Late afternoon.
At the temporary residence of Naoki and Musashi, tucked in a corner of the jōkamachi (castle town).
"I'm~~~ so~~~ ti~~~red~~~"
Dragging out his words with a face full of exhaustion, Naoki trudged in from outside, utterly drained.
Musashi, who was sitting inside polishing her swords, was startled by the sight.
Not because of Naoki's helpless appearance, but because of the overpoweringly strong perfume scent clinging to him.
"Naoki, what... what exactly happened to you at work?"
"Huh? Nothing. Just keeping a little girl company, listening to her complaints, and then being bribed with money to play along with a few things."
Naoki said casually.
Essentially, his job was just selling performance services; it couldn't possibly involve physical transactions—especially not in this ancient era. So Princess Kiyohime really hadn't done anything to him. She just wanted him to hug her, hold her hand, and say a few sweet words.
But even that alone left him half-dead from exhaustion. Trying to squeeze every romantic line out of his brain nearly killed his brain cells. And more importantly, the side effect of saying such things—Naoki felt utterly disgusted with himself!
"I think I need to find a chance to escape from that shop."
"Naoki, what exactly are they making you say?"
Seeing Naoki seriously considering running away, Musashi grew curious about what he'd gone through during the day.
With a deeply furrowed brow, Naoki made a pained expression: "You really want to hear it?"
"Eh? Am I not allowed? By the way, why do you look like you're having stomach cramps and are so depressed?"
"It's nothing... Well, if you really want to hear, saying one or two lines to you isn't a big deal."
After all, it was just a demonstration. Clearing his throat, Naoki closed his eyes—at that moment, Musashi's swordmaster instincts immediately put her on alert. The aura Naoki was giving off had completely changed.
It was no longer the teenage vibe from before, but a feeling... incredibly mature and brimming with masculinity.
Too bad Musashi didn't know what a shoujo manga was; otherwise, she'd definitely feel a strong sense of déjà vu.
"Musashi."
Opening his eyes, Naoki used Magecraft to disguise his eyes as deep, diamond-like ones. He stepped closer to Musashi and gently lifted her chin with his finger.
"I love you."
"Eh?"
"From the very first moment we met, I've loved you so deeply that I can't let go."
As if forcing Musashi, Naoki grabbed her wrist, leaned forward, and pushed her down onto the tatami mat. And whether it was Musashi's imagination or not, she felt bright red rose petals start floating around Naoki, and his entire appearance became even more enchanting.
In her ears, she heard ambiguous male "unh-ahh" sounds full of seductive undertones in every sense.
(W-What is this? This storyline...)
Musashi's face turned completely red. She was a super-innocent girl with zero romantic experience, zero experience with the opposite sex—a pure maiden who only ever thought about swords! Suddenly facing a straight-ball love attack from this handsome golden-haired young man...
At that moment, Naoki's finger brushed her lips: "Such soft lips. May I taste them?"
"Uh... T-This... this..."
"I want to claim your lips, Musashi. Will you let me be the only man who can have them? My lover."
"Ugh... No!"
Her embarrassment had reached its limit. Musashi, face blazing red, shouted and pushed Naoki away with all her strength. She quickly scooted to the side, straightened her collar, and said with a flushed face: "I-I get it now! Naoki, at your workplace, you're saying these indecent things to the ladies!"
Rubbing the back of his head and dispelling the unclear filters and effects he'd created in his mind, Naoki nodded tiredly: "The princess from Tsuchiura Castle seems to really like this style. She keeps pushing me to treat her like that—it's exhausting me to death. She's drained every romantic line from my brain."
In exchange, he was indeed making a lot of money.
Hearing Naoki say this, Musashi frowned slightly: "So... did you kiss her?"
"Huh? Kiss what?"
"That princess—did you kiss her lips?"
"No way! I'm not interested in a little girl like her. I was just joking and tricking her a bit, then it's over." Naoki spread his hands and explained, "Speaking of which, where's dinner?"
"Here. But my cooking isn't as good as yours—I can only make misshapen onigiri."
Musashi sheepishly brought over a plate of onigiri that had been sitting nearby. As she said, the onigiri looked shapeless; after all, looking at her, Musashi didn't seem like someone who could cook.
Fortunately, for Naoki, appearance didn't matter as long as it was edible.
Picking up one onigiri and taking a bite, Naoki continued: "Oh yeah, while I was with the princess, I also gathered some information. She said that lately, black Oni (demons) have been appearing."
Black Oni.
On the night of the blood moon, black Oni would ride in on black clouds, carrying out heavenly punishment under the leadership of the Oni General—Princess Kiyohime had spilled this information while completely smitten with Naoki.
"Combining it with what I know, that should be the situation when the Heroic Spirit Swordsmen appear. The Oni General is a Heroic Spirit Swordsman. The black Oni are probably the grudges of people killed by them... or maybe Oni formed from their own power."
"Heroic Spirit Swordsmen and Oni—speaking of that, I heard something too." Musashi said seriously: "Hitachi Province has turned into a desert. It happened exactly yesterday. Not a single survivor—everything burned in a sea of flames."
Hitachi Province, separated from Shimōsa Province only by the Tone River, had vanished in a sea of fire last night.
This was clearly the work of a Heroic Spirit Swordsman.
"Want to go check it out tonight, Naoki?"
"Yeah, we might find traces of the Heroic Spirit Swordsmen there. It might be a bit late to say this, but we really can't let the Heroic Spirit Swordsmen run loose—also, Musashi, give me both your swords."
"Eh? What are you going to do with my swords?"
"Reinforce them." Naoki explained. "Last night you said you were struggling because you couldn't cut intangible things. I'll add some Magecraft to your swords that targets situations like that. So if you encounter something like that again, you can easily slaughter them."
Hearing that she wouldn't have to be bothered by unkillable weird creatures anymore, Musashi immediately placed her swords in front of Naoki with a grin: "Hehehe~~~ Then I'll leave it to you, Naoki. Please make my swords super awesome!"
"Yeah, yeah, yeah~~~"