The Devil Does Not Need to Be Defeated

Since they just finished a quest and got back yesterday, Vivian\'s party had the rest of the day off. Today though, they\'ll be assembling again.

"I wonder what kind of quest we\'ll be taking this time?"

As Shien was thinking about that, he reached the adventurer\'s guild and entered the main hall on the first floor.

Only, the atmosphere in the adventurer\'s guide today was rather different from what it normally was like.

Basically, not only were there a lot more people in the guild, they were also all discussing a single topic.

That topic was yesterday\'s anomaly.

Obviously, the adventurers all seem to be paying attention to this matter.

Shien even heard conversations like the following.

"You said that the wilderness southeast of the town was nearly split in half?"

"Yeah. Even a mountain seemed to have gotten split."

"No way, right?"

"That\'s just too terrifying."

"Why would something like that suddenly happen?"

"Who knows? I just know that it\'s definitely not some kind of natural phenomenon. That\'s because the investigators from the guild and the knights of the town all detected remnants of a huge amount of magic power."

"That is to say, that a person did this?"

"Based on the currently most likely explanation, the general agreement is that the cause of that scene is likely an attack from a [Magic Sword]."

"[Magic Sword]?"

"What kind of joke is this?"

"Just what kind of [Magic Sword] could end up doing something like that?"

"I don\'t believe it either, but that is the most convincing explanation right now. Only [Magic Sword] has the ability to split the wilderness and a mountain to create such a result."

"I really can\'t believe it."

"Here\'s hoping that this theory\'s wrong."

"Yeah."

Such conversations made Shien involuntarily feel that.

"As expected, no matter what world it is, they won\'t lack in smart people."

Those people already basically figured out the truth behind that anomaly. It\'s just that they still don\'t quite dare to believe it and they can\'t think of anyone who could release such a powerful [Magic Sword], that\'s all.

"Here\'s hoping they don\'t end up following the trail to me."

Otherwise, there would definitely be a ton of troublesome stuff.

Shien climbed the stairs to the second floor with such thoughts and arrived at the room designated as Vivian\'s party\'s gathering place.

However, just as Shien entered the room, he was caught by the members of the party.

"Well then, mister Shien, shouldn\'t you be giving me an explanation?"

Vivian stood in front of Shien and welcomed him with a smile.

Seeing Vivian like that, Shien was stunned and gave a confused look toward behind her.

There, Diere was holding and sipping from a drink, Lumia was nervously looking at him while huddled in a corner, and even Melika was holding her staff and watching Shien with an expression like she wanted to say something.

"W-What?"

Shien nervously asked everyone.

No one responded to Shien.

No. It should be instead said that no one dared to respond to him.

Lumia instantly lowered her head and Melika hurriedly shifted her gaze and pretended that she didn\'t hear anything as if they were terrified that Vivian might shift her attention on them.

Only Diere gave Shien a glance before speaking up.

"What you\'ve done yesterday has already become known."

The moment that statement came out, Shien\'s heart leaped in his chest.

Could it be that the matter with the [Magic Sword] had really been discovered?

Just as Shien was thinking such a thing, Diere followed up the explanation as if seeing through his thoughts.

"This morning, the knight brigade came to the guide to get Vivian and confirmed the matter with you subjugating the suspicious person yesterday."

Diere\'s words made Shien let out a sigh of relief.

"So that\'s what they were talking about huh?"

He really though that the matter with the [Magic Sword] got exposed.

Of course, Vivian was somewhat dissatisfied with Shien\'s expression.

"What else did you think I mean?"

Vivian intently stared at Shien as if trying to see through his mind.

"N-Nothing!" Shien hurriedly shook his head and then, as if trying to change the topic, "I did indeed do what you just said, but what\'s the issue with that?"

"Of course there\'s an issue." Vivian kept staring at Shien, "Based on what the knights said, you claimed that you used a magic item that I gave you for defense to create such destruction and subjugated the suspicious person, but I don\'t remember doing something like that at all you know?"

Vivian was here to make certain accusations.

Unfortunately for her, Vivian was wrong there.

"I never said that you were the one who gave me a protective magic item, right?" Shien corrected her righteously, "At the time, what I said was something along the lines of ‘used a magic item that a senior from my current party gave me for self defense\'."

"Used a magic item that a senior from your current party gave you for self defense?" Vivian stopped a moment and immediately realized, "You want to claim that the one who gave you the self defense magic item was not me, but rather someone else in the party?"

As she spoke, Vivian turned around and gazed at the other members of the party.

"I… I didn\'t!"

Lumia immediately shook her head in a panic.

"It wasn\'t me either! I didn\'t have a magic item like that!"

Melika also denied any connection to the matter.

Vivian\'s gaze was thus focused on Diere.

Facing that, Diere wanted to answer, but she didn\'t get the chance.

That\'s because someone else got there first.

"It was given to me by miss Diere!"

Shien suddenly pointed at Diere as if he was pointing out a criminal.

"Eh?"

This time, even Diere was stunned.

"So was it you who gave it to him? Diere?"

Vivian was rather surprised.

Never mind Vivian, even Lumia and Melika showed completely surprised expressions.

"I…"

Diere really wanted to deny it.

However, before she could, Diere saw Shien making a sign as if begging her behind Vivian\'s back, so she stopped herself.

A little bit later, Diere gave Shien a vicious glare before finally turning back and answering quietly.

"It was indeed me who gave it to him."

Diere thus became Shien\'s accomplice.

"Whew…"

Shien once more let out a sigh of relief.

Yesterday, after using that excuse, Shien had already considered begging Diere to help collaborate with his lie.

After all, Dire was the only person in the party who more or less knew about Shien\'s hidden true abilities. Based on the attitude she showed before, she should be willing to help Shien hid the truth.

And that assumption proved true. Shien was right. Diere did accommodate him.

However, the members of the party were unsurprisingly astonished by this.

"I never expected Diere would actually…"

"Even though we\'ve never seen Diere use magic items before."

Lumia and Melika looked at each other.

Vivian also wrinkled her brow, took another look at Shien, and then gave a look at Diere. Within her eyes was a gaze full of resignation and mirth that no one else could see.

"Well, whatever. Since you guys said this much, then I won\'t pursue this any further." Vivian gave such a statement, "Either way, we\'ve already basically confirmed the identity of the person Shien subjugated, so Shien did indeed perform a merit rather than having done something bad."

Hearing that, Shien paid a bit more attention.

"So that person\'s identity has been verified?"

Shien so questioned Vivian.

"Indeed."

Vivian nodded.

Then, Shien heard the following statement.

"He should be a member of the Old Demon Faction."