To Ease the Girl's Inner Turmoil

"We'd actually like to hear about this divine sword that can defeat the Demon Flame Dragon."

Once Yoru Machi, the "Hero," had spoken up to ask, the surrounding villagers immediately grew excited again and began recounting the legends they knew.

"According to a legend passed down in our village, to defeat the mighty legendary dragon, the Demon Flame Dragon, one must seek out the last descendant of the Ice Clan.

"The descendant of the Ice Clan guards the God of Frost Sword, a weapon capable of sealing the Demon Flame Dragon. And the current descendant of the Ice Clan is a young girl.

"If the Hero wishes to obtain the God of Frost Sword from her, he must ease the girl's inner turmoil. The way to do that is to go to Mount Malgide and pick a special flower known as the Fluffy Flower for her."

The moment Shimada Yousuke heard the villagers' words, he immediately felt like giving up on such a troublesome prerequisite quest. That mountain's name was simply too long—there was no way he could remember all of it.

Besides, ever since coming to this other world, he had basically just gone with the flow the entire time, wandering wherever he happened to end up. Asking a visitor unfamiliar with this world to find some Mount Gilde or whatever was already quite difficult in itself.

And even if they made it to Mount Malgide, they would still have to search an entire mountain for a flower called the "Fluffy Flower." The quest might not be dangerous, but it would be an enormous waste of time.

By the time they found Mount Malgide, brought back the so-called Fluffy Flower, and eased the girl's inner turmoil, the Demon Flame Dragon might have already destroyed countless villages and gone back to sleep.

"Can't you just give me that God of Frost Sword or whatever? As you can see, we're Heroes."

In order to get his hands on the divine weapon, the God of Frost Sword, as quickly as possible and lower the difficulty of defeating the Demon Flame Dragon, Yoru Machi directly admitted that he was one of the so-called "Heroes," despite Cui's speechless expression.

Shimada Yousuke, however, saw nothing wrong with that. By standard Sega game logic, when the "Hero" was about to fight the boss, wasn't it perfectly normal for villager-type characters to provide the "Hero" with a divine weapon?

These villagers had clearly taken Yoru Machi, whose looks and bearing were both exceptional, for a "Hero." In that case, it was not entirely impossible to skip the prerequisite quest. That was what was known as a game exploit—industry insiders called it a bug.

"I'm afraid that won't be possible... Although we truly wish to help you, Hero, the God of Frost Sword has been guarded by the descendants of the Ice Clan for generations.

"If she does not wish to hand over the God of Frost Sword, there is nothing we can do about it."

To be honest, the villagers did not have much goodwill toward this so-called descendant of the Ice Clan.

Under the pretense of being the descendant of the Ice Clan and guarding the God of Frost Sword, she stayed shut in the village all day, eating and drinking for free without ever doing any work. Naturally, no one in the village could bring themselves to like such a freeloader.

However, the God of Frost Sword truly could restrain and seal the Demon Flame Dragon. For the village's peace across generations, they really had no choice but to support this shut-in descendant of the Ice Clan.

"Yoru Machi, why don't we just go find that Demon Flame Dragon directly? In Sega games, prerequisite quests can reduce the difficulty of clearing certain dungeons, but they aren't mandatory.

"As long as we're strong enough, we can defeat that Demon Flame Dragon even without some Frost Sword or whatever."

Shimada Yousuke pushed up his glasses. Finding the prerequisite quest too troublesome, he now suggested they go straight to the Demon Flame Dragon and fight it—if they could win, they would fight; if they could not, they would run.

What was unbelievable was that Cui, the Elf Maiden, actually agreed with Shimada Yousuke's reckless battle plan this time.

In Cui's view, a quest like easing the inner turmoil of the Ice Clan's descendant was far too improper.

Following the usual tropes of fairy tales and legends, the Hero would travel through mountains and rivers to pick flowers for a shrine maiden or someone similar, ease her inner turmoil, gain her assistance, and ultimately defeat the evil dragon.

Wouldn't the next part of the story then be the cliché ending where the Hero and the shrine maiden-like girl who had helped him lived happily together?

Cui absolutely could not accept such a development. Never mind that she had not even seen what the so-called descendant of the Ice Clan looked like.

Just the possibility of Yoru Machi easing another girl's inner turmoil already made Cui feel that things were going in a very bad direction.

Honestly, with looks like Yoru Machi's, fooling inexperienced young girls would be as easy as eating and drinking. According to the villagers, this descendant of the Ice Clan was clearly a shut-in. What if, after he eased her inner turmoil, she latched onto Yoru Machi and refused to let go?

To prevent that possibility—and to eliminate a potential rival—Cui agreed with Shimada Yousuke's suggestion to go straight after the Demon Flame Dragon.

In any case, Cui felt that with the combat strength of the three of them, even if they could not defeat the Demon Flame Dragon, escaping should not be too difficult.

"How about we go meet this so-called descendant of the Ice Clan first? Maybe she's actually easy to talk to?

"Based on the villagers' description, this descendant of the Ice Clan is just a reclusive shut-in girl.

"The condition for obtaining the God of Frost Sword is to ease her inner turmoil, not bring back some Fluffy Flower. With this uncle's many years of life experience, could I really not coax... counsel a mere reclusive girl?"

The descendant of the Ice Clan was named Mei Beilu Reibel. She lived on the outskirts of the village and rarely went outside. Forget interacting with the villagers—her food was even delivered directly to her doorstep. She was a complete mess at living on her own.

Mei Beilu's home was called a house, but strictly speaking, it was more like a cave. Aside from having an extra door, Yoru Machi could hardly see how a place like this could be called a house.

Based on what the villagers had said earlier, this Ice Clan girl seemed to be extremely lazy and fond of sleeping all day. In that case, it was only natural that she had turned her home into something like this.

When Yoru Machi and the others pushed open the door and entered, a bone-piercing chill immediately blew into their faces.

Inside the small cave, enormous quantities of icicles covered both the ceiling and the floor.

In the room sat a girl with waist-length blue hair. Her face carried a trace of laziness, yet she was exceptionally beautiful. She held a longsword entirely covered in ice.

The girl's eyes were vacant. Although her exquisite face was in no way inferior to Cui's, she wore no expression at all, looking as though she had not fully awakened. Even Yoru Machi and the others entering through the door drew no reaction from her, as if she were indifferent to everything.