I Was Nearly Killed by My Fellow A-Rank Party, but Now I Fed a Nine-Tailed Fox Deep in the Dungeon. ~ “My Master, I Shall Never Leave Your Side for All Eternity,” the Legendary Monsters Said While Doting on Me. Before I Knew It, I Had Become the World’s Strongest Lord of the Demon Realm~ - Chapter 16 & 17

Going All Out Against a Scumbag Adventurer

Outside the guild, I stood face-to-face with Leadas.

“Heh, I’m gonna beat the shit outta you, strip you buck naked, and hang you up at the town entrance. And those chicks? They’re gonna be mine.”

Leadas said that while pulling this nasty, sleazy grin.

“…Tamamo-sama. Are we gonna secretly help him out so nobody notices?”

“No need to do anything like that.”

“But if things keep going like this, he’s gonna—”

“What’s wrong, Yukime? Weren’t you supposed to hate Kuon?”

“Th-that’s true, but…”

Behind me, Tamamo and Yukime were talking about something.

The receptionist Melanda was staring at me with this praying kinda face.

The girl Leadas had been threatening was hiding in the shadows too, watching me all nervous and on edge.

(I wanna… just give up, but I’m pretty sure Tamamo’s expecting me not to run from this fight. I wanna prove I’m someone who can take responsibility for my own actions. That’s… probably the condition for her helping me turn Fokko back to normal.)

I awkwardly raised my fists like I wasn’t really used to it.

“Fine. I’ll fight you fair and square. So just stop putting your hands on that girl already.”

“Nice! In return though, I’m gonna go all out on you!”

Leadas charged straight at me.

I didn’t run.

And I kept my eyes wide open.

I mean, I’ve fought in an A-rank party before.

Even if I lose, I’m at least gonna land one hit…!

“—Kuon!!”

For the first time, I heard Yukime call my name.

Right after that, Leadas’s fist came flying straight toward my face.

(Okay, focus! Watch closely and dodge…!)

Can’t dodge too early or he’ll read the movement.

Gotta wait till the very last second…!

(…Not yet! …Still? Wait, still not?)

There was still a tiny bit of time before Leadas’s punch actually reached me.

When I glanced around, Yukime had this expression I’d never seen on her before.

It was almost like she was really worried about me… I didn’t know her face could even do that.

And right next to her, Tamamo noticed I was looking and just casually waved at me with a big carefree smile.

Jeez, she has no idea how tense I am right now… I’m fighting for my life here.

While I was thinking that, Leadas’s fist was already right about to smash into my face.

I dodged while grabbing his arm hard.

(Alright, now from here somehow… counterattack…!)

“GYAAAAAAAAA!”

“—Huh?”

At Leadas’s scream I instinctively let go.

He was clutching his arm and writhing in pain.

“It huuurts! My arm…! Wh-what the hell!? What did you do?!”

“No… I didn’t do anything…”

When I looked, there was a perfect handprint left on his arm where I’d grabbed him.

It looked exactly like a burn mark—a dark bruise from being squeezed way too hard.

(Wh-what the…?)

“Hmph! You let your guard down! Take this!!”

While I was standing there confused, Leadas pulled a knife from his pocket and stabbed toward my chest with his other hand.

Even though that sharp blade was coming right at me, I didn’t feel scared at all.

Instead, there was something else bothering me.

(…What is this? It feels like there’s some kind of power inside my body that I didn’t know about…)

For some reason, I just naturally knew how to use this power.

I focused it into my fist.

Then I drove that fist straight up into Leadas’s jaw from below.

—BOOM!!

Leadas got launched flying through the air.

All the adventurers around us looked straight up like they were watching fireworks.

When Leadas’s body crashed down with a heavy thud, I caught the falling knife between two fingers.

“Kakaka! Kuon wins hands down, huh!”

Only Tamamo’s loud laugh echoed through the night sky.

At that impossible result, all the adventurers around us—and Yukime too—stood there with their mouths hanging open, completely stunned.

Time for Some Serious Payback!

Right in front of me, Leadas’s huge body was sprawled out, foaming at the mouth and totally knocked out.

I was still kinda freaked out about this weird power that had suddenly shown up inside me.

“What the heck… is this?”

But Tamamo didn’t give a damn about any of that. She just hummed a little tune while strolling right up to Leadas.

Then she flipped the sake bottle in her hand upside down and dumped the booze all over his face to wake him up.

“—Pffft!? Wh-what the hell just…?”

“You lost, dumbass. What happened to ‘real men settle it with their fists,’ huh? Soon as you got cornered you pulled a knife like a total coward…”

Tamamo raised her index and middle fingers, and out of nowhere this sacred rope appeared and wrapped itself around Leadas, tying him up tight.

She tilted her head with this big innocent smile.

“Now then… you said you were gonna ‘strip me naked and hang me up at the town entrance,’ right? If you’re gonna do that to someone else, you gotta be ready for it to happen to you too, yeah?”

“H-hiiiii!? Wait, hold on… I’m—mmphhh!”

The rope twisted itself into a gag and shut Leadas’s mouth.

“Alrighty, let’s go♪”

With that, Tamamo yanked the rope and started dragging Leadas along behind her.

◇◇◇

Leadas got stripped butt-naked and hung up at the town entrance.

“Ngggh—! Nggghhh!!”

“Umm… ‘Any who aid this criminal will be thrown in jail’… yep, looks good.”

A sign with those words got hung around his neck, and then Tamamo gave him a nice little kick.

For some reason Yukime was watching the whole thing with this slightly jealous look on her face… probably just my imagination though.

“Still… even I’m starting to feel a tiny bit bad leaving him with nothing on. Nights get pretty damn cold around here.”

“Nn—!!”

Leadas couldn’t talk because of the rope gag, but when he heard Tamamo’s “kindness,” his face lit up with relief.

But I knew that look on Tamamo’s face way too well.

This wasn’t kindness. Not even close.

“Hey, Yukime. Poor guy’s freezing. Why don’t you give him something to wear?”

“Understood.”

Yukime stepped forward and lightly breathed toward Leadas.

The cold air floated out and instantly turned into ice, wrapping all around his body like a frozen suit.

“Nn—!! Nnnn—!!”

“Hahaha! Look at him crying tears of joy!”

(She’s a demon…)

The sight was so brutal even I started shivering.

“Alright, let’s head back to the inn, Kuon.”

“Yeah… but wait! This is your doing, right, Tamamo? Me suddenly getting way stronger?”

“Yep. Remember the milk I made you drink back at the guild? That was my ‘youki’—my demonic power—squeezed out into it. I fed it to you.”

As soon as she said that, Yukime muttered “Nine-Tails-sama’s…!?” and for some reason blood started dripping from her nose.

“So you shared your power with me…? But why would you do that…?”

“’Cause I was worried about you staying weak forever. I actually wanted to give you way more, but there’s a limit to how much I can squeeze out at once.”

“But if you do that, won’t you get weaker, Tamamo?”

“That’s way less worrying than you being weak. Plus… ‘Kuon’s power is absolutely gonna be needed’ someday.”

“Really…?”

Tamamo nodded.

“Yep. A little bit of my memory came back. The one who stole my soul is this legendary demon god called ‘Ryomen Sukuna.’ Even I can’t take him on alone.”

She said that and then snuggled up close to my side as we walked.

“Kuon, your ability as a ‘youjuu tsukai’—a beast tamer—matches perfectly with me. It’s seriously fate that we met.”

“So together the two of us can beat him…?”

“Exactly. I give you power, and you draw out even more of mine. That way we can actually stand a chance against that monster.”

“—Ahem!”

Yukime cleared her throat super loudly like she was trying to split us apart.

“Nine-Tails-sama, I’m here too, y’know.”

“…Oh right. Forgot about that.”

While we were chatting and heading to the inn, this girl in ragged clothes suddenly came running up to us.

It was the same kid Leadas had been messing with earlier—the one I helped.

“Th-thank you… so much…!”

She bowed her head deep toward us.

“Haha, nah, you don’t gotta thank me. I’m just glad I could help.”

“Yep, exactly. Guess even a youkai who lost their power has it rough just trying to live, huh.”

I got totally shocked by what Tamamo just said.

“Wait… youkai? This kid?”

“Yep. She’s not a human child. She’s a ‘zashiki-warashi’—a house spirit youkai that brings good luck.”