“Ku-, kushun.” (Kearuga)
I sneezed.
“Kearuga-sama caught a cold?” (Setsuna)
Setsuna worriedly looks at my face from below.
We are currently in the forest.
We are raising our levels by hunting monsters.
It’s not just for that, as it is also for eating monster meat that have monster genes that we haven’t taken in yet to raise our talent values.
… Is the surface reason. I’m searching for a way to slip out of this village.
If we are going as a party, we’ll slip out at night through the underground pathway.
However, to save the【Sword Saint】, I will head to Buranikka by myself. I can’t just go at night when the monsters are active and the vision is bad, but going during the daytime by using the underground pathway has a high risk, so I’m searching for a gap in their security net like this.
The star rabbit tribe is wary, and a lookout is even watching us right now.
Lookouts are troublesome.
Not only am I unable to freely take action, as long as we are being watched, the information about our strength will be sent to the enemy.
I have limited Setsuna and Co. to only use abilities that can be used for hunting.
For example, without using kokuyoku summoning and dark attribute magic, Eve is only using light magic.
“Setsuna, you don’t have to worry. It shouldn’t be a cold, since I involuntarily heal myself if I become ill.” (Kearuga)
【Divine Treasure Arms】Georgius.
It has a【Automatic Recovery (Auto Heal)】function. It would have healed me the moment I caught a cold.
“Nn. That’s good.” (Setsuna)
“This is superstition, but someone might be strongly thinking about me.” (Kearuga)
It feels like my dorsal muscles are turning cold.
The amount of people that resent me surpass ten or twenty. There are too many people I could think of.
For some reason, the hero of the【Gun】comes to mind.
The last hero I am taking revenge on.
… I have never forgotten him for even a single day. In the first world, I continued receiving sexual assaults from him day after day.
He would be unreasonably violent while asking why I’m so cold to him even though he loves me this much.
And then, after I would be thoroughly injured, he would always cry and apologize.
『Sorry for doing something painful. I was violent because I love you. Tomorrow, I will love you a lot in proportion to the mean things I did today, so please forgive me.』
On top of that, he would be saying that while persistently kissing me and stroking my body.
My greatest trauma.
If he appears in front of me, my legs will probably tremble.
For that reason, I will find him, torment him, and kill him.
I’ll give back the humiliation and pain I received before with interest included.
“Kearuga, you’re thinking about something strange again.You’re making a scary face.” (Eve)
Eve, who’s walking next to me, says that with a frown.
It’s cute how she nonchalantly interlocks fingers while holding my hand.
“A bit. I remembered a guy I hate.” (Kearuga)
“Hmm, so even you have people you aren’t good with? Is that person human?” (Eve)
“Nice guess. He’s human.” (Kearuga)
“In that case, that’s good. You won’t have to meet him if you’re here.” (Eve)
Eve is indirectly telling me to stay here.
I stroke Eve’s head.
“Well, yeah. But I don’t want to avoid him. He’s an opponent I have to overcome someday.” (Kearuga)
If I don’t, I feel like I’ll become strange from these flames of revenge that continue burning in my chest.
These days, I have always been thinking about how I should torment and kill the hero of the【Gun】, Bullet.
In a way, it’s similar to love.
“Koya~~~n.”
The fox cub is yawning on top of my head
Seeing that, Freya and Ellen become spellbound.
As usual, it’s fluffy and cute.
This child is troublesome, as it always nimbly climbs onto my head or shoulder and sleeps. My head becomes heavy, but I end up letting it off because it’s cute.
“As ever, this child is cute. Have you decided a name for it?” (Freya)
“Kearuga-niisama, I am also curious! It is hard to call for it without a name.” (Ellen)
Freya and Ellen energetically come to me.
These two are engrossed with the fox cub’s cuteness.
“Yeah, I decided. It’s Guren.” (Kearuga) (TL Note: Guren means crimson, and as always, I suck at katakana names, so if you guys have any thoughts about it, feels free to suggest them. グレン)
It’s a simple name I took from its race name, platinum one tail・crimson.
If I give it something too elaborate, it would be hard to understand.
The name Guren suits this child who uses crimson flames.
“Uwaa, that is a cute name.” (Freya)
“Come to think of it, Kearuga-niisama, is this child a boy? Or is it a girl? Which one is it?” (Ellen)
“I wonder? I guess I’ll check.” (Kearuga)
Inserting my hands into Guren’s armpit, I raise it and look at its crotch.
That isn’t there.
In that case, a girl.
The moment I finished confirming, Guren grew restive. This is rare for Guren who always seems sleepy.
She takes distance, and then protects herself while barking ‘konkon’.
… Was she angry because her crotch was seen? Does she care because she’s a girl? No way.
“I won’t do it anymore, so come back.” (Kearuga)
At any rate, I just have to not do it if she doesn’t like it.
I call out Guren who’s hiding behind a tree.
“Kon.” (Guren)
While still making an angry face, Guren runs up to me, and once again starts sleeping after climbing on top of my head.
Now that I think about it, I haven’t seen this child’s power yet.
Good timing. I can see a pig monster far away.
I look at it with【Jade Eye】. Its level is a bit more than twenty. It doesn’t have any troublesome special abilities either.
It should be perfect as practice for Guren.
“Guren, that’s your meal. Go and hunt it.” (Kearuga)
Guren wakes up.
It seems she reacted to the word, meal.
She runs at full speed towards the pig monster that is several hundred metres away.
Hou, as expected of her outstanding speed status.
Her speed rivals Setsuna.
She shortens the distance in the blink of an eye, jumps high overhead the pig monster, and spits a fireball out of her mouth.
It’s not just a flame, it’s a superior ranked flame magic. Purgatory magic that summons purgatory flames.
The colour of the flames is jet black. Everything from the neck up of the pig monster who was directly hit by the fireball disappears. Not even ashes remain.
When Guren skillfully cuts the pig monster that collapsed after losing its neck with her nails, this time, instead of using black flames, she grills it with normal flames and then eats it.
With amazed eyes, Setsuna opens her mouth.
“That child is amazing. It’s my first time seeing a monster that grills meat with flames and then eats it.” (Setsuna)
“I’m surprised. She’s a clever child huh.” (Eve)
Eve and Setsuna similarly become surprised.
Rather, she eats a lot. …. No, that’s strange. The amount she ate is several times the size of herself.
A fox cub finished eating one whole pig in the blink of an eye.
Guren returns. This time, she gets on my shoulder and starts sleeping. Her weight hasn’t changed from before. Where exactly did the things she ate disappear to?
Anyway, I stroke her head and praise her.
She listened to my words.
As long as this child is becoming part of our fighting force, I need to try my best with communicating with her.
“Well, let’s work hard hunting as well. We need to become stronger to prepare for the fight against the demon king.” (Kearuga)
Setsuna and Co. nod.
We’ll raise our levels and become stronger. It’s a fundamental thing, and is important.
◇
While hunting, I searched for an opening from the lookout and finally started aiming to escape.
I found an opening in their strict defenses, so it should be possible to shake off the lookout and slip out of this village without being exposed.
But as long as I’m going to Buranikka, I will become absent for several days. A counter-measure for that is necessary.
During that time, I plan to make it look like I’m there with Guren’s shapeshifting.
“Guren, please shapeshift.” (Kearuga)
“Koya~n?” (Guren)
She’s only tilting her head, and it seems she has no intention to shapeshift.
… From a glance, it looks like my words haven’t been understood, but they have been properly transmitted.
She seems to be too bothered to do it.
From out few days of socializing, I was able to generally read Guren’s personality and her behavioural pattern.
Thinking it would become like this, only Guren and I are in this room.
“《This is an order. Use your shapeshifting.》” (Kearuga)
I mercilessly order her.
The power of the carved seal that’s engraved into Guren’s heart comes into play.
Guren warps her face painfully.
And then, she somersaults on the spot.
“It hurts… why would you be so violent?” (Guren)
And then, she becomes a girl that looks to be around thirteen years old with fox ears and a tail, and looks up at my face with teary eyes.
She feels slightly younger than Setsuna and Eve.
This is probably Guren’s other real appearance.
“It’s because you were acting like you couldn’t understand me.” (Kearuga)
“It’s tiring. Sleeping as a fox is the most comfortable. Having a human appearance is distasteful and makes it hard to sleep.” (Guren)
As usual, it seems it’s too tiresome for her.
And she has been releasing bloodlust since before.
Exactly who did she take this selfishness from?
“I’ll say it just in case, the carved seal on your heart has the effect of crushing your heart if you attack me, the effect of crushing your heart if I die, and the effect of giving you pain if you ignore my orders.” (Kearuga)
“Uu, that’s cruel. That’s familiar abuse. … To think I would be born to this kind of goshujin-sama, Guren is a pitiful child.” (Guren)
The fox eared beautiful girl breaks down crying.
This fellow is unexpectedly calm.
“If you get it, then quickly shapeshift into my appearance. If I don’t leave at this timing, the situation will turn bad.” (Kearuga)
“Although it’s tiresome, I will work hard. In exchange, buy me a souvenir. I want expensive and soft meat. Wild meat is hard and stinky.” (Guren)
“I promise.” (Kearuga)
Once I say that, Guren changes into my appearance.
She looks slightly sleepy, but her appearance is perfectly me.
This probably won’t be seen through.
“Eve and Ellen will support you. Listen to what they say, okay?” (Kearuga)
“I understand! Take care!” (Guren)
Her voice is strangely cheerful. It’s as if her not wanting to do it was a lie.
That tone from my appearance is unpleasant.
Just in case, I’ll take insurance.
“《Don’t leave more than one kilometre from Eve.》” (Kearuga)
“Wha-, what kind of order are you making!” (Guren)
“… You would have escaped if I didn’t order you, right?” (Kearuga)
“There’s no way I would do that.” (Guren)
While averting her face, Guren whistles.
There aren’t any careless opportunities as well.
“In the first place, if I die, you will die. Serve me if you don’t want to die.” (Kearuga)
“Uuu, I understand.” (Guren)
It seems she has finally accepted it.
Well then, I will depart.
I’ll go to Buranikka, and somehow contact【Sword Saint】.
【Sword Saint】is my toy. I won’t hand her to anyone.
While thinking about that, the door opens.
It’s Eve.
“Uwaa, she really did shapeshift into Kearuga-sama’s appearance. Guren-chan is clever.” (Eve)
“Guren is amazing!” (Guren)
Like I said, don’t talk in a strange tone with my appearance. Also, don’t make a triumphant look.
“Eve, what’s up?” (Kearuga)
“I came to report to you. The star rabbit tribe is moving just as you said. The iron hog tribe are confident that the star rabbit tribe is black.” (Eve)
“That was faster than I thought.” (Kearuga)
Among the methods to confirm whether they are traitors, the quickest and easiest way is to actually see them circulate information.
Doing that is simple.
If they catch hold of information that needs to be urgently circulated to the demon king, the traitors will immediately move.
And then, without knowing they are being suspected, the star rabbit tribe will expose the crime scene.
… I was the one that set them up, but to think they would so easily move on the palm of my hand.
The information I told the iron hog tribe was circulated to the star rabbit tribe, and the star rabbit tribe panickingly reported it to the demon king. Without even knowing they are being seen.
“The crucial moment starts from here.” (Kearuga)
I have made demon allies. Next is to collect the【Sword Saint】and prepare my fighting power. After this, I will earnestly entrap the demon king.
First, I will go outside from the hole in the security net.
… Now, everything will start from here.
Bound Pleasures 
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