A Misunderstood Mentor

“Alice’s disciple Reia and the Ancient Dragon’s granddaughter Noiria. So this is who you’ve been hanging out with lately.”

Nerissa wore a smile as she calmly evaluated the two ladies.

“Like always, Takumi attracts strong people to himself… Including me.”

Inside of the save, four people sat around a fire. Across from me was Nerissa, to my right Reia, and to my left Noiria. There was still some food left in the pot, but nobody was even thinking of eating.

The room’s mood felt like it was crushing me.

Reia was glaring at Nerissa with bloodlust in her eyes.

It was a bit hard to speak, but even so, I had to. I finally spoke my first word to Nerissa in around ten years.

“…Why’d you come here?”
“Didn’t I already say? I won’t let you go ever again.”

I heard the sound of something snapping.

Reia’s chopsticks had completely split into four.

“And what do you mean by that?”

While blushing for some odd reason, Reia interrogated Nerissa.

“I mean what I said. Forever and ever, Takumi and I will be together and never be apart.”

“W-W-W-Wait so you mean in the bath and the toilet and in b-b-bed too… Just what, are you serious!?”

“Of course, that’s a given. We’ll be together forever.”

Steam swooshed out of Reia’s ears.

“D-Do you think it’s a good for an u-unmarried man and woman to do those sorts of things!?”

…I felt like I said the exact same words to her yesterday. Hypocrite much?

“How innocent. Have you done it yet, Takumi?”
“N-N-No I haven’t.”

I wondered what became of my old party’s priestess, Sasha. The sexual harassment still hasn’t changed.

“Takumi, may I please kill this Grand Sage person?”

Reia’s eyes were serious.

“So you want to kill me? Interesting.”

Oh how I wished everyone could just get along.

“Humph.”

Noiria broke her earlier silence.

“Don’t you think that’d be a problem? This cave is too small for four people to live in.”

Hm? Four people?

“Wait, black lizard, do you want to live here?”
“Wait, didn’t I already say? Takumi will become the Dragon King. He needs a dragon wife, or in other words, me.”

She never said a thing. I never heard a thing. I’m also not even becoming the Dragon King in the first place.

“Haha, aren’t you popular, Takumi? Well, I don’t mind how many wives you have. Okay, let’s remodel this cave. The bedroom especially.”
“I like the way you think, Grand Sage Nerissa. I heard about you from my grandpa. Let’s get along with each other.”

I felt like Nerissa and Noiria were plotting something. The situation seemed to be slowly going out of control. What was this with harem situation? Stop. I was still a virgin.

“Takumi.”

Reia raised her katana.

“I’m fed up with this sh*t, so I think I’ll just kill them all.”

Scary. Her eyes were completely still.

Could she speak clearly? Was she okay?

Rick, Sasha, Butz.

Please lend me your power.

“Nerissa.”

“Hm? What is it, Takumi?”

I had no one I could really call a teacher.

But the person who taught me all about adventuring was Nerissa. She worked me as hard as a slave, but I really was grateful. However, I was no longer an adventurer. Right now, I lived peacefully with nature deep in the mountains.

“I’m sorry, but please leave. I don’t want to be with you.”

“Oh?”

The mood felt even more crushing.

Nerissa was gently staring at me.

“Are you going against me, Takumi?”

Nerissa held the strongest magic power for most of human history.

I knew that my life would be gone if she really got angry. I never went against her orders when I was an adventurer.

But now is different.

My home was too precious for me to lose.

“I wouldn’t expect anything less. Well said. I believe every word. If you said the same thing to me, after destroying everything around me, I would resign myself to death.”

No, really, why did this girl have to make everything more complicated?

Reia continued, “We have cut off our sexual desires in the pursuit of knowledge. The two of us alone will seek enlightenment on the martial path. It’s like that, isn’t it?”

“Y-Yeah. Good that you get it. That’s exactly right.”

I really wanted to say that she was also a bother, but well, someone would probably die in that case.

“Are you fine with this, Takumi? Don’t you know what will happen if you disobey me?”

A faint smile showed on Nerissa’s face.

An archaic smile.[note]A smile used by archaic Greek sculptors.[/note]

Her lips were smiling, but her eyes were dead serious. It was something I only saw when Nerissa was truly mad. I instantly started to regret trying to look cool. My body started trembling; my past trauma was revived.

I was on the verge of having an…accident.

“Please wait, Takumi. I know from how much you’re trembling in excitement that you want to fight. But please leave this to me.”

Misunderstanding my trembling, Reia stood up.

“Grand Sage Nerissa, as Takumi’s disciple, I will be your opponent. Do you accept?”

She drew her katana.

“From Alice’s disciple to Takumi’s, huh. Interesting. Alright, you can be my opponent.”

An eerie aura erupted out of Nerissa’s body.

The two of them left the cave and went out into the grasslands beyond.

“Yo! Ha! Fu!”

Breathing rather weirdly, Noiria was squatting behind me. 

“W-What are you doing, Noiria?”
“Oh, nothing. Just preparing to fight whoever wins.”
“Huh? Why?”

“Huh? Whoever survives the battle between the three of us stays here. Isn’t that the rule?”

No, it wasn’t. I didn’t want a harem, but neither did I want a battle royale.

“Y-You guys, you can’t kill. Please stop just before that happens.”

I didn’t know if my voice reached the two fighting.

They stood still, fighting with their eyes.

I knew the level of Nerissa’s strength. To my knowledge, there was nobody in this world other than Alice who could stop her. As Alice’s disciple, Reia would have it hard. Or so I thought.

I did not know the true extent of Reia’s power.

“Let’s start.”

And so, the demon god descended.