It’s been a few days since I beat the living daylights out of Mirror and tossed him into the river.

After that, I made my way back to Cecilia, who had been rather worried about me. In particular, she didn’t know what to think when I had taken on my demon form. I had to take that form to instill the fear of demons into Mirror, but…Cecilia wanted me to continue living my life in my more human form.

I had my own reasons, but I became a demon in body only. If at all possible, I never wanted to take my demon form again. Right now, I just wanted to live my life as the human Youki.

I wondered if it was from the shock of losing the fight, but ever since then, s.h.i.+ek had been down in the dumps. Cecilia and I did our best to cheer him up, but it wasn’t very effective. At this rate, I’d have to rely on Duke and Hapyneth to do something about it when we returned home. And if even they couldn’t manage, my last resort would be Celia-san. She was very fond of s.h.i.+ek, so I hoped she’d be able to do something for him.

Through our healing magic, Cecilia and I somehow saved Tiel-chan from almost certain death.

She was in really bad shape, but the Gargoyle never let go of her hand, and that may just have been what kept her hanging in there. That same gargoyle had lost both his wings and an entire arm.

That wasn’t something healing magic could fix. He, himself, said not to bother worrying about it, but it was sure to be all kinds of inconvenient.

Cecilia contacted the knights, led by Raven, to take care of incarcerating the captured bandits.

We met a lot of people and dealt with a bunch of incidents, but today we were finally leaving Dagaz Village.

At the moment, we were packing up our things at the Mayor’s house. We’d lived here for over a week, and I felt a little sad to leave.

“s.h.i.+ek, did you get your things all packed up?”

s.h.i.+ek was moving slowly, packing his clothes and medicine-making supplies into his rucksack. His only response to me was a small tilt of his head.

There was nothing we could do if s.h.i.+ek hadn’t gotten over the shock by now, so Cecilia and I gave up on trying to help. He was still young, and this was the first time he had ever hit a such a high wall.

“When you’re done packing you can go play outside. You made friends with some of the local kids, right? This might be your last chance to play with them, you should go.”

“…Sure.”

He slung the packed rucksack onto his back and jumped out the window.

…Why couldn’t he just go out the front door?

“…It’d be nice if he could cheer up a little bit at least.”

I hoped the village kids could get s.h.i.+ek in a better mood while I finished packing my own belongings and cleaning up the room. Just as I got to a point where I could take a break, there was a knock on my door.

“Youki-san, is it all right for me to come in?”

I heard Cecilia’s voice from the other side of the door.

“Yeah, it’s fine.”

After I answered, she opened the door. As she entered the room she glanced around.

“I see you’re all done packing. And cleaning the room… hm? Where is s.h.i.+ek-kun?”

“It’s our last day here, so he jumped out the window to go play with the village kids.”

“…Is that so? We still have plenty of time before we depart, so I don’t see any problems.”

Cecilia also didn’t mind s.h.i.+ek’s absence.

“So, do you need something?”

“Yes, as I said, we still have some time before we depart, so would you come with me to see Tiel-chan and Gargoyle-san? “

I guess we should give them a proper farewell before we leave.

Tiel-chan had been on the verge of death due to my pride and carelessness. And even though the gargoyle had lost a few of his limbs, he was still a pretty cool guy, and I wanted to see him again before we left.

“Sounds like a plan. And s.h.i.+ek…he’ll be fine. Let’s go.”

Cecilia and I headed off to Tiel-chan’s home, just the two of us. We had gotten used to the walk through the woods, but when we arrived at Tiel-chan’s house we heard a ruckus coming from within.

“Youki-san, someone’s in Tiel-chan’s home!”

“Did one of the bandits get away?!”

Cecilia took up her staff, and with my magic always being ready, we a.s.sumed our battle positions. Then, when we opened the door to the ruckus…

“Guardian Deity-sama! To think you would come visit someone as unworthy as me! I apologize for the mess of books about the room. Please wait just a moment, I’ll get them all cleaned up right away!”

“Eeeh, it’s fine, just go back to bed, girl. You’re still not fully recovered! If you don’t, it defeats the whole purpose of me coming to tend to you.”

“There is simply no way I could go back to sleep. I must put away all my books, clean the room, make the tea, and, and…”

“You don’t have to do anything, just go to bed!!”

Clad in only her nightgown, Tiel-chan was struggling as the Gargoyle forced her into bed.

Cecilia was completely blindsided in shock; I, however, had gotten used to such crazy situations a long time ago.

After she protected him with her own body, I guessed that the gargoyle had become worried and came to see how Tiel-chan was doing. It was his intention to nurse her back to health, but when the venerable Guardian Deity-sama came to see her, Tiel-chan completely freaked out.

“Hey, you lot there. Quit gawking and give me a hand! Throwing a fit like this can’t be good for her health.”

“Guardian Deity-sama, Guardian Deity-sama. May I may be so bold as to request that you call me by my name, Tiel?”

“Eer, sure. Then…Tiel, you’re not fully recovered, so stay in bed like a good…”

“Kyaa! Guardian Deity-sama called me Tiel! He really called me by name. Ah, I can die happy now…”

Her face became red as she went off into her own little world. She held her head in both hands as she swayed back and forth in rapture. It looked totally wrong.

She was probably replaying the gargoyle saying her name on infinite repeat in her head.

“You won’t die. Instead, knock it off and calm down!”

As the gargoyle desperately tried to make Tiel-chan lie down, I simply watched on until Cecilia recovered from her shock.

“…Please forgive me, I lost sight of myself there for a little while. And after you went out of your way to come visit me…”

After complying to the gargoyle’s demands, Tiel-chan finally calmed down. We didn’t want her to flip out again, so the gargoyle waited outside the home.

“N-no really, it’s quite all right. Isn’t it, Youki-san?”

“Ah, yeah, sure.”

Cecilia and I both tried to keep our real expressions to ourselves, but inside we wore a forced smile.

But for her to go that crazy… Just how much did she love that gargoyle? I was worried she might turn into a yandere.

“But this is perfect. I was just about to go see the two of you myself.”

“Did you need something from us?”

“The truth is… I would like for you to take me and Guardian Deity-sama with you to Minerva.”

She bowed her head very low to us. When she did, the door burst open with a gusto. Hearing us from outside, the gargoyle came in.

“Tiel, what are you talking about…”

“I beg of you, Cecilia-san, Youki-san! Guardian Deity-sama lost both of his wings and his arm protecting me. His body can’t even be repaired with magic. But if we go to Minerva, we might find a way to fix him.”

She pleaded with us and again lowered her head.

It’s true that compared to this little mountain village, someone in a place like the largely populated Minerva might be able to sc.r.a.pe up some information on a way to heal him, but…

“What are we gonna do? Cecilia?”

“I’m sorry, but that’s impossible. Tiel-chan is sick, and I don’t know what we would do about Gargoyle-san. On the off chance someone from the village were to discover he was missing from the shrine, it could turn into a huge problem…”

That’s what I figured. Still, I didn’t want Tiel-chan’s efforts to be in vain. If I were to pitch in and help…

“Cecilia, I think I might have an idea…”

“…Although I’m very concerned, I suppose I should at least hear you out. Do explain, please.”

“Well, you see…”

I went over my plan, and at first Cecilia was reluctant, but I managed to convince her through sheer enthusiasm.

“Awesome, we have Cecilia’s seal of approval. Isn’t that great?”

“Now wait just a minute, brat! I have yet to decide if I even want to…”

“That’s fantastic! Isn’t it, Guardian Deity-sama?”

Before the gargoyle could finish his retort, Tiel-chan threw her arms around him. After that, the gargoyle couldn’t say anything. Dammit…I want Cecilia to hug me like that!

But I suppressed my earthly desires, and instead explained my great plan to the two of them.

They both accepted the plan, and we completed the preparations. Then, it came time to bid farewell to the villagers.

“On behalf of the village, I would like to express our grat.i.tude. We thank you for saving our village from its crisis on this occasion.”

The mayor bowed his head to us. I could get used to being thanked like this.

“Also, we leave Tiel in your very capable hands.”

We had informed them we were taking Tiel-chan with us to Minerva in order continue treating her weak condition there. It was at least half true.

She had mostly recovered, but Cecilia was going to ask Celia-san to let Tiel-chan work and live in the Aquarain mansion. While she worked there, s.h.i.+ek would continue to provide her with medicine.

On the other hand, the gargoyle…

“…? Youki-dono, what is that statue?”

Loaded on top of the carriage was, of course, the gargoyle. However, I coated his entire body using my Earth magic, and gave him the appearance of large Buddha statue.

“Ah, sorry. I found a beautiful rock near the village, and I was suddenly taken by my urge to delve into my statue sculpting hobby. It turned into quite the masterpiece, so I wanted to take it back with me.”

“I-I see. That’s quite an…interesting hobby you have…”

Even I think having a statue sculpting hobby is weird.

I know it’s incredibly rude to people that actually do have a hobby carving statues, but I had to force the words out of my mouth. Besides that, I made a new demonic statue to put in the shrine. According to Tiel-chan, hardly any villagers visit the shrine anyway, so even if the statue looked a little different, no one would notice.

After we finished loading up the gargoyle, everyone hopped into the carriage.

“Goodbye, everyone. May we meet again someday.”

After saying our fond farewells, the carriage headed out for Minerva.

After we got back to Minerva, Tiel-chan was successfully hired as a maid, however, my request to display my “masterpiece” the gargoyle at the mansion was denied.

Tiel-chan desperately didn’t want to be separated from the gargoyle and asked numerous times, but each time she was turned down.

Maybe because I was the one that “made” it, Celia-san replied,

“Youki-kun. If you would like to place a statue in our home, I recommend polis.h.i.+ng your ‘style’ a bit more.”

…she told me with a completely straight face.

I didn’t have the same aesthetic sense as the people in this world. Just one of the many difficulties I faced being from another world.

In the end, the gargoyle came to live with me in my rented room.