Chapter 5

Goosebumps rose all over Lion’s arms. Although usually for a brief period at a time, Lion had been in many demon subduing parties over the past several years. Therefore, his skin reacted to a demon’s presence.

A completely drenched woman was soundlessly approaching them from the direction of the shrine’s only exit. Long, thick grey hair stuck to her pale face, and while her eyes, peeking through the gap in her hair, were completely black, her lips were an ominous red.

Her black, lacy dress was see-through, so her small breasts and stomach were visible. From her waist down, she was covered in snake-like scales.

She was, without a doubt, a demon.

“It’s been a while since humans last came here. I have been really bored, so I’m very happy now! However, I can’t have you touching my things.”

“We already returned it. We didn’t steal anything. We’re leaving already so, please, would you let us pass through there?”

As one would expect from a veteran adventurer, Marie’s father responded boldly, clutching a blessed dagger in his hand. However, since he had to protect two family members, he was certainly at a disadvantage.

“No wa~y, I said I was bored, didn’t I? Since you’ve already touched a demon’s possession, I won’t let you go.”

“Something like that doesn’t have any value at all!”

“Marie, no!”

Marie talked back to the demon. Although Lion interrupted the girl immediately, her reply had already reached the demon’s ears. Marie, who was probably seeing a demon for the first time, likely wasn’t aware of how terrifying they could be. The woman in front of them was probably quite strong.

The woman’s red lips drew an arc, showing a devilish smile.

A black, unknown object that was sent flying towards Marie, emitting a whistling sound, was blocked by her mother, who had embraced her daughter tightly to protect her, as well as by her father, holding his dagger.

Lion had immediately stepped forward, and even he was able to see the sudden splash of red blood flying through the air. The mother, her back turned towards the demon, received a deep cut on the shoulder. The father’s dagger wasn’t able to prevent it from happening.

“I hate annoying girls.”

Lion was also rushing towards Marie to protect her. However, the demon’s attack was faster. A huge, completely black lump of mud came flying at them with terrifying speed, sending both the family and Lion flying through the air.

“No!! Dad, Mom!“

After hitting his head hard, Lion lost consciousness for a moment, but he was promptly awakened by the shrill scream. He immediately got up and met Marie’s gaze. She seemed to be unharmed, her parents shielding her in order to protect her.

Both of her parents had lost consciousness, likely due to being slammed directly against a wall.

“Summoner, do something! Shouldn’t you attack her with Leviathan?!”

“It’s no use, Leviathan can’t come inside the building…!”

“What the hell, so useless!”

“Ugh…”

Summonings beasts themselves had limitations as well. When it came to beasts of huge power, these limitations were especially severe. Both of her parents had been injured after protecting her. Lion definitely couldn’t tell the sobbing Marie to ‘calm down and think’.

Certainly, he was the weird one as a summoner who couldn’t even summon two beasts.

“Hehe, so you’re a summoner? It’s my first time seeing such a big shot like Leviathan, as well! However, aren’t you kind of weak? If you weren’t, you would have summoned another summoning beast already, isn’t that right?”

Shit, she found out that I can’t summon another beast! What do I do?! Should I destroy the shrine itself…?

Pressing his hands together in such a way that the demon wouldn’t notice, he gave Leviathan an order, and, upon doing so, a sound resembling an animal’s cry could be heard coming from the shrine’s entrance. Immediately, the shrine began to shake violently. If Leviathan destroyed the shrine’s ceiling and walls, it would be able to get inside.

“Are you trying to destroy my shrine?! I won’t forgive you!”

The demon’s red mouth split wide open, but, the moment the demon headed straight for Lion, a single arrow of fire pierced her body. Even though she was crying, Marie attacked, trying to save Lion.

“You brat…!”

“Stop!”

Her face twisting in anger, the demon turned to Marie and sent out a spell. Firmly pressing his feet into the violently shaking floor, Lion blocked the path between the demon and Marie. Although the black lump’s strength decreased as it grazed Lion’s right arm, it still managed to reach Marie despite its trajectory getting altered.

The young girl’s body was sent flying about a meter back.

“Marie!”

Once he rushed over to Marie, Lion noticed that she was badly wounded and bleeding profusely. Even though she appeared to have passed out, luckily, she was still breathing. The steel breastplate seemed to have protected her. For the time being, Lion felt relieved.

Then, a breath reeking of fish drew close towards his ear. Cold, thin fingers lightly touched his bleeding right arm.

“Hehe, Mister Summoner. Will you play with me? It’s been a while since I’ve had a young man’s living blood.”

“!”

This is bad – I’m going to get eaten!

And even though it would have taken just a few more moments before Leviathan could destroy the building…!

The red mouth inched closer, intending to lick Lion’s blood.

“Don’t touch that.”

A low, deep voice could be heard.

There was a hissing sound and then, a pungent smell, like something burning, followed by the female demon’s scream.

In front of Lion, the demon clutched her right arm, writhing in pain. The stench of burning flesh and smoke were rising from her limb.

However, Lion didn’t think that he was getting saved.

His instincts told him that a truly dangerous thing was standing in the middle of the shadows. Faced with a tremendous air of intimidation, Lion’s body went numb as if he’d received an electric shock, and he was paralyzed with fear, unable to flee.

It was a more violent, vast magical power.

The feeling of this power. It’s… familiar…?

The female demon kept screaming, her voice strained, but then, as if she had suddenly become aware of something, she began to tremble and crouched on the floor, bowing her head. In front of her, something was concealing itself in the shadows.

“How-how come someone like you, Sir,came to such a place…”

“I won’t allow you to play with that. Scram.”

“Y-yes…”

She was so frightened and trembling with such fear that she didn’t even resemble the demon that had been mocking Lion and the others mere moments ago. She cradled her hideously burned right arm and disappeared into the depths of the shrine, just as she had agreed.

Clearly, he’s a demon of a higher rank than hers…

Lion felt nauseous, his clothes sticking to him in cold sweat, but he couldn’t run away.

The thing took a step forward from the shadows.

The most striking thing about him were his eyes, the dark red resembling the colour of fresh, flowing blood. His features were frighteningly beautiful, and a gorgeous, red pattern leading from the outer corners of his eyes to his cheeks stood out on his face. His ears were pointed, and he had long, glossy black hair. Standing there was a tall male demon with a splendid physique.

His deep red eyes were looking down towards Lion. His narrow vertical pupils seemed ominous. The moment their eyes met, Lion’s heartbeat sped up violently and his body temperature rose up.

Huh? This face…huh?!

The demon opened his thin mouth and asked in a displeased tone:

“Why did you leave me behind?”

“Huh…?”

“I didn’t think that you would have left, so I waited for you for two days.”

“Eh?”

“Looking for you was a hassle too… ah.”

Taking a look at the flabbergasted Lion, the demon mumbled suddenly and cheerfully walked back to the shadows.

From where Lion stood, he could at least somewhat see below the waist of the demon, who had turned his back to him. As if by magic, the glossy black hair that had reached down to the demon’s waist all of a sudden became short.

The intimidating air that made it hard to breathe disappeared, as well.

The man who came back out of the shadows was…

“Mi-Mister Sei?!”

“Yeah, it’s me. By the way, Lion, Leviathan is going wild trying to save you.”

Bam!

A thunderous roar reverberated almost simultaneous to the man’s carefree words, and a lateral wall of the shrine crashed down. A soaking wet, faintly glowing, blue sea snake head suddenly broke into the inside of the shrine.

It was a fairly surreal sight.

*************************

“Don’t worry, none of the three of them have any severe wounds.”

The white haired doctor told him, beaming. Lion let out a sigh of relief.

They were in Dno’s clinic. Although Marie’s mother’s shoulder wound needed stitches, fortunately the cut wasn’t deep. Both she and her husband had a concussion, and, while it seemed like Marie had lost consciousness the moment she was struck in the chest, her bones weren’t damaged. Lion’s right arm wasn’t seriously injured either. Soon after he had tightly wrapped the wound with cloth, it stopped bleeding, so he didn’t ask the doctor to examine it.

The first one to regain consciousness was Marie’s father, the adventurer.

“I’m really sorry. Our research wasn’t thorough enough. Never in a million years would I have thought that a dark shrine could have sunk there… We’ve caused you trouble. You saved us, didn’t ya? Thank you.”

The one who saved them wasn’t Lion. Actually, he had thought that he would get killed as well, but, if he were to explain the details, it would just cause confusion, so he didn’t say anything.

However, he didn’t accept a higher reward than the one they had agreed upon beforehand. In the end, he hadn’t been of any use to the party, after all.

The next one to awaken was Marie, and, when she noticed Lion, she spoke up, her face twisting slightly in pain.

“You’ve saved us… Th-thanks. I’m sorry for calling you useless…”

“I’m the one that should thank you, Marie. You attacked the demon in order to save me.”

I don’t need your gratitude. I truly didn’t save anyone.

After exchanging goodbyes with Marie’s father, who said that they would rest for a while together as a family, Lion walked out of the clinic.

The historic ruins investigation party was disbanded after this one expedition.

Just like the last time, I wasn’t of any use today either. Since things are like that… Maybe I should seriously consider changing careers already…

However, without summoning, what else would there be left? His magical powers were insignificant, he wasn’t physically strong, and there wasn’t any particular field he was especially knowledgeable in, either.

For now, he would look for lodging for tonight and then have an evaluation meeting with himself there.

The moment Lion turned towards the town’s shopping district and took a step forward, he heard a man’s voice at his back.

“Do you plan on leaving me behind again?”

When he turned around, a man with black hair, a sulky look on his face, and his arms crossed over his chest, was looking down at him.

“Mister Sei…”

When they were bringing the family to the clinic, Seirios had carried Marie’s father and mother under each of his arms. Before Lion had realized, he had left, so Lion had felt a little relieved.

Lion took a step back, automatically trying to maintain a distance between them.

Seirios raised one of his eyebrows,that twitched in reaction to Lion’s behavior, and he asked:

“Lion, why are you trying to run away?”

“Is-isn’t that obvious…?! Aren’t you a demon?! The form you took on at the lake shrine is your true form, isn’t it?! Just what do you want from me?!”

“Hm, oh. Maybe you’ve mistaken me for someone else?”

“Since you fully showed yourself before me, there’s no way that I could mistake you for someone else! Ah, I’m so-”

Lion ended up retorting reflexively. Immediately, he also came back to his senses and apologized, but…

“Hm. So you did see me. I see. Okay, that’s fine.”

Nothing’s fine…

Seirios slid up to Lion after Lion took another step back.

“I guess I have no other choice. Yes, I am certainly a demon. However, I absolutely won’t cause you any harm. And if I stay in this human form, there isn’t anything that will stand out about me either…”

“That’s not the point! Besides, you’d still stand out anyway!”

“That’s why,”

Ignoring Lion’s muttering, Seirios continued to talk, unconcerned.

“You should keep me.1”

Truly, this person – no, this demon – is really weird.

Thank you for reading!

Footnotes

a very important footnote: the verb Seirios uses – 飼う – kau, means to keep a pet, raise, own, feed etc. I found it very important to point out that he basically asked to be Lion’s pet lmao.