Captain Senn closed the roster in his hands and let his somber gaze sweep over Darkness's face. Even though she was trying to keep up a dignified front, she still couldn't hide that faint trace of unease.
He lowered his voice, and there was a note of elder-like warning in his tone.
"Also, Kōichi Hayashi. Although the Royal Capital has, for the time being, acknowledged your right to use this mansion because of your achievements, you must remember this. The daughter of the Dustiness family is no ordinary Adventurer. Certain highly placed figures in the Royal Capital have shown an unusual degree of concern for Miss Lalatina's current situation. If they were to read in some report that the young lady is living here... well, a life where she's being used as labor like this, it could lead to unnecessary trouble."
Senn's words were carefully veiled, but to Darkness, every single one landed like the clank of heavy chains.
Her shoulders gave a slight tremble, and a shadow flashed through her eyes. It was a complicated emotion, tangled with disgust, duty, and something so unsettling that even a masochist like her found it chilling.
Kōichi caught the change in Darkness's expression at once.
That look was nothing like the flushed excitement she wore when she slipped into one of her usual fantasies. This was the real heaviness of a noble girl facing a fate she couldn't escape.
Kōichi wanted to ask who exactly was so concerned about her, but after a second thought, he gave up on the idea. The noble circles behind this bunch were even more chaotic than Aqua's intelligence.
If Darkness didn't want to talk about it herself, then it was probably best not to step into that mess just yet. Political marriages, territorial disputes, maybe even some perverted lord casting greedy eyes her way. Better not to rush headfirst into any of it.
After all, this life of comfortable decadence hadn't come easy. There was no reason to ruin a perfectly good afternoon tea over a problem that hadn't even happened yet.
"Thanks for the warning, Captain Senn." Kōichi picked up his teacup again, his tone as calm as ever. "We'll take good care of Darkness-san. As for the distinguished people in the Royal Capital, as long as they aren't planning to come pull weeds for me in person, I think we'll get along just fine."
Senn sighed, clearly getting a headache from Kōichi's refusal to budge. He put his helmet back on and waved to the order of knights behind him.
"Then the verification is complete. Kōichi Hayashi-sama, please continue contributing to Axel's peace... and to this house remaining in one piece. Move out!"
With a neat chorus of hoofbeats, the knights rode off in a cloud of dust.
The moment the gate shut, Darkness, who had still been holding up the image of a holy female knight until then, seemed to lose all strength. She leaned against the doorpost and let out a long sigh.
"Darkness, you okay?" Kazuma walked over, giving her a suspicious look. "When Senn mentioned those big shots in the Royal Capital just now, you looked like you'd just seen natto that expired three years ago. Seriously disgusting."
"N-no, it's nothing." Darkness quickly steadied her breathing and forced out a stiff smile. "I just remembered some boring social formalities, that's all. More importantly, Kōichi... don't take what Senn said to heart. No matter what happens, I will... I will protect this party in the name of the Crusader!"
She sounded bold enough, but the fingers clenched tightly around her sword hilt, pale with tension, gave away how uneasy she really was.
"Alright, alright, they're gone now, so stop standing around at the door catching the wind." Kōichi clapped his hands, cutting through the heavy mood. "Aqua, are you done scrubbing the floor yet? If not, then you're really not getting any of tonight's beef stewed in red wine. And Megumin, stop striking poses over there and come help with the ingredients."
"Huh?! Beef! I'm going right now! I can scrub with Holy Water!!" The moment Aqua heard there was food involved, any sense of crisis she had a second ago vanished without a trace. Grabbing her bucket, she charged straight back into the hallway.
Kōichi looked at his teammates, each wrapped up in their own thoughts, or in some cases simply lacking any brains at all, and the corner of his mouth lifted slightly.
Who cared about the big shots in the Royal Capital? Who cared about fate? At this moment, nothing mattered more than a hearty dinner.
Still, Kōichi quietly tucked away Senn's warning and Darkness's unusual reaction in the back of his mind.
In this world, trouble always had a way of coming to find you on its own. The only thing he could do before that happened was sharpen his weapons a little more, meaning this pack of problem children, and make them a bit more durable.
The mansion doors had only just closed, and the heavy atmosphere hadn't fully faded yet, when Kōichi and Kazuma exchanged a perfectly knowing look.
(Just to clarify, Kōichi and Kazuma both had some idea of Darkness's background. After all, the world was always changing, and the two of them were not idiots. As long as things had not been laid out in the open, neither of them was going to say anything unnecessary.)
That look was a signal unique to two men who spent their lives skirting the edge of shamelessness. The prey was in the net, and now it was time for a public execution.
Kōichi strolled over to Darkness, who was still leaning against the doorpost in a daze. Instead of barking out an order like usual, he bent slightly and gave her an absurdly exaggerated yet perfectly proper court bow. The movement was elegant enough to look like a gentleman inviting a princess to dance at a ball in the Royal Capital. The smirk on his face, however, was infuriating no matter how you looked at it.
"Oh dear, how terribly rude of me. Who would have thought that our little adventurer party was actually hiding a genuine noble young lady? Lalatina... no, I should say Lady Lalatina of the Dustiness family. To make you stand in the yard as punishment just now, and even threaten to dock your dinner, that really was... an unforgivable offense."
Kōichi deliberately dragged out every word, his voice dripping with that overblown theatrical flair that made people's skin crawl.
Kazuma instantly caught on. He tossed aside the shovel he had been holding, clasped his hands together, and hurried over with a look of exaggerated panic.
"Exactly! Kōichi! We were way out of line! We actually made the noble Lady Lalatina do manual labor alongside a useless Goddess like Aqua! If word of this gets out, aren't we going to be hauled off by some big shot from the Royal Capital and fed to Slimes? Lady Lalatina-sama, please forgive us! Your humble servant will prepare the finest black tea and sweets for you at once!"
This sudden burst of flattery did not make Darkness feel honored in the slightest. If anything, it hit her sense of shame like a sledgehammer.
"Don't call me that!!"
Darkness let out a tragic cry and clamped both hands over her ears. Her whole face instantly flushed all the way down to her neck, and even her hard armor creaked and rattled with the force of her trembling.
"I'm not some young lady either! Here, I'm just Darkness! I'm your Crusader! I'm the meat shield whose job is to take all the hits! That embarrassing way of addressing me... that feeling of being treated like some delicate object... ah! Please, I'm begging you, just look at me the way you did before, like I was garbage, and order me to go scrub the toilets! That would make me feel so much better!"
She shouted in a flustered jumble, her eyes unfocused. She had clearly already slipped into some strange fantasy of her own.
Kōichi had no intention of stopping there. If anything, he leaned in even harder. He reached out and lightly tilted up her chin, which had drooped in shame, forcing her to meet his eyes.
"Oh? So you don't want to be treated like a young lady? But Captain Senn did say that that esteemed person in the Royal Capital is very concerned about your upbringing, didn't he? Tell me, Lalatina. If we drew a picture of you scrubbing the toilet in a maid outfit here at the mansion and mailed it to that person... what kind of expression do you think he'd make?"
"N-no, don't! Anything but that! If Father or Alderp found out... ugh... Kōichi, you devil! Sadist! Pervert!... but... this feeling of having my weakness in someone else's hands and being forced to submit... this shame of being a noble while having no dignity at all in front of commoners... ah... I can't take it anymore..."
Darkness finally lost all strength in her legs and collapsed to her knees on the spot, arms wrapped around herself as she let out breaths that sounded wildly inappropriate.
Kazuma stared in stunned amazement from the side, then could not help giving Kōichi a thumbs-up.
"You really are amazing, Kōichi. A few words, and you've already got this perverted noble lady wrapped around your finger. Though... Lalatina really does suit her. She's so proper, but in a certain way she's also weirdly erotic."
"Kazuma! You'd better quit it! Call me that one more time and I'll smash your head in with my sword hilt!"
Darkness's breathing grew more and more ragged, and her body gave a faint shiver.
Kōichi had assumed she would run off in embarrassment, but he had clearly underestimated this pervert's tolerance.
She suddenly threw her head up. Her eyes were wet with tears of shame, but that bizarre blush spread over her whole body at astonishing speed.
She crossed her arms over her chest and let out a trembling gasp that was downright horrifying to hear.
"Ah...! M-my true identity has been exposed to the companions I live with day and night... and now I'm being mocked as if I were some toy... and even being deliberately addressed like a noble lady as a form of mental humiliation... this depraved thrill of being a noble yet toyed with by commoners...! Kōichi! Kazuma! Please... please keep going! Say more! Say more things like I'm some 'useless spoiled noble lady who's good for nothing except her status'!!"
Kōichi and Kazuma both went silent at the same time.
Kazuma, who had been about to keep going, froze with his hand still half-raised, his face turning pale. "Kōichi, I was wrong. Seriously, I was wrong. I underestimated just how low this girl could sink. The way she is right now is scarier than the Demon King's Army..."
Even Kōichi could not stop the twitch at the corner of his eye as he quietly took a step back.
"...Darkness, you win. If you can take this kind of teasing as a reward, then you really are Axel's strongest shield."
"Huh? That's it? Don't stop!"
Darkness chased after him with a look of obvious disappointment, like she had not had nearly enough.