My Status as an Assassin Obviously Exceeds the Hero's

Hiraes’s words that Reytis and the Demon Clan had formed an alliance made me freeze for a moment.

Could it be that we were summoned at the Demon Clan’s instigation? If so, the guess that our existence might be the link between this world and ours might not be entirely wrong.

What on earth are the Demon King and King Reytis thinking?

“I understand the situation. Even if we find a way to get back from here, we have to regroup with the comrades we left behind in the Kingdom of Reytis before we return. When that time comes, we’ll find that crystal and destroy it.”

The hero, unaffected by my confusion, thought for a moment and nodded.

Hiraes wagged his tail in satisfaction at that.

“…May I speak as well?”

When the conversation had calmed, Kyousuke unexpectedly raised his hand quietly.

Nanase and the hero widened their eyes and looked at Kyousuke.

Kyousuke doesn’t assert himself much. It’s not that he has no opinions, but the priority he gives to his own thoughts is astonishingly low. He’s very accommodating, so he usually agrees with what’s said and rarely speaks up.

“If you’ll break the crystal, I’ll answer anything,” Hiraes said.

“Then when you and your children surrounded us, not only did the crystal’s presence detection and danger sense fail to work, but my own ‘hunch’ didn’t trigger either. If there’s some mechanism at work, I want to know. If the same thing happens elsewhere, like in the Demon King’s Castle, it would be a problem.”

I agreed with Kyousuke and nodded.

That was definitely something we needed to hear. With so many shocking things happening, I’d completely forgotten about it.

From the World Eye’s perspective, the dragons surrounding us had concealment-type skills. So it wasn’t strange that my presence detection skill didn’t work—I'd experienced something similar in the Cantinen Labyrinth. But Kyousuke’s ‘hunch’ is completely different from my presence detection.

“The skill ‘Hunch’ is like a sixth sense manifested as a skill. This cave is hidden by every means imaginable. There are even magics here that have already fallen out of use, and I’m certain one of them is designed to interfere with detection and sensing magics.”

Hiraes said the reason Kyousuke’s ‘hunch’ was caught was because ‘hunch’ also senses invisible things, so it counts as a type of detection. He added that they had loosened some parts to lure us in, but because Hiraes himself had forgotten parts of the ancient magics, they avoided tampering with them too much.

There are still many aspects of ancient magic that remain unexplained, and it seems ancient magic covers concealment across a wider range and more targets than modern magic. It’s powerful and consumes a lot of magical power, and because it uses characters that would drive ordinary people mad—the kind Amelia learned from Crow—there are no current practitioners; it’s lost technology, lost magic. Crow’s “Inversion” and Mahiro’s magic circles fall into this category.

Still, I can’t help feeling there must be other reasons to protect this cave so zealously. From what I can see, the dragons don’t seem to need this ore, and if it only serves to spark conflict, they could just destroy everything here.

“I see. That explains it. If it had been due to my lack of training, I might not have been able to go with the crystal.”

The last remark was murmured, not as sound but in our heads.

Very Kyousuke—serious and matter-of-fact.

“Oh, then since we’re here, I’ll say something too!”

Night and Amelia not being able to communicate is one thing, but Nanase didn’t like having said nothing, so she raised her voice.

“I want to ride on a dragon’s back someday! I’ve always admired them!!”

Nanase raised her hand innocently. Hiraes squinted his eyes and nodded gently. It felt somewhat rude, but all right… He looked like a grandfather watching his grandchild.

“You cannot leave this land for now, but the opportunity will come. Take this with you for when that time comes.”