slightly moist.

I'm going to talk to you ...... and I'm going to talk to you, so please wait a minute. ...... I'm so nervous, my heart feels like it's going to explode.

　You don't look like you've run that long, but it looks a lot harder.
　Lily, you don't have the stamina .......