The orange sky of a short time ago slowly disappeared from the sky, giving way to the dark purple hue - making the dirt road gloomy. All that could be heard was the sound produced by the animals hiding in the trees.
It was already the evening of Kurone and Rory's second day in this world, and the duo was in a comfortable carriage, crossing the night darkness, towards the residence of the marquis Edward Soul Za.
The nobleman's mansion was far from the village called Grain - where they were imprisoned - secluded on top of a hill. When seen at night, it was very reminiscent of those in horror movies, which usually belonged to a family of vampires.
The lights began to come on, making the building brighter, and removing the air of an undead home.
Kurone enjoyed the dusk through the window of the carriage. He was trying to memorize the route to the village - if necessary, he would be prepared to run back.
"And we end up getting further and further away from our main mission... Ahhh."
It took another ten minutes to reach their destination. In front of the gate, two servants were waiting for them.
The coachwoman got down from the carriage and opened the door for the two to get down - which ended up taking a while, since Kurone's feet were numb. Sitting in the same position for so long had caused his blood circulation to cease for good.
- Come on, you idiot, I'm hungry!
- Argh!
The young man was thrown out with a violent kick from Rory, who could no longer stand being confined in the carriage.
The delinquent loli's irritation was due to the fact that she had not eaten a decent meal since she arrived in this new world. In prison, all they had eaten was a dry cake, while signing some papers.
- Sir, is everything all right?
- Yes, yes. Thank you.
The servant who helped the young man up was a grown man, about fifty years old, with a white beard and a slightly wrinkled face. A real butler that could also be found in any clichéd another world story!
The maid next to the man was a young woman who appeared to be the same age as Kurone. What was most striking about this girl was her light red hair, shining in the moonlight.
The girl's sharp eyes met the young man's for a moment and an inexplicable shiver ran through Kurone's body.
- Can you stand now? - said the butler, catching Kurone's eye and staring at the girl.
- Yes, I can!
- Good... - The butler threatened to let Kurone go, but before doing so, he pressed his face against the young man's ear. - You'd better not get so close to Brain... - he whispered in a hoarse voice and then let him go.
"What was that?"
Upon arriving at the marquis' mansion, his first impression of the servants was fear.
"That's not a good sign..."
- Come with us, Master Edward awaits you in the dining room.
- Then dinner is ready, good.
Rory grumbled and, without showing an ounce of respect for the servants' service, stepped in front of the two, heading in the direction pointed out by the butler.
The speed of the hungry little girl's step made it impossible for the servant to keep up.
Brain, the maid the butler called her, was locking the gate of the mansion while Kurone waited for her.
The mansion was far from the gate. From the carriage, Kurone had not noticed the garden with apple and mango-like orchards
Although it was the mansion of an apparently important nobleman, the wall was even lower than the black barred gate - this one locked only by a padlock.
There was no sign of any guards patrolling the yard. In fact that mansion was an easy target for enemy attacks.
"But who would attack this nobleman?" he thought as he remembered that the leader of the guards - Orcus - had mentioned the fact that he and Rory were the first invaders after ten peaceful years.
According to Cecily, these lands were not attacked by the demon king Beelzebub, that was because they presented no benefit to him. It was a kingdom ruled by corrupt nobles who manipulated the king, barren lands, and worst of all, the nobles were lolicons.
"I wonder if Edward is too?"
"If he is, then we are not that far from our mission!"
- I finished locking the gate, shall we go? - Brain asked, interrupting Kurone's line of thought.
- Y-yes.
Interacting with women was not the young man's strong suit.
In her life in Japan, the only women she had frequent contact with were her sisters, her mother, and her psychologist, Miss Kanade, other than that she never had a real conversation with a girl - not even in elementary... or high school... or since she started going to college.
- The marquis must be angry with us, no?
- You can't imagine. In fact, I've never seen the Marquis so happy like that.
- I just don't know why you attacked the village. It will be very expensive to fix that gate...
- It's hard to explain, but it's all Rory's fault.
- Is she your sister? I mean, the juicy little girl.
- ...
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Kurone was silent at Brain's sudden question. He picked up one of the "apples" hanging in front of him and tried to change the subject, explaining the health benefits of apples. That fruit was not as sweet as the fruit he knew.
- Aren't you going to tell me about your relationship with the juicy little girl?
- Wait! What do you mean "juicy little girl"?
After a momentary silence, they both agreed with their eyes not to answer the questions.
She didn't know whether to feel relieved at not telling her and her companion's origin, or to be frightened by "juicy little girl," but decided to ignore it for the time being.
In any case, it was inevitable to avoid touching the subject of her origin at dinner. Briefly, the story told by Kurone was as follows:
They were both residents of a village that was attacked by the demon king's army. They were the only survivors of the attack. Without family, money or documents, they started working as self-employed adventurers, doing dangerous and suspicious missions for nobles and other important people, trying to get money to have a decent life.
- How touching... really touching...
The butler next to Kurone was wiping away the tears that had come as he listened to the story told by the young man.
This same man introduced himself as Edgar, and from what he informed, he was the only male employee in the mansion, apart from the gardener who only appeared on weekends. "Bastard! He's a harem protagonist!".
Before dinner, Kurone picked up some relevant information from Edgar. This world was definitely different from medieval Europe, as he thought, but it also didn't resemble worlds with an RPG system like in light novels.
He intended to ask for more information after dinner, under the pretext that he was not literate and did not attend school in his village, but Brain, listening to their conversation, was the one who volunteered to teach the young man more about common sense.
- Is dinner to your liking?
- It's delicious. Thank you very much, Edward.
- It's edible... Huhf... But it could be better... Huf...
Despite speaking in a contemptuous tone, Rory devoured some kind of roast chicken like someone who hadn't eaten in ages. Her full cheeks and greasy face indicated that she was not being sincere about her opinion of the dinner.
- Glad you're enjoying it, Miss Rory. - Edward said, smiling as he wiped the grease dripping from the little girl's face.
- Rory! Be more polite-
- Ahhhhhh!
Kurone cut off his speech after being kicked violently by Rory and having his meal stolen by the little girl. All that was left on his plate were leaves of something between lettuce and cabbage.
The rest of the dinner went quietly in its own way. The delinquent loli didn't say anything unnecessary - she was too busy stuffing herself with food and being spoiled by two waitresses who liked her.
Kurone had a formal conversation with Edward about some places he has been. He used the settings from his favorite fantasy games to sound convincing. Apparently Edward was not suspicious of his story.
Thirty minutes later, the dinner came to an end. The two maids carried Rory who had fallen asleep on the table to the room, which they had prepared, and Edgar guided Kurone to his room.
One of the maids drew attention during dinner by the fact that she spoke in a strange manner. She addressed Rory initially as "Mish Rory" and by the end of dinner began to call the loli "Littlery".
Could this be called cute or weird, considering the age of the waitress?
- This is it! - Edgar politely opened the bedroom door. - The Marquis said he wants to have a talk with you tomorrow morning in the drawing room. It's the one I showed you when we arrived.
Edgar bid Kurone a polite farewell and walked back down the corridor, toward the dining room.
"What a nice fellow."
The drawing room was small and ordinary, with a double bed in the center and some furniture beside it, such as a bedside table, a table with books and two vases with plants.
Without a second thought, Kurone threw himself on top of the bed and was swallowed by it.
- It's much better than prison for sure!
The young man shouted, turned back and forth, rolled over and sniffed the sheets, appreciating how comfortable the bed was that seemed to have a waterbed. So comfortable. So warm. A real enemy of a wage earner who needs to wake up early the next day.
A "Knock Knock" woke Kurone - almost into a deep sleep.
He had to fight hard against the urge to ignore who was knocking at the door. Tiredness was gradually taking over his body and it seemed that the bed with the comfortable mattress and warm sheets drained his last strength, but he had a chance that it was Edward at the door. It would be rude to ignore the host.
The sound of flesh touching wood sounded again in another "Knock Knock".
- Who could it be?
Finally, after three knocks, he fought the urge to stay in bed and headed for the door - at least he tried to go there.
Blurred vision prevented him from focusing on the wooden door.
The rug lying on the floor warmed his feet, making him want to lie there and wake up the next day - he almost did, until another "Knock Knock" called him back to reality.
Gathering all his strength, he managed to open the door...
- Brain!
To see the red-haired maid on the other side, wearing nothing less than a semi-transparent sweater.
- May I come in?