<h4>Chapter 367: Release, and Liberation.</h4>


    I had Professor Babylon make a dimensional gate in the courtyard of the castle as well. With this, it’s possible to use the gate to directly transfer to this world from Dracliff Ind on the other side.


    Since that ind has a lot of dragons living there, people don’t approach that ce in general. In the first ce, no one besides me can use the gates anyway.


    For theing two-world conference, I’m nning to invite the leaders over on the other side to Dracliff Ind before bringing them over to Brunhild.


    Well, I say conference, but this time it’ll be little more than an introduction. If we can build good rtionships with each other, the talks that woulde would go smoother, as well.


    … I can also wee them by preparing a lot of local cuisines, huh.


    That was the thought that ran through my head as I looked at the three in front of me, who are enjoying a pot dish, and one more person some distance away, lying down on the grass.


    “Is it just me, or are you guys always eating something whenever Ie visit…?”


    “Is that so?”


    “This pot dish thing is nice. One can enjoy a lot of different tastes from it.”


    “Hafu, hafu… The tofu is hot… But also delicious.”


    Under a perg in the [Garden], the three Phrase ruler-ss girls, Mel, Nei and Rize are eating a yosenabe, ced on top of a magic stove specially made by Professor Babylon, with relish.


    You girls are just here to be fed food, aren’t you…


    “Cesca-san brings a different dish every day, so it’s always enjoyable.”


    “I never knew that curry alsoes in so many different types, like chicken curry, beef curry, pork curry, seafood curry, curry udon, and others.”


    “Every dish was delicious. We had curry for seven days straight before this.”


    Uh, wait, didn’t you say it was a different dish every day… Aren’t they all curry? You’re being tricked, aren’t you?


    To the Phrase girls, who had never experienced the act known as eating before this, I suppose even small differences like that are good to them.


    “Oi, you’re not going to join?”


    “I don’t have the appetite…”


    I called out to Ende, who’s lying down on the grass patch outside the perg. There’s scratches all over his body. The training with Takeru ojii must be tough.


    Still, this guy’s image is changing a bit, or at least that’s what I felt. He’s gaining some muscles too. Before this, he gave an impression of being a cat-like person somehow; now it’s more like a tiger.


    “You need to eat at least a little, or else you’re not gonnast through the training sessionster, you know?”


    “Even if I eat, I’ll probably vomit them outter, so not eating is probably better… And besides, although I’m not at Mel and the others’ level, I’m from a race that can function for quite a while without having to eat, too.”


    Right, this guy was from another world too.


    Still, just how harsh is Takeru ojii’s training…


    I was curious about something, so I activated divinity and used [Divine Eye] on Ende. While faint, there’s ayer of golden powder-like particles around Ende’s body. Arara.


    “… Did you do something? Your eyes turned gold for a second there.”


    “Just looking at you with [Divine Eye] for a bit. There’s divinity around you. As expected, you’re beginning to be a dependant.”


    “Eh!? What’s that!?”


    Ende jumped up. I unintentionallyughed a little when I saw his worried expression.


    “Rx, it’s not anything negative. To exin it simply, it’s like being recognized by the gods as someone rted to Takeru ojii, the Martial God. Something like the divine protection of the Martial God. Isn’t there something that changed within you recently?”


    “Now that you say it… I think I’ve gotten better at receiving hits, I think?”


    Uh, isn’t that just because of the training… Was what I thought, but it might actually be part of the strengthening from bing a dependant.


    “Well, it just means you’re steadily gaining more power.”


    “I kept getting beat up by Shishou every time, so I can’t really feel that…”


    While saying that, Ende looked off into the distance with dead fish eyes, and a forced smile on his face. You, uh, really alright?


    “The variant ruler-ss twins… Was it? That beat you upst time. Do you feel that you can win against them now?”


    “Leto and Luto eh… I wonder. They sounded like they were still holding onto a secret ace back then. Anything about the variants sincest time?”


    Even if you ask me that, there’s nothing much to say… They’ve just been popping up here and there in both worlds from time to time. They’re almost like cockroaches.


    There have been reports in both worlds of cases where only several lower-ss variants appeared. They were all defeated by adventurers, knights or golem users, apparently.


    With them appearing so frequently, the public would have no choice but to acknowledge the existence of those mysterious monsters. At least it wouldn’t turn into a panic thanks to the various countries handling it properly.


    Well, that’s only in the Surface World; the Reverse World isn’t responding as well yet.


    That’s natural, to be honest. The majority of the monarchs in the Reverse World don’t really understand what exactly is going on, after all.


    “And the Phrase?”


    “Not even a shadow.”


    It should be safe to assume that all of the Phrase had already be variants.


    “Then, shouldn’t it be fine to let Mel outside already? ording to Nei, the variants don’t seem to be interested in Mel anyway.”


    “Unn… Even so, having your location known to the enemy is still…”


    Phrases emit a special sound that can’t be heard by humans in order to let the others know their current location. That sound can even cross world barriers; Mel had been constantly chased after by the Phrase due to that.


    In order to fool them, Mel took the method of shrinking herself down to only her core, thus reducing the volume of the sound she produces, and hiding in other living beings to use their heartbeats as cover, but…


    It should be prudent to assume that the variants also have the same ability to sense the location of others.


    If the variants attacked Brunhild because I let Mel out of here, that would be horrible.


    “Can’t you erase that resonance sound?”


    “It’s the same as the heartbeat of a human. You can’t just tell someone to stop their heart, right? Although it is possible to make it fainter…”


    A troubled smile floated on Ende’s face.


    Looking at the three ruler-ss girls that continued to peck away at the pot, I suddenly noticed one thing.


    “When Rize was moving together with you, how did she manage to evade the Phrase’s detection? She should have that resonance sounding out of her core as well, right?”


    “In Rize’s case, she reduced her activity levels to the stage where she’s one step before bing only a core and made her resonance sound fainter that way, and I used an item with my power sealed inside it to dispel the rest. However, Mel’s resonance sound is too strong for that to work.”


    Umu. So it isn’t going to be that easy, huh.


    “Your barrier, this… [Prison], was it? Can’t you spread it over the entire country?”


    “[Prison] loses effectiveness therger it is. If I make it thatrge, I’m not sure if it can keep blocking out Mel’s resonance sound.”


    “Then what about a small barrier? Can’t you make a barrier around the core that only erases the resonance sound and doesn’t interfere with anything else?”


    “………… I can.”


    I slowly moved my eyes away from Ende, whose eyes changed to a half-lidded look. In the direction I moved my eyes to, the three Phrase girls had stopped eating from the pot, and were looking here with expressionless faces.


    “Ah… Want to go out?”


    “If possible, yes.”


    Mel answered with a smiling face that looked totally different from just now.


    Well, of course she would want to go out, right…


    Using [Divine Eye], I confirmed the location of the cores in the three girls’ bodies. I turned to Nei, who had volunteered herself to be first since it could be dangerous, and casted a divinity- strengthened [Prison] around her core.


    A tiny cube-shaped barrier, which blocks out only the resonance sound from the core and lets everything else pass through, formed around Nei’s core.


    “It disappeared…”


    “It did.”


    “It sure did.”


    Mel, Rize and Ende murmured collectively. Wait, you can hear it too, Ende? To be honest, if I strengthen my ears like when using [Divine Eye]—uhh, [Divine Ear]? [Divine Hearing]? —I should be able to hear it too, though.


    For the moment, since it looks to be alright, I did the same with Rize and Mel.


    Although we were worried about Mel’s resonance sound in particr, as expected, it wasn’t strong enough to ovee the [Prison] enhanced with divinity.


    When Mel understood that it’s a sess, her eyes glittered as she sped her hands together in front of her chest.


    “With this, we can go down to the ground together with Endymion, right?”


    “No, not like that.”


    “Ehhhh…”


    Nonono. You guys aren’t normal humans, or creatures in this world, you know.


    I took out three star-shaped pendants from [Storage]. I then proceeded to enchant the three pendants with [Mirage], such that the person who wears them would look like a human.


    “Ohh! Mel-sama has taken on the figure of a human!”


    “The red hair fits you well too, Nei.”


    “It’s fine with this?”


    The three of them were turned into young girls: Mel had ice-blue hair, Nei had ming red hair, and Rize had chestnut-colored hair. Their clothes too were changed to nd-looking, normal articles. No matter how anyone looked at them, they were a group of human girls.


    “Since it’s just an illusion, if someone touches you, there’s the possibility of them finding out, just so you know.”


    “Then it’s fine. I won’t let anyoney a finger on Mel-sama’s body.”


    Nei said that with a voice full of confidence, but you know that applies to yourself too, right?


    For the ruler-ss, some parts like their faces and hands feel very simr to that of a human’s, so it would be fine if those parts are touched (although their body temperature is low); however, other parts, like the shoulders, back and feet are hard crystal materials, so if those ces are touched the difference can be felt immediately.


    Well, just like Nei said, it’s tough for normal people to even touch the three of them to begin with.


    “Oh, and this.”


    I took out two mass-production model smartphones and manuals from [Storage], and passed them to Nei and Rize.


    “It’ll make it easier for us to contact each other, so you girls should take these too. Also, I don’t think I need to remind you, but don’t go out of this country, okay? It’ll trouble me if you guys did something weird in other countries.”


    “I understand. I promise you on that.”


    As Mel answered, Nei and Rize also gave a firm nod. I think it should be fine with this…


    I’ll go give a warning to Ende just in case.


    “You need to take responsibility for them and lead them around properly, got it? I’ll close my eyes to some small troubles, but if it’s too much, it’ll be house arrest for you guys again, okay?”


    “It’s fine. Didn’t we promise to lend our strengths to you, Touya? We won’t do anything that would trouble you.”


    Really now…


    For the moment, I left my suspicions aside and transferred ourselves to the castle.


    I then gave them a tour of the castle, while also introducing Ende and the others to people I met along the way. As my friends, for that matter.


    Actually, where should I make these guys stay at now… Making them stay at the castle is bad, and since they just got released from Babylon, sending them back is a bit off, too.


    “Silver Moon” wouldn’t work too… I can already picture them getting into troubles with the other guests. I mustn’t cause Mika-san any more trouble.


    Guess I’ll go ask the person in charge of constructions, old man Naito, if there’s any empty houses they can use. If there isn’t any, then I suppose I’ll have no choice but to ask one to be built.


    If I make them live in a standalone house, there shouldn’t be any problems that would happen easily. Ende and Rize already had experience living in this world before anyway, so it should be fine.


    When I contacted old man Naito, I was told that there’s coincidentally an empty house on the east side, which consists of mainly farnd.


    Apparently, old man Naito built that house for one of his old acquaintances, but that person entered government service back in Eashen, so it became useless. Furnitures have also been prepared to a degree, so it wouldn’t be a problem even if people were to start living there immediately. I’ll dly make use of it.


    As we entered the castle town, Mel was excitedly looking around with glittering eyes, while pointing here and there and asking Ende to exin various things. When I look at them from behind, they look like an ordinary couple with a good rtionship.


    “Mel-sama looks happy.”


    “Muu, uu. That is true… I can’t really stomach the fact that it’s that guy next to her, though.”


    Nei’s ring at Ende with a bitter face; having said that, it seems she’s at least considerate enough to not get in the way of those two.


    However, apparently Nei has a limit to her endurance too; when Mel took Ende’s hand in her own, she suddenly broke off from us and approached the two of them from behind withrge strides.


    “Mel-sama! There’s something interesting there too!”


    “Eh? Nei?”


    And just like that, Mel was dragged away forcefully by Nei. Oi oi.


    “Nei looks happy too.”


    “Really?”


    I tilted my head at Rize’sment. I don’t really understand these guys.


    The two girls were staring at a yakitori stall on the side of the street. Nei called out to the old man who’s grilling some skewers in front of them.


    “Oi, you. Is this food?”


    “Eh? Well, yes, it is…”


    As soon as the old man manning the stall said so, Nei grabbed a few pieces from the grill and put them into her mouth.


    “Mel-sama! This is meat! It’s delicious!”


    “Wai-, customer! The money!”


    Ignoring the yelling stall owner, Nei continued chewing on the yakitori pieces in her mouth while grabbing a few more and passing them to Mel.


    Ende took out some silver coins from his pocket in a hurry and passed them to the old man, and without even waiting for the change, dragged the two girls away from the stall.


    “You’re going to have a tough life ahead of you, Ende…”


    I muttered that to myself with a wry smile. Well, I won’t be helping him anyway. He’s rted to them, not me, in any case.


    After that, Ende and Rize exined the concept of money to the two of them. While they understood it quickly since they’re both quick on the uptake, there’s still a lot more they need to learn before they can adapt to human society, I guess.


    -Pixel