470-471-472-473: EX19. A New Objective
“Master, I don’t think we can go on like this.”
A month had passed since our retirement, since Liz and I had started our new life. And at the dinner table, Liz had said such a thing.
I had thought that everything was going smoothly, without any particular anxieties, but at her bombshell of a statement, my brain stopped. And with a clatter, the spoon that had slipped from my hand hit the plate, and my brain rebooted.
“Wait, um… are you… breaking up with me?”
I tried to pick up the spoon with my trembling hand, but I couldn’t grasp it. The moment my brain had recognized her words, a heavy, cold lump had formed in my chest, and it was weighing on my heart.
“…Huh?”
Liz frowned.
“Of course I’m not breaking up with you.”
“But in my homeland, ‘I don’t think we can go on like this’ usually leads to a breakup…”
“…Well, it might be the same in Listrea.”
As I had thought.
“But I have no intention of that. Please rest assured.”
At Liz’s words, I breathed a sigh of relief. I stood up and walked around the table to Liz.
“Master?”
I approached and hugged her tightly.
“…We’re in the middle of a meal.”
“Because I was scared…”
“…Please trust me. Do you really think I would say such a thing all of a sudden?”
“Because your tone was so serious, I thought this might be the first step.”
The warmth of her, whom I was hugging… the feel of Liz’s hand, as she hugged me back and stroked my hair, seemed to slowly melt the cold anxiety that had been born in my heart. But the core of the anxiety did not disappear, and it remained in the depths of my chest, like a lump.
“…You really are a weakling, aren’t you, Master?”
“I don’t have to pretend anymore.”
The image of me that had been desired as a supreme commander of the Demon King’s army was a heartless monster, the enemy of humanity. A lawless war hero, who would use her position as a shield to push through any unreasonable demand, with a voice that dripped with poison.
But not anymore. The dissolution of the Sixth Army and the retirement of the Lord of Disease had become a rumor in the city, but that was all. Now, I was living with Liz, in a rented house in the capital. I wasn’t doing anything in particular. I was enjoying an era of peace.
When I had calmed down, I pulled away and, at Liz’s light prompting, I returned to my seat.
“…So, Liz, why did you feel like you had to say, ‘we can’t go on like this’?”
“Because you haven’t done anything since you retired, Master.”
“…………”
I hadn’t done anything in particular.
I hadn’t done anything in particular.
“Can you tell me what you did today?”
“…I went for a walk with you, while we were shopping… and I played with the Barghests… and then…”
Strange. How was it that I only had memories of Liz’s meals, and Liz’s snacks, and of burying my face in her belly fur?
“Well, I thought you must have been on edge until now. And I think you need time to get used to the new house.”
“That’s right.”
“But it’s been a month.”
“…I have an income.”
The income of our household now was mainly from the ranch I had prepared for Harken and the others, and from the theater that Clarion and the others were also using. It was no problem for the two of us to live a modest life.
“It’s not as much as when you were a supreme commander. And besides, to just be lazing around with an unearned income… that’s a straight path to becoming a useless person.”
“…………”
She had hit a sore spot.
“…And you once said, ‘to balance out the times when I have to act composed as a supreme commander,’ but that was a lie, wasn’t it?”
I shook my head.
“No, it wasn’t a lie. It’s just that when I’m not, I’m the type who wants to relax at home with the person I love.”
Liz’s scarf twitched.
“…Well, it’s a happy thing that you seem to be happy, Master. But—if you continue to live like this, you’ll become useless at some point.”
“Yes…”
I had savings, but my income might be cut off, and I didn’t know what would happen. I could think of quite a few people I could rely on in an emergency, but at the same time, they were all people I didn’t want to bother. And besides, I didn’t want to show them a useless side of me.
“…And I think I’m going to become useless.”
“You, Liz? Why?”
“Because you spoil me too much, Master.”
Hmm.
“…In what way? I still leave most of the housework to you… ah, shall I share the burden?”
“That’s the part that’s spoiling me. …I’m unemployed now. If I stop doing the housework, I’ll be a useless wife.”
Come to think of it. Liz had lived her entire life as a soldier. —As a soldier, as an assassin. As a vice-commander. …And as a maid. All of that was gone.
“It’s fine. The income of our household is not just mine, so it’s no exaggeration to say that I’m unemployed, too.”
“…Can you please stop saying things where I don’t understand what’s fine?”
She had a point.
“…If I don’t do something, I get anxious. Even the Barghests are being considerate of me.”
“…By the way, in what way?”
“The number of times they ask me to play has clearly increased. Specifically, by the amount of time I used to spend patrolling the mansion or going to the royal castle.”
I see. The fact that the Barghests were attached to me meant that they were also attached to Liz, whom I loved.
“This house, unlike the mansion, has fewer places to clean, and the amount of food I have to make has also decreased… so much so that I’m thinking of going back to the mansion on weekdays and working as a maid…”
“No, isn’t that a little strange?”
The previous house—the ‘former’ mansion of the Lord of Disease—was now owned by Samarkand and Harken. Rebecca, too, after she had pretended to have moved out of her private room, had quickly moved back in. Apparently, the underground laboratory she had been using for over ten years was hard to part with. When I had teased her, saying, “You have memories, don’t you?”, Rebecca had calmly replied, “Yes, I do. …Memories with my big sister,” and had smiled. A complete defeat.
That mansion was a military facility, and the transfer of a military facility required a proper reason, from the perspective of confidentiality, but it was a property that had had no residents for a while before me. Samarkand and Harken seemed to have paid a considerable amount, and the groundwork with the relevant parties had been perfect, so there had been no particular problem. …Would there be a case that would not pass, if Your Majesty the Demon King and the five supreme commanders had approved it? No, there would not.
Then Liz looked away a little.
“…And my night life… is…”
“…Is there… something you’re dissatisfied with?”
“…No. No, but. …This is probably what they call a ‘dissolute life.’”
“…N-no. We’re a married couple, so a little is fine, right?”
I didn’t think it was dissolute. Probably.
“I’ll do my best from tomorrow. …So please don’t abandon me.”
“…I won’t.”
Liz, who had been speaking quickly, looked at me with an exasperated expression. And her expression turned serious.
“Shall we become hunters? I hear that Esta-san is a hunter on her days off.”
I remembered Liz’s hunter-style outfit. Though it was for work, it was the closest to her private clothes, and it was active and cute. Though she was probably not as good as Esta-san, the archer, Liz could also handle a bow, and she seemed to have experience hunting with a spear. But…
“…If we were to use the Black Hound Barghests as hunting dogs, wouldn’t that be enough?”
“…It might. No, there are hunts that rely on hunting dogs, but…”
Our hunting dogs were ‘too good.’ Well, these children would probably be happy to do that much. …But a part of the pack was still working seriously in the Third Army. A full-scale operation had already begun, under the command of Catral-san’s magical beast division. For now, it was limited to rescue activities in case of a disaster—mainly a distress—but if the scale were to expand, then they might be used for preventive patrols in remote areas, and as a deterrent against the few, but very real, crimes.
—As long as it didn’t go too far, that was not my concern.
Since I had been in the army, I had been visiting orphanages and the like, and I had been engaged in activities to naturally eliminate the fear of the Black Hound Barghests in the young. Though they were a little wary at first, there was no way a child could resist the charm of our adorable black dogs.
“What should we do? —Shall we open a shop?”
“Like Elisha-san?”
“…In a way, it might be my calling.”
Elisha-san’s shop had recently bought the empty lot next door and had expanded. Little by little, the number of people in the capital was decreasing. It wasn’t a bad thing. The settlement of the ‘south’… the former human territories… was progressing. Now, a pioneer village had been officially established, and they were in the stage of investigating before a full-scale settlement. The safety investigation was complete, and there was no danger, but since it was far from the major cities, there was little entertainment. But in return, the income was rather good, so there were a few volunteers. In that way, slowly and steadily, this country would become vast and rich.
“…But it’s no good. My ‘previous job’… doesn’t seem to be of any use.”
“With your maid skills, customer service is not a problem.”
“That’s not what I meant.” Liz, with a sidelong glance.
“Well, your assassin skills. It would be a problem if you were to use them.”
“Yes. It’s a crime.”
“But if you say that, then my previous job was ‘supreme commander of the Demon King’s army.’”
“…What a useless profession.” Liz sighed, with a deliberate air. And she changed the subject, as if she had just remembered.
“…Come to think of it, I overheard that Fort Four is going to be decommissioned.”
“That one? In the Lital Mountains?”
“Yes. ‘Border defense’ is no longer necessary. And thanks to the Black Hound Barghests, our range of vigilance has expanded…”
“Do you know what will happen to it?”
“No, not that much.” Liz shook her head.
“…Hmm. A well-used, atmospheric building in a special location…”
“…Master?”
“An extraordinary… a hideaway…” I muttered. My fragmented thoughts were being put together.
“…You’ve thought of something terrible again, haven’t you? ‘Master.’”
I smiled at her.
“Yes. We need a ‘job’ that makes use of our abilities as much as possible, and that is not dangerous, don’t we?”
“…Well, yes. That’s right.” Liz nodded.
“I thought of something, in Wessphia.”
“In Wessphia? …What kind of a thing?” Liz’s expression turned serious.
Wessphia.
The name of the oasis city in the desert, where I had led the charge for the first time and had deployed the Black Hound Barghests to the front lines, and which had become the stage for a ‘city capture battle.’
The one where I had reduced a city to ashes, along with its residents, without leaving a trace, was one of the military achievements of the Lord of Disease—and one of her atrocities.
The battlefield where I had first given the order to the Black Hound Barghests to kill a person.
Even if it meant turning a peaceful city into a hell.
And yet, I had sworn that I would not let that happen to Listrea.
…But the attack on Wessphia had a hard, extermination phase in the latter half, and a soft, infiltration mission in the first half. In other words.
“To create an S-rank tourist destination, with my own hands.”
This time, the soft one.
“…I’m sorry, Master. I’ve been with you for ten years, but can you please explain it to me, slowly and logically?”
“Yes, I’m sorry. It’s a habit.”
The period of me playing the part of a ‘crazy person who you don’t know what she’s going to say’ was too long.
