“Speaking of which, so Miss Katy is also a Hero? I actually couldn’t tell at all.”
“Hmm? I’m not.”
“Huh?”
Gray looked in bewilderment at the girl beside him who was taking small sips of her third glass of milk wine.
Although he indeed hadn’t sensed any mana flow or the aura of a martial artist from Katy, he hadn’t expected her to admit it so bluntly.
“There’s no rule saying you can’t be a captain if you’re not a Hero, right?”
The girl blinked and spoke as if it were a matter of course.
“…Unfortunately, there is.”
Looking at that small face which still carried some baby fat, Gray couldn’t help but smile.
Although Miss Katy usually displayed maturity and composure far beyond her apparent age, occasionally showing this side that lacked common sense made her seem exceptionally cute instead.
“You must become a registered Hero or an Adventurer to form a squad and serve as a captain.”
“Eh—how troublesome.”
The girl swung her dangling legs, pouting a bit unhappily.
Gray’s gaze slid down her skirt hem unnoticed, lingering for a moment on those fair, translucent bare feet.
The young man’s Adam’s apple rolled slowly, and then, to hide his embarrassment, he took a heavy gulp of beer.
He swore he was absolutely just curious about why Katy always walked barefoot and how she managed to not get her feet dirty; it definitely wasn’t because he had some strange fetish.
Yeah, he definitely didn’t want to be stepped on or have them stuffed in his mouth.
To extinguish the gradually dangerous thoughts in his head, Gray decided to teach Katy some serious bits of adventure knowledge.
“Generally speaking, a Hero has to start from the lowest E-rank and gradually increase their rank by completing commissions and clearing dungeons.”
A four-person squad composed of C-rank Heroes could clear a Gold Shine Level dungeon after about a month of preparation and progression.
By extension, B-rank squads corresponded to Star Glimmer Level dungeons above Gold Shine Level, while the relatively rare A-rank squads corresponded to Night Glow Level dungeons.
As for the legendary True Sun Level…
Gray hadn’t seen a real one yet anyway.
“Then what level was that dungeon Mr. Gray was working so hard to clear before?”
Uncontrollably, Katy was quite curious about her own rating.
“Noctiluca’s The 13th Dungeon? As one of the Twelve Disaster Pillars, the dungeon she governs is naturally a Night Glow Level that ranks high in difficulty. Plus, with those traps and designs… it’s probably half a step into True Sun Level.”
At the thought of those bird-men with small sickles and the skeleton soldiers who wanted nothing more than to headshot him from four hundred miles away, Gray felt a chill.
If it weren’t for the fact that the cost-performance ratio of clearing The 13th Dungeon was too low and no famous teams had tried it, it probably really could rank among the top of the Night Glow Level.
“No wonder then.”
Katy nodded thoughtfully, a hint of subtle pride in her tone:
“So Mr. Gray has been alone, challenging a super-difficult dungeon that would require at least five or six A-rank Heroes to possibly clear. You’ve really worked hard.”
After hearing this, Gray was already prepared to have his head rubbed and encouraged by a girl younger than him in public.
But Katy only smiled at him and then lowered her head to sip her milk wine.
…Whew, it’s a good thing she didn’t actually reach out to rub it, otherwise where would his dignity as an adult man and an A-rank Hero go?
The little person representing logic in Gray’s heart breathed a long sigh of relief, but the little person representing desire next to it was clearly not so calm.
Mommy mommy mommy—
“Cough!”
Gray coughed heavily, then rubbed his temples, trying to make that pathetic voice inside his mind shut up.
“What’s wrong, Mr. Gray? Are you dizzy from drinking too much?”
The girl beside him immediately leaned in closer with concern, carrying a pleasant milky scent.
“Should we leave? I’m also feeling a bit dizzy.”
Gray turned to look.
Katy’s fair face was flushed with a pair of intoxicating red spots, and her eyes were a bit glazed, making it look like she wasn’t lying.
So he nodded. After all, if they kept drinking, his wallet would probably give out before his body did.
The young man straightened the hem of his leather jacket and watched Katy jump lightly from the high stool at the bar.
As her bare feet stepped on the rough wooden floor, his eyes were like they had a mind of their own, remaining glued to those feet.
The two walked out of the tavern, the cool night breeze blowing against their faces.
After walking a few steps, Gray’s curiosity finally got the better of him:
“Miss Katy, I’ve actually wanted to ask this for a long time.”
“Hmm?”
“Why don’t you wear shoes?”
“Hmm? Because… I’m used to it, I guess.”
Katy hesitated for a moment, choosing an answer that wasn’t exactly a lie.
After all, back when she was still a Calamity Pillar, she was encased in that fully enclosed Magic Heavy Armor during working hours, so her feet never had to touch the ground.
After work, as a shut-in girl huddled in her small nest, Katy had even less need for shoes.
Over time, she developed the habit of walking barefoot.
As for why she still acted this way even after coming to the Human Realm…
Katy lifted one foot backward and looked down over her shoulder.
Even after walking for half the day, that fair arch and those pink toes were still perfectly clean without a speck of dust, gleaming like porcelain under the moonlight.
Since they won’t get dirty anyway, might as well leave it like this.
It could even boost a certain someone’s affection level.
Gray’s vision auto-locked for a full half-second before he quickly looked away as if burned.
I’m not a pervert I’m not a pervert I’m not a pervert…
“If Mr. Gray is very concerned, I do have a few pairs of shoes at home—”
“I’m not concerned! Please, by all means, stay like this. In fact, it’s better this way… *Cough cough*, I mean, it’s easier to sense if there are traps through the tactile feel of the ground in a dungeon.”
Gray, having narrowly avoided exposing his fetish, made a quick excuse that sounded somewhat plausible.
Seeing that Katy seemed to believe him and continued walking lightly ahead, he finally breathed a sigh of relief.
That was close.
I almost made Miss Katy think I was a pervert.
But the girl who had turned away wore a meaningful smile on her face.
Whether feet are sexual organs is a question, but for the Hero following behind her, it probably wasn’t even a question.
***
The two parted at a crossroads, agreeing to meet in front of the Hero Association tomorrow morning.
After walking a few steps, Gray suddenly remembered they hadn’t agreed on a specific time.
When he turned back, he found Katy was already gone, leaving him to scratch his head with a bit of regret.
“Miss Katy runs really fast…”
Meanwhile, deep in the dense forest outside Knox City.
The blonde-haired, blue-eyed girl was instantly teleported from the city streets to this place along with a string-like resonance only heard by the Demon Race.
The surroundings were silent, with only the sound of insects.
Katy’s pupils suddenly shifted into azure vertical slits, and she immediately knelt on one knee toward the air in front of her to pay her respects.
This kind of forced summons without warning could only be done by one person in her knowledge.
The Demon King known by the title “All-Knowing.”
The one who had appreciated her and promoted her to a Calamity Pillar after she transmigrated into this world and became a member of the Demon Race.
“Lord Noctiluca, what do you have to say for yourself?”
“…I have nothing more to say. Please, Your Majesty, strike quickly.”
If she could barely look directly at the Demon King’s throne while clad in heavy knight armor back when she was a Calamity Pillar, then now, having been reduced to a common minor Demon Race member, she literally couldn’t even lift her head.
Being able to maintain a kneeling posture instead of having her entire skeleton crushed under the pressure of fear was already the mercy of this Demon King who had ruled the Demon Realm for two hundred years.
It wasn’t that Katy hadn’t considered she might be purged.
After all, she had overstepped her bounds in public first.
Perhaps the Demon King, hindered by the fact that Katy was a confidant she had promoted herself, found it inconvenient to execute her publicly, so she had let her come to the Human Realm to live comfortably for a couple of days before secretly eliminating her—this was very much in line with that ruler’s methods of combining hardness and softness.
Well, whatever.
Being able to feel some human warmth in these last few days and having a long-awaited drink on the final night meant dying this way wasn’t too bad.
It’s just that regarding the promise with that guy Gray tomorrow, she would probably have to disappoint him.
Thinking this, the blonde girl closed her eyes, waiting for the soft sound that would signal the end of her life as a demon.
“When did I ever say I was going to kill you, Lord Noctiluca?”
As soon as these words were spoken, the pressure exerted on the girl vanished without a trace.
Katy lifted her head in shock.
Under the moonlight, the Demon King’s face was blocked by an unknowable veil.
She could only see a graceful body wrapped in black gauze and those purple pupils shining brightly in the darkness.
“Eh?”
“That young man with whom you spent the night has a rather interesting fate. If I am not mistaken, he will be the key to the future revival of our race.”
The girl’s pupils shrank.
Gray is the key to revival?
Does that mean he’s an obstacle to the Demon Race?
Did she want Katy to take him out?
“I grant you a new mission, Lord Noctiluca.”
“…Please speak, Your Majesty. Noctiluca will go through fire and water, whatever it takes.”
Although Her Majesty the Demon King clearly got the usage of the phrase “spent the night” wrong, as a veteran corporate slave, Noctiluca naturally didn’t dare to point out her boss’s mistake.
At a time like this, bowing her head and saying yes was enough.
“I wish for you to stay by that young man’s side and monitor his every move for me. If you discover anything interesting, just report to me through this orb.”
The Demon King waved her hand languidly, and a crystal-clear crystal ball appeared out of thin air in front of the girl.
“Monitor him? But Gray is an A-rank Hero, and my current strength—”
“Rest assured, I will once again grant you the power belonging to a Calamity Pillar, and I have placed a concealment seal upon it. You do not need to worry about being discovered by those priests during the day… However, the time you can use it outside of a dungeon is limited.”
As soon as the voice fell, before Katy could even ask another question, the Demon King’s figure dissipated into the air like bubbles.
If the crystal ball weren’t still lying there quietly, Katy would have really thought she had hallucinated just now because she was drunk.
“How typical of that person, coming and going like a ghost… Hiss, why is my stomach so hot?”
Katy frowned slightly, feeling as if something had suddenly been injected into her lower abdomen.
“Is it the power Her Majesty gave me? Why does the position feel a bit weird—”
Doubtfully, she lifted her top and looked at her lower abdomen by the moonlight.
The girl’s skin was fair and beautiful, but an ambiguously shaped light pink pattern was glowing in a certain sensitive area, flickering with her breath.
In the center of this small patch of complex patterns, there was even a heart.
No matter how you looked at it, it looked like one of those Silver Crests that would turn white when one was impregnated.
Katy was stunned.
She lowered her top, then lifted it again; the pattern was still there.
“—Why is there a Silver Crest printed there!”
Your Majesty the Demon King, didn’t you ask me to be an undercover agent by Gray’s side?
What kind of undercover agent gets this kind of thing tattooed on them!
It can’t be that reviving the Demon Race depends on me going and having children with him, right?
I can’t do that when I’m still a man at heart!!