“Yuuma— it’s morning!”
I felt someone shaking me, so I opened my eyes to see Natalia peering down at me.
“Good morning...”
“Good morning. Did you sleep in the kotatsu?”
“Hmm?”
Now that she mentioned it—yeah, I did.
AI-chan was peacefully sleeping beside me.
I sat up and pulled AI-chan out.
“Ahh... it’s cold...”
Ignoring AI-chan, I sat her down in front of me.
“What happened after Lily and I went back last night?”
“Just drank a little.”
“A little?”
Natalia glanced at the kotatsu table.
There were several empty bottles.
“Huh? What was this again?”
“You drank quite a lot,” AI-chan informed me.
“Is that why they passed out?”
I don’t get drunk that easily, though.
“No, the ones who passed out were Annie and Alice... and then...”
AI-chan and Natalia looked over at the futon.
I followed their gaze and saw Annie sleeping there.
“Oh—right. That means...”
Recalling last night, I glanced to my right.
Alice was asleep inside the kotatsu.
“How decadent,” Merell, who had apparently woken up at some point, said in a disapproving tone.
“You didn’t wake up at all. It got pretty noisy.”
“I woke up a few times. But I didn’t want to get involved, so I went back to sleep.”
Yeah, okay.
“What should we do about Annie and Alice?”
Natalia asked.
“Let them sleep. They have the day off anyway, and they’ll wake up eventually. Please give me some tea instead.”
“Okay.”
Natalia started preparing tea.
“Hm? Where’s Lily?”
Lily was nowhere to be seen.
“She’s sleeping. Seems like she stayed up late, too.”
Well, it can’t be helped.
There are days like that.
We were up late too…
Yeah, yeah.
I took a sip of the tea Natalia made.
“Do you want breakfast?”
“Yeah... I’d appreciate it.”
“Got it.”
Natalia nodded and left the room.
“You sure are spoiled by your wives. Ever think about doing things yourself?”
The nosy demon folk voiced their disapproval.
“I’m banned from the kitchen. Also, if I try making tea, I get looks that say, ‘Don’t do anything unnecessary.'”
I mean, even I’ve made tea before. It’s not something you mess up.
“You really seem like you’re going to live a long life.”
“I lived to 99 in my past life, so I want to aim for 100 this time.”
I eat and drink however I want, but I should still be mindful of my health.
I’ll rely on that bad-tempered apothecary.
“May you be surrounded by many wives, children, and grandchildren.”
“Yeah, yeah…”
I don’t really mind, but whatever happens, happens.
“A demon is said to be something that is human yet not human. Sven-sama referred to you that way, but I really can’t see you as the same species.”
“Shut up. Go take a bath.”
You went to sleep without bathing last night, didn’t you?
“Well then, I’ll take you up on that offer…”
Merell stood up and headed to the bath.
Just as they left, Leanne arrived.
“Good morning… Wait, two lazybones sleeping first thing in the morning…”
Leanne looked at the sleeping Annie and Alice, clearly exasperated.
“They’re just sleeping in. They drank too much and passed out last night.”
“Ah… Well, that’s still pretty lazy.”
Yeah. You could call it decadence, too.
“Did you report to the king?”
“Yes.”
Leanne nodded and sat down beside me.
“What did he say?”
“He plans to start an investigation immediately. That said, it won’t be easy. Even if there’s a traitor, we don’t know if it’s a royal servant, a noble, or even a commoner or an adventurer.”
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Yeah, that’s impossible.
“It’s possible that the informant doesn’t even realize they’re dealing with demons. If someone like Merell is disguising their appearance, no one would know. They might just think they’re having an ordinary conversation and end up leaking information.”
“We’re at a dead end, then…”
“It’d be good if we could find something in Ludo Town.”
“So it comes to that, after all. We should arrive today, so let’s keep that in mind.”
Yeah, let’s do that.
After that, Natalia brought breakfast, and we ate together with Merell, who had just come out of the bath.
Once we were done preparing, we bid farewell to Natalia and teleported to the Demon Continent.
“We should arrive by this evening. Let’s go.”
The four of us, along with Koma-chan, began heading north, just like yesterday.
Along the way, there were still no zombies, nor did we encounter any other travelers.
It was just the four of us and one beast, silently walking across the wasteland.
At noon, we returned to our quarters and had lunch with the three who had woken up.
Then, in the afternoon, we resumed our journey northward through the Demon Continent.
“It’s about time…”
As I was thinking the sun was about to set, Merell muttered.
“We’re almost there?”
“Yes. From here on, we enter Ludoe’s territory, and patrol soldiers will start roaming around.”
“Do they patrol alone?”
“No, they work in groups of three. That’s the standard formation.”
Sounds like a fairly organized military.
“Weren’t they originally just a vigilante group that was basically a band of thieves? The level of civility must be low.”
AI-chan asked.
“We’re prime targets for them. Well, I’ll take care of them before they even notice us.”
Yeah, Merell seems pretty skilled at that sort of thing.
“Thanks. Then, what should we do?”
“Well… could you go back to your room first? It’s more convenient at night, so just return at an appropriate time. I’ll take care of things before then, so let’s infiltrate during the night.”
“Got it. I’ll leave Koma-chan here, so tell him when you’re done. He’ll communicate it to AI-chan.”
You’re doing well.
Pamela keeps me updated through Tama-chan.
“This little one…”
Merell stroked Koma-chan.
“Alright, I’ll leave it to you.”
We decided to head back to our room first.