"—I see. I could have never imagined that King Vale would be reincarnated as a demon. Sorry we couldn't help you deal with him. We ended up expending slightly too much power to take down the demon named Eden. As a result, we had to take a breather."
"No, don't worry about it, Arca. You and Phinis-sama had it hard, too. I'm really glad the two of you are safe."
I smiled at Arca and Phinis-sama, who came after we'd defeated Valon.
"By the way," Arca then softened the corners of her mouth and said while pointing at me, "How long is that woman going to cling to you?"
"…"
I'd like to know that myself… Face turning pale and sweating, I turned around to look at the woman in question, Aetia-san.
"Hey, Darling. I want to be your wife too. You'll accept me, won't you?"
"E-err…"
She had pushed me down, making me sit on the ground, and she was now clinging to me with her arms around my neck and looking at me with a flirtatious gaze.
Moreover, she was dressed in extremely risqué clothing.
Her figure was really great too, so, as a matter of course, her barely covered private parts were generously touching me.
Or rather, she was intentionally pushing and rubbing them against me.
"U-uhh, Aetia…-san?"
"Geez, why are you being so distant? Just call me 'Aetia'!"
"O-okay, then… Aetia…?"
"Ufufu, what's the matter, Darling?"
『…(Vein-throbbing)』
"Eeek!?"
Why did things end up this way, you might ask.
To answer that question, it was because the person that Valon had spat out was Aetia.
She had almost been digested, so she was already at death's door by the time she was spat out, but thankfully she was swallowed whole by Valon's main body, so we had barely made it in time to treat her.
Apparently, another demon named 'Tougen' had also been eaten by Valon, but the tentacle that had caught him had chewed him to pieces before swallowing him, leaving not a single trace of him.
Well, according to Ophir and Turbo-sama, who were his opponents, the guy was a fiend who had used children as materials for experiments, so it wouldn't have been worth saving him, anyway.
In any case, once Aetia had regained consciousness, we had explained the circumstances to her, but she had then hugged me for some reason.
Perhaps the experience of being swallowed by Valon had left a trauma in her, hence why she wanted to lean on someone, but…
"My, my, are you planning to ingratiate yourself with our darling now? Even though you had been so infatuated with that demon named Valon earlier? As expected of Aetia-san, the "Disperanza(SuperMimic)"." [T/N: The kanji that makes up the words super mimic can roughly be interpreted as a quick change of attitude. Basically, Shiva is being sarcastic]
…judging from Shiva-san's unusually irritated tone, it seemed that it wasn't a matter of trauma or anything of the sorts
And in response, Aetia said matter-of-factly, "Isn't it only natural? I mean, that's the superpower bestowed on me; it's my way of life. And at present, Darling and Elysium-sama are the only ones who fit the criterion to be my ideal man—or should I say, my 'strongest knight'? But Elysium-sama only thinks of me as nothing more than a pawn, so even though we were enemies, it's only natural for me to bow down to the gentle Darling who saved me.
"Right, Darling?" Aetia once again gave me a passionate gaze, and my face twitched as I was wondering how to respond.
"Is that so?" Shiva-san then put her hands on her hips in obvious displeasure and said, "I don't have any particular interest in your circumstances, but can you stop calling him 'Darling'? For some reason, it makes it feel like my identity has been tainted, which I find very unpleasant."
"Hmm~. Then why don't you stop? I mean, aren't you ashamed of calling him 'Darling' at your age, Auntie?"
"…"
Shiva-san silently raised her Hallowed Sacred Treasure overhead.
"P-please calm down, Shiva-san!? That shield isn't meant to be used to deliver physical attacks!?" Magmell said, flustered.
"Y-yeah, he's right, Shield Hag—I mean Shiva!? Don't take whatever that ero-demon said to heart!?"
"Hold on. Did you just call me 'Shield Hag'?" Shiva-san approached Ophir with bloodshot eyes even as Magmell and the others were holding her in an attempt to stop her.
To be perfectly honest, this is not exactly the right time to be doing this, though… I looked at them with a distant gaze, when…
"—Why did you help Aetia?"
『!』
…a familiar voice suddenly echoed in the hall, and we all turned to the direction it came from.
There we found Yomi, one of the "Eight Sacrifices"like Aetia.
Turned out he had followed me.
As such, I gently pushed Aetia away, got back on my feet, and said, "Isn't it obvious? Our goal is to take back our comrade, not to kill you guys. Even if we're enemies, as long as it's not an irredeemable bastard like Valon, of course, we'll help."
"I see. Then I guess I have to thank you all. You have my gratitude."
『!?』
It seemed that the one most surprised by this was none other than Aetia herself.
"My, how surprising," she stared in amazement and said, "Do you consider me to be your friend?"
"Yes. Previously, our Lord said that Patty and I were like brothers. Which led me to consider the rest of you as my few kins."
"That so. But Valon apparently had a different view on it, however?" Aetia sarcastically shrugged her shoulders.
Yomi nodded, "So it appears. Hence why I can't help but feel disillusioned. Valon had undying loyalty to the Lord. Meaning, his attempt to eat us was most likely under our Lord's consent. That is to say, to our Lord we are probably nothing more than mere 'sacrifices' from the very beginning."
"Yeah. I don't particularly mind being a pawn. It's only natural for me to serve Elysium-sama as he is my creator, after all. However, if he created me just to use me as a sacrifice, then the story is different."
"Yes, I concur." Yomi nodded at Aetia's words, and then he said, "Therefore, we must go and directly ask the Lord what he thinks of us. Is the ceasefire still valid, Savior?"
"Yeah, of course. We also have an important business with him, anyway. Now, let's go—to Elysium."