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A DATE WITH THE WITCH

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*****

On the plate sat a row of perfectly grilled, golden-brown onigiri.

The aroma of scorched soy sauce drifted up from the crispy crust.

And the scent of bonito stock mingled with the steam rising from the miso soup.

「...Itadakimasu.」

Thanks to the customs of the Hanover Kingdom, it was a phrase he hadn't uttered once since awakening his memories at seven years old. Yet, Rob found himself unconsciously murmuring it under his breath.

It was his very first taste of Japanese cuisine in this life.

With every single bite, with every single sip, fragments of a past life dimly surfaced in his mind, only to vanish again. As if chasing after those fleeting memories, Rob just kept eating, one mouthful after another.

Rob polished off the grilled onigiri set meal in no time flat, finishing with a sip of green tea from his teacup before taking a breather.

「So, King Kaito was from Earth, or rather, he was Japa—」

Rob started to say, but he stopped short as an unexpected sight caught his eye.

Arcelia was silently devouring her grilled onigiri with an intensely serious expression. Maybe because her bites were so small, she looked exactly like a squirrel nibbling away.

Rob watched her like someone fondly observing a tiny wild animal that had wandered into their backyard. But the moment she finished her onigiri, Arcelia noticed his gaze and let out a polite little cough.

「...Is there something on my face?」

「Hm? Nah, nothing. Actually, I wanted to ask—was King Kaito Japanese?」

「...No. There appear to be similarities, but he wasn't.」

The world Kaito originally hailed from had only recently joined the Alliance, and they had confirmed that Kaito had indeed been a victim of an involuntary summoning back in the day.

「I see...」

Rob stood up with a solemn, introspective expression, earning a sympathetic look from Arcelia—until he spoke up.

「Hey, lady! Can I get ten onigiri to go? Make half of 'em grilled!」

Realizing that Rob wasn't nearly as deeply affected as he looked, Arcelia's eyes deadpanned.

「Oh, stop it. I'm way past the age of being called 'young lady'. Tell you what, I'll throw in an extra one for free. Do you want the pickles?」

「Nah, I hate 'em.」

「Hey, don't be a picky eater!」

「Well, some things never change.」

Getting scolded by the shop lady, Rob just gave a goofy laugh to brush it off. The lady didn't seem to mind either, quickly packing up the takeout onigiri and handing them over.

After that, Rob's requests forced Arcelia to completely derail her tour itinerary yet again, resulting in them hunting down rice and soy sauce at the market.

***

While Rob had been thoroughly enjoying the simple bliss of this life, basking in the heavy weight of the rice and soy sauce in his backpack, his attention was currently entirely compromised by a soft sensation pressing against his elbow, making him grin like an absolute idiot.

She had light-brown skin, long golden hair like sheep's wool, troubled eyebrows, and a lazy, bedroom gaze. Her voluptuous chest looked like it was actively defying gravity by the slimmest of margins, tapering down to a slender waist and exceptionally firm hips.

It was the World-Crossing Witch, Berta Andele.

Using the money he'd earned on the Interworld Train, Rob had been riding high after stocking up on things like rice and soy sauce that reminded him of Japan. But somewhere along the line, he'd managed to lose Arcelia. You could say they got separated because the market was incredibly crowded, or you could say he completely lost track of her because he was too busy shopping like a man possessed. After all, Arcelia was pretty tiny.

Even so, Rob had felt a strange inkling that there was something unnatural about how they'd been split up. The moment he ran smack into Berta, who was floating seamlessly a few inches off the ground, the mystery was solved.

「Did you pull something?」

「Oh, just a tiny bit of crowd control~ I didn't cause trouble for anyone, I promise.」

Berta linked her arm through Rob's with absolute casualness.

「...Did it ever cross your mind that *I'm* the one being inconvenienced here?」

「Oh, what's the harm in a little quality time?」

Feeling the incredible softness against his elbow, Rob had to actively fight the urge to let his guard down.

「I even went and apologized properly, you know?」

Sensing that Rob wasn't dropping his guard anytime soon, Berta reached into her ample cleavage and pulled out a crystal ball. Before he could even wrap his head around how on earth she'd fit it in there, an image shimmered to life on its surface.

Her bipedal dog familiars were actively helping out at the shops in that ruined alleyway. They were turning on the charm, pulling in customers left and right. In the background, the shopkeepers' faces were practically melting into smiles.

「They're my familiars, so it's basically the same as me working, right?」

(Well, I guess that works,) Rob thought, showing his usual spinelessness as he let Berta lead him along.

Guided by her, they eventually arrived at the aristocratic district. It was normally a completely restricted area, but Berta just flashed the gate guards a single, melancholy look, and they ushered them right on through.

「I'm just using a perception filter to make them see me as a certain noble widow, that's all.」

In other words, even though it was Berta floating lazily with her arm wrapped around Rob's, to everyone else, they looked like a perfectly high-class pair.

「Then why didn't you just use that trick back then?」

「Because it's exhausting. Besides, escaping on my own isn't exactly hard.」

Her "World-Crossing" trick could only transport one person at a time.

「By the way, what do you actually want today?」

Rob finally asked the obvious question.

「I heard you're the Hero who slew the Demon King. Leaving someone like you angry with me... Oh, I've been so terrified I can barely sleep at night.」

Her eyes shimmered slightly as she gazed up at him, and Rob couldn't detect even a hint of a lie.

「...Am I seriously that famous already?」

Instantly realizing he stood zero chance of outmaneuvering Berta in a battle of wits, Rob decided to just stop worrying and enjoy the moment.

「Oh, no. So far, it's just the Interworld Alliance executives and the passengers on the train. The passengers are bound by a non-disclosure contract, so they can't breathe a word to anyone until you're officially taken into custody at Alliance Headquarters, you see?」

「You sure know a lot.」

「My, didn't that adorable girl tell you anything about me?」

Sheeprick. Sometimes referred to as the Cybernetic Ovines, this race was rumored to be capable of directly accessing digital networks using their own physical bodies. However, they were an incredibly rare species; so far, only Berta and a handful of others had ever been identified, and her world of origin remained a total mystery. On top of that, Berta possessed "World-Crossing" technology and a depth of magical knowledge that easily earned her the title of witch. Short of completely classified data, there was practically no information out of her reach.

「Must be nice. Sounds like you've got plenty of options.」

「Oh, but I'm not a fighter. I could never slay a Demon King.」

「Even if you slay a Demon King, that's the end of it. The skill set doesn't exactly transfer to normal jobs.」

「Oh, I think someone like you would be welcomed with open arms anywhere, don't you?」

Rob merely offered a wry smile, staying silent.

He had optimized his entire existence solely for killing the Demon King, and he had finally pulled it off. But now, that very strength had degraded. He didn't know the exact reason, but Rob suspected the god of that world had slashed his extraordinary ability in half. In a world without a Demon King, "Infinite Firearms" was simply too much power for one person to hold.

「If you'd like, I could always introduce you to a few places.」

「No thanks, I'm staying away from the underworld.」

Rob wasn't about to let himself fall that low.

「How rude! They're perfectly legitimate businesses, thank you very much. Oh well... Huh?」

Right in the middle of the day, in an aristocratic district where mansion servants were quietly going about their chores, Berta's eyes locked onto a particular estate.

A lone woman was leaning against a balcony railing, her vacant gaze wandering off toward some unknown horizon. The moment she spotted Berta, she quickly retreated back inside the mansion.

「An acquaintance?」

「Just a brief one from a while back. I never expected to find her in a place like this.」

The perception filter Berta was currently running had a fatal flaw: it couldn't fool the same person twice. You could blame it on her being too lazy to put up a more thorough spell.

「She used to be just an ordinary town girl... Wow. So she ended up becoming a slave.」

Rob had definitely spotted the collar around the woman's neck too.

「Wait, I thought slavery was completely abolished here?」

「She's a penal slave. Though looking at her, she was probably framed.」

Gently smoothing out the deep frown between Rob's eyebrows, Berta continued.

「It's true that the nobles in this country are relatively decent, you know? But there are always bad apples, no matter what world you're in.」

The racket used to reduce completely innocent people to penal slavery was brutally simple: they'd frame them, have them arrested, and then a noble who dealt in penal slaves would grease the wheels. Even though the legal treatment of penal slaves was strictly regulated by law, loopholes were a dime a dozen, and ordinary town girls frequently ended up getting preyed upon like that.

「That's what happens when you leave any form of slavery on the books.」

「Come to think of it, you abolished slavery in your world too, didn't you? That's amazing~」

Abolishing slavery to help defeat the Demon King was definitely part of it, but another major reason was that Rob simply loathed the institution from the bottom of his heart. His own firsthand experience of knowing he was just one bad move away from being enslaved himself, combined with the moral compass he'd retained from his days in Japan, had driven him to wipe out the slave trade entirely.

「...You seriously know everything, don't you?」

Rob didn't blindly swallow every word out of Berta's mouth. Still, he knew all too well that it was entirely plausible for corrupt nobles to exploit the penal slavery system.

「Apparently, field investigators have been embedded here since right after the Demon King was slain... Oh my, and here I thought I'd deployed a jamming ward... She's quite fast on her feet, isn't she?」

Before they knew it, Arcelia was standing right behind them. Beads of sweat glistened on her porcelain skin as she silently swung down her massive, greatsword-like shackle.

「How barbaric~」

Berta floated backward gracefully, gave Rob a single parting wave, and vanished into thin air. Rob was left behind to face Arcelia's gaze, which was a heavy mix of bitter frustration and pure accusation.

「Whoops, look at the time.」

「...There is still more than enough time before our scheduled departure—」

Without waiting for her to finish, Rob bolted toward the station like a man on the run, and Arcelia gave chase at full throttle, determined not to let him out of her sight.

By the time they made it back to the first-floor platform inside the Tower of Sinclair, Rob—the very guy who had supposedly rushed back because they were out of time—was casually browsing through the local train bento boxes. Arcelia was absolutely fit to be tied. Just as she opened her mouth to chew him out, her voice was completely drowned out by a booming shout.

「—You are under arrest on suspicion of possession and smuggling of 'Fake Elixirs'!」

The four-armed widow who had kept Rob company in the lounge was currently pinned by her arm by a burly man who looked like a knight.

*****

The 4-armed widow.

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