Chapter CLXXIX - Ending a War (part 3)

Fran just had to come in at the worst time... 

I was on the ground, and Lescia's face was already centimetres away from me. The two of us turned towards her awkwardly, and Lescia immediately moved away.

"A-Ah, Fran!! Nice to see you!"

Seeing that her cousin had arrived, Lescia quickly moved up while facing towards the other direction. She didn't want her cousin to see her blushed red face. I also sat back up, and stared confusingly at Fran.

Fran can only let out a sigh. She does not want to get involved in this thing at all, but she does have something to say to me.

"First of all, well done in beating all the level 1 rankers on your own... That part was… really amazing."

I lifted one eyebrow from confusion, because I didn't realize Fran would know about my identity. But then I remembered, years ago after I encountered Galar.

The very first time I met her. Hod told her a lot of things that day.

"... That's not me."

"W-What!?"

Fran quickly turned shocked, and me and Lescia chuckled. Fran got shy from being fooled really quick, and she stomped her foot.

"Listen. I am trying to compliment you here."

"Ah, you are welcome… and I am just trying to relax here. I was wondering how you know about it, but then I remembered some things from the past. What else do you want to say?"

Fran let out a sigh again. She always breathed every time she tried to control her emotions, and she is very good at doing it.

"Second, on behalf of all the humans in this kingdom, I thanked you for stopping this ridiculous war by yourself… Formally."

"You are welcome. But, why the formalities?"

"Because the one who was supposed to say that sort of line is actually my dear cousin there… but she seemed to be playing too much with you that she had forgotten her role as a princess."

Lescia turned redder as she looked away.

"All right. Such a thing is only something I should have done a long time ago. So don't mind it. Anything else?"

"Third, is... something more personal. 

Were you and Lescia... kissing just now?"

""Nope.""

"W-What the--You two--Are you…"

I looked away immediately while trying not to answer her, while Lescia found the skies rather interesting.

Fran was so bewildered, that she faltered on her words. I'm surprised she was able to stay calm the first thirty seconds, because anyone would be thrilled to find their blood relative smooching with their teammate.

Fran let out a sigh again and spoke to Lescia.

"Your father will be enraged if he knows about this..."

"He won't, and who cares."

Fran quickly looked very confused.

Fran turned to me with a really angry look, and then walked away back to the others. Her way of walking looked very stiff, as if she was very angry.

"We got found..."

I said while leaning my back a little bit.

"Yep."

Lescia moved her butt and sat behind me, and she leaned her back at mine.

"You're not rethinking this, are you?"

"Not a chance. It's already super crazy for me to be dating a princess… Especially when it's you."

"I'm glad we felt the same way, hero!"

Oh dear lord... 

For once, the goddess actually did something great.

The two of us returned to the others. Lescia was told by the division commander to use a different carriage than us, but she immediately tried to reject it. Until Fran came into view with her terrifying expression, and Lescia quickly turned towards her designated carriage.

"F-Fran..."

Fran glared back at me like an angry devil. I quickly swallowed my saliva while trying to calm her down.

Everyone else became really confused, but Fran is not calming down any time soon.

We boarded the carriage that is filled with only us, and everyone talked about the masked devil.

"He defeated all the level 1 rankers! How insane is that!?"

"I fought a bunch of Rank 3 yesterday, and they are already quite powerful. This guy is legit strong!"

Cane said mightily, and Rath replied just the same. The two had no idea who this masked devil is, and I simply let them in the dark.

Meanwhile, Fran is still angry at me.

"F-Fran..."

She glared like the angry predator again.

"… Please stop that."

I said, but she ignored me again. She really is mad at me…

Why is she this mad?? I get that it's weird to find your cousin dating your teammate. But she shouldn't be this mad, right?

… Was it because me and Lescia made fun of her when she tried to congratulate me? That couldn't be just it, right?

Emily noticed the tense between me and Fran, and she quickly lifted both of our hands together and joined them.

"See!? Friendship is easy-"

"Disgusting! Animal!"

Fran quickly pulled her hand away and turned to the other side. I glared at Emily with a sad expression.

"Emily, thanks for trying, but please don't try anymore... Okay?"

Emily simply sat still and stared at me for a flat five seconds teary eyed, and I immediately felt sorry for saying such cold words.

Fran hated me for the rest of the trip, while the boys over there started to talk about comparing me and the masked devil.

"Who do you think is the strongest? Her, or the masked devil?"

"I think the masked devil might be stronger. A level 1 ranker is just as strong as a White ranked adventurer."

"Really? I beat one pretty easily yesterday."

"S-Seriously? That's great!"

And now they are talking about that.

By the way, I didn't see Prym earlier…

Right when I thought that, Cane immediately mentions something about a King tier lightning mage from Veldon that he took down, and I immediately got amazed.

Cane is stronger than Prym… amazing. I guess in terms of speed and experience, Cane is indeed much more superior than Prym.

That, or Prym has just become weaker. I doubt that's the case, though. Either way, a win is a win.

We arrived in the kingdom, along with the other carriages owned by the knights. When we returned, the citizens of Mazino were already waiting at the western gate. They cheered when the batch of carriages entered.

To them, we won the war.

But the war ended long before it even began. It's wrong for us to just take the claim.

Well, not wrong for me.

"After this, let's meet Valon at the Office. Then we can all go back home."

I said to everyone, and they all nodded. The driver asked where to go from the front of the carriage, and I told him to the Office.

Arriving at the Office, we stepped down and were welcomed by the other adventurers. They all clapped at us for helping out since the beginning, and also at Jonus and his team who just entered behind us.

"Heh. Even though I didn't do much. This is quite sad."

Fran can hear Jonus' mumbling, and she nodded in agreement.

"True. Someone else did all the work."

She then turned her gaze at me, who was trying to walk past the sea of adventurers and head to the masters office. She proceeded to silently follow the others.

After entering his office room, Valon thanked us for helping out, ever since the very beginning. To him, this is really important because stopping this war, along with getting help from the Veldonians, might actually give us a chance at winning against the demons.

But, there is something that I have to tell them.

"I think the demons might actually have been playing a hand with the Veldonians."

Hearing that made everyone shocked. Valon coughed, and then asked me about it.

"What makes you think that?"

"Think about it. Don't you think the timing is a little too perfect? The continental war with the demons, and Veldonia's sudden actions. Some of their decisions are actually too rash for me, and I think there might be a reason for it."

"What were those decisions?"

"The fact that they captured the villagers instead of killing them. Surely, they had a reason for it.

They also have plenty of rebelling members in the kingdom, and yet they didn't deal with all of them. They only captured those that were actively rebelling, and not the ones that were demonstrating. For a strict kingdom like them, I believe that is quite odd."

"Hmm, true. Those are quite odd when you think about it. What else do you have in mind?"

"The rankers... some of them seemed... weird. It's like they are... abnormal..."

Once I got into that topic, Valon placed his hand on his chin.

"… Now, you are entering a really interesting topic. One year ago, Veldonia only had five level 1 rankers. And today, they had thirteen. They racked up that many in merely a year. Does anyone else think that's not suspicious?"

Looks like Valon is also looking up into this. When I went on the mission to Veldonia years ago, there were only three level 1 rankers that were present, which is Prym and his other two friends. And suddenly, ten more appeared in just one year.

"Do you think... The demons are..."

"Let's see in a few days. If they suddenly lose their level 1 rankers by plenty, then they really are demons."

"... That's true."

Because if Veldonia falls, then the demons will leave. And if the demons left, Veldonia is down to only how many human level 1 rankers that they had.

Valon closed the meeting, and we all got to go back home.

The very next day, we immediately get the word that a lot of Veldonia's level 1 rankers have been killed by the masked devil, and only five of them are left.

I did not kill anyone, which only led us to the one guess that we all made yesterday.

Eight of them… were demons in disguise.