How I Tame My Valkyrie Harem

Chapter 196: Red Demon

I turned to Vulcan. "We’re leaving."

We had already paid for the service, and there was nothing else we needed to deal with in that place. Except for Tanya, of course.

The girl was standing near Falco, like a loyal subordinate of Vulcan’s. Despite her position in the mercenary group, I had actually managed to raise her Affection Level high enough to turn her into a Valkyrie.

But I didn’t have a slot for her, and it didn’t even seem like she was in an easy position to make that change. I wanted her to join my party, but it wasn’t time yet.

That didn’t mean I couldn’t start paving the way for her to join me.

"But it really is a shame that I can’t make you my subordinate," Vulcan complained, as if still trying to convince me and pulling me out of my thoughts.

"You certainly can’t," I told him. "Even so, I’d like to continue being your client."

An ambitious smile crossed Vulcan’s face. "Don’t tell me."

"The Ghosts of the Road certainly have several agents around the country, so I’ll request your informants’ services throughout my journey."

"I see," Vulcan said to me, then slipped a hand into one of his pockets. "Catch!"

With a quick motion, he tossed something in my direction, and I caught it with extreme ease. It was a small object, but quite solid, and when I looked at it in my hand, it had a familiar shine.

When I opened my palm, there was a gold coin. On one side, it had the map of Ashia, and on the other, a skull.

"Consider that a gift for an honored client," Vulcan said.

That wasn’t a normal coin I could use in the kingdom of Ashia. It was a coin used by mercenary members and their acquaintances for identification. For me, who wasn’t a member, it meant that I was an acquaintance of Vulcan’s and a valuable client.

"Thank you for the gift. I don’t intend to take any more of your time, so we’ll be leaving."

"No problem," Vulcan said, then turned to Jasmine. "Escort them to the exit."

We left Vulcan’s tent and made our way through the mercenary camp. The mercenary with green-dyed hair didn’t say a word to us. The only voices nearby were those of the mercenaries running in fear when they saw us.

As she had asked, we didn’t use her real name near the other mercenaries. Vulcan and Falco already knew her secret, but in a group like that, she probably wanted to hide her origins as much as possible.

We arrived a little past the entrance of the hideout, far enough that no one could see us. I thought Tanya would stay a little behind, but she probably still wanted to say something in secret.

"Do you want to say something to us, Tanya?"

I couldn’t see her eyes because of the blindfold covering them, but Tanya certainly seemed hesitant. "If you’re going after that Equidna, just be careful, okay?"

I hadn’t expected to hear that from her. The way she stood there, like an anxious girl, left only one word to describe her.

"How cute." It just slipped out of me.

"D-Don’t call me cute!" She immediately grew nervous.

"Tanya, you’re all red," Diane said to her.

"Don’t say that, sis," she snapped back at her own sister, but her face really did look like a pepper.

"You can put on a tough-girl act, but you really are a good girl," I said, smiling at her.

"Hmm!" Tanya turned her face away, avoiding me. "I don’t care even a little. Just hurry up and go back to where you—Huh!"

Tanya stopped talking to me in her tsundere mode. At that very instant, her and Diane’s expressions changed, their faces turning serious as if they had realized something was wrong.

The moment there was a rustling among the leaves of a nearby bush, the two of them ran towards the brush, prepared for combat.

"Calm down, calm down! Please don’t attack!" When the two of them were close enough to attack, the person who had been hiding until then stood up with their hands raised in a gesture of surrender.

"Y-You..." Diane said, quickly putting her hand in front of Tanya so her sister wouldn’t advance. "Don’t attack. I know her."

I was having trouble seeing her, but I would recognize her voice anywhere. I raised my lantern so her face became clear to me.

The girl who had been caught had beautiful amber-colored eyes, and her wine-colored hair was tied up in a messy bun. She had a crooked smile on her face, like someone who had been caught at the worst possible moment.

"Hi, Rick. Hi, Diane. W-What a coincidence, running into you here..."

"Don’t give me that," I said to her coldly. "It’s obvious you were following us."

"Erina, what are you doing here?" Diane asked, as coldly as I had.

"M-Me? Well, I ended up seeing Diane leaving the room with you. I got curious and ended up following you. I just didn’t go in because this place looked really fishy."

I looked at Diane. It certainly wasn’t her fault she had been followed. This was Erina’s fault for being sneaky.

"So what were you doing in there?" she asked me bluntly.

"You really don’t have much shame, do you? Asking that kind of thing right after being caught," I said to her.

"Don’t say that~" Erina said in an innocent tone. "I got worried when I saw you enter such a shady place."

Erina threw herself onto me, ignoring Tanya and Diane, and hugged me. She looked at me sweetly with her bright eyes like a cat’s.

I sighed. "Well, it doesn’t matter much. Once we get back to the others, I’ll tell you what happened."

"Yeah, hurry up and go before someone else shows up around here," Tanya said irritably.

I turned to her. She was staring at me while Erina nestled against my chest, and I stroked her hair. Tanya broke her silence first. She was visibly jealous of my affectionate wife, but too proud to compete for my affection.

"See you later, then. I’ll keep in touch, so don’t think you’ve gotten rid of me, okay?"

...

We returned to the house of the family that had hosted us after the sun had already risen. My hope was that, since it was early, Sarah and the others would still be sleeping, but when we got close to the house, my hopes were carried away by the wind.

"She looks like a Demon," Erina said to me. From where we were, it looked like we were staring at a furnace furiously giving off heat.

"Rick," Diane said hesitantly. "I think it would be better to avoid a direct approach."

"I don’t think I have that option."

"Maybe running away..."

"I’m not going to run away just because the situation looks difficult," I retorted to Diane.

"Then would you like to write your will first, Master?" Diane’s expression didn’t indicate that she was joking.

"Don’t say that," I said to her, but the girl a few meters away from us really did seem furious.

In front of us was Sarah, with her arms crossed, a furious expression on her face, and emanating an aura more dangerous than any monster we had faced until then.

"RI-CK!" my furious wife said, her heavy steps stomping on the ground beneath her feet and seeming to cause tremors.

"C-Calm down, Sarah!" Alicia said.

"Don’t go acting hot-headed!" Justine said next.

"Don’t you dare attack Master Rick, you red demon," Camula said, disregarding the fact that she herself was a kind of Demon.

All my Valkyries who had stayed behind were holding back my Swordsman, but it seemed to be in vain because she kept moving in my direction.

"Yes, Sarah," I said to her with a calm expression as soon as she was less than a meter away.

"I hope you have a good excuse for disappearing from here in the dead of night! Or did you and Diane leave without saying anything to enjoy the night?!"

"I will explain myself, but first of all, I’d like to apologize to you."

"Eh?" Surprise overtook the anger in Sarah’s eyes.

"I kept a secret from you, Sarah. From all of you, and for that, I owe you an apology."

"N-No way." Sarah’s voice was overtaken by sudden fear. "We weren’t enough for you, and then you went looking for a brothel—"

"OF COURSE NOT! AND WHY WOULD I TAKE DIANE IF THAT WERE THE CASE?! ALSO, I SAID I HAD A GOOD EXCUSE!"

"Then what have you been hiding from me? Tell me already," Sarah asked me impatiently.

"It’s about Leo."

"Huh? Leo?" Sarah reacted, dumbfounded by the name of our former party companion. "What about him?"

I was still weighing the best way to tell her, but it was already too late. Now that I had started talking, I had to tell her the whole truth.

"Leo had contact with one of the members of the Night Apostles."

"Eh?"