Return of the Former Hero

Chapter 146. Former Hero – Spends Time (Part 3)

The sun is gradually setting.

Rithina ended up returning later than expected.

Of course, the hero party’s Leon and Aura will be along with her.

[Hou…]

Perhaps it’ll be just fine. I was wondering about what will Elcure do since the hero himself will come here when I was distracted by… a spectacular view.

When I looked down from the upper floor to the ground floor, apart from Rithina and Leon’s party, I saw more than 20 strangers gathering in the lobby.

No, it’s fine.

Those strangers were the hostages rescued from the bandits or so I’ve heard.

The first thing I noticed was Leon..

No… to be exact, the people standing next to Leon.

Next to Leon were two little girls…sticking to Leon on his left and right so closely like they are glued to each other.

Those two are standing out among the simpler clothed people downstairs.

Probably daughter of a noble he rescued from the bandits. I can imagine that.

By the way, the way those two stare at Leon.

Those are the eyes of maidens in love.

Is that the case?

A gallant and handsome prince appearing to save the despairing maidens right in the nick of time.

Tch.

I must not be outplayed next time.

Kuh.

I also want two girls sticking close to me all the time and not just limited to Laurier and Tanya only.

Laurier and Sharon haven’t returned yet and Tanya is probably still sleeping.

Celes and Kagura-san are resting in their rooms…

Gununu

How nice.

I wish I can be in his place.

How envious.. No, that’s not what I mean.

Good grief… if the two insist on always sticking together with Leon, he’ll end up being unable to fight as a hero more freely.

Something like that should only be done after our mission is completed, just like how I did.

What a waste, what a waste.

Even if those two look older than Tanya, they’re still considered very young.

Eh? Do I even have the right to tell him off?

Right, let’s ignore it.

….what am I even thinking just now?

[Is that….the Hero?]

Ha.

Meanwhile, Elcure already stood beside me.

Don’t do that again, geez.

[Ermm… yes, he is.]

[I see…]

Is she satisfied with my answer? Elcure stared at Leon intently, as if observing him.

Don’t get any weird thoughts, please.

[My husband!]

Ha.

While I was concerned with what Elcure is thinking, Aura called out from downstairs.

She then climbed up the stairs to me.

Aura-san.

Please don’t call me like that in a crowded place. It’s embarrassing.

[Yet….another new woman… Humans are…amazing.]

Next to me, Elcure looked at me with an inquisitive look.

Is it really amazement or is it jealousy… well, regardless, she’s looking at me with a gaze that could puncture a hole in my heart.

I felt my spine shudder. I don’t understand. I really don’t.

A-anyways, at the moment, my wife Aura stopped before me.

In my mind, I already considered Etna-san as my wife as well by the way.

[My husba…no, I mean, Haruto-dono. I’ve returned.]

[Welcome back. Thank you for the hard work.]

The approaching Aura, probably seeing Elcure who is standing next to me, changed the way she called me.

She didn’t forget to curtsy as well… but it’s already too late for that, Aura-san.

But well, it’s been quite a while since I see her, so let it slide this time since she looks cute when she does that.

Something naturally comes to my mind after such a long separation.

But let’s leave it for later.

While I talked to Aura, Rithina and Mina, as well as Leon, Kyaron, Yunikram also went up the stairs.

Elcure hid herself behind me for some reason.

What now? Are you trying to use me as a shield?

That crossed my mind for a short while, but turned out that wasn’t really the case.

Elcure hid behind me while keeping her distance so as not to make any contact with me, as she observed Leon from the shadow of my body.

Are you just being shy there?

I was reminded of when I tried to proactively approached her.

Noo, she is too cute.

It’ll be cuter if she were to stick tightly to my back, but I guess not yet?

[Slightly better than I thought…. Looks fine.]

Aa…… ahh?

Elcure whispered from behind me.

Oi you, do you have a crush to the hero or something?

Tch.

Is it the face?

My face is a face from different world though.

Tch.

I turned my head to look at Elcure, and our eyes accidentally met.

「……」

「……」

After staring at each other for a while, she finally turned away and went up the stairs.

What was that all about?

I’m conflicted with the cuteness and the possibility that she hates me.

Oh well.

Anyways, she seemed to be a harmless fellow after all.

[That girl just now, what’s wrong?]

[Nn? A, ah. Well, it’s alright, just leave her alone.]

After confirming that Elcure had really left, Leon called out to me.

Naturally, Leon has already been informed on what purpose the demon girl was staying here for.

[If Haruto-san say so, then it’s going to be just fine.]

Leon seemed to have no complaints about my judgement.

This kind of trust; is it thanks to Laurier?.

So in order to not betray that trust, I must manage Elcure well.

Gladly. Guhehe.

…. Keeping my evil plan aside, I need to discuss the matter of Elcure and the demon king’s army with everyone.

=====

――――――――――

[… so, as for the remaining people such as the workers, I’ll be leaving them under your care.]

Fumu.

Moving location to somewhere else, we finished listening to Leon’s report.

By the way, aside from Leon and I, we have Sharon and Laurier who just got back, Tanya who just got up, the refreshed Kagura-san and Celes, Rithina and Mina, Aura, Kyaron and the two guys. Elcure wasn’t here.

That’s quite a lot of people.

There were not much furnishings yet, but the maids did well to prepare the conference room. The long table was placed in the larger and more beautiful room and Leon was sitting at the other far end of the table.

This kind of long table is not really good.

If I could pick, I prefer a round table more than long table.

Well, that aside, let’s give Leon’s report a thought.

Leon’s report… the bottomline is that some of the people they rescued had no relatives to go to, so he wants us to take care of them.

I’d be willing even if you didn’t ask me.

[Nothing is better than more manpower. We’ll gladly accept them all.]

After giving it some thought, Rithina spoke up.

Of course, of course, this kind of thing is what Rithina is in charge of after all.

[Well, in that case, thank you.]

[Yes.]

Rithina and Leon could’ve just discussed it on their own and reported the result to me later in the first place.

I don’t mind if they go ahead with things, but I guess Leon wanted to do this properly.

It’s like his custom or something. Such a straight and rigid guy.

Anyways, I should take note of this.

[Yosh, I guess that’s it for now. Thank you for participating in the bandit subjugation this time. Thanks to everyone’s efforts, the town is liberated from the clutches of the bandits without any problems. Thank you.]

I stood up, thanking everyone equally for their efforts, bidding them some well wishes and goodwill.

It’s good that nobody was injured and the subjugation ended smoothly.

I noticed that the Lord position comes with many responsibilities, but it’s nothing bad at all so far.

After all, I no longer have any need to earn money.

Thanks to this, I can develop even more costumes as much as I want.

There are many other things I want to do.

Besides, Etna-san is also here in this town.

I’ll go for it. I’ll go for it this time.

I’ll definitely reel in Etna-san this time. Fuhaha

And then, do this and that… guhehehe

[Don’t ruin everything with that kind of face.]

Guh.

I felt like it’s been so long since Sharon actually praise me.

That kind of face will ruin everything, huh?

I guess she may have a point. I need to reflect on it a bit more.

[Is it over already? Is it? Then let’s take a bath!]

Tanya actually proposed the thing I didn’t dare to say.

Did you not have enough bathing already?

You had one in the morning….

Ah, that didn’t count.

More like it was my bath time instead of Tanya. right.

[Bath! Sounds nice! Ah, but… it’ll take some time if we take turns.]

Hearing the ‘bath’ word, Sharon immediately perked up.

However, as she said, it will indeed take a lot of time if we were to take turns with this many people.

[Haruto had made a large bathtub earlier today]

[Eh? Really? Hee. Fuun]

Right, right. I created that massive bathtub for this kind of occasion.

I still have a lot more things I want to make though.

Ee, Sharon-chan, what’s with that look on your face?

If you have something to say, why don’t you just say it?

[W-what is it?]

[Nothing at allー]

Kuh, cute.

Cute is justice.

I’m just evil.

Yep.

[Umu. In that case, let’s just all of us take a bath together!]

With a rattling noise, Laurier stood up from her chair and took the initiative to leave the room.

Following that, the other female members of the group also left one by one.

Of course, I tried to follow along with them, but Sharon’s stare prevented me from doing so.

Okay. That’s scary. Really scary.

No, but come on now. How can you enjoy a hot bath without me?

I wonder if it because Kyaron will be there as well. I see now.

I made an excuse to Sharon that I’m just going to pour hot water into the bathtub, which convinced her.

Of course, under the stipulation that I’ll return to my room afterwards.

So I wonder if I can take a peek but later on, I refrain because it’s too scary.

Don’t overdo things. There is still tonight after all.

I still want to see Kyaron’s bathing scene though…

And so, after waiting for the female members to finish, the three guys and I got our turn.

We talked about the two little girls sticking to Leon and the development of his relationship with Kyaron.

After that I got out of the bath and parted with Leon, then climbed upstairs.

Once before, I said that I’ll climb the great mountain path of my harem. This time, it’s more of an actual physical climbing though.

At the end of this stairway, there are my 8 wives.

That thought spurred my legs to go faster.

Soon there will be 9…no, maybe I should prepare a space for the 10th. I must keep my door wide open.

Tonight… no, tonight as well, I shall do my very best.