Published: September 10, 2025
May 11, 2018 – Typo corrections made.
May 12, 2018 – Some additions made.
This is Satou. It’s not uncommon to have clients who don’t provide enough explanations, but the more troublesome ones are those who don’t even understand the specifications they truly want for themselves, not just those who expect some tacit understanding and skip explanations.
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“Russus~”
“It’s Fifi!”
When I opened the door to the waiting room, Tama and Pochi came in, their voices cheerful.
“Aren’t these Satou’s little brats?”
“Hey! You guys came too!”
Russus and Fifi, who used to be servants of the former hero Hayato, caught Tama and Pochi as they jumped at them and laughed.
Since the dedication match was underway, I thought we wouldn’t be able to meet, but Russus and Fifi kindly agreed to see us.
“It’s been a while.”
“Yo! Satou.”
“And the spear lady is here too!”
The two who had Pochi and Tama hanging around their necks like Hawaiian leis came up to us in a friendly manner. Pochi and Tama happily hung, making a “swing~” sound with their mouths.
“If you’re here, why don’t you get into the match?”
“It would’ve been a lot more fun if you guys joined.”
Without any flattery, they said this and invited me to sit down on a chair.
Tama and Pochi, who were hanging, were collected by Liza, who then changed their posture into the pose of a corpse and hung them from her arms.
“As expected, the sweets Satou brings are delicious.”
“Next time, bring some meat too. That fried chicken and kakuni you brought before were delicious.”
As the two of them started devouring the souvenir cake set right away, I took the opportunity to warm up our old friendship and brought up the topic of the four heroes.
“We only know Meiko and Seigi.”
“Yuuki and Hikutsu, right? The magic users were probably handled by Lean and Mary, weren’t they?”
It seemed that the explosive-type hero Yuuki and the cautious hero Fuu weren’t even remembered by name.
“Meiko was interesting, but she had no stamina, so she would get tired quickly and collapse.”
“Seigi is weak, but he easily finds monster nests, so it’s easy and nice to go hunting with him.”
Meiko and Seigi seemed to be reasonably evaluated.
“Seigi was funny because he kept staring at our breasts and butts.”
“But as soon as we noticed, he quickly looked away.”
…Seigi.
I ignored that very adolescent boy-like episode and asked Russus and Fifi.
“Didn’t you become the servants of hero Meiko or hero Seigi?”
“Hmm, no.”
“If we became servants to some cheeky young lady or pervy boy, we’d leave in three days.”
“True. Meiko is naturally arrogant, and Seigi makes incomprehensible faces and says things, so I end up punching him.”
“If he were as strong as Hayato, then it’d be fine for him to be arrogant.”
It seemed Russus and Fifi only wanted to serve someone stronger than themselves.
“If you can beat us, I’ll become your servant, Satou.”
“Yeah, yeah, you can be a lover or a retainer too.”
“Oh, by the way, I was told by the village head (Satoosa) to have kids soon.”
I’m not interested in that sort of thing.
“Well, that’s if you beat us.”
“Yeah, don’t get ahead of yourself before winning.”
“Then I must polish my sword skills.”
I went along with the two casually and steered the conversation back.
“So you didn’t become their servant and went to the continent’s west instead?”
“Yeah.”
Apparently, it was annoying because high-ranking nobles kept approaching, wanting to have them as their subordinates.
“By the way—do you know that Satou is a vampire?”
“Yes, although I’ve only fought once, I know a bit about it.”
Surprised by the sudden topic, I nodded while thinking of the vampire princess Semery we fought in the lower levels of the Selbira Labyrinth and the reincarnator and true ancestor of the vampires, Van Helsing.
“They showed up in the neighboring country.”
“It was amazing. A horde of blood thralls (Blood Stalkers) that seemed ready to devour an entire city, and an army of vampires leading low-rank vampire (vampire slave) soldiers.”