Welcome to the Impregnable Demon King Castle

39 – Laughing With a Friend 3

The man and his groupies, around thirty of them or so, stood up.

「What’d you say? Who the hell are you guys? Do you have any idea who I am?」

The man was tall enough to make even Fenix look up at him.

But both Fenix and I were as calm as could be.

「We don’t, but we’d assume you’re an Adventurer at least below the top 100.」

A vein bulged on the man’s face. I felt some deja vu. This was just like that Heavy-Armored Knight that attacked Milla.

「Sounds like you really want to die.」

It was a threatening voice.

I tilted my head and looked at Fenix.

「Is that true?」

Fenix responded kindly with an amused face.

「It might be that they legitimately believe they’re strong enough to defeat us.」

「Ahaha, that’s hilarious.」

I shrugged my shoulders exaggeratedly.

「…You idiots have gotten in way over your heads. Guess what, I’m a Hero!」

Oh, I see.

Sure, his job might be Hero.

But…

「I highly doubt you’re anything close to a hero. Maybe more like a thug.」

「I’ll make you regret this, damn brat.」

We were surrounded by the drunks.

The rest of the customers in the pub came and went, with some of them silent and some of them cheering.

The employees and owner looked at us with worried faces.

「…I’m not that ruthless of a guy. I’ll let you off if you get on your knees and beg for forgiveness.」

「Nonsense. Don’t you think you should be the one apologizing to that girl?」

Fenix’s sound argument enraged the man.

「That’s got nothing to do with you!」

「I’ll take care of the thug.」

「Yeah, I’ll leave it to you.」

「What could a twig like you possibly do to me? Haha! Let’s see what you got!」

It didn’t even take a few minutes for this showdown to get settled.

The man didn’t attempt to dodge the fist of a「small-framed boy」that I threw out at him. He was probably planning on driving me to despair by showing that it’d do practically no damage to him. I guess he thought that his physical strength was strong enough that everything would just naturally work out for him? I don’t really get it.

After all, I’d be able to take him down in one blow by hitting him in the stomach after completely lowering his defense.

The Hero with the unknown rank let out a squeal and fell unconscious onto the floor facedown.

Fenix quickly caught the girl so that she wouldn’t fall down with him.

「What are you doing on the floor? Did you want to apologize to us?」

There was no response.

The tone in the air quickly grew cold, and one of the more prominent groupies yelled out and attacked us.

But he was soon knocked down by another groupie that was nearby him.

…Dealing with all of them would’ve been a pain, so I inflicted Confusion on all of them so that they’d confuse their allies as enemies.

It was difficult to handle since there were innocent bystanders around us, too.

Well, Fenix was here, so it’d probably be fine.

As the drunks fought each other, we knocked them all out one by one.

「All right, I’m finished up over here.」

「Same.」

The final man toppled onto the floor.

As expected of the Flame Hero. He took out three people by the time I took out just one.

I searched for the unconscious Hero’s identification and memorized his information.

「I’ll report him as well.」

That would be more efficient. They’d take his report more seriously than mine.

「The guards are here!」

One of the customers that had evacuated out of the pub shouted out.

This was bad.

It’d be really troublesome if we got caught.

「Let’s go.」

「Right.」

Fenix gently helped up the waitress who had gotten dragged into this mess and handed her the money for the food as well as a little extra.

「Take this as an apology for the trouble we’ve caused. Thank you for the delicious food.」

The waitress, who could only recognize Fenix as a tall young man, blushed.

「U-Um, there’s an exit in the back over there…Thank you for saving me.」

We got some helpful information.

「Let’s go, you womanizer.」

「I don’t know if I appreciate you calling me that.」

The wry-smiling Fenix and I rushed towards the exit that the waitress pointed out.

After exiting the place, we ran for a while.

Once we made sure no one was following us, we entered an alleyway we happened to come across.

「Ahaha. It’d be a huge scandal if people found out the Flame Hero was caught up in a bar fight.」

「I wasn’t able to ignore what that man was doing.」

「Well, yeah, but I could have taken care of it on my own.」

「But it would have been taken care of a lot faster with the two of us, right?」

「I suppose.」

「…Having your magic around really does make it easier for me to fight.」

「I know.」

There wasn’t any point in acting modest around friends.

We started walking towards nowhere in particular.

Fenix suddenly started talking.

「Our party is going to challenge the tenth stratum tomorrow.」

「Yeah.」

I knew.

It was me who’d be guarding the door to the 11th stratum, after all.

「And…we’re going to win, so you should watch.」

「You bet I’ll be watching.」

I’ll be watching from the best possible seat in the house.

I’ll be the one taking you on, after all.

「I’m heading towards the top, one step at a time.」

「I dunno about that.」

「…You think I’ll lose?」

「We’ll see tomorrow.」

「I’ll win no matter what. You’re the one who told me that that’s what a hero does.」

「…How long are you going to remember that, geez.」

I was happy, but it was a little embarrassing, too.

「I’ll remember it for the rest of my life.」

We drew close to my inn.

「All right, I’ll see you, then. I’m going to be changing inns soon, but don’t you dare try to search me out again.」

「As long as you don’t keep me out of the loop.」

「I know, I know. I’ll update you on my employment developments. I’ll be the one to come to you, next time.」

「Don’t forget to introduce me to your lovely girlfriend, either.」

「You’re still going on about that?」

We looked at each other and laughed.

We’ll be seeing each other again tomorrow.

As an Adventurer and a Monster.

As a Hero and a Majin.

And to me personally…

As a hero of humanity and as a hero of the Monsters.

It’ll be a battle between best friends.