What Xion made for Reinhild was a cream soup with corn.
The soup was unbelievably good.
Reinhild finished off two bowls right where he sat.
Warmed through by hot water and filled by the soup, his body felt toasty and his belly full, and his mood lifted.
He sat by the window with a hand on his stomach, listening to the sound of the rain.
‘…This isn’t the time to be doing this!’
He’d gotten so wrapped up in the soup that he’d forgotten what he’d been worrying over just moments before.
He was sure he’d been all hesitant when he came out of the bath but then the soup had smelled too good…
Was all of this Xion’s scheme? To bewitch the demon king with food! While secretly putting something strange into the mana stones!
‘I still can’t be certain Xion did it.’
He was halfway sure that the impurity inside the stone was what was interfering with his mana work. He hadn’t been able to find any other medium anywhere that might be hindering him.
It wasn’t Reinhild’s own problem, nor an artifact or a curse. There was nothing else unusual or suspicious, and the only thing he’d learned was that someone had put some nasty something into the mana stone.
And the only one here who could have done that was Xion.
‘No. I still don’t know.’
Reinhild trusted Xion. What reason would Xion have to make him suffer?
When he thought of the warmth and comfort Xion had given him, the idea that Xion harbored ill will toward him didn’t occur to him at all.
It wasn’t certain that Xion had put in the impurity.
Granted, given the circumstances, Xion was the only one who could have done it—but maybe it was simply a stone that attracted impurities easily.
It was a little odd that the stones were clean in the shed and only developed impurities just before being hung on his necklace, but maybe they were the kind of stones that changed once taken out of storage.
Say it was something like that with Xion. Even then, he wouldn’t be doing it on purpose.
It must be happening without him knowing, by chance.
He’d never heard of a human with such an ability, but Xion was a special human.
‘I should learn more about Xion.’
If he grasped everything about Xion, he’d be able to figure out how to solve this too.
To do that, he first needed to learn a bit about Xion’s past.
He’d promised not to speak with two tongues in front of Xion but breaking it a little should be fine.
He was the demon king, after all.
‘But how am I supposed to find out?’
Wearing a grave expression, Reinhild trailed after Xion everywhere. Xion seemed used to this now and showed no particular reaction.
Reinhild’s concentration didn’t last long. He’d always gotten bored quickly and tired of things easily, but after his mana bottomed out, even a little movement drained him fast, and everything felt like a chore.
Xion wasn’t hurting him, and all he was doing was getting in the way of mana recovery, so couldn’t they just live like this?
Human lifespans were short anyway. He could live like this for a hundred years and only then start recovering mana; it wouldn’t be too late.
Until then, Xion would somehow drive off the hero’s party.
Ah, thinking about Xion not being by his side made him a little depressed.
Xion had said sweets were good when you were down.
Deciding he needed something sweet, Reinhild picked up a cookie Xion had arranged prettily on a plate.
Bang, bang, bang!
“Xion, you in there?”
These blasted humans!
Just how far were they planning to go with the interruptions?
He had to hurry up and regain his strength and sweep them all away or something. He couldn’t live like this.
“What is it?”
“The rain finally stopped. We don’t know when it’ll pour again, so we’re going to start repairing the village while we can. Come on, let’s go.”
Had that human assigned Xion to the repair work or something?
He had no idea why the man sounded so entitled.
“…”
Ordinarily Xion would have gone with a smile, but when he didn’t react at all, even the brazen human looked flustered.
“Xion? I’m telling you we need to go right now.”
“Sorry. There’s someone sick at home.”
The brazen human’s gaze stuck on Reinhild.
Reinhild glared right back, with a look that said, What are you staring at?
“I understand the situation, but… the road to the neighboring village is blocked, so clearing a way is urgent. If our outside trade gets cut off, getting through winter will be hard… you know that.”
The brazen human lowered his stance and pleaded with Xion.
When Xion still didn’t respond, perhaps deciding to go after Reinhild instead, the human shot him a look begging for help.
That signal didn’t reach Reinhild.
‘What does it matter if the road is blocked?’
If outsiders couldn’t come in, wasn’t that a good thing?
It would be harder for the hero to get here, which was something to be grateful for.
They said winter would be hard, but this house had ample foodstuffs and plenty of firewood.
If anything, he wanted to build the mountains into towering walls so no one could pass in or out.
But the humans seemed to feel differently.
“That’s not the problem. At this rate, monsters might show up!”
A pack of Gray Owlbears would be dangerous, sure. But earlier he’d claimed the road was blocked so no one could get in or out, so how would Gray Owlbears get in?
Did this human not realize his words contradicted themselves?
“The village head said so. If the neighboring village can’t buy our crops, they’ll have to trade with the city merchants, and to do that they’ll have to open a new road to the city. But there’s a monster pack at that pass, so they have no choice but to carry out a subjugation. And then that displaced pack might come down into our village.”
“…”
Even after all that, when neither Reinhild nor Xion reacted, the human grew exasperated, smacking his chest as he shouted.
“Do you get it? Monsters might come down into our village, a place that’s never had a single monster! What’s with you? Did getting married make you deaf?”
It wasn’t Xion but Reinhild who reacted to the human’s wail.
‘No monsters?’
Rebecca had said it too. Why did everyone keep claiming that?
He’d definitely seen a Gray Owlbear.
Xion had even gotten him mana stones.
“I wasn’t going to say this much, but… there are people who think the village is cursed.”
With that, the human looked at Reinhild.
In that gaze, Reinhild sensed a faint anger.
Earning a human’s resentment was nothing new, but since coming here it was the first time he’d received a look like that, and it surprised him a little.
‘Is it because I tried to open the door to that cursed basement?’
That was as far as Reinhild’s thoughts went, but the situation was more serious than he realized.
A handful of villagers were pointing to Reinhild as the cause of the recent strange happenings.
They didn’t mean he’d done something per se. But they thought the village had fallen under a curse after Reinhild arrived.
After all, all the incidents that had disturbed their peaceful village had begun after Reinhild came.
“Take this downpour, for example. Our village was free of natural disasters. The capital’s knights showing up, and our village’s pride, the lake, disappearing overnight—none of that is normal!”
“It would be best to talk outside.”
“The headman said what happened to the lake was God’s will, but I don’t buy it!”
Xion pulled the human outside and shut the door.
Reinhild was even more at a loss.
‘The lake disappeared by God’s will?’
What on earth was he talking about?
The only lake in this village was the place where Reinhild had met that mad human.
When the West house’s knights had come, he’d seen it left a mess.
But God’s will? What did that even mean?
“Rein. I need to step out for a bit.”
In the end, seemingly unable to resist the pressure of the loud-voiced human, Xion turned to Reinhild with a face full of apology.
He didn’t want to leave Reinhild alone.
He couldn’t forgive the rudeness the villager had shown Reinhild.
But unless he meant to eliminate all the villagers, he couldn’t just ignore their request either.
Struggling not to show his anger, Xion pulled Reinhild into a tight embrace.
“Don’t wait up. Get some good rest. Don’t get hurt, don’t get sick. If you eat something tasty, I’ll be back in no time.”
“Anyone would think you’re going off to war! Hurry up and go.”
The human spoiled the mood and dragged Xion away.
As soon as Xion was out of sight beyond the window, Reinhild got to his feet.
‘I should go to the lake.’
It wasn’t waiting for Xion, and it wasn’t getting hurt or sick, so it was fine. If he came back, ate something delicious, and rested well, he’d be keeping everything Xion had told him.
He hadn’t said “okay,” just in case.
Which meant, whatever he did, he wouldn’t be lying to or deceiving Xion.
Reinhild ran straight for the lake.
“…What happened here?”
The place that should have been the lake was empty.
Even with all that rain pouring down, not a drop had pooled in the bare pit.
In the past he might not have noticed, but now that he’d recovered, he could tell.
From the place where the lake had vanished, he felt a tremendous ripple of mana.
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