Chapter 80
"You're hard at work, Alice-sama."
"Oh, David-san!"
As Alice pushed her vendor's cart along the passage outside the casino's bar area, she happened to run into David.
"Ho ho ho, it seems to be going just as planned. You even seem to have some letters from people who look like fans."
"Yeah. I wonder if they're people from this city? The regulars gave them to me! I can't wait to read them when I get home."
With that, Alice smiled happily.
"By the way, what brings you here, David-san?"
"We've run out of a few items on this side, so I'm going to check whether the incoming stock has been disproportionately delivered to Takako-sama's side."
"I see. With so many customers coming in, things get used up quickly... What about Rex-san and the others?"
"Rex-sama and Kururu-sama are hard at work in the kitchen. If an adventurer starts causing a scene in the bar, Rex-sama restrains them, and if a staff member gets hurt, Kururu-sama treats them."
Imagining a scene even more intense than she'd expected, Alice realized that her own work selling goods was a rather fortunate lot, and gave a wry smile.
"It's all thanks to Takako-sama's ideas."
"Ideas?"
"The idea of wearing masks to hide their faces. Rex-sama and Kururu-sama are a little too famous to show their faces in public. Thanks to that, they can work without worrying about drawing attention."
Hearing that, Alice remembered how she'd once accidentally walked into CLUB GACHIHOMO instead of the bar run by Takako, and how all the utterly bizarre people there had been wearing masks. She shook her head vigorously, immediately trying to erase the memory.
"I-I see. Oh, speaking of which, where's Tina-san? She said she'd help out in the bar."
"Tina-sama is working as medical staff across the entire casino. With so many different people gathering here, you never know where someone might get hurt. It's not that she's been assigned elsewhere because she broke a few too many plates or anything, you understand?"
Hearing that, Alice gave another wry smile.
"Oh, right! If you're going to get the supplies from Takako-san, I'll help too. We can just load them onto this cart, and they'll be easy to carry."
"Oh my, that would be a great help. I was just worrying that we didn't have enough hands. Shall we go at once, then?"
"Okay!"
At Alice's reply, David started toward the bar area where Takako was.
Seeing him, Alice pushed her vendor's cart and hurried along behind David, whose stride was much longer than hers. He soon noticed and shortened his steps to match hers, giving her a gentle smile.
Seeing David do that, Alice looked a little uneasy.
"Hey, David-san... there's something I want to ask you."
"Oh? What is it?"
"Why... have you kept quiet about it?"
Holding back her anxiety, Alice finally put into words something that had been on her mind for a long time, though she'd never asked directly. She did so simply because she wanted to keep being honest with David from then on.
"What might that be?"
But David replied as if nothing were amiss, without stopping.
"Please don't pretend you don't know. You noticed, didn't you, David-san? That I'm... well, not a normal person."
Ignoring the visitors scattered around them, the two continued down the passage toward the bar area as a tense atmosphere grew between them.
David made no reply to Alice's question, his expression unchanged.
"Are you... worried?"
After a while, David murmured this without turning to look at Alice.
"I am... I should be an enemy you're supposed to defeat, after all."
"That may well be true. When I first learned of it, I too thought you were an enemy I ought to defeat."
"...And now?"
When Alice asked this timidly, peeking at David's face, he finally turned to face her and gave her a gentle smile.
"You're far too admirable a person to be summed up with the word 'demon.' At least, that's what I've come to think after spending all this time with you, Alice-sama. If you're worried that I despise you, let me make it clear now: I don't."
"...David-san."
"More than anything, you are a dear friend of Kururu-sama's, someone she herself acknowledges and cherishes. And I, too, think you are a remarkable person, Alice-sama. Far from despising you, I respect you... You are kind and more honest and straightforward than anyone... more so than many humans."
Hearing those words, Alice's expression softened into a smile.
The thorn of worry that had made her wonder if he secretly felt differently fell away, and David's words naturally lightened her step.
"It doesn't matter who or what you are. You are Alice-sama, and that's all."
"Yeah, thank you, David-san! But there's one thing you're wrong about."
"Oh? And what might that be?"
"Kururu-san isn't the only one. You're my dear friend too, David-san."
"Ho! Well, that makes me very happy...!"
Alice must have been genuinely troubled and anxious. Her beaming smile now was nothing like the one she'd worn just moments earlier, and it reminded David, if only a little, of the first time Kururu had smiled at him.
"Menou! I just realized something incredible!"
"What's the matter, Kagami-dono? Why the sudden change of expression?"
"Traveling with you isn't fun at all."
"I see... That's painful. For me, since I'm the one being told that."
Deep in a small forest south of the royal capital, Kagami shouted with an expression of utter astonishment that was far too late in coming.
Ten days had passed since they left the city of Valman, and Kagami and Menou had finally reached their destination: the area around the royal capital. Known as 'the Holy Forest,' it was one of the spots where monsters wandering the plains around the capital made their lair, and where relatively weak monsters around Levels 5 to 20 gathered.
And long ago, this was also a place Kagami had visited time and again to grow stronger.