Black Iron Magician

Chapter 190 The Secret Room

After calming Nell down, I check the current situation. Apparently, Aralkar, which was hidden by Nell in the underground training ground, came out because Touko broke the iron door. Facing her is too much even for the three of them. I’m really glad that Lily came back earlier. I hope she can be useful like that all the time, but the person herself said that she can’t keep acting as the Great Eight Demons. It seems that the farther she’s from her true nature, the more exhausted she gets. Still, I’m really glad…

「Now, I wonder what will happen to Touko? The current Lily is too capable, so she may seriously train her in that aspect.」

「What aspect?」

「… That aspect.」

Hey, my disciple, what are you trying to make me say? I won’t say it even if you tilt your head cutely. Including Touko, the natural airhead group is hard to predict. Chinatsu, who has a red face after understanding everything, is cuter.

「Well, to put it the other way around, she will he give Touko an appropriate punishment… No, I’m afraid that she’ll stop acting on the way and return to the usual good-for-nothing maid. Okay, I will contact Lily later. Well, I won’t let her do anything strange, so you don’t have to worry about that.」

「「Thank you very much.」」

Haru thanked me because of her conditioned reflex, but Chinatsu thanked me with a relieved expression. Well, it’s no good if she actually does it after all. I’ll tell her to at least limit it to in dream only.

「Haru and Chinatsu were trying to stop her and then got involved, so there’s no need to punish them, right? ……He~y, Nell?」

「………」

There is no reaction. It seems that she’s greatly shocked that the iron door was broken.

「… Did you saw?」

But then, she muttered something in low voice.

「Eh?」

「… Did you go behind the door?」

Apparently, she’s worried about what’s inside there. Ah, come to think of it, inside there is――

「N-No. That slime appeared, so that was out of the question. Also, it was pitch-black that we couldn’t see inside. After Lily-san stopped it, the slime completely repaired the iron door. We haven’t touched it since then. Right, Haruna?」

「Y-Yes, I didn’t see anything, y-you know…?」

Haru’s reaction is very obvious. She’s not good at lying. Come to think of it, Haru can see well in the dark, right?

「I-Is that so!? A-Ahaha, you haven’t seen anything, right!? If that’s the case, I’ll forgive you. As a master, you have to be tolerant after all!」

「………」

W-Well, Nell is also shaken, so she doesn’t seem to notice Haru’s reaction. There’s also no need for me to point that out. Peace is the best.

The iron door where Aralkar came out. There’s no light source in the room behind it, and everlasting darkness is always nesting there. To tell the truth, there’s a reason why it’s designed like this, and it’s not just for the purpose of dramatizing the appearance of Aralkar. Aralkar is indeed Nell’s training partner, but she’s also the guardian of the room. The reason why Aralkar repaired the iron door immediately after the forced training is because Nell had trained her to do so.

And then, as to what’s inside that room, I’ve learned about it only recently… Oops, it’s going to incur the anger of Nell, so I can’t say it. I can’t say it and I won’t say it. I’m sure Haru took the hint and decided to pretend that she didn’t see anything. There’s no way I will say that there’s a custom-made wedding dress, which Nell made many years ago with the dream of getting married, hidden there―― ah.

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We ate the souvenir meat cooked by Haru and finished diner. Yeah, this one is completely much better. Still, this mansion is too large. As a commoner, I’d rather eat in the living room of my own house that I brought into the garden.

「Um, isn’t it about time you tell us about tomorrow? We only know about the date of the hero selection meeting, and we don’t even know what should we do there.」

「Hm? Come to think of it, we haven’t told you about it, huh. The hero selection meeting is exactly as it sounds. The country will nominate someone as a hero and put that hero on a pedestal. And then, if it’s just a self-proclaimed Demon King, it’s basically will be dealt with by the party that the hero is leading. But this time, the opponent is from the Great Eight Demons. In order to defeat the demon king, each country on the continent of Jiba will select someone in their own countries who’s suitable to be a hero, and then, those heroes will form an alliance. Well, your job doesn’t have to be a hero, so you don’t have to worry about it. Some countries are regarding it as important, but there’s no such regulation in Adelheit.」

「I see, it’s something like 『Let’s work together to win!』 thing, right?」

「Yes, something like that. As for me, I think it’s better for you to fight alone, but the demon king has his army. So, the plan is to let the others fight the army, and you take the best part of fighting the demon king.」

「I-I wonder if that will go well…?」

Chinatsu worriedly said so with a low voice. There are six countries of various sizes on the continent of Jiba, and the Magic Kingdom Adelheit is considered as a small country among them. I’m sure Chinatsu has studied about it. She’s probably worried whether it’ll go well against the larger countries.

「Good grief, it seems that you haven’t understood the real strength…」

「Eh?」

「No, just talking to myself.」

Big or small is only judged by the size of the territory and the population. In terms of the standard of living, Adelheit is more comfortable and safer than any other country because of the development of magic items. If someone were to ask me which country I would choose, I would choose this country without hesitation. And in fact, I chose it.

「Shishō, is it only one person who will be selected in the hero selection meeting?」

「There will be only one hero, but three more will be selected to form a party. There will be four in total, so if you are one of them, you will join the alliance for sure.」

「I see! Then, I just need to show my full strength in that selection meeting, right!?」

Haru, who stood up unintentionally, is motivated and has rough breathing.

「Ah, well… to be honest, I’ve talked about it with old geezer Joseph, so the members have been decided. The selection is only a formality.」

「Eh, is that so…?」

Don’t look disappointed. Just how much do you want to go wild? When I was thinking so, Chinatsu suddenly whispered to me.

「(Deris-san, I think Haruna wants to settle it with the classmates. You see, it’s the long-awaited chance to enter the castle after all…)」

「(Ahh, come to think of it, that was the plan at the beginning…)」

Recently, things have been progressing rapidly, so those who were abusing Haru are now clearly below her. It’s all the fault of Haru’s unusual rapid growth. After all, she was supposed to have a good fight with the self-proclaimed hero. Also, I’ve heard that he was blown away by Touko, so I’m sure Haruna will win in an instant.

「Deris, how about you arrange it as Haruna wants? You can do it, right?」

My smiling wife somehow said something troublesome.