What If the Strongest Villain from the Original Story Became the Protagonist's Ally? - Chapter 21 - Lies, and What the Hell

While carrying Iris princess-style, I leaped over the outer wall and got outside.

During the fall, Iris’s screams echoed.

“Hey Iris… having you shout so loudly right next to my ear is pretty annoying.”

“I-I’ll kill youuu!? Really!!”

After landing on the ground, I set her down. Then Iris touched the hilt of the sword at her waist. She was seriously angry.

“Calm down, Iris. I’ll explain the reason now.”

“First! Please talk before dragging me along!”

“Sorry about that. I was in a hurry.”

When I desperately tried to calm her down, she somehow sheathed her sword. While being glared at, I explained.

“First, I’ll say this up front… if we waste time, all the villagers will be wiped out.”

“—Huh?”

“It’s understandable to be surprised. Normally, even if a dungeon appears, monsters won’t come out immediately. It takes a reasonable amount of time.”

“Y-yes… that’s why we have plenty of time…”

“But what if a third party was involved with that dungeon?”

“Third party?”

Iris tilted her head. I quickly gave the answer.

“For example… people from the Empire.”

“!? That’s… impossible. How could they interfere with a dungeon… ah.”

“You noticed? They can’t interfere with the dungeon itself, but they can interfere with monsters born in the dungeon. In other words, they just need to drag the monsters outside.”

“…Why would Yuguram-sama know such things?”

“Yuu. I also had Nana investigate and learned recently. That there might be spies investigating Iris’s… the Kingdom’s affairs.”

Of course it was a lie. Complete nonsense. I hadn’t asked Nana to do anything like that. However, right now I needed even random lies to give my words some semblance of truth.

“How does that relate to this incident?”

“Would you cooperate with me if I said… intuition?”

“Intuition?”

Was it too much to push through with intuition at this point?

But if I said too many random things, I’d be exposed eventually. It was better to present problems vaguely—people found that more intriguing.

That didn’t change with Iris either.

“…Very well. I was planning to go to the village anyway. Hearing what you said, I also have a bad feeling about this.”

“Thank you! Iris. You really are the best woman!”

I sent words of gratitude to her for believing me. Iris’s face turned red.

“!~~~~~~!? I-it’s not for Yuguram-sama’s sake…”

“Yuu.”

“I’m only going because I also think it’s suspicious! Don’t misunderstand!”

“Suddenly the tsundere comes out.”

“What’s tsundere!?”

“It means the cute Iris right now.”

“Yuu-san!”

Iris approached me and started hitting my shoulder.

Ow. Ow. She was using mana! It had enough force to crack ordinary people’s bones.

It didn’t affect me, but it was quite a good attack.

“Seriously, Yuu-san, you call girls cute right away! People might get the wrong idea, you know!?”

“Really? The only one I call cute is Iris.”

“That’s all lies…”

Puff~ Iris puffed out her cheeks.

That face was cute and I chuckled. Her ears being slightly red was also high points.

“Well then, now that we’ve decided, let’s quickly go to the village. If we miss today, there’s a possibility the village will be destroyed.”

“Please don’t say such ominous things. It’s rude to the villagers.”

“Yes, yes.”

It couldn’t be helped since it was the truth. I think in the original story, Iris headed to the village a few days after the request came in.

By that time, the villagers had been wiped out, which meant problems would occur within these few days.

If things went well, I might be able to catch the Imperial people who infiltrated the dungeon too. Thinking that, I ran through the forest with Iris.

If we ran using mana, Iris and I could probably reach the village in less than an hour.

▼△▼

We arrived at the village without encountering any monsters along the way.

I’d consumed some mana, but since the magic core’s supply was abundant, it was full again in an instant.

Since Iris was drawing mana from outside, she rarely ran out of mana. In exchange, her output was overwhelmingly lower than mine.

“Who are you people?”

Seeing the suspicious masked person (me) and the peerless beauty Iris who’d suddenly appeared, one of the male gatekeepers was confused.

However, the other man next to him seemed to recognize Iris’s face.

“…Hm? Those golden eyes… could it be!?”

He quickly reached the answer.

“Ah, ahh… Iris-sama!?”

“Iris-sama means… the princess!?”

Both gatekeepers were astonished. Iris put on a somewhat awkward smile:

“I sincerely apologize for the sudden visit. I came to subjugate the monsters appearing near the village. May we enter the village?”

“O-o-of course! Please! Come in, Iris-sama!”

“Thank you very much.”

Iris and I passed between the two who had neatly split left and right—

“Hey, wait. Who are you? You’re suspicious.”

Only I was stopped. What the hell.